WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser expressed confidence Sunday that the White House’s $1.85 trillion domestic policy package will quickly pass the House this week and said approval couldn’t come at a more urgent time as prices of consumer goods spike.

“Inflation is high right now. And it is affecting consumers in their pocketbook and also in their outlook for the economy,” said Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council.

“This, more than anything, will go at the costs that Americans face,” he said, before adding that the House will consider the legislation this coming week. “It will get a vote, it will pass.”

The House has been moving toward approval of the massive Democrat-only-backed bill even as the measure faces bigger challenges in the Senate, where Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have insisted on reducing its size.

In a letter Sunday to Democratic colleagues, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., counseled “time and patience” for working through a bill of this size.

Consumer prices&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/why-is-us-inflation-so-high-77dc786442ccc3ed8092a7647716d682">have soared 6.2% over the last year</a>, the biggest 12-month jump since 1990. Deese acknowledged that prices may not fully return to a more normal 2% level until next year due to the lingering effects of COVID-19, but he said the measure will go a long way toward “lowering costs for American families.”

“We’re confident this bill, as it moves through the process, is going to be fully paid for, and not only that, it’s actually going to reduce deficits over the long term,” he said.

Biden on Monday planned to sign a related&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-congress-263678efec1b19d3fd22aa660ecd4544">$1 trillion infrastructure bill</a>, a bipartisan effort that was passed earlier this month after the president and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pledged action on Biden’s broader package expanding health, child, elder care and climate change by mid-November.

House progressives had threatened to hold up the infrastructure bill without a firm commitment of immediate action on the broader package.

House centrists say they will vote for the package as early as this week if&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-congress-nancy-pelosi-80f7a76da9ca0b42fc1dcdc4cf7dd023">an upcoming Congressional Budget Office analysis</a>&nbsp;affirms White House estimates that the bill is fully paid for. The measure would be covered with changes to corporate taxes, such as a new corporate minimum tax, while raising taxes on higher-income people.

On Friday, Pelosi wrote Democratic members reaffirming her plan to push ahead soon, noting that CBO estimates released so far on pieces of the plan have been consistent with White House projections.

“We are on a path to be further fortified with numbers from the Congressional Budget Office,” she said.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., one of 13 House Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill, said he’s not convinced that the broader package will get House approval this week.

“I don’t think the votes are there yet,” he said. “A good number of Democrats had demanded and are going to receive a CBO report as to whether is, it really paid for? What does it do when you expand Medicare? What does that do to the solvency?”

“Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to get these answers ... for Pelosi to get the votes set before the end of the week.”

The bill is expected to face changes in the Senate. With Republican opposition and an evenly split 50-50 Senate, Biden has no votes to spare.

Manchin in particular has been vocal about the risk of aggravating budget shortfalls and already has managed to bring the bill down from Biden’s original $3.5 trillion price tag. Last week, Manchin&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/1458443966135902221" target="_blank">again sounded the alarm</a>&nbsp;over “the threat posed by record inflation.”

Deese appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week” and Upton spoke on CNN.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636249665418.png" alt="The bill is expected to face changes in the Senate. With Republican opposition and an evenly split 50-50 Senate, President Biden has no votes to spare.-photo courtesy White House" />
 <figcaption>The bill is expected to face changes in the Senate. With Republican opposition and an evenly split 50-50 Senate, President Biden has no votes to spare.-photo courtesy White House</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser expressed confidence Sunday that the White House’s $1.85 trillion domestic policy package will quickly pass the House this week and said approval couldn’t come at a more urgent time as prices of consumer goods spike.“Inflation is high right now. And it is affecting consumers in their pocketbook and also in their outlook for the economy,” said Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council.“This, more than anything, will go at the costs that Americans face,” he said, before adding that the House will consider the legislation this coming week. “It will get a vote, it will pass.”The House has been moving toward approval of the massive Democrat-only-backed bill even as the measure faces bigger challenges in the Senate, where Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have insisted on reducing its size.In a letter Sunday to Democratic colleagues, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., counseled “time and patience” for working through a bill of this size.Consumer prices&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/why-is-us-inflation-so-high-77dc786442ccc3ed8092a7647716d682">have soared 6.2% over the last year</a>, the biggest 12-month jump since 1990. Deese acknowledged that prices may not fully return to a more normal 2% level until next year due to the lingering effects of COVID-19, but he said the measure will go a long way toward “lowering costs for American families.”“We’re confident this bill, as it moves through the process, is going to be fully paid for, and not only that, it’s actually going to reduce deficits over the long term,” he said.Biden on Monday planned to sign a related&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-congress-263678efec1b19d3fd22aa660ecd4544">$1 trillion infrastructure bill</a>, a bipartisan effort that was passed earlier this month after the president and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pledged action on Biden’s broader package expanding health, child, elder care and climate change by mid-November.House progressives had threatened to hold up the infrastructure bill without a firm commitment of immediate action on the broader package.House centrists say they will vote for the package as early as this week if&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-congress-nancy-pelosi-80f7a76da9ca0b42fc1dcdc4cf7dd023">an upcoming Congressional Budget Office analysis</a>&nbsp;affirms White House estimates that the bill is fully paid for. The measure would be covered with changes to corporate taxes, such as a new corporate minimum tax, while raising taxes on higher-income people.On Friday, Pelosi wrote Democratic members reaffirming her plan to push ahead soon, noting that CBO estimates released so far on pieces of the plan have been consistent with White House projections.“We are on a path to be further fortified with numbers from the Congressional Budget Office,” she said.Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., one of 13 House Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill, said he’s not convinced that the broader package will get House approval this week.“I don’t think the votes are there yet,” he said. “A good number of Democrats had demanded and are going to receive a CBO report as to whether is, it really paid for? What does it do when you expand Medicare? What does that do to the solvency?”“Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to get these answers ... for Pelosi to get the votes set before the end of the week.”The bill is expected to face changes in the Senate. With Republican opposition and an evenly split 50-50 Senate, Biden has no votes to spare.Manchin in particular has been vocal about the risk of aggravating budget shortfalls and already has managed to bring the bill down from Biden’s original $3.5 trillion price tag. Last week, Manchin&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/1458443966135902221" target="_blank">again sounded the alarm</a>&nbsp;over “the threat posed by record inflation.”Deese appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week” and Upton spoke on CNN.

Biden's next $1.85T bill expected to pass House this week

HOUSTON (AP) — A 9-year-old Dallas boy has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston.

Ezra Blount of Dallas died Sunday at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, family attorney Ben Crump said.

Ezra was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering serious injuries in the Nov. 5 crush of fans during a performance by the festival’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/houston-astroworld-festival-crowd-surge-deaths-travis-scott-acd59eac66639a0a0c74c1753f7fb607">headliner, rapper Travis Scott</a>.

He is the 10th person who attended the festival to die.

“The Blount family tonight is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son,” Crump said in a news release Sunday night. “This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration.”

Treston Blount, Ezra’s father, described what happened Nov. 5 in a post on a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/recovery-of-ezra-astrosfest">GoFundMe page</a> that he set up to help defray Ezra’s medical expenses. He said Ezra was sitting on his shoulders when a crowd surge crushed them. The father lost consciousness and when he came to, Ezra was missing, Blount said. A frantic search ensued until Ezra was eventually found at the hospital, severely injured.

The child incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being “kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death,”&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-houston-lawsuits-arts-and-entertainment-db79e408e2cae0a73c55c13660f4047b">according to a lawsuit his family has filed</a>&nbsp;against Scott and the event’s organizer, Live Nation. The Blount family is seeking at least $1 million in damages.

The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27. Some 300 people were treated at the festival site and 13 were hospitalized.

Houston police and fire department investigators&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-business-arts-and-entertainment-concerts-29cddbc5c798a92c1d0fe717cd06f708">have said they are reviewing surveillance video</a>&nbsp;provided by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips people at the show widely shared on social media. Investigators also planned to speak with Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers. Scott and the event organizers&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-business-police-concerts-5a03cb5897b4af7acc2c81c036fafb97">are now the focus of a criminal investigation</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636975609048.png" alt="Ezra Blount photo GoFundMe" />
 <figcaption>Ezra Blount photo GoFundMe</figcaption>
 </figure>HOUSTON (AP) — A 9-year-old Dallas boy has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston.Ezra Blount of Dallas died Sunday at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, family attorney Ben Crump said.Ezra was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering serious injuries in the Nov. 5 crush of fans during a performance by the festival’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/houston-astroworld-festival-crowd-surge-deaths-travis-scott-acd59eac66639a0a0c74c1753f7fb607">headliner, rapper Travis Scott</a>.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636661081723.png" alt="The boy incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being “kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death,”&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-houston-lawsuits-arts-and-entertainment-db79e408e2cae0a73c55c13660f4047b">according to a lawsuit his family has filed</a>&nbsp;against Scott and the event’s organizer, Live Nation. -photo courtesy KPRC TV" />
 <figcaption>The boy incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being “kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death,”&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-houston-lawsuits-arts-and-entertainment-db79e408e2cae0a73c55c13660f4047b">according to a lawsuit his family has filed</a>&nbsp;against Scott and the event’s organizer, Live Nation. -photo courtesy KPRC TV</figcaption>
 </figure>He is the 10th person who attended the festival to die.“The Blount family tonight is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son,” Crump said in a news release Sunday night. “This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration.”Treston Blount, Ezra’s father, described what happened Nov. 5 in a post on a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/recovery-of-ezra-astrosfest">GoFundMe page</a> that he set up to help defray Ezra’s medical expenses. He said Ezra was sitting on his shoulders when a crowd surge crushed them. The father lost consciousness and when he came to, Ezra was missing, Blount said. A frantic search ensued until Ezra was eventually found at the hospital, severely injured.The child incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being “kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death,”&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-houston-lawsuits-arts-and-entertainment-db79e408e2cae0a73c55c13660f4047b">according to a lawsuit his family has filed</a>&nbsp;against Scott and the event’s organizer, Live Nation. The Blount family is seeking at least $1 million in damages.The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27. Some 300 people were treated at the festival site and 13 were hospitalized.Houston police and fire department investigators&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-business-arts-and-entertainment-concerts-29cddbc5c798a92c1d0fe717cd06f708">have said they are reviewing surveillance video</a>&nbsp;provided by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips people at the show widely shared on social media. Investigators also planned to speak with Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers. Scott and the event organizers&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-entertainment-business-police-concerts-5a03cb5897b4af7acc2c81c036fafb97">are now the focus of a criminal investigation</a>.

