Kansas, Midwest Trapped Under Heat Dome
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — Kansas and other states in the central U.S. continue to bake under the hot sun and triple digit temperatures. Sweltering conditions will continue through Thursday night in eastern Kansas, but then a cold front is expected to move southward across the area. That cold front will return temperatures to the normal range for late August. That means it will still be quite warm, but not excessively hot.
An Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect for eastern Kansas until 10 pm Thursday.
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KC Public Schools Releasing Early All Week Amid Excessive Heat
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — Due to the excessive heat, many students in Kansas City, Missouri, are being released early from school. Kansas City Public Schools are releasing students early all week long. Release times are staggered and vary from school to school, but most students will be dismissed from class before the noon hour each day. WDAF TV reports that many of the buildings in the district don't have central air conditioning.
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Man Dies Following Shooting Outside Pittsburg Bar
PITTSBURG, Kan. (KPR) — Authorities in southeast Kansas are investigating a fatal shooting outside a bar in Pittsburg. Police say 36-year-old Justin E. Krogen, of Pittsburg, was shot and killed early Sunday morning (at 202 N. Locust Street). The victim's body was sent to Kansas City for an autopsy. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is assisting local police in the investigation. Investigators believe the shooting was an isolated incident that may have stemmed from an argument.
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KC Police Search for Driver After Fiery, Fatal Crash
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) — One person is dead, and another is injured in Kansas City, following a fiery fatal crash in the downtown loop. Police responded to a crash involving one vehicle in the westbound lanes of I-670 over Troost Avenue shortly after midnight Monday morning. Officers say the driver of the car lost control and swerved off the highway, hitting a piece of equipment owned by the Missouri Department of Transportation. The equipment was parked on the side of the highway. The car then traveled across all three lanes of the road and went off the other side of the highway. The car hit several concrete barriers. KCTV reports that the car caught fire. Officers say the passenger’s body was in the car when they arrived. The victim died at the scene. A second person in the car suffered critical injuries and is hospitalized. Investigators say the driver of the car left the scene. Police are now searching for that driver.
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KC Police Investigate Early Morning Homicide
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSHB) — Kansas City police are investigating a homicide in the 7000 block of Eastwood Trafficway. KSHB TV reports that police were called to the area early Monday morning. When they arrived, they found a man who had been shot lying in the parking lot of a laundromat. The man died at the scene.
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Kansas Families Set to Receive Around $7.4 Million in Food Assistance
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) — Kansas families will receive about $7.4 million to support grocery shopping during the new school year. State officials say the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Program will continue for another year. WIBW TV reports that the program provides financial aid to families who already get free or reduced-price school meals or have children under the age of six and receive regular Food Assistance benefits. (Learn more.)
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Paola Resident and World’s No. 1 Shotgun Trap Shooter Targets Olympic Return
PAOLA, Kan. (KPR) — The reigning world champion in shotgun trap shooting is a resident of Paola, Kansas. Derrick Mein, who grew up in the southeastern Kansas town of Girard, is a former high school baseball pitcher. These days, the 39-year-old is involved in a much different sport. But he says some of the same skills he used in baseball - like hand-eye coordination - come in handy in trap shooting. This week, Mein is defending his title at the world champonships in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in eastern Europe. After this week’s competition, Mein will compete at the Pan Am games in Chile this fall. If all goes well, he'll make his second trip to the Olympics. Those games will be held next year in Paris. (Read more.)
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Groups Submit Bids to Provide Abortion Alternatives in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (TCJ) — Kansas pregnancy centers are hoping to get a share of the $2 million fund established by the state to provide support for pregnant women and girls who might otherwise choose an abortion. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Kansas Treasurer's Office now has four options to run the Alternatives to Abortion Program. It was created by the Legislature as a way to support crisis pregnancy centers. Supporters say the centers provide assistance to pregnant women and girls, such as diapers and baby formula. But opponents say these centers discourage women from seeking abortions.
