GALENA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a rapper who fled from a southeast Kansas traffic stop and feuded with police on Facebook brought along doughnuts when he surrendered.

The feud started after two people bailed from a vehicle that a Galena officer attempted to stop Sunday for speeding. Police posted screenshots of Tyrone Amos’ Facebook page in which he described himself hiding in a bush afterward. The department also changed its profile picture to a bush.

After Amos surrendered Wednesday with doughnuts, the department again changed its profile picture to a selfie of an officer with a man in handcuffs.

Amos was booked into the county jail on a $1,500 bond. The post ended with “One of ya’ll need to go #FreeM3GAPHON3,” a reference to Amos’ rap name.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have made an arrest.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on Monday, police responded to a burglary call at Bingo Casino, 2431 East Mount Vernon in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, Officers located damage to the front glass doors of the business.  An investigation revealed there were three unknown suspects. They arrived at the business in a 1990’s Chevy 2500 extended cab pickup truck, with black lower trim and black zebra stripes on the sides.

Two of the suspects entered the business by breaking the front glass doors, and put a tow cable around an ATM.  The truck then backed through the front doors and pulled the ATM through the front doors

The suspects then loaded the ATM onto the truck and fled.

On Wednesday, police arrested a 25-year-old man and a 53-year-old man in connection with the burglary, according to Davidson.

The case will be presented to the United States Attorney’s Office, according to Davidson.

WICHITA – A Kansas man was charged in federal court today with making a deal to buy two tiger pelts in violation of the federal Lacey Act, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Ret Thach, 38, Wichita, is charged with one count of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits interstate sale or purchase of animals that are covered bythe Endangered Species Act.

In court documents, investigators allege Thach reached an agreement to pay $8,000 for two tiger pelts to be delivered to him in Wichita. Thach also agreed to pay traveling expenses for a seller from Wisconsin to drive to Wichita to deliver the pelts. Thach did not know that the seller was an agent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service working undercover.

According to court records, the agent informed Thach that selling the pelts across state lines was “absolutely illegal.” Thach told the agent he already owned “a lion and a lot of bears” and wanted to go ahead with the deal to buy the tiger pelts. Thach said he wanted the pelts for his home office.

If convicted, Thach faces a penalty of up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster is prosecuting.

By Madeline Fox

Children entering the Kansas foster care system will soon have a new short-term place to stay in Kansas City.

With kids sleeping in their offices several nights a month, KVC Kansas, one of the state’s two foster care contractors, has been looking to open some sort of crisis center for the past year.

KVC had initially planned to open a basic shelter in January, but then realized that wouldn’t be enough. The kids most likely to be without a family member or a foster home to go to were kids with more serious behavioral or mental health problems.

The hospital arm of KVC’s  parent company is setting up and licensing a facility equipped to handle kids who might be violent or prone to run away. The new youth residential center will provide mental health services and 24-hour supervision. The facility is scheduled to open later this month.

They’ve already got a space for boys, so the new space will be a comfortable spot for up to 20 girls.

In preparation, Vanessa Brouillette, KVC Hospitals’ operations coordinator, has been choosing paint colors, spreading bright comforters over twin beds, and screwing the legs onto cozy couches and chairs.

The entryway, she said, will be a “big, open, welcoming space.”

Carla Drescher, CEO of the Blue Door Project that will be operating the new youth center for KVC Hospitals, said she’s seeing more kids with intense needs than when she started working in child welfare more than 25 years ago.

“When I think back to when I first started in the field, it’s night and day, as far as the acuity level,” she said.

That’s been reflected in long waiting lists for psychiatric residential treatment facilities, which provide more intensive psychiatric treatment. Kids on the waitlist have typically ended up in centers like the one to be opened in Kansas City, Kansas. When there isn’t enough room there, some have spent a night or two in an office.

Stays in the new youth residential center will also likely be longer than in a shelter like KVC had initially envisioned, where less than a week would be the norm.

KVC is also shifting its plans for a shelter in Wichita to reflect higher acuity needs. Instead, KVC Hospitals will be opening a pediatric psychiatric hospital with more than 50 beds in that city in early 2019.

There are more than 7,500 kids in the Kansas foster care system, a number that has increased more than 40 percent since 2005. KVC spokeswoman Jenny Kutz said the tremendous jump has pushed the organization to consider more group housing options, something KVC has historically shied away from.

“We’re not in the shelter business, historically — we built our reputation on caring for kids in family homes,” she said. “We just saw this need.”

In the mid-1990s, 30 percent of children in the state’s foster care system were in group settings, including basic shelters, youth residential centers, and psychiatric treatment facilities. That fell to a low of 4.4 percent in 2013, but that share has started to tick up again. About 7.8 percent of the foster care population, 596 kids, were in group settings in May.

“This is a great solution for now,” Kutz said of the new Kansas City youth residential center. “But ultimately, as communities, as a state, we want to reduce the number of children who need foster care and find ways to care for them in their own home communities before they even get to this point.”

The Department for Children and Families is putting more emphasis on keeping families together with its new child welfare grants, which the agency opened for bids last week. In contrast to the current contracts where the same agencies handle both foster care and family preservation, under the grant structure each region will have an agency dedicated solely to that effort.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former employee of the Wichita YMCA who is accused of sexually assaulting two young girls at the center will go to trial this summer.

Caleb Gaston on Thursday waived his preliminary hearing. He’s accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl and of raping a 4-year-old girl, both in January.

His trial was scheduled for July 23.

The alleged assaults happened in the Kid Zone at the downtown YMCA branch.

Gaston remains jailed on $1.1 million bond.

Gaston’s attorney, Steve Ariagno, has said that Gaston denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating another scam

On Tuesday, a 28-year-old McPherson man having trouble with his iPhone went to the AT&T Store in Salina, according to Sgt. James Feldman.

Store employees told the man to contact Apple support. The victim told police he went online, found a number and called what he believed to be support services.

The scammer told the victim he could upgrade his phone but would need to purchase iTunes gift card. The man spent $2,000 on the cards and provided the security pin numbers for the cards, according to Feldman.

After no resolution to the phone issue, the victim suspected a scam and contacted police.