TOPEKA— The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kansas increased by 1,280 to a total of 45,220 the state health department reported Friday afternoon.&nbsp;

Coronavirus deaths were reported at 481, an increase of 23.

<a href="https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/160/COVID-19-in-Kansas">Click here&nbsp;</a>for additional numbers from the KDHE.

TOPEKA— The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kansas increased by 1,280 to a total of 45,220 the state health department reported Friday afternoon.&nbsp;Coronavirus deaths were reported at 481, an increase of 23.<a href="https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/160/COVID-19-in-Kansas">Click here&nbsp;</a>for additional numbers from the KDHE.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599239075742.png" alt="Friday Sept. 4, 2020 KDHE image" />
 <figcaption>Friday Sept. 4, 2020 KDHE image</figcaption>
 </figure>

KDHE: Latest coronavirus numbers in Kansas

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — The family of an 11-year-old Black girl who was injured in what they say was a racially-motivated attack in Kansas said Thursday it is important to talk to children about racism.

“We’ve seen a problem, and we’re here to give solutions and ask the community to come together to address this problem,” attorney La Ronna Lassiter Saunders told reporters.

Nevaeh Thomas was visiting friends in Shawnee when a 12-year-old white boy called the Black girls racial slurs, KCUR-FM&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/2020-09-03/family-of-11-year-old-kansas-girl-who-was-attacked-and-called-racial-slurs-wants-more-than-a-conviction" target="_blank">reported</a>. The boy allegedly hit Thomas on the head, leaving her unconscious. She received eight stitches and is recovering from a concussion nearly a week later.

“I think kids need to get together and talk about racism. It’s okay if we’re different or we have different opinions. But it’s not okay to hate and judge each other on their color and their skin,” Thomas said.

The boy has been charged with aggravated battery.

Thomas’ mother said she hopes the boy and the community can both learn from this incident.

“It is so important that we talk to our children about racism. We need to tell them how expressions of hate can make others feel and how they can leave scars that last a lifetime,” Brandi Stewart said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599237991620.png" alt="Nevaeh spoke about the violent incident Thursday -<a href="https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/11-year-old-girl-who-was-target-of-attack-refused-to-be-bullied-for-the-color-of-her-skin">photo courtesy KSHB TV</a>" />
 <figcaption>Nevaeh spoke about the violent incident Thursday -<a href="https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/11-year-old-girl-who-was-target-of-attack-refused-to-be-bullied-for-the-color-of-her-skin">photo courtesy KSHB TV</a></figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — The family of an 11-year-old Black girl who was injured in what they say was a racially-motivated attack in Kansas said Thursday it is important to talk to children about racism.“We’ve seen a problem, and we’re here to give solutions and ask the community to come together to address this problem,” attorney La Ronna Lassiter Saunders told reporters.Nevaeh Thomas was visiting friends in Shawnee when a 12-year-old white boy called the Black girls racial slurs, KCUR-FM&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/2020-09-03/family-of-11-year-old-kansas-girl-who-was-attacked-and-called-racial-slurs-wants-more-than-a-conviction" target="_blank">reported</a>. The boy allegedly hit Thomas on the head, leaving her unconscious. She received eight stitches and is recovering from a concussion nearly a week later.“I think kids need to get together and talk about racism. It’s okay if we’re different or we have different opinions. But it’s not okay to hate and judge each other on their color and their skin,” Thomas said.The boy has been charged with aggravated battery.Thomas’ mother said she hopes the boy and the community can both learn from this incident.“It is so important that we talk to our children about racism. We need to tell them how expressions of hate can make others feel and how they can leave scars that last a lifetime,” Brandi Stewart said.

Family of injured Kansas girl speaks out against racism

ELLSWORTH –&nbsp; A Kansas man has been sentenced to more than 40 years in prison for convictions on four child sex-crime related charges, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

On Thursday, Karl Van Nice, 59, Ellsworth, was sentenced by Judge Carey Hipp on two counts of rape, one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of aggravated sexual battery. Van Nice was convicted by jury trial in February. In addition to the prison term, he is subject to lifetime post-release supervision and lifetime sex offender registration.

The crimes were committed between September 2015 and January 2016. The charges stemmed from an investigation by the Ellsworth Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599230934118.png" alt="Van Nice-photo Ellsworth Co. Sheriff" />
 <figcaption>Van Nice-photo Ellsworth Co. Sheriff</figcaption>
 </figure>ELLSWORTH –&nbsp; A Kansas man has been sentenced to more than 40 years in prison for convictions on four child sex-crime related charges, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. On Thursday, Karl Van Nice, 59, Ellsworth, was sentenced by Judge Carey Hipp on two counts of rape, one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of aggravated sexual battery. Van Nice was convicted by jury trial in February. In addition to the prison term, he is subject to lifetime post-release supervision and lifetime sex offender registration. The crimes were committed between September 2015 and January 2016. The charges stemmed from an investigation by the Ellsworth Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.&nbsp;

Kansas man sentenced for child sex crimes

Isolation? Quarantine? KDHE offers guidance

MONTGOMERY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a drowning have identified the victim as&nbsp;Khalil Fulton, 18 of Lake City, South Carolina.

Just after 11:00p.m. Wednesday, deputies were dispatched to State Lake for a possible drowning, according to sheriff Ron Wade.

First responders located several individuals near the dock. In speaking with the individuals on scene they learned the group of friends had been swimming in State Lake when Fulton did a flip off of the dock. 

Witnesses told deputies he resurfaced after going into the water and went back under once again and never resurfaced a second time, according to Wade.

There was no indication Fulton was in distress. In the early morning hours Fulton was located, not far from the area where he entered the water. He was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp;

Fulton was a student at Independence Community College. The lake is located four miles south of the campus.

&nbsp;“This is a tragic situation where a young man lost his life, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” Sheriff Wade said.&nbsp; He asked that you respect the privacy of the family as they morn for this young man who was taken way too soon.

Montgomery County Rural Fire Department, Kansas Wildlife and Parks and Coffeyville Fire Department water rescue personnel assisted at the scene, according to Wade.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a drowning have identified the victim as&nbsp;Khalil Fulton, 18 of Lake City, South Carolina.Just after 11:00p.m. Wednesday, deputies were dispatched to State Lake for a possible drowning, according to sheriff Ron Wade.First responders located several individuals near the dock. In speaking with the individuals on scene they learned the group of friends had been swimming in State Lake when Fulton did a flip off of the dock. Witnesses told deputies he resurfaced after going into the water and went back under once again and never resurfaced a second time, according to Wade.There was no indication Fulton was in distress. In the early morning hours Fulton was located, not far from the area where he entered the water. He was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp;Fulton was a student at Independence Community College. The lake is located four miles south of the campus.&nbsp;“This is a tragic situation where a young man lost his life, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” Sheriff Wade said.&nbsp; He asked that you respect the privacy of the family as they morn for this young man who was taken way too soon.Montgomery County Rural Fire Department, Kansas Wildlife and Parks and Coffeyville Fire Department water rescue personnel assisted at the scene, according to Wade.

Sheriff ID's 18-year-old who drowned in Kansas lake

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in August to 8.4% from 10.2% even as hiring slowed, with employers adding the fewest jobs since the pandemic began.

Employers added 1.4 million jobs, the Labor Department said, down from 1.7 million in July. The U.S. economy has recovered about half the 22 million jobs lost to the pandemic.

Friday’s report added to evidence that nearly six months after the coronavirus paralyzed the country, the economy is mounting only a fitful recovery. From small businesses to hotels, restaurants, airlines and entertainment venues, a wide spectrum of companies are struggling to survive the loss of customers with confirmed viral cases still high.

After an epic collapse in the spring, when the economy shrank at a roughly 30% annual rate, growth has been rebounding as states have reopened at least parts of their economies. Yet the recovery remains far from complete.

Many economists think significant hiring may be hard to sustain because employers are operating under a cloud of uncertainty about the virus. Daily confirmed case counts have fallen from 70,000 in June to about 40,000. The decline has leveled off in the past week and the viral caseload remains higher than it was in May and June.

As a result activities like restaurant dining and air travel are still far below pre-pandemic levels. Most economists say a meaningful economic recovery will likely be impossible until the coronavirus is brought under control, most likely from the widespread use of a vaccine.

Friday’s jobs data was the second-to-last employment report — for most voters, the most visible barometer of the economy — before Election Day, Nov. 3. President Donald Trump faces the daunting task of seeking re-election in the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Yet voters in surveys have generally given him higher marks on the economy than they have on other aspects of his presidency.

