The Smoky Hills Vineyards and Winery north of Salina has been sold.

The owners of the 20-year-old winery declined to say who bought the winery, or discuss any future plans for the land.

The winery was sold through an online auction that ended Feb. 29.

Real estate agent Curt Marshall says three buyers purchased the 8.73-acre winery and three adjoining tracts about 40 miles north of Salina.

Online bidding on the names of the wines, production methods and other intellectual property will end March 16.

Norm Jennings and his wife have run the winery since his father, co-founder Steve Jennings, died in a tractor accident in 2005. The couple announced last March they planned to sell the operation to begin a career in lay ministry.

Budget cuts announced by the Department of Defense will cost the Kansas Air National Guard about more than 25 employees.

The state’s adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, said the 184th Intelligence Wing in Wichita will lose 23 full-time positions and two part-time positions. Two part-time positions with the 190th Air Refueling Wing in Topeka will also be cut.

Tafanelli said in a news release Tuesday that the state had expected to lose some jobs after the budget cuts were announced.

The Department of Defense announced earlier this year it would cut $487 billion over the next 10 years.

The Kansas National Guard has 5,300 Army Guard members, 2,200 Air Guard members, 36 armories and two air wings.

A 25-year-old Marysville woman has been sentenced to nearly 15-years in prison for second-degree intentional murder and aggravated assault on Tuesday.

Amanda Baynton was sentenced in Marshall County District Court by Judge John L. Weingart to 178-months in the Kansas Department of Corrections. The crimes occurred on June 8, 2011, resulting in the death of her husband, Derek Bjorn Baynton. She entered a no contest to the charges on January 25.

Assistant Attorney General Amy Hanley prosecuted the case with the assistance of Marshall County Attorney Laura Johnson-McNish. The case was investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Marysville and Blue Rapids Police departments.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is planning a rally in northeast Kansas ahead of the state’s GOP caucuses.

The former Pennsylvania senator scheduled his event for Wednesday afternoon at Harvest Graphics, a printing and business communications firm in the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa.

Kansas Republicans will be caucusing Saturday at 96 locations around the state to vote for their preferred nominee for president. The results will determine how the Kansas GOP allocates its 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Two other Republican hopefuls – former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Congressman Ron Paul – have scheduled multiple Kansas events on Friday. Gingrich also plans to attend caucuses on Saturday in Wichita and Hutchinson.

A Democrat in the Kansas House faces an investigation into whether he intentionally misled colleagues during a debate last month on property tax legislation.

Twenty-six House Republicans filed a complaint Tuesday with the chamber’s chief clerk against Rep. Jim Ward, of Wichita. House rules require that a committee be appointed to investigate, but Ward says there was no wrongdoing.

The Republicans want the House to consider removing Ward from his seat.

The GOP lawmakers contend Ward misled them about an amendment he offered to a bill imposing a cap on local property taxes.

Ward says Republicans didn’t read the text of his amendment, which provided $45 million to local governments for property tax relief.

The House passed the bill with Ward’s amendment, but reversed course a few days later.

Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing has agreed to pay a civil penalty and install new pollution controls and processes to settle alleged environmental violations at its Kansas refinery.

The settlement announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency includes a $970,000 fine. It also requires the Coffeyville refinery to put in $4.25 million in upgraded pollution controls and $6.5 million in operating costs.

Regulators say the improvements are designed to benefit the environment and protect the health of residents living near the facility.

The agreement includes more stringent emission limits and more aggressive leak detection and repair practices.

Environmental regulators say sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitted from refineries can cause health problems and contribute to acid rain, smog and haze.

An executive with the Canadian company seeking to build an oil pipeline across the United States to the Texas Gulf Coast says a new route around Nebraska’s environmentally sensitive Sandhills region will be ready within weeks.

TransCanada’s president of energy and oil pipelines Alex Pourbaix said Tuesday the company plans to resubmit its permit request to the U.S. State Department. He also says construction of the southern tier of the Keystone XL pipeline, which doesn’t require a special permit, will begin by late spring or early summer.

Pourbaix spoke at a panel discussion at an energy conference in Houston.

