Category Archives: Kansas

Ex-Kansas police chief who raided local newspaper criminally charged

Posted on by

Gideon Cody, former Marion police chief, is also accused of persuading a potential witness to withhold information

A former Kansas police chief who led a raid last year on a weekly newspaper has been charged with felony obstruction of justice and is accused of persuading a potential witness to withhold information from authorities when they later investigated his conduct.

The single charge against Gideon Cody, the former Marion police chief, alleges that he knowingly or intentionally influenced the witness to withhold information on the day of the raid of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher or sometime within the following six days. The charge was filed on Monday in state district court in Marion county and is not more specific about Cody’s alleged conduct.

Continue reading...

Man who stole Jackie Robinson statue leaving only feet given 15 years in jail

Posted on by

Ricky Alderete sentenced for three offenses before Kansas unveiling of new statue of baseball and civil rights pioneer

A man who stole a bronze statue of Jackie Robinson that was cut off at the ankles and found days later on fire in a trash can in a Kansas park will spend about 15 years in prison, though most of that sentence is related to a burglary a few days after the January statue heist.

A judge sentenced Ricky Alderete on Friday in three different cases he said in court stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl.

Continue reading...

BTK serial killer investigation: new clue unlocks missing 16-year-old girl’s name

Posted on by

After receiving a word puzzle, Oklahoma police say they’re closer to identifying another victim of murderer Dennis Rader

A newly re-examined word puzzle sent to a Kansas City TV station in 2004 could strengthen leads in a cold-case investigation into the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl in Oklahoma and link it to the convicted serial killer Dennis Rader, nicknamed BTK for “bind, torture, kill”.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Osage county sheriff Eddie Virden said he had received a package from a woman in April containing a crossword puzzle Rader allegedly used to taunt investigators.

Continue reading...

Actor in spinoff to TV western Yellowstone found dead in Kansas

Posted on by

Cole Brings Plenty, 27, had gone missing amid domestic violence investigation

An actor who appeared in a spinoff of the popular television western Yellowstone was found dead after he went missing amid a domestic violence investigation in Kansas, authorities said on Friday.

The Johnson county sheriff’s office said in a statement that deputies found the body of 27-year-old Cole Brings Plenty in a wooded area. Crime scene investigators and the medical examiner were at the location, but no details were released about a cause of death.

Continue reading...

‘Gorilla hail’ expected in parts of Kansas and Missouri Wednesday night

Posted on by

Hail as big as baseballs possible from Kansas to Missouri, with torrential rain from Louisiana to Arkansas

Volatile weather is expected to hone in on parts of Kansas and Missouri Wednesday night, and the biggest worry is the potential for massive chunks of hail.

Some are calling it “gorilla hail” because it has the potential to be so big, said Alex Sosnowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. The Kansas City metro area is at the center of the worry zone.

Continue reading...

Blizzard conditions hit US northern plains and upper midwest

Posted on by

Freezing weather affecting more than a million people expected in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado

Snow, freezing rain and high winds are hitting the northern plains and upper midwest states, with the National Weather Service warning that “blizzard conditions for central South Dakota into parts of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado [are] resulting in difficult to near impossible travel” soon after Christmas.

Parts of South Dakota were expected to receive up to 13in of snow, with wind gusts as high as 55 mph, according to the weather forecasting agency. The conditions affecting more than a million people could last through early Wednesday, forecasters said.

Continue reading...

Kansas cannot enforce abortion pill law or impose 24-hour wait, judge rules

Posted on by

Preliminary order before 2024 trial comes months after Kansans voted to protect abortion rights in state constitution

Kansas cannot enforce laws that would force abortion patients to wait 24 hours for the procedure or be given anti-abortion talking points, a judge ruled on Monday.

The move comes months after Kansans overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

Continue reading...

Kansas newspaper raided by police to have seized items returned

Posted on by

Police raid on office of Marion County Record drew widespread condemnation by press freedom advocates

Authorities have announced the controversial search warrant of a local Kansas newspaper office has been withdrawn.

The Marion county attorney Joel Ensey announced that following a review of the search warrants made last Friday at multiple locations in Marion county, he has “come to the conclusion that insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized”.

Continue reading...

‘Stressed beyond her limits’: co-owner of Kansas newspaper dies after police raid

Posted on by

Police served a search warrant to the Marion County Record’s Joan Meyer, 98, after the paper’s investigation into local restaurateur

The co-owner of a small Kansas newspaper whose offices and staff were raided by local police officers conducting a leak investigation has died after the situation left her “stressed beyond her limits”, according to the publication.

Joan Meyer, 98, collapsed on Saturday afternoon and died at her home a day after she tearfully watched officers who showed up at her home with a search warrant cart away her computer as well as an internet router, reported the Marion County Record, which she co-owned. After officers also photographed the bank statements of her son, Record publisher Eric Meyer, and left her house in mess, Meyer had been unable to eat or sleep, her newspaper said.

Continue reading...

Police raid local Kansas newspaper office and homes of reporters

Posted on by

City’s entire five-officer police force seize computers, cellphones and reporting materials from Marion County Record

Local police in Marion, Kansas, conducted a raid on the offices of a local newspaper on Friday as well as the homes of the publication’s publishers and reporters.

Eric Meyer, the owner and publisher of the Marion County Record, told the Kansas Reflector that the city’s entire five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies conducted the raid, which included the seizure of computers, cellphones and reporting materials.

