Contractor fined $44K for botching tiny house project

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas construction contractor has been fined $44,000 after botching a tiny house project.

A Sedgwick County judge found that Rogers Contracting owner Brad Rogers, of Haysville, committed “deceptive and unconscionable” acts while converting a garage building into a micro-home for a Mulvane woman.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Rogers did the work without the required building permits or inspections, so the customer couldn’t get a certificate of occupancy to use the property. Court records say some of the electrical work was found to be substandard and drywall had to be torn out and replaced to correct the problem.

It wasn’t the first time Rogers and his company have been in legal trouble. The latest case was a violation of a 2017 consent settlement against Rogers for deceiving four customers.

Pentagon likely to send more troops to the border

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon may send about 300 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in roles that could put them in contact with migrants and thus mark a break from current practice, officials said.

Charles Summers, a spokesman for Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, said Shanahan was expected to approve the proposal, which was developed as a response to a call from the Department of Homeland Security for additional military assistance.

The new troops would be in support roles such as driving buses with detained migrants and providing meals to them. It would also include Department of Defense lawyers helping to process the migrants.

There currently are about 2,900 active-duty troops operating in support of DHS at the border, plus about 2,000 National Guard troops. A key aspect of the policy governing military involvement at the border has been a prohibition on direct contact with migrants. This is meant to emphasis that the military is not in a law enforcement role.

Summers said the proposal being considered by Shanahan would include an “amendment” to the current policy on avoiding contact with migrants. This would be necessary in order to carry out tasks such as providing meals, legal assistance and transportation, he said.

“We have Border Patrol stations where (they) are literally overwhelmed with migrants, so we’re merely delineating the fact that we will have some of our troops handing out meals and therefore would come in contact with migrants,” Summers said.

The proposal was first reported by The Washington Post.

Appealing

Lincoln Elementary School fourth-graders grew potato vine plants over the winter, part of a classroom project and donated the plants Friday to the Iola Community Involvement Task Force/PRIDE Committee.

The fourth-graders, from left, are Keaden Vega, Sofia Escalante and Landon Shelton, along with CITF/PRIDE member Donna Houser and instructor Mary Ann Regehr. 

Pilot uninjured in treetop crash

MCCALL, Idaho (AP) — A pilot who was trying to crash-land this week in an Idaho field instead brought his small plane to rest at the top of a 60-foot tree, officials said.

Pilot John Gregory was not hurt in the Monday night crash, which happened when his single-engine Piper Cub PA-18 lost power and a wing strut became entangled in the tree, according to the fire department in the resort town of McCall.

Gregory was rescued from his perch atop the giant white fir by volunteer firefighter Randy Acker, who owns a tree removal company.

Acker had Gregory stand up in the plane so he could cut the pilot’s harness and clip him to a safety line for the descent. Gregory was brought down safely with the plane still lodged in the branches.

“Those wings were perfectly centered over the top of the tree,” said McCall Fire Capt. Brandon Swain.

A piece of the plane’s propeller and one of its wheels had fallen to the ground, but the rest of the plane was intact, suspended in the tree.

Acker cut branches as he scaled the tree until he was about 20 feet from the top, where higher branches were supporting the plane.

Swain said Acker then secured the plane to the tree using rope webbing before Gregory was rescued.

Officials are trying to determine how to remove the plane from its perch and warned people to stay away from it.

Kansas court bolsters abortion rights, blocks ban

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ highest court ruled for the first time Friday that the state constitution protects abortion rights and blocked a first-in-the-nation ban on a common second trimester method for ending pregnancies.

The state Supreme Court’s ruling represented a big victory for abortion rights supporters in a state with a Republican-controlled Legislature hostile to their cause. It comes with other, GOP-controlled states moving to ban most abortions in direct challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortions across the nation.

The Kansas decision prevents the state from enforcing a 2015 law that could have greatly limited second trimester abortions. But even worse for abortion opponents, the ruling clears the way for legal challenges to a string of abortion restrictions approved in recent years by state lawmakers under past Republican governors.

The court said vague language protecting “equal and inalienable rights” in the first section of the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights grants a “natural right of personal autonomy” that includes the right to “control one’s own body.” Because that right is independent of the U.S. Constitution, Kansas courts could strike down restrictions that have been upheld by the federal courts.

“This right allows a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life — decisions that can include whether to continue a pregnancy,” the court’s unsigned majority opinion said.

Justices ruled 6-1 on the language in state constitution. Justice Caleb Stegall, the only appointee of a conservative Republican governor, declared in his dissenting opinion that the ruling “fundamentally alters the structure of our government” to “arbitrarily grant a regulatory reprieve” for abortion.

The ruling immediately prompted abortion opponents to call for amending the state constitution. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who took office in January, is a strong abortion-rights supporter, but the Legislature still has solid anti-abortion majorities.

“The liberal, activist Supreme Court showed just how out of touch they are with Kansas values,” Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, said in a statement issued minutes after the decision. “We understand that life is sacred, beginning at conception, and we must always stand and defend the most vulnerable among us, the unborn.”

In previous cases, Kansas’ highest court avoided the question, allowing U.S. Supreme Court decisions to determine what restrictions would be allowed. But a state district court judge ruled in issuing an injunction to block the 2015 law that the Kansas Constitution grants its own protections.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court for a trial on the lawsuit challenging the law but kept the judge’s injunction in place, saying the lawsuit was likely to succeed in invalidating the law.

