WASHINGTON (AP) — Former heart surgeon and TV pitchman&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/mehmet-oz">Dr. Mehmet Oz</a>&nbsp;was confirmed Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Oz became the agency’s administrator in a party line 53-45 vote. Kansas U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall voted with the majority.

The 64-year-old will manage health insurance programs for roughly half the country, with oversight of Medicare, Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage. He steps into the new role as Congress is debating cuts&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-cuts-budget-republicans-health-care-4a13fc3528d7bf20ea52db4a5551c8bf">to the Medicaid program</a>, which provides coverage to millions of poor and disabled Americans.

Oz has not said yet whether he would oppose such cuts to the government-funded program, instead offering a vision of promoting healthier lifestyles, integrating artificial intelligence and telehealth into the system, and rethinking rural health care delivery.

During a hearing last month, he told senators that he did favor work requirements for Medicaid recipients, but paperwork shouldn’t be used to reaffirm that they are working or to block people from staying enrolled.

Oz, who worked for years a respected heart surgeon at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-funding-trump-fa70143c715df8fd4ef337c0e1ccf872">Columbia University</a>, also noted that doctors dislike Medicaid for its relatively low payments and some don’t want to take those patients.

He said that when Medicaid eligibility was expanded without improving resources for doctors, that made care options even thinner for the program’s core patients, which include children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.

“We have to make some important decisions to improve the quality of care,” he said.

Oz has formed a close relationship with his new boss,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/robert-f-kennedy-jr">Robert F. Kennedy Jr</a>. He’s hosted the health secretary and his inner circle regularly at his home in Florida. He’s leaned into Kennedy’s campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” an effort to redesign the nation’s food supply, reject vaccine mandates and cast doubt on some long-established scientific research.

The former TV show host talks often about the importance of a healthy diet, aligning closely with Kennedy’s views.

While has has faced some criticism for promoting unproven vitamin supplements and holistic treatments — staples of the “MAHA movement” — he’s regularly encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.

Oz will take over CMS days after the agency was spared from the type of deep&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-human-services-layoffs-restructuring-rfk-jr-ec4d7731695e4204970c7eab953b2289">cuts</a>&nbsp;that Kennedy ordered at other public health agencies. Thousands of staffers at the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the National Institutes for Health are out of a job after mass layoffs that started Tuesday.

CMS is expected to lose about 300 staffers, including those who worked on minority health and to shrink the cost of health care delivery.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743726503203.png" alt="Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. and Dr. Oz" />
 <figcaption>Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. and Dr. Oz</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Former heart surgeon and TV pitchman&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/mehmet-oz">Dr. Mehmet Oz</a>&nbsp;was confirmed Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Oz became the agency’s administrator in a party line 53-45 vote. Kansas U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall voted with the majority.The 64-year-old will manage health insurance programs for roughly half the country, with oversight of Medicare, Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage. He steps into the new role as Congress is debating cuts&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-cuts-budget-republicans-health-care-4a13fc3528d7bf20ea52db4a5551c8bf">to the Medicaid program</a>, which provides coverage to millions of poor and disabled Americans.Oz has not said yet whether he would oppose such cuts to the government-funded program, instead offering a vision of promoting healthier lifestyles, integrating artificial intelligence and telehealth into the system, and rethinking rural health care delivery.During a hearing last month, he told senators that he did favor work requirements for Medicaid recipients, but paperwork shouldn’t be used to reaffirm that they are working or to block people from staying enrolled.Oz, who worked for years a respected heart surgeon at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-funding-trump-fa70143c715df8fd4ef337c0e1ccf872">Columbia University</a>, also noted that doctors dislike Medicaid for its relatively low payments and some don’t want to take those patients.He said that when Medicaid eligibility was expanded without improving resources for doctors, that made care options even thinner for the program’s core patients, which include children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.“We have to make some important decisions to improve the quality of care,” he said.Oz has formed a close relationship with his new boss,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/robert-f-kennedy-jr">Robert F. Kennedy Jr</a>. He’s hosted the health secretary and his inner circle regularly at his home in Florida. He’s leaned into Kennedy’s campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” an effort to redesign the nation’s food supply, reject vaccine mandates and cast doubt on some long-established scientific research.The former TV show host talks often about the importance of a healthy diet, aligning closely with Kennedy’s views.While has has faced some criticism for promoting unproven vitamin supplements and holistic treatments — staples of the “MAHA movement” — he’s regularly encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.Oz will take over CMS days after the agency was spared from the type of deep&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-human-services-layoffs-restructuring-rfk-jr-ec4d7731695e4204970c7eab953b2289">cuts</a>&nbsp;that Kennedy ordered at other public health agencies. Thousands of staffers at the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the National Institutes for Health are out of a job after mass layoffs that started Tuesday.CMS is expected to lose about 300 staffers, including those who worked on minority health and to shrink the cost of health care delivery.

Moran, Marshall help Senate confirm Dr. Oz to lead CMS

NEOSHO COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 8a.m. Thursday in Neosho County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2021 Nissan Kicks driven by Janee M. Umbarger, 55, Chanute, was northbound on U.S. 169 just north of&nbsp;&nbsp;70th Road. The SUV and a southbound 2009 GMC Sierra driven by Carrol E. Clark, 76, Piqua, collided&nbsp;near the center of the roadway.

Umbarger was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to Countryside Funeral Home. EMS transported&nbsp; Clark to&nbsp;Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center.&nbsp; Clark was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

NEOSHO COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 8a.m. Thursday in Neosho County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2021 Nissan Kicks driven by Janee M. Umbarger, 55, Chanute, was northbound on U.S. 169 just north of&nbsp;&nbsp;70th Road. The SUV and a southbound 2009 GMC Sierra driven by Carrol E. Clark, 76, Piqua, collided&nbsp;near the center of the roadway.Umbarger was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to Countryside Funeral Home. EMS transported&nbsp; Clark to&nbsp;Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center.&nbsp; Clark was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Kansas woman dies in SUV, pickup crash

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett has completed the review of the use of deadly force that resulted in the death of Daniel Stowe. The incident occurred on December 3, 2023, in the 4200 block of East Gilbert in Wichita.&nbsp;

The sole question addressed by the District Attorney is whether sufficient evidence exists to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that a violation of the criminal laws of the State of Kansas occurred in this instance.

Under Kansas law and the facts of the case, Bennett determined no criminal charges will be filed against the Wichita Police Officer involved.

Just before 2:30p.m., on Dec. 3, 2023, Sedgwick County 911 received a call of a domestic disturbance in the 4200 block of East Gilbert. While officers were on the way to the call, they learned the man involved in the disturbance was known to carry firearm.

At approximately 2:40p.m., four Wichita Police Officers arrive at the east Gilbert location and encountered 50-year-old Daniel Stowe from Wichita, according to Gibbs.

Stowe was standing in the street in front of the call location. One officer met with the calling party inside the house while the other officers spoke to Stowe in the street.

One officer learned from the calling party that Stowe had been making suicidal statements. This information was relayed to the officers who were interacting with Stowe. Officers attempted to pat Stowe down for weapons for their safety and the safety of others based on the information he was known to carry firearms and was making suicidal statements.

Stowe was not compliant to the officer’s requests to be patted down. He made statements indicating he intended to escalate the situation despite the officer’s attempts to deescalate the situation.

At 2:42p.m., Stowe drew a Glock handgun from his right hip area and held it down to his side. Officers gave numerous commands for Stowe to “drop the weapon.” At 2:43p.m., Stowe raised the gun with his right hand and pointed it directly at one of the officers. Another officer fired their issued duty weapon four times, striking Stowe one time in the right torso. Stowe fell to the ground and the officers immediately started rendering medical aid until EMS arrived.

He was transported by Sedgwick County EMS to an area hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 3:07p.m. by medical personnel.

