WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government says it will begin a targeted crackdown on nursing homes’ abuse of antipsychotic drugs and misdiagnoses of schizophrenia in patients.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is launching investigations this month into select nursing homes, aimed at verifying whether patients have been properly diagnosed with the psychiatric disorder.

Evidence has mounted over decades that some facilities wrongly diagnose residents with schizophrenia or&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-medication-2052229826d84280aeb29208f7eb9434">administer antipsychotic drugs to sedate them</a>, despite dangerous side effects that could include death, according to the agency.

“No nursing home resident should be improperly diagnosed with schizophrenia or given an inappropriate antipsychotic,” Health and Human Services Secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/xavier-becerra">Xavier Becerra</a>&nbsp;said in a statement Wednesday. “The steps we are taking today will help prevent these errors and give families peace of mind.”

Some facilities may be dodging increased scrutiny around gratuitous use of antipsychotic medications by coding residents as having schizophrenia, even when they do not show signs of the extremely rare disorder, a government report last year found. Less than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia">1% of the population</a>&nbsp;is believed to have schizophrenia, which is marked by delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking.

In 2012, the federal government began tracking when nursing homes use antipsychotics on residents — doing so can impact the facility’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/">quality rating in a public database</a>&nbsp;— but only for those who have not been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Antipsychotics for those nursing home residents has dropped to under 20% in recent years, according to federal data.

A November&nbsp;<a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/OEI-07-20-00500.pdf">report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General</a>, however, revealed that the number of residents reported as having schizophrenia without a corresponding diagnosis skyrocketed between 2015 and 2019, with 99 nursing homes in the country reporting that 20% or more of their residents have the disorder.

“The number of unsupported schizophrenia diagnoses increased and in 2019 was concentrated in relatively few nursing homes,” the report concluded.

Nursing homes have worked on other ways to treat residents, especially those with dementia, and trained staff to use alternative methods, said Katie Smith Sloan, the CEO of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit aging service providers.

“Much has been achieved since the program’s start in 2012, and nursing homes deserve a lot of the credit for the progress," she said in a statement.

CMS will start targeted audits to ask nursing homes for documentation of the diagnoses in the coming days, focusing on nursing homes with existing residents who have been recorded as having schizophrenia.

The rating scores for nursing homes that have a pattern of inaccurately coding residents as having schizophrenia will be negatively impacted, CMS said in a statement released Wednesday, stopping short of threatening to levy fines against facilities.

Dinging nursing homes' public ratings will be effective in some cases, said Dr. Shekinah Fashaw-Walters, a researcher at the University of Minnesota who has found that schizophrenia diagnoses have risen in Black nursing home patients compared with their white counterparts in recent years.

She is hopeful that the CMS audits will help to narrow that racial disparity and said that it's “about time” for CMS' plan.

“It’s time to do this and really hold nursing homes accountable for providing high quality care," she said. "I’m thrilled to see that they are taking these steps, and I think they’re very warranted.”

The agency does not have plans to immediately intervene in the patients’ care directly or notify relatives of residents who have been wrongly coded or given antipsychotics, according to senior HHS officials who insisted on anonymity to brief The Associated Press on the matter on Tuesday.

CMS will monitor the facilities to make sure the issues are corrected, officials said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668464912783.png" alt="“No nursing home resident should be improperly diagnosed with schizophrenia or given an inappropriate antipsychotic,” Health and Human Services Secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/xavier-becerra">Xavier Becerra</a>&nbsp;said in a statement Wednesday-courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>“No nursing home resident should be improperly diagnosed with schizophrenia or given an inappropriate antipsychotic,” Health and Human Services Secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/xavier-becerra">Xavier Becerra</a>&nbsp;said in a statement Wednesday-courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government says it will begin a targeted crackdown on nursing homes’ abuse of antipsychotic drugs and misdiagnoses of schizophrenia in patients.The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is launching investigations this month into select nursing homes, aimed at verifying whether patients have been properly diagnosed with the psychiatric disorder.Evidence has mounted over decades that some facilities wrongly diagnose residents with schizophrenia or&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-medication-2052229826d84280aeb29208f7eb9434">administer antipsychotic drugs to sedate them</a>, despite dangerous side effects that could include death, according to the agency.“No nursing home resident should be improperly diagnosed with schizophrenia or given an inappropriate antipsychotic,” Health and Human Services Secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/xavier-becerra">Xavier Becerra</a>&nbsp;said in a statement Wednesday. “The steps we are taking today will help prevent these errors and give families peace of mind.”Some facilities may be dodging increased scrutiny around gratuitous use of antipsychotic medications by coding residents as having schizophrenia, even when they do not show signs of the extremely rare disorder, a government report last year found. Less than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia">1% of the population</a>&nbsp;is believed to have schizophrenia, which is marked by delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking.In 2012, the federal government began tracking when nursing homes use antipsychotics on residents — doing so can impact the facility’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/">quality rating in a public database</a>&nbsp;— but only for those who have not been diagnosed with schizophrenia.Antipsychotics for those nursing home residents has dropped to under 20% in recent years, according to federal data.A November&nbsp;<a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/OEI-07-20-00500.pdf">report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General</a>, however, revealed that the number of residents reported as having schizophrenia without a corresponding diagnosis skyrocketed between 2015 and 2019, with 99 nursing homes in the country reporting that 20% or more of their residents have the disorder.“The number of unsupported schizophrenia diagnoses increased and in 2019 was concentrated in relatively few nursing homes,” the report concluded.Nursing homes have worked on other ways to treat residents, especially those with dementia, and trained staff to use alternative methods, said Katie Smith Sloan, the CEO of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit aging service providers.“Much has been achieved since the program’s start in 2012, and nursing homes deserve a lot of the credit for the progress," she said in a statement.CMS will start targeted audits to ask nursing homes for documentation of the diagnoses in the coming days, focusing on nursing homes with existing residents who have been recorded as having schizophrenia.The rating scores for nursing homes that have a pattern of inaccurately coding residents as having schizophrenia will be negatively impacted, CMS said in a statement released Wednesday, stopping short of threatening to levy fines against facilities.Dinging nursing homes' public ratings will be effective in some cases, said Dr. Shekinah Fashaw-Walters, a researcher at the University of Minnesota who has found that schizophrenia diagnoses have risen in Black nursing home patients compared with their white counterparts in recent years.She is hopeful that the CMS audits will help to narrow that racial disparity and said that it's “about time” for CMS' plan.“It’s time to do this and really hold nursing homes accountable for providing high quality care," she said. "I’m thrilled to see that they are taking these steps, and I think they’re very warranted.”The agency does not have plans to immediately intervene in the patients’ care directly or notify relatives of residents who have been wrongly coded or given antipsychotics, according to senior HHS officials who insisted on anonymity to brief The Associated Press on the matter on Tuesday.CMS will monitor the facilities to make sure the issues are corrected, officials said.

Feds to investigate nursing home abuse of antipsychotics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight months, 126 formal interviews and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/Dobbs_Public_Report_January_19_2023.pdf">a 23-page report</a>&nbsp;later,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court">the Supreme Court</a>&nbsp;said it has failed to discover who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights.

<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/Dobbs_Public_Report_January_19_2023.pdf">Click here to read</a> the full report

The report released by the court Thursday is the apparent culmination of an investigation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/pressreleases/pr_05-03-22">ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts</a>&nbsp;a day after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-07439f9fc4542f1500ab78dfd34036b1">the May leak of the draft to Politico</a>. Notably the report did not indicate whether the justices themselves had been questioned. On Friday, seemingly in response to widespread questions from the media and legal community, the head of the investigation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/pressreleases/pr_01-20-23">added in a statement</a>&nbsp;that the court's nine justices had been interviewed as part of the probe and that nothing implicated them.

The leak touched off protests at justices’ homes and raised concerns about their security. And it came more than a month before the final opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was released and the court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">formally announced it was overturning Roe v. Wade</a>.

The report also offers a window into the court's internal processes. It acknowledges that the coronavirus pandemic, which expanded the ability of people to work from home, “as well as gaps in the Court’s security policies, created an environment where it was too easy to remove sensitive information from the building and the Court’s IT networks.” The report recommends changes so that it's harder for a leak to happen in the future.

Some questions and answers about the report:

IF THE INVESTIGATION DIDN'T FIND THE LEAKER, WHAT DID IT FIND?

Lax security and loose lips. Too many people have access to certain sensitive information, the report concluded, and the court’s policies on information security are outdated. The court can't actively track, for example, who is handling and accessing highly sensitive information.

Beyond that, some people interviewed by federal investigators called in to help with the probe acknowledged they didn't scrupulously follow the court’s confidentiality policies. In some cases, employees acknowledged "telling their spouses about the draft opinion or vote count,” the report said.

The leak doesn't appear to have been the result of a hack, but the report said investigators could not rule out that the opinion was inadvertently disclosed, “for example, by being left in a public space either inside or outside the building.”

Investigators conducted 126 formal interviews of 97 employees. They looked into connections between employees and reporters, including those at Politico. They looked at call logs of personal phones. They looked at printer logs. They even did a fingerprint analysis of “an item relevant to the investigation.”

Every person who was interviewed signed a sworn statement that they were not the source of the leak. Lying about that could violate a federal law on false statements.

After all that, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, himself a onetime federal judge, was asked to assess the investigation. Chertoff described the investigation as “thorough” in a statement issued through the court.

The court did not respond to reporters' questions Thursday about whether the justices were interviewed. On Friday, the day after the report was released,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-leak-investigation-gail-curley-48623ac2a3bafe36f39bbf5f68257dbf">Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley</a>&nbsp;who headed the investigation, said in a statement that she also spoke with each of the justices, who cooperated in the investigation. “I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses,” she wrote. She said she didn't believe it was necessary to ask the justices to sign sworn affidavits as others did.

