DOUGLAS COUNTY —Some utility billing customers have reported receiving a call offering a $25 discount on City utility services, according to the city of Lawrence social media page.

The city warned residents, "This is not an offer from the City of Lawrence. It is a scam to get your credit card information."

 Please be aware and be careful with who you share your credit card information.

DOUGLAS COUNTY —Some utility billing customers have reported receiving a call offering a $25 discount on City utility services, according to the city of Lawrence social media page.The city warned residents, "This is not an offer from the City of Lawrence. It is a scam to get your credit card information." Please be aware and be careful with who you share your credit card information.

Residents warned: Another scam in Kansas; no discount on utilities

KANSAS CITY (AP) — For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York.

That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.

Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads.

When that didn't happen and a new lease with a 6% increase was imposed this year, they formed an association. About half the residents launched a rent strike in May, prompting Cook Properties to send out about 30 eviction notices.

“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said Jeremy Ward, 49, who gets by on just over $1,000 a month in disability payments after his legs suffered nerve damage in a car accident.

He was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower. “I’m disabled," he said. "You guys aren’t doing your job and I get a violation?”

The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-aurora-denver-parked-half-the-american-dream-boulder-de31aa729f514f48b934bf23ebd3f641">institutional investors,</a>&nbsp;led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.

The purchases are putting residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.

“These industries, including mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” said Benjamin Bellus, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, who said complaints have gone up “100-fold” since out-of-state investors started buying up parks a few years ago.

“You’re putting people in a snare and a trap, where they have no ability to defend themselves," he added.

Driven by some of the strongest returns in real estate, investors have shaken up a once-sleepy sector that's home to more than 22 million mostly low-income Americans in 43,000 communities. Many aggressively promote the parks as ensuring a steady return — by repeatedly raising rent.

There's also a growing industry, featuring how-to books, webinars and even a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mobilehomeuniversity.com/hosted/landing/mhu-hawk/index.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwrNmWBhA4EiwAHbjEQMeQxW5KzxWraB0LTII_r3CfXtKZC9M25M0df7PhaWKrPRT0MrfcbxoCLb8QAvD_BwE">mobile home university</a>, that offers tips to attract small investors.

“You went from an environment where you had a local owner or manager who took care of things as they needed fixing, to where you had people who were looking at a cost-benefit analysis for how to get the penny squeezed lowest,” Bellus said. “You combine it with an idea that we can just keep raising the rent, and these people can’t leave.”

George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based think tank, said parks containing about a fifth of mobile home lots nationwide have been purchased by institutional investors over the past eight years.

McCarthy singled out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing the loans as part of a what the lending giants bill as expanding affordable housing. Since 2014, the Lincoln Institute estimates Freddie Mac alone provided $9.6 billion in financing for the purchase of more than 950 communities across 44 states.

A spokesman for Freddie Mac countered that it had purchased loans for less than 3% of the mobile home communities nationwide, and about 60% of those were refinances.

Soon after investors started buying up parks in 2015, the complaints of double-digit rent increases followed.

In Iowa, Matt Chapman, a mobile home resident at a park purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Communities, said his rent and fees had almost doubled since 2019. Iowa Legal Aid’s Alex Kornya said another park purchased by Impact Communities saw rent and fees increase 87% between 2017 and 2020.

“Many of the folks living in the park were on fixed incomes, disability, Social Security, and simply were not going to be able to keep pace,” said Kornya, who met with about 300 angry mobile home owners at a mega-church. “It led almost to a political awakening.”

In Minnesota, park purchases by out-of-state buyers grew from 46% in 2015 to 81% in 2021, with rent increases as much as 30%, according to All Parks Alliance For Change, a state association.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, speaking at a Senate hearing this year, recalled tenants complaining of repeated rent increases at a Havenpark development in Great Falls. One resident, Cindy Newman, told The Associated Press her monthly rent and fees went up $117 to nearly $400 over a year and eight months — equal to the increase over the previous 20 years. The company says the increase was $95 over a three-year period.

On top of rent increases, residents complained of being inundated with fees for everything from pets to maintenance and fines for clutter and speeding — all tucked into leases that can run upwards of 50 pages.

Josh Weiss, a Havenpark spokesperson, said the company must charge prevailing market rates when it purchases a park at fair market price. That said, the company has moved since 2020 to limit its rent increases to $50-a-month.

“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Weiss said. “While we try to minimize the impact, the financial realities do not change.”

The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off.

“You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association.

Both sides said the government could do more to help.

The industry wants Federal Housing Administration financing made available to residents, many of whom rely on high-interest loans to purchase homes that cost on average $81,900. They also want the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow housing vouchers to be used for mobile homes.

Advocates for residents, including&nbsp;<a href="https://mhaction.org/">MHAction</a>, want lawmakers to put a cap on rent or require a reason for an increase or eviction — state legislation that succeeded in Delaware this year but failed in Iowa,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-lifestyle-colorado-618b9fb2ba93e13b651d6e51d408a7e2">Colorado</a>&nbsp;and Montana.

They also want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stipulate in loans they back that rents remain affordable. And they support residents&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-lifestyle-colorado-618b9fb2ba93e13b651d6e51d408a7e2">purchasing their communities,</a>&nbsp;which started in New Hampshire and has reached almost&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rocusa.org/">300 parks</a>&nbsp;in 20 states.

A Freddie Mac spokesperson said it has created a new loan offering that incentivizes tenant protections and last year made those mandatory for all future mobile home community transactions.

At Ridgeview, it's unclear how the rent strike will be resolved.

Cook, which claims to be the largest operator of mobile home parks in New York and has a slogan “Exceptional Opportunities. Exceptional Returns,” declined to comment. The company closed a $26 million private-equity fund in 2021 that purchased 12 parks in New York, but it was unclear if one of them was Ridgeview.

Residents, meanwhile, soldier on. Joyce Bayles, an 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews show up only monthly. Gerald Korb, a 78-year-old retiree, said he's still waiting for the company to move an electric pole and transformer he fears could topple onto his home during a storm.

