RENO COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating two suspects injured after an accident during a Saturday high-speed chase involving a stolen jeep.
Just after 2:30 p.m. a Reno County Sheriff Deputy patrolling near Haven spotted a Jeep reported stolen earlier in the day from Hutchinson.
The deputy initiated a traffic stop, but the Jeep sped up and a chase began.
Other deputies laid stop sticks at Yoder and Trailswest Roads. The driver went around the stop sticks but drove through the ditch and went airborne.
The vehicle continued southwest through a field before it became disabled.
The driver, identified as 22-year-old Bryson Allen and his passenger 37-year-old Corey Drake, both of Hutchinson fled on foot.
They were both quickly apprehended and then complained of minor injuries. They were transported by EMS to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center where they were treated and released to deputies who transported them to the Reno County Correctional Facility.
Allen was arrested for suspicion of felony flee and elude, felony interference, possession of meth, felony possession of stolen property, and driving while suspended. His bond is set at $9,750.00
Drake was arrested for felony possession of stolen property, felony interference, possession of marijuana. His bond is set at $3,500. He has previous convictions for burglary, theft and drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Both are expected to make a first appearance in court Monday.
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RENO COUNTY – Two Kansas men were injured in an accident during a pursuit law enforcement just after 2p.m. on Saturday in Reno County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Jeep Liberty was reported stolen out of Hutchinson.
The vehicle driven by Bryson Paul Allen, 26, Hutchinson, fled when Reno County deputies attempted to make a traffic stop.
During pursuit, the Jeep left the roadway and drove through several pastures and struck a fence in the 2000 block of E Longview Road.
Allen and a passenger Corey Wayne Drake, 37, Hutchinson, were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.
They were not wearing a seat belts, according to the KHP.
SALINE COUNTY – The National Weather service reported record high temperatures across the state on Sunday.
The 3p.m. temperature in Salina was 90 degrees and it eventually climbed to 92, according to the National Weather Service.
That broke the previous high temperature of 86 degrees for March 19 of 86 degrees in 1907.
It was the earliest 90-degree temperature ever recorded in Salina.
The high temperature of 93 in Garden City tied a record from 1972.
The high temperature of 90 in Russell broke a record from 1972. The 90 degrees in Concordia broke a record of 81 set in 1921. It was also 92 in Manhattan, 90 degrees in Topeka and Emporia and 89 in Lawrence. Most of those locations didn’t reach 90 degrees until the first week of June in 2016.
Here are some highs today across western Kansas. Temperatures on average were 30 to 35 degrees above normal. #kswxpic.twitter.com/Tvx8z1w0nf
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas House committee has advanced a bill that would protect public employers from liability for employees carrying concealed handguns while working outside of a public building.
The House Federal and State Affairs Committee passed the bill Friday. Under the bill, a public employer could not be sued if their employee acted wrongfully or negligently with their concealed gun while out of the building for work. Employers are already protected from liability when an employee is in a public building.
Wichita Republican Rep. John Whitmer says employers shouldn’t be held responsible for an employee’s personal choice to carry a concealed weapon. Overland Park Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton didn’t support the bill and says a victim would be able to sue for more damages from the employer than the employee.
SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are mourning the loss of a K-9 in the line of duty on Saturday.
Just after 8 PM on Saturday, police were dispatched to a disturbance with a weapon at a residence inside the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park in the 2300 block of E. MacArthur in Wichita, according to a social media report.
Shortly after officers arrived on scene the suspect of the disturbance came outside and had a gun, according to officers at the scene.
A Wichita Police K-9 Handler released K-9 Rooster to apprehend the suspect. The suspect started shooting and killed Rooster.
Officers returned fire and wounded the suspect.
The suspect was transported to an area hospital and died from his injuries.
K-9 Rooster had served with the Wichita Police Department for five years.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas might chart its own legal path on abortion.
It would happen through a lawsuit that could turn a state in which the anti-abortion movement has won a long string of legislative victories into fairly friendly territory for abortion rights.
The state Supreme Court heard arguments this past week in a legal challenge to a 2015 law that bans a common second-trimester procedure. The key issue is whether the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution.
If the justices say the state constitution does, Kansas courts could strike down abortion restrictions that federal courts have or would uphold.
The only certainty in such a case appears to be that Kansas courts would deal with additional legal disputes on abortion.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. –A Kansas man pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to robbing a bank in Excelsior Springs, Mo, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Kishahn Lewis, 20, of Topeka, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to the charge contained in a Sept. 20, 2016, federal indictment.
By pleading guilty today, Lewis admitted that he stole $150 from the National Bank of Kansas City, located in Excelsior Springs, on Sept. 12, 2016. Lewis handed a note to a bank teller that demanded money and claimed he had a weapon. The teller complied with the demand by giving Lewis three $50 bills.
