WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Barry Grissom says he will step down as U.S. attorney for Kansas effective Friday.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday said in a news release that Grissom helped make Kansas and the entire United States a safer and more just place. She lauded his work building new relations with state and local law enforcement.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Beall will serve as acting U.S. attorney. He also served as a member of the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and served on Justice Department subcommittees focusing on civil rights and other issues.
Grissom was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010.
MCPHERSON COUNTY- A Kansas man died in an accident just before 4:30 p.m. on Sunday in McPherson County.
A vehicle driven by Raine Reitsma, 16, Inman, was eastbound on Commanche Road and failed to yield at a stop sign, at 8th Avenue, according to Captain Anderson with the McPherson County Sheriff’s Department.
A motorcycle ridden by Steven Goering, 62, Inman, that was traveling southbound, hit the vehicle.
Reitsma left the scene of the accident, according to the sheriff’s department.
Goering was airlifted to Wesley Medical Center where he later died from his injuries.
Reitsma was later located in McPherson.
The investigation has been turned over to the McPherson County Attorney’s Office where charges could be filed in the case.
LAWRENCE — Neeli Bendapudi is the first of three candidates for provost and executive vice chancellor of the Lawrence campus at the University of Kansas, according to a media release.
She has served as dean and H.D. Price Professor of Business at KU since 2011. Before coming to KU, she served as a professor of marketing at The Ohio State University. Other details about the candidate, including a complete curriculum vita, are available here.
Bendapudi will deliver a public presentation to campus from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday, April 11, at the Bruckmiller Room in the Adams Alumni Center. A reception will follow in the McGee Room at the Adams Alumni Center.
A search committee chaired by Steve Warren, professor of speech-language-hearing and investigator in the Life Span Institute, identified the three candidates. The committee was assisted by the executive search firm R. William Funk and Associates.
The other two provost candidates’ public presentations are scheduled at 4 p.m. April 21 at at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union and at 4 p.m. April 25 at the Summerfield Room in the Adams Alumni Center. The names of the remaining candidates will be announced approximately 48 hours in advance of their public presentations.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Southwest Airlines flight traveling from Dallas to Kansas City, Missouri, has been diverted to a Kansas airport after cabin pressure dropped.
The airline said in a news release that Flight 50 landed safely Sunday night at Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita. The Boeing 737 was carrying 143 passengers and five crew members.
The release said the airline worked with passengers to get them to their final destinations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The cost of mailing a letter is cheaper this week.
The price of a first-class stamp dropped two cents, to 47 cents on Sunday.
The reduction is the result of an expiring surcharge that had been put in place in January 2014 to help the beleaguered Postal Service recoup $4.6 billion in losses dating back to the Great Recession.
Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan says the forced rate reduction would exacerbate Postal Service losses. The agency estimates it would lose $2 billion in annual revenue as a result.
Commercial and other postage rates also are declining.
The Postal Service is seeking relief from a congressional mandate to pre-fund retiree health benefits, something that neither the government nor private companies are required to do, as well as greater flexibility in setting rates.
RENO COUNTY – Three people were injured in an accident just after before 9 p.m. on Saturday in Reno County.
The Reno County Sheriff reported a vehicle driven by Jaedyn Hambrick 17, Hutchinson, was southbound on North Pennington Road.
The vehicle collided with a northbound vehicle driven by Joseph Duckett IV, 32, Hutchinson.
An air medical team transport Duckett to a hospital in Wichita. Hambrick and a passenger Edgar Gurrero, 17, Hutchinson, were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.
The accident remains under investigation, according to the sheriff’s department.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County commissioners are being warned by the state not to ask participants in the federal Women, Infants and Children program about their citizenship.
The Wichita Eagle reports the Kansas Department of Health and Environment says asking about immigration status before the state changes eligibility requirements could result in termination of the county’s contract to operate WIC.
County Commissioner Richard Ranzau suggested last fall that the county health department start using a questionnaire that would ask about immigration status of all who use department services.
He later proposed that the state redefine eligibility requirements to block illegal immigrants from participating in WIC. He criticized the state for failing to give a clear answer about whether it plans to change those requirements.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Amtrak is suing a southwest Kansas feed yard claiming gross negligence related to a train derailment that injured 28 passengers last month.
The Wichita Eagle reports Amtrak and BNSF Railway Co. filed a lawsuit Friday accusing Cimarron Crossing Feeders of failing to report that one of its trucks had damaged tracks about 20 miles west of Dodge City.
The lawsuit says an Amtrak train traveling east on the tracks shortly after midnight March 14 hit the damaged tracks and derailed near Cimarron.
A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report estimated damage from the derailment at more than $1.4 million.
