The former manager of an eastern Kansas mobile home park has been sentenced to life in prison for molesting four children from November 2009 to May of this year in his trailer.

Sixty-one-year-old Lawrence McDonagh II, of Tonganoxie, was sentenced Thursday in Leavenworth County District Court on multiple counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

McDonagh pleaded no contest in August. He was arrested in May after deputies served a search warrant at the Paradise Mobile Home Park and seized several items from his home.

Prosecutor Todd Thompson says McDonagh initially was charged with eavesdropping for secretly videotaping children, but the charges were amended after evidence led to the molestation charges.

The central Kansas community of Hoisington is giving away up to 15 home sites of roughly 12,000 square feet each to families willing to build houses on them.

The Great Bend Tribune reports the acreage is a former mobile home park that was donated to Hoisington on the condition that it not be sold.

The Hoisington City Land Bank decided this week to give the lots on a first-come, first-served basis to families who pay a refundable earnest fee of $500.

Hoisington city manager Jonathan Mitchell says the program has the potential to increase the population and property valuation in the community of about 2,700 people.

Houses built on the lots will have to measure at least 1,500 square feet on the main floor and have a basement and garage.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to remove President Barack Obama from the state’s Nov. 6 ballot.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Deputy Secretary of State Ryan Kriegshauser argues in the request that taking Obama off the ballot would violate some voters’ the rights.

Kriegshauser notes that Kansas began mailing ballots with Obama’s name to military personnel overseas last week.

The lawsuit was filed last week in Shawnee County District Court by California attorney and dentist Orly Taitz. She has promoted the discredited notion in several states that Obama isn’t eligible to serve as president.

District Judge Larry Hendricks has scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit Wednesday.

A Topeka man has been sentenced to eight years and six months in prison for killing a neighbor after they argued about noise.

WIBW-TV reports 31-year-old LaVance Thompson will also spend three years on post-release supervision under the sentence he received Thursday in Shawnee County District Court.

Thompson was initially charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 36-year-old James Sanders the night of Dec. 25, 2011. Thompson’s trial was under way in August when he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Sanders and Thompson were neighbors in a Topeka apartment building. Prosecutors said Sanders was dropping weights on the floor, and Thompson was turning up his music.

Authorities said Thompson confronted Sanders and shot him after Sanders called police to complain.

An Arkansas man has died after a collision involving a semi on K-96 in Reno County, Thursday.

The Reno County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol responded to a head-on collision on K-96 between Willowbrook and Nickerson shortly after 3pm.

Sheriff Randy Henderson said that the semi caught fire after the collision.

The driver of the van, 22-year-old Michael Robert Benert of Baxter, Arkansas, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The driver of the semi, 57-year-old Kevin Clapp of Lincoln, Nebraska, suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Traffic was shutdown on K-96 at Riverton Road and Royal Smith Road for at least 3 hours.

From Randy Picking ~ Salina Post

Police in Salina have arrested a 21-year-old man early Thursday morning after an apparent random shooting spree in the central part of town.

Officers were sent to the 700-block of S. 11th just after 1:30am to reports of shots being fired.

Officers found a five gunshot holes in a 1996 Mercury Sable, and 10 shell casings on the street from a .40 caliber gun.

Just around the corner police found in the 400-block of W. Crawford a single shot in a window that lodged in the bathroom door of an occupied home.

While investigating the two different cases, Officers heard several more shots that came from the 700-block of S.10th where they found a van that belongs to Blue Sky Satellite with gunshot holes that damaged several satellite receivers in the van.

While patrolling the area officers stopped three people walking northbound in the 700-block of S. 9th, and Rex C. Vaughn was bleeding from one of his pinky fingers.

Vaughn had apparently shot the finger in the 700-block of S. 10th as drops of blood were going away from where shots were fired into the satellite TV truck.

Vaughn was taken to Salina Regional Health Center by EMS for treatment of the gunshot wound.

While at the hospital, he became combative and kicked a nurse. Police did recover from his apartment in the 700-block of S. 9th a .40 caliber Taurus semi-automatic handgun.

Charges being requested against Vaughn are discharge of a firearm into an occupied dwelling, misdemeanor damage to property, 2 counts of felony damage to property, and a single count of battery.

Damage to the vehicles, home and property has been estimated at $4,450. The two people that were walking with Vaughn were not charged.

McPherson College President Michael Schneider issued a statement Wednesday evening regarding the second arrest connected to the investigation of Brandon Brown’s death.

“McPherson College confirms that a second student, Dequinte Oshea Flournoy, has been arrested in conjunction with the death of Tabor College student Brandon Brown.

While we will not pre-judge this case or anyone involved, McPherson College maintains a responsibility to ensure the safety of the entire student body. Any action that is disruptive to our learning environment or adversely affects the welfare of our students cannot be allowed. Per policy, the Campus Conduct Committee convened last week anddetermined that any arrest or charge made in conjunction with this incident would result in the immediate suspensionof the student in question. In accordance with that decision, Mr. Flournoy has been suspended from McPherson College, pending the outcome of his case.

We continue to work closely with law enforcement authorities on their investigation and encourage anyone with information about the incident to contact the McPherson Police Department.

We continue to pray for the family of Brandon Brown, as well as for the students arrested. One brief moment of anger on September 16 has changed the lives of everyone in the McPherson and Hillsboro communities. Despite our shock and grief, we are determined to heal together and to emerge stronger.”

The daughter of an 88-year-old Wichita woman whose home was burglarized is hoping to recover just one stolen item: a box containing the ashes of the woman’s late husband.

The break-in occurred Sunday morning while the widow was at church. Her daughter, J.E. Kelly, told the newspaper Wednesday the stolen items included money, jewelry and gold-colored etched metal box containing the ashes.

Kelly says her mother planned to be buried someday with her husband’s ashes. They’re worried now that whoever has the box will open it, realize what’s inside and throw it away.

The thief or thieves can keep everything else, Kelly says, “but if anyone has my father, I’d really like him back.”