"Women in Kansas deserve as much compassionate help as possible when facing an unexpected pregnancy," said Danielle Underwood, a spokesperson for Kansans for Life, which lobbied for the funding. "We're pleased to see a number of organizations are interested in furthering a critical safety net and look forward to seeing which team will be selected." The Kansas Department of Administration released the list of bidders after the bidding event closed last week. The bidders include:
- Kansas Pregnancy Care Network, of Mission
- Life Alliance Kansas, of Lawrence
- Human Coalition, of Plano, Texas
- Real Alternatives, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
There is no timeline for when a contract might be finalized with the winning bidder, but it could take weeks or months. The Alternatives to Abortion Program was enacted by the Legislature through the budget by overriding Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's line-item veto.
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K-10 Could Get a Toll Lane in Effort to Ease Traffic
JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. (KCUR) — Officials in Johnson County are considering whether to add express toll lanes to a section of Kansas Highway 10. The roughly 18-mile stretch of K-10 that runs through Johnson County has long been considered in need of improvement. KCUR Radio reports that the highway sees some 80,000 cars a day and officials wonder whether express toll lanes may be one solution to easing traffic congestion. Another idea under consideration is widening the highway. While no immediate changes are in place, state and local leaders say they will continue to study several ideas.
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Video Shows 98-Year-Old Mother of Kansas Newspaper Publisher Upset Amid Raid
MARION, Kan. (AP) — Newly released video shows the 98-year-old mother of a Kansas newspaper publisher confronting police officers as they searched her home in a raid that has drawn national scrutiny, at one point demanding: “Get out of my house!”
Video released by the newspaper Monday shows Joan Meyer shouting at the six officers inside the Marion, Kansas, home she shared with her son, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer. Standing with the aid of a walker and dressed in a long robe or gown and slippers, she seems visibly upset.
“Get out of my house ... I don't want you in my house!” she said at one point. “Don't touch any of that stuff! This is my house!” she said at another.
The raids of the newspaper and the homes of the Meyers and a City Council member happened on Aug. 11, after a local restaurant owner accused the newspaper of illegally accessing information about her. Joan Meyer died a day later. Her son said he believes that the stress contributed to her death.
A prosecutor said later that there was insufficient evidence to justify the raids, and some of the seized computers and cellphones have been returned. Meanwhile, the initial online search of a state website that the police chief cited to justify the raid was legal, a spokesperson for the agency that maintains the site said Monday.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation continues to examine the newspaper’s actions.
Legal experts believe the police raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law shielding journalists from having to identify sources or to turn over unpublished material to law enforcement.
Two state lawmakers, Kansas House Democratic Leader Vic Miller, and Democratic state Rep. Jason Probst, a former newspaper reporter and editor in Hutchinson, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Marion, said they plan to pursue legislation dealing with search warrants next year but are looking for other ideas as well.
“I don’t want this to fade away until we’ve addressed it,” Miller said during a Statehouse news conference.
The raid on the Record put it and its hometown of around 1,900 residents about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City in the center of a debate about press freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Kansas’ Bill of Rights. It also exposed divisions in the town over local politics and the newspaper’s coverage of the community, and put an intense spotlight on Police Chief Gideon Cody, who led the raids after the newspaper had asked questions about his background.
“As far as Chief Cody goes, he can take his high horse he brought into this community and giddy-up on out of town,” Darvin Markley, a Marion resident, said during a Monday afternoon City Council meeting. “The man needs to go. He needs to be fired.”
Cody did not attend Monday's meeting or respond to email and cellphone messages seeking comment. He said in affidavits used to obtain the warrants that he had probable cause to believe that the newspaper and City Council member Ruth Herbel, whose home was also raided, had violated state laws against identity theft or computer crimes.
Both Herbel and the newspaper have said they received a copy of a document about the status of the restaurant owner’s license without soliciting it. The document disclosed the woman's license number and date of birth, which are required to check the status of a person’s license online and gain access to a more complete driving record. The police chief maintains they broke state laws to do that, while the newspaper and Herbel’s attorneys say they didn’t.
