Wire
KC police: Mom, child dead in murder-suicide
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police say a woman and her 17-month-old daughter have been found dead in a river near the woman’s car in an apparent murder-suicide. Police would not reveal the identities of the woman and child. Family members were at the scene Thursday along the Blue River in south Kansas City. Police spokesman Rich Lockhart said a homeless man who spotted the car found a note inside with instructions to call a telephone ...
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Sebelius forms group to study state facilities
John Hanna Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius formed a commission Thursday to study possible closings of state hospitals, schools for the deaf and blind and other institutions. Sebelius’ executive order creating the Facilities Closure and Realignment Commission called for draft recommendations by Dec. 1. She said that if she approves of its proposals, she will enact them next year by new executive orders. “In th...
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Ex-Petraeus adviser shares views on two wars
John Milburn Associated Press Writer FORT LEAVENWORTH (AP) — As the new administration sets policy for fighting two wars, a retired aide to Gen. David Petraeus said Thursday that it will be important for President Barack Obama to establish a clear objective for Afghanistan. Retired Army Col. Pete Mansoor, who served as an aide to Petraeus in Iraq, said that while the path to an exit from Iraq is clear, based on the 2007 surge of forces, t...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I am 30, and my boyfriend is 32. We have been together for eight months. We are looking at this relationship as one that will lead to marriage. He was laid off at the beginning of the month. His response to this event has left me confused and disheartened. This was his first job out of college, and someone who knew his family hired him without an interview. He rose steadily in the company, almost effortlessly, and he deserved it -...
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Methodists seek to break ‘stained-glass ceiling’
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The United Methodist Church, which boasts a history of ordaining women clergy, is seeking to shatter the so-called “stained-glass ceiling” blocking female pastors from its largest pulpits. The nation’s second largest Protestant denomination has launched a new initiative, the Lead Women Pastor Project, to examine barriers to women being appointed pastors to Methodist churches with more than 1,000 members. The Nashvil...
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Bill would allow prosecutors to have guns in court
TOPEKA (AP) — The Senate plans to vote on a bill allowing state and federal prosecutors in Kansas to carry a concealed gun into courthouses and other places where weapons are normally off limits. Attorney General Steve Six and his staff of prosecutors would be included in the bill scheduled for action Thursday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt says prosecutors deal with the same criminals as police officers, who are armed, an...
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Prayer decries abortion
John Hanna Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — A guest chaplain upset some Kansas House members Thursday with a prayer remembering millions of children that he said were “legally exterminated” by abortion and decrying a national “culture of death.” The Rev. Brian Schieber, pastor at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church, gave his prayer on the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion ...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I was recently married, and my mother-in-law has welcomed me into the family. Other than a regular plea that we provide her with grandchildren, she’s not totally overbearing. The problem is, when we’re at her house and she wants something, she issues an order: “Jane! Come in here and sit down!” She issues these orders usually for minor things such as helping in the kitchen, and my husband and his siblings are unfazed by it. We a...
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Heloise
Dear Ladies: Are you wearing the same bra size you did five or 10 years ago? Have you had children, changed weight and lost or gained muscle tone? Get a tape measure and follow these directions: * To get the BAND size, measure your rib cage (snugly) just under your bust, then add 5 inches to this measurement, and if the number is an odd number, add 1 so you have an even-number BAND size. * For the CUP size, measure the fullest part of you...
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Oddities
Texas boys find 95-year-old’s long-lost class ring LUFKIN, Texas (AP) — Franklin Weeks figures he lost his college class ring sometime in the 1980s while helping his church put in new playground equipment. Luke and Sam Lytle can vouch for the 95-year-old Lufkin man’s theory. They found the missing ring — Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, Class of 1937 — on Monday while testing their new metal detector at the Ryan Chapel Church play...
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Celebrities
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alyssa Milano has received a restraining order against a man she says has repeatedly tried to contact her and showed up at her home unannounced. Records show a judge in Ventura County granted Milano a three-year restraining order on Dec. 23 against Jeff Turner, who lives in Northern California. Milano wrote in court documents that Turner had hiked miles to try to meet her and repeatedly called to get access to an event w...