According to court documents, a witness saw Lewis run from the bank and through a parking lot before getting into a gray Volvo. Lewis then drove south to 69 Highway. An Excelsior Springs police officer spotted the Volvo as it entered southbound Interstate 35 from 69 Highway and pulled his patrol car alongside Lewis’s vehicle. When Lewis saw the police officer, he immediately exited onto 291 Highway, and then exited that highway. The police officer located the Volvo parked at the intersection of A Highway and 291 Highway but did not see anyone inside the car. The officer passed the Volvo and radioed to other units that the car was abandoned. However, when the officer circled back, the car was gone. A few minutes later, Pleasant Valley police officers located the Volvo and stopped the car at a Quik Trip at Interstate 35 and Pleasant Valley Road.
Lewis was arrested with the demand note and the three $50 bills in his possession.
Under federal statutes, Lewis is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
A report by the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says that the proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements imposed by a 2011 Kansas law impose a “burden” on voters. CREATIVE COMMONS-FLICKR / H. MICHAEL KARSHIS
Kansas’ “strictest in the nation” election law may have been written with the intent to discriminate against certain groups of voters and should be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that it doesn’t violate federal law, a civil rights panel says in a report issued Tuesday.
The report, written by the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, says that the proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements imposed by a 2011 Kansas law “may impose a substantially higher burden than that which has been previously challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Kansas lawmakers passed the Secure and Fair Elections, or SAFE, Act at Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s urging to guard against voter fraud. However, based on testimony received at hearings conducted in January 2016, the advisory committee says that voter disenfranchisement appears to be a much bigger problem than voter fraud.
“The number of eligible voters turned away from the polls in Kansas due to lack of required identification or failure to provide documentary proof of citizenship may far exceed the number of documented cases of voter fraud,” the report says, stressing that errors in voter registration don’t rise to the level of fraud.
“Those who continue to raise concerns regarding voter fraud have cited errors in registration data as evidence that voter fraud may be significantly more widespread that it appears,” the report states, specifically rebutting claims made by Kobach and President Donald Trump that illegal voting is widespread.
Evidence Of Voter Suppression
The advisory committee report says that research has found that stricter ID and registration requirements can suppress voter participation. It goes on to say that a preliminary analysis of Kansas turnout data “suggests that voter participation declined following the implementation of the SAFE Act.”
“Testimony indicated the SAFE Act may disparately impact voters on the basis of age, sex, disability, race, income level and affiliation,” the report says.
Kobach disputes that and other findings in the report, which he calls biased.
Kansas lawmakers passed the Secure and Fair Elections, or SAFE, Act in 2011 at Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s urging to guard against voter fraud. CREDIT STEPHEN KORANDA / KPR
“The advisory committee report is not worth the paper that it was written on,” Kobach said in an interview Tuesday, insisting there isn’t credible evidence of voter suppression.
“These advisory committees exist in all 50 states and some do their work pretty carefully and others do not, and Kansas unfortunately did not,” he said, charging that members of the committee “were biased” against the SAFE Act.
“You could see that in the hearings themselves,” he said. “They obtained testimony overwhelmingly from people who were opposed to the Kansas law.”
Mildred Edwards, chairwoman of the Kansas committee, defended the report, saying members made “every effort” to get differing viewpoints.
“We worked really hard as a committee to find a bipartisan presentation panel to come before us,” Edwards said, noting that Kobach was among those invited to testify.
“We cast our net far and wide and we believe those individuals with the voices that should be heard were present at that hearing,” she said.
A Kansas ‘Poll Tax’
The cost of obtaining documents necessary to prove citizenship is also a barrier, the report says. While the law makes the documents available from state agencies at no cost, some prospective voters have been charged due to “insufficient training” of state workers. In addition, the report says fees charged to Kansans by agencies in other states constitute what amounts to an unconstitutional “poll tax.”
In addition to urging a Justice Department review of the SAFE Act, the report recommends that Congress establish a working committee to study the impact of a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the section of the Voting Rights Act that authorized federal oversight of election laws in states with a history of discriminating against voters. Congress should use the information generated by the working group to develop an updated formula to identify states that “require continued review,” the report says.
The report also says the congressional working group should study the feasibility of a national voter registration system to replace a state-based system that has resulted in a confusing patchwork quilt of election laws.
“The U.S. is currently the only major democracy without a standard voter registration system at the national level,” the report says.
Kobach said the recommendation is an indication of the committee’s “sloppy work.”
“If they had done their homework, they would know that is actually prohibited by the federal Constitution … which says that the states are in charge of the registration of voters and determining who the qualified voters are,” he said.
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.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration wants to build a 30-foot-high border wall that looks good from the north side and is difficult to climb or cut through. The specifications were found in a pair of contract notices posted to a government website further detailing President Donald Trump’s promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” at the Mexican border.
The notices were made public late Friday by Customs and Border Protection. That’s Homeland Security Department agency that will oversee the project and eventually patrol and maintain the wall. The proposals are due to the government by March 29.
One of the requests calls for a solid concrete wall while the other asks for a see-through structure. Plans call for 30- foot-long prototypes to go up in San Diego.
