SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a convicted felon on new charges after a car chase and foot pursuit.
Just after 11:30 a.m. Thursday an officer attempted to stop a 1998 Chevy Lumina driven by Joel Ginther, 41, Salina, in the 1300 block of West Crawford for driving with an expired tag, according to Salina Police Capt. Mike Sweeney.
Ginther allegedly failed to pull over and led police through several residential neighborhoods at speeds of around 50-miles-per-hour.
The vehicle pursuit ended when Ginther crashed the vehicle into a fence in the 1000 block of Franklin Street, according to Sweeney. Ginther ditched the vehicle and a teenage female passenger.
Photo by Rocky Robinson
Officers apprehended Ginther as he was attempting to scale a fence. He was taken into custody for felony flee and elude, reckless driving, criminal damage to property, possession of marijuana and aggravated child endangerment.
Ginther has previous convictions in Saline County for drugs, criminal threat and stalking.
Damage to the fence was estimated at $1,300. There were no reported injuries.
First responders on the scene of the fatality accident Tuesday -image KCScout.com
BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — Records show that a tractor-trailer driver who caused a multi-vehicle crash that killed five people in eastern Kansas was fined three years ago in Missouri for operating a commercial vehicle without proper brakes.
The Kansas City Star reports that Kansas Highway Patrol Lt. Dan Smith says the agency is preparing a report for prosecutors, who will determine whether to file charges. The fiery Tuesday pileup temporarily closed a stretch of Interstate 70 near Bonner Springs on the western edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The crash happened when the driver crested a slight hill and failed to slow in time for stalled traffic. The man’s rig rammed a sport utility vehicle and then two cars before crashing into a stopped tractor-trailer, which then rear-ended a pickup truck.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The second trial of a man charged with fatally shooting a 22-year-old woman in Kansas City, Kansas, has ended in another hung jury.
Wyandotte County jurors deadlocked Thursday after hearing the case against 29-year-old Antoine Fielder. He is charged with murder in the June 2015 shooting death of Kelsey Ewonus.
The single mother of a 1-year-old son was found in a car parked a few blocks north of the University of Kansas Hospital.
Kansas Department of Corrections records show Fielder was paroled from prison in 2014 after serving time on drug sale charges. No decision has been made on whether to retry Fielder a third time.
Givens during graduations ceremonies in May-photo KCKCC
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The president of Kansas City Kansas Community College has been placed on administrative leave.
The Kansas City Star reports that the college provided no information about led to the action being taken against Doris Givens in a closed executive board meeting Friday. The board of trustees named the Dean of Math, Sciences and Computer Technology as the acting president.
Givens didn’t attend the meeting, and the campus was informed of the action via email. Givens, the first woman and first African-American president of the college, was hired in 2011. She had been vice chancellor for educational services for the Kern Community College District in Bakersfield, California.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man has been charged with stealing $13,000 worth of items from a lab at the University of Kansas.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that 37-year-old Matthew Reynard was charged Tuesday in Douglas County District Court with one count of burglary and two counts of theft, all felonies. He is jailed on $30,000 bond. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Reynard is accused of taking a veterinary camera, a camera control unit, syringes and hypodermic needles from Malott Hall. Charges indicate he is also accused of stealing a checkbook and earbuds from a man listed in the university directory as a technician in the Animal Care Unit.
It’s not clear how the suspect accessed the lab or how he was caught. He has a number of previous convictions for drugs, theft, disorderly conduct and making false writing in Douglas County, according to the KDOC.
Moran at a town hall last week in Haskell County-photo courtesy Senator Moran
By JIM MCLEAN
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s silence Thursday on the GOP’s revised bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act prompted one Capitol Hill reporter to refer to him as a “mystery man.”
Several Republican senators who either opposed or had concerns about an initial draft of the bill commented on changes unveiled Thursday by GOP leaders in an effort to gain votes.
But not Moran.
In response to repeated emails, a spokesperson in his office said only that the senator was analyzing the changes “to fully understand the impact on Kansas.”
Moran, a usually reliable GOP vote, surprised many in late June when he announced his opposition to the initial ACA repeal bill. Now, stakeholders on both sides of the health care debate are anxiously waiting for him to take a position on the revised bill.
Kansans opposed to the measure are urging him to stand firm.
“The bottom line is that the changes Senate leadership made to the BCRA (Better Care Reconciliation Act) do little to alleviate the harm the plan will wreak on Kansas,” said David Jordan, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, an advocacy group formed by several Kansas health foundations.
The changes make the bill worse for Kansans suffering from serious health problems, said Hilary Gee, a state lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
“Particularly alarming is the Cruz amendment, which could lead to the rollback of all kinds of patient protections, including essential health benefits and guaranteed issue to people with pre-existing conditions,” Gee said, referring to an amendment authored by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
The Cruz amendment, added to make the bill more attractive to conservatives, would allow insurance companies to offer cheaper but less comprehensive coverage as long as at least one plan provides the essential health benefits now required by the ACA.
Sheldon Weisgrau, a health policy consultant for the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, said it doesn’t appear that changes made to the bill address Moran’s concerns about coverage for pre-existing conditions and the impact of proposed Medicaid cuts on rural hospitals and clinics. Moran detailed those concerns last week at a jammed town hall meeting in western Kansas.
