TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Attorney General Derek Schmidt says Kansans destroyed more than 5 tons of personal documents during National Consumer Protection Week last week. Schmidt’s office worked with businesses and organizations in five cities to give citizens a place to drop off personal documents, which were then shredded and recycled. Schmidt says the events offered a safe way to destroy documents containing personal information that identity thieves like to steal. The document disposal events were held in Wichita, Salina, Garden City, Topeka and Pittsburg.
Author: KMAN Staff
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A federal appeals court has scheduled arguments May 10 in an age discrimination lawsuit brought by former Boeing workers after the 2005 sale of its commercial airplane operations in Kansas and Oklahoma. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals filed notice of the date for arguments Thursday. The workers are appealing a 2010 ruling by U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren that sided with The Boeing Co. and Spirit AeroSystems. Spirit was created from the spinoff of Boeing’s commercial airplane operations in the two states. Ninety former Boeing workers filed suit claiming they lost their jobs because of…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas House is preparing to debate a proposed $14.1 billion state budget that has drawn bipartisan criticism over withholding of some education funds. The measure on Friday’s House agenda sticks closely to many of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s spending recommendations for the fiscal year that starts July 1. It would cut overall state spending by about 4 percent, or $616 million. But it doesn’t include $29 million sought by Brownback to cover higher-than-expected costs incurred by school districts in the current academic year. Without that money, districts would have to use their reserves. Republicans backing the…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal for reducing income tax rates cleared a House committee, but it’s unclear if the plan will be debated by the full chamber. The House Assessment and Taxation Committee endorsed the bill Thursday after modifying it to preserve a tax credit for mortgage interest payments. The voice vote sends the bill to the full House, which has already passed a rival plan that differs vastly from the governor’s proposal. Conservative Republicans tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill by removing Brownback’s plan and substituting it with proposals to eliminate the tax on incomes of…
COLUMBUS, Kan. (AP) A southeastern Kansas man has been convicted of murder for causing a double-fatality crash while he led police on a high-speed chase for 11 miles. The Cherokee County News-Advocate reports that a jury took less than 90 minutes Thursday to find Kaston Hudgins guilty on two counts of first-degree murder. Hudgins was fleeing a Cherokee County traffic stop on July 16, 2009, when he slammed into a car driven by 41-year-old school teacher Teresa Kemp. Her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, died at the scene on U.S. 69 south of Pittsburg. Teresa Kemp died six days later. Witnesses testified…
The Manhattan Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Team responded to the 400 block of Houston Street Thursday evening to investigate a report of a jar with mercury in it. Ryan Almes, MFD Deputy Chief of Technical Servies, tells KMAN the sealed jar containing mercury was described as small. The mercury was transported to the Kansas State University Police Department for disposal. Almes indicates this case appears to be much smaller than the one last summer, involving a four inch tall container filled with mercury, discovered at the Beta Sigma Psi house on Centennial Drive. The house had to be evacuated for…
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the theft of multiple sets of Night Vision Goggles (NGVs) from Fort Riley. Ten AN/PVS-14 NVG’s, two sets of AN/PVS-7B NGV’s and two sets of AN/PVS-7D NGV’s were stolen between Sept. 28 thru Sept. 30 and on Oct. 19, 2011, respectively. The stolen U.S. Government property is valued at $48,722. The NGV’s were allegedly stolen from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, and the 1-28th Infantry Battalion, 4th…
A new redistricting map coming out of the Kansas House of representatives committee has Pottawatomie county, including the Manhattan portion, in the First district, while the Riley county part of the city stays in the second. The continuing issue for lawmakers remains shifting the maps to boost up populations in the mainly rural First District, which has seen a sharp decline in the last 10 years as more and more Kansans opt to live in the bigger cities in the eastern half of the state. “And so we’ve had several votes now,” Rep. Richard Carlson (R-St. Mary’s) tells KMAN. “One map…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Senate has approved legislation giving Junction City more flexibility in managing its debt. Thursday’s vote of 36-4 sends the measure to Governor Sam Brownback. The bill gives Junction City officials three additional years to reduce the ratio of outstanding debt to its total property valuation. The limit would remain at 37 percent under the bill through June 2016. Junction City issued bonds in the past decade to make improvements related to the return of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division to Fort Riley. City officials and supporters of the debt extension said the expected level of…