Kansas Lawmakers Battle over Education Savings Accounts
TOPEKA, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) - Kansas lawmakers are considering a bill that would let parents use state tax dollars to pay for private schools. The bill would allow parents to sign up for a state-sponsored education savings account for each of their children. A Kansas House committee heard more than two hours of testimony on the proposal Monday. Under the plan, the state would set aside about $5,000 for each student to use at any private or homeschool. Conservative lawmakers who support the measure say tax dollars should be tied to students instead of school systems. Republican Representative Brenda Landwehr, of Wichita, says public schools are failing some kids. “The public schools have to answer a question: Why would there be a mass exodus from a public school if it’s serving a child well? Why?," she said. Critics of the voucher bill say it would siphon much-needed money away from public schools. They also say private schools can pick and choose who is accepted. Sarah Mackey is a Johnson County mom with kids in both public and private schools. "To give choice to lots of kids, which is wonderful, you’re going to be pulling vital resources from the kids that need it and the funding that needs to exist," she said. About 15 states have proposed similar bills this year.
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Kansas AG: Walgreen's Plan to Mail Abortion Drugs Illegal
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach says Walgreens could face legal trouble if it dispenses abortion pills through its mail-order pharmacy service. Walgreens said it would apply for certification to do so last month … after the FDA loosened restrictions around mailing abortion-inducing drugs. But Kobach says that would be illegal under state and federal law. Several Republican attorneys general have made similar arguments in recent days. They claim a 19th century federal law prohibits mailing the pills. The pills account for two-thirds of Kansas abortions. Walgreens doesn’t currently dispense the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone. But after the FDA rule change last month, it was one of the pharmacies that said it would seek to distribute the pill through the mail, where it's legal to do so.
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Missing Boy Found Safe in Douglas County Woods
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) - A boy who went missing in the woods Sunday has been found unharmed. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the 6-year-old disappeared in the woods Sunday evening near a rural residence south of Lawrence. But after a massive search, the boy was found safe Monday morning. Multiple law enforcement agencies and emergency responders were involved in the the search and rescue effort: the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and the Lawrence Police Department used drones, the Kansas Highway Patrol used a helicopter and search dogs from the Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department were called in to help. After a 16-hour search, the boy was finally located near a tree line around 9 am Monday. Temperatures in the area Sunday night and Monday morning dropped as low as 31 degrees.
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Arguments Underway in ACLU's Challenge to Kansas Death Penalty
WICHITA, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) - The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the state's death penalty law. The organization began arguing its case Monday inside a Sedgwick County courtroom. The ACLU is making the challenges at a hearing in the case of Kyle Young, who is Black. He is accused of killing two people in Wichita in 20-20. The group says capital punishment is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. Henderson Hill is senior counsel at the A-C-L-U. He says the way juries are selected for capital punishment trials is also discriminatory and leads to unfair trials. "Black citizens across the country are discriminated against their views of law enforcement, their views of the criminal justice system, which is based on their lived experiences," he said. " Those experiences disqualify them from service on capital juries.” Arguments are expected to continue throughout the week.
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Kansas Student Pleads Not Guilty in Shooting at High School
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 19-year-old accused of shooting a school resource officer during a scuffle at a Kansas high school pleaded not guilty and was bound over for trial.
Jaylon Elmore entered his plea Monday during a preliminary hearing on charges of attempted capital murder, felony possession of a firearm and two counts of criminal use of a weapon.
Elmore is accused of shooting school resource officer Erik Clark in the March 4 shooting in the assistant principal's office at Olathe East High School.
Prosecutors allege Elmore, who was a senior at the time, was called to the office when he refused to allow school officials to search his backpack after reports that he had a gun.
Clark and Elmore shot each other during the scuffle, according to court documents. The assistant principal was hit by bullets “most likely” shot by Clark during the confrontation, investigators said.
Both men survived their injuries and were released shortly after the shooting. Elmore was hospitalized in critical condition for several months.
Elmore's scheduling trial is set for April 10. He is being held on $1 million bond, The Kansas City Star reported.
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Man Jailed over Grass Fire Near Kansas Governor's Mansion
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 36-year-old man remained jailed without bond Tuesday after authorities said he intentionally set a grass fire near the Kansas governor's mansion that burned 6 acres.
Police arrested the man, a Topeka resident, while firefighters worked Monday afternoon to put out the blaze, the Topeka Fire Department said. Authorities said the man had been seen lighting the fire.
Though the fire department needed nearly two hours to put out the fire, the blaze was contained quickly south of the governor's residence and never got closer to the mansion than between 200 yards and 300 yards, city spokesperson Rosie Nichols said.
Governor Laura Kelly was not at the mansion when the fire occurred.
The man has not yet been formally charged with a crime, but authorities listed the potential offense as arson. It wasn't clear whether he has an attorney yet.
The governor's mansion, known as Cedar Crest, sits on 244 acres (100 hectares) overlooking the Kansas River in west Topeka, and the grounds include hiking trails.
