MANHATTAN — Sonny Perdue, U.S. secretary of agriculture was the featured speaker for Kansas State University’s Landon Lecture Series  Thursday.

Watch a replay of the lecture here.

Secretary Perdue’s speech, “Leave It Better Than You Found It: Lessons in Public Service I Learned on the Farm.”  Perdue is the 179th LandonLecturer.

“Secretary Perdue joins a long list of secretaries of agriculture who have participated in the Landon Lecture Series and shared their vision on issues facing an industry that is vital to this university, Kansas, the nation and the world.”

The secretary’s life was shaped and fashioned growing up on his family’s farm. His lecture will focus on the lessons that he learned from family, school, church, sports and caring for the land and animals that formed a foundation of serving others. He has applied the lessons he learned while growing up on the farm to transform the culture of public service to focus on serving the citizens.

Nominated by President Trump, Perdue has been serving as the nation’s 31st secretary of agriculture since April 25, 2017, and brings a strong background in agriculture, public service and agribusiness to the post. He grew up on a dairy and diversified row crop farm in rural Georgia. As a young man, he served in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of captain. After his military service, he went on to earn his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia and worked in private practice in North Carolina.

Perdue pursued a political career next and served as a Georgia state senator for 11 years. He also was elected president pro tempore by his senate colleagues. As a state senator, he was recognized as a leading authority on issues including energy and utilities, agriculture, transportation, emerging technologies and economic development, and for his ability to grasp the nuances of complex problems.

Elected to two terms as governor of Georgia, from 2003-2011, Perdue was credited with transforming a budget deficit into a surplus, dramatically increasing student performance in public schools, and fostering an economic environment that allowed employers to flourish and manufacturers and agricultural producers to achieve record levels of exports. He was named Public Official of the Year in 2010 by Governing magazine.

The secretary followed his public service with a successful career in agribusiness, focusing on commodities and transportation in enterprises that have spanned the southeastern U.S. He also has served as a board member for the National Grain & Feed Association and as president of both the Georgia Feed and Grain Association and the Southeastern Feed and Grain Association. Perdue has long-standing, close relationships with the leadership of the American Farm Bureau and has been recognized by the Georgia 4-H and FFA programs, among others, for his leadership in agriculture.

One of the most prestigious lecture series offered at a U.S. college or university, the Alfred M. Landon Lecture Series was instituted in 1966 by former Kansas State University President James A. McCain. The series is a tribute to Alfred M. Landon, who served as governor of Kansas from 1933-1937 and delivered the first lecture in the series, “New Challenges in International Relations,” on Dec. 13, 1966. Perdue will be the 179th speaker and 11th secretary of agriculture to take part in the lecture series.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Two employees were killed when an elevator filled with superheated, “flesh-boiling” steam at a Westar Energy plant in Kansas this summer, according to a federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday on behalf of the children of Damien Burchett, who died June 3 alongside Jesse Henson at a plant near Topeka. The family is suing three companies that manufactured and maintained the turbine and valve. Westar is not named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also challenges a $250,000 state limit on compensation for survivors of people who die in on-the-job accidents.

After a three-month shutdown for routine maintenance, two of three steam turbines went back online without incident, but a third turbine didn’t have full power, according to the lawsuit.

Burchett, of Overbrook, and Henson, of Manhattan, took an elevator to investigate a loss of steam at a safety relief valve, which is supposed to vent steam outside the plant if the pressure gets too high.

“Upon the elevator door opening on the 14th floor, (the men were) engulfed in flesh-boiling steam that had filled the room,” the lawsuit said. “(Burchett) was exposed to the steam release and suffered severe burns that caused him to endure a horrific death.”

Investigators determined the steam relief valve had either been ripped apart or failed altogether, allowing the steam to fill the room, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit names Team Industrial Services, which did the maintenance work; Emerson Electric Co., the manufacturer of the steam valve; and Siemens, which built the turbines. Representatives for Siemens and Emerson said they do not comment on pending litigation. Team Industrial did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday.

Kansas law exempts employers from legal action, leaving workers’ compensation insurance as the sole remedy, said John Carmichael, an attorney and member of the state House Judiciary Committee. That immunity doesn’t extend to subcontractors or the manufacturers of equipment, Carmichael said.

