HARPER COUNTY —An earthquake shook portions of south-central Kansas Monday. The quake at 5:21 p.m. measured a magnitude 3.1 and was centered approximately eight miles northeast of Harper, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A 4.0 quake shook residents in Crescent, OK., approximately 2 hours south of Harper on Friday, according to the USGS.

Monday’s quake is the first in Kansas since a pair of quakes in Reno and Saline County on June 4.

There are no damage or injuries reported from Monday’s quake.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Relatives of a woman who died in a Douglas County jail cell have lost their federal wrongful death lawsuit against the county and the sheriff.

Joseph Harvey, the father of 32-year-old Rachel Hammers, sued on behalf of Hammers’ three children after she died in the county jail in May 2012.

A jury returned its verdict Friday after a two-week trial.

The lawsuit alleged Hammers died because of the defendants’ disregard for her medical conditions and faulty medical practices.

The county argued jail staff followed protocol and said Hammers had a medical condition that was not readily apparent.

Hammers suffered from chronic alcoholism and a history of seizures, high blood pressure and alcohol withdrawal. She was in jail for failing to appear on a parole violation charge.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A man already imprisoned in Kansas for child sexual abuse has been convicted of sexually assaulting two victims in Missouri, including a 5-year-old who was assaulted at Fort Leonard Wood.

A federal jury found 39-year-old Craig Ralston, of Emporia, Kansas, guilty on Friday of aggravated sexual abuse of a child younger than 12 and of crossing state lines with intent to commit rape.

Ralston is currently jailed in Kansas after pleading no contest to two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child in a 2009 case.

Ralston was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood when he sexually abused a 5-year-old child. Prosecutors say he also raped an 18-year-old several times in Kansas City in 2008 and also raped her in Knoxville, Tennessee. Ralston has been discharged from the military.

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to 24 months in federal prison for robbing a health club, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

George Bernard Phelps, III, 31, Topeka,pleaded guilty to one count of robbery. In his plea, he admitted that on Nov. 24, 2017, he and another man robbed the Genesis Health Club at 2909 Southwest 37th Street in Topeka.

A Genesis employee came upon the two defendants in the lobby of the business while they were attempting to pry open a box used for money deposits by members of the club. Phelps told the employee the robbers did not want trouble and instructed him to wait in an adjacent room. Phelps stood in the doorway of the room with his hand in the waistband of his pants as if he had a gun. The defendants removed cash and checks from the box and then fled.

When police arrived, an employee told officers that one of the robbers resembled a former employee of the business. Investigators identified co-defendant Lesley Jamar Terrell, Jr., 34, Topeka, Kan., a prior employee of the club who worked as an overnight maintenance worker. Terrell pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 28 months in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Undaunted and unapologetic, President Donald Trump defended his administration’s border-protection policies Monday in the face of rising national outrage over the forced separation of migrant children from their parents. Tough action is needed to fight illegal immigration, he declared and the U.S. “will not be a migrant camp” on his watch.

While I firmly support enforcing our immigration laws, I am against using parental separation as a deterrent to illegal immigration. My concern, first and foremost, is the protection of the children.

— Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) June 18, 2018

Besides, the Democrats are to blame, not him, Trump insisted as images of children held in fenced cages fueled a growing chorus of condemnation from both political parties, four former first ladies and national evangelical leaders. The children are being held separately from parents who have been arrested under the administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings.

“I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault,” Trump said Monday, citing more lenient policies that had not charged all migrants who had crossed illegally. Republican lawmakers are growing ever more concerned about negative effects on their re-election campaigns this fall, and Trump was to travel to Capitol Hill Tuesday for a strategy session on possible legislation.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the family separation issue, language curbing the taking of immigrant children from parents held in custody will be added to the House’s conservative immigration bill, one House GOP aide said Monday, A similar provision is already in a compromise GOP immigration measure between party conservatives and moderates, with the House expected to vote on both late this week.

The administration is hoping to force Democrats to vote for the bills or bear some of the political cost in November’s midterm elections.

In the meantime, the administration says it doesn’t like the family separations either but migrants who arrive illegally simply won’t be released or loosely kept track of.

“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” he declared. “Not on my watch.”

Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new “zero-tolerance” policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. Prior procedure had limited prosecution for many family entrants, in part because regulations prohibit detaining children with their parents since the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected criticism accusing her department of inhuman and immoral actions.

“We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” she said in an appearance before the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans. “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.”

The policy change was meant to deter unlawful crossings — and Sessions issued a warning last month to those entering the U.S. illegally that their children “inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.”

That’s why I’m demanding that Attorney General Sessions halt the practice of family separation at the border immediately as Congress works toward legislative solutions. pic.twitter.com/4Ep86WJfRU

— Rep. Kevin Yoder (@RepKevinYoder) June 18, 2018

The current holding areas have drawn widespread attention after journalists gained access to one site Sunday. At a McAllen, Texas, detention center hundreds of immigrant children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets.

Sessions, on Monday, echoed the administration’s defense of the policy, and called on Congress to act.

“We do not want to separate parents from their children,” he said. “If we build the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, we won’t face these terrible choices.”

