WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a 4-year-old girl who survived a stabbing that left her 6-year-old sister dead and the girls’ mother injured spent seven to eight hours alone in the cold before she was rescued near Wichita.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the 4-year-old was able to run away in November when the mother cut their attacker Hassan Wright, 47, in the throat and briefly interrupted the assault.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett is sharing the girl’s escape story because the case against the Wright has been resolved.
Wright has waived his right to appeal after entering a plea and agreeing to spend 50 years in prison.
Police said the girls’ mother was sexually assaulted.
Monday accident in Shawnee County photo courtesy by Jamie Hornbaker/Topeka via KDOT
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Three people, including 2 Kansas Highway Patrol troopers were injured in an accident just after noon on Monday in Shawnee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Honda SUV driven by Teresa M. Hoff, 35, Topeka, was eastbound on Interstate 470 at Gage in the right lane.
The SUV drifted onto the right shoulder and rear-ended a 2015 KHP Dodge Charger that was legally parked on the right shoulder of eastbound Interstate 470, with all emergency lights activated.
The Charger hit a Kansas State Trooper standing in the grass, on the south side of the roadway and a 2009 Chevy pickup that was legally parked on the right shoulder of eastbound Interstate 470 in front of the Dodge.
Hoff and Troopers Tanner D. Blakesley, 24, Topeka and Herbel, Christopher D. Herbel, 35, Paxico, were transported to the hospital in Topeka with non-life-threatening injuries.
Hoff was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two Kansas Highway Patrol troopers and another person were injured in a three-vehicle accident near Topeka.
The patrol says the troopers and an occupant of one of the other vehicles sustained injuries not considered life-threatening during the accident Monday along Interstate 470 at Fairlawn Road.
The patrol says the troopers were outside of their cruiser and talking to occupants of a pickup truck they had stopped when their patrol car was hit from behind by a sport utility vehicle. That SUV then rolled, and the patrol car was pushed into the truck they had stopped.
Eastbound lanes of the freeway were closed as the patrol investigates the accident and clear away the damaged vehicles.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old man who told investigators after robbing a Kansas bank that he’d rather be imprisoned than with his wife has admitted carrying out the holdup.
Lawrence Ripple pleaded guilty Monday in Kansas City, Kansas, to a federal bank robbery count. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Court documents show that Ripple gave a Kansas City bank teller a note in September demanding cash and warning he had a gun. Ripple grabbed nearly $3,000, sat in the lobby and told a guard he was the “guy he was looking for.”
An FBI agent says Ripple had argued with his wife earlier and told her in writing he’d “rather be in jail than at home.”
The Kansas City Star reports that Ripple’s wife accompanied him to court Monday.
TOPEKA –An investigation into possible wildlife violations uncovered unrelated insurance fraud evidence that led to a recent criminal conviction in Kansas.
Lawrence E. Payne, Overland Park, was sentenced Dec. 6, 2016, to serve 30 days in jail and 24 months’ probation following the discovery of 140 pairs of collectible Nike-brand shoes. The shoes were part of an insurance fraud investigation dating back to 2013. The case was brought by the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office and the Kansas Department of Insurance’s Anti-Fraud Division.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service officials found the shoes while conducting a search warrant in Payne’s home in connection with a case involving possible unregistered big cats brought into the U.S.
The insurance department’s anti-fraud division had filed probable cause court documents for the arrest of Payne following a 2013 alleged burglary of Payne’s home. The burglary supposedly occurred while he and his newlywed wife were vacationing in Colorado. Listed as stolen during that burglary were electronic equipment worth more than $25,000, and the collectible shoes.
Payne’s insurance company determined that the electronics claims were misrepresented, since the alleged business where the equipment was supposedly purchased did not exist.
The company dropped the Payne’s insurance in July 2013. However, Payne maintained that the shoes had been stolen, and he continued to pursue the case until the Wildlife Service search warrant turned up the missing shoes in his possession.
