Wintry Mix of Weather Hits Greater KC Area
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) - A wintry mix of weather invaded parts of northeast Kansas overnight, bringing heavy, wet snow and forcing some schools to cancel classes. The Leavenworth and Jefferson County North school districts called off classes today (THUR) and the National Weather Service posted a Winter Weather Advisory for Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Atchison and Doniphan counties. Wet snow, with accumulation around 3 inches, created hazardous driving conditions in many areas, along with reduced visibility. The Winter Weather Advisory has since been canceled.
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Kansas House Panel Approves School Voucher Measure
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Republicans in the Kansas Legislature have advanced a bill that would give families state tax dollars to pay for private schools. Supporters of the House school voucher bill say education savings accounts would give more Kansas families an option other than public schools. The bill would allow families to sign up for an account that could give them about $5,000 per student every year. An amendment approved in a House committee on Wednesday would phase in the plan over four years. The measure now moves to the full House for consideration. Representative Kristey Williams says the accounts would give families more choices. “Highly flexible, personalized, for all kinds of students that may be learning at home, that may be learning in new ways that we have not yet envisioned," she said. Critics say the bill siphons money away from public schools. They also say private schools have little accountability on how they spend money.
One of those critics is Democratic Rep. Mari-Lynn Poskin. She pointed to a case in Ohio where a white supremacist homeschool shared Nazi-related lesson plans. “Should a homeschool become a dissonant homeschool in Kansas, the state would be paying for neo-Nazi curriculum and materials," she said. Supporters say an appointed board would monitor school expenses.
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Kansas Lawmakers Consider Parental Control Bill
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas lawmakers are again pushing a bill that would give parents greater control over what’s taught in Kansas classrooms. The measure is not titled a Parents’ Bill of Rights, like the one they promoted last year. But the new legislation declares that parents have a right to object to any educational materials or lessons they view as harmful or inappropriate to their children. A Lansing mother, Kirsten Workman, spoke in favor of the measure Wednesday. She says she pulled her daughter out of public school after an English teacher gace students an assignment to analyze fairy tales from a Marxist or feminist viewpoint. “To be blunt," she said, "it sounds like communism to me. And social indoctrination.” Opponents say the measure is too broad and is unnecessary. They say parents can already be involved in education and opt out of any lessons to which they object.
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Firm: Faulty Weld, Pressure on Pipe Led to Kansas Oil Spill
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A faulty weld at a bend in an oil pipeline contributed to a spill that dumped nearly 13,000 bathtubs' worth of crude oil into a northeastern Kansas creek, the pipeline's operator said Thursday, estimating the cost of cleaning it up at $480 million.
Canadian-based TC Energy said the flawed weld caused a crack that then grew over time because of the stress on the bend in its Keystone pipeline system in rural pastureland in Washington County, about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City. The company said the weld was for a fitting that connected two sections of pipe, and the fitting and weld came from a manufacturing plant.
The company, which is responsible for overseeing inspections of its pipeline system, said it still is investigating the cause of the pipeline stress and is analyzing “other areas with potentially similar conditions.” The December 7 rupture spilled nearly 13,000 barrels of crude oil, with each barrel containing 42 gallons, the size of a standard household bathtub.
“Our focus continues to be the safe operation of the pipeline system,” the company said in a statement.
No one was evacuated following the spill, and officials said it did not affect the two larger rivers and reservoir downstream. With federal regulators' permission, the company reopened the affected segment a little more than three weeks after the spill, though at a lower pressure than before.
But Bill Caram, executive director of the advocacy group Pipeline Safety Trust, said it's “troubling” that TC Energy said the flawed weld came from a “fabrication facility.” He said conditions there should have been ideal for making a weld that would not fail — as opposed to welding in the field.
Caram also said pipeline companies and pipeline regulators in the U.S. Department of Transportation struggle to deal with a combination of multiple threats that on their own don't appear to need immediate attention but together add up.
“The threats aren’t in a vacuum,” Caram said. “This leads to the need for more sophistication in the way operators are mitigating against their threats, looking at how they interact with each other.”
The spill was the largest onshore spill in nine years, and larger than 22 previous spills on the Keystone system combined, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. That's even though the company decreased its estimate for its size from its initial figure of 14,000 barrels.
