SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating after a dog was killed following an attack.

Just before 3p.m. Saturday, police responded to a report of a vicious dog attack in the 3400 block of SW 37^th Street in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.

At the scene, police discovered that a vicious dog had attacked several juveniles. The children’s father came out to investigate the screaming and commotion and was also bitten by the vicious dog.

Officers were trying to contain the dog and called for an Animal Control Officer to assist in capturing the dog. Before Animal Control could arrive at the scene, the dog attacked a Topeka officer, according to Trimble.

The officer fired his department issued handgun one time, striking and killing the dog before the dog could injure anyone else. One person sustained minor injuries from the incident.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s effort to expand Medicaid in Kansas this year died Saturday when enough moderate Republicans bowed to the wishes of the GOP-controlled Legislature’s conservative leaders and ended an impasse that had tied up the state budget.

The House voted 79-45in favor of an $18.4 billion spending blueprint for state government for the budget year beginning in July. Democrats and moderate Republicans held the budget hostageFriday and much of Saturday, hoping to force the Senate to vote on an expansion planpassed by the House and favored by Kelly. Republican leaders did not budge on putting off actionuntil next year and kept meeting with GOP moderates throughout the day to bring them back to the fold.

It helped them that the budget was a good one for Kelly, fellow Democrats and the GOP moderate, providing extra money for higher education and pay raises for state employees, though her administration had problems with how it allocated extra dollars for prisons.

Expansion supporters initially were willing to risk those gains to fulfill Kelly’s goal of expanding Medicaid health coverage to an additional 150,000 Kansas residents now. Some became more nervous as the day wore on, though, particularly with the Senate’s top Republicans determined to wait until next year.

Top GOP senators strongly opposed the House’s expansion bill. Rep. Don Hineman, a moderate Republican from western Kansas in the center of ongoing talks with GOP leaders, said he was reassured by public promises from Senate leaders that a bill would be drafted later this year and considered early next year, though Kelly’s office urged them to keep blocking the budget.

“Their message was, ‘Hold tough. We think we can get this,'” Hineman said. “Enough of us disagreed with that or became uncomfortable enough that the votes were there to adopt the budget.”

Kelly’s election last year raised hopes that Kansas would join 36 other states that have expanded Medicaid or seen voters pass ballot initiatives. But like North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, two other Democrats, a GOP-controlled legislature can thwart expansion plans.

“For many of our neighbors struggling with illness or disability, time is something they do not have,” Kelly said in a statement after the House’s budget vote. “Due to the failure tonight, thousands of Kansans will go without health care for another year.”

Republicans leaders argue that the expansion plan Kelly backed would be more expensive for the state than her administration projected — $34 million in net costs for the state in its first full year. They also contend that lawmakers need more time to get the details right, control health care costs, and consider work requirements for people covered by the expansion.

GOP leaders also said their focus during the impasse was in getting a budget passed, so that state government could operate past June and lawmakers could wrap up their business for the year. The spending blueprint contained more spending — a 6.5 percent over the current budget year — than many conservatives wanted, GOP leaders said.

“Our ultimate goal was to make sure that we funded core government and that our schools were funded,” said House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a conservative Kansas City-area Republican.

The budget bill went next to the Senate, where the expected favorable vote would send the measure to Kelly. The House budget vote also cleared the way for it to vote on a GOP tax billdesigned to provide relief to individuals and businesses paying more in state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017.

Democrats did not hide their bitter disappointment.

“We all stayed and a bunch of you strayed,” said Rep. Tim Hodge, a Wichita-area Democrat. “I can’t believe we can’t stay solid for a few hours.”

During the budget vote, Democrats briefly played rocker Tom Petty’s song, “I Won’t Back Down” as GOP leaders held the roll open for more than 90 minutes to get the last necessary yes votes — and then nearly all Republicans jumped aboard.

“They had everything going for themselves,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. “They had all the momentum and they just can’t put up with the pressure.”

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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and have a suspect in custody.

Just after 11 p.m. Thursday, police responded to a robbery call at the Dollar Plus store located in the 1100 block of South Hydraulic in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A 26-year-old female employee told police the suspect later identified as 27-year-old Christopher Bonewell entered the store, made threats and demanded money. The employee refused to give Bonewell money. Bonewell damaged items in the store and fled on foot.

