Rural lawmakers to get reimbursed for long drives

Topeka — Rural lawmakers got a break from legislative leaders.

The Legislative Coordinating Council decided recently that mileage reimbursement for lawmakers to get to an airport before taking an official trip wouldn’t be deducted from the $500 cap in expenses for legislative travel.

Some lawmakers were using up nearly the entire $500 allowance just on round trips to airports in Wichita and Kansas City, Mo., before leaving on state business for seminars or conferences.

The LCC, made up of House and Senate leaders, said that wasn’t fair to rural lawmakers. The LCC decided that the cost of the driving to the airport would be reimbursed and not part of the $500 travel cap.

Parsons

Cancer Center of Kansas to open new clinic

Parsons (ap) — The Cancer Center of Kansas plans to open a clinic on the campus of the Labette County Medical Center.

Robert Mac Devitt, medical center administrator, said the Parsons clinic would offer cancer patients benefits that went beyond having highly regarded cancer specialists on call around the clock. It will open Sept. 2.

“The beauty of this is that patients can really receive the same chemotherapy treatment here as in Wichita,” Mac Devitt said. “Not only will patients not have to travel for inpatient treatments, they won’t have to make a two-hour drive to be hospitalized as an in-patient.”

The clinic’s full-time, specially trained chemotherapy nurses also will get monthly training at the group’s headquarters in Wichita.

Cancer Center of Kansas also has clinics in Arkansas City, Chanute, Dodge City, El Dorado, Kingman, Liberal, McPherson, Newton, Pratt, Salina, Wellington and Winfield.

Wichita

Acquitted murder suspect arrested after manhunt

Wichita (ap) — A Wichita man acquitted last year in a quadruple murder was arrested after a shooting that police said stemmed from an argument about the homicides.

Earl Bell, 20, was taken into custody Friday at a Wesley Medical Center parking lot after a manhunt that lasted most of the day.

Police said a dispute broke out at a party early Friday when some people exchanged words about the Dec. 6, 2000, shooting deaths of four teenagers in a home in Wichita. Bell, one of two men charged in the deaths, was acquitted of all charges in February 2002.

Lt. John Speer said the argument prompted a call to 911.

Shortly afterward, some of the people involved went outside and got some guns from a car. At some point, Speer said, the men began firing at another car as it drove away. As many as 30 shots were fired and several hit the car, he said.

Two suspects were arrested at the scene. Bell was arrested Friday afternoon and police were looking for a fourth suspect.