KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities say one person was killed and four were injured in a shooting in a historic jazz district in Kansas City.

Police responded around 2:30 a.m. Saturday to the shooting in the 18th and Vine district, near the American Jazz Museum, which draws thousands of visitors every year.

Kansas City Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina said officers also went to a nearby hospital, where several shooting victims had arrived.

Police didn't immediately release the name of the man who was killed. The other four victims, three men and one woman, were in stable condition.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities say one person was killed and four were injured in a shooting in a historic jazz district in Kansas City.Police responded around 2:30 a.m. Saturday to the shooting in the 18th and Vine district, near the American Jazz Museum, which draws thousands of visitors every year.Kansas City Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina said officers also went to a nearby hospital, where several shooting victims had arrived.Police didn't immediately release the name of the man who was killed. The other four victims, three men and one woman, were in stable condition.

1 killed, 4 hurt in Kansas City jazz district shooting

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Health officials are asking everyone who attended a Lawrence protest over the death of George Floyd to monitor for symptoms of the coronavirus after one of the participants tested positive.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health said in a news release Friday that the infected person didn’t wear a mask while attending Sunday’s protest, which attracted thousands of people to the downtown.

The person’s sample was taken on Thursday, and health officials were notified of the positive test Friday. The patient disclosed during the contact tracing and disease-investigation process that he was not wearing a mask.

“Similar to what we would ask anyone who goes out in public right now, we are asking anyone who attended the recent protest to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and isolate if they become sick as well as call their healthcare provider for next steps,” Sonia Jordan, informatics director, said in the release.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1591460582298.png" alt="Protest rally in Lawrence on Monday -photo courtesy WIBW TV" />
 <figcaption>Protest rally in Lawrence on Monday -photo courtesy WIBW TV</figcaption>
 </figure>LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Health officials are asking everyone who attended a Lawrence protest over the death of George Floyd to monitor for symptoms of the coronavirus after one of the participants tested positive.The Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health said in a news release Friday that the infected person didn’t wear a mask while attending Sunday’s protest, which attracted thousands of people to the downtown.The person’s sample was taken on Thursday, and health officials were notified of the positive test Friday. The patient disclosed during the contact tracing and disease-investigation process that he was not wearing a mask.“Similar to what we would ask anyone who goes out in public right now, we are asking anyone who attended the recent protest to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and isolate if they become sick as well as call their healthcare provider for next steps,” Sonia Jordan, informatics director, said in the release.

Kansas protester who didn't wear mask infected with COVID-19

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly said Friday that her administration will consider using part of Kansas’ share of federal coronavirus relief funds to help people struggling to pay their rents or home mortgages because of economic problems tied to the pandemic.

Kelly defended&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/037a5df1a0ec6959576338b6193e1a0d">a May 26 decision</a>&nbsp;to rescind an executive order that had banned landlords from pursuing new evictions or lenders from starting to foreclose on home mortgages. She said she had to lift the order because keeping it in place would have stressed lenders and businesses that rent homes and apartments.

The governor rescinded the order as she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/a5e30a0ec7a5943ada9f03af22ee1970">lifted all statewide restrictions</a>&nbsp;on businesses and left it to the state’s 105 counties to determine their own rules for checking the spread of the new coronavirus.

She said reopening the economy and improving the state’s delivery of unemployment benefits — a problem for weeks — eased the stress on renters and home owners. But housing advocates have worried that a wave of evictions and mortgage foreclosures is coming.

“I want struggling Kansans to know that I understand how you feel and how fearful you remain for your future,” Kelly said, calling such a program “a top priority” during a Statehouse news conference.

The Democratic governor also told reporters that she hopes to avoid two big financial maneuvers that past governors from both parties have used to avoid cuts in state programs. She said she does not intend to divert money from highway projects or short the state’s payments to its pension system for teachers and government workers to help close a shortfall in the next state budget.

While those moves prevented year-to-year cuts in the past, they delayed road projects and left the state with pension obligations to pay later.

The state faces a projected shortfall of about $600 million for the budget year that begins in July. Kelly said she hopes to avoid cutting spending that’s vital to boosting the economy, including funding for public schools.

But she added: “I haven’t committed to not touching anything at this point.”

She and other state officials have justified the lifting of restrictions on businesses by saying that weekslong trends show the growth in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths slowing.

But Kansas’ four most populous counties reported dozens of new coronavirus cases in the past two days, with the state Department of Health and Environment saying Friday that Kansas has had a total of 10,393 cases since the pandemic reached the state in early March. That’s up 2.2% or 223 from Monday.

The department’s figures show that 70% of the new cases over the past two days — 156 in all — came from only four counties. They were Sedgwick County, home to the state’s largest city, Wichita; Shawnee County, home to Topeka, and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in the Kansas City area, the state’s first hot spot. Those four counties have about half the state’s 2.9 million residents.

The state reported 10 new COVID-19-related deaths over the past two days, up 4% to 232.

Kansas has received $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds, and $116 million already has been allocated to Johnson County and almost $100 million, to Sedgwick County. An economic recovery task force appointed by Kelly has proposed distributing $400 million to other counties and cities to cover their coronavirus-related costs, and the governor hopes they receive the funds later this month.

That would leave about $634 million, with plans to distribute it before November.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1591392554433.png" alt="Kansas Governor Laura Kelly discussed the issue of rent and home mortgages during Friday's press briefing." />
 <figcaption>Kansas Governor Laura Kelly discussed the issue of rent and home mortgages during Friday's press briefing.</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly said Friday that her administration will consider using part of Kansas’ share of federal coronavirus relief funds to help people struggling to pay their rents or home mortgages because of economic problems tied to the pandemic.Kelly defended&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/037a5df1a0ec6959576338b6193e1a0d">a May 26 decision</a>&nbsp;to rescind an executive order that had banned landlords from pursuing new evictions or lenders from starting to foreclose on home mortgages. She said she had to lift the order because keeping it in place would have stressed lenders and businesses that rent homes and apartments.The governor rescinded the order as she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/a5e30a0ec7a5943ada9f03af22ee1970">lifted all statewide restrictions</a>&nbsp;on businesses and left it to the state’s 105 counties to determine their own rules for checking the spread of the new coronavirus.She said reopening the economy and improving the state’s delivery of unemployment benefits — a problem for weeks — eased the stress on renters and home owners. But housing advocates have worried that a wave of evictions and mortgage foreclosures is coming.“I want struggling Kansans to know that I understand how you feel and how fearful you remain for your future,” Kelly said, calling such a program “a top priority” during a Statehouse news conference.The Democratic governor also told reporters that she hopes to avoid two big financial maneuvers that past governors from both parties have used to avoid cuts in state programs. She said she does not intend to divert money from highway projects or short the state’s payments to its pension system for teachers and government workers to help close a shortfall in the next state budget.While those moves prevented year-to-year cuts in the past, they delayed road projects and left the state with pension obligations to pay later.The state faces a projected shortfall of about $600 million for the budget year that begins in July. Kelly said she hopes to avoid cutting spending that’s vital to boosting the economy, including funding for public schools.But she added: “I haven’t committed to not touching anything at this point.”She and other state officials have justified the lifting of restrictions on businesses by saying that weekslong trends show the growth in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths slowing.But Kansas’ four most populous counties reported dozens of new coronavirus cases in the past two days, with the state Department of Health and Environment saying Friday that Kansas has had a total of 10,393 cases since the pandemic reached the state in early March. That’s up 2.2% or 223 from Monday.The department’s figures show that 70% of the new cases over the past two days — 156 in all — came from only four counties. They were Sedgwick County, home to the state’s largest city, Wichita; Shawnee County, home to Topeka, and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in the Kansas City area, the state’s first hot spot. Those four counties have about half the state’s 2.9 million residents.The state reported 10 new COVID-19-related deaths over the past two days, up 4% to 232.Kansas has received $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds, and $116 million already has been allocated to Johnson County and almost $100 million, to Sedgwick County. An economic recovery task force appointed by Kelly has proposed distributing $400 million to other counties and cities to cover their coronavirus-related costs, and the governor hopes they receive the funds later this month.That would leave about $634 million, with plans to distribute it before November.

