Spirit AeroSystems, Major Airlines Supplier, Suspends Plant Operations After Labor Contract Rejected
UNDATED (AP) – Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier to the world's largest aircraft manufacturers, is suspending operations at a critical Kansas plant after union workers there rejected a proposed four-year contract and authorized a strike. Approximately 6,000 members of the IAM District 70, Local 839 voted to reject Spirit AeroSystems' best and last offer after 13 years without a fully negotiated agreement, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a prepared statement. Shares of Boeing Co. and Airbus slid about 2%, and shares of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. tumbled 10% at the opening bell.
The tentative deal that was rejected had included up to a compounded 34% average pay bump through general wages increases, cost-of-living adjustments, and a guaranteed annual bonus; a 14.7% increase in retirement benefits; increased paid time off; job security enhancements and made Sunday overtime voluntary. A strike is scheduled to start on Saturday.
“Most of our members have concluded that the company’s offer is unacceptable,” the union said in a prepared statement. "IAM District 70 and Local 839 will regroup and begin planning the following steps to bring the company back to the table.”
The IAM is an industrial trade union that representing about 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries. Operations at the factory will be suspended starting Thursday, Spirit said. The company said union employees should not show up for work, but would be paid for their regularly scheduled hours. All scheduled overtime was canceled. Employees not represented by the IAM were instructed to show up for work as normal.
“We are disappointed that our employees represented by the IAM rejected our four-year contract offer and voted to strike. We believe that our fair and competitive offer recognizes the contributions of our employees and ensures we can successfully meet increasing demand for aircraft from our customers,” the Wichita, Kansas, company said in a prepared statement.
Aircraft manufacturers have wrestled with supply issues in recent years and a strike at Spirit AeroSystems at the Wichita plant could add to those headaches. Spirit builds the fuselage for Boeing's 737 MAX narrowbody jet and substantial sections of aircraft bodies in other of its models. It builds components for Airbus aircraft as well.
(–Additional reporting–)
Spirit AeroSystems Workers in Wichita Vote to Strike
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) – Workers at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita voted Wednesday to reject the company’s contract offer and go on strike. The four-year contract proposal included an average wage increase of 4% per year, along with annual bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments. The proposed contract would have also increased insurance co-pays and offered assistance with the price of some prescription drugs. The Machinists Union and Spirit began negotiating on behalf of nearly 8,000 workers in May. The union endorsed the company’s final offer but it was rejected by the workers. The strike is set to begin Saturday. Workers at the facility last went on strike in 1995, when it was still owned by Boeing. Spirit is Wichita’s largest employer and Boeing's largest supplier.
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Kansas Man Accused of Threatening to Bomb Nashville Pride Event
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (NBC) — A Kansas man has been indicted on charges of threatening to bomb and “commit a mass shooting” at an LGBTQ pride event in Nashville, Tennessee. NBC News reports that 25-year-old Joshua Hensley was arrested by FBI agents last Thursday and charged with transmitting an interstate threat. Prosecutors say he posted Facebook comments threatening to “make shrapnel pressure cooker bombs” for this year’s Nashville Pride celebration and “commit a mass shooting” at the event. If convicted, Hensley faces up to five years in prison. The Justice Department says Hensley is also known as Josh Echo. The alleged threat against Nashville Pride comes amid an uptick in anti-LGBTQ demonstrations across the U.S. and a surge in state bills targeting the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender people.
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Dozens Urge City Leaders to Make Lawrence a Sanctuary City for Trans People
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) — Lawrence city leaders on Tuesday heard three hours of public comment from a group of residents urging them to make Lawrence a sanctuary city for transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the group presented the Lawrence City Commission with an ordinance they drafted themselves that would codify protections against new state laws that ban transgender people from using bathrooms and other gender-specific areas that don't align with their designated sex at birth. This is the second time in recent weeks that a group has pushed for special protections for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
In other business, an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags failed to pass.
