Wire
Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I’m a 21-year-old female college student. I dated a guy my age for almost six months, but I ended the relationship last year because I didn’t feel we were compatible anymore. I do have some feelings for him, but I have told him that they aren’t enough for me to want to get back together with him. We are still friends and hang out together. When I hung out with him a few days ago, he told me he is still in love with me. I told h...
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McCain officially gets Kansas’ electoral votes
TOPEKA (AP) — It came as no surprise and certainly didn’t alter the outcome, but it was six votes that were required before it could be said officially that Republican John McCain carried Kansas in the presidential election. The state’s six members of the Electoral College — one for each of the four congressional districts and one for each senator — cast their votes Monday for the GOP presidential nominee and running mate Sarah Palin. They jo...
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World briefs
Bush’s Iraq-Afghan farewell tour marredby dissent KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President George W. Bush wrapped up a whirlwind trip to two war zones Monday that in many ways was a victory lap without a clear victory. A signature event occurred when an Iraqi reporter hurled two shoes at Bush, declaring: “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” The president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands th...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I have been married for 27 years. My husband isn’t successful professionally, so I support our family through a job an hour’s commute away. Several years ago I found a bunch of porn videos in his home office, told him they were sexist and demeaning to women, and threw them away. I told him he had to stop or we were finished. A few years later, he moved his business to a commercial building, got a female partner and may have had a...
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State briefs
Arctic blast hits Kansas Sunday GOODLAND (AP) — An Arctic blast hit Kansas overnight, pulling temperatures down as low as 10 below in Goodland, the National Weather Service said. Highs Monday were in the teens and low 20s, with another round of light snow expected Monday night. There was also a chance for some sleet or freezing drizzle on Tuesday in south-central Kansas, the weather service said. Several cities reported single-digit and ...
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Advocates fear cuts will hurt mental health care
GARDEN CITY. (AP) — When state Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer was growing up, mental illness was something he never really heard much about. That’s changed though as he has grown older, stepping into his role as a state senator from Grinnell. Ostmeyer lost a close friend to suicide and said to a group of staff and Board of Directors with the Area Mental Health Center that he has carried through his legislative career a soft place in his heart for the ...
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Prairie dogs and ferrets could get more time
WICHITA (AP) — Prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets in a northwestern Kansas county could be spared — at least for now. Officials in Logan County are examining plans for poisoning the prairie dogs after concerns arose about the harm that could also come to the rare ferrets. County commissioners notified landowners last month that they would start poisoning the prairie dogs Monday. That drew concern among wildlife authorities who feared th...
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Celebrities
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury has ruled in favor of the organization that hands out the Academy Awards in a dispute over whether statuettes won by one of its founding members can be sold. The panel in Los Angeles sided with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Tuesday, saying three women who own Oscars won by silent film star Mary Pickford are bound to an agreement barring their sale. Tuesday’s ruling paves the way for a judge t...
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Heloise
Dear Heloise: I am a sales associate in a large department store. With the holidays fast approaching, I’d like to remind people that it’s difficult to give them the customer service they deserve when associates have to spend time cleaning out fitting rooms. Our favorite customers are those who neatly hang the clothes on hangers and bring them out after they are finished. Most thefts occur when clothes are left in a fitting room, and this d...
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Analysis: Compromise key to legislative session
Carl Manning Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — The state’s worst budget crisis since the Dust Bowl days will require legislators to focus more on compromise than confrontation. Last month, state economists projected a $141 million deficit at the end of the current budget year. If left unchecked, that could blossom to $1 billion by the end of the next budget year. There’s seems to be no single solution and the alternatives are limited...
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Staff shortage causes autopsy backlog
WICHITA (AP) — A staffing shortage at a Wichita center that performs autopsies for dozens of Kansas counties has caused a backlog that in some cases has delayed death certificates that are required before survivors can collect life insurance. In Gracie Hudson’s case, the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center told her it could take four months or more for a certified copy to be ready. Hudson’s husband, 54-year-old John “Bud” Huds...
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Oddities
NY Giants need a sack — to cover fan’s racy outfit NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Giants need another sack — to cover a flamboyant fan who wears skimpy outfits. Sondra Fortunato went to Giants Stadium last week wearing a Santa Claus outfit, a tiara, fishnet stockings, a bathing suit bottom and high-heeled boots. She also had a suitcase and two 11-by-17 signs reading “Go Giants” and “Have a No Guns Christmas,” referring to the team’s wide re...
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Illinois House speaker launches impeachment
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The speaker of the Illinois House took the first step Monday toward impeaching scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich, appointing a committee to recommend whether he should be ousted after his arrest on federal corruption charges. “We’re going to proceed with all due speed, but we’re going to make sure that what we do is done correctly,” said Speaker Michael Madigan, who often has clashed with fellow Democrat Blagojev...
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Celebrities
ASBURY PARK, N.J. (AP) — The Boss’ stuff is back. More than 1,100 pieces of Bruce Springsteen memorabilia have been returned to the Asbury Park Public Library in New Jersey after library officials filed a police complaint against the men who had taken out the items. Members of the Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection took hundreds of books, articles and tour programs to be microfilmed in 2007. The group says they, not the l...
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Junction City dairy hopes to pad profits with reusable glass bottles, processing
Tim Unruh The Salina Journal JUNCTION CITY (AP) — Adding volume to keep pace with ever-slimming profit margins has been part of the challenge since Arnold and Rose Hildebrand began milking cows in 1930. Today, two of their grandsons — and their wives — have decided on a different model, banking that “better” might just trump “bigger,” after all. And with a nostalgic twist, they aim to make middle men in the milk business less of a factor...
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Rivals continue fight over power lines
David Twiddy Associated Press Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two companies seeking the right to build ultra high-voltage transmission lines in southern Kansas continued to joust over the issue Friday, even as Westar Energy Inc. offered a compromise. Westar, a partner in Prairie Wind Transmission LLC, issued a news release Friday morning saying it had filed a “compromise proposal” with state regulators to build the 765-kilovolt transmissio...
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Family from Fort Riley gets inauguration tickets
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Williams is working through the logistics of getting himself and his three small children from Fort Riley to Washington D.C. for Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. The trip for his wife will be even longer. Staff Sgt. Demetria Williams is traveling from Baghdad, where she is a medic with the 300th Military Police Company at Fort Riley. Leroy Williams, 36, is from Hampton, Va. He taught speci...
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World Briefs
With bailout’s demise in Congress, allies of U.S. automakers turn to White House for help WASHINGTON (AP) — Their efforts in Congress squashed, U.S. automakers are depending upon a reluctant White House to quickly provide a multibillion lifeline to help them avoid imminent collapse. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, which have said they could run out of cash within weeks, have few options left after the dramatic defeat in the Senate o...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I have been dating my boyfriend for almost three years. I am deeply in love with him and know that I could probably stay with him for years to come. I am concerned, however, because our relationship is the first serious relationship either of us has had. I feel as though the smart thing to do would be to take a break and explore other options. We’ve talked about it a couple of times, and the end result is his saying, “Well, I don’...
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Other Editors
Topeka Capital-Journal, on Sebelius staying as Kansas governor: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius apparently will spend the next two years where she belongs, in the Kansas governor’s office. We don’t know exactly how high or low Sebelius’ name was on the lists of potential candidates for cabinet secretary positions under President-elect Barack Obama when she said she wasn’t heading east, and we don’t really care at this point. She has a job here tha...
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