Wire
Device helps treat chronic heartburn
By The Associated Press A tiny magnetic bracelet implanted at the base of the throat is greatly improving life for some people with chronic heartburn who need more help than medicine can give them. It’s a novel way to treat severe acid reflux, which plagues millions of Americans and can raise their risk for more serious health problems. It happens when a weak muscle doesn’t close after swallowing as it should. That lets stomach juices splash ...
full story
Trial begins in Tabor College player’s death
McPHERSON (AP) — Jurors were offered conflicting accounts during opening statements of what happened during a fight last year outside a drinking party that led to the death of a drunken 26-year-old Tabor College football player. McPherson County Attorney David Page told the jury Monday that Brandon Brown was outside the party at a McPherson duplex about 4 a.m. on Sept. 16 when Alton Franklin, a former McPherson College football player from Tex...
full story
Senate to vote on gun bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat is setting Congress’ first showdown vote for Thursday on President Barack Obama’s gun control drive as a small but mounting number of Republicans appear willing to buck a conservative effort to prevent debate from even beginning. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced his decision Tuesday as the White House, congressional Democrats and relatives of the victims of December’s mass shooting in N...
full story
Firms post more jobs but fill few
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers have more job openings than at any other time in nearly five years. That’s in part because they seem in no hurry to fill them. And it helps explain why the job market remains tight and unemployment high. Even as openings have surged 11 percent in the past year, the number of people hired each month has declined. Why so many openings yet so few hires? Economists point to several factors: Some unemployed workers ...
full story
Suicide blast in Syria kills at least 15
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A suicide car bomber struck Monday in the financial heart of Syria’s capital, killing at least 15 people, damaging the nearby central bank and incinerating cars and trees in the neighborhood. The attack was the latest in a recent series of bombings to hit Damascus in the civil war, slowly closing in on President Bashar Assad’s base of power in the capital. Rebel fighters have chipped away at the regime’s hold in northern...
full story
Britain’s Margaret Thatcher dies at age 87
LONDON (AP) — Love her or loathe her, one thing’s beyond dispute: Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain. The Iron Lady, who ruled for 11 remarkable years, imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation — breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a political mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street. Thatcher...
full story
Pit collapse kills children
STANLEY, N.C. (AP) — The bodies of two young cousins were recovered Monday from the collapsed rubble of a 24-foot-deep pit that was being dug with a backhoe by a man on his North Carolina property. Rescuers had been digging for 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell since Sunday, when the girl’s father, Jordan Arwood, called 911. Officials were on the scene near Charlotte within minutes but couldn’t get to the children...
full story
Bid to arm teachers stalls
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — When a gunman killed 26 children and staff at a Connecticut grade school, Missouri state Rep. Mike Kelley quickly proposed legislation that would allow trained teachers to carry hidden guns into the classroom as a “line of defense” against attackers. Similar bills soon proliferated in Republican-led states as the National Rifle Association called for armed officers in every American school. Yet less than four months ...
full story
Senate passes abortion bill
TOPEKA (AP) — A sweeping anti-abortion bill that blocks tax breaks for providers and outlaws abortions solely because of the baby’s sex cleared the Kansas Senate on Friday, setting up a House vote that could send the measure to Gov. Sam Brownback. Senators voted 28-10 for a compromise version of the bill reconciling differences between the two chambers. The House was expected to take up the bill later in the day, and if passed, supporters expe...
full story
Measure to allow alcohol to be served at Statehouse functions
TOPEKA (AP) — Senators approved a bill Friday that would make changes to Kansas liquor  laws, including granting authority to legislative leaders to allow alcohol at approved Statehouse functions. The measure — a collection of several liquor bills — grants the Legislative Coordinating Council the authority to allow liquor to be served in the building. The intent is to allow drinks to be served during an event to mark completion of more than 10...
