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Man arrested after confrontation with firefighter, officer

WPDWICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Wichita, Kansas, say a man is in custody after assaulting a police officer and firefighter at a building doubling as a police and fire station. Wichita police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow tells KSNW-TV a 25-year-old man drove erratically onto the station’s lot about 6:45 p.m. Sunday, narrowly missing a firefighter and a man.

Woodrow says the driver exited his vehicle and got into a physical altercation with the two men. When the firefighter rang the police station’s doorbell, a police sergeant stepped out and was pushed and threatened by the suspect.

The motives for the suspect’s confrontation are not immediately clear.

He was jailed on suspicion of criminal threats, terrorism, battery of a law enforcement officer and firefighter, criminal property damage and driving with a restricted license.

Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly dies at age 92

(AP Photo) Click image for the Eagle Forum biography of Phyllis Schlafly
(AP Photo) Click image for the Eagle Forum biography of Phyllis Schlafly

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Outspoken conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, has died at age 92.

The Eagle Forum announced her death in a statement Monday. Her son John Schlafly says she died of cancer Monday afternoon at her home in St. Louis.

Schlafly’s self-published book, “A Choice Not an Echo,” became a manifesto for the far right. It chronicled the history of the GOP National Convention, sold three million copies and helped conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater earn the party’s 1964  nomination.

She graduated from college at 19, while working at a factory during World War II, and later earned master’s and law degrees.

But she once said that perhaps her greatest legacy was the ultraconservative Eagle Forum, which she founded in suburban St. Louis in 1972.

Chase across 3 Kansas counties ends in Colorado man’s arrest

Saline-County-Sheriffs-Office1SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a Colorado man has been arrested after a law enforcement chase across three Kansas counties.

The Hays Post reports that the driver told authorities he was trying to get to Oklahoma to see his mother before facing prison time in Colorado, where he has two outstanding felony arrest warrants.

Saline County Sheriff’s Captain Brent Melander says the chase started Wednesday after deputies stopped the vehicle, which had an expired Colorado temporary tag.

The 24-year-old Loveland, Colorado, man who was behind the wheel said he had no driver’s license or identification and sped off as the deputy returned to his vehicle. An 18-year-old Fort Collins, Colorado, was a passenger in the fleeing vehicle.

Melander says the chase ended when Marion County deputies were able to puncture the vehicle’s tires.

Man sentenced to life for 6-month-old’s death

Fort Scott Ks policeFORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) — A southeast Kansas man was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the death of a 6-month-old boy.

District Court Judge Mark Ward on Friday sentenced 22-year-old Anthony Michael Anderson of Fulton. He was convicted in May in Bourbon County of first-degree murder and child abuse.

The child died in April 2015 after he was injured in Fort Scott.

Fort Scott police said at the time that officers were called to a Fort Scott home and found the child injured. Police say the child was injured at a different address.

Investigators were first told the child, whose name has not been officially released, had fallen off a sofa.

University: Ex-player had ‘non-consensual sex’ with student

KU logoLAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas concluded that a former football player had “non-consensual sex” with one female student and violated the school’s sexual harassment policy with another student who also alleges she was sexually assaulted.

The Kansas City Star obtained letters signed by the university’s vice provost of student affairs.

The letters say a university investigation recommended that the ex-player, Jordan Goldenberg, be permanently expelled.

Goldenberg has not been criminally charged. Attorneys for Goldenberg say he denies the sex-assault allegations and withdrew from the university in lieu of expulsion.

A phone number listed for his family’s home in Missouri has been disconnected.

The women have sued the university and spoken publicly, alleging they were sexually assaulted in a residence hall by the same then-football player. The lawsuits don’t name Goldenberg.

Millions of bees in traffic accident near Kansas City

wpid-wpid-modot-logo-200x150-200x150.jpgKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Drivers along an interstate north of Kansas City were told to be on the lookout for an unusual traffic hazard after a semi-trailer truck loaded with honeybees overturned.

The Missouri Department of Transportation said the accident occurred Friday on Interstate 435. No serious injuries were reported.

The Transportation Department initially said the truck was carrying about 40,000 bees.

But the Kansas City Star reports bee experts said between 8 million and 11 million bees were in the truck. Some of the bees flew away from the accident scene.

Matt Winstead, of Midwest Bee Removal, says hives typically contain about 40,000 bees. The owner of the hives, Brian Buoye said about 408 hives were being transported.

Judge says Tesla can’t sell directly to Missouri customers

Tesla logo
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri circuit judge has ruled that an electric car maker cannot sell its vehicles directly to customers.

Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green ruled Wednesday that the Missouri Revenue Department violated state law by licensing California-based Tesla Motors as a franchise.

That designation gave company the ability to sell cars to customers instead of working through a dealership. The Missouri Automobile Dealers Association in response sued the Revenue Department, saying it gave Tesla special privileges.

Tesla had called the lawsuit an attempt to decrease competition.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office, which represents the Revenue Department, says it’s reviewing the ruling.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment Thursday.

Judge fines Highway Patrol over foot-dragging in drowning case

MSHP car
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri judge has fined the state Highway Patrol $5,000 after finding that it violated open records law in responding to requests from the family of an Iowa man who drowned while in custody.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem issued the order Wednesday. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , Beetem ruled that the state’s delays in turning over documents to Brandon Ellingson’s family amounted to a “purposeful violation” of law. The fine is the maximum allowed.

Ellingson was arrested in 2014 on the Lake of the Ozarks on suspicion of boating while intoxicated. While being transported, he tumbled into the water wearing an improperly secured life vest and drowned. The arresting trooper faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

The attorney general’s office says it is reviewing Beetem’s ruling.

Kansas tax collections fall short for fourth straight month

Tax cutsTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas says its tax collections in August fell $10 million short of expectations and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback blames a soft economy.

The state Department of Revenue report Thursday marked the fourth consecutive month that Kansas has failed to hit its revenue projections.

Tax collections have fallen short 10 of the past 12 months.

The state collected $427 million in taxes last month. A fiscal forecast made in April predicted the state would take in more than $437 million. The shortfall is 2.3 percent.

Kansas has struggled to balance its budget after GOP lawmakers heeded Brownback’s call to slash personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 as an economic stimulus.

But Brownback said this week that slumps in agriculture and energy production are to blame for disappointing revenues.

Only 73 voters covered by lawsuits voted in primary

VoteTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Secretary of State Kris Kobach says only 73 of the 17,600 Kansas voters at the center of legal fights over the state’s proof of citizenship requirements actually cast ballots in the August primary. Kobach provided the figure Thursday after meeting briefly in public with Gov. Sam Brownback and Attorney General Derek Schmidt to certify the election results.

Voting rights advocates have won temporary court rulings in federal and state courts affirming the right to vote for people who registered at motor vehicle offices but never submitted citizenship papers as required by a 2013 state law championed by Kobach.

Election officials in populous counties previously reported only a few such voters.

Also on Thursday, officials reported Kansas saw 23.5 percent of its registered voters cast ballots in its Aug. 2 primary election. Final election results presented Thursday showed that 411,552 voters cast ballots out of nearly 1.75 million registered.

The turnout was slightly below the 24 percent predicted by Secretary Kobach but higher than the 23.2 percent in 2012, the last presidential election year.

Turnout exceeded 50 percent in 14 of the state’s 105 counties. The top figures were 64.8 percent in Wallace County and 60.3 percent in Greeley County.

Five counties saw a turnout of less than 15 percent. The lowest was 12.7 percent in Franklin County.

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