SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement are investigating a suspect on drug allegations.

Just before 12:30 a.m. Oct. 8, a sheriff's deputy conducted a traffic stop on a tan 1997 Chevrolet 1500 near NW Jay Street and North Kansas Avenue, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.

 During the investigation, it was discovered that the passenger had a misdemeanor warrant for his arrest through Shawnee County and illegal narcotics were located.

Frederick D. Anguish, 54, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the SNDOC on requested charges of Possession of an opiate, opium, narcotic or certain stimulant and&nbsp;&nbsp;Use/possess with intent to use drug paraphernalia into the human body.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1759849979752.png" alt="Anguish photo Shawnee County" />
 <figcaption>Anguish photo Shawnee County</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement are investigating a suspect on drug allegations.Just before 12:30 a.m. Oct. 8, a sheriff's deputy conducted a traffic stop on a tan 1997 Chevrolet 1500 near NW Jay Street and North Kansas Avenue, according to Deputy Abigail Christian. During the investigation, it was discovered that the passenger had a misdemeanor warrant for his arrest through Shawnee County and illegal narcotics were located.Frederick D. Anguish, 54, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the SNDOC on requested charges of Possession of an opiate, opium, narcotic or certain stimulant and&nbsp;&nbsp;Use/possess with intent to use drug paraphernalia into the human body.

Passenger in Kansas traffic stop had a warrant for arrest

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City woman was sentenced in federal court&nbsp; for her leadership role in two cases that resulted in more than $500,000 in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans being issued under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and more than $3,000,000 in stolen Treasury checks, according to the United State's Attorney.

Briauna Adams, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 11 years imprisonment based upon her guilty pleas to wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of government funds relating to a counterfeit check scheme and stolen United States Treasury checks.&nbsp; The defendant also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering relating to a scheme to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loans, guaranteed by the SBA under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

According to court documents, Adams rented a townhome in Raymore, Mo., using the name and personal identification information of another person.&nbsp;On July 27, 2024, Adams opened an individual investment account from the Raymore residence.&nbsp; On Aug. 15, 2024, Adams deposited a Treasury check worth $1,445,443.69 in her name to the investment account. Fraud investigators with the investment account company determined the $1,445,443.69 Treasury check was fraudulent and&nbsp;reversed the deposit before suffering a financial&nbsp;loss.

On Nov. 14, 2024, a search warrant was executed on Adam’s rental townhome in Raymore.&nbsp; Approximately 253 stolen Treasury checks were found in the residence.&nbsp; The total value of the checks was approximately $700,000.

Finally, Adams conspired with others to prepare and file fraudulent PPP loan applications on their behalf.&nbsp; Adams filed false PPP loan applications for numerous persons resulting in a loss of approximately $540,302, which she was ordered to pay back in a restitution judgment.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City woman was sentenced in federal court&nbsp; for her leadership role in two cases that resulted in more than $500,000 in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans being issued under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and more than $3,000,000 in stolen Treasury checks, according to the United State's Attorney.Briauna Adams, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 11 years imprisonment based upon her guilty pleas to wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of government funds relating to a counterfeit check scheme and stolen United States Treasury checks.&nbsp; The defendant also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering relating to a scheme to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loans, guaranteed by the SBA under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).According to court documents, Adams rented a townhome in Raymore, Mo., using the name and personal identification information of another person.&nbsp;On July 27, 2024, Adams opened an individual investment account from the Raymore residence.&nbsp; On Aug. 15, 2024, Adams deposited a Treasury check worth $1,445,443.69 in her name to the investment account. Fraud investigators with the investment account company determined the $1,445,443.69 Treasury check was fraudulent and&nbsp;reversed the deposit before suffering a financial&nbsp;loss.On Nov. 14, 2024, a search warrant was executed on Adam’s rental townhome in Raymore.&nbsp; Approximately 253 stolen Treasury checks were found in the residence.&nbsp; The total value of the checks was approximately $700,000.Finally, Adams conspired with others to prepare and file fraudulent PPP loan applications on their behalf.&nbsp; Adams filed false PPP loan applications for numerous persons resulting in a loss of approximately $540,302, which she was ordered to pay back in a restitution judgment.

Prison: Kansas City woman for Covid-19 fraud, ID theft

Residents deal with mile-long walks, corner store diets and poorer health as grocers are forced to close unprofitable locations on both sides of the state line

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/thomaswhite/">Thomas White</a>

Phillip Ramsey is a master gardener who’s planting fall produce in one of the community gardens he manages. It’s just two blocks from the Sun Fresh grocery store that operated at 31st Street and Prospect Avenue until it shut down in August.

The retired Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient has lived in the neighborhood for 35 years. He’s seen the area when it was a&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/09/26/kansas-grocery-stores-closure-rural-healthy-foods-initiative/" target="_blank">food desert</a>&nbsp;before and is troubled by the desert’s return.

Ramsey is trying to do his part by growing and giving away more than 1,000 pounds of produce. But he knows that’s only a bandage for a bigger wound. He is worried for his neighbors — often elderly or low-income — who will now have a harder time finding nutritious food.

“I’ve seen an uptick in neighbors needing the service of the community garden,” Ramsey said. “The impact of the store closing is being felt throughout the neighborhood, and we’ll get by because we always get by. But I’m beginning to see resentment set in, and that scares me.”

The Sun Fresh closure is just part of a growing urban food desert and food insecurity problem in the area. Six miles away in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, the Merc Co+op will close at the end of the year, returning that area to food desert status after just five years of operation.

“I live in a food desert if I am not able to get to a full service grocery store easily,” said&nbsp; Kristina Bridges, a research assistant professor in University of Kansas Medical Center’s department of family medicine and community health. Food insecurity is defined as whether “in the past 12 months, have you run out of food before you could get more? If the answer is yes, you have food insecurity.”

Together, the two grocery store closures will hamper thousands of residents in low-income and low-food-access areas that Dina Newman from the Center for Neighborhoods calls “communities of concern.”

Tight profit margins at grocery stores mean that grocers often avoid the risk of investing in these communities of concern. As a result, food desert maps follow disinvestment patterns that resemble historic redlining.

Those living in a food desert or experiencing food insecurity have measurably worse health outcomes including a life expectancy shortened by 2.29 years, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://pressroom.cancer.org/releases?item=1237" target="_blank">American Cancer Society researchers</a>. While some like Ramsey work to provide short-term community-level solutions, Bridges says broader long-term approaches are also needed.

With the two local grocery stores closing, new food deserts will emerge.

In the late 1980s, Newman was a single mother without a car. She knows the struggle of navigating a food desert firsthand.

“So if I’m working … I have to plan it out to get to the bus to get over to a store. Then l’m waiting at the bus stop, which is sometimes just a patch of dirt,” Newman said. “Then I have to transfer buses with a full load of groceries. What about my child, are they with me? Am I safe alone after dark? You are juggling all this just trying to get to the grocery store, that’s the challenge.”

She recalled one incident during the winter when an ice storm came while she was shopping. Out of necessity, she put her socks over her shoes in an attempt to get some traction and not fall and spill her groceries.

“This is all your hard-earned money in these groceries, you’ve got to get them home,” she said.

Ramsey says that many people in his neighborhood now have to walk up to a mile or take the bus to get fresh food at places like Aldi or Happy Foods. He says the effort required to get nutritious food means that many with limited means will just turn to more convenient options like corner stores and gas stations.

“I can’t throw a rock without hitting a fried chicken spot,” Ramsey said. “So we’re eating processed food, cheap food that we can get our hands on, because access to fresh healthy food is not an option for us.”

Historic patterns with current consequences

While food deserts and food insecurity touch both urban and&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/09/26/kansas-grocery-stores-closure-rural-healthy-foods-initiative/" target="_blank">rural populations</a>, there is a racial disparity. According to a&nbsp;<a href="https://ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/publications/108905/EIB-269.pdf?v=75617" target="_blank">2024 USDA report,</a>&nbsp;8% of white households face food insecurity while the number is 21% for Black households and 16.9% for Hispanic households nationwide.

Notably, that report is the last USDA survey on food security for the foreseeable future. The Trump administration has labeled the report “<a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/09/20/usda-terminates-redundant-food-insecurity-survey" target="_blank">redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous</a>.”If a census tract was redlined as “declining” or “hazardous” in the 1930s Home Owners’ Loan Corp. maps, that translated into a 107% and 149% increase in the likelihood that the same census tract would be a food desert today, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9303837/" target="_blank">2022 study covering 102 U.S. cities</a>.

“It just feels like this is all intentional,” Ramsey said.

Bridges says KU Medical system has been mapping food insecurity among patients since 2017 and sees a strong correlation between rates of Type 2 diabetes, modern food insecurity and historic redlining.

“It’s really no surprise that the bubbles (on the map) overlapped,” said Bridges. “We have big food insecurity bubbles, big Type 2 diabetes bubbles. … They were north, where downtown KCK and the Merc is, and the east side where the Sun Fresh was. …If we pull out our old redlining maps, it’s exactly the same pattern.”

