Tao, the newest addition to the Sumatran orangutan group at the zoo, is 11 years old and came to Kansas from the Dortmund Zoo in Germany- photo Sedgwick Co. Zoo
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Sedgwick County Zoo was placed on lockdown after an orangutan briefly escaped its enclosure.
Zoo officials said Tuesday that all the orangutans are now secured indoors.
KWCH-TV reports the orangutan was a new female to the exhibit named Tao.
She apparently found a way out of the enclosure and then returned a few minutes later on her own.
The zoo has three females and one male in its Wichita exhibit.
The exhibit is closed as officials work to repair the flaw that allowed Tao to escape.
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Monday night shooting on I-70 near Topeka.
Just after 11p.m., three individuals were in a vehicle traveling westbound just east of the Topeka Toll Plaza, according to Captain Joe Bott with the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
The gun of a passenger in the backseat fired and wounded the driver.
They were able to transport the driver to a hospital in Topeka.
His name and condition were not released.
After interviewing the individuals involved, it is believed the shooting was an accidental discharge of a firearm, according to Bott.
HUTCHINSON— A Kansas man arrested by police in June after a fire and explosion at the Plaza Towers building, 17 East 2nd Avenue, in Hutchinson will face arraignment in November.
Chase Coble, 22, Hutchinson, faces trial for three counts of aggravated arson with substantial risk of great bodily harm and two counts of criminal use of explosives.
The first three counts are level three felonies with a maximum sentence on each count of over 20-years in prison.
Police say Coble was experimenting with toxic, volatile chemicals to make black powder to use in explosives when it got out of hand.
Fire officials on the scene at the Plaza Towers on June 21
The fire and explosion caused significant damage to the apartment on the 12th floor of the Towers building and also some damage to the apartment below.
Authorities on the scene of Monday’s fatal accident. Photo Topeka Police
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a sport utility vehicle has struck and killed a pedestrian on Interstate 470 in Topeka.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the man was hit Monday afternoon in the westbound lanes.
Kansas Highway Patrol Technical Trooper Stephen La Row says the man had been in the same location on the interstate about 30 minutes earlier. At that time, Topeka police moved him because pedestrians aren’t allowed on the interstate.
La Row said the man then returned to the interstate a short time later and was struck. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His name wasn’t immediately released.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been convicted in a cellphone store robbery shooting that left a retired Kansas guidance counselor so seriously injured that doctors had to amputate her hands and feet.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 27-year-old James Michael Phillips was found guilty Monday of nine counts, including attempted first-degree murder. Prosecutors said he shot Julie Dombo while trying to rob an AT&T store in Derby in August 2015.
Phillips also was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder for shooting at a Derby police officer. The 27-year-old Phillips acted as his own attorney during the trial.
Sentencing is set for Dec. 9 in Sedgwick County District Court.
Dombo says Phillips put her “in prison for life.” She says he’s “got to be in prison for life to make it even.”
FORD COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Ford County are investigating an attempted robbery.
Just after 8p.m. on Friday police officers were dispatched to the 2300 block of Hart Avenue in Dodge City for a report of an attempted aggravated robbery, according to a social media report.
When officers arrived they met with a victim who reported that an unknown male wearing a Halloween mask knocked on the door of her residence.
When she opened the door the man demanded money and brandished a firearm.
SALINA– Kansas Wesleyan University’s Nursing program was notified this week that its application for accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) was not accepted.
Kansas Wesleyan began the application process for this new regional programmatic accreditation through CCNE in May 2015, according to a media release.
A site-visit team from CCNE visited campus on February 1–2, 2016. The visit team submitted a report to the CCNE Board of Commissioners, which met on September 23, 2016, and notified the university last week. Students and faculty were on fall break when the letter was received, and university administrators shared the news with campus on Monday.
“Continuous improvement has been our focus for the past 18 months. Our faculty and administrators in Nursing and across the university have worked diligently to restructure and enhance all aspects of the program,” said Dr. Matt Thompson, university president and CEO. “This was unexpected news, but the fact that we met 25 of the 28 criteria means that they believe in the quality of our new fall curriculum and our faculty.”
The Nursing program has 40 Pre-Nursing students who will be ready to enter the program in 2017 or 2018. Not all health care centers require employees to have a degree from a university that has voluntary programmatic accreditation.
“Nursing has been a signature program at Kansas Wesleyan for many years, and we are committed to continuing to meet the needs of Salina’s healthcare community,” said Dr. Thompson.
In summer 2015, three new faculty members with graduate degrees in Nursing Education were hired to create a core team to re-build the curriculum and the program.
WELLSTON, Okla. (AP) — The Latest on the search for an man accused of wounding two police officers (all times local):
Oklahoma authorities are still looking for a man who they say posted live videos to social media during a violent crime spree that included the shooting of two police officers, armed car thefts and the killing of his aunt and uncle.
An arrest warrant including two counts of first-degree murder has been issued for 38-year-old Michael Dale Vance Jr. of Chandler, Oklahoma. He’s been wanted for more than 24 hours.