9-year-old is 10th to die from Astroworld music festival crush

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The annual inflation rate in the US surged to 6.2% in October of 2021, the highest since November of 1990. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said he's not surprised.

"Our surveys that we conduct here at Creighton University, both the Rural Mainstreet survey and the survey of supply managers, both of them contain Kansas as one of the states are showing, we haven't seen inflationary pressures like this in the 25 years we've been conducting the surveys," Goss said.

The Fed keeps saying the inflation will end. Goss doesn't think that will happen for a while, at least.

"We are going to see these supply chain disruptions and we are going to see these exceptional high inflationary pressures well into 2022," Goss said. "I don't envision any really, relief in terms of inflation, until the second half of 2022."

Energy costs recorded the biggest gain, but the inflation was broad based.

"Interestingly, the food increases haven't been as likely as we are going to see going forward," Goss said. "A lot of it is automobiles, so not everybody is seeing that, of course, if you're not buying or selling an automobile. Also, in terms of housing prices, a lot of it is housing increases. There again, you may not be seeing it, until you buy or sell a house."

The inflation number was well above the Fed's average annual 2% inflation target for a 7th consecutive month.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/5/1620071466817.jpeg" alt="Creighton Economist Ernie Goss, PhD" />
 <figcaption>Creighton Economist Ernie Goss, PhD</figcaption>
 </figure>By NICK GOSNELLHutch PostHUTCHINSON, Kan. — The annual inflation rate in the US surged to 6.2% in October of 2021, the highest since November of 1990. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said he's not surprised."Our surveys that we conduct here at Creighton University, both the Rural Mainstreet survey and the survey of supply managers, both of them contain Kansas as one of the states are showing, we haven't seen inflationary pressures like this in the 25 years we've been conducting the surveys," Goss said.The Fed keeps saying the inflation will end. Goss doesn't think that will happen for a while, at least."We are going to see these supply chain disruptions and we are going to see these exceptional high inflationary pressures well into 2022," Goss said. "I don't envision any really, relief in terms of inflation, until the second half of 2022."Energy costs recorded the biggest gain, but the inflation was broad based."Interestingly, the food increases haven't been as likely as we are going to see going forward," Goss said. "A lot of it is automobiles, so not everybody is seeing that, of course, if you're not buying or selling an automobile. Also, in terms of housing prices, a lot of it is housing increases. There again, you may not be seeing it, until you buy or sell a house."The inflation number was well above the Fed's average annual 2% inflation target for a 7th consecutive month.

Economist: U.S. Inflationary pressures as high as he's ever seen them

SEDGWICK COUNTY—A judge sentenced a Kansas man to almost ten years in prison this week for sex crimes involving a 9-year-old girl.

In June, 33-year-old Andrion Ashley plead no contest to lewd and lascivious behavior, aggravated battery and criminal threat, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. The judge also ordered&nbsp; Ashley to register as a sex offender.

In January of 2018, police arrested Ashley for rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, criminal threat, child abuse, aggravated battery and kidnapping, according to online jail records.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636737282850.png" alt="Ashley-photo KBI offender registry" />
 <figcaption>Ashley-photo KBI offender registry</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—A judge sentenced a Kansas man to almost ten years in prison this week for sex crimes involving a 9-year-old girl.In June, 33-year-old Andrion Ashley plead no contest to lewd and lascivious behavior, aggravated battery and criminal threat, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. The judge also ordered&nbsp; Ashley to register as a sex offender.In January of 2018, police arrested Ashley for rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, criminal threat, child abuse, aggravated battery and kidnapping, according to online jail records.

Kansas man sentenced for sex crimes involving 9-year-old

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The mayor of a Wichita suburb was arrested Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A report released by the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Sunday shows that Goddard Mayor Hunter Larkin was arrested by the Kansas Highway Patrol Saturday near the intersection of Tyler Road and Kellogg Drive in Wichita.&nbsp; 

No other details about the 22-year-old’s arrest were immediately available Sunday. 

Larkin did not immediately respond to phone and email messages from the newspaper. Larkin was appointed Goddard mayor in August 2020. He had previously served as president of the Goddard City Council.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636933203245.png" alt="Larkin-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Larkin-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The mayor of a Wichita suburb was arrested Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A report released by the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Sunday shows that Goddard Mayor Hunter Larkin was arrested by the Kansas Highway Patrol Saturday near the intersection of Tyler Road and Kellogg Drive in Wichita.&nbsp; No other details about the 22-year-old’s arrest were immediately available Sunday. Larkin did not immediately respond to phone and email messages from the newspaper. Larkin was appointed Goddard mayor in August 2020. He had previously served as president of the Goddard City Council.

Mayor of Kansas community arrested on suspicion of DUI

JACKSON COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a series of thefts from Walmart stores in Kansas and other states and have three women in custody.

On November 9, sheriff's deputies were alerted to a possible theft in process at the Walmart Supercenter, 427 Arizona in Holton, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.

 Deputies stopped the suspect vehicle, a black 2015 Dodge Charger east of Arizona Avenue on Banner Road. They took three women in the vehicle into custody.&nbsp; Deputies located items believed to have been taken from the store as well as other items believed to have been stolen from other Walmart stores including 22 iPhones believed to have been stolen from a Houston, Texas Walmart.

All three women remain in the Jackson County Jail.&nbsp; &nbsp;Jovanna Richae Davis, 25, of Galveston, Texas is being held on requested charges of possession of stolen property, theft, possession of a hallucinogenic drug and drug paraphernalia.&nbsp; Davis also had outstanding felony warrants for theft and burglary out of Texas and Arkansas.&nbsp; 

Desiree Glenntrice Dunford, 27, of Galveston, Texas is being held on requested charges of theft of property.

Valisa Monee Allen, 25, of Galveston, Texas is being held on requested charges that include possession of stolen property, theft, and criminal damage to property.&nbsp; Allen also had an outstanding felony warrant from the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office in Galveston, Texas.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636899952748.png" alt="Dunford-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Dunford-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>JACKSON COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a series of thefts from Walmart stores in Kansas and other states and have three women in custody.On November 9, sheriff's deputies were alerted to a possible theft in process at the Walmart Supercenter, 427 Arizona in Holton, according to Sheriff Tim Morse. Deputies stopped the suspect vehicle, a black 2015 Dodge Charger east of Arizona Avenue on Banner Road. They took three women in the vehicle into custody.&nbsp; Deputies located items believed to have been taken from the store as well as other items believed to have been stolen from other Walmart stores including 22 iPhones believed to have been stolen from a Houston, Texas Walmart.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636899836979.png" alt="Davis-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Davis-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>All three women remain in the Jackson County Jail.&nbsp; &nbsp;Jovanna Richae Davis, 25, of Galveston, Texas is being held on requested charges of possession of stolen property, theft, possession of a hallucinogenic drug and drug paraphernalia.&nbsp; Davis also had outstanding felony warrants for theft and burglary out of Texas and Arkansas.&nbsp; Desiree Glenntrice Dunford, 27, of Galveston, Texas is being held on requested charges of theft of property.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636899998548.png" alt="Allen -photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Allen -photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Valisa Monee Allen, 25, of Galveston, Texas is being held on requested charges that include possession of stolen property, theft, and criminal damage to property.&nbsp; Allen also had an outstanding felony warrant from the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office in Galveston, Texas.

3 suspects jailed in Kan. had 22 iPhones after series of store thefts

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Two University of Kansas students have been charged with stealing part of a Native American art exhibit that also was vandalized while displayed outside a campus museum.

 Samuel McKnight and John Wichlenski were charged in Douglas County District Court with theft of property of a value of at least $1,500 but less than $25,000. 

The exhibit, titled “Native Hosts,” by artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, is installed outside the Spencer Museum of Art. One of the pieces went missing in late September, several weeks after four pieces were vandalized.

DOUGLAS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating the vandalism to the Native American Art at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas have identified the suspects, according to the KU Public Safety Office.

Police recovered a stolen panel from the exhibit weeks after other panels in the exhibit were vandalized.&nbsp;

Earlier this month, museum officials announced&nbsp; that the exhibit, “Native Hosts” by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, was back in front of the museum.

The work consists of five aluminum signs, which each name Native tribes who historically or currently live in what is now known as Kansas. On each sign, the colonial name is printed backward while the name of the land’s original occupants is printed forward.

