SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A report shows nearly one in five immigrants in the U.S. illegally live in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas.
The report released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center estimates more than 2 million immigrants in the country illegally lived in the two areas in 2014.
Pew says the country has about 11.1 million immigrants who do not have legal status.
The report also estimates more than a third of the immigrant population in the Houston, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix metropolitan areas lacked legal papers.
The report comes as President Trump tries to boost ties with local law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal immigration.
Many large cities including New York and Los Angeles have pushed back and pledged to help protect immigrants from deportation.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has found sufficient evidence for a 36-year-old man to be tried in a Topeka killing.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Arthur Lee Ford IV was bound over for trial Wednesday in Shawnee County on an intentional second-degree murder charge in the death of 52-year-old Mark Everett Johnson. His body was found in December in a downtown apartment.
During the preliminary hearing, a witness recalled seeing Ford carrying a baseball bat dripping with blood. The coroner testified that Johnson was struck in the head at least a dozen times and stabbed three times.
Topeka Police Det. Jason Judd testified that money was withdrawn with Johnson’s debit card five times in the week after his death. Judd identified Ford as the person seen using the card on surveillance footage.
SALINA -Former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina was this year’s guest speaker at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting. A press conference was held before the chamber banquet where Fiorina talked about issues ranging from the popularity of President Donald Trump, to replacing the Affordable Care Act.
According to Fiorina, the average American voter feels left behind by the system. This is why more fringe candidates like President Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders were so popular in the last election. She also predicted that unless the system is changed, these types candidates are going to continue to grow in popularity.
“Those folks that voted for (President Trump), and there are a lot of them, are expecting him to challenge the system a little bit,” Fiorina said. “So, we are not even three weeks into it, so I say it is a good thing to give the man a chance.”
Poverty was also a major talking point for Fiorina during the press conference and the chamber banquet. The former Repubican Presidential Candidate works with the charity group Opportunity International, which she described as a microfinance organization. This means they lend small amounts of money to impoverished people.
“Poverty, it’s not because people lack gifts. It is not because they are stupid. It is not because they don’t care. It could be, for example, they can not get credit,” Fiorina said.
Fiorina’s message at the banquet focused more on the changing times. She described it as “the more things change, the more things stay the same.” During her speech she touched on how technology has changed the workplace but the qualities of a good leader still remain the same.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) –A major rating agency has revised the outlook on its credit rating for Kansas to “negative” from “stable.”
The action announced Wednesday by S&P Global Ratings is not a credit downgrade. The state’s credit rating remains at AA-, among the lowest for a state.
S&P said in a report that the negative outlook reflects what it believes to be weak economic trends and “structural budget pressures.”
Kansas faces projected budget shortfalls totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019.
The state has struggled to balance its budget since Republican legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging. The tax-cutting was what many voters now see as an unsuccessful attempt to stimulate the economy.
S&P last downgraded its credit rating for Kansas in July 2016.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Natural Resources Conservation Service is taking applications for financial assistance for those affected by a wildfire in March of 2016 that burned more than 400,000 acres in Kansas and Oklahoma.
The service says it will offer $2 million total in assistance over four years to help with conservation practices such as brush management, firebreaks, prescribed grazing and prescribed burning.
The agency’s offices are taking applications for this year’s funds until March 17.
Monty Breneman, with the Kansas agency, says if the demand exceeds the initial allocation, the state conservationist will ask for more funding.
The fire damaged more than 40 structures, miles of fencing and killed hundreds of cattle.
A crowd of approximately 200 filled the north wing of the Statehouse for a rally before the House Health and Human Services Committee convened a hearing on a bill that would expand eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program. SUSIE FAGAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
A yearlong campaign aimed at building support for Medicaid expansion culminated Wednesday in a show-of-force lobbying effort aimed at convincing Kansas lawmakers that they still have time to act.
A crowd of approximately 200 filled the north wing of the Statehouse for a rally before the House Health and Human Services Committee convened a hearing on a bill that would expand eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, to more low-income Kansans.
At the hearing, representatives of hospitals, clinics, consumer groups and some of the state’s largest business organizations urged lawmakers to discount conflicting information coming out of Washington, D.C., about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and move forward on expansion.
“We have two choices,” said Tom Bell, president and CEO of the Kansas Hospital Association. “One is, we can sit back and wait and see what happens in Congress. Or, two, we can get in line and get this money back to our state.”
Bell and others pointed to the fact that several Republican governors in expansion states are seeking approval from the Trump administration to keep their programs in place. That, he said, is putting pressure on Republican members of Congress to delay repeal and consider replacement alternatives.
“There are 62 senators who represent states that have expanded Medicaid,” Bell said. “Do you think that they’re going to just follow along with this debate and let their state be thrown under the bus?”
The decision in 2014 by Gov. Sam Brownback to reject expansion and the refusal of legislative leaders to consider the issue since then has cost the state about $1.7 billion in federal Medicaid funds, Bell said.
The loss of that funding coupled with reductions in Medicare reimbursements have hit many Kansas hospitals hard, hastening the closure of Mercy Hospital in Independence and forcing others to seek help from local taxpayers to keep their doors open.