Kansas governor considering relief for renters, home owners

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Friday, setting him up for a bruising challenge to President Donald Trump that will play out against the unprecedented backdrop of a pandemic, economic collapse and civil unrest.

“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded,” Biden said in a statement Friday night, ”and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party.”

The former vice president has effectively been his party’s leader since his last challenger in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders, ended his campaign in April. But Biden pulled together the 1,991 delegates needed to become the nominee after seven states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries Tuesday.

Biden reached the threshold three days after the primaries because several states, overwhelmed by huge increases in mail ballots, took days to tabulate results. A team of analysts at The Associated Press then parsed the votes into individual congressional districts. Democrats award most delegates to the party’s national convention based on results in individual congressional districts.

Biden now has 1,995 delegates, with contests still to come in eight states and three U.S. territories.

The moment was met with little of the traditional fanfare as the nation confronts overlapping crises. While Biden has started to venture out more this week, the coronavirus pandemic has largely confined him to his Wilmington, Delaware, home for much of the past three months.

The country faces the worst rate of unemployment since the Great Depression. And civil unrest that harkens back to the 1960s has erupted in dozens of cities following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.

It’s a confluence of events that no U.S. leader has faced in modern times, made all the more complicated by a president who has at times antagonized the protesters and is eager to take the fight to Biden.

“This is a difficult time in America’s history,” Biden said Friday night. “And Donald Trump’s angry, divisive politics is no answer. The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together.”

Biden spent 36 years in the Senate before becoming Barack Obama’s vice president. This is 77-year-old Biden’s third bid for the presidency and his success in capturing the Democratic nomination was driven by strong support from black voters.

He finished an embarrassing fourth place in the overwhelmingly white Iowa caucuses that kicked off the nomination process in February. Biden fared little better in the New Hampshire primary, where his standing was so low that he left the state before polls closed on election night to instead rally black voters in South Carolina.

His rebound began in the more diverse caucuses in Nevada but solidified in South Carolina, where Biden stomped Sanders, his nearest rival, by nearly 29 points. He followed that with a dominant showing three days later during the Super Tuesday contests, taking 10 of the 14 states.

Biden’s strong showing in states such as North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Texas reinforced his status as the preferred Democratic candidate of African American voters — but the relationship has not been without its strained moments. After a tense exchange with an influential black radio host, Biden took sharp criticism for suggesting that African American voters still deciding between him and Trump “ain’t black.”

That comment, and protests that have spread nationwide, have increased pressure on Biden to pick an African American running mate. He has already committed to picking a woman as a vice presidential candidate.

Black voters are unlikely to back Trump over Biden by a wide margin. A recent Fox News poll shows just 14% of African Americans who are registered to vote have a favorable opinion of the president compared with 75% who favorably view Biden.

But Biden must ensure that black voters are motivated to show up to the polls in November, especially in critical swing states that narrowly went for Trump in 2016.

At one point, the Democratic primary included dozens of candidates of different races, genders and generations and an openly gay man. The contest was dominated by debate over unapologetically progressive ideas, including fully government-funded health care under “Medicare for All” and a sweeping proposal to combat climate change known as the “Green New Deal.”

Biden prevailed by mostly offering more moderate approaches that he argued would make him more electable against Trump.

He refused to budge on his rejection of universal health care and some of the Green New Deal’s most ambitious provisions to combat climate change.

Since clinching the nomination, however, Biden has worked to build his appeal among progressives, forming joint task forces with Sanders’ campaign to find common ground on key issues like health care, the economy and the environment. Biden has also embraced a plan to forgive millions of Americans’ student debt, meaning that he clinches the nomination as easily the most liberal standard bearer the Democratic Party has ever had.

Biden’s embrace of his party’s left flank could help him consolidate a Democratic base that remained deeply divided after the 2016 primary and ultimately hurt Hillary Clinton in her defeat to Trump. But it could also undermine Biden’s attempts to rebuild the Obama coalition, which is often loosely defined as minorities and young people, as well as educated Americans and some working-class voters.

The former vice president has sought, since announcing his candidacy, to cast the election as a battle “for the soul of the nation,” and promised to restore order and dignity to the White House while rehabilitating the U.S. image on the world stage. Such an approach, though, necessarily focuses on being more of an alternative to Trump than offering radically new political ideas. And that further underscores Biden’s difficult task of trying to unite his party’s base while appealing to voters from far beyond it.

