TOPEKA — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is describing the state Supreme Court as an activist court for threatening to shut down public schools if legislators don’t write a new school funding law. Brownback was responding to the court’s ruling Thursday striking down a school funding law enacted last year. The court said the law was unfair to poor districts and shorted their state aid by at least $54 million. The court declared that schools will shut down if a new law isn’t enacted by the end of June. Brownback said in a statement, “We will review this decision closely and…
Author: KMAN Staff
A bill in the Kansas House could raise the state’s portion of the mill levy factored into ad valorem taxes — also known as property taxes — by 2017. Riley County treasurer Shilo Heger told county commissioners Thursday morning the bill — Kansas House Bill 2569 — proposes to increase the state’s mill levy from 1 mills to 5.5 mills. A mill is $1 in tax for every $1,000 in assessed, taxable property value. The increase hopes to increase money for the state’s educational building fund and was introduced on Jan. 28 by the Committee on Vision 2020, of which Clay Center…
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) Two Kansas City brothers have been ordered to stand trial in the death of an aspiring rapper from suburban Olathe. The Kansas City Star reports that a Johnson County judge found sufficient evidence Wednesday to try 34-year-old Dale Willis and 28-year-old James Willis on a first-degree murder charge. They are accused in the fatal September shooting of 24-year-old Jurl L. Carter outside of a bar in northern Overland Park. Carter performed under the names Boogy and Yunglyfe Carter. During the preliminary hearing, several witnesses testified that they saw Dale Willis punch Carter in the face and…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) The estate of a University of Kansas graduate who helped develop the atomic bomb has donated $1.8 million to establish a new professorship in physics. The Lawrence Journal World reports that the KU Endowment announced Wednesday that the gift comes from Ernest Klema and his late wife Virginia Klema, who also was a scientist. He died in 2008, and she died in 2015. Ernest Klema earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university in the early 1940s before beginning work on his doctorate at Princeton University. Ultimately, his project was transferred to Los Alamos in New Mexico,…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A 43-year-old Hutchinson inmate has been sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a prison officer. Corey Jeffery pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted capital murder by an inmate and was sentenced to life. He was ordered to serve at least 54 years before being eligible for parole. The Hutchinson News reports the sentence is to run consecutive to a life sentence Jeffery is serving for the September 2005 fatal stabbing of 80-year-old Paul Boever. The latest charge stems from a 2014 knife attack on a guard at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. Jeffery has said he intended to…
In this edition of KMAN’s In Focus, Cathy Dawes speaks to Fort Riley’s Kristina Springer, Program Manager with Employment Readiness Program and Monica Smith; and Manhattan Catholic Schools Principal Scott Hulshoff and Flint Hills Christian School Administrator Tim McDonald.
Bayer Construction of Manhattan will be working on the long awaited Excel Road intersection project. Pottawatomie county commission chair Dee McKee tells KMAN it’s been 13 years coming, but the project includes improvements to Highway 24 with some turn-off lanes so traffic can decelerate and turn. The Excel/Highway 24 intersection work will be about $1,900,000 project when all of the components are put together and is expected to take about a year to complete. The action was taken during a special commission meeting Thursday. McKee says other projects hinge on the Excel Road work and that they don’t want to close…
A Clay Center mother of newborn triplets may have passed away, but the connections she made has people giving back in her honor. Cassia Rott passed away on Feb. 8, after a blood clot in her lungs caused stress on her heart – a result of her pregnancy with triplets, who she gave birth to on Jan. 29. In response to her death, friends and loved ones created a GoFundMe account for her family, which includes a husband, two daughters, and three newborns. The account raised nearly $24,000.00 in 24 hours.
The Kansas Supreme Court has struck down a stopgap law and told the legislature to revamp the way schools are funded in the state. State Representative Sydney Carlin reacted to the decision announced Thursday, saying “I’m excited about the state’s decision coming in at this time, where we have some time to deal with it here at the capital.” The court says the state left poor districts $54 million short, and that the Republican-backed law enacted last year doesn’t comply with the Kansas Constitution. USD 383’s Aaron Estabrook also released a statement on the ruling, saying “the ruling means that instead of…
Mid-Campus Drive “four corners” to Old Claflin Road closes Feb. 15-May 15: Fences and barricades will be placed to close Mid-Campus Drive from the intersection of Claflin Road and Mid-Campus Drive “four corners” to just south of Old Claflin Road. Traffic will continue to flow through Claflin Road east and west, and also north on Mid-Campus Drive from that intersection. There will be no vehicle or pedestrian access past West Hall on Old Claflin Road. North of Shellenberger Hall, Waters Hall and Waters Hall Annex can be accessed from the south through Mid-Campus Drive. The east entrance and exit from parking lot A17 will…