WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a judge to enforce her earlier order requiring Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to put on voter rolls people who registered at motor vehicle offices without providing citizenship documents.

In a filing Friday, the group also requested that U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issue an order for Kobach to show cause why he should not be held in contempt.

Kobach says the state “is in full compliance with the district court’s order.”

The ACLU contends Kobach has not registered in the official poll books these voters for federal elections. Those voters aren’t given a regular ballot, but are instead must use a provisional ballot. The ACLU also argues Kobach violated the order by issuing a confusing and misleading notice to the organization.

 

DALLAS (AP) — Prosecutors say a North Texas man who helped smuggle what he thought was cocaine onto flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport must serve nearly 16 years in prison.

Moniteveti “Vince” Katoa was sentenced Thursday in Dallas. Katoa in January pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine.

Three of his associates also pleaded guilty in the 2015 sting. One received 7½ years in prison. The other two await sentencing.

Officials say none of the individuals worked for DFW airport. Some were employed by companies operating at the airport.

Undercover agents provided packages, purportedly with drugs, for transport on commercial flights — in exchange for payments. The packages were flown to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Chicago and San Francisco, plus Newark, New Jersey, and Wichita.

COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) — The first week of testimony has ended in the trial of a Kansas woman accused of killing a man whose burned body was found after he reported the woman was threatening to pull her children out of foster care.

The Joplin Globe reports that 37-year-old Crystal Galloway, of Scammon, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 59-year-old Robin Fought, of Dennis.

Five of Galloway’s six children were taken into state custody in 2014. On Thursday, prosecutors played a voicemail message that Fought left for a state social worker talking about Galloway planning to flee with her children. The Cherokee County trial recessed Friday after a medical examiner testified that Fought was stabbed.

The prosecution and defense haven’t indicated how Fought and Galloway knew each other.

DOUGLAS COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Douglas County are investigating a case of criminal damage to property and asking for help to identify a vehicle.

On four separate occasions in the early morning hours between April and August of 2016, this vehicle was spinning tires in the front yard of a home in the 3400 block of Tillerman Drive in Lawrence, according to police.

The vehicle caused substantial damage. It was captured on video on the last occasion purposely-spinning tires in the front yard.

If you have any information regarding this case please call 785-830-7456

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Delays providing documents in a lawsuit over the fatal 2012 shooting of an unarmed white man in Wichita have led to sanctions.

The Wichita Eagle reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Gale ordered the sanctions this month after finding “inexcusable” but not intentional delays from the city’s legal team. The amount to be paid is in dispute.

At issue is a lawsuit filed by the mother of Troy Lanning II. He was 24 when he was shot while running from a stolen vehicle. Wichita Police Officer Randy Williamson’s lawyer has said the officer saw Lanning reach into a bag and feared he had a gun.

Williamson later was accused of filing a false report in another case. He entered a plea and is no longer with the department.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has declared that budget proposals forwarded to the governor by state agencies are “draft” documents and not subject to the state’s open records laws.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Brownback budget director Shawn Sullivan told Cabinet agency staff members recently that budget proposals are internal documents and not subject to the Kansas Open Records Act.

Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley says the governor’s past and current position has been that draft budget documents are not public information until he releases his budget recommendations to the Legislature.

Even so, in December 2014 Sullivan shared with select lobbyists an outline of Brownback’s ideas for filling a budget hole driven by massive income tax cuts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department has moved to sever ties with the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit schools. That means hundreds of for-profit colleges could close, leaving up to 600,000 students scrambling to find other schools.

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools says it will appeal Thursday’s decision to Education Secretary John B. King Jr.

The council’s interim president, Roger Williams, says the accrediting group will continue its efforts to renew and strengthen its policies and practices to meet the department’s criteria for accreditors.

The accrediting agency has been accused of lax oversight of its schools, which included those once owned by the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges Inc. and the recently shuttered ITT Technical Institute.

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. Army says it has suspended the commander of Fort Riley and launched an official investigation, though no details have been provided.

Army spokesman Col. Patrick R. Seiber announced Friday that Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby has been suspended as commander of the 1st Infantry Division at the Kansas base. He declined further comment. An Army spokeswoman also declined to disclose the nature of the investigation.

