SHAWNEE COUNTY—One person died in an accident just after 9:30a.m. Sunday in Topeka.

According Topeka Police Lt. Matt Danielson, an officer located a&nbsp;head-on collision involving two vehicles that had just occurred in the westbound lanes of NE River Road just north of the Sardou Bridge. 

American Medical Response transported both drivers to local hospitals&nbsp; for treatment. One of the drivers later identified as David Neely, 76 of Lawrence, was in critical condition and later died.

The Topeka Police Department Accident Reconstruction Unit is investigating the circumstances that led up to the crash. 

SHAWNEE COUNTY—One person died in an accident just after 9:30a.m. Sunday in Topeka.According Topeka Police Lt. Matt Danielson, an officer located a&nbsp;head-on collision involving two vehicles that had just occurred in the westbound lanes of NE River Road just north of the Sardou Bridge. American Medical Response transported both drivers to local hospitals&nbsp; for treatment. One of the drivers later identified as David Neely, 76 of Lawrence, was in critical condition and later died.The Topeka Police Department Accident Reconstruction Unit is investigating the circumstances that led up to the crash.

Kansas man dies from injuries in head-on crash

WASHINGTON (AP) —The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Biden</a>&nbsp;administration is wading into a contentious debate about whether the most powerful&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence</a>&nbsp;systems should be&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-opensource-meta-ibm-chatgpt-dd61e99ac8135b36872b3987601067ec">“open-source” or closed</a>.

The White House said Wednesday it is seeking public comment on the risks and benefits of having an AI system's key components publicly available for anyone to use and modify. The inquiry is one piece of the broader&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ai-artificial-intelligence-executive-order-cb86162000d894f238f28ac029005059">executive order</a>&nbsp;that President Joe Biden signed in October to manage the fast-evolving technology.

Tech companies are divided on how open they make their AI models, with some emphasizing the dangers of widely accessible AI model components and others stressing that open science is important for researchers and startups. Among the most vocal promoters of an open approach have been Facebook parent Meta Platforms and IBM.

Biden’s order described open models with the technical name of “dual-use foundation models with widely available weights” and said they needed further study. Weights are numerical values that influence how an AI model performs.

When those weights are publicly posted on the internet, “there can be substantial benefits to innovation, but also substantial security risks, such as the removal of safeguards within the model,” Biden’s order said. He gave Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo until July to talk to experts and come back with recommendations on how to manage the potential benefits and risks.

Now the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration says it is also opening a 30-day comment period to field ideas that will be included in a report to the president.

“One piece of encouraging news is that it’s clear to the experts that this is not a binary issue. There are gradients of openness,” said Alan Davidson, an assistant Commerce secretary and the NTIA's administrator. Davidson told reporters Tuesday that it's possible to find solutions that promote both innovation and safety.

Meta plans to share with the Biden administration "what we’ve learned from building AI technologies in an open way over the last decade so that the benefits of AI can continue to be shared by everyone,” according to a written statement from Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs.

Google has largely favored a more closed approach but on Wednesday released a new group of open models, called Gemma, that derive from the same technology used to create its recently released Gemini&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-gemini-smartphones-microsoft-9044770f1228af38d1e532cc640fb990">chatbot app and paid service</a>. Google describes the open models as a more “lightweight” version of its larger and more powerful Gemini, which remains closed.

In a&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-media/gemma/gemma-report.pdf">technical paper</a>&nbsp;Wednesday, Google said it has prioritized safety because of the “irreversible nature” of releasing an open model such as Gemma and urged “the wider AI community to move beyond simplistic ’open vs. closed’ debates, and avoid either exaggerating or minimising potential harms, as we believe a nuanced, collaborative approach to risks and benefits is essential.”

Simply releasing an AI system’s components to the world doesn’t necessarily make it accessible or easy for outsiders to scrutinize because making use of an open model still requires “resources concentrated in the hands of a few large companies,” according to Cornell University researcher David Gray Widder.

Widder said the motivations for companies to take a more open or closed approach are also complicated. Those lobbying for open-source may hope to profit off external contributions, while those who argue that safety concerns compel them to closely guard their AI systems may also be looking to entrench their forerunner positions, Widder said.

WASHINGTON (AP) —The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Biden</a>&nbsp;administration is wading into a contentious debate about whether the most powerful&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence</a>&nbsp;systems should be&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-opensource-meta-ibm-chatgpt-dd61e99ac8135b36872b3987601067ec">“open-source” or closed</a>.The White House said Wednesday it is seeking public comment on the risks and benefits of having an AI system's key components publicly available for anyone to use and modify. The inquiry is one piece of the broader&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ai-artificial-intelligence-executive-order-cb86162000d894f238f28ac029005059">executive order</a>&nbsp;that President Joe Biden signed in October to manage the fast-evolving technology.Tech companies are divided on how open they make their AI models, with some emphasizing the dangers of widely accessible AI model components and others stressing that open science is important for researchers and startups. Among the most vocal promoters of an open approach have been Facebook parent Meta Platforms and IBM.Biden’s order described open models with the technical name of “dual-use foundation models with widely available weights” and said they needed further study. Weights are numerical values that influence how an AI model performs.When those weights are publicly posted on the internet, “there can be substantial benefits to innovation, but also substantial security risks, such as the removal of safeguards within the model,” Biden’s order said. He gave Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo until July to talk to experts and come back with recommendations on how to manage the potential benefits and risks.Now the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration says it is also opening a 30-day comment period to field ideas that will be included in a report to the president.“One piece of encouraging news is that it’s clear to the experts that this is not a binary issue. There are gradients of openness,” said Alan Davidson, an assistant Commerce secretary and the NTIA's administrator. Davidson told reporters Tuesday that it's possible to find solutions that promote both innovation and safety.Meta plans to share with the Biden administration "what we’ve learned from building AI technologies in an open way over the last decade so that the benefits of AI can continue to be shared by everyone,” according to a written statement from Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs.Google has largely favored a more closed approach but on Wednesday released a new group of open models, called Gemma, that derive from the same technology used to create its recently released Gemini&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-gemini-smartphones-microsoft-9044770f1228af38d1e532cc640fb990">chatbot app and paid service</a>. Google describes the open models as a more “lightweight” version of its larger and more powerful Gemini, which remains closed.In a&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-media/gemma/gemma-report.pdf">technical paper</a>&nbsp;Wednesday, Google said it has prioritized safety because of the “irreversible nature” of releasing an open model such as Gemma and urged “the wider AI community to move beyond simplistic ’open vs. closed’ debates, and avoid either exaggerating or minimising potential harms, as we believe a nuanced, collaborative approach to risks and benefits is essential.”Simply releasing an AI system’s components to the world doesn’t necessarily make it accessible or easy for outsiders to scrutinize because making use of an open model still requires “resources concentrated in the hands of a few large companies,” according to Cornell University researcher David Gray Widder.Widder said the motivations for companies to take a more open or closed approach are also complicated. Those lobbying for open-source may hope to profit off external contributions, while those who argue that safety concerns compel them to closely guard their AI systems may also be looking to entrench their forerunner positions, Widder said.

White House wades into debate on artificial intelligence systems

WICHITA —A Kansas man is in custody on drug allegations.

On Thursday, 32-year-old Raul Delgado-Sanchez, 32, of Wichita was indicted on one count of distribution of methamphetamine, one count of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the United State's Attorney.

 The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708614610957.png" alt="Delgado-Sanchez is being held in Butler Co." />
 <figcaption>Delgado-Sanchez is being held in Butler Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA —A Kansas man is in custody on drug allegations.On Thursday, 32-year-old Raul Delgado-Sanchez, 32, of Wichita was indicted on one count of distribution of methamphetamine, one count of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the United State's Attorney. The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating.

Kansas man accused of selling methamphetamine 

NEW YORK (AP) — When her cellphone's service went down this week because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/cellular-att-verizon-tmobile-outage-02d8dfd93019e79e5e2edbeed08ee450">an AT&amp;T network outage</a>, Bernice Hudson didn't panic. She just called the people she wanted to talk to the old-fashioned way — on her landline telephone, the kind she grew up with and refuses to get rid of even though she has a mobile phone.

“Don’t get me wrong, I like cellphones,” the 69-year-old Alexandria, Virginia, resident said Thursday, the day of the outage. “But I’m still old school.”

Having a working landline puts her in select company. In an increasingly digital United States, they're more and more a remnant of a time gone by, an anachronism of a now-unfathomable era when leaving your house meant being unavailable to callers.

Though as Thursday's outage shows, sometimes they can come in handy. They were suggested as part of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/att-outage-cell-service-phone-1cd6f595356b385cc9a4495d1f06b983">alternatives when people's cellphones weren't working.</a>&nbsp;The San Francisco Fire Department, for example, said on social media that people unable to get through to 911 on their mobile devices because of the outage should try using landlines.

In the United States in 2024, that's definitely the exception.

According to the most recent estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics, about 73% of American adults in 2022 lived in households where there were only wireless phones and no landlines, while another 25% were in households with both. Barely over 1% had only landlines.

Contrast that to estimates from early 2003, where fewer than 3% of adults lived in wireless-only households, and at least 95% lived in homes with landlines, which have been around since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.

Twenty years ago, landline phone service was the “bread and butter” for phone companies, said Michael Hodel, a stock analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC who follows the telecom industry. Now, he said, “it's become an afterthought,” replaced by services like broadband internet access and its multiple ways of making voice contact with others.

