TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas reported Monday that another record coronavirus spike pushed the state past 20,000 total cases for the pandemic, shadowing plans for reopening public K-12 schools just a month before fall classes are set to begin.

The state Department of Health and Environment said that Kansas had another 1,447 coronavirus cases since Friday, an increase of 7.8%, to bring the total for the pandemic to 20,058. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and people can be infected without feeling sick.

Kansas reported an average of 451 new coronavirus cases a day during the seven-day period ending Monday, the worst seven-day average yet. That figure has climbed each of the seven times the department has reported new data starting on June 29.

The health department also reported four additional COVID-19-related deaths making its reported total for the pandemic 288, a 1.4% increase. However, Johns Hopkins University put the state’s number of deaths at 297.

Kansas saw its its growth in reported coronavirus cases bottom out five weeks ago, before beginning to climb again, according to an AP analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project. Kansas schools typically open by mid-August for the fall.

“We just understand the importance of getting kids back, and if that’s at all possible, we’ve got to plan for that,” said Ron Wilson, the superintendent of schools in Hays, where classes are set to resume Aug. 13. “Ultimately, I think public health officials will probably be making calls in terms of whether our schools should be open or not, and I think they’re going to be basing that on science.”

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly issued&nbsp;<a href="https://governor.kansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200702093130003.pdf" target="_blank">an order</a>&nbsp;July 2 directing the state’s residents to wear masks in public and at their workplaces. She said as she issued the order that if Kansas didn’t get its resurgence of new reported coronavirus cases under control, public schools for 519,000 K-12 students might not be able to reopen safely.

But state law allows counties to opt out of the mask mandate.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f8a90aa492568e092ec4bb5057129bde">Most have,</a>&nbsp;exempting about 40% of the state’s population.

“The benefits of the statewide mask mandate will remain unknown because of the patchwork quilt of counties that adopted it,” Dr. Lee Norman, the health department’s top administrator, said in a statement texted to The Associated Press.

The State Board of Education plans to meet Tuesday to review proposed guidelines for reopening schools and to vote on them Wednesday. Kelly planned to have a Statehouse news conference Wednesday with education and public health officials to discuss reopening schools.

Local districts also have been working for weeks on their own plans. The Shawnee Heights district east of Topeka, has had a task force discussing reopening issues since June and hopes to have its plan ready next week.

Local school board President Lauren Tice Miller said one key issue is predicting how much time parents might need to prepare for whatever the district plans. The district plans to start fall classes Aug. 13, but it’s still possibly to early to make final decisions about how to reopen, she said.

“There’s still just a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “We all want to bring our kids back and our teachers back, but we have to be able to do it safely.”

During the past two weeks, the Kansas health department has reported 5,615 new coronavirus cases, an increase of 39%. Reported COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations have risen more slowly, 6.7% for deaths and 16.6% for hospitalizations, which totaled 1,343 as of Monday.

The Kansas State Fair’s board&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/1ad7c34b7cd29646cde4f0d1d06b833f">canceled the annual event</a>&nbsp;in Hutchinson, which had been set for September.

Twenty-eight of the state’s 105 counties have seen reported coronavirus cases at last double in the past two weeks. They include Ellis County, home to the Hays school district, where reported cases rose from 21 to 57 over the two weeks, and Saline County, where cases jumped from 94 to 220.

The Salina school district in Saline County plans to start online enrollment Tuesday and is giving parents the option of choosing online classes. Superintendent Linn Exline said the possibilities for the new semester include having some students attend in-person classes Monday and Tuesday and others, Wednesday and Thursday, with remote teaching Fridays. Its first classes start Aug. 11.

“What we are really working on is to develop plans where we limit risk as much as possible,” she said. “There is no such thing as a risk-free environment. That’s true any day of the week.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593465508296.png" alt="On July 2, Gov. Laura Kelly directed the state’s residents to wear masks in public and at work" />
 <figcaption>On July 2, Gov. Laura Kelly directed the state’s residents to wear masks in public and at work</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas reported Monday that another record coronavirus spike pushed the state past 20,000 total cases for the pandemic, shadowing plans for reopening public K-12 schools just a month before fall classes are set to begin.The state Department of Health and Environment said that Kansas had another 1,447 coronavirus cases since Friday, an increase of 7.8%, to bring the total for the pandemic to 20,058. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and people can be infected without feeling sick.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594726988398.png" alt="KDHE July 13, 2020" />
 <figcaption>KDHE July 13, 2020</figcaption>
 </figure>Kansas reported an average of 451 new coronavirus cases a day during the seven-day period ending Monday, the worst seven-day average yet. That figure has climbed each of the seven times the department has reported new data starting on June 29.The health department also reported four additional COVID-19-related deaths making its reported total for the pandemic 288, a 1.4% increase. However, Johns Hopkins University put the state’s number of deaths at 297.Kansas saw its its growth in reported coronavirus cases bottom out five weeks ago, before beginning to climb again, according to an AP analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project. Kansas schools typically open by mid-August for the fall.“We just understand the importance of getting kids back, and if that’s at all possible, we’ve got to plan for that,” said Ron Wilson, the superintendent of schools in Hays, where classes are set to resume Aug. 13. “Ultimately, I think public health officials will probably be making calls in terms of whether our schools should be open or not, and I think they’re going to be basing that on science.”Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly issued&nbsp;<a href="https://governor.kansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200702093130003.pdf" target="_blank">an order</a>&nbsp;July 2 directing the state’s residents to wear masks in public and at their workplaces. She said as she issued the order that if Kansas didn’t get its resurgence of new reported coronavirus cases under control, public schools for 519,000 K-12 students might not be able to reopen safely.But state law allows counties to opt out of the mask mandate.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f8a90aa492568e092ec4bb5057129bde">Most have,</a>&nbsp;exempting about 40% of the state’s population.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594727612359.png" alt="KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman during his July 8 press briefing on the virus" />
 <figcaption>KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman during his July 8 press briefing on the virus</figcaption>
 </figure>“The benefits of the statewide mask mandate will remain unknown because of the patchwork quilt of counties that adopted it,” Dr. Lee Norman, the health department’s top administrator, said in a statement texted to The Associated Press.The State Board of Education plans to meet Tuesday to review proposed guidelines for reopening schools and to vote on them Wednesday. Kelly planned to have a Statehouse news conference Wednesday with education and public health officials to discuss reopening schools.Local districts also have been working for weeks on their own plans. The Shawnee Heights district east of Topeka, has had a task force discussing reopening issues since June and hopes to have its plan ready next week.Local school board President Lauren Tice Miller said one key issue is predicting how much time parents might need to prepare for whatever the district plans. The district plans to start fall classes Aug. 13, but it’s still possibly to early to make final decisions about how to reopen, she said.“There’s still just a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “We all want to bring our kids back and our teachers back, but we have to be able to do it safely.”During the past two weeks, the Kansas health department has reported 5,615 new coronavirus cases, an increase of 39%. Reported COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations have risen more slowly, 6.7% for deaths and 16.6% for hospitalizations, which totaled 1,343 as of Monday.The Kansas State Fair’s board&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/1ad7c34b7cd29646cde4f0d1d06b833f">canceled the annual event</a>&nbsp;in Hutchinson, which had been set for September.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594660032388.png" alt="July 13, 2020 KDHE image" />
 <figcaption>July 13, 2020 KDHE image</figcaption>
 </figure>Twenty-eight of the state’s 105 counties have seen reported coronavirus cases at last double in the past two weeks. They include Ellis County, home to the Hays school district, where reported cases rose from 21 to 57 over the two weeks, and Saline County, where cases jumped from 94 to 220.The Salina school district in Saline County plans to start online enrollment Tuesday and is giving parents the option of choosing online classes. Superintendent Linn Exline said the possibilities for the new semester include having some students attend in-person classes Monday and Tuesday and others, Wednesday and Thursday, with remote teaching Fridays. Its first classes start Aug. 11.“What we are really working on is to develop plans where we limit risk as much as possible,” she said. “There is no such thing as a risk-free environment. That’s true any day of the week.”

