GRANT COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an accident during a chase just before 11p.m. Saturday in Grant County and have identified the driver.
Damian Badillo-photo Kearny County
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Grant County Deputy and a Ulysses Police officer were in pursuit of a 2000 Lexus eastbound on Road 11 four miles east of Ulysses.
The driver lost control of the vehicle. The Lexus left the roadway into the north ditch, catapulting into the power line and flipped several times. Power lines were trapped underneath the Lexus after it came to rest in the field north of Road 11.
The KHP reported late Sunday that Damian Badillo, 23, Lakin, was driving the Lexus. They originally reported he was just a passenger in the vehicle.
Badillo was transported to the hospital in Ulysses. The chase started after report of a stolen vehicle in Kearny County, according to the Grant County sheriff’s department.
On Monday, the sheriff’s department had no details on whether he was still in custody, hospitalized or possible charges.
Badillo has a previous conviction for aggravated battery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
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GRANT COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an accident during a chase just before 11p.m. Saturday in Grant County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Grant County Deputy and a Ulysses Police officer were in pursuit of a 2000 Lexus eastbound on Road 11 four miles east of Ulysses.
The driver lost control of the vehicle. It left the roadway into the north ditch, catapulting into the power line, flipped several times. Power lines were trapped underneath the Lexus after it came to rest in the field north of Road 11.
A passenger Damian Badillo, 23, Lakin, was transported to the hospital in Ulysses. Authorities were still working to identify the driver early Sunday. The chase started after report of a stolen vehicle in Kearny County, according to the Grant County sheriff’s department.
FRANKLIN COUNTY — A third child has died from injuries in accident just after 8:30p.m. Monday in Franklin County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Ford Focus driven by Clytie D. Bowden, 31, Wellsville, was southbound on Tennessee Road four miles west of Kansas 33.
The driver failed to yield right of way at Kansas 68 and entered the intersection. A westbound 2003 Subaru Baja driven by Crag R. Evans, 40, Ottawa, struck the Ford on the passenger side.
Briana Sobba,11, and Becham Klemen, 3, both of Wellsville were pronounced dead at the scene.
The KHP reported 12-year-old Elle Bowden died early Friday.
She and Lillian Klemen, 6, both of Wellsville, were transported to the hospital in Ottawa and then transferred to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City.
Bowden was transported to Research Medical Center. Evans was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Only Lillian Klemen was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to take a crucial vote Friday on whether to advance Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators remain undecided amid allegations of sexual misconduct and intense protests that have divided the nation. Late Thursday, Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran issued new statements on Kavanaugh.
The 53-year-old judge made what were in effect closing arguments by acknowledging that he became “very emotional” when forcefully denying the allegations at a Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
“I said a few things I should not have said,” he wrote in an op-ed published Thursday evening. But he said he remains the same “hardworking, even-keeled” person he has always been. “Going forward, you can count on me,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
The op-ed, as well as a late boost from President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Minnesota, appeared aimed at winning over the three wavering senators from the slim GOP majority — Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has yet to announce his position.
Ahead of Friday’s voting, Republicans emerged confident that an FBI investigation into the allegations unearthed no new corroborating details, they said. But a level of uncertainty lingered as Collins and Flake spent hours Thursday pouring over confidential FBI documents in the secure basement briefing room long after others had left seemingly satisfied with the findings.
Even without locking in support, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed ahead with trying to move Trump’s nominee forward in what would be an election year win for his party. The Republican leader has little room for error with his party’s slim 51-49 hold on the Senate, even if Vice President Mike Pence is called in to break a tie. A final vote is expected Saturday.
Tensions have been high at the Capitol with opponents of Kavanaugh, including survivors of sexual assault, confronting senators in the halls and holding vigil across the street at the Supreme Court. Supporters of Kavanaugh also turned out.
Trump said the protesters’ “rage-fueled resistance is starting to backfire at a level nobody has ever seen before.” He was referring to polling that shows some improvement for Republicans heading into the midterm election.
Friday’s vote is a procedural one to end the debate, and some fence-sitting senators could conceivably vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination but still hold out their support ahead of a final confirmation roll call over the weekend.
Two of the undeclared Republicans emerged from the secure briefing facility Thursday accepting the FBI report as “thorough,” bolstering GOP hopes for confirmation.
Flake told reporters that “we’ve seen no additional corroborating information” about the claims against Kavanaugh.
Collins also expressed satisfaction, calling it “a very thorough investigation.” She paid two visits to the off-limits room where the document was being displayed to lawmakers.
Murkowski said she was “still reviewing” her decision.
Democrats complained that the investigation, running just six days after Trump reluctantly ordered it, was shoddy, omitting interviews with numerous potential witnesses. They accused the White House of limiting the FBI’s leeway.
Those not interviewed in the reopened background investigation included Kavanaugh himself and Christine Blasey Ford, who ignited the furor by alleging he’d molested her in a locked room at a 1982 high school gathering.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said while her party had agreed to a weeklong FBI probe with a finite scope, “We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands.”
