Author: Brandon Peoples

One person was injured just before noon Tuesday in a crash on K-99 near the westbound off ramp of Interstate 70 in Wabaunsee County. The Kansas Highway Patrol says a semi driver failed to yield to a northbound pickup as it crossed the highway from the off ramp. The semi struck the pickup on the driver’s side. According to the crash report, 40-year-old Keith Murphy, of McFarland, was transported to Stormont Vail with a suspected minor injury. The 63-year-old semi driver, from New York, was not injured.

Junction City Police say one person is in custody following a 4 and a half hour standoff Tuesday afternoon with law enforcement. Authorities with JCPD and the Geary County Sheriff’s Office responded sometime after 5 p.m. to a disturbance between neighbors in the 800 block of Skyline Drive. Upon arrival, an unidentified person barricaded himself within their residence and refused lawful orders given by officers on scene. Local S.W.A.T. teams were deployed and after the 4.5 hour standoff, the man gave himself up to officers without incident. No injuries were reported. Officials continue to investigate but say there is no…

Pottawatomie County commissioners received a less than favorable status update Monday to its ongoing radio systems upgrade, that could see delays well into next year. Motorola representative Richard Nita told commissioners about supply chain delays for the shipment of generators, which had previously been noted to be around 52-weeks. He says their distributor now expects those to be available by the middle of next summer, at best. It was also noted that shelters for the three tower sites are on a 16-week wait, however Topeka-based TFM Comm, whom Motorola is contracted with, had not placed the order as of Monday. Nita…

A Manhattan man charged with killing two people in late 2020 has entered a plea agreement with Riley County prosecutors and will avoid a jury trial. Online court documents say 21-year-old Montrell Vassar entered a no contest plea Friday to two counts of first-degree murder as well as a single count of possession of stolen property. As part of the plea agreement, Vassar agreed to waive his right to an appeal and to pay more than $6,700 in restitution. Vassar was arrested in October 2020 after 23-year-old Javon Gray and 19-year-old Skylar Havens were gunned down from behind in the…

Riley County Police are investigating after a series of altercations in the Aggieville area over the weekend. According to Monday’s RCPD Activity Report, officers arrested 23-year-old Brently Crider, of Manhattan in connection for aggravated assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Crider is alleged to have been in a scuffle around 2 a.m. Sunday with an 18-year-old male near the intersection of North 12th and Moro Streets. Police say Crider fired a gun into the ground after the altercation. He remains jailed on a $50,000 bond. Officers filed additional reports for battery early Sunday, after a 23-year-old man was punched in…

Enrollment numbers for the fall semester at Kansas State University won’t be known until mid-September, but there is some optimism that the university could be close to turning a corner on declining enrollment. President Richard Linton says while it’s too early to project where K-State will be at in terms of enrollment, there are some trends the university feels pretty good about. Linton says under the three-pronged approach of intentional fundraising, in-state tuition for high achieving out-of-state students, and the soon to launch community visit initiative,  K-State will likely see more substantial gains next fall. Enrollment has dipped about 20…

Officials with the Kansas Department of Transportation say a $3.4 million milling and overlay project will begin Tuesday, weather permitting, on K-99 in Wabaunsee County, just south of Wamego. Work will cover about 22 miles from the Wabaunsee/Pottawatomie County line south to the K-99/K-4 junction. KDOT says the City of Alma and the ongoing K-99 realignment project are not included. Shilling Construction, the contractor for the project, will start at the county line and work south to I-70. Once that’s complete, work will begin on the southern edge of the project and progress north to I-70. Traffic will be reduced…

News Radio KMAN · In Focus 8/26/22: KSU President Dr Richard Linton Segment 1 – 00:00 Segment 2 – 9:36 Segment 3 – 19:14 Segment 4 – 29:42 Friday’s edition of In Focus featured Kansas State University President Richard Linton for the hour. The program opened with a conversation about the new school year and enrollment expectations for the Fall as well as strategies to increase KSU’s student body count. Linton further discussed his regional community visit initiative and the university’s plans to modernize the College of Agriculture and develop in the Edge Collaborative District — formerly called the North…

A public hearing is scheduled next month for residents to provide feedback on potential changes to solar regulations being drafted by Pottawatomie County officials. That’s Pottawatomie County Planner Stephan Metzger. The public hearing culminates 18 months of work by the Planning Commission and staff to determine whether commercial-scale solar facilities should be allowed in Pottawatomie County. Metzger says he’s borrowed much of the framework for the draft regulations from Johnson and Douglas counties. The proposed regulations cover small-scale projects known as solar gardens, limited to 16 acres, as well as large-scale commercial solar projects, up to several thousands of acres.…

A 17-year-old from Junction City is facing charges of attempted murder, tied to shootings reported in the 700 block of Colorado Street in Manhattan in June and July. The Riley County Police Department says Brayln Marsh was arrested by Junction City Police on Aug. 11 on a Riley County District Court warrant for two counts each of attempted first-degree murder, attempted aggravated assault, criminal discharge of a weapon and one count of criminal threat. The charges stem from two separate incidents where Marsh allegedly shot multiple rounds from outside into the same occupied house. RCPD says the first incident occurred…