GALENA, Kan. (AP) — No criminal charges will be filed against the driver who struck and killed two German cyclists on May 8, in Kansas while they rode on the historic Route 66 during a cross-country trip.
A Ghost Bike was placed on Route 66 in tribute to the riders who died-photo courtesy Members of the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association
Cherokee County Attorney Jacob Conard wrote in a letter released Monday that there’s no evidence the 23-year-old driver from Shawnee, Kansas, was under the influence of drugs or alcohol or operating her minivan in a “reckless or dangerous manner” before she struck the two from behind in May.
Seventy-four-year-old Harry Jung and 71-year-old Heinz Gerd Buchel died at the scene, just north of the Oklahoma state line.
But Conrad noted that the burden of proof is lower in civil proceedings, and urged the Kansas Highway Patrol to retain reports in case the families sue.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer conceded Tuesday evening in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, saying he would endorse Secretary of State Kris Kobach a week after their neck-and-neck finish threatened to send the race to a recount.
Colyer accepted defeat after a review of some provisional ballots from most Kansas counties failed to find enough votes for him to overcome a deficit of 110 votes at the time of poll closing in the Aug. 7 primary, out of more than 311,000 votes initially counted.
Kobach will face Democrat Laura Kelly, and is likely to face independent candidate Greg Orman, in the November general election in the decidedly conservative state.
The disputed race was intense and prompted a lengthy county-by-county review of provisional ballots. The aftermath of the primary included both candidates challenging each other’s legal interpretations, sending observers to monitor the vote count and raising the specter of lawsuits.
It included a fight over how to count unaffiliated voters who were simply given a provisional ballot by poll workers without first having them fill out a party-affiliation statement. Colyer’s campaign had representatives in all 105 counties when provisional ballots are reviewed.
Colyer also questioned whether Kobach — as secretary of state the top election official in Kansas — was advising counties not to count some mail-in ballots, including those with missing or unreadable postmarks.
Kobach removed himself from election-related duties on Aug. 10 until the primary outcome was resolved, but Colyer argued that Kobach still had a conflict of interest because his top deputy took over Kobach’s responsibilities.
Kobach rejected Colyer’s criticisms, saying his “unrestrained rhetoric has the potential to undermine the public’s confidence in the election process.”
Kobach, 52, has a national conservative following thanks to his strong stance against illegal immigration and his fervent defense of voter ID laws. He was vice chairman of the Trump administration’s election-fraud commission, though the commission eventually found no evidence to support Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.
Kobach’s voter ID efforts also took a hit in June when a federal judge found the Kansas voter ID law he championed was unconstitutional.
Colyer, by contrast, is far more low-key. He is a 58-year-old plastic surgeon from suburban Kansas City. He served as lieutenant governor for seven years and took over as governor in January when Sam Brownback resigned to become ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
He helped craft state health care legislation as a lawmaker before his election as lieutenant governor in 2010. As lieutenant governor, he supervised a 2013 initiative that privatized Kansas’ Medicaid health coverage for the needy.
Provisional ballots are cast when questions about a voter’s eligibility cannot be easily resolved. The problem could involve a name not showing up on the voter rolls or a voter’s address not matching a photo ID in states where that is required.
National data from the Election Assistance Commission shows that the most common reason for rejection was that a voter was not registered in the state. Other reasons include provisional ballots being cast in the wrong county or wrong precinct and problems with a voter’s identification or signature.
Colyer ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002 before being elected to the Kansas House in 2006, then to the state Senate in 2008.
He has for three decades traveled abroad for medical relief missions, working and training local doctors in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Iraq and other countries.
Before becoming governor, Colyer was a loyal No. 2 to Brownback, even when budget problems that followed the governor’s aggressive income tax cuts caused his approval levels to plummet. Lawmakers in 2017 rolled back most of those cuts.
Colyer skirted legal trouble after making three $500,000 loans to Brownback’s and his own re-election campaign in 2013 and 2014. Two of the loans were paid back within days. Democrats speculated they might have been timed to inflate campaign-finance reports. They came as the Republican governor faced the prospect of losing to a well-financed Democratic challenger, Paul Davis. Brownback eventually won by a 50 percent to 46.1 percent margin.
