WASHINGTON —The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday approved the $26.5 billion combination of Sprint and T-Mobile on a 3-2 party-line vote.

The wireless merger still faces opposition from a coalition of state attorneys general, who argue the deal is bad for competition. The companies won’t merge while litigation persists.

The antitrust trial is scheduled to start in New York in December, an unusual situation given that the Trump administration’s Justice Department approved the deal.

The FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, a Republican, backed it months ago citing the companies’ promise to build out a next-generation 5G network to many rural areas, improving internet access.

The Democratic commissioners say going from four to three major wireless companies will mean higher prices for consumers. They say it will be difficult to enforce promises made by T-Mobile and Sprint.

RENO COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on drug charges after an arrest in Hutchinson.

Just after 8:30a.m. Tuesday, police  were dispatched to the 400 Block of East 1st Avenue in Hutchinson for suspicious activity, according to a social media report.

While officers were investigating, K9 Tank was deployed and alerted to the suspect vehicle. A search was conducted on the vehicle and the officers seized the following items, 2.6 ounces of Methamphetamine., 7.5 grams of Heroin, 43.6 grams of Marijuana Dabs and a Firearm. Police also arrested two individuals  for numerous drug charges. 

Police did not release names of the suspects.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities say a kindergartner brought an unloaded gun to a Kansas City elementary school in a backpack, apparently without knowing it was there.

Kansas City Public Schools said in a news release that a teacher was notified after the Faxon Elementary School student found the weapon Tuesday. Police said that the school’s security then secured the gun. The student’s parents and state welfare officials were notified.

The district statement said, “There is every reason to think that the child was unaware that a firearm had been placed in the backpack.” The district said it was unable to comment further because of the ongoing investigation and student confidentially requirements.

DETROIT (AP) — Bargainers for General Motors and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative contract deal on Wednesday that could end a monthlong strike that brought the company’s U.S. factories to a standstill.

The deal, which the union says offers “major gains” for workers, was hammered out after months of bargaining but won’t bring an immediate end to the strike by 49,000 hourly workers. They will likely stay on the picket lines for at least two more days as two union committees vote on the deal, after which the members will have to approve.

Terms of the tentative four-year contract were not released, but it’s likely to include some pay raises, lump sum payments to workers, and requirements that GM build new vehicles in U.S. factories. Early on, GM offered new products in Detroit and Lordstown, Ohio, two of the four U.S. cities where it planned to close factories.

The company offered to build a new electric pickup truck to keep the Detroit-Hamtramck plant open and to build an electric vehicle battery factory in or near Lordstown, Ohio, where GM is closing an assembly plant. The battery factory would employ far fewer workers and pay less money than the assembly plant.

GM and the union have been negotiating at a time of troubling uncertainty for the U.S. auto industry. Driven up by the longest economic expansion in American history, auto sales appear to have peaked and are now heading in the other direction. GM and other carmakers are also struggling to make the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and his tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have raised costs for auto companies. A revamped North American free trade deal is stalled in Congress, raising doubts about the future of America’s trade in autos and auto parts with Canada and Mexico, which last year came to $257 billion.

Amid that uncertainty, GM workers have wanted to lock in as much as they can before things get ugly. They argue that they had given up pay raises and made other concessions to keep GM afloat during its 2009 trip through bankruptcy protection. Now that GM has been nursed back to health — earning $2.42 billion in its latest quarter — they want a bigger share.

If approved, the contract agreement will set the pattern for negotiations at Fiat Chrysler and Ford. It wasn’t clear which company the union would bargain with next, or whether there would be another strike.

The union’s bargainers have voted to recommend the deal to the UAW International Executive Board, which will vote on the agreement. Union leaders from factories nationwide will travel to Detroit for a vote on Thursday. The earliest workers could return would be after that.

In past years, it’s taken a minimum of three or four days and as long as several weeks for the national ratification vote. Workers took almost two weeks to finish voting on their last GM agreement, in October of 2015. Then skilled trades workers rejected it, causing further delays.

“The No. 1 priority of the national negotiation team has been to secure a strong and fair contract that our members deserve,” union Vice President Terry Dittes, the chief bargainer with GM, said in a statement Wednesday. The agreement, he said, has “major gains” for UAW workers.

This time around — with a federal corruption investigation that has implicated the past two UAW presidents and brought convictions of five union officials — many union members don’t trust the leadership and likely won’t want to return to work until they’ve gotten a chance to vote on the deal themselves.

