12 years ago
A former volunteer firefighter in Reno County pleaded guilty to setting three grass fires after prosecutors agreed to drop 11 other charges. 19-year-old Cody Knox, of Arlington, was a volunteer for Reno County Fire District No. 4, which covers Arlington, Langdon, Plevna and Abbyville. Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder previously said Knox used a ...

12 years ago
A former Salina man will serve decades in prison after being sentenced for his second conviction of sexually abusing a young girl. Forty-year-old Shawn T. Vogan was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with a minimum of 40 years. He pleaded guilty in July to aggravated indecent liberties with a child after admitting he abused a ...

12 years ago
Wichita police say they have captured a man suspected of shooting and wounding a Butler County Sheriff's deputy earlier this week. Wichita Police Lt. Doug Nolte said Friday morning that Jan Kilbourne was arrested without resistance early Friday near an apartment in Wichita. No other details were immediately available. Law enforcement officers have ...

12 years ago
Judges of the Kansas Court of Appeals will hear arguments in four cases in Manhattan as part of Kansas State University's observance of Constitution Day. The panel will convene in the Student Union on Sept. 17, the day the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787. On the docket are the denial of tenure for a University of ...

12 years ago
A federal judge has set a fall trial date for the former Hays wastewater manager charged with lying about nitrogen levels in the city's discharges. Court records show the case against 57-year-old Charles L. Blair was scheduled Thursday to go before a federal jury on Nov. 5. A four-count indictment charges Blair with making false statements about ...

12 years ago
A Fort Riley soldier is killed in a motorcycle crash Thursday evening. According to the Kansas Highway Patol, 29-year-old Jose Laureano-Mercado was riding a Yamaha motorcycle north on McDowell Creek Road south of Manhattan. He failed to negotiate a curve and drove onto the gravel shoulder. The motorcycle struck a delineator post and Laureano-Mercado was ejected.  Troopers say that Laureano-Mercado was wearing ...

12 years ago
The NBC workplace comedy "The Office" is being used as a teaching tool. Kansas State University director of economic undergraduate studies Dan Kuester says fictional manager Michael Scott and employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. provide numerous examples of economics principles. Kuester worked with two other people to create a website called "The Economics of The ...

12 years ago
The Eisenhower VA Medical Center in northeastern Kansas is expanding to meet new needs and standards. The Leavenworth Times reports construction is underway on a $2.75 million women's health clinic. Meanwhile, bidding on a construction contract for a stand-alone, 27,000-square-foot nursing home closed Thursday. Jim Gleisberg, a spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, says ...

12 years ago
A southeast Kansas sheriff is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man sought in the wounding of a deputy. Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet posted the reward Thursday while the search continued for 41-year-old Jan Tracy Kilbourne. Investigators have been looking for Kilbourne since the deputy was ...

12 years ago
A massive wind turbine base remained in the median of a northeast Kansas highway overnight after a semitrailer hauling it broke an axle and rolled. The semi crashed just after 10 a.m. Wednesday on U.S. 36 in Washington County. Sheriff Justin Cordry says the truck and trailers were totaled, and the turbine base was badly damaged. ...

12 years ago
Drought conditions have worsened in a portion of the Midwest including Iowa, the nation's leading corn producer, as the region experienced its hottest week of the year. The extreme heat and near record low August rainfall combined to expand drought conditions from the eastern Dakotas southeastward into western Illinois. Iowa saw its warmest week ...