KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Bed bugs have been found in a sitting area at Kansas City International Airport.

The Kansas City Star reports that the discovery was made Thursday inside Terminal B. Airport spokesman Kathleen Hefner says the infestation was on an upholstered chair in an area near several restaurants.

Hefner says the mezzanine area of the terminal was closed temporarily to clean for the bugs. She says no food prep areas were contaminated.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has rejected a bill that would have allowed adoption and foster care contractors to refuse placements to gay and lesbian couples based on religious grounds.

The House voted down the measure Thursday, hours after the state Senate approved nearly identical legislation. The bill now goes to a conference committee, where lawmakers from the House and the Senate will negotiate a final bill.

Sen. Barbara Bollier, of Mission Hills, called the legislation “sick discrimination.” But supporters of the bill say it’s needed to attract more organizations to help in adoptions.

In other parts of the country, the American Civil Liberties Union has taken adoption agencies to court over similar policies. ACLU of Kansas says it would be willing to do so as well.

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By Peyton Kraus
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — More than 7,000 Kansas children were in the foster care system in 2017, but only about 2,700 families were licensed for foster care. according to the Department of Children and Families.

At that rate, each licensed family would need to host on average two or three children in their home in order to place every child.

On Thursday the Senate passed HB2481 as amended creating the Adoption Protection Act, which gives faith-based agencies the right to not place children into certain homes if such placement would conflict with the agency’s religious values. The bill could cause a bigger need for even more licensed foster care families as some currently qualified families could be rejected in the future because of an agency’s religious values. This would mean placement agencies could restrict same-sex couples or single-parents from fostering Kansas children.

Controversial debate arose during Wednesday’s debate between senators as emotions tied to both religious beliefs and personal lives came into play. Senators Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee), Caryn Tyson (R-Parker) and Susan Wagle (R-Wichita) voiced their concerns on the remarks about Catholicism during debate.

“The prejudice displayed yesterday toward the Catholic faith was extremely disappointing,” Wagle said. “The faith that houses, clothes, feeds and provides health care to people all over the world was referred to as ‘sick.’ The faith that teaches love is the greatest commandment and that love is shared with every person, all who are created in God’s image, including immigrants, LGBT individuals and those with disabilities was mocked for its beliefs.”

After voting in support of the bill Thursday, Tyson said she supported families wishing their children to be placed in a home aligning with religious values.

“No one should be forced to choose between giving up a child–or adoption–or living by one’s deepest religious convictions,” Tyson said. “For too long, governments big and small have treated conscious clients with hostility instead of protection.”

Although it passed with a 28-12 vote, HB2481 had the highest number of opponents on any bill voted on by the Senate on Thursday Opponents of the controversial issue spoke out on their reasons for voting against the bill. Their arguments against the bill included needing the focus on the child being placed in any loving home, as well as barring any possibility of discrimination for foster care families.

Sen. Ed Berger (R-Hutchinson) said his experience working with foster care children in Wichita showed him the importance of focusing on the child during the placement process and their needs, despite what their foster-family might include otherwise.

“Those young people didn’t care if they were placed in a single-sex home, a single-parent home or a faith-based home,” Berger said. “All they wanted was a loving family relationship. We owe that to these children.”

Sen. Lynn Rogers (D-Wichita) expressed similar thoughts after voting against the bill in order to keep the priority of the agencies and the financial assistance they are given on the needs of the child, especially in cases which their parents have already given up parental rights. He also said the bill is decreasing more the necessary amount of foster care families through discrimination while using state financial assistance.

“Foster placement and adoption should make the needs of the child the first priority,” Rogers said. “This bill seeks to disqualify those already qualified for foster placement and it allows companies to discriminate with state tax revenue.”

Peyton Kraus is a University of Kansas junior majoring in journalism from Minneapolis.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A third man has been sentenced to life in prison in the killing of a suburban Kansas City gun shop owner during an attempted robbery.

Twenty-two -year-old Nicquan Midgyett, of Kansas City, Missouri, won’t be eligible for parole for 29 years Thursday for first-degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and aggravated battery.

Gunfire erupted during the January 2015 attempt to rob a Shawnee, Kansas, gun store called She’s a Pistol, which catered to women. Forty-four-year-old Jon Bieker was killed and three would-be robbers, including Midgyett, were wounded. Bieker’s wife also was punched.

