WICHITA, Kan. — Wichita police say a man died when a stolen car he was driving crashed during a police pursuit. Wichita police Capt. Wendell Nicholson says the vehicle was stolen about 6 a.m. Tuesday after it was left running to warm up. Police saw the vehicle and began a pursuit. Nicholson says the driver eventually clipped another vehicle in an intersection and the car crashed into a telephone pole. The driver was ejected and died at the scene. The driver’s name has not been released. Wichita police and the Kansas Highway Patrol are investigating.
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas officials say they are concerned about the state’s 911 service, after a nearly three-hour outage across southern Kansas during the weekend. It’s at least the third major disruption to 911 service in the state in four years. An audit in 2018 warned the system was at risk of outages affecting emergency departments. A 911 Coordinating Council has been working for years to move Kansas to the next generation of service, called NG911. Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat who is a member of the council, says the state has ignored the basic requirement to have a…
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. — Medical providers say anticipated staffing shortages amid surging coronavirus cases could hit rural hospitals especially hard because smaller communities have more limited options for finding providers to cover for sick workers. The Kansas Hospital Association reports that about 44% of the state’s hospitals on Monday were anticipating staffing shortages this week amid an expected rise in COVID-19 cases following the Thanksgiving holiday. Five rural Kansas counties Rush, Republic, Ellsworth, Rawlins and Kearny rank in the top 25 counties in the nation with the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days.
PRATT, Kan. — Kansas troopers say a man was killed and a woman seriously injured when their small sport utility vehicle hit a deer before being hit by another vehicle in south-central Kansas. Television station KAKE reports the crash happened just after 9 p.m. Tuesday on U.S. 54 east of Pratt. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the westbound SUV hit a deer and became disabled, sitting sideways in the roadway. It was then broadsided by a camper van, killing 65-year-old Gregory Hettmansberger, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The patrol says Hettmansberger’s passenger, a 70-year-old woman, was taken to a Wichita hospital…
The Manhattan City Commission voted 3 to 2 Tuesday in favor of extending the expiration date of the city’s face mask ordinance through April 1. Mayor Usha Reddi and city commissioners Aaron Estabrook and Linda Morse voted in favor of the measure. Reddi says she thinks the policy is effective and that keeping it in place provides consistency. “The mindset in Manhattan is that we have a face mask mandate and people are pretty much complying,” Reddi said. “I don’t see any problem with it right now. We’re probably looking for problems that don’t exist with what we have currently.”…
Hiring process While the Pottawatomie County administrator is typically in charge of hiring department heads, Pottawatomie County commissioners say they want to sit in on job interviews for the new Public Works director. One concern brought up during the commission meeting on Monday was that doing so could be interpreted as micromanagement. Pat Weixelman, Pottawatomie County commissioner, says that unlike with previous hires, the commission should meet the top job candidates before a hire is made. “I’m glad that we hired her, don’t get me wrong,” Weixelman said in reference a county department head that was recently hired. “But we…
Ascension Via Christi President and CEO Bob Copple joined KMAN in the 7am hour to provide our COVID update.
On Tuesday’s edition on In Focus we spoke with Manhattan City Manager Ron Fehr and Mayor Usha Reddi.
The following summary of calls for service/reports filed by the Riley County Police Department is a portion of those received by police. Some names, addresses, and case details are withheld to follow local, state, and federal law as well as in an attempt to protect community members from being victimized further. Those arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. MANHATTAN, KAN. – Officers filed a report for theft by deception in the 2700 block of Butterfield Rd. in Manhattan on November 30, 2020, at approximately 11:07 a.m. Officers listed a 40-year-old female and a 67-year-old male,…
WICHITA, Kan. — A state consumer advocacy agency has urged regulators to reject Evergy’s proposal to add charges to recover the cost of providing solar energy. The Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board requested a temporary plan in which Evergy would charge solar and non-solar customers the same. The Wichita Eagle reports Evergy proposed new rates after their current rate structure, which included fees to customers who generate their own electricity, was ruled discriminatory by the Kansas Supreme Court. Evergy contends it needs to recover the cost of providing on-demand electricity for solar-equipped homes that don’t use many kilowatts. It argues customers…