KANSAS CITY. – A Kansas City man was sentenced in federal court Friday for sharing child pornography over the Internet.

Michael Vandergriff, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 11 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Vandergriff to supervised release for the rest of his life following incarceration, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

On Feb. 6, 2018, Vandergriff pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography. Vandergriff admitted that he shared videos and images of child pornography over the Internet via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

On April 2, 2015, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Vandergriff’s residence and seized numerous electronic items. According to court documents, a forensic examination established that Vandergriff had no less than 6,500 video and image files depicting child pornography. The seized media also included obscene images depicting minors in bondage and bestiality. Vandergriff appeared to utilize a hidden camera to record images of minors.

According to court documents, law enforcement officers downloaded a total of at least 1,821 video and image files of child pornography, some of which was particularly graphic, on seven separate occasions from Vandergriff’s computer during their investigation from Sept. 17, 2014, to Feb. 26, 2015.

By STEPHAN BISAHA

Some Republican gubernatorial candidates are calling for the end of in-state tuition for undocumented students at public universities in Kansas.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach wants undocumented students to pay the more expensive non-resident tuition rate. Gov. Jeff Colyer expressed a similar view during a Republican forum Tuesday night hosted by KWCH and KMUW.

“I would happily sign that bill if it ever came to us,” Colyer said.

According to the Kansas Division of the Budget, that would raise about $2.3 million in tuition revenue.

But that figure comes with an asterisk — it assumes all undocumented students would stay at Kansas universities. Board of Regents President Blake Flanders says those students could be driven away.

 

 

 

 

“Some would say … they just won’t go as opposed to paying the higher rate,” Flanders said.

The non-resident rate is more than twice the in-state rate.

“It’s hard to image that any of these students would be able to afford the out-of-state rate because they’re not eligible for any financial assistance at all,” said Matt Casey, the director of government relations at the Board of Regents.

According to the Board of Regents, 670 undocumented students received in-state tuition in Kansas last fall. A 2004 Kansas law allowed “persons without lawful immigration status” to receive the reduced rate, as long as they attended a Kansas high school for at least three years and graduated from one.

As state funding for higher education has dwindled over the years, Kansas universities have relied on increased enrollment as a way of covering costs. For those universities, every additional student helps their budget, regardless of whether they are paying the in-state or non-resident rate.

“If you got room for another two students in the class and they’re paying an in-state rate, that’s better than them not attending,” Casey said.

Stephan Bisaha reports on education for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on @SteveBisaha.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Some Missouri nurses will soon be able to take advantage of a pilot program that allows them to take summers off in an attempt to alleviate overstaffing issues.

Chesterfield-based Mercy Health’s pilot program will accept six nurses.

Jenny Schwartz is the nurse manager of the children’s hospital at Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur. She says many nurses left the hospital last year because they couldn’t get enough hours in the summer. Nurses are told to stay home when patient volumes are low, resulting in a loss of pay.

Christina Muzzy was the first nurse to be accepted into the program. While the 25-year-old will have summer off, it’s expected that she won’t schedule paid time off between September and May.

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Police say a Missouri woman missing for a week has been found dead in an eastern Kansas house, and a man has been arrested on suspicion of killing her.

The Kansas City Police Department says the body of 43-year-old MeShon Cooper, who had been missing from Kansas City since July 6, was found early Saturday morning in a house in Shawnee, Kansas.

Shawnee police say 47-year-old Ronald Lee Kidwell, of Shawnee, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He remains in jail on $1 million bond.

Police say Cooper’s body was found as part of a joint investigation by the Kansas City, Shawnee and Lenexa police departments. Prosecutors say Kidwell is suspected of having killed her sometime between July 6 and Friday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Republican candidate for Congress is denying claims from three Democratic officials that he considered running as a Democrat and expressed socially liberal views before announcing as a GOP candidate last year.

Steve Watkins, an Army veteran seeking the GOP nomination in Kansas’ 2nd District, met with the Democrats at the Shawnee Democratic Party headquarters in Topeka in August 2017 when he was considering launching a campaign.

Ty Dragoo, the Democratic vice chairman for the 2nd District, said Watkins was trying to determine if the party would support him and expressed liberal social views during the meeting, including supporting labor unions, sensible gun laws and LGBT rights.

“He sounded like a Kansas Democratic Party member,” Dragoo said. “His social views were liberal.”

Watkins disputed Dragoo’s characterization of the meeting.

“I was not at any point looking to run as a Democrat, nor was I ever approached about running as a Democrat,” Watkins said. “I was taking some meetings with political types . and an associate advised me to reach out to Ty. At some point, I realized he had arranged the meeting to take place at the Democratic HQ. I didn’t back down from that. I’ve met with insurgents and warlords.”

Watkins, 41, said he didn’t participate when the Democrats expanded the discussion to include more liberal policies.

He announced his campaign as a Republican in November, four months after the meeting took place.

The Star reported it could find no evidence that Watkins ever voted or registered to vote before he voted last year in a local Topeka election, shortly before he announced his candidacy. Watkins said he couldn’t recall if he ever registered but he was well known of his conservative views as a graduate student at Harvard University after he left the Army in 2004.

He agreed to the meeting because he wanted to learn about transportation policy after being told by an adviser Dragoo was a transportation lobbyist, Watkins said.

Dragoo is the state legislative director for the Kansas chapter of SMART, a union that represents transportation workers. He called The Star about the 2017 meeting after seeing Watkins support a Supreme Court ruling that limits the ability of public sector unions to collect fees. Watkins said he didn’t know Dragoo was a union representative until being told by the newspaper Thursday.

Luke Domme, a Shawnee Democratic Party’s vice chairman and a business representative for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ union, was at the meeting and supported Dragoo’s contention that Watkins was trying to decide whether to run as a Democrat or Republican.

Sarah Coats, a Democratic candidate for the Kansas Legislature, also attended the meeting and said Watkins expressed fiscal conservatism but more liberal views on social issues.

“He said that he thought he was too much of a moderate, so he was really interested in being in the Democratic Party,” she said.

Watkins said he was surprised that Coats was at the meeting. He also denied that Domme attended but the three Democrats said Domme set up the meeting and was there.

“The politics were middle of the road to me,” Domme said of Watkins. “I didn’t expect him to immediately swing to the Republicans.”

Watkins said the Democrats are bringing up the meeting now because they “want to damage me because they know I stand the best chance of beating Democratic front runner Paul Davis in the general election.

LAMAR, Mo. (AP) – A 39-year-old southwest Missouri man avoided a possible death penalty by admitting that he kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old girl in 2013.

Bobby Bourne will instead serve life in prison without parole for first-degree murder as part of a plea deal reached Friday in the death of Adriaunna Horton. He also was sentenced to a consecutive life sentence for kidnapping.

The Joplin Globe reports Bourne’s trial was scheduled to begin later this month.

Horton was kidnapped from a park in Golden City in August 2013. Three days later, Bourne led investigators to her body in a wooded area near the town.

Medical experts disagreed on how the girl died.

CARROLL COUNTY — A Missouri man died in an accident just before 12:30a.m. Saturday in Carroll

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1997 Mercury passenger vehicle driven by Dustin M. Goodale, 30, Carrollton, was eastbound on County Road 255 just south of County Road 290.

The vehicle traveled off the right side of the road and began to slide. It continued off the left side of the road, overturned and ejected the passenger identified as Andrew L. Waters, 28, Carrollton.

Waters was pronounced dead at the scene. Goodale refused treatment. They were not wearing seat belts, according to the MSHP.