MANHATTAN— Fire investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Kansas Office of the State Fire Marshal, and the Manhattan Fire Department, have determined the fire that occurred at Hale Library was accidental due to the roofing operations that were being conducted.

A damage estimate has not been created due to the unknown amount of smoke and water damage throughout the structure. Assistance from Kansas State University will be needed to determine an accurate loss amount once an assessment of the building and contents is complete.

The building has been turned back over to Kansas State University. Hale Library will remain closed until further notice.

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MANHATTAN — Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Kansas Office of the State Fire Marshal, and the Manhattan Fire Department are continuing their work to determine the cause of Tuesday’s fire at Hale Library.

According to Ryan Almes with the Manhattan Fire Department, at 4:10 p.m, Fire crews were dispatched to 1117 Mid-Campus Drive, Hale Library, on the Kansas State University campus for a report of smoke on the fourth floor. Upon arrival, crews found a four-story section of the building with smoke showing from the roof. The fire reached a third alarm before it was contained in approximately two hours and controlled in four hours. A total of 70 firefighters responded on 12 fire apparatus with the last units still on scene Wednesday morning.  No injuries were reported to occupants or firefighters. Hale Library will be closed until further notice.

Hale Library is the main Kansas State University library. It was dedicated in 1997 after a multiyear renovation and expansion project of the original campus library building, Farrell Library, which opened in 1927. Hale Library has more than 400,000 square feet of space and has more than two million books in its collection. The fire occurred in the roof of the original Farrell Library, in an area containing several large air handling units and proved very difficult for firefighters to gain access to extinguish the fire. Damage estimates are not available at this time.  Fire damage was limited to a portion of the roof, with extensive water and smoke damage throughout the structure.

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MANHATTAN —Crews remained on the scene overnight of the fire at the Hale Library on the Kansas State University campus.

Fire official are working to determine the extent of damage and what caused the blaze.

The university said on its website that smoke was reported around 4 p.m. in the library, which had been undergoing repairs.

Manhattan Assistant Fire Chief Mike Kaus says 70 firefighters from four agencies responded to the fire in the roof of the oldest part of the four-story building. The fire was contained by around 6 p.m. Tuesday but crews continued working to extinguish it.

No injuries have been reported. The 400,000-square-foot building was evacuated, and the university said it will remain closed until further notice.

Due to the fire the university also brought down their online systems including HRIS, KSIS and Canvas.

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MANHATTAN —Crews have contained the fire at Hale Library on the Kansas State University campus. The building will remain closed until further notice.  The university also must bring down online systems including HRIS, KSIS and Canvas due to the fire.

Seventy firefighters and emergency personnel combined were on the scene from multiple departments battling the fire at the library Tuesday.

They included Fort Riley, and Manhattan Fire Department. No injuries have been reported. The building was evacauted.

Firefighters were focused on  extinguishing the top of the blaze at the northeast corner of the building.

There is no word on what caused the fire.

The library was built in the 1920s and underwent a massive remodel and addition in the 1990s.

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Fire crews from Manhattan and Fort Riley are at the scene of a fire at Hale Library on the K-State campus in Manhattan.

No injuries have been reported. The building was evacuated late Tuesday afternoon.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — More than $8 million was awarded Wednesday to a woman who alleged that the spiritual leader of a cult forced her to work without pay for a decade.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree of Kansas wrote in the order that Royall Jenkins and his organization, The Value Creators, exploited Kendra Ross’ vulnerability, “knowing that she was unfamiliar with the world outside the cult, had received no standard education, was constantly moved from place to place, and had no money.” Ross alleged in the lawsuit that from the age of 11 until 2012, when she “gathered her courage and strength to escape,” she was forced to work without pay in restaurants and as a maid, cook and childcare provider in Kansas City, Kansas; Atlanta; Dayton, Ohio; Newark, New Jersey; and New York City.

Crabtree said Jenkins and his group, formerly known as the United Nation of Islam, controlled Ross’ romantic relationships, imposed strict discipline and that she became “severely malnourished” because of the treatment she received. Crabtree said Ross was led to “believe that if she did not continue to work for them, she would suffer serious harm.” She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to her lawsuit.

