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Police: Signal violation leads to arrest of I-70 drug suspect

Christopher Anderson
Christopher Anderson

GEARY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating a suspect on drug charges.

Just after 4:30 p.m. on Monday, police arrested Christopher A. Anderson, 35, Indianapolis, Indiana on Interstate 70 eleven miles east of Junction City, according to Junction City Police.

Anderson is being held on suspicion of Possession of Cocaine with Intent, No Drug Tax Stamp, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving While Suspended and a Signal Violation.

Obama: We ask police to do too much

President Obama during Tuesday's internal service for fallen officers in Dallas
President Obama during Tuesday’s internal service for fallen officers in Dallas

DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on the recent police-involved shootings around the United States (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

President Barack Obama says Americans can’t dismiss protesters who call attention to racial issues 50 years after the Civil Rights Act as troublemakers.

The Democrat said Tuesday at a memorial service for the five officers who were fatally shot last week that Americans know that bigotry remains, some are affected by it more than others and that none of us “are entirely innocent.”

He also said that the country asks police “to do too much” and that we do “too little ourselves.”

The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

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2:10 p.m.

President Barack Obama says the shootings of five Dallas police officers would appear to have exposed the “the deepest fault line of our democracy” but that Americans must reject such despair.

Obama spoke Tuesday at the memorial service for the five, honoring the work of law enforcement officers, saying they answer a call that at any moment, even in the briefest of interactions, may put their life in harm’s way.

He said fewer people are being mourned at the service because of the brave actions of the officers killed.

Obama attended the memorial along with first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden.

The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

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From Tuesday Interfaith Service in Dallas
From Tuesday Interfaith Service in Dallas

1:45 p.m.

The Dallas police chief has recited lyrics from Stevie Wonder’s song “As” to the families of the five officers who were fatally shot last week.

Chief David Brown said Tuesday at a memorial service for the five officers who were fatally shot in Dallas last week that he often would find himself at a loss for words as a young man trying to get dates, and would use lyrics to express himself.

That’s what he did at the service for the families of those who died.

Brown said, among other lyrics: “Just as hate knows love’s the cure, you can rest your mind assure that I’ll be loving you always.”

Brown received a long, loud standing ovation from those in attendance.

The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

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1:35 p.m.

Former President George W. Bush says that Americans should “remember their shared commitments for common ideals” as a means of bridging divisions.

Bush said Tuesday at a memorial service for the five officers who were fatally shot in Dallas last week that Americans know we have one country and don’t want the unity of grief and fear, but hope.

Bush also said of the five officers: “With their deaths, we have lost so much.”

President Barack Obama is also slated to speak at the service.

The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

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1:30 p.m.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says that in times of darkness, it’s important to remember that the officers who died and were injured in Dallas last week were “not overcome by evil.”

The Texas Republican said Tuesday at a memorial service for the five officers who were fatally shot in Dallas last week that the officers overcame evil by running toward gunfire, shielding citizens and sacrificing their own lives.

Cornyn also praised Dallas Police Chief David Brown for his simple statement this week that “Dallas loves.”

President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush also are slated to speak at the service.

The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

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1:20 p.m.

A law enforcement official says the gunman who killed five police officers during a Dallas protest had a pistol, a handgun and a rifle on him at the time of the attack.

The official says Micah Johnson had a Glock 19 Gen4 pistol, a Fraser .25-caliber handgun and a semi-automatic Izhmash Saiga assault-style rifle on him when he was killed by a robot-delivered bomb after the Thursday night shootings and that the guns were purchased legally.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has said the 25-year-old Johnson was wearing a bulletproof vest during the attack. The three specific weapons were first reported by CNN.

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1:10 p.m.

Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings says the dignitaries are at the memorial service because we have a “common disease,” which is violence on the streets.

Rawlings said Tuesday at a memorial service that the five seats that are empty are for the five officers who died last week in Dallas, saying “we love you, we will never forget you.”

Rawlings also said that the service should be about unity.

The five who died were shot during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

President Barack Obama, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and former President George W. Bush are slated to speak at the service.

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1:05 p.m.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have arrived at the memorial service for the five officers who were shot and killed last week in Dallas.

Obama, Michelle Obama, Biden, Jill Biden and several members of Congress, including Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, flew to Dallas on Tuesday. The Obamas, Bidens and former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are seated on stage.

Obama, Cornyn and Bush are all slated to speak at the service, where five seats have been kept empty to honor the five who died during a protest against the police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Nine officers and two civilians were injured in the attack.

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Teen sentenced for conspiracy threat at Kansas high school

Hutchinson High School
Hutchinson High School

HUTCHINSON –A Kansas teen who entered a plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit capital murder at Hutchinson High School will serve three years and nine months in a juvenile detention center.

Ayrton “Alex” Marroquin, 14, and 15-year-old Carson Cabral are both pled guilty of making threats against officials at Hutch High before the cases could go to a bench trial.

