By Dewey Terrill

GEARY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities, emergency personnel and Milford State Park officials responded to a potential drowning call at Milford lake Thursday afternoon.  But after responding and investigating there was good news, a drowning did not occur.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf said the 911 call on the potential drowning off the Eagle Ridge area in the State park area came in during just after 1:30p.m.

Authorities located some people caught in the thunderstorm that moved through the area. “Their boat got blown into the beach down there. One of the individuals fell out of the boat. ”

When they separated and moved away from the boat to get up on the shoreline they lost eye contact with the individual who fell in the water. “However he came wandering up shortly after Deputies responded to the scene. So there was no drowning, thank goodness, but there were six individuals that in the boat.”

Wolf said the person who had fallen into the water had fallen on the opposite side of the boat from the others so they could not see him.

Emergency Management confirmed the people on the boat ranged from youth to adult.

JOHNSON COUNTY  —One person died in an accident just before 10a.m. Thursday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Honda Civic driven by Landon M. Daniel, 18, Lenexa, was westbound on Kansas 10 at Ridgewiew in the No. 1 lane.

The driver was not able to stop in time when traffic came to a halt and collided with a 2017 GMC Sierra driven by Scott R. Collins, 54, Lenexa.   The collision pushed the GMC into a 2008 Chevy Utility vehicle driven by Mark W. Montgomery, 58, Monett, Missouri.

Daniel was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical where he died.  Collins was transported to Shawnee Mission Medical Center.  Montgomery was not injured.  All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

RILEY COUNTY — A Kansas man faces up to 50-years in prison in the 2017 shooting that left one man dead and another wounded.

On Thursday, a Riley County jury found 39-year-old Steven Harris of Manhattan guilty of second-degree murder with intention, attempted second-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm for the 2017 death of 39-year-old German Gonzalez-Garcia, according to Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson.

The shooting in the 2800 Block of Nelson’s Landing in Manhattan also critically wounded Adrian Ortega. He recovered in a Topeka hospital

Four days after the shooting, police located and arrested Harris and a girlfriend identified as 37-year-old Cora Brown at a motel in Wichita.

Prosecutors originally charged Harris with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. The jury determined Harris had no premeditation, according to Wilkerson.

Considering his criminal history, Harris faces  a minimum of 592 months, according to Wilkerson.

Harris has previous convictions for second-degree intentional murder in Franklin County, aggravated battery, aggravated weapons, felon in possession of a firearm and three drug convictions.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 27.

By MADELINE FOX

A new system for hiring agencies to coordinate adoptions and foster care placements in Kansas will continue to let some groups cite religious beliefs to exclude some prospective parents — including gay couples.

The Department for Children and Families earlier this week had left lawmakers confused about whether a new grant system would extend those religious protections to the agencies taking over statewide foster care and family preservation contracts.

Agency officials on Wednesday said that some organizations won’t be able to impose their religious thinking when choosing parents, but that some still retain that power.

A law signed into effect this spring underscored the ability of the faith-based standards — promoted as a way to draw more agencies into the process.

DCF spokeswoman Taylor Forrest said none of the companies with grants to manage wide-ranging child welfare on behalf of the state can use the religious exemption to turn away families.

Yet other agencies — groups reimbursed based on how many foster placements or adoptions they set up for a child in state custody — can use the religious exemption.

The grant system splits Kansas into four family preservation regions and eight foster care regions. An agency that gets a grant to provide one of those services in a region oversees all kids and families referred in that region. They can’t use religious beliefs to turn anyone away.

A second class of placement agency handles more narrow duties. Groups that fall in that category can be tapped by DCF to find homes for individual kids. They’ll get reimbursed on a case-by-case basis for each kid they house with a family. Unlike the agencies hired to manage a range of services in a region, they can use their own religiously driven standards to choose which parents to use as foster and adoptive families.

At a Monday gathering of the state’s Child Welfare System Task Force, DCF secretary Gina Meier-Hummel said her department will also directly reimburse child placing agencies when the new system takes effect in July 2019. Under the current system, that work is usually done through a contractor.

She said the new system will give DCF more direct oversight of the welfare of children in foster care.

Those per-placement payouts could go to faith-based groups with moral objections to same-sex couples and divorced or single parents. Lawmakers who lost that fight in the spring legislative session maintained their objections.

“What is being done here is smoke and mirrors to provide public money to organizations that intend to discriminate on the basis of religious belief and to discriminate against LGBT Kansans,” said Rep. John Carmichael. He was the House Democrat assigned to work out a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the adoption bill that became law with Gov. Jeff Colyer’s signature.

Thomas Witt, director of the LGBT advocacy organization Equality Kansas, said no state dollars should go to agencies that shut out parents because they’re same-sex couples.

“These agencies want to tell some taxpayers, ‘You’re not good enough’,” he said.

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

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect wanted on a Kansas Department of Corrections Warrant and captured after a high-speed chase.

Just after noon Wednesday, a Department of Corrections officer saw wanted felon 30-year-old Markus Johnstone riding a motorcycle in Salina, according to Sheriff Roger Soldan

The officer spotted Johnstone in the 600 block of E. Elm and lost sight of him while trying to turn his vehicle around.

A short time later, the officer located the motorcycle in the 600 block of N. Santa Fe and when he tried to pull Johnstone over, he rode off at a high rate of speed and eluded law enforcement on several north Salina streets.

The pursuit reached speeds of 100mph on North Highway 81. Then Johnstone left the highway and went on the property of the Smoky Hill Winery, around the buildings and out across a pasture before the motorcycle struck a downed tree between a hedgerow and a fence gate. Johnstone was not hurt and was taken into custody without incident.

He was booked into the Saline County Jail on a Department of Corrections warrant, and Flee and Elude, and driving while suspended, according to Soldan.

Johnstone has 11 previous convictions for theft, criminal possession of a firearm, obstruction, criminal use of a financial card and various drug charges.