TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has sent a lawsuit attempting to force Democrats to name a new U.S. Senate nominee to a lower court.
The Supreme Court’s order Tuesday said that the petition filed last week by disgruntled Democratic voter David Orel, of Kansas City, Kansas, didn’t contain enough evidence for the justices to make legal decisions. The high court sent the case to Shawnee County District Court.
Democrat Chad Taylor’s withdrawal from the race against three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts was widely seen as helping independent candidate Greg Orman’s chances of winning by avoiding a major split in the anti-Roberts vote.
Orel filed his petition last week only minutes after the Supreme Court removed Taylor from the Nov. 4 ballot. Orel’s son works on Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s re-election campaign.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Kansas man has been sentenced in Missouri to more than seven years in federal prison for his role in a $2.7 million mortgage fraud scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says 49-year-old Terrence Matthew Brown must also pay $1.2 million in restitution under the sentence he received Tuesday in federal court.
Brown, formerly of Wichita and now living in Texas, was convicted earlier in a conspiracy that defrauded lenders in 10 loans for five properties in western Missouri and northeast Kansas.
Prosecutors said the conspirators obtained loans with false information on applications and other documents. Brown bought homes at inflated prices and received more than $200,000 in kickbacks from the excess loan proceeds.
All of the loans went into default and the properties were foreclosed.
32-year-old Kristina Swinford charged for plotting to kill the wife of her ex-boyfriend
Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today a Maryville, Mo., woman has been charged in federal court in a murder-for-hire scheme in which she negotiated with an undercover federal agent and, without realizing it, her intended victim.
The federal criminal complaint charges Swinford with contacting two individuals to kill the wife of her ex-boyfriend. Her intended victim is identified in court documents as “AM.”
According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Swinford met three times with an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to negotiate the murder-for-hire. Following her third meeting with the ATF agent, the affidavit says, Swinford also negotiated via Facebook with another person, without realizing that she was actually communicating with her intended victim, who had created an online profile under another person’s name.
Kristina M. Swinford, 32, of Maryville, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014. Swinford was arrested on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, and remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014.
On Aug. 25, 2014, a cooperating source in Taylor County, Iowa, reported to law enforcement authorities about traveling to Maryville and having a discussion with Swinford. According to the affidavit, Swinford complained about AM and made it clear she wanted AM kidnapped, killed or gone. AM had gone through a brief separation from her husband, the affidavit says, and during that time he was involved in a relationship with Swinford. AM and her husband had been granted ex parte orders of protection in an effort to keep Swinford from stalking or harassing them.
The cooperating source was instructed to meet with Swinford again and provide her with the contact information of an undercover ATF agent if she still wanted someone to kill AM. The undercover agent contacted Swinford on Aug. 28, 2014, and arranged to meet.
Swinford allegedly met with the undercover agent on three separate occasions, each time sitting in a vehicle in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Bethany, Mo., and discussed several scenarios for killing AM. Swinford allegedly agreed to pay $10,000 prior to AM being killed and another $10,000 afterward. She provided the undercover agent with a photo of AM, a map of her house and other information, the affidavit says. Swinford allegedly paid the undercover agent $150 for his expenses. At the third meeting on Sept. 10, 2014, the affidavit says, the undercover agent told Swinford he could pick up AM after she dropped her kids off at school, then kill her and cut off her hands and head and toss them into the river to make it look like Mexican drug dealers. Swinford allegedly agreed with this plan and the undercover agent told her to get a hold of him when she got the money.
On Sept. 19, 2014, AM reported to local law enforcement authorities that Swinford had been discussing AM’s murder on Facebook. According to the affidavit, AM had created a false Facebook account for a real person she knows, who is identified in the affidavit as WB. AM told authorities she created the account because her husband had blocked his Facebook account so she could not view her husband’s Facebook page.
AM reported that on Sept. 18, 2014, she had logged in to delete the fake account but found a message from Swinford from Aug. 9, 2014, addressed to whom Swinford clearly thought was the real WB. AM used the false Facebook account to engage Swinford in a lengthy conversation. During the conversation, the affidavit says, Swinford expressed her dislike for AM. According to AM, further in the conversation, she and Swinford discussed WB (the real person but fake Facebook account) harming her (AM).
AM told police that she was terrified and had no way of knowing if Swinford had spoken to anyone else about having her hurt or murdered. ATF agents had not notified AM or her husband that ATF had been conducting the investigation into Swinford hiring the undercover agent.
Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Dunning. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Maryville, Mo., Department of Public Safety.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King says he has paid an income tax bill of more than $250,000 after the IRS filed a tax lien against him last month.
King tells The Wichita Eagle that the amount was the balance of personal income tax that he and his wife owed from the sale of his construction company in 2012.
