NEW YORK (AP) — Crowded bars and house parties have been identified as culprits in spreading the coronavirus. Meat packing plants, prisons and nursing homes are known hot spots. Then there’s the complicated case of America’s churches.

The vast majority of these churches have cooperated with health authorities and successfully protected their congregations. Yet from the earliest phases of the pandemic, and continuing to this day, some worship services and other religious activities have been identified as sources of local outbreaks.

They are by no means at the top of the list of problematic activities across the U.S., but they have posed challenges for government leaders and public health officials whose guidelines and orders are sometimes challenged as encroachments on religious liberty.

“If we wanted to have zero risks, the safest thing would be to never open our doors,” said prominent Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress. “The question is how can you balance risk with the very real need to worship.”

In the past two weeks alone, there have been two notable church-government confrontations in California.

San Francisco's city attorney sent a cease-and-desist order in late June to the Roman Catholic archdiocese, alleging that some of its churches had violated a local ban on large indoor gatherings. The archdiocese promised to comply.

A few days later, state officials temporarily&nbsp;<a href="https://files.covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf">banned</a>&nbsp;“indoor singing and chanting activities” at all places of worship, prompting some pastors to defy the rule.

Evangelical pastor Samuel Rodriguez said worshippers at his Sacramento megachurch joined in singing hymns on July 5, even as most of them wore face masks and obeyed social-distancing guidelines.

“To forbid singing in a church is morally reprehensible,” Rodriguez said. “That is how we petition heaven.”

The extent to which religious gatherings have contributed to the pandemic’s toll may never be known with any precision. But there’s no question they have played a role throughout, internationally as well as in the United States, even as myriad houses of worship halted in-person services for safety reasons.

Of the first wave of cases in South Korea in February, several thousand were members of the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Hundreds of other cases were linked to a Muslim missionary movement event in late February in Malaysia that was attended by about 16,000 people from numerous East Asian countries.

In the second week of March, before warnings and lockdown orders proliferated in the U.S., 35 of the 92 people who attended events at a rural Arkansas church developed COVID-19, and three of them died, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6920e2.htm">report</a>&nbsp;issued in May.

More recently, in mid-June, a small-town church in northeastern Oregon became the epicenter of the state’s largest coronavirus outbreak when 236 people linked to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church tested positive.

According to the Observer newspaper in nearby La Grande, the church in Island City had held religious services, a wedding and a graduation ceremony in the weeks preceding the outbreak, sometimes with more than 100 people in attendance in defiance of state restrictions on gatherings.

Union County, with a population of 25,000 people, had recorded fewer than 25 cases during the pandemic prior to the church outbreak. Within two weeks, it had Oregon's highest per capita rate of coronavirus infections.

Also in June, West Virginia’s health department announced outbreaks linked to five churches in different parts of the state. The biggest was at Graystone Baptist Church in Lewisburg with 51 cases, three of them fatal.

In several cases, churches that resumed in-person services opted to close again after outbreaks. Among them:

— A church and an administrative office affiliated with the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee, which is the home base for the Pentecostal denomination. No official case count has been released, but a senior leader of the denomination, General Overseer Tim Hill, confirmed that the number of verified cases is growing, and that several church leaders were among those seriously ill. One pastor, Ernie Varner of Lenoir City, Tennessee, died Friday, six days after posting on Facebook, “I'm in the ICU with COVID. Please pray for me."

— Calvary Chapel, an evangelical church in Universal City, Texas. It reopened in early May only to close anew in late June after dozens of staff and churchgoers tested positive, including Pastor Ron Arbaugh and his wife. Arbaugh says he regrets telling worshippers last month they could resume the tradition of hugging each other during an interlude of mid-service socializing.

— Holy Family Catholic Church in Las Vegas. The diocese announced Thursday that the church would be closed indefinitely after a priest who celebrated Mass this week tested positive.

— First Baptist Church of Tillmans Corner in Mobile, Alabama. It resumed in-person services May 17 after the governor gave a statewide green light, but recently canceled them at least through July 31 after more than 20 of the congregation’s 1,500 members tested positive. Pastor Derek Allen wrote a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jderekallen.com/post/five-lessons-i-learned-from-a-covid-19-spike-at-our-church">blog post</a>&nbsp;describing the outbreak as a “harrowing and demoralizing journey,” and offering advice to other pastors: “Assume every sniffle is COVID-19, and act quickly. We’ve learned that the tests take too long, and false positives are possible along with false negatives."

Another Baptist church, First Baptist Dallas, was in the spotlight June 28 when it hosted Vice President Mike Pence at its annual Freedom Sunday celebrations. Most of the 2,400 attendees wore face masks, but some criticism surfaced after the choir sang without masks.

Jeffress, the church’s pastor and a prominent evangelical conservative with close ties to President Donald Trump, said the choir and orchestra had been tested for COVID-19 beforehand. The church said a few who tested positive did not take part in the event.

Jeffress bristled at the idea that choirs should be temporarily banned.

“Choirs will always be a part of worship for us,” he said. “We think it’s possible to still have them but do it in a safe way.”

A few days after the Freedom Sunday event, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order requiring people wear face masks in most public settings — with several exceptions, including participants in religious services.

Some churches, through their physical attributes and the decisions of their leaders, have been able to minimize risks as worship resumes.

In Incline Village, Nevada, along the north shore of Lake Tahoe, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church took advantage of a unique feature to relaunch scaled-back, in-person services this month: its outdoor mountain amphitheater chapel shaded by pine trees.

Church officials took precautionary measures such as moving the log-bench pews farther apart, capping attendance at 50 and requiring worshippers have their temperature taken, employ hand sanitizer and wear masks. There was no Eucharist or passing of the peace, and the usual post-service coffee hour was held by video conference.

“Good morning, children of God,” the Rev. Sarah Dunn, the church’s rector, said from behind a plexiglass screen, welcoming parishioners back to the socially distanced service July 5 after 16 Sundays apart. She acknowledged feeling “mixed emotions”: apprehension as the virus remains a threat, but joy at being able to gather in the sacred space.

NEW YORK (AP) — Crowded bars and house parties have been identified as culprits in spreading the coronavirus. Meat packing plants, prisons and nursing homes are known hot spots. Then there’s the complicated case of America’s churches.The vast majority of these churches have cooperated with health authorities and successfully protected their congregations. Yet from the earliest phases of the pandemic, and continuing to this day, some worship services and other religious activities have been identified as sources of local outbreaks.They are by no means at the top of the list of problematic activities across the U.S., but they have posed challenges for government leaders and public health officials whose guidelines and orders are sometimes challenged as encroachments on religious liberty.“If we wanted to have zero risks, the safest thing would be to never open our doors,” said prominent Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress. “The question is how can you balance risk with the very real need to worship.”In the past two weeks alone, there have been two notable church-government confrontations in California.San Francisco's city attorney sent a cease-and-desist order in late June to the Roman Catholic archdiocese, alleging that some of its churches had violated a local ban on large indoor gatherings. The archdiocese promised to comply.A few days later, state officials temporarily&nbsp;<a href="https://files.covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf">banned</a>&nbsp;“indoor singing and chanting activities” at all places of worship, prompting some pastors to defy the rule.Evangelical pastor Samuel Rodriguez said worshippers at his Sacramento megachurch joined in singing hymns on July 5, even as most of them wore face masks and obeyed social-distancing guidelines.“To forbid singing in a church is morally reprehensible,” Rodriguez said. “That is how we petition heaven.”The extent to which religious gatherings have contributed to the pandemic’s toll may never be known with any precision. But there’s no question they have played a role throughout, internationally as well as in the United States, even as myriad houses of worship halted in-person services for safety reasons.Of the first wave of cases in South Korea in February, several thousand were members of the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Hundreds of other cases were linked to a Muslim missionary movement event in late February in Malaysia that was attended by about 16,000 people from numerous East Asian countries.In the second week of March, before warnings and lockdown orders proliferated in the U.S., 35 of the 92 people who attended events at a rural Arkansas church developed COVID-19, and three of them died, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6920e2.htm">report</a>&nbsp;issued in May.More recently, in mid-June, a small-town church in northeastern Oregon became the epicenter of the state’s largest coronavirus outbreak when 236 people linked to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church tested positive.According to the Observer newspaper in nearby La Grande, the church in Island City had held religious services, a wedding and a graduation ceremony in the weeks preceding the outbreak, sometimes with more than 100 people in attendance in defiance of state restrictions on gatherings.Union County, with a population of 25,000 people, had recorded fewer than 25 cases during the pandemic prior to the church outbreak. Within two weeks, it had Oregon's highest per capita rate of coronavirus infections.Also in June, West Virginia’s health department announced outbreaks linked to five churches in different parts of the state. The biggest was at Graystone Baptist Church in Lewisburg with 51 cases, three of them fatal.In several cases, churches that resumed in-person services opted to close again after outbreaks. Among them:— A church and an administrative office affiliated with the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee, which is the home base for the Pentecostal denomination. No official case count has been released, but a senior leader of the denomination, General Overseer Tim Hill, confirmed that the number of verified cases is growing, and that several church leaders were among those seriously ill. One pastor, Ernie Varner of Lenoir City, Tennessee, died Friday, six days after posting on Facebook, “I'm in the ICU with COVID. Please pray for me."— Calvary Chapel, an evangelical church in Universal City, Texas. It reopened in early May only to close anew in late June after dozens of staff and churchgoers tested positive, including Pastor Ron Arbaugh and his wife. Arbaugh says he regrets telling worshippers last month they could resume the tradition of hugging each other during an interlude of mid-service socializing.— Holy Family Catholic Church in Las Vegas. The diocese announced Thursday that the church would be closed indefinitely after a priest who celebrated Mass this week tested positive.— First Baptist Church of Tillmans Corner in Mobile, Alabama. It resumed in-person services May 17 after the governor gave a statewide green light, but recently canceled them at least through July 31 after more than 20 of the congregation’s 1,500 members tested positive. Pastor Derek Allen wrote a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jderekallen.com/post/five-lessons-i-learned-from-a-covid-19-spike-at-our-church">blog post</a>&nbsp;describing the outbreak as a “harrowing and demoralizing journey,” and offering advice to other pastors: “Assume every sniffle is COVID-19, and act quickly. We’ve learned that the tests take too long, and false positives are possible along with false negatives."Another Baptist church, First Baptist Dallas, was in the spotlight June 28 when it hosted Vice President Mike Pence at its annual Freedom Sunday celebrations. Most of the 2,400 attendees wore face masks, but some criticism surfaced after the choir sang without masks.Jeffress, the church’s pastor and a prominent evangelical conservative with close ties to President Donald Trump, said the choir and orchestra had been tested for COVID-19 beforehand. The church said a few who tested positive did not take part in the event.Jeffress bristled at the idea that choirs should be temporarily banned.“Choirs will always be a part of worship for us,” he said. “We think it’s possible to still have them but do it in a safe way.”A few days after the Freedom Sunday event, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order requiring people wear face masks in most public settings — with several exceptions, including participants in religious services.Some churches, through their physical attributes and the decisions of their leaders, have been able to minimize risks as worship resumes.In Incline Village, Nevada, along the north shore of Lake Tahoe, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church took advantage of a unique feature to relaunch scaled-back, in-person services this month: its outdoor mountain amphitheater chapel shaded by pine trees.Church officials took precautionary measures such as moving the log-bench pews farther apart, capping attendance at 50 and requiring worshippers have their temperature taken, employ hand sanitizer and wear masks. There was no Eucharist or passing of the peace, and the usual post-service coffee hour was held by video conference.“Good morning, children of God,” the Rev. Sarah Dunn, the church’s rector, said from behind a plexiglass screen, welcoming parishioners back to the socially distanced service July 5 after 16 Sundays apart. She acknowledged feeling “mixed emotions”: apprehension as the virus remains a threat, but joy at being able to gather in the sacred space.

