SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man for alleged criminal threat against two hospital employees.
Garrison photo Saline Co.
Just after 6:30p.m. Sunday, police responded to Salina Regional Health, 400 South Santa Fe, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.
A 28-year-old man in the hospital emergency room had become agitated, was acting in a disorderly manner and allegedly threated to harm two security hospital security guards as he left the hospital. The suspect identified as Christopher Garrison walked south from the hospital and police arrested him in the 600 Block of South Santa Fe, according to Forrester.
He was booked on requested charges of criminal threat and interference with a law enforcement officer, according to Forrester.
SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged theft and have released security camera images of the suspect.
Detectives are asking for help identifying the woman seen taking a tip jar from the Reverie Roasters Café at the Library inside of the Advanced Learning Library 711 West 2nd Street North in Wichita, according to a social media report.
If you can identify this individual call 316-268-4407 or you can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 316-267-2111.
Dr. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, is the First District Kansas Congressman.
Friends,
It seems spring has finally arrived in Kansas and I have enjoyed the opportunity to get back to the district and catch up with folks during our town halls and round-table discussions. Last weekend I met with the leadership team at Seward County Community College to learn how they are developing education programs to meet the workforce needs of western Kansas and held town halls in six different counties in southwest Kansas.
Fort Riley Excellence Award
Fort Riley has always stood as a symbol of excellence and leadership and last week the Army recognized those efforts and awarded Fort Riley the Bronze Medal for the 2019 Army Communities of Excellence Award.
This prestigious award, which recognizes the progress of management across all components within the Army installations including leadership, analysis and knowledge management, workforce and operations, comes on the heels of national recognition for the work being done at Irwin Army Community Hospital at Fort Riley.
I am honored to represent the men and women who serve our country and believe this honor validates the division’s motto of “No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, duty first.”
Brazil to Open Quota for U.S. wheat
Last week, President Trump met with Brazil’s new President, Jair Bolsonaro, to lay the groundwork for a new partnership between our two countries. The leaders made a number of trade-related commitments, including the announcement that Brazil will implement a Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ), allowing for the annual importation of 750 thousand tons of American wheat at a 0% rate.
The agreement for a duty-free TRQ on wheat exports to Brazil is something our wheat farmers have spent over a decade fighting for and I was proud to join them in this fight.
I recently led a letter with a number of my colleagues to Chief Agricultural Negotiator Gregg Doud, a native of the Big First, requesting that the TRQ issue be a top priority for these negotiations, and I was very pleased to see Ambassador Doud and President Trump come through for our producers back home.
KU Republicans
KU College Republicans
It’s always exciting to meet with college students and discuss the future of our country. Last week I had the opportunity to speak with members of the University of Kansas College Republicans, I shared with them my work on bi-partisan legislation to make colleges and technical schools eligible for the USDA’s Community Foods Projects grants that help nonprofits address hunger. We also had good discussions surrounding the students’ hopes for impactful but pragmatic approaches to fixing our broken healthcare system and innovative solutions to clean energy production.
I was impressed with the students’ understanding of the issues and solutions and hopes to make a positive change in their communities.
Harvesters helping Kansas Food Banks
Food banks play an important role in many communities across the Big First and the state. The success of this service is largely due to the volunteers and organizations like Harvesters in Kansas City that supplies these food banks with the resources they need to care for their local families.
Early last week I had the opportunity to tour Harvesters and learn just how many people and volunteer hours it takes to keep the operation going. The facility hosts more than 200 volunteers a day and in 2018 Harvesters provided more than 52.5 million pounds of food to its 26-county distribution area, including pinto beans grown by the farmer-owners of 21 Century Bean in Sharon Springs, Kan.
Our family has a long history of volunteering at our local food bank, and I continue to support food banks across my district as I believe they provide an essential service for our communities.
The Crisis in Venezuela
President Trump has continued his efforts towards the goal of seeing the tyranny of the Maduro regime come to an end, and I want it to be known that I fully support him in these efforts. The good people of Venezuela continue to be oppressed by the Maduro regime in what is well beyond a humanitarian crisis. I send my prayers to those suffering and pledge all the support I can give in congress.
For more on my position on the crisis in Venezuela please see my Op-Ed on the subject.
Passing of Dick Nichols
Last week we mourned the passing of former Congressman Richard “Dick” Nichols. The WWII veteran and fellow Rotarian was a proud husband, father, and grandfather and a mentor to me as I made my way to Congress.
