LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence city commissioners will consider a proposal to reduce penalties for marijuana possession.

Currently, first-time offenders face a fine between $200 and $1,000 and/or up to 180 days in jail. Those who are granted a diversion must pay for mandatory drug-abuse evaluation and could be required to receive drug-abuse education, counseling or treatment.

The city prosecutor is recommending penalties for first-time marijuana possession of $200, a substance abuse evaluation and classes or treatment, 90 day jail sentences that would be suspended if another violation doesn’t occur, and six months of unsupervised probation. A second offense would increase the penalties to a $300 fine and a year of probation.

The city’s health department submitted a statement to the commission opposing reducing penalties for marijuana possession.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is leaving the administration “at the end of the year.”

Trump spoke as he and Haley met in the Oval Office, shortly after word came of her plans to resign.

He called Haley a “very special” person, adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off. Trump said that together, they had “solved a lot of problems.”

It’s the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration just weeks before the November midterm election.

No reason for the resignation was immediately provided.

Haley, 46, was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump’s second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the U.N. Security Council.

Before she was named by Trump to her U.N. post, Haley was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014.

Last month Haley wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post discussing her policy disagreements but also her pride in working for Trump. It came in response to an anonymous essay in The New York Times by a senior administration official that alleged there to be a secret “resistance” effort from the right in Trump’s administration and that there were internal discussions of invoking the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office.

“I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country,” Haley wrote. “But I don’t agree with the president on everything.”

As governor, she developed a national reputation as a racial conciliator who led the charge to bring down the Confederate flag at the Statehouse and guided South Carolina through one of its darkest moments, the massacre at a black church.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — A former volunteer at a small Missouri museum has been sentenced to five years of probation for stealing Civil War and World War I artifacts and then rearranging display cases to conceal the thefts.

39-year-old Terry Cockrell was a 2010 Sedalia mayoral candidate who volunteered at the Pettis County Museum for years before moving to Coffeyville, Kansas.

He pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of felony stealing $750 or more. Prosecutors agreed to drop a second charge of stealing as part of a plea agreement. He is required to pay almost $3,000 in restitution and court costs.

Cockrell confessed in April to stealing and selling six artifacts, mostly firearms. The whereabouts of three artifacts, including a Civil War era surgical kit, remain unknown.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and have one suspect in custody.

Just after 2 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to 2930 SE Highland CT in Topeka on a report of a robbery, according to Lt. Manuel Munoz. The victim reported being struck on the head by several subjects and they stole his car keys. One of the suspects was a black male wearing a white and red coat. The suspects then took his Gold Honda Accord and were last seen leaving the area.

Officers quickly located the car traveling westbound at SE 6th and Lafayette and attempted to stop it. Several occupants ran from the vehicle and were last seen running east through the neighborhood.

Officers quickly set up a perimeter and a K9 unit was brought in to assist. Officers took a juvenile female into custody at the intersection of SE 6th and Locust. The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment with non-life threatening injuries, according to Munuz.

Anyone with information on the crime is encouraged to contact police.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce he is lifting a federal ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends during a trip to Iowa on Tuesday.

The long-expected announcement is something of a reward to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman led a contentious but successful fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The veteran Republican lawmaker is the Senate’s leading ethanol proponent and sharply criticized the Trump administration’s proposed rollback in ethanol volumes earlier this year.

At that time Grassley threatened to call for the resignation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief, Scott Pruitt, if Pruitt did not work to fulfill the federal ethanol mandate. Pruitt later stepped down amid a host of ethics investigations.

A senior administration official said Monday that the EPA will publish a rule in coming days to allow high-ethanol blends as part of a package of proposed changes to the ethanol mandate. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Trump’s announcement.

The change would allow year-round sales of gasoline blends with up to 15 percent ethanol. Gasoline typically contains 10 percent ethanol.

The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days, a claim ethanol industry advocates say is unfounded.

In May, Republican senators, including Grassley, announced a tentative agreement with the White House to allow year-round E15 sales, but the EPA did not propose a formal rule change.

The senior administration official said the proposed rule intends to allow E15 sales next summer. Current regulations prevent retailers in much of the country from offering E15 from June 1 to Sept. 15.

Lifting the summer ban is expected to be coupled with new restrictions on trading biofuel credits that underpin the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, commonly known as the ethanol mandate. The law sets out how much corn-based ethanol and other renewable fuels refiners must blend into gasoline each year.

