BUTLER COUNTY – Four people were injured in an accident just after 8:30p.m. Sunday in Butler County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Chevy Camaro driven by Lake Vaughn Starnes, 18, Wichita, was driving at Boulder Bluff at El Dorado Lake.
The vehicle was traveling at a speed too great to maintain control. It left the roadway and hit a tree.
Starnes and passengers in the Camaro Kori Dawn Callies, 19, El Dorado; Kati Lynn Barrett, 15, Augusta; Jackson Jay Isom, 17, Ozark, MO., were transported Wesley Medical Center.
The passengers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP. The KHP did not have information on whether the driver was wearing a seat belt.
Blue Hills Shopping Center in Manhattan-google image
RILEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Sunday morning shooting at Blue Hills Shopping Center in Manhattan.
Just after 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Riley County Dispatch received a call regarding a shooting in the 2300 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd (Blue Hills Shopping Center) that is believed to have occurred sometime around 2:00-2:30a.m., according to a media release.
The number of victims and extent of their injuries are unknown at this time.
Anyone with information or who witnessed any part of this incident is asked to please call police 785-537-2112 or call Crimestoppers at 785-539-7777 or toll free at 1-800-222-8477.
The mother of a U.S. Navy sailor who survived a direct hit to his sleeping berth during a collision at sea says her son kept diving back down to try to save his shipmates until the flooded berth began running out of air pockets.
Mia Sykes of Raleigh, North Carolina, told The Associated Press on Sunday that her 19-year-old son Brayden Harden was knocked out of his bunk by the impact, and water immediately began filling the berth.
Sykes says her son told her that the men sleeping on bunks above and below him were among those who died.
Sykes says her son told her that sailors initially believed they were under attack and some immediately went to man the guns.
Harden is from Herrin, Illinois, and recently was redeployed.
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11:10 p.m.
The search for the seven U.S. Navy sailors who went missing after their destroyer collided with a container ship off the Japanese coast has ended after bodies were found in the destroyer.
Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the Navy’s 7th Fleet, told reporters that “a number of” bodies were recovered Sunday, a day after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship four times its size. He wouldn’t say how many, pending notification of next of kin.
Aucoin said that much of the crew of about 300 was asleep when the collision happened at 2:20 a.m. Saturday, and that one machinery room and two berthing areas for 116 crew members were severely damaged. He said the destroyer was hit on the side and there was a significant impact.
A Navy spokesman said the victims might have been killed by the impact of the collision or drowned in the flooding.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Leawood woman was charged Friday with importing $194,000 worth of misbranded drugs, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
Kathleen Stegman, 59, who owned Midwest Medical Aesthetics Center, Inc., of Leawood, Kan., was charged with obtaining Botox, Dysport, Restylane, Perlane and Sculptra from foreign sources. The drugs did not meet Food and Drug Administration labeling requirements. The crime is alleged to have occurred in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
In October 2016, Stegman was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for tax evasion.
If convicted, she faces up to three years in federal prison, a fine up to $250,000 and forfeiture. The Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway is prosecuting.
Police found Sally Noe McIntyre safe-photo Cape Girardeau police
SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects for kidnapping and robbery.
Just before 8p.m. Friday, the United States Marshals Service and the Kansas Highway Patrol arrested John C. Czarnecki, 53, and Christopher G. Smith 47, both of Georgia, in western Kansas according to a social media report from police.
They were both charged with class A felonies of kidnapping and robbery in the first degree, and the unclassified felonies of armed criminal action, for their involvement with a kidnapping of a woman from a Wal-Mart parking lot on June 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Czarnecki-photo Cape Girardeau police
They remain jailed in Kansas with their bonds at $1,000,000, cash only.
HARVEY COUNTY – The city of Newton is alerting those visiting Springlake Splash Park, 110 Springlake Drive, not to drink the water.
City officials reported they learned some were drinking the water and also filling up water bottles, according to a social media report.
The city reminded visitors the water is chemically treated with chlorine just like a swimming pool. “The water also recirculates, so whatever drips off your kids and runs across the pavement will come back out again.
Just like at the pool, drinking the water could make you sick, so please fill your water bottles before you leave home.”
Gov. Sam Brownback defended his signature tax cuts last week after lawmakers overrode his veto of a bill repealing them, but he may have exaggerated their impact.
Brownback attributed lawmakers’ decision to roll back his 2012 tax cuts to the pressure of a very long legislative session.
Legislators faced a projected $900 million budget hole over the next two fiscal years, and the governor’s proposed solution to sell off the state’s share of a tobacco lawsuit, increase other types of taxes and cut spending failed to gain traction.
