OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s former fiancee has gone to court seeking to prove that he is the father of her newborn twins and to require him to pay child support.
Crystal Espinal filed a petition Thursday in Johnson County, Kansas, District Court. Her petition also seeks to establish supervised parenting time for Hill.
The Chiefs suspended Hill on April 25 over allegations that his 3-year-old son was abused, which Hill denies. The local district attorney said in June that an investigation was no longer active because he couldn’t prove who injured the boy.
Online court records did not indicate that Hill had an attorney in the paternity case. The Chiefs did not immediately return a telephone message early Friday seeking comment.
His request approved, the news photographer quickly used a cell phone to call the local airport to charter a flight.
He was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger.
He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go.’
The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off.
Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, ‘Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.’
‘Why?’ asked the pilot.
‘Because I’m the news photographer’, he responded, ‘and I need to get some close up shots.’
The pilot was strangely silent for a moment, finally he stammered, ‘So, what you’re telling me, is . . . You’re NOT my flight instructor?’
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has reported unprecedented numbers of Culex species mosquitoes, those that most commonly transmit West Nile virus in Kansas, this year.
Since 2017, three counties (Reno, Sedgwick, and Shawnee) have acted as sentinel sites for WNV surveillance. Five adult mosquito traps are set in each county one night per week from mid-May through the end of September. All three counties have documented a substantial increase in Culex spp. mosquitoes over the last several weeks. The risk of infections to humans, and horses, increases with higher temperatures. In a typical year most human infections with WNV occurred in mid-June through the end of September.
To inform public health, emergency management, and residents, the Kansas Biological Survey, in collaboration with KDHE, began mosquito surveillance on July 3, 2019 in all 67 counties under a Federal or Local Disaster Declaration due to the May floods.
Barton County has an elevated number of both the Culex and Non-Culex mosquitoes in their trap that was tested the first week in July. It is recommended that mosquito control efforts be increased so to protect the public against exposure to Vector-borne illnesses:
Source Reduction
Empty standing water from tarps, old tires, buckets, and other places where rainwater collects.
Refresh water for bird baths, pet bowls, and wading pools at least every three days.
Use larvicide in areas where water cannot be removed. Larvae
Control
Larval source reduction is the single most effective means of vector control.
Larvicides target larvae in the breeding habitat before they mature into adult mosquitos and should be the first line of defense when controlling floodwater mosquitoes.
Larvicides can be purchased at home improvement, farm supply stores, or through pesticide distributors. Look for products containing Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis as this bacterium has no toxicity to people or animals and is approved for use for pest control in organic farming operations.
Adult Control
Adulticide should be used when deemed necessary, according to data gathered in surveillance activities or in response to public health needs.
When adult mosquito populations become too large to be managed by larvicide, adulticide spraying may be considered.
Questions can be directed to the KDHE Epidemiology Hotline at 1-877-427-7317 or [email protected].
Currently, the state does not have funds to pay for mosquito control. More information on surveillance and mosquito control can be found under the resources section of the KDHE Arboviral Disease website: https://www.kdheks.gov/epi/arboviral_disease.htm.
PLAINVILLE — The Dessin Fournir bankruptcy case has been dismissed from federal bankruptcy court and a sheriff’s sale has been set for Aug. 1.
Seven pieces of property with mortgages held by Sunflower Bank will be auctioned.
Properties listed in the foreclosure included 201 E. 12th St. in Hays, and Plainville properties 108 N. Main, 211 1/2 Mill, 205 N. Main, 317 W. Mill, 211 W. Mill, 221 W. Mill. All the properties listed in the Aug. 1 sale are in Plainville.
Edward Nazar, the bankruptcy attorney for Dessin Fournir and its subsidiaries, said Wednesday that Chuck Comeau, Dessin Fournir’s owner, has not been able to secure a new owner for the company.
The Comeuas own multiple properties in Plainville and Hays. Court documents indicated an $81,000 insurance payment for the properties was coming due in June, and Comeau did not have the funds to make that payment.
Dismissal of the bankruptcy case, which was ordered on June 19, will allow the foreclosure in state court to move forward, Nazar said.
Dessin Fournir and 11 other Comeau companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 8. The company also closed its doors and laid off its staff in Plainville. At its height, Dessin Fournir employed more than 90 people in Comeau’s hometown of Plainville.
Chapter 11 involves a company reorganizing, but the court determined Dessin Fournir did not have enough cash on hand or assets to continue with a reorganization.