In today's United States, landlines have practically reached the status of urban legend in a nation where connecting over mobiles with the people you want — at the exact moments you want, on the precise platforms you prefer — feels fundamental enough to be a Constitutional right.

Among most age groups, the large majority were wireless-only, except for those 65 and older, the only group where less than half were estimated to only use cellphones.

They're people like Rebecca Whittier, 74, of Penacook, New Hampshire. She has both types of lines but prefers to use a landline. She only got a basic cellphone in case of emergencies when she was away from home.

“I guess you’d call me old fashioned,” she said. “I’m not good with computers or electronics. So a landline's good.”

What drove the change? It was that shift from telephones being mainly for voice communication to becoming tiny, data-saturated computers that were carried around in our pockets, Hodel says.

Of particular significance: the introduction of Apple's first iPhone in 2007. The rise of the smartphone fundamentally changed people's relationships with the devices in their pockets. “I do think that was the big watershed moment was when smartphone adoption really started to take off,” Hodel said.

The introduction of a new technology into society has a blowback effect on the ones it is supplanting, said Brian Ott, a professor of communication and media at Missouri State University.

"Basically, the new technology trains us to alter our use of the old technology,” Ott said. “So even though the old technology hasn’t gone away, the logic of mobile telephony exists across our entire society today, even for people who still have landlines.”

But the sometimes headlong rush to adopt new technologies can have its own problems, he said: “Anytime a new technology is introduced, there’s sort of a rapid adoption period before we understand the consequences."

The outage, he says, is a case in point. Even though it was resolved quickly, it raises questions about what would happen if a broader-scale event disrupted cellphones more widely in a world where landline phones are no longer as ubiquitous.

Hodel was skeptical, though, at the notion that people would be unsettled enough to bring landlines and additional phone bills back into their lives.

“Unless you really are faced with something dire, the odds of you actually being concerned enough to go out and do something about it that’s going to cost you some amount of money seems to be pretty low,” he said. “The service that we get where we’re connected the vast majority of the time, if not all the time, has been sufficient to keep people satisfied by and large.”

If nothing else, the outage made Mary Minshew of Bethesda, Maryland, who is in her 40s, feel better about the landline she and her husband have so far not gotten around to scrapping. They don't use it; they and their children all have cellphones. And if it actually rings, she figures it's a scam or sales call and doesn't answer.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667570605492.jpg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — When her cellphone's service went down this week because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/cellular-att-verizon-tmobile-outage-02d8dfd93019e79e5e2edbeed08ee450">an AT&amp;T network outage</a>, Bernice Hudson didn't panic. She just called the people she wanted to talk to the old-fashioned way — on her landline telephone, the kind she grew up with and refuses to get rid of even though she has a mobile phone.“Don’t get me wrong, I like cellphones,” the 69-year-old Alexandria, Virginia, resident said Thursday, the day of the outage. “But I’m still old school.”Having a working landline puts her in select company. In an increasingly digital United States, they're more and more a remnant of a time gone by, an anachronism of a now-unfathomable era when leaving your house meant being unavailable to callers.Though as Thursday's outage shows, sometimes they can come in handy. They were suggested as part of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/att-outage-cell-service-phone-1cd6f595356b385cc9a4495d1f06b983">alternatives when people's cellphones weren't working.</a>&nbsp;The San Francisco Fire Department, for example, said on social media that people unable to get through to 911 on their mobile devices because of the outage should try using landlines.In the United States in 2024, that's definitely the exception.TRACKING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CORDAccording to the most recent estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics, about 73% of American adults in 2022 lived in households where there were only wireless phones and no landlines, while another 25% were in households with both. Barely over 1% had only landlines.Contrast that to estimates from early 2003, where fewer than 3% of adults lived in wireless-only households, and at least 95% lived in homes with landlines, which have been around since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.Twenty years ago, landline phone service was the “bread and butter” for phone companies, said Michael Hodel, a stock analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC who follows the telecom industry. Now, he said, “it's become an afterthought,” replaced by services like broadband internet access and its multiple ways of making voice contact with others.In today's United States, landlines have practically reached the status of urban legend in a nation where connecting over mobiles with the people you want — at the exact moments you want, on the precise platforms you prefer — feels fundamental enough to be a Constitutional right.Among most age groups, the large majority were wireless-only, except for those 65 and older, the only group where less than half were estimated to only use cellphones.They're people like Rebecca Whittier, 74, of Penacook, New Hampshire. She has both types of lines but prefers to use a landline. She only got a basic cellphone in case of emergencies when she was away from home.“I guess you’d call me old fashioned,” she said. “I’m not good with computers or electronics. So a landline's good.”HOW AND WHEN DID THE SHIFT HAPPEN?What drove the change? It was that shift from telephones being mainly for voice communication to becoming tiny, data-saturated computers that were carried around in our pockets, Hodel says.Of particular significance: the introduction of Apple's first iPhone in 2007. The rise of the smartphone fundamentally changed people's relationships with the devices in their pockets. “I do think that was the big watershed moment was when smartphone adoption really started to take off,” Hodel said.The introduction of a new technology into society has a blowback effect on the ones it is supplanting, said Brian Ott, a professor of communication and media at Missouri State University."Basically, the new technology trains us to alter our use of the old technology,” Ott said. “So even though the old technology hasn’t gone away, the logic of mobile telephony exists across our entire society today, even for people who still have landlines.”But the sometimes headlong rush to adopt new technologies can have its own problems, he said: “Anytime a new technology is introduced, there’s sort of a rapid adoption period before we understand the consequences."The outage, he says, is a case in point. Even though it was resolved quickly, it raises questions about what would happen if a broader-scale event disrupted cellphones more widely in a world where landline phones are no longer as ubiquitous.Hodel was skeptical, though, at the notion that people would be unsettled enough to bring landlines and additional phone bills back into their lives.“Unless you really are faced with something dire, the odds of you actually being concerned enough to go out and do something about it that’s going to cost you some amount of money seems to be pretty low,” he said. “The service that we get where we’re connected the vast majority of the time, if not all the time, has been sufficient to keep people satisfied by and large.”If nothing else, the outage made Mary Minshew of Bethesda, Maryland, who is in her 40s, feel better about the landline she and her husband have so far not gotten around to scrapping. They don't use it; they and their children all have cellphones. And if it actually rings, she figures it's a scam or sales call and doesn't answer.

Cellphone outage makes it clear: In the US, landlines are languishing

PETTIS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting in Pettis County.

Just before 7:30p.m. Saturday, officers from the Sedalia, Missouri Police Department responded to a disturbance in the 1000 Block of State Fair Boulevard, according to a statement from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop A.

Two officers encountered a suspect armed with a knife. An altercation occurred between the officers and the suspect. Both officers were injured, shots were fired and the suspect was struck.

The suspect was pronounced deceased at the scene. EMS transported both officers to a local hospital for treatment. The Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control is in charge of the investigation.&nbsp; Police have not released the name of the suspect or additional details.

PETTIS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting in Pettis County.Just before 7:30p.m. Saturday, officers from the Sedalia, Missouri Police Department responded to a disturbance in the 1000 Block of State Fair Boulevard, according to a statement from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop A.Two officers encountered a suspect armed with a knife. An altercation occurred between the officers and the suspect. Both officers were injured, shots were fired and the suspect was struck.The suspect was pronounced deceased at the scene. EMS transported both officers to a local hospital for treatment. The Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control is in charge of the investigation.&nbsp; Police have not released the name of the suspect or additional details.

Mo. officer-shooting: Suspect dead, 2 police officers injured

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating another deadly shooting in Wichita and have made an arrest.

Just before 9:30a.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a shooting call&nbsp; in the 7300 block of E. Kellogg, according to Officer Kris Gupilan.

First responders located two shooting victims in a motel room identified as&nbsp;35-year-old Christopher Harrell and 35-year-old Natisha Phillips both of Wichita.

EMS transported Harrell to a local area hospital where he was pronounced deceased. Phillips was pronounced deceased on the scene. 

Officers also located a young child at the scene, who was unharmed, and police are using resources to address any psychological or medical needs for the child.&nbsp;

Subsequent investigation led to the apprehension of a 20-year-old suspect, who is currently in custody and will face a requested charges of Capital Murder, Child Endangerment, and Felon in Possession of a Firearm, according to Gupilan.

The circumstances surrounding this incident remain under active investigation. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708804201051.png" alt="Police at the scene of the deadly shooting on Saturday -photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Police at the scene of the deadly shooting on Saturday -photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating another deadly shooting in Wichita and have made an arrest.Just before 9:30a.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a shooting call&nbsp; in the 7300 block of E. Kellogg, according to Officer Kris Gupilan.First responders located two shooting victims in a motel room identified as&nbsp;35-year-old Christopher Harrell and 35-year-old Natisha Phillips both of Wichita.EMS transported Harrell to a local area hospital where he was pronounced deceased. Phillips was pronounced deceased on the scene. Officers also located a young child at the scene, who was unharmed, and police are using resources to address any psychological or medical needs for the child.&nbsp;Subsequent investigation led to the apprehension of a 20-year-old suspect, who is currently in custody and will face a requested charges of Capital Murder, Child Endangerment, and Felon in Possession of a Firearm, according to Gupilan.The circumstances surrounding this incident remain under active investigation.

Homicide: 2 dead, child in protective custody after Kansas shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Britain struck 18&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Houthi</a>&nbsp;targets in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/yemen">Yemen</a>&nbsp;on Saturday, answering a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike this past week that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-yemen-houthi-hamas-war-gaza-strip-216c0bde5f79ed857f1f5ef7f157a66b">set fire to a cargo vessel.</a>

According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit sites in eight locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and air defense systems. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.

