Analysis finds increasing availability of blocking resources for consumers

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission today released the second of two annual reports on robocall blocking: “Call Blocking Tools Available to Consumers.”  Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel welcomed the progress made on the availability of these consumer resources while also calling on industry to redouble efforts to ensure effective services are available at no cost to consumers.

“I’m encouraged to see the increasing availability of robocall blocking tools for consumers,” said Rosenworcel.  “Stopping robocall scammers from bombarding consumers and businesses takes a whole-of-network approach.  Call blocking consumer tools are a critical part of this approach – along with STIR/SHAKEN implementation, network-level blocking, and ensuring gateway providers don’t let illegal robocall campaigns onto our networks.  That said, we have to put consumers first, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to get these junk calls off our networks.  I will continue to push industry under the law to make these tools free and easily available to the public.”

The report, produced by the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, found that many voice service providers and third-party analytics companies today offer improved call blocking and labeling services to their customers and use new data to continually update their analyses to detect robocalls.  Providers report that they are offering consumers more blocking tools and blocking more calls than ever before, but that not all consumers have opted into many of the call blocking technologies offered by providers.  Voice service providers and analytics companies report few false positives (calls incorrectly identified as being spam or fraudulent, and then being blocked in error).  FCC consumer information on call blocking tools and resources is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/call-blocking.

The report was also clear that, despite some progress in the availability of blocking tools, robocalls remain a substantial consumer problem.  The report notes that “the Commission has taken a multi-pronged approach that includes aggressive enforcement, consumer education, and creating an effective regulatory environment that enables and encourages phone companies and others to proactively stop unwanted robocalls from ever reaching customers.  Going forward, the Commission will build on this foundation and continue to use every tool at its disposal to combat and prevent illegal robocalls.”

Voice service providers also report progress in deploying STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication on the IP portions of their networks.  Among other benefits, the STIR/SHAKEN standards being implemented across networks plays a vital role in informing call blocking tools and improving their accuracy.  Widespread STIR/SHAKEN implementation is required by the FCC by July 1, 2021.  More information on caller ID authentication is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication. 

The report, “Call Blocking Tools Available to Consumers: Second Report on Call Blocking,” is available <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/second-call-blocking-report-blocking-available-consumers">HERE</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/3/1584977952684.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Analysis finds increasing availability of blocking resources for consumers</h2> FCCWASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission today released the second of two annual reports on robocall blocking: “Call Blocking Tools Available to Consumers.” Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel welcomed the progress made on the availability of these consumer resources while also calling on industry to redouble efforts to ensure effective services are available at no cost to consumers.“I’m encouraged to see the increasing availability of robocall blocking tools for consumers,” said Rosenworcel. “Stopping robocall scammers from bombarding consumers and businesses takes a whole-of-network approach. Call blocking consumer tools are a critical part of this approach – along with STIR/SHAKEN implementation, network-level blocking, and ensuring gateway providers don’t let illegal robocall campaigns onto our networks. That said, we have to put consumers first, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to get these junk calls off our networks. I will continue to push industry under the law to make these tools free and easily available to the public.”The report, produced by the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, found that many voice service providers and third-party analytics companies today offer improved call blocking and labeling services to their customers and use new data to continually update their analyses to detect robocalls. Providers report that they are offering consumers more blocking tools and blocking more calls than ever before, but that not all consumers have opted into many of the call blocking technologies offered by providers. Voice service providers and analytics companies report few false positives (calls incorrectly identified as being spam or fraudulent, and then being blocked in error). FCC consumer information on call blocking tools and resources is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/call-blocking.The report was also clear that, despite some progress in the availability of blocking tools, robocalls remain a substantial consumer problem. The report notes that “the Commission has taken a multi-pronged approach that includes aggressive enforcement, consumer education, and creating an effective regulatory environment that enables and encourages phone companies and others to proactively stop unwanted robocalls from ever reaching customers. Going forward, the Commission will build on this foundation and continue to use every tool at its disposal to combat and prevent illegal robocalls.”Voice service providers also report progress in deploying STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication on the IP portions of their networks. Among other benefits, the STIR/SHAKEN standards being implemented across networks plays a vital role in informing call blocking tools and improving their accuracy. Widespread STIR/SHAKEN implementation is required by the FCC by July 1, 2021. More information on caller ID authentication is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication. The report, “Call Blocking Tools Available to Consumers: Second Report on Call Blocking,” is available <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/second-call-blocking-report-blocking-available-consumers">HERE</a>.

FCC releases second annual report on robocall blocking tools

By SARAH KLEINER and TAYLOR JOHNSTON of the Center for Public Integrity and MICHAEL CASEY of The Associated Press

Before the pandemic hit, Jacqueline Bartley, a mother of two girls and a boy, had a comfortable life. Then the 41-year-old lost her job at American Airlines, quickly spent her savings and found herself months behind on the $1,350-a-month home she rented. Until then she had never missed a rent payment.

Bartley, of Durham, North Carolina, turned to the state's rental assistance program and was relieved in January to be awarded $8,100. But she says her landlord refused the money after she rejected his request to amend her two-year lease to a shorter period. The program required landlords to honor leases, among other conditions, to get the money.

She turned to a second program launched this month by the state and again was approved. Last week, she learned her landlord had accepted nearly $20,000 for back rent and three months of future payments, and agreed to dismiss his eviction lawsuit.

The news means she won't be forced from her home after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/eviction-ban-extended-biden-coronavirus-9e7c4dc97c49cbb42a1ecb55b06e3b4c">federal eviction moratorium</a>&nbsp;ends July 31. But the waiting and uncertainty meant months of stress.

“It’s been crazy especially when you have children in school,” Bartley said. “It’s pretty much been going by a whim. OK, am I going to have somewhere to go each month?”

Millions have found themselves in situations similar to Bartley's,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-ms-state-wire-ap-top-news-ok-state-wire-ga-state-wire-833d91877e2f0fa913c5258978a9e83c">facing possible eviction</a>&nbsp;despite bold promises by governors to help renters after Congress passed the sweeping CARES Act in March 2020.

Nationwide,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-new-york-andrew-cuomo-coronavirus-pandemic-us-news-bfbf0744510d50a1e173247ee5f9ba1b">state leaders set aside</a>&nbsp;at least $2.6 billion from the CARES Act’s Coronavirus Relief Fund to prop up struggling renters, but a year later more than $425 million of that — or 16% — hadn't made it into the pockets of tenants or their landlords, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and The Associated Press.

“It’s mind-boggling,” said Anne Kat Alexander, a project manager with Princeton University’s Eviction Lab. “I knew there were problems but that’s a huge amount of money not to be disbursed in a timely manner.”

Like many state leaders, North Carolina's Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper pledged to roll out an ambitious program last year offering tens of millions of dollars in federal aid that would help cover unpaid rent.

But it took months to get up and running and stopped accepting applications just weeks after it finally opened in October due to overwhelming demand. The 20 nonprofits designated to distribute the money often lacked the capacity to get it out quickly.

Then, faced with the Republican-controlled Legislature's takeover of CARES Act spending in January, the state had less money to award applicants. It eventually spent $133 million of a promised $167 million — far short of what some housing advocates say is needed.

“We knew the money would not be enough. There were too many people who needed rental assistance,” said Pamela Atwood, director of housing policy at the North Carolina Housing Coalition. “There was a lot of poor execution in rolling out that first program and it caused a lot of inefficiency.”

Tens of billions of dollars more in rental assistance have been delivered to states from the federal government in 2021, but that has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/eviction-moratorium-rental-assistance-coronavirus-bd0947fe93b72c88305629a6608602ee">slow to be disbursed</a>, too.

With the first round of funds in 2020, bureaucracy was not the only problem. Politics also played a role, with a handful of states, many led by Republicans and with a history of weak tenant protections, offering little to no assistance.

Then, there was the often onerous application process and an end-of-the-year federal deadline for spending the money, extended so late that some states had already pulled funding to use on other expenses. Some landlords refused to participate over restrictions that meant they could not evict a tenant who fell behind again after the assistance. Tenants sometimes short-changed themselves by filing incomplete applications.

Congress' sweeping 2020 CARES Act sent billions of dollars to states and some local governments. But it didn’t mandate that any money be spent on rental assistance, leaving it to states to create their own programs and set the rules.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s database of rent relief programs in 2020, Georgia, West Virginia and Tennessee, all run by Republican governors, chose not to set up statewide rent-relief programs that year, despite having higher than average historic eviction rates. South Carolina allocated less than $14 per renter-occupied household.

Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs tried to set up a rental assistance program with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the fall of 2020, but when it became clear that a separate, larger amount of money would be coming from the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2021, the program stalled, said Susan Reif, housing unit director for Georgia Legal Services Program and director of the Eviction Prevention Project.