The seemingly structural nature of the problem has led many advocates to use the term “food apartheid” instead of “food desert,” since a desert occurs naturally while food insecurity appears to occur as the result of man-made systems.

“I knew what food apartheid was before food apartheid was a phrase,” Ramsey said. “You go to certain places and the quality of the food is vastly different. … We’re forced to take the scraps and it’s an affront to our personhood.”

The lack of access to nutritious food has hurtful consequences. Chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes become more common, but so do complications from deficiencies in fiber and good gut bacteria that are primarily found in fresh fruits and vegetables.

Bridges says understanding these connections between food deserts, food insecurity and chronic disease is something that even some doctors need education on. She recalls speaking to a practitioner who said they didn’t believe there was a problem with food insecurity because “his patients were all fat.”

“That completely misses the mark,” Bridges said. “Just the long-term chronic stress of being food insecure or living in a food desert releases cortisol in your body that can cause a host of things … including obesity.”

Economic reality of grocery stores closing

Both the Prospect Sun Fresh and the KCK Merc Co+op faced the economic headwinds of operating a grocery store in a historically disinvested neighborhood. While each faced unique issues with their locations, they shared similar challenges.

The Prospect Sun Fresh’s former operator — nonprofit developer Community Builders, which also runs Sun Fresh at 4209 E. 50th Terrace&nbsp; — said they faced a litany of operating challenges at the Prospect location and lost approximately $5 million trying to keep the store open from February 2022 to August 2025.

“We stepped up to fill a void that no one else was going to fill,” said Community Builders CEO Emmet Pearson at an Urban Summit meeting after the Prospect Sun Fresh closed. “The previous operator reached out to us because he tried to get other operators to come forward and no one else would.”

The city had previously invested $17 million to $18 million into shopping center infrastructure at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue and was the landlord of the Sun Fresh location. Pearson says that meant Community Builders couldn’t fully control the environment around the store due to limitations in their lease. Board of directors member Kiki Curls says that directly hurt business.

“It’s the element that’s outside the store that impacted us doing business,” said Curls at the Urban Summit meeting. “When you have open prostitution, open drug use and drug sales, when you have folks that pull down their pants and defecate in front of the door when people are coming in store, people do not come back.”

Community Builders themselves received $750,000 in direct cash subsidy from the city to help at the Prospect Sun Fresh in May 2025 along with $161,500 in rent relief. Pearson and the board of directors say that was a drop in the bucket compared to their operational challenges.

Security was $5,000 to $6,000 a week with the cost of a single off-duty police officer paid between $60 and $90 an hour. The store had a “persistent sewer smell” for months that they say stemmed from infrastructure issues. Community Builders said these issues combined to drive sales down and customers away, which ultimately led to taking a loss and closing the store.

Across the state line, the Merc Co+op is in its waning days. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, had invested approximately $7 million to bring in the Lawrence-based fresh grocer.

After three years of planning and five years of operation the Merc announced in June that it would close at the end of this year. Merc cited poor financial performance at the downtown KCK location and that operating it further could hurt the long-term viability of the cooperative, which has operated in Lawrence for 50 years.

Contributing to the closure was the failure of promised nearby redevelopment, which was intended to increase population density, median wages and foot traffic in the area, needed to help support the grocer. A $25 million redevelopment of the Reardon Convention Center across the street from the Merc never came to fruition after several extensions. And a nearby $145 million Minnesota Avenue Triangle mixed-use project fell through, with developers citing funding gaps.

Patrick Shabram, a location research consultant with G2G analytics who helps grocers identify viable locations by projecting future sales, says there are many considerations to determining whether a grocery store will succeed. He said the top three indicators that most grocery stores look for are population density per area competitor, income level and the education level of a neighborhood.

As a general rule, Shabram said a grocery store targets $100,000 in sales per square foot in the first year of operation. Notably, the net profit margin for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/our-research/food-industry-facts" target="_blank">grocery stores nationwide is just 1.7%</a>&nbsp;according to FMI, a food industry association, which means that even a slight dip in sales could doom a store.

Shabram said the challenge grocers face in opening in an underserved area is balancing the social good of opening a store in an area that needs it while also maintaining profitability.

“I provide the most accurate sales forecast I can so that there can be the proper expectations,” Shabram said. “Then I’m basically saying do what you can to make it work.”

He says that often means looking into grants and incentives to make it through the first couple of lean years while the store establishes itself. He says other ways grocery stores look to improve profitability are pulling in shoppers from neighboring areas or selling higher-margin items like prepared meals or retail. But he says visibility, access, parking lot size, the store’s fit in the neighborhood and size of the store are all major determinants of grocery store success.

“There’s no one answer for every scenario. But a lot of times I’m encouraging people to open smaller stores,” Shabram said. “That might mean it won’t have all the items needed for weekly shopping at the store, but you can provide access to fresh foods that weren’t available at the dollar store.”

Community solutions and addressing root causes

The local governments on both sides of the state line say that they are working to attract grocery stores to replace the recently shuttered locations.

In the meantime, stopgap solutions are being pursued.

Newman — in her capacity as founder of the Kansas City Black Urban Growers — partnered with area urban farmers and the&nbsp;<a href="https://kansascitydefender.com/mutual-aid-community-programs/kcs-black-farms-unite-hamer-free-food-program/" target="_blank">Kansas City Defender</a>&nbsp;to create the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article311797218.html" target="_blank">Hamer Free Food Program</a>. They will give out monthly food boxes to residents within one mile of the closed Sun Fresh. The program is in the pilot phase, and 50 household slots were filled in a matter of hours.

Ramsey works with the nonprofit Urban Green Dreams and will continue to manage community gardens as he hopes to give away 2,000 pounds of food this year. He also works to help educate students in nearby classrooms about growing food.

“I’m running into kids who don’t know that potatoes come from the ground or that peaches come from trees,” he said. “They know every flavor of Takis, though.”

Throughout the metro area, nonprofit Kanbe’s Markets place coolers and tiered baskets of fresh produce in independent corner stores on a consignment basis. The idea is to bring fresh produce to where people shop in low-food-access census tracts. Kanbe’s has joined with 50 community partners to place fresh fruits and vegetables in 100 corner stores, including one&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kanbesmarkets.org/healthy-corner-stores" target="_blank">five blocks from</a>&nbsp;the soon to close Merc Co+op.

“All these downstream things, just to feed people today, are essential,” Bridges said. “But we also need to be thinking of upstream and long-term solutions.”

Bridges said that the root causes of food deserts and food insecurity are a tangled web of health care, agriculture, education and economic factors. She believes a shift to viewing nutritious food as medicine could bring about a drop in chronic disease. That drop in preventable disease could also save the public and insurers money in the form of reduced insurance premiums, fewer claims and fewer overwhelmed emergency rooms.

“It wouldn’t obviously be a quick fix,” Bridges said. “But if you are going to do things like subsidize a building, but then not also address all the other things creating this poor economic situation like jobs, mental health, transportation access and quality of schools, then of course we’re not going to have an environment where a grocery store would survive.”

She points to some smaller programs that offer medically tailored groceries, ready-to-eat meals or fruit and vegetable vouchers. Bridges does say that getting multiple sectors to cooperate presents a sizable challenge in upscaling programs like those. But it’s a challenge that she says must be taken on to truly address the issue.

“Even though they (local governments) tried to be intentional in supporting the two grocery stores in these areas,” said Bridges, “it takes a bigger commitment from multiple sectors to really reinvest in the neighborhoods that have been divested from to address the root cause.”

