GEARY COUNTY — Students and staff at USD 475 are mourning the death of a teacher in a Wednesday morning car accident.

The Junction City Police Department reported a 2007 Mini Cooper driven by Jacey Cantrell, 23, Wamego, was westbound on Interstate 70 just west of the Washington Street exit.

The vehicle crossed the center median. An eastbound 2014 Dodge Ram pickup driven by Joel Larbaeza, 31, Junction City, struck the Mini Cooper in the Mini Cooper.

The impact caused the smaller vehicle to roll.

Cantrell was entrapped in the vehicle and had to be extricated by the Junction City Fire Department. She was transported to Geary Community Hospital where she was pronounced deceased a short time later
Larbaeza was not injured.

Cantrell was a fourth-grade teacher at Eisenhower Elementary School in Junction City.

She was in her first year of employment with the school district after graduating from Emporia State, according to USD 475.  She was a graduate of Canton-Galva High School.

Counselors are responding to that school to provide assistance where necessary the remainder of this week. Cantrell was on her way to work when the accident occurred.

CHEROKEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas woman involved in a fatal car accident in southeast Kansas.

Galena police issued a warrant last week for 25-year-old Shelby Colon’s arrest. The Cherokee County district attorney has charged Colon with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of 66-year-old Charles Burkybile Jr. and 86-year-old Glen A. Roosa.  Authorities say Burkybile and Roosa were struck by a vehicle Colon was driving on July 6. Burkybile died at the scene. Roosa later died at a nearby hospital.

Detectives developed information that she was at a home in Joplin. Patrol officers responded to the home just after 10p.m. Monday to locate her. While there, she arrived in a vehicle in the alley behind the house and was taken into custody. She is awaiting extradition back to Kansas, according to a media release.

Police Chief Billy Charles says Colon stopped at the scene of the crash and didn’t attempt to flee. He says there was no indication she was impaired at the time, but a blood sample was sent to the state crime lab for analysis.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A former teacher of the year for a northeast Kansas school district has been charged with sex crimes with a teenager.

Two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy were filed Tuesday against 45-year-old Todd Burd, of Gardner. Bond is set at $250,000. No attorney is listed for him in online court records. Court documents say the nonconsensual sexual acts are alleged to have occurred last fall with a 15- or 16-year-old.

Burd was a choir director and vocal teacher at Gardner Edgerton High School, but is not currently an employee. He received Gardner-Edgerton district’s Teacher of the Year honor in 2015.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement reported some good news for a Kansas dog owner.
On October 28, employees with Sedgwick County Animal Control brought in a stray Boston Terrier, according to police department officer Paul Cruz.

The dog was scanned and determined it had a micro-chip. Police learned someone stole the dog from the owner in July of 2013.

After some computer research, police tracked down the dog’s owner. They contacted the owner to tell her the dog was at the animal shelter. “She was shocked and excited, according to Cruz. The woman quickly came to get Missy who was in good health other than having an eye surgically removed.

Cruz said, “This is a prime example of how important it is to micro-chip pets.”
Police did not release details on how the dog was stolen in 2013.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man on multiple charges after racing a truck down city streets in Salina.

Just after 9p.m. Tuesday, a 2002 Chevy Silverado driven by Ronald Hanchett, 44, Salina, was racing a 2012 Infiniti G20 driven by 17-year-old Koltin Montey of Salina, down Broadway Street in Salina, according to police Capt. Paul Forrester.

As the vehicle turned onto South Ninth Street, the Chevy rear-ended the Infiniti, traveled into the median and rolled.

Police arrested Hanchett and booked him into the Saline County Jail for child endangerment, driving under the influence, following too close, speeding and transporting alcohol.

A 36-year-old Salina women and two children under the age of five in the Chevy were transported to Salina Regional Hospital for observation.

The children in the Silverado were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to Forrester.
Montey was not injured in the accident but was cited, according to Forrester.

Police reported Josh Shelburn has been found and is safe.

They released no additional details on his disappearance.

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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Authorities are asking for help locating a missing Kansas man.

Just after 10p.m. Tuesday, police issued an alert to help find 26-year-old Joshua Shelburn. He was last seen at a Paradigm facility in the 300 block of north Wabash in Wichita at noon Tuesday, according to officer Charley Davidson in a media release.

Shelburn currently lives at a Paradigm Group home in the 1300 block of north Perth.

Joshua is diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome. He was last seen wearing a brown camouflage colored hoodie, blue jeans, brown boots, and was carrying a green or black back pack with rope draw strings. He also has a tattoo of “Shelburn” on his left tricep.

Anyone with information on Joshua is asked to call 911 immediately.

TOPEKA– Data from the latest revenue report released Wednesday indicates the state has collected $196.52 million over last fiscal year at this time, totaling $2.02 billion this year, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Revenue.

So far this fiscal year that started in July, the state has collected $884.09 million in total individual tax, which amounts to $143.03 million over last year. In the same time span, sales tax collections total $793.08 million, putting it $30.11 million over last year. Corporate income tax collections continue to vastly exceed previous year collections by $23.67 million.

“This trend of higher than last year corporate receipts confirm expectations of an improved economic climate taking root,” Revenue Secretary Sam Williams said. “That becomes even more distinct when looking at the modest growth in sales tax receipts.”

October tax receipts totaled $500.71 million, which is $53.69 million over October last year. Individual income tax collections totaled $229.42 for the month, while sales tax revenue came in at $194.19 million. Corporate income tax totaled $16.58 million.

The Consensus Revenue Estimating group will meet Thursday and release projections indicating how much revenue the state expects to collect for fiscal years 18 and 19.

