By NOMIN UJIYEDIIN

Bills on drug sentencing, probation and marijuana possession stalled in the Kansas Legislature this year. Instead, lawmakers continue to consider appointing a task force to address the criminal justice system as a whole.

A bill introduced late last month would create the Kansas Criminal Justice Reform Commission, a panel of lawmakers, law enforcement officers, legal experts, judges, lawyers, advocates, clergy and mental health providers and others.

State Rep. Russ Jennings, Republican chair of the House corrections committee, said most laws pertaining to criminal justice address only one issue at a time, rather than looking at the system as a whole. He wants the commission to address criminal justice as a system, rather than as a set of individual issues.

“The commission would be able to take it really in-depth,” he said, “not just single pieces of the system one at a time, but rather a comprehensive review of our system.”

The commission would review criminal sentencing, probation, parole, data systems and drug and job training programs for people who commit crimes. The group will also assess diversion programs intended to keep people out of prison.

The state’s prison system of more than 10,000 adult inmates is currently more than 100 people over its capacity. It’s struggled to hire corrections officers, health care workers and other staff.

Rep. John Carmichael of Wichita, a Democratic member of the House corrections committee, said a major goal is to reduce the number of incarcerated people in Kansas.

“In a global scale, which people do we need to incarcerate for the public safety?” Carmichael said. “And which people can we better treat and deal outside of the state penal system?”

A number of bills introduced and debated this session intended to do just that.

Some measures would have reduced the state’s prison population by hundreds, according to the Kansas Sentencing Commission, which has warned lawmakers about rising population projections. But the bills didn’t get a hearing in committee or didn’t meet the Legislature’s deadline for a floor vote — meaning the ideas are unlikely to advance this year:

• Striking down felony possession of marijuana, estimated to reduce the state’s prison population by at least 92 in a year
• Letting people on probation potentially get time off their sentences in exchange for good behavior, estimated to reduce the prison population by at least 121 in a year

• No longer requiring people convicted of drug crimes to register in a state database, estimated to reduce the prison population by at least 54 in a year

The bill creating the criminal justice commission remains on the table, awaiting discussion in the House Committee on Appropriations.

Lauren Bonds, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said she was disappointed that many of the bills didn’t make it through.

“We’re missing opportunities here,” Bonds said. “That being said, we’ve seen success of commissions and task forces in the past.”

Bonds said she was optimistic about the people appointed to the commission, and its potential to change the state’s criminal justice system on many levels, including probation, diversion, mental health and prisons.

“It’s a kind of a tacit admission that the problem is big and it’s pervasive,” she said. “We’re messing up and we’re not providing people with realistic opportunities to avoid prison.”

Nomin Ujiyediin is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @NominUJ.

INDEPENDENCE, Kan. (AP) — Charging documents say a Kansas sheriff who’s charged with two misdemeanors tried to interfere in the drunken driving arrest of his then-girlfriend.

The affidavit released Thursday in the interference and witness intimidation case against Montgomery County Sheriff Robert Dierks says the woman was stopped in January 2018 after dispatch received a report that she was driving recklessly. She then called the sheriff, who said he would pick her up.

Before he got there, the deputy headed to jail with the woman. The affidavit says Dierks called and asked if he could make the deputy change his mind and then asked the deputy not to attend the woman’s court hearing. Dierks told investigators the woman broke up with him for not helping her get out of the DUI.

Dierks’ attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Hutchinson man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Friday afternoon in a Reno County courtroom.

Judge Tim Chambers handed down the life sentence for 35-year-old Quinton Moore.

Moore was convicted of shooting 42-year-old Clarence D. Allen multiple times in his head and neck while he slept in his bed at a residence at 1701 E. 30th in Hutchinson.

Under his Miranda rights, Moore admitted to the shooting. Moore had been Allen’s on-again-off-again roommate.

Under the sentence, Moore won’t be eligible for parole for 51 ½ years.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and asking for help to identify two suspects.

Just after 9:15 p.m. Thursday, police responded to an armed robbery call at Dollar Tree in the 4800 block of east Lincoln in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A 56-year-old female employee told police two unknown suspects entered the business. One of the suspects pulled out a handgun and demanded money. The suspects took cash and fled the business on foot.

The first suspect is described as an unknown black male in his 40’s, 6-foot tall, average build, wearing a black puffy coat and blue jeans, and armed with black handgun.

The second suspect is described as an unknown black male in his 40’s, 6-foot tall, average build, wearing a dark blue hoodie and light colored pants.

There were no injuries in this case.

