DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A friend of the former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association who is implicated in a jackpot-fixing scandal says she was given a winning Kansas Lottery ticket worth $15,000 in 2011 as an engagement gift.
Amy DeMoney testified Wednesday in a hearing for Eddie Tipton, who faces trial in July for ongoing criminal conduct and money laundering charges for games he allegedly fixed in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Separately, Tipton is appealing last year’s fraud conviction related to a 2010 Iowa Hot Lotto ticket.
He denies prosecutors’ allegations that he manipulated the games’ number-picking computers.
DeMoney says she drove to Kansas to collect the winnings and gave Tipton $6,000 back as he requested. She says Tipton said he couldn’t turn in the ticket because he’d lose his job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Every time the U.S. government tried to deport convicted criminal Jean Jacques, his native Haiti refused to take him back.
About six months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement last had custody of him, Jacques killed a young Connecticut woman. Now he is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Jacques is a textbook example of the kind of immigrant living in the U.S. illegally that the Obama administration says should be deported.
But that’s easier said than done.
Republicans want the Obama administration to punish countries that won’t take their citizens back by withholding visas or cutting foreign aid.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill to subject officials’ emails about public business to disclosure even if they’re on private accounts or devices.
Brownback signed the measure Wednesday. Spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said he will follow its requirements.
The new law will close a loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act that has allowed government officials to use private communications to discuss public business without facing disclosure.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt issued an opinion last year saying the records law didn’t apply to such situations.
The issue arose after The Wichita Eagle reported in January 2015 that Budget Director Shawn Sullivan used a private email account to give two lobbyists a preview of budget proposals. Brownback later acknowledged using a private cellphone for most of his communications.
HAYS, Kan. – Growing several inches over the past couple of years made playing college basketball a real possibility for TMP-Marian standout Jared Vitztim. Wednesday afternoon he made it a reality by signing a National Letter of Intent with Fort Hays State.
TMP-Marian’s Jared Vitztum talks about signing with Fort Hays State
The 6’7″ Vitztum was courted by several schools including Nebraska-Kearney, but in the end says Fort Hays State was the best fit for him. “It was definitely hard to pick out a certain school but I think Fort Hays is just the best fit for me. I really liked the coaching staff and the players” Vitztum said.
He becomes the second Hays product to sign with the Tigers this spring and the third in the last two years joining Hays High’s Isaiah Nunnery and Brady Werth.
“It will be fun especially with Isaiah (Nunnery), Brady (Werth) and Trey O’Neil. I’ve played against all of them. It will just be fun to be on their team. They’re really talented players and I just can’t wait to be with them”.
Vitztum averaged 19.8 points per game along with 10.7 rebounds per game during his senior season and was named to the first team of the All-Mid-Continent League team after helping the Monarchs to a 19-4 record and trip to the sub-state championship game. As a junior he was a key player in TMP-Marian’s run to the 4A Division II state tournament.
At 4:14 PM on Wednesday, May 11, the City of Hays Fire Department, assisted by the Hays Police Department, Ellis County Sheriffs’ Office and Ellis County EMS, was dispatched to a vehicle fire threatening the building at Peerless Tires, 2000 Vine Street.
The first arriving firefighters found the engine compartment of a RV on fire. Firefighters used one hose line to bring the fire under control. One person was checked by Ellis County EMS paramedics but was not injured. Due to the extensive fire damage, the most probable cause of the fire was not determined.
Four fire trucks and sixteen firefighters responded. The last firefighters left the scene at 4:59 PM.
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At around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday Hays Fire and Police Departments, with Ellis County Sherrif’s Officers, responded to an RV on fire in the parking lot of Peerless Tires, 2000 Vine St.
As responders worked to extinguish the fire northbound traffic on Vine was being slowed in the area.
The fire was quickly extinguished with reports of damage limited to the front of the vehicle.
The cause of the fire remains unknown as of 5:00 p.m.
Check Hays Post for details as they become available.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has for a second time delayed cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and postponed its action against the abortion provider until June 7.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri spokeswoman Bonyen Lee-Gilmore said Wednesday that the state sought another extension to prepare for the first hearing in a federal lawsuit challenging the cutoff. She said the delays show there’s no public health emergency.
But Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s spokeswoman, Eileen Hawley, said the delays give both sides adequate time to prepare their arguments and the judge time to review them.
The state initially planned to cut off Medicaid funds on Tuesday and then delayed the action until May 24.
