TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State universities will not be increasing tuition this fall for undergraduate students from Kansas.

But the state Board of Regents on Wednesday approved tuition increases for some Kansas graduate students and out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students.

The regents considered tuition proposals after the Legislature increased state funding for their operations by $38 million for the 2019-20 school year, or nearly 6.5%. Some lawmakers said they expected the universities not to increase tuition in return.

Board of Regents members said they focused on helping undergraduates from Kansas the most and believe that they sent a clear message to lawmakers that they’re holding the line on tuition.

All graduate students at the University of Kansas will see their tuition rise by 2.5% and at Kansas State University, by 1.5%.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — McDonald’s has started a transatlantic barbecue feud with the introduction of a Kansas City-themed hamburger in the U.K.

Outgoing Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Sly James said Tuesday that the fast-food chain should “stay in your lane” in a tweet that included a picture of what he says a “real” burger looks like. Kansas City is known for its style of dry-rubbed, slow-cooked meats drizzled in tomato-molasses sauce.

Stay in your lane (which is on the wrong side of the road, btw). Here’s what a real #KansasCity burger looks like. There’s a lot more where that came from: https://t.co/yf8HWtadBq @KCMO @visitkc #bbq #noonesaysyeehawhere pic.twitter.com/7xgI33bgNC

— Mayor Sly James (@MayorSlyJames) June 18, 2019

He responded after McDonald’s proclaimed “Yeehaw” as it introduce d its “Kansas City Stack” in a tweet. Other twitter users rushed to join the mocking. Barbecue powerhouse Q39 kidded “Yeehaw, mate!” while Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que retweeted a scathing critique of the burger and added a laughing tears and thinking faces emoji.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri woman will spend the rest of her life in prison after admitting that prosecutors had evidence to convict her of killing a mentally disabled man in what authorities believe was part of a complicated plot to divert attention from another homicide case.

Pamela Hupp of O’Fallon entered an Alford plea Wednesday in a plea deal. Hupp could have faced the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the 2016 death of 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger.

Prosecutors say Hupp killed Gumpenberger to distract from the re-investigation of her friend Betsy Faria’s 2011 death. Russ Faria was convicted of killing his wife, but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at retrial.

Lincoln County prosecutor Michael Wood told The Associated Press that he plans to re-examine the Faria investigation.

 

By STEPHAN BISAHA

Wichita Public Schools is considering adding explicit protections for transgender students and staff this year.
Public speakers told the district’s school board on Monday that they want to see the nondiscrimination policy updated to include gender identity as a protected class. Some were activists; others were moms.

Transgender students shared their own stories of discrimination.

High school student Alec Strouse said being required to change in the women’s locker room had a severe impact on his mental health.

“I was severely bullied in there,” Strouse told the board. “Multiple times I did stay home because I was afraid of the comments that I got.”

If Wichita does add gender identity to its policy, it will join several school districts across the state that have done the same this year. Manhattan added the protections in May; Olathe made the changes in March.

De Soto did so three days earlier. Students from two of De Soto’s high schools asked the board to update its policy.

Transgender teens are three times more likely to attempt suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than a third are bullied.

Topeka Public Schools board member Peg McCarthy thinks growing youth suicide numbers — and the increasing support for transgender rights — is causing districts to add more protections for those students.

“We know that transgender students in particular are one of our must vulnerable groups,” said McCarthy, who is also a psychologist working with transgender patients.

Topeka Public Schools has included transgender students in its nondiscrimination policy for about a decade.

Not all school districts have moved toward transgender rights. Derby Public Schools allowed transgender students to use the bathroom that fit their gender identity, but reversed that policy in 2017.

The Kansas Association of School Boards advises against districts updating their policy to include specific language protecting transgender students. It thinks those students are already included in federal Title IX protections, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex by education programs receiving federal funding.

Wichita Public Schools board member Ben Blankley said that updating the policy is needed to make a clear statement of support for transgender students and staff.

“To implement it at the local level seems to be the strongest statement we can make,” Blankley said. “These kids do exist. These kids do matter.”

Wichita’s superintendent Alicia Thompson will put together a report on the district’s nondiscrimination policy. The board will use that as a starting point for any discussion about adding new language.

District middle school teacher Kendall Hawkins said she’s been talking to the board for months about the issue. Hawkins said she hasn’t been discriminated against as a transgender employee working at Mead Middle School.