Officials thanked the public for helping identify the suspects who damaged the artwork. The case is being forwarded to the Douglas County District Attorney for charging consideration, according to the KU Public Safety office.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/10/1634839264178.png" alt="Security camera image courtesy KU Public Safety Office" />
 <figcaption>Security camera image courtesy KU Public Safety Office</figcaption>
 </figure>LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Two University of Kansas students have been charged with stealing part of a Native American art exhibit that also was vandalized while displayed outside a campus museum. Samuel McKnight and John Wichlenski were charged in Douglas County District Court with theft of property of a value of at least $1,500 but less than $25,000. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/10/1633119849006.png" alt="Photos courtesy Spencer Museum of Art at KU" />
 <figcaption>Photos courtesy Spencer Museum of Art at KU</figcaption>
 </figure>The exhibit, titled “Native Hosts,” by artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, is installed outside the Spencer Museum of Art. One of the pieces went missing in late September, several weeks after four pieces were vandalized.--------DOUGLAS COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating the vandalism to the Native American Art at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas have identified the suspects, according to the KU Public Safety Office.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/10/1634238139558.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Police recovered a stolen panel from the exhibit weeks after other panels in the exhibit were vandalized.&nbsp;Earlier this month, museum officials announced&nbsp; that the exhibit, “Native Hosts” by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, was back in front of the museum.The work consists of five aluminum signs, which each name Native tribes who historically or currently live in what is now known as Kansas. On each sign, the colonial name is printed backward while the name of the land’s original occupants is printed forward.Officials thanked the public for helping identify the suspects who damaged the artwork. The case is being forwarded to the Douglas County District Attorney for charging consideration, according to the KU Public Safety office.--------

Suspects charged with Native American art exhibit theft at KU

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are increasingly optimistic about flipping governor’s offices in key battleground states next year, buoyed by President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings, Democratic infighting in Congress and better-than-expected results in elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

Democrats were already steeled for tough races, but the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2021-virginia-governor-glenn-youngkin-mcaulife-6cdbf77acf9a966e216ab2a297601baa">upset loss in Virginia’s governor’s race and a close win in deeply blue New Jersey’s</a>&nbsp;confirmed the difficult conditions ahead. In both places, the party was largely caught off guard by the potency of culture-war debates over schools and struggled to stop voters once turned off by former President Donald Trump from migrating back to Republicans.

“Biden’s approval is pulling down Democrats everywhere,” said Charles Franklin, the pollster at Marquette Law School, which released a survey this week showing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-health-coronavirus-pandemic-business-government-and-politics-e3a7a7e1540c5a357c96f1f75cde6b11">Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers</a>&nbsp;′ approval rating had slid even more. “There’s no question national forces are playing a big role.”

Democratic incumbents will be playing defense in much-watched Michigan and Wisconsin, and trying to hold an open seat in Pennsylvania. The three governorships are seen as Democrats’ best chance to slow the GOP’s ascendancy in the Rust Belt. The GOP currently holds the governor’s office in 27 states, compared with Democrats’ 23. Thirty-six are up next year nationwide.

Those races are poised to become expensive and intense contests, as voters and political parties have increasingly relied on state leaders to advance — or block — consequential policy. Evers and Democratic Govs.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/gretchen-whitmer">Gretchen Whitmer</a>&nbsp;of Michigan and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/tom-wolf">Tom Wolf&nbsp;</a>of Pennsylvania have emerged as major national figures, credited with stymieing Republican-controlled legislatures’ efforts to add restrictions on voting and to curb precautions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Democrats see added urgency in holding the three governorships, in part because of their role in presidential elections. Trump and his backers last year pushed swing-state governors to name electors who would cast votes for Trump in the Electoral College, even though&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-joe-biden-arizona-government-and-politics-ap-fact-check-0e7fad7e5bdf02d953c6b90a474267cc">Biden won</a>&nbsp;their states. All refused, but a new crop of more Trump-friendly governors could act differently should the next presidential race’s results be similarly disputed.

Flipping Michigan and Wisconsin and winning Pennsylvania — Wolf is term limited and can’t run again — would also likely give Republicans a boost heading into 2024 whether that year’s election’s results be ultimately challenged or not.

“Having Republican governors in key presidential battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan can be worth a point or two on the presidential ballot,” said Phil Cox, former executive director for the Republican Governors Association, who is advising GOP gubernatorial candidates for 2022. “Republican governors can be difference makers in 2024.”

Republican strategists say Wisconsin and Michigan are among their best pickup chances next year, along with Kansas — a normally deep-red state where Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly narrowly won a three-way 2018 race. Nevada, Maine and perhaps New Mexico could be within reach, they say.

GOP candidates across the country will likely try to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-elections-education-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-fc8501fa2b0ef655933f4cce27bf4c9a">energize conservative parents by denouncing schools adhering to “critical race theory,”</a>&nbsp;an academic framework about systemic racism that has become a catch-all phrase for teaching about race in U.S. history. Defending “parents’ rights” to push back against school districts’ efforts to teach about things like institutional racism helped Republican Glenn Youngkin win the governor’s race in Virginia, a state Biden carried by 10 percentage points just last year, and could further resonate in toss-up states.

“When you’re talking about governors, you’re talking about people who are actually in charge of what’s going to wind up in our kids’ schools,” said Rick Hess, director of education programs for the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “For senators and members of Congress, it’s a little more difficult. But this is such a gut-level, values-driven conversation, it will absolutely still motivate.”

Democrats, meanwhile, see pickup opportunities in open governorships in Maryland and in Arizona, where Biden last year became just the second Democratic presidential candidate to win since 1948.

Marshall Cohen, the Democratic Governors Association’s political director, said the party is also eyeing Ohio and Texas, where former Senate and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-texas-election-2020-campaign-2016-government-and-politics-1d2fcef28c9d9a00c33500845136bda1">is expected</a>&nbsp;to challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Both parties, meanwhile, are also focused on Georgia, which narrowly went for Biden in 2020 and elected two Democratic senators in January. Incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp faces the potential of a primary challenge from a Trump-backed Republican.

“No one knows what the environment’s going to be like in the fall of 2022,” Cohen said. “These races are not being held tomorrow.”

For now, though, Biden’s approval rating has slumped since the early months of his presidency, falling to 48% in an October AP-NORC poll from 59% in July.

That, plus the party being slow to pass its domestic agenda, may be a drag on governors’ in-state accomplishments. Congress approved a White House-backed $1 trillion infrastructure package late Friday, but it came too late to help the party during elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

“Many of the things that we are seeing and hearing about in the Build Back Better infrastructure are things that Democratic governors have already been doing in their states,” Wendi Wallace, deputy executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said, referencing a spending bill endorsed by the White House which has yet to clear Congress. “Our in-state efforts are sometimes overshadowed by what’s happening in Washington.”

Biden’s trouble, meanwhile, could increase pressure on Democratic governors facing tough reelection fights to distance themselves from the White House in coming months. That’s mostly not happened, though reactions to Biden’s vaccine mandate for all Americans who work at companies of more than 100 employees could offer some hints that schisms are possible.

Polls show that such requirements are popular among Democrats and unpopular among staunch Republicans — but governor’s races are likely to be decided by independent and swing voters.

In Kansas,&nbsp;Kelly&nbsp;argued that mandates like the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements for larger businesses “tend not to work.” Whitmer and Evers have said little about the policy.

A former Wisconsin state school superintendent, Evers beat two-term Republican Gov. Scott Walker by fewer than 30,000 votes in 2018.

The Marquette Law School poll taken last week showed 45% of respondents approve of Evers’ performance, a metric weighed down by approval among independents and in line with pessimism among roughly half of registered voters about the direction the state is headed. Still, a majority of registered Wisconsin voters approve of the job Evers has done handling the COVID-19 pandemic, the poll found.

Whitmer won her first term comfortably in 2018 and became a national face of imposing restrictions to slow the pandemic’s spread last year. But she’s softened some in recent months.

Democratic strategist Amy Chapman said Whitmer has long known that, given the backlash she and other Democratic governors have faced over efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, 2022 would be a challenge. Whitmer was the subject of multiple threats and a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-us-news-state-courts-courts-ap-travel-da09ca66cd8d5f36722021d3593425ff">kidnapping plot foiled by federal authorities</a>.

