TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A mother has been arrested on suspicion of threatening staff at the Kansas jail where her son killed himself more than a decade ago.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that the woman was booked Friday into the Shawnee County Jail. No charges were listed against the woman in online court records.
Major Tim Phelps said a woman called Friday morning and said she would come to the jail “with a high-powered rifle and kill us.” For three hours, armed guards could be seen patrolling the perimeter and on top of the jail. A lockdown ended about 11:45 a.m.
Phelps said the woman said she was upset the jail “brutally killed her son.”
TOPEKA–Maintenance will cause a disruption in services offered by the Kansas Department of Transportation between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14.
The Office of Information Technology Services will be performing equipment upgrades that will impact internet services to the website for T-WORKS.
MANHATTAN- A Kansas man died in an accident just after 1 p.m. on Friday in Pottawatomie.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 Dodge Stratus driven by Warren H. Berg, 57, Blaine, was northbound on Kansas13 twelve miles north of Manhattan.
The vehicle drifted across the centerline and struck a 2013 Chevy Silverado head-on.
Berg was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Campanella-Kufahl Funeral Home in Wheaton.
The driver of the Chevy Rickie D. Maginness, 61, Westmoreland, and a passenger Frank D. Wege, 76, Olsburg, were not wearing seat belts and not injured according to the KHP.
JUNCTION CITY -The Junction City Police Department and Kansas Department of Corrections are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a Parole Violator who is sought by both Departments.
Arthur Vantassel
Police Chief Tim Brown explained in a media release they are searching for Arthur M. Vantassel, 29, Junction City.
Vantassel is described as a 5’10” male weighing approximately 200 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes.
He was convicted in 2011 charges of Distribution of Certain Hallucinogens, and has been a Fugitive from the Department of Corrections Parole Program since December of 2014. He was last known to be residing in Junction City and is still believed to be in the area.
Police are asking that the public does not try to apprehend Vantassel themselves but should call 911, the JCPD at 785-762-5912, Crimestoppers at 785-762-TIPS or you can text CRIMES, and start your tip off with tipjc. You may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
Hays, Kansas – Thomas D. Pyke, age 62, died Thursday, February 12, 2015, at his home in Hays, Kansas.
He was born December 12, 1952, in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to Kenneth Raymond and Carole Louise (Allison) Pyke. He married Kathy (Newlin) on June 19,1976, in Overland Park, Kansas.
He was a sales representative for 34 years with Kraft Foods and retired in 2007. He grew up in Abilene and was a 1970 graduate of Abilene High School. He earned a B.S. in Business in 1974 at Fort Hays State College and has been a resident of Hays since 1976. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, golfing and was an avid KU sports fan.
Survivors include his wife, Kathy Pyke, of the home; one son, Scott Pyke and fiancée, Amanda Johnson, Hays, KS; one granddaughter, Cobie Pyke and one expected grandchild; his parents, Kenneth & Carole Pyke, Abilene, KS; one brother, Dale Pyke and wife, Dianne, Springfield, MO; one niece, Amanda Bayless and husband, Matt; and one nephew, Chris Pyke.
Services are 10:30 A.M. Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at Cline’s Mortuary of Hays, 1919 East 22nd Street, Hays, Kansas 67601. Burial in Fort Hays Memorial Gardens Cemetery Hays, Kansas.
Visitation is from 5:00 to 8:00 P.M. Monday, and from 9:30 to 10:30 A.M. Tuesday, all at Cline’s Mortuary of Hays.
Memorials to Fort Hays Men’s Golf Association or grandchildren’s education. Condolences can be sent via e-mail to [email protected].
Updated CDC flu map for the week of Feb. 7, 2015 (click to enlarge)
MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A new report shows this winter’s nasty flu season has peaked and is clearly retreating.
The flu reached its highest levels around the beginning of January, and stayed there for weeks. The government report out Friday shows flu has become less widespread and less intense in the last couple of weeks in most parts of the country.
Hardest hit this season has been the elderly. Flu-related hospitalization rates in people 65 and older are the highest since the government started tracking them nine years ago.
Among infectious diseases, flu is considered one of the nation’s leading killers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 24,000 Americans die each flu season, on average. The CDC issued the weekly report.
Ever wonder how monthly precipitation totals influence pasture production? Are those Locust trees becoming more of a problem?
If so, make plans to attend the Grass, Herd Health & Management: Keeping on Top of the Challenges beef cattle program on Tuesday, Feb. 24th beginning with registration at 5 p.m. at the Agricultural Research Center, Hays.
Topics and presenters are: Grass Mgt. Planning, Recovery & Competition by Keith Harmoney, KSU Range Specialist; Understanding Johne’s (pronounced “Yon-ness”) Disease & Implications to Herd Health by Gregg Hanzlicek, DVM at KSU Vet Diagnostic Lab; Management Choices to Improve Young Cow Performance by Sandy Johnson, Extension Livestock Specialist; and an Update on Trich and How to Keep It Out of Your Herd.
