VERSAILLES, Mo. (AP) — A 25-year-old Kansas man has drowned while fishing at the Lake of the Ozarks.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the family of Connor Mohr, of Overland Park was reported him missing Saturday morning after he was fishing at a dock and didn’t return.
Mohr was found in the water near the dock after a brief search.
ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A search warrant shows authorities are investigating two suspected identity thieves found with a box filled with hundreds of Dollar Tree job applications apparently obtained by going through trash containers in Wichita.
The warrant was filed recently in U.S. District Court in Kansas. It outlines the investigation into a pair found three years ago with employment applications for 429 people as well as forgery tools. Some of those applications included copies of driver’s licenses and Social Security cards.
Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree said in an email that it’s committed to safeguarding personal information of its workers and job applicants. The discount store chain says it has specific processes in place to support this commitment.
The company says it’s investigating the Wichita incident.
Dollar Tree has 10 stores in Wichita.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Latest on state elections officials who are gathering in Indianapolis (all times local):
11:45 p.m.
California’s chief elections official is puzzled by the absence of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach from a gathering of elections officials from across the U.S.
Kobach is the co-chair of a White House voter fraud commission that’s investigating allegations made by the President Donald Trump without proof that there were millions of fraudulent ballots cast during last November’s election.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Saturday that it’s “awkward, to put it mildly” that Kobach opted against attending the National Association of Secretaries of State conference in Indianapolis this weekend.
Kobach, a Republican, sent letters last week to all 50 states requesting voter information, including dates of birth, partial Social Security numbers, addresses and voting histories.
The request drew blowback from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Padilla, a Democrat, said that if Kobach was serious about working with states to improve the integrity of U.S. elections, he would have attended the conference.
A spokeswoman for Kobach did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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10:50 a.m.
Illinois has joined 15 other states in refusing to provide detailed voter information to a White House commission investigating President Donald Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud.
The Illinois State Board of Elections sent a letter on Friday declining to provide the information requested by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is co-chairing White House commission.
Last week, Kobach sent letters to all 50 states requesting voter information, including dates of birth, partial Social Security numbers, addresses and voting histories.
The request drew blowback from Republicans and Democrats alike.
The Illinois letter comes as state elections officials from across the country are gathering in Indianapolis for conference.
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By STEPHEN KORANDA
Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice are asking states including Kansas for information related to the National Voter Registration Act — a move made the same day that the president’s commission on voter fraud sent a request for “publicly available voter roll data.”
In a letter sent June 28, Justice Department officials requested data on how states purge registrations of people who have died or moved. The letter seeks information to confirm that states are complying with federal law and keeping voting lists updated.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on the same day sent requests for voter registration information to all states in his role as vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s commission on voter fraud. Numerous states have said they will not provide some or all of the information that Kobach requested.
Washington’s secretary of state earlier this week made public the request she received from the Justice Department.
When asked if Kansas had received a similar letter, Kobach spokesperson Samantha Poetter confirmed it.
“We have received this letter,” Poetter said Wednesday in a statement. “We are currently reviewing it.”
Poetter wouldn’t say what Kobach thinks of the request. When asked for a copy of the letter, she said she would have to check with the office legal department.
The letter sent to Washington state asks for a variety of information, including the process used to remove voters who have moved or died. It also asks for the number of voters removed from voting lists.
“As part of our nationwide enforcement effort, we are reviewing voter registration list maintenance procedures in each state covered by the NVRA,” said the letter, which was signed by DOJ Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request in response to the letter, raising concerns about the breadth of the DOJ request.
“The DOJ offered no explanation or justification for the unprecedented time-bound request,” the center said in a letter.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR, a partner in the Kansas News Service.
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and asking the public for help with information on the incident.
Just after 11:53 a.m. Saturday, Police were dispatched to St. Francis Hospital in Topeka after a report of a woman in her 40s was shooting victim and had just arrived by private vehicle, according to a media release.
The victim advised officers, she’d received the gunshot wound while standing outside a residence in the 900 Block NE Monroe in Topeka.
The victim’s injuries appear to be non-life threatening, according to police
There’s no available suspect information at this time – Anyone with knowledge of this incident, or any other crime is asked to call the Topeka Police Department at 785-368-9551, or Crime Stoppers at 234-0007
SEDGWICK COUNTY The baby Pygmy Hippo born at Tangankika Wildlife Park in Goddard now has access to the entire exhibit.
On Friday, the park’s Pygmy hippos, Posie and Pluto, announced the birth of their first baby. This is the first baby pygmy hippo born at Tanganyika, according to a media release.
The new baby is believed to be a girl, but it won’t be known for sure until he/she is a little older and then can also be named. The baby weighs approximately 13 pounds and is currently the size of a shoebox.
Tanganyika Wildlife Park’s are the first and only pygmy hippos in Kansas, and the first to give birth in Kansas.
