SALINE COUNTY — A preliminary hearing has been scheduled in the case against a former state representative accused of mistreatment of a dependent adult.
On June 5, authorities arrested 37-year-old Jeremy Dannebohm on a Saline County District Court warrant on allegations that also include deception between $25,000 and $100,000, according to the Saline County Sheriff’s office.
Dannebohm posted bond and made a first court appearance June 6. The preliminary hearing is scheduled July 23, according to Brad Sutton of the Saline County Attorney’s office.
In 2014, Dannebohm, also known as J. Basil Dannebohm, ran unopposed and won a seat in the Kansas House representing the 113th District while living in Ellinwood.
He served just 42 days and resigned due to Parkinson’s disease.
Dannebohm has ties to Hays, as well. He grew up in Ellinwood and moved to Hays to attend Thomas More Prep-Marian.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Reno County Commission failed to get the supermajority for a wind farm project to proceed. Commissioners did vote 2-1 for the conditional use permit for the proposed NextEra Energy wind farm. But because of the protest petitions, commissioners needed a supermajority for the project. The company will not be granted the permit.
The commission agreed Tuesday that 46% of the petitions received were more than the 20% threshold required to force a unanimous vote on the permit.
Both Commission Chair Bob Bush and Commissioner Ron Sellers voted in favor of the project with Bush calling it the biggest project for Reno County since Siemens announced it wanted to build in Hutchinson. However, Ron Hirst voted against it saying he didn’t feel it fit with the Reno County Comprehensive Plan. He also noted that he’s not against wind energy, but didn’t like the location in the southeast part of Reno County.
The company wants to build as many as 83 wind turbines in that area but needed the conditional use permit for zoned areas of the county.
With the vote, it will now be up to the company to decide what its next move will be. The company could file an appeal through Reno County District Court.
Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue speaks at an EPA hearing./EPA photo by Eric Vance
A big win for the greater Kansas City area, one which could benefit the entire four-state region.
The United States Department of Agriculture has announced it will move its Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says it’s a natural fit for the two USDA branches.
“The Kansas City region has proven itself to be a hub for all things agriculture and it is a booming city in America’s heartland,” Perdue tells reporters during a conference call. “There’s already a significant presence of USDA and federal government employees in the region, including the Kansas City Ag Bank, Federal Reserve.”
The USDA estimates it will save $300 million over a 15-year period by moving from DC to Kansas City. More than $26 million in incentives have been offered USDA to make the move. The savings will be plowed back into research, according to the USDA.
Perdue says USDA hopes to complete the move by the end of September.
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves is pleased with the decision.
“Oh, I was very happy about it,” Graves tells St. Joseph Post. “This is something that we’ve been working on for some time and then Kansas City was announced as one of three (finalists) and obviously there was a lot more excitement and, now, being picked; it’s a great fit. It’s good for the agency, because it’s going to make it more efficient. It brings those agencies closer to the people that they obviously serve and so I think it’s just a great win for everyone.”
Graves expects Missouri to reap benefits from the decision, but adds Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa should benefit as well.
“A lot of people commute to Kansas City for work and you can go five and six counties deep outside the Kansas City area and it’s going to have a big impact, because there’s just a lot of jobs and they’re good paying jobs,” Graves says. “To get them out of Washington, D.C. and into the heartland, it’s going to make them a lot more efficient.”
The USDA announced in August it would move the two agencies, the only two of its branches wholly located in Washington, D.C. The Department of Agriculture heard from 136 locations and narrowed those applying to three finalists: Kansas City, the state of Indiana, and the research triangle in North Carolina.
HaysMed, part of The University of Kansas Health System, will hold a career event on Tuesday.
The come-and-go event will be from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Hadley Rooms at HaysMed, 2220 Canterbury, Entrance C. Simultaneous events will be held at the MOB Conference, 3717 Sixth, Great Bend and the St. Joseph meeting room at the Pawnee Valley Campus, 923 Carroll Ave., Larned.
At all locations, representatives from nursing, support services, and clerical areas will be available to speak to job seekers and assist with the application process the day of the event.
Sometimes I wonder how long we will be talking about fixing the problems that Sam Brownback left Kansas. Our latest Brownback heartburn is prisons. The news that Kansas officials are considering sending inmates to a private prison in Arizona has generated understandable controversy.
Patrick R. Miller is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas.