State law also prohibits state courts from awarding more than $250,000 for damages such as suffering and loss of companionship, which are not easily quantifiable.

The lawsuit contends that law violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection, separation of powers, right to jury trials, taking private property without just compensation, due process and free and open access to the courts.

By DAN MARGOLIES

Jeffrey Wayne Henry, the co-owner of the Schlitterbahn Waterpark, arranged to have sex with a female human trafficking victim and paid her in part with Schlitterbahn tickets, according to a motion to revoke Henry’s bond filed by prosecutors.

Henry faces second-degree murder and other charges in connection with the death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab more than two years ago on the Verrückt waterslide in Schlitterbahn’s Kansas City, Kansas, waterpark.

On Wednesday, Wyandotte County District Judge Robert P. Burns revoked Henry’s $500,000 bond, raising it to $1 million and imposing new conditions.

Prosecutors had asked Henry to raise his bond to $2 million, saying he posed a danger to the public.

But Carl Cornwell, one of Henry’s attorneys, told the court that while Henry had “mental issues,” he was a danger to no one but himself. Cornwell and prosecutors said that Henry, who lives in Texas, was undergoing treatment at the Menninger Clinic.

The hearing came eight days after Henry was charged in Johnson County with possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, possessing drug paraphernalia and hiring a person for sex.

The state’s motion alleges that the day after Henry appeared for a hearing in the Schwab case, Merriam police were dispatched to the Drury Inn at 9009 Shawnee Mission Parkway after a hotel guest called 911 to report a disturbance.

According to the motion, Henry answered the door when police arrived. After seeing the officers, he went to the bathroom and poured the contents of several bottles down the sink drain.

A woman came to the door and identified herself as Henry’s girlfriend. She began slurring her speech and making erratic body movements. Officers noticed bruising around an injection site on her neck.

The officers also noticed a woman on the bed who was pretending to sleep.

“Investigators eventually learned that Jeff Henry had arranged for a human trafficker named Ronnie Hargraves … to bring K.W., a female human trafficking victim, to Jeff Henry’s hotel room to have sexual intercourse with Jeff Henry in exchange for $400 in cash,” the motion states. “In lieu of the originally agreed upon $400, Henry paid for the illegal sexual relations using $240 in cash plus ten Schlitterbahn Waterpark all-day passes to cover the difference.”

The motion goes on to say that Henry repeatedly denied knowing illegal drugs were in the room. After the room was vacated, with the assistance of a police K9, police found a bag under the mattress with 18 hypodermic needles, a bottle with 16 Alprazolam pills and a cylindrical metal tube with a pressure gauge on one end.

Inside the tube, police found more than 61 grams of methamphetamine, which lab tests later linked to Henry via a positive DNA match.

The motion also describes an April incident in Texas that occurred right after another hearing in the Schwab case. At the hearing, Henry assured the court that he did not pose a threat to public safety.

The motion says New Braunfels, Texas, police received a 911 emergency call from a woman saying that Henry was threatening to kill her and her adult son. The woman lived more than 300 miles from the residence Henry had listed as his Texas home on his bond sheet.

During the call, which was recorded, Henry could be overhead threatening to kill the woman’s son in a profanity-laced tirade. The woman told police she was in fear for her life.

A warrant for Henry’s arrest was issued but later withdrawn, according to the motion. The case remains under review in Guadalupe County, Texas.

Henry, dressed in a jacket and blue button-down shirt and sporting a beard, said little in court on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Adam Zentner, in urging Burns to impose new bond conditions on Henry, said he threatened public safety. Zentner is an attorney in the Kansas Attorney General’s office, which is prosecuting the Schwab case.

Prosecutors say that Henry and the Verrückt waterslide’s other principal designer, John Schooley, built the 17-story slide without consulting qualified engineers and rushed construction to meet a TV show deadline. The waterslide, billed as the world’s tallest, is in the process of being torn down.

Henry has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Schwab, the son of Kansas Rep. Scott Schwab, who is the Republican nominee for secretary of state, was killed when the raft he was riding in went airborne and struck a metal pole.

The indictment describes Henry as a high school dropout with no technical or engineering credentials.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

TOPEKA—Fiscal year tax collections have exceeded previous year’s totals by $183.49 million according to data from the latest revenue report released Thursday by the Kansas Department of Revenue.

