SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect in connection with allegedly sexually molesting a pre-teen girl, according to police.
Police say Christopher Hitchcock, 40, Salina, was arrested Monday.
He is accused of molesting the girl between August of 2012 and August of this year. Hitchcock also is reported to have taken a nude picture of the girl without her knowledge.
He is an acquaintance of the girl and her family, according to police.
The family reported the incidents to the Department of Children and Family Services, who then notified Police on August 23rd.
During the initial investigation, a protect from abuse order was issued for Hitchcock. He reportedly violated that order 50 times by contacting the victim with text messages, Facebook messages, or by calling on the phone.
Among the requested charges against Hitchcock include rape, sexual exploitation of a child, lewd and lascivious, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and aggravated criminal sodomy.
The alleged crimes occurred in different locations in Salina, according to police.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas has announced the resignation of the director of the office that investigates sexual violence reports on campus.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Jane McQueeny has resigned from her job as director of the university’s Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access. Her last day was Friday.
The office was created in 2012 to investigate reports of sexual violence and other discrimination on campus. The office also recommends disciplinary action when a student is found responsible for sexual misconduct.
The university announced last week that it is creating the new Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center, which will be devoted to preventing sexual violence on campus.
The new center will also be the central coordinating office for the university’s sexual assault prevention and education programming.
Last week, the Kansas Highway Patrol and Kansas Department of Transportation issued an alert to drivers.
In a media release the agencies reported 15 percent of vehicle crashes last year were deer-related, and Sedgwick County had the most, with 422 deer-vehicle crashes in 2014.
Officials say if a deer jumps in front a car, it’s best to keep driving and avoid swerving, even if it means hitting the deer. KDOT also says to avoid a collision with deer in the first place, reduce speed in or around wooded areas and be watchful at dusk and dawn when deer are more active.
Researchers at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City found that enterovirus D68 hit older kids hardest. CREDIT CYNTHIA PAGE / FLICKR — CREATIVE COMMONS
It turns out that enterovirus D68, which sent about 500 children to Children’s Mercy Hospital last fall and sickened hundreds of others across North America, is no deadlier than other common cold germs.
A study published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) says that while the virus was particularly aggressive and spread quickly, children with EV-D68 didn’t have a greater risk of death than kids who caught other viruses.
EV-D68 can cause difficulty breathing and mimic an asthma attack. Most affected patients will display symptoms of the common cold but some will develop more severe symptoms requiring medical attention.
At its peak about a year ago, Children’s Mercy was seeing 30 patients a day.
The CMAJ study compared 87 kids treated at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Ontario, Canada, with 87 kids who came down with other viruses at around the same time.
Its findings match up with those of Children’s Mercy researchers, who, in a paper published recently in the Journal of Clinical Virology, found that the mortality rate and the length of hospital stays were about the same for groups of kids with EV-D68 and groups of kids with other enteroviruses or rhinoviruses.
However, the Children’s Mercy study also found that children with a history of asthma or recurrent wheezing were more likely to be admitted to the ICU.
Dr. Jennifer E. Schuster of Children’s Mercy Hospital co-authored a paper recently on enterovirus D68. CREDIT CHILDREN’S MERCY HOSPITAL
“Which is not incredibly surprising,” says Dr. Jennifer E. Schuster, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Mercy lead author of the paper. “A lot of these respiratory viruses hit asthmatics the hardest.”
“And interestingly, older children were more likely to be admitted to the ICU, which goes against what we’ve seen in the past,” she says.
Why that’s so, she says, remains a mystery.
Schuster says the median age of kids in Children’s Mercy’s pediatric intensive care unit was 7 compared with 4 ½ for kids not in the PICU.
“Usually, what we’ve seen with other respiratory viruses, it’s infants and occasionally toddlers who require ICU care. But in the EV-D68 kids, it was school-age kids, which is really unusual,” she says.
One other unresolved mystery is the link, if any, between EV-D68 and a mysterious neurologic condition known as acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), which causes a sudden onset of weakness in one or more arms or legs.
Three patients at Children’s Mercy developed the condition between mid-September and October of last year – about the same time the hospital was seeing lots of EV-D68 patients.
“Timewise, there seems there is some sort of link,” Schuster says. “Unfortunately, proving that is much more difficult.”
Dan Margolies is editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An advocacy group has announced plans to try to recall a Sedgwick County commissioner who wants people in the U.S. illegally from participating in a federal nutrition program in Kansas.