“The old adage that ‘crime doesn’t pay’ sometimes takes a bit longer than we would hope,” said Ken Selzer, CPA, Kansas Commissioner of Insurance, “but in this case it finally paid off. Our department stayed with the allegations, and we are pleased with the outcome.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Wichita, Kansas, are asking for the public’s help in finding a brown-and-white pit bull suspected of seriously injuring a 4-year-old boy.
Police say the boy was hospitalized with more than 50 lacerations after the attack that took place Monday while was playing in a yard.
Police say that when an adult came out of the house to help the boy, the dog attacked the child a second time.
Investigators say the boy’s injuries are not considered life-threatening.
The United State Senate on Monday evening voted to approve Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Kansas fourth district will now hold a special election to replace him in the United State House of Representatives.
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WASHINGTON -The Senate’s top Democrat says his party won’t be rushing into confirming President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
Already on the job are retired Gens. James Mattis at the Defense Department and John Kelly at Homeland Security.
And there’s a vote expected Monday evening on Kansas congressman, Mike Pompeo to lead the CIA.
Sen. Chuck Schumer says that for many other nominees, “there’s going to be a thorough debate.” He says that he’s “dubious” about eight or nine of Trump’s picks, and he’s citing potential conflicts of interests and policy stands, but says he hasn’t made final decisions about how he’ll vote.
The New York Democrat is making his view clear that “advise and consent does not mean ram it through.”
On Monday at 3:00 PM the Senate convenes and proceeds to executive session to resume consideration of the nomination of Mike Pompeo.
TOPEKA–The Kansas Department of Commerce has opened nominations for the 2017 Exporter of the Year Award. Each year, the Governor’s Exporter of the Year Award is presented to a Kansas company for exceptional international marketing success.
This award encourages the growth of the state’s international commerce by showcasing successful exporters as role models to the Kansas business community. The recipients are prime examples of how exporting is a significant catalyst for company growth and diversification.
The annual Governor’s Exporter of the Year Award proudly celebrates the successes of Kansas companies that excel in exporting and growing their communities. We encourage you to nominate a successful Kansas business for this year’s awards program.
The Governor’s Exporter of the Year receives:
An invitation to attend the Team Kansas awards banquet in the Spring, where top businesses from across the state are recognized
Statewide recognition of your business excellence
Use of the award to market your products
Membership in the Kansas International Trade Coordinating Council (KITCC)
Increased networking opportunities
A site visit from the Governor to honor the company’s management team and employees
Any Kansas company engaged in exporting can be nominated for the Kansas Governor’s Exporter of the Year Award. Visit KansasCommerce.gov/Exporter for more information, to nominate a business or to self-nominate your own company. Nominations must be received by 5:00 p.m. on January 27, 2017.
To nominate a company for the 2017 Kansas Exporter of the Year Award please contact:
April Chiang
Kansas Department of Commerce
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (785) 296-5473
TTY: 711
Several western Kansas companies have received the award.
KANSAS GOVERNOR’S EXPORTER OF THE YEAR AWARD–PAST EXPORTER OF THE YEAR WINNERS 2016 GT Manufacturing Inc. – Clay Center
2015: Vektek Inc. – Emporia
2014: Kansas Aviation of Independence – Independence
2013: Excel Industries Inc. – Hesston
2012: Pitsco Education – Pittsburg
2011: Bio-Microbics Inc. – Shawnee 2010: Osborne Industries – Osborne
2009: Cereal Ingredients Inc. – Leavenworth 2008: Salina Vortex Corporation – Salina
2007: The Bradbury Group – Moundridge 2006: Great Plains Manufacturing Inc. – Salina
2005: BG Products Inc. – Wichita
2004: Tramco Inc. – Wichita
2003: American Crane and Tractor Parts Inc. – Kansas City
2002: Butler National Corporation – Olathe
2001: Landoll Corporation – Marysville
2000: Innovative Material Systems – Olathe
1999: Cobalt Boats – Neodesha
1998: Glendo Corporation – Emporia
1997: Pioneer Balloon Company – Wichita 1996: Roto-Mix Inc. – Dodge City
1995: Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. – Topeka
1994: Kreonite – Wichita
1993: Interconnect Devices Inc. – Kansas City
1992: Peabody Tectank Inc. – Parsons
1991: Didde Web Press Corporation – Emporia
1990: M-E-C Company – Neodesha
1989: Wenger Manufacturing Inc. – Sabetha
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas lawmaker says a program focused on getting more children out of juvenile detention centers and into foster care is falling behind schedule.
