SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Republican governor candidate Kris Kobach rode in a parade on a jeep with a large replica gun mounted on it, prompting criticism on social media that the display was inappropriate at a time of school shootings.
GRANDVIEW, Mo. (AP) – An arrest has been made in the shooting death of a 16-year-old in western Missouri.
Ja’quann McCarver-photo Jackson Co.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says 18-year-old Ja’quann McCarver has been charged with second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.
Police say McCarver told officers he met 16-year-old Tyson White in Grandview after White asked McCarver to get him a gun. Police say White brought money for the gun, and McCarver then decided to take the money and keep the gun. Police say McCarver fired a shot at White, who was found outside Thursday with a fatal gunshot wound.
Police say McCarver told officer he did not intend to kill the victim.
Prosecutors have requested a bond of $100,000 cash for McCarver.
BEIJING (AP) — China warned Sunday after another round of talks on a sprawling trade dispute with Washington that any deals they produce “will not take effect” if President Donald Trump’s threatened tariff hike on Chinese goods goes ahead.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
The warning came after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China’s top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, wrapped up a meeting on Beijing’s pledge to narrow its trade surplus. Ross said at the start of the event they had discussed specific American exports China might purchase, but the talks ended with no joint statement and neither side released details.
The White House threw the meeting’s status into doubt Tuesday by renewing a threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese high-tech goods in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. The event went ahead despite that but Beijing said it reserved the right to retaliate.
Tuesday’s announcement revived fears the conflict between the two biggest economies might dampen global growth or encourage other governments to raise their own barriers to imports.
“If the United States introduces trade sanctions including a tariff increase, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will not take effect,” said the Chinese statement, carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The negotiating process should be “based on the premise” of not fighting a “trade war,” the statement said.
The American Embassy in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump is pressing Beijing to narrow its politically volatile trade surplus with the United States, which reached a record $375.2 billion last year. That comes at the same time Trump has riled some of America’s closest allies with the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
After a three-day meeting of finance ministers from the G7 industrial nations that ended Saturday in Canada, Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau issued a summary saying the other six members want Trump to hear their message of “concern and disappointment” over the U.S. trade actions.
Allies including Canada and the European Union are threatening retaliatory tariffs.
Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance and economy minister, was blunt in his assessment of the meeting.
“It has been a tense and tough G7 — I would say it’s been far more a G6 plus one than a G7,” said Le Maire, who called the tariffs unjustified.
“We regret that our common work together at the level of the G7 has been put at risk by the decisions taken by the American administration on trade and on tariffs,” he said
U.S. tensions with China had eased after Beijing promised on May 19 to “significantly increase” purchases of farm goods, energy and other products and services following the last round of talks in Washington. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the dispute was “on hold” and the tariff hike would be postponed.
That truce appeared to end with Tuesday’s surprise announcement. It said the White House also will impose curbs on Chinese investment and purchases of U.S. high-tech goods and on visas for Chinese students.
Analysts suggested Trump might be trying to appease critics of his administration’s deal to allow Chinese telecom equipment giant ZTE Corp. to stay in business. They said those political pressures mean the technology-related tariff hikes are likely to go ahead.
Members of Congress criticized the agreement to lift a ban on sales of U.S. components to ZTE, which admitted violating rules on exports to Iran and North Korea. In exchange, the company is to remove its management team, hire American compliance officers and pay a fine.
Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on a total of up to $150 billion of Chinese goods. Tuesday’s announcement gave no indication whether the other increases might also go ahead.
China has threatened to retaliate by raising import duties on a $50 billion list of American goods including soybeans, small aircraft, whiskey, electric vehicles and orange juice. It criticized Tuesday’s announcement but refrained from repeating its earlier threat.
Beijing has resisted U.S. pressure to commit to a firm target of narrowing its annual surplus with the United States by $200 billion.
Private sector analysts say while Beijing is willing to compromise on its trade surplus, it will resist changes that might threaten plans to transform China into a global technology competitor.
Ross was accompanied by agriculture, treasury and trade officials for the meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a leafy compound on Beijing’s west side. Liu’s delegation included China’s central bank governor and commerce minister.
Ross and Liu held a working dinner Saturday ahead of their talks.
