The largest earthquake to shake Kansas since a series of small quakes began to shake the state last year struck Wednesday.
The 4.8 magnitude quake struck about 25 miles southwest of Wichita around 3:40 p.m. local time. The quake followed a 2.6 magnitude quake on Tuesday.
Sharon Watson of Kansas Emergency Management said only minor damage was reported throughout the region. One home reportedly had its foundation cracked by an uprooted tree.
Oklahoma officials reported no damage.
Kansas has recorded more than 90 earthquakes since 2013 according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
The city of Overland Park, Kansas has learned a very expensive lesson about violating the religious freedom of Christians.
The city has paid $50,000 in legal fees after a court ruled the violated the rights of Christians who were handing out materials about their soccer camp at a city-owned soccer complex. The city had banned Victory Through Jesus Sports Ministries from handing out flyers on the sidewalk. The U.S. District Court ruled that there was no difference between those sidewalks and any other public sidewalk.
Gordon Hunjak of Victory Through Jesus Sports Ministries filed suit after they were threatened with arrest for continuing to hand out the materials. The city then passed a law saying that the soccer park and surrounding area was “a non-public forum.”
The city’s defense to the court was that they were trying to control litter and the flow of pedestrian traffic into the facility. The court said if that was really the case, the response of the city was excessive.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Hunjak, said in a statement that the case should warn other cities that it is important to respect the religious freedom of citizens.
A series of major tornadoes broke out across the south and Midwest Sunday night leaving at least 18 dead.
Officials in Arkansas say a tornado that at one point had a base half a mile wide ripped through Little Rock suburbs Vilonia and Mayflower. The mayor of Vilonia told FoxNews that the tornado essentially obliterated his town’s downtown business district.
Authorities say the tornado first touched down around 7 p.m. and caused destruction along an 80-mile path. A brand new intermediate school built with $14 million in taxpayer dollars and scheduled to open in the fall was destroyed.
“We’re probably going to have to start all over again,” Vilonia Schools Superintendent Frank Mitchell said.
Arkansas officials said that a tornado struck on Interstate 40 destroying cars and leaving tractor trailers in twisted heaps.
Another twister destroyed most of Quapaw, Oklahoma and left one person dead before turning into Kansas and destroying over 70 homes in Baxter Springs.
The anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State says a cross on the top of an elementary school is a horrific violation of the Constitution.
The AUSCS says that a small concrete cross on the top of Spearville Elementary School in Spearville, Kansas offends an unknown person in the town. The group routinely uses anonymous people as the basis for their claims against any Christian emblem or symbol being seen in a public place.
The Dodge City Globe obtained a letter from the group that said the “school’s cross display violates the constitutional prohibition against government action that ‘conveys or attempts to convey a message that religion or a particular belief is favored or preferred’.”
The USD 381 Board of Education told the Globe that they won’t be taking any action until the group files a lawsuit.
The building used for Spearville Elementary was a Catholic school until the Dodge City Diocese to the local school district in 1975. Because the building was constructed in 1925, it’s possible that the building could be considered a historical landmark in the town.
A Kansas man is under arrest after plotting to blow up Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.
Terry Loewen, an aviation tech at the airport, reportedly spent months planning the attack to destroy the airport. The plot involved using his access card to drive a vehicle loaded with explosives to a terminal and then planned to die in the attack.
FBI agents arrested Loewen was arrested early Friday morning while trying to gain access to a tarmac with the vehicle he thought was loaded with explosives. Authorities said that the car had been filled with fake explosives and the public was never in danger.
He faces life in prison on federal charges including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Loewen was under investigation since summer after making statements he wanted to commit an act of violent jihad against the United States.
Blizzard conditions again descended on the midsection of the country Monday, bringing hurricane-force winds to the Texas Panhandle, closing highways in Texas and Oklahoma and putting already snow-covered parts of Kansas on high alert as the day progressed. Continue reading →
An armada of snow plows and salt spreaders deployed Wednesday on highways across the nation’s heartland working to stay ahead of a powerful winter storm that already is blamed for one road death. Continue reading →
Winter Storm “Q,” which has already dumped a layer of snow in Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California, moves with full force into the eastern Plains and Midwest on Thursday, where it could dump a foot and a half of snow in some areas. Continue reading →
Over the last year, residents of the Midwest have been reporting weather conditions that remind historians of the “Dust Bowl.”
Close to 62% of the United States remain in drought conditions and scientists are reporting that parts of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico are in “exceptional drought conditions.” Continue reading →
Winter Storm “Q,” which has already dumped a layer of snow in Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California, moves with full force into the eastern Plains and Midwest on Thursday, where it could dump a foot and a half of snow in some areas.