Still, many states did scramble into action, creating massive programs to keep families in their homes — the safest place to shelter during the coronavirus pandemic. By the summer of 2020, state and local government officials launched about 530 rental assistance programs, setting aside at least $4.3 billion from various sources.

Several states were praised for programs that ran well. Illinois, Indiana, Oregon and Washington state were among more than a dozen that reported distributing every dollar of the rental assistance set aside from the Coronavirus Relief Fund by March 31.

The Center for Public Integrity surveyed about 70 state and local agencies that the National Low Income Housing Coalition identified as having set aside Coronavirus Relief Fund money for rent help in 2020. About $1 out of every $6 of that $2.6 billion wound up getting spent on other COVID-19-related expenses, such as protective equipment, police officers' salaries and small-business loans.

Some states also spent millions of dollars setting up their programs, including North Carolina, which allocated around $20 million on administrative costs, and Hawaii, which spent $8 million. In the case of Hawaii, much of that went to help nonprofits scale up and rent space. The state also spent money on a software system in an effort to prevent fraud.

Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said last year’s funding challenges led Congress to earmark nearly $47 billion specifically for emergency rental assistance in December and March.

“The previous funds, the vast majority of them, were very flexible and had a broad set of allowable uses," of which eviction prevention was just one, said Yentel, whose group has been tracking rental assistance programs.

“Some states and cities carved out some of those funds for eviction prevention and to create emergency rental assistance programs," she said. "But many didn’t or many didn’t set aside enough.”

Among the biggest challenges was states' failure to spend what they had allocated.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency received $150 million to help renters, but returned about $96 million to the state treasury, which plugged holes in the state’s public safety budget. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation earmarked $250 million for rental assistance but returned about $99 million to the state treasury to be spent on other programs. Eighty-three percent of Montana’s $50 million set aside for rental assistance went back to the state. New York ended up spending only $47.5 million of the $100 million promised for rental assistance.

New York's 2020 rent-relief program “was set up to fail,” said Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at Legal Aid Society in New York. “It was a program that really punished people. There was a real intention to make sure people didn’t do better in being hurt by COVID, so if they were struggling before, they should be struggling after.”

Tenants had to prove they were “rent-burdened” before the pandemic to qualify for rent relief in 2020, though eventually that stipulation was removed.

Hawaii spent around $71 million of the $100 million initially promised, though an analysis by the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice found the state spent the most per capita, at $44.50. Still, the Legislature set a late December deadline for the spending, which meant the remaining $29 million had to be redirected to the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund.

“It would have been better to base the ending of the program on the CARES Act spending deadline with whatever extensions were enacted, because ultimately the deadline was extended,” said Gavin Thornton, the center’s executive director. “If that had been done, the program would have continued, and landlords and tenants would have been able to continue to access those funds, which were certainly needed.”

Smaller cities and counties were affected too. In Marion County, Florida, none of the $1 million set aside for renters from the Coronavirus Relief Fund ever made it to people who needed it because the United Way of Marion County, which administered the funds, didn’t have enough workers to process applications, said Scot Quintel, the organization’s president. The United Way was able to distribute rent assistance from another source, but the Coronavirus Relief Fund money went back to the city for other COVID-19-related expenses.

“It’s just horrifying how ill-prepared some states were,” said Alexander, of the Eviction Lab. “Some places made it work and some places didn’t, which demonstrates that the places that didn’t probably could have.”

In Athens, Georgia, Dylyn Price said she got about $5,800 in rental assistance but that may not prevent her from losing her home. After her pay and hours at a fast food restaurant were cut, eviction notices started arriving in early 2020. They haven’t let up.

Price received rental assistance from the Ark, a nonprofit administering funds from the CARES Act on behalf of the city of Athens, but the assistance ended earlier this year. Price’s landlord has refused to renew her lease, which is expected to expire Wednesday.

She fears having to live, once again, in a homeless shelter with her 14-year-old son.

“It’s a very nauseating and uncomfortable situation to be in,” Price said.

Casey reported from Boston, Kleiner reported from Washington, D.C., and Johnston reported from Brook Park, Ohio. Casey can be reached at mcasey@ap.org. Follow him on Twitter at @mcasey1. Kleiner can be reached at skleiner@publicintegrity.org. Follow her on Twitter at @bysarahkleiner.

By SARAH KLEINER and TAYLOR JOHNSTON of the Center for Public Integrity and MICHAEL CASEY of The Associated PressBefore the pandemic hit, Jacqueline Bartley, a mother of two girls and a boy, had a comfortable life. Then the 41-year-old lost her job at American Airlines, quickly spent her savings and found herself months behind on the $1,350-a-month home she rented. Until then she had never missed a rent payment.Bartley, of Durham, North Carolina, turned to the state's rental assistance program and was relieved in January to be awarded $8,100. But she says her landlord refused the money after she rejected his request to amend her two-year lease to a shorter period. The program required landlords to honor leases, among other conditions, to get the money.She turned to a second program launched this month by the state and again was approved. Last week, she learned her landlord had accepted nearly $20,000 for back rent and three months of future payments, and agreed to dismiss his eviction lawsuit.The news means she won't be forced from her home after the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/eviction-ban-extended-biden-coronavirus-9e7c4dc97c49cbb42a1ecb55b06e3b4c">federal eviction moratorium</a>&nbsp;ends July 31. But the waiting and uncertainty meant months of stress.“It’s been crazy especially when you have children in school,” Bartley said. “It’s pretty much been going by a whim. OK, am I going to have somewhere to go each month?”Millions have found themselves in situations similar to Bartley's,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-ms-state-wire-ap-top-news-ok-state-wire-ga-state-wire-833d91877e2f0fa913c5258978a9e83c">facing possible eviction</a>&nbsp;despite bold promises by governors to help renters after Congress passed the sweeping CARES Act in March 2020.Nationwide,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-new-york-andrew-cuomo-coronavirus-pandemic-us-news-bfbf0744510d50a1e173247ee5f9ba1b">state leaders set aside</a>&nbsp;at least $2.6 billion from the CARES Act’s Coronavirus Relief Fund to prop up struggling renters, but a year later more than $425 million of that — or 16% — hadn't made it into the pockets of tenants or their landlords, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and The Associated Press.“It’s mind-boggling,” said Anne Kat Alexander, a project manager with Princeton University’s Eviction Lab. “I knew there were problems but that’s a huge amount of money not to be disbursed in a timely manner.”Like many state leaders, North Carolina's Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper pledged to roll out an ambitious program last year offering tens of millions of dollars in federal aid that would help cover unpaid rent.But it took months to get up and running and stopped accepting applications just weeks after it finally opened in October due to overwhelming demand. The 20 nonprofits designated to distribute the money often lacked the capacity to get it out quickly.Then, faced with the Republican-controlled Legislature's takeover of CARES Act spending in January, the state had less money to award applicants. It eventually spent $133 million of a promised $167 million — far short of what some housing advocates say is needed.“We knew the money would not be enough. There were too many people who needed rental assistance,” said Pamela Atwood, director of housing policy at the North Carolina Housing Coalition. “There was a lot of poor execution in rolling out that first program and it caused a lot of inefficiency.”Tens of billions of dollars more in rental assistance have been delivered to states from the federal government in 2021, but that has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/eviction-moratorium-rental-assistance-coronavirus-bd0947fe93b72c88305629a6608602ee">slow to be disbursed</a>, too.With the first round of funds in 2020, bureaucracy was not the only problem. Politics also played a role, with a handful of states, many led by Republicans and with a history of weak tenant protections, offering little to no assistance.Then, there was the often onerous application process and an end-of-the-year federal deadline for spending the money, extended so late that some states had already pulled funding to use on other expenses. Some landlords refused to participate over restrictions that meant they could not evict a tenant who fell behind again after the assistance. Tenants sometimes short-changed themselves by filing incomplete applications.Congress' sweeping 2020 CARES Act sent billions of dollars to states and some local governments. But it didn’t mandate that any money be spent on rental assistance, leaving it to states to create their own programs and set the rules.According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s database of rent relief programs in 2020, Georgia, West Virginia and Tennessee, all run by Republican governors, chose not to set up statewide rent-relief programs that year, despite having higher than average historic eviction rates. South Carolina allocated less than $14 per renter-occupied household.Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs tried to set up a rental assistance program with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the fall of 2020, but when it became clear that a separate, larger amount of money would be coming from the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2021, the program stalled, said Susan Reif, housing unit director for Georgia Legal Services Program and director of the Eviction Prevention Project.Still, many states did scramble into action, creating massive programs to keep families in their homes — the safest place to shelter during the coronavirus pandemic. By the summer of 2020, state and local government officials launched about 530 rental assistance programs, setting aside at least $4.3 billion from various sources.Several states were praised for programs that ran well. Illinois, Indiana, Oregon and Washington state were among more than a dozen that reported distributing every dollar of the rental assistance set aside from the Coronavirus Relief Fund by March 31.The Center for Public Integrity surveyed about 70 state and local agencies that the National Low Income Housing Coalition identified as having set aside Coronavirus Relief Fund money for rent help in 2020. About $1 out of every $6 of that $2.6 billion wound up getting spent on other COVID-19-related expenses, such as protective equipment, police officers' salaries and small-business loans.Some states also spent millions of dollars setting up their programs, including North Carolina, which allocated around $20 million on administrative costs, and Hawaii, which spent $8 million. In the case of Hawaii, much of that went to help nonprofits scale up and rent space. The state also spent money on a software system in an effort to prevent fraud.Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said last year’s funding challenges led Congress to earmark nearly $47 billion specifically for emergency rental assistance in December and March.“The previous funds, the vast majority of them, were very flexible and had a broad set of allowable uses," of which eviction prevention was just one, said Yentel, whose group has been tracking rental assistance programs.“Some states and cities carved out some of those funds for eviction prevention and to create emergency rental assistance programs," she said. "But many didn’t or many didn’t set aside enough.”Among the biggest challenges was states' failure to spend what they had allocated.The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency received $150 million to help renters, but returned about $96 million to the state treasury, which plugged holes in the state’s public safety budget. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation earmarked $250 million for rental assistance but returned about $99 million to the state treasury to be spent on other programs. Eighty-three percent of Montana’s $50 million set aside for rental assistance went back to the state. New York ended up spending only $47.5 million of the $100 million promised for rental assistance.New York's 2020 rent-relief program “was set up to fail,” said Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at Legal Aid Society in New York. “It was a program that really punished people. There was a real intention to make sure people didn’t do better in being hurt by COVID, so if they were struggling before, they should be struggling after.”Tenants had to prove they were “rent-burdened” before the pandemic to qualify for rent relief in 2020, though eventually that stipulation was removed.Hawaii spent around $71 million of the $100 million initially promised, though an analysis by the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice found the state spent the most per capita, at $44.50. Still, the Legislature set a late December deadline for the spending, which meant the remaining $29 million had to be redirected to the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund.“It would have been better to base the ending of the program on the CARES Act spending deadline with whatever extensions were enacted, because ultimately the deadline was extended,” said Gavin Thornton, the center’s executive director. “If that had been done, the program would have continued, and landlords and tenants would have been able to continue to access those funds, which were certainly needed.”Smaller cities and counties were affected too. In Marion County, Florida, none of the $1 million set aside for renters from the Coronavirus Relief Fund ever made it to people who needed it because the United Way of Marion County, which administered the funds, didn’t have enough workers to process applications, said Scot Quintel, the organization’s president. The United Way was able to distribute rent assistance from another source, but the Coronavirus Relief Fund money went back to the city for other COVID-19-related expenses.“It’s just horrifying how ill-prepared some states were,” said Alexander, of the Eviction Lab. “Some places made it work and some places didn’t, which demonstrates that the places that didn’t probably could have.”In Athens, Georgia, Dylyn Price said she got about $5,800 in rental assistance but that may not prevent her from losing her home. After her pay and hours at a fast food restaurant were cut, eviction notices started arriving in early 2020. They haven’t let up.Price received rental assistance from the Ark, a nonprofit administering funds from the CARES Act on behalf of the city of Athens, but the assistance ended earlier this year. Price’s landlord has refused to renew her lease, which is expected to expire Wednesday.She fears having to live, once again, in a homeless shelter with her 14-year-old son.“It’s a very nauseating and uncomfortable situation to be in,” Price said.___Casey reported from Boston, Kleiner reported from Washington, D.C., and Johnston reported from Brook Park, Ohio. Casey can be reached at mcasey@ap.org. Follow him on Twitter at @mcasey1. Kleiner can be reached at skleiner@publicintegrity.org. Follow her on Twitter at @bysarahkleiner.——

