JOHNSON COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of a a 75-year-old suburban Kansas City woman.
McMannes -photo Johnson County
Just after 3p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a home in the 300 Block of South Cardinal Drive in Olathe to investigate a medical call and a woman not breathing, according to a media release from police.
First responders determined that the woman had died. Her cause of death later was ruled a homicide. On Thursday, police arrested Raymond Thomas McMannes, 51, and booked him into the Johnson County jail, according to online booking records.
McMannes is being held on a $1,000,000.00 bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for 1:30p.m. Friday. Police have not released how the victim died or her name.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the partial government shutdown (all times local):
Trump makes comments from the Rose Garden Friday afternoon-courtesy White House
9:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump has signed a bill that temporarily opens the federal government for three weeks, ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history at 35 days.
The White House says Trump signed the measure after the Senate and House each passed it Friday.
Trump backed down from his demand that Congress provide more border wall money before federal agencies get back to work. But he warns that the government could shut down again “if we don’t get a fair deal from Congress.”
He is also holding out the possibility of taking executive action.
The agreement to open the government came as about 800,000 federal employees missed their second consecutive paycheck.
As part of the deal, a bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers is being formed to review border security recommendations.
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7:55 p.m.
President Donald Trump is pushing back against criticism of his agreement to reopen the federal government without winning a promise of new funding for a border wall.
With even some conservatives casting the agreement as a retreat by the president, Trump is tweeting that it “was in no way a concession” on his part.
Trump says the deal will take care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the shutdown.
And he’s emphasizing that it was only done “with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!”
The shutdown was ending as Democratic leaders had insisted it must — reopen the government first, then talk border security.
As part of the deal, a bipartisan committee of lawmakers will consider additional border spending in the weeks ahead.
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7:50 p.m.
President Donald Trump will not be delivering his State of the Union Address next Tuesday, even though the federal government is expected to be reopened by then.
Trump had postponed the joint address to Congress amid the partial shutdown. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had suggested he do so and — after some high-profile back-and-forth between the two — the president ultimately agreed.
With Trump and congressional leaders reaching a deal Friday to reopen the government, the speech is expected to be rescheduled.
But it will not be next week as once planned, according to a person familiar with the planning but unauthorized to discuss it.
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2:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he’ll sign legislation shortly to reopen shuttered government departments for three weeks — until Feb. 15.
Trump’s action would end what has become a record, 35-day partial shutdown.
Some 800,000 federal workers have had to work without pay or have been kept from doing their jobs as Trump and congressional Democrats were locked in a stalemate over the billions of dollars that Trump has demanded to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Trump spoke at the White House on Friday as intensifying delays at some of the nation’s busiest airports and widespread disruptions brought new urgency to efforts to break the impasse.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A law firm that reviewed 75 years of clergy files in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas found 22 substantiated claims of sexual abuse against priests or other clerics, the archdiocese announced Friday.
The archdiocese released the names of all 22 men in its publication, The Leaven . None of the 22 men are currently ministering in the archdiocese, according to list. Eleven have died; seven have been “laicized,” meaning they were removed from clerical service; one was “removed from ministry;” one was last known to be at a friary in Denver; and the status of two others are unknown.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann said in a column in The Leaven that it is difficult to “discern the truth” of an event from decades ago, especially when the accused is deceased and other people’s memories have faded.
“The list that we are providing today is accurate based on the information we possess at this moment,” Naumann wrote.
The Husch Blackwell law firm reviewed about 1,080 clergy files to compile the list. A report based on the investigation has been shared with the Kansas attorney general’s office and the list will be updated if more information becomes available, the archbishop said.
The archdiocese hired the law firm in August when the Catholic Church was shaken by a grand jury report that found abuse by up to 300 priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the last 70 years, and reports that Pope Francis and other church leaders knew about sexual misconduct allegations against the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, but rehabilitated him anyway.
“I thank the victims who have courageously come forward with allegations in order to prevent someone else from being victimized, as well as to assist with the progress of their own healing process,” Naumann wrote Friday.
Ten of the men were formerly priests in the diocese, and the others were either priests from another diocese or from a religious order ministering in the archdiocese.
The archdiocese also listed the names of four clerics with previously publicized allegations that investigators were not able to substantiate.
The review went back to the 1940s, with the most cases — nine— from the 1980s. No substantiated cases were found after 2000.
