SALINA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas National Guard unit is preparing for its first deployment since Operation Desert Storm, heading to Southwest Asia for a base security mission. A public departure ceremony will be held Feb. 12 at 10 a.m. in Salina for approximately 80 members of the 170th Maintenance Company. The soldiers will go first to Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in Mississippi for more training specific to their assignment. The exact location of the deployment has not been announced. The unit was originally scheduled to go to Kuwait for a security mission. The 170th Maintenance Company is headquartered…
Author: KMAN Staff
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) Overland Park police are looking for a woman who is missing for the second time in a week. Molly Jones was last seen near her home in Overland Park Wednesday evening. Police say Jones suffers from medical conditions that can cause her to become catatonic and unaware of her surroundings. She was last seen wearing a pink sport shirt and blue jeans. She is 5-feet-4 and 155 pounds, with red hair and blue eyes. She left with no purse or phone and her family says she has not taken medication that she needs. Jones reported went…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The state’s largest insurance company says it will not bid to be part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas said Wednesday that the effort to shift Medicaid programs to private health insurance companies would require it to dramatically change its businesses practices in less than a year. The governor wants the state to contract with three companies to manage Medicaid, which provides health coverage to poor families and disabled and elderly Kansans. Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, says Blue Cross’ decision raises questions about…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Haskell Indian Nations University is partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency to promote science and environmental careers. The university in Lawrence and the EPA’s office in Kansas signed an agreement Wednesday to promote interaction between Haskell students and EPA staff. Karl Brooks, the EPA district’s regional administrator, says he hopes the agreement will encourage more Haskell students to apply for internships and jobs with the EPA. He says it also should prompt EPA staff to help Haskell faculty with research, and give Haskell students knowledge they could use to help their tribes with environmental issues. The Lawrence…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A challenge to a new Kansas law restricting insurance coverage of abortion has been assigned to a new judge following the death of the federal judge who had been overseeing the case. U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown died last week at the age of 104. Nearly 100 civil cases that Brown was handling were reassigned Wednesday to other judges in the Kansas federal judicial district U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia in Kansas City, Kan., will now preside over the abortion-related lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri. The ACLU questions the…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A bill that would expand the number of exemptions allowed for parents who don’t want their children to be immunized apparently will not go to a vote this year. State Rep. Brenda Landwehr of Wichita said Wednesday that she doesn’t intend to have the House Health and Human Services Committee work on the bill. She told The Kansas City Star hat she sees little support on the committee for allowing more exemptions from mandatory immunizations. The bill drew a large crowd for a public hearing two weeks ago. Dozens of parents said they wanted to be allowed…
ARLINGTON, Kan. (AP) Federal inspectors have arrived at the scene of a central Kansas grain elevator explosion that injured one worker. The explosion was reported early Thursday at the Cairo Coop in Arlington, about 15 miles southwest of Hutchinson. Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson said one employee was taken to a Wichita hospital with burns. The Hutchinson News reports that the worker was seriously injured, and that investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have arrived at the scene. Bill Guy, Reno County emergency management director, said the injured employee was at the base of the elevator when the…
READING, Kan. (AP) Residents of an east-central Kansas town hit hard by a tornado last year are seeing more signs of recovery. More than half of the 101 homes and almost all of the businesses in Reading (REHD’-ing) were destroyed May 21 when the EF-3 tornado smashed parts of Lyon County. One person was killed. KVOE-AM reports that residents held ribbon-cuttings this week for three businesses. The Miracle Cafe and Citizens State Bank and Trust had both been closed by the tornado. The third business the Head, Hands and Feet Salon is new to the town. Two churches are also…
A couple of chemicals mixed together improperly at Justin Hall on the the K-State campus this afternoon brought the Manhattan Fire Department, Kansas State police, and public safety officials to the scene. Jessica Brooks with the K-State police department tells KMAN a chemical cloud formed, prompting the alert to the different agencies. However the problem, reported at about 1:40 in the afternoon was taken care of within 15 or 20 minutes. Brooks indicates to her knowledge Justin Hall was not evacuated.
A Manhattan man announced during Thursday’s Riley County commission meeting his intentions to run for County Commission, the District 2 position. Paul Foltz, a registered republican, made his intentions public, although Elections Supervisor Jolene Keck says Foltz has not yet filed his declaration forms with the county clerk’s office. Alvan Johnson currently holds the district 2 position and has not yet indicated his intentions whether to file for re-election. Only one other person has filed for a county commission seat, and that is in the third district. David Fiser made that announcement last month. Commissioner Karen McCulloh who cuurently holds…