HUTCHINSON — A Kansas elementary school was briefly placed on lockdown late Thursday afternoon after police responded to a 911 call, according to School District Spokesperson Ray Hemman.

Hutchinson Police Department officers found two teenagers on the adjacent Don Michael Field wearing Halloween costumes and shooting a YouTube video, according to a note the school district sent to parents.

The teens also had a piece of PVC pipe as a prop, which could look like a knife from a distance.

Once police talked to the two individuals, the school lifted the lockdown but it made the final bell about 10 minutes late for students and staff.

“We’re grateful for our neighbors watching out for us, and we’re grateful for your patience with the delay in the final bell,” said the notice.

There were no injuries and no arrests were made.

Eagle Marketing Solutions in Hays is looking for our next Traffic Assistant! Are you a self-motivated, responsible and dependable individual? Are you willing to learn and ready to have fun? If you are a hard worker and like a challenge, then this could be the perfect job for you!

Experience:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills both verbal and written
• Able to multi-task and handle interruptions while working
• Work well under pressure and be able to prioritize to meet deadlines
• Strong organizational skills
• High attention to detail
• Self-motivated, but still able to work as a team

Requirements:

• Enter sales orders
• Answer office phone
• Maintain and update sales orders
• Process Daily Deposits
• Generate Weekly and Monthly Sales Reports
• Process Monthly Billing
• Social Media Reporting
• Exposure to basic clerical work (Answering phones, filing, data entry)
• Basic computer skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word and Excel)
• Comfortable with social media, especially Facebook

Salary:

Compensation is commensurate with experience. Eagle offers a competitive benefits package including health insurance, 401K, paid vacation, and employee stock ownership plan.

Other information:

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The selected candidate will be required to pass a criminal history background and motor vehicle check. Eagle Communications is an employee-owned company and an EEO employer.

Click HERE to apply!

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday invoked extraordinary national security powers to deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally, tightening the border as caravans of Central Americans slowly approach the United States.

Trump is using the same powers he used to push through a version of the travel ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court. The proclamation puts into place regulations adopted Thursday that circumvent laws stating that anyone is eligible for asylum no matter how he or she enters the country.

“We need people in our country but they have to come in legally and they have to have merit,” Trump said Friday as he prepared to depart for Paris.

The measures are meant to funnel asylum seekers through official border crossings for speedy rulings, officials said, instead of having them try to circumvent such crossings on the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border. But the busy ports of entry already have long lines and waits, forcing immigration officials to tell some migrants to turn around and come back to make their claims.

The move was spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot but will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally, officials said Thursday. It’s unknown whether those in the caravan, many fleeing violence in their homeland, plan to cross illegally.

Administration officials said those denied asylum under the proclamation may be eligible for similar forms of protection if they fear returning to their countries, though they would be subject to a tougher threshold. Those forms of protection include “withholding of removal” — which is similar to asylum, but doesn’t allow for green cards or bringing families — or asylum under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

The announcement was the latest push to enforce Trump’s hardline stance on immigration through regulatory changes and presidential orders, bypassing Congress. But those efforts have been largely thwarted by legal challenges and, in the case of family separations this year, stymied by a global outcry that prompted Trump to scrap them.

The new changes were likely to be met with legal challenges, too. Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said Thursday they were clearly illegal.

“U.S. law specifically allows individuals to apply for asylum whether or not they are at a port of entry. It is illegal to circumvent that by agency or presidential decree,” he said.

Curbing immigration has been a signature issue for Trump, who pushed it hard in the days leading up to Tuesday’s midterm elections, railing against the caravans that are still hundreds of miles from the border.

He has made little mention of the issue since the election but has sent troops to the border in response. As of Thursday, there are more than 5,600 U.S. troops deployed to the border mission, with about 550 actually working on the border in Texas. The military is expected to have the vast majority of the more than 7,000 troops planned for the mission deployed by Monday, and that number could grow.

Trump also suggested he’d revoke the right to citizenship for babies born to non-U.S. citizens on American soil and erect massive “tent cities” to detain migrants. Those issues were not addressed by the regulations Thursday.

