WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Court records say a man charged with helping his girlfriend fatally stab her ex-stepfather told Wichita police that the couple was seeking revenge because of past sexual abuse.
Micaela Spencer photo Sedgwick Co.Royce Thomas has previous convictions for violation of offender registration from a previous sex crime in Colorado, according to the KBI offender registry
An affidavit was unsealed Tuesday in the case against 24-year-old Micaela Spencer and 25-year-old Royce Thomas. They are charged with first-degree-murder and several other felonies in last month’s meth-fueled killing of 50-year-old William Callison.
Police began investigating after Callison’s boss, who owns an auto-dealership, saw the couple driving Callison’s truck out of a storage facility. It was pulling the boss’ trailer and was loaded with a $150,000 classic car.
Police tracked the truck to a camper, where they eventually found Callison’s body. Spencer said the plan initially was to get money from Callison in exchange for sex.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — McDonald’s has started a transatlantic barbecue feud with the introduction of a Kansas City-themed hamburger in the U.K.
Outgoing Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Sly James said Tuesday that the fast-food chain should “stay in your lane” in a tweet that included a picture of what he says a “real” burger looks like. Kansas City is known for its style of dry-rubbed, slow-cooked meats drizzled in tomato-molasses sauce.
He responded after McDonald’s proclaimed “Yeehaw” as it introduce d its “Kansas City Stack” in a tweet. Other twitter users rushed to join the mocking. Barbecue powerhouse Q39 kidded “Yeehaw, mate!” while Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que retweeted a scathing critique of the burger and added a laughing tears and thinking faces emoji.
SALINA — The number of victims in the fraudulent use of Sunflower Bank accounts case has risen to 124, Salina Police Detective Sergeant David Villanueva said Wednesday.
Villanueva also confirmed that police now do not believe the malware message shared with local media on Tuesday is responsible for the loss of funds from the Sunflower customers’ accounts. He explained that the message, which apparently appears on computers that have a specific software plug-in, was seen by two Salina Police Department employees only and that none of the 124 victims had seen or clicked on the message.
Sunflower Bank issued the following statement on Tuesday, “We take our security, and the security of our customers very seriously. Upon learning of these reports, we immediately reviewed our security protocols to confirm the issue was not present in our environment. We actively monitor our environment 24/7 to ensure security protocols remain effective. The message that was shared appears to be from pdfmaker-live and is not associated with Sunflower Bank or its websites.”
Villanueva said that as of yet, there does not appear to be a common point of compromise on the accounts. He explained that the victims were asked where they last used their cards before the breach. Some had used ATMs while others had not, he said. ATMs that were used were all over the city and were not just those belonging to Sunflower, Villanueva said.
According to Villanueva, the majority of fraudulent transactions appears to be for cash. He said that locations where fraudulent transactions occurred include the following cities along or near Interstate 135 and Interstate 35.
Newton
Burrton
Wichita
Andover
Norman, Okla
Springer, Okla.
Ardmore, Okla.
Denton, Texas
Houston, Texas
Additionally, several transactions have occurred in the Kansas City area, Villanueva said.
Villanueva encouraged people to regularly check their accounts for improper charges. If suspicious activity is detected or if people have information about this case, they are encouraged to contact Tim Brown, who is the Salina Police Department’s lead detective on the case.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge Wednesday to make it easier to protest inside the Kansas Statehouse, as some members of the Republican-controlled Legislature worry that liberal demonstrators have become increasingly disruptive.
One KSU student, Jonathan Thomas Cole, posted a video to the Post Facebook page of security staff removing the banners
An ACLU lawsuit challenges rules that require groups to obtain a legislative sponsor and an event permit for Statehouse demonstrations, and that prohibit hand-held signs and banners. The lawsuit also challenges the Capitol Police’s authority to ban people from the building for violating the rules.
The ACLU filed its lawsuit after a March 27 protest in which protesters seeking an expansion of Medicaid eligibility hung huge banners inside the Statehouse rotunda. Capitol Police briefly detained three Kansas State University students who hung banners and told them they were banned from the building for a year. The ban was lifted the next day.
The state agreed to back off its enforcement of the rules in May, before the Legislature adjourned for the year, but the ACLU wants U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter to block their enforcement while its lawsuit goes forward. One of the students, Jonathan Cole, testified that he found his encounter with police “terrifying” and is wary of protesting inside the building because of the restrictions.
“I would need my government’s permission, in essence, to protest at the Statehouse,” Cole testified.