Herbel, the city's vice mayor, presided over the City Council's meeting Monday, its first since the raids. It lasted less than an hour, and Herbel announced that council members would not discuss the raids — something its agenda already had said in an all-caps statement in red followed by 47 exclamation points. She said the council will address the raids in a future meeting.
While Herbel said after the meeting that she agrees that Cody should resign, other City Council members declined to comment. Mike Powers, a retired district court judge who is the only candidate for mayor this fall, said it’s premature to make any judgments.
Meyer said the newspaper plans to file a lawsuit over the raid of its offices and his home.
The publisher has noted that among the items seized were a computer tower and personal cellphone of a reporter who was uninvolved in the dispute with the local restaurant owner — but who had been investigating why Cody left a Kansas City, Missouri, police captain’s job in April before becoming Marion police chief.
Video from a security camera overlooking the newsroom showed an officer reading the reporter her rights during the raid. Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper's attorney, said the action meant she wasn't free to leave and could have been jailed.
“People keep asking me, ‘Why haven’t you already sued?’” Rhodes said. “I don’t want to be rash like the police were. I’m doing a thorough investigation.”
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State Agency: Online Search Spurring Raid on Kansas Newspaper Was Legal
MARION, Kan. (AP) — The initial online search of a state website that led a central Kansas police chief to raid a local weekly newspaper was legal, a spokesperson for the agency that maintains the site said Monday, as the newspaper remains under investigation.
Earlier this month, after a local restaurant owner accused the Marion County Record of illegally accessing information about her, the Marion police chief obtained warrants to search the newspaper's offices and the home of its publisher, as well as the home of a City Council member who also accessed the driver’s license database.
The police chief led the August 11 raids and said in the affidavits used to obtain the warrants that he had probable cause to believe that the newspaper and the City Council member had violated state laws against identity theft or computer crimes.
Both the City Council member and the newspaper have said they received a copy of the document about the status of the restaurant owner's license without soliciting it. The document disclosed the restaurant's license number and her date of birth, information required to check the status of a person's license online and gain access to a more complete driving record. The police chief maintains they broke state laws to do that, while the newspaper and city council member Ruth Herbel's attorneys say they didn't.
The raid on the Record put it and its hometown of about 1,900 residents in the center of a debate about press freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Kansas' Bill of Rights. It also exposed divisions in the town over local politics and the newspaper's coverage of the community and put an intense spotlight on Police Chief Gideon Cody.
Department of Revenue spokesperson Zack Denney said it's legal to access the driver's license database online using information obtained independently. The department's Division of Vehicles issues licenses.
“That's legal,” he said. “The website is pubic facing, and anyone can use it.”
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation continues to probe the newspaper's actions. The KBI reports to state Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, while the Department of Revenue is under Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's authority.
The City Council in Marion, about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, was scheduled Monday afternoon to have its first regular meeting since the raids. The member whose home was raided, Ruth Herbel, was elected in 2019 and is the city's vice mayor.
The agenda says, in red: “COUNCIL WILL NOT COMMENT ON THE ONGOING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AT THIS MEETING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
But the agenda also includes a place for public comments, with speakers limited to three minutes.
Police seized computers, personal cellphones and a router from the newspaper and the publisher’s home and a laptop and iPhone from Herbel. Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer lived with his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, and blames the stress of the raid for her death the day after the raids.
The seized equipment was turned over to a computer forensics auditing firm hired by the newspaper’s attorney last week after the county attorney concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to justify its seizure. The auditor is checking the equipment to see whether materials were accessed or copied.
The Department of Revenue website allows a person to buy a driving record for $16.70 a copy — and that requires someone to again enter the person’s driver’s license number and date of birth while providing a name, address and phone number. Meyer said Zorn used her own information and did not impersonate the restaurant owner, Kari Newell.
The affidavit to search the newspaper’s offices noted that when a person submits a request for someone’s driving record, it lists 13 circumstances in which it is legal to obtain it. They include a person is seeking their own record or a business seeking it to verify personal information to help collect a debt.
The last item says: “I will use the information requested in a manner that is specifically authorized by Kansas law and is related to the operation of a motor vehicle or public safety.”
Legal experts believe the police raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law shielding journalists from having to identify sources or turn over unpublished material to law enforcement. Meyer has noted that among the items seized were a computer tower and personal cellphone of a reporter who was uninvolved in the dispute with the local restaurant owner — but who had been investigating why Cody left a Kansas City, Missouri, police captain's job in April before becoming Marion police chief.
“This isn’t going to go away. And it shouldn’t," said Genelle Belmas, an associate journalism professor at the University of Kansas. "There should be repercussions to this sort of wanton trampling of two very important laws, one state, one fed.”
Newell accused the newspaper at the council's last meeting August 7 of violating her privacy and illegally disseminating personal information about her, and she also disclosed a drunken driving offense in her past. According to the affidavits, she told Cody that she did not authorize anyone to access her information.
Newell also accused the newspaper of giving Herbel private information about her. Herbel, who has referred most questions to her attorney, said that was a “blatant lie.” Meyer also told the council that the newspaper did not give information to Herbel and noted it did not publish the information it obtained.
Herbel passed along her information about Newell to City Administrator Brogan Jones three days before the Council's August 7 vote to approve Newell's liquor license in an effort to prevent her from getting one, according to the affidavit for the search on Herbel's home. Jones then told Mayor David Mayfield about the information in an email, adding, “We as a city need to stay out of this ‘hear say’ or whatever else you want to call it."
Herbel's attorney, Drew Goodwin, said Herbel was attending to her official duties. He called the raid on her home “an egregious breach of the public trust.”
“I realize a lot of the focus is on journalists’ privileges here, and that’s, of course, appropriate because that’s at the heart of the First Amendment,” Goodwin said. “But the fact that my client — an elected official — got swept up in this constitutional violation and had her own rights violated in the process, it’s beyond the pale.”
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Kansas Congressional Delegation Optimistic About New Farm Bill
TOPEKA, Kan. (TCJ) — The Kansas congressional delegation remains optimistic about the fate of the new Farm Bill. The once-every-five-year Farm Bill contains key provisions for Kansas and other farm states. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that U.S. lawmakers face a September 30th deadline to pass a new Farm Bill. As that date draws closer, lawmakers are still trying to hammer out the final details. Some have suggested lawmakers may blow past the deadline before a deal can be reached. This will be the first time in years that former Kansas Senator Pat Roberts won't be involved in shepherding the measure through the legislative process.
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$138,000 in Stolen Merchandise Recovered at Kansas Home
JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. (JC Post) — Authorities have recovered more than $138,000 in stolen merchandise hiding inside a suburban Kansas City home. Earlier this year, the city of Shawnee received information that resulted in a months-long investigation into a retail theft ring. This week, investigators served a search warrant at a home where detectives recovered nearly 500 items believed to have been taken from multiple area retailers. The JC Post reports that the merchandise was largely made up of power tools. The case will be submitted to the Johnson County DA's. Police did not release the names of any suspects or any additional details.
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Former Respiratory Therapist in Missouri Sentenced in Connection with Patient Deaths
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri respiratory therapist who pleaded guilty in the deaths of two hospital patients has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. Jennifer Hall was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder but pleaded guilty in April to reduced first-degree involuntary manslaughter counts in the deaths of 75-year-old Fern Franco and 37-year-old David Wesley Harper. She also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted second-degree assault. KCTV-TV reports that Hall was sentenced Friday. Franco and Harper were among nine patients who died at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe over several months in 2002 in what charging documents describe as "medically suspicious" events.
"A sentence 20 years in the making," Livingston County Prosecuting Attorney Adam Warren said in a statement. He noted that Hall will eventually be eligible for parole. "But for now, we all sleep better knowing she is behind bars," he said. From December 2001, when Hall started working at the hospital, until she was placed on administrative leave the following May, there also were 18 cardiac arrests or "Code Blue" events, up from an average of one a year before then.
