LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A memorial in Lawrence has been designated as a World War I Centennial Memorial as part of a national campaign.
The designation means the Victory Eagle memorial outside Dyche Hall on the University of Kansas campus will qualify for grant funds to help restore it.
The Lawrence Journals-World reports the 4-foot sculpture of a bronze eagle was originally located on U.S. Highway 40. It was given to the university in the 1980s after the sculpture was found toppled over.
The memorial is one of 100 nationwide to receive the designation as part of the “100 Cities/100 Memorials” program. Each memorial will receive a $2,000 matching grant toward restoration and maintenance.
GRANT COUNTY– Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of a toddler.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), the Ulysses Police Department, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a one-year-old from Ulysses.
Just before 11:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 2, police received a call reporting an unresponsive male toddler at 819 N. Stever, in Ulysses, according to a media release.
After law enforcement and EMS responded, Jaxon Silva, age 13 months, was transported by ambulance to Bob Wilson Memorial Grant County Hospital in Ulysses. He was later flown to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
The KBI responded after the Ulysses Police Department requested assistance with the investigation at approximatley 1:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2.
On Friday night, Oct. 6, Jaxon Silva was declared brain dead as a result of his injuries. An autopsy will be conducted early this week.
FINNEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal accident and have made an arrest.
Just before 7 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the 2400 block of Fleming Street in Garden City. for a reported injury accident involving a car and a motorcycle. When Officers arrived on the scene, they located Robert Becker, 67, of Garden City deceased, according to a media release.
The investigation revealed that Becker was driving a blue 2009 Kawasaki motorcycle southbound on Fleming Street.
Traveling south behind Becker was a black 2002 Jeep Liberty driven by Bashir Omar, 31, of Garden City.
Witnesses on scene observed the Jeep rear end the motorcycle as they both traveled south causing the motorcycle to crash.
After contact with Bashir, he showed signs of impairment, according to police. He was arrested and booked into the Finney County Jail on for alleged 2nd Degree Murder (reckless), Driving Under the Influence, and Reckless Driving.
Police believed there were multiple witnesses to this incident. The Garden City Police Department is requesting assistance from the community. If you witnessed this incident, or have information related to this incident, you should call the Garden City Police Department (620) 276-1300, If you wish to remain anonymous you can call Crime Stoppers (620) 275-7807, or text your tip to Garden City PD, text GCTIP and your tip to Tip411 (847411).
FINNEY COUNTY — Southwest Kansas residents and staff at the Lee Richardson Zoo are mourning the loss of a red panda cub.
On Friday, veterinary and animal care staff at Lee Richardson Zoo made the painful decision to euthanize the smallest of the three red panda cubs born August 12, according to a social media report.
On October 2 while monitoring the cubs, animal care staff noted that one was losing weight rather than gaining and lagging substantially behind his brothers. Staff planned supplemental feedings and prepared formula. But when staff were next able to separate the cubs from their mother to provide the first extra feeding on Tuesday, the smallest cub was in crisis. He was moved to the veterinary clinic for tube feeding and attention to a an injury.
“The littlest red panda gave all he had as did veterinary and animal care staff but it just wasn’t enough,” said Sarah Colman, General Curator.
“The littlest one may have only been with us for a little while, but it hurts to have lost him. The two other cubs are doing well. One is big for his age, and the other is gaining weight more quickly than he was, since there’s less competition.”
Mother and cubs are indoors, where they will most likely stay until later this month or early November based on when Ember has elected to go outside with her previous litters.
Until then, footage of mom and cubs will be on the zoo’s website, the zoo Facebook page and YouTube channel, as well as local cable channel 8 in southwest Kansas.
Jeff King, left, an attorney for the Kansas Legislature, talks with Attorney General Derek Schmidt, middle, and Stephen McAllister, attorney for the state. They spoke at a July hearing before the Kansas Supreme Court in the school funding case. ORLIN WAGNER / ASSOCIATED PRESS- courtesy Kansas News Service
Last week the state lost again at the Kansas Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that Kansas is underfunding its public schools, with repercussions for academically struggling children across the state — and especially for students and taxpayers who live in resource-poor school districts.
Because it’s just the latest in a string of similar decisions, the ruling means Kansas, in the eyes of its courts, has been unconstitutionally funding public schools for most of the past decade and a half.
Here are five key messages the justices had for the Legislature and the state of Kansas in the decision.
You can’t give extra money to Blue Valley and De Soto but no one else.
