Wire
Rep. Grant announces retirement
TOPEKA (AP) — A veteran Southeast Kansas Democrat, clad in an uncharacteristic coat and tie, announced Friday that he will retire from office at the end of the 2013 session. Bob Grant of Frontenac told colleagues on Friday that he would be stepping down to spend more time with his family. His retirement is effective Dec. 10. “It’s been a hell of a ride, but come January it will be time for me to stay home,” Grant said. “It’s time to go home an...
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Police arrest man for homicides
OTTAWA (AP) — Authorities in eastern Kansas said Thursday they have arrested a 27-year-old man in the deaths of three people whose bodies were found on a farm, and that a fourth victim — an 18-month-old girl — is presumed dead. Franklin County Sheriff Jeffrey Richards said during an afternoon news conference that the prosecutor has 48 hours from the time the suspect is arrested to file formal charges. He was arrested early Thursday and is bein...
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Authorities question man in homicides
OTTAWA (AP) — A man was being questioned in the deaths of three people on an eastern Kansas farm after he and a car belonging to a missing woman were found in a town less than an hour away. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office says a car in which 22-year-old Kaylie Bailey and her 18-month-old daughter were last seen was located Tuesday night in Emporia but they were still missing. The sheriff didn’t say whether the person of interest, who also...
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Advocates rally against KanCare plan for disabled
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas legislators returned Wednesday to the Statehouse to resume the 2013 session, hoping to move closer to resolving differences over the $14.5 billion budget for 2014. They were met by more than 1,000 advocates for the intellectually and developmentally disabled who rallied against folding services for disabled residents into the state’s KanCare Medicaid system. Advocates are concerned that services for the disabled would be r...
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Friends find three bodies near Ottawa
OTTAWA (AP) — Authorities on Tuesday were investigating the deaths of three people whose bodies were found on a rural property in eastern Kansas, a day after friends of the residents called police to report a foul smell at the site. Meanwhile, investigators in a nearby county were waiting to see if one of the bodies is a suburban Kansas City mother who has been missing with her 18-month-old baby since last week. The bodies of two adult men and...
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Advocates back plan for disabled
TOPEKA (AP) — Advocates for the disabled Monday praised Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to use projected savings from the state’s Medicaid program to pay for in-home services and said they also will push for a long-term plan to end waiting lists for such assistance. The Kansas Developmental Disabilities Policy Group’s endorsement of the Republican governor’s plan came even as advocates for the developmentally disabled remained at odds with Brownback...
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Attorney touts civil rights on Law Day
WICHITA (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Kansas said Wednesday that if law enforcement officials violate someone’s civil rights while investigating terrorism, then the government becomes as bad as the people it’s trying to protect the public from. U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom made the comments during a Wichita State University event commemorating Law Day in Kansas. Grissom’s talk was about protecting public safety and human rights. The audi...
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Center might remain closed
SALINA (AP) — Saline County commissioners say the county’s juvenile detention center will be closed through the end of the year, and might close permanently. When Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski closed the center on Monday he said he hoped to reopen it by July. But after meeting in executive session Tuesday, the commissioners said closing the center might be the most financially prudent decision, The Salina Journal reported. Kochanowski...
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School lawsuit talks fail to produce
TOPEKA (AP) — Two days of talks aimed at settling a lawsuit that challenges Kansas’ school finance system were unsuccessful, attorneys for both sides said in a status report filed Wednesday with the state Supreme Court. Attorneys representing plaintiff school districts and parents met with those representing the state for court-ordered mediation Monday and Tuesday. “The mediation was not successful,” said John Robb, a Newton attorney represent...
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K-State employees consider leaving civil service
TOPEKA (AP) — Hourly employees at Kansas State University are discussing whether to stop being civil service employees — a move that would give the school authority to make decisions about their pay and other job-related issues instead of the Legislature. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that the move would affect nearly 1,800 so-called “classified employees,” including custodial staff and some administrative and supervisory workers. The em...
