The Charlie Daniels Band will perform at McCain Auditorium at Kansas State University Thursday Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m.. The band performs outlaw country fused with southern rock.
Acclaimed former late-night TV show host and stand-up comedian Jay Leno with special guest Emily West will perform at McCain Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11
Tickets for both performances are available at the McCain Auditorium box office, onlin at k-state.edu/mccain, or by calling 785-532-6428.
Junction City, KS – August 25, 2015 – The Junction City Little Theater kicks off its 66th theatrical season with the sci-fi classic musical Little Shop of Horrors live on stage at the C.L. Hoover Opera House Thursday, August 27 through Sunday, August 30, 2015. The husband and wife team Michael and Jennifer Brown direct.
Little Shop of Horrors features the vocal and stage talents of performers Drew Horton, Desiree Brown, Stuart Workman, Brian Hagemeister, Jordan Biggs, Aaron Engleman, Beth Arneson, Bella Omann, Payton Tabb, Zavier Valentin, Hal Keller, Aubrey Hitchcock, and Jim Crawford.
In this dark comedy, cowardly floral assistant Seymour Krelbourn discovers a new and unusual plant which he names Audrey II after his coworker crush. The foul-mouthed carnivorous plant promises to bring Seymour fame and fortune as long as he continues to feed her what she desires most, BLOOD! Little does Seymour know the ravenous plant’s maniacal plans for world domination….
Showtimes for August 27, 28, and 29 will be 7:30pm, with a 2:00pmmatinee on August 30. Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for military, and $11 for children under 18.
For ticket reservations, call the box office at 238-3906, or visitwww.jclt.info.
According to the National Weather Service of Topeka, high pressure will once again bring pleasant temperatures and low humidity to central and eastern Kansas on Tuesday. The 
mild temperatures will continue tonight with lows in the 50s. Southerly winds should warm temperatures a few degrees on Wednesday. The next good chance for showers and thunderstorms will be Thursday night.
Today: Sunny, with a high near 86. Calm wind.
Tonight: Clear, with a low around 56. East wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 86. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Southeast wind 5 to 15 mph.
Thursday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 84.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 87.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 68.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
The Geary County Commission has approved the three-year extension of the neighborhood revitalization plan.
Ben Bennett, County Commission Chair, said they were the third body of elected officials that had to approve it for it to go into motion. “Maybe we can get those 25 houses that everybody is talking about built, and sold, and collect taxes on them now.”
The Attorney General must still consider approval of the NRP plan, which would be extended until November 1, 2018. The lots referred to Bennett are in the new Land Bank, and could potentially be sold to housing developers.
In the NRP new construction is eligible for sliding scale property tax rebates.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has fewer than 100,000 disability claims older than four months, a “historic milestone” that is one-sixth the size of a long-term backlog that reached a record 611,000 claims in 2013.
Allison Hickey, the VA’s undersecretary for benefits, said Monday that the current backlog of 98,535 claims older than 125 days is the lowest since the agency started measuring the claims backlog in 2007.
Hickey says the decrease has not come at the expense of quality, saying that accuracy of disability decisions has improved from about 83 percent in 2011 to 91 percent today. The gains were achieved in part through use of mandatory overtime for employees in the benefits division, a practice Hickey says officials hope to stop in September.
Members of the Junction City Police Department, Geary County Sheriff’s Office and Kansas Highway Patrol will be conducting DUI check lanes Friday and Saturday.
The JCPD issued a news release which said the focus is to detect and deter drunk drivers, and arrest those over the legal limit.
Drunk Driving, Over the Limit, Under Arrest is a national campaign which focuses on combining high-visibility enforcement with heightened public awareness efforts. The campaign is designed to remind motorists that impaired driving is no accident, and will not be dealt with lightly.
TOPEKA -The State Finance Council on Monday reviewed “extraordinary needs” requests from 40 Kansas school districts, providing additional funding totaling more than $6 million, according to a media release from Governor Brownback’s office
A closer look at the Extraordinary Need State Aid Applications
The extraordinary needs funds was established as part of SB 7, the historic K-12 education block grant passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. Under the block grant, the state aid appropriation for these 40 schools was estimated to increase by $70.3 million this school year.
“Although state aid funding for each of these schools increased, we continue to see remnants of the old funding formula creating financial challenges for some districts,” said Governor Brownback. “We saw today that this process provides districts with reduced valuation, an option for relief that was not available to them under the old formula.”
Of the 40 requests, 22 were from districts requesting additional funding due to reductions in assessed valuation, generally resulting from lower oil and gas prices across the nation, while 16 addressed increased enrollment. The Wichita school district requested funding for refugee resettlement and one other district requested general aid.
In response to a question from the council, Kansas State Department of Education deputy commissioner Dale Dennis confirmed that under the previous education formula, school districts would have no recourse, saying “in past years if you dropped in valuations, you ‘ate it’ for a year; then you got state aid the following year and it helped make it up.”
With the new Block Grant, districts now have the opportunity to request additional funding for valuation decreases in excess of 5 percent from the previous year. Based on this criteria, the 22 districts received a total of $4,057,653 in additional funding. Under the previous formula, they would not have received additional LOB state aid in this current school year. Instead, their options would have been to increase local property taxes, or cut the LOB budgets by more than $5 million to cope with this reduction.
Of the 16 school districts requesting assistance because of increased enrollment, 13 districts experiencing a 2 percent or greater enrollment increase, received $2,009,521 in additional funding.
According to the Kansas State Department of Education, today’s extraordinary needs review is the last for the current school year. The State Finance Council will meet in October to address the funding request from Wichita schools once enrollment numbers for refugees are clarified and for further discussion on possible additional funding for the Moscow, Quinter, Deerfield and Garden City school districts.
Kansas needs a school funding formula that is sustainable, stable, and predictable, which puts more money into the classroom and improves student outcomes. The Governor looks forward to working with the Legislature to craft a new formula for public schools.
MANHATTAN -The K-State Black Student Union, in collaboration with the Division of Biology, will host a memorial service for former K-State student Briona White at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, on the steps of Chalmers Hall, according to a media release from the university.
White, 22, was a K-State student from Chicago’s South Side who had aspirations of one day being an orthodontist. She was going to continue her studies this semester, and was set to return to Manhattan. Unfortunately, on Aug. 7, White was killed in a shooting in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood.
The university community is invited to join the K-State Black Student Union, the Division of Biology, distinguished members of our university administration and White’s parents in remembrance of our fellow K-Stater and to stand in solidarity against all forms of violence within the communities.
Junction City police report that a 22-year old Fort Riley soldier Moises Pedro, was the victim of a robbery at the 1300 block of Grant Avenue.
Police Detective Lieutenant Jeff Childs reported that personal property including a wallet and cell phone were taken during the robbery. He reported that there were three suspects involved in the robbery, and one was believed to be a Hispanic male. Childs added that Pedro was on-foot at the time of the robbery.
The robbery was reported to police Saturday afternoon, but police stated that the victim reported that it occurred in the overnight hours.
The case is under investigation.
An undetermined amount of cash was taken during a robbery at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant at 504 West 6th in Junction City late Friday night.
JCPD Detective Lieutenant Jeff Childs confirmed the robbery, noting it occurred after hours, about 10:45 p.m. “Two subjects made contact with an employee in the parking lot, able to gain access to the business at that time. One of the subjects was armed with a handgun and they robbed the business of an undetermined amount of cash.”
Childs confirmed the two suspects were believed to black men, and that both were wearing masks.
No one was injured. The case is under investigation.