This&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/10/03/grocery-stores-near-me-food-deserts-redlining-kansas-city/" target="_blank">article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/" target="_blank">Beacon: Kansas City</a>&nbsp;and is republished here under a&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1759841813161.png" alt=" Phillip Ramsey, a master gardener, stands in the Ruby Jeans Community Garden at 29th Street and Wabash Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, where he grows and distributes fresh produce to neighbors (Thomas White/The Beacon)." />
 <figcaption> Phillip Ramsey, a master gardener, stands in the Ruby Jeans Community Garden at 29th Street and Wabash Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, where he grows and distributes fresh produce to neighbors (Thomas White/The Beacon).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Residents deal with mile-long walks, corner store diets and poorer health as grocers are forced to close unprofitable locations on both sides of the state line</h2>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/thomaswhite/">Thomas White</a>Phillip Ramsey is a master gardener who’s planting fall produce in one of the community gardens he manages. It’s just two blocks from the Sun Fresh grocery store that operated at 31st Street and Prospect Avenue until it shut down in August.The retired Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient has lived in the neighborhood for 35 years. He’s seen the area when it was a&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/09/26/kansas-grocery-stores-closure-rural-healthy-foods-initiative/" target="_blank">food desert</a>&nbsp;before and is troubled by the desert’s return.Ramsey is trying to do his part by growing and giving away more than 1,000 pounds of produce. But he knows that’s only a bandage for a bigger wound. He is worried for his neighbors — often elderly or low-income — who will now have a harder time finding nutritious food.“I’ve seen an uptick in neighbors needing the service of the community garden,” Ramsey said. “The impact of the store closing is being felt throughout the neighborhood, and we’ll get by because we always get by. But I’m beginning to see resentment set in, and that scares me.”The Sun Fresh closure is just part of a growing urban food desert and food insecurity problem in the area. Six miles away in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, the Merc Co+op will close at the end of the year, returning that area to food desert status after just five years of operation.“I live in a food desert if I am not able to get to a full service grocery store easily,” said&nbsp; Kristina Bridges, a research assistant professor in University of Kansas Medical Center’s department of family medicine and community health. Food insecurity is defined as whether “in the past 12 months, have you run out of food before you could get more? If the answer is yes, you have food insecurity.”Together, the two grocery store closures will hamper thousands of residents in low-income and low-food-access areas that Dina Newman from the Center for Neighborhoods calls “communities of concern.”Tight profit margins at grocery stores mean that grocers often avoid the risk of investing in these communities of concern. As a result, food desert maps follow disinvestment patterns that resemble historic redlining.Those living in a food desert or experiencing food insecurity have measurably worse health outcomes including a life expectancy shortened by 2.29 years, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://pressroom.cancer.org/releases?item=1237" target="_blank">American Cancer Society researchers</a>. While some like Ramsey work to provide short-term community-level solutions, Bridges says broader long-term approaches are also needed.<h2>Logistics of a food desert</h2>With the two local grocery stores closing, new food deserts will emerge.In the late 1980s, Newman was a single mother without a car. She knows the struggle of navigating a food desert firsthand.“So if I’m working … I have to plan it out to get to the bus to get over to a store. Then l’m waiting at the bus stop, which is sometimes just a patch of dirt,” Newman said. “Then I have to transfer buses with a full load of groceries. What about my child, are they with me? Am I safe alone after dark? You are juggling all this just trying to get to the grocery store, that’s the challenge.”She recalled one incident during the winter when an ice storm came while she was shopping. Out of necessity, she put her socks over her shoes in an attempt to get some traction and not fall and spill her groceries.“This is all your hard-earned money in these groceries, you’ve got to get them home,” she said.Ramsey says that many people in his neighborhood now have to walk up to a mile or take the bus to get fresh food at places like Aldi or Happy Foods. He says the effort required to get nutritious food means that many with limited means will just turn to more convenient options like corner stores and gas stations.“I can’t throw a rock without hitting a fried chicken spot,” Ramsey said. “So we’re eating processed food, cheap food that we can get our hands on, because access to fresh healthy food is not an option for us.”<h2>Historic patterns with current consequences</h2>While food deserts and food insecurity touch both urban and&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/09/26/kansas-grocery-stores-closure-rural-healthy-foods-initiative/" target="_blank">rural populations</a>, there is a racial disparity. According to a&nbsp;<a href="https://ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/publications/108905/EIB-269.pdf?v=75617" target="_blank">2024 USDA report,</a>&nbsp;8% of white households face food insecurity while the number is 21% for Black households and 16.9% for Hispanic households nationwide.Notably, that report is the last USDA survey on food security for the foreseeable future. The Trump administration has labeled the report “<a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/09/20/usda-terminates-redundant-food-insecurity-survey" target="_blank">redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous</a>.”If a census tract was redlined as “declining” or “hazardous” in the 1930s Home Owners’ Loan Corp. maps, that translated into a 107% and 149% increase in the likelihood that the same census tract would be a food desert today, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9303837/" target="_blank">2022 study covering 102 U.S. cities</a>.“It just feels like this is all intentional,” Ramsey said.Bridges says KU Medical system has been mapping food insecurity among patients since 2017 and sees a strong correlation between rates of Type 2 diabetes, modern food insecurity and historic redlining.“It’s really no surprise that the bubbles (on the map) overlapped,” said Bridges. “We have big food insecurity bubbles, big Type 2 diabetes bubbles. … They were north, where downtown KCK and the Merc is, and the east side where the Sun Fresh was. …If we pull out our old redlining maps, it’s exactly the same pattern.”The seemingly structural nature of the problem has led many advocates to use the term “food apartheid” instead of “food desert,” since a desert occurs naturally while food insecurity appears to occur as the result of man-made systems.“I knew what food apartheid was before food apartheid was a phrase,” Ramsey said. “You go to certain places and the quality of the food is vastly different. … We’re forced to take the scraps and it’s an affront to our personhood.”The lack of access to nutritious food has hurtful consequences. Chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes become more common, but so do complications from deficiencies in fiber and good gut bacteria that are primarily found in fresh fruits and vegetables.Bridges says understanding these connections between food deserts, food insecurity and chronic disease is something that even some doctors need education on. She recalls speaking to a practitioner who said they didn’t believe there was a problem with food insecurity because “his patients were all fat.”“That completely misses the mark,” Bridges said. “Just the long-term chronic stress of being food insecure or living in a food desert releases cortisol in your body that can cause a host of things … including obesity.”<h2>Economic reality of grocery stores closing</h2>Both the Prospect Sun Fresh and the KCK Merc Co+op faced the economic headwinds of operating a grocery store in a historically disinvested neighborhood. While each faced unique issues with their locations, they shared similar challenges.The Prospect Sun Fresh’s former operator — nonprofit developer Community Builders, which also runs Sun Fresh at 4209 E. 50th Terrace&nbsp; — said they faced a litany of operating challenges at the Prospect location and lost approximately $5 million trying to keep the store open from February 2022 to August 2025.“We stepped up to fill a void that no one else was going to fill,” said Community Builders CEO Emmet Pearson at an Urban Summit meeting after the Prospect Sun Fresh closed. “The previous operator reached out to us because he tried to get other operators to come forward and no one else would.”The city had previously invested $17 million to $18 million into shopping center infrastructure at Linwood Boulevard and Prospect Avenue and was the landlord of the Sun Fresh location. Pearson says that meant Community Builders couldn’t fully control the environment around the store due to limitations in their lease. Board of directors member Kiki Curls says that directly hurt business.“It’s the element that’s outside the store that impacted us doing business,” said Curls at the Urban Summit meeting. “When you have open prostitution, open drug use and drug sales, when you have folks that pull down their pants and defecate in front of the door when people are coming in store, people do not come back.”Community Builders themselves received $750,000 in direct cash subsidy from the city to help at the Prospect Sun Fresh in May 2025 along with $161,500 in rent relief. Pearson and the board of directors say that was a drop in the bucket compared to their operational challenges.Security was $5,000 to $6,000 a week with the cost of a single off-duty police officer paid between $60 and $90 an hour. The store had a “persistent sewer smell” for months that they say stemmed from infrastructure issues. Community Builders said these issues combined to drive sales down and customers away, which ultimately led to taking a loss and closing the store.Across the state line, the Merc Co+op is in its waning days. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, had invested approximately $7 million to bring in the Lawrence-based fresh grocer.After three years of planning and five years of operation the Merc announced in June that it would close at the end of this year. Merc cited poor financial performance at the downtown KCK location and that operating it further could hurt the long-term viability of the cooperative, which has operated in Lawrence for 50 years.Contributing to the closure was the failure of promised nearby redevelopment, which was intended to increase population density, median wages and foot traffic in the area, needed to help support the grocer. A $25 million redevelopment of the Reardon Convention Center across the street from the Merc never came to fruition after several extensions. And a nearby $145 million Minnesota Avenue Triangle mixed-use project fell through, with developers citing funding gaps.Patrick Shabram, a location research consultant with G2G analytics who helps grocers identify viable locations by projecting future sales, says there are many considerations to determining whether a grocery store will succeed. He said the top three indicators that most grocery stores look for are population density per area competitor, income level and the education level of a neighborhood.As a general rule, Shabram said a grocery store targets $100,000 in sales per square foot in the first year of operation. Notably, the net profit margin for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/our-research/food-industry-facts" target="_blank">grocery stores nationwide is just 1.7%</a>&nbsp;according to FMI, a food industry association, which means that even a slight dip in sales could doom a store.Shabram said the challenge grocers face in opening in an underserved area is balancing the social good of opening a store in an area that needs it while also maintaining profitability.“I provide the most accurate sales forecast I can so that there can be the proper expectations,” Shabram said. “Then I’m basically saying do what you can to make it work.”He says that often means looking into grants and incentives to make it through the first couple of lean years while the store establishes itself. He says other ways grocery stores look to improve profitability are pulling in shoppers from neighboring areas or selling higher-margin items like prepared meals or retail. But he says visibility, access, parking lot size, the store’s fit in the neighborhood and size of the store are all major determinants of grocery store success.“There’s no one answer for every scenario. But a lot of times I’m encouraging people to open smaller stores,” Shabram said. “That might mean it won’t have all the items needed for weekly shopping at the store, but you can provide access to fresh foods that weren’t available at the dollar store.”<h2>Community solutions and addressing root causes</h2>The local governments on both sides of the state line say that they are working to attract grocery stores to replace the recently shuttered locations.In the meantime, stopgap solutions are being pursued.Newman — in her capacity as founder of the Kansas City Black Urban Growers — partnered with area urban farmers and the&nbsp;<a href="https://kansascitydefender.com/mutual-aid-community-programs/kcs-black-farms-unite-hamer-free-food-program/" target="_blank">Kansas City Defender</a>&nbsp;to create the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article311797218.html" target="_blank">Hamer Free Food Program</a>. They will give out monthly food boxes to residents within one mile of the closed Sun Fresh. The program is in the pilot phase, and 50 household slots were filled in a matter of hours.Ramsey works with the nonprofit Urban Green Dreams and will continue to manage community gardens as he hopes to give away 2,000 pounds of food this year. He also works to help educate students in nearby classrooms about growing food.“I’m running into kids who don’t know that potatoes come from the ground or that peaches come from trees,” he said. “They know every flavor of Takis, though.”Throughout the metro area, nonprofit Kanbe’s Markets place coolers and tiered baskets of fresh produce in independent corner stores on a consignment basis. The idea is to bring fresh produce to where people shop in low-food-access census tracts. Kanbe’s has joined with 50 community partners to place fresh fruits and vegetables in 100 corner stores, including one&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kanbesmarkets.org/healthy-corner-stores" target="_blank">five blocks from</a>&nbsp;the soon to close Merc Co+op.“All these downstream things, just to feed people today, are essential,” Bridges said. “But we also need to be thinking of upstream and long-term solutions.”Bridges said that the root causes of food deserts and food insecurity are a tangled web of health care, agriculture, education and economic factors. She believes a shift to viewing nutritious food as medicine could bring about a drop in chronic disease. That drop in preventable disease could also save the public and insurers money in the form of reduced insurance premiums, fewer claims and fewer overwhelmed emergency rooms.“It wouldn’t obviously be a quick fix,” Bridges said. “But if you are going to do things like subsidize a building, but then not also address all the other things creating this poor economic situation like jobs, mental health, transportation access and quality of schools, then of course we’re not going to have an environment where a grocery store would survive.”She points to some smaller programs that offer medically tailored groceries, ready-to-eat meals or fruit and vegetable vouchers. Bridges does say that getting multiple sectors to cooperate presents a sizable challenge in upscaling programs like those. But it’s a challenge that she says must be taken on to truly address the issue.“Even though they (local governments) tried to be intentional in supporting the two grocery stores in these areas,” said Bridges, “it takes a bigger commitment from multiple sectors to really reinvest in the neighborhoods that have been divested from to address the root cause.”This&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/10/03/grocery-stores-near-me-food-deserts-redlining-kansas-city/" target="_blank">article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/" target="_blank">Beacon: Kansas City</a>&nbsp;and is republished here under a&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<figure>
 <img src="https://thebeaconnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/iconbeacon-150x150.png?crop=1" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>