The Kansas attorney general’s office is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the rules are not as restrictive as the ACLU portrays them. Assistant Attorney General Arthur Chalmers even argued during the hearing that the rules apply to organized events, disagreeing with the ACLU that they also apply to demonstrations involving only a few people.
“This case is a series of straw men,” Chalmers argued.
But Cole and Davis Hammet, a voting-rights advocate and veteran of numerous rallies for liberal causes, testified that they’ve been told demonstrators must have a permit. And Tom Day, the Legislature’s director of administrative services, said hand-held signs would be confiscated under the rules.
Day defended the restrictions, saying they allowed officials to know what groups are in the building and what they plan, in part for safety reasons.
“We need to make sure everyone in the building is safe, including 4-year-old Johnny who is there for a tour,” Day testified.
The court hearing came three weeks after a May 29 demonstration in the Senate gallery in favor of Medicaid expansion shut down the chamber temporarily. It was a protest against top Senate Republicans, who blocked a votethis year after the House approved an expansion plan backed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
“It escalated with the banners,” Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Kansas City-area Republican, said last week. “They’re agitators and they want you to engage either verbally or physically.”
There have been no physical confrontations between protesters and lawmakers.
The March 27 protest for Medicaid expansion was followed by a May 3 demonstration in which about 15 protesters dropped thousands of leaflets depicting blood-stained, overdue hospital bills.
In the May 29 protest, a Unitarian minister stood in the gallery, chanting and signing and drowning out an unrelated Senate debate. Aides to Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, attempted to clear the floor, and a Capitol police officer even directed reporters who were recording the protest to leave — prompting letters of protest.
Even some Medicaid expansion supporters have expressed misgivings about the some of the protest tactics they’re seeing.
“Sitting in the gallery, holding signs, or chanting in the rotunda, that’s fine,” said House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat and expansion supporter. “When they’re chanting to the point where a session can’t take place, I think that does cross a line.”
The ACLU contends that the power granted to the state to deny permits or ban people from the building is too unfettered, and that enforcement could depend on the demonstrators’ cause. The state rejects that idea, but the ACLU noted in court that some enforcement policies are unwritten.
“I’m sure we wouldn’t have been here if they (the banners) had said, ‘I love Susan Wagle,'” testified Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat.
SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas woman arrested for making false accusations about her daughter’s father that prompted a search for him on Father’s Day is scheduled for court Wednesday afternoon, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office.
Ronetta Ann Clement-photo Sedgwick County
Ronetta Ann Clement, 34, Wichita, alleged that her child’s father had placed the couple’s 2-year-old child in danger, according to Wichita Police Captain Brent Allred.
Clement told police Sunday that the father was refusing to return custody of the child and that he made homicidal and suicidal statements, according to Allred. Based on the information an attempt to locate was placed for the man and the child so police could check their welfare and further investigate what had actually occurred.
Detectives and officers worked overnight Sunday and through the day Monday to locate them. Late Monday afternoon following a second interview with Clement, detectives learned information that contradicted what she told police Sunday, according to Allred.
On Monday evening, police were able to locate the child with her grandmother and check her welfare and she appeared to be fine.
Wichita Public Schools is considering adding explicit protections for transgender students and staff this year.
Public speakers told the district’s school board on Monday that they want to see the nondiscrimination policy updated to include gender identity as a protected class. Some were activists; others were moms.
Transgender students shared their own stories of discrimination.
Transgender Wichita middle school teacher Kendall Hawkins has advocated for better protections for transgender students in the district. STEPHAN BISAHA
High school student Alec Strouse said being required to change in the women’s locker room had a severe impact on his mental health.
“I was severely bullied in there,” Strouse told the board. “Multiple times I did stay home because I was afraid of the comments that I got.”
If Wichita does add gender identity to its policy, it will join several school districts across the state that have done the same this year. Manhattan added the protections in May; Olathe made the changes in March.
De Soto did so three days earlier. Students from two of De Soto’s high schools asked the board to update its policy.
Transgender teens are three times more likely to attempt suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than a third are bullied.
Topeka Public Schools board member Peg McCarthy thinks growing youth suicide numbers — and the increasing support for transgender rights — is causing districts to add more protections for those students.
“We know that transgender students in particular are one of our must vulnerable groups,” said McCarthy, who is also a psychologist working with transgender patients.
Topeka Public Schools has included transgender students in its nondiscrimination policy for about a decade.
Not all school districts have moved toward transgender rights. Derby Public Schools allowed transgender students to use the bathroom that fit their gender identity, but reversed that policy in 2017.
The Kansas Association of School Boards advises against districts updating their policy to include specific language protecting transgender students. It thinks those students are already included in federal Title IX protections, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex by education programs receiving federal funding.