Brownback’s office said the loans were in compliance with Kansas law and ethics regulations. A grand jury investigation ended with no criminal charges.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach still led Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican race for governor after provisional votes were counted Tuesday in the state’s most populous county.
Johnson County released its count Tuesday evening, which pushed Kobach over Colyer by just 345 votes out of more than 315,000 cast.
That’s a slight increase from earlier in the day, when the state’s second largest county, Sedgwick County, released its numbers and put Kobach ahead of the sitting governor by just 298 votes.
Kobach has been narrowly ahead since the Aug. 7 election.
Kansas County election workers have done a great job making sure our elections are fair. We’re holding a press conference at JCRP now. Watch live on my Facebook page. #ksleg#ksgov#TeamKobachpic.twitter.com/k0wlbe8Sdv
“We expect this trend to continue and as this trend continues, I’m issuing a call to unity to all Republicans as we now gear up and start marching in the general election campaign,” Kobach said. “It’s absolutely essential that we march together. Whenever Republicans in Kansas are separated, Republicans in Kansas lose.”
Colyer was expected to issue remarks in Topeka later Tuesday evening.
His attorneys sent a letter to the Johnson County Board of Canvassers an hour before the board met arguing that it should include more than 150 ballots that were discarded because the signature did not match the voter’s registration.
Provisional ballots are cast when a voter’s eligibility is questioned. Those votes are now being counted by the state’s 105 counties in a process that’s expected to stretch out over the week and into Monday.
But under state law, the candidates must decide by Friday whether to seek a recount.
If either candidate wants a recount, he must request one by Friday evening, under a Kansas law specific to statewide races. State law has no provision for an automatic recount, no matter how close the race.
Kelly Arnold, the chairman of the state’s Republican Party, said he expects the campaigns will wait until Friday’s deadline to decide whether to ask for a recount, especially if the race ends up extremely close within 200 votes or so.
“That’s not a bad thing,” Arnold said. “If you are a candidate and you have been campaigning for a year and a half and raising money from donors and your volunteers put their blood, sweat and tears into a campaign, you want to make sure everything is done accurately. I have faith in the system that we have here in Kansas.”
Kobach had a 206-vote lead on Monday, when the 105 counties began reviewing nearly 9,000 provisional ballots to determine how many of them were cast in the Republican primary and how many will be counted. They have until next Monday, Aug. 20, to finish that process and certify the local results.
More than two-thirds of the counties reviewed provisional ballots on the first day of counting this week.
Fourteen smaller counties began canvassing Tuesday. Two others will begin Wednesday, and six counties will start Thursday, including Shawnee and Wyandotte counties. Rooks County in northwest Kansas has scheduled its canvassing for Friday, and six counties have set it for Aug. 20.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man who is fighting deportation to his native Bangladesh will be able to present his case to an immigration judge.
Syed Jamal prior to his release from the Platte County Jail in March photo SHARMA-CRAWFORD ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Attorneys for Syed Jamal, of Lawrence, announced Tuesday that the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled last week that he should be allowed to present his case to a judge in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jamal and his supporters have been fighting his deportation since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in January in front of his family’s home in Lawrence. He was on a plane back to Bangladesh when attorneys secured a court order to remove him from the plane in Hawaii and bring him back to the U.S.
His attorneys say the decision means Jamal is able to seek any relief available under the law.
No date for the hearing was announced.
Jamal, a Bihari ethnic minority, arrived legally in the U.S. in 1987 to attend the University of Kansas but overstayed his visa while pursuing a doctorate. He has taught chemistry at area colleges and did research at hospitals. For the past five years, the Department of Homeland Security allowed Jamal to remain in the U.S. on orders of supervision, meaning he had to report on a regular basis to ICE offices, where he was issued temporary work authorization cards.
As recently as January, his work card enabled Jamal to secure a teaching position at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. He also has been an adjunct instructor at Rockhurst University and Kansas City Kansas Community College. He was on parental advisory boards at his children’s schools and last year made an unsuccessful run for a seat on the Lawrence school board.
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri organizer for a medical marijuana initiative is suing to remove two other related initiatives from the November ballot.
Springfield doctor and attorney Brad Bradshaw filed two lawsuits Friday seeking to invalidate the medical marijuana initiatives submitted by New Approach Missouri and Jefferson City attorney Lowell Pearson.
