Johnson County Health Officials Testing Hundreds of Olathe NW Students for TB
OLATHE, Kan. (KNS) – Johnson County health officials began testing hundreds of students at Olathe Northwest High School for tuberculosis Thursday after confirming an active case earlier this month. Dr. Dana Hawkinson, the medical director of infection and prevention at the University of Kansas Health System, told the Kansas News Service that it can take weeks after exposure to test positive so known contacts will have to be tested twice. Tuberculosis can lie dormant in the body for decades, so if anyone tests positive the health department will have to investigate to try to find where they were exposed. Results from Thursday’s tests are expected in about two weeks.
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Kansas Attorney General Seeks to End to School Funding Lawsuit
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas's Republican attorney general asked the state's highest court to reward the GOP-controlled Legislature for following through on a decade's worth of court-mandated education funding increases by making it harder for local school districts to force higher spending in the future.
Attorney General Kris Kobach's office wants the Kansas Supreme Court to close a lawsuit that four school districts filed against the state in 2010. The request was filed this week by Tony Powell, a former state Court of Appeals judge who now serves as Kobach's solicitor general.
The state Supreme Court issued seven rulings from 2013 through 2019 requiring the Legislature to increase funding for public schools and to make its formula for distributing its funds fairer to poorer areas. The justices said in 2019 that the Legislature had complied with their directives, but they kept the case open to ensure that lawmakers fulfilled their promises.
The state expects to provide $4.9 billion in aid to its 286 local school districts during the current school year, which would be about 39% more than the $3.5 billion it provided for the 2013-14 school year. Powell noted that the court approved a plan four years ago to phase in a series of funding increases through the previous school year and wrote that “all funding has been phased in successfully.”
Kansas has been in and out of school funding lawsuits for several decades, with lawmakers promising increases in spending and then backing off when the economy soured and state revenues became tight.
With the lawsuit still open and in the state Supreme Court's hands, the school districts can go directly to the justices each year if they don't believe lawmakers have provided enough money. If the case were closed, districts would have to file a new lawsuit in district court that likely would take several years to reach the state Supreme Court.
Democratic Governor Laura Kelly opposes Kobach's request. Spokesperson Brianna Johnson described it as an “attempt to allow the Legislature to remove funding from our public schools.” She also noted that it came the same week that state education officials reported improvements in scores on standardized exams, including the best math scores since 2017. She said, "It makes no sense to undo all the progress.”
The state constitution says lawmakers “shall make suitable provision for finance” of the state’s “educational interests.” The state Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the language requires legislators to provide enough money and distribute it fairly enough to finance a suitable education for every child.
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New Wind-Power Transmission Line Will Carry Energy from Kansas and Increase Energy Capacity for Missouri
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri regulators on Thursday gave the go-ahead for a multistate wind-energy power line to provide the equivalent of four nuclear power plants' worth of energy to Missouri consumers. At issue is the Grain Belt Express, a power line that will carry wind energy from Kansas across Missouri and Illinois before hooking into a power grid in Indiana that serves eastern states.
Invenergy Transmission, the Chicago-based company attempting to build the Grain Belt Express, has proposed expanding the high-voltage power line's capacity after years of complaints from Missouri farmers and lawmakers worried that the line would trample property rights without providing much service to Missouri residents.
Under the new plan, approved 4-1 by Missouri's Public Service Commission, Grain Belt Express plans to bring as much as 2,500 megawatts of power to Missouri. Previously, state utility regulators approved a line that would have brought only 500 megawatts of energy to the state.
Investment in the project, which would stretch about 800 miles from Kansas to Indiana on a route crossing Missouri and Illinois, is expected to soar to about $7 billion, Invenergy said.
Various municipal utilities in Missouri have long intended to buy power from the project, but now five times as much electricity will be delivered to the state — rising from 500 to 2,500 megawatts — compared to earlier plans.
“The approval of this transmission line and the ability to bring five times as much power to Missouri as originally planned will not only help us tap a significant source of domestic energy, but it will also help improve reliability and affordability for the Missouri business community,” said Ray McCarty, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, in a statement.
The project will help unlock $7.5 billion in energy cost savings in Missouri and Illinois, according to its developers.
Some farmers who don’t want high-power transmission lines on their land have fought the project for years.
