WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas astronaut says he’s ready for his next mission after a failed space launch in October.

Hoxie native Nick Hague will embark on a six-month stay with two other crew members at the International Space Station. The scheduled launch aboard a Soyuz MS12 spacecraft is set for Feb. 28, 2019.

Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch will join Hague in the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

On board the station, they will participate in about 250 research experiments and technology demonstrations made possible by micro-gravity conditions inside the station.

Ovchinin was also aboard the initial failed rocket set to launch on Oct. 11, 2018. Shortly after launch that day, the rocket’s booster malfunctioned in a rare failure for the Soyuz rocket. Hague and Ovchinin successfully aborted the mission and made a “ballistic descent” back to Earth in a capsule.

“Essentially the rocket came apart underneath us,” Hague said at a news conference Wednesday.

Hague said he’s looking forward to the new mission even more than his previous one, in part because of the addition of Koch to the crew. She and Hague were part of the same astronaut class at NASA.

“What we’re doing is making advancements for all of humanity,” Hague said.

Hague, Ovchinin and Koch will return to Earth in October 2019.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A 57-year-old southwestern Missouri man has pleaded guilty in federal court to a $2.4 million wire fraud scheme and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Dwight Moody Cox, of Ozark, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count. He owns Dwight Cox Cattle Co., which bought cattle for clients and grazed the cattle on land Cox owned or rented. When the cattle reached a specified weight, Cox shipped the cattle to the clients.

Prosecutors say Cox carried out a scheme in which he falsely claimed that he had purchased about 3,250 head of cattle under a contract with the Texas Beef Cattle Company of Amarillo. The Texas company paid him more than $2.5 million for the cattle.

But when the company requested the cattle shipped to it in early 2018, Cox admitted he had only 147 head of cattle and had submitted 35 false invoices to make it appear he had more.

Cox will be sentenced at a later date.

By SCOTT CANON

Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly insists the state budget she’s preparing can fully fund the state’s schools, expand Medicaid coverage to another 150,000 people and begin to repair a troubled child welfare system — without a tax hike.

The Democrat said Wednesday night she’ll lean on experience and relationships built over 14 years in the Kansas Senate to carve out compromises with lawmakers on those priorities.

Yet she described her job as daunting and state government as broken in several key areas.

In little over a month since she beat Republican Kris Kobach in the race for governor, Kelly said she’s worked on a budget proposal to put to legislators in January and found serious problems in state government.

“No surprises … but I am disappointed that the devastation was even worse than I thought,” she told a crowd of 200-plus at Washburn University in Topeka. “The problems are broad and they’re deep.”

Her comments came at Kansas News Service event.

Kelly said rosy revenue projections — the state’s draw from taxes and fees has beat expectations for 18 months in a row — suggest the ability to deal with “school finances without breaking the bank.”

She’s braced for a push from conservatives in the Capitol to pass an amendment to the state constitution scrubbing out the demand for “suitable” financing to local districts from the state. Much of the Republican leadership in the state contends that would free lawmakers to decide funding levels without ongoing lawsuits dictating what the state should spend.

She promised to oppose such a move, although the Legislature could put a proposed constitutional amendment to voters without her approval. But that’s happened before, and failed.

“I have no doubt,” Kelly said, “the people of Kansas will reject that.”

The state may yet need to add money for aid to local school districts in the wake of a Kansas Supreme Court decision. A plan to add  hundreds of millions to that formula in coming years was approved by the Legislature and Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer earlier this year.

But more money may still be needed to account for inflation. Kelly said she’s been studying the state budget and recent improvements in tax revenues.

“We will find when the budget comes out we can afford” to cover her top priorities, she said, without raising taxes.

Republicans have already begun to challenge her definition of a tax hike. Federal tax cuts pushed through by the Trump administration last year had the unintended effect of increasing what a small minority of taxpayers owe the state. Some people simply can’t itemize things like they did before.

That’s produced a windfall in state revenues. Broadly speaking, Republican lawmakers say failing to rewrite state tax law to return that money amounts to a tax hike.

Kelly sees it differently.

She argued again Wednesday that Kansas policymakers don’t yet fully understand the impact of the partial reversal in 2017 of sweeping tax cuts enacted under former Gov. Sam Brownback five years earlier. She also said state officials still need to better fathom how the Trump tax cuts will change state finances.

Only well into 2019, she said, will those things become clear.

“It’s at that point we can look” at whether to return the windfall, she said.

Yet she talked confidently about corralling votes in the Legislature for an expansion of Medicaid in line with the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

She was vague about how much her plan for that expansion would cost Kansas taxpayers — and suggested it might not cost them anything. But Kelly promised to study other states in search of a model that can work in Kansas.

