JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators must close projected budget gaps totaling more than $290 million when they resume their annual session this week.

WICHITA- A former Labette County bank clerk was sentenced to three years on probation, including eight months home confinement, and ordered to pay full restitution for embezzling more than $83,000 from the bank where she worked, according to acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

Angela S. Littlejohn, 41, Chetopa, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement. In her plea, she admitted the crime occurred while she worked as a teller during 2013 and 2014 at the Chetopa State Bank in Chetopa, Kan. She stole a total of at least $83,963 from multiple accounts at the bank

Beall commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch for their work on the case.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita aircraft company has won a $14 million Air Force contract.

The Wichita Eagle reports  the Air Force has awarded Textron Aviation Cessna the $14 million contract to supply the Pakistan army with six aircraft, as well as support and training.

Two of the aircraft are to be modified for aeromedical uses.

The Department of Defense says the Cessna work will be done in Wichita and is expected to be completed by Dec. 30.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas attorney general says any legislation that would allow Sedgwick County residents to cast another vote on allowing slot machines at the Wichita Greyhound Park would breach the Kansas Lottery’s contract with the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane.

The Wichita Eagle reports Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Friday the courts would likely block any law to allow a revote in Sedgwick County.  See his full opinion here.

In 2007, Sedgwick County voters rejected placing slot machines in the county and also rejected a destination casino. Sumner County residents approved a casino, leading to the opening of the Kansas Star Casino in 2011.

Wichita Rep. Mark Kahrs, who opposes gambling and requested Schmidt’s opinion, says the opinion end debate on whether there should be a revote in Sedgwick County.

DICKINSON COUNTY – A Kansas man died in an accident just after 7 a.m. on Sunday in Dickinson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Larry J. Velasquez, 69, Mission, was eastbound on Interstate 70 one mile east of Abilene.

The Jeep traveled off the road, down thru ditch, up an embankment, struck a cedar tree, and rolled back down into ditch.

Velasquez was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Danner Funeral Home.

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

HUTCHINSON — A Reno County judge sentenced a Kansas man on Friday to over 22-years in prison.

Fredrick Lemons Jr., 21, Hutchinson was convicted in connection with a home invasion, robbery from May of 2105 in the 3400 block of North Waldron in Hutchinson.

The victim testified at trial that he still suffers from his injuries that included having a tooth knocked out, stitches on his lip and other lacerations to his head. He had testified that he hasn’t been able to work since October and still has sufferers pain each day.

Lemon was charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, two counts of aggravated battery, criminal threat and two counts of criminal damage, however the judge set aside one of the criminal damage counts because of a bad jury instruction and the state then announced that they would dismiss that count.

Lemons apologized for what happened, but still maintained his innocence and plans an appeal.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say four federal agents suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot while trying to make an arrest at a Kansas motel.

Police say two U.S. marshals and an FBI agent were shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries Saturday night in Topeka. A fourth federal agent also suffered the same injuries, but it was not immediately clear to which agency the officer is assigned. All four were taken to hospitals.

WIBW-TV reports that the four agents descended on the Country Club Motel shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday and were trying to locate an unidentified suspect. Authorities say gunshots were exchanged with the agents.

Police say a fire broke out at the motel during the shootout, and firefighters worked to douse it.

Police say it’s unclear whether the suspect had escaped.

By MEGAN HART

Delivering meals to low-income people is a long-standing way to improve nutrition, but a project in Iola Unified School District 257 will bring the whole diner.

Kathy Koehn, nutrition and wellness coordinator at USD 257, said students taking vocational classes in the district are working to remodel an older school bus as a “traveling bistro” where children who may not have access to healthy food during the summer can get lunch.

The students are building tables and turning half the seats to create restaurant booths, as well as decorating the bus and adding space to carry books, she said.

The Meals and Reading Vehicle, or MARV, will stop in three low-income neighborhoods in Iola and at sites in the towns of Gas and LaHarpe to serve lunch on weekdays during the summer, Koehn said. The southeast Kansas district also offers meals through its summer programs at some of the schools, she said.

Many parents work and may not be able to bring their children to a central location for a healthy lunch, Koehn said, making it important to take the food to where the kids are in summer.

