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The question of whether a Haysville nurse accused of running a "pill mill" with her husband should remain in prison until her trial came down Thursday to the believability of a jailhouse informant's testimony.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick did not rule Thursday, saying he would issue a written order later in the case against Linda Schneider, who is charged with her husband, Stephen Schneider, in a federal indictment linking their clinic to the accidental overdose deaths of 56 patients.

Stephen Schneider was released in April pending his trial, but prosecutors contend Linda Schneider is a flight risk and should remain in jail.

At issue was the testimony of inmate Stacey Hill, who read from a letter she had written to U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway claiming she had information about Linda Schneider's efforts to get a false birth certificate and Social Security card in case she was released.

"You may not need to hear or know what I know. But the offer is here," wrote Hill, who was imprisoned with Linda Schneider for a time at the Butler County Jail.

Federal explosive charges were filed Thursday against two men in a case that prompted Wichita police to issue a warning earlier in the week that dangerous explosives were being sold on the black market.

Darrell E. Cook, 33, and Shane A. Knoffloch, 36, both of Wichita, were being held on $250,000 bond after they were charged with one count of possession of stolen explosive materials. They are scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court in Wichita.

The item identified in court papers was a detonating cord that can burn underwater and is similar to fuses used in mining operations.

Police issued their warning Monday after Crime Stoppers got a call from a man who said someone had offered to sell him detonating cord and 3-foot tubes of explosives. Police said Thursday that the tubes have not been recovered.

Court records show that on Tuesday, the day after police issued the warning, someone called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and said he wanted to turn in a 5,000-foot spool of detonating cord. The Wichita police bomb squad later took custody of the cord.

The night before his 2-year-old daughter, Daytona, went to a hospital with severe head injuries, Tommy Robertson argued with his new wife, Katie Cornejo-Robertson.

He was 32; she was 27. They had been married a little over a month. Daytona had been a flower girl at their wedding. He told his wife that he didn't like how she was disciplining the girl, Robertson testified Thursday in a preliminary hearing in Sedgwick County District Court.

At the end of the one-hour hearing, after listening to three witnesses, District Judge Clark Owens found sufficient evidence for Cornejo-Robertson to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge in Daytona's death in February.

Cornejo-Robertson's public defender entered a not-guilty plea. The trial is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Cornejo-Robertson would "holler" at her stepdaughter, place her away from her father at the table, put her in "time-out" for too long and yank her by the arm, Robertson told a courtroom filled with his family and her relatives.

The man who shot and seriously wounded a Wichita police officer late Friday before killing himself was likely in the country illegally and struggled with mental illness, police said Wednesday.

Family members in Mexico identified the shooter as 26-year-old Francisco Aguilar, Lt. Ken Landwehr said.

"We cannot confirm that he was here illegally," Landwehr said. "We have to assume that he is.... His ID card from Mexico was fake."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have Aguilar in its records, Landwehr said.

"They have never had contact with him, even after checking his fingerprints" to see if he was listed under another name, Landwehr said.

Four women were arrested during a prostitution sting in south Wichita on Tuesday, police said.

One of them was a 16-year-old girl from Barton County who had absconded from her parole. The other women were 35, 38 and 45, arrest records show.

The sting involved four undercover police officers who worked along South Broadway and other streets in the area, police said.

A Shawnee County judge on Tuesday agreed that Westar Energy Inc. must reimburse former chief executive officer David Wittig for legal fees in his ongoing criminal case, but awarded much less than Wittig sought.

District Court Judge David Bruns ordered the Topeka-based utility to pay Wittig $1.67 million for legal bills his attorneys generated between February 2005 and June 2006.

Wittig had sought $2.55 million, and a special master appointed by the court recommended in November that he receive $2.46 million.

Wittig and Douglas Lake, Westar's former chief strategy officer, were indicted in 2003 on charges of using a series of alleged schemes to increase their compensation and perks at Westar and trying to hide it from shareholders and regulators.

They were convicted on all counts in their second trial in 2005, but those charges were thrown out by an appeals court last year.

Former Andover chiropractor Terry Farney will be in Butler County District Court on July 25 to face a charge of sexual battery.

Assistant Butler County Attorney Darrin Devinney said Tuesday that the charge, a misdemeanor, was related to an incident with someone 16 or older that occurred in July 2003.

