LENEXA, Kan. — A Lenexa church is suing the city for denying its request to use its building as a temporary homeless shelter. KCUR reports that the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church alleges the denial infringes on its exercise of religion. Its lawsuit contends charity and service are integral to its mission, and cites biblical passages that decree providing for the needy. Lenexa City Manager Beccy Yocham denied the request, saying it did not conform with the zoning code. The church occupies a former elementary school building adjoining commercial properties, but its building is zoned residential single family. The church…
Author: KMAN Staff
On Tuesday’s Edition of In Focus we spoke with Pottawatomie County Commissioner Pat Weixelman, Public Works Director Peter Clark and Assistant Planner Stephan Metzger.
WICHITA, Kan. — Three people have been charged in a teen’s shooting death that Wichita police say stemmed from an ongoing gang feud. The Wichita Eagle reports that 18-year-old Eduardo Gallardo and 20-year-old Jesus Alvarez-Medina were charged Friday with first-degree murder, criminal discharge of a firearm and aggravated assault in the Aug. 4 death of 17-year-old Ramiro Valdez. The third suspect was charged with murder in juvenile court. Police say Valdez and two other teenagers were in a pickup when someone in another truck fired several bullets, hitting the driver. The other two teens in Valdez’s truck weren’t injured. Gallardo…
TOPEKA, Kan. — A special prosecutor will decide whether to pursue a DUI charge against Kansas Sen. Vic Miller of Topeka. The Topeka Capital Journal reports a special prosecutor is an attorney appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a case in which a conflict of interest exists for the usual prosecuting authority. Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay says he had assigned Franklin County Attorney Brandon Jones to fill that role. Kagay says prosecutors in his office who would handle the case had appeared before Miller during his time as judge for Topeka Municipal Court. Kagay says his office also…
GARDEN CITY, Kan. — Police say a fire at a Kansas community college apartment started by boiling a candle. The Wichita Eagle reports emergency responders were called at around 7 p.m. Sunday to an apartment fire on the campus of the Garden City Community College. Police say firefighters extinguished the flames in a kitchen area after college staff had been unable to put it out. The investigation found the resident had boiled a candle in a pot of water on the stove, which caught fire to the stove and surrounding area. The resident forgot the candle was on the stove…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Federal prosecutors say a Kansas man has admitted swindling the buyer of an online pharmacy business. The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release that 37-year-old Jeffrey P. Wilson of Olathe pleaded guilty Monday to one count of wire fraud. Wilson admitted in his plea that he placed an ad on Craigslist offering to sell an online pharmacy. He then made false statements and sent fabricated bank records for the business to a Texas man who responded to the ad. He falsely claimed the business was grossing $15,000 to $40,000 a month. The victim paid…
Fleet Maintenance Facility Although the final design and specifications for Pottawatomie County’s new Public Works Fleet Maintenance Facility have been completed, approval from the county commission will have to wait at least one more week. “Commissioner (Pat) Weixelman asked a question about one of the particular pieces of the design relative to the wall design,” Peter Clark, the director of the public works department, said. “It has a CMU wall sitting on a slab foundation with a trench footing underneath that and he wanted some more detail about how the vapor barrier would work, specifically in that wall system so…
History was made this fall when the Kansas State University horse judging team won two of the most prestigious contests offered for collegiate competitors. Not only did K-State win the American Paint Horse Association title in September, but also took home a victory in the American Quarter Horse Association contest, held in mid-November. It’s the first time any four-year school has accomplished this feat, winning both judging competitions. Like other livestock judging contests, horse judging requires team members to evaluate any of a dozen classes of horses, place them according to pre-determined criteria, and provide oral reasons for those placements to judges. The…
OLATHE, Kan. — Authorities say police shot and wounded a 16-year-old while investigating a robbery in suburban Kansas City. Police said in a Facebook post that the shooting happened just after midnight Monday in Olathe. Police say officers were conducting a follow up on a previous home burglary in which handguns were taken when they spotted two people who were armed. The post says the situation “escalated,” and officers fired their guns. The wounded teen was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police arrested the second person. The shooting is under investigation. No other details were immediately released, including the…
WICHITA, Kan. — Prosecutors have found that a Kansas deputy acted in self-defense when he fatally shot a man who brandished an airsoft gun that resembles an actual firearm but shoots only nonlethal plastic pellets. The Wichita Eagle reports that Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennet said Friday in a 22-page report that the shooting happened in January after 55-year-old David Michael Bosiljevac threatened to hurt his ex-girlfriend’s roommate if she didn’t meet him at a storage unit. The woman instead tipped off a bondsman that Bosiljevac would be there because he had failed to appear in court on a…