Attorney Rebecca Randles, who has represented several people who say they were abused by priests in Kansas and Missouri, applauded the release but said it’s important that the archdioceses figure out what it needs to do next.
“How do you make this better? How do you help the victims?” Randles asked. “Our experience has been the Kansas City, Kansas, diocese has not led the way with helping or dealing with these individuals.”
Naumann detailed steps the archdiocese has taken to 2003 to help prevent sexual abuse in the church, such as child safety program, criminal background checks for adults, annual safe environment audits by an independent firm and requiring all clergy, employees and volunteers to undergo safe environment training. He noted the archdiocese, which has more than 100 parishes across northeast Kansas, has passed every safe environment audit since they began in 2004.
But David Clohessy, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests criticized the lack of details in the list, saying it should include photos, whereabouts and work histories of the clerics.
“This is a long-overdue move to mollify an outraged flock,” Clohessy said. “How does any church employee — from bookkeeper to bishop — justify hiding for years or decades the names of these credibly accused child molesters?”
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has released the names of 22 clergy with substantiated claims of sexual abuse involving minors.
None of the 22 men whose names were released Friday are currently ministering in the archdiocese. Eleven have died and seven have been laicized.
Ten were formerly priests in the diocese, and the others were either priests from another diocese or from a religious order ministering in the archdiocese.
In a statement in the archdiocese’s publication, The Leaven, Archbishop Joseph Naumann thanked victims who came forward to help with the investigation.
The Husch Blackwell law firm reviewed about 1,080 clergy files to compile the list. The archdiocese says the report has been shared with the Kansas Attorney General’s office.
The review found no substantiated cases after 2000.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Three militia members convicted of taking part in a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas were sentenced Friday to decades in prison during an emotional court hearing in which one of the targeted victims pleaded: “Please don’t hate us.”
Patrick Stein-photo Butler Co.
U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren sentenced Patrick Stein, the alleged ringleader, to 30 years in prison and Curtis Allen, who drafted a manifesto for the group, to 25 years. Gavin Wright, who authorities said helped make and test explosives at his mobile home business, received 26 years. The plot was foiled after another militia member alerted authorities.
Melgren dismissed defense attorneys’ request that he take into the account the divisive political atmosphere in which the men formed their plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants in the meatpacking town Garden City, about 220 miles (355 kilometers) west of Wichita, on the day after the 2016 election.
“We have extremely divisive elections because our system is to resolve those through elections and not violence,” Melgren said.
Stein’s attorneys have argued that he believed then-President Barack Obama would declare martial law and not recognize the validity of the election if Donald Trump won, forcing militias to step in. Stein’s attorneys noted that during the 2016 campaign, all three men read and shared Russian propaganda on their Facebook feed designed to sow discord in the U.S. political system.
Curtis Allen-photo Sedgwick Co.
Attorney Jim Pratt told the judge that for years Stein had immersed himself in right-wing media and commentators, who normalized hate. But Melgren was openly skeptical, telling Pratt: “Millions of people listen to this stuff — whether it comes from the left or the right.”
Prosecutors presented video testimony from some Somali immigrants who were the targets of the bombing. In one clip, Ifrah Farah pleaded: “Please don’t kill us. Please don’t hate us. We can’t hurt you.”
Allen, 51, choked up as he addressed the judge, prompting his attorney to step in and finish reading a prepared statement in which Allen offered “my sincere apologies” to anyone who was frightened and asked for their forgiveness. But Stein, 49, apologized only to his family and friends, and the judge noted when sentencing him that, unlike Allen, he had shown no remorse.
Gavin Wright-photo Harvey Co.
Wright, 53, apologized to the court, saying the plot is “not who I am.” He also apologized to the immigrants who lived at the apartment complex. The judge later said Wright’s courtroom statement showed he was still in denial about what he did, adding and he did not buy that there was any remorse on Wright’s part.
Melgren sentenced Stein to 30 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. He sentenced Allen and Wright to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. Those sentences will run concurrently. Wright also got an additional year to be served consecutively for lying to law enforcement, bringing his total sentence to 26 years.
The judge told all three men that the planned attack was worse than the Oklahoma City bombing because the Garden City plot was motivated by hatreds of race, religion and national origin.
The Kansas plot was thwarted when militia member Dan Day tipped off authorities to escalating threats of violence. He testified at the men’s trial last year that Stein started recruiting others to kill Muslim immigrants after the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Recordings that prosecutors played for jurors last April portrayed a damning picture of a splinter group of the militia Kansas Security Force that came to be known as “the Crusaders.”
