OTTAWA COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just before 6a.m. Monday in Ottawa County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Peterbilt semi driven by Jason E. Merryman, 42, Hastings, NE., was southbound on U.S. 81 just south of Cloud Road.
The semi drifted on the right shoulder. The driver lost control of the semi. It entered the west ditch and rolled onto the passenger side.
Merryman was transported to the hospital in Salina. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The developer of the Keystone XL oil pipeline says it plans to start construction next year, after the U.S. State Department concluded major environmental damage from a leak is unlikely and could quickly be mitigated.
TransCanada spokesman Matthew John said Monday that the company remains committed to moving ahead with the project following years of reviews from federal and state regulators.
But the report issued Friday from the Trump administration’s State Department drew sharp criticism from environmental groups. They say they’ll continue to fight the project they view as an environmental threat.
The report says the pipeline would have a “negligible to moderate” environmental impact under its normal operations, and continuous monitoring and the company’s response plan would mitigate the effects of any spill.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police have ruled that a woman found dead inside a vehicle after a police chase died of injuries suffered in the head-on collision that ended the pursuit.
Police on Monday disclosed the cause of death of 29-year-old Chrissy Saale. Her body was found early Thursday on Interstate 70 in Kansas City, Kansas. She was a passenger. The driver, 24-year-old Collan Leigh Cross faces several charges.
The chase began when police followed a car onto a dead end street before the driver struck a police car and drove off, crossing into Missouri before returning to Kansas.
The car eventually drove the wrong way on the interstate and collided with another car.
The other driver had minor injuries.
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas attorney general’s office has determined that the Salina City Commission violated the state’s open records law.
The finding comes after former Salina City Commissioner John Blanchard made a request in November for copies of documents concerning a contract between the city and the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce for economic development services. Blanchard says he received some of the requested documents but one contained redacted information.
The attorney general’s office declined to pursue formal enforcement action, but requested the city commission release the unredacted copy of the letter Blanchard requested.
Blanchard has since received the document. He says the commission “disregarded the rights of the press and public to know the business of their government.”
TOPEKA, Kan. – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and have a suspect in custody. Just after 7:30p.m. Sunday, the police responded to a report of a robbery of the Conoco, 2045 N Kansas in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.
The clerk told police an African American man described as having freckles and wearing pantyhose over his face entered the store and demanded money.
The suspect was wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and white/black shoes. He did not indicate he had any weapons. The suspect then left the store with an unknown amount of money running NE from the store.
Officers investigating the incident then found Edward E. Holloman running from the area. As officers attempted to stop him, he continued running and refused to comply with officer’s orders to stop. He was arrested minutes later without incident, according to Trimble.
Holloman was booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on the charges of Robbery, Felony Obstruction, and Theft.
He has previous convictions for aggravated robbery, robbery and obstruction, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
LINN COUNTY — A child was injured in an accident just before 4p.m. Sunday in Linn County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Kia Sorento driven by Rebecca L. Snelson, 65, Prescott, was turning southbound in the 300 Block of Main Street into an alleyway.
The SUV struck 3-year-old Jilliann Q. Foxworth of Prescott who was attempting to cross the alley.
The child was transported to Children’s Mercy North in Kansas City. Authorities released no additional details.
RILEY COUNTY —The 21-year old Manhattan man who died Saturday after suffering a gunshot wound, Felix K. Flores, was a Geary County Corrections officer. He was off-duty at the time of the shooting Saturday night in Manhattan.
Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf confirmed Flores had been a corrections officer for the sheriff’s department for about one year. “A great kid to be around, a really good worker, had a great attitude about things. ” Wolf said he really liked Flores. “He was just one of those guys that you are around them for a little while and the more you’re around him the more you liked him. That was definitely the case with him. This just really took the wind out of my sails when I heard about this.”
Flores was initially from the state of Texas.
RILEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have made an arrest.
Just after 7:40p.m. Saturday, the Riley County Police Department received a call of an unresponsive individual in the 1400 block of Vista Lane, according to a media release.
When officers arrived on scene, they found Felix K Flores, 21, Manhattan, with life-threatening injuries, suffering from a gunshot wound. He was transported to Via Christi in Manhattan then life-flighted to Stormont Vail in Topeka where he died.
Early Sunday, police reported the arrest Gregoria Elizabeth Baez, 21, in connection with the shooting. according to the daily arrest report. She is being held on a $20,000 bond for involuntary manslaughter; Recklessly, according to the RCPD report.
