KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man whose DNA was found on a handgun was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Jason Trevillion -photo Wyandotte Co.
Jason M. Trevillion, 33, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction. The investigation began when members of the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department’s Violent Crime Task force heard shots fired in the area of 8th and Parallel Avenue. Police attempted stop a Dodge Caravan but the vehicle fled. When police blocked the car from the front and behind, the van rammed both police cars. Trevillion was one of the defendants who eventually got out of the van.
In the van, police found a .40 caliber pistol with a 50-round drum magazine, two .223 caliber pistols, a 9 mm pistol, and a .45 caliber pistol, as well as spent shell casings and live rounds. Trevillion’s DNA was found on the 9 mm pistol. He had a 2015 conviction in Wyandotte County for aggravated assault.
Co-defendant Ernest A. Jones was sentenced to 12 months and a day. Co-defendant Taurez L. Adams is set for sentencing Nov. 13.
WICHITA – Whitney Morgan, an English language arts and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher at Wyandotte High School, Kansas City, Kansas, Unified School District 500, was named the 2019 Kansas Teacher of the Year on Saturday, Nov. 17, during a special ceremony in Wichita.
Whitney Morgan -photo courtesy Kan. Dept. of Education
Kansas Commissioner of Education Dr. Randy Watson made the announcement at a gathering of 400 people during the Kansas Teacher of the Year Banquet at the Marriott Hotel, 9100 E. Corporate Hills Drive, in Wichita.
“It is my honor to present the 2019 Kansas Teacher of the Year designation to Whitney,” Watson said. “She is truly a remarkable teacher and very deserving of this honor. Whitney uses collaborative learning to engage students from all backgrounds and abilities. She has demonstrated strong leadership skills at Wyandotte High School and is working closely with her colleagues on school climate. Whitney is a great example of the quality teachers we have in Kansas. I want to wish Whitney and the members of the 2019 Kansas Teacher of the Year team success as they represent Kansas education in the coming year.”
Morgan was named the 2019 Kansas Teacher of the Year from a field of eight finalists.
Throughout the coming year, all of the finalists will work as a team to advocate for education and teaching.
Selected from a pool of more than 100 nominations, the other 2019 finalists are: Signe A. Cook, a fifth-grade teacher at Park Elementary School (Great Bend USD 428); Jennifer S. Brown, a first-grade teacher at Sheridan Elementary School (Geary County USD 475); Nicole L. Corn, a kindergarten teacher at Sunset Hill Elementary School (Lawrence USD 497); Sharon L. Kuchinski, a social studies teacher at Leavenworth Senior High School (Leavenworth USD 453); Megan Clark, an art teacher at Clear Creek Elementary School (De Soto USD 232); Lan T. Huynh, a third-grade teacher at Christa McAuliffe Academy (Wichita USD 259); and Tim “T.J.” Warsnak, a social studies teacher at Halstead High School (Halstead-Bentley USD 440).
Morgan began her career as an English and ESOL teacher at Wyandotte High School in 2013. She received her bachelor’s degree in secondary education with a minor in nonprofit leadership in 2012 from Kansas State University. She currently is working on obtaining her master’s degree in English from the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury, Vermont.
Morgan is involved in several leadership roles and professional organizations, and she is a Stanford Graduate School of Education Hollyhock Fellow.
Mary Stewart, principal of Wyandotte High School, called Morgan an “exemplary educator” who “develops effective relationships with students by working to understand their interests and cultural backgrounds.”
“On a daily basis, Mrs. Morgan – both verbally and nonverbally – shows her students that she cares,” Stewart said. “She is firm in holding all students to a high level of performance expectation, yet interacts with each of them with a calm and nurturing approach. She knows each of her students as individuals. She values their uniqueness and sees their potential.”
Kurt Auleta, senior vice president of distribution and sales operations for Security Benefit Corp., presented Morgan with a $4,000 cash award.
