First responders at the scene of Thursday accident-photo Stafford Co. Emergency Services
STAFFORD COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 4p.m. on Thursday in Stafford County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 International driven by Jeremy Clayton Pflughoeft, 32, Claflin, was northbound on SE 80 Avenue six miles south of Stafford.
The vehicle entered the east ditch and the driver overcorrected. The truck rolled and came to rest on its top in the roadway.
Pflughoeft was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.
He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 34-year-old former University of Kansas graduate student has been indicted on charges accusing him of making false claims on his visa application.
The U.S. Attorney for Kansas said in a release that a grand jury Wednesday indicted Goran Sabah Ghafour of Lawrence on charges alleging he falsely claimed on a visa application that he served as a translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq.
The office says he’s charged with visa fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Court document show Ghafour’s accused of submitting fake letters about his service for the U.S. military when he applied for a visa while he was a graduate assistant in the university’s journalism department.
His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Ghafour graduated in May.
TREGO COUNTY–The National Weather Service in Dodge City has issued a Flash Flood Warning for northwestern Trego County until 9:30 p.m. tonight.
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS
729 PM CDT THU AUG 4 2016
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DODGE CITY HAS ISSUED A
* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR…
NORTHWESTERN TREGO COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL KANSAS…
* UNTIL 930 PM CDT
* AT 727 PM CDT…DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCING
HEAVY RAIN ACROSS THE WARNED AREA. RADAR ESTIMATES WIDESPREAD
RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 3 INCHES WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS
APPROACHING 4 INCHES. MODERATE TO HEAVY RAINFALL IS CONTINUING
WHICH WILL EXACERBATE RUNOFF THROUGH 930 PM CDT.
* DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH WATER OF UNKNOWN DEPTH.
* SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE…
COLLYER…VODA AND TREGO CENTER.
Still nothing official from the Chiefs but several media outlets are reporting that they have bolstered their depth at quarterback by signing free agent Nick Foles to a two-year contract with a team option for a second year.
The deal was reported late Thursday night by NFL Network reporter Mike Garafolo.
Foles was drafted by Chiefs coach Andy Reid in the third round in 2012 when he was in Philadelphia. In 2013 he threw for 27 touchdowns with only two interceptions. He’s struggled the last several seasons and completed 56% of his passes and had seven touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 11 games with the Rams.
Foles, who was traded from the Eagles to the Rams in 2015, requested a release from the St. Louis Rams this off season to become a free agent.
The Chiefs now have five quarterbacks on their roster in Foles, Alex Smith, Aaron Murray, Tyler Bray and Kevin Hogan.
NEW YORK (AP) — Three experimental Zika vaccines protected monkeys against infection from the virus, an encouraging sign as research moves into studies in people.
The experiment involved a traditional vaccine and two more cutting-edge ones. The traditional vaccine is expected to enter preliminary human studies this year. At least two other experimental Zika vaccines are in human studies already.
Researchers reported the success in monkey studies Thursday in a paper released by the journal Science. The traditional vaccine used a dead virus, while the other two used a single gene of the Zika virus to prime the monkeys’ immune systems to fight off the germ.
Efforts to develop a vaccine began after a massive Zika outbreak last year in Brazil.
SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect on assault charges.
Just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday, police were called to a home in the 700 Block of East Ash in Salina in response to a domestic dispute between 42-year-old Davey Favors and 32-year-old Samantha Haggard, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.
The two had been involved in an argument, when Favors allegedly became physically abusive to Haggard, and threatened her with a machete.
Officers observed some redness to Haggard’s right cheek, but she declined medical treatment, according to Forrester.
Favors was arrested and booked into the Saline County Jail on requested charges of aggravated assault, criminal restraint, and domestic battery.
FINNEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating a suspect in connection with a residential burglary and have made an arrest.
Police reported a social media tip helped officers find Carlos Daniel Castruita, 17, Garden City. On July 20, police asked the public for help to help locate the teen.
Castruita was arrested for his alleged involvement in a residential burglary on July 17, according to a media release.
He is being held for alleged aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary and theft of a firearm.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas State Board of Education has approved a total of $7.2 million in additional state aid to 31 public school districts.
But it’s not clear how much money the districts actually will receive after the board’s action Thursday.
Legislators financed the “extraordinary needs” aid with proceeds from selling off an economic development agency’s assets. The sale must generate $38 million for districts to get all their funds, and state officials aren’t sure it’s possible.
Thirty-four districts applied for a total of $8.4 million. All but three received some funds.
The largest allocations were nearly $849,000 for the Spring Hill district in Johnson County to help it deal with increased numbers of students, and nearly $687,000 for the Wichita district to help it deal with an increase in refugee students.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A county official says enough signatures were gathered to allow a grand jury to criminally investigate Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s handling of Kansas’ online voter registration system.
But even Kobach’s harshest critics say they’ve seen no evidence he committed a crime.
Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said Thursday that the petition has more than the required number of verified signatures. The next step is a judge’s review.
