TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Legislature’s top Democrats are proposing that the state phase in a $600 million increase in spending on public schools over three years.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka and House Minority Leader Jim Ward of Wichita made their proposal public Wednesday. They also sent a letter to GOP leaders Tuesday.
A House committee has proposed phasing in a $280 million increase in spending over two years. The increase in aid under the Democratic plan after two years would be $400 million.
A Senate committee is drafting its own proposal.
Kansas spends about $4 billion a year on aid to its 286 school districts. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March that education funding is inadequate.
The Democrats said they believe their plan would satisfy the court’s order.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Several witnesses asked the Kansas Prisoner Review Board to keep a man called the Wichita Holiday Inn sniper in prison.
During a hearing Wednesday, no one spoke in favor of paroling 59-year-old Michael Soles, who killed three people and wounded eight others in 1976 in a sniper attack in downtown Wichita.
Soles is eligible for parole in July.
The Wichita Eagle reports law enforcement officials and relatives of those killed in the attack asked the board to keep Soles behind bars.
Former Sedgwick County Sheriff Mike Hill, who helped stop the attack, said Soles was motivated by publicity and it is “inconceivable” that anyone would want him released.
The board will meet with Soles in about a month and deliberate for two to four weeks before making a decision.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are wrestling with whether to end sales tax breaks in a larger plan to fix the state budget and raise additional funds for public schools.
Senate tax committee members were cold Wednesday toward a House-passed plan to raise $110 million over two years by imposing the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax on a few untaxed services. They include towing, pet boarding and bill-collecting.
The panel heard testimony from collection agency operators that their businesses would be harmed in competition with out-of-state firms.
But backers of the House bill are working on a new plan to raise about $330 million over two years by eliminating sales tax exemptions.
Kansas faces projected budget shortfalls totaling $887 through June 2019, and the Kansas Supreme Court has said education funding is inadequate.
Tornado damage to homes in Pawnee Rock photo courtesy KWCH
BARTON COUNTY -Tuesday’s Barton County tornado started near Pawnee Rock and traveled approximately 12 miles northeast near Kansas Highway 4, to the west of Hoisington.
At 8:03 p.m., the tornado warning sirens in Pawnee Rock sounded. The tornado made its way through the town at 8:16 p.m. The sirens were called in by the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, giving residents 13 minutes of warnings in addition to the National Weather Service cautions.
Barton County Clerk and Public Information Officer Donna Zimmerman mentioned at Wednesday morning’s press conference at the Barton County Courthouse that preliminary damage assessments show two destroyed homes and seven heavily damaged in Pawnee Rock, and seven more houses destroyed in rural Barton County and two more heavily damaged.
Zimmerman says the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is helping residents with methods to remove the debris.
Officials were able to restore electricity, water, and sewer in Pawnee Rock has been early Wednesday morning and crews are hopeful gas can be functioning by Wednesday night.
Barton County storm damage photo courtesy KWCH
A high-pressured gas line that feeds the City of Pawnee Rock was ruptured during the storm.
Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said the tornado was not the classic “wedged shape” and was more of a loose tornado roughly 400 to 500 feet wide. Barton County Emergency Management Director Amy Miller says at this time the county has enough resources that they are not asking for state assistance.
Miller says there is a concern about the number of power lines down throughout the county and getting things evaluated and managed before the expected severe storms roll through the area again Thursday.
If any resident needs assistance or needs to request a service, they should call the Barton County Clerk’s Office at 620-793-1835.
Farmers that received damage as a result of this event are asked to call the USDA Farm Service Agency at 620-792-5329.
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BARTON COUNTY- Tuesday’s storm brought heavy rain, large hail, high winds, funnel clouds and tornadoes.
In addition to the tornadoes reported in Clark and Ford Counties, National Weather Service officials reported multiple tornadoes in southwest Barton County. The storm damaged over a dozen homes and the elementary school in Pawnee Rock.
The storm also damaged a gas line on the west side of town and power lines were reported down in numerous areas, according to Amy Miller, Barton County Emergency Manager.
Emergency crews worked to evacuate the area and set up a shelter.
At 8:24 p.m., Barton County Commission Chair Jennifer Schartz issued a disaster declaration. The work to assess damage and begin cleaning up is already underway. There are no reports of serious injury.
In addition to the tornado in Barton County, high winds are blamed for damage in Phillips County.
The National Weather Service reported penny to softball size hail from Seward County in southwest Kansas to many areas in northwest and north central Kansas.
WASHINGTON –The House Ag committee held a public hearing on the “State of the Rural Economy,” with testimony from Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue Wednesday morning
First District Congressman Roger Marshall asked Perdue about emergency conservation program funds for Kansas farmers and more.