Kansas City food deserts expand across state line as grocery stores close

By&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/24/gov-laura-kelly-skeptical-kansas-houses-anti-tenure-legislation-will-reach-her-desk/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran sounded an alarm that the ongoing federal government shutdown threatened to break the nation’s “fragile” aviation system.

Moran, a Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate’s subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation, made reference to the Jan. 29 crash of a commercial jet from Wichita that collided with a military helicopter in crowded airspace above Washington, D.C.

“Our system is too fragile, and the stakes are too high, for us to continue operating the national aviation system in the manner we are doing so,” Moran said. “We will reach a breaking point, and this could result in the closing of our airspace or portions of it.”

He said he never found value in government shutdowns and urged Senate Democrats to collaborate with Republicans to pass a short-term budget resolution so people could return to their jobs and government work could resume.

The budget impasse prompting closure of nonessential elements of the government reached its 10th day on Friday.

There has been concern that continuation of the political dispute could undermine operation of U.S. airports. Air traffic controllers and TSA officers are considered essential employees and required to work during this period without timely paychecks. The existing national shortage of air traffic controllers, exacerbated by illness of personnel during the shutdown, has been responsible for an increase in flight delays.

“Every day we remain in a shutdown, the air traffic controller shortage gets worse and the strain on the aviation system intensifies,” the senator said in a Senate floor speech. “I hope that this dysfunction we are undergoing … stops before we see dramatic and damaging consequences.”

The U.S. House passed a resolution to keep the government open, but the U.S. Senate hasn’t found the votes to mirror that step.

Moran said failure to “pass a continuing resolution is slowly crushing our aviation system.”

In January, American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided mid-air over the Potomac River. The incident near the Reagan National Airport killed 67 people aboard both aircraft, including 64 passengers and crew on the airliner. The jet had departed from Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita.

“We should be doing everything we can to make certain that our air traffic system and the necessary components are in place to make sure that the traveling public has a safe and secure flight when they board a plane in the United States,” he said. “That work is significantly hindered without an open and functioning government.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760271671002.png" alt=" U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Moran, urged Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown that exacerbates the shortage of air traffic controllers. He argued reopening government would reduce the risk that personnel or equipment failures could lead to an aviation disaster. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of U.S. Senate’s YouTube channel)" />
 <figcaption> U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Moran, urged Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown that exacerbates the shortage of air traffic controllers. He argued reopening government would reduce the risk that personnel or equipment failures could lead to an aviation disaster. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of U.S. Senate’s YouTube channel)</figcaption>
 </figure>By&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/24/gov-laura-kelly-skeptical-kansas-houses-anti-tenure-legislation-will-reach-her-desk/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran sounded an alarm that the ongoing federal government shutdown threatened to break the nation’s “fragile” aviation system.Moran, a Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate’s subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation, made reference to the Jan. 29 crash of a commercial jet from Wichita that collided with a military helicopter in crowded airspace above Washington, D.C.“Our system is too fragile, and the stakes are too high, for us to continue operating the national aviation system in the manner we are doing so,” Moran said. “We will reach a breaking point, and this could result in the closing of our airspace or portions of it.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1759315687610.png" alt="Image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>He said he never found value in government shutdowns and urged Senate Democrats to collaborate with Republicans to pass a short-term budget resolution so people could return to their jobs and government work could resume.The budget impasse prompting closure of nonessential elements of the government reached its 10th day on Friday.There has been concern that continuation of the political dispute could undermine operation of U.S. airports. Air traffic controllers and TSA officers are considered essential employees and required to work during this period without timely paychecks. The existing national shortage of air traffic controllers, exacerbated by illness of personnel during the shutdown, has been responsible for an increase in flight delays.“Every day we remain in a shutdown, the air traffic controller shortage gets worse and the strain on the aviation system intensifies,” the senator said in a Senate floor speech. “I hope that this dysfunction we are undergoing … stops before we see dramatic and damaging consequences.”The U.S. House passed a resolution to keep the government open, but the U.S. Senate hasn’t found the votes to mirror that step.Moran said failure to “pass a continuing resolution is slowly crushing our aviation system.”In January, American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided mid-air over the Potomac River. The incident near the Reagan National Airport killed 67 people aboard both aircraft, including 64 passengers and crew on the airliner. The jet had departed from Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita.“We should be doing everything we can to make certain that our air traffic system and the necessary components are in place to make sure that the traveling public has a safe and secure flight when they board a plane in the United States,” he said. “That work is significantly hindered without an open and functioning government.”

Senator Moran contends government closure ‘slowly crushing our aviation system’

TOPEKA —Law enforcement across the state continue to find drivers traveling far above the posted speed limit.&nbsp;

On Saturday, KHP Trooper Tod shared a photo of a traffic stop with a reminder from a fellow State Trooper, " Trooper Presley would like to remind everybody that for every 10 mph a vehicle travels over 50 mph, the risk of death in a crash doubles."

Speeding is reckless and it puts lives at risk.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760272203671.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA —Law enforcement across the state continue to find drivers traveling far above the posted speed limit.&nbsp;On Saturday, KHP Trooper Tod shared a photo of a traffic stop with a reminder from a fellow State Trooper, " Trooper Presley would like to remind everybody that for every 10 mph a vehicle travels over 50 mph, the risk of death in a crash doubles."Speeding is reckless and it puts lives at risk.&nbsp;

KHP Trooper with an important reminder about driving too fast

The decision has far-reaching implications affecting the treatment of immigrants suspected of civil immigration violations in six midwestern states, including Missouri

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/marysanchez/">Mary Sanchez</a>

The warrantless arrests of 11 immigrant restaurant workers in Liberty earlier this year violated a 2022 consent decree, a federal judge ruled.

The arrests of the workers at El Potro Mexican Café in February were among the first in the Kansas City area to draw widespread media attention.

The Liberty cases became part of a broader filing, challenging government tactics under the second Trump administration on behalf of 26 immigrant plaintiffs.

The case did not question the government’s right to make arrests on immigration violations. But it questioned whether it had violated the prior consent agreement by making warrantless arrests.

On Oct. 7, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division,&nbsp;<a href="https://immigrantjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/214-Nava-v-DHS-Mem-Opinion_10-07-25.pdf" target="_blank">ruled in favor of the immigrant workers</a>.

