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…
Author: KMAN Staff
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…
A Marysville woman has been sentenced to nearly 15 years in prison for second-degree intentional murder and aggravated assault. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced Amanda Baynton, 25, was sentenced Tuesday in Marshall County District Court by Judge John Weingart to 178 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections. The crimes occurred on June 8, 2011, resulting in the death of her husband, Derek Baynton. Baynton entered a plea of no contest to the charges on January 25.
Kansas State university officials and members of the community were shocked to hear Tuesday of the death of the former director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Todd Simon, who died of a heart attack Monday evening. He was 61. Simon joined the Kansas State University in 1997, serving seven years as director of the journalism school. He taught Public Relations, Political Communication, and Media Law during his time at K-State and also had served as the chapter advisor for the K-State PRSSA. Funeral arrangements are still pending. Some of his colleagues spoke with KMAN about Simon’s impact,…