GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — Garden City police say they do not suspect foul play in the death of a man whose body was found outside a convenience store.

KAKE-TV reports  the body of 47-year-old Armando Alcantara Miranda was found Wednesday outside a Presto store.

Police say Miranda had no known address and they are asking anyone who knew him to contact authorities.

A Presto employee told police the man had purchased cigarettes at the store Tuesday evening and then walked behind the building.

Customers found his body Wednesday morning.

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GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police in southwest Kansas are investigating the death of a man after customers found his body outside of a convenience store.

Garden City police tell KWCH-TV customers alerted Presto employees to the body on Wednesday. The employee tells officers the man had purchased cigarettes at the store on Tuesday evening. She says the man walked behind the building while she was taking out the trash.

Officers haven’t given a suspected cause of death and have ordered an autopsy.

The man’s identity hasn’t been released.

On Thursday, Graco voluntarily recalled several makes of its strollers after reports of finger amputations and lacerations caused by a malfunctioning hinge.

The folding hinge on the sides of the stroller can pinch a
child’s finger, posing a laceration or amputation hazard.

Customers with recalled products can verify if their stroller is being recalled  on the company’s website. 

Graco will then send a repair kit to customers including hinge covers to eliminate safety concerns.

The recall includes eleven Graco and Century-branded strollers with model names Aspen, Breeze, Capri, Cirrus, Glider, Kite,
LiteRider, Sierra, Solara, Sterling and TravelMate.

All models are a single-occupant stroller with an external sliding fold-lock hinge on each side and a one-hand fold release mechanism on the handle.

Strollers with a manufacture date from August 1, 2000 to September 25, 2014 are included in the recall. Model numbers and the date of manufacture are printed on the white label located at the bottom of the stroller leg just above the rear wheel.

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior House Republican says that it’s impossible to block President Barack Obama’s upcoming moves on immigration in a spending bill.

Congressman Harold Rogers of Kentucky is Appropriations Committee chairman. Rogers says the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency gets its money through application fees, so Congress can’t stop it by withholding funding in a spending bill.

A temporary government funding bill expires next month, and some conservative Republicans want to use a must-pass spending bill to block Obama on immigration. A similar effort last year to block the new health care law led to a 16-day government shutdown.

But next month’s spending bill could carry legislative language designed to thwart Obama on immigration.

DETROIT (AP) — The Honda Odyssey was the only minivan to earn the highest safety rating in new crash tests by the insurance industry.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says the Nissan Quest, Chrysler Town and Country, and Dodge Caravan all garnered the lowest rating on the small overlap front crash test. In each of those tests, the crash caused the minivan’s structure to collapse.

The small overlap test is a severe test that replicates what happens when a vehicle’s front corner collides with another object at 40 miles per hour.

The Toyota Sienna earned an “acceptable” rating. The group said its structure was weak but the dummy was protected by its side air bags.

IIHS plans to test one other minivan — the Kia Sedona — in the coming weeks.

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) – A Fort Carson soldier convicted of murder in the slaying of his soldier-
girlfriend is returning to a military courtroom for his sentencing hearing.

Sgt. Montrell Lamar Anderson Mayo faces a sentence of life in prison without parole at the hearing Thursday.

A military jury convicted Mayo of premeditated murder and assault on Wednesday in the death of 28-year-old Sgt. Kimberly Walker of Cincinnati. Walker was stationed at Fort Riley.

Prosecutors said Mayo hit Walker three times in the back of the head with a drinking glass and then suffocated her with a pillow on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

Defense lawyers acknowledged Mayo hit Walker but said it was in the heat of passion and that he didn’t mean to kill her.

Walker is from Greenville, South Carolina, and is stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say a 26-year-old man has been arrested in the assault of a woman who was sexually assaulted and set on fire at a park.

Interim Police Chief Nelson Mosley said Thursday investigators found the suspect through evidence obtained by forensic nurses at a Wichita hospital.

The man was booked Wednesday on suspicion of rape and attempted first-degree murder in the attack Friday night at Fairmount Park.

Investigators believe the suspect and the victim had a random encounter and she was assaulted a short time afterward.

Firefighters responding to a grass fire found the woman with severe burns over 55 percent of her body and cuts on her head.

Mosley says the 36-year-old woman remains in critical condition and police have been unable to speak to her.

 

MC PHERSON  — Authorities say an autopsy report shows that the death of a McPherson man found on a sidewalk in March was suicide.

The Regional Forensics Science Center in Wichita announced the findings in the death of Ernest Miller.

The report says the 26-year-old committed suicide by “asphyxia” and blunt trauma.

Miller was found the morning of March 27 after McPherson Police officers responded to the 400 block of West Woodside Street for a report of a body on the sidewalk. Miller was found with a bag over his head and a belt around his neck.

Rob McClarty of the McPherson Police Department says that after a thorough investigation including both forensics testing and over 60 interviews, there is no evidence to support any criminal charges.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Democrats are pushing a petition calling for the ouster of the Republican House speaker for saying government employees produce nothing, but they acknowledge the effort is mainly to draw attention to the Stilwell representative’s remarks.

Ray Merrick told The Wichita Eagle last weekend that government workers are net consumers whose employment amounts to a Democratic jobs plan that doesn’t stimulate the economy.

Merrick later issued a statement praising state employees.

Teachers, law enforcement officers, social service workers and court officials all are government workers. Overland Park Republican House member Stephanie Clayton told The Topeka Capital-Journal some constituents who are upset by the speaker’s comment.

Assistant House minority leader Tom Burroughs of Kansas City acknowledges that Democrats don’t have any influence on the choice of House speaker.

HIAWATHA – Two men from Hiawatha were granted a marriage license Monday by courthouse officials in Brown County, Kansas.

District Court Clerk Joy Moore confirms the two Hiawatha men applied for the license November 13. The license was issued on Monday, November 17. That was one day after the United States Supreme Court denied the state’s request to prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying.

There are court cases still pending on the issue. A federal judge has overturned Montana’s same-sex marriage ban this week. That brings the number of states to allow such unions to 34.

This is the first same-sex marriage license issued in Brown County, and in the 22nd Judicial District, which also includes Doniphan, Nemaha and Marshall counties.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas casino has unveiled plans to build a meeting center and equestrian center that will enable it to host large horse shows.

The Wichita Eagle reports the Kansas Star Casino announced the $20 million expansion project Wednesday. The meeting center will be 11,000 square feet and the equestrian center will have 183 permanent stalls.

Both facilities are set to open in December.

The casino moved into its permanent location in December 2012. It also has a 300-room hotel on its property and a 42,000-square-foot arena. That arena can already host rodeos. But arena director Tim Lanier says the new outdoor center will allow the casino to put on a wide variety of horse shows.