WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Police in Wichita say three teenage girls who plotted to escape from a juvenile detention facility instead found themselves being evacuated wearing nothing but towels. The Wichita Eagle reports the girls, ages 16 and 17, soaked a washcloth in a flammable liquid and set it on fire in a vent Monday night. Police Lt. Doug Nolte says they planned to slip out when the center was evacuated because of the fire alarm. When the smoke detector didn’t immediately go off, they jumped into the shower to cover their absence. That’s when the fire alarm went off. The…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Committees in the Kansas House and Senate are facing critical votes on legislation redrawing the state’s political boundaries. The House Redistricting Committee scheduled a debate and a vote Wednesday on a bill adjusting the outlines of the state’s four U.S. House districts. The Senate approved a bipartisan plan last month, but Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and many GOP legislators don’t like it. It would leave Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, the senior member of the state’s all-Republican delegation in the U.S. House, with a slightly more Democratic district. The Senate Reapportionment Committee’s agenda Wednesday called for votes on separate…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A federal judge has granted a Nebraska gas firm immediate access to 9,100 condemned acres in south-central Kansas at the center of a fight over gas seeping from the company’s underground storage facility. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction sought by Northern Natural Gas Co. prohibiting owners of gas wells on the properties from using them to develop other underground formations. Northern wants to use the existing wells to inject water underground to stem the seepage of gas from storage. It also wants authority to enter affected properties. Belot’s order requires the…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The first tax bill of the 2012 session is one House vote away from going to the Kansas Senate, where prospects are less than certain. House members will take a final vote Wednesday on the measure that would reduce income tax rates and eliminate the sales tax charged on food. Passage of the bill would mark the second time in two years that the House has voted to cut income taxes. The plan would also phase out earnings taxes for thousands of partnerships, sole proprietorships and other small businesses. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has pushed cutting tax…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Topeka man is being held on suspicion of murder, sexual assault and other charges in the killing of an 8-year-old girl. Police found the body of Ahliyah Irvin around 5:45 a.m. Tuesday in the same southeast Topeka apartment complex where family members reported her missing about 45 minutes earlier. Authorities have not said how the girl was killed or exactly where in the apartment complex she was found. But WIBW-TV reports that Police Chief Ron Miller describes the crime as “particularly heinous.” About 50 officers converged Tuesday morning on a school district building after a suspicious…
GALENA, Kan. (AP) Authorities in southeastern Kansas have one person in custody as they investigate a fatal shooting. The Cherokee County News-Advocate reports that several people called 911 shortly before midnight Monday reporting a shooting in Galena. Officers found a wounded man at the scene and took him to a hospital in Joplin, Mo., where he died early Tuesday. He’s identified as 32-year-old Justin Eakes. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department says a 38-year-old man was arrested and held on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter. Charges are expected later in the week. Details about the two men’s relationship were being withheld while…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A California man is going to prison for the armed holdup of a Dodge City bank in October 2010. The U.S. Attorney’s office says 33-year-old Angel Garcia Aguirre, of Santa Paula, Calif., was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years and three months behind bars. Garcia Aguirre pleaded guilty last year to one count each of bank robbery and brandishing a firearm, admitting he and another man robbed a Bank of America branch in Dodge City on Oct. 21, 2010. He said he stood in the lobby while the other man jumped over a teller’s counter and grabbed…
While it’s been a fairly mild winter, the deadline for the Low Income Energy Assistance program, otherwise known as LIEAP is approaching. The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services will be accepting applications for LIEAP through Friday, March 30. Applications must be received in the LIEAP Processing Center or a SRS office by close of business on March 30. LIEAP provides an annual benefit to help qualifying households pay their winter heating bills. The primary groups assisted through the program are people with disabilities, the elderly and families with children. An average benefit of $262.97 will be received by…
Governor Sam Brownback’s 2013 fiscal plan requested that Pawnee Mental Health and Services eliminate their family centered systems of care. Robbin Cole, Executive Director of Pawnee, explained to Riley County Commissioners earlier this week this will put a strain on Pawnee considering they would lose $300,000 from their budget starting in July. The Family Centered Systems of Care is a $5 million budget item that comes from tobacco settlement dollars. This allows community mental health centers to provide critical support to children with serious emotional disturbances and their families. “In terms of the impact, locally,” Cole said. “The potential elimination…
Riley County Emergency Preparedness officials took the state-wide tornado drill directly to Amanda Arnold Elementary school Tuesday afternoon, with the grand prize winner of a poster contest pushing the siren button during the 1:30 test. Jamie Kim is a kindergartner at Amanda Arnold, and County Emergency Management Coordinator Laurie Harrison says Kim’s selection as grand prize winner speaks highly of her message. Other winners in the same kindergarten class were Avery Freeman and Brynn Ray. Teacher Deb Shepek tells KMAN Kim says she wants to be an artist someday .Shepek adds the children have been learning about what to do in…