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TUESDAY • JANUARY 26 • 2016
Kobach yet to prosecute noncitizen voter fraud
Jail plan to cost about $30M
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Secretary of State focusing on cases that are ‘ready to go’ By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Topeka — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Monday that records show as many as 19 non-U.S. citizens have either registered to vote or attempted to do so, but his office has not yet prosecuted any of them, either because the statute of limitations has run out, or because other cases are being given higher priority. Kobach told the House Elections Committee Monday that those individuals Kobach have been identified by election officials in Sedgwick County who have attended naturalization ceremonies for immigrants receiving their U.S. citizenship, offered to register them to vote, and cross-checked those names against the county’s existing list of registered voters. “And in so doing, they are coming across a surprising number of people who were already registered as green card holders and got registered, in some cases many years ago, and only now have become citizens,” he said. But Rep. John Carmichael of Wichita, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said he recalled Kobach estimating as recently as a year ago that the number was much higher. “As I recall your testimony before the committee last year, you told us approximately 2,200 noncitizens were registered in Kansas, and that was based upon a study you couldn’t release to us because it was preliminary,” Carmichael said. “I don’t recall giving you a personal estimate,” Kobach replied. “I think I was extrapolating from a study or article that I had read.” Kobach’s appearance before the committee Monday came just a few days after his office filed charges against three more individuals in Kansas for allegedly casting ballots in two different states during the same election.
John Young/Journal-World Photo
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CRAIG WEINAUG ANSWERS QUESTIONS DURING A TOWN HALL MEETING discussing the expansion of the jail on Monday evening in the County Commission meeting room on the second floor of the Douglas County Courthouse, 111 E. 11th St.
Expansion details shared at town hall meeting By Elvyn Jones
the next 20 years would cost about $30 million, it was revealed Monday at a town hall meeting. Dan Rowe of Treanor Architects also shared the first schematic designs of the expansion at the meeting in the Douglas County Courthouse. Two primary goals of the expansion are to address increases in mentally ill and
By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Business Classified Comics Deaths
Low: 19
women populations the jail has experienced since it opened in 1999. Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug provided the “about $30 million” construction estimate after the meeting. The expansion would add 120 beds
to the existing 187-bed facility. Current crowding at the jail and the mixing of different populations limits the ability of county or Bert Nash Community Health Center staffers from providing the re-entry programs
Environment Commitcompanies, and big detee Monday as lawmakclines for the state in tax ers tried to get a handle revenues that come from on how those trends energy production. will affect the state’s Oil production in Kaneconomy and revenues sas fell by 5.5 percent flowing into state cof- LEGISLATURE during 2015, he said, the fers. first time there has been Ed Cross, president a year-to-year drop in of the Kansas Independent Oil production since 2009. and Gas Association, said that “Severance taxes are down industry was hit hard in 2015 58 percent from 2014. Ad vaby declining prices, which led lorem (property) taxes are to a large number of layoffs down 43 percent,” he said. among drilling and production Although those are not
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— Nancy Thellman, Douglas County commissioner
and classes to all who could benefit from them, correctional officers said at the meeting. The plans Rowe shared Monday build on the jail’s current design, which has different pods to segregate different classifications of prisoners. The pods added with the proposed expansion would include: l A classification “pod” for newly incarcerated inmates, which would allow Please see JAIL, page 2A
Wind industry prospers while oil, gas suffer
Topeka — Falling energy prices and sluggish demand in the global market have taken their toll on the Kansas oil and gas industry, while the state’s wind energy industry has continued to see steady growth. Those were the messages that industry officials delivPlease see VOTER, page 2A ered to the House Energy and
High: 36
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I would hope that our community would be just as concerned about the health and well-being An expansion of the Doug- of everybody in that jail as they are about those las County Jail that would serve the county needs for with mental health issues.” Twitter: @ElvynJ
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significant revenue sources for the state of Kansas, they are important to counties and school districts in oil-producing areas. What is more significant for the state is the loss of jobs and incomes that are tied to the oil and gas industry. According to the Kansas Department of Labor, the mining industry, which includes oil and gas production, shed roughly 1,000 jobs in 2015.
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Please see WIND, page 6A
Vol.158/No.26 28 pages
The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted Monday to recommend approval of a multi-field soccer complex east of Lawrence. Page 3A
The Dole Institute of Politics presents
THEY ALSO RAN: AMERICA’S WOULD-BE PRESIDENTS 2016 PRESIDENTIAL LECTURE SERIES • RICHARD NORTON SMITH Examining the failed campaigns of presidential nominees and the impact of presidential elections on U.S. politics. Free and open to the public . Part One:
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