WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The suspect in the death of a 25-year-old Steckline Communications employee has been moved from a hospital and booked into the Sedgwick county jail.

The Wichita Eagle reports a 31-year-old identified in a police report as the suspect in Daniel Flores’ death was booked into jail Friday night on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated burglary.

Flores’ body was found around 8 a.m. Monday in a basement area of the Steckline offices. Preliminary autopsy reports indicate he died of blunt-force injuries.

Police arrested the suspect late Wednesday during a traffic stop, when an officer found him with a knife stuck in his stomach. Officers had been watching the suspect’s home before the traffic stop.

Officials said Friday that police plan to present their case to prosecutors next week.

MARQUETTE (AP) — Officials of a central Kansas school district say they had no choice but to close a small town’s last remaining school, but that’s little comfort to residents who believe their community is losing a way of life.

The Salina Journal reports more than 200 unhappy residents of Marquette packed a recent meeting where the Smoky Valley School Board voted to close Marquette Elementary School at the end of the academic year.

The school has 67 pupils in kindergarten through third grade and grades five and six. Its fourth-graders were moved to a school in Lindsborg at the start of the year.

Smoky Valley officials expect to save $400,000 by sending Marquette’s pupils elsewhere in the district. But many unhappy parents say they’ll send their children to a different district altogether.

TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas State Board of Education officials are considering making changes to how teachers in Kansas are licensed in effort to meet a growing demand for technical education courses at high schools.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported the board discussed the changes during a meeting Thursday in response to a growing demand for courses resulting from new programs and funding for technical and career education enacted since 2011.

A representative of the Kansas National Education Association raised concerns during the meeting that the licensing changes could lead to teachers who lack the necessary instructional skills to adequately educate students.

Board members say they have wanted to review the licensing process for years and the increased scarcity of technical and career education teachers is prompting a closer look.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A cash-strapped therapeutic horse riding center in Wichita plans to close next month,

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Flint Hills Therapeutic Riding Center has been unable to replace funding lost when its main corporate sponsor, Boeing, left town. It has also now lost its Medicaid insurance.

The 14-year-old horse therapy center in southeast Wichita says it is about $50,000 a year short of the money needed to stay open.

It says fundraising efforts launched in September brought in some small donors and a lot of volunteers.

Each therapy session costs the center an estimated $125. The center says it can’t charge families more than $35 per session because many of them already face huge medical bills.

By KAITLYN KLEIN
KU Statehouse Wire Service

Anna Purduski, a Topeka High School junior, worries that she won’t be able to graduate. She has been working with her high school counselor but not to improve her grades. Instead, she’s trying to obtain her records from freshman and sophomore year.

If the Kansas City, Kan., private school Purduski transferred from doesn’t release her records, her senior year would look substantially different. She could be forced to retake freshmen-level classes while her peers are taking college-prep courses.

“It’s really affecting my life because I really want to go to college,” Purduski said.

A bill introduced to the Senate Education Committee on Thursday could solve that problem for Purduski and other transfer students.

Purduski’s story prompted Senator Vicki Schmidt (R-Topeka) to introduce SB373, which would extend a law mandating public schools release records upon a student or parent’s request to all Kansas schools, including private and charter schools.

Schmidt emphasized that school records are the property of the student when transferring from a public school, but the state law does not cover private schools.

Greg Fallon, Purduski’s counselor at Topeka High, spoke in favor of the bill at Thursday’s hearing. He said although this issue is uncommon in his experience, it is a serious issue for students who are unable to obtain records.

According to Purduski, her former high school is withholding records because of tuition owed.

“I support a private school’s efforts to collect fees owed by parents, however a student’s education and future should not be held hostage as a negotiating tool,” Fallon said in his written testimony.

Schmidt compared it to a patient transferring to another doctor whose medical records would be transferred regardless of whether the patient owed money or not.

Mark Tallman, associate executive director of the Kansas Associate of School Boards, also spoke in favor of the bill.

“Prompt transfer of student records is important to providing placement and services to a student when transferring to the new school,” Tallman said in his written testimony.

The committee will address the bill again this week.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery officials say there was no jackpot winner in Saturday’s Powerball drawing, adding the current estimated jackpot has jumped to $400 million or $227.8 million in cash value.

Powerball said the next drawing will be Wednesday, Feb. 19. It added in a statement that the previous estimated jackpot total was an annuitized $330.8 million, or $188.4 million as a cash option.

Powerball is played in 43 states (including Kansas), Washington and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of matching all six numbers in the game are 1 in about 175 million, according to statistics pf the nonprofit Multi-State Lottery Association whose members offer one or more of the association’s games.