JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The bodies of two hikers, believed to be those reported missing in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, have been discovered.

The National Park Service says bodies matching the description of the Missouri hikers reported missing in the park last week were recovered Monday along the Sanford River.

The park service tentatively identified the two as Rochelle Renken and Michael Huffman, both 62, from Columbia, Missouri. The agency says they were experienced backpackers and that Renken had prior experience crossing Alaska rivers. The bodies were sent to the state medical examiner for positive identification.

Evidence suggests the two tried to cross the river near the toe of Sanford Glacier but were swept away by the powerful current.

The hikers were last seen June 22.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Authorities arrested a suspect Tuesday in a shooting that killed one contract worker and critically injured another outside an elementary school in suburban Kansas City.

A suspect was taken into custody outside a nearby home where authorities found a sport utility vehicle that was carjacked after the shooting at Sunrise Point Elementary School, according to Jason Rhodes, spokesman for the Overland Park Fire Department in Kansas. He was jailed but not formally charged as of Tuesday afternoon.

Rhodes said that when police started to move in with armored vehicles, the suspect bolted from the back door of the home and was taken down. His name wasn’t immediately released.

Investigators said the suspect shot two co-workers earlier in the day as they installed artificial turf on a playground at the school. No students were at the school at the time, said Blue Valley School District spokeswoman Becky Miller.

One of the men died at a hospital a few hours after the shooting, Overland Park police spokesman John Lacy said. The second man was in critical condition. Names of both men have not been released.

The suspect had tried but failed to carjack another vehicle at a carwash before stealing the SUV, a black GMC Denali.

Police Chief Francis Donchez said the home where the suspect was arrested belonged to the owner of the SUV. He said it’s unclear what led the suspect to go to that home but described it as “bizarre to say the least.” Donchez said police never made contact with the suspect while he was inside the home but believed he was there because a dog came out of the house.

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Authorities have arrested a suspect in a shooting that critically wounded two contract workers outside a suburban Kansas City elementary school.

Overland Park, Kansas, Fire Department spokesman Jason Rhodes says the man was taken into custody Tuesday at a home where authorities found a sport utility vehicle that was carjacked after the shooting at Sunrise Point Elementary School.

All clear. One in custody @OPPD_PIO https://t.co/evAZQPGdEj

— Overland Park Police (@OverlandPark_PD) July 3, 2018

The suspect shot two co-workers. No students were present when the shooting occurred.

Rhodes says when police moved closer to the property with armored vehicles, the suspect bolted from the back door and was taken down. His name hasn’t been released.

Update: We have surrounded a home near W.159th and Rosewood. This is relation to the shooting. If you live in this area, please lock your doors and report anything suspicious. I will give the all clear. Stand by.

— John P. Lacy (@OPPD_PIO) July 3, 2018

Police Chief Frank Donchez says the home belonged to the owner of the carjacked vehicle. He says it’s unclear what led the suspect to go to that home, describing it as “bizarre to say the least.”

 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a shooting that critically wounded two workers at a suburban Kansas City elementary school.

#OPPD is investigating a double shooting at Sunrise Point Elementary School at 159th and Mission. No students were at the school at the time. No school employees were involved. @bvschools

— Overland Park Police (@OverlandPark_PD) July 3, 2018

Overland Park police spokesman Officer John Lacy says the shooting happened Tuesday at Sunrise Point Elementary School in the Blue Valley school district.

No students were hurt.

The shooting suspect fled and tried to carjack someone at a car wash. Police say shots were fired but no one was hit. The suspect stole another vehicle at gunpoint a few minutes later.

Police are searching for the suspect.

Lacy and district spokeswoman Kaci Brutto haven’t responded to phone messages left by The Associated Press.

By JIM MCLEAN

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer says he will continue to push for a Medicaid work requirement despite a recent court order blocking a similar policy in Kentucky.

Last week, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee in the District of Columbia, questioned whether the Trump administration had adequately considered the consequences of Kentucky’s work requirement before reversing longstanding federal policy to approve it.

Despite the setback, Colyer said his administration will continue discussions with federal officials about requiring some of the more than 420,000 Kansans enrolled in KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, to work or pursue job training.

“I remain strongly committed to incentivizing self-reliance through work,” Colyer said in an email to the Kansas News Service.

Noting that the requirement would apply to only non-disabled adults, Colyer said, “These sort of initiatives have been incredibly successful in transitioning people from public assistance to independence.”

