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A Wichita man was sentenced Wednesday to one year of federal probation and 100 hours of community service for falsely claiming that he had received a Purple Heart.

Albert Barker, 59, admitted that he had an American Veterans representative submit a form in January 2006 that Barker had altered to reflect he had received the award.

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the military who have been wounded or killed in the line of duty.

U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said that the sentencing is timely with the today's holiday.

"This is sort of a patriotic time when we're thinking about the special valor that's due folks that genuinely earned a Purple Heart," Melgren said.

The call came in Wednesday afternoon about a vicious dog.

By Thursday morning, Wichita Animal Control and police officers had confiscated what they said are the remains of a dogfighting site at a home in a northeast residential neighborhood.

"Inside the house looked like an unkempt dog pen," Don Henry, environmental services manager for the city, said Thursday. "It wasn't fit for human habitation."

It was the first case investigated by the city under a new ordinance that strengthens its powers in confiscating potentially dangerous dogs and paraphernalia used to train them to fight -- a blood sport prohibited by law.

The call began like the other 129 such calls of dog attacks the city received between January and March, said Kay Johnson, director of environmental services.

As part of a deal to ensure she'll spend less than a decade in federal prison, a former teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to fleeing to Mexico with a 13-year-old student so she could have sex with him.

Kelsey Peterson, 26, cried in court and shook her head when the prosecutor said she started having sex with the boy when he was 12 years old and a student at the middle school in Lexington where she taught.

But she pleaded guilty to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines to have sex, and avoided a similar charge that would have carried a mandatory 10-year sentence.

Peterson and the boy left Lexington in October and were found a week later in Mexicali, Mexico.

Peterson admitted the two of them had sex.

Two Kansas men admitted Wednesday in federal court to tying up a black youth, shouting racial epithets and urinating on him to get him to leave their rural community.

The incident happened in May 2007 after a drunken high school graduation party.

David B. Endsley, 19, of Waterville and Isaac Q. Clark, 19, of Blue Rapids pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to criminally interfering with the black youth's right to fair housing.

They will be sentenced Sept. 30, and face up to one year in federal prison and a fine up to $100,000. Endsley also pleaded guilty to making a false statement to federal agents investigating the incident, a crime that carries a potential penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.

According to the plea agreement, Endsley and his parents hosted a high school graduation party at their Waterville home. Most partygoers, including the defendants and victim, identified only as J.L., consumed alcohol. J.L. was a juvenile living in Blue Rapids at the time.

Federal immigration officials and Wichita police arrested 22 Mexican citizens whom they identified as gang members and associates in a roundup targeting four violent street gangs, authorities announced Wednesday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the suspects were members or associates of the Vato Loco Boys, Sureno 13, Players for Life and North Side Gangsters gangs. The local effort was part of a national program called Operation Community Shield.

Nine of the suspects were already in custody during the planning stages on warrants for burglary, theft, assault, drive-by shootings, weapons violations and other crimes, ICE said. They will be deported after their cases are finalized.

The remaining 13 alleged gang members arrested in the one-day sweep are in the U.S. illegally and will be returned to Mexico, ICE officials said.

"We are glad to see it," said Dennis Romero, co-chairman of Peoples Alliance for Latino Advancement in Kansas.

The grand jury investigating Wichita abortion provider George Tiller adjourned Wednesday afternoon without a criminal indictment.

Retired Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Buchanan, assigned to preside over the grand jury, said the panel returned a finding of "no true bill," meaning criminal charges would not be filed.

The grand jury was convened in January through a petition drive by anti-abortion groups seeking an investigation into whether Tiller violated state abortion laws.

In a statement released by the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office, the grand jury said:

"After six months of conducting an investigation that included hearing extensive witness testimony, reviewing volumes of documents and medical records of patients of Women's Health Care Services (Tiller's clinic), this Grand Jury has not found sufficient evidence to bring an indictment on any crime related to the abortion laws."

A man suspected of killing a University of Kansas law student killed himself after being arrested in New Jersey, police said.

