TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Topeka say two people are dead following an early-morning crash in the southwestern part of the city.
The accident happened around 12:45 a.m. Monday when an SUV struck a parked vehicle on a residential street.
Police Capt. Brian Desch says the crash killed the SUV’s driver, 39-year-old James F. Bowen, and his passenger, 16-year-old Matthew R. Bowen. Both were residents of Topeka.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Despite a shortage of lethal-injection drugs, two of the nation’s most active death penalty states have quietly carried on with executions by turning to pentobarbital, a powerful sedative that generally puts inmates to death swiftly and without complications.
Missouri and Texas have avoided the prolonged executions seen in other states where authorities are struggling to find a reliable chemical combination. The drug’s apparent effectiveness raises questions about why it has not been more widely adopted.
Lethal injection is in the spotlight after executions went awry in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, which all use midazolam, more commonly given to help patients relax before surgery. In executions, it is part of a two- or three-drug lethal injection.
Texas and Missouri instead administer a single large dose of pentobarbital.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas commission is interviewing 14 judges and attorneys who applied for a seat on the state Supreme Court and plans to forward three finalists’ names to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
The Supreme Court Nominating Commission’s interviews began Monday and continue Tuesday. The nine-member panel expects to release the finalists’ names by Tuesday evening.
The interviews are open to the public.
The applicants include Caleb Stegall, who was Brownback’s chief counsel until the governor appointed him last year to the state Court of Appeals. Three other Court of Appeals judges, three district court judges and seven lawyers also have applied.
The appointment will be Brownback’s first to the Supreme Court. The new judge will replace former Justice Nancy Moritz, who moved to the federal appeals court sitting in Denver.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Four Nebraska farmers are demanding that the state compensate them for irrigation water that was diverted away from their crops to comply with the Republican River Compact.
The farmers allege in a lawsuit that their yields were lower last year because they were denied access to water that should have been stored in nearby dams and canals. Nebraska released the water downstream to Kansas to meet its obligations under the 1943 compact.
Dave Domina, an attorney for the farmers, argues that Nebraska is placing a statewide obligation on the backs of those farmers without reimbursing them for their losses. The farmers are seeking class-action status, which would increase the number of plaintiffs to more than 150.
The Nebraska attorney general’s office will likely defend the state against the lawsuit.
NEW YORK (AP) — GM Finance says it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice for documents related to subprime auto loans.
The affiliate of General Motors Co. said in a filing Monday with the government that the Justice Department requested documents related to the origination and securitization of subprime auto loan contracts since 2007.
Subprime loans generally are made to borrowers with questionable credit repayment histories.
GM Finance said the Justice Department is considering a civil lawsuit for potential violations of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, a federal law that was passed following the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s.
General Motors Financial Co. said it received the subpoena on July 28. It disclosed the request in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is one of 10 states that don’t require newborns be screened for a critical heart problem, but state health officials have been working to educate health care providers about the benefits of the testing.
Despite not being required to, most hospitals and birthing facilities in Kansas screen newborns for critical congenital heart disease. But about a third, mostly in rural areas that don’t have a lot of births, do not provide the screening.
The Lawrence Journal World reports Kansas Department of Health and Environment employees have been traveling across the state to train doctors and nurses to perform the screening and raise awareness about its importance.
Some advocates for screening, however, say the state should mandate the testing, which costs about $4 per test.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Riley County police say a 21-year-old Topeka man has drowned at a popular recreation area outside Manhattan.
Police say Anthony Bernard Strange Jr. drowned Saturday evening at Pillsbury Crossing, a state wildlife area about seven miles east of Manhattan. His body was recovered around 8:30 p.m., about an hour after authorities were called.
The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism said Monday in a news release that an autopsy will be performed and alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the death.
The department says Strange was trying to swim across the creek with friends when he started to have trouble. Witnesses tried unsuccessfully to find him after he went under near a sharp bend in the creek. Swimming is not allowed at the wildlife area.
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MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Riley County police say a man has drowned at a popular swimming area outside Manhattan.
Police say the man drowned Saturday evening at Pillsbury Crossing, a state wildlife area.
One witness, Jennifer Keelty, tells KSNT the man drowned in the area near the cliffs at the end of the main park trail. Keelty says she and her husband were kayaking and stopped to help search for the drowning victim.
The victim’s name hasn’t been released.
The wildlife area is about seven miles from Manhattan and is popular with campers, kayakers and bird watchers.
ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government is closing emergency shelters at military base shelters in Texas, Oklahoma and California being used to temporarily house unaccompanied immigrant children caught crossing the border.
Health and Human Services spokesman Kenneth Wolfe says operations at the shelters will soon be suspended because there have been fewer child immigrants caught at the border and the government has expanded capacity at other shelters.
Oklahoma’s shelter at Fort Sill is expected to close by Friday. Shelters in Texas at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and in California at the Naval Base Ventura County-Port Hueneme
will wrap up operations in the next two to eight weeks.
The shelters have housed a combined 7,700 immigrant children since opening in May and early June.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – An ambitious plan being studied at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City could eventually bring a unified cultural district stretching in a 1-mile radius around the museum.
Supporters stress the plan offered by a New York design firm is only in its preliminary stages. The study includes lawns, walkways, bike trails and outdoor art all connected in a nearly 4-square-mile area with the museum at the center.
The plan from the Weiss/Manfredi urban design firm also calls for tearing down some current buildings – including some homes – on museum-owned land.
The Kansas City Star reports a form of the idea has been around for 50 years but it now a key goal in the museum’s April 2013 strategic plan.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A newspaper reports that Jackson County has been placing violent criminals on probation more frequently than neighboring Missouri counties.
The Kansas City Star reports that from 2009 to 2013, Jackson County judges granted probation in 33 percent of first-degree robbery cases and 25 percent of the worst felony assault cases. In some cases, defendants had to spend 120 days in custody before beginning probation.
The county has also placed 15 people convicted of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter on probation in the last five years.
One-third of Jackson County’s 389 first-degree robbery convictions from 2009 through 2013 ended with probation, about twice the rate for nearby Clay County. Platte County issued no probations for that crime.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says she stands by her staff’s work.
