12 years ago
State regulators have granted Westar Energy's request for a $43.6 million rate increase. The Kansas Corporation Commission on Thursday approved an increase that would raise residential and small-business bills $83.5 million. Rates paid by butter businesses and school district would have rates reduced by $50 million. The utility sought the rate hike to pay increasing ...

12 years ago
Authorities in Florida say they've arrested a man who escaped from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in 1977. The U.S. Marshals Service says 59-year-old James Robert Jones was arrested Thursday in Deerfield Beach, Fla., where he was living. Jones was serving a 23-year sentence for premeditated murder and aggravated assault when he escaped from ...

12 years ago
NASA has selected a Lawrence business to develop a drone for high-altitude air sampling. NASA and KalScott Engineering Inc. are in the contract phase of the nearly $1 million unmanned air vehicle project. The drone is expected to provide data for earth science programs at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Other possible uses could ...

12 years ago
Wichita State University's School of Nursing is expanding its online offerings with a bachelor's degree in nursing. The school said Thursday the program offers advanced placement to registered nurses seeking a bachelor of science in nursing degree. Wichita State President John Bardo says in a news release that the School of Nursing is offering one of the ...

12 years ago
Kansas Forest Service officials will hold a wildland fire training session this month for state and regional responders. The weeklong event starts March 23 and will focus on reducing hazardous fuels that can lead to rapid spread of fires in wild areas. Crews will be working near Toronto State Lake in southeast Kansas and at the Kansas ...

12 years ago
Police in Wichita say a man who wanted a massage from a naked woman in his motel room changed his mind when she disrobed and ended up fleeing after being threatened by her boyfriend. The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/1hgvKrf ) reports the woman arrived at the man's room at the Howard Johnson Express Inn shortly after 11 ...

12 years ago
Kansas House Democratic Leader Paul Davis says Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the GOP-controlled Legislature should immediately increase aid to poor school districts by $129 million. Davis said Thursday the increase should be the response to a recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling that past reductions in such aid created unconstitutional gaps in funding between poor ...

12 years ago
President Barack Obama has nominated Topeka Police Chief Ronald Lee Miller to serve as U.S. Marshal for Kansas. The announcement was made Thursday in a news release from the White House. Obama says Miller has dedicated his career to protecting his fellow citizens. The president says Miller has displayed courage and persistence in the ...

12 years ago
A northwest Kansas county has been hit with a second round of suspicious fires in less than a week, this one involving 10 fires in less than three hours. An investigator from the State Fire Marshal's office was on the scene Thursday, looking at the evidence in Ellis County outside the Hays city limits. Ellis ...

12 years ago
Officers arrested 53-year-old Barbara Guster Wednesday night after police were called to a home in the 100 block of S. Chicago around 9pm for a domestic disturbance. Police say Guster urged officers to remove her boyfriend from the house after the two apparently had been involved in an argument. The woman then reportedly grabbed an 8-inch kitchen ...

12 years ago
Great Bend will be without air service at the end of March, after Great Lakes Airlines notified the city this week that it plans to end service a month early. Airport Manager Martin Miller announced the news Thursday. The Cheyenne, Wyo.-based airline had been scheduled to end its service at the end of April. Great ...