Grace Memorial Chapel-photo Wichita State University
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The former campus minister at Wichita State University says renovations that included removing pews from Grace Memorial chapel were sought by Christians, not by Muslims.
The university received criticism recently for the chapel renovations, which included replacing pews with folding chairs. Some said they felt the changes marginalized Christians while accommodating Muslims.
The Rev. Christopher Eshelman, a United Methodist minister who served as campus minister at Wichita State in 2011 and 2012, told The Wichita Eagle that several people — including him — had the idea to make the chapel a more flexible worship space.
The family that made the chapel possible in 1964 specified that it remain open to all creeds and races.
Eshelman says Muslim students made no demands on how the space would be changed.
FIre crews in Harvey County on Tuesday. photos Harvey Co. Sheriff
HARVEY COUNTY- Fire crews in Harvey County are being credited with saving a life and a home, according to a media release.
Upon arrival at 4300 SE 24th, the Newton fire and first responders found a shed fully engulfed in flames. The fire was so intense it melted the siding on the house and was about to catch the house on fire as well.
Harvey County Sheriff Deputies were able to enter the home, wake up the resident and get him out.
There were no injuries. Cause of the fire is under investigation.
HESSTON – Law enforcement authorities in Harvey County have increased a police presence near schools in Hesston and are investigating two separate incidents.
Police reported in a media release, that in both instances, an adult in a vehicle approached and asked a USD 460 student if they wanted to get into the vehicle.
Both times the students knew what to do and ran away or rode away on a bicycle. One incident was shortly after school hours, the other was in the early evening.
The Hesston Police Department has increased patrol presence in the area of schools during those times. While there was no actual crime committed in these incidents, the behavior is suspicious enough that police there would like to locate the vehicle and driver for further investigation.
The vehicle and occupant have been described very similarly in both reported incidents as a small black, faded and rusty colored passenger car.
The driver is an older Caucasian male with brownish/gray hair, perhaps salt and pepper colored, has some gray facial hair, and was the only occupant of the vehicle.
The driver never attempted to exit the vehicle after verbally contacting the students and did not pursue the child in any way.
The Hesston Police Department also asked parents to take the time to talk to their school-aged children about stranger danger and reinforce to them to never approach a car or individual they don’t know.
If you or your child may have seen a vehicle and driver as described in these incidents, either before or after school, or after school activities, please contact the Hesston Police Department at 620-327-2020.
MANHATTAN – Johnathon Elliott, 20, of Manhattan, appeared in Riley County Court on Tuesday afternoon for a status check under Judge Malcolm.
Elliott was arrested on September 11, in connection with a series of robberies and a theft that were reported in the central portion of Manhattan on September 4, that prompted the campus lockdown at Kansas State University.
He is charged with three counts of felony-aggravated robbery and one count of felony conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and two misdemeanor theft charges.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for November 10.
HARVEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Harvey County reported Tuesday that Brenton Brawner, 20, McPherson, was the driver of the stolen Cox Cable truck involved in Monday morning’s fatal crash.
The vehicle had been stolen in Hutchinson.
The Sheriff’s office reported the truck driven by
Brawner was traveling on Dutch Avenue when the driver lost control and hit a bridge guardrail.
The rail impaled the truck and it flipped the truck over and into Sand Creek.
Brawner died as a result of the accident.
Dutch Avenue was closed for several hours between Sandhill and
Willow Lake Roads about six miles north of Newton due to damage to the bridge and the guardrail.
TOPEKA – Westar Energy announced in a media release on Tuesday, plans to continue its transition to a cleaner, more modern electricity supply. As part of the plan, the company will phase out old electrical generating equipment at three locations by year end, Hutchinson being one of them.
Officials say people are using less energy, so they no longer need these old, small generating units to meet peak electrical demand. Plus, the current price to add more renewable energy is a reasonable alternative, so they’ll add more renewable energy, as needed.
Officials say while it’s time to retire this equipment, that will also mean the loss of about 40 jobs in Lawrence, Tecumseh and Hutchinson.
