Sorted by date Results 1 - 14 of 14
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — The Rev. Anthony Navaratnam stood before his congregation and urged them to pray for the women from surrounding states who will flock to the new abortion clinic in town that opened in August. "God is giving us an opportunity to be missionaries in Pittsburg, Kansas," he told those at Flag Church, which hosted a training on how to protest outside of the clinic. The debate over reproductive rights has landed in this college town of 20,000 in the southeast corner of one of the few states left in the region still allowing abor...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Child welfare officials investigated the family of a 5-year-old Kansas girl five times in the 13 months before she was raped and killed, but couldn't confirm allegations of neglect or drug use by her mother, and the family repeatedly declined offers of help, a report released Tuesday showed. The report by the state Department of Children and Families said in one case, the agency confirmed that the mother wasn't properly supervising Zoey Felix, but the girl was placed with her father and because of that, "No safety c...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year-old homeless man was charged Thursday in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old Kansas girl who died despite firefighters' efforts to save her life in a gas station parking lot. Mickel Cherry faces one count of capital murder — which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty — and one count each of first-degree murder and rape in the death of Zoey Felix on Monday. He was jailed in Topeka on a $2 million bond, and his next court appearance has not yet been determined. Shawnee County District Attorney Micha...
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A decisive statewide vote in favor of abortion rights in traditionally conservative Kansas was confirmed with a partial hand recount, with fewer than 100 votes changing after the last county reported results Sunday. Nine of the state's 105 counties recounted their votes at the request of Melissa Leavitt, who has pushed for tighter election laws. A longtime anti-abortion activist, Mark Gietzen, is covering most of the costs. Gietzen acknowledged in an interview that it was unlikely to change the outcome. A no vote in the r...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas on Monday reported a record seven-day average for new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, as one of the state's largest hospitals struggled to treat an influx of patients. State health department data shows Kansas reported an average of 3,134 new COVID-19 cases a day for the seven days ending Monday. That's 13% higher than the previous record of 2,767 cases per day for the seven days ending Nov. 18, 2020. The state also averaged 38 new COVID-19 hospitalizations and 11 additional reported deaths per day for the s...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced Friday that anyone in Kansas age 16 or older will be allowed to get a coronavirus vaccine starting Monday because the state expects to get enough of the medicine to speed up its inoculation process for the second time in two weeks. Kelly's announcement means the state will enter the fifth and final phase of its vaccine distribution. The move to make vaccines available to another 400,000 people comes after weeks of criticism from Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature that the e...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas hospital had to throw away 570 doses of a coronavirus vaccine because of a refrigeration mistake, officials say. Lawrence Memorial Hospital said in a news release that city and county health officials transferred the doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the hospital on Wednesday. The hospital then put them in a freezer, not realizing they were thawed. Confusion arose because most doses are shipped frozen, but the health department had received this batch in a refrigerated state. The hospital reached out to J...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will put a priority on vaccinating teachers and other school staff against COVID-19 so that K-12 students across the state can resume in-person classes as quickly as possible, Gov. Laura Kelly said Wednesday. The Democratic governor's announcement came a week after she told leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature that 60% of the state's 286 school districts had started inoculating teachers. The state's public schools have about 72,000 staff members, including 34,000 certified teachers. Kelly said the state wi...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas school districts are rushing to vaccinate their teachers in preparation for an eventual return to a full reopening of classrooms and before a more contagious strain of the coronavirus can spread throughout the state. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly told leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday that about 60% of the state's school districts have started vaccinating their teachers and staff. She met with top lawmakers a day after the state Department of Education recommended that school districts a...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas prisons ravaged by COVID-19 are set to be prioritized for vaccinations next — frustrating news for some lawmakers but welcome by inmates' families and activists. The state prison system — housing about 8,600 inmates — has reported 5,320 cases among offenders and an additional 1,076 among staff. Thirteen inmates and four staff members have died. Gov. Laura Kelly confirmed Thursday that inmates would be vaccinated after health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. She said they were being priorit...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas health officials on Tuesday urged communities to take stronger action as more hospital rooms are devoted to caring for coronavirus patients and hundreds of doctors, nurses and other workers are quarantined, leading some surgical procedures to be delayed. Hospital emergency departments in at least two communities were holding coronavirus patients while waiting for space or staff to treat them elsewhere. The CEO of a northeast Kansas health system called the local spread of the virus "uncontrolled." Teresa Ellis, t...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas added a record-setting 5,418 new coronavirus cases Friday as hospitals warned that staffing was being seriously strained and the state's top public health official said many local officials "haven't done anything" to check the surge. The increases in confirmed and probable cases brought the state's total to 97,633, a 5.9% increase from Wednesday. With the influx, the seven-day daily rolling average rose to 1,779 cases, which is almost three times as high as it was just a month ago, data from the Kansas Department o...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has reported its first death in a prison coronavirus outbreak and saw the number of positive cases in six meatpacking plants rise to 378 as the state works to reopen its economy. Dr. Lee Norman, the state's health director, said most of the infected meat packing workers were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. None have died and at most one is hospitalized. Norman also said the number of influenza-like illnesses reported statewide was "dropping like a rock." As of Monday, the number of COVID-19 deaths rose by two t...
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Two convicted felons facing criminal charges over a Kansas bar shooting that killed four people and wounded five others had previous brushes with the law that could have kept them behind bars had judges and other officials made different decisions, according to a review of court records by The Associated Press. But observers say those decisions — to let one man out on bond pending trial and to let the other serve probation rather than return to prison — weren't in themselves unusual and underscore the kinds of issue...