“Our meetings so far have been friendly and frank, and covered some useful topics about specific export items,” said Ross at the opening of Sunday’s meeting.
The U.S. pressure over technology policy reflects growing American concern about China’s status as a potential competitor and complaints Beijing improperly subsidizes its fledgling industries and shields them from competition.
Foreign governments and businesses cite strategic plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for state-led efforts to create Chinese industry leaders in areas from robots to electric cars to computer chips.
Trade analysts had warned Ross’s hand might be weakened by the Trump administration’s decision Thursday to go ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Europe and Mexico.
That might alienate allies who share complaints about Chinese technology policy and a flood of low-priced steel, aluminum and other exports they say are the result of improper subsidies and hurt foreign competitors.
The 4th annual Vet2Vet event takes place next weekend at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph.
The event offers a place for veterans to find resources but also includes activities for the whole family.
The Vet2Vet event gives veterans the opportunity to connect with service agencies, health benefits, educational and employment opportunities, grants and more.
It takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 9, at the Civic Arena.
The state’s two current contractors — KVC Kansas in the Kansas City metro and eastern region, and St. Francis Community Services in Wichita and the western region — have been managing foster care and services aimed at keeping struggling families together.
The Department for Children and Families opened the application for a new child welfare grant system Thursday. It allows DCF to have more oversight of grantees than the old contract system, and separates foster care and family preservation services. SCOTT CANON / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Under the new grant structure, no one agency will handle both in the same region, and DCF will have closer oversight over how state dollars are used than under the old contract system.
Family preservation services will be divided across the four current regions: East, West, Kansas City and Wichita. Foster care will be split into eight smaller areas.
DCF also says the new grants will allow family preservation to be more tailored, with services lasting anywhere from six weeks to 12 months. Contractors and child welfare workers have expressed frustration with the current one-size-fits-all approach that limits agencies’ caseloads and keeps families on a one-year timeline.
Kansas privatized its foster care system in 1997 after a lawsuit revealed widespread problems and bad outcomes for children. Since then, the state has directly contracted with several agencies for foster care and family preservation, which in turn subcontract some services.
Now separating family preservation and foster care will “eliminate perceived conflicts of interest,” DCF said in a news release.
Christie Appelhanz, executive director of the Children’s Alliance of Kansas, which DCF contracts to provide training to foster families, said the new structure could be a step in the right direction.
“The reason we privatized child welfare was for innovation and healthy competition,” she said. “With additional contractors, I think we will better get to that point for kids and families.”
It might, she said, also level the playing field for smaller providers. Providers that couldn’t compete with agencies handling all child welfare services in a region before could now make a play for state grants to manage just family preservation, or just foster care, in that area.
KVC spokeswoman Jenny Kutz said the agency is considering DCF’s new request for proposals, but can’t yet speak to which regions and services they will apply to manage, if any. KVC has been a contractor for DCF since the agency privatized foster care 20 years ago.
Janis Friesen, spokeswoman for the other current contractor, St. Francis, said it won’t be releasing any information about its proposals before submitting them to DCF, citing the competitive nature of the bidding process.
“We have a long history of serving the State and its children and families, and we hope to continue doing that wherever possible,” she said in an email.
One “elephant in the room,” as Appelhanz described it, is whether more faith-based organizations will throw their hats into the ring for the state grants after the legislature passed a controversial bill allowing adoption and foster care subcontractors to turn away families who don’t fit with their religious beliefs.
DCF Secretary Gina Meier-Hummel and Gov. Jeff Colyer said the new law would keep religious providers in Kansas and attract additional providers not yet operating in the state.
Opponents of the religious exemption questioned its timing, as it came up for debate in the same year DCF’s child welfare contracts were expiring.
“I do have concerns about the timing of this [bill], that it may impact which providers receive consideration for contracts,” Joni Hiatt, director of the advocacy organization Foster Adopt Connect in Kansas, said ahead of the final vote on the measure last month.
DCF’s new request for child welfare proposals specifically requires that grantees serve everyone referred for services, regardless of “race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry.”
DCF said it will also be soliciting bids for a single electronic system to match kids with foster homes and store records for youth in care statewide.
Currently, each provider has its own system, making it difficult for the state to have accurate data on where there are available beds.
