WICHITA — The Wichita school district plans to pay up to $25,000 to settle a lawsuit with a student who fell on a wet floor at a middle school on a rainy day and broke his leg. The Wichita Eagle reports that a court hearing is set for Monday. The district’s board has voted to settle the lawsuit with the student who fell three years ago as he approached a stair landing at Hamilton Middle School. Court documents say the student “suffered personal injury and incurred medical expenses.” Neither the district nor an attorney for the boy’s family responded to…
Author: KMAN Staff
WICHITA — Wichita police have contacted the FBI about a report that a white man kicked a 1-year-old black child in the back at a Wichita grocery store and yelled racial slurs. The Wichita Eagle reports that the boy’s mother, 29-year-old Lashantai Whitaker, says she talked to an FBI agent Monday. Her son wasn’t seriously hurt. Wichita police confirmed that officers have been in contact with the agency. Thirty-one-year-old Trace Riff was let out of jail shortly after his Dec. 23 arrest. So far, the case has been referred to municipal court and is being treated as a relatively minor…
DODGE CITY — Ford County has paid more than $70,000 in legal fees so far to a firm that represented its county clerk in a lawsuit filed after Dodge City’s only polling place was moved outside city limits for November’s general election. The Hutchinson News reports a document it received through an open records request shows the county paid the Hinkle Law Firm $71,481 in October and November to defend County Clerk Debbie Cox. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Cox in late October because the location inside the city was scheduled to undergo construction. The ACLU argued moving the…
HUTCHINSON — Authorities say a fire that erupted after a New Year’s Eve party has destroyed a Hutchinson commercial building that was being used as a wood hobby shop. The Hutchinson News reports that the party ended around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, and the fire was reported just before 7 a.m. About 40 firefighters battled the blaze. It was brought under control about two hours later, despite a firefight that was hampered by freezing temperatures and a broken hydrant. Hutchinson Fire Chief Steve Beer says the building was in the process of being purchased and is considered a total loss. The…
Alonzo Revada Jr., 36, of Manhattan was arrested while at the Riley County Police Department on January 1, 2019, at approximately 5:40 PM. Revada Jr. was arrested on offenses of aggravated burglary, aggravated interference with parent custody, domestic battery and endangering a child. Revada Jr. was issued a total bond of $20,000.00 causing him to remain confined at the time of this report. Randall Anthony Flanagan, 24, of Ogden was arrested at the 300 block of N. Park Street in Ogden on January 1, 2019 at approximately 7:47 p.m. Flanagan was arrested on an offense of criminal trespass and was issued a total…
A Manhattan native will be the next assistant city manager, according to a release from the manager’s office Wednesday. Dennis Marstall, a Manhattan High School graduate, was selected out of four finalists for the job who were identified through a national search process. Prior to this, Marstall worked for 14 years with the City of Charlotte, North Carolina in various roles including budget and evaluation analyst, economic development program manager, as well as chief of staff/assistant to the mayor and city manager. Most recently he served as Vice President of Community Investment and Impact for the United Way of the Central…
Update 11:40 1/2/19 The Kansas Highway Patrol has released the identity of the driver of the vehicle that crashed on K-13 on New Year’s Day. 58-year-old Kelly Ann White of Manhattan was the sole occupant of the 2016 Mazda CX5 that wrecked on Tuesday. White was initially brought to Via Christi with serious injuries, but was later transferred to a hospital in Topeka. Via Christi Hospital officials could not verify which hospital to which she was transported. There is no damage estimate for the vehicle and the cash report indicates White was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the…
Dennis Butler addresses the audience at his swearing-in ceremony, Dec. 31 2018 (Nick McNamara/KMAN). When Dennis Butler came to Ottawa, Kansas after 25 years of service with the Alexandria, Virginia Police Department, he says he didn’t expect to move again in his career. 14 years later, his career has taken a different turn as Butler was sworn in as the 5th Director of the Riley County Police Department in a ceremony in the Riley County Courthouse on Monday. “I look forward to working with all of you with the goal of providing ethical, professional and compassionate service to this community,”…
LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas researcher who led a study on social media says giving it up doesn’t make a person significantly happier and concerns about social media may be overblown. Communications professor Jeffrey Hall has told The Topeka Capital-Journal that he was surprised by the finding. Some participants abstained from social media from one to four weeks while a control group continued normal use and reported an average of 72 minutes a day. The study followed 135 people, with most from Kansas. Hall said there doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that social media replaces face-to-face…
KANSAS CITY — A new study finds that Missouri and Kansas are among the worst states in using tobacco settlement proceeds to prevent smoking, despite recommendations from federal health officials. The Kansas City Star reports that Missouri allotted $48,500 in its current fiscal year for tobacco prevention programs, even though it received $259 million in tobacco taxes and from tobacco companies. A December report by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Heart Association shows that Missouri’s spending amounts to a fraction of a percent of the $72.9 million the Centers for Disease Control recommended. Kansas fared only slightly better…