Churches amid the pandemic: Some outbreaks, many challenges

TOPEKA, Kan. –Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have two suspect in custody.

Just after 10:30p.m. Thursday, police were dispatched to 915 NW Western in Topeka for a report of a burglary in progress, according to Lt. Kelvin Johnson.

Officers arrived and set up a perimeter around the building and were able to take Cynthia Wood, 54, and Stacy Stinnett, 44, both of Topeka, into custody. 

Both women were booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections under suspicion of burglary, criminal damage, and theft. 

The stolen items were recovered at the scene and returned to the property owner, according to Johnson.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594412858405.png" alt="Wood-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Wood-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. –Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have two suspect in custody.Just after 10:30p.m. Thursday, police were dispatched to 915 NW Western in Topeka for a report of a burglary in progress, according to Lt. Kelvin Johnson.Officers arrived and set up a perimeter around the building and were able to take Cynthia Wood, 54, and Stacy Stinnett, 44, both of Topeka, into custody. Both women were booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections under suspicion of burglary, criminal damage, and theft. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594412972329.png" alt="Stinnett-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Stinnett-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>The stolen items were recovered at the scene and returned to the property owner, according to Johnson.

Police catch two Kansas women during burglary

GREENWOOD COUNTY—Authorities are reporting six cases of rabies near Eureka, Kansas, according to Greenwood County Health Officer Vicki Lindsey-Ross.

"Being observant of erratic behavior in wildlife or livestock is important," she said in a media release. "Pet owners are encourage to follow best practices and vaccinate their animals to prevent the disease"

"Rabies is a fatal disease that can be transmitted animals to people and is often transmitted from the bite of an infected animal."

She released no additional details. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/">Click here</a> for or more information on rabies.&nbsp;

GREENWOOD COUNTY—Authorities are reporting six cases of rabies near Eureka, Kansas, according to Greenwood County Health Officer Vicki Lindsey-Ross."Being observant of erratic behavior in wildlife or livestock is important," she said in a media release. "Pet owners are encourage to follow best practices and vaccinate their animals to prevent the disease""Rabies is a fatal disease that can be transmitted animals to people and is often transmitted from the bite of an infected animal."She released no additional details. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/">Click here</a> for or more information on rabies.&nbsp;

Officials report 6 cases of rabies in one Kansas county

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus.

Trump flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban Washington to meet wounded servicemembers and health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients. As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you’re in a hospital, especially ... I think it’s expected to wear a mask.”

Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility.

The president was a latecomer to wearing a mask during the pandemic, which has raged across the U.S. since March and infected more than 3.2 million and killed at least 134,000. Most prominent Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, endorsed wearing masks as the coronavirus gained ground this summer.

Trump, however, has declined to wear a mask at news conferences, coronavirus task force updates, rallies and other public events. People close to him have told The Associated Press that the president feared a mask would make him look weak and was concerned that it shifted focus to the public health crisis rather than the economic recovery. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private matters.

While not wearing one himself, Trump has sent mixed signals about masks, acknowledging that they would be appropriate if worn in an indoor setting where people were close together. But he has accused reporters of wearing them to be politically correct and has retweeted messages making fun of Democrat Joe Biden for wearing a mask and implying that Biden looks weak.

The wearing of masks became another political dividing line, with Republicans more resistant to wearing them than Democrats. Few masks were seen at recent Trump campaign events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Phoenix and South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore.

The only time Trump has been known to wear a mask was during a private part of a tour of a Ford plant in Michigan.

On its website, Walter Reed carries this recommendation: “Whenever you’re out in public, like at your local grocery store or pharmacy, where it’s difficult to maintain 6 feet of social distance, you should wear a cloth face covering.” The facility also notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.”

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<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594505499981.png" alt="President Trump during a visit to&nbsp;Walter Reed National Military Medical Center&nbsp; -image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>President Trump during a visit to&nbsp;Walter Reed National Military Medical Center&nbsp; -image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wore a mask during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday, the first time the president has been seen in public with the type of facial covering recommended by health officials as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus.Trump flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban Washington to meet wounded servicemembers and health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients. As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you’re in a hospital, especially ... I think it’s expected to wear a mask.”Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility.The president was a latecomer to wearing a mask during the pandemic, which has raged across the U.S. since March and infected more than 3.2 million and killed at least 134,000. Most prominent Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, endorsed wearing masks as the coronavirus gained ground this summer.Trump, however, has declined to wear a mask at news conferences, coronavirus task force updates, rallies and other public events. People close to him have told The Associated Press that the president feared a mask would make him look weak and was concerned that it shifted focus to the public health crisis rather than the economic recovery. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private matters.While not wearing one himself, Trump has sent mixed signals about masks, acknowledging that they would be appropriate if worn in an indoor setting where people were close together. But he has accused reporters of wearing them to be politically correct and has retweeted messages making fun of Democrat Joe Biden for wearing a mask and implying that Biden looks weak.The wearing of masks became another political dividing line, with Republicans more resistant to wearing them than Democrats. Few masks were seen at recent Trump campaign events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Phoenix and South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore.The only time Trump has been known to wear a mask was during a private part of a tour of a Ford plant in Michigan.On its website, Walter Reed carries this recommendation: “Whenever you’re out in public, like at your local grocery store or pharmacy, where it’s difficult to maintain 6 feet of social distance, you should wear a cloth face covering.” The facility also notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.”ADVERTISEMENTTrending on AP News<a href="https://apnews.com/e4733210ebf43a43d3b96b7cf19dbd96">Dutch short-track world champion Van Ruijven dies at age 27</a><a href="https://apnews.com/12bec4013ad5fc13c7df8555dd44e4c1">Noem vaunts hands-off virus approach; testing draws concern</a><a href="https://apnews.com/155113ab0bcf63d42b95169e7e5f1af7">Ghislaine Maxwell seeks jail release in Epstein abuse case</a><a href="https://popup.taboola.com/en/?template=colorbox&amp;utm_source=associatedpress-apnews&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=organic-thumbnails-rr:Right%20Rail%20Thumbnails:" target="_blank">by Taboola</a>ADVERTISEMENT

Trump wears mask in public for first time during pandemic

TOPEKA—Governor Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice met for their first meeting Thursday afternoon.&nbsp;

<a href="https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DylmJgK8kuiU&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd4fa028bae0f4393454108d8251538be%7Cdcae8101c92d480cbc43c6761ccccc5a%7C0%7C0%7C637300120359291733&amp;sdata=vt8ORYrrKVWjSH3rjTglaZLVRXDynNEqpFgY764LN0c%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Click here</a>&nbsp;to watch a replay of the meeting.

