WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A father has been charged with fatally shooting his 17-year-old son during an argument in Wichita.
Glen Farrow, 41, is jailed in Sedgwick County on $150,000 bond. He was charged Wednesday with second-degree intentional murder in the death Sunday of Michael Farrow. Sedgwick County Chief Public Defender Mark Rudy says an attorney hasn’t met with him yet.
Keri Brooks described her son as “loyal” and said that what happened was “incomprehensible.” She said she heard that the argument was about school and that her son was being moved to an alternative program after arguing with a teacher. Police have offered no specifics about the argument.
Brooks recently moved to Florida, and said Michael and two siblings were planning to move there in May.
SEWARD COUNTY – Officials are working to determine the cause of a large grass fire late Thursday in Seward County.
Just after 5p.m. Seward County Fire Rescue was dispatched area of Road P and Highway 54, according to a media release.
Units were already in the area responding to another fire and were redirected. An immediate need request for mutual aid was transmitted to the Kansas State office of Emergency Management.
Approximately 35 fire units with about 62 firefighters from 9 counties arrived and starting working the fire.
Heavy rain occurred and assisted with extinguishing the fire. Mutual aid companies were released and a majority of them were directed to Perryton Texas to assist with another wildfire.
Seward County has crews continuing to monitor the situation in the river bottom throughout the night and will continue to be on scene throughout the day Friday.
We estimate the fire to have been a mile wide and burned about 4 miles approximately 2,500 acres. Cause is under investigation.
Numerous local farmers assisted with discs as well as Seward County Road and Bridge road graders. Seward County Sheriff’s Office assisted with evacuations. No injuries were reported.
FINNEY COUNTY – Thursday night’s severe thunderstorm brought rain and strong winds to portions of western Kansas.
Just before 11 p.m., the winds were responsible for a power outage in Garden City. Initial reports indicated the outage was caused by a trampoline blown into the power line. Crews also identified a broken power pole.
Officials restored power overnight.
⚠️ Take Cover! Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Garden City KS, Liberal KS, Ulysses KS until 9:15 PM CDT pic.twitter.com/NW8tDuRA64
The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday advanced an expansion bill to the full Senate for a vote. Members of the committee include, from left, Barbara Bollier, Vicki Schmidt and Laura Kelly. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Kansas lawmakers are now a step away from what could be a showdown with Republican Gov. Sam Brownback on the political football issue of Medicaid expansion.
“Hallelujah,” said Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, immediately after the committee approved the bill on a voice vote with little debate.
“We finally have enough compassionate, considerate, thoughtful legislators to have had this discussion and to pass this bill out of committee,” Kelly said, referring to legislative leaders elected after the recent defeat of several conservative incumbents by moderate Republicans and Democrats.
Sen. Jake LaTurner, a Pittsburg Republican, voted against advancing the bill, insisting that Kansas lawmakers should wait on the outcome of a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on a GOP bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. Among other things, the federal bill would prohibit states that haven’t already acted from expanding their Medicaid programs.
“I think Washington is going the opposite direction,” LaTurner said. “They’re going to the right and we’re going to the left it seems. This is an enormous entitlement. We’re writing checks that we can’t cash.”
Several members of the committee disagreed, including Kelly.
“We don’t know what the end result in D.C. is going to be,” she said. “So, I think we’re better to play offense here and get Medicaid expanded in the state and then deal with whatever comes down from D.C.”
David Jordan, the director of a pro-expansion coalition that includes several health provider organizations, said pressing ahead with the bill isn’t an exercise in futility.
“I think this is an act of leadership,” Jordan said. “This is Kansas legislators taking steps to protect the interests of Kansans.”
Expanding eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, would provide health insurance to an additional 150,000 to 180,000 low-income adults.
Currently, KanCare eligibility is limited to children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and seniors in need of long-term care who have exhausted their financial resources. Parents are eligible only if they earn less than a third of the federal poverty level, or about $9,200 annually for a four-person family.
