WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the burning of a gay pride rainbow flag that had been hanging on the front porch of a Wichita home.

Wichita police say the flag was burned between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Saturday. At the time, a man, woman and 11-year-old girl were inside the home. It is in the city’s Riverside neighborhood, which is located near the Wichita Art Museum and a botanical garden.

Police are investigating the incident as an aggravated and a hate crime. Anyone with information is urged to call police.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities say five people were shot and wounded at a swingers club near Kansas City.

Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte said in a tweet that deputies responded around 3:30 a.m. Sunday to the shooting at The SPOTT Lifestyle and Swingers Club. It is located in an unincorporated area less than 10 miles east of downtown Kansas City.

The victims were taken to hospitals in private vehicles. None of the injuries were life-threatening. Forte says three of the victims walked away from a hospital without giving statements to detectives.

Forte says the motive is unknown.

No suspect information was released. The investigation is ongoing.

KANSAS CITY — Former Vice President Joe Biden brought his campaign for president to Kansas City Sunday. Biden met with workers in Kansas City who are on strike against General Motors.

“Today, I proudly stood alongside UAW members on strike in Kansas City as they fight for a fair contract. Everything that defines a middle class life is because of unions fighting for worker protections. I stand with you, and America stands with you”

The strike against General Motors by 49,000 auto workers is now in it’s 8th day.

A poll released over the weekend by he Des Moines Register, CNN and Mediacom, found Senator Elizabeth Warren running about even with Biden for the democrat nomination for presidet. Biden led their last poll in June.

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

Just after 8:00 p.m.Saturday, police were called to the report of a large group of teens fighting in the area of Huntoon and Tyler in Topeka, according to Lt. Shane Hilton.’

The caller also reported hearing gunshots. Upon arrival, one female was found to have non-life threatening gunshots wounds and transported by ambulance to the hospital. Another female later arrived at the hospital, also with non-life threatening gunshot wounds.

As a result of the investigation, police arrested Anthony Eugene Akins-Bomhoff was on requested charges of Attempted 1st Degree Homicide and Aggravated Battery.

A 17-year-old boy was also arrested for Discharging a firearm in City Limits, Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, Possession of stolen property, Criminal Use of a Firearm, Disobeying a Lawful Police Order, and Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer.

WICHITA – A Kansas woman has been found guilty of an unlawful act relating to the use of an identification card in Sedgwick County, according to Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Delia Sanchez-Tolentino, 20, pleaded no contest Thursday in Sedgwick County District Court to one felony count of an unlawful act relating to the use of an identification card.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the Office of Special Investigations of the Kansas Department of Revenue, which revealed that on or about October 3, 2018, Sanchez-Tolentino provided a fraudulent permanent resident card as part of her application to renew her Kansas ID card at the Sedgwick County Driver’s License Office in Wichita.

This is the 17th conviction resulting from an agreement announced in March 2018 between the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Revenue. Under the agreement, the attorney general’s office, in cooperation with local prosecutors, assumed responsibility for the prosecution of cases of tax fraud and related crimes investigated by the Department of Revenue in efforts to strengthen the state’s enforcement efforts for these types of crimes.

District Court Judge James Fleetwood took the plea. Sentencing is scheduled for October 29 at 9 a.m.

FINNEY COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 11a.m. Sunday in Finney County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Dodge Durango driven by Tracy M. Romo, 50, Garden City, was backing out of a parking area at Bosselman’s Travel Plaza,1415 Solar Drive, Unit 7 at U.S. 83 and U.S. 50 North junction.

The SUV struck and ran over 1-year-old Annatile Holguin of Garden City. The child was transported to St. Catherine’s hospital where she died.

Romo and a passenger in the SUV were not injured. Authorities released no additional details.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 24-year-old man was sentenced to 15.5 years for a fatal shooting in Wichita last year.

Douglas Pete, of Wichita, was sentenced Friday in the death of 25-year-old Deonte Mitchell.

Mitchell was found dead in February 2018 outside a Wichita home. He was shot in the back.

District Attorney Marc Bennett said in a news release that Pete pleaded guilty Aug. 9 to second-degree murder, armed criminal action, criminal discharge of a firearm and interference with law enforcement.

Pete initially claimed the shooting was an accident.

Before sentencing, Pete apologized to Mitchell’s family but did not provide a motive for the killing.