Two other defendants, Hakeem Malik and Londro Emanuel Patterson, were sentenced earlier to life in prison. A fourth defendant, De’Anthony Wiley, will be sentenced next month.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City Fire Department paramedic has been indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing fentanyl and morphine from ambulances and replacing fentanyl with another substance, according to a media release from the United State’s Attorney’s office.

Michael L. Fostich, 36, of Kansas City was charged in a two-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. That indictment was unsealed and made public today upon Fostich’s arrest and initial court appearance.

Fostich is charged with one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud (related to the theft of fentanyl and morphine) and one count of tampering with a consumer product (related to the replacement of fentanyl with another substance).

Fostich was employed at the Kansas City Fire Department (KCFD) as a paramedic from August 2014 to Dec. 11, 2016. Fostich had access to fentanyl and morphine, which were stored in sealed narcotics boxes and locked in safes on KCFD ambulances. Each sealed narcotics box contained two vials of fentanyl, each containing 100 micrograms of liquid fentanyl, two syringes of morphine, each containing 10 milligrams of liquid morphine, and two vials containing 5 milligrams of liquid midazolam. As a paramedic, Fostich was able to unlock the electronic safe and open the sealed narcotics boxes in order to administer controlled substances to patients, if necessary.

The federal indictment alleges that Fostich engaged in a scheme from Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 11, 2016, to fraudulently obtain fentanyl and morphine. As part of the scheme, Fostich allegedly prepared patient care records and state reporting forms that contained misrepresentations regarding his use of fentanyl and morphine.

According to the indictment, Fostich reported he was responsible for the use of 806 doses of fentanyl, which accounted for approximately 39 percent of all of the KCFD’s total reported use during that period of time. Fostich also reported he was responsible for the use of 636 doses of morphine, which accounted for approximately 63 percent of all of the KCFD’s total reported use of morphine during that period of time.

The federal indictment also alleges that Fostich tampered with a container of fentanyl on Dec. 11, 2016. Fostich removed fentanyl from the vials contained in a KCFD narcotics box and replaced them with another solution in the vials, the indictment says, with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury. Fostich allegedly placed the vials back in the narcotics box, attempted to reseal the narcotics box, and then placed the narcotics box back in a safe located on a KCFD ambulance.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Sports apparel merchant Under Armour has become the latest victim of a massive digital theft of sensitive information about tens of millions of customers.

The Baltimore company disclosed Thursday that an intruder grabbed the email addresses and login information during a February break-in affecting about 150 million users of its food and nutrition website, MyFitnessPal.

Under Armour says the hacker didn’t obtain any payment information, Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers. That means this break-in is unlikely to require credit and debit cards to be replaced or raise the specter of identity theft, as happened with big breaches affecting retailer Target and credit reporting agency Equifax that resulted in the departures of their CEOs.

Still, Under Armour says it is requiring all MyFitnessPal users to change their passwords.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man convicted in the killing of his estranged wife last summer has been sentenced to life in prison.

Pedro Enriquez pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery in the death of 33-year-old Viviana Vazquez.

Enriquez was sentenced Thursday.

Prosecutors say Enriquez abducted Vazquez on June 7 from a Topeka home, where their 10-year-old son said he saw Enriquez drag her

outside by the hair. Viviana Vazquez’s body was found the next day in a wooded area. An autopsy showed she had been strangled.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Springfield woman who fatally hit a man in a wheelchair with her large sport utility vehicle has been sentenced to three days in jail.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 18-year-old Jordan Neeley-Smith was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of careless and imprudent driving.

Police say Neeley-Smith hit 39-year-old Kendrick Johnson early on Aug. 27, 2016, in a parking lot. Neighbors had said Johnson, who used a wheelchair, was headed to a nearby gas station when he was hit.

Investigators say Neeley-Smith’s Hummer H3 left the street and hit a fence and a concrete culvert before crashing into Johnson. Police say she was speeding at the time.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate has approved a measure to make it easier for state agencies to share information about potential child abuse.

The measure, passed Thursday in a 31-0 vote, was partially in response to the death of Adrian Jones, a Kansas boy killed by his father and stepmother in 2015 and whose body was fed to pigs. Jones’ family moved between Kansas and Missouri, and lawmakers said increased communication between states, as well as agencies within the states, could help spot similar abuse.

The proposal makes several other changes to the foster care system, including extending the amount of time the Department of Social Services is required to retain abuse records.

The bill now heads to the House.