It seems clear the court will tighten its procedures, maybe upgrade equipment and likely do more training of personnel in response to the leak. But what it has done already or will do in the future, the court isn't saying. Investigators made a list of recommendations, but those weren't attached to the public version of the report to guard against “potential bad actors.”

After the leak, speculation swirled in Washington about who the source could be. Conservatives pointed fingers at the liberal side of the court, speculating that the leaker was someone upset about the outcome. Liberals suggested it could be someone on the conservative side of the court who wanted to ensure a wavering member of the five-justice majority didn’t switch sides.

On social media, there was speculation that various law clerks could be the leaker because of their personal backgrounds, including connections to Politico and past writing. The report acknowledged investigators were watching.

“Investigators also assessed the wide array of public speculation, mostly on social media, about any individual who may have disclosed the document. Several law clerks were named in various posts. In their inquiries, the investigators found nothing to substantiate any of the social media allegations regarding the disclosure,” the report said.

The report says investigators aren't quite done, but it suggests that any active investigation is winding down. “Investigators continue to review and process some electronic data that has been collected and a few other inquiries remain pending,” they said. “To the extent that additional investigation yields new evidence or leads, the investigators will pursue them.”

The final paragraph of the report said, “In time, continued investigation and analysis may produce additional leads that could identify the source of the disclosure.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1656081470334.png" alt="-Protestors outside the court when the Roe decision was announced June 24-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>-Protestors outside the court when the Roe decision was announced June 24-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight months, 126 formal interviews and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/Dobbs_Public_Report_January_19_2023.pdf">a 23-page report</a>&nbsp;later,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court">the Supreme Court</a>&nbsp;said it has failed to discover who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights.<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/Dobbs_Public_Report_January_19_2023.pdf">Click here to read</a> the full reportThe report released by the court Thursday is the apparent culmination of an investigation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/pressreleases/pr_05-03-22">ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts</a>&nbsp;a day after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-07439f9fc4542f1500ab78dfd34036b1">the May leak of the draft to Politico</a>. Notably the report did not indicate whether the justices themselves had been questioned. On Friday, seemingly in response to widespread questions from the media and legal community, the head of the investigation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/pressreleases/pr_01-20-23">added in a statement</a>&nbsp;that the court's nine justices had been interviewed as part of the probe and that nothing implicated them.The leak touched off protests at justices’ homes and raised concerns about their security. And it came more than a month before the final opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was released and the court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">formally announced it was overturning Roe v. Wade</a>.The report also offers a window into the court's internal processes. It acknowledges that the coronavirus pandemic, which expanded the ability of people to work from home, “as well as gaps in the Court’s security policies, created an environment where it was too easy to remove sensitive information from the building and the Court’s IT networks.” The report recommends changes so that it's harder for a leak to happen in the future.Some questions and answers about the report:IF THE INVESTIGATION DIDN'T FIND THE LEAKER, WHAT DID IT FIND?Lax security and loose lips. Too many people have access to certain sensitive information, the report concluded, and the court’s policies on information security are outdated. The court can't actively track, for example, who is handling and accessing highly sensitive information.Beyond that, some people interviewed by federal investigators called in to help with the probe acknowledged they didn't scrupulously follow the court’s confidentiality policies. In some cases, employees acknowledged "telling their spouses about the draft opinion or vote count,” the report said.The leak doesn't appear to have been the result of a hack, but the report said investigators could not rule out that the opinion was inadvertently disclosed, “for example, by being left in a public space either inside or outside the building.”HOW THOROUGH WAS THE INVESTIGATION?Investigators conducted 126 formal interviews of 97 employees. They looked into connections between employees and reporters, including those at Politico. They looked at call logs of personal phones. They looked at printer logs. They even did a fingerprint analysis of “an item relevant to the investigation.”Every person who was interviewed signed a sworn statement that they were not the source of the leak. Lying about that could violate a federal law on false statements.After all that, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, himself a onetime federal judge, was asked to assess the investigation. Chertoff described the investigation as “thorough” in a statement issued through the court.The court did not respond to reporters' questions Thursday about whether the justices were interviewed. On Friday, the day after the report was released,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-leak-investigation-gail-curley-48623ac2a3bafe36f39bbf5f68257dbf">Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley</a>&nbsp;who headed the investigation, said in a statement that she also spoke with each of the justices, who cooperated in the investigation. “I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses,” she wrote. She said she didn't believe it was necessary to ask the justices to sign sworn affidavits as others did.WHAT WILL CHANGE AS A RESULT?It seems clear the court will tighten its procedures, maybe upgrade equipment and likely do more training of personnel in response to the leak. But what it has done already or will do in the future, the court isn't saying. Investigators made a list of recommendations, but those weren't attached to the public version of the report to guard against “potential bad actors.”WHAT ABOUT SPECULATION OF WHO IT WAS?After the leak, speculation swirled in Washington about who the source could be. Conservatives pointed fingers at the liberal side of the court, speculating that the leaker was someone upset about the outcome. Liberals suggested it could be someone on the conservative side of the court who wanted to ensure a wavering member of the five-justice majority didn’t switch sides.On social media, there was speculation that various law clerks could be the leaker because of their personal backgrounds, including connections to Politico and past writing. The report acknowledged investigators were watching.“Investigators also assessed the wide array of public speculation, mostly on social media, about any individual who may have disclosed the document. Several law clerks were named in various posts. In their inquiries, the investigators found nothing to substantiate any of the social media allegations regarding the disclosure,” the report said.WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?The report says investigators aren't quite done, but it suggests that any active investigation is winding down. “Investigators continue to review and process some electronic data that has been collected and a few other inquiries remain pending,” they said. “To the extent that additional investigation yields new evidence or leads, the investigators will pursue them.”The final paragraph of the report said, “In time, continued investigation and analysis may produce additional leads that could identify the source of the disclosure.”___

Read the full Supreme Court report on leak of abortion decision

SUMNER COUNTY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred Saturday night in Sumner County.

Just before 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, two officers with the Wellington Police Department arrived at the residence of 1111 E 7th&nbsp;St in Wellington regarding a disturbance.

Officers made contact with the reporting party who indicated her boyfriend, Harley Bagby, 30 of Wellington, was inside the residence, tearing the house up. Officers were given access and made entry into the residence.

As officers entered the residence, they were met by Bagby, who exited a bedroom into the hallway with a large knife. Officers gave commands to Bagby to drop the knife. Bagby did not comply. Bagby advanced toward the officers. One officer fired multiple times and struck Bagby. Wellington EMS pronounced him deceased at approximately 11:05 p.m.

The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave. The KBI will conduct a thorough and independent investigation into this shooting. Once the investigation has concluded, the findings will be turned over to the Sumner County Attorney for review.

Bagby had previous convictions for aggravated assault, endangering a child, criminal damage to property and for drugs, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674403163621.png" alt="Bagby had previous convictions for aggravated assault, endangering a child, criminal damage to property and for drugs, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections." />
 <figcaption>Bagby had previous convictions for aggravated assault, endangering a child, criminal damage to property and for drugs, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.</figcaption>
 </figure>SUMNER COUNTY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred Saturday night in Sumner County.Just before 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, two officers with the Wellington Police Department arrived at the residence of 1111 E 7th&nbsp;St in Wellington regarding a disturbance.Officers made contact with the reporting party who indicated her boyfriend, Harley Bagby, 30 of Wellington, was inside the residence, tearing the house up. Officers were given access and made entry into the residence.As officers entered the residence, they were met by Bagby, who exited a bedroom into the hallway with a large knife. Officers gave commands to Bagby to drop the knife. Bagby did not comply. Bagby advanced toward the officers. One officer fired multiple times and struck Bagby. Wellington EMS pronounced him deceased at approximately 11:05 p.m.The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave. The KBI will conduct a thorough and independent investigation into this shooting. Once the investigation has concluded, the findings will be turned over to the Sumner County Attorney for review.Bagby had previous convictions for aggravated assault, endangering a child, criminal damage to property and for drugs, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.

KBI: Man dead in Kansas officer-involved shooting

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a Kansas house fire that killed two girls and a woman have made an arrest.

Just 5:00 a.m. Friday, crews responded to the report of house fire at 916 SW Warren Avenue in Topeka, according to fire department spokesperson Rosie Nichols.

First responding crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the two-story house. Crews entered, searched the home and found four individuals.&nbsp;An adult and child were pronounced deceased on the scene.

Fire crews rescued an adult and a juvenile from the home and firefighters began immediate life-saving treatment.&nbsp; American Medical Response (AMR) transported both including 32-year-old Kyle Tyler to a local hospital. The child later died at the hospital, according to Nichols.

The cause of the fire has been determined by Topeka Fire investigators as intentionally set. The incident is being investigated by police as a homicide. The incident is domestic in nature, according to Nichols.

The deceased individuals have been identified&nbsp; as 30-year-old Genny L. Fitzpatrick, 9-year-old&nbsp; Peyton L. Tyler and 1-year-old Kourtney K. Tyler, all of Topeka.

