KANSAS CITY (AP) — A state panel has ruled that the Kansas City Chiefs owe $930,000 in back tax plus interest on the decade-old Arrowhead Renovation.
At issue was the team’s argument that it didn’t owe taxes on hundreds of items it bought to outfit the new Arrowhead. The Administrative Hearing Commission disagreed in its ruling Tuesday.
The case stems from a 2014 audit in which the Missouri Department of Revenue challenged sales tax exemptions on $23 million in purchases. The state auditor found that items such as leotards for cheerleaders and weight-lifting equipment didn’t fall under the public purpose of fixing up the stadium.
The Chiefs’ lead attorney says the team will likely appeal. The Missouri Department of Revenue has previously said it won’t comment on pending litigation.
RENO COUNTY — Authorities are reporting the third fire this week caused by careless discarding of ashes.
Wednesday night fire photo courtesy Hutchinson Fire Dept.
Just before 8:30p.m. Wednesday, fire crews responded to 420 East Park Street in Hutchinson for a report of a structure fire, according to Fire Chief Steven Beer.
Upon arrival, crews found a single-story residential home with heavy fire and smoke pushing from the attic of the structure.
Fire crews performed an aggressive interior attack to keep the fire from spreading. Fire crews were able to contain the fire to the area of origin; however, extensive, smoke and heat damage was noted throughout the attic area. No one was home at the time of the fire. The fire was called into the dispatch center by an alert neighbor.
The Hutchinson Fire Department wants to remind the community that proper installation, venting, and clearances are required for wood burning devices.
This is the third fire in two days that was caused by wood embers or careless discarding of ashes. Fire crews will be canvassing the neighborhood with fire safety material.
The cause of the fire is being ruled as an improper vent pipe on a wood stove.
NEW YORK (AP) — A former Oklahoma State assistant basketball coach pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking bribes from business advisers to steer them to star college athletes expected to turn pro.
Evans -photo courtesy Oklahoma State Athletics
Lamont Evans, 41, entered the plea in New York federal court to conspiring to commit bribery. He admitted receiving $22,000 to steer the players at the University of South Carolina and Oklahoma State University to certain financial advisers and business managers, attorney Johnny McCray said.
Evans also agreed to forfeit the bribe money he received from two financial advisers as part of the deal he signed Thursday.
“I now know that accepting those funds in exchange for introducing them to any one player was wrong and violated the law,” he said.
Evans graduated with a degree in social science from K-State in 2009. He worked with the Wildcat basketball program as a Student Assistant from 2008-09, a Graduate Manager from 2009-2011, and an Assistant Coach 2011-12, according to his OSU bio.
Sentencing was set for May 10 on a charge that carries the potential for up to five years in prison, though a plea agreement between Evans and prosecutors recommends no more than two years behind bars.
Judge Edgardo Ramos also warned that he could be deported because he is a citizen of Barbados, though he lives in Florida. He was a resident of Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the time of his arrest.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement that Evans abused his position as a mentor and coach for personal gain.
“A scheme Evans apparently thought was a slam-dunk actually proved to be a flagrant foul,” he said.
“He accepted responsibility for what happened. He will be making a vigorous appeal for the lowest sentence possible,” attorney Johnny McCray said.
Evans is the third former NCAA assistant coach to plead guilty in the case. The prosecution has revealed how well-connected mentors sometimes paid family members of top-tier athletes to steer the NBA-destined youngsters to schools or managers.
In recent weeks, similar pleas have been entered by former University of Southern California assistant basketball coach Tony Bland and ex-University of Arizona assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson. Both are awaiting sentencing. Former Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person is scheduled for trial in June.
“These guys are scapegoats,” McCray said. “The bigger name coaches were not touched here. It’s really sad.”
He added: “I think this is overkill. They could have used the sanctions available within the NCAA, which has the ability to permanently bar a coach from coaching.”
When arrests were made in September 2017, prosecutors said Evans committed his crime in 2016 and 2017 when he accepted the bribes from a New Jersey-based financial adviser and another person cooperating with the investigators and posing as a business adviser to athletes.
They said Evans then falsely touted the services of the men to young athletes and their families, boasting falsely that the man cooperating with law enforcement was “my guy” and “has helped me personally.”
RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bank robbery and are working to identify an individual who may have details on the crime.
photos courtesy RCPD
Just before 4p.m. Tuesday, police responded to United Bank and Trust in the 2000 Block of Tuttle Creek Boulevard after report of the bank robbery.
On Thursday, the Riley County Police Department released a photo of someone who may have information on the robbery. If anyone recognizes this person they should contact the Riley County Police Department at (785) 537-2112
PAWNEE COUNTY — A Pawnee County jury Wednesday took twenty minutes to find a Kansas man guilty of aggravated sexual battery for an incident that took place in 2018, according to a media release from Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett.
McFarland -photo Pawnee Co.
According to testimony during the one-day trial, on May 3, 2018, 65-year-old Russell McFarland followed a 19-year-old female staff member into a staff-only area of Larned State Hospital, forced her into a corner and tried to kiss her on the lips.
The staff member was able to get free once another patient on the unit intervened. At the time, the McFarland was a patient in the sexual predator treatment program. Additional testimony was presented that other patients on the unit were aware of McFarland’s intense infatuation of the staff member and were keeping an eye out for her once they saw her on the unit that day.
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for March 18. McFarland was returned to the custody of Larned State Hospital pending sentencing.
Depending on his criminal history, McFarland faces between 31 and 136 months in the custody of the Department of Corrections, according to McNett.
David Norlin is Chairman of the Salina Planning Commission, former President of Salina Access TV, and a former College Director of Broadcasting and English Department Chair. He has twice run for Kansas State Office.By DAVID NORLIN
Let’s stop sighing and size it up.
The totally unnecessary cruelty and arbitrary punishments brought down like fire on the heads of our public workers give us a message: It could happen to us, if we get in the way of the Master Money-Maker—and Taker.
Those with money, get money (and power). Those who don’t, don’t. And when they do, and we don’t, here’s what happens:
Transportation Security Administration workers, who determine the safety of your flight, aren’t paid. Feel safe?
After blaming California Forest Management for not stopping wildfires, the Master stops their funding. No funding during vital planning time means they are not prepared. He writes off California.
Prison workers, including corrections officers, case managers, and secretaries can’t afford to pick up their Walgreen prescriptions, have to sleep on a cot overnight, because they can’t afford gas to get home, and don’t know where their next meal will come from—yet face the daily challenges of guarding inmates. The Master doesn’t care. Just release the prisoners, right?
Courthouses seriously consider closing. Says one Judge, “If in fact the buildings can’t stay open, we literally will have judges at their kitchen tables with a laptop computer, camera on top, looking at a defendant sitting at a U.S. marshals’ holding cell somewhere, conducting these hearings.” One contracted public defender calls it a betrayal of public servants, who already sacrifice, working for less than the private sector. “It feels like we’re on the front lines trying to fight a battle while our own forces are shooting us in the back.” The Master doesn’t care. After all, who needs a fair, just legal system?
IRS workers get their food from the local Catholic food bank, and battle serious depression. What’s their job? Collecting rightfully owed taxes necessary to sustain the nation—yet they aren’t paid to do their job. The Master and his fellow tax-dodgers grin. IRS won’t be fully functional for a year.
One of our primary national security concerns is cyber-security. (Not THE WALL.) At the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, normally 3,500 people are on the job. Under the shutdown, only around 2,000 man the breaches.
Threats more visible locally are Farm Services offices, the threat to WIC (women/infant/child) grants, air traffic controllers—the list goes on. Workers stand in 30-degree weather to get food.
Some “Independent Kansans” cheer the Masters on. Forgotten are the Billion or two we get back in excess of our Federal tax annual contributions. On top of that (because of our legislators), we have lost $3 Billion in Federal Medicaid dollars, paying for 90% of care for needy Kansans. But the Masters don’t care.
And the whole SNAFU may start again February 15, right after Valentine’s Day.
Even though it should be crystal clear that we, the people, are losers in this situation, some will no doubt appear on this site supporting our Clueless Commander and encouraging him to crash the ship of state onto the rocks yet again.
They are joined by our alleged Representatives Jerry Moran, Pat Roberts, and Roger Marshall. Only this morning, Moran and Marshall bleated their support for Trump’s irrational wall-at-any-cost.
One word describes a system where people are forced to work without pay, where one man (white, wealthy, non-working) calls the shots and no one objects, where the entire structure seems to rely on bullying and intimidation, where few available exits exist, where all human resourcefulness has been exhausted, and the atmosphere is so despair-laden that few think they can fight back.
