KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted two more employees of a company that owns a duck boat that sank on a Missouri lake last summer, killing 17 people.

Curtis Lanham, the general manager at Ride the Ducks Branson, and Charles Baltzell, the operations supervisor, were charged with misconduct and neglect in a 47-count indictment that was unsealed and made public Thursday following their initial court appearances, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The boat’s captain, Kenneth Scott McKee, of Verona, was indicted previously on charges alleging that he failed to properly asses the weather and failed to tell passengers to don flotation devices as conditions worsened. The amphibious vehicle the 51-year-old was piloting sank July 19, 2018, at Table Rock Lake near Branson after it entered the lake despite severe weather warnings. Riders from Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Arkansas were killed; 14 people survived the sinking.

According to the indictment, Baltzell, 76, of Kirbyville, got onto the duck boat before it departed and directed McKee to conduct the water portion of the excursion before the land tour because of the approaching storm. At no point after that did Baltzell or Lanham communicate with McKee about the growing intensity of the storm, including that wind gusts of 70 mph were predicted, the indictment said. Rules barred the boat from operating on the water when winds exceeded 35 mph.

Baltzell, who was responsible for dispatching to the boat while tours were underway, wasn’t even on the same floor as the weather radar viewing screens are located because he was conducting closing duties, the indictment said. At one point Baltzell communicated with Lanham, who was himself on a tour, about the fact that McKee’s Stretch Duck 7 tour was conducting the water portion of the tour first. Lanham, 36, of Galena, replied, “Good it’s dark right now,” the indictment said.

Lanham also is accused in the indictment of failing to establish training and policies for monitoring for severe weather and allowed others responsible for monitoring weather to be distracted by other duties. The indictment said Lanham helped create “a work atmosphere on Stretch Duck 7 and other duck boats where the concern for profit overshadowed the concern for safety.”

Phone and email messages seeking comment from attorneys for Lanham and Baltzell were not immediately returned.

Ripley Entertainment spokeswoman Suzanne Smagala-Potts said the Orlando, Florida-based company is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s office and other agencies investigating the incident. The company suspended operation of the boats after the sinking and opened a replacement entertainment attraction this year.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to help and support the community of Branson and those impacted by this accident,” Smagala-Potts said in a statement. “While the United States Attorney has decided to bring criminal charges as a result of the accident, all persons charged are entitled to a strong presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. We have and will continue to offer support for all of our employees as this process moves forward.”

Smagala-Potts said Ripley continues to work with the surviving victims and relatives of those killed “and have reached settlement agreements with many individuals and families, and we continue to work with others.”

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Johnson County authorities say a couple is charged with child abuse and endangerment after they brought a 5-year-old boy to a hospital weighing only 28 pounds.

Court documents say investigators were called to Children’s Mercy Hospital in December. Doctors said the boy suffered malnutrition from starvation, a distended stomach and a perforated bowel caused by blunt force trauma. He also had bruises on most of his body.

He was taken into protective custody after hospital staff told investigators the child had lost 10 pounds since he had been to the hospital in September.

Francis and Carter are each jailed on $100,000 bond.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran has broken with most other Republican senators in voting to block President Donald Trump’s administration from selling arms to Saudi Arabia.

Congress has an important role in the oversight and approval of arms sales to foreign countries. Today’s vote was to retain that power by preventing the bypassing of Congress, and ensure that partners who receive American weapons will respect American interests.

— Senator Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) June 20, 2019

Moran supported two resolutions Thursday disapproving of Trump’s use of emergency authority to make the sales.

Moran was among seven Republicans to vote for the two measures. Fellow Kansas Republican Pat Roberts voted against them.

One resolution objected to arm sales based on the Saudi regime’s involvement in a civil war in Yemen and evidence of a role in the murder of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Moran said the resolutions prevent Congress from being bypassed on arm sales.

Trump is expected to veto the measures. They passed 53-45, well short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto.

