TOPEKA — Topeka police say a woman was injured when a sport-utility vehicle slammed into a cafe. Shawnee County Sheriff’s Sgt. Eric Frey says the woman was a customer at Banjo’s Cafe when the vehicle hit the business early Thursday. Frey said an elderly female driver was pulling into a parking space in front of the cafe when her vehicle went over a parking curb and into the restaurant. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the vehicle struck several tables, including one where at least three people including the woman who injured were sitting. The woman was taken away in an ambulance.…
Author: KMAN Staff
Thursday’s guests were Manhattan Kiwanis Bluemont Hill Overlook Project Secretary Kitty Pursley and Assistant Director of Manhattan Parks and Recreation Wyatt Thompson, Ruth Nicolaus of the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo, Pawnee Mental Health Director Robbin Cole, as well as Karen Hawes of the Back to School Bike Swap in Ogden.
Holding back the mill levy increase in the city’s general fund was a main focus during the Manhattan City Commission meeting at City Hall Tuesday. The meeting was the commission’s final budget work session before the proposed 2019 budget goes to publication on Friday. The mill levy is a tax rate on assessed property value and a mill amounts to 1 dollar for every 1000 dollars a property is worth. Prior to the meeting, the general fund was projected to have about a 1.7 mill increase in the general fund. In past sessions, commissioners expressed a desire to see a…
KANSAS CITY — A food program is making a big difference to low-income families seeking healthy options in the Kansas City area. The Kansas City Star reports that the Double Up Food Program matches Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars spent on local produce at Kansas and Missouri farmers markets and grocery stores. Participants receive up to $25 a day in matching Double Up Food Bucks dollars for more local fruits and vegetables. The program did a trial run in 2015 at five Balls Food Price Choppers in the Kansas City area. Double Up Bucks now functions at 14 Price Choppers…
TOPEKA — The Kansas Court of Appeals says a Wichita man should not have been allowed to use a “Stand Your Ground” defense to avoid trial in the stabbing death of a Wichita woman. The court overturned a decision by a district judge who dismissed second-degree murder and other charges against 38-year-old Seth Collins. In its ruling Friday, the court said a jury, not a judge, should decide whether Collins’ actions were justified in the April 2016 confrontation. The Wichita Eagle reports Collins acknowledged stabbing 22-year-old Kayla Brown to death and injuring another woman during a fight that began over…
TOPEKA — A Topeka man was sentenced to 14 years in prison for driving a getaway car in an armed robbery. A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced 30-year-old Jermaine Tyrell Patton for participating in a November 2016 robbery at an Oakmark Convenience Store. The U.S. Attorney’s General office says when Patton pleaded guilty in September, he admitted he drove the car when Christopher Harris robbed the store. The two men fled after the robbery. Harris and Topeka police detective Brian Hill eventually exchanged gunfire and both were wounded. Harris is serving a life sentence for attempted capital murder and other…
Kansas politicians welcome the federal government’s peace offering to farmers hurt by tariffs and trade war threats enacted by the Trump administration — but are skeptical of what it means for agriculture in the long term. U.S. Senator Pat Roberts released a series of statements after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday up to $12 billion in assistance to farmers impacted by tariffs. Roberts, a Kansas Republican and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Foresty, said in a press release from his office Tuesday that, “Given the low prices farmers have been facing, the tariff situation…
Wednesday’s edition of In Focus featured USD 378 Superintendent Cliff Williams, Board of Education Member Nathan Mead, Associate Dean for K-State Global Campus Duane Dunn, and (via telephone) Tim Peterson, Director of the Board of Regents Get Ahead program.
TOPEKA — The Kansas insurance commissioner seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination is trying to prevent Gov. Jeff Colyer from taking $8 million this year from a state insurance fund. The Wichita Eagle reports that Ken Selzer has filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to block Colyer from transferring money from an insurance-specific fund into a general fund that pays for the state government’s overall operation. Selzer is the commissioner of the Kansas Insurance Department. The lawsuit says “consumers will be harmed” by the $8 million transfer because the Insurance Department would have to collect additional fees on insurance companies…
WICHITA — Authorities say Wichita Police Officer Samuel Dugo has been charged with felony aggravated battery for a two-vehicle accident while responding to a 911 call. Police said in a news release Monday that an investigation by the Kansas Highway Patrol determined Dugo was not using his emergency lights and sirens when traveling 79 miles per hour in a posted 30-miles-per hour zone. His defense attorney, Jess Hoeme, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Police say Dugo was driving the department’s Chevy Tahoe while responding on March 16 to a report of a burglary in progress when…