A hefty police presence added an air of anxiety, as did thousands of anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators. U.S. Capitol Police said 302 were arrested — among them comedian Amy Schumer, a distant relative of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement late Thursday that said the FBI reached out to 11 people and interviewed 10. Six of the witnesses involved Ford’s claims, including an attorney for one of them, and four were related to Deborah Ramirez, who has asserted that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when both were Yale freshmen. Grassley said the FBI concluded “there is no collaboration of the allegations made by Dr. Ford or Ms. Ramirez.”
Senators said the documents they examined totaled about 50 pages.
The underlying material from the FBI included text and Facebook messages, said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., including screenshots that “were very helpful” in understanding the communications between various people discussing the situation.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said nine of the pages were about Mark Judge, the Kavanaugh friend who Ford said also jumped on her while Kavanaugh assaulted her. Judge has said he doesn’t recall the incident.
White House spokesman Raj Shah rebuffed Democrats’ complaints, saying, “What critics want is a never-ending fishing expedition into high school drinking.”
Barring leaks, it was unclear how much if any of the FBI report would be made public.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A jury has awarded $29 million to a doctor who said he was fired after complaining about understaffing at a hospital.
A Jackson County jury this week found in favor of emergency room physician Raymond Brovont.
Brovont worked for EmCare, a physician outsourcing company, that sent him to Overland Park Regional Medical Center and Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence, Missouri.
He complained to EmCare officials in September 2016 about what he said was dangerous understaffing at a new pediatric emergency room at the Overland Park hospital. He said in his lawsuit that EmCare officials were angry with him for complaining and told him to resign or be fired.
Brovont did not sue the hospitals.
EmCare spokeswoman Kim Warth said the company will appeal the verdict.
Inside a Textron Aviation facility in Wichita, Kansas TEXTRON AVIATION
The Kansas economy has been sluggish the past few years, but the candidates running for governor each have a plan to jumpstart things.
Will any of them actually work?
Experts say every plan faces an uphill battle.
With Kansas lacking the power to add some mountains, or beaches, or Stanford/MIT-level research universities, experts say the state will be stuck where market forces have already landed: a little farming, a little aerospace, a little manufacturing, all driven by forces beyond the control of Kansas politicians.
“I don’t think there are a lot of policy levers, especially at a state level, that can make a whole lot of difference,” said Art Hall, director of the Brandmeyer Center of Applied Economics at the University of Kansas.
But all is not lost. Hall says some policies can make a difference, however small.
Republican Kris Kobach
Kris Kobach during a September visit to Salina Tech.
Kobach’s one big idea to grow the economy is to cut regulations, along with income, property, and sales taxes, much like what was done six years ago. He’s credited similar steps taken by the Trump administration for the growing national economy.
“All of these can be done in a responsible way without breaking our budget,” Kobach said. “And if we want to get our businesses going we’ve got to do it.”
The thinking is that if you can remove barriers, existing businesses will grow and new ones will be attracted to the state.
Dan Rickman, a professor of economics at Oklahoma State University, has done extensive research on the impacts of tax policy on state and local economies, including looking specifically at the tax cuts that came when Sam Brownback was governor.
“Most states that dramatically cut their taxes are underperforming what you would have expected they would have,” Rickman said.
If Kansas were to try the tax-cut approach again, he said, it would get the same result.
The evidence, here in Kansas and around the country, just doesn’t support the use of state tax cuts to spur economic growth.
“If you’re going to get gains from tax cuts you have to very carefully understand and figure out where you can get the cuts without hurting programs that are needed,” Rickman said.
Too often, he said, the budget cuts used to offset decreases in revenue go too far. State budgets generally don’t have a lot of fat to begin with and increasing efficiencies only goes so far.
Conservatives have said the Brownback tax cuts faced two significant problems. One, they weren’t accompanied by a sufficient rollback in the size of state government. So the state’s finances fell into crisis.
Secondly, conservatives argued that low commodity prices for Kansas grain and oil offset the economic spark lit by the Brownback plan.
Democrat Laura Kelly
State Senator Laura Kelly
The long-time state senator from Topeka says the key to economic growth starts with getting businesses and employees to come to, and stay in, Kansas. How? Better schools.
“When I look what are the huge economic drivers of this state, number one is education,” Kelly said, “and we have defunded that over the past eight years.”
Kim Rueben is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.
“I feel like doing things like investing in schools and human capital feels like it has pretty big bang for the buck,” she said.
But the details about that investment matter. Just spending more on education won’t cut it.
“It’s figuring out what kinds of jobs you’re looking to attract,” Rueben said, “and what kind of skills you need your labor force to have.”
For Kelly, that means more focus on career and technical programs. But that idea isn’t unique to her; it’s a sentiment shared by both of her opponents.
Money for those kinds of investments could be tough to come by, too. While the governor can set the tone, the Legislature controls the purse strings. Even if Kelly wanted to increase education spending, she’d likely face a tough battle from Republican lawmakers.