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Former FBI Analyst Sentenced for Keeping Classified Documents at Kansas City-Area Home
UNDATED (AP) – A former FBI analyst has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for keeping classified documents at her Kansas City-area home. Kendra Kingsbury, 50, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. She was sentenced Wednesday to three years and 10 months in prison. As an intelligence analyst in the FBI's Kansas City, Missouri, office, Kingsbury had a high-level security clearance that gave her access to national defense and classified information. She worked in that role from 2004 to Dec. 15, 2017.
During her plea hearing, she admitted that she took 386 classified documents and kept them in her home in North Kansas City, Missouri. She also admitted that she retained and destroyed other classified and/or national defense information, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release. She kept the documents on hard drives, compact discs and other storage media. The information she took included documents classified at the secret level, some of which included U.S. efforts related to counterterrorism, details on specific FBI investigations, and sensitive operations in national security investigations and the FBI's technical capabilities, the release said. She also kept documents from another government agency that described intelligence sources and methods related to efforts to collect intelligence on terrorist groups, as well information on activities of emerging terrorists, federal prosecutors said.
An investigation into how Kingsbury may have used the documents “revealed more questions and concerns than answers,” according to the release. The investigation found that a number of suspicious calls to and from numbers associated with counterterrorism investigations, the release said, but Kingsbury has declined to say why she contacted those individuals. In a court document submitted before the sentencing, Kingsbury's attorneys asked that she be sentenced to probation. Although the document does not indicate a motive for Kingsbury's actions, her attorneys note that she self-reported having taken the documents, had no previous criminal record and successfully met all legal requirements while on pre-trial release. Her attorneys say Kingsbury had several serious medical and family issues that began shortly after she started working for the FBI, and has experienced public embarrassment and employment difficulties since she was fired from the agency. She most recently lived in Garden City, Kansas, where she was a single mother and the caretaker for her elderly mom.
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Inmate Dies at Larned State Correctional Facility
LARNED, Kan. (KPR) – An inmate at Larned State Correctional Facility has died. Authorities say 33-year-old Cortez Timley died Wednesday morning. The cause of death is pending further investigation and results of an independent autopsy. Per protocol, the death will be reviewed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI). Timley was serving a sentence for murder, drug possession and interfering with the duties of a law enforcement officer from Shawnee County. The Larned State Correctional Facility is an all-male facility housing all custody levels with a current population of 525 residents. The name of the facility was officially changed in April from Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility to the Larned State Correctional Facility.
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Missouri Couple Charged in January 6 Attack on U.S. Capitol
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (St. Joseph News-Press) — A St. Joseph, Missouri, couple has been charged in connection with their participation in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Officials at the FBI’s Kansas City office say Kimberly and Steven Dragoo are charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building. The FBI says the couple had traveled to Washington, D.C. to join then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, where Trump falsely claimed he had won the 2020 presidential election. Many of Trump’s supporters at the rally then mounted an attack and stormed into the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the election. The St. Joseph News-Press reports that the couple admitted to their presence inside the Capitol but said that they had not done anything wrong. Kimberly Dragoo told investigators she had tried to post video and photos of their participation to a “Stop the Steal” Facebook group. The Dragoos next appearance in federal court is scheduled for Thursday morning.
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Kansas Medical Workforce in Crisis as Worker Shortage Persists
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – Kansas hospitals are experiencing the highest turnover and job vacancy rates in a decade. The Kansas Hospital Association compiled its annual report with data from 109 hospitals across the state. Some of the highest vacancy rates reported were for nurses, laboratory staff, and respiratory therapists. The KHA survey found that about 25% of the nursing positions in the state are unfilled and the shortage is expected to grow. The association and hospitals are using virtual job fairs and partnering with the Kansas Department of Education to increase interest in health care careers.
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Kansas Gets New Secretary of Transportation
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) – Kansas is getting a new transportation secretary. Governor Laura Kelly has appointed Calvin Reed as Secretary of KDOT. Reed has been serving as acting secretary since the departure of former Secretary Julie Lorenz in December. Reed has spent more than 15 years of his career with KDOT. He's a graduate of Kansas State University with degrees in civil engineering. Reed's appointment must still be approved by the Kansas Senate.
