Wichita Eagle: News Updates

Kansas Star Casino to open poker room later this month

Fred Mann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:54 CST

The Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane will open a five-table poker room featuring Texas Hold ’Em later this month, pending state approval.

The casino hadn’t planned to open a poker room until its permanent casino is completed in about a year. But customer demand prompted it to open one earlier, according to Mike Dickson, the Kansas Star’s director of casino operations.

"Based on overwhelming interest in poker, we looked at our current floor plan and found a way to give our customers what they want,” Dickson said in a written statement.

House Republicans unveil details of tax-cut plan

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:05 CST

TOPEKA – Taxpayers who earn less than $25,000 a year would see an average income tax reduction of $11.64 under a proposal detailed by House Republican leaders this afternoon.

That projection stands in stark contrast to Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cutting proposal, which poses an average increase in taxes of $159 for those earning less than $25,000 a year.

As a percent, rates would drop from 3.5 percent to 3.24 percent for those earning up to $30,000 a year in 2014. Those earning $30,000 to $60,000 would see rates drop from 6.25 percent to 5.85 percent. And those earning more than that would pay 6.1 percent, down from the current 6.45 percent.

City puts explanation of ballot question on its website

RICK PLUMLEE — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:28 CST

The city of Wichita has put an explanation on its website to help clarify the ballot question being posed for the Feb. 28 special election.

Go to Wichita.gov for the information about the question on whether to change a charter ordinance regarding the use of bed tax for the Ambassador Hotel project.

The ballot question has created confusion because it so full of legal language and says very little about the actual issue. But that wording is required by Article 12 of the Kansas Constitution, city officials say.

Proposed Kansas abortion ban blocked by abortion foe

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:44 CST

TOPEKA – An influential anti-abortion legislator is blocking the push for a ban on abortion in the Kansas Constitution, highlighting a split among abortion opponents over tactics and frustrating the group advocating the “personhood” proposal.

Chairman Lance Kinzer said Friday he doesn’t plan to have a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the proposed constitutional amendment, HCR 5029, which is sponsored by 25 other House members. Kinzer is the leading supporter of HB 2598, a bill to add new requirements for abortion providers into state law and ensure that the state doesn’t provide even indirect financing of abortions through income tax credits or deductions.

Kinzer, an Olathe Republican and attorney, said he doesn’t believe the proposed constitutional amendment would withstand a court challenge and could lead to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could hamper abortion opponents’ attempts to enact new restrictions. Kansans for Life, the anti-abortion group with the most influence at the Statehouse, takes the same position.

Judge: Lawrence sidewalk ordinance is flawed

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:44 CST

Parts of a Lawrence city ordinance that prohibits blocking sidewalks are unconstitutional, a municipal court judge ruled in the trial of a mentally ill man who was arrested after being accused of blocking downtown streets three times last year.

Judge Randy McGrath ruled in favor of Robert Gilmore, 54, this week, finding that sections of the ordinance making it illegal to “continue to obstruct traffic” and forcing people to walk around someone are vague and unconstitutional. He found that sections prohibiting the leaving of objects in a right of way and intentionally obstructing traffic are legal.

Gilmore is often seen in downtown Lawrence wearing a robe or bedsheet, and his mother has said he is mentally ill.

Epic Sports asks city for 10-year tax abatement to purchase and remodel former Coca-Cola plant

Carrie Rengers — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:45 CST

WICHITA — Epic Sports, a Wichita-based team sporting goods supplier, is asking the city for a 10-year tax abatement to help it purchase and remodel the former Coca-Cola plant at 3001 E. Harry.

Currently, Epic Sports has a 75,000-square-foot warehouse at 1730 S. Laura and an office at 400 S. Emporia. It would move both facilities to the 160,000-square-foot former Coca-Cola space.

"I'm actually worried that Coca-Cola building may not be big enough," says Epic Sports president Gary Proctor, who founded the company in 1998.

Man arrested after Wells Fargo bank robbery

Stan Finger — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:22 CST

A man was arrested minutes after he robbed the Wells Fargo branch on West Street late this morning, authorities said.

The man walked into the Wells Fargo branch at 455 S. West St. at 11:30 a.m., indicated he had a weapon and demanded money, a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said. A bank employee called 911 after he left, and officers caught him in an alley near the bank.

No weapon was seen, and it’s not clear how much money the man stole.

Kansas Supreme Court affirms verdict in Wichita teen's death

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:16 CST

The state's highest court upheld the capital murder and aggravated kidnapping convictions of a Wichita man who was paid to kill a pregnant 14-year-old girl.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Theodore Burnett is not entitled to a new trial in the death of Chelsea Brooks. The Wichita teen was nine months pregnant when the father of the baby paid Burnett $200 in cash and $150 worth of crack cocaine to kill her.

Brooks disappeared on June 9, 2006. Her body was found six days later in a shallow grave in Butler County.

Wichita police break up ‘open-air’ drug operation at North Broadway hotel

Stan Finger — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:58 CST

Wichita police capped a three-month undercover operation early Friday morning by arresting or detaining eight people linked to an illegal drug operation at the Mark 8 Inn on North Broadway.

About 40 Wichita police officers and Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents swooped into the hotel at 1130 N. Broadway at about 6:30 a.m. today to break up what Captain Jeff Easter called “open-air drug sales” in the hotel’s rooms and hallways.

