11 years ago
Kansans spent more than a million dollars more last year to buy lottery tickets than they did the previous year. But revenues were down at two of the state's three casinos. The Kansas Lottery's report to the Legislature Tuesday shows sales of lottery tickets totaled $245.7 million last year. That is the second-highest amount in the 27-year ...

11 years ago
Kansas farm groups are planning to gather next month for their annual Commodity Classic convention. The free event begins at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 6 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manhattan. Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Jackie McClaskey will be speaking at a joint morning session with the Women Managing the Farm conference. Other speakers include Chris Standlee, ...

11 years ago
A man will face a capital murder charge when he is tried next year in the fatal shooting of a Topeka police officer. Ross Preston Lane was bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing Tuesday in the death of Topeka police Cpl. Jason Harwood. The trial was scheduled for Jan. 11. Coroner Charles Charles Glenn testified ...

11 years ago
Although falling gas prices are reducing the amount of oil severance taxes Kansas is expected to collect, state lawmakers say there's a bright spot to the otherwise dim projections. Residents will have more money in their pockets to spend on other things. Kansas Legislative Research Department economist Chris Courtwright appeared Tuesday before the House Appropriations Committee. ...

11 years ago
Among other things, the Saline County Commission reorganized when the new 5-person board met for their first scheduled meeting Tuesday. Monte Shadwick is the new commission chair, Jim Gile is the vice-chair, and John Price is the secretary. After discussing reorganization, commissioners then discussed, and were briefed on how the board has traditionally operated. The new 5-person ...

11 years ago
An annual report says the Kansas birth rate in 2013 was the lowest since the state began keeping birth records in 1912. The Wichita Eagle reports an annual vital statistics reports says the Kansas rate was 13.4 per 1,000, a drop of 4.3 percent from 2012. Kansas State professor Laszlo Kulcsar, a demographer, says many people are ...

11 years ago
Kansas State Fair officials have begun the process of forming a new master plan to address renovations at the aging fairgrounds. Fair Manager Denny Stoecklein says the plan could address issues such as a rarely-used racetrack to updating the Depression-era Bison Arena and an Expo Center built in the 1960s. The last master plan was approved by ...

11 years ago
The owner of an El Dorado plastics recycling company will be sentenced March 30 for dumping hazardous waste chemicals. Federal prosecutors say 41-year-old Brian Riley, of Andover, also was ordered to pay $118,000 to the Environmental Protection Agency. Riley pleaded guilty Monday to negligent exposure to a hazardous air pollutant. U.S. Attorney for Kansas Barry Grissom said ...

11 years ago
Newton police say a woman might have hit the wrong pedal before her car drove into a retirement, killing an 82-year-old woman inside. Police Lt. Scott Powell says Wanda Dyck died at a hospital Sunday after the accident Saturday at the Asbury Park Retirement Homes in Newton. A car driven by a 52-year-old woman jumped a curb, ...

11 years ago
Five years after a devastating earthquake an area organization's humanitarian relief effort continues. On January 12, 2010 at 4:53 in the afternoon, time stopped in Haiti. The very homes that the children lived in became their coffin. Those children in the middle of their childhood seemed to suffer the most. When Barry Borror, President & CEO of ...

11 years ago
For the first time since 1966, Kansas will have no females in statewide offices, at least until the next election. The Kansas City Star reports that since April 28, 1966 women have held at least one statewide office in Kansas. That ended Monday when Sandy Praeger leaves the insurance commissioner's office. While some women's advocates bemoan the ...