WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump welcomed American pastor Andrew Brunson to the Oval Office on Saturday, celebrating his release from nearly two years of confinement in Turkey that had sparked a diplomatic row with a key ally and outcry from U.S. evangelical groups.

WELCOME HOME PASTOR ANDREW BRUNSON! pic.twitter.com/HijeAGU1gy

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2018

Brunson, who returned to the United States aboard a military jet shortly before their meeting, appeared to be in good health and good spirits. He thanked Trump for working to secure his freedom and then led his family in prayer for the president. “You really fought for us,” he told Trump.

“From a Turkish prison to the White House in 24 hours, that’s not bad,” Trump said.

Administration officials cast Brunson’s release as vindication of Trump’s hard-nosed negotiating stance, saying Turkey tried to set terms for Brunson’s release, but Trump was insistent on Brunson’s release without conditions. Trump maintained there was no deal for Brunson’s freedom, but the president dangled the prospect of better relations between the U.S. and its NATO ally.

“We do not pay ransom in this country,” Trump said.

Where previous administrations kept negotiations over U.S. prisoners held abroad close to the vest, Trump has elevated them to causes célèbres, striking a tough line with allies and foes alike.

Trump thanked Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had resisted the demands of Trump and other high-level U.S. officials for Brunson’s release. Erdogan had insisted that his country’s courts are independent, though he previously had suggested a possible swap for Brunson.

The U.S. had repeatedly called for Brunson’s release and, this year, sanctioned two Turkish officials and doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum imports citing in part Brunson’s plight.

Trump said the U.S. greatly appreciated Brunson’s release and said the move “will lead to good, perhaps great, relations” between the U.S. and fellow NATO ally Turkey, and said the White House would “take a look” at the sanctions.

Brunson’s homecoming amounts to a diplomatic high note for Trump, who is counting on the support of evangelical Christians for Republican candidates in the Nov. 6 election. Thousands of Trump’s supporters cheered Friday night at a rally in Ohio when Trump informed them that Brunson was once again a free man.

Trump asked Brunson and his family which candidate they voted for in 2016, saying he was confident they had gone for him. “I would like to say I sent in an absentee ballot from prison,” Brunson quipped, before praying that God grant Trump “supernatural wisdom.”

Evangelical voters overwhelmingly voted for the president despite discomfort with his personal shortcomings, in large part because he pledged to champion their causes, from to defending persecuted Christians overseas to appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. In the space of seven days, less than a month from the midterm elections, Trump delivered on both fronts.

Brunson’s case has been championed by prominent evangelical leaders such as Tony Perkins, as well as Vice President Mike Pence.

First word of Brunson’s arrival back on American soil Saturday came from Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Perkins tweeted just after noon that he had landed at a military base outside Washington with Brunson and his wife, Norine.

Erdogan said on he hoped the two countries will continue to cooperate “as it befits two allies.” Erdogan also called for joint efforts against terrorism, and he listed the Islamic State group, Kurdish militants and the network of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric whom Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016.

Relations between the countries have become severely strained over Brunson’s detention and a host of other issues.

A Turkish court on Friday convicted Brunson of having links to terrorism and sentenced him to just over three years in prison, but released the 50-year-old evangelical pastor because he had already spent nearly two years in detention. An earlier charge of espionage was dropped.

Hours later, Brunson was flown out of Turkey, his home for more than two decades. He was taken to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for a medical checkup.

“I love Jesus. I love Turkey,” an emotional Brunson, who had maintained his innocence, told the court at Friday’s hearing.

Brunson’s release could benefit Turkey by allowing the government to focus on an escalating diplomatic crisis over Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi contributor to The Washington Post who has been missing for more than a week and is feared dead after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, was killed in the consulate; Saudi officials deny it.

Trump maintained the two cases were not linked, saying Brunson’s release amid the Khashoggi investigation was “strict coincidence.”

Turkey may also hope the U.S. will now lift the tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports, a move that would inject confidence into an economy rattled by high inflation and foreign currency debt.

But Brunson’s release doesn’t resolve disagreements over U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, as well as a plan by Turkey to buy Russian surface-to-air missiles. Turkey is also frustrated by the refusal of the U.S. to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of engineering the failed coup.

Brunson was accused of committing crimes on behalf of Gulen and Kurdish militants who have been fighting the Turkish state for decades. He faced up to 35 years in jail if convicted of all the charges against him.

The pastor, who is originally from Black Mountain, North Carolina, led a small congregation in the Izmir Resurrection Church. He was imprisoned for nearly two years after being detained in October 2016. Brunson was formally arrested that December and placed under house arrest on July 25 for health reasons.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Missouri man was charged in federal court Friday with receiving and distributing child pornography after exchanging pornographic images with a child in the state of Washington.

