KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the shooting of three Kansas City police officers (all times local):

11 p.m.

Authorities say a gunman being investigated in the killing of a university student from India shot and wounded three Kansas City police officers Sunday before dying in an exchange of gunfire with police.

The three officers’ wounds were not life-threatening. Police said the suspect, whose name has not been released, had been identified as a person of interest in the slaying of Sharath Koppu and officers had him under surveillance.

The 25-year-old Koppu was a master’s degree student from India who was studying at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Koppu was shot on July 6 during an armed robbery at a fast food restaurant in Kansas City where he worked.

Jagdeesh Subramanian, president of the India Association of Kansas City, said the group is grateful to police for pursuing Koppu’s shooting diligently and that “there is some closure” with the person of interest’s death.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police shot and killed a man Sunday suspected of shooting and wounding three Kansas City police officers, authorities said.

The suspect died Sunday afternoon after barricading himself in a house in the southeast part of the city. He emerged from the home and was killed in an exchange of gunfire, police Chief Rick Smith told reporters.

All three officers are expected to live.

Police spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina said the first two officers were shot during an undercover operation at a motel less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from Kauffman Stadium, where the Kansas City Royals baseball team plays. The suspect then fled in a vehicle with another person, who was arrested when officers found the vehicle.

The suspect barricaded himself inside of a home about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the motel. He shot the third officer in the arm during the standoff, Smith said.

The suspect was a person of interest in the fatal shooting of a University of Missouri-Kansas City student during a robbery earlier this month.

“We’ve been looking for him all week,” Smith said. “This is the first time we laid eyes on him.”

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3 p.m.
Authorities say a suspect in the shooting of two Kansas City police officers shot a third officer who was searching for him and had been barricaded inside of a house.

The third officer struck by gunfire is in stable condition at this time.
At approximately 1:15p the armed suspect exited a residence and once again exchanged gunfire with officers. He was shot and taken into custody. He was declared deceased by KCFD at that time.

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) July 15, 2018

 

The initial investigation centered on a person of interest in the robbery and murder of Sharath Koppu at 5412 Prospect https://t.co/mEEWVYbNYP

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) July 15, 2018

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KANSAS CITY —  Law enforcement authorities are investigating an officer involved shooting that injured three officers in Kansas City.

Police were searching for a suspect near 40 Highway and Manchester in Kansas City, according to a social media report from police.

Approximately 12:15pm undercover and tactical officers were conducting an ongoing investigation at 8300 E 40 hwy. They encountered a suspect who fired on officers with a rifle. Two officers were struck and are at the hospital in stable condition.

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) July 15, 2018

An additional (3rd officer) was struck by gunfire and was taken to the hospital. That officer’s condition is unknown at this time. The standoff continues at this time. More information as it becomes available

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) July 15, 2018

 

Officers with assault rifles blocked off the area around where the shooting happened Sunday afternoon.

Worshippers at the United Believers Community Church were urged to leave the area as soon as possible.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Even before the specter of a trade war with China and other countries threatened to cost them billions of dollars, American farmers were feeling the squeeze from fluctuating crop prices and other factors that have halved their overall income in recent years.

The threat of counter-tariffs on U.S. farm goods and the impact of President Donald Trump’s other policies on immigration and biofuels, though, have some farmers more worried than ever about their ability to continue eking out an existence in agriculture.

“No matter where you look in ag right now, you see storm clouds on the horizon and some of those are a lot closer overhead than we’d care for,” said Chad Hart, an agricultural economist with Iowa State University.

Trump’s tariff threats earlier this year against China, Mexico, Canada and European Union elicited quick retaliatory measures that depressed the prices of certain U.S. agricultural products, including corn, soybeans, pork. When $34 billion worth of tariffs against China took effect July 6 and China responded with tariffs of its own, U.S. farmers were already feeling the squeeze from lower crop prices, higher land prices and other factors.

The Department of Agriculture predicted before the threat of tariffs and counter-tariffs that U.S. farm income would drop this year to $60 billion, or half the $120 billion of five years ago. That projection is likely high, given what’s transpired since.

Don Bloss, who grows corn, soybeans, sorghum and wheat on his farm in the southeastern Nebraska community of Pawnee City, said he’s already seen a few neighbors quit farming as they struggled to make a profit even before the tariff battle began this year.

“They aren’t making money. One has said the banker is giving up on them,” said Bloss.

John Weber, who raises pigs and grows corn and soybeans with his son about 100 miles northeast of Des Moines, near Dysart, said many farmers’ budgets were already tight going into this growing season and the impact of tariffs has made it worse.