“So I’m hoping that when Senator Moran looks at this bill, he will see that it doesn’t address the issues that he said he was concerned with and hope that he would continue with his opposition,” Weisgrau said.
Kansas’ other member of the U.S. Senate, Republican Pat Roberts, reaffirmed his support of the bill Thursday.
“Kansans are losing choices in care, and their costs and premiums are still rising. If we are going to finally reverse the damage of Obamacare — we must act,” Roberts said in a statement posted to his website.
“Since the first draft was released, as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, I have continued working with Senate leadership to make further improvements to lower the cost of care, ensure Kansans have more coverage options, and to support providers in rural areas,” he said.
Among other things, Roberts said the bill contains money to help struggling hospitals in Kansas the other 18 states that haven’t expanded their Medicaid programs.
Kansas lawmakers passed legislation this session to expand Medicaid coverage to approximately 150,000 low-income adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, but Republican Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the bill.
Former Kansas governor and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also weighed in on the debate. In a Thursday appearance on a podcastproduced by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, Sebelius said allowing states to determine what Medicaid services to offer while providing them with less money would result in wholesale cuts in care for the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
“I think it’s a moral outrage,” Sebelius 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. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
LYON COUNTY— A gymnastics coach accused of producing child pornography in Nebraska has been arrested in Kansas.
Omaha police say 27-year-old James Bryce Fogg was arrested Thursday in Emporia where he’d moved for another coaching job with Sunflower Gymnastics. Their social media page indicated that he’s since quit.
A Nebraska arrest warrant lists a felony charge of manufacturing child pornography. Lyon County Jail records show he remained in custody Friday. Nebraska court records don’t list the name of a lawyer who could comment for Fogg.
Police say a woman who’d had a relationship with Fogg reported that he’d photographed and videotaped females without their knowledge at Premier Gymnastics in Omaha. Police reports say he’d recorded images of a 14-year-old girl and 22-year-old woman in “private compromising positions” without their consent. Premier says Fogg hasn’t been employee since April.
CREEK COUNTY -Residents in many areas of southern Kansas reported feeling an earthquake Friday morning. In fact, a series of six quake shook northern Oklahoma
The first quake just after 8:30a.m. measured a magnitude 4.2 and was centered approximately 13 miles northwest of Stroud, Oklahoma, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A second quake just after 9 a.m. shook the same area and measured 3.8, according to the USGS. Throughout the next 90 minutes, the agency recorded four more quakes measuring 2.7- 3.7 near Stroud.
Rumor of an earthquake felt in Wichita. We did not feel anything here at the office. Did you? ~2 mins ago. #kswx
There are no reports of damage or injuries from the Friday quake. Stroud is located 168 miles south of Wichita.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Kansas earthquake that measured a magnitude 3.3 was centered approximately 6 miles southeast of Harper, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was the second earthquake reported in Kansas so far in July.
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CREEK COUNTY -Residents in many areas of southern Kansas reported feeling an earthquake Friday morning.
A quake just after 8:30a.m. measured a magnitude 4.2 and was centered approximately 13 miles northwest of Stroud, Oklahoma, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A second quake just after 9 a.m. shook the same area and measured 3.8, according to the USGS.
Rumor of an earthquake felt in Wichita. We did not feel anything here at the office. Did you? ~2 mins ago. #kswx
There are no reports of damage or injuries from the Friday quake. Stroud is located 168 miles south of Wichita.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Kansas earthquake that measured a magnitude 3.3 was centered approximately 6 miles southeast of Harper, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was the second earthquake reported in Kansas so far in July.
Truck involved in Sunday’s fatal crash-photo courtesy Chan’l Hunt
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say the death toll has grown to four from a stolen vehicle crash in Kansas City, Kansas, that ended with a survivor taking a vehicle from a good Samaritan.
Police identified the fourth victim in a new release Thursday as 18-year-old Cory Thornburgh, of Shawnee. Also killed in Sunday’s crash was 20-year-old Cameron Shafer, of Kansas City, Kansas, 20-year-old Hayden Gottman, of Lenexa, and 18-year-old Joshua Lindsey, of Overland Park. Thornburgh and Shafer died at a hospital, while the other two died at the crash scene.
Police said that when a motorist stopped to help, a surviving passenger in the stolen pickup fled in the woman’s vehicle.
RENO COUNTY— A Kansas man is in jail on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery, and criminal restraint against his mother.
Preston Lewis, 29, Hutchinson, allegedly held his mother against her will, not letting her leave the house or call anyone, all while holding a knife. He also barricaded the doors of the home.
He did apparently let his mother use her phone. She sent a text message to another person about the incident.
According to statements made in court, Lewis ordered a pizza for the two, but even had a knife in his hand when the delivery driver arrived.
He was apparently paranoid that someone was going to hurt him and his mother after possibly using meth and something called “crocodile,” according to testimony.
In court Thursday, he denied the allegations saying he never touched anyone and didn’t hold anyone at knife point.
His bond was left at $8,000 and, even though Sarah McKinnon with the Regional Public Defender’s Office requested that they be assigned the case, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen denied it saying she’ll wait to see if formal charges are filed before assigning an attorney.
Lewis is due back in court next week. He has a previous drug conviction from 2014 in McPherson County, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