They say that the plants in these locations will continue to operate, they will do so producing less electricity with fewer employees. This will impact Hutchinson and the other two locations, which will lose good paying jobs and property tax revenues that benefit the communities effected.
While the total number of jobs at Westar will decline, the company expects to place employees affected by these changes in other open positions within the company.
SALINA — A 33-year-old Brookville man was arrested Monday afternoon at Centennial Park after police said he thought he was going to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney said Marcus Smith had arranged to meet who he thought was a teenage girl he met in a Craigslist ad on Oct. 7. The girl turned out to be a undercover officer with the Kansas Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, based out of Sedgwick County.
Sweeney said Smith had also sent sexually explicit pictures of himself to the girl.
Smith was booked into jail on suspicion of attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child, attempted criminal sodomy with a child, electronic solicitation, sexual exploitation of a child, and driving while suspended.
MANHATTAN – A suspect, accused in the March shooting death of a Riley County man, was arraigned on Tuesday and pled not guilty to one count of 2nd degree murder and one count of attempted aggravated assault.
Tierre Wall is suspected in the shooting death of Casey Lindley, 27, of Ogden.
Law enforcement officers responded to reports of a shot fired in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 12 and found Lindley suffering from a gunshot wound.
He was transported to a Topeka hospital where he later died of his injuries.
Wall was arrested after turning himself in at a Georgia police station.
Wall’s previous attorney was allowed to withdraw from the case, and he is now represented by attorney Brenda Jordan
while the State was represented Tuesday by Kendra Lewison.
The case has been set for a five-day trial starting on January 11, 2016. The pretrial and motions hearing will be held on November 16.
SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a report of on attack on a woman in Salina.
Police Captain Mike Sweeney said Larry Ladrido, 37, Salina, is alleged to have tried to strangle a woman acquaintance at a south Salina home just after 10:45p.m. on Monday.
He also is accused of threatening the woman with a knife
Ladrido was arrested and booked into the Saline County Jail on Tuesday morning on requested charges of aggravated assault, domestic battery, and criminal threats.
MANHATTAN —The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched a $100,000 prize competition to reward innovative ideas that help to protect the nation’s animal agriculture industry by leveraging resources at theNational Bio and Agro-defense Facility, or NBAF.
The Think and Do challenge ideas will be accepted through Nov. 30. The Department of Homeland Security is conducting the competition through its Science and Technology directorate.
“We are excited to kick this off,” said Marty Vanier, the director of partnership development for NBAF. “It is all part of the Department of Homeland Security wanting to create an entirely new way of doing business when it comes to performing research. It represents a spirit of collaboration, cooperation and building relationships.”
Any U.S. citizen, permanent resident or company registered to do business in the United States is eligible to submit ideas. Vanier said the total prize pool of $100,000 may be shared by several winning ideas, or potentially won by a single winning idea. The minimum award will be $15,000.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for groups on campus or groups in the community to come forward with their ideas with respect to how they might work with NBAF,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity even for small companies to share their ideas with respect to technology they think might be useful to NBAF.”
NBAF is expected to open in 2022 as a state-of-the-art biocontainment laboratory to study diseases that threaten America’s animal agriculture industry and public health. It will be located adjacent to the north end of the Kansas State University campus, and will replace an aging facility currently at Plum Island, New York.
Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Undersecretary Reginald Brothers said the Think and Do competition is a catalyst for developing a sound plan and smart strategy to enable the new laboratory to leverage and build upon existing resources and capabilities to better protect the nation’s livestock and public health.
Vanier noted that such competitions are not unusual since the U.S. government passed the America COMPETES Act of 2007. The law allows the government to offer awards for competitions that promote an investment in research and development.
Technology competitions shake the tree for new ideas, but also will help to establish a spirit of cooperation and partnerships for NBAF, Vanier said.
Contest rules and more information about the Think and Do challenge are available at dhs.gov/nbafchallenge.
By Tatiana Y. Lin, M.A., Shawna Chapman, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A., Sarah M. Hartsig, M.S., Sheena L. Smith, M.P.P
KHI image
During the 2015 legislative session, Kansas lawmakers considered three bills (SB 9, HB 2282 and HB 2011) to legalize medical marijuana.