Rental assistance fell victim to politics, bureaucracy

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ top court on Friday upheld the first-degree murder convictions of man sentenced to 150 years in prison over a triple homicide in Kansas City, Kansas, duplex.

<a href="https://www.kscourts.org/KSCourts/media/KsCourts/Opinions/122895.pdf?ext=.pdf" target="_blank">The state Supreme Court unanimously rejected</a>&nbsp;arguments from an attorney for MonDale Le’on Douglas that the judge gave flawed instructions to the jury in his trial and that a new trial was warranted because a prosecutor appeared during closing arguments to express a personal opinion that Douglas was the killer.

Douglas, now 31, was convicted of the fatal&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d54a9c869fbf4c35a0b8db6cae9e1843">April 2018 shootings</a>&nbsp;of 51-year-old Edward Rawlins, 46-year-old David Rawlins and 40-year-old Addrin Coats.

A woman called police the next day after seeing one of the victim’s bodies lying near the front door of the duplex. Arriving officers found the other victims inside.

Each of Douglas’ convictions in Wyandotte County District Court brought a sentence of a least 50 years in prison. District Judge Wesley Griffin ordered them to be served one after the other.

The Supreme Court said the trial’s outcome would not have changed because of the prosecutor’s remark or because Griffin didn’t tell jurors they could convict Douglas of a lesser crime.

Justice Dan Biles wrote for the court that “overwhelming evidence” supported the verdict.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/7/1625249268102.png" alt="MonDale Le’on Douglas photo KDOC" />
 <figcaption>MonDale Le’on Douglas photo KDOC</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ top court on Friday upheld the first-degree murder convictions of man sentenced to 150 years in prison over a triple homicide in Kansas City, Kansas, duplex.<a href="https://www.kscourts.org/KSCourts/media/KsCourts/Opinions/122895.pdf?ext=.pdf" target="_blank">The state Supreme Court unanimously rejected</a>&nbsp;arguments from an attorney for MonDale Le’on Douglas that the judge gave flawed instructions to the jury in his trial and that a new trial was warranted because a prosecutor appeared during closing arguments to express a personal opinion that Douglas was the killer.Douglas, now 31, was convicted of the fatal&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/d54a9c869fbf4c35a0b8db6cae9e1843">April 2018 shootings</a>&nbsp;of 51-year-old Edward Rawlins, 46-year-old David Rawlins and 40-year-old Addrin Coats.A woman called police the next day after seeing one of the victim’s bodies lying near the front door of the duplex. Arriving officers found the other victims inside.Each of Douglas’ convictions in Wyandotte County District Court brought a sentence of a least 50 years in prison. District Judge Wesley Griffin ordered them to be served one after the other.The Supreme Court said the trial’s outcome would not have changed because of the prosecutor’s remark or because Griffin didn’t tell jurors they could convict Douglas of a lesser crime.Justice Dan Biles wrote for the court that “overwhelming evidence” supported the verdict.

Top Kansas court upholds convictions in triple murder

SHAWNEE	COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities have identified body was&nbsp; located	in	the Shunganunga	Creek	just	to	the	east	of	NE	Kansas 4	Highway Friday afternoon as 25-year-old Lawshawn D.L. Mady of Topeka.

Just after 3:15	p.m. Friday,	the	Shawnee	County	Sheriff’s	Office	was	notified	of the body, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.&nbsp; The sheriff's office&nbsp; Crime	 Scene	 Unit	 and detectives were on	scene.

SHAWNEE	COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating after&nbsp;a	body was&nbsp; located	in	the Shunganunga	Creek	just	to	the	east	of	NE	Kansas 4	Highway Friday afternoon.

Just after 3:15	p.m.,	the	Shawnee	County	Sheriff’s	Office	was	notified	of the body, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.&nbsp; The sheriff's office&nbsp; Crime	 Scene	 Unit	 and detectives were on	scene.

Authorities released few details including gender of the&nbsp; deceased	 individual.&nbsp; Check the Post for additional details as it becomes available.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/7/1625270365762.png" alt="Shunganunga Creek google image" />
 <figcaption>Shunganunga Creek google image</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE	COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities have identified body was&nbsp; located	in	the Shunganunga	Creek	just	to	the	east	of	NE	Kansas 4	Highway Friday afternoon as 25-year-old Lawshawn D.L. Mady of Topeka.Just after 3:15	p.m. Friday,	the	Shawnee	County	Sheriff’s	Office	was	notified	of the body, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.&nbsp; The sheriff's office&nbsp; Crime	 Scene	 Unit	 and detectives were on	scene.No foul play is suspected at this time.-----------SHAWNEE	COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating after&nbsp;a	body was&nbsp; located	in	the Shunganunga	Creek	just	to	the	east	of	NE	Kansas 4	Highway Friday afternoon.Just after 3:15	p.m.,	the	Shawnee	County	Sheriff’s	Office	was	notified	of the body, according to Deputy Abigail Christian.&nbsp; The sheriff's office&nbsp; Crime	 Scene	 Unit	 and detectives were on	scene.Authorities released few details including gender of the&nbsp; deceased	 individual.&nbsp; Check the Post for additional details as it becomes available.

