SHAWNEE COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting that left two dead and have a suspect in custody.
Huggins photo Shawnee County
Just before 3:30p.m. Tuesday, police responded to a shooting at a home in 2400 block of SE Maryland in Topeka. Upon arrival,
officers located two individuals identified as as 15-year-old Owen M. Hughes and 21-year-old Reginald L. McKinney Jr., both of Topeka suffering from life-threating injuries, according to Lt. Andrew Beightel.
Both were pronounced dead by medical personnel on scene.
On Thursday police arrested Larry D. Huggins III, 19, of Topeka in connection with this investigation, according to Lt. Jennifer Cross.
Huggins was booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on charges of murder, aggravated
burglary, and attempted aggravated robbery.
The House has opened a second day of Trump impeachment hearings with Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was suddenly recalled back to the U.S. by President Donald Trump.
Marie Yovanovitch former UN Ambassador to Ukraine
Yovanovitch is expected to testify about her ouster, which another diplomat has called a “smear” campaign against her by Trump allies.
The live public hearings by the House Intelligence Committee are being held to determine whether Trump should be removed from office over his actions toward Ukraine.
The investigation centers on Trump’s July 25 phone call when he asked the new Ukraine president for a favor — to investigate Democrats and potential 2020 rival Joe Biden — as the White House was withholding military aid to the Eastern European nation.
Yovanovitch and others have described Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, as leading what one called an “irregular channel” outside the diplomatic mainstream of U.S.-Ukraine relations.
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The former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine has arrived on Capitol Hill to testify in the Trump impeachment inquiry.
Marie Yovanovitch is the witness for the second day of public hearings. She’s expected to tell lawmakers about her sudden ouster as President Donald Trump recalled the career ambassador back to the United States.
Other diplomats testifying in the investigation have defended Yovanovitch, saying she was the target of “smear” campaign by the president’s allies. She has served both Democratic and Republican presidents.
The rare impeachment inquiry is focused on Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. Democrats say it amounts to bribery, as the president withheld military aid to Ukraine while he pushed the country to investigate rival Democrats, including Joe Biden.
Trump calls the probe a hoax and says he did nothing wrong.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The four Catholic dioceses in Kansas will not support expanding Medicaid to thousands more low-income adults and children unless the state passes a constitutional amendment and new laws restricting abortion, the head of the Kansas Catholic Conference said.
Chuck Weber, the group’s executive director, told a joint House and Senate committee on Wednesday that the dioceses in Dodge City, Salina, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, want an amendment to the state constitution to clarify that it does not include a right to abortion, in response to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling last year that the constitution protects that right. The dioceses also are seeking a law allowing medical professionals or health facilities to decline to perform certain procedures for religious reasons, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
Hundreds of thousands of Kansans are members of the Catholic church and, on social issues, it is influential with conservative Republicans, who hold the top leadership positions in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
Weber’s statements came as the committee ended two days of hearings on expanding Medicaid to 130,000 low-income adults and children in Kansas. Medicaid currently covers about 342,000 low-income, elderly and disabled Kansas residents.
Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican who chairs the committee, said Wednesday that the panel won’t advance a bill on Medicaid expansion to this year’s Legislature and won’t recommend passage of a bill. The committee’s decision to not advance a bill is not binding and lawmakers are still expected to take up Medicaid expansion in this year’s session.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has made Medicaid expansion one of her top priorities for the upcoming session. Her Republican predecessors, Govs. Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer, successfully blocked expansion by the GOP-led Legislature. During last year’s legislative session, the House passed an expansion bill that was not acted on by the Senate. A special Senate committee in October endorsed an alternative developed by Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning of Overland Park.
The committee did approve a motion by Rep. Will Carpenter, R-El Dorado, that would prohibit Medicaid expansion from broadening access to abortion and would allow health care providers to refuse to provide patient care, such as birth control, based on the providers’ personal beliefs.
“You don’t care about religious beliefs of patients?” said Sen. Barbara Bollier, a Mission Hills Democrat running for the U.S. Senate.