Although Comeau was unable to find a buyer for the company as a whole, Nazar said there likely will be buyers of the smaller assets and product lines.
The furniture manufacturer was listed in court documents to have more than 200 creditors locally, nationally and even internationally with a total liability of more than $13 million. Some of its subsidiaries had other creditors, including companies in the trade.
The company is listed as owing more than $8.9 million in secured debt to three local banks, including $952,000 to Astra Bank, $7.5 million to Bank of Hays and $420,000 to Sunflower Bank.
Bank of Hays and Sunflower Bank filed for foreclosure on Comeau properties last year.
On March 26, District Court Judge Blake Bittel in a summary judgement ordered Comeau’s companies and other loan guarantors to pay Sunflower Bank a total of more than $420,000. A sheriff’s sale was ordered by the court on July 5.
According to court records, on June 27, FSSW LLC filed a motion for to recoup more than $1 million owed by the Comeau companies. It seeks to gain first lien on property above the Bank of Hays. Its motion seeks the authority to sell property listed as collateral to satisfy the Comeau companies’ debt.
Hays Post contacted the U.S. Justice Department, which is assigned to take media requests on behalf of the U.S. Trustee in the bankruptcy case, but no response was given as of the publication of this story.
The sheriff’s sale will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 1, in the front lobby of the Ellis County Courthouse.
Ellis County residents will get a break on the price of disposing of tires at the landfill for two weeks in the fall in an effort to help clean up the county.
On Monday, the Ellis County Commission approved a rate reduction on the disposal of tires at the landfill from 10 cents to 5 cents per pound for a two-week period once a year.
Public Works Director Bill Ring the county used to receive grants to help with the cost of disposing of old tires, but those are no longer available. The measure will allow the landfill foreman to conduct the tire sale annually.
“We’re looking at doing it a 50 percent off of what we normally charge to let homeowners, not commercial businesses, bring tires in,” Ring said. “It will cost them something, but it will be half of what it normally would.”
Ring said the discount will be offered two weeks before the Hays city cleanup, which is typically held in late October.
“They also do not take tires, because of the cost involved,” Ring said. “If a Hays resident did have a tire, they would still have to bring it to us (at the landfill), but they could do it for the half price.”
There is a form that anyone bringing tires to the landfill would have to sign affirming that the tires are from Ellis County, that they are not from a commercial business and they are not being paid to bring the tires to the landfill.
Ring also said this is an effort to help clean up the county.
“We’re just asking our residents to be good stewards of the county and the environment and maybe offering somewhat of an incentive in doing it this way,” said Ring.
There will not be a limit on the number of tires a person brings to the landfill.
Ring said currently it costs $6 to dispose of two passenger car tires at the landfill so during the two-week tire sale if would cost $3.
The tires brought to the landfill will be recycled.
H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University.
Most Kansans are aware of former Governor Sam Brownback’s failed tax experiment, but fewer know of his equally flawed experimentation with the lives of Kansas children and families in poverty.
Beginning in 2011, Brownback initiated restrictions on federal aid through “temporary assistance for needy families,” or TANF, intended for poor families.
TANF provides cash assistance for families living in poverty as a result of job loss, divorce, health issues, domestic violence, the birth of a child, or other such disruptions in life. TANF encourages a transition from welfare to work, and states can design their own programs. TANF benefits are fully underwritten by the federal government, but federal law limits TANF lifetime benefits to no more than five years.
TANF typically serves families comprised of a single parent, predominately a mother, with two or more children, most aged five and under. TANF cash assistance for a family of four is roughly $500 per month.
Republican lawmakers followed Brownback’s lead, eventually writing more stringent TANF restrictions into law. Lifetime TANF benefits were lowered from five years to four years in 2011, shortened again to three years in 2015, and cut further to two years in 2016. Stricter work regulations were added as well.
Kansas Republicans theorized that forcing poor Kansans off welfare quickly would motivate them to find a job. Thus, the number of Kansas families assisted through TANF has been cut by three-fourths since 2011, and the state now ranks near the bottom among the 50 states in making TANF benefits available for needy families.
Blocking available TANF benefits did not open a path out of poverty, as Republicans imagined. Most beneficiaries worked before, during, and after exiting TANF, but, after losing TANF benefits, work was irregular. According to research on TANF in Kansas conducted by the national Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, during the first year after exiting TANF, “nearly two-thirds of the parents had no earnings or earnings 50 percent below the poverty line.” Four years after exiting TANF over half the families had earnings below 50 percent of the poverty line.