Fiscal year 2019 tax collections so far total $2.20 billion, exceeding estimates by $105.60 million.

October tax collections were up $10.71 million, or 2.14 percent over last year. October’s tax collections exceeded expectations for the month by $6.99 million.

Individual income tax collections in October totaled $242.29 million which is $12.88 million or 5.61 percent above the same time last year. October sales tax collections fell short of last October’s collections by $3.88 million.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A man whose ex-girlfriend is charged with killing his 4-year-old son in Missouri says he left his child in her care while he went to Chicago to visit his ailing mother.

Kijuanis Gray says he “trusted” 26-year-old Quatavia Givens to watch his son, Darnell Gray, and “wasn’t expecting her to do this.” Givens is jailed without bond on a charge of neglect or abuse of a child resulting in death. No attorney is listed for her in online court records.

Givens reported Darnell missing on Oct. 25. His body was found Tuesday in Jefferson City.

Gray says he’s no longer with Darnell’s mother, who lives in Chicago. Police have declined to identify Darnell’s parents and didn’t immediately respond to questions Thursday

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican candidate Kris Kobach on Wednesday echoed President Donald Trump’s assertion that Trump can deny U.S. citizenship to babies born to parents living in the country illegally, intensifying a focus on immigration in the final days of a close Kansas governor’s race.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is Trump’s biggest political ally in the state and has advised the White House on homeland security issues. He also has made pursuing tough state measures against illegal immigration a cornerstone of his campaign for governor.

But in backing Trump on whether the president can end birthright citizenship without an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Kobach broke with some fellow Republicans, including U.S House Speaker Paul Ryan. Like Trump, Kobach contradicted legal experts who see the issue as long-settled and clear under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

“That’s one of the interesting things about birthright citizenship. There are many people who are under the misimpression that the 14th Amendment commands it,” Kobach said during a Fox News television interview . “It doesn’t.”

He added that Congress could end birthright citizenship or, “The president could do it through a regulation.”

Kobach is in a toss-up race with Democrat Laura Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka. She has argued that combating illegal immigration requires comprehensive legislation from Congress and that Kobach’s get-tough approach would damage the state’s economy, particularly in western Kansas and when it comes to agriculture.

Kelly’s campaign declined Wednesday to comment on Kobach’s comments. But Ethan Corson, the Kansas Democratic Party’s executive director said: “As Republicans like Paul Ryan and legal scholars from across the political spectrum have stated, the president obviously has no authority to alter the Constitution by executive order.”

Patrick Miller, a University of Kansas political scientist, said Kobach needs his conservative base to turn out to defeat Kelly. He said raising birthright citizenship as an issue after it’s remained relatively neglected represents “a fresher angle” on immigration issues.

“If you want to kick life into some kind of advertising, whether you’re selling a candidate or toothpaste, having a fresh angle is sometimes good to reignite interest and engagement,” Miller said. “Kobach also likes to push the envelope on a lot of things.”

The 14th Amendment begins: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Kobach, an attorney and former law school professor, argued Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” that immigrants living in the country illegally are not under U.S. jurisdiction, allowing Trump or Congress to deny their U.S-born children automatic citizenship. But a move in line with that thinking would likely spark a legal challenge.

States ratified the 14th Amendment after the Civil War to secure U.S. citizenship for newly freed black slaves. It later was used to guarantee citizenship to all babies born on U.S. soil after court challenges, including one that led to an 1898 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump said in an interview Tuesday that he wants to end birthright citizenship and could do so with an executive order. Ryan responded in a radio interview, saying: “Well you obviously cannot do that.” That drew a tweeted rebuke from the president.

Trump’s comments also were an issue in a debate Tuesday between Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder and Democratic challenger Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, where immigration has been a major issue. Trump, who narrowly lost the Kansas City-area district in 2016, has endorsed Yoder, the chairman of a House subcommittee on homeland security.

During the debate, neither candidate said directly whether they would support an effort by Congress to end birthright citizenship, though Davids said an executive order by Trump would “violate our Constitution.”

When asked after the debate about ending birthright citizenship, Yoder told reporters that if the U.S. secured its borders adequately, “That’s not an issue then.”

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