“I bought a place and now they are forcing all this on us,” said Korb, who stopped paying rent in protest. “They are absentee landlords is what they are.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659204493765.png" alt="Google image" />
 <figcaption>Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) — For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York.That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads.When that didn't happen and a new lease with a 6% increase was imposed this year, they formed an association. About half the residents launched a rent strike in May, prompting Cook Properties to send out about 30 eviction notices.“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said Jeremy Ward, 49, who gets by on just over $1,000 a month in disability payments after his legs suffered nerve damage in a car accident.He was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower. “I’m disabled," he said. "You guys aren’t doing your job and I get a violation?”The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-aurora-denver-parked-half-the-american-dream-boulder-de31aa729f514f48b934bf23ebd3f641">institutional investors,</a>&nbsp;led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.The purchases are putting residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.“These industries, including mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” said Benjamin Bellus, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, who said complaints have gone up “100-fold” since out-of-state investors started buying up parks a few years ago.“You’re putting people in a snare and a trap, where they have no ability to defend themselves," he added.Driven by some of the strongest returns in real estate, investors have shaken up a once-sleepy sector that's home to more than 22 million mostly low-income Americans in 43,000 communities. Many aggressively promote the parks as ensuring a steady return — by repeatedly raising rent.There's also a growing industry, featuring how-to books, webinars and even a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mobilehomeuniversity.com/hosted/landing/mhu-hawk/index.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwrNmWBhA4EiwAHbjEQMeQxW5KzxWraB0LTII_r3CfXtKZC9M25M0df7PhaWKrPRT0MrfcbxoCLb8QAvD_BwE">mobile home university</a>, that offers tips to attract small investors.“You went from an environment where you had a local owner or manager who took care of things as they needed fixing, to where you had people who were looking at a cost-benefit analysis for how to get the penny squeezed lowest,” Bellus said. “You combine it with an idea that we can just keep raising the rent, and these people can’t leave.”George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based think tank, said parks containing about a fifth of mobile home lots nationwide have been purchased by institutional investors over the past eight years.McCarthy singled out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing the loans as part of a what the lending giants bill as expanding affordable housing. Since 2014, the Lincoln Institute estimates Freddie Mac alone provided $9.6 billion in financing for the purchase of more than 950 communities across 44 states.A spokesman for Freddie Mac countered that it had purchased loans for less than 3% of the mobile home communities nationwide, and about 60% of those were refinances.Soon after investors started buying up parks in 2015, the complaints of double-digit rent increases followed.In Iowa, Matt Chapman, a mobile home resident at a park purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Communities, said his rent and fees had almost doubled since 2019. Iowa Legal Aid’s Alex Kornya said another park purchased by Impact Communities saw rent and fees increase 87% between 2017 and 2020.“Many of the folks living in the park were on fixed incomes, disability, Social Security, and simply were not going to be able to keep pace,” said Kornya, who met with about 300 angry mobile home owners at a mega-church. “It led almost to a political awakening.”In Minnesota, park purchases by out-of-state buyers grew from 46% in 2015 to 81% in 2021, with rent increases as much as 30%, according to All Parks Alliance For Change, a state association.U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, speaking at a Senate hearing this year, recalled tenants complaining of repeated rent increases at a Havenpark development in Great Falls. One resident, Cindy Newman, told The Associated Press her monthly rent and fees went up $117 to nearly $400 over a year and eight months — equal to the increase over the previous 20 years. The company says the increase was $95 over a three-year period.On top of rent increases, residents complained of being inundated with fees for everything from pets to maintenance and fines for clutter and speeding — all tucked into leases that can run upwards of 50 pages.Josh Weiss, a Havenpark spokesperson, said the company must charge prevailing market rates when it purchases a park at fair market price. That said, the company has moved since 2020 to limit its rent increases to $50-a-month.“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Weiss said. “While we try to minimize the impact, the financial realities do not change.”The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off.“You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association.Both sides said the government could do more to help.The industry wants Federal Housing Administration financing made available to residents, many of whom rely on high-interest loans to purchase homes that cost on average $81,900. They also want the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow housing vouchers to be used for mobile homes.Advocates for residents, including&nbsp;<a href="https://mhaction.org/">MHAction</a>, want lawmakers to put a cap on rent or require a reason for an increase or eviction — state legislation that succeeded in Delaware this year but failed in Iowa,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-lifestyle-colorado-618b9fb2ba93e13b651d6e51d408a7e2">Colorado</a>&nbsp;and Montana.They also want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stipulate in loans they back that rents remain affordable. And they support residents&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-lifestyle-colorado-618b9fb2ba93e13b651d6e51d408a7e2">purchasing their communities,</a>&nbsp;which started in New Hampshire and has reached almost&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rocusa.org/">300 parks</a>&nbsp;in 20 states.A Freddie Mac spokesperson said it has created a new loan offering that incentivizes tenant protections and last year made those mandatory for all future mobile home community transactions.At Ridgeview, it's unclear how the rent strike will be resolved.Cook, which claims to be the largest operator of mobile home parks in New York and has a slogan “Exceptional Opportunities. Exceptional Returns,” declined to comment. The company closed a $26 million private-equity fund in 2021 that purchased 12 parks in New York, but it was unclear if one of them was Ridgeview.Residents, meanwhile, soldier on. Joyce Bayles, an 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews show up only monthly. Gerald Korb, a 78-year-old retiree, said he's still waiting for the company to move an electric pole and transformer he fears could topple onto his home during a storm.“I bought a place and now they are forcing all this on us,” said Korb, who stopped paying rent in protest. “They are absentee landlords is what they are.”

Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks

TOPEKA —Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) resident Patrick William T. Unrein died Thursday after being transported to St. John’s Hospital, Leavenworth where he was pronounced deceased by hospital staff. 

The cause of death is pending the results of an independent autopsy. Preliminary assessment indicates the death was not related to COVID-19.

Unrein, 45, was serving a 281-month sentence for two Sedgwick County convictions Voluntary Manslaughter; Aggravated Robbery.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659130854115.png" alt="Unrein-photo KDOC" />
 <figcaption>Unrein-photo KDOC</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA —Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) resident Patrick William T. Unrein died Thursday after being transported to St. John’s Hospital, Leavenworth where he was pronounced deceased by hospital staff. The cause of death is pending the results of an independent autopsy. Preliminary assessment indicates the death was not related to COVID-19.Unrein, 45, was serving a 281-month sentence for two Sedgwick County convictions Voluntary Manslaughter; Aggravated Robbery.

Death of Kan. inmate serving time for manslaughter under investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators said Friday they are no longer considering authorizing a second COVID-19 booster shot for all adults under 50 this summer, focusing instead on revamped vaccines for the fall that will target the newest viral subvariants.

Pfizer and Moderna expect to have updated versions of their shots available as early as September, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. That would set the stage for a fall booster campaign to strengthen protection against the latest versions of omicron.

The announcement means the U.S. won’t pursue a summer round of boosters using the current vaccines for adults under 50, as some Biden administration officials and outside experts previously suggested. They had argued that another round of shots now could help head off rising cases and hospitalizations caused by the highly transmissible omicron strains.

Currently, all Americans age 5 and over are eligible for a booster shot five months after their initial primary series. Fourth doses of the Pfizer or Moderna shots — a second booster — are recommended for Americans 50 and older and for younger people with serious health issues that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.

The FDA urged eligible adults who haven’t been boosted to get their extra shot now: “You can still benefit from existing booster options and leave time to receive an updated booster in the fall,” the agency said in a statement.

The White House has also emphasized that getting a fourth dose now won’t impact anyone’s ability to get omicron-targeted shots once they’re made available — although how long its been since their last dose will play a role in how soon they’re eligible.

Two&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-united-states-pandemics-72462053f8d60fd548cf34377864100b">omicron subvariants</a>, BA.4 and BA.5, are even more contagious than their predecessors and have pushed new daily cases above 125,000 and hospitalizations to 6,300. Those are the highest levels since February, though deaths have remained low at about 360 per day, thanks to widespread immunity and improved treatments against the virus.

The subvariants are offshoots of the strain responsible for nearly all of the virus spread in the U.S. this year.

All the COVID-19 vaccines given in the U.S. until now have been based on the original version of the virus that began spreading across the country in early 2020.

In June, the FDA told the vaccine makers that any boosters for the fall would have to combine protection against omicron BA.4 and BA.5 and the original coronavirus strain. Both manufacturers have been speeding their production and data gathering to have those so-called bivalent vaccines ready for the fall.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have to sign off on revamped shots before their launch.

The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million doses of the Pfizer combination shots once they’re ready, and 66 million of Moderna’s version. But how soon large amounts would become available isn’t clear. The government contracts include options to purchase 300 million doses each, but reaching that total will require more funding from Congress, the Biden administration said.

As for timing, getting a booster too soon after the previous dose means missing out on its full benefit — something policymakers will have to take into consideration when rolling out revamped shots.

The White House has at times been frustrated by the pace of decision-making at the FDA and CDC, most notably last summer, when the regulators took weeks to decide whether to authorize the first booster dose for U.S. adults. Privately, West Wing officials believe the delay cost lives, preventing optimum protection amid the delta and omicron surges, but also fed into doubts about vaccine and booster effectiveness that impacted their uptake.

In recent weeks, some of those frustrations have bubbled up again, as regulators considered whether to recommend a fourth shot for all adults, not just those at highest risk from the virus. Some in the White House believe that the additional dose would have helped somewhat with the rapidly spreading BA.5 subvariant, and also lift the confidence of anyone worried that their protection had waned.

