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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.

Property crime was up 4 percent last year in Wichita, a jump that concerns police officials. And with burglaries and thefts showing double-digit increases over the first four months of 2008, police are blunt about their need for help in turning around the trend.

"Citizens need to be involved in this, or crime is going to go up," Deputy Chief Tom Stolz said. "I don't know how else to say it."

Police Chief Norman Williams said federal funds that once helped his department are being diverted to homeland security. That, he said, is forcing police to operate with fewer resources.

And in order to do that, he said, police must rely on residents to report suspicious activity and practice crime prevention techniques.

"Times have changed," Williams said. "We can't put an officer on every street corner."

Authorities in Mexico have granted the extradition of Israel Mireles to the United States to stand trial in the murder of Emily Sander, the Kansas Attorney General's Office announced Tuesday.

Mireles has the right to appeal the ruling. The deadline for an appeal is believed to be Friday, said Ashley Anstaett, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.

Mireles, 25, faces capital murder, rape and sodomy charges in the Nov. 24 death of Sander, 18, of El Dorado.

Authorities allege Mireles left a bar near El Dorado with Sander and killed her before going to Mexico. Mexican police arrested him Dec. 19.

-- Stan Finger

Edgar Richard's lawyer and prosecutors have agreed in principle on a plan that would allow the injured, mentally ill jail inmate to be released to a private care facility.

There would be conditions for the release, which would have to be approved by a judge, Bill Cummings, Richard's lawyer, said Tuesday.

On Feb. 15, Richard suffered a severely broken jaw and other injuries in an incident involving a Sedgwick County jail deputy. Sheriff's officials said an altercation occurred when Richard tried to leave his cell. Local and federal authorities are investigating the incident.

At the time of the incident, he was accused of violating his probation. He had been accused of carrying a concealed weapon -- a kitchen knife -- and accused of exposing himself.

About a week ago, Richard was returned to the jail from a Wichita hospital where he had been treated.

A 44-year-old McPherson man was arrested Tuesday and accused of capital murder in the May 18 strangulation death of an 85-year-old woman in a Buhler retirement home.

Marvin J. Gifford Jr. was arrested in McPherson County, where he is serving a two-year sentence for lewd and lascivious behavior. Jailers said he began that sentence May 29.

Law enforcement officials said Gifford also has been linked to a series of other attacks and attempted attacks on elderly women in recent weeks in Reno County.

Pearl Arthaud died May 18 at the Buhler Sunshine Meadows Retirement Community.

Prosecutors said Arthaud survived a March 21 attack in which she was sexually assaulted and strangled. They said Gifford allegedly returned to her apartment two months later and killed her.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they will seek the death penalty against Jason Tisdale,, one of 28 alleged Crips gang members accused of operating a racketeering enterprise to sell drugs.

"The defendant killed three people in order to advance his position and reputation in the Crips street gang and to advance the reputation of the Crips," U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said in a statement.

Federal prosecutors in Wichita have used the federal death penalty law in three other cases, but none resulted in a death penalty that survived an appeal.

The indictment charges Tisdale, 28, and his co-defendants with using violence to protect their drug trafficking operations. The indictments cited four murders and 11 attempted murders from 1992 to 2006.

Tisdale is charged with the Feb. 3, 1998, killing of Tisha Jones and Keith James, who were shot in a duplex at 2226 S. Glendale that they shared with their 7-month-old daughter. At the time of her death, police said, Jones was scheduled to testify as a witness in a robbery trial of a Crips gang member.

Storm damage may make this the month to call for home repairs. But if repairmen you didn't call knock on your door, be wary.

Wichita police warn they may be part of a traveling scam.

Detective Bradley Bryant said the con men tell homeowners they have been working in the area and have leftover materials to repair the resident's roof, home or driveway.

The scam is not new. Bryant said these traveling repairmen usually appear in the Wichita area in the spring or after severe storms.

