Democratic House Member Ed Markey has won the open US Senate Seat from Massachusetts, defeating Republican Gabriel Gomez. Markey takes the seat previously held by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Author: KMAN Staff
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Texas Republicans have passed new abortion restrictions expected to close almost every abortion clinic in the nation’s second most populous state. The Republican-controlled House voted for the bill while hundreds of protesters screamed from the gallery. The bill passed after the midnight deadline and because of that rule, the bill was killed sending Texas Governor Rick Perry and his supporters back to the drawing board. Texas’ special legislative session ended at midnight, and Democrats spent most of the day filibustering the bill. Republicans cited rules to eventually force a vote to end the filibuster. The bill would…
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce gave a glowing report of its progress so far during a briefing for the 2014 budget at the Manhattan commission meeting on Tuesday night at city hall. However, an issue with a recent grant for a study concerning the viability of a new field house drew the attention of commissioner Wynn Butler. Butler says he’s not upset the Chamber gave the $25,000 for the study (although he doesn’t agree with it), but wants to ensure any such future expenditures are brought under the umbrella of the city commission first. Chamber Chairman Frank Beer says the…
Nelson Mandela’s daughter and ex-wife visited the hospital Tuesday, two days after his condition had deteriorated to ‘critical.’ The former president has been in the hospital for 18 days receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection.
Yes, he’s at the Moscow airport, and no, you can’t have him. Russian President Vladimir Putin gives the first official acknowledgement of the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden but rejects U.S. pleas to extradite him.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Federal prosecutors have charged a former Kansas insurance agent with stealing nearly $2 million from policyholders. The U.S. attorney’s office says a 51-count indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges Jason Matthew Pennington, 41, of Bel Aire, defrauded customers and lied to beneficiaries to cover up the thefts. He’s charged with wire fraud, attempted wire fraud, money laundering, attempted bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. His 65-year-old father, James L. Pennington, of Wichita, is charged with four counts of filing false tax returns. Neither had an attorney listed in court records, and their home phones were…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A western Missouri woman has been sentenced to slightly more than three years in prison for sex trafficking in Kansas. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Danyelle Putman, 21, of Independence, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Kansas City, Kan. Putman and a co-defendant, Tony A. Rogers, of Kansas City, Mo., both pleaded guilty in December to transporting a person over state lines to engage in prostitution. Rogers and Putman were arrested in August 2012 by police conducting a prostitution sting in the Johnson County town of Prairie Village. An investigator called a number on a…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Top Kansas officials have approved a $100,000 settlement in a lawsuit on behalf of a former state hospital patient who was assaulted and contracted a sexually transmitted disease. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders agreed Tuesday that the state will pay the former patient $96,000; an additional $4,000 would go to the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, which represented the disabled woman. The woman’s guardian sued in Shawnee County in 2009 after the woman left the Kansas Neurological Institute in Topeka. The lawsuit said she’d been repeatedly assaulted. The state had argued…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas expects to rely less heavily on internal borrowing to pay its bills on time during the fiscal year starting in July. Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders on Tuesday unanimously approved $300 million in loans to the state’s general fund from other accounts. By law, the loan must be paid by the end of June 2014. The general fund is the state’s main bank account. It is used to finance general government programs and provide aid to public school districts. Because revenues don’t flow in consistently, the state has resorted annually to internal borrowing to temporarily…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A nonprofit group from Illinois is asking the Kansas Corporation Commission to support its efforts to seek a surcharge on natural gas utilities. The Gas Technology Institute, based in Des Plaines, Ill., says the surcharge would raise money to support safety and research. A representative from the institute told the KCC last week that the proposed surcharge would be about 90 cents per customer per year, and raise an estimated $845,000. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the institute argues customers would benefit from research on how to make appliances and homes more efficient and pipelines safer. A spokeswoman…