Sedgwick County Forensic Investigators recovered a loaded Glock 27 from the scene. This investigation will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, according to Gibbs.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1701719615522.png" alt="Image from photos taken from Wichita Police Axon camera footage of the incident.&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Image from photos taken from Wichita Police Axon camera footage of the incident.&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett has completed the review of the use of deadly force that resulted in the death of Daniel Stowe. The incident occurred on December 3, 2023, in the 4200 block of East Gilbert in Wichita.&nbsp;The sole question addressed by the District Attorney is whether sufficient evidence exists to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that a violation of the criminal laws of the State of Kansas occurred in this instance.Under Kansas law and the facts of the case, Bennett determined no criminal charges will be filed against the Wichita Police Officer involved.Just before 2:30p.m., on Dec. 3, 2023, Sedgwick County 911 received a call of a domestic disturbance in the 4200 block of East Gilbert. While officers were on the way to the call, they learned the man involved in the disturbance was known to carry firearm.At approximately 2:40p.m., four Wichita Police Officers arrive at the east Gilbert location and encountered 50-year-old Daniel Stowe from Wichita, according to Gibbs.Stowe was standing in the street in front of the call location. One officer met with the calling party inside the house while the other officers spoke to Stowe in the street.One officer learned from the calling party that Stowe had been making suicidal statements. This information was relayed to the officers who were interacting with Stowe. Officers attempted to pat Stowe down for weapons for their safety and the safety of others based on the information he was known to carry firearms and was making suicidal statements.Stowe was not compliant to the officer’s requests to be patted down. He made statements indicating he intended to escalate the situation despite the officer’s attempts to deescalate the situation.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1701719883175.png" alt="Photo of the Glock handgun taken by forensic personnel and released by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's office" />
 <figcaption>Photo of the Glock handgun taken by forensic personnel and released by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's office</figcaption>
 </figure>At 2:42p.m., Stowe drew a Glock handgun from his right hip area and held it down to his side. Officers gave numerous commands for Stowe to “drop the weapon.” At 2:43p.m., Stowe raised the gun with his right hand and pointed it directly at one of the officers. Another officer fired their issued duty weapon four times, striking Stowe one time in the right torso. Stowe fell to the ground and the officers immediately started rendering medical aid until EMS arrived.He was transported by Sedgwick County EMS to an area hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 3:07p.m. by medical personnel.Sedgwick County Forensic Investigators recovered a loaded Glock 27 from the scene. This investigation will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, according to Gibbs.

DA: No charges against Kan. officer in deadly shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump offered a rosy assessment after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/financial-markets-tariffs-trump-trade-cea98013c677e5b9bd6ce6166f4ce659">stock market dropped sharply</a>&nbsp;Thursday over his tariffs, saying, “I think it's going very well.”

“The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” he said when asked about the market as he left the White House to fly to one of his Florida golf clubs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-rates-tariffs-52dbb020a4c41122e31669c2da236d67">dropped more than 1,600 points</a>&nbsp;on Thursday as U.S. stocks led a worldwide selloff after the Republican president's announcement of tariffs against much of the world&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-economic-impact-trade-markets-3e38352ab5693852bfd9bc8dd2ac2d56">ignited a shock</a>&nbsp;like none seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump on Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933">announced a minimum tariff of 10%</a>&nbsp;on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union.

The announcement&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-us-world-reaction-5b8411d056e013015a0df6227b41dd5b">jolted markets worldwide</a>, but Trump said that was to be expected. He compared the United States to a sick patient in need of surgery when asked by a reporter for his reaction to the worst stock market drop in years.

“I think it's going very well. We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and it's a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is,” he said, an apparent reference to the selloff.

He talked about trillions of dollars in investment that is “coming into our country” from companies that want to make their products in the U.S. to avoid tariffs.

“The rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal," he said.

Later, speaking with the reporters on aboard Air Force One, Trump said that he'd be open to using tariffs to negotiate with other countries and that it would depend on whether they had something “phenomenal” to offer in return.

He maintains that other countries have been taking advantage of the U.S. for a long time and he wants it to stop.

“For many years, we’ve been at the wrong side of the ball and I’ll tell you what, I think it’s going to be unbelievable," Trump said as he left the White House to attend a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his club in Doral, Florida.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump offered a rosy assessment after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/financial-markets-tariffs-trump-trade-cea98013c677e5b9bd6ce6166f4ce659">stock market dropped sharply</a>&nbsp;Thursday over his tariffs, saying, “I think it's going very well.”<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">President Trump: &quot;I think its going very well. It was an operation, like when a when a patient gets operated on. It&#39;s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is. We have six or seven trillion dollars coming into our country...the markets are going to boom.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/hhrGOFgX2J">pic.twitter.com/hhrGOFgX2J</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1907874672068165724?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>“The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” he said when asked about the market as he left the White House to fly to one of his Florida golf clubs.The Dow Jones Industrial Average&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-rates-tariffs-52dbb020a4c41122e31669c2da236d67">dropped more than 1,600 points</a>&nbsp;on Thursday as U.S. stocks led a worldwide selloff after the Republican president's announcement of tariffs against much of the world&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-economic-impact-trade-markets-3e38352ab5693852bfd9bc8dd2ac2d56">ignited a shock</a>&nbsp;like none seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.Trump on Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933">announced a minimum tariff of 10%</a>&nbsp;on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union.The announcement&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-us-world-reaction-5b8411d056e013015a0df6227b41dd5b">jolted markets worldwide</a>, but Trump said that was to be expected. He compared the United States to a sick patient in need of surgery when asked by a reporter for his reaction to the worst stock market drop in years.“I think it's going very well. We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and it's a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is,” he said, an apparent reference to the selloff.He talked about trillions of dollars in investment that is “coming into our country” from companies that want to make their products in the U.S. to avoid tariffs.“The rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal," he said.Later, speaking with the reporters on aboard Air Force One, Trump said that he'd be open to using tariffs to negotiate with other countries and that it would depend on whether they had something “phenomenal” to offer in return.He maintains that other countries have been taking advantage of the U.S. for a long time and he wants it to stop.“For many years, we’ve been at the wrong side of the ball and I’ll tell you what, I think it’s going to be unbelievable," Trump said as he left the White House to attend a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his club in Doral, Florida.

🎥Trump's first reaction to stock market drop day after tariff announcement

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/mchilson/">MORGAN CHILSON</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 — Five of the six southwest Kansas counties reporting measles cases have seen kindergarten vaccination rates drop, one showing a 24 percentage point dip over a four-year period.

Vaccination rates are one focus of many Kansas county health officers and medical experts as they work to educate against misinformation about vaccines in the hopes of staving off a growing measles outbreak. As of April 2, Kansas has 24 confirmed measles cases in Grant, Gray, Haskell, Kiowa, Morton and Stevens counties, with one case added in the last week.

For herd immunity to be achieved — the point where enough people are vaccinated that those who are unvaccinated will be protected — 95% of a population must be vaccinated against measles, according to the World Health Organization. The Kansas measles immunization rate of kindergarteners dropped from 94.47% in 2019 to 90.21% in 2023, Kansas Department of Health and Environment data shows.

Jennifer Bacani McKenney, a family physician and county health officer in Wilson County, said she saw vaccine hesitancy increase after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID made it more OK for people to decline vaccines for themselves and for children,” she said.

The idea, though, that some counties are seeing kindergarten vaccination rates drop — such as Gray County, where the rate declined from 85% in 2019 to 61% in 2023 — is concerning, Bacani McKenney said.

“When we’re getting to those points when barely the majority are vaccinated, that’s when these diseases have a chance to come back,” she said. “We know vaccines work. Polio is still probably the No. 1 example. For the longest time, so was measles, and now we’re at the point where we can’t use measles as an example.

“We are very voluntarily not protecting ourselves against a very preventable illness,” Bacani McKenney said. “The people who are suffering are really not us adults. It’s going to be our children.”

Haskell County also hit a double-digit drop in vaccination rates, with 21% fewer kindergarteners being vaccinated over that same four-year period.

Vaccinations are required for school in Kansas unless there is a religious or medical exemption. KDHE and the Kansas State Department of Education track the percentage of kindergarteners who have vaccine exemptions, and those rates are increasing too — in Haskell County from 11% in 2019 to over 25% in 2023 and in Gray County jumping from about 2% to 11%.

In Barton County, where kindergarten immunization rates dropped by nearly 7 percentage points from 2019 to 2023, Karen Winkelman, a registered nurse and director of the Barton County Health Department said she is receiving numerous questions from parents about vaccine safety. She said her team made the decision to be proactive once they heard that measles cases were reappearing nationwide.

Winkelman stresses having productive, positive conversations.

“We need to take a positive approach on this and hold down that hysteria,” she said. “We know this disease. We know the vaccine. We have something available for protection.”

It isn’t like the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, where the vaccine information changed frequently. They are disseminating information carefully, using only reliable sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, KDHE, the American Academy of Family Physicians and others.

“We are going with factual information. The more we can educate and provide the factual, the better it is,” Winkelman said. “We’re never going to be able to control on social media or in normal conversations what is being said. We just have to really focus on those organizations that are reliable and accurate.”

The Barton County Health Department is holding an immunization clinic from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, outside of their regular business hours, to make sure staff is available to answer questions and offer vaccinations, Winkelman said.

“We’re not going to force anyone to get the vaccine,” she said. “I just want to have all of those things available to the public for them to make an educated decision. It might be a conversation with their primary care also.”