The state wanted Marroquin in a juvenile detention facility until he’s 22 and a half years old with six months of aftercare.

The defense wanted him placed on community corrections, noting that he had already been in custody 128 days.

Judge Patty Macke Dick, although sympathetic and believing he made a bad decision, said all decisions have consequences.

The judge split the difference in ordering the nearly four years in juvenile detention.

Prior to the sentence being handed down, the parents, both emotional as they spoke, asked that she not sentence him to the maximum. His mother questioned whether it’s fair to require him to stay in detention when the defendants in similar cases were not. His father says he still expects great things for his son.

Hutchinson High School Principal Ron Reems sought the maximum, saying he caused a lot of fear and anxiety at the school.

Marroquin acknowledged what he did was wrong and apologized to the teachers and other staff at the school. He says he knew when he was first taken into custody that he needed to change. He also welcomed any psychiatric counseling the court might order.

The two teens were arrested after several students came forward to express concerns about a threat.

Several search warrants were issued, which turned up plans for making pipe bombs, as well as sketches and plans of where certain teachers and staff would be so they could be targeted. Police also recovered items that could be used to build explosive devices.

Kansas drowning victim’s body recovered from Oklahoma Lake

Search crews on the lake -photo courtesy KOTV
Search crews on the lake -photo courtesy KOTV

SKIATOOK, Okla. (AP) — Crews have recovered the body of a Kansas man who disappeared while swimming in Lake Skiatook on the Fourth of July.

Tulsa television station KOTV reports that 36-year-old Chance Humble of Coffeyville, Kansas, disappeared at a swimming area at the lake in Osage County in northeastern Oklahoma. Witnesses say Humble jumped off a boat to go swimming, resurfaced, threw his hat onto the sundeck of the boat then went under again and did not come back up.

Authorities say Humble’s body was found about 200 yards down the lake shore from that area around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. Officials say the area where the victim disappeared is between 35 and 60 feet deep, with bluffs below the surface that make the search challenging.

Disability advocates want federal action on Kansas Medicaid backlog

By ANDY MARSO

Rocky Nichols, head of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, says the organization has filed an open records request to examine whether the state is complying with federal requirements for Medicaid applicants stuck in an application backlog.
Rocky Nichols, head of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, says the organization has filed an open records request to examine whether the state is complying with federal requirements for Medicaid applicants stuck in an application backlog.

The Disability Rights Center of Kansas is seeking more information from the state about its backlog of Medicaid applications to determine whether Kansas is breaking federal rules.

Rocky Nichols, the center’s executive director, said the organization has filed an open records request to examine whether the state is doing what the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires for Medicaid applicants stuck in the backlog.

“We are concerned that the state is not informing Kansas Medicaid applicants of their right to a fair hearing if their application is not processed within 45 days,” Nichols said via email. “We are also concerned that they are not enrolling people who fell through the cracks or providing them retroactive benefits.  Thus far, the state has produced no tangible evidence that they are complying with these aspects of federal law.”

KHI News Service, a partner of Heartland Health Monitor, has requested comment from a state spokeswoman on the center’s filing.

The backlog began last year when the state and a contractor, Accenture, rolled out a new computer system for determining Medicaid eligibility.

The system, which took longer to build than promised, did not meet accuracy or timeliness guidelines set when Accenture won the contract years earlier.

Download the Disability Rights Center of Kansas Letter to CMS

Download the Disability Rights Center of Kansas Open Records Request to KDHE

A Jan. 1 administrative change that funneled all applications through one state agency — the Kansas Department of Health and Environment — created a bottleneck in the middle of the Affordable Care Act open enrollment period, which worsened the backlog.

Federal officials with CMS began requesting twice-monthly updates on the situation in February.

Those updates had shown the backlog being steadily whittled down. But last month KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier sent a letter to CMS, informing the federal agency that previous updates were erroneous and the backlog was almost 12,000 applications higher.

She and other state officials blamed Accenture for the error. Accenture officials said they had correctly given the state the data it requested and state officials had subsequently changed their request.

In addition to filing the request under the Kansas Open Records Act, Nichols said his organization has sent a letter to CMS.

“The letter to CMS is about engaging them to have CMS use its powers under federal law, which are significant,” Nichols said, “in order to hold the state accountable for these compliance issues.”

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

Kansas thrift store evacuated after cannonball found

DAV Thrift Store in Salina-google image
DAV Thrift Store in Salina-google image

SALINE COUNTY – Police and fire crews were called to the DAV Thrift store, 901 West Crawford in Salina on Monday after someone found an old, eight pound cannonball.

Just after 1:30 p.m., the building was evacuated until officers investigated and the Fort Riley bomb disposal squad arrived to take it away, according to Police Captain Mike Sweeney

The cannonball was discovered by employees in a box of miscellaneous items donated to the store.

There were no injuries reported.

