Wire
New report ups Kansas wheat production forecast
Roxana Hegeman AP Farm Writer WICHITA (AP) — With the winter wheat harvest now well under way across the nation’s breadbasket, government reports released Friday forecast bountiful crops in Kansas and record wheat production globally. “We are already seeing a downtrend in wheat price, which is normal at harvest,” said Mike Woolverton, an extension grain market analyst at Kansas State University. “But I think the wheat traders were taking ...
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Celebrities
NEW YORK (AP) — Lara Logan, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, tells The Washington Post she is pregnant, and the father is a married federal contractor whom she met while stationed in Iraq. Logan’s relationship with Joseph Burkett — who’s in the midst of a divorce from wife Kimberly, with whom he has a 3-year-old daughter — has made media headlines, including the front page of the New York Post. Logan is going through a...
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Oddities
Fashion bug: Teens turn dead cicadas into jewelry SANDWICH, Mass. (AP) — Two 17-year-old jewelry makers from Cape Cod, Massachusetts are hoping swarms of customers will want their latest creations: earrings and necklaces made from dead bugs. Katheryn Maloney and Brady Cullinan are selling jewelry made out of the cicadas that swarmed their town of Sandwich this summer. The pair charges $10 for earrings or necklaces made out of the bugs’ la...
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World Briefly
Iran’s state television says Tehran test-fires more missiles in the Persian Gulf TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran test-fired more long-range missiles overnight in a second round of exercises meant to show that the country can defend itself against any attack by the U.S. or Israel, Iranian state television reported Thursday. The weapons have “special capabilities” and included missiles launched from naval ships in the Persian Gulf, along with to...
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An American life worth less today than five years ago
Regulation supposed to help government compare cost of projects against how many lives that could be saved by legislation Seth Borenstein AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not just the American dollar that’s losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn’t worth what it used to be. The “value of a statistical life” is $6.9 million in today’s dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May —...
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Former staffer sues Kansas GOP chairman
John Hanna AP Political Writer TOPEKA (AP) — The Kansas Republican Party’s former executive director says it owes him nearly $27,000 in back pay and other compensation and is suing the GOP’s current state chairman. Ron Freeman’s lawsuit against Chairman Kris Kobach went to trial Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court. Freeman accuses Kobach of breaching the employment contract between Freeman and the party. “This is a pretty straightfo...
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Prosecutor: DNA clears JonBenet Ramsey’s family
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Prosecutors cleared JonBenet Ramsey’s parents and brother Wednesday in the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen, saying they were “deeply sorry” for putting the family under a cloud of suspicion that hung heavy for more than a decade. New DNA tests, which focus on skin cells left behind from a mere touch, point to a mysterious outsider. They came too late to clear the name of JonBenet’s mother, Patsy, who died o...
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Drug dealer changes story about car purchase by ex-KC Royal
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A high-end cocaine trafficker testified at his sentencing hearing that he did not give former Kansas City Royals catcher Benito Santiago $80,000 to buy a luxury car. Jacques Lavigne, 64, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison for distributing at least 75 pounds of cocaine between 2002 and 2007. Lavigne pleaded guilty in March to the drug charge and acknowledged then that he had given an unidentified person...
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Celebrities
PARIS (AP) — The hospital where Angelina Jolie will give birth says it has covered the windows of her room with a special material to prevent paparazzi from taking pictures of the actress and her partner, Brad Pitt. The Lenval hospital in Nice in southern France said Wednesday that photos that claim to show Jolie and Pitt in her room are fakes that have been manipulated or show other patients. In a statement, the hospital said it is “total...
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Oddities
Fertile country: Babies linked to Colorado music festival GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — The effects of an annual music festival in Grand Junction, Colo., may appear months after the last act plays — nine months, to be precise. A health official says her agency sees far more pregnant women in the weeks after Country Jam, which was held last month and featured Tim McGraw, Clay Walker and Sugarland. Nurse-Family Partnership supervisor Wanda S...
