A 36-year-old Dickinson County Woman arrested Tuesday on a warrant with charges of aggravated endangerment of of child, distribution of a controlled substance, receiving drug proceeds, unlawful use of a telecommunications device, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Jody J Ockert is alleged to have sold 2 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover agent of the Dickinson County Drug Enforcement Unit on August 19th while she was with her two year old granddaughter.

According to a release from the Dickinson County Sheriffs Office, Ockert is in the Dickinson County Jail awaiting her first appearance in court.

(AP) – The lawyer for a 23-year-old Kansas man accused of dousing a black man with rubbing alcohol and setting him on fire says he doubts the crime constitutes a federal hate crime.

Fifty-four-year-old Sterling Law suffered second-degree burns to his stomach and upper legs during the Oct. 7 attack at his home in Council Grove, about 65 miles southwest of the Kansas capital of Topeka.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas has been reviewing the case to determine if the crime is racially motivated, triggering federal hate crime charges.

Isaac Wilson faces Morris County charges, including aggravated assault and aggravated burglary. His lawyer, Don Krueger, said that he “seriously doubts” his client committed a hate crime.

(AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered owners of a southeast Kansas oil refinery to investigate contamination that may have affected water in the area.

The EPA’s regional office said this week that it reached a settlement with current and past owners of the Frontier El Dorado (doh-RAY’-doh) refinery in El Dorado. The current owner is Frontier El Dorado Refining. Shell Oil Products US was an earlier owner and is also listed on the settlement.

The EPA says the site is contaminated with several toxic chemicals, including benzene, lead and hexavalent chromium. The agency says those chemicals may have affected groundwater, surface water and soil.

The settlement in part requires Frontier and Shell to submit a report on past waste management practices and determine a final remedy for the facility.

(AP) – The Islamic Society of Islam says it has received an outpouring of support since a mosque in west Wichita was seriously damaged in a fire.

Society spokesman Hussam Madi says individuals and churches have offered support and spaces for group members to worship since the fire on Monday. The society posted a letter of appreciation on its website Wednesday.

The cause of the fire at the mosque remains under investigation. Damage estimates are around $130,000 but fire officials say the mosque might be totally destroyed because of damage to the attic and support structures.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping with the investigation.

The Wichita Eagle reports that officials with the Islamic society are vowing to rebuild the mosque.

(AP) – Kansas legislators who oppose abortion are divided over whether the attorney general’s office should investigate the state health department’s shredding of documents later sought as evidence in a criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, said he wants to see the response from the health department, which is under different leaders than when the records were destroyed in 2005. House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, and Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican, said they need more information about what happened.

But House Majority Leader Arlen Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican, and Rep. Steve Brunk, a Bel Aire Republican, said the attorney general’s office needs to investigate the shredding, which could hamper the criminal case filed in Johnson County in 2007 against Planned Parenthood’s clinic in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. Brunk is chairman of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, which reviews abortion legislation.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office won’t comment about the shredding, and officials in Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration won’t say whether an internal investigation is under way.

Planned Parenthood attorneys have described the shredding as a routine, mandated under state regulations that set schedules for when old papers are destroyed. But abortion opponents are suspicious because the shredding was done by the administration of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an abortion rights Democrat who left office to become U.S. health and human services secretary.

The criminal case was filed by former prosecutor Phill Kline, a Republican abortion opponent, and it’s been described by anti-abortion groups as the first criminal case in the nation against a Planned Parenthood clinic. Kline was investigating the clinic in 2005, and the 107 charges he eventually filed included allegations that the clinic created false copies of the records shredded by the health department, which were 23 reports on individual abortions filed with KDHE in 2003.

A preliminary hearing to determine whether the case goes to trial had been scheduled for last month, but the Johnson County district attorney’s office persuaded a judge to delay it because of the document shredding. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 9 to assess the district attorney’s progress in identifying potential witnesses and alternative evidence.

“This smells like some very selective shredding,” Brunk said. “There needs to be an investigation, and it should come out of the attorney general’s office.”

But Kinzer said he’s confident that the health department, now under Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican abortion opponent who took office in January, will examine the circumstances thoroughly.

“It does raise definitely troubling questions,” Kinzer said. “I just want to make sure I’ve got more information before accusing anybody of anything.”

Schmidt, a Republican who took office in January, supported new restrictions on abortion as a state senator but wasn’t seen as an anti-abortion leader. His office said he won’t comment because of the ongoing criminal case.

The health department declined a request from The Associated Press for a copy of a memo that the agency sent to the Johnson County district attorney’s office about the shredding.

(AP) – A Missouri billionaire is helping finance a Kansas group’s efforts to eliminate state income taxes.

