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Police identify 51-year-old victim in fatal Kan. drive-by shooting

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Police on the scene of the fatal shooting investigation-photo courtesy KWCH

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal drive-by shooting.Just before 7p.m. Sunday, police responded to report of a shooting in a parking lot in the 2000 Block of South Rock Road in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

At the scene, police located a victim identified as 51-year-old James Storey of Wichita in the driver’s seat of a 2018 Chevy Silverado with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Davidson.

Investigators learned a Dodge Ram pickup was parked next to Storey’s vehicle. The vehicle left for a short time and upon return an unknown individual fired multiple shots at Storey’s driver’s side window striking him.

 

Police do not believe this is a random incident


Watch: White House officials for day 3 of impeachment hearing

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Two top national security aides who listened to President Donald Trump’s July call with Ukraine’s president are testifying Tuesday at House impeachment hearings as the inquiry reaches deeper into the White House.

Watch the hearing

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an Army officer at the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, his counterpart at Vice President Mike Pence’s office, say they had concerns as Trump spoke on July 25 with the newly elected Ukraine president about political investigations into Joe Biden.

“I found the July 25th phone call unusual because, in contrast to other presidential calls I had observed, it involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter,” Williams says, in opening remarks.

Vindman, who arrived at Capitol Hill in military blue with a chest full of service medals, has said he alerted the NSC’s lead counsel to his concerns.

In all, nine current and former U.S. officials are testifying as the House’s impeachment inquiry accelerates. Democrats say Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals as he withheld U.S. military aid Ukraine needed to resist Russian aggression may be grounds for removing the 45th president.

Trump says he did no such thing and the Democrats just want him gone.

Vindman and the other witnesses have testified in earlier, closed-door sessions. Their depositions have been publicly released, and they’ll face direction questions from lawmakers on Tuesday.

“I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen,” said Vindman, a 20-year military officer and an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child with his family from Ukraine. He said there was “no doubt” what Trump wanted from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

It wasn’t the first time Vindman, a decorated Iraq War veteran, was alarmed over the administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats, he testified.

Earlier, during an unsettling July 10 meeting at the White House, Ambassador Gordon Sondland told visiting Ukraine officials that they would need to “deliver” before next steps, which was a meeting Zelenskiy wanted with Trump, the officer testified.

“He was talking about the 2016 elections and an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma,” Vindman testified, referring to the gas company in Ukraine where Hunter Biden served on the board.

“The Ukrainians would have to deliver an investigation into the Bidens,” he said. “There was no ambiguity.”

On both occasions, Vindman said, he took his concerns about the shifting Ukraine policy to the lead counsel at the NSC, John Eisenberg.

Williams, a career State Department official who has worked for three presidential administrations and counts former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a “personal hero,” said she too had concerns during the phone call, which the aides monitored as is standard practice.

When the White House produced a rough transcript later that day, she put it in the vice president’s briefing materials. “I just don’t know if he read it,” Williams testified in a closed-door House interview.

Pence’s role throughout the impeachment inquiry has been unclear, and the vice president’s aide is sure to be questioned by lawmakers looking for answers.

Trump has already attacked Williams, associating her with “Never Trumpers,” even though there is no indication the career State Department official has shown any partisanship.

The president wants to see a robust defense by his GOP allies on Capitol Hill, but so far so far Republicans have offered a changing strategy as the fast-moving probe spills into public view. They’re expected to mount a more aggressive attack on the witnesses as they try to protect Trump.

In particular, Republicans are expected to try to undercut Vindman, suggesting he reported his concerns outside his chain of command, which would have been Morrison, not the NSC lawyer.

Under earlier questioning, Republicans wanted Vindman to disclose who else he may have spoken to about his concerns, as the GOP inch closer to publicly naming the still anonymous whistleblower whose report sparked the inquiry.

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who was deeply involved in other White House meetings about Ukraine, offered a sneak preview of this strategy late Monday when he compared Vindman, a Purple Heart veteran, to the “bureaucrats” who “never accepted Trump as legitimate.”

