TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Insurance Department is considering whether insurance agents need more training.

Currently, the state’s insurance agents are required to complete 12 hours of education every other year. Most states require 24 hours for insurance agents.

The Wichita Eagle reports the department wants to complete a study of the question in the fall and present recommendations to the Legislature in January.

The Legislature has considered five bills in the last four years to raise the minimum education standard but none became law.

Clark Shultz, director of government and public affairs for the department, says it has not taken a stance on the issue before but wants to reach a conclusion about whether the state’s requirement is adequate before the next legislative session.

 

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — The latest on the trial of a white supremacist charged with capital murder for the deaths of three people at two Jewish sites in the Kansas City area (all times local):

6:10 p.m.

A white supremacist has given jurors a Nazi salute after they convicted him of capital murder and other charges for killing three people at two suburban Kansas City Jewish sites.

It took the jury of seven men and five women just over two hours to find Frazier Glenn Miller guilty of one count of capital murder, three counts of attempted murder and assault and weapons charges.

After the verdict was announced, Miller, said: “The fat lady just sang.” As jurors were filing out of the courtroom, he raised his right arm in the Nazi salute and told them: “You probably won’t sleep tonight.”

He faces the death penalty. Sentencing proceedings are scheduled to begin Tuesday.

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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) —A jury has convicted a white supremacist of killing three people at Kansas City-area Jewish sites last year.

Jurors returned their verdict Monday against Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., who admitted that he killed the three in April 2014, but argued that he was compelled to do it because Jewish people are trying to wipe out the white race. None of the victims was Jewish.

Miller had been representing himself after firing his lawyers in May.

Prosecutors had begun their case against Miller by quoting him after the shootings saying he hated Jews and asking how many did he get. They rested their case Thursday, barely four days into the trial. Proceedings moved swiftly because Miller asked witnesses very few questions.

MANHATTAN – A Kansas man will serve 24 months probation in connection with an aggravated arson case.

On Monday, Riley County Judge John F. Bosch approved a dispositional departure in the sentencing process and followed a plea agreement by Gene Pixler, 52, of Manhattan, and the Prosecution.

Pixler was arrested at the Riley County Police Department on April 20, after an investigation into a report for aggravated arson and criminal damage to property. The incident occurred in the early morning hours of January 31 at the Manhattan Emergency Shelter.

Only minor damage was reported and no injuries were listed to anyone inside as a result of this incident.

According to the Manhattan Fire Department total damage was estimated at $125 for content and property loss.

Along with his probation, Pixler was ordered to continue with a drug and alcohol treatment program through Pawnee Mental Health and additional treatment he is receiving.

He was also ordered to pay $169 restitution to the Manhattan Emergency Shelter.

SALINE COUNTY- Burning tires were responsible for a fire that destroyed a semi’s trailer on Interstate 70 just before 3 p.m. on Sunday in Saline County.

Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski said that a 1993 Kenworth semi driven by Robin R. Reeve, 63, LaSalle, CO, was eastbound near Brookville Road.

Reeve said he felt shaking. He looked in his mirror and saw the right front tires of the trailer come halfway off and the trailer started sliding.

By the time Reeve was able to stop the semi, the tires and trailer were on fire. He attempted to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, but the fire was too intense.

Firefighters with Saline County Rural Fire District #3 were able extinguish the fire on the trailer as well as a few small grass fires that were ignited by the trailer.

The trailer, which was carrying 50,000 pounds of aluminum shavings from a machine shop, was destroyed and the fire burned through the sides and rear door of the vehicle.

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is closing out its worst month in more than three years on a down note.

Stocks fell broadly in Monday trading, with the exception of energy shares, which reversed an early slump after the price of crude oil surged.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended August down 6.3 percent, its worst showing since May 2012. Investors have been worried about slowing growth in China and elsewhere and looming interest rate hikes in the U.S.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 114 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,528.

The S&P 500 fell 16 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,972. The Nasdaq composite slid 52 points, or 1.1 percent, to 4,776.

Oil surged 9 percent on news that U.S. production has been lower than estimated.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court says it will decide by Sept. 21 whether a suburban Kansas City-area school district can intervene in a lawsuit against the state over school funding.

The court issued an order Monday setting a schedule for deciding how much the Shawnee Mission district participates in the lawsuit.

A three-judge Shawnee County District Court panel has invalidated parts of an education funding law enacted this year and declared that the state must spend at least $548 million more a year on its public schools. The state has appealed.

The lawsuit from school districts in Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, was filed in 2010. Shawnee Mission argues that the four other districts can’t represent its interests.

But the lower-court panel denied Shawnee Mission’s request to intervene.

