A Wichita man who decorated his extended-cab pickup truck with nearly 900 Christmas lights has drawn plenty of attention, including the unwelcomed kind.

KAKE-TV reports David Hill hit the streets two weeks ago, hoping to spread holiday cheer.

But he also drew the notice of police, who stopped the truck and handed Hill a $274 citation as a safety hazard.

Wichita police Lt. Joe Schroeder says it’s a safety issue. Schroeder says drivers distracted by the glowing pickup could get involved in accidents.

The lights are strung on roughly 1,000 feet of wiring and run by a generator in the truck’s bed.

Hill’s not too discouraged. He’s hoping word of his traffic ticket will call attention to a group he’s involved with called OneSpark, which helps people in need.

Victor Castillo-Najer, 37, Kansas City, Kan., was convicted on one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the investigation began in March 2011 when police in El Paso, Texas, and agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration seized 546 pounds of marijuana that was bound for the metropolitan Kansas City area. They set up a controlled delivery in which agents would be present when the marijuana was delivered to its destination.

Undercover agents spoke by telephone to Castillo-Najer, who was using the alias “Kiko.” He gave them directions for where and when to deliver the marijuana. Castillo-Najer used code when he spoke to the agents, referring to the marijuana as “horses” and asking them how big a corral he would need when the “horses” were delivered. Castillo-Najer directed the undercover agents to bring the marijuana to the parking lot of Lowe’s Home Improvement Store at 4960 Roe Boulevard in Roeland Park, Kan. He and several co-defendants were arrested on March 24, 2011, after they received the shipment of marijuana.

Grissom commended the Drug Enforcement Administration, the El Paso, Texas, Police Department and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Trent Krug for their work on the case.

A new government report shows Kansas ranked seventh in the nation last year as an exporter of agricultural products to other countries.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service on Tuesday cited a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture pegging the total value of the state’s 2011 farm exports at $5.3 billion. That’s up 7 percent from the previous year.

Wheat was the top Kansas export, accounting for 29 percent of the state’s total farm exports and 14 percent of the nation’s wheat exports.

The value of exports increased for wheat, corn, pork, beef and veal, hides and skins. It declined for other categories.

Kansas was second in the nation for wheat exports and third for beef exports.

Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a…a UFO?

Over the past two weeks, reports of UFO sightings across the country have increased, and now reported sightings have popped up in Salina.

While many attribute the increase in sightings across the country to the December 21st end of the world conspiracy theory, the Salinans who have seen something in the sky over the past two weeks say they don’t believe the world is ending, nor do they believe in aliens, but they do believe they saw something strange in the sky over the city.

We received the first report on December 6th, with a request to review footage from the Salina Sky Cam. Shawn Jennings, of Salina, reported that he saw an object with two strange lights near the water tower at Sunset Park early that morning. He reported that he saw the object hovering near the area for approximately 15-20 minutes. Jennings and a friend took photos but they were too dark to analyze and the Salina Sky Cam was pointed in another direction that morning.

After the initial sighting we stationed the Sky Cam towards the west and on the morning of December 10th, we saw what appeared to be a single light hovering over the city at around 6:29 am. The photo quality is poor (Sky Cam was not intended for night viewing) but you can clearly see the single light. It was visible on the Sky Cam for nearly 45 minutes.

This time we were also contacted by two other individuals in the Salina area who reported seeing a “UFO” or a “drone” over Salina. The two, who chose to remain anonymous, said that they watched a stationary object in the sky for nearly 30 minutes before it disappeared, leaving only a trail.

Jennings also reported seeing the object again on the 10th and was able to record the video footage below.

He said that the object was visible for nearly 2 hours, before it left at an extremely fast speed, leaving a trail behind.

Similar incidents were reported on December 4th in Longview, Texas and Grand Blanc, Michigan.

Video analyst Marc Dantonio declared the object in the Grand Blanc, MI video to be an aircraft. View the footage from Grand Blanc, MI (NSFW- explicit language). ”At the conclusion of the video, I was able to affirm my suspicion and call this an aircraft on landing approach,” Dantonio told the Huffington Post.  This assertion is disputed by the man who shot the footage.

A flash, followed by a contrail in the sky over Southeast Texas made national headlines on December 7th, with multiple news outlets catching snapshots of the “UFO”. Experts declared that the flash and trail in this incident were caused by a meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere.

What the object over Salina was, is anyone’s guess. A call to officials at the Salina Regional Airport has not been returned yet.

So what do you think? Was the object seen hovering over Salina a plane, helicopter, drone, or something else?

 

A Scott City teenager died Monday night after a rollover accident in Scott County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reports that around 9:35 pm, 16-year-old Timothy Dirks was westbound on County Road 270 when the 2004 Chevy Silverado he was driving entered the north ditch, swerved back onto the roadway, and rolled twice, ejecting Dirks.

Dirks was taken to Scott County Hospital and then transported to HaysMed, where he died as a result of his injuries.

A group of activists is planning to renew efforts to lobby the Kansas Legislature to expand the definition of bullying and cyberbullying because of ongoing problems in a south central school district.

The Wichita Eagle reports Tuesday that parents from the Wichita area and State Board of Education member Walt Chappell are pushing the issue to modify a bullying law passed in 2007. The law requires districts to implement anti-bullying plans but doesn’t dictate how districts should handle or track reports of bullying.

Calls for the legislation were prompted by bullying incidents in the Haysville district. Parents say they want districts to make sure students are safe.

Critics say the bullying proposal would increase the paperwork and burden for schools as they deal with bullying incidents.