Author: KMAN Staff
Buses will soon be a reality in Manhattan, with two fixed routes set to start running next month. That very issue took center stage at last night’s Manhattan City Commission meeting, pre-empting the slated agenda. Many community members and students came out in support of the new transit system, along with a few who were against it. After a lengthy public comment session, the Commission moved on to the agenda. First up was an ordinance vacating a portion of right-of-way on 9th Street due to the expansion of Howie’s Recycling service. Owner of…
Although a Manhattan man may face almost 20 years in jail, he now has only one case to deal with, instead of two. Justin Taylor, 25, had a hearing Tuesday to discuss his two charges. Taylor was charged with one count of rape during June of 2010 and one count of 2nd degree intentional murder in August of 2011. Assistant Riley County Attorney, Barry Disney, motioned to combine the two cases into one and change the 2nd degree intentional murder charge to voluntary manslaughter. Judge Paul Miller approved the motion to combine the cases and change the second charge. Taylor…
Manhattan/Ogden NEA Representative Usha Reddi sits down with KMAN to discuss sports and academics.
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) Students at Garden City High School will each get their own iPad to use at school and take home, starting next school year. The district’s board of education approved a measure Monday to provide the iPads to each student. Darren Dennis, the district’s assistant superintendent for learning services, said the iPads will be useful for a new type of testing, as school districts move to Common Core Standards for state testing. Technology administrators announced Monday night that the initiative’s cost will be lower than previously reported because the district will use iPad 2, instead of the…
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) At least two people remained in critical condition Tuesday after a recreational vehicle crashed in northeast Kansas, killing five family members from Minnesota. The accident on Sunday injured 13 people. The crash happened as the family returned from an annual motocross vacation in Texas. Their Freightliner cab and Haulmark trailer broke through a guardrail on Interstate 35 outside Williamsburg, Kan., and plunged into a ravine. The injured ranged in age from 2 to 30 and were taken to various hospitals. Several had been released by Tuesday. The critically injured include an 18-year-old and an 8-year-old boy,…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas won’t be able to issue driver’s licenses or non-driver identification cards for at least several hours because of a computer problem. The state Division of Vehicles said Tuesday that a problem with a vendor’s server took down the computer system issuing licenses and ID cards at all 111 offices statewide. The division said the vendor expected to replace a part in its server by mid-afternoon. The division is in the midst of a $40 million upgrade of its computers. About 3,000 people visit driver’s license offices each Tuesday, which is typically a busy day because the…
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) A Great Bend man was sentenced to five years in prison in the death of a girl he injected with morphine last July. Thirty-one-year-old Joseph Jeffrey Rykiel was sentenced Monday for the death of 15-year-old Jessica Shearer of Garden City. Rykiel entered an Alford plea in February to involuntary manslaughter. The Garden City Telegram reports that Shearer was reported missing from the Barton County Youth Care Home three days before her death. She was found dead last July 4th in a basement room Rykiel was renting in Great Bend. Barton County Attorney Doug Matthews says Rykiel…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Hutchinson Regional Medical Center has laid off 55 employees, effective immediately. Hospital officials announced Monday that 44 full-time and 11 part-time employees were laid off. The hospital also eliminated the equivalent of 45.3 full-time positions through attrition since January. Hospital president Kevin Miller says the combined job reductions will save the hospital between $3 million to $4 million this fiscal year. He says that savings, combined with other expense reductions, could reverse a $5.5 million operating loss the hospital reported in the fiscal year that ended last June. The Hutchinson News reports that the hospital’s interim head…