Single adults without children currently are not eligible no matter their income. Expansion would extend eligibility to all Kansans who earn up to 138 percent of the poverty level, or $16,642 annually for an individual and $33,465 for a family of four.
How much expansion will cost the state depends on changes made to the federal health reform law, which currently obligates the federal government to cover no less than 90 percent of the cost of expansion. Under that formula, expansion would cost the state an additional $67.2 million in its first full year, according to state officials.
The House passed the expansion bill 81-44 in late February. If the Senate approves it without changes, it would go to Brownback, who while opposed to expansion has stopped short of saying that he would veto the bill.
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 in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
HARVEY COUNTY— A Harvey County judge decided Thursday to seal the probable cause affidavit in the murder case against two people on three counts of first-degree murder.
Defendants Jereme Nelson, 35, and Myrta Rangel, 31, are charged with three counts each of capital murder and first-degree murder in the October deaths of 33-year-old Travis Street, 37-year-old Angela May Graevs and 52-year-old Richard Prouty.
The victims’ bodies were found in October outside a rural home near Moundridge. An 18-month-old child was found unharmed.
Judge Joe Dickinson ruled that releasing the affidavit could jeopardize the physical, mental or emotional safety or well-being of the victims and witnesses. Dickinson also said that releasing the information could interfere with prospective law enforcement action, criminal investigation or prosecution.
Nelson in pre-booking photo Harvey Co.
Harvey County Attorney David Yoder is seeking the death penalty in the case.
A preliminary hearing for Rangel is scheduled for Thursday, April 6.
HARPER COUNTY -A Kansas boy was injured in an accident just before 3:30p.m. on Thursday in Harper County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup driven by Geraldine
Mazanec, 64, Marienthal, was eastbound on southwest 40th Road just west of 120th
A boy fell out of the bed of the truck as the driver was slowing down for a railroad crossing.
Harper EMS transported Wyatt Mazanec, 7, Marienthal, to Harper Hospital.
The driver was properly restrained at the time of the accident and not injured, according to the KHP.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A 50-year-old woman accused of killing her estranged husband in Leavenworth, Kansas, has been found mentally unfit to stand trial.
The Leavenworth Times reports that a Leavenworth County judge on Wednesday made that ruling after Barbara Frantz of Kansas City, Kansas, underwent mental competency testing.
She’ll be sent to the Larned State Security Hospital for treatment, and her proceedings will be suspended until a judge concludes her mental fitness for trial has been restored.
Frantz is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 54-year-old Gary Frantz.
Leavenworth police say Gary Frantz was shot several times Jan. 27 on a Leavenworth parking lot. Barbara Frantz was arrested hours later in Burlingame, Kansas.
Police have said the case involved domestic violence but did not offer further details.
WASHINGTON -Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas is apologizing for his comment about the possibility the GOP health care bill would ease federal requirements on coverage of basic services like mammograms.
In an interview with a reporter for Talking Points Memo on Thursday, Roberts was asked about potential changes in the health care bill. He said: “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.”
I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise.
He later tweeted an apology: “I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas educators see plenty of problems with a new school funding plan being considered by legislators, and a big one is what they see as not enough new dollars.
A special state House committee opened hearings Thursday on a bill that would create a new per-student formula for distributing aid to its 286 school districts.
Republican legislators scrapped a per-student formula in 2015 in favor of stable “block grants” for districts. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the law violated the state constitution and gave lawmakers until June 30 to enact a new one.
Several school superintendents said the new formula would be flawed in how it distributes money for various programs. But educators also questioned whether its $75 million increase in annual aid would be enough.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Ron Estes and Democrat James Thompson squabbled over health care reform, Planned Parenthood funding and more during their first face-to-face encounter in the race to fill the seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Their contentious forum Thursday in the heavily Republican district played out against the backdrop of GOP efforts in Washington, D.C., to repeal the nation’s health care law. Kansas has the nation’s first congressional race since President Donald Trump’s election.
