Wire
Hurricane Ike gets stronger on a path to Texas
Category 2 storm expected to grow before making landfall on Saturday Monica Rhor Associated Press Writer HOUSTON (AP) — Hurricane Ike strengthened in the Gulf’s warm waters Wednesday and churned toward the Texas coast, and officials started to evacuate the first of millions of residents who could be in the storm’s path. Ike bloomed to a Category 2 storm and was likely to grow even stronger before its predicted strike on the Texas coast e...
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About 10 Kansas banks hurt by federal bailout
TOPEKA (AP) — About 10 state-chartered banks will be hurt by the federal bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the state’s top banking regulator says, but none are likely to fail. “At this point they are working with federal regulators,” Bank Commissioner Tom Thull told The Topeka Capital-Journal for a story Wednesday. “It will be painful, but they’re not in danger.” Thull said the banks hold common or preferred stock in t...
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Kansas program helps abused, traumatized children
WICHITA (AP) — A Kansas group that oversees child welfare cases here is adopting a new treatment that targets neglected and abused children, whose brains often are not fully developed because of their childhood trauma. The therapies put in place at Youthville aim to fill in those gaps in the brain before moving on to the next developmental stage or skill, an approach that could become a model for other communities. Youthville has joined wi...
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Heloise
Dear Heloise: Would you please reprint the “recipe” for seasoning cast-iron skillets? -- Phyllis T., via e-mail Phyllis, many times cast-iron skillets are handed down from generation to generation. In fact, I have my grandmother’s and mother’s. If yours is an old skillet, wash (no metal brushes or scrubbers, and just a drop of soap) and dry. Rub the inside, outside and lid (if it has one) with a very light coat of shortening, lard or light ...
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Questions raised about Wyandotte Co. casino
John Hanna Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — A state board deciding who will operate a casino in Wyandotte County wonders whether the new gambling-and-hotel complex will hurt existing businesses. Meanwhile, another board has taken a step toward revoking the licenses for three now-closed dog and horse racing parks that once had hoped to have contracts with the Kansas Lottery for slot machines. The slots at the tracks and one state-own...
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State briefs
Report: Kansas farm production costs up 21 percent WICHITA (AP) — A new government report shows Kansas farm production costs went up nearly 21 percent in 2007. Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service said Tuesday that expenditures that year totaled $12.4 billion in the state. That compares nationally with a 9.3 percent increase, or about to $260 billion in total farm expenses across the country. Kansas farms account for almost 5 percent of...
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Woman found guilty of highway workers’ deaths near Lawrence
LAWRENCE (AP) — A Washington woman was found guilty Tuesday in the hit-and-run deaths of two highway workers south of Lawrence. The Lawrence Journal-World reported on its Web site that Ramona Morgan, 49, was found of two counts of reckless second-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery after a Sept. 11, 2007, accident in a work zone on U.S. 59 near Pleasant Grove. Kansas Department of Transportation worker Tyrone Korte, 39, of Se...
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Oddities
Son’s dorm room brings back memories for dad EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Following in your father’s footsteps by attending the same university is one thing. But moving into the same dorm room as your dad? Mike Robell has found himself in B310 in Emmons Hall at Michigan State University — the very same room occupied by his father in 1978. What are the odds? The East Lansing university has about 8,000 rooms. The freshman’s father, Rich Rob...
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World briefs
Obama: Palin just another politician FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Listening to Barack Obama, it can seem like Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is the main person standing between him and the White House instead of John McCain. Obama is putting as much heat on Palin as he is on the man at the top of the GOP ticket, objecting to the Republican Party’s portrayal of her as a reformer who can bring change to Washington. That is s...
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Celebrities
NEW YORK (AP) — Ellen DeGeneres premiered her sixth season as host of “Ellen” with two notable changes: a new studio and a wedding ring. The syndicated talk show returned Monday with a taped episode from the show’s new set on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Los Angeles. It was DeGeneres’ first show since marrying actress Portia de Rossi in August. “This is my first show as a married lady,” DeGeneres announced, flashing her wedding ring. Th...
