OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The family of a 10-year-old boy who died while riding a waterslide at a Kansas water park has reached settlements with a general contractor and a consulting company involved in the project.

Rep. Scott Schwab testified Wednesday that he and his family agreed to the terms of the wrongful-death settlements involving his son, Caleb. The boy died in August on the 17-story Verruckt waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Kansas City Star reports terms of settlements with Henry & Sons Construction and National Aquatics Safety Company were not released.

Henry & Sons was the general contractor for Verruckt, a 168-foot waterslide that was promoted as the world’s tallest such ride.

National Aquatics, based in Dickinson, Texas, and its owner, John Hunsucker, consulted on the project.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a suspect was shot and killed by law enforcers after leading police on a three-county, south-central Kansas chase, firing at deputies and police along the way.

Investigators in Wichita say 25-year-old Charles Johnston was shot early Thursday near Udall after a vehicle in which he was riding became disabled after the chase. Authorities say he held a gun to a female passenger’s head outside of the car, then fired again at law enforcers as he tried to run away. Law enforcers returned fire, killing Johnston.

Neither the woman nor any law enforcers were injured.

Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said police had sought to arrest Johnston as a parole absconder.

Johnston was from prison in January and has prior convictions of aggravated battery, obstruction and fleeing law enforcement.

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UDALL, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say officers have fatally shot a man after he repeatedly fired at them during a south-central Kansas chase.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter says the chase started late Wednesday when a Wichita police officer attempted to pursue a suspect with an active warrant.

The suspect began firing at officers when a patrol car that can shoot GPS tracking devices onto fleeing vehicles approached. The chase eventually came to an end near the Sumner-Cowley County line.

Sumner County Sheriff Darren Chambers says authorities killed the suspect when he got out of his vehicle and fired more shots at them. Chambers says authorities are interviewing a woman who was inside the suspect’s vehicle. Neither the woman nor any of the officers were hurt during the chase.

RICE COUNTY – Fire crews continue to monitor the fire at the Jacam Chemical Plant north of Sterling.

The fire started around 9 a.m. at one of the plants outer buildings, according to Gregg Klein Director of Rice County Emergency Management.

Some evacuations were suggested for properties just north of the facility.

Laura Snyder, spokesperson for Jacam says the building involved was used to produce organophilic clay, which is a dry powder that is mixed with other chemicals to product drilling mud for the oil industry.

While the material is not explosive, it does burn with a lot of heat according to Snyder.

Klein said air quality around the plant will be monitored for the next 24 hours, but the materials that were inside the building were non-toxic.

Snyder and Klein both said all procedures were followed during the incident. Everyone was accounted for that was inside the building.

No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Avenue Q from Kansas 14 to 17 Road was temporarily closed due to the fire, according to the Rice County Sheriff’s Department.

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RICE COUNTY – First responders are on the scene of a fire at a chemical plant in Rice County.

Just after 9a.m., officials reported the fire in just one building on the Jacam Factory property north of Sterling, according to the Rice County Sheriff’s Department.

Employees were evacuated and there are no injuries reported, according to the sheriff’s department.

Fire crews are carefully monitoring the situation. Jacam officials are working with authorities to perform a thorough investigation of the incident and take any corrective actions needed.

Avenue Q from Kansas 14 to 17 Road is temporarily closed due to the fire, according to the sheriff’s department.

LINN COUNTY- A Kansas man died in an accident just after 11 a.m. Thursday in Linn County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Silverado driven by Eric Kleweno, 59, Pleasanton, was southbound on Holly Street at 7th.

The truck left the roadway to the west, crossed through a private lot, crossed 7th Street and hit a building.

Kleweno was transported to Mercy Hospital where he died.
He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

KANSAS CITY – A federal grand jury Thursday returned additional charges against a Lindsborg man accused of traveling to a foreign country to have sex with minors, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Anthony Shultz, 54, Lindsborg, is accused of traveling to the Philippines, where he engaged in sex with minors, produced videos of sex acts with minors and distributed them on the internet.

The case began in April 2016 when the FBI received a tip that a U.S. citizen was sexually abusing minors in the Philippines, producing live-streaming videos and distributing videos via the internet to users who paid to see them. Investigators followed an electronic trail to Shultz, who was a commercial pilot and owned a home in Lindsborg. He initially was charged in July 2016.

Schultz is charged with the following counts:

Count one: Engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place with a minor victim (victim 1).
Count two: Production of child pornography (victim 1).
Count three: Sex trafficking of children (new count, victim 1).Count four: Engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place with a minor victim (new count, victim 2).
Count five: Production of child pornography (new count, victim 2).
Count six: Sex trafficking of children (new count, victim 2).
Count seven: Production of child pornography (new count, victim 3).
Count eight: Selling or buying of children (new count, victim 3).
Count nine: Distribution of child pornography.
Count 10: Possession of child pornography (new count).
Count 11: Identity theft

Upon conviction, the crimes carry the following penalties:
Counts one and four: Not less than five years and not more than 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.Counts two and five: Not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years and a fine up to $250,000.
Counts three and six: Not less than 15 years and a fine up to $250,000.Count seven: Not less than 15 and not more than 30 years and a fine up to $250,000.
Count eight: Not less than 30 years and a fine up to $250,000.Count nine: Not less than five years and not more than 20 years and a fine up to $250,000.
Count 10: Not more than 10 years and a fine up to $250,000.
Count 11: Up to five years and a fine up to $250,000.

The FBI and investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart and Elly Pierson, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, are prosecuting.

PROTECTION, Kan. (AP) — A search is underway in southern Kansas for a 53-year-old priest who went missing from a nursing home.

Thursday’s search for Marvin Reif near Protection in Comanche County was involving more than 100 people, some on horseback and all-terrain vehicles.