A hearing on Planned Parenthood’s request for a court order blocking the cutoff is scheduled for May 25.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a police detective in Kansas City, Kansas (all times local):
Noon:
A Kansas man is charged with capital murder in the shooting death of a police detective during a confrontation that ended when the defendant was shot by officers in Missouri.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman announced the charges Wednesday against 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, of Tonganoxie.
Authorities allege Ayers fatally shot Kansas City, Kansas, Detective Brad Lancaster, on Monday as he responded to a suspicious person report near the Kansas Speedway.
Ayers also is charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm.
He was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, after he wrecked a car and was shot by officers. Jackson County, Missouri, officials charged Ayers with seven counts Tuesday.
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9 a.m.
A spokesman for the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission says a man accused of gunning down a Kansas City, Kansas, police detective was ordered to leave the Hollywood Casino parking lot prior to the fatal shooting.
Commission spokesman Fred Waller says Curtis Ayers was loitering outside the casino near Kansas Speedway on Monday when a security agent ordered him to leave. Waller says Ayers was told he would be arrested for trespassing if he returned.
Waller says Ayers’ name and birth date were reported to Kansas City, Kansas, police, which is normal procedure in such cases.
The 28-year-old is accused of fatally shooting detective Brad Lancaster, who responded to the suspicious person report.
Ayers was expected to be charged in Wyandotte County on Wednesday for Lancaster’s death.
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2 a.m.
A suspect in the shooting death of a Kansas police detective is facing more charges.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman scheduled a news conference Wednesday to announce charges against 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, of Tonganoxie, Kansas.
Ayers is suspected in the killing of Kansas City, Kansas, Detective Brad Lancaster, who died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot during a confrontation near a racetrack.
Kansas authorities have alleged Ayers fled in Lancaster’s car, then carjacked another vehicle with two children inside. He is accused of abandoning that vehicle, leaving the children unharmed, and taking another car. Authorities say he wrecked that car in Kansas City, Missouri, and was shot by officers there.
Ayers was charged Tuesday in Jackson County, Missouri, with seven counts arising from that confrontation.
A. Corinne “Connie” Wilson, 90, Salina, formerly of Hays, died Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at the Salina Regional Health Center.
She was born November 4, 1925 in Great Bend, Kansas the daughter of Maurice and Elsie (Spring) Miller. On August 24, 1947 she married E. Jerry Wilson in Pawnee Rock, KS. He died October 20, 1998. She received her BS degree in English and her teaching degree from Fort Hays State University.
She taught English at Hays High School, Washington Elementary School, and was a substitute teacher in the school district. She was a teacher assistant at Holy Family Elementary School, and was very active in the Friendship Family Program at FHSU as well as the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at FHSU. She loved being an educator and language teacher, was an active Foster Grandparent, loved history and reading, and was very outgoing and gregarious. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church, the church choir, the United Methodist Women, the Sorosis women’s club, was a founding member of the Prairie Garden Club, and a member of the Delta Zeta sorority at FHSU. She was very proud to live in Hays, Kansas and enjoyed crocheting, golf, bridge, gardening, tennis, aerobics, holiday decorating and gift giving, traveling, and singing Happy Birthday on her children’s and grandchildren’s birthdays. She was a violinist with the Hays Symphony Orchestra and she kept active in education with the exchange students that lived in her home.
Survivors include a son; Marc Wilson and wife Cathi of Manhattan, two daughters; Linda Collins and husband Barry of Salina, and Carolee Little and husband Barry of Castlewood, SD, a brother; Leon Miller and wife Laura of Dallas, TX, seven grandchildren; Amy Collins, Robbie Collins and wife Kati, Isaac Little, Eli Little and wife Jessica, Chenin Wilson, Brandon Prough and wife Shaina, and Gary Jon Prough, six great grandchildren; Emry, Madison, Cassidy, Brian, Stone, and Jarrod.
She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband.
Funeral services will be at 10:00 am on Friday, May 13, 2016 at the First United Methodist Church, 305 W. 7th Street, Hays. Burial will follow in the Mt. Allen Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5:00 until 7:00 pm on Thursday at the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home, 1906 Pine, and from 9:00 am until service time on Friday at the church.
Memorials are suggested to the First United Methodist Church or to the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at FHSU, in care of the funeral home. Condolences may be left for the family at www.haysmemorial.com.
Please be advised that beginning Thursday, May 12, 2016, the 700 block of East 7th Street will be closed starting at 7:00 a.m. for pavement repairs. The repairs are scheduled to be completed by 4:00 p.m.
