KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The top federal prosecutor for Kansas has joined about 70 churchgoers to remember the nine people killed during a South Carolina church shooting.
The Kansas City Star reports that U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom called Wednesday’s attack “domestic terrorism fueled by racial hatred.” Grissom was among the speakers at a service Saturday morning at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Twenty-one-year-old Dylann Roof is jailed on nine counts of murder in the attack. Authorities say Roof, who is white, stayed at a Bible study at the historic African-American church in Charleston for about an hour before opening fire.
The monsignor at St. Patrick Catholic Church, of Kansas City, Kansas, Michael Mullen, prayed for “divine mercy” for the gunman and lauded the forgiveness the victims’ families had expressed.
Comiccon fun this weekend at the Kansas State fairgrounds
Hutch Post
SMALLVILLE, Kan.(Hutchinson) – Comiccon weekend is underway here in Hutchinson aka Smallville, with a great crowd and many dressed as their favorite characters.
The comic book and other pop culture celebration is at the Kansas State Fairgrounds despite the heat.
This year activities and booths are spread throughout two separate buildings and another outside.
The outside exhibit features a painter who uses spray cans to make pictures. He does this to music.
There are stars in attendance as well including Lee Meriwether, from the Munsters, Barnaby Jones and a Batman movie.
Also appearing is Kathy Garver (sissy on the old “Family Affair” series from the 1960’s) She’s also done a number of voice-overs for various animation productions, plus has a Family Affair cookbook you can buy at the event this weekend.
Others include Manu Intiraymi who you may remember from some of the Star Trek series and the movie “Star Trek, Voyager.”
Vernon Wells from the Mad Max movies and Billy Dee Williams from Star Wars and many other films and television appearances also are also in attendance.
The biggest star in attendance is R2 – D2, a fictional character in the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas.
He is actually able to move and make sounds just like in the movie.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A special Kansas legislative committee will consider a complaint from legislators who say a Democrat used “inflammatory” language when she referred to supporters of an education bill as “racist bigots.”
The measure would have repealed a law allowing some immigrants who are in the country illegally to pay in-state tuition at Kansas colleges and universities if they meet other requirements.
Nine Republican members of the House Education Committee signed a formal complaint against Kansas City Democratic Rep. Valdenia Winn, who is black.
She called the proposal a “racist, sexist, fear-mongering bill” in March, a transcript shows, and apologized to those “whose lives are being hijacked by the racist bigots” supporting it.
The Lawrence Journal World reports the House Select Investigating Committee is scheduled to hear the complaint Friday.
TOPEKA–Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) Secretary Phyllis Gilmore is pleased to announce a new partnership with Wichita State University (WSU) Center for Combating Human Trafficking to offer technical assistance to community leaders, in an effort to prevent and end human trafficking in our state.
“The Center for Combating Human Trafficking has done tremendous work on this issue,” Secretary Gilmore said in a news release. “We are eager to begin this important collaboration to better serve child victims of this long-overlooked crime.”
A one-year-long grant has been issued to the Center for Combating Human Trafficking and will serve approximately 500 professionals and community leaders, during two-day conferences held in five areas of the state (Wichita, Topeka, Great Bend, Pittsburg and Garden City). Conferences will take place from June 29 through Nov. 3.
The Center for Combating Human Trafficking’s technical assistance curriculum, created by Dr. Karen Countryman-Roswurm in partnership with staff and faculty of WSU, will incorporate specialized instruction regarding abuse and exploitation in the form of human trafficking. With an emphasis on domestic sex trafficking, topics covered will help professionals to be able to understand the true definition and various forms of trafficking, the risk factors for trafficking, those involved in the structure of trafficking, the venues in which trafficking occurs, the consequences and costs of human trafficking, the resilience factors for trafficking, and how to collaborate for the best interest of those at-risk of/or subjugated to human trafficking.
“In order to combat human trafficking, it’s essential that all sectors of the community work together to acknowledge the problem and identify solutions,” Countryman-Roswurm said.
Governor Sam Brownback made combating human trafficking a priority when in 2013, he signed into law human trafficking legislation that creates the crime of “commercial sexual exploitation of children.” Previously, child victims of this crime may have been considered prostitutes and prosecuted. The legislation also requires that when law enforcement identifies a minor who they believe is a victim of human trafficking, they must contact DCF’s Rapid Response Team. The team completes an initial assessment regarding safety, placement and treatment needs.