Further, a new Kansas study by Professors Donna Ginther of the University of Kansas and Michelle Johnson-Motoyama of Ohio State concludes that recent TANF restrictions substantially increase the likelihood that affected children will enter foster care. The researchers found that TANF time limits alone dramatically increase the probability that children will be removed from parents and enter foster care. In total, they estimate 10,085 Kansas children have entered or eventually will enter foster care due to recent TANF restrictions, such as time limits or work sanctions
The costs to Kansas taxpayers of restricting TANF benefits and pushing children into foster care are huge. Kansas taxes pay none of the cost of TANF benefits but do pay 69 percent of the cost of foster care. An average 20-month stay in foster care for a single child costs Kansas taxpayers roughly $30,000. As a result, these researchers conservatively estimate that children who have entered or will eventually enter foster care, as a consequence of TANF restrictions begun in 2011, will cost $264 million in Kansas taxes.
Brownback sought to remake Kansas into a national model for red-state governance, but his experiment with the lives of these vulnerable Kansans is failing. This social engineering continues to contribute to the breakup of families, pushes children into foster care, and costs Kansas taxpayers millions. Republican lawmakers should acknowledge this human and financial tragedy and put an immediate end to this flawed social experiment.
H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University and served with former Kansas Governors Bennett and Hayden.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Wichita police captain who was caught on video shoving a teenage referee during a youth basketball game in a nearby town has lost has law enforcement officer license.
image from facebook video of the incident
Newly released documents show that Kevin Mears’ certification was revoked last month by the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.
The revocation order says that Mears “used profanity” last year after his son was hurt and went onto the court without being summoned to retrieve him. That led to a technical foul. The order says Mears, who was off-duty, then pushed the referee and “flipped off the crowd.”
Mears lost his job several months after the video of the confrontation was posted to Facebook.
Mears initially was convicted of misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct. But on appeal, he was found not guilty of battery.
DONIPHAN COUNTY — One person died in a wrong-way crash just before 10p.m. Thursday in Doniphan County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Dodge Ram driven by Isaiah B. Creek, 22, Sabetha, was eastbound in the westbound lane of U.S 36 just west of Half Mound Road.
The pickup collided head-on with a westbound semi driven by Michael D. Roskelley, 52, Neosho.
Creek was pronounced dead at the scene. Roskelley was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — One of three men charged in a fatal shooting at a Lawrence motel has pleaded no contest to robbery.
Police on the scene of the motel shooting investigation photo courtesy WIBW TV
20-year-old Shawn Smith, of Kansas City, Missouri, entered the plea Thursday in Douglas County District Court.
He initially was charged with first-degree felony murder and several other counts in the killing of 23-year-old Cameron Hooks, of Lenexa, and the wounding of two other men. The shooting happened in September 2017 while two groups of friends drank and smoked pot at a Motel 6. Each friend group accused the other of trying to rob them first, sparking the shooting.
Two other co-defendants from Kansas City, Kansas, previously were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the case.
Children’s Mercy Hospital nurse practitioner Jodi Shroba gives Porter Hall a checkup before a peanut allergen exposure session. Alex Smith / KCUR 89.3
By ALEX SMITH Kansas News Service
When Porter Hall of Raymore, Missouri, was a year old, he broke out in hives after eating a spoonful of peanut butter. It led to a scary night in the emergency room and a diagnosis of peanut allergy.
But today, Porter, who’s now five, is giving peanuts another shot with the help of Kansas City doctors, who have been giving him tiny doses of peanuts over the course of months.
This oral immunotherapy treatment isn’t a cure, but doctors say these tiny exposures may help to reduce or prevent severe reactions – although some critics are warning families to consider the risks.
At Children’s Mercy Hospital in Overland Park, nurse practitioner Jodi Shroba gives Porter a quick once-over in preparation for administering a tiny dose of what’s essentially peanut dust.
Like many parents dealing with a child’s allergy, Porter’s mother, Amy Hall, says she was initially “freaked out,” and took dramatic steps to keep peanuts away, including purging the contents of her kitchen cabinets.
Shroba says this fear can make the exposure sessions terrifying for parents and children alike.
“You see the anxiety,” Shroba says. “They gotta kind of psych themselves up for it, and they’re like, ‘I can do this. I can do this.’”
