GOP hopeful Huelskamp leads in money in Kan. race
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- State Sen. Tim Huelskamp outpaced other candidates in Kansas' 1st Congressional District in fundraising in the last quarter of 2009.
Campaign finance records show that the Fowler Republican reported receiving nearly $137,000 in contributions during the period. He ended last year with $480,000 in cash.
He is one of six Republicans seeking the GOP nomination for the seat held by Rep. Jerry Moran, a Republican who is running for the Senate. The sprawling district covers 69 counties in western and central Kansas.
Sen. Jim Barnett, of Emporia, received about $126,000 in contributions during the quarter and ended the year with nearly $375,000 in cash.
Tracey Mann, a commercial real estate seller from Salina, had $241,000 in cash after $72,000 in contributions.
------ Extra money for Kan. courts caught in ed debate
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- An effort to keep furloughs from shutting down Kansas courts for several extra weeks in the spring got tangled up Friday in some legislators' frustration with school districts seeking to reopen an education funding lawsuit.
Legislators appear to agree that they should add $5 million to the court system's current budget to reduce a funding shortfall and limit the number of days workers are furloughed. Without the extra money, the courts could close up to 24 extra days between March and mid-June.
But some conservative Republicans argue that the state can't afford to provide the extra dollars without taking the money from another part of the state budget. And they're targeting aid to public schools.
At least a few GOP conservatives want the court's money to come out of the aid to the 74 school districts asking the Kansas Supreme Court to reopen a 1999 lawsuit against the state.
Supreme Court rulings in that case in 2005 and 2006 forced legislators to dramatically increase spending on schools. The districts argue that backsliding last year in the face of the state's budget problems wasn't permissible.
"If they can find the dollars to fund a lawsuit, I don't think they're in as bad a shape as they say they're in," said Rep. Joe McLeland, a Wichita Republican serving on the House Appropriations Committee.
------ Baptists concerned Haiti arrests may hurt image
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Officials at the Southern Baptist Convention are concerned the arrest of 10 Baptists in Haiti could make it harder to find volunteers for its missionary and disaster relief work.
The SBC also appealed to President Barack Obama on Friday to ensure the detainees get medical treatment and spiritual counseling while they are jailed.
The Christians, most of them Southern Baptists, weren't acting under the auspices of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention, when they were arrested Jan. 29 while trying to take 33 children out of Haiti. Even so, Vice President of Convention Relations Roger Oldham said, "Clearly there is a concern that, because of the acts of this one team, our tremendous history of relief over the years would be tainted in some people's minds."
The Southern Baptists' Disaster Relief ministry is the third-largest relief organization in North America, according to the convention. Oldham said Friday that more than 90,000 trained disaster relief volunteers are ready to assist Haiti with earthquake recovery as soon as they are invited in by the Haitian government.
"We do not know all of the facts of this case, but we are concerned that the continued detainment and possible conviction of these Baptist mission volunteers will distract the world's attention and undermine the relief efforts so desperately needed by the Haitian people," the letter to Obama says.
A copy of the letter signed by SBC President Dr. Johnny Hunt, former President Dr. Frank Page and Executive Committee President and CEO Dr. Morris Chapman was released Friday.
------ Kan. regulators to request for 40 pct. rate hike
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- State regulators are having a hearing next week on a proposal to raise some southeast Kansas residents' electric rates by 40 percent.
The proposal is from Joplin, Mo.-based Empire District Electric Co., which serves about 10,000 customers in southeast Kansas.
The Kansas Corporation Commission has scheduled its hearing for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Baxter Springs Community Center.
The utility wants to raise an additional $5.2 million a year. The new revenues would cover rising operating expenses and costs associated with three new power plants and upgrades to pollution controls at existing plants.
The KCC says residential customers would see an average increase of $25 in their monthly electric bills.
------ Kan. gov. declares new smoking bill a 'fraud'
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson says a new bill being touted as a compromise on smoking in public places is a fraud.
Parkinson said Friday that he would veto the measure introduced this week by the House Health and Human Services Committee.
The governor favors a Senate-passed measure to ban smoking statewide in most public places, including restaurants and bars.
The House bill would allow people to light up in such places with a physically separate smoking area.
The bill also would nullify local ordinances. At least three counties and 36 cities have enacted their own rules.
But House committee chairwoman Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican, said the measure Parkinson supports is a fraud because it bans smoking in private businesses while allowing it in state-owned casinos.
------ Kansas star Danielle McCray out for season
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas senior Danielle McCray, the preseason Big 12 women's player of the year, will miss the rest of the season because of a knee injury.
Coach Bonnie Henrickson said McCray tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in practice on Thursday. She's the second starter Kansas has lost to a knee injury. Earlier, point guard Angel Goodrich went out for the season.
The 5-foot-11 McCray was one of Kansas' best players of all time. She ranks in the top 10 on the school charts, including third with 1,934 points. Kansas is 13-7 overall and 3-4 in the Big 12.
------ Democrat: GOP Kan. House speaker should step down
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Democratic legislator called Friday for Kansas' Republican House speaker to step down because he is representing businesses, trade groups and insurance funds in a lawsuit against the state.
