TOPEKA (AP) — Authorities say a statue of a bison calf has been stolen from a popular nature area north of Topeka.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Doug Iliff reported that the statue was broken off at the base and taken week from the parking lot at Iliff Commons, a privately owned area that is open to the public. It has several miles of trails for walking, running, cross-country skiing and mountain biking. A replica of Topeka’s original log cabin is situated on the trail.

Iliff estimates the statue is worth about $800.

The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft. But as of Wednesday, there were no reports of arrests.

By ANDREA TUDHOPE
Kansas News Service

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has provided the special counsel with written answers to questions about his knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election, his lawyers said Tuesday, avoiding at least for now a potentially risky sit-down with prosecutors. It’s the first time he has directly cooperated with the long investigation.

The step is a milestone in the negotiations between Trump’s attorneys and special counsel Robert Mueller’s team over whether and when the president might sit for an interview.

The compromise outcome, nearly a year in the making, offers some benefit to both sides. Trump at least temporarily averts the threat of an in-person interview, which his lawyers have long resisted, while Mueller secures on-the-record statements whose accuracy the president will be expected to stand by for the duration of the investigation.

The responses may also help stave off a potential subpoena fight over Trump’s testimony if Mueller deems them satisfactory. They represent the first time the president is known to have described to investigators his knowledge of key moments under scrutiny by prosecutors.

But investigators may still press for more information.

Mueller’s team months ago presented Trump’s legal team with dozens of questions they wanted to ask the president related to whether his campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to tip the 2016 election and whether he sought to obstruct the Russia probe by actions including the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. The investigators agreed to accept written responses to questions about potential Russian collusion and tabled, for the moment, obstruction-related inquiries.

Mueller left open the possibility that he would follow up with additional questions on obstruction, though Trump’s lawyers — who had long resisted any face-to-face interview — have been especially adamant that the Constitution shields him from having to answer any questions about actions he took as president.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow offered no details on the current Q&A, saying merely that “the written questions submitted by the special counsel’s office … dealt with issues regarding the Russia-related topics of the inquiry. The president responded in writing.” He said the legal team would not release copies of the questions and answers or discuss any correspondence it has had with the special counsel’s office.

Another of Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, said the lawyers continue to believe that “much of what has been asked raised serious constitutional issues and was beyond the scope of a legitimate inquiry.” He said Mueller’s office had received “unprecedented cooperation from the White House,” including about 1.4 million pages of materials.

“It is time to bring this inquiry to a conclusion,” Giuliani said.

The president told reporters last week that he had prepared the responses himself.

Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday that he was unlikely to answer questions about obstruction, saying, “I think we’ve wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is, probably, we’re finished.”

Trump joins a list of recent presidents who have submitted to questioning as part of a criminal investigation.

In 2004, President George W. Bush was interviewed by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s office during an investigation into the leaked identity of a covert CIA officer. In 1998, President Bill Clinton testified before a federal grand jury in independent counsel Ken Starr’s Whitewater investigation.

“It’s very extraordinary if this were a regular case, but it’s not every day that you have an investigation that touches upon the White House,” Solomon Wisenberg, a Washington lawyer who was part of Starr’s team and conducted the grand jury questioning of Clinton, said of a prosecutor accepting written answers.

Mueller could theoretically still try to subpoena the president if he feels the answers are not satisfactory.

But Justice Department leaders, including acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker — who now oversees the investigation and has spoken pejoratively of it in the past — would have to sign off on such a move, and it’s far from clear that they would. It’s also not clear that Mueller’s team would prevail if a subpoena fight reached the Supreme Court.

“Mueller certainly could have forced the issue and issued a subpoena, but I think he wants to present a record of having bent over backwards to be fair,” Wisenberg said.

The Supreme Court has never directly ruled on whether a president can be subpoenaed to testify in a criminal case. Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before the Whitewater grand jury, but investigators withdrew the subpoena after he agreed to appear voluntarily.

Other cases involving Presidents Richard Nixon and Clinton have presented similar issues for the justices that could be instructive now.

In 1974, for instance, the court ruled that Nixon could be ordered to turn over subpoenaed recordings, a decision that hastened his resignation. The court in 1997 said Clinton could be questioned under oath in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones.

WICHITA – A Hutchinson man was sentenced Tuesday to 90 months in federal prison for downloading child pornography from the internet, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.

Shane Ragsdale, 31, Hutchinson, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography. In his plea, he admitted he used a peer-to-peer file-sharing network to download child pornography.

McAllister commended the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for their work on the case.

LAWRENCE (AP) — A temporary replacement has been named to lead Haskell Indian Nations University after a scathing federal report.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Bureau of Indian Education says Haskell professor Daniel Wildcat will serve as acting president beginning Tuesday. For as long as the next 60 days, Haskell Indian Nations University President Venida Chenault will be on “special assignment for the BIE.”

Haskell faculty learned of the change in an email from the Haskell president’s office. The email says the change is to help the BIE “meet mission objectives.”

The announcement came after a report issued Friday said administrators at the university had underreported crime statistics for a two-year period and failed to follow internal policy when handling misconduct complaints. A university spokesman didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A former banker who lives in Johnson County was sentenced today to 3 years probation and banned from working as a banker, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.

Michael W. Yancey, 59, Olathe, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false statements on a loan application. In his plea, he admitted the crime took place while he was working as a senior vice president and commercial lender at Farmers Bank & Trust, N.A., in Overland Park. Farmers Bank is headquartered in Great Bend.

Yancey conspired with another person to obtain and maintain a business loan of $850,000 from Farmers Bank for two companies by falsely representing the terms of a real estate purchase in Basehor, Kan. He falsely represented to the bank that the property’s purchase price was $1.1 million when in fact it was $850,000. The false information made it appear the loan conformed to a maximum 75 percent loan-to-value ratio when in truth the loan was approximately 97 percent of the purchase price. He also falsely stated that the loan involved a seller carryback of $150,000 and a borrower equity injection of $125,000.

McAllister commended SIG-TARP (Office of Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program), the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Labor – Employee Benefits Security Administration and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari Wamble for their work on the case.