Latest news with #Kansas
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Boil water advisory lifted for Yates Center
YATES CENTER, Kan. (KSNW) — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has lifted a boil water advisory for the City of Yates Center in Woodson County. The advisory was originally issued due to a loss of pressure in the city's water system during hydrant flushing. A drop in pressure can lead to a loss of chlorine and increase the risk of bacterial contamination. Storm Track 3 Forecast: Warm and humid Saturday, chance of evening storms After conducting laboratory testing of water samples, KDHE confirmed there is no evidence of bacterial contamination, and all safety concerns have been resolved. Residents with questions can contact the Yates Center water system at 620-625-2102 or KDHE at 785-296-5514. Additional information is available at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Crash on I-35 in Sumner County sends one to hospital
SUMNER COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) — One person was hospitalized Friday night following a two-vehicle crash on the Kansas Turnpike in Sumner County. Tens of thousands crowd Sundown Parade It happened around 10:30 p.m. in the northbound lanes of I-35 near mile marker 9.4. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 1997 GMC Sierra was slowing down when it was rear-ended by a 2013 Mazda 3. The driver of the GMC, a 28-year-old man from Wellington, sustained serious injuries and was transported to St. Francis Hospital for treatment. The driver of the Mazda, a 42-year-old man from Manhattan, was not injured. The crash remains under investigation. For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
When Odin the police dog sniffed drugs, cops could search parked car, court rules
By a bare 4-3 majority Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court expanded police power to perform drug searches on vehicles during traffic stops. I can see the majority's point, but I'm tending to lean toward the dissenting justices' position, due to the potential for abuse of privacy rights. The case involves a woman named Gina L. Wilson, convicted of possessing 30 oxycodone pills and driving on a suspended license. According to the majority opinion, 'Two Wichita police officers performed a traffic stop of Gina Wilson after they twice observed her fail to properly signal after leaving the location of a known drug house.' As it turned out, Wilson's driver's license was suspended, which she admitted. She was told to step out of the car while police brought a drug-sniffing dog to the scene to check her vehicle. Here's where it gets complicated: The legality of the traffic stop was not in question, but police aren't allowed to extend a stop beyond the time it takes to write a citation to give them time to bring a drug dog to the scene. In this case, police dog Odin (who died of cancer last year) and his human partner arrived at the scene about 40 seconds before the officer finished writing up the failure-to-signal citation. The trial judge, Sedgwick District Judge Kevin Mark Smith, ruled that the officers had not impermissibly extended the traffic stop. The Court of Appeals upheld Smith's ruling. The Supreme Court also ruled the search legal, but came up with a different, and potentially disturbing, rationale for why. The drug sniff was legal because Wilson's driver's license was suspended, said the majority opinion, authored by the court's most conservative justice, Caleb Stegall. 'Though Wichita police officers have the authority to arrest someone for driving on a suspended license, they also have the discretion not to,' Stegall wrote. 'The officers here admitted that although they intended to arrest Wilson from the moment they asked her to exit the vehicle, they did not actually arrest her until after they searched the car and found the pills. 'But regardless of whether Wilson was under arrest at the time of Oden's sniff, there are absolutely no circumstances in which the officers would have allowed Wilson to drive away in the vehicle. Put another way, regardless of what happened to Wilson, the car wasn't going anywhere. It simply became a lawfully, publicly parked vehicle in Wichita, Kansas . . . Because the car was legally parked and no one was attempting to or prevented from lawfully moving it, the sniff was legally performed regardless of whether Wilson was seized.' You may be saying, my license is fine, so I don't have to worry about this. Not necessarily. I got pulled over once out in California and was shocked to learn from the officer that my license had been suspended without my knowledge. It turned out it was the result of a very minor accident where another driver and I had tapped bumpers a year of so previously. I didn't think enough damage was done to trigger the requirement to file an accident report, but the other driver did file one. So I'd been suspended for failing to file, though I'd never heard a peep about it from the DMV. Fortunately, the cop was understanding, and let me off with a warning and an admonition to go straight to the DMV and take care of it — which I did. In Kansas, the DMV is generally required to send notice and allow drivers time to appeal before suspending their license. But people don't always get the word. A lot of folks forget to update their license when they move, and the DMV sends suspension notices to the last address they have on file. 'People get caught in that all the time,' said lawyer and state legislator John Carmichael. Carmichael said Kansas police and courts tend to be less forgiving than my laid-back California cop was. If you don't update your license when you're supposed to, they consider that your problem. In the dissenting opinion in Wilson's case, Justice Eric Rosen called it a fantasy to believe that the officers had seized the driver, but not her car. ''It would have been clear to anyone not residing in a fantasy-world parallel universe' that the officers here were not going to let Wilson or her vehicle leave the scene until the dog sniff was complete,' he wrote. 'The majority ignores this reality, insisting that Wilson's car was not seized because she did not have a license to drive it.' 'It would seem that, in the majority's new world, if an officer pulls over a driver who does not have legal authority to operate a vehicle, the officer may seize that driver and prevent anyone from moving the vehicle for as long as necessary to await a dog sniff. I cannot fathom this is what the majority had in mind, but it seems it is the result they have created.' I think Rosen's onto something. So did Chief Justice Marla Luckert and Justice Melissa Taylor Standridge, who joined the dissent. Rosen continued that even if the car was not technically legally seized at the time, 'I could not join the majority in its brazen announcement that officers can perform a dog sniff on any car that is legally parked in public.' I'm not enough of a legal scholar to say if that's the message the court's trying to send. But I'm pretty sure it's the message police will hear. And all our privacy could suffer as a result.