“I am going to spend every day between now and November 3rd fighting to earn the votes of Americans all across this great country,” Biden promised Friday, “so that, together, we can win the battle for the soul of this nation, and make sure that as we rebuild our economy, everyone comes along.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/3/1583675671957.png" alt="Joe Biden during a&nbsp; March 2020 campaign stop in Kansas City -photo courtesy Joe Biden for President" />
 <figcaption>Joe Biden during a&nbsp; March 2020 campaign stop in Kansas City -photo courtesy Joe Biden for President</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Friday, setting him up for a bruising challenge to President Donald Trump that will play out against the unprecedented backdrop of a pandemic, economic collapse and civil unrest.“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded,” Biden said in a statement Friday night, ”and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party.”The former vice president has effectively been his party’s leader since his last challenger in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders, ended his campaign in April. But Biden pulled together the 1,991 delegates needed to become the nominee after seven states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries Tuesday.Biden reached the threshold three days after the primaries because several states, overwhelmed by huge increases in mail ballots, took days to tabulate results. A team of analysts at The Associated Press then parsed the votes into individual congressional districts. Democrats award most delegates to the party’s national convention based on results in individual congressional districts.Biden now has 1,995 delegates, with contests still to come in eight states and three U.S. territories.The moment was met with little of the traditional fanfare as the nation confronts overlapping crises. While Biden has started to venture out more this week, the coronavirus pandemic has largely confined him to his Wilmington, Delaware, home for much of the past three months.The country faces the worst rate of unemployment since the Great Depression. And civil unrest that harkens back to the 1960s has erupted in dozens of cities following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.It’s a confluence of events that no U.S. leader has faced in modern times, made all the more complicated by a president who has at times antagonized the protesters and is eager to take the fight to Biden.“This is a difficult time in America’s history,” Biden said Friday night. “And Donald Trump’s angry, divisive politics is no answer. The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together.”Biden spent 36 years in the Senate before becoming Barack Obama’s vice president. This is 77-year-old Biden’s third bid for the presidency and his success in capturing the Democratic nomination was driven by strong support from black voters.He finished an embarrassing fourth place in the overwhelmingly white Iowa caucuses that kicked off the nomination process in February. Biden fared little better in the New Hampshire primary, where his standing was so low that he left the state before polls closed on election night to instead rally black voters in South Carolina.His rebound began in the more diverse caucuses in Nevada but solidified in South Carolina, where Biden stomped Sanders, his nearest rival, by nearly 29 points. He followed that with a dominant showing three days later during the Super Tuesday contests, taking 10 of the 14 states.Biden’s strong showing in states such as North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Texas reinforced his status as the preferred Democratic candidate of African American voters — but the relationship has not been without its strained moments. After a tense exchange with an influential black radio host, Biden took sharp criticism for suggesting that African American voters still deciding between him and Trump “ain’t black.”That comment, and protests that have spread nationwide, have increased pressure on Biden to pick an African American running mate. He has already committed to picking a woman as a vice presidential candidate.Black voters are unlikely to back Trump over Biden by a wide margin. A recent Fox News poll shows just 14% of African Americans who are registered to vote have a favorable opinion of the president compared with 75% who favorably view Biden.But Biden must ensure that black voters are motivated to show up to the polls in November, especially in critical swing states that narrowly went for Trump in 2016.At one point, the Democratic primary included dozens of candidates of different races, genders and generations and an openly gay man. The contest was dominated by debate over unapologetically progressive ideas, including fully government-funded health care under “Medicare for All” and a sweeping proposal to combat climate change known as the “Green New Deal.”Biden prevailed by mostly offering more moderate approaches that he argued would make him more electable against Trump.He refused to budge on his rejection of universal health care and some of the Green New Deal’s most ambitious provisions to combat climate change.Since clinching the nomination, however, Biden has worked to build his appeal among progressives, forming joint task forces with Sanders’ campaign to find common ground on key issues like health care, the economy and the environment. Biden has also embraced a plan to forgive millions of Americans’ student debt, meaning that he clinches the nomination as easily the most liberal standard bearer the Democratic Party has ever had.Biden’s embrace of his party’s left flank could help him consolidate a Democratic base that remained deeply divided after the 2016 primary and ultimately hurt Hillary Clinton in her defeat to Trump. But it could also undermine Biden’s attempts to rebuild the Obama coalition, which is often loosely defined as minorities and young people, as well as educated Americans and some working-class voters.The former vice president has sought, since announcing his candidacy, to cast the election as a battle “for the soul of the nation,” and promised to restore order and dignity to the White House while rehabilitating the U.S. image on the world stage. Such an approach, though, necessarily focuses on being more of an alternative to Trump than offering radically new political ideas. And that further underscores Biden’s difficult task of trying to unite his party’s base while appealing to voters from far beyond it.“I am going to spend every day between now and November 3rd fighting to earn the votes of Americans all across this great country,” Biden promised Friday, “so that, together, we can win the battle for the soul of this nation, and make sure that as we rebuild our economy, everyone comes along.”

Biden formally clinches Democratic presidential nomination

Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus “immediately,” and said its work and commitment to transparency were “very impressive, and beyond words.”

But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found.

Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information. Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents.

Chinese government labs only released the genome after another lab published it ahead of authorities on a virologist website on Jan. 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on providing WHO with detailed data on patients and cases, according to recordings of internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency through January — all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed.

WHO officials were lauding China in public because they wanted to coax more information out of the government, the recordings obtained by the AP suggest. Privately, they complained in meetings the week of Jan. 6 that China was not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time.

“We’re going on very minimal information,” said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, now WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, in one internal meeting. “It’s clearly not enough for you to do proper planning.”

“We’re currently at the stage where yes, they’re giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV,” said WHO’s top official in China, Dr. Gauden Galea, referring to the state-owned China Central Television, in another meeting.

The story behind the early response to the virus comes at a time when the U.N. health agency is under&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/20c496f18f7b16c56f6bf4f9de91a0e5">siege</a>, and has agreed to an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/d6297fc78e6627a2b8206bcc58c19649">independent probe&nbsp;</a>of how the pandemic was handled globally. After repeatedly praising the Chinese response early on, U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted WHO in recent weeks for allegedly colluding with China to hide the extent of the coronavirus crisis. He&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/13ade67f8153a26b8703a48bde7f12ee">cut ties with the organization</a>&nbsp;on Friday, jeopardizing the approximately $450 million the U.S. gives every year as WHO’s biggest single donor.

In the meantime, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to pitch in $2 billion over the next two years to fight the coronavirus, saying China has always provided information to WHO and the world “in a most timely fashion.”

The new information does not support the narrative of either the U.S. or China, but instead portrays an agency now stuck in the middle that was urgently trying to solicit more data despite limits to its own authority. Although international law obliges countries to report information to WHO that could have an impact on public health, the U.N. agency has no enforcement powers and cannot independently investigate epidemics within countries. Instead, it must rely on the cooperation of member states.

The recordings suggest that rather than colluding with China,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/e9fe85641b93d447dfd529095c2640e4">as Trump declared</a>, WHO was kept in the dark as China gave it the minimal information required by law. However, the agency did try to portray China in the best light, likely as a means to secure more information. And WHO experts genuinely thought Chinese scientists had done “a very good job” in detecting and decoding the virus, despite&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/6f2e666485e9abae4bb112251eca77be">the lack of transparency</a>&nbsp;from Chinese officials.

WHO staffers debated how to press China for gene sequences and detailed patient data without angering authorities, worried about losing access and getting Chinese scientists into trouble. Under international law, WHO is required to quickly share information and alerts with member countries about an evolving crisis. Galea noted WHO could not indulge China’s wish to sign off on information before telling other countries because “that is not respectful of our responsibilities.”

In the second week of January, WHO’s chief of emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan, told colleagues it was time to “shift gears” and apply more pressure on China, fearing a repeat of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that started in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people worldwide.

“This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from China about what was going on,” he said. “WHO barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose around transparency in southern China.”

Ryan said the best way to “protect China” was for WHO to do its own independent analysis with data from the Chinese government, because otherwise the spread of the virus between people would be in question and “other countries will take action accordingly.” Ryan also noted that China was not cooperating in the same way some other countries had in the past.

“This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in Congo and other places,” he said, probably referring to the Ebola outbreak that began there in 2018. “We need to see the data…..It’s absolutely important at this point.”

The delay in the release of the genome stalled the recognition of its spread to other countries, along with the global development of tests, drugs and vaccines. The lack of detailed patient data also made it harder to determine how quickly the virus was spreading — a critical question in stopping it.

