A candidate for a Kansas State Board of Education seat wants to make it easier for professionals outside the public school system to become teachers.

Overland Park Republican Steve Roberts argues that state policies place too much emphasis on ensuring that aspiring second-career teachers go back to college over quickly tapping their knowledge of subjects such as math and science.

Roberts is running for the open state board seat for the 2nd District, covering northern and eastern Johnson County. His opponent is Cindy Neighbor, a Shawnee Democrat and former Kansas House member who’s served 16 years on the Shawnee Mission school board.

Neighbor contends that Roberts underestimates the need for teachers to understand different teaching methods, classroom management, child development and basic child psychology.

A 60-year-old Hutchinson woman was injured in a one-vehicle accident Saturday afternoon.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, at around 5:20 Saturday, Bonnie Lou Abendschan was traveling eastbound on I-70 about two miles east of Bunker Hill when she veered towards the south ditch and over corrected once left and then again back to the right before the median. The vehicle then entered the south ditch broadside, causing it to roll one-and-a-quarter times, eventually coming to a rest on its driver’s side, facing west.

Abendschan was not wearing a seat belt and was transported to Russell Regional Hospital with undisclosed injuries.

by Neil Ochs ~ Great Bend Post

On Saturday, an accident on US Highway 281 resulted in the injury of a driver and his passenger.

According to the Barton County Sheriff’s Department, at approximately 3:17 on Saturday afternoon, 53-year-old Curtis Snider of Morrison, Colorado was driving a 1992 Freightliner northbound on Highway 281. Snider lost control of the vehicle at mile marker 102 when a strap securing his load broke, shifting the weight of the vehicle, causing it to go into the east ditch.

The vehicle slid sideways, coming to rest on the driver’s side. Snider and his passenger, 47 year old Judy Carter of Morrison, Colorado, were taken to Great Bend Regional Hospital for treatment of lacerations and head injuries sustained in the accident.

A leading Kansas Democrat is criticizing efforts by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to solicit anonymous tips about inefficient use by schools of their state funding.

House Minority Leader Paul Davis says a new website where people can offer tips and suggestions amounts to an online forum for criticizing schools. A task force on school efficiency appointed by Brownback launched the website this week.

Brownback spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag said the governor wants to make Kansas a leader in education and get more dollars into instruction.

Davis says the state should instead discuss innovative ways that schools have done more with less because of past reductions in base state aid. Davis also said the state should celebrate schools by restoring some of the lost aid.

A transient asphalt paving company has been sued by the Kansas Attorney General and accused of violating the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced Friday.

The Attorney General filed suit in Shawnee County District Court and obtained a court order to seize the company’s assets while the litigation is resolved. The Louisiana-based company, Allied Paving and Construction, and individuals Morris E. Herrin Jr., Forrest Dewayne Jackson, Louis Holder Raymond, Robert Wayne Williams, Floyd Jerry Robert and Scott Alan Gilmore are accused of deceptive business practices related to their activities in Kansas, including Shawnee, Wabaunsee and Morris counties. The allegations resulted from an investigation by the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division.

The defendants, operating as Allied Paving, allegedly defrauded at least two Kansas consumers by going door-to-door in Northeast Kansas, offering to pave driveways and parking lots. The Attorney General’s Office alleges the pavers did not disclose all of their charges at the time of the sale and failed to advise the consumers of their rights under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.

As part of the investigative process, the Attorney General’s office seized vehicles and equipment owned by the paving company.

Attorney General Schmidt asked that any Kansans who have done business with this company contact his Consumer Protection Division immediately. Schmidt reminded consumers that when hiring contractors or construction workers, it is best to deal with reputable, local companies. Any consumers who feel they may have been victims of deceptive or illegitimate contractors are encouraged to file a report with the Attorney General’s office by calling 1-800-432-2310 or visiting www.ag.ks.gov.

The Kansas Supreme Court has given a man convicted in a 1982 rape and murder the chance to argue for new DNA testing.

The high court rule Friday in favor of Robert H. Lackey. The court ordered a hearing on his DNA testing request in Saline County District Court, which had earlier turned him down.

Lackey was convicted in 2002 of first-degree murder and rape in the death of Sara Ann Brecheisen, a 22-year-old college student from Salina.