The jobs report coincides with growing signs that more companies are&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/89992979ca3c3ba72eb2cd31a9ca0e5d">making permanent job cuts</a>&nbsp;rather than temporary furloughs. That trend could keep the unemployment rate persistently high. It is typically harder for an unemployed worker to find a new job at a new company or in a new industry than to return to a previous employer.

Casino and hotel operator MGM Resorts, slammed by declines in travel and tourism, said last week that it’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/707956d4258acfd535ddbae31d849217">eliminating 18,000 jobs</a>. Coca Cola, which derives half its sales from stadiums, theaters and other venues that have been largely shut down, is offering buyouts to 4,000 employees. Salesforce said it is cutting 1,000 jobs. Bed, Bath &amp; Beyond will shed 2,800.

A&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/abc046be35b12996fe00147013075e7b">Federal Reserve report</a>&nbsp;this week based on anecdotal reports from businesses found “rising instances of furloughed workers being laid off permanently as demand remained soft.”

Roughly 29 million Americans are receiving state unemployment aid, although their total benefits, on average, have shrunk by more than half since the expiration of a $600-a-week federal supplement more than a month ago. The Trump administration has set up a program that will provide some of the unemployed with $300 a week.

But new rules and requirements&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/195893e537c8f9b0680c7655486c1fcb">will make many of the unemployed ineligible</a>. Only people who receive at least $100 a week in state unemployment aid will qualify for the $300 federal supplement — a requirement that could exclude at least 850,000 Americans.

The ongoing job losses and economic slump have left a rising share of Americans out of work for longer periods. From June to July, the number of people who were unemployed for 15 weeks or longer&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/e0aca194f0f4870b01280049ca567a87">tripled to more than 6 million</a>.

One consequence is that rising stress and anxiety are evident at therapists’ offices and mental health hotlines around the country. Calls from March through July to the U.S. government-funded Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers counseling and emotional support,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/208872f1d9fa3a3f3b50a4a902132124">surged 335%</a>&nbsp;from the same period last year.

And half of U.S. adults reported at least some signs of depression, such as hopelessness, feelings of failure or an inability to derive pleasure from daily activities, in a survey published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. That amounted to twice the rate from a survey two years ago.

“Not many days go by where I don’t have a couple where one partner or both are not working or furloughed,” said Todd Creager, a therapist in Southern California who treats mostly middle- to upper-middle-class adults.

What’s more, the economy appears to be operating on two tracks, resulting in an uneven and unequal recovery. Manufacturers are enjoying a solid rebound in demand for cars, appliances and electronics, with factory orders nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.

Home sales are also booming. So are home prices. Sales of existing homes&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/d224305938a20e3bdfa8b8dc67689270">surged by the most on record</a>&nbsp;in July and are now nearly 9% higher than a year ago.

In addition, wealthier and well-educated workers have been far less likely to lose jobs to the pandemic than lower-income and minority workers have, in part because of a greater ability to work from home.

The coronavirus has also reshaped much of the consumption of affluent households: While spending less on restaurants and at shops and movie theaters, they are buying new homes to gain more space or renovating their houses to serve as workplaces as well as homes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in August to 8.4% from 10.2% even as hiring slowed, with employers adding the fewest jobs since the pandemic began.Employers added 1.4 million jobs, the Labor Department said, down from 1.7 million in July. The U.S. economy has recovered about half the 22 million jobs lost to the pandemic.Friday’s report added to evidence that nearly six months after the coronavirus paralyzed the country, the economy is mounting only a fitful recovery. From small businesses to hotels, restaurants, airlines and entertainment venues, a wide spectrum of companies are struggling to survive the loss of customers with confirmed viral cases still high.After an epic collapse in the spring, when the economy shrank at a roughly 30% annual rate, growth has been rebounding as states have reopened at least parts of their economies. Yet the recovery remains far from complete.Many economists think significant hiring may be hard to sustain because employers are operating under a cloud of uncertainty about the virus. Daily confirmed case counts have fallen from 70,000 in June to about 40,000. The decline has leveled off in the past week and the viral caseload remains higher than it was in May and June.As a result activities like restaurant dining and air travel are still far below pre-pandemic levels. Most economists say a meaningful economic recovery will likely be impossible until the coronavirus is brought under control, most likely from the widespread use of a vaccine.Friday’s jobs data was the second-to-last employment report — for most voters, the most visible barometer of the economy — before Election Day, Nov. 3. President Donald Trump faces the daunting task of seeking re-election in the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Yet voters in surveys have generally given him higher marks on the economy than they have on other aspects of his presidency.The jobs report coincides with growing signs that more companies are&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/89992979ca3c3ba72eb2cd31a9ca0e5d">making permanent job cuts</a>&nbsp;rather than temporary furloughs. That trend could keep the unemployment rate persistently high. It is typically harder for an unemployed worker to find a new job at a new company or in a new industry than to return to a previous employer.Casino and hotel operator MGM Resorts, slammed by declines in travel and tourism, said last week that it’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/707956d4258acfd535ddbae31d849217">eliminating 18,000 jobs</a>. Coca Cola, which derives half its sales from stadiums, theaters and other venues that have been largely shut down, is offering buyouts to 4,000 employees. Salesforce said it is cutting 1,000 jobs. Bed, Bath &amp; Beyond will shed 2,800.A&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/abc046be35b12996fe00147013075e7b">Federal Reserve report</a>&nbsp;this week based on anecdotal reports from businesses found “rising instances of furloughed workers being laid off permanently as demand remained soft.”Roughly 29 million Americans are receiving state unemployment aid, although their total benefits, on average, have shrunk by more than half since the expiration of a $600-a-week federal supplement more than a month ago. The Trump administration has set up a program that will provide some of the unemployed with $300 a week.But new rules and requirements&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/195893e537c8f9b0680c7655486c1fcb">will make many of the unemployed ineligible</a>. Only people who receive at least $100 a week in state unemployment aid will qualify for the $300 federal supplement — a requirement that could exclude at least 850,000 Americans.The ongoing job losses and economic slump have left a rising share of Americans out of work for longer periods. From June to July, the number of people who were unemployed for 15 weeks or longer&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/e0aca194f0f4870b01280049ca567a87">tripled to more than 6 million</a>.One consequence is that rising stress and anxiety are evident at therapists’ offices and mental health hotlines around the country. Calls from March through July to the U.S. government-funded Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers counseling and emotional support,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/208872f1d9fa3a3f3b50a4a902132124">surged 335%</a>&nbsp;from the same period last year.And half of U.S. adults reported at least some signs of depression, such as hopelessness, feelings of failure or an inability to derive pleasure from daily activities, in a survey published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. That amounted to twice the rate from a survey two years ago.“Not many days go by where I don’t have a couple where one partner or both are not working or furloughed,” said Todd Creager, a therapist in Southern California who treats mostly middle- to upper-middle-class adults.What’s more, the economy appears to be operating on two tracks, resulting in an uneven and unequal recovery. Manufacturers are enjoying a solid rebound in demand for cars, appliances and electronics, with factory orders nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.Home sales are also booming. So are home prices. Sales of existing homes&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/d224305938a20e3bdfa8b8dc67689270">surged by the most on record</a>&nbsp;in July and are now nearly 9% higher than a year ago.In addition, wealthier and well-educated workers have been far less likely to lose jobs to the pandemic than lower-income and minority workers have, in part because of a greater ability to work from home.The coronavirus has also reshaped much of the consumption of affluent households: While spending less on restaurants and at shops and movie theaters, they are buying new homes to gain more space or renovating their houses to serve as workplaces as well as homes.___

Unemployment below 10% for first time since pandemic began

KANSAS CITY, MO. – The FBI is asking for the public’s assistance to identify potential victims of Jeffrey Pierce. 

Pierce, a high school basketball coach at Seaman High School in Topeka, KS, has been charged with sexually exploiting minors, according to the United State's Attorney.

Using social networking platforms, Pierce would contact his victims while pretending to be a teenage girl. He would then solicit explicit photos or videos from the juvenile victims. Pierce used the following user/vanity names when contacting his victims through Instagram, Snapchat, KiK, and Grinder:

Instagram: addie8651, addiestrode111, Addie Strode, Kennedy, Addison Strode

Snapchat: jp131780 (Addilyn), Jordan_reh (Kennedy), Kennedy, Lacrone, Jordy Rey Rey, jacy townsend

KiK: jordyreyrey (Addie Strode) (Kennedy)

Pierce, a 40-year-old U.S. citizen, is currently in federal custody and is charged in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas with two counts of producing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.

