FARLEY, Mo. (AP) — BNSF Railway says 12 cars on a train derailed in northwest Missouri. No one was injured.
Investigators are trying to determine what caused the derailment Tuesday evening in Platte County near Farley.
BNSF spokesman Andy Williams says seven cars went off the tracks and overturned, while five went off track but remained upright. They were part of a train with 88 cars and three locomotives carrying lumber from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Kansas City.
Williams says none of the cars contained hazardous materials.
He says the cars were put back on the track early Wednesday and operations will resume after the tracks are inspected.
LINCOLN COUNTY – A Kansas man accused of alleged cattle theft in November made a court appearance on Tuesday.
Keith Buttenhoff, 61, Lincoln, faces seven felony charges in connection with taking cows from a pasture in Lincoln County, according to documents from the Lincoln County Attorney’s office.
He is accused of taking two Charloais, a black mix, a black white-face, a white-mix, and two additional mixed cows and faces an additional charge of criminal trespass for entering a pasture in Beaver-township in Lincoln County.
Julie Effenbeck was appointed Buttenhoff’s court appointed attorney during Tuesday’s hearing.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man charged in the slaying of a Wichita couple during a robbery has pleaded guilty.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 21-year-old Steven Wade Edwards II pleaded guilty to several charges, including two counts of first-degree murder.
The bodies of 70-year-old Martha Moreno and her husband, 72-year-old Godofredo Moreno, were found by their son in their home on Oct. 16, 2014. Police say the couple died of gunshot wounds.
Edwards faces a life sentence for the murder charges, and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 21. A 17-year-old has also been charged in the killings.
NEWTON -The Newton City Commission voted Tuesday night to terminate the contract of City Manager Randy Riggs, effective immediately.
The vote was 3-2, with Vice Mayor Barth Hague and Commissioner Kathy Valentine opposed, according to a media release.
The termination agreement did not outline specific reasons for the separation other than a desire by the Commission to pursue a different direction in management of the City.
As per Riggs’ contract, the City will provide a severance benefit to include:
• 12 months’ salary in the amount of $147,243.20, plus health insurance benefits.
• Unused vacation leave in the amount of $17,233.83.
• Unused sick leave in the amount of $50,968.80.
City Attorney Bob Myers was appointed to serve as interim city manager. The Commission said they would discuss the process for selecting a new city manager at a later date.
Riggs served as Newton’s city manager since March 2008. He previously was city manager in Chanute and Sterling and assistant city manager in Lawton, Oklahoma.
photos from a surveillance camera located at the gas station- courtesy KBI
The Police Department in Sterling, Colorado reported on social media the couple included in Tuesday’s Silver Alert Jerry and Patricia Marshall have been located in Macon, Missouri
They are currently safe with local law enforcement, according to a social media report.
Arrangements have been made to assure the safety and well being of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall until family can reunite with them.
Nothing criminal is suspected.
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TOPEKA- Law enforcement authorities in Kansas have issued a Silver Alert issued at the request of Colorado.
Just after 5 a.m. on Saturday, Jerry and Patricia Marshall left Sterling, CO., for Seymour, MO., driving a gold 2012 Chevrolet Impala, with CO license plate 288ZRX.
Both are elderly and are showing signs of dementia.
They forgot to take a cell phone and other personal belongings with them on the trip.
At 8 p.m. on Sunday, the couple contacted a relative and indicated that they were in Clarinda, IA.
At 2 a.m. on Tuesday, the couple and their vehicle were spotted at a BP Gas Station in Topeka.
If you see them, please call 911 or a local law enforcement agency.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a police detective in Kansas City, Kansas (all times local):
6 p.m.
The Kansas City, Kansas, police detective killed in a confrontation on Monday will be honored with a public funeral.
The funeral for Detective Brad Lancaster will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park, home of the Sporting Kansas City soccer team, in Kansas City, Kansas.
A visitation is scheduled at 4 p.m. Friday at Trinity Community Church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Lancaster died Monday after being shot while trying to stop a suspect who was fleeing from officers near the Kansas Speedway.
The 39-year-old Lancaster is survived by a wife and two children.
A suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, was arrested after he was shot in a confrontation with Kansas City, Missouri, officers hours after Lancaster was shot.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man who spent 15 years in prison for a rape and murder that his brother later confessed to committing is suing law enforcement officers for fabricating evidence that led to his conviction.
Floyd Bledsoe of Hutchinson was freed in December after his brother, Tom, killed himself in prison and left behind a series of notes confessing to the November 1999 slaying of 14-year-old Camille Arfmann.
The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday says Tom Bledsoe confessed several times to killing and raping the Oskaloosa girl soon after her disappearance, but investigators coached him to instead implicate his brother.
