Wire
Celebrities
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Actor Tony Shalhoub says as much as he loves Adrian Monk, eight years portraying the obsessive-compulsive private investigator is enough for him. The second half of the seventh season of “Monk” began airing Friday on the USA Network, and the Green Bay native will start shooting the last season in March. “It’s a great job, and I work with great people, and I really enjoy doing the character, but I think eight years is enoug...
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Oddities
New Web site in Japan maps out smells, bad and good TOKYO (AP) — Japanese are taking their noses global with a Web site that describes different odors around the world and pinpoints where they can be found on a map. Launched in December, the “Nioi-bu,” or Smell Club, has registered more than 160 scents around the world, ranging from “steam coming out of a rice cooker” to “used socks in the summer,” and pinpointed their locations on a Googl...
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Other Editors
Topeka Capital-Journal, on cable service in jail: Shawnee County Commissioner Vic Miller knows the county’s taxpayers well enough to know exactly how receptive they would be to picking up the tab for providing jail inmates with cable television service. That’s why he made a special point of asking county corrections director Dick Kline who would pay for cable service to the Shawnee County Jail if commissioners authorized Kline to solicit ...
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Oddities
Cops: NY man sprinkled nails on driveways of foes STONY POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Police in upstate New York say a man has been sprinkling roofing nails on the driveways of people he didn’t like to cause flat tires for two years. Stony Point police Lt. Peter Quinn says Michael Delisio was arrested Tuesday after an officer staking out one victim’s home saw nails being thrown from Delisio’s car. Quinn says the 60-year-old man from West Haverstraw ...
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Celebrities
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Gregg Allman almost had a few less silver dollars after someone broke into his southeast Georgia home and stole a coin collection, knives and unreleased concert recordings, police said. The Allman Brothers Band singer and keyboardist, 61, was out of town when burglars broke into his home in Richmond Hill, 20 miles south of Savannah. “He’s upgrading his security,” detective Mickey Sands of the Bryan County Sheriff’s Dep...
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Heloise
Dear Readers: Here are a few hints on keeping your cat safe: * Be sure your cat always wears an ID outdoors and indoors (in case your cat scoots out the door). * Store all household poisons and cleaning products safely so a curious cat or child won’t get in trouble! * Many human medications are lethal to cats, so don’t administer without a veterinarian’s directions. * Please follow the directions for flea products carefully, and call yo...
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Lieutenant governor exit hurts Kansas Democrats in 2010
John Hanna AP Political Writer TOPEKA (AP) — Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson’s decision not to run for office again is a significant blow to efforts by his fellow Democrats to offer serious competition year in and year out for normally dominant Republicans. Many Democrats saw Parkinson as their leading contender for governor in 2010, when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is term-limited by the state constitution. Activists in both major parties assumed she int...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: I am an amateur photographer and participate in various photo classes, meet-ups and online forums. In each setting, we show our photos to get peer feedback. Some peers are brutally honest. They say a blunt critique gets your attention, and that’s how we learn to get better. Their intent is to motivate us to improve, but it can also feel like a cold slap in the face. Other peers deliver praise along with suggestions for improvemen...
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Briefly
Any Kansas transportation plan needs federal help TOPEKA (AP) — Any Kansas transportation plan will be difficult to enact unless there’s money from the federal economic stimulus plan offered by President-elect Barack Obama. That’s the word from Sen. Dwayne Umbarger, chairman of a legislative transportation study committee. His committee was considering Thursday what proposal to recommend to legislators, who begin their session Monday. The...
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Advocates protest SRS changes
PITTSBURG (AP) — More than 70 people protested on Wednesday against a freeze placed on new applications for social services for some physically disabled Kansans. The protest at the Pittsburg office of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services was a response to a freeze put in place Dec. 1 on new applicants seeking assistance for Medicaid home and community based services. “This decision, the freeze, impacts all of their l...