A fight will come in the Legislature, where conservatives are already girding for battle. In the end, she said Democrats and moderate Republicans — what she calls “the moderate majority” — can push through a plan.

This year’s elections replaced some moderates with either conservatives or Democrats. But Kelly said the math is roughly the same as when lawmakers approved expansion in 2016 and came just three votes shy of overcoming a Brownback veto.

The difference this year: “We don’t have to override vetoes.”

She used her most urgent language of the evening to describe the state’s shortcomings in how it cares for children.

A fast-growing foster caseload has added to chronic problems in recent years. Kids have been forced to spend nights in the offices of placement contractors. Some children were shuttled among more than 100 foster homes. Young people have been assaulted while in state custody.

That’s generated frustration with the Department for Children and Families.

“We are literally in a life-or-death situation on DCF,” Kelly said.

In a brief interview after her appearance on stage, the incoming governor said the state needs to hire more people to better manage the cases of children in crisis.

“There is no doubt that we have a lack of qualified social workers,” Kelly said.

DCF, helpd, needs to put more work into family preservation efforts to help parents keep their children. For those children who end up in foster care, Kelly said the agency needs to devote more people to helping them adjust when they’re reunited with their biological families.

“That’s a clear, critical need,” she said.

Yet she didn’t say how much improving those child welfare functions might cost. And Kelly said she’s not yet sure if she’ll approve DCF’s pending plans to expand the number of contractors it hires for that work to five firms from the current two.

Still, the lawmaker from Topeka said Kansas will have enough money for that problem, for robust school spending, for expanding Medicaid, for roads.

Among other things she said in a rare public appearance since her election:

• She’s exploring whether the state must enforce a law passed this year allowing some state-hired faith-based adoption agencies to deny placements with same-sex parents.
• Kelly will collect proposals on what she called “common sense” gun control, but seemed to suggest any proposal won’t come soon. “I’m not sure how quickly we can get that policy together and round up the votes.”
• Her efforts on climate change will focus on working with the state’s congressional delegation and western governors. She also promised to push for more renewable energy use in the state.
• Kelly said tighter welfare rules are part of the reason more kids are landing in foster care. Changing those rules, she said, is “a priority” for fixing DCF.
• She gave Brownback credit for his efforts to deal with the state’s dwindling water supply. “The problem is,” she said, “there was absolutely no funding, very little funding, put into it.”
• Kelly said the state’s criminal sentencing practices need dramatic reform and locks up non-violent offenders too often and for too long. “Those people belong in prison no more than you or I.”

Scott Canon is digital editor of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @ScottCanon.

CASS COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 10:30a.m. Saturday in Cass County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Ford Focus driven by Colton W. Parker, 21, Independence, was southbound on Missouri 2 at Highway K. The driver failed to stop at the stop sign.

A westbound 1996 Chevy Tahoe driven by Daniel R. Foster, 60, Garden City, MO., struck the drivers side door of the Ford.  The collision pushed the Ford into a ditch where it hit a guy-wire, a telephone box and a fence.

Parker was pronounced dead at the scene.  Logan Parker, a passenger in the Ford, was transported to Children’s Mery.  Foster was transported to Cass Regional Hospital.

Colton Parker was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.

SMITH COUNTY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is investigating the attempted murder of a woman in Smith County, as well as an officer involved shooting which occurred as police attempted to apprehend the 15-year-old suspect.

According to a KBI media release,  just after 10:20 a.m. Saturday, the Smith County Sheriff’s received a 911 call, and responded to 10021 O Road in Smith Center. Upon arriving, they located a 66-year-old white female victim who reported being restrained, beaten, and strangled. She was taken to a local hospital, and is expected to recover.

The suspect, a 15-year-old black male, fled the area on horseback. When he was located by Kansas Highway Patrol troopers at 100 Road and L Road, in Smith County, he was armed with a firearm. KHP and Smith County Sheriff’s deputies spent a few hours attempting to apprehend the suspect. Then just before 2:20 p.m. the suspect fired at troopers. Two troopers returned fire, striking the subject.

They rendered medical aid and EMS responded. EMS transported him to a local hospital. He was then flown to a Kearney, Nebraska hospital where he underwent surgery. His condition is currently unknown. The identity of the subject will be withheld because he is a juvenile.

No law enforcement officers were injured during the incident.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man who worked as a private tutor was sentenced in federal court today for sexually assaulting a former 10-year-old student, according to the United State’s Attorney.

