Wire
Speed baby-sitting follows quickie dating
John Rogers Associated Press Writer SAN DIEGO (AP) — Katie Schaefer and Barrie Davies met several years ago at a speed-dating seminar, chatting for five minutes before furiously scribbling notes about what they liked — and didn’t — about each other. So when they eventually got married and had a daughter they named Victoria 2 1/2 years ago, it seemed natural to try something new but similar to find a helper: speed baby-sitting. “I thought...
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Corrections department closes men’s boot camp in Oswego
TOPEKA (AP) — The Kansas Department of Corrections says it has notified Labette County officials of its plans to stop operating the men’s boot camp in the county. Budget cuts prompted the move, which takes effect July 1. “This is one of the ways that we can reduce our budget,” said Bill Miskell, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Corrections. “We’re looking — for fiscal year 2010 — at reducing our budget in excess of $13 million.” Clo...
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Slim gyms: Health clubs cut fees for January boost
Megan K. Scott Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) — January is for fitness centers what December is for retailers: a bad month makes for a bad year. And with people spending less and less likely to overindulge this year, some in the fitness business are working harder to make sure they don’t find themselves on the ropes. “We’re all kind of holding our breath,” says Ben Quist, co-owner of Form & Fitness in Grafton, Wisc. He said wh...
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Oddities
Eggs served cold on Detroit-area freeway YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — State troopers and road crews had to scramble when a tractor-trailer crashed and spilled its load of eggs on a Detroit-area freeway. Trooper Jim Smiley says eastbound Interstate 94 in Washtenaw County’s Ypsilanti Township reopened about 1 a.m. Thursday after being shut down for six hours. Smiley says the driver fell asleep and his rig hit a guardrail and a bridge su...
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Area briefs
Flood safety effortto be launched JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Weather and emergency officials in Missouri, particularly the southwest part of the state, are launching an effort to raise awareness about flooding dangers. Their concerns stem from the many water rescues that had to be done because of heavy rains in 2007 and 2008. The National Weather Service in Springfield is working with emergency management officials from various counties to mount ...
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Lt. Gov. Parkinson won’t be running for governor in 2010
John Hanna AP Political Writer TOPEKA (AP) — Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson announced Friday that he’s not running for governor in 2010. Parkinson sometimes has been considered the Democrats’ leading candidate to replace Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. But he said in a statement that he won’t run for elective office in two years and expects to return to private business. “After much thought, I have made the decision not to run for governor or any other...
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State taxes less than expected in December
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas collected 7.2 percent less than anticipated in general tax revenues in December, a sign that its budget problems might not have hit bottom. “It’s obviously not looking good at all,” incoming Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jay Emler, a Lindsborg Republican, said Friday. “But I’m not surprised at all.” Legislative researchers already have projected the state will end its current fiscal year on June 30 with a $141 ...
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County, city form unified government
TRIBUNE (AP) — An idea born from a series of community meetings became reality Thursday as the city of Tribune and Greeley County formed a unified government. It’s only the second such arrangement among Kansas’ 105 counties. Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., formed a unified government in 1997. But Jack Arnold, who was being sworn in Thursday as one of five supervisors of the western Kansas county’s new governing body, thinks the ide...
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Justice Department sues Iola over reservist’s service
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Justice Department filed suit Wednesday against the city of Iola on behalf of a Kansas Air National Guard reservist who claims the Fire Department disciplined him because of his military service. Firefighter Randall A. Slocum alleges in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas, that he had two disciplinary letters placed in his personnel file and was denied a merit raise after leaving his job twice for...
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Lawrence man rebuilds after struggles
LAWRENCE (AP) — Troy Leonard was waiting to die. On a ship in the Gulf of Mexico — where he slung hammers and lugged wrenches as a support worker for offshore oil drillers — he started having trouble breathing. Then he started having chest pains. He was having a heart attack. And to top it off, he was 200 miles off the coast of Texas. A Coast Guard helicopter flew him to a hospital in Port Arthur, Texas. There, doctors worked on him. As i...
