AP Top Kansas News at 5:45 a.m. CDT
Friday, June 12, 2009
Ex-KU athletic director injured in bike accident
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Former University of Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick has been injured in a bicycle accident.
Police say the 69-year-old Frederick was riding along a Lawrence street Thursday evening when he hit a pothole and was thrown over the handlebars and onto the road.
He was flown to a Kansas City, Kan., hospital, where he was listed in critical condition late Thursday night.
An experienced bicyclist who has competed in events, Frederick was been injured twice before in biking accidents -- in 1994 and 1988.
Frederick served as the University of Kansas' athletic director from 1987 to 2001.
------ KC killer sentenced to 33 years in hot sauce case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas City man has been sentenced to 33 years in prison for killing a man in a hail of gunfire during a melee that erupted when someone threw a bottle of hot sauce.
The Kansas City Star reported on its Web site that 29-year-old Jarvis T. Williams was sentenced Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court for second-degree murder, three counts of assault and four counts of armed criminal action.
Prosecutors allege he fired more than 20 rounds from an assault rifle into a car on Oct. 23, 2005, killing 22-year-old Gary Scott and wounding three others.
Another man accused in the shooting, Arthur Timley, died in a shooting four months later.
A message that The Associated Press left Thursday night with a public defender listed in court records as representing Williams was not immediately returned.
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------ DJ Jazzy Jeff: KC incident 'not about race'
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Hip-hop performer DJ Jazzy Jeff said his weekend performance in Kansas City was stopped because of censorship, not race.
Jazzy Jeff left the stage during a Saturday show in the city's downtown Power & Light District after saying venue managers didn't like the type of music he was playing.
Power & Light District officials say they had nothing against the choice of songs, just the volume. They say the music was too loud for the sound system.
Critics of the district's handling of the show at the district's KC Live! pavilion have suggested race played a role. But Thursday during a phone interview with The Associated Press, Jazzy Jeff blamed it on censorship.
"If someone would have told me beforehand that I couldn't play hip-hop I wouldn't have gone," Jazzy Jeff said. "You don't tell someone 15 minutes into their set to change the music."
Hip-hop is what Jazzy Jeff is best known for, having performed as one-half of the rap duo, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. The artist, whose real name is Jeff Townes, won a Grammy in 1988 with partner Will "Fresh Prince" Smith for the hit, "Parents Just Don't Understand."
------ Biden praises economic recovery project in Kansas
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden competed with beeping construction equipment and passing trucks Thursday as he praised the start of a suburban Kansas City road project largely funded by economic stimulus dollars.
Biden was in Overland Park for the second of three stops in a national "Road to Recovery" tour, highlighting how states are spending some of the $787 billion set aside for recovery projects.
All but $7 million of the $82.3 million widening of a three-mile section of U.S. 69 is being financed by the federal government. Biden said the project, like thousands of similar ones slated to begin this summer across the country, will create and preserve thousands of jobs.
Bill Clarkson, whose company won the highway contract, expects to employ 300 people a week for at least two and a half years. With state transportation workers and others, the project will employ 500 people a week during its lifetime, he said.
Biden noted the potential ripple effect in those workers helping local businesses stay open and possibly expand.
He also said the project will make the 27-year-old highway safer and ease congestion along a main traffic artery for Johnson County, Kansas' main economic engine.
------ Leavenworth bank robber gets 49 1/2 years
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- A man with two previous bank robbery convictions has been sentenced to 49 1/2 years in federal prison for a Leavenworth bank robbery.
U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch announced the sentencing of Kevin Tommie Hall in a news release Thursday.
Hall was convicted in October of counts including armed bank robbery.
The release said that Hall was arrested about 15 minutes after using a shotgun to rob the Mid-American Bank and Trust Company in Leavenworth when authorities used special devices to puncture the tires of his getaway vehicle.
Previously, Hall had been convicted of bank robbery in 1984 and 1992.
A co-defendant in the current case, James L. Morrison, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison.
------ KC killer sentenced to 33 years in hot sauce case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas City man has been sentenced to 33 years in prison for killing a man in a hail of gunfire during a melee that erupted when someone threw a bottle of hot sauce.
The Kansas City Star reported on its Web site that 29-year-old Jarvis T. Williams was sentenced Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court for second-degree murder, three counts of assault and four counts of armed criminal action.
Prosecutors allege he fired more than 20 rounds from an assault rifle into a car on Oct. 23, 2005, killing 22-year-old Gary Scott and wounding three others.
Another man accused in the shooting, Arthur Timley, died in a shooting four months later.
A message that The Associated Press left Thursday night with a public defender listed in court records as representing Williams was not immediately returned.
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------ Infantry commander shares lessons from Iraq
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- U.S. forces didn't start winning hearts and minds in Baghdad and beating back the insurgency until they embraced tactics that involved interacting with influential Iraqis in their shops and homes instead of working mainly through official Iraqi government channels, a senior Army officer said.
Lt. Col. Jim Crider wrote in an essay published this week that his training had not properly prepared him to deal with the insurgency when he was deployed to Baghdad in 2007 as a squadron commander.
