Update 11 a.m. Manhattan Fire Department officials have determined the source of a gasoline-type odor in Amanda Arnold Elementary School to have come from a snowblower. The building is currently airing out and students will be brought back to campus once the smell has dissipated. Original story Students at Amanda Arnold Elementary School have been evacuated due to a gasoline-type odor in the building, according to Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 Director of Communications and School Safety Michele Jones. Manhattan Fire Department crews are on scene investigating. Students and staff were walked to Pottorf Hall to get them out of the cold…
Author: KMAN Staff
KANSAS CITY — The federal public defender’s office has asked for 67 inmates to be released from federal prison and plans to also seek freedom for more than 150 others because authorities at a Kansas prison secretly recorded conversations between the prisoners and their attorneys that are supposed to be private. Most of the federal inmates are being held in drug or firearms-related cases. The practice first came to light in a prison contraband case during which criminal defense lawyers discovered the privately-run Leavenworth Detention Center was routinely recording meetings and phone conversations between attorneys and their clients. A court-appointed…
WICHITA — A 55-year-old Kansas man who was growing marijuana on an island in the Neosho River has been sentenced to more than five years in prison. U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said Scott Joseph Skibo, of Chetopa, was sentenced Thursday for unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction. Prosecutors say Skibo admitted he was growing a marijuana garden when investigators had him under surveillance. He fled in a boat when law enforcement officers tried to arrest him. Officers pursued them in their boat for about a half mile before he surrendered. Investigators found about 50 marijuana plants, a…
Derek Anthony Doby, 24, of Manhattan was arrested while at the Riley County Police Department on a Riley County District Court warrant for lewd and lascivious behavior (x5) and sexual battery (x3). Doby was issued a total bond of $10,000.00. Doby was not confined at the time of this report. Officers filed a report for making false information, forgery and theft in the 1000 block of Westloop Pl in Manhattan on November 15, 2018, at approximately 5:34 PM. Officers listed Cats Rental and KS State Bank of Manhattan as the victims when it was reported a known male suspect fraudulently…
TOPEKA — Could Kansas soon join the growing list of states allowing medical marijuana? The Kansas City Star reports that the election of Democrat Laura Kelly puts a medical marijuana supporter in the governor’s seat. Kelly recently told reporters that she senses “some momentum” among legislators to legalize medical marijuana, with strict regulations. Several surrounding states now allow recreational or medical marijuana. Missouri voters on Nov. 6 approved a ballot measure allowing for medical marijuana, joining nearly three dozen states. In Kansas, medical marijuana bills have been considered without success for years. Esau Freeman, spokesman for the pro-legalization group Kansas…
World War II prisoners of war from Germany and Italy were remembered at a wreath-laying ceremony at Fort Riley Cemetery Thursday. Representatives from the German and Italian armed forces travel to the Kansas post every Fall to honor POWs who were held and/or died at Fort Riley. The storied base was one of 600 locations in the U.S. to hold POWs during World War II, holding 4,500 German, Italian and Japanese prisoners. Sixty-two German and eleven Italian soldiers are buried at Fort Riley. German Army Col. Carsten Döding and Italian Army Maj. Stefano Catania, liaisons posted at Fort Leavenworth, spoke…
MANHATTAN — During this week’s Governor’s Conference on the Future of Kansas Water, Assistant Scientist at K-State Christopher Redmond gave a presentation on drought monitoring with the university’s Mesonet soil moisture monitoring system. Mesonet consists of 16 weather stations across the state that create a network. Redmond said the data they record is provided through a web site where people can see current soil moisture at multiple depths across the state. According to Redmond the data is used for various purposes. Redmond they have seen that a decrease in soil moisture advances drought conditions. So that data provided through the Mesonet…
WICHITA — Attorneys for three Kansas militia members convicted of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali immigrants in a western Kansas meatpacking town have asked the court to bar at sentencing any victim impact statements because no one was hurt. Prosecutors say the men are trying to “minimize their actions and de-personalize their crimes. The dispute has derailed a two-day sentencing hearing that was scheduled to begin Monday. U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren is expected to set a new sentencing date after conferring with attorneys Thursday. A jury convicted Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright — formerly of…
WELLSFORD — Authorities have identified the three people killed when two tractor-trailers collided head-on in southwest Kansas and caught on fire. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the crash happened early Wednesday when the rig that 55-year-old Gary Heald, of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, was driving crossed the center line on U.S. 54 near the town of Wellsford in Kiowa County. He then rammed the rig that 38-year-old Justin Wise, of Arkansas City, Kansas, was driving. Both drivers were killed, along with 56-year-old Cheryl Thoma, who was a passenger in Heald’s rig. She also was from Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The highway was…
TOPEKA — Kansas’ attorney general is arguing in federal court filings that Secretary of State Kris Kobach should not be held liable for exposing sensitive information about voters. Attorney General Derek Schmidt also contends that voters have no constitutional right to the privacy of their data. The Topeka Capital Journal reports that Schmidt’s office in recent weeks has filed documents outlining the state’s defense of Kobach in a federal lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union. The information exposed by Kobach’s office for 945 Kansas voters included partial Social Security numbers. The ACLU alleges “reckless maintenance” of…