Three incidents involving elderly victims have been reported locally so far.

With time running out, the grand jury investigating abortion provider George Tiller has yet to see any medical records subpoenaed directly from the doctor, the judge overseeing the panel said.

District Judge Paul Buchanan told the Associated Press that independent experts reviewing the records have gotten fewer than 20 redacted medical files so far in the first installment from Tiller. Jurors have not yet received them.

The two experts, a doctor and a lawyer, will review the material before it goes the grand jury. Buchanan said he expects to eventually receive a sampling of between 160 and 170 redacted files dating from Jan. 1, 2004 to the present.

The grand jury's term expires July 8, and under Kansas law cannot be extended again, said Judge Michael Corrigan, the county's chief judge.

"They have a lot to do by July 8 and it is questionable how quick it will take to get something done," Corrigan said.

It's the only way Tory Bowen knows to honestly describe what happened to her.

She was raped.

But a judge prohibited her from uttering the word "rape" in front of a jury. The term "sexual assault" also was taboo, and Bowen could not refer to herself as a victim or use the word "assailant" to describe the man who allegedly raped her.

The defendant's presumption of innocence and right to a fair trial trumps Bowen's right of free speech, said the Lincoln, Neb., judge who issued the order.

"It shouldn't be up to a judge to tell me whether or not I was raped," Bowen said. "I should be able to tell the jury in my own words what happened to me."

A 44-year-old man accused of raping and killing an 85-year-old woman at a Buhler retirement community faces a preliminary hearing July 28.

Marvin J. Gifford Jr. of McPherson is accused of killing Pearl Arthaud in her independent-living apartment at the Sunshine Meadows Retirement Community in Buhler on May 18 and could face the death penalty.

Gifford is also accused of two sexual assaults on elderly women in the Hutchinson area in late March and early April. He was arrested after he began serving a two-year sentence in McPherson County for a 2006 conviction for lewd and lascivious behavior. He has also been convicted of attempted aggravated sexual battery there.

Gifford made his first appearance Friday in Reno County District Court.

A preliminary hearing allows prosecutors to present evidence for why they believe a trial is warranted.

The founder of one of the anti-abortion movement's most famous organizations said Friday in Wichita that the movement is badly weakened --"on the ropes" -- in part because the nation's clergy have lost their desire to pursue the cause and in part because young people don't care.

Speaking at a news conference he called at the Hyatt Regency Wichita, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry said the movement has lost steam because religious leaders have lost courage, young people have lost interest, and many churches fear taking on the fight.

While some leaders of the anti-abortion movement were willing to endorse presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights,Terry said, he was arrested earlier this year protesting abortion outside one of Giuliani's campaign offices in New Hampshire.

Reporters at the news conference asked Terry if another reason for weakness in the movement might be infighting between him and other anti-abortion leaders, such as Troy Newman.

Terry, who's based in Washington, D.C., is suing Newman, of Wichita, over the use of the name Operation Rescue.

Malcolm Webber, the self-proclaimed chief of an unrecognized American Indian tribe, cannot have a separate trial from other tribal members in an alleged scam to defraud immigrants, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown ruled that Webber, also known as Grand Chief Thunderbird IV, has not shown a "real risk" that his defense will be prejudiced by a single trial.

Prosecutors contend the Kaweah Indian Nation defrauded legal and illegal immigrants across the nation by falsely claiming tribal membership would give them U.S. citizenship and would allow immigrants to obtain other documents and benefits, including Social Security cards.

Attorney Kurt Kerns, who represents Webber, argued in court documents that Webber believed he was providing a legitimate method for illegal immigrants to become registered in the United States and enjoy a first step toward citizenship.

He wanted to separate the trials because Webber contends the bulk of the alleged fraud was committed by underlings in their efforts to make money while other defendants are arguing that they were duped by Webber.

A former Wichita police lieutenant who is now the second in command at the Bel Aire Police Department has filed as a Republican candidate for Sedgwick County sheriff.