In a media release, Governor Kelly said, “This is not the first time a group like this has been convened to discuss the structural inequalities that exist in our country. But I believe this national moment has provided the Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, and the state of Kansas an opportunity to have an honest and informed conversation about the work that must be done.”

Co-chairs Dr. Tiffany Anderson, Superintendent of Topeka Public Schools USD 501, and Dr. Shannon Portillo, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs KU Edwards Campus &amp; School of Professional Studies, led the conversation in discussing the structure, schedule, and priority goals of the Commission.

“We had a robust discussion in our first meeting, outlining areas for inquiry and listening sessions,”&nbsp;Dr. Shannon Portillo, said.&nbsp;“I am looking forward to engaging with our community listening sessions, and ultimately developing a report for Governor Kelly’s administration to take action on.”

The Commission plans to meet biweekly, every other Thursday, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for July 23rd, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. The meetings will continue to be held virtually and streamed to&nbsp;<a href="https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fchannel%2FUChH3fB2PkiJjZlo55c9UH2Q%3Fview_as%3Dsubscriber&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd4fa028bae0f4393454108d8251538be%7Cdcae8101c92d480cbc43c6761ccccc5a%7C0%7C0%7C637300120359291733&amp;sdata=fJQxKTScrj4scj3PuJzDC7TcOMi8bqKHlomOVq5qvaA%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Governor Laura Kelly’s YouTube page.</a>

Governor Kelly tasked the Commission with focusing their work first on law enforcement and policing in Kansas. Commission members discussed the following possible topics for the initial focus of their work:

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC)

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (KSCPOST)

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Former Commissions and reports (Federal &amp; Local)

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;School resource officers and policing in schools

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bail bonds

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;K-9 officers and dispute resolution

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Qualified immunity

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Corrections officers

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Recruitment, hiring, and decertification practices

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Police misconduct records

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Police unions and contract negotiations

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Officer Residency requirements

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Social determinants of health in prisons

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Debtors’ prisons

The group discussed the methods of collecting data and reports for the Commission. National Governors Association, Governor’s staff, and stakeholders will be facilitating data and research for the work of the Commission.

“Engaging with the public throughout the course of these meetings will be crucial to crafting recommendations and policies that are specific to Kansas, and to amplifying as many voices throughout the community as possible,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said.

The Commission plans to hold a number of virtual listening sessions with stakeholders and communities across the state. This includes, but is not limited to:

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Public Defenders

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Law Enforcement

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Community members who have engaged with the criminal justice system

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Spanish and other non-English-speaking communities

•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Immigrant and refugee communities

To engage with the public, the Commission will be providing an email address, mailing address, constituent services line, and Twitter hashtag (#KansasCREJ). More information regarding how constituents can submit feedback and testimony will be made available next week.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594415416015.png" alt="Governor Laura Kelly and members of her Commission on Racial Equality held their first meeting online this week." />
 <figcaption>Governor Laura Kelly and members of her Commission on Racial Equality held their first meeting online this week.</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA—Governor Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice met for their first meeting Thursday afternoon.&nbsp;<a href="https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DylmJgK8kuiU&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd4fa028bae0f4393454108d8251538be%7Cdcae8101c92d480cbc43c6761ccccc5a%7C0%7C0%7C637300120359291733&amp;sdata=vt8ORYrrKVWjSH3rjTglaZLVRXDynNEqpFgY764LN0c%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Click here</a>&nbsp;to watch a replay of the meeting.In a media release, Governor Kelly said, “This is not the first time a group like this has been convened to discuss the structural inequalities that exist in our country. But I believe this national moment has provided the Commission on Racial Equity and Justice, and the state of Kansas an opportunity to have an honest and informed conversation about the work that must be done.”Co-chairs Dr. Tiffany Anderson, Superintendent of Topeka Public Schools USD 501, and Dr. Shannon Portillo, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs KU Edwards Campus &amp; School of Professional Studies, led the conversation in discussing the structure, schedule, and priority goals of the Commission.“We had a robust discussion in our first meeting, outlining areas for inquiry and listening sessions,”&nbsp;Dr. Shannon Portillo, said.&nbsp;“I am looking forward to engaging with our community listening sessions, and ultimately developing a report for Governor Kelly’s administration to take action on.”The Commission plans to meet biweekly, every other Thursday, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for July 23rd, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. The meetings will continue to be held virtually and streamed to&nbsp;<a href="https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fchannel%2FUChH3fB2PkiJjZlo55c9UH2Q%3Fview_as%3Dsubscriber&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd4fa028bae0f4393454108d8251538be%7Cdcae8101c92d480cbc43c6761ccccc5a%7C0%7C0%7C637300120359291733&amp;sdata=fJQxKTScrj4scj3PuJzDC7TcOMi8bqKHlomOVq5qvaA%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Governor Laura Kelly’s YouTube page.</a>Governor Kelly tasked the Commission with focusing their work first on law enforcement and policing in Kansas. Commission members discussed the following possible topics for the initial focus of their work:•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC)•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (KSCPOST)•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Former Commissions and reports (Federal &amp; Local)<ul>
 <li>The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing</li><li>Forward Through Ferguson Police Reform</li><li>Kerner Commission</li><li>Other Kansas-specific reports</li>
 </ul>•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;School resource officers and policing in schools•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bail bonds•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;K-9 officers and dispute resolution•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Qualified immunity•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Corrections officers•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Recruitment, hiring, and decertification practices•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Police misconduct records•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Police unions and contract negotiations•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Officer Residency requirements•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Social determinants of health in prisons•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Debtors’ prisonsThe group discussed the methods of collecting data and reports for the Commission. National Governors Association, Governor’s staff, and stakeholders will be facilitating data and research for the work of the Commission.“Engaging with the public throughout the course of these meetings will be crucial to crafting recommendations and policies that are specific to Kansas, and to amplifying as many voices throughout the community as possible,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said.The Commission plans to hold a number of virtual listening sessions with stakeholders and communities across the state. This includes, but is not limited to:•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Public Defenders•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Law Enforcement•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Community members who have engaged with the criminal justice system•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Spanish and other non-English-speaking communities•&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Immigrant and refugee communitiesTo engage with the public, the Commission will be providing an email address, mailing address, constituent services line, and Twitter hashtag (#KansasCREJ). More information regarding how constituents can submit feedback and testimony will be made available next week.

 🎥  Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity, Justice begins work

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The father of a missing 3-year-old Kansas girl was arrested late Friday after police said they believe they found her body.&nbsp; Howard Jansen III, 29, of Kansas City, Kansas, has not been formally charged in the death of Olivia Ann Jansen. 

Jansen was booked into the Wyandotte County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and child abuse. 

Saturday morning, Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, 33, was also  held on suspicion of first-degree murder and child abuse. The body was found about 5:45 p.m. Friday about nine blocks from her home, from which her father had reported her missing.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities believe they found the body of a 3-year-old girl who was reported missing Friday morning from her Kansas City, Kansas, home. Her father is in jail on murder charges.

Investigators are “pretty sure” the body found Friday afternoon is Olivia Jansen’s, said Officer Tom Tomasic, a police spokesman. The body was found about 5:45 p.m. Friday about nine blocks from her home, from which her father had reported her missing.

Police had said that, because of Olivia’s age and the distance from home where her body was found, she had been taken from her home. Tomasic said they have had “several stories throughout the day” and “none of them made sense.”

The child’s father 29-year-old Howard Jansen told investigators he saw her around 11 p.m. Thursday when he went to sleep, Officer Dustin Dierenfeldt said. He said he awoke Friday morning to find her gone and a door opened to the outside.

An&nbsp;<a href="https://kbi.kansas.gov/ksamber/alert/3804" target="_blank">Amber Alert</a>&nbsp;was issued that said that although there was no known suspect of suspect vehicle, “Due to her age and a search of the area, investigators believe that she was taken from the location.”

Investigators had searched the area around the child’s home all day Friday with all-terrain vehicles, drones, and K-9 teams.

Although Jansen, was cooperating with the investigation, police booked him into jail on requested charges of first-degree murder and child abuse, according to online booking records.

The KBI cancelled the Amber Alert for missing 3-year-old&nbsp; Olivia Jansen just after 6p.m. Friday.

Authorities located the body of deceased child believed to be her. Police released no additional details.&nbsp;

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert Friday morning for 3-year-old Olivia A. Jansen. At 6:30 a.m. Friday, the father of Olivia woke up and discovered that she was not in the residence, 4444 Gibbs Road, Kansas City, Kansas and the back door of the location was standing open.