Kansas facing worst-ever spike in coronavirus cases

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. government on Tuesday carried out the first federal execution in almost two decades, putting to death a man who killed an Arkansas family in a 1990s in a plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. The execution came over the objection of the victims’ family.

Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma, died by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The decision to move forward with the execution -- the first by the Bureau of Prisons since 2003 -- drew scrutiny from civil rights groups and the relatives of Lee's victims, who had sued to try to halt it, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision to move forward with the execution -- and two others scheduled later in the week -- during a global health pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people in the United States and is ravaging prisons nationwide, drew scrutiny from civil rights groups as well as family of Lee's victims.

Critics argued that the government was creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency for political gain.

"The government has been trying to plow forward with these executions despite many unanswered questions about the legality of its new execution protocol," said Shawn Nolan, one of the attorneys for the men facing federal execution.

The developments are likely to add a new front to the national conversation about criminal justice reform in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

Lee's execution went off after a series of legal volleys that ended when the Supreme Court stepped in early Tuesday in a 5-4 ruling and allowed it to move forward.

Attorney General William Barr has said the Justice Department has a duty to carry out the sentences imposed by the courts, including the death penalty, and to bring a sense of closure to the victims and those in the communities where the killings happened.

But relatives of those killed by Lee in 1996 strongly opposed that idea and long argued that Lee deserved a sentence of life in prison. They wanted to be present to counter any contention that the execution was being done on their behalf.

"For us it is a matter of being there and saying, `This is not being done in our name; we do not want this,'" relative Monica Veillette said.

They noted that Lee's co-defendant and the reputed ringleader, Chevie Kehoe, received a life sentence.

Kehoe, of Colville, Washington, recruited Lee in 1995 to join his white supremacist orgaization, known as the Aryan Peoples' Republic. Two years later, they were arrested for the killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell, in Tilly, Arkansas, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock.

At their 1999 trial, prosecutors said Kehoe and Lee stole guns and $50,000 in cash from the Muellers as part of their plan to establish a whites-only nation.

Prosecutors said Lee and Kehoe incapacitated the Muellers and questioned Sarah about where they could find money and ammunition. Then, they used stun guns on the victims, sealed trash bags with duct tape on their heads to suffocate them, taped rocks to their bodies and dumped them in a nearby bayou.

A U.S. District Court judge put a hold on Lee's execution on Monday, over concerns from death row inmates on how executions were to be carried out, and an appeals court upheld it, but the high court overturned it. That delay came after an appeals court on Sunday overturned a hold that had been put in place last week after the victims' relatives argued they would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend the execution.

Two more executions are scheduled this week, though one, Wesley Ira Purkey, was on hold in a separate legal claim.&nbsp;

Purkey, of Kansas, raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl and killed an 80-year-old woman had been scheduled for execution on Wednesday.&nbsp;

Dustin Lee Honken, who killed five people in Iowa, including two children is scheduled for execution Friday.

There have been two state executions in the U.S. since the pandemic forced shutdowns nationwide in mid-March — one in Texas and one in Missouri, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Alabama carried out one in early March.

Executions on the federal level have been rare, and the government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988 — most recently in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

Though there hadn't been a federal execution since 2003, the Justice Department has continued to approve death penalty prosecutions and federal courts have sentenced defendants to death.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.

The attorney general said last July that the Obama-era review had been completed, clearing the way for executions to resume. He approved a new procedure for lethal injections that replaces the three-drug combination previously used in federal executions with one drug, pentobarbital. This is similar to the procedure used in several states, including Georgia, Missouri and Texas, but not all.

Numbers of state executions have fallen steadily since the last federal execution, according to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. States put to death 59 people in 2004 and 22 in 2019, nine of which were in Texas.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The Trump administration was moving ahead early Tuesday with the execution of the first federal prison inmate in 17 years after a divided Supreme Court reversed lower courts and ruled federal executions could proceed.

Daniel Lewis Lee had been scheduled to receive a lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at 4 p.m. EDT Monday. But a court order issued Monday morning by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan prevented Lee’s execution.

A federal appeals court in Washington refused the administration’s plea to step in, leaving the hold in place, before the Supreme Court acted by a 5-4 vote. Still, Lee’s lawyers insisted the execution could not go forward after midnight under federal regulations.

With conservatives in the majority, the court said in an unsigned opinion that the prisoners’ “executions may proceed as planned.” The four liberal justices dissented.

Lee’s execution was scheduled for about 4 a.m. EDT Tuesday, according to court papers.

The Bureau of Prisons had continued with preparations even as lower courts paused the proceedings.

Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, has had access to social visitors, visited with his spiritual adviser and has been allowed to receive mail, prison officials said. The witnesses for Lee are expected to include three family members, his lawyers and spiritual adviser.

Lee was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.

“The government has been trying to plow forward with these executions despite many unanswered questions about the legality of its new execution protocol,” said Shawn Nolan, one of the attorneys for the men facing federal execution.

The decision to move forward during a global health pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people in the United States and is ravaging prisons nationwide, drew scrutiny from civil rights groups as well as family of Lee’s victims.

Some members of the victims’ family argued they would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend, and sought to delay the execution until it was safer to travel. Those claims were at first granted but also eventually overturned by the Supreme Court.

Critics argue that the government is creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency for political gain. The developments are also likely to add a new front to the national conversation about criminal justice reform in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

A fourth man, Keith Dwayne Nelson, is scheduled to be executed in August.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department has a duty to carry out the sentences imposed by the courts, including the death penalty, and to bring a sense of closure to the victims and those in the communities where the killings happened.

But relatives of those killed by Lee strongly oppose that idea. They wanted to be present to counter any contention that it was being done on their behalf.

“For us it is a matter of being there and saying, `This is not being done in our name; we do not want this,’” said relative Monica Veillette.

The federal prison system has struggled in recent months to contain the exploding number of coronavirus cases behind bars. There are currently four confirmed coronavirus cases among inmates at the Terre Haute prison, according to federal statistics, and one inmate there has died.

Barr said he believes the Bureau of Prisons could “carry out these executions without being at risk.” The agency has put a number of additional measures in place, including temperature checks and requiring witnesses to wear masks.

But on Sunday, the Justice Department disclosed that a staff member involved in preparing for the execution had tested positive for the coronavirus, but said he had not been in the execution chamber and had not come into contact with anyone on the specialized team sent to handle the execution.

The three men scheduled to be executed this week had also been given execution dates when Barr announced the federal government would resume executions last year, ending an informal moratorium on federal capital punishment as the issue receded from the public domain.

