WASHINGTON (AP) — A hard-won budget and debt deal easily cleared the Senate on Thursday, powered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement and a bipartisan drive to cement recent spending increases for the Pentagon and domestic agencies.

The legislation passed by a 67-28 vote as Trump and his GOP allies relied on lots of Democratic votes to propel it over the finish line. Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran voted to approve the measure.

Passage marked a drama-free solution to a worrisome set of looming Washington deadlines as both allies and adversaries of the president set aside ideology in exchange for relative fiscal peace and stability. The measure, which Trump has promised to sign, would permit the government to resume borrowing to pay all its bills and would set an overall $1.37 trillion limit on agency budgets approved by Congress annually.

It does nothing to stem the government’s spiraling debt and the return of $1 trillion-plus deficits but it also takes away the prospect of a government shutdown in October or the threat of deep automatic spending cuts .

The administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., played strong hands in the talks that sealed the agreement last week, producing a pragmatic measure that had much for lawmakers to dislike.

Trump did step back from a possible fight over spending increases sought by liberals, and achieved his priorities on Pentagon budgets and the stock market-soothing borrowing limit.

“Budget Deal is phenomenal for our Great Military, our Vets, and Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!” Trump tweeted before the vote. “Two year deal gets us past the Election. Go for it Republicans, there is always plenty of time to CUT!”

Pelosi won remarkable Democratic unity in pushing the bill through the House last week despite divides on issues such as impeachment and health care.

Democrats in the GOP-controlled Senate delivered most of their votes for the deal. Many of the more solidly conservative Republicans said it allowed for unchecked borrowing and too much spending.

The measure was an epitaph to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which came about due to a tea party-fueled battle over debt limit legislation during the run-up to President Barack Obama’s re-election. That law promised more than $2 trillion in deficit cuts through 2021, including automatic spending cuts that were put in place after the failure of a so-called deficit supercommittee.

“It’s not just Democrats. Republicans are also guilty. At least the big-government Republicans who will vote for this monstrous addition of debt,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “Many of the supporters of this debt deal ran around their states for years complaining that, ‘President Obama’s spending too much and borrowing too much,’ and these same Republicans now, the whole disingenuous lot of them, will wiggle their way to the front of the trough.”

The bill would lift the debt limit for two years, into either a second Trump term or the administration of a Democratic successor.

It would reverse scheduled 10 percent cuts to defense and nondefense programs next year, at a two-year cost of more than $200 billion. An additional $100 billion over two years would add to recent gains for military readiness, combating opioids and other domestic initiatives, and would keep pace with rising costs for veterans’ health care.

Those increases alone, assuming they are repeated year after year, promise to add $2 trillion or more to the government’s $22 trillion debt over the coming decade.

The bill was powered by a coalition of GOP defense hawks, Democrats seeking to preserve gains in domestic accounts, and the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Democrats voted for the bill by a wide margin, and it won a healthy majority of Senate Republicans.

“Providing sufficient funding for our military and eliminating the threat of sequestration for good are absolutely necessary for our military to have the budgetary stability and predictability they so desperately need,” said the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.

It was also a long-sought victory for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who initiated the negotiations and was deeply invested in bringing order and relative predictability to the budget and debt deadlines.

Losers included more conservative elements of the White House. Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, a former tea party congressman from South Carolina, and acting budget director Russell Vought were rebuffed in attempts to add spending cuts to defray the bill’s cost.

“We have to invest in improved readiness to help our military commanders plan for emerging challenges, in research and development to support the U.S. military of the future, and in rock-solid support for our alliance commitments,” McConnell said. “This deal is an opportunity to do exactly that. This is the agreement the administration has negotiated. This is the deal the House has passed. This is the deal President Trump is waiting and eager to sign into law.”

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., a longshot candidate for president, accused Republicans of financial hypocrisy.

“When I first came here in 2009, Republicans railed against the rising debt and federal spending, even as our economy reeled,” Bennet said. “Remarkably, they seemed to have forgotten their supposedly principled calls for fiscal discipline now that President Trump is in office.”

Follow-up legislation would fill in the line-by-line details of agency budgets when the Senate returns in September. Trump is sure to continue seeking billions of dollars for border security and wall construction, but unlike last year he does not appear eager for a government shutdown over it.

