Tag Archives: Kansas

Wildfire threat remains after killing six, destroying numerous structures

(Reuters) – The threat of wildfires is expected to remain high on Wednesday in the U.S. Plains, where prairie fires have claimed six lives, prompted thousands of evacuations and destroyed numerous structures.

Fire weather advisories remained in effect in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas where firefighters continued to battle wildfires stoked by high winds and tinder-dry vegetation over the last several days.

Low humidity along with 15 to 25 mph (25 to 40 kph) winds and ongoing drought conditions will continue to create elevated fire dangers throughout the region, the National Weather Service said in its advisories that also included Missouri and Nebraska.

Cooler temperatures, diminishing winds and a chance of rain were in the forecast for parts of the region over the weekend, but the weather service warned that the threat of wildfires remained in effect.

“Winds will be considerably lighter through the middle to latter part of the week. This will result in less threatening fire weather conditions. However, a limited to elevated risk will continue, given the dry conditions,” the service said.

The fires killed four people, including three ranch hands racing to herd livestock to safety, in the Texas Panhandle. One motorist died in Kansas on Monday from smoke inhalation, authorities said.

A woman in Oklahoma suffered a heart attack while trying to move cattle from harm’s way and died, NBC News reported. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared an emergency in 22 counties hit by wildfires.

The Perryton fire blackened more than 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) and destroyed two homes in the Texas Panhandle and was 50 percent contained, authorities said.

Wildfires in northwestern Oklahoma prompted evacuations of multiple towns, according to state officials, who said more than 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) have burned.

At least 10,000 residents in central Kansas were asked to evacuate their homes due to a wildfire in Reno County, where about 230 responders were on the scene, the county’s emergency management agency said.

More than 650,000 acres (263,000 hectares) also have burned in Kansas, according to the state’s emergency management agency.

Firefighters battling a 30,000-acre (12,000-hectare) grassland fire in northeastern Colorado extended containment lines to 80 percent of the blaze’s perimeter on Tuesday. Five homes were lost in the flames, a spokeswoman for Phillips County official said.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Storms, tornadoes rake Midwest as high winds fuel prairie fires

By Timothy Mclaughlin

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A line of thunderstorms packing hail and isolated tornadoes rumbled across the Midwest from Oklahoma to Minnesota on Monday as wind-fueled prairie fires forced thousands of people from their homes in Colorado and Kansas.

Police and National Weather Service meteorologists reported some power outages but no initial major damage from the storms carrying winds of 60 miles per hour (96 kph) and hail 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter as they rolled east.

A tornado touched down in Smithville, Missouri, a Kansas City suburb, damaging 10 to 12 homes and displacing a few families but causing no major injuries, Police Chief Jason Lockridge said.

“Rain was minimal, it was just high winds and what was described as a funnel cloud,” he said in a telephone interview.

Areas of eastern Missouri and Iowa and western Illinois were under a tornado watch until early on Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said.

The storms were largely to the east of an area stretching from the Texas Panhandle into Colorado, Nebraska and western Missouri that was under a “red flag” weather service warning for fires because of high winds, warm temperatures and dry conditions.

Twenty counties in central Kansas reported brush fires on Monday, some more than one, fueled by winds gusting to up 60 mph, said Katie Horner, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General’s Department.

Ten towns were forced to evacuate residents because of the fire threat, including 10,000 to 12,000 from the city of Hutchinson, she said.

Helicopters from the Kansas National Guard were being used to dump water on the fires, she said. “It’s just a massive undertaking,” Horner said.

A prairie fire in northeast Colorado had burned about 25,000 acres (10,100 hectares), and officials said about 1,000 people in small farming towns were under evacuation or pre-evacuation orders.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago, Keith Coffman in Denver and Ian Simpson in Washinton; Editing by James Dalgleish and Paul Tait)

Kansas Supreme Court finds state underfunds schools

(Reuters) – The Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state’s system of funding primary and secondary public schools falls short of an adequacy requirement in the state constitution.