Executions on the federal level have been rare and the government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988 — most recently in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

The attorney general said last July that the Obama-era review had been completed, clearing the way for executions to resume.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A U.S. district judge on Monday ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana. The Trump administration immediately appealed to a higher court, asking that the executions move forward.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there are still legal issues to resolve and that “the public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial process.” The executions, pushed by the administration, would be the first carried out at the federal level since 2003.

Chutkan said the inmates have presented evidence showing that the government’s plan to use only pentobarbital to carry out the executions “poses an unconstitutionally significant risk of serious pain.”

Chutkan said the inmates produced evidence that, in other executions, prisoners who were given pentobarbital suffered ”flash pulmonary edema,” which she said interferes with breathing and produces sensations of drowning and strangulation.

The inmates have identified alternatives, including the use of an opioid or anti-anxiety drug at the start of the procedure or a different method altogether, a firing squad, Chutkan said.

The Justice Department appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

And the Bureau of Prisons continued with preparations in order to move forward should the stay be lifted. Lee has had access to social visitors, has visited with his spiritual adviser and has been allowed to receive mail, prison officials said. He’s been under constant staff supervision. The witnesses for Lee are expected to include three family members, his lawyers and spiritual adviser.

The new hold came a day after a federal appeals court lifted a hold on the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, which was scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT on Monday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.

On Wednesday, Wesley Ira Purkey, of Kansas, who raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl and killed an 80-year-old woman is scheduled for execution.

Dustin Lee Honken, who killed five people in Iowa, including two children is also scheduled to for execution Wednesday.

The Lee execution was to be carried out after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on Sunday that had been put in place last week after some members of the victims’ family argued they would be put at high risk for the coronavirus if they had to travel to attend. The family on Monday appealed to the Supreme Court.

The decision to move forward with the execution — and two others scheduled later in the week — during a global health pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people in the United States and is ravaging prisons nationwide, drew scrutiny from civil rights groups as well as family of Lee’s victims.

Anti-death penalty protesters began gathering in Terre Haute on Monday. Organizer Abraham Bonowitz drove a van through the city with a sign emblazoned on the side of a trailer that read, ““Stop executions now!”

Because of coronavirus concerns, Bonowitz said his group, Death Penalty Action, wasn’t encouraging others to show up. No more than a few dozen protesters were expected to join him, and they were all being told to wear masks, he said.

“It’s symbolic,” Bonowitz said about the protests. “We are just here to say that this is wrong.”

The relatives would be traveling thousands of miles and witnessing the execution in a small room where the social distancing recommended to prevent the virus’ spread is virtually impossible. An attorney for the family members who have objected to the execution said they hadn’t traveled to Indiana, as of Monday morning.

The three men scheduled to be executed this week had been scheduled to be put to death when Barr announced the federal government would resume executions last year, ending an informal moratorium on federal capital punishment as the issue receded from the public domain. A fourth man is scheduled to be put to death in August.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Departmen t to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Sunday that the first federal execution in nearly two decades may proceed as scheduled on Monday.

The ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f66edc26fe127ba093732515241efdcb">a lower court order</a>&nbsp;that had put the execution of 47-year-old Daniel Lewis Lee on hold.

Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Monday at a federal prison in Indiana. He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.

Chief District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled Friday in Indiana that Lee's execution would be put on hold because of concerns from the family of the victims about the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 135,000 people and is ravaging prisons nationwide.

The Justice Department argued that the judge’s order misconstrued the law and asked the appeals court to immediately overturn the ruling.

The appeals court found that the claim from the victims’ family “lacks any arguable legal basis and is therefore frivolous.”

The Justice Department also argued that while the Bureau of Prisons has taken measures to accommodate the family and implemented additional safety protocols because of the pandemic, the family’s concerns “do not outweigh the public interest in finally carrying out the lawfully imposed sentence in this case.”

But in a court filing Sunday, Justice officials said a staff member involved in preparing for the execution had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Justice Department said the development would not mean an additional delay in the government’s timetable because the worker had not been in the execution chamber and had not come into contact with anyone on the specialized team sent to the prison to handle the execution.

The relatives would be traveling thousands of miles and witnessing the execution in a small room where the social distancing recommended to prevent the virus’ spread is virtually impossible. There are currently four confirmed coronavirus cases among inmates at the Terre Haute prison, according to federal statistics, and one inmate there has died.

The victims’ family had argued they weren’t trying to overturn Lee’s death sentence but instead they “seek to exercise their lawful rights to attend the execution of Lee, so that they can be together at that moment in time as they grieve their losses,” according to the filing.

The family will appeal to the Supreme Court.

“The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee’s execution and their own health and safety,” said family attorney Baker Kurrus. “Because the Government has scheduled the execution in the midst of a raging pandemic, these three women would have to put their lives at risk to travel cross-country at this time.”

The family hopes there won’t be an execution, ever. They have asked the Justice Department and President Donald Trump not to move forward with the execution and have long asked that he be given a life sentence instead.

The relatives, including Earlene Branch Peterson, who lost her daughter and granddaughter in the killing, have argued that their grief is compounded by the push to execute Lee in the middle of a pandemic. Peterson, who is 81 and has not left the county where she lives since February, was told by her doctor she should not travel and should avoid contact with others as much as possible to during the pandemic, the filing said.

US carries out the 1st federal execution in decades; Kan. killer's execution on hold

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prisoners are raising health concerns because guards are not always required to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Inmates across the state told reporters that many guards choose not to wear face coverings that can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Rhonda Smith, a 42-year-old inmate at Chillicothe Correctional Center, said the agency's handling of the pandemic feels “uncaring.”

“It could have been avoided, but hey, this is prison right?" she told the newspaper. “That’s how they make us feel.”

So far at least 67 staffers at 12 prisons have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 200 inmates have contracted the virus.

Statewide, 27,890 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Missouri as of Monday, according to confirmed cases reported by the state health department. That's an increase of 447 cases compared to Sunday. The state reported another 14 deaths Monday, bringing the virus' death toll up to at least 1,083 people in Missouri.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said guards must wear N95 masks and other protective gear around prisoners showing symptoms of coronavirus or those who have tested positive for COVID-19. Staff temperatures are taken daily.

Pojmann said the agency handed out face masks to all prisoners and guards, but they're not required to wear them.

“Why is it people who work at McDonald’s or small or big time businesses dealing with the public has to wear them but these staff members are above everything else?" 33-year-old Chillicothe inmate Christa Mueller wrote through the prison’s email system. "Our lives matter too!”

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, a University of North Carolina assistant professor and an expert in health in prisons, said face masks are key to stopping the spread of the virus in prisons.

“Because asymptomatic spread is possible, social distancing in prison facilities is often impossible, and testing access is based largely on whether people have symptoms, it is really important for corrections officers to wear masks at all times to eliminate the spread of COVID-19,” said Brinkley-Rubinstein, who also co-founded the COVID Prison Project.

Meanwhile, an organizer of a crowded July 3 house party in Cass County that's the source of a cluster of coronavirus cases told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article244179582.html">Kansas City Star</a>&nbsp;that he regrets not being more careful.

Kansas City resident Cole Wood said he never expected roughly 400 people to show up for the party, and he wasn't worried about spreading the virus because the crowd was mostly younger people.

But five people who attended the party have since tested positive for COVID-19, and Wood and at least nine others are experiencing symptoms. He said the party was an “eye opener."

