WABAUNSEE COUNTY— Authorities issued an alert to the public after a successful water rescue in Wabaunsee County.

Just before 9p.m. Tuesday, authorities responded to a distress call for a man who accidentally fell into the Kansas River after the bank gave way, according to the Wabaunsee County Sheriff’s office.

Deputies with the assistance of Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks Game Wardens, AMR; Paxico Fire; and Wabaunsee Fire rescued him and he and is in good condition, according to the sheriff’s office.

Officials strongly urge all individuals to stay away from river banks. The banks of the river may be washed out due to recent high water levels. In this instance, the man was five feet from the bank’s edge.

Unsafe conditions of the Kansas River and its surrounding banks warrant caution. Sightseeing is highly discouraged. Although river levels declined in recent days, water levels remain high, swiftly moving, and full of debris.

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators on Tuesday accused Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration of breaking Kansas law with a new policy that makes it easier for adults who are not working to keep receiving food assistance.

Today, I alerted Governor Laura Kelly that her administration’s recent Kansas Department for Children and Families memo aimed at bypassing existing welfare work requirements is a direct violation of state law. Read my letter and news release! #ksleg pic.twitter.com/K4iaG7XO9z

— Dan Hawkins (@DanHawkinsKS) June 4, 2019

The state Department for Children and Families maintained that the policy is legal. The agency said it will help the homeless and young adults aging out of state custody in the foster care system and that recipients could receive extended benefits through September.

Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins demanded in a letter to Kelly that the governor rescind the policy issued May 17. It says the department will extend assistance month by month for some able-bodied adults without children instead of cutting it off because the recipient isn’t working or enrolled in job training.

Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican, said the letter was his way of putting Kelly “on notice” that the department is violating a 2015 law codifying stricter rules for the state’s food and cash assistance programs that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration set. Kelly was a state senator before taking office as governor in January and strongly opposed the law.

“It comes as no surprise that Laura Kelly is violating the law in (an) attempt to grow the welfare state in Kansas,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, who is also a conservative Republican and from Wichita. “We will do everything possible to hold our governor accountable and ensure she complies with the law.”

It was not clear how far top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature were prepared to go to overturn the new food assistance policy. Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt declined through a spokesman to comment on whether Schmidt agreed that the policy violated state law and whether he would take legal action.

“DCF intends to move forward with this policy,” the agency said in a statement emailed by spokesman Mike Deines.

The federal government pays for food assistance and covers half of each state’s costs in administering them. It generally limits able-bodied adults age 18 to 49 without dependents to three months of assistance within a three-year period if they aren’t working or enrolled in job training.

The 2015 state law specifies the same policy and says the Department for Children and Families can’t ask the federal government for a waiver or start a program to avoid the rule. The same law also gained national attention for telling families they can’t use cash assistance to attend concerts, get tattoos, see a psychic or buy lingerie. The list of don’ts amounted to several dozen items.

The department said its policy is neither a waiver nor a new program.

The policy said the federal government gives states some flexibility to grant exemptions “as they deem appropriate” to extend assistance month by month. Because Kansas didn’t use exemptions “for many years,” some 58,000 “have accumulated,” with each good for a one-month extension for one adult, the policy said.

“Federal law explicitly allows this and other exemptions,” the department said.

Critics argue that Kansas’ tougher rules hurt struggling families, and before Kelly took office, she called on legislators to roll them back. The idea got no serious consideration before lawmakers adjourned last week for the year.

Since its current budget year began in July 2018, Kansas has provided food assistance to an average of about 109,000 adults and nearly 98,000 children a month. The average cost is just short of $111 per person.

The total number of people receiving food assistance, now averaging 207,000 a month, is down nearly 35 percent from its 2013 peak of 316,000 but higher than it was before the Great Recession.

The 2015 law, which Hawkins helped draft, had widespread support among Republicans, who argue that it moves welfare recipients toward self-sufficiency.

“She’s proposed to protect and defend the statutes of the state of Kansas,” Hawkins said of Kelly. “To go out and subvert that, I think, is just wrong.”

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KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 54-year-old former teacher and swim coach who worked in the Kansas City area has been sentenced to federal prison for sexually assaulting and exploiting children in crimes that spanned decades.

James Green Jr. was sentenced Tuesday to concurrent terms of 30 and 10 years for production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Green faces other sex crime charges involving minors in Jackson County.

Federal prosecutors say Green used hidden cameras to videotape sex he had with children at his home, and to tape high school boys undressing in school locker rooms. The filming occurred for about 20 years.

Green taught and coached at Oak Park High School, in several middle schools in the North Kansas City School District and at Blue Springs South High School. He also coached at Hallbrook Country Club in Leawood, Kansas.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A legislator says a screening policy at the local jail requiring women to remove their underwire bras before entering the facility is sexist and she is demanding that it be changed.

The corrections department disputes Jackson County, Missouri  legislator Crystal Williams’ claims. Corrections director Diana Turner says the rules implemented May 16 aim to prevent weapons and contraband from being smuggled into the Jackson County jail.

Update JaCo Detention Center Bragate. The director and sheriff are digging in and deem there’s no need to figure out a solution which doesn’t target, but accomodates, a specific population, namely women. Asked for a brief suspension so it could be evaluated was told no. Lovely.

