SALINA, Kan. (AP) — The Rolling Hills Zoo near Salina has announced that it is preparing for the birth of a baby giraffe.

Zuri, a 6-year-old giraffe, is pregnant. The baby giraffe is expected to arrive in late November or early December.

The gestation period for giraffes can last up to 15 months, and newborns can weigh close to 150 pounds and be 6 feet tall.

The name and sex of the newborn giraffe will be determined at birth.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Four Kansas Supreme Court justices facing a campaign to oust them in the Nov. 8 election are defending the court’s handling of capital punishment cases.

Past high court rulings overturning death sentences are at the center of the effort to remove Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and Justices Carol Beier, Dan Biles and Marla Luckert.

Justice Caleb Stegall also is on the ballot for a vote on his retention, but he’s a 2014 appointee and not a target of the ouster campaign.

The four targeted justices declined to discuss specific cases this week in written answers to questions from The Associated Press, citing judicial ethics rules. But all four said the court is fair and impartial.

Nuss and Luckert also noted that the court has upheld several death sentences.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A convenience store clerk has filed a $2 million civil lawsuit against four men serving prison time for a Hutchinson robbery in which the clerk says she was beaten.

Attorney Matt Bretz filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jo Dee Samples.

Authorities say Dakota Ney, Drake Lindsay and Karl Koenig, all 19, and 20-year-old Kurt Koenig robbed the Hutchinson Kwik Shop on Jan. 27 and attacked Samples. The lawsuit says Samples was beaten and a stun gun was used on her. Samples says she’ll likely be permanently disabled.

The men appeared in court Thursday. In written responses to the lawsuit, Karl Koenig said he did not assault the Samples during the robbery and asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Kurt Koenig and Lindsay deny the lawsuit’s allegations.

Ney didn’t file a response.

WASHINGTON -Hillary Clinton isn’t saying much about the FBI decision to investigate new emails linked to her private email server.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts on social media said, “It is regretful that this matter wasn’t more fully reviewed some months ago, but it is certainly appropriate to take a hard look at it now.”

Clinton ignored shouted questions from reporters about the FBI investigation as she walked off her plane Friday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

She smiled and waved to reporters gathered on the tarmac, but made no comments.

It is regretful that this matter wasn’t more fully reviewed some months ago, but it is certainly appropriate to take a hard look at it now. pic.twitter.com/1HVmcMBJHn

— Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) October 28, 2016

 

 

A U.S. official says newly discovered emails that have prompted a new FBI review of the Hillary Clinton email investigation came from a separate sexting probe of former congressman Anthony Weiner.

Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl.

The official said Friday that the emails referenced by FBI Director James Comey surfaced during that investigation. The official was familiar with the investigation but was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Comey told members of Congress on Friday that newly discovered emails believed to be related to the Clinton case were prompting a new review.

GRANDVIEW PLAZA- Law enforcement authorities are investigating injuries to an infant and have made an arrest.

Just before 4:30 p.m. on October 16, an ambulance was dispatched to 802 Janice Street Grandview Plaza in Geary County for a 2-month-old female infant who was not breathing, according to a media release.

The infant was transported to Geary Community Hospital for treatment. She was later transported by helicopter to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas for additional treatment
of those suspected injuries.

The Grandview Plaza police and KBI conducted an investigation into the cause of the suspected injuries.

On October 20, Brigham Bailey, 33, Grandview Plaza, was placed under arrest for Aggravated Battery and Interference with Law Enforcement.

He is confined without bond pending first appearance in the Geary County District Court.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating an injury accident.

Just before 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, first responders were called to the scene of an accident at 37th Street and Kansas Avenue in Topeka, according to a media release.

A car hit a man riding a bicycle. The victim was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Details of those involved were not released on Friday morning.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp is eyeing the 2018 election in a move to possibly reclaim the Kansas congressional seat he lost in the Republican primary.

The Hutchinson News reports Huelskamp quietly filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 17 for the sprawling 1st District of western and central Kansas.

The ultra-conservative Republican was defeated in August by physician Roger Marshall, a political newcomer backed by farming and business groups. Marshall faces independent Alan LaPolice in the general election.

Huelskamp’s clashes with former Speaker John Boehner helped get him booted from the House Agriculture Committee, and the state’s loss of that seat became a campaign issue during the GOP primary in the farming district.

Huelskamp is a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus.