UAW Expands Strike to 38 Locations in 20 States, Stellantis and GM are targeted
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers (UAW) has expanded its strikes against automakers to 38 locations in 20 states. The president of the United Auto Workers says the union will expand its strike against major automakers by walking out of 38 General Motors and Stellantis facilities in 20 states. The UAW has targeted distribution centers, not production plants. The three strikes that began at plants Ford, GM and Stellantis plants one week ago will go on, the union said. Ford was spared additional strikes because the company has met some of the union's demands during negotiations over the past week, said UAW President Shawn Fain.
The union is pointing to the companies' huge recent profits as it seeks wage increases of 36% over four years. The companies have offered a little over half that amount. The UAW has other demands, including a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay and a restoration of traditional pension plans for newer workers. The companies say they can't afford to meet the union's demands because they need to invest profits in a costly transition from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles.
The UAW's contract with the automakers expired at midnight on September 14, and workers walked out of a Ford assembly plant near Detroit, a GM factory in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Jeep plant run by Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio. The initial strike has involved about 13,000 of the union's 146,000 members. Fain said earlier this week he would call on workers at more plants to strike unless there was significant progress in contract negotiations with the carmakers. Bargaining continued Thursday, although neither side reported any breakthroughs, and they remained far apart on wage increases.
Until today (FRI), the strike had involved fewer than 13,000 of the union's 146,000 members. The companies have laid off a few thousand more, saying some factories -including the GM plant in Kansas City, Kansas - are running short on parts because of the strike.
Still, the impact is not yet being felt on car lots around the country – it will probably take a few weeks before the strike causes a significant shortage of new vehicles, according to analysts. Prices could rise even sooner, however, if the prospect of a prolonged strike triggers panic buying.
The union is seeking pay raises of 36% over four years, an end to lower pay scales for new workers, and most boldly, a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay. The car companies say they can't afford the union's demands despite huge profits because they need to invest in the transformation to electric vehicles.
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Kansas GOP Leaders on Statewide Tour to Promote Flat State Income Tax
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas Republican Senate President Ty Masterson and Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins are touring the state to promote their plan for a flat state income tax rate. They say their plan to implement the same tax rate for all Kansans regardless of income will save everybody money. WIBW TV reports that the pair were in Topeka Thursday to speak to the Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity. House Republicans plan to introduce their tax plan during the next legislative session. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly vetoed legislation for the tax rate last session, citing concerns it would benefit wealthy Kansans over others and cost the state more. Kelly says her position won’t change on the rate proposal, but says she has offered to negotiate various tax cuts with Republican leaders.
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U.S. Senator Jerry Moran Among Lawmakers Introducing Food Waste Reduction Proposal
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a proposal designed to cut food waste in half by 2030.
The lawmakers submitted their legislation on Thursday and said it would improve collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and regional waste prevention and food recovery organizations. The lawmakers said the proposal would also support new technological innovations and bolster the federal government's approach to food waste.
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine and Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York proposed the bill in the U.S. House, and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas did so in the U.S. Senate. Pingree said an estimated 30% to 40% of the U.S. food supply is discarded every year, and that is both bad for the environment and a contributor to food insecurity.
Pingree said the proposal "would strengthen the federal government’s approach to food loss by tackling waste in every step of our food system - from prevention research and education to composting and donation programs.”
The proposal would also establish an Office of Food Loss and Waste within the USDA.
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Massive, Multivortex Tornado Rips Through Northwest Kansas; No Injuries or Major Damage Reported
NORTON COUNTY, Kan. (Hays Post/Accuweather) — A massive, multivortex tornado swirled through the plains of northwest Kansas Thursday evening but caused no injuries nor serious damage. The tornado touched down near Norton. Parts of northwest Kansas also received torrential rainfall and baseball sized hail. According to the Hays Post and Accuweather.com, dozens of strong storms were reported from Kansas to Texas. The menacing storms were part of a multi-day severe weather event unfolding across the central U.S.
Norton County received more than two inches of rain Thursday night, prompting flash flood warnings for Norton and nearby communities. Accuweather meteorologists predict a stormy weekend for much of central and eastern Kansas, as well as western Missouri.
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Two Missing Kansas Women Found Dead in Colorado
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Emporia police report that two missing women have been found dead following an exhaustive search over the past 10 days. The Emporia Police Department said in a press release that 44-year-old Linda L. Estrada and 39-year-old Amy R. Ford were found dead in a rural area in eastern Colorado on Wednesday. KSNT TV reports that the investigation into the pair’s disappearance began on Monday, September 11 after a family member reported Estrada as missing. Ford was reported missing shortly afterward. Kansas investigators spent more than a week in Colorado using K9s, airplanes, drones and ground searches to locate the women. Emporia Police say a person of interest related to the case is in custody on charges unrelated to the investigation into the missing women. Authorities have not identified the person of interest.
