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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.

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

Nationally, 2008 will be known as the year the Internet came of age in modern campaigning.

But the era of cyberpolitics is off to a somewhat shaky start in the Third District Commission race in western Sedgwick County.

Start with incumbent Tom Winters. Last week, visitors to his site, www.tomwinterscountycommissioner.com, were treated to two small graphic images of the Republican elephant, some contact info and the message "website under construction."

"The guys I got to do it are doing about 200 other things," Winters explained. He said he expected to have his site up and running by this weekend, so there may be something to see there now.

His GOP primary opponent, Kansas Taxpayers Network executive director Karl Peterjohn, has had a functioning site at www.karlpeterjohn.com since May.

Wichita police are investigating a stabbing that left one man in critical condition early Sunday.

The stabbing took place in the parking lot of the Dillons at Douglas and Hillside around 2 a.m., according to Sgt. Bart Brunscheen of the Wichita Police Department.

It began when the suspect, a 33-year-old Hispanic man, rammed his vehicle into the truck of a 34-year-old man.

The driver of the truck then tried to pull the suspect out of his vehicle. He was stabbed in the left arm and left leg, Brunscheen said.

A man was taken to the hospital after an argument during a game of pool, Wichita police Sgt. Bart Brunscheen said.

Police responded to a disturbance at 3815 W. Douglas shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, Brunscheen said.

The officers found a 53-year old man unconscious and being punched by 20-year-old man.

A second man was injured.

A 29-year-old man is in critical condition after a shooting in north Wichita Sunday, police said.

The man was at a stoplight after leaving the El Patron club in the 3800 block of north Broadway around 2 a.m., Sgt. Bart Brunscheen said.

A man in a black or gray truck stopped and yelled at him, then fired seven shots, hitting the victim twice, Brunscheen said.

A new program geared toward helping nonviolent offenders overcome drug addictions got about $650,000 in funding from Sedgwick County on Wednesday.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve funding for the program, set to begin in October, for the rest of the year.

The program will cost about $1.1 million next year. The total budget for this year, including startup costs, is $746,363. In May, the county approved $96,282 for three staff positions.

Money for the program will come out of the county's public safety contingency budget.

The county hopes the program will reduce the jail's inmate population. County manager William Buchanan recently recommended not going forward with a $54 million expansion of the jail to cut the county's property tax mill levy. He said alternative programs are working to keep offenders out of jail.

Edwin R. Hall was near the jewelry counter in Target when he spotted Kelsey Smith.

She was there buying a present for her boyfriend. He was there looking for a victim.

"Nice legs," Hall thought when he noticed the girl who graduated from high school 10 days before.

When she turned and he saw her face, he thought she looked liked a 12-year-old. It was early in the evening of June 2, 2007. He narrowed in.

On Wednesday, a packed Johnson County courtroom heard vivid details of what happened to the 18-year-old Overland Park girl, as Hall unexpectedly pleaded guilty to kidnapping her, raping and sodomizing her and then strangling her with her own belt.

Judge Ben Burgess denied a request Wednesday by Elgin Ray Robinson Jr. to move his trial from Wichita.

Burgess said Robinson's attorneys provided no evidence to show it would be impossible to get an impartial jury in Sedgwick County District Court.

Val Wachtel, who is defending Robinson in the murder of 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks, said he had received no money to fund a community opinion survey that might support his argument.

"Is it your view that I should order the Board of Indigent Defense Services to provide the funds for that to be done?" Burgess asked Wachtel.

"No, indeed your honor," Wachtel said. He added that he didn't think the order was necessary.

Eleven women and one man were arrested in a prostitution sting Monday, police said.

Six undercover officers working through Patrol South conducted the sting between 3 p.m. and midnight along and near South Broadway and East Kellogg.

The women ranged in age from 19 to 43. The man, 28, was arrested in a hotel room on East Kellogg booked on suspicion of being a pimp.

Two Wichita men pleaded guilty this week in federal court to participating in drug deals for ecstasy, including one that yielded 1,800 pills.

Ecstasy is the street name for a psychedelic stimulant that goes by the scientific name methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

Thuong Nguyen, 26, and Stuart Lu, 24, both pleaded guilty to illegally using a telephone to make the drug deal.

They were among 20 people charged in January from a three-year federal probe into the sale of MDMA. Charges are still pending against other defendants.

Investigators say they intercepted a phone call July 10, 2007, in which Alan Nguyen agreed to buy more than 1,500 ecstasy pills from Du Le.

An 84-year-old woman has died from injuries she suffered in a weekend traffic accident.

Wichita police said Tuesday that Eva Brown died Sunday at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus as a result of several broken bones.

She was a passenger in a Pontiac Bonneville that was southbound on Main when it ran a red light and hit an eastbound Buick on Central at 11:20 a.m. Saturday.