In August, the FBI raided the suburban Detroit home of UAW President Gary Jones. He has not been charged and has not commented on the raid. Earlier this month, Jones’ successor as union regional director in Missouri was charged in a $600,000 embezzlement scheme, and another UAW official pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks from union vendors. Eight other people — including five UAW officials — have been convicted over the past two years of looting a jointly run Fiat Chrysler-UAW training center for blue-collar workers. Another official was charged in September.

There’s also no guarantee that the first contract deal with GM will pass. Some workers on the picket lines have said they may not vote for the first offer.

“We’re not just going to take the first thing that they give us,” worker Tina Black said last month from the picket line at an engine and transmission plant in Romulus, Michigan, near Detroit’s main airport.

But Louis Rocha, president of a UAW local in Orion Township, Michigan, said recently that union bargainers have taken strong positions against the company. “I think we’re going to be OK,” he said of the ratification vote.

The strike had shut down 33 GM manufacturing plants in nine states across the U.S. It was the first national strike by the union since a two-day walkout in 2007 that had little impact on the company.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after a traffic stop in Salina.

Just after 1a.m. Wednesday, a 2019 Dodge Durango driven by Alberto Lopez, 49, of Louisville, Ky., was southbound on Interstate 135, according Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.

A deputy sheriff stopped the SUV  after the driver allegedly exited onto State Street without stopping at the stop sign.

During the traffic stop, the deputy noticed an open beer container in the vehicle and tested Lopez, but did not arrest him for driving under the influence.

The Salina Police Department’s K-9, Karma, was called in and hit on the scent of marijuana in the vehicle, according to Soldan. Deputies located 106 pounds of marijuana divided into 98 packages in the back of the vehicle.

Deputies arrested Lopez on requested charges that include Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, No tax stamp, Possession of drug paraphernalia, Having an open container of alcohol and Failure to stop at a stop sign.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas legislator who defected from the Republican Party last year is running for the U.S. Senate next year as a Democrat.

State Sen. Barbara Bollier, of the Kansas City suburb of Mission Hills, promised an independent approach in kicking off her campaign Wednesday. The 61-year-old retired anesthesiologist also condemned dysfunction in Washington as she seeks to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

Republicans haven’t lost a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932. But Democrats are heartened by the victories last year of U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids in a Kansas City area district and Gov. Laura Kelly statewide.

Former federal prosecutor Barry Grissom and Manhattan Mayor Pro Tem Usha Reddi also are running as Democrats. Republican contenders include Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle , western Kansas congressman Roger Marshall and immigration hardliner Kris Kobach .

COWLEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged assault after pointing a hand gun during a dispute.

On October 11, police were dispatched for a disturbance involving a handgun at Casey’s General Store, 601 S. Summit Street in Arkansas City, according to a media release.

An officer arrived and contacted the victim, a 38-year-old Wichita man. Both the victim and several store employees reported witnessing a suspect identified as 67-year-old Dale Anthony Donlay brandish and point a pistol at the victim, according to police. Donlay later came to the police department and stated there had been a verbal altercation.

The Arkansas City Police Department arrested him on suspicion of one felony count of aggravated assault.  He remains jailed on a  $20,000 bond, according to online jail records.

 

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ most influential anti-abortion group launched an effort Tuesday to block two candidates for a state Supreme Court vacancy even before a state commission selects finalists for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, an abortion rights supporter, to consider.

The unusually vocal and public move by Kansans for Life comes as conservatives are trying to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that protects abortion rights and are pushing to require state Senate confirmation of the high court’s justices. Both changes would require a change in the state constitution, and legislators are expected to consider putting the proposals on the ballot next year.

The group announced it is opposing Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Melissa Taylor Standridge and Shawnee County District Judge Evelyn Wilson. It objects to Standridge because she was part of a 2016 appeals court ruling favoring abortion rights and to Wilson because of her husband’s past political contributions to Kelly and other candidates supporting abortion rights.

Standridge and Wilson are among 20 candidates for a Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Lee Johnson last month. A nine-member state nominating commission led by lawyers plans to interview the candidates Thursday and Friday and name three finalists. Kelly’s appointee will then take a seat on the high court, with no review by legislators.

The anti-abortion group called on the nominating commission to reject Standridge and Wilson as finalists. The commission’s interviews are public.

