Author: KMAN Staff

Wamego standout Kaylee Page is about ready to embark on her senior season with the goal of winning back-to-back 4A state championships, but she doesn’t have to worry about her destination for the next four years. Page signed her national letter of intent with the University of Nebraska at a ceremony at Wamego High on Thursday. The Huskers are ranked #10 in the latest USA Today Coaches’ Poll, and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament last season. Kaylee was the leading scorer and rebounder for the Lady Raiders last season at 20.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per…

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A former University of Kansas lab director has filed suit claiming he was fired for reporting possible fictitious charging to federal grant funds for the use of an electron microscope and other equipment. David Moore’s whistleblower lawsuit also alleges improper financial management and accountability for KU’s Microscopy Analysis and Imaging Laboratory in Lawrence. The lawsuit was filed in state court in Douglas County and was made public Thursday. Defendants include the Kansas Board of Regents and the university, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Moore claims the university inappropriately charged administration, overhead and…

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SALINA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas man will have his trial on a charge of escaping from jail held outside Saline County, in part because of public comments posted to online news articles about the defendant. The Salina Journal reports District Judge Rene Young agreed Thursday to a change of venue for Antonio Brown. The 29-year-old Salina man was convicted last month of murder in the 2011 abuse death of 14-month- old Clayden Urbanek, the son of his former girlfriend. That trial was also held outside Saline County. Brown initially pleaded no contest in the death, but disappeared from the Saline…

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A federal grand jury has indicted a central Kansas man on charges that he worked with an Alton, Ill., company and its owner in a $3 million scheme to sell foreign versions of Botox and Juvederm. The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City, Mo., says Christopher Tozier, 43, of Hesston, Kan., was charged Thursday with smuggling goods into the U.S. and several other similar counts. The superseding indictment adding Tozier replaces an indictment in April that charged Illinois-based Orthopaedic Solutions Inc. and its owner, 48-year-old Christopher Carstens, with similar counts. The superseding indictment alleges that Carstens and…

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and the state’s largest health insurer say they’re not sure yet about the implications of President Barack Obama’s decision to modify part of the federal health care overhaul. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas said Thursday it’s waiting for more federal guidance about Obama’s decision to let insurance companies continue offering health plans that would otherwise be canceled. The company has notified about 9,500 Kansas policy holders their coverage would not be renewed because their plans don’t meet mandates under the 2010 federal health care law. Praeger said the Insurance Department…

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A fire that displaced 30 people from a northeast Kansas apartment building earlier this week has now claimed one life. The fire department in Kansas City, Kan., says Darrin Walker, 45, died Thursday. Walker suffered second- and third-degree burns in the blaze Monday afternoon. No one else was injured in the fire, which heavily damaged the three-story, 12-unit building. Another tenant had rescued Walker from his second-floor apartment. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. Total damage was estimated at $180,000.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Increasing the safety of a low-water Topeka dam where three people have drowned could cost nearly $2 million. Topeka utilities superintendent Don Rankin presented four options Wednesday to the Topeka-Shawnee County Riverfront Authority for safeguarding the Kansas River dam where a kayaker died in July 2011 and two canoers in August 2007. The dam is located near a water treatment plant. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Riverfront Authority board supported two of the options. One was a $1.4 million proposal that would only address the danger zone on the south side of the river. The second…

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