Stevens County, which was the first Kansas county to report a measles case on March 13, currently has had six measles cases. Cammie Heaton, administrator for the county’s health department, is taking the same approach as Barton County — educate and be available to answer questions.

“We’re actually, knock on wood, sitting better now than we were three weeks ago. We are hopeful that we aren’t going to have any more,” she said. “We’re still monitoring some susceptible individuals.”

Like Barton County, her staff have offered walk-in clinics for measles vaccinations or boosters. Stevens County, according to KDHE data, has seen its vaccination rate among kindergarteners drop by 14 percentage points, from 87% in 2019 to 73% in 2023.

All measles cases in Stevens County were in unvaccinated individuals, Heaton said.

Dana Hawkinson, an internal medicine and infectious disease physician, spoke about the measles outbreak at a recent University of Kansas Health System news briefing.

“I think people should be concerned, particularly if they’re in communities that have decreased vaccination rates,” he said. “Measles is probably the most infectious viral disease that we know of. It is spread through airborne means, so people will express it into the air when they cough or breathe. Measles can linger in the air in a room for two hours.”

Combatting misinformation about the disease is critical, Hawkinson said, pointing to social media algorithms that can play into the information people receive online. But there are other factors, as well.

“We know misinformation is significant but we can’t be myopic in thinking that is the only thing we need to understand,” he said. “There are other factors in play as well.”

Those include people seeking less medical care after the pandemic, states offering increased options for vaccine exemptions, significant mistrust of science and public health medicine, as well as mistrust of physicians, Hawkinson said.

“All of these things are playing a role now to increase the risk of an individual and a community against things like this which were otherwise vaccine preventable,” he said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/3/1743085628490.png" alt="Photo by Tatiana Lanzieri Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Tatiana Lanzieri Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/mchilson/">MORGAN CHILSON</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 — Five of the six southwest Kansas counties reporting measles cases have seen kindergarten vaccination rates drop, one showing a 24 percentage point dip over a four-year period.Vaccination rates are one focus of many Kansas county health officers and medical experts as they work to educate against misinformation about vaccines in the hopes of staving off a growing measles outbreak. As of April 2, Kansas has 24 confirmed measles cases in Grant, Gray, Haskell, Kiowa, Morton and Stevens counties, with one case added in the last week.For herd immunity to be achieved — the point where enough people are vaccinated that those who are unvaccinated will be protected — 95% of a population must be vaccinated against measles, according to the World Health Organization. The Kansas measles immunization rate of kindergarteners dropped from 94.47% in 2019 to 90.21% in 2023, Kansas Department of Health and Environment data shows.Jennifer Bacani McKenney, a family physician and county health officer in Wilson County, said she saw vaccine hesitancy increase after the COVID-19 pandemic.“COVID made it more OK for people to decline vaccines for themselves and for children,” she said.The idea, though, that some counties are seeing kindergarten vaccination rates drop — such as Gray County, where the rate declined from 85% in 2019 to 61% in 2023 — is concerning, Bacani McKenney said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743693382314.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>“When we’re getting to those points when barely the majority are vaccinated, that’s when these diseases have a chance to come back,” she said. “We know vaccines work. Polio is still probably the No. 1 example. For the longest time, so was measles, and now we’re at the point where we can’t use measles as an example.“We are very voluntarily not protecting ourselves against a very preventable illness,” Bacani McKenney said. “The people who are suffering are really not us adults. It’s going to be our children.”Haskell County also hit a double-digit drop in vaccination rates, with 21% fewer kindergarteners being vaccinated over that same four-year period.Vaccinations are required for school in Kansas unless there is a religious or medical exemption. KDHE and the Kansas State Department of Education track the percentage of kindergarteners who have vaccine exemptions, and those rates are increasing too — in Haskell County from 11% in 2019 to over 25% in 2023 and in Gray County jumping from about 2% to 11%.In Barton County, where kindergarten immunization rates dropped by nearly 7 percentage points from 2019 to 2023, Karen Winkelman, a registered nurse and director of the Barton County Health Department said she is receiving numerous questions from parents about vaccine safety. She said her team made the decision to be proactive once they heard that measles cases were reappearing nationwide.Winkelman stresses having productive, positive conversations.“We need to take a positive approach on this and hold down that hysteria,” she said. “We know this disease. We know the vaccine. We have something available for protection.”It isn’t like the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, where the vaccine information changed frequently. They are disseminating information carefully, using only reliable sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, KDHE, the American Academy of Family Physicians and others.“We are going with factual information. The more we can educate and provide the factual, the better it is,” Winkelman said. “We’re never going to be able to control on social media or in normal conversations what is being said. We just have to really focus on those organizations that are reliable and accurate.”The Barton County Health Department is holding an immunization clinic from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, outside of their regular business hours, to make sure staff is available to answer questions and offer vaccinations, Winkelman said.“We’re not going to force anyone to get the vaccine,” she said. “I just want to have all of those things available to the public for them to make an educated decision. It might be a conversation with their primary care also.”Stevens County, which was the first Kansas county to report a measles case on March 13, currently has had six measles cases. Cammie Heaton, administrator for the county’s health department, is taking the same approach as Barton County — educate and be available to answer questions.“We’re actually, knock on wood, sitting better now than we were three weeks ago. We are hopeful that we aren’t going to have any more,” she said. “We’re still monitoring some susceptible individuals.”Like Barton County, her staff have offered walk-in clinics for measles vaccinations or boosters. Stevens County, according to KDHE data, has seen its vaccination rate among kindergarteners drop by 14 percentage points, from 87% in 2019 to 73% in 2023.All measles cases in Stevens County were in unvaccinated individuals, Heaton said.Dana Hawkinson, an internal medicine and infectious disease physician, spoke about the measles outbreak at a recent University of Kansas Health System news briefing.“I think people should be concerned, particularly if they’re in communities that have decreased vaccination rates,” he said. “Measles is probably the most infectious viral disease that we know of. It is spread through airborne means, so people will express it into the air when they cough or breathe. Measles can linger in the air in a room for two hours.”Combatting misinformation about the disease is critical, Hawkinson said, pointing to social media algorithms that can play into the information people receive online. But there are other factors, as well.“We know misinformation is significant but we can’t be myopic in thinking that is the only thing we need to understand,” he said. “There are other factors in play as well.”Those include people seeking less medical care after the pandemic, states offering increased options for vaccine exemptions, significant mistrust of science and public health medicine, as well as mistrust of physicians, Hawkinson said.“All of these things are playing a role now to increase the risk of an individual and a community against things like this which were otherwise vaccine preventable,” he said.

Vaccination rates down in most Kansas counties where measles cases reported

WYANDOTTE COUNTY —The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department Traffic Division continues to investigating a fatal hit-and-run incident and are working to identify the victim.

Just after 8:30a.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to report of an accident in the 4300 block of State Line Road, according to a statement from KCK Officer Jovanna Cheatum.

 When officers arrived on scene, they located a man deceased in the roadway. The initial investigation revealed a large construction dump truck struck the pedestrian and left the scene. Police&nbsp;located the driver of the vehicle, according to Cheatum. They are cooperating with detectives.&nbsp; An autopsy is scheduled on the victim for Thursday and police are hopeful this might help to identify him.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743534048942.png" alt="Police on the scene of the incident -photo courtesy KCTV" />
 <figcaption>Police on the scene of the incident -photo courtesy KCTV</figcaption>
 </figure>WYANDOTTE COUNTY —The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department Traffic Division continues to investigating a fatal hit-and-run incident and are working to identify the victim.Just after 8:30a.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to report of an accident in the 4300 block of State Line Road, according to a statement from KCK Officer Jovanna Cheatum. When officers arrived on scene, they located a man deceased in the roadway. The initial investigation revealed a large construction dump truck struck the pedestrian and left the scene. Police&nbsp;located the driver of the vehicle, according to Cheatum. They are cooperating with detectives.&nbsp; An autopsy is scheduled on the victim for Thursday and police are hopeful this might help to identify him.

Police locate dump truck driver in fatal Kan. hit-and-run

WASHINGTON –&nbsp;Kansas U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation on Wednesday questioned Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg about the steps the company is taking to ensure public safety on their aircrafts and what the future of Boeing looks like in Kansas.

“Boeing is in the process of acquiring Spirit AeroSystems - the largest private employer in Kansas, employing about 12,000 people,”&nbsp;continued Sen. Moran. “We have hundreds of small businesses who do work for Boeing and work with Spirit. It’s not just one company, it’s a whole system by which Kansas aerospace and aviation – the Air Capital of the World – operates.”

