CRAWFORD COUNTY –A school bus driver was injured in an accident just before 2p.m. on Thursday in Crawford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a USD 250 Freighliner School bus driven by Edward L. Eichenberger, 49, Pittsburg, was westbound on Kansas 47 two miles west of Girard.

The bus hit a large turkey that flew across the roadway from the north ditch.

Eichenberger was treated at the scene of the accident and not transported to a hospital.

One additional teen student was possibly injured, according to the KHP.

Thirteen students and one other adult on the bus were not injured.

The driver was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

HODGEMAN COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in southwest Kansas are investigating a suspect for alleged child sex crimes.

On March 10, Hodgeman County Sheriff’s Deputies with the help of Dodge City police located and arrested Tyler Setzkorn at a motel in Dodge City, according to a social media report.

He was transported to the Ford County Sheriff’s Office and is still being held without bond on a Hodgeman County warrant for Aggravated Indecent Liberties with a Child.

Setzkorn was expected to make a court appearance this week.

The Hodgeman County Attorney has not responded to requests for information in the case.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A man originally charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer pleaded no contest to reduced charges after a jury couldn’t reach a verdict in his trial.

The Salina Journal reports 36-year-old Michael Ryan, of Salina, accepted the plea Thursday to attempted voluntary manslaughter of Salina detective Crystal Hornseth. He also pleaded no contest to aggravated assault of his daughter and one of her friends, and criminal discharge of a firearm.

Prosecutors say Ryan went to a home where his daughter was visiting friends. He pointed a rifle at 17-year-old and made his 15-year-old daughter go with him. Later, he fired 10 shots at Salina police who had surrounded his house.

A Saline County jury was dismissed Thursday after attorneys announced a plea was reached.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have little appetite for cutting spending immediately to get the state through June without a budget deficit until it can collect new revenue from higher taxes.

Late Thursday the State Senate approve a bill to balance the current budget after after voting 33-7  against a proposal from its top leader, President Susan Wagle, to reduce spending by $105 million before June 30.

Senators also overwhelmingly rejected two proposals for smaller, across-the-board cuts from another senator.

 

RENO COUNTY – A Kansas woman arrested Wednesday by South Hutchinson Police for suspicion of being in possession of marijuana in a distribution amount was before a judge Thursday where she was told of the potential charges. 

Mindy Mitchell, 26, also faces a possible charge of transporting an open container and no proof of insurance. 

Police reported they stopped her for driving northbound in a southbound lane just after 4 a.m. near the intersection of Prosperity and Main.

The officer could see an open beer bottle between her legs and another on the floor.

That led to her initial arrest. When officers requested permission to search the vehicle, she became angry and told them they needed a warrant. She eventually admitted that she had drugs in the car. That did lead to a warrant and police say they found marijuana, marijuana wax and marijuana brownies. 

She apparently admitted she came from Wichita after buying the drugs. In court,

In court, the judge told he she needed to be quiet because of discussing the case with no attorney present. 

Her request for a reduction of the $2,700 bond was denied.

EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge rules that a woman’s lawsuit over an alleged rape while she was being held in the Butler County jail will move forward.

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren on Wednesday rejected a former Butler County jailer’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.

Charles Chaney III argues in a court motion that he and the female inmate had consensual sex.

Melgren found the question of whether the sex was consensual is a “genuine issue” in the case.

The woman alleges in her lawsuit that Chaney raped her in the jail library while she was an inmate in July 2015.

Chaney is on the state sex offender registry with three counts of misdemeanor sexual battery.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers used resolutions to honor the victims of an Olathe bar shooting being investigated as a hate crime, and Gov. Sam Brownback’s proclaimed Thursday as Indian American Appreciation Day in Kansas.

Brownback recognized the two survivors, Alok Madasani and Ian Grillot, and commemorated Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who died in the Feb. 22 shooting at Austins Bar & Grill. The House and Senate also recognized the survivors and passed resolutions honoring them and Kuchibhotla.

Brownback says the “senseless, violent actions” of one man won’t divide the state.

Witnesses say a gunman shouted racial slurs before opening fire on Kuchibhotla and Madasani, both Indian men. Grillot was shot when he intervened.

Adam Purinton remains jailed in Johnson County on murder and attempted murder charges.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Three Kansas men accused of plotting to attack Somali immigrants in the state are facing a second federal conspiracy count.

A revised indictment returned Thursday in Wichita against Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen of plotting for months last year to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimate” Somalis who lived at a Garden City apartment complex.

While now accusing Wright of lying to the FBI, the new indictment again charges the trio with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Allen and Stein also remain accused of gun charges.

Federal prosecutors allege the defendants were part of The Crusaders militia group and planned the truck-bomb attack on the apartment building, which also contained a mosque, for the day after the Nov. 8 election.

The three have pleaded not guilty.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Adoption officials in Kansas are hoping to find a permanent home for five siblings currently in foster care.

The Kansas City Star says the children include two sisters and three brothers, ages 2 to 11.

The Kansas Children’s Services League’s Corey Lada says the children are living in separate foster homes. Lada says placement workers hope to identify a family who will keep them together in Kansas. The league is part of an agency that contracts with the state to run AdoptKSKids.org.

After the website profiled the siblings last weekend, interested adopters filled the Kansas Children’s Services League’s voice mailbox. The league’s email inbox also received 1,500 responses.

Lada calls that response “pretty insane” and unlike anything she’s seen in 13 years on the job.