Search

WICHITA — A shooting that left one teen in the hospital and another under arrest appears to be accidental, police said.

The two were among a group of four teens playing cards at an apartment in the 1500 block of West Pawnee shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday when one of them displayed a handgun, pointed it at a 16-year-old boy and pulled the trigger, Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred said.

The small-caliber handgun went off and the bullet struck the victim in the cheek, Allred said. The 17-year-old shooter didn't realize the gun was loaded.

TOPEKA – Gov. Mark Parkinson on Friday will sign a bill banning indoor smoking in most indoor spaces.

The measure, House Bill 2221 would bar indoor smoking starting July 1, although it does allow smoking on the gaming floors of the state-owned casinos. The measure overrides less comprehensive local smoking bans such as the one in Wichtia.

The governor, a Democrat, has pushed for the smoking ban this year and been a vocal supporter of the measure.

The second wave of H1N1 is over in Sedgwick County, an H1N1 incident responder told commissioners today.

Janice McCoy, a health protection coordinator and an HIN1 responder for the county, said the county’s rate of influenza-like illnesses were below the state’s baseline.

H1N1 cases continue to drop and are below seasonal flu rates, she said.

Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and evening in the Wichita metropolitan area and southeast Kansas, forecasters say.

The Storm Prediction Center has southeast Kansas in a slight risk for severe weather today, with the western boundary extending nearly to Wichita. The National Weather Service reports that the greatest severe thunderstorm potential is along and southeast of a line from near Iola through Howard to just east of Arkansas City, where hail as large as golf balls and “a few tornadoes” would be the primary threats. Closer to Wichita, hail up to the size of nickels is possible.

Highs today should reach the upper 50s, with northerly winds gusting to more than 20 miles an hour. More showers are likely overnight, with lows in the upper 30s. Rain chances will persist on Thursday and Friday, with highs in the upper 40s.

Post-Christmas layoffs and a renewed search for work by the unemployed pushed the Wichita-area unemployment rate in January to 8.6 percent, from a revised 7.8 percent in December, the Kansas Department of Labor said Tuesday.

Every January sees a surge in the unemployment rate, say economists — the state and all of its metro areas saw similar bumps in January.

Unemployment rates in other Kansas metro areas were: Kansas City area, 7.5 percent; Topeka, 7.3 percent; Manhattan, 6.1 percent; and Lawrence, 5.8 percent. Kansas had a rate of 7.1 percent in January, up from 6.2 percent in December.

Stephan "Center Ice Steve" Wright is a devoted Thunder hockey fan. So much so that he goes to games about two hours early, he says, to get an on-site parking spot at Intrust Bank Arena. Wright has degenerative arthritis and walks with a cane. Handicapped parking on game nights is lacking, he and others say.

Enough Thunder fans have complained that the Wichita/Sedgwick County Access Advisory Board has it on the agenda for its next meeting.

"We have had enough complaints so that we and by we, I mean the collective we — folks at the city, folks at the county and folks at SMG — all recognize that there are some problems," said Dave Calvert, chairman of the group .

Recent property tax appeals in the Old Town Cinema district reveal "a number of procedural errors and policy issues" that the city of Wichita must address as it provides public support to private development, according to a city report released Tuesday.

At issue is the case of David Burk, a prominent downtown developer who received property tax cuts and refunds after filing appeals on publicly-owned property he leases from the city, said a report by City Manager Robert Layton.

Burk — who represented himself as an agent of the city on some of the tax appeals — has agreed to notify officials if he wants to contest future taxes, the report said.

The Wichita City Council on Tuesday cut the amount of a loan it gave to prominent downtown developers Real Development, partly as an acknowledgment that one of the projects has stalled.

The developer and the city cut the original $3 million loan that the developer expected to spend to change the outside of Sutton Place, a large white office building at 209 E. William.

Real Development spent $241,000 in loan money on exterior work at Sutton Place, largely to accommodate a new ground-floor coffee shop in 2008.

Wichita River Festival officials on Tuesday announced their musical lineup for this year's festival — and a change in the admission policy for the West Bank Stage shows.

Attendees to this year's three West Bank Stage concerts will pay a $10 gate admission and will have to have a $5 Wichita River Festival button.

The three concerts are an opening night show by former Poison lead singer Bret Michaels on May 7, a performance by country star Jake Owen on May 8, and an appearance by The Fabulous Thunderbirds and The Funk Brothers on May 9.

WICHITA — Paul Cohlmia is set to open his new Riverside Too Thursday in the former Livingston's Cafe at 924 S. Woodlawn.

Riverside Too will feature the same menu as Cohlmia's Riverside Cafe on W. 13th Street in Riverside.

"Everything's the same," Cohlmia says of his two restaurants.