“It was indicated to me that without the acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems the new generation of any aircraft developed by Boeing would not involve work in Wichita or work in Kansas,”&nbsp;continued Sen. Moran.&nbsp;“With the acquisition, the statement was made, that the work could more likely occur in Kansas. You are going to build a new aircraft someday, what’s the plan for where that work will take place?”

Mr. Ortberg discussed future plans for aviation development and assured Sen. Moran of Boeing’s commitment to keep jobs in Kansas.

“Let me just assure you that Spirit AeroSystems and the work we do in Kansas is critically important,”&nbsp;said Mr. Ortberg.&nbsp;“We are spending a significant amount of our capital to acquire that company, and we are not going to do that and move work out of Kansas. The work that we are doing there is going to stay there. In fact, I am very hopeful that once we get the acquisition closed, we will find opportunities to do even more work.”

WASHINGTON –&nbsp;Kansas U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation on Wednesday questioned Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg about the steps the company is taking to ensure public safety on their aircrafts and what the future of Boeing looks like in Kansas.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NyaKq-lucBw?si=IZRYaxf9yLhAH6wG" 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>“Boeing is in the process of acquiring Spirit AeroSystems - the largest private employer in Kansas, employing about 12,000 people,”&nbsp;continued Sen. Moran. “We have hundreds of small businesses who do work for Boeing and work with Spirit. It’s not just one company, it’s a whole system by which Kansas aerospace and aviation – the Air Capital of the World – operates.”“It was indicated to me that without the acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems the new generation of any aircraft developed by Boeing would not involve work in Wichita or work in Kansas,”&nbsp;continued Sen. Moran.&nbsp;“With the acquisition, the statement was made, that the work could more likely occur in Kansas. You are going to build a new aircraft someday, what’s the plan for where that work will take place?”Mr. Ortberg discussed future plans for aviation development and assured Sen. Moran of Boeing’s commitment to keep jobs in Kansas.“Let me just assure you that Spirit AeroSystems and the work we do in Kansas is critically important,”&nbsp;said Mr. Ortberg.&nbsp;“We are spending a significant amount of our capital to acquire that company, and we are not going to do that and move work out of Kansas. The work that we are doing there is going to stay there. In fact, I am very hopeful that once we get the acquisition closed, we will find opportunities to do even more work.”

🎥Moran questions Boeing CEO on future of Kan. aviation manufacturing

KANSAS CITY —The Amber Alert for a missing 16-year-old who was believed to be pregnant and traveling possibly through Kansas City toward Arkansas in February has been canceled, according to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Police.

Just after 11:30p.m. Wednesday, the Sarpy County, Nebraska Sheriff's office notified the Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Police Department that sheriff deputies in Nebraska responded to a tip of a possible sighting near of the teen near Omaha, Nebraska.

Law enforcement made contact with girl who was with an adult male also matching the description of the suspect she was identified leaving with, 40-year-old Gary Day.

  Their identities were positively confirmed and as a result, deputies took Day into custody.&nbsp; He is being held on requested charges that include&nbsp;Contribute to delinquency of child,&nbsp;False reporting misdemeanor and&nbsp;Fugitive from justice/prior to gov. warrant, according to online jail records.

 Sophia Franklin was taken to a secure facility to await re-unification with her family..

KANSAS CITY —The Missouri State Highway Patrol on Wednesday night&nbsp; issued an Amber Alert following an active Amber Alert from Wisconsin.

Sophia Franklin, 16,&nbsp; was last seen at her residence at 9:00p.m. February 2, according to the Alert.

She is believed to be with Gary F. Day. He was last seen at her residence just before 8a.m. February 3. There is a no contact order for Gary and Sophia. Sophia is 3 months pregnant.

﻿ Officials say they believe she is traveling south to Arkansas. ﻿ ﻿ If you see them call police.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1739412488707.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —The Amber Alert for a missing 16-year-old who was believed to be pregnant and traveling possibly through Kansas City toward Arkansas in February has been canceled, according to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Police.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743688497395.png" alt="Day photo Sarpy County jail" />
 <figcaption>Day photo Sarpy County jail</figcaption>
 </figure>Just after 11:30p.m. Wednesday, the Sarpy County, Nebraska Sheriff's office notified the Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Police Department that sheriff deputies in Nebraska responded to a tip of a possible sighting near of the teen near Omaha, Nebraska.Law enforcement made contact with girl who was with an adult male also matching the description of the suspect she was identified leaving with, 40-year-old Gary Day. Their identities were positively confirmed and as a result, deputies took Day into custody.&nbsp; He is being held on requested charges that include&nbsp;Contribute to delinquency of child,&nbsp;False reporting misdemeanor and&nbsp;Fugitive from justice/prior to gov. warrant, according to online jail records. Sophia Franklin was taken to a secure facility to await re-unification with her family..---------KANSAS CITY —The Missouri State Highway Patrol on Wednesday night&nbsp; issued an Amber Alert following an active Amber Alert from Wisconsin.Sophia Franklin, 16,&nbsp; was last seen at her residence at 9:00p.m. February 2, according to the Alert.She is believed to be with Gary F. Day. He was last seen at her residence just before 8a.m. February 3. There is a no contact order for Gary and Sophia. Sophia is 3 months pregnant.﻿ Officials say they believe she is traveling south to Arkansas. ﻿ ﻿ If you see them call police.

Amber Alert canceled: Missing teen found, suspect arrested

BY&nbsp;&nbsp;CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AND PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of anticipation and speculation, President Donald Trump followed through on his reciprocal tariff threats by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933">declaring on Wednesday</a>&nbsp;a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States.

In announcing the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-reciprocal-tariffs-trade-4112c661b1b82a2663a9eb0ecd6bd537">reciprocal tariffs</a>, Trump was fulfilling a key campaign promise by raising U.S. taxes on foreign goods to narrow the gap with the tariffs the White House says other countries unfairly impose on U.S. products.

“Reciprocal means ‘they do it to us and we do it to them,’” the president said from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday.

Trump’s higher rates would hit foreign entities that sell more goods to the United States than they buy. But economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs since they’re a tax on importers that usually get passed on to consumers. It’s possible, however, that the reciprocal tariffs could bring other countries to the table and get them to lower their own import taxes.

The Associated Press asked for your questions about reciprocal tariffs. Here are a few of them, along with our answers:

Do U.S.-collected tariffs go into the General Revenue Fund? Can Trump withdraw money from that fund without oversight?

Tariffs are taxes on imports, collected when foreign goods cross the U.S. border by the Customs and Border Protection agency. The money — about $80 billion last year — goes to the U.S. Treasury to help pay the federal government’s expenses. Congress has authority to say how the money will be spent.

Trump — largely supported by Republican lawmakers who control the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives — wants to use increased tariff revenue to finance tax cuts that analysts say would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Specifically, they want to extend tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term and largely set to expire at the end of 2025. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, has found that extending Trump’s tax cuts would&nbsp;<a href="https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tax-cuts-2025-budget-reconciliation/" target="_blank">reduce federal revenue by $4.5 trillion</a>&nbsp;from 2025 to 2034.

Trump wants higher tariffs to help offset the lower tax collections. Another think tank, the Tax Policy Center, has said that extending the 2017 tax cuts would deliver continued tax relief to Americans at all income levels, “but higher-income households would receive a larger benefit.’’

How soon will prices rise as a result of the tariff policy?

It depends on how businesses both in the United States and overseas respond, but consumers could see overall prices rising within a month or two of tariffs being imposed. For some products, such as produce from Mexico, prices could rise much more quickly after the tariffs take effect.

Some U.S. retailers and other importers may eat part of the cost of the tariff, and overseas exporters may reduce their prices to offset the extra duties. But for many businesses, the tariffs Trump announced Wednesday — such as 20% on imports from Europe — will be too large to swallow on their own.

Companies may also use the tariffs as an excuse to raise prices. When Trump slapped duties on washing machines in 2018, studies later showed that retailers&nbsp;<a href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/production-relocation-and-price-effects-of-us-trade-policy-the-case-of-washing-machines/#:~:text=Apr%2021%2C%202019-,Production%2C%20Relocation%2C%20and%20Price%20Effects%20of%20US%20Trade%20Policy:,good%20not%20subject%20to%20tariffs." target="_blank">raised prices on both washers and dryers</a>, even though there were no new duties on dryers.

A key question in the coming months is whether something similar will happen again. Economists worry that consumers, having just lived through the biggest inflationary spike in four decades, are more accustomed to rising prices than they were before the pandemic.

Yet there are also signs that Americans, put off by the rise in the cost of living, are less willing to accept price increases and will simply cut back on their purchases. That could discourage businesses from raising prices by much.

What is the limit of the executive branch’s power to implement tariffs? Does Congress not play any role?

