POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on child sex charges.

As a result of the investigation, deputies arrested Peter Palmeri, 52, St. Marys, on Tuesday on requested charges that include 2 counts of Rape, 6 counts of Aggravated Indecent Liberties with a Child, 3 counts of Aggravated Criminal Sodomy, 1 Count of Aggravated Kidnapping and 1 count of Furnishing Alcohol to a Minor, according to Sheriff Greg Riat.

Palmeri made an initial court appearance Wednesday and remains jailed in Pottawatomie County on a $100,000 bond, according to the Pottawatomie County Attorney’s office. He is expected back in court July 22.

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

GREAT BEND — The Great Bend Recreation Commission received a thank you letter from the Kansas State High School Activities Association for hosting the Class 2-1A State Baseball Tournament this past May.

KSHSAA thanked the Recreation Commission and City of Great Bend for being great hosts but did encourage continued improvements at the facility. GBRC Executive Director Diann Henderson says one of the implied improvements is to install turf.

“They always ask that we continue to improve our facilities at the Sports Complex, especially turf as they start looking at those premier facilities for selections every year,” Henderson said.

KSHSAA has announced state championship sites for fall and winter sports, but has not revealed spring locations. The Great Bend Sports Complex has been the host of the 2-1A State Baseball Tournament for the past six years.

One of the goals listed in the Recreation Commission’s 2019-2020 strategic plan is to collaborate with the City of Great Bend and USD 428 to improve recreation facilities, including turf at the Sports Complex.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Trump administration is moving forward with a nationwide immigration enforcement operation targeting migrant families, despite loud opposition from Democrats and questions over whether it’s the best use of resources given the crisis at the border.

The operation could happen as soon as this weekend after being postponed by President Donald Trump late last month. It would pursue people with final deportation orders, including families whose immigration cases were fast-tracked by judges in 10 major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

The plan has sparked outrage and concern among immigrant-rights advocates and lawmakers.

“Our communities have been in constant fear,” Estela Vara, a Chicago-area organizer said Thursday at a rally outside the city’s Immigration and Custom Enforcement offices where some activists chanted “Immigration Not Deportation!”

The sweep remains in flux and could begin later, according to two administration officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The American Civil Liberties Union pre-emptively filed a lawsuit Thursday in an attempt to protect asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, activists ramped up efforts to prepare by bolstering know-your-rights pocket guides, circulating information about hotlines and planning public demonstrations. Vigils outside of detention centers and hundreds of other locations nationwide were set for Friday evening, to be followed by protests Saturday in Miami and Chicago.

The operation is similar to ones conducted regularly since 2003 that often produce hundreds of arrests. It is slightly unusual to target families, as opposed to immigrants with criminal histories, but it’s not unprecedented. The Obama and Trump administrations have targeted families in previous operations.

This latest effort is notable because of the politics swirling around it.

Trump announced on Twitter last month that the sweep would mark the beginning of a push to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally, a near-impossibility given the limited resources of ICE, which makes the arrests and carries out deportation orders.

Then he abruptly canceled the operation after a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, while lawmakers worked to pass a $4.6 billion border aid package . Plus, details had leaked, and authorities worried about the safety of ICE officers.

The agency said it would not discuss specifics about enforcement operations.

“As always, ICE prioritizes the arrest and removal of unlawfully present aliens who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security,” it said in a statement.

Trump started hinting anew in recent days that more removals were coming. He said last weekend they would be starting “fairly soon.”

“Well, I don’t call them raids,” he said. “I say they came in illegally and we’re bringing them out legally.”

Ken Cuccinelli, the new head of Citizenship and Immigration Services, told CNN on Wednesday that the raids were “absolutely going to happen.”

Pelosi said she hoped the administration would reconsider. “Families belong together,” she said.

Advocates in border areas have “received word” that up to 1,000 families are expected to arrive at an immigration center in Dilley, Texas, according to attorneys representing separated families in a long-running lawsuit.

In court papers filed Thursday, the attorneys said the government has not responded to questions about the operation.

