DODGE CITY —Wright Park Zoo staff and the City of Dodge City are deeply saddened to announce the sudden passing Tuesday of Vern, the Capuchin Monkey.

According to a media release, Vern was found unresponsive by staff early in the morning, and while the Zoo’s contracted veterinarian did everything they could to revive him, he passed away at the vet clinic. The cause of his sudden decline is unknown at this time; however, a necropsy will be done to try and determine the cause.

The money was injured during a suspected break in at the on September 3. Authorities determined his injuries were a result of blunt force trauma in an effort to protect another monkey found outside the city limits. Police conducting the investigation suspect that someone gained access to the enclosure and injured the older monkey as he tried to protect his offspring from being taken, according to a media release from the zoo.

Vern came to the Wright Park Zoo in 1988 with a female, Charro, both 1-year-old at the time of their arrival. The pair had at least four offspring, and their two youngest sons, Jack and Pickett, are part of the current capuchin troop at the Zoo. Capuchin monkeys are native to South America and live mostly in trees, only coming to the ground occasionally for food and water. Their populations are declining in the wild as they face threats of deforestation, habitat loss, and capture for the pet trade.

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DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — A capuchin monkey at a western Kansas zoo is recovering after it was injured while apparently trying to stop an intruder from taking a younger monkey.

Officials at the Wright Park Zoo in Dodge City say the older monkey, named Vern, was hurt and his son, Pickett, was found on the outskirts of Dodge City Sept. 3. The younger monkey was not injured.

Officials initially thought Vern’s injuries were minor but a veterinarian found injuries apparently caused by blunt force trauma. The monkey underwent surgery at Kansas State University Sept. 10 to repair broken bones.

Zoo spokeswoman Abbey Martin said Monday Pickett is doing well and is back on display. Vern remains in quarantine while he recovers.

Dodge City police are investigating the incident. Martin says there are no developments in the investigation.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Latest on the NCAA task force’s report on the feasibility of allowing athletes to profit from their names and images (all times local):

1:30 p.m.

The NCAA Board of Governors has taken the first step toward allowing athletes to cash in on their fame. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to clear the way for the amateur athletes to “benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.”

The vote came during a meeting at Emory University in Atlanta.

In a news release, board chair Michael V. Drake said the board realized that it “must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes.”

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2:30 a.m.

A key NCAA task force is expected to provide an update on whether it would be feasible to allow athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses while still preserving amateurism rules for the nation’s largest governing body for college athletics.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman are leading the working group, which will present a progress report to the NCAA Board of Governors at Emory University in Atlanta this week.

It is an important early step in a process that could take months or even years to work its way through the NCAA various layers.

NCAA rules have long barred players from hiring agents and the association has steadfastly refused to allow players to be paid by their schools, with some exceptions. A California law set to take effect in 2023 would prevent athletes from losing their scholarships or being kicked off their teams for signing endorsement deals. Other states could put laws in place earlier than that.

The NCAA says it represents some 450,000 athletes nationwide.

Salina Post

SALINA —When Salina Public Library security contacted police about a man believed to have stolen a DVD from the library, they had no idea they were about to recover nearly $2,400 worth of property.

Just before 9:30a.m. Monday, police were sent to the library, 301 West Elm Street after security personnel observed a man they had on surveillance video taking a DVD on Sept. 18, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.

The officers made contact with Isaiah Wilson, 19, of Salina, who agreed to go to his residence and retrieve the DVD.  Additionally, Wilson voluntarily told police that he also had numerous other library items including 35 graphic novels, 12 hardback books, 13 paperback books, 64 DVD sets with one or two discs each and 12 DVD sets with two or three discs each

Total value of the items taken was just under $2,400, according to Forrester.

Wilson was able to take the items without setting off alarms by peeling the security strips off the items before putting the items in his backpack and walking out of the library, Forrester said.

Police arrested Wilson on suspicion of felony theft, according to Forrester.

MIAMI COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a case of alleged animal cruelty involving two dogs.

Just after 4p.m. October 26, police responded to storage business in the 23,000 Block of  West 255^th Street in Hillside, Kansas, according to  Miami County Sheriff’s Captain Mat Kelly.

At the scene, the woman who called the sheriff’s department told deputies she heard barking coming from the storage unit. Deputies heard it too, eventually were able to enter the unit and located two dogs in two separate kennels.

With assistance from Paola police, the animals were transported to a local veterinarian clinic in critical condition, according to Kelly. They believe the dogs had been in the unit for up to a month with minimal care.

The sheriff’s department has contacted the individual who rented the storage unit and they are cooperating with the investigation, according to Kelly.  The sheriff’s department is working with the Miami County attorney about possible criminal charges in the case.

One dog is doing well and fully recovered. The other dog is progressing, according to Kelly and they hope it continues to get better over the next few days.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a horticulturalist was slain outside his Kansas office, and a man in a vehicle that was linked to the original homicide scene killed himself hours later in Missouri as deputies attempted to stop him.

