By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-11-18/a-private-company-asked-kansas-to-hide-public-information-so-kansas-did">Kansas News Service</a>

In Oregon, a city is hiding from a newspaper <a href="https://play.acast.com/s/nextquestion/data-waterandandwhyanoregontownissuingtheoregonian" target="_blank">how much of the region’s precious water Google uses</a> to cool its servers — claiming it’s a Google trade secret.

A Utah county refused to show a disability rights center its <a href="https://www.standard.net/police-fire/courts/2021/mar/26/judge-orders-release-of-utah-jail-standards-ruling-copyright-is-not-a-blanket-protection/" target="_blank">jail manuals for things such as hygiene and medical care</a> — because the author had copyrighted them.

<a href="https://www.nfoic.org/wp-content/uploads/pages/2019-04/Privatization%20and%20Trade%20Secrets_2019.pdf" target="_blank">Virginia pre-emptively promised Amazon</a>
 it would redact as much as it could get away with if any citizens asked
 for public records involving the company — to please the retail 
behemoth.

And in Kansas, the state lets companies unhappy about public scrutiny simply black out documents themselves.

Now emails between Kansas and one of those private firms reveal just how little the state’s lawyers pushed back when asked to <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-hid-parts-of-a-100k-audit-of-drug-spending-experts-say-the-state-went-too-far" target="_blank">hide large swaths of an audit</a> that cost taxpayers $100,000.

The audit was meant to watchdog about <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-audited-its-80-million-cvs-prescription-plan-but-its-still-shrouded-in-mystery" target="_blank">$160 million in prescription drug spending</a> on state employees, though experts say it came nowhere near achieving that, despite its hefty price tag.

Kansas
 bowed to the auditor’s wishes for secrecy, even though an attorney for 
the state couldn’t find anything in the report that qualified for 
protection from public view.

“I have personally reviewed the 
original document,” an open-records lawyer at the Kansas Department of 
Administration wrote in an email this summer, “but was unable to find 
any information that appeared to fall under any statutory exception.”

Frank
 LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, 
fears that governments increasingly let businesses, rather than their 
own laws, decide what the public can or cannot see.

“This is not a Kansas problem. It’s not an Oregon problem,” he said. “It’s an everywhere problem.”

Governments regularly shirk transparency laws and point to the intellectual property rights of private vendors as the reason.

And
 in the case of Kansas, it effectively outsources the redaction process 
to private companies that don’t work for the public, that don’t have any
 legal obligation to follow open records law and that can’t be hauled 
before a judge for breaking it.

“That’s a really dangerous 
business,” LoMonte said. “When you actually hand the document over and 
you invite people to use the black Magic Marker, they have every incentive to overuse it.”

Gov.
 Laura Kelly’s administration has declined or ignored half a dozen 
Kansas News Service requests to interview either the lawyers involved in
 the redaction process, Kelly herself or another person in her office 
who can speak to her administration’s approach to redacting public 
records.

In recent months, Kansas has
 allowed not just auditor PillarRx, but also some of the nation’s 
wealthiest corporations — CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group — to redact 
various documents related to drug spending before handing them over to 
the Kansas News Service.

<a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/statute/045_000_0000_chapter/045_002_0000_article/045_002_0018_section/045_002_0018_k/" target="_blank">Kansas law</a>
 tells state agencies to give reporters and other citizens the documents
 they seek within days. But in these cases, the process took weeks or 
months.

Governments, of course, can get sued for overly redacting records — even if they acted at the behest of a private actor.

But governments see that risk as increasingly remote, experts say.

Newsrooms,
 and in particular newspapers, have trimmed payrolls, cut back on 
printing and even declared bankruptcy. So what are the chances that a 
media outlet will shell out thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on
 a court battle?

“If you’re sitting there in that legal counsel’s 
office or a state agency, you’re sizing up your risks,” LoMonte said. 
“You probably figure that, ‘I’m much more likely to get sued by a giant,
 multinational drug conglomerate than I am by a local radio station.’”

In the case of the PillarRx report — which is an audit of <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-audited-its-80-million-cvs-prescription-plan-but-its-still-shrouded-in-mystery" target="_blank">CVS’ pharmacy benefit work</a> for the state of Kansas — the state allowed the auditor to black out whole paragraphs, charts and even entire pages.

But the redactions were poorly done, and many of the blacked-out portions remained accessible as a result.

That’s how the Kansas News Service was able <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-audited-its-80-million-cvs-prescription-plan-but-its-still-shrouded-in-mystery" target="_blank">to report on the content</a>, which one independent lawyer after another has concluded contains bread-and-butter public information.

Facts
 as simple as how many prescription drugs Kansas employees picked up in 
2018 got the black-marker treatment. So did sample sizes and other audit
 details critical to understanding whether PillarRx did a good job 
policing CVS’ charges to the Kansas employee health plan.

Weirdly,
 many of the blacked-out details — such as dispensing fees that Kansas 
pays to pharmacies — actually appear in other publicly released 
documents, some even on the state’s own website.

Yet the state claimed the blacked-out details were privileged trade secrets.

“I’m confident,” lawyer Bernie Rhodes said, “that there are zero trade secrets in this report.”

Rhodes heads a national team of media lawyers for the law firm Lathrop GPM.

The
 Kelly administration won’t allow the Kansas News Service to interview 
its lawyers about the redactions. But state emails obtained through 
another open records request shed light on what happened.

On Aug. 11, the Kansas News Service asked for the audit.

That
 triggered concerns at the Department of Administration because PillarRx
 had written the words “confidential and proprietary” on its report.

The
 agency’s open records lawyer, Tanner Asbury, reached out to the 
contractor responsible for hiring subcontractor PillarRx. Asbury 
immediately suggested the option of blacking out content, even though 
redaction should be a last resort under state law.

“If PillarRx 
does not wish to provide the record in its entirety,” he wrote, “is 
there a redacted version that could be provided instead?”

On Aug. 27, PillarRx provided such a version.

When Asbury opened the document, he balked at what he saw: A sea of black.

“Could
 you please explain your reasoning?” he wrote back. “It appears as 
though all substantive portions of the document have been removed. The 
document we have received is essentially just the Table of Contents and 
Headings.”

“I have personally reviewed the original document but 
was unable to find any information that appeared to fall under any 
statutory exception,” he added.

But the open records lawyer signaled that Kansas remained open to redacting.

“My
 fellow legal counsel and I feel that this record should be open to the 
public to some extent,” Asbury wrote, “but the redacted copy provided 
has too much information removed.”

PillarRx said that it needed to
 shield pharmaceutical pricing and audit methods from public view. It 
said it signed a nondisclosure agreement with pharmacy giant CVS — the 
very company it had been hired to watchdog.

So when it provided a second redacted version on Sept. 1, large swaths remained black, though less than before.

“It’s
 true that we tend to error (sic) on the side of being 
ultraconservative,” PillarRx wrote to Asbury. “The PillarRx team has 
taken the opportunity to review and ultimately revise the extent of the 
redaction in a manner that will hopefully be an acceptable compromise.”

Nowhere
 in the emails does PillarRx claim its report contains any trade secrets
 — only details that are proprietary and confidential.

“There’s a 
huge difference,” said Rhodes, at Lathrop GPM. “There is no exception in
 the Kansas Open Records Act for proprietary or confidential information
 … There’s no privilege for that.”

But Kansas had to “shoehorn” the redactions into some provision of 
law, he said, and so it told the Kansas News Service the redactions 
protected trade secrets, which can enjoy a privilege that doesn’t apply 
to merely proprietary and confidential information.

What about the nondisclosure agreement PillarRx cited?

“So
 what?” Rhodes said. “It’s absurd to claim that a nondisclosure 
agreement prevents (Kansas) from complying with the Kansas Open Records 
Act.”

Governments that wrongly hide behind such agreements can face repercussions.

That happened in Missouri in 2015, when a local government near St. Louis <a href="https://www.lewisrice.com/publications/sunshine-law-developments-%E2%80%93-public-body-liable-for-civil-penalties-and-attorneys-fees-for-refusing-to-turn-over-a-settlement-agreement/" target="_blank">refused to reveal</a>
 how much it paid out for a personal injury settlement, because the 
settlement included a nondisclosure clause. The courts forced the 
release and awarded the plaintiff, a local resident, attorney fees.

Rhodes
 considers the PillarRx situation even more baffling given public 
statements by the Kansas Department of Administration’s chief legal 
counsel, John Yeary.

In October, after the Kansas News Service published its story about the redacted audit, <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-18/kansas-defends-its-decision-to-redact-whole-pages-of-a-100-000-drug-spending-report" target="_blank">Yeary faced questioning</a> by Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt at a public meeting.

