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Wichita Eagle
News, sports, and entertainment from Wichita Eagle
Updated: 29 min 5 sec ago
County to consider renewing juvenile justice, health department grants
Sedgwick County Commissioners will consider renewing grants for the county Health Department and for its juvenile justices services at a meeting Wednesday.
The county is applying for $1.9 million from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for services provided by the Sedgwick County Health Department. Without this funding, many programs would be drastically reduced, according to the county health department.
It also is seeking $3.2 million from the Juvenile Justice Authority. The county has received this grant before for juvenile case management, supervision programs, the intake and assessment center and other services.
DA’s office seeks to include 1989 murder in man’s current murder trial
A Sedgwick County judge will decide this month whether a defendant’s 1989 murder of a Lawrence woman can be brought up at his trial in the death of a Wichita woman in 2011.
Tyrone Walker, 47, is set to stand trial for first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Janis Sanders, 44, whose unclothed body was found June 4, 2011, between an abandoned house and a small business in the 1100 block of South Washington. An autopsy showed she had been strangled with a shoelace.
At the time of Sanders’ death, Walker was on parole for the murder of Tamara Baker, 25, who was reported missing on Oct. 31, 1989, and whose body was found six months later in a wooded area on the outskirts of Lawrence. Walker pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in that case and was sentenced to 12 years to life in prison. He was paroled to Wichita in February 2011, about 31/2 months before Sanders’ death.
Kansas bill would reclassify some state employees
A new bill backed by some conservative Republicans would make it easier for the state to fire some employees and make it easier to give raises to top performers.
House Bill 2384 would shift a variety of state employees to the unclassified system, allowing the state to discipline or fire them without allowing them to appeal the action through the state civil service board.
The bill would apply to many supervisors in the Department of Children and Families, Department of Revenue, state attorneys and tech workers.
Sedgwick County could feel $1.2 million loss in federal spending cuts
As money funnels from Washington, D.C., to local government, so do spending cuts – estimated to be almost $1.2 million for Sedgwick County this year.
The cuts could affect as many as 128 positions at the county.
Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to housebound elderly people, could see almost $50,000 less in federal funding. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program might take a hit of $169,241. Section 8 housing might receive $115,500 less than previously thought.
10 Things to Know for Today
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. CARDINALS MEETING ON EVE OF CONCLAVE
Taking all precautions, police deploy snipers and sniffer dogs around the Vatican.
Museum of World Treasures seeks more uniform operating agreement with city of Wichita
For the past decade, the Museum of World Treasures has been one of the new kids in Wichita’s portfolio of museums.
But 2013 marks a big year for the museum as officials negotiate a new lease with the city and perhaps get a better understanding of how the Old Town museum fits into Wichita’s historic legacy.
“We pay $65,000 a year to lease the building from the city of Wichita, plus all the maintenance,” said Mike Noller, president and CEO of the museum. “When I hear arguments from people … who say the city is giving you a discount for Old Town property, that’s true, and I appreciate that.
Congress wants role as Obama pushes trade agenda
The Obama administration has embarked on an aggressive trade agenda that could lower barriers and increase U.S. exports to many of the economic giants of Asia and Europe. To make that a reality, though, it may first have to negotiate future trade policy a little closer to home - with Congress.
The administration hopes to complete talks by October on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would reduce duties on a wide range of goods and services in the world's most vibrant trading area. Eleven countries, including Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada, are participating, and Japan has expressed interest in joining.
In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced plans for a second deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would link the United States and the European Union, the world's two largest economies.
Wichita weather: Sunny but chilly
The work week gets off to a chilly start in the Wichita area, with highs in the upper 40s despite plenty of sunshine.
Forecasters say it’ll be windy as well, with northerly winds gusting above 20 miles an hour. Lows tonight will dip to the low 30s under mostly clear skies as winds ease and shift to the west
Tuesday will see warmer temperatures arrive, forecasters say, with highs in the low 50s under partly cloudy skies. The warmup will persist throughout the week, with highs topping out in the 70s by Friday.
Official: Bomb kills 3 soldiers in NW Pakistan
A Pakistani government official says a roadside bomb blast has killed three soldiers in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border.
Javed Khan, a local administrator in the Kurram tribal area, says another soldier was wounded by the explosion near an army vehicle in Dogar village on Monday.
No one has claimed responsibility. The Pakistani Taliban often attack soldiers deployed in the tribal region to fight local militants and their foreign allies.
Weather researcher hopes to capture elusive images of lightning striking the ground
Severe storms researcher Tim Samaras will be taking a special camera with him on his hunt for lightning this spring and summer.
The camera doesn’t fit in his pocket. Or the back seat of a car.
It’s about 6 feet tall and weighs 1,600 pounds.
Wichita State falls to Creighton in MVC title game
Wichita State held Creighton under 70 points, out-rebounded the Bluejays and watched Doug McDermott miss more than half his shots.
