McPherson photo Sedgwick County

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday to 162 months in federal prison for robbery, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

 Camarin McPherson, 26, Wichita, pleaded guilty to one count of robbery. In his plea, he admitted that on April 25, 2019, he brandished a firearm and held a clerk at gunpoint at the Sprint store at 530 S. West Street in Wichita. He hogtied the clerk and stole 54 Apple iPhones and 24 Samsung Galaxy phones.

 McAllister commended the Wichita Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster for their work on the case.

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal gambling charged and agreed to forfeit $97,600 derived from gambling proceeds, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister. He was sentenced to 12 months on supervised federal probation.

Johnny Steven, 41, Wichita, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the unlawful transmission of wagering information. In his plea, Steven admitted he acted in cooperation with co-defendant Daven Flax, who was conducting illegal private poker games in Wichita.

Participants were notified via text messaging about the games. The texts also contained information about payments or collections of money. After games, Steven concealed the involvement of Flax and others by hiding handwritten ledgers or computerized records detailing gambling credits, earnings and obligations of the gambling business.

Keely Persinger photo ESU

 

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A jury has ruled in favor of four families who sued Emporia State University and two employees of its Center for Early Childhood Education.

The Lyon County jury ruled Tuesday the defendants must pay a total of $350,000 in damages to the four families. They alleged four toddlers at the center were abused and demeaned by a former teacher, Kimberly Schneider. They also contend the center’s director, Keely Persinger, and university staff ignored their complaints.

Investigators with state social service agencies substantiated claims of physical and emotional abuse and lack of supervision at the center.

Persinger and Schneider were granted separate diversion agreements on related criminal charges in summer of 2018.

The jury found the university 30 percent responsible and Persinger 70 percent responsible.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A persistent buzz about Mike Pompeo stepping down as the top U.S. diplomat to run for an open Senate seat in Kansas has built to a roar as impeachment hearings into President Donald Trump have intensified scrutiny of the State Department.

The U.S. secretary of state was in Brussels on Wednesday, brushing off questions about the impeachment inquiry and dismissing speculation about how long he’ll stay in Trump’s administration. Pompeo met with NATO’s secretary general, while lawmakers heard testimony from Ambassador Gordon Sondland that he kept Pompeo informed of efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Against the backdrop of impeachment, strain has set in between Trump and Pompeo. And Republicans already have speculated for months that Pompeo will resign to run for the Senate in his home state. Enthusiasm from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others regarding such a move has not cooled despite the impeachment hearings.

Many Republicans still see Pompeo as their best candidate for preventing the Kansas race from becoming competitive in a state where a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate seat since 1932. While Democrats would certainly raise Pompeo’s ties to Trump and impeachment revelations, neither would likely hurt him with conservative voters who dominate GOP primaries.

“I do think there’s a chance he runs,” said Alan Cobb, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, a long-active Republican who worked for Trump’s 2016 campaign. “The question comes down to not necessarily impeachment or the relationship with the president but the fundamental question of control of the United States Senate, and I think the landscape next year is murky.”

Pompeo has repeatedly said he intends to stay on as secretary of state as long as Trump will have him and even declared a Senate run “off the table” this summer.

Time magazine reported this week that Pompeo has told three prominent Republicans in recent weeks that he plans to resign from the Trump administration to run for the Senate. The Republicans were not named, and State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told reporters in Brussels that the story is “completely false.”

Pompeo has given no signal that he intends to leave his current job anytime soon, and aides say he has diplomatic travel planned through at least the end of January. En route to Brussels on Tuesday he suggested to reporters accompanying him that he would be returning to the city several more times as secretary of state.

“He is 100% focused on being President Trump’s secretary of state,” Ortagus said.

For months, Pompeo has enjoyed an enviable position in Trump’s Cabinet, his power largely unchecked as he frequently won foreign policy fights with then-National Security Adviser John Bolton and was viewed by the president as an aggressive defender. Among many in Trump’s orbit, Pompeo was viewed as the most powerful Cabinet member.