The high court said it was delaying enforcement of its unanimous ruling until the end of June to give the legislature time to respond.

It warned that if the state fails to come up with a funding system that complies with the constitution by the June 30 deadline, the court will move to void the current method of school finance.

Kansas spends more than $4 billion a year on schools, with most of the money coming from the state general fund. The supreme court’s ruling could add another $800 million, according to Alan Rupe, an attorney for the four school districts that filed the lawsuit.

The ruling comes at a bad time for the Kansas budget. Tax cuts enacted in 2012 have gouged a hole in the budget as revenue failed to meet monthly estimates, although February marked a fourth straight month that collections met or exceeded projections.

A move in the state legislature to boost revenue by raising tax rates and eliminating a business exemption failed last week when the Senate was unable to override Governor Sam Brownback’s veto.

Rupe said the state’s fiscal woes should not interfere with the requirement to fund education properly.

“I don’t know that the constitution provides constitutional rights only when we can afford to do it,” he said.

The governor’s office will make a comment once the ruling is fully reviewed, according to a Brownback spokeswoman.

S&P Global Ratings cited the state’s structural budget pressures and reliance on one-time revenue measures when it revised the outlook on the state’s AA-minus credit rating to negative from stable last month.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)

Oklahoma faces continued risk of quakes linked to drilling: USGS

An oil pumpjack is seen in Velma, Oklahoma U.S. April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Luc Cohen

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Parts of Oklahoma and Kansas are likely to experience damaging earthquakes as a result of oil and gas industry activity in 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Wednesday in its second annual forecast of natural and human-caused seismic risk.

The forecast comes amid a years-long string of temblors in Oklahoma that has coincided with a drilling boom in the state, and which scientists have attributed to wastewater disposal wells used by the oil and gas industry.

“The good news is that the overall seismic hazard for this year is lower than in the 2016 forecast, but despite this decrease, there is still a significant likelihood for damaging ground shaking in the (Central and Eastern United States) in the year ahead,” said Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project.

The seismic risk maps are used by emergency management officials as well as the country’s major engineering and design associations to guide how strong to construct new buildings.

The USGS last year identified risks from human-caused earthquakes for the first time and has said that overall earthquake activity is hundreds of times higher than rates seen in around 2008, when the oil and gas drilling boom began.

The USGS said the 2017 forecast decreased compared to last year in part because wastewater injection used for oil and gas production likely decreased due to lower energy prices.

Oklahoma last year experienced a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the state, as well as the highest number of large earthquakes compared to any prior year.

Approximately 3.5 million people live and work in areas surveyed in the seismic risk map. The majority of this population is in Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

“Millions still face a significant chance of experiencing damaging earthquakes, and this could increase or decrease with industry practices, which are difficult to anticipate,” Petersen said.

The disposal of saltwater – a natural byproduct of oil and gas drilling – into wells has been tied to earthquakes. Oklahoma regulators have already ordered many disposal wells to curb operations.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Richard Valdmanis, G Crosse)

Kansas man curt as he faces charges over Indian engineer’s murder

Adam Purinton, 51, accused of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding Alok Madasani, 32, as well as an American who tried to intervene, appears via video conference from jail during his initial court appearance in Olathe, Kansas, U.S.,

By Karen Dillon

OLATHE, Kan (Reuters) – A white U.S. Navy veteran charged with murdering an Indian software engineer at a Kansas bar gazed at a camera from jail and gave curt answers to a judge by video during his initial court appearance on Monday over the shooting, which federal authorities are probing as a possible hate crime.

Adam Purinton, 51, is accused of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding Alok Madasani, also 32, as well as an American who tried to intervene during Wednesday evening’s incident at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, a Kansas City suburb.

