by Fred Gough ~ Hutch Post

Siemens is announcing that it will lay off 615 employees in their wind turbine business, including removal of all temp workers at the wind turbine plant in Hutchinson and elimination of 146 full time staff according to a news release. The plant, which has been open for 18 months, is facing an uncertain future after questions arose over the elimination of the wind production tax credits that lured Siemens to the US in the first place.

The layoffs also include the wind turbine blade plant in Ft. Madison, Iowa and other facilities in Florida. It did not say how many of those were at the nacelle plant. Siemens released the following statement.

“These decisions are never easy and Siemens understands the impact this has on employees and the Hutchinson community. Unfortunately, this business decision was necessary to respond to market conditions that are beyond our control and affecting the entire U.S. wind power industry.

We have worked very hard over the past 10 months to address the uncertainties, but this has unfortunate consequences on employment in this segment of the power industry. We must now adjust our wind power operations to reflect the current and projected business volume.

The realignment will affect approximately 615 employees overall in Iowa, Kansas and Florida. We remain committed to maintaining our U.S. factories and will continue to support the U.S. industry as well as export wind turbine components to markets across the Americas.”

The Hutchinson plant will keep 152 full-time employees.

A new website allows Kansas voters to compare their views with those of candidates for the U.S. Senate, House and president.

The interactive tool is called VoteEasy and was launched by the nonpartisan group Project Vote Smart.

Voters can check their views on several critical issues against those of candidates who participated in a Project Vote Smart survey. For some candidates, the group researched public records to determine their positions.

VoteEasy was launched in Kansas on Monday as part of a state-by-state national rollout.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says he’ll appeal a state Supreme Court ruling ordering a new trial for a man sentenced to die for the 2005 killing of a sheriff.

Scott Cheever was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels. The sheriff was killed while serving a warrant at a southeastern Kansas home where authorities say meth was being made.

The Kansas court ruled last month that Cheever’s rights were violated during his trial when a psychiatrist disclosed his psychological records without his consent.

Schmidt said Monday he has taken a preliminary step toward asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Kansas court’s ruling in the case. Schmidt said he’s asked the Kansas Supreme Court to put its ruling on hold.

More than $11 million in raises for thousands of Kansas state employees have cleared a final step.

The increases were given formal approval Monday by the State Finance Council, made up of Gov. Sam Brownback and top legislative leaders.

Kansas lawmakers approved $11.2 million for the raises in May as part of the state budget for the fiscal year that began in July.

Nearly 4,300 state employees will benefit, including some Highway Patrol troopers and corrections officers at state prisons and juvenile detention centers.

This is the fourth round of annual raises under a plan approved by the Legislature to bring the salaries of state employees closer to those of private sector workers. The raises were suspended for one year in 2011 because of budget constraints.

 A federal appeals court has set the date for arguments on behalf of a Kansas doctor and his wife convicted in a moneymaking conspiracy linked to 68 overdose deaths.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday scheduled a hearing Nov. 7 in the case of Stephen and Linda Schneider, who ran a pain clinic.

They were convicted in 2010 of conspiracy, unlawfully prescribing drugs, health care fraud and money laundering. Stephen Schneider was sentenced to 30 years, and his wife to 33 years.

New lawyers for the Haysville couple contend the Schneiders’ trial attorneys were little more than “mouthpieces” for a patient advocate who used the case to promote her own agenda. The government says the Schneiders got a fair trial with the attorneys they wanted.

There were fewer monarch butterflies found during an annual event aimed at tracking their migration through Kansas.

Chip Taylor, director of the Kansas University-based Monarch Watch conservation group, told The Lawrence Journal World that this summer’s drought meant a much smaller population of monarchs at Saturday’s event at the Baker Wetlands.

Monarch Watch organizes the tagging to track migration through the U.S. and into Mexico for the winter. This is the group’s 21st year of tagging, and it’s been inviting the public to take part.

Taylor says this year’s was the smallest he’d seen the monarch population in northeast Kansas. Consistently dry conditions led to fewer flowering plants and milkweed, which the butterflies need to survive.

Taylor says, however, the normally lesser northeast coast population is doing well.

A Great Bend man died Sunday morning after a two-car accident at the K-4 and U-281 junction in Barton County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 42-year-old Richard Newick of Great Bend was southbound on U-281 when he ran the stop sign at the junction with K-4, colliding with 28-year-old Corey Schwerdt, of Topeka, who was westbound on K-4. Both vehicles entered the southwest ditch and Newick’s vehicle struck a telephone pole before rolling onto its driver’s side.

Newick was transported to St. Rose Hospital in Great Bend where he later died from his injuries. Schwerdt was transported to Clara Barton Hospital in Hoisington and later transferred to Via Chrisit Hospital on St. Francis in Wichita with disabling injuries.

Both men were wearing their seat belts.

Authorities say a Kansas man is dead following a head-on crash in southeastern Nebraska.

Thayer County Sheriff’s officials say 27-year-old Andrew Sandoval, of Concordia, Kan., died in the Friday morning crash. Investigators say he was traveling westbound on U.S. Highway 136 just east of Deshler when his car hit another car head-on.

Investigators say Sandoval died at the scene.

The driver of the other car, a 21-year-old Deshler woman, was taken to Thayer County Health Services in Hebron. Her condition is not known.

The accident closed down a section of the highway for more than two hours.