“I don’t think there was ever a presumption in Michigan that this was going to be easy,” said Chapman, who was Barack Obama’s state director in 2008 and a senior adviser in 2012. “The governor has known that she really has to be vigilant about this.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636550088740.png" alt="Kansas governor Laura Kelly went grocery shopping Tuesday with Jennifer Melcher and her daughter Millie to discuss her plan to end the state tax on groceries.&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Kansas governor Laura Kelly went grocery shopping Tuesday with Jennifer Melcher and her daughter Millie to discuss her plan to end the state tax on groceries.&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are increasingly optimistic about flipping governor’s offices in key battleground states next year, buoyed by President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings, Democratic infighting in Congress and better-than-expected results in elections in Virginia and New Jersey.Democrats were already steeled for tough races, but the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2021-virginia-governor-glenn-youngkin-mcaulife-6cdbf77acf9a966e216ab2a297601baa">upset loss in Virginia’s governor’s race and a close win in deeply blue New Jersey’s</a>&nbsp;confirmed the difficult conditions ahead. In both places, the party was largely caught off guard by the potency of culture-war debates over schools and struggled to stop voters once turned off by former President Donald Trump from migrating back to Republicans.“Biden’s approval is pulling down Democrats everywhere,” said Charles Franklin, the pollster at Marquette Law School, which released a survey this week showing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-health-coronavirus-pandemic-business-government-and-politics-e3a7a7e1540c5a357c96f1f75cde6b11">Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers</a>&nbsp;′ approval rating had slid even more. “There’s no question national forces are playing a big role.”Democratic incumbents will be playing defense in much-watched Michigan and Wisconsin, and trying to hold an open seat in Pennsylvania. The three governorships are seen as Democrats’ best chance to slow the GOP’s ascendancy in the Rust Belt. The GOP currently holds the governor’s office in 27 states, compared with Democrats’ 23. Thirty-six are up next year nationwide.Those races are poised to become expensive and intense contests, as voters and political parties have increasingly relied on state leaders to advance — or block — consequential policy. Evers and Democratic Govs.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/gretchen-whitmer">Gretchen Whitmer</a>&nbsp;of Michigan and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/tom-wolf">Tom Wolf&nbsp;</a>of Pennsylvania have emerged as major national figures, credited with stymieing Republican-controlled legislatures’ efforts to add restrictions on voting and to curb precautions during the coronavirus pandemic.Democrats see added urgency in holding the three governorships, in part because of their role in presidential elections. Trump and his backers last year pushed swing-state governors to name electors who would cast votes for Trump in the Electoral College, even though&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-joe-biden-arizona-government-and-politics-ap-fact-check-0e7fad7e5bdf02d953c6b90a474267cc">Biden won</a>&nbsp;their states. All refused, but a new crop of more Trump-friendly governors could act differently should the next presidential race’s results be similarly disputed.Flipping Michigan and Wisconsin and winning Pennsylvania — Wolf is term limited and can’t run again — would also likely give Republicans a boost heading into 2024 whether that year’s election’s results be ultimately challenged or not.“Having Republican governors in key presidential battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan can be worth a point or two on the presidential ballot,” said Phil Cox, former executive director for the Republican Governors Association, who is advising GOP gubernatorial candidates for 2022. “Republican governors can be difference makers in 2024.”Republican strategists say Wisconsin and Michigan are among their best pickup chances next year, along with Kansas — a normally deep-red state where Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly narrowly won a three-way 2018 race. Nevada, Maine and perhaps New Mexico could be within reach, they say.GOP candidates across the country will likely try to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-elections-education-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-fc8501fa2b0ef655933f4cce27bf4c9a">energize conservative parents by denouncing schools adhering to “critical race theory,”</a>&nbsp;an academic framework about systemic racism that has become a catch-all phrase for teaching about race in U.S. history. Defending “parents’ rights” to push back against school districts’ efforts to teach about things like institutional racism helped Republican Glenn Youngkin win the governor’s race in Virginia, a state Biden carried by 10 percentage points just last year, and could further resonate in toss-up states.“When you’re talking about governors, you’re talking about people who are actually in charge of what’s going to wind up in our kids’ schools,” said Rick Hess, director of education programs for the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “For senators and members of Congress, it’s a little more difficult. But this is such a gut-level, values-driven conversation, it will absolutely still motivate.”Democrats, meanwhile, see pickup opportunities in open governorships in Maryland and in Arizona, where Biden last year became just the second Democratic presidential candidate to win since 1948.Marshall Cohen, the Democratic Governors Association’s political director, said the party is also eyeing Ohio and Texas, where former Senate and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-texas-election-2020-campaign-2016-government-and-politics-1d2fcef28c9d9a00c33500845136bda1">is expected</a>&nbsp;to challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.Both parties, meanwhile, are also focused on Georgia, which narrowly went for Biden in 2020 and elected two Democratic senators in January. Incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp faces the potential of a primary challenge from a Trump-backed Republican.“No one knows what the environment’s going to be like in the fall of 2022,” Cohen said. “These races are not being held tomorrow.”For now, though, Biden’s approval rating has slumped since the early months of his presidency, falling to 48% in an October AP-NORC poll from 59% in July.That, plus the party being slow to pass its domestic agenda, may be a drag on governors’ in-state accomplishments. Congress approved a White House-backed $1 trillion infrastructure package late Friday, but it came too late to help the party during elections in Virginia and New Jersey.“Many of the things that we are seeing and hearing about in the Build Back Better infrastructure are things that Democratic governors have already been doing in their states,” Wendi Wallace, deputy executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said, referencing a spending bill endorsed by the White House which has yet to clear Congress. “Our in-state efforts are sometimes overshadowed by what’s happening in Washington.”Biden’s trouble, meanwhile, could increase pressure on Democratic governors facing tough reelection fights to distance themselves from the White House in coming months. That’s mostly not happened, though reactions to Biden’s vaccine mandate for all Americans who work at companies of more than 100 employees could offer some hints that schisms are possible.Polls show that such requirements are popular among Democrats and unpopular among staunch Republicans — but governor’s races are likely to be decided by independent and swing voters.In Kansas,&nbsp;Kelly&nbsp;argued that mandates like the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements for larger businesses “tend not to work.” Whitmer and Evers have said little about the policy.A former Wisconsin state school superintendent, Evers beat two-term Republican Gov. Scott Walker by fewer than 30,000 votes in 2018.The Marquette Law School poll taken last week showed 45% of respondents approve of Evers’ performance, a metric weighed down by approval among independents and in line with pessimism among roughly half of registered voters about the direction the state is headed. Still, a majority of registered Wisconsin voters approve of the job Evers has done handling the COVID-19 pandemic, the poll found.Whitmer won her first term comfortably in 2018 and became a national face of imposing restrictions to slow the pandemic’s spread last year. But she’s softened some in recent months.Democratic strategist Amy Chapman said Whitmer has long known that, given the backlash she and other Democratic governors have faced over efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, 2022 would be a challenge. Whitmer was the subject of multiple threats and a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-us-news-state-courts-courts-ap-travel-da09ca66cd8d5f36722021d3593425ff">kidnapping plot foiled by federal authorities</a>.“I don’t think there was ever a presumption in Michigan that this was going to be easy,” said Chapman, who was Barack Obama’s state director in 2008 and a senior adviser in 2012. “The governor has known that she really has to be vigilant about this.”

Democrats facing tough slog in 2022 governor's races

By STEVE VOCKRODT and PEGGY LOWE <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-11-09/fbi-has-investigated-kansas-city-kansas-police-for-decades-but-prosecution-of-bad-cops-is-rare">Kansas News Service</a>

The FBI agent was unsparing — and pessimistic — in an assessment of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.

KCKPD
 officers routinely violated the civil rights of those they were sworn 
to protect. They severely beat people in the city jail. They were 
alleged to have been dealing illegal drugs and committing robberies. And
 they ignored the crack cocaine epidemic in Wyandotte County.

“The
 problem is as bad as it is because of corruption within the police 
department and general investigative incompetence,” the FBI agent wrote.

Those
 findings were memorialized in a memo dated Dec. 18, 1992, by a special 
agent of the FBI, whose name was redacted, as part of an investigation 
into corruption within KCKPD that went under the code name “Operation 
Street Smart.”

The memo was obtained through a Freedom of 
Information Act request to the FBI for records of its past 
investigations into the KCKPD.

Nearly 30 years later, <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-14/kansas-city-kansas-police-open-museum-even-as-news-surfaces-of-federal-probe-into-former-detective" target="_blank">the department is making headlines</a>
 with reports of a federal investigation into alleged corruption. Former
 KCKPD detective Roger Golubski is accused in a civil case of 
systematically preying on Black women to satisfy his sexual proclivities
 or to fabricate evidence to clear cases. He is also accused of 
protecting drug dealers.

The news reports marked a rare public disclosure of a federal probe into some aspect of the KCKPD.

But
 as records obtained from the FOIA request show, the FBI has known 
corruption within KCKPD “has existed for decades.” And the agency 
appeared to have been frustrated at times by a lack of resources and 
inertia from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas in responding to FBI 
discoveries about the department.

“The situation did not develop 
overnight, and it will not be solved overnight,” the memo reads. “The 
FBI has never convicted any KCKPD officer of any crime. Until this 
office does convict several police officers and hopefully gain the 
cooperation of some of these police officers, the situation in Kansas 
City, Kansas, will only deteriorate.”

Shown the documents, KCKPD 
spokesperson Nancy Chartrand said there are only 12 officers currently 
at the department who were employed there in 1992, half of them new 
recruits that year. The others had been working for the department for 
fewer than four years by 1992.

“That being said, it is impossible to validate nor negate the findings of that period in 1992,” Chartrand said in an email.

Asked
 if the depiction of the KCKPD in the FBI records reflects the 
department as it exists today, Chartrand said it does not. She cited 
several national developments that have triggered long-term police 
reforms, such as the beating of Rodney King in 1991, the use of DNA in 
forensic investigations and the growing use of dashboard and body-worn 
cameras.

“Simply stated, policing in our country has changed significantly over the past 29 years,” she said.

The
 FBI’s investigation of the KCKPD during the early 1990s turned up 
several incidents of alleged excessive force and brutality by police 
officers.

One memo from 1993 to FBI headquarters said there were 
200 officers accused of misconduct. Some had one complaint of excessive 
force against them. Others had between eight and 17 excessive force 
complaints over a three-year period.

The Kansas City FBI office 
and the U.S. Attorney identified 18 officers who made up the “core 
group” due to the numerous amounts of excessive force and conduct 
complaints against them. All the names were redacted from the records. 
In order to investigate the allegations, the FBI estimated it would take
 at least four agents working full time for the “next 6 to 12 months or 
longer.”

“The KCKPD does not investigate civil rights violations 
against its officers anymore than it investigates allegations of drug 
dealing or robberies committed by officers,” the report said. “It should
 be emphasized that the formal complaints made by citizens concerning 
violations of their civil rights is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Chester
 Owens, the first African American city councilman in Kansas City, 
Kansas, when he was elected in 1983, said he’s been fighting police 
brutality for decades. He believes the majority of officers are good, 
but there are still bullies who often pick up racist behavior as part of
 officer training.

“I think the difference of then and now (is) 
back then, some of them just took it on their own to do stuff,” Owens 
said. “But now they’ve put it in form and trained them.”

One 
incident from a memo dated April 22, 1993, described a disturbance near 
7th and Troup streets in northeast Kansas City, Kansas. (The date it 
occurred is unclear; the FBI records redacted names, dates and other 
details of the incidents it recounted.)

The memo said several 
young people accused an officer of stepping on the back of an unnamed 
person, kicking a person in the ribs, using profanity and epithets 
including the n-word and striking a person on the head with a gun. The 
summary of the incident said no significant injury resulted.

“The 
police officer is white, and remarks were made which could indicate a 
lack of sensitivity on the officer’s part to the black children,” the 
memo stated. “If it is determined that this matter should be 
investigated, at least 25 interviews will be required.”