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Police searching for suspect after man shot, killed Friday night in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An investigation is underway after a man was shot and killed Friday night in south Kansas City, investigators reported. According to the Kansas City Police Department, at about 8:45 p.m., officers were dispatched to the area of 82nd Street and Troost Avenue on reports of a shooting. Man pleads guilty to shooting, killing 6-year-old boy in Kansas City, Kansas While officers were driving to the scene, KCPD said they received multiple calls about shots in the area, and an additional call about a shooting victim found near 82nd Street and Tracey Avenue. When KCPD arrived, they reported finding a man suffering from gunshot wounds in the street. Officers immediately began performing life-saving operations until paramedics arrived. The man was then taken to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries. At this time, police are still searching for a suspect and believe there was an altercation between multiple people in the street before the shooting occurred. See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri If you or anyone you know has information about the deadly shooting, police ask that you call homicide detectives directly at (816) 234-5043, or the TIPS Hotline anonymously at (816) 474-8477. This is a developing story. Stay tuned with FOX4 News for the latest updates and information. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Kansas Supreme Court splits on constitutionality of drug-dog search at Wichita traffic stop
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall, second from left back row, wrote the majority opinion in a case questioning constitutionality of admitting evidence found by Wichita police after deploying a drug-sniffing dog. Justice Eric Rosen, from row left, wrote the dissenting opinion in the case raising questions about Fourth Amendment rights in searches and seizures. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Supreme Court photograph) TOPEKA — Wichita police officers Donald Bailey and Shawn Isham were watching a suspected drug house in 2020 when Gina Wilson parked a vehicle in the driveway, entered the residence, reappeared a few minutes later and drove away. The officers followed Wilson before pulling her over on Greenfield Street, allegedly for twice failing to properly use a turn signal. Wilson denied committing the traffic infractions, but informed officers she didn't have a valid driver's license. What happened next as Wilson stood on the curb with police officers was closely examined by the Sedgwick County District Court, Kansas Court of Appeals and Kansas Supreme Court. In the end, Wilson lost her bid to exclude evidence of a drug offense and the state's highest court exposed a disagreement regarding constitutional rights of individuals subjected to searches and seizures by law enforcement. On Friday, the Supreme Court's majority opinion from Justice Caleb Stegall affirmed the officers' compliance with the Fourth Amendment in terms of constitutionally conducting the traffic stop and deploying Oden, a drug-sniffing dog, to examine the exterior of Wilson's vehicle. Wilson had refused to consent to a search of her vehicle. However, the canine alerted to presence of illicit drugs. A subsequent examination of the car's interior by Wichita officers led to discovery of a packet of oxycodone pills. Stegall concluded that because Wilson had no legal ability to drive the car away at conclusion of the traffic-related portion of the stop, officers didn't overstep their authority by nominally extending the encounter to allow for the dog sniff. Four minutes elapsed between when the officers completed her traffic citation and the time Oden alerted to presence of drugs. 'Even though she was not under arrest, Wilson argues that because she was not free to leave during these four minutes, she was unconstitutionally seized as an extension of the traffic stop,' Stegall said in the opinion. 'As such, she concludes that the search of the car was also unconstitutional and therefore the evidence gained from the unconstitutional search must be excluded.' Stegall's majority opinion argued Wilson's suspended license created an unusual circumstance enabling officers to deploy the K-9 around her legally parked car that no one was attempting to move. 'Oden's alert provided probable cause, which allowed the officers to perform a warrantless search of the car … and the pills were properly admitted into evidence,' Stegall's opinion said. 'Therefore, officers do not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment's protections by performing a dog sniff of any vehicle that is legally parked in public.' The dissent by Justice Eric Rosen, which was joined by Chief Justice Marla Luckert and Justice Melissa Standridge, said the drug evidence should have been suppressed because prolonging a traffic stop to complete the drug sniff without reasonable suspicion violated the Fourth Amendment. Rosen held the Wichita officers seized Wilson and the vehicle, extended the traffic stop, deployed Oden and discovered an envelope containing 30 oxycodone capsules in the car's console. Rosen expressed frustration the majority opinion 'pronounces some new legal rules for which it provides no supporting authority.' He challenged the majority's declaration that a vehicle directed to the side of the road during a traffic stop shouldn't be characterized as seized by law enforcement. 'The majority likens this car to any car that was voluntarily parked in a public place,' Rosen wrote. 'From here, the majority announces that officers can perform a dog sniff on any car legally parked in public.' In 2022, Wilson was convicted of driving while suspended and illegal possession of opiates. She unsuccessfully argued in district court for suppression of drug evidence while alleging the officers impermissibly extended scope of the traffic stop to create a window for deployment of the K-9 unit. The Court of Appeals sided with the district court in 2023 after concluding there was 'no evidence that the dog sniff meaningfully extended the duration of the original stop.' The divided Supreme Court affirmed Wilson's constitutional rights weren't violated.
