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Donavan Thompson's defense lawyer on Wednesday began questioning eyewitness accounts of the shooting of nightclub owner Teresa Hastings last summer.

Thompson, 21, is charged with first-degree murder. His lawyer, Gary Owens, argues there are too many discrepancies among eyewitnesses to definitively identify Thompson as the shooter.

Those witnesses include Russell Barrett, a friend of Hastings who grabbed her hand when the shooting started, trying to pull her to safety.

Barrett testified Wednesday he was sure Thompson fired the gun.

"I saw Donavan Thompson reach into the passenger side of a car and pull out a gun," Barrett said.

A campout for North High's senior class ended early Wednesday morning when four teens -- two current North students and two former students -- set off acid bombs on school grounds as a prank, officials said.

Wichita district security officers monitoring the campout spotted the teens on the roof of one of the school's annex buildings at about 1:15 a.m., said Capt. Max Tenbrook of the special operations bureau.

Two of the acid bombs went off on the roof, and two others went off elsewhere as the youths were being taken into custody, he said.

No injuries were reported, but "we did have to gather up all the kids and get them to go home," said Susan Arensman, a spokeswoman for the district.

The campout for seniors has been held for the past six years, Arensman said, and the seniors then welcome North's incoming freshmen the next morning for their orientation to the school.

Meth labs are on the rise again throughout Kansas, state law enforcement officials said Wednesday, making this week's launch of a Web-based pharmacy monitoring program all the more vital.

An estimated 128 pharmacies in 62 counties are taking part in MethShield, a 12-month pilot program that offers real-time reports on the sale of medications that can be used to make meth.

"Meth continues to just be a terrible problem for Kansas," said Jeff Brandau, a special agent in charge for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. "We are just inundated."

The KBI uncovered 97 meth labs through July, matching the total for all of last year. While that is well below the totals of a few years ago, Brandau said it reflects a troubling turnaround.

"It's a progression of people learning how to bypass the safeguards we have put in place" through laws limiting how much pseudoephedrine can be bought within a day or a month, Brandau said.

The leader of a group that claims to be an American Indian tribe was found guilty Wednesday of defrauding immigrants by falsely telling them tribal membership would make them U.S. citizens.

Malcolm Webber, 70, was found guilty Wednesday of six charges arising from the unrecognized tribe's efforts to sell memberships. After seven hours of deliberations, a jury in U.S. District Court in Wichita found Webber not guilty on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by submitting false passport applications.

Webber was convicted on two counts of harboring illegal immigrants, two counts of possession of false documents with intent to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy with intent to defraud the United States and one count of mail fraud.

After the verdicts were read, U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown told jurors the attorneys had agreed to have the court, rather than jurors, decide on the forfeiture of the proceeds from the criminal acts. Prosecutors estimate the fraud at about $1.2 million.

Sentencing was set for Nov 3. Webber, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read, remained free on bond.

Just hours before someone shot Teresa Hastings in the throat outside the Wichita bar she owned, she took her teenage son to see the murder mystery "Disturbia."

Later that night, June 5, 2007, a fight broke out at Half-Time Sports Bar on Harry near Hillside, and Hastings became a murder victim herself. At 42, she was gunned down after refusing to let several young gang members into her bar without showing identification, authorities and witnesses say.

As a gravely wounded Hastings lay in a growing pool of blood outside the bar door, friends and loved ones tried to save her, witnesses testified Tuesday. A bar doorman kept pressure on her wound. Someone tried to keep her airway clear. "Teresa, hold on, hold on," they pleaded.

Chris Hastings, the son who saw the murder mystery with her, testified in District Court on Tuesday that he heard gunshots as he stood near his mother in front of the bar, and that he "bent down and tried and tried to make her stop bleeding."

Donavan Thompson, 21, is on trial this week, charged with first-degree murder in Hastings' death. Thompson is also charged with aggravated battery against Brad Huffman, 26, a friend of Hastings who suffered a bullet wound in the back of his neck.

A Topeka man was sentenced to 32 months in prison Tuesday for a December shooting that killed an 18-year-old hunter.

Judge Merlin Wheeler sentenced Thomas Theron Kent, 57, in Lyon County District Court.

Beau Arndt of Americus and two friends were hunting and hiding amid goose decoys in rural Lyon County early Dec. 15 when Kent and two friends drove down a nearby road.

Kent stopped his pickup and fired a high-powered rifle into the decoys. Arndt, an Emporia State freshman, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kent was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for Arndt's death, illegal hunting and unlawful shooting.

Jurors began deliberations Tuesday in the federal trial of a man accused of selling tribal membership to immigrants by claiming it conferred U.S. citizenship and other benefits.

The defense rested without calling witnesses to the stand on behalf of Malcolm Webber, the self-proclaimed chief of the Kaweah Indian Nation. The jury deliberated about four hours Tuesday afternoon and returns to U.S. District Court today to continue its work.

Prosecutors contend the group sold tribal memberships to more than 15,000 people nationwide, often through Hispanic churches, for $50 to more than $1,000 each.

Webber's defense contended in closing arguments that he did not have any criminal intent and was simply trying to help people.