The Renewable Fuel Standard was intended to address global warming, reduce dependence on foreign oil and bolster the rural economy by requiring a steady increase in renewable fuels over time. The mandate has not worked as intended, and production levels of renewable fuels, mostly ethanol, routinely fail to reach minimum thresholds set in law.

The oil industry opposes year-round sales of E15, warning that high-ethanol gasoline can damage car engines and fuel systems. Some car makers have warned against high-ethanol blends, although EPA has approved use of E15 in all light-duty vehicles built since 2001.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, many from oil-producing states, sent Trump a letter last week opposing expanded sales of high-ethanol gas. The lawmakers called the approach “misguided” and said it would do nothing to protect refinery jobs and “could hurt millions of consumers whose vehicles and equipment are not compatible with higher-ethanol blended gasoline.”

The letter was signed by 16 Republicans and four Democrats, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a key Trump ally. New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, whose state includes several refineries, also signed the letter.

A spokeswoman for the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry trade group, said allowing E15 to be sold year-round would give consumers greater access to clean, low-cost, higher-octane fuel while expanding market access for ethanol producers.

“The ability to sell E15 all year would also bring a significant boost to farmers across our country” and provide a significant economic boost to rural America, said spokeswoman Rachel Gantz.

RAYTOWN, Mo. (AP) — A convicted felon was charged Monday with a total of 18 felonies including murder after a series of shootings that left three people dead and two wounded in the Kansas City area.

The charges filed against Issac Fisher, 35, include three counts of second-degree murder. He is being held on $1 million bond.

The shootings occurred within a little more than an hour of each other Sunday in three locations, according to a statement from Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.

Police found 34-year-old Angenette Hollins dead around 9:15 a.m. Sunday in a Kansas City house.

Hollins is the only victim whose name has been released.

Jackson County court records show Fisher and Hollins were the parents of a son who died in infancy.
Peters Baker said in a news release that a woman at the home reported her son had shot her daughter-in-law after the two argued.

A short time later, police in the Kansas City suburb of Raytown found a vehicle that had been taken from the home. A witness told police that her fiance’s brother kicked in the door at a second home and took a different vehicle.

Minutes later, Raytown police were called to a third home where another victim, who witnesses said was Fisher’s stepbrother, was fatally shot. A 4-year-old girl at that home was shot and wounded, but survived, and a 1-year-old was not injured.

Kansas City police were called a short time later to a fourth home, where a man who was reportedly Fisher’s cousin according to the prosecutor, was found shot on the porch. Before that man died, he told a witness that a man named “Big” had shot him.

Fisher’s nickname is “Big,” Peters Baker said. Police and the prosecutor did not say how Fisher was captured. Jackson County spokesman Mike Mansur said he didn’t know if Fisher had an attorney.

Fisher was jailed briefly last month in nearby Johnson County, Kansas, after prosecutors filed a motion to revoke his probation in a 2015 case in which he pleaded guilty to battery of a law enforcement officer and driving under the influence. He had been scheduled to appear in that case next week.
Fisher was released from federal prison in February after serving time for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Court records show two handguns were found in a vehicle that he wrecked while fleeing from police.
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KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities have arrested a convicted felon in a series of shootings that left three people dead and two wounded in the Kansas City area.

Issac Fisher, 35, was taken into custody Sunday night after a manhunt, police said. Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Mike Mansur said Monday that no charges had been filed yet. Fisher can be held for 24 hours without charges. Mansur said he didn’t know whether Fisher had an attorney.

UPDATE: Issac has been captured.

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) October 8, 2018

The victims were shot during little more than an hour in three locations, The Kansas City Star reported. Police discovered 34-year-old Angenette Hollins dead around 9:15 a.m. Sunday in a Kansas City house. Jackson County court records show Fisher and Hollins were the parents of a son who died in infancy.

A little later, police in nearby Raytown found a man dead in a home. A child who is around the age of 4 and an adult also were wounded.

Police then found a man dead on the porch of a Kansas City home. Police haven’t released the identities of any victims besides Hollins.

Kansas City police spokesman Capt. Lionel Colón said police think Fisher was responsible for all three shootings, based on statements from people at the scenes. He described Fisher as “dangerous” during the search, saying authorities needed to end it “as quick as possible.”

Police provided no details about how Fisher was captured and said there would be no press briefing Monday.

Fisher was jailed briefly last month in nearby Johnson County, Kansas, after prosecutors filed a motion to revoke his probation in a 2015 case in which he pleaded guilty to battery of a law enforcement officer and driving under the influence. He had been scheduled to appear in that case next week.

