TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka attorney has filed a lawsuit alleging Shawnee County is violating the rights of an inmate being kept in custody on an immigration detainer.
Perez-Ramirez -photo Shawnee County
David Alegria contends the county has held Elidio Perez-Ramirez longer than allowed by law. He is seeking Perez-Ramirez’s immediate release and unspecified compensation.
The lawsuit names the county corrections department, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Shawnee County counselor Jim Crowl said Wednesday the federal government gave the corrections department valid documentation directing it to hold Perez-Ramirez.
The lawsuit says Perez-Ramirez was convicted in May of two misdemeanors involving sexual battery and sentenced to probation. Although he was ordered released May 14, jail official said they will detain him indefinitely until federal officials pick him up or release him.
WOODSON TERRACE, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man is charged with domestic assault and armed criminal action for allegedly attacking his ex-girlfriend with a rock and leaving her for dead alongside an abandoned building.
18-year-old Michael Moore of St. Ann is jailed on $250,000 cash-only bond. He has no listed attorney.
Someone passing by found the victim after the April attack. The woman remains in a rehabilitation hospital. She suffered a skull fracture, broken jaw and other injuries.
Charging documents say that Moore, accompanied by his girlfriend, lured his ex-girlfriend to the parking lot of an abandoned building in Woodson Terrace. She was beaten unconscious with a rock. Her body was left near a trash bin near the building.
The policy allows some young immigrants to pay the lower tuition rates reserved for legal Kansas residents. The law has split Republicans since its enactment in 2004. The only other major gubernatorial candidate supporting its repeal is GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer.
Democratic and independent candidates said the law helps young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Kobach is secretary of state and previously built a national profile as an advocate of tough national, state and local policies against illegal immigration. He also has advised President Donald Trump.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A southwest Missouri woman has been sentenced to more than 21 years in prison without parole for leading a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine.
Federal prosecutors say 39-year-old Kenna Harmon was sentenced Tuesday.
She pleaded guilty in March 2016 to being a leader, along with her husband, in drug-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracies. Prosecutors say the conspirators distributed more than 45 kilograms of methamphetamine in southwest Missouri between June 2013 and November 2014.
Investigators say the Harmons received the drug from sources in Kansas City and St. Louis and Oklahoma.
Under her plea, Kenna Harmon must forfeit a house she was building in Halfway, Missouri, along with a firearm, five vehicles, jewelry and about $61,000.
Harmon is among 19 people sentenced in the case. Ten others have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Two of the nation’s most influential players in agriculture policy, at a meeting in the heart of the country’s Grain Belt on Wednesday, tried to ease worries about the pending farm bill and a budding trade war with China.
U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speak at a farm meeting outside Manhattan on Wednesday. STEPHEN KORANDA / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
In a meeting outside Manhattan, Kansas, Republican and U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said a bipartisan farm bill looks within reach by the middle of June.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Kansas U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran joined him in an old stone barn for the farm meeting, where they defended a tough trade stance and said dueling tariffs aren’t inevitable.
Meantime, lawmakers in Washington are squabbling over how to craft a farm bill. Roberts said a proposal in the U.S. House, which carries stricter work requirements for recipients of federal food aid, can’t pass the Senate.
“It’s a pretty good bill and I hope they pass it, but I can’t do that,” he told reporters after the meeting. “We can do some good things in the farm bill with regard to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrional Assistance Program) without doing any damage to the program.”
Negotiations over the farm bill — about 80 percent of it is SNAP; other major things include commodity supports and conservation efforts — often are a slog. The 2013 bill took an extra year to pass.
The current farm bill expires Sept. 30. The U.S. House already voted down the measure when the conservative Freedom Caucus insisted this month a vote on immigration come first, while Democrats opposed the SNAP work-requirement changes.
Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall told High Plains Public Radio last week that the House doesn’t plan to change anything in the bill before bringing it back to the floor June 22. The Senate has yet to offer its version of the farm bill, though a North Dakota senator has said they’ll start working on the bill in committee next week.
