The National Weather Service says a number of funnel clouds reported around eastern and southern Kansas were spawned by a combination of weak storms and cold upper air.

No tornado watch was posted Wednesday for anywhere in Kansas, and Weather Service meteorologist Robb Lawson in Wichita said the funnel clouds being seen Wednesday afternoon weren’t expected to reach the ground.

One such cloud was observed from Lawson’s office for 17 minutes beginning shortly after 5 p.m.

Several others were spotted between 4 and 5 p.m. in Kingman County, Chase County and other parts of Sedgwick County.

Lawson says that such funnels tend to remain several thousand feet in the air and – from a meteorologist’s point of view – are “neat to look at.”

Oh give me a home, where the… zebras roam? Not for long, they don’t, at least when the Kansas Highway Patrol is around.

The patrol says one of its troopers came across a zebra Tuesday grazing beside an Interstate 70 ramp west of Topeka. The striped animal turned out to be an escapee from a nearby ranch, whose owner came to the scene and coaxed it back into a fenced area with treats.

Authorities didn’t specify the kind of treat that would get a zebra to give up its freedom

Authorities in Topeka are reporting a new trend in crime: thieves using a tow truck to steal cars.

Police spokeswoman Kristen Veverka says that thieves are hooking up cars on city streets, usually in residential neighborhoods, then towing them to another spot to strip the parts.

Authorities aren’t sure of the number of such crimes, but it’s happened often enough that police issued a statement Wednesday urging people to watch for suspicious tow trucks.

Police said residents can protect vehicles by parking in a garage if possible, locking their car doors and taking the keys with them.

Prosecutors have charged a southeastern Kansas woman with first-degree murder in the death of her 18-month-old daughter.

KAKE-TV reports 23-year-old Alyssa Haag made a first appearance Wednesday in Butler County District Court. The El Dorado woman remains held on $500,000 bond, with a preliminary hearing scheduled May 9.

The charge stems from what investigators believe was the abuse death of Jayla Haag. The toddler died last week at a Wichita hospital, where she was treated for injuries the mother said were caused when the girl fell down the stairs.

Haag did not yet have a lawyer. No phone number was listed for her in El Dorado.

Prosecutors have begun showing jurors text messages outlining a Kansas man’s obsession with a slain cheerleader whose badly burned body was found at the asphalt plant where he worked.

The evidence came during the fifth day of testimony in the capital murder trial of 38-year-old Adam Longoria. The Great Bend man is accused in the August 2010 death of 14-year-old Alicia DeBolt.

Analyst Stephanie Smith of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday discussed the texts as they were projected on a screen in the courtroom. The texting began the morning after Longoria met the girl at a party.

In them, Longoria calls the teen “miss shy” and “hot stuff.” When she asks his age, the then 36-year-old man told her he was 25.

A 25-year-old Manhattan man has pleaded no contest to killing a former Army combat medic and raping a female jogger who was training for a marathon.

WIBW-TV reports Justin Taylor entered the pleas Tuesday in Riley County District Court under an agreement with prosecutors.

Taylor pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the death of 31-year-old Kevin Cockrum, who was beaten with a heavy flashlight last Aug. 11 in Manhattan’s Aggieville district. Police said Cockrum had objected to comments about a female friend.

While Taylor awaited trial in Cockrum’s death, authorities tied him via DNA to the June 2010 rape of a 57-year-old woman attacked while jogging in Manhattan.

Taylor, a former Kansas State University student, will be sentenced in May — the same month he would have graduated.

A north-central Kansas community college plans to lower three wind turbines that have been deemed too tall by the Federal Aviation Administration so the school doesn’t lose about $1 million in federal grants.

Cloud County Community College officials have decided to pay for the roughly $150,000 project rather than lose the grants.

The windmills are 110 feet tall and sit on a hill south of campus. A year ago the FAA told the college the windmills are in Blosser Municipal Airport’s airspace but were not considered a hazard.

But sometime later the turbines were deemed a “presumed hazard,” which prompted the FAA to adjust flight patterns to and from the airport.

Community college officials say the turbines will be lowered 20 to 30 feet each.

A witness has testified that the man charged with killing a 14-year-old cheerleader asked him to lie about the suspect’s whereabouts the night the victim disappeared.

Adam Longoria’s capital murder trial entered its fourth day of testimony Tuesday in Barton County court. The 38-year-old Great Bend man is charged in the 2010 death of Alicia DeBolt. Her charred body was found at the asphalt plant where Longoria worked.

KWCH-TV reports that Emmanuel Ferrell testified that Longoria asked him to lie and tell investigators they were at a bar at the time DeBolt was seen getting into an SUV matching the description of 1 Longoria was driving.

Harold Riddle, a chemist with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, also testified that gym shoes Longoria wore that night tested positive for gasoline.

by Fred Gough – Hutch Post

A 23-year-old Wilson, Kansas man charged in three separate cases including attempted manufacture of meth from January 2 of this year entered a not guilty plea in court Monday. Scott Lutz also entered not guilty pleas to other charges including being in possession of ephedrine, misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, driving while suspended, and no insurance.

Last month, Magistrate Judge Randy McEwen did drop charges possession of methamphetamine in another case saying he couldn’t find probable cause in the case. However, the state is expected to refile that charge. The judge did bind him over for an interference with law enforcement charge, more commonly known as obstruction.

A felony charge of theft for being in possession of a stolen 1991 Chevy Pickup is pending a later hearing, as is a robbery charge for allegedly taking a 1994 Ford Explorer pickup and a cell phone by force. That occurring back on December 25, 2011.

Lutz was arrested by officers from the Reno County Sheriff’s Office and Buhler Police after a stake out for the suspect at a home at 125 East 9th. He allegedly ran from officers at that home, but was stopped while a passenger in a vehicle in the area of 4th and Buhler Road. When Lutz refused to get out, officers broke the window and removed the subject from the vehicle. He was taken into custody after a brief scuffle.

He was reportedly involved in a number of brief chases with police during the holidays last year, but managed to get away, but was never charged with flee and elude for any of those incidents. All of the cases occurring late last year, and early this year in Reno County.

He entered the not guilty pleas Monday in front of Judge Trish Rose. The preliminary hearing in the other cases will also be scheduled for sometime later this month.

Muddy roads from Monday night’s rains led to a school bus accident in Thomas County Tuesday morning.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, at around 7:42 a.m. the school bus was traveling east on County Road Y about one mile north and one mile west of Rexford, when due to muddy conditions, the bus slid off the road to the right, striking a culvert and turning onto its passenger side.

The bus was carrying 18 people at the time of the accident, including the 63-year-old driver, a 46-year-old passenger, and 16 children ages 3 to 14. A 14-year-old girl was taken to Citizens Medical Center in Rexford with a possible injury, all other occupants were uninjured.

 

Students at Garden City High School will each get their own iPad to use at school and take home, starting next school year.

The district’s board of education approved a measure Monday to provide the iPads to each student.

Darren Dennis, the district’s assistant superintendent for learning services, said the iPads will be useful for a new type of testing, as school districts move to Common Core Standards for state testing.

Technology administrators announced Monday night that the initiative’s cost will be lower than previously reported because the district will use iPad 2, instead of the latest version of the iPad.

That will save about $170,000 off the original cost estimated of about $1.04 million.