This spring Kansas lawmakers added nearly $300 million to spending on public schools, to be phased in over the next two years. Tucked into that was a combined $2 million for Blue Valley and De Soto school districts to serve more children from low-income families than those districts actually enroll.
So why did the two Johnson County districts get money for nonexistent students while other districts didn’t? The state argued that districts with a low percentage of children from low-income backgrounds still have their share of kids who are struggling academically. Hence, they should get a cushion of extra funding to serve those academically struggling kids.
That didn’t fly with the justices, who pointed out that districts across the state may face similar situations — there are nearly 40,000 Kansas public school students who are academically struggling yet don’t come from low-income families.
The implication: If Blue Valley and De Soto get extra money for kids in that category, other districts should too.
You can’t let some school districts hike the amount of money they raise through property taxes but make other districts face public protest petitions and elections before they can do the same thing.
During recent repeated revisions to school finance laws, the Legislature allowed some districts to enlarge one part of their budgets that comes primarily from local taxpayers — without having to face protests from those taxpayers. Not all the districts fit the Legislature’s criteria for doing so, but among those that did, dozens jumped at the opportunity.
Then the Legislature closed this window and grandfathered in those districts.
That’s not fair, the justices concluded. It denies the rest of the state’s schools equal access to funding.
Your new rules for paying electricity and insurance bills are unfair to the state’s poorer school districts.
The Legislature has a history of tweaking its school finance legislation in ways that school boards argue shift the costs of education away from state coffers and onto local taxpayers. And the justices have repeatedly agreed with the school boards.
Why do they care? Because when the state does this, poorer school districts — meaning those in areas of Kansas where local property isn’t worth as much, so taxing it doesn’t raise as much — have a hard time keeping up.
This spring lawmakers suggested school districts could start paying their utilities and some of their insurance bills with a specific local property tax fund that is otherwise meant for things like building construction and computer purchases. A key feature of this fund is that the amount of money poorer and richer school districts have in it varies — a lot.
Take Kansas City Kansas and Blue Valley. Each district serves around 21,000 students, and each charges local taxpayers the same tax rate to fuel that construction fund. But because Blue Valley is property-rich, this raised $22.7 million. Kansas City Kansas ended up with just $9.2 million — even after the state kicked in money to account for the fact that the district’s property values are lower.
So the state Supreme Court slapped lawmakers on the wrist for changing the rules about utility and insurance bills.
You can’t calculate how much money to give poorer school districts based on older data.
This spring the Legislature decided to change how it calculates some of the money it gives to poorer districts. Instead of taking into account current data from local school budgets, it decided to start using data from a year earlier.
The state argued this offers budget stability and predictability. It makes it easier to see just what the state’s financial obligations will be.
That didn’t convince the court. The tweak cuts an estimated $16 million from the state’s aid to schools in 2017-18 — savings that come from reducing payments to districts with weaker tax bases.
One thing is clear in the history of school finance rulings: Kansas courts don’t like it when lawmakers rejigger the rules in a way that disproportionately cuts money from poorer schools.
The biggie: You need to put enough money into schools to help a lot of kids do a lot better.
The school districts that are suing Kansas accuse the state of cutting deep into school funding when the recession hit, failing to fix the situation and pursuing income tax cuts instead — all while schools reeled under the effects of increasing costs and inflation, and taxpayers and students paid the price.
In this context, the plaintiffs argued, adding $300 million isn’t enough, and ongoing inflation will eat up half of it anyway.
So how much money is needed? The justices didn’t say. What they really want is for the Legislature to put effort into figuring out what amount is needed and then show the court how it came up with it. And the court wants reasoning and calculations that make sense.
The court calls this “showing your work,” a phrase math teachers can no doubt appreciate.
Yet in the years-long saga of Gannon v. Kansas, the justices have repeatedly seemed unconvinced the Legislature is doing much more than coming up with a politically expedient figure and filing legal briefs that say, “There. We’re done.”
The problem, as the court sees it, is that a quarter of Kansas public school students are struggling with basic proficiency in math and reading. The state and Legislature have a duty to try to fix that by digging into the problem and passing reasonable legislation, the justices say.
So did Kansas show its work this time? Not according to the court.
The Legislature offered up a four-page statistical analysis of how much money schools need in order to be successful. The justices spent 14 pages complaining about its shoddy documentation, methodology and reasoning — effectively painting the memo as at best sloppy and at worst numerically manipulative. And, they noted, the Legislature didn’t end up actually following the results of the memo.
