TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A former employee of the Kansas attorney general’s office is charged with a misdemeanor following a prostitution sting in Topeka. Online court records show Steve Rarrick charged in Shawnee County District Court with one count of patronizing a prostitute. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Wednesday that Rarrick was one of 12 people arrested in the sting, which focused on Internet solicitations of prostitutes. A call to Rarrick’s home was unanswered Wednesday. His attorney did not return a call seeking comment. Rarrick is currently an attorney for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board, which represents residential customers and small businesses…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The main organizer of a three-day Christian workshop says he’s moved the event out of the Kansas House chamber because he needs more space. The Thursday-through-Sunday event will be held instead at the Topeka Performing Arts Center, several blocks from the Statehouse. Dave DePue said Wednesday that 180 people want to attend the $100-per-person workshop for pastors and other church leaders. The House chamber at the Statehouse has space for 150. The workshop is described as a beginner’s course in preparing for a transforming revival. It includes evening sessions Thursday and Friday and an all-day session Saturday.…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is objecting to restrictions on its exhibit next month at the Kansas State Fair, saying they amount to unconstitutional censorship. Fair officials say any videos or pictures of animals being decapitated, dismembered or butchered must not be readily visible outside PETA’s booth, so that fairgoers will have to make a conscious choice to view the material. PETA calls that a content-based restraint. It says the fair is a public forum and cannot restrict viewpoints. Fair general manager Denny Stoecklein responded Wednesday that the fair “supports Kansas agriculture and…
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…
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.