“I’m not concerned with that,” Carpenter said.
Lee Norman, a physician and secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said a religious exemption in Kansas could be “perilous” and that placing ethical boundaries on Medicaid could make it difficult to attract health care providers.
The joint committee also voted to add a requirement that Medicaid applicants who are able must work at least 20 hours per week or enroll in 12 credit hours of college courses to be eligible. The federal government has approved work mandates for other states but all have been blocked by the courts.
April Holman, executive director of the Alliance for a Health Kansas — the state’s largest coalition supporting Medicaid expansion — said the House bill and Senate committee proposal required low-wage people signing up under Kansas’ expanded Medicaid system to pay monthly insurance premiums that could be difficult to afford. She also questioned a provision in the House bill that permanently locks out of Medicaid any person who misses three premium payments and the Senate committee’s preference to lock people out for six months if a premium payment was missed.
Morgan photo Guadalupe County Adult Detention Center
RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities in Riley County are investigating an alleged sex crime and have a suspect in custody.
On Thursday, the Riley County Police Department reported deputies in Texas arrested 41-year-old Sean Morgan in New Braunfels, Texas on a Riley County District Court Warrant for rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, attempted rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual battery. He remains jailed on a $200,000 bond in Guadalupe County, Texas awaiting extradition, according to the RCPD and online jail records.
LINN COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 6:30p.m. Thursday in Linn County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Cadillac CTS driven by Shawn Teagarden, 43, La Cygne, was northbound on County Road 1095 two miles west of La Cygne.
The driver failed to stop at the stop sign at the Kansas 152 junction and struck an embankment.
Teagarden was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are instigating an aggravated assault and have made an arrest.
Munoz-Yepez photo Shawnee Co.
Just after 3p.m. Wednesday, the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Warrant Unit attempted to locate a suspect for an arrest warrant at a residence in the 500 block of NE Emmett in Topeka, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer. The suspect identified as Luis Munoz-Yepez, 43, Topeka, crawled into a basement crawl space in the residence.
Three hours later, deputies arrested Munoz-Yepez without further incident.
He is being held in the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on an arrest warrant for aggravated assault, according to Stallbaumer.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A 77-year-old northeast Kansas man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for the attempted rape of a 4-year-old girl.
Hurt Photo Leavenworth Co.
Galen Hurt, of Linwood, was sentenced Wednesday to 5.5 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in September in Leavenworth County to attempted rape and aggravated child endangerment.
Hurt was originally charged in 2018 with rape of a child after the girl told her mother that he had touched her inappropriately while she was at Hurt’s house.
Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said he offered a plea deal to Hurt in part to prevent the girl, who is now 6, from having to testify in court.
KANSAS CITY — Authorities searching for a woman after finding her husband’s corpse in a freezer have her in custody, according to a social media report from police in Joplin Missouri.
Barbara J. Watters, was taken into custody Thursday afternoon with the assistance from the US Marshals Service.
Authorities found the corpse in the freezer in a bedroom inside Wattters’ southwest Missouri home where it may have been stored for nearly a year.
Details on charges have not been released.
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KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities are searching for a woman after finding her husband’s corpse in a freezer in a bedroom inside her southwest Missouri home, where it may have been stored for nearly a year.
Photo Joplin Police
Barbara Watters, 67, of Joplin, was charged Wednesday with abandonment of a corpse, a felony that is punishable by up to four years in prison.
The grim discovery was made after a witness told police that Paul Barton’s body had been in Watters’ freezer since his death on Dec. 30, 2018, a police officer wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
The witness said Watters threatened to kill him if he notified police. Watters also threatened to kill police, fireman and emergency medical workers if they attempted to come into her house, the witness said, according to the affidavit.
Police said she has unspecified “mental disorders” and is known to carry firearms.
Police released a photo of Watters and the license plate number for the white sedan she may be driving in a Facebook post that asked the public for help finding her. Capt. Nick Jimenez declined to elaborate further on the search.
