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Walking across the grounds of Parklane Apartments, Wichita police Officer David Hinners stops to talk to two maintenance workers buzzing by on a golf-type cart.

A few bags of trash are tied up on the trailer behind them, and Hinners talks to the workers on a first-name basis.

The brick-faced duplexes are in the heart of the area of Wichita that has seen the biggest drop in crime recently, according to an analysis of statistics by The Eagle.

The area is bordered by Harry to the south, Lincoln to the north, Oliver to the west and Edgemoor to the east.

It's part of the community policing beat that Hinners coordinates.

Wichita police arrested 14 people during a prostitution sting Thursday and Friday.

Twelve of the arrests were made in a section of northeast Wichita _ from Second to 13th streets between Cleveland and Hillside _ that the city recently added as an "anti-prostitution emphasis area."

The city has two other emphasis areas, in which a violation can carry a penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Among the arrests was a man who was arrested on charges of pimping -- his sister -- and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

According to police, an officer working as a decoy was in a car making a deal with a woman when her brother jumped into the back seat and demanded money.

A retired Oklahoma doctor has appealed his prison sentence for illegally distributing prescription drugs through an Internet pharmacy, claiming federal prosecutors coerced his guilty plea by offering to dismiss charges against his cancer-stricken wife in exchange.

U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown on Friday granted a request by Wilbur D. Hilst, 76, to remain free pending his appeal. Earlier this month, Brown sentenced Hilst to 33 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit $20,129 from a bank account after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a scheme to unlawfully distribute controlled substances.

His attorneys argued in court documents filed Thursday that the government put Hilst in an "untenable position" by prosecuting his wife along with him in the government's case over the operation of Red Mesa Pharmacy in Wichita.

Margaret Hilst, 77, is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and suffers from osteoporosis, his attorneys said. She already had undergone one hip replacement surgery and will likely need a total replacement of her other hip.

The couple, who live in Wewoka, Okla., have been married for 52 years.

Two men apparently shot and killed each other Friday in what police called a "drug house-type robbery" in northeast Wichita.

Police identified the two as 35-year-old John C. Reed and 17-year-old Terrence E. Phillips.

According to police, Phillips went inside a home in the 2300 block of East Random, near Eighth and Grove, at about 12:45 a.m. and confronted Reed. Both men were armed.

"Both fired shots at each other. Both struck each other," said Wichita police Capt. Jeff Easter.

When police arrived, they found Reed in the street and Phillips inside.

Two of the most charismatic leaders in the anti-abortion movement are tied up in a legal battle over who owns the name Operation Rescue.

Randall Terry of Washington, D.C., has filed suit against Troy Newman of Wichita.

Newman registered the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in December 2006. This week, Terry filed suit before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel the registration.

For Terry, who became the face of the anti-abortion movement in the late 1980s, the fight is not just about a name, but also the potential for contributions to the anti-abortion cause.

"I believe this is all about money and honor," Terry said from Steubenville, Ohio, where he said he was preparing to deliver a speech at Franciscan University on Friday. "I want the honor, and Troy wants the money."

Federal prosecutors said Friday that authorities have broken up a drug ring that smuggled hundreds of pounds of drugs into Wichita from Mexico over the past 3 ½ years.

Local, state and federal agents this week arrested 18 of 25 suspects who were named in indictments that were unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Wichita.

U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said the 32-count indictment accuses the suspects of taking part in a drug trafficking conspiracy that shipped the drugs to Wichita from January 2005 through July 2007.

During the investigation, agents seized more than 500 grams of methamphetamine, more than four kilograms of cocaine and nearly a ton of marijuana, prosecutors said.

The suspects, 23 of whom listed Wichita addresses, range in age from 20 to 64. The indictments do not specify how many were U.S. citizens.

A state senator is among the most recent candidates to file for Sedgwick County district judge in a field that includes two new seats.

Phil Journey, 52, filed to trade in his Senate seat for a judge's robe Thursday. He'll face two other Republicans, Jeff Dewey and Michael Foster, in the Aug. 5 primary for the seat recently vacated by Karl Friedel.

Journey joins a line of former lawmakers who have run for the Sedgwick County bench. Legislative experience helped Eric Yost, Anthony Powell and Jeff Goering win their judicial elections.

Loren Houk, 58, also filed Thursday to run against Judge Dan Brooks, a 15-year veteran of the bench in juvenile court. Houk is one of the few Democrats to file for judge.

Journey and Houk are among eight candidates who have filed this month. The filing deadline is noon June 10.

When day care provider Jessica Cummings put 13-month-old Kailee Hundley into a car seat March 25, she fastened the top harness but not the bottom one.