He says the southern tier of the pipeline from Cushing, Okla., through Texas will help relieve but not completely eliminate a bottleneck at Midwest refineries.

A 15-year-old suspect in the shooting death of a Manhattan teenager has pleaded not guilty.

Cole Drake entered the plea Monday to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the death of 14-year-old Tyler Dowling. Drake is being tried as an adult.

Dowling, a Manhattan High School freshman, was found dead last April in a field. Drake is also accused of taking items from Dowling, including his cell phone.

The Manhattan Mercury reports Drake’s bond was set at $500,000.

His trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 24.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has named the members of his Kansas leadership team ahead of the state’s upcoming GOP caucuses.

The former U.S. House speaker from Georgia announced Monday that Beverly Gossage and Mike Pirner will head his campaign efforts in Kansas.

Kansas Republicans are holding caucuses on Saturday to determine who wins the state’s delegates to the party’s national convention this summer.

Gossage will serve as statewide chairwoman for Gingrich. She is the owner of HSA Benefits Consulting and serves on the Kansas GOP executive committee.

Gingrich named Pirner as the state director of the campaign, assisted by Travis Couture-Lovelady and Rhandi Pendergrass.

Gingrich also named coordinators in each of the state’s four congressional districts, as well as a 12-member legislative leadership team.

By Fred Gough ~ Hutch Post

McPHERSON – A 25-year-old McPherson man entered a no-contest plea Monday, to first degree felony murder in association with the shooting death of 30-year-old Justin Milne.

The case goes back to May 29, 2011, when Smith is alleged to have shot Milne multiple times at his home in McPherson. He then allegedly took Milne in his own vehicle to Marion County where he dumped his body, then set the vehicle on fire at a separate location. Milne’s body was found in a secluded campsite area of Marion County the next day.

The case started when McPherson Law Enforcement received information that Milne may be a victim of foul play, and they then began trying to locate him and his black 1998 Chevy Tahoe.

They then learned that Milne’s vehicle was found in Marion County fully engulfed in flames, but his body was not found in the vehicle or at the scene. Smith was reportedly found and arrested in the area where the truck was burned.

McPherson County Attorney David Page had charged Smith with four additional counts including aggravated burglary and possession of a firearm, but the lesser charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement.

He says the family of the victim had approved the resolution of the case and were pleased with the presumptive penalty of life imprisonment for Smith. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, and faces life with no chance of parole for 20-years.

Smith had been on community corrections for possession of drug paraphernalia, and sales of drugs for a case that goes back to 2009.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has formed his own political action committee.

Kobach faced bipartisan criticism Monday from legislators who said it’s inappropriate for the state’s chief elections official to possibly get involved in partisan election campaigns through a PAC.

The Republican secretary of state did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Records of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission show that Kobach created the PAC – called Prairie Fire – on Feb. 15, with himself as its chairman.

State Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, said Kobach is supposed to be an unbiased elections official. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said creating a PAC is highly inappropriate.

But House Elections Committee Chairman Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican, says he’s not bothered by Kobach’s PAC.

Fire officials say a grass fire burned more than 2,000 acres near Fort Riley but did no damage to the fort or any of the fort’s assets.

More than 40 firefighters from Fort Riley and the Geary County Rural Fire Department fought the blaze Sunday afternoon.

Fort Riley Fire officials say the blaze was a natural vegetation fire but it is unclear how it started.

KCLY News reports the fire occurred at US Hwy 77 and Kansas Hwy 82 along the northwest perimeter of the Fort Riley military training area.

About 2,036 acres burned and fire crews spent nearly 4½ hours on the fire line.

by Randy Picking – Salina Post

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has suspended the license of a day care provider in Beloit. The license of the day care home operated by Margo Hyman was suspended Friday.

The emergency suspension comes as a result of a report from the Beloit Police Department , and Kansas SRS that there had been an investigation regarding injuries to a 9 year old boy in the care of Hyman.

The boy said that Hyman had slapped him in head twice. The child has bruising on his face, and another child reported that Hyman had slapped the 9 year old boy.

The Beloit Police Department requested that the day care home be closed while it is re-evaluated for the safety of children in care.

KDHE says that Hyman has a right to a hearing on the issue.