The decision Friday comes two years after the Kansas court heard arguments from attorneys, an unusually long delay for a ruling. Iowa’s Supreme Court issued a similar decision in 2018.

The Kansas Bill of Rights says residents’ natural rights include “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and that “free governments” were created for their “equal protection and benefit.”

The state’s attorneys argued there is no evidence that when the state constitution was written in 1859, its drafters contemplated abortion rights. In the Kansas Territory, abortion was illegal except to save a woman’s life, and that policy carried over in the new state’s laws.

The Kansas law at issue would bar physicians from using forceps or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces, using the non-medical term “dismemberment abortion” to describe the procedure. Such instruments are commonly used in dilation and evacuation procedure, which the Center for Reproductive Rights has described as the safest and most common abortion procedure in the U.S. in the second trimester.

The Kansas law was model legislation drafted by the National Right to Life Committee. The group says similar bans have been enacted in 10 other states — Oklahoma, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio and North Dakota.

Abortion providers reported performing 484 dilation and evacuation procedures in Kansas in 2018, according to state health department statistics. That was 6.9% of the state’s total abortions; most pregnancies were terminated during the first trimester.

The lawsuit against the Kansas law was filed by Drs. Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser, a father and daughter who operated a women’s health center together in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. Hodes has since retired.

After the district judge’s ruling put the law on hold, the Kansas Court of Appeals split 7-7, allowing the judge’s decision to stand.

Joan Boots

Donna Joan Boots, age 87, of Welda, passed away on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, at Parkview Heights, Garnett.

She was born Nov. 5, 1931, in Westphalia, the daughter of Curtis and Thelma (McGhee) Koch.  Joan grew up on the family farm moving to the Welda area. 

Growing up, she enjoyed riding her horse to school, which was about a mile away. 

Joan married Clyde Boots on July 22, 1950, in Huntsville, Ark. To this union, three sons were born. She worked at various places including a phone operator, was an Avon representative, worked at the Welda Post Office, and worked side by side her husband, Clyde, on the farm. 

She was a member of Welda Methodist Church. Joan enjoyed her friends in Centerville and various places. She enjoyed “date night” with Clyde when they would go to Kansas City for a dinner and a movie. 

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Clyde Boots on Oct. 24, 2004; one son, Kenneth Boots on Aug. 8, 1979; one grandson, Waylon Boots; and one brother, Kenneth G. Koch.

Joan is survived by two sons, Stan Boots of Welda and Brad Boots and wife Cindy of Welda; three grandchildren, Justin Boots and wife Karla of Welda, Michelle Spurrier and husband Marlon of Chanute, and Evan Boots of Colony; seven great-grandchildren, Hunter, Lexie, Karson, Haven, Dakota, Stetson and Karlie.

Funeral services were Monday at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service Chapel, Garnett, with burial in the Welda Cemetery.   

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Crossroads Hospice or to Welda Fire Department.

You may send your condolences to the family at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Sutterby joins society

TOPEKA — Iolan Taelyn Sutterby is one of 23 Washburn University students recently inducted into Phi Alpha social work honor society. 

Eighteen of these students are in the master of social work program; five, including Sutterby, are in the bachelor of social work program.

Phi Alpha offers membership to social work students, faculty and practitioners. The organization was created in 1962 and has more than 450 chapters across the country.

Unity Club elects officers

The Anniversary Day Luncheon of Unity Club was Monday at the Gen. Frederick Funston Meeting Hall. The luncheon was hosted by the committee of Flo Haynes, Donna Houser, Mary Joseph and Juanita Tolle. Rookies provided the catering. 

Flo prayed her family’s traditional grace before the meal. The tables were decorated with antique toys borrowed from the Allen County Historical Society. 

Nineteen active members and one guest, Linda Laufland, were present.

Ellen Thompson presided over the business meeting, her last as president. Officers for 2019-2021 are Judy Arbeiter, president, Donna Lower-Nord, vice president, Charlene Levans, secretary, and Charyl Link, treasurer. Judy will host the summer business meeting at her home in Humboldt at 1:30 p.m. July 15.

The program consisted of each member briefly telling about a book or books they thought were interesting, or about research they were doing, or about going through memories they have collected.

Ex-Linn County attorney admits stealing from county

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A former Linn County Attorney has admitted that he stole equipment worth an estimated $75,000 from the county.

The Kansas City Star reports 68-year-old John Sutherland, of Mound City, pleaded guilty Wednesday to mail fraud and lying to investigators.

Sutherland was Linn County Attorney for 20 years before becoming an assistant district attorney in Wyandotte County.

FBI agents who searched Sutherland’s office in Wyandotte County in February found 13 items stolen from Linn County.

Prosecutors say Sutherland stole 350 to 500 items, including electronics and equipment, between 2009 and when he left Linn County in 2017.

In Linn County, Sutherland bought goods and services for the office. Prosecutors say he instead bought items for himself and gave some items to his children.

As part of his plea, Sutherland will pay restitution and surrendered his law license.

Nurse, aide save student from choking at school

MAIZE, Kan. (AP) — A fourth-grade Kansas student has his school nurse and an aide to thank for saving him from choking on a chicken nugget.

The Maize Board of Education recognized nurse Stephany McClellan and paraprofessional Glen Shafer at this month’s meeting. The district says they took turns administering the Heimlich maneuver on Keegan Dalton in January until he was able to breathe. The district tweeted a picture Tuesday of them standing next to the smiling boy.

His mother, Kristina Dalton, was among those who attended the meeting. She was working as a substitute teacher at Maize South Elementary School when her son started choking.