SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of a man found in the street in Wichita.
First responders at the scene late Monday photo courtesy KWCH
Just after 9p.m. Monday, police responded to an injury accident at Central and Maize in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
Upon arrival, officers located 36-year-old Chad Lee of Wichita in the roadway unresponsive. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.
Investigators determined that Lee was a front seat passenger in a southbound Ford Fusion driven by his 32-year-old wife.
An argument occurred in the vehicle. It appears Lee willfully jumped from the car as it was traveling at approximately 35 miles per hour, according to Davidson. His wife call 911.
SALINE COUNTY — A dog died during a house fire Monday afternoon in the rural Saline County community of Brookville.
Firefighters responded to a house fire in Brookville Monday afternoon. Photo courtesy Saline County Sheriff’s Office
Just after 2p.m. Monday, a neighbor noticed smoke coming from a house at 210 West Anderson Street and called 911, according to Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander.
Saline County Rural Fire District No. 3 responded.
The owners of the house, Brian and Sharon Florke, had recently moved to rural New Cambria and were in the process of moving the rest of their belongings from the house.
The couple’s dog, Gizmo, remained in the house and died of smoke inhalation, according to Melander.
Firefighters attempted to locate Gizmo, but were only able to find the dog in a back bedroom after it was too late.
The fire appeared to have started near an electrical box with old wiring. Smoke and fire damage to the house was estimated at $30,000.
JUNCTION CITY — Racial concerns worked their way into the Geary USD 475 Board of Education work session Monday evening. Board members are angry at what was characterized as race-based behavior toward Junction City High School students. They have approved a motion condemning the actions, while USD 475 administrators are conducting an investigation and having conversations with administrators in USD 383.
The topic was first brought to light at the school board meeting by Board member Jim Schmidt.
“Both during and after the (Oct. 10) Junction City-Manhattan football game there were some very unfortunate events that some of our students had to endure,” he said. “I know that it would behoove us as a board and a district to condemn those activities so that our students know that we support them.”
Schmidt continued: “I know we’re not innocent of this within our own community because there have been some things in the past that have occurred. But if we can’t get our act together then I just think it’s time that Junction City and Manhattan take a break. This is absolutely ridiculous. Those things should not occur in this day and age, and apparently it also occurred on the playing field.”
Schmidt said he talked to staff and community members on this subject.
“When they feel that they have to cover up their JC Blue Jay emblem so that they can get through the parking lot … really? That’ s the day we live in, that’s where we are right now. And the things that were being chanted in the parking lot to our fans and to our cheerleaders and to our staff members, I condemn it, publicly I condemn it. And I hope Manhattan steps up and does the same thing. Shame on them if they don’t.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Reginald Eggleston said at the end of the game when people were leaving the field “there was a space between the fence where they were walking through and getting to the bus where our cheerleaders had some inappropriate comments made to them. Same thing happened from my understanding in the crowd as individuals were leaving, some comments were made that were inappropriate as well. ” Eggleston added those were by individuals, community and maybe even students.
Eggleston noted that administrators at Junction City High School have been in contact with their counterparts at Manhattan High School and have been working and talking with them about steps to mitigate this type of behavior as they move forward in the future.
“Additionally there were some comments that were made, alleged, that a referee may have stated to a student. That has also been reported,” he said.
Eggleston confirmed this is what USD 475 leaders have been told and has been brought to their attention by students but it was not heard by district administrators. Schmidt commented however that the cheerleading coaching staff did all ” they could to get our cheerleaders onto the bus and out of the environment.”
USD 475 Board of Education President Rina Neal said it’s alleged.
“The thing is we condemn those type of acts. We don’t tolerate that type of behavior, those conversations, those negative racist comments. So, yes, they’re doing an investigation but we still condemn it. Hopefully, Manhattan will come forth and say they condemn it as well. But it is not appropriate for us as a board to just ignore that it happened because it did happen and we were made aware of it. ”
Neal noted this was race-based. “There’s ways to curtail some of this, and come to the table, and come up with solutions. But it needs to be condemned.”