A 
description of a similar incident was detailed in a written complaint by
 the NAACP legal department. The letter, according to FBI records, said 
that a group of 16 Black children between the ages of 7 and 16 were 
walking to a relative’s house on a rainy day when six white officers 
stopped them.

The officers searched the children and ordered them to the ground; some of them were lying in mud.

“When
 one of the older cousins questioned why the police were doing this and 
asked what they had done wrong, one of the officers proceeded to hit him
 with his gun and repeatedly kick him with his shoes,” the FBI summary 
of the NAACP’s complaint said. “Another cousin was then thrown over the 
fence by another officer, and the officer proceeded to beat him.”

One
 of the officers whose name is redacted from the report admitted to 
being at the scene but denied hitting or kicking any of the kids. The 
incident resulted in the officer receiving a “counseling form” that said
 the officer could have allowed the children to get out of the rain 
sooner once he found out there were no weapons.

“Officer [name 
redacted] was told that in the near future, in inclement weather such as
 this, he should use a little more tact in handling this type of a 
call,” the FBI record said.

A 1993 FBI memo said many people who 
filed complaints against the KCKPD did not follow up, which the FBI 
concluded was probably because they didn't believe anything would be 
done and they feared they may not be seen as credible witnesses. The 
memo also said there was strong cohesiveness among police officers and 
it would be difficult to find an officer who would testify against 
another officer. The FBI also thought many of the complaints reflected 
proper police protocol.

In an interview with KCUR nearly two years
 ago, FBI agent Al Jennerich, who investigated the KCKPD during the 
1990s, backed up the FBI records.

To investigate that many 
officers in a small department was unusual, Jennerich said, adding that 
he was shocked at some of the KCKPD procedures, including the 
destruction of internal affairs reports after just three years.

“Now
 why would you do that? The only reason you do that would be to protect 
dirty cops or cops that are behaving improperly,” he said.

Jennerich recalled that a couple of officers were indicted. 

An
 officer who faced charges was Edward Dryden. He was among several 
defendants charged in 1993 with a conspiracy to distribute crack 
cocaine.

Dryden, then a 25-year veteran of the police department, 
was accused of being involved in the drug operation and of tipping off 
other defendants of impending arrests against them.

Dryden, a Black man who died in 2019, was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In
 another case, in 1994, a KCKPD officer was indicted by a federal grand 
jury less than a month after FBI agents arrested him for possessing and 
intending to distribute illegal steroids, according to an article in the
 Kansas City Kansan newspaper.

But the U.S. Attorney’s office in 
Kansas wasn’t interested in pursuing such cases after then assistant 
U.S. Attorney Julie Robinson, who had championed the FBI’s work, left 
the office, he said. Robinson was appointed a federal bankruptcy judge 
in 1996 and is now a U.S. District judge in Kansas City, Kansas. 

A
 standing monthly subpoena for KCKPD’s internal affairs reports was 
lifted after Robinson left the U.S. Attorney's office and KCKPD 
complained, Jennerich said.

“When Julie Robinson left, the cops 
over there, management, they saw that … it was a crack in the door and 
they decided they were going to go through that door basically to 
complain about the FBI investigating,” Jennerich said. “So no more 
subpoenas.”

Without the grand jury subpoenas, there could be no 
investigation, he said. Ultimately, the FBI also lost interest in the 
corruption cases, Jennerich said.

“The FBI does not want these cases,” he said. “It’s just a big headache for them politically.”

But at least one FBI agent was pushing for prosecutions of KCKPD officers in 1992.

“A
 more aggressive approach by this office in identifying and prosecuting 
police officers who routinely violate individuals’ civil rights would 
benefit this overall investigation,” the unnamed FBI agent wrote, 
“because the investigation to date has shown that many of the same 
officers involved in corruption are also involved in civil rights 
violations.”

Golubski and Lamonte McIntyre's exoneration 

An
 FBI memo from 1993 noted that a source for the agency had said some 
KCKPD officers would steal money and drugs from people they stopped in 
the streets.

Similar behavior landed KCKPD in the headlines in 
2011 when members of a tactical squad were arrested and charged with 
stealing cash and electronics from residences where they were executing 
search warrants.

But public scrutiny of the department would not 
become widespread until the exoneration in 2017 of Lamonte McIntyre, a 
Black man in KCK who was convicted of a double-homicide in 1994.

Roger Golubski was one of the detectives who investigated McIntyre’s case.

After
 lengthy court proceedings, the Wyandotte County District Attorney in 
2017 declared that a “manifest injustice” had occurred in McIntyre’s 
case, setting him free after 23 years behind bars for a crime he did not
 commit.

Since then, Golubski has been the main focus of a civil 
rights lawsuit filed by McIntyre and his mother against KCKPD officers 
and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas.

The
 lawsuit portrays Golubski as a crooked cop who took advantage of Black 
women in the poorest sections of KCK. He exploited Black women, some of 
whom were addicted to drugs and others who were sex workers, for sexual 
favors or to compromise them into fabricating testimony to help him 
clear cases he investigated, according to the lawsuit.

In court filings, Golubski has denied the allegations. In a deposition, he<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-01-03/accused-of-coercing-women-into-sex-and-lies-to-solve-cases-ex-kck-cop-takes-the-fifth" target="_blank"> refused to address more than 500 questions</a> posed to him by McIntyre’s legal team, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

It’s
 not clear what aspects of Golubski’s alleged behavior have attracted 
the focus of the grand jury’s investigation. A CNN report, citing former
 KCKPD chief Terry Zeigler, said the grand jury issued subpoenas for 
about a dozen case files from the police department. Both KCKPD and the 
Unified Government have confirmed they received federal subpoenas.

The
 NPR Midwest Newsroom and KCUR filed a Kansas Open Records Act request 
for the subpoenas, which remains pending. Previous KORA requests for 
grand jury subpoenas were denied by the Unified Government on the 
grounds they were investigative records. But the UG has since publicly 
acknowledged the existence of the investigation.

Since the civil 
rights lawsuit was filed in 2019, McIntyre’s legal team has gone further
 to examine Golubski’s behavior as a KCKPD detective. Earlier this year,
 McIntyre’s lawyers went to a magistrate judge and demanded an order 
that the Unified Government turn over several sets of records.

Among
 the records they sought were investigative files about 18 women 
Golubski allegedly sexually exploited and used as informants. They also 
sought records of the investigations carried out by KCKPD into the 
murders of women Golubski had used as informants.

“A dozen or more
 of Golubski’s female victims and/or informants have been murdered,” 
reads a footnote in a filing by McIntyre’s lawyers. “With only a couple 
of exceptions, these murders remain unsolved. In some instances, 
Golubski was a primary investigator in the case, despite his past 
relationship with the informant.”

McIntyre’s lawyers also want 
KCKPD files related to drug dealers and gang leaders who had connections
 to Golubski. The lawyers said the records are necessary to establish 
KCKPD’s tolerance of misconduct by its officers.

The magistrate 
judge found most of the arguments by McIntyre’s lawyers persuasive and 
ordered the Unified Government to make the records available.

Social
 justice leaders in Kansas City, Kansas, applauded the Oct. 14 news of 
the federal grand jury probe into Golubski’s alleged crimes.

But they are also calling for a larger investigation by the U.S. 
Department of Justice into “systemic patterns and practices that have 
violated the civil rights of communities of color in Kansas City, 
Kansas.”

“For far too long the injustice perpetrated and covered up by the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department have gone ignored,” <a href="https://more2.org/DOJinKCK/" target="_blank">reads the online petition</a> championed by MORE², a KCK social justice group.

Long
 quiet, victims’ families are now speaking up. Kendra Wright attended a 
MORE² rally on Oct. 25 in front of Kansas City, Kansas, City Hall. 
Wright is the niece of Rose Calvin, a woman with whom Golubski had ties 
and whose 1996 homicide remains unsolved.

“This man nearly destroyed us but we are strong and we are here,” Wright said.

Still, Wright said her family is hopeful.

“We are going to get justice,” she said. “We’re hoping that it’s going to be soon.”

Karl
 Oakman, a former deputy chief of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police 
Department, inherited the Golubski fallout when he became police chief 
in June.

Oakman recently said he plans to open a cold case unit in
 January, although said that Kansas City, Kansas, is not the only place 
that had a high number of unsolved homicides of women during the period 
in question. There were a large number of unsolved cases from the 1980s 
and1990s because of the nationwide crack cocaine epidemic, he said.

Still, Oakman said the cold case team will consist of three people who will look at the cases of the murdered women.

“We'll
 prioritize which cases that, for instance, if there's DNA evidence in 
this case, and there's not any in this case, what we're going to try to 
do is go with the case with the DNA and try to get, see if we can get a 
profile and maybe solve that case,” he said.

