OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A former New Jersey church pastor was sentenced to about 1.5 years in prison for an unprovoked attack on a stranger’s baby inside a Kansas Walmart.
The Kansas City Star reports 55-year-old Oleh Zhownirovych was sentenced Thursday to 11 months in prison and six months in the Johnson County Jail, to be served consecutively.
Zhownirovych pleaded no contest in December to felony aggravated battery and misdemeanor battery.
In October 2016, Zhownirovych walked up to a woman waiting in a checkout lane at a Walmart in Overland Park and began choking her 4-month-old daughter. The woman screamed and several people came to her aid and got the baby away from him. The child was not seriously injured.
Zhownirovych is the former pastor of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Clifton, New Jersey,
Police on the scene of the fatal shooting early Thursday -photo courtesy KWCH
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting.
Just after 3:30a.m. Thursday police responded to a report of shots fired in the 700 Block of North Edwards in Wichita, according to police Captain Brett Allred. Upon arrival, police found a 36-year-old woman inside the residence dead from gunshot wounds.
Investigators believe someone from outside fired shots into the home. There were three other men including a 43-year-old, a 46-year-old and a 49-year-old inside the home at the time officers arrived.
Police took them for questioning. Police have not made an arrest, according to Allred.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a deadly shooting in a Wichita neighborhood.
KWCH-TV reports that police responded to the shooting early Thursday. Officers say someone from outside of the home shot at the 37-year-old woman who was inside. The woman died at the scene. Her name wasn’t immediately released.
Numerous shell casings were found outside the home.
Police say they are talking to possible witnesses and neighbors but don’t have a suspect in custody. Investigators say they aren’t sure what led up to the shooting.
Crews on the scene of Thursday’s Reno County grass fire
RENO COUNTY — Fire crews from Hutchinson, Haven, Buhler, and Burrton all made quick work of
a small, but fast-moving brush fire east of Hutchinson Thursday afternoon.
The fire was reported just before 1 p.m. at 4th and Willison. Crews were able to contain the fire just before it reached 17th Avenue. It was contained to an open field with few, if any, trees. The fire burned about 200 acres before it was contained.
One barn was threatened by the fire for a short time, but no damage or injuries were reported. Crews were still on the scene mopping up hot spots throughout the afternoon.
The fire was one of several that burned throughout central and south-central Kansas Thursday.
CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. (AP) — Bakers are responding to the dangerous “Tide Pod challenge” with sweet and savory irreverence.
Kansas-based Hurts Donut and Wake N Bake Donuts in Carolina Beach have both made pastries decorated to look like the laundry detergent pods, which are at the center of a dangerous social media trend.
The “Tide Pod challenge” has gained attention in recent weeks as a social media-fueled trend in which teenagers eat single-load laundry detergent packets and post videos.
The North Carolina doughnut shop said on its Facebook page last week that an employee came up with the idea to show “youth the difference between what to eat and what not to eat.”
Owner Danny Tangredi told WECT-TV : “I definitely didn’t think we would make a Tide Pod doughnut. But I also didn’t think people would eat Tide Pods.”
Hurts Donut introduced its offering in Wichita on January 17.
“We’ve had a really good response so far,” owner Trista Patterson told the newspaper. “We’ve only had a few people who think it’s not funny.”
A New York City pizzeria even launched “Pied Pods,” offering rolls stuffed with cheese and pepperoni and topped with dyed cheese made to look like a detergent pod.
Commenters on social media have had a mixed response. Some think the businesses of being irresponsible because the real detergent is dangerous to consume, while others think the pastries are funny.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers warned of a spike in teenagers eating the laundry product, which it says can cause seizures, respiratory arrest and even death. Poison control centers said that they handled 39 cases of intentional misuse among 13 to 19 year olds in the first 15 days of the year, compared to about 50 for all of last year.
The maker of Tide Pods, Procter & Gamble, said it’s working with social media companies to remove videos of people biting into the detergent.
WICHITA – Stephen R. McAllister was sworn in Thursday as U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas.
The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court administered the oath in a private ceremony today on the University of Kansas campus.
McAllister was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He will be in charge of a staff of more than 100, including 50 attorneys, who work in offices in Topeka, Wichita and Kansas City, Kan. Tom Beall, who has served as U.S. Attorney on an interim basis since former U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom resigned in April 2016, will return to his position as First Assistant U.S. Attorney.
“I am honored to serve,” McAllister said. “I accept the duty to follow the law and to uphold the principles of fairness, impartiality and equal justice for all.”
McAllister has served as the Solicitor General of Kansas and the E.S. & Tom W. Hampton Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas. He argued nine times before the Supreme Court of the United States and he has taught constitutional law and federal civil rights law at KU. He clerked for Justice Thomas as well as the Honorable Byron R. White of the United States Supreme Court, and the Honorable Richard A. Posner at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
He received a bachelor’s degree in 1985 from the University of Kansas, and a law degree in 1988 from the University of Kansas School of Law.
RENO COUNTY— A Kansas man charged with commercial sexual exploitation of a child waived his right to a preliminary hearing Thursday and entered a no contest plea to the charge while the state dropped a second charge of misdemeanor sexual battery.
Jerry Pierce Jr., 47, was arrested after officers were called to a home on West Sherman in Hutchinson on Nov. 14, on the report from an underage girl that Pierce was attempting to have sexual relations with her.
The two had also chatted online about having sexual encounters with the agreement that he would pay off some Municipal Court fines.
District Attorney Keith Schroeder noted in court that, had the two actually had sex, there would be no crime. The judge agreed that this case fell under the strange law category.
