Lincoln police say the father of a 3-year-old and 8-month-old reported fighting off a man who was trying to kidnap them.

The man told police he had put the children in their car seats about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday while his sport utility sat in his driveway.

He says he went back inside to get a stroller. Capt. Jim Davidsaver says that when the man went back outside, he heard the 3-year-old screaming and saw a man inside the SUV.

Davidsaver says the father struggled with the man and punched him in the face. Then the man got on a bicycle and raced away.

No arrest has been reported.

A Kansas Senate committee’s chairman says the panel will sponsor a bill designed to attract a casino to southeast Kansas and bring slot machines to dog and horse tracks.

Chairman Pete Brungardt, a Salina Republican, scheduled Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Federal and State Affairs to launch a push for the gambling legislation. He expects his committee to vote to sponsor the bill.

A 2007 state law allows slots at now-closed tracks in Kansas City, Wichita and outside Pittsburg, as well as a state-owned casino in southeast Kansas.

Gambling supporters say the law’s financial requirements are too strict for a southeast Kansas casino or slots at the tracks to be economically feasible. The committee’s bill would change the requirements.

But such efforts have found little support in the past.

The Kansas Senate has approved a bill to create a new Creative Arts Industries Commission by merging separate arts and film services panels.

Wednesday’s 38-1 vote sent the measure to the House. Passage there would forward the bill to Gov. Sam Brownback, who proposed merging the two commissions.

The final version was drafted by House and Senate negotiators to reconcile differences over how many people would serve on the commission and who would appoint them. The new commission would have 11 members and be part of the state Department of Commerce.

Brownback sought last year to abolish the Arts Commission. He vetoed its entire budget, costing the state $1.2 million in outside arts funds but leaving the commission in existence.

 

A truck full of cattle drove off an embankment of an interstate near Bonner Springs, Kan., and burst into flames, killing several cattle and closing one lane of the interstate.

The accident happened about 2:30 a.m. Thursday on westbound Interstate 70 near 110th Street in Bonner Springs.

Police say one lane of the interstate could be closed for most of the day as cleanup continues.

The driver of the truck has been hospitalized but the extent of his injuries was not immediately known.

About 30 to 40 cattle either died in the accident or had to be euthanized, while officials were rounding up several other cows.

Kansas legislators have resumed negotiations on proposals to cut sales and income taxes.

Three members of the House and three from the Senate met Wednesday to try to resolve the chambers’ differences as the Legislature returned from a three-week break.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is pushing legislators to lower the state’s top individual income tax rates and eliminate income taxes for 191,000 businesses. He says those moves will stimulate the economy.

Meanwhile, more than three dozen former GOP legislators are expressing concerns about the tax-cut debate. The ex-lawmakers, calling themselves Traditional Republicans for Common Sense, say they’re worried that public schools won’t be properly funded.

The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport says security agents forced her to undergo a pat-down, and even yelled at the child and called her an uncooperative suspect.

The incident has been attracting increasing media and online attention since the child’s mother, Michelle Brademeyer of Montana, detailed the ordeal in a public Facebook post last week. The Transportation Security Administration says its agents followed proper screening procedures.

The child’s grandmother, Lori Croft, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that mother and daughter initially passed through security at Wichita’s airport without incident. But then the child ran to briefly hug Croft, who was awaiting a pat-down after tripping the alarm.

That’s when TSA agents insisted the child undergo a physical pat-down.

In under 90 days, the Kansas City Royals and Kauffman Stadium will play host to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

K9 units, a bomb squad, and a bomb-handling robot were at work in Kauffman Stadium today making preparations for the week of activities.

The training was part of “Operation Safe at Home”, Homeland Security’s preparations for the event.

The exercise included setting off a flash-bang and calling out emergency responders.  Hazardous materials workers and even a gamma-ray detection unit were on the scene.

Complaints about possible civil rights violations arising from waiting lists for physically disabled Kansans seeking state services have been sent to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Lawrence Journal World  that the federal Office of Civil Rights unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a voluntary settlement with Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration.

At issue is whether Kansas is doing enough to provide services to disabled residents who in some cases have been on waiting lists for three years. A U.S. Supreme Court decision requires states to provide services to people with disabilities.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Kansas are meeting with the Department of Justice to consider further action.

Brownback’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The parents of a Seneca High School student are suing the school district over hazing at a football camp.

Paul and Kristi Smith say in the lawsuit that their son, who is now 16, suffered severe cuts, bruising and scarring during the hazing at a 2010 Pittsburg State University football camp.

At least eight freshman football players reportedly were hazed by upperclassmen during the camp. Prosecutors say the most serious incidents involved students being hit with plastic curtain rods.

The lawsuit claims coaches did not properly supervise the team.

Seneca schools Superintendent Steve Wilmoth said he had no comment on the lawsuit.

Charges were filed against 11 players. Several were convicted of misdemeanor battery. Charges were dropped against two and one was acquitted.

A Kansas House committee is preparing to step into a contentious dispute among state senators over political redistricting in hopes of breaking their stalemate.

The House Redistricting Committee was scheduled to meet Wednesday to review proposals for redrawing the 40 state Senate districts.

Lawmakers must redraw the district boundaries of elective offices to account for changes in population over the past decade. A decades-old Kansas tradition dictates that one chamber doesn’t get involved in adjusting the other chamber’s districts.

But a bitter split in the Senate between conservative and moderate Republicans has held up approval of a new map. The Senate also has yet to give the usual rubber stamp to a bipartisan plan passed by the House for redrawing state representatives’ districts.