In addition, Morgan will receive the Kansas Teacher of the Year Lifelong Learning Scholarship to attend participating universities free of charge as long as she continues teaching in Kansas; and The Hubbard Foundation Kansas Teacher of the Year Ambassadorship. The ambassadorship provides funds for travel and other necessary expenses incurred by the Kansas Teacher of the Year.
Morgan also will receive the use of a rental car from Enterprise Rent-a-Car for Kansas Teacher of the Year travel. Jostens Inc. also provided Morgan with a Leader in Education ring.
All eight members of the 2019 Kansas Teacher of the Year team received a $2,000 cash award from Security Benefit and a red marble apple from the Master Teacher in Manhattan. In addition, each will receive Capturing Kids’ Hearts training from The Flippen Group, of College Station, Texas, and a one-year membership in the Kansas State Teachers of the Year organization.
The Teacher of the Year program has state and national competitions. The national program, presented by Voya Financial, is a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Kansas program is sponsored by the Kansas State Department of Education.
Morgan is now a candidate for National Teacher of the Year.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Food safety officials are stressing the importance of proper handling and cooking practices amid a nationwide outbreak of drug-resistant Salmonella found in raw turkey, with Thanksgiving approaching.
People infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Reading, by state of residence, as of November 5, 2018 (n=164) CDC Image
The Centers for Disease Control last week said the number of reported illnesses has nearly doubled since July to 164. Minnesota has the most cases at 16. There’s been one reported death linked to tainted turkey.
The USDA hasn’t named the suppliers associated with the tainted meat or identified a single, common source.
In addition, Jennie-O Turkey recalled ground turkey as part of the salmonella outbreak, and regulators say additional products from other companies could be named as their investigation continues.
The products being recalled include 1-pound packages of raw, ground Jennie-O turkey and were sold nationwide. The more than 91,000 pounds of turkey had use-by dates of early October and shouldn’t be in stores anymore, but could still be in freezers. Regulators say it should be thrown away.
Hormel said in a statement that government agencies have found the strain in the outbreak in 29 manufacturing plants from 19 companies.
Officials say consumers should always wash their hands and all surface areas where turkey is prepared, never leave it to thaw on the counter, and use a meat thermometer to cook it to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
LEAVENWORTH COUNTY —Mark Loughry, Leavenworth County Administrator released a statement Friday in response after white county commissioner Louis Klemp told a black city planner that he belongs to “the master race” as he rejected her proposed development plan.
The statement was criticized and in addition to the governor, Klemp’s fellow commissioners thought he should resign.
Leavenworth County Commissioner Louis Klemp during the Nov. 13 commission meeting -image courtesy Leavenworth County
“I don’t want you to think I’m picking on you because we’re part of the master race,” Klemp told Penelton . He then said he didn’t like any of the land use options that she had presented to the commission.
Loughry wrote “Commissioner Louis Klemp holds an elected position on the Board of County Commissioners and therefore I have no jurisdiction over his term in office. It is not within my power or the power of the other Commissioners to take any punitive action against one of the other elected Commissioners. That being said I would encourage all to watch the actual video of the exchange versus the parsed and paraphrased comments circulated by the media.
Watch the video available here and form your own opinion about the context of the conversation.
I will not attempt to defend Commissioner Klemp as he holds an elected position and is capable of defending any of his statements or fielding any calls for his ouster. I will say though that what is being reported in the media is not an accurate representation of what was said during our meeting. Commissioner Klemp has a gap in his front teeth and so did the person presenting to the Commission on Tuesday.
On several occasions over the past year Mr. Klemp has made reference that those with a gap in their front teeth are members of the master race. At Tuesday’s meeting he stated that he and the lady presenting to the Board were both members of the master race due to the gap in their teeth.
The use of the term “Master Race”, as ill-advised as it may be, was not a reference to Nazis or used in a racist manner in this instance. Leavenworth County has a zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in any form from any staff members. I am deeply sorry that one misconstrued comment by a member of our elected governing body has caused so much grief, sorrow and hatred. Leavenworth County is a wonderful place to live and visit and I am proud to call it my home.
