EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A fine-arts degree program that Emporia State University says is unique in the country is being enhanced with a gift from the company that helped start the program.
The university partnered with Emporia-based Glendo Corp. in 2005 to establish a four-year degree program in engraving arts. Glendo produces a range of engraving tools that are sold in more than 100 countries.
Glendo is now donating $100,000 to equip a new classroom at Emporia State with a high-powered microscope, a custom bench and state-of-the-art pneumatic engraving tools. The gift will be celebrated Sept. 2 at the university’s King Hall.
Emporia State said in a news release that eight students have graduated from the engraving program since it was launched in 2006, and six are currently enrolled.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An appeals court panel will hear oral arguments this week in a closely watched case that could have far-reaching implications for voting rights nationwide.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will hear arguments Monday in an appeal filed by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The agency is seeking to overturn a federal judge’s order that the commission modify a federal form to include special instructions requiring Kansas and Arizona residents to provide citizenship documentation when they register to vote.
At the crux of the suit is whether the federal government or states have authority to regulate voter registration. Each side contends the U.S. Constitution supports its position.
The states argue the requirements prevent voter fraud by thwarting voting by noncitizens. Critics view them as suppressing voter turnout.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police say two people were found dead within an hour in separate weekend shootings in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The first shooting happened at 1:18 a.m. on the Missouri side of the state line. Kansas City police identified the victim as 30-year-old Darrell Fennell but released few other details.
Around 2:30 a.m. in Kansas City, Kansas, officers found the second victim while checking on the welfare of a person lying outside. Police said the male victim was in his late teens and had died from an apparent gunshot wound. His name was not immediately released.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri’s top prosecutor announced a workshop aimed at boosting the number of minority law enforcement officers after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer drew attention to the issue.
Attorney General Chris Koster announced Sunday that the two-day event is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1 in St. Louis and Oct. 2 in Kansas City. Koster said he will invite police, school and other community leaders to share ideas.
In the St. Louis suburb where the shooting happened, nearly 70 percent of residents are African-American. But only a handful of Ferguson police officers are black.
Koster says that ensuring law enforcement agencies more accurately reflect the diversity of the communities they serve is one way to improve communication and respect.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – An upcoming court proceeding will examine the death of a handcuffed Iowa man who went overboard as a Missouri State Highway Patrol boat was transporting him from the Lake of the Ozarks on suspicion of boating while intoxicated.
The Kansas City Star reported that the coroner’s inquest in 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson’s death is scheduled to get underway Sept. 4. During the trial-like setting, six jurors will determine whether there was a crime or negligence involved.
Friends of Ellingson of Clive, Iowa, have complained in taped interviews conducted by investigators and obtained by The Star that the arresting trooper didn’t secure a life jacket properly in May. Witnesses said the cuffed man’s arms weren’t in the arm holes and that the jacket came off soon after Ellingson hit the water.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Only one alternative charter high school is still operating in Missouri, prompting supporters to suggest the state change the way it measures progress at a school that serves only students who struggle academically or drop out.
The Kansas City Star reported reports DeLaSalle Education Center in Kansas City is the only alternative charter high school among 45 charter schools operating in Kansas City and St. Louis. Only nine of the charter schools are high schools.
The school has stayed open because it raised millions of dollars to support its mission, which allows it to keep class sizes small and support special services. But students’ test scores remain low, with the school earning only 24.2 percent of the possible points on state scoring in 2013.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City plays a central role in a gang scheme that hires homeless people to cash counterfeit checks.
An Olathe, Kansas, convenience store manager was cleaning up his trash bins in October 2011 when he noticed a large amount of what appeared to be stolen mail.
The Kansas City Star reports that the resulting inquiry into mail thefts at 20 Johnson County, Kansas, businesses led to a national bank fraud investigation. About half of the 60 people prosecuted nationwide for hiring homeless people to pass counterfeit business checks have been charged in Kansas City and Springfield.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cowles says the scheme has cost Kansas City area banks about $1 million in recent years. He calculated the loss nationwide at more than $10 million.
OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say an 18-year-old man was fatally shot in northeast Kansas during an altercation with police and deputies.
Ottawa police said officers and deputies with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office responded Saturday night to the Orscheln’s Farm and Home parking lot in response to “a person reportedly armed with a gun.”
The Kansas City Star reports that Jennings’ aunt, Brandy Smith, said her nephew suffered from depression and purposefully antagonized police in an effort to get them to shoot him. Smith said she and her husband could have handled Jennings had the police let them.
Police said that “as a matter of policy,” the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave while the Kansas Bureau of Investigation reviews what happened.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A southeast Kansas town has lost its latest bid to retry a class-action lawsuit claiming BP of North America should do more to clean up industrial pollution from a refinery that closed in 1970.
The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday rejected the request from residents and officials of Neodesha, who sued in 2004 for more than $478 million in cleanup costs plus damages.
A jury ruled for BP in 2007, but the trial judge later set the verdict aside, concluding he gave jurors improper instructions. The Kansas Supreme Court reinstated the jury’s verdict in 2012, prompting the plaintiffs to file for a retrial.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Court of Appeals acknowledged problems with the first trial but said it found no reason for a new one.
Northwest’s Tower Choir has been selected to perform at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference and the Missouri Music Educators Association In-Service Workshop and Conference. (Photo by Darren Whitley/University Relations)
Northwest Media Release
Northwest Missouri State University’s Tower Choir, under the direction of Professor of Music Dr. Stephen Town, has been selected through competitive application and audition processes to perform at two music educators conferences during the upcoming academic year.
Tower Choir will perform at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference in Lincoln, Neb. Additionally, the choir will perform at 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, at the 2015 Missouri Music Educators Association In-Service Workshop and Conference in Osage Beach, Mo.
This academic year will mark the second time Tower Choir has been selected to perform at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference and the sixth time it has been selected to appear at the Missouri Music Educators Association Conference.
For the Missouri conference, Town noted, Tower Choir was selected from 169 applications. Each was vetted by an out-of-state committee of music educators who reviewed the recordings and recommended the performing ensembles for the conference.
Formed decades ago by Ralph E. Hartzell, the Northwest Tower Choir has a rich and varied history of outstanding choral performance and musical perfection. Since 1999, the ensemble has performed more than 150 concerts for high schools, colleges, universities, churches and organizations in 12 states as well as
Washington, D.C. The ensemble has performed 13 peer-reviewed or invitational concerts for learned societies or regional and state conventions, meetings and symposia. In 2011, Tower Choir was selected to perform at the National Conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization in Fort Collins, Colo.
