WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A law enforcement initiative is prioritizing federal prosecutions of repeat offenders and convicted criminals who carry firearms in Garden City and Wichita.

The Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative is bringing federal prosecutors together with local and state law enforcement agencies in the two cities where the violent crime rate is higher than the state average of 3.7 per 1,000 people. The 2017 report from the Kansas Bureau of Investigations shows that compares to a rate of 5.1 in Garden City and 10.6 in Wichita.

U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister says both cities have reported increased gang activity that fuels violent crime.

McAllister says he recently received authorization from the Justice Department to hire two new federal prosecutors in Kansas to concentrate on violent crime cases, including a surge of them in Topeka.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are demanding answers after protesters were locked out of the Statehouse last week.

Top leaders from both parties directed the director of Legislative Administrative Services to prepare a report during a meeting Wednesday. They want answers about when security officials can lock people out of the Statehouse and who has the authority to make such a decision.

Issues arose June 18 when officers locked the public entrance doors to the Visitors Center, preventing protesters with the Poor People’s Campaign and others from entering the building. Protesters with the group had been arrested for refusing to disperse during previous protests at the Statehouse.

House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. says it’s important to get answers because the Capitol is the “people’s house.”

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A professor at Miami University in Ohio has been indicted on charges of traveling to Kansas City to have sex with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

The U.S. attorney’s office says federal grand jurors returned the indictment Tuesday against 52-year-old Kevin Connor Armitage, who is a professor of American Studies. The indictment replaces a criminal complaint that was filed in May.

Court records say an FBI employee was monitoring a website on which prostitution is discussed when Armitage indicted he would be visiting the Kansas City area and asked for a recommendation. Armitage was offered the phone number of a different FBI employee who posed as the teen. The records say Armitage was arrested when he went to a restaurant where he had arranged to meet the teen’s cousin.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — One of President Donald Trump’s sons will be in Kansas next month to support Republican Kris Kobach’s bid for governor.

Donald Trump Jr. will attend a fundraiser on July 17 in Wichita in support of Kobach, who is currently secretary of state. Specific details about the location of the event have not been disclosed.

One dinner ticket will cost $100, and a ticket for a VIP reception before dinner will cost $500.

Trump Jr. also campaigned with Kobach in Overland Park in November.

Kobach is seeking the Republican nomination in a race that includes Gov. Jeff Colyer, Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer and former state Sen. Jim Barnett.

GREENWOOD COUNTY— The National Weather Service says the tornado that ripped through the Kansas town of Eureka carried winds of at least 136 mph.

The weather service on Wednesday determined that the twister was an EF-3. The tornado touched down Tuesday in Eureka, a town of about 2,400 residents in southeastern Kansas.

Eight people were injured, two critically. Nearly 80 homes were damaged and at least 10 were destroyed. The high school also was damaged.

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GREENWOOD COUNTY —The State Emergency Operations Center continues to coordinate response to Eureka after an E-3 tornado struck the city on June 26.   Security remained on-site overnight.

Governor Dr. Jeff Colyer traveled to Eureka Thursday to tour the damage. He visited with local authorities on the response and recovery efforts.

According to officials, 78 homes were damaged in the tornado. Ten are a total loss.  Eight people were injured and two were critically injured.

Some pictures from my visit to Eureka: pic.twitter.com/5Cx21YfO1O

— Governor Jeff Colyer (@GovJeffColyer) June 28, 2018

On Thursday, volunteers began a city wide cleanup at 7 a.m. Volunteers should check in at the Matt Samuels Community Building before starting cleanup.

Westar Energy is reporting 2,800 customers still without power and they are actively working to restore power to all customers.  Westar reports that in storms, sometimes the hardware that houses the electric meter and the wires that feed electricity into a home or business can become detached. This is the square metal box and connecting pole on the side of the house or building. If the hardware is damaged, Westar cannot reconnect the service line between the house and the power grid because it’s not safe. The homeowner is responsible for hiring an electrician to make these repairs before power can be restored to the residence.

The American Red Cross shelter remains open at the Methodist Church, 521 N. Main Street, and is also serving as a cooling station for residents.  The Red Cross and Operation BBQ are providing mobile canteen operations on site.  The American Red Cross is also providing cooling tents for volunteers on-site.

 

 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City chiropractor has surrendered his medical license as a state board investigates sexual abuse reports.

Overland Park, Kansas, chiropractor Christopher L. Pounds made the decision to surrender his license last week after it was suspended on an emergency basis in May. The suspension came after a female patient reported abuse and got a protection order from a judge because she said she feared he would retaliate.

A subsequent order issued last week said the board had received information from two of the chiropractor’s patients “who independently reported similar instances of sexual abuse, misconduct and/or improper sexual contact.”

The chiropractor admitted no wrongdoing in surrendering his license but agreed that the board had enough evidence to prove he had violated the medical board’s rules.

By MADELINE FOX

Immigrant children taken to Kansas after being separated from their families are on their way to being reunited with loved ones.

A federal judge in San Diego on Tuesday night ordered that kids separated from their families under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy must be reunited with those adults within 30 days. That’s already happened for more than half of the separated kids staying at a shelter in Topeka.

Kansas House Minority Leader Jim Ward met with the executive director of The Villages, the Topeka shelter, Wednesday morning. She told him all but three of the nine or 10 kids it had taken in who were separated from family at the border had been reunited with family. They’ve been placed with either the family members they were separated from or other relatives in the U.S. who could take them in.

The remaining three children all have contact information for family members, so Ward said he’s confident they’ll also be in a home soon.

“For the forced removal children,” Ward said, “this seems to be winding down.”

The California judge also said in his ruling that parents are entitled to speak with their children within 10 days. Ward said all the kids staying at The Villages have already been able to call their parents.

The Villages began taking in children who had crossed into the United States alone or without a relative in February 2017. Ward said the shelter has taken in about 190 children in 16 months.

That shelter has also been working to place those unaccompanied kids with relatives or sponsors in this country. Executive Director Sylvia Crawford said that process has taken anywhere from three weeks to five months.

The organization first began seeing kids in recent weeks who came into the country with relatives, but were separated from them and sent to shelters such as The Villages while those family members were prosecuted.

Barry Grissom, a former U.S. attorney for Kansas, has been assembling a team of lawyers, paralegals and legal secretaries to help reunite the separated kids in Topeka with family members.

He spoke Tuesday with Clare Murphy Shaw, the attorney representing the separated children at The Villages.

She has been representing children at The Villages since July 2017, both unaccompanied minors and the more recent arrivals who were separated from their families. Shaw said in an email that she sees each child within 10 days of their arrival at the Kansas shelter to provide legal consultation and a “Know Your Rights” presentation.

Grissom said he offered his volunteer team of lawyers and legal staff to help Shaw represent the kids at The Villages.

Grissom said he was impressed with the care and legal help those children were getting.

“If you would have to be detained some place, this is the best place for a child to be detained, given the infrastructure that exists and the care and compassion of the people who are administering that,” Grissom said.

Ward and other Democratic lawmakers plan to visit The Villages next week to see how children are faring in its care.

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