HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — This spring’s heavy rain and flooding will cause significant economic losses at many of the state’s 28 parks, both from damage and from closures and refunds to disappointed campers, state parks officials said.

Brad Loveless, secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, said the losses will be clearer in a month or two when the cost of repairs and renovations are better known. The agency relies chiefly on entrance permits, campsite and cabin rental fees, and marina concessions to fund state parks.

Already, the agency’s park fee fund is down about $100,000 for April and May compared with a year ago because of a loss in entrance fees and campsite fees. Income from cabin rentals is down by $30,000 for those two months compared with a year ago.

Those figures don’t include all the refunds the department has been processing, “which is significant in June,” according to agency spokesman Ron Kaufman. Other losses occurred in marina concessions and from moving the Country Stampede’s move from Tuttle Creek State Park to Topeka’s Heartland Motorsports Park.

So far, the agency hasn’t asked the state for special help, with regular staff and seasonal workers managing the cleanup.

“We will need state assistance for repairing damages and for cash flow if revenues drop significantly,” Kaufman said.

Loveless said the damage is being documented and he is hopeful the state will receive help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Kaufman noted that lakes in western Kansas, which were down because of drought, rose because of the rains but didn’t flood and are in “great shape.”

Parks also benefit from Kansas Lottery dollars and can obtain federal grants for projects. But the parks don’t receive money from the state general fund and revenue from the sale of hunting, fishing and fur harvesting licenses and permits cannot be spent for state park operations or maintenance and repairs.

Last year, the Park Fee Fund and Cabin Fund generated more than $10.5 million during the fiscal year, with nearly 6.9 million people visiting Kansas parks.

The high water caused several state parks to cancel campsite reservations for Memorial Day weekend, which is one of the top three periods for most parks. The Fourth of July is another peak time and some parks will have certain campsites unavailable then, too.

Cleanup and restoration will take months.

The many projects at the parks include hauling away debris, re-installing water heaters and electrical components, repairing or rebuilding boat ramps and docks, repairing some cabin flooring and cutting and removing fallen trees. Some roads in the parks also will need repair.

“Hundreds of acres of grass” will have to be replanted, and “mountains of debris removed,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman said the agency has a small, in-house engineering staff and engineering consultants to help design and oversee major repairs, and contractors will be used as necessary.

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LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man on trial over an October 2017 shooting in downtown Lawrence that killed three people and wounded two others has testified he wasn’t “thinking at all” when he fired his gun.

Testimony ended Friday in the Douglas County District Court trial of 22-year-old Anthony Roberts Jr. of Topeka. The charges against him include two counts of first-degree felony murder.

Roberts contends he acted in self-defense after being confronted by a hostile group as bars prepared to close in a popular downtown area. Prosecutors contend Roberts and friends came to Lawrence to “settle a score.”

The shooting killed 22-year-old Leah Brown of Shawnee; 20-year-old Colwin Lynn Henderson of Topeka; and 24-year-old Tre’Mel Dupree Dean-Rayton of Topeka.

The jury is set to hear closing arguments Monday.

MCDONALD COUNTY, Mo. — A Kansas man died in an accident just after 6:30p.m. Friday at the Elk River below the low head dam at Noel, Missouri.

An unidentified woman swimming was swept underwater by the dam, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Jacob T. Farley, 26, Wichita, entered the water downstream in an attempt to rescue her.

A fire crew from Noel arrived on the scene and used a throw rope to rescue the woman. Farley drowned. The McDonald County Coroner pronounced him dead at the scene.

By NOMIN UJIYEDIIN

“A Clockwork Orange.” “Invisible Man.” “Twelve Years a Slave.”

Issues of Bloomberg Businessweek, Us Weekly, Elle.

“Excel 2016 for Dummies.” “Tarot Fundamentals.” “Electrical Theory.”

Over the past 15 years, the Kansas Department of Corrections banned those titles, and about 7,000 others, from its prisons across the state.

The department says it censors books and magazines that could threaten security. But others argue that the size of the list and the broad topics covered under censorship guidelines limit inmates’ education, make their time in prison that much less bearable and further cut them off from an outside world to which they’ll eventually return.