The administration has long said immigration officials are drowning in asylum cases partly because people falsely claim asylum and then live in the U.S. with work permits.

The asylum section of the Immigration and Nationality Act says a migrant is allowed to make a claim up to a year after arriving in the U.S., and it doesn’t matter how they arrive — illegally or through a border crossing.

Migrants who cross illegally are generally arrested and often seek asylum or some other form of protection. Claims have spiked in recent years, and there is a backlog of more than 800,000 cases pending in immigration court. Generally, only about 20 percent of applicants are approved.

Trump has long said those seeking asylum should come through legal ports of entry. But many migrants are unaware of that guidance, and official border crossings have grown clogged.

Officials have turned away asylum seekers at border crossings because of overcrowding, telling them to return later. Backlogs have become especially bad in recent months at crossings in California, Arizona and Texas, with some people waiting five weeks to try to claim asylum at San Diego’s main crossing.

In 2017, the U.S. fielded more than 330,000 asylum claims, nearly double the number two years earlier and surpassing Germany as highest in the world.

It’s unclear how many people en route to the U.S. will even make it to the border. About 4,800 migrants are sheltered in a sports complex in Mexico City, some 600 miles (965 kilometers) from the U.S. border. Several smaller groups were trailing hundreds of miles to the south; officials estimated about 7,000 in all were in the country in the caravans. The migrants are largely poor people and many say they’re fleeing violence; more than 1,700 were children under 18, and more than 300 were children under age 5.

Similar caravans have gathered regularly over the years and have generally dwindled by the time they reach the southern border. Most have passed largely unnoticed.

___

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a harbinger of potentially big changes for Medicare, seniors in many states will be able to get additional services such as help with chores, safety devices and respite for caregivers next year through private “Medicare Advantage” insurance plans.

The shift reflects a growing recognition that simple help at home can have a meaningful impact on patients’ well-being — and reduce some costs for taxpayers. A couple of hundred dollars to install grab bars in the shower can prevent a fall leading to a broken hip, a life-changing injury.

The newly covered services are similar to what people might need if they required long-term care, said Howard Gleckman, a senior researcher at the nonpartisan Urban Institute think tank. “It begins to break down the wall between long-term care and Medicare, which with very few exceptions, has never paid for long-term care.”

Change is starting slowly. The services will be offered by some Medicare Advantage plans in about 20 states next year, expected to grow over time.

There has to be a health-related reason to qualify, and costs will vary among plans. In some plans, there’s no added cost. But limits do apply. For example, a plan may cover one day per week at an adult day care center.

Nearly 23 million Medicare beneficiaries, or more than 1 in 3, are expected to be covered by a Medicare Advantage plan next year. The private plans generally offer lower out-of-pocket costs in exchange for limits on choice of doctors and hospitals and other restrictions such as prior authorization for services. It’s a growing business for insurers.

Medicare Advantage open enrollment for 2019 ends Dec. 7. But it’s not easy to use Medicare’s online plan finder to search for plans with expanded benefits, so beneficiaries and their families will have to rely on promotional materials that insurers mail during open enrollment.

For years, Medicare has permitted private plans to offer supplemental benefits not covered by the traditional program. Think free gym memberships, transportation to medical appointments or home-delivered meals following a hospitalization.

The new benefits take that to a higher level, with Medicare’s blessing.

“It is a big concept, in the sense that it is officially encouraging plans to get across the line into the many, many things that affect the health and well-being of beneficiaries,” said Marc Russo, president of insurer Anthem’s Medicare business. “I, for one, who have been in and around Medicare for decades, believe it pays.”

Insurers under Anthem’s corporate umbrella are offering different packages in 12 of 21 states they operate in. They can include alternative medicine, like acupuncture, or adult day care center visits or a personal helper at home.

Other major insurers like UnitedHealthcare and Humana are participating.

Still, Medicare’s opening is no substitute for full long-term care coverage, which many people need for at least part of their lives and remains prohibitively expensive. Seniors trying to get long-term care through Medicaid — the program for low-income people — must spend down their life savings.

“Medicare policy has not kept up with the times,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of the authors of bipartisan legislation seen as a catalyst for expanded services through Medicare Advantage.