Adolfo Garcia-Nunez, 46, was arrested in Elizabeth, N.J., on Friday night, after police found his unoccupied pickup there, Lawrence police Sgt. Paul Fellers said in a news release Saturday. Garcia-Nunez took his own life while he was in custody in New Jersey, Fellers said.

Garcia-Nunez was suspected of killing Jana Mackey, 25, of Hays, who was found dead at his Lawrence home on Thursday, hours after a friend reported her missing. A second-degree murder warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Mackey and Garcia-Nunez, an artist who went by Fito Garche, had recently ended a relationship.

No additional information about Garcia-Nunez's death or arrest will be available until the Lawrence Police Department's investigators return from New Jersey, Fellers said.

The Kansas Republican Assembly's local endorsement list reads more or less like a who's who of Wichita-area conservatives.

But one candidate conspicuously absent is one of the most conservative Republicans ever to put his name on a ballot in Sedgwick County -- Mark Gietzen, who is running against Phil Hermanson for the GOP nomination in the 96th House District.

"I don't think he (Gietzen) would appreciate our endorsement," said Charlotte Esau, executive director of the KRA.

No doubt.

Gietzen, a former leader in the KRA, calls the current organization a "complete fraud" and "renegade group."

Here is how area legislative candidates in contested primaries responded to this question posed by The Eagle. Some of the responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Question: In recent years the state has had to dip into reserves to cover revenue shortfalls. Should the state increase its revenue, or cut expenses? Explain. Please be specific about how you would increase revenue or what programs you would be willing to cut.

STATE SENATE

District 16

Republican primary

One of the two Democratic candidates for Wichita's seat on the State Board of Education has been disqualified because he also filed to run for a local public office.

Wichita business owner Charles Wiggins said he'll challenge the disqualification -- a move that could delay the printing of Sedgwick County advance voting ballots.

Wiggins said he was notified last Friday by the secretary of state that he wasn't a valid candidate for the state office because he also filed to run again for his position as Minneha Township trustee.

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh confirmed that Wiggins was disqualified because he can't run for two public offices in the same election.

Wiggins filed an objection early this week. It will be heard Tuesday morning by top state officials.

Health care reform takes priority for the two candidates vying for the 84th District seat made vacant as Rep. Oletha Faust-Goudeau campaigns for the state Senate.

Gail Finney, a marketing/business consultant, said health problems prevented her from working and receiving adequate insurance coverage, which caused her to file bankruptcy in 2005.

Because she has lupus, Finney said, she also had difficulty getting accepted for insurance coverage.

"If you don't have a good job, you're going to be without health insurance and be in the same predicament," said Finney, who said her struggles make her a voice of experience. "You'll not only lose your health insurance, but you could lose your home and everything."

Candidate Inga Taylor lost her daughter.

The sagging economy is a top issue among candidates in the race for House District 93.

Four candidates are vying to replace Dick Kelsey, who is running for state Senate.

The Republican candidates are Dan Kerschen, 55, a Garden Plain dairy farmer; Carl H. Koster Jr., 56, former Cheney mayor; and Barbara A. Walters, 51, executive director of the Haysville Chamber of Commerce.

The winner of the August Republican primary will face Democrat Joann Keiter, a retired Haysville school administrator.

District 93 includes parts of southwest Sedgwick County and eastern Kingman County. Cities in the district include Cheney, Garden Plain, Goddard, Haysville, Viola and parts of Wichita and Kingman.

Authorities continue to suspect that a Wichita man charged with kidnapping and raping a Viola convenience store clerk has most likely left Sedgwick County and headed to Oregon.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Robert D. Abner, 39, who is charged in Sedgwick County District Court with one count of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and six counts of rape, records show.

The "best lead that we have" is that Abner has left the Sedgwick County area, Undersheriff Bob Hinshaw said Monday. The Sheriff's Office is asking that anyone with information about Abner's location call the investigations section at 316-660-5300, Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111, or 911, Hinshaw said.

An Oregon State Police news release says Abner reportedly was born in Eugene, Ore., may be on his way to Oregon, and may have acquaintances there.

On Monday, Eugene police spokeswoman Kerry Delf said police and the public there have received an alert about Abner. There have been no reports indicating that Abner is in the area, Delf said.