The administration has been straining to manage a border crisis , and some officials believe flashy shows of force in deporting families would deter others migrants from coming. But others have criticized any move that draws resources away from the border at a time when the Border Patrol is detaining four times the number of people it can hold. Also, a watchdog report found filthy, potentially dangerous conditions at some stations.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a former immigrant advocate, accused the administration of showing a “willingness to be cruel at every turn.”

House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, blamed Pelosi for the raids, saying she had done “nothing” since they were delayed. “It is the speaker who caused this problem,” he said.

He said Trump would have postponed the raids again if he saw progress in House.

Some activists said they were gearing up for operations to start Sunday and planned to protest. Organizers estimated a rally planned for Saturday in Chicago would draw around 10,000 people.

“We will not be swayed by fear and fiat,” said Justin Valas with Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Chicago.

In New Orleans, any operations were put on hold due to severe weather. The city tweeted that it confirmed with ICE that enforcement would be suspended through the weekend as the region braced for the first hurricane of the season.

The ACLU lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, argued that thousands of migrants fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were not allowed a fair chance to request asylum due but were still ordered removed from the country. They are asking that those individuals get another hearing.

Others said they were skeptical that Trump would follow through on the threat.

Advocates have ramped up know-your-rights training since Trump took office, reminding immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, about their right to remain silent and to ask authorities for proper paperwork.

They have also explained that immigrants can often avoid arrest simply by not opening doors to agents, who need permission to enter private homes. That has forced ICE officers to wait outside courthouses and other public places to make arrests.

“We don’t want to alarm folks, but we want to alert folks,” said Melissa Taveras of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s former fiancee has gone to court seeking to prove that he is the father of her newborn twins and to require him to pay child support.

Crystal Espinal filed a petition Thursday in Johnson County, Kansas, District Court. Her petition also seeks to establish supervised parenting time for Hill.

The Chiefs suspended Hill on April 25 over allegations that his 3-year-old son was abused, which Hill denies. The local district attorney said in June that an investigation was no longer active because he couldn’t prove who injured the boy.

Online court records did not indicate that Hill had an attorney in the paternity case. The Chiefs did not immediately return a telephone message early Friday seeking comment.

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has reported unprecedented numbers of Culex species mosquitoes, those that most commonly transmit West Nile virus in Kansas, this year.

Since 2017, three counties (Reno, Sedgwick, and Shawnee) have acted as sentinel sites for WNV surveillance. Five adult mosquito traps are set in each county one night per week from mid-May through the end of September. All three counties have documented a substantial increase in Culex spp. mosquitoes over the last several weeks. The risk of infections to humans, and horses, increases with higher temperatures. In a typical year most human infections with WNV occurred in mid-June through the end of September.

To inform public health, emergency management, and residents, the Kansas Biological Survey, in collaboration with KDHE, began mosquito surveillance on July 3, 2019 in all 67 counties under a Federal or Local Disaster Declaration due to the May floods.

Barton County has an elevated number of both the Culex and Non-Culex mosquitoes in their trap that was tested the first week in July. It is recommended that mosquito control efforts be increased so to protect the public against exposure to Vector-borne illnesses:

Source Reduction
 Empty standing water from tarps, old tires, buckets, and other places where rainwater collects.
 Refresh water for bird baths, pet bowls, and wading pools at least every three days.
 Use larvicide in areas where water cannot be removed. Larvae

Control
 Larval source reduction is the single most effective means of vector control.
 Larvicides target larvae in the breeding habitat before they mature into adult mosquitos and should be the first line of defense when controlling floodwater mosquitoes.
 Larvicides can be purchased at home improvement, farm supply stores, or through pesticide distributors. Look for products containing Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis as this bacterium has no toxicity to people or animals and is approved for use for pest control in organic farming operations.

Adult Control
 Adulticide should be used when deemed necessary, according to data gathered in surveillance activities or in response to public health needs.
 When adult mosquito populations become too large to be managed by larvicide, adulticide spraying may be considered.

Questions can be directed to the KDHE Epidemiology Hotline at 1-877-427-7317 or [email protected].