Responding to complaints by residents of the neighborhood and out-of-state visitors who had stayed at the hotel while visiting relatives at nearby Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis, undercover officers embarked on a three-month investigation, Easter said.

Wichita school district breaking some bond promises

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:16 CST

Signs marking major construction projects under way at Wichita schools say “Progress as Promised.”

Now many district residents are loudly disputing that claim, saying a new boundary proposal breaks promises leaders made when they campaigned for a $370 million bond issue in 2008.

“They absolutely lied to us,” said Jocelyn Goerzen, the mother of two students at Emerson Open Magnet Elementary.

Parents take to the streets to protest school closing plan

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:00 CST

Several parents stood at busy street corners in west Wichita this morning to protest a plan that would close their neighborhood school and send students to schools farther away and across major thoroughfares.

“We’re worried,” said Annie Baldwin, whose daughter attends Bryant Core Knowledge Magnet Elementary near Ninth and West Street.

She stood at the corner of Ninth and West Street about a half-hour before school started, holding a sign that read: “Would you want your kid crossing here right now?” Hundreds of cars rushed past along the five-lane road.

Kobach: Panel with ProEnglish director not sign of ties

Mary Clarkin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:11 CST

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said he “had no idea who was going to be on my panel” when he agreed to appear Saturday on an immigration panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, D.C.

Kobach will share the stage with Robert Vandervoort, executive director of ProEnglish, who has past ties to the white nationalist group, Chicagoland Friends of American Renaissance, a news release from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights critically pointed out Thursday.

Vandervoort’s ProEnglish opposes bilingual ballots and bilingual education, and will host a panel discussion at the CPAC event on “The Failure of Multiculturalism.”

Union Station in KC ends another year in the black

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:45 CST

The once financially troubled Union Station in Kansas City has brought in more money than it spent for the second straight year.

The Kansas City Star ( http://bit.ly/zvR0L0) reported that the attraction recorded a net operating surplus of $3.25 million in 2011 before depreciation. Figures presented Wednesday show revenues were ahead of budget in every area except for the KC Rail Experience museum.

Much of the success is attributed to the popularity of the Princess Diana exhibit. The station also received a boost from rent-paying tenants such as the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Internal Revenue Service.

Court finds Kansan competent for trial on threats

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:37 CST

A federal judge has found a Kansas man competent to stand trial on charges of threatening the president of the United States.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten on Friday set an April 3 trial date for Michael Scott Ramsey. The judge conducted a competency hearing for Ramsey the day earlier.

Ramsey is charged in a two-count indictment with making threats in 2009 and 2011 against Barack Obama.

Shawnee County approves settlement with ACLU

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:50 CST

Shawnee County has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit over a jail policy that bans inmates from receiving books and publications in the mail.

The Topeka Capital-Journal ( http://bit.ly/wXWbvQ) reported that county commissioners Ted Ensley, Shelly Buhler and Mary Thomas unanimously approved the settlement during their meeting Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union represented Vermont-based Prison Legal News in a lawsuit filed last year against the Shawnee County Commission and the director of the county's corrections department. The suit contended that the ban violates the inmates' constitutional rights to free speech and other civil rights.

DUI saturation patrol set for this weekend

Stan Finger — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:24 CST

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office will conduct a DUI saturation patrol this weekend, officials say.

The patrol will occur between 11 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Sunday. Sheriff’s deputies have worked 96 DUI-related cases so far this year.

Results of the patrol will be announced early next week.

Committee rejects funding for public broadcasting

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:25 CST

A Kansas House committee has rejected a request from public broadcasters to restore $800,000 in state funding.

Gov. Sam Brownback's budget proposal included $600,000 for public broadcasting, a cut from the current $2 million state appropriation.

A House budget subcommittee restored $800,000. But Thursday, the full House Appropriations Committee removed that $800,000 and returned the state appropriation to $600,000 for the next fiscal year.

Under fire, Obama adjusts his birth control policy

BEN FELLER — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:17 CST

Under fierce election-year fire, President Barack Obama on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for free birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to Congress to his re-election foes. He demanded that insurance companies step in to provide the coverage instead.

Obama's compromise means ultimately that women would still get birth control without having to pay for it, no matter where they work. The president insisted he had stuck by that driving principle even in switching his approach, and the White House vehemently rejected any characterization that Obama had retreated under pressure.

Yet there was no doubt that Obama had found himself in an untenable position. He needed to walk back fast and find another route to his goal.

Suspects still sought in Denver-area drug probe

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:10 CST

DENVER (AP) — More than a dozen suspects are still on the wanted list as part of what authorities are calling one of the biggest drug busts in Denver's history.

Authorities said Thursday federal, state and local agents were pursuing 17 more suspects. So far, they say officers have seized 26 kilograms of cocaine, a kilo of crack cocaine, a pound of methamphetamine and more than $400,000 in cash.

More than 500 law enforcement agents arrested 80 people during the drug sweep.

Overnight fire damages house in northeast Wichita

Stan Finger The Wichita Eagle — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:25 CST

Fire heavily damaged a house in northeast Wichita early Friday morning, authorities said.

The fire was reported at about 4 a.m. in the 2900 block of East Mossman, near Ninth and Chautauqua, a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said. It took firefighters about 45 minutes to put out the fire.

No injuries were reported, the supervisor said, and Red Cross was not notified to assist victims of the fire. The house may be vacant.