What word? Slavery. (Or, your choice, Dictatorship.)
David Norlin is past Chairman of the Salina Planning Commission, former President of Salina Access TV, and an occasional Salina Journal columnist. He is a retired College English Department Chair and Director of Broadcasting. He has twice run for the Kansas Legislature.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a mother has been arrested after going to a Lawrence bar and leaving her two toddlers in a vehicle parked outside on a dangerously cold night.
Police responded around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday to a report that a customer was trying to get back into the bar after she was kicked out. Staff told police that the woman had been at the bar while her 2- and 3-year-old children stayed unattended in the vehicle as temperatures were in the single digits amid a polarvortex.
Officer Derrick Smith says the woman left before police arrived, but officers stopped her vehicle. He says the children weren’t hurt, although they were left “without heat for a substantial amount of time.” The woman has been booked into jail on suspicion of child endangerment and drunken driving.
ROSE HILL, Kan. (AP) — Federal health inspectors are investigating after a 38-year-old Sedgwick County man died when a trailer backed over him.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office said 38-year-old Stephen Farmer, of Sedgwick County, died early Wednesday in Rose Hill.
Emergency crews found Farmer on the ground behind a truck, which had a flatbed trailer carrying a piece of loading equipment.
The sheriff’s office says a man driving the truck was turning around in a parking lot when the trailer hit Farmer. He fell and the right tires of the trailer ran over him. He died at the scene.
Detectives determined the death was an accident and no charges are being pursued.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent investigators to the scene.
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 31-year-old Dodge City man has been found guilty of first-degree murder in a 2015 shooting death.
Fraire -photo Ford Co. Sheriff
Julio Fraire was convicted Tuesday after a five-day trial. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Ramiro Nicolas Bernal was shot to death on July 25, 2015 in the parking lot of the Dodge City Daily Globe .
Fraire was arrested and charged in October 2016. Besides the murder charge, Fraire also was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon by a felon.
The newspaper’s parking lot was being used as overflow parking for a concert Bernal attended.
Prosecutors say Fraire shot Bernal six times before fleeing the scene.
A sentencing date has not been scheduled. Fraire has previous convictions for Burglary and Aggravated Assault, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of making calls to the office of Operation Rescue in which he threatened to injure employees and their families, according to the United States Attorney.
Christopher M. Thompson, 22, Wichita, is charged with four counts of making threats to injure a person. The crimes are alleged to have occurred Aug. 14, 2018, in Wichita, Kan.
The indictment alleges Thompson made calls threatening to kill Operation Rescue employees and rape their daughters.
If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on each count. The FBI and the Wichita Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan McCarty is prosecuting.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and have released security camera images of the suspect.
Photos courtesy Topeka Police
Just before 9:30p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to a robbery at a convenience store 1414 SW 17th Street in Topeka, according to Lt. Manuel Munoz.
The clerk told police a skinny white male in his mid-20s, wearing a black hoodie, black stocking cap and a blue bandana covering his face came in and demanded money. The suspect was armed with a handgun and was last seen running north between the businesses with an undisclosed amount of money.
Police are attempting to identify the suspect in the the security camera images released Wednesday morning. Anyone with details on the crime are asked to contact police.
SEDGWICK COUNTY—— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a second deputy-involved shooting this week in Wichita.
Sanford -photo Sedgwick County
Over the past two weeks through Intelligence Led Policing, deputies have identified a ring of people committing burglaries according to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter.
On Tuesday night, a deputy was observing a location where these individuals have been living or seen, according to Easter. A white Ford F250 which had been seen at the location before came into the area. The deputy observed the driver of the vehicle commit a traffic violation.
Just after 11:22 p.m., a Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to stop the truck for a traffic violation near the intersection of Hydraulic and Scott. The vehicle did not stop, and the deputy advised he was in pursuit of the vehicle.
Police on the scene of the deputy shooting investigation-image courtesy KWCH
At 11:31p.m., the suspect vehicle ran over a tire deflation device at the intersection of Hydraulic and Clark. The tire deflation device was deployed by an officer of the Wichita Police Department.
The tire deflation was successful on two of the vehicle’s four tires.
