Suspect in Domestic Assault in Leavenworth Shot During Arrest
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Yahoo News) — A man was shot early this (THUR) morning as Leavenworth police tried to take him into custody following a chase that began in Kansas and ended in Missouri. Leavenworth Police Chief Patrick Kitchens says officers responded to a reported domestic violence incident around 12:45 am in the 900 block of Columbia Avenue. Police then began searching for a 27-year-old man who was wanted on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape and other charges. Yahoo News reports that officers spotted the suspect’s vehicle in Leavenworth and attempted to stop him. The man fled, leading police on a chase that crossed into Missouri and ended on a highway in Platte County. The man was shot as officers tried to take him into custody. No officers were injured but the suspect is hospitalized in critical condition.
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Report: Kansas Lakes Are Filled with Microplastics
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KNS) — Microplastic pollution is worse in freshwater lakes than the world’s oceans. That includes lakes and reservoirs in Kansas. A recent study found plastic debris in all of the lakes and reservoirs researchers examined. Much of the pollution is plastics broken off from other materials, like T-shirts, blankets and water bottles. Ted Harris is a University of Kansas professor who participated in the study. He says even lakes far from people are polluted because plastics can travel very long distances. “So, they get transported in large scale wind currents. They are easily transported because of how small they are," he said. Harris studied Clinton and Perry lakes near Lawrence. He says bans on single use plastics appear to help reduce microplastic pollution but more action is needed.
The global study found plastic debris in all of the lakes and reservoirs studied by researchers. The study found that microplastics are contaminating freshwater lakes at a higher concentration than what’s been found in the world’s oceans. Harris says lakes that attract more people have more pollution. “All those vacation spots are great and beautiful to visit. (But) they also bring a lot of people and people bring plastics," he said. The Lawrence City Commission voted this week to ban single use plastics beginning in March.
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Prosecutors: KC Man Fatally Shotgunned Buyer of Ford Mustang
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KC Star) — A Kansas City man is accused of firing a fatal shotgun blast into the chest of the buyer of his convertible Ford Mustang. The Kansas City Star reports that the shooting happened last month outside a Scaritt Point neighborhood home. Jackson County prosecutors have charged 59-year-old Jerry Plater with second-degree murder in the July 28 shooting of 58-year-old Manuel E. Valentine-Ruperto. The killing unfolded in broad daylight outside Plater’s rental home. Police found Valentine-Ruperto flat on his back on the sidewalk. A 12-gauge shotgun shell was discovered in the grass nearby. Charges were filed under seal, which was lifted after Plater’s arrest on Tuesday.
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Federal Grant Will Enable Kansas to Return Native American Remains
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — A federal grant will help the Kansas Historical Society return the remains of Native Americans in its museum to their respective tribes. The Kansas City Star reports the U.S. Department of the Interior recently awarded the $100,000 grant to the historical society. The funding will be used to hire a coordinator to determine which tribes the remains belong to so they can be returned. The historical society has the remains of more than 300 Native American people. The majority of those remains are from the Kansas area, but some are unknown.
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Kansas Plans to Eliminate Specialized Services Waitlist
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — It could cost Kansas between $29 million and $40 million to eliminate a waitlist for specialized services for disabled residents. The program, known as an IDD waiver, is designed to give intellectually disabled kids case management services and financial support. But families sit on the waitlist for about 10 years before they get help. So, the state is looking to create a new waiver. It will take people off the waitlist and put them in line for the new community support system. The hope is that two waiver systems offering different levels of support will get people services faster. Republican Representative Will Carpenter hopes it could cut the waitlist time in half. "A lot of states are doing this same thing. It's not like we're reinventing the wheel here," he said. It could take two years to get the new waiver approved by the federal government.
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Kansas and Other States Consider Various Abortion Laws
UNDATED (AP/KPR) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that there's no constitutional right to abortion. That ruling moved the issue to states and state courts. State laws are tested against state constitutions by state judges. Most Republican-dominated states have put into place new abortion bans or restrictions, including 15 states where bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy are now in effect. Nearly all the bans have been challenged in court. Most Democratic-controlled states have adopted policies to try to protect abortion access.
Not all the pending abortion lawsuits center on whether abortion should be legal. Some focus on the rules about how it is performed, most of them designed to make it harder to access. In Kansas, where abortion is legal for the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, a judge held a hearing Tuesday over a requirement that doctors tell patients that medication abortions can be reversed soon after they're initiated, even though major medical groups say the procedure is unproven and potentially dangerous. It's not clear when a ruling in that case might be made.
Elsewhere, a federal judge in Illinois this month blocked a new rule the Democratic-controlled state had imposed to penalize anti-abortion counseling centers for using "misinformation, deceptive practices or misrepresentation" to interfere with access to abortion or emergency contraception services. The judge called it "painfully and blatantly a violation of the First Amendment."
Also earlier this month, in another free speech case, a federal judge ruled that Idaho cannot sanction medical providers for referring patients to abortion services in states where they're legal.