Continue reading...

Biden decries gun violence as shootings across US mar Fourth of July festivities

Posted on by

At least 15 people shot dead across the country in mass shootings so far on the holiday weekend celebrating the US’s independence

A long holiday weekend of bloodshed has intensified after a heavily armed gunman in a bulletproof vest opened fire on the streets of Philadelphia on the eve of Fourth of July celebrations, in yet another mass shooting in the US, killing five people and wounding two boys before surrendering to the police.

Across the country, Texas was entering the holiday to news that another shooting had killed three people, in Fort Worth, occurring just before midnight amid a gathering in a parking lot that also wounded eight.

Continue reading...

Man searching for deer antlers in Kansas finds human skeleton

Posted on by

Death investigation under way after remains discovered near Humboldt on Saturday

A man searching for deer antlers in Kansas instead found a human skeleton, officials said.

The Kansas bureau of investigation and the Allen county sheriff’s office were conducting a death investigation after the discovery of the remains near Humboldt, about 100 miles east of Wichita, on Saturday.

Continue reading...

A dying cancer patient used cannabis to ease pain. His hospital called the police

Posted on by

‘You’d think they would have shown compassion’: patient’s son decries Kansas police who issued citation as father suffered

Hospital staff in Kansas called the police on a man dying of cancer who was using cannabis products to cope with his symptoms, in an incident that has since sparked outrage and renewed calls to rethink the state’s strict cannabis laws.

The encounter took place in mid-December, when police in the city of Hays say two officers showed up at the cancer patient’s hospital room to issue him a citation for a drug violation. Police also took away a vaping device and cannabis product that hospital staff had already confiscated.

Continue reading...

Keystone pipeline leaks 14,000 barrels of oil into creek in biggest spill yet

Posted on by

The leak occurred in Washington county, Kansas, with the affected segment being ‘isolated’ and the drip contained

An oil spill in a creek in north-eastern Kansas this week is the largest for an onshore crude pipeline in more than nine years and by far the biggest in the history of the Keystone pipeline, according to federal data.

Canada-based TC Energy estimated the spill on the Keystone system at about 14,000 barrels and said the affected pipeline segment had been “isolated” and the oil contained. It did not say how the spill occurred.

Continue reading...

Sexual assault scandal sparks calls for review of US police department

Posted on by

Activists urge a federal investigation of the Kansas City police department after a detective allegedly preyed on Black women

It is a scandal that has shocked many beyond the borders of Kansas City, where a senior white policeman allegedly carried out a reign of terror in which he brutally abused and sexually assaulted vulnerable Black women.

An appalling set of allegations against former Kansas City, Kansas police department detective Roger Golubski has lifted the lid on a scheme where he is alleged to have protected local drug dealers in the midwestern city, who then allowed him to rape women forced to work as prostitutes.

Continue reading...

Olive Garden manager fired for time-off message: ‘If your dog died, bring him in’

Posted on by

Kansas manager’s missive – which claimed workers were calling out ‘at a staggering rate’ – caused an uproar online

A manager of an Olive Garden restaurant in Kansas was out of a job after warning subordinates to look for other work if they requested time off.

In an unusually harsh message that went viral online, the manager – whose name was not publicly released – complained that staffers at her eatery in Overland Park were staying off work “at a staggering rate”.

Continue reading...

American woman who led Islamic State battalion in Syria sentenced to 20 years

Posted on by

Allison Fluke-Ekren’s children told the court that their mother had a ‘lust for control and power’ and deserved the maximum sentence

A Kansas woman who led an all-female Islamic State battalion when she lived in Syria has been sentenced to 20 years in prison – the maximum possible sentence – after her own children denounced her in court and detailed the horrific circumstances and abuse she heaped on them.

Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted that she led the Khatiba Nusaybah, a battalion in which roughly 100 women and girls – some as young as 10 years old – learned how to use automatic weapons and detonate grenades and suicide belts.

Continue reading...

Appeals court temporarily halts Biden’s student debt cancellation scheme

Posted on by

Program has been paused as the court considers a motion filed by six Republican-led states

Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans has been temporarily halted by a federal appeals court as it considers a motion from six Republican-led states to block the program.

The eighth circuit court of appeals issued the temporary stay on Friday, ordering the Biden administration not to act on the program while it considers the appeal.

Continue reading...

How they won: Kansas organizers unpack their big win for abortion rights

Posted on by

The strategies that worked in Kansas – countering misinformation, building a broad coalition – offers lessons for other ballot measures

In February, long before organizers in Kansas had made the hundreds of thousands of calls, knocked on the tens of thousands of doors; or did the thousands of media interviews needed to win a monumental race against an anti-abortion amendment, they started having parties.

Sometimes they were small parties: parties where tea and cookies were handed out, and people sat in living rooms getting to know one another. Other times, they sat around a dinner table, drinking wine with strangers.

Continue reading...

Kansas’s vote to protect abortion rights upends US midterm elections – as it happened

Posted on by

Following her visit to Taiwan and China’s furious response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reiterated her commitment to standing up for the country and said it’s shared by lawmakers across the US Congress.

“Our Congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as a strong statement that America stands with Taiwan. We came to Taiwan to listen to, learn from and show our support for the people of Taiwan, who have built a thriving Democracy that stands as one of the freest and most open in the world,” Pelosi said in a statement after the trip.

Continue reading...