TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Topeka City Council is set to consider a ban on nudity in public places after a nude man strolled down city streets last week.
Councilwoman Michelle De La Isla requested the proposal be placed on the Sept. 9 agenda.
The Topeka Police Department and the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Department say the act is legal. State law only prohibits public nudity “in the context of sexual arousal.”
De La Isla says she received calls from worried constituents. She says no one wants their kids “exposed to naked people.”
The council last considered a public nudity ban in 2005. That proposal wasn’t seconded and died without a vote.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas authorities have fatally shot an escaped elk inside Wichita city limits after it eluded officers for hours.
A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper killed the female elk on Monday afternoon after it and two others escaped from a farm that morning. Authorities tried but failed to hit the animal with a tranquilizer dart. They say they shot it to keep it from running into a busy intersection.
The animal traveled about 5 miles through city streets and residents’ backyards before it was shot.
Its owner tells KWCH-TV he planned to butcher the elk at the end of the year. He says they likely broke through the fence after being spooked by dove hunters.
Scattered thunderstorms may redevelop late this afternoon mainly southeast of a Stafford to Coldwater line. A warming trend will then follow for Wednesday and Thursday before a cold front provides relief for Friday and Saturday along with additional thunderstorm chances.
Today Sunny, with a high near 87. Light east northeast wind becoming east 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Tonight Mostly clear, with a low around 67. East southeast wind 8 to 11 mph. Wednesday Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Breezy, with a south wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Wednesday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 73. Breezy, with a south wind 16 to 20 mph. Thursday Sunny, with a high near 96. South southwest wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Thursday Night A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 65. Friday A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 71.
MERIDEN, Kan.- A teenage driver was injured in an accident just after 3 p.m. on Labor Day in Jefferson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2009 Dodge Ram driven by Ruth Anne Streeter, 59, Valley Falls, was northbound on Kansas 4 seven miles north of Meriden.
The vehicle went left of center and struck southbound 2002 Buick LeSabre driven by Erin N. Kelley, 19, Rushville, Mo.
Kelley was transported to Stormont Vail. Streeter was not injured.
The KHP reported both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Manufacturing companies in Kansas and Missouri say there are plenty of high-paying jobs available for people qualified to run sophisticated factory equipment, but there doesn’t seem to be enough local talent to fill them.
Industry leaders in both states say many job applicants lack even basic reading, writing and math skills necessary to perform required tasks.
The Kansas City Star reports larger manufacturers are able to afford up to $10,000 per worker for training, but that’s more of a challenge for smaller companies.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said in its August manufacturing survey that regional manufacturing companies have been expanding production for eight straight months.
Several manufacturers with openings in the Kansas City area say their vacant positions would pay between $14 and $25 an hour.
JUNCTION CITY- Seven people were injured in an accident just before 12-noon on Labor Day in Geary County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Dodge Caravan driven by Kristen E. Barnes, 33, Granite City, IL., was traveling eastbound on Interstate 70 just east of Junction City.
The van was slowing for a wide load ahead. A 2005 Mazda driven by Jovan Q. Toles, 19, Junction City, came up on the van and struck it in the rear passenger side causing it to spin out of control. The Mazda slid to a stop on the south shoulder.
Toles, Barnes and passengers in the van Rita S. Hearn, 54, and four children were transported to Geary Community Hospital. A seventh passenger in the van Shawn M. Barnes, 35, was not injured.
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Reports from the Kansas Department for Children and Families show that more children in the state are removed from their homes and placed in foster care because of concerns about parents’ drug and alcohol abuse than for any other primary reason — including physical abuse, neglect and sexual abuse.
The agency says mental illness often plays a parallel role in those cases as people with mood or anxiety disorders are more likely to self-medicate.
The Wichita Eagle reports nearly 750 Kansas children were removed from their homes because of concerns about their parents’ substance abuse in fiscal year 2014, which ended June 30. Of those, 93 were from Sedgwick County.
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A 71-year-old central Kansas man has been identified as the person killed in a shootout with Kansas Highway Patrol troopers and Barton County deputies over the weekend.
Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir on Monday identified the man as George Carson of rural Barton County. He was wounded during an exchange of gunfire with officers who had responded at 6:39 p.m. Saturday to a domestic battery call in which shots were fired.
Bellendir says Carson was taken to a hospital in Hoisington, where he died of his wounds. No law enforcement officers were injured in the shooting.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita motel employee who was cleaning rooms found a device with wires and a pair of tubes that were made to look like sticks of dynamite, but it turned out to be a novelty item.
The Wichita Eagle reports 30 people were evacuated from the Mark 8 Inn shortly after the employee reported the item at 11:30 a.m. Monday.