The second suspect in a November shooting death faced charges including first-degree murder on Monday, the day after being apprehended at a traffic stop.

Michael E. Phillips, 26, was charged in connection with the Nov. 19 slaying of Miguel Moya. Phillips joins 26-year-old Tiffany Berry, who was arrested in December and faces charges of murder and armed robbery. She is tentatively set for trial next month.

Wichita police said Phillips tried to run after officers pulled over a white Dodge van he was riding in about 9:45 a.m. Sunday.

Authorities said officers stopped the van for failure to use a turn signal and for a defective brake light near I-135 and 21st Street.

"He bailed from the car, ran, jumped a fence," said Ken Landwehr, commander of the Wichita homicide squad.

A crime that spurred a public outcry over how people reacted to a stabbing inside a convenience store last year brings Cherish McCullough to trial this week charged with murder.

McCullough has pleaded not guilty in the stabbing death of 27-year-old LaShanda Callaway. McCullough was 19 when she was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Lawyers began questioning potential jurors Monday afternoon and will continue jury selection today.

The circumstances surrounding Callaway's death in June 2007 shocked some.

An acquaintance of Callaway's said the clerks didn't close the store at 2601 N. Hillside and people continued to mill about the store after the stabbing.

Both candidates in the primary election race for the 77th District's Kansas House seat are longtime fixtures in their communities as small-business owners and as public servants.

Incumbent David Crum, an optometrist, will square off against retired veterinarian Gary Harmon in the August Republican primary.

For Crum, 62, re-election would mean continuing to champion the fiscal conservatism he said has guided him since he joined the Legislature in 2006.

Harmon, 68, hopes what he classified as a more moderate approach will strike a chord with the district's voters.

"Moderates tend to be the decisionmakers," he said.

A Wichita man was found dead in his Planeview home Tuesday, and police were investigating the case as the city's 14th homicide this year.

Deputy Chief Robert Lee said the body was found at about 3:40 p.m. in a duplex in the 3400 block of East Roseberry.

The duplex is about a block from where Deshonda Walker was fatally shot last week, but Lee said the cases did not appear to be connected.

Detectives on Tuesday were interviewing witnesses as crime scene investigators looked through the home for evidence. Lee said the case was being worked as a homicide, but he said a motive and cause of death were not immediately available.

He would not say who found the body. He could not provide the victim's name and age.

After a Tuesday court hearing for the man facing a possible death penalty in their daughter's killing, Brian and Cindy Sanderholm voiced relief.

They could smile because a judge denied a defense motion to move Justin Thurber's capital murder trial from Cowley County.

And 17 months after Jodi Sanderholm's brutal death, they finally have a trial date. Opening statements have been tentatively set for Oct. 14.

Standing on the courthouse steps, Brian Sanderholm said that the court actions signal "that the end is in sight."

Cowley County District Judge Jim Pringle ruled that that for now there is no indication that Thurber cannot receive a fair trial in Cowley County.

A 51-year-old man was taken to the hospital with a severely injured right leg after a fight with his girlfriend on Monday, police said.

Wichita police officers responded to a domestic violence call around 9:30 a.m. Monday in the 1400 block of N. Hillside.

Officers found the man in front of a residence. The man told police that his girlfriend had gotten angry at him and hit him with her car, pushing him into the apartments, police said.

The man was taken to Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis campus by Emergency Medical Services.

Police later arrested a 32-year-old Wichita woman as a suspect in the case.

A one-term state senator with a long record of community involvement faces a political newcomer with a colorful way with words in the Republican primary for Senate District 31.

Sen. Carolyn McGinn said she's running for re-election because "after spending four years (in the Legislature), you gain a lot of experience and knowledge. I think that's only helpful to the process."

Her challenger, Rex Farley, says if he's elected, he will focus as much on the "internal and spiritual" as the "external and material."

"I have been a philosopher since I was a teenager," he said.

Both live in Sedgwick. District 31, with about 60,000 residents, covers northeast Sedgwick County and all of Harvey County. The winner of the primary will face Democrat Gene Marsh, 61, an emergency room doctor from Halstead, in the general election.

