OTTAWA COUNTY, Okla. — A Tulsa man, facing charges in Ottawa County, is now behind bars.
Deputies with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office Child Predator Unit and Warrants Unit arrested Michael Loren Lamb, Jr., 30, on Tuesday.
Lamb faces four felony charges in Ottawa County. Those charges include lewd or indecent proposals to a child, soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor using technology, solicitation of a minor for indecent exposure, and buying, possessing, or procuring obscene materials.
Lamb is in the Tulsa County jail awaiting extradition to Ottawa County.
PARSONS, Kan. (KSNW) — A Parsons man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted on two child sex offenses under the Kansas Jessica’s Law statute.
According to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, 38-year-old Jered W. Bybee of Parsons was sentenced Tuesday in Labette County District Court on two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy. Judge Steve Stockard sentenced Bybee to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years on each of the charges. The sentences are to be served concurrently in a Kansas Department of Corrections facility.
Bybee pleaded no contest to the charges in April.
The crimes occurred between 2013 and 2016, involving two different victims under the age of 10. The case was investigated by the Parsons Police Department, Kansas Department for Children and Families and the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Michael Gayoso and former Assistant Attorney General Amy Norton of Schmidt’s office.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs have another chance this weekend to secure their seventh-straight AFC West title.
The Chiefs almost clinched the division last weekend with their win against the Denver Broncos, but they also needed the Los Angeles Chargers to lose to the Miami Dolphins. That didn’t happen.
This weekend as the Chiefs take on the Houston Texans, the worst team in the league, the requirements to win the division are a little more simple.
Win the game and the Chiefs win the division.
That’s right, Kansas City can snag its seventh-straight AFC West title with a win over Houston on Sunday.
That division title would also secure the Chiefs’ spot in the playoffs. After Week 14, the Chiefs are currently the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff picture, behind only the Buffalo Bills who win the tiebreaker.
But if a win isn’t in the cards Sunday, a Chargers loss — or a Chiefs tie and a Chargers tie — will also give Kansas City the division.
The Chiefs could also still clinch a playoff berth on Sunday if they don’t beat the Texans.
Three other scenarios on Sunday send the Chiefs to the playoffs, but they all require the Kansas City to tie with Houston — and get some help across the league:
Chiefs tie + Jets loss + Patriots loss
Chiefs tie + Dolphins loss + Patriots loss + Jets tie
Chiefs tie + Dolphins loss + Jets loss + Patriots tie
Of course securing a trip to playoffs is just the first step. Then the Chiefs will have to finish out the regular season strong — with games against the Seahawks, Broncos and Raiders — to try to get back in the top playoff seed.
But first: The Chiefs’ matchup with the Texans kicks off at noon Sunday in Houston.
LABETTE COUNTY, Kans. — After a six-year court battle, a Labette County man is sentenced for sex crimes against children.
Labette County Judge Steve Stockard sentenced Jered Bybee, 38, to two life sentences.
Bybee originally faced 34 charges of sex crimes that included four counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, 24 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, and six counts of criminal sodomy between a person and an animal. He pleaded guilty to two of those charges in April 2022.
The Kansas Attorney General said Bybee’s, and co-defendant Sasha Bruner’s, victims were children under the age of 10.
Jered Bybee and Sasha Bruner
Bybee was charged under “Jessica’s Law.” The law is named after Jessica Lunsford, a young Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in February 2005 by John Couey, a previously convicted sex offender. The law substantially increases the penalties even for a first-time offender with no prior criminal history. In Kansas, it means Bybee will serve a mandatory minimum of 25 years without possibility of parole when convicted of a specified sexual assault on a child under the age of 14 if the convicted person was over 18 at the time the crime was committed.
The case stems from incidents dating back to 2013. Bybee was originally charged in 2016 and Bruner in 2017. Bruner pleaded guilty in 2018 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She pleaded guilty to rape and sexual exploitation of a child for possessing child pornography.
Bybee’s case went through a number of defense attorneys, a judge’s retirement, a claim of mental defect and then COVID.