If you have reason to believe you or your child may be a victim, please email TopekaVAP@fbi.gov. Your response is voluntary but would be useful in the federal investigation and to identify you as a potential victim. Based on the response provided, you may be contacted by the FBI and asked to provide additional information.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599184633467.png" alt="Pierce is in Federal custody -photo Shawnee County Department of Corrections" />
 <figcaption>Pierce is in Federal custody -photo Shawnee County Department of Corrections</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, MO. – The FBI is asking for the public’s assistance to identify potential victims of Jeffrey Pierce. Pierce, a high school basketball coach at Seaman High School in Topeka, KS, has been charged with sexually exploiting minors, according to the United State's Attorney.Using social networking platforms, Pierce would contact his victims while pretending to be a teenage girl. He would then solicit explicit photos or videos from the juvenile victims. Pierce used the following user/vanity names when contacting his victims through Instagram, Snapchat, KiK, and Grinder:Instagram: addie8651, addiestrode111, Addie Strode, Kennedy, Addison StrodeSnapchat: jp131780 (Addilyn), Jordan_reh (Kennedy), Kennedy, Lacrone, Jordy Rey Rey, jacy townsendKiK: jordyreyrey (Addie Strode) (Kennedy)Grinder: DiscreetPierce, a 40-year-old U.S. citizen, is currently in federal custody and is charged in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas with two counts of producing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.If you have reason to believe you or your child may be a victim, please email TopekaVAP@fbi.gov. Your response is voluntary but would be useful in the federal investigation and to identify you as a potential victim. Based on the response provided, you may be contacted by the FBI and asked to provide additional information.

FBI: Kansas coach posed as teen girl; seeking victims

WASHINGTON (AP) —Public health departments, which have struggled for months to test and trace everyone exposed to the novel coronavirus, are now being told to prepare to distribute COVID-19 vaccines as early as Nov. 1.

In a&nbsp;<a href="https://astho.informz.net/ASTHO/data/images/COVID-19%20Pandemic%20Vaccination%20Planning_aug%20State%20ltr_final.pdf" target="_blank">four-page memo</a>&nbsp;this summer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health departments across the country to draft vaccination plans by Oct. 1 “to coincide with the earliest possible release of COVID-19 vaccine.”

The CDC’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield, also wrote to governors last week about the urgent need to have vaccine distribution sites up and running by Nov. 1. Redfield asked governors to expedite the process for setting up these facilities. McClatchy first reported Redfield’s letter.

But&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/e28724a125a127f650a9b6f48f7bb938">health departments</a>&nbsp;that have been&nbsp;<a href="https://khn.org/news/get-the-data-hollowed-out-public-health-system-faces-more-cuts-amid-virus/" target="_blank">underfunded for decades</a>&nbsp;say they currently lack the staff, money and tools to educate people about vaccines and then to distribute, administer and track doses to some 330 million people. Nor do they know when, or if, they’ll get federal aid to do that.

“There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to be prepared for this vaccination program and it will not be complete by Nov. 1,” said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of immunization education at the Immunization Action Coalition, a national vaccine education and advocacy organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota. “States will need more financial resources than they have now.”

Dozens of doctors, nurses and health officials interviewed by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press expressed concern about the country’s readiness to conduct mass vaccinations, as well as frustration with months of inconsistent information from the federal government.

The gaps include figuring out how officials will keep track of who has gotten which doses and how they’ll keep the workers who give the shots safe, with enough protective gear and syringes to do their jobs.

With&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/dacdc8bc428dd4df6511bfa259cfec44">only about half</a>&nbsp;of Americans saying they would get vaccinated, according to a poll from AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, it also will be crucial to educate people about the benefits of vaccination, said Molly Howell, who manages the North Dakota Department of Health’s immunization program.

The unprecedented pace of vaccine development has left many Americans skeptical about the safety of COVID-19 immunizations; others simply don’t trust the federal government.

“We’re in a very deep-red state,” said Ann Lewis, CEO of CareSouth Carolina, a group of community health centers that serve mostly low-income people in five rural counties in South Carolina. “The message that is coming out is not a message of trust and confidence in medical or scientific evidence.”

The U.S. has committed more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicalcountermeasures.gov/app/barda/coronavirus/COVID19.aspx?filter=vaccine" target="_blank">$10 billion to develop new coronavirus vaccines</a>&nbsp;but hasn’t allocated money specifically for distributing and administering vaccines.

And while states, territories and 154 large cities and counties received billions in congressional emergency funding, that money can be used for a variety of purposes, including testing and overtime pay.

An ongoing investigation by KHN and the AP has detailed how state and local public health departments across the U.S. have been starved for decades, leaving them&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/UnderfundedandUnderThreat">underfunded and without adequate resources</a>&nbsp;to confront the coronavirus pandemic. The investigation further found that federal coronavirus funds have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/33228796a8a66a50546c9e3ddacfef1b">slow to reach</a>&nbsp;public health departments, forcing some communities to cancel non-coronavirus vaccine clinics and other essential services.

States are allowed to use some of the federal money they’ve already received to prepare for immunizations. But AP and KHN found that many health departments are so overwhelmed with the current costs of the pandemic — such as for testing and contact tracing — that they can’t reserve money for the vaccine work to come. Health departments will need to hire people to administer the vaccines and systems to track them, and pay for supplies such as protective medical masks, gowns and gloves, as well as warehouses and refrigerator space.

CareSouth Carolina is collaborating with the state health department on testing and the pandemic response. It used federal funding to purchase $140,000 retrofitted vans for mobile testing, which it plans to continue to use to keep vaccines cold and deliver them to residents when the time comes, said Lewis.

Pima County, Arizona, for example, is already at least $30 million short of what health officials need to fight the pandemic, let alone plan for vaccines, said Dr. Francisco Garcia, deputy county administrator and chief medical officer.

Some federal funds will expire soon. The $150 billion that states and local governments received from a fund in the CARES Act, for example, covers only expenses made through&nbsp;<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/state-and-local-governments" target="_blank">the end of the year</a>, said Gretchen Musicant, health commissioner in Minneapolis. That’s a problem, given vaccine distribution may not have even begun.

Although public health officials say they need more money, Congress left Washington for its summer recess without passing a new pandemic relief bill that would include additional funding for vaccine distribution.

“States are anxious to receive those funds as soon as possible, so they can do what they need to be prepared,” said Moore of the Immunization Action Coalition, a national vaccine education and advocacy organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota. “We can’t assume they can take existing funding and attempt the largest vaccination campaign in history.”

Then there’s the basic question of scale. The federally funded Vaccines for Children program immunizes&nbsp;<a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-04-10-00430.pdf" target="_blank">40 million children each year</a>. In 2009 and 2010, the CDC scaled up to vaccinate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2010/04/h1n1-lessons-learned-vaccination-campaign-weathered-rough-road-paid" target="_blank">81 million people</a>&nbsp;against pandemic H1N1 influenza. And last winter, the country distributed 175 million vaccines for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm" target="_blank">seasonal influenza vaccine</a>, according to the CDC.

But for the U.S. to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus, most experts say, the nation would likely need to vaccinate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/art-20486808" target="_blank">roughly 70% of Americans</a>, which translates to 200 million people and — because the first vaccines will require two doses to be effective — 400 million shots.

Although the CDC has overseen immunization campaigns in the past, the Trump administration created a new program, called Operation Warp Speed, to facilitate vaccine development and distribution. In August, the administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/08/14/trump-administration-collaborates-mckesson-covid-19-vaccine-distribution.html" target="_blank">announced that McKesson Corp.</a>, which distributed H1N1 vaccines during that pandemic, will also distribute COVID-19 vaccines to doctors’ offices and clinics.

“With few exceptions, our commercial distribution partners will be responsible for handling all the vaccines,” Operation Warp Speed’s Paul Mango said in an email.

“We’re not going to have 300 million doses all at once,” said Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the Health and Human Services Department, despite earlier government pledges to have many doses ready by the new year. “We believe we are maximizing our probability of success of having&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/14/cdc-asks-4-states-city-draft-coronavirus-distribution-plans/" target="_blank">tens of millions of doses</a>&nbsp;of vaccines by January 2021, which is our goal.”

Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said it will take time for the vaccines to be widespread enough for life to return to what’s considered normal. “We have to be prepared to deal with this virus in the absence of significant vaccine-induced immunity for a period of maybe a year or longer,” Adalja said in August.

In&nbsp;<a href="https://astho.informz.net/ASTHO/data/images/COVID-19%20Pandemic%20Vaccination%20Planning_aug%20State%20ltr_final.pdf" target="_blank">preliminary guidance</a>&nbsp;for state vaccine managers, the CDC said doses will be distributed free of charge from a central location. Health departments’ local vaccination plans may be reviewed by both the CDC and Operation Warp Speed.

The CDC spent two days working with vaccine planners in five locations — North Dakota, Florida, California, Minnesota and Philadelphia — to discuss potential obstacles and solutions.

