KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 21-year-old Kansas City man is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing a woman at a family cookout in a park.

Larry Dodds also is charged with armed criminal action in the Aug. 31 death of Angela Banks.

According to court records, Dodds and another man arrived while several family members were rapping to music. The court records say Dodds and the other man began to “trash talk,” leading to an argument. Dodds and the other man allegedly began shooting.

Banks was struck by the gunfire. She was pronounced dead at a hospital. A man also was shot and was treated at the hospital.

Dodds was arrested Saturday and is jailed on $250,000 bond. He does not have a listed attorney.

WICHITA, KAN. – A former treasurer for the city of Fontana in Miami County, Kan., was sentenced Monday to 12 months and a day in prison for embezzlement, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Deborah Sell, 56, Fontana, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. In her plea, she admitted she used her position as treasurer to steal money from the city. She issued city checks to pay her personal expenses, withdrew cash using a city debit card for personal expenses, and deposited cash payments received from customers into her personal account.

At a sentencing hearing Monday, prosecutors told the court Sell embezzled a total of more than $174,000 from the city, including a debit card withdrawal of $414 at an ATM in a casino in Riverside, Mo.

She admitted her 2016 tax return failed to include more than $94,000 in income she embezzled that year.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man who was shot by Wichita police at a McDonald’s drive-through has been charged with carjacking a sport utility vehicle while trying to get away.

Federal prosecutors filed the charge Friday against 30-year-old Zachary Ausdemore.

Prosecutors allege he stole a Honda CR-V “with the intent to cause death and serious bodily harm.”

Police say he was in the front seat of a stolen Jeep when police attempted to apprehend him, his girlfriend and the driver. Police say that when the driver accelerated toward an officer, the officer fired three rounds, striking Ausdemore in the arm.

After fleeing, the driver crashed and was arrested along with the girlfriend. But police say Ausdemore then stole the CR-V. A chase began, and he was arrested after the CR-V got stuck in deep mud.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect in connection with a hatchet attack on Sunday.

Just after 11:15 p.m., officers police responded to a residence in the 600 block of SE 37th in Topeka on reports of a possible cutting, according to police spokesperson Gretchen Koenen.

Upon arrival, officers located an adult male victim suffering from what appeared to be a laceration. He was transported to a local hospital by American Medical Response for treatment.

Police arrested 40-year-old Winfred Devine Diamond-Cox and booked him into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of battery.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — There may be a cease-fire, but the economic “border war” involving the use of incentives to lure jobs across the state line in the Kansas City area isn’t exactly over.

Missouri officials plan to award more than $62 million in incentives to financial firm Waddell & Reed, based in Overland Park, Kansas.

Holly Koofer-Thompson of the Missouri Department of Economic Development said the incentives come from the Missouri Works program, which offers payroll tax withholdings or tax credits in exchange for growing or retaining jobs.

The company said it will invest about $90 million in its new Missouri headquarters and employ more than 1,000 workers at an average salary of $157,138. The specific location has not been announced.

Disclosure of the incentives comes about a month after Kansas and Missouri governors celebrated an end to the use of tax incentives to lure companies across the state line for moves that do not create new jobs for the region.

Koofer-Thompson said the company’s move was in the works before the so-called “border war” agreement between the two states. But others called the move a prime example of what was wrong with the previous practice.

“Waddell & Reed is benefiting dramatically from what is bad public policy,” said Bill Hall, president of the Hall Family Foundation, who has advocated for an end to state incentives for Kansas City-area companies that hop the state line.

Hall said Waddell & Reed’s $62 million award is among the largest given by either state. He estimates that since 2011, the states have spent more than $330 million luring companies away from each other.

Roger Hoadley, a spokesman for Waddell & Reed, said in a statement that the firm is “pleased that our current options allow us to remain part of the Kansas City community.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said that generally he wants to see the region recruit new employers rather than shuffling around the current ones.

“This is fundamentally inefficient for our regional economy whether it’s border hopping across states, border hopping across cities,” Lucas said. “This is hopefully one of the last projects that would fall within the framework we had before.”

It was just last month that Kansas and Missouri governors celebrated their truce at a ceremony involving more than 300 people in Kansas City, Kansas.

“Sometimes commonsense does prevail,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said at the time.

But Kansas officials did not expect an immediate end to incentives, said Ryan Brinker, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Commerce.

In fact, Brinker said commerce officials had been working to lure Kansas City, Missouri-based Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies, to Kansas for six years. The company could be heading to Lenexa, Kansas, after that state approved an incentive package in June that includes up to $5.4 million in withholding taxes over nine years.

Hostess also will receive $930,000 from a program offering tax credits and tax exemptions to employers paying above-average wages.

RICE COUNTY– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Rooks County Sheriff’s Office released new information related to the murder of Mark Reif.

On Wednesday evening Sept. 11, and Thursday morning Sept. 12, KBI agents interviewed a suspect who was identified in the case, Jon Flowers, 47, of Inman, Kan. Multiple search warrants were also served at Flowers’s residence at 2385 31^st Rd. in Inman.

Then, on Saturday, Sept. 14, at approximately 7:25 p.m., deputies from the Rice County Sheriff’s Office responded to Flowers’s home for a welfare check when he did not show up to work or respond to contact from family. When deputies arrived, they discovered Flowers dead inside the residence. An autopsy was conducted, and the preliminary results indicate that Flowers’s manner of death was suicide.

At this time, it is believed that Flowers acted alone in the murder of Reif, and there is no indication that the violence was random.

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ROOKS COUNTY– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Rooks County Sheriff’s Office are investigating a homicide that occurred near Plainville, Kan.

The Rooks County Sheriff’s Office requested KBI assistance at approximately 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 9. Special agents and the Crime Scene Response Team responded.