Fisher was released from federal prison in February after serving time for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Court records show two handguns were found in a vehicle that he wrecked while fleeing from police.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Democrat running to replace Kris Kobach as Kansas secretary of state is trying to get voters to repudiate the conservative Republican’s political legacy of tough voter identification laws, which Kobach often touts while campaigning for governor.

Brian McClendon, a former Google and Uber executive, would break with Kobach’s policies if elected secretary of state and move Kansas toward allowing voters to register on election day. Kobach derides that as a recipe for election fraud.

At least a little change is in store. While GOP nominee and state Rep. Scott Schwab is a conservative who backed the voter ID policies Kobach championed, he is promising to be in the spotlight less.

And unlike Kobach, neither is an attorney and both said they’d turn over election fraud cases to local prosecutors or the attorney general. Kobach had fought for the authority to pursue them himself.

Known already as an immigration hardliner, Kobach expanded his national profile in the secretary of state’s office and served as vice chairman of President Trump’s now-disbanded commission on election fraud . Kobach has said repeatedly that he is proud Kansas has some of the nation’s toughest voter ID laws.

But the race to replace high-profile Kobach as the state’s top elections official is relatively quiet and bereft of television ads. In GOP-leaning Kansas, Republicans generally are the front-runners in down-ballot statewide contests, and a Democrat hasn’t won a secretary of state’s race in 70 years.

“They often are simply decided just based on partisanship,” said Patrick Miller, a University of Kansas political scientist. “Every now and then, you find a particular officeholder or a particular situation that makes the political relevance of one of these offices very apparent.”

Schwab, from the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, is better known than most legislators because his 10-year-old son, Caleb, died in August 2016 while riding a giant waterslide at the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas. Schwab said his model for the secretary of state’s office is its GOP-run 1950s and 1960s version — efficient but low-key.

“I’m a little tired of the public-eye side of things and the overly visible side of things for me, personally,” he said during an interview.

Kobach has endorsed Schwab, saying, “I would hate to see a Democrat secretary of state attempt to undo the great improvements we have made.”

McClendon has the resources for a competitive race. He started by putting $150,000 into his campaign and raised another $359,000 in cash contributions through late July. Schwab raised less than a third of that through late July and has made two $25,000 loans to his campaign.

McClendon stresses his business and technology background. He’s a native of Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas and the state’s most liberal enclave. He returned there last year to become a research professor and advise startup companies.

To demonstrate that he’s serious about promoting voter registration, he has launched a website to allow people to register to vote online or with their cellphones.

“The secretary of state should be the cheerleader for getting voters registered and getting voters to participate in our elections,” McClendon said during an interview. “The Kobach regime has focused on the wrong things.”

Kobach pushed the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass a law requiring new voters to submit papers documenting their U.S. citizenship when registering, starting in 2013.

Lawmakers in 2015 granted the secretary of state’s office authority — sought by Kobach — to prosecute election fraud. His office has filed 15 criminal cases, most of them involving a voter casting ballots in two states at once.

“Kris Kobach has been a very political, very partisan, very activist secretary of state,” Miller said.

No state had been as aggressive as Kansas in enforcing a proof-of-citizenship requirement until a federal judge struck down the policy in June as an unconstitutional violation of voting rights. The judge found that between 2013 and 2016, one in seven new voter registrations — about 35,000 — were blocked for lack of citizenship documents.

The state has appealed the proof-of-citizenship ruling, which Kobach called “extreme.” McClendon said he would drop the appeal and ask legislators to strike the proof-of-citizenship requirement from Kansas law.

Schwab said opposes having the state drop its appeal because it needs the courts to determine how far the state can go in making sure people who registered are qualified to vote.

“There is definitely a chance for a big change in policy,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, which has battled Kobach in court. “And I think that it’s certainly true that whoever is there is not likely to be as much of a zealot.”

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on multiple charges after a weekend parking lot confrontation.

Just after 5:30p.m. Saturday, police were called to the parking lot of Walmart, 2900 S. Ninth in Salina, for report of altercation between James Sparks Jr., 41, of Salina, and several other people, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.

Sparks allegedly noticed a woman strike her eight-year-old child and confronted her about it. Another bystander heard the confrontation and allegedly heard Sparks threaten to beat up the woman and others with her, so he stepped in to attempt to break up the confrontation, according to Forrester.

Sparks then went to his car, pulled out a hand gun, pointed it at the woman, and threatened to kill her, Forrester said.

Sparks allegedly also pointed the gun at a man who was with the woman, Forrester said. The hand gun turned out to be a BB gun, he added.