 

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Authorities have identified a 56-year-old man who died after becoming trapped in machinery at a manufacturing business as Zachary C. Ritchey of Wellington, Kansas, according Lt. Tim Myers with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s office.

Emergency crews were called Wednesday to Younger & Sons Manufacturing north of Viola.

Ritchey was trapped in a tooling machine he was working on. The Sedgwick County Fire Department and other company employees were able to reverse the machine. Ritchey pronounced dead at the scene.

It is currently unclear how the man became trapped.

Ritchey worked for a company that performs maintenance on machines at  the company.

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VIOLA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County authorities say a 56-year-old man died after becoming trapped in machinery at a manufacturing business.

Emergency crews were called Wednesday to Younger & Sons Manufacturing north of Viola.

The worker was trapped in a tooling machine he was working on. The Sedgwick County Fire Department and other company employees were able to reverse the machine. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

It is currently unclear how the man became trapped. His name has not been released.

Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Tim Myers said in a news release that the man worked for a company that performs maintenance on machines at company.

FRANKLIN COUNTY—A strong summer storm brought over 10 inches of rain to portions of eastern Kansas and rain continues to fall.

“We have major flash flooding and have had to conduct several water rescues,” according to Franklin County Emergency Management Director Alan Radcliffe. “There are no injuries.” Over 8 inches of rain was reported in city of Ottawa and more rain is falling.

Water rescue teams from Douglas and Anderson County are assisting with the water rescues, according to Radcliffe.

Water is also covering several roads in Douglas County, according to the sheriff’s department, especially near the Lone Star area which got more than 10 inches of rain overnight.

According to the National Weather Service, moderate to locally heavy rains are expected across far western Missouri and eastern Kansas through early Saturday. Repeated rounds of storms will lead to an increased flash flood threat across these areas. A flash flood watch remains in effect until 7 AM Saturday morning.

KANSAS CITY  —A 10-year-old girl who wanted some fast food Wednesday morning took her mother’s SUV while the mom was sleeping and crashed into another vehicle.

Just before 8a.m., police were called to 12^th and Olive in Kansas City on a wreck between a Chevy Tahoe and a Honda Pilot, according to a media release. They were surprised to learn that the driver of the Tahoe was a 10-year-old.

Officers learned that when the girl woke up, she wanted to get McDonald’s to eat. Her mother was still sleeping, so the girl took the Tahoe herself. She drove a couple of miles before getting lost. She attempted to turn at 12^th and Olive, but since she was an unlicensed 10-year-old, she failed to yield to the Honda coming in the opposite direction.

Both vehicles sustained heavy damage, as did an electrical utility box and a stop sign. The girl was transported to the hospital with minor bumps and bruises. The other driver was not injured. The girl did not make it to McDonald’s.

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year-old Wichita man is charged with first-degree murder in a shooting that killed a McConnell Air Force Base Airman from South Carolina and injured three others.

Markeithen McClaine made his first court appearance Wednesday. He is also charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Officers responding to an apartment complex early Saturday found 20-year-old Chancelor Williams unresponsive in the parking lot. He died at the scene. Two other men and a woman were injured.

Officer Kevin Wheeler said a disturbance erupted in the parking lot after a party at one of the apartments. Investigators say McClaine fired several shots into the crowd.

Williams was an Airman 1st Class from Spartanburg, South Carolina.

McClaine’s next court date is Aug. 15. He remains jailed on $500,000 bond.

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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue their investigation of Saturday’s fatal shooting at a Wichita apartment complex party.

On Saturday afternoon, police arrested 25-year-old Markeithen McClaine on requested charges of 1st Degree murder and three counts of aggravated battery in connection  the shooting of 20-year-old Chancelor Williams of Spartanburg, South Carolina and three other shooting victims, according to officer Kevin Wheeler.

McClaine was scheduled to make a first appearance in court Wednesday afternoon, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney.

According to police, Williams was fatally shot during a disturbance in the parking lot of Horizons East Apartments located in the 500 block of North Rock Road.

A 21-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were transported from the scene by EMS to a local hospital where they were treated and released for non-life threatening injuries. The fourth victim, a 19-year-old woman, arrived at a local hospital by private vehicle with a gunshot wound. She remains hospitalized but was expected to survive, according to Wheeler.