8 p.m. Update

Police in Topeka say three young siblings have been found unharmed along a trail about 20 hours after their parents reported them missing.

Capt. Jerry Stanley says in a statement the two girls and their brother were found “safe but hungry” around 7:15 p.m. Thursday, playing in a creek along the Shunga Trail.

That’s just a few miles from the home where their parents reported them missing shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Stanley says a citizen spotted the children and called police.

The children were identified as 13-year-old Stephanie Witten, 12-year-old Seth Witten and 10-year-old Michelle Witten.

Police had said throughout the search they did not suspect foul play. No Amber Alerts were issued.

 

No Amber Alert was issued for 13-year-old Stephanie Witten, 12-year-old Seth Witten and 10-year-old Michelle Witten after their parents reported them missing around 11 p.m. Wednesday. Topeka police Capt. Jerry Stanley said the search by multiple agencies remained confined late Thursday afternoon to the city limits.

He said nearly a dozen tips called into law enforcement matched the description of the three children — the two girls with waist-length hair and their brother with short, dark hair.

Authorities don’t believe foul play is involved based on interviews with the parents, he said.

“There are some background issues with the family, but it doesn’t lead to anything criminal,” Stanley said, declining to elaborate.

Stanley said the biggest concern was whether the three children were getting food and water in the intense heat.

“We don’t want them out there,” he said.

The children’s mother, Kathy Witten, told The Topeka Capital-Journal she left them home with her husband, William, on Wednesday evening while she ran an errand with the couple’s 2-year-old daughter and her mother. Witten said her husband, William, later left the three children home alone when he went to a gym to work out, and they were gone when the parents arrived back home.

The three children, who are biological siblings, were adopted by the Wittens in 2007.

Without going into detail, she said her oldest daughter had been involved in a similar incident about a year ago. But the younger two hadn’t gone missing before Wednesday night.

“I’m just not sure how she got the younger ones out,” Witten said. “We hadn’t been fighting. There were no blow-ups. Just normal, daily stuff.”

 

 

7:30 p.m. update Topeka Police have confirmed that the 3 missing children have been found and are safe. They were being examined, questioned and reunited with family.

 

(AP) – Law enforcement officers are looking for three missing Topeka children.

Topeka police say the 13-, 12- and 10-year-old children were reported missing late Wednesday from a home in West Topeka.

Police Lt. John Sturgeon says there is no early indication of foul play.

The missing are 13-year-old Stephanie Witten, 5-feet and 95 pounds with brown hair, wearing a white top and blue skirt; 12-year-old Seth Witten, 4-10 and 85 pounds with brown hair and wearing a red shirt and blue jeans; and 10-year-old Michelle Witten, 4-8 tall and 75 pounds with brown hair and a pink shirt.

The Kansas Highway Patrol worked a car-semi crash on K-61 northeast of Hutchinson Thursday morning.

Two elderly residents from Hutchinson were flown from the scene to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. They were identified as the driver of a Toyota as 86-year-old Marjory McReynolds and her passenger, 87-year-old Kenneth McReynolds.

Apparently, Marjory was entering K-61 highway at 56th Avenue heading southbound. A semi driven by 49-year-old Rodney Simmons also of Hutchinson was also southbound in the left lane and McReynolds apparently pulled into the left lane causing the crash between the two vehicles. She was apparently trying to make u-turn across the median.

The accident closed both lanes of the highway for a time while emergency personnel worked the scene, including allowing a Midwest Lifeteam helicopter to land.

 

(AP) — A Planned Parenthood clinic and its medical director are challenging parts of a new Kansas abortion law that takes effect next month.

The Overland Park clinic and Dr. Orrin Moore filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court.

They argue that new requirements spelling out the information that clinics and doctors must give patients before performing abortions violate their free-speech rights.

Planned Parenthood objects to a section of the law requiring its website to link to a state website containing what it says is the government’s viewpoint on abortion.

It also objects to a requirement that patients receive information that an abortion will terminate the life of what the new law calls a “whole, separate, unique, living human being.”

The lawsuit names four Kansas officials as defendants.

Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) was among the 62 conservative House Republicans who voted against final passage of the Farm Bill. It failed by a vote of 195-234. An hour earlier, by a vote of 175-250, the House did not pass Rep. Huelskamp’s amendment to reform the food stamp program. That legislation would (1) require able-bodied adults to work or participate in a work activation program; (2) eliminate the Agriculture Secretary’s authority to waive work requirements; and, (3) reduce spending by an additional $10 billion through the same cuts supported by Senator Pat Roberts and Senate Republicans. Rep. Huelskamp’s amendment was co-sponsored by half a dozen GOP Members including former Agriculture Committee Chairman Goodlatte and was supported by conservative organizations such as Heritage Action for America, Citizens Against Government Waste, and National Taxpayers Union.

Congressman Huelskamp made the following statement:

“While there were some strong, positive ag and rural policies in the bill, I could not vote for a bill that locks in the massive expansion of the food stamp program and spends nearly 80 cents of every dollar on food stamps. Food stamp spending has nearly tripled since 2002. Three months ago, nearly every Republican voted for the House Republican Budget that reduces the massive food stamp program by $135 billion. I could not vote for a bill that authorizes a reform of only $20 billion. That’s only 15% of the reduction the House Republican leadership promised. It speaks volumes that more House Republicans voted for my amendment to reform food stamps than voted for the farm bill. There’s a clear path to Farm Bill passage: we must target food stamps to those who need it and transform the program through work requirements. Put another way, I am confident there’s a bill that at least 218 House Republicans can and will support. I encourage the House GOP leadership to take advantage of the best opportunity in a generation to reform the biggest means-tested welfare program we have.”

White House-backed immigration legislation is gaining momentum in the Senate, where key lawmakers say they are closing in on a bipartisan compromise to
spend tens of billions of dollars stiffening the bill’s border security requirements without delaying legalization for millions living in the country unlawfully.

Under the emerging compromise, the government would grant legal status to some of those immigrants while the additional security was being installed. Green cards would be withheld until the security steps were complete.

Officials described a so-called border surge that envisions doubling the size of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents, construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing along the Mexican border and the purchase of new surveillance drones. The 10-year cost of the additional agents alone was put at $30 billion.

Late Wednesday, Mr. Mike Bergmeier, President of Shield Agricultural Equipment in Hutchinson, KS, testified before the House Small Business Committee at the invitation of Committee Member Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas). Mr. Bergmeier didn’t mince words when he explained ObamaCare’s impact: “Because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, my company will remain at 44 full time and 4 to 15 part time employees. Any benefit of the PPACA aside, this is the real issue. It hurts the people you are trying to help the most, folks in the lower and middle-income classes. Those 4 to 15 part time men and women will not have access to my health care insurance, and I won’t expand. As my company-paid, total health care insurance premiums increased by $45,000 a year, that is one person I cannot hire. It’s that simple.”

(AP) – A father-son duo from South Texas showed no handicap when they stepped up to a par-3 tee and each shot a hole-in-one on Father’s Day.

Lonnie Whitener, 57, told the Houston Chronicle that his 115-yard drive using a gap wedge on the sixth hole at River Pointe Golf Club in Richmond,TX struck the flag stick and dropped in the hole.

Then, up stepped 13-year-old Zach Whitener, whose shot from 100 yards using a 6-iron landed near the pin and gently rolled in.

The U.S. Golf Association does not keep records of holes-in-one, but the National Hole-in-One Registry says the chances of two players acing the same hole in the same round are one in 17 million.

Two groups of players witnessed the feat and joined the celebration.