MANHATTAN — The Riley County commissioners honored outgoing Commissioner Ben Wilson during their meeting on Monday. Chairman Marvin Rodriguez presented a plaque for four years of service on the commission, as well as a personal one from him and Commissioner Ron Wells. After that, Wilson presented a speech he had prepared where he thanked all the Riley County staff, commissioners, and Manhattan City commissioners as well. Wilson said his biggest takeaway from his time on the commission was how much the county departments worked to make sure they stay within their budget to keep taxes lowered for the public. “My…
Author: KMAN Staff
MANHATTAN — Eagle Day, hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Tuttle Creek Lake, has been going on for over 20 years. Members of the team from the Milford Nature Center were out Saturday giving a presentation and showing off some of the birds from their rehabilitation center. Director Pat Silovasky says getting to share the birds with the community is a major highlight. The presentation was held in front of a crowded gathering at the Manhattan Fire Department. The Milford Nature Center presented one hawk, a falcon, a vulture, and three different owls. During the presentation Silovasky described…
LANSING — Law enforcement agencies are searching for an inmate who escaped from the Lansing Correctional Facility. Department of Corrections officials said Monday they are looking for 36-year-old Cal Henry Green III. Green is a minimum-security inmate currently imprisoned on an aggravated battery charge out of Wyandotte County. Department of Corrections spokesman Brett Peterson said Green is believed to be in a camo-painted state vehicle. He is described as black, 5-foot-4-inches, about 196 pounds with brown hair. Green has a long criminal record in Wyandotte County, including convictions for theft, burglary, fleeing to avoid arrest and forgery. No further information…
TOPEKA — Kansas Rep. Steve Watkins is not accepting his congressional salary until the federal government fully reopens. Watkins spokesman Jim Joice said Monday that the freshman Republican congressman began refusing his salary when he was sworn into office last week. Watkins and most members of Congress are paid $174,000 a year. Parts of the federal government have been shut down since Dec. 22 because of a dispute over President Donald Trump’s demand for funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Watkins tweeted a 16-second video Friday showing him in the U.S. Capitol, saying he’s bothered by the shutdown…
Average gasoline prices continue to fall, continuing a steady trend taking place in the state over the past three months. Kansas’s average gas price state-wide is the ninth cheapest in America — 31 cents lower than the national average — at $1.93 per gallon of fuel. That’s 15 percent lower than the rate last January, according to AAA. “Despite the recent busy holiday travel period, gasoline demand has remained low, while supply is still plentiful in the market,” said AAA Kansas spokesman Shawn Steward. “The result is great news for motorists, who get to enjoy the cheap prices at the…
Monday’s show started with a pre-recorded interview with Kansas Sen. Tom Hawk previewing the upcoming legislative session. Later, Governor’s Military Council Executive Director Perry Wiggins was live in-studio. He talked about changes in the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as at the Secretary of Defense’s office, his future on the council, as well as Fort Riley deployments and more.
WICHITA — An Ohio professor alleges in a lawsuit that Wichita State University retracted an employment offer after she told them she was pregnant. The Wichita Eagle reports that Evangeline Heiliger says that she revealed her pregnancy for the first time and asked about childcare in March when she was offered a tenure-track job as the assistant professor of women’s studies. The suit says a dean told her the next day in an email that he “had become aware that she was no longer available for the position” and was removing her from consideration. The suit says Heiliger never indicated…
WICHITA — Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran says he wants the shutdown to come to end, saying it will soon start to affect farmers and aircraft manufacturers. The Wichita Eagle reports that Moran said Friday after touring three Wichita businesses that he’s “sorry” the government is in a shutdown. He added that people who are dissatisfied with the government sometimes say, “Shut her down, it doesn’t matter.” But Moran says “the things that government does are important to many people.” He says one effect of a protracted shutdown will be that aircraft manufacturers will be unable to deliver planes because the…
Dejaniqua Bush, 20, of Topeka, was arrested while in the 500 block of Pillsbury Dr. in Manhattan on January 4, 2019, at approximately 11:10 PM. Bush was arrested on offenses of theft, aggravated assault, and criminal threat. Bush was issued a total bond of $8,000.00. Bush was not confined at the time of this report. Officers filed a report for criminal damage to property in the 300 block of Park St. in Ogden on January 4, 2019, at approximately 1:10 PM. Officers listed Luke Johnson, 55, of Ogden as the victim when he reported a known female damaged his 2006…
The Riley County Appraiser’s Office presented the 2019 agricultural land use values to the Riley County Commission at the board’s meeting Thursday. Appraiser Greg McHenry told the commission that values are set to increase again this year, despite a sluggish agricultural economy. He says the state of the economy has some people wondering why that’s the case. McHenry says the advantage to the this setup is that it spreads out the major peaks in values that can occur and minimizes the valleys. They are expecting values to increase 8 to 10 percent this year, the same increase as the past…