But Trump more recently has suspiciously viewed the parade of diplomats and career foreign policy officials who alleged he inappropriately withheld military aid from Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into a political foe. Trump was eager to paint the officials as “Never Trumpers” or part of the so-called “Deep State” conspiracy meant to unravel him, but a number of the officials were appointed by Trump — at Pompeo’s direction.

The president has snapped about Pompeo delivering “disloyal” officials and has privately vented about the secretary of state’s hiring choices, according to three White House officials and Republicans close to the White House, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

And there has been some grumbling among White House aides about Pompeo’s incessant flirtation with running for the Senate, according to the officials. Pompeo’s trips back to his home state — four as of November — have not gone unnoticed, and he has declined to definitively curtail talk about a run. That has led some in Trump’s circle to wonder whether the secretary of state was plotting an escape strategy.

Yet Pompeo has continued to stay close to Trump. He declined to support State Department employees at a news conference, attacked the impeachment proceedings and refused to publicly break with the president. He does not seem in danger of losing his post, according to the officials.

In Brussels on Wednesday, Pompeo said he hadn’t watched the impeachment hearings.

“I didn’t see a single thing today,” he told a reporter. “I was working. Sounds like you might not have been.”

The interest in Pompeo running for the Senate is driven by some GOP leaders’ fears that Kris Kobach, nationally known for advocating tough immigration policies, will emerge from a crowded primary race in August. Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, rouses Democrats and liberal activists while alienating GOP moderates, and he lost the 2018 governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly.

During a Nov. 8 “Save the Senate” event in Washington, Kevin McLaughlin, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s executive director, said audience members should call Pompeo and urge him to run, a source with knowledge of the GOP’s strategy said.

The source, who spoke anonymously because the committee doesn’t have a formal role in the race, said the comment was meant as a laugh-getting line. But the source also said Pompeo is viewed as a “game changer” candidate who will be well-funded on his own.

Pompeo’s entry into the race would likely push most other GOP candidates out — though Kobach has not said he would drop out. The other Republicans running include U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall of western Kansas, Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle and David Lindstrom, a Kansas City-area businessman and ex-Kansas City Chiefs player.

“You have to imagine, whatever data they have, in a Republican primary, Kobach is still a formidable candidate,” said University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller. “They need to find a candidate who is 10 kinds of awesome to beat him.”

Prominent Republicans said Pompeo’s stature isn’t likely to dip with fellow Republicans because of the impeachment hearings. Cobb said testimony Wednesday simply tied Pompeo more closely to a “nothing burger.”

Cheryl Reynolds, the chairwoman of the GOP in the 2nd Congressional District in eastern Kansas, said Republican voters see the impeachment inquiry as “purely political.”

“They see his whole thing as a sham,” said Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman. “They’re going dismiss most of the stuff that is being said and thrown at Mike Pompeo.”

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Hoedel photo Equality Kansas

 

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas city councilwoman says she will not resign after an LGBTQ advocate accused her of complaining to his employer about his public support for a nondiscrimination ordinance.

Olathe Councilwoman Karin Brownlee made the announcement Tuesday during a council meeting that drew a standing-room-only crowd.

Brett Hoedl, chairman of the Equality Kansas Metro Kansas City chapter, and others asked for Brownlee’s resignation. Hoedl said Brownlee’s actions would have a chilling effect on citizens speaking out on issues.

Brownlee said she was at a social event when she had a casual conversation with a co-worker of Hoedl’s about his previous appearances before the council. She said she meant no harm.

Olathe is considering passing a nondiscrimination ordinance that would include LGBTQ residents.

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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A gay rights activist says an Olathe City Council member should resign after she complained to his employer about his efforts to persuade the council to adopt an ordinance providing protections for LBGTQ residents.

Brett Hoedl, chairman of the Equality Kansas Metro Kansas City chapter, said in a Facebook post that Councilwoman Karin Brownlee complained to his employer, Black & Veatch, about his advocacy for the ordinance. He said Black & Veatch supported him but others might hesitate to testify before the council if they believe they could be targeted.

