OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A judge has denied self-defense claims from one of four men charged in a fatal gunfight at a suburban Kansas City.
De’Anthony Wiley, of Kansas City, Missouri, claimed that he was wounded and trying to surrender when Jon Bieker was fatally shot in January 2015 while defending his wife at the She’s A Pistol gun store in Shawnee, Kansas.
The Kansas City Star reports District Judge Timothy McCarthy on Tuesday denied Wiley’s self-defense claim. He it was Bieker acting in self-defense when he fired at Wiley and three other men trying to rob the store.
Johnson County prosecutors argued that Wiley fired after he was wounded and did not try to give up.
The four men are charged with attempted robbery and first-degree murder in Bieker’s death.
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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — One of the four men charged with first-degree-murder in the killing of a suburban Kansas City gun store owner is arguing that he acted in self-defense.
The Kansas City Star reports that De’Anthony Wiley, of Kansas City, Missouri, says he was wounded and had tried to surrender when 44-year-old Jon Bieker was fatally shot while defending his wife. She suffered minor injuries during the January 2015 robbery at the couple’s Shawnee, Kansas, store.
Video of the fatal shooting was shown Monday during a hearing in Johnson County District Court.
Co-defendant Nicquan Midgyett, who also was wounded, is joining Wiley’s motion seeking immunity from prosecution for murder.
Surveillance image from pool video of the crime
Johnson County prosecutors argue that the men cannot claim self-defense because they instigated the confrontation. No ruling has been made.
The Kansas general election ballot is now set. Officials in the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office late last week cleared the last hurdle to certifying the roster of candidates for the Nov. 8 election by granting presidential candidate Jill Stein’s request to change the person listed on the ballot as her vice presidential running mate.
When Stein, the nominee of the Green Party, submitted the petition with 5,000 signatures she needed to qualify for a spot on the ballot, it listed party stalwart Howie Hawkins as her “placeholder” running mate. But Stein wanted Hawkins’ name replaced with that of Ajamu Baraka, the human rights advocate she selected in August to be her actual running mate.
Minnesota election officials recently rejected a similar request, but Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach granted it Friday.
With the issue resolved, Kobach was able to finalize the candidate list and send it to county election officers across the state, who will oversee the programing of electronic voting machines and the printing of ballots.
Stein will appear as an independent because the Green Party isn’t officially recognized by the state of Kansas.
Ballots in Kansas will list Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and Libertarian Gary Johnson as nominees of officially recognized parties.
Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, is joined on the Libertarian ticket by another former governor, Bill Weld of Massachusetts.
Emporia State University political scientist Michael Smith said with national and state polls showing voter dislike of both major party candidates at an all-time high, 2016 could be a banner year for third-party candidates in Kansas.
“I think third-party candidates could do unusually well this year,” Smith said, predicting that Johnson could win double-digit support this year after getting only 1.7 percent of the Kansas vote in 2012.
The state’s modern-day high mark for a third-party candidate was set in 1992, when Reform Party nominee H. Ross Perot won 27 percent of the vote in Kansas.
Johnson and Stein will take votes from both major-party candidates, Smith said, but not equally.
“It shows that Johnson is taking votes from both Trump and Clinton,” he said. “But when you add in Jill Stein, the net effect of third-party candidates is actually hurting Clinton a little bit more.”
But increased expectations bring increased scrutiny, and both Johnson and Stein recently have generated headlines that could make them less appealing alternatives.
Johnson blanked when asked during a nationally television interview about the toll the Syrian civil war is taking on the remaining citizens of Aleppo, the nation’s largest city.
Stein is facing possible arrest for allegedly vandalizing construction equipment while participating in a protest against a controversial oil pipeline in North Dakota.
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
Damage from Tuesday morning’s fire in Salina- photos Saline County Sheriff
SALINE COUNTY – Lightning from a Tuesday morning thunderstorm is believed to be responsible for a house fire in Salina.
Just after 5:30 a.m., Firefighters were called to single-family residence at 5337 South Ohio just before 5:30 a.m., according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.
The fire did considerable damage to the attic and utility room of the home, according to Soldan.
Photos: Saline County Sheriffs Office.
No damage estimate was available Tuesday morning. There were no injuries reported.
Leona Lorraine (Aden) Simonds, 78, Beatrice, died Thursday, September 8, 2016. She was born January 7, 1938 in Beatrice, NE. She was baptized, confirmed and married in St. Peter Lutheran Church in Wymore, NE. She served in the U.S. Air Force from January 1957 to August 1959. She married William “Bill” Simonds on June 7, 1959. She worked in the Country Store in Weston, VT, then for the Postal Services for 40 years retiring as Postmaster. Leona ushered at the Community Playhouse in Weston, VT.
