Bomb Threat Against KU Football Complex; Suspect Arrested
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) - Authorities in Lawrence are investigating a bomb threat against the school's football facilities. Memorial Stadium and the KU football complex of buildings surrounding it were evacuated and searched by police Monday. No bomb was found but a suspect was arrested. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that a KU football player - 21-year-old Joseph Michael Krause, of Prairie Village, was taken into custody late Monday afternoon and accused of making the threat. Krause made his first appearance in Douglas County District Court Tuesday afternoon. His next court date is set for August 2nd.
(Additional reporting...)
Kansas Football Lineman Charged in Connection with Alleged Bomb Threat
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP/KPR) — University of Kansas football offensive lineman Joseph Krause made his first court appearance Tuesday after he was charged with allegedly making a bomb threat that prompted the evacuation of the school's football stadium. Krause has been charged with making the aggravated criminal threat Monday. KU's stadium and two other sports complexes near it were evacuated without incident, university police told The Kansas City Star. Krause does not yet have a lawyer. But he told a judge Tuesday that he plans to find representation soon. No attorney was listed for him in court records as of Tuesday. Making an aggravated criminal threat is a felony punishable by a minimum of two-and-a-half years in prison, a fine of $300,000 or both. Krause, from Prairie Village, has been on the team for three seasons as a walk-on. He has not played a game since 2020.
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Wyandotte County Eliminates Some Municipal Offense Fees
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KNS/KCUR) - Wyandotte County officials have eliminated fees for certain municipal offenses in Kansas City, Kansas. The Unified Government Commission has eliminated an automatic 30 dollar fee tacked on to every municipal offense. In a statement, the U-G said such fees can make paying even a traffic fee impossible for people with a limited income, which could lead to bigger fines and other trouble. Last year, Kansas City, Kansas joined a group called Cities and Counties for Fine and Fee justice, a group of 16 cities and counties reforming court fees. While the U-G can eliminate its 30 dollar court fee, state fees will still be assessed along with probation fees, community service fees and expungement fees.
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Former Inmate Sues Defunct For-Profit Jail in Leavenworth over Stabbing Incident
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Kansas Reflector) - A former inmate of a now-defunct private jail in Leavenworth is suing the facility’s operators, saying the facility was poorly run and so dangerous that he was stabbed. The Kansas Reflector reports that Joshua Braddy's lawsuit accuses CoreCivic of running a "dangerous, understaffed and insecure" facility. The lawsuit alleges that CoreCivic's employees acted recklessly at the Leavenworth Detention Center. The facility in Leavenworth was a detention center contracted to house detainees awaiting trial in federal courts. Its contract with the U.S. Marshals Service ended in December 2021. CoreCivic, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the nation's largest private prison operators. It has yet to file a response to the lawsuit. During a sentencing hearing, a federal judge once described the facility as “an absolute hell hole.”
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Record Amount of Money Raised in Wichita Mayor's Race
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS/KMUW) - Lots of money has been pouring into the mayor's race in the state's largest city. Wichita mayoral candidate Lily Wu has raised a record amount of cash ahead of the primary election. Wu raised more than $200 thousand dollars since the beginning of this year - which is more than the other eight candidates combined. Current council member Bryan Frye brought in less than half of that. Both Frye and Wu received support for prominent business leaders. Current mayor Brandon Whipple only brought in about $34 thousand dollars. Despite increased spending in the race, Wichita State political scientist Neal Allen says turnout is still expected to be low. “The candidates are clearly going to be spending the money to get people out to vote," he said. "Even if we see increased turnout over four years ago, it'll still be a small fraction and a minority of the total of the potential electorate.” The primary election is next Tuesday. The top two candidates will move on to the general election in November.
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Report: Kansas Hospitals Lack Price Transparency
UNDATED (KNS) — Most Kansas hospitals aren't complying with federal price transparency rules. That's according to the nonprofit group Patient Rights Advocate. Only six out of the 23 Kansas hospitals the group surveyed fully complied with the rules, which took effect more than two years ago. Cynthia Fisher is the group’s founder. “The majority of hospitals do have files but there are still swaths of missing data so that all of the prices are not available for every individual to find the prices they would pay," she said. The report found many of the state’s largest hospitals were not in compliance, including Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and Wesley Medical Center in Wichita and Topeka’s Stormont Vail.
The state’s performance improved since the group’s last survey six months ago, but still lags behind the country as a whole. According to the report, some hospitals didn’t post any prices. Others had incomplete prices, or uploaded unusable files. The group’s founder, Cynthia Fisher, says knowing the cost of a medical procedure helps patients comparison shop. “So, they can get that MRI for $300 versus paying over $3,000," she said.
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KCC Holds Final Meeting on Evergy Rate Hike Thursday
WICHITA, Kan. (KPR) - The Kansas Corporation Commission is holding a public hearing Thursday evening at Wichita State University. It's the third and final public hearing about Evergy’s proposed rate hike. The KCC will accept written comments until September 29th. If approved by regulators, most Evergy customers in Kansas will see their electric rates increase by roughly $14 a month starting later this year.
