SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement are investigating a robbery and asking for help to identify a suspect.

Just before 9p.m. Tuesday, deputies received a call of a robbery at the Viking BP, 4700 NW Hunters Ridge in Topeka, according to Sgt. Todd Staulbaumer.

Upon arrival deputies were told a white male, approximately 6-foot1, thin build, early 20’s, dressed in black with his face covered, entered the store and demanded money.

No weapon was displayed. The subject left the store and fled to the northeast.   A K-9 officer checked the area but lost the trail in the Hunters Ridge Apartment Complex parking lot.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007 or Detective Kevin Kasl 785-251-2248

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal Tuesday morning shooting and have identified the teen victim.

Just before 2:30a.m. police were dispatched to a shooting call in the 1600 Block of South Estelle in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. When officers arrived they located an 18-year-old girl identified Wednesday as Myranda Keck.with a single gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Davidson.

The teen’s 40-year-old mother and her 18-year-old boyfriend were also in the vehicle. Investigators determined the three had just arrived home and parked the car in the street when an unknown suspect drove by and fired multiple shots that hit the teen. The mother and boyfriend were not injured.

Police don’t have a description of the suspects or their vehicle.

This is the fourth homicide in Wichita this year. Anyone with information is asked to call police.

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SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal Tuesday morning shooting.

Just before 2:30a.m. police were dispatched to a shooting call in the 1600 Block of South Estelle in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. When officers arrived they located an 18-year-old girl with a single gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Davidson.

The teen’s 40-year-old mother and her 18-year-old boyfriend were also in the vehicle.  Investigators determined the three had just arrived home and parked the car in the street when an unknown suspect drove by and fired multiple shots that hit the teen.  The mother and boyfriend were not injured.

Police don’t have a description of the suspects or their vehicle.

This is the fourth homicide in Wichita this year. Anyone with information is asked to call police.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Jeff Colyer called Wednesday for an amendment to the Kansas Constitution to protect the state’s abortion restrictions and told legislators he doesn’t support increasing taxes to provide more funding for public schools.

During his first major policy speech, the new Republican also said he plans to issue executive orders to lower the cost of obtaining state records and make more information about agency meetings and operations available online.

Colyer discussed public school funding, abortion, transparency and other issues during an address to a joint session of the Kansas House and Senate that was widely seen as a follow-up to the State of the State address last month by former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. Colyer, formerly lieutenant governor, replaced Brownback when Brownback resigned last week to become U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

“These are times that set history for the next century,” Colyer told legislators. “I believe our best days are ahead of us.”

Colyer and lawmakers must respond to a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to increase spending on public schools. The court ruled in October that the more than $4 billion a year the state provides in aid to its 286 school districts is insufficient under the state constitution, even with an increase approved last year.

Brownback proposed phasing in an additional $513 million increase in aid over five years, relying only on growth in state revenues to cover the cost. Many Republican legislators considered the plan financially reckless, arguing that the state won’t be able to sustain the extra spending without a tax increase or deep cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Many legislators went into Wednesday’s speech looking for Colyer to outline a detailed position on school funding. He said he will sign legislation that phases in an increase in spending on schools “that doesn’t increase the tax burden on Kansas families.”

His call for a state constitutional amendment on abortion is a response to another case before the Kansas Supreme Court. Two abortion providers are challenging a 2015 state law that enacted the nation’s first ban on a common second-trimester procedure that critics call “dismemberment abortion.” A trial court judge ruled that the state constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution — creating the possibility that state courts could strike down restrictions that the federal courts permit.

“This is violence against basic facts,” Colyer said. “This cannot stand.”

Colyer told reporters last week that he would roll out proposals designed to make state government more open, without providing specifics. Lawmakers already are working on a raft of proposals to strengthen lobbying, ethics and open-government laws, including one bill reviewed by a committee Wednesday that would require all legislative committee meetings to televised, starting in 2020.

The governor scheduled a Thursday news conference to formally issue his executive orders on transparency.

He said one would allow Kansas residents and groups seeking government documents to obtain the first 100 pages free, while another would limit officials’ use of private email when doing state business. Colyer also plans to establish a website where information about government meetings and associated documents will be posted and to set performance goals for state agencies, with data their progress available to the public.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer is expected to outline proposals for making state government more transparent during an address to the Legislature, and lawmakers are hoping he also spells out where he stands on public school funding.

The new Republican governor was scheduled to speak Wednesday afternoon to a joint session of the House and Senate. His first major policy speech is widely viewed as his follow-up to the State of the State address from former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback last month.