Gov. Sam Brownback signed a package of tax cuts into law on May 22, 2012, surrounded by legislators, business leaders and Cabinet members. This week the Kansas Legislature voted to override his veto and roll back those cuts. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The new tax law will repeal an exemption for some businesses, add a bracket for Kansans with higher incomes and raise rates overall, though not to their pre-2012 levels.
“This is not to our long-term benefit. This is not the right way to go,” he said Wednesday during a bill-signing event. “There was another way.”
Brownback painted a dark picture of Kansas’ economy before the tax cuts and of its future after they are repealed — and a rosy image of their impact on the state.
Here’s a look at some of the governor’s statements and how they compare with available information.
On Kansas’ economy before the tax cuts: “We’ve been declining as a percent of the population in the country. We haven’t had robust economic activity.”
Partially true. From 2000 to 2010, the number of people leaving Kansas was greater than the number moving here.
Whether Kansas had “robust” economic activity is subjective, but growth in the state gross domestic product was better than the national average from 2006 to 2011, before the tax cuts.
In 2012, Kansas dropped to 35th for growth of gross domestic product, and it hasn’t beaten the national average during any of the years the tax cuts were in place. In 2016, the state’s economy grew only 0.3 percent, placing Kansas 42nd in the nation. The lackluster growth may be partially due to weakness in the agriculture, industry and aviation sectors, however.
On how the tax cuts have affected the population of Kansas: “We were seeing that attraction (of residents) and particularly attracting in the region and particularly on the Missouri border.”
False. While economic data doesn’t show whether the tax cuts induced businesses to cross the border from Missouri, the state has lost more residents than it gained in recent years. The last time Kansas gained more residents from other states or countries than it lost was 2011.
On business growth: “We’ve seen record small-business creation.”
True, at least for the last decade. From 2007 to 2011, the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office reported about 13,000 in-state new business filings each year. Since 2012, business filings have increased annually and topped 18,000 in 2016. Since 2012, new business formations and the total number of businesses in Kansas have increased faster than they did from 2007 to 2011.
A July 2016 study found that some self-employed Kansans registered as businesses to avoid the tax, however, so it isn’t clear how many of those filings represented new businesses.
On job growth: “We’ve seen record private sector employment.”
True. Private sector employment in Kansas hit a high of 1,159,000 in September 2016, though it has dropped since. Total employment, which includes public sector jobs, also peaked at 1,415,600 during the same month. Private sector employment increased 4.2 percent and total employment increased 3.2 percent from when the tax cuts took effect in January 2013 until January 2017.
During the same time, employment nationwide grew about 8 percent.
On unemployment: “We’ve seen record low, for the past 17 years, unemployment rates for the state of Kansas.”
True but incomplete. The Kansas unemployment rate hit a low of 3.8 percent in March. The last time it had been that low was in October 2000. For the last two years, the unemployment rate has bounced in the range between 4.0 percent and 4.3 percent, which is in line with pre-recession unemployment.
Labor force participation peaked in 2009, however, so the low unemployment rate may reflect more people retiring or leaving the work force for other reasons, such as having health problems or needing to care for family members.
The takeaway: Since the tax cuts took effect in January 2013, employment in Kansas has increased, though not as fast as the national average, but the state has faced revenue shortfalls. The number of businesses in Kansas has increased, but population and economic growth have stagnated.
Whether Brownback’s predictions of slowed growth will come to pass once taxes are increased remains to be seen.
Meg Wingerter is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @MegWingerter.
RILEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attempted murder in Manhattan and have identified the victim.
Just after 10:15 p.m. Thursday, Riley County Dispatch received a call regarding a man who fell down and was possibly injured in the 1000 block of Fremont Street in Manhattan, according to a media release.
Dispatch sent EMS to the scene. First responders felt that the victim identified as Anthony Williams Jr., 29, Manhattan, was suffering from wounds consistent with being stabbed not a fall.
Williams was transported to Via Christi by EMS in critical condition, according to police.
The RCPD has developed two suspects in the case. They do not believe the public to be at risk.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Shawnee County judge declared a mistrial on a murder charge against a Topeka man involved in fatal road-rage confrontation.
The jury on Friday said it was “hopelessly deadlocked” on the first-degree murder charge against 22-year-old Andre Clark Rhoiney Jr. in the October 2016 fatal shooting of 28-year-old Michael Stadler.
The jury found Rhoiney guilty of aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a firearm.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports estimony indicated people in two vehicles were bickering and making rude gestures toward each other when a gunman in one vehicle shot at a van Stadler was riding in, killing him.
District Attorney Mike Kagay said he will try Rhoiney again on the murder charge.