White House officials have privately embraced the policy as negotiating tactic to win votes for legislation to fulfil the president’s pledge to build a border wall and to tighten the nation’s immigration laws.

Trump’s commitment to the current policy showed no sign of faltering as voices of outrage and condemnation grew louder and more diverse.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, a longtime Trump ally, called the policy “disgraceful.” Several religious groups, including some conservative ones, have pushed to stop the practice of separating immigrant children from their parents, and former first lady Laura Bush called it “cruel” and “immoral.”

On Capitol Hill, Republicans joined Democrats in calling for an end to the separations. Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton called for an immediate end to this “ugly and inhumane practice,” adding, “It’s never acceptable to use kids as bargaining chips in political process.” And Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts said he is “against using parental separation as a deterrent to illegal immigration.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The emotional policy of separating children from their parents is also starting to divide Republicans and their allies as Democrats turn up the pressure.

Former first lady Laura Bush called the policy “cruel” and “immoral” while GOP Sen. Susan Collins expressed concern about it and a former adviser to President Donald Trump said he thought the issue was going to hurt the president at some point. Religious groups, including some conservative ones, are protesting.

We just had a moment of silence for these families. You are loved and we are here for you. #JusticeOnFathersDay #FamiliesBelongTogether pic.twitter.com/N5XIc1li3z

— People’s Action (@PplsAction) June 17, 2018

Mrs. Bush made some of the strongest comments yet about the policy from the Republican side of the aisle.

“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” she wrote in a guest column for the Washington Post Sunday. She compared it to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, which she called “one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she favors tighter border security, but expressed deep concerns about the child separation policy.

“What the administration has decided to do is to separate children from their parents to try to send a message that if you cross the border with children, your children are going to be ripped away from you,” she said. “That’s traumatizing to the children who are innocent victims, and it is contrary to our values in this country.”

Former Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci said in a weekend interview that the child separation interview could be dangerous for Trump. He said the president “should be immediately fixing this problem.”

“This is a fuse that has been lit,” he said. “The president is going to get hurt by this issue if it stays out there very, very long.”

The signs of splintering of GOP support come after longtime Trump ally, the Rev. Franklin Graham, called the policy “disgraceful.” Numerous religious groups, including some conservative ones, have pushed to stop the practice of separating immigrant children from their parents.

This pressure is coming as White House officials have tried to distance themselves from the policy. Trump blames Democrats falsely for the situation. The administration put the policy in place and could easily end it after it has led to a spike in cases of split and distraught families.

“Nobody likes” breaking up families and “seeing babies ripped from their mothers’ arms,” said presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway.

Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new “zero-tolerance” policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. U.S. protocol prohibits detaining children with their parents because the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.

Trump plans to meet with House Republicans on Tuesday to discuss pending immigration legislation amid an election-season debate over one of his favorite issues. The House is expected to vote this week on a bill pushed by conservatives that may not have enough support to pass, and a compromise measure with key proposals supported by the president. The White House has said Trump would sign either of those.

Conway rejected the idea that Trump was using the kids as leverage to force Democrats to negotiate on immigration and his long-promised border wall, even after Trump tweeted Saturday: “Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!”

Asked whether the president was willing to end the policy, she said: “The president is ready to get meaningful immigration reform across the board.”

To Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the administration is “using the grief, the tears, the pain of these kids as mortar to build our wall. And it’s an effort to extort a bill to their liking in the Congress.”

Schiff said the practice was “deeply unethical” and that Republicans’ refusal to criticize Trump represented a “sad degeneration” of the GOP, which he said had become “the party of lies.”

“There are other ways to negotiate between Republicans and Democrats. Using children, young children, as political foils is abhorrent,” said Sen Jack Reed, D-R.I.

Even first lady Melania Trump, who has tended to stay out of contentious policy debates, waded into the emotional issue. Her spokeswoman says that Mrs. Trump believes “we need to be a country that follows all laws,” but also one “that governs with heart.”

“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.

The House proposals face broad opposition from Democrats, and even if a bill does pass, the closely divided Senate seems unlikely to go along.

Trump’s former chief strategist said Republicans would face steep consequences for pushing the compromise bill because it provides a path to citizenship for young “Dreamer” immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Steve Bannon argued that effort risked alienating Trump’s political base and contributing to election losses in November, when Republicans hope to preserve their congressional majorities.

Conway and Schiff appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Collins was on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Lujan and Bannon spoke on ABC’s “This Week,” and Scaramucci was on Fox 11 in Los Angeles.

By DAN MARGOLIES

A Kansas law prohibiting lawsuits based on “wrongful birth” claims is constitutional, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The measure, which Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law in 2013, protects physicians from malpractice suits if they withhold or fail to provide information about fetal abnormalities that might lead the mother to get an abortion.

The court ruled in a case brought by Alysia R. Tillman and Storm Fleetwood, whose daughter was born with severe brain defects. They sued their physician, Katherine A. Goodpasture, claiming her failure to make a correct diagnosis denied them the right to make an informed decision on whether to terminate the pregnancy.

The couple argued that the 2013 law violated their right to a jury trial under the Kansas Constitution. The trial court disagreed and threw the case out.