He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving the 5th Congressional District before it was lost following the 1990 census. He returned to banking but continued to guide and support elected officials at all levels.
Our deepest sympathies go out to his family as they mourn the loss of a great man.
Response to the Opioid Crisis
Last week the Department of Health and Human Services released their second installment of State Opioid Response grants. Kansas received $2,112,683 to expand treatment and reduce opioid overdose-related deaths through prevention and recovery initiatives for those suffering from addiction.
This funding will expand access to treatment that has been proven to work by focusing on medication-assisted treatment coupled with appropriate social support. As a nation, we are continuing to tackle this crisis head-on, and we are starting to produce results! That is due primarily to our communities, law enforcement, first responders, and our legislators all working together to address this deadly epidemic.
Dr. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, is the Kansas First District Congressman.
There is a lot of “libel talk” — and filing of mega-million-dollar lawsuits — in the air, and as long as such stays there the people’s ability to openly criticize public officials is safe.
Advocates of free speech, free press and holding government publicly accountable — liberals and conservatives alike — need to keep cautious eyes on new, perhaps coordinated, efforts to chill critics and water down legal protections regarding public comments about officials and famous individuals. In the space of a few weeks:
Justice Clarence Thomas called for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark 1964 decision New York Times Sullivan, which set a high standard for public officials and figures of having to prove “actual malice”— knowing or reckless disregard for the truth — in our speech;
Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has said he will sue Twitter, a political consultant and the anonymous holders of two Twitter accounts for at least $250 million, claiming Twitter has a “political agenda” by allowing the consultant and anonymous accounts — @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow — to remain active. Nunes also claims Twitter has restricted his ability to reply and “amplified” abusive and hateful content aimed at him;
Nicholas Sandmann, a Kentucky high school student, has sued The Washington Post for $250 million and CNN for $275 million over news coverage of a January incident at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where Sandmann and classmates were face-to-face with a man at an Indigenous Peoples March. The lawsuit claims the Post’s news reports were a “modern-day form of McCarthyism” and — given Sandmann was wearing a Trump-themed baseball call — that its coverage was skewed by a “well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Trump” and his supporters. Sandmann’s lawyers also said they sent letters to about 50 media organizations signaling potential legal action against those outlets.
President Trump has called for changes in libel law — mistakenly speaking of a federal law on defamation, which does not exist — to make it easier for politicians to sue news organizations. When Sandmann’s lawsuit was announced, Trump tweeted, “Go get them Nick. Fake News.”
Thomas’ call for revisiting the 9-0 Times decision was not supported by any other justice and most court observers consider it more of a call to action in upcoming years — perhaps when more sharply conservative justices are appointed.
In the Times decision, the Supreme Court held that public debate in a democracy should be “uninhibited, robust and wide-open” on matters of public interest and when public officials are involved — later expanded to include most public figures.
Nunes’ lawsuit isn’t given much chance of success: Opinion, satire and hyperbolic language are protected speech. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects social media sites because they don’t originate speech or information, but merely convey it. Given that hundreds of news outlets carried initial reports of the incident involving Sandmann similar to the Post and CNN, it may be difficult to single out their coverage as biased because of what the lawsuit calls an anti-Trump “agenda.”
As such, many consider Nunes and Sandmann lawsuits as little more than political posturing. But the impact of bringing those lawsuits — and the potential for more like them — ought to concern us all, whether or not the news outlets ever pay a dime on these two complaints.
We must not forget it’s not just news organizations or social media moguls that would be affected — or the White House or Congress more emboldened — by weakening the Times standards, or by legislative action in states.
All of us would be more exposed when criticizing public officials at any level — and there are tens of thousands of local public officials and staffers who might just want to chill, punish or silence the critics and watchdogs in their particular community.
The nation’s founders faced insults and satire far beyond what officials today face. In 2008, a CNN report documented exchanges in the 1800 presidential race: Vice President Thomas Jefferson’s camp accused President John Adams of being a “hideous hermaphroditical character, a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal and a tyrant.” Adams’ backers called Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father” and a “weakling, an atheist, a libertine and a coward.”
From bumper stickers to yard signs to social media posts, we generally can join without fear in the back-and-forth of that “uninhibited, robust and wide-open” exchange envisioned by the high court more than 50 years ago.