Due to her age and a search of the area, investigators believe that she was taken from the location. There is no known suspect at this time and no known suspect vehicle.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Olivia is described as 3-feet tall, 50 pounds with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She had been dressed in pajamas - pink top and purple or teal bottom. Her hair was in a ponytail.&nbsp;

She was last seen at her home 4444 Gibbs Road, Kansas City, Kansas. Call 911 immediately if you see Olivia. If you have other information, please call the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department at 913-596-3000

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594468009097.png" alt="Jansen photo Wyandotte Co." />
 <figcaption>Jansen photo Wyandotte Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The father of a missing 3-year-old Kansas girl was arrested late Friday after police said they believe they found her body.&nbsp; Howard Jansen III, 29, of Kansas City, Kansas, has not been formally charged in the death of Olivia Ann Jansen. Jansen was booked into the Wyandotte County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and child abuse. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594490776368.png" alt="Kirkpatrick-photo Wyandotte Co." />
 <figcaption>Kirkpatrick-photo Wyandotte Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Saturday morning, Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, 33, was also held on suspicion of first-degree murder and child abuse. The body was found about 5:45 p.m. Friday about nine blocks from her home, from which her father had reported her missing.--------KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities believe they found the body of a 3-year-old girl who was reported missing Friday morning from her Kansas City, Kansas, home. Her father is in jail on murder charges.Investigators are “pretty sure” the body found Friday afternoon is Olivia Jansen’s, said Officer Tom Tomasic, a police spokesman. The body was found about 5:45 p.m. Friday about nine blocks from her home, from which her father had reported her missing.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594400012536.png" alt="Olivia Jansen-photo KBI" />
 <figcaption>Olivia Jansen-photo KBI</figcaption>
 </figure>Police had said that, because of Olivia’s age and the distance from home where her body was found, she had been taken from her home. Tomasic said they have had “several stories throughout the day” and “none of them made sense.”The child’s father 29-year-old Howard Jansen told investigators he saw her around 11 p.m. Thursday when he went to sleep, Officer Dustin Dierenfeldt said. He said he awoke Friday morning to find her gone and a door opened to the outside.An&nbsp;<a href="https://kbi.kansas.gov/ksamber/alert/3804" target="_blank">Amber Alert</a>&nbsp;was issued that said that although there was no known suspect of suspect vehicle, “Due to her age and a search of the area, investigators believe that she was taken from the location.”Investigators had searched the area around the child’s home all day Friday with all-terrain vehicles, drones, and K-9 teams.Although Jansen, was cooperating with the investigation, police booked him into jail on requested charges of first-degree murder and child abuse, according to online booking records.--------The KBI cancelled the Amber Alert for missing 3-year-old&nbsp; Olivia Jansen just after 6p.m. Friday.Authorities located the body of deceased child believed to be her. Police released no additional details.&nbsp;---------The Kansas Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert Friday morning for 3-year-old Olivia A. Jansen. At 6:30 a.m. Friday, the father of Olivia woke up and discovered that she was not in the residence, 4444 Gibbs Road, Kansas City, Kansas and the back door of the location was standing open. Due to her age and a search of the area, investigators believe that she was taken from the location. There is no known suspect at this time and no known suspect vehicle.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594403105823.png" alt="Olivia Jansen-photo KCK Police" />
 <figcaption>Olivia Jansen-photo KCK Police</figcaption>
 </figure>Olivia is described as 3-feet tall, 50 pounds with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She had been dressed in pajamas - pink top and purple or teal bottom. Her hair was in a ponytail.&nbsp;She was last seen at her home 4444 Gibbs Road, Kansas City, Kansas. Call 911 immediately if you see Olivia. If you have other information, please call the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department at 913-596-3000

Update: 2 arrested in case of missing Kansas girl after body found

By STEPHAN BISAHA <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/kansas-teachers-will-get-little-required-training-how-run-classrooms-online">Kansas News Service</a>

WICHITA, Kansas — Jennifer Mathes kept her expectations for the spring low.

A
 sudden, pandemic-driven shift from classrooms to online instruction was
 bound to throw the Blue Valley school district a curve. That would be a
 loss for the quality of teaching she could expect for her daughter.

“You’ve
 had some time to prepare,” said Mathes, who’s the CEO of the nonprofit 
Online Learning Consortium. “You’ve got to create a better environment 
so my daughter doesn’t suffer.”

Yet at many Kansas schools, 
teachers will only be required to take a few days of training in the art
 of running a classroom online before school starts again in mid-August.

Some
 have taken online seminars voluntarily. But union contracts and 
uncertainty about what schools will look like when they restart — 
expected to be some mix of online and in-person teaching — have let the 
summer pass without mandating much preparation for teachers.

At
 Morris County public schools in east-central Kansas, the school year 
will start seven days earlier for teachers than students. Kansas schools
 usually have about four days to get ready before the kids show up — 
during a normal year. Some schools have shifted their schedules to 
front-end training normally spread across the calendar. But that only 
nets schools a couple of extra days to prepare teachers for an 
unprecedented fall.

For many Kansas teachers, it will be their 
first time getting drilled on best online teaching practices since 
school let out in the spring.

And schools have much higher 
expectations for their teachers than they did in the spring. Testing was
 lax-to-nonexistent last semester. In the fall, schools will be expected
 to require significantly more rigor from students. Having half a 
classroom disengaged and <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/kansas-educators-worry-what-five-months-away-classrooms-will-do-schoolkids" target="_blank">playing hooky won’t be acceptable anymore</a>.

And
 schools still must provide annual sessions on topics like sexual 
harassment and suicide prevention. Plus teachers will need to learn how 
to keep their classrooms virus-free.

“It will be a lot of work in
 a short amount of time,” said Kelly Gentry, director of instruction and
 curriculum Morris County Public Schools.

Some education experts 
are concerned that’s not enough time for preparing teachers for online 
learning. Getting teachers ready could take <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/teachers-need-lots-of-training-to-do-online-learning-well-coronavirus-closures-gave-many-just-days/" target="_blank">weeks or months</a>.

“There
 will need to be a recognition that learning how to operate this fall in
 a pandemic is something that will not just come from one week of 
training,” said Lisa Guernsey, senior advisor on early and elementary 
education policy for New America, a left-leaning education think tank.

Even
 if schools wanted to mandate teacher training earlier in the summer, 
teacher contracts restrict districts from doing so. Others would need to
 find ways to compensate teachers for the extra time, a concern as 
schools face the possibility of <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article242179496.html" target="_blank">losing some state funding</a>.

There’s
 also the question of what to prepare teachers for. Schools could return
 to in-person classes, online-only or some mix of the two. Wichita 
Public Schools does not plan on providing any instruction for its 
teachers until after the state releases guidance next week.

That 
uncertainty has caused some teachers to hesitate taking up their own 
prep work, fearing it might contradict whatever plans the state comes up
 with.

“A lot of teachers really are putting in a lot of time to 
think about the fall and they just don’t know where to start,” said Lori
 Stratton, an English teacher at Gardner Edgerton High School in Johnson
 County.

After the
 sudden shift to online classes in March, more training is the last 
thing some Kansas teachers are thinking. Instead, they’ve been using 
their summer vacation time to decompress.

“This has been an 
extremely stressful time,” said Teresa Coffman, a professor of education
 at the University of Mary Washington. “Teachers need a little bit of a 
break.”

Many Kansas teachers are taking free online lessons, 
despite the sessions being voluntary and with the plans for the fall 
still being a mystery.

More than 1,000 Kansas educators have 
completed an average of six hours each of training related to teaching 
outside the classroom provided by Greenbush, the education service 
center in southeast Kansas. Sessions include “Google Classroom Crash 
Course,” “Student Engagement,” and “How Can I Increase My Motivation And
 Focus?”

Topeka and Olathe Public Schools also provide their 
teachers with online lessons during the summer. And while teachers might
 not be required to come in until the week before classes, districts 
like Morris County public schools are bringing in their administrators 
early to prepare the training, guidance and rules those teachers will 
get in August.

Mandatory training for online learning best practices will also continue at school districts throughout the school year.

Jennifer
 Hanni, the director of school improvement services at Greenbush, has 
helped create some of the optional training sessions Kansas teachers 
have been taking. But while she believes more time for professional 
development is always needed, the continually morphing status of the 
coronavirus makes it so teachers can’t fully prepare for the next school
 year until they’re in it.

“This is a unique circumstance where 
we can have all the time in the world,” Hanni said. “But if we don’t 
know what something is, then it’s really difficult to plan.”

