WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two inmates were treated for minor smoke inhalation after a fire was started inside of a cell at the Sedgwick County Jail.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that an inmate started the fire early Thursday. The release says deputies extinguished the fire, and the other inmates in the pod were moved because of the smoke.

Authorities are investigating and plan to present the case to prosecutors for charges.

HARVEY COUNTY – Thursday storms brought heavy rain, hail and strong winds to many areas of the state.

The National Weather Service reported wind damage in Norton, Phillips, Cloud, Harvey, Kingman, Reno, Sedgwick and Wallace, Stevens and Shawnee Counties. Tree branches were down in many areas of Phillips County, according to the sheriff’s office.

Hail up to golf ball size fell in many areas of western Kansas.

Storm moving in. Southern McPherson county. #kswx pic.twitter.com/9svQF7QfBc

— Stephanie (@AltaontheFarm) July 29, 2016

A tornado was reported west of Kingman but there was no significant damage and no injuries.

Check Hays Post for additional details as they become available.

LINDSBORG, Kan. (AP) — Work is underway to repair a national historic site that marks a spot where Spanish explorers stopped centuries ago in central Kansas.

Project manager Bill Shipley says a new concrete deck and wood timbers, columns and beams have been put in at the castle at Coronado Heights near Lindsborg. It was built more than 80 years ago by Depression-era Works Progress Administration crews.

The Salina Journal reports that the $150,000 project is funded by more than 200 individuals, businesses and foundations and a grant from the Kansas State Historical Preservation Trust Fund.

Coronado Heights has remained open throughout the renovations.

Shipley says he anticipates that the project will be completed by mid- to late-August.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A civil rights group says the transgender soldier imprisoned in Kansas for sending classified information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks now faces possible punishment for offenses stemming from a suicide attempt.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that Chelsea Manning, a 28-year-old transgender soldier, received a document from Army officials Thursday saying she’s being investigated for “administrative offenses,” including “conduct which threatens,” related to her July 5 suicide attempt.

The ACLU says if Manning’s convicted of the offenses she could be placed in indefinite solitary confinement.

An Army spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Manning, arrested as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 in military court for leaking more than 700,000 secret military and federal documents when she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials say applications to drill for oil and gas on federal and Indian lands are expected to decrease 40 percent in coming years versus their historical average.

The projection comes as cheap prices have curtailed domestic energy exploration, driving down state and federal revenue.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday will announce a proposal for all drilling applications to be filed online, in an effort to streamline the approval process.

The move follows years of criticism from the energy sector over the Obama administration’s handling of drilling applications. Industry groups say lengthy delays drive up costs.

Bureau spokeswoman Bev Winston says the move to online permitting will allow 90 percent of applications to be completed within 115 days. The average time in 2015 was 220 days.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A body has been found in the Arkansas River in Wichita.

The Wichita Eagle reports that kayakers found the body near Herman Hill Park on Thursday afternoon. Authorities responded to the scene where the body was hung up on a sandbar in the middle of the river.

Wichita police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the body hasn’t been identified. She says the body will be taken to the coroner’s office, where a medical examination will be performed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Topeka Correctional Facility has a new warden.

The Kansas Department of Corrections said in a release Thursday that Shannon Meyer has been named warden of the Topeka women’s prison.

The department says Meyer began her corrections career as a corrections counselor in 2002 at the Lansing Correctional Facility, and was most recently deputy warden of programs at Lansing.

She replaces warden Hope Cooper, who was named deputy secretary of community and field services.

GREENWOOD COUNTY – A Kansas boy died in an accident just after 11 a.m. on Thursday in Greenwood County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Polaris ATV driven by Blake D. Stapleford, 11, Fall River, was southbound in the field on the west side of Road GG six miles south of U.S. 54.

The driver turned hard to the right. The ATV went up on two wheels, rolled over and landed on top of the driver.

Stapleford was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Koup Funeral Home.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Latest on the Democratic National Convention and 2016 presidential campaign. (all times EDT):

2:37 p.m.

President Barack Obama’s mention of “fascists” and “homegrown demagogues” in his convention speech wasn’t aimed at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

That’s what White House press secretary Josh Earnest is telling reporters the day after Obama argued for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s election over Trump.

Obama said “anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.”

Who is ready to hear from @POTUS ?? WE ARE!! #DemsInPhilly #KDPdoesDNC #DemConvention pic.twitter.com/hQyQFuyOSW

— KansasDems (@KansasDems) July 28, 2016

Obama had criticized Trump several times before arriving at that particular line in the speech, including saying that American power “doesn’t come from a self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way.”

Trump said in his acceptance speech at last week’s GOP convention that “I alone can fix” a political system he says is rigged.

CLOUD COUNTY – A Kansas man died in an accident just after 9a.m. on Thursday in Cloud County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Kawasaki motorcycle driven by Timothy Paul Jarrard, 49, Miltonvale, was southbound on 260th Road at Bell just southeast of Miltonvale.

The driver lost control of the motorcycle. It overturned and slid through intersection.

Jarrard was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Chaput Funeral Home.

SHAWNEE COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating a murder.

Police are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying a person of interest related to the homicide of Curt A. Cochran on May 9, and have released a photo.

