TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Senate has rewritten tax-cutting legislation before giving it first-round approval. Wednesday night’s voice vote advanced the measure to a final Senate vote set for Thursday. Passage would send it to the House. The Senate kept Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal for cutting income tax rates further, but scrapped part of his plan for revenue-raising offsets to stabilize the budget. Brownback and many GOP legislators want eventually to phase out personal income taxes. The bill retains Brownback’s proposal to cancel a decrease in the state sales tax scheduled for July. But the Senate rejected Brownback’s proposals…
Author: KMAN Staff
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The Sedgwick County sheriff says a deputy who was shot in the eye following a chase is out of the hospital. KAKE-TV reports Sheriff Jeff Easter said the 33-year-old deputy was released Wednesday from Wesley Medical Center, where he underwent surgery. The deputy was shot Monday night after a chase that began when he tried to stop a car for traffic violations. Authorities say the car sped off, and the deputy later found it abandoned near Potwin in Butler County. He was shot while searching for the suspects. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper joined the search and…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Legislation giving the Kansas governor and lawmakers more power in appointing Court of Appeals judges is on its way to Gov. Sam Brownback. The Senate gave the measure final approval Wednesday on a vote of 28-12. The House passed it earlier this month, and Brownback is expected to sign it. The measure would give the governor the authority to appoint Court of Appeals judges, subject to Senate confirmation. It abolishes the existing attorney-led commission that screens applicants and nominates three finalists. The governor makes the appointment, with no role for lawmakers. Supporters contend the new process will…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas House has advanced a bill expanding the public places where people with permits could carry concealed weapons. Much of Wednesday’s debate focused on whether legislators had the right to mandate that local governments take additional steps to make public buildings secure. The measure received first-round approval Wednesday, with a final vote is set for Thursday. The bill would allow school districts and state colleges to designate employees who could carry concealed firearms inside their buildings, even if such weapons were banned for others. The measure also would expand the number of public buildings where people…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas Senate committee leader says the panel has removed the flaws in legislation barring public employee unions from automatically deducting money from members’ paychecks to finance political activities. But the state’s largest teachers union still strongly opposes the measure. Commerce Committee chairwoman Julia Lynn said Wednesday that the panel has narrowed the proposal so it wouldn’t also prevent public employee unions from lobbying lawmakers. Critics argued the measure was broad enough when the House passed it in January to violate the free speech rights of union members. Supporters say they just want to protect union members…
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…
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…