WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Nearly 78 years after he died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy Seaman 2nd Class Wilbur Clayton Barrett will be laid to rest in his native Kansas.
Barrett’s remains were returned to Wichita Thursday. He will be buried in El Dorado on Saturday.
He was an El Dorado native who enlisted in the Navy in May 1940 at age 25.
Barrett’s remains were commingled in mass graves in Hawaii with hundreds of others killed on the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack. Advances in DNA and a renewed push by the military to identify remains led to Barrett being positively identified last June.
Barrett’s great nephew, 72-year-old Joe Binter, said the Navy used DNA from one of his aunts to identify the sailor.
WICHITA, KAN. – An Ohio gamer involved in a swatting incident that led to a death was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison, according U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.
In addition, the defendant was ordered to pay $2,500 in restitution. After the prison term, he will serve two years on supervised release.
Police body camera images of The December 2018 fatal response to a hoax call that involved Viner -courtesy Wichita Police
Casey S. Viner, 19, North College Hill, Ohio, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of obstructing justice.
“Swatting, and soliciting others to swat someone, are more than foolish,” McAllister said. “Such actions are reckless, dangerous and, as this case proves, potentially tragic. Swatting is not a prank, and it is no way to resolve disputes among gamers. Once again, I call upon gamers to self-police their community to ensure that the practice of swatting is ended once and for all.”
In his plea, Viner admitted he argued with co-defendant Shane Gaskill while playing Call of Duty World War II online. Viner contacted co-defendant Tyler Barriss and asked him to swat Gaskill, Viner thought Gaskill lived at 1033 W. McCormick in Wichita.
In fact, Gaskill gave Viner and Barriss a false address. Barriss called Wichita police and reported a hostage situation at 1033 W. McCormick. Police responded, believing they were dealing with a man who had shot his own father and was holding family members hostage. Andrew Finch, who lived at the address, did not know why police were at his home when he stepped onto the porch. When Finch made a move that startled officers, he was shot and killed.
Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Barriss pleaded guilty to more than 50 felonies nationwide, including federal charges in Kansas of making an interstate hoax that resulted in a death and cyberstalking. Gaskill was placed on deferred prosecution.
In his plea, Viner admitted trying to erase any record on his phone of his communications with Barriss and Gaskill.
BOSTON (AP) — “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for paying $15,000 to rig her daughter’s SAT scores in the college admissions scandal that ensnared dozens of wealthy and well-connected parents.
Huffman, 56, became the first of 34 parents to be sentenced in the case. She was also given a $30,000 fine, 250 hours of community service and a year of supervised release.
Before sentencing, she tearfully described her daughter asking why Huffman didn’t trust her.
“I can only say I am so sorry, Sophia,” Huffman said. “I was frightened. I was stupid, and I was so wrong. I am deeply ashamed of what I have done. I have inflicted more damage than I could ever imagine. I now see all the things that led me down this road, but ultimately none of the reasons matter because at the end of the day I had a choice. I could have said no.”
A total of 51 people have been charged in the scheme, the biggest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.
In his argument for incarceration, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen said Friday that prosecutors had no reason to doubt the rationale she offered — her fears and insecurities as a parent — for taking part in the scheme.
“But with all due respect to the defendant, welcome to parenthood,” Rosen said. “Parenthood is terrifying, exhausting and stressful, but that’s what every parent goes through. … What parenthood does not do, it does not make you a felon, it does not make you cheat, in fact it makes you want to serve as a positive role model for your children.”
Huffman’s lawyer Martin Murphy argued that her crimes were less serious than those of her co-defendants, noting that she paid a low amount and that, unlike others, she did not enlist her daughter in the scheme.
“One of the key things the court should do is to impose a sentence that treats Ms. Huffman like other similarly situated defendants, not treat her more harshly because of her wealth and fame, or treat her more favorably because of her wealth and fame,” Murphy said.
The scandal has embroiled elite universities across the country, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and UCLA. It exposed the lengths to which parents will go to get their children into the “right” schools and reinforced suspicions that the college admissions process is slanted toward the rich.
Prosecutors said parents schemed to manipulate test scores and bribed coaches to get their children into elite schools by having them labeled as recruited athletes for sports they didn’t even play.
Huffman pleaded guilty in May to a single count of conspiracy and fraud as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Prosecutors had requested prison time to send the message that white-collar criminals can’t simply buy their way out of jail.