Kobach didn’t immediately return messages for comment.
The petition seeks an investigation into whether his office committed election fraud and voter suppression by deleting registration data.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing Kobach over voting rights issues, says it’s seen no evidence of criminal conduct.
Under a rarely used Kansas law, grand juries can be assembled by citizen petitions.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Brad Miller hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Thursday.
Miller connected on his 19th homer off Joakim Soria (4-5), who gave up three of the Rays’ overall four hits during his one inning.
Brad Boxberger (1-0) worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth before Alex Colome got his 26th save despite giving up two hits during the ninth. Drew Smyly allowed two runs, five hits, one walk and struck out 10 in seven innings.
Ian Kennedy gave up one hit, walked four and had nine strikeouts in six-plus innings for the Royals. Alex Gordon hit his eighth home.
Tampa Bay won the final two games to split the four-game series. The Rays are 8-25 against Kansas City since the start of the 2012 season.
GEARY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating a suspect in connection with alleged attempted murder and assault on law enforcement officers.
Police in Junction City arrested Daniel Genson, 22, Junction City, in connection with the stabbing of two people on Wednesday.
Just after 9:30 a.m., officers were dispatched to the area of 938 East 4th Street in Junction City and found one male victim who had been stabbed and another female victim also was stabbed trying to break up the incident, according to Police Detective Lieutenant Jeff Childs.
The male victim was transported to Geary Community Hospital where he underwent surgery, while the female victim was not transported by ambulance but did later seek medical treatment elsewhere.
When officers arrived on the scene they located the suspect who still had the knife in his hand, wouldn’t follow directions, and had to be tased, forced to the ground, and taken into custody, according to Childs.
The Geary County Booking Photo report released Thursday morning indicates Genson was arrested on suspicion of two counts of Attempted Murder in the 1st Degree, seven counts of Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer, and two counts of Aggravated Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.
Genson is expected to have a first appearance in Geary County District Court on Thursday.
Wednesday brought news of an historic shift in Kansas politics. Kansans’ discontent with the direction conservative politics and government has taken their state transformed dismissible public opinion polling into indisputable vote tabulations as the polls closed Tuesday. The primary provided many surprising results. Here are the main takeaways.
Dr. Mark Peterson
First, the big headline is the defeat of Representative Tim Huelskamp in the Kansas 1st Congressional district. Dr. Roger Marshall is no great departure from core conservative values and ideology, but he apparently has two traits that the soon-to-be former Congressman Huelskamp lacks. One is the apparent willingness to accept that politics requires the recognition and at least non-hostile acceptance of different points of view. The second trait is an awareness that spending all your time rudely yelling, “NO,” doesn’t make enough friends to get your way.
Second, voter turnout proved to be strong. It is an article of faith in the field of political science — primary elections only bring participation from the most active and committed members of the political parties. The unaffiliated and the unmotivated either cannot or do not participate in the primary process. The Secretary of State predicted a 24% turn out for yesterday’s election – a proportion that has not been equaled in over a decade. Considering just the Republican and Democratic registered voters, over one-third of those eligible cast ballots, and it appears that overall Republican turn out approached 37%. A detailed look at Republican turnout isn’t available yet but it appears that Johnson County was above expectations while Sedgwick appears to be lower as it was in 2012 and 2014.
Third, the Kansas Legislature has had a shake-up with potentially more to follow in the November general election. Since the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party as well, seldom make endorsements in a contested primary, it is a generally accepted fact that the endorsement of particular groups is a key guide voters use in the absence of first-hand knowledge about a candidate. The litmus test for conservative Republicans, particularly the small-government, low tax element, is undoubtedly the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
While some advance ballots and perhaps those 17,000 “suspense” voters’ ballots remain to be tallied, the current results show that of the Kansas Chamber’s twelve endorsed state Senate candidates in contested primaries, eight were defeated and five of those were incumbents. In addition, an Overland Park Republican senator, who was not endorsed by the Chamber, lost his seat. In the Kansas House, of thirty-one contested primary Kansas Chamber endorsements, eighteen lost and eight of those were incumbents.
This primary season saw lots of groups and organizations exercising their voices. The list is too extensive to present here, but for the first time in a long time organized voices challenged the conservative position on taxation, cuts in the quality of public services, especially to those most in need, and the ongoing failure of the economy to generate lots of jobs and a rebound in public revenue.
Dr. Mark Peterson teaches political science at the college level in Topeka.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling about 830,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Mexico because the side door latches can break and the doors can open while the vehicles are moving.
The recall covers certain 2013 to 2015 Ford Escape SUVs and C-Max cars, and 2012 to 2015 Focus cars. Also included are 2014 to 2016 Ford Transit Connect vans, and Ford Mustang sports cars and Lincoln MKC SUVs from 2015.
Ford says a tab inside the latch can break, stopping the door from latching. The company says the rate of problems is higher in states with high temperatures, so the recall is focused on 16 states mainly in the south and west.
Dealers will replace all latches in the recall states. In other states they will replace the latches if they break.
NWS
