President Barack Obama speaks in the James Brady Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Obama said a government shutdown would throw a wrench into the gears of U.S. economy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Author: KMAN Staff
Authorities inspect the wreckage of two Chicago Transit Authority trains that crashed Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, in Forest Park, Ill. The crash happened when a westbound train stopped at the CTA Blue Line Harlem station, and was struck by an eastbound train on the same track. The CTA is investigating the cause of the crash, including why the trains were on the same track. A CTA official said 33 people suffered non-life threatening injuries. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A former Kansas official has been paroled after serving more than 10 years for kidnapping, burglary and sodomy. Alan LeDoux, 66, who headed the Kansas Water Office, was sentenced in 2003 for breaking into the Topeka home of one of his wife’s relatives and attacking the woman. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports LeDoux was released on parole Friday under supervision in Jackson County. The Holton resident had pleaded guilty to the charges stemming from the 2002 attack. He was sentenced to 12 years and three months and entered prison in June 2003. LeDoux was director of the state’s…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The suspect in last year’s fatal shootings of two people at a Dollar General store in Wichita is going on trial. KAKE-TV reports jury selection for the case against Marquis Marshall, 20, began Monday in Sedgwick County District Court. Marshall is accused of killing store employee Zachary Hunt, 22, and customer Henry Harvey, 79, on Nov. 30, 2012. Harvey was at the counter buying candy for his grandchildren when he and Hunt were both shot several times. Wichita police have not speculated on a motive for the killings. Marshall was arrested several days later in a traffic stop. He’s charged…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A 14-year-old Hutchinson boy charged with two counts of first-degree murder in a suspicious house fire that killed his mother and 11-year-old sister is scheduled to appear in court Monday. The hearing will be closed because the charges were filed in juvenile court. Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder has said he will seek to try the teen as an adult on the murder charges and a charge of the attempted murder of his father, who escaped the blaze without injury. Authorities had initially said the boy also escaped the fire that engulfed the two-story house early…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Hutchinson police have been dealing with some slimy creatures over the past few months, but not of the human kind. The Hutchinson News reports the latest encounter was with a 5-foot-long alligator last week that was found in a wooden crate in a garage. That reptile was taken to the Hutchinson Zoo, where it is being kept temporarily. A second, 2-foot-long alligator that was found earlier in the month was sent on Friday to Monkey Island, a nonprofit animal rescue in southwest Missouri. Those findings came after a 4-foot-long ball python was found on a porch of…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas waterfowl hunters who use dogs are being urged this fall to keep the canines out of waterways contaminated with harmful blue-green algae. Officials with the state’s health and wildlife departments say the dogs that drink or swim in contaminated water may become extremely ill or die. Eating dried algae along shorelines can have the same results. The agencies caution that dangerous blue-green algae blooms can remain a threat to humans and pets through October or later. Symptoms in dogs usually appear within 30 minutes, including vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing and general weakness. Hunters whose dogs appear…
COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) An Oklahoma tribe is asking Kansas for permission to expand its casino operation at Downstream Casino Resort into the state. The Joplin Globe reports a consultant for the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma and the casino has contacted the Cherokee County, Kan., Commission and city governments in Baxter Springs and Galena, Kan., about the proposal. It would also need support from the Riverton School District. The casino wants to have Class 3 gaming, which consists of dice games and roulette, with the Kansas expansion because Oklahoma law prohibits it in casinos there except in electronic form. The plan…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas education officials say they’re committed to the use of new science standards in public schools despite a federal lawsuit attempting to block the guidelines. The State Board of Education and state Department of Education are defending multistate standards adopted by the board in June. They issued a joint statement noting that the standards were approved after nearly two years of work on them. The lawsuit was filed last week by parents and a nonprofit group that had criticized the standards over how they treat evolution. The guidelines reflect the mainstream scientific view that evolution is well-established…
Retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers will speak at Kansas State University about military families. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will speak Thursday afternoon at 4 at the Little Theatre in the K-State Student Union. The presentation is titled “A National Perspective on the Transitioning and Reintegration of Our Military and Families.” The College of Human Ecology’s Institute for the Health and Security of Military Families is hosting the lecture. The institute addresses the health and resiliency of military personnel, veterans and their families through research, academic outreach and clinical service programs. Myers’ lecture is part…