At least one bystander told the Kansas City Star he shouted “get out of my country” before shooting. The incident led news bulletins in India, where some suggested on social media that a climate of intolerance in the United States had been fueled by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigration.

Purinton, appearing via video conference from jail, asked the court to appoint him an attorney and waived the reading of the formal charges against him of one count of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder during the five-minute hearing in the Johnson County District Court in downtown Olathe.

Purinton, who could only be seen from the chest up on the court’s television screen, is being held on $2 million bond in the adjacent Johnson County Jail. In clear language, he replied to a handful of questions from the judge, mostly with curt answers.

Michael McCulloch, who was named by the court to be Purinton’s attorney, declined to comment after the hearing.

Purinton wore an Army green, sleeveless suicide-prevention smock and stared straight at the camera the whole time. His reddish-brown hair was short on the side and spiked on top. He had sideburns to his jawbone and the shadow of a beard.

His next hearing is set for March 9.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday called reports about the shooting and more acts of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries “disturbing.” On Friday, he said any loss of life in the shooting was tragic, but it was absurd to link the killing to Trump’s “America First” stance.

The Indian Embassy in Washington has expressed India’s deep concern over the incident to the U.S. government and requested a “thorough and speedy investigation.”

Purinton was arrested hours after the shooting at an Applebee’s restaurant in Clinton, Missouri, about 80 miles (130 km) south of Olathe.

According to a recording of a 911 call made by a female bartender at the Applebee’s, Purinton said he needed to hide because he had killed two Iranian men, local NBC affiliate KSHB-TV reported.

“He wouldn’t tell me what he did. I kept asking him and he said he would tell me if I agreed to let him stay with me. I finally got him to tell me,” the bartender tells a dispatcher, according to the tape obtained by KSHB-TV. “He said he shot and killed two Iranian people in Olathe.”

Both the gunman’s Indian victims worked as engineers with navigation device maker Garmin Ltd.

(Additional reporting and writing by Gina Cherelus in New York and Tim Ahmann in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Andrew Hay and David Gregorio)

Kansas man charged in shooting of two Indians in possible hate crime

A still image taken from a video shows relatives of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was shot dead in a possible hate crime in Kansas state of the U.S., siting in their home in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, February 24, 2017. ANI/via Reuters TV

By Brendan O’Brien and Aditya Kalra

MILWAUKEE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A Kansas man was charged on Thursday with shooting to death an Indian man and wounding a second Indian man and an American in a bar, and federal authorities are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

The killing led news bulletins in India and drew strong reactions on social media, where people voiced concern that U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” position on immigration and jobs has fueled a climate of intolerance.

Adam Purinton, 51, was charged in Johnson County, Kansas, with one count of premeditated first degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated first degree murder, Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe told a news conference.

Purinton is accused of shooting and killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding Alok Madasani, also 32, in the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, on Wednesday evening, according to a statement from the Olathe Police Department.

At least one bystander told the Kansas City Star the man shouted “get out of my country” before shooting the Indian men. He is also accused of wounding American Ian Grillot, 24, who was shot when he tried to intervene.

“People call me a hero … I was just doing what anyone should have done for any other human being,” Grillot said in a video interview released by the hospital where he was undergoing treatment for gunshot wounds to the hand and chest.

At Kuchibhotla’s family home near Hyderabad, a tech hub where U.S. companies Microsoft, Google and Facebook have operations, family members backed government calls to ensure the safety of Indians living in the United States.

“The government should voice out this strongly because our brothers, sisters and our relatives are there,” his brother Venu Madhav told Reuters Television.

District attorney Howe would not elaborate on the details of the incident or the motive for the shooting.

“We want to be able to be sure about our facts versus speculation. So we are not prepared at this point to talk about the particular facts of the case because this is still very fresh,” Howe said.

Trump’s election was welcomed at first by many in India who interpreted his calls to restrict immigration by Muslims as signaling support toward Hindu-majority India, which has been at odds for decades with Pakistan, its mainly Muslim neighbor.

