SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have a second suspect in custody.
Glass -photo Shawnee Co.Arterberry-Riley-photo Shawnee County
Just after 1:30 a.m. September 18, officers responded to a report of a shooting at Abigail’s, 3701 SW Plaza Drive in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.
Upon arrival, officers were unable to locate a victim, but did locate numerous shell casings and firearms in the parking lot and street.
While investigating this incident a man identified as 34-year-old Damario Brooks arrived at a local hospital with what was to be determined a critical gunshot wound. Officers were able to get a brief statement from the victim.
On Monday, police reported the arrest of 31-year-old Damon R. Glass in connection to the shooting.
Glass was apprehended in Riley County and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on charges of aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm.
On September 20, police reported Damien S. Arterberry-Riley was booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on aggravated battery charges in connection with the shooting.
There were multiple witnesses to the shooting and police are asking anyone with information regarding this crime to contact them.
Although his injury were critical, Brooks is expected to survive, according to police.
WICHITA, KAN. – Tyler Barriss, 25, Los Angeles, Calif., was arraigned in federal court in Wichita Monday on a superseding indictment charging him in connection with a Dec. 28, 2017, swatting incident in Wichita, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Barriss- photo courtesy Glendale, Calif. police
Barriss, who is being held on state charges in Sedgwick County District Court, including involuntary manslaughter, waived his right to a hearing on whether he could be released while awaiting trial on the federal charges. Trial in the state case is set for Jan. 7. Barriss is accused of making a hoax call to Wichita police. In the resulting confusion, police shot and killed 28-year-old Andrew Finch.
A superseding indictment filed in federal court charges Barriss with making false/hoax reports to emergency services, cyberstalking, making interstate threats, making interstate threats to harm by fire, wire fraud and conspiracy to make false/hoax reports. Also charged in the superseding indictment are co-defendants Casey Viner,18, North College Hill, Ohio, and Shane Gaskill, 20, Wichita Kan.
Currently, the three defendants are scheduled for trial on the federal charges Nov. 6 before U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren, but the date is likely to change.
FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on domestic violence and kidnapping charges after a weekend arrest.
On Friday, Ford County Deputies responded to a domestic violence call in rural Ford County, according to a media release.
The suspect fled the scene just before deputies arrived. They did locate the suspect vehicle was a few miles from the residence and a search was conducted throughout the night and into the early morning hours of Saturday before a deputy spotted the suspect near a milo field.
The deputy pursued the suspect into the field at which time the suspect laid down.
A security perimeter was set up and assistance was requested from the Dodge City Police Department, Kansas Highway Patrol and Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks & the Gray County Sheriff’s Office to aid in a search of the suspect.
Three separated K-9’s were deployed and an unmanned air unit but they were unable to find the suspect.
A local farmer offered the use of a spray rig to aid in the search. As a result, law enforcement officers were able to locate the suspect, who ran but was caught and taken into custody without incident.
The male suspect has been booked into the Ford County Detention Center on Domestic Violence charges of Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Battery & Aggravated Assault.
The case will be sent to the Ford County Attorney for review. Authorities did not release his name on Monday.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has pulled more than $1 million in advertising support from Rep. Kevin Yoder’s re-election campaign in the Kansas 3rd District, according toThe Hill newspaper.
The Hill broke the story late Sunday and quotes an unnamed source “familiar with the NRCC’s strategic thinking.”
Photo courtesy Congressman Kevin Yoder
The report comes on the heels of Inside Politics Saturday moving the race to “Tilt Democratic.” Other ratings organizations have the race as a “toss up.”
The last poll was from the New York Times which has Democrat Sharice Davids up eight points on the incumbent.
Yoder’s campaign isn’t ready to concede that the NRCC is abandoning the race.
“Chairman (Steve) Stivers reiterated the NRCC’s commitment to helping Kevin directly to him last week,” campaign spokesperson C.J. Grover said it a text. “The committee remains engaged in our race and is sending coordinated TV dollars this week.”
Even if the NRCC is pulling out of town, Yoder is getting plenty of outside money. The Congressional Leadership Fund, the largest GOP PAC, has already poured $1.8 million into the race and has hundreds of thousands of dollars more in TV time reserved in Kansas City.
In a tweet, University of Kansas Political Science Professor Patrick Miller said the NRCC pulling back money from Yoder is “not a sign of confidence in his re-election odds.” He also said that the NRCC has been “triaging several vulnerable Rs (Republicans) in the last week” whose poll numbers look similar to Yoder’s.
