OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man who illegally voted in both Kansas and Arkansas while moving has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
The Kansas City Star reports that Steven Gaedtke entered the plea Wednesday in Johnson County District Court. The case against the Air Force veteran was among the first to be filed under a new state law giving Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach the power to prosecute election fraud allegations.
Defense attorney Scott Gyllenborg says his client “made a mistake.” Gaedtke and his wife applied for advance voting ballots in Johnson County for the 2010 general election and submitted them while they were traveling back and forth over several months from Olathe to a home in Arkansas. During that time, they also voted in person in Arkansas.
SALINA – The Salina Animal Shelter is beyond capacity after authorities seized a number of animals from a home.
Animal control officers, along with assistance from police officers, seized numerous prohibited animals from a residence at 1131 Prospect just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Salina Animal Shelter Animal Services Supervisor Vanessa Cowie and Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.
Among the animals seized were three full-grown pot bellied pigs, four dogs, several caged rats and birds, and over 15 cats. The animals were living in unsanitary conditions. Cowie said there was a strong smell of ammonia as well as feces inside the home. She indicated that 51-year-old Stephanie Pankratz owns several of the animals, which were, were not being fed and watered properly.
All of the animals were seized and taken to the Animal Shelter.
Cowie said the shelter was already over capacity at the time the animals arrived.
Shelter officials are hoping to get some animals adopted quickly to make room for others.
The shelter is also seeking donations of clay cat litter and canned can food to assist with the care of the cats. Donations can be dropped off at the shelter at 329 N. 2nd.
This is the second time these animals have been seized by the shelter, according to Cowie.
In October 2014, the animals were seized from Playful Pets, a business owned by Pankratz. She received multiple misdemeanor citations in connection with the first incident. She was convicted of all charges in October 2015 and was able to get the animals back.
Pankratz faces further charges from Wednesday’s seizure. An investigation is underway to determine whether the animals will be returned.
Sweeney indicated that while the animals were being seized, officers arrested a 15-year-old girl on requested charges of assault of a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct, and interference with a law enforcement officer.
Police also arrested 35-year-old Napoleon Svenblad on outstanding municipal court warrants. He was found hiding in the basement of the residence.
WABAUNSEE COUNTY – Five people were injured in an accident just before 4:30p.m. on Thursday in Wabaunsee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Dodge Durango driven by Mark Allison Roberson, 56, St. Gabriel, LA., was eastbound on Interstate 70 in the passing lane just west of Ranch Road.
The vehicle left the roadway towards the north. The driver over corrected. The vehicle left the roadway to the south and rolled multiple times.
Roberson and passengers in the vehicle Glenn Mandeville, 48, Zunzella Mcbride, 32, Christopher Gomez, 53, Wesley Langat, 41, all of Topeka, were transported to Stormont Vail.
Roberson, Mcbride and Gomez were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
BEEBE, Ark. (AP) — The vice president of academics at Butler Community College in El Dorado has been selected as the next chancellor at Arkansas State University-Beebe.
ASU System President Charles Welch on Thursday said Karla Fisher will succeed Eugene McKay as ASU-Beebe chancellor. McKay announced in May that he will retire in January after 21 years as chancellor.
Fisher will begin work at ASU-Beebe on Jan. 16 at an annual salary of $183,000.
ASU-Beebe has more than 4,500 students and has additional campuses at Heber Springs, Searcy and the Little Rock Air Force Base.
RIVERTON, Kan. (AP) — A man has been arrested in a crash that killed a southeast Kansas jogger.
The Joplin Globe reports that 26-year-old Marcus Bunce was struck Tuesday night near his Riverton home. He was pronounced dead at the Joplin, Missouri, hospital where he and fiancée worked as nurses.
The Cherokee County sheriff’s office says a Riverton man was arrested Tuesday night and taken to the Cherokee County Jail on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and leaving the scene of an injury crash. The man is being held on $20,000 bond.
MANHATTAN – Law enforcement authorities in Riley County are investigating a case of vandalism at the Bluemont Hill scenic overlook.
Officers with the Riley County Police Department responded to the popular location to meet with city employees on Wednesday according to a media release.
They discovered that someone had painted all the letters that spell the city’s name. Most of the painting was too vulgar to reveal.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A coalition of Kansas clergy has offered a petition to Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration asking the governor to rescind an executive order attempting to halt the relocation of Syrian refugees in the state.
The Wichita Eagle reported Wednesday that the group representing more than 50 Kansas churches says the order impedes their religious liberty to help refugees.
Brownback issued the order on Nov. 16 directing that no state agency or organization receiving grant money through the state government to participate or assist “in any way in the relocation of Syrian refugees to Kansas” in the wake of the November attacks in Paris.
Eileen Hawley, a spokeswoman for Brownback, said the state has always welcomed refugees, but the federal government cannot guarantee security checks regarding the resettlement of refugees.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita woman was sentenced to six years in prison in the death of her 3-year-old daughter.
Monica Krueger was sentenced Thursday for second-degree reckless murder and obstruction of prosecution in the June 2014 death of her daughter, Emma, in Wichita. Prosecutors said Krueger knew her boyfriend, Evan Schuessler, was abusing the girl but continued to leave the child in his care and did not report the abuse.
The Wichita Eagle reports Krueger’s attorney argued Schuessler controlled Krueger and she didn’t see signs of the abuse until it was too late. The attorney asked for probation or no more than five years in prison. Prosecutors sought 10 years in prison.
Schuessler was sentenced last month to more than 16 years in prison for second-degree intentional murder and child abuse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have overwhelmed Democrats in a vote to end Planned Parenthood’s federal funding.
Thursday’s vote comes as the Senate moves toward approval of a bill that would all but repeal the president’s health care law.
The bill would also take away the federal dollars that Planned Parenthood receives. Democrats tried restoring those funds, but their effort was rejected on a near party-line vote of 54-46.
The House is expected to send the bill to President Barack Obama in the coming days. The White House has pledged that Obama will veto it.
Republicans lack the two-thirds House and Senate majorities needed to override a veto. That means the measure will achieve one thing: giving both parties political messaging they can use in next year’s elections.
TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback today ordered flags in Kansas to be flown at half-staff from sun-up to sun-down through Monday, Dec. 7.
The White House today issued a proclamation for flags across the nation to remain lowered through Dec. 7 and returned to full staff at 12 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 8.
“The Lt. Governor and I extend our deepest sympathies to the victims of these shootings,” said Brownback. “I encourage all Kansans to take a moment to pray for the victims and their families.”
The lowering of the flags to honor the victims of the California shootings also extends through Pearl Harbor Day. Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and honors the memory of the more than 2,000 American sailors, soldiers and Marines who lost their lives on Dec. 7, 1941 following the attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The attack on Pearl Harbor forced America’s entry into World War II.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawyers for two northeast Kansas voters have temporarily withdrawn a request for a court order blocking the state from enforcing registration restrictions.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson canceled a hearing scheduled Friday in the federal lawsuit after the request was withdrawn Thursday.
Alder Cromwell of Lawrence and Cody Keener of Eudora are challenging a 2013 law requiring new voters to document their U.S. citizenship when registering and Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s directive to county election officials to cancel registrations remaining incomplete after 90 days.
Kobach’s office found documents for Cromwell and Kenner and completed their registrations after the lawsuit was filed.
Attorney Will Lawrence said their lawyers will submit a new request on behalf of all voters with incomplete registrations.
Kobach said the lawsuit is “shot through with holes.”
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A man accused of in the shooting death of a Salina teenager will stand trial on a charge of aggravated intimidation of a witness in the murder case.
Andrew M. Woodring will be tried in May on the intimidation charge. His trial for first-degree murder and other charges is scheduled for April.
Woodring and four others are accused of shooting 17-year-old Allie Saum to death in May. Saum was a passenger in a truck that police say some of the defendants mistakenly believed belonged to someone from an earlier confrontation.
The Salina Journal reports prosecutors believe Woodring tried to convince an ex-girlfriend to “do something about” a female he thought was going to testify in the murder case. The ex-girlfriend testified Wednesday that she never contacted the woman.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that Defense Secretary Ash Carter will order the military to open all combat jobs to women, and is giving the armed services until Jan. 1 to submit plans to make the historic change.
Carter’s announcement is expected later Thursday.
It rebuffs arguments from the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman that the Marine Corps should be allowed to exclude women from certain front-line combat jobs, citing studies showing that mixed-gender units aren’t as capable as all-male units.
A senior defense official says all the services will have to begin putting plans in place by April 1.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man who illegally voted in both Kansas and Arkansas while moving has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
