GEARY COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating three suspects on alleged drug charges.

On Sunday afternoon, the Junction City Police Department arrested two suspects on Interstate 70 at U.S. 77.

Traumus J. Bisio, 20, Junction City is being held on suspicion of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Marijuana.

Gabrielle M. Williams, 19, Junction City, was arrested on suspicion of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Hydrocodone.

On Sunday morning, the Geary County Sheriff’s Department made one drug related arrest on I-70 just east of Milford Lake Road.

Rebekah Dissinger, Lawrence is being held on suspicion of Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University has named an assistant dean to a new position for diversity.

The Wichita Eagle reports WSU President John Bardo on Monday named Marche Fleming-Randle, assistant dean of the university’s Fairmount College of Liberal Arts & Science, to become assistant to the president for diversity.

 

Here are my early thoughts on Thursday’s diversity session. More to come next week. https://t.co/Co8XxC4xUG pic.twitter.com/G9M4WdakZn

— John Bardo (@President_Bardo) November 13, 2015

University spokesman Lou Heldman says Fleming-Randle, who was also appointed recently as adviser to the student governing association, has considerable credibility with students.

Fleming-Randle says in a prepared statement that her job is to move the university “forward on diversity.”

The announcement comes amid several student concerns, including lack of staff diversity.

Student groups are planning a protest during Wednesday’s public meeting of the Kansas Board of Regents at Wichita State. They are complaining about several issues, including diversity and scholarship opportunities.

ROSE HILL – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Butler County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Honda Van driven by Chil Y. Little, 64, Rose Hill, was southbound on Butler Road one mile north of Rose Hill.

The van left the roadway and the driver one over-corrected.

The van went in the lane of a 2002 Ford pickup driven by Bernard L. Hodges, 49, Udhall.

The vehicles collided in the northbound lanes.

Little was transported to the University of Kansas Hospital.

Hodges was injured but not transported for treatment, according to the KHP.

Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

GREAT BEND – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County continue to investigate Sunday’s fatal shooting in Great Bend.

Police along with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation are still searching for leads in the case.

Police in a media release reported officers responded on Sunday morning to a home in the 2900 Block of Lakin Avenue where a man had been shot.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was treated by emergency medical staff at the scene and transported to Great Bend Regional Medical Center where he died.

No additional details have been released.

CAYMAN BRAC – Two Kansas men died in an accident just after 5:30p.m. on Sunday in the Cayman Islands.

The Royal Cayman Island Police reported a Honda minivan was traveling eastbound on South Side Road on Cayman Brac, an island that is part of the Cayman Island chain in the Caribbean. The vehicle ran off the road.

Douglas Carney, 50, Topeka, and Mark Bettencourt, 54, Wamego, were pronounced dead at the scene.

A third man was transported to a local hospital for treatment.  His name has not been released. The police did not determine the driver of the van.

Bettencourt was not found until several hours after the accident, according to police. He has been an optometrist at Vision Source in Wamego since 1994

Carney owns a Topeka construction company.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Activists in about a dozen U.S. states are having a day of action to highlight concerns about potential environmental and health effects of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a high-pressure technique for extracting oil and gas from shale deposits.

The Youngstown, Ohio-based Frackfree America National Coalition organized Tuesday’s events, including rallies in a number of Ohio counties. Some Youngstown-area earthquakes have been tied to fracking or the deep-injection of fracking wastewater.

Elsewhere, planned actions included rallies, press conferences, full-page newspaper ads and film screenings. Activists were participating in Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Environmentalists and others point to seismic activity and potential water contamination from fracking, while the energy industry says the process has been used safely for years.

FRONTENAC- A Kansas man died in an accident just after midnight on Tuesday morning in Crawford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Ford F150 driven by Bruce Hillman Hall, Jr., 26, Mulberry, was eastbound in the 500 Block of East McKay Street in Frontenac at a high rate of speed.

The pickup jumped the Kansas City Southern railroad tracks. The driver lost control of the pickup. It struck a tree and the driver was ejected.

Hall was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to First Call.

A passenger Heather Lyn Williams, 23, Mulberry, was transported to Via Christi.

They were properly restrained at the time of the collision, according to the KHP.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri man who was clocked at more than 100 mph while trying to outrun a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper has been sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says 22-year-old Miguel Torres of Kansas City, Missouri, admitted Monday that on March 14 a trooper tried to stop his BMW, which he was driving west on Interstate 70 in Geary County, Kansas.

During the chase, the trooper clocked Torres’ speed at 111 miles an hour. Once Torres stopped, the trooper found 22 pounds of methamphetamine in the trunk of his car.

Grissom says Torres was paid $6,000 to drive the drugs from Riverside, California, to the Kansas City area.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Lawrence-Douglass County Planning Commission has recommended that the city commission deny rezoning for a shooting range and gun shop to open near a school and future Boys & Girls Club location.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the planning commission voted 4-2 to recommend denial of Lawrence businessman Rick Sells’ request to rezone an estimated 1-acre property for the indoor shooting range and gun sales and repair shop.

Commissioners say they understand the staff’s recommendation to allow the request is correct in terms of laws and zoning ordinances, but that there are factors to consider besides legality.

The four commissioners who recommended denying the request cited either compatibility with the neighborhood’s character or the health, safety and welfare of students and residents.

The city commission will make the final decision on the proposal.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas authorities have nominated five Kansas sites for the National Register of Historic Places.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review nominated five new places at a meeting earlier this month. Kansas has more than 1,300 listings on the National Register of Historic Places, which lists historically significant properties in the U.S.

The Woodland Place Stock Farm is an 880 acre farm that retains many historic elements @FarmlandUSA #kshistory pic.twitter.com/mU3tTSKtNl

— Kansas History (@kansashistory) November 7, 2015

Owners of historically designated properties can receive up to 25 percent of their improvement investment back as state tax credit.

The recent nominations are: The Beal House in Lawrence, the Senate & Curtis Court Apartments Historic District in Topeka, the East Badger Creek Culvert in Cowley County, the Woodland Place Stock Farm in Republic County and prehistoric sites of Wildcat Creek Watershed in Riley County.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas says eight Syrian refugees have settled in the state this year.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families said Monday that one Syrian refugee family settled in Wichita and the other settled in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Wichita office of the International Rescue Committee has said in the past it would be more likely that any Syrian refugees that might come to Kansas would be resettled in Wichita because there is already a well-established Syrian population living in Wichita.

But on Monday, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback issued an executive order forbidding any state agencies or organizations that receive state grant money from helping relocate Syrian refugees in his state.

The governor said the action was necessary because the federal government can’t guarantee Syrian refugees coming to America aren’t terrorists.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Protest leaders at the University of Kansas say they’re pushing for changes to ensure that problems faced by minority and other “marginalized” students are addressed swiftly and effectively.

But they said Monday they won’t follow University of Missouri students in seeking the ouster of administrators.

Leaders of the Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk group in Kansas acknowledged that they were inspired by protests at the University of Missouri that led to resignation of the system’s president and the chancellor of its flagship Columbia campus.

They have present demands to the university that included increasing faculty diversity, a team of counselors for students of color and mandatory “inclusion and belonging” training for all students and staff.

But one of their leaders, St. Louis-area junior Kynnedi Grant, said they’re not “mimicking Mizzou.”

JEFF KAROUB, Associated Press
ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press

 

 

My letter to @POTUS: Texas WILL NOT accept any Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks. https://t.co/GOALpfBD3X

— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) November 16, 2015