JOPLIN, Mo. (KSNF/KODE) — The majority of calls I receive on my phone aren’t from my friends, family, or coworkers (and I work in a newsroom — which speaks to the daily volume of unsolicited calls and texts). Now, the majority of my incoming calls are from scammers and telemarketers, notifying me that “my computer has a virus, and only the caller can fix it.” I even get calls from “John Smith,” who’s obviously pretending to be the IRS and threatening me to pay up. The calls that I believe are the most ridiculous: “Congratulations, you’ve won the lottery… (followed by)… can we have all of your personal information and the information of your closest friends and relatives before processing your winnings?”
Calls like these are why I don’t pick up any phone number I don’t easily recognize, even if it might actually be important because I’m scarred by the sheer amount of spam calls I get every single day. As a reporter, this can be a tricky balance. A lot of my calls are also legitimate, whether it be a source for a news story, or someone calling to report a news tip.
Unfortunately, these unsolicited calls are only increasing. This year alone, Americans are expected to get over 52 billion robocalls, which breaks down to approximately 1 billion calls every week (according to YouMail, a company that specializes in blocking them). These calls come in all shapes and sizes. More recently, these attacks have moved over to SMS, where there are phishing text messages that come from your own phone number.
The do not disturb feature only goes so far in helping, because the fact is, robocallers are never going to stop trying to reach you. Their schemes bring in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars annually. In one survey of 4,000 people, more than 90% reported that robocalls are becoming more frequent.
No matter what the calls or text messages say, one thing is certain — for this reporter’s sanity, they need to stop! Follow these proven steps to help pull the plug on those annoying callers.
Sign Up For The National Do Not Call Registry
(Photo Courtesy: Getty Images)
Your first move: Join the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) National “Do Not Call Registry.” You can get on the list by calling 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you want to register. If you have multiple numbers to input, register them, HERE. To date, the agency has taken 51 legal actions against companies and telemarketers, recovering $112 million. It will take about a month for your registration to take effect. You can register both landline and mobile phone numbers. You’ll find more information on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry, HERE.
You can register for the Missouri No Call List, HERE. In Oklahoma, you can register with the state’s No Call List, HERE. Both states’ No Call Law applies to residential (landline) or personal cell phone numbers owned by private individuals only.
Use Spam-Filtering Apps And Tech
(Photo Courtesy: Getty Images)
The National Do Not Call Registry, especially combined with an individual state’s No Call List Registry (if available), will prevent a lot of unwanted calls, but it won’t stop all of them. A spam-filtering app can give you a second layer of protection and is a good add-on to your overall smartphone security. The makers of the app, “Mr. Number Lookup and Call Block” maintain a large database of user-reported robocalls. When one of those numbers dials you, the app blocks the phone from ringing and informs you the call is spam.
Mr. Number: Available in the Apple App store and on the Google Play store, this app can block calls from an entire area code or even a whole country. You can also report spam calls to warn other users.
AT&T Call Protect: A free service for AT&T customers, this app has a fraudulent-call-blocking system that weeds out scammers before the phone even rings. It’s available in the App Store and on Google Play.
Verizon Call Filter: In 2021, Verizon rolled out a service called the “Neighborhood Filter” for its customers. It identifies likely scam calls based on the number and area code. Similar phone numbers are blocked from calling you, cutting down on a tactic called spoofing.
U.S. Cellular Protections: Customers have access to this carrier’s specific solutions, but also has apps that you can download, such as “Call Guardian,” which displays “Potential Spam” on caller ID, based on known offenders. This free app also displays “Spam Caller” on caller ID, based on a consumer’s personal spam list.
Block The Caller: Although this is not an app, blocking a particular number(s) is a good way to prevent the same caller from getting through to you day-after-day. Learn how to block a number on both an iPhone and an Android device, HERE. And don’t worry about blocking the wrong number, it’s easy to unblock a number too.
Give Spam Calls The Brush-Off
(Photo Courtesy: Getty Images)
It’s so tempting to pick up the phone and yell in frustration, “Don’t call me again!” But here’s a more effective way to stop spam calls: Don’t answer at all. According to experts, the robocallers will view the number as inactive and be less likely to try again. By the way, you should never call back an unknown number — it makes you vulnerable to future scams.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, robocalls aren’t going to stop completely. But if you take the advice mentioned above, you can help prevent most unsolicited calls and text messages from ever reaching your phone. You’ll find more information and tips on stopping unwanted calls and texts, HERE.
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Non-perishables have been part of the lesson plans this week for all five elementary schools in Carthage.