Currently, the state does not have funds to pay for mosquito control. More information on surveillance and mosquito control can be found under the resources section of the KDHE Arboviral Disease website: https://www.kdheks.gov/epi/arboviral_disease.htm.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Wichita police captain who was caught on video shoving a teenage referee during a youth basketball game in a nearby town has lost has law enforcement officer license.

Newly released documents show that Kevin Mears’ certification was revoked last month by the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.

The revocation order says that Mears “used profanity” last year after his son was hurt and went onto the court without being summoned to retrieve him. That led to a technical foul. The order says Mears, who was off-duty, then pushed the referee and “flipped off the crowd.”

Mears lost his job several months after the video of the confrontation was posted to Facebook.

Mears initially was convicted of misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct. But on appeal, he was found not guilty of battery.

DONIPHAN COUNTY  — One person died in a wrong-way crash just before 10p.m. Thursday in Doniphan County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Dodge Ram driven by Isaiah B. Creek, 22, Sabetha, was eastbound in the westbound lane of U.S 36 just west of Half Mound Road.

The pickup collided head-on with a westbound semi driven by Michael D. Roskelley, 52, Neosho.

Creek was pronounced dead at the scene. Roskelley was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — One of three men charged in a fatal shooting at a Lawrence motel has pleaded no contest to robbery.

20-year-old Shawn Smith, of Kansas City, Missouri, entered the plea Thursday in Douglas County District Court.

He initially was charged with first-degree felony murder and several other counts in the killing of 23-year-old Cameron Hooks, of Lenexa, and the wounding of two other men. The shooting happened in September 2017 while two groups of friends drank and smoked pot at a Motel 6. Each friend group accused the other of trying to rob them first, sparking the shooting.

Two other co-defendants from Kansas City, Kansas, previously were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the case.

Smith’s sentencing is set for Aug. 14.

By ALEX SMITH
Kansas News Service

When Porter Hall of Raymore, Missouri, was a year old, he broke out in hives after eating a spoonful of peanut butter. It led to a scary night in the emergency room and a diagnosis of peanut allergy.

But today, Porter, who’s now five, is giving peanuts another shot with the help of Kansas City doctors, who have been giving him tiny doses of peanuts over the course of months.

At Children’s Mercy Hospital in Overland Park, nurse practitioner Jodi Shroba gives Porter a quick once-over in preparation for administering a tiny dose of what’s essentially peanut dust.

Like many parents dealing with a child’s allergy, Porter’s mother, Amy Hall, says she was initially “freaked out,” and took dramatic steps to keep peanuts away, including purging the contents of her kitchen cabinets.

Shroba says this fear can make the exposure sessions terrifying for parents and children alike.

“You see the anxiety,” Shroba says. “They gotta kind of psych themselves up for it, and they’re like, ‘I can do this. I can do this.’”

Children’s Mercy doctor Jay Portnoy explains that gradually increasing exposures are meant to reduce severe reactions by exhausting the immune system’s of chemicals like histamine that lead to those reactions.

‘Mini-reactions’

“We’re creating like little mini-reactions that are so small that the patient doesn’t notice it. Occasionally, they’ll get itchy mouth, they might get a little bit of stomach ache, but for the most part, these reactions are definitely tolerable, and then as we increase it, they become more and more tolerant of the peanut allergen,” Portnoy says.

After six months, Portnoy says patients may be able to tolerate a few peanuts at a time, if they keep the exposures going.

Right now, the treatment is only offered at a limited number of hospitals and clinics around the country. But it may be on the verge of taking off.

The Food and Drug Administration is now reviewing AR101, a kind of medical-grade peanut flour produced by drug maker Aimunne Therapeutics that was tested at Children’s Mercy and other hospitals.

And a research review recently published in The Lancet shows that oral immunotherapy appears to work. At least it does in clinics, where patients have been able to overcome food allergy challenges.

But one of the study’s authors, allergy researcher Dr. Derek Chu of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, notes that things can change after they leave.

“Outside of the clinic setting, they actually have a much higher rate of reaction,” Chu says. “That’s two to three times more likely to react to peanut or the dose that they are exposed to during this desensitization procedure compared to avoiding it or receiving a placebo instead.”

