RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the case involving an abandoned infant.

Just after 7p.m. Wednesday, police received the report of an infant found alive in the 2000 block of North Manhattan, according to a media release from the Riley County Police Department.

The baby was transported to Stormont Vail in Topeka as a precaution.

On Thursday morning, police reported they had identified the mother of the infant and she is in good health.

Further investigation leads police to believe the mother’s intent was to follow the safe haven law, according to RCPD. Police have released no additional details.

ABILENE — The public will have a chance to meet veteran Jeremy Miller during his stop in Abilene on Thursday.

Miller is walking across the United States to raise awareness of the nation’s veteran suicide problem.

Read about Miller’s walk here.

Miller spent Tuesday night in Salina as a guest of the Salina Fire Department before heading out Wednesday to his next stop: Abilene.

According to a post on the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum Facebook page, Miller will be available to meet with the public from 9:30-10 a.m. Thursday at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, 200 SE Fourth Street.

Following the public meet and greet, Miller is scheduled to tour the new exhibits before continuing his walk toward Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

COWLEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating four suspects on drug charges

On Tuesday, police located a 15-year-old runaway from Ponca City, Oklahoma, in the 2800 block of North Summit Street in Arkansas City.

They determined that she was under the influence of methamphetamine. They interviewed the juvenile, who said she had been staying at 33-year-old Arron Dion Sedam’s residence in in the 1000 Block of First Street, according to police.

She said Sedam provided her with meth and had given her a tattoo while she was at his residence. A search warrant was obtained and executed at the residence resulting in the three arrests. Four juveniles were taken into police protective custody due to the conditions at the residence.

Police arrested Angela Renee Baxley, 51, and Timothy Scott Massey, 46, who is listed as homeless,  on suspicion of felony possession of methamphetamine and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Massey also was arrested on a Cowley County District Court warrant for bond violation.

Police arrested Sedam on suspicion of one felony count each of aggravated endangering a child, interference with parental custody and possession of methamphetamine, as well as one misdemeanor count each of possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and tattooing a minor without consent. Sedam was transported to and booked into the county jail in lieu of $23,000 bond through Arkansas City district court. He remained in custody.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge has denied a request by Missouri to allow a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to go into effect while the state waits for further court action.

U.S. District Court Judge Howard Sachs had previously paused parts of Missouri’s new abortion law. It was set to go into effect Aug. 28 and criminalizes abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.

It also triggered bans at 14, 18 and 20 weeks if the initial eight-week ban was found unconstitutional.

The judge issued a preliminary injunction Aug. 27 against the bans based on gestational age. The state immediately appealed the judge’s decision to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s not clear when the appellate court will hear the case.

Missouri asked Sachs to reinstate just the 20-week abortion ban during the appeal.

By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Flooding might well be returning to northwest Missouri, though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is downplaying how severe this late summer, early fall flooding will be.

Torrential rain in the upper Missouri River Basin has filled the six reservoirs upstream on the Missouri River. The Corps has reduced water releases from Gavins Point Dam, but only for a while. Releases have dropped from 70,000 cubic feet per second to 60,000, but then will be raised to 80,000 well into October.

National Weather Service Hydrologist Kevin Low says the forecast for the final three months of the year is about twice the average rainfall.

“Our upper basin runoff forecast for 2019 is 58.8 million-acre feet, more than 30 million-acre feet more than the long-term average of 25.3,” Low tells a conference call hosted by the Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps of Engineers Mike Dulin in the Kansas City office says the Corps doesn’t expect the renewed flooding to do the damage the mid-March and late May floods did.

“We continue to monitor the Missouri River after last week’s torrential rainfall in the Dakotas,” Dulin says. “Based on National Weather Service forecast information, we anticipate the crest to reach Rulo, Nebraska this Saturday into Sunday and could peak at a stage around 22 feet. While no levees are expected to overtop, levees that were previously breached during the March flood event could see some floodwaters move back into the bottoms as the crest passes.”

The National Weather Service reports the Missouri River at St. Joseph rose to 18.2 feet this morning and is expected to crest at 21.2 feet Monday and Tuesday. Upstream, at Rulo, Nebraska the Missouri River topped just over 20 feet and is expected to crest at 22.2 feet this weekend.

Missouri River Basin Water Management Director John Remus says water releases at Gavins Point will remain high for a while.

“We don’t have an exact date on that, but it will be well into October,” Remus says.

Remus says the Corps hopes to manage releases from the upstream dams in such a way as to return to normal on December the first.

“The plan is to cut down releases. Our plan is to get down to where we need to be for our winter evacuation by the first part of December,” Remus says. “If we do that, then we would not necessarily have to release higher flows coming out of Gavins Point.”

Corps officials say they are attempting to deal with rainfall in northern Nebraska and the Dakotas that has exceeded 400% of normal the past two weeks.

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after a traffic stop.

On Tuesday,  Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Interdiction Unit conducted a traffic stop on I-70, eastbound just east of the West Union Road exit, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.

The traffic stop resulted in the seizure of approximately 145 pounds of marijuana that was destined for the Topeka area.  The marijuana has an estimated street value of $500,000.

Deputies arrested Janae N. Williams, 30, of Topeka, on requested charges that include Possession of Marijuana with Intent to distribute and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.  

COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — A woman who was a fugitive with her son for two years after an Oklahoma man was killed has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison.

Diana Bohlander was sentenced Tuesday to 59 months in prison for her role in the death of 64-year-old James McFarland, of Tulsa, whose body was found in April 2017 in southeast Kansas.

Bohlander’s 23-year-old son, Ty, was given the same sentence Sept. 3.

Bohlanders were living in a van with McFarland when he was killed. Investigators believe McFarland suffered blunt force trauma when he and Ty Bohlander fought. Diana Bohlander was accused of helping her son conceal the crime.

The Bohlanders were fugitives until Ty Bohlander was arrested in March in Santa Monica, California. His mother turned herself in the next month.

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