(AP) – A traffic stop in northeastern Kansas yielded a big payoff.

Geary County Undersheriff Tony Wolf tells WIBW-TV that a deputy stopped a car for speeding in a construction zone Wednesday morning on Interstate 70.

The deputy thought the car was suspicious and brought in a K-9 drug-detecting unit, which led to a search of the vehicle. No drugs were found, but Wolf says deputies discovered nearly $180,000 in cash inside a duffel bag.

The car was traveling from Columbia, Mo., to somewhere in Colorado. Geary County authorities released the driver but seized the cash. Wolf says they believe the money was related to a drug operation.

An accident in a construction zone on I-70 near mile marker 233 sent a 37-year-old Missouri man to the hospital Wednesday morning.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, around 10:00 am Brent Nuest, 33, of Ellinwood, was driving his 1998 Kenworth through a construction zone in Lincoln County when he turned through the median and failed to yield to another truck driven by Larry Dinwiddie of Marshfield, Missouri. Dinwidde was able to avoid a collision with Nuest by turning into the south ditch, where his truck rolled onto its side.

Nuest was uninjured. Dinwiddie was transported to Salina Regional Health Center with possible injuries.

Both men were wearing seatbelts.

No further information was released.

(AP) – The number of job openings in Kansas has declined over the past year by 4.3%, reflecting a tighter employment market in the state.

According to the 2011 Job Vacancy Survey released by the Kansas Department of Labor, there were 3.1 unemployed people for every job vacancy reported in the state. That was a slight increase from the 2010 rate of 3 to 1.

The statewide job vacancy rate was 2.3%, meaning there were 2.3 vacancies for every 100 jobs in Kansas. The highest vacancy rate was 2.5% in south-central Kansas, with the lowest rate of 2% in western Kansas.

State labor officials say the details from the report will be helpful in targeting workforce development programs emphasizing training for education and health services occupations.

(AP) – Kansas City police say they have a warrant to again search a house from where a mother and father say their baby was abducted two weeks ago.

Police Capt. Steve Young says officers will enter the home Tuesday.

Lisa Irwin was 10 months old Oct. 4 when her parents reported her missing. Father Jeremy Irwin says he returned home from a late shift to discover the lights on, a window tampered with, the front door unlocked and Lisa gone. The baby’s mother, Deborah Bradley, was asleep elsewhere in the house. Bradley says she had been drinking heavily that night.

Young says the family can’t return to the house until the search is over.

He said Tuesday that the parents haven’t sat down face-to-face with investigators since Oct. 8.

(AP) – Wichita police have arrested a 37-year-old man after a fight involving a sword and steak knives at a local hotel.

Police say the man kicked in the motel room door where a 57-year-old man was staying and threatened him with a sword Monday night. The older man ran to his room’s kitchen and grabbed two steak knives to confront the attacker.

Police spokesman Lt. Doug Nolte says the fight spilled into the hotel’s parking lot. When police arrived the older man had the 37-year-old pinned against a wall outside the hotel.

The Wichita Eagle reports officers found methamphetamine and marijuana on the 37-year-old.

(AP) – The Kansas Wildlife and Parks secretary has an idea for getting more people to buy annual state park passes.

Robin Jennison wants to make it possible for Kansas residents to buy the passes at a reduced rate when they register cars and light trucks.

The Wichita Eagle reported that under his plan the annual passes would cost $15. They now cost up to $24.50 when they’re purchased at agency locations.

He hopes the Legislature will sign off on the idea next session.

Jennison shared his idea last week during the Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Commission meeting in Pratt. During the meeting, commissioners lowered the price of annual camping permits by $50 in hope of boosting sales. That means off-season permits will cost $150 and prime-season passes $200.

(AP) – A series of town-hall style meetings in Kansas next month will focus on ways to reduce childhood poverty.

Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday the meetings will be held Nov. 14 at Jack Reardon Convention Center in Kansas City, Kan.; Nov. 16 at the Drury Hotel in Wichita; and Nov. 17 at the athletic complex at Garden City Community College. Each session will run from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Brownback says nearly 24% of Kansas children lived in poverty in 2010, up slightly from the previous year. The governor has identified reduction of childhood poverty as a cornerstone of his first term in office.

The meetings will be led by Rob Siedlecki  secretary of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

(AP) – Their school was destroyed by a tornado, and now high school students in Chapman are losing their mascot to another force of nature – the University of Notre Dame.

The national sports powerhouse contacted school officials in the small, northeastern Kansas town after seeing its leprechaun logo on the Chapman website. High school principal Kevin Suther told KWCH-TV  the letter arrived over the summer.