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Kansas Man Charged with Killing Father, Stabbing Stranger
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have brought murder charges against a Kansas City, Kansas, man accused of killing his father and stabbing a woman before police shot and wounded him. John McGriff, 32, was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder in the July 18 attack. He previously was charged with aggravated battery, the mistreatment of a dependent adult or elder person, and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. Court records don’t list an attorney for McGriff, whose bond was set at $300,000, according to prosecutors. Police were called when a woman was stabbed on a sidewalk after she finished volunteering at a nearby church’s food pantry. As she was rushed to a hospital, officers spotted McGriff and ordered him to drop a knife, but he charged at them and officers fired, striking him, police said in a news release. Police then learned that McGriff's father, 72-year-old Samuel McGriff, had been stabbed to death in the nearby apartment where the two men lived.
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Remains of WWII Veteran Killed in Action Returning to Kansas for Burial
PLAINS, Kan. (KAKE) — The remains of a Kansas WWII veteran killed in World War II are finally returning home. U.S. Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert C. Elliott, of Plains, Kansas, was killed during a bombing mission in Romania. He was killed August 1, 1943 when his plane was hit by enemy fire. Elliot was just 24-years-old. His remains could not be identified at the time, so he was buried alongside other unidentified soldiers in Romania. After the war, the remains of all unnamed U.S. casualties were taken from the cemetery in Romania. KAKE TV reports that Elliot's remains were finally identified in February by a laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Sgt. Robert Elliott will be interred at Plains Cemetery on Tuesday, August 1 - exactly 80 years to the day after he was killed in action. He served in the 343rd Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force.
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Heatwave Will Make Crickets Chirp Like Crazy
UNDATED (HPM) - Heat waves are pushing temperatures up this summer and breaking records across the world. It’s affecting people, animals, crops and... crickets. Harvest Public Media reports that a chorus of cricket chips isn’t just summer background music, it can also be used as a temperature gauge. According to an old scientific theory, if you count the number of chirps per 15 seconds and add 40, you’ll wind up with the temperature in Fahrenheit. Kyle Koch, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says heat helps crickets’ chirping muscles warm up. "So, they’re cold blooded. Basically they’re affected by the ambient temperature. As the temperature rises, they can have those muscle contractions occurring more rapidly which allows them to have a higher frequency," he said. Crickets could be chirping faster than ever this year as many experts say there’s a good chance 2023 could be the hottest on record.
The National Weather Service office in El Paso, Texas, has a cricket chirp converter where you can plug in how many chirps you hear to get the temperature. Meteorologist Jason Laney jokes that after more than a month of heat above 100 degrees, it might be less useful. "Unfortunately, down here now, we've lost track of the temperature because now we have our fried crickets," he said. El Paso is just one city trapped under a heat dome during what many experts say could become the hottest year in modern history.
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No Big Winner in Mega Millions Drawing; Jackpot Hits $910 Million
UNDATED (KPR/AP) - The Mega Millions jackpot will climb to nearly a billion dollars since Tuesday night's drawing produced no big winners. That extends a stretch of bad luck dating back to April. The absence of a jackpot winner brings the count of fruitless drawings to 28, at least for the big prize. The jackpot for this Friday's drawing is expected to hit $910 million or more. The winning numbers drawn Tuesday were: 3, 5, 6, 44, 61 and the yellow ball 25. Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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Kansas Officially Gets New State Park
ALLEN COUNTY, Kan. (KNS) — Kansas now has a new 360-acre state park in the southeast part of the state. The land that is now Lehigh Portland State Park already has popular mountain-biking and hiking paths. And a 130-acre lake. John Leahy, director of trails for Thrive Allen County, says making it a state park will bring camping infrastructure to the area and make sure more people know about the park. “People really just don’t understand that there’s a lake out there," he said. "There is a fairly good stock of fish out there.” He says the state is also studying the lake to hopefully stock it with more species for sport fishing.
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Maui Invitational to Include Purdue, KU, Tennessee, and UCLA
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Purdue and reigning national player of the year Zach Edey will open the Maui Invitational against Gonzaga. Tennessee also will play Syracuse, Kansas faces host Chaminade and UCLA plays Marquette in the bracket released on Tuesday. The bracket sets up a potential semifinal matchup between the Jayhawks and Bruins, who have a combined 15 national titles. Kansas added Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson during the offseason and has won the Maui Invitational twice. Gonzaga returns for the first time since winning the 2018 title. Edey, the 2023 Associated Press national player of the year, considered leaving for the NBA before deciding to return to the Boilermakers. The November 20-22 tournament will be the second straight at Lahaina Civic Center after the pandemic forced the bracket off the islands. Arizona won last year's title.
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Royals Owner Pens Letter to Fans, Hoping to Be More Transparent About Stadium Plans
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals are trying to be more transparent about their plans for a new ballpark. Majority owner John Sherman released a letter to fans in hopes of providing a timetable on stadium proposals. Sherman writes “detailed renderings and many other components that will help us compare the broad benefits” of two competing sites will be released in the next 30 days. After that, the team expects to pick between downtown Kansas City and a spot in neighboring Clay County, which sits across the Missouri River. Sherman says “we are committed to doing this right,. This is a huge decision for us.”
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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 amweekdays and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. You can also follow KPR News on Twitter.