Zack Pistora, who lobbies the Kansas Legislature for the Sierra Club, argued that the company's explanation shows the pipeline's design was flawed. In July 2021, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report said the four biggest previous spills on the Keystone system were caused by issues tied to its original design, its construction or the manufacturing of the pipe.
The company's statement Thursday said an analysis of the pipeline’s metal showed no issues with it or its strength.
The Kansas House energy committee plans to have hearings on the oil spill in March, according to its chair, state Rep. Leo Delperdang, a Wichita Republican whose career includes a stint with a pipeline company.
“I’ve got lots of questions,” he said.
The 2,700-mile Keystone system carries heavy crude oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to the Gulf Coast and to central Illinois.
Concerns that spills could pollute waterways spurred opposition to plans by TC Energy to build another crude oil pipeline in the same system, the 1,200-mile Keystone XL, across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. President Joe Biden’s cancelation of a permit for the project led the company to pull the plug on the project in 2021.
Pistora argued that people don't have any real assurances that the existing Keystone pipeline won't “fail again.”
“It should be unsettling to everyone along the pipeline path and to Americans generally,” he said.
Local farmer Bill Pannbacker said the rupture occurred near his property line, spraying crude onto his pasture at a point after the pipe goes under a creek and starts to ascend an 80-foot hill. He suggested that a straight section of pipe would be less prone to problems but added, “I'm not an engineer.”
Pannbacker said crews swarmed over the area as they cleaned up the mess, aided by relatively dry weather. The company said its estimate for the cost of the cleanup may change, calling its commitment to the work “unwavering.”
“It is like a little city out there," said Pannbacker, also a former Kansas House member. "I just went by last night, and the lights get your attention, but I mean, they’re working hard.”
This story was reported by John Hanna in Topeka, and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas.
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Topeka Officers Cleared in Fatal Shooting of Man with Knife
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP/KPR) - Five Topeka police officers will not face charges after fatally shooting a man who rushed them with a knife last year. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation cleared the officers, saying they were justified in the shooting because they believed 33-year-old Taylor Lowery was a danger to them and to the public. The KBI report says Lowery was shot by police 34 times after he rushed at them with a knife and socket wrench last October in a Kwik Shop parking lot. Officials say Lowery was under the influence of drugs when he waved a knife at officers before driving to the Kwik Shop. He was trying to carjack a vehicle when they told him to put down his weapon. He was shot by two officers after he rushed toward them with a knife. Lowery "went down" but got back up, grabbed a socket wrench and began moving toward an officer before three other police officers shot him. No one else was hurt.
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KHP Superintendent Retiring from Embattled Agency
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - The leader of the Kansas Highway Patrol plans to retire later this year amid controversy around the agency.
Superintendent Herman Jones will step down July 1 from an agency that's been under fire. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly appointed Jones in 2019. His tenure has been marred by federal lawsuits alleging gender discrimination in the patrol. And some Kansas Republican lawmakers contend Jones has mismanaged the patrol, leading to staff shortages. They have threatened to move oversight of the patrol to the attorney general. There have been ongoing allegations of poor management stretching back to previous agency leaders.
Governor Kelly has also announced that Adjutant General David Weishaar, who leads the Kansas National Guard and is the state's emergency management director, will step down April 1. Kelly has appointed Brigadier General Michael Venerdi to fill the post.
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Kansas Lawmakers Consider Changes to Adoption Rules
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas lawmakers are considering making changes to adoption rules. Legislators are rethinking whether to give preference to relatives of children in adoption disputes. If a foster family wants to adopt a baby or child in their care, the scales are tipped against them if a relative of the kid also wants to adopt. But Kansas lawmakers are considering a tweak to state law. The new language would say that the child’s emotional bonds must be a key consideration. The change is meant to consider situations where a child doesn’t know their relatives, but is emotionally attached to the foster family, and allowing the foster family to adopt may serve the child best.
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Former Wichita Airman Sentenced to Prison for Child Porn
WICHITA, Kan. (KPR) - A California man has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for distributing child pornography. Federal prosecutors say 29-year-old Bradley Wiley, of Chico, California, was stationed at McConnell Air Force in Wichita when he committed the crime. Wiley was a member of U.S. Air Force in August 2022 when he used a Whatsapp account to send images of prepubescent children engaged in sex acts. The Air Force and a Kansas-based task force investigated the case.
