February 21, 2011 KSDB News

TODAY'S WEATHER FORCAST CALLS FOR PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES AND A HIGH OF 41 DEGREES. IT IS CURRENTLY "INSERT TEMP" DEGREES.





IN LOCAL NEWS…..


- After a year in Iraq transporting 300,000 passengers and 9 million pounds of cargo, a Fort Riley aviation unit is coming home.

Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade will begin arriving this week with ceremonies planned when they return to Kansas.

The unit grew in size and coverage area during its deployment to Iraq, rising from 2,800 soldiers and almost 120 aircraft to about 4,000 soldiers and more than 230 helicopters.



Fort Riley officials say that as U.S. forces began leaving Iraq, the aviation brigade was the sole unit of its type in the country. Its role was to provide aerial support to ground units conducting a variety of missions.





- It was a case of adults behaving badly at Chuck E. Cheese's when Topeka police had to clear a brawl Saturday night at the kids-oriented restaurant on Wanamaker Road.



In a statement issued Sunday morning by Capt. Bill Cochran, the shift commander said officers responded at 8:45 p.m. Saturday where they found "an active disturbance both inside and outside the business."



The disturbance began, Cochran said, "when two families celebrating different birthday events had a disagreement" and adults from both gatherings began to fight. "The situation spilled out into the parking lot, as well as inside the business," he said.



Officers dispersed the crowd and issued two citations in connection with fighting/brawling and disorderly conduct.





IN NATIONAL NEWS…..



- Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.



More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Governor Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he's in favor of the idea.



Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law.





- Fifty-three people were killed in a 72-hour span in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, making it one of the deadliest three-day periods in recent memory. Among the dead were four police officers from three different agencies.



Suspected drug traffickers are believed to be behind the violence, setting cars ablaze and destroying street lights and security cameras. Among the casualties, a human head was discovered on a street and another body was found near a charred vehicle.



Juarez is one of Mexico's deadliest cities and an epicenter of drug cartel violence. The Juarez cartel and the Sinaloa cartel are fighting a bloody turf war in the region for lucrative smuggling routes, and for drug-dealing territory in the city.