Sheriff IDs body found in Kansas creek

By
NICK GOSNELL <a href="https://hutchpost.com/">Hutch Post</a>


HUTCHINSON — The Miss Kansas pageant is coming up this week in Pratt.

"We have preliminary competitions Thursday, July 8, and Friday, July 9," said Stephanie Harris with the Miss Kansas organization. "The finals are on July 10. We don't have as many tickets as we normally do this year, so I encourage people to get on to misskansas.org. The link to our ticket purchasing site is right there. Also, we are going to live webcast preliminaries and finals, so if you can't make the drive to Pratt and want to watch it in the luxury of our own home, you may."

The qualifiers for the scholarship program come from all over the state.

"This is a unique year," Harris said. "These candidates have now held their titles for now two years due to the pandemic. In the fall of 2019, throughout that year and the winter of 2020, we had what we call local competitions and those are held in various communities across the state at different times of the year. The candidates go and they compete at those locals and when they win a local title, they advance on to the state competition in Pratt."

Contestants must be a high school graduate by the time of the state competition and between the ages of 17 and 25.

"The winner of the Miss Kansas competition will go on to compete for the title of Miss America," Harris said. "That will be held in December of this year in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun."

Miss America 1997, Tara Dawn Holland was the last Miss Kansas to go on to win the Miss America title.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1625063757400.png" alt="Photo courtesy Miss Kansas Organization" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy Miss Kansas Organization</figcaption>
 </figure>
By
NICK GOSNELL <a href="https://hutchpost.com/">Hutch Post</a>
HUTCHINSON — The Miss Kansas pageant is coming up this week in Pratt."We have preliminary competitions Thursday, July 8, and Friday, July 9," said Stephanie Harris with the Miss Kansas organization. "The finals are on July 10. We don't have as many tickets as we normally do this year, so I encourage people to get on to misskansas.org. The link to our ticket purchasing site is right there. Also, we are going to live webcast preliminaries and finals, so if you can't make the drive to Pratt and want to watch it in the luxury of our own home, you may."The qualifiers for the scholarship program come from all over the state."This is a unique year," Harris said. "These candidates have now held their titles for now two years due to the pandemic. In the fall of 2019, throughout that year and the winter of 2020, we had what we call local competitions and those are held in various communities across the state at different times of the year. The candidates go and they compete at those locals and when they win a local title, they advance on to the state competition in Pratt."Contestants must be a high school graduate by the time of the state competition and between the ages of 17 and 25."The winner of the Miss Kansas competition will go on to compete for the title of Miss America," Harris said. "That will be held in December of this year in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun."Miss America 1997, Tara Dawn Holland was the last Miss Kansas to go on to win the Miss America title.

Miss Kansas pageant ready for 'unique year' 

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting that injured a woman in Topeka.

Just before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a call for service in the 1100 Block of SW Clay Street, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith. The caller reported&nbsp; a woman was suffering from a gunshot wound. 

On arrival, officers located the victim, who was transported to a local hospital. As a result, Topeka Police Department Detectives are reviewing all investigative leads. Police have not released the victim's name.

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting that injured a woman in Topeka.Just before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a call for service in the 1100 Block of SW Clay Street, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith. The caller reported&nbsp; a woman was suffering from a gunshot wound. On arrival, officers located the victim, who was transported to a local hospital. As a result, Topeka Police Department Detectives are reviewing all investigative leads. Police have not released the victim's name.

Police: Kansas woman injured in shooting

By BRIAN GRIMMETT <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/hotter-nights-climate-change-will-mean-worse-harvests-kansas-farmers">Kansas News Service</a>

MANHATTAN, Kansas — Climate change conjures notions 
of rising water levels along the coasts, severe drought in the 
Intermountain West and the record temperatures baking the Pacific 
Northwest this week.

New
 research from Kansas State University shows that rising overnight 
temperatures hurt wheat harvests. Rice, corn and barley all face similar
 problems.

While researchers also look into finding more 
resilient varieties of those crops to account for the change, the 
immediate climate trends could have a dramatic impact.

In
 trials of some of the most popular varieties of wheat grown in Kansas, 
K-State and North Carolina State University researchers found that an 
increase of only 1 degree Celsius (about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in 
overnight temperatures caused a 5% reduction in wheat yield.

“Most
 people think plants aren’t dynamic, but they are,” said Colleen 
Doherty, an associate professor of biochemistry at North Carolina State 
University. “Plants are constantly regulating their biological processes
 — gearing up for photosynthesis just before dawn, winding that down in 
the late afternoon, determining precisely how and where to burn their 
energy resources.”

She said their experiments showed that hotter 
overnight temperatures confuse the plant’s internal clock. With a 
screwed up clock, the plant has a harder time turning the sugars 
produced during photosynthesis in the day into plant growth.

“The
 amount of wheat that you’ll get will go down, but also the quality of 
wheat will go down,” said K-State crop physiologist Krishna Jagadish. 
“So your bread probably may start to taste a little bit different in the
 future.”

Average summer nighttime 
temperatures have been increasing across the state. Since 1970, the 
average low in the Wichita area has increased 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. In
 Topeka, it increased 3.5 degrees.

At the same time, the average summer high temperature only increased 1.4 degrees in Wichita and 2.8 degrees in Topeka.

Jagadish
 said it’s harder for people to notice these changes when the average 
temperature is increasing more during the night than it is in the day. 
But researchers, like him, are beginning to look more into the issue and
 to provide information that reveals the true extent of the dangers.

Rising
 overnight temperatures aren’t the only negative impacts from climate 
change that Kansans can expect to experience. Assistant state 
climatologist Mary Knapp says we’re already seeing changes in 
precipitation patterns.

“We’re getting more rain, but it may not be distributed as evenly as needed,” she said.

That
 means some places are going from very dry to getting the expected 
monthly rain total in a single day. That won’t show up in long-term 
averages, but has real consequences.

“You’ve got more of it running off,” she said. “You’ve got more erosion issues and you’ve got more flooding issues.”

Knapp
 also said Kansas winters are getting milder. She said the state will 
still experience its typical spring freezes in March and April, but 
milder Decembers and Januarys will confuse trees and plants, making them
 less resilient to those freezes.

It’s
 not all doom and gloom from the wheat research. There’s already 
evidence that some varieties of wheat are more resilient to temperature 
increases in both the day and the night. Jagadish said once those traits
 have been genetically identified, scientists can begin breeding new 
varieties that combine that trait with other proven varieties.

“It is going to take time,” he said. “But I think that’s the way to do it and we are making progress.”

The
 researchers suspect the sensitivity to rising nighttime temperatures 
can be found in all starchy grains. They’ve now turned their attention 
to corn, to prove their hypothesis.

“(Our study) is not just an interesting scientific question,” Doherty said. “It’s a global food security issue.”

Brian Grimmett reports on the environment, energy and natural resources for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service.

Image by&nbsp;<a href="https://pixabay.com/users/konevi-6622462/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3491611">Konevi</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3491611">Pixabay</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1625070877955.jpeg" alt="Image courtesy Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRIAN GRIMMETT <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/hotter-nights-climate-change-will-mean-worse-harvests-kansas-farmers">Kansas News Service</a>MANHATTAN, Kansas — Climate change conjures notions 
of rising water levels along the coasts, severe drought in the 
Intermountain West and the record temperatures baking the Pacific 
Northwest this week.Add to that toasty Kansas evenings.New
 research from Kansas State University shows that rising overnight 
temperatures hurt wheat harvests. Rice, corn and barley all face similar
 problems.While researchers also look into finding more 
resilient varieties of those crops to account for the change, the 
immediate climate trends could have a dramatic impact.<h2>Wheat impact</h2>In
 trials of some of the most popular varieties of wheat grown in Kansas, 
K-State and North Carolina State University researchers found that an 
increase of only 1 degree Celsius (about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in 
overnight temperatures caused a 5% reduction in wheat yield.“Most
 people think plants aren’t dynamic, but they are,” said Colleen 
Doherty, an associate professor of biochemistry at North Carolina State 
University. “Plants are constantly regulating their biological processes
 — gearing up for photosynthesis just before dawn, winding that down in 
the late afternoon, determining precisely how and where to burn their 
energy resources.”She said their experiments showed that hotter 
overnight temperatures confuse the plant’s internal clock. With a 
screwed up clock, the plant has a harder time turning the sugars 
produced during photosynthesis in the day into plant growth.“The
 amount of wheat that you’ll get will go down, but also the quality of 
wheat will go down,” said K-State crop physiologist Krishna Jagadish. 
“So your bread probably may start to taste a little bit different in the
 future.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1625070998470.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Summer nights</h2>Average summer nighttime 
temperatures have been increasing across the state. Since 1970, the 
average low in the Wichita area has increased 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. In
 Topeka, it increased 3.5 degrees.At the same time, the average summer high temperature only increased 1.4 degrees in Wichita and 2.8 degrees in Topeka.Jagadish
 said it’s harder for people to notice these changes when the average 
temperature is increasing more during the night than it is in the day. 
But researchers, like him, are beginning to look more into the issue and
 to provide information that reveals the true extent of the dangers.<h2>Climate impacts</h2>Rising
 overnight temperatures aren’t the only negative impacts from climate 
change that Kansans can expect to experience. Assistant state 
climatologist Mary Knapp says we’re already seeing changes in 
precipitation patterns.“We’re getting more rain, but it may not be distributed as evenly as needed,” she said.That
 means some places are going from very dry to getting the expected 
monthly rain total in a single day. That won’t show up in long-term 
averages, but has real consequences.“You’ve got more of it running off,” she said. “You’ve got more erosion issues and you’ve got more flooding issues.”Knapp
 also said Kansas winters are getting milder. She said the state will 
still experience its typical spring freezes in March and April, but 
milder Decembers and Januarys will confuse trees and plants, making them
 less resilient to those freezes.<h2>Climate Adaptation</h2>It’s
 not all doom and gloom from the wheat research. There’s already 
evidence that some varieties of wheat are more resilient to temperature 
increases in both the day and the night. Jagadish said once those traits
 have been genetically identified, scientists can begin breeding new 
varieties that combine that trait with other proven varieties.“It is going to take time,” he said. “But I think that’s the way to do it and we are making progress.”The
 researchers suspect the sensitivity to rising nighttime temperatures 
can be found in all starchy grains. They’ve now turned their attention 
to corn, to prove their hypothesis.“(Our study) is not just an interesting scientific question,” Doherty said. “It’s a global food security issue.”Brian Grimmett reports on the environment, energy and natural resources for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. Image by&nbsp;<a href="https://pixabay.com/users/konevi-6622462/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3491611">Konevi</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=3491611">Pixabay</a>

