HOLTON, Kan. (AP) Holton teachers returned their contracts unsigned to protest a lack of negotiations and another year without a pay raise. The teachers took 69 unsigned contracts to the Holton school district’s offices on Monday. Joni White, president of the Holton National Education Association, says teachers are unhappy that the board of education issued a unilateral contract last week. She says teachers also haven’t received a raise in four years. Teachers had asked for a 1 percent raise for next school year, which would have cost the district about $51,000. Superintendent Nancy Meyer said 132 certified teachers were involved…
Author: KMAN Staff
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas winter wheat harvest is nearly finished. Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that only 4 percent of the crop is left to be cut statewide. Harvest is running about three weeks ahead of normal in the state. Farmers in northwest Kansas are close to wrapping up. They had 61 percent of their wheat in the bin as of Sunday. Meanwhile, some spring-planted row crops are showing signs of stress from high temperatures and lack of rain. Corn condition declined over the past week, with 17 percent of the crop now rated as poor to very…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Gov. Sam Brownback has named an attorney from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to a seat on the state commission that regulates utilities. Brownback announced the appointment of Shari Feist Albrecht to the three-member Kansas Corporation Commission on Monday. She replaces Ward Loyd, an attorney and former Kansas House member from Garden City whose term expired earlier this year. Albrecht has worked for KDHE since 1993. She was a supervisor in its environmental protection division before becoming associate chief counsel. She previously served on the Corporation Commission staff in the division that regulates oil and…
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) The mother and sister of a 14-year-old cheerleader whose burned body was found at the Great Bend asphalt plant are expected to make victim impact statements at a hearing for the man convicted of killing her. Sentencing for 38-year-old Adam Longoria is Tuesday before Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, but capital murder carries at least a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Jurors deliberated less than four hours in April before convicting him for the August 2010 murder of Alicia DeBolt. To find Longoria guilty of capital…
An accident in Geary County shortly after 10 Tuesday morning led to at least three injuries and a disruption in traffic for part of the morning. Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Greg Harkrader tells KMAN the two vehicle crash was reported on I-70, about a mile and a half west of K-177. The road was completely shut down for about 15 or 20 minutes, and was reduced to one eastbound lane until about 11. Lt. Harkrader says it looks like one of the vehicles was merging onto the interstate trying to gain speed, when the other vehicle came over a hill and had to brake.…
MANHATTAN, Kan. – The most well attended Country Stampede Music Festival actually turned out to be one of the calmest as far as the Riley County Emergency Medical Services team is concerned. Riley County commissioners received a statistical recap of the four-day event during a meeting on Monday. Encounters for Riley County EMS increased from 100 in 2011 to 141 this year but that spike can be attributed to larger crowds. “Our busiest year in the last four years was 2009 and that year we had 148 contacts,” Larry Couchman, Riley County EMS Director, said. “This year was similar to 2009, but…
A Monday afternoon status hearing for Domingo “Diablo” Soto resulted in a trial date being set in Riley County District courts. Soto is charged with aiding and abetting the 1st degree murder of Steven Freele in December of 2011. Judge Meryl wilson set the trial date to begin on October 29th at 0900 am, and a motions hearing will be held on September 14th at 0900 in the morning. TR
WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) Authorities have captured the second of two inmates who escaped earlier this month from the Winfield Correctional Facility in south-central Kansas. The state corrections department said 52-year-old Robert Cook was apprehended without incident Monday morning in Byers, a Pratt County town about 110 miles northwest of Winfield. No details of the arrest were immediately available. Cook and 48-year-old Frank Crutchfield escaped from the Winfield prison June 16 in a state-owned truck that was found abandoned the following day about 15 miles away. Authorities believe the pair then stole a pickup truck. A tip led authorities to Crutchfield…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A party is planned to wish a cabin a happy 140th birthday. The cabin on Beaver Creek in Smith County is where Brewster Higley wrote a poem in 1873 that became the words to “Home on the Range.” The July Fourth party will include music, food and plenty of gratitude to Kansans who have helped save the cabin. The event will give Kansans a chance to see the cabin before a major restoration project starts. Contract bids for the project will be let this summer. The cabin is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. An…
CHASE, Kan. (AP) A 3-story cactus that has brought national attention to a small central Kansas town is blooming for the first time in decades. And then it’s expected to die. The Agave americana plant has been owned by Ed and Joyce Ward of Chase for 36 years. It was featured on a national news show and has drawn thousands of visitors to Chase. The plant normally grows in the southwest. It is popularly known as the century plant because it lives about 30 to 40 years, blooms, and then dies. The Wichita Eagle reports the plant has begun to…