SALINE COUNTY – Two Kansas women were injured in an accident just after 4p.m. on Tuesday in Saline County.

A minivan driven by Tiffany Keith, 24, Winfield, was westbound on South Street when she ran a stop sign at 5th Street, according to Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

The van collided with a 2013 KIA SUV driven by Kandie Gibson, 54, Salina, that was southbound on 5th Street.

The force of the collision caused Gibson’s SUV to overturn off the roadway.

Emergency medical responders transported Keith and Gibson to Salina Regional Health Center for non-life threatening injuries.

Keith was cited for failure to yield, according to Sweeney.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – A man convicted of sex crimes in Colorado and missing in Kansas since Friday is back in custody.

Bryce Siroky, 34, was arrested without incident in south Wichita on Wednesday, according to Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn.

Siroky had a previous address at 1614 Morton in Great Bend. He had been living in Pratt until August when he failed to register, according to Chinn.

Pratt County had a warrant for his arrest for a violation of the Kansas Offender Registration Act.

The search for Siroky started on Friday after he was seen at a residence west of Pratt.

He was convicted in 2001 of attempted sexual assault on a child in Teller County Colorado.

The arrest was a joint effort of the U.S. Marshall’s Fugitive Task Force, Investigators from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office and the Butler County Sheriff’s office according to Chinn.

BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a robbery.

Just before 9:30p.m. on Tuesday, Great Bend Police Officers were dispatched to the 3300 block of 10th Street in reference to an alleged robbery, according to a media release.

Upon arrival, they made contact with a female employee of the Smart Style Hair Salon, located inside Walmart.

The employee advised that she was walking from Walmart to Farmer’s Bank to deposit the money from the store when a white male approached her.

The man allegedly grabbed her bag and ran away from the area.

The suspect was approximately 6 feet tall, wearing dark clothing and a dark “hoodie” style sweatshirt, according to police.

Anyone with information on this robbery are asked to contact the Great Bend Police Department at 620-793-4120 or Crimestoppers at 620-792-1300.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German drug and farm chemical company Bayer AG says it has signed a deal to acquire seed and weed-killer company Monsanto for $66 billion in cash.

Bayer says it is paying Monsanto shareholders $128 per share, which represents a 44 percent premium over Monsanto’s closing price on May 9, the day before a proposed deal was announced.

See more on the agreement here.

The deal is subject to approval by Monsanto shareholders and anti-trust regulators.

Bayer said Wednesday the transaction brings together two different but complementary companies. Bayer makes a wide range of crop protection chemicals, while Monsanto is known for its seeds business.

Leverkusen-based Bayer said the merged companies’ agriculture business would have its seeds business and North American business headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, where Monsanto is currently based.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Prosecutors say a man who pleaded guilty to a series of shootings on Kansas City-area highways in 2014 will be sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a news release that 30-year-old Mohammed Whitaker pleaded guilty Tuesday to 20 felony charges arising from the shootings.

The random shootings in March and April of 2014 frightened drivers and injured at least two motorists. Shootings were reported in Kansas City; the Missouri suburbs of Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs; and the Kansas suburb of Leawood.

After tips directed officers to Whitaker, they followed him for days before arresting him in April 2014 at his apartment in the Missouri suburb of Grandview.

BUTLER COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Butler County are investigating an armed robbery.

Just before 4 a.m. on Tuesday, there was an armed robbery at the Kwik shop, 114 W. Highway 54 in Andover, according to a social media report.

Two subjects entered the front doors of the business.
One was armed with a semi-auto black and chrome colored handgun.

One was wearing an unmarked, black hooded sweatshirt, black sweatpants, a mask, and tan or brown slipper style shoes. The second subject was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with Aero NYC 1987 on the front, black sweatpants, red athletic shoes with black stripes on the sides, a shiny red mask (possibly a devil or movie character), and armed with the handgun.

Police have no vehicle description, although it is believed that a dark colored sedan may have been involved.

The suspects fled the scene through a rear door, getting away with an undetermined amount of cash and cigarettes.

Individuals with any information regarding this incident or the identity of the subjects involved are asked to contact Detective Daimon Cundiff at 316-733-5177 ext 231.

WICHITA – A Kansas technical college is working to help students affected by the recent closure of ITT Technical College.

On Tuesday, Wichita Area Technical College held the first of two information sessions specifically to assist ITT Tech students on a possible transition of their education, according to a social media report.

The school is also waive its credit for prior learning cost for the students until the first day of the school’s spring 2017 semester.

A second information session is scheduled for Thursday Sept. 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at WATC’s main campus, the National Center for Aviation Training Campus (NCAT), in the Gateway Building located at 4004 N Webb Road.