Republican Rep. Russ Jennings tells the Lawrence Journal World that the Juvenile Justice Reform Act missed the first implementation deadline due to technical and outlier issues. Jennings, who chairs the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, says more delays are possible because state officials are continuing to realize some key systems are still not in place.
Jennings says the Legislature will continue to discuss the state Department for Children and Families’ concerns regarding funding and staff shortages, but he is confident JJRA will eventually find better places for children to receive rehabilitation.
FCC photoNEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump has picked a fierce critic of the Obama-era “net neutrality” rules to be chief regulator of the nation’s airwaves and internet connections.
The next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission will be Ajit Pai, an old hand at the agency.
Pai was born in New York but grew up in Parsons, where his parents were doctors. He is one of the two Republican commissioners on a five-member panel that regulates the country’s communications infrastructure, including TV, phone and internet service.
The Republicans’ FCC majority would help them roll back pro-consumer policies that upset many phone and cable industry groups, including net neutrality rules that bar internet service providers from favoring websites and apps over others.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., released the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s choice to designate Ajit Pai as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission:
“My fellow Kansan Ajit Pai is an excellent choice to lead the FCC. I have worked with him over the years through my role on the Senate Commerce Committee, traveled with him throughout our state, and gotten to know him on a personal level. I know him to be a capable and talented leader and one of the smartest people I have ever met when it comes to public policy. Ajit understands the importance of quality access to broadband and wireless connectivity, and I believe growing up in Kansas makes him uniquely qualified to advocate for rural America. I look forward to continuing to work with him to make certain we can improve connectivity and bring critical updates not only to our homes and businesses but also to our hospitals and schools.”
TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Revenue today announced that taxpayers receiving a 1099G form will soon receive a corrected document in the mail.
Monday, the department discovered some of the 1099Gs sent out for the tax year 2016 listed refund amounts that did not match the amount the taxpayer actually received.
The department has confirmed a small number of taxpayers received forms listing incorrect refund amounts, but to ensure accuracy all of the approximately 380,000 forms will be reissued.
Only the forms mailed to taxpayers were incorrect, the information sent to the Internal Revenue Service was accurate.
The file sent from the department to the Kansas Office of Printing and Mailing contained accurate information. The error occurred later in the process.
Taxpayers who received a 1099G from the Kansas Department of Revenue should destroy the form; they will receive a new and corrected form in the mail automatically. The new forms will be marked CORRECTED on the form and envelope and will be mailed by Monday, Jan. 31.
Taxpayers receive a Kansas 1099G if they received a payment or compensation from the state such as unemployment, refunds, credits, or offsets. Those who received a 1099G from the Kansas Department of Labor for unemployment payments are not affected by the issue.
As Kansas lawmakers plan hearings related to last week’s federal decision to deny a one-year extension of the state’s privatized Medicaid program, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer says officials are addressing the issues that federal regulators cited.
Colyer still says he thinks politics played a role in the decision, which came in the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency.
But hours after returning from the inauguration of President Donald Trump, he said in a phone interview Saturday that the state will resolve regulators’ concerns with KanCare, which provides health coverage to more than 425,000 Kansans.
“We always want to comply with the federal rules, and there have been a number of discussions that have gone on with them,” Colyer said. “But we believe that we can address any of these issues and are happy to do so.”
Officials with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave Kansas until mid-February to submit a plan to solve compliance issues, which included a lack of reliable data on the provider networks maintained by the three private insurance companies that administer KanCare.
Colyer said he could not personally vouch for the accuracy of the network data.