If you recognize these individuals or have any additional information on this case please call Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111 or WPD Detectives at 316-268-4407.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued the first veto of his presidency on Friday, overruling Congress to protect his emergency declaration for border wall funding.

pic.twitter.com/tEgQFkcMs1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2019

Flanked by law enforcement officials as well as the parents of children killed by people in the country illegally, Trump maintained that he is not through fighting for his signature campaign promise, which stands largely unfulfilled 18 months before voters decide whether to grant him another term.

VETO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019

Trump said: “It is a tremendous national emergency,” adding, “our immigration system is stretched beyond the breaking point.”

A dozen defecting Republicans joined Senate Democrats in approving the joint resolution on Thursday, which capped a week of confrontation with the White House as both parties in Congress strained to exert their power in new ways. It is unlikely that Congress will have the two-thirds majority required to override Trump’s veto, though House Democrats have suggested they would try nonetheless.

Trump wants to use the emergency order to divert billions of federal dollars earmarked for defense spending toward the southern border wall. It still faces several legal challenges in federal court.

Trump is expected to issue his second veto in the coming weeks over a congressional resolution seeking to end U.S. backing for the Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting in Yemen. The resolution was approved in the aftermath of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

STANTON COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities including the Kansas Bureau of Investigation are working together on a death investigation in the rural southwest Kansas community of Johnson City in Stanton County.

Just before 2 p.m. Thursday, the Stanton County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call requesting an ambulance for a man who was suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a media release from the KBI.

WICHITA, Kan. — On March 7, President John Bardo was in an ambulance to his family’s home, following a visit to the Wesley Medical Center emergency room. The ambulance driver asked if there was anything he could do for him.

Bardo said yes, he hadn’t been to campus in three months, so please drive around WSU. The driver said Bardo wouldn’t be able to see anything from the back of the vehicle.

Undeterred, Bardo said it would be satisfaction enough for him to know he’d been to campus.

In that spirit, the president’s procession will drive through campus early Monday afternoon, on the way from his private funeral services to his burial. The procession, expected between 12:30-1:30 p.m., will include University Police vehicles and a vehicle carrying First Lady Deborah Bardo and members of the family. The motorcade will pause at least five times while passing through campus. The stops are noted on this interactive map.

Provost and Acting President Rick Muma said it is at the discretion of faculty if they want to dismiss classes to view the funeral procession.

The motorcade will enter and exit campus from 17th Street as a salute to Bardo’s interest in the Fairmount neighborhood south of 17th, and his joy in the realization of the Experiential Engineering Building, which opened in January 2017, launching a wave of construction.

The procession will move north through Innovation Campus and then circle around and through the traditional campus, pausing briefly near Marcus Welcome Center, Wiedemann Hall, the 1970 Memorial, NIAR and the Rhatigan Student Center. The stop along Yale Walkway will be between the RSC and Neff Hall. The Bardos met in Neff Hall in 1974 and married in 1975.

A celebration of Bardo’s life will be announced later this spring.

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on burglary charges after an arrest inside the Salina Public Library.

Just after 9:30p.m. Thursday, police were notified by a monitoring company that a motion alarm had been set off in the library, 301 W. Elm Street, according to Salina Police Captain Gary Hanus.

Officers searched the building and located Elissa R. Quijas, 29, of Salina, inside the building and in possession of library property.  A library employee who was called to the scene confirmed that the items belonged to the library including an Amazon Kindle, a DVD, four books, Salina Public Library book bags.

Quijas had concealed herself inside the library as staff were shutting the library down at 9 p.m., according to Hanus. After her arrest,  Quijas gave multiple names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers as officers attempted to identify her.

She is being held on requested charges of burglary, felony interference with a law enforcement officer, and attempted theft, according to Hanus.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Attorney General’s office says it executed a search warrant at a southeast Kansas hospital that closed last month.

The search warrant was executed in February at Oswego Community Hospital, about a week after the hospital and two other medical facilities in Labette County closed.

C.J. Grover, spokesman attorney general Derek Schmidt, confirmed the search warrant but declined to comment further.

On Tuesday, the Horton Community Hospital in Brown County also closed. Grover said the attorney general’s office also is investigating that hospital.

The hospitals were once run by EmpowerHMS, which has had several hospitals close across the country.

FAIRWAY, Kan. (AP) — Court records indicate a 26-year-old man who was shot by police near a Kansas elementary school said he wanted officers to kill him.

The records say Dylan Christopher Ruffin was charged after he shot at Highlands Elementary School during the school day on March 1.

Police say three officers shot at Ruffin when he pointed a handgun at them outside his home, which was across from the school in suburban Kansas City. He was treated at a hospital and is jailed in Johnson County.