To date, approximately 50 youth have been screened by the Rapid Response Team since it was activated in January 2014.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Four people have been charged in an attack on a woman who told police was restrained over several days at a southeast Lawrence home.
The Lawrence Journal World reports that three of the suspects were charged Friday in Douglas County District Court with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery. The fourth suspect was charged with aggravated assault. The two men and two women were arrested Wednesday night.
Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley says the 22-year-old woman was able to escape late Tuesday evening when some of the suspects left the house, and she “eventually contacted a relative for help.” McKinley described her injuries as serious and said she was taken to a hospital. Police say the woman was “beaten by several individuals and had her movements restricted.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Ninnescah Sailing Association in the landlocked state of Kansas, which doesn’t even have a big enough natural lake to take to the water.
But the construction of the Cheney Reservoir, which opened in 1965, and the members’ passion for sailing has overcome such challenges.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the organization is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month.
The group built its activity center from the ground up with volunteers working nights and weekends. Some of the initial members took out group loans to fund the first set of slips.
Before the Cheney Reservoir, Wichita-area sailing enthusiasts had to drive to Grand Lake in Oklahoma.
The nonprofit organization that began with eight members has grown to 180 members today.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 5-year-old boy has been placed in foster care after he was abandoned at a Wichita department store.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the relative who was raising the boy was caught attempting to shoplift this past week from a Kohl’s store and fled without the boy. Police say the woman remains on the run, and no other relatives showed up to claim the boy during a temporary custody hearing Friday. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett says efforts will be made to talk to people related to the boy before the court makes a long-term placement decision.
Wichita police Detective Andrew Do says the boy’s caregiver hasn’t been charged. But he says police plan to pursue a case against her for felony theft and possibly child endangerment or abandonment.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A lawsuit over funding for Kansas public schools threatens to upend the state budget that Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the GOP-dominated Legislature struggled to balance this year.
The state is increasing sales and cigarette taxes to help raise an estimated $384 million in new revenues during the fiscal year beginning July 1 to avert a budget deficit.
But Brownback acknowledged state aid for its 286 public school districts remains a “wild card.”
A three-judge panel in Shawnee County District Court has ruled that Kansas must boost aid to school districts by at least $548 million a year. The state has appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The same panel has yet to rule on the constitutionality of a school funding law enacted in March to make funding more predictable.
JAG-K President/CEO Matt Fearing and Gov. Sam Brownback
Kansas Department for Children and Families
TOPEKA– Governor Sam Brownback was presented an honorary challenge coin from the Kansas branch of the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) program this week at the State Capitol Building, Topeka. He was also presented with letters of appreciation from participants in the program.
Jobs for America’s Graduates–Kansas (JAG-K) began in the state in 2013. It teaches job and work skills to at-risk middle and high school students and counsels them in career and work paths.
Matthew Fearing, President/CEO of JAG-K, presented the coin, which comes from the military tradition of rewarding excellence and reminding the bearer of the group it represents, for his work in bringing the organization to Kansas.
“JAG is doing what we need done with these students,” Brownback said upon being presented the coin. “We need to find those who are falling through the cracks and build them up.”
Fearing also brought letters from participants in the program at the Larry Dixon Center for Innovative Studies in Junction City. Fearing said the letters were from students who wanted to thank the Governor for the opportunities and support the program has provided them.
“The students wanted the Governor to know they would have been lost without JAG,” Fearing said. “They wanted to show their appreciation.”
A certificate presented with the challenge coin read:
“Jobs for Americas’s Graduates – Kansas presents Governor Sam Brownback with the first Jobs for America’s Graduates – Kansas Challenge Coin for his support of JAG-K and the Jobs for America’s Graduates program. Governor Brownback initiated the efforts to bring the JAG program to Kansas and continues to support the education and development of Kansas’ youth by serving on the national JAG Board of Directors. His foresight in bringing the program to Kansas has resulted in increased graduation rates among students at-risk of not graduating, increased employment by the graduates of the JAG-K programs, and increased post-secondary educational enrollment by the graduates of the JAG-K programs.”
Participating School Districts:
JAG-K is currently in 28 school districts across Kansas including Atchison, KCK, Kansas City Turner, Basehor-Linwood, Lawrence, Topeka, Royal Valley, Salina, Concordia, Hutchinson, Wichita, Arkansas City, Pittsburg, Newton, Parsons, Labette County, Geary County, Liberal, Garden City, Stafford, Kiowa County, Dodge City, Holcomb, Pratt, Kingman-Norwich, Coffeyville, El Dorado, and Emporia. Within those 28 school districts, JAG-K is in 61 public schools.