No attorney is listed for Jenkins, and he doesn’t have a listed phone number. Jenkins was a member of the Nation of Islam until 1978 when he formed the separate United Nation of Islam after he said that “angels and/or scientists” abducted him and escorted him through the galaxy on a spaceship and instructed him on how to govern earth. He established a small community of followers and business in economically depressed areas. The group, which taught that black males were superior to women and men of other races, changed its name to The Value Creators after Ross escaped.

Ross’ attorney, Betsy Hutson, said her client, whose location is being kept confidential, is “thrilled” and described the judgment as a “powerful tool for the anti-trafficking movement.” Hutson said that there were “no chains but an immense amount of psychological damage.” Hutson said the “next big challenge” is to collect on the settlement but adds there is reason to believe that the group has “significant properties.”

“This has been a really long process,” Hutson said. “It is a result of a lot of years of hard work. We see that she has made incredible progress, coming out of this cult and facing her perpetrators.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal district court in St. Louis has ruled that the Missouri prison system must provide hormone therapy for a transgender inmate serving a murder sentence.

The ruling Tuesday was in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Potosi Correctional Center inmate Jessica Hicklin. Hicklin, 39, is in prison for life, without the possibility of parole. She was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995, at age 16, for killing a man in a drug-related crime in Clinton. Hicklin went by her birth name, James, at the time of the crime.

Her lawsuit, filed in 2016, challenged a Missouri Department of Corrections “freeze-frame” policy that bars hormone therapy for inmates who weren’t receiving it before being incarcerated.

The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Noelle C. Collins follows a preliminary injunction granted in February that ordered the hormone therapy to begin.

Collins said in the order that Missouri’s policy “fails by its very nature to account for the individual medical needs of transgender prisoners who suffer from gender dysphoria,” violating the Eighth Amendment’s guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

In addition to requiring the state and its prison medical provider, Corizon Health, to provide hormone therapy for Hicklin, the judge issued an order banning the freeze-frame policy.

“The court’s decision to strike down this policy will save Ms. Hicklin from pain and anguish and spare so many others from the same abuse,” Demoya Gordon, an attorney for Lambda Legal, a Washington-based non-profit for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people and those with HIV and AIDS, said Wednesday.

Corizon Health spokeswoman Martha Harbin said in a statement that the company has been “complying with all court orders regarding this case and will continue to do so.”

A spokeswoman for the corrections department declined comment but said the policy on granting hormone therapy changed in February in response to the preliminary injunction.

Hicklin has said it wasn’t until 2015 that medical experts determined that she had gender dysphoria, in which people feel extreme distress because of a disconnect between their birth sex and gender identity. She has said that she felt she was a girl since she was very young.

“For years, I felt like I had been drowning,” Hicklin said in a statement Wednesday.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has estimated there are 3,200 transgender inmates in the nation’s prisons and jails.

Perhaps the best-known case of a transgender prisoner seeking treatment was that of Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who served seven years in federal prison for leaking government documents to Wikileaks until President Barack Obama commuted the sentence in 2017. The Army agreed to pay for hormone treatments for Manning in 2015.

Federal inmates can receive treatment for gender dysphoria if an evaluation determines they need it, based on a policy enacted in 2011. The policy applies whether therapy was prescribed before or after the inmate entered federal custody.

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a court filing that state prison officials must treat an inmate’s gender identity condition just as they would treat other medical or mental health conditions, regardless of when the diagnosis occurred.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas City man who used his smart phone to pass a note to a teller was sentenced Tuesday to 37 months in federal prison for robbing a bank, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Ryan Michael Cothern, 41, Kansas City, pleaded guilty to committing a robbery Oct. 3, 2017, at US Bank at 9900 W. 87th Street in Overland Park.

Cothern reportedly robbed the bank because he was thousands of dollars in debt from a drunken driving case. The robbery netted just $615.

Prosecutors said Cothern handed a teller his cell phone with a message that read, “Put the 100s, 50s and 20s in the bag.” When the teller hesitated, Cothern said, “Don’t do anything you shouldn’t do.” The teller put cash and a GPS monitoring device in the bag before pulling the alarm. Cothern was arrested near the 8300 block of Melrose Street.