Overland Park, Kansas, police says 59-year-old David Flick was shot Monday morning outside an office center, where his consulting firm was located.

The Clay County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Department says that deputies later heard a single gunshot while attempting to stop a sport utility vehicle in Kearney. The SUV in which 60-year-old Scott MacDonald died by suicide matched a vehicle description released by Overland Park police in Flick’s death.

Investigators say MacDonald may have been connected to Flick’s death, but did not say how. No motive was released.

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Police say they are investigating a fatal shooting near an office center in Overland Park.

Overland Park Police Department spokesman John Lacy says police responded to the shooting at Deer Creek Office Center at about 8:45 a.m. Monday.

The victim was in his 60s and worked in one of the businesses in the office park. He has not been identified publicly.

Police were investigating the death as a homicide

No suspect information has been released.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors in Kansas are dropping all charges against a University of Kansas student accused of falsely reporting a rape, saying they feared publicity surrounding the case could discourage sexual assault victims from coming forward.

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said in a statement Monday that the three felony counts of making a false report were dropped after much discussion. His office believed in the merits of the case, he said, but the “cost to our community and the negative impact on survivors of sexual violence cannot be ignored,” reports The Kansas City Star.

“We are concerned this case, and the significant amount of misinformation surrounding it, could discourage other survivors from reporting their attack,” Branson said. “That is unacceptable.”

Cheryl Pilate and Branden Bell, attorneys for the woman, said that although they were pleased their client could “finally put this nightmare behind her,” they were “disappointed that the DA’s office continues to promote the fiction that this case was supported by the facts.” The statement added: “It was not.”

Police first spoke to the woman in September 2018 outside a Lawrence hospital before she went inside to undergo a rape examination, according to court records. The woman said she had been raped by the friend of her ex-boyfriend, but the details were fuzzy because she was drunk at the time. She also said she didn’t want to press charges but allowed officers to look through her phone.

Police interpreted the texts as an acknowledgement that the sex was consensual, according to court records. District Attorney Charles Branson says the woman fabricated being raped out of regret and to get revenge.

However, the woman’s attorneys argue in court documents that she is innocent and that her text messages made light of what happened because she wasn’t yet able to admit she had been raped after waking up in a strange bed with no memory of how she got there with unexplained bruises on her legs, neck and arms. They say police decided to investigate her rather than the man whom she alleged attacked her. The man, who also was a university student, was never charged.

The woman’s legal fees were covered in part by the Times Up Legal Defense Fund, an organization founded by celebrities during the #metoo movement.

The student’s attorneys said she never told officers she wanted to pursue charges, though she did say she might consider it at some point. The police investigation began in October 2018 after the student asked for a detective to be present when she made a formal statement to Title IX investigators at the university, according to testimony from a motions hearing. The student ultimately decided not to meet with the university, and her attorneys say she never told officers she wanted to pursue charges, though she did say she might consider it at some point.

Patrick Compton, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman, said police have the latitude to determine whether to proceed with a case even if the reporting party declines to press charges.

Going forward, Branson said in his statement Monday, he planned to work with police to update his office’s guidelines for investigating and prosecuting sexually violent crimes. Law enforcement will provide multiple options for “survivors to report crimes on their terms,” he said.

The media isn’t naming the woman because she says she is the victim of a sexual assault and the paper has a policy of not naming sexual assault victims. The felony false reporting charge carried a maximum sentence of up to 23 months in prison.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors plan to drop all charges against a University of Kansas student accused of falsely reporting a rape.

Douglas County district attorney’s office filed a motion Monday to drop the three felony counts of making a false report against the woman.

The woman’s attorneys contend she is innocent , saying she was mistreated by police and prosecutors after reporting she was raped by a friend of her ex-boyfriend last year.

Prosecutors had contended the woman fabricated the story out of regret and to get back at her ex-boyfriend. Police have said text messages show the sex was consensual.

The woman contended the messages made light of the incident because she was not able to admit at the time that she had been raped.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Flooding along the Missouri River has stretched on for seven months in places and could endure through the winter, leaving some Upper Midwest farmland and possibly some homes encased in ice.

There are several reasons for the flooding, including high levels along the river, saturated ground and broken levees. And with forecasters predicting a wetter-than-normal winter, it’s possible flooding could continue in some places all the way until spring, when the normal flood season begins.

“There’s no end in sight. None at all,” said Tom Bullock, who hasn’t been able to live in his northwestern Missouri home since March because floodwaters cut off access to it.

In Missouri’s Holt County, where Bullock serves as emergency management director, roughly 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of the 95,000 acres (38,445 hectares) that flooded last spring remain underwater, and at least some of that floodwater is likely to freeze in place this winter.

Similar conditions exist in places along the lower Missouri River, where broken levees will likely take several years to repair.

Nearly every levee in Holt County has multiple breaches and many haven’t even been examined yet. Repairs aren’t likely to start on most of the area’s levees until next year, Bullock said.

