LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas police are investigating after about 20 used shell casings were found outside the university’s administrative building.
Police say they have found no evidence that a weapon was shot anywhere near Strong Hall before the cases were found Tuesday in bushes.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports police believe the person or people who left the shell casings were trying to make a statement but they didn’t elaborate on what type of statement.
A Kansas law that took effect in July required state universities to allow concealed guns on their campuses. There has been strong opposition to the law on many of the universities’ campuses.
Governor Brownback during his opening comments Wednesday
WASHINGTON — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is in Washington for a U.S. Senate committee hearing on his nomination for ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
Watch a replay of Wednesday’s hearing presided by Senator Marco Rubio from Washington here.
The hearing in Dirksen Senate Office Building before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins started at 9:30 a.m. CDT.
President Donald Trump nominated the two-term Republican governor for the ambassadorship in late July. Brownback said he’ll step down as governor when the Senate confirms him. There is no timetable on when the committee would schedule a vote for confirmation.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the mass shooting in Las Vegas
A U.S. law enforcement official says FBI agents met Marilou Danley at the airport in Los Angeles late Tuesday night. She is the girlfriend of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock.
Immigration documents show Danley had been abroad for weeks and was in the Philippines on Sunday when Paddock opened fire on a crowd, killing 59
A Filipino official says Paddock traveled at least twice to the Philippines, where his girlfriend was born.
The official said Paddock visited the Philippines in 2013 and 2014, around his birthday, staying for five to six days on both occasions. There were no immediate details available about those trips.
The Filipino official was not authorized to discuss the trips publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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3:45 a.m.
The Australia-based sisters of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock’s girlfriend say they believe Paddock sent her away so she wouldn’t interfere with his plans to go on a shooting rampage.
Marilou Danley’s sisters were interviewed by Australia’s Channel 7 TV network with their faces obscured and their names withheld. They said they were surprised to learn Danley had gone to the Philippines two weeks ago.
One sister tearfully said: “I know that she don’t know anything.”
The woman said Danley is “a good person” who would’ve stopped Paddock had she been there.
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2 a.m.
A nephew of Stephen Paddock’s girlfriend says he’s stunned by the actions of the Las Vegas gunman and didn’t even know that Paddock was interested in guns.
Jordan Knights’ aunt is Marilou Danley, a 62-year-old who recently returned to the United States from a weekslong trip abroad. The Australian man says he spent time in Las Vegas with Paddock and Danley just a few months ago.
Knights told Australia’s Channel 9 from his home near Brisbane, “It seemed like he just looked after my aunty and that was it.”
The 23-year-old said he didn’t give Paddock another thought until he was identified as the gunman who killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 on Sunday.
He said that Paddock “didn’t seem like he was the type of guy to do that.”
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12:09 a.m.
The investigation of a gunman who killed 59 people at a Las Vegas concert now shifts to his girlfriend, who has returned to the United States from the Philippines.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo says investigators are hoping to get some insight from Marilou Danley on why her boyfriend Stephen Paddock opened fire on a concert crowd from a high-rise hotel room.
Danley had been out of the country for weeks before the shooting. A law enforcement official says she arrived on a flight from Manila to Los Angeles where FBI agents were waiting for her late Tuesday night.
The official wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Las Vegas to meet with
SMITH COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a case of illegal hunting in north-central Kansas.
Throughout the summer, Region 1 Game Wardens in Kansas worked on an investigation in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Game Wardens, according to a social media report.
During the investigation it was found that deer were illegally harvested in Smith County, Kansas from 2013-2016 by non-resident deer hunters. Authorities seized antlers as evidence. The investigation was turned over to the Smith County Attorney in late August. Charges are pending.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City, Kansas, man who called himself rapper C-Los El Gran was sentenced to 14 years in prison for participating in a $4 million drug trafficking ring.
U.S. Attorney Tom Beall says 30-year-old Carl Sierra pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. As part of his plea, he admitted being a member of a drug trafficking conspiracy led by his half-brother, Edwin Pacheco. Authorities say they distributed methamphetamine throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Investigators used confidential informants and electronic surveillance to monitor Sierra’s conversations with Pacheco, during which they discussed the drug distribution.
Police on the scene of Tuesday’s investigation photo courtesy WIBW TV
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and continue to search for suspects.
Just after 2p.m. Tuesday, officers were dispatched to a call for reported domestic violence in the area of the 2200 block of SE Davies in Topeka, according to a media release.
As officers approached the scene, they witnessed one man firing a hand gun at another man at the intersection of 22nd and SE Davies.
The victim ran to the northwest while the subject who fired the gun ran from the officer to the south east. A perimeter was set up and a K9 track was attempted, but the officers were unable to locate the suspect.
No injuries were reported as a result of the aggravated assault and area schools were notified and put on lock down for a short period of time while officers searched for the suspect.
Anyone with information relating to this crime is asked to call the Topeka Police Department.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The man accused of walking into a tax office in Wichita and shooting a state tax agent has pleaded not guilty to attempted first-degree murder.
Fifty-two-year-old Ricky Wirths waived his right to a preliminary hearing and entered the plea Tuesday. Investigators say Wirths went to the Kansas Department of Revenue office Sept. 19 and shot Cortney Holloway several times.
Wirths, of Wichita, owed nearly $400,000 in outstanding tax warrants and Holloway was working on the case. The day of the shooting, agents had gone to Wirths’ home to seize assets.
Earlier Tuesday, Holloway’s family issued a statement urging prosecutors not to allow Wirths to plead to a lesser charge, saying he should spend the rest of his life in prison.
Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss during the July hearing on Kansas school funding-image Kansas Judicial Branch
ByCELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN
The Kansas Supreme Court on Monday struck down the state’s aid to schools as unconstitutionally low — and unfair to poor school districts in particular. The decision could pressure lawmakers to increase school funding by hundreds of millions dollars.
