TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Incoming Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle has hired two aides from the staffs of departing Republican leaders in the House. Wagle announced the appointments Thursday of Ryan Gilliland as her chief of staff and Aly Rodee as communications director. Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said she wanted an experienced staff. She takes over as Senate president when lawmakers convene their 2013 session Jan. 14. Gilliland most recently served as chief of staff for House Majority Leader Arlen Siegfreid. Rodee was communications director for House Speaker Mike O’Neal. O’Neal did not seek re-election to the House and is CEO…
Author: KMAN Staff
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) A south-central Kansas woman will spend at least 25 years behind bars for helping murder her boyfriend’s grandmother one year ago. KAKE-TV reports 20-year-old Lyndsey Giovinazzo was sentenced Thursday in Butler County District Court to 25 years to life in prison. Giovinazzo pleaded guilty in July to first-degree murder in the December 2011 strangling of Loyce Cody, grandmother of Jacob Allen Hoyt. The 69-year-old pre-school teacher was strangled in her Augusta home, where a car, debit cards and candy were stolen. Hoyt’s trial had been scheduled for this month but has been postponed. Hoyt and Giovinazzo…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas City Power Light has been granted a $33 million rate increase that will add about $74 a year to electric bills for its 242,000 Kansas customers. The increase was approved Thursday by the Kansas Corporation Commission, which says it will boost the average residential customer’s costs by $6.20 a month. The Kansas City, Mo.-based utility had sought a nearly $64 million increase for its Kansas customers. KCP officials said they needed additional revenue to maintain generating plants and cover new costs of complying with federal environmental regulations. The company also sought to earn a 10.4 percent…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) An economic consulting firm predicts Kansas would lose nearly 40,400 jobs next year if no deal is struck on the so-called fiscal cliff. A state-by-state analysis posted Wednesday by Regional Economic Models Inc. says the private sector in Kansas would take the biggest hit, with nearly 35,000 jobs at risk. The firm says retailers would suffer the most as consumers cut spending. The fiscal cliff refers to automatic tax increases and cuts in government spending that would effect Jan. 1 unless Congress and the White House reach a deal to avert them. For Kansas, Regional Economic Models…
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) A Pittsburg man who fell to his death in a strip mining pit will be buried Thursday, thanks to a group of caring Pittsburg State students. Mateo V. Lorenzo died on Nov. 24 at a Pittsburg park. His mother, Becky Jones, couldn’t afford to pay for his funeral. A funeral home wouldn’t bury him without the money upfront because Jones owed money for the funeral of her daughter, who died last August. That prompted Samantha York, who used to work with Jones, to begin raising funds for funeral expenses. She and several other Pittsburg State students held…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A three-toed dinosaur foot estimated to be between 70 million and 100 million years old is back on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. The foot was one of the first displays at the Hutchinson museum and has been returned for the center’s 50th anniversary. It will be on display through January. The Hutchinson News reports the foot is from a duck-billed dinosaur believed to have lived in the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic Era. The Cosmosphere first displayed it in 1964. The 200-pound foot was found in a coal mine at Dragerton, Utah. It…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A Hutchinson baby who apparently ingested a feather is home from the hospital and doing well. The nearly 7-month-old girl, Mya Whittington, was hospitalized during the weekend while doctors tried to determine why her jaw swelled. Eventually, a doctor pulled a 2-inch feather out of her neck area. The girl’s father, Aaron Whittington, said Wednesday the baby was home from the hospital. Doctors decided not to treat an enlarged area on her neck that has a hard knot inside it. They say the area will heal on its own. The Hutchinson News reports the little girl has…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Wichita police say a man died and a woman is in critical condition after a shooting in Wichita. Wichita police Lt. Chris Halloran says officers went to a home in southeast Wichita Wednesday evening after a man said his daughter had called and said she shot her husband. When officers arrived at the home, they heard another gunshot. Halloran says both people suffered gunshot wounds. The man was dead at the scene. Halloran says the couple was alone in the house and police do not believe a third party was involved.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Kansas firefighters, law enforcement officers and their supporters are rolling up their sleeves for a friendly competition known as the annual Battle of the Badges blood drive. The Wichita Eagle reports more than 100 hospitals in Kansas and Oklahoma will benefit from blood donated during the drive, running from Thursday through New Year’s Day. Terri Dunaway is chief executive officer of the Midway Kansas chapter of the American Red Cross. Dunaway says blood donations typically decline in December because students are home from school, many businesses operate only skeleton crews and families are busy with holiday celebrations.…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Senate’s new Republican leaders are weighing changes in how the chamber settles disputes over its rules. Incoming Senate President Susan Wagle said Wednesday one possibility is forming a rules committee, similar to one in the House. But Wagle said GOP senators haven’t worked out the details. New Majority Leader Terry Bruce of Hutchinson said another possibility is appointing a parliamentarian. In the House, when questions arise, rules committee members have impromptu meetings in the chamber, and the chairman makes a finding. However, the House can vote to overrule the decision. In the Senate, the member…