Roberts said that details of the bill hadn’t been finalized, but Senate leaders had agreed to allow a path forward for the legislation. He said New York’s Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, promised not to use a parliamentary rule known as cloture to jam up the process.
“That’s amazing,” Roberts said. “This is a time when if a jackrabbit hopped across the floor of United States Senate, Chuck Schumer would either shoot it or file cloture on it.”
Roberts, Moran and Perdue said they had stressed to President Donald Trump the importance of international markets to agricultural and manufactured goods exported from Kansas.
Perdue said farmers have had legitimate anxiety after a “roller coaster” of trade negotiations with China.
Reworking the North American Free Trade Agreement has been in the works for months. Trade became a significant issue for farmers in late March and early April, when the Trump administration proposed an escalating series of tariffs on Chinese goods. China responded in kind. China said it would target pork, beef, fruit, nuts and sorghum. Sorghum is becoming a major crop in Great Plains states such as Kansas.
Perdue said farmers should stay cool during the ups and downs as the administration works on boosting U.S. exports to China.
“President Trump … has a unique and very effective negotiating style,” Perdue said. “At the end of the day, farmers are going to be very happy over the trade additions that we see in China.”
Moran said he and others have been trying to persuade Trump to try strategies beyond a trade war, such as forming other international trade partnerships that can then collectively put pressure on China.
“Yes, China is a problem,” Moran said. “They cheat, they misbehave. They don’t follow the rules, but the solution is not a broad tariff battle.”
Moran said he’s told the president that industries including agriculture need international trade markets such as China.
“I hope this is a negotiating tactic that works,” Moran said, “but the risks are tremendous if we don’t get it right.”
Due to an editing error, this story originally identified Chuck Schumer as representing the wrong state.
RILEY COUNTY — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue attend the Agriculture Roundup Wednesday at River Creek Farms near Manhattan. He met with farmers and held a forum with Governor Jeff Colyer.
In Kansas for an Agriculture Roundup with Senate Ag Chairman @SenPatRoberts & Sen. @JerryMoran. My first trip to Kansas as Secretary and 39th state visited since taking office. Great meeting folks in the Sunflower State. pic.twitter.com/xxbMJVjCiX
— Sec. Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) May 30, 2018
They discussed the controversial farm bill with Senate Ag Committee Chairman Pat Roberts and Senator Jerry Moran. It was Perdue’s first trip to Kansas.
Really appreciated the chance to visit with fine leaders for Kansas and America in @SenPatRoberts and Sen. @JerryMoran. Beautiful country and squarely in the Heartland of our great nation. pic.twitter.com/rbepVdgxLq
— Sec. Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) May 30, 2018
A Jamesport man was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash with a deer early Thursday morning.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at 2:40 a.m., 42-year-old Joshua L. Verhagen was driving a Yamaha YZF600R south on Route EE about one mile from Weatherby at a high rate of speed. The vehicle hit a deer in the road and Verhagen was ejected from the motorcycle.
Verhagen was transported to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph for treatment of serious injuries.
According to the Highway Patrol’s arrest report, Verhagen was arrested for investigative charges of DWI, no driver’s license, no insurance and careless and imprudent driving involving an accident.
Verhagen was released to Mosaic for medical treatment.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears will close another 72 stores as sales plunge and losses grow.
The Sears at Westridge Mall in Topeka will close later this year, according to a media release from the retailer- Google image
The beleaguered retailer said that it has identified about 100 stores that are no longer turning a profit.
The retailer released the full list of stores and planned closing dates on Thursday afternoon.
Sears lost $424 million, or $3.93 per share, for the period ended May 5. It earned $245 million, or $2.29 per share, a year earlier, a quarter that included a $492 million gain tied to the sale of the Craftsman brand.
Revenue tumbled more than 30 percent to $2.89 billion, with store closings already underway contributing to almost two thirds of the decline.
Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer’s health, tumbled 11.9 percent. Comparable-stores sales slid 9.5 percent at Kmart stores, and 13.4 percent at Sears.
The one-time powerhouse retailer that survived two world wars and the Great Depression has been calving off pieces of itself as it burns through money.
Kenmore, the retailer’s appliance brand, became the latest potential sale after ESL Investments, the company’s largest shareholder, headed by Sears Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert, said it might be interested in buying it.
Lampert, who combined Sears and Kmart in 2005 after helping to bring the latter out of bankruptcy, has long pledged to save the famed retailer, which started in the 1880s as a mail-order catalog business.
Shares of Sears Holdings Corp., based outside of Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, fell more than 4 percent before the opening bell Thursday.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the resignation of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):
1:30 p.m.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney has placed a price tag on the cost of prosecuting two felony cases against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens: $65,000 so far.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Gardner offered the estimate Thursday during an aldermanic committee meeting. She was responding to a question from Alderman Joseph Vaccaro, who asked how much her office had “wasted” on the cases.
Gardner later told reporters she believed her office used its resources efficiently and effectively. She says all bills haven’t been tallied but the final total won’t reach $100,000.
Gardner on Wednesday announced her office was dismissing a computer data tampering charge against the Republican governor that alleged he used a charity donor list for political purposes.
Greitens also was indicted in February on invasion of privacy stemming from a 2015 extramarital affair. Gardner’s office dropped the case during jury selection. A special prosecutor is deciding whether to refile it.
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11:50 a.m.
Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Parson is holding a prayer service and then a swearing-in ceremony to assume the governorship.
Parson will take over after current Gov. Eric Greitens resigns Friday amid allegations of sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations.
Both Greitens and Parson are Republicans, but the two ran separately and individually won races for their respective offices in 2016.
The prayer service at a Jefferson City Baptist church and swearing-in for Parson will be closed to the general public. Judge Mary Rhodes Russell will preside over Parson’s swearing in.
Parson has cited time constraints for the initial private ceremony. Greitens announced his resignation just days before on Tuesday.
Parson has said he’ll plan a public reception later.
Spots are still available for students to be a part of the Missouri Western State University Children’s Lifetime Sports Academy and Adventure Sports Academy next week.
Dr. Britt Johnson is with Missouri Western’s Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Johnson said the goal of physical education is to help students find an activity they want to do for the rest of their life.
“My dad’s a great example of this, he chose golf. He just absolutely loves golf… and he’s closing in on 70 now and still plays a couple of days a week, so he’s physically active,” Johnson said. “That’s all that we want, whether it’s going out and doing hunting, going backpacking, orienteering, camping… we try to introduce students to as many activities as possible so that each student can find something that they want to do for the rest of their life.”
The Children’s Lifetime Sports Academy for children ages 8 through 12 has been offered for over 40 years. Instruction is offered from 1:30 to 5:15 p.m. Monday through Friday, June 4-8. The week includes archery, canoeing, rappelling, swimming and more. For more information or to register, click here.
The Adventure Sports Academy for students grades 6-8 started in 2015 as a way to build on the success of the Children’s Lifetime Sports Academy. Classes are offered from 1:30 to 5:15 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and from Thursday evening to Friday morning for an overnight camping experience. The week includes scuba diving, martial arts, ropes courses and more. For more information or to register, click here.
For information on either Sports Academy, call (816) 271-4491.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Republican running for Kansas governor has named his wife as his running mate.
Former state Sen. Jim Barnett announced Thursday that Rosemary Hansen is his choice for lieutenant governor. She and the previously divorced Topeka physician married in September.
Washburn University of Topeka political scientist Bob Beatty says he knows of no other instance of spouses on the same ticket in Kansas.
Hansen has served 26 years as a foreign service agent for the U.S. State Department, including in Washington and embassies in Germany, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.
Barnett says Hansen has traveled 70,000 miles with him in Kansas over the past 22 months, starting before his campaign launched.
She holds a master’s degree in public administration. Barnett says her knowledge will help them make state government more efficient.
