DAWSON COUNTY, Nebraska – Law enforcement authorities located the suspect’s vehicle near Lexington, NE, and have taken  the suspect into custody, according to a social media report from the Sherman County Sheriff.

The suspect’s vehicle had been located in Rawlins County and the suspect is believed to have stolen a Green F-150 Pickup and had been spotted in Nebraska, according to the Sherman County Sheriff.

No additional details were available early Tuesday.

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SHERMAN COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in northwest Kansas are looking for a suspect who reportedly fired a weapon at a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper during a traffic stop just after 6p.m. Monday on Interstate 70 in Sherman County.

The trooper was not injured, according Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman.

Authorities are looking for a dark, possibly flat black Toyota Camry, or similar vehicle, with New York tags, according to the Thomas County Sheriff’s Department.

The vehicle was traveling east on Interstate 70 before exiting and traveling south from the Edson exit in Sherman County following the shooting.

Law enforcement authorities advised the public not to approach the vehicle if you believe you have found it. Contact 911 immediately to have an Officer or Deputy investigate.

It is common for some individuals fleeing law enforcement to attempt to switch vehicles by stealing one that is unlocked with keys inside, according to the sheriff’s department. They reminded residents to lock their doors and their vehicles.

WICHITA- A drug courier from California who was stopped on the highway with 117 pounds of cocaine was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Marco Antonio Aispuro, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He was arrested Oct. 21, 2016, after the Kansas Highway Patrol stopped him at the Paxico exit on eastbound I-70 in Wabaunsee County.

A search of his vehicle turned up 117 pounds of cocaine hidden in a rear quarter panel and a spare tire.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on weapons and theft charges.

On June 15, an employee at Kenwood Cove Family Aquatic Park in Salina found a handgun in an unsecured locker.

The .38 caliber Smith & Wesson was stolen, according Salina Police Sgt. James Feldman.

Officers also found identification with the handgun and arrested 22-year-old Daniel Puckett, Salina.

Puckett was booked into the Saline County Jail for criminal possession of a weapon and theft.
The gun was not loaded.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Aircraft parts maker Spirit AeroSystems is investing $30 million in a new Wichita center.

The city’s largest employer announced the investment Monday at the Paris Air Show.

RELEASE: @SpiritAero creates new five-axis fabrication center of excellence https://t.co/oMyptsX9uA pic.twitter.com/AdVENXjSTe

— Spirit AeroSystems (@SpiritAero) June 19, 2017

Spirit’s vice president of fabrication, Alan Young, said in an interview last week that the facility, called the five-axis center of excellence, is expected to be operational later this year. Young says five-axis machines fashion “some of the most complicated parts on an airplane” including aluminum and titanium parts for an airplane’s fuselage, pylons and wing. &nbsp

It’s been a great day at #PAS17 with our Spirit team! pic.twitter.com/S4kZ22UIvu

— Spirit AeroSystems (@SpiritAero) June 19, 2017

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The expansion of the parts manufacturing and chemical processing isn’t expected to create more jobs or the need for more buildings. The center will be placed in an existing plant.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal weekend shooting and asking the public for help to find suspects.

Just after 7:30 p.m. Saturday, police responded to a strip mall parking lot in the 3900 Block of East 13^th Street, according to Lt. Todd Ojile during Monday’s police briefing.   A 25-year-old man and his friends were there to buy cigarettes.

While the man was waiting in a pickup truck, two groups of unknown black men at opposite ends of the parking lot pulled guns and shot at each other, according to Ojile.

Police believe the victim who was shot numerous times was caught in the crossfire. An autopsy was conducted on the victim Monday.

Police did not release the victim’s name.

In addition to the victim, numerous cars, businesses and a residence were also hit by over twenty shots that were fired.

Police have no suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call police.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a home-invasion aggravated burglary and aggravated battery and  have a suspect in custody.

On Sunday, police responded to report of a disturbance at a residence in the 100 Block of NE 24 Highway in Topeka, according to a media release. Upon arrival, police found a man identified as Allen Wichmann, 66, with life threatening injuries from a home invasion. Emergency Crews transported the him to a local hospital.

Just after 1:30 a.m. Monday, following a standoff at a residence in the 100 Block of NW Van Buren that lasted several hours, police arrested Howard Dale Burchfiel, 31, Topeka, for aggravated battery and burglary.

