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

Monday, November 2, 2009

Kan. Senate leaders proposes small claims change

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt wants to allow more cases to be settled in small claims court.

The Independence Republican and attorney general candidate says he'll push a bill next year to eliminate a cap on how many small claims cases a business can file in a year. The limit is now 20.

Schmidt says the change will save individuals and small businesses money when they're trying to collect debts or have financial disputes.

In small claims court, individuals represent themselves and hire attorneys. Court costs also are lower than they are in district courts.

People can settle disputes in small claims court if the amount in dispute is less than $4,000.

------ FDIC chairwoman to speak on banking regulation

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is coming to Kansas to discuss banking regulation amid the federal economic bailout.

FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair is scheduled to speak Monday morning at Kansas State University in Manhattan, part of the Landon Lectures series.

Bair, who grew up in Independence, is expected to discuss proposals for changing how large banks are regulated by the federal government.

She has disagreed with portions of the Obama administration's proposals for greater oversight of the country's largest financial institutions.

Bair's agency deals with troubled banks and has been busy as more than 100 banks have closed this year.

------ Illegal gambling machines destroyed in Kansas

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A couple dozen illegal gambling machines have been destroyed after they were confiscated from a supplier who had placed them in businesses across Kansas.

This past week, a large earth-mover machine drove over a dozen of the machines in Topeka, while the giant bucket of a front-end loader fell heavily on a dozen others in Wichita.

A Johnson County supplier had placed them in businesses ranging from convenience stores to fraternal organizations. The businesses had turned in the machines to authorities after learning they weren't legal.

"I think business owners have them out of ignorance, that's why we concentrate on going after the suppliers," said Stephen Martino, executive director of the commission.

He said the machines go by such names as "quarter slider," "quarter pusher" or "Cherry Master." They typically display a row of quarters on a ledge. The player attempts to place another quarter in position to cause a broom brushing across the top to knock down more quarters to be retrieved by the player.

Martino said the machines give users virtually no chance of winning and added that they are particularly troubling because they seem designed to appeal to children.

------ KC-area man sues over 25 extra days in jail

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- A suburban Kansas City man alleges in a lawsuit that he was mistakenly jailed for 25 extra days and billed $875 for those extra days.

The Kansas City Star reported that Adolph Moreno filed the lawsuit this past week in federal court against the Johnson County sheriff, the county Department of Corrections and Overland Park.

No one disputes that Moreno was sentenced to two days in jail and 88 days of house arrest for driving while suspended. The sentence was handed down two years ago in Overland Park.

But the lawsuit says that jail officials did not release him for 27 days and only then after Moreno wrote to the judge.

His lawyer says jail officials refused to release Moreno until house arrest people evaluated him and picked him up, but they never did.

------ Gov. Parkinson nominates new commerce secretary

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- The former chairman of the state Chamber of Commerce has been tapped to lead the Kansas Department of Commerce.

Gov. Mark Parkinson announced the nomination of William Thornton this past week.

He will replace David Kerr, who announced Thursday a decision to leave the commerce department to become Missouri's director of the Department of Economic Development.

The job change has some Kansas lawmakers questioning whether Kerr and Parkinson's administration have been aggressive enough in trying to attract an office complex for Missouri-based Cerner Corp. and a major league soccer stadium to Kansas City, Kan.

Thornton will take over as secretary of the Kansas Department of Commerce on Nov. 9.

He is from Atchison and serves on the Kansas Board of Regents.

------ Olathe man dies in fire caused by smoking

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) -- A Kansas City-area man has died after a fire started when he smoked while using oxygen to help him breathe.

The 74-year-old man was pulled from an Olathe duplex Saturday night and rushed to a hospital, where he died.

The man's wife managed to get out of the duplex on her own. She suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation.

Fire officials said the blaze was extinguished in minutes and caused about $5,000 damage.

The name of the man wasn't immediately released, pending notification of relatives.

------ Drugs in plane leads to federal indictment

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- The seizure in Liberal of a plane carrying more than 125 pounds of cocaine had led to a federal indictment.

Thirty-year-old Eric Wayne McPeters, 40-year-old Dean Bryan Moya and 31-year-old Richard Allen Vickery of Hemet, Calif., face one count each of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

The indictment was returned this past week in federal court in Wichita.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security identified a suspicious aircraft that had landed in Liberal because of bad weather.

A search warrant was obtained after a drug-sniffing dog hit on the plane twice. The search uncovered two suitcases containing 50 individually wrapped bricks of cocaine.

Moya and Vickery were arrested at a Liberal hotel, but McPeters was not immediately taken into custody.

------ Topeka teens sought in woman's death

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Topeka police are looking for two teenagers in connection with the killing of a woman near the east side of the city's Central Park.

Thirty-four-year-old Marina McKnight was shot and killed shortly on Oct. 26. Witnesses say she was trying to break up a brawl between 30 to 40 youths when someone fired shots.

Police have named 18-year-old Garry Wayne Wells Jr. and 16-year-old Anthony Laverne Marshall III persons of interest. Both are from Topeka.

Police say Marshall goes by the nicknames "Man" and "Mayham." They say Wells goes by the nickname "Nippy."

A fund is set up for McKnight's five children at the Kansas Department of Labor Credit Union in Topeka. Another fund to help with funeral expenses has been set up at the Educational Credit Union in Topeka.

------ No foul play in death of retired US marshal

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) -- An autopsy has ruled out foul play in the death of retired law enforcement officer Richard Schroeder (Schrader) of Newton.

Schroeder's wife found him lying in the driveway of their home Thursday night suffering from head injuries.

The 62-year-old Schroeder was not breathing and died later at Newton Medical Center.

Newton Police Chief James Daily initially called Schroeder's death "very suspicious."

But the autopsy determined he died of natural causes.

For a significant part of his career -- first as a U.S. marshal and later as a private detective -- he helped provide security for late-term abortion provider George Tiller.

------ Analysis: Kan. casino board would like better hand

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Members of a state board in Kansas don't appear to like the hand they've been dealt for proposed casinos in Kansas City and the Wichita area, and they're wondering whether they should fold.

Folding for the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board would mean rejecting the single casino proposal for either area. The Kansas Lottery would be forced to solicit new proposals from developers to build and operate the casino for the lottery, which will own the new gambling.

Board members have been less than enthusiastic about the Kansas City proposal and the plan to build a casino south of Wichita. During a public hearing last week, the board's consultants suggested both had some limitations in drawing tourists to Kansas, and board members peppered representatives of the companies pushing the proposals with questions.

But the consultants also told the board that the national economy is to blame if either proposal seems short of what the board had hoped for in a casino plan. The consultants said the economy limited competition for contracts with the lottery and led to scaled-back proposals.

Rejecting either proposal could delay a decision on a casino until the economy improves enough to encourage more developers to bid on a contract and applicants to propose more ambitious projects. But consultant William Eadington warned that the economy might not improve quickly enough for those things to happen. And, he said, rejecting a proposal could discourage companies from seeking a contract later.

The board faces a decision that's tougher than picking between two or three competing applicants. Does it accept less than what it wants so that the casinos get built and start generating revenues for the state? Or does it wait for better proposals that would attract more tourists and generate more revenues early on?