TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is delaying the launch of a new computer system for issuing driver’s licenses.
The Department of Revenue announced Wednesday what it called a slight delay for the KanLicense system that was supposed to launch Jan. 2.
The announcement came less than two weeks after a state audit raised questions about whether the system would be ready.
The new system would replace a decades-old system and initially was to be deployed early in 2012.
The department said the latest delay will be “only a matter of days or weeks” and that driver’s licenses offices will remain open.
Revenue Secretary Sam Williams said testing showed that the system needed a little more work. He also said launching it as planned would require hundreds of employees to work on New Year’s Day.
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A former correctional employee who claimed self-defense in a fatal western Kansas shooting might not avoid prosecution after all.
Earlier this month, the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed a Barton County judge’s ruling that Freddie Alec Thomas couldn’t be tried for murder in the death of 39-year-old Jeremy Alan Saldana. The case was sent back to a lower court to resolve unanswered questions.
Thomas, a former Ellsworth Correctional Facility officer, was dating Saldana’s ex-girlfriend at the time of the 2015 shooting. It happened after Thomas went to visit the woman’s daughter and her husband, not knowing that Saldana was living with the couple. An unarmed Saldana was shot during a pushing match.
Thomas told a detective he’d heard Saldana was known to carry a weapon and could be violent.
Trump met with business leaders in November photo courtesy White House
TOPEKA – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has asked President Donald Trump to assert oversight of federal regulations promulgated by “independent” federal agencies.
In a letter sent last week to President Trump, Schmidt, along with 13 other state attorneys general and two governors, recommended that Trump issue a new executive order subjecting independent agencies — such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission — to an oversight process designed to produce better regulations.
“[T]here is a significant gap in our nation’s regulatory oversight framework that threatens our workplaces, states, and communities with costly rules that were not effectively vetted,” the group wrote. “These agencies created numerous rules that substantially affected economic activity across the U.S. Yet these and other independent agencies operate outside the established review process.”
The letter referred to a 1981 opinion from the U.S. Justice Department that the president has the constitutional power to assert regulatory control over independent agencies.
Schmidt has also previously called on Congress to reform the regulatory process to help prevent a future onslaught of burdensome regulations from unelected federal bureaucrats as occurred during the Obama administration.
A copy of the governors’ and attorneys general’s letter is available here.
Police on the scene of Tuesday night’s shooting-photo courtesy WIBW TV
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a home-invasion shooting.
Just before 10p.m. Tuesday, police responded to the 400 blk of SW Taylor in Topeka in reference to shooting that had just occurred, according to Lt. Andrew Beightel.
Upon Officers arrival they located the crime scene inside an apartment and learned the adult male victim, with a possible life threatening gunshot injury, had already been driven to the hospital by a private vehicle.
The victim advised two adult males broke into his apartment and attacked him. One of the suspects is described as an adult black male in his 40’s wearing a black and white checkered t-shirt. After the shooting the suspects fled the area in an unknown direction. It is unclear at this time if the victim and suspects were known to one another.
Patrol Officers, Detectives and Crime Scene investigators are currently on scene investigating this incident. This case is ongoing, if you have any information relating to this crime; please call the Topeka Police Department at 785-368-9400 or Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007.
HASKELL COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 10p.m. Tuesday in Haskell County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Toyota Tacoma driven by Luis Rene Guitierrez-Loera, 49, Chihuahua, Mexico, was northbound on U.S. 83 ten miles north of Sublette.
The driver attempted to pass another vehicle. Due to inclement weather, the driver lost control of the pickup. It entered a side skid, tripped in the dirt and rolled an unknown number of times into the east ditch.
Cristian Rene Guiterrez-Portillo, 13, Chihuahua, Mexico, was transported to the hospital in Garden City, where he died.
Guitierrez-Loera was transported to the hospital in Satanta. Another passenger Allen Alexander Guiterrez-Portillo, 17, Chihuahua, Mexico, was not injured.
They were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A Kansas City man charged with stabbing two people last week in separate incidents is claiming demons told him to attack.
The Kansas City Star reports that 22-year-old Steven J. Bowes was charged in the stabbings Dec. 19 in Independence and Dec. 20 in Kansas City. He faces two counts each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action and one count of stealing a motor vehicle.
Court documents show Bowes told police that demons told him to go through with the stabbings, and that he waited until his victim was asleep in the Dec. 19 incident because it was the “moral thing” to do. Bowes also allegedly told police he believes the Dec. 20 stabbing was justified.
Bowes was taken into custody Thursday. Online records don’t immediately list an attorney for him.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — More than 10,000 pets go through the Kansas City Pet Project shelter each year, but a big Mastiff mix with droopy eyes had a heartbreakingly long stay.
Now, after 445 days, Polina finally has a home.
The Kansas City Star wrote about the plight of Polina earlier this month. She was sweet but always left behind when one prospective pet owner after another adopted other rescue animals, largely because Polina is scared of other dogs and children.
But after the Star story, several people stepped forward to adopt Polina. In the end, she went to a Kansas City home where she can roam three acres of land and sleep on a large, warm bed.
KC Pet Project staff chose Polina’s new family after talking with them and visiting the home.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 19-year-old Topeka man has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a fatal drive-by shooting, but he’ll be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Christopher Shawn Pattillo was sentenced Tuesday for the 2016 killing of 20-year-old Brian Miller. Pattillo was convicted of felony first-degree murder in July.
Pattillo told the judge that he shouldn’t be sentenced to more than 40 years in prison for something that he says he “didn’t do.”
Witnesses at Pattillo’s trial said another man charged in the crime, De’Angelo Megle Martinez, was the gunman who fired 14 shots from a van driven by Patillo.
Jurors in the trial for Martinez deadlocked in September. A second trial is scheduled for February.
DICKINSON COUNTY— Four people died in an accident just after 10a.m. Tuesday in Dickinson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Dodge Dakota driven by Lisa A. Luft, 47, Kearney, MO. was westbound on Interstate 70
Due to weather conditions the pickup hit the guardrail just east of Solomon.
The pickup traveled 230 feet beside the guardrail and then continued 150 feet on top of the guardrail before falling approximately 25 feet off the bridge. It landed on an embankment next to the railroad tracks below on its top.
Luft and passengers Brianna E. Luft, 20, and Saleena A. Senezee, 18, all of Kearney, MO., were pronounced dead at the scene.
A fourth passenger Aria L. Luft, 14, Kearney, MO., was transported to the hospital in Abilene where she died. The passengers were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
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I-70 at Solomon late Tuesday morning -image KDOT traffic camera
DICKINSON COUNTY—Just after 10 a.m., the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Department requested assistance from the Kansas Highway Patrol after taking a report of the single vehicle crash westbound near Abilene with multiple fatalities.
According to Trooper Ben Gardner, three people were pronounced dead at the scene and another died at the hospital shortly after. Multiple families had to be notified so the names haven’t been released yet.
The cause of the accident is also still under investigation.
Trooper Gardner said that the KHP was busy this morning with non-injury “slide-offs” caused by snowfall. Weather is also believed to have played a factor in this morning’s fatality, according to Trooper Gardner.
Check the Post for additional details as they become available.