&nbsp;Kyle J. Tyler, 32, of Holton, was released from the hospital Saturday, and transported to the Law Enforcement Center to be interviewed. Police arrested and booked him into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of Murder in the 1st degree; In the commission of a felony, Aggravated Arson and Aggravated Child Endangerment.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674225989378.png" alt="First responding crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the two-story house.-photo courtesy WIBW TV" />
 <figcaption>First responding crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the two-story house.-photo courtesy WIBW TV</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a Kansas house fire that killed two girls and a woman have made an arrest.Just 5:00 a.m. Friday, crews responded to the report of house fire at 916 SW Warren Avenue in Topeka, according to fire department spokesperson Rosie Nichols.First responding crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the two-story house. Crews entered, searched the home and found four individuals.&nbsp;An adult and child were pronounced deceased on the scene.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674361780426.png" alt="Tyler-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Tyler-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Fire crews rescued an adult and a juvenile from the home and firefighters began immediate life-saving treatment.&nbsp; American Medical Response (AMR) transported both including 32-year-old Kyle Tyler to a local hospital. The child later died at the hospital, according to Nichols.The cause of the fire has been determined by Topeka Fire investigators as intentionally set. The incident is being investigated by police as a homicide. The incident is domestic in nature, according to Nichols.The deceased individuals have been identified&nbsp; as 30-year-old Genny L. Fitzpatrick, 9-year-old&nbsp; Peyton L. Tyler and 1-year-old Kourtney K. Tyler, all of Topeka.&nbsp;Kyle J. Tyler, 32, of Holton, was released from the hospital Saturday, and transported to the Law Enforcement Center to be interviewed. Police arrested and booked him into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of Murder in the 1st degree; In the commission of a felony, Aggravated Arson and Aggravated Child Endangerment.

Murder arrest after two girls, woman die in Kansas house fire

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and located additional documents with classified markings and also took possession of some of his handwritten notes, the president’s lawyer said Saturday.

The president voluntarily allowed the FBI into his home, but the lack of a search warrant did not dim the extraordinary nature of the search. It compounded the embarrassment to Biden that started with the disclosure Jan. 12 that the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-barack-obama-merrick-garland-def4c44c23229671e1e50bf170dc67d2">president’s attorneys</a>&nbsp;had found a “small number” of classified records at a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-812ef44a5333f6d93423a67a683fa024">former office at the Penn Biden Center</a>&nbsp;in Washington shortly before the midterm elections. Since then, attorneys found&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-0574fd762159e8cb5f31c85205df3dc0">six classified</a>&nbsp;documents in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-merrick-garland-3f77c3d792ed525c446efd7bd95e86ba">Biden’s Wilmington home</a>&nbsp;library from his time as vice president.

Though Biden has maintained “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-wilmington-merrick-garland-f2384a87dcddbd38796f63e1269c6baf">there’s no there there,”</a>&nbsp;the discoveries have become a political liability as he prepares to launch a reelection bid, and they undercut his efforts to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-donald-trump-036e528fc399477a603ed402c6e83cfb">portray an image of propriety</a>&nbsp;to the American public after the tumultuous presidency of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

During Friday's search, which lasted nearly 13 hours, the FBI took six items that contained documents with classified markings, said Bob Bauer, the president’s personal lawyer. The items spanned Biden’s time in the Senate and the vice presidency, while the notes dated to his time as vice president, he said. The level of classification, and whether the documents removed by the FBI remained classified, was not immediately clear as the Justice Department reviews the records.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed Saturday that the FBI had executed “a planned, consensual search” of the president’s residence in Wilmington.

The president and first lady Jill Biden were not at the home when it was searched. They were spending the weekend at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to California on Thursday, Biden said he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”

“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden said. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”

It remained to be seen whether additional searches by federal officials of other locations might be conducted. Biden's personal attorneys previously conducted a search of the Rehoboth Beach residence and said they did not find any official documents or classified records.

The Biden investigation has also complicated the Justice Department’s probe into Trump’s retention of classified documents and official records after he left office. The Justice Department says Trump took hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government, and that it had to obtain a search warrant to retrieve them.

Bauer said the FBI requested that the White House not comment on the search before it was conducted, and that Biden's personal and White House attorneys were present. The FBI, he added, “had full access to the President’s home, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders going back decades."

The Justice Department, he added, “took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President."

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-is-robert-hur-special-counsel-biden-d715ffd26adc75f2ba740d1960936a09">former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur</a>&nbsp;as a special counsel to investigate any potential wrongdoing surrounding the Biden documents. Hur is set to take over from the Trump-appointed Illinois U.S. Attorney John Lausch in overseeing the probe.

“Since the beginning, the President has been committed to handling this responsibly because he takes this seriously,” White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Saturday. “The President’s lawyers and White House Counsel’s Office will continue to cooperate with DOJ and the Special Counsel to help ensure this process is conducted swiftly and efficiently.”

The Biden document discoveries and the investigation into Trump, which is in the hands of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-are-special-counsels-what-do-they-do-jack-smith-8a9696d37c50286319b0d4b862c1e837">special counsel Jack Smith</a>, are significantly different. Biden has made a point of cooperating with the DOJ probe at every turn — and Friday's search was voluntary —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-hillary-clinton-karine-jean-pierre-58228d94cdcfe4ebe00521b049037868">though questions about his transparency</a>&nbsp;with the public remain.

For a crime to have been committed, a person would have to “knowingly remove” the documents without authority and intend to keep them at an “unauthorized location.” Biden has said he was “surprised” that classified documents were uncovered at the Penn Biden Center.

Generally, classified documents are to be declassified after a maximum of 25 years. But some records are of such value they remain classified for far longer, though specific exceptions must be granted. Biden served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1673546739694.png" alt="Biden backing his Corvette into the garage next to stacks of boxes where classified documents were found-image from a 2020 Biden for President campaign ad" />
 <figcaption>Biden backing his Corvette into the garage next to stacks of boxes where classified documents were found-image from a 2020 Biden for President campaign ad</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday and located additional documents with classified markings and also took possession of some of his handwritten notes, the president’s lawyer said Saturday.The president voluntarily allowed the FBI into his home, but the lack of a search warrant did not dim the extraordinary nature of the search. It compounded the embarrassment to Biden that started with the disclosure Jan. 12 that the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-barack-obama-merrick-garland-def4c44c23229671e1e50bf170dc67d2">president’s attorneys</a>&nbsp;had found a “small number” of classified records at a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-812ef44a5333f6d93423a67a683fa024">former office at the Penn Biden Center</a>&nbsp;in Washington shortly before the midterm elections. Since then, attorneys found&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-0574fd762159e8cb5f31c85205df3dc0">six classified</a>&nbsp;documents in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-merrick-garland-3f77c3d792ed525c446efd7bd95e86ba">Biden’s Wilmington home</a>&nbsp;library from his time as vice president.Though Biden has maintained “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-wilmington-merrick-garland-f2384a87dcddbd38796f63e1269c6baf">there’s no there there,”</a>&nbsp;the discoveries have become a political liability as he prepares to launch a reelection bid, and they undercut his efforts to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-donald-trump-036e528fc399477a603ed402c6e83cfb">portray an image of propriety</a>&nbsp;to the American public after the tumultuous presidency of his predecessor, Donald Trump.During Friday's search, which lasted nearly 13 hours, the FBI took six items that contained documents with classified markings, said Bob Bauer, the president’s personal lawyer. The items spanned Biden’s time in the Senate and the vice presidency, while the notes dated to his time as vice president, he said. The level of classification, and whether the documents removed by the FBI remained classified, was not immediately clear as the Justice Department reviews the records.Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed Saturday that the FBI had executed “a planned, consensual search” of the president’s residence in Wilmington.The president and first lady Jill Biden were not at the home when it was searched. They were spending the weekend at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.Speaking to reporters during a trip to California on Thursday, Biden said he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden said. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”It remained to be seen whether additional searches by federal officials of other locations might be conducted. Biden's personal attorneys previously conducted a search of the Rehoboth Beach residence and said they did not find any official documents or classified records.The Biden investigation has also complicated the Justice Department’s probe into Trump’s retention of classified documents and official records after he left office. The Justice Department says Trump took hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government, and that it had to obtain a search warrant to retrieve them.Bauer said the FBI requested that the White House not comment on the search before it was conducted, and that Biden's personal and White House attorneys were present. The FBI, he added, “had full access to the President’s home, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders going back decades."The Justice Department, he added, “took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President."Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-is-robert-hur-special-counsel-biden-d715ffd26adc75f2ba740d1960936a09">former Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur</a>&nbsp;as a special counsel to investigate any potential wrongdoing surrounding the Biden documents. Hur is set to take over from the Trump-appointed Illinois U.S. Attorney John Lausch in overseeing the probe.“Since the beginning, the President has been committed to handling this responsibly because he takes this seriously,” White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Saturday. “The President’s lawyers and White House Counsel’s Office will continue to cooperate with DOJ and the Special Counsel to help ensure this process is conducted swiftly and efficiently.”The Biden document discoveries and the investigation into Trump, which is in the hands of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-are-special-counsels-what-do-they-do-jack-smith-8a9696d37c50286319b0d4b862c1e837">special counsel Jack Smith</a>, are significantly different. Biden has made a point of cooperating with the DOJ probe at every turn — and Friday's search was voluntary —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-hillary-clinton-karine-jean-pierre-58228d94cdcfe4ebe00521b049037868">though questions about his transparency</a>&nbsp;with the public remain.For a crime to have been committed, a person would have to “knowingly remove” the documents without authority and intend to keep them at an “unauthorized location.” Biden has said he was “surprised” that classified documents were uncovered at the Penn Biden Center.Generally, classified documents are to be declassified after a maximum of 25 years. But some records are of such value they remain classified for far longer, though specific exceptions must be granted. Biden served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009.___

FBI finds more classified items in Biden's Delaware home

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government program launched Thursday is giving American citizens the chance to play a role in resettling the thousands of refugees who arrive every year in the United States.

During the first year of&nbsp;<a href="https://welcomecorps.org/">the Welcome Corps</a>, the State Department aims to line up 10,000 Americans who can help 5,000 refugees adjust to life in the United States.

“By tapping into the goodwill of American communities, the Welcome Corps will expand our country’s capacity to provide a warm welcome to higher numbers of refugees,” the department said in announcing the effort.

