BALDWIN CITY, Kan. (AP) A couple from Wyoming has given $1.6 million to Baker University in Baldwin City. Baker University announced the gift Monday from Ross and Christine Hartley, of Jackson Hole, Wyo. Ross Hartley is a Baker alumnus who co-founded NIC Inc., an electronic government services company. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the money will bring Baker University close to its $10.3 million goal to fund a renovation and expansion of Mulvane Hall. The new 9,000-square-foot addition will be renamed Ross and Christine Hartley Hall. The Hartleys are natives of Baxter Springs. They have previously donated $1 million to Baker…
Author: KMAN Staff
MCPHERSON, Kan. (AP) A McPherson man has pleaded no contest to first-degree murder in the death of a man whose body was dumped at Marion Reservoir. McPherson County Attorney David Page says 25-year-old Dustin Tyler Smith of McPherson entered the plea Monday in the May 2011 death of Justin Milne. In exchange for the plea, four other charges were dropped. KAKE-TV reports that Smith is scheduled to be sentenced May 7. Prosecutors say Milne was shot to death in McPherson and his body was taken to Marion Reservoir. The body was discovered in a campsite at the reservoir after Milne’s…
FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) Ceremonies are planned at Fort Riley this week for two units of the 1st Infantry Division as they head for yearlong deployments to Afghanistan. Wednesday’s event is for the division’s headquarters unit, which will serve in a command and control capacity in Afghanistan. The division’s headquarters served in a similar role in 2010 when it deployed to southern Iraq. A second ceremony is planned Thursday for approximately 40 soldiers from the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 84th Ordinance Battalion. While in Afghanistan, the unit will serve as the headquarters for six explosive ordnance disposal companies…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A new report says the winter wheat crop in Kansas continues to look better than last year’s crop due to mild winter temperatures. But in its report Monday, Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service also says the crop needs rain during the first weeks of emerging from dormancy. Some wheat has begun joining in south-central and southeast Kansas. Crop conditions declined slightly in the past week throughout the state. The latest ratings are 12 percent poor to very poor, 38 percent fair, 43 percent good 7 percent excellent. At this time a year ago, the Kansas wheat crop was…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas Senate committee is considering a proposal aimed at controlling property tax increases on the homes of people 65 and older. The Assessment and Taxation Committee scheduled a hearing Tuesday on a proposed amendment to the state constitution. It would allow the Legislature to limit annual increases in values placed by county officials on homes owned by Kansans who are 65 or older. The constitution currently requires residential property to be valued uniformly. Homeowners can face property tax increases each year even if cities, counties and school districts don’t increase their levies, because county appraisers can…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is brushing off criticism over his forming his own political action committee. Kobach said Monday that legislators are being hypocritical when they say it’s inappropriate for the state’s chief elections official to get involved in partisan election campaigns through a PAC. Records of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission show that Kobach, a Republican, created the PAC called Prairie Fire on Feb. 15, with himself as its chairman. State Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, said Kobach is supposed to be an unbiased elections official. Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka…
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A Georgia psychiatrist who holds bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Kansas has donated $100,000 to the university’s endowment. The donation from Dr. Hugo Zee and his wife, Nora Dougherty Zee, of Atlanta, will create an endowed scholarship for medical students, with a preference for African-American students. Zee emigrated to the U.S. from his native Holland in 1949, following World War II, and says he had his first exposure to racial separation on a train ride to Texas. At St. Louis, he says, he noticed that the African-American passengers including a man who had been…
KMAN’s Chris Swick takes a look at Your Health for KMAN’s Morning News.
A Manhattan man already going through the Riley County court system in connection with a murder case, now faces a preliminary hearing in April on a rape charge in a different case. Justin Taylor, 25, appeared in court via a video link Tuesday afternoon on the June 2010 rape charge, which involves a 57-year-old woman from the Manhattan area. A request from Taylor’s defense attorney for a bond reduction was denied. His bond remains at $100,000. Taylor’s preliminary hearing is set for April 20. Meanwhile, at last report, Taylor’s trial on a second degree murder charge is also set for April. Taylor is…
A Junction City woman has been upgraded to fair condition Monday at Stormont Vail following a Riley county accident Friday night. Elisa Mendoza-Morales, 19, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Joshua Beverly, 22, of Fort Riley. The Kansas Highway patrol reports Beverly driving westbound on I-70, when he exited at the Deep Creek Road exit, at milepost 316. As the vehicle left the concrete portion of Deep Creek Road, it entered the gravel portion of Mineral Springs Road at which time the driver lost control and the vehicle traveled to the west ditch and rolled several times. Beverly was taken to Mercy…