Kaleb Wilson, 26, Joplin was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mo.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s federal criminal complaint, Instagram submitted a CyberTipline report on May 5, 2017, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The report indicated that an Instagram user, later identified as Wilson, had uploaded multiple images of child pornography between March 21 and March 26, 2017.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Wilson’s residence on April 2, 2018, and seized several electronic items, which are pending forensic examination.

On Aug. 14, 2018, a detective with the Vancouver, Wash., Police Department contacted the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and requested assistance in a separate investigation of Wilson. The Vancouver investigation was launched when a resident of that jurisdiction reported that her minor child had been exchanging sexually explicit messages and images with an adult male, later identified as Wilson.

Wilson allegedly communicated with the minor victim via the social media application Kik. According to the affidavit, Wilson and the child victim communicated and exchanged pornographic photos with each other from December 2016 through Aug. 8, 2018.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s support of a proposed gas tax (all times local):

7:15 p.m.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will fly in a private plane during part of a state tour to support a proposed gas tax increase for road and bridge repairs.

SaferMO.com spokesman Scott Charton on Friday said the group is sponsoring the tour and is paying for Parson’s flights. The tour runs Tuesday through Friday. Parson’s first stop is in St. Louis.

If approved by voters Nov. 6, the 10-cent gas tax increase would pay for road and bridge repairs and fund the Highway Patrol. The Republican-led Legislature referred the measure to the ballot this year.

SaferMO.com is advocating for the gas tax. Charton said the group decided independently of Parson to pay for the private plane in case emergency state business interrupts the tour.

Parson in a Friday statement said the state’s infrastructure needs are long overdue and that action must be taken before a tragedy occurs. He says he strongly supports the measure.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will campaign in support of a proposed 10-cent gas tax increase that’s on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Parson will tour the state Tuesday through Thursday. His first stop is in St. Louis.

If approved, the tax increase would pay for road and bridge repairs and fund the Highway Patrol.

Parson in a Friday statement said the state’s infrastructure needs are long overdue and that action must be taken before a tragedy occurs. He says he strongly supports the measure.

The group that’s advocating for the gas tax is SaferMO.com, which says it’s paying for Parson’s tour. The Republican-led Legislature referred the measure to the ballot this year.

By STEPHEN KORANDA

Take a look at the Kansas budget and one item looms large, eating up more state spending than anything else.

Schools swallow about $4.5 billion. That spending rose after an infusion of cash by lawmakers earlier this year in response to a court ruling in a long-running fight over whether state government does enough to support public education.

The leading candidates for governor offer various notions about how best to build strong schools in the state — how much to spend and where best to put those tax dollars.

Laura Kelly, the state senator and Democratic nominee, says there’s little getting around a need to spend more.

Kris Kobach, the Republican candidate and secretary of state, contends the state could spend money better if districts would just trim their administrative fat.

Greg Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman and independent candidate, thinks he can fix schools by revving up the state’s economy.

“They’re very different in how they talk about the issue,” University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller said in an interview. “There’s at least one very stark division, and that’s between Kobach and the alternatives.”

Cash is king

Kelly said during a debate in September that strong schools drew her family to Kansas. Yet she says schools suffered and didn’t see enough investment after the 2012 tax cuts pushed by then-Gov. Sam Brownback.

“I want to make sure that every child, no matter who they are or where they live, has the same opportunities to succeed that my daughters did,” Kelly said.

Some estimates show Kansas might be facing tight finances again in the coming years, but Kelly said reversing the tax cuts means Kansas can afford to spend on schools and invest in early childhood programs.

Bruce Baker is a professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Administration at Rutgers University and has been involved in the Kansas lawsuits over school funding. He agrees with Kelly that tax cuts hurt.

“Because of those tax cuts,” he said, “Kansas school funding took a bigger hit than many, if not most, other states.”

Yet Kansas schools were performing relatively well compared to other states, so Baker said the state didn’t suffer as much as some other states might have in the same situation.

“But if they want to be better than that, if you want to shoot for even more,” he said, “on average, it’s going to cost more.”

Eric Hanushek analyzes education issues as a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and he has also been involved in Kansas school spending lawsuits. After studying the data, he reaches a different conclusion.

“How you spend money is more important than how much you spend in almost every instance,” Hanushek said in an interview, “because Kansas is already spending a lot of money.”

Baker suggests spending at struggling districts. Hanushek urges focusing more on teacher quality.

Spending money on early childhood programs can offer benefits if it’s targeted at kids who need it most, Hanushek said.

“Disadvantaged kids could be helped by having earlier childhood education,” he said.

