WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita lawyer accused of plotting a cyberattack on websites with information criticizing his work has told a federal court he intends to change his plea.

A docket notation Friday shows attorney Bradley Pistotnik has a change-of-plea hearing Tuesday.

The move comes two days after his co-defendant , VIRAL Artificial Intelligence co-founder David Dorsett, notified the court of his plea change. Dorsett’s hearing is Oct. 21.

Both men pleaded not guilty last year to computer fraud and conspiracy. Pistotnik is also charged with making false statements to the FBI.

The indictment alleges they are responsible for cyberattacks on Leagle.com, Ripoffreport.com and JaburgWilk.com in 2014 and 2015. The indictment accuses Dorsett of filling website inboxes with threats. An email purportedly demanded that a webpage be removed or the hackers will target advertisers.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

TOPEKA, Kansas —Cigarettes are so yesterday.

Or yesteryear.

That’s why that old-fashioned, combustible path to a nicotine buzz wasn’t the top concern for a small group of high schoolers in Sabetha — a 2,500-person town about an hour north of Topeka near the Nebraska border — when they got city council to hike the minimum age for buying tobacco products to 21.

“I don’t really know anyone that smokes cigarettes around here because they’re really gross,” Sabetha High senior Kinsey Menold said. “Then, like, Juuls came in.”

The slender, chic vaping devices took off among teens in recent years. Notoriously easy to hide from parents and teachers, Menold says her classmates took hits of nicotine in the hallways, in the bathrooms — sometimes even in class.

“It was like our new thing instead of cigarettes,” she said. “Our new challenge, for our generation.”

Statewide, more than two dozen cities and counties have raised the age for buying tobacco and vaping products by three years, part of a national “Tobacco 21” movement that includes more than 500 city and county ordinances.

Yet enforcing those rules has proven tricky because of the gap between state and local law. That could change. This winter, health advocacy groups will press state legislators to make 21 the law of the land.

They’re bracing themselves for pushback from tobacco lobbyists. Major industry players support Tobacco 21, but their critics accuse them of co-opting the effort, leading in some places to watered-down laws that lack teeth or pre-empt other anti-tobacco efforts.

“Absolutely,” said Jordan Feuerborn, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We’ve seen this play out in other states.”

The law that her group will seek together with the American Lung Association, American Heart Association and others would target shop owners who flout the minimum age, rather than blaming the cashiers or teens who get caught.

“The profit-gaining entity should be the party responsible,” she said. “We don’t want to punish minimum wage workers, and we really don’t want to punish children.”

Easier said than done

No one has tried to enforce Tobacco 21 in Kansas longer than Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas — an area with one of the state’s highest smoking rates and where most high schools sit within short walking distance of convenience stores that sell cigarettes and vape pens.

In late 2015, the combined city-county government kicked off the cascade of local ordinances that today cover a third of the state’s population, largely in northeast Kansas.

The change looked better in print than in practice. Two years into the new regime, Wyandotte-KCK put 130 shops to the test to see if they’d sell to someone under age. A quarter did.

The city-county government will ramp up compliance checks on cigarette and vape sellers, thank those that pass and urge the rest to do better.

“We don’t have any clear way of enforcement,” said Bianca Garcia, who is in charge of the city and county’s anti-tobacco efforts. “That’s why we’re looking into this reward and reminder program.”

It’s a soft-glove approach, but going after the cashiers who screw up doesn’t appeal to city-county officials. Nor can they suspend the licenses of the shop owners, they say, because the state licensing system only requires those shops not sell to minors.

A recent Kansas Health Institute* study found none of the state’s local ordinances have the necessary teeth to clamp down on problem shops. Health experts who applauded their passage now see them as only partial victories.

“We learned, we learned,” said Edward Ellerbeck, a University of Kansas School of Medicine professor who researches tobacco cessation. “I was at the beginning of this. I thought we were doing the right thing.”

Anti-tobacco groups such as the American Cancer Society will hammer home that lesson while pushing legislators in the 2020 session for an air-tight Tobacco 21 law — with ample funding for compliance checks and solid penalties for businesses that don’t toe the line.

