POLK COUNTY — A Missouri man died in an accident just before 1p.m. Sunday in Polk County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2018 Jeep Wrangler driven by Robert E. Hamblin, 73, Pittsburg, Missouri, was westbound on MO. 64 just east of Route D. The vehicle traveled off the north side of the road and rolled.

Hamblin was pronounced dead at the scene. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

DOUGLAS COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on alleged poaching charges. Just after 3a.m. Saturday, Kansas game wardens were dispatched to a traffic stop in Douglas County, according to a social media report from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

The sheriff’s deputy had observed blood coming out of the trunk of the car and a .22 caliber rifle in the passenger compartment.

Further investigation by the deputy and the warden resulted in discovery of a freshly killed deer in the vehicle’s trunk. The warden booked the driver of the car into the Douglas County jail on multiple charges relating to the poaching of the deer including taking a deer in closed season. All charges are pending.  Authorities did not release the suspect’s name.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed into law a measure aimed at luring large-scale poultry processors to set up shop in Kansas.

Colyer signed the bill on Tuesday. It passed in the Senate last month and in the House March 12.

It greatly expands the number of chickens growers can house in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) before they would be required to obtain a state environmental permit.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture and other agribusiness groups strongly supported the bill, arguing it would enable Kansas farmers to produce more “value-added” meat products for consumers.

But the bill came in the wake of a recent controversy in northeast Kansas where Tyson Foods proposed building a large-scale slaughter and processing plant in Tonganoxie, sparking widespread public opposition.

Tyson would rely on large-scale CAFOs such as those provided for in the bill to supply its chicken plant. Those facilities are owned by individual growers who buy and raise chickens on contract with Tyson.

Growers using what’s known as a dry manure processing system could house up to a third of a million birds at one location before being required to obtain a permit from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, according to the bill. Such a permit would impose several requirements, including minimum set-back distances between the barns housing the chickens and other inhabitable buildings or property lines.

KANSAS CITY – A Kansas City man has been charged in federal court with using a GPS tracking device to assist in the murder of a rival drug trafficker who was fatally shot in front of his 8-year-old daughter.

Lester Brown, 30, of Kansas City, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday. Brown remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Tuesday, March 27, 2018.

The federal criminal complaint charges Brown with using a GPS tracking device with the intent to commit a crime of violence, which resulted in the death of Christopher Harris, to further Brown’s marijuana trafficking operation.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, Brown and Harris had a long-standing dispute over marijuana trafficking. Brown allegedly murdered Harris in front of Harris’s 8-year-old daughter on March 14, 2018, as Harris was returning his daughter to her mother’s residence. The murder, says the affidavit, was the culmination of conflicts between Brown and Harris’s competing marijuana distribution activities.

Independence police officers were dispatched to a residence on March 14, 2018, regarding a report of shots fired near the residence. Harris’s girlfriend, the mother of his daughter, reported that her boyfriend had been shot. When officers arrived, they discovered Harris suffering from a wound to the head. Harris was unresponsive, and was ultimately pronounced deceased.

An anonymous source told investigators that Brown orchestrated the shooting assault on Harris and enlisted the assistance of two other persons as shooters. Brown allegedly used a GPS tracking device, covertly placed on Harris’s vehicle, to track Harris’s movements.

The anonymous source described a long-standing grievance between Brown and Harris, and indicated it was this conflict which likely resulted in the assault and death of Harris. Harris’s former girlfriend and the mother of his 8-year-old daughter told investigators that Harris had recently told her about a confrontation between himself and Brown at a local shopping center within the two weeks preceding Harris’s death.

The anonymous source also told investigators that Brown distributes high-grade marijuana on his own and has attempted to join other distributors in the metropolitan area to expand his enterprise. Brown has allegedly engaged in robberies of other drug traffickers with the intent of stealing bulk quantities of high-grade marijuana and other illegal drugs to distribute himself. Brown allegedly enlisted the same two shooters to assist him in these robberies.

A second anonymous source told investigators that Brown also had deployed GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of other known distributors of illegal drugs that he intended to target for robberies.

The charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

By DAN MARGOLIES

A grand jury indictment stemming from the death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab at the Schlitterbahn park alleges designers and park officials ignored minimum industry safety standards in their race to build the world’s tallest water slide.

