Author: Ward

Anti-corruption rally held in KCK

An anti-corruption rally by Team Roc and the Midwest Innocence Project rolled through downtown Kansas City, Kansas, today.

The rally demanded justice in Kansas City, Kansas, specifically mentioning the cases of former detective Roger Golubski, and asked for an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department into the Kansas City, Kansas, police force.

Local activist Marcus Winn, director of voter engagement with MORE2, who supports an increased investigation, made this statement about today’s rally:

“Today’s rally with both local and national partners is a continuation of the years-long campaign for transparency, accountability, and long delayed justice that MORE2 has undertaken here in Wyandotte County,” Winn stated.

“While we celebrate positive steps in the reform of the Wyandotte County criminal legal system, more must be done: a full pattern or practice investigation of the entire Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, a full review of every case touched by Roger Golubski, and freedom for those who remain falsely incarcerated because of corruption in our county. MORE2 remains committed to this vision of justice for all in Wyandotte County.”

To see some video clips from the rally, visit the Team Roc Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/teamroc.

To view a story about this rally, visit
https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-11-17/as-federal-charges-add-pressure-on-kck-police-lamonte-mcintyre-rallies-for-justice

No. 13 KCKCC basketball stays unblemished

T’Yonne Duncan of KCKCC, one of the KJCCC Women’s Basketball Co-Players of the Week, competed recently in victories for the Blue Devils. (Photo from KCKCC sports)

by Tyler Scott, KCKCC sports information coordinator

The No. 13 ranked KCKCC women’s basketball team has had one of its best starts to the season in a long time.

After defeating University of Saint Mary junior varsity on Tuesday night and Tabor University junior varsity Wednesday night, the Blue Devils sit at 7-0 to start the year. On Tuesday evening the Blue Devils defeated the Spires 93-44 before defeating the BlueJays 61-42 one night later.

The Blue Devils have had key players who have stepped up this season, but this week it was reigning KJCCC Women’s Basketball Co-Player of the Week Jada Johnson and T’Yonne Duncan.

On Tuesday, the Spires got off to an 18-10 run to begin the first quarter. Rebecca Christodoulo scored five straight points in the period to put the team in double-digits.

The Blue Devils went up by 20 points with 4:02 left in the second quarter and eventually led 50-21 at the break. The Blue Devils stayed hot in the second half, nearly missing the century mark with the 93-44 win.

Christodoulo led the team with 17 points, Jada Johnson pitched in 16 and T’Yonne Duncan added 13. Duncan also grabbed a team-high six rebounds and the Blue Devils shot 47.1 percent from the field.

On Wednesday, the Blue Devils faced off against the BlueJays and had no trouble running past them. Both Johnson and Duncan scored in double-figures with 23 points and 17, while Victoria Jones had six points.

KCKCC will look to continue its long run with its toughest match yet this season when it takes on No. 3 ranked CCBC-Essex on Saturday at 1 p.m. inside the KCKCC Fieldhouse.

  • Story from KCKCC

Kansas GOP suspends punishment of party members amid loyalty crackdown

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas Republican Party’s chairman said sanctions against party members were suspended due to appeals filed by people who were to be penalized for signing a petition leading to placement on November ballots of an independent candidate for governor.

Mike Kuckelman, who leads the Kansas GOP, said the party’s loyalty committee met Wednesday to consider challenges to punishments sought by top party officials. Approximately 40 party members holding leadership posts signed Sen. Dennis Pyle’s petition, an act viewed as evidence these officials provided direct support to someone other than GOP gubernatorial nominee Derek Schmidt.

Amid demands by the accused for due process, Kuckelman said the loyalty committee temporarily suspended disciplinary action so cases could be handled individually in the future.

The Kansas GOP leadership had voted Nov. 9 — one day after Schmidt’s loss — to chastise signers of the Pyle petition. The objective of the Republicans’ loyalty committee is to strip offenders of party leadership posts.

“In light of the number of appeals, the loyalty committee cannot properly hear and decide each appeal,” Kuckelman said. “It is not possible to assemble the executive committee to hear each appeal, and render a decision on each appeal in a timely manner, without risk of unfairly disrupting county reorganization meetings.”

Schmidt lost the Nov. 8 race to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who secured 49% of the vote to Schmidt’s 47%. Pyle received 2% and the Libertarian Party nominee got 1%.

Kelly’s margin of victory was 20,886 votes, the Kansas secretary of state said. Pyle, who ran a conservative campaign that denounced Kelly and Schmidt, received 20,057 votes.

In 2007, the state Republican Party moved to form a loyalty committee after losing several prominent elections, including an attempt to block reelection of Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

The concept was inspired by Kris Kobach, who was chairman of the Kansas GOP, and Christian Morgan, who was the state party’s executive director.

“The motive behind this is, ‘Let’s make sure Republicans are supporting Republicans,’” Morgan told the Associated Press 15 years ago. “If you want to hold a party post, you should at least be supporting Republican candidates.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/briefs/kansas-gop-suspends-punishment-of-party-members-amid-loyalty-crackdown/