(AP) – Kansas students posted gains in math and reading scores in 2011 National Assessment of Education Progress, especially when compared to scores from 2003.

State Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker said Tuesday gains were particularly strong in math and among English language learners.

The 2003 figures are referenced because that’s when Kansas adopted new curriculum standards, and the first year the state had 100 percent participation from schools selected to take the NAEP tests.

The state’s fourth-grade scores were 224 in reading and 246 in math. Nationally, they were 220 in reading and 240 in math. Kansas eighth-graders scored 267 in reading and 290 in math, while nationally they were 264 in reading and 283 in math. All scores are based on a 500-point scale.

(AP) – The leader of a Muslim mosque in west Wichita that was heavily damaged by fire says someone has been sending anti-Islam letters to the mosque in recent months.

Vandals were also turning on the outside water faucet at the Islamic Association of Mid Kansas mosque, which suffered at least $130,000 in damage after a fire early Monday.

The group’s president, Abdelkarim Jibril, says the mosque had received about eight letters starting four to six months ago, but the letters had stopped about a month ago. He says the mosque’s water bill increased about $30 after someone began turning on the outside water faucet.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the fire investigation.

(AP) – Kansas City police are looking for thieves who stole an estimated $12,000 worth of copper wiring and other metal items from a department radio tower.

A police officer checking the tower in the south-central part of the city over the weekend found a chain used to keep the gate shut had been cut.

Police say they discovered a large amount of wiring and other items were missing.

The Police Department says the theft did not affect radio service or the functioning of the system.

(AP) – The Kansas Department of Revenue says the state collected $4 million less in taxes than anticipated in October.

But the department says the payment of a large, 1-time refund from taxes paid in previous years was the reason. The agency did not provide additional details.

The state expected to collect $462 million in taxes in October and took in $458 million. The difference was about 1%.

The shortfall ended a streak of 6 consecutive months in which tax collections exceeded expectations.

Still, for the fiscal year that began in July, the state is $62 million ahead on its tax collections, exceeding expectations 3.4%. Since July 1, the state has collected almost $1.9 billion in taxes.

State officials and economists meet Friday to issue new revenue projections.

(AP) – Authorities have identified the sixth person killed in a Kansas grain elevator explosion as a 43-year-old grain inspector.

The Saturday blast at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison killed six people and injured two. Five of the dead have already been identified.

The city manager’s office in Atchison identified the sixth person Monday as Darrek Klahr of Wetmore.

He was one of two grain inspectors killed. The other was 34-year-old Travis Keil of Topeka.

Three of the four workers who died were from Atchison. They were 21-year-old Ryan Federinko, 21-year-old Curtis Field, and 20-year-old Chad Roberts. Also killed was 24-year-old John Burke of Denton.

Field, Keil, and Klahr were found Monday after crews were able to get into parts of the building made unstable by the blast.

(AP) – A Colorado grand jury has indicted two people accused of fraudulently obtaining used cars and reselling them.

The state attorney general’s office said Monday that 33-year-old Othello Kenta Bland and 22-year-old Chelsea Marie Getchell were in custody in Kansas. They face charges of theft, computer crime and conspiracy to commit theft. Bland also faces one count of violating the Organized Crime Control Act.

An indictment alleges the pair targeted individuals selling vehicles online or in a publication. The two are accused of either stealing vehicles during test drives or providing forged checks for vehicles. The indictment alleges they resold the cars for cash to buyers they found online, earning themselves more than $71,000.

Victims learned of the fraud when they were couldn’t obtain a proper title for the vehicles.

(AP) — Two Kansas men are accused of killing a Junction City woman last year to stop her from telling authorities about a drug trafficking operation.

An indictment unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Topeka charges 34-year-old Virok Webb and 29-year-old Marcus with one count each of murder, conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and conspiracy to distribute powder cocaine.

Both men are from Junction City. They’re accused in the fatal shooting of Crystal Fisher, who was found dead in March 2010.

Six other Junction City residents are charged with conspiracy to distribute crack and powder cocaine. The indictment alleges that all eight defendants were part of a drug trafficking conspiracy that operated in Geary County from November 2008 to April 2011.

Attorneys for the defendants declined to comment Monday.

