TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has advanced a bill that would lower the legal age to carry concealed firearms in Kansas from 21 to 18. The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday voted 30-8 for the bill, which would require permit holders to complete a background check and undergo gun safety training. People as young as 18 can already carry firearms in the open in Kansas. The measure would increase the number of university and college students eligible to carry concealed firearms on campus, but education groups say it wouldn’t change current laws that allow high schools to prohibit guns…
Author: KMAN Staff
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — LGBTQ-rights advocates in Kansas are relying on the state’s Democratic governor or the courts to block a ban on transgender athletes in girls’ or women’s school sports after conservatives on Thursday moved to push it through the GOP-controlled Legislature. Republican negotiators for the state House and Senate on education issues agreed to strip an unrelated bill of its contents, drop in the proposed ban and send the measure to both chambers for an up-or-down vote by the end of the week. The resulting measure is all but certain to pass, given both chambers’ GOP supermajorities and…
WAKEENEY, Kan. (AP) — A former official with a western Kansas sheriff’s office has been arrested on charges of trafficking in child pornography and sex crimes involving children. Blaine Dryden, 62, of WaKeeney, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with aggravated internet trading of child pornography and several counts of sexual exploitation of a child, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The alleged crimes occurred between November 2019 and last June, while Dryden was a lieutenant with the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, investigators said. Dryden was placed on administrative leave by the Ellis County sheriff when the…
The Riley County Health Department is putting on two COVID-19 vaccine clinics over the next few days. RCHD official Jenny Yuen says the first will take place at the Douglass Center at 900 Yuma St. this Friday from 3 to 5 p.m.. “We are trying to vaccinate those that live around that area – those people that may not be able to make it to CiCo Park where we do our mass clinics,” Yuen said. “We want people to be able to come and get access easily from us in those two hours.” The second clinic will be at the…
Construction has been the name of the game around Manhattan over the past few months. Ryan Courtright, Manhattan Fire Department Assistant Chief of Risk Reduction, tells KMAN that road construction isn’t the only construction taking place around MHK. He says many new buildings are going up as well. Courtright says in the month of March out of 50 applicants, they issued 32 building permits. “The valuation total that we issued for permits in March was just shy of $13-million, and we actually permitted ten new single-family homes in Manhattan in the month of March,” Courtright says. Courtright says the workflow…
Guests from Fort Riley included Laurie McCauley, Manager of the Exceptional Family Member Program highlighting Autism Awareness Month. We also spoke to Cheryl Greathouse with Child and Youth Services about Month of the Military Child, celebrated annually in April. Fort Riley Morale, Welfare and Recreation Supervisory Recreation Specialist Leigh Ann Slinger previewed the April 17 Moon Lake Fishing Derby on Fort Riley. Guests from the Manhattan Housing Authority joined us in segment three including Executive Director and Manhattan City Commissioner Aaron Estabrook as well as Chair of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Jan Galitzer. In segment four, we continued…
Kansas State University renews its 12 year university to military community partnership with Fort Riley with a signing ceremony. Fort Riley Maj. Gen. D.A. Sims joined K-State President Richard Myers Wednesday to extend the ongoing partnership. Myers says the partnership is too intertwined and too deep to list everything they do, but has value. “We’re just caretakers for the next group as this partnership will transcend both of our tenures. It keeps moving on as it builds on itself every year,” says Myers. This partnership includes a variety of benefits including a smoother transition for those soldiers entering the academic…
TOPEKA, Kan. — Conservative Republicans want to allow some Kansas parents to use state dollars to pay for private schooling for their children. They’re trying to make legislative approval of their plan a condition for funding public schools. State senators and House members were in talks Wednesday on the final version of a measure that could tie funding for public education and initiatives designed to give parents of K-12 students who are at risk of failing more alternatives to public schools. The GOP-controlled House last week approved a bill that would set up education savings accounts for at-risk students with…
WICHITA, Kan. — A Wichita aerospace supply company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following losses it blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic and suspension of Boeing’s 737 Max plane. The Wichita Eagle reports that TECT Aerospace filed for the protection on Tuesday, which also covers the company’s facilities in Park City, Wellington and Everett, Washington. It does not cover a facility in Nashville, Tennessee. The company said in its filings that it will continue its work during the bankruptcy reorganization and plans to separately sell its Kansas and Washington state operations. Court documents say among its creditors, TECT owes…
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Lawrence City Commission members decided to delay a vote on banning conversion therapy for minors after questions arose about how it would affect counseling provided by religious organizations. The commission was scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would ban therapy aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The ordinance currently contains a clause providing an exception for clergy. City legal staff said the exception was added to avoid legal challenges based on religious freedom. However, the city heard from two religious leaders who said the ordinance could stop religious schools from offering…