State law requires petitions to receive a certain number of signatures in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. Bradshaw alleges that some of Pearson’s collected signatures are invalid and that New Approach Missouri unlawfully obtained signatures.
New Approach spokesman Jack Cardetti calls Bradshaw’s claims “desperate” because he won’t receive any support at the ballot box.
Bradshaw and Pearson didn’t return the newspaper’s request for comment.
Missouri could become the 31st state to legalize medical marijuana if the measure is approved by voters.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – An Indiana woman whose husband and three children died when a duck boat sank last month in Missouri says she hopes to save lives by backing an effort to ban the amphibious tourist boats.
Tia Coleman far left lost nine members her Indiana family when the boat sank -Photo courtesy GoFundMe
Tia Coleman spoke through tears during a Tuesday news conference at her Indianapolis home, saying that the house no longer felt like a home without her family.
Seventeen people died when the boat sank during a July 19 storm near Branson, Missouri, including 40-year-old Glenn Coleman, 9-year-old Reece, 7-year-old Evan and 1-year-old Arya. Five other Coleman relatives also died.
Photo courtesy NTSB
Tia Coleman urged people to sign an online petition calling on federal officials to ban the boats.
Two lawsuits have been filed on behalf of other Coleman relatives against the boat’s owners and operators.
Open Door Food Kitchen holds groundbreaking for new location at 619 S. Eighth Street on Dec. 14, 2017. Photo by Sarah Thomack.
An opportunity to golf and help the Open Door Food Kitchen in St. Joseph is coming up next month.
The Inaugural Open Door “Open Your Heart” Golf Tournament will take place on September 28th.
Open Door Food Kitchen Executive Director Kelly Conant said the funds raised from the tournament will go toward operational costs for their current building and their new location in the future.
“Those operational costs are very important to us because we are a very small entity, not-for-profit, and we solely rely on private donors, volunteers and fundraising,” Conant said.
Marsha Rosenthal with Open Door said the mission of the food kitchen has not changed since it started.
“That is to feed the hungry in a community, no questions asked,” Rosenthal said. “Anyone can come in and get a free lunch who needs to eat. We feed a lot of families, children, men and women, singles, we have a lot of underpaid employees that need it. We have people who have physical disabilities, we have those who have mental disabilities and those who just are in between jobs and need something to eat to sustain them.”
About 200 people come through the Open Door Food Kitchen on a daily basis.
Conant said they are looking for teams and sponsors for the golf tournament which takes place at 1:30 p.m. on Sept 28th at the Fairview Golf Course.
Sponsorships range from $100 to $500 and include Clubhouse recognition and hole sponsorship. A single entry fee is $75 and includes the cart fee, lunch and more.
For more information about the tournament or about sponsorships, call (816) 364-1085 or email ODFKofstjoseph@gmail.com.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A judge has ruled that a proposed 10-cent gas tax increase can go on Missouri’s Nov. 6 ballot.
Circuit Judge Robert Schollmeyer ruled Tuesday that lawmakers did not violate the state Constitution in drafting the measure, which is subject to voter approval.
If approved, the tax increase would pay for road and bridge repairs and fund the Highway Patrol.
A Republican lawmaker and limited government advocate had sued to keep the measure off the ballot, arguing it violated the Constitution by dealing with multiple issues.
An Olympic medalist tax break was at the core of the bill before lawmakers added the gas tax. Plaintiffs also say lawmakers unconstitutionally changed the bill’s original intent.
The judge disagreed, saying both the Olympic tax break and gas tax deal with state revenue laws.
The counting of provisional votes across Kansas this week will likely determine the Republican nominee for governor. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach slightly widened his lead Tuesday over Gov. Jeff Colyer in the tight Republican race for governor after the state’s second largest county released its count of provisional ballots.
The counting began Monday in the contentious Aug. 7 Republican primary. The work is expected to stretch out over the week — and still might not settle the race.
According to the new Sedgwick County tally, Kobach now leads the sitting governor by just 298 votes out of more than 314,000 cast. However, the count out of the state’s largest county, Johnson County, isn’t expected to be released until after its board meets late Tuesday afternoon.
