The average price of a gallon of gasoline nationwide has dropped seven cents over the past two weeks.
That’s according to the Lundberg Survey of fuel prices, which puts the price of a gallon of regular at $3.85.
Midgrade costs an average of $4.00 a gallon, and premium is at $4.12.
Diesel dropped three cents to $4.15 a gallon.
Of the cities surveyed, Tulsa, Okla., has the nation’s lowest average price for gas at $3.40. Chicago has the highest at $4.32.
A Kansas meteorologist says the deadly tornadoes that killed hundreds of people last year in Joplin and in the South don’t measure up to the monster storm that destroyed almost all of Greensburg five years ago.
Mike Umscheid says he had never seen a 200-knot velocity reading on radar before the May 4, 2007, tornado that killed 11 people in the southern Kansas community.
The Wichita Eagle reports emergency officials think the death toll could have been much higher if Umscheid hadn’t issued a rare “tornado emergency” 26 minutes before Greensburg was hit.
University of Oklahoma researcher Les Lemon teamed up with Umscheid to write a research paper on the outbreak the night of the Greensburg storm.
Both believe it was 1 of the most powerful tornadoes on record.
A toddler walking through a pasture was killed by a truck in Labette County, shortly before 7:00 p.m. Saturday.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 2-year-old Clayton James of Labette City, was walking in a pasture and was run over by a truck driven by 30-year-old Christy Dunnic of Oswego.
The boy was taken to Freeman Hospital and was pronounced dead a short time later.
The KHP is investigating why the boy was in the pasture and why the driver was unable to see him.
A child sex offender who escaped from Lansing Correctional Facility on April 18 is still eluding authorities.
State prison officials said in a news release Friday that 59-year-old Gary Leslie Furthmyer is believed to be in the downtown Kansas City, Mo., area. Possible sightings have been reported at Kansas City homeless shelters.
Furthmyer escaped from his minimum security assignment at a steam plant at the Lansing prison. He was serving a six- to 25-year sentence out of Sedgwick County for indecent liberties with a child and aggravated failu
Furthmyer is 5-foot-9 and 185 lbs, with brown hair and blue eyes. He also uses the alias of Frank Schell.
Officials say it’s possible he has grown his hair and has additional facial hair.
A century-old building that housed a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Ellsworth is a total loss after a fire gutted the downtown structure.
Post 6485 commander Mike Johnson says he is relieved that nobody was hurt in the Friday morning blaze, and that adjoining buildings were spared.
Firefighters were called to the building on Main Street shortly before 5 a.m., and the fire was under control by 7:30 a.m.
More than 100 flags donated to the post over the years were lost in the fire, along with photos and other memorabilia.
Johnson says investigators told him it looked like the blaze might have started in the kitchen area. He said it’s not likely the post will be rebuilt.
A former Kansas middle school teacher who served prison time on a federal drug charge is asking to have his teaching license reinstated.
Forty-year-old Terrance Vick was teaching in Wichita when he was arrested in 1997 and accused of being a middleman between a drug buyer and supplier. He accepted a plea deal the next year and was sentenced to three years in prison. He had his teaching license stripped by the state of Kansas.
Vick now lives in Grandview, Mo. Since leaving prison he has taught at a Missouri charter school but was fired for posting a video on YouTube of his students chanting praise of Barack Obama.
A commission that advises the Kansas Board of Education has recommended that the board reject Vick’s application to regain his license.
by Laura Stroda ~ Salina Post
A former employee of Roselawn Mortuary, 1307 S. Santa Fe, was arrested Thursday for allegedly stealing more than $75,000 from her employer over a two-year period.
Police say Tonya Marie Stone, 38, of Salina, started embezzling cash from Roselawn Mortuary in January 2010 and continued to do so until January of this year, when she ceased working for the business. She worked in accounts payable and receivable and allegedly kept cash payments that she was supposed to deposit in the bank. Police also say she wrote company checks for personal use.
Stone is charged with theft and forgery.
The Kansas Senate has indefinitely tabled a bill allowing gun owners with concealed-carry permits to bring their weapons into more public buildings.
Thursday’s 22-17 vote tabling the measure leaves its chances for reaching Gov. Sam Brownback in question. The House had approved the bill in March.
The measure would prohibit many state and local agencies from banning concealed guns on their premises unless they could show they had adequate security.
Hospitals and colleges could ban concealed weapons, but would have to explain their reasons to the attorney general’s office.
The bill was prompted by the Kansas Board of Regents’ ban on firearms on state university campuses.
A Kansas military school embroiled in a lawsuit alleging abuse of cadets is denying it destroyed photos and videos on students’ cellphones related to the case.
Families of former cadets who have sued St. John’s Military School in Salina have asked a federal judge to issue an order protecting any remaining photos and videos.
The plaintiffs also want a computer forensics expert appointed as a “special master” at the school’s expense to attempt to recreate material they say was deleted from student cellphones.
In its response Thursday, St. John’s called the request a fishing expedition and an attempt to “sling mud” at the school. It says it has a longstanding policy barring students from taking pictures or videos on cellphones, but has recently modified the policy.
A northeastern Kansas town recovering from a February tornado has received a grant to repair its wastewater treatment system and remove storm debris.
The state Commerce Department said Thursday the nearly $246,000 awarded to Harveyville comes from the Community Development Block Grant program.
About 40% of the buildings in Harveyville sustained significant damage when an EF-2 tornado struck the Waubansee (wah-BUHN’-see) County town of about 300 people on Feb. 28. The twister killed one person and injured 13.
Kansas officials say the grant will help finance repairs to the water treatment system’s pump house building, alarm dialer and other components.
Kansas House and Senate negotiators have revised a tax-cutting plan to address concerns about possible future budget problems.
The negotiators agreed Thursday on language reducing individual income tax rates less aggressively than earlier planned.
The measure will also phase out income taxes for 191,000 businesses and reduce the state sales tax to 5.7% from the current 6.3% in July 2013.
The negotiators revised the plan after legislative analysts said an earlier version could create a budget shortfall of $712 million by mid- 2018.
A 68-year-old Kansas man who lost his lower left leg to diabetes has a new generation microprocessor-controlled foot – the first of its kind in Kansas.
Ignacio Guerrero demonstrated his new foot Thursday at Topeka’s Hanger Clinic, where he was outfitted with the device. The computer-controlled foot, called an elan, is attached to a metal “calf” with an electronic suction device at the knee. It adjusts to angles and movement as Guerrero walks, improving his mobility on uneven terrain like stairs.
Hanger says while other microprocessor-controlled feet are in use in Kansas but the elan is the most current variety. It costs between $15,000 and $20,000.
The Amputee Coalition, a national group that advocates for people who have lost limbs, says there are about 2 million amputees in the U.S.
A Kansas woman has filed a federal lawsuit over the state Legislature’s failure so far to redraw the state’s political boundaries.
Robyn Renee Essex, a resident of the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, filed her litigation Thursday in U.S. District Court. She argues the state’s existing political boundaries violate her constitutional rights because they haven’t been adjusted yet to account for changes in population over the past decade.
1 of her attorneys, Brent Haden, of Columbia, Mo., is a former chief of staff to Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican.
In the lawsuit, Essex expressed doubt that legislators will be able to break a stalemate on redistricting. She suggests that one option would be for a panel of 3-federal judges to set new legislative and congressional districts.
