WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has finished construction of a temporary pier and causeway that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-aid-gaza-us-port-pier-d4d9ea94550aed2d24a258dfd98d866e">will be used to deliver aid to Gaza</a>&nbsp;through a maritime system, but plans to move it into place on the shore are on hold due to weather and other logistics.

Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters on Tuesday that U.S. military ships and the assembled pier are at Israel’s Ashdod port. High winds and sea swells are making it too dangerous for the U.S. military to install the pier at the Gaza beach.

Singh says the U.S. hopes to install the pier and causeway later this week, if the weather permits.

Meanwhile, humanitarian aid is being loaded onto a large container ship, the Sagamore, in Cyprus, for eventual delivery to Gaza, Singh said.

The U.S. hopes the pier can be used to bring more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the U.N. says there is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-famine-world-food-program-israel-hamas-war-476941bf2dc259f85a706408b2a665ff">a full-blown famine</a>&nbsp;in the north.

Meanwhile, a&nbsp;White House spokesman on Tuesday expressed guarded optimism that Israel and Hamas “should be able to close the remaining gaps” to complete an agreement that would lead to release of hostages and pave the way for an extended truce in the seven-month war in Gaza.

“It’s based on our understanding of where the text is right now,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said of the administration’s optimism. “Again, Hamas responded yesterday and there were amendments offered. Again, that’s the task of negotiating. That’s what negotiations are all about. It’s our understanding from looking at the text that we feel it suggests that we should be able to close these gaps.”

Talks are to continue on Tuesday in Cairo. Kirby declined to put a timeline on when Americans officials believe a deal can be sealed.

“Everybody’s coming. Qatar is coming. The Israelis are coming. Obviously, the Egyptians will be there of course, and Bill Burns will be there,” Kirby said. “That’s not insignificant. Everybody is coming to the table.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1714471004272.png" alt="File Photos U.S. Central Command" />
 <figcaption>File Photos U.S. Central Command</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has finished construction of a temporary pier and causeway that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-aid-gaza-us-port-pier-d4d9ea94550aed2d24a258dfd98d866e">will be used to deliver aid to Gaza</a>&nbsp;through a maritime system, but plans to move it into place on the shore are on hold due to weather and other logistics.Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters on Tuesday that U.S. military ships and the assembled pier are at Israel’s Ashdod port. High winds and sea swells are making it too dangerous for the U.S. military to install the pier at the Gaza beach.Singh says the U.S. hopes to install the pier and causeway later this week, if the weather permits.Meanwhile, humanitarian aid is being loaded onto a large container ship, the Sagamore, in Cyprus, for eventual delivery to Gaza, Singh said.The U.S. hopes the pier can be used to bring more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the U.N. says there is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-famine-world-food-program-israel-hamas-war-476941bf2dc259f85a706408b2a665ff">a full-blown famine</a>&nbsp;in the north.Meanwhile, a&nbsp;White House spokesman on Tuesday expressed guarded optimism that Israel and Hamas “should be able to close the remaining gaps” to complete an agreement that would lead to release of hostages and pave the way for an extended truce in the seven-month war in Gaza.“It’s based on our understanding of where the text is right now,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said of the administration’s optimism. “Again, Hamas responded yesterday and there were amendments offered. Again, that’s the task of negotiating. That’s what negotiations are all about. It’s our understanding from looking at the text that we feel it suggests that we should be able to close these gaps.”Talks are to continue on Tuesday in Cairo. Kirby declined to put a timeline on when Americans officials believe a deal can be sealed.“Everybody’s coming. Qatar is coming. The Israelis are coming. Obviously, the Egyptians will be there of course, and Bill Burns will be there,” Kirby said. “That’s not insignificant. Everybody is coming to the table.”

US military finishes Gaza pier, plans to move it into place on hold

WYANDOTTE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a homicide at at Kansas home have identified the victim as 46-year-old Kenton Williams.

Just after 10:30a.m. Saturday, police&nbsp;were dispatched to a shooting at a home in the 2400 block of Alden. Street, according to a media release.

First responders discovered Williams with apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced deceased on scene.&nbsp; Detectives detained one person. 

This incident remains under investigation by the KCKPD Major Case Unit.&nbsp; The is the ninth homicide of the year in Kansas City, Kansas.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1714911509914.png" alt="Police on the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KMBC" />
 <figcaption>Police on the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KMBC</figcaption>
 </figure>WYANDOTTE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a homicide at at Kansas home have identified the victim as 46-year-old Kenton Williams.Just after 10:30a.m. Saturday, police&nbsp;were dispatched to a shooting at a home in the 2400 block of Alden. Street, according to a media release.First responders discovered Williams with apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced deceased on scene.&nbsp; Detectives detained one person. This incident remains under investigation by the KCKPD Major Case Unit.&nbsp; The is the ninth homicide of the year in Kansas City, Kansas.

Homicide: Police ID victim who died in shooting at Kansas home

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A tornado destroyed homes, forced the evacuation of a nursing home and toppled trees and power lines when it roared through a small Oklahoma town, one of several twisters that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-severe-weather-tornado-oklahoma-kansas-045c7c09fd7f3c630f071645603a57cb">erupted in the central United States</a>&nbsp;amid a series of powerful storms that stretched into Tuesday. At least one death was reported.

The tornado ripped through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, about a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa, on Monday night. Investigators with the National Weather service reported they found "low end EF4 damage." An <a href="https://www.weather.gov/tae/ef_scale">EF4 tornado generates winds speeds 166-200 mph.</a>

It was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/storms-severe-weather-texas-oklahoma-69888f6a0a53659a26dc286905de9566">the second tornado to hit</a>&nbsp;the town in five weeks — a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles in Barnsdall.

The National Weather Service’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/240506_rpts.html">Storm Prediction Center</a>&nbsp;cited 17 reports of tornadoes from Monday evening through early Tuesday in the central part of the United States. Eight of the twisters were in Oklahoma, two each in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Missouri and Tennessee. The powerful storms come amid a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/bizarre-weather-climate-heat-flood-extreme-e13a4a5f2c4de870269b36d5de570aa5">wild swing in severe weather</a>&nbsp;across the globe that includes some of the worst-ever flooding in Brazil and a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/weather-schools-heatstroke-students-heat-wave-asia-90fefbcae1e9a1de6faf108aa90cc076">brutal Asian heat wave</a>.

At least least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged Monday night, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported, and a nursing home said it evacuated residents because a gas leak could not be turned off due to storm damage.

One person died in the town and at least one is missing, Barnsdall Mayor Johnny Kelley said.

“There are several homes destroyed, completely leveled,” he said. “The toughest thing on me as the mayor is this is a small community. I know 75 to 80% of the people in this town.”

First responders rescued about 25 people, including children, from heavily damaged homes where buildings had collapsed on or around them, Kelley said. About a half dozen people suffered injuries, including a firefighter who was taken to a hospital with chest pains, he said.

Authorities launched a secondary search Tuesday morning to find one person who was still missing, Kelley said. A second missing person was found safe, but injured, at a local hospital, he said.

The Barnsdall Nursing Home posted online that all residents were accounted for with no injuries. They were being taken to other facilities. It asked families to bear with them “as it is chaos in town ... Please pray for us.”

Aerial videos from Barnsdall showed several well-built homes reduced to piles of rubble and others with roofs torn off and damaged walls still standing. The powerful twister tossed vehicles, downed power lines and stripped limbs and bark from trees across the town. A 160-acre wax manufacturing facility in the community also sustained heavy damage, Kelley said.

Damage also was reported in Bartlesville, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast.

“We did take a direct hit from a tornado" in the city, said Kary Fox of the Washington County Emergency Management.

At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several splintered 2x4s were driven into the south side of the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris was scattered over the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were heavily damaged with smashed-out windows.

Matthew Macedo, 30, who was staying at the hotel, said he rushed with his coworker to the hotel lobby after hearing the tornado sirens and was then ushered into the hotel laundry room to wait out the storm.

“We lost power. ... That’s kind of the first indicator that things were real,” he said. “When the impact occurred, it was incredibly sudden.”

As soon as they knew they were in the clear, Macedo left the room to find glass and roofing debris littered across the floors.

“An AC unit went through the first floor on the southern side of the hotel,” he said.

The main threat was shifting east Tuesday, said Roger Edwards, lead forecaster with the Storm Prediction Center, though it is not as intense a threat as on Monday.

The center warned of an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms across the Ohio Valley on Tuesday with a possibility of a few, potentially strong, tornadoes, hail and severe, damaging winds.

The storms began earlier Monday with gusty winds and rain. But after dark, tornadoes were spotted skirting northern Oklahoma. At one point in the evening, a storm in the small town of Covington had “produced tornadoes off and on for over an hour,” the National Weather Service said. Throughout the area, wind farm turbines spun rapidly in the wind and blinding rain.

The weather service in Tulsa had warned Monday evening that “a large and life-threatening tornado” was headed toward Barnsdall, with wind gusts up to 70 mph (112 kph).

