The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is urging Kansans to avoid Lime Creek in Herington, Kan., after it was discovered last night that sulfuric acid was leaking from a rail yard. The specific area is from Highway 56 North to Avenue 1000. It is estimated that almost 11,000 gallons of sulfuric acid has spilled into Lime Creek.

Residents, their livestock and their pets should avoid that body of water for recreational or drinking purposes. In addition, KDHE and the Dickinson County Emergency Management agency have alerted property owners downstream who use the area for cattle watering.

KDHE will continue to test the area and will send out another notice when the water is considered clear for use.

Two 20-year-old Salina men have entered no contest pleas in the fatal beating of a man after a sidewalk fight.

Justin R. Taddiken and Xavier E. Lewis were found guilty Friday after entering the pleas in Saline County for their role in the death of 48-year-old Robert Unselt.

The Salina Journal reported that Taddiken faces a Feb. 17 sentencing for aggravated battery. And Lewis was placed on probation for misdemeanor battery.

Another man, 19-year-old Tyeler Cookson, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in June and is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 17. Charges were dropped in April against a fourth man.

Unselt died after a Jan. 9 fight with several young people outside a Salina home. A preliminary autopsy showed Unselt died of repeated blows that caused massive head trauma.

A south-central Kansas school district is rejecting claims that 1 of its teachers sexually harassed a student.

The Hutchinson News reported that an unidentified plaintiff claims the harassment occurred before her 2007 graduation from Kingman High School. She says she received “highly inappropriate” text messages from a teacher and that the teacher asked her to bend over or climb onto a chair so he could see her underwear.

The suit also alleges her grades suffered when she tried to remove herself as the teacher’s student aide.

The Kingman-Norwich school district responded last month to the allegations made in the lawsuit. The district said it removed the plaintiff from her accused harasser’s class upon her request, but denies allegations that it failed to protect her from sexual harassment.

Some Kansas officials felt betrayed when Boeing decided to close its defense plant in Wichita, and the area’s congressman says he’s researching whether the company can be held to promises to bring thousands of jobs to the state.

But the state’s leaders are pursuing another path, too.

Gov. Sam Brownback is promising aggressive attempts to attract new commercial aviation work.

Boeing’s longtime presence fed Wichita’s claim as the aviation capital of the world, and state officials were aggressive Boeing boosters over the past decade. The company announced last week that its Wichita plant, with 2,160 workers, will close by the end of 2013.

Brownback attempted to soften the psychological blow by predicting that the state’s aviation industry will emerge larger and more vibrant.

A Fort Riley soldier has been charged with first-degree murder in the New Year’s Day shooting of a Kansas National Guard member at a motorcycle group’s Manhattan clubhouse.

Riley county police and the county prosecutor said 25-year-old Spc. Daniel Patrick Parker made an initial courtappearance Friday and remains held on $1 million bond pending his next appearance. The prosecutor’s office did not know the name of Parker’s attorney.

Parker is accused of firing from a passing car at the “Assasin Street Rydaz” clubhouse around 4 a.m. On New Year’s Day, killing 21-year-old National Guard Spc. Frederick Charles Beverly, of Manhattan.

Police said Parker had a disagreement with another member of the club.

Fort Riley officials said Parker is an active-duty soldier who hascompleted two one-year deployments to Iraq.

A Kansas commission studying pension issues has submitted its final report to legislators, recommending the state start a 401(k)-style plan for new teachers and government workers.

The commission’s report was posted Friday on the Kansas Legislative Research Department website, a month after members approved their recommendations. But 5 of the 13 members submitted a minority report criticizing the proposal for a 401(k)-style plan.

The state pension system projects an $8.3 billion gap between anticipated revenues and benefits promised by existing plans through 2033.

Backers of the commission’s proposal contend the state can’t afford to keep guaranteeing workers’ retirement benefits based on their salaries and years of service, as traditional plans do.

The commission’s dissenters say starting a 401(k)-style plan doesn’t do anything to close the pension system’s long-term funding gap.

Police have made an arrest in the drive-by New Year’s Day killing of a Manhattan man at a motorcycle gang’s clubhouse.

Riley County police announced the arrest Thursday but said details were being withheld until a news conference scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.

Twenty-one-year-old Frederick Beverly of Manhattan died early Sunday after being shot at the clubhouse of the “Assasin Street Rydaz.” Several vehicles in the area were hit by gunfire.

Police said earlier this week it wasn’t clear whom the shooters were targeting.

It was Manhattan’s third fatal shooting in three days. On Dec. 30, 23-year-old Amanda Victoria Bonner and 26-year-old Kawon Darmet Higgins died in what police called a domestic homicide-suicide.

A bipartisan group of Kansas state senators is supporting creation of a reserve account to serve as a so-called rainy day fund for the state budget.

The proposal would amend the Kansas Constitution to require that one-quarter of 1 percent of all state revenue be placed in the account each year. Money could only be used if authorized by a super-majority vote in the House and Senate.

If the total in the account exceeds 5 percent of the state’s budget, the excess could be used for funding government programs.

Senators will introduce the proposal when the legislative session begins Monday. Approval by two-thirds of the House and Senate would be the question on a statewide ballot, with approval by a simple majority of voters adding it to the Kansas Constitution.

The state has approved a wastewater permit that will allow Seaboard Farms to continue plans to build a hog farm in west central Kansas that would house as many as 144,000 hogs.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment approved the permit for Seaboard Foods’ facility in Greeley County.

The department announced the decision in a letter to those who attended a public hearing on the proposal.

Christy Hopkins, community development director for Unified Greeley County, said some county residents oppose the project but she believes it will bring needed economic growth.

In October 2010, Greeley County residents approved a referendum to allow major hog farms in the county. The vote reversed a 12-year ban of hog farms in the county.

A southwest Kansas prosecutor says no charges will be filed in last fall’s fatal shooting of a star wrestler from Garden City High School.

Eighteen-year-old Braxston Medina was killed Sept. 6 after going into a house to retrieve personal items he had loaned to someone. Finney County investigators said at the time that Medina had entered the home illegally.

A 17-year-old inside the house shot Medina once in the chest.

Finney County Attorney John Wheeler said Thursday the shooting was a case of legal self-defense under Kansas law. Authorities said 17-year-old did not know Medina, only that someone was entering the house illegally.

Medina had just begun his senior year at Garden City High School.