Commissioner Kayla Hahn, the only Missouri regulator to vote against the amended proposal Thursday, said she's worried there are not enough safeguards for farmers and other property owners, such as how compensation for damaged crops is handled. “I want this line to benefit everyone to the maximum extent practicable,” Hahn said. “I don't think this order goes far enough.”
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Kansas Man Found Dead in Home After Being Fired Upon by Police
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man was found shot to death inside a suburban Kansas City home after being fired upon by a police officer. The shooting happened late Tuesday in Olathe, Kansas. Police on Thursday identified the man killed as 33-year-old Dane Laing, of Olathe. The Kansas City Star reports that police have not yet said if the officer who fired at Laing struck him. Officers were investigating a report of an assault when Laing allegedly ran past them with a gun and tried to get inside a neighbor's home. An officer fired at him. Laing was later found dead inside the home.
Sgt. John Moncayo, an Olathe police spokesperson, said further information about Laing's death was not available. The Johnson County Critical Incident Investigation Team, which reviews instances of the use of deadly force, is investigating.
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Federal and State Officials Collaborate on Quivira Refuge Water Rights Dispute
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kansas Department of Agriculture will work together to resolve a fight over water rights in central Kansas. The Rattlesnake Creek Basin provides water for the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (QNWR) as well as local farmers and ranchers. The refuge holds senior water rights over local farmers. It’s an important way station for migrating birds like ducks and geese. Federal officials wanted Kansas to ensure the refuge gets its share of dwindling water supplies by forcing farmers cut back on irrigation.
But Democratic Governor Laura Kelly opposed the request because she said it would hurt the state's economy. Kelly and Republican Kansas Senator Jerry Moran had both called on the agencies to work together to find a viable solution rather than force the state to take action. The water dispute has been raging in Stafford County, home of the QNWR, for decades.
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Kansas House Committee Wants to Create New Entrepreneur Office Position
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) – A Kansas House committee wants to establish a new administrative office to help new businesses in the state. The House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee is considering a bill that would create the Office of Entrepreneurship in the state’s Department of Commerce. The office would work with entrepreneurs to improve state policy and programs to help startups grow. Supporters also propose policy changes, like eliminating business license fees and suspending regulations for those businesses. Jason Grill of Right to Start, a group advocating for the bill, says supporting new businesses will boost the state’s economy. Some of the proposals have bipartisan support. The committee plans to work on the bill during the next legislative session.
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Class Action Lawsuit Filed over Wichita Chemical Spill
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS/KMUW) — A class-action lawsuit filed by Wichita residents living near a Union Pacific rail yard alleges they suffered lost property values because of an underground chemical spill. Many Wichita residents learned about the chemical spill at a Union Pacific railyard last year. A toxic chemical contaminated about three miles of groundwater underneath neighborhoods in northeast Wichita.
The lawsuit alleges that the company’s negligence in handling and cleaning up the toxic chemicals decreased property values in the area neighborhoods. Chris Nidle is one of the lawyers who filed the suit. "Who wants to buy a house that is on this plume when you can buy one three blocks away that goes to the same schools and has the same access to community but doesn’t live on this plume?," he said. In a statement, Union Pacific wrote that it has worked closely with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to clean up the site since 1998, when the state identified its rail yard as the contamination source.
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Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing 'Wizard of Oz' Ruby Red Slippers from Minnesota Museum
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man charged in the museum heist of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in the “The Wizard of Oz” pleaded guilty Friday in a deal that could keep him out of prison due to his failing health, but only cleared up some of the mystery that dates back 18 years.
Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of a major artwork. The shoes were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and recovered by the FBI in 2018.
No one was arrested until Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, was charged this year. During his change-of-plea hearing in federal court in Duluth, Martin said he used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. He said he thought the slippers had real rubies and that he had hoped to sell the gems. But when a fence told him the rubies were glass, he said he got rid of the slippers.
Martin did not say how he got rid of them or to whom he gave them, leaving the slippers' whereabouts during the ensuing years a mystery. He did say that the theft had nothing to do with trying to get insurance money, as some have speculated.
“Terry has no idea where they were and how they were recovered," Martin’s attorney, Dane DeKrey, said afterward. "His involvement was that two-day period in 2005.”
Under the plea agreement, DeKrey and federal prosecutor Matt Greenley recommended that Martin not face any time behind bars because of his age and poor health. Martin, who appeared in court in a wheelchair with supplemental oxygen, has advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and struggles to breathe, DeKrey said. The proposed sentence would let Martin die at home, the attorney said.