The next battles over our freedom to speak, write and post with a critical — sometimes vulgar, even erroneous — manner will take place in the rarified air of our society, and involve the Post, CNN, Congress and perhaps the Supreme Court.
Make no mistake: The impact of chilling or weakening the Times legal protections will reach into every home, every cellphone and every social media post any one of us chooses to make on matters of “public interest.”
Gene Policinski is president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. He can be reached at[email protected], or follow him on Twitter at@genefac
WASHINGTON — Three members of the Kansas congressional delegation have made statements on the report issued Friday from Robert Mueller and his investigation into President Trump’s campaign and collusion with Russia and the additional communication Sunday from Attorney General William Barr.
Special Counsel Mueller concluded there was no collusion and, along with DOJ, determined no obstruction. With this investigation behind us, we must work to address the many issues facing our nation with less division and more cooperation for a better nation and more secure world.
For 2 years we’ve called this investigation out for exactly what it was- a witch hunt. Absolutely no collusion, and the most expensive ‘nothing burger’ I’ve ever seen
page 2U.S. Attorney General’s letter on the Mueller investigation -courtesy U.S. Dpt. of Justice (click to expand)
Kansas Fourth District congressman Ron Estes said, “I have reviewed Attorney General William Barr’s Special Counsel summary to Congress that concludes what many in the United States already know: there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election,” said Rep. Estes.
“After months of calling for the Special Counsel’s protection, Democrats now say his report is insufficient, even after millions of dollars spent for nearly two years, 19 lawyers and 40 FBI agents, more than 2,800 subpoenas, and nearly 500 search warrants. I’m hopeful that with the conclusion of the Special Counsel, our country can come together and move past the bitter partisan divide of the previous presidential election.”
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Kansas Senator Pat Roberts and House members Sharice Davids and Steve Watkins have not released statements on the report.
TOPEKA — The Federal and State Affairs Committee heard passionate testimony from both sides of a controversial issue. Advocates from all over the state came in to discuss their perspectives on a resolution that would effectively ban abortion in Kansas.
Rep. Garber courtesy photo
House Concurrent Resolution 5004 is a proposition to amend Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution to extend the rights of Kansans to include fertilized eggs. This resolution would outlaw abortion with no exceptions.
Resolution sponsor Rep. Randy Garber (R-Sabetha) started Thursday’s testimony for the proponents.
“I believe, with all my heart, that this is the most important bill of this session,” Garber told the committee.
All of the resolution’s sponsors are men, a point brought up by committee member Rep. Brandon Woodard (D-Lenexa).
“You mentioned, in reference to one of your comments, that you trust women. I certainly do as well. I can’t help but notice that your resolution is sponsored by 21 men,” Woodard said. “Was there any discussion with any of your female colleagues about signing off on this bill?”
Garber replied that he had not approached any women in the legislature about the resolution.
The first person to testify in favor of HCR 5004 was Donna Lippoldt. She is the founder of the Culture Shield Network, a non-profit organization based out of Wichita, which, according to its website, works to “inform, connect, and mobilize the Body of Christ as the moral conscience of society.”
Lippoldt argued that abortion is morally wrong.
“We have a Holocaust in Kansas and it’s happening right now,” Lippoldt said. “Kansas legislature said years ago that it was ok to kill little baby boys and girls up until the time of delivery.”
Other testifying proponents were Margaret Mans from Right to Life of Kansas and Bruce Garren, director of Personhood Kansas.
The opponents to the bill included representatives from Planned Parenthood, Trust Women, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and ACLU of Kansas.
In her testimony, Regional Director of Public Policy and Organizing for Planned Parenthood Rachel Sweet argued that HCR 5004 would have tricky legal implications for women who miscarry.
“HCR 5004 opens the door for miscarriages to be investigated as any action a woman takes either knowingly or unknowingly that could harm her pregnancy could put her at risk for prosecution for homicide, manslaughter or reckless endangerment,” Sweet said.
Sweet also noted that in-vitro fertilization would be a grey area of the law, as not all eggs fertilized in the process are implanted in the woman undergoing the procedure.
Julie Burkhart, CEO of Trust Women, which provides abortion services in underserved communities including Wichita, testified next.
“I’m here today to ask an important question,” Burkhart said. “How can a proposal to ‘prohibit the state from discriminating against any class of human beings’ be accurate and truthful if it clearly invades Kansas women’s medical privacy and denies them individual rights?”