“They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office.” It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile, said Johnson, R-Wis.

The White House has instructed officials not to appear, and most have received congressional subpoenas to compel their testimony.

Later Tuesday afternoon, the House will hear in the afternoon from former NSC official Timothy Morrison and Kurt Volker, the former Ukraine special envoy.

The witnesses are testifying under penalty of perjury, and Sondland already has had to amend his earlier account amid contradicting testimony from other current and former U.S. officials.

Sondland, the wealthy donor whose routine boasting about his proximity to Trump has brought the investigation to the president’s doorstep, is set to testify Wednesday. Others have testified that he was part of a shadow diplomatic effort with the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, outside of official channels that raised alarms.

Morrison has referred to Burisma as a “bucket of issues” — the Bidens, Democrats, investigations — he had tried to “stay away” from.

Sondland met with a Zelenskiy aide on the sidelines of a Sept. 1 gathering in Warsaw, and Morrison, who was watching the encounter from across the room, testified that the ambassador told him moments later he pushed the Ukrainian for the Burisma investigation as a way for Ukraine to gain access to the military funds.

Volker provided investigators with a package of text messages with Sondland and another diplomat, William Taylor, the charge d’affaires in Ukraine, who grew alarmed at the linkage of the investigations to the aid.

Taylor, who testified publicly last week, called that “crazy.”

A wealthy hotelier who donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, Sondland is the only person interviewed to date who had direct conversations with the president about the Ukraine situation.

Morrison said Sondland and Trump had spoken about five times between July 15 and Sept. 11 — the weeks that $391 million in U.S. assistance was withheld from Ukraine before it was released.

Trump has said he barely knows Sondland.

The committee will also hear on Wednesday from Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and David Hale, a State Department official. On Thursday, David Holmes, a State Department official in Kyiv, and Fiona Hill, a former top NSC staff member for Europe and Russia, will appear.

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Sheriff: Kansas man missing 8 days found safe

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Henry Kampschroeder-courtesy photo

SHAWNEE COUNTY — A Kansas man missing for eight days is back safely with his family, according to Shawnee County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Loughry.

On November 12, the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office issued an attempt to locate for Henry K. Kampschroeder, 69, who has dementia. He was last seen around 10:40p.m. that day at a residence in the 3200 block NW Green Hills Road in Topeka. 

Just after 12:15p.m. Wednesday, Shawnee County deputies located Mr. Kampschroeder near 3rd and Quincy after receiving information from a citizen. He was found safe and returned to his family.  

14-year-old tiger dies at Kansas zoo

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Photo Courtesy Sedgwick Co. Zoo

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A tiger that had been in declining health has died at a Wichita zoo.

Jennica King, of the Sedgwick County Zoo, said the 14-year-old Amur tiger named Talali had not been on exhibit for several months. The

Zookeepers had discovered a mass on her body and had been monitoring it, but her health quickly worsened.

King said that on Sunday, Talali began having trouble moving around in her stall and seemed confused. They decided to euthanize her that morning. She had been part of the zoo’s Slawson Family Tiger Trek exhibit since it opened in 2009.

Kansas man sentenced for molesting 10-year-old

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PLATTE COUNTY —A Kansas man who sexually molested a 10-year-old girl at a Platte City motel in February 2015 has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Gray photo Platte Co.

According to Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd, 24-year-old Corey N. Gray received the sentence in Platte County Circuit Court after a Platte County jury found him guilty of first degree statutory sodomy and first degree child molestation in July.

Prosecutors proved at trial that Gray abused the girl in a hotel room at the Travelodge hotel in Platte City on February 21, 2015. The girl told her sister what had happened, who then told the girls’ mother. Her parents reported the crimes to Platte City police, and the girl was interviewed at Synergy Services’ Child Advocacy Center.

During the trial’s sentencing phase, the jury recommended sentences of 15 years for statutory sodomy and 5 years on for child molestation

Gray appeared before Judge James Van Amburg on November 21 for sentencing. He testified on his own behalf during the sentencing hearing.  When questioned by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kaitlynn Donnelly, Gray still refused to accept responsibility for his actions, despite having been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by the jury.