Children’s Mercy doctor Jay Portnoy explains that gradually increasing exposures are meant to reduce severe reactions by exhausting the immune system’s of chemicals like histamine that lead to those reactions.
‘Mini-reactions’
“We’re creating like little mini-reactions that are so small that the patient doesn’t notice it. Occasionally, they’ll get itchy mouth, they might get a little bit of stomach ache, but for the most part, these reactions are definitely tolerable, and then as we increase it, they become more and more tolerant of the peanut allergen,” Portnoy says.
After six months, Portnoy says patients may be able to tolerate a few peanuts at a time, if they keep the exposures going.
Right now, the treatment is only offered at a limited number of hospitals and clinics around the country. But it may be on the verge of taking off.
The Food and Drug Administration is now reviewing AR101, a kind of medical-grade peanut flour produced by drug maker Aimunne Therapeutics that was tested at Children’s Mercy and other hospitals.
And a research review recently published in The Lancet shows that oral immunotherapy appears to work. At least it does in clinics, where patients have been able to overcome food allergy challenges.
But one of the study’s authors, allergy researcher Dr. Derek Chu of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, notes that things can change after they leave.
“Outside of the clinic setting, they actually have a much higher rate of reaction,” Chu says. “That’s two to three times more likely to react to peanut or the dose that they are exposed to during this desensitization procedure compared to avoiding it or receiving a placebo instead.”
Jury is out
Chu says that, outside of clinics, factors like exercise, hot weather and illness can affect allergic reactions, making it more likely that patients will react to peanuts.
The vast majority of these reactions are mild. But children doing the therapy had about a 20% chance of anaphylaxis, compared to about 7% doing placebo or avoiding peanuts, according to the review.
Children’s Mercy doctor Jay Portnoy says small does of peanuts given over time may help reduce an allergic patient’s reactions. Credit Alex Smith / KCUR 89.3
Chu says that, given oral immunotherapy’s costs, risks and complications, the jury is still out on who might experience an improved quality of life from it.
“What we do need to ask is, is this really ready for prime time?” Chu says. “I think there’s significant gaps in knowing the values and preference of patients, as well as knowing if are we fully there for en masse use. I’m not saying no, I’m not saying yes, but we need to have a very robust assessment to know where we’re at.”
Children’s Mercy’s Portnoy says they have not seen any reactions more serious than an upset stomach. But Portnoy acknowledges that families will need to weigh risks and benefits for themselves.
After Porter’s checkup, the nurse stirs some peanut flour into apple juice. Now that a few months of oral immunotherapy are behind him, the 5-year-old seems to take it in stride. With plenty of epinephrine nearby, he casually sips it down and goes back to skimming a book.
At this point, it’s unclear how much he’ll benefit from the treatment, but Amy Hall says just seeing her son get this far has been reassuring.
“It’s made me be a little bit more at ease with him being able to eat at other peoples’ houses,” Hall says. “Or when Halloween rolls around, you never know what kind of candy they’re going to get. It makes me feel a little bit more at ease, but not 100%.”
Alex Smith is a health reporter for KCUR. You can reach him by email at [email protected]
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, plans to retire Sept. 11 after 4½ years on the job amid questions about his conduct and a lawsuit over an officer’s alleged sexual assault.
Chief Terry Zeigler announced his plans on social media Wednesday. He has been with the department nearly three decades.
Officials with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, praised Zeigler’s service.
But the Kansas Bureau of Investigation this year examined whether Zeigler “double dipped” by taking time off to work on a house he leased from the Unified Government. The KBI turned its findings over to the district attorney in May.
And activists demanded Zeigler’s firing in June after a federal lawsuit alleged a former police cadet was dismissed for reporting an officer’s sexual assault.
Fatal crash north of Kansas City -photo courtesy Fox4Kansas City
BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot killed when his small plane crashed into a western Missouri grain bin had experienced engine problems.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report that 80-year-old John McConnell Jr.’s right engine became stuck at full power as he descended toward an airport in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, Kansas.
He told air traffic controllers that he was turning off the engine and changed his destination to a closer airport in Butler, which is about 55 miles north of Kansas City.
McConnell then warned “she’s going down” and advised that he would attempt to land on a highway. He was the only person aboard the eight-seat Cessna 425 when it hit the grain bin. The flight began in Vero Beach, Florida.
