Kansas Senator Has 1st Web Ad; Foe Calls it 'Fake'
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Senator Pat Roberts' re-election campaign has posted an online ad attacking independent candidate Greg Orman as a liberal pretending to be conservative. But Orman's campaign demanded yesterday (FRI) that Roberts' team remove the ad because it edits audio from their recent debate at the Kansas State Fair. The ad accuses Orman of pretending to be conservative like Roberts. It features a string of video clips from the debate in which Orman agrees with Roberts. The last of those clips features audio edited from two parts of the debate. Orman spokesman Sam Edelen called the audio "fake" and said it had been manipulated while being represented as exactly what Orman said at the debate. Roberts campaign manager Corry Bliss called the criticism laughable.
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Lawmakers Send Letter Opposing Transplant Changes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Fifty-two U.S. House members have signed a letter voicing concerns about a proposal to change the map that governs how donated livers are distributed around the country. The letter, dated yesterday (FRI), was written by Kansas Congressman Kevin Yoder, a Republican. It comes in advance of a meeting Tuesday in Chicago to discuss a proposal to redraw the nation's transplant regions. The issue is that some areas have fewer donated organs, and higher demand for them, than others. The United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the nation's transplant network, has proposed basing the map on the distribution and demand for donated organs. The lawmakers who signed the letter are largely from the South and the Midwest. Those regions have higher organ donation rates and fear they would be negatively affected.
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Stegall to Join Kansas Supreme Court on Dec. 5
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Caleb Stegall is scheduled to be sworn in as the Kansas Supreme Court's newest justice on December 5th. The Supreme Court announced the swearing in-ceremony yesterday (FRI). Stegall currently serves on the Kansas Court of Appeals. Governor Sam Brownback appointed him to the state's highest court last month. It was Brownback's first appointment to the seven-member Supreme Court. Stegall will replace former Justice Nancy Moritz, who was appointed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Stegall is 42 and was serving as Brownback's chief counsel when the governor appointed him to the Court of Appeals last year. He served as Jefferson County's elected prosecutor for two years before joining Brownback's staff in January 2011.
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Fire at Northeast Kansas Mansion Called Arson
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Investigators in northeast Kansas say a fire that destroyed a 9,000-square-foot home this week was intentionally set. The owner of the secluded mansion near Lake Quivira in Shawnee was out of town in Colorado when the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon. The Shawnee Fire Department said yesterday (FRI) someone had also stolen items from the house and vandalized it. Investigators did not specify how the fire was set. KCTV reports the four-bedroom, eight-bath house sits on 15 acres and also has a pool, a greenhouse and a fish pond. The home had recently been listed for sale for $1.5 million, but the listing had been pulled and the house was not for sale at the time of the fire.
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Thieves target Wichita Habitat for Humanity site
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Officials of Wichita Habitat for Humanity are scrambling to make up for a costly break-in at a storage unit. KWCH-TV reports subcontractors and electricians at a home-building site discovered earlier this week that all of the power tools being stored in the pod had been stolen. Wichita Habitat for Humanity executive director Ann Fox says someone used a saw to cut through a padlock. She says the replacement cost is about $12,000. Police had not recovered any of the tools by yesterday (FRI). But members of the Wichita Area Builders Association have replaced some of the items out of their warehouses. Fox said she's grateful for the help. The project has been underway for several months, and Fox said the donated tools will help keep the work going.