Author: Brandon Peoples

The Clay Center Police Department is investigating a report of battery and disorderly conduct, stemming from a Monday incident at the Clay County Fairgrounds. Cell phone video, shared to social media, shows a Hispanic woman being thrown to the ground by a female carnival employee following a dispute. According to a police report, the victim is a 40-year-old woman and the suspect is a 28-year-old woman. No charges have been filed. It’s unclear what the dispute was about. The victim is reportedly a former employee of Great Plains Amusements, the carnival operator for the Clay County Fair. Further details are…

The Kansas City Royals appear to be close to naming their preferred site for a new ballpark. Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman penned an open letter to the public Tuesday stating that more information would be provided soon as the team weighs its options between two proposed ballpark districts. The team is considering sites in downtown Kansas City and north of the River in Clay County, Missouri. Sherman says detailed renderings and other components will be shared within the next 30 days, noting that both sites are being put through “an equally rigorous process.” The team will announce in…

Fort Riley has postponed the planned installation wide power outage, the Black Start exercise, initially planned for Wednesday due to extreme high temperatures and heat indices. Black Start will be rescheduled to a later date. Fort Riley will hold its annual full-scale exercise Wednesday as planned but won’t include shutting off power to the installation. The annual full-scale exercise tests Fort Riley’s emergency preparedness and provides training for the post and community partners involved. During the full-scale exercise, Fort Riley residents, employees and community members can expect an increase in emergency traffic on post and multiple emergency notifications, including “Giant…

The Riley County Police Department officially welcomed its newest member to the force Friday. K9 Moses, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, becomes the sixth addition to the RCPD K9 program since being established in 2004. He becomes the first patrol K9 in the department’s history. RCPD says Moses received specialized training and is certified to detect illegal narcotic odors and is also the first K9 in the department’s history equipped with the ability to locate and apprehend violent offenders. RCPD says Officer Mark Racklyeft, who has been with RCPD since 2019, will serve as the dog’s handler. Both have completed 160…

Jury selection begins Monday in Riley County for a 31-year-old California man accused in a 2020 shooting near Aggieville. Travell Hairston is charged with attempted first-degree murder, stemming from a Feb. 8, 2020 incident in the 1100 block of Laramie Street. Responding officers found an unoccupied car that had been shot at. A further investigation determined Hairston had allegedly fired several rounds at a 27-year-old male victim. Hairston has been jailed since January 2022, after being extradited from Sacramento County Jail in California on separate charges. He’s also on trial for four counts of aggravated assault, criminal discharge of a…

Riley County Commissioners heard an update Thursday from Extension Director Gary Fike regarding the newly created fairgrounds task force. Fike, who chairs the task force, says there has been great interest among committee members working through the process. Fike says a study was commissioned last year by the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce for a new multimillion dollar event center to host the annual Kaw Valley Rodeo. That study was put on hold after K-State’s announcement last year of a new indoor arena to be constructed near the Stanley Stout Center. The proposed event center would include space for barns…

The Manhattan-Ogden School Board gave approval Wednesday night to exceed the revenue neutral rate for all mill levy funds for the proposed 2023-2024 budget. The proposed mill levy is 60.072, a decrease of about a half a mill from fiscal 2023. The primary reason for the mill levy going down is a slight drop in the mill for bond and interest payments as well as the local option budget. Superintendent Eric Reid says there are other contributing factors, including a roughly 10 percent increase in valuations. One mill in the fiscal 2024 budget is equal to about $867,000 compared to…

One person was injured Wednesday following a rollover crash in southern Riley County. The Kansas Highway Patrol says a dump truck was traveling westbound on K-18 near Moore’s Lane around 12:30 p.m., when it left the roadway and entered a ditch. The truck overturned, lost it’s load, traveled through a fence and into a culvert, striking the embankment. Authorities say 25-year-old Cole Story, of Wichita, was transported to Stormont Vail Hospital for treatment of serious injuries.

Two Junction City teenagers have been arrested in connection to a pair of shootings last summer in southeast Manhattan. The Riley County Police Department says 16-year-old Shaan Hyman and 17-year-old Marvin Fernandez were both arrested Monday by Junction City Police on their Riley County District Court warrants. Hyman is charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal discharge of a firearm. RCPD says the charges are alleged from two separate incidents from June 20, 2022 and July 11, 2022 in the 700 block of Colorado Street. No injuries were reported…

A 28-year-old Manhattan man was arrested this week for a violating terms of his offender registration. The Riley County Police Department says Ronald Haywood was charged Tuesday with two counts including an aggravated count thereof. He remains jailed on a $50,000 bond. According to Kansas Department of Corrections records, Haywood has past convictions from Geary County for aggravated robbery, drug possession and criminal restraint.