Kobach had a 206-vote lead on Monday, when the state’s 105 counties began reviewing nearly 9,000 provisional ballots to determine how many of them were cast in the Republican primary and how many will be counted. They have until next Monday, Aug. 20, to finish that process and certify the local results.
More than two-thirds of the state’s counties reviewed provisional ballots on the first day of counting this week. Such ballots are given at the polls to voters when their eligibility is in question.
Fourteen smaller counties began canvassing Tuesday. Two others will begin Wednesday, and six counties will start Thursday, including Shawnee and Wyandotte counties. Rooks County in northwest Kansas has scheduled its canvassing for Friday, and six counties have set it for Aug. 20.
If either candidate wants a recount, he must request one by Friday evening, under a Kansas law specific to statewide races. State law has no provision for an automatic recount, no matter how close the race.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas county election officials were set to continue reviewing some 9,000 provisional ballots Tuesday as the two candidates in the state’s tight GOP primary for governor appeared to dig in for a long battle.
Board of Canvassers approves recommendation to not count the 898 ballots as described. pic.twitter.com/mRE5RppwwH
— Johnson County Election Office (@jocoelection) August 13, 2018
On Monday, more than two-thirds of the state’s counties reviewed provisional ballots, which are given at the polls to voters when their eligibility is in question.
How to handle such ballots emerged on the first day of canvassing as the most contentious issue in the razor-thin race for the Republican nomination for governor.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach led Gov. Jeff Colyer by about 200 votes when the vote counting stopped for the day Monday, with 43 counties left to report results in the coming days. Fourteen counties were to begin canvassing Tuesday.
The Vote Canvass for the Primary Election, held on August 7, 2018, is taking place right now. pic.twitter.com/m5nLBAG6NO
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas election officials began reviewing some 9,000 provisional ballots Monday as the two candidates in the state’s tight GOP primary for governor appeared to dig in for a long and potentially nasty legal fight that could take weeks to play out.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a take-no-prisoners conservative, led the state’s low-key Gov. Jeff Colyer by a mere 206 votes out of more than 314,000 cast after the first day of counting provisional ballots. But 43 counties — including the state’s two most populous ones — are still left to report final results from the Aug. 7 election.
The canvass began early Monday in suburban Kansas City’s Johnson County, the state’s most populous county, where a board was set to review 1,800 provisional ballots — ones given at the polls to voters when their eligibility is in question. Seventy-six counties were to start canvassing Monday. Some will meet later this week and next.
It was unclear how many of the provisional ballots were from the GOP race. Based on past elections, Kobach said, it’s likely that about two-thirds of them were cast in the Republican primary.
The disputed race seemed certain to intensify, with the candidates challenging each other’s legal interpretations, sending observers to monitor the vote count and raising the idea of lawsuits.
A new fight was brewing on how to count unaffiliated voters who were simply given a provisional ballot by poll workers without first having them fill out a party-affiliation statement. It was unclear how many ballots fell into that category.
A legal opinion issued Monday by the governor’s top attorney took issue with the guidance from the person Kobach appointed to oversee vote counters after he recused himself.
Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker told county election officials Sunday that if an unaffiliated voter did not first complete a declaration of party affiliation, that voter was not entitled to cast a ballot. The opinion from the governor’s office said provisional ballots cast by unaffiliated voters in a primary should be construed as evidence of voter intent and must be counted.
Johnson County officials said Monday they did not count provisional ballots in which the voter did not complete the party affiliation declaration. Sedgwick County, the next largest county, said it counted ballots from unaffiliated voters who had mistakenly been given provisional ballots by the poll worker.
The counties have until Aug. 20 to finish the review of ballots.
“We’re following the same procedure that we always do. It just seems to be a bit more intense, the stakes seem to be a bit higher,” said Johnson County Election Commissioner Ronnie Metsker. “But we have sought to make that have no effect on anything at all on how we do the process.”
The canvassing board met for about 30 minutes in a small, crowded conference room. Commissioners asked Metsker a few questions about the various categories of votes that were either recommended for approval or disqualified. There was little contention and no arguing.
With such a slim margin separating the candidates, the canvass will be closely watched. Colyer’s campaign on Friday announced plans to have representatives in all 105 counties when provisional ballots are reviewed.