Kobach focuses on how, not how much

Kobach wants to focus on how money is spent. He has criticized what he calls “Taj Mahal” buildings in school districts and bloated administration.

At the raucous Kansas State Fair debate, Kobach said state officials should stop looking at the bottom line — how much money is spent — and focus on where it’s going.

“We have got to stop spending so much money on administration and spend it instead in the classroom, on the teachers’ salaries, on the computers and on the books,” Kobach said. “That is where the money belongs.”

Kobach is not advocating for districts to consolidate, but he wants districts to merge administrative functions. That’s an idea some conservative lawmakers and a right-leaning Kansas think tank have also pushed.

“We need to share administrative costs, have efficiencies, so the money stays in the classroom,” Kobach said.

He pegs classroom spending at 50 percent, and he wants it to be 75 percent of all education spending.

Schools that perform well should be rewarded for that financially, Kobach said, with raises for all teachers and staff.

Tom DeLuca, a former teacher and school administrator now teaching educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Kansas, said it all comes down to what you count.

“You have to look outside the four walls of a classroom,” he said. “Learning takes place, or learning is supported, at multiple levels and multiple places by multiple resources.” 

Not counting things such as counselors, library staff and school psychologists leads to some measures putting Kansas classroom spending at around 53 or 60 percent of spending.

“That sounds quite shocking until you look at what that actually means,” said Mark Tallman, associate executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards.

Add in those other services that help students, plus the costs of transporting students and feeding them, and Tallman calculates the total reaches up to 70 percent of spending. That’s before counting the cost of building and maintaining the classroom.

Tallman puts administrative costs at the school building and district level at under 10 percent of spending.

It’s the economy to Orman

Orman would focus on ways to juice up the state economy with good-paying jobs.

“The best education policy is a growing economy,” Orman said during a debate in Overland Park.

Growing state revenues will allow the state to invest in schools without a tax increase, he said.

Orman’s also touting an indirect benefit from economic growth. Parents will have more time to be parents, instead of working second jobs, with a healthy state economy.

“Create the jobs and opportunities to allow their parents to have the time to invest in their kids’ educations,” he said at the Kansas State Fair.

Studies have reliably shown that parental involvement does make a difference in student outcomes, said Rick Ginsberg, the dean of the School of Education at KU.

But barriers to parental involvement are complex and can include cultural or language differences that schools must overcome.

“It’s a lot of work for schools to do that, and I think our schools do work really hard on that,” Ginsberg said. “But that’s a never-ending process for schools.”

It’s not easy to quantify Orman’s belief that growing the economy growing will lead people to switch from working multiple jobs to a single job.

Jeremy Hill, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, said some people may assume fewer workers will have multiple jobs when the economy is growing, but that’s not the case.

“Conventional wisdom about what goes on in the economy,” Hill said, “is different from what the actual data shows.”

While the number of people working full-time does increase when the economy is growing, numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also show the number of people working multiple jobs increases.

There are more jobs to work during economic booms and employers may offer additional pay or other perks that entice people to pick up a second job, Hill said.

There’s also no button a governor can push to spur quick and lasting economic growth, said Ken Kriz, a professor of public administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“If there was, then everybody would be doing it,” Kriz said in an interview. “Any type of magic bullet would immediately be recognized and mimicked by other states.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

REPUBLIC, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man has been charged with lighting his own home on fire, grabbing a rifle and waiting outside because he was upset that his ex-wife was dating a firefighter.

35-year-old Jason Hawkins, of Republican, pleaded not guilty Wednesday during his arraignment on charges of arson, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest.

His attorney didn’t return a phone message Friday from The Associated Press.

Charging documents say Hawkins admitted to setting the fire in July. The home was engulfed in flames when authorities responded. Hawkins is accused of initially ignoring commands to drop his rifle and then struggling with officers who tried to arrest him. He told police that his “business” was with the firefighter.

He’s been jailed since then. Charges were refiled this week.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Organizers of a small-town Kansas parade have told Republican Kris Kobach that he must remove a replica machine gun from the back of a Jeep that’s become a key part of his campaign for governor and emblematic of his support for gun rights.

An attorney for the organizing committee for Iola’s Farm City Days said it was in talks Friday with Kobach’s campaign to find a compromise. But Kobach said that he believes the organizers can’t prevent him from using the Jeep with the gun in the parade scheduled for Saturday without violating his free speech rights.