“He's basically slowly suffocating to death,” DeKrey said.
Martin, who has a 1988 conviction for receiving stolen goods, remained free on his own recognizance after the hearing. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief federal judge for Minnesota, ordered a presentence investigation and said he'd likely schedule the sentencing for about 2 1/2 months from now.
Schiltz told Martin that he isn't legally bound by the sentencing recommendation by the defense and prosecution. According to DeKrey, the nonbinding federal sentencing guidelines recommended eight to 10 years in similar cases.
The U.S. attorney's office said it would have no comment until after Martin is sentenced.
Garland wore several pairs of ruby slippers during filming of the classic 1939 musical, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain. The stolen slippers were insured for $1 million, but federal prosecutors put the current market value at about $3.5 million.
The FBI said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and said he could help get them back. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis. The FBI has never disclosed how it tracked down the slippers, which remain in the agency's custody.
The slippers were on loan to the museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw when Martin stole them. Three other pairs that Garland wore in the movie are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector.
Several rewards were offered over the years in hopes of figuring out who stole the slippers, which were key props in the 1939 movie. Garland’s character, Dorothy, has to click the slippers' heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home,” to return home to Kansas.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969.
The Judy Garland Museum, which is in the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard of Oz memorabilia.
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Kansas Motorists Urged to Lookout for Deer
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — The Kansas Department of Transportation is urging motorists to be on the lookout for deer. Vehicle-deer crashes can happen any day of the year on Kansas roadways, but these crashes greatly increase from now until the end of the year because of deer breeding season. November is typically the peak time for such collisions.
Across the state, 37% of all single-vehicle crashes in 2022 involved a collision with a deer. The Kansas Department of Transportation reports six people were killed and nearly 600 people were injured in collisions with deer in 2022. Roadway safety officials suggest drivers be especially watchful at dawn and dusk when deer are more active.
Other safety tips:
- If you see one deer, expect others, as deer seldom travel alone.
- Be alert and reduce speeds near wooded areas or green spaces and near water sources such as streams and ponds.
- Deer crossing signs show areas where high numbers of vehicle-deer collisions have occurred in the past; but they can happen on any roadway, including city streets.
- Do not swerve to avoid hitting a deer. Motorists could then veer into oncoming traffic, run off the road, hit objects or overturn.
- Use bright headlights when there is no oncoming traffic and scan for the reflective eyes of deer.
If a collision occurs, move the vehicle to the roadway’s shoulder. Then, if possible, call law enforcement – KHP dispatch at *47, the Kansas Turnpike at *KTA or local law enforcement at 911. Put the vehicle’s hazard lights on, whether it is light or dark outside.
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Mahomes Throws TD Pass, Kelce Has Big Game as Chiefs Beat Broncos 19-8
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 306 yards and a touchdown, Harrison Butker kicked four field goals, and the Kansas City Chiefs held off the Denver Broncos 19-8. It was the Chiefs' 16th straight win over their longtime AFC West rivals. Travis Kelce had nine catches for 124 yards for Kansas City with Taylor Swift again cheering him on from an Arrowhead Stadium suite. The Broncos' Russell Wilson was held to 95 yards passing with a touchdown and a pair of interceptions. Denver has not beaten the Chiefs since September 17, 2015, the year Peyton Manning led the Broncos to the Super Bowl.
"Luckily for us," Mahomes said, "our defense is playing great." So great that Mahomes' lone touchdown pass and Harrison Butker's four field goals were enough to squeak out a 19-8 victory over the Broncos, whose own woeful offense could only manage 197 yards behind a shaky performance from Russell Wilson. "We have guys that are starters on other teams that are trying to find a way on the football field, and when they get on the field, they're making plays," Mahomes said of the Kansas City defense. "And they're playing with confidence." Mahomes finished with 306 yards passing and an interception, and a big chunk of his production went to Travis Kelce, who had nine catches for 124 yards with Taylor Swift again cheering him on from an Arrowhead Stadium suite.
SWIFT IN THE HOUSE
Swift watched Kelce and the Chiefs for the third time Thursday night. The two began a relationship a few weeks ago, when he invited Swift to a Chiefs game after failing to meet her during her Eras Tour. Swift flew in from Los Angeles, where she walked the red carpet on Wednesday night for the premiere of her concert film.