The case was revived after an analysis of Franco's tissue samples found morphine and a powerful muscle relaxant used in anesthesia in her system. Neither drug was prescribed or ordered for her by her doctors, investigators said.
Some staff at the hospital believed Hall was responsible because of her proximity to the stricken patients, her access to deadly pharmaceuticals, and because she notified staff of every patient's cardiac emergency, according to court documents. Hall had previously denied any involvement in the deaths.
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Royals Unveil Proposed Ballpark and Entertainment District Plans for 2 Locations
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals unveiled plans for two dramatically different locations for a replacement to the aging Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday, calling them on equal footing even as the team-issued date for a decision looms next month.
The first location, called the East Village, would consist of a ballpark anchoring a 27-acre development just blocks away from the thriving Power & Light District, where T-Mobile Center already exists. The second location is a 90-acre tract across the Missouri River in Clay County, where the Royals would have more ability to develop commercial and residential properties.
Both plans were produced by Populous, the Kansas City-based sports architecture giant, which has been responsible for renovation or construction of more than 20 stadiums currently in use across Major League Baseball.
“We knew we were engaged in a generational decision. The K has been the home to the Royals for 50-plus years — been a great home — but it's time for a new one,” said Brooks Sherman, the Royals' president of business operations. “It's actually incredible that we have these two locations to even consider as a future home and sustain ourselves as a Major League city.”
The Royals announced plans to leave Kauffman Stadium about two years ago. But progress has been slow in deciding on a path forward, given the myriad factors involved in the proposed $2 billion-plus ballpark and entertainment district.
The Royals have long shared with the Kansas City Chiefs sales tax revenue from Jackson County for the upkeep of Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums, both of which reside in the Truman Sports Complex. But while the Royals intend to build elsewhere, the preference of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt is to remain at Arrowhead Stadium and renovate the existing NFL venue.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the Royals and Chiefs are both tied to a lease with Jackson County that does not expire until 2031. If the Royals decide on the downtown location, they would remain in Jackson County and the teams could seek to extend the lease; if they move to Clay County, some tricky politicking and negotiation would be necessary.
Regardless of the site, Sherman reiterated that the Royals are prepared to spend about $1 billion in private funds on the project, and they intend to move into their new stadium for opening day of the 2028 season.
“That's part of the equation is to ensure we're negotiating properly and having the proper back and forth with each set of governing bodies — the elected leaders — and we're doing that with both Clay County and Jackson County,” Sherman said.
The downtown site, which has long been viewed as the frontrunner, would lean into commercial and business possibilities to help drive the revenue that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said is necessary for a small-market club to compete.
The proposed stadium, which Populous founder Earl Santee warned is not a final design, features swooping roof lines that are reminiscent of Kauffman Stadium. There is a homage to the fountains for which the existing park is known in right-center field and what Santee called “one of the most intimate seating bowls in all of baseball.”
Yet the stadium comes with drawbacks. Ingress and egress is already a challenge in the downtown corridor, and parking could be difficult, particularly for day games when existing parking is already taken up by those working in the area.
The location in North Kansas City would continue the revitalization of what was once a rundown industrial neighborhood.
The ballpark is meant to feel more “gritty,” Santee said, to better fit within the existing area. But a large number of buildings would be razed to make room for hotels and conference centers, residential buildings and parking pavilions, and a large park and lake that could serve as a year-round gathering space. There is even a proposed 4,000-seat performance venue.
Imran Aukhil with the economic advisory firm HR&A said both projects would have about a $320 million impact on the region, not including the construction itself, which would spur at least 20,000 jobs and $2.8 billion in total economic output.
As the late-September date for a decision nears, the Royals are continuing to negotiate with political and business leaders involved with both proposed locations. They also are soliciting feedback from fans, many of whom have been lukewarm about the prospect of building a new ballpark for a team that is once again on pace to lose more than 100 games.
“We've got work to do on a number of fronts," Sherman said, “to get to our decision on this.”
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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.