Wichita Public Schools board member Ben Blankley said that updating the policy is needed to make a clear statement of support for transgender students and staff.
“To implement it at the local level seems to be the strongest statement we can make,” Blankley said. “These kids do exist. These kids do matter.”
Wichita’s superintendent Alicia Thompson will put together a report on the district’s nondiscrimination policy. The board will use that as a starting point for any discussion about adding new language.
District middle school teacher Kendall Hawkins said she’s been talking to the board for months about the issue. Hawkins said she hasn’t been discriminated against as a transgender employee working at Mead Middle School.
But she said students in her school’s gender and sexuality alliance organization told her they have been. One of the most common problems is staff referring to transgender students by the wrong names or pronoun.
Hawkins said the district is behind on supporting transgender students.
“Our students are the ones paying the price for it,” Hawkins said. “We’re seeing issues with attendance and academic progress those students are having.”
During Wichita’s board of education meeting, some speakers opposed changing the policy. Out of the 10 public commenters, three said they are afraid of students being indoctrinated.
“Jesus loves them,” Wichita resident Jeanne Garrelts told the board, referring to transgender students. “But he does have standards of right and wrong.”
The Cheyenne, Rawlins, Sherman County Emergency Management department experienced connectivity issues affecting their phone system, internet, and cellphones in St. Francis office, according to a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon.
“We are on emergency back up basis with somewhat limited capability, and the local dispatch center/911 is also operational for emergencies,” the post said.
The problem that created the outage is being worked on, and the department asked for patience as repairs are underway.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — A Kansas teen who rescued a boy from raging flood water in May will be recognized as a hero.
Flooding photo courtesy city of Park City
Just before 3p.m. May 26, police responded to report of a submersion at Hap McLean Park in Park City, according to police Witnesses said a 12-year-old boy had ridden his bicycle around the closed gate at the low water bridge, near the park’s entrance at Hydraulic.
The rapid and deep water swept the boy away from his bicycle and down the swollen creek. Geffrey Lopez, 16, saw what happened, and ran to an overhanging limb some 100 yards downstream.
He was able to grab onto the boy and pull him from the water. EMS checked the boy and released him to a parent at the scene.
On June 25, the Park City Mayor and Police Chief will recognize his bravery at a city council meeting
GRUNDY COUNTY, MO— Friends have established an online fundraiser to assist a Trenton, Missouri police officer who was shot June 14 during a struggle over her gun while transporting a prisoner to St. Joseph.
Twenty-four-year-old officer Jasmine Diab is a single mother to a 5-year-old, according to the fundraiser. She remains hospitalized in stable condition, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Daviess County prosecutors charged the inmate identified as 38-year-old Jamey Griffin with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and shooting a weapon at or from a vehicle, according to online jail records.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are now investigating the suspicious death of a Kansas man and have identified the victim.
Crime scene tape in the yard of the home photo by Grant Stephens courtesy WIBW TV
Just before 10a.m. Monday, police were dispatched to a residence in the 700 block of SW Wayne in Topeka in reference to the discovery of the body of a man in the house, according to Lt. Andrew Beightel.
Officers located the body identified as 36-year-old John K. Waller and he was pronounced dead by medical personnel.
There were several suspicious circumstances witnessed by the responding officers so, the residence was secured and crime scene officers and detectives investigated the scene.
Through evidence found at the crime scene and information from the coroner’s office, police are investigating this crime as a homicide
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State’s new center for student-athletes is one step closer to reality.
Breaking ground on the new Student-Athlete Success Center photo courtesy Wichita State Athletics
The school held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for its $13.8 million Student-Athlete Success Center close to where it will be constructed near Koch Arena.
The 36,000-square-foot, two-level center will include a 2,500-square-foot study hall, tutoring rooms and a large computer center.
The university’s track and field program will also have a dedicated space in the facility. The team is housed in Cessna Stadium, which athletes say has mice in the showers and rundown conditions in locker rooms and team rooms.
Currently, all student-athletes at Wichita State share the same academic center and weightlifting room and the areas are often overwhelmed by demand.
The new center is expected to be completed by July 2020.
MANHATTAN — Law enforcement authorities are investigating for attempted murder after an altercation in Manhattan.
Just after 6:30 a.m., Tuesday, police responded to a residence in southwest Manhattan, for a report of a past domestic altercation, according to Captain Josh Kyle.
A 38-year-old woman at the home told police that she was physically assaulted by a domestic partner.
