TOPEKA — The state of Kansas has joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the legality of an immigration program that grants temporary legal status to immigrants without proper documents who came to the U.S. as children. The program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was established by former President Barack Obama in 2012. About 7,000 people in Kansas have obtained work permits under DACA. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Monday he joined the lawsuit last week at the request of Gov. Jeff Colyer. Colyer said in a statement the lawsuit seeks to roll back executive overreach of Obama’s…
Author: KMAN Staff
Tuesday’s guests were Manhattan Mayor Linda Morse and City Manager Ron Fehr.
The Riley County Law Board approved the 2019 Riley County Police Department budget at their meeting in Manhattan City Hall on Monday. The board voted 6 to 1 to approve the $797,000 increase from 2018 to a total budget of about $21.5 million for the year 2019. Riley County Commissioner Ben Wilson was the sole dissenter. The board had approved a draft that raised the 2019 budget to $21.6 million at a previous meeting, but approved this slightly smaller draft instead. That previously approved budget also included provisions for three new correctional officers which was not initially included in the…
The Kansas Supreme Court will conduct a special evening session Sept. 24 at Manhattan High School in Manhattan as part of its ongoing outreach to familiarize Kansans with the high court, its work, and the overall role of the Kansas judiciary. According to a press release from the Office of Judicial Administration, the court will be in session from 6:30 p.m. to about 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, in the Manhattan High School Auditorium at 2100 Poyntz Avenue. It will be the Supreme Court’s first visit to Manhattan in the court’s 157-year history, and it will be only the ninth…
MINNEAPOLIS — A man from Maine will be sentenced in August after being found guilty of killing a Kansas man while on a cross-country trip. The Salina Journal reports 35-year-old Robert Colson, of Bucksport, Maine, was convicted Friday of killing Matthew Schoshke of Tescott in August 2017 during a burglary at Schoshke’s home. Prosecutors said Colson shot Schoshke five times before stealing his pickup, several other items and his dog. Colson drove to California, where he was arrested while trying to escape from an Amtrak train after a train passenger was stabbed. Prosecutors said Colson was on a bus trip…
MAYFIELD — Kansas farmers are harvesting a smaller winter wheat crop amid an ongoing drought, but the size of the crop is offset some by higher-quality wheat and rising prices. Kansas Wheat marketing director Aaron Harries says the state’s harvest is probably close to the halfway mark. The hot, dry weather this past week has created ideal harvest conditions. Yields are down but test weights are mostly good. Growers are also seeing higher protein levels in many loads, which leads to higher prices. Kansas is the nation’s leading wheat producer with a forecast of 270 million bushels, down 19 percent…
LAWRENCE — The Lawrence City Commission this week will again consider an ordinance creating a community police review board. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the commission will meet Tuesday after multiple revisions aimed at ensuring the board would have sufficient access to police files and recordings. The proposal calls for the board to review racial and other bias complaints made against police when the person filing the complaint disagrees with the findings by the police department. Approval was delayed over concerns that the ordinance allows for the board to be denied access to the police investigation files and recordings. The…
Monday’s guests were McCain Auditorium Executive Director Todd Holmberg and Riley County Historical Museum Director Cheryl Collins.
LAWRENCE — Lawrence police say a Missouri man has been taken to jail on suspicion of indecent exposure after allegedly “mooning” officers who pulled him over in a traffic stop. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the incident happened Thursday in Lawrence. Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman Kim Murphree says officers initially pulled the 23-year-old Liberty resident over on suspicion of operating a vehicle under the influence and having an open container. She says he walked away from the vehicle to supposedly go to a gas station to relieve himself but instead stopped on the sidewalk and started yelling at officers and exposing…
TOPEKA — The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit against the Kansas Department of Health and Environment challenging permits for a pork facility expansion. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the lawsuit filed Thursday alleges permits issued for the expansion of a Phillips County hog production facility violate state law and set a dangerous precedent by undermining protections for surface water. The department has decided to allow farmer Terry Nelson to subdivide his existing swine breeding operation into two limited-liability companies, Husky Hogs and Prairie Dog Pork. The lawsuit accuses the department of authorizing Nelson to elude limits on the number…