When refugees from around the world arrive in the U.S., they face a dramatically different way of life. To ease that transition, the department traditionally has worked with nonprofit groups that specialize in refugee issues. Under the new program, five or more Americans could form a group and help fill this role, as well.

They would apply to privately sponsor refugees to resettle in the U.S. and would be responsible for raising their own money to help the refugees over the first 90 days. Assistance would include everything from greeting refugees at the airport to finding them place to live and getting kids enrolled in school.

A consortium of nonprofits with expertise in refugee resettlement will help oversee the vetting and certification of people and groups who want to be private sponsors. They also will offer training so private sponsors understand what's needed to help refugees adjusting to life in America. The consortium will be responsible for monitoring the program.

The program will roll out in two phases. First, private sponsors will be matched with refugees already approved for resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program. That will start during the first half of 2023.

Later, private sponsors could identify refugees abroad they would like to help and then refer those people to the Refugee Assistance Program and assist them once they arrive in the U.S.

The program is different from a recent initiative that allows 30,000 people into the country a month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela. They also need a sponsor but are being admitted to the U.S. under a humanitarian parole designation that lasts two years and offers no path to becoming permanent residents or citizens.

Under the refugee program, people fleeing violence or persecution can come to the U.S. and stay permanently. Since the Refugee Act was passed in 1980 the U.S. has admitted a little over 3 million refugees.

The Welcome Corps program comes on the heels of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-russia-ukraine-united-states-immigration-477d06070766db3800efd03528c845ec">similar, smaller scale endeavor</a>&nbsp;under which Americans were able to sponsor Afghans or Ukrainians. That program launched in October 2021 and has helped just over 800 people coming to America through a network of 230 certified sponsor circles that included a total of about 5,000 people.

Sasha Chanoff, founder and chief executive of Boston-based RefugePoint, which supports Afghan refugees, said Canada has long used a similar model to help resettle refugees. Chanoff said the sponsor circle program capitalizes on the huge amount of goodwill among Americans to sponsor refugees, something that crosses political divides.

“This represents perhaps a unique opportunity in our history — certainly in our recent history — to really open up space for Americans to protect lives by sponsoring a family,” he said. “We’ve seen the incredible interest among the American public — Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, veterans, so many others across the political spectrum.”

President Joe Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/04/executive-order-on-rebuilding-and-enhancing-programs-to-resettle-refugees-and-planning-for-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-migration/">pledged in a 2021 executive order</a>&nbsp;to restore the U.S. as the world’s haven and he called for private sponsorship of refugees. Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. had largely rolled back the refugee program.

But Thursday's announcement comes as the U.S. is woefully off track if it hopes to meet&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-government-and-politics-b19f7754da4cc6d55dfb84b4da7152ea">Biden's goal of 125,000 refugees admitted</a>&nbsp;into the U.S. during the 2023 budget year.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wrapsnet.org/documents/Refugee%20Arrivals%20by%20State%20and%20Nationality%20as%20of%2031%20Dec%202022.pdf">According to State Department data</a>, the U.S. has admitted just 6,750 refugees to the country through December — three months into the fiscal year.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service commended the Biden administration’s “forward-thinking” program which has “potential to strengthen ties between refugees and the communities they will call home.” But Vignarajah also noted the low number of refugee admissions. The group is a national nonprofit that helps refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants.

“The Biden administration must prioritize the streamlining of refugee admissions, which remain regrettably low this fiscal year. Without urgent action to increase efficiency, it risks letting the compassion of individual sponsors and the expertise of professional refugee resettlement organizations go to waste," Vignarajah said in a statement.

Assistant Secretary of State Julieta Valles Noyes told reporters Thursday that the agency responsible for interviewing refugees overseas had conducted over 20,000 interviews during the first quarter of the year and that she was “confident” that the numbers of refugees arriving in the months ahead would increase.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government program launched Thursday is giving American citizens the chance to play a role in resettling the thousands of refugees who arrive every year in the United States.During the first year of&nbsp;<a href="https://welcomecorps.org/">the Welcome Corps</a>, the State Department aims to line up 10,000 Americans who can help 5,000 refugees adjust to life in the United States.“By tapping into the goodwill of American communities, the Welcome Corps will expand our country’s capacity to provide a warm welcome to higher numbers of refugees,” the department said in announcing the effort.When refugees from around the world arrive in the U.S., they face a dramatically different way of life. To ease that transition, the department traditionally has worked with nonprofit groups that specialize in refugee issues. Under the new program, five or more Americans could form a group and help fill this role, as well.They would apply to privately sponsor refugees to resettle in the U.S. and would be responsible for raising their own money to help the refugees over the first 90 days. Assistance would include everything from greeting refugees at the airport to finding them place to live and getting kids enrolled in school.A consortium of nonprofits with expertise in refugee resettlement will help oversee the vetting and certification of people and groups who want to be private sponsors. They also will offer training so private sponsors understand what's needed to help refugees adjusting to life in America. The consortium will be responsible for monitoring the program.The program will roll out in two phases. First, private sponsors will be matched with refugees already approved for resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program. That will start during the first half of 2023.Later, private sponsors could identify refugees abroad they would like to help and then refer those people to the Refugee Assistance Program and assist them once they arrive in the U.S.The program is different from a recent initiative that allows 30,000 people into the country a month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela. They also need a sponsor but are being admitted to the U.S. under a humanitarian parole designation that lasts two years and offers no path to becoming permanent residents or citizens.Under the refugee program, people fleeing violence or persecution can come to the U.S. and stay permanently. Since the Refugee Act was passed in 1980 the U.S. has admitted a little over 3 million refugees.The Welcome Corps program comes on the heels of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-russia-ukraine-united-states-immigration-477d06070766db3800efd03528c845ec">similar, smaller scale endeavor</a>&nbsp;under which Americans were able to sponsor Afghans or Ukrainians. That program launched in October 2021 and has helped just over 800 people coming to America through a network of 230 certified sponsor circles that included a total of about 5,000 people.Sasha Chanoff, founder and chief executive of Boston-based RefugePoint, which supports Afghan refugees, said Canada has long used a similar model to help resettle refugees. Chanoff said the sponsor circle program capitalizes on the huge amount of goodwill among Americans to sponsor refugees, something that crosses political divides.“This represents perhaps a unique opportunity in our history — certainly in our recent history — to really open up space for Americans to protect lives by sponsoring a family,” he said. “We’ve seen the incredible interest among the American public — Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, veterans, so many others across the political spectrum.”President Joe Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/04/executive-order-on-rebuilding-and-enhancing-programs-to-resettle-refugees-and-planning-for-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-migration/">pledged in a 2021 executive order</a>&nbsp;to restore the U.S. as the world’s haven and he called for private sponsorship of refugees. Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. had largely rolled back the refugee program.But Thursday's announcement comes as the U.S. is woefully off track if it hopes to meet&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-government-and-politics-b19f7754da4cc6d55dfb84b4da7152ea">Biden's goal of 125,000 refugees admitted</a>&nbsp;into the U.S. during the 2023 budget year.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wrapsnet.org/documents/Refugee%20Arrivals%20by%20State%20and%20Nationality%20as%20of%2031%20Dec%202022.pdf">According to State Department data</a>, the U.S. has admitted just 6,750 refugees to the country through December — three months into the fiscal year.Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service commended the Biden administration’s “forward-thinking” program which has “potential to strengthen ties between refugees and the communities they will call home.” But Vignarajah also noted the low number of refugee admissions. The group is a national nonprofit that helps refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants.“The Biden administration must prioritize the streamlining of refugee admissions, which remain regrettably low this fiscal year. Without urgent action to increase efficiency, it risks letting the compassion of individual sponsors and the expertise of professional refugee resettlement organizations go to waste," Vignarajah said in a statement.Assistant Secretary of State Julieta Valles Noyes told reporters Thursday that the agency responsible for interviewing refugees overseas had conducted over 20,000 interviews during the first quarter of the year and that she was “confident” that the numbers of refugees arriving in the months ahead would increase.__

US citizens get chance to play role in resettling refugees

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a homicide that occurred in central Salina.

On Sunday morning, law enforcement dispatch received a call about a shooting that occurred in a residence in the 200 block of S. 10th Street, according to a media release.

First responders located a 35-year-old Salina resident with a gunshot wound. EMS transported the victim to Salina Regional Health Center where he underwent surgery. Unfortunately, the victim succumbed to his injury, according to the release.

The case is being investigated as a homicide. A person of interest is in custody. Salina Police detectives are being assisted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a homicide that occurred in central Salina.On Sunday morning, law enforcement dispatch received a call about a shooting that occurred in a residence in the 200 block of S. 10th Street, according to a media release.First responders located a 35-year-old Salina resident with a gunshot wound. EMS transported the victim to Salina Regional Health Center where he underwent surgery. Unfortunately, the victim succumbed to his injury, according to the release.The case is being investigated as a homicide. A person of interest is in custody. Salina Police detectives are being assisted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Police investigate deadly shooting at home in Salina

KANSAS CITY —A Kansas City man faces multiple felony counts in connection with the July 2022, shootings in the Westport entertainment district that killed Cardell Crawford, and injured others, according Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.

Lavont A. Carter, 21, faces Murder 2nd Degree, three counts of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, two counts of Assault 2nd Degree and six counts of Armed Criminal Action.

According to court records, on July 10, 2022, a large crowd of individuals were involved in a altercation inside and outside the Westport Ale House. Video surveillance cameras from the area showed police that the defendant outside the location is seen raising his arm in a shooting position. 

Video also shows victims reacting or limping or falling to the floor. Spent shell casings were found at the scene Six total victims were wounded by gunfire. The defendant is shown on video leaving the scene in a vehicle.