“Some were given the go-ahead for another year, but boy, you start looking at these lower prices and the extra costs that are out there now it gets tough. It just doesn’t work,” he said.

Per-bushel soybean prices have fallen 19 percent since early May to a 10-year low and corn is down more than 15 percent. At current prices, most farmers lose money on corn, soybeans and pigs.

U.S. pork producers stand to lose more than $2 billion per year because of plunging hog futures prices, the result of the Chinese retaliatory tariffs, according to Iowa State University economists’ projections.

“That means less income for pork producers and, ultimately, some of them going out of business,” said Jim Heimerl, a pig farmer from Johnstown, Ohio, and president of the National Pork Producers Council, an industry trade group.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has promised that Trump will restore farmer profitability but he hasn’t specified how and some economists are skeptical that the administration can come up with the billions of dollars necessary to cover losses.

“If this continues and the USDA does not discover a way to helicopter in and drop buckets of cash into the corn belt this fall, then I would not be surprised if there are tractor parades going to DC at some point in the next year,” said Scott Irwin, University of Illinois agricultural economist.

There’s no sign of a quick resolution to the trade dispute. The U.S. and China have threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs next week on $16 billion of each other’s goods. And on Tuesday, Trump announced plans to impose 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports by the end of August. China said it would retaliate, leaving even more U.S. farm products at risk.

Meanwhile, Trump’s hardline immigration policies have been making it even harder to recruit workers for pork producers, who have historically relied on immigrants for a third of their workforce. The industry had been planning a rapid expansion due to growing export demand from China and Mexico, but the trade dispute and raids spring immigration raids on a Tennessee meatpacking plant and an Iowa concrete plant have worried pork producers.

“Skilled and unskilled foreign workers have been crucial to maintaining and growing the workforce and revitalizing rural communities across the United States. We need more of them, not less,” Heimerl said.

The Trump administration’s willingness to issue waivers exempting petroleum refineries from having to blend ethanol into their fuels has led to an estimated 250 million bushels of corn going unused, which contributed to lower corn prices.

“There’s potential here for this to turn into the worst farm financial crisis since the 1980s,” Irwin said.

KANSAS CITY. – A Kansas City man was sentenced in federal court Friday for sharing child pornography over the Internet.

Michael Vandergriff, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 11 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Vandergriff to supervised release for the rest of his life following incarceration, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

On Feb. 6, 2018, Vandergriff pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography. Vandergriff admitted that he shared videos and images of child pornography over the Internet via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

On April 2, 2015, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Vandergriff’s residence and seized numerous electronic items. According to court documents, a forensic examination established that Vandergriff had no less than 6,500 video and image files depicting child pornography. The seized media also included obscene images depicting minors in bondage and bestiality. Vandergriff appeared to utilize a hidden camera to record images of minors.

According to court documents, law enforcement officers downloaded a total of at least 1,821 video and image files of child pornography, some of which was particularly graphic, on seven separate occasions from Vandergriff’s computer during their investigation from Sept. 17, 2014, to Feb. 26, 2015.

By STEPHAN BISAHA

Some Republican gubernatorial candidates are calling for the end of in-state tuition for undocumented students at public universities in Kansas.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach wants undocumented students to pay the more expensive non-resident tuition rate. Gov. Jeff Colyer expressed a similar view during a Republican forum Tuesday night hosted by KWCH and KMUW.

“I would happily sign that bill if it ever came to us,” Colyer said.

According to the Kansas Division of the Budget, that would raise about $2.3 million in tuition revenue.

But that figure comes with an asterisk — it assumes all undocumented students would stay at Kansas universities. Board of Regents President Blake Flanders says those students could be driven away.

 

 

 

 

“Some would say … they just won’t go as opposed to paying the higher rate,” Flanders said.

The non-resident rate is more than twice the in-state rate.

“It’s hard to image that any of these students would be able to afford the out-of-state rate because they’re not eligible for any financial assistance at all,” said Matt Casey, the director of government relations at the Board of Regents.

According to the Board of Regents, 670 undocumented students received in-state tuition in Kansas last fall. A 2004 Kansas law allowed “persons without lawful immigration status” to receive the reduced rate, as long as they attended a Kansas high school for at least three years and graduated from one.

As state funding for higher education has dwindled over the years, Kansas universities have relied on increased enrollment as a way of covering costs. For those universities, every additional student helps their budget, regardless of whether they are paying the in-state or non-resident rate.

“If you got room for another two students in the class and they’re paying an in-state rate, that’s better than them not attending,” Casey said.

Stephan Bisaha reports on education for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on @SteveBisaha.