But her lawyers argued that Huffman was only a “customer” in a broader scheme orchestrated by others. In past cases involving cheating or academic fraud, they said, only the ringleaders went to prison.
The case is seen as an indicator of what’s in store for other defendants. Over the next two months, nearly a dozen other parents are scheduled to be sentenced. Fifteen parents have pleaded guilty, while 19 are fighting the charges.
Among those contesting the charges are “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who are accused of paying to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as fake athletes.
Former Stanford University sailing coach John Vandemoer is the only other person sentenced so far and received a day in prison. He admitted helping students get into Stanford as recruited athletes in exchange for $270,000 for his sailing program.
Huffman paid $15,000 to boost her older daughter Sofia’s SAT scores with the help of William “Rick” Singer, an admission consultant at the center of the scheme. Singer, who has pleaded guilty, allegedly bribed a test proctor to correct the teenager’s answers.
Authorities said Huffman’s daughter got a bump of 400 points from her earlier score on the PSAT, a practice version of the SAT.
The actress has said her daughter was unaware of the arrangement.
In a letter this month asking for leniency, Huffman said she carries “a deep and abiding shame” and recognizes that she broke the law and betrayed her family. She said she turned to the scheme after her daughter’s dreams of going to college and pursuing an acting career were jeopardized by her low math score.
“I honestly didn’t and don’t care about my daughter going to a prestigious college,” Huffman wrote. “I just wanted to give her a shot at being considered for a program where her acting talent would be the deciding factor.”
Prosecutors countered that Huffman was driven by “a sense of entitlement, or at least moral cluelessness, facilitated by wealth and insularity.”
“Millions of parents send their kids to college every year. All of them care as much she does about their children’s fortunes,” they said in court papers. “But they don’t buy fake SAT scores and joke about it (‘Ruh Ro!’) along the way.”
Huffman used the Scooby-Doo catchphrase in an email after her daughter’s high school tried to make her take the exam with its own proctor instead of one preferred by Singer.
Prosecutors have not said which colleges her daughter applied to with the fraudulent SAT score.
Huffman’s husband, actor William H. Macy, was not charged.
The amount Huffman paid is relatively low compared with other bribes alleged in the scheme. Some parents are accused of paying up to $500,000.
FINNEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting in Garden City and have identified the victim.
Ernest Ortiz courtesy photo
Just before 11p.m. police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responded to the area of Buffalo Jones Avenue and Bancroft Street in Garden City for a reported person down, according to police captain Randy Ralston.
Upon the arrival of first responders, they located a man identified as the restaurant owner Ernest Ortiz 69, Garden City, lying on the east parking lot entrance to the El Conquistador Restaurant, 1601 Buffalo Jones Avenue with gunshot wounds.
EMS transported him to St. Catherine Hospital, where he later died. The preliminary investigation has revealed that this could be a possible robbery, according to Ralston.
Police have not made an arrest.
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FINNEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting in Garden City.
Just before 11p.m. Thursday police responded to report of a victim on the ground near a restaurant in the 1600 Block of Buffalo Jones Avenue, according to a media release.
EMS transported the victim to St. Catherine’s Hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds. The victim died.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is referring 12 former clergy for potential criminal prosecution after his office completed a 13-month investigation of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.
Schmitt on Friday released details of the investigation of religious leaders within the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the dioceses of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Jefferson City.
Missouri is among several states that launched investigations last year after a Pennsylvania report cited abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of priests there since the 1940s, and efforts by church leaders to hide it.
The Missouri investigation began in August 2018 under then-Attorney General Josh Hawley. Hawley was elected to the U.S. Senate in November, and Schmitt, a fellow Republican, took over the investigation after he was appointed to replace him.
Schmitt said the 12 referrals are the most by any state attorney general since the Pennsylvania report.
“The betrayal of trust and of innocence is devastating and in many instances incomprehensible,” Schmitt, himself a Catholic, said at a news conference in St. Louis.
The investigation reviewed personnel records for every priest serving in Missouri dating to 1945 — more than 2,000 priests and 300 deacons, seminarians and religious women, Schmitt said. Investigators also spoke to abuse survivors and their relatives who contacted the attorney general’s office.
Investigators found 163 priests or clergy members accused of sexual abuse or misconduct against minors. Eighty-three have died. Of the 80 still alive, the statute of limitations has run out on 46 of the crimes, Schmitt said.