“Both of these applicants are extreme and out of step with Kansas values,” said Kansans for Life lobbyist Jeanne Gawdun. “Their selection by the Nominating Commission would be biased towards extreme abortion causes.”

Standridge declined to comment through an appeals-court spokeswoman. Wilson’s husband, Michael, said she would not comment because she has made a point of avoiding politics since becoming a judge.

“Evelyn doesn’t get involved in politics,” he said. “She and I don’t always agree on politics.”

Standridge has been an appeals court judge since 2008 and Wilson, a trial court judge since 2004. Both were appointed by former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, another abortion rights supporter. Johnson also was appointed to the Supreme Court by Sebelius, in 2007.

Abortion opponents are mobilizing to change the state constitution because the Supreme Court ruled in April that the constitution’s Bill of Rights grants a fundamental right to “personal autonomy” that includes a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Abortion opponents fear that restrictions already in place could be successfully challenged in state courts.

Before the lawsuit raising that question reached the Supreme Court, all 14 judges on the Court of Appeals reviewed it, and the state’s second-highest court split 7-7 over whether the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights. Standridge joined the judges who concluded it does.

Michael Wilson’s past political contributions include $3,000 to Kelly’s campaign for governor and another $3,000 to Kelly’s state Senate campaigns in 2016 and 2012, online campaign finance records show. But he noted that he’s given to Republicans and was elected as a GOP precinct committee member last year.

Conservatives have long argued that the high court is too liberal and have sought to push it to the right. Kansans for Life was a key part of unsuccessful election campaign efforts in 2014 and 2016 to oust six of the seven justices. Conservatives argue that requiring Senate confirmation of the justices would make the selection process more transparent and accountable to voters.

But Jeffrey Jackson, a Washburn University law professor, said the current process allows groups to weigh in because the names of Supreme Court candidates are public. He said it’s more typical that candidates’ supporters write letters on their behalf but said Kansans for Life’s public opposition is “certainly within the bounds of what we want the system to look like.”

“I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already, more often,” Jackson said. “I think especially in contentious times, you’re going to see this more.”

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City area man has been charged with fatally shooting another man after fighting over a family dog.

Twenty-nine-year-old Ebe Nelson was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of 63-year-old Frankie Gilmore. No attorney is listed for Nelson in online court records.

Court records say Nelson was forbidden from entering his mother’s Raytown home because of a history of breaking things. Upon showing up there Sunday, Gilmore told Nelson to leave and not to take the family’s dog, whom he had a history of mistreating.

The records say that after Nelson departed, Gilmore prepared to leave with the dog to dissuade Nelson from returning. But Nelson came back, wounded Gilmore, retrieved a rifle from a truck and shot him several more times, killing him.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON— A Hutchinson police officer who was fired for the handling of a traffic stop has lost his appeal for reinstatement. Attorneys representing the Fraternal Order of Police were before the Hutchinson City Council asking that former officer John Suda be allowed to return to the force.

The firings were said to be connected to an incident in which a female officer was spotted driving intoxicated with her child on board. That officer, Anna Ruzhanovska, resigned from the force. But the controversy surrounding the incident led to three officers getting fired. Others were either suspended or disciplined.

Video and audio played during the hearing showed two officers, Mike Rivers and Suda, turning off their dash and vest cameras once they discovered who was behind the wheel of the stopped SUV.

Audio of the 911 calls was also played and told the story of a motorist who was causing numerous traffic issues from K-96 Highway near Haven to where the stop was made at Lorraine and K-61 Highway:

 

Another video played during the hearing showed Suda asking a fellow officer what he should do in this situation saying he didn’t “want to throw anybody under the bus.” The conversation was recorded by a camera in one of the interrogation rooms. Transcripts from the arbitrator showed Suda and others tried to hide the facts into Ruzhanovska’s traffic stop by shutting off the cameras and then driving her to the police station in her own vehicle. Suda maintained during the arbitration hearing that he was not trying to hide the facts, but was trying to protect Ruzhanovska when he and Rivers shut off their cameras.

In April of this year, an arbitration hearing was held for Suda. During that hearing, an arbitrator issued a statement that Suda should be reinstated without back pay or benefits. He stated that, while Suda’s actions during the traffic stop were wrong, they did not warrant termination. He also stressed that Suda never tried to withhold the truth during follow-up interviews. In September, City Manager John Deardoff rejected that recommendation and upheld Suda’s termination.

The council agreed. After more than an hour of testimony and discussion, the council voted 5-0 to uphold Suda’s termination.