But the Trump administration may also have skilled Indian workers like Kuchibhotla in mind as it considers curbing the H-1B visa program, worrying both India’s $150 billion IT services industry and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

“Don’t be shocked! Be angry! Trump is spreading hate. This is a hate crime! RIP #SrinivasKuchibhotla,” Siddharth, a well-known South Indian actor who uses one name, tweeted to his 2.6 million followers in remarks echoed across social media.

“INCREDIBLE SHOCK”

Kavipriya Muthuramalingam, a friend and former colleague of the shooting victim, has raised more than $250,000 via a crowd-funding website to help his family with funeral and other expenses.

“This came as an incredible shock – as he is one of the most gentle, nicest human beings you would meet,” Muthuramalingam said. “He was non-confrontational, non-controversial, easy-going, always smiling.”

Kuchibhotla’s Facebook page, where he called himself “Srinu”, said he joined U.S. technology company Garmin in 2014 from Rockwell Collins.

He took a master’s in electronics from the University of Texas in El Paso from 2005-07, according to LinkedIn. He was married but had no children.

India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who has made a priority of supporting India’s diaspora in times of trouble, tweeted that she was “shocked” at the shooting and expressed her condolences to the bereaved family.

Two officials from the Indian consulate in Houston were going to Kansas to meet the injured men and police to “ascertain more details of the incident and monitor follow up action”, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement.

The U.S. embassy in New Delhi condemned the shooting.

“The United States is a nation of immigrants and welcomes people from across the world to visit, work, study, and live,” Chargé d’Affaires MaryKay Carlson said in a statement.

“U.S. authorities will investigate thoroughly and prosecute the case, though we recognize that justice is small consolation to families in grief.”

The FBI was investigating whether the incident was a hate crime.

“We are looking at whether the crime was committed via bias motivation. We are really at the preliminary stage at looking at every aspect,” said Eric Jackson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office, during the news conference.

The U.S. attorney office in Kansas and the U.S. Department of Justice will also evaluate the case as more evidence is gathered, Tom Beall, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas said, according to the Kansas City Star.

The suspect fled from the bar on foot and was apprehended five hours later at an Applebee’s in Clinton, Missouri, where he reportedly told an employee that he needed a place to hide out because he had killed two Middle Eastern men, the Star reported.

Purinton, who was not armed, was arrested without incident, the newspaper reported. The Navy veteran was being held on a $2 million bond in the Henry County Jail, where he waived his right to fight extradition to Johnson County.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Robert Birsel, Larry King)

Cloud from chemical accident in Kansas dissipated

A fog plume believed by authorities to contain chemicals is seen after a chemical spill at a facility in Atchison, Kansas, U.S., October 21,

By Dave Kaup

ATCHISON, Kansas (Reuters) – City and county officials told residents of Atchison in northeastern Kansas it was safe to return after a chemical spill at an MGP Ingredients Inc facility on Friday caused the formation of a chemical cloud that forced evacuations.

Thirty-four people were being treated for respiratory discomfort, although the injuries appeared to be minor, Trey Cocking, Atchison city manager, told reporters. The city said in a statement on social media that the chemical cloud had lifted.

“We are in the process of issuing an all-clear,” Cocking said. “Students were evacuated from their schools this morning. They are being allowed to return at this time.”

Cocking did not identify the chemicals involved in the incident in the city of about 11,000 people located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Kansas City, Kansas.

First responders are seen at the scene of a chemical spill at a facility in Atchison, Kansas,

First responders are seen at the scene of a chemical spill at a facility in Atchison, Kansas, U.S., October 21, 2016. Courtesy Emma Matlock/Handout via REUTERS

A Fox station in Kansas City reported that an emergency management team’s spokesperson said the chemicals may have been sulfuric acid and chlorine.

