A big change is coming for the Manhattan Mercury. Ned Seaton, Mercury publisher and editor in-chief, says the newspaper will be switching from five days a week print schedule to three days a week. Seaton says the Mercury will be utilizing their digital platform more and only printing the paper on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday each week. He adds that it is tough, but it might actually have an upside for the readers. “First and foremost we are still publishing in print, and we are doing so three days a week,” Seaton says. “We anticipate that those versions of the…
Author: KMAN Staff
OMAHA, Neb. — An environmental group is challenging a recent U.S. government decision to reclassify a large scavenging beetle as threatened instead of endangered with a lawsuit. The Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity said Tuesday it plans to sue over last fall’s move to list the American burying beetle as threatened. It had been considered an endangered species since 1989, and the location of its habitat in Plains states created issues for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Federal officials have said that conservation efforts over the past 30 years have helped the beetle’s population recover. It can now be found…
TOPEKA, Kan. — Gov. Laura Kelly has told fellow Kansas residents that her usual yearly call for bipartisanship is not enough in light of last week’s mob violence in Washington and said the state’s leaders “must commit ourselves to set an example.” Kelly focused much of the annual State of the State address Tuesday night on the COVID-19 pandemic and avoided outlining broad new initiatives outside of promising to push again for Medicaid expansion. The Democratic governor turned near the end of her speech to the failed insurrection last week in which extremist supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the…
OLATHE, Kan. — A Kansas man has been found guilty of federal securities fraud and sentenced to four years’ supervised probation. The office of U.S. Attorney General for Kansas Derek Schmidt says in a news release that 64-year-old Michael Davin, of Olathe, also was ordered Monday to pay more than $81,000 in restitution to a former client. Davin pleaded no contest to a single count back in December. Prosecutors say Davin failed to disclose to the investor that he had prior felony convictions, including two for theft. The securities case was initially filed in October 2018.
Wednesday’s guests included Pottawatomie County Schools Superintendents from USD 320 Wamego Tim Winter and from USD 323 Rock Creek Public Schools, Kevin Logan. Manhattan Mercury Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Ned Seaton joined us for a discussion on some changes to the print schedule for the Manhattan newspaper. We also heard from Manhattan area legislators including 66th District Rep. Sydney Carlin (D-Manhattan) and 67th District Rep. Mike Dodson (R-Manhattan) reacting to the State of the State Address delivered Tuesday by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Abortion opponents say elections last year that made the Kansas Legislature more conservative showed that voters support putting a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution on the ballot next year. Anti-abortion lawmakers introduced separate but identical versions of their proposal Tuesday in the House and Senate. It would overturn a Kansas Supreme Court decision in 2019 that declared access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state constitution. Abortion opponents failed last year to get the same proposal on the ballot when a few House Republicans resisted having voters decide its fate in the August…
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. government has carried out its first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades. Authorities executed a Kansas woman who strangled an expectant mother in Missouri and cut the baby from her womb. Lisa Montgomery was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, Missouri. She was the 11th prisoner executed since July, when President Donald Trump resumed federal executions following 17 years without one. President-elect Joe Biden, a death penalty opponent,…
2021 State of the State address Gov. Laura Kelly delivered the annual State of the State address Tuesday evening via a virtual broadcast. While the speech is typically given to a room full of state senators and representatives, Kelly used the virtual format to “have a conversation” with Kansans about the current circumstances and the plan going forward. Kelly began her speech with an update on Kansas’s vaccine-distribution efforts, saying that 84,555 Kansans have been vaccinated and that the state is currently in the CDC vaccine tracker’s top tier for “vaccines administered per capita.” Kansas is currently in phase one…
Engaging with the local media, Garrison Commander Colonel Will McKannay of Fort Riley, came before the audience to speak on accomplishments in the past year during the pandemic and held a Q&A session pertaining to activities on the base. “In current times, as you know, 2020 was both a great and a challenging year for Fort Riley. You know, we all know the challenges faced by the entire world in the fight against coronavirus and Covid-19,” McKannay said. “I arrived at Fort Riley in the middle of this fight. And we continue to work as a community to protect each…
WICHITA, Kan. — Three people are charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of a man and woman near Wichita. The charges were filed Monday against 32-year-old Michael Wilking, 34-year-old Joshua Halstead, and 28-year-old Jacquellyn Arthur, all of Wichita. They are suspects in the deaths of 43-year-old Bradley Reece and 22-year-old Kayla Schmidt. The victims’ bodies were found Dec. 29 at a home southwest of Wichita. All three suspects are also charged with aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. Authorities have not said what motivated the shootings.