In order to inform the discussion, the Kansas Health Institute (KHI) conducted a health impact assessment (HIA) that examined how the legalization of medical marijuana could affect the health of Kansans.
The purpose of the HIA, entitled Potential Health Effects of the Legalization of Medical Marijuana in Kansas, was to examine how some provisions of this legislation might affect the health of Kansans, either positively or negatively.
This study analyzed six factors related to the legalization of medical marijuana in Kansas including access to marijuana, consumption of marijuana, crime, driving under the influence of marijuana, accidental ingestion of marijuana and impact on vulnerable populations. All of these factors can impact health.
“The health impact assessment intends to provide evidence-based information on key issues that have been discussed during the 2015 Kansas Legislative Session We hope the report’s findings and recommendations will be considered by policymakers when deciding whether to legalize medical marijuana in our state,” said Tatiana Lin, M.A., senior analyst and strategy team leader for KHI’s health impact assessment work.
GARDEN CITY. – The Kansas Supreme Court will hear three cases on Tuesday during a special session at Garden City High School including arguments for a man convicted in the murder of a Hutchinson woman, according to a Kansas Judicial Branch media release.
Charles Christopher Logsdon is appealing his conviction for first-degree murder and other charges in the shooting death of Jennifer Heckel.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.
Questions before the court are whether there was sufficient evidence presented at trial to convict him, and whether the district court committed errors when it denied his motion for mistrial, when it imposed a hard-50 sentence, and when it instructed the jury on the law regarding aiding and abetting.
Logsdon is believed to be the shooter of Heckel. She was shot three times in her home on June 14, 2011, including in the head and back while her young son listened to her being killed in another room.
The state contends the murder was a case of mistaken identity and that the suspects intended to rob Kayla Salyer-Rodriquez but ended up at the wrong house.
The Supreme Court session in Garden City High is scheduled for Tuesday evening.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The latest on the collapse of a burning apartment building in Kansas City that killed two firefighters (all times local):
7:55 a.m.
The Kansas City fire chief says two firefighters were killed when a section of a burning building collapsed, blowing a wall outward about 30 feet and trapping them.
Chief Paul Berardi choked back tears as he spoke of Larry J. Leggio and John V. Mesh who were killed when the wall collapsed onto them Monday night. Two others were injured fighting the fire at the building that had businesses on the ground level and apartments above.
He says the collapse happened after the building had been evacuated and that it appears a second-story section collapsed, forcing a wall outward about 30 feet. The firefighters killed and two others who were injured were outside the building working to protect a grocery store separated from the burning structure by an alley.
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7:35 a.m.
Kansas City authorities have identified two firefighters who were killed when a wall collapsed on them in a burning building.
The firefighters died Monday night as a massive fire engulfed the building on the city’s northeast side.
During an emotional news conference early Tuesday, Fire Chief Paul Berardi identified the firefighters as 17-year department veteran Larry J. Leggio and 13-year veteran John V. Mesh.
He didn’t provide their ages.
Berardi says the two died after rescuing at least two residents from the apartment building blaze.
Two other firefighters were injured. Berardi says one has been released from the hospital, and the other may be released Tuesday.
Crews were still at the scene of the fire early Tuesday. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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6:45 a.m.
A Kansas City apartment building that collapsed, killing two firefighters, is still burning 12 hours after the blaze began.
Fire Chief Paul Berardi says two other firefighters were injured Monday night as the massive fire engulfed the building on the city’s northeast side.
Berardi says the two who died saved two residents shortly before the building collapsed around them. He says they “did not die in vain.”
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City Fire Department official says two firefighters were killed and two were injured when a burning building collapsed.
Fire Department Battalion Chief James Garrett tells the Kansas City Star crews were dispatched to a building on the northeast side of town around 7:30 p.m. Monday. He says firefighters found the building that includes apartments heavily damaged, and they evacuated people from inside.
Garrett says firefighters were clearing an area with a partially collapsed roof when the structure collapsed further, injuring four of them. He tells the newspaper two firefighters have died. The firefighters were not immediately identified.
