Linda Thomas, Warden at Leavenworth Detention Center
JIM SUHR, Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal prosecutor in Kansas says a prison drug-smuggling scheme in which six people are charged actually may involve more than 90 inmates and dozens of outsiders who assisted them.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Tomasic recently has told a judge she assumes more Leavenworth Detention Center employees may be charged than the one already being prosecuted.
According to transcripts of the July 21 hearing in Kansas City, Kansas, Tomasic said “new targets” of the investigation are being identified “at an alarming rate.”
The 1,126-bed lockup is run under contract by the Corrections Corporation of America and is separate from the federal prison in Leavenworth.
The case is at the center of a legal storm over privacy rights involving prison recordings of confidential lawyer conversations with clients at the Leavenworth
Fatal crash on Thursday in Shawnee County photo courtesy Phil Anderson Topeka Capitol Journal
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Four people died in an accident just after 7:15 a.m. on Thursday in Shawnee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Subaru Impreza driven by Devin Michael Greeve, 17, Topeka, was westbound on U.S. 24 two miles east of Silver Lake.
The vehicle crossed the centerline.
An eastbound 2007 Pontiac Vibe driven by Lance Jason Lenard, 47, Rossville, struck the Subaru on the passenger side.
Greeve and Lenard were transported to Stormont Vail where they died.
Passengers in the Subaru Gaby N. Greeve, 11, and Tyler M. Crouse, 14, both of Topeka were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the Shawnee County Coroner.
A passenger in the Pontiac Kade Lenard, 13, Rossville, was transported to Stormont Vail.
Crouse was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people have died and three are critically injured after a crash northwest of Topeka.
Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Jory Custar says the crash happened Thursday morning when a westbound vehicle veered into the path of an eastbound vehicle on U.S. 24.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that two people in the westbound vehicle were killed and a third occupant was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Both passengers in the eastbound vehicle also sustained critical injuries.
photo courtesy Phil Anderson Topeka Capitol Journal
The names of the victims weren’t immediately released.
SALINE COUNTY – Investigators are working to determine the cause of a Thursday morning mobile home fire in north Salina.
Two occupants of the home located at 708 North 2nd Street were able to escape the fire without injury, according to Salina Fire Marshal Roger Williams.
They were both treated by EMS at the scene and refused transport to the hospital.
Firefighters also pulled a dog from inside the home. The condition of the animal was not immediately known, but personnel with the Salina Animal Shelter were at the scene.
No additional details were available early Thursday afternoon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says a $400 million cash payment to Iran was contingent on the release of American prisoners.
Spokesman John Kirby says negotiations over the United States’ returning Iranian money from a decades-old account was conducted separately from the prisoner talks. But he says the U.S. withheld delivery of the cash as leverage until the U.S. citizens had left Iran.
Both events occurred Jan. 17.
Kirby spoke after The Wall Street Journal reported that the departures of the crisscrossing planes were linked.
BARTON COUNTY – Uber Technologies Inc. is available in cities worldwide, in portions of Kansas and now in Great Bend.
The Uber app allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request and a registered Uber driver in town will pick them up and take them to their destination.
Unlike a taxi system, Uber is made up of community drivers that use their own vehicles.
“Uber transportation is completely cashless. Everything is done through the Uber App,” according to Great Bend Community Coordinator Christina Hayes.
She says there are already 10 drivers signed up in Great Bend.
The fares driver’s earn automatically deposit into their bank account every week.
Drivers have to pass a series of questions and background checks.
Hayes says anything that might limit drunk driving and provide a convenience to residents is something the city supports.
In Kansas, the company originally offered service in Wichita, Kansas City, Kansas, Johnson County and grew to include Lawrence, Leavenworth, Manhattan
GEARY COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating four suspects in connection with a aggravated kidnapping and battery.
Four suspects are in custody in connection with an incident near Old Highway 13 in the rural southeast portion of Geary County, according to the Geary County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies say man was found severely injured at the edge of a field.
The victim alleged he had been beaten and kidnapped from his residence in rural Wabaunsee County near Alta Vista and was transported to a residence in rural Geary County.
The Sheriff’s Department initiated an investigation and requested assistance from the United States Marshal’s Service in locating and apprehending the suspects.
Mark Daniel Lee, 33, Herington, was already in the custody of the US Marshal’s Service on unrelated charges, according to Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf .
On August 11 the Geary County Sheriff’s Office apprehended Justin David Spiker, 26, Alta Vista.
