Manhattan City Commissioners voted to approve eight new items to be incorporated into the budget for the 2018 City/University Special Projects Fund, but not without some controversy. Assistant city manager Kiel Mangus told commissioners about the seven items that were recommended for approval but the special projects committee. The projects include updates to the main campus and along the North Campus Corridor. The special fund was created in 1994 after the city annexed Kansas State University, and the projects being funded must be deemed to be of mutual benefit to the community and university. According to Mangus, an eighth item was recommended…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA — Hundreds of people have gathered in Topeka for a candlelight vigil in support of a financially troubled nonprofit Catholic hospital that faces an uncertain future. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that nurses, physicians, maintenance staff, security guards, clergy and former patients marched Monday night in front of St. Francis Hospital. Anna Munns, who works in patient access, created the event on Facebook. She says the 378-bed hospital is a “huge part of the community.” St. Francis’s Denver-based owners, SCL Health, has reported financial losses in recent years. It placed St. Francis on the market 11 months ago, leaving 1,600…
Open phones with Dave Lewis and Cathy Dawes:
The body of the man involved in a law enforcement chase a nearly two weeks ago has been recovered. The Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s office announced Tuesday morning that on Monday the deceased male individual was recovered from the Kansas River approximately 1 mile East of the Belvue River Bridge. Family members had identified the man last week as Tyler Gibson of the Topeka area. A release from Pottawatomie County Sheriff Greg Riat indicates the Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee County Sheriff’s Offices conducted another search of the river Monday. They were aided by a local Wamego resident with an air boat and…
Nearly three months after a gunshot incident in a Kansas State University residence hall, the 19-year-old student involved in the case has been charged with unlawful possession of firearms in a state owned building. Matthew Hanzlick of Atwood was taken into custody this past week at the Riley County Law Enforcement Center on Seth Child. His bond was set at one-thousand dollars. As KMAN reported in January, a K-State student was transported on a Sunday ro an area hospital for injuries from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. KSU police were called to a student’s room in Goodnow Hall on a…
The parents of Amber Wilhelm released video statements Tuesday morning pleading for any information about the person who put his daughter in the hospital last Friday. Wilhelm was struck Friday by a pickup while crossing the intersection of 12th and Bluemont in Manhattan. The truck and driver fled the scene. She is still in Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka in critical condition. Police investigators are in the process of interviewing witnesses and collecting video surveillance of the area from several businesses as well as traffic control cameras. “I got the phone call early Friday morning that my daughter had been in an accident,” Darryl…
KMAN’s Cathy Dawes spoke with Manhattan Mayor Pro Tem Linda Morse and City Manager Ron Fehr:
WICHITA — A federal judge has ordered Kansas’ top elections official to turn over a proposed changes to federal voting rights laws that he took to a meeting with President Donald Trump. After privately examining the documents, U.S. Magistrate James O’Hara ruled Monday that parts of documents from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach are “unquestionably relevant” to a lawsuit challenging a state law requiring voters provide proof of their U.S. citizenship when registering. The order also instructs Kobach to produce a related internal document about proposed changes to the National Voter Registration Act. The ruling allowed him to redact parts…
WICHITA — Rainfall in central and eastern Kansas is greening pastures and helping winter wheat, but is delaying corn planting. Most western counties remain dry. That is the latest assessment Monday from The National Agricultural Statistics Service of crop progress in Kansas. The agency rated the state’s winter wheat crop as 6 percent excellent, 45 percent good and 33 percent fair. About 16 percent is in poor to very poor condition. About 9 percent of the wheat has now headed. Kansas farmers have planted just 9 percent of their corn crop. That is well behind the 32 percent that was in…
A former staffer for U.S. Rep. Todd Tiarht was sentenced for aggravated criminal sodomy in Riley County District Court on Monday afternoon. Jase Stanton, 30, will serve 592 months — roughly 49 years — for a June, 7, 2015 incident where he raped three unconscious Fort Riley men in his home after a night of drinking in Aggieville. Attorney John Thurston represented Stanton. Judge Meryl D. Wilson found Stanton guilty of one count of aggravated criminal sodomy at the conclusion of his February trial. He was also sentenced to 18 years for failing to provide complete information when he submitted to the Kansas Offender Registration…