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Ex-Cougar Heaps, ex-Notre Dame QB Crist transferring to Kansas

Last updated Thursday, December 22, 2011 - 3:12pm

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas coach Charlie Weis landed a pair of high-profile quarterbacks Thursday.

Former top recruit Dayne Crist announced on Twitter that he would join the Jayhawks for his senior season after a checkered career at Notre Dame, shortly before news broke that BYU quarterback Jake Heaps was also transferring to Kansas.

Crist will reunite with Weis, who recruited him to Notre Dame, and be eligible to play next season because he's already graduated from Notre Dame. Heaps will have to sit out under NCAA transfer rules but will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Officials at Kansas could not comment on the quarterbacks until they enroll.

College Football, College Sports, BYU Cougars, Jake Heaps, Sports Read more Comments

Longmont police respond to three separate weather-related accidents as snow falls on Colo. Hwy. 66 at Francis Street in Longmont, Colo., on Monday, Dec. 19, 2001. A major storm is bringing blizzard conditions to Colorado's southeastern corner, where ranches and farms have been hit hard by drought. (AP Photo/Longmont Times-Call, Richard M. Hackett)

Deadly snowstorm halts travel across Great Plains

Jeri Clausing, Roxana Hegeman The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, December 20, 2011 - 11:00am

WICHITA, Kan. -- Fierce winds and snow that caused fatal road accidents and shuttered highways in five states, crawled deeper into the Great Plains early Tuesday, with forecasters warning that pre-holiday travel would be difficult if not impossible across the region.

Snowstorm, Weather, Winter, National Read more Comments

Kansas governor apologizes for flap over student tweet

Michael Muskal Los Angeles Times

Last updated Monday, November 28, 2011 - 5:02pm

LOS ANGELES -- Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Monday apologized for his staff's response to an 18-year-old student's tweet about him.

Free Speech, Kansas, Politics, Sam Brownback, Social media, Twitter, National Read more Comments

Tradition trumps drought for pheasant hunters

Michael Pearce Wichita Eagle

Last updated Sunday, November 20, 2011 - 12:20am

RUSSELL COUNTY, Kan. -- For years, the field of native grass was waist-high and full of pheasants.

One Saturday, it was ankle-high and Chris Kaufman and friends saw just one rooster pheasant . . . and didn't get it.

"Tradition is still a tradition," said Kaufman, of Winfield, Kan. "The first field of the season is always the same first field of the season."

Kaufman's host, Rod Meier, blamed a severe August hail storm for the flattened field and its few birds.

Outdoors, Outdoor Recreation, Sports, Waterfowl, Hunting Read more Comments

Sarah Fung rides her pony, Pie, at her ranch. Fung dreamed of buying the pony since age 9, when she read "Misty of Chincoteague." (SHNS photo by Torin Halsey / Times Record News) (RS)

'Misty of Chincoteague' fan finally gets her own pony

Ann Work Wichita Falls Times Record

Last updated Monday, October 31, 2011 - 12:06pm

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- When Sarah Fung was 9 years old, she fell in love with a book that began to change her life.

Features, Books Read more Comments

(TODD WEDDLE/The Associated Press) Ramona Keil, embraces one of her grandchildren Sunday morning Oct. 30, 2011 in Atchison, Kan. as they wait to hear news of her son Travis Keil, who is missing following a explosion at the Bartlett Grain Company. Three people are confirmed dead and three others missing in the aftermath of a grain elevator explosion in Atchison, Kan., Saturday night. Emergency personnel are now in a recovery operation for the three missing individuals.

Search suspended after Kansas grain elevator blast

John Milburn, Roxana Hegeman The Associated Press

Last updated Sunday, October 30, 2011 - 4:44pm

ATCHISON, Kan. — Crews suspended their search Sunday for three people missing after a thunderous explosion at a Kansas grain elevator killed three workers and hospitalized two others with severe burns.

Explosion, Accident, Fatality, National Read more Comments

College students receive class credit at Wichita State's hunter-education course

Michael Pearce Wichita Eagle

Last updated Monday, October 24, 2011 - 2:49pm

BUTLER COUNTY, Kan. -- Wichita State sophomore Gary Gray Jr. spent Saturday morning working on a class project.

His assignment included shooting clay targets, firing pellet guns and boning up on firearms safety.

The engineering major is one of about 15 students enrolled in the school's Hunter Education 102 class. Those who complete the class will get hunter-education certificates, can apply to be hunter education instructors and get two hours of college credit. Passing the class will also mean learning presentation skills.

