Wamego will be taking its show on the road, but will be staying close to home. At Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, City Manager Merl Page showed a video that was co-sponsored by Kansas Municipal Utilities. The video’s focus is the importance of locally owned utilities, with control and management by people that care. Page said the video will be shown at different public forums as a way to communicate the value of local utilities to the community. To continue the utility conversation, Page said the staff is getting ready to do a thorough review of the Power Plants equipment based…
Author: KMAN Staff
The Kansas Arts Foundation President, and the Chair of the Kansas Arts Commission, Linda Weis of Manhattan, spoke with KMAN earlier this week and wanted to clear up a bit of confusion regarding the two entities. The Foundation is a public charity and the Commission is a state agency. The Foundation and the Commission spoke with state legislators recently on the topic of funding. Meanwhile, Weis reminds us a proposal was originally made by the Governor and sent to legislators, that the work of the Arts Commission would go to the Kansas State Historical Society, a state agency, and eligible…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A judge has ordered Kansas to restore federal family planning funds to a Dodge City clinic that claims it suffered “collateral damage” from a new state law aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten granted the request Tuesday from Dodge City Family Planning Clinic, which has no ties to Planned Parenthood. The judge had blocked the law’s enforcement in August and ordered Kansas to keep funding Planned Parenthood. The new law requires Kansas to allocate federal family planning funds first to public health departments and hospitals, effectively leaving no money for specialty clinics.…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Nearly two dozen agencies and hundreds of people will converge on Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport for a mock disaster drill Thursday. The Wichita Airport Authority says the full-scale disaster exercise is required every three years by the Federal Aviation Administration. The scenario for Thursday morning’s drill involves a large commercial aircraft with 78 passengers and crew colliding with a small, general aviation plane on a runway. Both planes break apart and stop in a field about 2,000 feet off the runway. About 300 people, including volunteers, will take part in responding to the simulated disaster which authorities point…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A series of town-hall style meetings in Kansas next month will focus on ways to reduce childhood poverty. Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday the meetings will be held Nov. 14 at Jack Reardon Convention Center in Kansas City, Kan.; Nov. 16 at the Drury Hotel in Wichita; and Nov. 17 at the athletic complex at Garden City Community College. Each session will run from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Brownback says nearly 24 percent of Kansas children lived in poverty in 2010, up slightly from the previous year. The governor has identified reduction of childhood poverty as a…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Wildlife and Parks secretary has an idea for getting more people to buy annual state park passes. Robin Jennison wants to make it possible for Kansas residents to buy the passes at a reduced rate when they register cars and light trucks. The Wichita Eagle reported that under his plan the annual passes would cost $15. They now cost up to $24.50 when they’re purchased at agency locations. He hopes the Legislature will sign off on the idea next session. Jennison shared his idea last week during the Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Commission meeting…
CHAPMAN, Kan. (AP) Their school was destroyed by a tornado, and now high school students in Chapman are losing their mascot to another force of nature the University of Notre Dame. The national sports powerhouse contacted school officials in the small, northeastern Kansas town after seeing its leprechaun logo on the Chapman website. High school principal Kevin Suther told KWCH-TV the letter arrived over the summer. Superintendent Lacee Sell adds it was clear Notre Dame was serious about getting Chapman to drop the fighting leprechaun mascot. School district officials say they can keep their “Fighting Irish” nickname, however, and the…
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Kansas City police say they have a warrant to again search a house from where a mother and father say their baby was abducted two weeks ago. Police Capt. Steve Young says officers will enter the home Wednesday. Lisa Irwin was 10 months old Oct. 4 when her parents reported her missing. Father Jeremy Irwin says he returned home from a late shift to discover the lights on, a window tampered with, the front door unlocked and Lisa gone. The baby’s mother, Deborah Bradley, was asleep elsewhere in the house. Bradley says she had been drinking…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Wichita police have arrested a 37-year-old man after a fight involving a sword and steak knives at a local hotel. Police say the man threatened kicked in the motel room where a 57-year-old man was staying and threatened him with a sword Monday night. The older man ran to his room’s kitchen and grabbed two steak knives to confront the attacker. Police spokesman Lt. Doug Nolte says the fight spilled into the hotel’s parking lot. When police arrived the older man had the 37-year-old pinned against a wall outside the hotel. The Wichita Eagle reports officers found…
COFFEYVILLE, Kan. (AP) A 68-year-old Coffeyville man has died after losing control of an all-terrain vehicle and crashing into an area of dense trees. KOAM reports Howard Sylvester Homer was an inexperienced rider who is believed to have been riding at a high rate of speed Monday evening when he crashed. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says it received the call around 6 p.m. Homer was taken to the Coffeyville hospital, where he later died. Sheriff Robert Dierks says the accident shows why people need to be careful when operating ATVs, including using protective equipment such as a helmet and…