No actual vaccines were distributed during the planning sessions, which focused on how to get vaccines to people in places as different as urban Philadelphia, where pharmacies abound, and rural North Dakota, which has few chain drugstores but many clinics run by the federal Indian Health Service, said Kris Ehresmann, who directs infectious disease control at the Minnesota Department of Health.

Those planning sessions have made Ehresmann feel more confident about who’s in charge of distributing vaccines. “We are getting more specific guidance from CDC on planning now,” she said. “We feel better about the process, though there are still a lot of unknowns.”

OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY COULD HAMPER RESPONSE

Still, many public health departments will struggle to adequately track who has been vaccinated and when, because a lack of funding in recent decades has left them in the technological dark ages, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

In Mississippi, for example, health officials still rely on faxes, said the state’s health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “You can’t manually handle 1,200 faxes a day and expect anything efficient to happen,″ he said.

When COVID-19 vaccines become available, health providers will need to track where and when patients receive their vaccines, said Moore, the medical director of Tennessee’s immunization plan during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009 and 2010. And with many different shots in the works, they will need to know exactly which one each patient got, she said.

People will need to receive their second COVID-19 dose 21 or 28 days after the first, so health providers will need to remind patients to receive their second shot, Moore said, and ensure that the second dose is the same brand as the first.

The CDC will require vaccinators to provide “&nbsp;<a href="https://astho.informz.net/ASTHO/data/images/COVID-19%20Pandemic%20Vaccination%20Planning_aug%20State%20ltr_final.pdf" target="_blank">dose-level accounting</a>&nbsp;and reporting” for immunizations, so that the agency knows where every dose of COVID-19 vaccine is “at any point in time,” Moore said. Although “the sophistication of these systems has improved dramatically” in the past decade, she said, “many states will still face major challenges meeting data tracking and reporting expectations.”

The CDC is developing an app called the Vaccine Administration Monitoring System for health departments whose data systems don’t meet standards for COVID-19 response, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit based in Rockville, Maryland.

“Those standards haven’t been released,” Hannan said, “so health departments are waiting to invest in necessary IT enhancements.″ The CDC needs to release standards and data expectations as quickly as possible, she added.

Meanwhile, health departments are dealing with what Minnesota’s Ehresmann described as “legacy” vaccine registries, sometimes dating to the late 1980s.

Overwhelmed public health teams are already working long hours to test patients and trace their contacts, a time-consuming process that will need to continue even after vaccines become available.

When vaccines are ready, health departments will need more staffers to identify people at high risk for COVID-19, who should get the vaccine first, Moore said. Public health staff also will be needed to educate the public about the importance of vaccines and to administer shots, she said, as well as monitor patients and report serious side effects.

At an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/08-07-2020/committee-on-equitable-allocation-of-vaccine-for-the-novel-coronavirus-committee-meeting-3" target="_blank">August meeting</a>&nbsp;about vaccine distribution, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of Illinois’ health department, said her state will need to recruit additional health professionals to administer the shots, including nursing students, medical students, dentists, dental hygienists and even veterinarians. Such vaccinators will need medical-grade masks, gowns and gloves to keep themselves safe as they handle needles.

Many health officials say they feel burned by the country’s struggle to provide hospitals with ventilators last spring, when states found themselves&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/2cb6b67a6cce880b22f8d277a45b80b7">bidding against one another</a>&nbsp;for a limited supply. Those concerns are amplified by the continuing difficulties&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/113726f3a679413505f3524e3a131c7e">providing enough testing kits</a>; supplying health workers with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/712b9ddb2678ef0d67be57c71f7abe06">personal protective equipment</a>; allocating drugs such as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b41b3eae4574d3630d6904261ad88871">remdesivir</a>; and recruiting&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/fe2fd477ac117c7d81d458ac2bf08cbc">contact tracers</a>&nbsp;— who track down everyone with whom people diagnosed with COVID-19 have been in contact.

Although Ehresmann said she’s concerned Minnesota could run out of syringes, she said the CDC has assured her it will provide them.

Given that vaccines are far more complex than personal protective equipment and other medical supplies — one vaccine candidate must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit — Plescia said people should be prepared for shortages, delays and mix-ups.

“It’s probably going to be even worse than the problems with testing and PPE,” Plescia said.

Szabo is a writer for Kaiser Health News. Associated Press writer Michelle R. Smith and KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber contributed to this report.