The home was built in 1928 by the Topeka State Journal's publisher, and he and his wife decided that upon their deaths, the state would be given the chance to use it as the governor's residence. Governors have occupied it since 1962.
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Number of Beef Cattle Drops in Kansas, Elsewhere
HAYS, Kan. (KNS) - Beef cow herds in the U.S. shrank by more than 1 million animals over the past year, dropping to the lowest levels since 1962. The number of beef cows in Kansas dropped by 7% in the past year, roughly twice the national average. Drought has killed pasture grass across the state and ranchers have had to sell cattle early just to keep their operations afloat. But that means there’ll be less cattle going to market later this year, likely increasing beef prices at the grocery store. Kansas Livestock Association spokesperson Scarlett Hagins says that since raising cattle takes time, there’s no telling when Kansas ranchers will get back to where they were. “Once we do get some moisture back in this area, it will take them years… it's not a quick turnaround, for sure," she said. The loss of beef cows hits ranchers especially hard, because those are the female cattle that would produce the calves needed to grow their herds in the coming years.
Hagins says ranchers across the country had to sell off their cattle earlier than planned because of widespread drought that dried up grazing pastures and hay supplies. And for Kansas ranchers, the drought conditions haven’t gotten better this year. “It's still ongoing," she said. " There's been some areas that have seen some relief, of course, throughout the U.S. but in Kansas... it's still a very real issue.” Nationally, the country’s beef cow herds shrank by almost 4% since last year, but in Kansas, the number fell by 7%.
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Conservative Groups Look Beyond Trump for 2024 GOP Nominee
NEW YORK (AP) — Two major conservative groups have signaled they are open to supporting someone other than Donald Trump in the 2024 race for the White House. Club for Growth President David McIntosh says his group has invited a half dozen potential Republican presidential candidates to its donor summit in Florida next month. The list includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former Vice President Mike Pence — but not Trump. It follows a memo released over the weekend by the conservative advocacy group Americans For Prosperity that says the group is prepared to support someone other than Trump in the GOP primary.
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Hill's Pet Nutrition Gets $3 Million to Keep Headquarters in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (TCJ) - Hill's Pet Nutrition is moving its headquarters from Topeka to Overland Park. The company had considered moving its headquarters out of state, but then Kansas officials intervened. Now, taxpayers will give $3 million in economic development incentives to keep Hill's Pet Nutrition in Kansas. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the company will be required to do a few things to qualify for the money. For one, Hill's is required to make additional investments in the remaining research facilities located in northeast Topeka. Hill's also has a manufacturing plant in Emporia and is building a new wet pet food facility in Tonganoxie that's expected to open sometime this year.
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State Awards $230,000 to Fund Kansas Suicide Prevention Efforts
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - A state agency has awarded the Kansas Suicide Prevention Headquarters (KSPHQ) more than $230,000 to support suicide prevention efforts across the state. The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) announced the award Monday. The funds will be used, in part, for suicide prevention and intervention training. The money will also help advocates review and update a statewide suicide prevention plan.
Kansas communities interested in pursuing funding opportunities for suicide prevention projects should visit this part of the KDADS website.
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Shooting at Nebraska Target Highlights Gaps in Gun Laws
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — In the last three years of his life, Joseph Jones was repeatedly sent to psychiatric hospitals because of his schizophrenia and delusions that a drug cartel was after him. The Nebraska man once lay down on a highway in Kansas because he wanted to be run over by a truck, but officers tackled him as he ran in front of vehicles. Time and time again, his family and the police took away his guns.
But Jones was able to keep legally buying firearms and law enforcement could do little. Once a deputy returned a Glock pistol to him, while another time a sheriff's department confiscated his gun, although keeping it raised questions. Last month, Jones opened fire in an Omaha Target store using a legally purchased AR-15 rifle. No one was hit by Jones' gunfire, but police shot and killed the 32-year-old as shoppers fled in panic.
The episode demonstrates how gun laws fail to keep firearms out of the hands of deeply troubled people, despite a national effort to pass red-flag laws in recent years.
Mental health experts say most people with mental illness are not violent and that they are far more likely to be victims of violent crime. Access to firearms is a big part of the problem.
“For him to be allowed to buy a firearm, there’s no excuse for it,” Jones' uncle, Larry Derksen Jr., said. “It was just inevitable that something was going to happen."
In August 2021, a deputy was called because Derksen didn't want to return a gun to his nephew, who had just been released from a psychiatric hospital. Derksen said Jones was paranoid, had been hearing voices, and had traveled through several states fearing a cartel was chasing him, according to a Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
But Jones told the deputy that he was taking medication, he felt fine and had no plans to hurt anyone. The gun was clean, and the only conviction Jones had was for a DUI after he collided with another vehicle on his way home from a bar years earlier.
“I had no reason,” the deputy wrote in the report, “to believe Joseph could not possess a firearm.”