(AP) – The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping investigate a fire at a mosque in west Wichita.

No one was injured in the fire.

Wichita fire Capt. Stuart Bevis said investigators have not determined a cause of the fire early Monday at the Islamic Association of Mid-Kansas. But he says nothing is being ruled out.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Bevis says the mosque’s attic was gutted, causing at least $130,000 damage. He says the fire may have totaled the mosque because of extensive damage to the attic and roof supports.

(AP) – The bodies of the final three victims of a grain elevator blast that killed six people and injured two others were recovered Monday morning in Kansas, a company official said.

Three victims were found during the weekend but unstable concrete, hanging steel beams and other damage had forced crews to temporarily call off their search at the Bartlett Grain Co. facility in Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City.

Bob Knief, a Bartlett senior vice president, announced the three bodies had been recovered but declined to identify them.

Relatives said two of the three were worker Curtis Field, 21, and state grain inspector Travis Keil. They have said the third person also was a state grain inspector.

Keil was a war veteran who had served as a site inspector for 16 years. His parents, Gary and Ramona Keil, drove from Salina to Atchison to wait with his three children — ages 8, 12 and 15 — as crews searched.

“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to go through this,” Gary Keil said.

Farmers take their grain to grain elevators after harvest to store it before it is marketed or sold. The Bartlett grain bin is a large, concrete structure used for elevating, storing, discharging, and sometimes processing grain.

The explosion was a harrowing reminder of the dangers workers face inside elevators brimming with highly combustible grain dust at the end of harvest season. The blast fired an orange fireball into the night sky, shot off a chunk of the grain distribution building directly above the elevator and blew a large hole in the side of a concrete silo.

The three Bartlett workers whose bodies recovered earlier were identified as Chad Roberts, 20; Ryan Federinko, 21; and John Burke, 24.

Roberts planned to get married Nov. 19 and take a honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas, said Alicia Cobleigh, his fiancée. She said he liked to hunt and fish and took her fishing. They’d met in high school.

“He was fun, and he couldn’t wait to be a husband and a dad,” she said “We actually bought a house in April and remodeled it.”

Family members and friends turned the sign outside the elevator into a memorial for the workers. A sweatshirt with Federinko’s name written on it in marker also was marked, “Why!”

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred, but the cause of the explosion remained unclear. The company brought in a South Dakota-based engineer with expertise in such accidents to help federal safety investigators at the scene.

Over the past four decades, there have more than 600 explosions at grain elevators, killing more than 250 people and injuring more than 1,000, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Last year, there were non-fatal grain explosions or fires in several states including Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota and Louisiana.

(AP) – A former bookkeeper for a Wichita-based chain of radio stations faces revised federal charges of stealing more than $2 million from his employer.

William H. Nolan has been issued a summons to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court to answer charges of mail fraud and wire fraud. The charges are outlined in a revised indictment that also seeks a $2 million forfeiture judgment.

Nolan worked at LS Media Inc., which was previously known as Mid-America Ag Network, Broadcast Technical Associates and Steckline Communications.

Prosecutors allege he forged signatures on checks and withdrew electronic transfers from the company’s account, then used the money for personal expenses.

Nolan pleaded not guilty earlier this month to the initial charges.

(AP) – A robbery suspect died after being shot by Wichita police.

Two other suspects in a robbery at a Dollar General store were not injured and are in police custody.

KWCH reports that police went to the store Sunday night after receiving a 911 call.

Police say a robbery was in progress when officers arrived. When three people left the store, there was a confrontation and shots were fired.

One suspect was hit in the chest several times and later died in the hospital.

No other information was immediately available

(AP) – A commission examining Kansas’ public pension system still must tackle the daunting issue of closing the system’s long-term funding gap

The task is likely to prove expensive no matter what emerges from its discussions.

The pensions study commission plans to consider drafting a proposal to start a 401(k)-style plan for new hires. Yet bolstering the long-term financial security of KPERS will require the commission and legislators to consider other ideas likely to cause heartburn.

The pension system projects a gap of nearly $8.3 billion between its anticipated revenues and the benefits promised to both retirees and current employees, through 2033. The commission plans to discuss committing even more state tax dollars to KPERS and issuing as much as $5 billion in bonds to eliminate the funding gap.