TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kris Kobach has picked Wichita businessman and former Republican rival Wink Hartman as his running mate in his campaign for Kansas governor.

The secretary of state announced Hartman’s selection Wednesday as he kicked off a four-city bus tour in Topeka. Kobach said as lieutenant governor, Hartman would function like a corporate chief operating officer and audit state agencies.

Hartman owns a family of oil industry companies. Kobach is a Topeka native and Hartman’s pick balances Kobach’s ticket geographically.

It’s also likely to help Kobach in financing his campaign.

Hartman and three companies tied to him loaned his campaign for the GOP nomination nearly $1.7 million before Hartman dropped out of the race last month. The two said there’s been no decision on how much Hartman will contribute to the ticket.

By DAN MARGOLIES

Syed Jamal, the Bangladeshi-born scientist whom the federal government is trying to deport, must be released from jail, a judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark said that though the government was entitled to detain Jamal for a reasonable period of time, his lack of a criminal history and his strong ties to Lawrence favored his release.

Jamal, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years and taught chemistry at the college level, had overstayed his visa and was detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in front of his home on Jan. 24 as he was preparing to take his daughter to school.

Jamal is still waiting to hear whether he’ll be deported, as ICE officials had sought to do on Feb. 13, when he was flown as far as Hawaii. The Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia halted his deportation after his lawyers appealed, and it isn’t expected to rule on his case before May.

If the board upholds the deportation order, Jamal still may be able to stay in the country. A private bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kansas, would grant him lawful permanent residence in the U.S.

Alan Claus Anderson, Jamal’s neighbor in Lawrence and an attorney with the Polsinelli firm who recently was etained by Jamal’s family, said the legislation has been submitted to the House Judiciary Committee. He said there’s an extensive information gathering process, “but then we hope it can move fairly quickly, swiftly.”

“There’s a matter of making sure they have what they need or questions are answered in that process,” Anderson said.

The courthouse in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, was packed with family, friends and supporters of Jamal, who applauded after the 90-minute hearing ended.

Jamal previously was allowed to stay in the United States under orders of supervision, which enabled him to get temporary work permits. He was previously detained in 2012 for 57 days.

For now, Ketchmark said, Jamal will need to check in periodically with immigration authorities as he had under his previous order of supervision.

After the hearing, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver released a statement saying that he was pleased Jamal, “will be able to spend some much needed time with his wife and children but this is far from over.”

“The current immigration system is broken and affects families who have responsibilities and deep ties to their communities,” the Kansas City Democrat said. “We must fix these laws that criminalize hard-working, contributing members of society like Mr. Syed Jamal and that’s what I plan to push for in Congress.”

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

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday freed a Kansas father fighting efforts by the U.S. to deport him to Bangladesh pending the outcome of his case.

U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark ordered the release of Syed Ahmed Jamal, 55, after a hearing in Kansas City, Missouri. He was being held in the jail in Platte County, Missouri, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Kansas City, and did not attend the hearing.

The ruling does not keep Jamal from being deported, and The Kansas City Star reported that his attorney, Rehka Sharma-Crawford, acknowledged that he faces difficulties in staying in the U.S. But she said she was thankful for the judge’s ruling.

Jamal and his supporters have been battling his deportation since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in January at his family’s home in Lawrence, about 40 miles west (64 kilometers) of Kansas City. His three children are U.S. citizens.

“I made a promise to those kids to bring their dad home,” Sharma-Crawford said.

Jamal entered the U.S. legally in 1987 to attend the University of Kansas but twice overstayed his visa. He was ordered deported in 2011 but had been allowed to stay in the U.S. and check in regularly with immigration authorities. He has worked as an adjunct professor and researcher at Kansas City-area colleges.

U.S. immigration officials put Jamal on a plane bound for his native country last month before an immigration panel granted a temporary stay in the case. Jamal was taken off the flight when it stopped to refuel in Honolulu.

At the Platte County jail, Jamal has been cut off from his family except for Sunday visits behind glass. His possible deportation had prompted a backlash, with a protest march in Lawrence and more than 90,000 people signing a petition supporting him.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri whose office was flooded with calls about the case, took up Jamal’s cause. And Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Republican whose eastern Kansas district includes Lawrence, backed Jamal’s efforts to have his immigration case reopened, and filed legislation to allow Jamal and his wife to stay in the U.S.

“With limited resources and violent, criminal illegal immigrants still in our country, the fact that our government would prioritize resources to attempt to deport Syed is offensive to our common sense and a fiscally reckless use of taxpayer dollars,” Jenkins said in a statement issued after Tuesday’s hearing.

Shortly after taking office last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that widened the categories of immigrants in the U.S. illegally who could face deportation. ICE has detained or deported people who had received reprieves from the agency during the Obama administration, which prioritized deporting violent, criminal immigrants.

The government argued unsuccessfully Tuesday that the federal court had no jurisdiction over Jamal’s detention.

More than 100 supporters packed Ketchmark’s courtroom, overflowing into a nearby one where a video feed of the proceedings was shown. Her courtroom erupted in applause shortly after she left the bench.