Jimenez said in an interview that officers got the tip about the body Monday while investigating an unrelated Nov. 5 fire that damaged a home in the neighborhood. Officers served a search warrant Tuesday and found the body just where the witness said it would be.
Jimenez declined to describe how the witness knows Watters, although the affidavit said he was at her house on Nov. 7 when officers attempted to contact the occupants. The witness said Watters stood at the door pointing a handgun at officers on the other side and refused to allow him to answer the door.
The affidavit doesn’t explain why officers were at the house that day, and Jimenez said he didn’t know whether it was related to the arson inquiry.
Police weren’t immediately able to provide a call history to the home. The Associated Press submitted a records request.
Meanwhile, an autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death and confirm the identity of the remains. While the criminal complaint says Watters “knowingly disposed of or left” Barton’s corpse at her home without notifying law enforcement, Jimenez said formal identification of the body is pending.
Watters had only minor past convictions for driving with an expired license and operating a vehicle on a highway without a valid license, according to online court records in Missouri.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Two Kansas sheriff’s department employees have been charged over an incident with a jailed inmate, but no details have been released.
The Wyandotte County prosecutor’s office announced Thursday that 47-year-old Sgt. David Toland and 34-year-old Deputy Marcus Johnson are charged with one misdemeanor count of mistreatment of a confined person. Toland also is charged with felony aggravated battery and Johnson with misdemeanor assault. The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office has placed both employees on administrative leave.
The prosecutor’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email asking whether the men have attorneys.
Toland also is a member of the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville school board. He told KCTV last month that about five jail staffers were involved in the September incident. He said he was working as a supervisor at the time and that the entire encounter was recorded on video. He said “what happened was right” but provided no other details.
Sheriff Don Ash also provided no specifics in a written statement but said it “does not reflect our organizational values.” The statement noted that an administrative investigation is ongoing
PAWNEE COUNTY– Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man on sex crime allegations.
Stacey photo Pawnee County
On Thursday, Michael Patrick Stacey, 19, Larned, Kansas, appeared in custody in Pawnee County and was charged with rape and battery, according to Pawnee CountyAttorney Doug McNett. The crimes involve a single incident alleged to have occurred in Pawnee County on October 25, 2019. The Larned Police Department handled the investigation.
If convicted, under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Stacey faces a presumptive prison sentence between 147 months and 653 months in the custody of the Department of Corrections depending on his criminal history.
Stacey was arrested on November 12, 2019, without incident and is being held in the custody of the Pawnee County Sheriff in lieu of $100,000 bond, according to McNett.
POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY— One person died in a fire at a home in Pottawatomie County Sunday, according to the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office.
Google map
Just after 10:30p.m., fire crews responded to the home at 13910 Antelope Run Road in rural Westmoreland. The home had totally collapsed prior to the arrival of fire crews and deputies from the sheriff’s department.
Fire crews found a victim dead in the home, according to the State Fire Marshal’s office.
A positive identification of the victim will not be made until it is confirmed by autopsy.
The Investigation Division of the Fire Marshal’s office has classified the cause of the fire as undetermined. Loss is estimated at $200,000. It is unknown if there were smoke detectors in the structure.
Companies have said deal will result in up to $300 million in expense reductions
NEW YORK (AP) — Two of the largest U.S. newspaper companies are set to combine after shareholders approved GateHouse Media’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Gannett.
New York-based New Media Investment Group, which owns GateHouse, announced in August its plan to buy USA Today owner Gannett.
Gatehouse owns Kansas newspapers in Hays, Hutchinson, Salina, Topeka, Garden City, Dodge City, McPherson, Newton and El Dorado, among others.
The combined company would have more than 260 daily papers in the U.S. along with more than 300 weeklies — one of every six papers in the country.
The companies said when announcing the merger the deal will cut up to $300 million in costs annually.
The deal creates the largest U.S newspaper company by far. Media expert Ken Doctor estimates the combined company will have a print circulation of 8.7 million, 7 million more than the new No. 2, McClatchy.