This is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iraq-iran-syria-jordan-strikes-us-2f235ac0d00edc266576ef0d76fa33e4">the fourth time that the U.S. and British militaries</a>&nbsp;have conducted a combined operation against the Houthis since Jan. 12. But the U.S. has also been carrying out almost daily strikes to take out Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships, as well as weapons that were prepared to launch.

The U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea, officials said.

“The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “We will continue to make clear to the Houthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks.”

The Houthis denounced the “US-British aggression” and vowed to keep up its military operation in response. “The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that they will confront the US-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arabian Seas in defense of our country, our people and our nation,” it said in a statement.

The U.S., U.K., and other allies said in a statement the “necessary and proportionate strikes specifically targeted 18 Houthi targets across 8 locations in Yemen” that also included underground storage facilities, radar and a helicopter.

U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said RAF Typhoon jets engaged in “precision strikes” aimed at degrading Houthi drones and launchers. Shapps said it came after “severe Houthi attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including against the British-owned MV Islander and the MV Rubymar, which forced the crew to abandon ship.” It’s the fourth time Britain has joined in the U.S.-led strikes.

The strikes have support from the wider coalition, which includes Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the U.S. won’t tolerate the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping. But the counterattacks&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-red-sea-israel-hamas-6ac2a1bf5032ed0531258816907cfe2c">haven’t appeared to diminish</a>&nbsp;the Houthis’ campaign against shipping in the region, which the militants say is over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel’s war against Hamas</a>&nbsp;in the Gaza Strip.

“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but we will once again reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in the face of continued threats,” said the Saturday statement.

The Houthis have launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, and the pace has picked up in recent days.

“We’ve certainly seen in the past 48, 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.

“We never said we’ve wiped off the map all of their capabilities,” she told reporters. “We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have sophisticated weapons, and that’s because they continue to get them from Iran.”

There have been at least 32 U.S. strikes in Yemen over the past month and a half; a few were conducted with allied involvement. In addition, U.S. warships have taken out dozens of incoming missiles, rockets and drones targeting commercial and other Navy vessels.

Earlier Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason downed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said, adding that the missile was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a U.S.-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical and oil tanker.

The U.S. attacks on the Houthis have targeted more than 120 launchers, more than 10 surface-to-air-missiles, 40 storage and support building, 15 drone storage building, more than 20 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles, several underground storage areas and a few other facilities.

The rebels’ supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced this past week an “escalation in sea operations” conducted by his forces as part of what they describe as a pressure campaign to end Israel’s war on Hamas.

But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis' targets have grown more random, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments traveling from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.

During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time. While the Houthi attacks have only actually struck a small number of vessels, the persistent targeting and near misses that have been shot down by the U.S. and allies have prompted shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea.

Instead, they have sent them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel between the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

In Thursday’s attack in the Gulf of Aden, the Houthis fired two missiles at a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander, according to Central Command said. A European naval force in the region said the attack sparked a fire and wounded a sailor on board the vessel, though the ship continued on its way.

Central Command launched attacks on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that the military said were prepared to launch toward the Red Sea.

Central Command also said Saturday that a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship on Feb. 18 caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick and the. military warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-attack-israel-hamas-war-gaza-67cf1acc17f4e17d04075a99688e4da8">was attacked</a>&nbsp;while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a Central Command statement.

The Associated Press, relying on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the stricken vessel, reported Tuesday that the vessel was leaking oil in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Saturday called for other countries and maritime-protection organizations to quickly address the oil slick and avert “a significant environmental disaster.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Britain struck more than a dozen&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Houthi</a>&nbsp;targets in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/yemen">Yemen</a>&nbsp;on Saturday, answering a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike this past week that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-yemen-houthi-hamas-war-gaza-strip-216c0bde5f79ed857f1f5ef7f157a66b">set fire to a cargo vessel.</a>

According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit about 18 sites across multiple locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.

The U.S. fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea.

The group has launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, and the pace has picked up in recent days.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708813391502.png" alt="F/A-18 Super Hornets launch from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower supporting strikes against on Iranian-Backed Houthi Targets on Feb. 24.- photo U.S. Central Command" />
 <figcaption>F/A-18 Super Hornets launch from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower supporting strikes against on Iranian-Backed Houthi Targets on Feb. 24.- photo U.S. Central Command</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Britain struck 18&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Houthi</a>&nbsp;targets in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/yemen">Yemen</a>&nbsp;on Saturday, answering a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike this past week that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-yemen-houthi-hamas-war-gaza-strip-216c0bde5f79ed857f1f5ef7f157a66b">set fire to a cargo vessel.</a>According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit sites in eight locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and air defense systems. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.This is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iraq-iran-syria-jordan-strikes-us-2f235ac0d00edc266576ef0d76fa33e4">the fourth time that the U.S. and British militaries</a>&nbsp;have conducted a combined operation against the Houthis since Jan. 12. But the U.S. has also been carrying out almost daily strikes to take out Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships, as well as weapons that were prepared to launch.The U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea, officials said.“The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “We will continue to make clear to the Houthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks.”The Houthis denounced the “US-British aggression” and vowed to keep up its military operation in response. “The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that they will confront the US-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arabian Seas in defense of our country, our people and our nation,” it said in a statement.The U.S., U.K., and other allies said in a statement the “necessary and proportionate strikes specifically targeted 18 Houthi targets across 8 locations in Yemen” that also included underground storage facilities, radar and a helicopter.U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said RAF Typhoon jets engaged in “precision strikes” aimed at degrading Houthi drones and launchers. Shapps said it came after “severe Houthi attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including against the British-owned MV Islander and the MV Rubymar, which forced the crew to abandon ship.” It’s the fourth time Britain has joined in the U.S.-led strikes.The strikes have support from the wider coalition, which includes Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the U.S. won’t tolerate the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping. But the counterattacks&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-red-sea-israel-hamas-6ac2a1bf5032ed0531258816907cfe2c">haven’t appeared to diminish</a>&nbsp;the Houthis’ campaign against shipping in the region, which the militants say is over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel’s war against Hamas</a>&nbsp;in the Gaza Strip.“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but we will once again reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in the face of continued threats,” said the Saturday statement.The Houthis have launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, and the pace has picked up in recent days.“We’ve certainly seen in the past 48, 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.“We never said we’ve wiped off the map all of their capabilities,” she told reporters. “We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have sophisticated weapons, and that’s because they continue to get them from Iran.”There have been at least 32 U.S. strikes in Yemen over the past month and a half; a few were conducted with allied involvement. In addition, U.S. warships have taken out dozens of incoming missiles, rockets and drones targeting commercial and other Navy vessels.Earlier Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason downed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said, adding that the missile was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a U.S.-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical and oil tanker.The U.S. attacks on the Houthis have targeted more than 120 launchers, more than 10 surface-to-air-missiles, 40 storage and support building, 15 drone storage building, more than 20 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles, several underground storage areas and a few other facilities.The rebels’ supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced this past week an “escalation in sea operations” conducted by his forces as part of what they describe as a pressure campaign to end Israel’s war on Hamas.But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis' targets have grown more random, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments traveling from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time. While the Houthi attacks have only actually struck a small number of vessels, the persistent targeting and near misses that have been shot down by the U.S. and allies have prompted shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea.Instead, they have sent them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel between the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.In Thursday’s attack in the Gulf of Aden, the Houthis fired two missiles at a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander, according to Central Command said. A European naval force in the region said the attack sparked a fire and wounded a sailor on board the vessel, though the ship continued on its way.Central Command launched attacks on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that the military said were prepared to launch toward the Red Sea.Central Command also said Saturday that a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship on Feb. 18 caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick and the. military warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-attack-israel-hamas-war-gaza-67cf1acc17f4e17d04075a99688e4da8">was attacked</a>&nbsp;while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a Central Command statement.The Associated Press, relying on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the stricken vessel, reported Tuesday that the vessel was leaking oil in the Red Sea.Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Saturday called for other countries and maritime-protection organizations to quickly address the oil slick and avert “a significant environmental disaster.------------WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Britain struck more than a dozen&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Houthi</a>&nbsp;targets in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/yemen">Yemen</a>&nbsp;on Saturday, answering a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike this past week that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-yemen-houthi-hamas-war-gaza-strip-216c0bde5f79ed857f1f5ef7f157a66b">set fire to a cargo vessel.</a>According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit about 18 sites across multiple locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.This is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iraq-iran-syria-jordan-strikes-us-2f235ac0d00edc266576ef0d76fa33e4">the fourth time that the U.S. and British militaries</a>&nbsp;have conducted a combined operation against the Houthis since Jan. 12. But the U.S. has also been carrying out almost daily strikes to take out Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships, as well as weapons that were prepared to launch.The U.S. fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea.President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the U.S. won’t tolerate the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping. But the counterattacks&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-red-sea-israel-hamas-6ac2a1bf5032ed0531258816907cfe2c">haven’t appeared to diminish</a>&nbsp;the Houthis’ campaign against shipping in the region, which the militants say is over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel’s war against Hamas</a>&nbsp;in the Gaza Strip.The group has launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, and the pace has picked up in recent days.“We’ve certainly seen in the past 48, 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.“We never said we’ve wiped off the map all of their capabilities,” she told reporters. “We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have sophisticated weapons, and that’s because they continue to get them from Iran.”There have been at least 32 U.S. strikes in Yemen over the past month and a half; a few were conducted with allied involvement. In addition, U.S. warships have taken out dozens of incoming missiles, rockets and drones targeting commercial and other Navy vessels.Earlier Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason downed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said, adding that the missile was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a U.S.-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical and oil tanker.The U.S. attacks on the Houthis have targeted more than 120 launchers, more than 10 surface-to-air-missiles, 40 storage and support building, 15 drone storage building, more than 20 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles, several underground storage areas and a few other facilities.The rebels’ supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced this past week an “escalation in sea operations” conducted by his forces as part of what they describe as a pressure campaign to end Israel’s war on Hamas.But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis' targets have grown more random, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments traveling from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time. While the Houthi attacks have only actually struck a small number of vessels, the persistent targeting and near misses that have been shot down by the U.S. and allies have prompted shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea.Instead, they have sent them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel between the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.In Thursday’s attack in the Gulf of Aden, the Houthis fired two missiles at a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander, according to Central Command said. A European naval force in the region said the attack sparked a fire and wounded a sailor on board the vessel, though the ship continued on its way.Central Command launched attacks on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that the military said were prepared to launch toward the Red Sea.Central Command also said Saturday that a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship on Feb. 18 caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick and the. military warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-attack-israel-hamas-war-gaza-67cf1acc17f4e17d04075a99688e4da8">was attacked</a>&nbsp;while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a Central Command statement.The Associated Press, relying on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the stricken vessel, reported Tuesday that the vessel was leaking oil in the Red Sea.Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Saturday called for other countries and maritime-protection organizations to quickly address the oil slick and avert “a significant environmental disaster.

