Surveillance video photo showing the suspect taking the vehicle related to the Amber Alert.- Olathe Police Department
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have found two missing children in a stolen vehicle in suburban Kansas City.
Olathe police said in a news release that the children disappeared Tuesday night after the suspect attempted to steal a vehicle from a car dealership. After a witness confronted him, the suspect abandoned the stolen vehicle. Police said he then walked to a nearby tire shop where he got into a running vehicle with two girls already inside and drove away with the 2- and 6-year olds.
Officers located the vehicle parked at a retirement home about 2 ½ hours later with the children safe inside.
The suspect hasn’t been found. Police said the investigation is ongoing.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The latest on a case where police discovered human remains at a Kansas barn while investigating a domestic disturbance:
A coroner says human remains found at a Kansas barn are those of a juvenile, but tests to determine whether they belong to a missing 7-year-old boy will take weeks.
Police found the remains after investigating a domestic disturbance at the home of the boy’s father, when they were notified the boy was missing. Michael A. Jones has been charged with child abuse, aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a firearm.
Wyandotte County Coroner Alan Hancock said Tuesday the remains are of a juvenile and they’ve been sent to a forensic anthropologist who will determine the child’s age. Hancock will do additional DNA testing aimed at identifying the child.
It’s unclear if Jones has a lawyer. His father, Jerome Jones of Baltimore, says his son would never hurt a child.
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A Kansas man says his daughter told him that a 7-year-old boy she lived with in Wyandotte County had been killed and his body was fed to pigs.
Jeff Coon, of central Kansas, told The Kansas City Star Tuesday that his daughter, Heather Jones, called him Thanksgiving Day and said her husband, Michael Jones, had killed the boy before feeding the body to pigs.
Coon said his daughter was not upset during the conversation and told him the boy’s death would soon be all over the news. Coon hasn’t talked to his daughter since that phone call.
Police have said they found human remains in a barn at the Jones house. A coroner says the remains are those of a juvenile.
Michael Jones was charged Monday with child abuse, aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
NEWTON – Two suspects are in custody after a brief standoff with police at a home near 2nd and Oak Street on Tuesday afternoon in Newton.
A Newton police officer attempted to stop a car traveling on Main Street. The vehicle fled onto East Second Street, pulled into a driveway and the passenger ran into the house, according to a media release.
Police officers surrounded the house and used loud speakers to speak to the man.
Police eventually made phone contact with him.
After about 30 minutes the man came out of the house and was taken into custody.
The man was arrested on outstanding warrants from Sumner County including obstruction of official duty, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The driver of the car, who had remained in the vehicle, was also arrested on warrants and drug charges.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to two bank robberies at a south Wichita grocery store more than two years ago.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 45-year-old Frederick Aaron Cunningham admitted to robbing the Intrust Bank inside a Dillons Store on Oct. 9 and Oct. 28, 2013. Cunningham is charged with one felony count of bank robbery.
Cunningham was linked to the crimes after investigators tested DNA on a hat and shirt he discarded in a nearby neighborhood.
He is scheduled for sentencing before a federal court judge in Wichita Feb. 18.
Attorneys involved in the case will ask the judge to sentence Cunningham to 10 years in federal prison. The plea agreement says Cunningham will be asked to pay more than $2,000 in restitution.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas says a $7.2 million gift will be used to create a new center within the university’s School of Business.
The university on Tuesday announced that Roger and Julie Davis of Chicago donated $250,000 plus committed $7 million from their estate for a Center for Figure Sense, which will teach students how to use complex data to make better business decisions.
The university says no new classes will be created but the money will fund the hiring of an academic director to work with faculty and staff.
Roger Davis is owner of Paxton/Patterson in Chicago. The couple previously donated $1 million toward construction of Capitol Federal Hall.
The new center will be formally announced at a ceremony on Friday and is expected to open in spring 2016.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Mexican man was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for laundering more than $4.7 million in drug funds in Kansas, Missouri and seven other states.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says Franz Wiebe Rempel, of Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua, Mexico, was sentenced Tuesday to five years and 10 months for money laundering.