This story is part
 of a collaboration between KCUR and the Midwest Newsroom, an 
investigative journalism initiative including KCUR, <a href="https://www.iowapublicradio.org/" target="_blank">IPR</a>, <a href="https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/" target="_blank">Nebraska Public Media News</a>, <a href="https://news.stlpublicradio.org/" target="_blank">St. Louis Public Radio</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/" target="_blank">NPR</a>.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636562531712.png" alt="Former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski is accused in a civil case of systematically preying on Black women to satisfy his sexual proclivities or to fabricate evidence to clear cases. He is also accused of protecting drug dealers. Photo Illustration-Carlos Moreno and Peggy Lowe / KCUR 89.3" />
 <figcaption>Former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski is accused in a civil case of systematically preying on Black women to satisfy his sexual proclivities or to fabricate evidence to clear cases. He is also accused of protecting drug dealers. Photo Illustration-Carlos Moreno and Peggy Lowe / KCUR 89.3</figcaption>
 </figure>By STEVE VOCKRODT and PEGGY LOWE <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-11-09/fbi-has-investigated-kansas-city-kansas-police-for-decades-but-prosecution-of-bad-cops-is-rare">Kansas News Service</a>The FBI agent was unsparing — and pessimistic — in an assessment of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.KCKPD
 officers routinely violated the civil rights of those they were sworn 
to protect. They severely beat people in the city jail. They were 
alleged to have been dealing illegal drugs and committing robberies. And
 they ignored the crack cocaine epidemic in Wyandotte County.“The
 problem is as bad as it is because of corruption within the police 
department and general investigative incompetence,” the FBI agent wrote.Those
 findings were memorialized in a memo dated Dec. 18, 1992, by a special 
agent of the FBI, whose name was redacted, as part of an investigation 
into corruption within KCKPD that went under the code name “Operation 
Street Smart.”The memo was obtained through a Freedom of 
Information Act request to the FBI for records of its past 
investigations into the KCKPD.Nearly 30 years later, <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-14/kansas-city-kansas-police-open-museum-even-as-news-surfaces-of-federal-probe-into-former-detective" target="_blank">the department is making headlines</a>
 with reports of a federal investigation into alleged corruption. Former
 KCKPD detective Roger Golubski is accused in a civil case of 
systematically preying on Black women to satisfy his sexual proclivities
 or to fabricate evidence to clear cases. He is also accused of 
protecting drug dealers.The news reports marked a rare public disclosure of a federal probe into some aspect of the KCKPD.But
 as records obtained from the FOIA request show, the FBI has known 
corruption within KCKPD “has existed for decades.” And the agency 
appeared to have been frustrated at times by a lack of resources and 
inertia from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas in responding to FBI 
discoveries about the department.“The situation did not develop 
overnight, and it will not be solved overnight,” the memo reads. “The 
FBI has never convicted any KCKPD officer of any crime. Until this 
office does convict several police officers and hopefully gain the 
cooperation of some of these police officers, the situation in Kansas 
City, Kansas, will only deteriorate.”Shown the documents, KCKPD 
spokesperson Nancy Chartrand said there are only 12 officers currently 
at the department who were employed there in 1992, half of them new 
recruits that year. The others had been working for the department for 
fewer than four years by 1992.“That being said, it is impossible to validate nor negate the findings of that period in 1992,” Chartrand said in an email.Asked
 if the depiction of the KCKPD in the FBI records reflects the 
department as it exists today, Chartrand said it does not. She cited 
several national developments that have triggered long-term police 
reforms, such as the beating of Rodney King in 1991, the use of DNA in 
forensic investigations and the growing use of dashboard and body-worn 
cameras.“Simply stated, policing in our country has changed significantly over the past 29 years,” she said.<h2>200 officers accused of misconduct</h2>The
 FBI’s investigation of the KCKPD during the early 1990s turned up 
several incidents of alleged excessive force and brutality by police 
officers.One memo from 1993 to FBI headquarters said there were 
200 officers accused of misconduct. Some had one complaint of excessive 
force against them. Others had between eight and 17 excessive force 
complaints over a three-year period.The Kansas City FBI office 
and the U.S. Attorney identified 18 officers who made up the “core 
group” due to the numerous amounts of excessive force and conduct 
complaints against them. All the names were redacted from the records. 
In order to investigate the allegations, the FBI estimated it would take
 at least four agents working full time for the “next 6 to 12 months or 
longer.”“The KCKPD does not investigate civil rights violations 
against its officers anymore than it investigates allegations of drug 
dealing or robberies committed by officers,” the report said. “It should
 be emphasized that the formal complaints made by citizens concerning 
violations of their civil rights is only the tip of the iceberg.”Chester
 Owens, the first African American city councilman in Kansas City, 
Kansas, when he was elected in 1983, said he’s been fighting police 
brutality for decades. He believes the majority of officers are good, 
but there are still bullies who often pick up racist behavior as part of
 officer training.“I think the difference of then and now (is) 
back then, some of them just took it on their own to do stuff,” Owens 
said. “But now they’ve put it in form and trained them.”One 
incident from a memo dated April 22, 1993, described a disturbance near 
7th and Troup streets in northeast Kansas City, Kansas. (The date it 
occurred is unclear; the FBI records redacted names, dates and other 
details of the incidents it recounted.)The memo said several 
young people accused an officer of stepping on the back of an unnamed 
person, kicking a person in the ribs, using profanity and epithets 
including the n-word and striking a person on the head with a gun. The 
summary of the incident said no significant injury resulted.“The 
police officer is white, and remarks were made which could indicate a 
lack of sensitivity on the officer’s part to the black children,” the 
memo stated. “If it is determined that this matter should be 
investigated, at least 25 interviews will be required.”A 
description of a similar incident was detailed in a written complaint by
 the NAACP legal department. The letter, according to FBI records, said 
that a group of 16 Black children between the ages of 7 and 16 were 
walking to a relative’s house on a rainy day when six white officers 
stopped them.The officers searched the children and ordered them to the ground; some of them were lying in mud.“When
 one of the older cousins questioned why the police were doing this and 
asked what they had done wrong, one of the officers proceeded to hit him
 with his gun and repeatedly kick him with his shoes,” the FBI summary 
of the NAACP’s complaint said. “Another cousin was then thrown over the 
fence by another officer, and the officer proceeded to beat him.”One
 of the officers whose name is redacted from the report admitted to 
being at the scene but denied hitting or kicking any of the kids. The 
incident resulted in the officer receiving a “counseling form” that said
 the officer could have allowed the children to get out of the rain 
sooner once he found out there were no weapons.“Officer [name 
redacted] was told that in the near future, in inclement weather such as
 this, he should use a little more tact in handling this type of a 
call,” the FBI record said.A 1993 FBI memo said many people who 
filed complaints against the KCKPD did not follow up, which the FBI 
concluded was probably because they didn't believe anything would be 
done and they feared they may not be seen as credible witnesses. The 
memo also said there was strong cohesiveness among police officers and 
it would be difficult to find an officer who would testify against 
another officer. The FBI also thought many of the complaints reflected 
proper police protocol.In an interview with KCUR nearly two years
 ago, FBI agent Al Jennerich, who investigated the KCKPD during the 
1990s, backed up the FBI records.To investigate that many 
officers in a small department was unusual, Jennerich said, adding that 
he was shocked at some of the KCKPD procedures, including the 
destruction of internal affairs reports after just three years.“Now
 why would you do that? The only reason you do that would be to protect 
dirty cops or cops that are behaving improperly,” he said.Jennerich recalled that a couple of officers were indicted. An
 officer who faced charges was Edward Dryden. He was among several 
defendants charged in 1993 with a conspiracy to distribute crack 
cocaine.Dryden, then a 25-year veteran of the police department, 
was accused of being involved in the drug operation and of tipping off 
other defendants of impending arrests against them.Dryden, a Black man who died in 2019, was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.In
 another case, in 1994, a KCKPD officer was indicted by a federal grand 
jury less than a month after FBI agents arrested him for possessing and 
intending to distribute illegal steroids, according to an article in the
 Kansas City Kansan newspaper.But the U.S. Attorney’s office in 
Kansas wasn’t interested in pursuing such cases after then assistant 
U.S. Attorney Julie Robinson, who had championed the FBI’s work, left 
the office, he said. Robinson was appointed a federal bankruptcy judge 
in 1996 and is now a U.S. District judge in Kansas City, Kansas. A
 standing monthly subpoena for KCKPD’s internal affairs reports was 
lifted after Robinson left the U.S. Attorney's office and KCKPD 
complained, Jennerich said.“When Julie Robinson left, the cops 
over there, management, they saw that … it was a crack in the door and 
they decided they were going to go through that door basically to 
complain about the FBI investigating,” Jennerich said. “So no more 
subpoenas.”Without the grand jury subpoenas, there could be no 
investigation, he said. Ultimately, the FBI also lost interest in the 
corruption cases, Jennerich said.“The FBI does not want these cases,” he said. “It’s just a big headache for them politically.”But at least one FBI agent was pushing for prosecutions of KCKPD officers in 1992.“A
 more aggressive approach by this office in identifying and prosecuting 
police officers who routinely violate individuals’ civil rights would 
benefit this overall investigation,” the unnamed FBI agent wrote, 
“because the investigation to date has shown that many of the same 
officers involved in corruption are also involved in civil rights 
violations.”<h2>Golubski and Lamonte McIntyre's exoneration </h2>An
 FBI memo from 1993 noted that a source for the agency had said some 
KCKPD officers would steal money and drugs from people they stopped in 
the streets.Similar behavior landed KCKPD in the headlines in 
2011 when members of a tactical squad were arrested and charged with 
stealing cash and electronics from residences where they were executing 
search warrants.But public scrutiny of the department would not 
become widespread until the exoneration in 2017 of Lamonte McIntyre, a 
Black man in KCK who was convicted of a double-homicide in 1994.Roger Golubski was one of the detectives who investigated McIntyre’s case.After
 lengthy court proceedings, the Wyandotte County District Attorney in 
2017 declared that a “manifest injustice” had occurred in McIntyre’s 
case, setting him free after 23 years behind bars for a crime he did not
 commit.Since then, Golubski has been the main focus of a civil 
rights lawsuit filed by McIntyre and his mother against KCKPD officers 
and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas.The
 lawsuit portrays Golubski as a crooked cop who took advantage of Black 
women in the poorest sections of KCK. He exploited Black women, some of 
whom were addicted to drugs and others who were sex workers, for sexual 
favors or to compromise them into fabricating testimony to help him 
clear cases he investigated, according to the lawsuit.In court filings, Golubski has denied the allegations. In a deposition, he<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-01-03/accused-of-coercing-women-into-sex-and-lies-to-solve-cases-ex-kck-cop-takes-the-fifth" target="_blank"> refused to address more than 500 questions</a> posed to him by McIntyre’s legal team, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.It’s
 not clear what aspects of Golubski’s alleged behavior have attracted 
the focus of the grand jury’s investigation. A CNN report, citing former
 KCKPD chief Terry Zeigler, said the grand jury issued subpoenas for 
about a dozen case files from the police department. Both KCKPD and the 
Unified Government have confirmed they received federal subpoenas.The
 NPR Midwest Newsroom and KCUR filed a Kansas Open Records Act request 
for the subpoenas, which remains pending. Previous KORA requests for 
grand jury subpoenas were denied by the Unified Government on the 
grounds they were investigative records. But the UG has since publicly 
acknowledged the existence of the investigation.Since the civil 
rights lawsuit was filed in 2019, McIntyre’s legal team has gone further
 to examine Golubski’s behavior as a KCKPD detective. Earlier this year,
 McIntyre’s lawyers went to a magistrate judge and demanded an order 
that the Unified Government turn over several sets of records.Among
 the records they sought were investigative files about 18 women 
Golubski allegedly sexually exploited and used as informants. They also 
sought records of the investigations carried out by KCKPD into the 
murders of women Golubski had used as informants.“A dozen or more
 of Golubski’s female victims and/or informants have been murdered,” 
reads a footnote in a filing by McIntyre’s lawyers. “With only a couple 
of exceptions, these murders remain unsolved. In some instances, 
Golubski was a primary investigator in the case, despite his past 
relationship with the informant.”McIntyre’s lawyers also want 
KCKPD files related to drug dealers and gang leaders who had connections
 to Golubski. The lawyers said the records are necessary to establish 
KCKPD’s tolerance of misconduct by its officers.The magistrate 
judge found most of the arguments by McIntyre’s lawyers persuasive and 
ordered the Unified Government to make the records available.<h2>Activists call for bigger federal probe</h2>Social
 justice leaders in Kansas City, Kansas, applauded the Oct. 14 news of 
the federal grand jury probe into Golubski’s alleged crimes.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/11/1636562646193.png" alt="Ricee Cade of MORE², a social justice group, speaks during a rally before the Unified Government's office building on Oct. 25, 2021. MORE² is calling for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Peggy Lowe" />
 <figcaption>Ricee Cade of MORE², a social justice group, speaks during a rally before the Unified Government's office building on Oct. 25, 2021. MORE² is calling for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Peggy Lowe</figcaption>
 </figure>But they are also calling for a larger investigation by the U.S. 
Department of Justice into “systemic patterns and practices that have 
violated the civil rights of communities of color in Kansas City, 
Kansas.”“For far too long the injustice perpetrated and covered up by the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department have gone ignored,” <a href="https://more2.org/DOJinKCK/" target="_blank">reads the online petition</a> championed by MORE², a KCK social justice group.Long
 quiet, victims’ families are now speaking up. Kendra Wright attended a 
MORE² rally on Oct. 25 in front of Kansas City, Kansas, City Hall. 
Wright is the niece of Rose Calvin, a woman with whom Golubski had ties 
and whose 1996 homicide remains unsolved.“This man nearly destroyed us but we are strong and we are here,” Wright said.Still, Wright said her family is hopeful.“We are going to get justice,” she said. “We’re hoping that it’s going to be soon.”Karl
 Oakman, a former deputy chief of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police 
Department, inherited the Golubski fallout when he became police chief 
in June.Oakman recently said he plans to open a cold case unit in
 January, although said that Kansas City, Kansas, is not the only place 
that had a high number of unsolved homicides of women during the period 
in question. There were a large number of unsolved cases from the 1980s 
and1990s because of the nationwide crack cocaine epidemic, he said.Still, Oakman said the cold case team will consist of three people who will look at the cases of the murdered women.“We'll
 prioritize which cases that, for instance, if there's DNA evidence in 
this case, and there's not any in this case, what we're going to try to 
do is go with the case with the DNA and try to get, see if we can get a 
profile and maybe solve that case,” he said.This story is part
 of a collaboration between KCUR and the Midwest Newsroom, an 
investigative journalism initiative including KCUR, <a href="https://www.iowapublicradio.org/" target="_blank">IPR</a>, <a href="https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/" target="_blank">Nebraska Public Media News</a>, <a href="https://news.stlpublicradio.org/" target="_blank">St. Louis Public Radio</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/" target="_blank">NPR</a>.&nbsp;