Judge Jeffrey I. Cummings ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to lift any conditions on the release of 22 immigrants, including 11 people who had been detained after the Liberty raid.

The other 11 people were detained in Chicago through warrantless arrests in their neighborhood or vehicles, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://immigrantjustice.org/press-release/federal-judge-extends-consent-decree-prohibiting-ice-from-arresting-people-without-warrants-or-probable-cause/" target="_blank">National Immigrant Justice Center</a>, which helped bring the case.

The decision has far-reaching implications and is a huge win for due process, said&nbsp;<a href="https://sharma-crawford.com/" target="_blank">Rekha</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://sharma-crawford.com/" target="_blank">Sharma-Crawford</a>, a Kansas City-based immigration attorney representing the Liberty workers.

The Liberty restaurant workers now are out on bond, an option that has become nearly impossible in recent months for detainees taken into ICE custody.

“Their deportation cases, at least for the time being, would have to be dismissed because they were all arrested unlawfully,” Sharma-Crawford said.

In addition to Missouri and Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Kentucky are also under the consent decree, known for the name of one of the original plaintiffs, Margarito Castañon Nava.

<a href="https://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/judge_display.php?LastName=Cummings" target="_blank">Cummings</a>&nbsp;also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to reissue its warrantless arrest policy nationwide and certify that any officers who violated the consent decree were retrained.

Also, ICE will need to report to the court the names and arrest documents for anyone else who had been arrested without a warrant on immigration violations since June in the Northern District of Illinois, and to continue making similar reports monthly.

In some of the cases, federal officials were accused of creating warrants after they had already arrested the individuals on the civil violations of being without lawful immigration or citizenship status.

Cummings also extended the consent decree to Feb. 2, 2026.

It had been set to expire May 12, 2025, had further violations not been found.

The date change “corresponds to the number of days between the date that ICE unequivocally ceased its compliance with the Agreement (June 11, 2025) and the date of this Memorandum Opinion and Order to provide plaintiffs with the full three-year term of the Agreement for which they bargained,” according to the judge’s ruling.

The Department of Homeland Security also was ordered to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees.

The case was brought by the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU of Illinois.

“Today’s decision makes clear that DHS and ICE — like everyone else — must follow the Constitution and the law,” said ACLU of Illinois Deputy Legal Director Michelle Garcia, co-counsel, in a statement.

“The federal government’s reckless practice of stopping, harassing and detaining people — and then finding a justification for the action must end,” Garcia said. “The Trump administration’s destructive mass deportation scheme is not a reason to toss aside bedrock constitutional principles, disregard federal law or court orders.”

The ruling comes as the federal government ramps up the presence of immigration agents in Chicago, and President Donald Trump is threatening to send in the National Guard to maintain order in the face of protests in Portland.

The Department of Homeland Security has not issued a statement yet on the court’s decision.

The Liberty workers were detained after more than a dozen agents with Homeland Security Investigations entered the restaurant looking for a worker suspected of a child sex crime.

But communication problems, possibly exacerbated by language barriers, led to the federal agents entering a private office space, despite the lack of a warrant, and collecting employment documents.

Twelve workers were handcuffed and detained. One of the immigrants was later removed from the U.S.

The judgment is being noted by local immigrant rights advocates as an example of&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/07/03/immigration-court-kansas-city-deportation-legal-counsel/" target="_blank">strategic legal filings</a>&nbsp;designed to force the government to stay within the law.

More than 3,000 people in the Kansas City area have been trained in know-your-rights sessions by&nbsp;<a href="https://airrkc.org/" target="_blank">Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation</a>, or AIRR.

During the training, an emphasis is placed on witnesses filming federal agents during a raid to document that policies and the law are being followed, rather than focusing on the immigrants.

AIRR also stresses that witnesses refrain from name-calling of federal agents, as such video might be necessary to submit in cases like the one just decided in the Illinois court.

This&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/10/09/ice-arrests-immigrant-workers-liberty/" target="_blank">article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/" target="_blank">Beacon: Kansas City</a>&nbsp;and is republished here under a&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760192968407.png" alt="Protesters outside of Kansas City’s immigration court (Mary Sanchez/The Beacon)." />
 <figcaption>Protesters outside of Kansas City’s immigration court (Mary Sanchez/The Beacon).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>The decision has far-reaching implications affecting the treatment of immigrants suspected of civil immigration violations in six midwestern states, including Missouri</h2>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/marysanchez/">Mary Sanchez</a>The warrantless arrests of 11 immigrant restaurant workers in Liberty earlier this year violated a 2022 consent decree, a federal judge ruled.The arrests of the workers at El Potro Mexican Café in February were among the first in the Kansas City area to draw widespread media attention.The Liberty cases became part of a broader filing, challenging government tactics under the second Trump administration on behalf of 26 immigrant plaintiffs.The case did not question the government’s right to make arrests on immigration violations. But it questioned whether it had violated the prior consent agreement by making warrantless arrests.On Oct. 7, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division,&nbsp;<a href="https://immigrantjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/214-Nava-v-DHS-Mem-Opinion_10-07-25.pdf" target="_blank">ruled in favor of the immigrant workers</a>.Judge Jeffrey I. Cummings ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to lift any conditions on the release of 22 immigrants, including 11 people who had been detained after the Liberty raid.The other 11 people were detained in Chicago through warrantless arrests in their neighborhood or vehicles, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://immigrantjustice.org/press-release/federal-judge-extends-consent-decree-prohibiting-ice-from-arresting-people-without-warrants-or-probable-cause/" target="_blank">National Immigrant Justice Center</a>, which helped bring the case.The decision has far-reaching implications and is a huge win for due process, said&nbsp;<a href="https://sharma-crawford.com/" target="_blank">Rekha</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://sharma-crawford.com/" target="_blank">Sharma-Crawford</a>, a Kansas City-based immigration attorney representing the Liberty workers.The Liberty restaurant workers now are out on bond, an option that has become nearly impossible in recent months for detainees taken into ICE custody.“Their deportation cases, at least for the time being, would have to be dismissed because they were all arrested unlawfully,” Sharma-Crawford said.In addition to Missouri and Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Kentucky are also under the consent decree, known for the name of one of the original plaintiffs, Margarito Castañon Nava.<a href="https://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/judge_display.php?LastName=Cummings" target="_blank">Cummings</a>&nbsp;also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to reissue its warrantless arrest policy nationwide and certify that any officers who violated the consent decree were retrained.Also, ICE will need to report to the court the names and arrest documents for anyone else who had been arrested without a warrant on immigration violations since June in the Northern District of Illinois, and to continue making similar reports monthly.In some of the cases, federal officials were accused of creating warrants after they had already arrested the individuals on the civil violations of being without lawful immigration or citizenship status.Cummings also extended the consent decree to Feb. 2, 2026.It had been set to expire May 12, 2025, had further violations not been found.The date change “corresponds to the number of days between the date that ICE unequivocally ceased its compliance with the Agreement (June 11, 2025) and the date of this Memorandum Opinion and Order to provide plaintiffs with the full three-year term of the Agreement for which they bargained,” according to the judge’s ruling.The Department of Homeland Security also was ordered to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees.The case was brought by the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU of Illinois.“Today’s decision makes clear that DHS and ICE — like everyone else — must follow the Constitution and the law,” said ACLU of Illinois Deputy Legal Director Michelle Garcia, co-counsel, in a statement.“The federal government’s reckless practice of stopping, harassing and detaining people — and then finding a justification for the action must end,” Garcia said. “The Trump administration’s destructive mass deportation scheme is not a reason to toss aside bedrock constitutional principles, disregard federal law or court orders.”The ruling comes as the federal government ramps up the presence of immigration agents in Chicago, and President Donald Trump is threatening to send in the National Guard to maintain order in the face of protests in Portland.The Department of Homeland Security has not issued a statement yet on the court’s decision.The Liberty workers were detained after more than a dozen agents with Homeland Security Investigations entered the restaurant looking for a worker suspected of a child sex crime.But communication problems, possibly exacerbated by language barriers, led to the federal agents entering a private office space, despite the lack of a warrant, and collecting employment documents.Twelve workers were handcuffed and detained. One of the immigrants was later removed from the U.S.The judgment is being noted by local immigrant rights advocates as an example of&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/07/03/immigration-court-kansas-city-deportation-legal-counsel/" target="_blank">strategic legal filings</a>&nbsp;designed to force the government to stay within the law.More than 3,000 people in the Kansas City area have been trained in know-your-rights sessions by&nbsp;<a href="https://airrkc.org/" target="_blank">Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation</a>, or AIRR.During the training, an emphasis is placed on witnesses filming federal agents during a raid to document that policies and the law are being followed, rather than focusing on the immigrants.AIRR also stresses that witnesses refrain from name-calling of federal agents, as such video might be necessary to submit in cases like the one just decided in the Illinois court.This&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/10/09/ice-arrests-immigrant-workers-liberty/" target="_blank">article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/" target="_blank">Beacon: Kansas City</a>&nbsp;and is republished here under a&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.

