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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Senate spent hours debating a bill to increase school safety and restrict gun purchases in a rare Saturday session that often turned into a debate on gun control and arming teachers in the aftermath of last month's Parkland school shootings. The Senate spent nearly eight hours debating dozens of amendments to the 100-page bill before finally approving the legislation for a final vote on Monday. Democratic proposals to ban assault rifles and large-capacity magazines were rejected, as was a Democratic p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long the subject of barbed tweets from President Donald Trump, members of the Washington press corps sharpened their wits for musical and rhetorical takedowns of the president, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others Saturday night at the annual dinner of the Gridiron Club and Foundation. Trump accepted an invitation to the 133rd anniversary dinner, his first given that he declined to attend last year. The event traces its history to 1885, the year President Grover Cleveland refused to attend. Every president since has c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service says a man shot himself to death Saturday as he stood near the fence along the north side of the White House. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were in Florida at the time. The White House says Trump has been briefed on the shooting. Authorities are seeking to notify the man's relatives and haven't released his name. Speaking for the Secret Service, Mason F. Brayman says the man approached the fence shortly before noon and fired several rounds from a handgun. Brayman says none of the s...
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is awaiting the results of a vote by her potential coalition partner — the center-left Social Democrats — to learn if she will be able to form a new government. The Social Democrats started counting ballots Saturday night that its members cast on a proposed coalition government deal with Merkel's conservatives. Party workers were to work through the night at the party's Berlin headquarters using high-speed letter opening machines. The result is expected to be announced Sunday at aroun...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in Congress have learned to ignore President Donald Trump's policy whims, knowing whatever he says one day on guns, immigration or other complicated issues could very well change by the next. But Trump's decision to seek steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has provoked rarely seen urgency among Republicans, now scrambling to convince the president that he would spark a trade war that could stall the economy's recent gains if he doesn't reverse course. The issue pits Trump's populist promises to his v...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A conservative Republican who has supported President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim that millions of illegal votes cost Trump the popular vote in 2016 will have to prove Kansas has a problem with voter fraud if he's to win a legal challenge to voter registration requirements he's championed. The case headed to trial starting Tuesday has national implications for voting rights as Republicans pursue laws they say are aimed at preventing voter fraud but that critics contend disenfranchise minorities and college s...
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Witnesses have recanted. Another man has confessed. Now, a man who was convicted in 2001 of killing a woman in his Missouri hometown is awaiting a decision from the state's highest court that could determine whether he will be released — and finally get to spend time outside of a prison visitors room with a college-age daughter who was just a baby when he was first arrested. It will be up to the Missouri Supreme Court to ultimately decide whether 49-year-old David Robinson will go free after a special master appointed to rev...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his quest to tackle gun violence, President Donald Trump has alternated between calling for tougher laws and declaring his fealty to the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, leaving a trail of befuddled lawmakers and advocates in his wake. One thing he still has not done: clearly outline his legislative priorities. Washington's week closed Friday without further explanation from the president, the White House indicating that for now, he is backing an incremental proposal on background checks and a bill that would p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under the best of circumstances, a Mideast peace deal is the Holy Grail of diplomacy, a goal that has eluded American presidents for generations. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to visit Washington this coming week, the mix of politics, personalities and historical grievances that has stood in the way of Israeli-Palestinian peace is even more combustible than normal. President Donald Trump's point man for mediation, Jared Kushner, is in the middle of a political firestorm, his plan remains a mystery and the...
MOSCOW (AP) — Tens of thousands of Russian President Vladimir Putin's supporters have gathered for a campaign rally at Moscow's sprawling main sports complex. The crowd at the rally held two weeks before Russia's presidential election filled the Luzhniki stadium, which has the capacity for more than 81,000 people. Police estimated the overall turnout at the complex, which includes other sports facilities, to be 130,000. The event on Saturday featured entertainers and an appearance by Putin. He told the cheering crowd: "We want to make our c...
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Trae Young heard the familiar shouts as he tried to focus during his pregame warmup routine. About a half hour before Oklahoma tipped off its comeback win over Kansas in late January, a small group of children gathered near the court and yelled his name, hoping the hometown hero would notice. The dynamic freshman did more than just hear. He stopped his routine and walked over to pose for photos and shake hands with the kids before going back to shooting. "I remember me being that kid growing up," said Young , who was a b...
CHANDLER, Okla. (AP) — A psychologist says a 14-year-old boy charged with first-degree murder in the crossbow killing of a 10-year-old friend in Oklahoma can be rehabilitated if his case is diverted to juvenile court. The death happened last fall in the small town of Chandler, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City. Authorities say 10-year-old Austin Almanza was fatally struck by an arrow, which traveled through his body and then pierced his 8-year-old brother in the arm. Prosecutors charged the then-13-year-old boy as an a...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of a pair of separate crashes that left two people dead. The patrol says a 6-year-old girl died after two vehicles collided Friday afternoon at an intersection in Okmulgee County near Beggs. Nineteen-year-old Angela D. Taylor died from her injuries early Saturday after being involved in a crash Friday morning near Milburn in Johnston County. The patrol says the unidentified 6-year-old was a passenger in a vehicle that collided with a truck in the intersection of S...
