Wire
Ford kicks off production of new F-150
CLAYCOMO, Mo. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. kicked off production Thursday of a new, more fuel-efficient version of its popular F-150 pickup truck. However, it comes at a difficult time for the auto industry. While the automaker is banking on the truck’s improved mileage to lure back customers — company officials said fuel cost has jumped to a top-5 truck buyer concern — tight credit and increasing worries about economic instability have pulled U....
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Palin challenge to Southern Baptist view of women
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, a woman may not lead a church or a home. But prominent Southern Baptists see nothing wrong with Sarah Palin serving as vice president — or perhaps even commander-in-chief someday. In other words: A woman can run the White House, just not her own house. Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate — the first female o...
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Oddities
Bid of $1.75 on eBay gets abandoned Saginaw home SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — With a winning bid of just $1.75, a Chicago woman has won an auction for an abandoned home in Saginaw. Joanne Smith, 30, recently was the top bidder for the home during an auction on eBay, The Saginaw News reported. Her bid was one of eight for the home. “I am going to try and sell it,” she told the newspaper. “I don’t have any plans to move to Saginaw.” Smith said sh...
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Arkansas City mayor apologizes for skit
ARKANSAS CITY (AP) — The mayor of this south-central Kansas town has apologized for appearing in dark makeup that some people considered blackface as part of a fundraiser that featured a drag queen beauty contest. Arkansas City Mayor Mell Kuhn won the drag queen beauty contest in which he not only appeared in dark makeup but also used a character name widely known as a vulgar reference to female genitalia. Court Appointed Special Advocates...
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Bailout heads for Senate win
WASHINGTON (AP) — After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, speeding toward passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where conservative opposition seemed to soften. Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners for the right and left, hoping to secure approval in the House by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly reject...
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Roberts to oppose financial bailout
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Pat Roberts said Wednesday he would vote against a revised bill to rescue the nation’s financial industry because “it is not clear this plan will get the job done.” The Kansas Republican said his decision reflects the will of thousands of Kansas voters who have contacted his office to say the $700 billion measure is unacceptable. “Kansans who have worked hard and lived within their means should not have their hard-earne...
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McCain campaigns in hometown of Truman
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — More than 25 years after his death, presidential aspirants continue to call on Harry Truman’s hometown, where his popularity and no-nonsense politics still resonate. Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday became the latest to pay tribute, using a morning speech at the Truman Presidential Library and Museum to focus on the nation’s economic crisis hours before he was to head back to Washington for...
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State briefs
Record Kansas voter turnout possible TOPEKA (AP) — Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh says there may be a record voter turnout in the Nov. 4 general election in Kansas. “Indicators are there may be a record turnout. Things are looking very good for that right now,” the state’s chief election official said Wednesday. “We are telling county clerks to prepare for a record turnout.” Thornburgh said he’s not ready to give specific estimates until i...
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Celebrities
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leonardo DiCaprio says he’s not ready to be a father. The 33-year-old actor, who has an on-and-off relationship with model Bar Refaeli, says he has no plans at the moment to settle down and start a family. “Ah, how do you answer something like that? So, um, I am being asked to look in the future I suppose quickly. No, I don’t have any plan,” says the famously private star, who has been promoting his upcoming film, “Body ...
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Oddities
San Diego-area bank hit by two robbers on same day LA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Times have been tough for banks everywhere, but a San Diego-area Wells Fargo branch had an especially difficult day this week. The branch in La Mesa was robbed twice on Monday — by two different robbers. The men the FBI call “The Hard Hat Bandit” and “The Chatty Bandit” each robbed the branch about three hours apart, authorities said. FBI spokeswoman April Langwell...
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Aircraft supplier plans to expand plant
YODER (AP) — A Wichita-based aircraft supplier said it will expand its satellite plant near Yoder and hire 60 more employees. Precision Pattern Interiors, which makes high-end aircraft interiors, has begun a $1 million renovation of a building at the Hutchinson Air Base Industrial Tract south of Yoder. The company will also add some $400,000 in new equipment and triple its Yoder work force. Three area towns and Reno County plan to contribute ...
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House leader believes bill changes will be made
Margaret Stafford Associated Press Writer ROELAND PARK (AP) — Republican and Democratic leaders are discussing various changes to a $700 billion financial bailout package that could persuade House members to pass the bill, possibly by the end of the week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. Hoyer, D-Md., and Kansas Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore held a news conference at a home in suburban Kansas City to discuss how to respond t...
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Fort Riley brigade slated for Iraq deployment
FORT RILEY (AP) — A Fort Riley brigade that returned in April from 15 months in Iraq has been notified that it is scheduled to go back in 2009. The Department of Defense made the announcement Tuesday that the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division would be deployed, along with five other Army brigades and one National Guard unit. Some 26,000 soldiers are involved in the announcement. About 152,000 troops in Iraq now, with plans to reduce th...
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Fruit trees making bumper crops year after freeze
WICHITA (AP) — Kansas orchards are enjoying bumper crops this fall in the wake of last year’s late spring freeze that nipped flower buds and gave trees a rest. “What’s made for a particularly good apple crop is that we did not have anything last year,” said Mary Steffen, owner of an apply and peach orchard in Conway Springs. “In the 70 years this orchard has been here, that was the first year it lost an apple crop.” Trees are using energy ...
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Iraq buys 12 U.S.-made reconnaissance planes
Twin-turboprop aircraft built in Wichita BAGDHAD (AP) — Iraq has bought 12 new U.S.-built reconnaissance planes to monitor militants and the borders, the Defense Ministry said Monday, a small step in the country’s attempt to reassert itself in air space now controlled by U.S.-led forces. A ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, said six King Air planes had been delivered and the other six were expected soon. He said they would be u...
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Celebrities
NEW YORK (AP) — A representative for Janet Jackson says the singer has been hospitalized after falling ill shortly before a concert. According to statement released by W&W Public Relations, the singer canceled her concert in Montreal on Monday after she “got suddenly ill” during her sound check and had to be rushed to the hospital just before show time. The statement says Jackson is being monitored at the hospital and hopes to reschedule t...
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School playground meets special needs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — This kind of stuff never happened when there was nothing but blacktop here. “Hey! Devin wants to go down the slide!” shouts out Crystal Shakur, a physical therapist assistant at Kansas City’s Delano School. The boy uses his arms and fists to worm his tiny body into position at the top of the blue slide — atop a long-awaited playset at this school for children with severe disabilities. Shakur, kneeling behind him on...
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Volunteers aid needy at Garden City shelter
GARDEN CITY (AP) — Inside the quaint, white house on Fifth Street, several people gather for a warm evening meal. The five men and one woman seated at the dinner table come from various walks of life but share the same path for a short while as they take shelter in the Emmaus House. Joseph Alan Humphreys said he found himself in and out of jail after a divorce left him homeless and financially devastated. “They help you while you’re workin...
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Shocking defeat for economic bailout
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, leaving both parties and the Bush administration struggling to pick up the pieces. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day. “We need to put something back together that works,” a grim-faced Treasury Secretar...
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Oddities
Woman wakes up, should have smelled the coffee CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — It wasn’t just the caffeine that gave an Iowa woman an extra jolt after she had her morning coffee. It was also the bat she found in the filter. The Iowa Department of Public Health says the woman reported a bat in her house but wasn’t too worried about it. She turned on her automatic coffee maker before bedtime and drank her coffee the next morning. She discovered the b...
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