Schmidt
 is an independently elected official — not a part of the Department of 
Administration — but has oversight duties related to the state health 
plan. She sharply criticized the decision to black out public 
information.

“Do you stand by what was redacted?” she asked of Yeary.

“I
 won’t say I completely 100% agree with PillarRx on what they view as a 
trade secret or proprietary and confidential,” Yeary replied. “I do feel
 like, that our approach in responding as an agency where there are 
interests on both sides was appropriate.”

“I
 don’t understand how you can believe you did the right thing if you 
don’t share the view that it’s a trade secret,” he said. “I don’t see 
how you can possibly agree with withholding it.”

The
 state has to carefully scrutinize any assertions by a private company 
that public records can’t be released, said Lyndon Vix, a Wichita media 
lawyer at law firm Fleeson Gooing.

Vix recently helped the Wichita Eagle <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article249212020.html" target="_blank">get police body camera footage</a> that the city of Wichita refused to hand over.

Even
 though Wichita’s violation of state law was so egregious that the court
 ultimately ordered the city to pay Vix’s fees, the court battle took 
three years.

“We have case law in Kansas that specifically says that not all confidential information is a trade secret,” he said.

“An
 audit takes information from sources and does an analysis and then 
reaches conclusions. And I have never heard of that type of process 
being classified as a trade secret.”

Trade secrets must be secret,
 first of all. So blacked-out audit details that were easily available 
through other public documents don’t qualify. Trade secrets have to be 
economically valuable in and of themselves, too. They need to be 
something vitally important to hide from competitors.

“It’s not like we’re dealing here with, you know, Pfizer’s formula 
for their vaccine or something,” he said. “These are (audit) numbers. So
 to convert them into ‘trade secrets’ … is more of a process than just 
saying, ‘This is confidential stuff.’”

Kansas should have insisted
 to PillarRx that its redactions must fit the Kansas definition of trade
 secrets, Vix said, and should have demanded to know whether and why 
PillarRx felt they did.

“It’s going to be very hard, I’m sure, for
 a lot of this information to fall within that definition,” he said, 
“because it is a fairly stringent definition.”

Yet the more Kansas
 and other governments help businesses dodge open records requests, 
lawyers say, the worse off the public will be.

“Government can’t 
just rubber-stamp a third-party’s request to label all its data a trade 
secret. That’s not how public records laws work,” said Gunita Singh, a 
lawyer for The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “If that were how it worked, transparency would fly out the window.”

“The
 public would lose out on critical information about government 
spending,” she said, “and other insights into how government and 
business are prioritizing—or sabotaging—our well-being.”

Celia 
Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health for the Kansas News Service. 
You can follow her on Twitter @celia_LJ or email her at celia@kcur.org.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637246511765.png" alt="Carlos Moreno / KCUR 89.3" />
 <figcaption>Carlos Moreno / KCUR 89.3</figcaption>
 </figure>By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-11-18/a-private-company-asked-kansas-to-hide-public-information-so-kansas-did">Kansas News Service</a>In Oregon, a city is hiding from a newspaper <a href="https://play.acast.com/s/nextquestion/data-waterandandwhyanoregontownissuingtheoregonian" target="_blank">how much of the region’s precious water Google uses</a> to cool its servers — claiming it’s a Google trade secret.A Utah county refused to show a disability rights center its <a href="https://www.standard.net/police-fire/courts/2021/mar/26/judge-orders-release-of-utah-jail-standards-ruling-copyright-is-not-a-blanket-protection/" target="_blank">jail manuals for things such as hygiene and medical care</a> — because the author had copyrighted them.<a href="https://www.nfoic.org/wp-content/uploads/pages/2019-04/Privatization%20and%20Trade%20Secrets_2019.pdf" target="_blank">Virginia pre-emptively promised Amazon</a>
 it would redact as much as it could get away with if any citizens asked
 for public records involving the company — to please the retail 
behemoth.And in Kansas, the state lets companies unhappy about public scrutiny simply black out documents themselves.Now emails between Kansas and one of those private firms reveal just how little the state’s lawyers pushed back when asked to <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-hid-parts-of-a-100k-audit-of-drug-spending-experts-say-the-state-went-too-far" target="_blank">hide large swaths of an audit</a> that cost taxpayers $100,000.The audit was meant to watchdog about <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-audited-its-80-million-cvs-prescription-plan-but-its-still-shrouded-in-mystery" target="_blank">$160 million in prescription drug spending</a> on state employees, though experts say it came nowhere near achieving that, despite its hefty price tag.Kansas
 bowed to the auditor’s wishes for secrecy, even though an attorney for 
the state couldn’t find anything in the report that qualified for 
protection from public view.“I have personally reviewed the 
original document,” an open-records lawyer at the Kansas Department of 
Administration wrote in an email this summer, “but was unable to find 
any information that appeared to fall under any statutory exception.”Frank
 LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, 
fears that governments increasingly let businesses, rather than their 
own laws, decide what the public can or cannot see.“This is not a Kansas problem. It’s not an Oregon problem,” he said. “It’s an everywhere problem.”Governments regularly shirk transparency laws and point to the intellectual property rights of private vendors as the reason.And
 in the case of Kansas, it effectively outsources the redaction process 
to private companies that don’t work for the public, that don’t have any
 legal obligation to follow open records law and that can’t be hauled 
before a judge for breaking it.“That’s a really dangerous 
business,” LoMonte said. “When you actually hand the document over and 
you invite people to use the black Magic Marker, they have every incentive to overuse it.”Gov.
 Laura Kelly’s administration has declined or ignored half a dozen 
Kansas News Service requests to interview either the lawyers involved in
 the redaction process, Kelly herself or another person in her office 
who can speak to her administration’s approach to redacting public 
records.Sizing up risksIn recent months, Kansas has
 allowed not just auditor PillarRx, but also some of the nation’s 
wealthiest corporations — CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group — to redact 
various documents related to drug spending before handing them over to 
the Kansas News Service.<a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/statute/045_000_0000_chapter/045_002_0000_article/045_002_0018_section/045_002_0018_k/" target="_blank">Kansas law</a>
 tells state agencies to give reporters and other citizens the documents
 they seek within days. But in these cases, the process took weeks or 
months.Governments, of course, can get sued for overly redacting records — even if they acted at the behest of a private actor.But governments see that risk as increasingly remote, experts say.Newsrooms,
 and in particular newspapers, have trimmed payrolls, cut back on 
printing and even declared bankruptcy. So what are the chances that a 
media outlet will shell out thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on
 a court battle?“If you’re sitting there in that legal counsel’s 
office or a state agency, you’re sizing up your risks,” LoMonte said. 
“You probably figure that, ‘I’m much more likely to get sued by a giant,
 multinational drug conglomerate than I am by a local radio station.’”In the case of the PillarRx report — which is an audit of <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-audited-its-80-million-cvs-prescription-plan-but-its-still-shrouded-in-mystery" target="_blank">CVS’ pharmacy benefit work</a> for the state of Kansas — the state allowed the auditor to black out whole paragraphs, charts and even entire pages.But the redactions were poorly done, and many of the blacked-out portions remained accessible as a result.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637246737005.png" alt="Crysta Henthorne" />
 <figcaption>Crysta Henthorne</figcaption>
 </figure>That’s how the Kansas News Service was able <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-01/kansas-audited-its-80-million-cvs-prescription-plan-but-its-still-shrouded-in-mystery" target="_blank">to report on the content</a>, which one independent lawyer after another has concluded contains bread-and-butter public information.Facts
 as simple as how many prescription drugs Kansas employees picked up in 
2018 got the black-marker treatment. So did sample sizes and other audit
 details critical to understanding whether PillarRx did a good job 
policing CVS’ charges to the Kansas employee health plan.Weirdly,
 many of the blacked-out details — such as dispensing fees that Kansas 
pays to pharmacies — actually appear in other publicly released 
documents, some even on the state’s own website.Yet the state claimed the blacked-out details were privileged trade secrets.“I’m confident,” lawyer Bernie Rhodes said, “that there are zero trade secrets in this report.”Rhodes heads a national team of media lawyers for the law firm Lathrop GPM.What the emails revealThe
 Kelly administration won’t allow the Kansas News Service to interview 
its lawyers about the redactions. But state emails obtained through 
another open records request shed light on what happened.On Aug. 11, the Kansas News Service asked for the audit.That
 triggered concerns at the Department of Administration because PillarRx
 had written the words “confidential and proprietary” on its report.The
 agency’s open records lawyer, Tanner Asbury, reached out to the 
contractor responsible for hiring subcontractor PillarRx. Asbury 
immediately suggested the option of blacking out content, even though 
redaction should be a last resort under state law.“If PillarRx 
does not wish to provide the record in its entirety,” he wrote, “is 
there a redacted version that could be provided instead?”On Aug. 27, PillarRx provided such a version.When Asbury opened the document, he balked at what he saw: A sea of black.“Could
 you please explain your reasoning?” he wrote back. “It appears as 
though all substantive portions of the document have been removed. The 
document we have received is essentially just the Table of Contents and 
Headings.”“I have personally reviewed the original document but 
was unable to find any information that appeared to fall under any 
statutory exception,” he added.But the open records lawyer signaled that Kansas remained open to redacting.“My
 fellow legal counsel and I feel that this record should be open to the 
public to some extent,” Asbury wrote, “but the redacted copy provided 
has too much information removed.”PillarRx said that it needed to
 shield pharmaceutical pricing and audit methods from public view. It 
said it signed a nondisclosure agreement with pharmacy giant CVS — the 
very company it had been hired to watchdog.So when it provided a second redacted version on Sept. 1, large swaths remained black, though less than before.“It’s
 true that we tend to error (sic) on the side of being 
ultraconservative,” PillarRx wrote to Asbury. “The PillarRx team has 
taken the opportunity to review and ultimately revise the extent of the 
redaction in a manner that will hopefully be an acceptable compromise.”Kansas approved the compromise.Confidential vs. trade secretNowhere
 in the emails does PillarRx claim its report contains any trade secrets
 — only details that are proprietary and confidential.“There’s a 
huge difference,” said Rhodes, at Lathrop GPM. “There is no exception in
 the Kansas Open Records Act for proprietary or confidential information
 … There’s no privilege for that.”But Kansas had to “shoehorn” the redactions into some provision of 
law, he said, and so it told the Kansas News Service the redactions 
protected trade secrets, which can enjoy a privilege that doesn’t apply 
to merely proprietary and confidential information.What about the nondisclosure agreement PillarRx cited?“So
 what?” Rhodes said. “It’s absurd to claim that a nondisclosure 
agreement prevents (Kansas) from complying with the Kansas Open Records 
Act.”Governments that wrongly hide behind such agreements can face repercussions.That happened in Missouri in 2015, when a local government near St. Louis <a href="https://www.lewisrice.com/publications/sunshine-law-developments-%E2%80%93-public-body-liable-for-civil-penalties-and-attorneys-fees-for-refusing-to-turn-over-a-settlement-agreement/" target="_blank">refused to reveal</a>
 how much it paid out for a personal injury settlement, because the 
settlement included a nondisclosure clause. The courts forced the 
release and awarded the plaintiff, a local resident, attorney fees.Rhodes
 considers the PillarRx situation even more baffling given public 
statements by the Kansas Department of Administration’s chief legal 
counsel, John Yeary.In October, after the Kansas News Service published its story about the redacted audit, <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-18/kansas-defends-its-decision-to-redact-whole-pages-of-a-100-000-drug-spending-report" target="_blank">Yeary faced questioning</a> by Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt at a public meeting.Schmidt
 is an independently elected official — not a part of the Department of 
Administration — but has oversight duties related to the state health 
plan. She sharply criticized the decision to black out public 
information.“Do you stand by what was redacted?” she asked of Yeary.“I
 won’t say I completely 100% agree with PillarRx on what they view as a 
trade secret or proprietary and confidential,” Yeary replied. “I do feel
 like, that our approach in responding as an agency where there are 
interests on both sides was appropriate.”That floored Rhodes.“I
 don’t understand how you can believe you did the right thing if you 
don’t share the view that it’s a trade secret,” he said. “I don’t see 
how you can possibly agree with withholding it.”The state’s duty to the publicThe
 state has to carefully scrutinize any assertions by a private company 
that public records can’t be released, said Lyndon Vix, a Wichita media 
lawyer at law firm Fleeson Gooing.Vix recently helped the Wichita Eagle <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article249212020.html" target="_blank">get police body camera footage</a> that the city of Wichita refused to hand over.Even
 though Wichita’s violation of state law was so egregious that the court
 ultimately ordered the city to pay Vix’s fees, the court battle took 
three years.“We have case law in Kansas that specifically says that not all confidential information is a trade secret,” he said.“An
 audit takes information from sources and does an analysis and then 
reaches conclusions. And I have never heard of that type of process 
being classified as a trade secret.”Trade secrets must be secret,
 first of all. So blacked-out audit details that were easily available 
through other public documents don’t qualify. Trade secrets have to be 
economically valuable in and of themselves, too. They need to be 
something vitally important to hide from competitors.“It’s not like we’re dealing here with, you know, Pfizer’s formula 
for their vaccine or something,” he said. “These are (audit) numbers. So
 to convert them into ‘trade secrets’ … is more of a process than just 
saying, ‘This is confidential stuff.’”Kansas should have insisted
 to PillarRx that its redactions must fit the Kansas definition of trade
 secrets, Vix said, and should have demanded to know whether and why 
PillarRx felt they did.“It’s going to be very hard, I’m sure, for
 a lot of this information to fall within that definition,” he said, 
“because it is a fairly stringent definition.”Yet the more Kansas
 and other governments help businesses dodge open records requests, 
lawyers say, the worse off the public will be.“Government can’t 
just rubber-stamp a third-party’s request to label all its data a trade 
secret. That’s not how public records laws work,” said Gunita Singh, a 
lawyer for The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “If that were how it worked, transparency would fly out the window.”“The
 public would lose out on critical information about government 
spending,” she said, “and other insights into how government and 
business are prioritizing—or sabotaging—our well-being.”Celia 
Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health for the Kansas News Service. 
You can follow her on Twitter @celia_LJ or email her at celia@kcur.org.

