LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man charged in a deadly Lawrence shooting is arguing self-defense.

An attorney for Steven Drake III is asking the court to dismiss a first-degree murder charge in the September killing of Bryce Holladay.

The defense motion says Holladay was allowed into Drake’s duplex by his roommate. But Holladay appeared to be “tweaking” on meth and began rummaging through the house and stealing. The motion says Holladay punched Drake’s girlfriend as she and three others tried to push him out.

Drake says his use of deadly force was legal. But prosecutors argue that deadly force wasn’t reasonable because no one was at risk of great bodily harm or death. At the time, Holladay was awaiting trial in an unrelated auto burglary and theft case.

FORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) — The mother of a 22-month-old boy who drowned in a fish pond at his foster parents’ home says the child died because of neglect, despite a ruling from the state that his death was an accident.

Conner Hawes died Aug. 18 in the pond at a Fort Scott home. A sheriff’s report says his foster father was watching television while Conner and three other foster children were outside before the drowning.

The Kansas Department of Children and Families and the Bourbon County Sheriff’s office ruled the boy’s death an accidental drowning.

The boy’s mother, Beth Hawes, disputes the finding that the death was an accident.

According to published reports, the DCF considers the death an accident, the agency won’t disclose records on how Conner’s death was handled.

JACKSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a woman in connection with a domestic altercation and officer-involved shooting.

On Thursday, deputies arrested Erica Nicole Miller, 23, Holton, on a Jackson County District Court warrant on two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of domestic battery.

She was booked into the Jackson County Jail and was later released on $10,000.00 Bond. The warrant was issued as a result of an investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office regarding an alleged domestic altercation involving a firearm between Erica Miller and her husband Patrick Wayne Miller in Holton.

The domestic altercation with a firearm is believed to have occurred in the late evening of Sunday December 3, in Holton.

Just after 3a.m. on December 4, deputies arrested Patrick Miller following a 3-hour armed standoff with law enforcement at 802 Ohio in Holton. Patrick Miller is accused of shooting at law enforcement including a Jackson County Sheriff’s K-9 vehicle in which Erica Miller had been seated. Patrick Wayne Miller remains in the Jackson County Jail on $1,000,000.00 bond.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has concluded with its investigation of the Holton Police Officer who returned fire on Patrick Miller.  That investigation was forwarded to the Jackson County Attorney for review on Thursday.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for assault on a law enforcement officer and additional charges.

Just after 6p.m. Sunday, Shane Huddleston, 24, Salina, made four non-emergency calls to 911, according to police Captain Mike Sweeney.  Each call included a profanity-laced rant to the dispatcher.

Officers later located Huddleston in middle of the street in the 500 block of South Ohio. Huddleston appeared to be under the influence of intoxicating substances and became combative, charging at police, according to Sweeney.

Three officers tackled Huddleston and placed him in custody for disorderly conduct, giving a false alarm, pedestrian under the influence and assault on a law enforcement officer.

Huddleston has been arrested numerous times over the past two years for drugs and other charges, according to the Saline County Sheriff booking report.

TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas is now experiencing regional influenza activity, with increased influenza cases in most regions of the state. Outbreaks in long-term care facilities have been reported to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). Four outbreaks have been identified so far during the 2017-2018 season.

While there has been an expected uptick in reported cases, influenza activity likely has not yet peaked in Kansas. KDHE urges people to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their family members from the flu. While flu vaccine can vary in how well it works, it is the best way to prevent flu illness and serious flu complications, including those that can result in hospitalization.

Influenza vaccine is recommended for nearly everyone six months of age and older. Receiving the influenza vaccine is especially important for anyone at high risk of complications including babies and young children, older persons, and people with certain chronic conditions. Even if a person is healthy, getting vaccinated protects the people around them. It is important for people caring for young children and those caring for persons with medical conditions, who are at a higher risk of severe complications, to get vaccinated.

Symptoms of influenza include fever, dry cough, extreme tiredness and muscle aches. Complications can include pneumonia, ear and sinus infections, and dehydration; influenza may also worsen other chronic conditions.

Depending on the severity of the influenza season, 5-20 percent of the population may get influenza each year. During the peak of the 2016-2017 influenza season in Kansas, approximately 10 percent of all health care visits were due to influenza-like illness in the clinics where KDHE conducts surveillance for flu. Influenza was the direct cause of 99 deaths and may have contributed to an additional 1,108 among Kansas residents during the 2016-2017 influenza season. Additional ways to avoid spreading influenza include covering coughs and sneezes, washing your hands and staying home when sick.

For information on receiving the influenza vaccine, please contact your health care provider or the local health department. Visit the KDHE web site for additional information about the flu.

RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating three additional cases of alleged rape in Manhattan and the Riley County.

On Friday, officers filed a report for aggravated kidnapping, rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary in Ogden. Officers listed a 38-year-old woman as the victim and an unknown man as the suspect, according to Monday’s Riley County Police Activity Report.

On Saturday, police filed a report for rape involving an 18-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man known to the victim. Manhattan.

On Sunday, officers filed a report for rape involving a 25-year-old woman as the victim and a male known to her as the suspect.

In July Riley County authorities said the number of rapes reported in Manhattan and surrounding areas had doubled during the first quarter of this year compared with the same time last year.
Sixteen rapes were reported in the first quarter of 2017, up from eight in the same period in 2016.

