A Kansas City, Kan., man has been sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for taking a 17-year-old girl across state lines so she could work as a prostitute, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Otis Warren, 26, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity. In his plea, Warren admitted that in November 2010 he transported a girl identified as AR, who was 17 years old at the time, from Kansas City, Kan., to Kansas City, Mo., so she could work as a prostitute.

Investigators with the Prairie Village Police Department working undercover agreed to pay $250 an hour to have sex with the girl. Driving a blue Cadillac, Warren dropped the girl off at a house in Prairie Village. Police followed Warren when he drove away. They stopped him and arrested him. Investigators learned Warren kept the majority of the girl’s money while she worked for him.

Grissom commended the Prairie Village Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Martin for their work on the case.

A Kansas man has pleaded guilty to bank robbery, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Donald R. Young, 59, Wichita, entered a guilty plea during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Wichita today. In his plea, Young admitted that on Feb. 10, 2012, he robbed the Wells Fargo Bank at 455 S. West Street in Wichita. He walked into the bank and presented a demand noting saying in part, “I have a gun. Remain calm. I only want fifties and hundreds. Do not sound any alarm or make a scene.”

Detectives for the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office arrested Young shortly after the robbery. He had money from the bank in his possession and the demand note, which he had torn up, was in his pants pocket.

Sentencing is set for Dec. 17. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. Grissom commended the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lind for their work on the case.

A Kansas judge has indefinitely postponed a court hearing on an attorney’s legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s place on the state’s Nov. 6 general election ballot.

Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks will decide first whether California attorney and dentist Orly Taitz has the standing to file a lawsuit in Kansas.

Taitz promotes the discredited idea that Obama is not eligible to serve as president.

Last month, she sued Secretary of State Kris Kobach and a state elections board he leads after the board kept Obama on the ballot.

The board created a stir by taking time to authenticate information in a copy of Obama’s birth certificate from Hawaii available online.

But Kobach is asking Hendricks to dismiss Taitz’s lawsuit.

In a time when law school applications are declining nationally, The University of Kansas School of Law had a 19 percent increase in applications for 2012.

The school announced Monday that it received 973 applications in 2012, compared with 819 in 2011. In 2010, the school had 1,120 applications.

The increase comes at a time when the number of people applying for law school admission across the country fell 13.7 percent in 2012.

The university says it was one of only 11 of the 198 law schools accredited by the American Bar Association to record an increase in applications of more than 10 percent.

Researchers at Kansas State University say they’ve developed a blood test that can detect some cancers in their earliest stages.

The test was developed by chemistry professor Stefan Bossmann and anatomy and physiology professor Deryl Troyer. It can detect breast cancer and the most common type of lung cancer before symptoms start. The researchers expect that testing designed to detect pancreatic cancer will begin shortly.

Troyer says the test would be most helpful to people with an increased cancer risk because of such factors as a family history of the disease.

The researchers hope that people in at-risk groups could be tested periodically by their own doctors. Positive results would prompt diagnostic imaging.

Police in Riley County say foul play is not suspected in the death of a Fort Riley soldier at his home off the northeast Kansas post.

A relative found 33-year-old Sgt. Duriel Powell not breathing Friday at his home in Ogden. Emergency medical personnel determined Powell was deceased.

Riley County Police Lt. Josh Kyle says there were no signs of foul play, and an autopsy will be conducted.

Officials with the 1st Infantry Division say Powell was a field artillery radar operator. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt last week asked a court to order the return of photographs, case file records and investigative reports related to the 1959 murders of Herb Clutter and three members of his family.

The materials, which have been in the possession of the family of a former Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent who worked on the case, have been the subject of a dispute since some of them appeared for sale on an online auction site earlier this year. Shawnee County District Judge Larry D. Hendricks entered a temporary restraining order on Thursday blocking the sale of the items while their legal ownership is determined.

The attorney general’s petition also seeks to stop any reproduction, publication, distribution or sale of the same photographs, files, and reports. It asks the Court to declare that the State of Kansas is the owner of the KBI criminal investigation files and records relating to the murders of the Clutter family and asks the court to order the return of the materials to the custody of the State.

“The crime scene and autopsy photographs and the criminal investigation case materials are clearly the property of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and should not be auctioned off, particularly for personal gain,” Schmidt said. “It is important for these materials to be returned to the State of Kansas for the protection of the integrity of the records and out of respect for the Clutter family.”

Schmidt said he hopes the court will move swiftly to grant the relief requested.

by Randy Picking ~ Salina Post

An 18-year-old Salina teen was arrested on two counts of vehicle burglary after a victim of one of the burglaries saw what looked like her stolen camera, being sold on a Facebook page.

Justus Martinez is alleged to have stolen items recently from a car in the 1100-block of Johnstown, and 800-block of E.Minneapolis.

The woman who had a camera stolen was looking on Salina Buy and Sell and saw a camera that looked like the one stolen. She bought it and then called police.

After obtaining a search warrant, Police went to a home in the 500-block of N. 12th after found other items taken in the burglary including a handgun taken in the car burglary on E. Minneapolis.

Martinez was arrested Sunday and booked into the Saline County Jail.

by Randy Picking ~ Salina Post

A 13-pound package of marijuana delivered by the Post Office to a Salina home Friday, has landed 20-year-old Evan Stirn in jail on drug charges that include possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Lt. Sean Morton says the I-135/I-70 Drug Task Force was contacted by the Postal Service about a suspicious package. After obtaining the search warrant, they opened the package, and discovered the marijuana.

After arranging a controlled delivery, the package was delivered and the Drug Task Force obtained a search warrant for 1005 Burr Oak Lane, the home of Stirn.

Along with the box of pot, they found another small amount of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia.

Street value of the delivered marijuana is placed at $20,800.

A $273,810 grant from the U.S. Justice Department will help support the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

The grant to the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department is aimed at expanding the task force’s work.

“Protecting children from sexual predators who prowl the Internet is a top priority,” Grissom said.

The Grant From the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will help pay for the ICAC Task Force to assist more local law enforcement agencies. It also will support the ICAC’s Task Force’s goal to focus more training and resources on the growing problem of minor sex trafficking.

The ICAC Task Force in Wichita works in cooperation with the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit (EMCU).

For more information about the grant, call the Office of Justice Program’s Office of Communications at 202-307-0703.

by Randy Picking ~ Salina Post

A Salina Police Officer who was shot in the face while looking for a suspect in a stolen car for a civil case late Thursday night has lost his right eye.

Deputy Police Chief Carson Mansfield gave an update Monday morning on the condition of 38 year old Chuck Huen, a 10 year veteran of the police Department.

Mansfield said the suspect, 19 year old Marijon Gadson, fired shots from the basement, went through a wall and door, and struck Huen in the right eye with the bullet from a medium caliber handgun that exited from his right ear.

Huen, who was discharged from the hospital in Oklahoma City Saturday will have to have more surgery to repair damage from being shot, and he has lost the use of his eye.

Mansfield says the Kansas Bureau Of Investigation continues their investigation, and Gadson took his own life, shortly after officers exited the home at 308 N. 13th after Huen was shot. Mansfield says Gadson may have fired his gun a half dozen times.