Company asked Kan. to hide public information, so the state obliged

WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people who died in a fiery crash with a combine were Wichita residents. 

The Cowley County Sheriff's office said Thursday that dental records were used to identify 28-year-old Lucas Connor Walker and 33-year-old Sarah Laurella Deere. They died Nov. 7 after the car Walker was driving collided with and then went under a combine and burst into flames. 

The collision occurred on a road just north of Winfield. The driver of the combine was not injured.

COWLEY COUNTY—Two people died in accident just before 12:30p.m. Sunday in Cowley County.

A car was southbound on 75th Road and hit a combine just south of the 102nd Road intersection, according to Sheriff Dave Faletti.&nbsp; The car went underneath the combine and caught fire.

The driver and a passenger in the car, a man and woman died, according to Faletti. Authorities have not identified them. He did believe they are from Kansas. Officials in Sedgwick County will conduct an autopsy Monday. The driver of the combine was not hurt.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636390431252.png" alt="Dental records were used to identify the victims- Photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Dental records were used to identify the victims- Photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people who died in a fiery crash with a combine were Wichita residents. The Cowley County Sheriff's office said Thursday that dental records were used to identify 28-year-old Lucas Connor Walker and 33-year-old Sarah Laurella Deere. They died Nov. 7 after the car Walker was driving collided with and then went under a combine and burst into flames. The collision occurred on a road just north of Winfield. The driver of the combine was not injured.-----------COWLEY COUNTY—Two people died in accident just before 12:30p.m. Sunday in Cowley County.A car was southbound on 75th Road and hit a combine just south of the 102nd Road intersection, according to Sheriff Dave Faletti.&nbsp; The car went underneath the combine and caught fire.The driver and a passenger in the car, a man and woman died, according to Faletti. Authorities have not identified them. He did believe they are from Kansas. Officials in Sedgwick County will conduct an autopsy Monday. The driver of the combine was not hurt.

Sheriff IDs 2 Kansans who died in fiery crash with combine 

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the death sentence of condemned inmate Julius Jones on Thursday, just hours before his scheduled execution. Jones has proclaimed his innocence from death row for more than two decades in the 1999 killing of a suburban Oklahoma City businessman.

Stitt commuted the 41-year-old Jones’ death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He had been scheduled for execution at 4 p.m.

“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a news release.

A crowd that had gathered inside of the Oklahoma Capitol in support of Jones broke out into loud applause and cheers after the decision was announced shortly after noon Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, Jones’ attorneys had filed a last-minute emergency request seeking a temporary stop to his execution, saying Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedures post a “serious and substantial risk of severe suffering and pain to prisoners” and citing last month’s execution in which John Marion Grant convulsed and vomited as he was being put to death.

The state’s Pardon and Parole Board recommended in a 3-1 vote on Nov. 1 that Stitt commute Jones’ sentence to life in prison, with several members of the panel agreeing they had doubts about the evidence that led to Jones’ conviction.

Jones was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die for the 1999 shooting death of Edmond businessman Paul Howell during a carjacking.

Jones’ case drew widespread attention after it was profiled in “The Last Defense,” a three-episode documentary produced by actress Viola Davis that aired on ABC in 2018. Since then, reality television star Kim Kardashian West and athletes with Oklahoma ties, including NBA stars Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Trae Young, have urged Stitt to commute Jones’ death sentence and spare his life.