Interim corrections secretary Chuck Simmons said the department prioritizes safety over giving inmates an unlimited selection of books and magazines.

“We censor based on the impact, or potential impact, on the security and operations of the correctional facility,” he said. “There are other publications that the inmate has access to that can accomplish the same purpose in their education or rehabilitation goals.”

For example, books and magazines about tattoos are forbidden because tattooing isn’t allowed in prisons. The prisons also ban books containing descriptions of drugs and violence.

Books about electronics and information technology are considered possible security risks. “The Turner Diaries” — inspiration for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing — and Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” are on the list.

Censorship Process

The evaluation of books and magazines begins in each prison’s mailroom, Simmons said. First, staff skim through every publication sent to inmates. Materials flagged for possible censorship then go to the mailroom supervisor at the prison in Lansing. There, a final decision is made on whether to ban a publication across the system.

“None of our staff have time to read the full content of all of the publications that come through the correctional facilities,” Simmons said. “It is a significant number.”

Inmates have the chance to appeal censorship decisions within 15 days. In the past 15 years, 1,622 appeals have been filed. Only 141 were successful. If a book or magazine is ultimately banned, an inmate must pay to have it sent back or it will be destroyed.

Simmons said the list of banned items accounts for a small percentage of the titles sent to inmates over the past 15 years. A department spokeswoman said she couldn’t provide an estimate of the total number of books and magazines received in mail rooms. But she said the state’s eight adult prisons house 100,000 books altogether.

The department said it plans to develop a training program to teach Lansing staff about censorship standards. And from now on, officials will take another look at censorship decisions about some topics, including art books, mainstream magazines, information technology and  vocational skills like plumbing and welding.

Information Access

The full list of banned books surfaced when Books To Prisoners, a Seattle-based nonprofit group, tweeted the results of an open records request filed with the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Michelle Dillon, a volunteer with the organization, wrote the tweet. She works for the Human Rights Defense Center, the nonprofit that filed the records request and publishes the monthly magazine Prison Legal News. She said she was shocked by the length of the list and many of the titles on it.

“Ultimately, it comes down to control of the population, which I think is especially reflected in the breathtaking array of books that Kansas has made a decision to ban,” she said in a phone interview. “Most of them, I think that the general population would agree are very nonsensical.”

The list includes biographies of musicians such as Kurt Cobain and Tupac, memoirs by raunchy comedians Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce and novels by bestselling authors like Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz.

Also banned are issues of comics like “Deadpool” and “The Walking Dead,” Japanese manga, and books and magazines about LGBTQ topics.

Many publications by and about people in prison also make it on the list: Prison Legal News, the Incarcerated Worker newsletter, “A Queer Prisoners Anthology,” and “Are Prisons Obsolete?” by communist and civil rights activist Angela Davis.

    See the full list of banned publications in Kansas prisons here.

Dillon said limiting access to those books can severely impact inmates’ ability to learn and keep in touch with current events.

“We take for granted that we have the internet and we can look up all of these kinds of information,” she said. “But information access in prisons is extremely constrained.”

She said prison libraries are an option, but they might not offer what inmates actually want to read or learn.

“Although we love prison libraries, they don’t fulfill all of the needs that prisoners have for accessing information,” Dillon said. “They’re closed during certain hours of the day. They might be understaffed, underfunded.”

Ultimately, she says banning reading materials could go against one goal of prisons: to rehabilitate the people inside.

“Do we want to just lock people away inside of bare concrete walls for years and decades on end?” she said. “If you eliminate books, the wide range of information and ideas and engagement with the world that books represent, what are you doing for prisoners?”

N.K. Jemisin, a science fiction and fantasy author whose works are banned in Kansas prisons, agrees.

“They need to be able to read things that are actually enriching to their experience, helping them process whatever it was that they did,” she said in a phone interview. “We’ve got a problem where people go into prison and they come out worse. Maybe reading some books would help.”

Jemisin said she didn’t know why three of her books — a fantasy trilogy starring gods and demons — were censored.

“There’s nothing based in the real world happening there,” she said. “I don’t even think most of my stuff is set on Earth.”

