Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby testified at the Sept. 13 Senate hearing
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – Chairman of the Senate Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee announced Thursday that his bipartisan bill, the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (S. 3183), passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Better Online Ticket Sales Act, also known as the BOTS Act, would put an end to “ticket bots” that bypass security measures on online ticketing websites to buy large quantities of tickets for re-sell on secondary markets.
“Whether it’s a Garth Brooks concert in Wichita, or the most hyped and prestigious Broadway show of all time – Hamilton – the digital age has made acquiring tickets easier than ever,” said Sen. Moran. “But an age-old issue, ticket scalping, has been made even more prevalent by advances in technology. Ticket bots cut the line, buy available tickets, and then sell them at a significant markup – making it harder and more expensive for Kansans to attend live performances. This bipartisan bill levels the playing field for consumers across the country, and I’m pleased to see it move forward with bipartisan support.”
Chairman Moran convened a Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing last week that included testimony from Jeffrey Seller, producer of hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, and representatives from StubHub and Ticketfly.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police are trying to determine whether an officer posted on Facebook that the killing of an unarmed black man by a white Oklahoma police officer was a “good shoot.”
The Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality in Kansas City captured a screenshot of Donald Ebert’s reply to an article about Terence Crutcher’s death in Tulsa last week. The post reads: “Should have dropped the entitlement card and listened the first time. Good shoot.”
Police Capt. Stacey Graves said by email Friday that police are “investigating for potential officer misconduct.” Graves says Ebert works for the department and that police are investigating whether the post came from him.
The Associated Press left a message with the police union seeking comment Friday. Ebert’s number isn’t listed.
FINNEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County continue to investigate a stabbing that occurred on Farmland Road on September 11.
A possible cell phone video of the crime may exist, according to the sheriff’s department.
Just before 1:30 a.m. on September 11, Finney County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to 335 S. Farmland Road for report of a stabbing, according to a media release.
Four people were stabbed during a fight and hospitalized including Orlando Perez, 22, Armondo Perez, 23, Jose Hernandez, 20, and a 15-year-old all of Garden City.
Armondo Perez and the 15-year-old were ultimately transferred to hospitals in Wichita for additional treatment.
A fifth victim 19-year-old, Lakota Reyes of Garden City, received a minor cut to his hand while trying to assist in breaking up the fight.
Antonio Hernandez, 18, Garden City, was arrested for the stabbing and is being held in the Finney County Jail on 5 counts of Aggravated Battery. His bond has been set at $250,000
Authorities ask anyone who has video of this crime to contact deputies with that information.
Please call 620-272-3700 and ask for the Investigations Division.
RENO COUNTY— A Kansas man faces two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.
Adam Bryant Miller, 22, Hutchinson, is accused of molesting two children ages 11 and 14.
Police say it involved inappropriate touching and one of the charges falls under Jessica’s Law, which includes a possible 25-year to life sentence if convicted.
The touching may have been going on for some time according to District Attorney Keith Schroeder.
Miller is free on bond and is expected to make a first appearance in court next week.
Tom Beall, Acting U.S. Attorney for District of Kansas
If you do not have a family member, friend or co-worker who suffers from a prescription opioid or heroin addiction problem, consider yourself lucky. A growing number of your fellow Kansans, on the other hand, are feeling the painful effects of America’s newest and most frightening drug epidemic.
The National Heroin Task Force’s Final Report published in December 2015 outlined the problems that law enforcement officers and public health workers in Kansas and across the nation are facing every day:
— More than 1.9 million people in America had a prescription opioid use disorder in 2014, and nearly 600,000 had a heroin use disorder.
— More than 27,000 overdose deaths in this country in 2014 involved prescription opioid medications or heroin. That is one death every 20 minutes.
— Heroin is more accessible and less costly than prescription opioids. In fact, nearly 80 percent of new heroin users reported that they started through the nonmedical misuse of prescription opioid pain medicines.
— The United States leads the world in the consumption of prescription opioid medications.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas is prioritizing prosecution of drug traffickers who deal in heroin, especially those who can be tied to fatal drug overdoses. High purity heroin presents a deadly threat of overdose to young people and individuals suffering from chronic pain. In Kansas, we have seen heroin packaged as “buttons” made of heroin whipped with lactose that caused massive overdoses immediately after ingestion. Our office has prosecuted cases involving overdose deaths of adults and teenage victims in Wyandotte, Johnson and Leavenworth counties. We are working with the Kansas Narcotics Officers Association and other organizations to educate law enforcement officers about the heroin and opioid epidemic.
We are prosecuting criminal pill mill operators, too. Two dozen defendants went to federal prison last year, for instance, when our office prosecuted a Lenexa doctor who unlawfully prescribed prescription pain medicines to a network of users and distributors on the streets of metropolitan Kansas City. Such prosecutions are aimed not only at taking specific offenders off the streets but also at sending a message that will deter others from doing the same.
Tough law enforcement alone, however, will not make this problem go away. The opioid crisis is fundamentally a public health problem. We all need to work together, including law enforcement, public health officials and medical professionals, youth leaders, parents, faith-based organizations, social service providers and educational institutions. Our goals should include slowing the flow of opioids into the community, reducing the number of overdose deaths, educating young people on the dangers of nonmedical opioid use, increasing access to treatment and recovery services and educating practitioners on safe and appropriate prescribing.