Bull fries and fixins will be served, but in order to reserve a place at the dinner table, RSVP and payment of $5 is necessary and has been extended to Thursday, Feb. 19. Make check payable and mail to Ellis Co. Extension, 601 Main, Hays 67601. Payment at the door is $10 with no guarantee of a meal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court says three deputy U.S. marshals who shot and wounded a fleeing teenage driver eight years ago cannot be sued for excessive use of force.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the marshals did not violate the law because 16-year-old Michael Fenwick was driving in a way that endangered their lives and threatened other pedestrians.
The case in Washington, D.C., unfolded amid a national debate over police use of force after police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City.
The 2007 shooting occurred when marshals approached Fenwick at an apartment complex where they suspected him of driving a stolen a car. Fenwick was shot after clipping a deputy with his car’s side view mirror.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing an 8-year-old Topeka girl before stuffing her body in a clothes dryer has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that a Shawnee County District judge handed down the sentence Friday for 31-year-old Bill Frank Davis Jr.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty after Davis was convicted in December of 10 counts, including capital murder in the 2012 killing of 8-year-old Ahliyah Nachelle Irvin. But defense witnesses testified that Davis suffered from severe mental illness, and jurors couldn’t unanimously decide to recommend execution.
Along with his life sentence, Davis also received more than 60 years in prison for other convictions.
Ahliyah’s family has said they’re pleased Davis will spend the rest of his in prison.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to make permanent an expired tax break designed to help small businesses invest in equipment and property.
The White House has threatened to veto the bill because it would add $79 billion to the budget deficit over the next decade.
The bill is part of a package of more than 50 temporary tax breaks that Congress routinely extends every year or two. The entire package expired at the start of the year. Now, House Republicans are moving to make selected ones permanent.
The bill would allow businesses to immediately write off capital expenses of up to $500,000, rather than taking the deductions over several years.
The White House supports making the tax break permanent, but wants to pay for it by eliminating other business tax breaks.
The state board that oversees Kansas’ public colleges and universities on Wednesday endorsed an effort by the University of Kansas Cancer Center to earn the highest level of recognition from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Kansas Board of Regents backed the initiative by approving a resolution that said, in part, that the cancer center “would substantially improve cancer research and treatment opportunities for Kansans” by earning the enhanced designation.
Though it did not endorse outright a proposed increase in the state excise tax on cigarettes, the resolution noted the effect an increase would have on reducing smoking rates in the state and on smoking-related cancer.
Based at the University of Kansas Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan., the cancer center earned the first level of recognition in July 2012 – capping a nearly decade-long drive for the designation. Backing by the state, including a $5 million annual appropriation from the Legislature, and by state higher education officials proved instrumental in earning the initial designation, Dr. Doug Girod, executive vice chancellor of KU Med, told the regents.
“It really took a village to make this happen,” Girod said, citing hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support from a number of quarters, including the University of Kansas Hospital, the Kansas Bioscience Authority and local sales tax proceeds. The same type of commitment, including support for the resolution, would be just as crucial in the effort to earn the enhanced designation as a “comprehensive” cancer center, Girod said.
Pursuit of the comprehensive designation will come as part of the cancer center’s application to renew its initial five-year designation, cancer center officials said. The officials said the cancer center would submit it in September 2016, and they anticipate getting word on the application from NCI in July 2017. According to the NCI, of the 68 NCI-designated cancer centers across the country, 41 are comprehensive cancer centers.
The NCI website says that hallmarks of first-level cancer centers include research that crosses laboratory science, clinical research and population-based topics. Comprehensive centers, the site says, must demonstrate “reasonable depth and breadth” across those three areas in addition to proving their ability to disseminate “clinical and public health advances” to the communities they serve. “We know we need to be deeper and broader in everything we do,” Girod told the regents. The cancer center service area includes all of Kansas and 10 counties in western Missouri.
Girod said within that region every year there are about 26,000 new cancer diagnoses, and nearly 11,000 people die of cancer. He said the cancer center has made tobacco cessation and prevention one of its main priorities in meeting the public outreach and cancer-reduction requirements of a comprehensive cancer center.
Tobacco-related illnesses cost the state about $1.1 billion each year, Girod said. Health groups, which have banded together as Kansans for a Healthy Future, have endorsed Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to almost triple the tobacco tax, from 79 cents to $2.29 per pack, as part of his plan to close a hole in the state budget. Girod said pricing is a key part of a comprehensive approach to reducing the use of tobacco products. T
he resolution approved by the regents noted the health and fiscal effects of tobacco usage in the state, adding that the “most effective methods for demonstrating that the state is making an impact on public health and reducing tobacco use and cancer occurrence is to combine an expanded smoking cessation and prevention program and an increase in the tobacco excise tax.”
According to the resolution, Kansas ranks No. 36 in the country when it comes to its level of tobacco taxation. The wording on the tobacco tax unsettled regent Zoe Newton of Sedan, the lone dissenter in the voice vote to approve the resolution. “I’m very proud of the cancer center and support what they are doing,” she said afterward. “But as a matter of principle, when it comes to taxation, the language just made me very uncomfortable.”
Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
Troy L. Waymaster, State Representative, Kansas House District 109
From the Dome to Home February 13, 2015
Governor Sam Brownback Outlines Education Allotment
As I mentioned in previous updates that with the tax revenue estimates for the month of January were $47.2 million less than expectations and the Rescission bill passed to address the $280 million shortfall for fiscal year 2015, there are still additional items that need to be addressed. This prompted Governor Sam Brownback to announce on Thursday, February 5, that there would be reduced allotments that would affect K-12 and Higher Education in order to address a continued budget shortfall.
The reduced allotments of 2 percent of the Regents system and 1.5 percent for K-12 will result in additional funds in the State General Fund of $44.5 million. The governor stated in his press release that “even with the allotments, Fiscal Year 2015 funding for higher education remains $20 million above Fiscal Year 2014 funding. State Aid for K-12 funding in Fiscal Year 2015 remains $177 million higher than Fiscal Year 2014 funding.” These allotments are scheduled to take effect on March 7.
The impact to the Kansas Department of Education with the new allotment would be a reduction of $28,300,635. I have not received an itemized list of all of the school districts in the 109th Kansas House District and what the financial impact will be on them.
We did receive the impact that this allotment plan will be for our institutions of higher learning. Here are some of the institutions and the impact of the allotment:
• Board of Regents-$4,506,34,
• University of Kansas-Main Campus $2,702,462; KU Medical Center $2,099,947
• Kansas State University-Main Campus $2,150,195; ESARP $949,476
• Wichita State University-$1,489,632 • Fort Hays State University-$679,762.
Constitutional Carry
During the early weeks of the 2015 Legislative Session, the Senate introduced a bill that would allow Kansas to be a constitutional carry state. This means that Senate Bill 45, if passed by the Senate and House, would create an avenue for concealed carry of handguns without a license in Kansas.
If this bill was to pass, it would not repeal the existing concealed carry handgun licensing law that we currently have. The intent of this bill is to allow any Kansan who can legally own a handgun, the ability to legally carry the weapon in public without a license.
Even though Senate Bill 45 would exclude the requirement that a Kansan must have a permit in order to carry a concealed weapon, when asked about the possible legislation while working on the Office of the Attorney General’s budget in the House General Government Budget, Attorney General Schmidt did say that Kansans who still travel out of state would need to have an issued permit in order to comply with other states’ concealed carry laws.
There would be an impact to the Attorney General’s budget since they anticipate that if Senate bill 45 would be passed they would definitely see a decrease in the number of initial and renewal applications.
Transparency Act
House Bill 2148, also known as the Transparency Act, received a bill hearing in the General Government Committee today, February 13.
The bill, beginning January 1, 2016, would create a pilot program that would broadcast audio of legislative committees that meet in particular committee rooms in the Capitol building. The broadcasts would be required to be available in real time for the public to access. Also, the bill states that all broadcasts will be archived and be available on the internet.
The Legislative Chief Information Technology Officer would provide all the operations and maintenance of the audio broadcasts and equipment.
The committees meeting in these certain committee rooms may suspend the broadcasting requirement by a two-thirds vote of the committee’s voting members when there is an equipment failure and the purpose of the vote is not to avoid the requirements of the bill.
If this bill was to be passed, the Legislative Chief Information Technology Officer would then identify four committee rooms within the Capitol that would be equipped with audio broadcasting equipment before the beginning of the 2018 Legislative Session and would be able to broadcast all of the remaining committee rooms by the 2019 Legislative Session.
It has been determined that the cost to broadcast these committee hearings will cost the state of Kansas $77,000 in fiscal year 2016 and $34,000 in fiscal year 2017. All monies to fund the Transparency Act would come from the State General Fund.
Negotiations, Visitors, and Contact Information
On Tuesday, February 10, the House Education Committee worked House Bill 2034 regarding teacher negotiations. The bill that was worked in the House committee is not the same bill as House Bill 2257, which would amend the Professional Negotiations Act. The House Bill 2034 is considerably different than House Bill 2257.
House Bill 2034 did generate contentious debate with an amendment proposed to replace the contents of the bill with that similar to House Bill 2257. However, that amendment failed to pass through committee.
This week I had many visitors from home. On Tuesday, Elin Colglazier stopped by my office. I did have a chance to meet with Roy Doonan, Great Bend, Janae Talbott, Russell, many local members of Kansas Farm Bureau from Lincoln, Jewell, Smith and Russell counties, and also the County Treasurers from Smith, Rush and Russell counties.
It is an honor to serve the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns and questions. I appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas.
Troy L. Waymaster
State Representative
109th Kansas House
300 SW 10th
Topeka, KS 66612
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A mother has been arrested on suspicion of threatening staff at the Kansas jail where her son killed himself more than a decade ago.