Hiatt with Foster Adopt Connect called the plans for a central placement system a “huge step forward,” saying in an email that it will, “remove the financial incentive for the agencies to only place children in their own licensed homes for monetary reasons.”
Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A former assistant principal at a northeastern Kansas middle school faces a felony charge after being accused of sending sexually explicit messages to a student.
Kilgore -photo Johnson Co.
40-year-old Eric Kilgore was booked into the Johnson County jail in Olathe on Thursday and released on $50,000 bond Friday. He is charged with unlawful electronic solicitation of a minor under 14.
Kilgore is accused of sending the messages via Snapchat to a student at Piper Middle School in Kansas City, Kansas, earlier this year, when he was assistant principal there. The girl told her parents, who called school officials and police.
Piper Superintendent Tim Conrad says Kilgore was immediately placed on leave and fired in March.
NEW YORK (AP) — Four more deaths have been linked to a national food poisoning outbreak blamed on tainted lettuce, bringing the total to five.
Health officials have tied the E. coli outbreak to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona. The growing season there ended six weeks ago, and it’s unlikely any tainted lettuce is still in stores or people’s homes, given its short shelf life. But there can be a lag in reporting, and reports of illnesses have continued to come in.
In an update Friday on the nation’s largest E. coli outbreak in a decade, health officials said 25 more cases have been added, raising the total number of illnesses to 197 in 35 states. At least 89 people were hospitalized.
Previously one death had been reported, in California. On Friday, health officials said they had learned of four more — one in Arkansas, one in New York, and two in Minnesota.
The first illnesses occurred in March, and the most recent began on May 12, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many of the new cases were people who became ill two to three weeks ago, when contaminated lettuce was still being sold. Some said they did not eat romaine lettuce but were in close contact with someone who got sick after eating it.
Most E. coli bacteria are not harmful, but some produce toxins that can cause severe illness. People who get sick from toxin-producing E. coli come down with symptoms about three to four days after swallowing the germ, with many suffering bloody diarrhea, severe stomach cramps and vomiting.
Most people recover within a week, but some illnesses can last longer and be more severe.
GOWER, Mo. – Work to replace the McGuire Creek Bridge on Route 116 will begin soon.
The bridge, just east of the Buchanan/Clinton county line was built in 1930 and approximately 700 vehicles pass over its single-lane span each day.
A replacement project to bring the Clinton County bridge up to current standards will be led by contractors from Capital Paving and Construction, LLC, working with the Missouri Department of Transportation. Crews plan to close the bridge Monday, June 4, and will replace the bridge with a box culvert. The new roadway over the culvert will be wider to match the existing roadway to the east and west of the work. New guardrail will also be installed. The contractor plans to reopen the roadway in mid-July.
During the closure, motorists will be directed over a signed detour on U.S. Route 169, Route Z, and Route B.
For more information about this and other MoDOT projects, call 1-888-ASK-MODOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest. In addition, MoDOT provides updated information on Twitter @MoDOTNorthwest and Facebook.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri residents will be able to vote on raising the state’s gasoline tax this November.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a question on the general election ballot calls for a phased-in 10-cent increase to the state’s 17-cent per gallon motor fuel tax.
The proposal would raise the state’s fuel tax for gas and diesel 2.5 cents per year, starting next year. It would also increase taxes on alternative fuels, such as natural gas and propane.
Analysts predict the tax could bring in an additional $293 million for the state road fund.
The state Transportation Department will meet with regional planning commissions later this summer to create a priority list of potential projects.
The state hasn’t raised gas taxes since 1992, when a 6-cent increase was conducted over four years.
GARDNER, Kan. (AP) — A Catholic priest from Kansas is facing charges for allegedly stealing more than $42,000 from his parish after losing a large amount of money gambling.
Cramer-photo Johnson Co.
68-year-old Joseph Cramer is charged with felony theft and two counts of felony computer crime. He is free on bond but does not have a listed phone number.
Court documents say Cramer lost more than $67,000 at casinos over seven months in 2015 and 2016 while serving as pastor at Divine Mercy Parish in Gardner, Kansas. Authorities say the money was stolen from the parish around the same time.
Cramer was placed on administrative leave last year after the thefts were alleged. The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas says Cramer has since resigned as pastor.
