Two women were injured in a Wednesday evening accident in Riley County. Bonnie Turner, 53, of Joplin, Missouri and Bethany Thurston, 23, of Pittsburg, Kansas were both taken to Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan following the five p.m. accident on westbound I-70 near the Riley-Wabaunsee county line. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, Turner was driving a 2005 GMC Envoy westbound in the right lane when the vehicle left the north side of the roadway and overturned. Both women had seat belts on.
Author: KMAN Staff
A Kansas Department of Corrections inmate serving more than 40 years in prison for Riley County convictions of second degree murder and rape has apparently been passed over for parole. 67 year old Danny Lee Sprecker, 67, was up for public comment sessions in January, but his current status just updated on the KDOC website indicates his earliest possible release date now is March first of 2021. Sprecker is being held at El Dorado. His crimes in Riley County occurred in May of 1973 for the murder and December of 1968 for the rape.
It was only fitting that on a night where blizzards and wildfires plagued Kansas that the Manhattan-Ogden Board of Education would choose to discuss something as volatile as the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. June 30th is approaching, and USD 383 is trying to figure out how the bills will be paid. Lew Faust, Director of Business Services, addressed the board for more than an hour and begin his presentation by asking the board about the various expenses a district has, and why they are all necessary. After 15 minutes of tossing ideas around, it is apparent there are…
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) A man has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison in connection to a fatal crash at a northeast Kansas intersection. The Kansas City Star reports 33-year-old Souksavanh Chamnongchith was sentenced Monday to 12 years and 10 months in prison. He had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the November 2014 death of 31-year-old Idir Lounes. Prosecutors said that Chamnongchith was driving under the influence when his vehicle collided with a vehicle being driven by Lounes, who was traveling north on U.S. 56 in Olathe. Lounes was taken to a hospital, where he later died. Chamnongchith…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas lawmakers are taking up a new education funding proposal that’s designed to help poor school districts without increasing the state’s total spending significantly. The Senate Ways and Means Committee and the House Appropriations Committee were having separate hearings Wednesday on the plan. It was drafted by the two committee chairmen. They are Republican Sen. Ty Masterson of Andover and GOP Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr. of Olathe. The plan redistributes $83 million of the state’s $4 billion-plus a year in aid to its 286 school districts. It increases the state’s overall spending by a few million dollars…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A 22-year-old man has pleaded guilty in the shooting deaths of a man and woman at a Topeka apartment. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Nicholas Storm Phillips, of Topeka, admitted Tuesday to two counts of reckless second-degree murder. Prosecutors said he fired multiple shots through an apartment door in December, killing 20-year-old Daquhan S. Jackson and 29-year-old Mary E. Thomas, both of Topeka. Phillips told a detective he was upset because the victims were stealing his clothes, which had been thrown into a grassy area after he fought with a girlfriend. Phillips also pleaded guilty to one…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Senate has declined to debate a proposed constitutional amendment that would phase out the state sales tax on food over the next three years. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Democratic state Sen. Tom Holland proposed the amendment earlier this year. It didn’t receive a committee hearing and was in danger of dying as the 2016 session is coming to a close. Holland made a motion on the Senate floor Tuesday to force the bill to the top of the calendar for immediate debate and vote. His motion fell six votes short of the two-thirds majority…
PARIS (AP) Security officials have told The Associated Press that the Islamic State group has trained at least 400 attackers and sent them into Europe for terror attacks. The network of interlocking, agile and semiautonomous cells shows the reach of the extremist group in Europe even as it loses ground in Syria. The officials, including European and Iraqi intelligence officials and a French lawmaker who follows the jihadi networks, describe camps designed specifically to train for attacks against the West. The officials say the fighters have been given orders to find the right time, place and method to carry out…
WASHINGTON (AP) The United States says some government personnel in Brussels are unaccounted for since the deadly airport and subway attacks. State Department spokesman Mark Toner says the U.S. is still seeking to locate all its officials serving at the American missions to Belgium, the European Union and NATO, and their family members. Toner says some still haven’t been reached, without providing an exact number. He noted that Belgium hasn’t released the identities or nationalities of those killed or in Tuesday’s bombings, or injured and hospitalized. At least 34 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in the attacks.…
On Monday, March 28, weather permitting, an intersection improvement project will begin at the U.S. 24 and Excel Road junction just east of Manhattan in Pottawatomie County. Project work includes improvements on Excel Road and the addition of turning lanes on U.S. 24 to Excel Road (see intersection improvement plan above). Work will take place during daylight hours, Monday through Friday, with some occasional Saturday work. Beginning Monday, March 28, all access from Excel Road to U.S. 24 and vice versa will be closed through late Fall 2016. Also, eastbound and westbound U.S. 24 left lanes on either side of…