TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick has hired an attorney in the secretary of state’s office as his new legislative director. Merrick, a Stilwell Republican, said Monday that B.J. Harden will join his staff in July. Harden will replace Wade Hapgood, who recently was promoted to chief of staff. Merrick’s former chief of staff, Christie Kriegshauser, left to take a job with the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. Harden has worked in the secretary of state’s office since August 2011. He also serves as a volunteer deputy executive director for the Kansas Republican Party. He received his law degree…
Author: KMAN Staff
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has asked for an investigation into an immigration reform protest held outside his Wyandotte County home. Kobach said Monday he has contacted state and Wyandotte County officials seeking an investigation into the protest held Saturday outside his Piper home. Event organizer Sunflower Community Action says about 300 participants chanted and left several shoes at Kobach’s door to represent deported parents. Kobach has built a national profile presenting tough policies on illegal immigration issues. He and his family weren’t home during the protest. Kobach told The Associated Press he wants authorities…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters can still be enforced after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against a similar Arizona law. Kobach says the Kansas law differs enough from Arizona’s version that the high court’s Monday decision doesn’t apply to Kansas. County election officials in Kansas said they were waiting for guidance from Kobach. But Kobach’s position could prompt a federal lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The law took effect in January and applies to people registering to vote for the first time in Kansas. They must…
OBERLIN, Kan. (AP) A northwest Kansas man convicted of shooting another man and wounding a woman as the couple slept will go to prison for more than 17 years. Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office says Dylan Coryell, 25, of Oberlin, was sentenced Monday in Decatur County District Court. Judge Preston Pratt gave Coryell slightly more than 17 years for intentional second-degree murder and 13 months for aggravated battery. The sentences will run concurrently. Coryell was convicted in March of shooting Corey Cook, 22, also of Oberlin, and a female acquaintance as they slept the morning of Oct. 16, 2011. Witnesses…
SALINA, Kan. (AP) Members of a Kansas National Guard helicopter unit are on their way home from Afghanistan after a year of providing medical support. A welcome-home ceremony is scheduled Tuesday for about 20 members of Detachment 2, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment. The event is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at the Salina Army Aviation Support Facility. Guard officials say the Black Hawk helicopter unit deployed last July 15. Members trained in Texas before heading to Afghanistan. The unit’s duties included aeromedical evacuation, transport of patients and medical personnel and other support functions.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A man who was abandoned in a phone booth in Kansas City, Kan., in 1972 is on a quest to identify his birth parents and why they left him. Bill Atkinson, who now lives in suburban St. Louis, was found covered in nothing but a blanket in the phone booth on June 7, 1972. Doctors thought he was about 12 hours old when he was found. Now a 41-year-old husband and father of three, Atkinson says the couple who adopted him gave him a great life. But he says having his own children has made him…
MARYSVILLE, Kan. (AP) Officials with northeast Kansas counties damaged by tornadoes and flooding in May are waiting to hear if the region will be eligible for disaster relief. An EF-2 tornado hit Marshall County on May 27, causing significant damage to a business and 28 homes in Marysville. Tornadoes also touched down in Nemaha County on May 28 and flooding was reported across the region after rains of 9 to 12 inches. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the storms did not cause any serious injuries, but a preliminary estimate determined the storms did between $5 million and $6 million damage. Marshall…
ASHLAND, Kan. (AP) A small rural Kansas church is celebrating what some might consider a gift from God. A minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ashland says she was sorting through some boxes at the church when she found one filled with some unusual Bibles. The 15 Bibles found by Minister Marsha Granberry were printed in several languages including Eskimo, Slavic, Cherokee, Russian, Chinese and Yiddish. Most of the Bibles were printed in the 1920s and 1930s, except the Cherokee version, which apparently was printed in 1860. Granberry says the Bibles are in pristine condition, with no watermarks, tears or…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Wichita area officials are trying to determine if they will seek a six-month exemption from a new state law that will allow permit holders to carry handguns in public buildings. Both the city council and the Sedgwick County commissioners will take up the issue this week. The Wichita Eagle reports the new state law goes into effect July 1, allowing permit holders to take concealed handguns into public buildings, including courthouses, police stations and libraries. On Tuesday, city council members will vote on whether to seek the six-month exemption. County commissioners on Wednesday will consider whether to…
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) A judge has ruled a southeast Kansas woman will be tried for involuntary manslaughter, rather than murder, in the death of her 4-month-old son. District Judge A.J. Wachter ordered Heather L. Buckalew, 25, bound over for trial last week. Buckalew was originally charged with second-degree murder in the August 2012 death of Memphis Cash Harvey. The Joplin Globe reports that testimony at a preliminary hearing in May indicated that Buckalew fell asleep after drinking beer with her boyfriend. When he got up to go to work, he found the baby face down on a pillow near his…