Wire
Amber alert issued for four Missouri children
Friend: Mother feared losing her children after Monday custody hearing Maria Sudekum Fisher Associated Press Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police continued searching Monday for a woman who failed to return her four children from a weekend visit, authorities said. Shirley A. Riggs, 39, on Friday picked up her children, whose ages range from 7 to 14, for a visit granted by the Department of Social Services. Riggs was supposed to return the chi...
full story
World Briefs
Bush administration accepts some of Dems’ demands in bailout bill; Stocks plunge, oil soars WASHINGTON (AP) — Scrambling for a quick accord on the $700 billion bailout, the Bush administration and leading lawmakers have agreed to include mortgage aid and strong congressional oversight along with unprecedented help for failing financial institutions, a key lawmaker said Monday. Unimpressed, investors sent stocks plummeting anew, pushed ...
full story
Sebelius signs T. Boone Pickens energy pledge
TOPEKA (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has taken the pledge — the energy pledge that is. The governor announced Monday that she has signed T. Boone Pickens’ energy independence pledge and supports the Texas oil billionaire’s call on the next president and Congress to deliver a comprehensive energy plan in the first 100 days of the next administration. Sebelius introduced Pickens at a July town meeting in Topeka, where he started his national to...
full story
Clay Center needs new Xmas decorations
CLAY CENTER (AP) — Clay Center’s Christmas decoration were destroyed by last year’s ice storm. But local Chamber of Commerce officials have picked a new design for what will replace them. Chamber Director Andy Contreras says there was nothing left of the old decorations. He said the chamber is negotiating with two vendors and a final decision won’t be made until the end of the month. Contreras said the decorations being considered include...
full story
State Briefs
Engineering schools seek funds to raise enrollment LAWRENCE (AP) — A severe shortage of engineers has prompted leaders of the state’s three engineering schools to ask lawmakers for financial help. Engineering deans from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University and industry representatives lobbied lawmakers to increase funding by $15 million per year to boost the number of engineers. “Our goal is to h...
full story
Oddities
Illinois woman accused of bartending in the buff DELHI, Ill. (AP) — Here’s a tip: Bartending nude can get you arrested. Sheriff’s deputies doing a routine check this week at a southern Illinois bar say they discovered a not-so-routine sight. Authorities allege that 33-year-old Janet Brannon was naked while serving bar patrons at the Cabin Tavern in Delhi. Brannon was arrested and charged with misdemeanor public indecency. She was freed on...
full story
Celebrities
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Gary Coleman has been sued by a man who claims the actor punched him and ran into him with his truck in a Payson bowling alley parking lot, causing knee, back and neck injuries. Colt Rushton, 24, of Spanish Fork, says he and Coleman got into an argument Sept. 6 after he began taking pictures of the “Diff’rent Strokes” actor with a cell phone. Coleman, 40, was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving and disorderly condu...
full story
Oddities
Police lasso bull on New York City’s streets NEW YORK (AP) — It looked like an urban rodeo on the streets of New York City. Police say a young bull made a dash for freedom through the streets of Queens on Wednesday night but suddenly died before he could be taken to an animal sanctuary. Police cars tried to steer the bull off the crowded roadways but the several-hundred-pound animal hit and damaged a squad car. An NYPD officer with urban cowb...
full story
Towns meditate on fate of peace palace project
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Folks in the Kansas prairie town of Smith Center were a little skeptical when they were told more than two years ago that their poor rural county soon would become home to the World Capital of Peace. Now they’re scratching their heads even more over the spectacle 10 miles north of town, where the Transcendental Meditation movement is either building “peace palaces” or laying the foundation for a 40,000-student univer...
full story
Minneapolis drivers honk approval for replacement bridge
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Emergency vehicles with lights flashing led twin processions to open the new Interstate 35W bridge before dawn Thursday, less than 14 months after the shocking and deadly collapse of its predecessor. Highway department trucks followed patrol cars, fire trucks and ambulances in slow northbound and southbound parades that passed each other around the middle of the bridge just after 5 a.m. Behind them were hundreds of motori...