Local papers, faced with the complex and expensive process of building digital businesses to replace declining print ads and circulation, have been aggressively consolidating in recent years.
The combined company will take the Gannett name and keep its headquarters in Gannett’s current home of McLean, Virginia.
The parent company of The Kansas City Star plans to eliminate the Saturday print editions of its 30 newspapers by the end of next year.
The McClatchy Company, the second largest newspaper chain in the country, previously announced plans to eliminate Saturday print editions in 12 of its markets, including Wichita. The Wichita Eagle notified subscribers last month that it would move to digital-only coverage on Saturdays after Nov. 16.
In a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, McClatchy President and CEO Craig Forman said the rest of the company’s newspapers will move to digital-only on Saturdays by 2020.
Forman announced the move in the course of discussing McClatchy’s third-quarter financial results. The company lost $305 million in the quarter (although almost all of it consisted of a markdown of assets) even as it said digital subscriptions grew 45 percent over a year earlier.
“This encouraging growth in digital subscribers came as we also expanded our digital Saturday rollout to include conversions or announcements to convert 12 of our markets to digital-only editions on Saturdays,” Forman said in a news release about the financial results. “We are seeing wide acceptance of digital Saturdays among our subscribers in the markets where the change has been implemented and/or announced, and in those markets where implementation has occurred we are seeing an accelerated conversion to our digital products.”
Forman said “digital Saturdays” were already underway at four McClatchy properties: The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; The Bellingham Herald in Bellingham, Washington; The Durham Herald Sun in Durham, North Carolina; and The Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania.
McClatchy newspapers, including The Star and Eagle, have undergone multiple rounds of layoffs and buyouts over the last decade as print advertising and circulation revenue have plummeted in tandem with the rise of digital media.
McClatchy has contended with high debt, much of it incurred when it acquired rival newspaper chain Knight Ridder in 2006 for $4.5 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that McClatchy was engaged in merger talks, and in the news release reporting its results McClatchy said it and its advisors “are exploring all available options” to address its cash crunch problems.
McClatchy spokeswoman Jeanne Segal confirmed that all McClatchy newsrooms will be going digital on Saturdays, although she said no date has been announced yet for Kansas City.
“We’ll produce a print newspaper Sunday-Friday and invite subscribers to go digital on Saturdays,” Segal said in an email. “The print editions on Friday and Sundays will be enhanced with additional puzzles and comics and on Friday we will add ‘Uplift,’ a new section with inspiring stories.”
Segal said going digital on Saturdays will allow McClatchy to invest in digital offerings “for a large and growing audience and provide our readers with strong, independent local journalism that is essential to the communities we serve.”
“In fact,” she said, “our digital audience is now bigger than our print circulation on Saturdays.”
Segal said print customers will have access to a daily eEdition, which she described as “an enhanced digital replica of our print product.”
“The eEdition lets our subscribers turn pages and skim the headlines and find the news that interests them in the same way a print newspaper is used. The e-Edition also includes a supplement, EXTRA EXTRA, which features more national news, entertainment news and general interest features. And for sports fans, we also have SPORTS EXTRA,” Segal said.
As local newspapers contend with shrinking revenue, the pressure to cut costs and maximize financial returns has only increased.
On Thursday, shareholders of the two largest American newspaper chains, Gannett and GateHouse Media, approved a deal to combine the companies, creating the country’s biggest newspaper conglomerate. The combined company, which will operate under the Gannett name, will own more than 250 daily newspapers, including USA Today, and hundreds of weekly and community newspapers.
Gatehouse owns Kansas newspapers in Hays, Hutchinson, Salina, Topeka, Garden City, Dodge City, McPherson, Newton and El Dorado, among others.
That will make McClatchy the country’s second biggest newspaper chain, as measured by the number of newspapers it owns. (The McClatchy papers have combined print circulation of 1.7 million, compared with 8.7 million for the combined Gannett company.)
The combined Gannett company has pledged to come up with $300 million in annual savings in the next two years, which likely means further reductions in the company’s reporting ranks.
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