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man with prior felony conviction was charged Wednesday with unlawfully possessing firearms, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Gwyndell B. Declerck, Jr., 32, Topeka, is charged with one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. The indictment alleges that on Aug.17, 2019, Declerck unlawfully possessed a .40 caliber handgun. He was prohibited from having a gun because of prior convictions, including a 2010 conviction in Shawnee County District Court for criminal possession of a firearm.

Declerck was arrested Aug. 17, 2019, after Topeka police reported responding to callers complaining their house was hit by bullets.

If convicted Declerck faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The Topeka Police Department and the FBI investigated.

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SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on new charges after a weekend arrest.

Just after 8a.m. Saturday, police responded to the 4200 block of SW 34th Street where a resident reported their house had been struck by two bullets, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith.

In looking officers began to back track from the direction of where the gunshots had been fired. In doing so an apartment near 34th and Gage was discovered to have several holes which clearly showed shots had been fired from inside the residence.

An occupant of the apartment came out and was detained by officers.

After the execution of a search warrant, police arrested 32-year-old Gwyndell Declerk and transported him to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges that include Criminal Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, Criminal Discharge of Firearm; Recklessly at an Occupied Dwelling, Felony Criminal Damage to Property and Possession of Marijuana
There were no injuries reported from the gun fire.

NEW YORK (AP) — The number and rate of abortions across the United States have plunged to their lowest levels since the procedure became legal nationwide in 1973, according to new figures released over the past week.

The report from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights affiliated with Planned Parenthood, counted 862,000 abortions in the U.S. in 2017. That’s down from 926,000 tallied in the group’s previous report for 2014, and from just over 1 million counted for 2011.

Guttmacher is the only entity that strives to count all abortions in the U.S., making inquiries of individual providers. Federal data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention excludes California, Maryland and New Hampshire.

The new report illustrates that abortions are decreasing in all parts of the country, whether in Republican-controlled states seeking to restrict abortion access or in Democratic-run states protecting abortion rights. Between 2011 and 2017, abortion rates increased in only five states and the District of Columbia.

One reason for the decline in abortions is that fewer women are becoming pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute noted that the birth rate, as well as the abortion rate, declined during the years covered by the new report. A likely factor, the report said, is increased accessibility of contraception since 2011, as the Affordable Care Act required most private health insurance plans to cover contraceptives without out-of-pocket costs.

According to the report, the 2017 abortion rate was 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 — the lowest rate since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Following that ruling, the number of abortions in the U.S. rose steadily — peaking at 1.6 million in 1990 before starting a steady, still-continuing decline. The abortion rate is now less than half what is was in 1990.

Guttmacher noted that almost 400 state laws restricting abortion access were enacted between 2011 and 2017, but it said these laws were not the main force behind the overall decline in abortions. It said 57% of the nationwide decline occurred in the 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, that did not enact any new restrictions.

Between 2011 and 2017, the number of clinics providing abortion in the U.S. declined from 839 to 808, with significant regional disparities, the report said. The South had a decline of 50 clinics, including 25 in Texas, and the Midwest had a decline of 33 clinics, including nine each in Iowa, Michigan and Ohio. By contrast, the Northeast added 59 clinics, mostly in New Jersey and New York.

Over that period, the abortion rate dropped in Ohio by 27% and in Texas by 30%, but the rate dropped by similar amounts in states that protected abortion access, including California, Hawaii and New Hampshire.

Areas with the highest abortion rates in 2017 were the District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Florida. Rates were lowest in Wyoming, South Dakota, Kentucky, Idaho and Missouri — many women from those five states go out of state to obtain abortions .

One significant trend documented in the report: people who have abortions are increasingly relying on medication rather than surgery. Medication abortion, making use of the so-called abortion pill, accounted for 39% of all abortions in 2017, up from 29% in 2014.

The report, which focuses on data from 2017, does not chronicle the flurry of sweeping abortion bans that were enacted earlier this year in several GOP-controlled states, including a near-total ban in Alabama and five bills that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into pregnancy. None of those bans has taken effect; their backers hope that litigation over the laws might eventually lead to a Supreme Court ruling weakening or overturning Roe v. Wade.