The U.S. Constitution grants the power to set tariffs to Congress. But over the years, Congress has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48435#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20grants%20Congress%20the,on%20goods%20in%20certain%20circumstances." target="_blank">delegated those powers</a>&nbsp;to the president through several different laws. Those laws specify the circumstances under which the White House can impose tariffs, which are typically limited to cases where imports threaten national security or are severely harming a specific industry.

In the past, presidents generally imposed tariffs only after carrying out public hearings to determine if certain imports met those criteria. Trump followed those steps when imposing tariffs in his first term.

In his second term, however, Trump has sought to use emergency powers set out in a 1977 law to impose tariffs in a more ad hoc fashion. Trump has said, for example, that fentanyl flowing in from Canada and Mexico constitute a national emergency and has used that pretext to impose 25% duties on goods from both countries.

Congress can seek to cancel an emergency that a president declares, and Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-canada-congress-kaine-8e4d8f79f7ae43d83ca0c7269c23f81c">proposed</a>&nbsp;to do just that regarding Canada. That legislation could pass the Senate but would likely die in the House. Other bills in Congress that would also limit the president’s authority to set tariffs face tough odds for passage as well.

What tariffs are other countries charging on US goods?

U.S. tariffs are generally lower than those charged by other countries. The average U.S. tariff, weighted to reflect goods that are actually traded, is just 2.2% for the United States, versus the European Union’s 2.7%, China’s 3% and India’s 12%,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/tariff_profiles_list_e.htm" target="_blank">according to the World Trade Organization</a>.

Other countries also tend to do more than the United States to protect their farmers with high tariffs. The U.S. trade-weighted tariff on farm goods, for example, is 4%, compared to the EU’s 8.4%, Japan’s 12.6%, China’s 13.1% and India’s 65%. (The WTO numbers don’t count Trump’s recent flurry of import taxes or tariffs between countries that have entered into their own free trade agreements, such as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that allows many goods to cross North American borders duty free.)

Previous U.S. administrations agreed to the tariffs that Trump now calls unjust. They were the result of a long negotiation between 1986 to 1994 — the so-called Uruguay Round — that ended in a trade pact signed by 123 countries and has formed the basis of the global trading system for nearly four decades.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743639143118.png" alt="President Trump during the tariff announcement on Wednesday- White House photo" />
 <figcaption>President Trump during the tariff announcement on Wednesday- White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>BY&nbsp;&nbsp;CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AND PAUL WISEMANWASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of anticipation and speculation, President Donald Trump followed through on his reciprocal tariff threats by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933">declaring on Wednesday</a>&nbsp;a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">FULL LIST: Liberation Day <a href="https://t.co/ZBiRuJBCAr">pic.twitter.com/ZBiRuJBCAr</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1907541343250878752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>In announcing the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-reciprocal-tariffs-trade-4112c661b1b82a2663a9eb0ecd6bd537">reciprocal tariffs</a>, Trump was fulfilling a key campaign promise by raising U.S. taxes on foreign goods to narrow the gap with the tariffs the White House says other countries unfairly impose on U.S. products.“Reciprocal means ‘they do it to us and we do it to them,’” the president said from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday.Trump’s higher rates would hit foreign entities that sell more goods to the United States than they buy. But economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs since they’re a tax on importers that usually get passed on to consumers. It’s possible, however, that the reciprocal tariffs could bring other countries to the table and get them to lower their own import taxes.The Associated Press asked for your questions about reciprocal tariffs. Here are a few of them, along with our answers:<h2>Do U.S.-collected tariffs go into the General Revenue Fund? Can Trump withdraw money from that fund without oversight?</h2>Tariffs are taxes on imports, collected when foreign goods cross the U.S. border by the Customs and Border Protection agency. The money — about $80 billion last year — goes to the U.S. Treasury to help pay the federal government’s expenses. Congress has authority to say how the money will be spent.Trump — largely supported by Republican lawmakers who control the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives — wants to use increased tariff revenue to finance tax cuts that analysts say would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Specifically, they want to extend tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term and largely set to expire at the end of 2025. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, has found that extending Trump’s tax cuts would&nbsp;<a href="https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tax-cuts-2025-budget-reconciliation/" target="_blank">reduce federal revenue by $4.5 trillion</a>&nbsp;from 2025 to 2034.Trump wants higher tariffs to help offset the lower tax collections. Another think tank, the Tax Policy Center, has said that extending the 2017 tax cuts would deliver continued tax relief to Americans at all income levels, “but higher-income households would receive a larger benefit.’’<h2>How soon will prices rise as a result of the tariff policy?</h2>It depends on how businesses both in the United States and overseas respond, but consumers could see overall prices rising within a month or two of tariffs being imposed. For some products, such as produce from Mexico, prices could rise much more quickly after the tariffs take effect.Some U.S. retailers and other importers may eat part of the cost of the tariff, and overseas exporters may reduce their prices to offset the extra duties. But for many businesses, the tariffs Trump announced Wednesday — such as 20% on imports from Europe — will be too large to swallow on their own.Companies may also use the tariffs as an excuse to raise prices. When Trump slapped duties on washing machines in 2018, studies later showed that retailers&nbsp;<a href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/production-relocation-and-price-effects-of-us-trade-policy-the-case-of-washing-machines/#:~:text=Apr%2021%2C%202019-,Production%2C%20Relocation%2C%20and%20Price%20Effects%20of%20US%20Trade%20Policy:,good%20not%20subject%20to%20tariffs." target="_blank">raised prices on both washers and dryers</a>, even though there were no new duties on dryers.A key question in the coming months is whether something similar will happen again. Economists worry that consumers, having just lived through the biggest inflationary spike in four decades, are more accustomed to rising prices than they were before the pandemic.Yet there are also signs that Americans, put off by the rise in the cost of living, are less willing to accept price increases and will simply cut back on their purchases. That could discourage businesses from raising prices by much.<h2>What is the limit of the executive branch’s power to implement tariffs? Does Congress not play any role?</h2>The U.S. Constitution grants the power to set tariffs to Congress. But over the years, Congress has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48435#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20grants%20Congress%20the,on%20goods%20in%20certain%20circumstances." target="_blank">delegated those powers</a>&nbsp;to the president through several different laws. Those laws specify the circumstances under which the White House can impose tariffs, which are typically limited to cases where imports threaten national security or are severely harming a specific industry.In the past, presidents generally imposed tariffs only after carrying out public hearings to determine if certain imports met those criteria. Trump followed those steps when imposing tariffs in his first term.In his second term, however, Trump has sought to use emergency powers set out in a 1977 law to impose tariffs in a more ad hoc fashion. Trump has said, for example, that fentanyl flowing in from Canada and Mexico constitute a national emergency and has used that pretext to impose 25% duties on goods from both countries.Congress can seek to cancel an emergency that a president declares, and Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-canada-congress-kaine-8e4d8f79f7ae43d83ca0c7269c23f81c">proposed</a>&nbsp;to do just that regarding Canada. That legislation could pass the Senate but would likely die in the House. Other bills in Congress that would also limit the president’s authority to set tariffs face tough odds for passage as well.<h2>What tariffs are other countries charging on US goods?</h2>U.S. tariffs are generally lower than those charged by other countries. The average U.S. tariff, weighted to reflect goods that are actually traded, is just 2.2% for the United States, versus the European Union’s 2.7%, China’s 3% and India’s 12%,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/tariff_profiles_list_e.htm" target="_blank">according to the World Trade Organization</a>.Other countries also tend to do more than the United States to protect their farmers with high tariffs. The U.S. trade-weighted tariff on farm goods, for example, is 4%, compared to the EU’s 8.4%, Japan’s 12.6%, China’s 13.1% and India’s 65%. (The WTO numbers don’t count Trump’s recent flurry of import taxes or tariffs between countries that have entered into their own free trade agreements, such as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that allows many goods to cross North American borders duty free.)Previous U.S. administrations agreed to the tariffs that Trump now calls unjust. They were the result of a long negotiation between 1986 to 1994 — the so-called Uruguay Round — that ended in a trade pact signed by 123 countries and has formed the basis of the global trading system for nearly four decades.

Answers to questions about President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs

KANSAS CITY—Law enforcement are investigating another homicide in Kansas City, Missouri.

Just after 7p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to check welfare call at a residence in the 9000 block of Blue Ridge in Kansas City, Missouri, according to KCPD Captain Jake Becchina.

First responders were directed inside a residence where they located a woman unresponsive and deceased. Her injuries were unknown. Officers preserved the scene and called for detectives due to the suspicious nature of the incident.

 Detectives, to include homicide detectives, responded and began a suspicious death investigation at that time. Crime scene investigators processed the scene for evidence and detectives canvassed for witnesses or anyone with knowledge of the residence.