U.S. launches fourth round of airstrikes against Iran-backed terrorists

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — Raymond Kapaun never met the uncle who served as a U.S. Army chaplain and died of malnutrition and pneumonia at a prison camp during the Korean War.

This nephew, born in 1957 and now a resident of Coupeville, Washington, became the beneficiary of family stories and military documentation attesting to the heroism, compassion and selflessness of Father Kapaun, who perished in 1951.

“I never personally met my uncle,” Raymon Kapaun told the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. “Father Emil was a priest, a soldier, a chaplain, a hero, but more than anything else he was a Kansas native through and through.”

On Wednesday, the Kansas Senate agreed. Senators voted 40-0 for Senate Bill 431, which would require the Capitol Preservation Committee to develop plans for a permanent memorial honoring the life of Emil Kapaun. The legislation sent to the Kansas House would set up the framework for the state to accept grants, gifts, contributions or bequests to finance creation and construction of a memorial inside the Capitol.

Michael Kelly, a 34-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Kansas council of the Military Officers Association of America, said Kapaun deserved to be further recognized for his physical and moral courage.

“His unrelenting courage and miraculous displays of selflessness under the most extreme conditions in the face of a hostile enemy force are shining beacons of positive character values that must never be lost to history,” Kelly said. “Chaplain Kapaun kept the faith and led many other soldiers to survive their ordeal as prisoners of war.”

Kapaun was born in 1916 on a farm near Pilsen, a community in Marion County. In 1940, he was ordained a Catholic priest in Wichita. He graduated from the U.S. Army chaplain school in 1944 and was assigned to Camp Wheeler in Georgia. He was posted after World War II to India and promoted to captain before released from active duty. In 1948, he returned to the Army and was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division in Japan.

He deployed to South Korea less than one month after North Korea invaded South Korea. He earned a Bronze Star Medal for helping save the life of a wounded soldier pinned down by enemy fire. As the U.S. Army pushed north, he earned a reputation for ministering with an improvised alter on the hood of a Jeep. Intervention by Chinese troops on North Korea’s behalf forced a U.S. retreat, but Kapaun stayed with 800 men of the 3rd Battalion ordered to slow the Chinese onslaught.

Kapaun braved enemy fire to rescue nearly 40 men, for which President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Kapaun the Medal of Honor in 2013. Kapaun was taken prison and marched to a camp in North Korea. He stole food for starving soldiers and smuggled dysentery drugs to fellow prisoners.

He led a final Easter service on March 25, 1951, before prison guards moved him to a building where he died May 23, 1951. His remains were eventually returned to the United States and buried in Hawaii. His remains were disinterred and positively identified in 2021. He was reburied in Park City, near Wichita.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, advocated for a change in federal law to require the U.S. Department of Defense and Obama to consider awarding Kapaun the Medal of Honor. Moran also worked to get Kapaun’s remains identified and returned to Kansas.

“By erecting a statue of Father Kapaun within the Kansas state Capitol, we not only pay tribute to a local hero but also celebrate the values that define our state and our nation,” Moran said. “His story is a powerful example of how one individual’s actions can make a profound difference.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/3/1614944899732.png" alt="Father Kapaun courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Father Kapaun courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Raymond Kapaun never met the uncle who served as a U.S. Army chaplain and died of malnutrition and pneumonia at a prison camp during the Korean War.This nephew, born in 1957 and now a resident of Coupeville, Washington, became the beneficiary of family stories and military documentation attesting to the heroism, compassion and selflessness of Father Kapaun, who perished in 1951.“I never personally met my uncle,” Raymon Kapaun told the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. “Father Emil was a priest, a soldier, a chaplain, a hero, but more than anything else he was a Kansas native through and through.”On Wednesday, the Kansas Senate agreed. Senators voted 40-0 for Senate Bill 431, which would require the Capitol Preservation Committee to develop plans for a permanent memorial honoring the life of Emil Kapaun. The legislation sent to the Kansas House would set up the framework for the state to accept grants, gifts, contributions or bequests to finance creation and construction of a memorial inside the Capitol.Michael Kelly, a 34-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Kansas council of the Military Officers Association of America, said Kapaun deserved to be further recognized for his physical and moral courage.“His unrelenting courage and miraculous displays of selflessness under the most extreme conditions in the face of a hostile enemy force are shining beacons of positive character values that must never be lost to history,” Kelly said. “Chaplain Kapaun kept the faith and led many other soldiers to survive their ordeal as prisoners of war.”Kapaun was born in 1916 on a farm near Pilsen, a community in Marion County. In 1940, he was ordained a Catholic priest in Wichita. He graduated from the U.S. Army chaplain school in 1944 and was assigned to Camp Wheeler in Georgia. He was posted after World War II to India and promoted to captain before released from active duty. In 1948, he returned to the Army and was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division in Japan.He deployed to South Korea less than one month after North Korea invaded South Korea. He earned a Bronze Star Medal for helping save the life of a wounded soldier pinned down by enemy fire. As the U.S. Army pushed north, he earned a reputation for ministering with an improvised alter on the hood of a Jeep. Intervention by Chinese troops on North Korea’s behalf forced a U.S. retreat, but Kapaun stayed with 800 men of the 3rd Battalion ordered to slow the Chinese onslaught.Kapaun braved enemy fire to rescue nearly 40 men, for which President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Kapaun the Medal of Honor in 2013. Kapaun was taken prison and marched to a camp in North Korea. He stole food for starving soldiers and smuggled dysentery drugs to fellow prisoners.He led a final Easter service on March 25, 1951, before prison guards moved him to a building where he died May 23, 1951. His remains were eventually returned to the United States and buried in Hawaii. His remains were disinterred and positively identified in 2021. He was reburied in Park City, near Wichita.U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, advocated for a change in federal law to require the U.S. Department of Defense and Obama to consider awarding Kapaun the Medal of Honor. Moran also worked to get Kapaun’s remains identified and returned to Kansas.“By erecting a statue of Father Kapaun within the Kansas state Capitol, we not only pay tribute to a local hero but also celebrate the values that define our state and our nation,” Moran said. “His story is a powerful example of how one individual’s actions can make a profound difference.”

Kan. Senate unanimously endorses plan for Capitol memorial to Father Emil Kapaun

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man has pleaded guilty to smashing into a Kansas City, Missouri, patrol car last year and killing an officer, his K-9 partner and a pedestrian.

Jerron Lightfoot of Tonganoxie, Kansas, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and admitted speeding through a red light before&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/accidents-kansas-city-dogs-4bb23017bb67413c7b1f7c8fc98cc6d1">the crash</a>, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article285869891.html?tbref=hp">Kansas City Star</a>. Officer James Muhlbauer, 42, Jesse Eckes, 52, and Champ the dog were all killed.

Lightfoot told the judge that he got lost that night last February while he was driving back toward Kansas.

Prosecutors have said Lightfoot was traveling at least 85 mph just before the collision.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than 10 years in prison, though Assistant Prosecutor Lauren Whiston said she anticipated that Lightfoot's lawyers would ask for a much more lenient sentence when the 20-year-old returns to court in April.

