A luncheon next week will serve soup to raise money for area agencies that help the food insecure.
This will be the 13th year for the Hunger Coalition’s Empty Bowls luncheon. The Hunger Coalition is made up of InterServ, Open Door Food Kitchen, Catholic Charities and Second Harvest Community Food Bank.
Marsha Rosenthal with the Hunger Coalition said Second Harvest supplies InterServ, Open Door Food Kitchen and more with commodities for the over 51,000 food insecure individuals in the area. Over 16,000 of those individuals are children. Rosenthal said food insecurity affects people in all walks of life and situations.
“You can be a member of the working poor, meaning you do work but your salary is very low, you can be homeless, you can be a senior citizen who has to make a decision between paying for their medicine or eating, which is a sad state of affairs,” Rosenthal said. “All of these people have a hard time. We have children who take part in the free meal program in the schools and we have adults who go without eating so their children will eat when they’re at home.”
The Empty Bowls luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 24th, at the Wyatt Park Baptist Church. Admission is $25 per person. Local restaurants will showcase their signature soups at the luncheon and everyone can vote for their favorite.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal jury on Wednesday found three men guilty of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali refugees in Kansas.
Wright, Allen and Stein-photos Sedgwick Co.
Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen were convicted of one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of conspiracy against civil rights. Wright was convicted of a charge of lying to the FBI. Sentencing is set for June 27.
The three men were indicted in October 2016 for plotting an attack for the day after the presidential election in the meatpacking town of Garden City, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) west of Wichita.
Prosecutors have said that a fellow militia member, Dan Day, tipped off federal authorities after becoming alarmed by the escalating talk of violence and later agreed to wear a wire as a paid informant. The government’s case featured months of profanity-laced recordings in which militia members discussed plans and referred to the Somalis as “cockroaches.”
Wright is captured in one recording saying he hoped an attack on the Somalis would “wake people up” and inspire others to take similar action against Muslims.
The government argued that the men formed a splinter group of the militia Kansas Security Force that came to be known as “the Crusaders.” The testimony and recordings indicate the men tried to recruit other members of the Kansas Security Force to join them.
According to prosecutors, Stein was recorded discussing the type of fuel and fertilizer bomb that Timothy McVeigh used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. Stein was arrested when he delivered 300 pounds (135 kilograms) of fertilizer to undercover FBI agents to make explosives.
Attorneys for the defense said the FBI set up the men with a paid informant and all the talk about violence wasn’t serious. They said the men had a right to free speech and association under the U.S. Constitution.
Prosecutors argued the plot was more than just words, telling jurors that the men also manufactured homemade explosives and tested them.
The owner and operator of 15 Kansas nursing homes has consented to be placed in receivership after defaulting on payments to vendors and failing to meet payroll.
Tim Keck, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, says the state is moving quickly to find a new owner for the nursing homes. FILE PHOTO-Kansas News Service
Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Tim Keck has been appointed receiver and will oversee operations of the homes, which are scattered across the state.
The owner, Skyline Health Care LLC of Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, previously acknowledged that it had insufficient funds to pay basic utilities and food service vendors.
The 15 Kansas facilities have about 845 residents and 950 employees, according to court documents. Three of the nursing homes are in Wyandotte County, one is in Johnson County and one is in Leavenworth County.
Keck said that Mission Health, a Tampa, Florida-based operator of nursing homes that already operates 14 skilled nursing facilities in Kansas, has assumed day-to-day oversight of the Skyline nursing homes.
“They have done a really good job of getting things organized and back to some level of certainty in the last week or so,” Keck said.
The next step, he said, is to find a new owner.
“It may or may not be Mission Health,” Keck said. “I don’t know if they will be interested in it or not. We have heard from several people that they are interested in some or all of the facilities.”
“Our end goal,” he added, “is to get all the facilities back on sound footing with some certainty and then turn them over to another operator in the next few months. We’ve got a pretty aggressive timeline.”
Mission Health has operated in Kansas since mid-2015, when it took over facilities previously operated by Deseret Health Group, which had become insolvent. In that case too, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services facilitated the takeover.