About 17,000 troops are stationed at Fort Riley. Grigsby assumed command of the base in August 2015, after 31 years of military service that included a stint as commander of the Combined Joint Task Force in East Africa.

Grigsby was previously stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and served in multiple deployments to Iraq, including as commander of the 1st Infantry Division’s G3 unit.

HUTCHINSON– A former Kansas elementary school counselor entered a plea in the drug distribution case against him Friday.

Terry Lamont McMurry, 49, Hutchinson, entered pleas to possession of cocaine and marijuana, both with intent to distribute, possession of drug proceeds, endangerment of a child and sale of marijuana. As part of a plea agreement, the state dropped two charges for possession of drug paraphernalia and no tax stamp.

Drug Unit Detective Corey Graber testified during the preliminary hearing that the drug unit set up a controlled buy from McMurry using an informant with a listening device.

The actual transaction occurred at a local Kwik Shop on Nov. 5, 2015. That led to a search warrant being served on Dec. 16.

The state alleges that between Nov. 1 and Dec. 16, McMurry was selling the drugs from his home in the 1600 block of Aurora.

They allegedly found marijuana and cocaine inside the home packaged for sale, packaging material, scales and cash.

Marijuana was also found in McMurry’s Mustang and crack cocaine was found in his Mercedes convertible.

Three Mercedes cars and the Mustang were seized during that search.

Rogers’ 2-month-old baby was at the residence and was taken into custody by law enforcement.

McMurry was a counselor for Faris Elementary School in Hutchinson.

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 4.

HODGEMAN COUNTY – Over the past 7 months, volunteers form across southwest Kansas have collected bikes, bike parts, and pieces of bikes.

The salvage project, part of an effort by the seven member counties of the Coronado Crossing Resource Conservation and Development, helps children in many communities get a bicycle, according to Lee Ann Seiler, Director of Hodgeman County Economic Development.

Earlier this week, 200 bikes and bike parts were piled high on a trailer and sent to the Ellsworth Correctional Facility.

“I had 13 more bikes we couldn’t fit on the trailer,” said Seiler.

Inmates with the correctional facility’s Pedals for Progress Bicycle Refurbishing project repair the bikes and they are given to help those in need.

“We have an order list for kids in the community,” said Seilers. “Sometimes the kids need a larger bike and some adults who do cardiac rehab, for example, and can’t afford a bike are on the list.

“It’s a fun project and we have a lot of great volunteers,” she said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has named Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to an advisory council of prominent Catholics.

Brownback was among 34 people named to the council by the Trump campaign Thursday. Trump also named Brownback in August to an agricultural advisory committee.

Trump’s campaign said in a statement that the new group will provide advice and support on issues of importance to Catholics and other Christians, including U.S. Supreme Court appointments and social issues such as abortion.

The statement said the appointment of the council should be seen as an endorsement of “a range of issues and policies.”

Brownback converted to Catholicism in 2002, but even before, as a Methodist, he was a strong abortion opponent. He’s also been a vocal opponent of gay marriage.

FINNEY COUNTY – A woman was injured in an accident just after 3p.m. on Thursday in Finney County.

A 2015 Ford Escape driven by Erika Urbina, 37, Garden City, was traveling at the intersection of 4th and Walnut Street in Garden City, according to a media release.

The vehicle hit Satanta McCormick, 30, as she walked west across 4th Street in the marked crosswalk.

McCormick was transported to St. Catherine Hospital for serious injuries, according to police.

Urbina was also transported at the hospital and treated for unrelated medical issues, according to police.

Urbina was cited for driving while license suspended and failure to yield to a pedestrian.

McCormick has no known address, according to police.  Urbina was arrested in June for driving with no proof of insurance.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man whose 4-year-old son was severely injured when explosives detonated in his car the day after July Fourth 2015 has been sentenced to 18 months of probation.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Jacob Daniel Schell was sentenced Thursday in Shawnee County.

An affidavit says Schell’s son, Roman, was hurt after a sack containing “several improvised explosive devices” blew up in his lap. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper says the ignition source was a “little cap gun” the boy was using. The explosion was so powerful that it peeled back the metal roof of the car Schell was driving.

Gary Conwell, Schell’s attorney, says his client thought the cap gun was empty and that all the “improper” fireworks had been used. Schell says it was a “terrible mistake.”