Stephan Bisaha reports on education and young adult life for KMUW and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/stevebisaha?lang=en">@stevebisaha</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594393638452.png" alt="First-graders use iPads during reading lessons at Shawnee Mission School District in 2018.&nbsp; Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service file photo " />
 <figcaption>First-graders use iPads during reading lessons at Shawnee Mission School District in 2018.&nbsp; Celia Llopis-Jepsen / Kansas News Service file photo </figcaption>
 </figure>By STEPHAN BISAHA <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/kansas-teachers-will-get-little-required-training-how-run-classrooms-online">Kansas News Service</a>WICHITA, Kansas — Jennifer Mathes kept her expectations for the spring low.A
 sudden, pandemic-driven shift from classrooms to online instruction was
 bound to throw the Blue Valley school district a curve. That would be a
 loss for the quality of teaching she could expect for her daughter.But for the fall?“You’ve
 had some time to prepare,” said Mathes, who’s the CEO of the nonprofit 
Online Learning Consortium. “You’ve got to create a better environment 
so my daughter doesn’t suffer.”Yet at many Kansas schools, 
teachers will only be required to take a few days of training in the art
 of running a classroom online before school starts again in mid-August.Some
 have taken online seminars voluntarily. But union contracts and 
uncertainty about what schools will look like when they restart — 
expected to be some mix of online and in-person teaching — have let the 
summer pass without mandating much preparation for teachers.<h2>Lesson plan</h2>At
 Morris County public schools in east-central Kansas, the school year 
will start seven days earlier for teachers than students. Kansas schools
 usually have about four days to get ready before the kids show up — 
during a normal year. Some schools have shifted their schedules to 
front-end training normally spread across the calendar. But that only 
nets schools a couple of extra days to prepare teachers for an 
unprecedented fall.For many Kansas teachers, it will be their 
first time getting drilled on best online teaching practices since 
school let out in the spring.And schools have much higher 
expectations for their teachers than they did in the spring. Testing was
 lax-to-nonexistent last semester. In the fall, schools will be expected
 to require significantly more rigor from students. Having half a 
classroom disengaged and <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/kansas-educators-worry-what-five-months-away-classrooms-will-do-schoolkids" target="_blank">playing hooky won’t be acceptable anymore</a>.And
 schools still must provide annual sessions on topics like sexual 
harassment and suicide prevention. Plus teachers will need to learn how 
to keep their classrooms virus-free.“It will be a lot of work in
 a short amount of time,” said Kelly Gentry, director of instruction and
 curriculum Morris County Public Schools.Some education experts 
are concerned that’s not enough time for preparing teachers for online 
learning. Getting teachers ready could take <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/teachers-need-lots-of-training-to-do-online-learning-well-coronavirus-closures-gave-many-just-days/" target="_blank">weeks or months</a>.“There
 will need to be a recognition that learning how to operate this fall in
 a pandemic is something that will not just come from one week of 
training,” said Lisa Guernsey, senior advisor on early and elementary 
education policy for New America, a left-leaning education think tank.Even
 if schools wanted to mandate teacher training earlier in the summer, 
teacher contracts restrict districts from doing so. Others would need to
 find ways to compensate teachers for the extra time, a concern as 
schools face the possibility of <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article242179496.html" target="_blank">losing some state funding</a>.There’s
 also the question of what to prepare teachers for. Schools could return
 to in-person classes, online-only or some mix of the two. Wichita 
Public Schools does not plan on providing any instruction for its 
teachers until after the state releases guidance next week.That 
uncertainty has caused some teachers to hesitate taking up their own 
prep work, fearing it might contradict whatever plans the state comes up
 with.“A lot of teachers really are putting in a lot of time to 
think about the fall and they just don’t know where to start,” said Lori
 Stratton, an English teacher at Gardner Edgerton High School in Johnson
 County.<h2>Learn on your own time</h2>After the
 sudden shift to online classes in March, more training is the last 
thing some Kansas teachers are thinking. Instead, they’ve been using 
their summer vacation time to decompress.“This has been an 
extremely stressful time,” said Teresa Coffman, a professor of education
 at the University of Mary Washington. “Teachers need a little bit of a 
break.”Many Kansas teachers are taking free online lessons, 
despite the sessions being voluntary and with the plans for the fall 
still being a mystery.More than 1,000 Kansas educators have 
completed an average of six hours each of training related to teaching 
outside the classroom provided by Greenbush, the education service 
center in southeast Kansas. Sessions include “Google Classroom Crash 
Course,” “Student Engagement,” and “How Can I Increase My Motivation And
 Focus?”Topeka and Olathe Public Schools also provide their 
teachers with online lessons during the summer. And while teachers might
 not be required to come in until the week before classes, districts 
like Morris County public schools are bringing in their administrators 
early to prepare the training, guidance and rules those teachers will 
get in August.Mandatory training for online learning best practices will also continue at school districts throughout the school year.Jennifer
 Hanni, the director of school improvement services at Greenbush, has 
helped create some of the optional training sessions Kansas teachers 
have been taking. But while she believes more time for professional 
development is always needed, the continually morphing status of the 
coronavirus makes it so teachers can’t fully prepare for the next school
 year until they’re in it.“This is a unique circumstance where 
we can have all the time in the world,” Hanni said. “But if we don’t 
know what something is, then it’s really difficult to plan.”Stephan Bisaha reports on education and young adult life for KMUW and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/stevebisaha?lang=en">@stevebisaha</a>.

Kan. teachers will get little required training on virtual classrooms

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/TheReckoning">clergy sexual abuse cover-ups</a>.

The church’s haul may have reached -- or even exceeded -- $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b483d9691de2b83a8b35951508c3b4d1">the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts</a>, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.

Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b0d2a36521f39010273317fa3562c2e4">the Paycheck Protection Program</a>, a $659 billion fund created to keep Main Street open and Americans employed.

By aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries have so far received approval for at least 3,500 forgivable loans, AP found.

The Archdiocese of New York, for example, received 15 loans worth at least $28 million just for its top executive offices. Its iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was approved for at least $1 million.

In Orange County, California, where a sparkling glass cathedral estimated to cost over $70 million recently opened, diocesan officials working at the complex received four loans worth at least $3 million.

And elsewhere, a loan of at least $2 million went to the diocese covering Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, where a church investigation revealed last year that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/2ff78299709e48dbb45b5e7283459df8">then-Bishop Michael Bransfield</a>&nbsp;embezzled funds and made sexual advances toward young priests.

Simply being eligible for low-interest loans was a new opportunity. But the church couldn’t have been approved for so many loans -- which the government will forgive if they are used for wages, rent and utilities -- without a second break.

Religious groups persuaded the Trump administration to free them from a rule that typically disqualifies an applicant with more than 500 workers. Without this preferential treatment, many Catholic dioceses would have been ineligible because -- between their head offices, parishes and other affiliates -- their employees exceed the 500-person cap.

“The government grants special dispensation, and that creates a kind of structural favoritism,” said Micah Schwartzman, a University of Virginia law professor specializing in constitutional issues and religion who has studied the Paycheck Protection Program. “And that favoritism was worth billions of dollars.”

The amount that the church collected, between $1.4 billion and $3.5 billion, is an undercount. The Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, an organization of Catholic financial officers, surveyed members and reported that about 9,000 Catholic entities received loans. That is nearly three times the number of Catholic recipients the AP could identify.

The AP couldn’t find more Catholic beneficiaries because the government’s data, released after pressure from Congress and a lawsuit from news outlets including the AP, didn’t name recipients of loans under $150,000 -- a category in which many smaller churches would fall. And because the government released only ranges of loan amounts, it wasn’t possible to be more precise.

Even without a full accounting, AP’s analysis places the Catholic Church among the major beneficiaries in the Paycheck Protection Program, which also has helped companies backed by celebrities, billionaires, state governors and members of Congress.

The program was open to all religious groups, and many took advantage. Evangelical advisers to President Donald Trump, including his White House spiritual czar, Paula White-Cain,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/88a957426a09eb3b7db2dbceeffa25c0">also received loans</a>.

There is no doubt that state shelter-in-place orders disrupted houses of worship and businesses alike.

Masses were canceled, even during the Holy Week and Easter holidays, depriving parishes of expected revenue and contributing to layoffs in some dioceses. Some families of Catholic school students are struggling to make tuition payments. And the expense of disinfecting classrooms once classes resume will put additional pressure on budgets.

But other problems were self-inflicted. Long before the pandemic, scores of dioceses faced increasing financial pressure because of a dramatic rise in recent clergy sex abuse claims.

The scandals that erupted in 2018 reverberated throughout the world. Pope Francis ordered the former archbishop of Washington,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/33645dd626674bec9ef6198528267dc6">Cardinal Theodore McCarrick</a>, to a life of “prayer and penance” following allegations he abused minors and adult seminarians. And&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/301822e3d7a04b0b88a1c40738c4a513/Report:-Pennsylvania-priests-molested-over-1,000-children">a damning grand jury report</a>&nbsp;about abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses revealed bishops had long covered for predator priests, spurring investigations in more than 20 other states.

As the church again reckoned with its longtime crisis, abuse reports tripled during the year ending June 2019 to a total of nearly 4,500 nationally. Meanwhile, dioceses and religious orders shelled out $282 million that year — up from $106 million just five years earlier. Most of that went to settlements, in addition to legal fees and support for offending clergy.

Loan recipients included about 40 dioceses that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years paying victims through compensation funds or bankruptcy proceedings. AP’s review found that these dioceses were approved for about $200 million, though the value is likely much higher.

One was the New York Archdiocese. As a successful battle to lift the statute of limitations on the filing of child sexual abuse lawsuits gathered steam,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/0214b26e59db4e1eaf30fcb856b43b0a">Cardinal Timothy Dolan established a victim compensation fund</a>&nbsp;in 2016. Since then, other dioceses have established similar funds, which offer victims relatively quick settlements while dissuading them from filing lawsuits.