In June, Kansas lawmakers passed a new school finance formula that included an infusion of nearly $300 million by 2019. The question now, justices wrote, was whether Kansas had shown this complies with the Kansas Constitution.
“We hold the State has not,” they said, even if the formula “makes positive strides.”
The need for more education spending will likely force lawmakers into yet more difficult conversations about tax policy. This summer the Legislature wrapped up a 114-day session — a tie for the state’s longest ever — that revolved around the fate of Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature 2012 tax cuts.
That political fight ended when, after multiple attempts at a resolution, lawmakers overrode a veto from the governor and hiked taxes over the next two years to dodge a $900 million deficit and increase aid to schools.
Monday’s ruling requires lawmakers to pass legislation to fix the situation by April 30, which is the deadline for the state to file a legal brief in defense of that new legislation. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 22, and the state Supreme Court will issue its next ruling by June 30.
The justices pointed to the history of litigation against the state, saying courts had found funding for Kansas public schools insufficient for 12 of the past 15 years, even before Monday’s decision.
“We will not allow ourselves to be placed in the position of being complicit actors,” they wrote, “in the continuing deprivation of a constitutionally adequate and equitable education owed to hundreds of thousands of Kansas school children.”
‘Not going to happen’
Republican legislative leaders including Senate President Susan Wagle expressed consternation about the ruling in a joint statement.
“This ruling shows clear disrespect for the legislative process and puts the rest of state government and programs in jeopardy,” the statement said. “Senate Republicans remain committed to providing every Kansas student with an exceptional education, however, raising taxes to fund this unrealistic demand is not going to happen.”
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley urged lawmakers to appoint a special panel to begin crafting a fix as soon as possible.
“Today’s decision once again validates what I have been saying throughout the school finance litigation,” he said. “We cannot wait until the 2018 session to remedy these constitutional violations.”
House Minority Leader Jim Ward called the ruling “no surprise.”
“The Democratic caucus is ready to get to work immediately” on a new formula, he said.
Brownback’s office did not have an immediate comment on the ruling. A spokeswoman said his office was still reviewing it.
Some Democrats had speculated the court would order a fix sooner than next spring or summer, making a special legislative session necessary. But Monday’s ruling means lawmakers can pass legislation during their next regular session, which starts in January 2018.
During this year’s session, lawmakers were under court pressure to increase funding for schools. The new school finance formula that they passed in June was designed to increase annual aid by $293 million over the next two years — with most of that increase coming this school year — and to tie funding to inflation after that.
Lawmakers were divided at the time over whether this amount would satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court, which in March struck down the state’s previous school finance scheme as unconstitutional.
The state’s lawyers argued in court that it should be enough, but plaintiffs pushed for three times as much.
The justices not only concluded the $293 million boost wasn’t sufficient, they said several details in the new school finance formula were unfair to poorer school districts and taxpayers in those areas.
Among these problems, they cited a provision that benefited only two school districts in the state —Blue Valley and De Soto, both in Johnson County — by giving them dollars to serve more children from low-income families than are actually registered as attending those districts.
Plaintiff schools reaction
Four school districts — Wichita, Dodge City, Hutchinson and Kansas City Kansas — are plaintiffs in the Gannon v. Kansas lawsuit, with dozens more co-sponsoring it.
Dodge City superintendent Fred Dierksen applauded the court’s decision.
“The bottom line is that I want to be able to offer the same education in Dodge City that they’re able to offer in the Kansas City area,” Dierksen said. “I think it goes without saying that we all deserve that.”
Kansas City Kansas superintendent Cindy Lane expressed frustration that schools would not see a resolution this school year. But she was optimistic about the eventual effect of the ruling.
“I am hopeful now with this ruling, as strong as it is, that our legislative body will do what they need to do,” she said.
John Robb, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called it yet another “great ruling for Kansas kids.”
“It shows the courts are going to enforce our constitution and they’re going to insist that the Legislature provide suitable funding,” Robb said Monday. “They keep telling the Legislature what they need to do, and the Legislature sooner or later needs to listen.”
Monday’s ruling was just the latest in a series of decisions over the past seven years in which Kansas courts found fault with the state’s K-12 funding. The various court orders found overall funding inadequate or otherwise unfair to students living in districts with less local wealth as defined by taxable property, a key money source.
School districts had already sued and won a similar court case that ran from 1999 to the mid-2000s and that ended with the state agreeing to increase annual school funding by more than $750 million. The recession hit before the money had been fully phased in, and the plan to do so fell by the wayside.
Instead, the recession sparked hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts. Brownback’s signature 2012 tax cuts and the ensuing state revenue woes in recent years perpetuated the situation.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Servicecovering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
DICKINSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects for a drugs and child endangerment charges.
After the execution of a search warrant Monday at homes in the 200 Block of East Hawley in Herrington, deputies arrested Brandi Nicole Gantenbein, 27, and Tonya Lynn Braucher, 30, on multiple drug related counts, according to a media release from the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies arrested Gantenbein on suspicion of felony counts of Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, plus misdemeanor charges of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Endangering a Child.
Deputies arrested Braucher on suspicion of felony counts of Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent to Distribute and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, a misdemeanor count of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and two counts of Endangering a Child.
The search warrants were executed by The Dickinson County Sheriff’s Department Drug Enforcement Unit, Deputies of that department, and officers with the Abilene and Herington Police Departments.
During the search of the residences law enforcement officers seized more than one ounce of methamphetamine and several items of drug paraphernalia. The case is ongoing and more arrests are possible.
Braucher has previous convictions for Aggravated child endangerment, theft, drugs and burglary, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
