SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A Springfield man faces up to 40 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to making and distributing about $6.7 million worth of synthetic marijuana.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says 28-year-old Brandon D. Franklin pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. Besides any prison time he’ll receive at sentencing, Franklin must also forfeit the $6.7 million, about $800,000 from bank accounts and investments, and real estate in Missouri, California and Oregon.
Franklin admitted manufacturing and selling K2, which is dried plant material sprayed or mixed with the active ingredient in marijuana. The product was marketed as incense and sold at retail outlets in Springfield and Joplin and shipped via FedEx.
Prosecutors said the scheme involved the sale of about 2,200 kilograms of K2.
SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A southwest Missouri man already serving 18 years in state prison for attempted enticement of a child has been sentenced to more than 24 years in federal prison for sexual exploitation of a minor.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says 40-year-old Ezra Robert Gramm, of Springfield, won’t be eligible for parole under the sentence he received Wednesday in federal court. District Judge Gregory Kay ordered the federal sentence to be served after Gramm completes his Missouri prison term.
Gramm pleaded guilty in May 2013 to making contact in late 2009 with a 13-year-old girl in an online chat room. Gram admitted asking the girl to take sexually explicit photos of herself and send them to him, which she did.
Law enforcement officers reported finding multiple images of the girl on Gramm’s cellphone.
NEW YORK (AP) — A bug in Apple’s new iOS 8 software for mobile devices is prompting the company to withhold apps that use a highly touted feature for keeping track of fitness and health data.
Apple says it hopes to have HealthKit apps restored to its app store by the end of the month. The bug affects Apple’s own Health app and those made by outside developers. Apple didn’t provide details on what went wrong.
The iOS 8 software became available Wednesday. HealthKit is supposed to create a central repository for health and fitness data, so that apps have a better picture of your overall wellness and can even recommend trips to the doctor.
Apple’s new iPhones have sensors to monitor fitness activities, and its upcoming Apple Watch will have a heart-rate monitor.
JOPLIN (AP) – Officials in Joplin say Vice President Joe Biden will speak at next month’s dedication of the city’s new high school.
The district announced Wednesday that Biden will be joined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan for the Oct. 3 ceremony at the Joplin High School/Franklin Technology Center.
Half of Joplin’s schools were damaged or destroyed in the May 2011 tornado that killed 161 people and flattened thousands of homes and businesses.
Construction of the new high school was the last of the district’s major rebuilding projects. It opened Sept. 2.
As part of the Oct. 3 dedication, students, parents and others will try to set a world record for the longest ribbon used in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The planned 6.5-mile ribbon symbolizes the tornado’s path through Joplin.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City teenager is no longer in a medically induced coma and is speaking with family members after a police officer critically injured him with a stun gun.
The Kansas City Star reports 17-year-old Bryce Masters of Independence began slowly recovering overnight and was able to answer questions from hospital staff on Wednesday. Family attorney Daniel Haus says the teen is breathing on his own but remains in critical condition.
Masters’ family has said his heart stopped after he was shocked with the stun gun during a traffic stop Sunday in Independence.
Police say he was combative and wouldn’t comply with the officer’s demands. They say he was pulled over because of a warrant associated with the license plate on the car, which belonged to someone else.
Inside the Biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Doctors in Nebraska treating a U.S. doctor battling the Ebola virus say they now expect him to make a full recovery.
Fifty-one-year-old Rick Sacra contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Liberia. He’s been hospitalized in Omaha since Sept. 5.
Dr. Phil Smith is the medical director of the Nebraska Medical Center isolation unit where Sacra is being treated. Smith said Wednesday that an initial set of blood samples from Sacra sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a decreased amount of the virus in his blood
Doctors are now awaiting results of a second set of blood samples.
Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director of the unit, says there must be two negative blood tests done 24 hours apart for Sacra to be released.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Topeka school district is among several nationwide that have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, but officials aren’t saying what they got.
Auburn Washburn superintendent Brenda Dietrich said Wednesday the district learned of the Pentagon’s surplus program from a staff member who had a spouse at the Kansas Bureau of Investigations.
Dietrich would say only that district police received a piece of safety equipment that is part of an emergency operations plan.
District spokesman Martin Weishaar says the equipment is not a grenade launcher or a tank or anti-mine vehicle. But he refused to describe it because the district considers that security-related information.
The equipment is meant to be used in response to a situation in which somebody outside a school would want to do harm.
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TAMI ABDOLLAH, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — School police departments across the country have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, stocking up on mine resistant vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles.
At least 26 school districts across the country have participated in the Pentagon’s surplus program, which has come under scrutiny after a militarized police response to protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Law enforcement agencies used it to equip themselves during learner budget years, and since the Columbine school shooting in 1999, schools increasingly participated. Federal records show schools in California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Texas and Utah obtained surplus military gear.