At 11:32p.m. another Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Deputy performed a TVI (Tactical Vehicle Intervention), tactic in an attempt to end the pursuit. The TVI brought the pursuit to a temporary stop. However, the suspect drove the opposite direction, according to Easter.
A deputy performed a second TVI tactic to stop the suspect but he continued to flee.
At 11:33p.m., the suspect vehicle drove towards a deputy who was on foot.
At 11:34p.m., another Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Deputy performed a TVI tactic to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was stopped and a deputy positioned his patrol vehicle directly in front of the suspect’s vehicle. The suspect vehicle proceeded to reverse direction and crashed into another deputy’s occupied patrol vehicle that had taken a position behind him. After the suspect vehicle crashed into the patrol vehicle, it continued to attempt to flee.
In an effort to prevent the suspect from continuing to use deadly force, the deputy fired five shots at truck’s windshield.
The suspect identified as 35-year-old Jeremy E. Sanford was taken into custody and was transported to a local hospital for treatment of wounds to his head and shoulder, according to Easter.
Illicit drugs were a factor in this pursuit based upon evidence gathered at the scene.
No injuries were reported by any of the deputies involved. The deputy who fired the shots is 43-years-old and has been a patrol deputy with the sheriff’s office for 10 ½ years. He has a total of 19-years of law enforcement experience.
Sanford has been booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on requested charges of Driving While Suspended, Aggravated Battery LEO intent with motor vehicle, Aggravated Battery LEO, Reckless Driving, Flee and Elude and a Warrant for Fail to Appear.
Sanford has previous convictions felony flee and attempt to elude law enforcement, driving at maximum speeds and aggravated battery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
KU Hospital and the other plaintiffs say the reductions will cost hospitals $380 million in 2019 and $760 million in 2020. FILE PHOTO
The University of Kansas Hospital is one of 38 hospitals across the country challenging a rule cutting Medicare rates for outpatient hospital sites to match the lower rates paid to physicians’ offices.
Under the rule, which took effect Jan. 1, Medicare will pay the same rates for medical services regardless of whether they’re provided in a physician’s office or in a hospital department that’s off the main campus of the hospital.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Washington, D.C., the hospitals claim the rule is unfair because medical services provided in hospital outpatient departments are far more resource-intensive, and therefore more costly, than those provided in independent physicians’ offices. The suit names Alex Azar II in his capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The rule comes after Congress enacted a site-neutral payment policy in 2015. But Congress specifically made an exception for off-campus outpatient hospital departments that were providing services before Congress made the change. The hospitals say Azar didn’t think the change went far enough and overrode the protection Congress intended to provide them.
The rule “is irrational,” the hospitals allege in their lawsuit, “a patent misconstruction” of the law and “a blatant attempt to circumvent the will of Congress …” It says the reductions will cost hospitals $380 million in 2019 and $760 million in 2020, according to Azar’s forecast of the rule’s effect.
“Even prior to this rate cut, plaintiffs were under significant financial strain from steadily increasing costs in the healthcare marketplace and reimbursement cuts from the government and private insurers alike,” the hospitals allege.
The lawsuit mirrors one filed against Azar in December by the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges and three other hospitals. That lawsuit, also filed in the District of Columbia, challenges the Medicare rate cut as executive overreach.
The American Hospital Association says the rule ignores crucial differences between hospital outpatient departments and other sites. Citing a study it commissioned, it says patients getting care in hospital outpatient departments are more likely to be poorer and have more severe chronic conditions than those treated in independent physicians’ offices. And it notes that hospitals are held to higher regulatory standards because of the complexities of caring for sicker patients.
Dan Peters, general counsel for The University of Kansas Health System, said in an email that the system has “relied for years upon our Hospital off-campus departments to expand access to care and bring hospital services directly to our community, many of which are underserved by other providers.”
“Congress preserved their ability to do that work when it excepted hospital outpatient department from the changes contained in Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. But we believe the Secretary of DHHS overstepped his bounds when he took that away. We are asking the court to reinstate the decision Congress made,” Peters said.
Although they didn’t join the lawsuit, other Kansas City-area hospitals, including Truman Medical Centers and Saint Luke’s, also weighed in with comments opposing the rule.
The Kansas Hospital Association, in a comment it filed to the rule, said the cuts “would be excessive and harmful” and would endanger the role off-campus hospital departments “play in their communities.”
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