Then she left the girl unattended in a day care home bathroom and did not check on her for about 2 ½ hours, a Wichita police detective testified Thursday.

During that time, Kailee slid down in the seat and choked on the straps, said Detective Wendy Hummell, the only witness at Cummings' preliminary hearing.

After listening to Hummell, District Judge Joseph Bribiesca found sufficient evidence for Cummings to stand trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, a felony.

Bribiesca called Kailee's death a "terrible tragedy" and said it will be up to a jury to decide whether Cummings is criminally liable. He scheduled her trial for Aug. 18.

Prosecutors on Wednesday defended the constitutionality of federal drug laws, spurning defense arguments seeking dismissal of an indictment charging a Haysville physician with illegally prescribing narcotic painkillers linked to 56 overdose deaths.

The court documents were filed by the government in the criminal case against Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda.

Defense attorneys challenged the Controlled Substances Act as unconstitutionally vague because it fails to fully inform physicians of what specific conduct is illegal and therefore criminalizes their medical decisions.

But prosecutors cited a litany of previous court rulings supporting their contention that the act allows Congress to regulate medical practice by barring doctors from writing prescriptions as a way to engage in illicit drug dealing.

The government argued that the allegations against the Schneiders were matters of fact for a jury to determine, and the statute was not unconstitutionally vague.

Sedgwick County commissioners on Wednesday kicked off a new effort to reduce jail overcrowding and better handle repeat drug offenders.

The commission agreed to spend $96,282 to establish a Sedgwick County Drug Court Program, which has been in the works for more than a year.

The money will cover three staff positions -- to be filled no later than July -- and costs for computers, phones and training expenses.

Instead of jail time, the program would require participants to engage in an intensive treatment regimen that includes checking in with probation officers, attorneys and judges as often as once a week. The program, set to begin in October, would also include job preparation, career building and life skills development. It's modeled after a similar drug court in Emporia, which launched in 2003.

People whose probation has been revoked are the Sedgwick County program's initial targets.

On Wednesday afternoon, Terri Brooks walked up to the man whose son had been convicted of killing her daughter. "I don't know what to say," she remembered telling Will Burnett, the stepfather who raised Ted Burnett. "But my thoughts are with you."

"It was a horrible thing," she remembered Will Burnett saying.

They talked briefly as a jury deliberated whether Ted Burnett should spend his life in prison or die by lethal injection for strangling 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks.

Little more than two hours later, jurors announced they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the death penalty. That means Ted Burnett will instead spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"You know they're hurting, too, in a different way," Terri Brooks said of the Burnett family. "They have a tragedy, too."

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency Wednesday for a man sentenced to die for the firebomb killing of a Japanese student 13 years ago.

The five-member board voted unanimously to deny clemency for Terry Lyn Short, 47. Short is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 17 for the January 1995 killing of 22-year-old Ken Yamamoto, who died after Short threw a firebomb into the apartment of his ex-girlfriend, who lived below Yamamoto.

The board rejected Short's request for clemency after Short appeared via video connection from death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Short acknowledged that he threw the firebomb but claimed he did not intend to kill the victim, whom he did not know.

It was the first time Short had admitted publicly that he threw a gasoline-filled bottle into the apartment, where five people, including two children, were living.

"I take full responsibility," said Short, who was wearing a blue prison uniform and large glasses. "I feel bad about this whole situation, and not just for me.

Aaron, Brandon C and Fraser, Christie L., both of Wichita.

Albert, Marco B. and Atkinson, Diane C., both of Wichita.

Arndt, Michael S. and Wilson, Monique M., both of Mt. Hope.

Ayla, Antonio and Hernandez, Candy, both of Wichita.

Bammel, Paul M., South Hamilton, Ma., and Lawrence, Amanda M., Derby.

Criminal complaints from police beats in Wichita. Missing dates indicate days where no reports were filed.

Beat 11

Burglary

700 block of N. Sheridan, May 20.

Drug offense

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius hosted a reception for George Tiller last year at her official residence, while the controversial Wichita abortion provider was under investigation by the state.

Sebelius said Tiller won the reception after bidding the most for it at a silent auction sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus. Sebelius donated her time to help the caucus raise money, something she said she's done before.

"It's not something where I can choose the guest," she said Wednesday.

But anti-abortion groups Operation Rescue and Kansans for Life argued that the reception shows how cozy Sebelius is with Tiller. Operation Rescue released photos Wednesday that it said are of the event in April 2007.

One shows Sebelius, standing near a man who appears to be Tiller, holding up a political T-shirt celebrating her election wins, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson and former Attorney General Paul Morrison, all abortion rights supporters.