“We all feel bad for causing this little outbreak that has happened,” he said. “We feel like we should have been more responsible. Told people to wear masks or something. Not invited everyone.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594691318088.png" alt="Smith is in prison for first degree assault, according to the Missouri Dept. of Corrections" />
 <figcaption>Smith is in prison for first degree assault, according to the Missouri Dept. of Corrections</figcaption>
 </figure>COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prisoners are raising health concerns because guards are not always required to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.Inmates across the state told reporters that many guards choose not to wear face coverings that can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.Rhonda Smith, a 42-year-old inmate at Chillicothe Correctional Center, said the agency's handling of the pandemic feels “uncaring.”“It could have been avoided, but hey, this is prison right?" she told the newspaper. “That’s how they make us feel.”So far at least 67 staffers at 12 prisons have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 200 inmates have contracted the virus.Statewide, 27,890 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Missouri as of Monday, according to confirmed cases reported by the state health department. That's an increase of 447 cases compared to Sunday. The state reported another 14 deaths Monday, bringing the virus' death toll up to at least 1,083 people in Missouri.Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said guards must wear N95 masks and other protective gear around prisoners showing symptoms of coronavirus or those who have tested positive for COVID-19. Staff temperatures are taken daily.Pojmann said the agency handed out face masks to all prisoners and guards, but they're not required to wear them.“Why is it people who work at McDonald’s or small or big time businesses dealing with the public has to wear them but these staff members are above everything else?" 33-year-old Chillicothe inmate Christa Mueller wrote through the prison’s email system. "Our lives matter too!”Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, a University of North Carolina assistant professor and an expert in health in prisons, said face masks are key to stopping the spread of the virus in prisons.“Because asymptomatic spread is possible, social distancing in prison facilities is often impossible, and testing access is based largely on whether people have symptoms, it is really important for corrections officers to wear masks at all times to eliminate the spread of COVID-19,” said Brinkley-Rubinstein, who also co-founded the COVID Prison Project.Meanwhile, an organizer of a crowded July 3 house party in Cass County that's the source of a cluster of coronavirus cases told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article244179582.html">Kansas City Star</a>&nbsp;that he regrets not being more careful.Kansas City resident Cole Wood said he never expected roughly 400 people to show up for the party, and he wasn't worried about spreading the virus because the crowd was mostly younger people.But five people who attended the party have since tested positive for COVID-19, and Wood and at least nine others are experiencing symptoms. He said the party was an “eye opener."“We all feel bad for causing this little outbreak that has happened,” he said. “We feel like we should have been more responsible. Told people to wear masks or something. Not invited everyone.”

Missouri prisoners raise concerns about guards without masks

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A federal judge agreed Monday to suspend a rule that requires women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to obtain an abortion pill.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland concluded that the “in-person requirements” for patients seeking medication abortion care impose a “substantial obstacle” to abortion patients and are likely unconstitutional under the circumstances of the pandemic.

"Particularly in light of the limited timeframe during which a medication abortion or any abortion must occur, such infringement on the right to an abortion would constitute irreparable harm," the judge wrote in his 80-page decision.

Chuang's ruling will allow healthcare providers to arrange for mifepristone to be mailed or delivered to patients during the public health emergency declared by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone to be used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, to end an early pregnancy or manage a miscarriage.

“By causing certain patients to decide between forgoing or substantially delaying abortion care, or risking exposure to COVID-19 for themselves, their children, and family members, the In-Person Requirements present a serious burden to many abortion patients,” Chuang wrote.

The states of Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska and Oklahoma had asked to intervene in the lawsuit. The 10 states argued that the case could impact how they enforce their own state laws that relate to or reference the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone.

Chuang rejected their request last month. The judge said the federal case would not eliminate any state’s ability to continue to regulate abortion medication “above and beyond” the FDA’s requirements.

“Nevertheless, this is a tremendous victory for abortion patients and for science and common sense,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Julia Kaye.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other groups sued HHS and the FDA in May to challenge the rule. ACLU lawyers represent the groups.

Skye Perryman, chief legal officer for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the FDA’s restrictions on mifepristone are not medically necessary and “do not advance the health and safety of patients.”

“Today’s ruling recognizes the hardship and undue burden that many women have faced obtaining essential health care during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Perryman said.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the FDA’s in-person requirements infringe on a woman’s constitutional rights to an abortion and violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Government lawyers have argued that the requirements are necessary to ensure that patients safely use mifepristone. The FDA rule requires patients to pick up the single tablet of mifepristone at a hospital, clinic or medical office and sign a form that includes information about the medication's potential risks.

The judge said suspending the requirements aligns with public health guidance to eliminate unnecessary travel and in-person contact.

Chuang granted the ACLU’s request for a preliminary injunction on due process grounds. He noted that federal regulators have waived in-person requirements for many other drugs “for the specific purpose of protecting public health.”

The group’s lawsuit says mifepristone is the only one of more than 20,000 FDA-regulated drugs that patients must receive in person at a hospital, clinic, or medical office “yet may self-administer, unsupervised, at a location of their choosing.”

The judge didn’t set any geographic limitations on the injunction. Referring to the nature of the pandemic, he said that “crafting relief that attempts to account for both the unpredictable changes and nuanced regional differences across 50 different states over an extended period of time is simply infeasible.”

More than 4 million people in the U.S. have used mifepristone and misoprostol to end an early pregnancy; the two-drug combination accounted for 39% of all U.S. abortions in 2017, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says the FDA rule has “particularly severe implications for low-income people and people of color, who comprise a disproportionate share of impacted patients and who are already suffering and dying from COVID-19 at substantially higher rates.”

In March, dozens of anti-abortion advocates signed a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar in which they called for halting abortion procedures during the pandemic. “Their continued operation depletes sorely needed personal protective equipment and leads to complications that will further overwhelm already overextended emergency rooms,” the letter said.