The storms tore through Oklahoma as areas, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-storms-oklahoma-damage-3106c502a148f7ea969809cbd3b2d6ba">Sulphur</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-oklahoma-sulphur-5fa3a64e552ab91e8d76dabe21f70fd6">Holdenville</a>, were still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month. Both the Plains and Midwest have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornado-nebraska-midwest-iowa-missouri-kansas-491cd033f91eb27f4139bf5582e57903">hammered by tornadoes this spring</a>.

Oklahoma and Kansas had been under a high-risk weather warning Monday. The last time such a warning was issued was March 31, 2023, when a massive&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-storms-tornadoes-midwest-south-4d35ce15af18e6cd50fda3aeb7a57176">storm system tore through parts of the South and Midwest</a>&nbsp;including Arkansas, Illinois and rural Indiana.

The entire week is looking stormy across the U.S. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715119879691.png" alt="Tornado damage image by Brenna Rose courtesy KTUL TV" />
 <figcaption>Tornado damage image by Brenna Rose courtesy KTUL TV</figcaption>
 </figure>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A tornado destroyed homes, forced the evacuation of a nursing home and toppled trees and power lines when it roared through a small Oklahoma town, one of several twisters that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-severe-weather-tornado-oklahoma-kansas-045c7c09fd7f3c630f071645603a57cb">erupted in the central United States</a>&nbsp;amid a series of powerful storms that stretched into Tuesday. At least one death was reported.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">[4:12 pm - 5/7/24] Our survey team looking at the damage from last night&#39;s Barnsdall tornado have found low end EF4 damage. They continue to survey damage along the track so this rating remains preliminary. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/okwx?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#okwx</a>&mdash; NWS Tulsa (@NWStulsa) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWStulsa/status/1787953782485381377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The tornado ripped through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, about a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa, on Monday night. Investigators with the National Weather service reported they found "low end EF4 damage." An <a href="https://www.weather.gov/tae/ef_scale">EF4 tornado generates winds speeds 166-200 mph.</a>It was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/storms-severe-weather-texas-oklahoma-69888f6a0a53659a26dc286905de9566">the second tornado to hit</a>&nbsp;the town in five weeks — a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles in Barnsdall.The National Weather Service’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/240506_rpts.html">Storm Prediction Center</a>&nbsp;cited 17 reports of tornadoes from Monday evening through early Tuesday in the central part of the United States. Eight of the twisters were in Oklahoma, two each in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Missouri and Tennessee. The powerful storms come amid a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/bizarre-weather-climate-heat-flood-extreme-e13a4a5f2c4de870269b36d5de570aa5">wild swing in severe weather</a>&nbsp;across the globe that includes some of the worst-ever flooding in Brazil and a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/weather-schools-heatstroke-students-heat-wave-asia-90fefbcae1e9a1de6faf108aa90cc076">brutal Asian heat wave</a>.At least least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged Monday night, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported, and a nursing home said it evacuated residents because a gas leak could not be turned off due to storm damage.One person died in the town and at least one is missing, Barnsdall Mayor Johnny Kelley said.“There are several homes destroyed, completely leveled,” he said. “The toughest thing on me as the mayor is this is a small community. I know 75 to 80% of the people in this town.”First responders rescued about 25 people, including children, from heavily damaged homes where buildings had collapsed on or around them, Kelley said. About a half dozen people suffered injuries, including a firefighter who was taken to a hospital with chest pains, he said.Authorities launched a secondary search Tuesday morning to find one person who was still missing, Kelley said. A second missing person was found safe, but injured, at a local hospital, he said.The Barnsdall Nursing Home posted online that all residents were accounted for with no injuries. They were being taken to other facilities. It asked families to bear with them “as it is chaos in town ... Please pray for us.”Aerial videos from Barnsdall showed several well-built homes reduced to piles of rubble and others with roofs torn off and damaged walls still standing. The powerful twister tossed vehicles, downed power lines and stripped limbs and bark from trees across the town. A 160-acre wax manufacturing facility in the community also sustained heavy damage, Kelley said.Damage also was reported in Bartlesville, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast.“We did take a direct hit from a tornado" in the city, said Kary Fox of the Washington County Emergency Management.At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several splintered 2x4s were driven into the south side of the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris was scattered over the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were heavily damaged with smashed-out windows.Matthew Macedo, 30, who was staying at the hotel, said he rushed with his coworker to the hotel lobby after hearing the tornado sirens and was then ushered into the hotel laundry room to wait out the storm.“We lost power. ... That’s kind of the first indicator that things were real,” he said. “When the impact occurred, it was incredibly sudden.”As soon as they knew they were in the clear, Macedo left the room to find glass and roofing debris littered across the floors.“An AC unit went through the first floor on the southern side of the hotel,” he said.The main threat was shifting east Tuesday, said Roger Edwards, lead forecaster with the Storm Prediction Center, though it is not as intense a threat as on Monday.The center warned of an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms across the Ohio Valley on Tuesday with a possibility of a few, potentially strong, tornadoes, hail and severe, damaging winds.The storms began earlier Monday with gusty winds and rain. But after dark, tornadoes were spotted skirting northern Oklahoma. At one point in the evening, a storm in the small town of Covington had “produced tornadoes off and on for over an hour,” the National Weather Service said. Throughout the area, wind farm turbines spun rapidly in the wind and blinding rain.The weather service in Tulsa had warned Monday evening that “a large and life-threatening tornado” was headed toward Barnsdall, with wind gusts up to 70 mph (112 kph).The storms tore through Oklahoma as areas, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-storms-oklahoma-damage-3106c502a148f7ea969809cbd3b2d6ba">Sulphur</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-oklahoma-sulphur-5fa3a64e552ab91e8d76dabe21f70fd6">Holdenville</a>, were still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month. Both the Plains and Midwest have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornado-nebraska-midwest-iowa-missouri-kansas-491cd033f91eb27f4139bf5582e57903">hammered by tornadoes this spring</a>.Oklahoma and Kansas had been under a high-risk weather warning Monday. The last time such a warning was issued was March 31, 2023, when a massive&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-storms-tornadoes-midwest-south-4d35ce15af18e6cd50fda3aeb7a57176">storm system tore through parts of the South and Midwest</a>&nbsp;including Arkansas, Illinois and rural Indiana.The entire week is looking stormy across the U.S. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.

Deadly Oklahoma tornado had winds over 160mph

DALLAS (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice is suspected of assault in Dallas a little over a month after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/rashee-rice-dallas-crash-kansas-city-chiefs-b9c772b81b1b64ad111e249b38c8c4b5">he was one of the speeding drivers</a>&nbsp;in a chain-reaction crash that led to multiple charges, according to a newspaper report Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials told The Dallas Morning News that Rice was suspected of assaulting a person at a downtown nightclub early Monday, and that the person went to a hospital after the encounter.

Dallas police did not name Rice as the suspect in detailing a report of the incident to The Associated Press. Officers were dispatched to the nightclub about 2:30 a.m. Monday over a report of an assault, and the victim self-transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Rice's attorney, Texas state Sen. Royce West, didn't respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking comment. The Chiefs and the NFL declined to comment.

Rice reported to the Chiefs for voluntary workouts last month, when&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-rashee-rice-a05c25a451cbf078da1276807610cf52">Chiefs coach Andy Reid said</a>&nbsp;he had spoken to the receiver and the team was letting the legal process play out.

The former SMU and Dallas-area high school player reported to the Chiefs shortly after turning himself into Dallas police over multiple charges, including aggravated assault, involving the high-speed crash.

West has previously acknowledged Rice was speeding in a Lamborghini SUV when the crash involving six vehicles happened March 30. Police said Theodore Knox, who also played for SMU, was driving a Corvette.

Rice, who turned 24 last month, and Knox have been charged with one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury.

Four people were injured in the crash, and police said the occupants of the Lamborghini and Corvette left the scene without providing information or determining whether anyone needed medical attention.