Overnight, detectives were notified by the medical examiner of a preliminary finding of homicide in this case. This is now being investigated as a homicide, according to Becchina and detectives are working to determine the victim's identification as well as her exact cause of death.

KANSAS CITY—Law enforcement are investigating another homicide in Kansas City, Missouri.Just after 7p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to check welfare call at a residence in the 9000 block of Blue Ridge in Kansas City, Missouri, according to KCPD Captain Jake Becchina.First responders were directed inside a residence where they located a woman unresponsive and deceased. Her injuries were unknown. Officers preserved the scene and called for detectives due to the suspicious nature of the incident. Detectives, to include homicide detectives, responded and began a suspicious death investigation at that time. Crime scene investigators processed the scene for evidence and detectives canvassed for witnesses or anyone with knowledge of the residence.Overnight, detectives were notified by the medical examiner of a preliminary finding of homicide in this case. This is now being investigated as a homicide, according to Becchina and detectives are working to determine the victim's identification as well as her exact cause of death.

KCPD: Woman's suspicious death ruled a homicide

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night that would thwart&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">President Donald Trump’s</a>&nbsp;ability to impose tariffs on Canada, delivering a rare rebuke to the president just hours after he unveiled sweeping plans to clamp down on international trade.

The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trump’s emergency declaration on fentanyl trafficking that underpins tariffs on Canada. Trump earlier Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933">announced orders</a>&nbsp;— his so-called&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-new-tariffs-liberation-day-import-taxes-118d73f50e5133ef3d9598aed6661a6c">“Liberation Day”</a>&nbsp;— to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.

Kansas Senior U.S. Senator Jerry Moran voted against the measure. Kansas Junior U.S. Senator Roger Marshall was the only member who did not vote.

The Senate’s legislation has practically no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House and being signed by Trump, but it&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-canada-congress-kaine-8e4d8f79f7ae43d83ca0c7269c23f81c">showed the limits of Republican support</a>&nbsp;for Trump’s vision of remaking the U.S. economy by restricting free trade. Many economists are warning that the plan could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already watching with unease as Trump upends the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world.

Trump earlier Wednesday singled out the four Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky — who voted in favor of the resolution.

In a statement following the vote, McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, said, “As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.”

To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl in its northern border sector during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics">federal data</a>. Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.

“This is not about fentanyl. It’s about tariffs. It’s about a national sales tax on American families,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who initiated the resolution, at a news conference Wednesday.

Democrats argued that Trump is using the tariffs to pay for proposed tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy, but will also make it more expensive to build homes, buy cars and pay for imported grocery products. Kaine pointed to aluminum imported from Canada that is used by businesses ranging from pie makers to shipbuilders.

“Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and even to the American dream,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech.

On the heels of election results in Wisconsin and Florida that delivered&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-musk-wisconsin-florida-elections-f335823795c9ecf1bfa3780261ac4555">early warning signs to Republicans</a>&nbsp;about the popularity of Trump's agenda, Schumer said that the president is particularly vulnerable when it comes to the economy.

“Once the American people say, ‘I don’t want to embrace somebody, I don’t want to vote for somebody, I don’t want to support somebody who embraces Trump’s policies,’ things are going to change," he told reporters. “Public sentiment is everything."

At the White House on Wednesday, Trump singled out Canada as a beneficiary of “unfair” trading practices with the U.S., though his latest order did not add to tariffs already in place on Canada and Mexico.

“Why are we doing this? I mean, at what point do we say, ‘You’ve got to work for yourselves and you’ve got to’? This is why we have the big deficits," Trump said.

For their part, Republican leaders tried to hold their members in line not by talking about the impacts of tariffs, but by emphasizing that Trump was acting to address fentanyl trafficking and border security.

Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso argued in a floor speech that former President Joe Biden had “also thrown open the northern border. The criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.”

"There are unique threats to the United States at our northern border," the Wyoming senator said. “President Trump is taking the bold, decisive, swift action that is necessary to secure that border as well.”

Republicans lined up on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to underscore the need to act to halt fentanyl trafficking, including at the northern border. However, it was not enough to persuade a key group of Senate Republicans who objected to the tax on Canadian imports.

In a floor speech Wednesday, Collins said she would support the resolution and noted, “The fact is the vast majority of fentanyl in America comes from the southern border.”

Collins said that Canada is already beefing up border security to address drug trafficking, yet she was concerned about what tariffs would do to businesses and households in Maine. She pointed to a paper mill in her home state that pumps paper pulp from Canada.

“A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial wellbeing of this vital paper mill, which employs more than 500 people in rural, northern Maine. There is not another big employer in that area that can possibly compensate for the loss of those 510 direct jobs,” Collins said.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports libertarian economic views, also delivered an impassioned floor speech, arguing that the president should not be given unilateral authority to impose taxes on imports.

“Every dollar collected in tariff revenue comes straight out of the pockets of American consumers,” he said. “Conservatives used to understand that tariffs are taxes on the American people. Conservatives used to be uniformly opposed to raising taxes because we wanted the private marketplace, the private individuals to keep more of their income.”

While a younger group of Republicans closely aligned with Trump has spoken out in favor of the president's plans to aggressively reshape the economy, a sizable portion of the Republican Conference voiced concerns about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries. Still, most wanted to give Trump room in hopes that he would negotiate better trade deals.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant talks with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state, like Bobcat, which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. He voted against the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump's order would just be a starting point for negotiations to mutually drop tariffs.

The Republican added: “I’m not overly concerned about it, but obviously it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety."

Democrats planned to keep pressing into that anxiety. After Trump’s announcement, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on social media he would also force a similar vote in the House on the tariffs.

“Republicans can’t keep ducking this — it’s time they show whether they support the economic pain Trump is inflicting on their constituents,” he said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743640202483.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night that would thwart&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">President Donald Trump’s</a>&nbsp;ability to impose tariffs on Canada, delivering a rare rebuke to the president just hours after he unveiled sweeping plans to clamp down on international trade.The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trump’s emergency declaration on fentanyl trafficking that underpins tariffs on Canada. Trump earlier Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933">announced orders</a>&nbsp;— his so-called&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-new-tariffs-liberation-day-import-taxes-118d73f50e5133ef3d9598aed6661a6c">“Liberation Day”</a>&nbsp;— to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.Kansas Senior U.S. Senator Jerry Moran voted against the measure. Kansas Junior U.S. Senator Roger Marshall was the only member who did not vote.The Senate’s legislation has practically no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House and being signed by Trump, but it&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-canada-congress-kaine-8e4d8f79f7ae43d83ca0c7269c23f81c">showed the limits of Republican support</a>&nbsp;for Trump’s vision of remaking the U.S. economy by restricting free trade. Many economists are warning that the plan could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already watching with unease as Trump upends the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world.Trump earlier Wednesday singled out the four Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky — who voted in favor of the resolution.In a statement following the vote, McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, said, “As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.”To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl in its northern border sector during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics">federal data</a>. Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.“This is not about fentanyl. It’s about tariffs. It’s about a national sales tax on American families,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who initiated the resolution, at a news conference Wednesday.Democrats argued that Trump is using the tariffs to pay for proposed tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy, but will also make it more expensive to build homes, buy cars and pay for imported grocery products. Kaine pointed to aluminum imported from Canada that is used by businesses ranging from pie makers to shipbuilders.“Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and even to the American dream,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech.On the heels of election results in Wisconsin and Florida that delivered&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-musk-wisconsin-florida-elections-f335823795c9ecf1bfa3780261ac4555">early warning signs to Republicans</a>&nbsp;about the popularity of Trump's agenda, Schumer said that the president is particularly vulnerable when it comes to the economy.“Once the American people say, ‘I don’t want to embrace somebody, I don’t want to vote for somebody, I don’t want to support somebody who embraces Trump’s policies,’ things are going to change," he told reporters. “Public sentiment is everything."At the White House on Wednesday, Trump singled out Canada as a beneficiary of “unfair” trading practices with the U.S., though his latest order did not add to tariffs already in place on Canada and Mexico.“Why are we doing this? I mean, at what point do we say, ‘You’ve got to work for yourselves and you’ve got to’? This is why we have the big deficits," Trump said.For their part, Republican leaders tried to hold their members in line not by talking about the impacts of tariffs, but by emphasizing that Trump was acting to address fentanyl trafficking and border security.Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso argued in a floor speech that former President Joe Biden had “also thrown open the northern border. The criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.”"There are unique threats to the United States at our northern border," the Wyoming senator said. “President Trump is taking the bold, decisive, swift action that is necessary to secure that border as well.”Republicans lined up on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to underscore the need to act to halt fentanyl trafficking, including at the northern border. However, it was not enough to persuade a key group of Senate Republicans who objected to the tax on Canadian imports.In a floor speech Wednesday, Collins said she would support the resolution and noted, “The fact is the vast majority of fentanyl in America comes from the southern border.”Collins said that Canada is already beefing up border security to address drug trafficking, yet she was concerned about what tariffs would do to businesses and households in Maine. She pointed to a paper mill in her home state that pumps paper pulp from Canada.“A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial wellbeing of this vital paper mill, which employs more than 500 people in rural, northern Maine. There is not another big employer in that area that can possibly compensate for the loss of those 510 direct jobs,” Collins said.Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports libertarian economic views, also delivered an impassioned floor speech, arguing that the president should not be given unilateral authority to impose taxes on imports.“Every dollar collected in tariff revenue comes straight out of the pockets of American consumers,” he said. “Conservatives used to understand that tariffs are taxes on the American people. Conservatives used to be uniformly opposed to raising taxes because we wanted the private marketplace, the private individuals to keep more of their income.”While a younger group of Republicans closely aligned with Trump has spoken out in favor of the president's plans to aggressively reshape the economy, a sizable portion of the Republican Conference voiced concerns about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries. Still, most wanted to give Trump room in hopes that he would negotiate better trade deals.North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant talks with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state, like Bobcat, which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. He voted against the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump's order would just be a starting point for negotiations to mutually drop tariffs.The Republican added: “I’m not overly concerned about it, but obviously it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety."Democrats planned to keep pressing into that anxiety. After Trump’s announcement, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on social media he would also force a similar vote in the House on the tariffs.“Republicans can’t keep ducking this — it’s time they show whether they support the economic pain Trump is inflicting on their constituents,” he said.