“There’s a lot of kids that still need to have access to these meals,” she said.

‘Way beyond food’

The Kansas State Department of Education and nonprofit groups are encouraging communities to get creative in finding ways to feed children during the summer. In recent years, Kansas has ranked at or near the bottom of states based on the percentage of qualifying children who receive summer meals.

Kelly Chanay, assistant director for child nutrition and wellness at KSDE, said the meal sites can attack several problems, including hunger, lack of opportunities for socialization and physical activity, and accidents when children try to prepare meals for themselves. Some also offer mentoring and enrichment activities, she said.

“If the children aren’t well-nourished during the summer, it impacts their ability to learn when school starts up,” she said. “The summer food service program goes way beyond food.”

Schools, nonprofits and government agencies can sponsor meal sites and receive reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If more than half of the children in an area are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, USDA will reimburse all meals. Children from a family of four are eligible for reduced-price meals if their annual family income is less than $44,955, or 185 percent of the federal poverty line.

In areas with less poverty, a site can only be reimbursed for meals to qualified children, requiring more record keeping.

The state has made some progress in increasing access to summer meals, Chanay said. In 2014, 44 of the 105 Kansas counties didn’t have a meal site, but that number fell to 35 in 2015. Still, that left a third of the state’s counties without a site, with the northwest corner and rural areas particularly lacking.

Transportation is one of the biggest challenges in rural areas, Chanay said. KSDE encourages potential host sites to look at areas where children might congregate in the summer, such as libraries, swimming pools and athletic programs, she said.

KSDE proposed a pilot project in 2015 to increase meal access in rural areas by setting up 10 sites where children could have a meal and take home shelf-stable food for several days, decreasing the number of times parents would have to make trips for food.

USDA said it didn’t have any additional funds for pilot projects that year, but Chanay said KSDE is talking with Kansas congressional representatives and is optimistic the project could move forward.

Grants available

Nonprofit groups also are encouraging communities to start or expand meal sites, and some are offering small grants. Rebekah Gaston, childhood hunger initiative director at Kansas Appleseed, said the group is offering grants ranging from $100 to $1,000 for start-up costs related to new summer meal sites or for “innovative” projects to increase the number of children receiving meals at existing sites. The grant funding came from the Kansas Health Foundation.

USDA reimburses the cost of meals at a fair rate, Gaston said, but it doesn’t pay for children’s activities or meals for parents. Activities tend to reduce children’s concerns about being identified as poor if they go to a meal site, while offering meals to parents increases the odds they will bring their children, she said.

“Some of the extras that help bring kids to sites aren’t always covered,” she said.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund also is offering up to $2,000 in grants to member congregations that host a meal site or assist community groups in running one. The congregations can decide how involved they want to be, including whether they want to add other activities, said Katie Schoenhoff, program officer at UMHMF. They also don’t have to have the meal site in a church building if they could better reach children at other locations, such as a park or a Boys and Girls Club, she said.

Congregations that participated last year “really talk about the need for community cooperation,” she said. “One of the key pieces is getting community involvement so you find kids where they’re at.”

Debbie Makings, who attends Larned United Methodist Church, said their congregation was too small to consistently field enough volunteers to run a meal program but was able to provide food and a building. Groups such as the Lions Club, National Honor Society and city employees then stepped in as volunteer cooks and servers for a week, and that kept the site going for the summer, she said.

“We never had a problem with too few people showing up,” she said.

They served about 75 children per day last summer and hope to serve more this summer, Makings said.

“I would say, just jump in and do it,” she said.

Applications to host summer meal sites are due to KSDE by May 1.

Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC

By James Hoyt

KU Statehouse News Service

TOPEKA – Kansas students gathered recently at the Statehouse to protest bills requiring transgender students to use public school bathrooms according to their sex assigned at birth.

House Bill 2737 and its companion bill Senate Bill 513 have been dubbed the Student Physical Privacy Act. They would apply to students using restrooms, locker rooms and showers in public and postsecondary schools.

“I think it definitely has the potential to drive people away from public schools in Kansas,” said Marisa Pecoraro, a sophomore at the University of Kansas, who participated in the protest.

