RENO COUNTY– Funeral services are scheduled for a Kansas boy found not breathing and with no pulse in a Hutchinson swimming pool on April 6.

Carter Lee Krehbiel died April 12 at a Wichita hospital.  A Rosary serves is scheduled for Monday, 6 p.m. at Church of The Holy Cross , 2631 Independence Road in Hutchinson. The funeral service at the church is scheduled for 10a.m. Tuesday.

Just after 4p.m. on April 6, first responders were dispatched to a home in the 1100 Block of Bramble Bush Drive in Hutchinson.

They found Carter Lee Krehbiel, 4, Hutchinson, in critical condition. He was taken to a Wichita hospital, according to Hutchinson Police Lt. Josh Radloff.

The child lived a few houses down the street from the pool.

His mother went into her home to check on another child and when she came back the four-year-old was missing.

The home owner with the pool had put a hose in her pool to fill it up and was inside when she noticed the hose was out of the pool and a gate to the pool open.

She went to check on the hose and saw pants by the pool. That’s when she saw the child.

WYANDOTTE COUNTY- A Kansas man died in an accident just before 3p.m. on Sunday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Casey
Bezdek, 37, Kansas City was west bound on Interstate 70 at Minnesota Avenue.

The motorcycle’s rear tire started to drift. The driver lost control of the vehicle and struck the concrete bridge rail. From the impact, the driver was ejected over the bridge rail and fell approximately 90 feet.

Bezdek was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics.

He was wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

THOMAS COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Thomas County are investigating a suspect after a crash and arrest.

Just before 3p.m. Sunday, a Deputy with the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle for excessive speeds on U.S. 24 just west of Colby.

Upon initiating a traffic stop inside of Colby city limits, the vehicle fled from the Deputy.

The deputy pursued the vehicle down 4th Street and numerous residential streets before fleeing north out of town.
Officers with the Colby Police Department joined in the pursuit.

After leaving Colby, the suspect lost control and flipped his vehicle before coming to a rest at Franklin Avenue and Veterans Memorial Drive.

The driver exited the vehicle and surrendered to the Thomas County Deputy and Colby Police Officers.

The suspect was arrested and provided medical treatment.

No additional details were released late Sunday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is preparing for a new fiscal forecast for state government this week that officials hope is more optimistic and makes fixing serious budget problems easier.

The forecasting group plans to meet Thursday to revise a pessimistic forecast issued in November. The previous forecast left the state with projected budget shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion through June 2019.

Since that November forecast, the state’s tax collections have exceeded expectations by $57 million and given the state a 1.4 percent revenue surplus for its current fiscal year.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators will use the new numbers in budgeting. If the forecast is more optimistic about tax collections, the budget gaps will shrink.

The forecasting group includes legislative researchers, university economists, Department of Revenue officials and Brownback budget staffers.

WINFIELD–The 28th, and final, Kansas Sampler Festival will take place May 6-7 in Winfield’s Island Park. The largest outdoor travel show in the state will once again feature what there is to see, do, hear, taste, buy and learn in Kansas. Attendance in 2016 was 8,250.

More than 130 Kansas communities will be represented by tourism exhibitors, musicians, historic performers, entrepreneurs, food vendors, and cultural heritage demonstrators.

The 2017 festival is organized by the Winfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism with chamber director Sarah Werner serving as the local festival director. More than 300 volunteers, city workers, and area sponsors make the festival possible.

The primary focus of the festival is to give the public ideas for Kansas day trips. Exhibitors from across the state will set up displays in twelve tents to promote tourism. Entrepreneurs will sell their products in three tents and another tent will feature Kansas wine and beer producers. There will be four stages for musicians and a fifth for historic performers. Twenty food vendors will be found on the grounds as will a blacksmith demonstration, antique cars, Pack goats and Mammoth donkeys, and children’s activities.

This will be the final Kansas Sampler Festival before the foundation switches to a new format to educate the public about what Kansas has to see and do. The “Big Kansas Road Trip” will start in 2018 and the showcase counties for the road trip will be announced at the festival.