Spokesperson Joseph Zwilling said the archdiocese simply wanted to be “treated equally and fairly under the law.” When asked about the waiver from the 500-employee cap that religious organizations received, Zwilling deferred to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A spokesperson for the bishops’ conference acknowledged its officials lobbied for the paycheck program, but said the organization wasn’t tracking what dioceses and Catholic agencies received.

“These loans are an essential lifeline to help faith-based organizations to stay afloat and continue serving those in need during this crisis,” spokesperson Chieko Noguchi said in a written statement. According to AP’s data analysis, the church and all its organizations reported retaining at least 407,900 jobs with the money they were awarded.

Noguchi also wrote the conference felt strongly that “the administration write and implement this emergency relief fairly for all applicants.”

Not every Catholic institution sought government loans. The Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy based in Stamford, Connecticut, told AP that even though its parishes experienced a decline in donations, none of the organizations in its five-state territory submitted applications.

Deacon Steve Wisnowski, a financial officer for the eparchy, said pastors and church managers used their rainy-day savings and that parishioners responded generously with donations. As a result, parishes “did not experience a severe financial crisis.”

Wisnowski said his superiors understood the program was for “organizations and businesses truly in need of assistance.”

The law that created the Paycheck Protection Program let nonprofits participate, as long as they abided by SBA’s “affiliation rule.” The rule typically says that only businesses with fewer than 500 employees, including at all subsidiaries, are eligible.

Lobbying by the church helped religious organizations get an exception.

The Catholic News Service reported that the bishops’ conference and several major Catholic nonprofit agencies worked throughout the week of March 30 to ensure that the “unique nature of the entities would not make them ineligible for the program” because of how SBA defines a “small” business. Those conversations came just days after President Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which included the Paycheck Protection Program.

In addition, federal records show the Los Angeles archdiocese, whose leader heads the bishops’ conference, paid $20,000 to lobby the U.S. Senate and House on “eligibility for non-profits” under the CARES Act. The records also show that Catholic Charities USA, a social service arm of the church with member agencies in dioceses across the country, paid another $30,000 to lobby on the act and other issues.

In late April, after thousands of Catholic institutions had secured loans, several hundred Catholic leaders pressed for additional help on a call with President Trump. During the call, Trump underscored the coming presidential election and touted himself as the candidate best aligned with religious conservatives, boasting he was the “best (president) the Catholic church has ever seen,” according to Crux, an online publication that covers church-related news.

Catholic Charities USA and its member agencies were approved for about 110 loans worth between $90 million and $220 million at least, according to the data.

In a statement, Catholic Charities said: “Each organization is a separate legal entity under the auspices of the bishop in the diocese in which the agency is located. CCUSA supports agencies that choose to become members, but does not have any role in their daily operations or governance.”

The Los Angeles archdiocese told AP in a survey that reporters sent before the release of federal data that 247 of its 288 parishes -- and all but one of its 232 schools -- received loans. The survey covered more than 180 dioceses and eparchies.

Like most dioceses, Los Angeles wouldn’t disclose its total dollar amount. While the federal data doesn’t link Catholic recipients to their home dioceses, AP found 37 loans to the archdiocese and its affiliates worth between $9 million and $23 million, including one for its downtown cathedral.

In 2014, the archdiocese paid a record $660 million to settle sex abuse claims from more than 500 victims. Spokespeople for Los Angeles Archbishop Jose M. Gomez did not respond to additional questions about the archdiocese’s finances and lobbying.

In program materials, SBA officials said they provided the affiliation waiver to religious groups in deference to their unique organizational structure, and because the public health response to slow the coronavirus’ spread disrupted churches just as it did businesses.

A senior official in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which oversees the SBA, acknowledged in a statement the wider availability of SBA loans to religious organizations. “The CARES Act expanded eligibility to include nonprofits in the PPP, and SBA’s regulations ensured that no eligible religious nonprofit was excluded from participation due to its beliefs or denomination,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, some legal experts say that the special consideration the government gave faith groups in the loan program has further eroded the wall between church and state provided in the First Amendment. With that erosion, religious groups that don’t pay taxes have gained more access to public money, said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania professor and attorney who has represented clergy abuse victims on constitutional issues during bankruptcy proceedings.

“At this point, the argument is you’re anti-religious if in fact you would say the Catholic Church shouldn’t be getting government funding,” Hamilton said.

After its lobbying blitz, the Catholic Church worked with parishes and schools to access the money.

Many dioceses -- from large ones such as the Archdiocese of Boston to smaller ones such as the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin -- assembled how-to guides to help their affiliates apply. The national Catholic fiscal conference also hosted multiple webinars with legal and financial experts to help coach along local leaders.

Federal data show that the bulk of the church’s money was approved during the loan program’s first two weeks. That’s when demand for the first-come, first-served assistance was so high that the initial $349 billion was quickly exhausted, shutting out many local businesses.

Overall, nearly 500 loans approved to Catholic entities exceeded $1 million each. The AP found that at least eight hit the maximum range of $5 million to $10 million. Many of the listed recipients were the offices of bishops, headquarters of leading religious orders, major churches, schools and chapters of Catholic Charities.

Also among recipients was the Saint Luke Institute. The Catholic treatment center for priests accused of sexual abuse and those suffering from other disorders received a loan ranging from $350,000 to $1 million. Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, the institute has at times been a way station for priests accused of sexual abuse who returned to active ministry only to abuse again.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the church’s aggressive pursuit of funds better than four dioceses that sued the federal government to receive loans, even though they entered bankruptcy proceedings due to mounting clergy sex-abuse claims. Small Business Administration rules prohibit loans to applicants in bankruptcy.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico -- once home to a now-closed and notorious treatment center for predator priests -- prevailed in court, clearing the way for its administrative offices to receive nearly $1 million. It accused the SBA of overreaching by blocking bankruptcy applications when Congress didn’t spell that out.

Yet even when a diocese has lost in bankruptcy court, or its case is pending, its affiliated parishes, schools and other organizations remain eligible for loans.

On the U.S. territory of Guam, well over 200 clergy abuse lawsuits led church leaders in the tiny Archdiocese of Agana to seek bankruptcy protection, as they estimated at least $45 million in liabilities. Even so, the archdiocese’s parishes, schools and other organizations have received at least $1.7 million as it sues the SBA for approval to get a loan for its headquarters, according to bankruptcy filings.

The U.S. church may have a troubling record on sex abuse, but Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie, Pennsylvania, pushed back on the idea that dioceses should be excluded from the government’s rescue package. Approximately 80 organizations within his diocese received loans worth $10.3 million, the diocese said, with most of the money going to parishes and schools.

Persico pointed out that church entities help feed, clothe and shelter the poor -- and in doing so keep people employed.