Carl Enterkin, 59, became the sixth candidate for the position being vacated by outgoing Sheriff Gary Steed.

The filing means at least five Republicans will square off in the Aug. 5 primary. The filing deadline is noon Tuesday, and only one Democrat has filed for the office.

All the candidates have extensive law enforcement backgrounds, and several have master's degrees.

Steed hasn't officially endorsed any of the candidates, but he has openly supported the candidacy of his undersheriff, Bob Hinshaw, a Republican.

Democrat Jim Slattery has picked up support from two longtime Republicans in his bid for the U.S. Senate.

Slattery's campaign announced Friday that Nelson and Judy Krueger had endorsed the former congressman and lobbyist, joining his campaign's steering committee.

Nelson Krueger was an administrative assistant for former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole in Kansas, his wife served as campaign manager for former Gov. Bill Graves and later secretary of appointments and deputy chief of staff.

Slattery faces Lee Jones of Overland Park in the August primary. The winner faces incumbent Republican Pat Roberts in November.

Slattery represented the 2nd District of eastern Kansas in the House from 1983 to 1994, giving up his seat to run for governor. After losing that race, he joined a Washington law and lobbying firm.

For the first time since 1992, Nola Foulston faces opposition in an election for Sedgwick County district attorney.

On Friday, Republican Mark Schoenhofer, who has been in private practice since 1994, filed his candidacy to unseat her. Foulston, a Democrat, has held the office since 1989.

"I'm running because I believe that it is time for new blood in the office," said Schoenhofer, who worked for Foulston as an assistant district attorney from 1993 to 1994.

Asked what change he would bring, Schoenhofer said he would try more cases in court than Foulston does, in addition to managing the office.

"I believe in being involved, hands-on involved," he said.

Attorney General Steve Six is dropping strong hints that he'll run for a full term in 2010, but he's not quite ready to declare his candidacy.

Six took over the office Jan. 31. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointed him to replace Paul Morrison, who was forced to resign because of a scandal over an extramarital affair. Fellow Democrats have assumed Six will run.

"I found that I do really enjoy the work of the attorney general's office and appreciate all the good we can do for the people of Kansas," Six said during an interview Thursday.

He added: "What that leaves me to believe is that I can continue this job into the future, but I believe it's premature to determine whether I'll be a candidate in 2010."

Christian Morgan, the state Republican Party's executive director, said that because of Morrison's problems, Kansans will be skeptical as they watch the attorney general's office.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Slattery released a description of his past lobbying activities on Thursday, hoping to quiet GOP critics who say he's too closely connected to special interests.

The former congressman from Topeka says he's providing the information in the interest of openness and accountability.

"Voters deserve an explanation of the work I've done since I left public office," Slattery said. "I'm pleased to provide this information."

The list contains brief summaries of the work Slattery did for 40 companies and associations -- ranging from Kansas City-based utility Aquila Inc. to paper and lumber giant Weyerhaeuser Co. --during his 14-year stint as a lawyer at Wiley Rein, a major Washington law firm. Slattery began working at the firm when he left Congress in 1995, a few months after losing the Kansas governor's race.

Slattery is seeking the right to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts, who is seeking a third term. Roberts' campaign has made Slattery's work as a lobbyist a key point of attack in early radio ads.

With four fairly familiar faces, the race in western Sedgwick County's Commission District 3 is shaping up as one of the most competitive of the election season.

Fifteen-year incumbent Tom Winters will face a contest in the primary Aug. 5 and, if he wins that, in the general election Nov. 4.

On Thursday, Kansas Taxpayers Network president Karl Peterjohn became the fourth candidate to enter the race. He will challenge Winters in the Republican primary.

The winner will face the winner of the Democratic primary pitting Goddard Mayor Marcey Gregory against former congressional and Wichita City Council candidate Patrick Quaney.