By LIZ SZABOWASHINGTON (AP) —Public health departments, which have struggled for months to test and trace everyone exposed to the novel coronavirus, are now being told to prepare to distribute COVID-19 vaccines as early as Nov. 1.In a&nbsp;<a href="https://astho.informz.net/ASTHO/data/images/COVID-19%20Pandemic%20Vaccination%20Planning_aug%20State%20ltr_final.pdf" target="_blank">four-page memo</a>&nbsp;this summer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health departments across the country to draft vaccination plans by Oct. 1 “to coincide with the earliest possible release of COVID-19 vaccine.”The CDC’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield, also wrote to governors last week about the urgent need to have vaccine distribution sites up and running by Nov. 1. Redfield asked governors to expedite the process for setting up these facilities. McClatchy first reported Redfield’s letter.But&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/e28724a125a127f650a9b6f48f7bb938">health departments</a>&nbsp;that have been&nbsp;<a href="https://khn.org/news/get-the-data-hollowed-out-public-health-system-faces-more-cuts-amid-virus/" target="_blank">underfunded for decades</a>&nbsp;say they currently lack the staff, money and tools to educate people about vaccines and then to distribute, administer and track doses to some 330 million people. Nor do they know when, or if, they’ll get federal aid to do that.“There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to be prepared for this vaccination program and it will not be complete by Nov. 1,” said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of immunization education at the Immunization Action Coalition, a national vaccine education and advocacy organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota. “States will need more financial resources than they have now.”Dozens of doctors, nurses and health officials interviewed by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press expressed concern about the country’s readiness to conduct mass vaccinations, as well as frustration with months of inconsistent information from the federal government.The gaps include figuring out how officials will keep track of who has gotten which doses and how they’ll keep the workers who give the shots safe, with enough protective gear and syringes to do their jobs.With&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/dacdc8bc428dd4df6511bfa259cfec44">only about half</a>&nbsp;of Americans saying they would get vaccinated, according to a poll from AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, it also will be crucial to educate people about the benefits of vaccination, said Molly Howell, who manages the North Dakota Department of Health’s immunization program.The unprecedented pace of vaccine development has left many Americans skeptical about the safety of COVID-19 immunizations; others simply don’t trust the federal government.“We’re in a very deep-red state,” said Ann Lewis, CEO of CareSouth Carolina, a group of community health centers that serve mostly low-income people in five rural counties in South Carolina. “The message that is coming out is not a message of trust and confidence in medical or scientific evidence.”PAYING FOR THE ROLLOUTThe U.S. has committed more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicalcountermeasures.gov/app/barda/coronavirus/COVID19.aspx?filter=vaccine" target="_blank">$10 billion to develop new coronavirus vaccines</a>&nbsp;but hasn’t allocated money specifically for distributing and administering vaccines.And while states, territories and 154 large cities and counties received billions in congressional emergency funding, that money can be used for a variety of purposes, including testing and overtime pay.An ongoing investigation by KHN and the AP has detailed how state and local public health departments across the U.S. have been starved for decades, leaving them&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/UnderfundedandUnderThreat">underfunded and without adequate resources</a>&nbsp;to confront the coronavirus pandemic. The investigation further found that federal coronavirus funds have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/33228796a8a66a50546c9e3ddacfef1b">slow to reach</a>&nbsp;public health departments, forcing some communities to cancel non-coronavirus vaccine clinics and other essential services.States are allowed to use some of the federal money they’ve already received to prepare for immunizations. But AP and KHN found that many health departments are so overwhelmed with the current costs of the pandemic — such as for testing and contact tracing — that they can’t reserve money for the vaccine work to come. Health departments will need to hire people to administer the vaccines and systems to track them, and pay for supplies such as protective medical masks, gowns and gloves, as well as warehouses and refrigerator space.CareSouth Carolina is collaborating with the state health department on testing and the pandemic response. It used federal funding to purchase $140,000 retrofitted vans for mobile testing, which it plans to continue to use to keep vaccines cold and deliver them to residents when the time comes, said Lewis.But most vaccine costs will be new.Pima County, Arizona, for example, is already at least $30 million short of what health officials need to fight the pandemic, let alone plan for vaccines, said Dr. Francisco Garcia, deputy county administrator and chief medical officer.Some federal funds will expire soon. The $150 billion that states and local governments received from a fund in the CARES Act, for example, covers only expenses made through&nbsp;<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/state-and-local-governments" target="_blank">the end of the year</a>, said Gretchen Musicant, health commissioner in Minneapolis. That’s a problem, given vaccine distribution may not have even begun.Although public health officials say they need more money, Congress left Washington for its summer recess without passing a new pandemic relief bill that would include additional funding for vaccine distribution.“States are anxious to receive those funds as soon as possible, so they can do what they need to be prepared,” said Moore of the Immunization Action Coalition, a national vaccine education and advocacy organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota. “We can’t assume they can take existing funding and attempt the largest vaccination campaign in history.”WHAT’S THE PLAN?Then there’s the basic question of scale. The federally funded Vaccines for Children program immunizes&nbsp;<a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-04-10-00430.pdf" target="_blank">40 million children each year</a>. In 2009 and 2010, the CDC scaled up to vaccinate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2010/04/h1n1-lessons-learned-vaccination-campaign-weathered-rough-road-paid" target="_blank">81 million people</a>&nbsp;against pandemic H1N1 influenza. And last winter, the country distributed 175 million vaccines for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm" target="_blank">seasonal influenza vaccine</a>, according to the CDC.But for the U.S. to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus, most experts say, the nation would likely need to vaccinate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/art-20486808" target="_blank">roughly 70% of Americans</a>, which translates to 200 million people and — because the first vaccines will require two doses to be effective — 400 million shots.Although the CDC has overseen immunization campaigns in the past, the Trump administration created a new program, called Operation Warp Speed, to facilitate vaccine development and distribution. In August, the administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/08/14/trump-administration-collaborates-mckesson-covid-19-vaccine-distribution.html" target="_blank">announced that McKesson Corp.</a>, which distributed H1N1 vaccines during that pandemic, will also distribute COVID-19 vaccines to doctors’ offices and clinics.“With few exceptions, our commercial distribution partners will be responsible for handling all the vaccines,” Operation Warp Speed’s Paul Mango said in an email.“We’re not going to have 300 million doses all at once,” said Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the Health and Human Services Department, despite earlier government pledges to have many doses ready by the new year. “We believe we are maximizing our probability of success of having&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/14/cdc-asks-4-states-city-draft-coronavirus-distribution-plans/" target="_blank">tens of millions of doses</a>&nbsp;of vaccines by January 2021, which is our goal.”Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said it will take time for the vaccines to be widespread enough for life to return to what’s considered normal. “We have to be prepared to deal with this virus in the absence of significant vaccine-induced immunity for a period of maybe a year or longer,” Adalja said in August.In&nbsp;<a href="https://astho.informz.net/ASTHO/data/images/COVID-19%20Pandemic%20Vaccination%20Planning_aug%20State%20ltr_final.pdf" target="_blank">preliminary guidance</a>&nbsp;for state vaccine managers, the CDC said doses will be distributed free of charge from a central location. Health departments’ local vaccination plans may be reviewed by both the CDC and Operation Warp Speed.The CDC spent two days working with vaccine planners in five locations — North Dakota, Florida, California, Minnesota and Philadelphia — to discuss potential obstacles and solutions.No actual vaccines were distributed during the planning sessions, which focused on how to get vaccines to people in places as different as urban Philadelphia, where pharmacies abound, and rural North Dakota, which has few chain drugstores but many clinics run by the federal Indian Health Service, said Kris Ehresmann, who directs infectious disease control at the Minnesota Department of Health.Those planning sessions have made Ehresmann feel more confident about who’s in charge of distributing vaccines. “We are getting more specific guidance from CDC on planning now,” she said. “We feel better about the process, though there are still a lot of unknowns.”OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY COULD HAMPER RESPONSEStill, many public health departments will struggle to adequately track who has been vaccinated and when, because a lack of funding in recent decades has left them in the technological dark ages, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.In Mississippi, for example, health officials still rely on faxes, said the state’s health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “You can’t manually handle 1,200 faxes a day and expect anything efficient to happen,″ he said.When COVID-19 vaccines become available, health providers will need to track where and when patients receive their vaccines, said Moore, the medical director of Tennessee’s immunization plan during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009 and 2010. And with many different shots in the works, they will need to know exactly which one each patient got, she said.People will need to receive their second COVID-19 dose 21 or 28 days after the first, so health providers will need to remind patients to receive their second shot, Moore said, and ensure that the second dose is the same brand as the first.The CDC will require vaccinators to provide “&nbsp;<a href="https://astho.informz.net/ASTHO/data/images/COVID-19%20Pandemic%20Vaccination%20Planning_aug%20State%20ltr_final.pdf" target="_blank">dose-level accounting</a>&nbsp;and reporting” for immunizations, so that the agency knows where every dose of COVID-19 vaccine is “at any point in time,” Moore said. Although “the sophistication of these systems has improved dramatically” in the past decade, she said, “many states will still face major challenges meeting data tracking and reporting expectations.”The CDC is developing an app called the Vaccine Administration Monitoring System for health departments whose data systems don’t meet standards for COVID-19 response, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit based in Rockville, Maryland.“Those standards haven’t been released,” Hannan said, “so health departments are waiting to invest in necessary IT enhancements.″ The CDC needs to release standards and data expectations as quickly as possible, she added.Meanwhile, health departments are dealing with what Minnesota’s Ehresmann described as “legacy” vaccine registries, sometimes dating to the late 1980s.A HISTORIC TASKOverwhelmed public health teams are already working long hours to test patients and trace their contacts, a time-consuming process that will need to continue even after vaccines become available.When vaccines are ready, health departments will need more staffers to identify people at high risk for COVID-19, who should get the vaccine first, Moore said. Public health staff also will be needed to educate the public about the importance of vaccines and to administer shots, she said, as well as monitor patients and report serious side effects.At an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/08-07-2020/committee-on-equitable-allocation-of-vaccine-for-the-novel-coronavirus-committee-meeting-3" target="_blank">August meeting</a>&nbsp;about vaccine distribution, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of Illinois’ health department, said her state will need to recruit additional health professionals to administer the shots, including nursing students, medical students, dentists, dental hygienists and even veterinarians. Such vaccinators will need medical-grade masks, gowns and gloves to keep themselves safe as they handle needles.Many health officials say they feel burned by the country’s struggle to provide hospitals with ventilators last spring, when states found themselves&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/2cb6b67a6cce880b22f8d277a45b80b7">bidding against one another</a>&nbsp;for a limited supply. Those concerns are amplified by the continuing difficulties&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/113726f3a679413505f3524e3a131c7e">providing enough testing kits</a>; supplying health workers with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/712b9ddb2678ef0d67be57c71f7abe06">personal protective equipment</a>; allocating drugs such as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b41b3eae4574d3630d6904261ad88871">remdesivir</a>; and recruiting&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/fe2fd477ac117c7d81d458ac2bf08cbc">contact tracers</a>&nbsp;— who track down everyone with whom people diagnosed with COVID-19 have been in contact.Although Ehresmann said she’s concerned Minnesota could run out of syringes, she said the CDC has assured her it will provide them.Given that vaccines are far more complex than personal protective equipment and other medical supplies — one vaccine candidate must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit — Plescia said people should be prepared for shortages, delays and mix-ups.“It’s probably going to be even worse than the problems with testing and PPE,” Plescia said.___Szabo is a writer for Kaiser Health News. Associated Press writer Michelle R. Smith and KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber contributed to this report.

Health officials worry nation not ready for COVID-19 vaccine

ROOKS COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 7p.m. Thursday in Rooks County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Silverado driven by Alec Hrabe, 57, Stockton, was eastbound on K Terrace, one mile west of U.S. 183, one mile south of Stockton.

The driver lost control on a curve. The pickup entered the north ditch, hit a washout, slid sideways, rolled onto its side and ejected the driver.

Hrabe was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to&nbsp;Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

ROOKS COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 7p.m. Thursday in Rooks County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Silverado driven by Alec Hrabe, 57, Stockton, was eastbound on K Terrace, one mile west of U.S. 183, one mile south of Stockton.The driver lost control on a curve. The pickup entered the north ditch, hit a washout, slid sideways, rolled onto its side and ejected the driver.Hrabe was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to&nbsp;Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Kan. man dies after being ejected when pickup rolls

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A man was found fatally shot inside a burning vehicle near U.S. 71 in Kansas City, police said.

Police were called to the area around 12:15 a.m. Thursday for a report of a shooting and found the vehicle on the 75th Street on-ramp in flames. Officers then found a man inside the vehicle with gunshot wounds, police said in a news release. The officers pulled him from the burning vehicle and rendered medical aid in an effort to save his life.

The man was taken by medics to a hospital, where he died. Police had not yet released the victim’s name by midmorning Thursday, and no arrests had been reported in the case.