The NRCC story also comes at the end of the fundraising quarter for candidate committees. The news could discourage some Republicans from putting money into the race. Sunday marks the close of the latest fundraising period for congressional campaigns. Federal Election Commission reports for candidates are due Oct. 15.
TOPEKA—Fiscal year tax collections have exceeded previous year’s totals by $172.78 million according to data from the latest revenue report released Monday, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Revenue.
Fiscal year 2019 tax collections so far total $1.69 billion.
September tax collections were up $93.29 million, or 15.48 percent over last year. September’s tax collections exceeded expectations for the month by $81.04 million.
Individual income tax collections totaled $346.97 million in September which is $76.46 million or 28.26 percent above the same month last year. September sales tax collections fell short of last September’s collections by $1.11 million.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday celebrated a revised North American trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a return of the United States to a “manufacturing powerhouse,” vowing to sign the agreement by late November.
President Trump Delivers Remarks on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement https://t.co/hZFMxLBTi9
But the president noted that the deal would need to be ratified by Congress, a step that could be complicated by the outcome of the fall congressional elections. When told he seemed confident of congressional approval, he said he was “not at all confident” but felt ratification would be granted if lawmakers took the correct action.
“Anything you submit to Congress is trouble no matter what,” Trump said, predicting that Democrats would say, “Trump likes it so we’re not going to approve it.”
Trump embraced the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement during a Rose Garden ceremony, branding the pact the “USMCA.” The president said the name has a “good ring to it,” repeating U-S-M-C-A several times.
A good day for Canada & our closest trading partners. More tomorrow… https://t.co/qOowhvYW2B
The agreement was forged just before a midnight deadline imposed by the U.S. to include Canada in a deal reached with Mexico late in the summer. It replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has lambasted as a job-wrecking disaster that has hollowed out the nation’s industrialized base.
Flanked by Cabinet members, Trump said the pact is the “most important deal we’ve ever made by far,” covering $1.2 trillion in trade. The president said his administration had not yet agreed to lift tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, a contentious issue between the two neighbors.
For Trump, the agreement reached in the weeks before the November congressional elections offers vindication for his hardline trade policies that have roiled relations with China, the European Union and America’s North American neighbors while causing concerns among Midwest farmers and manufacturers worried about retaliation.
Trump’s advisers view the trade pact as a political winner in Midwest battleground states critical to the president’s 2016 victory and home to tens of thousands of auto workers and manufacturers who could benefit from the changes.
Trump said he would sign the final agreement in late November, in about 60 days, and the pact is expected to be signed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto before he leaves office Dec. 1. Trump said he spoke to Trudeau by phone and told reporters that their recent tensions didn’t affect the deal-making. “He’s a professional. I’m a professional,” Trump said, calling it a “fair deal.”
Pena Nieto will be replaced by President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose incoming administration said the deal would offer more certainty for financial markets, investment and job creation.
Ratifying the deal is likely to stretch into 2019 because once Trump and the leaders from Canada and Mexico sign the agreement, the administration and congressional leaders will need to write legislation to implement the deal and win passage in Congress.
Trump threatened to go ahead with a revamped NAFTA, with or without Canada. It was unclear, however, whether Trump had authority from Congress to pursue a revamped NAFTA with only Mexico.
NAFTA tore down most trade barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico, leading to a surge in trade among them. But Trump and other critics said it encouraged manufacturers to move south of the border to take advantage of low Mexican wages, costing American jobs.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A statue has been dedicated in Topeka to honor an instrumental player in the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended segregation in public schools.
Image courtesy VisitTopeka.com
The statue of McKinley Burnett was dedicated Sunday afternoon in the city’s downtown. While president of the Topeka chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Burnett helped recruit the 13 black parents who tried unsuccessfully to enroll their children in white Topeka elementary schools in 1951. Their lawsuit was combined with four other segregation challenges, leading to the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Washburn University School of Law dean Carla Pratt says the case was the most significant of the 20th century because it demanded that America live up to its promise of equality.
Dr. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, is the First District Kansas Congressman.
Dear Friends,
We have some positive news on trade as the White House signed the renegotiated KORUS agreement and announced the beginning of a trade agreement negotiation with Japan. CNBC’s Global CFO Council also found that the United States is the only country whose economy is showing signs of improvement. Other countries and regions, such as Canada, the UK, China, and the Euro Zone, showed signs of stagnation and decline. Despite criticism, our efforts toward deregulation and pro-growth tax cuts have successfully revitalized the American economy and put more money in the hands of families who desperately need it.