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Heloise
Dear Heloise: I’ve seen in a couple of your columns suggestions to count the pills in your prescriptions, specifically mentioning those from mail-order pharmacies. My husband takes prescription narcotic pain relievers, which we get from a local pharmacy. He was coming up short and thought at first that he might have been taking more than he thought. But after the second time, he counted the pills as soon as I brought them home and was four...
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White House photog got start in Kansas, with stop off at The Chanute Tribune
Beccy Tanner The Wichita Eagle WICHITA (AP) — Photographer Pete Souza came to Kansas from Boston looking for a tornado to shoot. “He talked funny, because he kept putting R’s in words they didn’t belong in — like idea,” said Julie Doll, editor of the Collegian newspaper at Kansas State University in the late 1970s, when Souza came to study for a master’s degree in journalism. Even then, Souza had an eye for capturing a moment and telling...
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Celebrities
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country singer Jo Dee Messina and her husband have announced the birth of their first child, a boy. Craig Campbell, the singer’s spokesman, says Noah Roger Deffenbaugh was born Monday afternoon at a Nashville-area hospital. He weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces. Messina, 38, and Chris Deffenbaugh were married in October 2007. Messina’s hits include “Bye, Bye” and “Bring on the Rain.” ——— NEW YORK (AP) — A representative...
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Obama takes historic spot as first black president
Jennifer Loven Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Hussein Obama claimed his place in history as America’s first black president Tuesday, summoning a dispirited and divided nation to unite in hope against the “gathering clouds and raging storms” of unfinished war and grave economic woe. A jubilant crowd of more than a million waited for hours in frigid temperatures to witness the moment as a young black man with a foreign-sou...
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Oddities
Spokane police dog corners man on eve of retirement SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Var the police dog has added one more brave arrest to his record — his last one. Spokane police officers say the dog was on his last night of patrol before retirement when he cornered a teenager sought for investigation of murder. A tip led officers to surround a house Sunday night, and in the ensuing search Officer Dan Lesser and Var found the 19-year-old suspect h...
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Hutchinson man shoots film about polio survivors
HUTCHINSON (AP) — A Hutchinson man is working on a documentary about area survivors of polio, a crippling childhood disease that swept the nation in the 1940s and 1950s. Nathan Guy said he got the idea for the film a year ago when he went to a meeting of the Central Kansas Polio Survivors Group in Hutchinson. Guy said he was moved to make the film because the polio survivors he met “have such a gung-ho attitude about overcoming obstacles.” ...
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Heloise
Dear Heloise: I’m looking for the recipe for Ambrosia. I had your recipe, but I lost it. -- Steve, via e-mail Steve, this old family recipe, Heloise’s Pistachio Ambrosia, is delicious as a dessert or side dish. You will need: 1 (16 ounces) can chunky pineapple 1 (8 ounces) can crushed pineapple 1 small package instant pistachio pudding 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 1 cup shredded coconut 12-16 ounces frozen whipped topping (thawed) ...
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Celebrities
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Tom Cruise says playing an anti-Hitler plotter in his latest movie “Valkyrie” fulfilled a childhood fantasy. In real life, the American actor says he harbors feelings similar to his German character, who led a failed plot to assasinate the Nazi leader. “I’ve always wanted to kill Hitler. As a child, I used to wonder why someone didn’t stand up and kill him,” Cruise told reporters in the South Korean capital Sunday...
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Mortgage crisis could worsen state’s affordable housing problem
SALINA (AP) — A state shortage of affordable housing is a problem that’s likely to get worse because of the mortgage crisis, social services officials say. On any given night, about 18,000 homeless people are in Kansas, according to Topeka-based Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition. The national homeless count fell 11 percent last year, but advocates say the mortgage crisis is causing a turnaround. Shara Gonzales, head of New Beginnings in ...
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