One key contributor to the flooding is that the river remains high because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still releasing massive amounts of water from upstream dams to clear space in the reservoirs to handle next spring’s flooding.

The Corps said it has been releasing more than twice the normal amount of water from most of the dams along the river and will likely continue at that pace into mid-December.

This year has been exceptionally wet in the Missouri River basin, and the amount of water flowing down the river through the year is expected to match the 2011 record of 61 million acre-feet (75.24 billion cubic meters). That is why the releases must remain high until the river freezes over in winter.

Other rivers and lakes in the region are also swollen. For example, parts of the James River in the Dakotas may not drop below flood stage between now and the start of next year’s flood season. About 50,000 sandbags are in place to protect homes and other structures near the river in Jamestown, North Dakota.

“I have never seen the water anywhere near this in the fall,” said Bill Anderson, who lives near the James in Montpelier, North Dakota. “If we get a bunch of snow, it’s not going to be pretty.”

South Dakota officials are also closely watching Lake Andes, which is the largest natural water body in the state and has been overflowing for months. The lake borders the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation and is located near the Missouri River and Fort Randall Dam.

For the last six months, residents in the town of Lake Andes and surrounding areas have had to deal with high water that has washed out roads, flooded basements and inundated graves, said Kip Spotted Eagle, the tribe’s historic preservation director. The problem is exacerbated by a 1930s aqueduct that is not properly draining water from the lake to the Missouri River, he said.

“The water is going to freeze and it’s going to stay there and it’s going to be a big problem,” said Spotted Eagle, who lives in Wagner. “Families and kids are going to walk across that ice because it’s a shortcut to town. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

At this point, any significant rain or snow in the region could lead to new flooding because the soil is too saturated to absorb most of it and many rivers are high, according to the National Weather Service.

“It wouldn’t take a big precipitation event to renew the flooding in places,” said Kevin Low, a weather service hydrologist at the Missouri River Basin River Forecast Center.

The latest long-term winter forecast from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center predicts that much of the northern United States, including the northern Great Plains, is likely to experience a wetter-than-normal winter. That could mean there will be above-average snowpack in the Missouri River’s watershed by spring.

“It’s just not a very good setup,” Low said.

That’s bad news for farmers such as Gene Walter, whose low-lying land north of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was underwater for most of this year. Walter still can’t work on most of his land because even though the floodwaters have partly receded, it is still too muddy.

Crop insurance will give Walter about 75 percent of his normal income, but this year has been full of additional expenses related to flood damage, so “the financial drain has been unbelievable,” Walter said.

“We’re just tired, he said. “We’ve been beat up so much. We’re just tired.”

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Patient safety at Missouri’s only abortion clinic is the point of contention at a state administrative hearing that will decide if the clinic can remain open.

Opening statements and testimony began Monday before a commissioner with the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission. At issue is the state health department’s effort to revoke the license for Planned Parenthood’s clinic in St. Louis.

Assistant Attorney General John Sauer outlined cases of “failed abortions,” including one where a woman had to have up to five procedures to complete the abortion, and another where the doctor failed to recognize that a patient was pregnant with twins, requiring a second procedure to remove the second fetus.

Planned Parenthood attorney Chuck Hatfield played a video deposition of a health department official indicating the clinic is not unsafe.

Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi is presiding. A commission official said that in his role, Dandamudi “acts as an independent trial judge.” A ruling isn’t expected until February at the earliest.

The hearing at a downtown St. Louis state office building is expected to last five days. Missouri officials have asked St. Louis police for heightened security since the licensing issue has generated protests from those on both sides of the debate.

Missouri would become the first state since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, without a functioning abortion clinic if the license revocation is allowed. The battle also comes as abortion rights supporters raise concerns that conservative-led states, including Missouri, are attempting to end abortion through tough new laws and tighter regulation.

Planned Parenthood has been battling the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services for months to try to keep open its St. Louis clinic.

The state said concerns arose from inspections in March. Among the problems health department investigators cited were three “failed abortions” requiring additional surgeries and another that led to life-threatening complications for the mother.

TOPEKA — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the cause of a house fire and asking the public for information in an effort to locate suspects.

Just after 4:30a.m. Monday, fire crews responded to the report of a structure fire at 320 SE Golden Avenue in Topeka, according to Fire Marshal Michael Martin.

Upon arrival, fire crews reported heavy smoke and flames showing throughout residence. A search of the structure revealed no one was in the home at the time of the fire. The owner was on site to provide assistance and information to responding firefighters.

The Topeka Fire Department Investigation’s Unit determined the cause of the fire as Incendiary; intentionally set, according to Martin. The estimated structural dollar loss is $10,000, with $5,000 contents loss. Working smoke detectors were NOT found within the structure.
Any individuals with information about the circumstances of this fire are being asked to please contact Crime Stoppers at (785)234-0007 or Toll Free at 1-800-222 TIPS (8477).