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New Rule Would Make All Railroads Alert First Responders Within 10 Miles of Derailed Train Cargo
ATLANTA (AP) — Federal regulators want first responders to a train derailment to know exactly what they are dealing with even before they reach the scene. That's because dangerous chemicals trains carry might require a specialized response. A new rule proposed Wednesday would require all railroads to electronically push the details of everything on a train to every emergency responder within 10 miles. The rule applies to every railroad — not just the biggest ones that already provide this information through an app firefighters use.
The new rule comes one day ahead of a National Transportation Safety Board hearing to scrutinize emergency responses to the fiery February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train outside East Palestine, Ohio. The NTSB is still working to determine exactly what caused that wreck, which prompted the evacuation of thousands of people and ignited nationwide concern about railroad safety and calls for reforms.
The largest freight railroads already have an app they developed, AskRail, which for nearly a decade has enabled firefighters to quickly look up the details of what each train carries. Some 35,000 first responders already have access to that app, and the rail industry is working to expand that. And crews have long carried printed copies of their cargo in the cabs of their locomotives.
The Association of American Railroads trade group emphasizes that railroads remain the safest way to ship dangerous chemicals by land with more than 99 percent of those shipments arriving safety. But even one derailment involving hazardous materials can prove disastrous, and last year there were more than 1,000 derailments — roughly three a day. More than three quarters happened at slow speeds in railyards, without causing major damage.
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U.S. Engineers Contributed to Missouri River Flood Damage and Must Pay Landowners, Court Rules
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. government may have to pay tens of millions of dollars — or more — to landowners along the Missouri River after a court ruled it worsened flooding there since 2007 that killed crops and wrecked homes and businesses.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's 2020 ruling that the federal government must pay for the landowners' loss of value to the land. But the appeals court went even further in its decision last Friday, saying that the government must also pay them for crops, farm equipment and buildings lost to the flooding and finding the government contributed to the devastating flood of 2011.
Courts have found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for recurrent flooding since 2007, three years after it changed how it manages the Missouri River’s flow to better protect the habitat of endangered fish and birds. It did so by notching dikes to increase water flow, keeping more water in reservoirs and reopening historic chutes, allowing the river to meander and erode banks.
Farmers, businesses and other landowners say that unconstitutionally deprived them of their land. The courts have largely agreed, finding that the government violated constitutional protections against taking property without just compensation. That Fifth Amendment protection is often seen in cases of eminent domain, which allows a government to seize private property, with compensation, for a public purpose.
Federal officials argue that the changes the Corps made were necessary to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act and a separate requirement from Congress passed in 1986 to protect fish and wildlife.
The ruling comes as federal and state officials wrestle with the rising costs of floods made more severe by climate change, and droughts that will require tough water management choices.
It's the sort of conflict that will only worsen -- and become more expensive, said James Elliott, a sociology professor at Rice University whose focus is on the confluence of human society and the environment.
“We tend to think of these as environmental issues, but really, they’re financial issues, right?" he said. "We’ve got a lot of development in a lot of places where it’s just not sustainable.”
The Corps manages floodplains, levees, and other water infrastructure across the U.S., making critical decisions on emergency management. Any resulting court decision, and even a settlement, could have long-lasting consequences on how floodplains and ecosystems are managed in the future, although the government has indicated in court documents that the Corps is dedicated to its plan that protects endangered wildlife.
In total, the government now faces liability for floods in six of the eight years spanning from the beginning of 2007 through 2014, including particularly devastating losses in 2011.
Land value loss alone for which the government was found liable was estimated to be around $10 million by lower courts. Attorneys for the landowners had estimated that total damages could exceed $300 million. Total damages across the Missouri River basin in 2011 were estimated at around $2 billion, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
“So, if you consider how much those crop losses and the 2011 flood damage would be, you can extrapolate from there that it will be significant,” said Seth Wright, of Posinelli Law Firm in Kansas City, Missouri, who is the lead trial attorney for the landowners.