Police have released no additional details.
KDHE
TOPEKA – Influenza season is rapidly approaching in the United States and Kansas. While activity remains low, influenza cases have already been reported to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
Although the flu vaccine can vary in how well it works, it is the best way to prevent flu illness and serious flu complications, including those that can result in hospitalization and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends receiving the vaccine before influenza activity begins in your community, ideally by the end of October.
“The influenza vaccine is recommended for nearly everyone six months of age or older. Being vaccinated against influenza is especially important for anyone at high risk of complications, including babies and young children, pregnant women, older persons and people with certain chronic conditions,” said Dr. Farah Ahmed, State Epidemiologist, KDHE. “Getting vaccinated also protects people around you, so getting vaccinated is important for persons caring for young children and those caring for persons with medical conditions that put them at a higher risk of severe complications.”
Depending on the severity of the influenza season, 5-20 percent of the population may get influenza each year. Symptoms of influenza include fever, dry cough, extreme tiredness and muscle aches. Complications can include pneumonia, ear and sinus infections and dehydration; influenza may also worsen other chronic conditions.
In addition to receiving the flu vaccine, the following actions are recommended to help stop the spread of germs and prevent respiratory illnesses like the flu:
2017-2018 Influenza Season Statistics
During the peak of the 2017-18 influenza season in Kansas, approximately 12 percent of all health care visits in sentinel clinics were due to influenza-like illness. Influenza or pneumonia contributed to or was the direct cause of almost 1,600 deaths among Kansas residents during the 2017-18 influenza season. More information on influenza surveillance in Kansas for the 2017-18 season can be found at https://www.kdheks.gov/flu/surveillance.htm.
For information about receiving the influenza vaccine, please contact your health care provider or your local health department.
Visithttps://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm for more information on influenza.
JEFFERSON COUNTY —A jury deliberated just 40 minutes before finding a Kansas man and his wife guilty on Thursday of possession with intent to distribute nearly 15 pounds of methamphetamine, according to a media release from Colorado’s First Judicial District.
On January 2, 2018, Jose Chavez-Tellez, 49, and his wife were traveling eastbound though Jefferson County on I-70 when they stopped at a truck stop at Ward Road and 44th Avenue. After leaving the truck stop, Chavez-Tellez struck a curb, popping both tires on the passenger side of the vehicle.
A Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy noticed Chavez-Tellez backing eastbound in the westbound lanes of 52nd avenue with two flat tires, and the deputy stopped Chavez-Tellez to offer aid.
The deputy found a large amount of methamphetamine in a shopping bag in the back cargo area of the car. There were 14.65 pounds, or 6,644 grams, of methamphetamine divided into 15, quart-sized Ziploc baggies.
Jose Chavez-Tellez’s wife, Rhonda Chavez-Tellez, 52, was a passenger in the car. They live in Kansas and had driven to Los Angeles to pick up the methamphetamine. They were returning to Kansas with the drugs when they were stopped in Jefferson County.
The street value of the methamphetamine was approximately $350,000.
Jose Chavez-Tellez was found guilty of Possession with intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance.
He will be sentenced on October 29 and faces a mandatory minimum of 8 to 32 years in prison.
Rhonda Chavez-Tellez pled guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine and on September 19 was sentenced to six years in prison.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City University medical students are pushing for a partner treatment plan for sexually transmitted diseases amid rising local and national STD rates.
Students Mianna Armstrong and Megan McMurray are bringing attention to the legal limits of expedited partner therapy in seven states, including Kansas and Oklahoma. The medical students and their professor John Paulson published research this year about the treatment plan to write prescriptions for both a patient diagnosed with an STD and their sexual partners.
The treatment outlines that STD patient’s sexual partners can get prescriptions even if the doctors or nurses haven’t personally examined them.
Missouri law explicitly allows licensed doctors to use expedited partner therapy to treat chlamydia and gonorrhea, though health officials still tread carefully. The practice is limited in Kansas law, which doesn’t address whether doctors can prescribe drugs to patients they haven’t seen.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that doctors and nurses practice expedited partner therapy for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
The American Osteopathic Association this summer drafted a resolution in line with the CDC recommendation. The association endorsed the legalization of expedited partner therapy in all states for doctors, in part due to Armstrong and McMurray’s research.
