CLINTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect who ran from a Clinton County courtroom after he was ordered to jail.

According to a social media report from the Clinton County Sheriff, Taylor Brackett bolted out of the courthouse to his awaiting stolen vehicle which led deputies on a long high speed pursuit.

The pursuit went into Clay County when Clay County Sheriff’s Deputies picked up the case leading through Excelsior Springs to just outside of Mosby where Brackett ran out of gas and decided to flee on foot.  Deputies located him hiding in a tree which led to 3 hour standoff.

He taken into custody and transported back to Clinton County on a $500,000 cash only bond on his original felony charges with more to come.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will resurrect a Reagan-era rule that would ban federally funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, or sharing space with abortion providers.

The Department of Health and Human Services will announce its proposal Friday, a senior White House official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to confirm the plans before the announcement.

The policy has been derided as a “gag rule” by abortion rights supporters and medical groups, and it is likely to trigger lawsuits that could keep it from taking effect. However, it’s guaranteed to galvanize activists on both sides of the abortion debate ahead of the congressional midterm elections.

The Reagan-era rule barred family planning clinics from discussing abortion with women. It never went into effect as written, although the Supreme Court ruled that it was an appropriate use of executive power. The policy was rescinded under President Bill Clinton, and a new rule went into effect that required “nondirective” counseling to include a range of options for women.

According to a Trump administration summary, the new proposal will roll back the Clinton requirement that abortion could be discussed as an option along with prenatal care and adoption.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure, but federal family planning funds cannot be used to pay for abortion procedures.

Abortion opponents say a taxpayer-funded family planning program should have no connection to abortion. Doctors’ groups and abortion rights supporters say a ban on counseling women trespasses on the doctor-patient relationship.

“The notion that you would withhold information from a patient does not uphold or preserve their dignity,” said Jessica Marcella of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which represents family planning clinics. “I cannot imagine a scenario in which public health groups would allow this effort to go unchallenged.”

She said requiring family planning clinics to be physically separate from facilities in which abortion is provided would disrupt services for women across the country.

But Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America said, “Abortion is not health care or birth control and many women want natural health care choices, rather than hormone-induced changes.”

Abortion opponents allege the federal family planning program in effect cross-subsidizes abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood, whose clinics are also major recipients of grants for family planning and basic preventive care. Hawkins’ group is circulating a petition to urge lawmakers in Congress to support the Trump administration’s proposal.

Known as Title X, the nation’s family-planning program serves about 4 million women a year through clinics, at a cost to taxpayers of about $260 million.

Planned Parenthood clinics also qualify for Title X grants, but they must keep the family-planning money separate from funds used to pay for abortions. The Republican-led Congress has unsuccessfully tried to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood, and the Trump administration has vowed to religious and social conservatives that it would keep up the effort.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man has been sentenced in federal court for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity.

Mark Damon Dunn, 32, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, to 12 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Dunn to 10 years of supervised release following incarceration.

Dunn, who pleaded guilty on Dec. 28, 2017, admitted that he used the Internet and a cell phone to attempt to entice a minor victim to engage in illicit sexual activity from June 1, 2016, to July 13, 2016.

According to court documents, Dunn attempted to coerce a 15-year-old victim to engage in sexually explicit activity on multiple occasions. He repeatedly asked the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct and to send him videos and/or images of herself engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Dunn also sent the victim nude images of himself.

LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been shot and wounded outside a suburban Kansas City megachurch after a high school graduation there.

Leawood Police Capt. Brad Robbins says the shooting happened Thursday night after a fight erupted as people were leaving the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. With over 20,000 members, the church has the largest Methodist congregation in the U.S.

Robbins says both victims were treated and released from hospitals. One was a student who had just graduated from Center High School in Kansas City, Missouri. The other victim was wounded inside a vehicle. Robbins says more than a dozen shell casings were found at the scene.

Church of the Resurrection Pastor Adam Hamilton said on Facebook that he is “saddened for these kids and their families.”

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LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say one person has been shot and wounded in the parking lot of a suburban Kansas City megachurch after a high school graduation.

The shooting happened Thursday night after a fight erupted outside the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. With more than 20,000 members, it’s the largest Methodist congregation in the U.S.

Leawood Police Capt. Brad Robbins says the victim was a student who had just graduated from Center High School in Kansas City. Pastor Adam Hamilton said on the church’s Facebook page that a stray bullet struck the student in the shoulder.

Robbins says what was supposed to be a “wonderful evening” was “interrupted by violence” and police “want to get to the bottom of it.” Hamilton says he’s “saddened.”

SMITHVILLE, Mo. (AP) – Authorities are searching for a missing man at a lake on the northern edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers are looking for 37-year-old Charles Roe in an area of Smithville Lake that is known as Sailboat Cove. He didn’t return home after borrowing a boat from his grandfather Wednesday. Troopers say they searched the lake Thursday morning and found the boat, which was still running in neutral.

Several different agencies have been scouring the water and shoreline.

By STEPHEN KORANDA

Public universities in Kansas are proposing tuition hikes significantly lower than some of the larger increases seen in recent years. The schools presented the plans to the Kansas Board of Regents this week.

The increases in tuition and fees for in-state, undergraduate students range from 1.2 percent at Kansas State University to 3 percent at the University of Kansas.

Those numbers are smaller than some past increases. Over the last decade, annual tuition hikes have sometimes run as high as 9 percent.

“In recent years, the universities sustained reductions to their State General Fund appropriations,” a summary from the Board of Regents said. “Tuition increases, although not intended to make up for those reductions, have clearly served to mitigate the financial dilemma created by the budget cuts.”

Higher education in Kansas had to absorb a $30 million cut in 2016 put in place by then-Gov. Sam Brownback to help balance the state budget.

Lawmakers changed course on taxes last year by reversing many of the state’s 2012 tax cuts. They’ve also been restoring some of the higher education spending reductions.

After adding $15 million in higher education funding this year, lawmakers have now restored around $24 million of the $30 million cut.

In its explanation to the board, K-State said the funding increases over the last two years helped limit the tuition hike.

“This is the smallest tuition increase the university has requested since before 1989,” the explanation for K-State said.

If the increases are approved, the cost of in-state tuition and fees for a 15-credit-hour semester would range from $5,573.95 at KU and $5,191.50 at K-State down to $3,379.08 at Emporia State University.

The tuition increase at KU is slightly more than requested last year, even with the increase in state funding. KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said the increase is necessary to keep up with rising costs for employee health care and facilities.

“The proposed rate hikes won’t even cover all of that,” she said. “What we’re really looking at is a rapid increase in fixed costs.”

KU’s proposal does not include raises for workers.

Barcomb-Peterson said part of the facility cost is bringing online a new science building that will offer additional educational and research opportunities.

“It’s always about balancing affordability and quality,” Barcomb-Peterson said. “We want a KU education to be affordable for our students and families, but we also need to provide the level of education that people are going to expect from a research university like KU.”

In its summary, the Board of Regents said even after the funding boost, total state support will be $72 million below where it was in 2009.

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.