A Democratic candidate for the State Board of Education seat that represents Wichita lost his battle Tuesday to remain on the ballot, meaning there will be no Aug. 5 primary for the position.

A three-member board of state officials decided 2-1 to uphold Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh's decision to drop Charles Wiggins from the District 8 race because he also filed for re-election as Minneha Township trustee.

With Wiggins out of the race, Democrat Walt Chappell will face Republican Dennis Hedke in the Nov. 4 general election.

Thornburgh and Attorney General Steve Six voted to keep Wiggins off the ballot. Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson cast the dissenting vote after almost two hours of testimony and discussion.

"I'm obviously disappointed in the outcome," Wiggins said Tuesday. "As reflected by the split decision, it was not an easy decision."

The confrontation that led to Ottaway K. Wright's death was likely loud and violent.

Police hope someone who was near the Planeview duplex where Wright was killed has information that can lead them to the person responsible.

"It was in the afternoon," Capt. Brent Allred said. "There were several people outside," and someone must have seen or heard the fight between Wright and his killer.

Police suspect the confrontation was loud and violent because there were obvious signs of a struggle inside the duplex, Allred said.

Wright, 60, was found by a 21-year-old woman who entered the duplex at 3471 E. Roseberry at about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday. Police aren't sure when he was killed, Allred said.

A federal judge will hold an emergency hearing next week to deal with defense claims that prosecutors in the case of Haysville doctor Stephen Schneider have been withholding information.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot set a hearing for 9 a.m. July 17 on the pretrial exchange of information in the case of Schneider and his wife, nurse Linda Schneider. Belot's decision on Wednesday comes after the couple's lawyers filed a motion claiming that the government is not providing sufficient details about the opinions of experts that prosecutors plan to call on to testify.

The 34-count federal indictment against the Schneiders alleges they caused four deaths and contributed to the deaths of 11 other patients. In all, it links their clinic to 56 overdose deaths. Prosecutors charged the couple with conspiracy, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, health care fraud, illegal money transactions and money laundering.

The Schneiders have proclaimed their innocence.

Defense attorneys said the case revolves around medical disputes over the doctor's treatment decisions and that they can't adequately prepare to cross-examine the government's experts without knowing what those opinions are and what they are based on.

A surveillance video recorded a fight between two women. One of them died.

Jurors haven't seen the complete recording yet, but Wednesday they caught a glimpse of what brought Cherish McCullough to trial this week in Sedgwick County District Court, charged with first-degree murder.

McCullough's lawyer said what the jury won't see in the video is a history between the women. He said their tumultuous relationship led McCullough, who was 19 at the time, to fatally stab LaShanda Callaway on a June evening last summer.

"This act, I will submit to you, was not premeditated or an intentional murder," Richard Ney said in his opening remarks to the jury. "It was an act of self-defense."

Ney said Callaway, 27, suffered from a mental disorder that had hospitalized her earlier in the year. Callaway had dated a friend of McCullough's, Ney said, and was angry about the breakup. Callaway had threatened the man in McCullough's presence, he added.

Republican candidates in the Kansas Senate District 32 primary claim areas of expertise ranging from schools to roads.

Steve E. Abrams, 58, and George D. Leach, 60, agree on most of the issues, but they are miles apart when it comes to priorities.

Abrams' political experience centers on education. He has served on state or local school boards for 18 years.

As a state school board member and former chairman, Abrams is known for supporting science standards critical of evolution from 2005 to 2007 during the board's debates over curriculum in Kansas schools.

As a safety director for Dondlinger and Sons Construction Co., Leach knows first-hand the impact of state funding on Kansas roads.

The Kansas Republican Party's former executive director says it owes him nearly $27,000 in back pay and other compensation and is suing the current state chairman.

Ron Freeman's lawsuit against chairman Kris Kobach went to trial Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court. Freeman accuses Kobach of breaching the employment contract between Freeman and the party.

"This is a pretty straightforward matter, a breach of contract and an unpaid wage contract," Freeman's attorney, John Miller, said during opening arguments.