If passed in the House and Senate with a two-thirds majority vote, then the amendment will be on the ballot in November 2020.
Kate Mays is a University of Kansas senior from Lenexa majoring in journalism.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election but reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, Attorney General William Barr declared. That brought a hearty claim of vindication from Trump but set the stage for new rounds of political and legal fighting.
page 2U.S. Attorney General’s letter on the Mueller investigation -courtesy U.S. Dpt. of Justice (click to expand)
Trump cheered the Sunday outcome but also laid bare his resentment after two years of investigations that have shadowed his administration. “It’s a shame that our country has had to go through this. To be honest, it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this,” he said.
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Democrats pointed out that Mueller found evidence for and against obstruction and demanded to see his full report. They insisted that even the summary by the president’s attorney general hardly put him in the clear.
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Mueller’s conclusions, summarized by Barr in a four-page letter to Congress, represented a victory for Trump on a key question that has hung over his presidency from the start: Did his campaign work with Russia to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton? That was further good news for the president on top of the Justice Department’s earlier announcement that Mueller had wrapped his investigation without new indictments. The resolution also could deflate the hopes of Democrats in Congress and on the 2020 campaign trail that incriminating findings from Mueller would hobble the president’s agenda and re-election bid.
But while Mueller was categorical in ruling out criminal collusion, he was more circumspect on presidential obstruction of justice. Despite Trump’s claim of total exoneration, Mueller did not draw a conclusion one way or the other on whether he sought to stifle the Russia investigation through his actions including the firing of former FBI director James Comey.
According to Barr’s summary, Mueller set out “evidence on both sides of the question” and stated that “while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Barr, who was nominated by Trump in December, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017 and oversaw much of his work, went further in Trump’s favor.
The attorney general said he and Rosenstein had determined that Mueller’s evidence was insufficient to prove in court that Trump had committed obstruction of justice to hamper the probe. Barr has previously voiced a broad view of presidential powers, and in an unsolicited memo last June he cast doubt on whether the president could have obstructed justice through acts — like firing his FBI director — that he was legally empowered to take.
Barr said their decision was based on the evidence uncovered by Mueller and not affected by Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Mueller’s team examined a series of actions by the president in the last two years to determine if he intended obstruction. Those include his firing of Comey one week before Mueller’s appointment, his public and private haranguing of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation because of his work on the campaign, his request of Comey to end an investigation into Michael Flynn, the White House’s first national security adviser, and his drafting of an incomplete explanation about his oldest son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign.
Mueller’s findings absolve Trump on the question of colluding with Russia but don’t entirely remove the legal threats the president and associates are facing. Federal prosecutors in New York, for instance, are investigating hush-money payments made to two women during the campaign who say they had sex with the president. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, implicated Trump in campaign finance violations when he pleaded guilty last year.
The special counsel’s investigation did not come up empty-handed. It ensnared nearly three dozen people, senior Trump campaign operatives among them. The probe illuminated Russia’s assault on the American political system, painted the Trump campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Democratic emails to hurt Hillary Clinton and exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at covering up their Russia-related contacts.
Thirty-four people, including six Trump aides and advisers, were charged in the investigation. Twenty-five are Russians accused of election interference either through hacking into Democratic accounts or orchestrating a social media campaign to spread disinformation on the internet.
Sunday’s summary — and its suggestion that Mueller may have found evidence in support of obstruction — sets up a fight between Barr and Democrats, who called for the special counsel’s full report to be released and vowed to press on with their own investigations.
“Attorney General Barr’s letter raises as many questions as it answers,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
“Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the special counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report,” they said. Trump’s own claim of complete exoneration “directly contradicts the words of Mr. Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility,” they added.
Trump was at his Florida estate when lawmakers received the report. Barr’s chief of staff called Emmet Flood, the lead White House lawyer on the investigation, to brief him on the findings shortly before he sent it to Congress. Mueller submitted his report to Barr instead of directly to Congress and the public because, unlike independent counsels such as Ken Starr in the case of President Bill Clinton, his investigation operated under the close supervision of the Justice Department.
Barr did not speak with the president, Mueller was not consulted on the letter, and the White House does not have Mueller’s report, according to a Justice Department official.