Traffic control devices will be in place to direct the traveling public.
The city of Hays regrets any inconvenience this may cause to the public. If there are any questions, call the Public Works Department at (785) 628-7350.
Tuesday rollover crash in Colorado photo courtesy FOX-31
JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO – Three teens who died in Tuesday’s crash in Colorado have been identified as students from St. John’s Military School in Salina, according to the school.
A fourth teenager from Kansas was the only survivor of the accident that occurred just after 4:30p.m. in Jefferson County, Colorado.
The driver of the Dodge Dakota has been identified as Jake Whitting, age 18, Glen Head, New York.
One of the passengers has been identified as John Yoder, 19, Denver, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
The second passenger Akinwumi (AJ) Ricketts, 16, also died as a result of the crash, according to officials.
Marshall Otter, 17, Ulysses, Kansas was transported to St. Anthony Hospital in Denver.
Alcohol and/or drugs are suspected and will be investigated by the coroner, according to Colorado State Patrol.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO – Three people died and a teenager from Kansas was injured in an accident just after 4:30p.m. on Tuesday in Jefferson County, Colorado.
A Dodge Dakota pickup was southbound near12448 South Foxton Road when the driver lost control of the vehicle, according to Trooper Nate Reid with the Colorado State Patrol.
The pickup traveled off of the right side of the roadway and rolled down an embankment coming to rest in a creek.
Four males were in the vehicle at the time of the crash. The driver and two passengers died on scene. The third passenger, a 17 year old boy from Kansas, was transported to St. Anthony Hospital with serious injuries.
Names of the victims have not been released.
This crash remains under investigation by the Colorado State Patrol.
Two of four legal positions in the legal department at Larned State Hospital are being transferred to the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services’ central office in Topeka. KDADS says the move will promote greater efficiency but some worry that it may create communications breakdowns. CREDIT FILE PHOTO
By MEGAN HART
LARNED–The head of the legal department at Larned State Hospital will be transferred to Topeka later this month, a move that has some western Kansas attorneys concerned the distance could throw a wrench in the process of committing people who need mental health treatment.
In addition to that general counsel job, a legal assistant position will be transferred to the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services central office at the end of May. The move, first reported in the Larned Tiller and Toiler, involves two of four positions at Larned’s legal department.
Two of three legal positions from Osawatomie State Hospital also will be moved to Topeka, said Susan Andrews, chief counsel for KDADS.
Both hospitals treat Kansans believed to be a danger to themselves or others because of mental health issues. Larned also has a program to treat sexually violent predators who have completed their prison sentences but aren’t deemed safe for release.
Andrews said KDADS previously transferred some legal functions, including those related to the sexually violent predator program and lawsuits involving the state hospitals, to its central office.
Moving additional positions to the central office will allow the department to use its legal staff more efficiently, she said, because an employee who previously focused on one state hospital can assist with other KDADS functions.
“It’s important to know that our agency is much larger than the state hospitals,” she said. “Other consumers are also Kansas citizens and require quality legal services.”
However, some in the legal community are concerned that transferring the positions could lead to communication breakdowns, said John Settle, county attorney in Pawnee County, whose county seat is Larned. The legal services department at Larned works with the court system to ensure patients receive due process while being involuntarily committed for mental health treatment, he said.
The law has strict time constraints for how quickly those patients must have a hearing, so any communication delays could create issues, Settle said. He said a meeting with KDADS leadership last week didn’t address his concerns.
“It makes no sense to us that the one thing that has worked well over the years is being changed and moved to Topeka,” he said. The legal department staff members “are kind of the one key cog that keeps everything going, in my view.”
Andrews said the general counsels could take on other work without shortchanging the hospitals, and the person doing legal scheduling will remain at each of the state hospitals.
KDADS hasn’t done an analysis of costs or savings from the change, she said.
“We’re not cutting positions or terminating anyone,” she said. “We certainly will do anything possible to avoid any local law enforcement, sheriffs, attorneys having any more work.”
Larned has faced hospital staffing shortages that earlier this year led to the relocation of some mental health inmates.
Some legal staff from the Topeka KDADS office already work in Larned — which is about 210 miles southwest of Topeka — two days a week, Andrews said. The department will determine if some people should spend more days on site in Larned or if other staff also should go west for a day or two if caseloads require it, she said.
