SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged murder of his son.

Just before 11a.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to Via Christi St. Joseph Hospital for a six-month-old child who arrived at the hospital not breathing, according to Wichita Police Lt. Tod Ojile.

Officers learned the boy’s mother and father brought him to the hospital. The father told hospital staff he was shadow boxing with the child when the boy stopped breathing, according to Ojile. The boy died a short time later.

Homicide investigators responded to the hospital to conduct interviews. Following a Tuesday afternoon autopsy, detectives learned the boy had severe internal injuries, according to Ojile. On Tuesday evening police booked the father Doral Gwyn, 28, into the Sedgwick County jail on requested charges of felony murder and child abuse.

Police will present the case to the district attorney on Thursday, according to Ojile. The family has three other young children. Two were in school at the time of the incident. The older children are now staying with grandparents. A 3-year-old is still with the mother, according to Ojile.

Gwyn had been on parole since January. He has previous convictions for criminal threat, aggravated battery and flee/attempt to elude law enforcement, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

By MADELINE FOX

A bill to update state adoption law was sailing through the legislature. Until it wasn’t.

It’s been gummed up because of a faith-based protection provision that would allow adoption agencies to receive state funding while turning away prospective parents who don’t fit with an organization’s religious beliefs.

The underlying bill would clarify definitions such as the child’s place of residence and who counts as an interested party in an adoption. It would also expand some definitions. For example, “married adult couple” will replace “husband and wife” in explaining who can adopt a child.

Yet an amendment adds in religious exemptions for child placement agencies.

Those private agencies currently can choose not to serve some people, such as single parents or same-sex couples. The bill would protect that ability even if Kansas policies change. It also prohibits the state from denying those agencies state grants and contracts because of their religious objections.

“There’s a place for diversity in the realm of child-placing agencies,” said Rep. Susan Humphries, a sponsor of the bill. “That’s what we want to do, keep everyone here.”

Kansas’ current foster care contracts expire next year. The legislation exempts the two state contractors currently handling foster care and adoption placement. Those agencies can’t impose their faith in sorting out who can adopt children.

But opponents of the bill worry the new provisions could open up state contracts to organizations that wouldn’t be willing to serve some foster or adoptive parents based on a group’s objection to, for instance, same-sex or single parents.

“This is putting the religious beliefs of the child placement agency over the needs of the child,” said Rep. Jarrod Ousley, a Merriam Democrat who opposes the religious protection amendment.

The legislature didn’t have the votes to pass the religious exemption before it left for spring break. Rep. Susan Humphries, the Wichita Republican who has championed the faith-based exemption, said the language updates will happen no matter what.

“We’re committed to making sure the underlying bill passes,” she said.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox. 

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal accident.

Just after 7:30 a.m., Wednesday, police responded to an injury accident at 4501 W. Irving in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A 45-year-old man was driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle behind a large-wheel loader with forks on the front.

The motorcycle rider attempted to pass the loader while the 42-year-old loader operator turned into a private drive. The motorcycle rider struck the forks of the loader and was ejected from the
motorcycle.

The motorcycle rider was taken to Via Christi Hospital St. Francis campus, where he died. David did not release the victim’s name.

This is the eighth vehicle fatality in Wichita for 2018, according to Davidson.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that aims to add and strengthen work requirements for public assistance and other welfare programs.

The order, signed in private, promotes “common-sense reforms” that policy adviser Andrew Bremberg said would reduce dependence on government programs.

“Part of President Trump’s effort to create a booming American economy includes moving Americans from welfare to work and supporting and encouraging others to support common-sense reforms that restore American prosperity and help them reclaim their independence,” he said.

The order focuses on looking for ways to strengthen existing work requirements and exploring new requirements for benefits such as food stamps, cash and housing assistance programs.

Trump has long accused beneficiaries of abusing government assistance programs and has claimed many who have no intention of working make more in benefits than those with jobs.

“I know people that work three jobs and they live next to somebody who doesn’t work at all. And the person who is not working at all and has no intention of working at all is making more money and doing better than the person that’s working his and her ass off,” Trump said in November. During the campaign, he pledged that, under a Trump administration, families “trapped in welfare” would be “provided with jobs and opportunity.”

Most people who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, who are able to hold jobs do work, but they don’t earn enough to pay for food and cover other expenses. According to 2015 data from the Department of Agriculture, 44 percent of the total households using the SNAP program had someone in the family earning money.

The administration has made several moves pushing work for Medicaid recipients and those who use the SNAP program.

In January, officials announced that states would be able to impose work requirements for Medicaid. And they’ve proposed tightening the existing requirement that able-bodied adults who want to receive SNAP benefits for more than three months at a time must work in some capacity.

The proposal would raise the age limit for recipients who are exempt from the requirement and restrict the ability of states to offer waivers. The Department of Agriculture has been soliciting public comment on the issue.

The administration has also been exploring more stringent work requirements for those who receive assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, as well as minimum weekly work hours for those who receive housing assistance.

The order gives various Cabinet secretaries 90 days to review the programs their agencies offer, and recommend possible changes.

Advocates argue that, while encouraging people to work is fundamentally a good thing, imposing strict requirements on already vulnerable populations, particularly when coupled with an aggressive effort to slash funding and shrink public assistance programs, could be disastrous for those in need.

Such requirements could have dire consequences for those already experiencing barriers to finding, and keeping, a job, including single mothers who can’t afford child care, people who lack access to transportation and those who suffer from mental illness.

Rebecca Vallas, vice president of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, said Trump’s executive order served to reinforce myths about poverty in the U.S.

“By using dog-whistle terms like ‘welfare,’ Trump’s trying to paint people who turn to Medicaid, SNAP, and other public programs as Reagan’s mythical ‘welfare queen’ — so we don’t notice that he’s coming after the entire working and middle class,” Vallas tweeted.

The White House had once identified overhauling the welfare system as one of its top two legislative priorities for 2018, along with a major investment in infrastructure. But GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, told the president there was little chance of passing anything that needs Democrats’ votes.

Trump appeared to agree as he huddled with GOP leaders at the Camp David presidential retreat in January.

“It’s a subject that’s very dear to our heart,” Trump said then. “We’ll try and do something in a bipartisan way. Otherwise, we’ll be holding it for a little bit later.”

HARVEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bank robbery and have identified the suspect.

Just after 5:45 p.m. Monday, a suspect entered the First Bank of Newton South Branch, 1404 South Kansas Avenue, and communicated to the clerk his intent to commit a robbery, according to a media release. The man left with an undisclosed amount of cash in a silver passenger car.

On Wednesday, police identified the suspect as 50-year-old Martin L. Paris. He is on federal probation in Oklahoma for previous bank robberies.
Paris was identified when someone he knew recognized a surveillance image of him in media coverage and alerted authorities.

Paris was last known to be in the Oklahoma City area Tuesday night. He is about 5-foot-5 inches tall, approximately 170 pounds, and is believed to be driving a silver 2015 Kia Optima.

Law enforcement agencies across multiple states are looking for him. If you know his whereabouts, please call 911. Do not approach him or try to confront him.