The death marked the 133rd homicide in Kansas City this year, compared with 104 homicides by the same time last year, according to police records.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A man was found fatally shot inside a burning vehicle near U.S. 71 in Kansas City, police said.Police were called to the area around 12:15 a.m. Thursday for a report of a shooting and found the vehicle on the 75th Street on-ramp in flames. Officers then found a man inside the vehicle with gunshot wounds, police said in a news release. The officers pulled him from the burning vehicle and rendered medical aid in an effort to save his life.The man was taken by medics to a hospital, where he died. Police had not yet released the victim’s name by midmorning Thursday, and no arrests had been reported in the case.The death marked the 133rd homicide in Kansas City this year, compared with 104 homicides by the same time last year, according to police records.

KC Police: Man found fatally shot in burning vehicle

KANSAS CITY, KAN.&nbsp;– A Missouri man with a prior child sexual exploitation conviction pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

William Lockwood, 41, who lived in Kansas City, Kan., at the time of the crime and now lives in Pleasant Valley, Mo., pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. The investigation began when Dropbox sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In his plea, Lockwood admitted he uploaded child pornography to the Dropbox account and provided access to other users.

Investigators seized 26 videos of child sexual abuse from Lockwood’s account. In 2012, Lockwood was convicted in Collier County, Fla., on a charge of obscene communication for the purpose of luring a child for sex. Sentencing is set for Dec. 3.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599167940260.png" alt="Lockwood photo Sex Offender Registry" />
 <figcaption>Lockwood photo Sex Offender Registry</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, KAN.&nbsp;– A Missouri man with a prior child sexual exploitation conviction pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.William Lockwood, 41, who lived in Kansas City, Kan., at the time of the crime and now lives in Pleasant Valley, Mo., pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. The investigation began when Dropbox sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In his plea, Lockwood admitted he uploaded child pornography to the Dropbox account and provided access to other users.Investigators seized 26 videos of child sexual abuse from Lockwood’s account. In 2012, Lockwood was convicted in Collier County, Fla., on a charge of obscene communication for the purpose of luring a child for sex. Sentencing is set for Dec. 3.

Florida sex offender enters plea in KC child porn case

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — One councilman has come under fire for wearing blackface to a Halloween party and another from the same city has apologized in a Facebook post for costumes in which he dressed as a slave owner one year and as someone who was mentally disabled the next.

St. Joseph City Councilman Brian Myers issued the apology Wednesday. Myers had said days earlier that Councilman Kent “Spanky” O’Dell owed the public an apology when a picture resurfaced of O’Dell dressed as Aunt Jemima in blackface at a Halloween party in 2012.

O’Dell, who also is the deputy mayor, posted a statement on Facebook that has since been deleted in which he said he “didn’t have a racist bone” in his body.

“I had Halloween parties every year and 8 years ago I chose to go as the character Aunt Jemima,” O’Dell’s post said. “I sure would have never done this knowing I was offending anyone and especially my African-American friends.”

O’Dell didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

Myers later made his own post, which was visible only to his Facebook friends, including a News-Press reporter.

“I’m not perfect either,” Myers wrote. “And for me to state that someone owes the community an apology for an offensive Halloween costume (no matter how many years ago it was), without publicly recognizing and acknowledging my own insensitive actions years ago would make me a huge hypocrite.”

Myers told The Associated Press that he and a Black friend attended a party nearly a decade ago where his friend dressed like a slave and he dressed as Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders. The following year, he wore a bike helmet and pretended he had been in a crash, slurring his speech, he said.

“I think an apology for my behavior is long overdue and that is why I made that post,” Myers told the AP. “Things of this nature have always been wrong. Sometimes it takes seeing things through the eyes of others to realize just how ignorant you are when you are younger.”

St. Joseph Mayor Bill McMurray said the only recourse for such behavior was for voters to recall council members from office.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599162334240.png" alt="Kent “Spanky” O’Dell-photo from an earlier DWI arrest in Missouri.&nbsp;He was re-elected in 2018 and serves <a href="https://www.stjoemo.info/480/Kent-ODell-Councilmember-At-Large">as the deputy mayor.</a>" />
 <figcaption>Kent “Spanky” O’Dell-photo from an earlier DWI arrest in Missouri.&nbsp;He was re-elected in 2018 and serves <a href="https://www.stjoemo.info/480/Kent-ODell-Councilmember-At-Large">as the deputy mayor.</a></figcaption>
 </figure>ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — One councilman has come under fire for wearing blackface to a Halloween party and another from the same city has apologized in a Facebook post for costumes in which he dressed as a slave owner one year and as someone who was mentally disabled the next.St. Joseph City Councilman Brian Myers issued the apology Wednesday. Myers had said days earlier that Councilman Kent “Spanky” O’Dell owed the public an apology when a picture resurfaced of O’Dell dressed as Aunt Jemima in blackface at a Halloween party in 2012.O’Dell, who also is the deputy mayor, posted a statement on Facebook that has since been deleted in which he said he “didn’t have a racist bone” in his body.“I had Halloween parties every year and 8 years ago I chose to go as the character Aunt Jemima,” O’Dell’s post said. “I sure would have never done this knowing I was offending anyone and especially my African-American friends.”O’Dell didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.Myers later made his own post, which was visible only to his Facebook friends, including a News-Press reporter.“I’m not perfect either,” Myers wrote. “And for me to state that someone owes the community an apology for an offensive Halloween costume (no matter how many years ago it was), without publicly recognizing and acknowledging my own insensitive actions years ago would make me a huge hypocrite.”Myers told The Associated Press that he and a Black friend attended a party nearly a decade ago where his friend dressed like a slave and he dressed as Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders. The following year, he wore a bike helmet and pretended he had been in a crash, slurring his speech, he said.“I think an apology for my behavior is long overdue and that is why I made that post,” Myers told the AP. “Things of this nature have always been wrong. Sometimes it takes seeing things through the eyes of others to realize just how ignorant you are when you are younger.”St. Joseph Mayor Bill McMurray said the only recourse for such behavior was for voters to recall council members from office.

2 city councilmen answer for racist Halloween costumes

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — Hundreds are quarantined at several Kansas universities as a growing number of students test positive for the coronavirus, raising concerns that they could bring the virus home with them over the upcoming holiday weekend.

At Pittsburg State University, 96 positive COVID-19 cases have been recorded among students since the fall semester began Aug. 17, officials said during a media briefing Wednesday. Currently, 101 people are in isolation, or separated from people who are not sick, and about 600 are in quarantine, or separated for the monitoring of the development of symptoms.

Pittsburg State officials are “strongly suggesting” that students remain in Pittsburg over the coming Labor Day weekend.

“We feel we have a good handle on the situation here,” Tim Stebbins, the public health officer in Crawford County, where Pittsburg is located. “We don’t need the virus coming in and out due to student travel.”

At Emporia State University, officials announced Wednesday that all athletic activities were temporarily suspended. The school said in a news release that total of 14 student-athletes out of more than 400 spread across all teams had tested positive for COVID-19.

The University of Kansas announced Wednesday that the number of positive cases resulting from compulsory testing of students arriving on campus had grown to 546, for a 2.42% overall positivity rate, according to a&nbsp;<a href="http://chancellor.ku.edu/news/2020/sep2" target="_blank">news release</a>. Among fraternities and sororities, the percentage testing positive shrank from 10% to 8.38% as the houses added freshmen members who had lower rates of infection to their ranks. Nine Greek houses were places on quarantine last week.

At Benedictine College in Atchison, health officials in the county want to put all of the school’s 2,000 students in quarantine for 14 days. Under the plan, students would only leave their residential quarters to obtain packed meals from the cafeteria and participate in religious services.

Currently, 16 students are in isolation in the community after testing positive and 132 are in quarantine as a precaution because they may have been exposed, said college spokesman Steve Johnson. He said the school thinks it has adequate mitigation in place and quarantining all students is “not the best solution.” No final decision has been made.

Statewide, Kansas reported 1,328 new COVID-19 cases from Monday to Wednesday, bringing the state’s confirmed total to 43,940. That includes 15 sports clusters with 119 cases. Health officials also reported an additional 12 COVID-19-related deaths for a statewide death toll of 458.

One of the deadliest outbreaks was at Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation in Wyandotte County, where 37 residents died, KCUR&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-09-03/scathing-federal-inspection-pulls-curtain-back-on-one-of-kansas-deadliest-coronavirus-outbreaksKCUR" target="_blank">reports</a>. A newly released scathing federal report said that weeks into the outbreak, inspectors still saw health workers caring for COVID-19 patients without proper protective gear.