Student Services staff members will be available to:
answer questions guide students on the admissions and enrollment process, help determine program options ,provide information about financial aid and provide information about transferring courses using credit for prior learning.

Last week, ITT Technical Institute campuses in Wichita, Overland Park and Kansas City, Missouri permanently closed.

ITT Educational Services blamed the closings on a federal ruling last month that banned the company from enrolling any students who relied on federal financial aid.

The action reflects concerns by the U.S. Department of Education about the company’s “administrative capacity, organizational integrity, financial ability and ability to serve students.”

MIAMI COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Linn County are investigating a car theft and burglary.

On Sunday, a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks warden located an abandon car on LaCygne Wildlife Area in Miami County, according to a social media report.

A follow up investigation determined the vehicle was stolen in Linn County along with the personal property it contained.

The car’s owner was contacted and most of the items taken in the burglary were returned.

No names were released on Tuesday.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The Johnson County sheriff says federal immigration authorities have placed a detainer on the man charged in the death of sheriff’s deputy killed when a pickup slammed into his patrol car during a traffic stop.

Adrian Espinosa-Flores, of Kansas City, Kansas, is being held in Johnson County on $2 million bond after being charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter/DUI in the death Sunday of Master Deputy Brandon Collins. Collins was making a traffic stop at the time.

Sheriff Frank Denning said Tuesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on Espinosa-Flores.

Denning says the detainer is a request to local law enforcement agencies to hold a person for possible deportation once they’ve gone through the court system. Denning says the detainer also means Espinosa-Flores won’t be released on bond.

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have arrested and charged a Kansas man in an attempted robbery and shooting at a suburban Kansas City store.

The Johnson County District Attorney’s office announced Tuesday that 27-year-old Arthur Fred Wyatt III, of Overland Park, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted aggravated kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery.

Police said a Kansas City, Kansas, woman was hit from behind by two suspects while putting her child in a car Sunday at a Wal-Mart in Shawnee. A Kansas City, Missouri, man who tried to help was shot several times.

Another good Samaritan from De Soto, Kansas, was released after fatally shooting 28-year-old John Simmons III, of Kansas City, Missouri.

Spokeswoman Kristi Bergeron declined to release more information about Wyatt’s arrest.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A transgender soldier imprisoned in Kansas for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks says she is ending a hunger strike because the Army has agreed to allow her to get medical treatment for her gender dysphoria.

Manning began a hunger strike Friday to protest her treatment at Fort Leavenworth. The American Civil Liberties Union said in a news release Tuesday that Manning’s treatment will begin with surgery that her psychologist recommended in April. Manning says in the release that she’s relieved the military approved the treatment but frustrated that it took so long.

Manning, who was arrested as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 in military court of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents.

Army spokesman Wayne Hall didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The largest teachers’ union in Kansas is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a 2014 law that stripped public school teachers of guaranteed tenure.

The court heard arguments Tuesday on the Kansas National Education Association’s challenge to the law over how legislators included it in a larger education funding measure.

A national union attorney said adding the anti-tenure provision to what was essentially an appropriations bill violates the state constitution’s requirement that legislative bills have only a single subject.

State Solicitor General Stephen McAllister said all of the bill’s provisions fit under a single subject because lawmakers called it an act concerning education.

The anti-tenure provision repealed a law that gave teachers who faced dismissal after three years in the classroom the right to an independent review.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on the effort to restore federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken (all times local):

1:40 p.m.

Oil and gas groups along with Kansas officials are vowing to fight an effort to relist the lesser prairie chicken as a federally threatened species.

Found in pockets throughout the Great Plains, the grouse was removed from the threatened and endangered species list earlier this year following court rulings in Texas. Government lawyers decided not to pursue an appeal.

Environmentalists are now pushing for federal biologists to review the bird’s status and impose emergency protections.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday that relisting the bird is unwarranted. He argued that drought caused a decline in the lesser prairie chicken’s numbers and that the birds have come back now that the rain has returned.

He says there’s habitat for the bird.

Oil and gas groups say a conservation partnership developed by states and private landowners has also helped to boost lesser prairie chicken numbers in recent years.

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1:20 p.m.

The fight over a grouse found in pockets across the Great Plains is far from over as industry officials worry that relisting the lesser prairie chicken as a federally protected species could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in added costs for oil and gas developers, renewable energy companies and farmers.

A coalition of environmental groups has filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They argue that key populations are in danger of extinction as climate change exacerbates problems caused by energy development, farming and other infrastructure such as roads and power lines.

The groups say emergency protections are needed for isolated populations along the Texas-New Mexico border, in Colorado and western Kansas.