Survivors include her daughter, Tena Mowrey of Jamaica, VT; granddaughters, Rachel & Jennifer Mowrey; one great-granddaughter; sister, Eleanor Tangman McMindes and husband Jim of Hays, KS; sister-in-law, LaRue Ellis of Wymore, nieces and nephews, Jodi Dorn and husband Rich of Wymore, Judy Eichelberger and husband Greg of Omaha, NE, Eydie Weyer and husband Fred of Lincoln, NE, Beth Ackland and husband Gene of Martell, NE, Robyn Sejkora of Lincoln, Steve Aden of Grand Island, NE, Rodney Aden and wife Melody of Beatrice, Deb Aden and friend Milford of Blue Springs, NE, David Tangman and wife Vickie of Salina, KS, Janis Lawrence and husband Corbett of Raleigh, N.C.; numerous great-nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Gerd and Tena (Forden) Aden; husband, William “Bill” (11/2/2006); son, William “Billy” (1/23/2006); brothers Ed and Melvin Aden; sisters-in-law Donna Aden and Velma Aden; brother-in-law, Jack Tangman; nephew, Ron Tangman (2009).
Memorial Services will be held 10:30 a.m., Friday, September 16, 2016 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Beatrice with Pastor Douglas Irmer officiating. Burial will be in Vermont at a later date. No visitation but a book is available 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Harman-Wright Mortuary. A guestbook is also available online at www.harmanwrightmortuary.com Harman-Wright Mortuary and Crematory, Beatrice in charge of arrangements.
The Ellis County Commission approved one of the two proposed conditional use permits that went before it Monday.
The commission approved a request from Midwest Energy to build a communications tower south of Hays on the corner of Grants Villa Road and 250th Avenue. The permit also includes an equipment shelter.
The conditional use permit was approved 6-0 by the County Planning and Zoning Committee. The county commission voted 3-0 to approve the permit.
The commission voted 3-0 to deny a conditional use permit for a proposed wedding venue and reception hall on Buckeye Road north of Hays.
According to Chair of the Planning and Zoning Committee David McDaniel, Glen Teel owns the property north of town and a proposed sale of the property to Adam Stenzel was contingent on the approval of the CUP.
McDaniel said Stenzel failed to appear at the Aug. 24 Joint Planning Commission meeting and that, along with input from neighbors of the property, was the reason the planning commission voted 6-0 to disapprove the CUP.
“In my opinion, if someone wants to come before a committee and ask for something, they should be there,” said McDaniel.
McDaniel said a group of neighbors expressed their concern about the proposed venue and said they did not want it in their neighborhood and said “the reason they moved to the rural setting was so they wouldn’t have anything like this around them.”
Zoning Director Karen Purvis said, “A lot of the concern was the traffic and the wedding hall, that there would be extra traffic.”
She said alcohol was also a concern.
The county commission voted 3-0 to disapprove the permit. Stenzel was not present at the county commission meeting.
The time allowed to protect the decision by the planning committee ended with no appeal from Stenzel, according to Purvis.
He could appeal the county commission’s vote, but Purvis said she does not anticipate it.
In other business, the commission continued its discussion on the proposed vacation of Randall Road south of Hays in the Volfeldt Addition. Commissioners Marcy McClelland and Dean Haselhorst selected three people to view the road with the commission. They will be contacted by the county administrator and officially appointed in the future.
The commission also met as the Public Building Commission and approved accounts payable of $130,372. Of that, $126,278 was the final payment to MW Builders.
A trial program for limited automatic mutual aid between the Ellis County Fire Department (ECFD) and the Hays Fire Department (HFD) is being considered.
According to a memo from Hays Fire Chief Gary Brown to Hays city commissioners, the “existing mutual aid program is helpful but does not allow for the most effective operations.”
In the automatic aid program, ECFD will respond with one fire truck and crew into the city on the first alarm for all reported building fires. HFD will automatically send one fire truck and crew into a limited area surrounding Hays for reported building fires. Brown called it “the area with the most complex and urban fire problems for county fire department.”
Brown estimated ECFD will respond to assist the HFD about 70 times a year while HFD will respond outside the city limits about five times a year.
