From The Kansas Highway Patrol

Shortly after 9am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department requested assistance from the Kansas Highway Patrol in locating a person who fled the area of the Delphos CO-OP when approached by employees.

Kansas Highway Patrol Troopers and an Ottawa County Sheriff’s Deputy spotted the suspect west of town walking along a creek, a creek into which the person fled when approached.

At 1023 hours, Troopers searching the creek bed located the suspect at which point gunfire was exchanged and the suspect was fatally wounded.

The suspect has not been identified and the crime scene has been turned over to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for investigation.

https://salinapost.com/2011/10/12/shooting-in-delphos-wednesday-morning/

(AP) – A Kansas man convicted of shooting his wife to death will be sentenced Nov. 16.

Mark H. Ralstin faces up to 14 years in prison for the November 2009 death of 35-year-old Bobbie Jo Ralston. He was convicted in July of intentional second-degree murder.

The victim was shot six times as she sat in a vehicle in the yard of the couple’s home near Mullinville in rural Kiowa County on Nov. 9, 2009. After the shooting, Ralstin drove to his sister’s home in Sylvia, where he was arrested.

During the trial, the Ralstins’ daughter Kimberly testified about seeing her father shoot her mother

TOPEKA — The clock is ticking toward another crucial deadline for the Kansas Arts Commission, which already lost a year’s worth of federal matching dollars — approximately $1.2 million — because of Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of state funding.

The National Endowment for the Arts has given the Kansas Arts Commission an extended deadline — Oct. 31 — to submit a partnership proposal to be eligible for federal funding in the next fiscal year, according to arts officials.

But the chances of the Arts Commission writing a detailed and comprehensive plan by that deadline is slim, said Mary Kennedy McCabe, executive director of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, a regional arts organization that serves as a conduit of federal arts dollars.  “The Kansas Arts Commission is currently without paid staff and without a budget,” McCabe said.

In May, Brownback vetoed the Kansas Arts Commission budget of $689,000, making Kansas the only state to defund the arts. Above the protest of many in the Legislature and arts organizations across the state, Brownback said arts funding wasn’t a core function of state government, private dollars would make up for the loss of state funds, and the governor indicated that Kansas would still be eligible for federal dollars.

But the National Endowment for the Arts declined to recognize the Arts Commission for federal matching funds this fiscal year because the commission did not have a plan, staff, budget or grant-making strategies in place, McCabe said.

In appearances last week before a legislative committee, new leaders of the Kansas Arts Commission and the Kansas Arts Foundation, which is a nonprofit fundraiser, said they were optimistic.

Linda Browning Weis, who is chair of the Arts Commission and president of the Arts Foundation, said the foundation has accomplished many goals, including getting its nonprofit status approved by the Internal Revenue Service.  The foundation also is nearing completion of a “responsible gift policy” and development of a new website.

HAVEN, Kan. (AP) – Fire investigators say a propane gas leak is
the likely cause of a fire and explosion that killed a Missouri
woman and injured three other people.
Brad Agnew, an agent with the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s
Office, says the explosion Sunday at a home near Cheney Lake was
typical of a propane explosion. He says the furnace ignited the
propane but it’s unclear where the propane leak originated.
The Hutchinson News reports that Agnew
says a man was in the home working on a water heater but
investigators don’t think the water heater was involved in the
explosion.
The explosion killed 60-year-old Mary Lou Hemmy, of
Independence, Mo. The homeowner, her daughter and the man working
on the water heater were injured.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas Highway Patrol says a driver
involved in a triple fatality accident in Leavenworth County had
alcohol and medication in his system.
The patrol says 30-year-old Matthew Allen Nuzik’s blood-alcohol
content after the Oct. 4, 2010 accident was 0.123 percent. The
legal limit is 0.08.
Nuzik, of Basehor, died after a head-on collision on Kansas 32.
Two University of Kansas students in the second car, 21-year-old
Jake Henry and 22-year-old Stephanie Conn, also died. Henry was
driving and the tests found no alcohol or drugs in his system.
A witness told troopers that Nuzik had about five shots of vodka
over a seven-hour period in Lawrence before driving to Basehor. The
Lawrence Journal-World reports that a drug
screen found anxiety medication in Nuzik’s blood.

(AP) – Topeka city leaders have repealed a local law against domestic violence under a controversial plan sparked by budget concerns.

The city council and mayor approved the repeal, saying such cases are better handled by county or state courts.

The vote comes less than a month after the prosecutor in Shawnee County decided to stop pursuing domestic battery cases and other misdemeanors, citing deep cuts to his budget.

Topeka, which is Shawnee County’s largest city, responded by proposing to repeal its domestic violence ordinance so it wouldn’t be forced to pick up the bill for those cases.

Advocates for domestic abuse victims were outraged, saying the plans amounted to austerity run amok. But the city’s interim manager says Topeka is now in a better position to negotiate.

The Associated Press  

TOPEKA – A Larned resident has won a 2011 Ford Mustang GT Kansas Speedway pace car in the Power Play to Kansas Speedway promotion, which was Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

Ben H. Bailey was the winner of the pace car grand prize. In addition to the vehicle, the prize also includes all mandatory withholding taxes and initial taxes and fees, bringing the total value of the prize to approximately $59,500.

To become eligible for the promotion, players purchased Powerball with Power Play, $10 minimum, on a single ticket to receive an entry form for the drawings.

“I bought Powerball tickets with the Power Play option every Wednesday and Saturday since this promotion started,” Bailey said. “When Lottery officials called saying that I had won, I thought someone was playing a trick on me.”

(AP) – With duck hunting season starting in parts of Kansas Saturday, hunters are being warned to protect their dogs from algae blooms.

Tom Langer, director of the state’s bureau of environmental health, says hunters should keep their dogs away from water that is green, slimy or has any kind of bad odor.

He says dogs seem particularly vulnerable to the toxins from blue-green algae. Four dogs died this summer after contact with infected water at Milford Reservoir.

Saturday’s opener is for the low plains early zone of Kansas, which includes Cheyenne Bottoms and the McPherson Valley Wetlands.

Langer hopes the problem has passed when the rest of central Kansas opens to du

The Mutual UFO Network of Missouri says there have been dozens of reports of very large UFOs over Kansas City and Lee’s Summit since Monday night.

Margie Kay of MUFON says some of the UFOs reportedly moved at extremely high speed.

She says in the last 90 days there have been 84 reported sightings of UFOs in the Kansas City area.

(AP) – The parents of a missing 10-month-old Missouri girl are disputing police assertions that they’ve stopped cooperating with investigators.

Relatives of Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley called a news conference Thursday night after police announced the couple had ceased talking to detectives in the search for their baby, Lisa Irwin.

The couple have said the baby was abducted from the their home sometime Monday night or early Tuesday – after her mother put her in her crib and before the father got home from work.

In a statement read to reporters by Irwin’s sister, the couple said, “We want the public to know we have never stopped cooperating with police.’”

A call to police for reaction was not immediately returned.