Jones alleges he was framed by the actual killer, a high school friend and former co-defendant who was a key witness against him. But Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater and the state’s former attorney general, Mike Hunter, have said the evidence against Jones is overwhelming.

Information from trial transcripts shows that witnesses identified Jones as the shooter and placed him with Howell’s stolen vehicle. Investigators also found the murder weapon wrapped in a bandanna with Jones’ DNA in an attic space above his bedroom. Jones claimed in his commutation filing that the gun and bandanna were planted there by the actual killer, who had been inside Jones’ house after the killing.

Howell’s sister, Megan Tobey, and two young daughters were in Howell’s SUV when the carjacking happened in his parents’ driveway in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. Tobey testified before the board that she distinctly remembers seeing Jones shoot her brother.

“He is the same person today as he was 22 years ago. He’s still getting into trouble. He’s still in a gang. He’s still lying. And he still feels no shame, guilt or remorse for his action,” Tobey said. “We need Julius Jones to be held responsible.”

Oklahoma ended a six-year moratorium on executions — brought on by concerns over its lethal injection methods — last month. Grant, 60, convulsed and vomited as he was being put to death Oct. 28.

Grant was the first person in Oklahoma to be executed since a series of flawed lethal injections in 2014 and 2015. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they had the wrong lethal drug. It was later revealed that the same wrong drug had been used to execute an inmate in January 2015.

The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and after the state’s prisons chief ordered executioners to stop.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637261067035.png" alt="Jones photo Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections" />
 <figcaption>Jones photo Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections</figcaption>
 </figure>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the death sentence of condemned inmate Julius Jones on Thursday, just hours before his scheduled execution. Jones has proclaimed his innocence from death row for more than two decades in the 1999 killing of a suburban Oklahoma City businessman.Stitt commuted the 41-year-old Jones’ death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He had been scheduled for execution at 4 p.m.“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a news release.A crowd that had gathered inside of the Oklahoma Capitol in support of Jones broke out into loud applause and cheers after the decision was announced shortly after noon Thursday.Earlier Thursday, Jones’ attorneys had filed a last-minute emergency request seeking a temporary stop to his execution, saying Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedures post a “serious and substantial risk of severe suffering and pain to prisoners” and citing last month’s execution in which John Marion Grant convulsed and vomited as he was being put to death.The state’s Pardon and Parole Board recommended in a 3-1 vote on Nov. 1 that Stitt commute Jones’ sentence to life in prison, with several members of the panel agreeing they had doubts about the evidence that led to Jones’ conviction.Jones was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die for the 1999 shooting death of Edmond businessman Paul Howell during a carjacking.Jones’ case drew widespread attention after it was profiled in “The Last Defense,” a three-episode documentary produced by actress Viola Davis that aired on ABC in 2018. Since then, reality television star Kim Kardashian West and athletes with Oklahoma ties, including NBA stars Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Trae Young, have urged Stitt to commute Jones’ death sentence and spare his life.Jones alleges he was framed by the actual killer, a high school friend and former co-defendant who was a key witness against him. But Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater and the state’s former attorney general, Mike Hunter, have said the evidence against Jones is overwhelming.Information from trial transcripts shows that witnesses identified Jones as the shooter and placed him with Howell’s stolen vehicle. Investigators also found the murder weapon wrapped in a bandanna with Jones’ DNA in an attic space above his bedroom. Jones claimed in his commutation filing that the gun and bandanna were planted there by the actual killer, who had been inside Jones’ house after the killing.Howell’s sister, Megan Tobey, and two young daughters were in Howell’s SUV when the carjacking happened in his parents’ driveway in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. Tobey testified before the board that she distinctly remembers seeing Jones shoot her brother.“He is the same person today as he was 22 years ago. He’s still getting into trouble. He’s still in a gang. He’s still lying. And he still feels no shame, guilt or remorse for his action,” Tobey said. “We need Julius Jones to be held responsible.”Oklahoma ended a six-year moratorium on executions — brought on by concerns over its lethal injection methods — last month. Grant, 60, convulsed and vomited as he was being put to death Oct. 28.Grant was the first person in Oklahoma to be executed since a series of flawed lethal injections in 2014 and 2015. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they had the wrong lethal drug. It was later revealed that the same wrong drug had been used to execute an inmate in January 2015.The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and after the state’s prisons chief ordered executioners to stop.

Execution day: Gov. commutes Oklahoma killer's death sentence

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina Post

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities arrested two suspects after&nbsp; traffic stop in Salina.

Just before 9p.m. Wednesday, an officer observed Ethan Cole, 30, of Salina, driving a Honda Civic in the 1200 block of University Place in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.

The officer knew that Cole had a suspended driver's license and made a traffic stop as the vehicle was pulling into a driveway in the 100 block of N. West Place.

Cole and a passenger, Christy Piercy, 29, of Salina, exited the Civic and began walking toward a residence when the officer made Cole get back in the vehicle. While talking with Cole, the officer smelled the odor of marijuana and made Cole get out of the vehicle, Forrester said. As Cole was exiting the vehicle, he allegedly pushed the officer with his left shoulder and elbow and attempted to shut the door. That interaction caused the officer's flashlight to break. The flashlight was valued at $15.

Another officer arrived at the scene and the two officers attempted to handcuff Cole, but a physical altercation ensued, Forrester said. During the altercation, one of the officers was struck in the face, causing his lip to bleed. Additionally, Piercy attempted to pull one of the officers away from Cole, Forrester said. Both Cole and Piercy were then arrested, he said.

Inside the vehicle, officers found a plastic bag with black tar heroin, several baggies of methamphetamine and baggies of marijuana, Forrester said.

Cole is being held o requested charges of Possession of an opiate with intent to distribute, Possession of heroin with intent to distribute, Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Possession of drug paraphernalia, Criminal damage to property, Interference with law enforcement officers, Two counts of battery of a law enforcement officer, Three counts of no drug tax stamp

Piercy is jailed on requested charges of Battery of a law enforcement officer and Interference with a law enforcement officer, according to Forrester.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637246163670.jpeg" alt="Ethan Cole -photo Saline County&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Ethan Cole -photo Saline County&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina PostSALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities arrested two suspects after&nbsp; traffic stop in Salina.Just before 9p.m. Wednesday, an officer observed Ethan Cole, 30, of Salina, driving a Honda Civic in the 1200 block of University Place in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.The officer knew that Cole had a suspended driver's license and made a traffic stop as the vehicle was pulling into a driveway in the 100 block of N. West Place.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637247801108.jpeg" alt="Christy Piercy-photo Saline Co." />
 <figcaption>Christy Piercy-photo Saline Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Cole and a passenger, Christy Piercy, 29, of Salina, exited the Civic and began walking toward a residence when the officer made Cole get back in the vehicle. While talking with Cole, the officer smelled the odor of marijuana and made Cole get out of the vehicle, Forrester said. As Cole was exiting the vehicle, he allegedly pushed the officer with his left shoulder and elbow and attempted to shut the door. That interaction caused the officer's flashlight to break. The flashlight was valued at $15.Another officer arrived at the scene and the two officers attempted to handcuff Cole, but a physical altercation ensued, Forrester said. During the altercation, one of the officers was struck in the face, causing his lip to bleed. Additionally, Piercy attempted to pull one of the officers away from Cole, Forrester said. Both Cole and Piercy were then arrested, he said.Inside the vehicle, officers found a plastic bag with black tar heroin, several baggies of methamphetamine and baggies of marijuana, Forrester said.Cole is being held o requested charges of Possession of an opiate with intent to distribute, Possession of heroin with intent to distribute, Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Possession of drug paraphernalia, Criminal damage to property, Interference with law enforcement officers, Two counts of battery of a law enforcement officer, Three counts of no drug tax stampPiercy is jailed on requested charges of Battery of a law enforcement officer and Interference with a law enforcement officer, according to Forrester.

Couple jailed after Kan. officer struck in the face during traffic stop

TOPEKA —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal pedestrian accident and on Thursday identified the victim as 42-year-old&nbsp;Gretchen Cabrera.

Just after&nbsp;5:30 p.m. Wednesday police responded to a vehicle vs pedestrian accident in the 900 block ofSW Macvicar Avenue, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.

Officers arrived on scene and found Cabrera in the roadway. First responders pronounced her deceased at the scene.

The Topeka Police Department Accident Reconstruction Team responded to the scene. Macvicar Avenue was closed between 9th and 10th street during the investigation.&nbsp; Police released no additional details Thursday morning.