The 47-page indictment says that Schlitterbahn’s private construction company was co-owned by a high school dropout, Jeffrey Wayne Henry, with no technical or engineering credentials.

And it says the slide’s lead designer, John Timothy Schooley, had no engineering credentials relevant to amusement ride design or safety.

Tyler Austin Miles, the amusement park’s former director of operations, was indicted for involuntary manslaughter. The Wyandotte County grand jury contends he ignored repeated warnings that the slide was unsafe and then, after Caleb Schwab’s death, misled investigators when he told them he was unaware of injury reports.

In fact, the indictment says, numerous people were injured by airborne rafts or other aspects of the water slide’s flawed design. Among those allegedly injured:

• A 14-year-old whose raft entered the runout pool after it decelerated too rapidly, throwing her head forward and then slamming it backward against the head rest. She suffered head and neck injuries and sustained a concussion. She has suffered from chronic neck pain, migraines and memory loss since then.
• Brittany Hawkins, a former lifeguard at the park, who was thrown sideways in her seat after her hook-and-loop restraint, similar to Velco, came undone. As the raft went over the crest of the ride’s second hill, it went airborne and her face came within inches of the hoops and netting above the ride path. When it landed, it slammed down. That caused her head to crash into her head rest. The raft then collided with the concrete wall at the end of the runout pool. She sustained injuries to her neck, back and head, and later went to the emergency room for back injuries, including several slipped discs.
• A 15-year-old whose head was slammed sideways against her head rest after the ride started suddenly, causing her to temporarily go blind. After cresting the second hill, her raft landed roughly, slamming her head a second time against the head rest. She later began vomiting and was diagnosed with a concussion.
• Ryan Shapiro, whose neck was injured after his raft lifted off the slide, became airborne and then slammed down.
• Samantha Soper, whose head was whipped from side to side during her ride, leaving her with severe neck pain.
• Natasha Radcliff, whose head was slammed against the head rest after her raft went airborne. She sustained severe head and neck pain.
• Norris “JJ” Groves, whose face and forehead collided with an overhead hoop and netting after his raft went airborne. The collision caused his right eye to swell shut for the rest of the day.
• Richard Palmer, whose hook-and-loop restraint came undone and who held on to the sides of the raft and dug in his feet and toes into the raft’s corners to avoid being ejected. The second and third toes on his right foot were broken. While he and his family members were at the base of the ride seeking medical assistance, a man introduced himself to them as its designer and builder and boasted that he and his friend had designed and built it together. The Palmers said the man seemed unconcerned about his medical condition.
• A 17-year-old who sustained a gash across her right eyebrow when the force of the ride slammed her head into her knees. Seven stitches were needed to close the gash.
• A 15-year-old whose foot got stuck between the upper and lower inflatable portions of the base of the raft. The nail of his right big toe tore off.
• Don Slaughter, who developed head pain after his raft went airborne and caused his head to jerk from side to side. The raft later collided with the concrete wall at the end of the runout pool. After seeking medical assistance, he was diagnosed with three herniated disks.

According to the indictment, Miles avoided or delayed repairs that would have taken the water slide out of commission during its four-month active season. It says he disregarded its deteriorating brake system even after it failed 10 days before Schwab was decapitated.

“Tears and punctures on the rafts were patched (typically by using duct tape), but the hook-and-loop seat restraints were allowed to erode so severely that the restraints commonly tore loose during rides,” the indictment alleges.

Besides numerous oral reports, the indictment states, 21 written staff reports were submitted to Miles saying the brake system was in the process of failure and needed maintenance.

“Miles possessed authority to close Verruckt for this repair, but ordinary staff did not,” according to the indictment. “Miles chose to continue operating Verruckt unceasingly. No repairs were made and the brake was allowed to fail.”

After Caleb Schwab died, a Kansas City police detective interviewed Miles and asked him whether he’d been aware of any complaints about the ride. “I have not, sir,” the indictment alleges he replied.

In fact, Miles had withheld “thousands of written ‘ops daily reports’ containing incriminating information against Miles and others,” the indictment states.

One of the lifeguards at the park, whom the indictment says Miles coerced into writing a coached statement, came forward a few weeks later and revealed Miles’ attempt to cover up one of the incidents, according to the indictment.