Reif went missing 10 days earlier from Protection Valley Manor, a nursing home where he had been living since October. That site says Reif went walking each day around town as part of his treatment.

Reif’s sister, Karen Winkelman, said her brother had a history of depression, and that their mother’s death last month was particularly difficult for him.

As a nurse who tended to Reif, Karla Harvey says Reif spent his days reading the Bible and often fed the squirrels outside.

LYON COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities in Southeast Kansas are investigating a case of alleged credit, debit card fraud and asking for help to identify a suspect.

On Thursday, police released security camera images of the suspect in a report of recent skimming in Emporia, according to a social media report.

The suspect also used the card in Platte City, Missouri, according to police.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 343-4200 or Crime Stoppers at 342-2273.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Firefighters have rescued a cat from a Topeka tree along with its owner.

Topeka Fire Department Shift Commander Todd Williams says the woman and her cat were about 16 feet up in a large tree when they were plucked out Wednesday. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the owner had climbed the tree trying to get to her cat.

The woman’s identity wasn’t being released.

RENO COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating a suspect on child sex charges.

On March 23, detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office contacted the Reno County Sheriff’s Department began a joint investigation. They discovered a 14-year-old from California had met an individual on a social media app named “kik,” according to a media release.

The investigation revealed unlawful images and videos had been exchanged during their conversations on “kik” and other social media apps.

On April 11, Detectives from both agencies interviewed and arrested 31-year-old Kenneth Coulter of Arlington, Ks for an arrest warrant from California.

Coulter  faces charged that include Count 1-Contact with a minor for sexual offense, count 2- Distributing or showing child or youth pornography to a minor, count 3- Extortion, Count 4- Lewd act upon a child.

Also on Tuesday, detectives served a search warrant at an address in Arlington.
Parents, please remind your children of the dangers with online social media apps.

BY DAN MARGOLIES

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he has secured his first conviction of a non-citizen for voting illegally.

In a news release, Kobach says that Victor David Garcia Bebek, a native of Peru, pleaded guilty last week in Sedgwick County District Court to three misdemeanor charges of voting illegally.

Kobach says Bebek, before obtaining U.S. citizenship, cast votes in a 2012 special election, the 2012 general election and the 2014 general election. Desiree Taliaferro, a spokeswoman for Kobach, says Bebek was naturalized in February.

Kobach is the only secretary of state in the country authorized to prosecute voter fraud. He has claimed, with little evidence, that illegal voting by non-citizens is widespread and has pushed for laws requiring Kansans to provide documentary proof of their citizenship. Those laws are tied up in litigation.

Meantime, Kobach has pushed for a two-tiered voting system that would bar Kansans from voting in state and local races if they have not provided proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate. In February, the Kansas Senate Ethics and Elections Committee held a hearing on a bill that would put that policy into statute.

At that legislative hearing, Kobach testified that his office had the names of 115 non-citizens who had illegally registered or sought to register to vote in Kansas. He said, however, that he would be unable to prosecute most of them because they attempted to register more than 10 years ago – outside the statute-of-limitations period.

Both Kobach and President Donald Trump have claimed that millions of non-citizens illegally voted in the 2016 presidential election, pointing to a statistical analysis by a political science professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, which has been criticized as flawed.

Kobach, a former constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, made voter fraud a centerpiece of his campaign for secretary of state when he first ran for the office and was elected in 2010.

In the news release on Bebek’s guilty plea, Kobach said, “The problem of non-citizens voting is a serious one, both in Kansas and nationally. Every time a non-citizen votes, it cancels out the vote of a United States citizen.”

The release said that under the plea agreement, Bebek will be placed on unsupervised probation for up to three years and pay a $5,000 fine.

Kobach has secured seven convictions of citizens who Kobach accused of voting in more than one state.

Dan Margolies is a reporter and editor for kcur.org, a partner in the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas woman is accused of decapitating her ex-boyfriend’s mother when the victim went to collect her son’s belongings.

Thirty-five-year-old Rachael Hilyard of Wichita was charged Wednesday with one count of first-degree murder in the death Sunday of 63-year-old Micki Davis. During a brief court appearance, a Sedgwick County judge assigned Hilyard to be represented by a public defender. She’s jailed on $200,000 bond.

Police say Davis was killed after taking her 9-year-old grandson with her to Hilyard’s home. The boy ran away when the assault started and called police on his

grandmother’s phone. Police say the child wasn’t present when his grandmother died.

Police found Davis’ body in the garage and Hilyard hiding in the home.

TOPEKA -A Kansas man pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to producing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Bradley Hilt, 26, Linden, pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography. In his plea, he admitted that a forensic examination of his computer revealed child pornography including 18,342 still images and 135 videos.

Two of the videos, produced by Hilt, depicted a girl who was five to seven years old.

Hilt came to the attention of law enforcement when an FBI task force member discovered images that Hilt was sharing with other users on a peer-to-peer network through the internet.

Sentencing will be set for a later date. Both parties have agreed to recommend a sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two sisters injured in a Kansas waterslide accident that killed a state lawmaker’s 10-year-old son have reached a settlement with the water park’s owner.

Attorney Lynn Johnson on Wednesday confirmed the out-of-court deal with the Schlitterbahn park over the “Verruckt” slide accident last summer.

Johnson wouldn’t reveal details of the settlement. The sisters’ names haven’t been publicly released.

Authorities said Caleb Schwab was killed and the sisters injured last Aug. 7 while riding the Verruckt, which was billed as the world’s tallest waterslide. That ride has since been closed, and a Schlitterbahn spokeswoman says it will be demolished as soon as a court rules it’s no longer needed for evidentiary purposes.

Schwab’s family reached a settlement in January with Schlitterbahn and the raft’s manufacturer.

Caleb was Rep. Scott Schwab’s son.