WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Officials say the sugarcane aphid has returned to Kansas.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the tiny Southern pests have threatened grain sorghum, or milo, fields in the Sunflower State the previous two years. Kansas is the nation’s leading producer of grain sorghum.

Aphids were reported and confirmed in fields in Sumner and Cowley counties this week.

Officials are scouting fields but haven’t determined how far north the aphids have spread.

Last year, some sorghum producers saw heavy yield losses due to sugarcane aphids. Kansas State University says the pest spread to 36 Kansas counties, making it close to the Nebraska border.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has told Kansas that for three more years he will monitor its compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision legalizing gay marriage across the nation.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree issued a permanent order Friday barring the state from treating same-sex couples differently than opposite-sex couples in allowing them to marry or extending the benefits of marriage to them.

He ruled in lawsuit filed in 2014 against the state’s health and revenue departments. The Department of Revenue also issues driver’s licenses.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision last year.

Crabtree said the state’s actions since the high court ruling suggested Kansas might not fully comply without a permanent injunction.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately return telephone and email messages seeking comment.

WICHITA– A McPherson County man appeared in federal court on Friday on charges of traveling to a foreign country to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Anthony Shultz, 53, Lindsborg, was charged with one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, one count of producing child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography and one count of identity theft.

Shultz is alleged to have traveled to the Philippines, where he engaged in sex with a minor, produced videos of the act and distributed the videos on the Internet, according to court documents.

The case began in April 2016 when the FBI received a tip that a U.S. citizen was sexually abusing minors in the Philippines, producing live-streaming videos and distributing the videos via the Internet to users who paid to see them. Investigators followed an electronic trail to Shultz, who is a commercial pilot and owns a home in Lindsborg.

If convicted, Shultz faces up to 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of traveling for sex with a minor, not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of producing child pornography, not less than five years and not more than more than 20 years on the charge of distributing child pornography, and a maximum penalty of five years and a fine up to $250,000 on the identity theft charge.

Shultz will remain in custody pending a detention hearing July 29.

BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a robbery at a motel in Great Bend.

Just before 4 a.m. on Thursday, the Great Bend Police Department was dispatched to the Travelodge at 3200 10th Street in reference to an armed robbery.

According to reports from the clerk on duty, two masked men ran into the lobby and pointed a gun at her. One of the men ran behind the counter and took the cash box. The suspects then ran out the door, according to a media release.

One of the suspects was wearing a white baseball cap with a flat bill and an Under Armour emblem on the front, a white long sleeve shirt, black shorts, and white shoes, and some type of covering over his face. The second suspect was wearing a thick black work coat with a gray inner lining, faded blue jeans, black and white shoes, black and white gloves, and a white bandanna over his face.

In surveillance video, it appears that both suspects are brandishing handguns. Officers believe that at least one of the handguns was fake, but are unsure of the other and still consider the individuals to be armed and dangerous.

The Police Department asks that anyone with any information about the suspects who committed this robbery to contact the Great Bend Police Department at (620)793-4120. People with information can also contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at (620)792-1300. Crime Stoppers is a program which allows individuals to remain anonymous while reporting information, and they may receive a cash award if their information leads to an arrest.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A southern Kansas man has been convicted in the 2014 death and sexual assault of 100-year-old woman.

The Wichita Eagle reports that a Sedgwick County jury deliberated about two hours Thursday before convicting Kasey Nesbitt of first-degree felony murder, rape and aggravated burglary with the intent to commit a sexual assault.

Jurors concluded that Nesbitt kicked in Martha Schell’s door and assaulted her in September 2014.

Marc Bennett, the county’s district attorney, told jurors that Schell died from blood clots that formed after the attack, which left her with a broken back and other injuries.

Nesbitt’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18. He faces up to life in prison on the murder conviction, as well as up to 54 years for the rape.

By JIM MCLEAN

The director of a University of Kansas research center that recently lost the contract for its main body of work is open to resuming negotiations with state officials.

Rick Goscha, director of the KU Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation, said he continues to receive emails and

phone calls from mental health providers across the state who want to see the center and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services work through their differences so that a longstanding training and evaluation program operated by the center can continue.

“Secretary (Tim) Keck continues to say he wants to support evidence-based practices in Kansas, and we are open to discussion how we can continue our work in this area,” Goscha said in an email. “Bottom line: the focus needs to remain on improving the lives of people with serious mental illness in Kansas.”