So, Kris Kobach was in the Old Shawnee Days Parade this am in a Jeep with what appears to be a machine gun attached???!!! #kssos #ksleg #ksed #KSleg pic.twitter.com/m8NNCW00nX

— Cindy For Kansas (@cindy4kansas) June 2, 2018

Kobach is here to gun down the illegals and libtards. This is America pic.twitter.com/ts4KGacarW

— Nash (@Nashults15) June 2, 2018

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, has been riding in the Jeep with the replica gun at least since June. Its appearance then in a suburban Kansas City parade prompted criticism, an apology from the sponsoring city and what Kobach derided as a “snowflake meltdown.” He quickly made it a symbol of his defiance of liberal criticism and his support for gun-ownership rights protected by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But Daniel Schowengerdt, attorney for the Iola parade’s organizing committee, said its members felt the replica gun’s “wartime message” clashed with the event’s message of bringing farms and cities together. Iola, with about 5,700 residents, is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.

Schowengerdt said the organizers had no problem with the Jeep, which is decorated with U.S. flag designs and has a bobble-head of President Donald Trump on its hood — only with the replica machine gun. He said that under past U.S. Supreme Court decisions, private parade organizers have a right to choose the content of their events.

“They are pro-Second Amendment,” he said of the organizers. “This is not a leftist organization. In fact, the vast majority of the people on the committee are gun-owning Republicans.”

The entry form for the parade does not mention firearms or mounted guns but says parade organizers “reserve the right to refuse entry to any person, group or entity. It also bans semi-trucks and tells participants that they cannot throw candy or other items from a float or vehicle.

“They felt and feel that a mounted, replica, .50-caliber machine gun does not fit with their message,” Schowengerdt said. “The Jeep is free to be there.”

Virginia Crossland Macha, a local GOP activist who backs Kobach, said she was upset enough by the organizing committee’s decision that she resigned as its president; she was not present for its vote. She said Farm City Days is non-partisan and staffed by volunteers and has now been drawn into “a mess” that could hurt the event.

“I just find it kind of crazy,” she said.

Iola is the seat of Allen County, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1 and President Donald Trump received 67 percent of the vote in 2016. Kobach carried it in a crowded Republican primary in August with nearly 43 percent of the vote.

Schowengerdt said the decision was made in mid-September. Kobach said he learned of the decision about a week ago, some days after parade organizers told his staff of their decision. He said Iola is the first community to express any reluctance about the replica machine gun.

“In contrast, we’ve had mayors from other cities asking us to bring the gun,” Kobach said. “The Second Amendment applies as well in the city as it does in the country, and there is no conflict whatsoever between the joining of city and country and the Second Amendment.”

EDINA, Mo. (AP) — Three junior high school football players have been charged in juvenile court with felony harassment and their coach has resigned in a case of alleged escalating hazing involving members of a younger football team.

Knox County R-1 School District Superintendent Andy Turgeon says he followed board policy in disciplining the students but provided no details, citing student privacy laws. He says the coach’s resignation happened last month after an investigation.

Attorney April Wilson is representing the family of football player on a fifth- and sixth-grade team in the northeast Missouri community. She says he was among those attacked. She says the older boys had a “lookout” and threatened to hurt witnesses if they told or intervened.

Knox County Sheriff Robert Becker says he can’t comment because the case involves juveniles.

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook says hackers accessed data from 29 million accounts as part of the security breach disclosed two weeks ago, fewer than the 50 million it initially believed were affected.

The hackers accessed name, email addresses or phone numbers from these accounts, according to Facebook. For 14 million of them, hackers got even more data, such as hometown, birthdate, the last 10 places they checked into or the 15 most recent searches.

An additional 1 million accounts were affected, but hackers didn’t get any information from them.

Facebook isn’t giving a breakdown of where these users are, but says the breach was “fairly broad.” It plans to send messages to people whose accounts were hacked.

Facebook said third-party apps and Facebook apps like WhatsApp and Instagram were unaffected by the breach.

Facebook said the FBI is investigating, but asked the company not to discuss who may be behind the attack. The company said it hasn’t ruled out the possibility of smaller-scale attacks that used the same vulnerability.

Facebook has said the attackers gained the ability to “seize control” of those user accounts by stealing digital keys the company uses to keep users logged in. They could do so by exploiting three distinct bugs in Facebook’s code. The company said it has fixed the bugs and logged out affected users to reset those digital keys.

At the time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg — whose own account was compromised — said attackers would have had the ability to view private messages or post on someone’s account, but there’s no sign that they did.

JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities and USD 335 officials are investigating a teen for alleged criminal threat against other students.

On Thursday morning, deputies arrested a 14-year-old student at the Jackson Heights High School north of Holton, according to Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse.

The student is alleged to have communicated threats towards specific students and was arrested on three counts of criminal threat.

Deputies and Investigators have been interviewing witnesses, according to Morse.

Anyone who may have further information regarding the incident is encouraged to call the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.