The bills are identical and say “parents have a reasonable expectation that public schools in this state will not allow their minor children to be viewed in various states of undress by members of the opposite sex, nor allow their minor children to view members of the opposite sex in various states of undress.” The bills would allow transgender students to request alternative facilities, with permission of parents or guardians. Schools would then evaluate the request and make accommodations “to the extent reasonable,” which might include access to single-stall or unisex bathrooms.

The bills define sex as “the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s chromosomes, and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy.”

The bills also provide that any aggrieved student who encounters someone of the opposite sex in a school bathroom or locker room can receive up to $2,500 in damages, plus monetary damages for emotional or psychological harm suffered and compensation for attorney’s fees.

Jacob Moyer, a student activist from Shawnee Mission North in Overland Park, said the demonstration was organized to coincide with the Day of Silence, a national event where silent demonstrations are held in public spaces to protest bullying and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in schools. Demonstrators placed rainbow-colored duct tape over their mouths during the protest.

“It is symbolic because of all of the people who have been silenced by bullying against the LGBT community,” Moyer said.

Moyer also said the students participating in the Day of Silence went to school on Thursday with duct tape over their mouths because the Shawnee Mission and Olathe school districts had Friday off.

Topeka transgender activist Stephanie Mott praised the students for protesting and joined the group of 30 on the north lawn. Mott is currently suing the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for not amending her gender to female on her birth certificate.

Traffic passing by occasionally honked in support of the protesters while some drivers made obscene gestures.

“That’s the kind of hate we’re trying to end here,” Moyer said. “There’s still a lot of hate in the state of Kansas.”

Protest organizer Caleb Bishop, a student at Olathe North High School, said he didn’t expect such a large turnout.

“We deserve a place where we can feel like we belong and where we can feel safe within our own communities,” Bishop said.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R–Shawnee, defended the bills, saying that safety is imperative for Kansas students in bathrooms.

“Every student has a right to have their physical privacy protected.  Women and girls, in particular, need to know that the opposite sex is not going to walk in on them when they are in a stage of undress,” Pilcher-Cook said.

Kansas is one of 28 states without protection from discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodations based on gender identity or sexuality.

HB 2737 has been referred to the Committee on State and Federal Affairs, and SB 513 has been referred to the Committee on Education. The bills were introduced in mid-March, about a week before the legislature went into recess. Lawmakers return to Topeka on April 27.

 

Edited by Leah Sitz

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 24-year-old Topeka man faces charges accusing him of dragging a police officer during a traffic stop.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Dyllon Alan Tucker is charged with aggravated kidnapping and other charges stemming from the incident April 14.

Authorities said the officer stopped an SUV driven by Tucker, who then assaulted the officer and drove away, dragging the officer who had her arm in the car. As she was pulled down the street, the officer opened fire and wounded Tucker.

The officer was treated at a hospital and released.

The charges against Tucker were filed late Tuesday and became public Friday.

It’s unclear if Tucker has a lawyer. He’s being held in the Shawnee County Jail on a $500,000 surety bond.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has denied a request to change the bond for a former Dallas Cowboys running back facing charges in Kansas.

Joseph Randle of Wichita is awaiting a preliminary hearing on February charges including aggravated battery. Police say he backed his car into three people while leaving a party. The Cowboys released Randle last year.

Randle’s attorney, James Crawford, sought to change bond conditions so Randle could be released to family instead of to the NFL Players Association. The Wichita Eagle reports NFL lawyers said the organization didn’t want to be liable for transporting Randle to a mental treatment facility if he bails out of jail.

But Sedgwick County Judge Kevin O’Connor on Friday denied the request, pointing out already-approved bond modifications, including decreasing it to $45,000 from $150,000.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A national analysis says Kansas is in the bottom third of states with the fewest exemptions allowing businesses to use drones in their operations.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved 24 Kansas businesses to fly drones. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International says its analysis of more than 3,000 exemptions nationwide found that of states bordering Kansas, only Nebraska, with 17, has fewer exemptions.

The exemptions allow companies to operate drones for commercial use until the FAA issues final rules on small unmanned aerial systems, which are drones weighing 55 pounds or less.

Some drone-related business owners say industry isn’t taking off in Kansas as quickly as they had expected. But a state official says the fledging industry is important to Kansas.