Wyden said he’s working to bring similar options to traditional Medicare, which is still the choice of 2 out of 3 seniors. “Clearly this is going to have to be an effort that is going to have to be built out,” he added.

The changes represent a rare consensus at a time when health care issues are among the most politically divisive. Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as Seema Verma, the Trump administration’s Medicare chief, are pulling in the same direction.

The idea of broader services through Medicare Advantage was embodied in a bipartisan Senate Finance Committee bill to improve care for chronically ill seniors. The legislation got spliced into a massive budget bill passed earlier this year. The Trump administration issued regulations in the spring trying to accelerate the changes.

According to Medicare, 12 insurers will be offering expanded supplemental benefits next year through 160 plans in 20 states. In four other states and Puerto Rico, such benefits may be available to seniors with certain health conditions.

“The guidance came out fairly late in the annual planning process, and that’s one reason why some of these benefits may start out small,” said Steve Warner, head of Medicare Advantage program development for UnitedHealthcare.

Medicare estimates that some 780,000 beneficiaries will have access to the new benefits next year. In-home helpers and support for caregivers are the most popular.

Consumer advocates recommend that seniors carefully weigh whether Medicare Advantage is best for them. If they don’t like it, they can go back to traditional Medicare, but those with a pre-existing condition may not be able to buy a “Medigap” policy to help cover out-of-pocket costs. They can also switch to another Medicare Advantage plan.

Medicare doesn’t pay the insurers more for offering added benefits. Under a complex formula, they’re primarily financed out of the difference between bids submitted by insurers and Medicare’s maximum payment to plans. If the companies bid below Medicare’s rate, they can return some of that to beneficiaries in the form of added benefits. Costs for beneficiaries may vary. Some will face no added costs.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Police say an off-duty officer who caused a chain-reaction wreck that killed a Kansas teen was driving a department van too quickly when he slammed into the teen’s car as traffic slowed to turn into Arrowhead Stadium for a Kansas City Chiefs game.

The police report was issued Wednesday for the Oct. 21 crash that killed 17-year-old Chandan Rajanna, of Overland Park, Kansas, and seriously hurt his father and older sister.

The document says witnesses reported that the van was going as fast as 70 mph when it started braking about 30 feet from the stopped traffic. It says the driver was “unable to stop, or avoid the vehicles in front of him.”

Besides the van and car, two other vehicles also were struck.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ new Democratic governor-elect said Thursday that she will look to block enforcement of a new adoption law that she and LGBT-rights activists consider discriminatory, a sharp break with the state’s two previous conservative Republican governors.

Gov.-elect Laura Kelly said she will have her staff review how far the state can go to avoid enforcing the law. It was designed to provide legal protections to adoption agencies that cite faith-based reasons for refusing to place children in homes that violate their religious beliefs.

The debate over the law centered on agencies that won’t place children in LGBT foster homes. The agencies handle those adoptions of abused and neglected children for the state Department for Children and Families. Supporters saw it as a religious liberties measure.

Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, voted against what she called “the adoption discrimination” measure when the Republican-controlled Legislature approved it in May. In the governor’s race, she defeated conservative Republican Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, and was endorsed by Equality Kansas, the state’s most influential LGBT-rights group.

“If there is way to direct the agency to not implement that, then I will do that,” Kelly said during a Statehouse news conference, her first since winning the election.

Chuck Weber, the Catholic Conference’s executive director, said supporters of the law will fight to see that it’s fully enforced.

“This is not a surprise, that Gov.-elect Kelly would try to circumvent the will of the people of Kansas to advance her own radical agenda,” said Weber, a former Kansas House member.

The law says the state can’t force an adoption agency to make placements in homes that violate its religious beliefs. An adoption agency cannot be denied a license or state reimbursement for a placement, or blocked from participating in DCF programs, solely because of its beliefs.

Tom Witt, Equality Kansas’ executive director, said the law so clearly allows adoption agencies to engage in discrimination while receiving tax dollars that the state shouldn’t enforce it.

“There are a number of unconstitutional laws on the books that aren’t being enforced,” Witt said. “The (state’s same-sex) marriage ban comes to mind.”

