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

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Frigid temperatures follow heavy snow into Midwest

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Frigid temperatures iced the Upper Midwest on Thursday as a massive storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in several states from Iowa to New England neared the end of its cross-country trek.

Commuters from Des Moines to Chicago were warned of morning temperatures reaching 10 degrees at best and icy roads. Wind chill values could dip to as low as minus 25 in parts of Wisconsin and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service.

"It's already very cold across the entire region ... when (the storm) moves east and the skies clear over Illinois, it'll get even colder," said Casey Sullivan, a weather service meteorologist in Romeoville, Ill. "Iowa's even colder."

Des Moines, which saw 16 inches of snow by Wednesday, could see a high near 9 degrees but wind chill values could make temperatures feel like negative 25. In Madison, Wis., near where almost 19 inches of snow fell, the wind chill could hit minus 20, according to the weather service.

New England, also pounded by heavy snow and strong winds on Wednesday, expected temperatures to hover around freezing.

------ Kansas' new Secret Santa gives away about $14K

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Terminal cancer patient Herman Smithey III left a Kansas City-area hospital Wednesday wondering how he would pay $100 for antibiotics to treat his recent bout with pneumonia.

The answer walked through the retired police officer's door clad in a red coat and cap -- a Secret Santa bearing a gift of $2,000.

Smithey's house was the first stop Wednesday for a man who is picking up where Kansas City's original Secret Santa, Larry Stewart, left off when he died in 2007. Stewart had spent years anonymously handing out $100 bills, sometimes in stacks, around Christmastime.

By the end of the day, the new Secret Santa had doled out about $14,000 across the city.

"Around here, the word we use is miracle. And that's what that was," a teary-eyed Smithey, 47, said of his visitor, who -- like Stewart until shortly before his death -- also wants to remain anonymous.

Smithey's monthly pension comes to $1,100; his prescriptions already cost about $1,000. He recently was told esophageal cancer had spread to his brain.

------ Kansas revises Cerner, Wizards incentive package

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Officials with medical software maker Cerner Corp. declined to comment Wednesday on a revised $230 million incentive package offered by Kansas to lure the company across the state line.

Cerner, based in Kansas City, Mo., and Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards have been negotiating with Kansas and Wyandotte County officials on a proposal to move the company and construct a new stadium for the team.

Kelli Christman, a spokeswoman for Cerner, declined to comment on the proposal or the status of negotiations with Kansas.

Cerner and OnGoal, the group representing the Wizards, are proposing a $414 million development near NASCAR's Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. The project includes an office complex for 4,500 Cerner employees, an 18,500-seat stadium for the Wizards and two dozen soccer fields for amateur teams.

Gov. Mark Parkinson issued a statement Tuesday saying the package presented to the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County to land the Cerner project had been modified. Under the new terms, Commerce Secretary Bill Thornton has agreed to make $47 million in financial incentives available immediately to help get the construction started.

"Nearly two months ago, we made an offer to Cerner that was aggressive yet responsible to the taxpayers," Thornton said Tuesday. "Over the course of negotiating with Cerner and the Unified Government for the past two months, we wanted to find a way to make the offer more palatable to Cerner without committing any more money than we offered in our original proposal.

------ About 1,000 sign up for free clinic in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Stephanie Cole has been without health insurance since cancer made her so sick that she had to leave her job at a Ford Motor Co. assembly line in Claycomo four years ago.

The 35-year-old from the Kansas City suburb of Independence was among about 1,000 people who signed up for health care Wednesday on the opening day of an event billed as one of the nation's largest free clinics. A similar turnout is expected Thursday as the two-day clinic wraps up at Kansas City's Bartle Hall.

Part of the goal of the Kansas City clinic and similar ones elsewhere is to draw attention to the uninsured as Congress debates health care reform.

"I think it's extremely sad this is the only option so many people have," said Cole, who has received little medical care since learning two years ago that the cancer that started in her lungs was in remission.

Still without work, she also had thyroid problems but can't afford the medicine to treat the condition.

Sitting nearby was Kathleen Shaw, who recently moved in with her parents in Kansas City. The 45-year-old hadn't been to a doctor for two years since she was laid off from her office manager job at a Pasadena, Calif., construction company. Despite two college degrees, she has been unable to find work or health insurance since then.

------ Ex-Renaissance official sentenced for fraud

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- The former tax director of a discredited tax service company based in Topeka has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison.

U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch announced Wednesday that 61-year-old Daniel Joel Gleason, of Franklin, Tenn., was also ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution and barred from preparing tax returns.

Gleason was the former tax director for Renaissance, The Tax People, Inc., based in Topeka. A state judge shut down the company in Kansas in May 2001 for what he called an illegal pyramid scheme.

Welch has said that from 1995 through April 2002, the company fraudulently generated about $75 million from Renaissance members through false claims.

The founder of the company, Michael Craig Cooper, is awaiting sentencing.

------ Kan. Guard to announce armory list

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Communities across Kansas will learn Friday which of the state's 56 National Guard armories will be closed.

Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general, announced last month that 18 facilities will be closed as a result of the most recent round of state budget cuts.

The moves will save nearly $157,000 in the fiscal year that ends June 30, and more than $260,000 in the following year.

Operations will be consolidated at the remaining 38 armories. Equipment and personnel will be transferred to those locations through the middle of 2010.

Bunting says the communities that will see closures will be notified Thursday and Friday before the public announcement.

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------ 3rd teen arrested in couple's death

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Wichita police have arrested a third teenager in the Thanksgiving Day shooting deaths of a man and woman.

Police say a tip to CrimeStoppers led to the arrest Tuesday of a 15-year-old.

Family members found Adrian Jackson and Jessie Foust shot to death at their Wichita home. Their two young children were found in the home but were unharmed.

Prosecutors have charged 18-year-old Sam Holton and a 17-year-old minor with murder in the case. They are seeking to try the 17-year-old as an adult.

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Information from: KAKE-TV

------ Man sentenced in largest meth seizure in Kan.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- A California man has been sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison for his part in the largest methamphetamine seizure in Kansas history.

U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch says 45-year-old Jose Lopez, Quente, Calif., was sentenced Wednesday to 33 years and nine months in prison.

Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped in Shawnee on Aug. 3, 2007. Investigators found 22 pounds of methamphetamine in the vehicle.

Investigators say Lopez supplied the drugs. Two other men were arrested.

Lopez has also been sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison on drug charges in Missouri.