WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is facing serious opposition before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which may not have enough votes to recommend him for confirmation because all Democrats, and at least one Republican, have said they will oppose him.

The full Senate is still expected to consider Pompeo’s nomination later this week. But the rare rebuke expected from the panel Monday, even after Pompeo’s recent visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, would be the first time in years that a nominee for the high-level Cabinet position did not receive a favorable committee vote.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the committee, blamed partisan politics for opposition to Pompeo, now the CIA director, saying Pompeo is just as qualified as past secretaries of state nominees Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, both of whom received overwhelming support.

“We are in an era where somebody like this, who is qualified, unfortunately, is likely to be voted out without recommendation or with a negative recommendation,” Corker said Sunday on “State of the Union” on CNN. “It’s just sad that our nation has devolved politically to this point.”

Pompeo’s confirmation before the full Senate now hangs in balance, with the votes of just a handful of senators determining whether he becomes the nation’s top diplomat after Trump fired Rex Tillerson last month.

Key Democrats, including some who had voted for Pompeo as CIA director last year, are peeling away, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky remains opposed, despite personal overtures from the president.

Pressure is mounting on senators from both sides. White House allies are unloading ad campaigns against Democrats from Trump-won states, including North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri, to vote for the president’s nominee. But progressive groups are pounding senators’ offices in opposition to Pompeo’s hawkish foreign policy views and negative comments about gay marriage and Muslims. As soon as Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., announced her support last week, one group called on her to switch.

“I don’t agree with every position he’s taken or every word he has spoken,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “But I believe he has an extensive knowledge of world affairs that has been enhanced by his time at the CIA.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who met with the nominee last week, “has concerns about Mr. Pompeo’s nomination to serve as secretary of state,” said spokesperson Ricki Eshman. The senator “is reviewing his record before making a final decision.”

In the committee, the opposition has been building ahead of Monday’s session.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was among the last Democrats on the panel to announce his no vote, said he’s is concerned that Pompeo “will embolden, rather than moderate or restrain” Trump’s “most belligerent and dangerous instincts.”

“I do not make this decision lightly or without reservations,” Coons said in a statement Friday. “However, I remain concerned that Director Pompeo will not challenge the President in critical moments. On vital decisions facing our country, Director Pompeo seems less concerned with rule of law and partnership with our allies and more inclined to emphasize unilateral action and the use of force.”

Rather than allow an unfavorable vote on the panel, where Republicans have a one-seat majority, senators could choose not to issue a recommendation if Pompeo cannot find enough backing.

The committee action won’t necessarily stall Pompeo’s confirmation before the full Senate, but it would be an unusual setback not seen since the panel took a pass on John Bolton, President George W. Bush’s pick for ambassador to the United Nations.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who has been among Pompeo’s most vocal champions in the Senate, lambasted his colleagues ahead of voting.

“Democrats, especially on the Foreign Relations Committee, are really engaged in shameful political behavior,” Cotton said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

But several Democratic senators who supported Pompeo for CIA director say Pompeo’s views are not reflective of those they want in the top diplomat.

___

RENO COUNTY — One person died in an accident during a chase just before 5:30 Sunday in Reno County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Suzuki motorcycle driven by Logan Cooper, 28, Wichita, was being pursued by KHP westbound on 4th Avenue East of Obee Road.

The motorcycle rear-ended a westbound 2001 Lexus driven by Scott Gray, 51, Wichita.Cooper was pronounced dead at the scene. He was not wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

Gray was possibly injured but the KHP did not report where he was treated. The KHP did not release details on what prompted the chase.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A homeless man has been convicted in the stabbing and beating death of a Springfield woman whose body was found stuffed underneath a mattress at her home.

Jurors found 41-year-old Andrew Jensen guilty Thursday of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the 2015 death of Kathi Jones.

Jensen and Jones were friends, and she sometimes let him sleep in her van. His DNA was found on a cigarette and bloody clothing. But the defense said some of Jensen’s blood found at the home came from him crawling through a window and cutting his arm when Jones got locked out days before her death.

Pratt County Kansas Undersheriff Max Barrett, who shot out one of Jensen’s eyes during a 1994 gunfight, was among those to testify.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas fraternity leaders say they are developing plans to reduce hazing and dangerous drinking.

The new initiative comes about a month after a freeze on the fraternities’ social activities was enacted and then quickly revoked after fraternity leaders complained.

The new plan will require fraternities to reform recruitment and pledging processes at the 24 chapters. It will also require chapters to meet with university administrators yearly to review progress.

That action came after several houses were sanctioned this semester for hazing and drinking.

The new initiative also will require fraternities to revise programs for new members, undergo substance abuse education, ban hard liquor at houses and limit the number of guests at social events.

Information on how policies will be enforced wasn’t released.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – The family of a man whose body sat in a Kansas City International Airport parking lot for months is suing the company responsible for monitoring vehicles in the lot.