 

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors are alleging that two Topeka businessmen and a Kansas City-area man operated a $352 million business fraud scheme that involved using minority or disabled military veterans to obtain federal business contracts.

In a civil action filed in Kansas City, federal prosecutors allege Matt Torgeson, president of Torgeson Electric Co., and Matthew McPherson, president of McPherson Contractors, both based in Topeka, worked with Michael Patrick Dingle to create what are sometimes called “Rent-A-Vet” companies. They allege they received more than 60 fraudulent small-business government contracts beginning in 2009.

According to court documents, the men set up businesses called Zieson Construction and Simcon Corp. to obtain contracts meant for minority or disabled veterans and then used the money for themselves or their businesses, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported .

Under federal law, minority or disabled veterans are to manage the daily operations of businesses that receive “set aside” contracts for small minority-run businesses. Torgeson, McPherson and Dingle are not disabled or minorities and prosecutors say Dingle managed two of the fraudulent businesses.

A third front company, Onsite, was formed after Zieson was growing too large to qualify for the small business contracts, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors are asking that properties and bank accounts owned the co-conspirators be forfeited because they were proceeds of the alleged fraud.

In the court filing, federal prosecutors contend millions of federal dollars were paid to Zieson and Simcon and then funneled to Torgeson, McPherson and Dingle. Prosecutors allege that between April 2010 and January 2018, the government paid about more than $300 million in “illicit funds” to Zieson, Simcon and Onsite, and others associated with the alleged fraud.

The lawsuit also names veterans or minority individuals whose names were used to set up the front company and who signed paperwork contending they were managing the companies. No criminal charges have been filed.

In an emailed statement, McPherson Contractors said it was working with authorities on the investigation. Matt Torgeson told KSNT-TV that his company also is cooperating with the investigation. A phone number listed for Dingle went unanswered.

CALIFORNIA, Mo. (AP) – A former central Missouri police chief has been charged with purchasing weapons with city money and then pocketing the cash he got from selling them.

Forty-seven-year-old Michael Ward was charged Wednesday with two counts of stealing and one count of forgery. He is the former police chief of the 4,200-person town of California. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Court documents say Interim Police Chief Dale Embry discovered that a handgun, AR-15, and two holographic sights were missing while doing inventory earlier this month. KOMU-TV reports that investigators said Ward bought the AR-15 and holographic sights with department funds and sold the guns to a Jefferson City pawn shop.

Investigators also said Ward forged time sheets for an officer with whom he had an intimate relationship.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on allegations against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):

4p.m.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ attorneys asked a woman the governor had an extramarital affair with questions ranging from details of sexual encounters to whether she ever pierced her belly button.

House lawmakers investigating Greitens read transcripts Tuesday and Wednesday of a lengthy and wide-ranging cross-examination of the woman.

The woman’s testimony was at the center of a felony invasion-of-privacy indictment against Greitens. He faced allegations that he took an at least partially nude photo of her and threatened to release it if she spoke about their encounter. The St. Louis prosecutor dropped the case last week, although she referred it to a special prosecutor for consideration.

In cross-examinations, Greitens’ lawyers asked the woman about times she lied or kept things from friends and family about Greitens, as well as intimate details of consensual sexual encounters she says she had with the governor in 2015, before his election. She also was questioned about returning to see Greitens after she says he slapped her.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have indicted two online gamers and the California man accused of making the hoax calls that led a police officer to fatally shoot an unarmed man in Kansas.

The indictment unsealed Wednesday charges Tyler Barriss with conspiracy, false information and hoaxes, cyberstalking, interstate threats and other charges.

Gamers Casey Viner, of Ohio, and Shane Gaskill, of Kansas, face conspiracy, obstruction of justice and wire fraud charges.

Court documents do not list attorneys, and Barriss’ attorney in a related Kansas case did not immediately return a message. First court appearances for all three men are set for June 13.

Barriss is accused of calling Wichita police from Los Angeles on Dec. 28 to report a shooting and kidnapping at a Wichita home. A responding officer fatally shot 28-year-old Andrew Finch after he opened the door.