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in a news release called the sentences “a significant victory against hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”
“These defendants planned to ruthlessly bomb an apartment complex and kill innocent people, simply because of who they are and how they worship,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
The sentencing hearings for the men came a day after two members of an Illinois militia known as the White Rabbits pleaded guilty in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque , admitting they hoped the attack would scare Muslims into leaving the U.S. No one was injured in that attack.
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5:20 p.m.
The alleged ringleader of a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Patrick Stein was sentenced Friday for his role in the plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants in Garden City. The attack was planned for the day after the 2016 election. Stein was one of three militia members convicted last year.
The plot was thwarted by another militia member who tipped off authorities to escalating threats of violence. He testified that Stein started recruiting others to kill Muslim immigrants after the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Prosecutors had sought life in prison. Stein’s attorneys asked for 15 years.
A judge sentenced Stein to 30 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. The sentences will run concurrently.
Curtis Allen was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. The sentences will run concurrently.
Late Friday, the judge sentence Gavin Wright to 25-years in prison along with an additional 10- years supervised release. He also received a one 1-year sentence for lying to the FBI.
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12:10 p.m.
A man who authorities say drafted a manifesto for militia members involved in a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
A judge sentenced Curtis Allen on Friday for his role in the plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants in Garden City. The attack was planned for the day after the 2016 election. Allen was one of three militia members convicted last year.
Allen was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. The sentences will run concurrently.
Authorities say Allen drafted the group’s handwritten manifesto that outlined grievances against the government for — in the document’s words — “not enforcing our borders.” Authorities say the men planned to release the manifesto after the bombing.
Prosecutors had sought life in prison. Allen’s attorneys asked for 10 years.
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10 a.m.
Somali immigrants targeted in a foiled plot to blow up their mosque and apartments in southwest Kansas told a judge through video testimony that they are still scared.
Prosecutors played five video clips of the Somalis at the sentencing Friday of Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen. The three militia members were convicted last year of plotting the attack in Garden City for the day after the 2016 presidential election.
In one video, Ifrah Farah pleaded: “Please don’t kill us. Please don’t hate us. We can’t hurt you.”
Garden City police Chief Michael Utz asked the judge to send a strong message that this type of behavior will not be condoned.
Prosecutors are seeking life terms. The men are asking for shorter terms of 15 years, 10 years and time served.
The plot was thwarted after another militia member tipped off authorities.
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By ROXANA HEGEMAN ,
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Three militia members face the possibility of life in prison for a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas by blowing up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants.
At separate sentencing hearings for the men on Friday, the government plans to play video clips of the intended victims talking about the impact the case has had on their community.
Patrick Stein , Curtis Allen and Gavin Wright , all of whom are white, were convicted last year of plotting an attack in Garden City for the day after the 2016 presidential election. The meatpacking town is about 220 miles (354 kilometers) west of Wichita. Prosecutors are seeking life terms for the three men, while defense attorneys are variously pleading for shorter terms of 15, 10 or even time served. The men have been imprisoned since their October 2016 arrests.
In court filings, defense attorneys asked the judge to take into account rhetoric from President Donald Trump that they say has encouraged violence. Stein’s attorneys noted that during the 2016 campaign, all three men read and shared Russian propaganda on their Facebook feed designed to sow discord in the U.S. political system.
Attorneys for Stein, who prosecutors have alleged was the ringleader, are seeking 15 years. Allen, who allegedly drafted a handwritten manifesto for the group denouncing the government for “not enforcing our borders,” is asking for 10 years. Wright, who authorities said helped make and test explosives at his mobile home business, is asking that he be sentenced to “time served.”
Their sentencings come a day after two members of an Illinois militia known as the White Rabbits pleaded guilty in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque , admitting they hoped the attack would scare Muslims into leaving the U.S. No one was injured in that attack.
The Kansas attack was foiled when another member of the group tipped off authorities about escalating threats of violence. Dan Day, who was given the code name “Minuteman” by his FBI handlers, agreed to wear a wire as a paid informant .
The investigation captured months of profanity-laced recordings in which militia members discussed plans and referred to the Somalis as “cockroaches.” Recordings that prosecutors played for jurors at the April trial portrayed a damning picture of a splinter group of the militia Kansas Security Force that came to be known as “the Crusaders.”