Hotter nights from climate change will mean worse harvests for farmers

CRAWFORD COUNTY—A Kansas man died in an accident just after 11p.m. Saturday in Crawford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Ford Expedition driven by Virgil L. McCullouch, 73, Frontenac, was southbound in the 800 block of N. Cayuga in Frontenac.

The SUV left the right side of the roadway, struck a set of mailboxes, a driveway and concrete storm ditch culvert.

McCullouch was transported Via Christi in Pittsburgh where he was pronounced dead. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

CRAWFORD COUNTY—A Kansas man died in an accident just after 11p.m. Saturday in Crawford County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Ford Expedition driven by Virgil L. McCullouch, 73, Frontenac, was southbound in the 800 block of N. Cayuga in Frontenac.The SUV left the right side of the roadway, struck a set of mailboxes, a driveway and concrete storm ditch culvert.McCullouch was transported Via Christi in Pittsburgh where he was pronounced dead. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Kansas man dies after violent SUV crash

SUMNER COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal pedestrian accident in Sumner County.

Just after 10:30 p.m. Saturday, a northbound vehicle struck a pedestrian who was in the right hand lane of the Kansas Turnpike in southern Sumner County.&nbsp;

Authorities released no additional details early Sunday.

SUMNER COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal pedestrian accident in Sumner County.Just after 10:30 p.m. Saturday, a northbound vehicle struck a pedestrian who was in the right hand lane of the Kansas Turnpike in southern Sumner County.&nbsp;Authorities released no additional details early Sunday.

KHP investigating fatal pedestrian accident

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man was killed and two other people were injured after a shooting in southeast Wichita. KWCH-TV reports that police responding to multiple calls of a shooting around 1:30 a.m. Sunday found a 49-year-old man dead. 

A 14-year-old boy and a 36-year-old man also had gunshot wounds. The boy and injured man were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released. Police say they believe there was an altercation that led up to the shooting. 

Police are investigating, but say they are not looking for additional suspects at this time.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/7/1625428665524.png" alt="Police are investigating but not looking for additional suspects-photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Police are investigating but not looking for additional suspects-photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man was killed and two other people were injured after a shooting in southeast Wichita. KWCH-TV reports that police responding to multiple calls of a shooting around 1:30 a.m. Sunday found a 49-year-old man dead. A 14-year-old boy and a 36-year-old man also had gunshot wounds. The boy and injured man were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released. Police say they believe there was an altercation that led up to the shooting. Police are investigating, but say they are not looking for additional suspects at this time.

49-year-old dies after Independence Day shooting in Kansas

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man accused of&nbsp; an alleged sexual assault made his first court appearance Wednesday.

Jeremy Brown, 31 of Valley Center, was charged with four counts of rape, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

Just before 4:30a.m. June 26, police responded to a report of rape at a home in the 1600 block of South St. Paul Street in Wichita, according to Officer Charley Davidson and contacted a 72-year-old woman identified as a victim.

Investigators learned the 72-year-old woman was with a 37-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man at a local bar where they met 31-year-old Jeremy Brown and then all four met at a home on St. Paul Street. At the residence, Brown is alleged to have sexually assaulted the 72-year-old.

Officers arrested&nbsp;<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=352939">Brown on a requested charge for rape</a>. He was booked into the Sedgwick County J<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=352939">ail on a $100,000 bond</a>&nbsp;and is no longer in custody. Booking details list him as 6-foot-4 inches tall and 400 pounds. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 8, according to the district attorney.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1625051561119.png" alt="Brown-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Brown-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man accused of&nbsp; an alleged sexual assault made his first court appearance Wednesday.Jeremy Brown, 31 of Valley Center, was charged with four counts of rape, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.Just before 4:30a.m. June 26, police responded to a report of rape at a home in the 1600 block of South St. Paul Street in Wichita, according to Officer Charley Davidson and contacted a 72-year-old woman identified as a victim.Investigators learned the 72-year-old woman was with a 37-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man at a local bar where they met 31-year-old Jeremy Brown and then all four met at a home on St. Paul Street. At the residence, Brown is alleged to have sexually assaulted the 72-year-old.Officers arrested&nbsp;<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=352939">Brown on a requested charge for rape</a>. He was booked into the Sedgwick County J<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=352939">ail on a $100,000 bond</a>&nbsp;and is no longer in custody. Booking details list him as 6-foot-4 inches tall and 400 pounds. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 8, according to the district attorney.

Kan. man charged with rape of 72-year-old woman

KANSAS CITY – Six Houston, Texas, residents have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a conspiracy to travel across the country breaking into bank ATMs and stealing the money inside, including at least one theft in Kansas City, according to the United States Attorney.

Deandre J. Gilliam, 19, Ladarious S. Thomas, 28, Jamarkus D. Bogany, 19, J’Korean K. Hadnott, 19, Ocatvious Q. Waiters, 20, and Clayton J. Brown, 21, were charged in a three-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on June 23, 2021. 

That indictment was unsealed and made public Friday upon the arrest and initial court appearances of Gilliam, Thomas, Bogany, Waiters, and Brown in U.S. District Court in Houston. Gilliam, Thomas, Bogany, Waiters, and Brown are being held in federal custody in the Southern District of Texas pending a detention hearing in that district tomorrow.

The federal indictment alleges the defendants, along with additional co-conspirators not identified or charged in the indictment, participated in a conspiracy from Nov. 10, 2019, to March 6, 2020, to travel in groups or teams from Texas to other states, including Missouri and Kansas, to steal from banks by forcing open ATMs and stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the cash boxes.

According to the indictment, conspirators would steal a large pick-up truck for the theft. They attached tow chains with hooks to the pick-up truck, then searched for a suitable ATM to burglarize. After conducting surveillance and with some conspirators serving as lookouts, the indictment says, conspirators used pry bars or tow chain hooks to forcibly pry open or pry apart the ATM’s protective metal encasement. After the ATM had been opened or disassembled, the conspirators would then remove the ATM canisters containing cash. They then abandoned the stolen truck and traveled back to Texas.

The indictment alleges that all six defendants left Houston on March 5, 2020, and traveled to the Kansas City metropolitan area in three separate vehicles. Conspirators allegedly stole a Ford F-250 pickup on March 6, 2020, that was parked on the street in Fairway, Kansas. At approximately 5:30 a.m. the same day, the indictment says, conspirators connected tow chains to the stolen Ford F-250 and to the door of an ATM at Chase Bank, 1614 E. 63rd&nbsp;Street in Kansas City, Mo. They used the force of acceleration from the truck to remove the exterior metal panel of the ATM, then removed canisters that contained a total of $150,220 from inside the damaged ATM. They abandoned the stolen truck in the parking lot of a nearby apartment building.