Workers found 64-year old Cochran’s body on May 9, in the back room of a warehouse in Topeka He was part owner of 3 Men with Truck & Trailer moving company.

He was a teacher at Northern Hills from 1975 to 1991 and was principal from 1991 to 2000. It is now called Seaman Middle School.

Any information on this suspect please Email the TPD Criminal Intelligence Unit ([email protected]) or TPD DET Lance Green ([email protected]) or call #785 368 9569 or Crime Stoppers at #785 234-0007.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

By ANDY MARSO

Kansas Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore brushed off two Democrats’ calls for her resignation and defended her agency Wednesday following an audit critical of its oversight of the state’s foster care system.

Gilmore acknowledged that the audit was “negative,” but disputed some of it and said the agency already had started correcting most of the deficiencies cited.

Gilmore, a social worker and former legislator appointed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback four years ago, said she won’t step down.

“I don’t intend to,” Gilmore said after Wednesday’s Legislative Post Audit hearing. “I serve at the pleasure of the governor.”

The report released Wednesday was published by the Legislature’s independent auditing team. It was intended to evaluate how safe foster care is for Kansas children, who have entered the system in record numbers in recent years.

Download the Report: Legislative Post Audit of Kansas Foster Care System

The auditors found Gilmore’s agency and its contractors performed inadequate background checks of foster parents, missed monthly home checks or at least failed to document them, didn’t adequately investigate some abuse and neglect reports, and gave almost universal exemptions to living space requirements.

The audit came after several high-profile incidents of children harmed while in state custody.

That included the case of Jonathan Schumm, a Topeka city councilman who resigned after he and his wife were brought up on child abuse charges.

The Schumms had more than a dozen children living in their 2,200-square-foot home when a judge agreed with DCF’s recommendation that they be allowed to adopt a child that was being fostered by a lesbian couple in Wichita.

That raised questions about potential bias toward same-sex couples within DCF, but legislators instructed auditors not to investigate that.

Space requirements waived

The audit released Wednesday, however, found that DCF granted exemptions to sleeping space requirements for 98 percent of those requested.

An attorney for the department said most of those exemptions were granted to keep siblings together.

But Sen. Laura Kelly, a Democrat from Topeka, called the process “rubber-stamping” that clearly needs reform.

“An exception should be exactly that — an exception,” Kelly said. “Not a standard operating procedure.”

Gilmore said the department is tightening enforcement of that policy.

She repeatedly told the legislative committee that children are safe in Kansas foster homes. The auditors, she said, examined only 40 of the thousands of safety checks the department oversees each year and found the department’s response lacking in only five.

“That still is not acceptable,” Gilmore said. “But at the same time we realize we will never be perfect. There will always be human error.”

Gilmore urged legislators to look at federal assessments that rank Kansas’ foster care system among the top in the nation for child safety. Those, she said, are more comprehensive than the auditors’ work.

“We can be proud that Kansas is a leader in keeping children safe when they’re in our custody,” Gilmore said.

Rep. Ed Trimmer, a Democrat from Winfield, asked why he should put more stock in the federal assessments, given that the state chooses which cases the federal inspectors examine.

“Why is that a more comprehensive review?” Trimmer asked, adding that major problems had been uncovered in other states with high federal marks.

Background checks lacking

The audit also turned up deficiencies with background checks of prospective foster parents, including some that did not include fingerprints and some that only checked based on parents’ current names. The department failed to provide annual follow-up background checks in nearly all cases.

Gilmore said she is working with another state agency to implement a continuously updating background check system that would notify DCF of any disqualifying arrests after the initial check.

“It is potentially life-saving,” she said.

Gilmore said a survey of employees conducted by the auditors that found high turnover and low morale carry little weight because only 37 percent of those who received the survey responded. Satisfied employees would be less likely to respond, she said, thereby skewing the results.

“Those findings are going to be somewhat misleading because they are not statistically sound,” Gilmore said.

But she cautioned that negative media attention surrounding the audit could lower morale.

Republicans on the committee said the problems described track back several decades through multiple administrations.

Sen. Julia Lynn, a Republican from Olathe, called the audit “painful to listen to.” She reiterated concerns about the 1997 privatization of foster care that now has the state distributing $280 million a year to contractors.

“I’m not so sure that privatizing this really is the answer,” Lynn said.

An audit on the privatization is coming later this year, and DCF is renegotiating contracts.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jarrod Ousley, a Democrat from Merriam, said he and Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, still want Gilmore to resign.

“Our kids are too valuable to have this sort of leadership,” Ousley said.

Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a pickup truck has struck and killed a toddler in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe.

The Kansas City Star reports that police identified the child as 14-month-old Harper Kay Rodden. Police said she was struck Wednesday afternoon on a residential street near her daycare. She was taken to a hospital, where she died.

Police said the driver stopped and cooperated with the investigation. Authorities are asking anyone with information to come forward.

The child was at a home daycare center when the incident occurred. Online court records show the daycare is licensed and has not had any major violations during the last three years.

———–

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a pickup truck has struck and killed a toddler in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe.

Police said in a news release that the 14-month-old girl was hit Wednesday afternoon on a residential street near her daycare.

The girl was taken to a hospital, where she died.

Police said the driver stopped and cooperated with the investigation. Authorities are asking anyone with information to come forward.