A committee of the National Research Council is holding a public hearing with the Department of Homeland Security to discuss an updated risk assessment for the proposed biosecurity lab to be built in Kansas.

The meeting Friday in Washington will focus the findings of a report made public last month about the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. The lab is to be built in Manhattan near the Kansas State University.

The $650 million lab would replace an aging animal research facility at Plum Island, N.Y. Scientists would conduct research on deadly animal diseases, including foot and mouth disease.

The National Research Council committee is reviewing a report that said the risk of accidental release of foot and mouth disease was remote.

A southeastern Kansas man has been convicted of murder for causing a double-fatality crash while he led police on a high-speed chase for 11 miles.

The Cherokee County News-Advocate reports that a jury took less than 90 minutes Thursday to find Kaston Hudgins guilty on two counts of first-degree murder.

Hudgins was fleeing a Cherokee County traffic stop on July 16, 2009, when he slammed into a car driven by 41-year-old school teacher Teresa Kemp. Her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, died at the scene on U.S. 69 south of Pittsburg. Teresa Kemp died six days later.

Witnesses testified Hudgins was drunk and driving at least 98 mph when he hit Kemp’s vehicle.

A civil jury last year found Hudgins responsible for the crash and awarded Kemp’s husband $5.7 million in damages.

State senators aren’t sure they’ll vote on Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s proposal to require new voters to prove their U.S. citizenship ahead of this year’s presidential election.

Testimony from opponents took up most of the Senate Ethics and Election Committee’s hourlong meeting Thursday. It adjourned without taking a vote.

It was the committee’s last scheduled meeting of the year. Chairwoman Terrie Huntington, a Fairway Republican, said she’s not sure she can schedule another meeting.

Kansas has a proof-of-citizenship rule set to take effect Jan. 1, 2013, for people registering to vote for the first time in the state. Kobach wants to move up the effective date to June 15.

Kobach said if the committee wants to move forward, it will find a way to have another meeting.

By Fred Gough ~ Hutch Post

A 29-year-old Hutchinson man led police and sheriff deputies on a less than high speed chase Tuesday afternoon.

Matthew Pritchard was arrested on charges of flee and elude, reckless driving, driving while suspended, criminal damage to property, DUI, his 3rd, illegal transportation of liquor, interference with law enforcement and misdemeanor theft.

The chase started when police attempted to make a traffic stop and Pritchard fled on the scooter.

The chase ran through the west side of Hutchinson, and even on a portion of the Jim Martinez trail before he was stopped near the trail off of Avenue F.

Police say the chase never reached speeds above 30-miles-per-hour.

A northeastern Kansas woman whose 4-year-old son died when her unattended car rolled over him has been sentenced to one year in jail.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that 40-year-old Tammy Lynne Payne pleaded no contest in December to child endangerment and driving under the influence with a prior conviction.

She was charged after her son, Alex, died from injuries he suffered last March when the family car ran over him at their Ottawa home.

Franklin County prosecutors say Payne had been driving drunk with her children in the vehicle. When she got home, she got out of the vehicle and it rolled backward over Alex, who also had gotten out.

Payne was also fined $1,000 for the DUI conviction.

A Salina military school is being sued by parents of cadets who say their sons were regularly abused by older students with the blessing of school officials.

The Salina Journal reports the federal lawsuit was filed against St. John’s Military School last week in Kansas City, Kan. It claims the school allows older students, called “Disciplinarians,” to discipline younger students who step out of line.

The parents of 4 boys claim their sons suffered severe beatings by the Disciplinarians, and when the boys reported the abuse to school officials, the beatings got worse.

School President Andy England says he was meeting with legal counsel and the school was doing “due diligence” before responding to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the school has settled nine similar abuse cases since 2006.

The ongoing drought prompted the state to temporarily move a bison herd from the Sandsage Bison and Wildlife Area near Garden City.

The 40 bison were moved to the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in McPherson County.

The Garden City Telegram reports 10 bison were left at the Sandsage area. They’ll be fed hay until enough forage grows for them to graze.

Tom Norman, area manager for the state wildlife department, says the drought has reduced forage in the Sandsage area. He says normal precipitation is 18 inches per year and the 3,670-acre wildlife area has not been able to recover from years of below-average precipitation.

The herd has been consistently reduced since 2002 but pastures still aren’t able to keep up with the bison’s forage needs.

Police in Wichita say three teenage girls who plotted to escape from a juvenile detention facility instead found themselves being evacuated wearing nothing but towels.

The Wichita Eagle reports the girls, ages 16 and 17, soaked a washcloth in a flammable liquid and set it on fire in a vent Monday night. Police Lt. Doug Nolte says they planned to slip out when the center was evacuated because of the fire alarm.

When the smoke detector didn’t immediately go off, they jumped into the shower to cover their absence.

That’s when the fire alarm went off. The staff evacuated the 55 girls housed at the facility, including the three in the shower. All were returned to the center after the washcloth was found.

Kansas House members have given first-round approval legislation cutting state income tax rates and abolishing the sales tax on groceries.

The 68-53 vote Tuesday afternoon capped five hours of debate on taxes. Approval on a second vote would send the bill to the Senate.

The measure would lower the tax rates in all income brackets and require any growth in state revenue above 3 percent be used to cut taxes further.

It would also phase out earnings taxes for thousands of partnerships, sole proprietorships, and other small businesses. The sales tax rate would drop to 5.7 percent fro 6.3 percent in July 2013, as previously scheduled.

Proponents say the changes would give all Kansans more disposable income and create jobs. Critics call the policy misguided.

A California man is going to prison for the armed holdup of a Dodge City bank in October 2010.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 33-year-old Angel Garcia Aguirre, of Santa Paula, California, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years and three months behind bars.

Garcia Aguirre pleaded guilty last year to one count each of bank robbery and brandishing a firearm, admitting he and another man robbed a Bank of America branch in Dodge City on October 21, 2010. He said he stood in the lobby while the other man jumped over a teller’s counter and grabbed money.

Garcia Aguirre was shot and wounded by police the following day when he climbed out a window of a home where investigators confronted him and tried to scale a fence.

The Department of Defense says a military police officer from southwestern Wisconsin has died while serving in Afghanistan.

Thirty-year-old Staff Sgt. Jesse Grindey of Hazel Green died Monday in Kandahar province.

No details of Grindey’s death were released. The U.S. Army is investigating his death.

Grindey was a military policeman assigned to the 287th Military Police Company, 97th Military Police Battalion based at Fort Riley. It was his second deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn.

Grindey joined the Army 10 years ago. His stepmother says he had just been deployed to Afghanistan on December 31.

Grindey was married and had two children.