August 12 2024

1 Wichita Police Implement Controversial Algorithmic Policing Model Amidst Lawsuit Settlement
2 KU Coach Stanley Redwine Leads U.S. Men's Track Team to Historic Olympic Success
3 AG Kris Kobach Revives 'Prairie Fire' PAC
4 Kansas AG Charges Neosho County Prosecutor with Misdemeanors
5 Boeing’s New CEO Ortberg to Tour Wichita's Spirit AeroSystems with Sen Moran
Sports

1 Wichita Police Implement Controversial Algorithmic Policing Model Amidst Lawsuit Settlement

Wichita police are using a different way to identify people most likely to commit a crime. And those on the top offender list have no way of knowing they’re on there. Police adopted the top offender model, which uses a mathematical equation to determine a person’s likelihood of committing a crime, in March. The predictive policing method has been used by some other law enforcement agencies for years. The program launched as city officials worked out a settlement over a multi-year lawsuit that called the Wichita Police Department’s gang list unconstitutional. “There is a lot of subjective human input into that (gang) list,” Chief Joseph Sullivan said during a Wichita Police Department town hall meeting on June 8, the first time police spoke to the public about the top offender model. “This completely eliminates all of that. I cannot give somebody a high score in any way shape or form. It’s simply based on the math and nothing else. I can’t influence it.” The mathematical formula is not based on a person’s arrests or convictions. Instead, it assigns 35% for a person’s criminal history based on Wichita police cases, 35% from intel police receive and 30% for a personal connection in Wichita Police Department cases to other people who also might be committing crimes.

ACLU staff attorney Kunyu Ching, however, said it’s easy to keep people involved in police cases in overpoliced areas, or if police are following a certain person, making it a “skewed sample.” “I also think that in general there is a heavy potential here for discrimination against protected classes or demographics,” she said. “I think it’s common knowledge these sorts of algorithms can produce bias, including racial bias. I think it’s also well known that Black and brown communities and low-income communities are policed far more heavily than others and that combined, these circumstances can snowball and become sort of a self-enforcing feedback loop that results in overpolicing certain areas or demographics.” Police are now using the top offender model only to find people who might be involved in a shooting. It could be expanded to include other crimes, police said. Every week, officers receive an updated list with the Top 12 offenders.

Article Source: Wichita Eagle

2 KU Coach Stanley Redwine Leads U.S. Men's Track Team to Historic Olympic Success

Veteran University of Kansas track coach Stanley Redwine’s stint as the 2024 U.S. men’s Olympics head track and field coach was a resounding success. The Team USA’s men’s track squad won seven gold medals, six silver medals and five bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Games, which concluded with closing ceremonies on Sunday. Three years ago, at the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. men did not win a single individual race. In France, the U.S. men claimed individual gold medals in five events on the track, plus one field event and one relay.

Redwine’s Team USA men’s squad medaled in nine of 10 individual track races — the most for any country since the first time all of these events were included as part of the Olympic program in 1920. 

According to the Washington Post’s Rick Maese, “It’s rare for a team to finish on the podium in more than a few of these events. Since 2000, the United States and Kenya are the only countries that have medaled in at least half of these 10 (individual) races at a single Olympics.”

Article Source: KC Star

3 AG Kris Kobach Revives 'Prairie Fire' PAC

Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach is powering up a political action committee that he started more than a decade ago but has largely sat dormant in recent years. Kobach's PAC - called Prairie Fire - received its first major contribution this year in many years as part of an effort to elect conservative candidates who support "judicial reform," oppose illegal immigration and oppose abortion.

Article Source: Sunflower State Journal

4 Kansas AG Charges Neosho County Prosecutor with Misdemeanors

The Kansas Attorney General’s Office charged a rural Kansas prosecutor with two financial misdemeanors, but not alleged sexual extortion or other felonies that local and state law enforcement investigated. A complaint filed Thursday in state court accuses Neosho County Attorney Linus Thuston of violating the Retailers’ Sales Tax Act in 2021 and misuse of public funds in 2019. Thuston has been the county attorney, an elected position, since 2012. Thuston didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. Neosho County Sheriff Greg Taylor said he was disappointed that only two minor charges were filed against Thuston. The sheriff has investigated a dozen cases involving alleged felony crimes — including a case in which the sheriff said about 50 women provided nude photos to Thuston at his request in exchange for legal representation in his private practice. The sheriff considered the activity to be sexual extortion, and he said the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had reviewed the evidence.

Article Source: KS Reflector

5 Boeing’s New CEO Ortberg to Tour Wichita's Spirit AeroSystems with Sen Moran

Boeing’s new CEO Robert “Kelly” Ortberg and Chairman Steven Mollenkopf will visit Wichita on Monday to tour Spirit AeroSystems, according to Sen. Jerry Moran’s office. Moran invited Ortberg after Ortberg was named the new CEO last month. Moran’s office said the Spirit tour will be closed to the media. Following the Spirit visit, the two are expected to tour the National Center for Aviation Training at WSU Tech. Ortberg has been busy since starting his new job on Thursday. He began by walking the floor of the factory near Seattle.

Article Source: KSN

Sports

Royals go 1-1 v Cardinals
Chiefs 13 v Jaguars 26 PRESEASON

Tonight
Royals begin series v Twins

Sources

1. https://www.kansas.com/news/local/article290434454.html

2. https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article290966549.html

3. https://sunflowerstatejournal.com/kobach-fires-up-political-action-committee/

4. https://kansasreflector.com/2024/08/09/after-investigation-into-numerous-felonies-kansas-ag-charges-prosecutor-with-two-misdemeanors/

5. https://www.ksn.com/news/local/new-boeing-ceo-to-tour-spirit-aerosystems-on-monday/