Neal continued: “Times have changed and these things are more prevalent than they have ever been before. There’s a comfort level and I don’t want to get into politics, but there’s a comfort level for people doing things like that, and it just needs to be condemned, and it shouldn’t be tolerated and our students shouldn’t be subjected to that, our fans shouldn’t be subjected to that, and our players shouldn’t be subjected to that either.”
Eggleston suggested the next time the school board meets it can go into executive session where there can be more details and the issue can be discussed.
“Of course we don’t want to throw our good name and character, throw anybody, especially when everything’s alleged at this present moment and I would prefer us to have that conversation then.”
Eggleston added he would be talking to his counterpart in Manhattan this week.
The Board of Education then voted via voice vote to condemn the alleged actions that occurred at the Junction City-Manhattan football game on Oct. 11.
JC Post will contact Manhattan USD 383 officials for their response.
ELLSWORTH COUNTY — Two people were injured in an accident just after 4 p.m. Monday in Ellsworth County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica driven by Debra L. Coe, 65, Kanopolis, was southbound on K111 just south of Avenue I.
The vehicle traveled off the right side of the roadway and come to rest upright in a creek bed.
EMS transported Coe and a passenger Gary S. Coe, 65, Kanopolis, to the hospital in Ellsworth. Both were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
AMC’s headquarters near 115th Street and Nall Avenue in Leawood. photo by DAN MARGOLIES
A former top official of Leawood-based American Multi-Cinema Inc. says she was fired after she pointed out disparities between her pay and that of her male counterparts.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Tonya Mangels, who was vice president-product marketing before her termination on Sept. 30, says male vice presidents at AMC were paid between 56% and 72% more than she was and received bigger stock grants. The pay difference amounted to between $117,000 and $149,000, according to her complaint.
AMC, the biggest multiplex chain in the world, operates theaters in 15 countries. The company reported $5.5 billion in revenue in 2018 and $110 million in net earnings.
Mangels, who worked at AMC for 10 years and was promoted to vice president in 2013, says she managed the company’s second largest budget and counted the second highest number of employees on her team.
And although her complaint alleges she was consistently rated one of AMC’s highest-performing executives in annual reviews, her requests to have her compensation raised to the level of her male colleagues were ignored, she alleges.
As a result of her complaints, Mangels says, she received a “does not meet expectations” review for 2018. Her superior “acknowledged that her performance was ‘superior,’ but he explained that he needed to ‘send a message’ to (Plaintiff),” Mangels’ complaint says.
In May, Mangels filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That, she said, led AMC to falsely accuse her of providing advance knowledge to her team about impending job cuts at AMC – part of the company’s “continuing effort to generate a pretextual basis for terminating Plaintiff,” according to the complaint.
After a failed mediation session, she was fired on Sept. 30, supposedly because she tipped off her team about the impending reduction in force.
Mangels was not available for comment. Her attorney, Chad Beaver, said she “looks forward to the opportunity to share her story, but she does not plan to comment further at this time beyond what is already alleged” in the lawsuit.
AMC officials did not return calls and an email seeking comment on Mangels’ lawsuit.
Mangels is seeking back and front pay, as well as punitive damages, for unlawful discrimination and retaliation under the Equal Pay Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
A similar complaint was filed in December 2016 in Georgia by a female marketing executive, Crystal Trawick, at Carmike Cinemas, which AMC acquired at the end of 2016.
Last month, a jury awarded Trawick $67,118 for lost pay and $1 million in punitive damages. The jury found that Carmike had paid her less than a similarly situated male employee and that her sex was a “motivating factor” in the determination of her compensation.
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — A man arrested September 28, in connection with a violent stabbing attack on a woman in Wichita made a court appearance Monday.
Dunn photo Sedgwick Co.
According to the Sedgwick County Attorney’s office Wade Dunn, 30, was formally charged with attempted first degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm.