A Connection to the Outside

Reading gave Hannah Hudson a virtual escape from her 30-day stint in the Johnson County jail. She spent much of the time reading from a cart of books. She read titles by James Patterson and Danielle Steel — authors who appear on the list of books banned in Kansas.

“Reading books honestly helps pass the time in prison,” she said. “It gets you out of your head a little bit.”

Hudson still has friends in prison in Kansas. Earlier this year, she tried to send them books so they knew she was thinking of them. But only one made it through: a Bible.

She tried sending a few others: Patterson’s “The Black Book,” novels by bestselling author David Baldacci and a subscription to Prison Legal News. But her friends received notices that the books were contraband and would be destroyed.

“James Patterson’s like gold in jail. That’s the one everybody wants to read,” Hudson said.  “To see it be banned is unfortunate and shocking.”

Hudson faces federal charges for distribution of methamphetamines — the maximum sentence is life in prison. For her, reading is a way to connect to the outside world that she might be leaving behind.

“I will be incarcerated potentially for a long time,” she said.

“There’s not much you can get in jail: a letter or a postcard, a picture, a book,” she said. “To deny people the opportunity, not only to read, but just to get something from home, I think is unfortunate.”

Nomin Ujiyediin for the Kansas News Service. You can send her an email at nomin at kcur dot org, or reach her on @NominUJ

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missourians looking for physicians to certify them to buy medical marijuana when it becomes available next year are running into resistance from doctors who are reluctant to prescribe the substance.

Instead, would-be users are turning to pop-up and specialty clinics advertising certification for about $200 or less.

“The simple fact is that most doctors are uninformed about the use of marijuana as medicine,” said Dan Viets, the head of the Missouri Medical Cannabis Industry Association.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Missouri is the 33rd state to legalize marijuana for medical use. In other states, most marijuana patients have been certified by a small number of independent physicians or marijuana-specific clinics, Viets said.

The state’s physicians’ lobby Missouri Medical Association opposed the ballot initiative voters approved in November that legalized medical marijuana. The association isn’t taking a stance on whether doctors should certify medical marijuana patients, but isn’t recommending it.

Marijuana isn’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the federal government classifies it as an illegal drug. There are no federally approved standard dosages or safety testing and no insurance coverage. All that is leading some doctors to shy away from certifying patients.

“I don’t think doctors are hostile,” Viets said. “But most doctors work for somebody other than their patients: a hospital or a clinic or some type of corporation, and in many cases it’s that corporation which is reluctant.”

The medical association thinks all treatments and therapies should be studied rigorously and be “evidence based,” said Jeff Howell, director of legislative affairs. “Marijuana does not currently meet those standards.”

Specialty clinics are filling in the gaps.

Psychiatrist Zinia Thomas has certified more than 30 people for medical marijuana at her alternative medicine clinic in Brentwood. On June 15, she offered to certify people at a party at Fried STL, a downtown cannabis-themed restaurant that serves fried food.

Thomas said the intent was to offer a stigma-free place where for $99 qualifying patients could get certified after providing their medical records, watching an informational video, undergoing a psychiatric exam and visiting with her.

“We’re bringing it to them, in an environment where they’re comfortable and feel free as a patient, not a sort of ‘illegal drug user,’” she said.

To qualify for medical marijuana, a patient must have one of several conditions including cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, migraines or PTSD.

The Missouri process for doctors to certify patients to buy marijuana started on June 4. Residents can start applying with the state on June 28.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Roughly 200 people gathered in the state capital to protest against Missouri’s strict abortion law.

The protesters marched to the governor’s mansion in Jefferson City Saturday morning.

Missouri has passed new restrictions on abortions in the hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide.

Liz Victrola says she joined the protest to remind lawmakers that they can be voted out if they don’t listen to women’s views.

The state health department notified the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis that its abortion license will not be renewed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday delayed a nationwide immigration sweep to deport people living the United States illegally, including families, saying he would give lawmakers two weeks to work out solutions for the southern border.

The move came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump on Friday asking him to call off the raids. But three administration officials said scrapping the operation was not just about politics. They said Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders had expressed serious concerns that officers’ safety would be in jeopardy because too many details about the raids had been made public.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to speak about private discussions.