But Weber said: “We were very careful in drafting that bill, in dotting i’s and crossing t’s and making sure that this would pass constitutional muster.”

Departing Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer signed the measure, and his DCF secretary backed it as a way to encourage more groups to do adoptions.

Colyer took office in January when GOP Gov. Sam Brownback resigned to become U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom. In 2015, Brownback rescinded a previous executive order from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius barring anti-LGBT bias in state hiring and employment decisions, saying such a policy should be set by the Legislature.

Kelly told reporters Thursday that she will have a new order reinstating such protections drafted before she takes office so that it can be issued as quickly as possible.

______

MCPHERSON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities and officials with USD 418 are investigating a reported school threat.

A student discovered the threatening message written on a wall at McPherson High School, according to a media release from police.  The threat is unsubstantiated but has prompted an increase in law enforcement presence at the school.

There was an increased law enforcement presence at the school Thursday and there will also be an increased police presence on Friday to provide additional security and peace of mind, according to the release.

Due to the nature of the investigation, police released no additional details.

Anyone with information on the reported threat is encouraged to contact McPherson Police.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge in Montana has blocked construction of the $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline to allow more time to study the project’s potential environmental impact.

The Great Falls Tribune reports U.S. District Judge Brian Morris’ order on Thursday came as Calgary-based TransCanada was preparing to build the first stages of the oil pipeline in northern Montana. Environmental groups had sued TransCanada and The U.S. Department of State in federal court in Great Falls.

Morris says the government’s analysis didn’t fully study the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of current oil prices on the pipeline’s viability or include updated modeling of potential oil spills.

The 1,184-mile  pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta, Canada and Montana to facilities in Nebraska.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas father whose toddler was fatally shot by another toddler has been sentenced to probation for leaving a loaded semi-automatic handgun within the children’s reach.

33-year-old Chance Smith, of Lawrence, is barred from having guns while on probation under the sentence ordered Wednesday. He pleaded no contest in September to two counts of aggravated child endangerment. Prosecutors dropped an involuntary manslaughter charge as part of the plea.

Smith’s daughter, Autumn Grace Smith, was a week away from her second birthday when she was shot in September 2017. Smith told police that he was outside for five or 10 minutes and didn’t hear a gunshot. When he returned, he found a 2-year-old boy crying and Autumn upstairs, shot. Gunpowder was found on the boy’s hands.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been ordered to stand trial in a deadly Topeka shooting.

33-year-old Tony Lee Foster was bound over for trial during a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the death of 35-year-old David William Payne.

Officers responded in July to a report of a shooting at a home in the northern part of the city. Payne was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.

A jury trial is set to begin March 11.

MANHATTAN — The Kansas State University Police Department has concluded its investigation into a note using a racial slur posted on a door in the Jardine Apartment Complex.

On Monday, K-State Police received a report of the note, according to a media release.

Upon questioning, the person who reported the incident admitted to creating and posting the note to their own door.

The matter will be addressed in accordance with applicable disciplinary procedures.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kris Kobach rode his national reputation as an advocate for tough immigration and voting rules to a job atop President Donald Trump’s short-lived election-fraud commission. But Kansas voters rejected his no-apologies conservatism in this week’s election for governor.

Now the Republican’s hard-line, in-your-face approach could help him land his next political position, possibly in the Trump administration.

Kobach’s name immediately popped up Wednesday, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to resign. If Trump picks someone else to replace Sessions, Kobach’s name is almost certain to surface again when Trump has another big post to fill.

“I guarantee you that if there is a place that he can find, he’ll find a home for Kris,” said state Rep. John Whitmer, a conservative Wichita Republican and a Kobach ally.

Kobach, whose term as Kansas secretary of state ends in January, did not immediately return cellphone messages Thursday seeking comment. Whitmer said Kobach had planned to go hunting. Kobach spokeswoman Danedri Herbert texted, “No comment,” in response to a question about the speculation that Kobach was being considered for U.S. attorney general.

In his concession speech late Tuesday, the 52-year-old Ivy League graduate dropped no hints about his future. He told supporters at a Topeka hotel, “This one just wasn’t God’s will.”

