GIRARD, Kan. (AP) One of two men who escaped from a southeast Kansas county jail has agreed to a plea deal. The Pittsburg Morning Sun reports that 27-year-old Steven Ray Barnes pleaded no contest Tuesday to aggravated escape from custody and two unrelated aggravated battery counts. As part of the agreement, charges of aggravated intimidation of a witness, possession of amphetamines and obstruction of official duty were dropped. He faces a 10 year prison term. One of the aggravated battery charges stems from a 2014 attack that left a Pittsburg State University with a broken jaw. Then in April, Barnes…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A few hundred Topeka students marched to the Statehouse to show they’re diverse and united. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 400 to 500 Topeka High School students participated in the march Wednesday. Angelo Campos, an 18-year-old senior, says since the presidential election last week there’ve been reports of minorities being discriminated against, and he wanted to show he takes pride in the school’s diverse groups. Principal Rebecca Morrisey says the march occurred during a morning period when the school’s estimated 1,800 students are in homeroom and that students were allowed to participate if they chose to. Morrisey…
Steven Sprawka, a veteran who resides in Pottawatomie County, came to the county commission meeting Monday, to fight his case in keeping a second driveway at his home. Sprawka recently graded a driveway to reach his backyard shed without receiving a permit first, a permit to which Sprawka says he was unaware of. Sprawka stated that he needed the driveway to be able to reach his shed when it rains. He stated that when he received the permit to build the shed in 2011, he thought it also permitted a driveway to reach the shed. Unfortunately, due to county regulations, citizens…
Detectives with the RCPD Special Investigations Unit in conjunction with the Junction City/Geary County Drug Operations Group arrested Randall Joseph Simonds, 33, yesterday. The Manhattan man was located in Junction City at the conclusion of a three-month drug investigation. Simonds was arrested and booked into the Riley County Jail on two offenses of Distribution of Methamphetamine, one offense of Distribution of Methamphetamine within 1000 feet of a School, three offenses of the Unlawful use of a Telecommunication Device, and one offense of felony fleeing and eluding. The total bond set for Simonds was $26,000.00 and at the time of this…
Today’s guests on In Focus were USD 383 School Board member Curt Herrman and Assistant Superintendent Eric Reid, as well as Manhattan Christian College Athletic Director Shawn Condra. Herrman and Reid: Condra:
The Wamego City Commission heard updates on the Flint Hills Regional Council at Tuesday’s meeting. Council Director Gary Stith reminded the Commission that Commissioner Vic Enns has been the City’s representative to the FHRC board and Enns is retiring, so the City needs to come up with a replacement for him. Stith gave an overview of FHRC and what their mission is since being organized six years ago. The Commission did not make a replacement decision, but will be doing so by year end. In other business, the Commission was updated from the Ad Hoc Pool Committee representative Jeff Wick on…
Kansas State is slowly but surely proving to be an improved offensive team in 2016. The trio of Wesley Iwundu, Barry Brown and D.J. Johnson led the Wildcats on a 21-0 run in the middle of the first half Tuesday night, guiding the way for K-State in a 81-68 victory over Omaha at Bramlage Coliseum. For a second-straight game, K-State was cold offensively in the early-going, falling behind 13-4 on 1-of-5 shooting. The Wildcats also turned the ball over five times in that stretch. “I got after them, especially with how we were playing defense,” Weber said. “They were doing…
WICHITA — Authorities say a man accused in a bomb plot targeting Somali immigrants in Kansas tried to use another inmate to sneak out of jail a letter that identified a confidential informant. That detail emerged in a hearing Tuesday for Patrick Stein. Authorities say he’s an escape risk. Law enforcement officials testified that they searched Stein’s cell at the Butler County jail and found papers with references to “a small man team” overtaking the jail and cutting power to it. The hearing came amid defense concerns that the searches scooped up confidential attorney-client communications. Stein is one of three men…
One of the drivers in Tuesday’s fatal accident near Grandview Plaza has been arrested on involuntary manslaughter charges, while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The Geary County Sherriff’s department arrest report Wednesday morning indicates Steven Johnson was taken into custody shortly before three p.m. Tuesday on the charges, which also include inproper driving on a laned roadway. The accident on I-70 near Grandview Plaza claimed the lives of two people and left another injured Tuesday morning shortly before 11 o’clock. Steven Johnson, 42, of Houston, Tex., was driving a 2011 International truck eastbound when his vehicle entered the…
DODGE CITY — Microsoft has announced that it will purchase 178 megawatts of production from a wind farm under construction near Dodge City. The Wichita Eagle reports that the purchase from Bloom Wind will be a portion of the 237 megawatts of alternative energy Microsoft is buying to supply through the grid to its Cheyenne, Wyoming, data center. The wind farm will consist of 54 towers across 15,000 acres of privately-owned land about 20 miles south of Dodge City in Ford and Clark counties. Capital Power will operate the wind farm and has contracted the facility’s output to a subsidiary of…