Andover

Strong winds caused a lot of damage in Andover.  Near 21st and Andover road, several homeowners found trees scattered across their yard.   Julie Huber was watching the storm in her garage with her husband. She says all of a sudden the temperatures dropped about 15 degrees and the winds started swirling.  She says they ran into the basement and waited.  When they came out, the trees that were once in their front yard littered their driveway. The basketball goal was also bent.

Andover police find more than two pounds of marijuana and thousands of dollars inside a home.  Police served a search warrant in the 1200 block of Main on June 8th. Police say during the search, they found marijuana, drug paraphernalia and more than $5,000 in cash.  Police say they think the man living in the home had been selling marijuana in town for some time. They didn't arrest anyone during the search.  Police turned over the information to the Butler County Attorney who will decide whether to file charges.  Police say the man could face felony charges of distribution of marijuana within 1000 feet of a school, possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to pay the State's drug tax.

The power is back on at the pump station in Northeast Wichita - and city officials say residents can resume normal watering activities. The city says actions taken by customers to lessen the demand on the pump station were critical to working through the power outage. There are no voluntary water restrictions in place, but residents are still encouraged to conserve water where they can. The current hot, dry weather continues to contribute to high water demand and the city says efforts to curb usage can help improve the system.

Update: We know what caused this garage to explode in Andover on Thursday. It can serve as a reminder to homeowners with older houses. Ground shifting can cause gas lines under floors to break and leak. It generally happens in older homes because current codes don't allow that kind of construction. The andover fire chief blames this problem for the explosion that killed an 84-year old man. Investigators aren't releasing his name until family out of state is notified.

Several tips lead to the arrest of two people accused of burglary at an Andover convenience store. On July 8, 2010, at 4:30 in the morning, Andover police officers responded to a burglary alarm at a convenience store. Surveillance video shows about ten minutes earlier, a white four door passenger car, possibly an Oldsmobile, pulled up to the store. The video shows a white male and white female shooting the glass door. Once inside, the female took at least one case of beer while the male shot one of the cash registers.

Four people are hospitalized, two of them in critical condition, after a semi fire along the Kansas Turnpike just north of the K-96 exit in East Wichita early Tuesday. Troopers say an SUV was pulling another SUV on a trailer when a tire blew, a semi following behind them didn't realize what was happening and crashed into the vehicles.  The semi's fuel tank burstopen, spilling gas everywhere and catching fire. All four victims were in the SUV at the time of the crash.  The semi driver was not hurt.

Andover police arrest a 25-year-old man for child abuse. Chief Michael Keller says a call of the abuse was placed to 911 around 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon. When police arrived in at a mobile home in the 900 block of E. Highway US-54, they found a 2-month old girl unresponsive, with bruises on her face. She was taken to Via Christi on St. Francis is serious condition. On Monday, the child's father was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of child abuse.

After losing to Andover in the semifinals, Salina South refocused and beat Clay Center 74,61. "Anytime you're not in the championship game, you like to end the tournament with a win," Salina South coach Matt Renk said. "It was nice for our guys to battle through the disappointment of last nights game and come out and play well. " The game was back and forth in the first, the Cougars only leading by three in the half. Salina South outscored Clay center 26 to 20 in the third and were able to add to the lead in the final quarter.

There are new developments in the case of a hospital worker accused of infecting patients with Hepatitis C.  Two Kansans have now tested positive for the highly contagious virus.  Linda Ficken told Eyewitness News last week that she wasn't worried when doctors called her back for a for more tests.  But the results now show she does have Hepatitis C.  Health officials say it's closely related to a strain found in a cluster of patients in...

The dream of a new children's home in the Andover area has taken a step towards reality.   A group called SCARF kicked off its capital campaign Friday. SCARF stands for Sunlight Children's Advocacy and Rights Foundation.  It plans to build the home in Andover to serve Butler, Greenwood and Elk counties. "The children's home is going to be a country style warm and friendly environment for children that have been temporarily removed from their home.  We will have room for up to 15 children at one time," said board member Susan Koslowsky.

