TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A group of Johnson County teachers is heading to the Kansas Statehouse to deliver signatures they have gathered in protest of plans to change the state employee retirement system. Group members say they will deliver some 30 binders with more than 6,400 signatures from school employees from every district in Johnson County to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s office. Brownback and the Republican-controlled Legislature are proposing to change the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System from a defined benefit program to a defined contribution program. The changes are designed to close a projected $8.3 billion gap between pension obligations…
Author: KMAN Staff
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) A man charged with killing a 14-year-old Great Bend girl is due in court as a judge considers his request to move the trial out of Barton County. The motion by attorneys for 37-year-old Adam Longoria is among a bevy of filings expected to be taken up during a hearing Wednesday in Barton County District Court. Longoria is scheduled to go on trial March 26 on charges of capital murder and sexual crimes for the August 2010 death of Alicia DeBolt. The girl’s burned body was found at an asphalt plant near Great Bend where Longoria…
KINGMAN, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has issued a Silver Alert for an 89-year-old Kingman man who hasn’t been seen since driving away from his home. Wallace “Gene” Fairchild left his home about noon Tuesday in Kingman in his 2005 red Ford Ranger. The license tag is WCJ-100. His family says he suffers from dementia and has vision problems that make it difficult for him to drive at night. Another resident saw Fairchild driving west on U.S. 54 in Kingman. Family members say he was wearing overalls. Anyone with information is asked to call Kingman police at 620-532-3138.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A homeless man is jailed in the beating death of a homeless man. Wichita police say they arrested a 39-year-old homeless parolee Tuesday in the death of 41-year-old Marshall Hauschulz. Hauschulz was found dead last Dec. 16 under a bridge along the river near the Keeper of the Plains statue. KFDI reports that a motive for the killing was not released.
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) A diamond that was dropped into a Salvation Army red kettle in Kansas has sold for more than $6,000. An unknown out-of-state buyer paid $6,325 Tuesday in an eBay auction. The diamond, which was set in a ring donated by a Kansas City jeweler, drew 86 bids during a weeklong auction. It has a cut that is no longer used and is thought to have been cut more than 100 years ago. The Salvation Army in Kansas City, Kan., said the proceeds would be used in Wyandotte County.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Hutchinson Mayor Ron Sellers found out what it’s like to be a crime fighter and a crime victim on the same night. Sellers called police early Tuesday when he saw suspicious people in his neighborhood. Police responding to his calls recovered property from several burglaries in a car the thieves left behind when they fled. Some of the stolen items came from Sellers’ home. The mayor said he didn’t realize his house had been broken into while he and his wife slept. Sellers told the Hutchinson News that the thieves took two computers from his home. Police…
NEWTON, Kan. (AP) A scam artist claiming to be a down-on-his luck military man is trying to scam some Kansas churches. The man claims his truck broke down while he was on his way home from his mother-in-law’s funeral. The Newton Kansan reports that he says he attended the church a few times and asks that money be sent to Walmart or any place with wire transfers. Jason Reynolds, Harvey County sheriff’s department chaplain and minister, says the man gets belligerent and threatens to go AWOL if he can’t get the money. Reynolds says at least five churches in Newton…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas House committee has endorsed Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s proposal to require some potential Kansas voters to prove their U.S. citizenship ahead of this year’s presidential election. The Elections Committee approved a bill to impose the proof-of-citizenship requirement starting June 15 for people registering to vote in Kansas for the first time. The state enacted the rule last year, but it isn’t scheduled to take effect until Jan. 1, 2013. The committee’s endorsement of the bill allows a debate in the House. Kobach has said he wants to impose the proof-of-citizenship rule ahead of schedule…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Opponents to Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal for cutting Kansas income tax rates say during a Statehouse event that Republican’s plan is misguided and would punish working families. Brownback and his supporters were planning a news conference of their own on Wednesday, touting support for tax cuts. Both events were held ahead of the first of three planned days of hearings over the proposal by the House Taxation Committee. The governor proposes to collapse the state’s three income tax brackets into two and eliminate a number of credits and exemptions, a move he says makes the Kansas tax…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas House gave first round approval Wednesday to a bill that redraws its members’ districts to shift power within the chamber from rural communities to the Kansas City metropolitan area. House members advanced the bill on a voice vote, setting up final action Thursday. The bill is expected to pass with bipartisan support, and both House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, and Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat, praised the measure. Lawmakers must adjust the boundaries of their districts and the state’s four congressional districts to account for changes in population over the past…