There will be some budget considerations, according to Assistant Hays City Manager Jacob Wood, particularly for Ellis County. That’s why a trial program will be tried first starting in January.
“Our city firefighters are here (at the fire station) all the time anyway, so an additional call to something outside the city isn’t going to make any huge impact on us,” Wood pointed out. “The county firefighters are volunteers and get paid on a by-case basis and per training hour. If there are more calls in the city they’re responding to that they wouldn’t typically, there would be some (financial) impact there.
“How much that is, is hard to say.”
The benefits, Wood said, would be more firefighters responding to certain building fires and more mutual training of the city and county fire departments.
The proposal will be discussed at Thursday’s Hays City Commission work session.
Other agenda items include sandblasting and painting of the east primary clarifier at the water treatment plant and a update of the 2016 Uniform Pubic Offense Code/2016 Standard Traffic Ordinance.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers are expressing concerns that Kansas won’t be able to quickly catch up with $100 million in delayed contributions to public employee pensions.
The Topeka Capital-Journal that members of the Joint Committee on Pensions and Investments discussed their concerns Monday. The pension payments were delayed this spring to address budget shortfalls. Under the plan, the delayed payments were to be repaid with interest by 2018.
But Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, of Assaria, says he’s “not optimistic” about the prospects of the money being paid back in time. Committee members note that the state faces budget difficulties that lawmakers must confront next year.
Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly, of Topeka, predicted the Legislature will further delay the payment. The delayed amount represents a quarter of the state’s annual pension system payments.
In the last month or so, we’ve seen a subtle but major change in the way a governor—who is not very popular with many Kansans in recent polls and is facing a Legislature for the last two years of his term that is going to be less conservative than he would like—makes policy for the state.
The way you do it isn’t by introducing bills that even Gov. Sam Brownback’s fellow Republicans might not want to or be able to pass into law.
You do it through rules and regulations that are little-known, don’t get much publicity and which can have the force of law without requiring Republican legislators to put their votes for it on public display.
Well, Brownback is well on the way to doing just that. The most noticeable example was last week’s proposal to take a shot at the already weakened civil service protection for employment of state workers.
And, like every governor, Brownback would like his supporters to have state jobs and those other folks, well, not so much.
Last week, the Department of Administration’s division of personnel services came up with a laundry list of new rules that will make it easier to get rid of state employees that administrators or the administration don’t care for and replace them with friendlier folks. That’s not hard to understand. It’s what you do when you can.
But personnel policy is such a tricky area that it has to be done carefully. Years ago, it was that good old Civil Service standard that offered equal treatment of state employees, new hires and those being fired, with the idea that their jobs, if done well, would be protected from new-administration firings and rehiring of the politically like-minded.
While that civil service protection was designed to insulate good workers for all the people of the state from political pressure, it also means that the governor and his appointees can’t really put those workers through a political sieve.
Last year, for example, the governor succeeded with a bill that makes civil service jobs almost optional for new employees, who can seek state jobs on an “at will” basis, where they don’t qualify for those civil service protections that assure state workers aren’t fired for political reasons unrelated to their ability to do their jobs. That makes them easier to hire, easier to fire.
While that was a strong step for conservatives, it means that job protections and worker rights are diluted considerably. A raft of new employment policies that would make it easier to fire workers that the bosses don’t like and easier for new hires to take their jobs met with largely Democrat, of course, objection in a rules and regulations hearing last week.
Taken as a whole, the changes mean that if state employee layoffs occur—and the state of the budget makes that a pretty good bet—those civil service protections, such as opportunities for hearings and for employees to defend their work records and keep their jobs, are diluted.
The right to challenge a job performance rating that makes an employee more fire-able is cut, and bosses can make new specialized skills a reason for bypassing a long-time employee for rehiring. Challenging a low job performance rating that could lead to loss of a job is restricted.
Now this rules and regulations gambit—and remember that the administration and Republicans generally oppose rules and regulations that they say hamper efficiency and cost everyone money—is likely starting to be put into use as the administration winds down.
Worth watching out for…
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com
DETROIT (AP) — Keystone RV Co. is recalling nearly 52,000 camping trailers because an improperly wired air conditioning thermostat could cause a fire.
The recall covers Bullet and Passport trailers from the 2011 to 2017 model years. Keystone RVs are sold at dealers across Kansas.
The company says in government documents that any damage to the wiring could cause an electrical short and a fire. The problem was reported by a dealer, and the documents do not mention any fires.