Between the day the full genome was first decoded by a government lab on Jan. 2 and the day WHO declared a global emergency on Jan. 30, the outbreak spread by a factor of 100 to 200 times, according to&nbsp;<a href="http://weekly.chinacdc.cn/en/article/id/e53946e2-c6c4-41e9-9a9b-fea8db1a8f51]" target="_blank">retrospective infection data</a>&nbsp;from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has now infected over 6 million people worldwide and killed more than 375,000.

“It’s obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all.

If WHO had pushed too hard, it could even have been kicked out of China, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health professor at the University of Sydney. But he added that a delay of just a few days in releasing genetic sequences can be critical in an outbreak. And he noted that as Beijing’s lack of transparency becomes even clearer, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s continued defense of China is problematic.

“It’s definitely damaged WHO’s credibility,” said Kamradt-Scott. “Did he go too far? I think the evidence on that is clear….it has led to so many questions about the relationship between China and WHO. It is perhaps a cautionary tale.”

WHO and its officials named in this story declined to answer questions asked by The Associated Press without audio or written transcripts of the recorded meetings, which the AP was unable to supply to protect its sources.

“Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organization’s rules and regulations to support and share information with all Member States equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels,” a WHO statement said.

China’s National Health Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment. But in the past few months, China has repeatedly defended its actions, and many other countries —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/6a8f85aad99607f313cca6ab1398e04d">including the U.S</a>. — have responded to the virus with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/6c7715f300797502329f6117e1141503">even longer delays</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/de2794327607a3a67ed551f0b6b71404">weeks</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/7a7e8a0d3c524986412245ec9a23fad0">even months</a>.

“Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have been continuously sharing information on the epidemic with the WHO and the international community in an open, transparent and responsible manner,” said Liu Mingzhu, an official with the National Health Commission’s International Department, at a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.scio.gov.cn/xwfbh/xwbfbh/wqfbh/42311/43043/index.htm?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">press conference&nbsp;</a>on May 15.

The race to find the genetic map of the virus started in late December, according to the story that unfolds in interviews, documents and the WHO recordings. That’s when doctors in Wuhan noticed mysterious clusters of patients with fevers and breathing problems who weren’t improving with standard flu treatment. Seeking answers, they sent test samples from patients to commercial labs.

By Dec. 27, one lab, Vision Medicals, had pieced together most of the genome of a new coronavirus with striking similarities to SARS. Vision Medicals shared its data with Wuhan officials and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as reported first by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-02-29/in-depth-how-early-signs-of-a-sars-like-virus-were-spotted-spread-and-throttled-101521745.html" target="_blank">Chinese finance publication Caixin</a>&nbsp;and independently confirmed by the AP.

On Dec. 30, Wuhan health officials issued internal notices warning of the unusual pneumonia, which leaked on social media. That evening, Shi Zhengli, a coronavirus expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is famous for having traced the SARS virus to a bat cave, was alerted to the new disease, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/" target="_blank">an interview with Scientific American</a>. Shi took the first train from a conference in Shanghai back to Wuhan.

The next day, Chinese CDC director Gao Fu dispatched a team of experts to Wuhan. Also on Dec. 31, WHO first learned about the cases from an open-source platform that scouts for intelligence on outbreaks, emergencies chief Ryan has said.

WHO officially requested more information on Jan. 1. Under international law, members have 24 to 48 hours to respond, and China reported two days later that there were 44 cases and no deaths.

By Jan. 2, Shi had decoded the entire genome of the virus, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200414083649/http://www.whiov.ac.cn/xwdt_105286/zhxw/202001/t20200129_5494574.html" target="_blank">a notice later posted on her institute’s website</a>.

Scientists agree that Chinese scientists detected and sequenced the then-unknown pathogen with astonishing speed, in a testimony to China’s vastly improved technical capabilities since SARS, during which a WHO-led group of scientists took months to identify the virus. This time, Chinese virologists proved within days that it was a never-before-seen coronavirus. Tedros would later say Beijing set “a new standard for outbreak response.”

But when it came to sharing the information with the world, things began to go awry.

On Jan. 3, the National Health Commission issued a confidential notice ordering labs with the virus to either destroy their samples or send them to designated institutes for safekeeping. The notice, first reported by Caixin and seen by the AP, forbade labs from publishing about the virus without government authorization. The order barred Shi’s lab from publishing the genetic sequence or warning of the potential danger.

Chinese law states that research institutes cannot conduct experiments on potentially dangerous new viruses without approval from top health authorities. Although the law is intended to keep experiments safe, it gives top health officials wide-ranging powers over what lower-level labs can or cannot do.

“If the virologist community had operated with more autonomy….the public would have been informed of the lethal risk of the new virus much earlier,” said Edward Gu, a professor at Zhejiang University, and Li Lantian, a PhD student at Northwestern University, in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23812346.2020.1740468" target="_blank">a paper published in March</a>&nbsp;analyzing the outbreak.

Commission officials later repeated that they were trying to ensure lab safety, and had tasked four separate government labs with identifying the genome at the same time to get accurate, consistent results.

By Jan. 3, the Chinese CDC had independently sequenced the virus, according to internal data seen by the Associated Press. And by just after midnight on Jan. 5, a third designated government lab, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, had decoded the sequence and submitted a report — pulling all-nighters to get results in record time, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200529080454/http://www.cams.ac.cn/blog/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%8C%BB%E5%AD%A6%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6%E9%99%A2%EF%BC%9A%E6%96%B0%E5%86%A0%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E7%A7%91%E6%8A%80%E6%94%BB%E5%85%B3%EF%BC%8C%E7%A7%AF%E7%B4%AF%E3%80%81%E9%80%9F%E5%BA%A6/" target="_blank">a state media interview</a>. Yet even with full sequences decoded by three state labs independently, Chinese health officials remained silent. The WHO reported on Twitter that investigations were under way into an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases with no deaths in Wuhan, and said it would share “more details as we have them.”

Meanwhile, at the Chinese CDC, gaps in coronavirus expertise proved a problem.

For nearly two weeks,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/b981ea744ee2a25f89c5abb0e8c1e92f">Wuhan reported no new infections</a>, as officials censored doctors who warned of suspicious cases. Meanwhile, researchers found the new coronavirus used a distinct spike protein to bind itself to human cells. The unusual protein and the lack of new cases lulled some Chinese CDC researchers into thinking the virus didn’t easily spread between humans — like the coronavirus that casues Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to an employee who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution.

Li, the coronavirus expert, said he immediately suspected the pathogen was infectious when he spotted a leaked copy of a sequencing report in a group chat on a SARS-like coronavirus. But the Chinese CDC team that sequenced the virus lacked specialists in the molecular structure of coronaviruses and failed to consult with outside scientists, Li said. Chinese health authorities rebuffed offers of assistance from foreign experts, including Hong Kong scientists barred from a fact-finding mission to Wuhan and an American professor at a university in China.

On Jan. 5, the Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center, led by famed virologist Zhang Yongzhen, was the latest to sequence the virus. He submitted it to the GenBank database, where it sat awaiting review, and notified the National Health Commission. He warned them that the new virus was similar to SARS and likely infectious.