It will be the first time Winters has faced substantial opposition since the 2000 primary, when he bested two challengers. He's run unopposed three times since.

A former Wichita pastor this morning became the first defendant to be sentenced in a case stemming from a fake Indian tribe that prosecutors say sold memberships to illegal immigrants under the false hope of becoming U.S. citizens.

Jamie Cervantes, 45, was sentenced to the nine months he'd already served in the Butler County Jail.

U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley Brown ordered Cervantes to be transferred into the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau for deportation.

Cervantes pleaded guilty in April to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen while applying for a Social Security number. Cervantes said he'd purchased a membership in the so-called Kaweah Indian Nation as documentation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson said that under the conviction, Cervantes will face a lifetime ban from being able to legally re-enter the U.S.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the recently ended session, longtime Hillsboro Republican Rep. Donald L. Dahl said Monday that he will not seek re-election.

"It seemed like this session was very short-sighted and did not look long-term," he said.

He expressed particular frustration with the House's inability to muster enough votes to override the governor's veto of bills that would have allowed two coal-fired power plants to be built in western Kansas and the Legislature's handing of immigration reform and the budget.

Not addressing illegal immigration will hurt the state economically, and not approving the power plants will push up utility rates, he said. At the same time, the state continued to spend more money than it was collecting in revenue.

"These are big, big items, serious items, if you look at the implications of what I just said, for the future of Kansas," he said.

A retired Oklahoma doctor pleaded guilty in an Internet pharmacy case because he was guilty, and not because the government was threatening to prosecute his cancer-stricken wife, a federal judge in Wichita ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown denied Wilbur Hilst's request to remain free on bond while he appeals the 33-month sentence imposed last month after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a scheme to unlawfully distribute controlled substances.

In his ruling, Brown said Hilst was an educated man who knew what he was doing when he entered his plea and knowingly waived any right to appeal a sentence imposed within the guideline range.

Hilst's attorneys argued in court documents that the government put Hilst, 76, in an "untenable position" by prosecuting his 77-year-old wife, Margaret, along with him for operating Red Mesa Pharmacy in Wichita.

"In making this argument, defendant's brief fails to mention that it was apparently counsel for the defendants who first suggested this 'package deal' to the Government, not the other way around," Brown wrote.

Kansas Supreme Court justices on Thursday questioned how a prosecutor handled abortion patients' records that were part of a criminal investigation.

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri is trying to force Johnson County prosecutor Phill Kline to return patient files that are part of his case accusing an Overland Park clinic of performing illegal abortions and falsifying documents.

Kline had access to the records as part of an investigation he undertook when he was Kansas attorney general. He transferred them to Johnson County as he left the attorney general's office in January 2007.

During a nearly two-hour hearing before the Supreme Court, Kline and his attorney, Caleb Stegall, argued that the prosecutor's office did nothing wrong.

However, Planned Parenthood lawyer Bob Eye told the justices that Kline didn't have the right to the copies of 29 patient records and that patients' privacy was violated when a former Kline investigator kept them at his apartment. Eye said unauthorized people could have read or altered the files.

Citing a concern for her safety after she tried to kill herself, a judge ruled Thursday that Katie Robertson should stay in jail as she faces a murder charge in the death of her 2-year-old stepdaughter.

District Judge Clark Owens also found that Robertson violated an order not to have contact with witnesses in the case.

After hearing arguments about whether she should remain in jail under a temporary revocation of her bond, Owens said his main concern was that she be healthy as she faces the murder charge.

"We need to get to the bottom of these allegations" in the murder case, Owens said.

Robertson, 27, is accused of killing her 2-year-old stepdaughter, Daytona Robertson, in February. Police said the girl died from head injuries.

Amber Goff received a five-year federal prison sentence Wednesday for helping two inmates escape from a state prison.

U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley Brown followed the plea agreement Goff signed in April for her part in helping Steven Ford and Jesse Bell escape from the El Dorado Correctional Facility on Oct. 28.