Full story:

Outdoors, Hunter education, Outdoor Recreation, Sports, College, Hunting Read more Comments

FBI searches for missing baby in Kan. landfill

Maria Sudekum Fisher The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, October 8, 2011 - 9:00am

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- FBI agents scoured a Kansas landfill for the second time this week as the search for a missing 10-month-old Missouri girl entered its fourth day -- and just hours after the child's mother said police accused her of being involved.

Missing baby, Missing child, Mystery, National Read more Comments

Kansas seeks federal grant to promote marriage, but not health care

Brad Cooper Kansas City Star

Last updated Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - 3:01pm

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- While turning down one federal handout last week, the administration of Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback was applying for a different one.

No, thanks: $31.5 million for implementing the new federal health care law.

Please remit: $6.6 million to promote marriage.

The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services is seeking $2.2 million a year for three years to pay for counseling that encourages unwed parents to marry. Free marriage licenses would be given to those who do.

State officials portrayed the grant request as the state's first major marriage initiative aimed at reducing child poverty.

Features, Federal Funding, Kansas, Marriage, Politics Read more Comments

Kansas may close all abortion clinics

Brad Cooper, Kansas City Star McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 10:48am

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- No Kansas abortion clinic has met the state's new licensing rules, raising the prospect that by Friday, Kansas will be the only state where women cannot get an abortion.

On Tuesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the clinics inspected so far hadn't met the new standards approved by the Legislature earlier this year.

Abortion, Health, Politics, National Read more Comments

These little buggers can be the perfect companions

Michael Pearce, The Wichita Eagle

Last updated Monday, June 13, 2011 - 2:35pm

WICHITA, Kan. -- Evening shadows were almost across the water by the time I arrived.

My black-thumb gardening skills had stretched a morning's job into most of the day and robbed me of two of three hours I'd reserved for gathering a few fillets.

After my fly rod was rigged from hundreds of assorted flies, I selected two exactly alike and left the others behind.

I headed to the water with the confidence of a hungry man walking to a seafood counter.

Outdoors, Outdoor Recreation, Sports, Fishing Read more Comments

Call it topwater catfishing

Brent Frazee, Kansas City Star

Last updated Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 6:21pm

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Steve Green rounded a bend on the Wakarusa River and slowed his boat as he approached a clearing on the bank that had been turned into a makeshift fishing camp.

"Welcome to 'Survivor, Kansas,' " he said with a laugh, referring to the popular television series. "This is going to be our base camp tonight."

With a campfire already blazing, Green's friends, Mark Wotipka and Mark Anfinson, were busy readying fishing rods.

A food table had been set up, comfortable recliner lawn chairs were arranged behind the rod holders, and steaks sizzled on the grill.

Outdoors, Outdoor Recreation, Sports, Fishing Read more Comments

Student fatally shot during school trip to Costa Rica

Aleese Kopf, McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Friday, June 3, 2011 - 8:34am

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Friends sobbed, hugged and held candles in an impromptu memorial service Thursday night as they remembered a fun-loving 16-year-old Kansas boy fatally shot during a school trip to Costa Rica.

It was supposed to be a nine-day learning opportunity for Justin Johnston and 11 other McLouth High School students who went on the Spanish Club trip accompanied by two school district sponsors.

But a hotel guard reportedly shot Justin in the chest about 4 a.m. Thursday as Justin and another student returned to the hotel. The guard apparently mistook him for a burglar in the dark, according to the Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion. The other boy was not injured.

Shooting, Student, International Read more Comments

14 killed as tornadoes carve path through Midwest

The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - 4:18pm

PIEDMONT, Okla. -- Violent storms rumbled through the central U.S. on Wednesday, spawning tornadoes that turned homes into splintered wreckage, killing at least 14 people over two days and hampering rescue efforts in a city slammed by a massive twister days earlier.

The new cluster of storms, which followed a system that spawned the massive twister that killed more than 120 people in Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, moved into the Oklahoma City area Tuesday evening as worried commuters rushed home.

Storms, Tornadoes, Weather, National Read more Comments

Rebecca Watts walks by a car stuck in a tree after being destroyed by a tornado north of El Reno, Okla. on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The high-powered storms arrived Tuesday night and early Wednesday, just days after a massive tornado tore up the southwest Missouri city of Joplin. (Chris Landsberger/Associated Press)

Violent storms kill 13 in Okla., Kan., Ark.

The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - 10:21am

EL RENO, Okla. -- Violent storms that swept through a chunk of the central U.S. killed at least 13 people in three states, while toppling trees, crushing cars and ripping apart a rural Arkansas fire station.

The high-powered storms arrived Tuesday night and early Wednesday, just days after a massive tornado tore up the southwest Missouri city of Joplin and killed 122 people. The latest storms killed eight people in Oklahoma, two in Kansas and three more in Arkansas, before petering out.

Storms, Tornadoes, Weather, National Read more Comments