Northjersey.com, a Gannett-affiliated website, reported Monday that Skyline had received millions of dollars in Medicaid revenues for the care of thousands of elderly residents in eight states. It said that Skyline, which operates out of a second-floor office above a pizzeria and barbershop, had expanded rapidly in the last couple of years, acquiring dozens of skilled-nursing homes from financially troubled chains.
Last month, Nebraska health officials placed 21 nursing homes and 10 assisted living facilities operated by Skyline in receivership. Kansas officials moved to take over the 15 facilities in Kansas five days later.
Keck said that legal action against Skyline could be in the offing.
“I think that’s something we will attack on many fronts, probably through some litigation,” Keck said. “And we probably need to take a fresh look at our regulations on that, as to what the state has the ability to look at going forward. … But I can tell you we’ll be very aggressive to make sure that Kansas gets what we’re entitled to make us as whole as possible when it’s all said and done.”
Skyline is owned by Joseph Schwartz. A bio he provided to the Pennsylvania Department of Health says he was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and is married with four children. It says he began his career in 1986 as an independent insurance broker and “has built a profitable portfolio of real estate investments throughout the North East Region.”
The bio goes on to say that Schwartz founded Skyline in 2005 “with the purpose of purchasing and managing health care facilities.” From November 2015 to the present, it says, he has acquired 76 health care facilities, including the ones in Kansas.
Calls to Schwartz were referred to Juda Engelmayer, president of a public relations firm called Herald Strategies. Engelmayer said Skyline was not trying to run away from its problems but it wasn’t in a position to discuss them now.
“I expect within a week you’ll be hearing from me,” he said.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – The Northwest Missouri State University’s Student Senate is sponsoring its annual spring blood drive this week in cooperation with the Community Blood Center.
According to a press release, the blood drive started Tuesday and continues through Thursday, April 19, in the Tower View Room, located on the third floor of the J.W. Jones Student Union. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4:30 pm. each day.
“Every donation matters, and just one pint of blood can save three people’s lives,” said Madison Adler, the civic service chair for Northwest’s Student Senate and a senior criminology major from Smithville, Missouri.
The Community Blood Center is the primary supplier of blood and blood components in the region, serving more than 65 local hospitals and medical centers. Student Senate annually sponsors fall, winter and spring blood drives in cooperation with the Community Blood Center to boost blood supplies in northwest Missouri.
Blood from volunteer donors assists cancer patients recovering from the rigors of chemotherapy, auto accident victims needing blood for emergency surgeries or mothers needing blood as the result of traumatic birth deliveries.
For more information, contact Student Senate’s Civic Committee at sencivc@nwmissouri.edu or (660) 562-1218 or the Community Blood Center at (800) 245-7035.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say deputies have shot and killed a parole absconder who raised a handgun at them after a chase.
Simcoe-photo Greene Co.
The Greene County Sheriff’s Department said in a tweet that the chase started Wednesday morning when a deputy attempted to pull over a driver, who was identified as William Ray Simcoe Sr. The tweet said the pursuit ended with Simcoe fleeing and brandishing a .45-caliber handgun.
Sheriff Jim Arnott said in a video posted to the department’s Facebook page that deputies told Simcoe to put down the gun. Arnott said Simcoe told the deputies he had “a full clip” before raising the handgun. Deputies then fired, and Simcoe died at the scene.
The department said that besides being a parole absconder, Simcoe also was wanted for burglary.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Southwest Airlines pilot who made an emergency landing Tuesday after the jet apparently blew an engine, got hit by shrapnel and lost a window, is being praised for her “nerves of steel” in helping to prevent a far worse tragedy after the catastrophe killed one passenger and left seven others hurt.
Tammie Jo Shults was at the controls of the Dallas-bound Flight 1380 when it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, said her husband, Dean Shults. The twin-engine Boeing 737 that left New York with 149 people board was hit by shrapnel that smashed a window and damaged the fuselage, killing a passenger and injuring seven others, authorities said. The pilot took the plane into a rapid descent as passengers using oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling braced for impact.
Shults was among the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. military, according to friends and the alumni group at Shults’ alma mater, MidAmerica Nazarene.