Addiction and the brain

Smoking remains the country’s top preventable cause of death, killing about half a million people per year. For every one of those, another 30 are seriously sick.

In Kansas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated, health problems stemming from tobacco cost the state and its residents about $1 billion in a single year.

But cigarettes have enticed fewer and fewer new smokers as their death toll and massive anti-tobacco campaigns transformed public opinion.

In 2005, half of Kansas high schoolers reported ever trying a cigarette. In 2017, that was down to one-quarter. By then, though, vaping had arrived on the scene. A third had tried it.

High school journalists in Johnson County surveyed their peers and found a third said they owned Juuls, often puffing their way through more than one cartridge a week (roughly a pack of cigarettes).

Read Shawnee Mission East’s “Juul: From Craze To Epidemic”

Nicotine poses the greatest risk for these still developing brains, scientists say, because they’re most likely to end up wired for a lifelong habit.

Cities and counties saw a chance in Tobacco 21 to cut off a key nicotine pipeline to their minors: the many 18-year-olds still in school. Topeka battled to do so all the way to the Kansas Supreme Court.

“Tobacco use stopped at an early age can extend the life,” Mayor Michelle De La Isla said this June, when her city finally defeated a legal challenge that could have overridden local ordinances across the state. “Municipalities should be able to have (that) ability.”

A 2014 survey found most American adults support the higher age. Most smokers, too.

Vaping versus smoking

Eric Cope estimates his small specialty vape shop, Top Shelf Vapors, near a busy intersection in west Topeka offers more than 300 e-liquids.

Fruits and sweets sell best, and Cope bristles at the narrative that options like strawberry-lemonade target kids. Adults of all ages want to escape the taste of cigarettes, he says. Few people ask for tobacco flavor.

“A cigarette tastes terrible,” Cope said. “If you want to know, go lick an ashtray.”

Though cigarette giant Altria now has a hefty stake in Juul Labs, vape shop owners harbor no love for Big Tobacco, which they see as peddling poor health and quashing fledgling competitors.

Topeka’s Tobacco 21 ordinance means Cope can’t sell to 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds, but that hasn’t cost him much business, he says. Most of his customers were older — smokers who’ve ditched cigarettes or want to.

But Cope, himself a former long-time smoker who refuses to stock combustible tobacco, worries the non-vaping public has whipped itself into a frenzy of fear that blows the risk of e-cigarettes vastly out of proportion.

“Vapor is pretty safe,” he said. “At least 95% safer than smoking. And it should get a lot of credit for that.”

“I work at this every day and I see the transformation of people,” he said. “They all say, I can taste better. I can breathe better, I can sleep better. I have more energy.”

That “95%” comes from Great Britain, where an English public health agency argues vaping is that much safer, and that smokers should urgently switch.

The Royal College of Physicians agrees, calling vaping’s risks nothing compared to the potential “to prevent death and disability” by quitting cigarettes.

Many scientists disagree.

KU pulmonologist Matthias Salathe tests vaping on human respiratory cells. That British 95% ballpark isn’t based on trial results, he said, but rather assumptions about chemical content and carcinogens.

“I have a hard time (with) that logic,” he said. “We don’t have the data.”

Salathe’s own findings in pre-clinical and animal trials have him worried that vaping could cause chronic bronchitis.

More than 1,000 people nationwide have sustained lung injuries from vaping in recent months. Most have so far reported using fluids laced with cannabis compounds. Public health officials in Kansas, where two people are dead, have urged people to stop vaping immediately.

The CDC’s latest update on the outbreak of vaping injuries

Physicians in England and the U.S. alike agree on one thing: Whether vaping is safer than smoking or not, that doesn’t make it safe.

“The vast majority of youth that take up vaping,” Ellerbeck at KU said, “are not doing it to quit smoking.”

Juul in the crosshairs

Nationwide, litigation against Juul is piling up.

In Kansas, the Goddard and Olathe school boards announced lawsuits last month, accusing the company of marketing to minors and making schools divert precious resources to deal with the fallout.

A Johnson County man sued, too, arguing he got hooked in high school and paid a steep personal price in just a few short years.

Juul Labs has said its products were only ever meant to help adult smokers give up cigarettes.