The Wichita Eagle reports the Immigration Advocacy Network announced Monday it’ll seek to recall Sedgwick County Commission Chair Richard Ranzau over his positions on health care and immigration. Sandrine Lisk, director of advocacy for the group, says they’ll apply within the week for a petition seeking Ranzau’s recall.
Ranzau sent a letter to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment recently asking that Kansas participants in the the federal food program called, Women, Infants and Children, be limited to “United States citizens, nationals and qualified aliens.”
Ranzau says a potential recall won’t affect his positions on WIC.
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — Officials say 10 of 11 people injured in a car crash in Great Bend that involved a spider have been released from the hospital.
Great Bend Regional Hospital chief operating officer Adina Gregory said Monday that one of the injured people stayed at the hospital overnight and is in stable condition.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Diana Nicole Bell, 17, Claflin, was eastbound on U.S.56 one mile east of Great Bend.
The driver noticed a spider on her lap.
She let go of the steering wheel and started swatting at the spider.
The vehicle crossed the centerline and struck a 2005 Jeep Liberty driven by Felix Perez, 62, Liberal, head on.
The Jeep bounced off and struck a 2005 Dodge Caravan driven by Charleeann Dailing, 33, Satanta, head on which was traveling eastbound on U56.
The debris from the second collision struck a 2010 Chevy Impala.
Bell, Perez, Dailing, and passengers in the Jeep Patricia Roldan-Perez, 56, David Perez, 15, Edith Rivera-Perez, 3, all of Liberal and passengers in the Caravan Jerod William Dailing, 36, Nickerson, Ethan Witthuhn, 9, Julieann Dailing, 3, Tahjay Harrison, 5, Amy Cole, 7, all of Hutchinson were transported to Great Bend Regional Medical Center.
The driver of the Impala and a passenger were not injured.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Officials say a female student was found dead in her room on the Wichita State University campus.
According to university spokesman Joe Kleinsasser, the student was found Monday evening and no foul play is suspected. The student’s identity has not been released pending notification of her family.
Wichita State University’s police department and the Sedgwick County coroner are investigating the student’s death.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are getting closer to finishing their planting of the 2016 winter wheat crop.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that 82 percent of the wheat has now been planted. That is close to average at this point in the season.
Meanwhile, another corn harvest is also nearing its end in Kansas. The agency reported 85 percent of the corn in the state has now been cut, ahead of average.
Soybean harvest has hit the 51 percent mark, while sorghum harvest is 52 percent complete.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has denied an Obama administration request for a quick appeal in a legal challenge House Republicans have brought against the president’s health care law.
U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer ruled last month that the House can pursue its claim that the administration is unconstitutionally spending money Congress has not appropriated for the health law.
On Monday, she denied an administration request to swiftly appeal her ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The administration says it’s using previously approved money. It says the courts should not get involved in a political dispute between the legislative and executive branches.
At stake is $175 billion the government is reimbursing health insurers over a decade to reduce co-payments for lower-income people.
GOVE COUNTY- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 5:30p.m. on Monday in Gove County
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Tahoe driven by Marisa Ellen Johnson, 22, Quinter, was eastbound on County Road CC just west of Castle Rock.
The driver lost control in the sand and entered the north ditch. The vehicle spun 180 degrees and rolled.
Johnson was transported to Gove County Medical Center. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The lawsuit filed by a Wichita mathematician seeking voting machine tapes after finding statistical anomalies in election counts is set to go to trial early next year.
A scheduling order issued Monday sets a one-day bench trial for March 22 to hear the open records case brought by Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson.
Sedgwick County Judge Douglas Roth also set deadlines for motions and scheduled a Jan. 14 pretrial conference.
Clarkson wants the tapes to do a statistical model by checking the error rate on electronic voting machines used at a Sedgwick County voting station during the November 2014 general election.
Top election officials for Kansas and Sedgwick County want the court to block the release of tapes, arguing they are not subject to the open records act.
JEFFERSON COUNTY – Three people were injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Monday in Jefferson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Suzuki SUV driven by Joanne Therese Boschert, 30, McLouth, was northbound on Kansas16 just south of Fairmount Road.
The driver lost control of the SUV. It crossed into oncoming traffic, and hit a southbound 2014 Ford passenger car driven by David Shayne Benton, 37, Azle, TX., head on.
Boschert and a passenger Bailey Boschert, 3, McLouth, were transported to Stormont Vail. They were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
