Author: Brandon Peoples

Longtime Kansas Senator Susan Wagle has become the fourth Republican to enter the 2020 U.S. Senate race in Kansas. Wagle is the current Kansas Senate President and has nearly three decades of experience in both the Kansas House and Senate. She filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday, according to a report from the Kansas City Star. The Wichita Republican was expected to officially announce her campaign Wednesday. Wagle was first elected to the Kansas House in 1990 and made the jump to the Kansas Senate in 2000. She launched an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor alongside Jim…

WESTMORELAND, Kan. — The Pottawatomie County Commission is inching closer to having its 2020 budget finalized for submission. The proposed budget for 2020 was approved for publication last week, with a projected mill levy at 28.246 mills, compared to 29.983 mills in the 2019 budget. “We’ve had increased valuation, so we took that into consideration and went to where the tax lid would allow,” Pottawatomie County Commissioner Dee McKee said Tuesday on KMAN’s In Focus. During Monday’s commission meeting, the board discussed the public works budget and appropriations moving forward. Public Works Director Peter Clark informed commissioners that the proposed…

CLAY CENTER, Kan. — A Kansas lawmaker has announced she’s filed for re-election in 2020. Republican Suzi Carlson, Kansas State Representative for the 64th District, filed last Thursday with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office for the 2020 election. Carlson’s district encompasses most of Clay County and portions of Riley County including the communities of Leonardville, Ogden, Randolph and Riley. The district also includes part of Manhattan and Fort Riley. Carlson is a Clay Center resident who in 2019, served on the Kansas House Financial Institutions and Pensions Committee as well as the Kansas House Children and Seniors Committee. Carlson…

Manhattan City Commissioner Usha Reddi is hoping to inspire victims of sexual abuse to come forward. Reddi, who is now 53, shared a very personal story of the abuse she sustained as a youth at the hands of her own father, Venkata Yeleti during an exclusive interview on KMAN’s In Focus Monday. Yeleti was convicted Friday for the crimes which occurred between 1975 and 1977 in Virginia. “Everything I’ve ever done in my life was to put this behind me and to move forward. People never thought of me as a victim of sorts in this instance, but that is…

Sentencing has been delayed for a Manhattan man convicted last month of attempted voluntary manslaughter. Mark Harrison was due to be sentenced Monday, but according to Riley County District Court Administrator Lanna Nichols that hearing was postponed for another week. Harrison entered a no contest plea in June to the charge. He had previously been convicted of criminal damage to property. Harrison had originally faced a capital murder charge involving a police officer, of which he was set to go on trial for in early August. A previous trial ended in a hung jury in February. Prosecutors said he fired…

Monday’s show featured a personal story as Manhattan Mayor Pro Tempore Usha Reddi opened up about a deeply personal, traumatic experience involving sexual abuse at the hands of a family member. That family member has now been convicted of the abuse that happened during Reddi’s childhood, from age 10 to age 16. Usha was joined on the program by Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson and Pawnee Mental Health Director Robbin Cole. Guest host for Monday’s show was Usha’s longtime friend and former KMAN News Director Cathy (Dawes) Scroggs.

Riley County Police have arrested a known drug offender on a multitude of charges. Jerry Hassler was arrested following a pursuit Sunday afternoon. Hassler racked up 25 counts during the pursuit including flee or attempt to elude, interference with law enforcement officers, distribution of heroin as well as drug possession, driving with a suspended or cancelled license and reckless driving. Hassler is a habitual offender. In April he was arrested on similar charges after a police pursuit in Junction City. He has a long list of past drug convictions dating back to 2012. According to Monday’s RCPD arrest report, Hassler…

WESTMORELAND, Kan. — The Kansas Attorney General’s Office has ordered a Junction City woman to repay more than $3,800 to the Kansas Medicaid Program after pleading to Medicaid fraud-related charges. A guilty plea was submitted in Pottawatomie County District Court in May by 22-year-old Elizabeth Joyce. She pled to one felony count of making a false claim to the Medicaid program and one felony count of theft. District Judge Jeff Elder on Thursday ordered Joyce to repay $3,870.31 to the Kansas Medicaid Program and sentenced her to 12 months of probation with an underlying sentence of six months in the…

MARYSVILLE, Kan. — A former Marshall County Clerk has been charged with felony misuse of public funds. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office says 44-year-old Sonya L. Stohs, of Marysville, faces a single charge after a complaint alleged she used more than $100,000 in county funds to pay for various personal items. Stohs surrendered to law enforcement Thursday morning at the Marshall County Jail and made her first appearance Thursday afternoon in court. The complaint alleges the funds were stolen over a six year period between May 2013 and April 2019. The investigation was conducted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation…

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Fort Riley officials say a semi-trailer transporting military munitions between U.S. Army arsenals was involved and disabled in the Friday morning crash along I-70 that closed the westbound lanes for several hours. The crash occurred sometime after 6 a.m. near the Grandview Plaza exit after it and another semi crashed into each other. Trained technicians from Fort Riley’s Logistics Readiness Center provided a replacement trailer to safely transfer the load, transport and temporarily store at the Fort Riley Ammunition Supply Point. Fort Riley says within three days, the civilian contracted trucking company is scheduled to pick…