Wire
Red Sox, Cubs grab lion's share of All-Star spots
NEW YORK (AP) -- Maybe Manny Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano and the rest of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs should just play their own All-Star game. A charmed season for the Cubs got even better Sunday when they put a team-record seven players on the NL roster. The World Series champion Red Sox also will send seven to Yankee Stadium on July 15. "They love me everywhere, what can I tell you?" Ramirez said. "That's why I'm here. I guess I'm n...
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Private immunization providers
TOPEKA -- The Kansas Health Institute lists 49 counties as having no private health care providers who give childhood immunizations. Of those, 12 have no primary care clinics: Chase, Comanche, Elk, Gray, Greeley, Hodgeman, Kearny, Kiowa, Linn, Morton, Scott and Wichita. The other 37 have at least one private clinic but none providing immunizations: Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Clark, Clay, Cloud, Decatur, Edwards, Ellsworth, Franklin, Gove...
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Newborn screening expanded in Kansas
TOPEKA -- State health officials have started screening the blood of all newborns for 29 potential disorders. The state previously screened for just four disorders, fewer than almost every other state. Missouri tests for 63 disorders. House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, an Ingalls Republican who pushed for more screenings, called the new law one of the most significant health policies in the last 20 years in Kansas. The law went into effect July 1....
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Microsoft wants to negotiate with new Yahoo exec board
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. threw its weight behind investor Carl Icahn's effort to oust Yahoo Inc.'s board next month, saying Monday that a successful rebellion would encourage the software maker to renew its takeover bid for Yahoo or negotiate another multibillion-dollar deal. The development gives Icahn a huge carrot to dangle before Yahoo shareholders as he wages a campaign to oust Yahoo's nine directors at the company's annual ...
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New York baseball bat beating
FALMOUTH, Mass. -- A man was ordered held without bail Monday for allegedly beating a New York man with a baseball bat because he thought the man was a Yankees fan. As it turned out, the New Yorker allegedly beaten in the land of the Red Sox isn't even a big baseball fan. Police say Robert Correia, 20, and others spotted a car with New York license plates leaving a fireworks display Friday. The group approached the car and began yelling about...
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Big day for Frenchmen in Tour de France
NANTES, France (AP) -- In a big day for French cycling, Samuel Dumoulin won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday while countryman Romain Feillu finished third to claim the yellow jersey. "It's phenomenal," said Dumoulin, who rides for the French-owned Cofidis team. "I have waited for a win like that for so long." Feillu was just beaten to the line and took the overall lead from Alejandro Valverde, the Spaniard who led since winning...
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Soriacontinuesstellar career with All-Star nod
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kansas City Royals closer Joakim Soria is heading to his first All-Star game after being named to the American League team by manager Terry Francona on Sunday. Soria, 24, has converted 23 of 25 save chances this season, going 1-1 with a 1.22 ERA. The right-hander has allowed 18 hits, struck out 41 and walked nine in 37 innings entering Monday. "He's been outstanding," Royals manager Trey Hillman told The Kansas Ci...
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G-8 talking new aid pledges
RUSUTSU, Japan -- An aid group founded by U2 frontman Bono calculates that the Group of Eight top industrialized nations has delivered only $3 billion of the additional $25 billion promised for Africa for everything from AIDS drugs to training peacekeepers. Now the Africans and their allies want a new system to make sure rich nations come through. The G-8 opened their summit in northern Japan on Monday with a discussion with eight African ...
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Artists flock to scenic Flint Hills
BAZAAR -- Dale Hartley bends over her wet oil painting lying in the tall grass at the side of a gravel road southeast of Bazaar. She adds streaks of colors to the canvas to recreate the motion of the grass as it bends in the wind and the sunlight reflecting off the deep-green blades. Hartley, a painter-potter who grew up in Wichita and now lives in Saffordville, has grown to love the rolling Kansas prairie and joins other plein air artists ne...
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Soriablowssave,but Buck powersKC to victory
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- A stroke of good luck by Carlos Pena wasn't quite enough for the Tampa Bay Rays. After Pena hit a tying solo homer off All-Star closer Joakim Soria in the ninth Monday, the Royals struck back with 10th-inning home runs by John Buck and Mike Aviles for a 7-4 win. The loss snapped the Rays' seven-game winning streak. Tampa Bay, with the major's best record at 55-33, lost for the second time in the last 13 games. The...