Estes says he supports the repeal and replacement of “Obamacare.”
Thompson contends country needs to work out the problems in the health care system.He says health care should be “affordable and accessible for everybody.”
Estes supports defunding Planned Parenthood. Thompson says Planned Parenthood has done a lot of good.
The election is April 11.
The district includes Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Pratt, Sedgwick, Stafford, and Sumner counties as well as a portion of Pawnee County.
RENO COUNTY– A Hutchinson Community College student charged in a drug distribution case failed to show for a court hearing Thursday. The judge issued a bench warrant for 20-year old Andre Harris.
He is charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute within a thousand feet Graber Elementary school and the Hutchinson Community College campus.
On February 15, an employee of the college reportedly smelled marijuana coming from the suspect’s room.
Authorities came into the room and found two bags of marijuana sitting on top of a scale.
That led to a search of the room where school officials allegedly found 17 more individual bags of marijuana. Total weight coming to around 27 grams.
FINNEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating convicted Kansas felon on assault and threat charges.
Just before noon Wednesday, police responded to report of aggravated assault at a home in the 300 Block of East Pine Street in Garden City, according to a media release.
The investigation revealed that on Tuesday, the suspect, Rocky Gomez, 37, Garden City and the victim engaged in a verbal argument and altercation.
During the altercation it was alleged that Gomez pulled a knife on the victim and made threats towards him.
This incident was not reported to police. On Wednesday, the suspect and victim engaged in another altercation and this time it was alleged the suspect threatened the victim with a stick. On this occasion the victim fled the residence and did called police.
When Police arrived on scene Gomez was located inside the residence but refused to exit the house. The Garden City/ Finney County SWAT team was called to assist and serve a search warrant on the residence to locate and arrest Gomez.
During the service of the warrant Gomez was located inside the residence and was uncooperative. A Garden City Police K-9 was used to assist in the apprehension and arrest.
Gomez is being held in the Finney County Jail for Aggravated Assault, Criminal Threat and
Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer.
He has previous convictions for weapons violations, drugs and aggravated indecent liberties with a victim under the age of 16, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Protesters on Thursday in Salina-photo by Rocky Robinson
UPDATE: On Thursday afternoon, House Republican leaders postponed a vote on their health care bill in a setback for President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan.
By Rocky Robinson
SALINA-A group of protesters gathered in front of U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall’s Salina office, 200 East Iron, in Salina Thursday morning.
The demonstration was in response to Marshall’s announcement that he will support efforts to replace and reform the Affordable Care Act, introduced by former President Barack Obama back in 2010.
According to Katie Sawyer, Marshall’s district director, Marshall, Republican representative for the 1st District of Kansas, announced that he would support President Donald Trump’s replacement bill to a Wichita news station while in Washington this week.
Marshall’s decision comes after conversations with constituents and government officials, Sawyer said.
“Healthcare is a conversation we have been having for months in a formal capacity,” Sawyer said. “The congressman also came out of the healthcare field so this is something that he has thought about and been practicing for 30 years. Being in (Washington) D.C. has given him the chance to have more formal conversations about what this looks like.”
The gathering was put on by the Indivisible Movement, according to Christopher Renner, a demonstrator from Manhattan. About 35 people from Salina and neighboring communities came to Marshall’s office, located at 200 E Iron, to express their concern with Marshall’s support of President Trump’s bill. Renner said he expected more people to join the demonstration later in the day.
“Groups have started organizing across Kansas,” Renner said. “We are probably approaching 20 groups already. We are grassroots and we work to get people to come out and take back control of our political system, which is dominated by dark money.”
Sawyer said that they were able to prepare for the demonstration after hearing about it through a media platform two days beforehand. Sawyer and other office officials sat down with some protesters as they voiced their concerns. Participants urged Marshall to “vote no.”
“Trump is not only going to make insurance unaffordable, or unavailable to millions of people, he is also going to be giving a huge tax cut to the most affluent households,” said Stan Cox, a Salina resident.