Founded in 1941, MPG Ingredients employs 320 people, according to the company website. It makes bourbon and rye whiskeys, gins and vodkas, according to the website.

The incident occurred when two chemicals were mistakenly mixed at the MGP Ingredients facility, Cocking said.

Cocking said MGP employees were being allowed to return but it was unclear if the facility would re-open on Friday.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Bill Trott and Will Dunham)

Residents of Kansas town told to shelter in place after chemical spill

A fog believed by authorities to contain chemicals in Atchison, Kansas

(Reuters) – Residents in the town of Atchison, Kansas, were being advised by city and county officials on Friday to stay indoors after the spill of an unknown chemical at a facility in the town.

“There has been an incident. Until further notice, close all your windows, turn off your air and furnaces, and stay indoors,” the city of Atchison said in a statement on social media.

City officials could not be reached for further comment. It was unclear what type of chemical had spilled.

The city’s post said the incident occurred at “MGP” without giving further details but MGP Ingredients, a supplier of distilled spirits and specialty wheat protein and starches, is located in the town, according to the company’s website.

The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

The county’s emergency management division called the incident a chemical spill in a separate post.

Susan Myers, superintendent for Atchison Public Schools, said in a telephone interview that schools in the town were being evacuated.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Trott)

Kansas, ACLU reach temporary agreement on voter ID

Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State

(Recasts to show that judge has canceled contempt of court hearing scheduled for Friday, adds comment by Kansas secretary of state)

Sept 29 (Reuters) – The Kansas Secretary of State and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have reached a temporary agreement over the state’s voter registration laws, keeping Kansas’ chief elections officer from a contempt of court hearing, according to court documents filed on Thursday.

The deal between Secretary of State Kris Kobach and the ACLU comes six weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

The two sides have been at odds over a Kansas law requiring people to prove American citizenship if they want to register to vote while applying for a driver’s license. Critics say this requirement disenfranchises voters, especially minorities.

The deal will allow people who registered at motor vehicle offices or with a federal form without providing citizenship documents to vote in the Nov. 8 election with a standard ballot, rather than be forced to use a provisional one, the ACLU and Kobach said in a status report filed on Thursday.

Kobach will also clarify his office’s website to help voters find information more easily, according to the report filed to U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson.

Robinson had ordered Kobach, a Republican, to explain by Thursday why he should not be held in contempt for failing to obey a federal order issued in May.

That order required him to register people who applied to vote at motor vehicle offices or with a federal form without proof of citizenship.

Robinson canceled the contempt hearing scheduled for Friday, according to her own court filing, citing the ACLU and Kobach’s agreement.

“Our case is ongoing, but this interim agreement is a critical victory for Kansans who want to vote in the November election. It is a shame that voters had to fight so hard to get Kris Kobach to do his job,” ACLU attorney Orion Danjuma said in a statement.

Kobach said he was pleased an agreement had been reached, but criticized the ACLU.

“The ACLU’s argument was weak at best. However, at this point the preparations for the November 8, 2016, general election must proceed with rules established to ensure the efficient administration of the election,” he said in a statement.

Kansas’ law, among the strictest voter identification statutes in the country, is defended by Republicans who say the rules are meant to prevent voter fraud.

On Tuesday, a Kansas state judge issued a separate ruling extending voting rights through the Nov. 8 election of about 17,500 people who registered to vote at motor vehicle offices.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)

Police captain shot and killed in Kansas City, Kansas

(Reuters) – A Kansas City, Kansas, police captain was shot and killed on Tuesday as he tried to reach a suspect, authorities said.

Police Captain Robert Melton had responded to a report of several people in a vehicle shooting at a man, police said in a statement.

Three or four people in the car ran when police arrived. Melton “attempted to make contact” with a suspect and was shot, the statement said.

Melton was taken to a hospital and died of his injuries, it said. Two people were in custody and one suspect was still at large.

National attention has been focused on attacks on law enforcement officers following the ambush killings of eight police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)