Jeanne Schumacher, assistant to the Morton County attorney, said moving jobs out of a small, rural city like Larned creates other concerns.
“I know the people who work in Larned have been there a long time, and they’re not just going to get up and move,” she said.
Schumacher said she hadn’t had issues in her dealings with Larned legal staff, which she said were limited to a few civil commitments a year.
“I can spend 10 minutes on the phone and have (a hearing) all set up,” she said. “I just don’t know how that’s going to communicate as well, being in Topeka.”
Rebecca Faurot, county attorney for Scott County, said she didn’t have enough information yet to have an opinion on whether moving the positions will affect services. She said the Larned legal department had worked well when she contacted them, which was typically 10 or fewer times in a year.
“I don’t have the foresight to know how it will function,” she said. “I don’t really know how they’re going to structure it.”
Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC
Commencement ceremonies at Fort Hays State University this year will mark the graduation of 3,794 graduates from the summer and fall of 2015 and spring 2016, which is 224 more than last year’s spring Commencement total of 3,570.
A new tradition of two ceremonies, begun last year to accommodate increasing numbers of graduates and their families, continues this year. Both Commencement ceremonies will take place in Gross Memorial Coliseum, immediately adjacent to the U.S. 183 Bypass on the south side of the FHSU campus.
Bob Dole, war hero, former U.S. congressman and senator and the Republican Party nominee for the presidency in 1996, will be the keynote speaker at both ceremonies and will be awarded the first-ever honorary doctorate presented by Fort Hays State.
Graduates from the College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the College of Education, and the College of Science, Technology and Mathematics will gather for Commencement at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 13. Coliseum doors open at 4 p.m.
Graduates from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences will gather for Commencement at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 14. Doors open at 7 a.m.
The 9 a.m. starting time for the Saturday ceremony is a change from years past.
Both Commencement ceremonies are free and open to families of graduates and to all friends of the university. No tickets are required.
They will also be streamed live in two places on the FHSU website. One will be accessed through a Watch Live link on the home page banner. FHSU’s student-run news operation, Tiger Media Network, will also stream a live feed of Commencement through the TMN+ link on its homepage at tmn.fhsu.edu.
“This is a big day for each and every one of our graduates, and we want it to be special for them, their family and friends,” said Craig Karlin, registrar.
The projected numbers of degrees — associate, bachelor’s and graduate – from the Office of the Registrar are 402 from the summer 2015 term, 807 from the fall 2015 semester and 2,585 from this spring. The overall numbers, which will change slightly when the degree checking process concludes, are 93 total associate degrees, 2,961 bachelor degrees and 740 graduate degrees (Ed.S., MFA and master’s) across the five academic colleges at FHSU.
Graduates should park on the main campus and gather in the hallways of adjacent Cunningham Hall by 5:15 p.m. on Friday and by 8:15 a.m. on Saturday; all others are asked to enter Gross Coliseum through Gates 1, 2, 3 or 4. Traffic in the Gross Coliseum area is extremely heavy for Commencement. Parking lots adjacent to Gross Coliseum typically fill up quickly, but ample parking is available on the main campus. In the event of rain, unpaved lots near Gross Coliseum will be closed, making it necessary to park on the main campus.
Shuttle bus service will be provided both Friday and Saturday between the campus and Gross Coliseum. The shuttle buses will stop in parking lots and wherever drivers see people walking to or from Gross Coliseum.
Graduates and faculty will be seated on the main floor of Gross Coliseum. Relatives and friends of the graduates will be seated in the bleachers and the balcony. Seating for the disabled will be available in the bleacher areas on either side in front of the stage. One person may accompany an individual requiring seating in these areas.
Drivers will find Gates 2 and 3, at the northwest and southwest corners, most convenient for dropping off passengers with disabilities. Rebecca Luedders will interpret for the hearing-impaired in Gross Coliseum.
FHSU officials ask those who attend to show decorum appropriate to the occasion. Air horns and other noisemakers are not allowed in Gross Coliseum. Please do not applaud individual graduates because loud demonstrations are discourteous, drowning out the names of the graduates who follow. An appropriate time for applause will be announced. The audience is also asked to refrain from moving around, and graduates should remain for the entire ceremony.
Another change in Commencement this year is that a video feed in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center in Sheridan Hall will not be offered. Attendance in Beach/Schmidt had declined to less than a dozen.
Up-to-date information about Commencement 2016 is available on the FHSU website at www.fhsu.edu/commencement. This page also will have a link to the live feed.
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