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Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Reveals Cancer Diagnosis
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) - Kansas Board of Regents Chair Jon Rolph has revealed that he is battling cancer. KSNT TV reports that Rolph told board members about his diagnosis at a monthly Board of Regents meeting Thursday. He shared that he and Kansas State University president Richard Linton are both attending board meetings virtually, as they go through cancer treatment. Linton said he was diagnosed with throat and tongue cancer last month. The meeting closed with board members commending Rolph for his leadership.
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Kansas Cold Case Detectives Connect Two 1990s Killings to the Same Suspect
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been charged with two counts of murder after detectives in a newly formed cold case unit connected him to the deaths of two women nearly three decades ago. DNA evidence led to the arrest of 52-year-old Gary Dion Davis, Kansas City Police Chief Karl Oakman and Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said Wednesday. Davis is jailed on a $500,000 bond for two counts of second-degree murder, the Kansas City Star reported. Davis was a long-haul truck driver in the 1990s. He is accused of killing 26-year-old Christina King, who was found beaten to death behind an abandoned building on Christmas Day in 1996. He also is charged with fatally stabbing Pearl Barnes, whose body was found in a vacant house a month earlier.
Davis does not yet have a listed attorney. Two phone numbers listed for him were no longer in service, and a third had a full mailbox and wasn't accepting messages on Thursday. The circumstances behind the deaths are still being investigated, but police said they do not believe that Davis knew either of the women. Detectives are trying to determine if Davis could be responsible for other crimes. The Kansas City Kansas Police Department's cold case unit began operation in January 2022 and consists of three full-time detectives. Oakman said the department has “a lot of unsolved cases” and already had identified suspects in 11 homicide cases. "So, it may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. In fact, it may not be this year. But there’s gonna be a time,” Oakman said. “You may be in a drive-thru line. You may be at the grocery store. We’re gonna eventually get you.”
Authorities also announced that two other unrelated cases were recently solved.
A 66-year-old inmate was charged in May after he confessed to killing 16-year-old Dion Estell, who was found shot to death in a creek bed in July 1997. The inmate, who was convicted of a 1998 killing and is now in hospice care, confessed to cold case detectives because he wanted closure for Estell's family. The oldest case cleared involved the death of an hours-old baby girl found in a dumpster behind an apartment complex in November 1976. DNA evidence led detectives to the mother of the child in 2022. The woman accused her grandmother of taking the baby away shortly after she gave birth. The grandmother, who has since died, was identified as the primary suspect.
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Report: Kansas Graduates Fleeing State for Better-Paying Jobs
TOPEKA, Kan. (KMUW/KNS) — Kansas universities are not on track to fill the state’s workforce demands because college graduates are finding higher-paying jobs in surrounding states. A report presented to the Kansas Board of Regents shows that the state needs to produce 34,000 more degrees over the next decade to meet Kansas workforce demands. Donna Ginther is an economist with the Institute for Policy and Social Research. She says engineers in Kansas earn $15,000 a year less than engineers in Texas, even adjusted for the cost of living. “Kansas pays low wages, right? And, you know, if businesses want the best and brightest, you have to pay for it," she said. The report shows more Kansas graduates moving to Texas, Colorado and Missouri. The report says the number of graduates who stay in Kansas would need to increase by 26% to fill workforce demands through 2030.
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Retired Topeka Teacher Wins Big on Wheel of Fortune
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - A retired Topeka school won more than $28,000 on an episode of the Wheel of Fortune which aired last night. WIBW TV reports that Dr. Beryl New fulfilled a lifelong dream by competing on the popular, long-running TV game show. Dr. New won $28,400 in cash and prizes. She said she would spend her winnings on her 12 grandchildren. Dr. New retired in April an administrator with Topeka Public Schools after 35 years in education as a teacher and administrator. She graduated from Topeka High School in 1970, then earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Washburn University. She then went to earn her Doctorate at the University of Kansas. Topeka Public Schools shared Dr. New’s upcoming appearance via Facebook earlier this week and wished her luck. The episode featuring episode was viewed by millions Thursday night on CBS.