Nebraska isn't among the 19 states with a red-flag law. Also known as extreme risk protection orders, they’re intended to restrict the purchase of guns or temporarily remove them from people who may hurt themselves or someone else.
A red-flag law has been proposed for Nebraska this year, but it hasn’t received a legislative hearing yet.
“This is a kind of example screaming out for an extreme risk protection order,” said Kris Brown, the president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “It actually breaks my heart that that did not happen here.”
Federal law has banned some mentally ill people from buying guns since 1968, including those deemed a danger to themselves or others, who have been involuntarily committed, or judged not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial.
But it sets what Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman John Ham described as a “very high bar.” In order for someone's name to be submitted to the FBI for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, they must undergo a hearing in which they are deemed unable to take care of their personal business because of mental illness.
The law describes it as being “adjudicated as a mental defective." Every state has a different process, but the multiple three-day involuntary commitments that Jones' family and law enforcement records described didn't trigger such a hearing.
A couple of years ago, Jones’ family was so desperate that they considered going through the process. They are familiar with some of the court processes because Jones’ mother also has schizophrenia, is low functioning and had to be committed to a group home.
But they decided not to pursue that because they were able to persuade law enforcement to intervene and get Jones into a mental hospital.
In November 2021, the family reported that Jones was threatening his grandmother and asking for a handgun that his uncle was storing so he could kill himself, according to a report from the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office.
His grandmother, who was so frightened that she hid, told deputies that her grandson would “be fine for a few days” but then would “take a turn for the worse” as he resumed drinking and using the unregulated plant-based painkiller kratom, and possibly other drugs.
Deputies handcuffed Jones and took him to a hospital for evaluation. Derksen said the family thought the hospitalization would have the same effect as going through a formal hearing. Doctors can initiate the hearing process, but there is no record that any did, said Bonnie Moore, chief deputy Sarpy County attorney.
At that time, Derksen asked the deputies to take the handgun into safekeeping. Sarpy County Sheriff Jeff Davis said his department never returned the gun, although Jones repeatedly asked for it.
“By the letter of the law, some would say that it’s a violation of his Second Amendment rights maybe to take his weapon. But we have always erred on the side of caution," Davis said, noting that the circumstances surrounding the removal of the gun were much more alarming than when a deputy returned the firearm.
The problems only escalated. In June 2022, Jones’ grandmother reported him missing, saying he had stopped taking his schizophrenia medication months earlier. His employer, a garage door company, said he was no longer showing up for work.
Law enforcement found him in Kansas, where he had laid down on an interstate in the Emporia area, telling officers he wanted to be “ran over by a semi," the Sarpy County incident report said.
Derksen said one of the first things Jones did after he returned from Kansas was go to a Cabela’s store and buy a shotgun. The family took that gun, as they had others. Derksen's leverage was that he owned the duplex where Jones stayed with his grandmother.
Recently, Jones had called the FBI to report some sort of harassment, his uncle said; the agency said it couldn’t discuss specific calls.
Police haven't said why Jones entered the Target with 13 loaded rifle magazines and fired multiple rounds. Derksen said he believes his nephew didn't want to carry out a mass shooting, but instead wanted police to kill him. He said his nephew had delusions that the cartel would hurt his family if he didn’t kill himself.
A timeline released by police made no mention of Jones firing directly at customers or workers. Instead, he fired his AR-15 style rifle in the air and at inanimate objects including a self-checkout and a drink cooler. Authorities ordered him to drop the gun more than 20 times, and after Jones said “I’ll kill you!” he was shot once.
“We do really feel bad for the people who were traumatized at Target and even for the law enforcement officer who was forced to take that shot," Derksen said. “We know they did what they had to do. It just should have never been able to get there.”
This story was reported by Josh Funk and Heather Hollingsworth. Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington, D.C., and Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this report.
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Group: 1 in 5 U.S. Adults Will Bet on Super Bowl
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - The gambling industry's national trade group predicts that 1 in 5 Americans will make a bet on Sunday's Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. The American Gaming Association says more than 50 million people plan to bet on the game, wagering a total of $16 million. That's more than twice the amount that was expected to be wagered on last year's Super Bowl. Sports betting is now legal in 33 states - including Kansas. It's also legal in Washington, D.C. The group's survey finds bettors evenly split, with 44% backing the Eagles and an identical 44% putting their money on the Chiefs.
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Chiefs Activate RB Edwards-Helaire off IR for Super Bowl
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs activated running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire from injured reserve Monday and placed wide receiver Mecole Hardman on the list for the second time as they finalize their roster for the Super Bowl. Edwards-Helaire, a 2020 first-round pick, has been out since sustaining a high ankle sprain during a win over the Chargers on Nov. 20. He was designated to return on Jan. 17, opening a three-week window in which he could be activated. Edwards-Helaire started the first six games of the season before ceding time to seventh-round pick Isiah Pacheco, who has become one of the Chiefs’ breakout stars.
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Tom Parkinson and Kaye McIntyre. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on Twitter.