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Boyda says more troops needed in Afghanistan
TOPEKA (AP) — Rep. Nancy Boyda said Tuesday that it was clear after visiting with commanders in Afghanistan that more troops are needed to fight the war against a resurgent Taliban. Boyda, a Kansas Democrat and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said any additional forces would have to be a mix of NATO, Afghan and U.S. units, with the later likely being an additional two to five brigades. “For the past two years, we have heard that...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I love my stepmother, “Hannah.” Unfortunately, she is petty, judgmental, cold and stubborn, and I’m sick of her. I see my father regularly, but I only see Hannah for any length of time during happy family occasions, during which she assumes and insinuates things about me and my private life. Hannah thinks I watch too much TV, don’t get out enough and don’t act like a normal teenage girl. She very much resents my mother for no goo...
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Atheist at Fort Riley reports death threat
John Hanna Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — An atheist soldier who’s accusing the military of violating religious freedoms has received a death threat, the leader of a foundation involved in the soldier’s federal lawsuit said Monday. The Army post in Kansas said it is investigating a message left on Spc. Jeremy Hall’s cell phone. Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M., have a lawsuit pending i...
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Army chief of staff to discuss restoring balance
LEAVENWORTH (AP) — Army units spending 18 months or more at home are being asked to spend at least of a portion of that time honing conventional warfare tactics. Gen. George Casey said Monday the directive was designed to keep the force in balance and not become too focused on counterinsurgency, typified by the fights in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past seven years. “We can’t sustain this forever, but we are at a point now where I am comf...
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Dancers do thing in wheelchairs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — For JoAnne Fluke, it is all about the freedom ... the movement ... the feeling . Oh, the feeling of ballroom dancing in a wheelchair. The cha-cha. The salsa. The “downright sexy rumba,” she said. Then there is the Viennese waltz. “It makes me feel beautiful, elegant, like a lady,” Fluke said. Ebullient and auburn-haired, the Ottawa resident was born with a condition called caudal regression. Her legs, with no feel...
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McCain, Palin return to KC, Mo.
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — He came to a place where young men dream big, a minor league ballpark. Then John McCain came to a place were old men relax, one of the nation’s larger retirement communities. Campaigning in Missouri for the second time in eight days Monday, McCain and his vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin are putting an emphasis on appealing to Missouri’s Republican base — be they young or old. McCain made Missouri a bookend ...
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Heloise
Dear Heloise: For the past several years, you have printed my letter, which has been a valuable resource for many of your readers. You may remember me as the mother of six kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, all of whom faced so many challenges in school, during family time and in social interactions. Although there were days when I felt like giving up, I continued searching for ways to help my kids lead a normal, balanced l...
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AP briefs
Bush: About 8,000 troops will returnfrom Iraq by February WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush plans to keep U.S. troop levels in Iraq near their current level through the end of the year and will pull home about 8,000 U.S. troops by February when the next president will be in charge of wartime decision-making. If security in Iraq keeps improving, Bush says, “additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009.” The president’s deci...
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Artist couple find beauty in artwork
LAWRENCE (AP) — Artist Jerry Kunkel is a champion of the overlooked. Mundane objects found on a table, in a drawer or along a kitchen countertop take on great significance and splendor when rendered on his canvas. Take a leftover dessert, for instance. “Does anybody really look at a cheap pie plate from Dillons after there’s only one piece left? You don’t,” Kunkel says of a painting titled “Basic Food Group 5” that depicts a nearly empty ...
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Gutteridge, who played for Cardinals, dies at 96
PITTSBURG (AP) — Don J. Gutteridge, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns and was a manager for the Chicago White Sox, died at his home in Pittsburg on Sunday, his son said. He was 96. The cause of death was pneumonia, which Gutteridge had contracted about a month ago, said Don J. Gutteridge Jr., 65, of Oklahoma City. Gutteridge made his debut with the Cardinals on Sept. 7, 1936, 72 years to the day before his dea...
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