The Riley County Commission Monday gave consensus to put a mask recommendation into the county’s next local health order. Commissioners debated the language of the mask recommendation. With Manhattan’s mask ordinance, the commission didn’t want to mandate masks for residents living outside the city, nor have language that closely resembled that. Commissioner John Ford stated the order needed to include the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and suggested the phrase “strongly encouraged” for masks. “Given the dynamics of everything and where we’re going to be the next couple months or so, I thought back and forth on whether…
Author: KMAN Staff
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — The latest government report shows the winter wheat harvest in Kansas is nearing completion well ahead of last year or the average for this time of year. The Agriculture Department’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that 95% of the state’s wheat crop has now been cut. The state’s other major field crops are also making progress this summer. The agency says that 47% of the corn in Kansas is silking. About 6% of the soybeans are now setting pods. And 9% of the sorghum has headed in the state.
Health officials plan to release a new local health order Friday to go into effect on Monday, July 20. During a Facebook live update, Riley County Health Department Director Julie Gibbs reported 18 new positive COVID-19 tests and 9 recoveries since Friday, July 10. That brings the county to 150 active cases, 202 reported recoveries and 3 deaths out of 355 total confirmed cases. No positive patients are accounted for in Manhattan’s Ascension Via Christi Hospital, though 2 persons with symptoms are at the facility awaiting test results. Overall, nearly 60 percent of all confirmed positive individuals in the county…
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A former Boy Scout leader was charged with rape and child abuse for crimes dating back years. The Kansas City Star reported 45-year-old Andrew Rowland of Overland Park faces charges of rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child involving sex, and two counts of child abuse. The allegations in a July 4 criminal complaint date from 2010 to 2018. Rowland was the scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America Troop 284 in Overland Park.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors say they have charged the father of a 3-year-old Kansas girl who was found dead and his girlfriend with felony murder in the child’s death. Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said Sunday 29-year-old Howard Jansen III and his girlfriend, 33-year-old Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, were also charged with aggravated endangerment of a child and criminal desecration in the death of Olivia Ann Jansen. Olivia’s body was found around 5:45 p.m. Friday nearly nine blocks from her Kansas City home, from which her father had reported her missing.
Kansas State University has signed a new pre-clinical research and option agreement to develop a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 prevention. The university announced Monday its reached an agreement with Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage bio-pharmaceutical company. Directing the research is Waithaka Mwangi, professor of diagnostic pathobiology in the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine. It’s based on a new vaccine platform that his research team developed for bovine parainfluenza 3 virus, also known as BPI3V, closely related to human parainfluenza 3 virus. Mwangi says in a release from the college “a weakened BPI3V has previously been shown to be an effective vaccine…
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 burglary in the 2200 block of College Ave in Manhattan on July 10, 2020, at approximately 10:57 AM. Officers listed a 28-year-old male as the victim when it was…
Monday’s program featured a conversation on osteochondrosis and crooked legs in horses with Dr. Elizabeth Santschi, equine professor with the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine. The Manhattan Red Cross Battle of the Badges was previewed with Kristi Ingalls from the Red Cross. Representatives from local first responders included Rachel Pate – RCPD, James Marstall – Riley County EMS and Gregg VanDeCreek – Manhattan Fire Department.
Riley and Pottawatomie County COVID-19 case numbers Riley County has gained five new positive cases of COVID-19 and eight more recoveries since Thursday, bringing the total number of active cases to 141 and recoveries to 193. There are now zero COVID-19 positive patients at Ascension Via Christi Hospital, although one patient, who was previously on a ventilator and has now tested negative, is there in recovery. Julie Gibbs, administrator for the Riley County Health Department, says she hopes between the mask ordinance and the latest health order, COVID-19 case numbers will continue trending down. “Hopefully all of that will be…