Watch the exchange here and fast forward to Marshall’s comments to 2:33:00 of the hearing.
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LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence officials say emergency responders helped rescue a team of stranded rowers on the Kansas River after their boat capsized.
At least eight people were stranded Wednesday morning on the river near the University of Kansas boathouse. No injuries were reported.
Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Capt. Pat Talkington says the water was choppy and winds were strong Wednesday morning.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the rowers’ affiliation wasn’t immediately clear.
The Kansas boathouse is the base for the university’s women’s rowing team and a co-ed club team. The eight people rescued were all men.
Riley County Police arrested Sangala Stevens, 27, in March of 2016 for an alleged rape and other charges. He was sentenced for sexual battery, criminal restraint and aggravated battery, He is currently being held in the Norton Correctional Facility.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Riley County authorities say the number of rapes reported in Manhattan and surrounding areas has doubled during the first quarter of this year compared with the same time last year.
Sixteen rapes were reported in the first quarter of 2017, up from eight in the same period in 2016.
Riley County Police Department director Brad Schoen says investigators have not seen anything to indicate one individual or a group of people is responsible for the increase.
Authorities say some of the rapes reported this year came from one investigation, after detectives identified other victims while investigating the original report.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the release of Pvt. Chelsea Manning from a Kansas military prison (all times local):
7:25 a.m.
Media reports say Pvt. Chelsea Manning has been released from a Kansas military prison after serving seven years of her 35-year sentence for leaking classified government materials to WikiLeaks.
NBC News, citing an unnamed U.S Army official, says Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth military prison Wednesday at around 2 a.m. Central Time. The BBC also cites an unnamed Army representative in reporting she has left the facility. The Associated Press has not confirmed these reports.
Former President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency during his final days in office.
Manning, an Oklahoma native, was convicted in 2013 of 20 counts, including six Espionage Act violations, theft and computer fraud.
Previously known as Bradley Manning, the former intelligence analyst in Iraq said she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S. military’s disregard of the effects of war on civilians.
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11:13 p.m.
Pvt. Chelsea Manning is due to be released from a Kansas military prison after serving seven years of her 35-year sentence for leaking classified government materials to WikiLeaks.
The transgender soldier is scheduled to be freed from Fort Leavenworth on Wednesday in accordance with former President Barack Obama’s decision to grant her clemency in his final days in office.
The Oklahoma native’s attorneys and the Army have refused to say precisely when and how she will be released, citing potential safety concerns.
The former intelligence analyst in Iraq acknowledged leaking the materials, saying she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S. military’s disregard of the effects of war on civilians.
She was known as Bradley Manning before transitioning in prison.
Joshua Svaty, 37, announced he would seek the Democratic nomination for Kansas governor during a news conference Tuesday outside the Ellsworth Co-op. BRYAN THOMPSON / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
A former Kansas legislator who also served as the state agriculture secretary and as a regional official in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is running for governor.
Joshua Svaty, 37, launched his bid for the Democratic nomination Tuesday at the Ellsworth Co-op, not far from the farm where he grew up.
Dressed casually in jeans and an open-collared shirt, Svaty told a small crowd of supporters that he was running to “undo the damage” done to education, health care and the state’s transportation system by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s economic policies.
“We have to fix the problem,” Svaty said. “We can no longer be a petri dish for economic theory. We can no longer sacrifice the future of our children or the future viability of this state.”
Kansas voters showed their desire for change last fall by replacing many of Brownback’s conservative allies in the Legislature with more moderate Republicans and Democrats, Svaty said. But he said Brownback’s February veto of a bill that would have rolled back many of the income tax cuts he pushed through the Legislature in 2012 signaled a need for new leadership in the governor’s office.
“Leadership at the top matters and the governor matters,” Svaty said in an interview before his announcement.
Svaty was 22 when first elected in 2002 to the Kansas House. He was 29 when former Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson named him to lead the Kansas Department of Agriculture.
He worked briefly as a “senior advisor” for EPA before being named vice president of The Land Institute, a nonprofit agriculture research organization based in Salina.
Asked how he would defend his EPA tenure to rural voters concerned about regulatory overreach, Svaty went on the offensive.
“My service there was building relationships with the ag community around the four-state region of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri,” he said. “Our federal agencies belong to the people, and either you can complain from a distance or you can get inside, figure out how they work and find out how to make them better.”
Svaty has the backing of several prominent Democrats in his race for the nomination against former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer.
Brewer, who has worked in government relations for Spirit AeroSystems since stepping down as mayor in 2015, didn’t mention Svaty in a statement issued late Tuesday.