The defendant was charged in November 2022, but charging documents were placed under seal until he could be taken into custody. That occurred this week..

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/4/1585864481699.png" alt="Lavont Carter-photo&nbsp; from an earlier arrest in Wyandotte Co." />
 <figcaption>Lavont Carter-photo&nbsp; from an earlier arrest in Wyandotte Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —A Kansas City man faces multiple felony counts in connection with the July 2022, shootings in the Westport entertainment district that killed Cardell Crawford, and injured others, according Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.Lavont A. Carter, 21, faces Murder 2nd Degree, three counts of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, two counts of Assault 2nd Degree and six counts of Armed Criminal Action.According to court records, on July 10, 2022, a large crowd of individuals were involved in a altercation inside and outside the Westport Ale House. Video surveillance cameras from the area showed police that the defendant outside the location is seen raising his arm in a shooting position. Video also shows victims reacting or limping or falling to the floor. Spent shell casings were found at the scene Six total victims were wounded by gunfire. The defendant is shown on video leaving the scene in a vehicle.The defendant was charged in November 2022, but charging documents were placed under seal until he could be taken into custody. That occurred this week..

Video shows man flee fatal shooting in KC entertainment district

JACKSON COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas woman on drug allegations.

Just before 2a.m. Wednesday, a sheriff’s deputy conducted a traffic stop on a 1999 Lincoln Town Car on 150th Road west of U.S. 75 Highway for a traffic infraction, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

 During the traffic stop, deputies found illegal drug contraband and arrested the front seat passenger identified as Lashonda Pattillo, 31, of Topeka. 

 Pattillo was booked into the Jackson County Jail on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674092903067.png" alt="Patillo-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Patillo-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>JACKSON COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas woman on drug allegations.Just before 2a.m. Wednesday, a sheriff’s deputy conducted a traffic stop on a 1999 Lincoln Town Car on 150th Road west of U.S. 75 Highway for a traffic infraction, according to Sheriff Tim Morse. During the traffic stop, deputies found illegal drug contraband and arrested the front seat passenger identified as Lashonda Pattillo, 31, of Topeka. Pattillo was booked into the Jackson County Jail on requested charges of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Kan. traffic stop: Front seat passenger caught with meth 

OSAGE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating&nbsp;

Just after 11:30p.m. January, 18, aSheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop at 5th and Pine in Quenemo for a traffic violation, according Sheriff Chris Wells.

 During the stop, the vehicle fled. A pursuit was initiated, ending at a residence in Pomona, Kansas.

The driver, James K. Thomas, 62, of Pomona, was taken into custody by Osage and Franklin County Deputies and transported to the Osage County Jail Facility on requested charges of&nbsp; Flee/elude law enforcement by engaging in reckless driving, Possession of methamphetamine, Aggravated assault on law enforcement; use of a deadly weapon, Transporting an open container and, Expired registration

The Osage County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol in making the arrest.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674164633801.png" alt="Thomas-photo Osage Co." />
 <figcaption>Thomas-photo Osage Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>OSAGE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating&nbsp;Just after 11:30p.m. January, 18, aSheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop at 5th and Pine in Quenemo for a traffic violation, according Sheriff Chris Wells. During the stop, the vehicle fled. A pursuit was initiated, ending at a residence in Pomona, Kansas.The driver, James K. Thomas, 62, of Pomona, was taken into custody by Osage and Franklin County Deputies and transported to the Osage County Jail Facility on requested charges of&nbsp; Flee/elude law enforcement by engaging in reckless driving, Possession of methamphetamine, Aggravated assault on law enforcement; use of a deadly weapon, Transporting an open container and, Expired registrationThe Osage County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol in making the arrest.

Kansas man allegedly assaulted officer during arrest

Questions arise about inconsistency of property classifications

By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/17/leavenworth-county-farm-winery-blending-litigation-politics-in-bitter-property-tax-dispute/">Kansas Reflector</a>

LAWRENCE — Farm winery owners 
Bryan Zesiger and Gina Montalbano stirred up a hornet’s nest of property
 tax controversy by challenging Leavenworth County’s decision to 
classify a wine tasting room and 1.1 acres at the vineyard as commercial
 rather than agricultural property.

The issue surfaced when owners of Z&amp;M Twisted Vines learned the 
Leavenworth County appraiser had decided 85.2 acres of the winery would 
be classified agricultural in 2022. An 1,860-square-foot implement 
building with space for wine processing and storage, a tasting room for 
wine and hard cider sales and an event space would be classified as 
commercial by the county for tax purposes.

Zesiger said it was unfair because other farm retailers in 
Leavenworth County hadn’t been hit with commercial labels. He said farm 
wineries in other counties didn’t receive comparable commercial 
designations. The inconsistency in taxation was potentially 
unconstitutional, he said, and threatened agritourism designed to 
promote rural economic development.

“This has become a playbook that counties use and will use across the
 state to get new taxes for the big growth of government,” Zesiger said 
in a letter sent to members of the Kansas Legislature.

He said replication of unjust agricultural-to-commercial property tax
 decisions could “tax agricultural families out of existence.”

In September, Twisted Vines found allies in the Kansas Department of 
Agriculture and the Kansas Farm Bureau as they prepared to appeal to the
 Kansas Board of Tax Appeals.

Russell Plaschka, director of agricultural marketing with the state 
Department of Agriculture, said grapes were recognized as a specialty 
crop and wine met the definition of an agricultural product under state 
and federal law.

“It is our belief that, in the context of farm wineries, onsite 
processing of those grapes into wine is simply the next step of the 
viniculture process and a continuation of the agricultural activity,” 
Plaschka said.

Wendee Grady, director of the Kansas Farm Bureau Legal Foundation, 
said grapes and wine were agricultural products and a building on land 
contributing to production, storage and marketing of those products 
“should be classified and taxed as such.” State law specifically 
excluded farm wineries from the definition of “manufacturer,” Grady 
said. In addition, farm wineries were exempt from county zoning 
regulations.

Grady also said Twisted Vines was a registered operator under the 
Agritourism Promotion Act. Provisions of that law are to be “liberally 
construed” to promote rural tourism by encouraging farmers and ranchers 
to welcome the public to historic, cultural and natural attractions for 
recreational and entertainment purposes, the director said.

During a hearing before the state Board of Tax Appeals, Leavenworth 
County appraiser Robert Weber said the decision to consider the winery’s
 tasting room as commercial space reflected its “retail character.” He 
said the tasting room and event space served a food menu.

“We look at actual use. What’s going on,” Weber said. “We do not 
believe it makes it agricultural simply because the activity is going on
 on a parcel where they’re growing grapes.”

He said the county’s designation of a portion of the farm as 
commercial hinged on whether a “specific place” was dedicated to a 
commercial usage as opposed to an area used occasionally to sell a farm 
product. The county has authority to separately classify a portion of 
farm property with a distinct commercial purpose. In these cases, the 
taxing authority has the burden to provide evidence the classification 
of the property was proper.

“Events are taking place on the property,” said Roger Marrs, the 
Leavenworth County attorney. “The fact there’s also agricultural use on 
it doesn’t just automatically make the whole thing agricultural.”

Zesiger testified at the BOTA proceeding that every building on the 
property with exception of a residence was “100% devoted to making and 
selling wine and related products.” He argued for an expansive 
definition of&nbsp; “production” to include retail sales of farm products.

His testimony was that agricultural and commercial usages of property
 at Twisted Vines were so intermingled that classification of the 
property based on its predominant use — agriculture production — was 
appropriate.

In November, Twisted Vines lost their case before the Kansas Board of
 Tax Appeals. The decision by BOTA indicated Leavenworth County met its 
burden of proof to demonstrate the tasting room was properly classified 
as commercial. The opinion, however, raised questions about whether the 
county was consistent in determining what properties should be viewed as
 agricultural for property tax purposes.

BOTA conceded it had no authority within the framework of this case to tackle those wider property tax problems.

Here’s how BOTA put it: “Because the board has no procedural 
mechanism to address countywide classification decisions more broadly in
 this matter, the county’s classification of the subject property and 
corresponding valuation are sustained.”

The state Board of Tax Appeals did outline three examples of how 
Leavenworth County was “not fair and equal” when it declared properties 
fully agricultural despite evidence of retail businesses at those 
locations.

The opinion noted Manna Meadows alpaca farm offered tours for a fee, a
 rent an alpaca program and sold alpaca wool products in a “farm store.”
 The Pietzsch 2L Farm was designated agricultural despite selling sides 
of beef and hosting upscale farm-to-table dinners. The Gilliland Next to
 Nature Farm included an “education center” in which beekeeping and 
canning classes were taught and products sold. It also featured a “honey
 tasting bar.”

Leavenworth County, during the taxing period at the root of the legal
 controversy with Twisted Vines, didn’t classify the three operations as
 commercial. The county offered no explanation in support of its 
decision to draw a distinction between those properties and Twisted 
Vines. BOTA found that “sorely lacking” and a potential violation of the
 Kansas Constitution, which mandates property classifications for tax 
purposes to be uniform and equal. BOTA said a valuation deemed contrary 
to this requirement was “illegal or void.”

“The evidence presented to the board strongly suggests that in this 
particular instance, where farms are engaged in retail sales and/or 
other nonproduction activities in designated areas of the farm, the 
county has failed to fulfill that obligation,” BOTA decision said.

In future years, the debate could be made moot by adoption of a 
Kansas law, effective July 1, 2022, that declared a farm winery tasting 
room could fall under the definition of property engaged in an 
agricultural purpose. That start date of that statute, however, came 
after the Jan. 1, 2022, effective date of the challenged Leavenworth 
County property valuation.

“Absent specific direction from the Legislature,” three members of 
the state Board of Tax Appeals said, “a substantive statutory amendment 
does not apply retroactively.”

