WABAUNSEE COUNTY— Authorities issued an alert to the public after a successful water rescue in Wabaunsee County.

Just before 9p.m. Tuesday, authorities responded to a distress call for a man who accidentally fell into the Kansas River after the bank gave way, according to the Wabaunsee County Sheriff’s office.

Deputies with the assistance of Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks Game Wardens, AMR; Paxico Fire; and Wabaunsee Fire rescued him and he and is in good condition, according to the sheriff’s office.

Officials strongly urge all individuals to stay away from river banks. The banks of the river may be washed out due to recent high water levels. In this instance, the man was five feet from the bank’s edge.

Unsafe conditions of the Kansas River and its surrounding banks warrant caution. Sightseeing is highly discouraged. Although river levels declined in recent days, water levels remain high, swiftly moving, and full of debris.

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators on Tuesday accused Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration of breaking Kansas law with a new policy that makes it easier for adults who are not working to keep receiving food assistance.

Today, I alerted Governor Laura Kelly that her administration’s recent Kansas Department for Children and Families memo aimed at bypassing existing welfare work requirements is a direct violation of state law. Read my letter and news release! #ksleg pic.twitter.com/K4iaG7XO9z

— Dan Hawkins (@DanHawkinsKS) June 4, 2019

The state Department for Children and Families maintained that the policy is legal. The agency said it will help the homeless and young adults aging out of state custody in the foster care system and that recipients could receive extended benefits through September.

Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins demanded in a letter to Kelly that the governor rescind the policy issued May 17. It says the department will extend assistance month by month for some able-bodied adults without children instead of cutting it off because the recipient isn’t working or enrolled in job training.

Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican, said the letter was his way of putting Kelly “on notice” that the department is violating a 2015 law codifying stricter rules for the state’s food and cash assistance programs that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration set. Kelly was a state senator before taking office as governor in January and strongly opposed the law.

“It comes as no surprise that Laura Kelly is violating the law in (an) attempt to grow the welfare state in Kansas,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, who is also a conservative Republican and from Wichita. “We will do everything possible to hold our governor accountable and ensure she complies with the law.”

It was not clear how far top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature were prepared to go to overturn the new food assistance policy. Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt declined through a spokesman to comment on whether Schmidt agreed that the policy violated state law and whether he would take legal action.

“DCF intends to move forward with this policy,” the agency said in a statement emailed by spokesman Mike Deines.

The federal government pays for food assistance and covers half of each state’s costs in administering them. It generally limits able-bodied adults age 18 to 49 without dependents to three months of assistance within a three-year period if they aren’t working or enrolled in job training.

The 2015 state law specifies the same policy and says the Department for Children and Families can’t ask the federal government for a waiver or start a program to avoid the rule. The same law also gained national attention for telling families they can’t use cash assistance to attend concerts, get tattoos, see a psychic or buy lingerie. The list of don’ts amounted to several dozen items.

The department said its policy is neither a waiver nor a new program.

The policy said the federal government gives states some flexibility to grant exemptions “as they deem appropriate” to extend assistance month by month. Because Kansas didn’t use exemptions “for many years,” some 58,000 “have accumulated,” with each good for a one-month extension for one adult, the policy said.

“Federal law explicitly allows this and other exemptions,” the department said.

Critics argue that Kansas’ tougher rules hurt struggling families, and before Kelly took office, she called on legislators to roll them back. The idea got no serious consideration before lawmakers adjourned last week for the year.

Since its current budget year began in July 2018, Kansas has provided food assistance to an average of about 109,000 adults and nearly 98,000 children a month. The average cost is just short of $111 per person.

The total number of people receiving food assistance, now averaging 207,000 a month, is down nearly 35 percent from its 2013 peak of 316,000 but higher than it was before the Great Recession.

The 2015 law, which Hawkins helped draft, had widespread support among Republicans, who argue that it moves welfare recipients toward self-sufficiency.

“She’s proposed to protect and defend the statutes of the state of Kansas,” Hawkins said of Kelly. “To go out and subvert that, I think, is just wrong.”

___

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 54-year-old former teacher and swim coach who worked in the Kansas City area has been sentenced to federal prison for sexually assaulting and exploiting children in crimes that spanned decades.

James Green Jr. was sentenced Tuesday to concurrent terms of 30 and 10 years for production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Green faces other sex crime charges involving minors in Jackson County.

Federal prosecutors say Green used hidden cameras to videotape sex he had with children at his home, and to tape high school boys undressing in school locker rooms. The filming occurred for about 20 years.

Green taught and coached at Oak Park High School, in several middle schools in the North Kansas City School District and at Blue Springs South High School. He also coached at Hallbrook Country Club in Leawood, Kansas.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A legislator says a screening policy at the local jail requiring women to remove their underwire bras before entering the facility is sexist and she is demanding that it be changed.