TOPEKA—One person died in an accident just after&nbsp;5:30 p.m. Wednesday in a vehicle vs pedestrian accident in the 900 block ofSW Macvicar Avenue, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.

Officers arrived on scene and found one victim in the roadway who was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The Topeka Police Department Accident Reconstruction Team responded to the scene. Macvicar Avenue was closed between 9th and 10th street during the investigation.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637199000574.png" alt="Police on the scene of the fatal accident investigation photo courtesy WIBW TV" />
 <figcaption>Police on the scene of the fatal accident investigation photo courtesy WIBW TV</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal pedestrian accident and on Thursday identified the victim as 42-year-old&nbsp;Gretchen Cabrera.Just after&nbsp;5:30 p.m. Wednesday police responded to a vehicle vs pedestrian accident in the 900 block ofSW Macvicar Avenue, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.Officers arrived on scene and found Cabrera in the roadway. First responders pronounced her deceased at the scene.The Topeka Police Department Accident Reconstruction Team responded to the scene. Macvicar Avenue was closed between 9th and 10th street during the investigation.&nbsp; Police released no additional details Thursday morning.----------TOPEKA—One person died in an accident just after&nbsp;5:30 p.m. Wednesday in a vehicle vs pedestrian accident in the 900 block ofSW Macvicar Avenue, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.Officers arrived on scene and found one victim in the roadway who was pronounced deceased at the scene.The Topeka Police Department Accident Reconstruction Team responded to the scene. Macvicar Avenue was closed between 9th and 10th street during the investigation.Police released no additional details.

Police ID Kan. woman who died in vehicle, pedestrian accident

By COLE REIF <a href="https://greatbendpost.com">Great Bend Post</a>

GREAT BEND — The numbers are in and this year’s Great Bend airshow nearly broke even
financially. Great Bend Airfest was a three-day event in September that
featured multiple airshows from warbirds, flights for purchase and plenty more
entertainment. 

The cost to host the airshow was approximately $185,000. Great
Bend Municipal Airport Manager Martin Miller said the city received $133,000 in
sponsorships and made $47,000 at the gate in ticket purchases. "As far as I'm concerned, this was the best show we've had," said Miller. "I was very happy with it." 
Just over 9,000 spectators attended the 2021 airfest which featured its first
night show.

Miller said there were more rides offered this year and the pilots
stayed busy with customers wanting to go up in the air. The P-51 gunfighter was
selling rides for $1,999 per flight and the pilot made more than $16,000 in
rides over the three days. "We survey the performers after the 
show and after they got home," said Miller. "100% of them were very 
happy. These are national performers, and they like the small venue to 
see the audience and be around them." 
Great Bend Airfest started in 2012 and has continued every three years.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637251568694.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By COLE REIF <a href="https://greatbendpost.com">Great Bend Post</a>GREAT BEND — The numbers are in and this year’s Great Bend airshow nearly broke even
financially. Great Bend Airfest was a three-day event in September that
featured multiple airshows from warbirds, flights for purchase and plenty more
entertainment. The cost to host the airshow was approximately $185,000. Great
Bend Municipal Airport Manager Martin Miller said the city received $133,000 in
sponsorships and made $47,000 at the gate in ticket purchases. "As far as I'm concerned, this was the best show we've had," said Miller. "I was very happy with it." 
Just over 9,000 spectators attended the 2021 airfest which featured its first
night show. Miller said there were more rides offered this year and the pilots
stayed busy with customers wanting to go up in the air. The P-51 gunfighter was
selling rides for $1,999 per flight and the pilot made more than $16,000 in
rides over the three days. "We survey the performers after the 
show and after they got home," said Miller. "100% of them were very 
happy. These are national performers, and they like the small venue to 
see the audience and be around them." 
Great Bend Airfest started in 2012 and has continued every three years.&nbsp;

Great Bend nearly broke even on this year’s airfest

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressed to address gaping inequality in global&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine">COVID-19 vaccines</a>, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic.

Under the new initiative, the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicalcountermeasures.gov/barda/influenza-and-emerging-infectious-diseases/coronavirus/pharmaceutical-manufacturing-in-america#mrna" target="_blank">soliciting pharmaceutical companies</a>&nbsp;with proven ability to make the more-effective&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/archive-fact-checking-9340521654">mRNA vaccines</a>&nbsp;to bid for U.S. investment in scaling up their manufacturing. Pfizer and Moderna produce the two U.S.-approved mRNA shots.

The White House hopes the move will build capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year.

The initiative comes as the Biden White House has faced growing pressure at home and abroad over inequity in the global vaccine supply — as the U.S. moves toward approving booster shots for all adults while vulnerable people in poorer nations wait for their first dose of protection.

According to an analysis by the ONE Campaign, an international aid and advocacy organization, only 4.7% of people living in low-income countries have received a first dose. Wealthy nations administered more than 173 million booster shots, while lower-income countries have administered about 32 million first shots.

The Biden administration believes increasing capacity of COVID-19 shots will help ease a global shortage of doses, particularly in lower- and middle-income nations, stopping preventable death and limiting the development of potentially new, more dangerous&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-ce1812e48165798df53c6b15ee66751b">variants of the virus</a>.

“The goal of this program is to expand existing capacity by an additional billion doses per year, with production starting by the second half of 2022,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said.

On Wednesday, Zients announced that the U.S. has now donated 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally — the most of any nation — with a goal of sharing more than 1.1 billion shots by the end of 2022.

There are no firm agreements yet with Moderna or Pfizer to take up the U.S. on the investment, but the Biden administration hopes that the enhanced manufacturing capacity, through support for the company’s facilities, equipment, staff or training, will by mid-2022 allow more COVID-19 doses to be shared overseas as well as help prepare for the next public health emergency.

The administration is prioritizing the mRNA vaccines, which have proven to be more effective against preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 than the Johnson &amp; Johnson viral vector vaccine, which uses a harmless virus that carries genetic material to stimulate the immune system. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made with a piece of genetic code called messenger RNA that tells the body to make harmless copies of the spike protein so it’s trained to recognize the virus.

Robbie Silverman, senior advocacy manager at Oxfam America, welcomed Biden’s plan to invest into vaccine manufacturing capacity but said it was nowhere near sufficient.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressed to address gaping inequality in global&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine">COVID-19 vaccines</a>, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic.Under the new initiative, the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicalcountermeasures.gov/barda/influenza-and-emerging-infectious-diseases/coronavirus/pharmaceutical-manufacturing-in-america#mrna" target="_blank">soliciting pharmaceutical companies</a>&nbsp;with proven ability to make the more-effective&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/archive-fact-checking-9340521654">mRNA vaccines</a>&nbsp;to bid for U.S. investment in scaling up their manufacturing. Pfizer and Moderna produce the two U.S.-approved mRNA shots.The White House hopes the move will build capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year.The initiative comes as the Biden White House has faced growing pressure at home and abroad over inequity in the global vaccine supply — as the U.S. moves toward approving booster shots for all adults while vulnerable people in poorer nations wait for their first dose of protection.According to an analysis by the ONE Campaign, an international aid and advocacy organization, only 4.7% of people living in low-income countries have received a first dose. Wealthy nations administered more than 173 million booster shots, while lower-income countries have administered about 32 million first shots.The Biden administration believes increasing capacity of COVID-19 shots will help ease a global shortage of doses, particularly in lower- and middle-income nations, stopping preventable death and limiting the development of potentially new, more dangerous&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-ce1812e48165798df53c6b15ee66751b">variants of the virus</a>.“The goal of this program is to expand existing capacity by an additional billion doses per year, with production starting by the second half of 2022,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said.On Wednesday, Zients announced that the U.S. has now donated 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally — the most of any nation — with a goal of sharing more than 1.1 billion shots by the end of 2022.There are no firm agreements yet with Moderna or Pfizer to take up the U.S. on the investment, but the Biden administration hopes that the enhanced manufacturing capacity, through support for the company’s facilities, equipment, staff or training, will by mid-2022 allow more COVID-19 doses to be shared overseas as well as help prepare for the next public health emergency.The administration is prioritizing the mRNA vaccines, which have proven to be more effective against preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 than the Johnson &amp; Johnson viral vector vaccine, which uses a harmless virus that carries genetic material to stimulate the immune system. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made with a piece of genetic code called messenger RNA that tells the body to make harmless copies of the spike protein so it’s trained to recognize the virus.Robbie Silverman, senior advocacy manager at Oxfam America, welcomed Biden’s plan to invest into vaccine manufacturing capacity but said it was nowhere near sufficient.

US to spend billions to boost global COVID vaccine capacity

SEDGWICK COUNTY—One person was injured in an accident just after noon Wednesday on the Kansas Turnpike.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2019 Toyota SUV driven by Nicky Ray Thomas, 74, Canadian, Texas, was stopped on lane 3 of the plaza 53 toll booth.