“It should be contagious through respiratory passages,” the center said in an internal notice seen by the AP. “We recommend taking preventative measures in public areas.”

On the same day, WHO said that based on preliminary information from China, there was no evidence of significant transmission between humans, and did not recommend any specific measures for travelers.

The next day, the Chinese CDC raised its emergency level to the second highest. Staffers proceeded to isolate the virus, draft lab testing guidelines, and design test kits. But the agency did not have the authority to issue public warnings, and the heightened emergency level was kept secret even from many of its own staff.

By Jan. 7,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22221751.2020.1725399" target="_blank">another team at Wuhan University</a>&nbsp;had sequenced the pathogen and found it matched Shi’s, making Shi certain they had identified a novel coronavirus. But Chinese CDC experts said they didn’t trust Shi’s findings and needed to verify her data before she could publish, according to three people familiar with the matter. Both the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees Shi’s lab, declined to make Shi available for an interview.

A major factor behind the gag order, some say, was that Chinese CDC researchers wanted to publish their papers first. “They wanted to take all the credit,” said Li Yize, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

Internally, the leadership of the Chinese CDC is plagued with fierce competition, six people familiar with the system explained. They said the agency has long promoted staff based on how many papers they can publish in prestigious journals, making scientists reluctant to share data.

As the days went by, even some of the Chinese CDC’s own staff began to wonder why it was taking so long for authorities to identify the pathogen.

“We were getting suspicious, since within one or two days you would get a sequencing result,” a lab technician said, declining to be identified for fear of retribution.

On Jan. 8,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-virus-discovered-by-chinese-scientists-investigating-pneumonia-outbreak-11578485668" target="_blank">the Wall Street Journal&nbsp;</a>reported that scientists had identified a new coronavirus in samples from pneumonia patients in Wuhan, pre-empting and embarrassing Chinese officials. The lab technician told the AP they first learned about the discovery of the virus from the Journal.

The article also embarrassed WHO officials. Dr. Tom Grein, chief of WHO’s acute events management team, said the agency looked “doubly, incredibly stupid.” Van Kerkhove, the American expert, acknowledged WHO was “already late” in announcing the new virus and told colleagues that it was critical to push China.

Ryan, WHO’s chief of emergencies, was also upset at the dearth of information.

“The fact is, we’re two to three weeks into an event, we don’t have a laboratory diagnosis, we don’t have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we don’t have an epi curve,” he complained, referring to the standard graphic of outbreaks scientists use to show how an epidemic is progressing.

After the article, state media officially announced&nbsp;<a href="http://news.cctv.com/2020/01/09/ARTIMxiGSClHAjC4B1Gy2VcP200109.shtml" target="_blank">the discovery</a>&nbsp;of the new coronavirus. But even then, Chinese health authorities did not release the genome, diagnostic tests, or detailed patient data that could hint at how infectious the disease was.

By that time, suspicious cases were already appearing across the region.

On Jan. 8, Thai airport officers pulled aside a woman from Wuhan with a runny nose, sore throat, and high temperature. Chulalongkorn University professor Supaporn Wacharapluesadee’s team found the woman was infected with a new coronavirus, much like what Chinese officials had described. Supaporn partially figured out the genetic sequence by Jan. 9, reported it to the Thai government and spent the next day searching for matching sequences.

But because Chinese authorities hadn’t published any sequences, she found nothing. She could not prove the Thai virus was the same pathogen sickening people in Wuhan.

“It was kind of wait and see, when China will release the data, then we can compare,” said Supaporn.

On Jan. 9, a 61-year-old man with the virus passed away in Wuhan —&nbsp;<a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-01/11/c_1125448269.htm" target="_blank">the first known death</a>. The death wasn’t made public until Jan. 11.

WHO officials complained in internal meetings that they were making repeated requests for more data, especially to find out if the virus could spread efficiently between humans, but to no avail.

“We have informally and formally been requesting more epidemiological information,” WHO’s China representative Galea said. “But when asked for specifics, we could get nothing.”

Emergencies chief Ryan grumbled that since China was providing the minimal information required by international law, there was little WHO could do. But he also noted that last September, WHO had issued an unusual public rebuke of Tanzania for not providing enough details about a worrisome Ebola outbreak.

“We have to be consistent,” Ryan said. “The danger now is that despite our good intent...especially if something does happen, there will be a lot of finger-pointing at WHO.”

Ryan noted that China could make a “huge contribution” to the world by sharing the genetic material immediately, because otherwise “other countries will have to reinvent the wheel over the coming days.”

On Jan. 11, a team led by Zhang, from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, finally published a sequence&nbsp;<a href="http://virological.org/t/novel-2019-coronavirus-genome/319" target="_blank">on virological.org</a>, used by researchers to swap tips on pathogens. The move angered Chinese CDC officials, three people familiar with the matter said, and the next day, his laboratory was temporarily shuttered by health authorities.

Zhang referred a request for comment to the Chinese CDC. The National Health Commission, which oversees the Chinese CDC, declined multiple times to make its officials available for interviews and did not answer questions about Zhang.

Supaporn compared her sequence with Zhang’s and found it was a 100% match, confirming that the Thai patient was ill with the same virus detected in Wuhan. Another Thai lab got the same results. That day, Thailand informed the WHO, said Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control at Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health.

After Zhang released the genome, the Chinese CDC, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences raced to publish their sequences, working overnight to review them, gather patient data, and send them to the National Health Commission for approval, according to documentation obtained by the AP. On Jan. 12, the three labs together finally published the sequences on GISAID, a platform for scientists to share genomic data.

By then, more than two weeks had passed since Vision Medicals decoded a partial sequence, and more than a week since the three government labs had all obtained full sequences. Around 600 people were infected in that week, a roughly three-fold increase.

Some scientists say the wait was not unreasonable considering the difficulties in sequencing unknown pathogens, given accuracy is as important as speed. They point to the SARS outbreak in 2003 when some Chinese scientists initially — and wrongly — believed the source of the epidemic was chlamydia.

“The pressure is intense in an outbreak to make sure you’re right,” said Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealthAlliance in New York. “It’s actually worse to go out to go to the public with a story that’s wrong because the public completely lose confidence in the public health response.”

Still, others quietly question what happened behind the scenes.

Infectious diseases expert John Mackenzie, who served on a WHO emergency committee during the outbreak, praised the speed of Chinese researchers in sequencing the virus. But he said once central authorities got involved, detailed data trickled to a crawl.

“There certainly was a kind of blank period,” Mackenzie said. “There had to be human to human transmission. You know, it’s staring at you in the face… I would have thought they would have been much more open at that stage.”

On Jan. 13, WHO announced that Thailand had a confirmed case of the virus, jolting Chinese officials.

The next day, in a confidential teleconference, China’s top health official ordered the country to prepare for a pandemic, calling the outbreak the “most severe challenge since SARS in 2003”, as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/68a9e1b91de4ffc166acd6012d82c2f9">the AP previously reported</a>. Chinese CDC staff across the country began screening, isolating, and testing for cases, turning up hundreds across the country.