Not all of the provisional ballots will affect the vote totals in the GOP primary. Some were cast in the Democratic primary, and others were cast by unaffiliated voters.
Washburn University of Topeka political scientist Bob Beatty said while Kobach played up President Donald Trump’s endorsement of him in the final days of the campaign to build enthusiasm among Trump voters and other Republicans, Colyer devoted resources to getting supporters of the other candidates and unaffiliated voters to the polls.
“The Colyer campaign had a fairly strong get-out-the-vote organization, and part of that is calling (those who are) unaffiliated and letting them know they can actually vote on Election Day,” Beatty said, adding that it is possible both campaigns believe those unaffiliated voters tilt toward Colyer.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt is already considering the possibility that one of the candidates will file a lawsuit challenging the election results. He sent a letter to county election officials reminding them to preserve “any paper files, notes or electronic data related in any way” to the election.
Colyer’s spokesman, Kendall Marr, said Monday the campaign is waiting to see how the count turns out before deciding whether to sue.
Both campaigns said they planned to continue campaigning as if they won the Republican nomination even as the canvass continues.
“The liberals are hoping for a prolonged legal battle and a fractured Republican Party. They won’t get it,” Kobach’s campaign manager, J.R. Claeys, said in statement.
Colyer has questioned whether Kobach was advising counties not to count some mail-in ballots, including those with missing or unreadable postmarks, even if they arrived by Friday, which Colyer said violates the law. He also said he heard reports that some unaffiliated voters — who by law can declare an affiliation at the polls and vote in a primary — were given provisional ballots instead of the regular ballots they were due.
In a letter Thursday to Kobach, Colyer wrote that circumstances “obviously increase the likelihood that one of the candidates may seek a recount, or even the possibility of litigation.”
Kobach rejected Colyer’s criticisms of the secretary of state’s actions.
“As governor of Kansas, your unrestrained rhetoric has the potential to undermine the public’s confidence in the election process,” Kobach wrote.
Despite holding what is usually a low-profile state post, Kobach gained a national following with his tough stand on immigration and his push for stricter voter ID laws. Polling has shown he has strong name recognition — and high negatives.
On Friday, he stepped aside from his duties as the state’s top elections official until the primary outcome is resolved, but Colyer argued that Kobach still has a conflict of interest because Rucker, his top deputy, is taking over Kobach’s responsibilities.
The secretary of state’s role in the actual counting of ballots is limited. His office provides guidance, compiles statewide vote tallies and provides general supervision.
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Associated Press writers Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Missouri, and Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.
HUTCHINSON— The Kansas State Fair has a new General Manager.
Jennison during Tuesday’s news conference
At a press conference Tuesday morning Robin Jennison, the current Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism secretary was named to replace Susan Sankey.
She resigned in January to work for the Kansas 4-H Foundation.
Jennison said he is as excited about this opportunity as any he has ever had.
“Agriculture has been my life but to leave KDWP&T, we’ve done a lot of change since I came in to the agency. The biggest is we brought tourism over and made a lot of changes in parks. Even if I had been offered the opportunity to stay after this election, I likely would only have wanted to stay for two years. When you’ve gone under as much change as the department, it’s time to get some fresh eyes.”
Jennison takes on the job with the fair as it begins to venture into new territory and a possible major overhaul with the recent passage of the sales tax bill and work on a new master plan for the fairgrounds:
Raised on a ranch near Healy, in western Kansas, Jennison made a failed run for governor in 2006. He left the Legislature after 10 years in 2000. He’s since pursued several jobs.
Jennison has a degree in animal science from Kansas State University.
PERRYVILLE, Mo. (AP) – A southeast Missouri county is investigating a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 34 people.
Salmonella- CDC image
The cause hasn’t been determined. Perry County Health Department communicable disease coordinator Sheila Hahs says the agency began receiving worrying numbers of positive salmonella diagnoses from the Perry County Memorial Hospital on Aug. 7. The agency typically received just three to five confirmed salmonella cases each year.
County health officials are working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate possible causes. The typical cause is contaminated food.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention most people infected with salmonella develop a fever, cramps or diarrhea within 12 to 72 hours of being exposed to the bacteria.