ARNOLD, Mo. (AP) – Officials in northeastern Missouri have confirmed the shooting death of a man in a hunting accident.
52-year-old Randy Reising, of Arnold, died Nov. 10 in rural Lewistown.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were called to a cabin where Reising and a group of friends were getting ready for a morning hunt. Investigators say as the group was preparing, one hunter’s gun accidentally fired and hit Reising in the chest. Officials say he died before first responders could reach the cabin.
With Democrat Elected Governor, Kansas A Whole Lot Closer To Medicaid Expansion
Advocates for Medicaid have packed legislative hearings in recent years and seen their cause fail. Their odds look far better this year. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
If elections have consequences, the top-of-the-ticket win for Democrats in Kansas likely carries no more obvious upshot than the probable expansion of Medicaid in the state.
After years of unyielding opposition from former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his successor — Gov. Jeff Colyer — Democratic Gov.-elect Laura Kelly looks positioned to broaden public health insurance coverage to tens of thousands more Kansans.
Kelly campaigned on expansion and listed it among her priorities in an election night victory speech.
“It’s long past time to expand Medicaid so that more Kansans have access to affordable health care,” Kelly said to cheers from supporters.
Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, defeated Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. A conservative Republican, he opposed expansion with at least as much vigor as Brownback and Colyer.
Kelly’s decisive five-point win has made longtime advocates of expansion optimistic that they can get it signed into law during the 2019 legislative session, which begins Jan. 14.
“We’re hopeful,” said Tom Bell, president and CEO of the Kansas Hospital Association. “But we’re also not taking anything for granted.”
Bell and other supporters fear that the defeat of some moderate Republicans by conservatives may have softened support for expansion in the Kansas House. However, with Kelly in the governor’s office, they would no longer need a veto-proof majority.
The Legislature approved expansion in 2017, but Brownback vetoed the bill.
Advocates can’t take it for granted that expansion is “automatically going to happen,” Bell said, “but bottom line, we’re much more encouraged than we have been the last few years.”
Some Republican legislative leaders who have spearheaded opposition to expansion appear ready to move on.
Rep. Dan Hawkins, the Wichita Republican who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee, recently told the Wichita Eagle that expansion is a “foregone conclusion.”
Republican lawmakers shouldn’t waste energy opposing expansion, said Jim Joice, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party.
“I’m not sure if that (opposition) would be the best political strategy, if that’s the hill you want to die on this year,” Joice said.
The priority for Republicans should be holding Kelly to her pledge to balance the budget, fund schools, re-start the highway program and expand Medicaid without a tax increase, Joice said.
Currently, eligibility for KanCare, Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program is limited to children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and seniors in need of long-term care who have exhausted their financial resources. Parents are eligible only if they earn less than a third of the federal poverty level, less than $10,000 for a four-person family.
Single adults without children currently are not eligible no matter their income.
Expansion would extend eligibility to all Kansans who earn up to 138 percent of the poverty level, or about $17,000 annually for an individual and approximately $34,000 for a family of four.
In addition to extending coverage to an estimated 150,000 low-income Kansans who are now not eligible for KanCare, expansion would draw billions in additional federal funding. Advocates say that would help struggling hospitals across the state, many in rural areas.
“Medicaid expansion would certainly help them,” said Bell, noting that higher Medicaid reimbursements would help cover some of the losses caused by reductions in Medicare payments.
The Affordable Care Act requires the federal government cover 90 percent of the cost of expansion. The state’s costs would increase by an estimated $68 million a year, according to an estimate compiled by the Kansas Health Institute.
Expansion opponents insist the price tag will be much higher, but supporters contend it could be implemented at relatively little additional cost if federal dollars are used to cover services now funded with state dollars.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced this week to 10 years in federal prison for methamphetamine trafficking, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
McWhorter -photo KDOC
Miles Joseph McWhorter, 34, Paola, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. McWhorter was yelling, moving erratically and acting aggressively toward law enforcement officers when they stopped his car in Ottawa, Kan.