Rice was drafted in the second round by Kansas City last year and played in 20 games, including the Chiefs' 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in the Super Bowl. He led the team with seven touchdowns receiving in the regular season.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712916229752.png" alt="Rice booking photo DeSoto Texas Jail" />
 <figcaption>Rice booking photo DeSoto Texas Jail</figcaption>
 </figure>DALLAS (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice is suspected of assault in Dallas a little over a month after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/rashee-rice-dallas-crash-kansas-city-chiefs-b9c772b81b1b64ad111e249b38c8c4b5">he was one of the speeding drivers</a>&nbsp;in a chain-reaction crash that led to multiple charges, according to a newspaper report Tuesday.Law enforcement officials told The Dallas Morning News that Rice was suspected of assaulting a person at a downtown nightclub early Monday, and that the person went to a hospital after the encounter.Dallas police did not name Rice as the suspect in detailing a report of the incident to The Associated Press. Officers were dispatched to the nightclub about 2:30 a.m. Monday over a report of an assault, and the victim self-transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.Rice's attorney, Texas state Sen. Royce West, didn't respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking comment. The Chiefs and the NFL declined to comment.Rice reported to the Chiefs for voluntary workouts last month, when&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-rashee-rice-a05c25a451cbf078da1276807610cf52">Chiefs coach Andy Reid said</a>&nbsp;he had spoken to the receiver and the team was letting the legal process play out.The former SMU and Dallas-area high school player reported to the Chiefs shortly after turning himself into Dallas police over multiple charges, including aggravated assault, involving the high-speed crash.West has previously acknowledged Rice was speeding in a Lamborghini SUV when the crash involving six vehicles happened March 30. Police said Theodore Knox, who also played for SMU, was driving a Corvette.Rice, who turned 24 last month, and Knox have been charged with one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712789752508.png" alt="In this screen grab taken from dash camera video provided by Bill Nabors, two speeding sports cars, left and second from left, cause a chain-reaction crash on the North Central Expressway, in Dallas, Saturday, March 30, 2024. Dallas police said Wednesday, April 10, that Kansas City Chiefs' wide receiver Rashee Rice faces charges including aggravated assault after he and another speeding driver of a sports car caused a chain-reaction crash on a Dallas highway. (Bill Nabors via AP)" />
 <figcaption>In this screen grab taken from dash camera video provided by Bill Nabors, two speeding sports cars, left and second from left, cause a chain-reaction crash on the North Central Expressway, in Dallas, Saturday, March 30, 2024. Dallas police said Wednesday, April 10, that Kansas City Chiefs' wide receiver Rashee Rice faces charges including aggravated assault after he and another speeding driver of a sports car caused a chain-reaction crash on a Dallas highway. (Bill Nabors via AP)</figcaption>
 </figure>Four people were injured in the crash, and police said the occupants of the Lamborghini and Corvette left the scene without providing information or determining whether anyone needed medical attention.Rice was drafted in the second round by Kansas City last year and played in 20 games, including the Chiefs' 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in the Super Bowl. He led the team with seven touchdowns receiving in the regular season.

Chiefs' Rashee Rice suspected of assault weeks after arrest over high-speed crash

&nbsp;SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas teen who admitted to his role in a December murder is going to prison.

On Friday, District Judge Jeffery Goering sentenced 18-year-old&nbsp;Philip Walls of Derby to just more than 27-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

In March, Walls pled guilty to 2nd-degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.

Around 2:00 a.m. Dec. 6, the Blackwell, Oklahoma Police Department contacted Sedgwick County Dispatch, reporting a shooting investigation involving two individuals including Walls who had entered a Blackwell hospital, with one of them sustaining a gunshot wound, according to Officer Andrew Ford.

Following discussions with the subjects, Blackwell Police shared information with Sedgwick County Dispatch. Consequently, the Wichita Police Department was alerted to respond to the Hydraulic and MacArthur area based on information suggesting that the shooting victim, 34-year-old Daniel McPherson, would be found there.

Upon arrival, officers discovered McPherson with a gunshot wound to his head. He&nbsp;was pronounced dead at the scene. Homicide investigators were dispatched to conduct the investigation and later traveled to Blackwell, Oklahoma where Walls and&nbsp;James Sawyer, 19, Wichita, were in custody.&nbsp;

Sawyer is set for a jury trial in August. He’s charged with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated robbery.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1702588818825.png" alt="Walls-photo Sedgwick Co." />
 <figcaption>Walls-photo Sedgwick Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>&nbsp;SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas teen who admitted to his role in a December murder is going to prison.On Friday, District Judge Jeffery Goering sentenced 18-year-old&nbsp;Philip Walls of Derby to just more than 27-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.In March, Walls pled guilty to 2nd-degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.Around 2:00 a.m. Dec. 6, the Blackwell, Oklahoma Police Department contacted Sedgwick County Dispatch, reporting a shooting investigation involving two individuals including Walls who had entered a Blackwell hospital, with one of them sustaining a gunshot wound, according to Officer Andrew Ford.Following discussions with the subjects, Blackwell Police shared information with Sedgwick County Dispatch. Consequently, the Wichita Police Department was alerted to respond to the Hydraulic and MacArthur area based on information suggesting that the shooting victim, 34-year-old Daniel McPherson, would be found there.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1705504542151.png" alt="Sawyer-photo Sedgwick Co." />
 <figcaption>Sawyer-photo Sedgwick Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Upon arrival, officers discovered McPherson with a gunshot wound to his head. He&nbsp;was pronounced dead at the scene. Homicide investigators were dispatched to conduct the investigation and later traveled to Blackwell, Oklahoma where Walls and&nbsp;James Sawyer, 19, Wichita, were in custody.&nbsp;Sawyer is set for a jury trial in August. He’s charged with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated robbery.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Kansas teen captured in Okla. going to prison for murder

KANSAS CITY—A jury returned a guilty verdict last week in a case addressing drug distribution in Kansas City, according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced.

The jury convicted 31-year-old Justin Williams&nbsp;of two felony counts for dealing or distributing methamphetamine after Kansas City police detectives purchased meth from him on five occasions in late 2016 and 2017.&nbsp; 

The court has not scheduled a sentencing hearing for Williams.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1714834239415.png" alt="Williams from a previous arrest in Wyandotte Co." />
 <figcaption>Williams from a previous arrest in Wyandotte Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY—A jury returned a guilty verdict last week in a case addressing drug distribution in Kansas City, according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced.The jury convicted 31-year-old Justin Williams&nbsp;of two felony counts for dealing or distributing methamphetamine after Kansas City police detectives purchased meth from him on five occasions in late 2016 and 2017.&nbsp; The court has not scheduled a sentencing hearing for Williams.

KCPD detectives purchased meth from suspect five times

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, ERIC TUCKER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ&nbsp;

NEW YORK (AP) — With Donald Trump sitting just feet away,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-d3dce88566bafb714dbb5c1acd3e4a83">Stormy Daniels</a>&nbsp;testified Tuesday at the former president's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels-cohen-9be06e3d33c25af7060552a44001cc1a">hush money trial</a>&nbsp;about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.

Jurors appeared riveted as Daniels offered a detailed and at times graphic account of the encounter Trump has denied. Trump stared straight ahead when Daniels entered the courtroom, later whispering to his lawyers and shaking his head as she testified.

The testimony was by far the most-awaited spectacle in a trial that has toggled between tabloidesque elements and dry record-keeping details. A courtroom appearance by a porn actor who says she had an intimate encounter with a former American president added to the long list of historic firsts in a landmark case laden with claims of sex, payoffs and cover-ups and unfolding as the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-primary-georgia-washington-mississippi-hawaii-15bb0084ad656903ffef14cfae822abd">presumptive Republican nominee</a>&nbsp;makes another bid for the White House.

Daniels veered into salacious details despite the repeated objections of defense lawyers, who demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments.

“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” attorney Todd Blanche said. “How can we come back from this in a way that’s fair to President Trump?”

The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony. The Trump team later in the day used its opportunity to question Daniels to paint her as motivated by personal animus and profiting off her claims against Trump.

"Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels.

Daniels' statements are central to the case because in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-cohen-stormy-daniels-grand-jury-d48153fc2d3fe7a656e8a24ad1acd082">paid her $130,000 to keep quiet</a>&nbsp;about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Led by a prosecutor's questioning, Daniels described how an initial meeting at a golf tournament, where they discussed the adult film industry, progressed to a “brief” sexual encounter that she said Trump initiated after inviting her to dinner and back to his hotel suite.

She said she didn’t feel physically or verbally threatened, though she knew his bodyguard was outside the suite. There was also what she perceived as an imbalance of power: Trump “was bigger and blocking the way," she said.

At the time, Trump was married to his wife, Melania, who has not been in court for the trial. Daniels said Trump told her they did not sleep in the same room, prompting him to shake his head at the defense table.

After it ended, Daniels said, “It was really hard to get my shoes because my hands were shaking so hard.”

“He said, ‘Oh, it was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch,’” Daniels said. “I just wanted to leave.”

In the years since the encounter was disclosed, Daniels has emerged as a vocal Trump antagonist, sharing her story innumerable times and criticizing the former president with mocking and pejorative jabs. But there was no precedent for Tuesday's testimony, when she came face-to-face with Trump and was asked under oath in an austere courtroom to describe her experiences to a jury weighing whether to convict a former American president of felony crimes for the first time in history.

She told jurors how she met Trump because the adult film studio she worked for at the time sponsored one of the holes on the golf course. She said they had a brief conversation when Trump's group passed through, chatting about the adult film industry and her directing abilities. The celebrity real estate developer remarked that she must be “the smart one” if she was making films, Daniels recalled.

Later, in an area known as the “gift room,” where celebrity golfers collected gift bags and swag, Trump remembered her as “the smart one” and asked her to dinner, Daniels said.

She said her then-publicist suggested in a phone call that Trump’s invitation was a good excuse to skip a work dinner and would “make a great story” and perhaps help her career.