Neither Farney, who has surrendered his license, nor his attorney could be reached for comment Tuesday.

In April, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which oversees chiropractors and other doctors, filed a petition alleging sexual misconduct against Farney.

The petition alleged that, between about 1989 and July 2007, he inappropriately touched the genital areas of five patients ranging in age from 11 to 50 and that he failed to produce records for some patients after being subpoenaed for them.

A Sedgwick County judge said Tuesday that he will rule within the next two weeks on whether to dismiss criminal charges against abortion provider George Tiller.

A written decision will be issued before a July 29 status conference with attorneys in the case against Tiller, Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens said. He did not indicate how he would rule.

A decision on the defense request for dismissal on constitutional grounds has been pending since a November hearing on the matter.

The Kansas Attorney General's Office filed 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller in June 2007, alleging he broke a 1998 state law requiring that a second, independent Kansas physician sign off on most late-term abortions. Two doctors, without financial or legal ties, must conclude that if the pregnancy continues, the mother will die or face "substantial and irreversible" harm to "a major bodily function," which has been interpreted to include mental health.

Tiller relied on Ann Kristin Neuhaus of Nortonville for his second opinion for abortions in 2003, and she had a financial relationship with him that is against the law, according to the criminal complaint.

Police are asking for help locating high-grade explosives they believe someone is trying to sell illegally in the Wichita area.

Just one of the 3-foot packages of the explosive police described Monday could blow a house to pieces, said Lt. Chris Bannister, who runs the bomb squad for the Wichita Police Department.

"It would be a tremendous explosion," he said.

There are many details police and federal investigators don't know about this case.

They think whoever brought the explosives to Wichita is probably not a terrorist. They don't know how much explosive material is allegedly being peddled.

At Robert Abner's first Sedgwick County court appearance Monday, he told the judge that he was aware of the charges against him in the June 23 robbery, kidnapping and rape of a Viola convenience store clerk.

But then District Judge Eric Yost told Abner that a protective order prohibits him from having any contact with J.P. --initials for Joyce Patterson, the woman who authorities say is the victim of the crimes. And when Yost asked Abner if he knew who J.P. was, Abner said, "I have no idea."

"I think your attorney will explain that to you," Yost said.

Abner, 39, is charged with one count of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and six counts of rape.

About three days after the 48-year-old clerk disappeared from the store that June afternoon, her abductor released her outside her family's pastor's home. Authorities said that public pleas from her husband and the pastor for her safe return apparently swayed the abductor.

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

Beat 11

Aggravated assault

1400 block of N. West St., man, 29, July 3.

800 block of Nims, woman, 42, July 5.

Boone, Thaddeus A. and Dowell, Erica R., both of Wichita.

Breeden, Samuel L. Jr. and Jackson, Katrina D., both of Wichita.

Brown, Christopher M. and Reagans, Tina R., both of Wichita.

Carethers, Collier R. and Cobbins, Vivian J., both of Wichita.

Chooncharoen, Steven D. and Otto, Lisa C., both of Augusta.

Quality of life issues -- health care, education and good-paying jobs -- dominate the District 29 Democratic primary for an open state Senate seat.

Rep. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, 48, and Kelechi "KC" Ohaebosim, 29, both see jobs that pay a living wage as important to the district.

Roughly half the voters in the district are registered Democrats. About 17 percent graduated from college. About 60 percent of households have an annual income of less than $35,000.

Bringing new living-wage jobs into the community is imperative, Faust-Goudeau said.

"I hear so often that the costs of living goes up, but our wages stay the same," she said.

Democrats' complaints prompted Republican Sen. Pat Roberts to modify his latest television ad, but he hasn't dropped a theme that could be helping his re-election campaign in the short term.

Roberts' campaign made what spokeswoman Molly Haase described as "two small tweaks" over questions of whether the 30-second spot complied with a federal "Stand by Your Ad" requirement.

The questions were raised by Mike Gaughan, the Kansas Democratic Party's executive director, in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission.

Democrats continued Thursday to criticize the GOP incumbent because the ad attacks former Rep. Jim Slattery, the Democrats' leading Senate candidate. And a Slattery aide acknowledged that Roberts' advertising may have widened the gap between the two candidates in recent weeks.

"Anytime you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars running negative ads against your opponent, they will likely have some effect," said Slattery spokeswoman Abbie Hodgson.

