A large tornado was spotted near Wichita Mid-Continent Airport shortly before 4 p.m. as part of a fast-moving storm, according to the National Weather Service. No reports of the tornado on the ground, as storm continues to pass through the areas..

A tornado warning for Sedgwick and Harvey counties was canceled shortly before 4:30 p.m., but it remained in effect for Butler County.

For the second straight day much of the state, including Wichita, has been placed under a tornado watch by the weather service. The watch is scheduled to last until 10 p.m. Sunday.

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Tornado sirens have sounded in downtown Wichita. The sky has turned black in downtown Wichita.

Quarter size hail is falling.

Radar has indicated possible funnel clouds near Viola. A confirmed tornado was located near Clearwater. And a funnel was spotted near the Mid-Continent Airport.

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Wichita police are searching for a 23-year-old man who they say threatened a 21-year-old woman in the 3300 block of East Roseberry.

Police were called to the area after the woman called 911 reporting a domestic violence incident.

When police arrived, they learned the man was still inside the house and had pulled a gun during the disturbance and fired a round off.

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On Monday, two years and 20 days after Vashti Forrest Seacat’s body was found in the charred remains of her Kingman home, attorneys will start picking jurors who will be asked to decide between two arguments already raised in court:

That the 34-year-old woman’s husband, Brett Seacat, a law enforcement trainer and former Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed her and set fire to their home, or that she started the blaze and then shot herself.

Felicia Ryder, who organized a candlelight vigil to remember Vashti Seacat soon after the tragedy, said that Brett Seacat’s first-degree murder trial will offer closure for the town. The case has been weighing on people, and the big old house where it all happened – now vacant and boarded up – is part of that weight, Ryder said.

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The state has given Sedgwick County permission to reduce staffing ratios at its juvenile detention center, which could save the county money and eliminate some mandatory overtime for employees.

The waiver from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is good through April 2, 2014.

KDHE’s regulations require one staff member per seven juveniles during the day and one staff member per 11 residents at night. The waiver will allow the county to have one staff member per eight residents during the day and one staff member per 14 juveniles during sleeping hours.

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Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600million, making it the largest prize in the game’s history and the world’s second largest lottery prize.

Lottery officials say the prize grew quickly Friday because so many people have been purchasing the $2 tickets. The jackpot has grown by an estimated $236 million since the last drawing on Wednesday.

The last jackpot was won on March 30, so it’s been growing for about six weeks. The next drawing is Saturday night.

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Unlike some, these guys don’t mind working on a Saturday.

Buddy was even howling, so eager was he to get to it at Andover Central Park.

He joined fellow members of the Sedgwick County Emergency Management K9 Search Team for weekly training to keep skills sharp.

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Terry Dutton, hanging around with his friend David Yoder and watching the Kansas State baseball team celebrate its Big 12 championship after Friday’s victory over Oklahoma, had a fashion problem.

His cap commemorated the Wildcats’ 2012 Big 12 football championship. Since he bought it, K-State brought home league trophies in men’s basketball and baseball.

“You could put basketball here, and baseball here,” Dutton said, pointing to the cap.

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The defected Syrian general whom the United States has tapped as its conduit for aid to the rebels has acknowledged in an interview with McClatchy that his movement is badly fragmented and lacks the military skill needed to topple the government of President Bashar Assad.

Gen. Salim Idriss, who leads what’s known as the Supreme Military Command, also admitted that he faces difficulty in creating a chain of command in Syria’s highly localized rebellion, a shortcoming he blamed on the presence within the rebel movement of large numbers of civilians without military experience.

“It is difficult to unify the (rebels) because they are civilians and only a few of them had military service,” Idriss said.

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Due to impending stormy weather, Wichita Ribfest closed at 9 p.m. Saturday, two hours shy of the scheduled end of the three-day barbecue event.

Last year Mother Nature also affected the final day of the festival, forcing Intrust Bank Arena officials, who put on the event, to cancel the night’s activities because of storms and wind.

Ribfest was set up just east of Intrust Bank Arena in Lot D, the city-managed parking lot at 777 E. Waterman. It featured barbecue served by national vendors, live music and other activities

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Speaking as advocates for thousands of incarcerated Kansans, four former inmates this weekend called for broad changes to the Kansas prison system to help nonviolent drug offenders get treatment and deter relapses.