“What could possibly go wrong?” she recalled the publicist saying.

The two saw each other periodically in the ensuing years, when she said she spurned Trump's advances.

In 2011, several years after she and Trump were last in touch, she said she learned from her agent that the story of her encounter with Trump had made its way to a magazine.

She said she agreed to an interview for $15,000 because “I’d rather make the money than somebody make money off of me, and at least I could control the narrative.” The story never ran, but later that year, she was alarmed when an item turned up on a website.

Perhaps seeking to preempt defense claims that she was in urgent need of a massive payout, Daniels testified that she was in the best financial shape of her life when she authorized her manager to shop her story during the 2016 presidential campaign.

She said she had no intent of approaching Cohen or Trump to have them pay her.

“My motivation wasn’t money," she said. "It was to get the story out,” she testified.

But Necheles zeroed in on that point, pressing Daniels on the fact that she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/stormy-daniels-trump-defamation-lawsuit-0ee5623fc8965ad3d2fc77a7126d24c7">owes Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees</a>&nbsp;stemming from an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit and that she tweeted in 2022 that she “will go to jail before I pay a penny.”

“That was me saying, ‘I will not pay for telling the truth,’” Daniels testified Tuesday.

She later forcefully denied that she was trying to squeeze Trump for money.

"You were looking to extort money from President Trump,” Necheles said.

“Well, that’s what you did,” the lawyer said.

Daniels was expected to return to the witness stand Thursday, when the trial resumes.

Testimony so far has made clear that at the time of the payment to Daniels, Trump and his campaign were reeling from the October 2016 publication of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-access-hollywood-hush-money-new-york-2c52279a45ede2a111ff1fe447d2fdac">never-before-seen 2005 “Access Hollywood” footage</a>&nbsp;in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals without their permission.

Before that video was made public, "there was very little if any interest” in Daniels' claims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-stormy-daniels-hush-money-election-2024-d2f9badee0b28a60d32bc98c0d4e783f">according to testimony earlier in the trial</a>&nbsp;from her then-lawyer, Keith Davidson. A deal was reached with the National Enquirer for Daniels’ story, but the tabloid backed out. Davidson began negotiating with Cohen directly, hiked up the price to $130,000, and reached a deal.

After the deadline for the $130,000 payment from Cohen came and went, she authorized Davidson to cancel the deal. He did, by email, according to documents shown in court. But about two weeks later, the deal was revived.

Daniels testified that she ended up with about $96,000 of the $130,000 payment, after her lawyer and agent got their cuts.

She also said she was steadfast in abiding by her nondisclosure agreement with Cohen, declining to comment to The Wall Street Journal for a November 2016 story that reported she had been in discussions to tell her story on “Good Morning America” but that nothing had come of it. She also declined to comment for the newspaper before it broke the news of her hush money arrangement in 2018.

After that story was published, her life turned into “chaos,” she testified.

“I was front and foremost everywhere,” she recalled.

Prosecutors are building toward their star witness,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/michael-cohen">Cohen</a>, who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-michael-cohen-74aaf72511d64fceb1d64529207bde64">pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments</a>.

Trump is charged with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arraignment-hush-money-81225510ef7638494852816878f612f0">34 felony counts of falsifying business records</a>&nbsp;in connection with the payments. The trial is the first of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/projects/trump-investigations-civil-criminal-tracker/">his four criminal cases</a>&nbsp;to reach a jury.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715113495617.png" alt="Photo of Trump and Stormy Daniels entered into evidence released by the New York State Court System&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Photo of Trump and Stormy Daniels entered into evidence released by the New York State Court System&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, ERIC TUCKER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ&nbsp;NEW YORK (AP) — With Donald Trump sitting just feet away,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-d3dce88566bafb714dbb5c1acd3e4a83">Stormy Daniels</a>&nbsp;testified Tuesday at the former president's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels-cohen-9be06e3d33c25af7060552a44001cc1a">hush money trial</a>&nbsp;about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.Jurors appeared riveted as Daniels offered a detailed and at times graphic account of the encounter Trump has denied. Trump stared straight ahead when Daniels entered the courtroom, later whispering to his lawyers and shaking his head as she testified.The testimony was by far the most-awaited spectacle in a trial that has toggled between tabloidesque elements and dry record-keeping details. A courtroom appearance by a porn actor who says she had an intimate encounter with a former American president added to the long list of historic firsts in a landmark case laden with claims of sex, payoffs and cover-ups and unfolding as the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-primary-georgia-washington-mississippi-hawaii-15bb0084ad656903ffef14cfae822abd">presumptive Republican nominee</a>&nbsp;makes another bid for the White House.Daniels veered into salacious details despite the repeated objections of defense lawyers, who demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments.“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” attorney Todd Blanche said. “How can we come back from this in a way that’s fair to President Trump?”The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony. The Trump team later in the day used its opportunity to question Daniels to paint her as motivated by personal animus and profiting off her claims against Trump."Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels.“Yes,” she acknowledged.Daniels' statements are central to the case because in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-cohen-stormy-daniels-grand-jury-d48153fc2d3fe7a656e8a24ad1acd082">paid her $130,000 to keep quiet</a>&nbsp;about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe. Trump has pleaded not guilty.Led by a prosecutor's questioning, Daniels described how an initial meeting at a golf tournament, where they discussed the adult film industry, progressed to a “brief” sexual encounter that she said Trump initiated after inviting her to dinner and back to his hotel suite.She said she didn’t feel physically or verbally threatened, though she knew his bodyguard was outside the suite. There was also what she perceived as an imbalance of power: Trump “was bigger and blocking the way," she said.At the time, Trump was married to his wife, Melania, who has not been in court for the trial. Daniels said Trump told her they did not sleep in the same room, prompting him to shake his head at the defense table.After it ended, Daniels said, “It was really hard to get my shoes because my hands were shaking so hard.”“He said, ‘Oh, it was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch,’” Daniels said. “I just wanted to leave.”In the years since the encounter was disclosed, Daniels has emerged as a vocal Trump antagonist, sharing her story innumerable times and criticizing the former president with mocking and pejorative jabs. But there was no precedent for Tuesday's testimony, when she came face-to-face with Trump and was asked under oath in an austere courtroom to describe her experiences to a jury weighing whether to convict a former American president of felony crimes for the first time in history.She told jurors how she met Trump because the adult film studio she worked for at the time sponsored one of the holes on the golf course. She said they had a brief conversation when Trump's group passed through, chatting about the adult film industry and her directing abilities. The celebrity real estate developer remarked that she must be “the smart one” if she was making films, Daniels recalled.Later, in an area known as the “gift room,” where celebrity golfers collected gift bags and swag, Trump remembered her as “the smart one” and asked her to dinner, Daniels said.She said her then-publicist suggested in a phone call that Trump’s invitation was a good excuse to skip a work dinner and would “make a great story” and perhaps help her career.“What could possibly go wrong?” she recalled the publicist saying.The two saw each other periodically in the ensuing years, when she said she spurned Trump's advances.In 2011, several years after she and Trump were last in touch, she said she learned from her agent that the story of her encounter with Trump had made its way to a magazine.She said she agreed to an interview for $15,000 because “I’d rather make the money than somebody make money off of me, and at least I could control the narrative.” The story never ran, but later that year, she was alarmed when an item turned up on a website.Perhaps seeking to preempt defense claims that she was in urgent need of a massive payout, Daniels testified that she was in the best financial shape of her life when she authorized her manager to shop her story during the 2016 presidential campaign.She said she had no intent of approaching Cohen or Trump to have them pay her.“My motivation wasn’t money," she said. "It was to get the story out,” she testified.But Necheles zeroed in on that point, pressing Daniels on the fact that she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/stormy-daniels-trump-defamation-lawsuit-0ee5623fc8965ad3d2fc77a7126d24c7">owes Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees</a>&nbsp;stemming from an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit and that she tweeted in 2022 that she “will go to jail before I pay a penny.”“That was me saying, ‘I will not pay for telling the truth,’” Daniels testified Tuesday.She later forcefully denied that she was trying to squeeze Trump for money."You were looking to extort money from President Trump,” Necheles said.“False,” Daniels responded.“Well, that’s what you did,” the lawyer said.“False,” Daniels answered.Daniels was expected to return to the witness stand Thursday, when the trial resumes.Testimony so far has made clear that at the time of the payment to Daniels, Trump and his campaign were reeling from the October 2016 publication of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-access-hollywood-hush-money-new-york-2c52279a45ede2a111ff1fe447d2fdac">never-before-seen 2005 “Access Hollywood” footage</a>&nbsp;in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals without their permission.Before that video was made public, "there was very little if any interest” in Daniels' claims,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-stormy-daniels-hush-money-election-2024-d2f9badee0b28a60d32bc98c0d4e783f">according to testimony earlier in the trial</a>&nbsp;from her then-lawyer, Keith Davidson. A deal was reached with the National Enquirer for Daniels’ story, but the tabloid backed out. Davidson began negotiating with Cohen directly, hiked up the price to $130,000, and reached a deal.After the deadline for the $130,000 payment from Cohen came and went, she authorized Davidson to cancel the deal. He did, by email, according to documents shown in court. But about two weeks later, the deal was revived.Daniels testified that she ended up with about $96,000 of the $130,000 payment, after her lawyer and agent got their cuts.She also said she was steadfast in abiding by her nondisclosure agreement with Cohen, declining to comment to The Wall Street Journal for a November 2016 story that reported she had been in discussions to tell her story on “Good Morning America” but that nothing had come of it. She also declined to comment for the newspaper before it broke the news of her hush money arrangement in 2018.After that story was published, her life turned into “chaos,” she testified.“I was front and foremost everywhere,” she recalled.Prosecutors are building toward their star witness,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/michael-cohen">Cohen</a>, who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-michael-cohen-74aaf72511d64fceb1d64529207bde64">pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments</a>.Trump is charged with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arraignment-hush-money-81225510ef7638494852816878f612f0">34 felony counts of falsifying business records</a>&nbsp;in connection with the payments. The trial is the first of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/projects/trump-investigations-civil-criminal-tracker/">his four criminal cases</a>&nbsp;to reach a jury.

