The “Dancing with the Stars” live tour, “Hot Summer Nights,” will make a stop in Salina this summer. The show is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on August 3. Tickets went on sale Monday.

According to the show’s website, “this all-new production showcases every type of ballroom and modern dance seen on ABC’s hit show Dancing with the Stars, including sizzling group numbers, steamy duets and over the top original pieces.”

Susan Trafton, director of sales and marketing for Tony’s Pizza Event Center, said that all of the dancers will perform on tour. The celebrity winner will also tour with the dancers. According to Trafton, the celebrity will be announced during the season finale, which is still a few weeks out.

This will be the tour’s only stop in Kansas. Tickets are now on sale here.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect on fraud charges.

On Thursday, Shelby Brummer, 24, Salina, cashed a check for $1,755 at the Sunflower Bank on South Ninth in Salina, according to Police Capt. Paul Forrester.

The check was allegedly forged to her from Luray Housing Authority.

Brummer returned the following day, attempting to cash another check from the same company, this time for $1,962.

The bank had flagged the previous check and called Salina Police when they received the second, according to Forrester. Police arrested Brummer at the bank.

She was also in possession of methamphetamines, according to police.
Authorities expect an additional arrest will be made following an investigation.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The archdiocese covering the Kansas City, Kansas, region and much of the eastern part of the state is severing ties with Girl Scouts and urging an end to cookie sales, citing philosophical concerns with the organization.

The Kansas City Star (https://bit.ly/2pB59ms ) reports the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announced Monday that Girl Scouts is “no longer a compatible partner in helping us form young women with the virtues and values of the Gospel.”

The archdiocese says it is switching its support to a 22-year-old, Christian-based scouting program, American Heritage Girls.

American Heritage Girls has become an option for those who claim Girl Scouts has turned too liberal and has relationships with organizations that don’t share traditional family values. The Girl Scouts deny that.

SEDGWICK COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating an armed robbery and asking for help to identify a suspect.

Just after 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police were dispatch to a Pizza Hut in 1600 Block of South Webb Road in Wichita, according to the online media briefing.

Upon arrival, an employee told police the electricity to the restaurant had been shut off. When the employee went outside to check on the power, an unknown suspect who was hiding pointed a handgun at him and demanded money.

The suspect took money from the employee and the business and fled on foot.

The suspect is described as an unknown black male, 6-foot-tall, weighed approximately 230 pounds and wore black clothing.

Anyone with information is asked to call police.

NEOSHO RAPIDS, Kan. (AP) — Authorities in east-central Kansas’ Lyon County say they are investigating the case of a human skull and other remains found last weekend near Neosho Rapids.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the remains were found Saturday.

Investigators say the cause of the person’s death hasn’t been determined.

The sheriff’s department did not indicate if the remains have been identified.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —Kansas collected slightly more in taxes than it had expected in April.

The state Department of Revenue reported Monday that tax collections last month were $1.8 million more than anticipated.

The state collected about $639 million in taxes when it had anticipated about $637 million. The surplus for the month is 0.3 percent.

The report comes less than two weeks after state officials and university economists revised revenue projections through June 2019. The new forecast was a little more optimistic than the previous one issued in November.

Kansas has faced projected budget shortfalls totaling $889 million through June 2019. Lawmakers reconvened Monday after their annual spring break to finish work on closing the budget gaps. They are expected to increase income taxes.

SEDGWICK COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a fatal stabbing and have made two arrests.

Police booked an 18-year-old Yvonne Mosqueda for murder and robbery and a 28-year-old Boe Wayne Adams for murder, robbery, forgery, and resist, according to Monday’s online media b

Just before 4p.m. Friday, officers were dispatched to a home in the 800 block of N. Chautauqua in Wichita.

They found the home owner Otto Meyer, 86, Wichita dead from multiple stab wounds, according to a social media report from police.

Police also reported locating the victim’s stolen 1989 Chevy extended cab, long bed pickup in a parking lot near Lawrence Dumont Stadium.

Police would not explain the relationship between the suspects and victim.

By MEG WINGERGER

An audit of the Kansas foster care system found the state doesn’t ensure children are placed close to home or receive all services they need.