Close, but still not enough to beat the top-seeded Bluejays in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, an event that could be renamed the Creighton Invitational if the school’s future didn’t appear to be in another conference.
Creighton defeated second-seeded WSU 68-65 in Sunday’s championship game at the Scottrade Center. WSU lost for the second time in the title game in 23 trips to St. Louis. Creighton won its 12th tournament title and the Valley’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Wichita board to discuss Mueller Elementary sale, unfinished bond projects
Wichita school board members will talk about unfinished bond projects in detail Monday after a brief business meeting in which they are expected to approve the sale of a vacant elementary school.
The board will meet at 6 p.m. on Monday in the North High lecture hall, 1437 Rochester.
At a brief regular meeting, board members will consider the sale of the former Mueller Elementary School, one of five public-school buildings that closed last year as part of cost-cutting measures.
A day later, resident reports home being shot
Wichita police are investigating what they suspect was a gang shooting that went unreported.
On Saturday, police were in the 1400 block of North Minnesota, following up on a McAdams Park shooting earlier in the week, when the police department’s gang detectives heard about an unreported shooting.
When police arrived at the location, they found evidence of a house that had been hit four times by bullets, according to Sgt. Bart Brunscheen, spokesman for the Wichita Police Department.
Man is beaten and robbed on North Rock Road
Shortly after 8:15 on Saturday night, a man was beaten and robbed by four men, all in their 20s.
The robbery happened in the 3100 block of North Rock Road and was witnessed by two people inside a Sprint store.
The man was transported to Wesley Medical Center, where he was treated for abrasions then released.
Police investigate a questionable shooting
A 19-year-old man told police he was standing next to two other men when he heard a pop and discovered he’d been shot in the foot.
But according to police, based on the angle the bullet entered the foot, the wound could have been self-inflicted.
Whatever the case, police are investigating the shooting as an aggravated battery involving a firearm. The shooting happened in the 1200 block of South Donnell at about 5:30 on Sunday morning.
Nuclear chief: US plants safer after Japan crisis
Two years after the nuclear crisis in Japan, the top U.S. regulator says American nuclear power plants are safer than ever, though not trouble-free. A watchdog group calls that assessment overly rosy.
"The performance is quite good," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in an interview with The Associated Press.
All but five of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors were performing at acceptable safety levels at the end of 2012, Macfarlane said, citing a recent NRC report. "You can't engage that many reactors and not have a few that are going to have difficulty," she said.
Wichita State beats Illinois State to advance to Valley final
Wichita State’s defense won the moment Illinois State’s Tyler Brown launched a guarded and long three-pointer for no reason other than frustration. The bad shot missed badly and the Shockers turned that bad decision into a beautifully executed fast break and a three-point play.
Game over. No more comebacks for the Redbirds, who couldn’t run their offense and couldn’t score for long stretches against WSU. The Shockers defended and rebounded their way to a 66-51 victory in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, landing them in the championship game against top-seeded Creighton on Sunday.
Second-seeded Wichita State (26-7) is one win away from locking up an NCAA Tournament berth. It is one win away from leaving St. Louis — after 22 years of irrelevancy, heartbreak and frustration — happy.
Review: Wichita Symphony’s take on Mahler and Mozart is energetic and expressive
Music director Daniel Hege lead the Wichita Symphony in an energetic and expressive program in the Century II Concert Hall on Saturday night, balancing the light-hearted sensibilities of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the deeply introspective work of Gustav Mahler.
The first portion of the program featured WSO principal oboist Andrea Banke as soloist, performing Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C Major. In her duties with the orchestra for the past eight years, Banke consistently has brought an inspirationally high level of musicianship. In her performance of this jovial concerto, Banke made the most of the playful lines and displayed exquisite technique.
The orchestra accompaniment was heavy at times, slightly obscuring Banke’s beautiful tone, but her playing of the cadenzas was breathtaking.
Attendance area, boundaries in Wichita schools to continue indefinitely
Wichita school officials say a complex patchwork of school assignments in a portion of central-northeast Wichita – a holdover from the district’s system of busing for integration – will continue indefinitely.
“I have yet to hear any kind of concern from parents or community groups that have said, ‘You know what? We don’t like this, and we need to go back to the drawing board,’ ” said school board member Betty Arnold. “Because I’ve not gotten any kind of feedback that the plan is questionable or not in our best interest, I am very comfortable with leaving things as is.”
But some community leaders said they would like to meet with district officials to discuss the issue, to make sure everyone is comfortable continuing the current practice.
South Wind Women’s Center hires doctor to be clinical coordinator
Julie Burkhart and the out-of-state doctor were on the phone discussing the future of abortion in Wichita.
The founder of Trust Women, Burkhart kept mentioning George Tiller.
The OB/GYN jumped online to do a Google search for “Dr. Tiller.”