In federal court, Dunn has been charged with one count of escape from custody. A criminal complaint filed in federal court alleges Dunn escaped from the Mirror, Inc., Residential Re-entry Center in Wichita prior to the stabbing.
On Sept. 23, Dunn left the halfway house on a pass at 9:30 a.m. and failed to return at 5:30 p.m. that day.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, of Overland Park CREDIT CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A Republican leader spearheading an effort to pass a GOP plan for expanding Medicaid in Kansas has drafted a proposal that is likely to upset conservatives because it would increase tobacco taxes and does not include a work requirement for program participants.
The proposal from Kansas Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning also differs significantly from an expansion plan backed by Gov. Laura Kelly and fellow Democrats. It contains provisions designed to keep some working-class Kansans in private health plans, rather than having them receive state Medicaid coverage, as plans favored by Democrats would.
The plan outlined by Denning, a Kansas City-area Republican, is designed not only to expand the state’s $3.8 billion-a-year Medicaid program but lower premiums paid by Kansas consumers who buy their insurance through an online federal marketplace set up under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act. New tobacco tax dollars would be used for that purpose.
Denning and other top Republican senators blocked a Medicaid expansion plan favored by Kelly earlier this year, arguing that it could prove too costly to the state and that lawmakers needed to take more time to get the details right. Kelly made expanding Medicaid to as many as 150,000 more Kansas residents a key promise in her successful campaign for governor last year.
The proposal from Denning would increase the state’s cigarette tax by $1 per pack, to $2.29, and increase its tax on 5 cents-per milliliter tax on vaping products, though he hasn’t yet specified an amount. He provided details of his plan during an Associated Press interview in his hometown of Overland Park, and a Senate committee plans to review them Tuesday and Wednesday at the Statehouse.
“Our simple goal is to give as many Kansans health care coverage as we can, in the Medicaid market and the non-Medicaid market,” he said.
Under Denning’s plan, the state would ask Medicaid participants whether they are employed and, if they are not, what issues, such as a lack of a high school diploma or the need to care for young children, keep them from working, so the state can address them. But it’s not a requirement that Medicaid participants be employed or undergo job training.
Kelly and many backers of Medicaid expansion argue that a work requirement would be expensive to administer and would only to keep people from receiving coverage. A federal judge in Washington has blocked work requirements in Arkansas, Kentucky and New Hampshire.
But some Republicans, particularly conservatives, see a work requirement as crucial.
“A Republican plan pretty much has to have a strong work requirement,” said House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican. “If you really want to give people a hand up and not a handout, you get them to where they’re self-sufficient, to where they can support themselves instead of being on government assistance.”
Hawkins also said he believes a tax increase is a “non-starter.”
Medicaid covers about 342,000 low-income, elderly and disabled Kansas residents, but non-disabled adults without children don’t qualify, and adults with children must have incomes well below the poverty level to be eligible for coverage.
Three dozen states have expanded Medicaid or seen voters approve ballot initiatives for expansion. The Affordable Care Act encouraged expansion by promising states that the federal government would pick up the bulk of the extra cost, 90% for Kansas. The idea has bipartisan support in Kansas, but conservative GOP leaders have blocked it.
Expansion backers have proposed extending Medicaid coverage to Kansas residents earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $29,435 for a family of three.
“I think that we should try to cover as many uninsured people as we possibly can,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat.
Denning’s plan would allow such an expansion but would first require the state to ask the federal government for permission to try a different approach for residents whose incomes are above the federal poverty level, or $21,330 for a family of three. Denning wants to use tobacco-tax revenues for a program that would push down premiums on the online marketplace, so that the coverage is more affordable.
WICHITA, KAN. – A contract mail truck driver for the U.S. Postal Service pleaded guilty Monday to stealing money from the mail, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
David A. Logan, 50, Fort Scott, Kan., pleaded guilty to two counts of mail theft. In his plea, he admitted stealing money from pieces of mail on his route. In one count, he admitted stealing two pieces of mail containing $50 and $675. In the other count, he admitted stealing three pieces of mail containing $100, $130 and $70. The crimes occurred in Chanute, Kan.
