JACKSON COUNTY – Major traffic impacts are expected later this week in the Kansas City area when Interstate 70 will be completely closed in both directions between I-435 and I-470.
The closure, which will begin at 10 p.m. on Friday, June 8 and last until approximately 5 a.m. on Monday, June 11, is needed to enable demolition of the Pittman Road, Crysler Avenue and Phelps Road bridges over I-70.
The Missouri Department of Transportation encourages motorists to plan ahead. They must follow the signed detour using I-470 and I-435, or find an alternate route. All work is weather permitting.
Eastbound I-70 ramp closures include:
o Manchester Trafficway to eastbound I-70.
o Northbound and southbound I-435 ramps to eastbound I-70.
o Blue Ridge Cutoff ramp to eastbound I-70.
o Highway 40 ramp to eastbound I-70.
o Blue Ridge Blvd. Ramp to eastbound I-70.
o Noland Road ramp to eastbound I-70.
Westbound I-70 ramp closures include:
o Northbound and southbound I-470/Route 291 ramps to westbound I-70.
o Lee’s Summit Road ramp to westbound I-70.
o Noland Road ramp to westbound I-70.
o Highway 40 ramp to westbound I-70.
Eastbound I-70 will be reduced to one lane from Manchester Trafficway to Blue Ridge Cutoff. Any traffic that does not follow the detour onto southbound I-435 will be moved off at Blue Ridge Cutoff.
Westbound I-70 will be reduced to one lane before the Route 291 and the I-470 interchange. All traffic will be routed onto southbound Route 291/I-470.
Southbound Route 291 just north of I-70 will be reduced to one lane to accommodate merging traffic from westbound I-70.
The memorial designations were authorized in a bill that Kansas lawmakers passed this year. Gov. Jeff Colyer’s office announced this week that he held a ceremonial bill signing in southwest Johnson County.
The memorial highways honor Bernard Hill, Maurice Plummer, Larry Huff, Conroy O’Brien, Jimmie Jacobs, Ferdinand “Bud” Pribbenow, Dean Goodheart, John McMurray, James Thornton and Brandon Collins.
The highways include stretches in the Lawrence, Hutchinson, Manhattan, Wichita and suburban Kansas City area.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Five people have been charged in the death of a developmentally disabled Missouri man whose body was found encased in concrete months after he disappeared.
Carl DeBrodie-courtesy image
Two of those arrested and charged Tuesday ran the home in Fulton where 31-year-old Carl DeBrodie lived before he disappeared in 2016. His body was found in April 2017 in a Fulton storage shed.
Callaway County Prosecutor Christopher Wilson announced that 53-year-old Sherry Paulo and 58-year-old Anthony R. Flores, both of Fulton, face five counts in DeBrodie’s death, including first-degree involuntary manslaughter.
The three others face misdemeanors of making a false report of a missing person.
A lawsuit filed last week alleged Paulo and Flores took DeBrodie to their home, forced him to fight and then left him to die before disposing of his body.
MANHATTAN — Officials say Kansas State University’s Hale Library suffered significant damage during a fire.
Hundreds of thousands of books, journals, maps and other items were exposed to soot in the Hale Library fire. They won’t be available for the foreseeable future. And so … our friends at KU Libraries are extending borrowing privileges to the K-State Family-photo courtesy K-State Libraries
Library dean Lori Goetsch said the university has contracted with an international disaster recovery business to restore the library following the May 22 blaze.
Goetsch says the library has extensive water and smoke damage. The fire was contained to the building’s roof, but hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were used to control the blaze.
The library also contained the university’s data center, and work remains to get the system fully back online.
Goetsch says about 250 library staff and students will be moved to temporary offices until repair work is complete.
Insurance adjusters will need about a month to assess the damage. It’s unclear when the library will reopen.
In the interim, KU Libraries extended borrowing privileges to the K-State Family, according to the K-State Libraries Facebook page. Wildcats simply need to visit one of their Lawrence campus library locations and use a Wildcat ID to check out materials.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is seeking tips related to a vandalism investigation. Photo courtesy LCSO.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is seeking tips related to a vandalism investigation. Photo courtesy LCSO.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is seeking tips related to a vandalism investigation. Photo courtesy LCSO.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is seeking tips related to a vandalism investigation.
According to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office, on May 31st, the LCSO began investigating a significant amount of vandalism to a vehicle and heavy machinery that were on a farm property south of Ludlow.
Someone reportedly damaged a Case Dozer, Komatsu Track Hoe, and a white colored GMC pickup.
