WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A top elections official says federal investigators examining Russian interference in the 2016 election have not contacted the Kansas secretary of state’s office.

Kansas elections director Brian Caskey also said that he is unaware of any county election official in the state who may have been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He says the FBI contacts counties directly, and he would not necessarily know that information.

Caskey made the comments following his presentation at a Wichita meeting of civil rights advocates seeking to increase citizen participation in Kansas elections. He told the group the secretary of state’s office is working on cybersecurity, without elaborating.

He says the reason no U.S. vote counting system was breached is because those are not connected to the internet.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The widow of an Indian national who was fatally shot in an apparent hate crime at a Kansas bar was facing deportation after his death meant she lost her U.S. resident status.

The Kansas City Star reports U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas and others were able to secure a 1-year visa for Sunayana Dumala of Olathe. But she is still seeking a way to become a permanent resident of the country.

Dumala’s husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, died in a Feb. 22 shooting at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe. His friend and another man were wounded.

He and his wife, also an India native, lived in the U.S. for 10 years. They married in 2012 and applied for a green card on his work visa.

SUMNER COUNTY — A earthquake shook portions of Kansas Sunday. The quake just after 10:15a.m. measured a magnitude 2.3 and was centered approximately four miles west of Argonia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It is the third quake in Kansas this month. The U.S. reported a 2.5 magnitude quake just before 5p.m. on Thursday in Harper County and a 2.3 quake north of Cheny on September 2.

There are no reports of damage or injuries from Sunday’s quake.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court Friday affirmed a Reno County District Court judge’s order that 41-year-old Joshua Watkins must register as a violent offender under the Kansas Offender Registration Act. The judge found he used a vehicle as a deadly weapon to commit an aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

Watkins claimed a jury, instead of the judge, must make the factual finding that he used a deadly weapon. But the majority of the court ruled his argument was lacking because Watkins did not raise the issue until he appealed.

Watkins was convicted of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, felony flee and elude, and driving while suspended with the crimes occurring in November 2012. He was sentenced to just over three years for the convictions. He is eligible for parole on those charges next month.

The case involves a shoplifting investigation by Reno County Sheriff’s Deputies. The crime occurred at Heartland Outdoor in South Hutchinson.

Watkins was suspected in the case and fled in a Dodge Durango. A chase with sheriff’s deputies lasted 5-7 minutes. During the chase, Watkins attempted to hit a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper head-on with the SUV.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

As dozens of Kansas school districts spar with the state over funding for public education, the term “Rose standards” has emerged as arcane but critical jargon among lawyers and judges, and surfaced over and over again in court documents.

Though the term has appeared in past school finance lawsuits in the state since a March 2014 Kansas Supreme Court ruling, it is undeniably front and center in the ongoing Gannon v. Kansas wrangling.

The word “Rose” appeared 68 times in that court’s March school finance ruling, which struck down the state’s system as unconstitutional.

Now, attorneys for the state and Legislature await the court’s ruling on whether the Legislature’s $293 million funding increase to be phased in over the next two years is enough.

Below is a primer on where the Rose standards concept came from and what it means.

Where does ‘Rose’ come from?

The term refers to a 1989 ruling by the Kentucky Supreme Court in a case called Rose v. Council for Better Education that focused on whether the state was meeting its constitutional mandates regarding public education.

Scholars of education law have described Rose v. Council as a turning point in school finance litigation — one of three critical cases at the tail end of the 1980s that took a new tack. The issues at the heart of Rose have since emerged repeatedly in cases across the country.

William Thro, the general counsel for the University of Kentucky, reflected on this impact in a 2010 paper.

In other words, the court battles were no longer just about gaps between wealthier and poorer school districts. The door was open for scrutinizing overall resources and whether states were meeting their obligations to provide public education.

What does that have to do with Kansas?

Going back as far as the 1970s, lawsuits have played a key role in shaping the way Kansas funds its schools.

Rose v. Council entered the conversation at least as early as 1991 in a school finance lawsuit called Mock v. Kansas. The case was resolved before reaching trial but spurred a 1992 overhaul of the state’s school funding system.

Rose reappeared in rulings from the early and mid-2000s as part of Montoy v. Kansas. Montoy is the high-profile case that preceded Gannon v. Kansas — the current legal battle — and led to a three-year plan approved by the court in 2006 for boosting annual school funding by more than $750 million.

Like the Gannon case, Montoy wasn’t just about the question of whether poorer school districts had resources akin to wealthier ones. It explored broader obligations.

Read a primer on Gannon v. Kansas and scroll through a timeline of the case

With the advent of Gannon, Rose v. Council resurfaced. Three-and-a-half years into the Gannon case, which began in 2010, the Kansas Supreme Court issued a rulingmaking clear that the question of whether the state is underfunding its public school system hinges on whether resources for schools are adequate to meet criteria identified in the Rose decision.

A few months later, the Legislature incorporated the Rose standards into statute, even though the court had noted that Kansas law already contained similar verbiage.

What are included in those Rose standards?