Kan. U.S. Senator missed vote as Senate rebukes Trump on Canada tariffs

JOHNSON COUNTY —Lightning may be responsible for a house fire in Johnson County.

Just after 5:30a.m. Wednesday, firefighters from Olathe and Lenexa battled a house fire at 2 Pasadena Drive, according to a social media report from Olathe Fire Department. 

Neighbors reported they heard a “lightning crack” and then saw flames from the roof of the home.

Two people were displaced. The damage is significant. Investigators are&nbsp; working to confirm the cause. The Red Cross is assisting. There were no injuries reported.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743596221914.png" alt="Photo from Olathe Fire Dept. video" />
 <figcaption>Photo from Olathe Fire Dept. video</figcaption>
 </figure>JOHNSON COUNTY —Lightning may be responsible for a house fire in Johnson County.Just after 5:30a.m. Wednesday, firefighters from Olathe and Lenexa battled a house fire at 2 Pasadena Drive, according to a social media report from Olathe Fire Department. Neighbors reported they heard a “lightning crack” and then saw flames from the roof of the home.Two people were displaced. The damage is significant. Investigators are&nbsp; working to confirm the cause. The Red Cross is assisting. There were no injuries reported.

Lightning may have started Kansas house fire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Suspected U.S. airstrikes battered rebel-controlled areas of Yemen into Wednesday, with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">the Houthis</a>&nbsp;saying that one strike killed at least four people near the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

Meanwhile, satellite images taken Wednesday and analyzed by The Associated Press show&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/b2-bombers-us-yemen-houthis-iran-israel-hamas-war-487247ed0d6c8743b21d18740b649d1c">at least six stealth B-2 Spirit bombers</a>&nbsp;now stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a highly unusual deployment amid the Yemen campaign and tensions with Iran.

The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under U.S. President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>, targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters stemming from the Israel-Hamas war,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-us-strikes-iran-447f4abb39cc12c7f2f5596f0e33407b">has killed at least 65 people</a>, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.

The campaign appears to show no signs of stopping as the Trump administration again linked their airstrikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-program-us-tensions-explains-25acc4bfbbe165a374a58ebfa6a4ab41">rapidly advancing nuclear program</a>. While so far giving no specifics about the campaign and its targets, White House press secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-administration-press-secretary-4c550e04334e87d2075dc6bbe2e244bd">Karoline Leavitt</a>&nbsp;put the overall number of strikes on Tuesday at more than 200.

“Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said. “They’ve taken out critical members who were launching strikes on naval ships and on commercial vessels and this operation will not stop until the freedom of navigation in this region is restored.”

The Houthis haven’t acknowledged the loss of any of its leadership so far — and the U.S. hasn’t identified any official by name. However, messages released by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-atlantic-war-plans-signal-yemen-houthis-c0addd08c627ab01a37ea63621cb695e">the leak of a Signal conversation</a>&nbsp;between Trump administration officials and their public comments suggest a leader in the rebels’ missile forces had been targeted.

Overnight, a likely U.S. airstrike targeted what the Houthis described as a “water project” in Hodeida governorate’s Mansuriyah District, killing four people and wounding others. Other strikes into Wednesday targeted Hajjah, Saada and Sanaa governorates, the rebels said.

The rebels say they’ve continued to launch attacks against U.S. warships in the Red Sea, namely the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which is carrying out the majority of the strikes on the Houthis. No warship has been struck yet, but the U.S. Navy has described the Houthi fire as the most&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-navy-yemen-houthis-israel-war-7a9997f9d84ac669fae69ecf819913fb">intense combat</a>&nbsp;its sailors have faced since World War II.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, now in Asia, is on its way to the Middle East to back up the Truman. Early Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that “additional squadrons and other air assets” would be deployed to the region, without elaborating.

More than 300 airmen and several A-10 Thunderbolt IIs have deployed into the Middle East as well to support the mission from the Idaho Air National Guard. The troops, from Idaho’s 124th Fighter Wing out of Boise, fly the aircraft known as the Warthog. The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees Mideast operations, posted an image Wednesday of two A-10s flying in the region.

Satellite photos taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by the AP showed at least six nuclear-capable B-2 bombers deployed to Camp Thunder Bay on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The deployment represents nearly a third of all the B-2 bombers in Washington’s arsenal. It’s also highly unusual to see that many at one base abroad. Typically, so-called show of force missions involving the B-2 have seen two or three of the aircraft conduct operations in foreign territory.

The B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the U.S. military in combat, because each aircraft is worth around $1 billion. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well. The bombers are based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri and typically conduct long-range strikes from there.

The U.S. has used the B-2 in Yemen last year to attack&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-airstrikes-yemen-houthi-rebels-israel-hamas-war-99721f7f952d66d6da27e24dc3c189c3">underground Houthi bases</a>. The B-2 likely would need to be used if Washington ever tried to target&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-us-penetrator-bomb-c623a3e172298a244e47d5bf404fc55b">Iran’s underground nuclear sites</a>&nbsp;as well.

The Houthis on Tuesday said that they shot down&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthis-mq9-shot-down-israel-hamas-war-us-airstrikes-6bd7764ba19e84d2dddac0d3c762459a">another American MQ-9 drone</a>&nbsp;over the country.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-us-airstrikes-israel-hamas-278d07bc5aad75bb32e57f99a78cbe88">An AP review</a>&nbsp;has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3WJ-C2gpDA" target="_blank">more extensive</a>&nbsp;than those under former U.S. President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.

The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-israel-hamas-war-gaza-aid-ship-attacks-0da6c2453fe2c4e5f81923c84c7d3f3a">threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships</a>&nbsp;again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.

The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/houthi-rebels-ship-attack-red-sea-yemen-bfa7d321e55c5bb59b268b82ef3c56ba">sinking two</a>&nbsp;of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.