Police were checking the area, located Bonewell and took him into custody without incident. There were no injuries. Bonewell is being held on requested charges of robbery, criminal damage to property and an outstanding warrant, according to Davidson.

Investigators will present the case to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 2:30p.m. Saturday in Sedgwick County.

A Buick passenger vehicle driven by a 19-year-old man was northbound on McLean at 9th Street in Wichita, according to officer Kevin Wheeler. The vehicle left the road and struck a light pole. The driver was transported to a local hospital where he died.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation. Wheeler did not release the driver’s name Saturday.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and have two suspects in custody.

Just before 10:30p.m. Tuesday, police responded to the 1400 Block of SW Central Park in Topeka in reference a report of an armed robbery to individuals, according to Lt. Andrew Beightel.

Four adult victims told police they were just robbed at gun point by four or five suspects. One of the victims was struck by the suspects, causing a minor laceration and as the victims tried to escape, the suspects fired a gun at them.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Minority employees at Harley-Davidson’s plant in Kansas City have been subjected to years of harassment and discrimination — including having swastikas and nooses posted in the plant, frequent racial epithets and at least one assault, several employees said at a news conference organized by the NAACP-Kansas City on Friday.

“All the time I worked there it’s been there, it’s just ridiculous,” said Emmanuel Matthews Sr., who worked at the plant for more than two years. “This is 2019. This stuff has to stop. Something needs to be done.”

Matthews and other employees who spoke at the news conference work for Syncreon.US Inc., an affiliate of Syncreon, which supplies contract workers to the Harley-Davidson plant, but they said the harassment was directed at all minority employees. Matthews said he was assaulted by another worker at the plant but declined to discuss the details.

Harley-Davidson said in a statement that it does not tolerate any form of harassment or discrimination and actively enforces its code of conduct and anti-harassment policy along with well-established processes for employees to report concerns.

“Complaints that we were aware of were thoroughly investigated and action was taken based on the findings,” the statement reads. “As appropriate we also referred incidents and complaints to third-party employers who share our factory.”

Oswald Reid, president and CEO of Syncreon.US said in a statement Friday that the company doesn’t tolerate any of the alleged actions. He said the company provides many avenues to report harassment or discrimination, including a confidential “ethics line.” No complaints of racially discriminatory behavior have been reported to that line in the last two years, Reid said.

“Over the last three years, all alleged policy or Code of Conduct violations that we are aware of have been swiftly and effectively addressed,” Reid said. “As of this moment, there are no open investigations with regards to discriminatory behavior.”

Harley-Davidson plans to close the Kansas City plant this year and shift those operations to York, Pennsylvania. The Milwaukee-based company said the closing would eliminate 800 jobs in Kansas City.

Employees said the harassment has happened for years but has intensified as the plant’s closing approaches. They said they have seen graffiti telling black employees to die or to go back to Africa. The workers said when swastikas or racial epithets were reported, the images were sometimes left for days before being covered with spackle. They alleged management would say the incidents were being investigated but nothing ever happened and the perpetrators were rarely punished.

Rochelle Anthony, who was a union representative for the Steelworkers at the plant for nearly three years before she was fired, said she ran into constant roadblocks when she tried to file grievances and could never get a straight answer or feedback when she asked about her complaints.

“I tried,” she said. “I felt like I was fighting by myself. I couldn’t help them. It’s getting worse. We need help.”

Steve Nelson, general manager at the Kansas City plant, sent a letter to Harley-Davidson employees Thursday saying the company wanted to reassure them that the company is taking “all necessary steps” to enforce its policies. He said harassment of any kind “cannot and will not be tolerated at Harley-Davidson.” The letter included details of the company’s policies for reporting and investigating complaints.

The Rev. Rodney Williams, president of NAACP-Kansas City, said the national NAACP plans to ask Harley Davidson to launch an investigation at all of its plants to determine if discrimination is part of the company’s culture or is isolated to Kansas City.

“Whether it is closing or not, this is not acceptable,” Williams said in an interview. “We need to send a message that this not acceptable anywhere. Many employees came to us to complain so we felt it was our duty to give them a platform that they might be heard.”