PLEASANTON, Kan. (AP) — Federal officials say last month’s deadly crash of a small plane happened soon after the kit-built aircraft took off from a private east-central Kansas airstrip.

The Kansas City Star reports that the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report Friday. The March 31 crash killed 67-year-old Herbert Lewis Siegel of Stillwell, who was flying the plane, and 57-year-old Brian Clark Decker of Independence, Missouri.

The report said the 2006 Zodiac CH 601 XL was barely airborne when it drifted off an extended runway. The two-seat airplane then collided with some trees and burst into flames about two miles northwest of Pleasanton.

Two witnesses told investigators they saw the airplane lift off with its nose unusually high and that they were unsure whether the craft’s tail struck the ground.

HUTCHINSON– Reno County law enforcement officers are investigating an accident that sent a Kansas man to jail and another to the hospital.

Police reported a vehicle driven by John Smith of Hutchinson was northbound on Washington Street in Hutchinson just before 2 a.m. on Saturday. The vehicle ran the stop sign at 5th Street.

The vehicle collided with another driven by an unknown individual. That vehicle then struck a pedestrian Christopher Wells, 36, Hutchinson.

Wells was first transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment and later taken to a Wichita hospital with a possible brain injury, but is expected to survive according to police.

The owner of the second vehicle was at the scene according to police. Another individual who fled the scene drove it. Police are still trying to locate that person.

Smith is jailed with a bond of $5,250 on charges of aggravated battery and DUI. He is to make a first appearance in court on Monday.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The maker of Kleenex and Scott brand products is unveiling this month a line of tissues and towels incorporating wheat straw and bamboo.

Kimberly-Clark Professional aims to provide a rapidly renewable source of fiber for its pulp mill and environmentally friendly products aimed at its commercial customers. It also contends that the products containing 20 percent wheat straw will also give farmers a market for the plant residue left after harvest.

The Georgia-based company says use of straw fiber will ease demand for tree fiber and recycled paper.

The company says it is the first time that wheat straw has been used by a major manufacturer on this large a scale in the United States to make bath tissue and paper towels.

HUTCHINSON — The second suspect in an alleged mushroom growing operation inside a Reno County business made his initial court appearance Friday.

Jason Wineinger was formally charged with cultivation of hallucinogenic mushrooms, conspiracy to cultivate mushrooms, possession of mushrooms with intent to distribute, conspiracy to distribute mushrooms, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute and a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals.

Wineinger is accused of running a mushroom growing operation with 19-year-old Carlyeon Moore. He is facing similar charges.

On March 18, Hutchinson police served a search warrant at the their business at 2534 North Main and found the mushroom growing operation.

They also found a dog locked in a bathroom with no food and water and living in its own waste. Animal Control was called and removed the animal.

Wineinger will be back in court on Wednesday.  The case against Moore is scheduled for a future waiver-status docket.

SALINA- It was a busy Friday for firefighters in Saline and Geary Counties

Fire crews were called just after 11:30 on Friday morning to the scene of a controlled burn that got away near the 3200 Block of South Holmes Road and 3057 Ashley Lane.

The blaze consumed approximately 30-40 acres according to District 5 fire chief David Turner.

Neighbors lost some irrigation equipment and miscellaneous items as the fire grew.

“This was a large fire and it was difficult because it spread into an area that was difficult for us to work,” said Turner. “The fire was
jumping from Cedar trees and in heavy brush. We were fortunate.”

Several homes along Ashley were threatened. There were no injuries.

Just after 1 p.m. fire units were called to a controlled burn out of control at Niles Road and Kansas 4.

“The grass fire simply got away from them,” said District 1 Fire Chief Rod Ade.

“Many people don’t realize how dry the area really is at this time,” he said.

The fire burned approximately 10 acres along with some hay bales and was very close to the residence according to Ade. There were no injuries.

Just after 3:30 p.m. Rock Springs Ranch personnel reported their controlled burn was out of control and they were in need of assistance.
“Geary County sent four trucks and also requested that Woodbine Fire come assist and they responded with two trucks,” said Geary County Rural Fire Chief Gary Berges.

Crews were on scene for approximately an hour and a half. Berges reported that the majority of the fire remained on Rock Springs Ranch property, but some of the neighboring land may have gone up in smoke as well. No estimate is available on how many acres burned. No injuries or damage to structures were reported.