Though Mueller did not find evidence that anyone associated with the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government, Barr’s summary notes “multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”
That’s a likely reference not only to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting at which Donald Trump. Jr. expected to receive damaging information on Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer, as well as a conversation in London months earlier at which Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos was told Russia had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of thousands of stolen emails.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said Congress needs to hear from Barr about his decision and see “all the underlying evidence.” He said on Twitter, “DOJ owes the public more than just a brief synopsis and decision not to go any further in their work.”
Barr said that Mueller “thoroughly” investigated the question of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia’s election interference, issuing more than 2,800 subpoenas, obtaining nearly 500 search warrants and interviewing 500 witnesses. Trump answered some questions in writing, but refused to be interviewed in person by the Mueller team.
Barr said Mueller also catalogued the president’s actions including “many” that took place in “public view,” a possible nod to Trump’s public attacks on investigators and witnesses.
In the letter, Barr said he concluded that none of Trump’s actions constituted a federal crime that prosecutors could prove in court.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not find evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller also investigated whether Trump obstructed justice but did not come to a definitive answer, Attorney General William Barr said in a letter to Congress summarizing Mueller’s report.
The special counsel “does not exonerate” Trump of obstructing justice, Barr said, and his report “sets out evidence on both sides of the question.”
After consulting with other Justice Department officials, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined the evidence “is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.”
page 2U.S. Attorney General’s letter on the Mueller investigation -courtesy U.S. Dpt. of Justice (click to expand)
Barr released a four-page summary of Mueller’s report Sunday afternoon. Mueller wrapped up his investigation on Friday with no new indictments, bringing to a close a probe that has shadowed Trump for nearly two years.
Barr’s chief of staff called White House counsel Emmet Flood at 3 p.m. Sunday to brief him on the report to Congress. Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, about to return to Washington after spending the weekend there.
Mueller’s investigation ensnared nearly three dozen people, senior Trump campaign operatives among them. The probe illuminated Russia’s assault on the American political system, painted the Trump campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Democratic emails to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton and exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at covering up their Russia-related contacts.
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Mueller submitted his report to Barr instead of directly to Congress and the public because, unlike independent counsels such as Ken Starr in the case of President Bill Clinton, his investigation operated under the close supervision of the Justice Department, which appointed him.
Mueller was assigned to the job in May 2017 by Rosenstein, who oversaw much of his work. Barr and Rosenstein analyzed Mueller’s report on Saturday, laboring to condense it into a summary letter of main conclusions.
GEARY COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 3p.m. Sunday in Geary County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Dodge Ram 2500 driven by Dwight Dean Sharp, 66, Council Grove was northbound on Kansas 177 two miles south of Interstate 70.
The pickup traveled left of center and struck a 2011 Subaru Outback driven by Jacobson, Kayla Marie Jacobson, 31, Alta Vista, head-on.
Jacobson was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Johnson Funeral Home in Junction City. Life Flight transported Sharp to a hospital in Topeka. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas State Fair on Monday announced acts for the Nex-Tech Wireless Grandstand concert series.
According to a media release, a Kansas native will kick off the 10-day event. Successful Nashville songwriter Nicolle Galyon, who hails from Sterling, will grace the grandstand stage Sept. 6. In February, she was honored with a Country Music Association Triple Play Award, which honors songwriters who have achieved three No. 1 hits in a one-year period.
Galyon will open for American radio personality and 2018 “Dancing with the Stars” mirrorball winner Bobby Bones, who will perform with his comedy show Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots.
Meanwhile, longtime country crooner Billy Currington with 11 chart-toppers will perform on Sept. 7.
Contemporary Christian singers Francesca Battistelli and Zach Williams, both with Grammy and Dove awards on their resume, will perform Sept. 11.
The lineup also includes rock band Skillet on Sept. 8 and rising country star Lauren Alaina with Mitchell Tenpenny on Sept. 13.
Tickets go on sale at 8 a.m. Friday, April 5.
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Residents can snag tickets one day earlier on April 4 by signing up for the fair’s email list at www.KansasStateFair.com.
Prices include gate admission if purchased by Aug. 11.
KANSAS CITY – A Kansas City man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in an armed robbery that was part of a three-month-long spree of armed robberies at metropolitan area businesses, according to the United State’s Attorney.
Donald L. Boggess -photo NDC
Donald L. Boggess, also known as “Old School,” 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 11 years and nine months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Boggess to pay $19,796 in restitution, for which he is jointly and severally liable.
