TOPEKA, KS – The Kansas Department of Transportation has a message for this year’s Super Bowl Sunday: Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.

           Football fans across the county will celebrate America’s most watched sporting event, Super Bowl LI on Sunday, Feb. 5, featuring the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. And for many that celebration will include drinking alcohol.

            “The Super Bowl is its own holiday,” said Chris Bortz, KDOT Traffic Safety Manager. “Holidays usually mean lots of eating and drinking. Designate before you celebrate. Don’t let a day of fun turn into a DUI or worse.”

            The Kansas initiative is part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s annual campaign. The game plan includes not only planning ahead but also having safe options if someone drops the ball.

            “If you are planning on attending a party to watch the Falcons and Patriots, you should also have a plan to get home safely,” Bortz said. “Drinking and driving is a choice and you need to make the right choice.”

            Helping tackle the persistent problem of drunk driving on Super Bowl Sunday, law enforcement officers will be on the lookout for impaired drivers across the state. Football fans should take personal accountability for having a safe celebration and abiding by traffic laws.

            “Impaired driving is completely preventable,” Kansas Highway Patrol Superintendent Mark Bruce said. “All it takes is a little planning. We want fans to remember it’s a choice: Drink or drive—but never do both.”

            Everyone is encouraged to have a game plan as they attend their Super Bowl parties, and use this playbook:

·         If you are planning on drinking alcohol, plan ahead not to drive.

·         Leave your car keys at home and designate a sober driver.

·         Plan to use a cab company, a ridesharing service or carpool.

·         If you are hosting a watch party, designate a team captain to be the designated driver and make sure no one who drives has been drinking.

·         Buckle up, every trip, every time.

·         Remember: You drink. You drive. You lose.

The Corps of Engineers at Milford Lake have reduced the outflow from the reservoir to 500 cubic feet per second to match the inflow. They are at their winter drawdown target. The current lake elevation is near 1,141.4 feet.

The Corps said they plan to keep the lake at that level until mid-March when the plan is to gradually rise to 1,143.0 and hold until August 1st. Then they will allow the lake elevation to increase and be maintained at 1,145.4 feet.

 

A Manhattan man has been sentenced to 52 months in prison for his role in a scheme involving the illegal export of firearms from the United states using a hidden online marketplace, announced Acting Assistant General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Tom Beall of the District of Kansas.

Michael Andrew Ryan, also known as Brad Jones and GunRunner, 36, Manhattan, previously had pleaded guilty to six counts of exporting and attempting to export firearms illegally from the United States to individuals located in other countries on June 6, 2016, and was remanded into custody on October 6, 2016. In addition to imposing the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree of the District of Kansas ordered Ryan to forfeit all firearms and ammunition seized by law enforcement during the investigation.

In connection with his plea Ryan admitted that he used the hidden internet marketplace Black Market Reloaded, a website hosted on the Tor network where users can traffic anonymously in illegal drugs and other illegal drugs to unlawfully export or attempt to export firearms from the United States to Cork, Ireland; Mallo, Ireland; Pinner, England; Edinburgh, Scotland and  Victoria, Australia. Those goods included dozens of firearms, including pistols, revolvers, UZIs and Glocks, some from which the manufacturer’s serial numbers had been removed, altered or obliterated, as well as magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

FORT RILEY, Kan. – “Big Red One” Soldiers from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team will conduct a combined-arms live fire exercise Feb. 3 on Fort Riley.

The CALFEX, conducted by Company B, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd ABCT, will employ about 18 M1 Abrams battle tanks and M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles supported by AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and a company-level mortar team. A squad of combat engineers will support a breach of an enemy obstacle using live Bangalore torpedoes to allow the company to maneuver to its final objective.

Operation Danger Focus II is a month-long exercise designed to build leaders prepared for combat operations within a fully enabled live, constructive and virtual environment. The exercise will better prepare “Dagger” brigade Soldiers for an upcoming rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. Similar to last year’s Warfighter Exercise conducted by the 1st Infantry Division headquarters, Danger Focus II pits the 2nd ABCT
against a virtual enemy.

Fort Riley is the only Forces Command installation in the Midwest with modern, state-of-the-art, full-spectrum training capability to help train joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational partners.

January 30, 2017 – It’s not a Verizon commercial: If you receive a phone call from someone asking “can you hear me,” hang up. You’re a potential victim in the latest scam circulating around the U.S. This new “can you hear me” con is actually a variation on earlier scams – primarily directed towards businesses. It is aimed at getting the victim to say the word “yes” in a phone conversation. That affirmative response is recorded by the fraudster and used to authorize unwanted charges.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Nebraska, South Dakota, The Kansas Plains and Southwest Iowa is warning that hundreds of consumers are now reporting the phone scam via BBB Scam Tracker.

How the scam works:
You receive a recorded call from someone who provides an introduction and identifies the business or agency they supposedly represent. Recent scam reports identify the caller as being from a home security agency, a cruise line or associated with Social Security. After the introduction, the recording will ask if you can hear the caller clearly. If you answer “yes,” there’s a possibility that the scam artist behind the phone call has recorded you and will use your agreement to sign you up for a product or service and then demand payment. If you refuse, the caller may produce your recorded “yes” response to confirm your purchase agreement.

But how can you get charged if you don’t provide a payment method?  BBB President and CEO Jim Hegarty explains, “The con artist already has your phone number and many phone providers pass through third-party charges. In addition, the criminal may have already collected some of your personal information – a credit card number or cable bill – perhaps as the result of a data breach. When the victim disputes the charge, the scammer can then counter that they have your consent on a recorded line.”

BBB advises:

• If you receive an unsolicited call from an organization or business, just hang up. If you are on the Do Not Call List and a company calls out of the blue to ask questions, it’s likely a scam. Avoid responding with “yes, sure or ok.”
• If you are asked a similar question in a phone call or are asked to press a button to be placed on the Do Not Call Registry, just hang up the phone. Saying anything or pressing buttons when prompted may help the scam artist identify that you have an active phone number. Remember that no government agency will ever solicit for the Do Not Call Registry.
• Write down the phone number of those callers violating the Do Not Call Registry and file a scam report with BBB Scam Tracker and the FTC’s Do Not Call List at donotcall.gov.
• Check your credit card, phone and cable statements carefully for any unfamiliar charges. If you suspect you have already been victimized, call the billing company – wheather your credit card company or your phone provider – and dispute anything that you didn’t authorize on purpose. If they say you have been recorded approving the charge and you have no recollection of that, ask for proof. The earlier you identify unauthorized charges on your accounts, the easier it will be to recover any lost money. For more tips on identifying scams and past scam alerts, visit bbb.org.

The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce will host a series of Legislative Coffees in the next three months.

The first Legislative Coffee will be Saturday, February 4th, the second on March 4th and final on Sunday, April 1st.

The start times for all three will be at 9:00 am at the C.L. Hoover Opera House in Junction City.

State legislators will provide updates on activities in Topeka and the public can pose questions on legislative issues. Some of the legislators invited to attend include Senators Jeff Longbine and Tom Hawk, and Representatives Lonnie Clark and Dave Baker.

These events are free and open to the public.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today issued the following statement regarding the president’s executive order on homeland security:

“Keeping Americans safe should be our federal government’s top priority. Strengthening our immigration system is critical to that end, and it’s common sense to have appropriate vetting procedures in place for individuals wishing to travel to our country. While I support thorough vetting, I do not support restricting the rights of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. Furthermore, far-reaching national security policy should always be devised in consultation with Congress and relevant government agencies.”