TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas State Board of Education will send a letter to Gov. Sam Brownback and state lawmakers reminding them of the board’s authority to set state education standards. The board voted Tuesday to send the letter because a House committee is considering a bill that would force the state board to scrap its current guidelines in math and English, called Common Core standards. Some lawmakers have said the Common Core standards are federal intrusion into state education decisions. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker told the state board that it has the authority to…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas House committee refused to restore $3.5 million in state money for a Kansas Bureau of Investigation crime laboratory at Washburn University. Committee members acknowledged Tuesday that the state needs a high-tech forensics lab to recruit scientists and ease a backlog of DNA evidence waiting for testing. But some committee members said they were concerned about the estimated $55 million cost of the lab. And they questioned a plan to lease the lab from Washburn, suggesting the state could get a better deal in the private sector. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Washburn President Jerry Farley said…
WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) Investigators will continue processing a site in southern Kansas where possible human skeletal remains were found. The Cowley County Sheriff’s office says tree trimmers found the remains Monday along a private access road northwest of Winfield. The sheriff says in a news release that no evidence of foul play was found but the case will be considered one of “unknown circumstances” while the investigation proceeds. A forensic anthropologist and DNA testing by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will determine the identity of the remains.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The wife of a man convicted in the 2009 death of a Kansas woman is facing charges for allegedly helping her husband avoid arrest. Nemaha County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Rebecca Hollister, 58, of Topeka with aiding a felon. Hollister’s husband, Roger Hollister, is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Patricia Kimmi, 58, of rural Horton. She disappeared in November 2009 and her remains weren’t found until May 2010. Prosecutors allege Rebecca Hollister helped her husband avoid arrest between the day Kimmi went missing and the day Roger Hollister was convicted. The Topeka Capital-Journal…
OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) A former cross-country truck driver was sentenced to 33 years in prison for a 2000 kidnapping and sexual assault of an Ottawa teenager. Ralph E. Corey, 53, was sentenced Tuesday in Franklin County on five charges. He kidnapped a 16-year-old girl from an Ottawa Walmart as she left work and sexually assaulted her. The victim, now 29, on Tuesday asked the judge to give Corey the maximum possible sentence. During sentencing, the judge cited Corey’s extensive criminal history, which included more than 20 convictions and at least one other sexual offense. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the case…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The U.S. Air Force is defending its decision to award a contract for a light air support plane to Sierra Nevada Corp. in the wake of a formal protest by Wichita-based Beechcraft. Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said in a statement this week the Air Force restarted the competition for the contract last May with a new evaluation team as well as internal and external advisers. He says the Air Force is confident that its decision is well supported and that the proposals were fairly evaluated. The contract for 20 planes for use in Afghanistan is worth…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) General Motors has begun building a new paint shop at its Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan. The automaker says in a release that construction began Tuesday on the 450,000-square-foot paint shop, which is part of a $600 million investment in the plant. Construction is expected to take about two years. GM says the upgrade at Fairfax is designed to reduce the energy needed to build the cars and to reduce water consumption and chemical waste at the 572-acre site. The Fairfax plant builds the Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Malibu.
Cathy checks in with the Pottawatomie County Schools, as Denise O’Dea, superintendent with Wamego’s USD 320, and Darrel Stufflebeam, superintendent with Rock Creek’s USD 323, stop in on today’s InFocus. [mp3-jplayer]
Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected pope, the first ever from the Americas, the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium and the first Jesuit. The 76-year-old chose the name Pope Francis.
Tuesday brought the victims of a Manhattan home invasion face to face with the man accused of an armed attack on their residence last fall. 22 year old Levertis Horne appeared in Riley County Magistrate court facing charges of Aggravated Robbery and Aggravated Battery for his alleged involvement in an incident that saw K-State student Chase Cargile shot and wounded in his upper torso on October 5th. Officials say when Cargile took the stand on Tuesday and identified Horne as the man who shot him in the incident. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Horne was bound on the two charges.…