Azar and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn also were named as defendants in the suit.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/2/1581004285984.jpeg" alt=" About 60% of abortions in Kansas involve the abortion pill. Credit Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption> About 60% of abortions in Kansas involve the abortion pill. Credit Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A federal judge agreed Monday to suspend a rule that requires women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to obtain an abortion pill.U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland concluded that the “in-person requirements” for patients seeking medication abortion care impose a “substantial obstacle” to abortion patients and are likely unconstitutional under the circumstances of the pandemic."Particularly in light of the limited timeframe during which a medication abortion or any abortion must occur, such infringement on the right to an abortion would constitute irreparable harm," the judge wrote in his 80-page decision.Chuang's ruling will allow healthcare providers to arrange for mifepristone to be mailed or delivered to patients during the public health emergency declared by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone to be used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, to end an early pregnancy or manage a miscarriage.“By causing certain patients to decide between forgoing or substantially delaying abortion care, or risking exposure to COVID-19 for themselves, their children, and family members, the In-Person Requirements present a serious burden to many abortion patients,” Chuang wrote.The states of Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska and Oklahoma had asked to intervene in the lawsuit. The 10 states argued that the case could impact how they enforce their own state laws that relate to or reference the FDA’s regulation of mifepristone.Chuang rejected their request last month. The judge said the federal case would not eliminate any state’s ability to continue to regulate abortion medication “above and beyond” the FDA’s requirements.“Nevertheless, this is a tremendous victory for abortion patients and for science and common sense,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Julia Kaye.The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other groups sued HHS and the FDA in May to challenge the rule. ACLU lawyers represent the groups.Skye Perryman, chief legal officer for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the FDA’s restrictions on mifepristone are not medically necessary and “do not advance the health and safety of patients.”“Today’s ruling recognizes the hardship and undue burden that many women have faced obtaining essential health care during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Perryman said.Plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the FDA’s in-person requirements infringe on a woman’s constitutional rights to an abortion and violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.Government lawyers have argued that the requirements are necessary to ensure that patients safely use mifepristone. The FDA rule requires patients to pick up the single tablet of mifepristone at a hospital, clinic or medical office and sign a form that includes information about the medication's potential risks.The judge said suspending the requirements aligns with public health guidance to eliminate unnecessary travel and in-person contact.Chuang granted the ACLU’s request for a preliminary injunction on due process grounds. He noted that federal regulators have waived in-person requirements for many other drugs “for the specific purpose of protecting public health.”The group’s lawsuit says mifepristone is the only one of more than 20,000 FDA-regulated drugs that patients must receive in person at a hospital, clinic, or medical office “yet may self-administer, unsupervised, at a location of their choosing.”The judge didn’t set any geographic limitations on the injunction. Referring to the nature of the pandemic, he said that “crafting relief that attempts to account for both the unpredictable changes and nuanced regional differences across 50 different states over an extended period of time is simply infeasible.”More than 4 million people in the U.S. have used mifepristone and misoprostol to end an early pregnancy; the two-drug combination accounted for 39% of all U.S. abortions in 2017, the lawsuit says.The lawsuit says the FDA rule has “particularly severe implications for low-income people and people of color, who comprise a disproportionate share of impacted patients and who are already suffering and dying from COVID-19 at substantially higher rates.”In March, dozens of anti-abortion advocates signed a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar in which they called for halting abortion procedures during the pandemic. “Their continued operation depletes sorely needed personal protective equipment and leads to complications that will further overwhelm already overextended emergency rooms,” the letter said.Azar and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn also were named as defendants in the suit.___

Judge: Women can get abortion pill without doctor visits

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A former Boy Scout leader was charged with rape and child abuse for crimes dating back years, court records show.

Andrew Rowland, 45, of Overland Park faces charges of rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child involving sex, and two counts of child abuse, the Kansas City Star reported.

The allegations in a July 4 criminal complaint date from 2010 to 2018.

Rowland, the owner of antique and estate sale businesses in Overland Park, was the scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America Troop 284 in Overland Park. He was arrested July 5.

The regional Boy Scouts organization said was removed from his position as a scoutmaster following the allegations.

That action came at least three months after Rowland had been under investigation by police.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594654192031.png" alt="Rowland photo Johnson County" />
 <figcaption>Rowland photo Johnson County</figcaption>
 </figure>OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A former Boy Scout leader was charged with rape and child abuse for crimes dating back years, court records show.Andrew Rowland, 45, of Overland Park faces charges of rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child involving sex, and two counts of child abuse, the Kansas City Star reported.The allegations in a July 4 criminal complaint date from 2010 to 2018.Rowland, the owner of antique and estate sale businesses in Overland Park, was the scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America Troop 284 in Overland Park. He was arrested July 5.The regional Boy Scouts organization said was removed from his position as a scoutmaster following the allegations.That action came at least three months after Rowland had been under investigation by police.

Former Boy Scout leader in Kan. charged with rape, child abuse

By ROD ZOOK &amp; NICK GOSNELL <a href="https://hutchpost.com">Hutch Post</a>

HUTCHINSON — Two world wars, The Great Depression and 9/11 could not stop the Kansas State Fair from holding its annual get-together. But the pandemic has won out.

On Monday, the fair board decided to cancel the fair ending 107 consecutive runs.&nbsp;

"I got a couple of letters that were just really frustrated that we would make a decision about the state fair over finances, when it's really about the 4-H and the kids coming up here," said Fair General Manager Robin Jennison Monday. "That's great, but people need to understand that what makes it possible for us to do all of that are the vendors and the sponsors that are in partnership with the Kansas State Fair. When we don't have those, it's really going to limit our ability to do some of those things."

Although officials believed they could run the fair in a safe manner, many vendors opted not to attend since many area fairs were canceled.

The fair announced Monday that all gate admission tickets, packages and food tickets already purchased will be valid for the 2021 Kansas State Fair.&nbsp;

Staff is currently working to reschedule the 2020 Nex-Tech Wireless Grandstand lineup. If rescheduled, those tickets will also be honored at next year’s fair. How to obtain refunds will be announced soon.&nbsp;

While there will not be a 2020 Kansas State Fair, the fair will have 4-H and FFA youth livestock competitions, plus open class livestock exhibitions in September. The board is also considering having youth static competitions. The board will reconvene Aug. 4 to gather more information.

Livestock events begin Thursday, Sept. 3, and continue for three weekends, ending Sunday, Sept. 20. Event rules will be modified.

Grand Drive: FFA and 4-H youth from across the state compete to be the best of the best in this premier Kansas livestock competition. The Grand Drive is Sept. 11-13 and features the market beef, sheep, swine and goat shows. These shows are closed to outside spectators but can be viewed on Walton Webcasting. The event is sponsored by Midwest Ford and other great partners.

Deadline to enter the Grand Drive is July 15.

Champion Livestock Show: The Kansas State Fair is partnering with Special Olympics Kansas to introduce a new event: the Champion Livestock Show. The competition takes place at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11.

Ten athletes will be selected by Special Olympics and paired with 4-H or FFA members to show a meat goat. The athletes will have time to work with their mentor and animal the morning of the event. Open Range Trailer Sales and Services and Cimarron Trailers is the event sponsor. Key Apparel will provide T-shirts for participating competitors and mentor exhibitors. This show is closed to outside spectators but can be viewed on Walton Webcasting.

Mustang Days: Youth train untamed yearlings in the Mustang Beginnings Youth Challenge. They work to gentle the Bureau of Land Management wild horses over the summer then demonstrate their training skills. The event is Sept. 12-13.

Supreme Drive: The Supreme Drive recognizes the best bull and female of each breed in the open beef shows. The event is Sept. 19.

4-H Horse Show: This annual event will occur Sept. 17-20.

Many of these events will happen this year thanks to the fair’s great partnership with 4-H and FFA and these organizations’ staff and volunteers. This includes the fair’s Grand Drive event.

All shows will be closed to the public to help create a safe event. Entry deadline is July 15 for the 4-H/FFA Grand Drive and Aug. 15 for all open livestock shows.

On June 30, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Lee Norman advised the State Fair Board that they should cancel this year's fair.