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2 People Killed in Crash Near Paola
PAOLA, Kan. (KMBC) — An early-morning, two-vehicle crash has claimed the lives of two people near Paola. KMBC TV reports that Paola police and the Miami County Sheriff's Office were notified of the crash on U.S. Highway 169 (at 327th Street) around 4:13 am today (THU). Investigators say this was a wrong-way crash with one vehicle northbound in the southbound lane striking a second vehicle traveling south in the southbound lane. The sole occupants of each vehicle were killed. The identities of the victims are being withheld pending the notification of next-of-kin.
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Storm Damages Community College in Central Kansas
GREAT BEND, Kan. (GB Tribune/KPR) — It's just an estimate, but the Barton Community College campus in Great Bend may have sustained a half-million dollars in damage during a severe storm that rolled across the county last month. Barton's Vice President of Administration, Mark Dean, told the school's board of trustees this week that the July 16th storm caused water damage in buildings and damaged one building's roof. The Great Bend Tribune reports that the campus also sustained damage to trees, fences and ball fields. Wind gusts up to 85 mph were reported in the area. Many homes, churches and other businesses in Great Bend also sustained damage.
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Kansas Has Five Drive-In Movie Theaters; a Sixth May Be Coming Soon
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) — People of a certain age will remember drive-in movie theaters. Once wildly popular across the country, drive-in movie theaters have largely disappeared. However, there are still a few places in Kansas where you can enjoy this entertainment experience. KSNT reports that a handful of drive-ins remain active in the Sunflower State. According to DriveInMovie.com, Kansas has five such theaters. They are located in Wichita, Paola, Kanopolis, Dodge City and Kansas City, Kansas. Another drive-in is planned soon in Trego County, in the western part of the state.
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Night Court / Evening Court Comes to Lawrence
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) — Night court is coming to Lawrence. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the city will launch a night court pilot program in municipal court later this month. The court is adding a night session from 5 to 6:30 pm on the third Wednesday of the month, starting August 16. The night court session will be staffed by Judge Christopher Kopecky, a prosecutor, courtroom clerk, a customer service clerk, a court security officer and a supervisor.
Members of the public can contact the municipal court at (785) 832-6190 for more information.
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Fund Established for Family of Fallen Kansas Officer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KNS) — Law enforcement officers from around the region took part in a Tuesday procession to take the body of fallen Fairway police officer Jonah Oswald to a funeral home in Shawnee. Funeral arrangements are pending. The 29-year-old officer was a 4-year veteran of the Fairway Police Department. He was shot and critically wounded in a confrontation with auto theft suspects inside a convenience store in Mission Sunday morning. He died at the University of Kansas Medical Center on Monday. Oswald is survived by his wife and two young children. The City of Fairway has established a fund for donations to Oswald's family. Donations are now being accepted through the Public Safety Credit Union. Fairway officials say Oswald’s family will receive 100% of donations made in his honor.
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Authorities: Man Who Made Threats at Rural Kansas Home Shot and Killed by Deputy
RANSOM, Kan. (AP) — An armed man was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy Tuesday in central Kansas. Deputies coaxed the man out of a house in Ransom where he had been making threats and then, authorities say, he fired a weapon. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says it's reviewing the fatal police shooting of 46-year-old Jesse Nicholls.
The KBI says Ness County deputies responded to 911 calls about an armed man making threats inside a house. A deputy spoke with Nicholls on the phone and then convinced him to come out of the house. Outside, Nicholls followed instructions to put his pistol down, the bureau said. But then he picked it up again and fired at the ground. A Ness County deputy immediately fired at Nicholls, striking him repeatedly. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The bureau has not released the name of the deputy, and the Ness County Sheriff's Office has not commented on the case. No deputies were hurt.
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Multiple People Indicted in Kansas City for Trafficking Meth
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KPR) – A federal grand jury in Kansas City has returned an indictment charging multiple people for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Kansas and elsewhere between 2020 and this year. Most of those charged are from the Kansas City metro. Two other defendants are from Seneca and Dodge City. Prosecutors say all were involved with the possession and distribution of methamphetamine. One of the defendants is also charged with money laundering.
According to court documents, 43-year-old Jose Roman, 32-year-old Marcos Valencia Jr, 37-year-old Ezequil Castro and Juan Gonzalez - all from Kansas City, Kansas - are charged. In addition, 28-year-old Manuel Alvarez, of Seneca, and 32-year-old Manuel Faudoa, of Dodge City and 21-year-old Gerardo Sierra-Martinez, of Kansas City, Missouri, are also charged.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Jackson County, Missouri Drug Task Force, the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Nebraska Highway Patrol, and the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program are investigating the case.
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K-State President Reduces Workload to Battle Cancer
MANHATTAN, Kan. (KNS) — The president of Kansas State University, Richard Linton, is partially stepping aside after being diagnosed with throat and tongue cancer. Linton was named president of K-State last February, but he’ll now need daily cancer treatments in Kansas City. He will stay as involved with the university as he can, but while he gets treatment, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Marshall Stewart will step up and help run the college. Linton is not permanently stepping down and says his cancer is treatable.