Randy Carroll Fetters Jr.
On August 16 the Kansas Apprehension Task Force arrested Randy Carroll Fetters Jr., 36, and Story Lee Blocker, 36, both of Herington.
Wolf confirmed all of the suspects were charged in Geary County District Court warrants with Aggravated Kidnapping, Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Kidnapping and Aggravated Battery.
The identity of the victim has not been released.
The incident allegedly involved illegal drugs and stolen property, according to Wolf.
The Kansas Apprehension Task force is a multi-jurisdictional fugitive task force comprised of the United States Marshals Service, Topeka Police Department, Shawnee County Sheriff’s
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):
A law enforcement official is telling The Associated Press that two security guards pointed guns at Ryan Lochte and three other swimmers during a dispute at a gas station.
The change in the version of events came after police interviewed one of the security guards on Thursday. It further deepened the mystery of what truly happened inside the station and set off an international dispute.
The official said the swimmers broke the bathroom door and the soap dispenser inside. Security footage from inside the station shows the swimmers vandalizing the bathroom.
Workers at the gas station went to see what the commotion was about, the official said. At that point, a security guard also came and confronted the swimmers, and pointed a gun. A second guard came behind him and pointed another gun.
Brazilian police previously said no gun was pointed at the swimmers.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian police official is telling The Associated Press that American swimmer Ryan Lochte fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro.
The official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing probe.
He said that around 6 a.m. on Sunday, Lochte, along with fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen, stopped at a gas station in Barra da Tijuca, a suburb of Rio where many Olympic venues are located. One of the swimmers tried to open the door of an outside bathroom. It was locked.
A few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it. A security guard appeared and confronted them, the official said.
The official says the guard was armed with a pistol, but he never took it out or pointed it at the swimmers.
According to the official, the gas station manager then arrived. Using a customer to translate, the manager asked the swimmers to pay for the broken door. After a discussion, they did pay him an unknown amount of money and then left.
The official says that swimmers Conger and Bentz, who were pulled off a plane going back to the United States late Wednesday, told police that the robbery story had been fabricated.
First responders on the scene of the drowning-photo courtesy Fox 4 Kansas City
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Family and friends have gathered to remember a teen who drowned at a neighborhood lake in suburban Kansas City.
The Kansas City Star reports that more than 100 friends, family members and fellow classmates of 17-year-old Treyvon Mays met Wednesday night for a vigil at Lakeview Estates in Shawnee.
Mays was at small lake there Tuesday night when his friends lost track of him. They weren’t sure whether he was still in the water or had gone up to a house. After reporting him missing, a dive team was called, and crews quickly recovered his body.
Treyvon Mays- courtesy photo
During the gathering, friends told of Mays’ kindness to strangers and his passion for life. Mays’ cousin, Precious Swygert, said what happened was “horrible” and described May as “a wonderful man.”
FORD COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities in Ford County are investigating a phone scam.
Callers have been contacting southwest Kansas residents and identifying themselves as Department of Treasury officials, according to a media release.
The caller then informs the victim they are recipients of a “Grant,” part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) program and funded by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
The caller than informs the victim to register with the bank for a $250 fee and they documents for the “Grant” would be sent via FedEx and the “Grant” money sent via Moneygram in two separate checks containing a reference number.
It is not known if the caller will send documents, according to the Sheriff’s Department. If sent, the documents colorful, elaborate and will be fraudulent official government documents.
The documents are fake but some are good enough to pass a cursory review, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
The caller, whose first language was not English, used a 202 area code and had pieces of the victim’s identifying information.
Because the criminals are also involved in identity theft, the sheriff recommends if you are contacted, delete the electronic message or hang up as soon as you recognize it is a scam attempt. Do not attempt to play along or elicit information that can be used against him.
Photo by KHI News Service File Gov. Sam Brownback said Wednesday that he will attempt to restore recent cuts in Medicaid reimbursement rates by increasing a tax that hospitals pay.
Facing increasing criticism from health care providers about recent cuts in Medicaid reimbursement rates, Gov. Sam Brownback said Wednesday that he will attempt to restore the cuts by increasing a tax on hospitals.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Brownback said he was forced in May to order a 4 percent cut in provider reimbursement rates after efforts to negotiate an increase in the surcharge failed. The cuts took effect in July.
“We will continue those efforts in the next legislative session,” he said. “I look forward to working with the Legislature to restore the 4 percent cut in reimbursement rates and will call on them to pass an increase in the provider tax.”