Now, several districts say they’ll return some of the equipment.
The Los Angeles Unified School District — the nation’s second largest school district — said in a statement it would remove three grenade launchers it had acquired.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Republican serving as Kansas’ top elections official won’t give up on forcing Democrats to field a U.S. Senate candidate, even if the state Supreme Court orders the current nominee’s removal from the ballot.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Tuesday that state law requires Democratic leaders to pick a new candidate if Chad Taylor is removed from the ballot. Taylor stopped campaigning but Kobach refused to remove him from the Nov. 4 ballot.
Taylor went to the Supreme Court. It had a hearing Tuesday.
Some Democrats pushed Taylor to leave the race against three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, seeing independent candidate Greg Orman as stronger.
Kobach said Tuesday that state law requires parties to fill candidate vacancies, and he’s ready to return to the Supreme Court if necessary.
TOPEKA — The rate of poverty and rate of uninsured declined slightly at the national level in 2013, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The data, from the bureau’s annual American Community Survey, does not include sign-ups for 2014 health insurance from the online marketplace that began this year as part of the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. Rather, the health insurance figures distributed Tuesday will serve as a baseline to compare future years’ data that include ACA online sign-ups.
Nationally, the uninsured rate dropped from 14.8 percent in 2012 to 14.5 percent in 2013, with a margin of error of 0.1 percent.
In Kansas the uninsured rate dropped from 12.6 percent to 12.3 percent, but the smaller sample size has a margin of error of 0.4 percent, so the state’s dip is not considered statistically significant.
In a conference call Tuesday, census bureau officials did not speculate on the causes of the increased insurance coverage nationwide but said it coincided with a drop poverty. Though median income remained static, the poverty rate dropped as more unemployed and underemployed people found work.
“I think the main reason we’re looking at a drop in poverty rate is the change in full-time employment,” said Chuck Nelson of the census bureau.
The number of American men and women working full-time year-round increased by 2.8 million.
Though the number of Americans living in poverty stayed about the same, the percentage dropped because the nation gained population in 2013.
Nationally, the rate of poverty in children under age 18 fell from 21.8 percent to 19.9 percent, the most significant drop in that category in more than a decade.
Full state level poverty data was not yet available Tuesday. Two-year averages released Tuesday showed Kansas dropping from 14.4 percent in poverty in 2010-11 to 13.6 in 2012-13, but that change fell within the statisticians’ 90 percent confidence margin of plus-or-minus 1.3 percent.
10,000 Americans turn 65 every day and to help senior drivers find a better ‘fit’ with their cars for comfort and safety, mobility experts are hosting CarFit, a safety program designed to help older drivers. CarFit is a national program developed by AAA, AARP and the American Occupational Therapy Association and is designed to give a quick, yet comprehensive check on how well older drivers and their vehicles work together.
The Kansas Department of Transportationalong with AAA-Kansas will be conducting CarFit check-ups in Salina on Sept. 23 and Topeka on Sept. 24. The Salina check-up is part of the North Central-Flint Hills AAA Sunflower Fair. The Topeka check-up is in conjunction with the Topeka-Shawnee County Public Library’s Senior Fair. Preregistration is strongly encouraged.
“As we age, changes in our vision, flexibility, strength, range of motion and even size and height may make us less comfortable and reduce our control behind the wheel,” said Jim Hanni, executive vice president of public affairs for AAA Kansas. “CarFit provides older adults with the tools to understand and apply the safety features of their car.”
At a CarFit event, trained volunteers complete a 12-point checklist with each driver. Among the items checked:
Correct position of driver’s seat
Driver’s ability to easily reach pedals
Proper adjustment of mirrors
Occupational therapists are also on hand also to provide consultation if needed, which will teach drivers how to maintain and improve aspects related to their driving health. The therapist can also provide information to participants addressing individual needs, including information about local community resources on exercise, nutrition and other programs to help keep them safe on the road.
“It is critically important that mature drivers make safety a personal priority,” said Gretchen Gleue, team leader for KDOT’s older driver emphasis area team. “Driving today is more difficult than ever because of increased traffic congestion, longer commute distances, new technology and faster speeds. Older drivers can take important measures to mitigate the stress associated with driving.”
Older drivers can also check with their local AAA club or AARP office to take a driver safety refresher course for older road users or look into occupational therapy driving evaluation programs for individualized assessments and recommendations. CarFit represents an extension of those classroom programs and an opportunity for older drivers to make sure their personal vehicles are adjusted to their needs.
REGISTRATION DETAILS:
Each check-up takes approximately 20 minutes.
Sept. 23rd, 9 a.m. to noon, Salina
Salina Bicentennial Center
800 The Midway
Preregister with North Central-Flint Hills AAA (785) 776-9294
