On Friday the Manhattan city commission met for their annual retreat and goal setting sesseion at the Sunset Zoo Nature Exploration Center. The meeting took a look at the past performance of the city in 2012, and discussed future goals for the new year. Some of the highlights from the meeting included presentations by city staff, and department heads on their 2012 accomplishments and challenges. Those included a strong year for the Flint Hills Discovery Center who saw over 60,000 visitors and generated higher revenues with lower than expected cost for 2012. The Sunset Zoo Nature Exploration Center opened, and is…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Gov. Sam Brownback has named two Kansas trial judges to the state Court of Appeals. Brownback on Friday announced the appointments of Sedgwick County District Judge Tony Powell and Stevens County District Judge Kim Schroeder to the state’s second-highest court. Powell served in the Kansas House for eight years and was a leader among conservative, anti-abortion Republicans before becoming a judge in 2003. He’ll fill a vacancy on the appeals court created by the October death of Chief Judge Richard Greene. Schroeder was appointed to the trial court in Stevens County in 1999 by then-Gov. Bill Graves,…
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) The mystery surrounding a 300-pound concrete gorilla that showed up in a northeastern Kansas park has been partly solved. Overland Park police said Friday the owners have been identified as residents of nearby Olathe, who reported it stolen from their front yard around Dec. 15. Still unknown is who swiped the statue and took it to Overland Park, where it showed up last weekend by a gazebo in a neighborhood park. The concrete gorilla was so heavy that police brought in a tow truck with a crane to haul it away. Police say the owners are…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Kansas growers have planted fewer acres for their 2013 winter wheat crop amid widespread drought conditions and lack of soil moisture. The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that Kansas farmers planted 9.3 million acres of wheat last fall for harvest in 2013. That is down 2 percent from the 9.5 million acres planted in the state the previous year. Nationwide, winter wheat seeded for 2013 is expected to total 41.8 million acres, or up 1 percent. But hard red winter wheat, the type grown in Kansas, is down about 2 percent nationwide with just 29.1 million…
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) A south-central Kansas man has pleaded guilty to killing his grandmother while burglarizing the 69-year-old preschool teacher’s home with his girlfriend. The El Dorado Times reports 20-year-old Jacob Hoyt entered the plea Friday in Butler County District Court. Hoyt was initially charged with premeditated first-degree murder for the December 2011 strangling death of Loyce Cody at her Augusta home. He pleaded guilty instead to first-degree murder in the commission of a felony in this case, aggravated burglary. Hoyt and Lyndsey Giovinazzo were arrested shortly after the killing while leading officers on a two-county chase in Cody’s…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas has filed so many firearms cases that the Midwestern farm state ranked third last year among the 93 judicial districts nationwide in the numbers of gun prosecutions. Justice Department statistics show only Puerto Rico and the Western District of Texas had more federal gun prosecutions than Kansas in 2012. Kansas had been first in the nation in gun prosecutions in 2011, but fell to third place in 2012 despite prosecutors filing even more cases. U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom told the Wichita Pachyderm Club on Friday that fighting gun violence and protecting…
MAYETTA, Kan. (AP) State authorities are searching for a suspect described as armed and dangerous who’s wanted in connection with a shooting death in northeast Kansas. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that an alert was issued Friday for the after the shooting death, which was reported late Thursday at a home in Mayetta, a town of about 340 residents north of Topeka. Authorities say the suspect is believed to be armed with an automatic weapon and is described as extremely dangerous. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation joined Jackson County authorities Friday in the investigation. The victim’s name hasn’t been released.
HAYS, Kan. (AP) An 8-year-old Hays girl is gaining notoriety for her chess skills. The Hays Daily News reports that Sheena Zeng, a fourth-grader at O’Loughlin Elementary School, won about $2,000 over the Christmas holidays at chess tournaments in California and Nevada. Sheena captured second place, and about $1,800, in her age division at the North American Open in Las Vegas, and won another $364 at the New Year’s Open in Santa Clara, Calif. Her father Hongbiao Zeng is a math professor at Fort Hays State University, where his wife, Michelle, is an instructor in the same department. Sheena is…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Hawker Beechcraft plans to furlough about 240 employees now that negotiations with the government have fallen behind schedule. The Wichita Eagle reports the furloughs will affect hourly workers on T-6 and AT-6 production and will begin later this month. Hawker Beechcraft spokeswoman Nicole Alexander says the furloughs will likely be in one- or two-week increments and total several weeks throughout the year to match production. The company builds T-6 military trainers to sell to the U.S. government as part of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training Systems contract. The company is currently negotiating with the government for the…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that a Kansas City, Mo., man filed against the Topeka Police Department and Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that U.S. Senior District Judge Sam Crow dismissed Donzell A. Jones’s lawsuit in which Jones alleged police and prosecutors violated his rights when he was arrested and charged with drug crimes in 2011. The charges were dismissed in 2012. Crow dismissed Jones’ lawsuit in December and said Jones didn’t comply with the judge’s request to fix several deficiencies in his complaint and submit financial information required to proceed…