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Police say charges are pending against a person identified as a first responder who allegedly spit on and called a child by a racial slur in a suburban Kansas City restaurant. The incident happened Monday night at a Hooters restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. Police Sgt. John Lacy told The Kansas City Star that the suspect is a first responder, but didn't say for which agency. Lacy says the person doesn't work in Kansas. Police told KCTV that possible charges could include battery and making a criminal threat. P...
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Officials say a prisoner has died after being found unresponsive in her cell at the Johnson County Detention Center in Olathe. The Johnson County Sheriff's Office says in a news release that 59-year-old Wanda Denise Kendrick was found unconscious in her cell Friday morning while jail staff were conducting a welfare check. Staff attempted to resuscitate her, and she was taken to a nearby hospital. She was declared dead later that afternoon. Officials say Kendrick was alone in the cell. She had been jailed since Feb. 23 on t...
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A political party promoting third-party candidates in Kansas is joining with a Denver-based organization to place centrist politicians on November ballots in the 2018 election. The Party of the Center, which started in Lawrence, announced Wednesday that it had signed an agreement with a Denver-based organization, Serve America Movement, to gather 18,000 signatures in Kansas by June 1 to support giving Kansans a third option in this year's election, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported . "We are excited that SAM has found i...
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence is making plans for its high schools to start 25 minutes later in August 2019 because research shows teens need the sleep. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that school board member Rick Ingram has long called for later start times. He cites research that indicates it improves academic performance, attendance and graduation rates while reducing tardiness, teen vehicle accident rates and sports injuries. This past week, the board directed staff to begin planning to start high school classes at 8:30 a.m. during t...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — No crop is probably as synonymous with Kansas as winter wheat, and the latest government report is now offering industry watchers a variety-by-variety breakdown. The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the leading variety of wheat seeded in Kansas for the sixth consecutive year is Everest. It accounts for 9.3 percent of the state's 2018 planted wheat acres. That is followed by a variety called SY Monument at 6.6 percent and one called T158 at 6 percent. The wheat variety project is funded by the K...
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas will use a $1 million gift to provide scholarships to LGBTQ students. The university announced Thursday that 60-year-old Chad Leat donated the gift this week to his alma mater. Leat, of New York City, is retired vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup. Leat, a native of Tonganoxie, had already established a scholarship fund through the KU Endowment in 2006, with a goal of promoting a multicultural, inclusive environment at the university. The university says the new scholarship is one of t...
The United States is in the midst of a national debate over school security after the mass shooting at a Florida school. To President Donald Trump and some gun supporters, the solution is to put more guns in the hands of trained school staff — including teachers — to "play defense" against a rampaging gunman. The rest of the world has different strategies to deal with violence around schools. But the U.S. appears to be the only place in the world where some want to arm teachers to the degree the president wants. Rather, emergency drills, armed...
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A group of Natrona County High School students is planning to walk out of class next week to show solidarity with the victims of school shootings and not as a statement against guns. The Casper Star-Tribune reports the walkout is set for Wednesday morning, three weeks after 17 people were gunned down in a Florida high school by a former student carrying an assault weapon. Hunter Bullard, a senior and one of the primary organizers, says she expects at least 50 students to participate, and the event was intentionally not s...
BAYTOWN, Texas (AP) — Police at a Houston-area school have detained a 15-year-old boy who was found with a loaded gun on campus and reported by other students. Officials with the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District say no one was harmed Friday at Ross S. Sterling High School in Baytown. Classmates who learned the freshman had a gun notified school authorities. District spokeswoman Beth Dombrowa says the teen never made threats and there's no indication that he intended to harm anyone. She says district police took the j...
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Public schools in New Mexico's second most populous city saw a big spike in student absences following unsubstantiated threats to some schools in days following the deadly shooting on Feb. 14 at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the scares likely were a factor in the near 4,900 unexcused absences Feb. 22 and Feb. 23 in the Las Cruces school district. The district's reported enrollment this school year is nearly 25,000. About half of Las Cruces High School's students were absent F...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — With dueling hearings and panels in the wake of Florida's school massacre, Arkansas' Republican governor and lawmakers have made it clear they want school security on the agenda when they return to the Capitol for next year's session. But, unlike Republican counterparts in other states and even the president, they're declaring the issue of gun control off-limits. A commission Gov. Asa Hutchinson formed to look at school safety issues puts the former congressman in a familiar spot five years after he spearheaded a s...