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Pitt State students work with drone
PITTSBURG — From iPlan Tables to 3-D printers, new technology is continuing to change the ways the construction industry operates. These technological innovations are making the industry both safer and more efficient. Lately, another type of new technology is finding its way into the construction business. Unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as UAVs or drones, are being used to inspect high, hard-to-reach spots. In some cases, they even help ...
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KRPS turns 25
PITTSBURG — Bob Walter is a news junkie. He’s a self-proclaimed jazz aficionado. He also loves classical music. So, one could imagine his excitement at 4 p.m., April 29, 1988. “Oh, it was a tremendous moment,” Walter, the former dean of learning resources at Pittsburg State University, said. “It was a festive party.” That “moment” was when KRPS began broadcasting from the campus of PSU. From the beginning, the station’s mix of NPR news, classi...
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Debt to Chinese remains target
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite what you may have heard, China isn’t the country’s biggest creditor. America is. The bulk of the national debt — soon to exceed a staggering $17 trillion — is held by the Federal Reserve, Social Security system, various pension plans for civil service workers and military personnel, U.S. banks, mutual funds, private pension plans, insurance companies and individual domestic investors. China is responsible for just a s...
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Legendary musician Jones dies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When it comes to country music, George Jones was The Voice. Other great singers have come and gone, but this fact remained inviolate until Jones passed away Friday at 81 in a Nashville hospital after a year of ill health. “Today someone else has become the greatest living singer of traditional country music, but there will never be another George Jones,” said Bobby Braddock, the Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter who...
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Sperm donor loses court battle to be in twins’ lives
TOPEKA (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court five years ago sided with the Kansas high court that Topekan Daryl Hendrix couldn’t be a part of the lives of two children conceived by artificial insemination using his sperm. But The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that Hendrix said every day he thinks of the two children — twins, a boy, identified in court records only as K.C.H., and a girl, identified as K.M.H. “I haven’t seen them since the day after t...
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Lied Center marks 20th year
LAWRENCE (AP) — In the not-so-distant past, Deb Kraushaar had to hire off-duty school buses to transport elegantly dressed patrons of the arts up the hill from parking lots by Allen Fieldhouse to performances at Hoch Auditorium. For shows she couldn’t schedule in Hoch after it burned — and there were many — Kraushaar, secretary of Kansas University’s Concert Series, juggled churches and other venues across town, and even Topeka. Not to mention...
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Suspect wants to mention wife’s problems
KINGMAN (AP) — A former Kansas police instructor charged with killing his wife wants to introduce evidence at his trial about her personal problems, which he claims will support his claims that she committed suicide. Attorneys for Brett T. Seacat asked during a hearing Wednesday to be allowed to introduce evidence about Vashti Seacat’s alleged suicide attempts, depression and multiple affairs. His attorneys argue the evidence would support the...
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U.S. says Syria used chemical weapons
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence has concluded with “varying degrees of confidence,” that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons in its fierce civil war, the White House and other top administration officials said Thursday. However, officials also said more definitive proof was needed and the U.S. was not ready to escalate its involvement in Syria beyond non-lethal aid, despite President Barack Obama’s repeated public asserti...
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Officials say suspects’ plan included attack in Times Square
NEW YORK (AP) — The Boston Marathon bombers were headed for New York’s Times Square to blow up the rest of their explosives, authorities said Thursday, in what they portrayed as a chilling, spur-of-the-moment scheme that fell apart when the brothers realized the car they had hijacked was low on gas. “New York City was next on their list of targets,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev...
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Building collapse kills at least 87
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Rescuers tried to free dozens of people believed trapped in the concrete rubble after an eight-story building that housed garment factories collapsed, killing at least 87. Workers had complained about cracks in the structure before it came tumbling down, but were assured it was safe. Searchers cut holes in the jumbled mess of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to those pinned inside...
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