Colyer, formerly lieutenant governor, replaced Brownback last week when Brownback resigned to become U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Lawmakers are hoping for “more than just simple platitudes,” said state Rep. Melissa Rooker, a moderate Fairway Republican.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, added: “Everyone is going to want to know exactly where he stands on school finance.”

Colyer told reporters last week that he would roll out proposals designed to make state government more open, without providing specifics. Lawmakers already are working on a raft of proposals to strengthen lobbying, ethics and open-government laws.

But Colyer and lawmakers also must respond to a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to increase spending on public schools. The court ruled in October that the more than $4 billion a year the state provides in aid to its 286 school districts is insufficient under the state constitution, even with an increase approved last year.

Brownback proposed phasing in an additional $513 million increase in aid over five years, relying only on growth in state revenues to cover the cost. Many Republican legislators considered the plan financially reckless, arguing that the state won’t be able to sustain the extra spending without a tax increase or deep cuts elsewhere in the budget.

“We have been delivered a budget that’s underwater in two years, and, so if he’d like to make corrections to that, we’d be very appreciative,” Wagle said.

Democratic state Rep. John Alcala, of Topeka, said he’s looking for signs that Colyer is willing to work with Democrats on issues such as school funding and expanding the state’s Medicaid program to provide health coverage to up to 180,000 more poor adults. Colyer has opposed Medicaid expansion.

“I have my doubts because he’s been a bystander, locked in step with Brownback for a long period of time,” Alcala said.t

COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — A woman paralyzed from the chest down in a 2014 southeast Kansas crash has won a $38.5 million verdict.

Cherokee County jurors returned the verdict last week after a five-day trial. Kara Hansen was just 16 and behind the wheel of a 1966 Ford Mustang when she was struck from behind while waiting to turn left into the driveway of her family’s home.

The Mustang had only a lap belt and the back of her driver’s seat broke. She hit her head on the windshield and now needs around-the-clock care.

A deputy testified that the driver who rear-ended Hansen was following too closely and not paying adequate attention. The driver was minimally insured, raising questions about how much of the verdict Hansen will receive.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

Kansas lawmakers may once have thought stiffer penalties for marijuana made sense, but in recent years crowded prisons forced them to take another look.

One of the changes, made in 2016, reduced the crime of being caught with marijuana a second time from a felony to a misdemeanor.

But on Tuesday, the Kansas Sentencing Commission said that change overlooked state law that still keeps harsher penalties on the books for getting caught with pot residue than for possession of marijuana.

Scott Schultz, the commission’s executive director, said that “seemed inequitable.”

“It only seemed natural or made common sense that those penalties should be the same,” he said.

The situation arose because Kansas state law has separate language for tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and marijuana possession. THC is the primary compound in marijuana that makes people high. Traces can be found on drug paraphernalia, or it can exist independently of marijuana in lab-derived versions.

The only objections to the sentencing commission’s proposal came from citizens or organizations who want lawmakers to go further. A resident of Inman, Kansas, asked the panel to decriminalize marijuana.

The ACLU of Kansas, meanwhile, wants lawmakers to clarify whether they intend cannabidiol, or CBD, oil to be considered marijuana and therefore illegal.

CBD is a substance that can be extracted from marijuana separate from the THC that makes people high. Some people say it helps treat seizures and pain, and it is allowed for medical purposes in some states where marijuana is illegal. Companies are seeking FDA approval for drugs containing CBD, but no such drugs have been approved so far.

Late last month, the Kansas attorney general’s office said under current Kansas law, it believes CBD counts as marijuana and is illegal regardless of whether it contains THC.

The ACLU wants lawmakers to weigh in because the attorney general’s opinion isn’t binding on law enforcement agencies, creating a risk that CBD will be treated as legal in some parts of the state and illegal in others.

The ACLU favors allowing CBD for medical uses.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service.  You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ. 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Greater Wichita YMCA will begin daily sex offender registry checks after an employee was charged with raping a 4-year-old girl.

Caleb Gaston, 21, is charged with raping the child Jan. 29 at the Downtown Y. Gaston, who worked for the YMCA since 2013, bonded out of jail Tuesday.

YMCA president and CEO Ronn McMahon said Tuesday the new procedure will notify officials every day if any staff, member, guest or participant is on the sex offender registry.

Gaston was fired from a church preschool last year after a complaint about inappropriate touching. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment concluded the allegation was not substantiated.

McMahon said Gaston underwent a background check but child abuse registries don’t indicate a problem unless formal charges are filed.