LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 38-year-old woman has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the shooting death of a man whose body was set on fire in rural Lawrence.

Christina Towell, of Leavenworth, was sentenced Thursday. She pleaded no contest last month to first-degree felony murder for her role in the November 2017 death of 34-year-old Joel Wales of Eudora.

Towell’s cousin, 39-year-old Tria Evans, of Lawrence, was convicted earlier of first-degree murder and other charges in Wales’ death and sentenced to life without parole for 50 years.

 Wales was alone housesitting for his mother when the women broke in, shot him six times and set his body and the house on fire.

Evans and Wales had a child together.

TOPEKA —Governor Laura Kelly signed House Bill 2103 Thursday injecting millions into Kansas programs that strengthen vulnerable children and families. This bill amends the revised Kansas Code for the Care of Children and enacts statutory previsions enabling Kansas to meet the requirements of the federal Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA).

“In the last few years, nothing has frustrated me more than the callous disregard some agency leaders demonstrated towards our vulnerable children and their families,” Kelly said. “This legislation will help to rebuild the Department for Children and Families and provide critical funding for programs aimed at strengthening families and keeping children safe.”

House Bill 2103 allows for an enhanced federal match rate for certain child welfare system evidence-based prevention services and programs beginning October 1, 2019. The bill defines a qualified residential treatment program (QRTP), establishes notice and hearing requirements when a child is placed in a QRTP, requires certain action a court must take when QRTP placement occurs, and places additional documentation requirements on the court in a permanency hearing involving a child placed in QRTP.

“The Department for Children and Families has already begun to connect with community partners across the state to kick off our Family First initiatives,” said DCF Secretary Laura Howard. “The additional federal funds along with these valued partnerships will allow us to introduce evidence-based practices throughout the state that will keep families together and children safe.”

Further, the bill amends the definition of a secure facility and requires a child in need of care petition to have an attached copy of any existing prevention plan for a child. The bill takes effect upon publication in the Kansas Register.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Court records say a man charged with trespassing at a Columbia middle school told officers he was visiting schools in the area to “bless them.”

Kelvin Joe is jailed on $10,000 bail on the felony.

He was first given a “No Trespassing” warning April 9, when he offered money to a student at Gentry Middle School from the passenger side of a black Mercedes.

He said he wasn’t trying to lure the student into the car but was giving the student money as a “blessing.” The vehicle was identified at a Christian school the same day.

He was arrested Tuesday after his vehicle was seen on security footage at West Middle School. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman who conspired to kill her mother after being forced to pretend for years she was disabled wants her sentence shortened.

Gypsy Blanchard asked in an email released Tuesday for people to write letters urging Gov. Mike Parson and the state parole board to release her early. She’s serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2015 death of her mother, 48-year-old Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who forced her daughter to undergo unnecessary medical procedures as part of a fraud scheme.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House has passed legislation that could block the developers of one of the nation’s largest wind energy projects from using eminent domain to string a high-voltage power line across the Midwest.

The vote Thursday by the House targets a $2.3 billion project that would carry electricity 750 miles from Kansas windmills across Missouri and Illinois before hooking into a power grid in Indiana serving eastern states.

The project won approval last month from Missouri utility regulators. That decision could allow developers to use condemnation to acquire easement rights from landowners unwilling to sell.

The bill blocking that now goes to the Missouri Senate.

The Grain Belt Express power line was proposed by Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners. It’s in the process of being acquired by Chicago-based Invenergy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia and President Donald Trump (all times local):

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation is two volumes and 448 pages long including attachments.

Read the full Mueller report here.

The report’s first volume details Russian election interference and the second relates to whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice.

The report reveals how Trump repeatedly sought to seize control of the Russia probe.

The 10 episodes scrutinized by Mueller include Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, the president’s directive to subordinates to have Mueller fired and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate.

The president’s lawyers have said Trump’s conduct fell within his constitutional powers, but Mueller’s team deemed the episodes were deserving of scrutiny to determine whether crimes were committed.

Attorney General William Barr  held a news conference on Mueller’s report before it was released. He said it found no cooperation between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russians interfering in that election.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted that it was “a disgrace” for Barr to act like “the personal attorney and publicist” for Trump.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called Barr’s news conference “a farce and an embarrassing display of propaganda” for Trump. And New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said, “The American people deserve the truth. Not spin from a Trump appointee.”

California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted that Barr’s news conference was “a stunt, filled with political spin.”

The Justice Department has provided Congress with a redacted version of the report. Democrats want the full report released.

 

MANHATTAN — A Wednesday evening apartment fire in Manhattan caused over $140,000 damage to the building and contents and started on the second-floor porch balcony due to improperly discarded smoking materials, according to Deputy Fire Chief Ryan Almes.

Just after 9:13 p.m.Wednesday, fire crews was dispatched to 415 Walters Drive Apartment 808 in Manhattan for a report of a structure fire with occupants possibly trapped, according to Almes.

Upon arrival, crews found a two-story apartment building with fire showing from the rear of the building extending into the attic.

Crews searched the building and confirmed that all occupants had exited the structure. The fire reached a second alarm before it was contained.  No injuries were reported.

Apartments 808 and 810 suffered fire damage and apartments 807 and 809 suffered smoke and water damage. 

A total of 14 occupants and 5 pets were displaced from 4 apartment units.  

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MANHATTAN — Officials are working to determine the cause of a fire in an apartment complex in Manhattan.

Just after 9:13 p.m.Wednesday, fire crews was dispatched to 415 Walters Drive Apartment 808 in Manhattan for a report of a structure fire with occupants possibly trapped, according to Deputy Chief Ryan Almes.

Upon arrival, crews found a two-story apartment building with fire showing from the rear of the building extending into the attic.

Crews searched the building and confirmed that all occupants had exited the structure. The fire reached a second alarm before it was contained.  No injuries were reported.

 Apartments 808 and 810 suffered fire damage and apartments 807 and 809 suffered smoke and water damage.The occupants of all four damaged units were displaced.  An estimate on damage was not available early Thursday.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY —A Kansas police officer was injured in an accident just after 4p.m. Wednesday in Montgomery County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Coffeyville Police Department Chevy Tahoe driven by Darin R. Daily, 46, Coffeyville, was eastbound on U.S. 166 two miles west of Tyro. 

The SUV rear ended Caney Valley USD 436 International School Bus driven by Rosella P. Moreland, 64, Caney, that was stopped at 2354 East U.S.166 to drop off some students.

The  7 students including 4 boys and 3 girls on the bus were not injured.

Officer Daily, a K-9 officer was making a routine drive back from training out of town, according to the Coffeyville Police Department. The patrol K-9 was not seriously injured. Daily had to be cut from the patrol car by the Coffeyville Fire Department jaws of life. He was air-liftedto Freeman Hospital. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After nearly two years of waiting, America is getting some Trump-Russia answers straight from Robert Mueller.

Eager to get in the last word ahead of the public release of the special counsel’s report, Attorney General William Barr on Thursday laid out in advance what he said was the “bottom line:” No collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government hackers.

While Mueller drew no conclusion about whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice in the investigation, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein personally had concluded that while Trump was “frustrated and angry” about the Mueller probe, nothing the president did rose to the level of an “obstruction-of-justice offense.” Barr said Mueller’s report examined 10 episodes pertaining to Trump and obstruction.

Barr said the president did not exert executive privilege to withhold anything in the report. And he said the president’s personal attorney had requested and gotten a chance to review the report before its public release.

The Justice Department was to release a redacted version of the special counsel’s report later Thursday on Russian election interference and the Trump campaign, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country.