Author: KMAN Staff

Postelection tensions spilled over in Venezuela’s parliament on Tuesday, as lawmakers brawled. Pro-government legislators started throwing punches after opposition members unfurled a protest banner.

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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