Kansas

Kristin Geoffroy of Los Alamitos has signed a letter of intent to play women's basketball at Kansas, said her coach, Mike Ford. Geoffroy, a 6-6 center, averaged 13.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and more than two blocks for the Griffins last season. * Jackie Frank, the Los Alamitos goalkeeper who was named most valuable player in the Junior National Women's Water Polo Championships (19 and under) last summer, has signed a letter of intent to play at Stanford.

Mark Parkinson got his start in Republican politics at age 19, as a precinct committeeman. He served six years as a Republican state legislator, eventually becoming state Republican chairman. But two weeks ago, Parkinson announced he was running for lieutenant governor -- as a Democrat. He said he no longer felt welcome in the increasingly conservative Kansas Republican Party.

Schools will open as planned in August after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Legislature had complied with a court order to increase public school funding. The justices had threatened to withhold state aid from public schools unless lawmakers raised school funding by $143 million by July 1. The Legislature approved its $148.4-million plan Wednesday night, the 12th and final day of a special session.

The Kansas attorney general, as part of a criminal investigation into child rape and late-term abortions, is demanding that two health centers hand over the medical records of about 90 female patients, including minors. The investigation was disclosed in a filing to the Kansas Supreme Court by two unidentified clinics, which had been ordered by a district court judge to disclose the patients' names, as well as their medical histories, birth control, sexual practices and other personal details.

A BNSF Railway train rear-ended a second train Thursday, derailing 10 cars -- including one that erupted in flames -- and injuring one crewman. The train that was struck was stopped on the tracks, BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said. Six cars from the stopped train, and two locomotives and two cars from the other train, derailed. Forsberg said the wreck's cause was under investigation. An earlier report that a third train was involved in the accident was incorrect, Forsberg said.

The tobacco industry suffered an unexpected defeat in Kansas on Friday, when a federal jury ordered two cigarette firms to pay $198,400 and as-yet unspecified punitive damages to a former smoker. The verdict in Kansas City was a victory for David Burton, 66, a former janitor and railroad worker who lost his legs to a circulatory disease that jurors found was caused by his smoking. The eight jurors ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Ricky Grace doesn't show up big in the box score, unless you look in the assist column. Grace scored only eight points, but he had 10 assists and blocked a last-second shot by Mark Turgeon of Kansas as 16th-ranked Oklahoma beat No. 20 Kansas, 76-74, Thursday night in a Big Eight Conference game at Norman, Okla. "It was clean all the way," Grace said of his block of Turgeon's 3-point jumper at the buzzer. "I saw him fake Mac (Tim McCalister) and I just came over to help out."

The BTK serial killer has sent investigators at least three packages containing jewelry, and investigators were trying to determine whether any of it was taken from his victims, police said Thursday. Along with a padded manila envelope sent Wednesday to KSAS-TV in Wichita, the communications were contained in a cereal box found northwest of Wichita in late January and a package found a few days later that police identified only as Communication No. 7.

Kansas really is flatter than a pancake, U.S. geographers reported Monday. A scientific comparison of the topography of Kansas to a pancake shows the state, known for its vast, even fields, is in fact really, really flat, geographer Mark Fonstad of Southwest Texas State University and his colleagues found.

It would seem an ideal time for Kansas politicians opposed to abortion to push that agenda, hard. The state's two biggest clinics are under criminal indictment, and two grand juries will soon convene to consider additional charges. But as the political season revs up, the executive director of the Kansas Republican Party has issued a stern warning to his fellow conservatives: Abortion is not a winning issue.