Jason Hachmeister- photo Kan. Dept. of Corrections
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is weighing an imprisoned convicted killer’s claims that investigators illegally seized his computer, leading to an additional prison term for child pornography.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that an attorney for Jason Hachmeister told the state’s high court Tuesday that the seizure of his client’s computer during the homicide investigation defied common sense.
Hachmeister was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years in the 2011 killing of 58-year-old Sheila Hachmeister, who was stabbed and strangled.
That sentence was to run simultaneously to the seven-year prison he got for convictions of 105 counts of possession of child porn.
A Shawnee County prosecutor argued Tuesday that the confiscation of the computer and ensuing searches of it were handled appropriately.
TOPEKA –The Kansas Insurance Department-sponsored Don’t Text #JustDrive statewide college awareness campaign will have four community colleges participating this spring.
The no-texting-while-driving initiative kicks off a month-long spring campaign Wednesday, March 15, with Pratt Community College, Butler Community College, Dodge City Community College and Hutchinson Community College.
Students of those colleges, along with their parents, siblings and supporters, can take the no-texting pledge and vote for their favorite school through one of two electronic paths: either by texting to 50555 and designating “PRATT,” “BUTLER,” “HUTCH” or “DODGE,” or by going online to pledge at www.ksinsurance.org/justdrive.
“We are pleased that college students and supporters of Pratt, Butler County, Dodge City and Hutchinson community colleges will be taking the pledge not to text while driving,” said Ken Selzer, CPA, Kansas Commissioner of Insurance. “The initiative is so important for traffic safety. We know it saves lives when drivers are concentrating on the road instead of their cell phones.”
Joining the insurance department in sponsoring the contest is AT&T; the company also participated in the Fall 2016 Don’t Text #JustDrive contest among Kansas universities.
Results of the pledge contest will be calculated as before, as a percentage based on each school’s official Fall 2016 enrollment. Periodic updates during the contest will be on www.facebook.com/justdriveKS. The winner among the four schools will be announced the week of April 17.
During the university campaign last fall, more than 33,500 pledges were tallied from across Kansas for the seven participating universities.
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Fort Hays State men’s golf team wrapped up play in a weather-shortened Washburn Invitational this week at Topeka Country Club. The tournament was scheduled for 54 holes, but just 18 were played due to sub-freezing temperatures on Monday and accumulating snow on Tuesday. The Tigers finished with a one-round total of 330, good for 12th place out of the 14 teams in attendance.
The team battled brutal conditions all day, with the temperature hovering around freezing and the wind gusting nearly 40 mph. Jake Weller led the team with a 79 (41-38), finishing in a tie for 26th. Of the 92 golfers participating in the event, the sophomore was one of 33 to break 80. Dalton Ayres fired an 82 to finish in a tie for 43rd.
Newcomer Skyler Tebo, a transfer from UMKC, improved six shots from his first nine to his second nine, posting an 84 (T60, 39-45). Colton Bobek was one shot back of his teammate at 85 (T68, 42-43) with Marshal Hutchins rounding out the scoring with a 93 (T89, 45-48).
Central Missouri took the team title with a 298, with the Mules’ Cole Dillon taking the title with a one-under 70 competing as an individual. The Tigers were four shots back of 10th place Southwest Baptist.
The Tigers will return to the course this weekend (March 18-19) at the Bob Writz Invitational, hosted by Colorado School of Mines at Bear Creek Golf Club in Lakewood, Colo.
SALINE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect after a Tuesday morning high-speed chase.
Just before 1:30 a.m., a deputy pulled over a 2013 GMC Sierra for improper driving left of center in the 2200 block of Kansas140 Highway, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan
When the Deputy attempted to approach the vehicle, the suspect fled at a high rate of speed.
The deputy pursued the suspect at speeds of 100-miles-per-hour and turned south on Burma Road
The suspect, identified as Adam Gantenbein, 30, Abilene, eventually pulled over as he approached Smolan Road.
Gantenbein was booked into the Saline County jail for driving under the influence, flee and elude and speeding.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A man who admitted killing a Kansas police detective has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Curtis Ayers was sentenced Tuesday in the May 9 shooting death of Detective Brad Lancaster during a confrontation near the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.
Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty when the 29-year-old Ayers pleaded guilty in January to capital murder.
Ayers didn’t comment before he was sentenced.
He also was sentenced for nine other felonies, including burglary, robbery, battery, kidnapping, assault and weapons counts, all committed after Lancaster was shot.
He was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, after he was shot by a police officer while allegedly trying to steal a woman’s car.
Ayers still faces charges in Jackson and Leavenworth counties.