KANSAS CITY— (AP) – A suburban Kansas City man has been charged with driving under the influence of marijuana in a crash that killed two 18-year-olds.

Nineteen-year-old Rodriquez Franklin, of Lee’s Summit, was charged Tuesday with two counts of driving while intoxicated leading to death. Prosecutors also filed alternative counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors requested that bond be set at $50,000. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The charges stem from a crash in January that killed Kaeden Hernandez and Zachary Meyers. The police investigation found that Franklin was speeding when he lost control, struck a curb and a large tree in southern Kansas City. Court records say Franklin was following a car that belonged to his girlfriend. The girlfriend said she didn’t know who was following her.

By Stephen Koranda

After wrestling to balance the budget for years, Kansas lawmakers bit the bullet this spring and agreed to undo many of Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature 2012 tax cuts.

The question now is whether they have done enough to fix the state budget, as many promised to do in the 2016 campaign. Lawmakers will get a better idea of the state’s financial situation later this week when the consensus revenue estimating group determines whether revenues are tracking with projections.

Kansas lawmakers overrode Brownback’s veto of a tax plan in June, retracting the 2012 income tax exemption for thousands of business owners and raising individual income tax rates.

At the time, Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton of Overland Park found it hard to believe they had taken a step toward fixing the budget.

“I think that it was very big. It hasn’t even sunk in yet, honestly, the reality,” Clayton said.

Four days after the tax vote, lawmakers approved a budget with some targeted spending increases — including $300 million more for schools over two years — in the hopes that it would be enough to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court and end a long-running battle over public school funding.

But in an order issued after the Legislature adjourned, the court said the increase that lawmakers approved was not sufficient to ensure adequate and equitable funding — a clear indication that work remains before lawmakers can claim they have stabilized the budget.

There are other indications as well.

The Kansas Constitution requires a balanced budget, so lawmakers and other policymakers keep a close eye on revenue reports and estimates.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a conservative Republican from Shawnee, said the state isn’t able to make its scheduled contributions to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.

“We can pretend that we have a balanced budget, that there has been some sort of structural fix,” Pilcher-Cook said. “This is a fake budget that does not pay our bills.”

A “structural fix” would mean the Kansas budget is balanced without any accounting tricks or one-time cash.

Kicking the can?

After the 2012 tax cuts took effect, state tax collections tumbled by $700 million in the first year as Kansans kept more of their income. Tax collections in 2018 are expected to rebound back to roughly where they were before.

Revenue estimators will be looking for evidence that is happening when they meet Thursday.

Republican House Majority Leader Don Hineman of Dighton said in August that for the first time in a while, Kansas tax collections were beating estimates. He is among those counting on that trend continuing.

“That’s good news in terms of the budget,” Hineman said. “It raises the possibility that maybe we make some downward adjustment to tax rates in the future if we can.”

Dave Trabert, president of the Kansas Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on limited government, said the tax increase won’t be enough to stabilize the budget. There will continue to be structural problems until spending is substantially reduced.

“The can has been kicked down the road as far as possible,” he said. “We’re going to have to get spending under control.”

The state needs a top-to-bottom overhaul to employ efficiencies and cut spending, according to Trabert. If lawmakers don’t do that, he said, the budget will be in the red by 2020, even before considering additional costs for services like education.

“Whether they want to admit it or not, history says they are setting Kansans up for perhaps the mother of all tax increases,” Trabert said.

Uncertainty remains because official state budget estimates only cover two years. Nonpartisan legislative staff said internal budget projections they’ve produced show the state could be in the red in 2020, driven by variables like pension costs.

Heidi Holliday leads the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, a nonprofit organization that often takes the opposite view of the Kansas Policy Institute. Sitting in her office recently with her newborn son, Holliday said spending cuts aren’t the answer to the state’s fiscal challenges, because they would hinder the state’s ability to make needed investments in education, social services and other critical programs.

“As I was sitting in (legislative) committee hearings pregnant, I was thinking about, ‘What legacy are we leaving for kids that are growing up in Kansas?’” she said.

For her, enhancing that legacy means Kansas officials should be investing more in state services.

“We’re already operating pretty bare bones,” Holliday said. “I think what we have to look at moving forward are ways that we can raise additional revenue through the state.”

She suggests options including new taxes on services and on internet sales.

A complicating factor: school finance

The recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring public school funding inadequate further complicates the state budget picture. That could force Kansas lawmakers to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars more for education.

Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, chairman of the House Tax Committee, was feeling upbeat about the fiscal forecast before the court’s ruling thanks to growing tax collections.

RELATED: 5 Reasons the Kansas Supreme Court found the state’s school funding unconstitutional

After the ruling, Johnson said he was “much less confident” about the state’s financial situation because positive tax collections alone won’t balance the budget and provide additional money for schools.

“You’ve got to have growth beyond our wildest expectations to be able to even meet a meaningful part of it,” he said.

Rep. Jim Ward of Wichita, the top Democrat in the Kansas House, said it makes sense to expect several years of work to fix the state’s fiscal issues.

“We didn’t get so far underwater overnight,” Ward said. “We’re not getting out immediately, nor should we. That’s too much of a shock to the system.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a report of racist graffiti.

Just before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Riley County Police Department received a report of a vehicle  defaced with graffiti in the 2200 block of Claflin Road in Manhattan, just a few blocks south of the Kansas State University campus.

The crime occurred sometime between 1:30 a.m. – 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and contains racial slurs and a threat.

Officers immediately began investigating and are in the process of filing a criminal report.

Anyone with information on this crime is asked to contact the Riley County Police Department at (785) 537-2112 or Crime Stoppers at (785) 539- 7777. Using the Crime Stoppers service allows you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.00.