KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Defense attorneys for two of five people sentenced to life for a 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters say they have new information a grand jury should hear. Olathe, Kan based attorney Cheryl Pilate and Midwest Innocence Project legal director Laura Sullivan said Friday that their clients should be exonerated. They wouldn’t elaborate on the new information other than to say it comes from people who drove by the blast site before and after the explosion. The attorneys are asking for anyone else who remembers anything related to the explosion to come forward. Five…
Author: KMAN Staff
SALINA, Kan. (AP) One man has been killed and a Salina police officer is hospitalized after a shooting at a home. Police Chief Jim Hill says officers went to the home late Thursday on a report of a man with a gun. The Salina Journal reports when police arrived and weren’t able to contact the suspect, five officers entered the house early Friday, announcing their presence. Hill says the suspect, Marijon Gadson, 19, responded by firing multiple shots, striking Officer Charleton Huen in the face. Hill said police then returned fire, retrieved Huen and called for an ambulance. Police re-entered…
TREECE, Kan. (AP) Residents of a former mining town in southeast Kansas said an official farewell to the lead-contaminated town. A ceremony on Thursday marked the official end of a buyout for Treece, which has been mostly empty for the last two years. Treece is officially off the map, after being disincorporated by the state Legislature earlier this year. The Environmental Protection Agency allocated $3.5 million in 2009 to buy out residents after the town was found to be unsafe because of the tons of remains from decades of lead and zinc mining. Treece and nearby Picher, Okla., produced much…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) BNSF Railway Co. is being sued after it declined to hire a man who suffered injuries in a car accident more than 20 years ago. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., that the decision violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that BNSF refused to hire Kent Duty, a Kansas City area resident, as a locomotive electrician in 2008. The company believed hand and wrist injuries he suffered in the accident made him unable to perform the job. EEOC attorneys…
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) The former manager of an eastern Kansas mobile home park has been sentenced to life in prison for molesting four children from November 2009 to May of this year in his trailer. Lawrence McDonagh II, 61, of Tonganoxie, was sentenced Thursday in Leavenworth County District Court on multiple counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. McDonagh pleaded no contest in August. He was arrested in May after deputies served a search warrant at the Paradise Mobile Home Park and seized several items from his home. Prosecutor Todd Thompson says McDonagh initially was charged with eavesdropping for…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Board of Regents says a 13 percent rise in fall enrollment at the six technical colleges helped drive a slight increase in students attending the state’s public institutions of higher education. The board released preliminary figures Thursday showing fall enrollment at the 32 universities, community colleges and technical colleges up by 458 from last September, to roughly 188,700. Combined enrollment at the seven Regents universities was down by 152 students from the fall of 2011. The University of Kansas reported slightly less than 28,000 students at its campuses. Kansas State University was the second-largest with…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to remove President Barack Obama from the state’s Nov. 6 ballot. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Deputy Secretary of State Ryan Kriegshauser argues in the request that taking Obama off the ballot would violate some voters’ the rights. Kriegshauser notes that Kansas began mailing ballots with Obama’s name to military personnel overseas last week. The lawsuit was filed last week in Shawnee County District Court by California attorney and dentist Orly Taitz. She has promoted the discredited notion in several states…
On Friday, the Junction City/Geary County Drug Operations Group, assisted by the Junction City/Geary County SWAT, executed a search warrant in the 100 block of W. 17th in Junction City. The search warrant was obtained after a 5 month long investigation by the Drug Operations Group and the Riley County Police Department Special Investigative Unit into suspected drug activity at the residence. Lionel Clinton Dixon, 27, of Junction City, Kenneth Sanders, 25, of Junction City and Breanna Jeffries, 23, of Junction City were all charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute within 1000 feet of a school, felony possession of…
Kaitlynn Pelger became the 16th player at K-State to reach the 1,000 kill plateau with 13 kills on Thursday night in a sweep over West Virginia. The Cats quickly dispatched the newest Big 12 member, defeating the Mountaineers 25-8, 25-19, 25-17 at Ahearn Fieldhouse. K-State hit .368 as a team, which is a big nod to the play of senior setter Caitlyn Donahue, who had 38 assists. She added a team-high 11 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Tristan McCarty led a great K-State (14-1, 1-1 Big 12) effort from the service line with three aces. Alex Muff…
SEATTLE (AP) Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott confirms the conference is in preliminary talks with the Big 12 Conference about creating a seventh bowl game that would match a representative from one of the two conferences against the best team from a group of five conferences, including the Big East. Scott spoke at halftime of Washington’s game against #8 Stanford on Thursday night. He said the talks that with the Big 12 are in the infant stages and started after all the conference commissioners met last week in Chicago. A person with direct knowledge of the plan for the four-team…