Federal judge rules against ICE in the warrantless arrests of 11 KC-area workers

RILEY COUNTY –&nbsp;Police are investigating a shooting that occurred Saturday afternoon in the 1300 block of Marlatt Avenue in Manhattan, according to a media release from the Riley County Police Department.

Just before 2p.m. polic responded to a report of shots fired in the 1300 Block of Marlatt Avenue. Upon arrival, RCPD located a 35-year-old man suffering from multiple apparent gunshot wounds. Officers immediately rendered first aid until emergency medical personnel arrived. The victim was transported to Stormont Vail in Topeka for serious injuries.

RILEY COUNTY –&nbsp;Police are investigating a shooting that occurred Saturday afternoon in the 1300 block of Marlatt Avenue in Manhattan, according to a media release from the Riley County Police Department.Just before 2p.m. polic responded to a report of shots fired in the 1300 Block of Marlatt Avenue. Upon arrival, RCPD located a 35-year-old man suffering from multiple apparent gunshot wounds. Officers immediately rendered first aid until emergency medical personnel arrived. The victim was transported to Stormont Vail in Topeka for serious injuries.

Police: Man hospitalized after shooting in Manhattan

JOHNSON COUNTY —An officer’s “use of deadly force which resulted in the death of Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon, 25, Grandview, Missouri, was justified under Kansas Law," according to&nbsp;Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

Following Howe's announcement, Lenexa Police released body camera video of the deadly encounter.

Just after 3a.m. on June 22, the Lenexa Police Department received a 911 call from a person who said that a tall Hispanic person in a blue shirt was holding a gun against the head of another person. This was occurring at the pool area at the Lenexa Crossings Apartments located at 12334 W. 97th Terrace, according to a statement from police.

The caller said that she was in a car nearby. Two Lenexa officers arrived minutes later and began to search the parking lot for the involved individuals. The officers saw a car with its lights on and approached it. 

Officer “A” approached the driver’s door and saw a Hispanic male, later identified as Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon, in the driver’s seat. The officer immediately noticed a black handgun in Cartagena-Chacon’s lap. Officer “A” ordered Cartagena-Chacon to put his hands in the air and not to touch the gun.

 Cartagena-Chacon picked up the gun. He then brought the gun up in a motion so the barrel was pointed toward the driver’s door, where Officer“A” stood. 

Cartagena-Chacon then began to move the gun towards the front passenger door where Officer “B” stood. At that time Officer “A” fired his weapon multiple times, killing Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon. The JohnsonCounty Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team “OICIIT” was called to handle this investigation

Cartagena-Chacon’s cause of death was due to multiple gunshot wounds by the officer. Cacon also had a blood alcohol level of .248, according to an autopsy.

On June 22, 2025 at around 3:00 a.m. the Lenexa Police Department receiveda 911 call from a person who said that a tall Hispanic person in a blue shirt washolding a gun against the head of another person. This was occurring at thepool area at the Lenexa Crossings Apartments located at 12334 W. 97th Terrace. The caller said that she was in a car nearby.Two Lenexa officers arrived minutes later and began to search the parking lotfor the involved individuals. The officers saw a car with its lights on andapproached it. Officer “A” approached the driver’s door and saw a Hispanicmale, later identified as Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon, in the driver’s seat.The officer immediately noticed a black handgun in Cartagena-Chacon’s lap.Officer “A” ordered Cartagena-Chacon to put his hands in the air and not totouch the gun. Cartagena-Chacon picked up the gun. He then brought the gunup in a motion so the barrel was pointed toward the driver’s door, where Officer“A” stood. Cartagena-Chacon then began to move the gun towards the frontpassenger door where Officer “B” stood. At that time Officer “A” fired hisweapon multiple times, killing Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon. The JohnsonCounty Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team “OICIIT” was calledto handle this investigation

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760061280942.png" alt="Image from Lenexa Police video" />
 <figcaption>Image from Lenexa Police video</figcaption>
 </figure>JOHNSON COUNTY —An officer’s “use of deadly force which resulted in the death of Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon, 25, Grandview, Missouri, was justified under Kansas Law," according to&nbsp;Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.Following Howe's announcement, Lenexa Police released body camera video of the deadly encounter.Just after 3a.m. on June 22, the Lenexa Police Department received a 911 call from a person who said that a tall Hispanic person in a blue shirt was holding a gun against the head of another person. This was occurring at the pool area at the Lenexa Crossings Apartments located at 12334 W. 97th Terrace, according to a statement from police.The caller said that she was in a car nearby. Two Lenexa officers arrived minutes later and began to search the parking lot for the involved individuals. The officers saw a car with its lights on and approached it. Officer “A” approached the driver’s door and saw a Hispanic male, later identified as Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon, in the driver’s seat. The officer immediately noticed a black handgun in Cartagena-Chacon’s lap. Officer “A” ordered Cartagena-Chacon to put his hands in the air and not to touch the gun. Cartagena-Chacon picked up the gun. He then brought the gun up in a motion so the barrel was pointed toward the driver’s door, where Officer“A” stood. Cartagena-Chacon then began to move the gun towards the front passenger door where Officer “B” stood. At that time Officer “A” fired his weapon multiple times, killing Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon. The JohnsonCounty Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team “OICIIT” was called to handle this investigationCartagena-Chacon’s cause of death was due to multiple gunshot wounds by the officer. Cacon also had a blood alcohol level of .248, according to an autopsy.On June 22, 2025 at around 3:00 a.m. the Lenexa Police Department receiveda 911 call from a person who said that a tall Hispanic person in a blue shirt washolding a gun against the head of another person. This was occurring at thepool area at the Lenexa Crossings Apartments located at 12334 W. 97th Terrace. The caller said that she was in a car nearby.Two Lenexa officers arrived minutes later and began to search the parking lotfor the involved individuals. The officers saw a car with its lights on andapproached it. Officer “A” approached the driver’s door and saw a Hispanicmale, later identified as Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon, in the driver’s seat.The officer immediately noticed a black handgun in Cartagena-Chacon’s lap.Officer “A” ordered Cartagena-Chacon to put his hands in the air and not totouch the gun. Cartagena-Chacon picked up the gun. He then brought the gunup in a motion so the barrel was pointed toward the driver’s door, where Officer“A” stood. Cartagena-Chacon then began to move the gun towards the frontpassenger door where Officer “B” stood. At that time Officer “A” fired hisweapon multiple times, killing Jose Enrique Cartagena-Chacon. The JohnsonCounty Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigative Team “OICIIT” was calledto handle this investigation

Kan. officer justified in killing man who raised gun in direction of police

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760115585607.png" alt="File photo President Trump speaking to reporters on Friday -from White House video" />
 <figcaption>File photo President Trump speaking to reporters on Friday -from White House video</figcaption>
 </figure><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">🚨 <a href="https://t.co/kmn7DNKgIv">pic.twitter.com/kmn7DNKgIv</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1977065808741515751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump delivers for the troops. <a href="https://t.co/iZOvn2GULG">pic.twitter.com/iZOvn2GULG</a>&mdash; Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1977066803601031594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

Trump identifies funds to ensure troops are paid despite shutdown

TOPEKA, Kan.&nbsp;– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation shared the results of the statewide marijuana enforcement operation conducted in Kansas, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, according to a media release from the agency.

KBI agents, with support from local law enforcement, executed search warrants at 18 separate vape shops and CBD dispensaries in Wichita, Topeka, Salina, Great Bend, McPherson, Independence, Pratt, Abilene, Ulysses, Concordia and Sedan.

Marijuana products that are prohibited by Kansas law, or were suspected to contain unlawful amounts of THC, were seized. The preliminary results of items seized during the operation include:

Flower, also known as marijuana bud, (weight in ounces and pounds): 5,494 ounces or 343.38 pounds

THC pre-rolls, also called pre-rolled joints, (number of items): 43,867

THC and&nbsp;psilocybin&nbsp;edibles&nbsp;(number of packages): 84,481

Additionally, two subjects were arrested on Oct. 2, in Ulysses, for moving illegal THC products in order to evade law enforcement detection.

Gregory Reese, 63, of Ulysses, was arrested around 12:15 p.m., at N. Stubbs Road and E. Road 9 in rural Grant County. He was arrested for possession with the intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, interference with law enforcement, and no Kansas drug tax stamp.

Tammy Reese, 59, of Ulysses, was arrested for distribution of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, interference with law enforcement, criminal use of a weapon, and no Kansas drug tax stamp. She was arrested at Reese’s Enterprises at 119 W. Oklahoma, in Ulysses, at around 12:30 p.m.