King says he had been making payments on the debt and was surprised by the lien. He says he doesn’t know why the IRS filed it.
An IRS spokesman says the agency can’t comment on specific cases.
King says the original amount of taxes owed from the sale was more than $400,000.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is investigating how federal grants are spent on campus after a wildlife biologist’s complaint to the federal government and a subsequent lawsuit.
Assistant professor Dylan Kesler’s False Claims Act suit alleged that two colleagues in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences improperly paid their spouses from pools of federal scientific research money while the women remained home with newborns.
University officials called Kesler’s complaint “unfounded” after the Justice Department decided to not pursue the case.
Accounting records reviewed by The Associated Press show that soon after university officials met with federal prosecutors, a campus fiscal office transferred nearly $60,000 in state funds to replace federal grants paid to one of the women.
The St. Joseph Public Library is holding a photo contest at its Downtown location for individuals to submit their best works of fall.
The “Awesome Autumn: A Festival of Colors” content is open to all ages with judging divided into two age categories – youth to 17-years of age and adults 18-and-older.
Each participants can enter up to 5 photos depicting their ideas of the fall season.
The library will award prizes of $50 for first place, and $25 for second place in each division. Prizes will be awarded October 21st at 7 p.m.
To enter check out the Downtown Library at 927 Felix Street by Wednesday October 8th.
Northwest Missouri State University’s Emergency and Disaster Management (EDM) Program invites Northwest students, employees and community members to participate in its free Campus Community Emergency Response Team (C-CERT) training in October.
Training will be conducted in Room 1150 of the Garrett-Strong Science Building as well as other University facilities.
Training dates are as follows:
· Thursday, Oct. 23, 6-10 p.m.
· Friday, Oct. 24, 6-10 p.m.
· Saturday, Oct. 25, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
· Sunday, Oct. 26, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
The C-CERT program is a 24-hour Federal Emergency Management Agency course designed to educate citizens about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their communities. The program trains participants in basic disaster response skills, including fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.
Using training learned in the classroom and during exercises, C-CERT participants can assist others in their neighborhood, campus or workplace when professional responders are not immediately available to help.
C-CERT trainers include Dr. Mark Corson, professor of geography, and Matthew Johnson, instructor of history, at Northwest.
In addition to teaching courses within the EDM program, Corson and Johnson are founding members of Northwest’s EDM program and have extensive experience in conducting disaster response training in locations including Florida and The Republic of Macedonia.
EDM students are encouraged to take C-CERT training to fulfill their requirement of 36-491 Field Experience and can register for this fall’s F14 CERT training at http://bit.ly/ccertfall14.
The Emergency and Disaster Management major uses a multi-disciplinary approach to study crisis, drawing from courses and faculty in Geography, Psychology, Social Sciences and Communications. While half the class work involves a crisis management core, electives provide flexibility so that students can tailor the major to their individual and specific academic and professional needs.
For more information, contact Corson at [email protected] or Johnson at [email protected]. For more information about C-CERT training, visit www.citizencorps.gov/cert.
NEW YORK (AP) — Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper say they’ll work to reduce the calories Americans get from beverages by 20 percent over the next decade by more aggressively marketing smaller sizes, bottled water and diet drinks.
The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative Tuesday and comes as the country’s three biggest soda makers face public pressure over the role of sugary drinks in fueling obesity.
In many ways, the commitment follows the way customers’ tastes are already changing. People have been moving away from soda on their own for several years because of concerns about sugar. But the industry group says the new commitment will accelerate the calorie-cutting.
Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says the announcement shows “the industry is seeing the writing on the wall.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is coming to Kansas to stump for Sen. Pat Roberts’ re-election campaign.
A person familiar with the Roberts campaign told The Associated Press that Palin will be at a pancake breakfast in Independence on Thursday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information publicly.
Palin’s appearance is part of a week of events featuring Republican heavyweights. Roberts is locked in a competitive race with independent candidate and Olathe businessman Greg Orman.
Former GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole was stumping Monday and Tuesday for Roberts. Arizona Sen. John McCain had an event Wednesday in Overland Park, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is expected to be in Wichita on Monday.
SALINA, Kan — A 5-year-old rural Saline County girl is in a Kansas City hospital after a dresser fell on her Monday evening.
Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski said the girl and her siblings were playing in an upstairs bedroom of the family home around 7:45 p.m., when the girl got her foot caught in the dresser, and it fell over on top of her.
The siblings took the dresser off of her, and emergency responders were called to the home in the 200 block of Main in Falun, which is an unincorporated community in southwest Saline County.
Kochanowski said the girl was taken by EMS to Salina Regional Health Center, then transferred to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
The girl suffered head injuries that included bleeding on the brain.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has sent a lawsuit attempting to force Democrats to name a new U.S. Senate nominee to a lower court.
