A Wichita man has gotten a utility patent for a computerized fishing pole that he plans to begin selling.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Edward Pope’s fishing pole is called the Poletap SmartRod, and he’s now trying to get the product into the retail market.

Pope, who runs Audio Visual Services, received the patent on the technology in the pole, which he says uses computer controlled accelerometer technology so that the pole can detect when a fish is biting. The SmartRod also has different bite sensitivity settings and alerts anglers to a bite with a light and alarm.

The pole is water resistant and will sell for between $55 and $70, depending on whether it’s bought with a reel.

Dodge City authorities have identified a woman and child killed in a house fire earlier this week.

Dodge City officials say 51-year-old Luz Maria Conejo and 2-year-old Pablo Antonio Coca-Conejo died of smoke inhalation in the fire Thursday.

The Dodge City Globe reports that Fire Chief Kevin Norton says the cause of the blaze is under investigation but authorities have determined the fire likely started in the living room of the single-story residence.

The deaths have been ruled as accidental.

Norton says the house didn’t have any smoke alarms.

A largest wind farm in Kansas is scheduled to start operating within days in the southern part of the state with the capacity to provide electricity to 160,000 homes.

Flint Ridge 2 is jointly owned by BP Wind Energy and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power. It will have 294 wind turbines on 66,000 acres in parts of Harper, Barber, Kingman and Sumner counties.

A BP spokesman declined to say when the $800 million project will begin operating other than it’s planned by the “end of the year.”

BP says it has more land in Kansas where it can place turbines. But The Kansas City Star reports plans are on hold until the future of the Production Tax Credit is resolved.

The credit expires at the end of the month.

The Kansas Highway Patrol has released their Christmas Holiday Weekend activity.

The reporting period for the holiday weekend ran from 6:00 p.m. on Friday, December 21, 2012, through 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, December 25, 2012.

During that time, the Patrol worked four fatal crashes, which resulted in five fatalities. None of the fatal crashes were alcohol-related. The Patrol did work four separate DUI-related accidents.

Hutchinson Correctional Facility officials suspect there was a “suicide pact” among three inmates who attempted to simultaneously hang themselves in their cells.

Prison spokesman Dirk Moss said Thursday that the investigation into the Oct. 30 suicide attempts is “mostly complete.” He says the inmates were each in individual cells in the segregation unit, and some of them were adjoining.

The Hutchinson News reports that the inmates used bedding, “primarily sheets,” in the hanging attempt.

The inmates were taken to the internal prison clinic for treatment, and two were transferred to a Wichita hospital due to the extent of their injuries.

All three were returned to the prison population within a few days. Their names haven’t been released.

Federal officials have finalized terms with Kansas for the state’s new managed care plan for Medicaid.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the waiver earlier in December. But federal officials still were working with the state to complete special terms and conditions of the agreement. Gov. Sam Brownback’s office says the final terms were approved late Thursday.

The new system for providing Medicaid services to some 395,000 poor and disabled residents is called KanCare. It takes effect Jan. 1. Three managed care organizations have been contracted to provide the services and coordinate care, as well as building provider networks statewide.

Brownback and his administration hope the changes to a more integrated care system will curb the growth of the state’s share of health care costs.

A small elementary school in south-central Kansas has become an example of charter school success by focusing on elements of rural life.

The demand to attend the Rural Life Center has been increasing steadily since it was re-established in 2007 as a charter school focusing on agriculture and project-based learning. The school is located in Walton, a farming community about five miles east of Newton in Harvey County.

Before the switch, its enrollment had been barely 80 students. Now, Walton has become one of the region’s most popular programs, causing its enrollment to double. The school soon may have to turn students away.

The Wichita Eagle reports the school is trying to raise $300,000 to build two new classrooms to accommodate its growing list of students.

A suburban Kansas City woman studying music theater at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music has won a stalking protection order against her parents.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that 21-year-old Aubrey Ireland of Leawood has convinced a Cincinnati judge that her parents have been harassing her.

She says they often showed up announced at her school and told her department head she had mental issues that could force them to go to court to have her treated.

Her parents admitted they installed monitoring software on their daughter’s laptop and cellphone. Aubrey said it was like she was “a dog with a collar on.”

Her mother, Julie Ireland, told the judge her daughter has been “catered to all her life by loving parents” and insisted they “weren’t bothering her.”

Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies continue investigating the Dec. 16 killings of two Topeka police officers even though the assailant was shot to death the following day.

Sheriff Herman Jones has asked the county commission for overtime expenses for the investigation into the deaths of police Officer Jeff Atherly and Cpl. David Gogian.

The two were shot to death while checking possible drug activity outside a Topeka supermarket. Their killer, 22-year-old David Tiscareno, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers Dec. 17.

Jones told The Topeka Capital-Journal that his office still had some people to interview.

The sheriff told the Shawnee County Commission his office would need $8,000 from its 2012 budget to help pay overtime in 2013 for the investigation.

The sixth annual gathering of Kansas natural resources professionals takes place next month in Wichita.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says the Kansas Natural Resource Conference is set for Jan. 24-25.

This year’s conference will focus partly on invasive species such as the emerald ash borer, which has been destroying trees in Kansas and several other states.

Other session topics will include aquatics, forestry, pasture and wetlands.

The Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Society of American Foresters, Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams are among the conference sponsors.

A family in south-central Kansas has learned that a two-inch layer of ice over a frigid pond isn’t enough to support a small dog.

A 7-year-old beagle named Bear slipped under a fence around a wastewater lagoon at his owners’ home Wednesday and fell through the ice. Owner Patricia Wilson, of Goddard, says she tried to rescue Bear, but she fell into the water, too.

Bear was rescued after nearly an hour by Sedgwick County Fire crews wearing special cold-weather wet suits. The beagle’s temperature was down to 83 degrees – more than 15 below normal – when he reached the veterinarian’s office. He was reported to be recovering later Wednesday.

Wilson says she’ll keep all of her dogs indoors for now.

Fifty-seven years after he served with the Army in Korea, a northeastern Kansas man has finally received official recognition in the form of a medal.

Donald Hamilton received the Korea Defense Service Medal during a ceremony at the American Legion.

The medal was created in 2002 for members of the U.S. military who served in the Republic of Korea after the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

Hamilton served from April 1953 to May 1955 with a military police battalion in Taejon. The Junction City resident was a train guard commander, transporting prisoners, supplies, fuel tanks and troops.

Hamilton’s varied civilian career includes service with the Junction City and Manhattan police departments and the presidency of the Fort Riley Credit Union.

The snowstorm that pummeled the upper Midwest last week is helping ease dry conditions in Iowa but hasn’t done much to relax the overall grip of the worst U.S. drought in decades.

The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows that roughly 62 percent of the continental U.S. remains in some form of drought, unchanged from the previous week. That number has been above 60 percent largely since July.

Nearly 22 percent of the lower 48 states are in extreme or exceptional drought, the two worst categories. That also is unchanged from the previous week.

All of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota are in drought. But thanks to last week’s snow, the amount of Iowa in extreme or exceptional drought fell 9 percentage points to 32 percent.