The attacks greatly raised the profile of the Houthis, who faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers in Yemen amid a decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743644959974.png" alt="This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows six B-2 stealth bombers parked at Camp Thunder Cove in Diego Garcia on April 2, 2025 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)" />
 <figcaption>This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows six B-2 stealth bombers parked at Camp Thunder Cove in Diego Garcia on April 2, 2025 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)</figcaption>
 </figure>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Suspected U.S. airstrikes battered rebel-controlled areas of Yemen into Wednesday, with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">the Houthis</a>&nbsp;saying that one strike killed at least four people near the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.Meanwhile, satellite images taken Wednesday and analyzed by The Associated Press show&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/b2-bombers-us-yemen-houthis-iran-israel-hamas-war-487247ed0d6c8743b21d18740b649d1c">at least six stealth B-2 Spirit bombers</a>&nbsp;now stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a highly unusual deployment amid the Yemen campaign and tensions with Iran.The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under U.S. President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>, targeting the rebels over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters stemming from the Israel-Hamas war,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-us-strikes-iran-447f4abb39cc12c7f2f5596f0e33407b">has killed at least 65 people</a>, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.The campaign appears to show no signs of stopping as the Trump administration again linked their airstrikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-program-us-tensions-explains-25acc4bfbbe165a374a58ebfa6a4ab41">rapidly advancing nuclear program</a>. While so far giving no specifics about the campaign and its targets, White House press secretary&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-administration-press-secretary-4c550e04334e87d2075dc6bbe2e244bd">Karoline Leavitt</a>&nbsp;put the overall number of strikes on Tuesday at more than 200.“Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said. “They’ve taken out critical members who were launching strikes on naval ships and on commercial vessels and this operation will not stop until the freedom of navigation in this region is restored.”The Houthis haven’t acknowledged the loss of any of its leadership so far — and the U.S. hasn’t identified any official by name. However, messages released by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-atlantic-war-plans-signal-yemen-houthis-c0addd08c627ab01a37ea63621cb695e">the leak of a Signal conversation</a>&nbsp;between Trump administration officials and their public comments suggest a leader in the rebels’ missile forces had been targeted.<h2>Fatal strike reportedly targets Hodeida</h2>Overnight, a likely U.S. airstrike targeted what the Houthis described as a “water project” in Hodeida governorate’s Mansuriyah District, killing four people and wounding others. Other strikes into Wednesday targeted Hajjah, Saada and Sanaa governorates, the rebels said.The rebels say they’ve continued to launch attacks against U.S. warships in the Red Sea, namely the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which is carrying out the majority of the strikes on the Houthis. No warship has been struck yet, but the U.S. Navy has described the Houthi fire as the most&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-navy-yemen-houthis-israel-war-7a9997f9d84ac669fae69ecf819913fb">intense combat</a>&nbsp;its sailors have faced since World War II.The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, now in Asia, is on its way to the Middle East to back up the Truman. Early Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that “additional squadrons and other air assets” would be deployed to the region, without elaborating.More than 300 airmen and several A-10 Thunderbolt IIs have deployed into the Middle East as well to support the mission from the Idaho Air National Guard. The troops, from Idaho’s 124th Fighter Wing out of Boise, fly the aircraft known as the Warthog. The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees Mideast operations, posted an image Wednesday of two A-10s flying in the region.<h2>More B-2s seen at Diego Garcia</h2>Satellite photos taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by the AP showed at least six nuclear-capable B-2 bombers deployed to Camp Thunder Bay on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.The deployment represents nearly a third of all the B-2 bombers in Washington’s arsenal. It’s also highly unusual to see that many at one base abroad. Typically, so-called show of force missions involving the B-2 have seen two or three of the aircraft conduct operations in foreign territory.The B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the U.S. military in combat, because each aircraft is worth around $1 billion. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well. The bombers are based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri and typically conduct long-range strikes from there.The U.S. has used the B-2 in Yemen last year to attack&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-airstrikes-yemen-houthi-rebels-israel-hamas-war-99721f7f952d66d6da27e24dc3c189c3">underground Houthi bases</a>. The B-2 likely would need to be used if Washington ever tried to target&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-us-penetrator-bomb-c623a3e172298a244e47d5bf404fc55b">Iran’s underground nuclear sites</a>&nbsp;as well.The Houthis on Tuesday said that they shot down&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthis-mq9-shot-down-israel-hamas-war-us-airstrikes-6bd7764ba19e84d2dddac0d3c762459a">another American MQ-9 drone</a>&nbsp;over the country.<h2>Intense US bombings began on March 15</h2><a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-us-airstrikes-israel-hamas-278d07bc5aad75bb32e57f99a78cbe88">An AP review</a>&nbsp;has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3WJ-C2gpDA" target="_blank">more extensive</a>&nbsp;than those under former U.S. President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-israel-hamas-war-gaza-aid-ship-attacks-0da6c2453fe2c4e5f81923c84c7d3f3a">threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships</a>&nbsp;again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/houthi-rebels-ship-attack-red-sea-yemen-bfa7d321e55c5bb59b268b82ef3c56ba">sinking two</a>&nbsp;of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.The attacks greatly raised the profile of the Houthis, who faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers in Yemen amid a decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.

More B-2 bombers seen at US base in striking distance of Yemen, Iran

FINNEY COUNTY —A Kansas man convicted of vehicular homicide for the death of a southwest Kansas teen in 2023 has been sentenced.

Craig William Potts, 37, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 18 months supervised probation, according to the Finney County Attorney's office. He pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, a class A person misdemeanor.

The sentence as described by Honorable Judge Rebecca Faurot, ” The defendant shall serve 12 months in the Finney County Jail suspended for the duration of supervised probation with Court Services. Supervised probation is for 18 months; standard conditions of probation apply. The defendant will serve 30 days in jail as a condition his probation. Jail time may be served in two 15-day blocks within three months. The defendant is to pay court costs and probation fees. The defendant is ordered to immediately surrender his CDL. Due to an ongoing civil suit, all restitution shall be determined by the presiding civil court.”

Just after 4p.m. on&nbsp; March 13, 2023, the Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Peterbilt semi driven by&nbsp; Potts was eastbound on U.S. 50 just east of North Campus Drive.&nbsp;

The semi traveled left of center and collided head-on with a westbound 2013 Fiat 500 driven by Cassandra K.&nbsp;Linder,&nbsp; 16, Garden City. Both vehicles came to rest north of the roadway.

EMS transported both drivers to St. Catherine Hospital where Linder was pronounced deceased. She was properly restrained, according to the KHP.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743605861022.png" alt="Potts photo Finney County" />
 <figcaption>Potts photo Finney County</figcaption>
 </figure>FINNEY COUNTY —A Kansas man convicted of vehicular homicide for the death of a southwest Kansas teen in 2023 has been sentenced.Craig William Potts, 37, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 18 months supervised probation, according to the Finney County Attorney's office. He pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, a class A person misdemeanor.The sentence as described by Honorable Judge Rebecca Faurot, ” The defendant shall serve 12 months in the Finney County Jail suspended for the duration of supervised probation with Court Services. Supervised probation is for 18 months; standard conditions of probation apply. The defendant will serve 30 days in jail as a condition his probation. Jail time may be served in two 15-day blocks within three months. The defendant is to pay court costs and probation fees. The defendant is ordered to immediately surrender his CDL. Due to an ongoing civil suit, all restitution shall be determined by the presiding civil court.”Just after 4p.m. on&nbsp; March 13, 2023, the Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Peterbilt semi driven by&nbsp; Potts was eastbound on U.S. 50 just east of North Campus Drive.&nbsp;The semi traveled left of center and collided head-on with a westbound 2013 Fiat 500 driven by Cassandra K.&nbsp;Linder,&nbsp; 16, Garden City. Both vehicles came to rest north of the roadway.EMS transported both drivers to St. Catherine Hospital where Linder was pronounced deceased. She was properly restrained, according to the KHP.

Jail time for driver in crash that killed 16-year-old in SW Kansas

KANSAS CITY —A Kansas City man faces several felony charges in connection with a fatal shooting that took place near Blue Valley Park, according to&nbsp;Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson.

<a href="https://www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.com/DocumentCenter/View/2558/Carter-Complaint-Red">Damien Carter, 38,&nbsp; faces</a>&nbsp;2nd Degree Murder, two counts of Armed Criminal Action, and Unlawful Use of a Weapon.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.com/DocumentCenter/View/2559/Carter-PC-red">According to court records</a>, Kansas City police were dispatched to East 29th Street near Blue Valley Park on a shooting. Police located the female victim suffering from gunshot wounds in the front yard of a residence. She was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/4/1743535808360.png" alt="Carter photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Carter photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —A Kansas City man faces several felony charges in connection with a fatal shooting that took place near Blue Valley Park, according to&nbsp;Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson.<a href="https://www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.com/DocumentCenter/View/2558/Carter-Complaint-Red">Damien Carter, 38,&nbsp; faces</a>&nbsp;2nd Degree Murder, two counts of Armed Criminal Action, and Unlawful Use of a Weapon.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.com/DocumentCenter/View/2559/Carter-PC-red">According to court records</a>, Kansas City police were dispatched to East 29th Street near Blue Valley Park on a shooting. Police located the female victim suffering from gunshot wounds in the front yard of a residence. She was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp;Video surveillance captured a light tan/silver Chevrolet Tahoe arriving and parking in front of the residence. The driver, later identified as Carter, exits the vehicle with a handgun. The victim walks out of the residence toward him and the defendant points the handgun in the direction of the victim’s head and begins to fire. The victim falls to the ground and the suspect continues firing as she is laying on the ground. Carter gets back into his vehicle and drives away.&nbsp;Carter is being held in custody with no bond.&nbsp;*Charges are only accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or pleads guilty.