“At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “If not, Deportations start!”

The operation, which sparked outrage and concern among immigrant advocates, had been expected to begin Sunday and would target people with final orders of removal, including families whose immigration cases had been fast-tracked by judges.

The cancellation was another sign of the Trump administration’s difficulty managing the border crisis. The number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically under Trump, despite his tough rhetoric and hard-line policies. Balancing a White House eager to push major operational changes with the reality on the ground is a constant challenge for the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump gave the first public word of the planned sweep earlier this week, saying in a tweet that an operation was coming up and the agency would begin to remove “millions” of people who were in the United States illegally. Later, leaks to the media included sensitive law enforcement details, such as the day it was to begin, Sunday, plus specific cities and other operational details.

On Saturday, ICE spokeswoman Carol Danko criticized the leaks in context of their potential impact on ICE personnel, saying in a statement that “any leaks telegraphing sensitive law enforcement operations is egregious and puts our officers’ safety in danger.”

Pelosi called Trump on Friday night and the two spoke for about 12 minutes, according to a person familiar with the situation and not authorized to discuss it publicly. She asked him to call off the raids and he said he would consider the request, the person said.

It’s unclear what else was said during the call. But in a statement Saturday before the president’s decision was announced, Pelosi appealed to the same compassion Trump expressed in declining to strike Iran because of the potential for lost lives.

“The President spoke about the importance of avoiding the collateral damage of 150 lives in Iran. I would hope he would apply that same value to avoiding the collateral damage to tens of thousands of children who are frightened by his actions,” she said.

She called the raids “heartless.”

Pelosi responded to Trump’s announcement with her own tweet, saying: “Mr. President, delay is welcome. Time is needed for comprehensive immigration reform. Families belong together.”

Halting the flow of illegal immigration has been Trump’s signature campaign issue, but Congress has been unable to push his proposals into law with resistance from both Democrats and Republicans. Bipartisan talks over the immigration system have started and stalled but are again underway among some in the Senate.

Lawmakers are considering whether to give $4.6 billion in emergency funding to help border agencies struggling to manage a growing number of migrants crossing the border. The measure passed a Senate committee on a 30-1 vote. But the House is considering its own measure. Funding is running out and Congress is trying to approve legislation before the House and Senate recess next week.

Earlier Saturday, Trump hinted the operation was still on, saying the people ICE was looking for “have already been ordered to be deported.”

“This means that they have run from the law and run from the courts,” Trump said.

Coordinated enforcement operations take months to plan . Surprise is also an important element. ICE officers don’t have a search warrant and are working from files with addresses and must go to people’s home and ask to be let inside. Immigrants are not required to open their doors, and increasingly they don’t. Officers generally capture about 30% to 40% of targets.

The planned operation was heavily criticized by Democratic lawmakers as cruel, and many local mayors said they would refuse to cooperate with ICE. Immigrant advocates stepped up know-your-rights campaigns.

Another complication is that ICE needs travel paperwork from a home country to deport someone, so immigrants often end up detained at least temporarily waiting for a flight. ICE was reserving hotel rooms for families in the event the operation went off as planned Sunday.

The adult population of detainees was 53,141 as of June 8, though the agency is only budgeted for 45,000. There were 1,662 in family detention, also at capacity, and one of the family detention centers is currently housing single adults.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Residents of a Kansas City, Kansas neighborhood have filed a federal lawsuit over flooding during the summer of 2017 that accuses businesses and local officials of negligence.

The lawsuit filed earlier this month by five residents in the U.S. District Court for Kansas accuses the companies of leaving debris in a drainage creek west of the Argentine neighborhood. It also names the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, as a defendant.

OPFD helping numerous people out of high water. Please don’t drive into water over the roadway! pic.twitter.com/mC68U7nkyZ

— Overland Park Fire (@OPFDMedia) August 22, 2017

The lawsuit claims the debris clogged the creek, resulted in significant flooding and property damage and wasn’t cleared away until residents complained.

The Unified Government declined to comment. One of the companies being sued is the BNSF Railway and it said it was not responsible for the flooding.