Author: KMAN Staff

According to Kansas Highway Patrol reports on Friday afternoon about 4 miles south of Herington on US 56 a fatal crash took the lives of two Junction City residents. Police say a 2010 Nissan driven by 21-year-old Bryan Alfred of Junction City veered left of center and collided with 41-year-old Toby Biehler’s 2010 Chevrolet Silverado.  Alfred’s vehicle went into a ditch and overturned, Biehler’s Silverado came to a rest in the roadway. Killed in the accident were 20-year-old Amber Alfred, and 2-year-old Josiah Alfred.  Bryan Alfred and his passenger  6-year-old Keith Johnson of Junction City were  flown by Lifeteam to…

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GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) Kansas gambling regulators say an increasingly popular fund-raising activity is illegal in the state because gambling provisions don’t include charitable exceptions. Racing and Gaming Commission spokesman Bill Miskell told The Garden City Telegram that poker runs and charitable poker tournaments are not allowed in Kansas. That prompted the newspaper to cancel a Texas Hold `Em tournament next week that would have helped fund its Newspaper in Education Program. Several poker runs in which motorcycle riders pay an entry fee and drive to various locations to pick up playing cards have taken place in Garden City this…

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) State health officials say two people who were treated at a northwest Kansas hospital in 2010 have tested positive for a strain of hepatitis C “closely related” to a cluster of cases in New Hampshire. Kansas officials notified more than 400 former Hays Medical Center patients last month that they may have been exposed to the disease by a traveling hospital technician who’s accused of causing an outbreak in New Hampshire. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday that of 334 patients who submitted blood as of Thursday, 311 were negative for hepatitis C. Tests…

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EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) An Emporia woman has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison after being found guilty earlier of putting her newborn son in a trash bin. KVOE-AM reports that Lyon County District Judge Merlin Wheeler on Friday sentenced 26-year-old Christina Devine to 155 months in prison. She was convicted in July of attempted first-degree murder. Workers at an Emporia apartment complex found the 7-pound, 10-ounce baby alive in a trash bin in October 2010. Authorities said Devine’s route to the complex took her past several places where she could have left the infant. Under the Kansas law,…

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas rancher has filed suit claiming the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is improperly using “beef checkoff” funds to influence government action and policy. The federal lawsuit by Michael Callicrate names the U.S. Agriculture Department, the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board and three other defendants. It seeks to bar the USDA from giving any checkoff dollars to the Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The filing was announced Friday in Kansas City, Mo., at a conference of the Organization for Competitive Markets. The organization has been critical of the checkoff program and supports the lawsuit. The checkoff program generates…

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LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A Lawrence officer says a 7-year-old girl found bound at a Walmart told him she was hitting her siblings and asked to be tied up. Officer James Miller testified Friday about his conversation with the girl during a preliminary hearing for the girl’s parents, Adolfo and Deborah Gomez. The suburban Chicago couple was arrested in June after the 7-year-old and her bound 5-year-old brother were found outside the family’s vehicle. Three older children weren’t restrained. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that another officer, Charles Stewart, testified that the 5-year-old said Adolfo Gomez told the boy not to take…

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Gov. Sam Brownback is warning Kansas residents against lighting outdoor fires because of the state’s ongoing severe drought. Brownback spoke at a meeting Friday on responding to what he describes as a historic drought. All 105 counties are now covered by a drought disaster declaration, and most have imposed burn bans. Brownback says the conditions are so dry that any outdoor burning could set off a widespread blaze. Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli and Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman were also at the meeting, where Brownback announced a new website providing information on the drought.

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