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Gideons celebrate 100 years of Bible book distribution
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Long before cable television, spa treatments and eco-friendly soaps and shampoos became staples in hotel rooms, there was the Bible — the Gideon Bible. And the book with the familiar two-handled pitcher and torch on its cover that most guests find inside hotel nightstands doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. Gideons International is celebrating its 100th anniversary distributing Bibles and has begun effort...
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At least three Kansas events to mark Obama swearing in
John Hanna AP Political Writer TOPEKA. (AP) — Barack Obama’s election has inspired plans for celebrations in at least three Kansas cities, including a parade, music and prayer services, all timed to his inauguration as president. A free prayer and gospel music ceremony is scheduled for noon Jan. 20 in Topeka, with an 8 p.m.-to-midnight party, both sponsored by a community advocacy group, Bias Busters of Kansas. In Wichita, the Obama Kansas Ch...
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Baxter Springs students build energy-efficient spec home
Roger McKinney The Joplin (Mo.) Globe BAXTER SPRINGS (AP) — For their eighth house, students in Baxter Springs High School’s advanced building trades class are trying an energy-efficient alternative. The students are using Insulating Concrete Forms. Both the building material and the technique have seen rapid growth over the past few years. The students are building the house at 10th Street and Washington Avenue, on a lot that was once o...
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Area briefs
Fourth and Plummer signal up and running The new traffic control device at Fourth and Plummer is up and functioning which will proivide direction to both motorists and pedestrians. The traffic signal routinely will regulate a north-south traffic flow on Plummer and has the ability to detect motorists on Fourth Street in order to allow them access onto Plummer. The new traffic light is anticipated to provide a smoother transition of vehicle...
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Chinese dairies to compensate sickened babies
BEIJING (AP) — The companies whose tainted milk products sickened nearly 300,000 children and were blamed in the deaths of six will likely pay 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) in compensation to victims’ families, a state-run newspaper said Tuesday. Details of the compensation plan came shortly after trials began for 15 people on charges related to the production and sale of melamine, an industrial chemical added to milk to falsely boost pro...
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Coal fight, budget woes dominate 2008
John Hanna Associated Press Writer TOPEKA (AP) — State government is experiencing a severe budget headache and a contentious dispute over two proposed coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas continues as the year draws to a close. The debate over the coal plants and energy policy dominated the 2008 Legislature. Bipartisan majorities tried and failed three times before adjourning in May to overturn a decision by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’...
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KC plans to restore riverfront
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — City and federal officials are restoring a section of the south bank of the Missouri River to how it would have appeared to early settlers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the $1.2 million project, which will remove concrete and other debris from a 5 1/2-acre site and create a wetland with native trees and grasses. An existing system of riverside walkways and bike paths will also be extended through t...
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Correction
TOPEKA (AP) — In a Dec. 28 story about college endowments, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the KU Endowment, the fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas, has seen its investment portfolio decline by 39 percent — from $1.22 billion on June 30 to $747 million on Nov. 30. The portfolio has declined by 30 percent — from $1.08 billion to $747 million.
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Oddities
Driver in hot water after plow falls through ice CROOKSTON, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota snowplow operator is in hot water with his boss after driving a $200,000 loader into a frozen river. Mike Raymond was clearing snow from county parking lots early Monday when he decided to also clear off a boat ramp on the frozen Red Lake River in Crookston. Raymond says he wanted to make it easier for people who pull fish houses on trailers onto the riv...
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Kansas briefs
Fort Riley horses, riders prepare for inauguration FORT RILEY (AP) — Training begins next week for a group of Kansas natives who will march in the inauguration parade in Washington. They’re getting ready for frigid weather, big crowds, and icy streets dotted by manhole covers, subway grates and steam vents. They have names such as Comanche, Traveler, Cyclone, Gunner and Scout. They are horses -- bay geldings -- weighing in at 1,100 to 1,2...
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