MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Two temporary exhibits are scheduled to open at a Manhattan heritage and science center.

Visitors to the Flint Hills Discovery Center can access the new attractions starting on Friday.

An exhibit titled “Flint Hills FORCES II” explores the time period between 1917 and 1963 when the city, Fort Riley and Kansas State University intertwined to become one community. Visitors can learn about World War I trench warfare, the Great Depression and the Roaring ’20s. It will run until February.

A center manager tells WIBW-TV the showcases provide access to items that have been kept behind closed doors.

A children’s exhibit titled “Animal Secrets” will be housed until Jan. 14. Viewers can learn where chipmunks sleep or what an eagle feeds its young.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita city officials are warning pet owners that three rabid skunks were found in the eastern part of the city.

Officials announced Wednesday that the skunks came into contact with people’s pets during separate incidents. They say some dogs have been placed under home quarantines for observation, which is the state protocol for possible exposure to rabid animals.

Officials also encourage residents to vaccinate their animals, keep pets on a leash and stay away from wild animals.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback has named Coffey County’s prosecutor to an open judge’s position on the district court for four east-central Kansas counties.

Brownback announced the appointment of Douglas Witteman on Wednesday.

Witteman, from LeRoy, is the Coffey County attorney. He will replace Franklin County District Judge Thomas Sachse, who retired in May after 23 years on the bench in the 4th Judicial District, which also includes Anderson and Osage counties.

A district nominating committee picked Witteman and Brandon Jones as finalists from among four applicants. Jones serves as county attorney in Anderson and Osage counties.

Brownback said in a statement that Witteman’s depth of legal knowledge will be an asset to the court. Witteman received his law degree from Washburn University of Topeka in 1991.

THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain is in Kansas praising three-term Sen. Pat Roberts as “a steady hand” and calling Roberts’ independent opponent a Democrat in disguise.

At a rally Wednesday in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee fired up the crowd of Roberts supporters.

Roberts has called Orman, a businessman from Olathe who has run as a Democrat and made contributions to Democratic candidates, a vote for Senate Democrats, should he win.

McCain repeating those criticisms, saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it might be a duck!”

Orman’s campaign called the critique “desperate.”

McCain is scheduled to headline a Roberts fundraiser in Olathe on Thursday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An online auction of sex toys that were seized by Kansas authorities in a tax delinquency case could boost the state’s revenues.

State Revenue Department spokeswoman Jeanine Koranda said Wednesday the agency seized items in July from five adult stores operated by United Outlets LLC under the name Bang. Two were in Topeka and one each in Kansas City, Kansas; Junction City, and Wichita.

They were seized for failure to pay sales, income and withholding taxes of $163,986.

Koranda said the assets were released back to the owner, so that he could auction the property to raise money to pay off the tax debt.

The auction is on equip-bid.com. The owner of United Outlets is Larry H. Minkoff of Prairie Village. He didn’t have a listed phone number.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has received an endorsement from one of his predecessors in his bid for a second term.

Republican Bob Stephan served as attorney general from 1979 through 1995. He now chairs the Attorney General’s Senior Consumer Protection Advisory Council.

Schmidt was unopposed in last month’s Republican primary. He faces Democrat and Topeka lawyer A.J. Kotich in November’s general election.

Stephan announced his backing of Schmidt on Wednesday, saying the incumbent has championed new laws to protect consumers against identity theft. Stephan also said Schmidt has acted to toughen penalties against those who commit financial and physical abuse of older Kansans.

LYNDON, Kan- A Kansas man died in an accident just before 7 a.m. on Wednesday in Osage County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1994 Mazda truck driven by Bryan Lee Turpin, 34, Emporia, was northbound on U.S. 75 three miles north of Lyndon and began to fishtail.

The vehicle went into on coming traffic and was struck in the passenger side by a 2005 Ford Econoline driven by James William Nutt, 52, Topeka.

A passenger in the Mazda Brian Warren Bender, 27, Waverly, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics.

Turpin was transported to Stormont Vail. Nutt was not injured.

The KHP reported Bender and Turpin were not wearing seat belts.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Some Kansas officials are questioning whether a state law meant to exempt school districts from some education regulations is just another layer of red tape.

A 2013 Kansas law allows school districts to be excluded from certain rules involving public education if they present plans to improve student achievement. The Coalition of Innovative School Districts met Tuesday.

The Salina Journal reports coalition members discussed how districts should notify the group and government agencies of regulations they wanted to be exempted from.

But some members questioned whether the law meant to give a blanket exemption to any district, or whether each exemption needed separate approval.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man and woman have been charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl over the weekend in Topeka.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 28-year-old Jeremy Lindsey and 23-year-old Michelle Harris were charged with the attack Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court. The two are jailed on $1 million bond.

The Shawnee County court website listed Lindsey’s attorney as Joseph Huerter, but a woman at his law firm said the case hadn’t yet been formally assigned to Huerter. Harris’ attorney in the Shawnee County public defender’s office didn’t immediately return a phone call.

The girl was missing for nearly six hours when she was found Saturday afternoon walking along a road about two miles away from her home. About 50 people participated in the search.