The most personal and stirring testimony Wednesday came from an uninsured woman struggling to work and raise her granddaughters and a doctor whose low-income patients often wait too long to seek care.
Suzann Emmons runs a small housekeeping business in Iola. She makes too much to qualify for KanCare under existing eligibility rules but not enough to qualify for help purchasing private Obamacare coverage. Fighting back tears, Emmons, who is raising her two granddaughters, said she lives “in constant fear” about what would happen if she got sick.
“I am employed,” she said. “I contribute to our state. I stepped up for my granddaughters and am doing my best to help them succeed. But I need your help. If something happens to my health and I can’t treat the problem, our family unit breaks down. I don’t want that to happen.”
Dr. Robert Freelove of Salina also had to fight his emotions when talking about a young mother of three working two jobs who waited too long to seek treatment for breast cancer, and when describing the slow, painful death of a 57-year-old diabetic truck driver who didn’t seek treatment until his foot “was half eaten away.”
“What we’re talking about are people’s lives, people’s lives,” he said, pausing to regain his composure.
He pointedly asked committee members to consider the circumstances of the waitress serving them the next time they’re in a coffee shop or the clerk the next time they’re checking out at the convenience store.
“I want you to look in those people’s eyes and ask yourself how you can’t support House Bill 2064,” he said referring to the number of the expansion bill.
The bill would extend eligibility for KanCare to approximately 300,000 Kansas adults with annual incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,000 annually for an individual. However, it’s expected that only about half that number would enroll for a variety of reasons.
Shortly after the hearing concluded, Brownback reiterated his opposition to expansion in a strongly worded statement.
“It is not affordable, costing the state upwards of $100 million in the next two years,” Brownback said, adding that it would do little to help small rural hospitals.
“President Trump was elected having declared his intention to do away with Obamacare, and he has already taken action to alleviate its onerous regular and financial burdens,” he continued. “Kansas should not tie itself to this failed program of the past just before its inevitable demise.”
Dr. Susan Mosier, who serves on Brownback’s Cabinet as secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, is among the opponents expected to testify Thursday at the third and final hearing on the expansion bill.
Jim McLean is managing director of kcur.org‘s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas budget debate (all times local):
The Kansas Senate’s top Democrat says the state shouldn’t be cutting education funding to help balance its budget and is pushing for higher income taxes on the state’s wealthiest families.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka told reporters Thursday that cutting aid to public schools would send the wrong signal to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The court is considering a lawsuit filed in 2010 by four districts and whether the state’s total spending on schools is adequate.
Hensley also said Democrats want to reinstate a third personal income tax bracket for wealthy taxpayers. The state went from three brackets to two in 2012 as GOP lawmakers slashed income taxes at Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging.
The state is facing projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.
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11:50 a.m.
The chairman of the Kansas House Taxation Committee says it will debate proposals for increasing personal income taxes to help balance the state’s budget.
Chairman and Assaria Republican Steven Johnson said a debate planned for Thursday afternoon would go forward as planned.
In the Senate, GOP leaders canceled a debate they had planned for Thursday on proposals to increase income taxes and cut education funding.
The House committee is considering proposals to increase income taxes to generate $917 million in new revenues over two years, starting in July.
The proposals include eliminating an income tax exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners and the state’s top income tax rate to 5.25 percent from 4.6 percent.
The state faces projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.
8:55 a.m.
Republican leaders have cancelled the Kansas Senate’s debate on budget-balancing proposals because they could not sell GOP colleagues on education funding cuts.
The Senate had planned to debate a bill Thursday that would cut aid to public schools by $128 million by June 30. They also had expected to take up another bill increasing income taxes to raise $660 million over two years, starting in July.
But some GOP senators thought the cut in aid to public schools was too steep with only months left in the school year.
Senate Republican leaders said the chamber would not consider any legislation until members agreed on proposals to balance the budget.
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8:25 a.m.
Republican leaders have delayed a Kansas Senate debate on budget-balancing proposals to have another discussion among GOP senators about tax increases and education funding cuts.
It was a sign before Thursday’s debate on those issues that GOP leaders were having at least a little trouble selling a proposal to trim aid to public schools by $128 million by June 30. The cut would be about $279 per student.
The state is facing a projected shortfall in its current budget of about $320 million and total budget gaps of nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.
The education cuts are intended to help get the state to July with a balanced budget. Senators also planned to debate a bill increasing income taxes to raise $660 million over two years, starting in July.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators in Kansas are facing a key test of support for budget-balancing proposals to cut education spending and hike income taxes.
The state Senate planned Thursday to debate a tax bill and a separate measure making the cuts. The package would move the GOP-controlled Legislature toward a confrontation with Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
The governor already has criticized the tax bill.
It would raise $660 million in new revenues over two years by increasing rates and eliminating an income tax exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.
The other measure would cut aid to public schools in the current state budget by $128 million and trim spending on higher education by $23 million.
The state faces projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans pick their nominee Thursday for the south central Kansas congressional seat formerly held by CIA Director Mike Pompeo to represent a district the GOP has held for more than two decades.