After conducting an investigation, police arrested 39-year-old Shawn Henderson of Manhattan, on requested charges of Attempted 2nd Degree Murder (Intentional), according to the Riley County Police Department arrest report. He remains in custody on a bond of $250,000.
The woman was transported to a local hospital for treatment, according to Kyle.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ tax collections have beaten expectations nearly every month for the past two years and the state expects to end June with close to $1 billion in cash reserves, but the budget problems that followed a former governor’s notorious tax-cutting experiment aren’t necessarily a thing of the past.
Governor Laura Kelly at the Paris Air Show on Monday- photo courtesy office of Kan. Governor
The steep income tax cuts that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback championed to try to stimulate the Kansas economy contributed to persistent and severe budget shortfalls that caused some GOP legislators to rebel and gave the state’s new Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, a potent issue to successfully campaign on last year.
Seeking to keep the budget stable since taking office in January, Kelly twice thwarted efforts by the Republican-controlled Legislature this year to reduce taxes. However, problems have arisen on the spending side of the state’s ledger: The budget that lawmakers eventually approved this year was relatively generous, leaving it unclear how far into the future the new spending can be sustained.
Projections from the Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff show that spending will outpace revenue under the budget covering the fiscal year that begins in July. The researchers predict that the same will be true in following years, making future budget shortfalls inevitable unless lawmakers raise taxes or pull back on spending. The most optimistic scenario has at least a small shortfall developing in 2023.
“The trend is certainly negative,” said state Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Kansas City-area Republican. “Gov. Kelly will have one more year of easy budgeting, but her third year as governor, we will find out just out how deep her leadership skills are.”
The budget outlook didn’t stop Denning and other top Republican lawmakers from pushing for tax cuts this year. They argued that it’s unfair for some businesses and individuals to automatically pay more in state income taxes because of the changes to the federal tax code at the end of 2017. But even as the extra burden hit taxpayers this spring, the prospects of future budget problems undercut their efforts.
Kelly and other Democrats invoked Brownback’s tax experiment, in which the state slashed income taxes in 2012 and 2013. Big budget shortfalls prompted lawmakers to raise the state’s sales tax, divert funds from highway projects, reduce contributions to public pensions and tighten spending on social services, all while facing multiple court orders to boost spending on public schools.
Voters came to view the experiment as a failure, and bipartisan supermajorities repealed most of the tax cuts in 2017 over Brownback’s veto.
The history helped Kelly politically when she vetoed Republican leaders’ more modest tax bills, keeping a few GOP moderates in her fold to prevent her actions from being overridden.
However, the researchers’ projections are dampening state officials’ relief over Friday’s Kansas Supreme Court rulingthat state public school spending will be sufficient under a new education funding law. They could also hurt Kelly’s push to win passage next year of a plan to expand Medicaidcoverage for up to 150,000 more adults and efforts to increase spending on prisons, higher education and social services, which all received significant increases this year.
The most optimistic projection assumes that unanticipated tax collections this year will continue into the future even as spending outpaces revenue by at least $200 million every year, leaving the state with a $153 million shortfall for 2023. Under a more pessimistic revenue scenario, the state would see a shortfall of nearly $100 million in 2022.
Kelly has chastised GOP leaders for pursuing tax relief and rejecting her plans to give the state more budget breathing room by revising payments to the state’s public pension system.
She said during a recent interview that spending increases this year were warranted to repair a state government harmed by Brownback’s tax experiment, adding, “There is still a lot of work to do.”
“We might not have the amount of revenue that we need to pay our bills in 2023,” Kelly said. “I wanted to have the cash on hand to ride us through that storm if that storm comes our way.”
Top Republican lawmakers defended their push for tax relief this year, saying they wanted to move quickly enough so that the state wouldn’t start collecting its “windfall” this spring.
“Tax policy is one of things you look at as you look at trying to figure out how to make your economy grow and thrive,” said Senate budget committee Chairwoman Carolyn McGinn, a Wichita-area Republican.
The state’s tax collections have exceeded expectations in 23 of the 24 months since Brownback’s tax cuts were reversed. Tax collections were $158 million ahead of expectations through May and, for the budget year that ends this month, are on pace to grow by nearly 6.4 percent. Cash reserves, meanwhile, are projected to hit $978 million by the end of the month.
The Department of Revenue doubts that the tax collection surplus will be ongoing. State officials and economists also believe that the national economy will slow down in 2020 or 2021, said Steve Stotts, the department’s taxation director.
“A recession is on the horizon sometime,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Troy Waymaster, a Republican from western Kansas. “We don’t know how bad it could be.”