In upholding the trial court, the appeals court pointed out there was no right to sue for wrongful birth in 1859 when the Kansas Constitution was adopted. And, it said, the Constitution’s right to a jury trial only applies to claims that existed at that time.

“We are duty bound to interpret a statute as being constitutional, if possible, to maintain the Legislature’s apparent intent,” a three-judge panel of the court ruled in an opinion written by Judge Kim R. Schroeder.

The Kansas Legislature enacted the 2013 statute 23 years after the Kansas Supreme Court, in a case called Arche v. United States of America, recognized wrongful birth as a legal claim.

Tillman and Fleetwood tried to argue that the Supreme Court merely recognized a form of negligence, a legal claim that did exist in 1859. But in its decision, the Kansas Court of Appeals disagreed, saying that the Supreme Court had established a new claim.

Tillman’s and Fleetwood’s attorneys could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who intervened in the case to defend the law, did not return a phone call and email seeking comment.

Kansas is one of about a dozen states that have passed laws protecting doctors who don’t give women all available information about their pregnancies. Another 25 states allow doctors to be sued for wrongful births.

A Texas bill that would have prohibited wrongful birth actions failed to pass last year after running into opposition from abortion-rights supporters. They claimed the law could induce doctors morally opposed to abortion to lie to their patients about the health of their fetuses.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies

TOPEKA – Kansas has asked to join in a legal challenge to an immigration-related program established without approval of Congress by the Obama administration, according to Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Gov. Jeff Colyer.

Kansas has moved to join as a plaintiff in the Texas-led, 10-state challenge to the legality of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Texas filed the lawsuit in May, and Kansas joined last week after Congress failed for months to address the status of the “Dreamers” – migrants brought unlawfully to the United States as children through no fault of their own.

Gov. Colyer asked the attorney general to join in the legal challenge.

“The nation is still suffering from the effects of the Obama administration’s complete disregard for the rule of law and constitutional checks and balances,” Colyer said. “We fought back successfully on issues like Waters of the U.S. and the Lesser Prairie Chicken, and this new lawsuit continues our efforts to roll back the executive overreach of the Obama era.”

Schmidt said he had delayed in hope Congress would step up and address the situation, bringing clarity to what should be done. But Congress has so far failed to do so.

“We have waited for Congress as long as we could,” Schmidt said. “But with congressional inaction, we must enforce the law as it is. Under our Constitution, no president has the authority to unilaterally rewrite or suspend the law. Perhaps a successful lawsuit will help motivate Congress finally to fix this mess. I hope so.”

In 2014, Kansas joined in a successful legal challenge to other parts of President Obama’s unilateral immigration executive actions. A federal court in Texas found the president’s 2014 expansion of DACA and a related program, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), to be unlawful. That finding was sustained by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and in 2016 was left intact by an equally divided U.S. Supreme Court before Justice Neil Gorsuch was appointed.

In response to that court case, the Trump Administration concluded DACA similarly was unlawfully created without congressional authority and announced plans to rescind it while simultaneously asking Congress to address the matter. But DACA supporters filed suit, and courts in California and other states blocked the administration’s rollback of the program.

The result, Schmidt said, is a legal and political morass.

“The ‘Dreamers’ are a sympathetic group, but only Congress has authority to help them,” Schmidt said. “President Obama’s decision to ignore the law and rule by decree resulted in the cruel illusion of a DACA program that cannot lawfully exist. Surely the government can – indeed, must – stop operating a program that was illegally created in the first place.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice told the Texas court it agrees with the states that DACA is illegal in the absence of authorization from Congress.

The case is captioned State of Texas, et al. v. United States, Case No. 1:18-cv-68, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division. A copy of the states’ lawsuit is available here.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Vowing to reclaim U.S. leadership in space, President Donald Trump announced Monday he is directing the Pentagon to create a new “Space Force” as an independent service branch aimed at ensuring American supremacy in space.

Watch the announcement here.

Trump envisioned a bright future for the U.S. space program, pledging to revive the country’s flagging efforts, return to the moon and eventually send a manned mission that would reach Mars. The president framed space as a national security issue, saying he does not want “China and Russia and other countries leading us.”

“My administration is reclaiming America’s heritage as the world’s greatest spacefaring nation,” Trump said in the East Room, joined by members of his space council. “The essence of the American character is to explore new horizons and to tame new frontiers.”

Trump had previously suggested the possibility of creating a space unit that would include portions equivalent to parts of the Air Force, Army and Navy. But his directive will task the Defense Department to begin the process of establishing the ‘Space Force’ as the sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces. He said the new branch’s creation will be overseen by Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” Trump said. He added: “We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal.”

The president also used the White House event to establish a new policy for reducing satellite clutter in space. The policy calls for providing a safe and secure environment up in orbit, as satellite traffic increases. It also sets up new guidelines for satellite design and operation, to avoid collisions and spacecraft breakups.

Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the recently revived space council, as well as several Cabinet members, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, retired astronauts and scientists.

The council’s executive secretary, Scott Pace, told reporters before the meeting that space is becoming increasingly congested and current guidelines are inadequate to address the challenge.

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