Last-minute attempts to negotiate terms of a new $2.4 million contract broke down June 30, the day before the start of the state’s new budget year and the deadline for an agreement to be in place. KDADS wanted to restructure the contract based on concerns that some of the methods the KU center used to match faculty to the project and some of the tasks in its work plan weren’t allowable expenditures under federal Medicaid rules. But Goscha said he couldn’t agree to a proposed no-cost extension to give the two sides time to overhaul the contract.

“Their last-minute offer was not a viable option,” Goscha said. “There is no way the university would have approved a contract that basically said ‘to be determined.’”

Shock waves

News that a project started in the late 1980s to foster the use of evidence-based treatment methods at community mental health centers in Kansas was coming to an end sent shock waves through the state’s mental health provider community.

Tim DeWeese, executive director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center, said he was “shocked and disappointed.”

“Without the KU center, I’m not sure how the state plans to ensure that we continue to maintain the quality of services,” DeWeese said.

The KU center has worked for years to help several community mental health centers implement the “strengths model” of treating people with severe and persistent mental illness. Developed by Charles Rapp, former director of the KU center, the model encourages therapists to help patients understand both their illness and the strengths they can utilize in overcoming it.

In addition to “strengths” training, the center evaluates and grades community mental health centers to ensure that the model is being used correctly.

Keck moved quickly to assure community mental health center directors that the state would find an alternative way to continue to training and evaluation work.

“The agency is not eliminating this element of its mental health funding, which is a critical part of our continued commitment to excellence,” Keck wrote in a letter to the directors. “This training will continue to be provided, but not necessarily under the same arrangement that the training has been provided in the past.”

KDADS explains concerns

Several mental health providers were openly critical of KDADS and the last-minute contract demands that led to a breakdown in negotiations.

Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson, said the agency had no concerns about the KU center’s work. But while declining to provide details, she said the agency had questions about how the university and the center had administered the federally funded contract.

Several days later Brad Ridley, the KDADS official charged with negotiating the contract, agreed to discuss the agency’s concerns. They boiled down to judgments about what are and aren’t allowable Medicaid expenditures, he said.

All of the money used to fund the project comes from the federal government. The university contributes facilities and faculty time of roughly equal value. The state’s job, Ridley said, is to oversee the contract to ensure that federal rules are being followed to the letter.

“Over the course of the last four years, we have made a lot of adjustments to the contracts we have,” Ridley said.

For one thing, he said, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been added as a party to several university research contracts because it is the state’s lead Medicaid agency.

“We’ve worked through these contracts to ensure that we and KDHE both are comfortable with the accountability of those Medicaid funds that are flowing through,” he said.

Differences in the way state agencies have interpreted Medicaid rules have sometimes been confusing for contractors, Ridley acknowledged. Before a recent reorganization of state agencies, the KU contract was overseen by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. When SRS became the Department for Children and Families, responsibility for the KU contract was transferred to KDADS.

Old SRS rules allowed the KU center to use Medicaid funds to pay the tuition of graduate research assistants working on the project. But Ridley says KDADS and KDHE have questions about whether that’s an allowable expense.

“We didn’t say they couldn’t do it, but we added language to the contracts that says if it ends up being an unallowable cost that the university is liable,” Ridley said.

Keck, who also participated in the interview, hedged when asked whether the contract dispute and the publicity surrounding it had effectively ended the agency’s relationship with the KU center.

“Our plan is to move forward,” he said. “That may mean a lot of different things as it unfolds.”

The most pressing task KDADS faces is to find someone that can do trainings that already have been scheduled, Keck said.

“Once we get that figured out then we’ll move on to the mid-range things and then we’ll move to the long-term issues,” he said. “That may involve an RFP (request for proposals) at some point.”

When asked whether a proposal from the KU center would be considered, Keck said, “Sure.”

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

TOPEKA –  Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt on Friday sued the U.S. Department of Defense for failing to produce records related to plans and preparations for transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Fort Leavenworth.

See a copy of the lawsuit here.

In December 2015, Schmidt filed requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act for records related to federal preparations for a detainee transfer. The Defense Department acknowledged it possessed some of the records and initially said it would provide them by April 15, 2016. But it later missed that deadline, claiming the records could not be released without further “consultation.” The new date by which the department has promised to provide the records is November 15, just after the presidential election.

“The Obama administration now claims it will not transfer detainees to the mainland, but we want to verify this claim because it appears the administration previously violated a federal ban on even preparing for such a transfer,” Schmidt said. “Our concerns are heightened because the administration admits it has the records we requested and initially promised to produce them but now are inexplicably dragging their feet until after the November election. We are seeking some court-ordered sunshine now to discourage mischief later in the final weeks before the president leaves office.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Kansas, seeks a court order that the administration immediately produce the documents it admits possessing and promptly find and release any other relevant documents it possesses.