Sparks faces two counts of aggravated assault, one count of criminal threat, one count of interference with a law enforcement officer, and one count of disorderly conduct, Forrester said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (all times local):

7:30 p.m.

New Justice Brett Kavanaugh says the Supreme Court “is not a partisan or political institution,” and is promising to “always be a team player on a team of nine.”

https://t.co/k2bOxapRtR

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2018

The Senate vote approving Kavanaugh’s nomination followed a bitter partisan fight that became a firestorm after sexual misconduct allegations emerged. He emphatically denied the allegations.

Kavanaugh is describing the confirmation process as “contentious and emotional” but says he has “no bitterness.”

Kavanaugh says all four of the clerks who will work for him at the high court are women.

He was sworn in by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy at an entirely ceremonial event Monday at the White House. Kavanaugh officially became a member of the high court Saturday. The other eight justices are all in attendance.

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7:17 p.m.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been sworn in —again — at an event at the White House, but not before President Donald Trump slammed Kavanaugh’s opponents for a “campaign of personal destruction.”

Trump is apologizing to Kavanaugh and his family for “the terrible suffering you have been forced to endure.”

He says that “under historic scrutiny,” Kavanaugh was “proven innocent.”

The bitter partisan fight over Kavanaugh’s nomination became a firestorm after sexual misconduct allegations emerged involving Kavanaugh. He emphatically denied the allegations.

The other eight justices are all in attendance for Monday’s swearing-in, which is entirely ceremonial. Kavanaugh officially became a member of the high court Saturday. Kavanaugh already has been at the Supreme Court preparing for his first day on the bench Tuesday.

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11:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump says newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was “caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats.”

Trump says allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh were “all made up, it was fabricated and it’s a disgrace.”

Kavanaugh was accused by several women of sexual misconduct, including a California professor who testified under oath that he tried to assault her at a high school party decades ago. Kavanagh adamantly denied the allegations.

Trump had once said he found her testimony credible.

Trump says he thinks many Democrats will vote Republican in next month’s midterm elections because they’re angry about Kavanaugh’s treatment.

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12:35 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leaving the door open to taking up a nomination to the Supreme Court if a seat becomes vacant in the 2020 presidential election season.

The Kentucky Republican made the remark after winning a hard-fought battle to confirm President Donald Trump’s second high-court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

In early 2016, McConnell refused to set hearings for President Barack Obama’s last nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, saying the seat left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia should be filled by the winner of that year’s election.

McConnell says an election-year vacancy isn’t filled if the party controlling the Senate is different from the party of the president.

McConnell appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The mother of a 2-year-old girl who was fatally mauled by dogs at her father’s home is suing Kansas welfare workers.

The lawsuit filed last month says the Kansas Department for Children and Families and foster care contractors put the girl back into the same unsafe Topeka home from which she had been removed. The suit says officials should have known that two vicious pit bulls dogs with a history of attacks also lived there.

The girl — identified in the lawsuit as P.N.D. — was killed in September 2016 when she was “repeatedly attacked” by one or two of the dogs while her father was sleeping.

Spokeswomen for DCF and the contractor said Friday that they can’t comment because of the pending lawsuit.

GRANT COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an accident during a chase just before 11p.m. Saturday in Grant County and have identified the driver.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Grant County Deputy and a Ulysses Police officer were in pursuit of a 2000 Lexus eastbound on Road 11 four miles east of Ulysses.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. The Lexus left the roadway into the north ditch, catapulting into the power line and flipped several times. Power lines were trapped underneath the Lexus after it came to rest in the field north of Road 11.

The KHP reported late Sunday that Damian Badillo, 23, Lakin, was driving the Lexus. They originally reported he was just a passenger in the vehicle.

Badillo was transported to the hospital in Ulysses. The chase started after report of a stolen vehicle in Kearny County, according to the Grant County sheriff’s department.

On Monday, the sheriff’s department had no details on whether he was still in custody,  hospitalized or possible charges.

Badillo has a previous conviction for aggravated battery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

 

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GRANT COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an accident during a chase just before 11p.m. Saturday in Grant County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Grant County Deputy and a Ulysses Police officer were in pursuit of a 2000 Lexus eastbound on Road 11 four miles east of Ulysses.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It left the roadway into the north ditch, catapulting into the power line, flipped several times. Power lines were trapped underneath the Lexus after it came to rest in the field north of Road 11.

A passenger Damian Badillo, 23, Lakin, was transported to the hospital in Ulysses. Authorities were still working to identify the driver early Sunday. The chase started after report of a stolen vehicle in Kearny County, according to the Grant County sheriff’s department.