USD 489 is currently taking pre-enrollment forms for incoming kindergarten students for the 2017-18 school year.
Kindergarten pre-enrollment forms are due by Friday at the USD 489 district office located at 323 W. 12th in the superintendent’s office. Parents or guardians who were unable to attend Kindergarten Round-Up can obtain a form by contacting Sarah Wasinger at 785-623-2400. Requests for a form can also be made by emailing [email protected].
USD 489 will send confirmation letters home to parents and guardians by the end of April with notice of students’ placement.
BUTLER COUNTY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in Butler County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Buick LeSabre driven by Elija Hankins, 19, Wichita, was westbound on Kansas 254 just east of Butler Road. The driver was distracted on a cell phone.
The Buick glanced off the back of a 2011 Toyota Tacoma driven by Bernard Dette, 80, Rose Hill.
The driver overcorrected and the Buick rolled into the ditch.
Hankins was transported to Wesley Medical Center.
A passenger in the Buick Kaylin Brown, 19, Towanda, was possibly injured but not transported.
Dette was not injured.
Hankins was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins speaks to a crowd Monday at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Kansas 2nd District Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins was jeered Monday at a town hall meeting in Lawrence for defending President Donald Trump and the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Jenkins, a five-term Republican who has announced that she won’t run for re-election in 2018, maintained a tight smile throughout the raucous meeting at the Dole Institute of Politics on the University of Kansas campus. The crowd, estimated around 350 people, regularly interrupted her with boos and shouts of “that’s not true” as she attempted to defend the American Health Care Act, the ACA replacement bill backed by Trump and GOP congressional leaders.
It was clear from the outset that Jenkins was in for a rough afternoon. The crowd waved red signs that read “disagree” as she mounted her opening defense of the GOP replacement legislation.
“The intent is to provide transition rules so that no one that has health care is thrown off their health care and folks that don’t have coverage are able to get coverage,” Jenkins said.
As she was speaking, members of the crowd were searching their cell phones for a just-released Congressional Budget Office report that estimated the Republican bill would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 14 million in the first year and by 24 million over 10 years.
When Jenkins questioned the accuracy of the report, Chris Johnston of Ottawa confronted her for echoing the talking points being used by White House officials and Republican congressional leaders.
“I want to hear you and every other person tell the truth about the Congressional Budget Office,” Johnston said.
In response, Jenkins pivoted to a criticism of the ACA, saying that it failed to live up to promises made by President Barack Obama and its supporters.
“From the very beginning we were sold some lies,” Jenkins said to an escalating chorus of boos. “The lie of the year was, ‘If you liked what you had, you could keep it,’ and that was proven not to be the truth.”
Rising premiums and the diminishing number of insurance companies willing to offer plans in the ACA marketplace are proof that the health reform law commonly known as Obamacare isn’t working, Jenkins said.
Access To Insurance
Several people in the audience challenged that assertion by talking about the importance of their ACA coverage and criticizing the decision by Gov. Sam Brownback to reject Medicaid expansion.
Janella Williams said she wouldn’t have been able to overcome her health problems, start a small business and become “a contributing member of society” without the coverage she was able to purchase in the ACA marketplace despite her pre-existing conditions.
“I have a medical condition that I’ve had since 1995, when I was 29 years old, and if I don’t get treatments every seven weeks, I will lose the use of my left hand, my left side and my right foot,” Williams said.
However, Jean Hall, a University of Kansas professor who has written extensively about high-risk pools for several national health policy organizations, said they didn’t work when 35 states, including Kansas and Missouri, operated them prior to the ACA.
“What we found in Kansas was that premiums were very high and coverage was very limited,” Hall said. “So, you have people with chronic conditions who don’t have access to very comprehensive care.”
Unconventional Style
While health care dominated the discussion, it wasn’t the only point of contention. Several people also expressed anger at Trump for making false claims, attacking the media and being unwilling to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Trump’s love affair with Putin and Russia is treasonous in my opinion,” said Chad Smith of Lawrence, while asking Jenkins to “put country ahead of politics” by supporting the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate a series of allegations about Russian involvement in the presidential election.
Jenkins said she would support the establishment of an independent commission, but only if investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees determined the need for one.
“If they (the committees) think we need to do it, then we need to do it,” Jenkins said, adding that she agreed that “Russia is a problem” and “Putin is a thug.”
More generally, Jenkins defended Trump. She said while he wasn’t her pick for the GOP nomination and that she doesn’t “agree with his early-morning tweeting,” his unconventional style is what appealed to many voters, including a majority in the congressional district that she represents.