The case is State of Kansas, ex rel. Derek Schmidt v. United States Department of Defense, in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Case No. 16-cv-04127.

JOHN HANNA, Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence imposed on a man convicted of fatally shooting a sheriff during a 2005 drug raid.

Kansas hasn’t executed anyone in more than 50 years, and Friday’s decision in Scott Cheever’s case is only the second time the court has upheld a death sentence under the state’s 1994 capital punishment law.

The decision came four years after the court ordered a new trial for Cheever over questions about an expert’s testimony. The U.S. Supreme Court directed the Kansas court to reconsider.

Cheever acknowledged shooting Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels as he tried to serve a warrant at a rural home about 75 miles northeast of Wichita. But Cheever’s attorney argued he was too high on methamphetamine for the crime to be premeditated

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is preparing to rule again on whether a man convicted of fatally shooting a sheriff during a 2005 drug raid will face execution.

WABAUNSEE COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 8 a.m. on Friday in Wabaunsee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported 2007 BMW passenger vehicle driven by Willie L. Moore, 63, Manhattan, was westbound on Interstate 70 just west of Vera Road.

The vehicle drifted into the median, vaulted over the creek, struck the west embankment of Dog Creek and overturned.

Moore was transported to the hospital in Manhattan.

He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

SALINE COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating two suspects on various charges after they broke into a Kansas water park.

It is not uncommon to find people cooling off at Salina’s Kenwood Cove Water Park.

However, a swim at the Cove just after 1 a.m. is frowned upon.

Police found five boys ranging in age from 11 to 19 at the water park early Thursday morning, according to Saline Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

The group had jumped the fence to gain entry to the facility.

Andrew Wood, 19, Salina, was arrested on three counts of contributing to a child’s misconduct, three counts of endangering a child, trespassing, and consumption of alcohol by a minor.

Christopher Shields, 18, Salina, was cited with trespassing.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas police chief has received a White House invitation after a cookout that included law enforcement and leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay was asked to go to the White House on Friday to discuss community policing. City spokesman Ken Evans said he had to turn down the invitation because he’s serving as the justice of the peace at a weekend wedding. But Evans says Ramsay will look to reschedule.

The invitation came after Ramsay met with local activist leaders about replacing another planned protest with a cookout that aimed to open a dialogue. Nearly 2,000 people attended Sunday’s event.

Videos of officers dancing with people at the cookout have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A southern Kansas man faces up to 11 years in federal prison after admitting he fraudulently obtained more than 60,000 DVD movies at discount prices from the Disney Movie Club.

Forty-seven-year-old Harvey Self of Derby pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of giving the U.S. Postal Service false names and address for fraudulent purposes.

Self admits he created aliases to qualify for discounts while buying DVD and Blue-ray movies, then resold the movies at a profit. Authorities say the net sales of the movies totaled more than $106,000.

Self also admitted overstating business losses for tax years 2011 and 2012.

Self has told The Associated Press he was just trying to supplement his income so he could support his eight children.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer (all times local):

 

A prosecutor says bond has been set at $10 million for a man charged with capital murder in the death of a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman announced Jamaal Lewis’ bond amount Thursday after saying that the 20-year-old Lewis fired the shots that caused police Capt. Robert Melton’s death Tuesday.

The 46-year-old Melton was fatally shot while investigating a drive-by shooting.

Lewis also faces charges of aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a weapon from an incident that happened earlier the same day of Melton’s shooting.

A second man, 18-year-old DaQon Sipple, has been charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer involving a different officer than Melton and criminal discharge of a weapon.

Sipple’s bond has been set at $100,000.

It’s unclear if the men have lawyers yet.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 20-year-old man has been charged with capital murder in the death of a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer who was fatally shot while investigating a drive-by shooting.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said Thursday that he filed the murder charge Thursday against Jamaal Lewis in the death two days earlier of 46-year-old Capt. Robert Melton.

Lewis also faces charges of aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a weapon from an incident prior to the shooting of Melton.

Eighteen-year-old Daqon Sipple is charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer and criminal discharge of a weapon.

It’s unclear if Lewis and Sipple have lawyers yet.

Authorities have said they don’t believe Melton’s death was a planned ambush.

Melton was a 17-year veteran of the department.