Court records say at the hospital, Ruffin talked about having police kill him and said he wished they had shot him in the head.

Students were being released from the school when the shooting occurred. No students, parents or school employees were injured.

Ruffin is jailed on $500,000 bond.

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas helped advance Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan to boost funding for public schools Thursday before sending her an income tax relief bill that could make it harder for the state to sustain the new spending.

The GOP-controlled Senate voted 32-8 to approve Kelly’s proposed education funding increase of roughly $90 million a year, sending the plan to the House. Top Republican senators backed the plan as the most straight-forward fix, putting them at odds with conservatives who want new money tied to policy changes , including a voucher program to allow bullied students to move to new schools, public or private.

Kelly’s plan is designed to satisfy a Kansas Supreme Court order last year requiring legislators to increase the state’s education funding, currently at more than $4 billion a year. Attorneys for four local school districts that sued the state in 2010 are pressing for a larger increase and Democrats who voted as a bloc for Kelly’s plan Thursday had supported the districts. Top Republicans argue that even Kelly’s plan would be a financial stretch.

But the Senate also approved, on a 24-16 vote, a bill pushed by GOP leaders and aimed at preventing individuals and businesses from paying higher state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017. Republicans said the issue is fairness, while Democrats excoriated the bill as a budget buster, particularly after senators approved more money for public schools.

“How you turn around and vote for this thing, I don’t understand,” said Sen. Tom Holland, a Baldwin City Democrat. “It doesn’t add up.”

The tax measure is headed to Kelly because the House approved it last week. She and other Democrats have said the bill would repeat the failed fiscal policies of her Republican predecessors.

Kelly stopped short Thursday night of saying she would veto the measure but said it would create a “self-inflicted budget crisis.” Neither chamber passed the bill with the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

“Our recovery is tenuous; our budget is fragile,” Kelly said in a statement. “This is not the time to make significant changes to our tax code.”

Republican leaders see no contradiction in considering Kelly’s school funding plan and the tax relief bill at the same time. GOP lawmakers argue the tax bill heads off an unlegislated tax hike that would occur otherwise because the state and federal tax codes are tied. They also argue that tax relief will stimulate the economy.

“I hope we have a strong economy for a long time so we can afford the school funding bill,” Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, said before the chamber’s debates.

Wagle and other Republicans contend the income tax measures would merely keep Kansas from getting a “windfall” in revenues it isn’t collecting now.

“This bill keeps companies, individuals and families in business, and a vote against this bill is a vote for a tax increase,” Wagle said during her chamber’s debate.

Kelly’s administration sees the potential revenue picture differently, projecting that the state would give up $209 million during the budget year beginning in July.

Much of the tax savings are going to large businesses with operations outside the U.S. The bill also would provide relief to taxpayers who have claimed itemized deductions on their state returns in the past but no longer can because of federal changes discouraging itemizing on federal returns.

Before approving the bill, the House married its Senate-approved income tax measures to a cut in the state’s sales tax on groceries to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent. Kelly pledged during her successful campaign for governor last year to lower the tax on groceries.

Still, legislators in both parties expect Kelly to veto the bill after she repeatedly urged them to hold off on considering tax proposals and focus instead on quickly meeting the court mandate on schools.

The state Supreme Court has ruled six times since 2013 that legislators weren’t fulfilling their duty under the Kansas Constitution to provide a suitable education for every child. A 2018 law phased in a $548 million increase in education funding by the 2022-23 school year, but the court ruled that it didn’t adequately account for inflation.

GOP conservatives remain frustrated with the continued demands from the Supreme Court and the school districts suing the state for more money.

“It’s ‘Peanuts,’ Charlie Brown. Every time you go to kick the ball, Lucy pulls it away,” said Sen. Ty Masterson, a conservative Andover Republican, referring to the classic comic strip. “I can see the lawyers laughing at us all the way to the bank.”

___

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas helped advance Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan to boost funding for public schools Thursday before sending her an income tax relief bill that could make it harder for the state to sustain the new spending.

The GOP-controlled Senate voted 32-8 to approve Kelly’s proposed education funding increase of roughly $90 million a year, sending the plan to the House. Top Republican senators backed the plan as the most straight-forward fix, putting them at odds with conservatives who want new money tied to policy changes , including a voucher program to allow bullied students to move to new schools, public or private.

Kelly’s plan is designed to satisfy a Kansas Supreme Court order last year requiring legislators to increase the state’s education funding, currently at more than $4 billion a year. Attorneys for four local school districts that sued the state in 2010 are pressing for a larger increase and Democrats who voted as a bloc for Kelly’s plan Thursday had supported them. Top Republicans argue that even Kelly’s plan would be a financial stretch.

