WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man is going to prison for more than three years for abusing and battering his 3-month-old son.

The Wichita Eagle reports  a Sedgwick County judge on Tuesday sentenced Aaron Piland to three years and five months for aggravated battery, plus 32 months for child abuse. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Piland pleaded guilty in May.

He and the baby’s 28-year-old mother, Christina Schulte, were arrested after the mother took the baby to an emergency room in January claiming he became unresponsive after a bath. Doctors found internal injuries and alerted authorities.

Schulte is also charged in the case, but court records show she failed to appear for her jury trial June 30. She’s being sought on a warrant with a $275,000 bond.

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The government has asked a federal judge to dismiss as moot the last remaining claim in a lawsuit filed by an Oklahoma tribe seeking to build a casino on suburban Wichita land.

The Interior Department officially notified the court Tuesday that it rejected the Wyandotte Nation’s application to take the land into trust so the tribe can build a casino on it.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson refused last year to order the agency to accept the Park City land into trust. She left the decision on whether to grant the request to the Interior Department. But the court also retained jurisdiction to ensure the agency processed the tribe’s application in a timely manner.

The government now wants the court to dismiss the lawsuit’s remaining claim of unreasonable delay.

By KHI NEWS SERVICE
KHI News Service

WICHITA — Mentally ill Kansas adults smoke at double the rate of the general population and have more trouble quitting, according to a report released today by the Kansas Health Foundation
“Studies show that most smokers want to quit. Smokers with mental illness make more quit attempts and have lower success in quitting compared to people without mental illness,” said Steve Coen, the health foundation’s chief executive officer.

According to the report, nearly half of Kansas adults who experienced serious mental illness in the past 30 days are smokers.

The foundation funded the report, which was done by RTI International.

Among other findings in the report:

In 2012, 10.2 percent of Kansas adults reported experiencing mental illness and 3.4 percent reported serious mental illness.
Mental illness is significantly associated with poor physical health, including health problems exacerbated by smoking.
Youth who reported mental illness were more than twice as likely to be smokers as youth without mental illness.
Foundation officials said they were launching a new effort through the foundation’s fellows leadership program to address tobacco use among the mentally ill.

“Through the years we’ve seen significant decreases in the percentage of Americans who smoke, but we’ve done very little to make strides in decreasing those rates among people with mental illness,” said Jeff Willett, vice president for programs at the foundation. “We see this collaborative effort being a call to action to both the mental health and tobacco control communities.”

The health foundation is the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute, which is the parent organization of KHI News Service.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A national gun control group is preparing to release the details of its legal challenge against a Kansas law declaring that the federal government has no authority to regulate guns manufactured, sold and kept only in the state.

The Washington-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence had promised it would file a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the state law.

The Kansas law was enacted in 2013 and makes it a felony for any U.S. government employee to attempt to enforce a federal regulation or treaty when it comes to Kansas-only firearms, ammunition or accessories.

A similar law enacted in 2009 in Montana was struck down by the federal courts.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is promising a vigorous defense of his state’s law.

 

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Most of the new dollars being sought for Kansas public schools by the State Board of Education over the next two years would go toward boosting their base aid and funding for special education programs.

The board approved proposals Tuesday to phase in a $459 million increase in state funding, starting in July 2015. Base aid and special education account for $409 million.

School districts’ base state aid would rise to $4,200 per student for 2015-2016. The current figure is $3,852.

The figure would jump to $4,300 for 2016-2017.

Meanwhile, the state would cover 85 percent of the additional costs faced by schools in their special education programs for 2015-2016. The current figure is 80 percent.

For 2016-17, the figure would rise to 92 percent.

 

 

CONCORDIA-  Two people were injured in crash just after 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Mitchell County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 GMC pickup driven by Leigh R. Revell, 53, Concordia, was eastbound on U.S. 24 two miles west of Beloit.

The vehicle crossed the centerline and struck a 2014 Ford pickup on the driver’s side.

Revell was transported to Mitchell County Hospital

The KHP reported the driver of the Ford David C. Rosenthal, 66, Holdrege NE., was injured but does not indicate if he was transported for treatment. A passenger in the Ford was not injured.

The KHP reported the occupants in the Ford were properly restrained at the time of the accident. The KHP was not certain if Revell was wearing a seat belt.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Officials at Topeka-based CoreFirst Bank say thousands of customers have been affected by a disruption in its computer-based applications.

KSNT-TV reports a cut in an AT&T fiber-optic line late Tuesday morning affected ATM services, credit and debit card transactions, mobile applications and the bank’s website.

CoreFirst president Kurt Kuta said the disruption left the bank working off account balances as of Monday’s close of business. Deposits and other transactions made after the cut occurred were being recorded in one part of the bank’s computer server, but did not show up for customers.

The disruption affected all CoreFirst branches in the Topeka area and in Manhattan, Johnson County and Emporia, Kansas, as well as Denver, Colorado.

Kuta says no customers have lost any money. It’s uncertain when the line will be repaired.