"If I were only talking about it from a public health perspective, it would be best to not have the State Fair," Norman said. "There's no question, it will engender illness." Norman didn't think fairgoers would wear masks.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594652217162.png" alt="Photo courtesy Kansas State Fair" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy Kansas State Fair</figcaption>
 </figure>By ROD ZOOK &amp; NICK GOSNELL <a href="https://hutchpost.com">Hutch Post</a>HUTCHINSON — Two world wars, The Great Depression and 9/11 could not stop the Kansas State Fair from holding its annual get-together. But the pandemic has won out.On Monday, the fair board decided to cancel the fair ending 107 consecutive runs.&nbsp;"I got a couple of letters that were just really frustrated that we would make a decision about the state fair over finances, when it's really about the 4-H and the kids coming up here," said Fair General Manager Robin Jennison Monday. "That's great, but people need to understand that what makes it possible for us to do all of that are the vendors and the sponsors that are in partnership with the Kansas State Fair. When we don't have those, it's really going to limit our ability to do some of those things."Although officials believed they could run the fair in a safe manner, many vendors opted not to attend since many area fairs were canceled.The fair announced Monday that all gate admission tickets, packages and food tickets already purchased will be valid for the 2021 Kansas State Fair.&nbsp;Staff is currently working to reschedule the 2020 Nex-Tech Wireless Grandstand lineup. If rescheduled, those tickets will also be honored at next year’s fair. How to obtain refunds will be announced soon.&nbsp;While there will not be a 2020 Kansas State Fair, the fair will have 4-H and FFA youth livestock competitions, plus open class livestock exhibitions in September. The board is also considering having youth static competitions. The board will reconvene Aug. 4 to gather more information.Livestock events begin Thursday, Sept. 3, and continue for three weekends, ending Sunday, Sept. 20. Event rules will be modified.Competitions include:Grand Drive: FFA and 4-H youth from across the state compete to be the best of the best in this premier Kansas livestock competition. The Grand Drive is Sept. 11-13 and features the market beef, sheep, swine and goat shows. These shows are closed to outside spectators but can be viewed on Walton Webcasting. The event is sponsored by Midwest Ford and other great partners.Deadline to enter the Grand Drive is July 15.Champion Livestock Show: The Kansas State Fair is partnering with Special Olympics Kansas to introduce a new event: the Champion Livestock Show. The competition takes place at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11.Ten athletes will be selected by Special Olympics and paired with 4-H or FFA members to show a meat goat. The athletes will have time to work with their mentor and animal the morning of the event. Open Range Trailer Sales and Services and Cimarron Trailers is the event sponsor. Key Apparel will provide T-shirts for participating competitors and mentor exhibitors. This show is closed to outside spectators but can be viewed on Walton Webcasting.Mustang Days: Youth train untamed yearlings in the Mustang Beginnings Youth Challenge. They work to gentle the Bureau of Land Management wild horses over the summer then demonstrate their training skills. The event is Sept. 12-13.Supreme Drive: The Supreme Drive recognizes the best bull and female of each breed in the open beef shows. The event is Sept. 19.4-H Horse Show: This annual event will occur Sept. 17-20.Many of these events will happen this year thanks to the fair’s great partnership with 4-H and FFA and these organizations’ staff and volunteers. This includes the fair’s Grand Drive event.All shows will be closed to the public to help create a safe event. Entry deadline is July 15 for the 4-H/FFA Grand Drive and Aug. 15 for all open livestock shows.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/5/1590778958989.png" alt="KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman" />
 <figcaption>KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman</figcaption>
 </figure>On June 30, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Lee Norman advised the State Fair Board that they should cancel this year's fair."If I were only talking about it from a public health perspective, it would be best to not have the State Fair," Norman said. "There's no question, it will engender illness." Norman didn't think fairgoers would wear masks.

Update: Board votes to cancel 2020 Kansas State Fair

By DAN MARGOLIES <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-07-13/with-deal-for-mcclatchy-kansas-city-star-will-see-its-fifth-owner-in-four-decades">Kansas News Service</a>

The McClatchy Company, the nation’s second largest newspaper chain 
and the owner of The Kansas City Star, Wichita Eagle, Miami Herald, 
Charlotte Observer and more than two dozen other daily newspapers, 
announced on Sunday that Chatham Asset Management had submitted the 
winning bid for the company at a bankruptcy auction.

McClatchy, 
burdened by debt it incurred in 2006 when it bought newspaper chain 
Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion and by pension obligations to 24,000 
employees and retirees, sought Chapter 11 protection in February in the 
Southern District of New York.

Chatham
 is a $4.4 billion hedge fund based in New Jersey. It is McClatchy’s 
biggest creditor and shareholder. The company, which was founded in 
2002, is secretive; its managing partner, Anthony Melchiorre, a one-time
 head of Morgan Stanley’s junk bond trading division, almost never 
grants interviews.

<a href="https://fortune.com/2019/03/18/chatham-asset-management-michael-cohen-ipayment-holidings-lawsuit/" target="_blank">In a profile of Chatham last year</a>,
 Fortune magazine said that during his stint at Morgan Stanley, 
Melchiorre “could be foul-mouthed and loud, and would berate fellow 
traders as he bopped around the trading floor in his stocking feet.”

Chatham
 already has investments in a stable of newspapers. It is a major 
shareholder of the publisher of several Canadian papers, including The 
Montreal Gazette, The Ottawa Citizen and The National Post. It also owns
 a major stake in American Media Inc., the parent company of The 
National Enquirer supermarket tabloid.

McClatchy entered into a 
debt refinancing deal with Chatham in 2018 that unsecured creditors of 
McClatchy claim unfairly benefited Chatham. A recent report by a law 
firm charged with investigating the matter concluded that McClatchy did 
not act improperly when it refinanced the debt, and did not give 
favorable treatment to Chatham.

U.S.
 Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles of the Southern District of New York,
 where McClatchy filed for bankruptcy, must approve the sale. He is 
expected to rule after a hearing set for July 24. The deal also must 
pass muster with the U.S. Justice Department, which will review it for 
antitrust issues.

The sale will allow McClatchy to emerge from 
Chapter 11, having restructured its debt and pension obligations, but 
ends its family ownership of newspapers dating back to 1857, when James 
McClatchy founded the Sacramento Bee during the California Gold Rush.

McClatchy
 said it would contribute $1.4 billion in pension assets to the federal 
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation fund and expects the PBGC, which 
takes over pensions of troubled companies, to assume McClatchy’s 
qualified pension plan.

Why would a hedge fund be interested in owning newspapers?

For
 the last decade, hedge funds and private equity firms have been buying 
up media companies, which they’ve been able to snatch up at fire sale 
prices because of their declining circulation and ad revenues. Once 
acquired, they typically cut costs by slashing reporting staffs, with 
the idea of eventually selling the companies at a profit.

Journalists
 tend to see them as financial predators focused on short-term profits, 
with little interest in the idea of journalism as a public trust. Alden 
Global Capital, a New York-based hedge fund, has become notorious as the
 face of rapacious newspaper-devouring hedge funds, having acquired 
newspapers like the Denver Post and cut their reporting staffs to the 
bone.

Were there any other bidders for McClatchy?

Chatham
 was the only publicly identified bidder until Alden challenged 
Chatham’s bid in court last Wednesday. McClatchy says “multiple bidders”
 submitted bids by the July 1 deadline but has not identified them.

Chatham
 submitted its bid a few months ago, establishing a floor for other 
bids. McClatchy’s board of directors must still approve the Chatham 
deal, but that’s expected to be a formality that will take place this 
week.

What will happen to McClatchy’s newspapers if the sale to Chatham is approved?

All
 of McClatchy’s newspapers will become the property of Chatham, which 
can do with them as it sees fit. McClatchy was a publicly traded 
company; with the sale, the newspapers will be owned by a privately held
 company. That means the general public will no longer have access to 
the kind of detailed corporate information publicly traded companies are
 required to file.

This isn’t the first change of ownership for The Kansas City Star, right?