They’re taking part in a week-long canned food drive.
Kids in eight classes at Pleasant Valley have been making donations.
This is sponsored by the high school’s “FFA” program.
All of the food will be distributed to the food pantries at “Crosslines”, “Bright Futures Carthage”, “River Street”, the “Carthage Crisis Center”, and “Fairview Christian Church.”
“Service is very big, and our character word of the month is service, and so showing the kids to serve others in your community by helping when you able to is very important. So the goal is to collect as many cans as you can, and if you are the class that collects the most cans, then you get a pizza party by the FFA, thrown by them, and they’ll come and have some fun with the kids for the class that did the most,” said Don Cox, Principal.
Food items are going to the high school before being distributed to the five local food pantries.
JOPLIN, Mo. — A fixture in Joplin’s “Mercy Park” has received another much-needed touch-up.
Weather conditions last year caused some of the tiles on both sides of the “Butterfly Mural” to crumble and fall off.
The same thing happened a couple of years ago. Today, work was done to fix it again.
“Grouting what was damaged. We had to take the whole thing down, we had to clean all the tiles off, and we had to put it back up. Now we get to grout it, seal it in so it’s set,” said Karen Sanginetti, Ken Slankard Construction.
What’s it like having to redo all of this work?
“I love it. I think it’s great. It’s probably not alright for the community, because they come and it’s, there’s nothing here and they wonder oh my god it’s gone, but it’s not. We’re workin’ on it. We’re gettin’ it back up. We want the people to see it. It’s wonderful,” said Sanginetti.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Joshua Duggar’s defense team has been granted another two-week extension of the deadline to file a reply brief in federal appeals court.
Duggar, 34, a former reality TV personality, was found unanimously guilty on a pair of child pornography charges in December 2021. In May, he was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison. The defense has maintained his innocence and filed a notice of appeal on June 3.
On November 22, the prosecution filed a response to the defense’s opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis. That filing stated that “Duggar’s claims uniformly lack merit, and the district court’s judgment should be affirmed in its entirety.”
On November 28, Duggar’s team requested and was granted an extension of time until December 13 to submit a response. A nearly identical request was made on December 9, citing “the complexity of the issues on appeal and the need for undersigned counsel to confer with Duggar.” The motion was unopposed by the government and granted by the court, which set a new deadline of December 27 for the brief to be filed.
The December 9 defense filing added that “undersigned counsel do not anticipate filing any additional motions for extension of time.” The motion was signed by defense attorneys Justin Gelfand and Travis Story.
Duggar is currently serving a 151-month federal prison sentence in Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Seagoville, outside of Dallas. His federal prison sentence will be followed by a supervised release term of 20 years, with a host of special conditions attached.
WASHINGTON COUNTY (KSNT) – The largest oil spill in the history of the Keystone pipeline has now been contained, according to local officials.
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilled into a creek in Washington County last week. A member of Washington County Emergency Management spoke with our 27 News Capitol Bureau on Monday about the extent of the damage following a survey.
“There’s close to 250 people actually on site for the cleanup,” said Randy Hubbard, Washington County Emergency Management.
About 588,000 gallons of oil spilled into Mill Creek from the Keystone pipeline, the largest in the pipeline’s history. Now, emergency officials say the spill is contained.
“Containment from the spill is complete,” Hubbard said. “They’re now moving on to the recovery of the oil and obviously evaluating the environment.”
The spill dumped oil not only into the nearby creek, but also into pastureland about five miles northeast of Washington, the county seat and home of 1,100 residents. Though extensive, the spill did not impact the water supply and no evacuations were ordered.
“You know, this was a large spill by industry standards… and so, they’re doing it right,” Hubbard said. “They’re very concerned about safety and so, they’ll be here as long as they need to.”
We suspect many fish and wildlife have been lost as this creek is host to numerous concentrations of birds, fish, eagles, and other wildlife. This is of particular concern during the fall migration season. Fish and wildlife are important to Kansans for the quality of life that they bring to our state and the roles they play in our native ecosystems.
Friends of the Kaw statement
Members of the conservation group visited the creek again on Sunday, Dec. 11 and reported there was no evidence of disturbance downstream about four miles from the spill. The group said the spill appeared to be contained and will continue working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency.
There are currently no estimates on how long it will take to completely clean up the area impacted by the spill.
