WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says the government will begin allowing more drugstores to start giving shots to speed coronavirus vaccinations.

Pharmacies from 19 chains had been on standby until vaccine supplies increased. Azar says allowing them to help with vaccinations would ease pressure on hospitals that have been the main vaccine providers.

Pharmacies would need to follow state plans for who gets in line first, and governors would decide how to divide supplies between the drugstores and other vaccination sites.

Azar says if health workers aren’t lining up fast enough, it’s OK to mix in other priority groups, and urged governors to make that clear.

The drugstore program is in addition to work by CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate nursing home residents and staff. Azar says eventually more than 40,000 pharmacy locations will be involved

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609958275919.png" alt="HHS Secretary received a dose of the two-shot&nbsp; Moderna vaccine December 22, 2020 image courtesy National Institute of Health" />
 <figcaption>HHS Secretary received a dose of the two-shot&nbsp; Moderna vaccine December 22, 2020 image courtesy National Institute of Health</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says the government will begin allowing more drugstores to start giving shots to speed coronavirus vaccinations.Pharmacies from 19 chains had been on standby until vaccine supplies increased. Azar says allowing them to help with vaccinations would ease pressure on hospitals that have been the main vaccine providers.Pharmacies would need to follow state plans for who gets in line first, and governors would decide how to divide supplies between the drugstores and other vaccination sites.Azar says if health workers aren’t lining up fast enough, it’s OK to mix in other priority groups, and urged governors to make that clear.The drugstore program is in addition to work by CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate nursing home residents and staff. Azar says eventually more than 40,000 pharmacy locations will be involved

Drugstores given OK to give coronavirus shots

FINNEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspect on drug distribution allegations.

On Friday, the Garden City/Finney County Joint Drug Task Force (JDTF) completed an investigation and obtained a search warrant for 301 N. 12th Street in Garden City, according to Sgt. Lana Urteaga.

At 7a.m., the Garden City/Finney County S.W.A.T. team served the warrant and located Carlos Gonzalez-Rivera, 22, of Garden City, in the backyard and Victor Irigoyen, 23, of Garden City, hiding inside the residence and took both into custody without incident.

During a search of the residence, the JDTF seized approximately 567 grams of suspected methamphetamine, approximately 2 grams of suspected marijuana, scales, and several pieces of drug paraphernalia indicative of distribution of controlled substances

Gonzalez-Rivera was booked into the Finney County Jail on requested charges of Distribution of Methamphetamine, Possession of Paraphernalia and Possession of Paraphernalia.

Irigoyen was booked into jail on requested charges of Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Paraphernalia, Possession of Paraphernalia and Possession of Marijuana.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609965413145.png" alt="Irigoyen-photo Finney County" />
 <figcaption>Irigoyen-photo Finney County</figcaption>
 </figure>FINNEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspect on drug distribution allegations.On Friday, the Garden City/Finney County Joint Drug Task Force (JDTF) completed an investigation and obtained a search warrant for 301 N. 12th Street in Garden City, according to Sgt. Lana Urteaga.At 7a.m., the Garden City/Finney County S.W.A.T. team served the warrant and located Carlos Gonzalez-Rivera, 22, of Garden City, in the backyard and Victor Irigoyen, 23, of Garden City, hiding inside the residence and took both into custody without incident.During a search of the residence, the JDTF seized approximately 567 grams of suspected methamphetamine, approximately 2 grams of suspected marijuana, scales, and several pieces of drug paraphernalia indicative of distribution of controlled substancesGonzalez-Rivera was booked into the Finney County Jail on requested charges of Distribution of Methamphetamine, Possession of Paraphernalia and Possession of Paraphernalia.Irigoyen was booked into jail on requested charges of Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Paraphernalia, Possession of Paraphernalia and Possession of Marijuana.

Task force busts SW Kan. drug distribution ring

NEWTON —The Harvey County Health Department, in conjunction with the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office, has confirmed a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the Sheriff’s Office facility.

The cluster includes five employees. Two additional test results are pending. The individuals confirmed to have COVID-19 are in isolation. The Health Department will regularly monitor the health of the individuals. Those identified as close contacts have been notified.

“Public safety is always our priority, and for some of our staff right now, that means being at home,” said Harvey County Sheriff Chad Gay. “We have excellent law enforcement agencies throughout Harvey County that help us ensure the same level of response will be maintained for our communities. I hope our staff has a safe and healthy recovery.”

The isolations are not anticipated to disrupt law enforcement services in the county. All individuals confirmed to have COVID-19 or identified as close contacts remain at home, away from interaction with the public.

“COVID-19 continues to challenge our communities, and that can include our health care professionals, first responders and other emergency services,” said Harvey County Health

Department Director Lynnette Redington. “It’s essential everyone takes appropriate precautions to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

The cluster will be considered active until there are 28 consecutive days – two incubation periods – without positive cases.

NEWTON —The Harvey County Health Department, in conjunction with the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office, has confirmed a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the Sheriff’s Office facility.The cluster includes five employees. Two additional test results are pending. The individuals confirmed to have COVID-19 are in isolation. The Health Department will regularly monitor the health of the individuals. Those identified as close contacts have been notified.“Public safety is always our priority, and for some of our staff right now, that means being at home,” said Harvey County Sheriff Chad Gay. “We have excellent law enforcement agencies throughout Harvey County that help us ensure the same level of response will be maintained for our communities. I hope our staff has a safe and healthy recovery.”The isolations are not anticipated to disrupt law enforcement services in the county. All individuals confirmed to have COVID-19 or identified as close contacts remain at home, away from interaction with the public.“COVID-19 continues to challenge our communities, and that can include our health care professionals, first responders and other emergency services,” said Harvey County HealthDepartment Director Lynnette Redington. “It’s essential everyone takes appropriate precautions to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”The cluster will be considered active until there are 28 consecutive days – two incubation periods – without positive cases.

Harvey County confirms COVID-19 cluster at Sheriff’s Office

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Investigators are working to determine the cause of a Wednesday morning house fire in Topeka.

Just after 3a.m. Wednesday, responded to a fire at a home at 1234 SW Oakley Avenue in Topeka, according to Fire Marshal Todd Harrison. 

Upon arrival, fire crews found smoke and heavy flames coming from the two-story wood frame residential structure. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack, keeping it confined to the structure of fire origin. One adult escaped prior to the fire departments arrival. Firefighters were informed a woman was trapped inside the house.

Firefighters entered the home, located and rescued her. Firefighters initiated life saving efforts on her the until American Medical Response arrived and took over patient care.

AMR transported he woman and a man to a local hospital with life threatening injuries.

A Preliminary investigation indicates the fire cause to be undetermined until further investigation, according to Harrison.

The Estimated dollar loss – $60,000.00; of which $40,000.00 is associated with structural loss and $20,000.00 associated with contents loss. Working smoke detectors were not located within the home, according to Harrison

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609947318497.png" alt="Fire crews on the scene of Wednesday house fire photo courtesy WIBW TV" />
 <figcaption>Fire crews on the scene of Wednesday house fire photo courtesy WIBW TV</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY—Investigators are working to determine the cause of a Wednesday morning house fire in Topeka.Just after 3a.m. Wednesday, responded to a fire at a home at 1234 SW Oakley Avenue in Topeka, according to Fire Marshal Todd Harrison. Upon arrival, fire crews found smoke and heavy flames coming from the two-story wood frame residential structure. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack, keeping it confined to the structure of fire origin. One adult escaped prior to the fire departments arrival. Firefighters were informed a woman was trapped inside the house.Firefighters entered the home, located and rescued her. Firefighters initiated life saving efforts on her the until American Medical Response arrived and took over patient care.AMR transported he woman and a man to a local hospital with life threatening injuries.A Preliminary investigation indicates the fire cause to be undetermined until further investigation, according to Harrison.The Estimated dollar loss – $60,000.00; of which $40,000.00 is associated with structural loss and $20,000.00 associated with contents loss. Working smoke detectors were not located within the home, according to Harrison.