We have done some good things in Kansas already. K-TRACS, the state’s prescription monitoring system, is providing physicians and pharmacists with valuable information to help them manage their patients who are prescribed controlled substances. Drug Take Back Day events allowing consumers to safely dispose of prescription medications that might otherwise be diverted onto the streets are catching on in communities across the state. We need to build on those initiatives. Kansas should continue to be a leader in the nation’s fight against heroin and opioid abuse. Tom Beall is the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas is hosting a telephone town hall on voting rights in the state.
The group is inviting 20,000 households across the state to participate in Tuesday’s event, which takes place on National Voter Registration Day.
Former Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger will moderate.
Panelists are Marge Ahrens, co-president of the Kansas chapter of the League of Women Voters; Cheryl Brown Henderson of the Brown Foundation, whose parents were involved in the litigation that led to public school desegregation; and Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas.
The planned event is slated just days after the ACLU was in a Shawnee County court challenging the dual voter registration system in Kansas.
Similar events are also being held in other in several other states.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ attorney general has released a document showing that the U.S. Department of Defense spent nearly $26,000 surveying potential sites last year for housing terror suspects now held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt says he’s concerned the federal agency may have violated a prohibition from Congress on spending federal money to move the prisoners to U.S. soil.
Fort Leavenworth, an Army base in Kansas, was among the sites surveyed. Local and state officials strongly oppose moving detainees there.
In a letter Thursday to Kansas’ congressional delegation, Schmidt said he obtained the one-page report after filing a federal lawsuit in July seeking documents related to the Obama administration’s plan to move detainees.
Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Valerie Henderson says the agency doesn’t comment on ongoing lawsuits.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kanas man was charged in federal court Tuesday with robbing a bank in Overland Park, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
Paul A Sundquist, 29, Louisburg, Kan., is charged with a Sept. 19, 2016, robbery at the Stanley Bank, 7835 W.151st in Overland Park, Kan.
A criminal complaint alleges Sundquist showed a clerk a note demanding money before receiving the cash and fleeing the bank.
A bystander got a partial tag number on Sundquist’s pickup truck. Sundquist was monitoring police radio traffic on his cell phone. When he heard police had his tag number he called 911 and surrendered.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
The driver of this truck died Wednesday as a result of injuries from a Sunday morning crash (Photos: Saline County Sheriff’s Office)
SALINE COUNTY – A Kansas man died from injuries sustained in an accident just after 10:30 a.m. on Sunday in Saline County.
A 1999 Ford Ranger driven by Edwin Anderes, 67, Salina, was southbound on Solomon Road just off McReynolds Road, according to Undersheriff Roger Soldan.
Anderes lost control of the pickup. It traveled off the west edge of the road, swerved to the east side of the road and went airborne into a culvert.
He was transported to Salina Regional Health Center and later transferred to a hospital in Wichita.
The Sedgwick County Coroner’s Office contacted the Sheriff’s office to report Anderes died on Wednesday.
The sheriff’s department did not have information on seat belt usage at the time of the accident.
HASKELL COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Thursday in Haskell County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Mack Truck semi driven by Jesus Joaquin Flores, 47, Salina, was eastbound on U.S. 56 two miles west of Copeland.
The truck’s rear tire blew out.
It crossed left of center and entered the north ditch.
The truck’s tires then tripped in the soft dirt and the truck rolled.
Flores was transported to Satanta District Hospital.
He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
OLATHE, Kansas (AP) — A 38-year-old man faces a murder charge in the traffic death of a Johnson County deputy.
Adrian Espinosa-Flores, of Kansas City, Kansas, is accused of driving drunk on September 11 when authorities say his pickup truck slammed into the patrol vehicle of Master Deputy Brandon Collins in Overland Park. The deputy was stopped, conducting a traffic stop, when the crash occurred.
Espinosa-Flores was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter.
The Kansas City Star reports that Johnson County prosecutors on Thursday filed an alternative charge of reckless second-degree murder against Espinosa-Flores, who’s being held on $2 million bond.
A lawyer listed for Espinosa-Flores didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
RICE COUNTY — A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years for sex crimes against children.
Jeffrey Dean Crenshaw, 43, Hutchinson, was found guilty in July by a Rice County jury of five counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, one count of attempted aggravated criminal sodomy and one count of criminal sodomy of a person under 14 years of age.
The charges fall under Jessica’s Law because the victim was under 14 years of age. Judge Steven Johnson sentenced Crenshaw to life in prison.
The crimes were committed between February 2010 and February 2012. The charges stemmed from an investigation by the Lyons Police Department.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge says he won’t allow the resentencing of a man convicted of killing abortion provider George Tiller to turn into a “political forum on abortion” or “a circus.”
The Wichita Eagle reports that Judge Warren Wilbert made the comments Wednesday while preparing for the start of Scott Roeder’s Nov. 28 trial. Roeder says he shot Tiller in 2009 in an attempt to end abortion.
Roeder’s life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years was among many vacated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that juries, not judges, must decide whether to increase punishment.
Jurors must decide whether to resentence him to at least 50 or 25 years before being eligible for parole. Prosecutors want the longer sentence and the defense the lesser term.
