NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says now is the moment for police to make changes that build trust in minority communities.

The president on Monday announced findings of a policing task force he appointed in response to the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Obama says the shooting in Ferguson and another in New York City exposed “deep rooted frustration” in communities of color. Obama says the task force found that police must improve trust with their communities.

He says the report recommends more police training to reduce possibilities for bias. And he says it suggests more data collection on the frequency of police interactions.

Obama spoke from the White House during a meeting with members of the task force.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are shifting their focus to building the next state budget now that their annual session has cleared its midpoint.

The Republican-dominated Legislature began March needing to erase a projected shortfall of nearly $600 million in the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

They also must decide whether they’ll backtrack on personal income tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013 at GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging to stimulate the economy. They could pursue other revenue-raising ideas.

House and Senate committees already have been reviewing Brownback’s budget proposals.

But March is when a full spending blueprint for the next fiscal year and another for the fiscal year beginning in July 2016 are supposed to come together.

Legislators hit the 45th day of their 90-day session last week.

MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The construction sector is making a rebound after losing more than 2 million jobs during the economic downturn.

In the past four years, hundreds of thousands of workers have returned to construction, making it among the nation’s fastest growing job sectors.

Some markets lack enough construction workers to keep up with the pace of building. Four out of five contractors in a recent survey say they’re having trouble filling positions such as carpenters, roofers and equipment operators.

Wages are going up in some hot construction markets such as North Dakota, Utah, Houston and Miami.

In some places, construction workers are getting signing bonuses of $5,000 to $10,000.

FREDONIA – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 11 a.m. on Monday in Wilson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Toyota Tacoma driven by Logan Garrett Vaughn, 22, Fredonia, was eastbound on County Road 1400 five miles northeast of Fredonia.

The vehicle left the right side of the road and the driver lost control.

The vehicle traveled across the roadway, exited the left side of the road and hit a tree.

Vaughn was transported to the Fredonia Hospital.
The KHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Kansas say a woman has died after falling through ice on a pond while trying to retrieve her dog.

Wichita police Sgt. John Ryan said divers recovered the woman’s body from the pond in park on the city’s northeast side on Sunday.

She was identified Monday as 28-year-old Erika Owen.

Police say Owen was walking her dog when it spotted another dog and ran across the pond. She went out onto the ice after her dog. The dog fell through and also did not survive.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A 15-year-old central Kansas boy ordered to stand trial as an adult in the fire-related deaths of his mother and sister has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

KWCH-TV of Hutchinson reports that Buhler High School student Sam Vonachen was arraigned Monday in Reno County on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder.

Vonachen also is charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder of his father, and of aggravated arson.

Authorities allege Vonachen used gasoline to ignite his family’s two-story Hutchinson home in September 2013, killing 11-year-old sister Audrey Vonachen and their mother, 47-year-old Karla Jo Vonachen.

Prosecutors have played investigators’ recorded interview of Samuel Vonachen. He told authorities that people are “awful” and he set the fire to send his family a message.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Weather officials in Kansas are worried that the state’s lack of tornados last year will make citizens complacent going into tornado season this spring.

The Wichita Eagle  reports that officials are urging residents to not have a false sense of security since the state saw only 40 tornados last year. Kansas has averaged 100 tornados a year for the last decade and 80 tornados per year over the last 30 years.

AccuWeather vice president Mike Smith said at a storm chaser convention in Denver that he sees troubling similarities between this winter’s weather and 2011, which produced an outbreak of tornados in the Deep South, including the one that hit Joplin, Mo.

Nationwide, the number of tornados dropped 30 percent last year from 1,253 to 888, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Koch Industries Inc. will donate $2.6 million to Kansas State University.

The university announced in a news release Monday that the funds will support diversity initiatives, research and creative inquiry.

Koch has sponsored Project IMPACT at the university for eight years, and the latest gift renews that support and directs new money to other projects. Project IMPACT recruits and retains multicultural students, and develops their interest in business, engineering and diversity.

The new gift will also support the Kompass program, an orientation and first-year retention program providing incoming multicultural and first-generation students effective study habits.

Koch also will help sponsor the Research and Creative Inquiry Enrichment Fund, which gives students real-world learning experiences, and supports faculty-led and undergraduate research projects and an annual Research Symposium.