The Kansas City Star reports that Randy Potter’s widow and children sued SP+ Corp. and two of its employees Friday. The lawsuit accuses the Delaware-based company of causing the family “extreme trauma and emotional distress.”

Airport police found Potter’s body in September in a pickup truck, when someone called to report a bad smell. Potter’s parking pass was dated Jan. 17. Police said it appeared Potter committed suicide.

The lawsuit says the family provided SP+ employees a description of Potter’s truck and license plate about a week after he disappeared and were assured that if Potter’s truck were in the lot, it would soon be found.

SP+ attorney Jan Paul Miller said the company would be “vigorously defending the suit.”

KANSAS CITY – A Romanian national has been charged in federal court related to a scheme to covertly steal and utilize illicitly obtained debit card data by placing skimming devices on ATMs inside QuikTrip stores in Olathe, Kan., and Riverside, Mo, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City.

David Velcu, also known as Luca Antoni, 23, a citizen and national of Romania residing in Anaheim, Calif., was charged in a criminal complaint filed Thursday, April 19, 2018, in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. Velcu remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on April 24, 2018.

The federal criminal complaint alleges that Velcu, with the intent to defraud, possessed unauthorized access devices – approximately 78 re-encoded magnetic strip gift cards.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, a manager at an Olathe QuikTrip store noticed on April 7, 2018, that a metal piece was not sitting evenly along the card slot of the ATM. He subsequently pushed the metal piece with a key and it popped out of the card slot. Upon doing so, he noticed that one side of the metal was a mag strip reader and a circuit board was glued to the reverse side of the metal. There was also a piece of molded plastic fascia with pinhole camera that was applied directly above the keyboard designed to capture Personal Identification Numbers (PIN’s) of unwitting victims. Footage from the store’s surveillance cameras captured two unidentified juveniles responsible for placing the skimming device earlier that day.

Velcu entered the store later on the same date, the affidavit says. He wore a jacket exactly like one of the two unidentified suspects, and proceeded directly to the ATM, which had signage indicating that it was “Out-of-Service.” After staring at the ATM for an unusual amount of time, the affidavit says, Velcu purchased some food items and left the store in a sliver Audi A6 with California license plates. Surveillance video captured the same vehicle in a nearby parking lot where the two juvenile suspects had been seen earlier that morning.

Investigators used the license plates on the Audi A6 to identify the vehicle’s owner, Velcu (using the alias of Luca Antoni). Investigators determined the vehicle had recently had an oil change in Independence, Mo., and an employee of the business identified Velcu from a photo obtained from the QuikTrip surveillance camera. An Olathe, Kan., police detective then drove to several motels in the area on the hunch that perhaps he might be able to locate the suspect vehicle in a motel parking lot. The detective found Velcu’s vehicle in the parking lot of American Inn in Independence.

According to the affidavit, the motel manager told investigators that a large group of Romanians had checked into the motel on April 8, 2018, and that the group had three vehicles.

On April 9, 2018, an ATM skimmer device configuration was discovered at a QuikTrip in Riverside, Mo.

On April 10, 2018, Velcu, one of the juvenile suspects from the Olathe QuikTrip surveillance video, and an unidentified woman (with an infant) walked out of the hotel and left in Velcu’s vehicle. Officers stopped the vehicle. Velcu initially presented a counterfeit Italian driver’s license, but officers later located his Romanian ID card. The woman told officers that she is Velcu’s wife, and the unidentified juvenile suspect (who had a Romanian ID card) is her brother; she and her brother entered the United States illegally via the Mexican border over a year ago.

Officers searched the vehicle and found three re-encoded mag strip cards with stickers on the front depicting 4-digit codes, three tubes of Super Glue, and two small crowbars. Upon deploying a card reader to ascertain the track 2 data on the mag strips, investigators ascertained that each one of them contained a different 16-digit account number than the 16-digit number embossed on the cards.
One of the other vehicles that arrived with the group of Romanians, bearing a temporary Texas tag, pulled in the motel’s parking lot soon afterward. The driver of the vehicle initially presented a counterfeit Italian driver’s license but officers later located a genuine Republic of Ireland passport with a photo that matches the driver. Officers searched the vehicle and found re-encoded gift cards with 4-digit stickers applied, surface skimmers, circuit boards, gray and silver paint for fascia plates, memory cards, lithium battery packs, super glue and cutting tools.

Officers searched Velcu’s motel room and found 78 re-encoded gift cards, memory chips/cards, circuit boards, super glue, plastic fascia plates, lithium battery packs, cutting tools, cables, and three laptop computers. In this case, 16-digit account numbers were put onto plastic magnetic strip gift cards in order to fraudulently apply credits derived from various bank Visa debit card checking accounts. In addition, each of the plastic magnetic strip cards had a circular sticker applied to the front suggesting the corresponding PIN affiliated with the 16-digit re-encoded account number on the magnetic stip. Both elements are necessary in order to steal cash from ATMs.

The charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.