Residents saw U.S. troops as an extension of an Iraqi government few trusted, and U.S. forces had fomented resentment among Iraqis by trading reconstruction funds for information about insurgents rather than using it to help businesses reopen and get people back to work, Crider wrote.
The essay, published the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, provides an insider's look at how a switch to counterinsurgency tactics helped U.S. forces turn the tide in their battle with insurgents.
Crider said he wrote the essay to put his unit's experiences in proper perspective and to provide lessons for those who follow him into combat.
"The senior leadership of the Army has established a culture where this type of sharing is not only accepted, but encouraged," he told The Associated Press in an e-mail Thursday.
------ Man dies in Osage County blaze
OSAGE CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Authorities say a 37-year-old man has died after intentionally setting fire to his home in northeast Kansas' Osage City.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported on its Web site that the victim of Thursday morning's fire has been identified as John Couch.
Fire investigators said Couch died of smoke inhalation. He was alone in the house and was its owner.
Several agencies participated in the investigation, including the Kansas State Fire Marshal's Office and the Osage City Police Department.
Authorities said no foul play is suspected.
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------ Shawnee County judge sentences man in slaying
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Topeka murder defendant mocked and cursed the victim's family after being sentenced to almost 26 years in prison Thursday morning.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported on its Web site that Chief Judge Nancy Parrish cut off 22-year-old Antonio Armstrong after he berated the family of James Dyer.
The 39-year-old Dyer was beaten and shot to death in August 2007 at a west-central Topeka home.
Several of Dyer's relatives, including his mother, sisters and at least one small child, yelled back at Armstrong and cried as he was removed from the courtroom.
Armstrong was convicted in May of first-degree murder for his role in the killing and criminal possession of a firearm by a felon.
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------ Former Topeka mayor asks court for help
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A former Topeka mayor who spent time in prison isn't giving up on his dream of teaching after the Kansas State Board of Education denied his request for a license.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported on its Web site that Doug Wright's attorney filed a petition last week in Shawnee County District Court asking for a judge to review the board's ruling last month.
The former lawyer served about 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he stole thousands of dollars from his aunt and the Topeka Lawyers Club. He had the 2003 convictions expunged from his record in March.
Wright told The Capital-Journal in November that he was inspired to teach after helping fellow Lansing prison inmates with sentencing issues.
Wright pursued an education degree and was a student teacher at a high school in Topeka.
------ Kansas park may use sharpshooters to reduce deer
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) -- Park officials in a Kansas City suburb want to bring in sharpshooters next fall to kill about three-fourths of the deer in a park that they say is overpopulated.
If the park board agrees, it will be the first time Johnson County will use sharpshooters on public land, park spokesman Randy Knight said Thursday.
Surveys done in the past two years found 600 to 700 deer in the 2,230-acre Shawnee Mission Park, about seven times as many as expected in the areas just outside Kansas City. The population grew out of control after deer migrated from nearby areas that were being developed, Knight said.
The dense herd is causing car-deer accidents, prompting complaints from neighbors about property damage and raising the risk for tick-borne diseases, they said.
Park staff say the herd needs to be cut to 50 to 200 deer per square mile and this can best be done by killing them. Staff looked into other options and ways other counties have handled deer overpopulation and determined the sharpshooters were the most economical option, Knight said.
The park board will hear the staff's recommendation Wednesday.
------ Biden touts stimulus as tour begins at Pa. bridge
CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday the $787 billion economic stimulus program is creating jobs with infrastructure projects like the replacement of a dilapidated bridge in central Pennsylvania, the first stop of a cross-country "Road to Recovery" tour.
Biden led a delegation from the Obama administration to the groundbreaking for the bridge in Carlisle.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius accompanied Biden to Carlisle. Gov. Ed Rendell and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., also participated.
The $1.7 million replacement of the bridge over Conodoguinet Creek is being financed exclusively with stimulus money. The main contractor says the project has allowed it to hire 30 additional workers -- a 10 percent expansion of its work force -- but Biden said job creation is not the only benefit.
"We're building a foundation for a new transportation system in America ... allowing businesses and communities to be competitive again and making people safer," Biden said.
Biden's next stop was Overland Park, Kan., for a highway project groundbreaking.
------ Atchison hardest hit by overnight storms
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A storm that swept through northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri early Thursday left downed trees and power outages in its wake.
The worst damage was being reported in Atchison, Kan., where large trees were down and more than 4,000 people were without power. The National Weather Service also reported some rail cars and tractor-trailers were blown over by what is believed to be straight-line winds.
Westar Energy reported about 4,300 homes without power in Atchison Thursday morning and another 668 in Doniphan County.
KCP&L reported about 370 outages in St. Joseph and Platte City areas.
------ Kan. water districts get $5.4M in stimulus funds
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Water districts in two Kansas counties will receive a total of $5.4 million in federal stimulus funds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development division announced Wednesday that it had awarded the funds to projects in Pottawatomie and Osage counties. The money is split between loans and grants.
In Osage County, Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 12 will receive a $2.2 million loan and an additional grant of $2.1 million.
It plans to replace eight miles of water lines and build a new 1 million-gallon storage tank.
In Pottawatomie County, Rural Water District No. 4 will receive a $645,000 loan and a $487,000 grant.
It plans to install six miles of lines and build a 50,000-gallon storage tank.