Last week the U.S. Federal Reserve echoed promising economic forecasts and reaffirmed plans to steadily tighten monetary policy as our nation is predicted to continue enjoying economic growth and near full employment
In regards to the latest news on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation. I found Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony to be genuine and from the heart. In Thursday’s hearing, the committee had the opportunity to ask both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford, under oath, anything they wanted to about these allegations. I am glad Dr. Ford had the opportunity to testify. We must always take these types of accusations seriously, but after watching closely to both testimonies I have confidence in Judge Kavanaugh. He has already cleared six FBI background investigations, given 34 hours of sworn testimony, and done three interviews with the Committee under penalty of felony categorically denying all accusations.
Extending this by a week just continues to destroy Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s life’s work and drag his family through the mud.
President Díaz-Canel
Meeting with President Díaz-Canel
I was honored to sit down with the new Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel to discuss trade opportunities between the U.S. and Cuba. Currently, we have outdated trade restrictions in place that bar us from capitalizing on the opportunities that lie just 90 miles from our coast.
We cannot continue to overlook this market! Even though the Cuban market and population are small in comparison to the U.S., they are far from insignificant. Cuba imports nearly $500 million in commodities produced in Kansas, but they get these goods and roughly 80 percent of their food from Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
This is a huge disappointment. Kansas farmers can and should be Cuba’s number one supplier of commodities like sorghum, soy, wheat, and corn. In our meeting, I expressed my continued support of opening markets with Cuba. In D.C., I have been a vocal advocate for trade relations with Cuba, and have cosponsored the Cuba Trade Act, Americans Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, and the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act.
Tim Phillips and Steve Forbes
Trade Builds America
Last week, I also sat down with Steve Forbes from Forbes Magazine and our host, Tim Phillips from Americans for Prosperity, to discuss the impact of tariffs on American consumers. Chinese industry have been hit hard, but so have American businesses. Roughly 60% of Kansas’s agricultural producers are going to lose money this year, and as Steve pointed out, re-gaining lost markets is not an easy task. Kansans have felt the consequences, with Chinese tariffs on soybeans, hurting our farmers, and U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, increasing costs for our manufacturers.
We must double our efforts to knock down trade barriers and open new markets. Steve and I both agreed that while free trade is tremendously important for improving the lives of our consumers, the United States should also make a stronger effort to protect intellectual property abroad and hold the perpetrators of trade abuses directly accountable. I would like to give a special thanks to Mr. Phillips for hosting us, and Mr. Forbes for his valuable insight on this important issue.
Victory for Small Business
Last Tuesday evening the House passed my bill, H.R. 6369, which aims to expand federal contracting opportunities for small businesses. Currently, dollar thresholds for contract sizes limit opportunities for small businesses to participate in federal contracting, however this bill would modernize dollar amounts for sole-source awards, bringing them in line with current contract sizes. Additionally, the bill would establish a front-end verification process at the Small Business Administration to ensure that only qualified firms are receiving contracts. By making these changes, we’re providing necessary oversight of taxpayer resources while expanding contracting opportunities for service-disabled veteran, women owned, and HUBZone certified small businesses.
Tax Reform 2.0
The House voted Friday to make the individual tax cuts permanent through Tax Reform 2.0, which will continue to protect hardworking Americans and small businesses. Tax Reform 2.0 includes tax cuts for middle-class families, helps families and individuals save for the future, and spurs American innovation by helping entrepreneurs. Since passing the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, the American Economy has seen tremendous growing success. There have been nearly 1.7 million new jobs created since tax reform was enacted, and today’s vote locks in these key provisions.
Guardian of Small Business award
Marshall a Guardian of Small Business
I was extremely honored when the National Federation of Independent Business handed me their Guardian of Small Business award for my efforts to promote and protect Kansas small business. The NFIB has represented small businesses for over 75 years. They present their Guardian of Small Business Award annually to lawmakers who consistently vote to support major issues facing small business. I plan to continue working with the NFIB and my fellow members of the House to topple trade barriers and present new opportunities for Kansas’s small business owners.
Marshall Serves to Protect Patients
Last week we made significant strides in protecting Kansans, and patients in dire need. I recently led a bipartisan letter to protect vulnerable patients from abusive behavior by air ambulance companies by asking for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act to include provisions authored by Rep. Woodall (R-GA) that work to address an egregious business practice that is taking advantage of vulnerable people in their most desperate time of need.