Jury is out

Chu says that, outside of clinics, factors like exercise, hot weather and illness can affect allergic reactions, making it more likely that patients will react to peanuts.

The vast majority of these reactions are mild. But children doing the therapy had about a 20% chance of anaphylaxis, compared to about 7% doing placebo or avoiding peanuts, according to the review.

Chu says that, given oral immunotherapy’s costs, risks and complications, the jury is still out on who might experience an improved quality of life from it.

“What we do need to ask is, is this really ready for prime time?” Chu says. “I think there’s significant gaps in knowing the values and preference of patients, as well as knowing if are we fully there for en masse use. I’m not saying no, I’m not saying yes, but we need to have a very robust assessment to know where we’re at.”

Children’s Mercy’s Portnoy says they have not seen any reactions more serious than an upset stomach. But Portnoy acknowledges that families will need to weigh risks and benefits for themselves.

After Porter’s checkup, the nurse stirs some peanut flour into apple juice. Now that a few months of oral immunotherapy are behind him, the 5-year-old seems to take it in stride. With plenty of epinephrine nearby, he casually sips it down and goes back to skimming a book.

At this point, it’s unclear how much he’ll benefit from the treatment, but Amy Hall says just seeing her son get this far has been reassuring.

“It’s made me be a little bit more at ease with him being able to eat at other peoples’ houses,” Hall says. “Or when Halloween rolls around, you never know what kind of candy they’re going to get. It makes me feel a little bit more at ease, but not 100%.”

Alex Smith is a health reporter for KCUR. You can reach him by email at [email protected]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, plans to retire Sept. 11 after 4½ years on the job amid questions about his conduct and a lawsuit over an officer’s alleged sexual assault.

Chief Terry Zeigler announced his plans on social media Wednesday. He has been with the department nearly three decades.

Officials with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, praised Zeigler’s service.
But the Kansas Bureau of Investigation this year examined whether Zeigler “double dipped” by taking time off to work on a house he leased from the Unified Government. The KBI turned its findings over to the district attorney in May.

And activists demanded Zeigler’s firing in June after a federal lawsuit alleged a former police cadet was dismissed for reporting an officer’s sexual assault.

BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot killed when his small plane crashed into a western Missouri grain bin had experienced engine problems.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report that 80-year-old John McConnell Jr.’s right engine became stuck at full power as he descended toward an airport in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, Kansas.

He told air traffic controllers that he was turning off the engine and changed his destination to a closer airport in Butler, which is about 55 miles north of Kansas City.

McConnell then warned “she’s going down” and advised that he would attempt to land on a highway. He was the only person aboard the eight-seat Cessna 425 when it hit the grain bin. The flight began in Vero Beach, Florida.

TOPEKA (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has dropped a policy that extended food assistance to thousands of Kansas adults even though they failed to meet a work requirement.

Kelly acted Thursday in response to a threat from Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt to file a lawsuit over the policy change.

Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature argued that the policy change made in May violated a 2015 law imposing work requirements and other restrictions on food and cash assistance recipients.

Kelly said she believes her administration’s policy was “legally defensible” but engaging in a lengthy court battle was not worth the cost to taxpayers.

The state extended food assistance this month to 5,500 adults due to lose it. Kelly’s administration had planned to help them again in August and September.

By KANTELE FRANKO
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio hospital system says it’s firing 23 more employees and changing leadership after investigating excessive painkiller doses given to dozens of patients who died.

The Mount Carmel Health System announcement Thursday comes five weeks after the Columbus-area doctor accused of ordering the doses, William Husel, pleaded not guilty to murder charges in 25 deaths.

Mount Carmel says the newly fired employees include five physician, nursing and pharmacy management team members. The CEO says he’s resigning this month, and the chief clinical officer is retiring in September.
Mount Carmel fired Husel earlier. His lawyer says Husel was providing comfort care to dying patients, not trying to kill them.

Nurses and pharmacists who administered or approved the drugs aren’t being prosecuted, though dozens were reported to professional boards for review.