Oklahoma County authorities say they believe Vance shot and wounded two police officers Sunday night and then posted Facebook Live videos documenting his run from police. Police say he then drove to the home of his aunt and uncle and killed them.
In one of the videos, a man wearing a blood-stained shirt pans to a long gun and says: “This is real.”
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9:20 a.m.
An Oklahoma City television station is reporting that a man accused of shooting two Oklahoma police officers has been posting live videos while on the run.
TV station KWTV reports that Michael Vance posted two videos Sunday night on Facebook Live. The Associated Press couldn’t immediately verify the videos. The Lincoln County Oklahoma sheriff hasn’t returned a message Monday morning regarding the videos. See the video here. (caution very graphic)
In one video, a man wearing a backward baseball cap says he’s about to steal another vehicle and it’s “gonna be intense.” In another, the same man says: “Letting y’all know, look, this is real” before showing a long gun on the passenger seat.
He says: “If you want to know what’s up next, stay tuned to your local news.”
Vance is a suspect in the shooting of two Wellston police officers Sunday night and in a double slaying in Oklahoma County.
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WELLSTON, Okla. (AP) — Authorities are searching for a man suspected in a double slaying and accused of shooting and wounding two police officers near Oklahoma City.
The Lincoln County Oklahoma Sheriff’s Office says the officers were shot Sunday night as they responded to a report of shots fired in the town of Wellston, 35 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The sheriff’s office says they are recovering from their injuries.
The sheriff’s office says one person was arrested but that a second suspect, Michael Vance, stole a patrol car and remains missing.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says authorities believe Vance is driving a silver 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse with an Oklahoma license plate of 943LQQ.
The sheriff in neighboring Oklahoma County said on Twitter that Vance is a suspect in two deaths in Oklahoma County, but no further details have been released.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man will stay behind bars until trial for his role in an alleged conspiracy by a militia group to detonate truck bombs at an apartment complex where 120 Somali immigrants live.
Curtis Allen waived his detention hearing Monday and entered a not guilty plea, the only plea a federal magistrate judge can accept at this stage of the court proceedings.
Allen and co-defendants Patrick Stein and Gavin Wright are charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the meatpacking town of Garden City.
Prosecutors allege they are part of a militia group that calls itself “The Crusaders.” The government contends they planned to attack the apartment complex, which contains a mosque in one of the units, the day after the November election.
EUDORA, Kan. (AP) — The license for a Eudora day care is under emergency suspension after a 9-month-old boy died there last month.
Eudora Police Capt. Daniel Flick says officers received a report Sept. 29 of an unresponsive infant at the Sunshine Kids Group Daycare Home. When officers arrived they found staff administering CPR to the boy, who was later pronounced dead at a Lawrence hospital.
Flick says a preliminary autopsy led investigators to believe the boy’s death was suspicious and the department asked Douglas County authorities for help with the investigation.
The emergency suspension is under appeal and awaiting a hearing.
Flick says no arrests have been made in the case.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports a representative for Sunshine Kids Group Daycare Home declined to comment on the incident.
It happened about 10:30 a.m. when the vehicle jumped over a wall and went off a bridge on U.S. Highway 71 near the 85th Street exit- photo courtesy KCTV5
KANSAS CITY — Police are investigating a man’s death after his sport utility vehicle plunged from a highway bridge.
Police tell The Kansas City Star workers at a construction company were retrieving pipes Monday from the company’s scrap yard near the US-71 bridge when they found the mangled vehicle and the driver’s body.
Kansas City police Sgt. Bill Mahoney says the vehicle was southbound when it went over the barrier and plunged onto a pile of pipes. Mahoney said the driver died from injuries in the crash.
Police believe the crash occurred sometime well before the vehicle was found.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has pleaded no contest to felony theft in the disappearance of Louie the Clown and other items from the former Joyland Amusement Park.
The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office says 41-year-old Damian Mayes of Wichita entered the plea on Friday.
The items were found in February 2015 at Mayes’ home. Mayes was an employee of the park who helped build and repair organs. The nearly life-sized carved clown played an automated organ near Joyland’s entrance for decades before the park closed in 2006.
The clown statue disappeared from Joyland sometime in 2005 or 2006 and was officially reported stolen in 2010.
Mayes is already serving a sentence in for a 2010 conviction on child sex crimes.
He will be sentenced for the Joyland thefts Dec. 13.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is confirming that premiums will go up sharply next year for health insurance sold to millions of consumers through HealthCare.gov.
Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across states served by the federally run online market.
The number of insurers serving the federal market will drop from 232 to 167, a loss of about 28 percent.
Administration officials say that despite the sobering numbers, subsidies designed to rise alongside premiums will insulate most customers from sticker shock. And they add that consumers who are willing to shop for a cheaper plan will still be able to find bargains.
Sign-up season starts Nov. 1, and window-shopping for plans and premiums is already available.
