WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Wichita doctor who drove three miles with a man’s body on top of his van after a fatal accident has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor. Sixty-seven-year-old Mohammad Sarrafizadeh was given a one-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor vehicular homicide. Sarrafizadeh was arrested in June, the day after his car struck and killed 31-year-old lawn service worker Ramon Martinez-Limon. The victim was thrown onto the vehicle’s roof, prompting witnesses to call police. The Wichita Eagle reports Sarrafizadeh was driving his severely disabled daughter to her school the morning of the accident. His attorney…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Legislators have returned to the Kansas Statehouse to resume their work on remaining issues of the 2012 session. Wednesday is the 74th day out of the 90-day regular session authorized by the Kansas Constitution. Legislators gaveled back into session shortly after 10 a.m. to handle routine announcements. Many major issues facing legislators in January remain unfinished, including proposals to change the state’s pension, tax and education systems. Legislators must finish work on a $14 billion state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Another issue commanding attention is work on redrawing the state’s 40 Senate, 125…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Hundreds of developmentally disabled Kansas residents and advocates for them have rallied at the Statehouse against part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program. Participants in Wednesday’s rally don’t want services for the developmentally disabled included when the state turns management of its $2.9 billion-a-year Medicaid program over to three private companies. The administration plans to issue contracts this summer. Medicaid covers health care for the poor, elderly and disabled. The rally’s participants created a temporary display of personal objects on the Statehouse’s south steps to urge the administration to change its plans.…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A ceremony is planned in Hutchinson Friday to open one time capsule and bury another. A shoeboxed-sized time capsule full of artifacts from life in Reno County in 2012 was welded shut on Tuesday. Its contents will be revealed Friday, and then it will be placed in the cornerstone of Memorial Hall in Hutchinson. The Hutchinson News reports it will be buried in the same cavity that previously held a 1911 capsule, which was removed last fall. Friday’s ceremony will mark the 100th anniversary of the grand opening of the building, which was called Convention Hall when…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Complaints about possible civil rights violations arising from waiting lists for physically disabled Kansans seeking state services have been sent to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Lawrence Journal World reports that the federal Office of Civil Rights unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a voluntary settlement with Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration. At issue is whether Kansas is doing enough to provide services to disabled residents who in some cases have been on waiting lists for three years. A U.S. Supreme Court decision requires states to provide services to people with disabilities. Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) The leader of the University of Kansas Medical Center has reached a severance agreement that will pay her more than $419,000 after she steps down in June. University of Kansas officials announced the agreement Tuesday with Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the Medical Center and executive dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the agreement says Atkinson will be placed on administrative leave and would not be involved in any decisions at the university after April 9. But she will be paid her normal salary through June 30. Atkinson…
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) The parents of a Seneca High School student are suing the school district over hazing at a football camp. Paul and Kristi Smith say in the lawsuit that their son, who is now 16, suffered severe cuts, bruising and scarring during the hazing at a 2010 Pittsburg State University football camp. At least eight freshman football players reportedly were hazed by upperclassmen during the camp. Prosecutors say the most serious incidents involved students being hit with plastic curtain rods. The Joplin Globe reports the lawsuit claims coaches did not properly supervise the team. Seneca schools Superintendent Steve…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A 30-year-old Mexican national who was deported after a fatal DUI accident in 2005 was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for returning to the U.S. Adan Cruz-Santos was sentenced Tuesday for illegally re-entering the country as a convicted felon. Cruz-Santos was deported in February 2010 after serving a prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter and DUI in the death of 25-year-old Jodie Hatzenbihler. The Olathe nurse died after being hit by a car as she crossed a Lawrence street. The Lawrence Journal-World reports Cruz-Santos pleaded no contest to his third DUI conviction after a September…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Hutchinson police say a 63-year-old man apparently drowned in his backyard swimming pool. Police Lt. John Moore says when officers were called to a Hutchinson home Tuesday evening they found Gerald Alfieri, who had been removed from an above-ground pool. Efforts to revive Alfieri were unsuccessful. Moore says an autopsy will be conducted.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A Wichita police dog helped end a three-hour standoff that began when a man threatened to blow up a Shell gas station. Police say the man entered the station about 10 p.m. Tuesday and told the employee he had explosives in his backpack. The employee was able to push the station’s silent alarm before he was released about a half-hour later. Wichita Police Capt. Jeff Easter said the suspect told police he had C-4 and was going to blow everybody up. About 15 homes around the station were evacuated. KFDI reports after the man stopped responding, a…