WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Members of the technical and professional union at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita have accepted the company’s 9.5-year contract offer. The measure was approved 548 to 210 during a vote Monday night at Curtis Middle School. The Wichita Eagle reports members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace’s Wichita Technical and Professional Unit were deciding whether to accept the contract or authorize a strike. The union says the contract includes $2,000 signing bonuses, annual raises starting next year, participation in the Spirit Incentive Plan and increased restrictions on Spirit’s use of contract labor. Nearly 97% of…
Author: KMAN Staff
SALINA, Kan. (AP) Hawker Beechcraft is selling off surplus assets from its Salina division, which the airplane maker is closing. The Wichita-based company announced in 2009 that it would close the Salina operation. The company, one of the nation’s leading business jet manufacturers, said it was moving the jobs to Wichita, where Hawker Beechcraft is headquartered. The company’s lease of 484,000 square feet in Salina expires February 2012. Employees at the Salina facility build wings and other parts. The Salina Journal reports that the asset sale is planned for Dec. 20 and will include machine tools, pickup trucks, and other…
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) A Barton County judge has set a February date to hear any pending motions in the case against a Great Bend man accused of killing a 14-year-old girl and burning her body. Judge Hannelore Kitts is expected to hear arguments in the case of Adam Joseph Longoria beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 10 in Great Bend. Longoria is charged with capital murder and other crimes in the death of Alicia DeBolt, whose charred body was found in August 2010 at the asphalt plant where Longoria worked. Still to be decided is whether jurors will hear…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) An aide to U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts has been named Kansan of the Year by a group that celebrates the state’s heritage. Harold Stones, of Topeka, will be honored Jan. 27 in Topeka at the annual banquet of the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas. The group picks both a Kansan of the Year, honoring a native of the state, and a Distinguished Kansan of the Year, which can honor someone born elsewhere. Stones has been director of special projects for Roberts since 1997. He serves primarily as the Kansas Republican’s liaison to military bases, local governments,…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Downtown Wichita gets its first charging station for electric vehicles this week. Westar Energy, the biggest electricity provider in Kansas, says the station will be dedicated Thursday morning outside its general office on North Broadway. Westar says it’s providing the 240-volt charging station is a courtesy to drivers of electric vehicles. The company installed its first electric vehicle station in October in its home city of Topeka and plans two more, in Emporia and Lawrence. Westar says it has eight electric vehicles in its own fleet so far.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) Members of the public get a chance to hear more details this week on a proposal to build a second federal prison in Leavenworth. A public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Riverfront Community Center in the northeastern Kansas community. Leavenworth is already home to the U.S. Penitentiary, which switched from maximum to medium security in 2005. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says the new facility would be built on the same grounds, with space for about 1,500 medium-security inmates plus 300 inmates at a minimum-security camp. Federal officials say the prison would have…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Students at a northeast Kansas high school could be spending a few more minutes in class each day through the end of the school year to make up a day lost to a bomb threat. Free State High School in Lawrence was evacuated just before the start of classes on Dec. 1 when the bomb threat was discovered. All classes were canceled, meaning the school day never officially began. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the cancellation cost Free State nearly five hours toward the state’s yearly requirement. Superintendent Rick Doll is proposing to make up the lost time…
Pawnee Mental Health Services recently celebrated a big anniversary, but the group has lost some headway due to budget cut-backs in recent years. That, according to the group’s executive Director Robbin Cole, who addressed Riley County commissioners Monday morning. Cole adds while Pawnee has grown in the more than five decades it’s been around, its budget and personnel numbers are down the last four years. Cole also expressed concern about Medicaid changes anticipated in the next year, which she says will impact other health care services as well. And to top it off, there are other changes, with a move…
A former Manhattan social worker has been sentenced to three years probation for harassing a Ft. Riley soldier. Rachelle Santiago, 44, also agreed to surrender her license to practice social work to the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board and not to reapply for a license in Kansas or any other state. Santiago pleaded guilty to one count of fleeing from a police officer, one count of criminal restraint, one count of making a criminal threat and one count of unlawfully entering military property. In her plea, she admitted that in January 2011 she treated a Ft. Riley soldier for mental…