The government denied federal recognition of Webber's group in 1985, saying it was not an authentic Indian tribe and that the 70-year-old Webber, who calls himself Grand Chief Thunderbird IV, has no Indian ancestry.

The calendar may not agree, but with many Wichita area students returning to the classroom today and Thursday, summer is pretty much over.

And that means Wichita drivers will need to be alert for children and buses.

Local law enforcement officials will make sure they do.

"We're going to be monitoring the school zones as well as making sure that people yield to the stop signs on the buses," said Capt. John Speer, commander of the Patrol South bureau. "The flashing lights haven't been on all summer long. Sometimes people forget to watch for them."

Students in the sixth and ninth grades at Wichita's public schools will attend an orientation day today, said Susan Arensman, a spokeswoman for the district. The remaining students in the district will begin classes Thursday.

Wichita police are still looking for a white SUV involved in an altercation at a north Wichita nightclub early Sunday morning that left four people injured -- one of them seriously.

An argument that began inside the Babydolls nightclub, 4900 N. Arkansas, shortly before 2 a.m., escalated into a physical altercation in the parking lot, Lt. Todd Ojile said.

During the fight, an 18-year-old man was stabbed nine times in the lower back and side with a pocket knife. A second man, 28, intervened and was stabbed four times in the lower back, Ojile said.

The SUV then raced through the parking lot in an attempt to leave the scene and sideswiped a 32-year-old man later identified as the stabbing suspect, his 23-year-old female acquaintance and the second man stabbed, Ojile said.

Babydolls manager Tonya Butler said her nightclub has 30 surveillance cameras, and video from that morning has been given to the police to assist their investigation.

The first-degree murder trial of Donovan Thompson -- charged in the June 2007 shooting of bar owner Teresa Hastings -- begins today.

During jury selection Monday, prosecutor C.J. Rieg and defense lawyer Gary Owens tried to determine whether prospective jurors were up to the task.

Rieg told the nearly 40 prospective jurors seated in the courtroom: "You're going to get bits and pieces of what people saw. Does anybody have a problem with that?"

Her point: Crimes aren't clear-cut, and there are missing pieces.

At Thompson's April preliminary hearing, a witness said a fight broke out when gang members tried to force their way into Half-Time Sports Bar, 3120 E. Harry.

A lawsuit filed by three Hispanic families against the Catholic Diocese of Wichita challenging a policy that requires students to speak only English while at school goes to trial in federal court today.

"What happened at that school constitutes race discrimination under federal anti-discrimination laws -- that is why it is important. That needs to be stopped," said Christopher McHugh, the attorney representing three 12-year-old students named as plaintiffs in the civil litigation.

The lawsuit seeks an end to the policy and asks for an order barring similar policies at other Catholic schools in the Wichita diocese.

The plaintiffs are claiming the policy violates the Civil Rights Act and another federal statute by intentionally discriminating against the sixth-grade students and causing a hostile educational environment.

The diocese contended in court filings that the English-only rule is not discriminatory and did not cause a hostile environment. It contends the rule was implemented at St. Anne Catholic School as a legitimate response to inappropriate behavior by a few middle school students.

Adams, Robert C. and Falini, Sophia R., both of Wichita.

Allen, Jason L. and Wood, Kari L., both of Derby.

Allen, Matthew F. and Woltz, Mandy J., both of Andover.

Amphonephong, Army and Libby, Amy M., both of Wichita.

Aparicio, Alex R. and Gutierrez, Elsa V., both of Wichita.

Looking for clues on Barack Obama's pick for a running mate? Consider the Democratic National Convention's theme for the night the vice presidential candidate speaks: national security.

Political tea leaf readers would argue that bodes well for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del.; Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who accompanied Obama on his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan; and Sam Nunn, former Georgia senator and one-time Armed Services Committee chairman.

Democrats, who announced several of their speakers on Sunday, described their themes on Monday as well as plans for a series of town-hall meetings during the convention with elected leaders and policy experts. The convention begins Aug. 25.

"There's no question that Americans are desperately looking for change and new ways to conduct business in this country. They want a new direction, they want to know that their government has not forgotten them and their lives. We felt that the Democratic convention was a great way to kick off the momentum for change," said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a co-chair of the convention who also has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick.

She said people in eight cities will be asked their views on nightly themes for the convention built around keynote speeches and convention speakers will respond live to issues and questions from participants. The cities are Atlanta; Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Detroit; Philadelphia; Raleigh, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; and Tampa -- all are in potential swing states.

Voters will decide Nov. 4 whether to approve the state's largest bond issue for Wichita schools -- a bond made $20 million larger to include all originally proposed athletic improvements.

The school board voted unanimously Monday night to increase the bond issue from $350 million to $370 million and place it before voters the day of the presidential election.

The board's decision elicited a standing ovation from the crowd of school employees, aircraft industry executives and residents gathered to speak about the bond issue.

"This whole bond issue is about kids," said board member Connie Dietz before making a surprise motion to raise the amount of the bond proposal.

"It's about stronger futures... and it includes fine arts, tech ed and physical education."