John Paul Sparapani, 30, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 30 years in federal prison without parole, which is the maximum statutory penalty for this offense. The court also sentenced Sparapani to a lifetime of supervised release following incarceration.

On Feb. 21, 2018, Sparapani pleaded guilty to using a minor to produce child pornography. He admitted that he took pornographic photos of a student he was tutoring in a private room at a public library.

This investigation began when an officer with the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force identified Sparapani’s computer as sharing child pornography on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network on May 25, 2015.  Officers executed a search warrant at Sparapani’s residence on Dec. 21, 2015, and seized two laptop computers, three hard drives and a cell phone, which contained multiple images and videos of child pornography.

On August 25, 2017, a 12-year-old minor female disclosed that Sparapani had sexually assaulted her when she was 10 and 11 years old and had taken photographs of the assault with his cell phone.  The child victim disclosed that the sexual abuse occurred while she was being tutored by Sparapani in a private room at a public library.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri students were stunned when a towering dairy cow appeared on campus to make a cameo in a graduation photo shoot.

Senior animal sciences major Massimo Montalbano brought the 3-year-old cow, named Amelia, to campus on Thursday to join his commencement photo shoot.

Montalbano worked with cattle throughout his undergraduate studies with the university’s Foremost Dairy Research Center.

Montalbano initially presented the idea to Jim Spain, the vice provost for undergraduate studies. Spain referred Montalbano to the university’s operations department, which ultimately approved the request.

Spain says it’s not the first time a student has asked him to bring a cow to campus. But it was still a rare sight to unsuspecting bystanders.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A $6.9 million gift from a late geologist and his wife will be used to help University of Kansas researchers better understand early human life in the Americas.

Joseph and Maude Ruth Cramer established the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund at the university in 2002 with a $1 million gift. The additional $6.9 million was recently received after their deaths.

The KU Endowment said in a news release that the gift will benefit research by the Kansas Geological Survey and the university’s archaeology program.

Cramer grew up in Wichita and graduated from the University of New Mexico. His was a petroleum geologist, but he had a lifetime interest in archaeology and a passion for searching for the earliest people in the Americas.

___

OZARKS, Mo. (AP) — Members of a southwest Missouri family have been caught after a lengthy investigation into the illegal killing of hundreds of deer, in what state conservation agents called one of the largest poaching cases in state history.

David Berry Sr. of Springfield and two of his adult sons, David Berry Jr. of Brookline and Kyle Berry of Everton, were arrested in August after an 8½- month investigation by state, federal and international agencies that also involved cases in Kansas, Nebraska and Canada.

The Missouri Department of Conservation said in a news release Thursday that information gained from the investigation led to 14 Missouri residents facing more than 230 charges in 11 counties.

“The deer were trophy bucks taken illegally, mostly at night, for their heads, leaving the bodies of the deer to waste,” said Lawrence County Prosecuting Attorney Don Trotter. He said investigators believe some of the heads were stuffed and mounted for sale.

David Berry Jr. was sentenced Thursday to 120 days in jail in Barton County for a felony firearms probation violation. On Dec. 6, he was given a one-year jail sentence in Lawrence County after pleading guilty to taking wildlife illegally in that county.

In 2016, David Berry Sr. and another son, Eric Berry of Everton, were convicted of taking gamefish by hand in Dade County. While awaiting his court appearance in that case, Eric Berry and another person were caught in 2017 spotlighting deer in Lawrence County. David Berry Sr. is awaiting a probation revocation hearing for the poaching violations in Lawrence County.

David Berry Sr. and David Berry Jr. have had their hunting, fishing and trapping privileges revoked for life. Eric Berry and Kyle Berry had hunting and fishing privileges revoked for 18 years and eight years, respectively. Jerimiah Cline of Republic, who took wildlife illegally and assisted the Berrys, had hunting privileges revoked for five years, the conservation department said.

The investigation into the Berrys began in late 2015 when the conservation agency received an anonymous tip about deer poaching in Lawrence County through Operation Game Thief, a toll-free enforcement hotline.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway has agreed to help the secretary of state’s office investigate whether Attorney General Josh Hawley illegally used public resources to help his political campaign.

Galloway, a Democrat, said Friday in a letter to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, that her office would review the allegations against Hawley “with heightened scrutiny.”

Ashcroft sent a letter to Galloway on Monday asking to enlist her office’s subpoena power in his investigation.

Hawley, a Republican, will leave office in January to take a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Ashcroft’s request was prompted by a complaint filed by The American Democracy Legal Fund, a liberal group, after The Kansas City Star reported political consultants influenced the attorney general’s office during Hawley’s tenure.

Hawley has denied any wrongdoing.