TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge has recused himself from a capital murder case after the defendant filed a complaint accusing the judge of disregarding his rights.

Phillip Cheatham was convicted of capital murder in 2005 and sentenced to death for the slayings of Annette Roberson and Gloria Jones in December 2003. The Kansas Supreme Court last year overturned the capital murder conviction and death sentence because of ineffective counsel.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Shawnee County District Judge Mark Braun stepped down Friday at the start of what was expected to be a lengthy motions hearing. His decision means all of the motions upon which he already had ruled will have to be heard again by a different judge, and the scheduled Jan. 5 trial date will be pushed back.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A report compiled when Kansas City was seeking federal terrorism and emergency response grants claims Kansas City International Airport is a hub for terrorist travel.

The Kansas City Star reports the Feb. 7 document prepared by Kansas City area emergency management officials seeking federal security grants was sent to the Department of Homeland Security to provide a threat picture for the Kansas City region. The report says KCI is a primary hub for known or suspected terrorist travel.

Kansas City Police Capt. Daniel Gates says he sent the report to the Federal Emergency Management Agency so FEMA could evaluate the region’s terrorism risk. Gates says the report shouldn’t create fear.

Mayer Nudell, a terrorism and security expert, says the report could have been amped up to win federal funds.

JC Post

JUNCTION CITY- Junction City police reported Cody Allen Martin, 23, Junction City, died after being run over by a truck in the area of 24 Riley Manor.

Police Lt. Jeff Childs said, “Just after 1:30 a.m. officers were dispatched to that area for a disturbance.

Law enforcement received a second call requesting that an ambulance be dispatched for a person that had been run over by a truck.

Upon their arrival authorities found Martin lying in the roadway. He was transported by ambulance to the emergency room at Geary Community Hospital where he received treatment for his injuries, but was later pronounced dead by hospital personnel.”

An autopsy has been scheduled.

The incident remains under investigation.

By KHI NEWS SERVICE

TOPEKA — Officials with the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care (KFMC) announced today that the Topeka-based health care quality improvement organization is joining with similar nonprofits in Nebraska and the Dakotas to form the Great Plains Quality Innovation Network.

The new multi-state organization has been awarded a contract by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work with hospitals and other medical providers on a range of initiatives, including those aimed at reducing avoidable patient readmissions and hospital-acquired infections and promoting the effective use of health information technology. The contract award was announced by CMS officials late last week.

“While this contract reflects a regional approach to quality improvement initiatives, KFMC will continue providing services and working with providers in Kansas to offer quality improvement expertise, education and technical assistance,” said Rebecca Bailey, a KFMC spokesperson.

The other quality improvement organizations in the new network are CIMRO of Nebraska, North Dakota Health Care Review Inc. and the South Dakota Foundation for Medical Care.

The Great Plains network will be one of more than a dozen regional networks across the nation working under the new CMS contracts.

“Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) have always supported beneficiaries with a nationwide infrastructure dedicated to improving the quality of health care”, said CMS Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway. “Under this new QIO program structure, I am excited about the positive impact QIOs will have, working in collaboration with national and local organizations. CMS and QIOs are building momentum in transforming health care delivery by supporting learning systems, improving efficiency and value, and achieving better health outcomes for beneficiaries.”

ATCHISON- A Kansas woman died in an accident just before midnight in Doniphan County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1990 Mazda convertible driven by Pamela S. Blair, 58, Atchison, was eastbound on 100th Road five miles northeast of Atchison.

For an unknown reason the vehicle left the roadway, entering the north ditch, struck an embankment and flipped, coming to rest on its top.

Blair was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Becker-Dyer-Stanton Funeral Home.  The KHP reported a passenger in the Mazda Phillip M. Theurer, 58, Atchison was also possibly injured but not if he was transported for treatment.

The KHP reported they were not wearing seat belts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has cosponsored the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act (S.607), bipartisan legislation to protect the privacy of American citizens online by updating the privacy protections for electronic communications stored by third-party service providers – including email and social media services. The importance of updating the privacy protections was recently underscored by an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claim that American Internet users “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy” when it comes to their emails being accessed by the government. 

“Americans have a constitutionally protected right to privacy that no one, including the IRS, may take away,” Sen. Moran said. “Our electronic communications privacy laws need to be updated to reflect that fact. These outdated laws, designed in the era of floppy disks, do not make sense in an era of cloud computing, when users essentially have infinite storage online. Americans rightfully expect their private communications to be protected from intrusion, especially by government bureaucrats. S. 607 will affirm Americans’ right to privacy and help bring this 1980s law into the 21st Century.”

Documents released in April as part of a Freedom of Information Act request show that in 2009, the Criminal Tax Division at the IRS claimed in an internal handbook that in general “the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server.”

Congress has not addressed federal email privacy laws since 1986, before the home computers and email were widely used and before the advent of Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and cloud computing transformed our lives. S. 607 would make certain the Fourth Amendment privacy protections Americans receive from regular mail and other paper documents are extended to electronic correspondence and content, including cloud computing, email, and other online services. The bill establishes a search warrant requirement before government agencies – such as the IRS – may obtain the content of Americans’ emails and other electronic communications, when those communications are stored with a third-party service provider including Gmail, Yahoo!, wireless providers or cloud storage platforms. The bill also eliminates the outdated “180-day” rule that calls for different legal standards for the government to obtain email content depending upon the age of an email, and it requires that the government notify an individual whose electronic communications have been disclosed within 10 days of obtaining a search warrant.

S. 607 is the Senate Companion to the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 1852) introduced in the House by Congressman Kevin Yoder, which recently reached 228 cosponsors. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act has already been passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

SALINA-Two people were injured in a Friday afternoon accident in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Tahoe driven by Lenora Chantea Faulkner, 26, Mankato, was northbound on U.S. 81 one mile north of the Interstate 70 junction.

The Tahoe was in the right lane and a 2005 Ford SUV driven by Amy G. Boatman, 43, Cypress, TX., was traveling north in the left passing lane.

The Chevy moved into the passing lane to make a u-turn and was struck by the Ford. The Tahoe crossed the median and the southbound lanes coming to rest in the west ditch and Ford came to rest in the median.

Faulkner and a passenger in the Ford Jordan Boatman, 14, Cypress, TX., were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

The KHP reported the teenager in the Ford was not wearing a seat belt.