SACK SITUATION
Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had a sack in his eighth straight regular-season game, which trails only his own 11-game streak in 2018 for the longest in franchise history. With at least one in his first five this season, Jones broke the club record to start the season held by Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas.
INJURIES
Chiefs: S Justin Reid, who had an interception earlier in the game, briefly left in the second half. WR Justin Watson left in the fourth quarter with an elbow injury sustained while trying to make a diving catch.
UP NEXT
Chiefs: Host the L.A. Chargers on October 22.
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Kansas Football Team Faces Oklahoma State While K-State Takes on Texas Tech
UNDATED (AP) – The Oklahoma State Cowboys are preparing to face the backup Kansas quarterback that beat them last year. The 23rd-ranked Jayhawks are 5-1 even while playing half of their games without injured star quarterback Jalon Daniels because of back issues. Jason Bean likely will start Saturday against the Cowboys. Bean had 296 total yards and three touchdowns last year in a 37-16 win that snapped Kansas' 12-game losing streak in its series against Oklahoma State. Also in the Big 12 this weekend, Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks puts his streak of four consecutive 100-yard rushing games on the line against Kansas State and the league's top rushing defense.
Here's what to watch for in the Big 12 Conference in Week 7:
GAME OF THE WEEK
No. 23 Kansas (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) at Oklahoma State (3-2, 1-1). The Jayhawks have played half of their games without injured star quarterback Jalon Daniels, but are the only continuing Big 12 team currently ranked in the AP poll— fifth-ranked Oklahoma and No. 9 Texas are SEC-bound next season. Daniels missed the season opener and then the last two games, including a loss at Texas, because of back issues. He likely won't play again this week before an open date that will provide more time to recover.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy fully anticipates that his team will be facing Kansas backup quarterback Jason Bean, just like last year in a 37-16 loss that ended the Cowboys' 12-game winning streak in the series. That was one of four games Daniels missed in 2022 with a shoulder injury. Bean completed 18 of 23 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns and ran four times for 93 yards with a 72-yard TD.
The Cowboys are coming off a 29-21 win over defending Big 12 champion Kansas State, a year after a 48-0 loss to the Wildcats.
BEST MATCHUP
Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks against the Kansas State rushing defense. Brooks has four consecutive 100-yard rushing games, including career highs with 31 carries for 170 yards in a win last week at Baylor. He is third in the Big 12 and fifth nationally averaging 114.7 yards rushing per game for the Red Raiders (3-3, 2-1). The defending Big 12 champion Wildcats (3-2, 1-1) have allowed only 93.4 yards rushing per game, best in the Big 12. Brooks has faced K-State three times, and limited to 72 yards on 15 carries combined in those three games.
IMPACT PLAYER
Iowa State junior safety Beau Freyler is the only Big 12 player to rank in the top 10 in the league in tackles (46) and interceptions (3). Freyler is coming off his first career game with multiple interceptions, in a win over TCU last Saturday when he had two picks and a team-high 11 tackles. It was his fifth career 10-tackle game. The Cyclones (3-3, 2-1) play at Cincinnati (2-3, 0-2) in a matchup of two of the league's best defenses.
THIRD LEAGUE
When Big 12 newcomer BYU (4-1, 1-1) plays TCU (3-3, 1-2) for the first time since 2011, it will be the third different conference in which they have played games against each other. The Cougars and Horned Frogs previously overlapped in the Western Athletic Conference (1996-98) and were also together in the Mountain West (2005-10). They are nearly identical in scoring this season — both on offense and defense. TCU averages 31.3 points per game, while BYU averages 31.0 a game. The Frogs give up 22.0 points a game, and the Cougars 22.4.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS Among conferences, the Big 12 is first with its teams combining to average 171.1 yards rushing per game. That includes three of the nation's top five individual rushers: Texas' Jonathon Brooks (121 yards per game, second among FBS rushers), TCU's Emani Bailey (115 ypg, fourth FBS) and Texas Tech's Brooks (fifth FBS). ... For the second weekend in a row, there are four teams with open dates. The teams getting a break are Red River rivals Oklahoma (6-0, 3-0) and Texas (5-1, 2-1) a week after their latest classic game, along with slumping Baylor (2-4, 1-2) and UCF (3-3, 0-3). The Knights are only team with three conference losses so far.
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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.