Muhlbauer, who was married and a father, was a 20-year veteran of the force. Champ had been a K-9 with the force for a year.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves attended Friday's plea hearing along with several uniformed police officers, but she didn't comment on the case

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676902567063.png" alt="Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ-photo courtesy KCPD" />
 <figcaption>Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ-photo courtesy KCPD</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man has pleaded guilty to smashing into a Kansas City, Missouri, patrol car last year and killing an officer, his K-9 partner and a pedestrian.Jerron Lightfoot of Tonganoxie, Kansas, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and admitted speeding through a red light before&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/accidents-kansas-city-dogs-4bb23017bb67413c7b1f7c8fc98cc6d1">the crash</a>, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article285869891.html?tbref=hp">Kansas City Star</a>. Officer James Muhlbauer, 42, Jesse Eckes, 52, and Champ the dog were all killed.Lightfoot told the judge that he got lost that night last February while he was driving back toward Kansas.Prosecutors have said Lightfoot was traveling at least 85 mph just before the collision.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676644200134.png" alt="Lightfoot-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Lightfoot-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than 10 years in prison, though Assistant Prosecutor Lauren Whiston said she anticipated that Lightfoot's lawyers would ask for a much more lenient sentence when the 20-year-old returns to court in April.Muhlbauer, who was married and a father, was a 20-year veteran of the force. Champ had been a K-9 with the force for a year.Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves attended Friday's plea hearing along with several uniformed police officers, but she didn't comment on the case

Kan. man admits causing crash that killed officer, pedestrian and K-9

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump trounced Nikki Haley on Saturday in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-nikki-haley-south-carolina-primary-republicans-13237d287ce770e0a45e9bccee78e8ee">South Carolina primary</a>, a victory that emphatically punctuated the depth and breadth of his support among Republican primary voters as he vanquished his lone remaining major opponent in her home state.

Trump did not even have to mount a vigorous campaign, making few appearances and spending relatively little money. Haley has vowed to stay in the race and planned to visit Michigan, the site of the next primary, on Sunday. But the loss further eroded the rationale for her candidacy, barring something unforeseen that would derail the former president.

Here are some takeaways from the South Carolina leg of the campaign:

Haley talked up her chances in “my sweet state of South Carolina” for months. Twice elected governor, initially as a tea party candidate in 2010, she was universally known in her state, and mostly for positive reasons. She had even served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. Her conservative record was clear.

And yet her credentials were no match for Trump's hold on the party.

Trump has now won with ease in the Midwest, the Northeast and the South, bulldozing any regional differences that had existed in the party before his rise.

Haley talked in 2024 about her successes recruiting industry to South Carolina and signing tax cuts and voter ID laws. She promoted her international experience. She excoriated Trump as too risky, too old, too busy fending off indictments, too close to Vladimir Putin and not close enough to NATO allies. Voters were not swayed.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-voted-how-south-carolina-primary-trump-haley-86a0c7960e5c3c7f88ec1c9a330be53e">AP VoteCast data</a>&nbsp;reflected her challenge, especially on foreign policy. The survey found that about half of South Carolina primary voters wanted the U.S. to take a less active role in the world, while about 6 out of 10 opposed continuing aid to Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. They were instead strongly aligned with Trump's vision.

Everything Haley tried reinforced the dynamics: To most Trump loyalists she sounded like just another politician offering establishment positions and trying to topple their champion.

HALEY STILL HAS NO OBVIOUS OR EVEN LIKELY WINS

Haley repeated that she plans to stick around. The Michigan primary is Feb. 27. Haley already has campaigned there and run advertising. The big prize follows, Super Tuesday on March 5, when about a third of Republicans’ 2,429 total delegates are at stake across primaries and caucuses in 15 states and one territory. Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, notes often that many states that follow South Carolina have the same open primary rules. But not all of them. And that didn’t translate into a win at home anyway.

California, a majority-Democratic state, does not have open primaries. So Trump, even in a state where he’s not broadly popular, will be the favorite in a Republicans-only setting. Michigan does have an open primary. But that’s a state where progressives and Arab American voters are pushing voters to cast “uncommitted” ballots as a protest against President Joe Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Biden’s campaign is countering. So that gives Democrats their own fight, with no incentive to cross over.

In short, if Haley couldn’t win in South Carolina, her chances of victories ahead are slim.

WHAT REALLY FORCES CANDIDATES TO DROP OUT

Presidential campaigns rarely end directly because of primary losses and delegates counts. They end when a candidate can’t keep the lights on anymore. And sometimes donors keep giving long after the scoreboard says it’s practically over.

Often, that’s the case when there is a real ideological fight within a party — see Bernie Sanders in 2016, when the democratic socialist was the vessel for progressive anger at Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party old guard. This time, for Republicans, it is a blend of personality, identity and ideology. Haley is the stand-in for all Republican check writers who loathe Trump and his version of the GOP.

And it's these anti-Trump Republicans who keep paying her campaign’s bills. It isn’t about delegates. So when Haley insists she is staying through to Super Tuesday, it’s because she has the resources to do so. At some point, if she doesn't have a dramatic reversal, those resources will dry up.

But this campaign has a major asterisk. Trump is facing more than 90 criminal charges in multiple jurisdictions, injecting unparalleled uncertainty into the race.

SPEECHES AND SPIN ASIDE, IT’S ABOUT DELEGATES

Haley's determination aside, the ultimate numbers that matter are not on her fundraising reports. It's the delegate math. And Trump was on pace to win all 50 delegates in South Carolina, widening his lead and making it increasingly clear that he will reach the 1,215-delegate majority long before the end of the primary calendar in late spring.

VP AUDITION HOUR, FEATURING SEN. TIM SCOTT

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who dropped his own presidential bid in November, enjoyed an extended spotlight in the unofficial contest to become Trump's running mate. First appointed to the Senate in 2012 by Haley, he was Trump's most visible surrogate in South Carolina, often heaping praise on a former president who can never seem to get too much validation.

“He’s been such a great advocate,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall with Scott beside him. “He has been much better for me than he was for himself. I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself, but boy, does he talk about Trump.”

Scott would give Trump loyalty and effective advocacy, without upstaging a former president who is always the headliner. Scott, as the only Black Republican in the Senate, also could appeal to Trump in his quest to increase GOP support from non-white voters.

But Trump has been known to flatter those who fawn over him, then make another choice.

Haley never explicitly asked Democrats to help her against Trump, but she might as well have. She often reminded South Carolinians, who do not have to register by party, that the primary was open to all voters except the 125,000-plus who already had cast Democratic primary ballots Feb. 3.

She needed some of the remaining South Carolina Democrats, plus independents, to essentially give her a GOP version of the coalition Biden assembled against Trump in 2020. In a South Carolina Republican primary that would mean heavy support from wealthier, more moderate, college-educated white voters, especially around Columbia and Charleston. But Haley also needed at least some backing from Black voters in those areas and across small-town South Carolina.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;won South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, beating former U.N. Ambassador&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/nikki-haley">Nikki Haley</a>&nbsp;in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination.

Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, with wins already in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The former president’s latest victory will likely increase pressure on Haley, who was Trump’s former representative to the U.N. and South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, to leave the race.

A 2020 general rematch between Trump and President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden.

South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary has historically been a reliable bellwether for Republicans. In all but one primary since 1980, the Republican winner in South Carolina has gone on to be the party’s nominee. The lone exception was Newt Gingrich in 2012.

Haley said in recent days that she would head straight to Michigan for its Tuesday primary, the last major contest before Super Tuesday. She faces questions about where she might be able to win a contest or be competitive.

Trump and Biden are already behaving like they expect to face off in November.

Trump and his allies argue Biden has made the U.S. weaker and point to the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-islamic-state-group-e10e038baea732dae879c11234507f81">chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan</a>&nbsp;and Russia’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-second-anniversary-65088ba9eb9bd729cf8c677e2115cb35">decision to launch a full-scale invasion</a>&nbsp;of Ukraine. Trump has also repeatedly attacked Biden over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-inflation-election-2024-eggs-trump-6690e93b2817f28ebc314c088cbec267">high inflation earlier in the president’s term</a>&nbsp;and his handling of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-crossings-mexico-biden-18ac91ef502e0c5433f74de6cc629b32">record-high migrant crossings</a>&nbsp;at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump has questioned — often in harshly personal terms — whether the 81-year-old Biden is too old to serve a second term. Biden’s team in turn has highlighted the 77-year-old Trump’s own flubs on the campaign trail.

Biden has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-obama-clinton-campaign-fundraisers-new-york-41f5efe969dfc3617cffd36a26a9bf96">stepped up his recent fundraising trips around the country</a>&nbsp;and increasingly attacked Trump directly. He’s called Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement dire threats to the nation’s founding principles, and the president’s reelection campaign has lately focused most of its attention on Trump suggesting he’d use the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72">first day of a second presidency as a dictator</a>&nbsp;and that he’d&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-nato-foreign-aid-russia-2b8054a9fe185eec34c2c541cece655d">tell Russia to attack NATO allies</a>&nbsp;who fail to keep up with defense spending obligations mandated by the alliance.

Haley also criticized Trump on his NATO comments and also for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-donald-trump-michael-haley-d76d4f858a92c0fedfc0723655195319">questioning why her husband wasn’t on the campaign trail</a>&nbsp;with her — even as former first lady Melania Trump hasn’t appeared with him. Maj. Michael Haley is deployed in the Horn of Africa on a mission with the South Carolina Army National Guard.

But South Carolina’s Republican voters&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-voted-how-south-carolina-primary-trump-haley-86a0c7960e5c3c7f88ec1c9a330be53e">line up with Trump on having lukewarm feelings</a>&nbsp;about NATO and continued U.S. support for Ukraine, according to AP VoteCast data from Saturday’s primary. About 6 in 10 oppose continuing aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Only about a third described America’s participation in NATO as “very good,” with more saying it’s only “somewhat good.”

Haley has raised copious amounts of campaign money and is scheduled to begin a cross-country campaign swing on Sunday in Michigan ahead of Super Tuesday on&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/5%20Super%20Tuesday">March 5</a>, when many delegate-rich states hold primaries.

But it’s unclear how she can stop Trump from clinching enough delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee for the third time.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., complimented Haley while speaking to reporters at Trump’s election night party in Columbia but suggested it was time for her to drop out.