The Legislature’s independent auditing team presented the third part of its report on the Kansas foster care system Friday to the Legislative Post Audit Committee. The final part of the audit attempted to answer if the state’s two foster care contractors have sufficient resources to provide services and if privatization has improved children’s outcomes and lowered costs.

Download part three of the Kansas foster care system audit.

Kansas privatized its foster care system in 1997. Two contractors provide foster care services, with KVC Health Systems overseeing the eastern counties and Saint Francis Community Services taking Wichita and western Kansas.

Lawmakers have called for reform of the state’s foster care system after several high-profile child deaths and a string of record-breaking years for children in the system. As of late February, more than 6,900 children were in the state’s custody — up 34 percent since 2012.

Kristen Rottinghaus, a principal auditor, told the committee that some children had been placed as far as 100 miles from their homes even if a bed was available in their home county. She said that most children who needed mental health or medical services received them, but some didn’t or had long waits.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families, which oversees the foster care system, also could be “more proactive” in ensuring that contractors follow state and federal rules, Rottinghaus said. For example, some caseworkers hired to check on children in their foster homes don’t have the required two years of experience, she said.

DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said the department audited the contractors in 2012 and is continuously working with them on improvement plans. DCF took a hands-off approach with the contractors until a few years ago, she said.

“This is a culture shift for the agency,” she said. “As you know with all culture shifts, they come slowly.”

Oversight Questions

Deneen Dryden, director of prevention and protection services at DCF, told the committee that the department meets with the contractors weekly to work on improvements. She said the contractors wouldn’t agree that the department’s oversight wasn’t aggressive enough.

“I kind of chuckled inside” at that statement, she said.

Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, asked Dryden whether DCF had taken action after an earlier audit found the contractors sometimes waited as long as a year to check caseworkers’ names against the child abuse and neglect registry. Dryden said the department and the contractors were working together on a solution, which didn’t satisfy Kelly.

“That one doesn’t seem that complicated to me,” Kelly said. “It’s the state’s responsibility to oversee the contractors.”

The contractors also struggle to hire enough staff and enlist enough foster homes in some counties, Rottinghaus said.

“Overall, we found that the foster care system may not have sufficient capacity” to serve all children in it, she said. “We found there appeared to be enough (foster) beds statewide, but in some communities there were not enough beds.”

DCF has increased salaries for caseworkers, offered incentives to those who work in underserved areas, and provided laptops and cell phone alarms for employees when they work in the field, Gilmore said. Child welfare systems in other states also have trouble recruiting, she said.

Melissa Ness, a senior adviser with Saint Francis Community Services, told the committee that more services for families are needed at the community level.

“We can do our part, but we need other people to stand up and do their part to build a stronger system,” she said.

No Privatization Answer

The audit didn’t fully answer whether privatization has produced better foster care services. Kansas’ performance on federal foster care measurements has been about the same since 2000, Rottinghaus said.

Auditors didn’t offer an opinion on whether Kansas should stay with its privatized system but noted it could cost $8 million or more annually to transfer responsibility to DCF, which generally pays higher salaries.

The audit originated in December 2015, when the committee asked auditors to answer seven questions about the foster care system. They declined to include an eighth question about possible discrimination against same-sex couples who wanted to be foster parents.

The first part of the audit, released in July 2016, found DCF didn’t ensure that all scheduled monthly visits between children and caseworkers happened. It also found the department granted nearly all exceptions related to the number of children who could be in a home and didn’t require families to prove they had the financial resources to care for a child.

Gilmore said then that the problem with monthly visits was a record-keeping issue and that it had changed its policies to ensure children were placed in homes with adequate space and resources.

The second piece of the audit, released in September, found DCF complied with most federal rules related to foster care.

Earlier this session, a bill to set up a foster care task force advanced but needs a vote in the House and a conference committee to become law.

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.

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are without power after a spring storm dumped more than a foot of snow across part of western Kansas.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Buller says that from 10 to nearly 20 inches fell from Friday night through Sunday afternoon in an approximately 40-mile wide band in northwest and west-central Kansas.