As part of the sentence, Brown also ordered Goff to pay the prison $11,000 in restitution.

The Kansas Department of Corrections said that the restitution includes $10,355.93 in overtime involved in the search for the escapees and $659.90 in repairs to damaged fencing.

In her plea, Goff admitted that she provided bolt cutters, a wire cutter and three handguns to aid the inmates in their escape. She said she cut fence wire and drove the men out of the state. They were eventually arrested in New Mexico.

Wichita police are looking for a suspect in a pair of daytime sexual assaults on East Douglas downtown.

A man attacked a woman at about 1:15 p.m. Friday in the 700 block of East Douglas, Lt. Troy Livingston said.

"He approached her from behind, grabbed her and fondled her," Livingston said.

He then ran off laughing.

A second victim was assaulted at about 8 a.m. Monday in the 100 block of East Douglas, Livingston said. A man came up to a woman from behind and fondled her before running away.

The Butler County sheriff is still trying to sort out what led to a deadly shoot-out at a rural home late Monday night.

At the end of the day Tuesday, Sheriff Craig Murphy said he had no new details on how one man was shot to death in an altercation with another man.

Here's what the investigation turned up Tuesday:

A motorist saw two men standing in the road at Southeast 30th Street, east of Bluestem Road, and asked if they were all right. They said they were.

The men went to a house in the 4000 block of East Munson Hill Road after 11:40 p.m. One of them took a shotgun into the house. The other picked up a handgun.

A local anti-abortion activist lost a small-claims lawsuit Tuesday when a judge ruled he was not damaged when a security officer used a "stink bomb" to ward anti-abortion volunteers away from a Wichita abortion clinic.

Mark Gietzen chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, sought $4,000 in damages from John Rayburn and his company, Diamond Security, for the Sept. 20 incident.

But Judge Steven Woodring ruled that Gietzen failed to show that he suffered any damages because of the incident outside George Tiller's Women's Health Care Services clinic.

"The judge ruled that Tiller has the right to stink bomb us if he wants to as long as the stink bomb is on his property," Gietzen said. "I fully expect it to be used on us again."

Rayburn declined to comment on the case, but evidence at the trial showed that the "stink bomb" consisted of foul-smelling catfish bait.

The first defendant in the case of the so-called Kaweah Indian Tribe of Wichita was sentenced Tuesday to time already served in a county jail.

Federal prosecutors expect more defendants to follow former Wichita pastor Jamie Cervantes, in concluding their cases as the August trial of Kaweah leader Malcolm Webber approaches.

The scope of the case, meanwhile, keeps growing.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Wichita has received dozens of calls from at least 15 states reporting memberships sold to the fake Indian tribe.

Senior Special Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Robert Visnau has verified 10,000 to 15,000 people who have been affected by the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson said Tuesday.

A resurgent Democratic Party and intramural skirmishes between Republicans are combining to make 2008 one of the most spirited local campaign seasons in years.

While the early line favors Kansas staying Republican in national politics -- the state hasn't voted Democratic for president since Lyndon Johnson buried Barry Goldwater in 1964 -- Democrats made inroads in down-the-ballot races two years ago and hope for a repeat performance.

In the state Legislature, several slots have opened for political newcomers.

There's a scramble for Sedgwick County offices as well, with some long-established political figures facing their first challenges in years.

The filing period for local races ended Tuesday, with competitive races up and down the ballot from county clerk to the state Senate.

Starting nearly two years before Elgin Robinson Jr. was charged with capital murder in the death of pregnant, 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks, police investigated reports that he had taken indecent liberties with another minor and that a 16-year-old had accused him of rape.

In one of the cases, police had booked him into jail.

Authorities declined to file charges in both of the earlier cases, citing a lack of evidence or a lack of cooperation from a possible victim.

The information, recently obtained by The Eagle, comes from police reports and interviews with one of the alleged victims and parents of both teens.

