Did you know that it’s illegal to carry a weapon in Kansas if you’re drunk?

If your blood-alcohol content is greater than .08 percent — the same level needed for a DUI — you’re not allowed to have a gun in your possession, according to Kansas statute.

You may not have heard of the law because it’s not often enforced, (though my colleague Karen Dillon wrote this story on it last month.) But Douglas County appears to have had its first arrest on the statute early Saturday morning. Karen reported in her article in that no one had ever been charged with the offense in Douglas County as of August.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 34-year-old Olathe man just before 2 a.m. Saturday on suspicion of DUI in the 2400 block of O’Connell Road.

The arrest was made after a deputy stopped the man for a traffic infraction at mile marker 5 of Kansas Highway 10. The man was suspected of being intoxicated, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Sgt. Kristen Dymacek said Tuesday.

After he was placed under arrest, the deputy allegedly found brass knuckles (which are illegal to own in Kansas) and a loaded handgun in the man’s vehicle.

He was later booked into the Douglas County Jail on suspicion of three charges: DUI, possession of a firearm under the influence and “criminal possession of club/knife.” The man was released from jail on Sunday after posting a $2,000 bond.
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I’ve been going on a lot of fire calls this past month that have turned out to be nothing.

It’s not that school children are pulling fire alarms, or that folks want to test how fast the fire trucks can get to their house from initial call to arrival time. People are legitimately seeing smoke, but without any fire.

Over the past month, the city’s Utilities Department has been smoke testing. That’s when city workers seal off manholes and pump smoke down into them to see if sewer pipes buried deep beneath Lawrence have any cracks or holes.

If the pipes are damaged, the smoke will seep out of the cracks, up through the soil and into the air, Utilities Department management analyst Jeanette Klamm told me. That visible smoke then acts as an indicator of where city workers need to make repairs.

Klamm said the smoke is nontoxic and not hazardous. If some of the smoke makes it into your home, Klamm said to simply open a window and air out the space.

But when people see smoke rising from the ground behind their neighbor’s house, or, as what happened this past weekend – at Checkers Foods, 2300 Louisiana St., many get alarmed and call dispatchers.

Firefighters are aware of smoke testing locations, but still have to investigate each call. (And typically so do I, as public safety reporter.) I don’t know how many of these false-alarm calls dispatchers have taken this smoke-testing session, but I know I’ve been out to at least four.

The city is nearly finished with smoke testing for the season, Klamm said. It ceased after Monday’s rain (smoke can’t seep through mud), but it’s expected to start back up on Thursday and last through next week.

Klamm said that city employees will be smoke testing from 20th to 23rd streets from Alabama to Iowa streets. So if you’re in that area and you’re seeing smoke rising from the ground, rest assured, it’s probably not the apocalypse.
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And now for our regular 911 call roundup. As always, I’ll remind you that this is a list of noteworthy calls I pulled from the Lawrence Police Department call log. Not all calls yielded police reports, and many may have gone unsubstantiated. The list is meant to give you an idea of what kinds of calls police are responding to within a given time period.

This list is a collection of calls that police responded to between Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning:

Violence

• Disturbance (verbal or physical arguments): 25

• Domestic disturbance: 13

• Domestic battery: 8

• Fight in progress: 4

• Battery: 3

Traffic

• Injury accident: 3

• Noninjury accident: 25

Medical

• Medical: 14

• Suicide threat: 3

• Suicide attempt: 1

Person crimes

• Sex crime report: 1

• Harassment: 5

• Criminal threat: 1

Miscellaneous

• Police pursuit: 1

• Suspicious activity: 13

• Suspicious activity with weapons: 2

• Fireworks: 1

• Indecent exposure: 12

• Noise or Nuisance: 31

• Vicious animal: 5

Welfare

• Child welfare check: 3

• Adult welfare check: 27

• Animal welfare check: 8

• Missing adult: 2

Substance concerns

• Drug activity: 5

• Alcohol complaint: 18

• Alcohol poisoning: 6

Property crimes

• Burglary: 4

• Burglary attempt:

• Auto burglary: 6

• Stolen vehicle: 4

• Theft: 7

• Criminal damage: 6

• Trespassing: 12

• Forgery: 2

• Shoplifting: 5