Firefighters rescue victim trapped in Kan. house fire

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Members of the Kansas congressional delegation condemned Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, including Republicans who objected to the certification of Trump’s election loss.

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1346925989276901377" target="_blank">tweeted a statement</a>&nbsp;calling the chaos at the U.S. Capitol that interrupted Congress’ counting of electoral votes “unreasonable and unacceptable.” Marshall had joined other Republican senators in backing a longshot effort to challenge Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

GOP Sen. Jerry Moran, the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation to support certifying Biden’s victory,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JerryMoran/status/1346925894003208194" target="_blank">called the violence</a>&nbsp;in Washington unacceptable and “unpatriotic.”

Republican Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepMann/status/1346918603271106561" target="_blank">Tracey Mann</a>&nbsp;also called the storming of the Capitol unacceptable, and GOP Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepRonEstes/status/1346913657121337344" target="_blank">Ron Estes</a>&nbsp;said, “Violence of any kind is unacceptable.”

Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner called the violence “un-American” and said it was an “utter betrayal” of the freedom to assemble peacefully.

The lone Democrat in the Kansas delegation, Rep. Sharice Davids, called Wednesday “a dark day for our country.”

“It’s unacceptable that we have a President who has repeatedly condoned and even encouraged this despicable behavior,” she tweeted.

In Kansas, the state Republican Party and GOP state Attorney General Derek Schmidt also condemned the violence, with Schmidt calling it “sickening” and “shameful.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609961884956.png" alt="Demonstrators swarmed into the U.S. Capitol forcing Congress to abruptly halt deliberations over Republican challenges to the Electoral College vote photo courtesy WUSA-TV" />
 <figcaption>Demonstrators swarmed into the U.S. Capitol forcing Congress to abruptly halt deliberations over Republican challenges to the Electoral College vote photo courtesy WUSA-TV</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Members of the Kansas congressional delegation condemned Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, including Republicans who objected to the certification of Trump’s election loss.Republican Sen. Roger Marshall&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1346925989276901377" target="_blank">tweeted a statement</a>&nbsp;calling the chaos at the U.S. Capitol that interrupted Congress’ counting of electoral votes “unreasonable and unacceptable.” Marshall had joined other Republican senators in backing a longshot effort to challenge Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.GOP Sen. Jerry Moran, the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation to support certifying Biden’s victory,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JerryMoran/status/1346925894003208194" target="_blank">called the violence</a>&nbsp;in Washington unacceptable and “unpatriotic.”Republican Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepMann/status/1346918603271106561" target="_blank">Tracey Mann</a>&nbsp;also called the storming of the Capitol unacceptable, and GOP Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepRonEstes/status/1346913657121337344" target="_blank">Ron Estes</a>&nbsp;said, “Violence of any kind is unacceptable.”Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner called the violence “un-American” and said it was an “utter betrayal” of the freedom to assemble peacefully.The lone Democrat in the Kansas delegation, Rep. Sharice Davids, called Wednesday “a dark day for our country.”“It’s unacceptable that we have a President who has repeatedly condoned and even encouraged this despicable behavior,” she tweeted.In Kansas, the state Republican Party and GOP state Attorney General Derek Schmidt also condemned the violence, with Schmidt calling it “sickening” and “shameful.”

Kan. congressional delegation condemns storming of Capitol

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — About 200 supporters of President Donald Trump rallied Wednesday at the Kansas Statehouse to show their support for overturning President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Trump’s supporters listened to speeches promoting Trump’s claims about election fraud and suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has been exaggerated.

They chanted “stop the steal,” “four more years” and “no more masks,” a reference to many Trump supporters’ opposition to coronavirus restrictions such as requiring people to wear masks in public.

The protest was the same day Congress was supposed to certify the Democratic president-elect’s Electoral College. The count was interrupted when pro-Trump protesters stormed and occupied the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

After the rally in Topeka, dozens of Trump’s supporters entered the Statehouse peacefully, one by one or in small groups and milled around, glanced at historical exhibits and sat on benches. The building was open as it usually during the week.

The lights in the governor’s outer, ceremonial office were off and the door was locked, and the door to most of her staff’s office also was locked. Her office did not respond to texts seeking an explanation.

Trump carried Kansas easily in November to capture its six electoral votes.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609967102759.png" alt="After the rally in Topeka, dozens of Trump’s supporters entered the Statehouse peacefully photo courtesy WIBW-TV" />
 <figcaption>After the rally in Topeka, dozens of Trump’s supporters entered the Statehouse peacefully photo courtesy WIBW-TV</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — About 200 supporters of President Donald Trump rallied Wednesday at the Kansas Statehouse to show their support for overturning President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.Trump’s supporters listened to speeches promoting Trump’s claims about election fraud and suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has been exaggerated.They chanted “stop the steal,” “four more years” and “no more masks,” a reference to many Trump supporters’ opposition to coronavirus restrictions such as requiring people to wear masks in public.The protest was the same day Congress was supposed to certify the Democratic president-elect’s Electoral College. The count was interrupted when pro-Trump protesters stormed and occupied the U.S. Capitol in Washington.After the rally in Topeka, dozens of Trump’s supporters entered the Statehouse peacefully, one by one or in small groups and milled around, glanced at historical exhibits and sat on benches. The building was open as it usually during the week.The lights in the governor’s outer, ceremonial office were off and the door was locked, and the door to most of her staff’s office also was locked. Her office did not respond to texts seeking an explanation.Trump carried Kansas easily in November to capture its six electoral votes.

Trump supporters stage rally at Kansas Statehouse

ATLANTA (AP) — Democrats have won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the U.S. Senate majority. That's a stunning defeat for President Donald Trump in his final days in office and it dramatically improves the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda. 

Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democratic challengers who represented the diversity of their party’s evolving coalition, defeated Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. The twin victories Wednesday end nearly two decades in which Democrats have been shut out of statewide victories in Georgia. Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.

ATLANTA (AP) — Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2020">two Senate runoffs</a>&nbsp;Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.

A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-elections-2f56a611445df15fb9640893bb9f7a93">outgoing President Donald Trump</a>, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.

Warnock said Wednesday he hadn’t yet heard from Loeffler but told CBS “This Morning” “I’m hearing from the people of Georgia. People are feeling a sense of hope this morning.”

He noted that he grew up in public housing as one of 12 children and was his family’s first college graduate. “That I am serving in the United States Senate in a few days pushes against the grain of so many expectations but this is America and I want some young person who’s watching this to know anything’s possible.”

“Georgia is in such an incredible place when you think of the arc of our history,” Warnock told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He added: “This is the reversal of the old southern strategy that sought to divide people.”

The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. The candidates were locked in a tight race and it was too early to call a winner. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.

If Ossoff wins, Democrats will have complete control of Congress, strengthening President-elect Joe Biden’s standing as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20.

Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-georgia-rev-raphael-warnock-elections-jon-ossoff-a0be02280fcaef22fa0e65b3a5fdb056">striking shift in Georgia’s politics</a>&nbsp;as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.

Warnock, 51, acknowledged his improbable victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience with poverty. His mother, he said, used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager.

“The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”

The Associated Press declared Warnock the winner after an analysis of outstanding votes showed there was no way for Loeffler to catch up to his lead. Warnock’s edge is likely to grow as more ballots are counted, many of which were in Democratic-leaning areas.

Loeffler refused to concede in a brief message to supporters shortly after midnight.

“We’ve got some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We’re going to win this election,” insisted Loeffler, a 50-year-old former businesswoman who was appointed to the Senate less than a year ago by the state’s governor.

Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory</a>.

“We are going to keep fighting for you,” Loeffler said, “This is about protecting the American dream.”

Georgia’s other runoff election pitted Perdue, a 71-year-old former business executive who held his Senate seat until his term expired on Sunday, against Ossoff, a former congressional aide and journalist. At just 33 years old, Ossoff would be the Senate’s youngest member.

Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the runoff elections, which were held only because no candidate hit the 50% threshold in the general election. He attacked the state’s election chief on the eve of the election and raised the prospect that some votes might not be counted even as votes were being cast Tuesday afternoon.

Republican state officials on the ground reported no significant problems.

This week’s elections mark the formal finale to the turbulent 2020 election season more than two months after the rest of the nation finished voting. The unusually high stakes transformed Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’s presidency — and likely beyond.

Both contests tested whether the political coalition that fueled Biden’s November victory was an anti-Trump anomaly or part of a new electoral landscape. To win in Tuesday’s elections — and in the future — Democrats needed strong African American support.

Drawing on his popularity with Black voters, among other groups, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November.

Trump’s claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,600 voters in the runoff elections.

Election officials across the country, including the Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, as well as Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that there was no widespread fraud in the November election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, where three Trump-nominated justices preside.

Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls because of the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote.

Even before Tuesday, Georgia had shattered its turnout record for a runoff with more than 3 million votes by mail or during in-person advance voting in December. Including Tuesday’s vote, more people ultimately cast ballots in the runoffs than voted in Georgia’s 2016 presidential election.

In Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, 37-year-old Kari Callaghan said she voted “all Democrat” on Tuesday, an experience that was new for her.

“I’ve always been Republican, but I’ve been pretty disgusted by Trump and just the way the Republicans are working,” she said. “I feel like for the Republican candidates to still stand there with Trump and campaign with Trump feels pretty rotten. This isn’t the conservative values that I grew up with.”

But 56-year-old Will James said he voted “straight GOP.”

He said he was concerned by the Republican candidates’ recent support of Trump’s challenges of the presidential election results in Georgia, “but it didn’t really change the reasons I voted.”

ATLANTA (AP) — Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.

A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of outgoing President Donald Trump, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.

Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a striking shift in Georgia’s politics as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.

Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory.

This week’s elections mark the formal finale to the turbulent 2020 election season more than two months after the rest of the nation finished voting. The unusually high stakes transformed Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’

“I believe in balance of power, and I don’t want either party to have a referendum, basically,” he said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Democrats have won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the U.S. Senate majority. That's a stunning defeat for President Donald Trump in his final days in office and it dramatically improves the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democratic challengers who represented the diversity of their party’s evolving coalition, defeated Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. The twin victories Wednesday end nearly two decades in which Democrats have been shut out of statewide victories in Georgia. Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.--------ATLANTA (AP) — Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/election-2020">two Senate runoffs</a>&nbsp;Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">LIVE: Reverend Warnock Addresses Supporters on Election Night <a href="https://t.co/3AjHzC35qy">https://t.co/3AjHzC35qy</a>&mdash; Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReverendWarnock/status/1346690996839464961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-elections-2f56a611445df15fb9640893bb9f7a93">outgoing President Donald Trump</a>, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.Warnock said Wednesday he hadn’t yet heard from Loeffler but told CBS “This Morning” “I’m hearing from the people of Georgia. People are feeling a sense of hope this morning.”He noted that he grew up in public housing as one of 12 children and was his family’s first college graduate. “That I am serving in the United States Senate in a few days pushes against the grain of so many expectations but this is America and I want some young person who’s watching this to know anything’s possible.”“Georgia is in such an incredible place when you think of the arc of our history,” Warnock told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He added: “This is the reversal of the old southern strategy that sought to divide people.”The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. The candidates were locked in a tight race and it was too early to call a winner. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.If Ossoff wins, Democrats will have complete control of Congress, strengthening President-elect Joe Biden’s standing as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20.Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-georgia-rev-raphael-warnock-elections-jon-ossoff-a0be02280fcaef22fa0e65b3a5fdb056">striking shift in Georgia’s politics</a>&nbsp;as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.Warnock, 51, acknowledged his improbable victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience with poverty. His mother, he said, used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager.“The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”The Associated Press declared Warnock the winner after an analysis of outstanding votes showed there was no way for Loeffler to catch up to his lead. Warnock’s edge is likely to grow as more ballots are counted, many of which were in Democratic-leaning areas.Loeffler refused to concede in a brief message to supporters shortly after midnight.“We’ve got some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We’re going to win this election,” insisted Loeffler, a 50-year-old former businesswoman who was appointed to the Senate less than a year ago by the state’s governor.Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory</a>.“We are going to keep fighting for you,” Loeffler said, “This is about protecting the American dream.”Georgia’s other runoff election pitted Perdue, a 71-year-old former business executive who held his Senate seat until his term expired on Sunday, against Ossoff, a former congressional aide and journalist. At just 33 years old, Ossoff would be the Senate’s youngest member.Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the runoff elections, which were held only because no candidate hit the 50% threshold in the general election. He attacked the state’s election chief on the eve of the election and raised the prospect that some votes might not be counted even as votes were being cast Tuesday afternoon.Republican state officials on the ground reported no significant problems.This week’s elections mark the formal finale to the turbulent 2020 election season more than two months after the rest of the nation finished voting. The unusually high stakes transformed Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’s presidency — and likely beyond.Both contests tested whether the political coalition that fueled Biden’s November victory was an anti-Trump anomaly or part of a new electoral landscape. To win in Tuesday’s elections — and in the future — Democrats needed strong African American support.Drawing on his popularity with Black voters, among other groups, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November.Trump’s claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,600 voters in the runoff elections.Election officials across the country, including the Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, as well as Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that there was no widespread fraud in the November election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, where three Trump-nominated justices preside.Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls because of the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote.Even before Tuesday, Georgia had shattered its turnout record for a runoff with more than 3 million votes by mail or during in-person advance voting in December. Including Tuesday’s vote, more people ultimately cast ballots in the runoffs than voted in Georgia’s 2016 presidential election.In Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, 37-year-old Kari Callaghan said she voted “all Democrat” on Tuesday, an experience that was new for her.“I’ve always been Republican, but I’ve been pretty disgusted by Trump and just the way the Republicans are working,” she said. “I feel like for the Republican candidates to still stand there with Trump and campaign with Trump feels pretty rotten. This isn’t the conservative values that I grew up with.”But 56-year-old Will James said he voted “straight GOP.”He said he was concerned by the Republican candidates’ recent support of Trump’s challenges of the presidential election results in Georgia, “but it didn’t really change the reasons I voted.”___ATLANTA (AP) — Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of outgoing President Donald Trump, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. The candidates were locked in a tight race and it was too early to call a winner. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.If Ossoff wins, Democrats will have complete control of Congress, strengthening President-elect Joe Biden’s standing as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20.Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a striking shift in Georgia’s politics as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.Warnock, 51, acknowledged his improbable victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience with poverty. His mother, he said, used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager.“The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”The Associated Press declared Warnock the winner after an analysis of outstanding votes showed there was no way for Loeffler to catch up to his lead. Warnock’s edge is likely to grow as more ballots are counted, many of which were in Democratic-leaning areas.Loeffler refused to concede in a brief message to supporters shortly after midnight.“We’ve got some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We’re going to win this election,” insisted Loeffler, a 50-year-old former businesswoman who was appointed to the Senate less than a year ago by the state’s governor.Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory.“We are going to keep fighting for you,” Loeffler said, “This is about protecting the American dream.”Georgia’s other runoff election pitted Perdue, a 71-year-old former business executive who held his Senate seat until his term expired on Sunday, against Ossoff, a former congressional aide and journalist. At just 33 years old, Ossoff would be the Senate’s youngest member.Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the runoff elections, which were held only because no candidate hit the 50% threshold in the general election. He attacked the state’s election chief on the eve of the election and raised the prospect that some votes might not be counted even as votes were being cast Tuesday afternoon.Republican state officials on the ground reported no significant problems.This week’s elections mark the formal finale to the turbulent 2020 election season more than two months after the rest of the nation finished voting. The unusually high stakes transformed Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’Both contests tested whether the political coalition that fueled Biden’s November victory was an anti-Trump anomaly or part of a new electoral landscape. To win in Tuesday’s elections — and in the future — Democrats needed strong African American support.Drawing on his popularity with Black voters, among other groups, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November.Trump’s claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,600 voters in the runoff elections.Election officials across the country, including the Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, as well as Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that there was no widespread fraud in the November election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, where three Trump-nominated justices preside.Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls because of the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote.Even before Tuesday, Georgia had shattered its turnout record for a runoff with more than 3 million votes by mail or during in-person advance voting in December. Including Tuesday’s vote, more people ultimately cast ballots in the runoffs than voted in Georgia’s 2016 presidential election.In Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, 37-year-old Kari Callaghan said she voted “all Democrat” on Tuesday, an experience that was new for her.“I’ve always been Republican, but I’ve been pretty disgusted by Trump and just the way the Republicans are working,” she said. “I feel like for the Republican candidates to still stand there with Trump and campaign with Trump feels pretty rotten. This isn’t the conservative values that I grew up with.”But 56-year-old Will James said he voted “straight GOP.”He said he was concerned by the Republican candidates’ recent support of Trump’s challenges of the presidential election results in Georgia, “but it didn’t really change the reasons I voted.”“I believe in balance of power, and I don’t want either party to have a referendum, basically,” he said.