One case is still under open investigation by the Catholic Church. Schmitt said 16 cases have been previously referred for local prosecution and five cases have been or are being investigated by prosecutors, leaving the 12 potential cases Schmitt is referring for prosecution.
Schmitt said it was clear the church was involved in a “long, sustained and far-reaching cover-up,” but said his office didn’t consider recommending charges against anyone in the church hierarchy because the focus was on the “perpetrators of the crimes.”
David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called that decision “tragic.” Clohessy said Schmitt also should have released more details about the alleged crimes and where they occurred.
“Even without naming individual names, he could still provide much more helpful information than he has,” Clohessy said.
Spokeswomen for the Jefferson City and Springfield-Cape Girardeau dioceses said they had not seen the report and declined comment. Phone messages left with the St. Louis archdiocese and the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese were not immediately returned.
Schmitt’s office also provided recommendations to the Catholic Church. They included assuming greater responsibility and oversight of religious order priests and those visiting from other dioceses; developing independent review boards composed entirely of lay people; and being more open when a priest is removed from the ministry.
Schmitt said the clergy abuse hotline will remain open and he encouraged any additional abuse victims to come forward.
The St. Louis investigation released in July found 61 clergy with what the archdiocese called “substantiated” allegations of sexual abuse of children. Thirty-four of the priests are deceased. The archdiocese said all of the living priests have been removed from the ministry. The list separately named three additional priests accused of possessing child pornography.
The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese released its report last week, citing 19 clerics, none of them currently serving. Thirteen have died, two have been removed from ministry, and four have been removed from ministry. One of the laicized clerics, Shawn Ratigan, is serving 50 years in federal prison on a 2013 conviction for producing or attempting to produce child pornography.
The other two dioceses released similar lists of accused religious leaders last year. The Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau identified 16 priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse of children. The Diocese of Jefferson City listed 35 credibly accused church officials, including 30 priests and five members of a religious order.
SALINE COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just after 4:30p.m. Thursday in Saline County.
photo Saline Co. Sheriff
A 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by driven by Braden Valentine, 17, Salina was northbound in the 8000 block of South Ohio Street, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan. The driver lost control of the vehicle. It rolled into the east ditch.
Valentine was able to get out and kick out a window so his 13-year-old passenger could get out. EMS transported the passenger to the hospital in Salina. Valentine refused treatment.
Both were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to Soldan. Valentine was cited for unsafe speed for the gravel road.
TOPEKA – Secretary of Commerce David Toland announced Trent Armbrust will join the Kansas Department of Commerce as director of strategy for Bioscience and Technology effective Sept. 23.
This newly created role and Armbrust’s appointment come as Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and Secretary Toland aggressively target the bioscience and technology sectors for growth in the state. Armbrust will develop a strategy to reengage these key sectors, helping them achieve sustained success in Kansas.
“Creating an ecosystem that facilitates the growth of tech companies in Kansas is a priority for Governor Kelly and the Department of Commerce,” Secretary Toland said. “We are thrilled to have Trent join the Commerce team and lead the effort to reengage the state as a partner in growing knowledge jobs in Kansas.”
Armbrust comes to Commerce following seven years in Economic Development for the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce. An active member of several economic development, bioscience and community organizations, Armbrust earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology and master’s degree in Plant Physiology from Kansas State University and is a graduate from the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.
Speaking of his new role, Armbrust said, “It’s truly exciting to join the Kansas Department of Commerce as Governor Kelly and Secretary Toland build a new vision for Kansas as a preeminent state for business location and success.”
Armbrust will serve as a member of the Commerce leadership team and be responsible for rebuilding relationships with private- and public-sector partners as the state seeks to help advance new technologies, support innovative research, create new jobs and further advance Kansas’ leadership across key bioscience sectors.
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Two 13-year-olds have been charged with bringing guns to a suburban Kansas City middle school.
Hocker Grover Middle School google image
Prosecutors in Johnson County, Kansas, announced Thursday that the teens are charged with being juveniles in possession of a firearm. The announcement was made one day after the guns were found in the students’ backpacks at Hocker Grove Middle School in Shawnee.
Principal Chris Kase said in a letter to parents that administrators were tipped off by concerned classmates. The principal noted that no evidence suggests that the teens planned to use the guns at the middle school.