“My focus at this time is to reach out to as many Kansans as possible,” Brewer said, pledging to “travel to every corner of the state” over the next several months.
House Minority Leader Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, could make it a three-way race for the Democratic nomination. It would be the party’s first gubernatorial primary since 1998 when then House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer easily defeated the late Fred Phelps, the Topeka pastor who gained notoriety as a crusader against gay rights.
About one-third of Kansans surveyed by the Docking Institute at Ft. Hays State University for the spring edition of its Kansas Speaks Survey released Tuesday had heard of Brewer. Only about 10 percent recognized Svaty’s name.
On the Republican side, former state Rep. Ed O’Malley, now president and CEO of the Wichita-based Kansas Leadership Center, and Wichita oil executive Wink Hartman each have formed campaign committees. Several other high-profile Republicans also are considering bids to succeed Brownback as the party’s standard-bearer. They include Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, 3rd District Congressman Kevin Yoder and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Among the potential Republican field, Kobach had the highest name recognition in Docking Institute survey at 77 percent. He was followed by Schmidt, 46 percent, Colyer, 32 percent, Hartman, 27 percent, and O’Malley, who was recognized by 22 percent of respondents.
Johnson County businessman Greg Orman is said to be considering an independent run for governor. He narrowly lost a primary challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in 2014.
Svaty and his wife, Kimberly, are expecting their fourth child in the fall. The family splits time between a home in Topeka and their farm in Ellsworth County.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
FORD COUNTY – First responders are crediting seat belts with saving the occupants of rollover accident from serious injury.
Early Monday, emergency crews were dispatched to 6 people involved in one vehicle rollover accident on U.S. 283 near Dodge City, according to a social media report from Ford County Fire and EMS.
Upon arrival, all six including one-year-old twins were out of the vehicle. There were no injuries reported.
Officials reminded this is a good reason why everyone needs to be properly restrained. Had improper or no restraints at all been used, the results of the accident would have been very different.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) this week joined a bipartisan group of senators in introducing the Honoring Hometown Heroes Act to honor first responders who make the ultimate sacrifice.
The legislation would amend the U.S. flag code to allow the governor of a state to order the American flag to be lowered to half-staff in the event that a local first responder dies while serving in the line of duty. Currently, Governors only have the ability to order the flag to fly at half-staff after the death of a government official or the death of a member of the armed forces during combat.
“The police officers and firefighters who put their lives on the line to protect us deserve not only our gratitude but also our recognition,” said Sen. Moran. “This legislation will make certain that state leaders are empowered to honor and recognize the sacrifices of our first responders. As we commemorate National Police Week, we reflect on ways to show our appreciation – flying our flag at half-staff to honor those who have given their lives is a simple way to begin.”
“Everyday our law enforcement officers act heroically to save and help people they have never met before from all walks of life,” said President of the Fraternal Order of Police Chuck Canterbury. “These officers take an oath to protect and service their communities to make it a better and safer place for all those that live there. They are even willing to lay down their lives in the service of others.”
“First responders knowingly place their lives in jeopardy to preserve the lives of others. Sadly, not all of these first responders return to their families and homes,” said President and Chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs John D. Sinclair. “This simple yet effective and profound action will allow residents across the United States to honor first responders who have made the ultimate sacrifice.”
“Every community across America relies on fire fighters and emergency medical technicians to respond to a variety of emergency situations. Sadly, more than one hundred times annually, these dedicated emergency responders pay the ultimate price by selflessly giving their very life for the service and protection of their community,” said President of the International Association of Firefighters Harold A. Schaitberger. “The Honoring Hometown Heroes Act is an important piece of legislation that recognizes the sacrifices made by our emergency response professionals.”
The bipartisan bill is also supported by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, National Association of Police Organizations, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, National Volunteer Fire Council, National Honor Guard Commanders Association, National Honor Guard Academy and National Fire Academy Alumni Association.
National Police Week started on Sunday, May 14th and ends on Saturday, May 20th.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man accused of killing his 19-year-old neighbor will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
Lawyers for 20-year-old Rontarus Washington Jr., was scheduled to go on trial Tuesday for first-degree murder in the November 2014 death of Justina Altamirano Mosso at an apartment in Lawrence.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports an earlier evaluation found Washington suffers from several significant mental disorders and determined he was incompetent to stand trial.
Because of those findings, Washington’s attorney requested he undergo the psychiatric evaluation.
Judge James McCabria granted the motion and suspended the trial until the evaluation is complete.
Washington will be committed to the Larned State Hospital for no more than 60 days for the evaluation.