Two other women in the Bonneville, the 71-year-old driver and a 91-year-old passenger, were also taken to St. Francis for treatment, as was the 38-year-old Wichita woman driving the Buick. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening, police said.

The Bonneville driver was ticketed for running the red light, police said. The Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office has decided not to pursue further prosecution.

The Wichita police officer critically wounded when he was shot twice 10 days ago has been released from the hospital.

The officer was shot by a 26-year-old man in the 2400 block of West Maple just after 11:30 p.m. on July 11 when the officer stopped to question him in connection with a "suspicious character" complaint.

The man, later identified by police as Francisco Aguilar, ran north from Maple into a residential area, then headed west. He took cover next to a car in the front yard of a house in the 2800 block of Maple and eventually killed himself as officers closed in.

Authorities suspect Aguilar was in the country illegally because he was using a fake ID card from Mexico and had given police aliases in previous dealings.

The officer was shot once in each leg, and one of the bullets struck his femoral artery. Police Chief Norman Williams said quick action by officers responding to the wounded officer's call for assistance saved his life.

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline's campaign manager says a fundraising request made in the name of an anti-abortion group was a "terrible mistake."

Jennifer Giroux, who belongs to the Ohio-based anti-abortion group Women Influencing the Nation, recently moved to Kansas to run Kline's campaign.

Giroux solicited donations for Kline's Aug. 5 primary campaign last week under the group's name and slogan. She told the Kansas City Star that a "Web guy" erroneously sent the donation request on the group's letterhead.

Giroux said a retraction was sent out the next day.

"It couldn't have been a worse mistake," she said.

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts began airing a television campaign ad Tuesday that questions his leading Democratic challenger's dedication, the same day the opponent attacked Roberts' longevity in Washington.

Roberts' 30-second spot, airing in Topeka and Wichita markets, criticizes former Rep. Jim Slattery over the votes Slattery missed in Congress while running for governor in 1994.

The ad cites the Congressional Record, saying Slattery missed 44 percent of the votes that year. That was the third-worst percentage for any House member for 1994, ahead of only a Texas representative who lost his primary race and a New Jersey congressman who died.

Roberts' re-election campaign said he has missed 8 percent or less of his votes each year since he began serving in Congress in 1981.

"Roberts never stops working for Kansas," his latest ad says. "Jim Slattery doesn't even show up."

Sedgwick County voters can begin casting advance ballots in person today for the Aug. 5 primary election.

You can vote at the Sedgwick County Election Office, 510 N. Main, Suite 101, through Aug. 4. Additional advance voting sites will open July 31.

Here's when you can vote at the election office:

• 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Friday and July 28-30

• 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. July 31 through Aug. 1

A picture of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius holding a T-shirt with the words "Barack Chalk Jayhawk" across the front has caused a bit of a stir on the Kansas campus.

The university doesn't want anyone to get the idea that the shirt, which plays off the school's "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk" chant, is a political endorsement by the school.

The T-shirts came about after Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, referred to KU supporters at a campaign event in Kansas City, Mo., as "Barack Chalk Jayhawks."

The university, which owns the trademark on the "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk" slogan, gave the Young Democrats club permission to print 100 shirts in support of Obama -- as long as only members of the group received the shirts.

"I was honestly thrilled they let us print the shirts," said Marc Langston, who organized the T-shirt printing and had sought the university's permission.

Standing at the busy pumps of a downtown QuikTrip, Rep. Todd Tiahrt said gas prices could drop dramatically if America increased its domestic oil drilling and expanded oil refineries.

If Congress lifts a moratorium on drilling this September, oil speculators would hedge their bets on the future of crude and make moves to cut the price at the pump, he said Monday.

"We can't just hope and wait on the wind today and drive smaller cars," he said, also noting that alternative energy and conservation are key to America's future.

"Our economy needs something more."

Tiahrt, R-Wichita, who is up for re-election this November, advocated drilling for oil off the nation's coasts, Alaska and elsewhere -- a move his opponent, State Sen. Donald Betts, D-Wichita, opposes.

With a trial approaching, most defendants in the federal case against a Kansas group that claims to be an American Indian tribe have deserted their self-described "grand chief" to make deals with prosecutors.

The latest defection came Thursday as Chuck Flynn, one of the so-called tribal chiefs, pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to a proposed sentence of a year and a day in prison.

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

Prosecutors claim the tribe is fake. But even if it were real, tribal membership would not make someone a U.S. citizen.

Last year, federal prosecutors charged 11, including the grand chief and the Wichita-based tribe, in a 17-count indictment. Charges have since been dismissed against one defendant, and three have pleaded guilty to varying charges.

A police officer is usually not the first responder at the scene of a fire, not usually the one to go in and rescue someone from a burning building.