“I think the sooner she does, the better for her, the better for the party,” Graham said.

Trump’s political strength has endured despite facing&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/trump-investigations-civil-criminal-tracker/index.html">91 criminal charges</a>&nbsp;related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, the discovery of classified documents in his Florida residence and allegations that he secretly arranged payoffs to a porn actress.

The former president’s first criminal trial is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hush-money-new-york-criminal-case-fbdff18df40920b75873b3a40317f5ee">set to begin on March 25</a>&nbsp;in New York, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the closing weeks of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden won South Carolina’s Democratic primary earlier this month and faces only one remaining challenger, Dean Phillips. The Minnesota Democratic congressman has continued to campaign in Michigan ahead of the Democratic primary there, despite having little chance of actually beating Biden.

Though Biden is expected to cruise to his party’s renomination, he faces criticism from some Democrats for providing military backing to Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Some in his party support a ceasefire as the death toll in Israel’s war has reached 30,000 people,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-19-2024-81c2d362340b611a98e4b929b4b5d0a4">two-thirds of them women and children</a>. The war could hurt the president’s general election chances in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-gaza-protest-hamas-michigan-election-5bf3f88529d625a129e786bab29c4fde">swing states like Michigan</a>, which is home to a large Arab American population.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump trounced Nikki Haley on Saturday in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-nikki-haley-south-carolina-primary-republicans-13237d287ce770e0a45e9bccee78e8ee">South Carolina primary</a>, a victory that emphatically punctuated the depth and breadth of his support among Republican primary voters as he vanquished his lone remaining major opponent in her home state.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Former President Donald Trump South Carolina primary night remarks: &quot;This was a little sooner than we anticipated. An even bigger win than we anticipated. I was just informed that we got double the number of votes that has ever been received in the great state of South Carolina. <a href="https://t.co/T4EdzUJr4r">pic.twitter.com/T4EdzUJr4r</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1761552438761328692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Trump did not even have to mount a vigorous campaign, making few appearances and spending relatively little money. Haley has vowed to stay in the race and planned to visit Michigan, the site of the next primary, on Sunday. But the loss further eroded the rationale for her candidacy, barring something unforeseen that would derail the former president.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Congratulations to President Trump for his landslide victory in South Carolina. It&#39;s past time for the GOP to end this political primary charade and unite behind the clear nominee, Donald J. Trump. 🇺🇸🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/WaR9qKklF5">https://t.co/WaR9qKklF5</a>&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1761566340723138756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Here are some takeaways from the South Carolina leg of the campaign:ALL (REPUBLICAN) POLITICS IS NATIONALHaley talked up her chances in “my sweet state of South Carolina” for months. Twice elected governor, initially as a tea party candidate in 2010, she was universally known in her state, and mostly for positive reasons. She had even served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. Her conservative record was clear.And yet her credentials were no match for Trump's hold on the party.Trump has now won with ease in the Midwest, the Northeast and the South, bulldozing any regional differences that had existed in the party before his rise.Haley talked in 2024 about her successes recruiting industry to South Carolina and signing tax cuts and voter ID laws. She promoted her international experience. She excoriated Trump as too risky, too old, too busy fending off indictments, too close to Vladimir Putin and not close enough to NATO allies. Voters were not swayed.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-voted-how-south-carolina-primary-trump-haley-86a0c7960e5c3c7f88ec1c9a330be53e">AP VoteCast data</a>&nbsp;reflected her challenge, especially on foreign policy. The survey found that about half of South Carolina primary voters wanted the U.S. to take a less active role in the world, while about 6 out of 10 opposed continuing aid to Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. They were instead strongly aligned with Trump's vision.Everything Haley tried reinforced the dynamics: To most Trump loyalists she sounded like just another politician offering establishment positions and trying to topple their champion.HALEY STILL HAS NO OBVIOUS OR EVEN LIKELY WINSHaley repeated that she plans to stick around. The Michigan primary is Feb. 27. Haley already has campaigned there and run advertising. The big prize follows, Super Tuesday on March 5, when about a third of Republicans’ 2,429 total delegates are at stake across primaries and caucuses in 15 states and one territory. Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, notes often that many states that follow South Carolina have the same open primary rules. But not all of them. And that didn’t translate into a win at home anyway.California, a majority-Democratic state, does not have open primaries. So Trump, even in a state where he’s not broadly popular, will be the favorite in a Republicans-only setting. Michigan does have an open primary. But that’s a state where progressives and Arab American voters are pushing voters to cast “uncommitted” ballots as a protest against President Joe Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Biden’s campaign is countering. So that gives Democrats their own fight, with no incentive to cross over.In short, if Haley couldn’t win in South Carolina, her chances of victories ahead are slim.WHAT REALLY FORCES CANDIDATES TO DROP OUTPresidential campaigns rarely end directly because of primary losses and delegates counts. They end when a candidate can’t keep the lights on anymore. And sometimes donors keep giving long after the scoreboard says it’s practically over.Often, that’s the case when there is a real ideological fight within a party — see Bernie Sanders in 2016, when the democratic socialist was the vessel for progressive anger at Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party old guard. This time, for Republicans, it is a blend of personality, identity and ideology. Haley is the stand-in for all Republican check writers who loathe Trump and his version of the GOP.And it's these anti-Trump Republicans who keep paying her campaign’s bills. It isn’t about delegates. So when Haley insists she is staying through to Super Tuesday, it’s because she has the resources to do so. At some point, if she doesn't have a dramatic reversal, those resources will dry up.But this campaign has a major asterisk. Trump is facing more than 90 criminal charges in multiple jurisdictions, injecting unparalleled uncertainty into the race.SPEECHES AND SPIN ASIDE, IT’S ABOUT DELEGATESHaley's determination aside, the ultimate numbers that matter are not on her fundraising reports. It's the delegate math. And Trump was on pace to win all 50 delegates in South Carolina, widening his lead and making it increasingly clear that he will reach the 1,215-delegate majority long before the end of the primary calendar in late spring.VP AUDITION HOUR, FEATURING SEN. TIM SCOTT<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708812713486.png" alt="Trump and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott -courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Trump and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott -courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who dropped his own presidential bid in November, enjoyed an extended spotlight in the unofficial contest to become Trump's running mate. First appointed to the Senate in 2012 by Haley, he was Trump's most visible surrogate in South Carolina, often heaping praise on a former president who can never seem to get too much validation.Trump certainly noticed.“He’s been such a great advocate,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall with Scott beside him. “He has been much better for me than he was for himself. I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself, but boy, does he talk about Trump.”Scott would give Trump loyalty and effective advocacy, without upstaging a former president who is always the headliner. Scott, as the only Black Republican in the Senate, also could appeal to Trump in his quest to increase GOP support from non-white voters.But Trump has been known to flatter those who fawn over him, then make another choice.THE BIDEN COALITION DID NOT SAVE HALEYHaley never explicitly asked Democrats to help her against Trump, but she might as well have. She often reminded South Carolinians, who do not have to register by party, that the primary was open to all voters except the 125,000-plus who already had cast Democratic primary ballots Feb. 3.She needed some of the remaining South Carolina Democrats, plus independents, to essentially give her a GOP version of the coalition Biden assembled against Trump in 2020. In a South Carolina Republican primary that would mean heavy support from wealthier, more moderate, college-educated white voters, especially around Columbia and Charleston. But Haley also needed at least some backing from Black voters in those areas and across small-town South Carolina.It didn’t happen.----------------CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;won South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, beating former U.N. Ambassador&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/nikki-haley">Nikki Haley</a>&nbsp;in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination.Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, with wins already in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The former president’s latest victory will likely increase pressure on Haley, who was Trump’s former representative to the U.N. and South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, to leave the race.A 2020 general rematch between Trump and President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden.South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary has historically been a reliable bellwether for Republicans. In all but one primary since 1980, the Republican winner in South Carolina has gone on to be the party’s nominee. The lone exception was Newt Gingrich in 2012.Haley said in recent days that she would head straight to Michigan for its Tuesday primary, the last major contest before Super Tuesday. She faces questions about where she might be able to win a contest or be competitive.Trump and Biden are already behaving like they expect to face off in November.Trump and his allies argue Biden has made the U.S. weaker and point to the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-islamic-state-group-e10e038baea732dae879c11234507f81">chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan</a>&nbsp;and Russia’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-second-anniversary-65088ba9eb9bd729cf8c677e2115cb35">decision to launch a full-scale invasion</a>&nbsp;of Ukraine. Trump has also repeatedly attacked Biden over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-inflation-election-2024-eggs-trump-6690e93b2817f28ebc314c088cbec267">high inflation earlier in the president’s term</a>&nbsp;and his handling of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-crossings-mexico-biden-18ac91ef502e0c5433f74de6cc629b32">record-high migrant crossings</a>&nbsp;at the U.S.-Mexico border.Trump has questioned — often in harshly personal terms — whether the 81-year-old Biden is too old to serve a second term. Biden’s team in turn has highlighted the 77-year-old Trump’s own flubs on the campaign trail.Biden has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-obama-clinton-campaign-fundraisers-new-york-41f5efe969dfc3617cffd36a26a9bf96">stepped up his recent fundraising trips around the country</a>&nbsp;and increasingly attacked Trump directly. He’s called Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement dire threats to the nation’s founding principles, and the president’s reelection campaign has lately focused most of its attention on Trump suggesting he’d use the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72">first day of a second presidency as a dictator</a>&nbsp;and that he’d&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-nato-foreign-aid-russia-2b8054a9fe185eec34c2c541cece655d">tell Russia to attack NATO allies</a>&nbsp;who fail to keep up with defense spending obligations mandated by the alliance.Haley also criticized Trump on his NATO comments and also for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-donald-trump-michael-haley-d76d4f858a92c0fedfc0723655195319">questioning why her husband wasn’t on the campaign trail</a>&nbsp;with her — even as former first lady Melania Trump hasn’t appeared with him. Maj. Michael Haley is deployed in the Horn of Africa on a mission with the South Carolina Army National Guard.But South Carolina’s Republican voters&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-voted-how-south-carolina-primary-trump-haley-86a0c7960e5c3c7f88ec1c9a330be53e">line up with Trump on having lukewarm feelings</a>&nbsp;about NATO and continued U.S. support for Ukraine, according to AP VoteCast data from Saturday’s primary. About 6 in 10 oppose continuing aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Only about a third described America’s participation in NATO as “very good,” with more saying it’s only “somewhat good.”Haley has raised copious amounts of campaign money and is scheduled to begin a cross-country campaign swing on Sunday in Michigan ahead of Super Tuesday on&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/5%20Super%20Tuesday">March 5</a>, when many delegate-rich states hold primaries.But it’s unclear how she can stop Trump from clinching enough delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee for the third time.Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., complimented Haley while speaking to reporters at Trump’s election night party in Columbia but suggested it was time for her to drop out.“I think the sooner she does, the better for her, the better for the party,” Graham said.Trump’s political strength has endured despite facing&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/trump-investigations-civil-criminal-tracker/index.html">91 criminal charges</a>&nbsp;related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, the discovery of classified documents in his Florida residence and allegations that he secretly arranged payoffs to a porn actress.The former president’s first criminal trial is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hush-money-new-york-criminal-case-fbdff18df40920b75873b3a40317f5ee">set to begin on March 25</a>&nbsp;in New York, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the closing weeks of his 2016 presidential campaign.Biden won South Carolina’s Democratic primary earlier this month and faces only one remaining challenger, Dean Phillips. The Minnesota Democratic congressman has continued to campaign in Michigan ahead of the Democratic primary there, despite having little chance of actually beating Biden.Though Biden is expected to cruise to his party’s renomination, he faces criticism from some Democrats for providing military backing to Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Some in his party support a ceasefire as the death toll in Israel’s war has reached 30,000 people,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-19-2024-81c2d362340b611a98e4b929b4b5d0a4">two-thirds of them women and children</a>. The war could hurt the president’s general election chances in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-gaza-protest-hamas-michigan-election-5bf3f88529d625a129e786bab29c4fde">swing states like Michigan</a>, which is home to a large Arab American population.___

