A mother and 3 children were injured in a western Kansas car  accident on Monday According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, “A 2006 Dodge Charger driven by 38 year old Jennifer Gillum of Protection was west bound on US 160 along with a truck and trailer driven by 50 year old Joseph Edward Blundell of Kingfisher, Oklahoma.

The truck was slowing down to make a left turn onto county road 9 when the Charger struck the rear of the trailer. Gillum and three children ages 5, 11 and 12 were transported to the hospital in Coldwater. They were wearing seat belts. Blundell was not injured.”

3: 30 p.m. Update  (AP) — A Kansas Senate committee has approved Gov. Sam Brownback’s three new appointees to the state Board of Regents, but a Democratic

leader questioned whether one nominee can legally serve.

Monday’s decision by the Confirmation Oversight Committee means the three can serve on the board overseeing the state’s higher education system until the full Senate considers their appointments next year.

They are Shane Bangerter, of Dodge City; Helen Van Etten, of Topeka; and Ann Murguia, of Kansas City, Kan.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka, the only Democrat on the six-member Oversight Committee, questioned Bangerter’s appointment.

Kansas law says only five members of a political party can serve on the nine-member board, which already has five Republicans. Bangerter switched from the GOP to “no affiliation” in February.

 

5:00  A.M Monday  (AP) — A Kansas Senate committee is preparing to consider Gov. Sam Brownback’s appointments of three new members to the state Board of Regents. The Confirmation Oversight Committee planned to meet Monday to review the appointments of Daniel Bangerter, of Dodge City; Helen Van Etten, of Topeka; and Ann Brandau-Murguia, of Kansas City, Kan. The regents oversee the state’s higher education system.

The committee must approve the appointments for the three to serve as regents until the Legislature convenes its 2014 session in January.

Bangerter is an attorney and member of Dodge City Community College’s Board of Trustees.

Van Etten serves on the Republican National Committee and works for the Topeka school district.

Brandau-Murguia is commissioner for the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County.

(AP) — A Kansas company is seeking shipping commitments from oil producers to use a proposed pipeline that would carry crude from western North Dakota’s booming oil patch to Illinois.

Wichita-based Koch Pipeline Co. said Monday that oil shippers have until Aug. 14 to solicit interest in the Dakota Express Pipeline.

Koch says the pipeline could be running in 2016 and would have the capacity to move 250,000 barrels of crude daily from western North Dakota to hub in Patoka, Ill., and to the company’s terminal in Hartford, Ill.

The cost of the pipeline was not disclosed.

The company says it also is exploring a pipeline connection at the Patoka, Ill. hub that would further move North Dakota crude to Louisiana and the eastern Gulf Coast.

 

A weekend arrest at the Highland Hotel in conjunction with a case involving explosive devices in Great Bend.

According to the Great Bend Police Department, on Saturday at approximately 9:45 p.m., officers with the Police Department were dispatched to the 2200 Block of 18th Street in reference to an aggravated assault. Upon officer’s arrival on scene, it was discovered that the reporting party had just had a homemade explosive device thrown at him, which did not explode. The officers then began to interview the victim, as well as several witnesses, and the name and location of the suspect were discovered. 31-year-old suspect Jose Torres was located at the Highland Hotel in a room rented under another name, and was subsequently taken into custody, and two other devices were located in his room.

The Wichita Police Department Bomb Squad and ATF were contacted, and the hotel room was secured until the teams arrived to remove the devices and make them and the area safe. The case is still under investigation, and Lieutenant William Browne with GBPD is asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 620-792-1300. The Great Bend Fire Department and Kansas Highway Patrol also assisted at the scene.

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(AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court will hear arguments in the capital murder cases of two men on death row.

The high court said Monday that the justices will hear oral arguments Dec. 17 in the cases of brothers Jonathan Carr and Reginald Carr, who were sentenced to death in December 2002 after they kidnapped five people from a Wichita home in 2000 and fatally shot four of them. A fifth person also was shot but survived.

The Carrs also were convicted of murder in the death of a woman shot four days before the soccer field slayings.

The state Supreme Court overturned the state’s death penalty law in 2004. That ruling was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld Kansas’ capital punishment statute and returned the Carrs to death row.