There is bipartisan support in the Legislature for work to bring 
consistency to classification of agriculture and commercial properties. 
Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican and chairwoman of the Senate 
Assessment and Taxation Committee, said the failure to guarantee 
fairness in the process would be examined by lawmakers.

“Consistency should be the case,” said Sen. Jeff Pittman, a 
Leavenworth Democrat. “It might be time for the Legislature to take 
action.”

Rep. Ken Corbet, R-Topeka, said one option would be to pass a bill 
requiring county appraisers to be elected rather than appointed. He said
 that was the only way to hold people accountable for questionable 
property tax decisions.

Zesiger said his next step regarding the 2022 property tax assessment
 could be the Kansas Court of Appeals. His goal remains reversal of the 
commercial classification attached to his property.

“I’m fighting an uphill battle,” he said. “I’m going to fight it all the way up.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1673975290467.png" alt="Bryan Zesiger, co-owner of Z&amp;M Twisted Vines north of Lawrence, is challenging a Leavenworth County decision to classify a winery tasting room as commercial property rather than an agricultural use. Zesiger lost his appeal to the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Bryan Zesiger, co-owner of Z&amp;M Twisted Vines north of Lawrence, is challenging a Leavenworth County decision to classify a winery tasting room as commercial property rather than an agricultural use. Zesiger lost his appeal to the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Questions arise about inconsistency of property classifications</h2>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/17/leavenworth-county-farm-winery-blending-litigation-politics-in-bitter-property-tax-dispute/">Kansas Reflector</a>LAWRENCE — Farm winery owners 
Bryan Zesiger and Gina Montalbano stirred up a hornet’s nest of property
 tax controversy by challenging Leavenworth County’s decision to 
classify a wine tasting room and 1.1 acres at the vineyard as commercial
 rather than agricultural property.The issue surfaced when owners of Z&amp;M Twisted Vines learned the 
Leavenworth County appraiser had decided 85.2 acres of the winery would 
be classified agricultural in 2022. An 1,860-square-foot implement 
building with space for wine processing and storage, a tasting room for 
wine and hard cider sales and an event space would be classified as 
commercial by the county for tax purposes.Zesiger said it was unfair because other farm retailers in 
Leavenworth County hadn’t been hit with commercial labels. He said farm 
wineries in other counties didn’t receive comparable commercial 
designations. The inconsistency in taxation was potentially 
unconstitutional, he said, and threatened agritourism designed to 
promote rural economic development.“This has become a playbook that counties use and will use across the
 state to get new taxes for the big growth of government,” Zesiger said 
in a letter sent to members of the Kansas Legislature.He said replication of unjust agricultural-to-commercial property tax
 decisions could “tax agricultural families out of existence.”<h2>Farm, ranch tourism</h2>In September, Twisted Vines found allies in the Kansas Department of 
Agriculture and the Kansas Farm Bureau as they prepared to appeal to the
 Kansas Board of Tax Appeals.Russell Plaschka, director of agricultural marketing with the state 
Department of Agriculture, said grapes were recognized as a specialty 
crop and wine met the definition of an agricultural product under state 
and federal law.“It is our belief that, in the context of farm wineries, onsite 
processing of those grapes into wine is simply the next step of the 
viniculture process and a continuation of the agricultural activity,” 
Plaschka said.Wendee Grady, director of the Kansas Farm Bureau Legal Foundation, 
said grapes and wine were agricultural products and a building on land 
contributing to production, storage and marketing of those products 
“should be classified and taxed as such.” State law specifically 
excluded farm wineries from the definition of “manufacturer,” Grady 
said. In addition, farm wineries were exempt from county zoning 
regulations.Grady also said Twisted Vines was a registered operator under the 
Agritourism Promotion Act. Provisions of that law are to be “liberally 
construed” to promote rural tourism by encouraging farmers and ranchers 
to welcome the public to historic, cultural and natural attractions for 
recreational and entertainment purposes, the director said.<h2>An intriguing decision</h2>During a hearing before the state Board of Tax Appeals, Leavenworth 
County appraiser Robert Weber said the decision to consider the winery’s
 tasting room as commercial space reflected its “retail character.” He 
said the tasting room and event space served a food menu.“We look at actual use. What’s going on,” Weber said. “We do not 
believe it makes it agricultural simply because the activity is going on
 on a parcel where they’re growing grapes.”He said the county’s designation of a portion of the farm as 
commercial hinged on whether a “specific place” was dedicated to a 
commercial usage as opposed to an area used occasionally to sell a farm 
product. The county has authority to separately classify a portion of 
farm property with a distinct commercial purpose. In these cases, the 
taxing authority has the burden to provide evidence the classification 
of the property was proper.“Events are taking place on the property,” said Roger Marrs, the 
Leavenworth County attorney. “The fact there’s also agricultural use on 
it doesn’t just automatically make the whole thing agricultural.”Zesiger testified at the BOTA proceeding that every building on the 
property with exception of a residence was “100% devoted to making and 
selling wine and related products.” He argued for an expansive 
definition of&nbsp; “production” to include retail sales of farm products.His testimony was that agricultural and commercial usages of property
 at Twisted Vines were so intermingled that classification of the 
property based on its predominant use — agriculture production — was 
appropriate.In November, Twisted Vines lost their case before the Kansas Board of
 Tax Appeals. The decision by BOTA indicated Leavenworth County met its 
burden of proof to demonstrate the tasting room was properly classified 
as commercial. The opinion, however, raised questions about whether the 
county was consistent in determining what properties should be viewed as
 agricultural for property tax purposes.BOTA conceded it had no authority within the framework of this case to tackle those wider property tax problems.Here’s how BOTA put it: “Because the board has no procedural 
mechanism to address countywide classification decisions more broadly in
 this matter, the county’s classification of the subject property and 
corresponding valuation are sustained.”<h2>‘Particularly instructive’</h2>The state Board of Tax Appeals did outline three examples of how 
Leavenworth County was “not fair and equal” when it declared properties 
fully agricultural despite evidence of retail businesses at those 
locations.The opinion noted Manna Meadows alpaca farm offered tours for a fee, a
 rent an alpaca program and sold alpaca wool products in a “farm store.”
 The Pietzsch 2L Farm was designated agricultural despite selling sides 
of beef and hosting upscale farm-to-table dinners. The Gilliland Next to
 Nature Farm included an “education center” in which beekeeping and 
canning classes were taught and products sold. It also featured a “honey
 tasting bar.”Leavenworth County, during the taxing period at the root of the legal
 controversy with Twisted Vines, didn’t classify the three operations as
 commercial. The county offered no explanation in support of its 
decision to draw a distinction between those properties and Twisted 
Vines. BOTA found that “sorely lacking” and a potential violation of the
 Kansas Constitution, which mandates property classifications for tax 
purposes to be uniform and equal. BOTA said a valuation deemed contrary 
to this requirement was “illegal or void.”“The evidence presented to the board strongly suggests that in this 
particular instance, where farms are engaged in retail sales and/or 
other nonproduction activities in designated areas of the farm, the 
county has failed to fulfill that obligation,” BOTA decision said.In future years, the debate could be made moot by adoption of a 
Kansas law, effective July 1, 2022, that declared a farm winery tasting 
room could fall under the definition of property engaged in an 
agricultural purpose. That start date of that statute, however, came 
after the Jan. 1, 2022, effective date of the challenged Leavenworth 
County property valuation.“Absent specific direction from the Legislature,” three members of 
the state Board of Tax Appeals said, “a substantive statutory amendment 
does not apply retroactively.”There is bipartisan support in the Legislature for work to bring 
consistency to classification of agriculture and commercial properties. 
Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican and chairwoman of the Senate 
Assessment and Taxation Committee, said the failure to guarantee 
fairness in the process would be examined by lawmakers.“Consistency should be the case,” said Sen. Jeff Pittman, a 
Leavenworth Democrat. “It might be time for the Legislature to take 
action.”Rep. Ken Corbet, R-Topeka, said one option would be to pass a bill 
requiring county appraisers to be elected rather than appointed. He said
 that was the only way to hold people accountable for questionable 
property tax decisions.Zesiger said his next step regarding the 2022 property tax assessment
 could be the Kansas Court of Appeals. His goal remains reversal of the 
commercial classification attached to his property.“I’m fighting an uphill battle,” he said. “I’m going to fight it all the way up.”

Kan. farm winery blends litigation, politics in bitter tax dispute

WASHINGTON —A preliminary Federal Aviation Administration review of the recent outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system determined that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database, according to a statement from the agency.

The FAA has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent. The FAA continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the outage.

The FAA made the necessary repairs to the system and has taken steps to make the NOTAM system more resilient. The agency is acting quickly to adopt any other lessons learned in our efforts to ensure the continuing robustness of the nation’s air traffic control system.

&nbsp;Until Jan. 11, 2023, few travelers had ever heard of a Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, nor did they know that the system used to generate those notices could cause widespread travel misery.

As they arrived at airports in the morning, they quickly found out.

The Federal Aviation Administration computer system that compiles and distributes essential safety information for pilots went kaput. That temporarily grounded all flights nationwide and touched off a cascading air traffic jam that will take at least a day to unclog. More than 1,300 flights were canceled and 9,000 delayed by early evening on the East Coast because of the outage, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

The system has been around for more than a half century and it has evolved from paper to computers. It's in the process of being updated.

They are compilations of essential preflight information for pilots, airline dispatchers and others that include details about things such as potential bad weather on the route, runway and taxiway changes at airports and closed airspace that must be avoided. The notices began in 1947 and were modeled after a system used to warn ship captains of hazards on the seas.

