By Steve Bell
Kansas City, MO – Daniel Porter, convicted of kidnapping his own children and refusing to tell authorities where they are, received an additional sentence of 38 years in prison today. Porter, of Independence, had already been sentenced to ten years on a firearms charge and three years for parole violation. Today's sentence was for the kidnapping. Porter still hasn't told what happened to the children, offering various accounts including that he sold them, killed them and that they had become part of a pornography ring.
The Kansas Senate has thrown the ball back into the House's court with its passage of a $466 million school finance package. The House seems preoccupied with the fuss over Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss and whether his lunch with two senators violated judicial ethics. House Speaker Doug Mays said today that he will appoint a special committee to investigate whether "the integrity of the legislative process" has been threatened.
The Kansas Supreme Court upheld efforts to prevent placing sexual predator Leroy Hendricks in a group home in Leavenworth County. In its unanimous ruling Friday, justices upheld a lower court ruling blocking the location of a treatment facility for sexually violent predators without a special use permit.
AP says a former contract agent reports that he has been contacted several times by FBI agents investigating the Blunt administration's awarding of contracts for vehicle license offices. The FBI will neither confirm nor deny that there is an investigation into the offices, long considered "political plums" for loyal supporters of the current governor.
Problems with a part in automatic transmissions have put seven Ford plants and about 15,000 workers in park, including the truck-assembly portion of the Claycomo Assembly Plant. The shutdown started on the second shift Thursday. A Ford spokeswoman said the company plans to resume production in all plants on Monday.
KCP&L has signed up its first wind-power customer. Sprint Nextel has congracted to use the wind-farm generated electricity at its Overland Park campus.
Springfield, Missouri got the bad economic news this week that MCI will close its call center there, eliminating about 400 jobs. The jobs will go to India, the Philippines and Mexico.
The Economic Research Institute says Johnson county was 41st in the nation for 2004 per capita income. Many years ago it was number one, but is still above the 98th percentile.