Warnock, Ossoff win in Georgia, handing Dems Senate control

BY BRIAN GRIMMETT <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/kansas-stumbles-covid-19-vaccinations-leaving-health-officials-confused-and-doses-shelves">Kansas News Service</a>

For starters, the COVID-19 vaccine doses intended for Ness County in west-central Kansas landed somewhere else.

“That was my first clue we had a problem,” said Carolyn Gabel, the county’s public health administrator.

Then someone from Dodge City called. Those vials bound for Ness City? They hadn’t been kept as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/moderna/downloads/storage-summary.pdf">cold as needed</a>. They were no good anymore and needed replacing.

Eventually,
 she had to drive to the next county to the west, pick up a different 
set of doses, put them in her cooler and dash back across 30-plus miles 
to her office.

“Instead of having the vaccine before Christmas like we should have had,” Gabel said, “we didn’t get it until after Christmas.”

In some parts of the state, things have gone a little smoother.

But
 the rollout of a potentially pandemic-ending vaccine in Kansas — a 
state still seeing some of the highest infection rates in the country — 
looks at best uneven. And that’s put the state in last place, at least 
in terms of reporting, for the <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">rate that it’s vaccinated</a> its residents against the killer virus.

Larger
 population centers in Kansas don’t have the lost-package problems of 
Ness County, but many have had trouble getting the vaccine in their 
freezers transformed into shots in the arms of health care workers.

Public health officials across Kansas say they’ve found themselves regularly unsure — often lacking <a href="https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/284/COVID-19-Vaccine">clear instructions from Topeka or Washington</a> — on how best to get the most people vaccinated in the quickest way.

Gabel
 got four vials of the Moderna vaccine. It was enough for about 40 
doses. But other than receiving the vaccine with some needles and 
syringes, she wasn’t really told anything.

She had to figure out 
what paperwork to use, what patients were required to know and how to 
file reports with the state and federal government by herself.

“There was just a lot more prep work to this than what we had any idea about,” she said.

Other smaller counties had issues, too. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CoffeyCountyHD/posts/10157738163802997">Coffe</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CoffeyCountyHD/posts/10157738163802997">y</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/osagecohealthdept/posts/4220430571306778">Osage</a>&nbsp;county health departments disputed the state’s claim on Monday that all 105 counties had received vaccines. Neither had.

By
 Tuesday afternoon, shortly after raising the issue, the Coffey County 
Health Department reported it had received 80 doses earmarked 
specifically for health care workers.

In larger counties, the rollout has gone a bit smoother, but imperfectly.

In
 the Wichita area, the Sedgwick County Health Department got about 
10,000 doses. It’s still got about 7,000 shots waiting for the right 
people to roll up their sleeves.

The county opened a vaccine 
clinic at Intrust Bank Arena on Dec. 29. It could vaccinate 50 people 
every 15 minutes. If only they’d show up.

On the first day the 
clinic was open, the county vaccinated 920 health care workers. After 
figuring out some minor issues, the clinic eventually managed to reach 
more than 1,300 in a day.

“If all of our appointments were full, 
we could almost give all of our vaccine out by the end of Saturday,” 
Sedgwick County health director Adrienne Byrne said. “So, it’s all a 
matter of health care-associated workers signing up.”

If open 
slots go unfilled, the county will be sitting on about 4,000 doses of 
the vaccine at the end of the week, even though it’s capable of 
administering them.

When Byrne asked the Kansas Department of 
Health and Environment if she could fill open spots next week with 
people considered to be in<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm695152e2.htm?s_cid=mm695152e2_w"> Phase 1b</a> — essential workers such as firefighters, postal workers and teachers — she was told no.

“So we have to follow exactly what we are approved to do,” Bryne said. “And right now, it is that very first phase.”

She said communication has been a weak spot.

“This
 whole vaccine rollout across the country is going to have glitches,” 
she said. “It’s not going to be totally pretty because of the speed at 
which they’re trying to get the vaccine out.”

The state has yet 
to give any direction on how people will be prioritized beyond Phase 1 
or what smaller counties should do once they’ve vaccinated everyone in 
that group.

KDHE declined to comment on the process of setting up those priorities until they are final.

For many county health departments, that’s too slow.

“It
 would have been nice by the end of last month to have all of this 
settled,” said Dennis Kriesel, executive director of the Kansas 
Association of Local Health Departments. “We didn’t need to have the 
vaccines ready to go to be ready to know what groups should be 
prioritized.”