Sheldon Weisgrau, the leader of a broad-based coalition pushing to make more people eligible for KanCare, said the court ruling “confirms that work requirements do nothing to enhance access to health care.”

“Instead, such mandates are costly and punitive, wasting millions of dollars to create bureaucratic obstacles and ultimately covering fewer people,” Weisgrau said.

A recent study by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C., found that Medicaid work requirements could be counter-productive.

Forcing Medicaid recipients into low-wage jobs, the report said, would leave many ineligible for Medicaid but unable to afford private coverage.

In the final weeks of the 2018 legislative session, Kansas lawmakers approved a budget proviso that allows the Colyer administration to continue negotiating with federal officials. But it prohibits state officials from implementing a work requirement with legislative approval.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A Mississippi woman has been sentenced to eight years in prison for using pepper spray on suburban Kansas City police officers after they caught her shoplifting from a Victoria’s Secret store.

40-year-old Latrina Newsome pleaded no contest in May to aggravated battery and battery against a law enforcement officer in Johnson County District Court in Kansas. She was sentenced Friday.

Authorities say she was caught last September shoplifting from the store at a mall in Overland Park. Police say that when officers tried to arrest her, she sprayed them with pepper spray and that she and a person who was with her fought with officers before they were subdued. One officer suffered a broken foot in the fight, and another officer broke a finger.

YAVAPAI COUNTY, AZ — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after a weekend arrest.

Just after 6:30p.m. June 29, a Yavapai County Deputy stopped a Ford F150 for a moving violation on east 140 near Ash Fork, Arizona, according to a media release.

The driver identified as 27-year-old Richard Arrington of Missouri was traveling with his 5-year-old son.  During a conversation with Arrington, the deputy noticed a strong smell of marijuana in the vehicle, according to the release.

Arrington started to panic, expressed concern for his son and asked about the deputy’s K9 partner waiting in the patrol vehicle.  He also denied transporting any drugs and said the smell was from a marijuana cigarette he had smoked the night before.

When Arrington realized his vehicle would be searched, he admitted about 120 pounds of marijuana, according to the release. Deputies found much more.  The bags of marijuana weighed 178 pounds. Some of the marijuana was stored next to the 5-year-old. Deputies also found almost $2,000 in cash

Deputies arrested Arrington and booked him into the Camp Verde Detention Center on charges of transportation of marijuana for sale and child abuse. He is being held on a $100,000 Bond. The boy was released to the Arizona Department of Child safety pending contract with his mother.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – A 19-year-old suburban Kansas City, Missouri, man is facing charges accusing him of causing injuries that left a 1-year-old boy brain dead.

Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker on Monday announced child abuse charges against Carlos Alaniz of Independence.

The Kansas City Star reports that police were called to Children’s Mercy Hospital and learned that the child had a lacerated liver, several broken ribs and bruises, along with signs of previous brain injury. The child is the son of Alaniz’s girlfriend.

Police say Alaniz told them he struck the child because the boy would not stop crying, and he didn’t like the fact that the boy looked like his biological father.

Alaniz does not yet have a listed attorney.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man arrested at a suburban Kansas City storage unit with two of his children and his dismembered wife’s remains has been found competent to stand trial after undergoing a mental health evaluation.

The ruling was made Monday during a hearing for Justin Rey in Johnson County, Kansas, where he’s charged with child endangerment.

He isn’t charged in his wife’s killing. Rey says she died after giving birth in October in a Kansas City hotel room. Investigators say he then went to the Lenexa, Kansas, storage unit where he was arrested with the newborn and the couple’s toddler. He was preparing to catch a train. He’s also charged in the death of a California man whose body hasn’t been found.

Rey told The Associated Press he didn’t kill anyone.

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison in the fatal shooting of a woman in her apartment near the Emporia State University campus.

Sony Uk, of Emporia, won’t be eligible for parole for 50 years under the sentence ordered Monday for first-degree murder. Judge Merlin Wheeler said there was “absolutely no reason or justification” for the March 2017 death of 38-year-old Mahogany Brooks. Uk declined to speak at the hearing.

During his trial, the defense argued that the killing wasn’t premeditated, which is required for a first-degree murder conviction. But the prosecution argued it was, saying Uk arrived at Brooks’ apartment with a loaded shotgun and pulled the trigger multiple times.