He left that to leaders of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
“I’m not the expert on that,” Colyer said. “The policy of the state of Kansas is we want to make sure that we do have an excellent network and if there are concerns, of course we want to deal with them.”
Sen. Vicki Schmidt, chairwoman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, has asked KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier to answer questions about the KanCare extension denial at a hearing Monday morning.
The House Health and Human Services Committee is also scheduled to hear a bill Monday afternoon that would establish an independent inspector general within the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to oversee the KanCare companies.
Colyer said the state will meet the current deadline for a corrective action plan and continue to plan for a one-year extension of the KanCare program.
Then he and the rest of the Brownback administration will begin writing new Medicaid contracts — with added flexibility he predicted the Trump administration would write into Medicaid.
“Everybody needs to recognize that there is a major change underway in Washington, D.C., and we will work with the existing staff and the new staff as they go on,” Colyer said.
Andy Marso is a reporter for 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 @andymarso.
DOUGLAS COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Douglas County were investigating a suspicious box and unusual writing on Monday morning in Lawrence.
Just after 8 a.m. on Monday, authorities evacuated businesses and closed streets in the 1100 Block of Massachusetts Street after a suspicious cardboard box was found on the west steps of the old courthouse in Lawrence, according to a media release.
Written on the steps leading up to the box was “Death Before Dishonor,” in black writing. A county employee was the first to report seeing the box.
The Olathe Bomb Squad was called to investigate along with Shawnee County Sheriff, K9 and the FBI.
The box contained a stack of magazines. It is not believed they were related to the writing on the steps.
The old courthouse and businesses in the area re-opened just before noon.
PRATT – The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) has finalized permanent conservation agreements with a private landowner to conserve 1,781 acres of high-quality lesser prairie chicken habitat in southcentral Kansas. This is the first permanent conservation easement in the mixed-grass prairie region secured as part of the Lesser Prairie Chicken Range-wide Plan.
The conserved acreage – native rangeland managed for livestock production – is occupied by lesser prairie chickens and is located within one of the highest priority conservation areas identified in the range-wide plan.
The transaction includes a conservation easement purchased by WAFWA and held by Pheasants Forever that legally restricts future development and activities that would be detrimental to the bird’s habitat. All other property rights associated with historical use of the land will be retained by the private landowner. WAFWA has also established an endowment that will provide the landowner with sufficient payments to implement a lesser prairie chicken conservation plan in perpetuity. This transaction not only permanently protects key prairie habitat, but also ensures that this property will remain a working cattle ranch.
“This conservation easement is another milestone in the successful implementation of the range-wide plan and will permanently secure important habitat that the birds need to thrive,” said Roger Wolfe, WAFWA’s lesser prairie chicken program manager. “We appreciate the collaboration with Pheasants Forever, our industry partners who are funding this effort, and the conservation-minded landowner who has made this possible.”
“It took a lot of work on the part of WAFWA, Pheasants Forever and ourselves to find a balance between the needs of the lesser prairie chicken and maintaining historical use of the land,” said Tom Hammond, manager of the property. “The result is an innovative approach that acknowledges and rewards landowners for permanently conserving large tracts of habitat, while maintaining the integrity of the land for the long-term benefit of the landowner and the species. There is high-quality habitat there now because we have managed the range properly for both grazing and wildlife. These agreements make sure that approach remains in place forever.”
The range-wide plan is a collaborative effort of WAFWA and the state wildlife agencies of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. It was developed to ensure conservation of the lesser prairie chicken by providing a mechanism for voluntary cooperation by landowners and industry, and improving coordination between state and federal conservation agencies. Funding for WAFWA’s conservation efforts comes from voluntary mitigation payments by industry partners that are enrolled in the plan. The plan allows agriculture producers and industry to continue operations while reducing impacts to the bird and its grassland habitat.
Landowners interested in participating in one of the short-term, long-term or permanent conservation options available under the Lesser Prairie Chicken Range-wide Plan are encouraged to contact Roger Wolfe at [email protected].