Call tobacco researcher Stanton Glantz a skeptic.

“If your campaign is nominally trying to reach middle-age smokers,” the University of California San Francisco professor said, “you don’t run it on Instagram promoting parties with hip 20-somethings.”

In decades past, tobacco companies brazenly marketed to teens, and Glantz says Juul’s tactics follow that tradition.

Explore Stanford’s gallery of historical and modern tobacco ads

The company pounded social media feeds with chic short videos of ultra fashionable young people dancing to hip beats and sparse messages — “Get #vaporized” — that didn’t mention kicking any habits.

Juul has suspended its U.S. advertising as state and federal lawmakers and regulators ratchet up scrutiny. It’s thrown its weight behind Tobacco 21 efforts, too, at both state and federal levels.

Eighteen states have now passed Tobacco 21 as state laws.

In several cases, though, health advocates argue tobacco interests watered down the bills and the ability to enforce them through shrewd lobbying. They want Kansas to adopt clear enforcement funding and procedures.

Public policy and investment analysts at DC-based Beacon Policy Advisors say Tobacco companies glomming onto Tobacco 21 see it as “the lesser of two evils.” They’ve lobbied to at least include provisions that undercut other anti-tobacco efforts, such as flavor bans.

“There’s a general sense that tobacco companies are willing to make a compromise,” senior analyst Ben Koltun wrote in an email, “if it heads off potentially more negative developments.”

*Editor’s note: The Kansas Health Institute receives funding from the Kansas Health Foundation, a financial supporter of the Kansas News Service.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @Celia_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org. 

DOUGLAS COUNTY — Three people died in an accident just before 6p.m. Friday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Classic driven by Tiffany Cox, 20, Ottawa, was southbound on U.S. 59 Two miles south of Lawrence.

The driver lost control of the vehicle and crossed over the grassy median in to the northbound lanes of traffic. A northbound 2019 Nissan Sentra driven by Craig Russell McKinney, 62, Topeka struck the Chevy broad side.

Cox, and passengers in the Chevy Kiffany Mietchen, 19; Azreal Ubelaker, 8-months, both of Baldwin City were pronounced dead at the scene.

EMS transported McKinney to KU Medical Center. Mietchen was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for attempted kidnapping.

Just after 1p.m. Thursday, police responded to a kidnapping call at the Burlington Coat Factory in the 8100 Block of East Kellogg in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. A 28-year-old woman at the store told police a suspect identified as 30-year-old Jasmine Patterson approached her and asked if she would call police if she took her daughter.

Patterson then allegedly grabbed the woman’s 4-year-old daughter and began to walk away, according to Davidson. The woman quickly grabbed her daughter away from Patterson, left the store and called 911.

When police arrived, they located Patterson leaving the store and arrested her without further incident. The child was not injured. Investigators determined that Patterson may have a mental disability that contributed to the incident, according to Davidson.

Patterson remains jailed on requested charges of Attempted Kidnapping, according to Davidson. Police will present the case to the Sedgwick County District Attorney.

HALL COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after a Thursday traffic stop.

At approximately 3:00 p.m., a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol observed an eastbound Toyota 4Runner following another vehicle too closely on Interstate 80 near Wood River ( 3 hours north of Salina), according to a media release.

During the traffic stop, the trooper discovered a meth pipe and a gram of methamphetamine on the driver’s person.

Troopers then searched the vehicle and found 68 pounds of marijuana hidden inside several large, gift-wrapped boxes. The driver stated the boxes were gifts for a new baby.

The driver, Joseph Hullinger, 56, of Santa Rosa, California, was arrested for possession of marijuana – more than one pound, possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia, and no drug tax stamp. Hullinger was lodged in Hall County Jail.

FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities and USD 443 officials are investigating an alleged school threat and have made an arrest.

Just after 4:10 p.m. Thursday, the police were given information about a possible bomb threat to the Dodge City Middle School, according to a media release.

Officers learned that a 13-year-old female Middle School student received a phone call from a blocked number while present in a classroom at the end of the school day.