Van Amburg imposed the sentences recommended by the jury and ordered them to run consecutively, resulting in a 20-year prison term.

Zahnd said, “Justice should weigh heavily against offenders who are a danger to society, show no remorse, and avoid responsibility for their actions to the detriment of their victims. Corey Gray did all of those things, and Judge Van Amburg was right to ensure Mr. Gray will serve many years in prison.”

Barton Men 71 Iowa Western 69

Police shoot, wound 16-year-old in northeast Kansas

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Police on the scene of the shooting investigation photo courtesy KCTV

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say police shot and wounded a 16-year-old while investigating a robbery in suburban Kansas City.

Police said that the shooting happened just after midnight Monday in Olathe. Police say officers were conducting a follow up on a previous home burglary in which handguns were taken when they spotted two people who were armed. The post says the situation “escalated,” and officers fired their guns.

The wounded teen was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police arrested the second person. The shooting is under investigation. No other details were immediately released, including the name of the wounded teen or what he was doing before he was shot.


Judge denies claim that religious exemption form for vaccines unconstitutional

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photo BIGSTOCK

By DAN MARGOLIES

A federal judge has rejected a Kansas City charter school student’s claim that Missouri’s official religious exemption form for vaccines is an unconstitutional infringement of religious freedom.

The child, identified as W.B., and his parents, Zach and Audrey Baker, sued the Crossroads Academy and Missouri’s health agency, the Department of Health and Senior Services, over the language in the official form.

The Bakers objected to wording encouraging parents to immunize their children. But Senior U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs rejected their argument that by requiring them to sign the form, the state was engaging in “compelled speech.”

“The State’s freedom to advocate vaccination as governmental policy is also well settled,” Sachs wrote in a 10-page ruling Friday denying the Bakers’ request for a preliminary injunction. “The official form containing modest advocacy is divided into parts which separate the advocacy language by the State from the wording to be used by a parent claiming an exemption. It thus passes muster as constitutionally acceptable.”

Missouri law requires students to be immunized, subject to exemptions based on “religious beliefs or medical contraindications.” All 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring specified vaccines, and all of them grant exemptions for medical reasons. Forty-five states and Washington, D.C., grant religious exemptions and 15 states also allow philosophical objections.

Sachs noted that the Bakers could still fill out an official exemption form to exempt their child from vaccination. Any harm resulting from W.B.’s suspension from school, he wrote, would be the parents’ fault.

Sachs deferred his ruling until Dec. 16 to give the Bakers a chance to secure an exemption for W.B. if they wish.

W.B.’s grandfather, Stilwell, Kansas, attorney Linus Baker, represents the family in the lawsuit, as well as three other families.

He also represents another grandchild, whom he has since adopted, in a similar case in federal court in Kansas. That case is pending.

Reached for comment on Sachs’ decision, Baker said that he disagreed with the ruling.

“He (Sachs) clearly said that (the Department of Health and Senior Services) was targeting these parents and trying to convince them of the government’s message, in contradiction of their religious beliefs,” Baker said. “He said they don’t have to be neutral.”

An overwhelming number of studies have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in saving lives and preventing disease.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

Comedian Heidi Gardner to flip switch on KC Plaza lights

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Photo courtesy Visit KC

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Comedian Heidi Gardner is flipping the switch on an annual holiday lighting ceremony at the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping and dining district in Kansas City.

The “Saturday Night Light” cast member says getting the starring role at the Thanksgiving night event once seemed “crazy” and “out of reach.” The Kansas City native was working on the Plaza in 1998 when actor Paul Rudd did the honors, lighting up several blocks of buildings. And she said that she has long had a picture of the Plaza lights on her refrigerator.

The ceremony dates back to the 1930s. The only time that the Plaza lights were not in operation occurred in 1973, when President Richard Nixon called upon all Americans to curtail the use of Christmas lights to reduce dependence on foreign oil imports.

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