Wire
Senate passes Kennedy-Brownback Down syndrome bill on voice vote
Sam Hananel Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors would have to give more comprehensive information to expectant mothers who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or other medical conditions under a measure approved by the Senate. The bill, passed late Tuesday on a voice vote, is the product of an unusual partnership between Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, an anti-abortion Republican, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, an abortion-rights advo...
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State Briefs
Former Buchanan County official admits embezzlement KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Buchanan County official pleads guilty to embezzling $118,000 in Social Security payments intended for dependent or disabled clients. Bonnie Sue Lawson was the county’s public administrator from 1996 to August 2006. The 68-year-year-old Lawson admitted in court Wednesday that she took money from accounts of clients served by her office. As public administrato...
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Boyda, Jenkins face off in Second District
John Milburn Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — Democrat Nancy Boyda rode anti-war and anti-Republican sentiment into the 2nd Congressional District seat two years ago, but economic uncertainty is focusing her re-election race on domestic issues. Republicans view Boyda as vulnerable, in part because they outnumber Democrats 3-to-2 in the eastern Kansas district. Boyda faces State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins in the Nov. 4 election. Financia...
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Emporia bars fighting proposed smoking ban
EMPORIA (AP) — Kansas legislators have struggled for several years with whether to ban smoking in public places, and now Emporia seems destined for a similar debate locally. Emporia bar owners and employees are organizing opposition to a proposed ban on smoking in enclosed spaces and businesses. The City Commission plans to have a hearing Monday on the plan, from a group called Clean Air Emporia. Backers say a ban will protect residents’ heal...
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Celebrities
NEW YORK (AP) — Clay Aiken appears on the cover of the latest People magazine holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: “Yes, I’m Gay.” The 29-year-old former “American Idol” runner-up, multiplatinum recording artist and Broadway star credits his son, conceived by in-vitro fertilization with friend and producer Jaymes Foster, with making him realize that he could no longer hide his homosexuality from the world. “It wa...
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Oddities
New Jersey farm flings pumpkins with giant catapult NEWTON, N.J. (AP) — One New Jersey farm has a special attraction to go with the season’s hay rides and corn mazes: giant pumpkin catapult. A group of middle school students who became obsessed with the medieval weapon asked northern New Jersey farmers Anthony and Heidi Lentini if they could use physics to fling the big orange squash. The couple, who have corn mazes on their Newton farm t...
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World Briefs
Congress pushes for executive compensation limits as lawmakers question $700B bailout plan WASHINGTON (AP) — Executives whose companies get a piece of the $700 billion government bailout will have their pay packages strictly limited under proposals that are broadly supported by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. The Bush administration was resisting the move as it scrambled to overcome widespread misgivings on Capitol Hill and sw...
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Judge overrules jury verdict, says BP Corp. liable
Allen County Judge Daniel Creitz said he gave improper instructions to jury in August 2007 trial Roxana Hegeman Associated Press Writer WICHITA (AP) — The city of Neodesha is entitled by law to recover the costs of cleanup and damage from contamination caused by an oil refinery, a state judge has ruled in concluding he gave a jury improper instructions. Allen County District Judge Daniel Creitz, in an 86-page decision Monday, overturned ...
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Utility groups will appeal FEMA ice storm decision TOPEKA (AP) — A group of Kansas utilities and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are still at odds about the funding needed to repair damage after a December 2007 ice storm
Utility groups will appeal FEMA ice storm decision TOPEKA (AP) — A group of Kansas utilities and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are still at odds about the funding needed to repair damage after a December 2007 ice storm. FEMA announced this week that it would provide $63.5 million in reimbursement for repairs throughout Kansas. But that total is well below the $320 million sought by the Kansas Electric Cooperatives. The cooperat...
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World Briefs
Senators push back on bailout plan despite dire warnings from Bernanke, Paulson WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators dug in their heels Tuesday, pushing back against dire warnings from the government’s top economic officials of recession, layoffs and lost homes if Congress doesn’t quickly approve the Bush administration’s emergency $700 billion financial bailout plan. Congressional leaders still predicted passage — with significant changes — but Wa...