Yet even as the Chinese CDC internally declared a level one emergency, the highest level possible, Chinese officials still said the chance of sustained transmission between humans was low.

WHO went back and forth. Van Kerkhove said in a press briefing that “it is certainly possible there is limited human-to-human transmission.” But hours later, WHO seemed to backtrack, and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/who/status/1217043229427761152?lang=en" target="_blank">tweeted</a>&nbsp;that “preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission” – a statement that later became fodder for critics.

A high-ranking official in WHO’s Asia office, Dr. Liu Yunguo, who attended medical school in Wuhan, flew to Beijing to make direct, informal contacts with Chinese officials, recordings show. Liu’s former classmate, a Wuhan doctor, had alerted him that pneumonia patients were flooding the city’s hospitals, and Liu pushed for more experts to visit Wuhan, according to a public health expert familiar with the matter.

On Jan. 20, the leader of an expert team returning from Wuhan, renowned government infectious diseases doctor Zhong Nanshan, declared publicly for the first time that the new virus was spreading between people. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the “timely publication of epidemic information and deepening of international cooperation.”

Despite that directive, WHO staff still struggled to obtain enough detailed patient data from China about the rapidly evolving outbreak. That same day, the U.N. health agency dispatched a small team to Wuhan for two days, including Galea, the WHO representative in China.

They were told about a worrying cluster of cases among more than a dozen doctors and nurses. But they did not have “transmission trees” detailing how the cases were connected, nor a full understanding of how widely the virus was spreading and who was at risk.

In an internal meeting, Galea said their Chinese counterparts were “talking openly and consistently” about human-to-human transmission, and that there was a debate about whether or not this was sustained. Galea reported to colleagues in Geneva and Manila that China’s key request to WHO was for help “in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/0e46df9113bd32507d08c1e0569a814e">communicating this</a>&nbsp;to the public, without causing panic.”

On Jan. 22, WHO convened an independent committee to determine whether to declare a global health emergency. After two inconclusive meetings where experts were split, they decided against it — even as Chinese officials&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/ed98662865c3c2eafc1733c827111ab2">ordered Wuhan sealed</a>&nbsp;in the biggest quarantine in history. The next day, WHO chief Tedros publicly described the spread of the new coronavirus in China as “limited.”

For days, China didn’t release much detailed data, even as its case count exploded. Beijing city officials were alarmed enough to consider locking down the capital, according to a medical expert with direct knowledge of the matter.

On Jan. 28, Tedros and top experts, including Ryan, made&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/f571a05192984a507b94a4b7c2e851ae">an extraordinary trip to Beijing</a>&nbsp;to meet President Xi and other senior Chinese officials. It is highly unusual for WHO’s director-general to directly intervene in the practicalities of outbreak investigations. Tedros’ staffers had prepared a list of requests for information.

“It could all happen and the floodgates open, or there’s no communication,” Grein said in an internal meeting while his boss was in Beijing. “We’ll see.”

At the end of Tedros’ trip, WHO announced China had agreed to accept an international team of experts. In a press briefing on Jan. 29, Tedros heaped praise on China, calling its level of commitment “incredible.”

The next day, WHO finally declared&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/0f0f07b30c8cdd2b0f30c6081acc7599">an international health emergency</a>. Once again, Tedros thanked China, saying nothing about the earlier lack of cooperation.

“We should have actually expressed our respect and gratitude to China for what it’s doing,” Tedros said. “It has already done incredible things to limit the transmission of the virus to other countries.”

Report: China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO

LABETTE COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 4p.m. Friday in Labette County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1984 Dodge Ram pickup driven by Michael P. Weimer Jr., 16, Altamont, was southbound on Kiowa Road four miles west and three miles south of Altamont. 

The pickup struck the passenger side of a westbound fertilizer spreader driven by&nbsp; Sean R. Merrick, 48, Cherryvale.

Weimer Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to First Call mortuary.

The KHP did not report if Merrick was transported for treatment. Weimer Jr. was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

LABETTE COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 4p.m. Friday in Labette County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1984 Dodge Ram pickup driven by Michael P. Weimer Jr., 16, Altamont, was southbound on Kiowa Road four miles west and three miles south of Altamont. The pickup struck the passenger side of a westbound fertilizer spreader driven by&nbsp; Sean R. Merrick, 48, Cherryvale.Weimer Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to First Call mortuary.The KHP did not report if Merrick was transported for treatment. Weimer Jr. was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Kansas teen dies after pickup crash with fertilizer spreader

O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri NAACP and black lawmakers on Friday urged a new investigation into the death of an African American jail inmate who died in 2017 in a similar circumstance to George Floyd — with a white law enforcement officer's knee on his neck.

Tory Sanders, 28, died at the Mississippi County Jail in rural Charleston, Missouri, about 150 miles south of St. Louis. He had several encounters with officers while jailed and a mental health counselor determined he was suffering from paranoia. Sheriff Cory Hutcheson and eight others then entered the cell to subdue him.

A wrongful death lawsuit said Hutcheson jammed his knee against Sanders’ neck and kept it there for up to three minutes, even as a police officer urged him to stop. Sanders fell into unconsciousness and died.

Missouri’s attorney general at the time, Josh Hawley, investigated but declined to file charges after medical experts concluded that Sanders died of “excited delirium,” not from the knee to the neck or other efforts to control him.

During a news conference Friday, Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. urged Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Darren Cann to file murder charges against Hutcheson and other officers.

But Cann, in a phone interview, said he turned the case over to the attorney general's office in 2017 because of a conflict of interest — one of his employees is related to Hutcheson. That conflict still exists, so it would be up to the attorney general's office to reopen the case, Cann said.

Eric Schmitt took over as attorney general after Hawley, a Republican, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. Schmitt's spokesman, Chris Nuele, said in a statement that the attorney general "is committed to thoroughly reviewing all existing and any new evidence to determine whether to reopen the matter. Additionally, we hope to sit down with the NAACP and other interested parties to discuss further.”

Phone and email messages left with Hawley’s office were not immediately returned.

Hutcheson does not have a listed phone number and a phone message left with his attorney was not immediately returned.

<a href="https://apnews.com/9157e1bdc0f99797bcdc25e6f243aa19">Floyd’s death on May 25</a>&nbsp;sparked&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/05476b9620f2b5f9900e16ccc8dc3a75">nationwide protests</a>. Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder after bystander video showed him holding his knee to Floyd's neck even as the man pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. The video has sparked protests against police brutality and discrimination around the world.

Democratic state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis said Missourians can't ignore such a similar case “in our own back yard.”

"In light of what’s happening today in the protests, people who are part of this system of injustice need to be prosecuted in this case,” May said.

The state NAACP issued a MIssouri&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/88cbad1851044cbd840859f3f48ed0c8">“travel advisory”&nbsp;</a>in July 2017 over concerns about whether travelers' civil rights would be respected. The resolution cited legislative action such as passage of a bill weakening the state’s anti-discrimination law, as well as Sanders’ death and racist incidents.