Around 5 p.m., on Oct. 2, the Kansas Highway Patrol stopped a 20-foot box truck on U.S. Highway 400, near Fredonia. The truck was transporting THC products that were removed from the shelves of 19 Kansas shops. KBI agents seized the truck and its contents, and are investigating what occurred.&nbsp;

Evidence from these cases is being tested. The investigations are ongoing.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/3/1741774631945.png" alt="Google image" />
 <figcaption>Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan.&nbsp;– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation shared the results of the statewide marijuana enforcement operation conducted in Kansas, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, according to a media release from the agency.KBI agents, with support from local law enforcement, executed search warrants at 18 separate vape shops and CBD dispensaries in Wichita, Topeka, Salina, Great Bend, McPherson, Independence, Pratt, Abilene, Ulysses, Concordia and Sedan.Marijuana products that are prohibited by Kansas law, or were suspected to contain unlawful amounts of THC, were seized. The preliminary results of items seized during the operation include:Flower, also known as marijuana bud, (weight in ounces and pounds): 5,494 ounces or 343.38 poundsTHC pre-rolls, also called pre-rolled joints, (number of items): 43,867THC vapes&nbsp;(number of items): 35,627THC and&nbsp;psilocybin&nbsp;edibles&nbsp;(number of packages): 84,481Currency: $35,436Additionally, two subjects were arrested on Oct. 2, in Ulysses, for moving illegal THC products in order to evade law enforcement detection.Gregory Reese, 63, of Ulysses, was arrested around 12:15 p.m., at N. Stubbs Road and E. Road 9 in rural Grant County. He was arrested for possession with the intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, interference with law enforcement, and no Kansas drug tax stamp.Tammy Reese, 59, of Ulysses, was arrested for distribution of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, interference with law enforcement, criminal use of a weapon, and no Kansas drug tax stamp. She was arrested at Reese’s Enterprises at 119 W. Oklahoma, in Ulysses, at around 12:30 p.m.Around 5 p.m., on Oct. 2, the Kansas Highway Patrol stopped a 20-foot box truck on U.S. Highway 400, near Fredonia. The truck was transporting THC products that were removed from the shelves of 19 Kansas shops. KBI agents seized the truck and its contents, and are investigating what occurred.&nbsp;Evidence from these cases is being tested. The investigations are ongoing.

KBI shares results of the statewide marijuana enforcement operation

KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement investigating another homicide in Kansas City have identified the victim as 20-year-old&nbsp; Za’marion V. Taylor, according to&nbsp;KCPD Sergeant Jake Becchina.

Just before 6p.m. Thursday, police were dispatched to a shooting at a convenience store in the 1300 block of Bannister Road in Kansas City, Missouri, according to Becchina.

On arrival officers were directed to a shooting victim, later identified as Taylor, unresponsive on the ground next to the business. Officers rendered aid and called for EMS who responded and declared him deceased at the scene. Homicide detectives responded to&nbsp; the scene and canvassed for any witnesses.

Preliminary investigation indicates that Taylor had an interaction with an unknown suspect in the parking lot of the business that escalated to gunfire which struck him. Police have not reported an arrest or suspect details.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760098963045.png" alt="Photos Sheriff Daryl Forte'" />
 <figcaption>Photos Sheriff Daryl Forte'</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement investigating another homicide in Kansas City have identified the victim as 20-year-old&nbsp; Za’marion V. Taylor, according to&nbsp;KCPD Sergeant Jake Becchina.Just before 6p.m. Thursday, police were dispatched to a shooting at a convenience store in the 1300 block of Bannister Road in Kansas City, Missouri, according to Becchina.On arrival officers were directed to a shooting victim, later identified as Taylor, unresponsive on the ground next to the business. Officers rendered aid and called for EMS who responded and declared him deceased at the scene. Homicide detectives responded to&nbsp; the scene and canvassed for any witnesses.Preliminary investigation indicates that Taylor had an interaction with an unknown suspect in the parking lot of the business that escalated to gunfire which struck him. Police have not reported an arrest or suspect details.

Police ID victim in KC business parking lot killing

<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Announcement by First Lady Melania Trump <a href="https://t.co/AAUwgylsgs">https://t.co/AAUwgylsgs</a>&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1976665027336712480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/8/1755386458134.png" alt=" " />
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 </figure>

🎥First lady reveals talks with Putin over kidnapped Ukraine children

Representative Sharice Davids hosted an online meeting alongside Kansans whose industries have been directly affected by the government shutdown. Those participants shared personal and professional stories, including how the shutdown impacts mental health services and infrastructure projects at home. 

According to a statement from her office, Davids has&nbsp;<a href="https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/davids-statement-consequential-government-shutdown">repeatedly</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/RepDavids/status/1976034161975755107" target="_blank">advocated</a>&nbsp;for a&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/RepDavids/status/1973457458971771127" target="_blank">bipartisan solution</a>&nbsp;to reopen the government and safeguard the livelihoods of Kansans.&nbsp;

“This shutdown is a devastating blow to our economy and represents real consequences for hardworking Kansans,” said&nbsp;Davids. “I’m committed to working with both parties to find a commonsense, bipartisan solution to reopen the government and ensure Kansans are protected from skyrocketing health care costs. As we heard today, there’s too much at stake for this to go on any longer.”

At today’s press conference, Davids was joined by Tim DeWeese of Johnson County Mental Health Center, Haley Kottler of Kansas Appleseed, Keely Schneider of Workforce Partnership, and Sarah White of the Missouri &amp; Associated Rivers Coalition (MOARC) to highlight how the ongoing government shutdown is affecting Kansans. Mental health services face delays and reduced access, workforce training and small business support are stalled, vital river and infrastructure projects are slowed, and nutrition assistance programs like SNAP and WIC are at risk — putting families, workers, and communities across the state in jeopardy.

Davids is pushing for a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and protect Kansans from the consequences of partisan gridlock in D.C. She recently announced her support for two bills: one to guarantee pay for&nbsp;<a href="https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/davids-backs-effort-keep-air-travel-safe-employees-paid-during-government">aviation workers</a>&nbsp;and another to ensure&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5401/cosponsors" target="_blank">active-duty service members</a>&nbsp;continue receiving their paychecks. Kansas is home to more than&nbsp;<a href="https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-civilian-jobs-are-in-the-us-federal-government/state/kansas/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">25,000</a>&nbsp;federal employees and more than&nbsp;<a href="https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2020-demographics-report.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">21,000</a>&nbsp;active-duty service members.

A shutdown has serious&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/issue-briefs/?id=B7FCE9F4-4DFE-495C-8263-AD277CE4716B" target="_blank">impacts</a>&nbsp;on Kansas families and the overall U.S. economy. Americans now face disruptions to important benefits, service members are not being compensated, many small businesses have altered their operations, and federal workers have been furloughed without pay. Specifically:&nbsp;

While Davids works to reopen the government, Kansans impacted by the shutdown can visit&nbsp;<a href="https://davids.house.gov/shutdown">davids.house.gov/shutdown</a>&nbsp;for resources that may help during this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Representative Sharice Davids hosted an online meeting alongside Kansans whose industries have been directly affected by the government shutdown. Those participants shared personal and professional stories, including how the shutdown impacts mental health services and infrastructure projects at home. According to a statement from her office, Davids has&nbsp;<a href="https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/davids-statement-consequential-government-shutdown">repeatedly</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/RepDavids/status/1976034161975755107" target="_blank">advocated</a>&nbsp;for a&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/RepDavids/status/1973457458971771127" target="_blank">bipartisan solution</a>&nbsp;to reopen the government and safeguard the livelihoods of Kansans.&nbsp;<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MmZZj4qXKjM?si=nyh4bdcp2UPh0Bw5&amp;start=10" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>“This shutdown is a devastating blow to our economy and represents real consequences for hardworking Kansans,” said&nbsp;Davids. “I’m committed to working with both parties to find a commonsense, bipartisan solution to reopen the government and ensure Kansans are protected from skyrocketing health care costs. As we heard today, there’s too much at stake for this to go on any longer.”At today’s press conference, Davids was joined by Tim DeWeese of Johnson County Mental Health Center, Haley Kottler of Kansas Appleseed, Keely Schneider of Workforce Partnership, and Sarah White of the Missouri &amp; Associated Rivers Coalition (MOARC) to highlight how the ongoing government shutdown is affecting Kansans. Mental health services face delays and reduced access, workforce training and small business support are stalled, vital river and infrastructure projects are slowed, and nutrition assistance programs like SNAP and WIC are at risk — putting families, workers, and communities across the state in jeopardy.Davids is pushing for a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and protect Kansans from the consequences of partisan gridlock in D.C. She recently announced her support for two bills: one to guarantee pay for&nbsp;<a href="https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/davids-backs-effort-keep-air-travel-safe-employees-paid-during-government">aviation workers</a>&nbsp;and another to ensure&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5401/cosponsors" target="_blank">active-duty service members</a>&nbsp;continue receiving their paychecks. Kansas is home to more than&nbsp;<a href="https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-civilian-jobs-are-in-the-us-federal-government/state/kansas/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">25,000</a>&nbsp;federal employees and more than&nbsp;<a href="https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2020-demographics-report.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">21,000</a>&nbsp;active-duty service members.A shutdown has serious&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/issue-briefs/?id=B7FCE9F4-4DFE-495C-8263-AD277CE4716B" target="_blank">impacts</a>&nbsp;on Kansas families and the overall U.S. economy. Americans now face disruptions to important benefits, service members are not being compensated, many small businesses have altered their operations, and federal workers have been furloughed without pay. Specifically:&nbsp;<ul>
 <li>It’s estimated the five-week partial government shutdown in 2018-2019 reduced economic output by $11 billion in the following two quarters, and the 2013 full government shutdown reduced GDP growth by $20 billion.</li><li>Kansans receiving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits are experiencing service delays, including disruptions to verifying benefits and the issuance of new cards.</li><li>There are currently more than 25,000 federal workers in Kansas who may have been furloughed.A bipartisan report found that the last three government shutdowns led to the equivalent of 56,940 years in lost productivity from federal workers.</li><li>A bipartisan report found that the last three government shutdowns led to the equivalent of 56,940 years in lost productivity from federal workers.</li><li>The distribution of important food assistance programs, including SNAP, has been disrupted, leaving some Kansans — including women, children, and the elderly — without nutritious food.</li><li>Small businesses are dealing with delays in receiving loans from the federal government.Moody’s Analytics estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown delayed more than $2 billion in loans to small businesses.</li><li>Moody’s Analytics estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown delayed more than $2 billion in loans to small businesses.</li><li>Travelers are seeing longer lines at airport security checkpoints and flight delays. They’re also dealing with delayed passport processing times.</li>
 </ul>While Davids works to reopen the government, Kansans impacted by the shutdown can visit&nbsp;<a href="https://davids.house.gov/shutdown">davids.house.gov/shutdown</a>&nbsp;for resources that may help during this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;