Still, officials across the government have acknowledged the risks of vaccine fatigue among Americans, including tens of millions who still haven’t received their first booster. Government figures show less than half of those eligible for a booster have gotten that third shot.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1617326081667.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators said Friday they are no longer considering authorizing a second COVID-19 booster shot for all adults under 50 this summer, focusing instead on revamped vaccines for the fall that will target the newest viral subvariants.Pfizer and Moderna expect to have updated versions of their shots available as early as September, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. That would set the stage for a fall booster campaign to strengthen protection against the latest versions of omicron.The announcement means the U.S. won’t pursue a summer round of boosters using the current vaccines for adults under 50, as some Biden administration officials and outside experts previously suggested. They had argued that another round of shots now could help head off rising cases and hospitalizations caused by the highly transmissible omicron strains.Currently, all Americans age 5 and over are eligible for a booster shot five months after their initial primary series. Fourth doses of the Pfizer or Moderna shots — a second booster — are recommended for Americans 50 and older and for younger people with serious health issues that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.The FDA urged eligible adults who haven’t been boosted to get their extra shot now: “You can still benefit from existing booster options and leave time to receive an updated booster in the fall,” the agency said in a statement.The White House has also emphasized that getting a fourth dose now won’t impact anyone’s ability to get omicron-targeted shots once they’re made available — although how long its been since their last dose will play a role in how soon they’re eligible.Two&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-united-states-pandemics-72462053f8d60fd548cf34377864100b">omicron subvariants</a>, BA.4 and BA.5, are even more contagious than their predecessors and have pushed new daily cases above 125,000 and hospitalizations to 6,300. Those are the highest levels since February, though deaths have remained low at about 360 per day, thanks to widespread immunity and improved treatments against the virus.The subvariants are offshoots of the strain responsible for nearly all of the virus spread in the U.S. this year.All the COVID-19 vaccines given in the U.S. until now have been based on the original version of the virus that began spreading across the country in early 2020.In June, the FDA told the vaccine makers that any boosters for the fall would have to combine protection against omicron BA.4 and BA.5 and the original coronavirus strain. Both manufacturers have been speeding their production and data gathering to have those so-called bivalent vaccines ready for the fall.The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have to sign off on revamped shots before their launch.The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million doses of the Pfizer combination shots once they’re ready, and 66 million of Moderna’s version. But how soon large amounts would become available isn’t clear. The government contracts include options to purchase 300 million doses each, but reaching that total will require more funding from Congress, the Biden administration said.As for timing, getting a booster too soon after the previous dose means missing out on its full benefit — something policymakers will have to take into consideration when rolling out revamped shots.The White House has at times been frustrated by the pace of decision-making at the FDA and CDC, most notably last summer, when the regulators took weeks to decide whether to authorize the first booster dose for U.S. adults. Privately, West Wing officials believe the delay cost lives, preventing optimum protection amid the delta and omicron surges, but also fed into doubts about vaccine and booster effectiveness that impacted their uptake.In recent weeks, some of those frustrations have bubbled up again, as regulators considered whether to recommend a fourth shot for all adults, not just those at highest risk from the virus. Some in the White House believe that the additional dose would have helped somewhat with the rapidly spreading BA.5 subvariant, and also lift the confidence of anyone worried that their protection had waned.Still, officials across the government have acknowledged the risks of vaccine fatigue among Americans, including tens of millions who still haven’t received their first booster. Government figures show less than half of those eligible for a booster have gotten that third shot.

US rules out summer COVID boosters to focus on fall campaign

By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-07-08/how-an-increasingly-brutal-kansas-climate-threatens-cattles-health-and-ranchers-livelihoods">Kansas News Service</a>

As Kansans prepare to vote on the future of abortion, rural western Kansas offers a preview of what life with an abortion ban might eventually look like for the rest of the state.

HAYS, Kansas —&nbsp;The westernmost abortion provider in Kansas sits in the eastern half of the state — in Wichita. So for someone in Hays or Dodge City, it takes more than two and a half hours to drive to the nearest clinic.

For Kansans who live farther west, the closest place to get an abortion is hundreds of miles away in another state.

A clinic near Denver is the nearest option for people in Colby and Oberlin. For those in Leoti and Syracuse, it’s one in Colorado Springs. The town of Elkhart in southwest Kansas is just about as far from a clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as it is from the one in Wichita.

“There are people in western Kansas who are sort of already living in this post-Roe reality,” said Jack Teter, regional director of governmental affairs for Planned Parenthood in Colorado. “Abortion might be legal in Kansas, but that doesn't mean it’s accessible.”

Even before Kansans decide the future of the state’s abortion rights with Tuesday’s constitutional amendment vote, tens of thousands of western Kansans already live in a world that pro-abortion rights advocates in eastern Kansas fear might be their future. And that far-from-a-clinic reality might offer a glimpse into how the vote could change life in places like Kansas City or Lawrence.

<a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-rocky-mountains" target="_blank">Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains</a>, which operates those locations in Colorado Springs and Denver, already treats patients who travel there from Kansas — 33 of them came last year — even though abortion is legal in both states.

Based on the recent surge of patients coming to Colorado from other states with abortion bans, such as Texas and Oklahoma, he expects that number to increase dramatically if Kansas follows those states’ lead.

“We’re not imagining what could happen,” Teter said. “We’re seeing it happen.”

For example, Planned Parenthood’s Colorado clinics saw roughly 400 patients from Texas in all of 2021. Now they’re getting 400 appointment requests from people in Texas every two weeks.

In total, the Colorado clinics had about 1,500 patients travel from other states last year. Over the past two weeks, however, roughly 500 out-of-state patients have scheduled appointments.

That puts the clinics on pace to receive requests from 13,000 out-of-state patients a year. That would be nearly nine times the number of out-of-state patients they saw last year.

Teter said the wait time to get an appointment with one of Planned Parenthood’s Colorado clinics has historically been two or three days. Now it’s three weeks.

“It’s not sustainable,” Teter said. “It becomes even less sustainable if Kansas votes yes on this ballot measure.”

Kansas abortion providers have recently seen their own&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-07-07/the-end-of-roe-has-yet-to-draw-even-more-women-to-kansas-for-abortions" target="_blank">flood of patients</a>&nbsp;from other states, such as Oklahoma and Texas. So if abortion becomes illegal in Kansas — even if the amendment passes, lawmakers would still need to pass new restrictions — more of those patients from neighboring areas will turn to Colorado.

The Colorado clinics plan to meet that increasing need, Teter said, whether that means hiring more staff or having staff work longer hours. He said Planned Parenthood will also continue to help pay for gas, hotels and appointment costs for out-of-state patients who can’t afford to travel.

But as more and more states in the middle of the country ban abortion, it creates a domino effect that compounds the barriers people in places like western Kansas already face, according to Elizabeth Nash, state policy analyst with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/" target="_blank">Guttmacher Institute</a>, a research group that supports abortion rights.

“It's a big ripple effect … every time a state bans abortion,” Nash said. “It increases the distance and it shrinks the number of clinics, which increases delay.”

If Kansas makes abortion illegal, the next closest providers for people in Kansas City and Topeka would be in Nebraska and Iowa.

But Nash doesn’t consider those states long-term abortion refuges. She said both could implement their own bans in the coming months, perhaps even before the time a potential Kansas ban might go into effect.

That means someone in Lawrence could face a longer drive to get an abortion than someone in Colby or Leoti — the nearest clinic to Lawrence would be more than four hours away in Illinois.

For someone in Wichita, the closest option would be a six-and-a-half-hour drive to that same Illinois clinic.

And based on what Nash has seen in other states, that’s what she anticipates will happen in Kansas if the amendment passes.

Alabama&nbsp;<a href="https://www.al.com/news/2018/11/alabama-passes-anti-abortion-amendment.html" target="_blank">approved</a>&nbsp;a similar constitutional amendment in 2018 and passed an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/14/723312937/alabama-lawmakers-passes-abortion-ban" target="_blank">abortion ban</a>&nbsp;the following year. In Tennessee, an amendment that&nbsp;<a href="https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/05/04/in-tennessee-roots-of-expected-ban-on-abortion-date-20-years-back/" target="_blank">passed in 2014</a>&nbsp;set the stage for the state’s abortion ban that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2022/07/26/tennessee-abortion-trigger-law-ban-2022-expected-august/10061093002/" target="_blank">goes into effect</a>&nbsp;in a few weeks.

A potential ban in Kansas, Nash said, would also disproportionately harm Black women — who are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-23/u-s-black-maternal-mortality-rate-triple-that-of-white-hispanic-women-in-2020" target="_blank">three times</a>&nbsp;more likely to die during pregnancy than white women — and people living in poverty. Roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2016/abortion-patients-are-disproportionately-poor-and-low-income" target="_blank">three of every four</a>&nbsp;Americans who seek an abortion are considered low-income.

“What happens is that in states that have abortion bans,” Nash said, “those who are wealthier and whiter and have more resources go to another state, even if it's three states away.”

