GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) Garden City commissioners approved resolutions offering symbolic and financial support to an Amtrak route through southwest Kansas. The commission on Tuesday approved a resolution asking Amtrak to maintain the Southwest Chief’s route between Chicago and Los Angeles that goes through Topeka, Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City. It also approved spending up to $20,000 to help pay for federal lobbying efforts to keep the current route. The Garden City Telegram reports Amtrak is considering an alternative route that would run south of Newton through the Texas Panhandle to New Mexico. It cites the poor condition…
Author: KMAN Staff
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Douglas County prosecutors are investigating pending or past cases involving two suspended Lawrence police officers suspected of dismissing speeding tickets in exchange for Kansas basketball tickets. Also Tuesday, city officials confirmed they are investigating whether other police officers were involved in dismissing the tickets. City officials say the person whose traffic tickets were fixed is serving a federal prison sentence related to a broader Kansas ticket scandal. The two officers were suspended earlier this month after an FBI investigation. Douglas County prosecutors say they are trying to determine if the officers’ conduct damaged their credibility in other…
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) Wildlife officials say a snowy owl found shot to death last week at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend probably was shot by a poacher. The owl was alive when it was found last Thursday but had a serious injury to a wing. Veterinarians at the Great Bend Raptor Center amputated the bird’s wing but it died the next day. The Wichita Eagle reports that snowy owls are not an endangered species, but shooting one is a federal violation. The owl is one of more than a hundred that have been spotted this year…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Topeka man was sentenced to more than 55 years in prison for killing another man during a crime spree in June 2010. Forty-four-year-old Stephen A. Macomber was sentenced Tuesday for killing 26-year-old Ryan Lofton in Lofton’s driveway in Topeka. He was convicted in January of intentional second-degree murder. Macomber says he didn’t intend to kill or shoot Lofton. The shooting occurred during a struggle to get control of a gun. After Macomber shot Lofton, he shot and wounded a Marshall County sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop in Blue Rapids and then held an elderly woman…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Art created by Kansas students will be among those wrapped around a 365-foot replica of the Saturn V rocket at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. A visiting assistant professor at Washburn University helped elementary students from Rossville and St. Mary create 550 pieces of artwork for the Dream Rocket Project. A news release from the Topeka university says the Saturn V rocket will be wrapped with more than 8,000 pieces of art in 2014. Beforehand, all submissions are being displayed in venues such as libraries, schools and museums. A show is planned at…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas House is preparing to debate Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s bill to require some potential voters to prove they’re U.S. citizens before this year’s presidential election. The bill on the chamber’s agenda Wednesday would impose the proof-of-citizenship requirement on June 15, more than six months ahead of schedule. It would apply to people registering to vote for the first time in Kansas. Last year, legislators enacted a proof-of-citizenship requirement along with a law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. But that proof-of-citizenship rule doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2013. Kobach says…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas House members don’t think much of giving a state official the power to double the fee for registering a boat to use at state parks. The House voted 82-29 on Tuesday against giving first-round approval to a bill allow the secretary of wildlife, parks and tourism the authority to increase the boating fee to $60 from $30. Boat owners pay the fee once every three years. Supporters of the bill said that even if the fee is doubled, it will still be competitive with the fees charged in other states. They said the Department of Wildlife,…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A bill setting standards for when public schools may physically restrain disruptive students or place them in isolation faces a final vote in the Kansas House. The vote Wednesday was scheduled a day after the chamber gave the measure first-round approval. The bill is backed by advocates for the disabled, who don’t think voluntary guidelines enacted by the State Board of Education are enough to protect students from abuse. Some critics argue the state should leave the issue to its 286 school districts. Under the bill, physical restraints or placement in a so-called seclusion room couldn’t be…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Republican-controlled Kansas House has rejected a Democratic proposal for keeping local property taxes in check. The plan called for the state to provide $45 million to local governments during the fiscal year that begins in July, to replace property tax revenues. The state used to provide such aid every year but stopped after 2008 because of budget problems. The House defeated the proposal Tuesday on a 76-41 vote. Democratic Rep. Jim Ward, of Wichita, offered the plan as an amendment to a bill making a technical change in property tax laws. The House advanced the measure…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas House members are preparing to take up a bill designed to inform high school dropouts about other means of continuing their education once they leave school. The legislation would require 16- and 17-year-old dropouts to be given information about alternatives to a traditional high school diploma, such as a general educational development credential, or GED. The proposal originally required those quitting school to enroll in a GED or other alternative program. But a House committee amended the bill so that students must be informed of their options during their final counseling session before dropping out. There…