The corrections department disputes Jackson County, Missouri  legislator Crystal Williams’ claims. Corrections director Diana Turner says the rules implemented May 16 aim to prevent weapons and contraband from being smuggled into the Jackson County jail.

Update JaCo Detention Center Bragate. The director and sheriff are digging in and deem there’s no need to figure out a solution which doesn’t target, but accomodates, a specific population, namely women. Asked for a brief suspension so it could be evaluated was told no. Lovely.

— Crystal Williams (@crystalpolicy) June 4, 2019

Williams raised the issue on Twitter Monday after hearing complaints from female attorneys and others about the jail’s screening procedures. The checkpoint consists of an X-ray machine and metal detectors.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The owner of a contracting company has pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme that defrauded the government by receiving contracts intended for veterans and minorities.

Forty-three-year-old Matthew McPherson, owner of Topeka-based McPherson Contractors, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major program fraud.

Federal prosecutors say the construction firms involved received $346 million for contracts for small businesses owned by for veterans and minorities.

McPherson, of Olathe, is not a veteran or a minority and his construction company was not entitled to compete for those contracts, in what is known as “Rent-A-Vet” or “Rent-a-Minority” schemes.

The co-conspirators are accused of claiming that black, disabled veterans managed construction companies in order to receive the contracts.

The federal government has filed a lawsuit against McPherson and his co-conspirators over the fraud scheme.

—————-

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors are alleging that two Topeka businessmen and a Kansas City-area man operated a $352 million business fraud scheme that involved using minority or disabled military veterans to obtain federal business contracts.

In a civil action filed in Kansas City, federal prosecutors allege Matt Torgeson, president of Torgeson Electric Co., and Matthew McPherson, president of McPherson Contractors, both based in Topeka, worked with Michael Patrick Dingle to create what are sometimes called “Rent-A-Vet” companies. They allege they received more than 60 fraudulent small-business government contracts beginning in 2009.

According to court documents, the men set up businesses called Zieson Construction and Simcon Corp. to obtain contracts meant for minority or disabled veterans and then used the money for themselves or their businesses, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported .

Under federal law, minority or disabled veterans are to manage the daily operations of businesses that receive “set aside” contracts for small minority-run businesses. Torgeson, McPherson and Dingle are not disabled or minorities and prosecutors say Dingle managed two of the fraudulent businesses.

A third front company, Onsite, was formed after Zieson was growing too large to qualify for the small business contracts, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors are asking that properties and bank accounts owned the co-conspirators be forfeited because they were proceeds of the alleged fraud.

In the court filing, federal prosecutors contend millions of federal dollars were paid to Zieson and Simcon and then funneled to Torgeson, McPherson and Dingle. Prosecutors allege that between April 2010 and January 2018, the government paid about more than $300 million in “illicit funds” to Zieson, Simcon and Onsite, and others associated with the alleged fraud.

The lawsuit also names veterans or minority individuals whose names were used to set up the front company and who signed paperwork contending they were managing the companies. No criminal charges have been filed.

In an emailed statement, McPherson Contractors said it was working with authorities on the investigation. Matt Torgeson told KSNT-TV that his company also is cooperating with the investigation. A phone number listed for Dingle went unanswered.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis judge ruled Tuesday that testimony from non-staff doctors at Missouri’s only abortion clinic will not be necessary for a hearing that will determine if the clinic can remain open.

Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer agreed to throw out subpoenas for four doctors who worked briefly at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis during their training. Stelzer’s ruling also set a hearing for Wednesday to consider Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the state from forcing the clinic to close.

Stelzer, citing the limited scope of the upcoming hearing, said the doctors’ testimony “will not be relevant.” He said the subpoenas “would present an undue burden and hardship” on the non-staff doctors.

Messages seeking comment from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Mike Parson were not immediately returned.

The ruling is the latest in a legal fight over the facility’s abortion license.

The health department last week declined to renew the clinic’s license to perform abortion procedures, citing concerns about patient safety, including “failed abortions” and legal violations. Stelzer on Friday issued a temporary restraining order to allow the clinic to continue to perform abortions, at least until a decision is made on the injunction request.

The state issued subpoenas to staff doctors and former medical residents who worked at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility, seeking their testimony about what an assistant attorney general called “grave concerns” about patient safety. Clinic leaders said the state’s move is part of an effort by an anti-abortion administration to eliminate the procedure in Missouri.

Planned Parenthood attorney Jamie Boyer said both staff doctors were interviewed by health officials, but other doctors who worked at the clinic are no longer there and declined to speak with investigators.

According to a filing by the former residents’ attorneys, a state health official in an affidavit explained that the dispute is over “whether the same physician must provide informed consent and perform/induce the abortion.”