Sanders, of Nashville, Tennessee, ran out of gas on May 4, 2017, in southern Missouri, then hitchhiked and ended up in Charleston.

A day later, Sanders went to the police and told officers there was a warrant out for his arrest in Nashville related to an altercation with the mother of his children. The wrongful death lawsuit said Sanders also told officers: “I need to see a mental health doctor to save my life and my kids’ life.”

He was taken to the jail, where a mental health counselor concluded Sanders was suffering from paranoia as a result of substance abuse, and that he should be hospitalized for observation. But he remained in his cell.

That night, Hutcheson led a team of officers and jailers, wearing helmets and vests and holding a large shield, into Sanders’ cell, according to the lawsuit. Sanders was tackled, pepper sprayed, hit with a stun gun and punched while “pleading for help and struggling to stay alive," the lawsuit stated.

According to the lawsuit, Hutcheson pressed his left knee on top of Sanders’ neck. A Charleston police officer told Hutcheson at least three times to remove the pressure.

“No, I’m good,” the sheriff responded.

“No lifesaving measures were taken” after Sanders stopped breathing, the suit stated. Emergency medical personnel arrived and took him to a hospital, where he died a short time later.

Though not charged in Sanders’ death, Hutcheson now 36, was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/bb92210c8dd64deab08588292ae319bd">sentenced last year to six months in federal prison</a>&nbsp;for unrelated crimes: wire fraud and identity theft. He resigned after pleading guilty and can no longer work as a law enforcement officer.

Federal prosecutors said Hutcheson used a fraudulent process to track the whereabouts of more than 200 cellphone users, including a judge and a former sheriff. He never explained his motive.

Hutcheson was elected in 2016. The former deputy ran on a pledge to attack the drug culture that permeated his county. Hutcheson arrested 88 drug dealers in his first 90 days as sheriff, his attorney said at Hutcheson's sentencing.

But Hutcheson himself was arrested in April 2017, just three months into his term. In addition to the cellphone tracking allegations, he was accused of roughing up a 77-year-old beauty salon owner in a dispute over Hutcheson's sister-in-law's paycheck. The woman suffered a heart attack during the encounter but recovered.

The state charges were dropped as part of the federal plea agreement.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1591384783668.png" alt="Cory Hutcheson-photo&nbsp;Cape Girardeau County Jail" />
 <figcaption>Cory Hutcheson-photo&nbsp;Cape Girardeau County Jail</figcaption>
 </figure>O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri NAACP and black lawmakers on Friday urged a new investigation into the death of an African American jail inmate who died in 2017 in a similar circumstance to George Floyd — with a white law enforcement officer's knee on his neck.Tory Sanders, 28, died at the Mississippi County Jail in rural Charleston, Missouri, about 150 miles south of St. Louis. He had several encounters with officers while jailed and a mental health counselor determined he was suffering from paranoia. Sheriff Cory Hutcheson and eight others then entered the cell to subdue him.A wrongful death lawsuit said Hutcheson jammed his knee against Sanders’ neck and kept it there for up to three minutes, even as a police officer urged him to stop. Sanders fell into unconsciousness and died.Missouri’s attorney general at the time, Josh Hawley, investigated but declined to file charges after medical experts concluded that Sanders died of “excited delirium,” not from the knee to the neck or other efforts to control him.During a news conference Friday, Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. urged Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Darren Cann to file murder charges against Hutcheson and other officers.But Cann, in a phone interview, said he turned the case over to the attorney general's office in 2017 because of a conflict of interest — one of his employees is related to Hutcheson. That conflict still exists, so it would be up to the attorney general's office to reopen the case, Cann said.Eric Schmitt took over as attorney general after Hawley, a Republican, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. Schmitt's spokesman, Chris Nuele, said in a statement that the attorney general "is committed to thoroughly reviewing all existing and any new evidence to determine whether to reopen the matter. Additionally, we hope to sit down with the NAACP and other interested parties to discuss further.”Phone and email messages left with Hawley’s office were not immediately returned.Hutcheson does not have a listed phone number and a phone message left with his attorney was not immediately returned.<a href="https://apnews.com/9157e1bdc0f99797bcdc25e6f243aa19">Floyd’s death on May 25</a>&nbsp;sparked&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/05476b9620f2b5f9900e16ccc8dc3a75">nationwide protests</a>. Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder after bystander video showed him holding his knee to Floyd's neck even as the man pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. The video has sparked protests against police brutality and discrimination around the world.Democratic state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis said Missourians can't ignore such a similar case “in our own back yard.”"In light of what’s happening today in the protests, people who are part of this system of injustice need to be prosecuted in this case,” May said.The state NAACP issued a MIssouri&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/88cbad1851044cbd840859f3f48ed0c8">“travel advisory”&nbsp;</a>in July 2017 over concerns about whether travelers' civil rights would be respected. The resolution cited legislative action such as passage of a bill weakening the state’s anti-discrimination law, as well as Sanders’ death and racist incidents.Sanders, of Nashville, Tennessee, ran out of gas on May 4, 2017, in southern Missouri, then hitchhiked and ended up in Charleston.A day later, Sanders went to the police and told officers there was a warrant out for his arrest in Nashville related to an altercation with the mother of his children. The wrongful death lawsuit said Sanders also told officers: “I need to see a mental health doctor to save my life and my kids’ life.”He was taken to the jail, where a mental health counselor concluded Sanders was suffering from paranoia as a result of substance abuse, and that he should be hospitalized for observation. But he remained in his cell.That night, Hutcheson led a team of officers and jailers, wearing helmets and vests and holding a large shield, into Sanders’ cell, according to the lawsuit. Sanders was tackled, pepper sprayed, hit with a stun gun and punched while “pleading for help and struggling to stay alive," the lawsuit stated.According to the lawsuit, Hutcheson pressed his left knee on top of Sanders’ neck. A Charleston police officer told Hutcheson at least three times to remove the pressure.“No, I’m good,” the sheriff responded.“No lifesaving measures were taken” after Sanders stopped breathing, the suit stated. Emergency medical personnel arrived and took him to a hospital, where he died a short time later.Though not charged in Sanders’ death, Hutcheson now 36, was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/bb92210c8dd64deab08588292ae319bd">sentenced last year to six months in federal prison</a>&nbsp;for unrelated crimes: wire fraud and identity theft. He resigned after pleading guilty and can no longer work as a law enforcement officer.Federal prosecutors said Hutcheson used a fraudulent process to track the whereabouts of more than 200 cellphone users, including a judge and a former sheriff. He never explained his motive.Hutcheson was elected in 2016. The former deputy ran on a pledge to attack the drug culture that permeated his county. Hutcheson arrested 88 drug dealers in his first 90 days as sheriff, his attorney said at Hutcheson's sentencing.But Hutcheson himself was arrested in April 2017, just three months into his term. In addition to the cellphone tracking allegations, he was accused of roughing up a 77-year-old beauty salon owner in a dispute over Hutcheson's sister-in-law's paycheck. The woman suffered a heart attack during the encounter but recovered.The state charges were dropped as part of the federal plea agreement.