On Dec. 19, 2017, Boggess pleaded guilty to the Aug. 30, 2015, armed robbery of a 7-Eleven store at 1701 Independence Ave., Kansas City.
The crime spree, which lasted from July 25 to Oct. 20, 2015, involved 13 armed robberies of businesses in the metropolitan area in which $19,796 was stolen.
Boggess is the fourth and final defendant to be sentenced in this case. Isaac J. Williams, also known as “Dat Flyguy,” 26, of Kansas City, Mo., also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison without parole. Rahnice J. Clay, 25, of Kansas City, Mo., also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison without parole. Deitra M. Turner, also known as “Detrix Mob Turner,” 26, of Kansas City, Mo., also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison without parole.
During the armed robbery of the metroPCS store at 4513 Independence Ave., Kansa City, Mo., on Aug. 18, 2015, metroPCS robbery, Boggess was armed with a silver handgun while Williams stood by the door looking out. When Boggess demanded money, the sales clerk motioned to the cash register and Boggess opened the drawer, took approximately $2,627, and stuffed it into his hooded sweatshirt pocket. While taking the cash from the drawer, Boggess continued to point the handgun at the clerk and another employee. Williams and Boggess then fled the store and got into the getaway car with the Turner and Clay. All four divided and shared in the proceeds from the robbery.
During the armed robbery of the Phillips 66 gas station at 7531 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Mo., on Aug. 21, 2015, Williams and Turner entered the store, while Clay was at the gas pump as the lookout and Boggess remained in the car, as he was the getaway driver. The cashier was in the middle of a transaction with a customer who had just handed her a $100 bill when Williams pushed the customer out of the way and demanded the money in the register. He then pulled out a silver handgun that was wrapped in a t-shirt and pointed it at her. The cashier opened the cash register and took out all of the cash and placed it onto the counter. Williams grabbed the cash, then he and Turner (who was standing by the door as a lookout) left the store. They got into Boggess’s vehicle and Boggess drove away. The money from the robbery was split equally among the four of them.
Clay admitted that, in two robberies, she entered the store prior to the robbery then left the store when there were no other customers. A short time later, Williams and Turner entered the store. Williams, armed with a handgun, demanded money.
During the armed robbery of the metroPCS store at 723 Southwest Blvd., Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 11, 2015, Turner grabbed a blue metroPCS bag from the store to put the money in to. The employee handed over approximately $312. Williams and Turner ordered her to the back to unlock the safe, but she was unable to unlock the safe.
During the armed robbery of the GameStop store at 906 Westport Rd., Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 12, 2015, Turner took one of the employees to the back and collected game systems. The employee stated he handed over approximately $555 and games. Two witnesses outside the GameStop store saw Williams and Turner run to and get into Clay’s red Toyota; Clay, the getaway driver, was already in the car. Williams, Turner, and Clay split the money and video game systems.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Schoolteacher raises of $5,000 are on the table in Texas — a proposed pay hike that ranks among the biggest in the U.S. since a wave of teacher unrest began last year. But protests aren’t why the money is suddenly available.
Texas hasn’t even had a teacher strike. But as in other GOP strongholds this spring, lawmakers who have spent years clashing with public schools by slashing budgets, ratcheting up testing and cheerleading private schools are blinking in the face of election pressure as much as picket lines.
Rattled by a dreadful midterm election for Republicans — and looking ahead to 2020 — conservative-leaning states including Georgia, Oklahoma and South Carolina are pouring new money into schools. And to ensure it doesn’t go unnoticed, Republicans are making a show of a renewed commitment to public classrooms, courting voters turned off by years of cost-cutting that catered to the party’s base.
Nowhere is this political whiplash more on display than in Texas, where just two years ago conservatives pushed heavily for private school vouchers and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students could use. That was followed last November by Republicans losing 14 seats in the Statehouse, their worst election in a generation.
To some, the message was clear. Said Republican state Sen. Kel Seliger, quoting a top GOP official “way up” whom he wouldn’t name: “Urban Texas is now blue. Suburban Texas is purple and it’s rural Texas that is still red. And then what does that mean for the future” of the party?
Seliger added, “You’re not hearing anything about a bathroom bill. You’re not hearing anyone utter the word ‘vouchers’ this session. And I think that’s significant.”
A nationwide teacher revolt that began with walkouts in West Virginia in early 2018 is still kicking. In Kentucky, recurring “sickouts” for teacher protests forced schools to cancel classes, and a six-day teacher strike in Los Angeles ended with a 6 percent pay hike and commitment to smaller classes.