Independent Greg Orman
Photo courtesy Orman -Doll for Kansas
Orman, the leading independent in the race, says Kansas should invest more in transportation infrastructure.
“Kansas is at the geographic center of the United States,” he said. “We should be the intermodal manufacturing and distribution capital of America.”
Experts say that kind of spending could help — maybe.
“Here’s one way to think about it,” economist Art Hall said. “If you didn’t have any road, building one road would probably have a very large economic impact. But, if you have lots of roads, one more road is probably not going to have much of an economic impact.”
Basically, you don’t want infrastructure that’s crumbling. But spending more on the margins isn’t likely to have a huge impact on economic growth.
“Just building roads doesn’t necessarily solve anything,” Rickman said. “But if you need to keep them maintained and developed in places where they’re heavily used, just the same thing as education, these things can all very much help promote growth.”
Ultimately, all three economists agree that stimulating economic growth on a statewide level won’t come from politics. The answer won’t be found by simply raising or lowering taxes.
“There’s really no silver bullet,” Hall said. “I’ve come to the basic conclusion that economies grow because they’re growing.”
FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on domestic violence and kidnapping charges after a weekend arrest.
On Friday, Ford County Deputies responded to a domestic violence call in rural Ford County, according to a media release.
The suspect fled the scene just before deputies arrived. They did locate the suspect vehicle was a few miles from the residence and a search was conducted throughout the night and into the early morning hours of Saturday before a deputy spotted the suspect near a milo field.
The deputy pursued the suspect into the field at which time the suspect laid down.
A security perimeter was set up and assistance was requested from the Dodge City Police Department, Kansas Highway Patrol and Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks & the Gray County Sheriff’s Office to aid in a search of the suspect.
Three separated K-9’s were deployed and an unmanned air unit but they were unable to find the suspect.
A local farmer offered the use of a spray rig to aid in the search. As a result, law enforcement officers were able to locate the suspect, who ran but was caught and taken into custody without incident.
The male suspect has been booked into the Ford County Detention Center on Domestic Violence charges of Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Battery & Aggravated Assault.
The case will be sent to the Ford County Attorney for review. Authorities did not release his name on Monday.
LANSING, Kan. (AP) — The adopted daughter of a retired Army officer living in northeastern Kansas may soon be sent back to South Korea.
Patrick Schreiber, wife and daughter-courtesy photo
On Friday, a federal judge in Kansas ruled in favor of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which seeks to deport Hyebin Schreiber, the legally adopted daughter of retired Lt. Col. Patrick Schreiber of Lansing.
Schreiber sued after immigration authorities rejected visa and citizenship applications for Hyebin. The woman had been Schreiber’s niece when he and his wife legally brought the then-15-year-old girl to the U.S. in 2012.
Schreiber’s deployment the following year to Afghanistan and bad legal advice led the couple to put off her legal adoption until she was 17. But under immigration law, foreign-born children must be adopted before reaching 16 to derive citizenship from their American parents.
Schreiber, who has served six overseas tours in a 27-year U.S. military career, has said he and his wife would go to South Korea with their daughter if she’s deported.
SHERMAN COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are on the lookout for a vehicle involved in a chase Monday.
According to a release from the Sherman County Sheriff’s Office, police are looking for a new, dark red quad-cab Dodge pickup that was involved in a short chase in Rawlins County.
“If spotted call 9 1 1 and do not approach,” the department advised. “This warning is being broadcast in the Sherman County area because the vehicle was spotted in Cheyenne County on Highway 36. The vehicle may be looking for fuel. Please make sure your vehicles and fuel sources are secure. Again this will be a newer Dodge quad cab pickup truck. Dark red in color with Colorado temporary tag. Call 911 if you see this vehicle.”
OTTAWA COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just before 6a.m. Monday in Ottawa County.
Monday morning semi crash in Ottawa County -photo courtesy KHP
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Peterbilt semi driven by Jason E. Merryman, 42, Hastings, NE., was southbound on U.S. 81 just south of Cloud Road.
The semi drifted on the right shoulder. The driver lost control of the semi. It entered the west ditch and rolled onto the passenger side.
Merryman was transported to the hospital in Salina. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have a suspect in custody.
Jackson -photo Shawnee County
Just after 11 p.m. Saturday, police responded to a report of an aggravated burglary in the 2400 block of SE Colorado in Topeka, according to Lt. John Trimble.
The victim reported that a white male subject wearing a white shirt and light colored shorts had entered the residence through a window. Once the victim confronted the suspect, he fled on foot in an unknown direction.
Just after 11:30p.m. the police responded to the 2700 block of SE California to a report of a stolen vehicle that had just occurred. A Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper was in the area and saw the stolen vehicle at 29th and California. The vehicle was stopped and William Jackson, Sr., was taken into custody.
Further investigation showed Jackson was also the suspect in the aggravated burglary. He was ultimately arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on the following charges: Aggravated Burglary, Auto Theft, and Theft.