But she said students in her school’s gender and sexuality alliance organization told her they have been. One of the most common problems is staff referring to transgender students by the wrong names or pronoun.

Hawkins said the district is behind on supporting transgender students.

“Our students are the ones paying the price for it,” Hawkins said. “We’re seeing issues with attendance and academic progress those students are having.”

During Wichita’s board of education meeting, some speakers opposed changing the policy. Out of the 10 public commenters, three said they are afraid of students being indoctrinated.

“Jesus loves them,” Wichita resident Jeanne Garrelts told the board, referring to transgender students. “But he does have standards of right and wrong.”

Stephan Bisaha reports on education for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on @SteveBisaha or email bisaha (at) kmuw (dot) org.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appeals court says a woman who gave birth to a baby whose body was later found in a car trunk should not have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the conviction of 43-year-old Emily Usnick, saying in a unanimous opinion that the state didn’t prove she acted recklessly or with criminal intent.

Usnick was originally charged with second-degree murder after her baby died in 2009. She was convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors argued she gave birth unattended, failed to seek medical attention after the birth and enclosed the body in a plastic bag before putting it in the trunk.

The body was found during a drug raid at Usnick’s home in St. Elizabeth in Miller County.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — A 29-year-old Missouri man has been sentenced in the stabbing death of a woman in Sedalia.

Justin Lewis, of Lincoln, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years and nearly 31 years, to be served consecutively, for the January 2018 death of 33-year-old Heather McClellan. Lewis was convicted in April of second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

Investigators testified during the trial that McClellan suffered eight stab wounds and a slit throat before officers found her in blood-soaked shirt and gasping for air at a Sedalia apartment. She died later a Sedalia hospital from blood loss.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 34-year-old black man whose family was homeless at times during his childhood in Kansas City, Missouri, will become the city’s 55th mayor.

Voters on Tuesday chose Quinton Lucas over fellow City Council member Jolie Justus in a mayoral runoff, according to unofficial results that showed him with a commanding lead. Lucas will assume office in August, replacing Sly James, another black mayor who served two four-year terms.

“Our final mandate is this: no matter who we are, no matter where you are, no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, in our Kansas City we always believe that you have an opportunity, we always believe that you can persevere,” Lucas said in his victory speech Tuesday night. “In our Kansas City we believe that whatever has happened in your past does not dictate your future. In our Kansas City we believe in fairness for everyone.”

Justus, a former state lawmaker and current City Council member, had James’ endorsement and would have been the city’s first openly gay mayor. She conceded in a sometimes tearful speech on Tuesday night.

“So what is next?” Justus said. “I’m not going to disengage just because I didn’t get the outcome I wanted.”

Both Lucas and Justus are attorneys with similar voting records during their first terms on the City Council. During the campaign, both said their top priorities were reducing crime, increasing affordable housing and spreading development projects across the city. Although the election was officially nonpartisan, both candidates are Democrats.

Lucas said he and his family, led by a single mother, were often homeless during his childhood on Kansas City’s impoverished east side. Despite those struggles, Lucas won academic scholarships to a prestigious private school in Kansas City and then to Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell Law School. He is a practicing attorney and a member of the University of Kansas law faculty. He was endorsed by the police and firefighters’ unions.

During six debates leading up to Tuesday’s vote, Lucas and Justus offered different approaches to some of their top priorities. Lucas cast himself as an outsider to city government who wanted to fundamentally change how the city provides basic services and distributes tax incentives to encourage development. He said Justus was too close to developers and to James, and said she would continue policies that shortchanged impoverished areas, particularly the east side.

Justus emphasized her history in the Legislature and on the council as someone willing to collaborate with all sides and find solutions to longstanding issues.

Lucas was the primary sponsor of an ordinance that caps tax abatements or other tax incentives for development at 75%, with some exceptions. Developers had been able to get up to 100% property tax abatement on certain projects, which led to criticism from some that the city awarded tax breaks for private projects too often. Some developers and city officials opposed the plan, concerned it might slow Kansas City’s growth and pursuit of development projects.

Justus was chairwoman of the city’s airport committee, which ended a nearly seven-year effort to bring a modern single-terminal airport to Kansas City. She acknowledged mistakes were made early in the process when a no-bid deal was considered without public knowledge to allow Burns & McDonnell to build the privately financed single terminal airport. After severe criticism, the no-bid contract was dropped and the city went through a competitive bidding process.