Freeman also wants the GOP to pay interest and a penalty for what he contends was a violation of state employment laws. That would increase total damages to about $36,000.

Kobach and the party argue that Freeman isn't owed back pay and is overstating the commissions he was supposed to receive on contributions made to the Kansas GOP.

A federal judge on Thursday denied the government's efforts to gag defense attorneys, family and supporters of a Haysville doctor accused of unlawfully prescribing medication.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot said an impartial jury can be seated in the case of Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, by questioning potential jurors about their exposure to pretrial publicity.

"The parties should not misinterpret this ruling as an endorsement of statements to the media by their counsel or their surrogates," Belot wrote. "This court firmly believes that cases should be tried in the courtroom, not on the courthouse steps."

Belot also denied the prosecution's request to order the defense to turn over a recorded statement the doctor made in jail for the Associated Press during an attorney visit. Belot said the matter was moot because defense attorneys contend only the AP has the recording.

Prosecutors had sought a court order restraining the defendants, their family and Siobhan Reynolds, president of the patient advocacy group Pain Relief Network, from talking to the media. The government also sought an order keeping Reynolds and Pat Hatcher, the sister of Linda Schneider, from contacting victims and witnesses.

The search for a suspect named in the killing of Deshonda Walker continues, and police say he may have fled the city.

Authorities have issued a warrant for Albert C. Thomas' arrest in Walker's shooting early July 2 in the 3400 block of East Munger in southeast Wichita.

"He may still be in town," Capt. Brent Allred said.

But given the fact that more than a week has passed and police have been unable to find him, Allred said, it's more likely Thomas has fled the area.

Thomas has been entered into the National Crime Information Center database so law enforcement officers around the country will know he's wanted.

Jurors rarely get to witness the incident that has put them in judgment before a defendant.

But on Thursday, jurors watched the fatal stabbing of LaShanda Callaway, 27, via a security video from the Wichita convenience store.

Cherish McCullough is pleading self-defense at her trial, claiming that Callaway was the aggressor that day.

Seeing the crime take place has taken a toll on the McCullough and Callaway families.

Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess has warned both families about displaying emotions in front of jurors.

Democratic candidate Jim Slattery would see a dramatic cut in his salary if he's elected to the U.S. Senate this fall.

The former congressman from Topeka earned $585,000 last year working for a major Washington law firm. That's more than three times what he would earn if he unseats incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

The information comes from a personal financial disclosure form filed with the Senate this week. The form offers a peek into the wealth Slattery has acquired as a lawyer and lobbyist since leaving the U.S. House in 1996, an issue Roberts has raised in negative ads during the campaign.

In all, Slattery disclosed assets worth at least $4.2 million and as much as $9.4 million. The forms report assets and liabilities in broad ranges that make it impossible to determine exactly how much a candidate is worth.

Most of those assets are in mutual funds and retirement accounts. He also owns an office building in Topeka worth between $500,000 and $1 million, a farm in Atchison worth between $250,000 and $500,000 and two townhouses in Topeka worth $100,000 to $250,000.

Turnover in the jail and morale among Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies were the main issues of contention in a Thursday night forum that drew five of the six candidates for Sedgwick County sheriff.

Undersheriff Bob Hinshaw, who is running against candidates who are challenging his record, conceded that the annual turnover rate at the Sedgwick County Jail is 25 percent. But he said the figure includes retirements and transfers to road patrol duties.

"Is there a morale problem? You betcha," he said. "But there's always going to be a morale problem in any large law enforcement agency."

The forum, which was hosted by the South City Neighborhood Association, drew more than 50 people to the Dawson United Methodist Church, 2741 S. Laura.

The five Republican candidates in the August primary are running for the right to face Democrat Walt Kuykendall in the general election.

Sheila Johnson is the single mother of two with one grandchild. She's also caring for an aging mother and trying to pay off more than $100,000 in student loans.

While her job as a sales executive pays around $75,000, the increasing cost of gasoline, food and other daily expenses has curtailed her ability to save money, and she is afraid things may get worse.