Brecheisen was a volunteer in 1982 at the Gospel Mission, a men’s homeless shelter now known as the Salina Rescue Mission. Lackey lived at the shelter and worked there as a cook, going by the name Bob Moore.

by Fred Gough ~ Hutch Post

The sentencing for a 25-year-old Hutchinson man charged in a child sex case was sentenced to life as expected. That was the sentence handed down by Senior Judge William Buck Lyle for Michael Sherman.

He was charged back in early December after he reported to police that he sexually abused his own infant child. He admitted that he was alone with the child and was watching pornography on his cell phone, then sodomized the child. He reportedly visited two porn websites using a smart phone.

Sherman entered a guilty plea before Judge Tim Chambers to aggravated criminal sodomy

The defense first argued that Jessica’s Law is unconstitutional and the judge found that it was, and they then argued for a departure from the Jessica’s Law and ask for a much smaller amount of time in prison. Judge Lyle admitted that this was his first sentencing since Jessica’s Law was implemented but found there were no substantial or compelling reasons to depart. He sentenced Sherman to the life term.

Both families spoke about what he had done. The grandfather of the child all but crawled out of the court gallery and attack the defendant, telling him he is lucky he can’t get to him. He asked the defendant, “how could you do this to your own child?”

The mother of the child wanted her former husband to get the maximum for what he did, while his family asking for relief from the life sentence saying “God” had forgiven him so the court should show some mercy.

Sherman declined to speak, however as he was being escorted from the courtroom, he turned to what used to be his family and told them “I’m Sorry.”

Confidential files kept for years by Boy Scouts of America detailing allegations of sexual abuse against boys include 14 cases from Kansas.

Six of the 14 cases detailed in files released Thursday were from troops in Wichita. Other cases were from Olathe, Arkansas City, Manhattan, Newton, Kansas City, Hoisington and two from Leavenworth.

The Boy Scouts released about 14,500 pages of what are being called “perversion files” on cases across the country dating from 1959 to 1985.

A Portland law firm that made the files available stressed that simply because a case is on the list does not mean the allegations are true. Some of the national cases resulted in court sentences but others have not been substantiated or were dropped.

A young Kansas driver distracted by balloons lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a hotel, narrowly missing a woman inside one of the hotel’s rooms.

Topeka police say the helium balloons inside the car were obstructing 17-year-old Kelli Young’s vision while she drove Thursday night. When she tried to push them out of the way, her SUV crashed through a perimeter fence, a fire hydrant and hit two vehicles in the parking lot of the Value Place hotel.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Young’s vehicle eventually ended up halfway into hotel room.

28-year-old Michelle Williams of El Dorado was staying in the room. She says the vehicle stopped about 3 inches from her.

No one was injured. Charges have not been filed.

The defense attorney for a Kansas woman accused of stealing from the credit union where she worked says his client is a good person who found herself in a difficult financial situation and made a series of bad decisions to save her farm.

Pamela Emig, 47, of Solomon has a court hearing Tuesday in federal court in Topeka to face one count of embezzlement. She is charged with stealing $817,167 from April 2005 to August 2011 from Enterprise Credit in Enterprise, where she was a manager.

Defense attorney Christopher Joseph says there is a plea agreement and his client accepts responsibility for her conduct. He says Emig did not live lavishly by any standard, and the circumstances of her actions will be explained at sentencing.

Original Story

A Dickinson County woman has been charged with embezzling more than $800,000 from the credit union where she worked, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Pamela Emig, 47, Solomon, Kan., was charged with one count of embezzlement. A criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka alleges Emig embezzled $817,167 while she was working for Enterprise Credit at 102 Factory in Enterprise, Kan. The crime is alleged to have occurred from April 30, 2005, to Aug. 8, 2011.

If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1 million. The FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hathaway and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Kenney are prosecuting.

Transportation officials say a stretch of Interstate 35 in northern Oklahoma is open again after a massive dust storm triggered a multi-vehicle accident.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokesman Cole Hackett said the 8-mile stretch of Interstate 35 reopened Thursday evening.

Transportation workers had been called in earlier Thursday to close the highway between U.S. 60 and Oklahoma 11. The area just south of the Kansas state line remained closed for several hours as crews cleared debris from the crash and waited for winds to die down.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said visibility was less than 10 feet as gusts as high as 55 mph blew dust over the roadway Thursday afternoon.

No one was killed in the multi-vehicle accident, though Blackwell Police Chief Fred LeValley said nine people were injured.