An associate of Rex Sinquefield said Tuesday the St. Louis businessman contributed to Kansans for No Income Tax. The associate did not disclose the donation’s amount.

The Kansas group announced plans last month to push for phasing out the state’s income taxes. It has scheduled a two-day bus tour to five cities, starting Friday in Topeka.

Sinquefield has given millions of dollars to conservative candidates and causes in Missouri. He supports efforts to eliminate Missouri’s income tax and replace it with a higher state sales tax on a wider variety of goods and services.

The Kansas group’s president, Ashley McMillan, told The Star it has many donors.

by Randy Picking

The body of a 72 year old Chapman area man was found late Tuesday afternoon, not far from his home.

In a media release, the Dickinson County Sheriffs Office says that Roy Conrad was found in a low lying area about 200 yards from his home in a low lying area.

There had been searches for Conrad before his body was found about 4 pm Tuesday.

Conrad was last seen during the weekend.

There were no signs of foul play, however an autopsy was requested and will be performed to determine the cause of his death.

(AP) – Charges have been dropped against two Texas hunters in the investigation of a Kansas camp where hunters paid thousands of dollars to kill deer illegally.

At the government’s request, U.S. District Judges Eric Melgren and Monti Belot dismissed the misdemeanor charges in separate cases against James Donnan and Michael Scarber, both of Center, Texas.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the dismissal relates to “technical issues” with the type of equipment allegedly used to hunt.

Twelve hunters from Texas and Louisiana were charged in August with poaching-related misdemeanors connected to Camp Lone Star near Coldwater. Five pleaded guilty and seven pleaded not guilty. Two other Texas hunters were indicted in July on felony charges.

The camp’s owner and his brother were sentenced in June to 41 and 27 months in prison, respectively.

(AP) — Attorneys for Facebook and a Kansas man who filed a class-action lawsuit over privacy issues have jointly asked a federal judge to delay proceedings while a panel decides whether to consolidate similar lawsuits elsewhere.

The lawsuit by Leawood resident John Graham is one of more than a dozen filed nationwide alleging Facebook tracked users’ Internet activity without consent while they were logged out of the social networking site.

A document filed Tuesday in Graham’s case asks for a delay while the Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decides on a request by plaintiffs in a California case who want to coordinate or consolidate similar lawsuits. The consolidation request is expected to be heard by the judiciary panel in Miami on Jan. 26.

(AP) – A northeast Kansas sheriff’s deputy took a risky ride to stop man suspected of being involved in a domestic dispute.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Topeka man was sitting in a pickup truck outside the Shawnee County Courthouse when the deputy approached him around noon Tuesday.

Authorities say the man refused the deputy’s orders and drove out of the parking lot. The deputy jumped in the bed and held on as the pickup sped down a Topeka street.

The sheriff’s department says the deputy feared for his life and broke the cab’s back window, ordering the driver at gunpoint to stop. The man slowed down, jumped out and was caught after a short chase on foot. He was arrested on several charges, including suspicion of attempted involuntary manslaughter.

(AP) – A spokesman for a federal agency says determining the cause of a grain elevator explosion in northeast Kansas could take up to six months.

Spokesman Scott Allen said Tuesday that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has several inspectors at a Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City. The elevator exploded Saturday, killing six people.

Allen said the investigation of the cause will take months while OSHA interviews employees and company officials about the blast. He said investigations involving deaths typically are more complex.

He said it’s also too early to talk about the elevator’s future and whether it will have to be razed.

Fine, highly combustible particles flow through elevator buildings as grain is moved, and a spark can ignite it.

Funerals for three victims of a northeast Kansas grain elevator explosion are scheduled for later this week.

The first funeral scheduled is for 21-year-old Bartlett employee Ryan Federinko, of Atchison. It’s scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the chapel of the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home in Atchsion.

A Mass for 24-year-old Bartlett employee John Burke, of Denton, is set for 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Benedict’s Catholic Church in Bendena, north of Atchison.

A service for 20-year-old Bartlett employee Chad Roberts, of Atchison, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at Davidson Funeral Home in Topeka.

(AP) – Cloud County authorities are investigating a vandalism spree on five central Kansas farms.

Sheriff Brian Marks says vandals drive two combines, two trucks and two tractors into trees or ditches, on top of hay bales and into irrigation systems.

A Concordia man was arrested. Marks said Monday that officers are looking for a second suspect. No charges have been filed.

The vandalism occurred last Thursday night and Friday morning in northeast Cloud County near Clyde.

The Salina Journal reports that no official damage figure has been determined but estimates have varied from $500,000 into millions of dollars.