Hours before the ruling, Stelzer held a brief hearing on the physicians’ request to block the subpoenas. Attorney Russell Makepeace said his two clients were doctors who as part of their residency at a hospital worked 12 days each at the clinic over a four-year period. Neither is currently involved with the clinic.

“They really have nothing to add” to the investigation, Makepeace told the judge.

He also said the doctors are concerned that due to Missouri’s “shifting interpretation” of state statutes, they could face criminal charges for any involvement in abortions.

Assistant Attorney General John Sauer said the state has a right to hear from the doctors because of concerns about the quality of care at the clinic.

About 100 anti-abortion protesters rallied outside the clinic, lauding Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and chanting “Pro-life! Pro-woman!” At times, people driving by honked to show their support. Other drivers cursed at the protesters.

“Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion,” speaker Reagan Barklage of Students for Life of America, the group that hosted the rally, told the crowd.

The fight over the clinic’s license comes as lawmakers in many conservative states are passing new restrictions that take aim at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide. Abortion opponents, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, hope federal courts will uphold laws that prohibit abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb, the dividing line the high court set in Roe.

The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year for the past decade, reaching a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy, according to preliminary statistics from the state health department.

Missouri women also seek abortions in other states. In Kansas, about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed in 2018 were for Missouri residents, according to the state’s health department. Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions.

An abortion clinic is located just across the Mississippi River in Granite City, Illinois, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis. Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in the Kansas City area is in Overland Park, Kansas, just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line. State figures show a handful of Missouri hospitals also perform abortions, but those are relatively rare.

___

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis judge on Tuesday weighed whether physicians from Missouri’s only abortion clinic can be forced to testify amid a legal fight over the facility’s license.

The state issued subpoenas to staffers and former medical residents who worked at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility, according to court documents filed by Planned Parenthood.

At issue is a lawsuit pre-emptively filed by Planned Parenthood last week in an attempt to ensure continued abortion services. St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer intervened just hours before the clinic’s license was set to expire Friday.

The state health department had refused to renew Planned Parenthood’s license over concerns with “failed abortions,” compromised patient safety and legal violations at the clinic.

Agency officials also wanted to interview seven physicians at the clinic. Planned Parenthood said two staff doctors agreed to interviews with health officials, but others who worked at the clinic are no longer there and declined to speak with investigators.

Attorneys for the state wrote in their response to Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit that “grave questions remain unaddressed because the physicians who provided the relevant care have refused to participate in interviews.”

According to a filing by the former residents’ attorneys, a state health official in an affidavit explained that the dispute is over “whether the same physician must provide informed consent and perform/induce the abortion.”

Stelzer on Tuesday held a brief hearing on the physicians’ request to block the subpoenas. Attorney Russell Makepeace said his two clients were doctors who as part of their residency at a hospital worked 12 days each at the clinic over a four-year period. Neither is currently involved with the clinic.

“They really have nothing to add” to the investigation, Makepeace told the judge.

He also said the doctors are concerned that due to Missouri’s “shifting interpretation” of state statutes, they could face criminal charges for any involvement in abortions.

Assistant Attorney General John Sauer said the state has a right to hear from the doctors because of “grave concerns” about the quality of care at the clinic.

Stelzer was expected to rule on the request to throw out the subpoenas sometime Tuesday.

The fight over the clinic’s license comes as lawmakers in many conservative states are passing new restrictions that take aim at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide. Abortion opponents, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, hope federal courts will uphold laws that prohibit abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb, the dividing line the high court set in Roe.

The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year for the past decade, reaching a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy, according to preliminary statistics from the state health department.

Missouri women also seek abortions in other states. In Kansas, about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed in 2018 were for Missouri residents, according to the state’s health department. Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions.

An abortion clinic is located just across the Mississippi River in Granite City, Illinois, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis. Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in the Kansas City area is in Overland Park, Kansas, just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line. State figures show a handful of Missouri hospitals also perform abortions, but those are relatively rare.

___

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday is set to weigh whether physicians from the state’s only abortion clinic can be forced to testify amid a legal fight over the facility’s license.

The state issued subpoenas to staffers, contractors and former medical residents who worked at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility, according to court documents filed by Planned Parenthood.

At issue is a lawsuit pre-emptively filed by Planned Parenthood last week in an attempt to ensure continued abortion services. St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer intervened just hours before the clinic’s license was set to expire Friday.

The state health department had refused to renew Planned Parenthood’s license over concerns with “failed abortions,” compromised patient safety and legal violations at the clinic.

Agency officials also wanted to interview seven physicians at the clinic. Planned Parenthood said two staff doctors agreed to interviews with health officials, but that others who are contractors or no longer work at the clinic would not talk.

Attorneys for the state wrote in their response to Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit that “grave questions remain unaddressed because the physicians who provided the relevant care have refused to participate in interviews.”