State Rep. Marti Crow said Speaker Mike O'Neal has a conflict of interest on legislation affecting any of his 17 clients in the lawsuit. Both Crow and O'Neal are attorneys.
"He has created a situation where he can't lead this body," Crow, a Leavenworth Democrat, told The Associated Press. "I don't know how he can carry out his duties."
O'Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, called Crow's assertion "ludicrous."
"If I got up in the morning worrying what the Democratic Party was up to, I wouldn't get much done during the day," O'Neal said.
The lawsuit, filed last month in Shawnee County District Court, challenges a financial maneuver used by the state last year to help erase a budget shortfall.
------ Convenience stores want to sell stronger beer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Liquor stores that hold the monopoly on strong beers are fighting for the exclusive right to keep the tap flowing.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would push open the door to allow convenience stores and grocery stores to sell stronger beer. Currently, those cereal malt beverage vendors are capped at selling 3.2 beer, but the bill would allow the sale of beer with 4 percent alcohol by weight. The bill also would put Alcoholic Beverage Control in charge of cereal malt beverage vendors.
For proponents, the bill is about fairness. They say they need help overcoming a perception that 3.2 beers are inferior and argue they took a hit in business when the drinking age was raised to 21.
Brenda Ellsworth, owner of Pump'n Pete's in Parsons, argued that liquor stores are able to profit from their advantage and charge higher prices for a product she said customers perceive to be superior. Raising the level to 4 percent would allow cereal malt beverage vendors to sell most major domestic brands at regular strength, just as they are sold in liquor stores.
"What customers want is competition, they want choice, and they want convenience," she said. "There is not going to be competition until liquor stores no longer have their protected niche."
Rep. Scott Schwab argued the bill was about allowing the free market to operate without constraints.
------ Sumner County concerned about tribal casino
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Concerns about a proposed tribal casino in Park City may scuttle plans for a Sumner County casino.
After two months of contract negotiations with the Kansas Lottery, developers of the Chisholm Creek Casino Resort near Mulvane remain concerned about possible competition from the tribal casino, the lottery's executive director, Ed Van Petten, said Thursday.
"We have agreed to a few safeguards in that regard, but I don't know we're going to get to the point where they're completely comfortable going ahead or not," he said.
Negotiations could be done by the middle or end of next week. "But I do not know if that means we're going to be done with a contract, or without," Van Petten said.
If developers don't reach a contract agreement with the state, they can't build the casino. The lottery then would reopen bidding in the south-central gaming zone, Van Petten said. That could mean a delay of at least 18 months.
Chisholm Creek partners include Och-Ziff Real Estate of New York, which would own 50 percent of the project; Lakes Entertainment of Minnesota, with 17 percent ownership; and Clairvest Group of Canada with 33 percent.
------ Man charged in death of his wife and unborn child
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) -- An Overland Park man faces a capital murder charge in the death of his pregnant wife.
The Kansas City Stare reports that prosecutors filed the capital murder charge Thursday against 30-year-old Jason Cott. It is based on the deaths of Angela Cott and her unborn child.
Cott is accused of stangling his 29-year-old wife in January and dumping her body along a Miami County highway.
Thursday's filing means Cott could face the death penalty. Or prosecutors could pursue two counts of first-degree murder, which is punishable by life without parole for 50 years.
The capital charge is possible because of what is known as Alexa's Law, which makes it a crime to kill or wound an unborn child during an attack on the mother.
Thirty-two-year-old Alexis Cruz Leza, of Overland Park, is charged in the case with aiding a felon.
------ Deer harvest at suburban KC park totals 342
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) -- Officials at the Shawnee Mission Park say 342 deer were killed during a controversial controlled hunt.
Sharpshooters killed 313 deer and archers killed 29 more deer to meet the goal of the controlled hunt last fall.
The Kansas City Star reports that park officials had hoped to reduce the herd to 50 per square mile. However, they said Thursday that goal was not met and a survey will be conducted to count the size of the current herd.
------ Former state worker faces sex crime charges
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A former employee with the Kansas Department of Revenue has been charged with 30 sex crimes involving children.
The Shawnee County District Attorney's Office says 47-year-old Timothy Lee Floyd is charged with multiple counts of rape of a child younger than 14, aggravated indecent liberties with a child and sexual exploitation of a child.
He was jailed in November and a criminal complaint was filed Jan. 29. Floyd remains jailed in Shawnee County on $500,000 bond.
Dakota Loomis, spokesman for the district attorney, said Thursday that Floyd was a longtime technology worker at the Department of Revenue.
------ Police looking for missing 8-month-old boy
CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) -- Carthage police are looking for an 8-month-old boy taken from his home by two masked men.
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for Eddie Salazar after he was taken Thursday night. He is about 20 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes.
Carthage police say two men wearing all black and ski masks broke into the family's home while the father was sleeping on the couch. The father was beaten unconscious and the house was ransacked before the boy was taken.
Carthage police chief Greg Dagnan tells KSHB-TV in Kansas City that early information indicates the abduction was random. He says early information on the suspects is so vague officers aren't sure where they might be headed.
Anyone with information is asked to call 417-237-7200 or 911.