MANHATTAN, Kan. – Budget requests for fiscal year 2013 dominated the discussion at Thursday’s Riley County Commission meeting. Department heads from five county agencies were on hand to make their requests. Robbin Cole, director of Pawnee Mental Health Services, asked the commission for a 5 percent increase in funding. “It would be both a reasonable and generous increase for our organization for serving the citizens of Riley County,” Cole said. Pawnee has received $225,785 from the county in each of the past four years. The increase would bring the county’s overall appropriation to $237,075. Extension director Jennifer Wilson made requests on…
Author: KMAN Staff
HAYS, Kan. (AP) A man accused of shooting a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper last year has pleaded no contest to reduced charges. The Hays Daily News reports Trooper Doug Schulte was in the Ellis County courtroom Wednesday as Ruben Herrera Escobedo entered the pleas to aggravated battery and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. He was initially charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder. Schulte was wounded in January 2011 after stopping Escobedo on a traffic violation in Hays. Investigators said Escobedo got out of his pickup truck and shot the trooper in the chest with a .357-caliber revolver. The…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The self-proclaimed leader of a Kansas commune that lived off life insurance payouts of its dead members has been ordered to stand trial on a charge of premeditated first-degree murder. Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens entered the order Thursday at the end of a preliminary hearing for 52-year-old Daniel U. Perez. Perez is accused in the 2003 death of Patricia Hughes at a compound near Wichita. It was initially listed as accidental. Defense lawyers contended there was not enough evidence to put Perez on trial. Owens disagreed and scheduled a jury trial for July 30. Perez…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Although the state’s new budget restores $700,000 in funding for the arts, it will be at least a year before federal and regional matching funds will return to Kansas. Mary Kennedy, executive director of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, says Kansas won’t get any matching funds in fiscal 2013. She says the state also won’t get any federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts in the next fiscal year. She says it will take a year to go through the process needed to return the funds to the state. Gov. Sam Brownback last Friday signed the…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Republican state senator is being questioned in a Kansas district attorney’s investigation into private meetings that lawmakers had with GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. Sen. Bob Marshall of Fort Scott was being questioned Thursday at Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor’s office at the county courthouse. Taylor, a Democrat, subpoenaed Marshall and six other Republican legislators. Taylor is investigating seven dinner meetings Brownback had in January with legislators at Cedar Crest, the governor’s official residence. The governor invited more than 90 of the legislature’s 165 members, grouping them by committee. Almost all were Republicans. Marshall’s interview with…
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Hutchinson’s first sculpture walk is starting to take shape. The first of six sculptures planned for the walk was installed Wednesday. The sculpture by Georgia artist Gregory Johnson is called “Rival Readers.” It’s a 300-pound bronze sculpture of a boy reading a book with a little girl looking over his shoulder. The Hutchinson News reports five more sculptures will be installed before the official launch of the sculpture walk on June 21. The sculptures will be on display for the next year. Visitors to the sculpture walk will vote for the “People’s Choice” award. The city will…
HAYS, Kan. (AP) After four years of work, the city of Hays has new, state-of-the-art outdoor warning sirens. Nine sirens that varied in age and power levels have been replaced by six sirens. The new sirens have backup batteries and a system to alert the fire department in case of vandalism, power failure or other problems. Fire Chief Gary Brown says the sirens were needed because Hays is growing and areas of the city were not properly served by the older sirens. The Hays Daily News reportseach siren cost approximately $11,500, with another $4,700 for installation. Brown stressed the sirens…
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) A Garden City man who was injured by a hit-and-run driver while riding his motorcycle in late May has died. Officials at Via Christi hospital in Wichita say 37-year-old John Beckstrom died Wednesday. He had been in intensive care since his motorcycle was hit on a Garden City street. The Garden City Telegram reports police are still looking for the driver of a car that was seen near the accident. The vehicle is described as a light blue, almost turquoise, Honda four-door with tinted windows. The vehicle sits low to the ground, may have after-market wheels…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Democrat on the Kansas State Board of Education says she’s not seeking re-election this year. Board member Sue Storm, of Overland Park, said Wednesday she no longer finds serving on the 10-member board fun and wants more time with her grandchildren. Also, she said she believes her 16 years in public office is enough. Storm was elected to the board in 2008, after serving 12 years in the Kansas House. Board members serve four-year terms, and five seats are up for grabs in the November election. Board Chairman David Dennis, a Wichita Republican, also has announced…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Two Kansas House Republicans see a Democratic district attorney’s investigation as political after being subpoenaed over private dinner meetings lawmakers had with GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. Reps. Steve Brunk of Bel Aire and Virgil Peck of Tyro were among seven GOP legislators to receive subpoenas last month from Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor. Taylor is investigating potential open meetings violations during seven dinners in January at Cedar Crest, the governor’s official residence. Brownback invited more than 90 lawmakers. Brunk and Peck came in for interviews last week. Sen. Bob Marshall of Fort Scott and Rep. Anthony…