🎥Trump wins South Carolina, easily beating Haley in her home state

POLK COUNTY, Iowa—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a teacher and coach for alleged sex crimes with a student.

In late January 2024, the administration of the Ankeny School District notified the Ankeny Police Department about allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship that occurred between a former student and a teacher/coach beginning in 2015, according to a media release.

This relationship continued for several years and was recently reported to the Ankeny School District by the victim.

The Ankeny Police Department immediately investigated these allegations. After this investigation, it was determined 34-year-old Rachel Whiteside, a teacher and coach with the Ankeny Community School District, engaged in a pattern of sexual conduct with the victim while they attended the Ankeny Community School District between the years of 2015 – 2018. &nbsp;

The victim's report claims Whiteside abused them on school district property, though they were in contact electronically as well. Court documents allege Whiteside "used her role as a teacher and coach to make the student feel comfortable and share intimate details of the student's life" and was "methodical in her actions".&nbsp;

"She’s a threat to children based on what she has done to me and should be monitored. I believe she is currently doing this to a former student of Ankeny Centennial as well," the victim's report reads in part.&nbsp;

Whiteside is being held on requested charges with Sex Abuse 3rd, Sexual Exploitation by a school employee (4 counts), and Lascivious contact with a Minor. &nbsp;Whiteside turned herself in this week at the Ankeny Police Department and was transported to the Polk Co. Jail. &nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708613515629.png" alt="Whiteside-photo Polk County jail" />
 <figcaption>Whiteside-photo Polk County jail</figcaption>
 </figure>POLK COUNTY, Iowa—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a teacher and coach for alleged sex crimes with a student.In late January 2024, the administration of the Ankeny School District notified the Ankeny Police Department about allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship that occurred between a former student and a teacher/coach beginning in 2015, according to a media release.This relationship continued for several years and was recently reported to the Ankeny School District by the victim.The Ankeny Police Department immediately investigated these allegations. After this investigation, it was determined 34-year-old Rachel Whiteside, a teacher and coach with the Ankeny Community School District, engaged in a pattern of sexual conduct with the victim while they attended the Ankeny Community School District between the years of 2015 – 2018. &nbsp;The victim's report claims Whiteside abused them on school district property, though they were in contact electronically as well. Court documents allege Whiteside "used her role as a teacher and coach to make the student feel comfortable and share intimate details of the student's life" and was "methodical in her actions".&nbsp;"She’s a threat to children based on what she has done to me and should be monitored. I believe she is currently doing this to a former student of Ankeny Centennial as well," the victim's report reads in part.&nbsp;Whiteside is being held on requested charges with Sex Abuse 3rd, Sexual Exploitation by a school employee (4 counts), and Lascivious contact with a Minor. &nbsp;Whiteside turned herself in this week at the Ankeny Police Department and was transported to the Polk Co. Jail. &nbsp;

Police: Teacher sexually abused student in her classroom

WICHITA, KAN. – A federal grand jury in Wichita returned an indictment this week charging a Kansas man with drug trafficking and firearms crimes.

According to court documents, Horace R. Wright, 40, of Pittsburg is charged with one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, one count of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708607664575.png" alt="Wright -photo Crawford Co." />
 <figcaption>Wright -photo Crawford Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, KAN. – A federal grand jury in Wichita returned an indictment this week charging a Kansas man with drug trafficking and firearms crimes.According to court documents, Horace R. Wright, 40, of Pittsburg is charged with one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, one count of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case

Kansas man accused of attempting to sell fentanyl

Kansas City — Eastern Airlines, a domestic and international cargo airline, announced this week that it has selected Kansas City as the location of its new headquarters, investing more than $4.7 million and creating 165 new jobs, according to a media release from the airline.

The company’s strategic move marks a significant milestone in its commitment to growth, innovation, and expanding its presence in the Midwest.

“We applaud Eastern Airlines’ decision to relocate to Kansas City and look forward to its growth in the area,” said Governor Mike Parson. “Our state’s advantages, including a strategic central location, low costs, and skilled workforce, continue to result in investments from leading companies. Eastern Airlines’ new headquarters is a complement to Kansas City’s new airport terminal and another example of our state’s ability to attract businesses that are creating new opportunities for Missourians.”

Eastern Airlines has had a presence in Kansas City since 2021, when it purchased Alta Aero Technic, a maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility, and formed Foxtrot Aero, a passenger-to-freighter design company. The company’s move of its headquarters will now consolidate all its operations to Kansas City.

“Eastern Air Holdings has had a great experience operating two other businesses at MCI, Alta Aero Technic and Foxtrot,” said Stephen Buscher, Eastern Airlines Chief Financial Officer. “Kansas City and its airport have a great legacy in our industry. We did look at a number of cities to rebase our headquarters, but the enthusiasm of Missouri and the city combined with the generous assistance of the Missouri Works program made our decision easy. The new terminal and our experience proved that it is a metropolitan area investing in its future, and we are proud to be a part of the new airport community.”

New jobs added as part of Eastern Airline’s relocation include a variety of positions, such as maintenance professionals, pilots, and flight operations personnel, and will pay an average salary well above the county average.

“We’re proud to support Eastern Airlines as it establishes its headquarters in Kansas City,” said Michelle Hataway, Acting Director of the Department of Economic Development. “This company’s relocation is a testament to our state’s economic strengths and the collaborative efforts of our incredible partners who are helping Missourians prosper.”

Eastern Airlines will benefit from the Missouri Works program, a tool that helps companies expand and retain workers by providing access to capital through withholdings or tax credits for job creation. The company is also receiving assistance from Missouri One Start, a division of the Department of Economic Development. Missouri One Start assists eligible businesses with their recruitment and training needs.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/11/1700527555581.jpeg" alt="Photo courtesy Kansas City International Airport" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy Kansas City International Airport</figcaption>
 </figure>Kansas City — Eastern Airlines, a domestic and international cargo airline, announced this week that it has selected Kansas City as the location of its new headquarters, investing more than $4.7 million and creating 165 new jobs, according to a media release from the airline.The company’s strategic move marks a significant milestone in its commitment to growth, innovation, and expanding its presence in the Midwest.“We applaud Eastern Airlines’ decision to relocate to Kansas City and look forward to its growth in the area,” said Governor Mike Parson. “Our state’s advantages, including a strategic central location, low costs, and skilled workforce, continue to result in investments from leading companies. Eastern Airlines’ new headquarters is a complement to Kansas City’s new airport terminal and another example of our state’s ability to attract businesses that are creating new opportunities for Missourians.”Eastern Airlines has had a presence in Kansas City since 2021, when it purchased Alta Aero Technic, a maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility, and formed Foxtrot Aero, a passenger-to-freighter design company. The company’s move of its headquarters will now consolidate all its operations to Kansas City.“Eastern Air Holdings has had a great experience operating two other businesses at MCI, Alta Aero Technic and Foxtrot,” said Stephen Buscher, Eastern Airlines Chief Financial Officer. “Kansas City and its airport have a great legacy in our industry. We did look at a number of cities to rebase our headquarters, but the enthusiasm of Missouri and the city combined with the generous assistance of the Missouri Works program made our decision easy. The new terminal and our experience proved that it is a metropolitan area investing in its future, and we are proud to be a part of the new airport community.”New jobs added as part of Eastern Airline’s relocation include a variety of positions, such as maintenance professionals, pilots, and flight operations personnel, and will pay an average salary well above the county average.“We’re proud to support Eastern Airlines as it establishes its headquarters in Kansas City,” said Michelle Hataway, Acting Director of the Department of Economic Development. “This company’s relocation is a testament to our state’s economic strengths and the collaborative efforts of our incredible partners who are helping Missourians prosper.”Eastern Airlines will benefit from the Missouri Works program, a tool that helps companies expand and retain workers by providing access to capital through withholdings or tax credits for job creation. The company is also receiving assistance from Missouri One Start, a division of the Department of Economic Development. Missouri One Start assists eligible businesses with their recruitment and training needs.