"I have never, ever experienced the crunch I'm feeling now," the 40-year-old Johnson told Michelle Obama during a roundtable discussion of women's issues Thursday at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "And I cannot imagine families who have not been as blessed as I am. How are they surviving, how are they able to make it from one day to the next?"

The roundtable discussion was one of a series of such gatherings Obama is holding to listen to women's concerns and promote the presidential campaign of her husband, Democrat Barack Obama.

The five women chosen to talk to Obama were from varying economic situations, but they all discussed how difficult the current economy has made it to pay bills and provide good lives for their children.

The Republican primary for the Kansas House 96th District seat will feature a political veteran who is not campaigning and a newcomer in his first campaign.

Mark Gietzen will face the admittedly "green behind the ears" Phil Hermanson.

The winner will face Democratic incumbent Terry McLachlan in the general election in November. McLachlan is unopposed in the primary.

The 96th District encompasses portions of southwestern Wichita and parts of the surrounding townships of Riverside and Waco.

Hermanson held his campaign kickoff at his home Wednesday night.

Walter Hock was rolling pizza dough for a late-night snack Friday when the "pop-pop" of gunfire erupted outside his house on West Maple.

Looking out the front door, he saw one police officer sprawled in the street and another pointing his gun into the darkness.

As Hock watched, the officer with the gun dragged the downed officer behind a patrol car for cover.

"You could see the blood," Hock said.

The shooting near midnight sent the police officer to Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus in serious condition with a wound to his upper leg.

A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the city's most recent homicide, police said Friday.

Capt. Brent Allred said the man is an acquaintance of Ottaway K. Wright Jr., 60, who was found dead Tuesday in his Planeview duplex at 3471 E. Roseberry.

The 21-year-old woman who found Wright told police he appeared to have been stabbed several times. Given the condition of the duplex, Allred said, it was evident that an extended struggle had taken place.

"There was some type of relationship" between the suspect and Wright's wife, Allred said.

The man was already in the Sedgwick County Jail for an outstanding warrant when he was booked on suspicion of first-degree murder Thursday morning, Allred said.

Jurors won't be able to consider whether Cherish McCullough acted in self-defense in the stabbing death of LaShanda Callaway.

The fight that led to Callaway's death was captured graphically on video -- and shown to jurors earlier this week.

Judge Ben Burgess ruled Friday after the defense rested its case in McCullough's murder trial that the jury can't consider a not-guilty verdict based on self-defense because the facts don't warrant it.

McCullough, who was 19 at the time, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 23, 2007, stabbing at a Wichita convenience store.

Video evidence showed Callaway, 27, was in a "fist-fight," Burgess said.

One of Wichita's most prominent Democratic officeholders, Mayor Carl Brewer, will be spicing up a Republican fundraiser.

Brewer is the headliner and celebrity chef for "a special barbecue event" to raise money for the re-election campaign of Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

Roberts is locked in a spirited race with less-well-funded but scrappy challenger Jim Slattery, a Democrat and former congressman.

Brewer was in Alabama for a conference last week and did not reply to two e-mails seeking comment.

Although the Roberts event is unrelated to city business, Brewer issued a statement through the city's public information office.

Education and energy were high priorities for the five candidates in the 81st House District's Republican primary, but the state's budget concerns were the biggest issue.

The state cannot keep spending more than it brings it, but Kansans' personal budgets are also shrinking, so more taxes are not the answer, they said.

The field includes Patsy Allen, 63, a retired Boeing Aircraft manager; Jeri Anderson, 60, a retired teacher and Mulvane Senior Center director; Arlene Burrow, 54, a family practice lawyer; Rep. Peter DeGraaf, 51, Mulvane, a financial counselor; and Charlene Eye, 62, a retired aircraft worker. The winner will run against Mulvane Democrat Mark Hardison in the November general election.

The competition sprang up after the district's longtime representative, Mulvane Republican Ted Powers, died in May after suffering a stroke. Party leaders from Sedgwick and Sumner counties appointed DeGraaf to serve the rest of Powers' term, which expires in January.

"The Legislature has not done a very good job controlling expenses and keeping taxes down," DeGraaf said.

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.