Bluntly, the Brownback Administration gutted the Kansas prison system, the legislature often enabled him, and Kansas now faces a desperate situation with no easy or cheap solution.
The Kansas press has well documented the problems in Kansas prisons: hundreds of vacant positions for corrections officers, mandatory overtime for overwhelmed and underappreciated employees, overcrowding, conditions that jeopardize prisoner health, and prison riots.
Since assuming office, Governor Laura Kelly has repeatedly used the term “triage” to describe her approach to the Brownback policy legacy. That decently describes using private prisons as an imperfect short-term option to address a gigantic mess that cannot be fixed overnight.
Part of what makes the private prison option unappealing is the company that it forces Kansas to keep—CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
Locally, CoreCivic has been accused of violating wiretap laws at the Leavenworth Detention Center, and has been a central player in the Lansing prison controversy. Its facilities elsewhere have attracted media attention for inmate abuse, understaffing, and poor management. Yet, there are few options for desperate states like Kansas with overcrowded prisons since media reports estimate that CoreCivic and its competitor GEO Group hold roughly 80 percent of the national private prison market.
CoreCivic is also no stranger to Kansas politics. It and GEO Group are generous campaign donors. In 2018, CoreCivic hedged its bets, donating $2,000 to Kris Kobach and $1,000 to Kelly, even though she had publicly criticized the company. Other Kansas politicians accepting private prison campaign money include Jerry Moran, Pat Roberts, Kevin Yoder, Vicki Schmidt, Derek Schmidt, Kathleen Sebelius, and various state legislators.
But the private prison industry’s favorite Kansas politician has been Brownback, who left Kansas a prison crisis as a parting gift. He accepted campaign money from Prison Health Services, Inc., whose post-merger successor Corizon holds a state contract for health care in Kansas prisons and retains Brownback’s former chief-of-staff as its lobbyist. Kansas officials have penalized Corizon for performance failures.
The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission reports that Brownback’s gubernatorial account took $4,000 from CCA and $7,000 from its CEO. This close relationship made even one Republican legislator publicly imply impropriety in rewarding the company the Lansing prison contract given the revolving door of Brownback staffers subsequently hired as lobbyists by the company up to present day.
The ironic twist here is how Kansas legislative leaders have now decided to insert themselves into prison policy, clutching their proverbial pearls at how the Kelly Administration is handling matters. Many of these same leaders took a mostly hands-off approach to legislative oversight under their ally Brownback, never effectively checking how his administration managed the prison system while defending the Brownback tax policies that starved that system.
Fortunately, some progress was made this year on increasing corrections funding. But the system’s problems remain, and Kansas cannot solve these problems long-term with band-aids like outsourcing prisoners to private prison companies whose political and business practices fuel every worst fear about that industry.
Long-term progress on prisons requires genuine bipartisan commitment from policymakers, something that was lacking under Brownback. It requires a legislature that truly care about the problem, and not a legislature that suddenly cares just because a Democrat is governor. It took years to torch this system, and it will take years and more unattractive short-term remedies to fix it.
Patrick R. Miller is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas.
The Hays Larks Baseball Association is hosting the eighth annual First Responders Night at Larks Park at 7 p.m. Friday.
Everyone is invited to attend the game to help pay tribute to law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics and all first responders for their commitment and contributions to the community.The Hays Larks will play the Park City Rangers, and admission is free. The game is sponsored by Nex-Tech Wireless, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 48 and Hays Firefighters Local 2119.
All first responders are encouraged to attend the Larks baseball game with their families.
SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have a suspect in custody.
Rowzer -photo Shawnee Co.
Just after 4 p.m. Thursday, police responded to 1611 SE 29th Street in Topeka after report of a fight and possible shooting, according to Lt. Robert Simmons. Officers arrived in the area but learned the individuals from the fight had left in vehicles.
A short time later 23-year-old Daven Eufemio Runyan arrived at an area hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot wound.
Investigators learned he was the victim from the disturbance and that the shooter was a
known acquaintance, according to Simmons. Just after 6p.m, Officers arrested Kathalena
Jean Rowzer, 23, Topeka, and booked her into the Shawnee County Department of
Corrections on requested charges of Aggravated Battery.
Friday A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7am, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. South wind 15 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Friday Night A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 7pm and 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 61. South wind 6 to 11 mph becoming light southwest after midnight.
SaturdayA 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning.
Saturday NightA 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62. North wind 3 to 6 mph.
SundayA 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 82.