Some information obtained relates to a youth party involving alcohol and possibly drugs that took place in the general area of northern Carroll County a few days prior to the reported vandalism incident.
According to the LCSO, multiple pieces of evidence have been recovered so far, including several fingerprints. Anyone with further information is asked to call the LCSO at (660) 646-0515, dispatch at (660) 646-2121, or submit a TIP online at www.livcoso.org.
The St. Joseph Regional Port Authority has entered into a Lease and Operating Agreement with Transport 360.
According to a press release from the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, the agreement is for the lease of the St. Joseph regional port facility assets and to provide operation, management, marketing for usage, required operating equipment, enhancements, and security.
The St. Joseph Regional Port Authority went through an extensive Request for Proposals process in April and May of 2018, requesting written proposals from interested parties. Three written submittals were received. Following interviews with all submitting entities, the commissioners of the St. Joseph Regional Port Authority selected Transport 360 to enter into negotiations for a written agreement. That agreement was negotiated and approved by the Commissioners on May 31, 2018. The agreement has been signed and is effective June 1, 2018.
Transport 360 will have at least three full-time employees at the port facility on a daily basis, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Transport 360 is a d/b/a of MK Minerals, Inc., in Wathena, Kan.
Bill Becker, with MK Minerals and the head of Transport 360, said he began to recognize the opportunities the port facility could offer the region by offering multi-modal transportation opportunities when MK Minerals first inquired about using the rail spur at the port facility.
“Transport 360 looks forward to utilizing and enhancing the port assets and to provide area businesses with a variety of transportation alternatives, including rail and barge, to grow economic commerce in the region,” Becker said. “Many local businesses do not have access to rail at their facilities and the port serves as an economic development asset to foster this opportunity. A company can schedule rail cars, and/or barges, and take advantage of bulk transportation cost savings and have the material transloaded at the port facility and shipped via truck to its local facility.”
Following updates to the port office building and rail track repairs, Transport 360 hopes to have product flowing through the port facility in the July or August time frame. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned later this summer.
“All in all, a very good partnership is being formed,” said Brad Lau, of the Port Authority and the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce. “We are excited to see, with Bill Becker’s leadership and commitment, the progress Transport 360 will make in utilizing the port’s assets and growing the commerce of the port. From an economic development perspective, we are very encouraged with the opportunities having a functioning port can offer existing businesses without rail access, as well as possible barge options, through use of the port facility.”
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – An audit has found multiple problems with how Missouri tracks fraud within a program that provides food aid for low-income families.
Auditor Nicole Galloway released an audit Tuesday that found flaws in how the Department of Social Services kept track of data between 2015 and 2016, making it difficult for the department to know if fraud occurs.
The report flagged millions of dollars spent exclusively out-of-state and thousands spent by people who were apparently dead or incarcerated, red flags that were often not properly investigated.
On a scale of “excellent,” ”good,” ”fair,” or “poor,” the audit says that the department’s current system for detecting fraud was “fair.”
The department says in the report that it was working to improve many of the problems highlighted.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man who told authorities he accidentally kicked his 6-month-old daughter to death has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge.
Smith -photo Boone Co.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that 20-year-old Cortavia Smith was arraigned Monday on the charge. The indictment, which was returned Friday, said his daughter died of blunt-force trauma to the head. His attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message.
Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight charged him with child endangerment after his arrest in March but said more charges were anticipated. Police said in court documents that Smith told them that during the night the girl was crying and he moved her from her crib to his bed. Smith then told police he was having a dream and woke up and found that he kicked the child.
DICKINSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a series of alleged sex crimes and have made an arrest.
Detectives from the Abilene Police Department traveled to McKeesport, Pennsylvania to serve an outstanding arrest warrant on an a suspect wanted in connection with numerous sex crimes, according to Sheriff Gareth Hoffman.
Detectives arrested 44-year-old Eric Millsap, of McKeesport, PA, on a warrant from Dickinson County District Court for over 150 counts of rape.
The crimes are alleged to have occurred between 2006 and 2015 when Millsap lived in Abilene and Dickinson County, Kansas.
Millsap is currently being held in Allegheny County Jail, in Pittsburgh, PA in lieu of S1,000,000 bond.
The Abilene Police Department was assisted in the apprehension of Millsap by the McKeesport Police Department.
The final flurry of filings ahead of the Kansas primaries in August didn’t disappoint.
“This is one of the busiest days of the year, every two-year cycle,” said Secretary of State Kris Kobach, surveying the last crop of candidates that paraded in just before the noon deadline Friday.