🎥Kan. Congresswoman met with Kansans affected by gov't shutdown 

<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Donald J. Trump Completes Comprehensive Follow-Up Evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center <a href="https://t.co/OuB4whYm6K">pic.twitter.com/OuB4whYm6K</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1976812943770894826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">President Trump departs Walter Reed Medical Center ... <a href="https://t.co/Z6ttXFYq5m">pic.twitter.com/Z6ttXFYq5m</a>&mdash; Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1976710110471733661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

Read the physician report from President Trump's checkup on Friday

LYON COUNTY–A juvenile is under investigation for setting a house fire in Emporia.

Just before 4:30pm Saturday, September 20, the Emporia Fire Department responded to a reported house fire in the 1100 block of Constitution Street in Emporia, according to a media release. Fire crews encountered an active fire within the home and acted swiftly to bring the incident under control.

After the fire was out, the&nbsp;Emporia Fire Department's Fire Investigators conducted a thorough investigation into the cause and origin of the fire. Based on evidence collected, the fire has been classified as incendiary, indicating it was intentionally set.

Intentionally set fires represent a significant threat to life, property, and public safety. The Emporia Fire Department remains committed to diligently investigating such incidents to identify those responsible and ensure public safety.

As a result of the investigation, a juvenile has been referred to the Lyon County Attorney’s Office for possible charges. Due to the individual’s age, authorities released no additional details.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760095702210.jpeg" alt="Photo by Chuck Sample courtesy KVOE" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Chuck Sample courtesy KVOE</figcaption>
 </figure>LYON COUNTY–A juvenile is under investigation for setting a house fire in Emporia.Just before 4:30pm Saturday, September 20, the Emporia Fire Department responded to a reported house fire in the 1100 block of Constitution Street in Emporia, according to a media release. Fire crews encountered an active fire within the home and acted swiftly to bring the incident under control.After the fire was out, the&nbsp;Emporia Fire Department's Fire Investigators conducted a thorough investigation into the cause and origin of the fire. Based on evidence collected, the fire has been classified as incendiary, indicating it was intentionally set.Intentionally set fires represent a significant threat to life, property, and public safety. The Emporia Fire Department remains committed to diligently investigating such incidents to identify those responsible and ensure public safety.As a result of the investigation, a juvenile has been referred to the Lyon County Attorney’s Office for possible charges. Due to the individual’s age, authorities released no additional details.

Juvenile faces charges for allegedly starting Kan. house fire

<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">After multiple posts made recently by Kansas Republican officials, Governor Laura Kelly released the below statement: <a href="https://t.co/ROdrkBkh2x">pic.twitter.com/ROdrkBkh2x</a>&mdash; Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovLauraKelly/status/1976767343289385227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Laura Kelly refuses to turn over SNAP data to the feds because she doesn’t want the feds to know exactly how much money in food stamps Kansas is giving to illegal aliens. Time to turn it over, Laura. Kansans first. 👉 <a href="https://t.co/JtpUuzYH2a">https://t.co/JtpUuzYH2a</a> <a href="https://t.co/JgtL6KiNut">pic.twitter.com/JgtL6KiNut</a>&mdash; Kansas GOP (@KansasGOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/KansasGOP/status/1974315116125704499?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

Kan. governor responds to 'childish attacks from public officials'

DICKINSON COUNTY —A Kansas man is under investigation for allegedly selling drugs in Dickinson County.

In December of 2024, the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement Unit began an investigation into the distribution of Methamphetamine in Herington, according to a media release. The approximate ten-month long investigation, resulted in an arrest and a seizure of methamphetamine.

On Thursday, the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant in the 500 Block of South A Street in Herington. A search of the residence revealed Methamphetamine, Drug Paraphernalia, Cocaine, Marijuana and other controlled substances.

The Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office also served arrest warrants with the assistance of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Junction City Police Department and the Herington Police Department.

Charles Miller, 48, of Woodbine, Kansas was arrested and booked into the Dickinson County Jail on requested charges of Distribution of Methamphetamine, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia with the Intent to Distribute, Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Distribution of Controlled Substance using communication facility and No Drug Tax Stamp.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760103494996.png" alt="Miller photo Dickinson County." />
 <figcaption>Miller photo Dickinson County.</figcaption>
 </figure>DICKINSON COUNTY —A Kansas man is under investigation for allegedly selling drugs in Dickinson County.In December of 2024, the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement Unit began an investigation into the distribution of Methamphetamine in Herington, according to a media release. The approximate ten-month long investigation, resulted in an arrest and a seizure of methamphetamine.On Thursday, the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant in the 500 Block of South A Street in Herington. A search of the residence revealed Methamphetamine, Drug Paraphernalia, Cocaine, Marijuana and other controlled substances.The Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office also served arrest warrants with the assistance of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Junction City Police Department and the Herington Police Department.Charles Miller, 48, of Woodbine, Kansas was arrested and booked into the Dickinson County Jail on requested charges of Distribution of Methamphetamine, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia with the Intent to Distribute, Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Distribution of Controlled Substance using communication facility and No Drug Tax Stamp.

Sheriff: Investigation led to arrest of Kan. drug dealer

MANHATTAN, KAN. – The Riley County Police Department executed a search warrant at Chill Vibez Smoke and Vape and made an arrest during its investigation on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in the 100 block of Sarber Lane in Manhattan, Pottawatomie County.

According to a media release from the RCPD, the warrant was issued as part of a larger overall investigation that began earlier this year into the distribution of illegal marijuana and THC products in Manhattan. This was an independent investigation by the RCPD and not currently linked to recent enforcement by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI).

MANHATTAN, KAN. – The Riley County Police Department executed a search warrant at Chill Vibez Smoke and Vape and made an arrest during its investigation on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in the 100 block of Sarber Lane in Manhattan, Pottawatomie County.According to a media release from the RCPD, the warrant was issued as part of a larger overall investigation that began earlier this year into the distribution of illegal marijuana and THC products in Manhattan. This was an independent investigation by the RCPD and not currently linked to recent enforcement by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI).

Police make arrest at smoke and vape shop in Manhattan

On social media Friday, Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1738891651773.png" alt="File photo-Kansas U.S. Marshall Roger Marshall and Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget during a meeting earlier this year" />
 <figcaption>File photo-Kansas U.S. Marshall Roger Marshall and Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget during a meeting earlier this year</figcaption>
 </figure>On social media Friday, Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The RIFs have begun.&mdash; Russ Vought (@russvought) <a href="https://twitter.com/russvought/status/1976686105199268177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> on Tuesday: “If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial — and a lot of those jobs will never come back.”<a href="https://t.co/O4Uj4BNo0l">pic.twitter.com/O4Uj4BNo0l</a> <a href="https://t.co/Hol5vCkRgP">https://t.co/Hol5vCkRgP</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1976692607750160778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

Government shutdown: Mass firings of federal workers begins

RILEY COUNTY —A Kansas woman died in an accident just after 11:30a.m. Thursday in Riley County.

RILEY COUNTY —A Kansas woman died in an accident just after 11:30a.m. Thursday in Riley County.A 2017 Buick Encore driven by Sharon Sando, 74, Leonardville was traveling&nbsp; in the 12000 block of Green-Randolph Road, according to the Riley County Police Department Activity report. The SUV veered off the road and rolled into a ditch. Sando was pronounced dead at the scene. The RCPD released no additional details.