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Mercedes-climbing goat
CAPSHAW, Ala. -- The goat was arrested, the Mercedes-Benz was assaulted and the dog came along for the ride. It happened Sunday when a woman driving the Mercedes saw a goat and dog playing on U.S. 72 in northern Alabama, Sheriff Mike Blakely said. She stopped, afraid they would get hit, Blakely said. But the goat jumped on the car and wouldn't come down. Fearing scratches and dents in her import's paint job, she called the Limestonse Count...
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Chinese tourists fly to Taiwan
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Hundreds of mainland Chinese tourists -- some in matching white or pink shirts -- arrived in Taiwan on Friday on the first regular commercial flights in nearly six decades between the old foes. A China Southern Airlines flight carrying 230 passengers touched down at Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan, and fire trucks shot water at the first plane in a welcome gesture. "From today onward, regular commercial flig...
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Chestnut wins Coney Island hot dog contest
NEW YORK (AP) -- Joey Chestnut reclaimed the top spot at the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island on Friday after first tying with archrival Takeru Kobayashi in a 10-minute chow-down and then beating him in a five-dog eat-off. The men tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes, before being made to gobble another five dogs in a last-minute tiebreaker. They consumed 64 hot dogs total and were looking quite peaked after the competition. Kob...
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It's Federer vs. Nadal -- all over again
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Add up all of Roger Federer's greatness on grass courts, and the numbers are striking: 40 wins in a row at Wimbledon, 65 overall on the surface. Now he seeks an additional victory, a victory that would make him the first man since the 1880s to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles, a victory that would give him a 13th Grand Slam championship, one shy of Pete Sampras' career record. And a victory that would have to...
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PJs for GIs
OWASSO, Okla. -- Julie Dermody doesn't want troops who suffer an injury in combat to have an added insult in the form of a flimsy hospital gown. That's why she started a drive to gather donated pajamas to send to troops who might need them. Dermody got the idea from her brother, Sgt. Richard Hines, who works with the Oklahoma Army National Guard at Camp Gruber near Muskogee. He finished a 12-month stint in Iraq in November and heard from a Na...
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Abdul Qadeer Khan talks nukes
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The disgraced architect of Pakistan's nuclear program said Friday that it provided centrifuges to North Korea in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army under President Pervez Musharraf. Abdul Qadeer Khan, who remains a national hero despite confessing four years ago to heading a clandestine proliferation network, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the uranium enrichment equipment was sent from Pak...
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High and low temperatures and precipitation for the 24 hours ending at 7 p
Kansas temperatures High and low temperatures and precipitation for the 24 hours ending at 7 p.m. Friday. Hi Lo Prec. Chanute 84 63 0.00 Coffeyville 86 67 0.00 Concordia 83 55 0.00 Dodge City 92 58 0.00 Elkhart 93 60 0.00 Emporia 81 60 0.01 Garden City 92 59 0.00 Goodland 92 57 0.00 Hays 90 55 0.00 Hill City 92 60 0.00 Hutchinson 87 57 0.00 Lawrence 82 58 0.01 Liberal 91 63 0.00 Manhattan 82 58 0.00 Medicine Lodge 90 59 0.00 Olathe 80 60 ...
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No time to lounge: Lizard's lifespan is short
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Confused and frustrated that the lizards he was trying to study all suddenly died, Oklahoma State University researcher Kris Karsten came to a conclusion that's earned him national acclaim. As it turns out, the chameleon he had been researching lives a brisk life and might just be better off in its egg than after it has hatched. Karsten published his doctorate research on the tiny chameleon species Furcifer labordi this ...
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Offutt gets new Air Force unit
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- Nebraska officials hope to convince the Air Force that the best location for its new Cyber Command headquarters is Offutt Air Force Base on the south edge of Omaha. Nebraska, along with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, responded to the Air Force's request for information ahead of this week's July 1 deadline. To bolster the case for Offutt, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman solicited letters of support from th...
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Man wrongly jailed can't sue
WICHITA -- A man mistakenly jailed in Colorado and Kansas for a month can't sue Sedgwick County or its sheriff, a federal judge has ruled. Francisco J. Reyes, of Kansas City, Kan., was held for a month in 2005 after authorities mistakenly matched him to a man wanted in a baby's rape. In dismissing Reyes' lawsuit on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil of Kansas City, Kan., said Reyes can't sue Sedgwick County commissioners or Sheriff...
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