Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Legislators continue to move forward on changes to Kansas water policy aimed at improving conservation efforts and prolonging the life of water supplies. On Monday, the House approved a bill that would allow water-rights holders to form a reservoir improvement district on reservoirs. The bill, which now goes to the Senate, establishes a governing body that has the authority to develop plans to extend the life of reservoirs through management or improvement projects. Several of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s pieces of water policy changes are close to arriving at his desk. One would remove the 1945 policy…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The National Agricultural Statistics Service says the number of farms in the U.S. dropped slightly last year and the amount of land used for farming continued to decline. A report released Friday shows the nation had 2.18 million farms last year. That’s down from 2.19 million farms the previous year. Meanwhile, the amount of land used for crops, pasture and grazing dwindled further to some 916.9 million acres. That is 1.85 million fewer acres than in 2010. The average U.S. farm size last year was 420 acres. In Kansas, the numbers remained stable. Kansas had 65,500 farms…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal is floating a new congressional redistricting plan that would split the Kansas City area between two districts and put part of it in a district with rural western Kansas communities 400 miles away. The proposal from O’Neal was among several for redrawing the state’s four congressional districts unveiled this week during a meeting of the House Redistricting Committee. O’Neal’s plan would put most of Wyandotte County in the 1st District of western and central Kansas. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, has been predicting for months that O’Neal would push…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Ten months and more than 100 surgeries after he suffered a paralyzing bullet wound in Afghanistan, a Fort Riley soldier has completed his long journey home to Topeka. Dozens of members of the American Legion and Patriot Guard Riders stood at attention Friday as a private medical plane carrying 27-year-old Sgt. Jamie Jarboe touched down at Philip Billard Memorial Airport. He was moved onto a stretcher and placed in an ambulance for a ride to a Topeka rehab facility, escorted by Patriot Guard motorcyclists, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. The turnout was especially gratifying for Jarboe’s wife, Melissa…
SALINA, Kan. (AP) Gophers have been causing problems for Salina, where the furry rodents are digging burrows in the city’s flood-control levee. The Salina Journal reports that the gophers have been digging burrows and tunnels that could create problems in the city’s 21-mile levee. Mike Fraser, Salina’s director of public works, says if the gophers create enough holes in the levee the structure could fail under stress from floodwaters. Fraser’s levee staff have been fighting the gophers with traps and have killed 369 gophers since 2009. Jack Goates, the city’s flood control supervisor, said the Corps of Engineers mandates that…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A free dental clinic in Kansas City, Kan., has attracted hundreds of people for the two-day event. The Kansas City Star reports that people lined up at the Kansas Mission of Mercy clinic late Thursday to get a spot in the clinic, which opened Friday and continued Saturday. More than 1,000 people were treated Friday, and a similar crowd was expected Saturday. Cindi Sherwood, of Independence, Kan., is one of 173 dentists volunteering. She said dentists at the event were doing “thousands and thousands of fillings and lots of extractions.” She said many of the patients…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A coalition of Kansas groups is considering a legal challenge to the state’s new voter photo identification law. The Wichita Eagle reports that while the Kansas Voter Coalition won’t discuss specific legal strategies against the law, a major concern appears to be the need to pay for underlying documents in order to obtain the free ID. Ernestine Krehbiel, president of the Kansas League of Women Voters, said “paying to vote is a poll tax.” More than a half-dozen groups, including the Kansas chapters of the League of Women Voters and American Civil Liberties Union, make up the…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Thieves have been breaking into law enforcement vehicles in the Wichita area and making off with weapons and other equipment. The Wichita Eagle reports the recent thefts from cop cars have raised concern in the law enforcement community, and signal there’s a market for stolen police equipment. But it’s not clear how many of the thefts are related. Wichita police have recorded about six law enforcement vehicle break-ins in the past year. The cars belonged to the Kansas Highway Patrol, Goddard police, KBI and Wichita police. Wichita police also heard of a series of burglaries last summer…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) About 800 people are expected to be summoned as possible jurors to hear the trial of a 51-year-old Oklahoma woman charged with killing her former husband and his fiancee. Dana L. Chandler, of Duncan, Okla., is charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the July 7, 2002, slayings of 47-year-old Mike Sisco and 53-year-old Karen Harkness in Topeka. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Chandler’s trial starts March 5 with jury selection. The trial is expected to last three weeks. A court official says from the 800 prospective jurors called, 12 jurors and as many as…