TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas water officials are preparing to update a study to determine the feasibility of building a 360-mile aqueduct to tap the Missouri River to support agriculture in western parts of the state. Tracy Streeter, director of the Kansas Water Office, told legislators on Tuesday that the study would begin next year. How much the aqueduct would cost is to be determined. A study in 1982 pegged the price at $3.6 billion to construct either an open-air canal or enclosed pipeline. Reservoirs would be constructed to siphon water from the Missouri before it is pumped west, ending in…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Topeka bar owner has been found guilty of disturbing the peace, and the judge says more citations could be coming if bars amp up their music late at night. Topeka Municipal Court Administrative Judge Vic Miller on Monday ordered Christine Lopez, co-owner of the Brass Rail Tavern, to pay a $100 fine and court costs for disturbing the peace. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Topeka’s ordinance prohibits amplified noise that can be heard from 50 feet away from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. City attorney Chad Sublet says Miller stated that if anyone with outside amplified karaoke…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Topeka police went on an hour-long car chase before the suspect ran into a construction site and was taken into custody. WIBW reports the chase started late Monday when police tried to stop the car, but the driver wouldn’t pull over. The car went through nearly every part of Topeka and lost officers at one point. Police found the vehicle again a short while later and resumed the chase. Speeds reached as high as 110 mph on Interstate 70, and 90 mph through Topeka. Officers also spiked the car’s tires until it was running only on flats…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A top executive for SandRidge Energy says the company plans to spend $350 million next year to drill another 100 horizontal wells and build associated infrastructure in the Mississippian Lime formation in Kansas David Lawler, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Oklahoma-based firm, says that plan should make people understand the company’s interest in the Kansas formation. His comments, made last week, are in sharp contrast to the recent announcement from oil giant Shell Oil Co. that it was pulling up stakes and selling its Kansas assets. The Shell move was the latest in…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A top executive for SandRidge Energy says the company plans to spend $350 million next year to drill another 100 horizontal wells and build associated infrastructure in the Mississippian Lime formation in Kansas David Lawler, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Oklahoma-based firm, says that plan should make people understand the company’s interest in the Kansas formation. His comments, made last week, are in sharp contrast to the recent announcement from oil giant Shell Oil Co. that it was pulling up stakes and selling its Kansas assets. The Shell move was the latest in…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Some local Kansas governments will follow a new state law allowing concealed carry of guns at public buildings because they don’t want to spend the money for added security measures required to keep the ban in place. The Kansas Legislature passed legislation prohibiting many state and local government agencies from banning concealed guns on their premises unless they provide security measures. Counties and cities could get a six-month exemption from imposing the measure, but the extension expires Dec. 31. The Hutchinson News reports buildings can continue to be exempt if they have security measures. But Melissa Wangemann,…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Wichita man was sentenced to two years of probation for helping a former police officer try to bribe a witness. Forty-year-old Patrick Melendrez was sentenced Monday for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He admitted that he helped former police officer Joletta Vallejo in the bribery scheme to help Vallejo keep her job. Prosecutors say Vallejo didn’t properly report alleged crimes against two people. During a police department investigation, Vallejo and Melendrez tried to bribe a witness to recant his statements to the department’s professional standards bureau. Instead, the witness cooperated with an undercover investigation into the…
BEL AIRE, Kan. (AP) The city of Bel Aire has received nearly $1 million in grants and a low-interest loan to install a rail siding at an industrial park. Bel Aire says it received $566,000 in grants from the Kansas Department of Transportation and a $421,000, 2 percent interest KDOT loan for the siding project at the Sunflower Commerce Park. Bel Aire, located just outside Wichita, will provide $316,000 toward the project, which is expected to cost $1.3 million. Bel Aire officials say they have been working with Buzzi Unicem to buy a 12-acre lot at the industrial park, and…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A new report by a children’s advocacy group shows that nearly one in four Kansas children are living below the poverty line as the effects of the Great Recession linger. The data released Tuesday by Kansas Action for Children finds the state’s childhood poverty rate at 23.15 percent, up more than 5 percent from 2008. Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of the group, says many parents are finding it difficult to land work and continue to be dependent on public assistance to provide food, shelter and pay other bills. She says eligibility requirements for public assistance programs…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas African American Affairs Commission is urging black families to compile oral histories through interviews this year after Thanksgiving. The commission is calling the project “A New Black Friday.” The title is a play on the nickname for the Friday after Thanksgiving, typically the busiest holiday shopping day of the year. The commission is encouraging people to speak with grandparents, great-grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, or any other elders about their memories. It even has posted a brochure with potential topics for interviews on its website at www.kaaac.ks.gov . The commission is asking people to write short…