“I know some people may react with surprise that government funding helped support faith-based schools, parishes and dioceses,” he said. “The separation of church and state does not mean that those motivated by their faith have no place in the public square.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594388235726.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/TheReckoning">clergy sexual abuse cover-ups</a>.The church’s haul may have reached -- or even exceeded -- $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b483d9691de2b83a8b35951508c3b4d1">the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts</a>, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b0d2a36521f39010273317fa3562c2e4">the Paycheck Protection Program</a>, a $659 billion fund created to keep Main Street open and Americans employed.By aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries have so far received approval for at least 3,500 forgivable loans, AP found.The Archdiocese of New York, for example, received 15 loans worth at least $28 million just for its top executive offices. Its iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was approved for at least $1 million.In Orange County, California, where a sparkling glass cathedral estimated to cost over $70 million recently opened, diocesan officials working at the complex received four loans worth at least $3 million.And elsewhere, a loan of at least $2 million went to the diocese covering Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, where a church investigation revealed last year that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/2ff78299709e48dbb45b5e7283459df8">then-Bishop Michael Bransfield</a>&nbsp;embezzled funds and made sexual advances toward young priests.Simply being eligible for low-interest loans was a new opportunity. But the church couldn’t have been approved for so many loans -- which the government will forgive if they are used for wages, rent and utilities -- without a second break.Religious groups persuaded the Trump administration to free them from a rule that typically disqualifies an applicant with more than 500 workers. Without this preferential treatment, many Catholic dioceses would have been ineligible because -- between their head offices, parishes and other affiliates -- their employees exceed the 500-person cap.“The government grants special dispensation, and that creates a kind of structural favoritism,” said Micah Schwartzman, a University of Virginia law professor specializing in constitutional issues and religion who has studied the Paycheck Protection Program. “And that favoritism was worth billions of dollars.”The amount that the church collected, between $1.4 billion and $3.5 billion, is an undercount. The Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, an organization of Catholic financial officers, surveyed members and reported that about 9,000 Catholic entities received loans. That is nearly three times the number of Catholic recipients the AP could identify.The AP couldn’t find more Catholic beneficiaries because the government’s data, released after pressure from Congress and a lawsuit from news outlets including the AP, didn’t name recipients of loans under $150,000 -- a category in which many smaller churches would fall. And because the government released only ranges of loan amounts, it wasn’t possible to be more precise.Even without a full accounting, AP’s analysis places the Catholic Church among the major beneficiaries in the Paycheck Protection Program, which also has helped companies backed by celebrities, billionaires, state governors and members of Congress.The program was open to all religious groups, and many took advantage. Evangelical advisers to President Donald Trump, including his White House spiritual czar, Paula White-Cain,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/88a957426a09eb3b7db2dbceeffa25c0">also received loans</a>.___‘TRULY IN NEED’There is no doubt that state shelter-in-place orders disrupted houses of worship and businesses alike.Masses were canceled, even during the Holy Week and Easter holidays, depriving parishes of expected revenue and contributing to layoffs in some dioceses. Some families of Catholic school students are struggling to make tuition payments. And the expense of disinfecting classrooms once classes resume will put additional pressure on budgets.But other problems were self-inflicted. Long before the pandemic, scores of dioceses faced increasing financial pressure because of a dramatic rise in recent clergy sex abuse claims.The scandals that erupted in 2018 reverberated throughout the world. Pope Francis ordered the former archbishop of Washington,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/33645dd626674bec9ef6198528267dc6">Cardinal Theodore McCarrick</a>, to a life of “prayer and penance” following allegations he abused minors and adult seminarians. And&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/301822e3d7a04b0b88a1c40738c4a513/Report:-Pennsylvania-priests-molested-over-1,000-children">a damning grand jury report</a>&nbsp;about abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses revealed bishops had long covered for predator priests, spurring investigations in more than 20 other states.As the church again reckoned with its longtime crisis, abuse reports tripled during the year ending June 2019 to a total of nearly 4,500 nationally. Meanwhile, dioceses and religious orders shelled out $282 million that year — up from $106 million just five years earlier. Most of that went to settlements, in addition to legal fees and support for offending clergy.Loan recipients included about 40 dioceses that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years paying victims through compensation funds or bankruptcy proceedings. AP’s review found that these dioceses were approved for about $200 million, though the value is likely much higher.One was the New York Archdiocese. As a successful battle to lift the statute of limitations on the filing of child sexual abuse lawsuits gathered steam,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/0214b26e59db4e1eaf30fcb856b43b0a">Cardinal Timothy Dolan established a victim compensation fund</a>&nbsp;in 2016. Since then, other dioceses have established similar funds, which offer victims relatively quick settlements while dissuading them from filing lawsuits.Spokesperson Joseph Zwilling said the archdiocese simply wanted to be “treated equally and fairly under the law.” When asked about the waiver from the 500-employee cap that religious organizations received, Zwilling deferred to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.A spokesperson for the bishops’ conference acknowledged its officials lobbied for the paycheck program, but said the organization wasn’t tracking what dioceses and Catholic agencies received.“These loans are an essential lifeline to help faith-based organizations to stay afloat and continue serving those in need during this crisis,” spokesperson Chieko Noguchi said in a written statement. According to AP’s data analysis, the church and all its organizations reported retaining at least 407,900 jobs with the money they were awarded.Noguchi also wrote the conference felt strongly that “the administration write and implement this emergency relief fairly for all applicants.”Not every Catholic institution sought government loans. The Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy based in Stamford, Connecticut, told AP that even though its parishes experienced a decline in donations, none of the organizations in its five-state territory submitted applications.Deacon Steve Wisnowski, a financial officer for the eparchy, said pastors and church managers used their rainy-day savings and that parishioners responded generously with donations. As a result, parishes “did not experience a severe financial crisis.”Wisnowski said his superiors understood the program was for “organizations and businesses truly in need of assistance.”___LOBBYING FOR A BREAKThe law that created the Paycheck Protection Program let nonprofits participate, as long as they abided by SBA’s “affiliation rule.” The rule typically says that only businesses with fewer than 500 employees, including at all subsidiaries, are eligible.Lobbying by the church helped religious organizations get an exception.The Catholic News Service reported that the bishops’ conference and several major Catholic nonprofit agencies worked throughout the week of March 30 to ensure that the “unique nature of the entities would not make them ineligible for the program” because of how SBA defines a “small” business. Those conversations came just days after President Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which included the Paycheck Protection Program.In addition, federal records show the Los Angeles archdiocese, whose leader heads the bishops’ conference, paid $20,000 to lobby the U.S. Senate and House on “eligibility for non-profits” under the CARES Act. The records also show that Catholic Charities USA, a social service arm of the church with member agencies in dioceses across the country, paid another $30,000 to lobby on the act and other issues.In late April, after thousands of Catholic institutions had secured loans, several hundred Catholic leaders pressed for additional help on a call with President Trump. During the call, Trump underscored the coming presidential election and touted himself as the candidate best aligned with religious conservatives, boasting he was the “best (president) the Catholic church has ever seen,” according to Crux, an online publication that covers church-related news.The lobbying paid off.Catholic Charities USA and its member agencies were approved for about 110 loans worth between $90 million and $220 million at least, according to the data.In a statement, Catholic Charities said: “Each organization is a separate legal entity under the auspices of the bishop in the diocese in which the agency is located. CCUSA supports agencies that choose to become members, but does not have any role in their daily operations or governance.”The Los Angeles archdiocese told AP in a survey that reporters sent before the release of federal data that 247 of its 288 parishes -- and all but one of its 232 schools -- received loans. The survey covered more than 180 dioceses and eparchies.Like most dioceses, Los Angeles wouldn’t disclose its total dollar amount. While the federal data doesn’t link Catholic recipients to their home dioceses, AP found 37 loans to the archdiocese and its affiliates worth between $9 million and $23 million, including one for its downtown cathedral.In 2014, the archdiocese paid a record $660 million to settle sex abuse claims from more than 500 victims. Spokespeople for Los Angeles Archbishop Jose M. Gomez did not respond to additional questions about the archdiocese’s finances and lobbying.In program materials, SBA officials said they provided the affiliation waiver to religious groups in deference to their unique organizational structure, and because the public health response to slow the coronavirus’ spread disrupted churches just as it did businesses.A senior official in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which oversees the SBA, acknowledged in a statement the wider availability of SBA loans to religious organizations. “The CARES Act expanded eligibility to include nonprofits in the PPP, and SBA’s regulations ensured that no eligible religious nonprofit was excluded from participation due to its beliefs or denomination,” the statement said.Meanwhile, some legal experts say that the special consideration the government gave faith groups in the loan program has further eroded the wall between church and state provided in the First Amendment. With that erosion, religious groups that don’t pay taxes have gained more access to public money, said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania professor and attorney who has represented clergy abuse victims on constitutional issues during bankruptcy proceedings.“At this point, the argument is you’re anti-religious if in fact you would say the Catholic Church shouldn’t be getting government funding,” Hamilton said.___CASHING IN FASTAfter its lobbying blitz, the Catholic Church worked with parishes and schools to access the money.Many dioceses -- from large ones such as the Archdiocese of Boston to smaller ones such as the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin -- assembled how-to guides to help their affiliates apply. The national Catholic fiscal conference also hosted multiple webinars with legal and financial experts to help coach along local leaders.Federal data show that the bulk of the church’s money was approved during the loan program’s first two weeks. That’s when demand for the first-come, first-served assistance was so high that the initial $349 billion was quickly exhausted, shutting out many local businesses.Overall, nearly 500 loans approved to Catholic entities exceeded $1 million each. The AP found that at least eight hit the maximum range of $5 million to $10 million. Many of the listed recipients were the offices of bishops, headquarters of leading religious orders, major churches, schools and chapters of Catholic Charities.Also among recipients was the Saint Luke Institute. The Catholic treatment center for priests accused of sexual abuse and those suffering from other disorders received a loan ranging from $350,000 to $1 million. Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, the institute has at times been a way station for priests accused of sexual abuse who returned to active ministry only to abuse again.Perhaps nothing illustrates the church’s aggressive pursuit of funds better than four dioceses that sued the federal government to receive loans, even though they entered bankruptcy proceedings due to mounting clergy sex-abuse claims. Small Business Administration rules prohibit loans to applicants in bankruptcy.The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico -- once home to a now-closed and notorious treatment center for predator priests -- prevailed in court, clearing the way for its administrative offices to receive nearly $1 million. It accused the SBA of overreaching by blocking bankruptcy applications when Congress didn’t spell that out.Yet even when a diocese has lost in bankruptcy court, or its case is pending, its affiliated parishes, schools and other organizations remain eligible for loans.On the U.S. territory of Guam, well over 200 clergy abuse lawsuits led church leaders in the tiny Archdiocese of Agana to seek bankruptcy protection, as they estimated at least $45 million in liabilities. Even so, the archdiocese’s parishes, schools and other organizations have received at least $1.7 million as it sues the SBA for approval to get a loan for its headquarters, according to bankruptcy filings.The U.S. church may have a troubling record on sex abuse, but Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie, Pennsylvania, pushed back on the idea that dioceses should be excluded from the government’s rescue package. Approximately 80 organizations within his diocese received loans worth $10.3 million, the diocese said, with most of the money going to parishes and schools.Persico pointed out that church entities help feed, clothe and shelter the poor -- and in doing so keep people employed.“I know some people may react with surprise that government funding helped support faith-based schools, parishes and dioceses,” he said. “The separation of church and state does not mean that those motivated by their faith have no place in the public square.”___