“For Tanganyika as a breeding facility, this is a huge milestone,” the Park’s Assistant Director Matt Fouts said. “This marks Tanganyika’s 40th successful breeding program for rare and endangered species.”
HARPER COUNTY – A small earthquake shook south-central Kansas early Saturday. The quake just after midnight measured a magnitude 2.4 and was centered approximately a mile northeast of the unincorporated Harper County community of Crystal Springs.
The is the first earthquake reported in Kansas since June 27.
A 3.6 magnitude quake hit near Medford, Oklahoma, on Friday. Medford is 78 miles south of Wichita.
The USGS reported 18 Kansas earthquakes in June, 9 in May, a dozen in April, 7 in March and 6 in February.
There are no reports of damage or injury from Saturday morning’s quake.
By JIM MCLEAN
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran is opposed to a bill crafted in secret by Republican leaders to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
But speaking to an overflow crowd at a town hall meeting Thursday in northwest Kansas, Moran said he is open to supporting a revised version if GOP leaders can address his concerns.
“I would be anxious to see if that bill can get to the point in which I think it’s beneficial for Kansas,” Moran said.
Among other things, Moran said he is concerned about the effect of nearly $800 billion in proposed Medicaid cuts on rural health care providers and Kansans with disabilities. And he said he doesn’t like how the bill treats Kansas and other states that have not expanded eligibility for their Medicaid programs.
“It takes money out of a state that didn’t expand Medicaid and provides it to states that did expand Medicaid to extend the time that Medicaid expansion receives the higher reimbursement rate,” the GOP senator said. “That troubles me.”
More than $680 billion would be diverted to expansion states from non-expansion states by 2025, according to the Kansas Hospital Association. Kansas’ share of that loss would total about $21 billion.
Approximately 120,000 Kansans would lose their health insurance under the bill due to the Medicaid cuts and higher out-of-pocket costs for private coverage, according to estimates compiled by the Urban Institute.
Several people traveled more than 100 miles to attend the meeting, which was in a community center in the tiny community of Palco.
Margy Stewart, a retired college English instructor, traveled from her ranch in the Flint Hills to thank Moran for opposing the initial draft of the ACA replacement bill and to urge him to stand firm.
“His (Moran’s) leadership in the Senate really wants this win,” Stewart said. “I want him to think more about Kansans and less about pleasing his leadership.”
Moran was asked several times why Republicans were so intent on repealing a law that has expanded health coverage to millions of Americans. Audience members also asked why Senate members can’t work together to craft a bipartisan bill to fix the ACA.
In response, Moran said while he also would prefer that approach, Democratic leaders aren’t willing to make the substantial changes needed to fix Obamacare.
“It takes two parties who want to come together, and it takes the American people to demand that,” Moran said.
Though he’s open to supporting a compromise measure, Moran said he isn’t optimistic that GOP leaders can alter the bill so that it’s acceptable to both moderates and conservatives in their caucus.
“It’s almost impossible when you’re trying to do it with 51 votes in the United States Senate, in which there is not significant consensus in what the end result ought to be,” he 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.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A major financial rating agency says a structural imbalance in Kansas’ budget is “likely to persist” even after the state increased income taxes.
S&P Global Ratings said in a report this week that while the state boosted its revenues, it also increased spending for the next two years. S&P also said the state still is diverting money from highway projects to sustain other spending and is not fully funding contributions to public pensions.
S&P did not change its negative credit outlook for Kansas.
Legislators enacted the tax increase over Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto to raise $1.2 billion over two years. The new law rolls back past tax cuts Brownback championed.
The S&P report came a month after Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the state’s credit outlook to stable from negative.
SALINE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect after an attack on a woman in her home.
Just after 5 a.m. Thursday, police responded to a home in Salina after a woman called to report a man identified as Christopher Demel, 26, allegedly kicked her in the stomach, according to Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.
The woman who had a protection from stalking order against Demel, also had scrapes on her arms, legs, back and stomach. In additional she had some internal bleeding, according to Sweeney.
As police arrived, Demel fled the South Salina residence, breaking a chair as he left. Police made contact with him shortly after the incident. He was arrested for one count of aggravated battery, three counts of stalking and damage to property.
Three children in the home were not injured. The victim was treated and released at Salina Regional Health Center.
NEW YORK (AP) — Struggling department store chain Sears says it’s closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.
Sears Holdings Corp. CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post Friday that the company would close another eight Sears including one in Kansas and 35 Kmart stores that are unprofitable by early October.
Hundreds of store closings have already been announced this year. They included the Sears in the Salina Central Mall and K-Mart in Wichita and Leavenworth.
Sears had said in March that there was “substantial doubt” it could continue after years of bleeding money, though it has insisted that its actions to turn around its business should help reduce that risk. With more people shopping online, mall foot traffic has dropped.
Lampert noted Friday that Sears has opened smaller stores to attract customers and is on track to cut $1.25 billion in yearly costs.