The charge is a level 5 felony, but under sentencing guidelines falls under a border box. Schroeder said that he agreed to recommend a non-prison sanction of three years community corrections on a two-year underlying sentence.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas House and Senate leaders say they want the state’s top school finance official suspended in a dispute over whether he has the authority to allocate money to school districts for transportation.
Senate President Susan Wagle and House Speaker Ron Ryckman say Dale Dennis, the deputy education commissioner, unlawfully allocated up to $405 million in transportation funds over 45 years. They also want Dennis’ immediate staff suspended.
Dennis said he’s been calculating transportation payments to school districts the same way for decades. He says he uses a method based on what he was told to do in the past and no one has questioned it before.
Some legislators on Thursday supported Dennis, saying the move was meant to prevent lawmakers from getting independent information on school financing.
ROLLA, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a student at the Missouri University of Science and Technology has been charged with threatening to open fire on the Rolla campus with an assault rifle.
Alexander Beetler, of St. James, was charged Wednesday with making a terrorist threat. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
The probable cause statement says Beetler’s father told authorities that his son had threatened to kill him and “empty the rest of the clips” on the Missouri S&T campus.
The father also said Beetler had an AK-47 rifle and about 900 rounds of ammunition, and the weapon was recovered during a search. The statement says Beetler was charged earlier this year in Kansas with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.
Phillipsburg resident Ron Boeve Sr. passed away Thursday, January 25, 2018, at the Phillips County Hospital in Phillipsburg, KS at the age of 85.
He was born September 7, 1932 in Phillips County, the son of Louis & Edith (Bogart) Boeve. Ron married Eunice Goyen on Oct. 2, 1955 in Bonners Ferry, ID. Ron was a funeral director and co-owner of the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel in Phillipsburg for many years.
He is survived by his wife, Eunice, of Phillipsburg; son, Ron, Jr., of Phillipsburg; daughters: Kathy Boeve-Pensabene and Kandy Boeve, both of Omaha, NE and Kelly Leiker of Hays, KS; sister, Shirley Olliff of Phillipsburg; five grandchildren; two step grandchildren; and three step great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Monday, Jan 29, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. in the Huck Boyd Community Center in Phillipsburg, KS with Pastors Joel Hiesterman and LeRoy Herder officiating. Burial will follow in the Fairview Cemetery, Phillipsburg, with military honors by U. S. Air Force.
Visitation will be Saturday, Jan. 27, from 5 – 9 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 28, from noon – 9 p.m. at the funeral home where the family will receive friends from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening.
Memorial contributions may be given to the First Christian Church or Phillipsburg Rotary. Online condolences to: www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, is in charge of the arrangements.
I am resigning as Governor effective 3:00pm CST on January 31. It has been a great honor to serve and represent Kansans for most of my adult life. Thank you for this opportunity to serve, and may God Bless our great state and nation. #kslegpic.twitter.com/JpG0DSTK9L
Gov. Sam Brownback, right, and Lt. Jeff Colyer PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
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TOPEKA —Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer will be elevated to governor in Kansas when Sam Brownback submits his official resignation to begin work full time in the Trump Administration. That could come as early as next week.
The Republican-led Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved Sam Brownback’s bid to be U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom, setting the stage for him to resign the governorship in Kansas after seven contentious years in office.
With two Republican senators absent, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Capitol Hill to cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Brownback, a favorite of Christian conservatives for his views on same-sex marriage and abortion. The vote was along party lines, 50-49, underscoring the narrow margin Republicans hold. Pence’s vote also was needed earlier in the day to get Brownback’s nomination over a procedural hurdle.
Thank you to @POTUS, @VP, and all the Senators who supported my nomination. I’m looking forward to starting my new position as Ambassador and working hard for the American people and religious freedom around the world. #ksleg
“I’m glad to have the vice president in my corner,” Brownback told reporters after a meeting with Kansas legislative leaders at the statehouse in Topeka. He added later, “I’m happy. It’s a critical job. I’m excited about being able to do it.”
Brownback served in the U.S. Senate before becoming governor in January 2011. He made Kansas an economic laboratory for the nation by aggressively cutting taxes, arguing that they would provide “a shot of adrenaline to the heart” of the state’s economy.
But persistent budget problems followed, along with court mandates to boost spending on public schools. Kansas became an example even for conservatives of how not to do trickle-down economics. Voters turned on his legislative allies in 2016, and bipartisan majorities rolled back most of the cuts last year over Brownback’s veto.
President Donald Trump’s selection of Brownback for the State Department post had come under fire from Senate Democrats and LGBT rights groups. During his confirmation hearing last year, Brownback declined to unequivocally declare there is no situation that would allow a country to cite religious freedom as the basis for criminally prosecuting LGBT people.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Wednesday that he was concerned Brownback would focus solely on protecting Christian minorities.
“I firmly believe that anyone seeking to represent the United States of America must actively champion the right of all people to worship freely and without fear,” Menendez said.
The advocacy group GLAAD said in a statement that Brownback’s “distortion of ‘religious freedom’ threatens LGBTQ people both at home and abroad.”
Kansas’ senators, both Republicans, applauded the confirmation, saying Brownback is ideally suited for the job.
“Sam Brownback has always been called to fight for those of all faiths,” said Sen. Pat Roberts.
Trump announced he’d picked Brownback for the religious freedom post in July, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held his confirmation hearing in early October. But the Senate left town for the year without acting on his nomination. The White House resubmitted the nomination earlier this month.
Brownback also would leave a Kansas legacy of far tougher restrictions on abortion and fewer limits on gun owners than when he won the first of his two terms in 2010.
He also rejected expanding the Medicaid health program for the poor in line with former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law even as several other Republican governors went ahead.
Brownback was an early advocate of U.S. action to stop genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, and visited Congo and Rwanda to decry humanitarian crises and call for better coordination in foreign aid programs.