The driver opened the door and fell out of the vehicle as he leaned out to pay the toll.&nbsp; The SUV continued, traveled over the driver's legs and struck the KTAG arm and a section of the concrete barrier.

The unoccupied SUV then crossed oncoming traffic lanes, traveled down the embankment and came to rest off the road.

The KHP reported Thomas had minor injuries. They did not report where or if he was transported for treatment. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637247985557.png" alt="Photo KanDrive" />
 <figcaption>Photo KanDrive</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—One person was injured in an accident just after noon Wednesday on the Kansas Turnpike.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2019 Toyota SUV driven by Nicky Ray Thomas, 74, Canadian, Texas, was stopped on lane 3 of the plaza 53 toll booth.The driver opened the door and fell out of the vehicle as he leaned out to pay the toll.&nbsp; The SUV continued, traveled over the driver's legs and struck the KTAG arm and a section of the concrete barrier.The unoccupied SUV then crossed oncoming traffic lanes, traveled down the embankment and came to rest off the road.The KHP reported Thomas had minor injuries. They did not report where or if he was transported for treatment. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.&nbsp;

Man's SUV runs over his legs while paying toll on Kansas Turnpike

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Officers responding to reports of a shooting in northeast Kansas City, Kansas, found one person critically wounded and later found another person dead from gunshot wounds, police there said.

The shooting happened around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, and officers called to the scene found a wounded man outside of a home. He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

Officers later found a second victim already dead inside a vehicle about a mile away from the shooting scene. Police have not released the identity of the person killed, and no arrests were immediately announced.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Officers responding to reports of a shooting in northeast Kansas City, Kansas, found one person critically wounded and later found another person dead from gunshot wounds, police there said.The shooting happened around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, and officers called to the scene found a wounded man outside of a home. He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.Officers later found a second victim already dead inside a vehicle about a mile away from the shooting scene. Police have not released the identity of the person killed, and no arrests were immediately announced.

Police: 1 killed, another wounded outside Kansas home

DETROIT (AP) — President Joe Biden punched the accelerator on a battery-powered Hummer on Wednesday, causing the wheels to squeal and the truck to jet forward as he tried in his own way to drive the country toward an electric vehicle future.

<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?516164-1/president-biden-infrastructure-spending-gm-factory-michigan">Click here to watch the </a>President's comments from Detroit

The engine was quiet as the president pulled up to a waiting delegation of reporters and officials.

“Anyone wanna jump in the back?” Biden asked.

The president had just toured a General Motors plant in Detroit to showcase how his newly signed $1 trillion infrastructure law could transform the auto industry.

He is highlighting billions of dollars in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">his giant bipartisan infrastructure deal</a>&nbsp;to pay for the installation of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-u-s-news-technology-detroit-electric-vehicles-0dbe44f4626fcfd6b3ccee274980188e">electric vehicle chargers</a>&nbsp;across the country, an investment he says will go a long way to curbing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-business-scotland-pollution-04a455d42fb66b61330b47b308e80498">planet-warming carbon emissions</a>&nbsp;while creating good-paying jobs. It’s also an attempt to leapfrog China in the plug-in EV market. Currently, the U.S. market share of plug-in electric vehicle sales is one-third the size of the Chinese EV market.

The president noted that the U.S. was not yet leading with electric vehicles, something he believes his infrastructure package can change with plans to build 500,000 charging stations. The Hummer he drove has a starting price of $108,700, as the electric market seems designed so far to serve luxury buyers instead of a mass audience.

“Up until now, China has been leading in this race — that’s about to change,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that the jobs of the future end up here in Michigan, not halfway around the world.”

Two top White House advisers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2021/11/17/opinion-bidens-infrastructure-plan-u-s-can-compete-globally/8642680002/" target="_blank">writing in the Detroit Free Press</a>, said the legislation will help America regain its global competitiveness, which has waned, they contend, “after decades of delay and decay.”

“Nobody knows this better than Detroit, which has been at the heart of American industrial strategy in the past and now can again, which is why President Biden is coming today,” wrote Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in an opinion column published Wednesday.

Republicans, even some of those who voted in favor of the infrastructure package, are criticizing Biden for being preoccupied with electric vehicle technology at a time when Americans are contending with a spike in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-new-jersey-0667348f8ee7f018a92448a79e66fae3">gasoline and natural gas prices</a>.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took the Senate floor Tuesday to make the case that “the Biden administration doesn’t have any strategic plan to snap its fingers and turn our massive country into some green utopia overnight.”

“They just want to throw boatloads of government money at things like solar panels and electric vehicles and hope it all works out,” said McConnell, one of 19 GOP senators who voted in favor of the infrastructure bill. He added, “American families are staring down the barrel of skyrocketing heating bills, and the Democrats’ response is to go to war against affordable American energy.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has stressed that the administration is looking at “every tool in our arsenal” to combat high gasoline prices, saying that Biden and his economic team are “quite focused” on the issue.

Biden has asked the Federal Trade Commission to monitor gasoline prices and address any illegal conduct being observed and is engaging with countries and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-economy-prices-opec-54c606517408481b9f99895b168a07cb">entities abroad like OPEC</a>&nbsp;on increasing supply.

Biden went a step further Wednesday, sending a letter asking the FTC chair to consider investigating “whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump.” The letter noted an “unexplained” gap in the price of unfinished gasoline and prices for consumers at the pump.

The GM plant Biden visited was slated to be closed in 2018 as the automaker tried to shed excess factory capacity to build sedans as buyers shifted toward SUVs and trucks. But the plant, which built cars with internal combustion engines since it opened in 1985, was rescued a year later and designated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-detroit-92ba4b007c3483594d1f43b5b47882aa">Factory Zero</a>&nbsp;to build zero-emissions electric vehicles.

Currently, the 4.1 million-square-foot plant, which straddles the border between Detroit and the enclave of Hamtramck, is making pre-production versions of the electric GMC Hummer pickup truck.

Next year it will start making a Hummer electric SUV. The plant will start cranking out the Origin, an electric vehicle for GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary, in 2023, and an electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup at an unspecified date.

The plant won’t see much direct impact from the infrastructure spending, but it will benefit from $7.5 billion designated to help build an electric vehicle charging network.

Biden wanted $15 billion to build 500,000 chargers and hasn’t given a number for how many could be constructed for half that amount.

It’s likely $7.5 billion won’t be enough. The International Council on Clean Transportation says the U.S. will need 2.4 million charging stations by 2030 if 36% of new vehicle sales are electric. Currently there are about 45,500 charging stations nationwide with about 112,000 plugs.

Biden is hoping to do even more to promote electric vehicles, including a provision for a $7,500 tax credit for consumers who buy electric vehicles through 2026 that’s been floated as part of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-democrats-budget-framework-60a1bc276d0ab8eb3e0347fc54ee8c2c">his proposed $1.85 trillion social services and climate bill</a>.