A total of 40 rapes were reported in 2016.

BY MADELINE FOX

A University of Kansas study supports the suspicions of lawmakers and advocates who believe there’s a link between additional restrictions on welfare benefits and an increase in foster care cases.

The researchers say their initial findings show that while Kansas was reducing the amount of time families could receive cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and increasing the requirements they needed to meet for that assistance, the number of child abuse and neglect cases went up. Abuse and neglect are the leading reasons why Kansas kids enter foster care.

“It’s remarkable. There is a mirror image,” said Donna Ginther, a KU economist and one of the study researchers. “As the Kansas TANF caseloads drop, the number of reports of abuse and neglect go up. And you see a similar relationship for foster care placements.”

The number of Kansas families receiving TANF has dropped from 14,321 in 2011 to 4,563 in March 2017.

Since Gov. Sam Brownback took office in 2011, lifetime limits for TANF recipients have been reduced three times:

• In 2011, from 60 months to 48 months.
• In 2015 as part of the HOPE Act, to 36 months.
• In 2016 as part of the HOPE Act 2.0, to 24 months with a chance to get a hardship extension of up to a year.

The most recent change puts the Kansas lifetime TANF limit among the lowest in the nation.

While TANF caseloads decreased, the KU researchers noted a jump in the number of TANF applications that were denied beginning in 2011.

Gina Meier-Hummel, newly appointed secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, addressed the study when its impending release came up during a child welfare task force meeting earlier this week. She said the agency’s numbers don’t signal a relationship between the more restrictive welfare policies and the increase in foster care cases.

“We’re going to continue to have conversations about the policies and make sure we’ve got everything right,” she said. “We obviously think we have the policy right, but we’ll continue to look at that.”

Sandra Kimmons, DCF director of economic and employment services, said the agency’s records from 2010 to 2016 indicate a steady percentage of families who left TANF and saw their kids enter foster care in the next 12 months.

Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, a professor of social welfare at KU and another of the study’s researchers, said the KU research differed from the data DCF cites. KU looked at the relationship between states that implemented stricter sanctions and the number of child abuse and foster care cases more broadly to understand the effect of TANF changes in Kansas, while DCF directly tracked the Kansas families who left TANF to see if they entered foster care.

For Rep. Linda Gallagher, a Lenexa Republican and a member of the child welfare task force, the preliminary results from KU offer evidence that she can take back to the Legislature as it considers improvements to a struggling foster care system. She said she intends to bring the KU researchers to testify before the task force and hopes to use the study’s findings to begin reversing some of the HOPE Act 2.0 provisions.

“I didn’t vote for the HOPE Act in the first place, so I welcome anything we can do to roll back aspects of it,” Gallagher said.

However, even with more moderates elected to the Legislature since HOPE 2.0 was approved in 2016, Gallagher said it will likely be an incremental process. She’d like to start by reducing the work requirements for women after they give birth, but ultimately hopes to see a lifting of the two-year lifetime limit.

“We’re going to have to be strategic in going for change that is achievable,” she said.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The Latest on an Amtrak train derailment in Washington state (all times local):

Authorities say multiple people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed onto Interstate 5 south of Seattle.

Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer says none of the fatalities were motorists who were in cars and trucks when the train came off the tracks on to I-5.

He says emergency responders are working to get survivors out and to area hospitals.

Authorities say the train derailed before 8 a.m. Monday, but no specifics were immediately available.

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9:16 a.m.

Authorities say several vehicles on Interstate 5 were struck by the falling train cars when an Amtrak train derailed south of Seattle, and “multiple motorists” were injured on the roadway.

No fatalities of motorists were reported.

All southbound lanes of I-5 were closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and motorists were being warned to avoid the area.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s office says “injuries and casualties” were reported when the train derailed before 8 a.m. Monday, but no specifics were immediately available.

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9:01 a.m.

Chris Karnes was on the train Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle, three or four cars back from the front.

Karnes told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview Monday morning that he was “not sure what got hit.”

He was unhurt and is now near the medical tents set up in a median area between north- and sound-bound Interstate 5, just south of DuPont, Washington.

Karnes said: “there are several cars that are hanging over the overpass,” Karnes.

The train derailed before 8 a.m. Monday. Authorities reported “injuries and casualties” but did not immediately have more information.

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8:37 a.m.

An Amtrak train derailed south of Seattle, and authorities say “injuries and casualties” were reported.

The train derailed about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Seattle before 8 a.m. Monday, spilling at least one train car on to busy Interstate 5.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s office says in a tweet that the train was heading south bound and that there were “injuries and casualties,” but no numbers were immediately available.

All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 were closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and motorists were being warned to avoid the area.

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8:29 a.m.

An Amtrak train has derailed roughly 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Seattle, spilling cars onto a busy interstate.

The train derailed just before 8 a.m.

No other information was immediately available.

The train derailed just south of Tacoma, Washington.

BRANSON WEST, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say two people from Kansas have died in a small plane crash in southwest Missouri.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said in an email that the single-engine Piper Cherokee went down Sunday night in a pasture about one mile northwest of the Branson West Municipal Airport in Missouri.

Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader says the two people aboard the plane were killed. The man and woman were from Gardner, Kansas. Rader says they were meeting family in the Branson area. Their names weren’t immediately released.

Cory described the circumstances of the crash as “unknown.” She says the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.