Later the same day, the indictment says, law enforcement officers in Montgomery County, Texas, spotted the three vehicles being driven by the defendants, who were traveling in tandem southbound on Interstate 45. Officers attempted to stop all three vehicles; Hadnott and Waiters pulled over to the shoulder, but the other vehicles attempted to flee from law enforcement. A Jeep Cherokee occupied by Brown and another, unnamed conspirator fled from officers at speeds between 80-115 miles per hour before it crashed and they were apprehended. A Chevrolet Impala occupied by Thomas, Gilliam, and Bogany fled from officers at speeds between 90-125 miles per hour before all three defendants fled from the vehicle on foot. Thomas, the driver, was taken into custody after a foot chase. With the assistance of air surveillance, Bogany and Gilliam were located and arrested. Gilliam was carrying a Spiderman backpack that contained approximately $72,385 (primarily in $20 bills). One of the Impala occupants dropped a duffle bag while running from the police. This bag was retrieved by an unknown female before police officers could recover it.

The federal indictment charges each of the defendants with one count of conspiracy, one count of bank theft, and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines.

KANSAS CITY – Six Houston, Texas, residents have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a conspiracy to travel across the country breaking into bank ATMs and stealing the money inside, including at least one theft in Kansas City, according to the United States Attorney.Deandre J. Gilliam, 19, Ladarious S. Thomas, 28, Jamarkus D. Bogany, 19, J’Korean K. Hadnott, 19, Ocatvious Q. Waiters, 20, and Clayton J. Brown, 21, were charged in a three-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on June 23, 2021. That indictment was unsealed and made public Friday upon the arrest and initial court appearances of Gilliam, Thomas, Bogany, Waiters, and Brown in U.S. District Court in Houston. Gilliam, Thomas, Bogany, Waiters, and Brown are being held in federal custody in the Southern District of Texas pending a detention hearing in that district tomorrow.The federal indictment alleges the defendants, along with additional co-conspirators not identified or charged in the indictment, participated in a conspiracy from Nov. 10, 2019, to March 6, 2020, to travel in groups or teams from Texas to other states, including Missouri and Kansas, to steal from banks by forcing open ATMs and stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the cash boxes.According to the indictment, conspirators would steal a large pick-up truck for the theft. They attached tow chains with hooks to the pick-up truck, then searched for a suitable ATM to burglarize. After conducting surveillance and with some conspirators serving as lookouts, the indictment says, conspirators used pry bars or tow chain hooks to forcibly pry open or pry apart the ATM’s protective metal encasement. After the ATM had been opened or disassembled, the conspirators would then remove the ATM canisters containing cash. They then abandoned the stolen truck and traveled back to Texas.The indictment alleges that all six defendants left Houston on March 5, 2020, and traveled to the Kansas City metropolitan area in three separate vehicles. Conspirators allegedly stole a Ford F-250 pickup on March 6, 2020, that was parked on the street in Fairway, Kansas. At approximately 5:30 a.m. the same day, the indictment says, conspirators connected tow chains to the stolen Ford F-250 and to the door of an ATM at Chase Bank, 1614 E. 63rd&nbsp;Street in Kansas City, Mo. They used the force of acceleration from the truck to remove the exterior metal panel of the ATM, then removed canisters that contained a total of $150,220 from inside the damaged ATM. They abandoned the stolen truck in the parking lot of a nearby apartment building.Later the same day, the indictment says, law enforcement officers in Montgomery County, Texas, spotted the three vehicles being driven by the defendants, who were traveling in tandem southbound on Interstate 45. Officers attempted to stop all three vehicles; Hadnott and Waiters pulled over to the shoulder, but the other vehicles attempted to flee from law enforcement. A Jeep Cherokee occupied by Brown and another, unnamed conspirator fled from officers at speeds between 80-115 miles per hour before it crashed and they were apprehended. A Chevrolet Impala occupied by Thomas, Gilliam, and Bogany fled from officers at speeds between 90-125 miles per hour before all three defendants fled from the vehicle on foot. Thomas, the driver, was taken into custody after a foot chase. With the assistance of air surveillance, Bogany and Gilliam were located and arrested. Gilliam was carrying a Spiderman backpack that contained approximately $72,385 (primarily in $20 bills). One of the Impala occupants dropped a duffle bag while running from the police. This bag was retrieved by an unknown female before police officers could recover it.The federal indictment charges each of the defendants with one count of conspiracy, one count of bank theft, and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines.

6 indicted for conspiracy to steal from Bank ATMs in Kan., nationwide

WASHINGTON (AP) —Businesses rushed Saturday to contain a ransomware attack that has paralyzed their computer networks, a situation complicated in the U.S. by offices lightly staffed at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

In Sweden, most of the grocery chain Coop’s 800 stores were unable to open because their cash registers weren’t working, according to SVT, the country’s public broadcaster. The Swedish State Railways and a major local pharmacy chain were also affected.

Cybersecurity experts say the REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack that targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers.

Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola said in a statement that the company believes it has identified the source of the vulnerability and will “release that patch as quickly as possible to get our customers back up and running.”

John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs said he was aware of a number of managed-services providers — companies that host IT infrastructure for multiple customers — being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers.

“It’s reasonable to think this could potentially be impacting thousands of small businesses,” said Hammond, basing his estimate on the service providers reaching out to his company for assistance and comments on Reddit showing how others are responding.

Voccola said fewer than 40 of Kaseya’s customers were known to be affected, but the ransomware could still be affecting hundreds more companies that rely on Kaseya’s clients that provide broader IT services.

Voccola said the problem is only affecting its “on-premise” customers, which means organizations running their own data centers. It’s not affecting its cloud-based services running software for customers, though Kaseya also shut down those servers as a precaution, he said.

The company added in a statement Saturday that “customers who experienced ransomware and receive a communication from the attackers should not click on any links -- they may be weaponized.”

Gartner analyst Katell Thielemann said it’s clear that Kaseya quickly sprang to action, but it’s less clear whether their affected clients had the same level of preparedness.

“They reacted with an abundance of caution,” she said. “But the reality of this event is it was architected for maximum impact, combining a supply chain attack with a ransomware attack.”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-hacking-technology-business-d83a29f1eb997f465d057af20d5435b9">Supply chain attacks</a>&nbsp;are those that typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically.

Complicating the response is that it happened at the start of a major holiday weekend in the U.S., when most corporate IT teams aren’t fully staffed.

That could also leave those organizations unable to address other security vulnerabilities, such a dangerous Microsoft bug affecting software for print jobs, said James Shank, of threat intelligence firm Team Cymru.

“Customers of Kaseya are in the worst possible situation,” he said. “They’re racing against time to get the updates out on other critical bugs.”

Shank said “it’s reasonable to think that the timing was planned” by hackers for the holiday.

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement that it is closely monitoring the situation and working with the FBI to collect more information about its impact.

CISA urged anyone who might be affected to “follow Kaseya’s guidance to shut down VSA servers immediately.” Kaseya runs what’s called a virtual system administrator, or VSA, that’s used to remotely manage and monitor a customer’s network.

The privately held Kaseya is based in Dublin, Ireland, with a U.S. headquarters in Miami.

REvil, the group most experts have tied to the attack, was the same ransomware provider that the FBI linked to an attack on JBS SA, a major global meat processor, amid the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May.

Active since April 2019, the group provides ransomware-as-a-service, meaning it develops the network-paralyzing software and leases it to so-called affiliates who infect targets and earn the lion’s share of ransoms.

The Brazil-based meat company said it paid the equivalent of a $11 million ransom to the hackers, escalating calls by U.S. law enforcement to bring such groups to justice.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident.

The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs. He said the criminals targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers. Other researchers agreed with Hammond’s assessment.

“Kaseya handles large enterprise all the way to small businesses globally, so ultimately, (this) has the potential to spread to any size or scale business,” Hammond said in a direct message on Twitter. “This is a colossal and devastating supply chain attack.”

Such cyberattacks typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically.

It was not immediately clear how many Kaseya customers might be affected or who they might be. Kaseya urged customers in a statement&nbsp;<a href="https://helpdesk.kaseya.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4403440684689" target="_blank">on its website&nbsp;</a>to immediately shut down servers running the affected software. It said the attack was limited to a “small number” of its customers.

Brett Callow, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said he was unaware of any previous ransomware supply-chain attack on this scale. There have been others, but they were fairly minor, he said.

“This is SolarWinds with ransomware,” he said. He was referring to a Russian cyberespionage hacking campaign discovered in December that spread by infecting network management software to infiltrate U.S. federal agencies and scores of corporations.

Cybersecurity researcher Jake Williams, president of Rendition Infosec, said he was already working with six companies hit by the ransomware. It’s no accident that this happened before the Fourth of July weekend, when IT staffing is generally thin, he added.

“There’s zero doubt in my mind that the timing here was intentional,” he said.

Hammond of Huntress said he was aware of four managed-services providers — companies that host IT infrastructure for multiple customers — being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers. He said thousand of computers were hit.

“We currently have three Huntress partners who are impacted with roughly 200 businesses that have been encrypted,” Hammond said.