Riverbend argued a federal law shields it against 12 lawsuits that have been filed, but a federal judge rejected the argument two weeks ago.

“This report just confirms the allegations we’ve already made,” said Rachel Stahle, a lawyer representing families in seven of the lawsuits.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — Hundreds are quarantined at several Kansas universities as a growing number of students test positive for the coronavirus, raising concerns that they could bring the virus home with them over the upcoming holiday weekend.At Pittsburg State University, 96 positive COVID-19 cases have been recorded among students since the fall semester began Aug. 17, officials said during a media briefing Wednesday. Currently, 101 people are in isolation, or separated from people who are not sick, and about 600 are in quarantine, or separated for the monitoring of the development of symptoms.Pittsburg State officials are “strongly suggesting” that students remain in Pittsburg over the coming Labor Day weekend.“We feel we have a good handle on the situation here,” Tim Stebbins, the public health officer in Crawford County, where Pittsburg is located. “We don’t need the virus coming in and out due to student travel.”At Emporia State University, officials announced Wednesday that all athletic activities were temporarily suspended. The school said in a news release that total of 14 student-athletes out of more than 400 spread across all teams had tested positive for COVID-19.The University of Kansas announced Wednesday that the number of positive cases resulting from compulsory testing of students arriving on campus had grown to 546, for a 2.42% overall positivity rate, according to a&nbsp;<a href="http://chancellor.ku.edu/news/2020/sep2" target="_blank">news release</a>. Among fraternities and sororities, the percentage testing positive shrank from 10% to 8.38% as the houses added freshmen members who had lower rates of infection to their ranks. Nine Greek houses were places on quarantine last week.At Benedictine College in Atchison, health officials in the county want to put all of the school’s 2,000 students in quarantine for 14 days. Under the plan, students would only leave their residential quarters to obtain packed meals from the cafeteria and participate in religious services.Currently, 16 students are in isolation in the community after testing positive and 132 are in quarantine as a precaution because they may have been exposed, said college spokesman Steve Johnson. He said the school thinks it has adequate mitigation in place and quarantining all students is “not the best solution.” No final decision has been made.Statewide, Kansas reported 1,328 new COVID-19 cases from Monday to Wednesday, bringing the state’s confirmed total to 43,940. That includes 15 sports clusters with 119 cases. Health officials also reported an additional 12 COVID-19-related deaths for a statewide death toll of 458.One of the deadliest outbreaks was at Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation in Wyandotte County, where 37 residents died, KCUR&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-09-03/scathing-federal-inspection-pulls-curtain-back-on-one-of-kansas-deadliest-coronavirus-outbreaksKCUR" target="_blank">reports</a>. A newly released scathing federal report said that weeks into the outbreak, inspectors still saw health workers caring for COVID-19 patients without proper protective gear.Riverbend argued a federal law shields it against 12 lawsuits that have been filed, but a federal judge rejected the argument two weeks ago.“This report just confirms the allegations we’ve already made,” said Rachel Stahle, a lawyer representing families in seven of the lawsuits.

Hundreds in quarantine after COVID-19 outbreaks at Kan. schools 

Topeka —Governor Laura Kelly issued a statement Thursday afternoon on the&nbsp; State Finance Council’s Republican leadership voting down additional benefits for Kansans who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic:

"While we are still hoping the federal government takes action and extends&nbsp;the FPUC program, my administration is committed to using whatever tools are available to help Kansans. I'm disappointed that Republican leaders on the State Finance Council continue to play politics during a public&nbsp;health crisis,&nbsp;instead of supporting the&nbsp;plan that&nbsp;was introduced by President&nbsp;Trump.&nbsp;

"Republican leaders in the Legislature have said they want to help Kansans who are struggling with the impacts of COVID-19, but the first chance they had to do something about it, they voted to make a political point instead of supporting the people of this state who need help."&nbsp;

Topeka —Governor Laura Kelly issued a statement Thursday afternoon on the&nbsp; State Finance Council’s Republican leadership voting down additional benefits for Kansans who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic:"While we are still hoping the federal government takes action and extends&nbsp;the FPUC program, my administration is committed to using whatever tools are available to help Kansans. I'm disappointed that Republican leaders on the State Finance Council continue to play politics during a public&nbsp;health crisis,&nbsp;instead of supporting the&nbsp;plan that&nbsp;was introduced by President&nbsp;Trump.&nbsp;"Republican leaders in the Legislature have said they want to help Kansans who are struggling with the impacts of COVID-19, but the first chance they had to do something about it, they voted to make a political point instead of supporting the people of this state who need help."&nbsp;

Gov. criticizes GOP leaders blocking more unemployment benefits 

SEDGWICK COUNTY —The Sedgwick County local health officer Dr. Gerald Minns signed a new emergency public health order Thursday, according to a media release from the county. It will take effect Sept. 9 and remain in effect until midnight Oct. 21. 

Residents are sill required to wear masks or face coverings in public spaces. Children age 5 or younger are not required to wear masks. Masks with valves or vents are not allowed.

The order adopts Phase 2 of the Governor's Ad Astra Plan which allows groups of up to 15 people that must be located 6 feet away from other groups.

Businesses will be required to continue operating at 50 percent of the fire code occupancy and close to the public at 11p.m.

Minns will continue to review and monitor COVID-19 trends in the community and will consider lifting restrictions when trends move in a positive direction.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —The Sedgwick County local health officer Dr. Gerald Minns signed a new emergency public health order Thursday, according to a media release from the county. It will take effect Sept. 9 and remain in effect until midnight Oct. 21. Residents are sill required to wear masks or face coverings in public spaces. Children age 5 or younger are not required to wear masks. Masks with valves or vents are not allowed.The order adopts Phase 2 of the Governor's Ad Astra Plan which allows groups of up to 15 people that must be located 6 feet away from other groups.Businesses will be required to continue operating at 50 percent of the fire code occupancy and close to the public at 11p.m.Minns will continue to review and monitor COVID-19 trends in the community and will consider lifting restrictions when trends move in a positive direction.

Sedgwick Co. extends  local mask order until October 21

FINNEY COUNTY&nbsp;-Authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged criminal threat involving law enforcement officers.

Just after 3:30 p.m Monday, Deputies with the Finney County Sheriff’s Office responded to a man verbally assaulting an off-duty Sheriff’s Deputy at her residence, according to&nbsp;Sergeant Lana Urteaga.

During the investigation of the assault, deputies learned a man, later identified as Jason Wood, 42, Garden City had gone to the deputy’s residence and made erratic comments about the Finney County Sheriff’s Offfice. 

Wood was very angry and aggressive toward the deputy and tried to enter into her residence. She was able to close her front door, and he left the area.

At around 6:30 p.m.&nbsp; Mr.Wood was located in the 2200 block of Crestway Drive by an on-duty Finney County Sheriff’s deputy who was in an unmarked vehicle. 

The deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop on Wood. Officers of the GCPD responded to the area to assist; however, officers and deputies lost sight of him. A short time later, Mr. Wood was found in the parking lot of Walmart Supercenter, 3101 East Kansas Ave, where he exited his vehicle and ran into the store. 

Witnesses and employees reported that&nbsp; Wood was making comments about harming officers of the Garden City Police Department as well as comments against the deputies with the Finney County Sheriff’s Office.

Store patron reported hearing Wood making comments about getting a gun and shooting officers and deputies and walked towards the sporting-goods section of Walmart Supercenter.

Store employees prevented Wood was from retrieving a firearm. 

Officers then arrived to take Wood into custody without incident, according to Urteaga.

He remains jailed on a bond of $150,000 on requested charges of Assault and Aggravated Criminal Threat and transported to the Finney County Jail. The case has been turned over to the Finney County Attorney’s Office for further review.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599083904550.png" alt="Wood-photo Finney County" />
 <figcaption>Wood-photo Finney County</figcaption>
 </figure>FINNEY COUNTY&nbsp;-Authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged criminal threat involving law enforcement officers.Just after 3:30 p.m Monday, Deputies with the Finney County Sheriff’s Office responded to a man verbally assaulting an off-duty Sheriff’s Deputy at her residence, according to&nbsp;Sergeant Lana Urteaga.During the investigation of the assault, deputies learned a man, later identified as Jason Wood, 42, Garden City had gone to the deputy’s residence and made erratic comments about the Finney County Sheriff’s Offfice. Wood was very angry and aggressive toward the deputy and tried to enter into her residence. She was able to close her front door, and he left the area.At around 6:30 p.m.&nbsp; Mr.Wood was located in the 2200 block of Crestway Drive by an on-duty Finney County Sheriff’s deputy who was in an unmarked vehicle. The deputy attempted to conduct a traffic stop on Wood. Officers of the GCPD responded to the area to assist; however, officers and deputies lost sight of him. A short time later, Mr. Wood was found in the parking lot of Walmart Supercenter, 3101 East Kansas Ave, where he exited his vehicle and ran into the store. Witnesses and employees reported that&nbsp; Wood was making comments about harming officers of the Garden City Police Department as well as comments against the deputies with the Finney County Sheriff’s Office.Store patron reported hearing Wood making comments about getting a gun and shooting officers and deputies and walked towards the sporting-goods section of Walmart Supercenter.Store employees prevented Wood was from retrieving a firearm. Officers then arrived to take Wood into custody without incident, according to Urteaga.He remains jailed on a bond of $150,000 on requested charges of Assault and Aggravated Criminal Threat and transported to the Finney County Jail. The case has been turned over to the Finney County Attorney’s Office for further review.