The plaintiffs have requested a jury trial in Wichita. Officials with Cimarron Crossing Feeders didn’t immediately return a phone call Sunday seeking comment.
TOPEKA – Throughout the Capitol, there are numerous organizations that play a part in the daily function of the building and in helping legislators do their jobs. One of those is the Kansas State Library, located on the third floor of the Capitol.
Founded in 1855 as the Kansas Territorial Library, the state library was established in 1863 when the legislature appropriated $2,000 to create it. Since then, the library has been helping Kansans read, learn and do business.
The state library services three main audiences: state agencies, librarians throughout Kansas, and residents across the state. The services the library provides include Internet access, as well as access to numerous electronic databases. The library also carries Playaways audio books and eBooks, and provides these products and services through money from state and federal funds.
“A lot of money we get is from the state dollars, and we also we received federal money,” state librarian Jo Budler said. “Every year there is federal money that comes from the (U.S.) Institute of Library and Museum Services, and they give us money as a state. Every year we receive it, and we do things that will benefit the state.”
The state library offers a variety of different services to Kansans, including the Talking Book Service for people who are blind, dyslexic or suffering from arthritis. Library patrons can be certified to use a “Talking Book Machine,” which has large buttons for people with arthritis or buttons with writing in Braille.
Through a Knight Foundation grant, the Kansas State Library has loaned out Wi-Fi hot spots to libraries in Kansas. These hot spots provide Internet access in urban and rural communities so residents can apply for jobs, use social media and do homework.
“The things that we do makes it possible for any resident of the state to access state services (and that) is the most important thing this library does for the state,” Budler said.
The State Library of Kansas is putting up small posters in the stacks with a QR-code link to online collections next to the matching paper document serials
The library also serves the state by providing resources for legislative research. The library contains information about historical events, plus Kansas policies and bills that were passed or not passed in the legislature.
The library’s reference desk staff is there to help legislators shift through these documents and to assist them in finding what they need.
“Even though a lot of the information is on the Internet, most legislators do not have an hour or two to read through and find it,” said reference director Cindy Roupe. “Our reference desk librarians have a great deal of experience in helping people with the knowledge of bills.”
Budler said the library is an invaluable resource for lawmakers.
“If were to ask the legislators what is the most important thing to them about the state library, they would say the reference department,” Budler said.
The library is a resource for state history, but the library also has an interesting history of its own. The library had the Capitol’s first electric lights, its website says, and in 1889, the state library began a traveling book service for rural Kansans. In 1964, the state library began a system of grants to help rural libraries across the state.
The state library is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. year round. It is closed on major holidays.
Hutchinson— A Kansas man who was taken to jail on April 1, was back in court Friday for the formal reading of charges.
Joshua Stucky, 29, Prairie was stopped by a Reno County Sheriff’s Deputy around 12:40 a.m. after he was allegedly driving erratically on Pretty Prairie Road.
Officers testified they determined he was under the influence of some substance. They also noticed a spoon on the floorboard that appeared to have a white substance in it.
In a backpack, officers allegedly found a bag of suspected marijuana, a scale, additional baggies, a bag of meth and other paraphernalia that included a pipe.
He appeared before Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen via the video hookup with the Reno County Correctional Facility where he was read the complaint that includes felony charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of methamphetamine, possession of hydrocodone and drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute.
There are also two misdemeanor charges including DUI and no insurance.
In court, he requested a bond reduction, however Judge Allen reminded him that she already lowered it once and told him for four felonies, a $5,500 bond is reasonable.
The case against Stucky now moves to waiver-status docket on May 4.
TOPEKA -Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are looking for two suspects in connection with a murder, according to a media release.
Just before 6 p.m. on Friday officers responded to the 2000 Block of Echo Ridge Circle in Topeka. They found a shooting victim Brian Miller, 20, Topeka, behind a residence on the east side of road.
Police administered life saving measures and EMS transported Miller to Stormont Vail where he died.
Police are asking the public’s help to locate two suspects Deangelo Martinez and Christopher
TOPEKA- Four people were injured in an accident involving a law enforcement vehicle just after 6:30 p.m. on Saturday in Shawnee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Topeka police department Ford Explorer driven by Officer Gary Lee Atchison III, 23, Burlingame, was southbound on Adams with Emergency Lights and Sirens active.
The vehicle entered the intersection at 15th Street at the same time as a 2004 Dodge Caravan driven by Jesus David Meza, 40, Topeka. The vehicles collided.
Atchison III, a passenger in the Ford Officer Caitlan Nicole Hornung, 22, Topeka, Meza and a ten-year-old passenger in the van were transported to Stormont Vail.