On a sweltering July Saturday, dozens of abortion rights advocates line the busiest intersection in Hays holding homemade signs. Between the group’s chants, the sounds of encouraging honks — and of engines revving in disapproval — illustrate the sharp divide on this issue.

Hays resident Tracie Baalman sits behind the main line of protestors next to the sidewalk. In one hand, she holds an umbrella to shade herself from the sun. In the other, she grasps a piece of cardboard painted with the words “Keep your laws off my uterus.”

The amendment vote is a life-or-death matter for her, she said, since spinal and blood clotting disorders could make pregnancy fatal.

“If it got to the point where it was me or the baby, I would have to choose myself,” Baalman said. “If abortion was illegal, how could I do that?”

Like everyone else in western Kansas, she would already need to travel hours to the nearest Kansas clinic. If abortion becomes illegal statewide, she’s afraid of what that could mean, especially for women without much money.

“I make less than $400 a month. There's no way I could travel (out of state) to get a legal abortion,” Baalman said. “I couldn’t afford to travel. So I would die.”

Western Kansans advocating against the amendment, however, face an uphill battle.

Western Kansas is a predominantly conservative region — 70% of voters in Ellis County, where Hays is located, chose Donald Trump in 2020. And the influence of the local Catholic church — the region’s two&nbsp;<a href="https://salinadiocese.org/news-and-updates/value-them-both-message-from-bishop-vincke/" target="_blank">dioceses</a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dcdiocese.org/bulletin-corner/56392-value-them-both-amendment" target="_blank">endorsed</a>&nbsp;the amendment — is strong both among the descendants of Volga German immigrants in northwest Kansas and Latino communities in southwest Kansas.

And proponents of the constitutional amendment, such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://valuethemboth.com/" target="_blank">Value Them Both</a>&nbsp;coalition, contend that it’s needed to restore limits on abortion that were struck down by the Kansas Supreme Court when it ruled in 2019 that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/2019-04-26/kansas-supreme-court-rules-state-constitution-protects-right-to-abortion" target="_blank">the state constitution includes abortion rights</a>.

Without the amendment, the coalition’s website warns Kansas could “become like New York or California” and use tax dollars to fund late-term abortions.

Current Kansas laws, however, do&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kmuw.org/2022-07-22/faq-getting-the-facts-right-on-the-kansas-abortion-vote" target="_blank">regulate abortions</a>&nbsp;in a number of ways. Abortions are prohibited in Kansas after 22 weeks of pregnancy unless the patient’s health is in danger. Patients must receive an ultrasound and pre-procedure counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period. No public funding goes to abortions except in cases of rape, incest or life-threatening emergencies.

A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://coefficient.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/KS-VTB-Amendment-7.18.pdf" target="_blank">statewide poll</a>&nbsp;indicates that the amendment vote will be close, with 47% of Kansans saying they plan to vote to remove abortion rights from the state constitution and 43% saying they plan to vote against it.

But the part of the state with the most support for the amendment is western Kansas — 52% of respondents from the region’s congressional district said they plan to vote in favor of it.

Even so, abortion rights advocates in this part of the state vow to do what they can to help rural patients who want to access those services.

<a href="https://help4abuse.org/" target="_blank">Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services</a>, for example, is the only organization that provides around-the-clock sexual violence care for an 18-county region in northwest Kansas that’s roughly the size of Maryland and New Jersey combined. So, many of its patients face long travel times just to get a medical exam after a sexual assault, let alone an abortion.

Executive director Jennifer Hecker said the amendment would open the door to legislation that criminalizes abortions even in cases of rape and incest.

“That’s unconscionable,” Hecker said. “And that’s the reality that we’re facing.”

She said Options plans to continue helping patients get any health care services they request — including emergency contraception and abortion — regardless of whether or not they have the money to travel.

Even if that means driving a patient more than two hours to Wichita or five hours to Denver.

Options doesn’t keep track of how many patients it connects with emergency contraception or abortion services, she said, because the staff purposefully doesn’t ask patients why they need to go to a pharmacy or clinic. And she’s worried that additional state abortion restrictions could end up forcing women to answer those types of questions as a way of gatekeeping health care.

But regardless of the outcome of the Aug. 2 vote, she said Options doesn’t plan to stop offering to drive patients to health care appointments — no matter which state they’re in — anytime soon.

“There would be pressure to,” Hecker said, “but I'm not going to buckle to it.”

