Homicide Suspect Captured After Escaping KU Hospital
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) — A homicide suspect who escaped from a University of Kansas Health System hospital on Sunday afternoon is back in custody. The suspect was receiving treatment at the KU Medical Center at 39th and Rainbow in Kansas City, Kansas, when he slipped away around 1:30. The hospital issued a Security Alert. KCTV reports the suspect was soon recaptured. No further details on the suspect or the escape have been released.
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Small Earthquakes Shake Central Kansas
SALINE COUNTY, Kan. (Hays Post) — The Kansas Geological Survey reports several small earthquakes shook central Kansas over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, a quake measuring a magnitude 3.4 rattled portions of rural Saline County. A short time later a quake measuring 2.7 shook the same area. Then, around 5:35 Sunday evening, a 3.3 magnitude quake was registered near the first two. The Hays Post reports all the quakes were centered in the vicinity of Assaria. The Saline County sheriff’s office says it has received no reports of damage.
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Satanic Grotto Holds Statehouse Protest Despite Permit Denial
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW-TV) — A self-described satanic group held a rally at the Kansas State Capitol on Saturday, despite being denied a permit for the event. State officials had denied the permit based on what they called safety concerns. But a few members of the Satanic Grotto showed up anyway, claiming their right to stage a peaceful protest. A spokesperson said the group was “not devil worshippers … just activists trying to make a difference.” WIBW-TV reports there was no violence and no police intervened.
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Dodge City Remembers Importance of Arkansas River
DODGE CITY, Kan. (KNS) — The Dodge City community wants to remember the Arkansas River, which helped shape southwest Kansas. Many towns in the region were built on the river and thrived because of it. It was used by Indigenous cultures for trade, and by early settlers for agriculture. But after decades of overpumping water for irrigation, it now runs dry for hundreds of miles.
“I don't know what you call a river that doesn't have any water in it, except you call it anything but a river, and that breaks my heart,” Hannes Zacharias of Dodge City, who kayaked across the river when it still had water, told the Kansas News Service. He says it’s important to remember the river’s impact, and he will host a Humanities Kansas podcast about the river to discuss ways southwest Kansans can still use and protect it.
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Feds Stop Tracking the Cost of Weather Disasters
UNDATED (KNS) — Extreme weather is bringing more billion-dollar disasters to Kansas and Missouri, but a program tracking that data has ended. In Kansas and Missouri, severe storms and droughts are the most common causes of billion-dollar climate and weather-related disasters. The past five years brought more than twice as many costly weather disasters to the two states, compared to recent decades. But scientists say it won’t be easy to track whether this pattern continues. That’s because the Trump administration recently ended the 45-year-old federal effort to track the costliest disasters.
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Report: KDHE Finds Evidence of Child Abuse at KU Hilltop Child Development Center
LAWRENCE, Kan. (LJW) — State health officials have found evidence of child abuse at the Hilltop Child Development Center at the University of Kansas. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that investigations are ongoing. Records on the state child care licensing website indicate that investigators with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) found several violations. The report says a teacher at the center's main campus location would "humiliate children by spraying them with a squirt bottle to have them stop talking." Investigators also found evidence that a staff member at the newest Hilltop location on KU's West Campus forcefully grabbed children in some instances.
Parents of children who attend Hilltop received a letter Wednesday from Hilltop leaders and KU, informing them that state officials had substantiated reports of child abuse at the centers. The letter did not include details of the abuse. There are at least nine investigations by KDHE that are currently active between Hilltop’s two facilities.
Hilltop Child Development Center serves children from infants to grade-school age. Staffing at the center is now in flux. Wednesday's letter told parents that a program director has suddenly left the employment of the Hilltop West facility.
There had been previous signs of operational problems at Hilltop. The Journal-World reported in April that a 5-year old child was inadvertently left unsupervised in a Hilltop van that had transported students to a field trip. That incident, and others, were determined by KDHE to be violations of the state’s child care licensing regulations. According to the KDHE documents, Hilltop has had at least seven substantiated violations in 2025.
Hilltop Executive Director Cori Berg took over leadership of the center in June. The Journal-World reports that Berg said at a staff meeting earlier in July that the incidents at Hilltop have attracted attention and concern from top KU administrators. While Hilltop has its own board of directors, it is a controlled affiliate of KU, and the university has legal responsibilities for Hilltop.
University officials say they are taking the issues seriously. Spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson confirmed that multiple personnel changes have occurred at Hilltop in recent months. Barcomb-Peterson also said that KU remained committed to keeping the center open.
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Kansas Supreme Court Rules Against Woman Contesting Large Late Fee
UNDATED (KNS) — A Kansas woman owes $21,000 in late fees to her landlord for unpaid rent in 2020. The Kansas News Service reports that the Kansas Supreme Court recently upheld the large fine based on a procedural question. Sherri Foster failed to pay $1,900 of rent on her Prairie Village home in the summer of 2020. The unpaid rent accrued a $20 late fee each day until the case went to trial. That took nearly three years — or more than 1,000 days. Foster argued the fees were unconscionable. She asked the court to find them legally unfair. But the court unanimously ruled that Foster did not follow correct legal procedure to oppose the fine.
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U.S. Senators Not Convinced on Proposed USDA Reorganization Moves
UNDATED (KCUR) — The Trump Administration wants to break up U.S. Department of Agriculture offices in Washington and move most of the staff to five regional offices, including Kansas City, Missouri. KCUR reports that the plan drew bi-partisan pushback on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee weren’t consulted before the administration released a plan to reorganize the USDA and disperse thousands of employees. Farm groups weren’t notified either. Senators on both sides of the aisle are miffed about that. Ranking Democrat Amy Klobuchar compared the proposal to a much smaller effort in the last Trump administration, which tried to move USDA’s research arms to Kansas City. KCUR reports that the previous relocation of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture was nothing short of a disaster. As a result of that move, the agencies lost most of their seasoned employees. Reports started coming out late, and agricultural research grants slowed.
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Kansas Can Claim (Part of) the Largest Lightning Bolt Ever Recorded
UNDATED (KPR) — An enormous bolt of lightning that raced across the sky from Texas to Kansas has officially been declared the longest ever recorded. The bolt measured an astounding 515 miles and stretched from East Texas to the Kansas City suburbs. It occurred during a major thunderstorm in October 2017, but has just now been certified as the world's longest by the World Meteorological Organization’s Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes. The committee used radar and satellite data to measure the big bolt, which broke the old record by 38 miles. The phenomenon is known to meteorologists as megaflash lightning. (Read more.)
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