ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Jurors have sided with a Kanas anti-abortion activist by ruling that she didn’t intentionally seek to intimidate a doctor by sending a letter that suggested someone might place an explosive under the physician’s car.

The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sued Angel Dillard in 2011 for sending the letter to Dr. Mila Means, who had been training to offer abortions. At the time, no doctor was performing abortions in Wichita in the wake of the 2009 slaying of Dr. George Tiller by an abortion opponent.

Defense attorneys said it was constitutionally protected speech. The jury sided with Dillard on Friday.

The lawsuit was filed under a federal law aimed at protecting access to abortion services. Jurors were tasked with deciding whether the letter constituted a “true threat.”

RENO COUNTY – Law enforcement officials are investigating an inmate death at the Reno County Correctional facility.

Just before 10p.m. on Thursday an inmate in the Correctional Facility was found not breathing in a medical observation cell, according to a report from Sheriff Randy Henderson.

Attempts to resuscitate by facility staff, Hutchinson Fire and Reno County EMS were unsuccessful.

The KBI has been called in to investigate as is protocol by Kansas law. Family of the deceased man has been contacted, according to Henderson.

No additional details have being released.

By MEGAN HART

Kansas health advocates lauded the Food and Drug Administration’s decision Thursday to regulate electronic cigarettes, while those in the vaping industry pointed to harm to businesses and people trying to quit smoking.

The FDA announced that it would ban selling or giving free samples of e-cigarettes and their nicotine cartridges, cigars, hookahs and pipe tobacco to people younger than 18. Kansas law already forbids the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

But another change the FDA announced Thursday may be more far-reaching. Any tobacco or nicotine product that went on the market after Feb. 15, 2007, will have to go before the FDA for approval. Companies have a two-year grace period to prepare their applications and can continue selling their products for a third year while the FDA reviews the application.

John Neuberger, a professor in the department of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said the rule is one step in evaluating the risks associated with e-cigarettes, which currently aren’t regulated. Nicotine is toxic to the heart and brain at high doses, he said, and vapor liquids vary widely in their contents.

“It’s very difficult to know what are you inhaling,” he said.

The American Heart Association also welcomed the decision as a step toward reducing the number of teenagers who become smokers. Smoking increases a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke.

“We applaud the FDA for issuing rules regarding electronic cigarettes, hookah and cigars. Use of these products has risen dramatically — especially among youth — so it is imperative the FDA have authority over these previously unregulated tobacco products,” said Kevin Walker, regional vice president of advocacy for the American Heart Association in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.

Spencer Duncan, who lobbies on behalf of the vaping industry in Kansas, said the regulations will increase the cost of e-cigarettes and reduce smokers’ access to one way of weaning themselves off tobacco.

“If you are not a smoker, I would never suggest that you start using e-cigarettes,” he said. “If I’m a two-pack-a-day smoker desperately trying to quit tobacco and using this, you’re not helping me” by requiring approval of e-cigarettes.

On-ramp or off-ramp?

Research hasn’t provided easy answers on potential health risks of e-cigarettes or whether they could have benefits for smokers. Britain’s Royal College of Physicians released an opinion in June 2014 that e-cigarettes could be beneficial if smokers transition away from traditional cigarettes, though it supports regulating them.

On the other hand, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics in November 2015 found that teens who used e-cigarettes were more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes. Right now, there is more evidence of an increased risk of becoming a smoker for e-cigarette users, Neuberger said.

“It’s kind of, do you believe it’s an on-ramp to tobacco use or that it’s an off-ramp for people to stop smoking?” he asked. “Right now, the evidence is it’s more of an on-ramp.”

Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said Thursday that about 70 percent of e-cigarette users also smoke cigarettes. The products may even reduce smokers’ willingness to quit, he said, because they can use e-cigarettes to get nicotine in places where it is illegal or socially unacceptable to smoke cigarettes.

The FDA will need to weigh the dangers of any chemicals in e-cigarettes, whether they make smokers more or less likely to quit cigarettes and whether they increase the rate of youths becoming smokers, Zeller said. A 2015 survey found about 16 percent of high school students admitted using e-cigarettes, he said.

“If (a smoker) completely switched to e-cigarettes, there’s no question that person would reduce his or her risk,” he said. “We can’t make national policy based on a hypothetical individual.”

Long-term health effects of e-cigarettes aren’t clear. Nicotine can raise a person’s blood pressure and heart rate, but the bigger concern comes from lack of knowledge about other chemicals in the inhaled vapor and their effects on the body over time. Some groups, like the American Public Health Association, have taken the view that e-cigarettes are less dangerous than traditional cigarettes but haven’t been proven safe.

Economic effects

The FDA’s proposed regulations also will hurt the roughly 400 Kansas shops selling mostly e-cigarette products, Duncan said. A 20-cent per milliliter state tax on the nicotine liquid in e-cigarettes also will come into effect in July, creating a double hit on those who sell vaping products in Kansas, he said.

“If the rules, as written, stand, it will put people out of business,” he said.

For example, the FDA has indicated it will regulate not only the liquid but the devices themselves, effectively ending businesses’ practices of customizing them, Duncan said.