By Austin Fisher
KU Statehouse Wire Service

A bill that restricts university professors from using their titles in newspaper editorials garnered widespread media attention in February when critics suggested it effectively stifles public debate.

Rep. Virgil Peck (R-Tyro) introduced the bill but said he did not author it. The true author has not come forward, and isn’t required to do so.

In the first two months of the legislative session, lawmakers considered 627 bills without authors’ or sponsors’ names attached to them in the weekly Senate and House Actions Report. In the same period of the previous session, lawmakers introduced 852 bills without names.

Lawmakers refer to them as “committee bills” because that’s where the bill is introduced and receives a hearing, but it is common for legislation to be without formal sponsorship.

In a March 5 report, the Legislative Information Systems and Services office listed 47 nameless bills that came through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Judiciary Chairman and Senate Vice President Jeff King (R-Independence) said bills lacking individual names or organizations are par for the course.

“The majority of the bills in the legislature are committee bills,” King said. “That’s usually how people introduce them because the committee is where we do our work.”

Legislative procedure requires committees to work on bills under their jurisdiction and areas of expertise. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said there are legitimate reasons for lawmakers to keep their names off of bills.

“Often legislators ask that a bill be introduced by a committee because sometimes having your name on it adversely impacts its chances of passage in a partisan way,” Hensley said.

Hensley said a bill with his name attached is unlikely to get support in a GOP-dominated legislature, regardless of its intent.

“They kill the messenger in the process,” he said.

Also, lawmakers can appease constituents by introducing bills that they might not necessarily agree with. These are labeled “by request.”

Massachusetts is the only state where citizens directly introduce bills, according to Brenda Erickson, a senior research analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In any given state legislature, it’s easy figure out which lawmaker brings a particular bill to a committee’s attention. Figuring out the inspiration for a bill is more difficult.

“A lawmaker just has to like the idea. Actual language may or may not come from model legislation,” Erickson said. “Ideas behind legislation can come from anywhere.”

Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political science professor, said some legislators might want to avoid attaching their name to a bill because of a conflict of interest.

“Legislators reflect the society from which they come. There’s going to be some bad actors,” Beatty said. “A bill which affects a certain industry may come out with a name attached, a name of a legislator whose campaign was funded by that same industry. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be introduced, it means the citizens should get the whole story.”

The average bill is eight pages long and costs Legislative Administrative Services 14 cents to print. Normally, LAS makes 400 copies. 627 committee bills add up to an estimated $35,112 in printing costs.

That figure does not include the labor costs of drafting. Lawmakers take proposed legislation to the Office of Revisor of Statutes to put them in the proper legal language.

First Assistant Revisor of Statutes Jill Wolters said there is no accurate way to determine how many hours the Revisor’s Office staff spends drafting legislation, so comparing salaries to the number of bills drafted by the office wouldn’t be a truthful calculation.

“The amount of experience plays a huge role in the time it takes to draft the average bill,” Wolters said. “We have never said it takes ‘X’ number of hours to draft a bill so it costs ‘Y.’ We’ve never calculated it before.”

The House Judiciary committee, chaired by Rep. John Barker (R-Abilene), heard 53 nameless committee bills.

“Names can be deceiving,” Barker said. “Sometimes people introduce them for an organization.”

Senate Assistant Minority Leader Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence) said in other statehouses, lawmakers who are willing to introduce a bill often put their names on it.

“I think it would make sense to have some requirement in Kansas that a legislator be willing to identify as the person who introduced the bill, which is different than having your name on the bill,” Francisco said. “We shouldn’t be considering bills that an individual in the legislature or executive branch is not willing to be identified with.”

Rich Gannon, director of governmental affairs for the Kansas Press Association, agrees that lawmakers should be willing to take ownership of the bills they bring to the attention of the legislature.

“The concept of committee bill introductions has been around a long time but from time to time we are having great difficulty finding the true sponsor of a bill,” Gannon said. “More and more bills are introduced and referred around to other committees, and when it comes time to hold a hearing you really can’t find anyone taking responsibility and serving as a proponent.”

Beatty said the way ideas become law are just one small part of a broader lack of transparency in U.S. politics, which he said has become the biggest threat to American democracy.

“There are a number of aspects of secrecy in American politics that they would appreciate in Putin’s Russia,” Beatty said.

Austin Fisher is a University of Kansas senior from Lawrence majoring in journalism.