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DA says he won’t take records in abortion case
OLATHE (AP) — Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline says he won’t take records from a criminal case against a suburban Kansas City abortion clinic with him when he leaves office. But attorneys for the Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park say they’re not satisfied with his statements. The attorneys and Kline were in Johnson County District Court on Thursday arguing about the custody of evidence that Kline has gathered. Kline, an a...
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Jackson County judge to become immigration judge
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — John R. O’Malley is retiring from the bench at Jackson County Circuit Court to become judge in the newly created U.S. Immigration Court in Kansas City. His retirement from Division 6 of the 16th Judicial Circuit in Jackson County takes effect Jan. 20. O’Malley was appointed to the bench in 1989 by then-Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft. Before becoming judge, he served as prosecuting attorney in Grandview and assistant city ...
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Hawker Beechcraft warns workers of more layoffs
No word yet on how many employees could lose their jobs; Cessna plans more layoffs Roxana Hegeman Associated Press Writer WICHITA (AP) — Aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft Corp. warned its employees Thursday that it planned to reduce its work force further as economic conditions continue to deteriorate. The letter from Hawker Beechcraft Chief Executive Officer Jim Schuster to workers did not say how many employees will lose their jobs, and a sp...
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Missing Kansas boy was taken into custody, returned
Roxana Hegeman Associated Press Writer WICHITA (AP) — A Towanda boy whose disappearance went unreported for 10 years was once taken away from his adoptive parents, then returned days later, the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services said Thursday. Adam Herrman was in protective custody for two days in 1996 after a report of physical abuse, said Social and Rehabilitation Services spokeswoman Michelle Ponce. The boy was ret...
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Cowboy churches rope in new Christians
WAXAHACHIE, Texas (AP) — Moments after flying headfirst onto the arena floor dirt, the man gets up and brushes off his protective vest as rodeo clowns rush in to distract the still-bucking bull. The crowd cheers as the announcer reveals he’s fine, just before the chute opens with another cowboy atop a menacing bull. But this isn’t a typical rodeo. It’s an outreach ministry of the Cowboy Church of Ellis County, which has grown from about 3...
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Lawrence students plan for cities’ future
Lindsey Slater Lawrence Journal-World LAWRENCE (AP) — In 150 years, cities probably won’t look the same as they do now, so local eighth graders are designing their vision of the future. It’s for a competition called National Engineers’ Week Future City, started by the National Society of Professional Engineers. This year, teams are focusing on recycling and reusing water. Two teams at West Junior High are preparing for the regional test ...
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Celebrities
Obama and Spider-Man appear in comic together WASHINGTON (AP) — Spider-Man has a new sidekick: The president-elect. Barack Obama collected Spider-Man comics as a child, so Marvel Comics wanted to give him a “shout-out back” by featuring him in a bonus story, said Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief. “How great is that? The commander in chief to be is actually a nerd in chief,” Quesada said. “It was really, really cool to see that we had...
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Oddities
School bus liquor-store run gets cops’ attention BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A school bus driver made an unscheduled stop at a liquor store, then allegedly asked a student to help hide her purchases when police stopped her, the district superintendent said. It does not appear the driver had been drinking, Billings Public Schools Superintendent Jack Copps said. No charges had been filed but the driver quit her job this week. Copps said someone ...
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Sebelius plans to honor retiring chief justice
TOPEKA (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius plans to honor retiring Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Kay McFarland. Sebelius said the tribute to McFarland will come during the State of the State address. Sebelius is scheduled to give the address at 7 p.m. Monday during a joint session of the Legislature. McFarland retires the same day after more than 31 years on the court. When she was named to the court in September 1977, she was the first fem...
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Celebrities
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has sued two of his nephews for selling their own line of adult movies under the same family name. Flynt accuses the nephews of producing pornographic films that are “inferior products” and “knockoff goods.” Flynt said he filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court to protect his family name in the industry. “To come into the adult entertainment business and use my name not only...
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