Johnson County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kristi Bergeron says other details, including the teens’ names, won’t be released because of their age.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a stabbing and have a suspect in custody. Just after 9:30a.m. Thursday, police received report of a violent attack with a knife at a residence in the 700 Block of SE Ridgewiew Drive in Topeka, according to police spokesperson Gretchen Koenen.
Officers arrived on scene and located a victim identified as 34-year-old Michael Ortiz suffering from life-threatening injuries consistent with a stabbing. The victim was transported to a local hospital by American
Medical Response and is expected to survive.
Following an investigation, police arrested 34-year-old Tiffany A. Riley. She is being held in the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on a requested charge of aggravated battery
By MARK TALLMAN Kansas Association of School Boards
Rising numbers of young children with severe behavioral, emotional and mental health needs and speech and language issues are driving up school district costs and worsening an already critical shortage of qualified staff and services.
That was the assessment of education leaders at three KASB workshops on the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act held in Topeka, Dodge City, and Salina at the end of August.
Mark Tallman is the executive director for advocacy for the Kansas Association of School Boards.
Chip Slaven, Chief Advocacy Officers for the National School Boards Association, spoke at the workshops on NSBA’s push to update and fully fund IDEA. He said Congress is considering “reauthorizing” – a review that can lead to major changes in legislation – the IDEA for the first time since 2004.
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, a member of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, has publicly backed the goal of increasing federal funding from the current 16 percent to 40 percent of special education costs.
Special education leaders say increased funding would allow them to provide better services to students and families through better staffing and reduce the drain on other school programs.
Growing demands, especially at early ages
The number of Kansas students receiving services under IDEA, including those in private schools, is increasing rapidly, up 20.3 percent from 2001 to 2018, according to federal reports. That is four times the rate of increase in all students in Kansas public school districts. Special education leaders say the biggest reason is the growing identification of young children with special needs.
The number of three-to-five-year-olds receiving special education in Kansas increased by over 4,000, or 52.3 percent, since 2001. That helps explain the growth in total special education enrollment, because once students are identified, they usually remain in the system.
Educators agree that part of the growth is due to stronger efforts to identify students with special needs earlier. With more districts providing all-day kindergarten and preschool programs, more students are enrolled and those with special needs can be spotted. Districts are also expected to seek out high need students before they enroll in kindergarten.
The biggest challenges are growing numbers of students with aggressive behaviors, who can’t regulate themselves, can’t interact with other students and may be dangerous to themselves and others and destroy school property; and those lacking in speech and language skills.
What educators are not sure about is why those numbers are growing so fast.
One theory is that too many young parents either haven’t been taught appropriate skills to raise children or are too stretched or stressed by work or other obligations to provide such care. Related is the suggestion that children who used to be raised by parents and grandparents are now in foster care, a system with substantial, well-documented problems.
A growing concern is “screen time;” that young children are given a phone or tablet to distract, occupy or amuse them at the expense of interaction with parents or peers, making them less prepared for interaction with other adults and children and less able to pay attention to a teacher. A classroom can put stress on children not used to being in a structured setting or struggling to meet higher academic goals before learning basics like socializing with others and toileting.
The high cost and limited availability of childcare is one reason many children have no experience outside their immediate home and family when they arrive at school, and lack language and social skills. Such students lag behind their peers from the beginning and often never catch up. As one school leader said, students can quickly “internalize” that they are “failures” and don’t believe they can learn.
The dwindling support for children and families from other providers, such as mental health providers, means problems become worse until the child arrives at school, which may be the only way a family can get assistance. As one special education administrator notes: “No matter how difficult the issues might be, the public school is the one place children can always legally go to.” Other providers don’t have to provide services without funding or can limit services to those who can pay. That leaves out many of the highest need cases – until the school steps in.
Rising toll on the staff and schools
School leaders say the growing demands on special education are straining programs that have long experienced a shortage of teachers. More students require more teachers. When they can’t be found, caseloads increase, leading to teacher frustration, burn-out and turnover. Parents are frustrated by the lack of consistency, which also hurts relationships between families and the school. Schools turn to using substitutes who may not have a full license and to paraprofessionals who don’t have training as teachers. Administrators say they do the best they can to meet student needs but could do better with better-trained staff.
A study released last year by the Kansas Division of Legislative Post Audit found that school districts would need to hire an additional 700 special education teachers and 2,600 other licensed professionals like speech pathologists to meet “best practices” guidelines. If that were done, districts could cut between 1,700 and 3,900 paraprofessional positions, but would still require more funding because licensed staff earn significantly more than unlicensed paras.