Sentencing is set for Jan. 13. He could face a penalty of up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on each count. McAllister commended the U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Metzger for their work on the case.
RENO COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities have identified three people who died in an accident just after 11:30a.m. Sunday in Reno County
First responders on the scene of the fatal Reno County Crash photo courtesy KAKE
The crash involved two pickups that collided head-on in the 3400 Block of South Yoder Road, according the Reno County Sheriff’s Department.
James L. Paige, 59, Haven, was the sole occupant of his vehicle. Bruce C Gottwald, 61, Richmond Virginia and 65-year old Michael K. Burnett of Lynchburg Virginia were in the other vehicle.
Firefighters with the Hutchinson Fire Department had to extricate all three victims due the extensive damage to the vehicles.
Authorities have released no additional details
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RENO COUNTY — Three people died in an accident just after 11:30a.m. Sunday in Reno County.
The crash involved two pickups that collided head-on in the 3400 Block of South Yoder Road, according the Reno County Sheriff’s Department.
Firefighters with the Hutchinson Fire Department had to extricate all three victims due the extensive damage to the vehicles.
Kansas Highway Patrol chart team responded to the scene for the accident diagram.
The sheriff’s department has not released the names of the deceased. The accident remains under investigation.
SALINE COUNTY — A dog died during a house fire Monday afternoon in the rural Saline County community of Brookville.
Firefighters responded to a house fire in Brookville Monday afternoon. Photo courtesy Saline County Sheriff’s Office
Just after 2p.m. Monday, a neighbor noticed smoke coming from a house at 210 West Anderson Street and called 911, according to Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander.
Saline County Rural Fire District No. 3 responded.
The owners of the house, Brian and Sharon Florke, had recently moved to rural New Cambria and were in the process of moving the rest of their belongings from the house.
The couple’s dog, Gizmo, remained in the house and died of smoke inhalation, according to Melander.
Firefighters attempted to locate Gizmo, but were only able to find the dog in a back bedroom after it was too late.
The fire appeared to have started near an electrical box with old wiring. Smoke and fire damage to the house was estimated at $30,000.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A trucker working for a Kansas freight brokerage was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for stealing a load of meat valued at more than $160,000, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.
Gegham Avetisyan, 37, Valley Village, Calif., pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
Avetisyan contracted with a trucking freight brokerage business in Olathe to deliver a load of meat to three locations in California. He faxed documents to the company in which he used the name Robert Ivanov. He picked up the meat at a packing plant in Omaha, but never delivered it.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal crash and have made an arrest.
Eric Turner photo Sedgwick County
Just before 1a.m. Saturday, police arrested 21-year-old Eric Lane Turner, Jr. in connection with a fatal July 5 crash, according to officer Kevin Wheeler.
On Saturday Turner was the passenger of a vehicle that was stopped by officers for a traffic violation.
Officers determined Turner had outstanding warrants. Two of which were Sedgwick County Warrants. Turner was charged by the Sedgwick County DA’s office in September for a fatal accident on July 5, in the 2600 block of East Mossman, according to Wheeler.
Turner was identified as the driver of a silver Pontiac G6 that struck two unoccupied parked vehicles. A passenger in the Pontiac identified as Leon Turner, 21, Wichita, was critically injured and later died from his injuries. Police have not released information on the relationship between the two men.
FINNEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities and officials with USD 457 are investigating an alleged school threat and have made an arrest.
Just after 1:30p.m. Monday, police were called to Kenneth Henderson Middle School, 2406 Flemming in Garden City, for report of a student making a threat to school students and staff, according to Sgt. Lana Urteaga.
During the investigation, police learned several students at the school had come forward to school administration stating they heard another student comment about, “shooting up the school.”
A 7th grade student admitted to making the comments. USD 457 suspended the student and police will file a report with the Finney County Attorney requesting charges of criminal threat, according to Urteaga.