The state ranks last in the country for per capita vaccinations, according to the latest <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preve</a><a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">ntion</a>.
 The state argues that those numbers do not reflect reality because of 
issues with the reporting system. But the state has not provided its own
 numbers and both Gabel and Bryne said they haven’t had serious issues 
with their reporting.

The University of Kansas Health System 
hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, has been vaccinating just the people 
that work for it. (County health departments, on the other hand, have 
the trickier job of giving shots to people scattered among a myriad of 
employers.)

Chief Medical Officer Steve Stites said the hospital 
already had systems in place, and it just took a few weeks to scale 
those up. Now, he’s working on preparing to move on to vaccinating the 
public.

“It’s just taking us a while to get through those 
logistics in order to know how much (vaccine) we’re going to have, when 
we’re going to have it and understanding exactly who we want to give it 
to,” he said.

Just vaccinating the tens of thousands of frontline
 medical workers in larger counties like Sedgwick, Johnson and Wyandotte
 counties could take a month or more.

But in places like Ness County, there’s only about 200.

Because
 the two hospitals in the county where most of those people work got 
their own doses of the vaccine, almost all of the doctors, nurses, 
pharmacists and ambulance workers there have already been vaccinated.

That
 meant Gabel, the county health administrator, had more vaccine doses 
than people who fit into Phase 1a. With little to no guidance from the 
state, she figured she’d move on to Phase 1b, rather than let the 
vaccine go to waste.

“That leaves me able to get, like, volunteer
 firefighters,” she said. “And I’m focusing on teachers next, to be 
honest, because they’re also deemed essential personnel.”

She’s 
also reached out to grocery store workers and the post office. While she
 can get some that fit into Phase 1b, she doesn’t have enough vaccine to
 get everyone that does.

In the meantime, she doesn’t have any 
word from state health officials about when her next batch of doses will
 wind its way to Ness City. She said she won’t likely know when or if 
she’s getting more vials until the day someone calls to tell her to come
 pick it up.

“We should be at the top of the pile as far as information goes,” she said. “And we’re not.”

Brian
 Grimmett reports on the environment, energy and natural resources for 
KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on 
Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/briangrimmett?lang=en">@briangrimmett</a> or email him at grimmett@kmuw.org.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609950110315.png" alt="Sedgwick County Health Department workers set up a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Intrust Bank Arena. Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Sedgwick County Health Department workers set up a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Intrust Bank Arena. Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>BY BRIAN GRIMMETT <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/kansas-stumbles-covid-19-vaccinations-leaving-health-officials-confused-and-doses-shelves">Kansas News Service</a>For starters, the COVID-19 vaccine doses intended for Ness County in west-central Kansas landed somewhere else.“That was my first clue we had a problem,” said Carolyn Gabel, the county’s public health administrator.Then someone from Dodge City called. Those vials bound for Ness City? They hadn’t been kept as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/moderna/downloads/storage-summary.pdf">cold as needed</a>. They were no good anymore and needed replacing.Eventually,
 she had to drive to the next county to the west, pick up a different 
set of doses, put them in her cooler and dash back across 30-plus miles 
to her office.“Instead of having the vaccine before Christmas like we should have had,” Gabel said, “we didn’t get it until after Christmas.”In some parts of the state, things have gone a little smoother.But
 the rollout of a potentially pandemic-ending vaccine in Kansas — a 
state still seeing some of the highest infection rates in the country — 
looks at best uneven. And that’s put the state in last place, at least 
in terms of reporting, for the <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">rate that it’s vaccinated</a> its residents against the killer virus.Larger
 population centers in Kansas don’t have the lost-package problems of 
Ness County, but many have had trouble getting the vaccine in their 
freezers transformed into shots in the arms of health care workers.Public health officials across Kansas say they’ve found themselves regularly unsure — often lacking <a href="https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/284/COVID-19-Vaccine">clear instructions from Topeka or Washington</a> — on how best to get the most people vaccinated in the quickest way.Gabel
 got four vials of the Moderna vaccine. It was enough for about 40 
doses. But other than receiving the vaccine with some needles and 
syringes, she wasn’t really told anything.She had to figure out 
what paperwork to use, what patients were required to know and how to 
file reports with the state and federal government by herself.“There was just a lot more prep work to this than what we had any idea about,” she said.Other smaller counties had issues, too. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CoffeyCountyHD/posts/10157738163802997">Coffe</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CoffeyCountyHD/posts/10157738163802997">y</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/osagecohealthdept/posts/4220430571306778">Osage</a>&nbsp;county health departments disputed the state’s claim on Monday that all 105 counties had received vaccines. Neither had.By
 Tuesday afternoon, shortly after raising the issue, the Coffey County 
Health Department reported it had received 80 doses earmarked 
specifically for health care workers.In larger counties, the rollout has gone a bit smoother, but imperfectly.In
 the Wichita area, the Sedgwick County Health Department got about 
10,000 doses. It’s still got about 7,000 shots waiting for the right 
people to roll up their sleeves.The county opened a vaccine 
clinic at Intrust Bank Arena on Dec. 29. It could vaccinate 50 people 
every 15 minutes. If only they’d show up.On the first day the 
clinic was open, the county vaccinated 920 health care workers. After 
figuring out some minor issues, the clinic eventually managed to reach 
more than 1,300 in a day.“If all of our appointments were full, 
we could almost give all of our vaccine out by the end of Saturday,” 
Sedgwick County health director Adrienne Byrne said. “So, it’s all a 
matter of health care-associated workers signing up.”If open 
slots go unfilled, the county will be sitting on about 4,000 doses of 
the vaccine at the end of the week, even though it’s capable of 
administering them.When Byrne asked the Kansas Department of 
Health and Environment if she could fill open spots next week with 
people considered to be in<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm695152e2.htm?s_cid=mm695152e2_w"> Phase 1b</a> — essential workers such as firefighters, postal workers and teachers — she was told no.“So we have to follow exactly what we are approved to do,” Bryne said. “And right now, it is that very first phase.”She said communication has been a weak spot.“This
 whole vaccine rollout across the country is going to have glitches,” 
she said. “It’s not going to be totally pretty because of the speed at 
which they’re trying to get the vaccine out.”The state has yet 
to give any direction on how people will be prioritized beyond Phase 1 
or what smaller counties should do once they’ve vaccinated everyone in 
that group.KDHE declined to comment on the process of setting up those priorities until they are final.For many county health departments, that’s too slow.“It
 would have been nice by the end of last month to have all of this 
settled,” said Dennis Kriesel, executive director of the Kansas 
Association of Local Health Departments. “We didn’t need to have the 
vaccines ready to go to be ready to know what groups should be 
prioritized.”The state ranks last in the country for per capita vaccinations, according to the latest <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preve</a><a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">ntion</a>.
 The state argues that those numbers do not reflect reality because of 
issues with the reporting system. But the state has not provided its own
 numbers and both Gabel and Bryne said they haven’t had serious issues 
with their reporting.The University of Kansas Health System 
hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, has been vaccinating just the people 
that work for it. (County health departments, on the other hand, have 
the trickier job of giving shots to people scattered among a myriad of 
employers.)Chief Medical Officer Steve Stites said the hospital 
already had systems in place, and it just took a few weeks to scale 
those up. Now, he’s working on preparing to move on to vaccinating the 
public.“It’s just taking us a while to get through those 
logistics in order to know how much (vaccine) we’re going to have, when 
we’re going to have it and understanding exactly who we want to give it 
to,” he said.Just vaccinating the tens of thousands of frontline
 medical workers in larger counties like Sedgwick, Johnson and Wyandotte
 counties could take a month or more.But in places like Ness County, there’s only about 200.Because
 the two hospitals in the county where most of those people work got 
their own doses of the vaccine, almost all of the doctors, nurses, 
pharmacists and ambulance workers there have already been vaccinated.That
 meant Gabel, the county health administrator, had more vaccine doses 
than people who fit into Phase 1a. With little to no guidance from the 
state, she figured she’d move on to Phase 1b, rather than let the 
vaccine go to waste.“That leaves me able to get, like, volunteer
 firefighters,” she said. “And I’m focusing on teachers next, to be 
honest, because they’re also deemed essential personnel.”She’s 
also reached out to grocery store workers and the post office. While she
 can get some that fit into Phase 1b, she doesn’t have enough vaccine to
 get everyone that does.In the meantime, she doesn’t have any 
word from state health officials about when her next batch of doses will
 wind its way to Ness City. She said she won’t likely know when or if 
she’s getting more vials until the day someone calls to tell her to come
 pick it up.“We should be at the top of the pile as far as information goes,” she said. “And we’re not.”Brian
 Grimmett reports on the environment, energy and natural resources for 
KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on 
Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/briangrimmett?lang=en">@briangrimmett</a> or email him at grimmett@kmuw.org.