full story
Judge makes morning-after pill available to all
WASHINGTON (AP) — The morning-after pill might become as easy to buy as aspirin. In a scathing rebuke accusing the Obama administration of letting election-year politics trump science, a federal judge ruled Friday that there should be no age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraception without a doctor’s prescription. Today, buyers must prove at the pharmacy that they’re 17 or older; everyone else must see a doctor first. U.S. District ...
full story
Kansas gun measures make slow progress
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas legislators are making slow progress on two gun measures that are expected to win approval from solid gun-rights majorities in the House and Senate. Votes on the bills had been expected Thursday, but members spent much of the day drafting and reviewing final versions. House and Senate leaders now expect final action today. One bill declares that the federal government has no power to regulate guns, ammunition and accessori...
full story
Three face charges for synthetic pot
TOPEKA (AP) — Three Kansas men made millions of dollars concocting and selling synthetic marijuana at businesses in Lawrence and Oskaloosa and around the world, federal prosecutors have said. Bradley Miller, 55, of Wichita; his brother, Clark Sloan, 54, of Tonganoxie; and Sloan’s son, Jonathan Sloan, 32, of Lawrence, are charged with conspiracy, distribution of misbranded drugs and mail fraud in the indictment filed Wednesday afternoon, The Ka...
full story
Man pleads to reduced charge in player’s death
MCPHERSON (AP) — A former McPherson College football player who was charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of a player from a rival college pleaded no-contest Tuesday to a reduced charge and will testify against a teammate whose trial is scheduled to begin next week. DeQuinte Flournoy, 20, entered his plea Tuesday to a charge of felony aggravated battery alleging he aided and abetted co-defendant Alton Franklin in beating Tabor...
full story
Kerry heads back to Mideast
WASHINGTON (AP) — Evoking the U.S. shuttle diplomacy of decades past, Secretary of State John Kerry is making his third trip to the Middle East in a span of just two weeks in a fresh bid to restart long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Though expectations are low for any breakthrough on Kerry’s trip, which begins Saturday, his meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders represent some of the Obama administration’s mos...
full story
Kansas Senate rejects measure to lure new casino
TOPEKA (AP) — An attempt to bring a state-owned casino to Southeast Kansas failed Tuesday evening when the state Senate rejected a deal to help such a project but also kill off any possibility of slot machines at dog and horse tracks. Senators voted 24-15 against a bill rewriting a 2007 state law authorizing both state-owned casinos and slots at dog and horse racing tracks. Under the law, the Kansas Lottery owns the rights to the new gambling ...
full story
Kansas Senate passes abortion bill
TOPEKA (AP) — The Kansas Senate approved new restrictions for abortion providers Tuesday, moving the state’s most-sweeping legislation on the issue this year close to final passage. The vote was 29-11 on a measure blocking tax breaks for abortion providers and prohibiting them from furnishing materials or instructors for sex education classes in public schools. The measure also would prevent abortion patients from including abortion costs when...
full story
Jury indicts 35 in school cheating scandal
ATLANTA (AP) — Juwanna Guffie was sitting in her fifth-grade classroom taking a standardized test when, authorities say, the teacher came around offering information and asking the students to rewrite their answers. Juwanna rejected the help. “I don’t want your answers. I want to take my own test,” Juwanna told her teacher, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. On Friday, Juwanna — now 14 — watched as Fulton County prosecut...
full story
Connecticut reacts to gun law deal
NEWINGTON, Conn. (AP) — Customers packed gun stores around Connecticut on Tuesday ahead of a vote expected to bring sweeping changes to the state’s gun control laws, including a ban on the sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Newtown shooting and a new classification for more than 100 types of guns as banned assault weapons. Lawmakers have touted the legislation expected to pass the General Assembly today as th...
full story
District attorney’s killing puts others on alert
KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) — Deputies escorted some Kaufman County employees into the courthouse Monday, two days after the district attorney and his wife were found shot to death in their home in an attack that stirred fears that other public employees could be targeted by assassins. Law enforcement officers were seen patrolling one side of the courthouse, one holding a semi-automatic weapon, while others walked around inside. Authorities have said ...
full story