Butler county deputies arrest a burglary suspect after tracking him down in Andover. Lehman was caught Thursday afternoon after the owner of The Barn Guys found him hiding out in his shop. The suspect ran but police were able to make an arrest. Billy Page says he couldn't believe his eyes when he came to work at The Barn Guys Thursday morning. "I got close enough to see in the window, I seen the suspect dart out of the offices and run through the center part of the shop and out back," says Page.

Cookies and cupcakes serve as life lessons for some Andover students.  The district operates the Stadium Bakery , a place where special needs students learn both baking and business. Click here for photos They've been busy preparing for Valentine's Day, baking and frosting dozens of cookies.  They also take special orders for other sweet treats. The students and the staff say they love working in the bakery.  The students learn life skills they can utilize once they graduate.  And the teachers say it's a lot of fun helping students learn different things.

It's already been a memorable 2013 for Andover High School Senior Michael Raehpour. "I just got back from Washington, D.C. " Michael told us in January during band practice. "I was playing at the inauguration parade with the KU trumpet ensemble. " Michael was there with what's become his trusty sidekick, Claudia. That's the name he has given to his trumpet. "It has a good overall sound. There are some that have a brighter or darker sound, she's right in the middle so I can play good lead jazz, I can play good solos but I can also play some classicals and some chamber groups.

Andover district leaders believe their schools are very secure, but some moms and dads disagree. Troy Tabor and a team of parents want to see changes made at the schools, particularly to the front doors that stay unlocked during the day. They feel it is too easy for an intruder to get inside. Tabor says, "We don't have anyway of buzzing in people or making sure the people that are coming into the school need to be there. " USD 385 Spokeswoman Keturah Austin says, "Currently all of our entrances are locked except the front ones during the day. But that's something we have discussed and we'll continue to look at those options.

 The Salina South Cougars pulled off a 41-35 win over the Mustangs in a head-to-head battle in the SIT Championship game. "Anytime you can win a championship mid-season, post-season, early-season, you get a chance to put something as an accolade on that team and that year," Cougars head coach Jason Hooper said. "This one's special. " This came after a ten point loss to the Mustangs earlier in the season. "Central is one of those games that it really can go either way," Salina South senior Megan Hollaway said.

With three golf courses inside city limits, a lot of golfers live in Andover. A new ordinance makes getting around a little bit easier for them. "We think it's pretty cool because now, when we go over to the club, we can get there real easily and not have to worry about traffic and stuff like that. We were always worried the police would pull us over," said golfer Paul Hanneman . Golf carts typically must stay on the designated path, but they are now street legal for roads with a speed limit of 25 miles an hour or less.  "The golf carts can only be operated from sunrise to sunset.

"He came and said, 'People have been nice to me in my life and I want to return it,'" said attorney James Hargrove about a recent gift one Andover man left in his will. The Andover Police Department gets some high-tech gadgets because officers were nice to the right person.  One man leaves nearly $60,000 to the Andover Police and Fire Departments in his will. "I had the pleasure, and it is a pleasure, of distributing over $200,000 to the Andover Fire department, Police Department, the United Way of the Plains, the American Lung Association and Heartspring," said Hargrove.

Ten-year-old Anna Curry says she's grateful for her mom, dad and brother.  She became part of her Andover family as a toddler after spending her first three years in a Russian orphanage. "Orphans in Russia are not first class citizens, I'll say that,"  David Curry says. He and his wife, Tami, adopted Anna in 2005. Today, there are some 700,000 orphans in Russia.  Over the past 20 years, Americans have adopted more than 60,000 of them.  But now, Russia has banned adoptions to the U.S.  American officials say it's in retaliation for the U.S. keeping out Russians accused of violating human rights.