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Research: Rivers Creating Large Amounts of Carbon and Methane
UNDATED (HPM) — Researchers estimate that rivers and streams around the world release nearly 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere every year. Environmental scientists say that rivers receive large amounts of carbon and nitrogen from agricultural runoff and lawn chemicals. Rivers not only carry those chemicals to the ocean, but new research also indicates that the rivers themselves are contributing to global carbon emissions. The scientists say that includes the Mississippi River and its tributaries such as the Missouri River. Olivia Dorothy is a restoration director for American Rivers, whose work focuses on the Mississippi. She says new research shows the organic material in the river accumulates, decomposes and is released into the air. “As we do things like dredging or any kind of disturbance, those methane bubbles come up to the surface and are emitted into the atmosphere," she said. Harvest Public Media reports that Dorothy's organization is now working to develop a model of annual methane emissions from the country’s rivers and streams.
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University of Kansas Selects Contractor for $335 Million Stadium Upgrade
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) — The University of Kansas has selected Turner Construction Company for the $335 million upgrade to KU's century-old football stadium. The modernization effort will include construction of a new hotel, a meeting hall and related amenities. Plans call for outfitting the 47,000-seat David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium with modern amenities, redesigned seating and club seats and suites. The stadium will also be renovated with expanded concession areas and restrooms, increased accessibility and an improved concourse.
According to the website Engineering News-Record, the project also includes construction of a convention space and related development, plus streetscape and infrastructure improvements. KU plans to fund the work in part with a $50-million Kansas Department of Commerce grant, $35 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds approved last year by state lawmakers and $150 million in donations.
Turner has already provided construction management services for 25 projects at KU, including 16 for Kansas Athletics. The work, scheduled for completion in September 2026, is expected to create 2,600 construction jobs.
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Once a Target of Pro-Trump Anger, the U.S. Archivist Is Prepping Her Agency for a Digital Flood
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The new National Archives leader whose nomination was swept into the partisan furor over the criminal documents-hoarding case against ex-President Donald Trump says she is now preparing the agency that's responsible for preserving historical records for an expected flood of digital documents.
Colleen Shogan, a political scientist with deep Washington ties, says the spotlight on the Archives during the past year shows that Americans are invested in preserving historical materials. After events in Kansas on Wednesday, she reiterated that she had no role in decisions made when the Trump investigation began and said the Archives depends upon the White House to deliver documents when a president leaves office.
“It provides an opportunity for us to discuss, quite frankly, why records are important,” Shogan said. “What we’re seeing is that Americans care about records. They want to have access to the records.”
Shogan was in the Midwest this week for visits to two presidential libraries. She went Wednesday to Dwight Eisenhower's library in the small town of Abilene on the rolling Kansas prairie, and on Thursday to Harry Truman's library in Independence, Missouri, in the Kansas City area.
The Archives is the custodian of cherished documents such as the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, but also billions of pages of other records and millions of maps, charts, photographs and films. An order from President Joe Biden will require U.S. government agencies — but not the White House — to provide their records to the Archives in a digital format starting at the end of June 2024.
“We are responsible for the preservation of those records and the storage of those records, but also sharing those records with the American people,” Shogan said in an interview by Google Meet from the Eisenhower library. "That’s a large task, and it's not getting any smaller, obviously.”
Biden nominated Shogan as archivist last year, but the U.S. Senate did not confirm her appointment until May. She was then an executive at the White House Historical Association, having served under both the Trump and Biden administrations. Before that, she worked at the Congressional Research Service, which provides nonpartisan analysis for lawmakers and their staff.
While the Archives generally has been staid and low-key, Shogan's nomination was not the first to create a stir. In 1995, then-President Bill Clinton picked former two-term Kansas Gov. John Carlin, a fellow Democrat, and the leaders of three groups of historians opposed the appointment, questioning whether he was qualified. Carlin held the post for a decade, and an archivists' society honored him near the end of his tenure.
But Biden nominated Shogan amid an investigation of Trump's handling of sensitive documents after he left office, which led to dozens of federal felony charges against the former president in Florida, home to his Mar-a-Lago estate. On Thursday, his valet pleaded not guilty to new charges in that case.
The Archives set the investigation in motion with a referral to the FBI after Trump returned 15 boxes of documents that contained dozens of records with classified markings.
Senate Republicans sought to portray Shogan as an actor for the political left, and during her first confirmation hearing Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, declared that the Archives was part of a “political weaponization” of government. She told senators that she would be nonpartisan in the job.
Under a 1978 law, documents from the White House belong to the National Archives when a president leaves office.
“But when a president is in office, until the term is is concluded, which is January 20th at noon, then those records are the property of the incumbent president,” Shogan said.
She said that while the Archives works with an administration as the end of a president's time in office nears, “We are relying once again upon the White House and those designated officials to be executing the transfer of those records.”
Shogan agrees with experts that the National Archives and Records Administration does not have enough money and staff but after only a few months on the job, she hasn't yet set a figure for what would be necessary.
“We want to make sure that NARA is able to continue its mission as it goes forward, as the large volume of records increases, both in the paper format and also in the digital explosion that we will be seeing in the near future,” she said.
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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. You can also follow KPR News on Twitter.