The male caller started using profanity, and the student hung up the phone. The blocked caller immediately called back, and the female student put the phone on speaker for the teacher to listen. During that second call, the unknown male caller stated that he was going to blow up the school.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Two people injured in an accident just after 9a.m. Friday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 International semi driven by Gabriel Arreola-Flores, 34, was westbound on Kansas 96 on the ramp to southbound Interstate 135. The vehicle left the roadway and overturned.

EMS transported Arreola-Flores and a passenger Tomas Reyes, 44, to St. Francis in Wichita for treatment. First responders had to cut through parts of the crushed semi to reach one of the men.

The crash closed the westbound K-96 ramp to I-135 south for several hours. Both were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on U.S.-China trade talks (all times local):

The United States is suspending a tariff hike on $250 billion in Chinese imports that was set to take effect Tuesday, and China agreed to buy $40 billion to $50 billion in U.S. farm products as the world’s two biggest economies reached a cease-fire in their 15-month trade war.

The two countries are leaving the thornier issues — including U.S. allegations that China forces foreign countries to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market — until later negotiations.

The tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports was set to rise Tuesday from 25% to 30%.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Missouri prosecutor said her office will re-examine the 2017 fatal shooting of a suspected shoplifter by a Kansas City-area sheriff’s deputy after the same deputy was charged with shooting a scooter rider in the back while trying to arrest her.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Bake’s decision on Thursday — a reversal from a statement her office released a day earlier — comes amid public demands by the dead man’s family. In both shootings, Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy Lauren Michael said she fired during struggles over her stun gun.

Donald Sneed Jr. said 29-year-old Michael is “trigger happy” after she was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the August shooting that wounded Brittany Simeck. Sneed’s son, Donald Sneed III, was fatally shot by Michael two years ago outside a Walmart in Raytown, reports The Kansas City Star.

Michael’s bond is set at $30,000. No attorney is listed for her in online court records. The Sneed family already filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

“Because there are similarities to the 2017 shooting, we thought it would be best to look at it again,” said Michael Mansur, a spokesman for Baker.

In Simeck’s case, Michael was conducting traffic enforcement patrols in a bar and entertainment area with other deputies when they noticed two people allegedly riding a scooter on the wrong side of the street. A deputy followed them in a patrol car and moments later collided with the scooter. The male driver of the scooter was immediately arrested, but Simeck ran away.

Michael caught up with Simeck and a struggle ensued. Michael pulled out her service handgun and shot Simeck in the back and buttocks.

In the charging documents, prosecutors allege that Michael was not truthful when she told investigators that Simeck tried to grab her stun gun. Simeck told investigators that Michael shot her in the back as she tried to run away, according to court records. Simeck, who is retired from the U. S. Coast Guard, wasn’t charged in the incident.

“We respect the hard job law enforcement does, however law enforcement is not above the law and when excessive force is used it is imperative that they are held accountable,” said Mike Yonke, a civil attorney who is representing Simeck.

The other shooting happened in May 2017 when employees at the Walmart where Michael was working off-duty security stopped Sneed III because they suspected him of shoplifting. He allegedly became violent, and Michael tried to help the employees. Michael later said Sneed grabbed her stun gun and shocked her in the neck with it before she shot and killed him.

The father, Sneed Jr., said he doesn’t believe that. He said Michael shot his son multiple times and that his son wasn’t attacking her when she fired the shots, but rather was being held down. The sheriff’s office said he had been wanted on felony warrants for robbery and tampering with a motor vehicle. Michael was given the medal of valor for her actions during the incident, which the family’s attorney, Jermaine Wooten, described as “almost insulting.”

Michael referenced that shooting in the moments immediately following the August incident involving Simeck, telling her supervisor: “I am not as comfortable with this one as the last one,” according to court documents.

Jackson County Sheriff Daryl Forté Michael said in a tweet that Michael has been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the criminal case stemming from Simeck’s shooting, which is a standard practice when criminal charges are filed. He declined further comment.

MARSHALL COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are alerting parents after finding vaping and liquid flavored nicotine in pens taken from students at Marysville Elementary School, according to the Marysville Police Department.

The students involved were 5th and 6th graders. They were putting the flavored nicotine in pens and using them to dab it on their tongues during recess.

Police reminded parents to have a discussion with your children about vaping and the harmful effects of nicotine.