full story
Celebrities
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against best-selling author John Grisham and two other writers over books they wrote about the wrongful conviction of two men in a 1982 murder. The lawsuit was filed last year by former Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson, former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation investigator Gary Rogers and Melvin Hett, a state criminalist. All three helped win the or...
full story
Stocks surge on report of entity for bad debt
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied in a stunning late-session turnaround Thursday, shooting higher and hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up 400 points following a report that the federal government might create an entity to absorb banks’ bad debt. The report also cooled investors’ fervor for safe investments like government debt that were in demand for much of the day. The report that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the fo...
full story
Lawmakers halt audit of illegal immigration
TOPEKA (AP) — Legislators have decided against initiating a state audit of the costs to Kansas associated with illegal immigration. Instead, a committee has directed auditors to review existing research on such issues and summarize them for lawmakers. The push for a new audit arose from an unsuccessful effort to pass legislation this year dealing with illegal immigration. Backers of the audit wanted to study not only the costs, but how imm...
full story
Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I am a newly engaged man and very much in love. My fiancée embodies almost every aspect of my dreams. Our common ground is deeply rooted in an appreciation of nature and love of the outdoors. We share political views and life goals. She is the most caring, generous woman I have ever met. This amazing woman is tremendously insecure about her body image, her financial contributions to our union, her lack of higher education and he...
full story
Federal judge rules in Segway lawsuit vs. mall
TOPEKA (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a Topeka mall can’t force a man to sign a waiver before allowing him to ride a Segway inside. John McElroy has a heart condition that requires a pacemaker and prevents him from walking more than a block without feeling pain. He is the executive director of the State Gaming Agency and uses his two-wheel transporter around the Statehouse and in office buildings. But when he approached the West Rid...
full story
Bush: He’s working hard on economic turmoil
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eager to show that he feels people’s pain, President Bush told the country Thursday his administration is working feverishly to calm turmoil in the financial markets. With reports swirling of possibly imminent new government action, the president met with his treasury secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve. Nothing was announced immediately after the 40-minute meeting at the White House, which included Securities an...
full story
Pro leagues feel economic squeeze play
Only 10,000 show up for retro pricing deal in KC NEW YORK (AP) — The tumult in the U.S. economy finally is starting to affect an industry that has enjoyed years of growth: major league sports. The NBA is laying off employees. Major League Baseball attendance has dropped after four straight record years. The NFL says revenue is under pressure. While the symptoms are relatively mild so far, the latest developments say something about how fa...
full story
No serious injuries in crashes of small planes
DOUGLAS (AP) — Emergency crews in Butler County handled two small plane crashes just miles apart on Thursday, but no one was seriously hurt in either crash. “The only thing I can tell you is, ’Don’t fly over Butler County today,”’ Sheriff Craig Murphy said jokingly. “I couldn’t believe it.” The first plane was a Cessna prototype that went down east of Douglas at 11:30 a.m., he said. The second crash occurred Thursday afternoon about 15 to ...
full story
Heloise
Dear Heloise: Help! I washed and dried clothes with some crayons in a pocket. I need to know how to get the crayon out of my family’s clothes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and very helpful to me right now. -- Amy H., via e-mail Oops! This happens more than you know! You need to wash everything again with hot water, laundry detergent and 1-2 cups of baking soda. If the spots are still there, wash bleach-safe clothes with chlorine ...
full story
Lawyer could face charges for contacting jurors
KCMO attorney informed by judge that correspondence with any juror without the court’s consent is inappropriate KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City attorney is facing possible federal contempt charges after contacting jurors who ruled against his client in a civil rights case. Federal court records indicate James Ensz sent a questionnaire to jurors last week. Ensz represented Richard McKinley in a lawsuit accusing the Lee’s Summit poli...
full story