WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Koch Industries and the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation are donating a total of $814,000 to the Kansas State University Office of Diversity. The Wichita Eagle reports that the donation includes a combined gift of $514,000 to increase enrollment of multicultural students in the university’s business administration and engineering schools. Koch Industries has also pledged $300,000 for future scholarships to promote diversity. Koch spokeswoman Susan Addington says the company and foundation are committed to education and promoting an educated, diverse workforce.
Author: KMAN Staff
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) Two Kansas women are recovering from transplants they received using parts of the same liver. Surgeons at the University of Kansas Hospital transplanted the divided liver into the two women last week. They split the liver because it was too large to fit into the women. The Kansas City Star reports one of the women, Pamela Lawson of Salina, feared she would not get a liver because she is 64 years old. She never hesitated when surgeons suggested the split-liver procedure and was recovering Tuesday at the hospital. The second recipient did not wish to be…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The new Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission plans to apply for federal funding that would replace some money lost last year when the state’s art commission lost funding. The commission says it will apply for National Endowment for the Arts funding. However, Sen. Jean Schodorf of Wichita is skeptical the state will get much money from the NEA this year. Before Gov. Sam Brownback defunded the arts commission last year, Kansas received about $1.2 million in arts money from the NEA and Mid-American Arts Alliance. It spent about $700,000 a year on the arts. The Wichita Eagle…
SALINA, Kan. (AP) Construction of a high-voltage transmission power line in western Kansas is expected to be completed by November, six months ahead of schedule. ITC Holdings says the line it is building from Spearville to the Nebraska border will be running by the end of the year. It also is expected to be under budget. The Salina Journal reports the transmission line will connect another transmission line running from Axtell, Neb., to the Kansas border. And ITC spokesman Joe Kirik says the Spearville-to-Axtell transmission line will be connected to a new line called the V-Plan, which will run from…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Topeka City Council members have received thousands of emails urging the city to move two elephants from the city’s zoo to an animal sanctuary in Tennessee. Councilman Chad Manspeaker told The Topeka Capital-Journal Tuesday that each council member received more than 4,000 emails on the subject since Friday. He says nearly all the emails come from outside Topeka and are linked to an Internet website petition urging the public to support retiring the elephants to The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. Critics say the zoo does not provide enough space, causing the elephants physical and emotional harm.…
ABILENE, Kan. (AP) A new exhibit that has been growing at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum will soon be open to the public outside the president’s boyhood home. The “Eisenhower Garden” opens Monday with a reception to coincide with National 4-H Week. Members of the Living History 4-H Project will host the reception. The garden is located near the Eisenhower Boyhood Home on the grounds of the complex in Abilene. It has been developed over the past two years by Dickinson County 4-H members. The focus of the exhibit is to highlight the Eisenhower family and their…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A federal judge has delayed the sentencing of a Jamaican woman convicted of entering into a sham marriage with Kansas soldier to get legal immigration status. Shannakay Hunter had been scheduled for sentencing Nov. 5. She requested extra time to arrange care for her children and to travel back to Kansas from New York City, where she lives. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on Tuesday reset the sentencing for Nov. 26. Hunter was convicted last month of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, marriage fraud and lying to the government. She faces up to five years on each…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Workers at the Kansas Statehouse have removed all of the temporary walls that sealed off much of the building’s above-ground interior during a massive renovation. The last of the walls came down Tuesday, allowing visitors to see into the first floor’s north wing for the first time in four years. The interior work on the first through fifth floors is supposed to be finished Friday, although crews will still be cleaning and moving furniture for some time. The renovation started in 2001 and is expected to cost $332 million. It won’t be finished until the end of…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas is receiving a federal grant worth nearly $350,000 to promote healthier meals in schools. The money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will help Kansas implement the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The 2010 law aims to make federally subsidized school lunches healthier. Seventeen other states and one territory were awarded money through the competitive grant process. Kansas offered popular chef-taught culinary classes last summer for school food service workers. State officials say the grant will pay for more such training to help schools transition to the new federal guidelines. The Kansas Department of Education says that…
Update as of Thursday morning: Riley county Police provided an update Thursday morning regarding a missing juvenile, described as endangered. As KMAN news has been reporting since Wednesday, a new notice was issued regarding Cleotilde Lucero Soto-Garcia, 15, of northwest Manhattan, who has been missing since August 30th. Riley County Police Detective Richard Lewis told reporters Thursday morning Soto-Garcia had only a few friends on her social media sites. Lewis indicates he does not believe she was lured away by an online predator. And the Detective says the 15-year-old juvenile has run off for a few days in the past, and and was a caregiver at her residence for younger siblings. Earlier this…