Andanh.com

The price of gasoline has gotten so high that people have begun to steal used cooking oil.

"There's somebody, or multiple people, out there stealing our cooking oil," said Ben Healy of Healy Biodiesel in Sedgwick.

Healy's company converts used vegetable cooking oil into biodiesel, and he has contracts with more than 100 restaurants in and around Wichita to pick up their old oil.

But thieves have been cutting into locked storage areas behind restaurants since mid-March and stealing the vegetable oil, he said. While he doesn't have a precise number, Healy said, the total stolen is in the thousands of gallons.

"It's getting to where it's hurting us pretty bad," Healy said.

Service honors officers killed

The memories of her husband, Wichita police Lt. Jack Galvin, come every day. For Mary Galvin, there is no forgetting.

And she thinks it's important that the community remembers people like her husband -- law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty.

The community did just that Tuesday at the annual Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony. Hundreds of law enforcement officers and others gathered at Wichita City Hall to pay tribute to the 26 Wichita police officers and Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies.

"For family members, you don't ever forget. You live with that every day," Galvin said after the ceremony. "So it's nice that once a year that you know that the community and fellow officers, everybody can come together and remember. Remember those, because they shouldn't be forgotten."

If events go as expected, jury selection will wrap up today, the eighth day of Ted Burnett's capital murder trial. But the lawyers know not everything goes as planned.

A juror who arrived 30 minutes late for Tuesday's afternoon session was the latest hitch, as lawyers needed to qualify only a few more for the final jury pool.

The woman, a state employee, almost got a visit from the sheriff for not responding to a summons. But she arrived, as other jurors waited.

The court recessed for the day still needing four people for the final pool of 42 needed to pick a jury. Questioning resumes at 9 a.m. today.

In the first round, jurors answer questions about potential biases, and lawyers explain the trial process and some basic tenets of the law. Those questions take place in groups of 15 to 25.