A conservative organization based in Texas is reaching out to pastors and their churches in Johnson County before the Aug. 5 primary.

Rev. Rick Scarborough, who founded Vision America, said this week that his group will not be endorsing any candidate. But Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, who is seeking a full four-year term, is expected to share his faith at three of four events set up for clergy and at a public rally July 28.

Scarborough said Kline will appear not as a candidate but as district attorney.

"We can't endorse a candidate and don't, but we do hope people will vote not as Republicans or Democrats but as followers of Christ," Scarborough said. "We try to get Christians to vote their biblical values."

Kline faces former prosecutor Steve Howe in the Republican primary. The winner will face Democrat Rick Guinn in November.

Sen. John McCain on Thursday renewed his call for a brief gas tax holiday -- and quickly ran into a political fender-bender with his new Missouri campaign chairman, Sen. Kit Bond.

The Republican told an estimated 1,200 people at Union Station that suspending the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel would help put millions of dollars into the hands of businesses and lower-income Americans.

Such a holiday, he later told the Kansas City Star, could be justified by cutting wasteful spending: "The most pork-barrel-laden aspect of everything we do are the highway bills."

One of the most vocal supporters of past highway bills? Bond, appointed this week as McCain's state chair.

"Sen. Bond and I have strong disagreement -- have strong disagreement on pork-barrel spending," McCain said. "We have fought on the floor of the Senate, and I think the American people are fed up with earmark, pork-barrel spending, which has caused corruption."

Republican voters will see two candidates' names on the primary ballot for the District 10 seat on the Kansas Board of Education, but only one says he wants the job.

David Dennis, a teacher at North High School, said he wants to take over the seat of board Chairman Steve Abrams, who is instead running for state Senate this year.

Dennis' initial opponent, former Wichita school board member Marty Marshall, said he decided not to campaign for the office about 1 ½ weeks after the filing deadline of June 10 for family reasons.

His name will appear on the Aug. 5 ballot because he could not remove it after the filing deadline.

"There was no point fighting it out with someone I have a lot of agreement with," Marshall said.

"I will end this war as president."

"I know how to win wars."

One quote was by Barack Obama; one was by John McCain, both Tuesday.

If you've been paying attention, you will know which is which.

Obama, the Democrat, got his start as the left's favorite by saying he would end the war by getting out. That was when all the news from Iraq was bad.

Three of four Republican candidates for Sedgwick County sheriff said during a Tuesday night debate that they had reservations about a planned 384-bed expansion of the Sedgwick County Jail.

"I'm far from convinced that the $50 million expansion is necessary," Wichita's Deputy Police Chief Robert Lee said.

Bel Aire police Lt. Carl Enterkin said that before proceeding with the plan, he wants to make sure all other options for housing low-risk inmates have been exhausted.

Garden Plain Lt. Dal Astle agreed.

"I'm not ready to endorse expansion," he said.

The Kansas Democratic Party has complained that a recent Pat Roberts for Senate ad violates federal rules.

In a formal complaint Monday to the Federal Election Commission, Democrats contended that Roberts is "obscured" in the ad, and that his disclaimer approving the message comes at the beginning instead of at the end, as the law requires.

Roberts, a Republican, is running for a third term. Former Kansas Democratic congressman Jim Slattery is viewed by Democrats as their leading candidate.

"While these requirements are technical," Democrats told the FEC, "they serve an important purpose: They require candidates to endorse, clearly and plainly, the content of their advertisements."

But the Roberts campaign was unapologetic.

The race for Sedgwick County clerk has two of the county's top Republican political activists competing for a job that has little, if anything, to do with politics.

On one side of the GOP primary is Sarah Skelton, former Wichita school board member and former president and current vice president of the Wichita Pachyderm Club, one of the area's most active Republican groups.

On the other side is Kelly Arnold, chairman and former executive director of the Sedgwick County Republican Party.

Both are practiced politicians and both are working to sway voters through frequent personal appearances at events such as the Cheney parade and the Sedgwick County Fair.

The differences in the two candidates' approach to the office are fairly subtle.

SARAH SKELTON

Age: 42

Family: Husband, Jim; daughters Melissa and Macey

Occupation: Co-owner of painting and remodeling firm

Education: Wichita South High School graduate; attended Wichita State University