Performance artist Vermin Supreme arrives at the Secretary of State’s office to get his name on the ballot for the attorney general’s race. Supreme will challenge Derek Schmidt in the Republican primary. CREDIT MADELINE FOX / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Performance artist Vermin Supreme made his entrance dressed in tie-dye and with his signature rain boot on his head. He filled out the paperwork to challenge Attorney General Derek Schmidt in the Republican primary, listing a Rockport, Massachusetts address.
The name of another out-of-stater, Andy Maskin, who had filed to run for governor though he lives in New York City, was struck from the candidate list in May after a Republican party official objected. A state court judge later affirmed that state law presumes candidates for chief executive of Kansas will live in the state.
But the new law putting an end to teen candidacies won’t be in effect for this election, so the names of three teenage duos will be on primary ballots. Gubernatorial wannabe Joseph Tutera Jr. of Mission Hills and his running mate Phillip Clemente added their names with a handshake and a photo in the secretary of state’s office on Wednesday.
It is my pleasure to announce that my Lt. Governor Phillip Clemente and I will be on the Kansas Primary Ballot! pic.twitter.com/tvVemdcw5Y
— Joseph Tutera Jr. (@JosephTuteraJr) May 30, 2018
If it seems like everyone and his wife are running for office in Kansas, it’s actually kind of true.
Rep. Keith Esau of Olathe is leaving the Legislature to make a bid to succeed Kobach as secretary of state, and his wife Charlotte Esau filed to take his place in the House.
Candidate for governor and newlywed Jim Barnett, a physician and former Republican state senator, named his wife, Rosie Hansen, who worked in the Foreign Service, as his running mate Thursday. The two married in September.
The gubernatorial field has whittled down already, but there’s still a dozen candidates, with Gov. Jeff Colyer and Kobach the perceived frontrunners on the Republican side, and state Sen. Laura Kelly and former Kansas Agriculture Secretary Josh Svaty on the other.
University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller said the gubernatorial primaries are still tricky to predict — the most recent polls on the Democratic side came out before House Minority Leader Jim Ward withdrew in May.
Polls on the Republican side either have Colyer and Kobach statistically tied or slightly favor Kobach. Miller said it could also be interesting to watch how Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer spends the substantial amount of money he raised, and whether that will help move the needle on his bid for governor.
Announced independent candidate Greg Orman has not yet filed. With no primary, the deadline for independents isn’t until Aug. 6. Miller said Orman is likely to act as a spoiler, pulling mostly Democratic votes in the general election to give Republicans a possible advantage.
Not another 2016
The list of candidates was rapidly out of date as political hopefuls filed for office on the morning before the Friday filing deadline. CREDIT MADELINE FOX / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
State senators aren’t up this year, but there is a plethora of races for the House.
Democrats fielded 99 candidates, nearly as many as they did for House seats two years ago. But Miller, who has studied voting patterns across the state, says don’t count on a repeat of 2016.
Miller said some of that moderate and Democratic enthusiasm is tapering off this time around. There are fewer contested seats than in 2016 and the number of Republican primaries is down.
“If you’re looking at, are we going to have another 2016, no, I don’t think the math is there for that,” he said.
That sets Kansas apart from many other states, which are seeing a blue wave fueled by Democrats energized against President Donald Trump. If Kansas Democrats were following that nationwide trend, they’d be running more Democrats in heavily Republican, Trump-voting districts, Miller said.
Rep. Ron Estes faces Ron M. Estes in the Republican primary in August. ASCHA LEE OF KMUW/COURTESY PHOTO
The incumbent blasted the newcomer, calling him an, “imposter,” in a fundraising email Friday.
“It’s appalling and an insult to Kansas voters,” Rep. Estes said of his challenger’s candidacy. He said the other Ron Estes’ middle initial, “M”, stands for “misleading.”
Secretary of State Kobach said Kansas law allows candidates with the same name to include a prefix or suffix in order to clarify their identities for voters. In this race, his office will allow the incumbent Estes to add “Representative” in front of his name.
Miller said it’s unlikely the entrance of another Ron Estes will hurt Rep. Estes’ chances.
“I can’t think of a case where an incumbent has been brought down by a same-name candidate,” he said. “The odds should be with the, quote-unquote, real Ron Estes.”
JACKSON COUNTY – Major traffic impacts are expected later this week in the Kansas City area when Interstate 70 will be completely closed in both directions between I-435 and I-470.