David Wilkinson spent six months in prison after he was convicted twice of cocaine possession. After his first release, he said, he was put on a waiting list for a spot in a drug rehabilitation program.

Homeless and with no support – problems facing many offenders, he said – Wilkinson used drugs again and landed back in prison.

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The killers bided their time for days, then weeks, waiting for a moment when American soldiers would be vulnerable.

It came, finally, in the early hours of Sept. 16, 2012. Six soldiers in a Joint Base Lewis-McChord cavalry squadron had an overnight assignment at an observation point. They watched a valley they suspected enemy fighters were using to lob mortars into the soldiers’ small forward base near Afghanistan’s southeastern border with Pakistan.

The soldiers’ thermal imaging scopes let their eyes cut through the dark for several hundred yards. It was a huge nighttime advantage over the enemy.

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When the city of Wichita bought the National Baseball Congress World Series in 2007, city officials thought they’d purchased a million-dollar asset.

Now city officials are scrambling to find ways to prop up the tournament, after six years of failing to pay attention to its declining prestige, attendance and participation.

It barely broke even last year and its managers, the Wichita Wingnuts independent baseball organization, owe the city $138,000 and have exhausted a $147,500 bank line of credit for the tournament, a city audit disclosed last week.

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The National Baseball Congress World Series is under intense scrutiny at City Hall, where city officials have convened a panel of baseball experts and are fielding calls from NBC teams around the country, City Manager Robert Layton said.

A recent audit revealed that the tournament, a Wichita institution since its founding in 1935 by Raymond “Hap” Dumont, is in financial trouble. The Wichita Wingnuts independent baseball organization, which manages the city-owned tournament, also is struggling financially and owes the city $280,000.

This week, The Eagle asked a collection of NBC veterans – including team managers, owners, two former tournament general managers and city officials – what they would do to improve the NBC World Series. These are the main ideas that emerged from those interviews:

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The Eagle recently filed a Kansas Open Records Act request for information about total compensation paid to Wichita school district administrators.

The 217 employees include 91 principals, 80 assistant principals and 46 downtown administrators, such as assistant superintendents, division directors and program coordinators.

Since January 2010, the district has paid $376,332 in “additional compensation” to administrators – not including cellphone allowances, workshop stipends, health insurance payments or other categories.

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The Wichita school district has cut dozens of administrative positions in recent years, but part of the savings has gone toward higher pay for some remaining administrators.

Records show that several central-office administrators have received thousands of dollars a year in addition to their base salaries, including an assistant superintendent who has received an additional $67,500 over the past three years.

Superintendent John Allison said he authorizes additional compensation when employees assume responsibilities “beyond their typical job duties,” and that recent reductions in district-level administration mean certain employees are working longer hours.

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A 24-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man told Wichita police they were cut by a knife wielded by a man during an argument about 2 a.m. Saturday at Douglas and Rock Island.

Sgt. Bruce Watts said the two told police a 25-year-old man cut the other man on the left cheek and the woman on the finger and right thigh.

Watts said both people refused to go to the hospital. No arrests have been made.

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Two roommates who drank all day got into a fight when one of them offered the other’s beer to someone else, police said.

Wichita Police Sgt. Bruce Watts said the 54- and 49-year-old roommates, both men, began arguing when the 54-year-old locked the 49-year-old out of the house in the 600 block of South Kansas about 10 p.m. Friday.

The 49-year-old went to a neighbor’s house to get a key. The roommates began arguing again, and the 49-year-old broke a window at the apartment, which angered the 54-year-old.

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In a year of budget cuts driven by tax reductions, Wichita’s National Center for Aviation Training will likely be among the losers.

House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to slice $2 million from the typical $5 million lawmakers allot to the program, which offers training in specialized skills so students can seamlessly enter the state’s cornerstone aviation industry.

Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, introduced the cut. He said he thinks the program can handle the reduction because the center has money left over from this budget year.

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The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for much of south-central Kansas, including Wichita.

The watch is in effect until 11 p.m. Saturday for Sedgwick County and 15 other counties including: Barton, Butler, Cowley, Ellsworth, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Lincoln, Marion, McPherson, Reno, Rice, Russell, Saline and Sumner.

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