The Rooks County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call around 9:10 a.m. Monday morning when a family member went to 2610 19th Rd. in rural Rooks County and found 56-year-old Mark E. Reif deceased inside his home. Deputies arrived at the residence around 9:20 a.m. and discovered that Reif had died from gunshot wounds.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME, or the Rooks County Sheriff’s Office at (785) 425-6312. Callers may remain anonymous.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bank robbery and have released security camera images of the suspect.

Just after 2:30 p.m. Monday, police responded to a bank robbery call at the Fidelity Bank in the 2100 block of North Bradley Fair in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, officers contacted employees who reported a suspect entering the bank and handing a note to a teller indicating a gun. Money was given to the suspect who then fled the business on foot. There were no injuries in this case.

If you know the identity of this individual or have any information on this case please call Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111 or WPD Detectives at 316-268-4407.

WICHITA, KAN. – The former operator of the water system in Garden Plain, Kan., pleaded guilty Monday to falsifying a report on the quality of the city’s drinking water, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Arthur Wolfe, 64, Norwich, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of a making a false statement in a report to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment that is required by the Environmental Protection Agency. Wolfe certified a bacteriological report in falsely represented water samples taken at the water treatment plant as samples taken at other locations.

Sentencing is set for Dec. 2. He faces a penalty of up to a year in federal prison and a fine up to $100,000.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A man charged with tampering with a vehicle used by two Wisconsin brothers who are missing and presumed dead in northwest Missouri has waived his right to a hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for a trial.

Court records show that 25-year-old Garland Nelson was ordered to be arraigned Oct. 7 after foregoing his right to a preliminary hearing during a court appearance Monday.

Brothers Nick and Justin Diemel, from Shawano County, Wisconsin, were on a trip related to their cattle business when they disappeared in July after visiting Nelson.

Human remains found on a Missouri farm owned by Nelson have not been identified. The tampering charge stems from allegations that Nelson drove a truck the brothers rented from his farm to a commuter parking lot, where it was found abandoned.

Nelson is also charged in Bourbon County, Kansas, with endangering the food supply. Prosecutors say Nelson didn’t have proper health papers when he took 35 calves from his family’s farm in Missouri to a farm in Fort Scott, Kansas, in May.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — It sounds like science fiction hype, but supporters believe ultrafast Hyperloop transportation could become reality within a decade, propelling passengers from Kansas City to St. Louis in a 30-minute trip.

“We’ve already completed a feasibility study, and now we’re on to the next steps with this. It’s happening quicker than even I would have guessed,” said KC Tech Council President Ryan Weber, who is working with numerous other Missouri officials on a project that he predicted could be implemented in about seven years.

Hyperloop is a cutting-edge technology that transports passengers in a vehicle floating above a track via magnetic levitation. It moves by electric power through a depressurized, low-friction tube at airline speeds. A test pod exceeded 240 mph in 2017, and the vehicles are envisioned to reach speeds of up to nearly 700 mph.

More testing is needed to get the technology past the experimental stage.

Late last year, Black & Veatch found that a route along Interstate 70 in Missouri was realistically feasible to construct.

Officials are eager for Missouri to be an early adapter of the technology. One advantage is that the state owns most of the right-of-way along I-70, although some land acquisition challenges remain and the overall costs are projected to be $7 billion to $10 billion, Harvest Public Media reported.

Yes, Weber conceded, the project would be enormously expensive, and numerous questions must still be answered. But he said the relatively flat I-70 route from Kansas City to Columbia and St. Louis is ideal. It makes more sense, he said, to invest in a futuristic, energy-efficient transportation mode that moves people quickly and efficiently than to spend billions on new lanes of traditional highway traffic.

“This won’t be impacted by weather. This won’t be impacted by fuel prices,” he said. “And this will be a fully autonomous electric system that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Kansas City lawyer Greg Kratofil, chair of Polsinelli’s technology transactions group, said motorists are all too familiar with the terrible road conditions currently on I-70, as they drive from Kansas City to the University of Missouri and eastward to St. Louis.

Hyperloop, he said, would be a “fundamental change in transportation,” providing a 15-minute trip to Columbia or about 30 minutes to St. Louis, which would help rural residents along the route as well.

While the project costs appear astronomical, a “Blue Ribbon” panel of Missouri civic and business leaders and elected officials formed earlier this year to explore the specifics of funding and construction.

Weber said an update is expected from the panel later this month or early in October.

“I don’t think there’s an appetite for this to be taxpayer funded,” he said. “I think this has to be likely a public-private partnership where I do think there are a number of investors out there extremely interested in this system.”

Kristen Hammer, business development manager with Virgin Hyperloop One in Los Angeles, said two others U.S. routes are under consideration: Pittsburgh to Chicago and Dallas to Laredo, Texas. But she said she’s been impressed with Missouri’s commitment to the project and the pace of planning in the state.

Hammer said Virgin Hyperloop did a successful quarter-mile test in Nevada and is now scouting locations for a test of several miles, working with state and federal regulators.

“The next step,” she said, “is a longer test that we really are looking forward to using for certification of the technology.”

On Saturday, the public can see the Virgin Hyperloop One XP-1 pod that successfully accelerated to test speeds of over 240 mph on the Nevada test track. It will be on display at the Kansas Speedway during the American Royal Barbecue, and company executives will be present to answer questions.

Hammer said the system’s safety is paramount and will be fully vetted. She said it is also designed to provide a comfortable ride, without excessive G-forces.

“So you’ll actually feel less of that pushback than you do when taking off on an airplane,” she said.

Finally, the cost to passengers would be less than a tank of gas to drive from Kansas City to St. Louis. “That’s really our goal,” Hammer said. “If people can’t afford to take it, then we’re just building an amusement park ride, and that’s not our business.”