AP Top Kansas News at 5:45 a.m. CDT

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Judge blocks Kan. law on signs for adult stores

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A federal judge has temporarily blocked a state law restricting roadside signs for strip clubs and sex shops, meaning adult stores won't have to take them down as expected later this week.

Meanwhile, the attorney general's office was deciding how to proceed in the case, given U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson's ruling. Ashley Anstaett, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Steve Six, pointed out that nearly identical laws in Georgia, South Carolina and Missouri have been struck down.

"Given those decisions, we are evaluating our options," Anstaett said.

The Kansas law, enacted in 2006, was scheduled to take effect Wednesday. It puts strict limits on signs that are within one mile of a highway and that advertise adult businesses. Such signs can be no larger than 40 square feet and show only the name, location, phone number and operating hours of such a business.

The Lion's Den Adult Superstore, located along Interstate 70 in Abilene, sued, saying the law is an improper restraint of commercial free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution. The store sought to block the state from enforcing the law while the courts consider its lawsuit.

In issuing a preliminary injunction on Friday, Robinson did not address the law's constitutionality.

------ Nearly half of Kansas wheat harvest is done

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Nearly half of the Kansas wheat harvest is done, and while the grain industry has been disappointed by the crop's size in southern counties, yields and test weights have been much better further north.

Crops in southern Kansas -- particularly in major wheat-growing areas such as Cowley, Sumner, Harper and Barber counties -- were hurt by a spring freeze, heavy rain in several areas, too little rain in others and some diseases, said Jim Shroyer, Kansas State University Extension wheat specialist.

Damage from a freeze in early spring "is showing a little more widespread than we thought, and I think it is making an impact down in those three to four counties along the Oklahoma border," Shroyer said. "But they had other issues, too. We can't blame it all on the freeze. I think the freeze may be getting a little more credit than it deserves."

Yields in that area also have been hurt by excessive rain and barley yellow dwarf virus disease, he said.

Southeast Kansas had too much rain, and crops there are showing some scab issues. Crops in south-central Kansas vary widely, with wheat planted early and late not faring well. Yields were disappointing in southwest Kansas, which was too dry and had lots of hail, Shroyer said.

"As we move north and harvest gets into northwest Kansas I think we will see some pretty darn good yields for that part of the state," Shroyer said. "So I think our yields are improving the further north you go."

------ Court rejects Mo. appeal on funeral protest law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider Missouri's appeal of a court order barring the state from enforcing a law restricting protests near funerals.

State lawmakers in 2006 enacted two new laws creating buffer zones between demonstrators and funerals and processions. The legislation targets a Topeka, Kan., church whose members have picketed outside the funerals of people killed during the Iraq war, stating that they believe soldiers are dying as divine punishment because the United States harbors homosexuals.

Months after the laws took effect, Westboro Baptist Church member Shirley Phelps-Roper filed a lawsuit seeking to have the protest bans tossed out over free speech concerns. A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled that Missouri cannot enforce the protest ban until the lawsuit is resolved.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied without comment Missouri's appeal of that order barring enforcement.

Numerous states have passed laws restricting protests at funerals, and some have been challenged. For its version, Missouri lawmakers crafted two largely similar measures to create a fallback position in case one is invalidated by the courts.

The primary law bars protests near any funeral, procession or memorial service from an hour before until an hour after the service. The secondary measure specifically states that protesters must stay back at least 300 feet. Both provisions levy the same penalty -- up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for a first offense and up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for repeat offenders.

------ Kan. Supreme Court affirms ruling on water rights

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- The Kansas Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that a water district has the right to get a temporary easement to conduct groundwater test drilling on private property.

The case stemmed from a dispute between Gregory Shipe, a Lawrence area farmer, and other landowners against the Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 25.

The water district, a water wholesaler made up of three rural water districts in Osage and Douglas counties in eastern Kansas, filed a petition to condemn land on the Shipes' farm for a temporary easement to drill test wells for water.

Shipe and other area farmers argued that the law doesn't allow the water district to condemn property in order to obtain water rights.

The water district said Shipe and the landowners couldn't fight its efforts because they don't own the water the district wanted to test. Shipe sought a court order to try to stop the eminent domain proceeding.

Douglas County District Court Judge Robert Fairchild sided with the water district in April 2008, and the Supreme Court accepted the case in June 2008 before it went to an appeals court.

------ 20 years later, missing women's bodies not found

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) -- Twenty years later, the secret remains locked away in a killer's mind.

The motive for his silence is as mysterious as the final fate of three young Johnson County women unfortunate enough to cross paths with Richard Grissom Jr. that June two decades ago.

The shockingly random crimes targeted young women with no known connections to their killer. New victims vanished even as police scrambled to hunt down Grissom. A pall of fear blanketed the city for nearly three weeks -- until authorities cornered Grissom at a Dallas airport after he attempted to coax another young woman to meet him there.

In his wake he left a trail of evidence that linked him to the missing women. But his criminal carelessness did not extend to their bodies.

No trace of Joan Butler, Christine Rusch and Theresa Brown has been found. Grissom never has revealed how he chose them, how he killed them or what he did with them.

For the women's families, the silence is a final and ongoing act of evil.

------ Endangered birds nest in west Wichita

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Work has stopped at a west Wichita construction company after endangered birds decided to build their nests nearby.

The group of six male and six female least terns arrived in the area from the Gulf of Mexioc last month. And last week, after the birds built nests and began laying eggs, The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks closed off a section of sand bar.

Lafarge Aggregates employees had scraped the sand bar a few weeks ago to get ready for sand evacuation. It made an ideal spot for the terns, because it didn't flood or have vegetation.

Charlie Cope, a state wildlife biologist, says it normally takes 22 days for the brown mottled eggs to hatch -- and another 22 days for the chicks to start flying on their own.

Wildlife officials are keeping the nesting spot secret to protect the birds.

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