In
 fact, it will be the fifth for The Star since 1977, when Capital Cities
 Inc. bought the newspaper, which was then owned by its employees, for 
$125 million. Not long after Capital Cities bought the ABC television 
network, the Walt Disney Co. acquired Capital in 1996.

Disney had 
no interest in owning newspapers, however, so in 1997 it sold The Star 
and a handful of other newspapers it had acquired as part of the Capital
 Cities deal to Knight Ridder, a traditional newspaper company.

Nearly
 two decades later, under shareholder pressure to raise its stock price,
 Knight Ridder sold all of its newspapers in 2006, more than two dozen 
in all, to McClatchy for $4.5 billion.

The timing proved to be 
bad. Two years later, the U.S. descended into a steep recession, which 
led to a severe contraction in newspaper advertising. And the internet 
had already begun eating into newspapers’ biggest sources of revenue: 
classified and display advertising. The combined blows proved 
debilitating. Between 2004 and 2018, more than 1,800 newspapers across 
the United States disappeared. And since 2008, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/20/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-dropped-by-a-quarter-since-2008/#:~:text=Between%202008%20and%202014%2C%20the,over%20the%20five%2Dyear%20period." target="_blank">newsroom employment has fallen by half</a>.

The
 Kansas City Star newsroom once boasted nearly 300 employees. It’s about
 a quarter of that number today. The Wichita Eagle has seen a similar 
drop in numbers.

Dan Margolies is senior reporter and editor at KCUR. He can be reached by email at dan@kcur.org or on Twitter @DanMargolies.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594678126879.png" alt="The Kansas City Star staff moved from its historic quarters at 1729 Grand into new space in its printing plant across McGee Street, pictured here, two years ago. Wikimedia Commons/Kansas City Star" />
 <figcaption>The Kansas City Star staff moved from its historic quarters at 1729 Grand into new space in its printing plant across McGee Street, pictured here, two years ago. Wikimedia Commons/Kansas City Star</figcaption>
 </figure>By DAN MARGOLIES <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-07-13/with-deal-for-mcclatchy-kansas-city-star-will-see-its-fifth-owner-in-four-decades">Kansas News Service</a>The McClatchy Company, the nation’s second largest newspaper chain 
and the owner of The Kansas City Star, Wichita Eagle, Miami Herald, 
Charlotte Observer and more than two dozen other daily newspapers, 
announced on Sunday that Chatham Asset Management had submitted the 
winning bid for the company at a bankruptcy auction.McClatchy, 
burdened by debt it incurred in 2006 when it bought newspaper chain 
Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion and by pension obligations to 24,000 
employees and retirees, sought Chapter 11 protection in February in the 
Southern District of New York.Who is Chatham Asset Management?Chatham
 is a $4.4 billion hedge fund based in New Jersey. It is McClatchy’s 
biggest creditor and shareholder. The company, which was founded in 
2002, is secretive; its managing partner, Anthony Melchiorre, a one-time
 head of Morgan Stanley’s junk bond trading division, almost never 
grants interviews.<a href="https://fortune.com/2019/03/18/chatham-asset-management-michael-cohen-ipayment-holidings-lawsuit/" target="_blank">In a profile of Chatham last year</a>,
 Fortune magazine said that during his stint at Morgan Stanley, 
Melchiorre “could be foul-mouthed and loud, and would berate fellow 
traders as he bopped around the trading floor in his stocking feet.”Chatham
 already has investments in a stable of newspapers. It is a major 
shareholder of the publisher of several Canadian papers, including The 
Montreal Gazette, The Ottawa Citizen and The National Post. It also owns
 a major stake in American Media Inc., the parent company of The 
National Enquirer supermarket tabloid.McClatchy entered into a 
debt refinancing deal with Chatham in 2018 that unsecured creditors of 
McClatchy claim unfairly benefited Chatham. A recent report by a law 
firm charged with investigating the matter concluded that McClatchy did 
not act improperly when it refinanced the debt, and did not give 
favorable treatment to Chatham.What happens next?U.S.
 Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles of the Southern District of New York,
 where McClatchy filed for bankruptcy, must approve the sale. He is 
expected to rule after a hearing set for July 24. The deal also must 
pass muster with the U.S. Justice Department, which will review it for 
antitrust issues.The sale will allow McClatchy to emerge from 
Chapter 11, having restructured its debt and pension obligations, but 
ends its family ownership of newspapers dating back to 1857, when James 
McClatchy founded the Sacramento Bee during the California Gold Rush.McClatchy
 said it would contribute $1.4 billion in pension assets to the federal 
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation fund and expects the PBGC, which 
takes over pensions of troubled companies, to assume McClatchy’s 
qualified pension plan.Why would a hedge fund be interested in owning newspapers?For
 the last decade, hedge funds and private equity firms have been buying 
up media companies, which they’ve been able to snatch up at fire sale 
prices because of their declining circulation and ad revenues. Once 
acquired, they typically cut costs by slashing reporting staffs, with 
the idea of eventually selling the companies at a profit.Journalists
 tend to see them as financial predators focused on short-term profits, 
with little interest in the idea of journalism as a public trust. Alden 
Global Capital, a New York-based hedge fund, has become notorious as the
 face of rapacious newspaper-devouring hedge funds, having acquired 
newspapers like the Denver Post and cut their reporting staffs to the 
bone.Were there any other bidders for McClatchy?Chatham
 was the only publicly identified bidder until Alden challenged 
Chatham’s bid in court last Wednesday. McClatchy says “multiple bidders”
 submitted bids by the July 1 deadline but has not identified them.Chatham
 submitted its bid a few months ago, establishing a floor for other 
bids. McClatchy’s board of directors must still approve the Chatham 
deal, but that’s expected to be a formality that will take place this 
week.What will happen to McClatchy’s newspapers if the sale to Chatham is approved?All
 of McClatchy’s newspapers will become the property of Chatham, which 
can do with them as it sees fit. McClatchy was a publicly traded 
company; with the sale, the newspapers will be owned by a privately held
 company. That means the general public will no longer have access to 
the kind of detailed corporate information publicly traded companies are
 required to file.This isn’t the first change of ownership for The Kansas City Star, right?In
 fact, it will be the fifth for The Star since 1977, when Capital Cities
 Inc. bought the newspaper, which was then owned by its employees, for 
$125 million. Not long after Capital Cities bought the ABC television 
network, the Walt Disney Co. acquired Capital in 1996.Disney had 
no interest in owning newspapers, however, so in 1997 it sold The Star 
and a handful of other newspapers it had acquired as part of the Capital
 Cities deal to Knight Ridder, a traditional newspaper company.Nearly
 two decades later, under shareholder pressure to raise its stock price,
 Knight Ridder sold all of its newspapers in 2006, more than two dozen 
in all, to McClatchy for $4.5 billion.The timing proved to be 
bad. Two years later, the U.S. descended into a steep recession, which 
led to a severe contraction in newspaper advertising. And the internet 
had already begun eating into newspapers’ biggest sources of revenue: 
classified and display advertising. The combined blows proved 
debilitating. Between 2004 and 2018, more than 1,800 newspapers across 
the United States disappeared. And since 2008, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/20/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-dropped-by-a-quarter-since-2008/#:~:text=Between%202008%20and%202014%2C%20the,over%20the%20five%2Dyear%20period." target="_blank">newsroom employment has fallen by half</a>.The
 Kansas City Star newsroom once boasted nearly 300 employees. It’s about
 a quarter of that number today. The Wichita Eagle has seen a similar 
drop in numbers.Dan Margolies is senior reporter and editor at KCUR. He can be reached by email at dan@kcur.org or on Twitter @DanMargolies.&nbsp;