Chelsea Manning tweets from Kan. prison following suicide attempt

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Chelsea Manning has tweeted that she’s OK following her hospitalization for a suicide attempt last week.

The 28-year-old transgender soldier imprisoned for sending classified information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks also posted on her Twitter account Monday night, “I’m glad to be alive.” Manning doesn’t have internet access behind bars at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, but wrote last year that she dictates her tweets to someone who puts them online.


Manning’s attorneys say the suicide attempt happened at the prison early on July 5.

Manning was convicted as Bradley Manning in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years. She’s appealing the criminal case, arguing her sentence is unfair and her actions were those of a naive, troubled soldier.

Kan. board OKs rule to reject votes over proof of citizenship rule

4-7 vote signTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas board has approved a temporary rule requiring county election officials to throw out thousands of votes cast in state and local races by people who have registered without providing proof of their U.S. citizenship.

The State Rules and Regulations Board’s action Tuesday came only a day before Kansas opens advance voting for its Aug. 2 primary.

The rule was sought by Secretary of State Kris Kobach and will be in effect for 120 days, through the Nov. 8 general election.

The affected voters registered at motor vehicle offices without providing citizenship papers as required by a 2013 state law. About 17,000 are in that category.

A federal judge ruled in May that federal law requires the state to register them as voters for federal races.

Man, 54, found dead in Kansas county lake

photo courtesy KAKE
photo courtesy KAKE

MAIZE, Kan. (AP) — A 54-year-old man has been found dead in a private southern Kansas lake after failing to return from a late-night fishing trip.

The Wichita Eagle reports that a family member found the body Monday. The victim had gone fishing late Sunday night and the relative went looking for him when he didn’t return. Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Lin Dehning says there is no reason to think the man’s death is anything but an accidental drowning.

Family told authorities that it wasn’t unusual for the man to go fishing late at night.

Dehning says the lake is owned by the Fraternal Order of Police and that the man had permission to fish there. It wasn’t immediately known whether the man was a current or former law enforcement member.

South Carolina man sentenced for recording sex with Kan. teen

Sex offender assaultWICHITA, KAN. – A South Carolina man was sentenced Monday to 25 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a Kansas girl, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Robert Pitya Dickson, 49, Fort Mill, S.C., pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child pornography. In his plea, he admitted he communicated over the Internet with a 13-year-old Kansas girl. Dickson persuaded the girl to send him send him sexual images of herself. In March 2014 he traveled to meet the girl and engaged in sex acts with her that he recorded and transported back to South Carolina.

Co-defendant Tricia Rodarmel is set for sentencing July 25.

Beall commended the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for their work on the case.

Amazon announces plan to bring more jobs to Kansas

job  jobsEDGERTON, Kan. (AP) — Amazon is adding a 1,000-job fulfillment center in Kansas City, Kansas.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Mark Holland confirmed Monday that the e-commerce powerhouse will occupy an 856,000-square-foot industrial building. It is expected to open in late 2017 near Interstate 70.

The Kansas City Star reports that the developer asked for a tax abatement in June and said an “online sales fulfillment business” would be the tenant. However, the company was not publicly identified then.

In March, Amazon announced a similar center in Edgerton. Amazon now has five facilities in Kansas. Brownback says the Kansas City, Kansas, center shouldn’t affect them. The company decided in 2014 to close a facility in Coffeyville.

The new center will feature classrooms to help employees earn their associate degrees.

Hearing on drug charges against former Kan. school counselor delayed

McMurray
McMurray

HUTCHINSON -The preliminary hearing for a former Kansas middle school counselor arrested and charged after the Reno County Drug Unit served a search warrant on his home has been continued until July 19.

The search warrant was served on a home in the 1600 block of Aurora in December.

Terry Lamont McMurry, 49, at the time a counselor at Faris Elementary in Hutchinson, is accused of possessing cocaine and marijuana, both with intent to distribute, possession of drug proceeds, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to package and two counts of no drug tax stamp.

Found inside the house was marijuana and cocaine packaged for sale, packaging material, scales and cash according to officials.

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

Three Mercedes cars and the Mustang were all seized during the search of the home.

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

Summer storms bring heavy rain, strong winds to Kansas

Trees down in Salina and many other areas of central Kansas
Trees down in Salina and many other areas of central Kansas

SALINE COUNTY -Thunderstorms that moved through central Kansas early Tuesday morning produced winds that toppled trees and knocked out power in Salina.

Strong winds moved into Salina about 2:45a.m.

A gust of 64miles per hour was reported at Salina Regional Airport at 3:09a.m.

A tree took down power lines on North Front Street just north of East Ash. Trees were reported down across the community

The Westar Energy website was reporting about 650 customers in Salina were without power.

National Weather Service Radar estimated heavy rainfall in portions of Saline, Ellsworth, Rice, McPherson, and Ottawa Counties prompting flash flood warnings.

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