A pilot can't legally take off until he or she has reviewed the information. John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at MIT, said most airlines subscribe to services that gather NOTAM information from the FAA and package it for each flight. Airline dispatch centers relay it to pilots. In this case, the services couldn't get the information because the FAA system malfunctioned, he said.

The FAA said preliminary indications “traced the outage to a damaged database file.” The agency said it would take steps to avoid another similar disruption.

The system stopped working at 8:28 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, but because there weren't many departures at that hour, pilots were able to get the information verbally. At daybreak in the East, the system was still out, and there were too many flights leaving to brief pilots individually.

It's likely that the main system had a problem, and the backup didn't work correctly. The FAA rebooted the main system around 5 a.m., but it took a while to verify that all the information was validated and available, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. So the FAA ordered all flights grounded Wednesday morning and planes were stuck for hours "to make absolutely sure the messages were moving correctly and the information for safety purposes is working the way it should,” Buttigieg said.

Longtime aviation insiders could not recall a systemwide FAA outage of this magnitude caused by a technology breakdown.

Buttigieg said that the NOTAM system is constantly being updated, and a key question is whether it’s outdated.

“We will not allow anything to take place that is not safe,” Buttigieg told reporters. “This is precisely why our focus right now is on understanding, identifying and correcting anything related to the root cause of how this happened in the first place.”

Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., said the NOTAM malfunction is inexcusable, and a result of a Transportation Department and FAA “failure to properly maintain and operate the air traffic control system.”

Graves, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said the FAA has been without a permanent leader for nearly a year. He said he expects a full briefing on the outage.

HAS THERE BEEN A PROBLEM WITH THE SYSTEM BEFORE THIS?

Not of this magnitude. "Periodically there have been local issues here or there, but this is pretty significant historically,” said Tim Campbell, a former senior vice president of air operations at American Airlines and now a consultant in Minneapolis. While the cause of Tuesday’s breakdown was not immediately clear, Campbell said there was concern about FAA’s technology, and not just the NOTAM system.

Other FAA technology also is aging, Campbell said. “So much of their systems are old mainframe systems that are generally reliable but they are out of date,” he said.

The bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year allocated $25 billion to airports, with roughly $5 billion for air traffic control facilities. Congressional staffers said some of that money could be spent on equipment. But Buttigieg said any NOTAM upgrade may have to wait for a new FAA funding bill.

“I think this gives us a really important data point and a really important moment to understand what we're going to need moving forward,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board has criticized the way NOTAMs are presented after an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/4145013152614c0289eadc849ebe5dd3">Air Canada jet nearly landed on four other planes</a>&nbsp;waiting to take off from San Francisco International Airport in 2017. Pilots had missed information about a closed runway that was buried among numerous notices.

WILL THE GOVERNMENT HAVE TO COMPENSATE PASSENGERS?

Airlines will be&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-outage-flights-grounded-advice-aa14bd3b0317ecce86f5fbfbe37c9f63?utm_source=apnews&amp;utm_medium=relatedcontentmodule">on the hook</a>&nbsp;for refunds and other compensation, even though the FAA was at fault for the outage. Kurt Ebenhoch, a consumer travel advocate and former airline executive, said passengers are entitled to a full refund if an airline cancels a flight for any reason.

Major airlines including Delta, American, Southwest and United were waiving change fees for Wednesday flights — and, in some cases, Thursday flights — to make it easier for passengers to change their travel plans.

The government has no legal obligation to reimburse travelers, which is maddening, said Brett Snyder, a travel agent and author of the “Cranky Flier” travel blog.

“Secretary Buttigieg should set the right example here and reimburse people directly from the government coffers,” he said.

Not clear. Congress already was going to look into aviation technology after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-plants-dallas-district-of-columbia-business-d2034f41df7a4f78de02db8aa4ba11df">Southwest Airlines' crew-scheduling system</a>&nbsp;went haywire during the holidays, leading to nearly 17,000 canceled flights in the last 10 days of December. Now the system that sends NOTAMs, and backup systems, will be part of the inquiry.

“We will be looking into what caused this outage and how redundancy plays a role in preventing future outages,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said in a statement. "The public needs a resilient air transportation system.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/10/1601908757258.png" alt="The FAA has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent." />
 <figcaption>The FAA has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent.</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON —A preliminary Federal Aviation Administration review of the recent outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system determined that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database, according to a statement from the agency.The FAA has so far found no evidence of a cyber-attack or malicious intent. The FAA continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the outage.The FAA made the necessary repairs to the system and has taken steps to make the NOTAM system more resilient. The agency is acting quickly to adopt any other lessons learned in our efforts to ensure the continuing robustness of the nation’s air traffic control system.&nbsp;Until Jan. 11, 2023, few travelers had ever heard of a Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, nor did they know that the system used to generate those notices could cause widespread travel misery.As they arrived at airports in the morning, they quickly found out.The Federal Aviation Administration computer system that compiles and distributes essential safety information for pilots went kaput. That temporarily grounded all flights nationwide and touched off a cascading air traffic jam that will take at least a day to unclog. More than 1,300 flights were canceled and 9,000 delayed by early evening on the East Coast because of the outage, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.The system has been around for more than a half century and it has evolved from paper to computers. It's in the process of being updated.WHAT ARE NOTAMs?They are compilations of essential preflight information for pilots, airline dispatchers and others that include details about things such as potential bad weather on the route, runway and taxiway changes at airports and closed airspace that must be avoided. The notices began in 1947 and were modeled after a system used to warn ship captains of hazards on the seas.A pilot can't legally take off until he or she has reviewed the information. John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at MIT, said most airlines subscribe to services that gather NOTAM information from the FAA and package it for each flight. Airline dispatch centers relay it to pilots. In this case, the services couldn't get the information because the FAA system malfunctioned, he said.WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE SYSTEM?The FAA said preliminary indications “traced the outage to a damaged database file.” The agency said it would take steps to avoid another similar disruption.The system stopped working at 8:28 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, but because there weren't many departures at that hour, pilots were able to get the information verbally. At daybreak in the East, the system was still out, and there were too many flights leaving to brief pilots individually.It's likely that the main system had a problem, and the backup didn't work correctly. The FAA rebooted the main system around 5 a.m., but it took a while to verify that all the information was validated and available, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. So the FAA ordered all flights grounded Wednesday morning and planes were stuck for hours "to make absolutely sure the messages were moving correctly and the information for safety purposes is working the way it should,” Buttigieg said.Longtime aviation insiders could not recall a systemwide FAA outage of this magnitude caused by a technology breakdown.HOW IS THE GOVERNMENT RESPONDING?Buttigieg said that the NOTAM system is constantly being updated, and a key question is whether it’s outdated.“We will not allow anything to take place that is not safe,” Buttigieg told reporters. “This is precisely why our focus right now is on understanding, identifying and correcting anything related to the root cause of how this happened in the first place.”Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., said the NOTAM malfunction is inexcusable, and a result of a Transportation Department and FAA “failure to properly maintain and operate the air traffic control system.”Graves, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said the FAA has been without a permanent leader for nearly a year. He said he expects a full briefing on the outage.HAS THERE BEEN A PROBLEM WITH THE SYSTEM BEFORE THIS?Not of this magnitude. "Periodically there have been local issues here or there, but this is pretty significant historically,” said Tim Campbell, a former senior vice president of air operations at American Airlines and now a consultant in Minneapolis. While the cause of Tuesday’s breakdown was not immediately clear, Campbell said there was concern about FAA’s technology, and not just the NOTAM system.Other FAA technology also is aging, Campbell said. “So much of their systems are old mainframe systems that are generally reliable but they are out of date,” he said.The bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year allocated $25 billion to airports, with roughly $5 billion for air traffic control facilities. Congressional staffers said some of that money could be spent on equipment. But Buttigieg said any NOTAM upgrade may have to wait for a new FAA funding bill.“I think this gives us a really important data point and a really important moment to understand what we're going to need moving forward,” he said.The National Transportation Safety Board has criticized the way NOTAMs are presented after an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/4145013152614c0289eadc849ebe5dd3">Air Canada jet nearly landed on four other planes</a>&nbsp;waiting to take off from San Francisco International Airport in 2017. Pilots had missed information about a closed runway that was buried among numerous notices.WILL THE GOVERNMENT HAVE TO COMPENSATE PASSENGERS?Airlines will be&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-outage-flights-grounded-advice-aa14bd3b0317ecce86f5fbfbe37c9f63?utm_source=apnews&amp;utm_medium=relatedcontentmodule">on the hook</a>&nbsp;for refunds and other compensation, even though the FAA was at fault for the outage. Kurt Ebenhoch, a consumer travel advocate and former airline executive, said passengers are entitled to a full refund if an airline cancels a flight for any reason.Major airlines including Delta, American, Southwest and United were waiving change fees for Wednesday flights — and, in some cases, Thursday flights — to make it easier for passengers to change their travel plans.The government has no legal obligation to reimburse travelers, which is maddening, said Brett Snyder, a travel agent and author of the “Cranky Flier” travel blog.“Secretary Buttigieg should set the right example here and reimburse people directly from the government coffers,” he said.COULD THIS HAPPEN AGAIN?Not clear. Congress already was going to look into aviation technology after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-plants-dallas-district-of-columbia-business-d2034f41df7a4f78de02db8aa4ba11df">Southwest Airlines' crew-scheduling system</a>&nbsp;went haywire during the holidays, leading to nearly 17,000 canceled flights in the last 10 days of December. Now the system that sends NOTAMs, and backup systems, will be part of the inquiry.“We will be looking into what caused this outage and how redundancy plays a role in preventing future outages,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said in a statement. "The public needs a resilient air transportation system.”____

FAA continues to investigate what led to airline meltdown

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina Post

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas woman on drug and child endangerment allegations after an incident in south Salina early Wednesday afternoon.