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Judge rules in McMahon’s favor in hospital lawsuit
Anthony McCartney AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ed McMahon’s lawsuit against a hospital and doctors he claims failed to properly diagnose and repair his broken neck has passed a key legal hurdle. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last week that McMahon’s lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two physicians lays out adequate legal ground to pursue claims that include negligence, elder abuse, battery, fraud and...
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Tyler Perry donates food for the hungry in Atlanta
ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) — Tyler Perry may be a successful director, playwright and actor, but he knows what it’s like to be hungry. Perry, who grew up the poor son of a carpenter in New Orleans and was homeless for a time, has donated enough food to feed 1,000 families for two weeks in Atlanta, where he lives now. He spent part of Tuesday morning unloading and packaging food at Hosea Feed the Hungry and the Homeless care center, where organizers...
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Celebrities
Elton John’s ’J’ brooch for sale in London LONDON (AP) — A sapphire-and-diamond brooch worn by singer Elton John in one of his music videos will go under the gavel this week. The art deco piece is shaped like a “J” and was worn by John in the 1988 music video “I Don’t Wanna Go on With You Like That.” It is expected to fetch $22,000 when it goes up for sale at Bonhams auction house in London on Thursday. The 1930s-era brooch has brilliant...
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Musician has burn surgeries after SC plane crash
Meg Kinnard Associated Press Writer COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Despite several surgeries for burns over his torso and lower body, former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is trying to stay positive after a South Carolina plane crash that killed four, including two close friends, a spokesman for the star’s clothing company said Tuesday. “If you make it out of a crash of that magnitude, somebody’s looking out for you,” said Bill Nosal, Barker’s fr...
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Oddities
Nebraska college town legislators ban the porch couch LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Relaxing on the porch in a ratty recliner might not be allowed in Lincoln any longer. The city council voted 5-2 Monday to ban porch couches and other indoor furniture used outside. No one testified against the proposal during the council’s public hearing last week. Supporters of the ban say it’s a way to help revitalize older neighborhoods. It also likely targets...
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Jury convicts man of human trafficking
WICHITA (AP) — A Sedgwick County jury on Monday convicted a man of human trafficking for taking a 15-year-old Wichita girl to Dallas last year to work as a prostitute. But the lawyer for Marlin Williams, 38, says the crime should bring a sentence of three years and 10 months, not the 54 years called for under a law enacted last year known as “Jessica’s Law.” The girl, now 16 and taking care of her 2-year-old daughter at an independent-livi...
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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ goes post-‘happily ever after’
Lynn Elber AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — First came the achingly romantic hilltop reunion between Dr. McDreamy and Meredith that ended last season’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” Is heartbreak next? “We ended last season with the end of the fairy tale,” said series creator Shonda Rhimes. “I always thought this season was about what happens after the ‘happily ever after,’ for all our characters.” “For some, it’s about jumping off into somet...
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Students design dresses continue to promote heart health for AHA
Kathryn Waller The Manhattan Mercury MANHATTAN (AP) — Fifteen Kansas State University students are using their knowledge of fashion design to help shed light on the No. 1 killer among women: heart disease. The students, who are part of Kansas State’s Apparel Production II course, are constructing miniature red gowns as part of the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” campaign. The miniature dresses — which will be displayed at ...
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Industry diversification boosts McPherson economy
McPherson credits types of businesses for their stability during Great Depression, national turmoil McPHERSON (AP) — Amid a faltering U.S. economy, this central Kansas city where farmland and oil fields blend with industry has more jobs than people to do them. Even during the Great Depression, as oil was being discovered in McPherson County, jobs were available. Today, the McPherson Industrial Development Co. is poised to survive another n...
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Celebrities
NEW YORK (AP) — Natalie Cole, who recently revealed she had hepatitis C, has been hospitalized as a result of side effects from her medication and a heavy promotional schedule, her representative said Friday. The Grammy-winning singer has been in a New York City hospital since Sept. 12, and is expected to remain there for at least a few days, according to publicist Maureen O’Connor of the firm Rogers & Cowan. Cole announced in July tha...
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