Topeka, Olathe, Overland Park, Kansas City, Park City and McPherson ban e-cigarette use in public places where tobacco smoking also is banned. Sedgwick County, however, took the opposite approach, explicitly allowing e-cigarettes in county buildings.

Eric Cope, who owns Top Shelf Vapors in Topeka, said he doesn’t oppose some regulation of the ingredients in liquid used for vaping. He is concerned that the approval process will be so expensive that only large tobacco companies will be left in the market. His store sells products from about 50 manufacturers, he said, and fewer choices for customers would put his business in jeopardy.

Most of his customers use only e-cigarettes, Cope said, and some use them as a substitute for cigarettes. If they can’t vape, many will go back to tobacco, he said.

“They may find this is a harmful substance, but it’s not as harmful as smoking,” he said. “The biggest thing (government officials) are not considering is the decreased health care expenditures they’re going to have” if people quit smoking.

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

By Johanna Hecht

KU Statehouse Wire Service

A year after she posted a video explaining her transition from male to female, 8-year-old Avery Jackson and her mother, Debi Jackson, are working to turn the video into a children’s book.

Jackson, from Kansas City, is working with a transgender comic illustrator to put together the book in an effort to share Avery’s story with the hope that discussions about transgender issues will become easier.

“Avery is very much a goofy kid, and she loves this comic-book, silly style of art. We’re going to use that so it’s not such an intimidating subject to kids, but it’s something kind of fun that they can read and connect with,” Jackson said.

Jackson said she wanted to make sure all the people who touch the book, and all the people who are going to make money from it, are a part of the transgender community. And she hopes the book will help transgender adults as well as children.

“So many trans adults have a hard time finding steady employment, or they’re unemployed after transitioning, and we really wanted to find a way that we could give back,” she said.

Avery and her mother are also working with Planting Peace, a global nonprofit organization, to paint a house with the transgender flag on it. It would be a neighbor to the Equality House.

The Equality House, located in Topeka across from the Westboro Baptist Church, serves as an office space for Planting Peace. The Equality House is painted with the rainbow flag year-round, except for one week when they paint it with the transgender flag colors. The rainbow flag symbolizes pride for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, while the flag symbolizing transgender pride has five stripes—two blue, two pink, and one white.

“Some people said that ‘(transgender people) are covered by the rainbow flag, why do they think they need their own or need special treatment?’ It’s not special treatment; it’s visibility and equal treatment. They’re not as understood and as supported as the rest of the gay community,” Jackson said.

Fundraising efforts for Planting Peace to purchase the house started in March. The goal is to reach $70,000 but only $10,688 has been raised so far. Jackson hopes they can continue raising awareness for the project over the summer.

Jackson explained that her daughter’s story has been able to help not only transgender children who might be feeling alone, but adults as well.

“I have had a couple of adults who are in their 60s and 70s come to me and say ‘I’m finally going to transition and it’s because of Avery’s inspiration, and she can do that and she can be so brave where you live, then I have no excuses,’” she said.

When Avery was first transitioning, her mother admits the family looked into moving to safer places for her and her husband, Tom, to raise their daughter and son.

“I have actually done real estate searches looking for tiny islands that have less then 50 people on them. I have fantasized about moving away completely and starting over where no one knows us,” Jackson said.

However, she soon realized there is no place to completely escape because of the family’s visibility. She explained that Avery isn’t fully aware of the extent of the media coverage or how much her story has been shared, especially over the last year.

At first, Avery’s parents did not want her to be out in public, but as time went on they realized they couldn’t hold her back for very long.

“I don’t want her to go through life being afraid of other people,” Avery’s mom said.

One of Avery’s interests is playing online games, such as Minecraft.

“Both kids and adults tend to get into online gaming because you can create your avatar and be whoever you want to be, and it’s a safe place to start expressing an identity. So that might be why she gravitated to the online world,” Jackson said.

When Avery isn’t working on her homeschooling or playing Minecraft, she is participating with her Girl Scout troop, whose members know she is transgender.

In September 2014, Avery opened up about her transition during a Girl Scout meeting when the girls were asked to tell an interesting fact about themselves. Another girl told the group she was transgender and Avery said, “I am, too!”

After starting public advocacy work a year ago and serving as president of the Kansas City chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Jackson is now working on putting together training for schools and businesses to help them become trans-inclusive. She wants to go into full-time consulting work to educate teachers, staff, kids and parents. Her goal is to turn her work into a national business.

As for Avery, there are days where she is very excited about being out in public and sharing her story. But at times she does feel the pressure to be visible for those who can’t, and would rather not speak at all because, in the end, she just wants to be treated like a normal person.

You can donate to the house-building effort here

Transgender individuals are people whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Edited by Leah Sitz

MANHATTAN- Law enforcement authorities in Riley County are investigating a suspect in connect with the death of an infant.

Just after 9p.m. on Thursday, police officers and additional emergency crews responded to the 500 block of Stone Drive in Manhattan, for a report of an baby not breathing, according to a media release.

Emergency crews confirmed the baby was not breathing and began resuscitation efforts.

Unfortunately, the child was not revived and was later pronounced deceased at Via Christi Hospital.

The Riley County Police Department confirmed on Saturday evening that officers have made an arrest after an investigation into the death of the infant.

No additional details are being released.