WICHITA, Kan. — The Wichita City Council has passed an ordinance aimed at banning discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. The Wichita Eagle reports that after four months of delays, the council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to approve the measure. Council member Jeff Blubaugh cast the lone dissenting vote. Council members rejected a proposed exemption that would have allowed religious groups to fire or refuse to hire LGBTQ individuals. The measure seeks to prohibit discrimination based on age, color, disability, familial status, gender identity, genetic information, national origin or ancestry, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, citizenship, veteran status or…
Author: KMAN Staff
PRATT, Kan. — Kansas wildlife officials say an angler landed the first alligator gar ever documented in the state. The fisheries division of the Kansas Wildlife & Parks said in a news release Tuesday that a 39.5 pounds alligator gar was caught last month in the Neosho River east of Parsons. Fisheries biologist Connor Ossowski said the agency has verified the fish was caught in the river. Biologists are now working to determine how the animal got into a Kansas waterway. The most likely scenario is the alligator gar was released by its owner after it became too large but…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Fire department officials say two people were hospitalized and several others sickened in a carbon monoxide leak inside a Kansas City, Kansas, supermarket. Officials say firefighters were called to the El Rio Bravo supermarket around noon Tuesday. Firefighters used handheld detectors and discovered carbon monoxide levels in the store to be potentially lethal. Crews evacuated the building, took two people to hospitals and treated several others at the scene. The Kansas Gas Company was called in to investigate the cause of the leak.
LARNED, Kan. — Two employees at Larned State Hospital are charged with helping a convicted sexual offender escape last summer. The two female employees, 50-year-old Rachel Rena Perez, of Larned, and 45-year-old Liliana Guadalupe Houser, of Garden City, made their first court appearances Tuesday. They each face more than a dozen charges related to the escape of John Freeman Colt in June. Colt was recaptured in Utah in September. Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett said in a release the charges against Perez and Houser include having unlawful sexual relations with a patient and trafficking in contraband.
On Wednesday’s edition of In Focus we spoke with Wamego USD 320 Interim Superintendent Greg Mann and Rock Creek USD 323 Superintendent Kevin Logan. Manhattan Area Technical College President Jim Genandt also joined the program.
A well earned week off with pay will be given to K-State staff. Last Thursday, President Richard Myers put out an email to K-State faculty and staff about receiving a week off with pay. Myers acknowledged the staff members for the accomplishments they’ve made navigating through the pandemic. To show gratitude he mentioned employees will get the week of Dec. 27- Dec. 31 off, with pay. Employees won’t be required to take leave during the holiday break. Myers says there will be some exclusions, including temporary and student employees. If student employees are scheduled to work, they must do so.…
Residents of an area near Anthony Middle School are trying to hammer out an agreement with Kansas Gas Service to limit the cutting of trees. Due to an exposed gas line, Kansas Gas Service has planned a project to cut down the trees, on the south side of the middle school property, to work on the pipe. Community members met with a Kansas Gas Service representative Monday, for the second time in two weeks. Transmissions Manager James Parks says the original plan was to remove all of the trees along the creek. Parks says this plan still allows for part…
In a society that is centered around food quantity, sometimes the importance of food quality gets lost. Britney Petty, Ascension Via Christi registered dietitian says last week was Malnutrition Awareness Week, something that many people suffer from and one that she works with closely. She talks more about what exactly malnutrition is. “Malnutrition can be either short-term or long-term, either from just an overall inadequate intake of nutrients or even from the wrong combination of nutrient intake, including vitamins and minerals. Can basically be present with or without a chronic underlying condition or illness.” Petty says while malnutrition typically affects…
WICHITA, Kan. — Police in Wichita say an 11-year-old girl was wounded in an early-morning drive-by shooting Tuesday. Television station KSN reports that the shooting happened shortly after midnight in the city’s Ken-Mar neighborhood. Witnesses tell police that someone in a black sport utility vehicle shot into a house, then sped away. Police say the girl was hit by gunfire and taken to a hospital with serious injuries, but she is expected to survive. Police say four other people in the home at the time of the shooting were not injured. Investigators say they have identified a suspect, but no…
WICHITA, Kan. — Residents outside Wichita who get their water from a rural district no longer have to boil their tap water after testing showed it to be safe. Television station KAKE reports that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Sunday rescinded a boil water advisory for Sedgwick County Rural Water District No. 2 public water supply system. That came a day after the city of Wichita’s water was declared safe after the entire city of nearly 400,000 and surrounding communities were placed under a boil order. The rural water district was the last water supplier in the…