— Crystal Williams (@crystalpolicy) June 4, 2019

Williams raised the issue on Twitter Monday after hearing complaints from female attorneys and others about the jail’s screening procedures. The checkpoint consists of an X-ray machine and metal detectors.

STILLWATER, Okla. — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a registered sex offender who is jailed in Stillwater, Oklahoma, for the alleged murder of a former Kansas woman.

On June 3, the Payne County Oklahoma Sheriff’s Office requested that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation assist with an investigation into a missing person case that evolved into a homicide investigation, according to a media release from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Chelsey Chaffin, 29, formerly of Hutchinson, last spoke to her mom by text during the evening hours of May 25. That was the last time she was heard from by friends or family, according to the release.

On May 24, Chaffin had moved to a residence in Stillwater. The residence belonged to 54-year-old Earl Oswalt, who worked with Chaffin at a tile company in Stillwater.

The Payne County Sheriff’s Office and the OSBI followed up on dozens of leads in the missing person case that ultimately led to the arrest of Oswalt for murder.

Investigators say he killed Chaffin in the early hours of May 26. At approximately 1 a.m. on May 27, her body was dumped over a bridge into the Cimarron River.

Oswalt is a registered sex offender who spent 20 years in prison on a 60-year sentence for rape in the first degree. He was paroled in 2017.

The search continues in hopes of recovering Chaffin’s body.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The owner of a contracting company has pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme that defrauded the government by receiving contracts intended for veterans and minorities.

Forty-three-year-old Matthew McPherson, owner of Topeka-based McPherson Contractors, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major program fraud.

Federal prosecutors say the construction firms involved received $346 million for contracts for small businesses owned by for veterans and minorities.

McPherson, of Olathe, is not a veteran or a minority and his construction company was not entitled to compete for those contracts, in what is known as “Rent-A-Vet” or “Rent-a-Minority” schemes.

The co-conspirators are accused of claiming that black, disabled veterans managed construction companies in order to receive the contracts.

The federal government has filed a lawsuit against McPherson and his co-conspirators over the fraud scheme.

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KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors are alleging that two Topeka businessmen and a Kansas City-area man operated a $352 million business fraud scheme that involved using minority or disabled military veterans to obtain federal business contracts.

In a civil action filed in Kansas City, federal prosecutors allege Matt Torgeson, president of Torgeson Electric Co., and Matthew McPherson, president of McPherson Contractors, both based in Topeka, worked with Michael Patrick Dingle to create what are sometimes called “Rent-A-Vet” companies. They allege they received more than 60 fraudulent small-business government contracts beginning in 2009.

According to court documents, the men set up businesses called Zieson Construction and Simcon Corp. to obtain contracts meant for minority or disabled veterans and then used the money for themselves or their businesses, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported .

Under federal law, minority or disabled veterans are to manage the daily operations of businesses that receive “set aside” contracts for small minority-run businesses. Torgeson, McPherson and Dingle are not disabled or minorities and prosecutors say Dingle managed two of the fraudulent businesses.

A third front company, Onsite, was formed after Zieson was growing too large to qualify for the small business contracts, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors are asking that properties and bank accounts owned the co-conspirators be forfeited because they were proceeds of the alleged fraud.

In the court filing, federal prosecutors contend millions of federal dollars were paid to Zieson and Simcon and then funneled to Torgeson, McPherson and Dingle. Prosecutors allege that between April 2010 and January 2018, the government paid about more than $300 million in “illicit funds” to Zieson, Simcon and Onsite, and others associated with the alleged fraud.

The lawsuit also names veterans or minority individuals whose names were used to set up the front company and who signed paperwork contending they were managing the companies. No criminal charges have been filed.

In an emailed statement, McPherson Contractors said it was working with authorities on the investigation. Matt Torgeson told KSNT-TV that his company also is cooperating with the investigation. A phone number listed for Dingle went unanswered.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man is suing the city of Topeka after he was seriously injured when he fell through a gap in a highway bridge in the same place where four people have plunged through since 2001, including a 14-year-old boy who died.

The lawsuit filed Monday seeks nearly $2.78 million for Trong Do Turner, who was injured in July 2017 when he fell through a gap between the northbound and southbound lanes of the Kansas Avenue Bridge where he mistakenly believed there was a sidewalk.

Signs at both ends of the bridge warn about no foot traffic access but the lawsuit says Turner entered the bridge from a sidewalk where no warning was posted.

City spokeswoman Molly Hadfield says the city doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a person who suffered critical injuries after falling 25 feet was likely trying to jump a gap between two bridges in Kansas.

The man was transported to a Topeka hospital Sunday evening with injuries that are considered life-threatening. He’s believed to be between 17 and 20 years old.

Topeka Police Lt. Aaron Jones says the victim likely thought he could land safely or that there was something to catch him.

Jones says investigators don’t believe the victim intentionally jumped off the bridge, but that he may have been trying to jump between northbound and southbound bridges along Kansas Avenue.

Police say witnesses reported calling 911 after watching the fall. Jones says witnesses described him as “happy go lucky.”