Survey Crews Report Damages but No Injuries from Kansas Tornadoes
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say there have been no reports of serious injuries from a spate of tornadoes that raked southwest Kansas Friday night. The National Weather Service says eight tornado sightings had been reported in the area by late Friday night, including one near Dodge City and the tiny town of Ford. Officials are conducting surveys to see whether some of the sightings were of the same tornado. Emergency management offices in the area said several homes, some outbuildings and sheds were damaged in the storms. Officials reported that the twisters also knocked down power lines. The Kansas storms were part of a supercell that created dozens of tornadoes across the Midwest and Plains States, including an EF2 tornado in Geronimo, Oklahoma.
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Kansas Unemployment Remained Stead at 3.5% in April, Jobs Grew
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that its unemployment rate remained at 3.5% in April and that the number of private sector jobs grew slightly over the previous year. The state Department of Labor is reporting that the seasonally adjusted April unemployment rate was slightly higher than the 3.4% rate in April 2018. The state's unemployment rate has remained below 4% for more than two years. The department also says that the number of private-sector, nonfarm jobs was 10,500 higher than it was in April 2018, exceeding 1.16 million. The growth was 0.9%. Construction experienced the biggest gain, 3.6%. The state also added 5,600 private-sector nonfarm jobs from March to April, for growth of 0.5%. Only 10 of the state's 105 counties had unemployment rates above 4 percent in April.
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Police Report Fatal Shooting in Wichita
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in southeastern Kansas are investigating a fatal shooting. Television station KAKE reports that the shooting happened Friday afternoon in southeast Wichita. Officers were called to the area shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday and found one person dead. No other details, including the identity of the victim, had been released by midday Saturday.
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Southwestern Kansas Counties Lack Hispanic Representation
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — Hispanic residents make up more than half of the population in Ford, Finney and Seward counties, but there is only one Hispanic elected official in all three southwestern Kansas counties and their three largest cities. KCUR-FM reports that some groups want to recruit more Hispanic candidates so residents can choose leaders who truly represent them. League of United Latin American Citizens' Liberal President, Karem Gallo, says the group has been working to let Latino residents know they have support to seek public office. Garden City School Board member Tim Cruz says money and time remain the biggest hurdles, while Finney County Commissioner William Clifford points to the county Republican party's failure to recruit immigrant groups. Clifford, who chairs the party, says immigrants deserve representation.
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KU to Award Degree to Student Who Died in Class
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas plans to award a posthumous master's degree to a 30-year-old student who died in class. Mahmoud Samak, a graduate student from Cairo, will receive the award from the university's Religious Studies Department. Campus police Deputy Chief James Anguiano said Samak died in a class on Monday after he suffered a cardiac arrest. Anguiano said police found no evidence of foul play. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the Religious Studies Department will hold a memorial for Samak Monday afternoon at the Memorial Union. Samak was in the second year of his graduate program. He was studying the comparative social and religious analysis of contemporary Judaism and Islam.