“I have so many people to thank, the whole community,” Jamal’s wife, Angela Zaynaub Chowdhury, said after the hearing.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Latest on the stay of execution for a Missouri inmate (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for a Missouri inmate who argued that a medical condition could result in the process causing him undue suffering.

Russell Bucklew was scheduled to die by injection Tuesday evening for killing a former girlfriend’s new boyfriend during a violent rampage in 1996.

In a statement, the Supreme Court said it granted the stay in the execution. But the court says that four justices – John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – would have allowed the execution to go ahead.

It is the second time that the nation’s highest court has halted the execution of Bucklew over concerns about his rare medical condition, cavernous hemangioma. The ailment causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, tumors in his head and throat and on his lip, and vein problems. His execution was stopped in 2014.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Missouri death row inmate whose life was spared by a last-minute stay of execution four years ago is asking the U.S. Supreme Court for another reprieve, claiming the process of killing him could cause blood-filled tumors to burst inside his head.

Russell Bucklew is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday evening for killing a former girlfriend’s new boyfriend during a violent rampage in 1996. He would be the first Missouri prisoner put to death since January 2017.

Bucklew was within an hour of execution in May 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court halted it over concerns about Bucklew’s rare medical condition, cavernous hemangioma. The ailment causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, tumors in his head and throat and on his lip, and vein problems.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) – The attorney for a condemned Missouri inmate says the man faces a potentially “gruesome and painful” execution because of a rare medical condition that compromises the man’s veins and causes multiple tumors in his head and throat.

Russell Bucklew is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday evening for killing a former girlfriend’s new boyfriend in 1996 in eastern Missouri.

Bucklew was moments away from execution in May 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court halted it amid concerns about Bucklew’s medical condition. He suffers from cavernous hemangioma, a rare ailment that causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, as well as blood-filled tumors in his nose and throat.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate says executing Bucklew would violate his constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) – The former Mississippi County sheriff pleaded not guilty to federal charges of identity theft.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Tuesday that a grand jury indicted 34-year-old Cory Hutcheson of Cape Girardeau Tuesday on 11 counts of unlawful use of a means of identification. He pleaded not guilty in a federal court hearing and was released on bond.

Prosecutors allege Hutcheson was using other people’s mobile telephone numbers to commit forgery.

Hutcheson also faces charges of first-degree robbery and making a false declaration in state court. Federal prosecutors say some of the new indictments are related to the state charges.

The false declaration case alleges Hutcheson forged affidavits to ping the cell phones of five law enforcement officers, former Mississippi County Sheriff Keith Moore and Judge David Dolan in 2014.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Attorneys for Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens say in a court filing that a grand jury has not been presented with evidence indicating that Greitens transmitted a compromising cellphone photo of a woman with whom he had an affair – a key element in determining if he committed a felony.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the argument that the grand jury never heard evidence that a felony was committed came in a Monday request to move up the trial to April 3 from May 14. Prosecutors oppose expediting the trial.

A St. Louis grand jury in February indicted Greitens on fourth-degree invasion of privacy. Greitens has admitted to the affair in 2015, before he was elected, but denies criminal wrongdoing. He has not said if he took a photo.

CHEROKEE COUNTY — Authorities are investigating a string of arson fires in southeast Kansas.

Just after 11 pm. March 15,  Galena Police Officers received a call reporting a large amount of fires on North Main near Clark Street. As officers arrived they witnessed a man running away from the reported location of the fires, according to a media release.

Officers detained and later transported the suspect identified as Ronny R. Piercefield, 38, Galena, to the Cherokee County Jail on requested charges of arson.

He was later released on $5000.00 Bond.

The others include fires at vacant homes, the burning of railroad ties and the burning of a boxing gym, according to police.

 

 

MALDEN, Mo. (AP) – A southeast Missouri woman has been sentenced to seven years in prison in the shaking death of a 9-month-old baby in her care.

The Daily American Republic reports that 26-year-old Breon Dannielle Lashay Hess, of Malden, was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Police responded in October 2016 to a report of an unresponsive infant at a Malden apartment. The boy was taken to a children’s hospital in St. Louis, where he died several days later.

Malden police chief Jarrett Bullock wrote in the probable-cause statement that Hess told police the baby was “unusually fussy” and that she became upset and shook him. She later found him gasping for breath and vomiting.

Medical staff described his brain injury as “devastating.”

STURGEON, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper says a 20-year-old man admitted to smoking marijuana before causing a deadly crash.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that Isaiah Black, of Sturgeon, was arrested last week on charges of involuntary manslaughter and driving while intoxicated resulting in a death. He has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Kevin O’Brien, didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

A trooper wrote in the probable cause affidavit that Black was driving a sport utility vehicle that crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a car in December. The crash killed the car’s driver, Thomas Willems, of Centralia. Black was treated for moderate injuries after the crash.

The affidavit says Black admitted to smoking marijuana “within the last day prior to the crash.”