“Investigators eventually discovered that Miles had withheld this evidence,” the indictment states, referring to the ops daily reports, “which had resulted in the investigation being delayed by nearly six months.” When questioned about it, Miles said he was following company policy.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor for KCUR a partner in the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — If Democrat Carl Brewer were Kansas governor, lawmakers might be discussing legalizing marijuana to raise extra money for public schools as they struggle to agree on a plan for satisfying a state Supreme Court mandate on education funding.

Some major candidates for governor, like Brewer, believe the state must boost its annual spending on schools by several hundred million dollars, phasing in such an increase in spending. Several aren’t outlining specific proposals, and conservative Republican Kris Kobach said this week that the court’s demand for more money is “unwarranted.”

The Supreme Court ruled in October that the more than $4 billion a year that the state spends on aid to its 286 local school districts isn’t sufficient under the state constitution.

The court didn’t set a specific spending target but hinted in its decision that it might have to rise by $650 million a year. Republican leaders commissioned a cost study by two out-of-state consultants, only to be stunned when it said improving public schools might cost as much as $2 billion more a year.

Donors, interest groups and political activists are watching the nine major hopefuls ahead of the June 1 candidate filing deadline. Education funding is the biggest financial issue facing the state before the Aug. 7 primary election.

The major Republican candidates are Gov. Jeff Colyer, Kobach, Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer and former state Sen. Jim Barnett, a Topeka physician.

The major Democratic candidates are Brewer, the former Wichita mayor; state Sen. Laura Kelly, of Topeka; former state Agriculture Secretary Joshua Svaty; and Kansas House Minority Leader Jim Ward, of Wichita.

Kansas City-area businessman Greg Orman has launched potentially the most serious independent campaign for governor in more than 80 years. He said the next governor would face “a different set of challenges” and Orman expects the Legislature to “do its job” by satisfying the Supreme Court.

Colyer, elevated from lieutenant governor when former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback resigned to take an ambassador’s post, told lawmakers soon after he took office that their plan must end education funding lawsuits and should avoid increasing taxes. Spokesman Kendall Marr pointed to those comments when asked about Colyer’s proposals now.

Selzer’s campaign said he would respond to school funding questions next week.

Brewer and Barnett were the only major candidates to suggest specific revenue-raising measures in statements or interviews with The Associated Press. Barnett pointed to a proposal before lawmakers to impose the state’s sales tax on internet purchases, which by one estimate would raise $93 million a year. He said a roughly $600 million increase could be phased in over three years.

Brewer said the recent GOP-commissioned study makes a funding increase of roughly $600 million appear “reasonable.”

“We need to look at all avenues in increasing the state’s revenue, including legalizing marijuana for medical and recreation use and reducing tax exemptions,” Brewer said in an email statement.

Kelly said increasing education funding by between $100 million and $200 million each of the next three years could satisfy the court. Svaty suggested phasing in an increase of “several hundred million dollars.”

Ward said with state revenues exceeding expectations for the past eight months, it’s premature to talk about raising taxes. Kelly also hopes revenue growth can supply extra dollars for schools for at least several years. Svaty said if lawmakers need to discuss raising revenues later, they should take a broad look at the entire tax system first.

Meanwhile, Kobach promised this week that he would govern with “full-throttle conservatism” if elected, cutting both spending and taxes. He rejected the GOP-commissioned study on public school costs and while he stopped short of saying lawmakers should defy the court, he said the state constitution gives them “sole decision-making” power on taxes and spending.

“Hopefully, the Legislature will do what’s right for the taxpayers of Kansas,” he said. “I think the massive hikes that the report called for and that the Supreme Court called for are unwarranted.”

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — An armed man who threatened law enforcement officers during an eight-hour Lawrence standoff has been ordered to write letters of apology to three officers and undergo alcoholism treatment.

David Rainbolt, 49,  faces two years in prison if he fails at probation. The sentencing Wednesday comes one month after he pleaded no contest to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threat.

The standoff started in October after police responded to a report of gunshots being fired at Rainbolt’s home. Police say the shooter called police, and then made threats to harm officers and residents in the area. Police evacuated houses in the area and blocked off surrounding streets.

Rainbolt had been hospitalized at the state’s psychiatric facility in Osawatomie before being booked into jail.