TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) New Republican leaders have assumed power in the Kansas Legislature. Lawmakers opened their annual session Monday. The House and Senate formally ratified leadership choices made earlier by the Republican majorities in each chamber. The new House speaker is 73-year-old Ray Merrick, from the northeast Kansas town of Stilwell. The new Senate president is 59-year-old Susan Wagle, the first woman to lead either chamber. Wagle, of Wichita, has served 22 years in the Legislature and survived multiple bouts of cancer since being diagnosed with lymphoma in the 1990s. Merrick has served in the Legislature since 2000. He was…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas legislators have opened their annual 90-day session facing major budget and tax issues. The House and Senate convened Monday afternoon for the swearing-in of members and the election of top leaders, with conservative Republicans in control in both chambers. Ray Merrick of Stilwell is the new House speaker and Susan Wagle of Wichita is the new Senate president. Legislators and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback must close a projected $267 million gap between anticipated revenues and existing spending commitments for the fiscal year that begins in July. The shortfall results from aggressive income tax cuts approved last…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Legislature starts its 2013 session with the lowest number of women since 1988. A survey conducted by Rutgers University says 39 of the state’s 165 lawmakers this session will be female. That ranks Kansas 26th in female representation in the country. In comparison, the state had 55 female legislators and ranked fifth in the nation. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports some lawmakers cite last year’s redistricting for the decline. While their numbers are down, female legislators moved into leadership positions. Sen. Susan Wagle is the state’s first female Senate President and Rep. Peggy Mast was elected…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A Hutchinson recycling company plans an expansion that will end the need to transfer some of the region’s recycling waste to a separate facility. Officials say the expansion at Waste Connections and its subsidiary, Stutzman Refuse Disposal, will add about 10 jobs to the South Hutchinson plant. The Hutchinson News reports the current facility divides recyclables from Hutchinson and other south central Kansas towns, and then sends some of the material to a plant in Harvey County. Jim Spencer, of Waste Connections, says the expansion will end that practice. The company plans to add a 13,000-square-foot building…
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) After several years of planning, a city-sponsored housing project in Pittsburg is ready for the construction of its first home. The project, called Lincoln Square, will eventually have 10 homes for moderate-income residents on a city-owned block. Bill Warlop, president of a construction company working on the project, says ground could be broken in two weeks for the first home. He says the house should be completed in three to four months. The Joplin Globe reports Pittsburg received $280,000 from a state program designed to improve housing stock in Kansas cities. It covers sewer line work, putting…
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) Butler County Community College leaders are considering a proposal to ban smoking and tobacco on all its campuses. A task force created last year to consider the proposal presented its findings last week to the college’s Board of Trustees, which could vote on the issue in March. KAKE-TV reports Butler currently bans smoking inside campus buildings but smoking is allowed outside 25 feet from the buildings. Bill Rinkenbaugh, a vice president at the school, says if the policy was approved, it might be implemented in the upcoming fall semester. He estimates the college would spend between…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Police say a man was shot and wounded by officers responding to a report of a burglary in southwest Wichita. KFDI reports officers went to the home after an elderly woman reported someone was breaking into a shed behind her home. Deputy Police Chief Terri Moses says officers saw the man was running through the property. When he pulled a weapon, the suspect and two officers exchanged fire. Moses says the officers weren’t wounded. The suspect is in critical condition at Via Christi Hospital.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Incoming Kansas Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce is hoping legislators can finish their business this year in only 80 days. If the Hutchinson Republican gets his wish, the Legislature’s annual session will be 10 days shorter than the normal 90 days that leaders expect each year. But lawmakers can and regularly have had longer sessions. The record was 107 days, set in 2002. Last year, lawmakers spent 99 days in session. They were on track for a relatively short session, having spent only 73 days in session before their annual spring break. But their post-break wrap-up took…
INDEPENDENCE, Kan. (AP) Cessna Aircraft has begun assembly of a new, light business jet at its plant in Independence. The Wichita Eagle reports the first Citation M2 jet is expected to roll of the line in April, with the first delivery of the $4.4 million aircraft slated for third quarter of this year. Cessna describes the M2 as a natural step up for owners of the smaller Citation Mustang, which is already assembled at the Independence plant. The Citation M2 is larger with seating for six passengers and two crew members and faster, with a longer range of 1,300 nautical…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The National Weather Service’s office in Wichita will be offering advanced storm spotter training for the first time since it started giving basic sessions more than 50 years ago. The Wichita Eagle reports meteorologist Robb Lawson will present the advanced classes in Salina, Parsons and Wichita starting in early April. He says anyone who wants to take the advance training should attend a basic session first. Lawson says the weather service has been working to make its storm spotter sessions interesting yet not so technical that they turn people off. Too much science can get boring, while…