FBI has investigated KCK police for decades, but prosecution of bad cops is rare

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department
 announced today that millions of American families will soon receive 
their advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment for the month of November. 
Low-income families who are not getting payments and have not filed a 
tax return can still get one, but they must sign up on IRS.gov by 11:59 
pm Eastern Time on Monday, Nov. 15.

This fifth batch of advance monthly payments, totaling about $15 
billion, will reach about 36 million families across the country.&nbsp;The 
majority of payments are being made by direct deposit.

Under the American Rescue Plan, most eligible families received 
payments dated July 15, Aug. 13, Sept. 15 and Oct. 15. The last payment 
for 2021 is scheduled for Dec. 15. For these families, each&nbsp;payment is 
up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month
 for each child ages 6 through 17.

Here are more details on the November payments:

Recently, the IRS sent letters to many Americans urging them to check
 out the Child Tax Credit and if they qualify, to sign up soon to get 
advance payments. Whether or not they got one of these letters, an 
eligible family who is not already getting monthly payments can still 
sign up to get an advance payment of the Child Tax Credit.

Treasury and IRS urge any low-income family who doesn’t normally need
 to file a return to sign up now to get their payment. The deadline is 
11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, November 15.

Right now, they can only sign up online. To do so, quickly and securely, visit <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021</a>. Families can choose to file either in English or Spanish. 
Families signing up now will normally&nbsp;receive half of their total Child Tax Credit receive on
 Dec. 15. This means a payment of up to $1,800 for each child under 6, 
and up to $1,500 for each child age 6 to 17. This is the same total 
amount that most other families have been receiving in up to six monthly
 payments that began in July. 
Any family who receives advance payments of the CTC during 2021 can 
claim the rest of the credit when they file their 2021 Federal income 
tax return. To help them do that, early in 2022 families will receive 
Letter 6419 documenting any advance payments issued to them during 2021 
and the number of qualifying children used to calculate the advance 
payments.

Families can make changes to their account

Families who are already receiving monthly payments can use the Child
 Tax Credit Update Portal (CTC-UP) to quickly update their account. 
Available only on IRS.gov, CTC-UP already allows families to verify 
their eligibility for the payments and then, if they choose to:

Updates made by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Nov. 29 will be reflected in the monthly payment scheduled for Dec. 15.

Later this month, the IRS will launch a Spanish-language version of 
the tool. In addition, new features will be added to enable families to 
raise or lower their final monthly payment to reflect life changes, such
 as another child born or adopted in 2021.

The IRS encourages partners and community groups to share information and use available <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">online tools and toolkits</a> to help non-filers, low-income families and other underserved groups sign up to receive these benefits. 
Links to online tools, answers to frequently asked questions and other helpful resources are available on the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">IRS’ special advance CTC 2021 page</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>IRSWASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department
 announced today that millions of American families will soon receive 
their advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment for the month of November. 
Low-income families who are not getting payments and have not filed a 
tax return can still get one, but they must sign up on IRS.gov by 11:59 
pm Eastern Time on Monday, Nov. 15.This fifth batch of advance monthly payments, totaling about $15 
billion, will reach about 36 million families across the country.&nbsp;The 
majority of payments are being made by direct deposit.Under the American Rescue Plan, most eligible families received 
payments dated July 15, Aug. 13, Sept. 15 and Oct. 15. The last payment 
for 2021 is scheduled for Dec. 15. For these families, each&nbsp;payment is 
up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month
 for each child ages 6 through 17.Here are more details on the November payments:<ul>
 <li>Families will see the direct deposit payments in their accounts 
starting Nov. 15. Like the prior payments, the vast majority of families
 will receive them by direct deposit.</li><li>For those receiving payments by paper check, be sure to allow extra time, through the end of November, for delivery by mail.</li><li>Those wishing to receive their December payment by direct deposit can make this change using the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-update-portal">Child Tax Credit Update Portal</a>, available only on IRS.gov. Be sure to make the change by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Nov. 29. To access the portal, visit <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021</a>.</li><li>Payments are going to eligible families who filed a 2019 or 2020 
income tax return. Returns processed by Nov. 1 are reflected in these 
payments. This includes people who don’t typically file a return but 
either during 2020 successfully filed a return to register for Economic 
Impact Payments using the IRS Non-Filers tool on IRS.gov, or in 2021 
successfully filed a return by using the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-non-filer-sign-up-tool">Non-filer Sign-up Tool for advance CTC</a>.</li><li>Payments are automatic. Aside from filing a tax return, including a
 return from the Non-filer Sign-up Tool, families don’t have to do 
anything if they are eligible to receive monthly payments.</li><li>Families who did not get a July, August, September or October 
payment and are getting their first monthly payment this month will 
still receive their total advance payment amount for the year (which is 
half of their total Child Tax Credit). This means that the total payment
 will be spread over two months, rather than six, making each monthly 
payment larger.</li>
 </ul><h2>Sign up by Nov. 15</h2>Recently, the IRS sent letters to many Americans urging them to check
 out the Child Tax Credit and if they qualify, to sign up soon to get 
advance payments. Whether or not they got one of these letters, an 
eligible family who is not already getting monthly payments can still 
sign up to get an advance payment of the Child Tax Credit.Treasury and IRS urge any low-income family who doesn’t normally need
 to file a return to sign up now to get their payment. The deadline is 
11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, November 15.Right now, they can only sign up online. To do so, quickly and securely, visit <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021</a>. Families can choose to file either in English or Spanish. 
Families signing up now will normally&nbsp;receive half of their total Child Tax Credit receive on
 Dec. 15. This means a payment of up to $1,800 for each child under 6, 
and up to $1,500 for each child age 6 to 17. This is the same total 
amount that most other families have been receiving in up to six monthly
 payments that began in July. 
Any family who receives advance payments of the CTC during 2021 can 
claim the rest of the credit when they file their 2021 Federal income 
tax return. To help them do that, early in 2022 families will receive 
Letter 6419 documenting any advance payments issued to them during 2021 
and the number of qualifying children used to calculate the advance 
payments.<h2>Families can make changes to their account</h2>Families who are already receiving monthly payments can use the Child
 Tax Credit Update Portal (CTC-UP) to quickly update their account. 
Available only on IRS.gov, CTC-UP already allows families to verify 
their eligibility for the payments and then, if they choose to:<ul>
 <li>Switch from receiving a paper check to direct deposit;</li><li>Change the account where their payment is direct deposited;</li><li>Update their mailing address;</li><li>Stop monthly payments and</li><li>Reflect significant changes in their income that could potentially raise or lower their monthly payments.</li>
 </ul>Updates made by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Nov. 29 will be reflected in the monthly payment scheduled for Dec. 15.Later this month, the IRS will launch a Spanish-language version of 
the tool. In addition, new features will be added to enable families to 
raise or lower their final monthly payment to reflect life changes, such
 as another child born or adopted in 2021.<h2>Community partners can help</h2>The IRS encourages partners and community groups to share information and use available <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">online tools and toolkits</a> to help non-filers, low-income families and other underserved groups sign up to receive these benefits. 
Links to online tools, answers to frequently asked questions and other helpful resources are available on the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021">IRS’ special advance CTC 2021 page</a>.