Shults was a 1983 graduate of the university in Olathe, Kansas, where she earned degrees in biology and agribusiness, said Carol Best, a university spokeswoman told The Kansas City Star.
Passenger Alfred Tumlinson, of Corpus Christi, Texas, lauded Shults and her crew for their professionalism.
“She has nerves of steel. That lady, I applaud her. I’m going to send her a Christmas card — I’m going to tell you that — with a gift certificate for getting me on the ground. She was awesome,” Tumlinson said “The lady, the crew, everything, everybody was immaculate. They were so professional in what they did to get us on the ground.”
Shults’ brother-in-law, Gary Shults, said her husband also is a Southwest pilot and told him she had made the emergency landing.
“She’s a formidable woman, as sharp as a tack,” said Gary Shults, a dentist in San Antonio. “My brother says she’s the best pilot he knows. She’s a very caring, giving person who takes care of lots of people.”
Passengers said she walked through the aisle and talked with them to make sure they were OK after the plane touched down.
U.S. transportation Secretary Elaine Chao extended her sympathies to the loved ones of the passenger who died, Jennifer Riordan, of New Mexico, and praised the pilot, crew and others who were on board.
“I commend the pilots who safely landed the aircraft, and the crew and fellow passengers who provided support and care for the injured, preventing what could have been far worse,” Chao said in a statement.
Travelers said fellow passengers dragged Riordan back in as the sudden decompression of the cabin pulled her part way through the smashed window.
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said it was the first passenger fatality in an accident involving a U.S. airline since 2009.
CLAYCOMO, Mo. (AP) – A former Missouri emergency medical technician has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for arranging to have an Uber bring a 15-year-old girl to a fire station where he worked and then having sex with her.
Pelc -photo Clay Co.
The Kansas City Star reports that 26-year-old Scott Pelc, of Kearney, was sentenced Tuesday for second-degree statutory rape and second-degree statutory sodomy.
Clay County Prosecutor Daniel White says Pelc contacted the girl through a mobile app called Whisper, made the Uber arrangements and then sneaked the teen into the Claycomo fire station.
After Pelc received a service call and left, the girl walked to a fast-food restaurant where she fell and injured her arm. Pelc was in the ambulance that responded to her 911 call. She eventually told her mother what happened.
Windy and a bit cooler today; then slightly warmer temperatures will round out the work week. Rain chances have decreased for the weekend, especially north of I-70. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 50. Breezy, with a northwest wind 18 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 17 to 22 mph decreasing to 8 to 13 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 55. North northwest wind around 8 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 33. East northeast wind 5 to 7 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Southeast wind 6 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 57.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 63.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 42.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 68.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 46.
Tuesday: A chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 67. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
CIA Director Pompeo Before becoming Director, Mr. Pompeo was serving in his fourth term as congressman from Kansas’ 4th District.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the United States and North Korea (all times local):
7a.m.
President Donald Trump is confirming that his CIA director met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea “last week” in anticipation of their potential summit.
Trump tweets that Mike Pompeo’s meeting “went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed.”
The president says summit details are being worked out and that “Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!”
Trump had said on Tuesday that talks between the U.S. and North Korea were underway at an “extremely high level.”
The summit is expected to take place by early June. Trump says five locations are under consideration.
Pompeo was elected to serve Kansas 4th Congressional District in 2010 until his nomination to serve as CIA Director.
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12:35 a.m.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently traveled to North Korea to meet with leader Kim Jong Un, a highly unusual, secret visit undertaken as the enemy nations prepare for a meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim.
Two officials have confirmed the trip to The Associated Press. They are not authorized to discuss the visit publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Washington Post first reported Pompeo’s meeting with Kim, saying it took place just over two weeks ago during Easter weekend.
Trump said the U.S. and North Korea are holding direct talks at “extremely high levels” in preparation for a possible summit with Kim, expected to take place by early June.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump and Kim have not spoken directly.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri House members have passed legislation to cut the current income tax rates of 6.25 percent for businesses and 5.9 percent for most Missourians down to 5 percent.
The House voted 91-61 Tuesday to approve the measure. It now moves to the Senate.
A luncheon next week will serve soup to raise money for area agencies that help the food insecure. 
