LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former treasurer has been sentenced for stealing from the Jewish Federation of Lincoln.

Federal prosecutors say Jennifer Rosenblatt, of Overland Park, Kansas, was sentenced Tuesday in Lincoln to six months in a residential re-entry center and six months of home confinement. She also was ordered to pay nearly $107,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors say Rosenblatt, formerly of Lincoln, was treasurer of the federation from 2009 through June 2016. They say Rosenblatt made payments to her personal credit card accounts from funds in the federation’s bank accounts.

SHAWNEE COUNTY  – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and asking the public for help to locate a suspect.

Just after 11:30p.m. Tuesday, police responded to an attempted aggravated robbery to the Kwik Shop, 1700 SW Topeka Blvd. in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.

A store employee told police a suspect described as a black male wearing a black and white hooded sweatshirt, standing approximately 6-foot-2, and weighing 285 pounds, entered the store and indicated to the clerk he had a gun under his shirt.

He then demanded money from the clerk. The clerk refused to give him any money so the suspect then stole merchandise and fled on foot in an unknown direction. Officers searched the area but were unsuccessful in locating the suspect.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Washburn professor says in a lawsuit that the university retaliated against her after she filed a sex discrimination complaint.

Leslie Reynard, who teaches in the communication department, said in her lawsuit the retaliation began after she told her department chair in April 2018 that she intended to file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Reynard said the university tried to place her on a performance improvement plan in September. She refused because she said the plan was used to find small mistakes that would allow the school to fire her.

In November, she filed a claim of retaliation. The lawsuit seeks back pay and damages.

School spokesman Patrick Early said Tuesday the university’s counsel wasn’t aware of the lawsuit and wouldn’t comment.

COWLEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report of ATM skimming in Kansas and waiting for one of the suspects to be extradited from Texas.

A Houston, Texas, man is being held on a Cowley County District Court warrant stemming from three incidents reported to the Arkansas City Police Department in November and December of 2018.

Vasile Serban, 18, Houston, Texas, was served with a Cowley County District Court warrant while he was in custody in Texas for three incidents involving ATM skimming reported to the Arkansas City Police Department in November and December of 2018 and also an immigration hold, according to police.

Among the charges are three counts of theft by deception, one count each of criminal damage to property and theft, and more than 100 counts of identity theft. Police still are gathering information for the identity theft charges while they wait for Serban to be extradited back to Kansas for prosecution.

Police were notified in December 2018 that credit and debit card-skimming devices had been located on two automated teller machines (ATMs) in Ark City. Local banks notified affected customers.

Further investigation determined that the suspect had also successfully skimmed credit card information the and “cashed out” cloned credit cards in the Wichita area for nearly $18,000.

Also on Dec. 20, 2018, later in the day, officers took a report from Walmart that a male suspect had broken into the store’s iPhone display, removed an iPhone X Max and left the store without paying.

Surveillance video confirmed the description of the person who allegedly stole the iPhone matched that of a suspect from the credit card skimming incidents. The suspects were driving a maroon four-door Volkswagen Jetta, with a model year between 2006 and 2010.

A call to the police department reported that one of the skimmed accounts from Dec. 19, 2018, was used Dec. 31, 2018, at a convenience store in Houston

The department requests that anyone whose information was compromised as a result of these incidents please call ACPD Capt. Eric Burr at (620) 441-6601 or email him at [email protected].

Anyone who has any information about this crime or any other suspects in the case is asked to call ACPD Sgt. Jason Legleiter at (620) 441-4444.

Those wishing to remain anonymous may contact Cowley County Crime Stoppers, which offers rewards of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Advocates for low-income families joined small-town grocers and others encouraging Kansas lawmakers to reduce the state’s sales tax on groceries, while lobbyists for some organizations warned doing so might lead to efforts to reduce other types of taxes.

A hearing Monday before the House Taxation committee was the first testimony on a bill to reduce the 6.5 percent state tax rate on groceries by 1 percent. The reduction would lower state revenues by $60 million, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported .

Oberlin City Administrator Halley Roberson said her northwest Kansas town is losing tax revenue because residents drive to nearby Nebraska, which doesn’t have a sales tax on groceries. She said her town could use the sales tax revenue for badly needed infrastructure repairs.

Legislative Research data showed sales and excise tax accounts for 8 percent of family income for those in the bottom 20 percent of Kansas wage earners. The impact decreases as income rises, with the top 1 percent of wage earners using only 1 percent for sales tax.

State lawmakers raised the rate to 6.5 percent in 2015 when the state was facing continuing revenue shortfalls. Kansas residents pay one of the highest tax rates on groceries of any jurisdiction in the country when state and local taxes are combined.

Rep. Tim Hodge, a North Newton Democrat who campaigned on lowering food sales taxes, criticized past lawmakers for raising the sales tax rather than repealing tax cuts during a budget crisis.

“For the last 10 years, we have used and abused the sales tax whenever there’s any kind of recession or shortage at the state government level,” he said.

John Donley of the Kansas Farm Bureau warned that reducing the sales tax on groceries could eventually lead to replacing the sales tax with a value-added tax system, which would apply to production of goods.

“I probably am being paranoid, but I’m here today to basically put the line in the sand, stake the flag, saying we do not support reducing the state sales tax because we do believe that the next step is, well, what about that livestock exemption?” Donley said.

Adrienne Olejnik of Kansas Action for Children said the state should reconsider a food sales tax rebate program that was eliminated in 2013, rather than lowering the sales tax on groceries. The program’s refunds were available for households with less than $30,615 in annual income.

“There are a lot of unknowns and things that need to be resolved before we consider buying down the food sales tax rate,” Olejnik said.