On today’s InFocus, Cathy talks to Greg McClure, Riley County Extension Agriculture Agent, Jamie Ramsey, Riley County Senior Service Center Director, followed by Fort Riley Garrison Commander Colonel Bill Clark, and State Representative Tom Phillips of Manhattan. [mp3-jplayer]
Author: KMAN Staff
FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) Officials at Fort Riley have announced plans to furlough about one-third of the civilian workforce at the northeast Kansas Army post to save money this year. The plan follows this week’s decision by the Defense Department to proceed with federal furloughs amid budget shortfalls. Fort Riley officials on Friday said about 2,400 civilians will be furloughed for 11 nonconsecutive days beginning in mid- to late July. Those affected are paid with funds appropriated by Congress. Contractors and civilians who are paid from other sources will be exempt. Post officials say there will be little to no…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas lawmakers are close to approving limits on the use of state tax dollars to lobby federal, state or local officials on gun control issues. The Senate approved the measure on a 31-6 vote Friday. The House could consider the measure as early as Monday. House approval would send the bill to Gov. Sam Brownback, who is a strong gun-rights supporter but hasn’t said publicly whether he’d sign the measure. The bill would bar state and local officials from using state funds to prepare materials or broadcast advertising that promote or oppose gun control measures. They also…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) An engineer fired for reporting unsafe conditions at a Kansas nuclear power plant says he was just being responsible. The man’s attorneys released a letter Friday from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that orders Georgia-based Enercon Services to reinstate the engineer at the Wolf Creek plant. OSHA also ordered it to pay $50,650 in damages, back pay and attorneys’ costs. Enercon and Wolf Creek didn’t return phone messages. OSHA confirmed the letter but declined comment. The whistleblower spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear he would be unable to find work in…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) House and Senate budget negotiators say they have agreed to provide funding for a financially struggling ranch for troubled boys in Sedgwick County. County officials have said they would consider closing the Judge James V. Riddel Boys Ranch a Lake Afton if it did not receive some state funding. They said Thursday that assurances the state would appropriate $750,000 to the ranch would keep the facility open. Lawmakers still have to finalize the budget. But The Wichita Eagle reports chairmen of both House and Senate committees guaranteed that the money for the ranch will be in the…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A man accused of firing a shot at a security guard at a Wichita store will spend 60 days in a jail work-release program. A Sedgwick County judge on Thursday sentenced Jake L. Jacobs, 27, for shooting at a guard who asked him to pay for a drink he had taken inside the Burlington Coat Factory store in east Wichita. He also pointed his gun at other customers before police restrained him. The Wichita Eagle reports about 20 customers were in the store during last summer’s shooting but no one was injured. Jacobs pleaded guilty in April…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Sedgwick County prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty against a man charged with killing two people at a Wichita Dollar General Store. District Attorney Marc Bennett announced his decision Thursday during the arraignment of Marquis Marshall, 19. Marshall is accused of killing an employee and a customer at the Dollar General store in November 2012. Police say Zachary Hunt, 22, and Henry Harvey, 79, were shot several times. During Thursday’s hearing, defense attorney Ron Evans asked that a not guilty plea be entered on Marshall’s behalf.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A Hutchinson bail bondsman will stand trial on charges that he sought sex from women in exchange for bonding them out of jail. A Reno County judge ruled Thursday that Dwight Jurgens, 66, of Hutchinson will stand trial on eight charges including rape and aggravated human trafficking. The Hutchinson News reports Jurgens, who was released on $100,000 bond, will be arraigned June 3. Four women testified during a preliminary hearing that Jurgens bonded them out of jail when other bonding companies wouldn’t. They testified either that they had sex with Jurgens after he bonded them out, or…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A memorial service takes place in Wichita to honor Sedgwick County law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The ceremony was scheduled for noon Friday in the City Council chambers at Wichita City Hall. It’s part of an effort by law enforcement agencies across the nation to remember their fallen comrades. Twenty-nine law enforcement officers have died on the job in Sedgwick County since 1871. They include 19 Wichita police officers, eight Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputies and one officer each from Derby and Clearwater. The first was Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos B. King, who died in…
Surveillance video from the Ocean Inn in Fort Lauderdale, Florida captures the moment a car hit a parked vehicle, sending it into the pool.