They contrasted what appeared to them to be a cursory job with two school finance studies the Legislature commissioned more than a decade ago. Each of those studies took analysts at least half a year to complete. One resulted in more than 340 pages of analysis and supporting documentation. The other had more than 160 pages.
The justices found similar weaknesses in the state’s other arguments — on topics ranging from funding for kindergarten to spending on academically struggling kids.
So in their eyes, the state didn’t make a convincing case for why it concluded that an extra $300 million was needed for schools and not, say, $200 million, $400 million or $800 million.
And that’s a problem, because the legal burden of proof was on the state.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Court records say a man accused of walking into a tax office in Wichita and shooting a seizure agent told an acquaintance in a phone call that he’d “lost it” and “just killed a guy.”
The arrest affidavit for Ricky Wirths says the call was one of two that the 52-year-old made after the Sept. 19 shooting that wounded Cortney Holloway. The affidavit says Wirths also asked the acquaintance to care for his employees and children. In a second call to an employee, he’s accused of confessing that he’d “just shot somebody.” Wirths also expressed thanks for the employee’s “hard work.”
Wirths is jailed on $500,000 bond after pleading not guilty to attempted first-degree murder. Wirths owed nearly $400,000 in outstanding tax warrants.
Christian Risner-photo courtesy Van Arsdale Funeral Home
LEBO, Kan. (AP) — A 3-year-old boy whose fight with cancer prompted his small southern Kansas hometown to celebrate Christmas in September has died.
Christian Risner of Lebo died Saturday in Emporia. Christian’s family announced his death on a Facebook page they established after the boy was diagnosed with Rhabdoid kidney cancer in April 2016.
Christian began hospice care in August.
He loved Christmas, so Lebo — a town of about 940 people — put on a special celebration Sept. 10, with Santa, a horse-drawn sleigh and homes throughout the town decorated for the holiday.
The Jones-Vans Arsdale Funeral Home says his funeral will take place Saturday at Lebo High School, with visitation before the service.
He is survived by his parents, two brothers and paternal grandparents.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the vandalism of a temporary dwelling erected outside a Kansas State University residential complex for the Jewish harvest festival Sukkot.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the sukkah was found late Friday wrapped around the car of graduate student Glen Buickerood, damaging the vehicle. Buickerood, who doesn’t identify as Jewish, had collaborated with the Jewish student group Hillel to put up the sukkah to promote diversity.
Buickerood said in an email to university officials that he distributed posters and hung one on the sukkah telling students about the structure before the vandalism.
Hillel adviser Greg Newmark says what happened was “certainly anti-Semitic in effect.” Newmark says the “most generous” thing he can say is that the people involved “are remarkably insensitive.”
Law enforcement on the scene of the weekend fatal shooting in Lawrence-photo courtesy WIBW TV
DOUGLAS COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue to investigate the October 1, fatal shooting in downtown Lawrence as Funeral services are scheduled for two of the victims.
Public visitations are scheduled Tuesday for 20-year-old Colwin Henderson and 24-year-old Tremel Dupree Dean, according to Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel in Topeka.
Leah Elizabeth Brown, 22, Shawnee, also died and two others were wounded with non-life threatening injuries.
Police have released no new information on the case.
Just after 1:39 a.m. Sunday October 1, Lawrence Police were near the area of 11th and Massachusetts Street when they heard multiple gunshots, according to a media release.
At the scene, officers encounter a large crowd and several victims suffering from gunshot wounds. In total five victims have been identified from the shooting.
Police say there are conflicting reports on social media regarding the shooting at 11th and Massachusetts. Lawrence Police believe the shooting stemmed from a physical altercation that occurred near the northwest corner of 11th and Massachusetts Street.
Investigators are requesting anyone who may have witnessed any fights in the area prior to the shooting or captured any video relating to the incident, which occurred around 1:39am, to contact the police department.
Police are urging anyone who may have witnessed this incident or has any information relating to it to contact the Lawrence Police at (785) 832-7509 or Crime Stoppers of Lawrence and Douglas County at (785)843-TIPS. Tips made to Crime Stoppers may remain anonymous.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is planning an executive order that would expand health plans offered by associations to allow individuals to pool together and buy insurance outside their states. That move follows failed efforts by Congress to overhaul the health care system.
President Donald Trump has long asserted that selling insurance across state lines would trigger competition that brings down premiums for people buying their own policies. Experts say that’s not guaranteed, partly because health insurance reflects local medical costs, which vary widely around the country.
Trump is expected to sign the executive order next week.
