TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas legislators are done revising their rules, and one new provision limits the consideration of new spending when the House and Senate debate budget bills. The Senate voted 28-12 on Tuesday to approve rules governing interactions between the two chambers. The House approved the same measure Monday on a vote of 81-41. The biggest change is a joint rule barring members of both chambers from proposing increased spending during budget debates without proposing an offsetting cut elsewhere. The Kansas House had such a rule in place for the past two years. The Senate didn’t, but GOP conservatives…
Author: KMAN Staff
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas driver has now been charged for a crash that killed a 6-year-old girl last summer in southeast Wichita. KAKE-TV reports Raudel Sandoval, 19, was charged Tuesday with second-degree reckless murder. He was being held on $100,000 bond. The little girl, Feodora Two-Hatchett, was killed the night of June 26 when her mother’s car was hit by another vehicle in the middle of an intersection. Witnesses said Feodora’s mother might not have completely stopped at a stop sign, but they also said the other car was speeding. Police said Sandoval was driving 60 to 70 mph…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan is telling legislators that Kansas must further reduce individual income tax rates to remain competitive economically. Jordan testified Tuesday before the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee on its first of three days of hearings on tax proposals from conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. Brownback wants to phase in additional cuts in individual income tax rates over three years, following up on aggressive income tax cuts last year. But to keep the budget stable, he also wants to eliminate two popular income tax deductions for homeowners and raise additional sales tax revenues. Jordan…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Authorities are searching for a 25-year-old inmate who escaped from a north-central Kansas jail. Joseph Mosier was being held at the Osborne County Detention Center on charges from Sedgwick County. The Sedgwick County sheriff’s office says Mosier escaped sometime over the weekend from the fenced-in exercise yard at the Osborne facility. His disappearance wasn’t noticed until a head count at 10 p.m. Sunday. He was last seen Monday afternoon in the Augusta area of Butler County, where he has friends and family. Authorities believe Mosier stole a truck in Osborne that was found Monday in Augusta, as…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A bill proposed in the Kansas Senate would increase penalties for human trafficking and try to protect victims under the age of 18. The bill introduced Monday would create the new crime of commercial sexual exploitation of a child. It also would allow authorities to treat those caught in human trafficking as victims. And it would create coordinated training for human trafficking enforcement. The Wichita Eagle reports a main part of the bill is creating response teams that would provide various placement options for victims. And it would create a human trafficking victim assistance fund. The bill…
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) A Dodge City gang member was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after a fight between gang members. Humberto Ortiz, 20, was arrested as part of a federal racketeering case targeting gang members. Ortiz was sentenced Monday to three years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty earlier to assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. Federal prosecutors say Ortiz admitted that he and other gang members assaulted people they thought were members of another gang in Dodge City in August 2011. Ortiz admitted his gang, the Nortenos, was part of a…
MOLINE, Kan. (AP) A southeast Kansas woman will serve 30 days in jail and pay nearly $36,000 in restitution for mistreatment of her disabled adult daughter, Medicaid fraud and animal cruelty. KAKE-TV reports Bonnie Newman, 61, was sentenced Monday after being found guilty in November 2012. Law enforcement and social services removed Newman’s disabled adult daughter from her home in Sedan in March 2009 due to unsanitary conditions. Numerous animals were also seized at the home. She was ordered to pay $35,869 to the Kansas Medicaid program, Rainbow Meadows Equine Rescue and investigative costs of the Kansas Attorney General’s office.…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Hutchinson police are investigating burglaries at two more churches. One of the churches, Trinity United Methodist, has been burglarized four times in nine months. The other church burglarized Saturday was the Christian Science Church. Police Detective Jamie Schoenhoff says the burglaries are similar to more than a dozen church burglaries last year. Four people were arrested in those burglaries. KWCH reports the burglars also hit a Dillon’s store across from the Christian Science Church. The Christian Science Church did not have services on Sunday because of the break-in
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Republicans have picked a Wichita party activist who serves as Sedgwick County clerk as the state GOP’s new chairman. Kelly Arnold was the Kansas GOP’s vice chairman for the past two years. He has been both executive director and chairman of the Sedgwick County party. He also was the Kansas GOP’s finance director and the treasurer for the National Young Republicans. The Republican State Committee elected Arnold during the party’s annual convention over the weekend in Hutchinson. Arnold will replace Amanda Adkins, who chaired the state party for four years before deciding to step down. Adkins…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas Senate committee is holding two days of hearings on Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax plan amid questions about whether it is fair to the state’s poorest residents. The Republican-dominated Assessment and Taxation Committee was beginning its review of the GOP governor’s proposals Tuesday morning. Brownback wants to phase in more income tax cuts over the next three years to follow up on reductions approved last year. But to stabilize the budget, Brownback also wants to eliminate two popular income tax deductions for homeowners and keep the sales tax at its current rate, rather than letting it…