HAYS, Kan. (AP) A man convicted in the unprovoked shooting of a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper has been sentenced to more than six years in prison. The Hays Daily News reports Trooper Doug Schulte attended the sentencing Tuesday of Ruben Herrera Escobedo. Schulte urged the judge to order Escobedo to serve consecutive terms of 59 months for aggravated battery and 18 months for aggravated assault. Escobedo was initially charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder in the January 2011 shooting. He later pleaded no contest to the lesser charges. Schulte described in court how he approached Escobedo’s pickup truck after a…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Members of the Kansas Board of Regents are at their annual three-day retreat in southeast Kansas to discuss board priorities for the upcoming legislative session. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the regents are at Flint Oak, a hunting and fishing resort outside Fall River. New Regents Chairman Tim Emert of Independence says given the tight budget constraints, he hopes higher education can get targeted funding that both Gov. Sam Brownback and lawmakers can approve. The board on Thursday will hear from former University of Kansas Provost David Shulenburger, a senior fellow at the Association of Public Land-grant…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A disabled Army veteran who lost his service dog near Wichita earlier this month has a new companion and an obedience instructor willing to train it. The Wichita Eagle reports Randy Newell of Marion found his new dog last week at the Kansas Humane Society in Wichita. It’s a 4-year-old chow-shepherd mix named Arnie. Newell lost his legs when an improvised bomb exploded in Afghanistan in 2008. His service dog, a Doberman named Red, disappeared Aug. 3 while he was washing his pickup truck in Park City. Its body was found a few hours later on Interstate…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The chairman of the Kansas State Board of Education says the state needs to look into home schooling to make sure children are being adequately educated. A lot of parents prefer to send their children to schools like these private schools in houston, others prefer public schools that are closer to home. However, some insist on home schooling. David Dennis of Wichita says he has heard reports of children being kept at home to babysit younger siblings while their parents claim they are being home-schooled. While it’s obvious that most homeschooled children are getting the correct education…
PAOLA, Kan. (AP) A Union Pacific train headed from Colby, Kan., to Corpus Christi, Texas, has derailed in eastern Kansas, sending three cars into a small river but causing no injuries. Railroad spokesman Mark Davis says 23 of the train’s 106 cars went off the tracks at 1:45 a.m. Wednesday near Osawatomie in Miami County. Three of the cars ended up in the Marais Des Cygnes River. Davis says the cause of the derailment hasn’t been determined, and he doesn’t know how long it will take to clean up the area because of possible damage to a bridge that will…
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) A group seeking to have a bare-breasted statue removed from the Overland Park Arboretum says it has collected enough signatures to force a judge to convene a grand jury. The American Family Association of Kansas and Missouri says the statue promotes obscenity to children in violation of state law. Association director Phillip Cosby says the more than 4,500 signatures will be filed with the court Sept. 4 unless the Overland Park City Council acts to remove the statue. The life-size bronze sculpture depicts a woman wearing an opened blouse, her breasts exposed, taking a photograph of…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The acting director of the Kansas Legislature’s research staff has been promoted to permanent director. Legislative leaders gave the promotion Tuesday to Raney Gilliland. He became acting director of the Legislative Research Department in February, when Alan Conroy left to head the state pension system for teachers and government workers. Gilliland has worked for the Research Department since 1979, specializing in energy and agriculture policy. He became an assistant research director in 2006. Gilliland holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in agricultural economics from Kansas State University.
HUGOTON, Kan. (AP) A groundbreaking ceremony takes place Thursday in southwestern Kansas for a $20 million dairy ingredient and cheese processing plant. The facility will employ 60 people when it is finished. Gov. Sam Brownback is among the officials scheduled to attend the ceremonial start of construction of the Kansas Dairy Ingredients plant in Hugoton. It’s expected to open later this year. Company officials have said the plant will initially process about 1 million pounds of milk per day, growing to 2.5 million pounds by the end of 2013. The expansion will allow for production of cheese and other dry…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas attorney general’s office says participation in an Internet safety program for children grew by about 8 percent in the state’s last fiscal year. Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office says more than 65,000 children, parents and teachers took part in the Netsmartz program during the year that ended June 30. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that more than 60,000 people participated during the previous fiscal year. Netsmartz is presented throughout the state by the Kansas Alliance of Boys Girls Clubs. It was developed by the national Boys Girls Clubs and the National Center for Missing and Exploited…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Topeka official says commercial flights from the city’s regional airport could resume by next year thanks to $2.2 million in government incentives. Topeka Regional Airport, formerly called Forbes Field, hasn’t had commercial service since Allegiant Air halted its weekly round trips to Las Vegas in 2007. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority learned Tuesday that it has secured $950,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The state allocated $1 million earlier this year to lure commercial flights back to the airport, and the authority has set aside another $250,000. Authority president Eric Johnson…