Wichita

Three cities, three signatures all supporting daily passenger train service through Wichita.  Friday afternoon the City of Wichita announced Mayor Carl Brewer along with the mayors of Oklahoma City and Kansas City have signed a joint letter of support. Click here to read press release The idea is to close the 185 mile gap and provide passenger train service from Oklahoma City to Wichita. On top of the letter, the city says the Kansas Department of Transportation has authorized the City of Wichita to pursue federal funding for this expansion.

We hear it from celebrities, athletes, even politicians such Vice President Joe Biden, the f-word is everywhere. "Every word that comes out of their mouth, 'f this, f that," Wichita resident Johnny Smith said. Click here to see where Kansas ranks for cursing It's an effective communication tool according to some. "If I say, 'f you,' you know I'm being rude," Wichita residnet Adam Poston said.  "If I say, 'I'm having an f-ing good time,' you know I'm having a great time!"

by Michael Schwanke (WICHITA, Kan.) If you're in the market for a rental home and you're shopping on Craigslist, area Realtors say be careful. Scammers are using the popular site to take your money. The scammers are stealing home listings off the Internet, and then re-posting them on Craigslist as a "Home for Rent. " Realtor Mike Grbic says it's been happening for several months, "But has gotten much worse the past couple of weeks. " We're getting a lot of calls from people thinking they're going to rent a $250,000 house for $900 a month.

Courtesy of Wichita State - WICHITA, Kan. - Wichita State scored two runs in the ninth inning but that was not enough as they could not overcome a four-run fifth inning from the Creighton Bluejays as the Shockers dropped the series opener 6-5 on Friday night at Eck Stadium. The Shockers scored the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, taking advantage of two walks and two hit batsmen from Creghton starter Tommy Strunc. Tyler Baker singled with one out before Casey Gillaspie walked, Micah Green and Erik Harbutz were hit by a pitch, and Mikel Mucha drew a walk to give Wichita State the 2-0 lead.

Santa Fe, New Mexico is a town that offers a unique way of living and prides itself on being different. The town has added fluoride to its water since the 1950s, but now, the city council has voted to stop adding it. The council decided and already voted, but there were concerns about how open the process was. So now, members will vote again...but most have already made their decision. "Over the years has been beneficial," said council member Ron Trujillo, "I do understand that I'm going to keep my stance that there's enough fluoride occurring in this community that we don't need to add to it. " There isn't enough according to the CDC. Santa Fe and Wichita are similar when it comes to naturally occuring fluoride.

Youthville will not be in charge of foster care or adoption services in the Wichita area starting in July, a role it's had since 1996. The contract Youthville lost was worth about $20 million dollars a year. The Kansas Department for Children and Families awarded the new four year contract to St. Francis Community Services. That group will provide services in Wichita and 9 surrounding counties. It was also awarded the contract for Western Kansas, which includes 69 counties. "Yes we are disappointed, but we look forward to the future and the opportunities that will come our way," said Youthville CEO Shelley Duncan.

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson says stop worrying about Louisiana, Hawker Beechcraft is staying where it belongs in Wichita. The governor made the announcement Tuesday morning.  He, the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County worked out a $45 million incentive package to keep the plane maker in town.   "I think this is an early Christmas for the people of Hawker Beechcraft.   "We will go forward with some renewed lift under our wings," said CEO Bill Boisture. Hawker is staying with the help of $40 million from the state.  The money will come from Hawker employee income tax with holdings.  Parkinson says they'll take the money Hawker employees are paying the state and reinvest it in the company.  $30 million will go to research and development and $10 million to educating employees at places like the National Center for Aviation Training.  Wichita and Sedgwick County will each chip in another $2.5 million, rounding out the $45 million package.

National Train Day is tomorrow, but supporters of passenger rail in Wichita will get a jump on it today. They're holding a press conference this afternoon at Union Station to discuss "significant developments" in the push to have Wichita connected to Amtrak's network. Vice Mayor Pete Meitzner as well as local business representatives will be on hand for the event. Eyewitness News will be there, look for updates later this afternoon.