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Kansas State Extension Service Recruiting Help to Tag Monarch Butterflies
TOPEKA, Kan. (TCJ) - Monarch butterflies are back in the skies across Kansas on their biannual migration. Kansas is one of 10 states listed as critical in supporting the monarch migration as it creates a corridor of habitats throughout the Midwest. The Kansas State Research and Extension says that during the peak migration period, from September to October, the Monarchs make their multigenerational migration south through Kansas. The Topeka Capital Journal reports that the butterflies migrate from their northern nesting grounds in the U.S. and Canada in the fall to their southern hibernation spots in Mexico and reverse the trip in the spring. Conservationists say monarch populations are declining due to a changing climate and human-caused environmental factors. Another of the reasons behind the decline is diminishing supplies of the monarchs' main food source — milkweed. Area residents who would like to help catch and tag the butterflies are urged to attend the Monarch Butterfly Education Class at the Kansas Museum of History. The Topeka Zoo will be presenting the class from 5:30-7:30 pm September 24, 26 and 28.
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Virtual State Job Fair Highlights Hundreds of Open State Agency Positions
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — Kansas jobseekers are encouraged to attend the upcoming state agency virtual job fair next week. This month’s virtual fair, hosted by KANSASWORKS, will feature employment opportunities available across the state’s 98 government agencies. Currently, there are more than 700 vacancies across Kansas. The virtual job fair will be held from 8 am to 5 pm Wednesday, September 27. "These are good-paying jobs with great benefits," said Kansas Lieutenant Governor and Commerce Secretary David Toland.
Registration is required to participate in the event, regardless of previous participation. The Virtual Job Fair portal features a jobseeker training video, a list of participating employers, and channels for attendees to register and log in. Jobseekers are encouraged to dress professionally, as employers might request to engage in a video interview.
Candidates can participate through any digital device, but it is highly recommended to use a computer to be most effective during the job fairs. If a jobseeker does not have access to a personal computer, they are available at KANSASWORKS offices as well as local libraries throughout the state. Any individual with a disability may request accommodations by contacting their nearest workforce center at (877) 509-6757 prior to the event.
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This Is What It's Like to Maintain the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal
KANSAS CITY NATIONAL SECURITY CAMPUS, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. will spend more than $750 billion over the next decade to revamp nearly every part of its aging nuclear defenses. Officials say they simply can't wait any longer — some systems and parts are more than 50 years old. For now, it's up to young military troops and government technicians across the U.S. to maintain the existing bombs and related components. The jobs are exacting and often require a deft touch. That's because many of the maintenance tasks must be performed by hand. The Associated Press was granted rare access to nuclear missile bases and weapons production facilities to see how technicians keep the arsenal working while starting the government's biggest nuclear overhaul since the Cold War. This is how they do it and who they are:
SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL
Because the U.S. no longer conducts explosive nuclear tests, scientists are not exactly sure how aging warhead plutonium cores affect detonation. For more common parts, like the plastics and metals and wiring inside each detonator, there are also questions about how the years spent in warheads might affect their integrity. So, workers at the nation's nuclear labs and production sites spend a lot of time stressing and testing parts to make sure they're safe. At the Energy Department's Kansas City National Security Campus, where warheads are maintained and made, technicians put components through endless tests. They heat weapons parts to extreme temperatures, drop them at speeds simulating a plane crash, shoot them at high velocity out of testing guns and rattle and shake them for hours on end. The tests are meant to simulate real world scenarios — from hurtling toward a target to being carted in an Air Force truck over a long, rutty road. Technicians at the Los Alamos National Lab conduct similar evaluations, putting plutonium under extreme stress, heat and pressure to ensure it is stable enough to blow up as intended. Just like the technicians in Kansas City, the ones in Los Alamos closely examine the tested parts and radioactive material to see if they caused any damage.
RELYING ON OLD BLUEPRINTS
The lack of explosive tests — banned since the George H.W. Bush administration by an international treaty — has also meant that the scientists have been forced to rely on warhead designs that were created many decades ago. That's because each of those original designs had been certified, and the best way to certify a weapon works as designed is to blow it up. Changing even one component introduces uncertainty. Further complicating matters — because the weapons are so old — many of those original manufacturers and contractors have gone out of business. That has forced the nation's nuclear labs to reverse engineer old parts, such as a peroxide that was used to treat warhead parts, but is no longer in production. So lab technicians are working to reinvent it. Re-engineering parts is getting easier with advances in computer-aided design and 3D printing. Kansas City technicians are experimenting with 3D printers to create some warhead parts, such as a micro-honeycombed, rubbery layer that will serve as a cushion for a warhead radar systems.