Salacious testimony: Stormy Daniels tells all during historic Trump trial

BUTLER COUNTY –&nbsp;The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Augusta Department of Public Safety have been investigating the murder of 93-year-old Joanne R. Johnson, of Augusta, Kansas, since she was discovered deceased in her residence on September 3, 2023.

Governor Laura Kelly has issued an executive order offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for Johnson’s murder. Under the same conditions, the family of Joanne Johnson has offered to match the reward for information, increasing the total reward to $10,000.

Johnson was found by a family member after she was killed in her home at 1711 Robbins St. in Augusta, last Labor Day weekend. Authorities believe she was killed between Saturday evening, September 2, 2023 and Sunday evening, September 3, 2023.

Johnson was a white female. She was 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed around 140 pounds. She had white hair, blue eyes, and wore glasses.&nbsp;

Anyone with information about this crime, no matter how small the detail might seem, is asked to contact the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME or Augusta Crime Stoppers at 316-775-0055. Anonymous tips can also be submitted online at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar" target="_blank">https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar</a>, or by using the P3 TIPS App on the Augusta Crime Stoppers Facebook page. The investigation is ongoing.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715093373488.png" alt="Johnson" />
 <figcaption>Johnson</figcaption>
 </figure>BUTLER COUNTY –&nbsp;The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Augusta Department of Public Safety have been investigating the murder of 93-year-old Joanne R. Johnson, of Augusta, Kansas, since she was discovered deceased in her residence on September 3, 2023.Governor Laura Kelly has issued an executive order offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for Johnson’s murder. Under the same conditions, the family of Joanne Johnson has offered to match the reward for information, increasing the total reward to $10,000.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/9/1694019724772.png" alt="Johnson was killed in her home last September- photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Johnson was killed in her home last September- photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>Johnson was found by a family member after she was killed in her home at 1711 Robbins St. in Augusta, last Labor Day weekend. Authorities believe she was killed between Saturday evening, September 2, 2023 and Sunday evening, September 3, 2023.Johnson was a white female. She was 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed around 140 pounds. She had white hair, blue eyes, and wore glasses.&nbsp;Anyone with information about this crime, no matter how small the detail might seem, is asked to contact the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME or Augusta Crime Stoppers at 316-775-0055. Anonymous tips can also be submitted online at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar" target="_blank">https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar</a>, or by using the P3 TIPS App on the Augusta Crime Stoppers Facebook page. The investigation is ongoing.

Reward offered for information in murder of 93-year-old Kan. woman

WASHINGTON (AP)—TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-china-lawsuit-biden-42840d6596dbb6671442db94fe95cddd">over a law that would ban</a>&nbsp;the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to another company, arguing that it relies on vaguely painting it as a threat to national security to get around the First Amendment.

The widely expected lawsuit filed on Tuesday may be setting up what will likely be a protracted legal fight over TikTok's future in the United States — and could end up before the Supreme Court. If TikTok loses, it says it will be forced to shut down next year.

The popular social video company says that the law, which President Joe Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-mike-johnson-ukraine-israel-b72aed9b195818735d24363f2bc34ea4">signed</a>&nbsp;as part of a larger $95 billion foreign aid package, is so “obviously unconstitutional” that the sponsors of The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are trying to portray it not as a ban, but as a regulation of TikTok's ownership. It's the first time the U.S. government has singled out a social media company with a potential ban, which free speech advocates note is more common in repressive regimes such as Iran or China.

“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for protected speech and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet,” ByteDance said in its suit, filed in a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. “For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”

The law requires TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, to sell the platform within nine months. If a sale is already in progress, the company will get another three months to complete the deal. ByteDance has said it “doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.” But even if it wanted to divest, the company would have to get a blessing from Beijing. According to the lawsuit, the Chinese government has “made clear” that it would not permit ByteDance to divest of the recommendation engine that is “key to the success of TikTok in the United States.”

TikTok and ByteDance argued in the lawsuit that it isn't being given a choice.

“The ‘qualified divestiture’ demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally,” they said.

“There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit argues that it would be impossible for ByteDance to divest its U.S. TikTok platform as a separate entity from the rest of TikTok, which has 1 billion users worldwide — most of them outside of the United States. A U.S.-only TikTok, the suit says, would operate as an “island” that's detached from the rest of the world.

TikTok also paints divestment as a technological impossibility, since the law requires all of TikTok's millions of lines of software code to be wrested from ByteDance so that there is no “operational relationship” between the Chinese company and the new U.S. app.

“Specifically, to comply with the law’s divestiture requirement, that code base would have to be moved to a large, alternative team of engineers — a team that does not exist and would have no understanding of the complex code necessary to run the platform,” the lawsuit says. “It would take years for an entirely new set of engineers to gain sufficient familiarity with the source code to perform the ongoing, necessary maintenance and development activities for the platform.”

The parties argued that they should be protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression. They are seeking a declaratory judgment that the Act violates the U.S. Constitution; an order enjoining Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing the Act and any further relief that the court may deem appropriate.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the suit Tuesday.

The fight over TikTok takes place as U.S.-China relations have shifted to that of intense strategic rivalry, especially in areas such as advanced technologies and data security, seen as essential to each country’s economic prowess and national security.

U.S. lawmakers from both parties, as well as administration and law enforcement officials, have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/1051/text?s=1&amp;r=42">expressed concerns</a>&nbsp;that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion by manipulating the algorithm that populates users' feeds. Some have also pointed to a Rutgers University study that maintains TikTok content was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-china-israel-hamas-war-research-7e94266c51b21f48e21b648463e65b0c">being amplified or underrepresented</a>&nbsp;based on how it aligns with the interests of the Chinese government, which the company disputes.

Opponents of the law argue that Chinese authorities — or any nefarious parties — could easily get information on Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that rent or sell personal information. They note the U.S. government hasn't provided public evidence that shows TikTok sharing U.S. user information with Chinese authorities, or tinkering with its algorithm for China's benefit. They also say attempts to ban the app could violate free speech rights in the U.S.

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, expects TikTok's challenge to the ban to succeed.

“The First Amendment means the government can’t restrict Americans’ access to ideas, information, or media from abroad without a very good reason for it—and no such reason exists here,” Jaffer said in a printed statement.

While TikTok has prevailed in its earlier First Amendment challenges, it is not clear whether the current lawsuit will be as simple.

“The bipartisan nature of this federal law may make judges more likely to defer to a Congressional determination that the company poses a national security risk,” said Gautam Hans, a law professor and associate director of the First Amendment Clinic at Cornell University. "Without public discussion of what exactly the risks are, however, it’s difficult to determine why the courts should validate such an unprecedented law.”