Kan. stumbles on vaccinations; officials confused, doses on shelves

TOPEKA— The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kansas increased by 5501 to a total of 236,818 the state health department reported Wednesday afternoon.&nbsp;

Coronavirus deaths were reported at 3027 an increase of 130

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

TOPEKA— The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kansas increased by 5501 to a total of 236,818 the state health department reported Wednesday afternoon.&nbsp;Coronavirus deaths were reported at 3027 an increase of 130<a href="https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/160/COVID-19-in-Kansas">Click here&nbsp;</a>for additional numbers from the KDHE.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609956538515.png" alt="Wednesday Jan. 6, 2021 KDHE image" />
 <figcaption>Wednesday Jan. 6, 2021 KDHE image</figcaption>
 </figure>

KDHE: Latest coronavirus numbers in Kansas

Saline County —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on multiple drug charges after a&nbsp;&nbsp;traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Salina Tuesday.

Just before 7:30a.m., an officer stopped a 2014 Nissan Altima that was eastbound I-70 milepost at Ohio Street in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.

The officer made contact with the driver later identified as Tyler Walton, 22, of Georgia.

During the traffic stop, the Salina Police Department's K-9, Bennie, indicated the presence of illegal narcotics in the vehicle. During a search of the vehicle, police reported finding approximately two pounds of raw marijuana, marijuana oils, and marijuana candy.

Police arrested Walton on requested charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia and no drug tax stamp.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609943957822.jpeg" alt="Walton photo Saline Co." />
 <figcaption>Walton photo Saline Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Saline County —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on multiple drug charges after a&nbsp;&nbsp;traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Salina Tuesday.Just before 7:30a.m., an officer stopped a 2014 Nissan Altima that was eastbound I-70 milepost at Ohio Street in Salina, according to Police Captain Paul Forrester.The officer made contact with the driver later identified as Tyler Walton, 22, of Georgia.During the traffic stop, the Salina Police Department's K-9, Bennie, indicated the presence of illegal narcotics in the vehicle. During a search of the vehicle, police reported finding approximately two pounds of raw marijuana, marijuana oils, and marijuana candy.Police arrested Walton on requested charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia and no drug tax stamp.

Police find raw marijuana, candy during Kan. traffic stop

WASHINGTON (AP) — As&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">Congress prepared to affirm</a>&nbsp;President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, thousands of people lined up before sunrise Wednesday to show their support for President Donald Trump and his claims of election fraud.

<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?507744-1/rally-electoral-college-vote-certification&amp;live">Click here to</a>&nbsp;watch 10a.m. CDT

Trump was expected to address&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-elections-electoral-college-47cd4321645c92f0781005143601c607">his supporters</a>&nbsp; during the rally on the Ellipse, just south of the White House.

Lou Murray, a life insurance salesman from Boston, said he and many others still hoped Congress and Vice President Mike Pence would not certify the vote. “I hope Vice President Pence has courage today, and I hope any politician who thinks he has a future shows courage to stand up and do what’s right,” Murray said.

About an hour before Trump was set to speak, there were massive, dense lines at security checkpoints near the White House. At the Lincoln Memorial, dozens of Trump supporters stood on the steps with large Trump flags.

Nirav Peterson, who flew in from Seattle to attend the rally, said there would be a groundswell of anger and activism if Trump doesn’t serve another term and said Republicans who don’t back him should face primary challenges.

“People are angry. This isn’t going to go away,” Peterson said as she took video of the large crowd gathered beyond the steel barriers at the foot of the Washington Monument. “You have a huge, huge portion of the people who aren’t going to take it anymore.”

Like many others, Peterson was not wearing a mask. She said she opposes the shutdowns prompted by the pandemic and doesn’t believe anyone has died from COVID-19. More than 350,000 people have died from the virus in the U.S.

Organizers planned an afternoon march to the Capitol, where Congress will be voting to affirm the Electoral College results, which Trump continues to dispute.

A number of prominent Trump supporters were expected to attend the protest events, which began Tuesday with a rally at Freedom Plaza near the White House. They include Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, the recipient of a pardon by the president.

As temperatures dropped to the low 40s Tuesday night and a steady rain swept onto the streets, hundreds of protesters remained in Freedom Plaza.

“I’m just here to support the president,” said David Wideman, a 45-year-old firefighter who traveled from Memphis, Tennessee. Wideman acknowledged he was “confused” by a string of losses from Trump’s legal team in their attempt to overturn the results of the election and didn’t know what options Trump had left.

“I not sure what he can do at this point, but I want to hear what he has to say,” Wideman said.

Trump tweeted his support for the protesters: “Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats. Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore! We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office.”

In a Tuesday evening tweet, Trump called on Democrats and fellow Republicans to look at the “thousands of people pouring into D.C.” In another tweet, he warned that antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups that Trump has said he wants to declare a terrorist organization, should stay out of Washington.

The rallies had local officials and law enforcement bracing for potential violent street clashes. Many businesses in downtown Washington boarded up their windows, fearful that the protest could devolve into the unrest seen in May and June when dozens of businesses were vandalized.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser called in National Guard troops to help bolster the city’s police force. She urged residents to stay away from downtown Washington and to avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight.” But, she warned, “we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”

Election officials from both political parties, governors in key battleground states and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two challenges rejected by the Supreme Court.

A pro-Trump rally Dec. 12 ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the signature black and yellow of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, sought out confrontations with a collective of local activists attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House. At least two local Black churches had Black Lives Matter banners torn down and set ablaze.

On Monday, police arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, after he arrived in Washington before this week’s protests. Tarrio was accused of burning one of the Black Lives Matter banners in December and was found with two high-capacity firearm magazines, police said. A judge signed an order Tuesday banning Tarrio from entering the District of Columbia, with very limited exceptions related to his criminal case.

In addition to the National Guard, federal agents were on standby, in case they were quickly needed in the city this week.