Elsewhere, new worries over elections are moving Republicans to act on their own.
In Oklahoma, the state’s new CEO-turned-governor , Kevin Stitt, made giving teachers another pay boost a key plank of his campaign. He’s pushing ahead with an additional $1,200 pay increase for classroom teachers, a year after several Republican opponents of a pay package were ousted in GOP primaries. In South Carolina, a state budget passed by House lawmakers would give all teachers a 4 percent raise and bump the minimum salary for first-year teachers to $35,000. Teachers there have asked for a 10 percent raise.
Public concern about education is growing, said Pat McFerron, a GOP pollster and strategist in Oklahoma. “In a red state where Republicans are in control, it’s going to fall on Republicans.”
Texas is in the middle of the pack nationally in classroom funding for the state’s 5.5 million public school students, and teacher pay is about $7,000 below the national average. In recent years, conservatives have pushed for directing some funding to students attending private and religious schools.
That talk has now gone silent. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who pushed the “bathroom bill” in 2017, is now calling for $5,000 teacher raises, while House Republicans have called for an extra $9 billion for public schools.
“There’s no doubt about it. When Dan Patrick goes from bathrooms and vouchers to, ‘We need to give every teacher a $5,000 pay raise,’ his pollsters are telling him you took a bath with educators this time around,” said Louis Malfaro, president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. “We’re nine seats off from flipping the House.”
Not all Republicans are running scared: Some GOP lawmakers in West Virginia and Arizona have proposed measures that would effectively punish striking teachers, but those bills have had little support. And while governors in at least 18 states have proposed teacher pay hikes this year, elections are not always the driving factor, said Michael Leachman of the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
For both parties, “you do have a political constituency that supports public schools that reaches deep into the business community, deep into school boards and parent groups,” Leachman said.
Near Austin, Shea Smith brings home about $55,000 in her 10th year teaching in the Del Valle school district. She took a half-day from work to take part in a rally for more funding this month at the Texas Capitol, where some Republican lawmakers stood side-by-side with union leaders.
“I think people are fired up because of the results in November,” Smith said.
By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated PressWICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The day after Thanksgiving in 2009, James Kahler went to the home of his estranged wife’s grandmother, where he shot the two women, along with his two teenage daughters.
Kahler-photo Kan. Dept. of Corrections
No one — not even Kahler’s attorneys — disputes that he killed the four relatives. Instead, his lawyers argue that he was suffering from depression so severe that he experienced extreme emotional disturbance, dissociating him from reality.
What had been an open-and-shut death penalty case — Kahler was convicted and sentenced in 2011 — was upended when the U.S. Supreme Court said this past week that it would consider whether Kansas unconstitutionally abolished his right to use insanity as a defense. A ruling from the nation’s highest court could have far-reaching implications for mentally ill defendants across the nation.
Kansas is one of five states where a traditional insanity defense in which a person must understand the difference between right and wrong before being found guilty of a crime isn’t allowed. Instead, someone can cite “mental disease or defect” as a partial defense but must prove that he didn’t intend to commit the crime. The other states with similar laws are Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Utah.
“A favorable decision in this case would make it clear that the Constitution requires that a defendant be able to understand the difference between right and wrong before being found guilty, and, in cases like Mr. Kahler’s, put to death,” his defense attorney, Meryle Carver-Allmond, said in an email.
Kahler’s lawyers argued in their petition to the Supreme Court that although Kahler knew that he was shooting human beings, his mental state was so disturbed at the time that he was unable to control his actions.
“We’re hopeful that, in taking Mr. Kahler’s case, the United States Supreme Court has indicated a desire to find that the Constitution requires better of us in our treatment of mentally ill defendants,” Carver-Allmond said.
The state argues that it hasn’t abolished the insanity defense, just modified it.
“We think the state’s approach, providing for an insanity defense based on mental disease or defect, satisfies constitutional requirements,” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to defending the statute and arguing our case before the Justices in the fall.”
Kahler was in the middle of a contentious divorce when he went to Dorothy Wight’s home in Burlingame, where his wife, Karen, and three children were spending the Thanksgiving holiday amid contentious divorce proceedings. He found Karen in the kitchen and shot her twice, then shot Wright and his daughter Emily in the living room. He found his daughter Lauren in an upstairs bedroom. His son, Sean, fled to a neighboring house.