Floyd Bledsoe was convicted in April 2000, briefly released on bond in June 2008 and returned to prison in July 2009 after the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the 2008 ruling.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The government is expecting a bountiful winter wheat harvest this year.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service forecast on Tuesday U.S. winter wheat production to be up 4 percent from a year ago, with the nation’s farmers expected to bring in 1.43 billion bushels.
The agency says the expected yield of 47.8 bushels per acre would equal the record yield set in 1999, if realized.
Hard red winter wheat, the type commonly grown in Kansas, is also forecast to be up 4 percent nationwide at 863 million bushels.
Kansas, the nation’s largest producer, is forecast to harvest 352.6 million bushels this year. Average yields in the state are expected to be 43 bushels per acre from 8.2 million acres.
Kansas farmers last year harvested 321.9 million bushels.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a police detective in Kansas City, Kansas (all times local):
3 p.m.
A parolee suspected of gunning down a Kansas City, Kansas, police detective has been charged in Missouri with felonies linked to gun-related crimes he allegedly committed before he was shot by police and arrested.
Prosecutors in Jackson County charged 28-year-old Curtis Ayers with first-degree assault, resisting arrest, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, and three counts of armed criminal action.
Ayers was hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition.
Prosecutors in Kansas’ Wyandotte County still were weighing charges against Ayers in connection with Monday’s shooting death of Brad Lancaster.
Court documents included with Tuesday’s charges allege Ayers, when cornered by police, shot and wounded a woman during an attempted carjacking and fired at another motorist.
10:05 a.m.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is ordering flags in Wyandotte County to be lowered to half-staff in memory of a slain police detective.
Brownback directed the county’s flags lowered Tuesday through sundown Wednesday in 39-year-old Brad Lancaster’s honor.
Police say Lancaster died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot near a racetrack in Kansas City, Kansas.
A suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, has been arrested. Ayers was shot by police during an attempted carjacking. He is in stable condition Tuesday at a hospital.
The local Fraternal Order of Police says a candlelight vigil in Lancaster’s memory is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.
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9:40 a.m.
Kansas’ top law enforcement official says the state mourns the “senseless” shooting death of a Kansas City police detective.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement Tuesday that he extends his prayers to the family of 39-year-old Brad Lancaster’s family and to Lancaster’s former colleagues.
Police say Lancaster died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot while responding to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack.
A suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, was arrested after being shot by police during an attempted carjacking after he crashed another car. He was in stable condition Tuesday at a hospital.
HARVEY COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Harvey County were working an incident involving multiple shots fired at a school bus on Tuesday afternoon, according to a social media report.
The school bus was on Highway 50 near Walton northeast of Newton. The shooter was reported as being a teenage boy shooting from the passenger side of a grey or silver pickup truck, according to the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office.
There are no injuries reported and a search for the suspect continues.
Examination of the school bus has not revealed any bullet holes so far, according to the sheriff’s department.
The suspect shooter is reported as being a white male with dark blond hair riding in a possible 2010 or newer full size pick up truck. The bus driver stated she saw the gun and heard one gun shot.
All schools in U.S.D. 373 were temporarily placed on lock-down as a precautionary measure. The lock-down was lifted just after 3:30p.m.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Court documents allege that a man held a Lawrence college student against her will and beat her before returning her to her sorority six days later.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the allegations are part of recently released court documents in the case against 30-year-old Shane Steven Allen.
He faces one felony charge of kidnapping and four felony charges of battery in the attack last month on a 20-year-old woman whom he met through a mobile dating app.
An arrest affidavit filed in Douglas County District Court alleges that Allen beat the woman after accusing her of flirting with his friend. He is accused of telling her she couldn’t go until her face healed.
Allen is jailed on $100,000 bond. It wasn’t immediately known if he had an attorney.
SALINA -The Saline County Clerk’s office has released the unofficial results from the special sales tax vote that closed at noon today.
According to Saline County Clerk Don Merriman, 11,566 ballots were cast in the election. Of those, 6,216 voted in favor of the sales tax increase, while 5,350 voted against it. Ballots were mailed to 28,638 registered voters that live within the Salina city limits.
Merriman tells The Salina Post that he didn’t have an exact number of how many ballots were invalid due to signature and address issues. “It was a rather large number, unfortunately,” he said. He estimates that around 5,000 ballots had bad addresses.
The passage of the new sales tax increase repeals the current 0.4% special sales tax and increases it for businesses in Salina to 0.75%. The overall sales tax will increase from 8.40% to 8.75% effective October 1st.
The Salina City Commission previously committed the $9.35 million the special tax is anticipated to raise each year for neighborhood street improvements, property tax stabilization, parks, job creation, capital improvements, neighborhood revitalization and the old Smoky Hill River channel cleanup.
The election results will be canvassed at 9 a.m. Monday in Room 209 of the City-County Building.
He says the cars were put back on the track early Wednesday and operations will resume after the tracks are inspected.