He admitted that from 2009 through July 2013, he laundered drug funds through the Bank of America in Wichita, and accounts at Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Rempel gave bank account numbers to another person, who gave them to third parties. They deposited cash into Rempel’s bank accounts and he would cross the Mexico border almost weekly to move the money through the U.S. financial system.
A co-conspirator ultimately ended up with most of the money.
TOPEKA– Kansas drivers with suspended licenses can now apply and pay for a restricted driver’s license online.
The automated online application replaces a paper application and cuts processing time in half.
Customers can use the online application for unpaid ticket restrictions, which will allow drivers to obtain limited driving privileges instead of their unpaid tickets for up to a year.
Customers can also use the online application to request limited driving privileges for the remainder of their alcohol-related suspension.
Applications do not guarantee approval. The department determines approval based on an individual’s driving record.
Customers can also check the status of their driver’s license or retrieve copies of all notices that the Division of Vehicles has mailed to them from the online status check function at www.ksrevenue.org/DLStatusCheck.
The status check application is updated nightly Monday through Friday and shows if a driver’s license has been suspended, revoked, canceled or has restrictions.
NEW YORK (AP) — A company that makes copper-infused clothing will pay $1.35 million to settle government charges that it claimed falsely that its garments could relieve pain and inflammation caused by arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.
According to regulators the company, called Tommie Copper, booked $87 million in sales between 2011 and 2014
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says that Tommie Copper used infomercials, print ads and social media to advertise shirts, socks, sleeves and other compression garments that it said could relieve pain better than surgery or medication, but with no scientific evidence to back up those claims.
A representative for Tommie Copper, based in Mount Kisco, New York, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man who suggested attacking the Sedgwick County Courthouse as a murder trial was ending was placed on probation.
The Wichita Eagle reports Samuel McCrory was also ordered Tuesday to complete anger management classes and to surrender his firearms.
McCrory pleaded guilty in October to one count of criminal threat and three counts of criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon,
Authorities say he posted comments on Facebook asking if it was “out of line to storm the courthouse” and saying the “only way to defend yourself from a cop is to kill the cop.”
McCrory also drew attention when he was seen carrying an assault rifle and other weapons at protests and other events in downtown Wichita in the year before his arrest.
IOLA- A Kansas man died in an accident just after 10a.m. on Tuesday in Allen County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Buick LaCrosse driven by Donald L. Hillbrant, 85, Iola, was eastbound on Oregon Road just east of Iola.
The driver failed to stop at a sign on U. S. 169 and was struck by a 2007 International semi driven by Terry Allen Chism, 51, Fredonia, that was southbound on U.S. 169.
The semi then struck a 2000 Kenworth semi driven by Ron Keithley, 58, Herman, NE., that was northbound on U.S. 169.
Hillbrant, Chism, and Keithley were transported to Allen County Regional Hospital where Hillbrant died.
Hilbrant was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The nation’s net farm income is the lowest since 2002, and with another year of low commodity prices, demand for agriculture loans is surging as farmers struggle to make ends meet.
A Kansas banker says today’s grain prices will bring in enough to pay for basic operating costs, but it’s not enough for farmers to make payments on equipment loans or even pay themselves.
A recent U.S. Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service report showed U.S. farm debt is forecast to increase 6.3 percent in 2015. And net income has plummeted by a staggering 55 percent since 2013 to $55.9 billion this year.
The USDA’s Farm Service Agency saw demand for loans across the nation soar over two from nearly $4 billion in 2013 to more than $5.6 billion in 2015.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Parents from the Shawnee Mission School District are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their case challenging a state cap on the amount of local property tax money that the district can spend on education.
The Kansas City Star reports that the parents filed a lawsuit in 2010 arguing that the state could not limit local school district funding because it creates a new inequality that punishes school districts. The Legislature put the cap in place to help equalize economic disparities among Kansas’ 286 school districts.
In June, the U.S. Appeals Court in Denver ruled that the federal court couldn’t override the state’s funding plan. The parents are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. The court’s decision could come early this month.