Keystone of Goshen, Indiana, will notify owners. Dealers will correct the wiring at the air conditioner control box free of charge. The company expects the recall to start this month.
Phillipsburg resident Mary A. Barnes passed away Monday, Sept. 12 at the Phillips County Retirement Center, Phillipsburg, at the age of 84. She was born August 6, 1932 in Smith County, KS, the daughter of Harry & Goldie (King) Cole. She was a homemaker.
Survivors include her 2 sons, Derbin of Phillipsburg and Merlin of Olathe; her brother, LaVon Cole of Phillipsburg; 4 grandchildren & 9 great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Friday, Sept. 16 at 10:30 a.m. in the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel with Robert Keesee officiating. Burial will follow in the Agra Cemetery, Agra.
Visitation will be from 5:00 to 9:00 Wed. & 9:00 to 9:00 Thursday at the funeral home.
Memorial Contributions may be given to the Church of Christ.
Online condolences: www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
BROWN COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Brown County, Kansas are investigating a suspect for alleged murder-solicitation.
Just after 7 p.m. on Sunday, deputies in Brown County arrested Douglas Wayne Mueller, 39, on a single count of solicitation of murder in the first degree, according to the sheriff’s department jail log.
He is being held without bail.
No additional details in the case were released on Monday.
During Monday night’s Hays USD 489 Board of Education work session and meeting, thoughts on long-term thinking about facility needs were presented to the board by the district’s administration.
While Superintendent John Thissen was ready to begin sharing information, he also told the board this is the very front end of the conversation that needs to be held between the board, community and administration.
But he also warned that the groups should not wait too long, telling board members they should begin to deliberate on a time frame for the next bond election and work to gather community input as well as let the community know – while not highly visible – the board is working on facility concerns.
As part of the next step, Thissen suggested to the board they look at an architecture firm that has a proven track record in guiding successful bond elections, suggesting there was some dissatisfaction with the last bond election and it might be prudent for the board to consider a change.
HTK architects worked with the board last year during an unsuccessful bond campaign and had been working with the district for the last eight years, according to Thissen.
Three firms were identified that Thissen found other districts cited in their successful bond elections.
“They’re the experts,” he said of the firms that could run a full bond election. “They know what’s going on.”
Thissen also suggested the board proceed with a construction manager at risk process, which would allow a professional to oversee the project.
“Under the circumstances, there is a great desire to do that,” he said.
While Thissen suggested the board begin thinking about the subject, he also said the board has time to consider the best way to proceed.
“We are still on the front end of this, we have options,” he said.
Outside of the direct bond issue planning, changes to Head Start could force the construction issue.
Thissen informed the board the program is expanding to a full-time program across the nation. This would create a situation where more students are under the district’s care at one time. Students in the program are currently in smaller blocks of time that rotate through the day.
The question now, Thissen said is, “do we have the room?”
Right now, the district can support the student load, but when students in the program go to a six-hour day, the district might be scrambling for space, unless facility space is found or created, or students are cut from Head Start.
Thissen told the board he felt the community would not be supportive of any cuts to the number of students enrolled in the program and, if planning begins now, a solution could be found before the programs changes in the next few years.
He also noted a successful bond issue may address that specific space concern.
In the same vein of building maintenance, Thissen brought to the board an idea that might help with aging equipment and how the district handles replacing systems.
“It’s very important for this district, with this board, to have a plan in place,” he said.
One of the biggest problems he identified is the way problems are identified as individuals may perceive problems directly in line with their building are more important than if viewed from an objective lens.
He suggested a software program to the board that may help create a more objective view. The software would keep a running tab on all district equipment, giving the board a long view of projects that need to be addressed, allowing for better planning to occur.
Thissen noted the software was similar to the plan implemented for district vehicles years ago.
As an example of the need to collect and analyze district equipment and be more proactive is the $1.3 million HVAC system replacement at Hays Middle School. He said it was “troublesome” that he believes the public was unaware that system was 50 years old at the time of its replacement.
“There is no irresponsibility as far as maintenance in the district,” Thissen said. “We are getting every bit out of these systems.”
If there were to be a critique of the district’s maintenance, he said, it would be that there is no plan to replace aging systems in an organized manner.
Implementing this software would also allow the district to make a better case for a future bond, as it would help demonstrate efficiencies that newer systems would create. It would also show the difference in price between new construction and system replacement over time.
For now, Thissen is asking for two or three board members to look at the software, before bringing to the whole board.
“The objectivity really is an important part of this,” Thissen said.
By BECKY KISER