Hedge fund set to take over ownership of Kansas City Star

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University has signed a new preclinical research and option agreement with&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tonixpharma.com/press-releases/detail/1212/tonix-pharmaceuticals-enters-into-research-and-exclusive" target="_blank">Tonix Pharmaceuticals</a>, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to develop a vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19, according to a media release from K-State. The inventor of the technology,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vet.k-state.edu/education/dmp/faculty-staff/faculty/mwangi/mwangi.html" target="_blank">Waithaka Mwangi</a>, professor of diagnostic pathobiology in the K-State&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vet.k-state.edu/" target="_blank">College of Veterinary Medicine</a>, will direct the research, which is based on a new vaccine platform that his research team developed for bovine parainfluenza 3 virus, known as BPI3V, which is closely related to human parainfluenza 3 virus. "A weakened BPI3V has previously been shown to be an effective vaccine vehicle in humans. More importantly, following extensive testing, BPI3V was shown to be safe and stable in infants and children," Mwangi said. "The vector is well suited for mucosal immunization using a nasal atomizer, but it can also be injected. Therefore, BPI3V is suitable for development of COVID-19 vaccine candidates." The researchers focused on the most critical protein of coronaviruses: the spike protein. When a person is exposed to the virus, this protein is involved in the infection of the host cell. The vaccine candidate developed at K-State has been engineered to display the spike protein in a manner that mimics the actual virus. While the majority of vaccines that are currently being developed will be injected into the body, according to Mwangi, the best vaccine will be one that will trigger immune protection, such as Immunoglobulin A, or IgA, at the mucosal surface, the portal of virus entry. IgA plays a crucial role in the immune function of mucous membranes. Instead of being injected, Mwangi's vaccine candidate would be sprayed in the nose to trigger the IgA response and block the virus's spike protein from infecting the host cells. The vaccine will also induce T cell responses capable of killing infected cells. The research agreement, coordinated through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.k-state.edu/research/leadership/innovation-partners/index.html" target="_blank">K-State Innovation Partners</a>, is the fourth license agreement between K-State and corporate partners on technologies related to COVID-19. "The team at K-State Innovation Partners enjoyed working with Dr. Seth Lederman and his team from Tonix to efficiently negotiate an exclusive, field-of-use option and sponsored research agreement to fund additional research at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bri.k-state.edu/" target="_blank">Biosecurity Research Institute</a>&nbsp;on Dr. Mwangi's COVID-19 vaccine candidates," said Bret Ford, director of business development and licensing for K-State Innovation Partners. "The negotiations were approached with a high sense of urgency and we look forward to the company potentially commercializing our vaccine candidates to provide a solution for this global pandemic." Mwangi's research will be conducted at the university's Biosecurity Research Institute in Pat Roberts Hall, a biosafety level-3 facility. "As the world's foremost global food and biosecurity science university, K-State is committed to understanding and combatting zoonotic diseases and the viruses that cause them like SARS-CoV-2," said Peter Dorhout, vice president for research at K-State. "To deploy our innovations at scale, our faculty need to combine forces with collaborative corporate partners like Tonix Pharmaceuticals as part of our land-grant mission to serve."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594668814111.png" alt="Dr. Mwangi-photo KSU" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Mwangi-photo KSU</figcaption>
 </figure>MANHATTAN — Kansas State University has signed a new preclinical research and option agreement with&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tonixpharma.com/press-releases/detail/1212/tonix-pharmaceuticals-enters-into-research-and-exclusive" target="_blank">Tonix Pharmaceuticals</a>, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to develop a vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19, according to a media release from K-State. The inventor of the technology,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vet.k-state.edu/education/dmp/faculty-staff/faculty/mwangi/mwangi.html" target="_blank">Waithaka Mwangi</a>, professor of diagnostic pathobiology in the K-State&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vet.k-state.edu/" target="_blank">College of Veterinary Medicine</a>, will direct the research, which is based on a new vaccine platform that his research team developed for bovine parainfluenza 3 virus, known as BPI3V, which is closely related to human parainfluenza 3 virus. "A weakened BPI3V has previously been shown to be an effective vaccine vehicle in humans. More importantly, following extensive testing, BPI3V was shown to be safe and stable in infants and children," Mwangi said. "The vector is well suited for mucosal immunization using a nasal atomizer, but it can also be injected. Therefore, BPI3V is suitable for development of COVID-19 vaccine candidates." The researchers focused on the most critical protein of coronaviruses: the spike protein. When a person is exposed to the virus, this protein is involved in the infection of the host cell. The vaccine candidate developed at K-State has been engineered to display the spike protein in a manner that mimics the actual virus. While the majority of vaccines that are currently being developed will be injected into the body, according to Mwangi, the best vaccine will be one that will trigger immune protection, such as Immunoglobulin A, or IgA, at the mucosal surface, the portal of virus entry. IgA plays a crucial role in the immune function of mucous membranes. Instead of being injected, Mwangi's vaccine candidate would be sprayed in the nose to trigger the IgA response and block the virus's spike protein from infecting the host cells. The vaccine will also induce T cell responses capable of killing infected cells. The research agreement, coordinated through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.k-state.edu/research/leadership/innovation-partners/index.html" target="_blank">K-State Innovation Partners</a>, is the fourth license agreement between K-State and corporate partners on technologies related to COVID-19. "The team at K-State Innovation Partners enjoyed working with Dr. Seth Lederman and his team from Tonix to efficiently negotiate an exclusive, field-of-use option and sponsored research agreement to fund additional research at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bri.k-state.edu/" target="_blank">Biosecurity Research Institute</a>&nbsp;on Dr. Mwangi's COVID-19 vaccine candidates," said Bret Ford, director of business development and licensing for K-State Innovation Partners. "The negotiations were approached with a high sense of urgency and we look forward to the company potentially commercializing our vaccine candidates to provide a solution for this global pandemic." Mwangi's research will be conducted at the university's Biosecurity Research Institute in Pat Roberts Hall, a biosafety level-3 facility. "As the world's foremost global food and biosecurity science university, K-State is committed to understanding and combatting zoonotic diseases and the viruses that cause them like SARS-CoV-2," said Peter Dorhout, vice president for research at K-State. "To deploy our innovations at scale, our faculty need to combine forces with collaborative corporate partners like Tonix Pharmaceuticals as part of our land-grant mission to serve."

K-State signs research agreement for COVID-19 vaccine candidate

<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">COVID-19 update for July 13: 5.5% Positive of all patients tested by PCR. 3.5% Positive of all patients tested by Serology. 27,890 positive patients. 1,083 Missourians lost to COVID-19. To learn more, visit <a href="https://t.co/V6es2EUkO0">https://t.co/V6es2EUkO0</a>.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShowMeStrong?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ShowMeStrong</a> <a href="https://t.co/l9HEu5AIvm">pic.twitter.com/l9HEu5AIvm</a>&mdash; Mo Health &amp; Sr Srvcs (@HealthyLivingMo) <a href="https://twitter.com/HealthyLivingMo/status/1282751773208383489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>