Guttmacher’s president, Dr. Herminia Palacio, said abortion restrictions, regardless of whether they lead to fewer abortions, “are coercive and cruel by design,” with disproportionate impact on low-income women.

However, the push for tougher restrictions continues. Just last week, Texas Right to Life and some allied groups urged Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session of the Legislature to “abolish every remaining elective abortion” in the state.

The report comes amid upheaval in the federal family planning program, known as Title X. About one in five family planning clinics have left the program, objecting to a Trump administration regulation that bars them from referring women for abortions. Title X clinics provide birth control and basic health services for low-income women.

“If your priority is to reduce abortions, one of the best things you can do is make sure that women have access to high-quality, affordable and effective methods of birth control,” said Alina Salganicoff, director of women’s health policy for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

HUTCHINSON— The second of two men accused of murder for the shooting death of a Hutchinson man during a drug sale waived his right to a jury trial Friday and entered a plea in the case.

Tristan Delaney, 18, Hutchinson, entered a plea to reckless second degree murder in the death killing of Norman Cushinberry.  His co-defendent 26-year-old Curtis Garcia entered a similar plea agreement September 13.

Delaney and Garcia were originally charged with first-degree murder for the killing.

Investigators said the crime involved Delaney and Cushinberry purchasing drugs. According to court testimony, Delaney and Garcia had been texting the day of the shooting about the purchase of around a quarter pound of marijuana.

There is also some indication over phony money being involved. Garcia claims he was there to sell an Xbox and not drugs.

According to court testimony, Delaney came out of the home in the 500 block of Washington Street in Hutchinson with a shotgun. That gun was later found near Cushinberry.

Police found Cushinberry in the street suffering from gunshot wounds to his upper chest. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Garcia is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 25. Delaney will be sentenced on Nov. 1.

By STEPHEN KORANDA 

TOPEKA, Kansas — When Gov. Laura Kelly signed a proclamation recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month in Kansas this week, she hailed the culture and diversity that Latinos bring to the state. She also gave a serious warning. 

If the state’s 350,000 Latinos don’t take part in the 2020 census, she said, Kansas could lose federal money and, potentially, representation in Congress.

The census approaches as the national immigration debate is wrapped in intense rhetoric, calls for building a wall on the southern border and an uptick in federal enforcement actions. 

“I’m concerned that they will be afraid to be counted,” Kelly said. “I just want to reassure them they have nothing to worry about. Their voice counts.”

That’s why it’s a top priority for the executive director of the administration’s Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission, Audé Negrete. 

She said there are multiple challenges: Census documents are printed in Spanish, but some Spanish-speakers may be nervous about talking to a census worker who doesn’t speak the language. She also is combating misconceptions that census data could be used by immigration enforcement.

“If they have a mixed-status family, they might not want the one person to be in danger if they were to answer the census,” she said.

Census data is confidential, and Negrete’s group has been working to let people know that there will not be a citizenship question on the form because the U.S. Supreme Court blocked it.

Why it matters

The federal government uses census data to determine how to distribute funding for everything from school lunches to transportation. Private developers analyze it when planning housing projects and new businesses. So, an inaccurate count could mean the state misses out on federal money and development.

“If only 20 people answer the census but 100 live in a town, we’re going to have resources for 20 but have to serve 100,” Negrete said.

Plus, state lawmakers use census data to redraw legislative districts, which will happen in 2022, and the federal government doles out seats in the U.S. House of Representatives based on the numbers.

Negrete’s group is holding listening sessions around Kansas to  get a feel for which issues are on the minds of Latinos. In general, people aren’t asking about the census, and Negrete said she’s bringing up the topic to get ahead of that knowledge gap. 

It’s not just state officials working to raise awareness and dispel concerns. The U.S. Census Bureau also has staff working in Kansas.

Carlos Urquilla-Diaz, a partnership specialist with the census, unfurled large banners and distributed printouts with census data ahead of Wednesday’s proclamation signing. He’s been traveling the state meeting with anyone who wants to know about the census.

“We bring information, we teach,” he said. “We go to different communities and we start with the highest elected official, in most cases, of that community.”

Kansas won’t have another shot to get an accurate count until 2030, and Negrete said it has long-term impacts.

“Elections are two years, four years, six years. The census is 10 years,” she said. “It affects everyone.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda or email skoranda (at) ku (dot) edu.