The following year, only purchases of electric vehicles made in the U.S. would qualify for the credit. The base credit would go up by $4,500 if the vehicle is made at a U.S. plant that operates under a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement. Only auto plants owned by GM, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV qualify.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1637241658810.png" alt="President Biden took an electric vehicle for a quick test drive at the General Motors factory in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday- White House photo" />
 <figcaption>President Biden took an electric vehicle for a quick test drive at the General Motors factory in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday- White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>DETROIT (AP) — President Joe Biden punched the accelerator on a battery-powered Hummer on Wednesday, causing the wheels to squeal and the truck to jet forward as he tried in his own way to drive the country toward an electric vehicle future.<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?516164-1/president-biden-infrastructure-spending-gm-factory-michigan">Click here to watch the </a>President's comments from DetroitThe engine was quiet as the president pulled up to a waiting delegation of reporters and officials.“Anyone wanna jump in the back?” Biden asked.The president had just toured a General Motors plant in Detroit to showcase how his newly signed $1 trillion infrastructure law could transform the auto industry.He is highlighting billions of dollars in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">his giant bipartisan infrastructure deal</a>&nbsp;to pay for the installation of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-u-s-news-technology-detroit-electric-vehicles-0dbe44f4626fcfd6b3ccee274980188e">electric vehicle chargers</a>&nbsp;across the country, an investment he says will go a long way to curbing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-business-scotland-pollution-04a455d42fb66b61330b47b308e80498">planet-warming carbon emissions</a>&nbsp;while creating good-paying jobs. It’s also an attempt to leapfrog China in the plug-in EV market. Currently, the U.S. market share of plug-in electric vehicle sales is one-third the size of the Chinese EV market.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Biden has asked the FTC to examine why prices at the pump aren’t going down, despite declining oil and gas prices. “I do not accept hard-working Americans paying more for gas because of anti-competitive or otherwise potentially illegal conduct.” — <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> <a href="https://t.co/JBaSYg9WmI">pic.twitter.com/JBaSYg9WmI</a>&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1461006225861132296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The president noted that the U.S. was not yet leading with electric vehicles, something he believes his infrastructure package can change with plans to build 500,000 charging stations. The Hummer he drove has a starting price of $108,700, as the electric market seems designed so far to serve luxury buyers instead of a mass audience.“Up until now, China has been leading in this race — that’s about to change,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that the jobs of the future end up here in Michigan, not halfway around the world.”Two top White House advisers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2021/11/17/opinion-bidens-infrastructure-plan-u-s-can-compete-globally/8642680002/" target="_blank">writing in the Detroit Free Press</a>, said the legislation will help America regain its global competitiveness, which has waned, they contend, “after decades of delay and decay.”“Nobody knows this better than Detroit, which has been at the heart of American industrial strategy in the past and now can again, which is why President Biden is coming today,” wrote Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in an opinion column published Wednesday.Republicans, even some of those who voted in favor of the infrastructure package, are criticizing Biden for being preoccupied with electric vehicle technology at a time when Americans are contending with a spike in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-new-jersey-0667348f8ee7f018a92448a79e66fae3">gasoline and natural gas prices</a>.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took the Senate floor Tuesday to make the case that “the Biden administration doesn’t have any strategic plan to snap its fingers and turn our massive country into some green utopia overnight.”“They just want to throw boatloads of government money at things like solar panels and electric vehicles and hope it all works out,” said McConnell, one of 19 GOP senators who voted in favor of the infrastructure bill. He added, “American families are staring down the barrel of skyrocketing heating bills, and the Democrats’ response is to go to war against affordable American energy.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki has stressed that the administration is looking at “every tool in our arsenal” to combat high gasoline prices, saying that Biden and his economic team are “quite focused” on the issue.Biden has asked the Federal Trade Commission to monitor gasoline prices and address any illegal conduct being observed and is engaging with countries and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-economy-prices-opec-54c606517408481b9f99895b168a07cb">entities abroad like OPEC</a>&nbsp;on increasing supply.Biden went a step further Wednesday, sending a letter asking the FTC chair to consider investigating “whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump.” The letter noted an “unexplained” gap in the price of unfinished gasoline and prices for consumers at the pump.The GM plant Biden visited was slated to be closed in 2018 as the automaker tried to shed excess factory capacity to build sedans as buyers shifted toward SUVs and trucks. But the plant, which built cars with internal combustion engines since it opened in 1985, was rescued a year later and designated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-detroit-92ba4b007c3483594d1f43b5b47882aa">Factory Zero</a>&nbsp;to build zero-emissions electric vehicles.Currently, the 4.1 million-square-foot plant, which straddles the border between Detroit and the enclave of Hamtramck, is making pre-production versions of the electric GMC Hummer pickup truck.Next year it will start making a Hummer electric SUV. The plant will start cranking out the Origin, an electric vehicle for GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary, in 2023, and an electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup at an unspecified date.The plant won’t see much direct impact from the infrastructure spending, but it will benefit from $7.5 billion designated to help build an electric vehicle charging network.Biden wanted $15 billion to build 500,000 chargers and hasn’t given a number for how many could be constructed for half that amount.It’s likely $7.5 billion won’t be enough. The International Council on Clean Transportation says the U.S. will need 2.4 million charging stations by 2030 if 36% of new vehicle sales are electric. Currently there are about 45,500 charging stations nationwide with about 112,000 plugs.Biden is hoping to do even more to promote electric vehicles, including a provision for a $7,500 tax credit for consumers who buy electric vehicles through 2026 that’s been floated as part of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-democrats-budget-framework-60a1bc276d0ab8eb3e0347fc54ee8c2c">his proposed $1.85 trillion social services and climate bill</a>.The following year, only purchases of electric vehicles made in the U.S. would qualify for the credit. The base credit would go up by $4,500 if the vehicle is made at a U.S. plant that operates under a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement. Only auto plants owned by GM, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV qualify.

🎥 President promotes electric vehicles as gas prices spike

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California's highest court rejected on Wednesday a challenge by Monsanto Co.'s to $86.2 million in damages to a couple who developed cancer after spraying the company's Roundup weed-killer in their yards for three decades.

The state Supreme Court's denial of review upholds an appeals court's ruling in favor of Alva and Alberta Pilliod.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco found in a 2-1 ruling in August that Monsanto was at fault for knowingly marketing a product whose active ingredient, glyphosate, could be dangerous.

Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, said it disagreed with the high court's decision.

"We continue to stand strongly behind the safety of Roundup, a position supported by assessments of expert regulators worldwide as well as the overwhelming weight of four decades of extensive science,” the company said in a statement.

Brent Wisner, a lawyer for the Pilliods,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/86-2-million-Roundup-damage-award-to-Livermore-16630082.php">told the San Francisco Chronicle</a>&nbsp;the verdict “was based on solid science and unanimous law” and the company should halt its “frivolous appeals.”

Bayer announced over the summer that it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use in U.S. stores, starting in 2023.

Bayer said it would replace the herbicide’s main ingredient, glyphosate, with an unspecified active ingredient, subject to federal and state approval, while continuing to sell Roundup with glyphosate for farm use.

Bayer has agreed to pay $10 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits that have already been filed in state and federal courts and has sought, unsuccessfully so far, to resolve future lawsuits with a settlement fund of up to $2 billion, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1593022262288.png" alt="Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer announced over the summer that it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use in U.S. stores, starting in 2023." />
 <figcaption>Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer announced over the summer that it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use in U.S. stores, starting in 2023.</figcaption>
 </figure>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California's highest court rejected on Wednesday a challenge by Monsanto Co.'s to $86.2 million in damages to a couple who developed cancer after spraying the company's Roundup weed-killer in their yards for three decades.The state Supreme Court's denial of review upholds an appeals court's ruling in favor of Alva and Alberta Pilliod.The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco found in a 2-1 ruling in August that Monsanto was at fault for knowingly marketing a product whose active ingredient, glyphosate, could be dangerous.Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, said it disagreed with the high court's decision."We continue to stand strongly behind the safety of Roundup, a position supported by assessments of expert regulators worldwide as well as the overwhelming weight of four decades of extensive science,” the company said in a statement.Brent Wisner, a lawyer for the Pilliods,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/86-2-million-Roundup-damage-award-to-Livermore-16630082.php">told the San Francisco Chronicle</a>&nbsp;the verdict “was based on solid science and unanimous law” and the company should halt its “frivolous appeals.”Bayer announced over the summer that it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use in U.S. stores, starting in 2023.Bayer said it would replace the herbicide’s main ingredient, glyphosate, with an unspecified active ingredient, subject to federal and state approval, while continuing to sell Roundup with glyphosate for farm use.Bayer has agreed to pay $10 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits that have already been filed in state and federal courts and has sought, unsuccessfully so far, to resolve future lawsuits with a settlement fund of up to $2 billion, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Couple's $86M award in Monsanto pesticide case stands

he
 Federal Trade Commission today voted to expand its criminal referral 
program as part of its work to stop and deter corporate crime. While the
 FTC’s authority is limited to civil enforcement, the policy statement 
adopted at today’s open meeting will enhance the agency’s efforts to 
combat the criminal misconduct the FTC uncovers in consumer protection 
and antitrust investigations. The new measures outlined in the policy 
statement will ensure that cases are promptly referred to local, state, 
federal and international criminal law enforcement agencies so that 
corporations and their executives are held accountable for criminal 
behavior. 

“At a time when major corporate lawbreakers can treat 
civil fines as a cost of doing business, government authorities must 
ensure that criminal conduct is followed by criminal punishment,” said 
Chair Lina M. Khan. “Today the FTC is redoubling its commitment and 
improving its processes to expeditiously refer criminal behavior to 
criminal authorities, promoting accountability and deterrence.” 

