Author: KMAN Staff

Updated 7 a.m. Saturday By Brandon Peoples A Manhattan man who eluded police for more than an hour around the Aggieville area Friday evening is jailed on a host of criminal charges. Riley County Police have charged 36-year-old Lamarques Channel with four total counts including aggravated assault, criminal discharge of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon by a felon and marijuana possession. Channel is accused of firing a gun near the area of 11th and Bluemont. No injuries were reported. Channel initially was reported to be in a vehicle, then fled on foot through neighborhoods north of Aggieville, before…

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Manhattan hotels have taken a major hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, with one hotel closing its doors temporarily. Manhattan Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Karen Hibbard says around this time of the year, hotels have had close to 70% occupancy rate.  For the week of March 22-28 of this year, occupancy was 21.3%.  This is lower than during the Christmas/New Year’s time, when people are staying with family. The lowest day of that week was on March 28, with an occupancy rate of around 13%.  This same week last year had an occupancy rate of 78.1%, with the 28 having…

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Advocates are urging Kansas officials to release and safeguard inmates after the state prison system reported its first COVID-19 cases in three staff members and at least one jail worker in the state’s largest city was sickened. At the Sedgwick County Jail, where officials confirmed Thursday that a detention deputy had tested positive, about 200 inmates have been released since mid-March over concerns about the coronavirus. So far state officials have no plans to release prisoners ahead of scheduled release dates since corrections officials announced Tuesday that three staff members at the Lansing Correctional Facility had tested positive. Gov. Laura…

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Kansas’ top health official is facing questions over the state’s monitoring of GPS data gleaned from people’s cellphones about how residents have cut down on travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman has cited information provided by data-analysis firm Unacast on a publicly accessible website. The public-interest law firm Kansas Justice Institute is demanding that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly provide more information about how the information is collected and used. Unacast said in a statement Thursday that it uses aggregated mobility and anonymous data from tens of millions of devices but it “never…

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The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled utilities cannot charge customers who produce some of their own energy more than other customers. The decision Friday strikes down a proposed rate design by Westar and Kansas Gas and Electric, finding it constitutes price discrimination against residential customers who use solar panels or windmills to generate some or all of their electricity. It notes lawmakers codified into state law the goal of incentivizing renewable energy production by private parties.

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On Fridays edition of In Focus we spoke with Manhattan Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Karen Hibbard on challenges facing the hospitality industry due to COVID-19. We also spoke with Riley County K-State Research and Extension Horticulture Agent Gregg Eyestone providing gardening tips Ascension Via Christi general surgeon Dr. David Pauls joined us to discuss potential ethical questions that lie ahead for medical professionals responding to COVID-19 cases locally and nationally.

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