He says the heavy snow, combined with 40 to 60 mph winds, downed tree limbs. Drifts of up to 5 feet were recorded. Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Katie Horner says about 42,000 electric customers were without power at the height of the storm.

The storm briefly shut down Interstate 70, and other roads remained closed Monday. National Guard teams have been called out at least 40 times to rescue stranded motorists.

By CRISTINA JANNEY

HUTCHINSON — The president of Hutchinson Community College said Monday afternoon newspapers taken from a student reporter at the school had, in fact, been distributed.

Jeff Leddy, student reporter, said he was informed that his adviser had been suspended and his classes for the last week of school had been canceled.

Leddy said he asked to be let into the journalism offices to collect personal effects. There, he saw copies of the student newspaper, the Collegian, locked in the office. He said he took copies of the paper to distribute them on campus.

He distributed about 100 of the newspapers Friday before the head of HCC security approached him and took possession of the papers.

Leddy said Monday morning he was never told why the papers were being taken and did not know what happened to the remaining papers.

Carter File, college president, said Monday afternoon the papers were given to the Student Governing Association to distribute since the journalism classes had been canceled.

File would not confirm that Alan Montgomery, the newspaper’s adviser, had been suspended, but did say the college was dealing with a personnel issue.

The incidents Friday follow tensions that have been building since December when the Collegian ran an unflattering story about school’s administration.

After the December story appeared, student journalists were charged with disciplinary actions.

Leddy said he thought the latest action was due to a story in the Friday’s edition of the paper about a work study student who was removed from a journalism lab.

——-

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — About 400 copies of Hutchinson Community College’s student newspaper, the Collegian, reportedly were seized by school administration Friday morning.

Jeff Leddy, student reporter, said he had taken the newspapers to the college’s student union to distribute them when the head of college security approached him and said he had been directed by the vice president of academic affairs to take the papers.

About 100 of the 500 papers in the press run had already been put in racks, but Leddy said he did not know where the rest of the papers were taken.

Although Leddy was not informed why the papers were taken, he said he thought it might be because of a story about a work-study student assigned to the journalism department being removed from a lab.

Monday’s incident comes after a semester of contention between college administration and student journalists and the paper’s adviser.

The adviser and student reporters first came under scrutiny in December after the paper printed a story about disciplinary actions taken against a member of the nursing department.

Leddy and other students were brought up on disciplinary charges, including academic dishonesty. The college asked Leddy and other students to sign immunity letters that would bar them from talking about the proceeding in the future. He and other students refused to sign the agreements.

Leddy said he and other student journalists had further investigated the college’s disciplinary policies, but opted to not publish the stories for fear of reprisal.

He said he believed the work-study student who was removed from her lab was targeted because of her association with the student newspaper.

Leddy said the paper’s adviser, Alan Montgomery, had been suspended, as well, and the students’ remaining week of journalism courses would be canceled.

Carter File, the college’s president, told Hays Post copies of the Collegian were out in racks and he would look into allegations that papers were seized.

He said the college was in the middle of a personnel issue, but would not confirm Montgomery was suspended.

He gave no further comment, and Montgomery was not available for immediate comment.

Max Kautsch, Kansas Press Association attorney, said the seizure of the papers was a clear violation of constitutional rights.

“The real story here is the college locking up newspapers,” he said. “It is a clear violation of the students’ First Amendment rights.”

The student newspaper is partially supported by student fees. Kautsch said the role of the administration needs to be better defined.

“The college obviously believes it can do whatever it wants,” he said, “and the students think they are independent. That is where ligation comes in.”

Although Kautsch suggested the students had grounds for a lawsuit, Leddy, 24, said he would not likely file one, saying a federal lawsuit would be too costly to pursue.

Leddy said he still does not know if he remains under investigation by the college.

Leddy, in his second year at the college, said he will not return to HCC in the fall, but transfer to Wichita State University where he plans to study journalism. Leddy is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and said he preferred to take his GI bill dollars elsewhere.

“I do not feel welcome here, especially when I don’t know what is happening,” he said. “There is an air of hostility and suspicion and the constant targeting of us at the student publication.”