Kansas Territory marker rededicated today

Ceremonies today will mark the rededication of the Territorial State Capital Historical Marker.

The event will take place at 2 p.m. at the Topeka service area on the Kansas Turnpike. A reception will follow.

Lecompton was chosen as the capital of the Kansas Territory in 1855. A convention in 1857 met in the newly constructed Constitution Hall, and its members drafted the Lecompton Constitution, which would have admitted Kansas as a slave state.

The constitution, a topic in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, eventually was rejected. Kansas entered the union as a free state in 1861, and Topeka became the state capital.

Police arrest 47-year-old for aggravated sexual battery

Lawrence Police arrested a man Tuesday suspected of sexually battering his neighbor.

A 20-year-old Lawrence woman told officers that the man helped her with something in her yard and then asked for a refreshment, Sgt. Paul Fellers said.

When the woman went into her home to get it, the man followed her inside, uninvited, and touched her inappropriately, Fellers said.

The woman was not injured, he said.

A 47-year-old Lawrence man was booked into Douglas County Jail on suspicion of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated burglary.

The incident occurred about 3 p.m. in the 1300 block of East 25th Terrace.