Just after 12:30p.m., a witness called in to report that a black SUV was driving erratically in the 2000 block of S. Ninth Street in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester. The witness also said that the SUV had stopped in traffic and had hit a curb.

Another witness reported that the still-running SUV was stopped in a parking lot in the 2400 block of S. Ninth Street and that the driver appeared to be passed out.

Officers made contact with the driver, identified as Emma Allen, 22, of Salina, and located a two-year-old boy in the back seat in a child safety seat.&nbsp; Allen had difficulty communicating with officers.

After an onsite DUI investigation, it was determined that Allen possibly was under the influence of methamphetamine, Forrester said. She was taken to the Salina Police Department for further testing. While there, Allen left the temporary detention room to use the restroom. Forrester said that while Allen was in the restroom, officers found in the temporary detention room a pouch containing what was believed to be methamphetamine. After Allen exited the restroom, officers located two discarded straws in the restroom, he added.

Allen was arrested on requested charges of Driving under the influence, Driving without a license, Child endangerment, Possession of a stimulant, Possession of drug paraphernalia and a parking violation.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674137350834.jpeg" alt="Emma Allen photo&nbsp;Saline County Sheriff's Office" />
 <figcaption>Emma Allen photo&nbsp;Saline County Sheriff's Office</figcaption>
 </figure>By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina PostSALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas woman on drug and child endangerment allegations after an incident in south Salina early Wednesday afternoon.Just after 12:30p.m., a witness called in to report that a black SUV was driving erratically in the 2000 block of S. Ninth Street in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester. The witness also said that the SUV had stopped in traffic and had hit a curb.Another witness reported that the still-running SUV was stopped in a parking lot in the 2400 block of S. Ninth Street and that the driver appeared to be passed out.Officers made contact with the driver, identified as Emma Allen, 22, of Salina, and located a two-year-old boy in the back seat in a child safety seat.&nbsp; Allen had difficulty communicating with officers.After an onsite DUI investigation, it was determined that Allen possibly was under the influence of methamphetamine, Forrester said. She was taken to the Salina Police Department for further testing. While there, Allen left the temporary detention room to use the restroom. Forrester said that while Allen was in the restroom, officers found in the temporary detention room a pouch containing what was believed to be methamphetamine. After Allen exited the restroom, officers located two discarded straws in the restroom, he added.Allen was arrested on requested charges of Driving under the influence, Driving without a license, Child endangerment, Possession of a stimulant, Possession of drug paraphernalia and a parking violation.

Kan. woman allegedly on meth caught driving with 2-year-old

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden notched two years in office on Friday. That represents 730 days since his inauguration — and a whole lot of other numbers as well.

The story of the first half of Biden's term, at least by the numbers, is a mixed bag. It includes a long-sought&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">$1 trillion bill to shore up the nation's bridges, roads and other infrastructure,</a>&nbsp;but also the unwelcome milestone of historic inflation. There's been a huge number of COVID-19 vaccinations, but nearly 680,000 people have died of the disease. Biden has visited three dozen states and spent all or part of nearly 200 days in his home state of Delaware.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1611173242938.png" alt="The story of the first half of Biden's term, at least by the numbers, is a mixed bag.-White House photo&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>The story of the first half of Biden's term, at least by the numbers, is a mixed bag.-White House photo&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden notched two years in office on Friday. That represents 730 days since his inauguration — and a whole lot of other numbers as well.The story of the first half of Biden's term, at least by the numbers, is a mixed bag. It includes a long-sought&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">$1 trillion bill to shore up the nation's bridges, roads and other infrastructure,</a>&nbsp;but also the unwelcome milestone of historic inflation. There's been a huge number of COVID-19 vaccinations, but nearly 680,000 people have died of the disease. Biden has visited three dozen states and spent all or part of nearly 200 days in his home state of Delaware.A look at some revealing data points at the two-year mark for the 46th president:<a href="https://apnews.com/article/december-2022-inflation-report-72bb938a443ab0500bd72d23f62214ad">6..5%:</a>&nbsp;Annual inflation remains stubbornly high, but is slowly falling after reaching a four-decade high of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-economy-prices-consumer-74e1a5c9bced40460e4079f62e980095">9.1% in June.</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-jobs-and-careers-federal-reserve-system-005ac62672d87fb9f81bd9b97caecfc5">10.46 million:</a>&nbsp;The latest Labor Department figures show more than 10 million job vacancies in the U.S., nearly 1.8 jobs for every unemployed person.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-technology-business-ap-top-news-federal-reserve-system-37ba9ff6b36f73485b8c85e217e99d98">Jobless rate at 3.5%</a>, matching a 53-year low. Zero recessions — so far.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-us-department-of-the-treasury-united-states-government-janet-yellen-business-6fe9b54dcdfea58bead0f4c5f9f89a64">$31.38 trillion:</a>&nbsp;The federal debt stood at $27.6 trillion when Biden took office.$24.2 billion:&nbsp;<a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jan/06/2003141218/-1/-1/1/UKRAINE-FACT-SHEET-JAN-6.PDF">The amount of U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine</a>&nbsp;since the Russian invasion nearly 11 months ago.<a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jan/06/2003141218/-1/-1/1/UKRAINE-FACT-SHEET-JAN-6.PDF">38:</a>&nbsp;The number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, committed to send to Ukraine. A gamechanger, allowing Ukrainian forces to fire at Russian targets from far away, then drive away before artillery can target them.2.38 million: For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022, Customs and Border Protection reported stopping migrants at the U.S. border&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-mexico-us-customs-and-border-protection-cuba-immigration-8fbba5bde9afca3f404eaa96bcfd136a">nearly 2.4 million times, a</a>&nbsp;record surge driven by sharp increases in Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans. The previous high was 1.66 million in 2021.97: Confirmation of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ketanji-brown-jackson-biden-politics-wisconsin-state-government-united-states-8e2e4f826096e431fcc7b1605426ec0a">Biden's picks to the federal bench,</a>&nbsp;including Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, outpacing the president's two immediate predecessors.89: The president has granted&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics">nine pardons and 80 commutations</a>, far more than any of his recent predecessors at this point. Donald Trump had granted 11 by this time, George W. Bush seven. Barack Obama didn't take any clemency action in his first two years.$3.36:&nbsp;<a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">The average price per gallon</a>&nbsp;that American motorists are paying at the pump has fallen since peaking at $5.02 per gallon in June. Motorists were paying a $2.39 per gallon average the week Biden took office.<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-trends">666 million:</a>&nbsp;The number of COVID-19 vaccines administered to Americans under Biden. T&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-coronavirus-vaccine-mexico-coronavirus-pandemic-united-nations-e1b5b520b4dd255dbc10807989a0f062">wenty million had received the jab</a>&nbsp;before Biden took office. The vaccine was not approved until late in Trump's presidency.<a href="https://public4.pagefreezer.com/browse/CDC%20Covid%20Pages/18-01-2023T11:29/https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home">15.9%:</a>&nbsp;The percentage of Americans 5 and older who have gotten updated bivalent vaccine.680,000: The recorded death toll from the coronavirus pandemic during Biden's term. The worst pandemic in more than a century had already&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-public-health-tulsa-oklahoma-florida-56b56d4848bbe5b41060e7b3a5e459bb">taken more than 400,000 American lives</a>&nbsp;by Biden’s inauguration and has taken&nbsp;<a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map">1.1 million</a>&nbsp;total since March 2020.36: Biden has spread his travel across the country to promote his agenda, but still needs to cross off Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.197: There's no place like home. The president spent all or part of 197 days in his home state of Delaware, traveling most weekends to either his home near Wilmington or his vacation home at Rehoboth Beach, according to an AP tally. Beyond the weekend visits, he's also made quick trips for funerals, policy events and to cast his ballot in a Democratic primary.6: Biden has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping a half-dozen times since the start of his term. All but one of those were phone or video calls.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-taiwan-indonesia-xi-jinping-government-and-politics-961bb4680962cc53b4375af3bcbc4927">They met in person on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia in November.</a>22: The minimum number of times that Biden has publicly lapsed into a nostalgic recollection of an intimate conversation he had with Xi during a visit to China when Biden was vice president. Biden said Xi asked him to define America and he responded with one word: Possibilities. Biden even managed to squeeze in the anecdote during a celebration this week for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.21: Biden held fewer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/presidential-news-conferences">solo or joint news conferences</a>&nbsp;than his three most recent predecessors at the same point in their presidencies.$1 trillion: The amount allocated for roads, bridges, ports and more in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation</a>, arguably the most significant legislative achievement of his first two years in office.<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/04/fact-sheet-president-biden-vice-president-harris-senior-administration-officials-kick-off-2023-implementing-bipartisan-infrastructure-law/#:~:text=The%20Bipartisan%20Infrastructure%20Law%20invests,Eisenhower%2Dera%20Interstate%20Highway%20System.">$40 billion:</a>&nbsp;The amount in the infrastructure bill dedicated to repair and rebuild the nation’s bridges, the single largest dedicated investment in bridges since the construction of the Eisenhower-era interstate highway system.<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/01/04/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-on-rebuilding-our-infrastructure-and-creating-good-paying-jobs/">43,000:</a>&nbsp;The number of bridges in the U.S. rated as poor and needing repair, according to the White House.1: The president's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-jill-united-states-macron-state-dinners-73f5a0d51b4058c7b96ec1e43c59a3e1">lone state dinner to date</a>&nbsp;honored French President Emmanuel Macron. Biden held back on some of the the traditional pomp — and partying — at the White House in the early going of his presidency because of COVID-19 concerns.<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-biden-administration/">0:</a>&nbsp;Not one of Biden’s original Cabinet appointees has left the administration.