WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University is reviving its master’s degree in physics.

The move announced Tuesday in a news release comes a month after the Kansas Board of Regents green-lighted the proposal. The regents suspended the program in 2003 because of low enrollment and graduation numbers for it.

The program is officially restarting the spring of 2016, but the school is now taking applications.

Ron Matson, the dean of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, says the next step is to recruit students.

Wichita State has 40 undergraduate physics students, but that number is expected to increase now that undergraduates can be recruited to the master’s program.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — A lawsuit claiming that that the Kansas City Chiefs fired an older maintenance manager because of his age has received fresh life.

On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court vacated a Jackson County jury’s decision that the club didn’t discriminate in Steve Cox’s firing. The judges found that it was wrong to preclude 20 other former employees from testifying that they also lost their jobs because they were older.

The Supreme Court has sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.

Cox was 61 in 2010 when he was fired and replaced with a 37-year-old worker. The Chiefs have argued that Cox was terminated for performance issues and insubordination.

A Chiefs attorney didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment on the ruling.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has obtained a court order that prevents the judiciary from having its funding cut off through mid-March.

Schmidt’s office filed a petition Tuesday in Neosho County District Court to block enforcement of a law enacted earlier this year by legislators. The law tied the judicial branch’s entire budget to a change in how chief judges of district courts are selected.

Neosho County District Judge Daryl Ahlquist granted Schmidt’s request, preventing enforcement of the law until March 15. The Legislature reconvenes in January.

The same law is being challenged in a separate lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court by four district judges.

Under an earlier policy enacted last year by legislators, local judges pick their chief justices, stripping the Kansas Supreme Court of the decisions.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The defense has rested in the first-degree murder trial of a Kansas health care worker accused of killing a client with cerebral palsy.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that closing arguments are planned for Wednesday in the case of 49-year-old Ronald Eugene Heskett.

The Eudora man responded Tuesday to prosecution claims that he killed 65-year-old Vance Moulton for financial reasons. The defense has argued the September 2014 killing was an assisted suicide.

Heskett says the reason $13,000 was missing after Moulton’s death was because the men were partnering in a money-making venture. Heskett said they invested in a 1972 Chevelle to fix up and sell for a profit. The goal was to help raise money for a wheelchair-accessible van.

Heskett says they didn’t tell anyone else about the agreement.

JIM SUHR, AP Business Writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s attorney general is taking Walgreen Co. back to court, alleging the nation’s biggest pharmacy chain is violating a settlement reached last year over its pricing practices.

Attorney General Chris Koster’s office asked a judge Tuesday to hold Walgreen in contempt for violating terms of the 2014 deal.

Koster sued Walgreen in 2013, accusing the retailer of overcharging customers and using deceptive advertising and pricing schemes in Missouri. Koster says the investigation began after consumers complained that display prices didn’t match up with what they paid at checkout.

But Koster alleges Walgreen violated the settlement by not removing expired sales tags from shelves, and deceiving customers about those products’ prices, in roughly 1,300 recent instances.

Walgreen said it may publicly comment later Tuesday. The company is based in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois.

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — Junction City officials remain optimistic lots the city took back after overbuilding a decade ago will be sold, even though only two of the first 25 lots offered for sale received bids.

The city took back 900 undeveloped lots left empty after the city was told in 2005 that as many as 8,000 troops would be transferred to Fort Riley. About 5,500 troops arrived but most preferred to live on base or couldn’t afford the new housing.

City Manager Allen Dinkel says a construction company bid on two adjacent lots during the recent auction. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Dinkel said the first 25 lots were not adjacent to each other and many developers have said they would be interested if they could buy larger groups of lots together.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Newly released court records say a Topeka car explosion that severely injured a 4-year-old boy also peeled back the vehicle’s metal roof.

The Topeka Capital-Journal  reports that it obtained an affidavit Tuesday in the case against Jacob Daniel Schell. The 37-year-old was charged earlier this month in the July 5 explosion.

The affidavit says that a sack containing “several improvised explosive devices” blew up in the lap of Schell’s son. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper said the ignition source was a “little cap gun” the boy was using.

Schell described what exploded as leftover fireworks from a campout. But the state fire marshal’s agent said damage to this vehicle was consistent with commercially made or homemade explosives. Schell’s attorney didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.

El DORADO – Two Kansas men were injured in an accident just after 11:30p.m. on Tuesday in Butler County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Ford F450 driven by Malcolm A. Smith, 39, Andover, was westbound on U.S.54 six miles east of El Dorado.

The truck was slowing down to make a left hand turn into a private access road.

A westbound 2009 Harley Davidson FLH Series Motorcycle driven by Bryan A. Hammond, 35, Mclouth, passed the truck and rolled into the south ditch.

A westbound 2008 Harley Davidson Softtail Motorcycle driven by Darren W. Johnson, 49, Rantoul, struck the truck’s driver’s side rear quarter panel.

Hammond was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.
Johnson was transported to Wesley Medical Center.
They were not wearing helmets, according to the KHP.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Police are investigating after a man robbed a bank in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park.

The Kansas City Star reports that police say the robbery happened Tuesday afternoon at a U.S. Bank branch. Witnesses reported that the robber ran west from the bank carrying a handgun.

No injuries were reported.

WASHINGTON -Pope Francis has arrived in the United States. (If you missed it live… the player will allow you watch it later)

 

The Pope’s chartered airplane is on the ground at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington after delivering the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics on his first-ever U.S. visit.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWpt0gmUkSw#t=1157

Francis landed after a flight from Cuba, where he wrapped up a four-day visit.

Before leaving the communist island country, Francis appealed to Cubans to rediscover their Catholic heritage and live a “revolution of tenderness.”

President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are at Andrews to welcome the pope.

Obama and Francis will meet one on one at the White House on Wednesday.

 

MANHATTAN –Law enforcement authorities have taken another aggravated robbery suspect into custody  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.

Riley County Police reported Carson Buckley, 16, Manhattan was arrested just after 8:30a.m. on Tuesday for the offenses of aggravated robbery (X3) and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery (he was also served a warrant for failure to appear).

He was given “no bond” and transported to the North Central Kansas Regional Juvenile Detention Facility in Junction City.

Buckley is the fourth of the named suspects in these aggravated robberies that have been taken into custody.

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has set up a showdown vote for Thursday on a bill financing government agencies through Dec. 11 but also blocking Planned Parenthood’s federal funds for a year. The Kentucky Republican’s move seems aimed at ultimately averting a partial federal shutdown on Oct. 1

#Democrats “decided to block all spending bills starting with the defense appropriations measure” as part of their “Filibuster Summer.”

— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) September 22, 2015

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Senate Democrats have already blocked the GOP from cutting Planned Parenthood’s money, and seem likely to derail McConnell’s bill on Thursday. He would then be expected to schedule a later Senate vote financing the government without blocking Planned Parenthood’s funds.

Planned Parenthood is under attack from conservatives for its procurement of fetal tissue for scientific research. Conservatives’ insistence on cutting the organization’s money has left House GOP leaders so far unable to figure out how to pass legislation averting a shutdown.