TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for child pornography.

According to a news release from U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom, 55-year-old Mark A. Hastert was sentenced Monday. He had pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.

Grissom said an FBI cybercrime task force downloaded child pornography from Hastert’s computer in September 2011, and investigators followed an electronic trail to his home in Topeka. The news release said 875 images and 58 videos of child pornography were found on Hastert’s home computer.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police in Kansas City, Kansas, have identified the body of a man found last week in the Kansas River.

Police on Monday identified the victim as 34-year-old John G. Simpson of Olathe.

Officers found the body last week after responding to a call. The cause of death could not be determined, and police say the incident remains under investigation.

In a story Aug. 24 about a Kansas woman facing charges accusing her of using marijuana, The Associated Press, relying on information from the Finney County district attorney, reported erroneously that Shona Banda had pleaded not guilty. Banda has not entered any plea.

 

GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — A western Kansas woman has a November hearing scheduled in a case stemming from accusations that arose after her 11-year-old son said in school his mother smokes marijuana “a lot.”

Finney County District Attorney Susan Richmeier said in an email that Shona Banda’s preliminary hearing is Nov. 16.

The Wichita Eagle reports  that law enforcement and Kansas Department of Children and Families officials started investigating Banda after her 11-year old son said “my mom smokes … a lot!” during an anti-drug program at a Garden City school.

Banda’s lawyer, Sarah Swain, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Banda faces charges accusing her of using marijuana and is the author of a book recounting her use of concentrated cannabis oil to treat Crohn’s Disease.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new government report says that 8 percent of the Kansas corn crop is now mature.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that is near the 12 percent that had matured by this time a year ago, but is behind the 20 percent average for this late in the season.

The agency was upbeat about the condition of the crop with 12 percent rated as excellent and 47 percent as good. About 31 percent was said to be in fair shape, with 10 percent rated in poor to very poor condition.

Other major Kansas crops are also making progress.

About 71 percent of the state’s soybeans are setting pods and 1 percent of its sorghum crop is now mature.

The fourth cutting of alfalfa is 28 percent complete.

NEWTON- Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County have captured an attempted murder suspect wanted in Harvey County.

Newton Police Chief Eric Murphy reported in a media release that at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Monday a member of the community who recognized him from his photographs on the news sighted Gregory Moseley at the Towne East Mall in Wichita.

The community member called 911 and both the Eastborough Police Department and Wichita Police Department responded.

Moseley was arrested pursuant to warrants out of Harvey County District Court, and was transported to the Newton Police Station for further investigation.

On Thursday, August 20, Murphy was allegedly involved in a stabbing incident in the 100 block of West 2nd Street in Newton.

A domestic violence dispute spilled out in front of the residence and a female victim was stabbed multiple times, according to police.

DETROIT (AP) — Lawyers hired to compensate victims of General Motors’ faulty ignition switches have rejected 91 percent of the claims submitted.

They finished determining which claims were eligible last week.

The compensation fund led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg approved 399 of the 4,343 claims filed and rejected 3,944. The fund has made offers in 124 death cases and 275 injury crashes. Of those, 325 were accepted, eight rejected and 65 haven’t decided.

Two injury claims were added to the eligible list in the past week

Families of those who died will get at least $1 million. GM has set aside $625 million to compensate people.

The company recalled 2.6 million older small cars last year. Ignition switches can slip out of the run position and cause the cars to stall.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 41-year-old Topeka man has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for robbing a gas station and shooting the clerk.

U.S. prosecutors said Corey Eugene Johnson was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to one count of robbery.

Johnson admitted that he robbed a Valero gas station in July 2013. When a clerk refused to surrender the money, Johnson shot the clerk several times.

A customer, who Johnson had ordered to the floor, was then forced to open the cash register before Johnson fled the store.

The clerk was hospitalized and survived the shooting.

A co-defendant, 22-year-old Shawn Michael Sneed, of Topeka, was sentenced in June to seven years in federal prison.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Top election officials in Kansas and Sedgwick County have asked a court to block the release of voting machine tapes sought by a Wichita mathematician who is researching statistical anomalies in election counts.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach argued in a court filing made public Monday that the records sought by Wichita State University mathematician Beth Clarkson are not subject to the Kansas open records act, and that their disclosure are prohibited by Kansas statute.

Kobach also contended he is not the custodian of records kept by the Sedgwick County Elections Commissioner Tabitha Lehman from the November 2014 general election.

Lehman told a Sedgwick County District Court judge in a separate filing last week that production of the tapes would be “unnecessarily burdensome” because the material cannot be easily copied.

TOPEKA -The State Finance Council on Monday reviewed “extraordinary needs” requests from 40 Kansas school districts, providing additional funding totaling more than $6 million, according to a media release from Governor Brownback’s office

A closer look at the Extraordinary Need State Aid Applications

And Finance Council Approvals

The extraordinary needs funds was established as part of SB 7, the historic K-12 education block grant passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. Under the block grant, the state aid appropriation for these 40 schools was estimated to increase by $70.3 million this school year.

“Although state aid funding for each of these schools increased, we continue to see remnants of the old funding formula creating financial challenges for some districts,” said Governor Brownback. “We saw today that this process provides districts with reduced valuation, an option for relief that was not available to them under the old formula.”

Of the 40 requests, 22 were from districts requesting additional funding due to reductions in assessed valuation, generally resulting from lower oil and gas prices across the nation, while 16 addressed increased enrollment. The Wichita school district requested funding for refugee resettlement and one other district requested general aid.

In response to a question from the council, Kansas State Department of Education deputy commissioner Dale Dennis confirmed that under the previous education formula, school districts would have no recourse, saying “in past years if you dropped in valuations, you ‘ate it’ for a year; then you got state aid the following year and it helped make it up.”

With the new Block Grant, districts now have the opportunity to request additional funding for valuation decreases in excess of 5 percent from the previous year. Based on this criteria, the 22 districts received a total of $4,057,653 in additional funding. Under the previous formula, they would not have received additional LOB state aid in this current school year. Instead, their options would have been to increase local property taxes, or cut the LOB budgets by more than $5 million to cope with this reduction.

Of the 16 school districts requesting assistance because of increased enrollment, 13 districts experiencing a 2 percent or greater enrollment increase, received $2,009,521 in additional funding.

According to the Kansas State Department of Education, today’s extraordinary needs review is the last for the current school year. The State Finance Council will meet in October to address the funding request from Wichita schools once enrollment numbers for refugees are clarified and for further discussion on possible additional funding for the Moscow, Quinter, Deerfield and Garden City school districts.

Kansas needs a school funding formula that is sustainable, stable, and predictable, which puts more money into the classroom and improves student outcomes. The Governor looks forward to working with the Legislature to craft a new formula for public schools.