Alva Review-Courier -

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City school board has accepted the resignation of Superintendent Aurora Lora. Board Chair Paula Lewis says the board accepted the resignation Tuesday night and that it is effective Thursday. Lora submitted her r...

PINK, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma prison inmate who walked away from a halfway house in December was fatally shot by law officers. Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said 40-year-old Ricky Rusche was shot Tuesday by officers at a home in Pink, a...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Abby the Spoon Lady is an enigma. These days, Abby Roach is at the top of her game street performing in front of crowds, talking on her radio show in Asheville, North Carolina, and becoming an internet sensation with videos. S...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Jeff Colyer promised a "new day" of openness shortly after taking the oath Wednesday as Kansas' governor, addressing the public and a GOP-controlled Legislature that is deeply divided over a court order to increase s...

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A Lee's Summit man already jailed in his girlfriend's death is facing charges after another jail inmate was killed. A Clay County grand jury on Tuesday indicted 34-year-old Marcus Simms for first-degree murder in the June 1 s...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran listened to some tough talk from his constituents Wednesday at a town hall meeting in Wichita that drew supporters of protections for young immigrants brought to this country as children, as well as o...

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A former University of Kansas student is facing 18 felony charges in crimes involving the university's computers. The Lawrence Journal-World reports Varun Sarja, of Olathe, made his first court appearance earlier this month a...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Outgoing Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says the state's prisons, hospitals and other facilities are in disrepair after years of underfunding. Brownback, who was stepping down Wednesday to become U.S. ambassador-at-large for i...

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 27-year-old man was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for the child abuse-related death of an infant girl in Shawnee. Aaron Peck pleaded no contest in November to intentional second-degree murder in the 2015 death of 7...

NESS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says a western Kansas sheriff was arrested for the second time in little more than a month for allegedly violating his bond on a previous case. KBI spokeswoman Melissa Underwood says 4...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The parents of a toddler fatally injured at a traveling carnival in Kansas have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the carnival's Missouri-based operator. The Wichita Eagle reports that Shaun Bartonek and Rheannon Babcock s...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A court mandate to boost spending on Kansas public schools and problems in state prisons, mental hospitals and child foster care confront Republican Jeff Colyer as he takes the Kansas governor's office and navigates tricky p...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Plans to erect a 7-foot-tall bronze statue of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the grounds of the Kansas Statehouse are moving forward. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Kansas Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to s...

DENVER (AP) — Colorado has released an update of its state climate plan that includes additional steps to limit greenhouse gases and to prepare for potential impacts from global warming. Gov. John Hickenlooper announced the update Wednesday at a s...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Boastful even within the traditional confines of a State of the Union speech, President Donald Trump inflated the impact of his tax cuts Tuesday night, declared an end to a "war" on energy that did not exist when he took office and...

Experts are painting a dire picture about the impending collapse of a giant cavern under a highway interchange that serves as a gateway to two national parks and the heart of New Mexico's oil and gas country. They told lawmakers Tuesday during a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's State of the Union offer of a "down-the-middle compromise" on immigration did nothing to move Republicans and Democrats closer to a deal Wednesday, as Democrats accused the president of lacing his speech wit...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Dozens of pharmacists are complaining that pharmacy benefit managers within Arkansas-managed insurance plans have them struggling for survival. Scott Pace, the head of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, says some p...

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Wednesday during the start of settlement talks for more than 250 federal lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies and distributors over the nation's opioid epidemic that he's e...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) The U.S. incarcerates a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country in the world. There’s little d...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York plans to join the growing number of states that have distributed tablet computers to prison inmates so they can better communicate with family members and boost their educational opportunities while incarcerated. The s...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Barred from using the jamming technology he feels would solve the security threat of inmate cellphone use, South Carolina's prisons director said Wednesday that he has been enlisting help from law enforcement agencies across t...

NEW YORK (AP) — To Mark Zuckerberg, fixing Facebook means many things — protecting users from abuse, preventing elections meddling from malicious actors, weeding out fake news and "making sure time spent on Facebook is well spent." To critics, it'...

DENVER (AP) — Crumbling mine tunnels awash with polluted waters perforate the Colorado mountains, and scientists may one day send robots creeping through the pitch-black passages to study the mysterious currents that sometimes burst to the surface wi...

Instead of holding criminal defendants on cash bail, courts around the United States are increasingly using algorithmic risk-assessment tools to help judges decide if a defendant should be jailed or go free while awaiting trial. One such model now...