TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas House committee heard from both sides of a controversy over proposed restrictions on wind farm developments.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would require any new turbines to be installed at least 1.5 miles from homes and 3 miles from an airport, park or hunting area.
On Thursday, wind farm operators told the House Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications the bill was an attack on the free market.
The Topeka Capital Journal reports representatives for NextEra Energy and Enel Green Power said the companies have invested billions of dollars in Kansas, paid millions to landowners and created thousands of jobs.
On Tuesday, opponents of wind farms complained to the committee about noise from the turbines and expressed concern about possible health problems caused by the machines.
Militia bomb plotter gets more prison time
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Prosecutors say a Kansas militia member convicted of taking part in a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas has now been sentenced to even more time behind bars for possession of child pornography.
A judge sentenced 50-year-old Patrick Stein on Friday to an additional 44 months in federal prison in a separate case. That sentence is on top of the 30 years he was sentenced last month to serve for plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex in Garden City housing Somali immigrants.
The U.S. attorneys office said Stein pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. Investigators executing warrants in the bomb case discovered up to 149 images of children engaged in sexual activities on his laptop and computer drives.
Woman dies in crash
KECHI, Kan. (AP) A 24-year-old Wichita woman had died in a crash after she drove the wrong way on a Kansas highway.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash early Friday on Kansas 254 in Kechi.
KAKE-TV reports Brooke Spainhower lost control on a turn and crashed into a guardrail. Spainhower died when her car caught fire.
No other vehicles were involved.