According to a filing by the former residents’ attorneys, a state health official in an affidavit explained that the dispute is over “whether the same physician must provide informed consent and perform/induce the abortion.”

Stelzer on Tuesday will hold a hearing on the case, including on the physicians’ motion to block the subpoenas.

The fight over the clinic’s license comes as lawmakers in many conservative states are passing new restrictions that take aim at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide. Abortion opponents, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, are hoping federal courts will uphold laws that prohibit abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb, the dividing line the high court set in Roe.

The number of abortions performed in Missouri has declined every year for the past decade, reaching a low of 2,910 last year. Of those, an estimated 1,210 occurred at eight weeks or less of pregnancy, according to preliminary statistics from the state health department.

Missouri women also seek abortions in other states. In Kansas, about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed in 2018 were for Missouri residents, according to the state’s health department. Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions.

An abortion clinic is located just across the Mississippi River in Granite City, Illinois, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis. Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in the Kansas City area is in Overland Park, Kansas, just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the state line. State figures show a handful of Missouri hospitals also perform abortions, but those are relatively rare.

NEWTON COUNTY— One person was injured in an accident just after 2:30a.m. Tuesday in Newton County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Honda motorcycle driven by Robert A. Reneau, 57, Neosho, was southbound on Spurgeon Road six miles south of Joplin. The motorcycle struck a deer in the road and the ejected the driver.

Reneau was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Parkers Funeral Home in Joplin. He was wearing a helmet, according to the MSHP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new top immigration official signaled Tuesday his agency is looking to step up deportations of families who are in the United States illegally, actions that would likely run into logistical hurdles and face strong public opposition.

Mark Morgan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency would continue to prioritize deportations of people who have criminal histories, but that no one should be exempt from enforcement.

“That will include families,” he said at a roundtable with ICE officials and reporters.

The comments by Morgan, who took over the position last week, show a willingness to embrace a part of President Donald Trump’s tough immigration agenda that past officials had balked at. Morgan is a former head of Border Patrol who was fired by Trump early in his presidency, but then returned to his good graces after regularly defending Trump’s immigration policies on Fox News.

ICE is the agency tasked with enforcing immigration law in the interior of the U.S. Part of its mission is to arrest immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

More than 200,000 migrant families have been released into the country since Dec. 1. A massive backlog of immigration cases means they will be in the country for years before their cases are decided. Morgan said generally people who have been ordered removed by a judge stop showing up for court dates, meaning ICE officers must search for them in order to deport them.

It’s a difficult effort. There is little room to detain families while they wait for travel papers to be deported — federal family detention centers can house up to about 2,500 people, but are already full. Children cannot be detained longer than 20 days, which means ICE officers would need to have much of the paperwork completed before they took a family into custody or risk having to release them and lose them into the interior again.

ICE resources, much like other border agencies, are strained. They are detaining about 52,000 single adults but are funded for only 45,000. Minors who cross the border alone are turned over to Health and Human Services, which manages their care.

And the treatment of children and families in government custody has been a continued political flashpoint , after the Trump administration separated children from parents at the southern border last year. The move prompted outrage and criticism that the U.S. was abandoning its humanitarian role and harming children.

Morgan on Tuesday called on Congress to OK the $4.5 billion in supplemental funding requested by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan to fund bed space and humanitarian aid for strapped border facilities. He said a lack of law change by Congress has exacerbated the border problems.

On Monday, Congress sent a $19.1 billion disaster aid bill to Trump for his signature, but lawmakers failed to agree on Trump’s $4 billion-plus request to care for thousands of mostly Central American migrants held at the border, so that money was not included.

“Congress has absolutely failed in this area,” Morgan said. “It’s unsustainable and nobody should want this.”

Immigration has deadlocked the Democrats and Republicans for decades, but Trump’s hardline efforts and border wall push have only exacerbated the divide, especially after the Trump administration separated more than 2,500 children from their parents at the border as part of its zero tolerance policy to prosecute anyone caught crossing the border illegally.

But in recent months, more than 100,000 people have been crossing the border, highs not seen for more than a decade, when the people coming were mostly men from Mexico who were easily returned over the border.

RAYTOWN, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has pleaded guilty to shooting up a car carrying four women from a wedding and killing one of them.

27-year-old Deandre Jackson, of Raytown, was convicted Monday of second-degree murder and nine other felonies in the November 2016 shooting that killed Maryanna Pennington and wounded three others.

Court records say their car broke down near a Kansas City cemetery after they left a wedding. They were calling for help when Jackson shot up the car. More than 30 shell casings were found at the scene.

A witness told police that Jackson’s girlfriend was in an altercation with Pennington a few hours before the shooting.

Jackson’s sentencing is set for Aug. 6.