“The Republicans are going to be fighting for the values we hold dear, regardless of which offices we Republicans hold,” he said.

In nearly eight years as secretary of state of state, Kobach turned what had been a backwater of state politics into a high-profile office by successfully pushing for laws to require all voters to show a photo ID at the polls and new voters to provide papers documenting their U.S. citizenship when registering.

Kansas went further than any other state in enforcing a proof-of-citizenship requirement in voter registration until a federal judge struck down that law in June as an unconstitutional violation of voting rights. The state has appealed, and the case is likely to outlast Kobach’s tenure.

Before becoming vice chairman of the president’s voter fraud commission, Kobach was a source behind Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of votes were cast illegally in the 2016 presidential race for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote.

An early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign, Kobach advised the campaign and later the White House on homeland security issues.

The day before the August primary, Trump tweeted his “full & total Endorsement!” of Kobach, which helped him narrowly defeat GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer. Trump had a rally in Topeka in October partly to boost Kobach’s campaign, telling the crowd he would have liked to put Kobach in his administration.

“President Trump is very supportive of Kris Kobach,” state GOP Chairman Kelly Arnold said. “And I expect a place will be found for him.”

Republicans expanded their narrow 51-49 majority in the U.S Senate, potentially making a Kobach confirmation easier.

The narrow GOP majority had presented a possible obstacle. In July 2017, Trump nominated then-Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as U.S. ambassador at large for international freedom. But the Senate did not vote to confirm the appointment until January. Vice President Mike Pence had to break a tie.

Kobach has been more of a lightning rod than Brownback and lost the governor’s race because he alienated moderate GOP and independent voters. Frank Sharry, the executive director of the pro-immigration group America’s Voice, celebrated Kobach’s loss with a statement calling him “one of the leading anti-immigrant voices in American politics.”

In a May 2017 interview with The Associated Press, Kobach said he had been offered an undersecretary’s position in the Department of Homeland Security and a White House position coordinating immigration enforcement. The interview was after Trump named him to the election fraud commission but before Kobach formally launched his campaign for governor.

He said he faced “a tough, tough decision” on both. One factor in not taking the jobs, he said, was the likely inability to “unilaterally make a decision and then say, ‘OK, we’re going to carry this out.'”

Kobach, who has five young daughters, also had misgivings about leaving Kansas. He said he viewed going to Washington as a “real sacrifice” for his family because “we would be less happy on a day-to-day level.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump cannot immediately end an Obama-era program shielding young immigrants from deportation.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept in place a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Lawsuits by California and others challenging the administration’s decision will continue in federal court while the injunction remains in place.

DACA has protected some 700,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families that overstayed visas.

The Trump administration has said it moved to end the program last year because Texas and other states threatened to sue, raising the prospect of a chaotic end to DACA.

The decision prompted lawsuits across the nation, including one by California. A judge overseeing that lawsuit and four others ruled against the administration and reinstated the program in January.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup rejected the argument that then-President Barack Obama had exceeded his power in creating DACA and said the Trump administration failed to consider the disruption that ending the program would cause.

The Trump administration then asked the 9th Circuit to throw out Alsup’s ruling.

During a hearing in May, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hashim Mooppan argued that the courts could not review the administration’s decision to end DACA and defended the move against assertions that it was arbitrary and capricious.

“It’s a question of an agency saying, ‘We’re not going to have a policy that might well be illegal,'” Mooppan told the judges. “That is a perfectly rational thing to do.”

Mooppan said the administration was under no obligation to consider the fact that people had come to rely on DACA.

The judges on the 9th Circuit panel appeared skeptical of the argument that the DACA decision was beyond the court’s authority to review.

Judge Kim Wardlaw noted at the hearing that another appeals court had reviewed a similar Obama administration immigration policy.

Judge Jacqueline Nguyen questioned whether courts could intervene if they thought DACA was legal and disagreed with the administration’s position that it wasn’t.

The administration has been critical of the 9th Circuit and took the unusual step of trying to sidestep it and have the California DACA cases heard directly by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court in February declined to do so.

Federal judges in New York and Washington also have ruled against Trump on DACA.