“We can advocate for (it), as an organization,” said Bill Mayo, the association’s president. “But we cannot draft legislation and pass laws.”
Mayo said the students’ research would inform state osteopathic associations’ positions on legislation.
Armstrong recommended that Congress standardize the patchwork of state laws by enacting federal legislation that allows expedited partner therapy.
“It can give people who don’t have access to health care access to the medications they need to treat the infection,” she said.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach is proposing capping property appraisal increases, which he said would give taxpayers a more predictable property tax bill, but some experts say the change likely would require changes to the state constitution.
Kobach’s plan would cap property appraisal increases at no more than 2 percent a year, regardless of how much the property increases in actual fair market value, He said the change would especially help the elderly and those on fixed incomes.
“Those individuals need to be able to plan out their retirement and have some knowledge that their home value is not going to be jacked up by 50 percent over a four- or five-year period, which is not unusual in some parts of the state,” Kobach said.
Property taxes determine how much tax each property owes, with the higher values meaning higher tax bills for property owners. The taxes are based on annual property appraisals.
Linda Terrill, a Johnson County attorney who has practiced property tax law for about 40 years, said Kobach’s plan might violate a constitutional amendment that requires the state to have “a uniform and equal basis of valuation and rate of taxation of all property subject to taxation.”
She said capping increases would mean properties that appreciate in value over time would no longer be valued or taxed at their actual fair market value, while others would be, and that could cause problems for local governments and some taxpayers.
“The more you move away from uniform and equal, the more difficult it is to fix it when you finally realize it wasn’t a good idea,” she said.
Kobach said he hasn’t decided whether his plan should cap appraisal increases for all time, or whether the state should allow the sale of a property to trigger a new appraisal. He said the Legislature should make that decision.
It is also unclear whether the Kansas Supreme Court would allow any kind of variation from the fair market standard for any extended period of time. In 2016, the court struck down a law that imposed a similar kind of cap for people who successfully protested their appraisal values and had the values lowered.
Kobach said he doesn’t believe that case would apply to his proposal
TOPEKA — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have a suspect in custody.
Just after 11 p.m. Saturday, police responded to a report of an aggravated burglary in the 2400 block of SE Colorado in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.
The victim reported that a white male subject wearing a white shirt and light colored shorts had entered the residence through a window. Once the victim confronted the suspect, he fled on foot in an unknown direction.
Just after 11:30p.m. the police responded to the 2700 block of SE California to a report of a stolen vehicle that had just occurred. A Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper was in the area and saw the stolen vehicle at 29th and California. The vehicle was stopped and William Jackson, Sr., was taken into custody.
Further investigation showed Jackson was also the suspect in the aggravated burglary. He was ultimately arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on the following charges: Aggravated Burglary, Auto Theft, and Theft.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration would be required to set new minimum requirements for seats on airplanes under legislation to be considered in the House this week, possibly giving passengers a break from ever-shrinking legroom and cramped quarters.
The regulation of seat width and legroom is part of a five-year extension of federal aviation programs announced early Saturday by Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate committees that oversee the nation’s air travel.
Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to keep FAA programs running. The Senate will also need to take up the bill this week or both chambers will need to pass a short-term extension.
The bill would prohibit the involuntary bumping of passengers who have already boarded a plane. But in a nod to the power of the commercial airliners, lawmakers declined to include language that would have prohibited airlines from imposing fees deemed “not reasonable and proportional.”
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said lawmakers from both chambers agreed it was time to take action on “ever-shrinking seats.”
“Relief could soon be on the way for weary airline passengers facing smaller and smaller seats,” Nelson said.
In July, the FAA rejected the idea of setting minimum standards for airlines seats and legroom as a safety measure. But Congress appears determined to require the FAA to do so.
The room between rows — measured from a point on one seat to the same point on the seat in the next row — has been shrinking for many years as airlines squeeze more seats onto their planes. It was once commonly 34 or 35 inches, and is now less than 30 inches on some planes.
Lawmakers also included several provisions to address concerns about increased airport noise levels caused by new flight paths. The bill would require the FAA to study the potential health impacts of flight noise and the feasibility of amending existing departure procedures.
The bill would also mandate that flight attendants get a minimum of 10 hours of rest between their work shifts and require airlines to communicate better with customers during mass flight cancellations and groundings.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said he expects the House and Senate to move quickly to send the bill to the president’s desk.