David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter<a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">&nbsp;@davidcondos</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5e1df8c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3881x2842+0+0/resize/880x644!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0f%2F63%2F20ec23034641bfa27f3e8318a405%2Fimg-4557-crop.jpg" alt="Dozens of people gather in the northwest Kansas town of Hays to protest against the amendment that would remove abortion rights protections from the state constitution-David Condos/Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Dozens of people gather in the northwest Kansas town of Hays to protest against the amendment that would remove abortion rights protections from the state constitution-David Condos/Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-07-08/how-an-increasingly-brutal-kansas-climate-threatens-cattles-health-and-ranchers-livelihoods">Kansas News Service</a><h2>As Kansans prepare to vote on the future of abortion, rural western Kansas offers a preview of what life with an abortion ban might eventually look like for the rest of the state.</h2>HAYS, Kansas —&nbsp;The westernmost abortion provider in Kansas sits in the eastern half of the state — in Wichita. So for someone in Hays or Dodge City, it takes more than two and a half hours to drive to the nearest clinic.For Kansans who live farther west, the closest place to get an abortion is hundreds of miles away in another state.A clinic near Denver is the nearest option for people in Colby and Oberlin. For those in Leoti and Syracuse, it’s one in Colorado Springs. The town of Elkhart in southwest Kansas is just about as far from a clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as it is from the one in Wichita.“There are people in western Kansas who are sort of already living in this post-Roe reality,” said Jack Teter, regional director of governmental affairs for Planned Parenthood in Colorado. “Abortion might be legal in Kansas, but that doesn't mean it’s accessible.”Even before Kansans decide the future of the state’s abortion rights with Tuesday’s constitutional amendment vote, tens of thousands of western Kansans already live in a world that pro-abortion rights advocates in eastern Kansas fear might be their future. And that far-from-a-clinic reality might offer a glimpse into how the vote could change life in places like Kansas City or Lawrence.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659139116792.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-rocky-mountains" target="_blank">Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains</a>, which operates those locations in Colorado Springs and Denver, already treats patients who travel there from Kansas — 33 of them came last year — even though abortion is legal in both states.Based on the recent surge of patients coming to Colorado from other states with abortion bans, such as Texas and Oklahoma, he expects that number to increase dramatically if Kansas follows those states’ lead.“We’re not imagining what could happen,” Teter said. “We’re seeing it happen.”For example, Planned Parenthood’s Colorado clinics saw roughly 400 patients from Texas in all of 2021. Now they’re getting 400 appointment requests from people in Texas every two weeks.In total, the Colorado clinics had about 1,500 patients travel from other states last year. Over the past two weeks, however, roughly 500 out-of-state patients have scheduled appointments.That puts the clinics on pace to receive requests from 13,000 out-of-state patients a year. That would be nearly nine times the number of out-of-state patients they saw last year.Teter said the wait time to get an appointment with one of Planned Parenthood’s Colorado clinics has historically been two or three days. Now it’s three weeks.“It’s not sustainable,” Teter said. “It becomes even less sustainable if Kansas votes yes on this ballot measure.”The domino effectKansas abortion providers have recently seen their own&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-07-07/the-end-of-roe-has-yet-to-draw-even-more-women-to-kansas-for-abortions" target="_blank">flood of patients</a>&nbsp;from other states, such as Oklahoma and Texas. So if abortion becomes illegal in Kansas — even if the amendment passes, lawmakers would still need to pass new restrictions — more of those patients from neighboring areas will turn to Colorado.The Colorado clinics plan to meet that increasing need, Teter said, whether that means hiring more staff or having staff work longer hours. He said Planned Parenthood will also continue to help pay for gas, hotels and appointment costs for out-of-state patients who can’t afford to travel.But as more and more states in the middle of the country ban abortion, it creates a domino effect that compounds the barriers people in places like western Kansas already face, according to Elizabeth Nash, state policy analyst with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/" target="_blank">Guttmacher Institute</a>, a research group that supports abortion rights.“It's a big ripple effect … every time a state bans abortion,” Nash said. “It increases the distance and it shrinks the number of clinics, which increases delay.”<figure>
 <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/67b0602/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x3024+0+0/resize/880x660!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc7%2Fd0%2F68ba957b4b2ab048a1a535c8d26f%2Fimg-4580-crop.jpg" alt="A sign painted to protest the constitutional amendment that would remove abortion protections from the constitution sits in a yard in Hays-David Condos/Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>A sign painted to protest the constitutional amendment that would remove abortion protections from the constitution sits in a yard in Hays-David Condos/Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>If Kansas makes abortion illegal, the next closest providers for people in Kansas City and Topeka would be in Nebraska and Iowa.But Nash doesn’t consider those states long-term abortion refuges. She said both could implement their own bans in the coming months, perhaps even before the time a potential Kansas ban might go into effect.That means someone in Lawrence could face a longer drive to get an abortion than someone in Colby or Leoti — the nearest clinic to Lawrence would be more than four hours away in Illinois.For someone in Wichita, the closest option would be a six-and-a-half-hour drive to that same Illinois clinic.And based on what Nash has seen in other states, that’s what she anticipates will happen in Kansas if the amendment passes.Alabama&nbsp;<a href="https://www.al.com/news/2018/11/alabama-passes-anti-abortion-amendment.html" target="_blank">approved</a>&nbsp;a similar constitutional amendment in 2018 and passed an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/14/723312937/alabama-lawmakers-passes-abortion-ban" target="_blank">abortion ban</a>&nbsp;the following year. In Tennessee, an amendment that&nbsp;<a href="https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/05/04/in-tennessee-roots-of-expected-ban-on-abortion-date-20-years-back/" target="_blank">passed in 2014</a>&nbsp;set the stage for the state’s abortion ban that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2022/07/26/tennessee-abortion-trigger-law-ban-2022-expected-august/10061093002/" target="_blank">goes into effect</a>&nbsp;in a few weeks.A potential ban in Kansas, Nash said, would also disproportionately harm Black women — who are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-23/u-s-black-maternal-mortality-rate-triple-that-of-white-hispanic-women-in-2020" target="_blank">three times</a>&nbsp;more likely to die during pregnancy than white women — and people living in poverty. Roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2016/abortion-patients-are-disproportionately-poor-and-low-income" target="_blank">three of every four</a>&nbsp;Americans who seek an abortion are considered low-income.“What happens is that in states that have abortion bans,” Nash said, “those who are wealthier and whiter and have more resources go to another state, even if it's three states away.”<figure>
 <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ec1a7b7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x3024+0+0/resize/880x660!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd2%2F31%2F27d4961b4d398025c4b3c479c7d9%2Fimg-4508-crop.jpg" alt="Tracie Baalman said she's afraid of what an abortion ban might mean for women with serious health risks and low incomes. “I couldn’t afford to travel," she said. "So I would die.”-David Condos/Kansas News" />
 <figcaption>Tracie Baalman said she's afraid of what an abortion ban might mean for women with serious health risks and low incomes. “I couldn’t afford to travel," she said. "So I would die.”-David Condos/Kansas News</figcaption>
 </figure>‘Not going to buckle’On a sweltering July Saturday, dozens of abortion rights advocates line the busiest intersection in Hays holding homemade signs. Between the group’s chants, the sounds of encouraging honks — and of engines revving in disapproval — illustrate the sharp divide on this issue.Hays resident Tracie Baalman sits behind the main line of protestors next to the sidewalk. In one hand, she holds an umbrella to shade herself from the sun. In the other, she grasps a piece of cardboard painted with the words “Keep your laws off my uterus.”The amendment vote is a life-or-death matter for her, she said, since spinal and blood clotting disorders could make pregnancy fatal.“If it got to the point where it was me or the baby, I would have to choose myself,” Baalman said. “If abortion was illegal, how could I do that?”Like everyone else in western Kansas, she would already need to travel hours to the nearest Kansas clinic. If abortion becomes illegal statewide, she’s afraid of what that could mean, especially for women without much money.“I make less than $400 a month. There's no way I could travel (out of state) to get a legal abortion,” Baalman said. “I couldn’t afford to travel. So I would die.”Western Kansans advocating against the amendment, however, face an uphill battle.Western Kansas is a predominantly conservative region — 70% of voters in Ellis County, where Hays is located, chose Donald Trump in 2020. And the influence of the local Catholic church — the region’s two&nbsp;<a href="https://salinadiocese.org/news-and-updates/value-them-both-message-from-bishop-vincke/" target="_blank">dioceses</a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dcdiocese.org/bulletin-corner/56392-value-them-both-amendment" target="_blank">endorsed</a>&nbsp;the amendment — is strong both among the descendants of Volga German immigrants in northwest Kansas and Latino communities in southwest Kansas.<figure>
 <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d0eec61/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x3024+0+0/resize/880x660!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2F6a%2Fdcb0e0dc4bd68ab0206a4ce5b7bb%2Fimg-4667-2.JPG" alt="A permanent sign along K-156 in Hodgeman County is one of many along rural western Kansas highways that call for an end to abortion.-David Condos/Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>A permanent sign along K-156 in Hodgeman County is one of many along rural western Kansas highways that call for an end to abortion.-David Condos/Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>And proponents of the constitutional amendment, such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://valuethemboth.com/" target="_blank">Value Them Both</a>&nbsp;coalition, contend that it’s needed to restore limits on abortion that were struck down by the Kansas Supreme Court when it ruled in 2019 that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/2019-04-26/kansas-supreme-court-rules-state-constitution-protects-right-to-abortion" target="_blank">the state constitution includes abortion rights</a>.Without the amendment, the coalition’s website warns Kansas could “become like New York or California” and use tax dollars to fund late-term abortions.Current Kansas laws, however, do&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kmuw.org/2022-07-22/faq-getting-the-facts-right-on-the-kansas-abortion-vote" target="_blank">regulate abortions</a>&nbsp;in a number of ways. Abortions are prohibited in Kansas after 22 weeks of pregnancy unless the patient’s health is in danger. Patients must receive an ultrasound and pre-procedure counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period. No public funding goes to abortions except in cases of rape, incest or life-threatening emergencies.A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://coefficient.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/KS-VTB-Amendment-7.18.pdf" target="_blank">statewide poll</a>&nbsp;indicates that the amendment vote will be close, with 47% of Kansans saying they plan to vote to remove abortion rights from the state constitution and 43% saying they plan to vote against it.But the part of the state with the most support for the amendment is western Kansas — 52% of respondents from the region’s congressional district said they plan to vote in favor of it.<figure>
 <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7dbe97a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3608x2528+0+0/resize/880x617!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3d%2Fec%2F08697a384147ad7669b22fade665%2Fimg-4452.jpg" alt="Proponents of the constitutional amendment walk along a parade route in Hays.-David Condos/Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Proponents of the constitutional amendment walk along a parade route in Hays.-David Condos/Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>Even so, abortion rights advocates in this part of the state vow to do what they can to help rural patients who want to access those services.<a href="https://help4abuse.org/" target="_blank">Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services</a>, for example, is the only organization that provides around-the-clock sexual violence care for an 18-county region in northwest Kansas that’s roughly the size of Maryland and New Jersey combined. So, many of its patients face long travel times just to get a medical exam after a sexual assault, let alone an abortion.Executive director Jennifer Hecker said the amendment would open the door to legislation that criminalizes abortions even in cases of rape and incest.“That’s unconscionable,” Hecker said. “And that’s the reality that we’re facing.”She said Options plans to continue helping patients get any health care services they request — including emergency contraception and abortion — regardless of whether or not they have the money to travel.Even if that means driving a patient more than two hours to Wichita or five hours to Denver.Options doesn’t keep track of how many patients it connects with emergency contraception or abortion services, she said, because the staff purposefully doesn’t ask patients why they need to go to a pharmacy or clinic. And she’s worried that additional state abortion restrictions could end up forcing women to answer those types of questions as a way of gatekeeping health care.But regardless of the outcome of the Aug. 2 vote, she said Options doesn’t plan to stop offering to drive patients to health care appointments — no matter which state they’re in — anytime soon.“There would be pressure to,” Hecker said, “but I'm not going to buckle to it.”David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter<a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">&nbsp;@davidcondos</a>.