LEBANON, Mo. (AP) — Court documents say a retired Missouri school administrator twice exposed himself to a 9-year-old at a shopping mall and inappropriately touched a 17-year-old at a YMCA.

Eighty-year-old Thomas Luthy Jr., of Lebanon, was charged this week with three misdemeanor counts of sexual misconduct. The court documents say Luthy was in the mall’s bathroom when he exposed himself and that the teenager was listening to music in his car in April when Luthy touched him.

Luthy’s attorney, Dee Wampler, told the Springfield News-Leader that the charges are a “shock.”

The Lebanon school district told KYTV that Luthy worked there from the 1960s until he retired as the assistant superintendent in 2000. If convicted, Luthy faces up to 15 days in jail on one count and six months on the other two.

SHAWNEE COUNTY —One person died in an accident Thursday in Shawnee County.

Just before 9a.m., first responders were called to the 3700 block of NW Humphrey Road where an employee of Capital City Tree Care was involved in a tree trimming accident, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.

Cory B Harr, 31, of Topeka, died as a result of the accident. Soldier Township Fire Department assisted at the scene.

The sheriff’s department released no additional details. The incident is still under investigation.

LAURIE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a 93-year-old woman headed to a water exercise class drove her car into an indoor pool in central Missouri.

The woman apparently blacked out Tuesday morning before crashing through a wall at the Westlake Aquatic Center. She landed in the shallow end of the pool, where eight people were participating in an arthritis exercise class.

Westlake Aquatic Center board president Lucy Silliman says “It’s a miracle no one was hurt.” Participants helped the elderly driver until rescue crews arrived. The driver was taken home by her grandson.

Crews drained the water Wednesday and used a ramp to get the car out of the pool.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s only abortion clinic, already facing the threat of losing its license, says it will defy the state by refusing to perform a required pelvic examination days before an abortion.

A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman confirmed a CBS News report that as of Thursday the St. Louis clinic no longer performs the exam during a consultation at least 72 hours before an abortion, as required by the state health department. Planned Parenthood calls the requirement “disrespectful and dehumanizing.”

Doctors do perform a pelvic exam at the time of the abortion procedure.

The state didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The health department let the clinic’s license lapse effective May 31, but a judge said the state must either approve or deny the license. A decision could be announced at a court hearing Friday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The popular Country Stampede music festival will be moving from Manhattan to Topeka — and changing its name.

Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla made the announcement Thursday hours before the event kicked off in Topeka.

Country Stampede has been held at Tuttle Creek State Park in Manhattan for 23 years. It was moved to Heartland Motorsports Park for this year’s event because of flooding at Tuttle Creek.

Experts estimated the three-day event brought $8 million to the Manhattan economy. It annually draws more than 100,000 fans to hear some of the biggest country stars.

This year’s event features 50 country acts, including Clint Black, Jake Owen and Jason Aldean. It is scheduled to run Thursday through Saturday.

———————

TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) and Country Stampede, LLC have mutually and amicably agreed to terminate the Special Event Permit Addendum dated March 26, 2018 under which the Country Stampede was to have been held at Tuttle Creek State Park this year, according to a media release from the KDWPT.

The 24th annual Kicker Country Stampede will be held from June 20-22 at Heartland Motorsports Park.

The confluence of two situations led to the decision, according to the release.

The unprecedented rainfall leading to flooding damage at Tuttle Creek State Park made it impossible to hold the concert at the scheduled time and the current economic outlook for music industry events combined with the high water event at Tuttle Creek impaired the financial viability of the Country Stampede operator

Under the termination agreement, KDWPT will refund the operator’s payment of $81,500.00 and the operator is no longer obligated to make any future payments.

KDWPT and Country Stampede, LLC have had a great relationship over the 23 years that Tuttle Creek State Park has hosted the event. Country Stampede has helped focus national and international attention on Kansas, the City of Manhattan and Tuttle Creek State Park which will have benefits for many years to come. We wish the operator well for the future.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Thursday that “Iran made a very big mistake” in shooting down a U.S. drone.