Day testified that Stein started recruiting others to kill Muslim immigrants after the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. In one recording, the three men talked about how they hoped the Kansas bombing would “wake people up” and inspire other attacks against Muslims around the U.S.
Stein, Wright and Allen were convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights. Wright was also found guilty of lying to the FBI.
DETROIT (AP) — Fiat Chrysler is recalling nearly 180,000 pickup trucks in North America to fix an electrical problem that can knock out the power steering.
The recall covers Ram 1500 pickups from the 2019 model year. Most are in the U.S. and one-third are still on dealer lots.
The company says a fastener that grounds the battery wasn’t secured properly in manufacturing. The connection can become loose, which disables the power steering. Drivers can still steer but the effort it takes wouldn’t be consistent.
FCA says it has no reports of crashes or injuries.
Dealers will secure the fastener at no cost to owners. Fiat Chrysler says it doesn’t have a date for the recall to begin, but it under U.S. law it has to start within 60 days.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri-Kansas City has announced plans to put its new arts conservatory on campus and not downtown as originally proposed.
The Kansas City Star reports that the school said Thursday that the conservatory will be located next to the Olson Performing Arts Center. For years, the university had been pushing for a new downtown conservatory near the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Supporters had raised $48 million in pledges toward a $96 million conservatory and were waiting for a state match when former Gov. Eric Greitens vetoed the plan. That sparked new conservations about how to proceed.
Now that the university has picked the on-campus location, it will review program needs for music, dance and theater, and determine the size and cost of the building.
The U.S. economy is still performing well by most key measures.
However, Global and U.S. economic prospects are weakening, and the agricultural economy shows few signs of an imminent comeback, according to a comprehensive 2019 outlook report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division.
A CoBank spokesperson says trade uncertainty, rising debt levels and market volatility are “threatening to derail the global economy and creating difficult operating environments for U.S. agriculture.” The CoBank outlook report examines ten key factors that will shape agriculture and market sectors that serve rural communities throughout the United States. With agricultural commodity markets depressed by global supply abundance and ongoing trade disputes, farmers and ranchers face the difficult task of cutting production costs. However, continually rising costs in agriculture are expected to squeeze producers, causing further margin erosion and financial stress in 2019. Further, the report says farmers should not bank on a fourth consecutive year of above-trend crop yields to make up for low commodity prices and rising costs.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A man who hosted a drug-filled Missouri party where an Arkansas woman was killed and seven others were wounded has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Norey -photo Greene County
The charge was filed Wednesday against 36-year-old Roy Norey. Federal prosecutors say Norey operated a music studio out of a Springfield building where gunfire erupted early on Dec. 23. One of the victims, 42-year-old Delmarie Bailey of West Memphis, Arkansas, died weeks later at a hospital.
After the shooting, police searched Norey’s home. The criminal complaint says police found a loaded 9 mm pistol in his bedroom nightstand. He was prohibited from having it because of previous drug and firearm convictions.
No other arrests have been made in the case. The investigation is ongoing.
TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has received additional federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to keep the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) operational into March, during the Federal Government shutdown.
On Thursday, KDHE received an additional $1,603,809 in food funds and $602,897 in administrative funds. These funds now allow Kansas to purchase foods until March 20, 2019 and keep staff operational until March 26.
“We are pleased to receive these additional funds,” said David Thomason, Director of the Nutrition and WIC Services Section in the KDHE Bureau of Family Health. “There is an average daily food cost in Kansas of $92,134 under this program, and we continue to work with the USDA to see that WIC funding in Kansas continues through the shutdown.”
The USDA monitors state WIC programs and is working to ensure that programs remain operational. States were instructed to contact the USDA prior to implementing any changes to the program that would curtail operations or in any way limit or restrict access to the program and its benefits.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has been sentenced to 33 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing three people, including a toddler.
Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Nelson of Kansas City was scheduled to go to trial this week for the killings of 18-year-old Shannon Rollins Jr., 17-year-old Bianca Fletcher and Fletcher’s 1-year-old son, Joseph. Instead, he pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of second-degree murder, armed criminal action and witness tampering.
Nelson was sentenced to 33 years, with three of those years added because he tampered with a potential witness by trying to persuade the person to say someone else killed the victims.
Prosecutors say the victims were killed in September 2015 after Nelson and Fletcher got into an argument and she threw a diaper at him.
Nelson killed Fletcher, then shot the toddler and Rollins.
