12 years ago
Gov. Sam Brownback and other officials are expected to gather at the KU Medical Center to applaud budget enhancements that include $25 million in bonds for building a proposed $75 million health education building. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Fred Logan are also expected to attend ...

12 years ago
Two Lawrence students danced with friends at their prom thanks to a couple robots. The Lawrence Journal World reports  Olivia Ledezma attended the Lawrence Virtual High School prom last Saturday while she was in California. She got to the prom by using a telepresence robot, which is essentially an iPad on wheels. Ledezma and one other student, ...

12 years ago
A Butler County judge is expected to decide if a former Augusta police officer convicted of a sex crime will be subject to lifetime post-release supervision. The Wichita Eagle reports that 45-year-old Jerry Dale Ballinger was ordered to 59 days of house arrest, 60 months' probation and sex offender treatment when he was sentenced April 7 ...

12 years ago
Kansas political icon Bob Dole has returned to his home state for 10 receptions and open houses over the next three days. The 90-year-old former U.S. Senate majority leader and presidential candidate's first event is a private reception Monday afternoon at the Republican Party headquarters in Overland Park. Dole also planned to visit Olathe, Paola and Ottawa ...

12 years ago
Leavenworth residents are working to return an old tombstone found recently during a spring cleaning project. A couple removing stones from an old fountain in their Leavenworth backyard found the old tombstone, which dates to about 1900. Jeff Culbertson, Leavenworth County Geographic Information Systems Department director, told The Leavenworth Times that a cemetery database reveals the headstone ...

12 years ago
The Topeka school district is allotting up to six tickets each to graduating seniors whose commencement next month will feature Michelle Obama. Topeka Unified School District 501 spokesman Ron Harbaugh says graduating seniors will receive up to six tickets each for the joint commencement ceremony scheduled for May 17, the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme ...

12 years ago
A Kansas high school senior has launched a petition drive urging school officials to rethink their decision to have first lady Michelle Obama speak at graduation next month in Topeka. Taylor Gifford started the drive Thursday evening after concerns were raised by students and parents that Obama's visit would alter graduation plans, including limiting seating for ...

12 years ago
Kansas is not going to expand its Medicaid program anytime soon in line with the federal health care overhaul. But advocates aren't giving up on the idea. The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved still plans to pursue the issue. Spokeswoman Katrina McGivern said the group has prepared to work on educating ...

12 years ago
A judge has denied a change of venue request for a man accused of shooting an assistant football coach to death outside a Joplin movie complex. The Joplin Globe reports  that Circuit Judge Gayle Crane has denied the venue change for 40-year-old Jeffrey Bruner, who's charged in the Nov. 1 death of 37-year-old Derek Moore. Moore ...

12 years ago
A Topeka business has started publicly offering compressed natural gas to some drivers. Questar Fueling's, compressed natural gas filling station has been open since October, but opened Thursday to most of the public. Compressed natural gas is chemically the same as the natural gas used for other purposes, but Dennis Brown, CNG specialist for Kansas Gas Service, ...

12 years ago
The Kansas Supreme Court has criticized Gov. Sam Brownback for signing a judicial budget that ties funding to policy changes. The bill allocates $2 million more from the state general fund to the judicial branch. Chief Justice Lawton Nuss has said that more than $8 million would be needed. The high court said in a statement Friday ...