Iran made a very big mistake!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2019

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump was briefed Wednesday night and again Thursday morning about the incident. She says the administration also will keep in touch with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Trump made his comment on Twitter in midmorning.

American and Iranian officials are disputing the circumstances of the incident.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it shot down the drone over Iranian airspace. The U.S. military is calling the downing an “unprovoked attack” and said it occurred over international airspace in the Strait of Hormuz.
—————–
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. drone on Thursday amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over its collapsing nuclear deal with world powers, American and Iranian officials said, though they disputed the circumstances of the incident.

The Guard said it shot down the drone over Iranian airspace, while two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the downing happened over international airspace in the Strait of Hormuz. The different accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

Previously, the U.S. military alleged that Iran had fired a missile at another drone last week that was responding to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. blames Iran for the attack on the ships; Tehran denies it was involved.

The attacks come against the backdrop of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal a year ago.

Separately, Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels launched a rocket targeting a desalination plant in the kingdom the previous night. The White House said Trump was briefed about that attack.

Iran has quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium and threatened to boost its enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels, trying to pressure Europe for new terms to the 2015 nuclear deal.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has sped an aircraft carrier to the Mideast and deployed additional troops alongside the tens of thousands already in the region. From Yemen, the Houthis have launched bomb-laden drones into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

All this has raised fears that a miscalculation or further rise in tensions could push the U.S. and Iran into an open conflict, some 40 years after Tehran’s Islamic Revolution. Thursday’s drone incident marks the first direct Iranian-claimed attack on the U.S. amid the crisis.

“We do not have any intention for war with any country, but we are fully ready for war,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami said in a televised address.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it shot down the drone on Thursday morning when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. Kouhmobarak is some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) southeast of Tehran and close to the Strait of Hormuz.

The Guard said it shot down the drone at 4:05 a.m. after it collected data from Iranian territory, including the southern port of Chahbahar near Iran’s border with Pakistan. Iran used its air defense system known as Third of Khordad to shoot down the drone — a truck-based missile system that can fire up to 18 miles (30 kilometers) into the sky, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, citing the Guard, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk. However, the U.S. Navy also flies a variant that looks similar, called the MQ-4C Triton.

The drones cost over $100 million apiece and can fly higher than 10 miles in altitude and stay in the air for over 24 hours at a time. They have a distinguishable hump-shaped front and an engine atop. Their wingspan is bigger than a Boeing 737 passenger jet.

The U.S. officials told the AP the Iranians fired a surface-to-air missile striking the American drone over the Strait of Hormuz, in international airspace. The strait is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all global oil moves.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be cleared for release to the public. They did not elaborate on the type of drone shot down, nor the mission it was conducting. However, the U.S. has been worried about international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the limpet mine attacks in May and June.

Salami, speaking to a crowd in the western city of Sanandaj, described the American drone as “violating our national security border.”

“Borders are our red line,” Salami said. “Any enemy that violates the borders will be annihilated.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry separately protested the drone, saying it entered Iranian territory.

Iran has claimed to have shot down American drones in the past. In the most-famous incident, in December 2011, Iran seized an RQ-170 Sentinel flown by the CIA to monitor Iranian nuclear sites after it entered Iranian airspace from neighboring Afghanistan. The Iranians later reverse-engineered the drone to create their own variants.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a rocket a desalination plant in al-Shuqaiq, a city in the kingdom’s Jizan province. The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted military spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki as saying the attack caused no damage and wounded no one. The Yemeni rebel Al-Masirah satellite news channel earlier said the Houthis targeted a power plant in Jizan, near the kingdom’s border with Yemen, with a cruise missile.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump had been “briefed on the reports of a missile strike in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

“We are closely monitoring the situation and continuing to consult with our partners and allies,” Sanders said. It wasn’t immediately clear why Trump would be briefed about an attack that caused no damage or casualties.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis since March 2015 in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation now pushed to the brink of famine by the conflict. In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched a new campaign sending missiles and bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia.

___