Comparisons drawn between Floyd's death and Missouri case

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall will not be able to use the nickname “Doc” on the August Republican primary ballot as he runs in a crowded field for the U.S. Senate.

The Kansas State Objections Board on Friday rejected Marshall’s request, saying the nickname referred to Marshall’s medical career and professional accomplishments or titles aren’t allowed on ballots.

Marshall, a Great Bend obstetrician, is competing against immigration hardliner and former Secretary of State Kris Kobach for the Republican nomination for Senate, along with nine other GOP candidates. Marshall appealed the secretary of state’s ruling that he couldn’t use Roger “Doc” Marshall on the ballot, arguing that it’s a legitimate nickname and that staff, relatives and friends frequently refer to him as “Doc.”

The members of the objections board -- Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Democratic Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers — were unanimous in their decision.

Both parties are watching the race because the GOP is battling to hold its 53-47 Senate majority in a difficult year, and many Republicans fear Kobach’s nomination would put a normally safe seat in play. Kobach lost the 2018 governor’s race after alienating moderate Republicans and independent voters.

Kansas law allows candidates to list nicknames on the ballot. Incumbent Kansas House members won reelection in 2018 as Dennis “Boog” Highberger of Lawrence, and Vic “T-Bone” Miller of Topeka. But it does not allow titles, to avoid giving candidates an advantage because of their professions or because they’re incumbents.

Marshall has argued that his medical credentials mattered in the race, noting that he has treated coronavirus patients in Kansas City, Kansas, and southwest Kansas, where outbreaks have hit the meatpacking industry.

“There’s just never been a more important time to have a physician in some type of a leadership position,” Marshall said in an interview last month.

The main Democratic hopeful for the seat is Dr. Barbara Bollier, who also , like Marshall, is a physician.

The primary is scheduled for Aug. 4 and the general election is Nov. 3.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/5/1590273109900.png" alt="Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate. From right to left: U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, businessman Bob Hamilton, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, state Senate President Susan Wagle who didn't file to run and former football player Dave Lindstrom.&nbsp; photo by Jim McLean / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate. From right to left: U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, businessman Bob Hamilton, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, state Senate President Susan Wagle who didn't file to run and former football player Dave Lindstrom.&nbsp; photo by Jim McLean / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall will not be able to use the nickname “Doc” on the August Republican primary ballot as he runs in a crowded field for the U.S. Senate.The Kansas State Objections Board on Friday rejected Marshall’s request, saying the nickname referred to Marshall’s medical career and professional accomplishments or titles aren’t allowed on ballots.Marshall, a Great Bend obstetrician, is competing against immigration hardliner and former Secretary of State Kris Kobach for the Republican nomination for Senate, along with nine other GOP candidates. Marshall appealed the secretary of state’s ruling that he couldn’t use Roger “Doc” Marshall on the ballot, arguing that it’s a legitimate nickname and that staff, relatives and friends frequently refer to him as “Doc.”The members of the objections board -- Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Democratic Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers — were unanimous in their decision.Both parties are watching the race because the GOP is battling to hold its 53-47 Senate majority in a difficult year, and many Republicans fear Kobach’s nomination would put a normally safe seat in play. Kobach lost the 2018 governor’s race after alienating moderate Republicans and independent voters.Kansas law allows candidates to list nicknames on the ballot. Incumbent Kansas House members won reelection in 2018 as Dennis “Boog” Highberger of Lawrence, and Vic “T-Bone” Miller of Topeka. But it does not allow titles, to avoid giving candidates an advantage because of their professions or because they’re incumbents.Marshall has argued that his medical credentials mattered in the race, noting that he has treated coronavirus patients in Kansas City, Kansas, and southwest Kansas, where outbreaks have hit the meatpacking industry.“There’s just never been a more important time to have a physician in some type of a leadership position,” Marshall said in an interview last month.The main Democratic hopeful for the seat is Dr. Barbara Bollier, who also , like Marshall, is a physician.The primary is scheduled for Aug. 4 and the general election is Nov. 3.___

US Rep. Roger Marshall can't list himself as `Doc' on ballot

KINGMAN COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 3p.m. Friday in Kingman County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a&nbsp; westbound 1984 John Deere Tractor driven by&nbsp; Dale L&nbsp;Thimmesch, 63, Pretty Prairie, and an eastbound 2001 Chevy Blazer driven by Ray L. Bouray, 60, Cheney, sideswiped each other on&nbsp;NE 10th Street seven miles west of Cheney.

The Blazer overturned in the roadway.&nbsp; Bouray was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to&nbsp;Livingston Mortuary.&nbsp;

&nbsp;The KHP did not report were Thimmesch was transported for treatment. Bouray was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

KINGMAN COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 3p.m. Friday in Kingman County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a&nbsp; westbound 1984 John Deere Tractor driven by&nbsp; Dale L&nbsp;Thimmesch, 63, Pretty Prairie, and an eastbound 2001 Chevy Blazer driven by Ray L. Bouray, 60, Cheney, sideswiped each other on&nbsp;NE 10th Street seven miles west of Cheney.The Blazer overturned in the roadway.&nbsp; Bouray was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to&nbsp;Livingston Mortuary.&nbsp;&nbsp;The KHP did not report were Thimmesch was transported for treatment. Bouray was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

Kan. man dies after SUV, John Deere tractor sideswipe each other

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating the unlawful assembly following a protest march that occurred at 21st&nbsp;and Arkansas in Wichita on Monday and have made an arrest.

&nbsp;Henry Parker, 28, Wichita, is in custody on requested charges of two counts of aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, 20 counts of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, one count of discharge a firearm at an occupied vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm and outstanding warrants, according to officer Charley Davidson.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1591371389592.png" alt="Parker" />
 <figcaption>Parker</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating the unlawful assembly following a protest march that occurred at 21st&nbsp;and Arkansas in Wichita on Monday and have made an arrest.&nbsp;Henry Parker, 28, Wichita, is in custody on requested charges of two counts of aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, 20 counts of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, one count of discharge a firearm at an occupied vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm and outstanding warrants, according to officer Charley Davidson.<div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWichitaPolice%2Fvideos%2F529036301099374%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe></div>According to police, Parker fired multiple shots at responding officers, and one officer’s helmet was struck by bullet pieces that had ricocheted near the officers.&nbsp; A second officer's helmet is believed to have been grazed by a bullet.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1591127610629.png" alt="Officer's helmet grazed by a bullet -photo Wichita Police" />
 <figcaption>Officer's helmet grazed by a bullet -photo Wichita Police</figcaption>
 </figure>Through witness interviews, technology, and community tips, Parker was identified in being involved with the shooting.&nbsp; On Thursday, Parker was located in the 3800 block of West 21st,&nbsp;and he was arrested without incident.&nbsp;&nbsp;Additionally, Parker has previously been arrested and convicted on charges of fleeing and eluding law enforcement, theft, criminal possession of a firearm on school property, aggravated weapons violations, felon in possession of a firearm, and criminal threats.