Wichita emergency crews work two motorcycle accidents - both happening within minutes of each other. The first crash occurred on K-42 and Hoover around 4:30 p.m. Monday afternoon. Investigators say one person was critically hurt when a vehicle changed lanes and clipped the motorcycle. The rider was ejected. Although a helmet was worn, the rider was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Just north of Wichita, an SUV collided with a motorcycle on K-254 and Webb.

Gas prices jumped around 12 cents overnight.  Many stations are selling gas at $3.45 a gallon for regular unleaded. That's up from around $3.33 on Tuesday.  

It's an eyesore that makes the area look unsafe. That's one example of what Wichitans are saying about an abandoned building near Kellogg and the Kansas Turnpike. A viewer asked FactFinder 12 Investigators to learn more about the East Pike building, with all its broken windows and boarded entrances. "I've had customers ask if it's safe to stay here," says Dave Rasmussen, manager of the nearby Hampton Inn. Rasmussen says the broken windows became a noticeable problem in the past couple of months.  He's also seen firefighters using the building for training.

A combined shutout from the Shocker pitching staff and a Casey Gillaspie grand slam helped Wichita State defeat Northwestern 5-0. Aaron LaBrie improved his record to 4-1 with the win. The Shockers leader in ERA tossed two scoreless innings in relief and allowed two base runners. LaBrie's ERA now stands at 0.91. Brandon Magallones took the loss for Northwestern. He fell to 5-6 despite throwing seven innings of one run ball. Magallones allowed six hits and one walk, and recorded three strikeouts.

Two people have been seriously hurt after two separate incidents in north Wichita and the south side of the city. The first happened in the 1200 block of N. Indiana around 10 p.m. Police said a man in his 50s suffered critical stab wounds. The second incident happened in the 600 block of S. Kansas around 10:15 p.m. Dispatchers said a man was hit in the head multiple times with a hammer. He was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for head injuries. It is unclear whether police have any suspects in custody.

A new call center is coming to Wichita and it's bringing hundreds of jobs with it.  Starwood Hotels and Resorts plans to open a call center in Wichita later this year.  However it's still waiting on Sedgwick County and the City of Wichita to approve an incentive package. The customer service center would go in on East Harry, in the location where Office This used to be. Steve Bacci owned three businesses at that location, but had to move two of them. "There are a lot of tenants who had to relocate, who had to find new office places within the Wichita area, office out of homes," said Bacci.

750 people in downtown Wichita are without power this morning. Westar Energy doesn't yet know what caused the outage. They have crews out working to fix the problem and figure out what caused it. In the meantime, they are trying to re-route power to as many customers as possible.

We hear it from celebrities, athletes, even politicians such Vice President Joe Biden, the f-word is everywhere. "Every word that comes out of their mouth, 'f this, f that," Wichita resident Johnny Smith said. Click here to see where Kansas ranks for cursing It's an effective communication tool according to some. "If I say, 'f you,' you know I'm being rude," Wichita residnet Adam Poston said.  "If I say, 'I'm having an f-ing good time,' you know I'm having a great time!"

Each day, we comb through pages upon pages of crime reports from the Wichita Police Department.  Below is a quick glance at some bits and pieces from those sheets.  These reports are designed to give you an idea of what residents and police are dealing with around town. You can read all of the sheets by going here: WPD Media Reports Aggravated Robbery... 54/m says two people forced him into a car, saying they had a gun. They took the man's wallet from his pants and drove him around for a few minutes before he jumped out of the vehicle.

  KATIE HATFIELD   "I'm so excited to be working with The Crew. Having grown up in Wichita, I love being back to spend time with family and play with our two boxer puppies!"  

Wichita public schools will be offering free food for children as part of a summer program. The free breakfasts and lunches will be available for children 18 years old and younger at 37 locations across Wichita. Some sites will offer meals throughout the length of the program, while others will offer meals sometime during those months. Some locations will offer both breakfast and lunch, while others will offer only one meal and seven sites will offer an afternoon snack.  Click here to see a list of locations and meal plans Breakfast will include milk, cereal/bread and milk.

Wichita police say someone used bolt cutters to breach a gas tank at a local gas station...and made off with 150 gallons of gas. It happened at D&T Gas in the 800 block of S. Woodlawn. Police believe the theft happened between Monday and Wednesday. Authorities are going over video from that gas station, but have not yet found anything suspicious. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.