Wright said that if the history of the nearly 10-year-old legal case is an indicator, the government is likely to appeal the latest ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s certainly frustrating to our clients,” Wright said. “We’re a decade into this lawsuit and a decade-and-a-half from the first flood. It’s time for the government to step up and pay.”
Federal officials argue that the courts have overlooked key factors in the case, noting that the plaintiffs’ land still occasionally flooded even before the Corps made changes to the river’s management in 2004. They say a publicly available document warns of possible changes to the Corps’ flood protections.
In court documents, officials argue the landowners “should have recognized long ago that the System was built to serve multiple, congressionally authorized purposes, not flood control alone,” and that they’ve never “had a property right to any particular level of federal flood-control protection.”
More than 370 landowners in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and the Dakotas are currently represented in the lawsuit, and a merger with another class-action lawsuit of an additional 60 landowners could happen later.
Lawmakers from affected states have said the Justice Department should settle. In 2020, seven Republican U.S. senators from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri urged the Army to negotiate with landowners.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice, which said Thursday that it is considering its next steps following last Friday's ruling.
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Kansas Officials May Decide to Limit Foreign Land Ownership
TOPEKA, Kan. (TCJ/KPR) — Conservatives in many states are alarmed at the growing number of Chinese-owned companies purchasing land in the U.S. And many conservatives have pushed to limit who can own farmland or, in some cases, any property. They point to national security concerns, like foreign influence over the nation's food supply or foreign groups that buy land next to U.S. military installations.
In Kansas, efforts to restrict foreign nationals from acquiring Kansas land stalled at the Statehouse, despite backing from a slate of Republican lawmakers and Attorney General Kris Kobach. But as the Topeka Capital-Journal reports, the debate is unlikely to go away anytime soon. A panel of lawmakers will review the issue this summer and fall, with an eye towards possible action in 2024. And there are rumblings that the matter may be addressed at the federal level as well.
Nationally, nearly two dozen states have some restrictions on foreign land ownership. And Kansas officials say national security concerns point to a strong need for action on the issue. One proposal under consideration in Kansas would restrict all foreign land ownership outside of Johnson, Wyandotte, Sedgwick and Shawnee counties. Another would target only nationals of countries deemed to be a foreign adversary of the United States, which the federal government currently lists as China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.
Attorney General Kris Kobach has favored the first plan, arguing the state needs to do more in the face of rising foreign land ownership across the U.S. He pointed to the Chinese spy balloon spotted over a number of U.S. states earlier this year and said he was only half-joking when he said they were "shopping for real estate in Kansas."
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Former Kansas Sheriff's Deputy Loses Law Enforcement Certification
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former southern Kansas sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a man with a defective beanbag has been stripped of his peace officer certification. Virgil Brewer, a former Barber County deputy, was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2017 death of 42-year-old Steven Myers. Myers died after Brewer shot him with the beanbag during a confrontation at Myers's home in Sun City.
The Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training reviewed the shooting last month and revoked Brewer's license. The commission's report noted that body camera video of the confrontation showed Myers complying with conflicting commands from Brewer and another deputy when he exited a shed on his property. He was not informed he was under arrest or that the beanbag would be used before Brewer fired the shot.
The peace officers commission described Brewer's conduct as "unprofessional" and lacking "good moral character." Brewer shot Myers with his own shotgun with a beanbag that he received at a previous job in Texas and had not been trained to use it before the shooting, according to testimony at the trial. The ammunition had been discontinued for several years because it could cause penetrating injuries. Prosecutor Melissa Gay Johnson with the Kansas attorney general's office charged Brewer in October 2018. A Wyandotte County jury acquitted him in November 2022. Myers's widow filed a federal lawsuit over his death and Kansas officials agreed to a $3.5 million settlement in 2020.