THE WORKERS ARE YOUNGER THAN THE WARHEADS
It's not unusual to see a 50-year-old warhead guarded or maintained by someone just out of high school, and ultimate custody of a nuclear weapon can fall on the shoulders of a service member who's just 23. That is what happened on a recent afternoon in Montana at Malmstrom Air Force Base, where Senior Airman Jacob Deas signed a paper assuming responsibility for an almost 3,000-pound Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile warhead, as it was lifted out of the Bravo-9 silo and escorted back to base for work. A sea swell of government retirements has meant that experience level in the civilian nuclear workforce has shifted dramatically. At the Kansas City campus, for example, just about 6% of the workforce has been there 30 years or more — and over 60% has been at the facility for five years or less. That change has meant more women have joined the workforce, too. In the cavernous hallways between Kansas City's secured warhead workrooms are green and white nursing pods with a greeting: "Welcome mothers." At Los Alamos, workers' uniform allowance now covers sports bras. Why? Because underwire bras were not compatible with the secured facilities' many layers of metal detection and radiation monitoring.
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Big 12 Newcomers Play 1st League Games. BYU Takes 7-Game Win Streak to Kansas
UNDATED (AP) — Big 12 newcomers BYU, Cincinnati and UCF all play their first league games this weekend. BYU takes a seven-game winning streak into its conference opener at Kansas. The Jayhawks have consecutive 3-0 starts for the first time since 1991 and 1992. UCF is also 3-0 going into its game at Kansas State. The Knights lead the nation with nearly 618 total yards and are second at 299 yards rushing per game. Kansas State has allowed only 50 yards rushing a game. Cincinnati is home against 16th-ranked Oklahoma. Sooners quarterback Dillon Gabriel has completed a national-best 82.5% of his passes and has 11 TD passes.
GAME OF THE WEEK
BYU (3-0) at Kansas (3-0). BYU goes into its first Big 12 game on a seven-game winning streak while the Jayhawks have consecutive 3-0 starts for the first time since 1991-92. It was during that time that the Jayhawks and Cougars had their only previous meeting, in the 1992 Aloha Bowl that Kansas won 23-20. After falling behind 14-0 at Arkansas last Saturday, the Cougars scored 21 in a row, then allowed 17 before scoring 17 more to give the Big 12 its second win in a Southeastern Conference stadium this season (Texas won at Alabama). It was the first time BYU overcame a 14-point deficit to win under coach Kalani Sitake, in his eighth season at his alma mater. The last loss for Kansas was in last season's Liberty Bowl against the Razorbacks, 55-53 in triple OT.
BEST MATCHUP
RJ Harvey, Johnny Richardson and UCF's running game against Kansas State's league-best rushing defense. The Wildcats (2-1) have allowed only 50 yards per game, 1.8 yards per carry and one rushing TD. Even without injured dual-threat quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, the Knights (3-0) have averaged 299.3 yards rushing per game and are tied with a league-best 10 rushing touchdowns. They are the national leader with 617.7 total yards per game, and second in rushing. Harvey and Richardson are both in the Big 12's top eight, running for more than 70 yards per game and 6 yards per carry.
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Jayhawks Sell Out Stadium for BYU Game
LAWRENCE. Kan. (KPR) — The Kansas Jayhawks will play football in front of a full house in Lawrence this Saturday. The game against BYU is sold out. It’s the fourth sellout for the KU football program since Lance Leipold took over as head coach and the first sell-out since October 8, 2022. David Booth Memorial Stadium holds just over 47,000. Kick-off Saturday is set for 2:30 pm.
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Struggling Bears Head to Arrowhead Stadium to Face Defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The struggling Bears are headed to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Chiefs on Sunday. The Bears will be without a defensive coordinator following Alan Williams' surprising and abrupt resignation and their offense has been embroiled in controversy after quarterback Josh Fields blamed coaching for his "robotic" play the first two weeks. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are starting to hit their stride after their Week 2 win in Jacksonville. All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones ended his holdout and was back to his disruptive self, and tight end Travis Kelce was back on the field after missing the season opener with a knee injury.
The Kansas City Chiefs appeared to fix many of their Week 1 problems last week in Jacksonville. But they still had too many penalties and too many turnovers. And the offense was still trying to hit its stride. Yet those issues seem like mere nuisances compared to what's going on in Chicago these days. As the Bears prepare to visit the Chiefs on Sunday, they are without a defensive coordinator and their offense is embroiled in controversy at the quarterback position. The Bears (0-2) are nearly two-TD underdogs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, as they try to snap a 12-game losing streak dating to last season.
It's not as if the Chiefs (1-1) are humming along perfectly, especially on offense. Last week, the Chiefs turned the ball over three times and committed 12 penalties for 94 yards in their 17-9 victory over the Jaguars.
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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.