SALINA -Severe thunderstorms moved across portions of central Kansas early Sunday evening, bringing gusty winds and hail.

Thunderstorms began to form just before 6:00 p.m. in Lincoln and Ottawa Counties and moved southeast into Saline, Clay, Dickinson, and Geary counties.

Golf ball and egg size hail was reported northeast of Salina and golf ball hail was also reported in northeast Ottawa County.
A trained spotter also reported a brief funnel cloud northwest of Salina about 7:10p.m.

Officials also reported high winds damaged large tree limbs northeast of Salina.

In addition to a brief severe thunderstorm warning, a storm watch was issued for central Kansas until 3:00 a.m. Monday.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Wichita and Wichita Habitat for Humanity are teaming up to build two houses in honor of Pope Francis with the help of an anonymous donor.

The Wichita Eagle reports Wichita is one of several cities across the country to receive $60,000 from the donor who wants the construction to take place in Pope Francis’s honor.

The two three-bedroom houses will be constructed during the pope’s visit to Philadelphia in September.

Another $100,000 is needed for the project and will be raised by the Wichita diocese, which will also organize volunteers.

According to Kathy Lefler of Wichita Habitat for Humanity, similar donations to build “Pope Francis houses” have been received in cities including Sacramento, California and Washington, D.C., in the past year.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have finished work on a $15.4 billion state budget for the fiscal year beginning in July that would limit tuition increases at state universities.

The Senate voted 23-11 on Sunday to approve a bill containing most of the spending blueprint for state government. The House passed it Wednesday, so the measure goes next to Gov. Sam Brownback.

The budget wouldn’t balance without more than $400 million in tax increases. Total spending would then decline by 0.4 percent, or $55 million, during the next fiscal year.

State spending on higher education would remain flat.

The budget would prevent increases in tuition at state universities that are more than 2 percentage points above inflation as measured by the consumer price index. The figure would have been 2.8 percent for 2014.

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JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has approved a new plan for raising sales and cigarette taxes to close a projected budget shortfall.

The 21-17 vote Sunday represented the first time this year that the chamber has approved a plan for raising enough new revenues to balance the budget. The action came on the 108th day of an annual legislative session that is now the longest in state history.

The plan would raise $423 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1. The sales tax would increase to 6.55 percent from 6.15 percent and the cigarette tax would go up by 50 cents a pack to $1.29.

The measure also would raise $24 million during the next fiscal year by increasing taxes for business owners.

The plan goes next to the House.

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JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have drafted a new plan for raising taxes to close a budget shortfall that’s similar to one the Senate already has rejected.

The plan agreed to Sunday by three Senate and three House negotiators would raise $423 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1. That’s more than enough to balance the budget.

The plan would increase the state’s sales tax to 6.55 percent from 6.15 percent and boost the cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack to $1.29.

It would raise $24 million during the next fiscal year by raising taxes on business owners. More than 330,000 business owners and farmers don’t have to pay income taxes on their profits under a 2012 policy.

The Senate rejected a plan with those three elements Saturday.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators face writing a new plan for raising taxes to erase a projected budget shortfall.

Three Senate and three House negotiators were meeting Sunday. Their talks were scheduled after top Republican senators were thwarted Saturday in their efforts to separately pass several revenue proposals with broad GOP support.

Disagreements on tax issues among Republicans who control the Legislature made this year’s annual session the longest in state history. Sunday was the 108th day.

Legislators must raise taxes more than $400 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1 to erase the shortfall. Their key disputes are over raising business taxes and the state’s sales tax.

The gap arose after GOP lawmakers slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging as an economic stimulus.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that lifetime parole for a juvenile convicted of aggravated indecent liberties with a child violates the Constitution.

In an opinion issued Friday, the high court reversed an appeals court ruling, saying the lower court was wrong to uphold lifetime post-release supervision for a man who pleaded guilty to a 2009 sexual assault on a 13-year-old he committed when he was 17.

The high court says the lifetime supervision in the case “categorically constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” The court has previously held that lifetime parole isn’t too severe a punishment for adult sex offenders.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the court sent the case back to Sedgwick County for post-release supervision sentencing.

NORTONVILLE- A Kansas man died in an accident on Sunday in Atchison County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Harley Davidson driven by Wayne Edwin Dodd, 72, Holton, was northbound on U.S. 159 three miles north of Nortonville.

The driver failed to negotiate a curve, drove off the right side of the roadway and struck a culvert. Both occupants were ejected.

Dodd was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Arensberg Pruett Funeral Home.

The passenger Georgina L. Dodd, 55, Holton, was transported to Stormont Vail.

They were not wearing helmets according to the KHP.

The exact time of the accident is still under investigation.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City has reached an agreement with Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint Corp. and Cisco Systems to create a $15.7 million set of high-tech “Smart City” services along the 2.2-mile downtown streetcar line under construction.

The Kansas City Star reports Sprint will spend $7 million to build and own a Wi-Fi network along the streetcar line. Cisco, whose equipment will be used for the network, is investing about $5 million, and Kansas City will provide $3.7 million.

The high-tech system will include smart lighting, cameras and sensors, in addition to 25 interactive digital kiosks along the route to provide information about local events, food and entertainment.

The features are expected to be operational when the streetcar opens to the public early next year.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Friends gathered to remember a Wichita State student killed in a bomb attack in Saudi Arabia.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Abduljaleel Alarbash, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student, was killed late last month when he and his cousin prevented an Islamic State suicide bomber from entering a crowded mosque in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

He had returned home to Saudi Arabia to get married.

About 100 people attended a candlelight vigil for him Friday at Wichita State University. Speakers included John Bardo, university president, and Maira Salim, president of the Muslim Student Association.

OVERLAND PARK – A police officer was injured in an accident just before 9 a.m. on Sunday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Honda Accord driven by Colin James Mcaughlin, 18, Olathe, was eastbound on 151st Street at Stearns Place in Overland Park.

The vehicle struck the rear of a 2014 Overland Park Police Ford Explorer. The collision caused the Explorer to hit officer Trenton Lee Gunter, 27, who was outside the vehicle conducting a traffic stop.

The Explorer also struck the rear of a 2008 Toyota Highlander driven by Shareen Khani, 46, Overland Park

Gunter was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center and is expected to be ok. Mcaugllin and Khani were not injured.

The accident remains under investigation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Doonesbury comic strip has taken on Kansas and the state’s recent approach to taxes.

The Topeka Capital Journal reported Sunday that the eight-frame strip shows a conversation between a student and a character called “Trickle-Down Dick.” The student’s school closed days early because of budget cuts.

Trickle-Down Dick offers the student a lesson on math and supply-side economics that seems to the student to defy logic. But she’s shut down when she speaks up to question the explanation.

In the strip, Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau was apparently referencing the ongoing legislative fight over Kansas’ gaping state budget deficit and the late-fiscal-year budget cuts to schools that prompted some to close their doors earlier than expected last month.