ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Officials in a south-central Kansas community expect a petroleum company to begin drilling for oil on city land sometime soon.

The Arkansas City Traveler reports the City Commission approved a conditional-use permit this week for exploration and extraction of oil on two parcels zoned for agricultural use.

The permit will allow Gulf Exploration LLC to conduct vertical drilling only, for a proposed single well. Any wastewater produced by the drilling will have to be hauled to a disposal facility.

A representative of Gulf Exploration says the drilling will take six days. The company’s trucks are expected to begin arriving Monday.

Arkansas City will be paid for use of the land and receive about 25 percent of any profits derived from the drilling.

 

SALINA- During the month of October, the Salina Police Department and the Salina Fire Department have noticed a significant increase in the incidents requiring medical assistance due to the side effects from using synthetic cannabinoids commonly known as “Potpourri” or “Spice”

During October, Salina EMS responded to 15 calls for service which involved the smoking of potpourri. The patients had various symptoms that ranged from being unresponsive to paranoid and combative. The EMS units also reported some patients having convulsions, loss of body functions, nausea, vomiting, and high anxiety. The age of the patients ranged from teens to those in their fifties. The majority or the patients reported to the EMS crews they had smoked very little potpourri. A majority of the patients also were taken to the hospital for treatment.

Salina Police and Salina Fire want to warn residents about the hazards of potpourri. Based on the recent incidents involving potpourri, necessitating a medical response , it appears the potpourri being sold on the streets of Salina is extremely potent.

Some of the common effects of potpourri are:

Loss of body functions, inability to feel pain, pale skin, heart palpitations, nervousness, nausea, tremors, dilated pupils, flushing, elevated body temperature, high blood pressure, paranoia, depression, restlessness, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic episodes, and seizures.

The School Resource Officers at Central and South High Schools have given presentations to the students about potpourri and the dangers of smoking it.

Officers of the Salina Police Department, Saline County Sheriff’s Office, and Agents of the Drug Task Force are working to identify the supplier(s) and distributors of potpourri to Salina residents. Any with information about potpourri or any other illegal narcotics are ask to call the Salina Police Department at 785-826-7210, the Saline County Sheriff’s Office at 785-826-6500, or Crimestoppers at 785-825-TIPS. Information can also be given through both departments websites.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Abortion opponents are claiming some credit for victories in Kansas by Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback.

Leaders of the state Republican and Democratic parties said Thursday that their mailings, fliers and phone calls were a factor in the election’s outcome.

The anti-abortion group Kansans for Life says it sent about 640,000 mailings to households across during the general election campaign. Executive director Mary Kay Culp said the group also made about the same number of phone calls to get anti-abortion voters to the polls.

Both independent Senate candidate Greg Orman and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis support abortion rights. Their contests with Roberts and Brownback were close going into Tuesday’s election.

But abortion-rights supporters said races did not turn on that issue.

 

St. Joseph Post

ATCHISON- Two people have been arrested in connection with burglaries across more than three counties in Northeast Kansas.

Atchison County Under Sheriff Joe Butner said Steven Thornington, 23, and Brenda Wilson, 38, both of Leavenworth were arrested just before 8 a.m. Wednesday.

They are being held in connection with burglaries in Atchison, Doniphan, and Leavenworth counties.

Butner said they might have also burglarized homes in Brown County.

The Atchison County Sheriffs office received a call of suspicious activity involving a vehicle Tuesday night near Labette and 318th Road.

After a chase and search involving the Kansas Highway Patrol and search dogs, deputies arrested the suspects Wednesday morning. They hid in a cornfield overnight, Butner said.

Thornington and Wilson both have a criminal history.
Charges in connection with the burglaries are pending.

 KANSAS CITY-A Kansas man died in an accident just before 7 a.m. on Thursday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 Dodge SUV driven by Gregory P. Sifferman, 51, Leavenworth, swerved off the roadway and struck the bridge pillar for Northbound Interstate 435 at Johnson Drive.

Sifferman was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics.

The KHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors say they might seek the death penalty against a woman accused with three others of killing a Kansas couple last year.

The Wichita Eagle reports 36-year-old Kisha Schaberg was arraigned Wednesday in Sedgwick County District Court, where District Attorney Marc Bennett announced he wanted the option of seeking her execution if she’s convicted.

Schaberg, her son, 19-year-old Anthony Bluml, and two of his friends are charged with capital murder in the Nov. 15, 2013, deaths of Anthony Bluml’s adoptive parents.

Roger and Melissa Bluml were shot in the head as they sat in their car outside their rural Valley Center home. One of the suspects has testified the shootings were part of a plot to gain life insurance, and because of resentment for the couple.

Experts are warning about the threat of a new virus that can effect iPhones connected to Mac computers.

Read more HERE.

By Jay Hancock
Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Moving to close what many see as a major loophole in Affordable Care Act rules, the Obama administration will ban large-employer medical plans from qualifying under the law if they don’t offer hospitalization coverage.

The administration intends to disallow plans that “fail to provide substantial coverage for in-patient hospitalization services or for physician services,” the Treasury Department said in a notice Tuesday morning. It will issue final regulations banning such insurance next year, it said.

Hundreds of lower-wage employers such as retailers and temporary-staffing companies have been preparing to offer such plans for 2015, the first year large companies are liable for fines if they don’t provide minimum coverage. Some have enrolled workers for insurance beginning Oct. 1.

For employers that have committed as of Nov.4 to such coverage, the administration will temporarily allow it under the health reform law, the notice said.

As reported by Kaiser Health News in September, an online calculator published by the Department of Health and Human Services allows large-employer coverage to pass the law’s “minimum-value” standard even if it doesn’t include inpatient benefits. Many see the calculator as flawed.

For employees enrolled in such plans, the disadvantage is double, say consumer advocates. The employees not only lack hospital coverage: If they are offered insurance passing the minimum-value standard at work, they are barred from receiving federal subsidies to buy better coverage through online marketplaces.

The administration said in Tuesday’s bulletin that it intends to fix that problem, too. Final regulations will say that “in no event” will workers offered such coverage be disqualified from subsidies, the notice said.

The administration had signaled last month it would move to disallow plans without hospital benefits from passing the minimum-value test. Large employers that fail to offer minimum-value coverage next year could be fined up to $3,120 per worker.

Jay Hancock is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A long-term research project at the Konza Prairie will continue for at least six more years.

Kansas State University announced Thursday that the school’s Konza Prairie Biological Station has received a $6.76 million grant renewal from the National Science Foundation. It is the seventh consecutive renewal of the grant since 1980, bringing the total funding for the research to $29 million.

The Konza Prairie research station is jointly owned by Kansas State and The Nature Conservancy and managed by the university’s Division of Biology.

The university says the 8,600-acre native tallgrass prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.

Projects at Konza Prairie include research on grassland responses to fire and grazing, woody plant encroachment, climate change and nutrient enrichment.

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A 27-year-old suspect in a Kansas homicide has been detained in Mexico, where police say he fled after the killing.

Police said efforts are underway to extradite Gabino Ruiz-Ascencio to the U.S. for questioning in the April 2013 death of 25-year-old Adrian Peralta in Emporia.

Police said Wednesday that Ruiz-Ascencio was arrested in Zacapu, in the state of Michoacan, on minor charges and computer checks showed an arrest warrant from Emporia. Details of the arrest and when it occurred were not available.

Peralta and 22-year-old Michael Koy were shot at their home April 13, 2013. Koy survived, while Peralta died five days later.

Emporia police say the shootings apparently were drug and gang related.

Ruiz-Ascencio does not yet have an attorney.