In the Rose ruling, the justices included a list of seven skill sets that schools should help children attain at a sufficient level:

• Oral and written communication skills to enable them to function in a complex and rapidly changing civilization.
• Knowledge of economic, social and political systems to enable them to make informed choices.
• Understanding of governmental processes to enable them to understand the issues that affect their community, state and nation.
• Self-knowledge and knowledge of their own mental and physical wellness.
• Grounding in the arts to enable them to appreciate their cultural and historical heritage.
• Training or preparation for advanced training in academic or vocational fields, to enable them to choose and pursue life work intelligently.
• Academic or vocational skills to enable them to compete favorably with their counterparts in surrounding states, in academics or in the job market.

The Kansas State Board of Education says these standards guide its work overseeing public schools. In recent years, schools and Kansas state education officials have increasingly turned their focus to helping students acquire life skills and prepare for academics and careers after high school.

Gannon is now in its seventh year, and as recently as March, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in the case that Kansas continues to fall short of the Rose concepts. Among other problems, the justices slammed the state for cutting the link between student enrollment and funding per school, a move that was part of a state strategy to freeze school budgets.

Kansas lawmakers voted in June to re-establish a funding formula that links dollars to factors like enrollment and phases in a two-year $293 million increase in state aid to schools.

A fresh round of oral arguments over whether this would satisfy the Rose standards took place in mid-July at the Kansas Supreme Court.

The state argued it would. The plaintiff school districts disagreed.

The parties are waiting for the justices to rule. If the plaintiffs win, it could require lawmakers to increase state aid by hundreds of millions of dollars in coming years.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.

 

ANDERSON COUNTY — A Kansas man died in an accident just before 9p.m. Saturday in Anderson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Lincoln Navigator driven by Rebecca L. Brown, 42, Garnett, was westbound on 2000 Road at U.S. 169.

The driver failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with a 2011 Harley Davidson Motorcycle driven by Flint A. Macklin, 42, Kincaid, that was northbound on U.S. 169.

Macklin was thrown from the bike into the southbound lane of the highway. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Brown was transported to Research Medical Center. A 12-year-old in the SUV was not injured.

Brown was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An 18-year-old is facing 11 felony charges related to a string of arsons in Topeka.

KSNT-TV reports Alexander Jarvis, of Topeka, was arrested last December and originally charged as a juvenile because of his age at the time. He turned 18 in February.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay announced Friday that Jarvis is now charged as an adult with four counts of arson of a dwelling, four counts of aggravated arson of an occupied dwelling, one count of arson of a building, and two counts of criminal damage to property.

The charges are related to fires set at homes and detached garages in Topeka neighborhoods. A total of 15 fires were intentionally set between April and December 2016.

The fires didn’t cause any deaths or serious injuries.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A Kansas woman died in an accident just after 1p.m. Saturday in Montgomery County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Ford Ranger driven by Linda Sue Bruce, 64, Coffeyville, was west bound on U.S. 160 one mile east of Independence.

The pickup drifted right onto the gravel shoulder. The driver overcorrected, drove across the highway, entered the south ditch, overturned and unknown number of times and collided with a fence.

Bruce was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. A passenger in the pickup Betty Ann Colgan, 58, Coffeyville, was transported to a hospital in Tulsa.  Another passenger Charles Thomas McCabe, 60, Independence, was transported to Labette Health Independence Clinic.

Bruce and McCabe were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A Kansas man has pleaded guilty to raping two children for several years.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports 54-year-old Edwin Wasson pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of rape.

Prosecutors say he raped the first victim between 2002 and 2008 and the second child between 2013 and 2015.

Wasson will be required to register immediately as a sex offender and to remain registered for the rest of his life.

Attorneys on both sides requested a sentence of 24.5 years, or 12 years on each count to run consecutively. He will be sentenced Oct. 20.

The victims are now 23 and 17.

TOPEKA–Nine people have been indicted on federal charges of drug trafficking in Marshall County, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

The six-count indictment unsealed on Aug. 30, 2017, alleges John Haver, 61, Waterville, Kan., and others obtained methamphetamine from California and distributed it to buyers in Marshall County, Kan. Charges in the indictment include conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, conspiracy to launder money and money laundering. In addition to Haver, defendants named in the indictment include:

Cally Hanshaw, 41, Waterville, Kan.

Jose Martinez, 40, Porterville, Calif.

Clayton Chase, 28, Marysville, Kan.

Philip Pagan, 38, Waterville, Kan.

Curtis Wichman, 39, Blue Rapids, Kan.

Lorinda Patton, 37, Blue Rapids, Kan.

Kimberly Krunze, 26, Waterville, Kan.

Robert Zidek, 43, Blue Rapids, Kan.

Upon conviction, the crimes carry the following penalties:

Count 1: Not less than 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $10 million.

Count 2: Not less than 5 years in federal prison and a fine up to $5 million.

Count 3-6: Up to 20 years and a fine or more than $500,000

Investigative agencies involved in this case include the Waterville, Blue Rapids, and Riley County Police Departments, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Skip Jacobs is prosecuting.