The $56.3 million reduction in Medicaid reimbursements was part of nearly $100 million in cuts that Brownback ordered to cover a projected deficit in the fiscal year 2017 budget.
Kansas is one of 49 states that levy provider assessments. The money generated by the assessments on hospitals, managed care organizations and nursing homes is used to draw down additional federal funds, which are used to increase reimbursements to providers who participate in KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
Brownback is proposing to increase only the assessment on hospitals, which currently stands at 1.83 percent of their in-patient revenues. The tax now generates approximately $40 million, which is used to leverage another $60 million in federal matching funds. Federal law limits state assessments to 6 percent of revenue. Brownback didn’t specify how much of an increase he plans to propose.
The Brownback administration has attempted to negotiate provider tax increases to address budget problems twice before. In May 2015, State Budget Director Shawn Sullivan proposed an increase to help cover what was then a projected budget deficit of $400 million. That effort failed in the face of strong opposition from Kansas hospital administrators who said they only would be willing to discuss an increase if the money was used to fund Medicaid expansion.
The administration tried again the final weeks of the 2016 session. When those negotiations also failed to produce an agreement, Brownback said he had no choice but to order reductions in reimbursements paid to hospitals, nursing homes, doctors, pharmacists and mental health providers.
Tom Bell, president and chief executive of the Kansas Hospital Association, said his board seriously considered the proposal but rejected it because of Brownback’s refusal to consider KanCare expansion.
“Our board felt that at a time when we have seen one hospital close and others reducing services and staff it was inappropriate and unfair to balance the (state) budget on the backs of those providers and the people they serve,” Bell said, referring to the 2015 closure of Mercy Hospital in Independence in part because of the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion.
A 2014 study commissioned by the hospital association found that expanding KanCare to cover more low-income adults would generate an additional $2.2 billion in federal funding, more than enough to cover the state’s share of the cost of expansion for the first five years.
Rep. Dan Hawkins, the Wichita Republican who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee, doesn’t support KanCare expansion but has made restoring the cuts to reimbursement rates a top priority.
“My first job when I come back will be to roll back those provider cuts,” Hawkins said. “We have to.”
But Hawkins disagrees with Brownback on how to do it. He’s focused instead on two alternatives to Brownback’s proposal:
Raising taxes paid by the three private companies awarded state contracts to manage the $3.2 billion KanCare program.
Or repealing the exemption given to more than 330,000 Kansas business owners as a part of the 2012 income tax cuts spearheaded by Brownback.
Brownback is opposed to rolling back any portion of the tax cuts because he believes they are spurring small-business growth. But Hawkins said he thinks the business exemption is “fair game.”
“If we can get that (repeal) passed, that’s money we could also put toward this problem,” he said.
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
WICHITA,– Two men were indicted Tuesday on federal charges of trying to smuggle more than 22 pounds of methamphetamine into Wichita, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
Hector Daniel Vazquez, 26 and Pedro Ruben Garibay, 28, both of Wichita, are charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
An affidavit filed in the case alleges that on Aug. 12, 2016, a deputy with the Clark County (Kansas) Sheriff’s Office stopped a gray 2016 Volkswagen Jetta in Minneola, Kan., for a traffic violation. The officer found a .40 caliber pistol and a black gym bag containing more than 22 pounds of methamphetamine in the car. When investigators learned the methamphetamine was to be delivered to buyers in Wichita, they set up a sting operation to deliver part of the shipment. In Wichita, Vazquez and Garibay were arrested when they met the load in the parking lot of a Super 8 Motel.
If convicted, the defendants face a penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1 million. Investigating agencies include the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the Haysville Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland
Garibay-photo Sedgwick Co.
Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Wichita Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst is prosecuting.
LYON COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities in Lyon County are investigating a stabbing and have identified a possible suspect.
Just after 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Emporia Police responded to an apartment at 1333 Merchant Street for a report of a man who had been cut, according to a media release.
After the initial investigation, Police learned 27-year-old Jeremiah Burkett of Emporia had been cut 3 times with a cutting-type instrument.
Burkett was transported by ambulance to Newman Regional Health.
Burkett and the suspect, a male acquaintance, were reportedly having an argument during a small gathering inside an apartment when Burkett was cut.
Police detectives are looking for 20-year-old Robert Hinojosa IV, a person of interest in the case.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Emporia Police Department at 620 343-4200 or Lyon County Crime Stoppers at 620 342-2273.