Feds sent U.S. Catholic Church $1.4 billion in coronavirus relief

MANHATTAN — Several species of fish have adapted to harsh environments using the same mechanism, which brings to question evolutionary chance, according to a study by Kansas State University and Washington State University. <a href="https://www.k-state.edu/biology/people/tenure/tobler/index.html" target="_blank">Michi Tobler</a>, associate professor, Ryan Greenway, May 2019 doctoral graduate, and Nick Barts, doctoral student, all in the Division of Biology; Joanna Kelley, associate professor at Washington State University; and many additional collaborators recently published&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/23/2004223117?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=4f4a0b574883338f5c33fb456b60c794444c4df8-1593528810-0-AQFrRzF-LH3-ijHJvIty98KCeTfVKHv1CbXPTh2mxkcQ8E5fT0yenrb3UOjpCI84g6XksK956aFQ7VUhgkCXTWnC72UABT1yZHdifzGKlct83rGKge04egq03vyEIVFNTL1yWTyuULSRC44L3YVDnuxJ9fLZp1sC9k6C1l22Z95h0ZV4-jGnIOIZbumqI2_wxrv9eIJ-_-gqQerX1fX5l9dMNCXS6fn9XnweCEyhRWFknHibHZfHzgL1BKhFdR0ek2ZBrE0e3paSz14RCw1RGiWCtwezfMRZrFyd4DQijAYve_97ZaDkyuY6BkTH29EtFA" target="_blank">an article about repeated adaptations to extreme environments in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>. "We are trying to understand how evolution and adaptation work," Tobler said. "We stumbled across these fish living in this highly toxic water. It is so toxic that it kills most other living things by binding to an enzyme in the mitochondria — the powerhouse of cells — and shuts off energy production at the cellular level." The streams have high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is naturally dissolved in the water. Tobler and his collaborators found at least 10 different lineages of fish that have adapted to live in the extreme environment.

"Whether or not populations take the same path to adapting to novel environments is a long-standing question in evolutionary biology," Kelly said. "Our research shows that the same pathways have been modified in multiple different species of hydrogen sulfide adapted fishes." All 10 adapted, regardless of location, using the same mechanism: tweaking the enzyme so the toxicant can't bind to it. "The cool thing about these enzymes is all organisms have them," Tobler said. "We have them. Fungi have them. Plants have them. It's the universal way to make energy. Yet, it is this ancient pathway that has been conserved for so long that is modified in these fish." According to Tobler, the fish also ramped up an existing detoxification mechanism inside the mitochondria so they can get rid of the hydrogen sulfide faster and survive when other non-adapted fish in the same species can't survive in the toxic water. The multiple lineages of fish with this capability brings to question a view proposed by evolutionary biologist Stephen Gould, that if evolution repeated itself, it would lead to different outcomes every time. "Thirty years ago, Gould said 'if you could rewind the tape of life, you would get a different outcome every single time,' meaning that evolution would not find the same adaptive solutions every time," Tobler said. "What we actually found in all these lineages — where the tape of life has been replayed as they were exposed to the same sources of selection — is that evolution actually unfolds in very similar ways. I think it tells us something very fundamental about how organisms adapt and that adaptive solutions are possibly limited." The researchers are able to compare the fish with the adaptation living the toxic water with ancestors that live in the normal environment because there is not a barrier between habitats. Tobler said as a consequence of the fish adapting to the toxic environment, they are actually evolving into a new species. His graduate students have further research pending. Tobler's lab is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594329082758.jpeg" alt="Sulfide spring fish" />
 <figcaption>Sulfide spring fish</figcaption>
 </figure>&nbsp;KSU News Service MANHATTAN — Several species of fish have adapted to harsh environments using the same mechanism, which brings to question evolutionary chance, according to a study by Kansas State University and Washington State University. <a href="https://www.k-state.edu/biology/people/tenure/tobler/index.html" target="_blank">Michi Tobler</a>, associate professor, Ryan Greenway, May 2019 doctoral graduate, and Nick Barts, doctoral student, all in the Division of Biology; Joanna Kelley, associate professor at Washington State University; and many additional collaborators recently published&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/23/2004223117?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=4f4a0b574883338f5c33fb456b60c794444c4df8-1593528810-0-AQFrRzF-LH3-ijHJvIty98KCeTfVKHv1CbXPTh2mxkcQ8E5fT0yenrb3UOjpCI84g6XksK956aFQ7VUhgkCXTWnC72UABT1yZHdifzGKlct83rGKge04egq03vyEIVFNTL1yWTyuULSRC44L3YVDnuxJ9fLZp1sC9k6C1l22Z95h0ZV4-jGnIOIZbumqI2_wxrv9eIJ-_-gqQerX1fX5l9dMNCXS6fn9XnweCEyhRWFknHibHZfHzgL1BKhFdR0ek2ZBrE0e3paSz14RCw1RGiWCtwezfMRZrFyd4DQijAYve_97ZaDkyuY6BkTH29EtFA" target="_blank">an article about repeated adaptations to extreme environments in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>. "We are trying to understand how evolution and adaptation work," Tobler said. "We stumbled across these fish living in this highly toxic water. It is so toxic that it kills most other living things by binding to an enzyme in the mitochondria — the powerhouse of cells — and shuts off energy production at the cellular level." The streams have high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is naturally dissolved in the water. Tobler and his collaborators found at least 10 different lineages of fish that have adapted to live in the extreme environment.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/7/1594329317203.jpeg" alt="Sulfide stream" />
 <figcaption>Sulfide stream</figcaption>
 </figure>"Whether or not populations take the same path to adapting to novel environments is a long-standing question in evolutionary biology," Kelly said. "Our research shows that the same pathways have been modified in multiple different species of hydrogen sulfide adapted fishes." All 10 adapted, regardless of location, using the same mechanism: tweaking the enzyme so the toxicant can't bind to it. "The cool thing about these enzymes is all organisms have them," Tobler said. "We have them. Fungi have them. Plants have them. It's the universal way to make energy. Yet, it is this ancient pathway that has been conserved for so long that is modified in these fish." According to Tobler, the fish also ramped up an existing detoxification mechanism inside the mitochondria so they can get rid of the hydrogen sulfide faster and survive when other non-adapted fish in the same species can't survive in the toxic water. The multiple lineages of fish with this capability brings to question a view proposed by evolutionary biologist Stephen Gould, that if evolution repeated itself, it would lead to different outcomes every time. "Thirty years ago, Gould said 'if you could rewind the tape of life, you would get a different outcome every single time,' meaning that evolution would not find the same adaptive solutions every time," Tobler said. "What we actually found in all these lineages — where the tape of life has been replayed as they were exposed to the same sources of selection — is that evolution actually unfolds in very similar ways. I think it tells us something very fundamental about how organisms adapt and that adaptive solutions are possibly limited." The researchers are able to compare the fish with the adaptation living the toxic water with ancestors that live in the normal environment because there is not a barrier between habitats. Tobler said as a consequence of the fish adapting to the toxic environment, they are actually evolving into a new species. His graduate students have further research pending. Tobler's lab is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office.

STUDY:  Fish adapting to toxic environment are evolving into new species

KANSAS CITY&nbsp; (AP) — Kansas City will no longer punish people for marijuana possession, effectively decriminalizing it throughout much of the city.

City council members voted 9-4 on Thursday to strip the crime from the city code.

The change does not legalize its recreational use or change Missouri law. Users can still be charged for possession by county prosecutors who decide to pursue those cases.

Kansas City residents voted overwhelmingly in 2017 to eliminate jail time for possession of fewer than 35 grams of marijuana, limiting penalties to an ordinance violation and $25 fine.

In Jackson County, prosecutor Jean Peters Baker had already pledged to stop charging most people for possession. But in parts of Kansas City that lie in Clay, Platte and Cass counties, people could still face state possession charges.

Kansas City’s chapter of the <a href="https://norml.org/">National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,</a> which led the 2017 campaign, urged prosecutors in Clay, Platte and Cass counties to join Jackson County prosecutors in not charging low-level marijuana offenses.

KANSAS CITY&nbsp; (AP) — Kansas City will no longer punish people for marijuana possession, effectively decriminalizing it throughout much of the city.City council members voted 9-4 on Thursday to strip the crime from the city code.The change does not legalize its recreational use or change Missouri law. Users can still be charged for possession by county prosecutors who decide to pursue those cases.Kansas City residents voted overwhelmingly in 2017 to eliminate jail time for possession of fewer than 35 grams of marijuana, limiting penalties to an ordinance violation and $25 fine.In Jackson County, prosecutor Jean Peters Baker had already pledged to stop charging most people for possession. But in parts of Kansas City that lie in Clay, Platte and Cass counties, people could still face state possession charges.Kansas City’s chapter of the <a href="https://norml.org/">National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,</a> which led the 2017 campaign, urged prosecutors in Clay, Platte and Cass counties to join Jackson County prosecutors in not charging low-level marijuana offenses.“Statewide reforms on this issue are needed so that we don’t have a patchwork of laws that more harshly impact some over others,” said Jessica Kelly, the group’s spokeswoman in Kansas City.