News

Wichita passenger rail supporters will get a jump on National Train Day this Friday during a press conference at Union Station building in Wichita.

Though National Train Day is on Saturday, organizers say the 4 p.m. press conference on Friday will provide "significant updates" on passenger rail advocacy in Kansas. Wichita officials say they'll release a major statement regarding rail.

Vice Mayor Pete Meitzner will lead the event; local business representatives who serve on his local Steering Committee will join him.

A tiger and two mountain lions were among a menagerie of wild cats seized from private farmland in rural northeast Kansas, where they lived in inadequate chain-link enclosures and weren't properly fed or watered, authorities said Monday.

Authorities found a tiger; two mountain lions; three bobcats; two lynx; a type of African cat called a serval; and two skunks on the property. They were taken Sunday from the land belonging to a relative of the animals' owner and were turned over to animal sanctuaries in Texas, Florida and Kansas.

From the nearest port in South Africa, it takes six days on a fishing boat to reach the small island of Tristan da Cunha. Fifteen hundred miles out into the South Atlantic, simple white homes with bright colored roofs sit in rows on green fields. A sign reads “Welcome to the remotest island,” and behind it Queen Mary’s Peak towers nearly 7,000 feet high.

The most remote inhabited island stayed mostly under the radar for two hundred years.

Gov. Sam Brownback is continuing his statewide tour aimed at building support for protecting cuts to the Kansas higher education system.

Advocates for Kansans with disabilities are urging legislators to adopt Gov. Sam Brownback's proposal to reduce the number of people on the waiting list for Medicaid services.

Currently, about 5,000 Kansans with developmental and physical disabilities are on the list. Brownback wants to spend $18 million to provide services to approximately 600 of them.

Advocates are using a video to help make their case to lawmakers. It features parents of disabled Kansans and some of the caseworkers who are trying to help them gain access to services.

South-central Kansas lawmakers are hosting a forum Monday evening.

The forum is open to the public and from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Derby City Hall.

Democratic Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau of Wichita is the chair of the south-central delegation and will moderate the forum.

Kansas Legislators will return to Topeka on Wednesday for the closing days of their session.

A group of middle school students will get a chance to fly over Wichita this week to mark the end of their mentoring program.

The Flying Challenge program ends Thursday at the National Center for Aviation Training.

The program matches Airbus and Wichita State University engineering students with 80 students at Brooks Middle School in Wichita.

The students participate in a robotics lab, a paint lab, a radio-controlled airplane demonstration and this flight over Wichita,

A drought-induced water shortage could force Wichita officials to idle the city's fountain systems this summer.

City Manager Robert Layton says water use across all city operations is under review.

City officials say Cheney Reservoir could dry up by mid-2015 if the drought continues, and the city would no longer have enough water to meet demand if that happens.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he is close to winning legislative approval for new power for his office to investigate and prosecute election fraud cases. 

Secretary of State Kobach said Friday he's optimistic lawmakers will approve the bill when they reconvene this week to wrap up their business for the year.

The House and Senate have approved different versions of Kobach's bill, setting up negotiations over the final version. Lead House negotiator Lance Kinzer said Kobach's proposal is on track to pass.