Hammond wrote on Twitter: “Based on everything we are seeing right now, we strongly believe this (is) REvil/Sodinikibi.” The FBI&nbsp;<a href="https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ransomware-threat-assessments/7/" target="_blank">linked the same ransomware provider</a>&nbsp;to a May&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-hacking-technology-business-353f8dea34bbbba15207ff350e7a2f0f">attack on JBS SA</a>, a major global meat processer.

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement late Friday that it is closely monitoring the situation and working with the FBI to collect more information about its impact.

The privately held Kaseya says it is based in Dublin, Ireland, with a U.S. headquarters in Miami. The Miami Herald recently described it as “one of Miami’s oldest tech companies” in a report about its plans to hire as many as 500 workers by 2022 to staff a recently acquired cybersecurity platform.

Brian Honan, an Irish cybersecurity consultant, said by email Friday that “this is a classic supply chain attack where the criminals have compromised a trusted supplier of companies and have abused that trust to attack their customers.”

He said it can be difficult for smaller businesses to defend against this type of attack because they “rely on the security of their suppliers and the software those suppliers are using.”

The only good news, said Williams, of Rendition Infosec, is that “a lot of our customers don’t have Kaseya on every machine in their network,” making it harder for attackers to move across an organization’s computer systems.

That makes for an easier recovery, he said.

Active since April 2019, the group known as REvil provides ransomware-as-a-service, meaning it develops the network-paralyzing software and leases it to so-called affiliates who infect targets and earn the lion’s share of ransoms.

REvil is among ransomware gangs that steal data from targets before activating the ransomware, strengthening their extortion efforts. The average ransom payment to the group was about half a million dollars last year, said the Palo Alto Networks cybersecurity firm in a recent report.

Some cybersecurity experts predicted that it might be hard for the gang to handle the ransom negotiations, given the large number of victims — though the long U.S. holiday weekend might give it more time to start working through the list.

WASHINGTON (AP) —Businesses rushed Saturday to contain a ransomware attack that has paralyzed their computer networks, a situation complicated in the U.S. by offices lightly staffed at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.In Sweden, most of the grocery chain Coop’s 800 stores were unable to open because their cash registers weren’t working, according to SVT, the country’s public broadcaster. The Swedish State Railways and a major local pharmacy chain were also affected.Cybersecurity experts say the REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack that targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers.Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola said in a statement that the company believes it has identified the source of the vulnerability and will “release that patch as quickly as possible to get our customers back up and running.”John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs said he was aware of a number of managed-services providers — companies that host IT infrastructure for multiple customers — being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers.“It’s reasonable to think this could potentially be impacting thousands of small businesses,” said Hammond, basing his estimate on the service providers reaching out to his company for assistance and comments on Reddit showing how others are responding.Voccola said fewer than 40 of Kaseya’s customers were known to be affected, but the ransomware could still be affecting hundreds more companies that rely on Kaseya’s clients that provide broader IT services.Voccola said the problem is only affecting its “on-premise” customers, which means organizations running their own data centers. It’s not affecting its cloud-based services running software for customers, though Kaseya also shut down those servers as a precaution, he said.The company added in a statement Saturday that “customers who experienced ransomware and receive a communication from the attackers should not click on any links -- they may be weaponized.”Gartner analyst Katell Thielemann said it’s clear that Kaseya quickly sprang to action, but it’s less clear whether their affected clients had the same level of preparedness.“They reacted with an abundance of caution,” she said. “But the reality of this event is it was architected for maximum impact, combining a supply chain attack with a ransomware attack.”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-hacking-technology-business-d83a29f1eb997f465d057af20d5435b9">Supply chain attacks</a>&nbsp;are those that typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically.Complicating the response is that it happened at the start of a major holiday weekend in the U.S., when most corporate IT teams aren’t fully staffed.That could also leave those organizations unable to address other security vulnerabilities, such a dangerous Microsoft bug affecting software for print jobs, said James Shank, of threat intelligence firm Team Cymru.“Customers of Kaseya are in the worst possible situation,” he said. “They’re racing against time to get the updates out on other critical bugs.”Shank said “it’s reasonable to think that the timing was planned” by hackers for the holiday.The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement that it is closely monitoring the situation and working with the FBI to collect more information about its impact.CISA urged anyone who might be affected to “follow Kaseya’s guidance to shut down VSA servers immediately.” Kaseya runs what’s called a virtual system administrator, or VSA, that’s used to remotely manage and monitor a customer’s network.The privately held Kaseya is based in Dublin, Ireland, with a U.S. headquarters in Miami.REvil, the group most experts have tied to the attack, was the same ransomware provider that the FBI linked to an attack on JBS SA, a major global meat processor, amid the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May.Active since April 2019, the group provides ransomware-as-a-service, meaning it develops the network-paralyzing software and leases it to so-called affiliates who infect targets and earn the lion’s share of ransoms.The Brazil-based meat company said it paid the equivalent of a $11 million ransom to the hackers, escalating calls by U.S. law enforcement to bring such groups to justice.------------WASHINGTON (AP) — A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident.The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs. He said the criminals targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network-management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud-service providers. Other researchers agreed with Hammond’s assessment.“Kaseya handles large enterprise all the way to small businesses globally, so ultimately, (this) has the potential to spread to any size or scale business,” Hammond said in a direct message on Twitter. “This is a colossal and devastating supply chain attack.”Such cyberattacks typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically.It was not immediately clear how many Kaseya customers might be affected or who they might be. Kaseya urged customers in a statement&nbsp;<a href="https://helpdesk.kaseya.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4403440684689" target="_blank">on its website&nbsp;</a>to immediately shut down servers running the affected software. It said the attack was limited to a “small number” of its customers.Brett Callow, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said he was unaware of any previous ransomware supply-chain attack on this scale. There have been others, but they were fairly minor, he said.“This is SolarWinds with ransomware,” he said. He was referring to a Russian cyberespionage hacking campaign discovered in December that spread by infecting network management software to infiltrate U.S. federal agencies and scores of corporations.Cybersecurity researcher Jake Williams, president of Rendition Infosec, said he was already working with six companies hit by the ransomware. It’s no accident that this happened before the Fourth of July weekend, when IT staffing is generally thin, he added.“There’s zero doubt in my mind that the timing here was intentional,” he said.Hammond of Huntress said he was aware of four managed-services providers — companies that host IT infrastructure for multiple customers — being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers. He said thousand of computers were hit.“We currently have three Huntress partners who are impacted with roughly 200 businesses that have been encrypted,” Hammond said.Hammond wrote on Twitter: “Based on everything we are seeing right now, we strongly believe this (is) REvil/Sodinikibi.” The FBI&nbsp;<a href="https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ransomware-threat-assessments/7/" target="_blank">linked the same ransomware provider</a>&nbsp;to a May&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-hacking-technology-business-353f8dea34bbbba15207ff350e7a2f0f">attack on JBS SA</a>, a major global meat processer.The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement late Friday that it is closely monitoring the situation and working with the FBI to collect more information about its impact.CISA urged anyone who might be affected to “follow Kaseya’s guidance to shut down VSA servers immediately.” Kaseya runs what’s called a virtual system administrator, or VSA, that’s used to remotely manage and monitor a customer’s network.The privately held Kaseya says it is based in Dublin, Ireland, with a U.S. headquarters in Miami. The Miami Herald recently described it as “one of Miami’s oldest tech companies” in a report about its plans to hire as many as 500 workers by 2022 to staff a recently acquired cybersecurity platform.Brian Honan, an Irish cybersecurity consultant, said by email Friday that “this is a classic supply chain attack where the criminals have compromised a trusted supplier of companies and have abused that trust to attack their customers.”He said it can be difficult for smaller businesses to defend against this type of attack because they “rely on the security of their suppliers and the software those suppliers are using.”The only good news, said Williams, of Rendition Infosec, is that “a lot of our customers don’t have Kaseya on every machine in their network,” making it harder for attackers to move across an organization’s computer systems.That makes for an easier recovery, he said.Active since April 2019, the group known as REvil provides ransomware-as-a-service, meaning it develops the network-paralyzing software and leases it to so-called affiliates who infect targets and earn the lion’s share of ransoms.REvil is among ransomware gangs that steal data from targets before activating the ransomware, strengthening their extortion efforts. The average ransom payment to the group was about half a million dollars last year, said the Palo Alto Networks cybersecurity firm in a recent report.Some cybersecurity experts predicted that it might be hard for the gang to handle the ransom negotiations, given the large number of victims — though the long U.S. holiday weekend might give it more time to start working through the list.

Update: Ransomware attack hits hundreds of US companies

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Anheuser-Busch is preparing to open its taps as the U.S. inches closer to a vaccine milestone.

The Budweiser brewer promised last month that once 70% of American adults are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, it would buy a beer for anyone 21 or older. The U.S. isn't yet there; 66.7% of adults had gotten at least one shot as of Friday.