BURLINGTON, Ky. (AP) — She might be a bit shaggy, but Lucy Lou wants to run for president — and she comes with political experience.

The border collie has served as mayor of Rabbit Hash, an unincorporated community of 135 residents along the Ohio River in northern Kentucky, since 2008.

Bobbi Kayser, Lucy’s owner and chief executive of staff, told the Kentucky Enquirer that she will announce her ambitions for higher office — and her retirement as mayor — on Saturday.

As the story goes, Lucy and her canine predecessors got into the political arena because it seemed as if politics was going to the dogs anyway.

No word on whether Lucy will file as a Democrat, a Republican or as a third-party candidate.

NEW YORK (AP) — Crude oil futures prices ended higher on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The near-month contract for the benchmark grade rose $3.98 — closing at $49.20 a barrel.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man who plotted a suicide bomb attack aimed at causing “maximum carnage” at a Wichita airport has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Terry L. Loewen apologized Monday during his sentencing to his family for the pain he had caused them.

The 60-year-old Wichita man pleaded guilty in June to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot imposed the proposed sentence that came with the plea deal.

The avionics technician was arrested during an undercover operation in December 2013 when he tried to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at Mid-Continent Airport.

He came to the FBI’s attention when he became a Facebook friend of an individual who regularly posted information supporting violent jihad, or holy war.

 

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man who plotted a suicide bomb attack at a Wichita airport is expected to get 20 years in prison under the terms of a plea deal.

Terry L. Loewen pleaded guilty in June to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The 60-year-old Wichita man will return to federal court Monday for sentencing. If the judge rejects the proposed sentence, Loewen will be allowed to withdraw his plea.

The avionics technician was arrested during an undercover FBI operation in December 2013 when he tried to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at Mid-Continent Airport.

The FBI said he was Facebook friend of an individual who regularly posted information supporting violent jihad, or holy war.

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U.S. District Judge Monti Belot is scheduled to sentence Terry L. Loewen on Monday.

The 60-year-old man pleaded guilty in June to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He struck a deal with prosecutors for a 20-year sentence that the judge has said he’s “almost certain” to impose.

The former avionics technician was arrested in 2013 while trying to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at what was then called Mid-Continent Airport.

The Center on National Security at Fordham Law School says Loewen’s case is among 462 terror prosecutions associated with groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

BRENHAM, Texas (AP) — Blue Bell ice cream is back.

Blue Bell Creameries has resumed selling its products in select locations Monday, four months after the Texas-based retailer halted sales due to listeria contamination.

Blue Bell ice cream is now available at stores in the Houston and Austin areas, including in the company’s hometown of Brenham, plus parts of Alabama.

The company voluntarily recalled its products in April after they were linked to 10 listeria cases in four states, including three deaths in Kansas.

Production plants in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama then underwent an extensive cleaning and decontamination, under the regulatory oversight of health officials.

Listeria bacteria can cause serious illness, especially in older adults, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating an accident that took the life of a Kansas teen just after 11p.m. on Friday.

The Saline County Sheriff reported a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle driven by Dakota Harr, 19, Ellsworth, was traveling with a group of motorcyclists near Airport Road and Water Well south of Salina.

Harr left the group at a high rate of speed, failed to stop at the intersection, struck the lid of a water pump station, lost control of the motorcycle and landed about 600 feet from the road in a cornfield, according to the sheriff.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A judge has ejected a white supremacist from a Kansas courtroom after the man objected to jury instructions in his murder trial, saying he doesn’t respect the process.

Frazier Glenn Miller is acting as his own attorney. The 74-year-old repeatedly complained Monday that the court was telling the jurors what to think.

Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan had been preparing the jury for closing arguments.

Miller called the instructions unconstitutional. The judge told him to show some respect and Miller replied that he had none, prompting his ejection.

Miller has admitted he fatally shot three people at two Jewish sites in the Kansas City area in April last year, but pleaded not guilty, calling the death of Jews necessary.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Jurors are set to hear closing arguments in the case of a white supremacist charged with killing three people at two Jewish sites in Kansas.

Deliberations are to begin after closing arguments conclude Monday in the capital murder trial of Frazier Glenn Miller. The 74-year-old Missouri man is acting as his own attorney and told jurors Friday that the prosecutor had a “slam dunk.”

Miller has admitted that he drove to two Jewish sites in Overland Park, Kansas, in April 2014 with the intent of killing Jews. He has pleaded not guilty because he says Jewish people are committing genocide against the white race and it was his duty to stop them. None of the victims was Jewish.

If convicted, Miller could be sentenced to death.