WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A woman arrested in connection to the death of 2-year-old girl, whose body was found in a Wichita field, has been released from jail after a preliminary autopsy was unable to determine how the child died.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Hassan Ramzah said that 25-year-old Tyerria Miles was released Thursday as the investigation continues. She had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated endangering of a child and possession of stolen property.

Ramzah said that Jhornee Bland had been in the care of Miles since May 4. Jhornee’s mother told 911 Sunday night that she couldn’t locate her child after she says she contacted Miles to check on her daughter.

Police say Miles told Jhornee’s mother that she had taken the girl to the apartment of an acquaintance of Jhornee’s mother. Police found the apartment vacant.

Jhornee’s body was found Monday.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 38-year-old man has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for attacking a woman in her Kansas City, Kansas, home nearly 20 years ago.

The Kansas City Star reports Jibri Liu-Kinte Burnett was sentenced to 17 years and eight months in prison during a hearing Thursday in Wyandotte County District Court. He pleaded guilty last month to sexually assaulting the woman and stabbing her multiple times in the August 1999 attack.

In 2001, before the identity of the suspect was known, prosecutors filed criminal charges under the name of “John Doe” so the statute of limitations would not run out before a suspect could be identified.

Authorities say DNA evidence in 2014 linked him to the crime.

MARION COUNTY – Law enforcement officials in Marion County are investigating suspects in connection with illegal fishing.

Late Wednesday, a concerned angler contacted Marion County Game Warden Cody Morris about illegal fishing behavior from a group fishing at the Marion Reservoir Outlet, according to a social media report.

Warden Morris made contact with the group and discovered that the group of 3 was over their Wiper limit by 31 fish.

Charges are pending.

The Kansas Game Wardens thanked the concerned angler for reporting the violation in a timely manner, which made the detection and apprehension of the violation possible.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The American Royal annual barbecue contest is moving from Missouri to Kansas.

The American Royal Association announced Thursday that the contest will be held at the Kansas Speedway from Oct. 26-30. The Kansas City Star reports it’s the first time the event, which started 36 years ago, will be in Kansas.

The contest, which draws hundreds of amateur and professional barbecue teams and tens of thousands of attendees, has had three locations in Kansas City, Missouri, including at Arrowhead Stadium.

The American Royal Association said in a release that the move to the Speedway was necessary because of scheduling conflicts at the Truman Sports Complex.

Kansas Speedway President Pat Warren said in a statement he looks forward to showing contestants and fans “a great time at our unique venue.”

HAYSVILLE, Kan. (AP) — Four Kansas middle schools students were taken into custody after officials became aware of social media posts threatening violence at the school.

Haysville Police Chief Jeff Whitfield said in a statement that Haysville Middle School staff and the school resource officer learned of “threatening messages made via the internet” Thursday morning. He says the threats involved several students causing violence against classmates and staff members at the school.

The Wichita Eagle reports four students were arrested. School District spokeswoman Liz Hames says the district is taking disciplinary action and the students could also face criminal charges.

Haysville is a town of about 10,000 residents about 10 miles south of Wichita.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Supreme Court justice is urging the public not to be swept up by rhetoric about the judiciary.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Justice Marla Luckert’s says the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life disagrees with a small number of the thousands of opinions she has been involved in while sitting on the court.

Her speech Wednesday at the YWCA Network Lunch in Topeka was one of the opening acts in the kind-of, sort-of campaigns several justices will wage during the next few months. The speech came a day after the state’s high court heard arguments in a school finance case that has angered lawmakers and brought calls for voters to toss out the justices.

Most of the justices are up for retention votes on the November ballot.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas motorists will pay higher vehicle registration fees starting in July to provide extra funds for the state Highway Patrol to hire additional troopers.

Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill boosting fees into law Thursday during a ceremony in Salina. It is home to the patrol’s training center.
https://salinapost.com/2016/05/12/gov-signs-bill-higher-vehicle-registration-fees-will-help-hire-more-troopers/
The new law also includes another fee increase to provide additional funds for a center in Hutchinson that trains other law enforcement officers.

Vehicle registration fees will increase $3.25. Most vehicle owners now pay $35.

A $2 increase will raise $5.4 million a year for the patrol so it can hire an additional 75 troopers. Thirty-five of the state’s 105 counties have no assigned trooper.

An additional $1.25 fee increase will raise $3.4 million annually for the Hutchinson training center.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County investigating a Thursday morning stabbing.

Just after 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Police officers were sent to the area of Roach Street and Max Avenue after a report of a stabbing, according to Deputy Police Chief Sean Morton.