But the company went ahead anyway and cracked <a href="https://www.mycooler.com/en/beer/register.html">open its online redemption portal</a> at 11 a.m. Friday for the July 4 weekend.

Consumers will be able to upload a picture of themselves in their favorite beer-drinking location and get a $5 voucher for beer, seltzer, non-alcoholic beverage or other A-B product through 11 a.m. Monday.

The promotion is just the latest effort to encourage people to get vaccinated and get customers back to the bar.

In April, the Belgian brewer, which maintains its North American headquarters in St. Louis, produced an ad directing people to vaccine resources and offered 10,000 free drinks to adults 21 and older who showed proof of vaccination.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Anheuser-Busch is preparing to open its taps as the U.S. inches closer to a vaccine milestone.The Budweiser brewer promised last month that once 70% of American adults are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, it would buy a beer for anyone 21 or older. The U.S. isn't yet there; 66.7% of adults had gotten at least one shot as of Friday.But the company went ahead anyway and cracked <a href="https://www.mycooler.com/en/beer/register.html">open its online redemption portal</a> at 11 a.m. Friday for the July 4 weekend.Consumers will be able to upload a picture of themselves in their favorite beer-drinking location and get a $5 voucher for beer, seltzer, non-alcoholic beverage or other A-B product through 11 a.m. Monday.The promotion is just the latest effort to encourage people to get vaccinated and get customers back to the bar.In April, the Belgian brewer, which maintains its North American headquarters in St. Louis, produced an ad directing people to vaccine resources and offered 10,000 free drinks to adults 21 and older who showed proof of vaccination.

 Anheuser-Busch kicks off beer giveaway as US nears vaccination goal

American Indian, Black kids less apt than whites to reunite with parents

By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/06/30/blacks-overrepresented-among-kansas-children-ordered-into-foster-care/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — A new report by 
state auditors confirmed overrepresentation of Black children in Kansas 
foster care and that Black and American Indian children in the system 
were less likely than white children to be reunified with their parents.

Auditors told Kansas 
legislators Tuesday that Black individuals represented 6% of the state’s
 population in 2019, but accounted for 12% of the children in foster 
care. White people made up 86% of the state population, but only 78% of 
kids in foster care.

Josh Luthi, an auditor 
working for the legislative auditing division, told a joint House and 
Senate committee higher levels of poverty and greater involvement in 
social service programs among Black families could lead to more exposure
 to people required by law to report suspected child abuse or neglect. 
Another possibility is racial bias leads people to more aggressively 
raise potential problems in Black families, the audit said.

“We were already working 
on some of these things, in particular the race issue and 
disproportionality,” said Melinda Kline, deputy director of permanency 
at the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

DCF has responsibility for
 the 6,500 children in foster care. The agency employs private 
contractors — Cornerstones of Care, KVC Kansas, Saint Francis Ministries
 and TFI — to provide services to foster care families.

“TFI supports the concerns
 about racial disparities as outlined in the written audit,” said&nbsp;Ashley
 Marple, vice president of performance and risk management at TFI.

In Kansas, district courts
 decide whether a child should be declared in need of care and placed in
 foster care under custody of DCF. The assumed preference is for 
children in foster care to be eventually reunited with parents. Some 
children end up adopted or under care of someone assuming guardianship 
rights. Another portion of foster children reach emancipation age, run 
away or die, and transfer to control of the state Department of 
Corrections or tribal courts.

Rep. Kristey Williams, an 
Augusta Republican and chairwoman of the Legislature’s audit committee, 
said she was interested in determining whether children in foster care 
more frequently came from a one- or two-parent households. Auditors 
didn’t look at that question, but Williams said she was convinced 
single-parent homes placed children in a higher risk category.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1625075672818.png" alt="Josh Luthi, auditor with the Kansas Legislature, said a new report showed Black children were overrepresented in the state's foster care system and Black and American Indian children were less likely than white children to be reunified with their parents. (Screen capture/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Josh Luthi, auditor with the Kansas Legislature, said a new report showed Black children were overrepresented in the state's foster care system and Black and American Indian children were less likely than white children to be reunified with their parents. (Screen capture/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>American Indian, Black kids less apt than whites to reunite with parents</h2>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/06/30/blacks-overrepresented-among-kansas-children-ordered-into-foster-care/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — A new report by 
state auditors confirmed overrepresentation of Black children in Kansas 
foster care and that Black and American Indian children in the system 
were less likely than white children to be reunified with their parents.Auditors told Kansas 
legislators Tuesday that Black individuals represented 6% of the state’s
 population in 2019, but accounted for 12% of the children in foster 
care. White people made up 86% of the state population, but only 78% of 
kids in foster care.Josh Luthi, an auditor 
working for the legislative auditing division, told a joint House and 
Senate committee higher levels of poverty and greater involvement in 
social service programs among Black families could lead to more exposure
 to people required by law to report suspected child abuse or neglect. 
Another possibility is racial bias leads people to more aggressively 
raise potential problems in Black families, the audit said.“We were already working 
on some of these things, in particular the race issue and 
disproportionality,” said Melinda Kline, deputy director of permanency 
at the Kansas Department for Children and Families.DCF has responsibility for
 the 6,500 children in foster care. The agency employs private 
contractors — Cornerstones of Care, KVC Kansas, Saint Francis Ministries
 and TFI — to provide services to foster care families.“TFI supports the concerns
 about racial disparities as outlined in the written audit,” said&nbsp;Ashley
 Marple, vice president of performance and risk management at TFI.In Kansas, district courts
 decide whether a child should be declared in need of care and placed in
 foster care under custody of DCF. The assumed preference is for 
children in foster care to be eventually reunited with parents. Some 
children end up adopted or under care of someone assuming guardianship 
rights. Another portion of foster children reach emancipation age, run 
away or die, and transfer to control of the state Department of 
Corrections or tribal courts.<h2>Single-parent homes</h2>Rep. Kristey Williams, an 
Augusta Republican and chairwoman of the Legislature’s audit committee, 
said she was interested in determining whether children in foster care 
more frequently came from a one- or two-parent households. Auditors 
didn’t look at that question, but Williams said she was convinced 
single-parent homes placed children in a higher risk category.Auditors discovered in a 
survey of parents with children in foster care there was a belief DCF 
mishandled investigations, caseworkers didn’t respond to telephone calls
 or were otherwise uncommunicative, turnover among caseworkers was high 
and scheduling of mental health evaluations and other appointments took 
months.“We are aware that we’ve 
had tremendous turnover within the DCF and limited resources within the 
DCF,” said Rep. Tom Burroughs, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kansas, on 
the audit committee.The audit sought to 
determine whether outcomes for children in foster care varied based on 
age, race, ethnicity or sex. Auditors sought answers by reviewing 28,000
 cases of children entering or exiting foster care from 2012 to 2020. 
Among these cases, more than 17,000 ended in reunification and 20% or 
5,500 led to adoption.Research by auditors 
indicated being Black or American Indian reduced a child’s odds of 
reunifying with their parents by about 8% and 25%, respectively. When 
compared to white children, however, being Black or Asian didn’t affect a
 child’s odds of being adopted. Black and Native American children in 
Kansas were more likely to reach emancipation age relative to white 
children in foster care.In terms of ethnicity, 
auditors reported Hispanic children in foster care had similar outcomes 
to non-Hispanic children. Hispanic children had a reunification rate of 
66%, while 62% of non-Hispanic children were reunified. Non-Hispanic 
children were adopted at a rate of 20%, but Hispanic children had an 
adoption rate of 17%.The audit indicated the 
older a child when removed from home the less likely that person would 
be reunified or adopted. The study didn’t identify a meaningful 
difference in unification or adoption between male and female children.<h2>Reunification goals</h2>Auditors weighed whether 
remedial tasks written into foster-care plans to inspire reunification 
of families appeared reasonable and relevant. This question involved 
review of case files for 48 foster children from fiscal years 2016 to 
2020. The selection of cases was nonrandom, which meant findings of 
auditors couldn’t be projected to the thousands of foster care cases 
existing during that period of time.DCF foster care staff 
review case plans for compliance with DCF policies and federal rules, 
but don’t check whether tasks related to reunification were reasonable 
and relevant.Auditors took into 
consideration 670 tasks required of parents or guardians attempting to 
be reunited with their children. The analysis determined 10%, or about 
70, were unreasonable because they had no application to conditions 
associated with the children in foster care.“If you go too far in 
assigning parents tasks,” said Luthi, the state auditor, “you might 
place an undue burden on them and either limit or make it impossible for
 them to reunify with their kids. If you don’t go far enough with 
assignment parents tasks, then you might end up reintegrating a child 
into a home that isn’t safe or in a position where they’re going to 
re-enter the foster care system.”The tasks categorized as 
unreasonable or irrelevant didn’t appear to stop families from 
reunifying in the cases reviewed, auditors said.Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International.