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Suspicious Letters Containing Mysterious Substance Extend Beyond Borders of Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Public officials outside of Kansas are now reporting receiving suspicious letters. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says an investigation into the 100 suspicious letters Kansas public officials received is now being handed over to the FBI. At this time, laboratory testing has not indicated any risk to public safety. Law enforcement and public safety officials are still working to see how many letters were sent, find the individual or individuals responsible for sending the letters and the motive for doing so. KSNT reports that the KBI had more than 60 special agents, forensic scientists and employees working to safely collect or screen evidence or manage and track responses to the incidents. So far, only Republican members of the Legislature and Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach have received the letters.
While the inquiry has now expanded beyond Kansas, the KBI will continue to work with all its law enforcement partners in the case. People are asked to report any letters containing an unknown white powder to the KBI at 1-800-KSCRIME or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.
(–Additional Reporting–)
Mystery Powder Sent to Kansas Republicans, Trump, Supreme Court Justice Thomas
WASHINGTON (ABC) — A series of threatening letters containing a mysterious white powder is raising concerns that Republican lawmakers in Kansas and across the nation who received them are being targeted by someone cryptically calling themselves "your secret despirer," according to authorities and recipients of the letters. Since Friday, about 100 letters have been received by Kansas GOP lawmakers and Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach.
ABC News reports that the list of intended recipients of white powder letters is growing and expanding beyond Kansas. Similar letters containing a cryptic note and a “suspicious powdery substance” were addressed to former President Donald Trump, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and other high-profile individuals, though the U.S. Postal Inspection Service intercepted them before they were delivered. Postal inspectors have possession of the letters and have deemed them harmless.
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Kansas Highway Patrol: Extra Caution Needed on Roads During Harvest Season
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — It's nearly harvest season and the Kansas Highway Patrol is reminding motorists to use extra caution when traveling near farm trucks, tractors, combines and other implements. State troopers are also asking motorists to be patient when encountering heavy farm implements and trucks moving in and out of wheat fields and on to roadways. Most farm equipment is not designed to travel at highway speeds and may only travel 15-25 mph. Farm equipment is often wider than the lane of traffic, so extra room should be allowed when sharing the road. Caution should be practiced on all roads, but especially on busy rural roads with unmarked intersections. The Highway Patrol also advises motorists not to pass farm vehicles unless they can see clearly ahead of their own vehicle and the vehicle they are passing. (Read more.)
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Should Lawrence Airport Be Expanded to Handle Big Commercial Jets? A Study Is Underway
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) — A study is underway to determine if the Lawrence airport should be expanded to accommodate 737 jets are other large commercial aircraft. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the city has agreed to hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility study. Big aircraft are common sights at places like Kansas City International Airport, but the Lawrence airport runways and infrastructure are too small to accommodate the larger planes. City officials haven’t released an estimate of what the total costs may be to expand the airport. Creating a cost estimate is one of the purposes of the feasibility study.
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Two KU Jayhawks Expected to Go in the NBA Draft
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) –The NBA draft takes place Thursday night and two University of Kansas Jayhawks players are projected to be picked. Wichita native Gradey Dick is expected to be the first KU player taken in the draft. Jayhawks coach Bill Self says it was apparent just three games into the season, when KU played Duke in New York’s Madison Square Garden, that Dick would play only one year at KU. “He did so well this year and after the Duke game in the Garden, I don’t anybody in our program even anticipated that he would come back.” Self said. Dick scored 14 points in that win over the Blue Devils. The leading scorer that day was Jalen Wilson with 25 points. He’s expected to be taken later in the draft.
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Mississippi State Hires Kansas State Associate AD Josh McCowan as Deputy AD for Advancement
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi State University has hired Kansas State associate athletic director Josh McCowan as its deputy AD for athletics advancement. Bulldogs athletic director Zac Selmon cited McCowan’s success in fundraising and leadership qualities in statement on Thursday announcing the hire. McCowan had been Kansas State’s senior associate AD of development since 2017 and oversaw the department's fundraising activities. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from K-State and was a graduate assistant for the Wildcats' basketball team that reached the Elite Eight in 2010.
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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 and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on Twitter.