Perry-Lecompton to stage comedy

Perry-Lecompton High School will present Nuptialknots.com at 7 p.m. today and Friday in the Perry-Lecompton Theatre. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for students.

The comedy takes place in the Sleeping Beauty Salon, owned and operated by Rhoda Raines. Desperate to keep the salon open, Rhoda decides to find a rich husband for her spoiled daughter Olive in order to keep the business from going under. She goes to Nuptialknots.com to make the match. Soon the Sleeping Beauty Salon is crawling with would-be suitors for Olive.

Nominations sought for teacher of year

The Lawrence Schools Foundation is seeking nominations for the organization’s Educator of the Year award.

Any Lawrence school district parent, student or employee may nominate a teacher. The recipient will be presented a $1,000 prize in May at the Foundation Follies, an annual fund-raising event.

Certified staff members who have been employed by the Lawrence district for two years and won’t be retiring this year are eligible.

Nominations are due by 5 p.m. March 31 at the foundation office, 110 McDonald Drive.

Nominations should include a statement identifying the special qualities of the educator as well as two letters of reference. One letter should be written by a professional colleague of the nominee.

For more information, contact Lori Johns, at 832-5000 or lkjohns@usd497.org.

Fire destroys house after father, son fight

Leavenworth — A fire that destroyed a house Wednesday morning occurred shortly after a father and his son got into a fight, Leavenworth County Sheriff’s officers said.

No one was seriously injured in the incident, but the 22-year-old son was being held for questioning, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

According to reports, at 10:30 a.m. officers were sent to the house a little more than three miles west of Leavenworth on Lecompton Road to investigate a domestic disturbance. The father, a 64-year-old man, had fled the house after a fight with his son.

The two-story house was engulfed in flames by the time officers and firefighters arrived, a spokesman said.

The house was destroyed. Investigators said they did not yet know what caused the fire.

Baker receives grants for health programs

Baker University has received $18,000 in grants from Douglas County foundations to support health on its campus.

Baker received a $15,000 grant from the Rice Foundation to support its Health Clinic, which recently relocated to a remodeled facility. The money will be used to purchase medical equipment and other furnishings and will help add a treatment room.

Baker also received a $3,000 grant from the Douglas County Community Foundation for its second annual Wellness Festival, 9 a.m. to noon April 26 in Baldwin.

Testimony continues in homicide case

“Tear this up and flush it.”

Those were the instructions scrawled at the beginning of a letter sent by Michael W. Kesselring to a co-defendant while they were in the Douglas County Jail, according to testimony Wednesday in Kesselring’s murder trial.

In the letter, Kesselring, 42, asked recipient Curtis D. Callarman to back his alibi for the night Topeka resident Dale A. Miller was shot to death in Lecompton.

Prosecutors allege Kesselring, Callarman and two other men kidnapped Miller in Topeka after he came under suspicion of stealing a stash of illegal drugs. They allege Kesselring then drove Miller to Lecompton and shot him on the side of the road.

Callarman ignored the letter’s instructions and later pleaded guilty to kidnapping in exchange for his testimony against Kesselring.

The trial continues today.

Lawrence student nominated to academy

Seth P. Readinger of Lawrence High School will be considered for the U.S. Naval Academy. Rep. Dennis Moore nominated Readinger and other high school seniors from the Third Congressional District. Those accepted into service academies will receive their official appointment this summer.