Police Sgt. Ed Brower says the occupant of the room told police it was a novelty, but investigators had to verify that claim for themselves.
The bomb squad took X-rays of the device and determined it was harmless.
KANSAS CITY- A woman was injured in an accident just before 11 a.m. on Monday in Wyandotte County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Honda driven by Sharon Louise Welsh, 64, Julian, PA., was westbound on Interstate 70 just east of 86th Street in Kansas City.
The vehicle swerved to the left, hit the concrete median, went across all lanes of traffic, and struck the ditch on the north side of the highway.
Welsh was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. The KHP reported she properly restrained at the time of the accident.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence police say it could take a while to identify the badly decomposed body of a man who was found in a city park.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports a couple from out of town reported seeing a body lying face-down in shallow water west of Vermont Street bridge on Sunday.
Police Sgt. Craig Shanks says because of the condition of the body, it likely will be some time before a positive ID and cause of death are determined.
Suzanne Conley says she and her boyfriend discovered the body during a holiday weekend visit to Lawrence, where she attended the University of Kansas in the late 1980s.
Police are awaiting the results of an autopsy by the Douglas County Coroner’s Office.
Today’s hot topic is: college costs too much! Much anger is focused on public university tuition that has risen faster than health care costs. It might seem that, similar to the medical establishment, higher public education can charge as much tuition as they want and nobody can do anything about it.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
So what are the major causes of exorbitant tuition? Legislatures. Visionaries. And student customers.
State legislatures have switched from viewing education as a public good to a private good. Some states cut all higher education funding. When the 2007 recession dramatically trimmed many states’ tax revenues, their “public” universities were unaffected. They had already moved to “state in name only” and student tuition was underwriting all of the costs.
The second guilty parties are the national and state “visionaries” that insist that everyone is college-able. From President Obama and Governor Brownback wanting 60 percent of citizens to have higher education degrees, to the Kansas Board of Regents insisting on growth in retention and graduation, the myth that everyone should go to college is printed on banners hanging in many high school hallways.
In the mid-1980s, 42 percent of the Kansas high school graduates went on to higher education. Today, twice that percent enter post-secondary schools. Most do not finish. Nationwide, about three-fourths of students who enter the private elite schools graduate, half who enter public universities graduate, and only one-fourth of those who enter community college graduate.
So even if the state legislatures supported higher education as a public, not private, good, there would be twice as many students to subsidize. Figures confirm this: in the 1980s the state provided two dollars for each one dollar the student paid in tuition. Today the state pays 92 cents in instructional costs for each dollar the student pays. Every non-college-able student in college draws money away from the college able. And now, KBOR pressure to grow and retain and graduate merely pushes public universities to inflate grades and de-value degrees.
But there is a third major factor contributing to the inflation in college costs: competition.
A feature article in the August 1 Chronicle of Higher Education describes the growing competition to attract students by campus beautification. The title says it all: “Spending Shifts as Colleges Compete on Students’ Comfort.” Substantial amounts of money are going into remodeling classrooms and student unions and dormitories that were perfectly functional. Spending on these “student services” is going up faster than spending on instruction.
The problem is simple: you can’t spend your educational dollars twice. Any commonsense Kansas farmer knows that having that reliable and productive green-and-yellow tractor working behind the house is more important than having a nice brink entrance to the front driveway. But college presidents are not Kansas farmers.
Many universities are shifting money to housing frills and expensive renovations of the campus and grounds to the detriment of the teaching force. “Instructional technology” using the latest fad equipment is obsolete in a few years, becoming another money pit. Higher administrators feel that it is more important to look teckie than to actually provide professors with the facilities that they request.
Where teckie gadgets are required, it drives up student costs and distances students from the remaining good faculty. Every dollar spent on “campus enhancements” is a dollar diverted from academics. Low salaries for new faculty then fail to recruit the best academics. More and more faculty are hired who are adjuncts. Fewer professor doors are open between classes.
It becomes a paradox: students are paying more but getting “cheaper” faculty, “cheaper” courses, and “cheaper” degrees.
Public universities are “lookin’ purty” and delivering less for more.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire police say a motorcyclist clocked at 127 mph bragged after being arrested that he had reached 185 mph during the chase.
State police say 31-year-old David J. Fries, Manchester, N.H., was spotted by a trooper on Interstate 93 in Bow at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday.
The first trooper eventually ended the chase, but another trooper saw Fries crash into a guardrail after he exited Interstate 393.
Police say Fries then led officers on an hourlong foot chase in Concord. He was subdued with help from a police dog.
Fries was treated for injuries from the crash and from the dog.
He faces a variety of charges and is being held on $30,000 bail.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Topeka City Council is set to consider a ban on nudity in public places after a nude man strolled down city streets last week.