When driving is not quick enough for a patient in an emergency, one of three air ambulance companies is the only option for Kansans to get to the emergency treatment they need. But depending on which air ambulance company is called, the charge to the patient can vary by literally tens of thousands of dollars.
Just this year alone, the Kansas Insurance Department has received more than 70 complaints from Kansans about air ambulance companies balance-billing more than $35,000 per emergency transport.
These crippling and unforeseen bills from air ambulance companies who refuse to contract with the most common health insurance providers are hurting Americans across the country.
We passed the FAA Reauthorization Act with overwhelming bipartisan support. I was proud to see the conference report retain provisions mentioned in the letter we sent and protect these patients; however this issue is far from rectified, and I look forward to continuing to advocate on their behalf.
Trade with Taiwan
It was great to have another top 10 agriculture market in D.C. Taiwan has long been a partner of U.S. agriculture, purchasing $3.3 billion in agricultural products last year. Last week, they committed to buying 750,000 tons of U.S. soybeans. That’s a $300 million investment in U.S. farmers. As we are working to shore up our trade agreements, this is certainly good news for our soybean producers that have one of the hardest hit commodities in this trade war.
Just before 8:30p.m. Sunday, officers responded to a Raytown home in the 11000 Block of E. 74th Terrace after receiving a 911 call, according to a media release.
The caller reported hearing gunfire and seeing bodies lying in front of the home.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe said investigators were at the scene as of midnight waiting on search warrants to enter the house and search vehicles. Investigators were still determining if they thought the shooter was among the dead or was at large.
No other details were immediately released, including the names of the victims.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on numerous charges after a weekend altercation with police.
DARNELL -photo Shawnee Co.
Just after 9:15 p.m. Saturday police were dispatched to 1040 NE Wabash in Topeka on a report of a domestic disturbance, according to Lt. Manuel Munoz.
Officers arrived on the scene and determined that a man was upset and he was also holding a toddler in his arms.
The man identified as Nicholas Alexander Darnell, 26, was not making any sense and officers were concerned for the safety of the toddler.
Officers attempted to take the Darnell into custody after he refused to follow orders. He also refused to put the toddler down and attempted to walk away from the scene.
Darnell then punched and battered officers while still holding the toddler and refused to put the child down, according to Munoz.
The officers then called to have officers respond in emergency mode.
Ultimately, police transported Darnell to a local hospital to be checked out and then transported to Shawnee County Department of Corrections for Child Endangerment, Battery on LEO X2, Domestic Battery X2 and Interference.
WICHITA– Starting Monday October 1, it costs more to drive the Kansas Turnpike. The KTA’s toll will increase the following ways:
KTA camera view in Douglas County
Electronic passenger vehicles (2-4 axles using a K-TAG or compatible device) will see an approximate 5% increase and realize a savings of up to 25% off cash tolls.
Electronic commercial vehicles (5+ axles using a K-TAG or compatible device) may see an adjustment due to rounding electronic fares to the nearest nickel and realize a savings of up to 18% off cash tolls.
The less than 40% of cash customers will see an approximate 12.5% increase (passenger) and 10% increase (commercial). All cash fares will be adjusted to the nearest quarter, which could cause variances in the percentage increase.
“KTA’s toll rate per mile continues to be one of the lowest in the country,” said Steve Hewitt, KTA’s CEO. “We encourage travelers to maximize their savings by using an electronic transponder like K-TAG to pay for tolls.”
The Kansas Turnpike Authority Board approved the increase in July.
JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects after a weekend drug bust. Deputies served a search warrant in connection with a drug investigation at a home in the 15, 500 Block of US Hwy 75 in rural Mayetta Saturday, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.
Samuel Jacob Seeley-Photo Jackson Co.Jonathan L. Seeley-photo Jackson Co.
At the scene, deputies arrested Jonathan L. Seeley, 53, and his son Samuel Jacob Seeley, 25, both of Mayetta.
Deputies seized methamphetamine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and weapons from the residence.
Jonathan Seeley was booked for possession of methamphetamine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and criminal use of firearms. Samuel Seeley was booked for possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and criminal use of firearms. Troopers from the Kansas Highway Patrol assisted with the search warrant, according to Morse.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new survey suggests the economy remains strong in nine Midwest and Plains states, but business leaders are concerned about the ongoing trade disputes.
The overall economic index for the region slipped to 57.5 in September from August’s 61.1, but it remained in positive territory.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says he expects business will slow down but continue growing in the next few months because of the trade concerns and rising interest rates.
The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline.
The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