Eastern Airlines selects Kansas City for new headquarters creating 165 new jobs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners attended a funeral mass Saturday for a Kansas City-area DJ who was killed when she was shot during a celebration of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-chiefs-dynasty-kansas-city-d16a308684d97a6be2d269c8d56404be">Chiefs' Super Bowl victory.</a>

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting-dj-victim-d96b8631a92af6682b77577c2c4e98c8">Lisa Lopez-Galvan</a>&nbsp;was one of about two dozen people who were shot when gunfire erupted Feb. 14 outside the city’s Union Station. She was remembered during the 90-minute service as a loving wife and mother whose smile could light up a room and who saw each day as a chance for excitement and laughter.

With her casket near the front of the Redemptorist Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri. mourners — some wearing Chiefs jerseys — also heard a mariachi band play and sing.

Along with her husband and young adult son, the 43-year-old had joined an estimated crowd of 1 million people for the parade and rally. As the festivities ended, a dispute over what authorities described as the belief that people in one group were staring at people in another group led to gunfire.

Lopez-Galvan, a music lover who played at weddings, quinceañeras and an American Legion bar and grill, was caught in the middle of it. Everyone else survived.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-celebration-shooting-charges-7cb29dc9956d325103df9bf766a0c407">Two men are charged</a>&nbsp;in her death, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-278e2d3e2cfece1cbe958511e54127ad">two juveniles</a>&nbsp;face gun charges. Her family responded to the charges this week with a statement expressing thanks to police and prosecutors.

“Though it does not bring back our beloved Lisa, it is comforting,” the statement began.

Players and celebrities alike have reached out to her family.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/taylor-swift">Pop superstar Taylor Swift</a>, who is frequently in the stands during Chiefs games because she is dating tight end Travis Kelce,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-donation-chiefs-parade-shooting-299c357fb5d52c106b9c05b51b536f3c">donated $100,000 to Lopez-Galvan's family</a>.

And because she was wearing a Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker jersey at the celebration, he responded to requests on social media seeking help in obtaining a similar jersey — possibly so the mother of two could be laid to rest in it.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708696422850.png" alt="<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting-dj-victim-d96b8631a92af6682b77577c2c4e98c8">Lisa Lopez-Galvan</a>&nbsp;courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption><a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting-dj-victim-d96b8631a92af6682b77577c2c4e98c8">Lisa Lopez-Galvan</a>&nbsp;courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners attended a funeral mass Saturday for a Kansas City-area DJ who was killed when she was shot during a celebration of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-chiefs-dynasty-kansas-city-d16a308684d97a6be2d269c8d56404be">Chiefs' Super Bowl victory.</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting-dj-victim-d96b8631a92af6682b77577c2c4e98c8">Lisa Lopez-Galvan</a>&nbsp;was one of about two dozen people who were shot when gunfire erupted Feb. 14 outside the city’s Union Station. She was remembered during the 90-minute service as a loving wife and mother whose smile could light up a room and who saw each day as a chance for excitement and laughter.With her casket near the front of the Redemptorist Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri. mourners — some wearing Chiefs jerseys — also heard a mariachi band play and sing.Along with her husband and young adult son, the 43-year-old had joined an estimated crowd of 1 million people for the parade and rally. As the festivities ended, a dispute over what authorities described as the belief that people in one group were staring at people in another group led to gunfire.Lopez-Galvan, a music lover who played at weddings, quinceañeras and an American Legion bar and grill, was caught in the middle of it. Everyone else survived.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-celebration-shooting-charges-7cb29dc9956d325103df9bf766a0c407">Two men are charged</a>&nbsp;in her death, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-278e2d3e2cfece1cbe958511e54127ad">two juveniles</a>&nbsp;face gun charges. Her family responded to the charges this week with a statement expressing thanks to police and prosecutors.“Though it does not bring back our beloved Lisa, it is comforting,” the statement began.Players and celebrities alike have reached out to her family.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/taylor-swift">Pop superstar Taylor Swift</a>, who is frequently in the stands during Chiefs games because she is dating tight end Travis Kelce,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-donation-chiefs-parade-shooting-299c357fb5d52c106b9c05b51b536f3c">donated $100,000 to Lopez-Galvan's family</a>.And because she was wearing a Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker jersey at the celebration, he responded to requests on social media seeking help in obtaining a similar jersey — possibly so the mother of two could be laid to rest in it.“While the family is mourning their loss and grappling with their numerous injuries, I will continue to pray for their healing and the repose of Lisa’s soul,” Butker said in a statement.Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez worked with Lopez-Galvan for about a year at a local staffing firm but had known her since childhood. They remembered her as an extrovert and a staunch Catholic who was devoted to her family, passionate about connecting job seekers with employment and ready to help anyone.And, they said, working part time playing music allowed her to share her passion as one of the area’s few Latina DJs.“This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,” the radio station KKFI-FM, where she was the co-host of a program called “Taste of Tejano,” said in a statement.Izurieta and Ramirez said Lopez-Galvan’s Kansas City roots run deep. Her father founded the city’s first mariachi group, Mariachi Mexico, in the 1980s, they said, and the family is well known and active in the Latino community. Her brother, Beto Lopez, is CEO of the Guadalupe Centers, which provides community services and runs charter schools for the Latino community.Lopez-Galvan and her two children went to Bishop Miege, a Catholic high school in a suburb on the Kansas side, and she worked for years as a clerk in a police department there.“This is another example of a real loving, real human whose life was taken tragically with a senseless act,” Beto Lopez said in an interview last week on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”-----------------------KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City area DJ who was killed during a celebration of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-chiefs-dynasty-kansas-city-d16a308684d97a6be2d269c8d56404be">Chiefs' Super Bowl victory</a>&nbsp;was set to be remembered Saturday during funeral services attended by friends and family.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting-dj-victim-d96b8631a92af6682b77577c2c4e98c8">Lisa Lopez-Galvan</a>&nbsp;was one of around two dozen people who were shot when gunfire erupted Feb. 14 outside the city’s Union Station.Along with her husband and young adult son, the 43-year-old had joined an estimated crowd of 1 million people for the parade and rally. As the festivities ended, a dispute over what authorities described as the belief that people in one group were staring at people in another group led to gunfire.Lopez-Galvan, a music lover who played at weddings, quinceañeras and an American Legion bar and grill, was caught in the middle of it. Everyone else survived.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-celebration-shooting-charges-7cb29dc9956d325103df9bf766a0c407">Two men are charged</a>&nbsp;in her death, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-278e2d3e2cfece1cbe958511e54127ad">two juveniles</a>&nbsp;face gun charges. Her family responded to the charges this week with a statement expressing thanks to police and prosecutors.“Though it does not bring back our beloved Lisa, it is comforting,” the statement began.Players and celebrities alike have reached out to her family.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/taylor-swift">Pop superstar Taylor Swift</a>, who is frequently in the stands during Chiefs games because she is dating tight end Travis Kelce,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-donation-chiefs-parade-shooting-299c357fb5d52c106b9c05b51b536f3c">donated $100,000 to Lopez-Galvan's family</a>.And because she was wearing a Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker jersey at the celebration, he responded to requests on social media seeking help in obtaining a similar jersey — possibly so the mother of two could be laid to rest in it.“While the family is mourning their loss and grappling with their numerous injuries, I will continue to pray for their healing and the repose of Lisa’s soul,” Butker said in a statement.Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez worked with Lopez-Galvan for about a year at a local staffing firm but had known her since childhood. They remembered her as an extrovert and a staunch Catholic who was devoted to her family, passionate about connecting job seekers with employment and ready to help anyone.And, they said, working part time playing music allowed her to share her passion as one of the area’s few Latina DJs.“This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,” the radio station KKFI-FM, where she was the co-host of a program called “Taste of Tejano,” said in a statement.Izurieta and Ramirez said Lopez-Galvan’s Kansas City roots run deep. Her father founded the city’s first mariachi group, Mariachi Mexico, in the 1980s, they said, and the family is well known and active in the Latino community. Her brother, Beto Lopez, is CEO of the Guadalupe Centers, which provides community services and runs charter schools for the Latino community.Lopez-Galvan and her two children went to Bishop Miege, a Catholic high school in a suburb on the Kansas side, and she worked for years as a clerk in a police department there.“This is another example of a real loving, real human whose life was taken tragically with a senseless act,” Beto Lopez said in an interview last week on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”