GOP leaders are not taking the seat for granted amid the unpredictability of special elections and political unrest since the election of President Donald Trump.
The April 11 vote will be the nation’s first congressional election since Trump’s win. Democrats are hoping to channel voter discontent into an upset in the heavily Republican district.
Republicans have held the seat since Todd Tiahrt unseated veteran Democratic Rep. Dan Glickman in 1994. Pompeo won the state’s 4th District seat in 2010, when Tiahrt gave it up to run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.
SEDGWICK COUNTY -Wichita Police Officer Brian Arterburn remains hospitalized in critical condition after he was run over by a suspect in a stolen SUV on Tuesday.
Arteburn, a 25-year-veteran of the police force suffered injuries to his chest, abdomen and brain, according to James Haan, M.D., medical director of Via Christi St. Francis Level 1 Trauma Center in a media release.
Update on Off Arterburn. Still in critical condition. Keep the thoughts and prayers coming! Keep fighting brother, we are with you!!!! pic.twitter.com/XJcfdF4QdT
The suspect who ran over the officer, Justin Terrazas, 31, is facing attempted first-degree murder charges. Authorities are expected to present the case against Terrazas to the Sedgwick County District Attorney on Friday.
MITCHELL COUNTY – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 8a.m. on Thursday in Mitchell County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Dodge Avenger driven by Crystal R. Schindler, 34, Cawker City, was eastbound on U.S. 24 just before Hobart Street in Glen Elder.
The vehicle struck a guardrail and overturned in the south ditch.
Schindler was transported to the Mitchell County Hospital.
She was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating two suspects on drug charges and looking for two others.
Just after 3p.m. Wednesday, Detective Adam Hales with the Great Bend Police Department observed a suspicious vehicle circling the area around Great Bend high school, according to a media release.
A vehicle fitting this description was the subject of an earlier tip which indicated it might be involved in dealing drugs.
Detective Hales performed a traffic stop on the vehicle due to a traffic infraction.
When the vehicle stopped, three passengers fled the vehicle. The driver (a juvenile) remained with the vehicle and was taken into custody by Detective Hales.
Other officers responded to the area. Officer Joel Hamlin located one of the passengers (later identified as Luis Sepulveda, age 18, and followed him to a house in the 1700 block of Williams Street.
Barton County Sheriff’s Detective Sharon Wondra was also in the area at this time and discovered that Sepulveda was hiding in a shed behind one of the houses. She and Officer Hamlin took Sepulveda into custody.
Officers later discovered Sepulveda’s wallet in the shed. It contained a large quantity of cash and smelled strongly of marijuana.
Sepulveda was booked into jail on charges of Possession of Drugs and Obstruction of Justice. The juvenile was charged with Possession of Drugs.
Intelligence obtained by officers prior to the traffic stop indicated that one of the subjects might be in possession of a handgun, and items found in the car led officers to believe that this information was correct.
While officers were searching the area for the remaining two passengers, Dispatch received another call for service indicating that a woman had been robbed in the parking lot.
When officers responded, they discovered that the female victim had been approached by a man who pushed her and took a container she was holding in her hands. He then ran away toward the north.
The two subjects that fled from the car stop were described as males. One was wearing a gray hoodie style sweatshirt. The other was wearing a black hoodie style sweatshirt. Officers are unsure of their race or other further descriptors.
The subject from the parking lot robbery incident is described as a Hispanic male wearing a red hoodie style sweatshirt.
Police ask that anyone with information about any of the aforementioned subjects contact the Department at (620)793-4120 or Crimestoppers at (620) 792-1300. Crimestoppers lets you give information anonymously and gives cash rewards for information that leads to an arrest.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle has been charged with assaulting a fellow inmate in a Kansas jail.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the aggravated battery and disorderly conduct charges filed Wednesday stem from a confrontation Friday in the Sedgwick County Jail. He now has five criminal cases pending against him in the county, where he has been jailed since June.
County prosecutors also allege that he purposely hit people with a car after being asked to leave a housewarming party; dodged law enforcement attempts to serve him with a warrant; threatened to kill a jail deputy; and damaged a jail television.
During a court appearance on the latest charge, Randle said he defended himself when another inmate punched him in the face. His bonds now total $59,000.
JEFFERSON COUNTY -Kansas game wardens rescued another sick bald eagle on Sunday afternoon.
The eagle rescued just after 4p.m. at Perry Reservoir in Jefferson County was taken to Operation Wildlife.
The bird was diagnosed with a broken wing and low levels of lead poisoning, according to Diane Johnson with Operation Wildlife. It is scheduled for surgery on Thursday.
On January 29, a game warden captured a sick bald eagle near Kansas City. Watch the rescue here.
The bird was taken to Operation Wildlife where it tested positive for high-levels of lead poisoning and died, according to Johnson.
Operation Wildlife in LInwood is the largest publicly funded wildlife clinic in Kansas, according to Kansas Wildlife and Parks Statistics. They receive thousands of wild animals each year, with release rates averaging 69%, 20% higher than the national average, according to the organization’s web site.