But the Senate also approved, 24-16, a bill pushed by GOP leaders and aimed at preventing individuals and businesses from paying higher state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017. The measure is headed to Kelly, who has said the bill repeats the failed fiscal policies under her Republican predecessors.

“We’re excited that they’re actually talking about school finance — that’s good,” said Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers, a former Democratic state senator. “It’ll be difficult to balance the budget and repair the damage of the last years with the tax bill.”

Republican leaders see no contradiction in considering Kelly’s school funding plan and the tax relief bill at the same time. GOP lawmakers argue the tax bill heads off an unlegislated tax hike that would occur otherwise because the state and federal tax codes are tied. They also argue that tax relief will stimulate the economy.

“I hope we have a strong economy for a long time so we can afford the school funding bill,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, adding that the tax bill “keeps Kansas business-friendly.”

The House approved the tax bill last week after marrying its Senate-approved income tax measures to a cut in the state’s sales tax on groceries to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent.

Wagle and other Republicans contend the income tax measures would merely keep Kansas from getting a “windfall” in revenues it isn’t collecting now. Kelly’s administration sees it differently, projecting that the state would give up $209 million during the budget year beginning in July, with much of the tax savings going to large businesses with operations outside the U.S.

Legislators in both parties expect Kelly to reject the bill. She has said repeatedly that legislators should “let the dust settle” on tax policy and focus on meeting the court mandate on schools.

The Supreme Court has ruled six times since 2013 that legislators weren’t fulfilling their duty under the Kansas Constitution to provide a suitable education for every child. A 2018 law phased in a $548 million increase in education funding by the 2022-23 school year, but the court ruled that it didn’t adequately account for inflation.

HUTCHINSON — Authorities are working to determine the cause of a large fire at Foundation of Life Church in Hutchinson early Friday

Update. Fire is running through void spaces in building. 3 aerial ladders in operations plus many hand lines in operation. Press briefing at 5 o’clock by command post on 1 st street. pic.twitter.com/UGzA5br27m

— Hutchinson Fire Dept (@Hutchinson_Fire) March 15, 2019

Just after 11:45p.m. Thursday, fire crews responded to 134 East Sherman after report of a fire at Foundation of Life Ministries Church in Hutchinson after an alert Hutchinson police officer on patrol reported the blaze, according to Fire Chief Steve Beer.

First arriving crews found heavy fire showing from the second floor of the church. The fire quickly spread despite aggressive interior tactics by firefighters.

 Extensive damage has occurred in two buildings. A third building owned by Electrex was threatened during the height of the incident but due to extensive efforts of fire fighters only minor damage occurred. 

The fire department operated 8 engines and 3 ladder trucks with 40 fire fighters. At the height of the fire, approximately 7000 gallons of water per minute was being utilized to fight the fire in order to contain it to the building of origin. Hutchinson was assisted with a ladder truck from McPherson and an engine from South Hutchinson. Reno County Fire District #3 and Pretty Prairie Fire provided engines to cover the City as all on duty fire fighters were working the fire. 

Crews continued to soak down numerous hot spots early Friday and will continue to be on scene throughout the day.

Notification has been made to the State Fire Marshal’s office and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms as standard protocol for church fires. 

Many streets are closed in the area. Please do not come into the area as pedestrian traffic. Multiple fire units continue to work. Poplar Street is closed from 1st Avenue to Avenue A, 1st Avenue is closed from Poplar Street to Walnut Street, Walnut Street is closed from 1st Avenue to Sherman Avenue, and Sherman Avenue is closed from Main Street to Poplar Street.

Hutchinson Fire Department was assisted by Fire District #3, McPherson Fire, Pretty Prairie Fire, South Hutchinson Fire, McPherson Fire, Reno County EMS, Hutchison Police Department, Reno County Emergency Management, Hutchinson Street Department, Hutchinson Water Department, Hutchinson Central Garage, Kansas Gas Service, Westar, Salvation Army, and Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office

———————

HUTCHINSON — Authorities are working to determine the cause of a large fire at Foundation of Life Church in Hutchinson early Friday.

Crews from multiple agencies responded to the fire just before midnight at 134 East Sherman Street, according to a social media report from the Hutchinson Fire Department. There are no injuries reported.

Update: all crews working. Heavy fire still showing. pic.twitter.com/A7JzZOAAXW

— Hutchinson Fire Dept (@Hutchinson_Fire) March 15, 2019

The Kansas Fire Marshal’s office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive swill begin their investigation later Friday.