Police released no additional details early Monday

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SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a home-invasion and searching for a suspect.

On Sunday, police responded to report of a disturbance at a residence in the 100 Block of NE 24 Highway in Topeka, according to a media release. Upon arrival, police found a man with life threatening injuries from a home invasion.

Emergency Crews transported the victim to a local hospital.

No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to contact Topeka Police.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A government report shows the Kansas winter wheat harvest is mostly on track compared to this time a year ago.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated on Monday that 22 percent of the wheat in the state has been cut. That is the same progress at this point a year ago and near the 25 percent average — despite widespread rains this past week that slowed the harvest.

Harvest activity has begun across much of the state. The exceptions are in the northwest and west-central parts of Kansas where cutting has yet to start.

The agency reports harvest is about 48 percent finished in south-central Kansas and 62 percent completed in southeast Kansas. It is just ramping up in north-central Kansas where 7 percent of the wheat has been harvested.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison in the killing of a Lincoln, Nebraska, man in the parking lot of central Kansas motel.

The Salina Journal reports that DiAntre Lemmie was sentenced Monday for first-degree murder and five other charges in the April 2016 death of 32-year-old Adonis Loudermilk at the Starlite Motel in Salina.

He must serve 25 years of the life term before becoming eligible for parole. He also faces another 11 years for the other charges.

Prosecutors say Loudermilk was shot during a botched robbery. A co-defendant was sentenced last month to nearly 31 years in prison for her role in the killing.

Lemmie was arrested after a chase in which he hoped a curb and traveled about 200 yards in a railroad right-of-way.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

The cost of higher education in Kansas continued to swell this week, carrying on a long-running trend in which universities rely increasingly on tuition and fees to operate.

This fall, a full-time semester at the University of Kansas will cost nearly $2,000 more than a decade earlier. The increase at Kansas State University has been similar.

Also over the last decade, the state’s spending per student at Kansas Board of Regents universities has slid.

Board members expressed reluctance to approve the latest round of tuition hikes during their meetings this week — and a few voted against them.

“It’s really heartbreaking to do this,” Regents Chairwoman Zoe Newton said of the increases ranging between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent for the six state universities in the regents system. “I would hope it’s not going to just keep going up and up.”

In hours of discussion and deliberation this week, the regents worried about hindering would-be first-generation college students — a group that public universities have been courting amid ambitious goals to boost the rate of Kansans who obtain higher education degrees by 2020.

The regents wondered whether the burgeoning cost of postsecondary education makes sense in light of the salaries that many graduates can expect to earn in professions like teaching and nursing.

A Kansas Department of Labor survey put the average starting salary for an elementary teacher in Kansas around $35,500 in 2015. For a registered nurse it was about $43,300.

Regent Ann Brandau-Murguia, a resident of the Argentine neighborhood in Kansas City, Kan., was among those on the board who called for lower increases than were ultimately approved.

“I see every day the challenges that low-income families experience,” she said, “just with daily quality of life issues, let alone trying to overcome the hurdles and the stumbling blocks to get into higher education.”

But Kansans who head to college today do so in an environment where regents universities depend more on tuition and fees than state appropriations to pay the bills.

That has been the case since 2012, and the gap has steadily widened. In 2016, tuition and fees provided more than $9,600 per student and the state general fund provided about $7,100. A decade ago, tuition and fees brought in $6,300 per student and the state put in about $9,600.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on alleged terror threat charges.

Just after 11:30p.m. Sunday police were dispatched to a residence in the 900 Block of South Sedgwick for a reported suicidal person, according to Monday’s police briefing.

Sedgwick County dispatch had reported receiving multiple calls on what appeared to be a threat of terror via social media.

The investigation led police to a business in the 10,000 Block of East Kellogg.  Officers contacted 28-year-old Brendon May at the business.  They arrested May without incident. He was booked into jail on one count of terroristic threat.

Police said that the threat on Facebook was not specific to a targeted area but a listed event that he claimed was going to occur.  May only had a bb gun and not the weapons mentioned in the Facebook post.

Police thanked the public for help with notification about the alleged threat.  Police heard from as far away as Australia on the threat.