JAG has already reached more than 3,100 students in just two school years. Fearing said it will serve approximately 3,400 in the 2015-2016 school year.
JAG uniquely monitors students for one full year beyond their senior year, continuing to support the student in enrolling in post-secondary education, finding employment, and if they didn’t graduate on time—working on getting their high school diploma or its equivalent.
JAG-K is primarily funded by a grant administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families and is additionally supported by the JAG-K Board of Directors, Seaboard Foods, Archer Daniels Midland, Kansas National Guard, and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
Listen to Mike Cooper interviewing Orthepedic Physician and Surgeon Dr. Alex DeCarvalho, from the Hays Orthopedic Institute at HaysMed by clicking the link above and then clicking the play button
NEW YORK (AP) — Somewhere out there are an admitted killer who crawled through a Texas prison’s ventilation ducts. A murderer who apparently escaped from an Indiana institution in a garbage truck. And a Florida convict who got other inmates to put him in a crate at the prison furniture shop and had himself delivered to freedom by truck.
The Associated Press found in a coast-to-coast survey that more than 130 state prison escapees nationwide are listed as on the loose.
Two of them have been the focus of an intense manhunt for the past two weeks since their breakout from a maximum-security prison in northern New York.
Many others have been gone for decades, leaving scant prospects of finding them. But prison systems say they keep pushing to find escaped convicts.
TOPEKA–The Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner (KSC) joined with the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) this week to recognize World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD).
First launched in 2006, WEAAD is the product of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization. The goal of WEAAD is to provide people around the world with the knowledge and awareness necessary to prevent elder abuse in their communities.
“Although elder abuse comes in many forms – physical, financial, emotional, neglect or abandonment – often several types of abuse will be inflicted at the same time,” said Securities Commissioner Josh Ney in a news release. Financial abuse is considered to be the most common form of abuse to elders, costing its victims an estimated $2.9 billion a year.
Investment fraud is an area of particular concern, as victims can see their life savings depleted with little opportunity to recover financial stability. Investment fraud can come in many forms. The investment might be deceptive outright, or it could be a legitimate product that is unsuitable for the investor’s circumstances. Other investment problems include unregistered products, theft of funds or products sold by an unlicensed adviser or broker. Investors and caregivers are urged to “investigate before investing” by calling the KSC at (785) 296-3307 to verify if the product and person selling it are registered/licensed and if there have been any complaints.
“Elder financial abuse is becoming the crime of the 21st century as the growing senior population is increasingly targeted,” said Ney. “Studies show that family members and caregivers are the culprits in more than half of these cases. Anyone can – and should – report abuse of an elderly person in any of its forms, whether it is physical, emotional or financial.”
In response to WEAAD, the KSC has developed presentations titled Outsmarting Investment Fraud to provide across the state to older Kansans. Seniors attending the presentations will leave equipped with the skills to recognize the persuasion tactics of scam artists and the red flags of fraud, as well as the knowledge of what to do to prevent scams. If you are interested in the KSC presenting to your community, contact Shannon Stone, Director of Investor Education at the KSC, at (913) 652-9164.
Other Kansas state agencies are also joining the fight against elder abuse. One of KDADS main goals is to work to keep older Kansans safe. “The elderly are vulnerable in many ways, but financial fraud is one of the most pernicious. Isolation, loneliness and ill health can put elders at higher risk for being taken advantage of, and it is the responsibility of all of us to stay in close contact with our older friends and loved ones, to be on the alert for signs that they are being victimized, and to report it,” said KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett.
DCF has greatly increased its focus on fiduciary abuse in recent years. The agency has on its staff an auditor dedicated to pursuing financial exploitation of vulnerable Kansans in partnership with law enforcement agencies. “It is the responsibility of every Kansan to report suspected abuse,” DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said. “We strive to work closely with law enforcement and other agencies to protect vulnerable adults.”
The Hays Public Library will host the Doc Rogers Magic Show on Tuesday, June 23, at 7 p.m.
The event is free and open to all ages. There will be mystical magic and silly fun for everyone to enjoy. Most importantly, Doc Rogers will remind us who the real super heroes are as part of the Every Hero Has a Story summer reading program.
Doug Anderson, or Doc Rogers, is an award-winning professional comedic magician. He was a resident magician on-board Disney cruises for five years.