But on Thursday morning, Wichita police Officer Victor Trillo pulled an elderly woman from a burning house in southwest Wichita -- and then received a tug on the pants by a defensive pit bull as thanks.

"It was crazy," Trillo said later in the day while recalling the rescue.

The officer was passing by on his way to his first police call of the day at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday when he saw fire spouting over the roof of a house near MacArthur and Gold streets in southeast Wichita.

Trillo called dispatch and found out that fire units were en route, then stopped his car and got out. He saw a woman and her two children outside the house, and asked whether anybody else was inside.

As he is running for the state Senate, Rep. Ty Masterson and his construction company are dealing with unpaid bills that at one point totaled $150,000 in court claims in Butler and Sedgwick counties.

Some of the cases have been resolved, and Masterson says he is working to repay those bills and others. He filed a response in one case saying he "was a victim of fraud and abuse by certain individuals" and had not authorized the charges to his corporate account.

The Andover Republican, running for Senate District 16 against Butler County Commissioner Will G. Carpenter in the Republican primary, said he hasn't tried to hide his financial problems and is working to pay off his debts instead of filing for bankruptcy.

"I believe people should take full responsibility for their debts, and I'm trying to practice what I preach," he said.

The Butler County cases:

Experience differentiates the two Republican candidates competing for Augusta Republican Peggy Palmer's Senate seat.

Both Rep. Ty Masterson and Butler County Commissioner Will Carpenter oppose abortion and a statewide smoking ban in public places. Both support lower taxes and greater government transparency.

Both have political backgrounds. Masterson has served in the House since October 2005. Before that, he served briefly on the Andover City Council. Carpenter has been a Butler County commissioner for eight years and served four years on the Circle school board.

Masterson said his experience in Topeka sets him apart.

"I have relationships developed and have a history of being effective and I could build on that," he said.

Republican Jim Ryun continues to spend huge amounts of cash almost as fast as it comes in as he campaigns to recapture Kansas' 2nd Congressional District seat.

Ryun, who represented the district for 10 years before voters turned him out in 2006, hauled in about $447,000 and spent $683,000 over the latest quarter.

His opponent in the Aug. 5 GOP primary, State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, reported raising $134,000 and spending $131,000 over the same period from April to mid-July.

The winner will face incumbent Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda in November's general election.

Ryun, of Lawrence, has already spent more than $1.5 million in the campaign, compared to about $266,000 spent by Jenkins.

An electrical company owned by the Harvey County sheriff and his wife has billed that county for more than $29,000 worth of electrical work, most of it no-bid.

The biggest share of those public expenditures --$20,081 -- was work that the business did for the office the sheriff oversees.

Sheriff Arlis "A.J." Wuthnow says the work that Arlis Electric did over the 15 months he has been sheriff was a bargain. He didn't seek bids, he said, because much of the work was troubleshooting and "unbiddable."

Another electrical company said it would have liked the option to bid. Mitchell Smith, owner of RM's Auto Electric in Newton, said, "If you're in public office, then you can't steer... any of the government's business that you have control over to a business that you have a financial stake in."

Smith said he has been reluctant to talk about the issue but says it gets at the core of governmental ethics.

The "Vote Here" signs went up Wednesday morning around the historic Sedgwick County Courthouse on North Main Street.

Arrows pointed to the courthouse doors.

By the end of the day, 78 people had voted in advance for the Aug. 5 primary election.

That's up considerably from the first day of advance voting in 2006, when 57 people voted, said Bill Gale, Sedgwick County election commissioner.

That's not counting the 7,700 advance ballots mailed out to voters. So far, more than 2,000 have been returned.

From facilities to utilities, both Republican candidates for the District 3 seat on the Butler County Commission say they have experience balancing budgets.

Marvin Dodson, 62, director of facilities management for Butler Community College, said he plans to stay within the county's means by continuing most of the goals the current commission has put in place.

Bruce Harris, 64, retired from a career with utilities, said some slight changes could reduce taxes.

The county could save money by combining resources with city governments to "buy in bulk," he said.

As areas of Butler County anticipate growth, Harris said planning ahead to build new developments near existing infrastructure could reduce costs as well.

HE CHEATED DEATH

Officer Dan Taylor leaned down inside the ambulance. "Can I do something for you?" he asked fellow officer Derek Purcell, who minutes before had been shot and critically wounded.

"Dan, you can have a priest meet me at the hospital," Purcell said softly.

"Don't be talking like that," Taylor told him.

"I'm not going to die," Purcell said. "I just want a priest at the hospital."

A man on trial for capital murder in the videotaped slaying and sexual torture of a 41-year-old woman will not dispute most of the charges against him, his lawyer said Friday.

But defense attorney Tom Jacquinot said in his opening statement that there will be questions about whether Richard Davis, 43, deliberated before killing Marsha Spicer.