SW Kan. man accused of threatening officers, deputies

TOPEKA –&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly toured&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;of Sedgwick County Children’s Services to discuss how the pandemic has impacted&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;and other Community Mental Health Centers, and how her administration can help local partners increase access to mental health services for Kansans, according to a media release.

“The challenges brought on by the COVID-19 virus have led to an increased number of adults and children accessing mental health services at Community Mental Health Centers,”&nbsp;Governor Kelly said.&nbsp;“The staff at&nbsp;COMCARE, and all mental health professionals across Kansas, have met this influx of patients head on. They deserve our thanks for stepping up to aid those who seek their services.”

Governor Kelly said during the tour that expanding Medicaid, in addition to providing 150,000 Kansans access to quality, affordable care, would also increase funding for critical mental health services and facilities like&nbsp;COMCARE.

“Medicaid expansion isn’t just about&nbsp;<a></a>helping thousands of Kansans get affordable health insurance or providing support for our rural hospitals, it will improve mental health care and services for Kansans who need them the most,”&nbsp;Governor Kelly said.

Joan Tammany,&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;Executive Director, lead Thursday’s tour of&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;Children’s Services.

“I appreciate Governor Kelly for visiting our children’s facility here in Wichita, and for her ongoing work to ensure Kansans have access to affordable mental health care,”&nbsp;Tammany said.&nbsp;“COMCARE&nbsp;is committed to providing the Sedgwick County community with the highest quality mental health and substance abuse services, and we look forward to partnering with Governor Kelly’s administration now and into the future to help those impacted by the pandemic.”

Andy Brown, Commissioner of Behavioral Health Services for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, also attended the tour.

“The mental health services provided by Kansas CMHCs, like&nbsp;COMCARE, provide a safety net for the newly uninsured impacted by COVID-19 job losses,”&nbsp;Brown said.&nbsp;“They stand ready to assist Kansans who are experiencing anxiety or depression related to the pandemic. Their work is essential and critical to our recovery efforts.”

Governor Kelly’s visit Thursday coincided with the beginning of National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, which is recognized in September each year.

COMCARE&nbsp;of Sedgwick County is the largest of the state’s 27 Community Mental Health Centers. It provides a wide array of mental health and substance abuse services to over 19,000 individuals in the Sedgwick County community.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599159958771.png" alt="Governor Kelly’s visit Thursday coincided with the beginning of National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, which is recognized in September each year. -photo office of Kan. governor" />
 <figcaption>Governor Kelly’s visit Thursday coincided with the beginning of National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, which is recognized in September each year. -photo office of Kan. governor</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA –&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly toured&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;of Sedgwick County Children’s Services to discuss how the pandemic has impacted&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;and other Community Mental Health Centers, and how her administration can help local partners increase access to mental health services for Kansans, according to a media release.“The challenges brought on by the COVID-19 virus have led to an increased number of adults and children accessing mental health services at Community Mental Health Centers,”&nbsp;Governor Kelly said.&nbsp;“The staff at&nbsp;COMCARE, and all mental health professionals across Kansas, have met this influx of patients head on. They deserve our thanks for stepping up to aid those who seek their services.”Governor Kelly said during the tour that expanding Medicaid, in addition to providing 150,000 Kansans access to quality, affordable care, would also increase funding for critical mental health services and facilities like&nbsp;COMCARE.“Medicaid expansion isn’t just about&nbsp;<a></a>helping thousands of Kansans get affordable health insurance or providing support for our rural hospitals, it will improve mental health care and services for Kansans who need them the most,”&nbsp;Governor Kelly said.Joan Tammany,&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;Executive Director, lead Thursday’s tour of&nbsp;COMCARE&nbsp;Children’s Services.“I appreciate Governor Kelly for visiting our children’s facility here in Wichita, and for her ongoing work to ensure Kansans have access to affordable mental health care,”&nbsp;Tammany said.&nbsp;“COMCARE&nbsp;is committed to providing the Sedgwick County community with the highest quality mental health and substance abuse services, and we look forward to partnering with Governor Kelly’s administration now and into the future to help those impacted by the pandemic.”Andy Brown, Commissioner of Behavioral Health Services for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, also attended the tour.“The mental health services provided by Kansas CMHCs, like&nbsp;COMCARE, provide a safety net for the newly uninsured impacted by COVID-19 job losses,”&nbsp;Brown said.&nbsp;“They stand ready to assist Kansans who are experiencing anxiety or depression related to the pandemic. Their work is essential and critical to our recovery efforts.”Governor Kelly’s visit Thursday coincided with the beginning of National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, which is recognized in September each year.About&nbsp;COMCARE:COMCARE&nbsp;of Sedgwick County is the largest of the state’s 27 Community Mental Health Centers. It provides a wide array of mental health and substance abuse services to over 19,000 individuals in the Sedgwick County community.

Gov. tours state's largest community mental health center

SEDGWICK COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal hit and run and asking the public for help with information.

Just before 9p.m. Wednesday, police responded to an injury, hit and run accident at 27th and Arkansas in Wichita, according to Captain Brent Allred.

At the scene, first responders located 56-year-old Harold Long of Wichita in the street unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Allred.

Investigators determined Long was walking east across Arkansas Street when a southbound black or dark colored Chevy Tahoe him him and left the scene.

The vehicle probably has some front end damage, according to Allred.

This is the third hit and run crash in Wichita this week. Investigators identified and have spoken to the driver of a 1993 Chevy van that struck a woman at 21st and Wellington on August 31, according to Allred. Police have not made an arrest.

Police are also continue to investigating the hit and run that occurred August 2 at 900 West 29th Street South in Wichita, according to Allred. Police are asking that anyone that may have information on these incidents or who where in the areas contact authorities.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a hit and run accident that sent a woman to a hospital with critical injuries.

Just after 8:30 p.m. Monday, police responded to a hit and run involving a pedestrian at 21st&nbsp;and Wellington in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, officers located a 54-year-old woman in the roadway in critical condition.&nbsp; EMS transported her to an area hospital for medical treatment and and she remains hospitalized, according to Davidson.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599150043956.png" alt="First responders on the scene of the Wednesday fatal hit and run-photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>First responders on the scene of the Wednesday fatal hit and run-photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal hit and run and asking the public for help with information.Just before 9p.m. Wednesday, police responded to an injury, hit and run accident at 27th and Arkansas in Wichita, according to Captain Brent Allred.At the scene, first responders located 56-year-old Harold Long of Wichita in the street unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Allred.Investigators determined Long was walking east across Arkansas Street when a southbound black or dark colored Chevy Tahoe him him and left the scene.The vehicle probably has some front end damage, according to Allred.This is the third hit and run crash in Wichita this week. Investigators identified and have spoken to the driver of a 1993 Chevy van that struck a woman at 21st and Wellington on August 31, according to Allred. Police have not made an arrest.Police are also continue to investigating the hit and run that occurred August 2 at 900 West 29th Street South in Wichita, according to Allred. Police are asking that anyone that may have information on these incidents or who where in the areas contact authorities.--------SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a hit and run accident that sent a woman to a hospital with critical injuries.Just after 8:30 p.m. Monday, police responded to a hit and run involving a pedestrian at 21st&nbsp;and Wellington in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.Upon arrival, officers located a 54-year-old woman in the roadway in critical condition.&nbsp; EMS transported her to an area hospital for medical treatment and and she remains hospitalized, according to Davidson.The investigation revealed a white 1993 Chevy Van was traveling east on 21st&nbsp;Street North and struck the woman who was crossing 21st&nbsp;on Wellington from the north to the south.&nbsp; The driver then fled the scene.Officers later located the van unoccupied at 13th&nbsp;and Waco in the parking lot of business.If anyone has any information on this case, they can contact WPD accident investigators at 316-350-3685, the See Something Say Something hotline at 316-519-2282, or Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111.