Consumer
 protection misconduct and antitrust violations such as price-fixing, 
bid-rigging, market allocation deals and other related conduct cause 
great harm to the American public, leading to significant financial 
losses and warranting both civil and criminal enforcement efforts. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_statements/1598439/commission_statement_regarding_criminal_referrals_and_partnership_process_updated_p094207.pdf">new policy statement</a> outlines
 several ways the agency plans to improve its cooperation with its 
criminal law enforcement partners to stop and deter consumer protection 
and competition criminal violations, including by:

This approach builds on the 
agency’s ongoing partnerships with criminal authorities to rein in 
misconduct. Notable consumer protection cases that the FTC worked on 
with criminal enforcers at the Department of Justice (DOJ) include the 
money transfer service Western Union. The FTC and the Department of 
Justice jointly brought civil and criminal charges against Western Union
 alleging consumer fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, and failure to
 have an effective anti-money laundering program. In 2017, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/01/western-union-admits-anti-money-laundering-violations-settles">Western Union entered a global settlement</a>
 that included a $586 million judgment and a permanent injunction. DOJ 
has also charged a top former Uber executive with obstruction of justice
 for allegedly hiding a data breach from FTC staff during an FTC 
investigation into Uber’s data security practices.&nbsp;

Notable recent cases on the competition side in which the FTC collaborated with federal law enforcement include <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/131-0036/reckitt-benckiser-group-plc">Reckitt Benckiser Group</a> and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/1310036/indivior-inc">Indivior.</a>
 The FTC charged that the companies used a deceptive scheme to thwart 
lower-priced generic competition to their branded opioid addiction 
treatment, Suboxone. The DOJ’s criminal case, involving closely related 
conduct, ultimately resulted in a $1.4 billion settlement with Reckitt, 
guilty pleas from two former Indivior executives and an Indivior 
subsidiary, and a civil settlement with Indivior. In another case, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/191-0061/bristol-myers-squibb-company-celgene-corporation-matter">Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)</a>,
 DOJ filed criminal charges against BMS and one of its executives, 
charging them with perjury for making false statements to the FTC in an 
investigation the agency was conducting.

The Commission voted 4-0&nbsp;to approve the statement during a&nbsp;virtual open Commission meeting.

<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2021/11/statement-chair-lina-m-khan-issuance-commission-statement-regarding">Chair Khan</a> as well as <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2021/11/statement-commissioner-rebecca-kelly-slaughter-regarding-criminal-referral">Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter</a> and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2021/11/oral-remarks-commissioner-christine-s-wilson-regarding-criminal-referrals">Christine S. Wilson</a>&nbsp;issued separate statements.

The Federal Trade Commission works to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-competition">promote competition</a>, and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection">protect and educate consumers</a>. You can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/">learn more about consumer topics</a>&nbsp;and file a <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/complaint">consumer complaint online</a> or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). For the latest news and resources, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/social-media">follow the FTC on social media</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/stay-connected">subscribe to press releases</a> and read our <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs">blogs</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1619632629588.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>FTChe
 Federal Trade Commission today voted to expand its criminal referral 
program as part of its work to stop and deter corporate crime. While the
 FTC’s authority is limited to civil enforcement, the policy statement 
adopted at today’s open meeting will enhance the agency’s efforts to 
combat the criminal misconduct the FTC uncovers in consumer protection 
and antitrust investigations. The new measures outlined in the policy 
statement will ensure that cases are promptly referred to local, state, 
federal and international criminal law enforcement agencies so that 
corporations and their executives are held accountable for criminal 
behavior. “At a time when major corporate lawbreakers can treat 
civil fines as a cost of doing business, government authorities must 
ensure that criminal conduct is followed by criminal punishment,” said 
Chair Lina M. Khan. “Today the FTC is redoubling its commitment and 
improving its processes to expeditiously refer criminal behavior to 
criminal authorities, promoting accountability and deterrence.” Consumer
 protection misconduct and antitrust violations such as price-fixing, 
bid-rigging, market allocation deals and other related conduct cause 
great harm to the American public, leading to significant financial 
losses and warranting both civil and criminal enforcement efforts. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_statements/1598439/commission_statement_regarding_criminal_referrals_and_partnership_process_updated_p094207.pdf">new policy statement</a> outlines
 several ways the agency plans to improve its cooperation with its 
criminal law enforcement partners to stop and deter consumer protection 
and competition criminal violations, including by:<ul>
 <li>publicly 
reporting on the FTC’s criminal referral efforts on a regular basis to 
strengthen public understanding of this important work and highlight 
criminal prosecutions;</li><li>developing guidelines to ensure criminal 
law violations — particularly by major corporations and their executives
 — are identified by staff and promptly referred to criminal law 
enforcement agencies; and</li><li>convening regular meetings with 
federal, state, and local criminal authorities to facilitate the 
coordination that will enable the appropriate law enforcement partners 
to take up cases referred by the FTC and develop best practices to 
enhance this coordination.</li>
 </ul>This approach builds on the 
agency’s ongoing partnerships with criminal authorities to rein in 
misconduct. Notable consumer protection cases that the FTC worked on 
with criminal enforcers at the Department of Justice (DOJ) include the 
money transfer service Western Union. The FTC and the Department of 
Justice jointly brought civil and criminal charges against Western Union
 alleging consumer fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, and failure to
 have an effective anti-money laundering program. In 2017, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/01/western-union-admits-anti-money-laundering-violations-settles">Western Union entered a global settlement</a>
 that included a $586 million judgment and a permanent injunction. DOJ 
has also charged a top former Uber executive with obstruction of justice
 for allegedly hiding a data breach from FTC staff during an FTC 
investigation into Uber’s data security practices.&nbsp; Notable recent cases on the competition side in which the FTC collaborated with federal law enforcement include <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/131-0036/reckitt-benckiser-group-plc">Reckitt Benckiser Group</a> and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/1310036/indivior-inc">Indivior.</a>
 The FTC charged that the companies used a deceptive scheme to thwart 
lower-priced generic competition to their branded opioid addiction 
treatment, Suboxone. The DOJ’s criminal case, involving closely related 
conduct, ultimately resulted in a $1.4 billion settlement with Reckitt, 
guilty pleas from two former Indivior executives and an Indivior 
subsidiary, and a civil settlement with Indivior. In another case, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/191-0061/bristol-myers-squibb-company-celgene-corporation-matter">Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)</a>,
 DOJ filed criminal charges against BMS and one of its executives, 
charging them with perjury for making false statements to the FTC in an 
investigation the agency was conducting. The Commission voted 4-0&nbsp;to approve the statement during a&nbsp;virtual open Commission meeting.<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2021/11/statement-chair-lina-m-khan-issuance-commission-statement-regarding">Chair Khan</a> as well as <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2021/11/statement-commissioner-rebecca-kelly-slaughter-regarding-criminal-referral">Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter</a> and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/2021/11/oral-remarks-commissioner-christine-s-wilson-regarding-criminal-referrals">Christine S. Wilson</a>&nbsp;issued separate statements.The Federal Trade Commission works to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-competition">promote competition</a>, and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection">protect and educate consumers</a>. You can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/">learn more about consumer topics</a>&nbsp;and file a <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/complaint">consumer complaint online</a> or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). For the latest news and resources, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/social-media">follow the FTC on social media</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/stay-connected">subscribe to press releases</a> and read our <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs">blogs</a>.

Feds take aim at corporate, executive crimes in US

FINNEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating another reported threat of violence against schools in Garden City.

Just after 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to the YMCA Dome at&nbsp; 1706 E. Mary Street in Garden City regarding students talking about a possible threat toward Kenneth Henderson Middle School the following day, according to a media release.

Officers learned that a physical altercation occurred between two students earlier in the school day. Following the incident, rumors circulated that one of the students involved in the altercation was going to harm other students. After further investigation, it was revealed there was no threat to the school or students. This is the third reported school threat over the past week.

On Monday, police investigated a reported threat at 1901 Wilcox Street Edith Scheuerman Elementary School in Garden City.&nbsp;Officers were told that a social media account, created by an unknown user, contained suspected threats against students from the school. Through the course of the investigation, it was learned that there was no threat to the students or the school, and the incident occurred off school property.

On November 11, police were informed of a suspected threat at Horace Good Middle School, 1412 north Main in Garden City, according to a media release.&nbsp;Through the course of the investigation, it was learned there was no threat to the school or students. The school took disciplinary action against the 13-year-old student.

FINNEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating another reported threat of violence against schools in Garden City.Just after 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to the YMCA Dome at&nbsp; 1706 E. Mary Street in Garden City regarding students talking about a possible threat toward Kenneth Henderson Middle School the following day, according to a media release.Officers learned that a physical altercation occurred between two students earlier in the school day. Following the incident, rumors circulated that one of the students involved in the altercation was going to harm other students. After further investigation, it was revealed there was no threat to the school or students. This is the third reported school threat over the past week.On Monday, police investigated a reported threat at 1901 Wilcox Street Edith Scheuerman Elementary School in Garden City.&nbsp;Officers were told that a social media account, created by an unknown user, contained suspected threats against students from the school. Through the course of the investigation, it was learned that there was no threat to the students or the school, and the incident occurred off school property.On November 11, police were informed of a suspected threat at Horace Good Middle School, 1412 north Main in Garden City, according to a media release.&nbsp;Through the course of the investigation, it was learned there was no threat to the school or students. The school took disciplinary action against the 13-year-old student.

State