Investigators found almost a pound of methamphetamine in the car, as well as ammunition and $2,724 in cash.
After McWhorter was arrested, McWhorter’s girlfriend was arrested with 200 grams of methamphetamine and a shotgun, both belonging to McWhorter.
He has previous convictions for drugs and weapons charges, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Seven Kansas school districts freed from some state rules now say getting that special status isn’t worth the effort.
Those districts are part of the Kansas Department of Education’s “Coalition of Innovative School Districts” program that started in 2013. Districts that join have the freedom to ignore state oversight on some of the ways they run their schools in exchange for pursuing novel approaches for improving student achievement.
The coalition uses the program to loosen teacher licensure and state assessment requirements. The relaxed rules for hiring teachers and instruction has come under criticism from some unions and education advocates who argue that the regulations are needed to maintain high standards.
“We think all of those kind of things are important and should never have been essentially done away with to begin with,” said Marcus Baltzell, the director of communications for the Kansas National Education Association.
Despite the extra freedom, the districts asked the Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday to release them from the program.
McPherson and Concordia needed to reapply this year to remain part of the coalition. But they felt that their concerns regarding regulations were already addressed by other programs and legislation that loosened guidelines for school districts across the state. Some of the new rules are based on experiments conducted by the coalition.
“The state has caught up,” said Quentin Breese, the superintendent for Concordia Public Schools. “The state board has been very progressive in that process.”
With McPherson and Concordia leaving, the other five districts decided to do the same instead of letting the coalition “die a slow death” as some superintendents described the situation.
“We, as a unified group, felt the best course of action was just to ask for release,” said Bill Mullins, superintendent at Marysville Public Schools.
The districts said they will continue to collaborate with each other, but as an informal network instead of as a group that must report its progress to the Kansas Legislature. The superintendents also expressed confidence that the state is better positioned to deal with future restriction issues that may arise.
“We fully believe that teacher barriers that may come about, they will address,” said Adrian Howie, superintendent of Hugoton Public Schools. “They don’t need us challenging that part of it.”
Stephan Bisaha is an education reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that its unemployment rate remained at 3.3 percent in October for the third month in a row.
Kansas Department of Labor image -Click to expand
The state Department of Labor has reported that Kansas also saw an increase in the number of nonfarm, private sector jobs during the previous 12 months. Such unemployment was almost 1.17 million in October, or 17,100 more than in October 2017. The growth was 1.5 percent.
Mining and logging businesses, financial services companies, and professional services firms saw the most robust job growth.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has been less than 4 percent since February 2017. In October 2017, it was 3.5 percent.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A jury has found a Wisconsin man guilty of first-degree murder for killing a Missouri mother who prosecutors say forced her daughter to pretend she was disabled.
Godejohn -photo Greene Co.
Nicholas Godejohn faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2015 killing of 48-year-old Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
His attorneys don’t dispute he fatally stabbed the woman, but argued the 29-year-old has autism and was manipulated by Blanchard’s daughter, whom he met on a Christian dating website.
Jurors had to decide whether Godejohn committed first-degree murder or a lesser crime.
The daughter, 27-tear-old Gypsy Blanchard, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. Relatives say she was forced by her mother to use a wheelchair and undergo unnecessary medical procedures.
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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Prosecutors say a Wisconsin man plotted for more than a year to kill a Missouri mother who forced her daughter to pretend she was disabled.
Nicholas Godejohn is on trial for the 2015 death of 48-year-old Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. His attorneys don’t dispute he fatally stabbed the woman, but they argue the 29-year-old has autism and was manipulated by Blanchard’s daughter, whom he met on a Christian dating website.
Jurors are being asked to decide whether Godejohn committed first-degree murder or a lesser crime. The trial began Tuesday.
The daughter, 27-tear-old Gypsy Blanchard, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree murder in the case. Relatives say she was forced by her mother to use a wheelchair and undergo unnecessary medical procedures.
The case has spawned numerous TV specials, including an HBO documentary.