W. Kan. offers a glimpse of what an abortion ban might look like for KC, Wichita

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal July 16 shooting continue asking the public for help to locate a Kansas felon.

Just after 9:30 p.m. July 16, police were dispatched to report of a shooting in the 900 Block of SW 8th Street in Topeka, according to Police LT Ronnie Connell.

First responders found 34-year-old&nbsp; Kirk Sexton suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The Topeka Police Department wants to speak with Emmanuel Rashad Walker, 35, of Topeka in reference to this homicide investigation.

 Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault in 2009 and for, obstruction and drug possession in 2019, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Emmanuel Rashad Walker should call police or 911.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658512386623.png" alt="&nbsp;Emmanuel Rashad Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault, obstruction and for drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections -photo Topeka Police" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Emmanuel Rashad Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault, obstruction and for drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections -photo Topeka Police</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal July 16 shooting continue asking the public for help to locate a Kansas felon.Just after 9:30 p.m. July 16, police were dispatched to report of a shooting in the 900 Block of SW 8th Street in Topeka, according to Police LT Ronnie Connell.First responders found 34-year-old&nbsp; Kirk Sexton suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.The Topeka Police Department wants to speak with Emmanuel Rashad Walker, 35, of Topeka in reference to this homicide investigation. Walker has previous convictions for aggravated assault in 2009 and for, obstruction and drug possession in 2019, according to the Kansas Department of CorrectionsAnyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Emmanuel Rashad Walker should call police or 911.

Search continues for Kansas murder suspect

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Someone beat the odds and won the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot.

According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/">megamillions.com</a>, there was one winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought in Illinois.

The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.

The jackpot was the nation's third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.

The $1.28 billion prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $747.2 million.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Someone beat the odds and won the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot.According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.megamillions.com/">megamillions.com</a>, there was one winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought in Illinois.The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.The jackpot was the nation's third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.The $1.28 billion prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated $747.2 million.The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.

One winning ticket claims $1.28B Mega Millions jackpot

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Friday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-biden-politics-parkland-florida-school-shooting-congress-cafdbf997fe3186b6f7e8785e71a4a07">to revive a ban on certain semi-automatic guns</a>, the first vote of its kind in years and a direct response to the firearms often used in the crush of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/gun-violence">mass shootings</a>&nbsp;ripping through communities nationwide.

Once banned in the U.S., the high-powered firearms are now&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-manufacturers-ar-15-461e6729bef5ef5f8af0f128fbfc40be">widely blamed as the weapon of choice among young men</a>&nbsp;responsible for many of the most devastating mass shootings. But Congress allowed the restrictions first put in place in 1994 on the manufacture and sales of the weapons to expire a decade later, unable to muster the political support to counter the powerful gun lobby and reinstate the weapons ban.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”

President Joe Biden hailed the House vote, saying, “The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action.” He urged the Senate to “move quickly to get this bill to my desk.”

However, it is likely to stall in the 50-50 Senate. The House legislation is shunned by Republicans, who dismissed it as an election-year strategy by Democrats. Almost all Republicans voted against the House bill, which passed 217-213.

The bill comes at a time of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-America-shootings-b980438ded3a80a8c6bb78bd2e0327c1">intensifying concerns about gun violence</a>&nbsp;and shootings — the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y.; massacre of school children in Uvalde, Texas; and the July Fourth shootings of revelers in Highland Park, Ill.

Voters seem to be taking such election-year votes seriously as Congress splits along party lines and lawmakers are forced to go on the record with their views. A recent vote to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-race-and-ethnicity-gay-rights-marriage-social-issues-77ec6e2a60b5990ceaf7c396fee42016">protect same-sex marriages from potential Supreme Court legal challenges</a>&nbsp;won a surprising amount of bipartisan support.

Biden was instrumental in helping secure the first semi-automatic weapons ban as a senator in 1994. The Biden administration said that for 10 years, while the ban was in place, mass shootings declined. “When the ban expired in 2004, mass shootings tripled,” the statement said.

Republicans stood firmly against limits on ownership of the high-powered firearms during an at times emotional debate ahead of voting.

“It’s a gun grab, pure and simple,” said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa.

Said Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., “An armed America is a safe and free America.”

Democrats argued that the ban on the weapons makes sense, portraying Republicans as extreme and out of step with Americans.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the weapons ban is not about taking away Americans' Second Amendment rights but ensuring that children also have the right “to not get shot in school.”

Pelosi displayed a poster of a gun company's advertisement for children's weapons, smaller versions that resemble the popular AR-15 rifles and are marketed with cartoon-like characters. “Disgusting," she said.

In one exchange, two Ohio lawmakers squared off. “Your freedom stops where mine begins, and that of my constituents begins,” Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur told Republican Rep. Jim Jordan. “Schools, shopping malls, grocery stores, Independence Day parades shouldn’t be scenes of mass carnage and bloodshed.”

Jordan replied by inviting her to his congressional district to debate him on the Second Amendment, saying he believed most of his constituents “probably agree with me and agree with the United States Constitution.”

The bill would make it unlawful to import, sell or manufacture a long list of semi-automatic weapons. Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said it exempts those already in possession.

Reps. Chris Jacobs of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania were the only Republicans to vote for the measure. The Democratic lawmakers voting no were Reps. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.

For nearly two decades, since the previous ban expired Democrats had been reluctant to revisit the issue and confront the gun lobby. But voter opinions appear to be shifting and Democrats dared to act before the fall election. The outcome will provide information for voters of where the candidates stand on the issue.

Jason Quimet, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement following the vote that “barely a month after” the Supreme Court expanded gun rights “gun control advocates in Congress are spearheading an assault upon the freedoms and civil liberties of law-abiding Americans.”

He said the bill potentially bans more than 24 million firearms “in blatant opposition to the Supreme Court’s rulings” that have established gun ownership as an individual right and expanded on it.

Among the semi-automatic weapons banned are those with a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds. The bill covers some 200-plus types of semi-automatic rifles, including AR-15s.

Democrats had tried to link the weapons ban to a broader package of public safety measures that would have increased federal funding for law enforcement. It's something centrist Democrats in tough re-election campaigns wanted to shield them from political attacks by their Republican opponents they are soft on crime.

Pelosi said the House will revisit the public safety bills in August when lawmakers are expected to return briefly to Washington to handle other remaining legislation, including Biden's priority inflation-fighting package of health care and climate change strategies making its way in the Senate.

Congress passed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-mental-gun-violence-government-and-politics-1cf62afca004ec613ad76e8808cbfb50">a modest gun violence prevention package</a>&nbsp;just last month in the aftermath of the tragic shooting of 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde. That bipartisan bill was the first of its kind after years of failed efforts to confront the gun lobby, including after a similar 2012 mass tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

That law&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-gun-violence-bill-c21249287f976c2c164d8753205c2e6d"></a>provides for expanded background checks on young adults buying firearms, allowing authorities to access certain juvenile records. It also closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by denying gun purchases for those convicted of domestic abuse outside of marriages.

The new law also frees up federal funding to the states, including for “red flag” laws that enable authorities to remove guns from those who would harm themselves or others.

But even that modest effort at halting gun violence came at time of grave uncertainty in the U.S. over restrictions on firearms as the more conservative Supreme Court is tackling gun rights and other issues.