WASHINGTON (AP)—TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-china-lawsuit-biden-42840d6596dbb6671442db94fe95cddd">over a law that would ban</a>&nbsp;the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to another company, arguing that it relies on vaguely painting it as a threat to national security to get around the First Amendment.The widely expected lawsuit filed on Tuesday may be setting up what will likely be a protracted legal fight over TikTok's future in the United States — and could end up before the Supreme Court. If TikTok loses, it says it will be forced to shut down next year.The popular social video company says that the law, which President Joe Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-mike-johnson-ukraine-israel-b72aed9b195818735d24363f2bc34ea4">signed</a>&nbsp;as part of a larger $95 billion foreign aid package, is so “obviously unconstitutional” that the sponsors of The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are trying to portray it not as a ban, but as a regulation of TikTok's ownership. It's the first time the U.S. government has singled out a social media company with a potential ban, which free speech advocates note is more common in repressive regimes such as Iran or China.“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for protected speech and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet,” ByteDance said in its suit, filed in a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. “For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”The law requires TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, to sell the platform within nine months. If a sale is already in progress, the company will get another three months to complete the deal. ByteDance has said it “doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.” But even if it wanted to divest, the company would have to get a blessing from Beijing. According to the lawsuit, the Chinese government has “made clear” that it would not permit ByteDance to divest of the recommendation engine that is “key to the success of TikTok in the United States.”TikTok and ByteDance argued in the lawsuit that it isn't being given a choice.“The ‘qualified divestiture’ demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally,” they said.“There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit says.The lawsuit argues that it would be impossible for ByteDance to divest its U.S. TikTok platform as a separate entity from the rest of TikTok, which has 1 billion users worldwide — most of them outside of the United States. A U.S.-only TikTok, the suit says, would operate as an “island” that's detached from the rest of the world.TikTok also paints divestment as a technological impossibility, since the law requires all of TikTok's millions of lines of software code to be wrested from ByteDance so that there is no “operational relationship” between the Chinese company and the new U.S. app.“Specifically, to comply with the law’s divestiture requirement, that code base would have to be moved to a large, alternative team of engineers — a team that does not exist and would have no understanding of the complex code necessary to run the platform,” the lawsuit says. “It would take years for an entirely new set of engineers to gain sufficient familiarity with the source code to perform the ongoing, necessary maintenance and development activities for the platform.”The parties argued that they should be protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression. They are seeking a declaratory judgment that the Act violates the U.S. Constitution; an order enjoining Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing the Act and any further relief that the court may deem appropriate.The Justice Department declined to comment on the suit Tuesday.The fight over TikTok takes place as U.S.-China relations have shifted to that of intense strategic rivalry, especially in areas such as advanced technologies and data security, seen as essential to each country’s economic prowess and national security.U.S. lawmakers from both parties, as well as administration and law enforcement officials, have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/1051/text?s=1&amp;r=42">expressed concerns</a>&nbsp;that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion by manipulating the algorithm that populates users' feeds. Some have also pointed to a Rutgers University study that maintains TikTok content was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-china-israel-hamas-war-research-7e94266c51b21f48e21b648463e65b0c">being amplified or underrepresented</a>&nbsp;based on how it aligns with the interests of the Chinese government, which the company disputes.Opponents of the law argue that Chinese authorities — or any nefarious parties — could easily get information on Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that rent or sell personal information. They note the U.S. government hasn't provided public evidence that shows TikTok sharing U.S. user information with Chinese authorities, or tinkering with its algorithm for China's benefit. They also say attempts to ban the app could violate free speech rights in the U.S.Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, expects TikTok's challenge to the ban to succeed.“The First Amendment means the government can’t restrict Americans’ access to ideas, information, or media from abroad without a very good reason for it—and no such reason exists here,” Jaffer said in a printed statement.While TikTok has prevailed in its earlier First Amendment challenges, it is not clear whether the current lawsuit will be as simple.“The bipartisan nature of this federal law may make judges more likely to defer to a Congressional determination that the company poses a national security risk,” said Gautam Hans, a law professor and associate director of the First Amendment Clinic at Cornell University. "Without public discussion of what exactly the risks are, however, it’s difficult to determine why the courts should validate such an unprecedented law.”

Battle to ban TikTok in the US moves to court 

IRVING, Texas (AP) — The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/boy-scouts-of-america">Boy Scouts of America</a>&nbsp;is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history and will become Scouting America. It's a significant shift as the organization emerges from bankruptcy following a flood of sexual abuse claims and seeks to focus on inclusion.

The organization steeped in tradition has made seismic changes after decades of turmoil, from finally allowing gay youth to welcoming girls throughout its ranks. With an eye on increasing flagging membership numbers, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change Tuesday at its annual meeting in Florida.

“In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” Roger Krone,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boys-scouts-new-president-bankruptcy-516869e181513c073ac7edc139ad48d3">who took over last fall as president and chief executive officer,</a>&nbsp;said in an interview before the announcement.

The organization began&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/47bac00392fb4ba7a89d06946607bf34">allowing gay youth in 2013</a>&nbsp;and ended a blanket ban on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/c4795353c1904ca1ab56691cb0a356e6">gay adult leaders in 2015.</a>&nbsp;In 2017, it made the historic&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/7f690adec7ad45d2a9469baac8e90ac7">announcement that girls</a>&nbsp;would be accepted as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d3efeda8ffb74b79b367fce426780d6f">renamed Scouts BSA</a>&nbsp;— in 2019.

There were nearly 1,000 young women in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-minneapolis-8018efd354ba18713b128776b3fda085">inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts</a>&nbsp;in 2021, including Selby Chipman. The all-girls troop she was a founding member of in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to nearly 50, and she thinks the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.

“Girls were like: ‘You can join Boy Scouts of America?’” said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant scoutmaster of her troop.

Within days of the announcement that girls would be allowed, Bob Brady went to work. A father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout himself, the New Jersey attorney eagerly formed an all-girls troop. At their first weekend gathering with other troops, the boys were happy to have the girls involved but some adult leaders seemed concerned, he recalled. Their worries seemed to melt away as soon as the girls led a traditional cheer around the campfire.

“You could see a change in the attitude of some of the doubters who weren’t sure and they realized, wait, these kids are exactly the same, they just happen to have ponytails,” said Brady. His daughters are among the 13 girls in his troop and 6,000 girls nationwide who have achieved the vaunted Eagle Scout rank.

Like other organizations, the scouts&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/only-on-ap-health-coronavirus-pandemic-7afeb2667df0a391de3be67b38495972">lost members during the pandemic,</a>&nbsp;when participation was difficult. After a highpoint over the last decade of over 2 million members in 2018, the organization currently services just over 1 million youths, including more than 176,000 girls and young women. Membership peaked in 1972 at almost 5 million.

The move by the Boy Scouts to accept girls throughout their ranks strained a bond with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it created marketplace confusion and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-00ed4641c60828eefca1c14d57faada3">damaged their recruitment efforts</a>. They reached a settlement agreement after a judge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boy-scouts-of-america-new-york-united-states-manhattan-lifestyle-d97b9453aaf6c8b6385e45d81b954f24">rejected those claims</a>, saying both groups are free to use words like “scouts” and “scouting.”

While camping remains an integral activity for the Boy Scouts, the organization offers something for everyone today, from high adventures to merit badges for robotics and digital technology, Krone said: “About anything kids want to do today, they can do in a structured way within the scouting program."

The Boy Scouts’ $2.4 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boy-scouts-bankruptcy-child-sexual-abuse-02d3a401645f337e483f9fd844d9a809">bankruptcy reorganization plan</a>&nbsp;took effect last year, allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating the more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually abused as children while scouting.

Angelique Minett, the first woman chairperson of Scouts BSA, gets excited about the future of scouting when she sees the about 20-person youth council from across the United States help guide the program by raising issues important to them, like sustainability, and things that they'd like to see changed, like the fit on some of the uniforms.

“When we think scouts we think knots and camping, but those are a means to an end," Minett said. “We are actually teaching kids a much bigger thing. We are teaching them how to have grit, and we’re teaching them life skills and we’re teaching them how to be good leaders.”

The organization won't officially become Scouting America until Feb. 8, 2025, the organization's 115th birthday. But Krone said he expects people will start immediately using the name.

