Erik Jones, who suffered a broken compression fracture in his lower back at Talladega Superspeedway, has been cleared by doctors to return to NASCAR competition, but Legacy Motor Club officials announced Thursday they will hold Jones out for another week.

That means Corey Heim will drive the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway (2 p.m. CT, FS1).

Jones’ tentative return would be at Darlington Raceway in the Goodyear 400 on May 12, where he has two wins — his most recent in September 2022 while driving for Petty GMS Motorsports Jones has three top-five finishes at Kansas, including a third-place finish in September 2023.

Jones, 27, suffered the injury after being involved in a head-on-crash with Bubba Wallace after Wallace was pushed by John Hunter Nemechek with 34 laps left in the Geico 500 on April 21.

Jones was checked into the infield care center complaining of pain in his back, but was released after being checked. The pain persisted and Jones was taken to a Birmingham, Alabama hospital later that night where he underwent an evaluation from specialists.

Legacy Motor Club officials stated that Jones, who missed last Sunday’s Wurth 400 race at Dover, would be held out of this week’s race due to “an abundance of caution.”

DENNY HAMLIN WINS AT DOVER: Who won NASCAR Cup race in Dover? Winner is Denny Hamlin, plus full results

Heim is a reserve driver for Legacy Motor Club Club, who competes full time in the NASCAR truck series. Heim finished 25th subbing for Jones at Dover. Jones traveled to Dover to support Heim and plans to be in Kansas Sunday.

Jones had made 263 consecutive NASCAR Cup Series starts before last week. The Dover race was the first Jones has missed due to injury since the start of his rookie season in 2017.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – The 2024 Kansas Legislative session is over and Wichita is left without state funding for a permanent homeless shelter in Wichita. On Thursday, 12 News looked into where the city stands on plans for the shelter and where the money could come from.

It’s been a bit of a setback for the City of Wichita, but Mayor Lily Wu says the city remains committed to fixing its homelessness problem. Wu said the city also has to be responsible for how it spends taxpayer dollars.

“Our community is facing a budget deficit in the upcoming years,” Wu said.

But homelessness is a top priority.

“I have heard from the community that homelessness is an issue that they want us to tackle,” Wu said.

The city is working hard to figure out ways to fund a permanent shelter, the mayor said.

“We are still working hard, trying to bring more community partners together so that we can have a community-wide solution that is not just from the City of Wichita, but really community-led,” she said.

United Methodist Open Door, a local group that works closely with the homeless population, points to the need for a permanent shelter. Executive Director Deann Smith touched on the importance of having a permanent shelter, pointing out that extreme weather can lead to severe illness and even death.

But since the legislature adjourned with no shelter money for Wichita, a timeline for the shelter is unclear.

“We’re working with our partner, Sedgwick County, as well as nonprofit organizations, as well as faith-based organizations in our community,” Wu said. “We have to do this together and it will require more collaboration.”

To get an idea of how the homeless situation looks in Wichita, the 2023 Wichita-Sedgwick County point-in-time count revealed a little more than 700 homeless individuals. But more than 3,300 people were identified as being a part of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Homeless Crisis Response System between October 2022 and September 2023.

Copyright 2024 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com

TOPEKA — Posting a “Wizard of Oz” meme and accusing Gov. Laura Kelly of “political spite,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins led the charge to make those who severely injure or kill police dogs pay for their medical care or funerals.

House Bill 2583, known as “Bane’s Law,” was inspired by a Sedgwick County service dog named Bane that was killed last year by a fleeing suspect the dog had chased into a sewer drain.

Kelly vetoed the bill but on Monday was overridden 105-20 in the House and 29-10 in the Senate The law increases penalties for inflicting harm on law enforcement animals, including horses. The felony crime is now punishable by a minimum of 90 days in jail and a minimum fine of $10,000.

During the incarceration period, the perpetrator also will have to go through a psychological evaluation and completion of an anger management program as a condition of probation, although this provision is already included in Kansas statute.

The bill was introduced by Hawkins, R-Wichita, and Rep. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, earlier in the session. Kansas statute previously required a minimum of 30 days in jail and a fine of more than $500 and less than $5,000 for the crime of severely harming or killing police dogs.

In her veto explanation, Kelly said the death of law enforcement animals is always a tragedy, but the heightened sentencing, psychological evaluation and anger management requirements were not mandated for other, more severe offenses.

“House Bill 2583 imposes mandatory minimum sentences that disregard important factors that should be left to the discretion of a judge through the regular sentencing process,” Kelly said. “Second, the mandatory sentences are out of line with other, more severe crimes without justification for why that is required. Third, while the requirement for a psychological evaluation and anger management program are important, we do not apply this same standard to many other heinous crimes.”

In response, Hawkins posted on X a meme of Kelly photoshopped into a picture of the Wicked Witch of the West from “The Wizard of Oz,” with the caption, “I’ll get you law enforcement, and your little dogs too!” Underneath, he wrote: “Don’t forget Gov. Kelly vetoed a bill increasing penalties for killing or injuring police dogs out of pure political spite.”

Others shared Kelly’s concerns about the implications of the bill’s heightened punishments.

Because people who harm or kill these animals under the law are now responsible for restitution to the law enforcement agency — paying for the injured animal’s medical treatment, as well as funeral expenses if the animal dies, and the cost of replacing and training a new animal — expenses can be thousands of dollars, adding an additional burden to the jail time and fine.

Rep. Ford Carr, D-Wichita, mentioned the historical use of police dogs to harm people fighting for equality during the Civil Rights movement in previous bill debate.

“We should trust the police, but oftentimes we can’t, and that’s an issue,” Carr said during Monday’s House veto override debate.

Rep. Timothy Johnson, R-Basehor, who worked for decades in law enforcement and had experience with police dog training, pushed back on Carr’s claims. Johnson said the dogs were highly trained for all circumstances.

“They are not used as bite dogs. That is not their focus,” Johnson said. “… They become your family. I had one of the most wonderful German Shepherds in my entire life experience. We literally had a family funeral when he passed away. That animal would obey every and any command. I could walk in a schoolhouse among children and you would never know. Please, do not equate things that happened in the 1960s, in the ‘50s, with the way training is done now. It’s not allowed.”

Owens brought up the circumstance of Bane’s death in his defense of the bill, emphasizing K-9 officers’ role in protecting officers.

“That defendant brutally kicked that dog and caused significant internal damage to the point it was so weak that that individual was able to strangle that dog to death,” Owens said. “I want you to think if we had sent a law enforcement officer down there, how that might have played out.”