"A confession is a confession," Jacquinot said. "A videotape is a videotape. Nobody is going to come here today and say these things didn't happen."

Davis faces 40 felony counts, including capital murder, kidnapping and rape in the May 2006 death of Spicer, of Independence. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Jackson County prosecutor Ted Hunt said during his opening statement that Davis and his girlfriend, Dena Riley, lured Spicer to his Independence apartment and "did not intend to let her leave alive."

Sometimes in politics, it's not so much what you say as what people hear.

Case in point: the race for Sedgwick County clerk.

Last week, supporters of candidate Sarah Skelton said her opponent, Kelly Arnold, claimed to have an endorsement he doesn't have.

And Arnold supporters said a radio ad by Skelton appeared to imply that she was already the county clerk.

First, Arnold.

Two things you might want to know if you haven't been following the Sedgwick County sheriff's race:

First, in a county that hasn't elected a Democrat to the office in nearly 2 ½ decades, there's a good chance that the next sheriff will be selected Aug. 5 in the Republican primary.

Second, that five-man Republican race appears to be shaping up as a two-way battle between Undersheriff Bob Hinshaw and Deputy Wichita Police Chief Robert Lee. The two have the most name recognition and are spending significant amounts of money on the campaign.

Hinshaw last week began airing television and radio spots that highlight his education and law enforcement experience.

Lee has hired the same campaign manager who helped Carl Brewer win the mayor's race last year. He and his manager, Beth King, are relying heavily on a direct-mail campaign that targets Republicans who are most likely to vote in the primary.

Two Wichita women running for seats in the Kansas Legislature have been sued for debts worth thousands of dollars apiece, according to Sedgwick County District Court documents.

Democrat Inga Taylor, 38, is running for the 84th District House seat in northeast Wichita, which is being vacated by Oletha Faust-Goudeau.

Taylor, a certified medical aide, is opposed in the Democratic primary by Gail Finney, 48, of Wichita, a marketing consultant and vice chair of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party.

Court records show that Taylor has been sued in recent years by a credit card company, a loan company and a mortgage company.

Taylor, reached on Friday, said all the debts have been paid.

State Senate candidate Rex Farley is named in two current stalking protection orders -- one as the defendant and the other as the plaintiff.

"These are personal issues," Farley said. "Everybody has personal issues, and it doesn't affect my ability to serve my constituency."

He is running against incumbent Sen. Carolyn McGinn in the Aug. 5 Republican primary for the 31st District seat. The winner will face Halstead Democrat Gene E. Marsh in November.

Farley, 47, is restricted from entering any QuikTrip where a particular woman is working, or making contact with her. A Sedgwick County District Court judge approved the protection from stalking order April 24. It is slated to be in effect for one year.

In the complaint, the woman, whom The Eagle is not naming, wrote that Farley "began coming to my place of employment at the beginning of my shift, waiting for me to get there, then loitering behind the building. When he came inside, he would corner me. On several occasions, he has asked inappropriate questions."

The Sedgwick County Jail needs more inmate beds, its top administrator says, even if that means the county can't give property owners tax relief.

Sheriff Gary Steed is upset about a recent recommendation by County Manager William Buchanan to halt plans for a $54 million jail expansion and instead reduce the county mill levy by one mill, or $11.50 on a $100,000 home.

"We need more beds," Steed said in an interview Friday. "The potential for lawsuits gets higher with overcrowding. We are not overcrowded right now. There's space in here. But we need more beds."

Steed said the time to expand is now and added that even if the county decides not to add beds, it still will have to spend money on support space. The jail needs more room for medical care, religious programs, renovations and some heating and air conditioning work.

It would make sense to take care of those issues at the same time as an expansion, he said.

The Wichita Police Department is investigating a shooting at a south Wichita nightclub that they say resulted in the city's latest homicide.

Those who live in the area say it is the culmination of months of violence.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting around 3 a.m. Sunday at Big Chub's King of Clubs nightclub in Seneca Square at 31st Street South and Seneca, Deputy Chief Robert Lee said.

Upon arriving, they found a man who had been shot and was in "very critical condition," Lee said.

The man was taken to Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus, where he was pronounced dead.

A crowd of about 100 gathered on Sunday at St. Mark's Church of God in Christ, near Oliver and Ninth, to hear 21 candidates for local, state and congressional offices briefly present their platforms and, even more briefly, answer voter questions.

The event was sponsored by the Wichita Voter Empowerment Association, which co-chairwoman Trudy Baker said comprises 19 local organizations and churches.

"We are not endorsing any one candidate," Baker said. "We just want people to be informed when they go to the polls."

Candidates from a variety of races attended, including candidates for the 84th District House seat and the 8th District State Board of Education.

Also attending was Jim Slattery, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.