“I guess I’m not particularly concerned if we get results, if we get the economy moving, people back to work, fix the health care system,” she said before getting drowned out by boos.
Pam Ensley, a retired teacher from Topeka, was among the last to speak. She criticized Jenkins for sticking to political talking points and not providing detailed answers.
“So, if you have any sway with Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, who think they know better than we do, tell them people in Kansas are damn mad,” Ensley said to cheers.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a wanted man on assault charges against a police officer.
Just before 1:30p.m. Monday, a Salina police officer recognized Richard Long walking in the 900 Block of Highland Avenue in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.
The officer confronted Long who ran and then pulled a handgun on the officer.
After tackling the suspect, it was determined that the handgun was fake.
Long will now face additional aggravated assault charges, according to Forrester.
Long has previous convictions for aggravated burglary, criminal damage to property and unlawful manufacture of controlled substances, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Three MIAA women’s basketball players earned All-Central Region honors announced today by the Conference Commissioners Association. The list included MIAA Player of the Year Kelly Moten who was also earned that honor for the entire region.
Joining Moten on the first team was Pittsburg State guard Mikaela Burgess while Paige Redmond of Central Missouri earned second team honors.
2016-17 D2CCA Women’s Basketball All-Central Region Team Player of the Year Kelly Moten, Emporia State Sr. G Gary, IN
FIRST TEAM Kelly Moten, Emporia State Hailey Tucker, Southwestern Oklahoma State
Drew Sannes, MSU Moorhead Mikaela Burgess, Pittsburg State Miranda Ristau, Northern State
SECOND TEAM A’ndrea Haney, Harding
Sam Knecht, Sioux Falls
Anissa Pounds, Arkansas Tech Paige Redmond, Central Missouri Caroline Hogue, Harding
Fatal accident at the Goodyear Plant in Topeka early Tuesday morning-photo courtesy WIBW TV
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Federal workplace safety officials will investigate a contractor’s death at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Topeka.
Officials identified the victim of the Tuesday morning incident as 61-year-old James Lay Jr., a worker for Kansas Personnel Services Inc.
Goodyear and Kansas Personnel Services did not immediately offer details about circumstances involving Lay’s death.
Scott Allen, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said investigators with that agency were headed to the plant later Tuesday.
Weekly Overview
Gannon v. Kansas Supreme Court Ruling
Late last week, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled on the Gannon v. Kansas case, regarding the constitutional equity and adequacy of K-12 public education funding. The Court ruled that K-12 education funding is unconstitutional, and noted that 25 percent of all Kansas students aren’t meeting Rose Standards, a series of targets students must meet to be considered at “grade level.”
The Court’s ruling was broad and reaffirmed what the legislature already believed to be true: legislators are the state’s chief policy makers and money appropriators. While the Court did not specify how much, if any, additional money must be funneled into public schools to meet its standards of constitutional funding, the Court did mandate that the legislature create a new, equitable and adequate school finance formula by June 30, when the current block-grant funding formula expires.
It’s important to note that at the beginning of the year, the Kansas Senate set a self-imposed deadline to pass a structurally balanced budget that would, in turn, help create and fund an equitable school finance formula – all by the end of this legislative session. Senate President Wagle on Wednesday announced the creation of a Special Committee on Education Finance. The group of Senators assembled in this committee represent a diverse group from across the state – both rural and urban areas.
Senate Floor Action SB 175 – The Governor’s Tax Proposal
On Tuesday, the Kansas Senate debated and voted on Governor Brownback’s tax proposal to the legislature. This proposal included increasing the tobacco tax by $1.00 a pack, increasing the liquor tax from 8% to 16%, freezing the bottom tax rate at 2.7%, instead of allowing it to drop to 2.6% as written in 2012, increasing the annual report fee for all for-profit business entities from $40 to $200 beginning in FY 2018 (and requiring anyone who owns 5% or more of the business to pay a $200 fee) and requiring LLCs to pay taxes on passive income from rents and royalties. During floor action, a motion was offered to divide the bill into separate parts, requiring us to debate and vote on each piece separately. The bill was divided into five pieces, and on voice vote, the Senate voted down the first three provisions. Before the Senate could debate and vote on the final two provisions, there was a rarely-used motion to “strike the enacting clause,” which would essentially kill the bill. This motion passed 37-1.
While the Senate has been working on crafting other tax proposals, the Governor explicitly requested a ‘full and fair airing’ of his tax plan after the legislature presented and Governor Brownback vetoed HB 2178 last month. Based off that request, the Kansas Senate debated the Governor’s tax proposal.