Biden signed the measure two days after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-guns-decision-what-to-know-a068d964981b6d1242a5ab124224f77a">Supreme Court’s ruling</a>&nbsp;striking down a New York law that restricted people's ability to carry concealed weapons.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659139969672.png" alt="Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”" />
 <figcaption>Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Friday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-biden-politics-parkland-florida-school-shooting-congress-cafdbf997fe3186b6f7e8785e71a4a07">to revive a ban on certain semi-automatic guns</a>, the first vote of its kind in years and a direct response to the firearms often used in the crush of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/gun-violence">mass shootings</a>&nbsp;ripping through communities nationwide.Once banned in the U.S., the high-powered firearms are now&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-manufacturers-ar-15-461e6729bef5ef5f8af0f128fbfc40be">widely blamed as the weapon of choice among young men</a>&nbsp;responsible for many of the most devastating mass shootings. But Congress allowed the restrictions first put in place in 1994 on the manufacture and sales of the weapons to expire a decade later, unable to muster the political support to counter the powerful gun lobby and reinstate the weapons ban.Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote toward passage in the Democratic-run House, saying the earlier ban “saved lives.”President Joe Biden hailed the House vote, saying, “The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action.” He urged the Senate to “move quickly to get this bill to my desk.”However, it is likely to stall in the 50-50 Senate. The House legislation is shunned by Republicans, who dismissed it as an election-year strategy by Democrats. Almost all Republicans voted against the House bill, which passed 217-213.The bill comes at a time of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-America-shootings-b980438ded3a80a8c6bb78bd2e0327c1">intensifying concerns about gun violence</a>&nbsp;and shootings — the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y.; massacre of school children in Uvalde, Texas; and the July Fourth shootings of revelers in Highland Park, Ill.Voters seem to be taking such election-year votes seriously as Congress splits along party lines and lawmakers are forced to go on the record with their views. A recent vote to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-race-and-ethnicity-gay-rights-marriage-social-issues-77ec6e2a60b5990ceaf7c396fee42016">protect same-sex marriages from potential Supreme Court legal challenges</a>&nbsp;won a surprising amount of bipartisan support.Biden was instrumental in helping secure the first semi-automatic weapons ban as a senator in 1994. The Biden administration said that for 10 years, while the ban was in place, mass shootings declined. “When the ban expired in 2004, mass shootings tripled,” the statement said.Republicans stood firmly against limits on ownership of the high-powered firearms during an at times emotional debate ahead of voting.“It’s a gun grab, pure and simple,” said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa.Said Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., “An armed America is a safe and free America.”Democrats argued that the ban on the weapons makes sense, portraying Republicans as extreme and out of step with Americans.Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the weapons ban is not about taking away Americans' Second Amendment rights but ensuring that children also have the right “to not get shot in school.”Pelosi displayed a poster of a gun company's advertisement for children's weapons, smaller versions that resemble the popular AR-15 rifles and are marketed with cartoon-like characters. “Disgusting," she said.In one exchange, two Ohio lawmakers squared off. “Your freedom stops where mine begins, and that of my constituents begins,” Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur told Republican Rep. Jim Jordan. “Schools, shopping malls, grocery stores, Independence Day parades shouldn’t be scenes of mass carnage and bloodshed.”Jordan replied by inviting her to his congressional district to debate him on the Second Amendment, saying he believed most of his constituents “probably agree with me and agree with the United States Constitution.”The bill would make it unlawful to import, sell or manufacture a long list of semi-automatic weapons. Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said it exempts those already in possession.Reps. Chris Jacobs of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania were the only Republicans to vote for the measure. The Democratic lawmakers voting no were Reps. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.For nearly two decades, since the previous ban expired Democrats had been reluctant to revisit the issue and confront the gun lobby. But voter opinions appear to be shifting and Democrats dared to act before the fall election. The outcome will provide information for voters of where the candidates stand on the issue.Jason Quimet, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement following the vote that “barely a month after” the Supreme Court expanded gun rights “gun control advocates in Congress are spearheading an assault upon the freedoms and civil liberties of law-abiding Americans.”He said the bill potentially bans more than 24 million firearms “in blatant opposition to the Supreme Court’s rulings” that have established gun ownership as an individual right and expanded on it.Among the semi-automatic weapons banned are those with a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds. The bill covers some 200-plus types of semi-automatic rifles, including AR-15s.Democrats had tried to link the weapons ban to a broader package of public safety measures that would have increased federal funding for law enforcement. It's something centrist Democrats in tough re-election campaigns wanted to shield them from political attacks by their Republican opponents they are soft on crime.Pelosi said the House will revisit the public safety bills in August when lawmakers are expected to return briefly to Washington to handle other remaining legislation, including Biden's priority inflation-fighting package of health care and climate change strategies making its way in the Senate.Congress passed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-mental-gun-violence-government-and-politics-1cf62afca004ec613ad76e8808cbfb50">a modest gun violence prevention package</a>&nbsp;just last month in the aftermath of the tragic shooting of 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde. That bipartisan bill was the first of its kind after years of failed efforts to confront the gun lobby, including after a similar 2012 mass tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.That law&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-gun-violence-bill-c21249287f976c2c164d8753205c2e6d"></a>provides for expanded background checks on young adults buying firearms, allowing authorities to access certain juvenile records. It also closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by denying gun purchases for those convicted of domestic abuse outside of marriages.The new law also frees up federal funding to the states, including for “red flag” laws that enable authorities to remove guns from those who would harm themselves or others.But even that modest effort at halting gun violence came at time of grave uncertainty in the U.S. over restrictions on firearms as the more conservative Supreme Court is tackling gun rights and other issues.Biden signed the measure two days after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-guns-decision-what-to-know-a068d964981b6d1242a5ab124224f77a">Supreme Court’s ruling</a>&nbsp;striking down a New York law that restricted people's ability to carry concealed weapons.

House passes bill banning certain semi-automatic guns

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities investigating a deadly shooting outside a Kansas nightclub and have a suspect in custody.

On Thursday, officers booked 35-year-old <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=23171">Brent Alan Cruz </a>on requested charges of&nbsp;second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=23171"> Sedgwick County booking report.</a>

Just before 1:30 a.m. April 24, police responded to a shooting call in the 1300 block of North Hydraulic in Wichita, according to Officer Chad Ditch.

First responders located&nbsp;d 31-year old Nyron Bowen of Wichita on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to his body. Bowen would be transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659111101913.png" alt="Cruz-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Cruz-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities investigating a deadly shooting outside a Kansas nightclub and have a suspect in custody.On Thursday, officers booked 35-year-old <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=23171">Brent Alan Cruz </a>on requested charges of&nbsp;second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=23171"> Sedgwick County booking report.</a>Just before 1:30 a.m. April 24, police responded to a shooting call in the 1300 block of North Hydraulic in Wichita, according to Officer Chad Ditch.First responders located&nbsp;d 31-year old Nyron Bowen of Wichita on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to his body. Bowen would be transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased.--------

Suspect accused in killing outside Kansas nightclub 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday in the highest-level known contact between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine, with Blinken urging Russia to accept a deal to win the release of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-sports-united-states-moscow-antony-blinken-c987c7516723cce522693834cef00a26">American detainees Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan</a>.

Russian officials gave no public hint whether Blinken had made any headway, only issuing a chiding statement afterward urging the U.S. to pursue the Americans' freedom through “quiet diplomacy, without releases of speculative information."

U.S. officials have in recent days publicized their efforts to get back Griner, a WNBA star, and Whelan, a corporate security executive, whose cases have drawn widespread national attention.

Blinken did not provide details of Lavrov’s response to what he had previously called a “substantial proposal" for Russia to release Whelan and Griner. Blinken had publicly requested the call and revealed the existence of the offer to Russia. People familiar with the offer say the U.S. wants to swap Whelan and Griner for convicted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/viktor-bout">Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.</a>

Blinken described the call as “a frank and direct conversation” centered primarily on the detained Americans.

“I urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to move forward with that proposal," he said. "I can’t give you an assessment of whether that is any more or less likely.”

Blinken also said he had pressed Lavrov on the importance of Russia following through on an agreement to allow Ukrainian grain shipments to leave the Black Sea and warned him of consequences should Moscow move ahead with suspected plans to annex portions of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Blinken said he told Lavrov that the world will “never recognize” any annexation of Ukrainian territory, which he said would “result in significant additional costs for Russia.”

He declined to comment on how Lavrov replied to his messages. “I don’t want to characterize any of Foreign Minister Lavrov’s responses.”

In its statement afterward, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov “strongly suggested” to Blinken “returning to a professional dialogue in the mode of quiet diplomacy” on any efforts at American detainees' release.

Lavrov also repeated Russia's vows to keep fighting until it has achieved its aims in Ukraine, renewed complaints that U.S. and NATO support to Ukraine was prolonging the conflict, and accused the U.S. of not yet keeping up its end of agreements on the grain shipments from Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said.

Blinken’s comments earlier this week marked the first time the U.S. government publicly revealed any concrete action it has taken to secure Griner’s release. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and player for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury was arrested at a Moscow airport in mid-February when inspectors found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.