IRVING, Texas (AP) — The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/boy-scouts-of-america">Boy Scouts of America</a>&nbsp;is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history and will become Scouting America. It's a significant shift as the organization emerges from bankruptcy following a flood of sexual abuse claims and seeks to focus on inclusion.The organization steeped in tradition has made seismic changes after decades of turmoil, from finally allowing gay youth to welcoming girls throughout its ranks. With an eye on increasing flagging membership numbers, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change Tuesday at its annual meeting in Florida.“In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” Roger Krone,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boys-scouts-new-president-bankruptcy-516869e181513c073ac7edc139ad48d3">who took over last fall as president and chief executive officer,</a>&nbsp;said in an interview before the announcement.The organization began&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/47bac00392fb4ba7a89d06946607bf34">allowing gay youth in 2013</a>&nbsp;and ended a blanket ban on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/c4795353c1904ca1ab56691cb0a356e6">gay adult leaders in 2015.</a>&nbsp;In 2017, it made the historic&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/7f690adec7ad45d2a9469baac8e90ac7">announcement that girls</a>&nbsp;would be accepted as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d3efeda8ffb74b79b367fce426780d6f">renamed Scouts BSA</a>&nbsp;— in 2019.There were nearly 1,000 young women in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-minneapolis-8018efd354ba18713b128776b3fda085">inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts</a>&nbsp;in 2021, including Selby Chipman. The all-girls troop she was a founding member of in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to nearly 50, and she thinks the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.“Girls were like: ‘You can join Boy Scouts of America?’” said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant scoutmaster of her troop.Within days of the announcement that girls would be allowed, Bob Brady went to work. A father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout himself, the New Jersey attorney eagerly formed an all-girls troop. At their first weekend gathering with other troops, the boys were happy to have the girls involved but some adult leaders seemed concerned, he recalled. Their worries seemed to melt away as soon as the girls led a traditional cheer around the campfire.“You could see a change in the attitude of some of the doubters who weren’t sure and they realized, wait, these kids are exactly the same, they just happen to have ponytails,” said Brady. His daughters are among the 13 girls in his troop and 6,000 girls nationwide who have achieved the vaunted Eagle Scout rank.Like other organizations, the scouts&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/only-on-ap-health-coronavirus-pandemic-7afeb2667df0a391de3be67b38495972">lost members during the pandemic,</a>&nbsp;when participation was difficult. After a highpoint over the last decade of over 2 million members in 2018, the organization currently services just over 1 million youths, including more than 176,000 girls and young women. Membership peaked in 1972 at almost 5 million.The move by the Boy Scouts to accept girls throughout their ranks strained a bond with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it created marketplace confusion and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-00ed4641c60828eefca1c14d57faada3">damaged their recruitment efforts</a>. They reached a settlement agreement after a judge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boy-scouts-of-america-new-york-united-states-manhattan-lifestyle-d97b9453aaf6c8b6385e45d81b954f24">rejected those claims</a>, saying both groups are free to use words like “scouts” and “scouting.”While camping remains an integral activity for the Boy Scouts, the organization offers something for everyone today, from high adventures to merit badges for robotics and digital technology, Krone said: “About anything kids want to do today, they can do in a structured way within the scouting program."The Boy Scouts’ $2.4 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boy-scouts-bankruptcy-child-sexual-abuse-02d3a401645f337e483f9fd844d9a809">bankruptcy reorganization plan</a>&nbsp;took effect last year, allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating the more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually abused as children while scouting.Angelique Minett, the first woman chairperson of Scouts BSA, gets excited about the future of scouting when she sees the about 20-person youth council from across the United States help guide the program by raising issues important to them, like sustainability, and things that they'd like to see changed, like the fit on some of the uniforms.“When we think scouts we think knots and camping, but those are a means to an end," Minett said. “We are actually teaching kids a much bigger thing. We are teaching them how to have grit, and we’re teaching them life skills and we’re teaching them how to be good leaders.”The organization won't officially become Scouting America until Feb. 8, 2025, the organization's 115th birthday. But Krone said he expects people will start immediately using the name.

Boy Scouts of America changing name to be more inclusive 

DOUGLAS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating after a&nbsp;woman was shot and a man was injured after a dog got loose and attacked the man and his dog while walking in the 700 block of Ash Street in Lawrence.

The incident happened around noon Monday, according to a statement from Lawrence Police. The man stopped the attack by shooting the attacking dog and killing it, but he also struck the dog's owner, in her upper leg as she was trying to restrain the dog.

The woman was transferred to an area trauma center with suspected non-life threatening injuries. The man was seen by medics, but declined further treatment on scene. Police have not reported an arrest or additional details including the name's of those involved.

DOUGLAS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating after a&nbsp;woman was shot and a man was injured after a dog got loose and attacked the man and his dog while walking in the 700 block of Ash Street in Lawrence.The incident happened around noon Monday, according to a statement from Lawrence Police. The man stopped the attack by shooting the attacking dog and killing it, but he also struck the dog's owner, in her upper leg as she was trying to restrain the dog.The woman was transferred to an area trauma center with suspected non-life threatening injuries. The man was seen by medics, but declined further treatment on scene. Police have not reported an arrest or additional details including the name's of those involved.

Kansas man kills attacking dog, shoots dog's owner

WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Detectives investigating the eighth homicide of the year in Kansas City, Kansas have identified the victim as 48-year-old Javier Benitez-Pizarro, Des Moines, Iowa.

Just before 1a.m. Thursday, police&nbsp; were dispatched to a shooting in the 1700 block of Cleveland Avenue, according to a media release.&nbsp;

First responders discovered two men with apparent gunshot wounds. They was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.&nbsp;

 Benitez-Pizarro&nbsp;was located outside of the residence with an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased on scene.

One of the wounded man is reported in in stable condition, according to police. The&nbsp;third victim, an adult male, remains in critical condition.

 This incident is under investigation by the KCKPD Major Case Unit. Anyone with information on this case is urged to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). All tips remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.There is nothing further to report at this time.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1714658439034.png" alt="Police on the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KCTV" />
 <figcaption>Police on the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KCTV</figcaption>
 </figure>WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Detectives investigating the eighth homicide of the year in Kansas City, Kansas have identified the victim as 48-year-old Javier Benitez-Pizarro, Des Moines, Iowa.Just before 1a.m. Thursday, police&nbsp; were dispatched to a shooting in the 1700 block of Cleveland Avenue, according to a media release.&nbsp;First responders discovered two men with apparent gunshot wounds. They was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.&nbsp; Benitez-Pizarro&nbsp;was located outside of the residence with an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced deceased on scene.One of the wounded man is reported in in stable condition, according to police. The&nbsp;third victim, an adult male, remains in critical condition. This incident is under investigation by the KCKPD Major Case Unit. Anyone with information on this case is urged to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). All tips remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.There is nothing further to report at this time.

1 dead, 2 remain hospitalized after shooting at Kan. home

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attempted arson and have made an arrest.

 A man has been arrested following an attempt to light a building on fire Sunday evening.

Just before 6p.m. Sunday, police responded to Robinson Middle School, located at 1125 SW 14th Street in response to an unknown problem. It was alleged that a man later identified as 28-year-old Malcom A. Buchanan&nbsp; had attempted to light the school on fire.

Officers located a suspect matching the description reported and took&nbsp;Buchanan into custody. He was was later booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges Arson; Non-Dwelling With Intent To Injure and Transport Open Container Of Liquor.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715026405226.png" alt="Buchanan-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Buchanan-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attempted arson and have made an arrest. A man has been arrested following an attempt to light a building on fire Sunday evening.Just before 6p.m. Sunday, police responded to Robinson Middle School, located at 1125 SW 14th Street in response to an unknown problem. It was alleged that a man later identified as 28-year-old Malcom A. Buchanan&nbsp; had attempted to light the school on fire.Officers located a suspect matching the description reported and took&nbsp;Buchanan into custody. He was was later booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges Arson; Non-Dwelling With Intent To Injure and Transport Open Container Of Liquor.

Police: Man tried to start fire at Kansas middle school

BY&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/sherman-smith/">SHERMAN SMITH</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — House Speaker Dan Hawkins on Monday urged Gov. Laura Kelly to sign bipartisan tax relief rather than summon lawmakers back to Topeka for a special session that would cost $84,000 per day.

The Democratic governor threatened to call a special session if lawmakers failed to adopt a package of tax cuts that met her approval. She vetoed a package of income, property and sales tax cuts that would have left the state with a budget deficit by 2029, and proposed a less-costly alternative.

But lawmakers never considered her proposal before adjourning for the year. Instead, lawmakers passed a nearly identical plan to the one she vetoed.

“The Legislature has bent over backward to address her stated concerns, the state’s fiscal outlook is positive, and we have a hefty budget surplus,” Hawkins said in a statement Monday. “The governor is out of excuses. We don’t need an $84,000-a-day special session for tax relief — the work has already been done through great bipartisan efforts of the legislative tax committees. We simply need the governor to make good on her campaign promise to govern from the middle and sign the bill.”

During her reelection campaign in 2022, Kelly promised to govern from the middle of the road.

“Still looking on the map for the road you are in the ‘middle’ of, Governor,” Rep. Rebecca Schmoe, R-Ottawa,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/rebecca_schmoe/status/1787517072114663677">wrote on X</a>. “Sign the tax bill over half of your own party in the legislature supports. Do something that helps every Kansan.”

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/sb37/">Senate Bill 37</a>&nbsp;cleared the House by a 108-11 margin and the Senate 25-9.

The legislation would exempt Social Security income from income tax and increase standard deductions. It would exempt $100,000 of residential property value from the state mill levy — and reduce the rate from 20 mills to 19.5 mills. It would eliminate the state sales tax on food by July 1.

It would also move the state from three income tax brackets to two.

Kansas currently uses a graduated system: 3.1% for income under $15,000, 5.25% for income between $15,000 and $30,000 and 5.7% for income above $30,000. The income amounts are doubled for couples filing jointly.

Under SB 37, the first $23,000 would be taxed at 5.2%, and anything over $23,000 would be taxed at 5.57%. The threshold would be $46,000 for couples.

The bill also would abolish the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction Fund. From 1937 to 2003, the state distributed a portion of sales tax collections into the fund, which then offset local property taxes. Lawmakers haven’t funded the program in two decades,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/09/25/kansas-counties-eager-for-lawmakers-to-resurrect-property-tax-relief-fund/">frustrating local officials</a>.

Kelly’s proposal would have retained the exemption on Social Security income and the July 1 expiration of the sales tax on food. She would have raised the residential property exemption to $125,000 while keeping the rate at 20 mills. And she would have added a child care tax credit valued at $18 million per year.