Watch the next coming weeks for other tax bills including a flat single rate or a tax bill with multiple ideas combined with alternatives to the LLC provision in current law.
Pages for Session 2017 – February 23rd
Alex and Austin Kaufmann, Concordia and Grant and Gage Amerin, Clifton, paged on Thursday, February 23rd for the Kansas Senate. In addition to running errands for the Senators during session, they toured the Capitol on the Historic and Dome tours and worked in my office with Legislative Intern Micayla Pachta.
North Central Kansas Honor Flight – June 15-17, 2017
CHS honor students (guardians) again will be assisting the NCK Honor Flight riders to Washington DC. If you know a World War II or Korean Veteran who would like to be a Rider, please call Bev Mortimer at (785) 243-0836 for an application or additional information. Applications should be submitted by April 1st. There is NO charge for the veteran.
From the State Library
Consumer Health Complete covers all areas of health and wellness. Did your doctor prescribe a new medication? Recently diagnosed with diabetes? Look it up here. Designed for the everyday consumer, this online database offers popular reference books, medical encyclopedias, fact sheets, and magazine articles. This full text database covers topics such as aging, nutrition, cancer, fitness, drugs & alcohol, even yoga. You can find more information at https://kslib.info/ConHealth.
Thank You for Engaging
Thank you for all of your calls, emails, and letters regarding your thoughts and concerns about happenings in Kansas. Constituent correspondence helps inform my decision-making process and is taken into great consideration when I cast my vote in the Kansas Senate. As always, I’ll keep you updated on the activities of the Senate while we continue through the last few weeks before the break this spring. I always encourage you to stay informed of the issues under consideration by the Kansas Legislature. Committee schedules, bills, and other helpful information can be easily accessed through the legislature’s website at www.kslegislature.org. You are also able to ‘listen in live’ at this website. The House meets at 11:00AM and the Senate at 2:30. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. An email is the best at this point in the session.
Thank you for the honor of serving you!
Senator Elaine Bowers
Kansas State Capitol Building
Room 223-E
300 SW 10th St.
Topeka, KS 66612 [email protected]
785 296-7389
Sen. Elaine Bowers (R-Concordia) serves the 36th Dist. which includes Osborne, Rooks, Russell, and portions of Phillips counties.
This past weekend, I participated in legislative updates in Hays and Ellis along with receiving briefings and toured the wildfire damage in Ellis and Rooks counties. We owe a debt of gratitude to our volunteer fire fighters, first responders and other volunteers and staff who did a tremendous job in working the fire and protected people and property. Our thoughts and prayers also go out to the other counties who suffered losses of livestock, fences and buildings last week. At the time of this writing, all the fires have been contained and the cleanup and assessments are now underway. The outpouring of support from the areas not directly affected have been truly heartwarming, and it continues to strengthen us as a state and nation that neighbors continue to help neighbor in times of need.
In the Tax Committee, I introduced HB 2387, which is working its way through the legislative process. This bill would enact a sales tax exemption for certain properties destroyed by wildfires in 2017, much like the bill that was passed last year in response to the Anderson Creek fires in south central Kansas.
If you would like to support the efforts of recovery, here are a couple of places to start: The Kansas Livestock Association (kla.org) and Kansas Farm Bureau (kfb.org).
This past week the Appropriations Committee has been finalizing Budget Committee recommendations. The Committee received its last report on Monday March 13 and will begin to assemble the Mega Appropriations bill after that. The Committee has also received Efficiency Study Updates from the Budget Committees. These updates report what Alvarez and Marsal (A & M) projected for savings on the 105 recommendations in the study, specifically those in the purview for that committee. The updates note whether the recommendations have been implemented, if any savings have been realized and the amount realized, and any further comments from the Budget Committees.
The process has also begun on formulating a school finance funding formula. The Education Budget Committee received a briefing on the recent Gannon IV ruling. The Committee also continued looking at an important piece of school funding, at-risk funding. The Committee heard from the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and Legislative Post Audit (LPA). KSDE provided the costs associated with at-risk funding. Legislative Post Audit’s analysis described and evaluated the two measures for at-risk funding, free lunch and census based poverty counts. There will be several ideas on how to fund education in Kansas, the hope is something that will satisfy the adequacy portion of the Kansas Supreme Courts ruling.
During the session, my office is Room: 352-S. My phone number is: (785) 296- 7463 and email is: [email protected] and my cell number is (785) 302-8416. You can also follow along with what is going on through social media: kenforkansas on Facebook, @kenrahjes on twitter or my website: kenforkansas.com.
It is my honor to serve as your representative.
Ken Rahjes, (R-Agra), is the 110th District State Representative.