Griner’s arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington ahead of Russia sending troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Griner’s five months of detention have raised strong criticism among teammates and supporters in the United States.

Her trial on drug charges started in a court outside Moscow this month, and she testified Wednesday that she didn’t know how the cartridges ended up in her bag but that she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-entertainment-sports-health-basketball-ae4138729642041aebbabeafa914706f">had a doctor’s recommendation</a>&nbsp;to use cannabis to treat career-related pain.

The 31-year-old&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-russia-trial-live-updates-bc4c1d9efd490eed0eb522c8c59e9197">has pleaded guilty</a>&nbsp;but said she had no criminal intent in bringing the cartridges to Russia and packed in haste for her return to play in a Russian basketball league during the WNBA’s offseason. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of transporting drugs.

The Biden administration has faced political pressure to free Griner and other Americans whom the U.S. has declared to be “wrongfully detained” — a designation sharply rejected by Russian officials.

Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/moscow-paul-whelan-russia-espionage-b7eb05fc55058fd222a29d06c1d5428e">was sentenced to 16 years</a>&nbsp;in prison on espionage charges in 2020. He and his family have vigorously asserted his innocence. The U.S. government has denounced the charges as false.

Russia has for years expressed interest in the release of Bout, a Russian arms dealer once labeled the “Merchant of Death.” He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on charges that he schemed to illegally sell millions of dollars in weapons.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659117165215.png" alt="It was Secretary of State Blinken's first talk with his Russian counterpart since before&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine">Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.</a>-photo State Department" />
 <figcaption>It was Secretary of State Blinken's first talk with his Russian counterpart since before&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine">Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.</a>-photo State Department</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday in the highest-level known contact between the two sides since Russia invaded Ukraine, with Blinken urging Russia to accept a deal to win the release of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-sports-united-states-moscow-antony-blinken-c987c7516723cce522693834cef00a26">American detainees Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan</a>.Russian officials gave no public hint whether Blinken had made any headway, only issuing a chiding statement afterward urging the U.S. to pursue the Americans' freedom through “quiet diplomacy, without releases of speculative information."U.S. officials have in recent days publicized their efforts to get back Griner, a WNBA star, and Whelan, a corporate security executive, whose cases have drawn widespread national attention.Blinken did not provide details of Lavrov’s response to what he had previously called a “substantial proposal" for Russia to release Whelan and Griner. Blinken had publicly requested the call and revealed the existence of the offer to Russia. People familiar with the offer say the U.S. wants to swap Whelan and Griner for convicted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/viktor-bout">Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.</a><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646510097872.png" alt="Griner, 31, is one of the most recognizable players in women’s basketball, has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star and three-time Big 12 Player of the year at Baylor-photo courtesy Phoenix Mercury" />
 <figcaption>Griner, 31, is one of the most recognizable players in women’s basketball, has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star and three-time Big 12 Player of the year at Baylor-photo courtesy Phoenix Mercury</figcaption>
 </figure>Blinken described the call as “a frank and direct conversation” centered primarily on the detained Americans.“I urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to move forward with that proposal," he said. "I can’t give you an assessment of whether that is any more or less likely.”Blinken also said he had pressed Lavrov on the importance of Russia following through on an agreement to allow Ukrainian grain shipments to leave the Black Sea and warned him of consequences should Moscow move ahead with suspected plans to annex portions of eastern and southern Ukraine.Blinken said he told Lavrov that the world will “never recognize” any annexation of Ukrainian territory, which he said would “result in significant additional costs for Russia.”He declined to comment on how Lavrov replied to his messages. “I don’t want to characterize any of Foreign Minister Lavrov’s responses.”In its statement afterward, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov “strongly suggested” to Blinken “returning to a professional dialogue in the mode of quiet diplomacy” on any efforts at American detainees' release.Lavrov also repeated Russia's vows to keep fighting until it has achieved its aims in Ukraine, renewed complaints that U.S. and NATO support to Ukraine was prolonging the conflict, and accused the U.S. of not yet keeping up its end of agreements on the grain shipments from Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said.Blinken’s comments earlier this week marked the first time the U.S. government publicly revealed any concrete action it has taken to secure Griner’s release. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and player for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury was arrested at a Moscow airport in mid-February when inspectors found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.Griner’s arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington ahead of Russia sending troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Griner’s five months of detention have raised strong criticism among teammates and supporters in the United States.Her trial on drug charges started in a court outside Moscow this month, and she testified Wednesday that she didn’t know how the cartridges ended up in her bag but that she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-entertainment-sports-health-basketball-ae4138729642041aebbabeafa914706f">had a doctor’s recommendation</a>&nbsp;to use cannabis to treat career-related pain.The 31-year-old&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/brittney-griner-russia-trial-live-updates-bc4c1d9efd490eed0eb522c8c59e9197">has pleaded guilty</a>&nbsp;but said she had no criminal intent in bringing the cartridges to Russia and packed in haste for her return to play in a Russian basketball league during the WNBA’s offseason. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of transporting drugs.The Biden administration has faced political pressure to free Griner and other Americans whom the U.S. has declared to be “wrongfully detained” — a designation sharply rejected by Russian officials.Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/moscow-paul-whelan-russia-espionage-b7eb05fc55058fd222a29d06c1d5428e">was sentenced to 16 years</a>&nbsp;in prison on espionage charges in 2020. He and his family have vigorously asserted his innocence. The U.S. government has denounced the charges as false.Russia has for years expressed interest in the release of Bout, a Russian arms dealer once labeled the “Merchant of Death.” He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on charges that he schemed to illegally sell millions of dollars in weapons.

U.S. presses Russia on prisoner swap for former Big 12 star 

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina Post

A Salina man has been arrested in connection to the murder of Nathan Thompson who remains were found in Ellsworth County on July 19.

On Friday, the Salina Police Department announced that they had "developed Joseph Benton Houseman, 48 year old, of Salina as the suspect" in the case, according to a media release.

Houseman currently is in the Salina County Jail on unrelated charges.

He now faces the following requested charges of first degree murde, Aggravated arson, Arson, Felony interference with law enforcement and Criminal desecration.

On June 18, Salina police announced that they were investigating the disappearance of Thompson, 44, who hadn't been seen in more than a week. Police reported that on June 13, the Salina Fire Department responded to a trailer home fire at 1635 Elgin in west Salina. No one was in the trailer at the time the blaze was extinguished, however the fire was classified as an arson.

At the time of the fire, neighbors told police that Thompson had been living in the trailer, but had not been seen for approximately a week.

On June 22, Salina police released photos of a Chevrolet Express van that police believe was used in Thompson's disappearance and asked members of the public for any information they might have about it.

On July 23, the Salina Police Department announced that human remains found in rural Ellsworth County on July 19 were identifed as those of Thompson.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659129131327.jpeg" alt="Joseph Benton Houseman-photo&nbsp;Salina Police Department" />
 <figcaption>Joseph Benton Houseman-photo&nbsp;Salina Police Department</figcaption>
 </figure>By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina PostA Salina man has been arrested in connection to the murder of Nathan Thompson who remains were found in Ellsworth County on July 19.On Friday, the Salina Police Department announced that they had "developed Joseph Benton Houseman, 48 year old, of Salina as the suspect" in the case, according to a media release.Houseman currently is in the Salina County Jail on unrelated charges.He now faces the following requested charges of first degree murde, Aggravated arson, Arson, Felony interference with law enforcement and Criminal desecration.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1655577117894.jpeg" alt="Nathan Thompson-photo Salina Police" />
 <figcaption>Nathan Thompson-photo Salina Police</figcaption>
 </figure>On June 18, Salina police announced that they were investigating the disappearance of Thompson, 44, who hadn't been seen in more than a week. Police reported that on June 13, the Salina Fire Department responded to a trailer home fire at 1635 Elgin in west Salina. No one was in the trailer at the time the blaze was extinguished, however the fire was classified as an arson.At the time of the fire, neighbors told police that Thompson had been living in the trailer, but had not been seen for approximately a week.On June 22, Salina police released photos of a Chevrolet Express van that police believe was used in Thompson's disappearance and asked members of the public for any information they might have about it.On July 23, the Salina Police Department announced that human remains found in rural Ellsworth County on July 19 were identifed as those of Thompson.