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Ask Amy
Dear AmyNEW WIFE MUST GET USED TO BEING ‘MRS.’ DEAR AMY: I just turned 38, and my new husband and I hosted a party for 50 people in our back yard. My husband and I don’t have kids yet, which may be why I was surprised when my friend of 30 years introduced me to her 5-year-old daughter as “Mrs. Flowers.” I explained that her daughter could call me by my first name, but my friend seemed wary of that suggestion and said, “Are you sure?” I assure...
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Pick 2 lottery blunder puts casino contract in doubt
TOPEKA (AP) — Recent computer blunders in the Kansas Lottery Pick 3 game could cost international gaming giant Gtech a contract to run the games at the four state-owned casinos. The firm manages state lottery and casino data systems for gambling jurisdictions worldwide, including Kansas. In April, the firm was tentatively awarded the state’s casino data systems contract. But Ed Van Petten, Lottery executive director, said that final contra...
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Heloise
FOR RELEASE THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2008 Dear Heloise: I love my deep, dark denim jeansDEEP, DARK DENIM JEANS. How can I keep them from fading in the wash? -- Gerry R., Roanoke, Va. Fortunately, today’s denim is manufactured with modern dyes, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much. Wash as the care label indicates, turn inside out and use cold water. Some new laundry products will help denim keep its dark color. -- Heloise SCR...
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Panel rules against ed board candidate TOPEKA (AP) — A Wichita businessman can’t run for the State Board of Education because he’s also on the ballot for a township office, a state elections panel decided Tuesday
Panel rules against ed board candidate TOPEKA (AP) — A Wichita businessman can’t run for the State Board of Education because he’s also on the ballot for a township office, a state elections panel decided Tuesday. Charles Wiggins, a Democrat, has been a candidate for in the board’s 8th District seat, representing eastern Sedgwick County. But last month, Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh removed Wiggins from the Aug. 5 primary ballot becaus...
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Suspect in Viola clerk’s abduction in custody in Oregon
WICHITA (AP) — An Oregon resident’s tip led to the capture of a Wichita man wanted in the last month’s abduction of a convenience store worker, Segdwick County Undersheriff Robert Hinshaw said Wednesday. Springfield, Ore., police and the U.S. Marshal’s Service arrested Robert Abner, 39, late Tuesday night at a Springfield motel, a few hours after authorities received information from an Oregon resident about Abner’s possible whereabouts, Hins...
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Gates says Pentagon will reopen tanker bid
WASHINGTON (AP) — Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will submit new offers for a disputed $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, and the Pentagon will pick a winner by the end of the year. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that his office — not the Air Force — will oversee the competition between Boeing and the team of Northrop and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. The plan, which hands control to Pentago...
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Emergency hearing set in Haysville pill mill case
WICHITA (AP) — A federal judge will hold an emergency hearing next week to deal with defense claims that prosecutors in the case of a Haysville doctor accused of running a “pill mill” have been withholding information. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot set a hearing for 9 a.m. on July 17 on the pretrial exchange of information in the case of Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, nurse Linda Schneider. Belot’s decision on Wednesday comes after the...
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World briefs
Iran tests missiles in display of readinessto strike back TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran test-fired nine missiles Wednesday, including ones capable of hitting Israel, making a dramatic show of its readiness to strike back if the United States or Israel attacks it over its nuclear program. The launches sparked strong U.S. criticism and a jump in oil prices — underlining fears Iran might seal off the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf waterway through whi...
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TV ads from Ryun focus on military
Rival GOP candidate questions role John Hanna AP Political Writer TOPEKA (AP) — Republican Jim Ryun is wooing an important voting bloc in the 2nd Congressional District with a new television ad touting his work to protect military bases while he held the seat he now hopes to recapture. But a spokesman for rival GOP candidate, State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, questioned whether Ryun’s role was as big as the ad implies and whether the TV spot under...
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Public health advocates outline immunization plan
John Hanna Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — Nearly half of Kansas’ counties don’t have a private health care provider who gives childhood immunizations, and public health advocates see that as a big issue in trying to boost immunization rates. The Immunize Kansas Kids project recommends that the state work to increase payments to doctors by both insurance companies and government programs. It also proposes that the state consider centr...
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