A female victim fled a home in the 700 block of Max Avenue and ran to a neighbor’s home in the 1800 block of Roach Street to get help.

EMS transported her to Salina Regional Health Center where she died.

Morton said police were actively searching for a suspect.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Federal officials say a woman has been arrested in California in a 2007 Kansas killing.

The suspect Michelle Antoinette Filby, 44, was arrested Wednesday in Torrance, California, in the shooting death of 16-year-old Michael Torneden in Topeka, according to Deputy U.S. Marshal Jerry Viera

She is jailed in California on $250,000 bond.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that several people were inside the house when Torneden was shot. His death was originally reported as a possible suicide but was ruled a homicide after an autopsy.

In 2013, three other people were found fatally shot inside the same house where Torneden died. A fourth victim of the 2013 shooting died after she was found in a nearby parking lot. No arrests have been made in that case.

By ANDY MARSO

Gov. Sam Brownback’s office announced Tuesday he has signed into law a bill allowing the executive branch to suspend indefinitely the water rights of Kansans who fail to file annual water use reports.

The legislation, House Substitute for Senate Bill 337, passed the House 95-21 and the Senate 39-1. It’s an amended version of a measure that Brownback administration officials sought to crack down on a small number of groundwater users who routinely flout the reporting requirement.

Tracy Streeter, director of the Kansas Water Office, supported the change.

“It’s a fairness issue in my book,” Streeter said. Streeter called knowingly failing to file a water report “an injustice to everybody else that’s abiding within the law.”

Tracking water use helps determine whether Kansans have pumped more than their appropriated amount. It also provides data useful to determining the sustainability of the underground Ogallala Aquifer that supplies irrigation water for much of the western Kansas farm economy.

The Ogallala has been in decline for decades. Slowing the decline is a main goal of a 50-year water vision Brownback has promoted since his first few years in office. The new reporting law enhances the powers of the chief engineer within the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources.

It raises the maximum fine the chief engineer can levy on those who fail to file their annual report from $250 to $1,000.

But during committee hearings on the bill, state officials said the more powerful deterrent would be the ability to suspend water rights.

Legislators amended the original proposal to also allow the chief engineer to require a telemetry unit — which would report water use automatically — be installed on the wells of those who fail to report.

Administration officials told legislators considering the bill in January that about 60 Kansans fail to file their water use report in any given year, and about 10 of those 60 are serial offenders. “This bill will make it a little more of a difficult decision for them to do that,” Streeter said. Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Kansas Sierra Club, said the Legislature’s vote to hold people more accountable for reporting their water use was a good step.

But with approximately 32,000 water rights holders in the state, he questioned how much water the bill actually would preserve.

“We’ve got to come up with a serious answer for this water crisis,” Pistora said. “There’s a lot more to be done that we’re not seeing from our leadership in government.”

Pistora said wells already are running dry in some parts of the state, and some Kansas communities may have no groundwater available in 20 years.

Earlier this year Brownback also approved Senate Bill 330, authorizing a conservation reserve enhancement program that provides incentives for stabilization projects that prevent sediment from running off and filling the reservoirs that are eastern Kansas’ main water source.

A more controversial piece of legislation, Senate Substitute for House Bill 2059, did not pass this session. That bill would have created a regulatory mechanism to grant Kansans the right to use water that otherwise leaves the state.

It was brought by groundwater management district officials in southwest Kansas interested in exploring an aqueduct to transport Missouri River waters to their part of the state.

The administration, which is seeking a conference of governors to discuss appropriation of multi-state waters, opposed it.

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

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Transgender rights advocates have called on Kansas’ health department to abandon a proposal to make it far more difficult for people to change the gender on their birth certificates.

Topeka resident Stephanie Mott said during a Department of Health and Environment hearing Thursday that regulatory changes under consideration will lead more transgender youth to attempt suicide. She sued the department earlier this year because it hasn’t allowed her to change her birth certificate to show she is a woman.

The changes would repeal a regulation allowing someone to change the gender listed on a birth certificate by submitting medical records.

Department spokeswoman Cassie Sparks said the regulation conflicts with a 2002 state Supreme Court decision, making it contrary to state law.

The changes could take effect within six weeks.

SHAWNEE— Authorities are looking for Gregory P. Wright II, 53, a person of interest in the death of a suburban Kansas City woman.

The Kansas City Star reports that the 53-year-old man may have been living with 44-year-old Monica Lee. Her body was found Monday in her Shawnee apartment, and her car is missing.

Authorities are urging anyone with information to come forward.