When asked about the previous allegations, Robinson's defense lawyer, Val Wachtel, declined to comment.

An argument over a nickname reportedly led Wichita police to a residence where they say a 44-year-old woman stabbed a 19-year-old with a butcher knife Friday.

Sgt. Lem Moore said in a police briefing this afternoon that nine people were gathering in the 3000 block of Old Lawrence Road, when two young men began arguing who should be able to use the nickname "C-Thug."

The woman, who was a resident of the house, intervened and stabbed the 19-year-old in the back, Moore said.

The man was treated for minor injuries at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus. The woman was arrested.

Federal agents led a raid this week that prosecutors say resulted in arrests and seizures in a drug ring that netted more than $1 million over six months.

Seven men face federal charges in an indictment unsealed Friday. Four of them were arrested Thursday.

More than two pounds of methamphetamine, five loaded firearms and $35,000 in cash were seized in the raid, a spokesman for the office of U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said Friday.

Seven men were charged with dealing meth, cocaine and marijuana. Prosecutors seek $1.3 million in apparent proceeds, including real estate at more than a dozen Wichita addresses.

Charged are:

Six months worth of drug sales may have netted a group of men more than $1 million, according to a federal indictment unsealed today in Wichita.

Federal, state and local authorities have arrested four of the seven men accused of running a drug ring in which authorities are seeking to seize $1.3 million in proceeds and real estate. Prosecutors say the group sold methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.

Charged are:

• Thomas J. Fernandez, 31, Wichita

• Marco Guerrero, 32, Wichita

DeAndre Reed heard a knock on the door.

Prosecutors say Adrian Hopper, 28, was standing on the other side with a gun. But his defense says he was in Topeka that night, Jan. 8, 2007.

As Hopper's first-degree murder trial in the deaths of two people began Tuesday afternoon, Assistant District Attorney Sal Intagliata outlined his case for the jury:

Reed, 24, and his girlfriend, Princess Sears, 23, asked who was knocking after 11 p.m.

"Your boy," a voice answered. Reed recognized the voice, Intagliata said.

Wichita police are investigating several northwest Wichita residential burglaries this month -- including one reported Monday -- that they say could be connected.

Police say that several of the targeted homes were for sale, model homes or, in the most recent case, where the residents were gone for an extended period. And in each, burglars have pried open a door.

No suspects are in custody.

In the most recent case, Wichita police say burglars got into a home in the 2700 block of N. Northshore, near 29th and Ridge Road, by breaking through a side garage door.

Police said the occupants, a 59-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man, reported Monday that they had returned from a five-day vacation and found items valued at tens of thousands of dollars missing. Among them were a 2008 Lexus and a 2001 Infinity, jewelry, appliances that included a refrigerator, and stereo and television equipment.

A Wichita woman returned from vacation Monday and found her home burglarized, and two vehicles stolen, police said today.

The 59-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man told police that the home in the 2700 block of N. Northshore, near 29th and Ridge Road, had been broken into through a side garage door.

Among the items reported stolen were a 2008 Lexus, a 2001 Infinity, jewelry, appliances, and stereo and television equipment.

Police have no suspects in the case.

A mentally ill Sedgwick County inmate who suffered serious head injuries during an incident involving a jail deputy can be released to a Wichita nursing home, a judge ruled Monday.

Edgar Richard's attorneys have contended that he would benefit from care in a private facility as he awaits a mental competency evaluation and a probation violation hearing.

Richard, 60, could be moved to the nursing home today, said Bill Cummings, one of his lawyers.

"I don't believe that a detention facility should be dumping grounds for mentally ill people," Cummings said after the hearing.

On Feb. 15, Richard suffered a severely broken jaw and brain injuries in an incident involving a jail deputy, his attorneys say. Sheriff's officials said an altercation occurred when Richard tried to leave his cell. Local and federal authorities are investigating the incident.