She would have kept the three-tier income tax system but lowered the rates to 3%, 5.2% and 5.65%.

As lawmakers worked late on April 30 to pass SB 37, Kelly’s chief of staff Will Lawrence issued a warning: “She will call the Legislature back into a special session if this is the tax plan sent to her desk.”

Lawmakers made a final tweak, lessening the amount of income tax cuts, before passing the law. It isn’t clear if the governor intends to sign it.

Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/RepTomSawyer/status/1786211195021619558">posted a chart on X</a>&nbsp;that shows the amount of income tax relief a family would receive depending on their earnings. Couples who earn less than $40,000 would see some of the largest benefits, according to his chart, and the percentage of savings would disproportionately benefit low-wage earners.

“I hope the governor signs it,” Sawyer said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715083371667.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>BY&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/sherman-smith/">SHERMAN SMITH</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — House Speaker Dan Hawkins on Monday urged Gov. Laura Kelly to sign bipartisan tax relief rather than summon lawmakers back to Topeka for a special session that would cost $84,000 per day.The Democratic governor threatened to call a special session if lawmakers failed to adopt a package of tax cuts that met her approval. She vetoed a package of income, property and sales tax cuts that would have left the state with a budget deficit by 2029, and proposed a less-costly alternative.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">No special session for tax relief. Sign. The. Bill. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ksleg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ksleg</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZMACMTYFEe">pic.twitter.com/ZMACMTYFEe</a>&mdash; Dan Hawkins (@DanHawkinsKS) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanHawkinsKS/status/1787276123669213492?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>But lawmakers never considered her proposal before adjourning for the year. Instead, lawmakers passed a nearly identical plan to the one she vetoed.“The Legislature has bent over backward to address her stated concerns, the state’s fiscal outlook is positive, and we have a hefty budget surplus,” Hawkins said in a statement Monday. “The governor is out of excuses. We don’t need an $84,000-a-day special session for tax relief — the work has already been done through great bipartisan efforts of the legislative tax committees. We simply need the governor to make good on her campaign promise to govern from the middle and sign the bill.”During her reelection campaign in 2022, Kelly promised to govern from the middle of the road.“Still looking on the map for the road you are in the ‘middle’ of, Governor,” Rep. Rebecca Schmoe, R-Ottawa,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/rebecca_schmoe/status/1787517072114663677">wrote on X</a>. “Sign the tax bill over half of your own party in the legislature supports. Do something that helps every Kansan.”<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/sb37/">Senate Bill 37</a>&nbsp;cleared the House by a 108-11 margin and the Senate 25-9.The legislation would exempt Social Security income from income tax and increase standard deductions. It would exempt $100,000 of residential property value from the state mill levy — and reduce the rate from 20 mills to 19.5 mills. It would eliminate the state sales tax on food by July 1.It would also move the state from three income tax brackets to two.Kansas currently uses a graduated system: 3.1% for income under $15,000, 5.25% for income between $15,000 and $30,000 and 5.7% for income above $30,000. The income amounts are doubled for couples filing jointly.Under SB 37, the first $23,000 would be taxed at 5.2%, and anything over $23,000 would be taxed at 5.57%. The threshold would be $46,000 for couples.The bill also would abolish the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction Fund. From 1937 to 2003, the state distributed a portion of sales tax collections into the fund, which then offset local property taxes. Lawmakers haven’t funded the program in two decades,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/09/25/kansas-counties-eager-for-lawmakers-to-resurrect-property-tax-relief-fund/">frustrating local officials</a>.Kelly’s proposal would have retained the exemption on Social Security income and the July 1 expiration of the sales tax on food. She would have raised the residential property exemption to $125,000 while keeping the rate at 20 mills. And she would have added a child care tax credit valued at $18 million per year.She would have kept the three-tier income tax system but lowered the rates to 3%, 5.2% and 5.65%.As lawmakers worked late on April 30 to pass SB 37, Kelly’s chief of staff Will Lawrence issued a warning: “She will call the Legislature back into a special session if this is the tax plan sent to her desk.”Lawmakers made a final tweak, lessening the amount of income tax cuts, before passing the law. It isn’t clear if the governor intends to sign it.Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/RepTomSawyer/status/1786211195021619558">posted a chart on X</a>&nbsp;that shows the amount of income tax relief a family would receive depending on their earnings. Couples who earn less than $40,000 would see some of the largest benefits, according to his chart, and the percentage of savings would disproportionately benefit low-wage earners.“I hope the governor signs it,” Sawyer said.

Kansas House speaker urges governor to sign tax cuts and avoid special session

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A tornado destroyed homes and toppled trees and power lines when it roared through a small Oklahoma town, one of several twisters that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-severe-weather-tornado-oklahoma-kansas-045c7c09fd7f3c630f071645603a57cb">erupted in the central United States</a>&nbsp;amid a series of powerful storms that stretched into Tuesday. At least one death was reported.

The tornado ripped through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, about a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa, on Monday night.

At least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported, and the state Department of Health reported a nursing home was damaged and patients were being evacuated. A natural gas leak and numerous road closings due to debris also were reported, according to Osage County Emergency Management.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715081609018.png" alt="Damage from the Monday night tornado in Oklahoma -image courtesy KTUL TV" />
 <figcaption>Damage from the Monday night tornado in Oklahoma -image courtesy KTUL TV</figcaption>
 </figure>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A tornado destroyed homes and toppled trees and power lines when it roared through a small Oklahoma town, one of several twisters that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-severe-weather-tornado-oklahoma-kansas-045c7c09fd7f3c630f071645603a57cb">erupted in the central United States</a>&nbsp;amid a series of powerful storms that stretched into Tuesday. At least one death was reported.The tornado ripped through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, about a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa, on Monday night.At least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported, and the state Department of Health reported a nursing home was damaged and patients were being evacuated. A natural gas leak and numerous road closings due to debris also were reported, according to Osage County Emergency Management.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/5/1715076886043.png" alt="Image National Weather Service Kansas City" />
 <figcaption>Image National Weather Service Kansas City</figcaption>
 </figure>“We've got one confirmed fatality and multiple injuries,” Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden told KOKI-TV.Damage also was reported in Bartlesville, about 20 miles northeast.“We did take a direct hit from a tornado" in the city, said Kary Fox of the Washington County Emergency Management. “Please stay off the roadways. Stay out of those damaged areas. We're having a lot of difficulty getting in to do assessments to check on people, to see if they've got any injuries because of the traffic congestion.”The National Weather Service in Tulsa had warned Monday evening that “a large and life-threatening tornado” was headed toward Barnsdall, with wind gusts up to 70 mph (112 kph). Meteorologist Brad McGavock said information on the tornado’s size and how far it traveled wasn’t immediately available Monday night.The storms began earlier Monday with gusty winds and rain. But after dark, tornadoes were spotted skirting northern Oklahoma. At one point in the evening, a storm in the small town of Covington had “produced tornadoes off and on for over an hour,” the National Weather Service said. Throughout the area, wind farm turbines spun rapidly in the wind and blinding rain.In Kansas, some areas were pelted by apple-sized hail 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) in diameter.The storms tore through Oklahoma as areas, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-storms-oklahoma-damage-3106c502a148f7ea969809cbd3b2d6ba">Sulphur</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornadoes-oklahoma-sulphur-5fa3a64e552ab91e8d76dabe21f70fd6">Holdenville</a>, were still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month. Both the Plains and Midwest have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tornado-nebraska-midwest-iowa-missouri-kansas-491cd033f91eb27f4139bf5582e57903">hammered by tornadoes this spring</a>.Oklahoma’s State Emergency Operations Center, which coordinates storm response from a bunker near the state Capitol, remains activated from last weekend’s deadly storms.Monte Tucker, a farmer and rancher in the western Oklahoma town of Sweetwater, had spent Monday putting some of his tractors and heavy equipment in barns to protect it from hail. He said he let his neighbors know they could come to his house if the weather becomes dangerous.“We built a house 10 years ago, and my stubborn wife put her foot down and made sure we built a safe room,” Tucker said. He said the entire ground-level room is built with reinforced concrete walls.Oklahoma and Kansas had been under a high-risk weather warning Monday. The last time such a warning was issued was March 31, 2023, when a massive&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-storms-tornadoes-midwest-south-4d35ce15af18e6cd50fda3aeb7a57176">storm system tore through parts of the South and Midwest</a>&nbsp;including Arkansas, Illinois and rural Indiana.The entire week is looking stormy across the U.S. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.Meanwhile,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/flooding-texas-houston-rain-bdac71b839dc0966cd03288113956279">floodwaters in the Houston area</a>&nbsp;began receding Monday after days of heavy rain in southeastern Texas left&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/houston-texas-flooding-severe-weather-117b0f63c9bd53be31ee34e11547da21">neighborhoods flooded</a>&nbsp;and led to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/flooding-texas-houston-rain-4ca8d5d9fbcc66c622114affac7b840e">hundreds of high-water rescues</a>.___