Superintendent Lacee Sell adds it was clear Notre Dame was serious about getting Chapman to drop the fighting leprechaun mascot. School district officials say they can keep their “Fighting Irish” nickname, however, and the community is holding a contest to pick a new logo.

Chapman’s new high school opened in January of this year. The old one was destroyed in a massive June 2008 tornado.

(AP) — Two Franklin County sheriff’s deputies pulled a man from his sinking car after it plunged into a pond following a collision with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 35.

KCTV reports the crash was reported around 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Deputy Carl Bentley was first to arrive at the scene and jumped into the water, but couldn’t free the driver because the car’s doors were locked.

Bentley broke a passenger-side window with his baton and attempted to free the Pennsylvania man, who was unconscious. A second deputy, Tim Jones, jumped into the water to help with the rescue as the water went over the man’s head.

The two pulled the man to the bank of the pond, where he was treated before being taken to an area hospital.

(AP) – Kansas City police have been working in a wooded area near the home of a baby that has been missing for two weeks.

Crime scene technicians worked Tuesday in the area a few blocks from the home where the parents of Lisa Irwin reported their 10-month-old daughter missing Oct. 4.

Also Tuesday, police in Riley County, Kan., said they were investigating a report of two women in their 20s who raised suspicions because they were with a baby resembling Lisa. Capt. Kurt Moldrup said someone called police to say the women left “in a suspicious” manner, but he didn’t elaborate.

He said his department notified other agencies in the area to look for the women’s vehicle, a small black car with Missouri plates.

(AP) – A man has been arrested after witnesses reported that he became unruly while aboard a Southwest Airlines flight.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Brad Hawkins said he couldn’t confirm early reports that the man tried to break into cockpit of Flight 3683. However, he said the crew of the Los Angeles-to-Kansas City flight decided on an unscheduled landing about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Amarillo as a precaution. There, the unruly passenger was turned over to federal authorities for questioning.

Hawkins said none of the 136 passengers and five crew members was injured, and that the passengers were to continue their trip aboard the same aircraft.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Sarah Horowitz says information is still being gathered, and Amarillo Aviation Director Patrick Rhodes didn’t immediately return a message from The Associated Press.

A single-truck accident on I-70 near Oakly sent two men to the hospital Tuesday morning.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol around 7:30 am, Brian Ritchey, 46, of Olympia, Washington, was westbound on I-70 near mile marker 76 when his rig veered off the north shoulder and crossed over onto Highway 40, eventually coming to a rest on Highway 40.

Ritchey and his passenger, 57-year-old Hugh McBryde, of Missoula, Montana, were taken to Logan County Hospital with possible injuries.

On October 4, 2011, at approximately 1045 hours, officers and medic units responded to 612 W. Prescott in reference to a 14-month-old child, Clayden Urbanek, who was not breathing and cold to the touch. He was treated at the Salina Regional Health Center and transferred to a Wichita hospital where he died.

The investigation resulted in the arrest of Antonio Brown, 27, 612 W. Prescott, Salina, KS, for Felony Murder and Child Abuse.

Further investigation resulted in the arrest today of the 14-month-old’s mother, Brittney Betzold, 19, 612 W. Prescott, Salina, KS, for Felony Murder, Aggravated Child Endangerment and Felony Obstructing Legal Process.

 

Original Post

A 27-year-old man is now in the Saline County Jail on charges of felony murder, child abuse and a KDOC warrant in connection with the death of a 14-month-old boy Tuesday in Salina.

Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney says that EMS and officers were sent to 612 West Prescott about 10:45 am Tuesday on a report of an unresponsive child.

They found Clayden L. Urbanek on the couch not breathing. He was taken to Salina Regional Health Center, and then transferred to Wesley Medical Center where he died just before 5 pm Tuesday.

Sweeney says that the young boy had bruising about the face and body in various states of healing, cuts on his feet, a tear in his intestines, a perforated bowl, and a broken rib.

The boy had been in the care of his 19-year-old mother’s boyfriend Antonio Brown, who had called the mother to say the child wasn’t acting right.

The mom called EMS after Brown had left saying he was going to the drugstore for medication but he did not return. Brown was arrested hiding in a basement at 205 N. Chicago about 7pm Tuesday evening.

Brown had been in prison serving time on drug and burglary convictions from Kearney County in southwest Kansas.

He was paroled in February, and the Kansas Department of Corrections issued a warrant for his arrest in September on parole violations.