The festival began in 1990 as a book-signing party for Milferd and Marci Penner’s Kansas Weekend Guide book. Some of the places in the guidebook set up displays. The crowd reaction was so positive that the event was given a name, the Kansas Sampler Festival, and was held on the Penner Farm near Inman for another seven years. It then rotated on a two-year basis to the host communities of Pratt, Ottawa, Independence, Newton, Garden City, Concordia, Leavenworth, Liberal, Wamego, and Winfield.

The new 480-page Kansas Guidebook 2 for Explorers by Marci Penner and WenDee Rowe will debut at the festival and can be purchased in the Kansas Explorers Club tent.

Festival hours are Saturday, May 6 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday May 7 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 7-12. For more information go to kansassamplerfestival.com.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after admitting in court that he drunkenly caused an Interstate 70 wreck that killed two children and left their father paralyzed.

Sixty-one-year-old James L. Green was sentenced Thursday in Jackson County after pleading guilty to two counts each of second-degree murder and assault. The Odessa man also pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated.

Prosecutors say Green was intoxicated and driving with a suspended driver’s license when his sport utility vehicle hit another vehicle from behind on the freeway in Blue Springs. Three other vehicles later were involved in the wreck.

The crash killed 7-year-old Chloe Beaird and 13-year-old Gavin Beaird, both of Warrenton. Two injured adults included the children’s father, who was left paralyzed from the chest down.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An organization representing Kansas’ local governments says it’ll push for legislation that would allow greater flexibility in boosting property taxes without first seeking voter blessings for them.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the League of Kansas Municipalities said Wednesday it will press for amending a “property tax lid” law adopted by the Legislature in 2015.

That law generally requires cities and counties to seek voter approval before they can adopt a budget that increases the spending of property tax revenues beyond a five-year average rate of inflation.

Two measures relating to the tax lid are pending in Topeka. One would repeal it, while the other one supported by the League of Kansas Municipalities that would make bigger budgets subject to protest petitions, not automatically requiring an election.

RENO COUNTY —  Law enforcement authorities in Reno Count are investigating a suspect on drug distribution charges.

Just before 3p.m. Saturday, police stopped a driver for speeding at U.S. 50 and Main Street in South Hutchinson, according to the Reno County Sheriff’s Department.

Allissa Holler, 31, Mesa, AZ., granted a search by officers and they uncovered 44 pounds of suspected marijuana in the vehicle.

Police arrested Holler on suspicion of being in possession of marijuana with intent to
distribute.

She is being held on a $100,000 bond and is expected to make a first appearance in court Monday.

MEADE COUNTY – Three people died in an accident just before 7p.m. on Friday in Meade County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Ford F250 pulling a camper and driven by George Albert Lane, 53, Buffalo, MO., was eastbound on U.S. 54 one mile west of Fowler.

The camper trailer came unhooked from the pickup as it exited the bridge.

A 2013 Kenworth semi driven by Zachery Howard Duncan, 43, Watertown, SD., drove through the camper trailer. The collision caused a flat tire and the semi’s brakes locked up.

The camper trailer rotated off into the south ditch and hit a 2015 Kia Soul driven by Laura M. Perez, 44, Liberal, on the driver’s side front.

The Kenworth semi was pulled left of center and hit a 2015 Freighliner semi driven by John Franklin Kemp, Jr. 56, Brandon, MS., which was eastbound on U.S. 54. The Freightliner came to rest in the middle of the eastbound lane and completely burned.

The cab of the Kenworth semi became disconnected from the chassis and came to in the bottom of the creek.

Duncan, Kemp and a passenger in the Kenworth Manda J. Price, 35, Watertown, SD, were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Fidler, Orme Bachman Mortuary.

No other injuries were reported.

ATCHISON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Atchison County are investigating what caused injury to a bald eagle.

The Atchison County Game Warden and along biologist Tyler Warner captured an injured bald eagle near Atchison State Fishing Lake, according to a social media report.

The eagle shows signs of having lead poisoning.

Local veterinarian and certified rehabilitation specialist Sherri McNarry did x-rarys on the eagle.

They showed a lead object either in the muscle or intestine. Treatment is underway, but the outlook is grim. Further testing will be done to see if further treatment is an option or if the eagle will have to be euthanized by the vet. At this point it is unsure if the lead was ingested by the eagle, or if the eagle was shot.