10 years ago
Emergency Management Director Hannah Stambaugh told Saline County Commissioners that “Mother Nature’s” weekend rains helped reduce fire dangers over the holiday weekend.  Stambaugh had heard of no fire department related calls; she had not spoken to law enforcement. Four firework stands were located in the County; the county’s licensing fee was $1,000.  In the city, the ...

10 years ago
A 22-year U.S. Air Force veteran was announced as Kansas’ first Director of Unmanned Aircraft Systems at an event in Salina Tuesday.  Bob Brock, a Pittsburg native who retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel, will oversee the establishment of policy and procedures for the operation of UAS, or drones, in Kansas. The announcement ...

10 years ago
The Kansas Turnpike Authority will eliminate gates at three K-Tag lanes this week as part of a pilot program to test video enforcement. Turnpike spokeswoman Jeri Biehler says video enforcement will begin this week at Interstate 70 toll plazas in east Topeka and Kansas City, Kansas, and at a toll plaza on Interstate 35 on the ...

10 years ago
At a Tuesday media conference, police provided more details regarding a weekend stabbing and capture of a man considered armed and dangerous on Monday afternoon. According to Captain Mike Sweeney, SPD's SWAT Team along with the Saline County Sheriff's Office and and air unit from the Kansas Highway Patrol surrounded a home located in southeast Saline ...

10 years ago
A suspected thief is pulled from the water after his getaway swim leaves him breathless. Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan tells KSAL News that deputies called a fire rescue squad on Sunday evening around 8:35pm to save a suspect who was eluding officers. Deputies had responded to the area of the water-filled pit at Johnson Sand Company, ...

10 years ago
Fireworks complaint calls continue to drop in Salina as police and fire officials work to educate the public on safety. According to Captain Mike Sweeney, police received 127 calls to complain about fireworks being discharged between June 27th and July 4th. Officers wrote 8 citations - six for shooting fireworks outside the designated July 3- 4 ...

10 years ago
A 26-year-old Kansas man who climbed onto a roof to launch fireworks is dead after falling from atop his Topeka home. Christen Locke fell from the roof after he was injured by a firework just after midnight Tuesday morning. Topeka police Lt. Jennifer Cross says the call was originally reported as a fall but an investigation revealed ...

10 years ago
A south-central Kansas sheriff says a man who fell 120 feet while working on a wind turbine is expected to survive. Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn says the worker was seriously injured during the tumble onto muddy terrain Sunday morning while he was repairing a blade on a wind generator near Pratt. Chinn says emergency responders ...

10 years ago
The producer of a 1970s movie about a gorilla trained in kung fu that fights its way across Wichita says the film might have been one big-name actor away from being a hit. Bob Walterscheid says "King Kung Fu" was intended to be a widely distributed comedy but instead became a movie that "most people look ...

10 years ago
A man who was considered to be armed and dangerous was caught by Salina Police Monday afternoon. John James Brown was being sought in connection with two weekend stabbings in Salina. According to Salina Police, John Brown was arrested at a home in southeast Saline County. Brown was arrested by the department's SWAT Team, with the ...

10 years ago
A Kansas agency and a University of Kansas center for mental health research are cutting ties. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports (http://j.mp/299xIx1) the Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation at the University of Kansas declined to accept a contract offer Thursday from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. The center says the contract would have ...