November Child Tax Credit payments on the way, December deadline looms

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Another Kansas school district is extending its Thanksgiving break to a full week to give overwhelmed staff a reprieve. The USD 497 school board in Lawrence approved a plan Friday to turn Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 _ a Monday and a Tuesday _ into wellness and self-care days. Staff already had the rest of the week off.

 Superintendent Anthony Lewis told the board during the meeting that the time off was needed because faculty and staff were at a breaking point from the stress and other difficulties caused by the coronavirus.

The Lansing school district also extended Thanksgiving break to a full week. The USD 469 board's decision to give staff Nov. 22 and 23 off as wellness days was based on the recommendation of Superintendent Dan Wessel. 

He said that staff has been “presented with an overwhelming amount of responsibility this school year amid the ongoing pandemic." The school district said that if the school district reaches the maximum number of snow days it will make them up before the end of the year.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Another Kansas school district is extending its Thanksgiving break to a full week to give overwhelmed staff a reprieve. The USD 497 school board in Lawrence approved a plan Friday to turn Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 _ a Monday and a Tuesday _ into wellness and self-care days. Staff already had the rest of the week off. Superintendent Anthony Lewis told the board during the meeting that the time off was needed because faculty and staff were at a breaking point from the stress and other difficulties caused by the coronavirus.The Lansing school district also extended Thanksgiving break to a full week. The USD 469 board's decision to give staff Nov. 22 and 23 off as wellness days was based on the recommendation of Superintendent Dan Wessel. He said that staff has been “presented with an overwhelming amount of responsibility this school year amid the ongoing pandemic." The school district said that if the school district reaches the maximum number of snow days it will make them up before the end of the year.

Another Kan. school district to give overwhelmed staff days off

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that, 
effective Nov. 15, 2021, tax professionals are able to order up to 30 
Transcript Delivery System (TDS) transcripts per client through the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/practitioner-priority-service-r">Practitioner Priority Service®</a> line. This is an increase from the previous 10 transcripts per client limit.

"Increasing the number of transcripts a caller can receive addresses 
the concerns the IRS has received from PPS callers. This is another 
example of addressing concerns from our partners and stakeholders," said
 Ken Corbin, the Wage and Investment Commissioner and the IRS Taxpayer 
Experience Officer.

Through PPS, tax professionals can order a variety of transcripts. 
Practitioners can receive transcripts for up to five clients per call. 
There's no change to the number of clients.

Transcripts available under this newly-expanded limit include the:

Transcripts not listed above continue to be limited to 10 per client and count toward the total of 30 transcripts per client.

Tax professionals will continue to receive TDS transcripts in their 
e-Services Secure Object Repository mailboxes. The change also applies 
to other IRS toll-free lines.

Tax practitioners can continue to order TDS transcripts using the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/transcript-delivery-system-tds">Transcript Delivery System</a> application on IRS.gov. Individual taxpayers can request their own TDS transcripts using <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript">Get Transcript</a>. These tools remain the fastest way to receive transcripts.

More information is available at <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-types-and-ways-to-order-them">Transcript Types and Ways to Order Them </a>on IRS.gov.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>IRSWASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that, 
effective Nov. 15, 2021, tax professionals are able to order up to 30 
Transcript Delivery System (TDS) transcripts per client through the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/practitioner-priority-service-r">Practitioner Priority Service®</a> line. This is an increase from the previous 10 transcripts per client limit."Increasing the number of transcripts a caller can receive addresses 
the concerns the IRS has received from PPS callers. This is another 
example of addressing concerns from our partners and stakeholders," said
 Ken Corbin, the Wage and Investment Commissioner and the IRS Taxpayer 
Experience Officer.Through PPS, tax professionals can order a variety of transcripts. 
Practitioners can receive transcripts for up to five clients per call. 
There's no change to the number of clients.Transcripts available under this newly-expanded limit include the:<ul>
 <li>Tax Return Transcript,</li><li>Tax Account Transcript,</li><li>Wage and Income Transcript,</li><li>Record of Account and</li><li>Verification of Non-Filing Letter.</li>
 </ul>Transcripts not listed above continue to be limited to 10 per client and count toward the total of 30 transcripts per client.Tax professionals will continue to receive TDS transcripts in their 
e-Services Secure Object Repository mailboxes. The change also applies 
to other IRS toll-free lines.<h2>Ordering transcripts online</h2>Tax practitioners can continue to order TDS transcripts using the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/transcript-delivery-system-tds">Transcript Delivery System</a> application on IRS.gov. Individual taxpayers can request their own TDS transcripts using <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript">Get Transcript</a>. These tools remain the fastest way to receive transcripts.More information is available at <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-types-and-ways-to-order-them">Transcript Types and Ways to Order Them </a>on IRS.gov.

Tax professionals can now order more transcripts from the IRS

KANSAS CITY (AP) —The contagious delta variant is driving up COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Mountain West and fueling disruptive outbreaks in the North, a worrisome sign of what could be ahead this winter in the U.S.

KANSAS CITY (AP) —The contagious delta variant is driving up COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Mountain West and fueling disruptive outbreaks in the North, a worrisome sign of what could be ahead this winter in the U.S.While trends are improving in Florida, Texas and other Southern states that bore the worst of the summer surge, it’s clear that delta isn’t done with the United States. COVID-19 is moving north and west for the winter as people head indoors, close their windows and breathe stagnant air.“We’re going to see a lot of outbreaks in unvaccinated people that will result in serious illness, and it will be tragic,” said Dr. Donald Milton of the University of Maryland School of Public Health.In recent days, a Vermont college suspended social gatherings after a spike in cases tied to Halloween parties. Boston officials shut down an elementary school to control an outbreak. Hospitals in New Mexico and Colorado are overwhelmed.In Michigan, the three-county metro Detroit area is again becoming a hot spot for transmissions, with one hospital system reporting nearly 400 COVID-19 patients. Mask-wearing in Michigan has declined to about 25% of people, according to a combination of surveys tracked by an influential modeling group at the University of Washington.“Concern over COVID in general is pretty much gone, which is unfortunate,” said Dr. Jennifer Morse, medical director at health departments in 20 central and northern Michigan counties. “I feel strange going into a store masked. I’m a minority. It’s very different. It’s just a really unusual atmosphere right now.”New Mexico is running out of intensive care beds despite the state’s above-average vaccination rate. Waning immunity may be playing a role. People who were vaccinated early and have not yet received booster shots may be driving up infection numbers, even if they still have some protection from the most dire consequences of the virus.“Delta and waning immunity — the combination of these two have set us back,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington. “This virus is going to stick with us for a long, long time.”The delta variant dominates infections across the U.S., accounting for more than 99% of the samples analyzed.No state has achieved a high enough vaccination rate, even when combined with infection-induced immunity, to avoid the type of outbreaks happening now, Mokdad said.In a deviation from national recommendations, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order Thursday that allows any resident 18 or older access to a COVID-19 booster shot, another step to prevent hospitals and health care workers from being overwhelmed by the state’s surge in delta infections.Progress on vaccination continues, yet nearly 60 million Americans age 12 and older remain unvaccinated. That’s an improvement since July, when 100 million were unvaccinated, said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients.First shots are averaging about 300,000 per day, and the effort to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11 is off to a strong start, Zients said at a briefing Wednesday.Virginia Tech’s Linsey Marr, a leading researcher on the airborne spread of the coronavirus, predicted the northward spread of the virus in a Twitter post Sept. 15. The virus spreads in the air and can build up in enclosed rooms with poor ventilation. Colder weather means more people are indoors breathing the same air, Marr said.Imagine that everyone you spend time with is a smoker and you want to breathe as little of their smoke as possible, she said.“The closer you are to a smoker the more exposure you have to that smoke,” Marr said. “And if you’re in a poorly ventilated room, the smoke builds up over time.”Marr said she and her vaccinated family will use rapid tests before gathering for Christmas to check for infection.“It’s hard to know what’s coming next with this virus,” Marr said. “We thought we knew, but delta really surprised us. We thought the vaccine would help end this, but things are still dragging on. It’s hard to know what’s going to happen next.”___