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FDA Won't Regulate CBD as Dietary Supplement
UNDATED (HPM) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided that it will not regulate the hemp product CBD as a dietary supplement. Instead, it will work with Congress to develop a new framework for regulation. That has been frustrating for hemp growers who were hoping for clear guidelines. Both sellers and growers will have to wait longer to see federal regulations on CBD - a product that the wellness industry has touted as having all kinds of health benefits. Demarkius Medley, a farmer in Galesburg, Illinois, said a lack of clarity on whether his CBD can be infused into food products was part of the reason he decided not to grow a hemp crop last year. "I have to decide at a certain point if I'm going to plant or not," he said. "So, I can't wait on Congress to decide if I can, you know, sell this product after I grow it." The FDA said that it could not comment on a specific timeline. But it is looking forward to working with Congress to balance consumer desire for CBD products with regulatory oversight.
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U.S. States Weigh Farmland Restrictions After Chinese Balloon
HARLOWTON, Mont. (AP/KPR) - China has been buying up hundreds of thousands of acres of U.S. farm and ranch land. And now, Congress and at least 11 statehouses are weighing legislation to further limit foreign ownership of farmland. The proposals were introduced earlier this month out of concern for long-term food security and land potentially being used as a perch for Chinese spying. U.S.-China relations continue to cool amid trade disputes and suspected Chinese espionage. Concerns about Chinese spying were highlighted last week by the suspected spy balloon that traveled across the U.S. before being shot down off the Atlantic Coast.
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Bill to Ban Chinese from Buying Texas Land Gains Steam Among Republicans
AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Tribune)n— Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he'll sign a proposed bill banning citizens and foreign entities from four countries, including China, from buying Texas land. The Texas Tribune reports that Senate Bill 147 would ban citizens, governments and entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing land in Texas. The bill is aimed at curbing foreign influence in the state. Opponents say the bill is likely to further sow anti-Asian sentiment and disenfranchise immigrants, business owners and green-card holders.
The proposal follows a 2021 bill that banned Texas businesses and government officials from making infrastructure deals with interests from the four countries. That legislation, which passed unanimously, was filed in response to a Xinjiang-based real estate tycoon’s purchase of roughly 140,000 acres for a wind farm in Del Rio, a small border town near Laughlin Air Force Base.
Supporters say the bill does not apply to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. “Communist China, America’s greatest foe, is on a bender,” Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller wrote in an op-ed last year that called for such a ban. “They are buying up farmland across the United States and Texas.”
Chinese investors own about 383,000 total acres of U.S. farmland — about 600 square miles, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s 2021 land report. Investors from Russia, Iran and North Korea collectively own less than 3,000 acres, according to USDA. Canadian investors account for about 31% of foreign-own farmland in the United States — by far the largest share — followed by investors from the Netherlands at 12% and those from Italy at 7%.
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UMB Bank on Trial for Mishandling Sale of Thomas Hart Benton Artwork
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Midwest Newsroom) - UMB Bank is on trial for allegedly self-dealing and brushing aside conflicts of interest when selling art. The claims stem from UMB’s handling of artwork that belonged to a trust of the late Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton. An attorney for Benton’s heirs said during opening arguments that UMB sold artwork held in trust without independent appraisals. The attorney also claimed that UMB allowed insiders, like members of the bank’s board of directors and their family members, to buy Benton artwork for low valuations. And they claim that UMB failed to license and copyright Benton’s artwork, costing the trust millions.
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Federal Reserve Chair: Next Interest Rate Hike May Be Higher than Expected
WASHINGTON (AP/KPR) - Interest rates may be headed higher than expected. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says that if the U.S. job market further strengthens in the coming months or if inflation continues to accelerate, the Fed might have to raise its benchmark interest rate higher than it now projects. Powell made his remarks Tuesday in an appearance at the Economic Club of Washington.
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Patrick Mahomes: Ankle Will Be Ready for Super Bowl
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Patrick Mahomes says he's ready to play. The Chiefs quarterback says he's "definitely in a better spot" when it comes to his ailing right ankle than he was for the AFC championship game. The All-Pro quarterback doesn't expect to be limited by it when he leads the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl this Sunday.
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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.