Page 17 - Fred Patton News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

JOHN HANNA and ANDY TSUBASA FIELD Associated Press/Report for America TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers moved ahead Wednesday with a measure designed to help courts and prosecutors deal with a backlog of criminal cases caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a proposal to limit state and local officials’ power in setting restrictions in future pandemics. The House gave first-round approval to a bill that would suspend until May 2024 a Kansas law that sets deadlines for criminal trials to protect defendants’ constitutional right to a speedy resolution of their cases. Those deadlines ha...

New tools to catch stop arm violators could be coming Topeka Capital-Journal In a normal year, Newton USD 373 bus drivers observe between 100 to 150 drivers who fail to stop for a bus with stop arms deployed. The 2020-21 school year has been anything but normal, and stats on stop arm violations are far from complete. In the 2018-19 school year, 102 drivers in Newton illegally passed stopped school buses, according to USD 373′s transportation department. That was down about 75 from the year before.  Each violation, according to district staff, is a big deal.  "Our students’ safety i...

Businesses in Kansas and the U.S. have suffered during the pandemic, with countless businesses having closed, many of them permanently. In particular, sectors where remote work wasn't possible and where businesses weren't deemed essential had an especially rough time, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. One Kansas business even sued the state, seeking compensation for economic damages caused by the state's COVID-19 shutdown. Now, state lawmakers are now looking at targeting the government restrictions related to COVID-19 with a bill heard Tuesday that would give some p...

The future of the Topeka Zoo is for nonprofit group Friends of the Topeka Zoo to decide as years of discussing a governance change was approved Tuesday. The Topeka City Council voted 9-1 to approve a license and management agreement that would begin the transition of daily operations to the nonprofit Friends of the Topeka Zoo.  Councilmember Christina Valdivia-Alcala voted against the measure. FOTZ will handle daily operations of the Topeka Zoo by April 3. Here is what you need to know about the license and management agreement. Who owns the Topeka Zoo animals? The zoo animals the city own...

Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector photo by: Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector Rep. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, championed a bill Thursday that would divert Kansans convicted of crimes stemming from drug addiction away from prisons toward a certified treatment program. TOPEKA — A bill passed Thursday by the Kansas House would establish a program diverting people with drug offenses from prison toward resources to fight their addiction. The legislation, which passed by a 123-0 vote, would establish a certified drug abuse treatment program in place of criminal proceedings. Prosecutors would be allowed ...