Brownlee said she meant no harm when she discussed Hoedl’s frequent appearances before the council with an acquaintance from Black & Veatch at a social event.

Hoedl and others plan to call for Brownlee’s resignation at the council’s meeting Tuesday.

By BECKY KISER

Hays Post

 

HAYS — The city of Hays has asked the IRS to check into the nonprofit status of WaterPACK, the “only active opponent” in the long-term water supply project for Hays.

The Water Protection Association of Central Kansas is opposed to triggering the state’s Water Transfer Act in connection with the R9 Ranch in Edwards County, owned since 1995 by Hays and Russell as a 75-plus year water supply.

“I would like to be able to explain what WaterPACK is, but I can’t,” City Manager Toby Dougherty told city commissioners last week.

“They are a claimed non-profit but they’re somewhat secretive and there’s not a lot of information out there about them. I do know it’s a membership organization comprised I believe mainly of irrigators that I think sort of reflects the Groundwater Management District #5 footprint. But again there’s nothing public known about WaterPACK.”

 

A final master order was issued March 27 by David Barfield, chief engineer at the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources (DWR), approving change applications to convert the irrigation rights of the R9 Ranch to municipal use for the cities.

In June, WaterPACK filed a petition for judicial review with the court in Edwards County. It’s a final check in the process before triggering the Water Transfer Act.

The process has been delayed.

“They have contracted an attorney to file the request for administrative review, and as attorneys do, they are doing their best to try to delay the procedure with every legal trick they can take right now.”

The judge had planned on having the scheduling hearing back in September, according to Dougherty. That would have set the schedule of events moving forward.

“That hearing hasn’t happened because of some antics by the Water PACK lawyer.”

The cities believe WaterPACK has staked out an illogical position.

“They are asking the state essentially to treat Hays and Russell differently than all other water rights holders are treated.”

When a water use right is changed, state law requires a certain process be followed. “It’s regulatory, it’s extremely straight forward and it’s very formulaic.”

The R9 has approximately 8,000 acre feet of water rights. The consumptive use rights, or yield figured by the state, is 6,756 acre feet annually. The cities voluntarily committed to an average sustainable yield of 4,800 acre feet per year, 30 percent less than they’re legally allowed to pump.

WaterPACK claims its research shows the sustainable yield should be less than that.

“They’re looking at every trick in the book to stop Hays and Russell’s development of the R9 Ranch even though we have the legal right to do this. They’re ignoring the fact that the consequences could be enormous if they’re successful.”

Dougherty says a review of publicly available water use reports shows neighboring landowners near the R9 are not cutting their own usage. “They are pumping every drop they can to grow crops but when itcomes to us, [they say] we can’t utilize even what’s sustainable.”

There are only so many procedural delays that can be tried and the judicial review process will only last so long.

“At some point we’re going to get to a hearing,” Dougherty assured commissioners. “At some point I’m certain that Russell’s attorney, Hays’s attorney and the state attorney will demonstrate to the judge that all the rules and regulations were followed, as they were. The judge is going to sign off on it. We’ll start the transfer process, make it through that, and be successful after that.”

WaterPACK is federally registered as a 501 C (6) nonprofit organization.

“However, when we ask for their filing documents to determine why they’re a 501 C (6), they ‘don’t have them,’ so we’ve requested them from the IRS because we’d like to know why they exist, what their reason for non-profit status is.”

“We think that it’s questionable,” said John Bird, city attorney, “and we’re questioning it.”

 

Tuesday accident scene photo Saline County Sheriff

SALINE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 4p.m. Tuesday in Saline County.

A 2002 Ford Explorer driven by Rudolfo Sotello, 37, Salina, was westbound in the 1800 Block of East Old 40 Highway, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.

The driver changed lanes to pass another vehicle and struck nearly head-on a 2007 Freightliner semi driven by James Saint, 62, of Beloit.

Sotello was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Soldan. Saint was not injured.

The Saline County Sheriff’s Office shut down East Old 40 Highway from Ohio Street to Marymount Road until the accident was cleared.