Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Wednesday that the State of Kansas will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a recent Kansas Supreme Court decision which overturned the capital murder conviction of Luis Aguirre in a Riley County case.  Aguirre was convicted in the 2009 murders of Tanya Maldonado, 18,  and their 13-month-old son, Juan Maldonado..

According to Schmidt it is not clear if the correct legal conclusion was reached under the applicable principles of federal law, so a review is being requested by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A hunter found the bodies of Tanya and Juan Maldonado in a shallow grave near Ogden in October of 2009.  The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that Aguirre’s confessions weren’t admissable because he was questioned after invoking his constitutional right to remain silent. The Kansas Supreme Court remanded the case for a new trial.

The U.S. Supreme Court grants only about one percent of the requests to review lower-court decisions.

On their facebook page Fort Riley has announced that USO and Family and MWR are bringing country music performer Kellie Pickler to Fort Riley for a free show. It will be August 18 at Riley’s Conference Center.

Pickler first gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of American Idol.

In 2006 she signed to 19 Recordings and BNA Records as a recording artist, releasing her debut album, Small Town Girl, that year. As of 2014 it had sold more than 900,000 copies. The album, which was certified gold by the RIAA, produced three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Charges.

On May 21, 2013 Pickler and her partner Derek Hough were declared the winners of sixteenth season of Dancing with the Stars.

Harold Marion is no longer serving as the director of marketing and public relations for Geary Community Hospital.

Dr. Joseph Stratton, Geary Community CEO, confirmed that Marion resigned his position at the hospital this past Monday. Marion had been employed at the hospital for approximately six years.

DICKINSON COUNTY– A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday in Dickinson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Honda Civic driven by Antonio Quiroz-Hernandez, 48, Great Bend, was eastbound on Interstate 70 just west of Mink Road.

The vehicle was following a and rear-ended a 2014 Nissan passenger vehicle driven by Lindsey D. Cadle, 30, Hutchinson.

Quiroz-Hernandez was transported to the hospital in Abilene.

Cadle was not injured.

Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

The Geary USD 475 Board of Education has approved a three-year phased increase in fees involving the  Boys and Girls Club program.

Fees in the Before School Programs will go to $8 per day per child for the 2015-16 school year, $9 for 2016-17, and $10 for 2017-18.

The fee during the past year was $5 per day.

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Board of Education members were informed during the Board’s meeting this week that those members who are up for election in 2017 will serve an extra six months in that specific term, because the elections are being moved from April to November. Their terms will not end at the close of June. Instead of new board members joining the board July 1 as in the past, they will not begin until early January.

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Property valuation numbers for Geary USD 475 reflect an increase in 2015 to $210,113,243. That’s up from $205, 053, 626.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal court hearing is set for next month for a 20-year-old man charged with plotting to bomb an Army post in Kansas in support of the Islamic State group.

John T. Booker Jr. of Topeka is to appear Aug. 19 before U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia in Kansas City, Kansas. The judge plans to review the status of Booker’s case.

Booker’s attorneys and prosecutors had until Wednesday to file pretrial motions. A public defender representing Booker filed one motion under seal Tuesday.

According to court documents, Booker was arrested in April while trying to arm what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb inside a van near Fort Riley, about an hour west of Topeka. The charges against him include attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The opening arguments were held Tuesday in Riley County District Court in the murder trial for a Kansas City man Anthony Nichols.  Nichols is facing a first-degree murder charge in the September 7, 2013 death of John Burroughs, 68, Manhattan.

Barry Wilkerson, Riley County Attorney, began by providing a rundown of events that occurred when Burroughs was found dead on his bathroom floor by a co-worker from his job at the Manhattan Country Club. A co-worker discovered Burrough’s body at his Redbud Estates home after he had not arrived at work for two days.  The RCPD was contacted immediately, who then began an investigation.

According to Wilkerson, Anthony Nichols was trying to find the location of Burroughs home, and can only be put there by a witness Tina Love, the mother of another earlier defendant in the case, James McKenith, who accepted a plea deal and was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Burroughs’death. The prosecutor alleged Love allegedly went to Burroughs home three times…the second time with Nichols which is when Burroughs was allegedly shot, and the third time with McKenith where he stabbed the still living Burroughs eight times.

Wilkerson told the jury the case depends on the testimony of Tina Love, who was the only link between the defendants and Burroughs.

Nichols’ defense attorney, Jeffrey Wicks dismissed points brought up by Wilkerson, including a previous shooting in Junction City, the gun being found at Nichols’ home in Kansas City following a search warrant and any talk regarding Tina Love as ‘fluff.’ Wicks’ explained that the only person putting Nichols at the scene of the crime with a weapon was Love, who changed her stories, or ‘tap danced’ as Wicks stated, every time she was interviewed by police. He added Love never saw Nichols with a weapon, and didn’t think any evidence would be found putting Nichols at the scene of the crime.

Wilks continued, stating that Love was given a plea deal and probation following her sons incarceration in the murder.

The trial is scheduled to run through Friday.

Nichols was convicted of Voluntary Manslaughter and Aggravated Robbery in an earlier case in Geary County in the September 2013 shooting death of Anthony Nixon, Junction City, at a Tenth and Webster street intersection.  In the Geary County case Nichols was sentenced to 302 months in prison.

It has become a challenge for school districts to hire teachers, including in USD 475.

That message was conveyed to the Board of Education this week in Junction City.

Bridget Seeman, Director of Human Resource Services for the school district, said USD 475 has the lowest application rate in her three years with the district. “We have spread our recruiting to at least five different web sites that we’re trying to look at, that we’re trying to reach out as far as we can, as wide as we can, so we can get teachers.” As of Monday evening Seeman reported there were 23 teaching vacancies in the district.

During the school board meeting it was noted approximately 600 teachers have left the state and approximately in Kansas have left the profession.

Superintendent Dr. Corbin Witt said it’s a struggle to find teachers right now. “We’re in a  situation where the state as a whole is losing teachers. And we are coming up with a teacher shortage, and I think everybody’s worried.”

The Board was told the pool of substitute teachers for USD 475 is about on par with the past, but classified job openings have also become difficult to fill.

The Geary County Commission is concerned about the toxic blue green algae problem at Milford Reservoir.

Ben Bennett, Commission Chair, said this week they discussed the concerns about green algae and how it is or is not being projected in a manner that other states, communities, and areas  are doing in connection with this problem. “I talked personally with all three of our regular elected officials, Jeff Longbine, Lonnie Clark, and Tom Moxley this last week, and they are concerned also.”

Bennett said Longbine has made inquiries to set up meetings in the near future. “You can’t wait way out. You’ve got to get after what’s happening here .”

The entire lake is currently under a blue green algae warning, which does allow boating and fishing but prohibits direct water contact such as swimming, jet skiing or tubing. last week while two zones of the lake were under a warning, the northernmost Zone C, from Madison Point to the Wakefield Causeway was closed. It was reopened for boating and fishing under a warning status this week.

Members of the Geary County Commission discussed the blue green algae situation this week with the director of the Geary County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Connie Hall during her monthly report to the Commission.