Sorted by date Results 76 - 91 of 91
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed a bill that will require people who are trying to influence his office and judicial branches to register as lobbyists. The measure Colyer signed Monday also requires people trying to promote contracts or influence actions to disclose some spending. Previous Kansas laws required lobbyists to report some spending when they seek to influence legislators or work for or against an administrative rule. The bill also increases the total value of small gifts that state officials can accept in a y...
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former IRS employee has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for filing false tax returns for her family, friends and herself. Federal prosecutors say 49-year-old Carla Lachelle Mitchell, of Kansas City, Kansas, was sentenced Monday and ordered to pay $137,483 in restitution. Mitchell worked at the IRS Service Center in Kansas City from 2006 to 2015. Prosecutors say she admitted preparing false federal income tax returns from 2011 to 2013 for 13 people, including herself, by including such things a...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Health officials say a northeast Kansas measles outbreak that started in a day care has grown to 16 cases. Kansas Department of Health and Environment says 13 of the cases are in Johnson County, two in Linn County and one in Miami County. The Kansas City Star reports that the outbreak started March 8 after a traveler brought the virus back from Asia. It spread mostly through infants too young to be vaccinated at the day care in Johnson County. Measles is extremely contagious, and health officials are warning that exposure w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — On Tax Day, President Donald Trump and a chorus of Republicans announced that Tuesday's filing deadline marked the last time that figuring out taxes will drive Americans crazy. Not so. Vice President Mike Pence hailed a new era of simplicity for tax filers starting next year in a tweet that also repeated the myth that the tax cuts are the largest ever. Trump himself, in USA Today, declared: "This is the last year Americans will fill out outdated, complicated tax forms." The talking point spread like wildfire. "It's out with th...
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Officials at Missouri Southern State University are working to help cover medical expenses for the family of a 7-year-old boy who was severely injured watching a baseball game. The Joplin Globe reports that Dawson Hirshey of Diamond was struck in the head by a line-drive foul ball on Friday while sitting in the stands at Joe Becker Stadium. University spokeswoman Cassie Mathes says Dawson was immediately taken to a Joplin hospital and later transferred to a children's hospital in Kansas City, where he underwent brain s...
DENVER (AP) — Colorado officials said Tuesday that they hope a two-fold approach will prevent the growth of the state's heroin epidemic. Federal and state officials announced plans to focus on prosecuting dealers and use local law enforcement to link people addicted to the drug to treatment options. According to an updated report also released Tuesday, 228 people died in Colorado in 2016 from heroin overdoses. That's an increase of 43 percent compared to 2015, when 160 heroin overdose deaths were reported. Colorado U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials on Tuesday proposed steps to improve the government's system for overseeing medical devices, which has been criticized for years for failing to catch problems with risky implants and medical instruments. The plan from the Food and Drug Administration includes few immediate changes, but lists a number of ideas and proposals with the goal of improving safeguards on pacemakers, artificial joints, medical scanners and other devices. Among other measures, the FDA will consider requiring more training for d...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to be Veterans Affairs secretary is promising not to privatize the agency, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday, taking a stance on a politically charged issue that his predecessor says led to his firing. The confirmation hearing of Ronny Jackson, Trump's White House doctor and a Navy rear admiral chosen to speed up improvements to the VA, is scheduled for next week. On Tuesday, he met privately with Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, as a p...
Tweet: Statue of doctor who did experimental surgery without anesthesia on enslaved African-American women is removed from New York's Central Park. NEW YORK (AP) — A bronze statue of a 19th century doctor who did experimental surgery without anesthesia on enslaved African-American women was removed from Central Park on Tuesday. New York City's Public Design Commission voted Monday to accept a mayoral panel's recommendation to remove the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims for relocation to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, where Sims is buried, a...
Russia denied accusations from the United States and Britain that its agents have planted malware on key components of the internet to spy on rivals, steal trade and potentially launch cyberattacks. A Kremlin spokesman on Tuesday called the claim unfounded and "feeble." In a joint statement Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre said the main targets in the alleged tampering of routers and other networking equipment include "government and private-sector organizations," as well...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina city councilwoman is questioning the reality of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed about 3,000 people. The Charlotte Observer reports Charlotte City Council member LaWana Mayfield posted on her Facebook page Monday a link to an article from Awarenessact.com titled "It's Official: European Scientific Journal Concludes 9/11 Was A Controlled Demolition." In the post, Mayfield wrote that she's waiting for someone to produce pieces of the "alleged plane that opened the doors for US citizens to (lose) a...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Wildlife managers in the American Southwest say a once-rare bat important to the pollination of plants used to produce tequila has made a comeback and is being removed from the U.S. endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's announcement Tuesday made the lesser long-nosed bat, which ranges from Mexico to southern Arizona and New Mexico, the first bat ever removed from the nation's list of threatened and endangered species. The decision comes a year after first being proposed and three years after M...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — John Oliver of HBO's "Last Week Tonight" is trying to give one of the last Blockbuster Video locations in the world a little help in drawing customers instead of streaming movies online. Oliver has offered to send the store the jockstrap that Russell Crowe wore in "Cinderella Man" and other movie clothing obtained by the show at a celebrity auction. Oliver's show Sunday night featured a segment on the closure of multiple Blockbusters in Alaska, the Anchorage television station KTUU reported . Afterward, he offered t...
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's top mufti has issued a fatwa, or a religious decree, saying that buying Facebook "likes" is prohibited under Islam because it's a form of fraud and deception. Grand Mufti Shawki Allam regularly issues all sorts of fatwas, usually in response to questions by Muslims seeking religious guidance in matters related to even the most trivial issues. The questions are asked of the Dar al-Ifa, the Sunni Muslim institution in charge of religious rulings, mainly based on the Muslim holy book of Quran and the sayings of the Prophet M...
BERLIN (AP) — An apparent headless body that prompted a major police operation in southern Germany has turned out to be a doll. Police in Baden-Wuerttemberg state say a passer-by spotted what appeared to be a clothed but headless corpse covered in blood lying by a stream in Remstal, near Stuttgart, late Monday. Officers cordoned off the suspected crime scene and firefighters were called to retrieve the body, which was lying in an inaccessible place. In a statement Tuesday, police said that only once firefighters reached the site were they a...