In addition to better services, district leaders say they are urgently concerned about students – especially those at very young ages – who are dangers to themselves, other students and staff. This may be due to uncontrolled anger, suicide and other self-harm, or potential violence against others like school shooting, each of which can be caused by depression, emotional disturbance or other mental illness.
To address these issues, schools are trying early identification, therapeutic preschools, one-on-one support, partnering with other agencies and providers and trying to build deeper relationships with student and families – all of which are promising but require personnel, training and funding. School leaders also acknowledge that other agencies, from community mental health to foster care, also face diminished resources and staff shortages, and may be in competition for the same people.
How more funding could help
When originally passed in 1975, Congress said it intended to cover 40 percent of special education costs required by the new law. Currently, federal funding only covers about 16 percent of costs. Kansas school districts receive over $100 million in federal aid for special education.
The state of Kansas also created a state aid program for special education, which according to state law should pay 92 percent of the “excess cost” of special education (the cost of special education after subtracting the “regular” cost of educating students with disabilities and federal aid). However, state aid has also been consistently below that target, currently covering an estimated 78.2 percent. Local school districts must make up for what federal and state aid doesn’t cover.
Special education leaders say additional funding would not immediately solve the special education teacher shortage, but it would allow districts to raise teacher salaries to attract and retain new people over time. It could also help districts assist individuals in paying for college to become special education teachers, and work to provide more mental health services and more family outreach.
More special education funding would also reduce the need to shift money from regular education programs. For example, because the state special education aid program is only funded at 78 percent of excess cost, rather than 92 percent as provided in state law, districts must shift over $110 million statewide from general state aid to special education.
The percentage of excess cost is based on the statewide total of special education costs compared to total state appropriations for special education aid. However, the funding is distributed to individual districts based on transportation costs, the number of teacher and paraprofessionals, and funding for very high-cost individual students. As a result, individual districts may receive more or less than the statewide percentage.
RILEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report of shots fired Thursday in Manhattan.
Police on the scene of the shooting investigation Thursday photo courtesy WIBW TV
Just before 7p.m., police received multiple reports of shots fired in the area of Westwood and Oak Street in Manhattan, according to Riley County Police Captain Josh Kyle.
Upon arrival officers discovered several spent shell casings in a parking lot off of Oak Street which is south of the Manhattan High School West Campus.
Information on scene indicates that two vehicles met in the parking lot. The occupants of the vehicles interacted for a while before shots were fired. Both vehicles then fled the area. A house in the 200 Block of Ridge was struck by a bullet, according to Kyle.
A witness on scene provided a tag number for one of the vehicles. Kansas Highway Patrol Troopers from the Kansas Turnpike Authority were able to locate this vehicle eastbound on I-70.
A pursuit ensued which involved at least one other agency (Contact the KHP-KTA for further information.) The vehicle was eventually stopped and four people were taken into custody (The driver was arrested by the KHP-KTA for the offenses in their presence.) The occupants were interviewed by Riley County Police detectives.
Currently the RCPD is following up on investigative leads as to the identity of the other vehicle and its occupants.
There is no indication that the individuals involved are affiliated with Manhattan High School, the parking lot happened to be a meeting location. There have been no reports of injuries.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A break-in at storage units in Wichita, Kansas, became a diplomatic security issue last year because two of the units belong to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mike Pompeo Secretary of State-photo Courtesy CSPAN
A Wichita police statement says the State Department sent a security officer to the East Side Mini Storage last November to discuss the case with police. A State Department official said it is standard procedure to send an agent to investigate any incidents involving the secretary.
The case has been temporarily closed without any viable leads or suspects.
A police report obtained through an open records request said the former Kansas congressman’s units contained tables, chairs and some campaign items.
Wichita police spokesman Officer Charley Davidson said it appears the theft was random and Pompeo’s units were not targeted.
JACKSON COUNTY, MO. —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an officer involved shooting.
Law enforcement authorities on the scene of the fatal officer-involved shooting photo courtesy KMBC TV
This incident began just before 7p.m. Thursday in the 9800 Block of East 25th Street in Independence as an attempted apprehension of a known suspect with numerous felony warrants, according to a media release.
This incident involved several local police officers and Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies.
During the attempted apprehension of the suspect, a Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy fatally shot the suspect.
A second subject who was with the suspect was injured during the incident. This subject was transported to an area hospital. No officers or deputies were physically injured
