A Massachusetts man who remains hospitalized after surviving the Boston Marathon bombings avoided losing his legs because he was jumping over metal railing and was airborne as the second explosion occurred.
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A 39-year-old Topeka man has been sentenced to about 10 years in prison for a November 2011 home invasion in which he burned a woman with a heated knife blade. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Monroe Lockhart III was sentenced Tuesday in Shawnee County court. He was convicted earlier of aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and aggravated battery. Assistant district attorney Chris Biggs had asked that Lockhart receive a total sentence of 11 years, 6 months. Defense attorney Linda Eckelman sought concurrent sentences of about five years. Lockhart will be credited for the 15 months he has served…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas revenue officials say the state collected nearly what was expected for April, missing projections by less than $5 million. The monthly report released Tuesday showed that Kansas collected $764.8 million in taxes. The state expected to collect $769.2 million for the month. The estimate was based on new projections calculated April 19 by a group of researchers and economists. Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said Kansas collected $25 million more in individual income taxes in April 2013 compared to April 2012. Jordan said collections indicate the state is seeing economic growth as a result of tax cuts…
NICKERSON, Kan. (AP) Voters in the south-central Kansas town of Nickerson have said no to starting a full-time police department. The Hutchinson News reports that in an advisory election conducted by mail ballot, 129 voters voted yes for setting up a police department, and 181 voters said no. Voting ended Tuesday. The Nickerson City Council isn’t required to follow what the voters chose, but council members said they would seek their input from residents after the police department was eliminated in 2012. The proposed Nickerson Police Department would have at least two officers for the town of about 1,000 residents.…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Gov. Sam Brownback says the state should divert $1.15 million from bioscience efforts to fund a new adult stem cell center at the University of Kansas Medical Center. The governor said Monday that the money from the Kansas Bioscience Authority could be used to create the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, with $754,500 per year to maintain the center after that. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the proposal was part of numerous spending adjustments Brownback has sent to the Legislature, which reconvenes May 8. The Legislature this session passed a bill requiring the medical center to start the…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Supreme Court says prosecutors must try a Topeka man whose death penalty conviction was overturned within 90 days. The court in January ordered a new trial for Phillip Cheatham in the 2003 murders of two women and the wounding of a third in Topeka. The deadline for an appeal of that order passed last week, prompting Monday’s order. Cheatham told the Topeka Capital-Journal Monday in an interview from Hutchinson Correctional Facility that he just wants to go home. He said he would consider applying for bond because he wanted to walk out the front door…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A new report is forecasting that Kansas employment will grow this year at a “slightly faster rate” than in 2012 and will add nearly 24,000 jobs to the state’s economy. The Center for Economic Development and Business Research on Tuesday predicted 1.8 percent job growth for an estimated 23,794 new jobs. The agency’s director, Jeremy Hill, acknowledges that is still a slow rate of growth but says the forecast is nonetheless fairly optimistic. Most of those new jobs are coming in the service sector, which is expected to grow by 2.2 percent. That includes everything from lawyers…
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) A woman was sentenced to more than 25 years in prison for her role in the methamphetamine-related murder of a Pittsburg man two years ago. Amie Lee Ryburn, 32, of Pittsburg was sentenced Monday in Crawford County District Court for second-degree murder and manufacture of methamphetamine in the death of Ian Monaghan, 29. Monaghan’s body was discovered in a farm field west of Pittsburg in July 2010. He had been beaten and shot multiple times. Investigators stopped Ryburn and Charles F. Mitchell later that night in a truck that contained a meth lab. The Joplin Globe reports…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A volunteer Reno County firefighter is charged with 14 felony counts of arson after investigators alleged he set more than a dozen grass fires last fall. Cody A. Knox, 19, of Arlington was arrested on a warrant Friday and charged with setting 14 fires in Reno County fields in October and November of last year. He was released on $7,500 bond and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday. Knox is a volunteer firefighter for Reno County Fire District No. 4, which covers Arlington, Langdon, Plevna and Abbyville. Reno County prosecutors allege he used a…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Westar Energy officials who were already dealing with $200,000 in damage done at a substation during the weekend say thieves also hit two other substations. The utility discovered damage Monday at substations near Valley Center and in Wichita. Westar Manager Doug VenJohn says thieves have hit 31 substations in April. There were only 15 similar thefts all of last year. KAKE-TV reports that Westar crews were at six different substations Monday to make repairs related to copper thefts. Westar is replacing the copper stolen with something with no scrap value. But VenJohn says the material is more…