The federal Bureau of Prisons said about 100 “specially trained officers” were sent to the Justice Department headquarters to assist other security personnel but would remain “in a reserve capacity unless needed.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609951430041.png" alt="Large crowds at the "Save America Rally" Wednesday near the White House -image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Large crowds at the "Save America Rally" Wednesday near the White House -image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — As&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">Congress prepared to affirm</a>&nbsp;President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, thousands of people lined up before sunrise Wednesday to show their support for President Donald Trump and his claims of election fraud.<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?507744-1/rally-electoral-college-vote-certification&amp;live">Click here to</a>&nbsp;watch 10a.m. CDTTrump was expected to address&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-elections-electoral-college-47cd4321645c92f0781005143601c607">his supporters</a>&nbsp; during the rally on the Ellipse, just south of the White House.Lou Murray, a life insurance salesman from Boston, said he and many others still hoped Congress and Vice President Mike Pence would not certify the vote. “I hope Vice President Pence has courage today, and I hope any politician who thinks he has a future shows courage to stand up and do what’s right,” Murray said.About an hour before Trump was set to speak, there were massive, dense lines at security checkpoints near the White House. At the Lincoln Memorial, dozens of Trump supporters stood on the steps with large Trump flags.Nirav Peterson, who flew in from Seattle to attend the rally, said there would be a groundswell of anger and activism if Trump doesn’t serve another term and said Republicans who don’t back him should face primary challenges.“People are angry. This isn’t going to go away,” Peterson said as she took video of the large crowd gathered beyond the steel barriers at the foot of the Washington Monument. “You have a huge, huge portion of the people who aren’t going to take it anymore.”Like many others, Peterson was not wearing a mask. She said she opposes the shutdowns prompted by the pandemic and doesn’t believe anyone has died from COVID-19. More than 350,000 people have died from the virus in the U.S.Organizers planned an afternoon march to the Capitol, where Congress will be voting to affirm the Electoral College results, which Trump continues to dispute.A number of prominent Trump supporters were expected to attend the protest events, which began Tuesday with a rally at Freedom Plaza near the White House. They include Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, the recipient of a pardon by the president.As temperatures dropped to the low 40s Tuesday night and a steady rain swept onto the streets, hundreds of protesters remained in Freedom Plaza.“I’m just here to support the president,” said David Wideman, a 45-year-old firefighter who traveled from Memphis, Tennessee. Wideman acknowledged he was “confused” by a string of losses from Trump’s legal team in their attempt to overturn the results of the election and didn’t know what options Trump had left.“I not sure what he can do at this point, but I want to hear what he has to say,” Wideman said.Trump tweeted his support for the protesters: “Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats. Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore! We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office.”In a Tuesday evening tweet, Trump called on Democrats and fellow Republicans to look at the “thousands of people pouring into D.C.” In another tweet, he warned that antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups that Trump has said he wants to declare a terrorist organization, should stay out of Washington.The rallies had local officials and law enforcement bracing for potential violent street clashes. Many businesses in downtown Washington boarded up their windows, fearful that the protest could devolve into the unrest seen in May and June when dozens of businesses were vandalized.District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser called in National Guard troops to help bolster the city’s police force. She urged residents to stay away from downtown Washington and to avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight.” But, she warned, “we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”Election officials from both political parties, governors in key battleground states and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two challenges rejected by the Supreme Court.A pro-Trump rally Dec. 12 ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the signature black and yellow of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, sought out confrontations with a collective of local activists attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House. At least two local Black churches had Black Lives Matter banners torn down and set ablaze.On Monday, police arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, after he arrived in Washington before this week’s protests. Tarrio was accused of burning one of the Black Lives Matter banners in December and was found with two high-capacity firearm magazines, police said. A judge signed an order Tuesday banning Tarrio from entering the District of Columbia, with very limited exceptions related to his criminal case.In addition to the National Guard, federal agents were on standby, in case they were quickly needed in the city this week.The federal Bureau of Prisons said about 100 “specially trained officers” were sent to the Justice Department headquarters to assist other security personnel but would remain “in a reserve capacity unless needed.”

🎥  President Trump speaks to supporters at DC rally 

FINNEY COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect after a violent attack on a woman and fight with a police officer.

Just after 7a.m. Monday, police&nbsp; were dispatched to the northeast Garden City for a reported fight-in-progress. As the officer arrived at the location, a woman was observed about 20 feet away and she appeared to be in distress, according to Sgt. Lana Urteaga.

Just as the officer began to approach the woman, a man, later identified as Tuan Tran, 48, Garden City, ran out of his residence toward the woman. As the woman tried to flee from Tran, she fell to the ground. Tran had a large-blade knife in his hand as he ran toward the woman. Tran then jumped on top of the woman and stabbed her.

The officer ran to the woman, wrestled the knife away from Tran, and pulled Tran off of her. 

Officers arrested Tran after a struggle with the officer. 

The woman was transported to St. Catherine Hospital by Finney County EMS for minor injuries, where she was treated and released, according to Urteaga.

Tran was transported by Finney County EMS to St. Catherine Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and then transported to the Finney County Jail. 

The officer was also taken to St. Catherine Hospital and treated and released for minor injuries.

Tran remains jailed on requested charges of Attempted 1st Degree Murder and Aggravated Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609933757553.png" alt="Tran photo Finney Co. Jail" />
 <figcaption>Tran photo Finney Co. Jail</figcaption>
 </figure>FINNEY COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect after a violent attack on a woman and fight with a police officer.Just after 7a.m. Monday, police&nbsp; were dispatched to the northeast Garden City for a reported fight-in-progress. As the officer arrived at the location, a woman was observed about 20 feet away and she appeared to be in distress, according to Sgt. Lana Urteaga.Just as the officer began to approach the woman, a man, later identified as Tuan Tran, 48, Garden City, ran out of his residence toward the woman. As the woman tried to flee from Tran, she fell to the ground. Tran had a large-blade knife in his hand as he ran toward the woman. Tran then jumped on top of the woman and stabbed her.The officer ran to the woman, wrestled the knife away from Tran, and pulled Tran off of her. Officers arrested Tran after a struggle with the officer. The woman was transported to St. Catherine Hospital by Finney County EMS for minor injuries, where she was treated and released, according to Urteaga.Tran was transported by Finney County EMS to St. Catherine Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and then transported to the Finney County Jail. The officer was also taken to St. Catherine Hospital and treated and released for minor injuries.Tran remains jailed on requested charges of Attempted 1st Degree Murder and Aggravated Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.&nbsp;

SW Kan. man jailed after attack on woman, police officer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators and Kansas’ GOP attorney general said Tuesday that privacy is key, as lawmakers prepared to decide whether to rewrite a law that allows people exposed to COVID-19 to refuse to disclose their close contacts to health officials.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly wants legislators to rewrite the law enacted last year, arguing in a recent interview that provisions allowing people to opt out of contact tracing “served no purpose.” Some health officials say the law&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/1402959bab4ae0016d313fae13258c62" target="_blank">hinders efforts</a>&nbsp;to trace new coronavirus cases to their source and warn others who might have been infected.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature aren’t ruling out changes, but some said they want to make sure people’s privacy remains protected. The law was enacted for the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to expire May 1, forcing legislators to review it during the annual 90-day session opening Monday.

“The right to privacy is a constitutional right that we all hold, so I think any time that you do anything to impede or step on that, that you have to be very cautious,” Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Galena Republican and the incoming chair of the Senate health committee, said Tuesday.