Sherrie Baughn, executive director of the Kansas chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said her organization opposes execution of individuals who have a serious mental illness or mental disability when committing a crime.
“I am happy that they are looking at it and reviewing this,” Baughn said of the Supreme Court decision to take up the Kansas case. “Despite constitutional protections, the death penalty is still somewhat applied to people with mental illness or mental disabilities.”
It is unclear how often an insanity defense would be used in Kansas, because the state hasn’t really had one for so many years now, Carver-Allmond said. Without the option, seriously mentally ill defendants are often left to go to trial with little-to-no defense or forced to plead guilty on bad terms.
The last week might have been easier for Gov. Laura Kelly if every staffer and appointee had stuck to sharing cat photos on Twitter instead of political opinions.
The Kansas GOP pounced quickly on her newly formed Democratic administration for the social media transgressions of its people. With divided government in Topeka, GOP leaders won’t miss a chance to point out potential errors.
Partisan tweets prompted the removal of a Kansas Department of Transportation staffer and, in quick succession, the withdrawal of Kelly’s nominee for the Kansas Court of Appeals. The governor’s choice to head the Kansas Department of Commerce also got a verbal lashing from Republicans because of a social media post.
“Let’s be frank. There have been some real missteps here,” Kansas Republican Party Chairman Michael Kuckelman said in an interview. “Had they not been fixed, they have serious consequences.”
The Kelly administration acted swiftly after a tweet was sent Sunday from a KDOT account calling President Donald Trump a “delusional communist.” Within hours, the tweet was taken down and the employee responsible, a media relations specialist in the agency’s south-central district, was fired.
KDOT Secretary Julie Lorenz nonetheless had to answer for it at her confirmation hearing Monday. She’d been out on a run when her chief of staff alerted her to the problem.
“I found that I ran home a little faster than I otherwise would have anticipated,” she said. “It needed to be taken care of and it was.”
Old tweets about the president derailed Kelly’s nomination to fill a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals just days later.
Labette County District Court Judge and former Republican lawmaker Jeffry Jack had posted tweets in 2017 that included profanity, calls for gun control and insults aimed at the president.
“A president who is objectively ignorant, lazy and cowardly,” read one tweet.
That drew condemnation Monday from Senate leaders being asked to confirm the judge, and a day later Kelly herself withdrew the nomination.
“It’s unacceptable for a sitting judge, who must be seen as unbiased and impartial, to post personal political views on social media,” the governor said in a statement Tuesday morning. “It’s clear that despite a thorough review and investigation, this was missed.”
Kelly’s nomination to head the Department of Commerce is still headed for a vote in the full Senate, but without a favorable committee recommendation partially because of his social media history.
image Kansas News Service
Acting Commerce Secretary David Toland is pictured in a post from when he worked for the economic development organization Thrive Allen County. The post made a joking allusion to former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and local Republican Sen. Caryn Tyson as things that kept him up at night.
“Of concern to me,” Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner said at Toland’s confirmation hearing, “is the disparaging representation, particularly of one of our Senate colleagues.”
Toland said it was a prank and apologized.
“It was a juvenile prank, and it shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “I regret that it did.”
He explained the image of him in bed with photos of Brownback and Tyson on the nightstand beside him was posted as a joke by the Thrive Allen staff. Toland was sleeping in a downtown office to raise awareness for a sleep clinic at the local hospital.
Politics were also at play in his grilling, Toland suspected.
He was treasurer for Kelly’s campaign for governor. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that Toland’s policy proposals in Allen County had clashed with business interests of the newly elected vice chair of the Kansas Republican Party, Virginia Crossland-Macha.
“This is Topeka. There are always politics,” Toland said after the first day of his hearing.
Still, Baumgardner and others said Twitter feeds and Facebook profiles should be some of the first items reviewed when considering potential nominees.
“It is 2019,” Baumgardner said. “For us to not start at social media first in the vetting process is not being self-aware of the society that we live in.”
Kelly has asked her judicial nominating committee to review the applicants for the Appeals Court job again, and this time check their social media activity before sending her new names for consideration.
Employees in the administration are subject to the executive branch social media policy and agencies sometimes have additional guidelines.
“Our staff has had numerous conversations about the importance of respectful, responsible social media behavior,” Kelly spokesperson Ashley All said.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter@kprkoranda.