A Wichita man has been found guilty of raping two Kansas City, Kan., girls whose mother brought them to a motel to have sex with him.
The Wichita Eagle reports 49-year-old James Lamont Brown is facing a mandatory sentence of life without parole because of his extensive criminal record.
Brown was charged with 10 counts each of rape and aggravated human trafficking for having sex with the girls at a Wichita hotel in 2010 and 2011. He was convicted Friday on 17 of those counts.
The girls’ mother pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated human trafficking. She testified that she sat on a motel bed and watched Brown have sex with her daughters on at least five occasions.
Brown denied ever meeting the girls.

Hunters who fan out across Kansas Saturday for the start of quail and pheasant season are likely to find fewer birds.
The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says two years of drought have reduced the birds’ population in most regions.
Mike Miller, editor of the agency’s magazine, says the southwest corner of the state is expected to have the fewest number of birds. He says the extreme heat and dry conditions reduced nesting and brood habitat for the birds.
Northwest and north-central Kansas were not as affected by the drought. And Miller says quail numbers have improved slightly in the northern Flint Hills and northeastern Kansas.
Miller says hunting brings in an estimated $400 million in revenue to the state each year.

Health officials say five Kansas lakes will remain on warning and advisory lists for harmful blooms of toxic algae until sampling resumes next year.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Thursday sampling for blue-green algae typically is done between April 1 and Oct. 31. Health advisories or warnings were issued for 24 lakes this season, with two confirmed cases of human illnesses.
A warning remains in place for Logan City Lake in Phillips County, meaning direct contact with the water is prohibited.
Advisories discouraging water contact remain for Harvey County East Park Lake; Hiawatha Lake in Brown County; McPherson County State Fishing Lake; and Memorial Veterans Lake in Great Bend.

Kansas wildlife officials are reminding hunters they need a new permit to bag prairie chickens this year.
Prairie chicken season opens Nov. 17. Until now, Kansas bird hunters who weren’t exempt by law only needed a state hunting license to go after the chickens.
But this year they’ll need a special permit to hunt both lesser and greater prairie chickens. The $2.50 permit is available online or wherever licenses are sold.
The Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says that some permit holders will be surveyed after the season to help the agency learn more about prairie chicken hunters, harvest numbers and distribution.

Wichita-based airplane maker Hawker Beechcraft says it’s closing facilities in three states and laying off more workers in Kansas.

The company said Wednesday that 240 employees will lose their jobs with the closing of Hawker Beechcraft Services facilities in Little Rock, Ark.; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Antonio, Texas.

It also plans to cut a total of 170 jobs at its Wichita headquarters and at its completion center in Little Rock.

Hawker Beechcraft says the moves are in line with plans to emerge from bankruptcy as a standalone company. It says the closures and layoffs will help with its plan to focus on turboprop, piston and military aircraft and on its parts and maintenance business.

Affected employees in Wichita will be notified Friday. The others will be told next week.

A Manhattan man pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the death of a man whose body was found along a dirt road in December 2011.

Twenty-year-old Michael Layne accepted the plea deal Tuesday in the death of 31-year-old Steve Freel. He also pleaded no contest to aggravated robbery and kidnapping.

Prosecutors say Freel and Layne committed several armed robberies together but had a falling out. That led Layne to drive Freel to a rural area near Manhattan and shoot him.

The Manhattan Mercury reports (https://bit.ly/YIEVcP ) the state agreed to recommend a sentence of about 24 years in prison.

Last week, Layne’s boss, Domingo Soto, was convicted of first-degree murder for providing Layne with the gun that he used to shoot Freel.

A southern Kansas man has pleaded not guilty in an accident in May that left two people dead and four injured.

Twenty-four-year-old Miles Theurer, a native of Wellington, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter and reckless aggravated battery after an accident in May on Kansas 18 two miles from Manhattan.

Theurer, a student at Kansas State University, pleaded Monday in the accident that killed 31-year-old Elizabeth Young of White City and 32-year-old Michael Stanley of Ogden. Theurer and three other Kansas State students in his vehicle were injured.

Prosecutors say Theurer was drunk and driving the wrong way on the highway when he ran head-on into a car driven by Young.

Theurer is out of jail on a $50,000 bond.

WICHITA (AP) – A small plane crash near Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport killed the pilot.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office says the Cessna Caravan struck a tree row Tuesday. The pilot, 52-year-old Brian P. Quinn of Lawrence, was the only person on board.

Tony Molinaro, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, says the pilot reported engine trouble shortly after taking off. Molinaro says the pilot was trying to return to the Wichita airport when the crash occurred about two miles from the airport. The plane was headed to Garden City.

FAA records show the plane was registered to Fed Ex Corp. Fed Ex spokesperson Shea Leordeanu said in a statement the company extended its thoughts and prayers to those affected by the crash. She referred questions to Barron Aviation, which operated the plane.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says federal prosecutors in Kansas will be on duty throughout Tuesday’s polling hours to field complaints of election fraud and voting rights violations.

Grissom says anyone with evidence of electoral corruption or voting rights abuses should call his office immediately at 785-295-2850.

The FBI’s regional office in Kansas City, Mo., was also making agents available Tuesday to take reports of voter suppression or election abuses. The FBI can be reached at 816-512-8200.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office also monitors the election and takes complaints.

In Wichita, the group KanVote was placing volunteers at polling places to observe implementation of Kansas voter ID laws in low-income neighborhoods.