The renewed debate over privacy, like a coming debate about whether local officials or the state control the pandemic response, comes as Republicans are gearing up to try to retake the governor’s office in 2022. Kelly plans to seek reelection; Schmidt is considered a potential Republican candidate, and the GOP already is trying to draw distinctions between its approach to the pandemic and Kelly’s.

Schmidt proposed the contact-tracing law and legislators included it in a package of measures governing the state’s coronavirus response. Kelly said she was forced to accept the whole package to preserve a state of emergency for the pandemic and called the contact-tracing law “not helpful.”

“Contact tracing is a 100-year-old, well-documented public health strategy,” she said. “It was absurd to play politics with it. It really didn’t need to happen. It served no purpose, other than to make a political point.”

But Schmidt spokesman John Milburn said: “From the attorney general’s standpoint, the act is working well, particularly its protections that ensure individuals control whether to divulge information about their movements and associations and that oblige the government to carefully safeguard any information it collects.”

Justin Beck, the CEO of California-based technology company Contakt World, said “very basic technology” can be used to contact people other than through phone calls and allow them to send information to public health agencies without revealing their names. His company, an affiliate member of the national group for local health officials, is planning this month to launch a platform for contact tracing by text, apps and interactive voice recording.

“In Kansas, in particular, there’s a lot of reticence to participate in the contact tracing process,” he said.

About 50% of people in Douglas County in northeast Kansas testing positive for COVID-19 refuse to cooperate with health officials, said Sonia Jordan, the local health department’s director of informatics. She said people typically decline when health officials ask for permission to call recent close contacts, including some who say they already notified friends and family.

Jordan said disease investigators used to be able to tell people that the state requires them to ask for contacts, but staff can no longer use that line. She isn’t sure whether she wants the law removed, but said she doesn’t think there would be a “negative effect on public health” if it were scrapped.

But other public health officials say the law hasn’t hurt contact tracing efforts. Ford County Health Department Administrator Angela Sowers estimates that fewer than 30 people declined to cooperate with contact tracers after the law went into effect.

Sowers said contact tracers have encountered difficulties when a person they reach by phone tells them that they are unavailable and don’t answer again.

“We try several times,” Sowers said. “Whenever it’s convenient for them, we try and find that out so we can talk to them.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1605784708104.png" alt=""Contact tracing is a 100-year-old, well-documented public health strategy,” Governor Kelly said. “It was absurd to play politics with it."" />
 <figcaption>"Contact tracing is a 100-year-old, well-documented public health strategy,” Governor Kelly said. “It was absurd to play politics with it."</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators and Kansas’ GOP attorney general said Tuesday that privacy is key, as lawmakers prepared to decide whether to rewrite a law that allows people exposed to COVID-19 to refuse to disclose their close contacts to health officials.Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly wants legislators to rewrite the law enacted last year, arguing in a recent interview that provisions allowing people to opt out of contact tracing “served no purpose.” Some health officials say the law&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/1402959bab4ae0016d313fae13258c62" target="_blank">hinders efforts</a>&nbsp;to trace new coronavirus cases to their source and warn others who might have been infected.Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature aren’t ruling out changes, but some said they want to make sure people’s privacy remains protected. The law was enacted for the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to expire May 1, forcing legislators to review it during the annual 90-day session opening Monday.“The right to privacy is a constitutional right that we all hold, so I think any time that you do anything to impede or step on that, that you have to be very cautious,” Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Galena Republican and the incoming chair of the Senate health committee, said Tuesday.The renewed debate over privacy, like a coming debate about whether local officials or the state control the pandemic response, comes as Republicans are gearing up to try to retake the governor’s office in 2022. Kelly plans to seek reelection; Schmidt is considered a potential Republican candidate, and the GOP already is trying to draw distinctions between its approach to the pandemic and Kelly’s.Schmidt proposed the contact-tracing law and legislators included it in a package of measures governing the state’s coronavirus response. Kelly said she was forced to accept the whole package to preserve a state of emergency for the pandemic and called the contact-tracing law “not helpful.”“Contact tracing is a 100-year-old, well-documented public health strategy,” she said. “It was absurd to play politics with it. It really didn’t need to happen. It served no purpose, other than to make a political point.”But Schmidt spokesman John Milburn said: “From the attorney general’s standpoint, the act is working well, particularly its protections that ensure individuals control whether to divulge information about their movements and associations and that oblige the government to carefully safeguard any information it collects.”Justin Beck, the CEO of California-based technology company Contakt World, said “very basic technology” can be used to contact people other than through phone calls and allow them to send information to public health agencies without revealing their names. His company, an affiliate member of the national group for local health officials, is planning this month to launch a platform for contact tracing by text, apps and interactive voice recording.“In Kansas, in particular, there’s a lot of reticence to participate in the contact tracing process,” he said.About 50% of people in Douglas County in northeast Kansas testing positive for COVID-19 refuse to cooperate with health officials, said Sonia Jordan, the local health department’s director of informatics. She said people typically decline when health officials ask for permission to call recent close contacts, including some who say they already notified friends and family.Jordan said disease investigators used to be able to tell people that the state requires them to ask for contacts, but staff can no longer use that line. She isn’t sure whether she wants the law removed, but said she doesn’t think there would be a “negative effect on public health” if it were scrapped.But other public health officials say the law hasn’t hurt contact tracing efforts. Ford County Health Department Administrator Angela Sowers estimates that fewer than 30 people declined to cooperate with contact tracers after the law went into effect.Sowers said contact tracers have encountered difficulties when a person they reach by phone tells them that they are unavailable and don’t answer again.“We try several times,” Sowers said. “Whenever it’s convenient for them, we try and find that out so we can talk to them.”___

Kansas debates contact tracing in battle over your privacy 

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a New Year's Eve murder are working to contact someone who left an anonymous tip about the crime.

Just after 5:30p.m. Dec. 31, police were in the area of SE 6th and Leland in Topeka as gunshots were heard, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609937789684.png" alt="Police on the scene of the New Year's Eve investigation -photo courtesy WIBW TV" />
 <figcaption>Police on the scene of the New Year's Eve investigation -photo courtesy WIBW TV</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a New Year's Eve murder are working to contact someone who left an anonymous tip about the crime.Just after 5:30p.m. Dec. 31, police were in the area of SE 6th and Leland in Topeka as gunshots were heard, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith.Officers later were notified of an adult male victim later identified as&nbsp;25-year-old Jesus Noel Soto-Villareal of Topeka. suffering from life-threatening injuries who arrived at a local hospital. He was later pronounced deceased by medical care personnel.On January 4, 2021 Shawnee County Crime Stoppers received an anonymous tip about the homicide investigation.After reviewing the tip, Crime Stoppers wants to communicate with the tipster anonymously. Law enforcement believes the tipster may have important information about the case and asked the tipster to login to the secure website, communicate with them through the P3 Tips App or call them at 785-234-0007.---------SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal New Year's Eve shooting and have identified the victim as 25-year-old Jesus Noel Soto-Villareal of Topeka.&nbsp;Just after 5:30p.m. Thursday, police were in the area of SE 6th and Leland in Topeka as gunshots were heard, according to Lt. Jerry Monasmith.Officers later were notified of an adult male victim suffering from life-threatening injuries who arrived at a local hospital. The victim was later pronounced deceased by medical care personnel.Officers and Detectives are continuing the ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.Police have not reported an arrest.-----