MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – Passengers will be able to board larger airplanes on some flights out of Manhattan Regional Airport beginning in September.

Airport Director Peter Van Kuren told the Manhattan City Commission Tuesday that American Airlines will begin using planes with 65 seats or more on Sept. 9. The planes will be used on at least 25 of its 90 monthly round-trip flights out of Manhattan.
Construction on the second phase of an airport terminal expansion project should begin in June. The first phase was essentially completed in February. The project will more than triple the size of the old terminal once it is finished.

Phase two will include a space for people waiting for arriving passengers, a restaurant, a gift shop and a baggage claim area.

According to the National Weather Service, there remains a risk for severe weather during the afternoon and evening hours of Friday and Saturday. However questions remain as to whether all the ingredients will come together at the same time. So it is also possible that severe weather is not widespread. The better chances for severe thunderstorms appears to be Saturday afternoon and evening. There is the potential thunderstorms could produce a few tornadoes along with large hail and damaging winds. Thunderstorms that develop on Friday may be more likely to produce large hail and damaging winds. Be sure to check later forecast updates for any changes to the severe weather risks.

Today: Cloudy in the morning then becoming partly sunny. A 50 percent chance of showers. Highs around 73. South winds around 10 mph.

Tonight: Partly cloudy in the evening…then mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms after midnight. Lows around 61. South winds 5 to 10 mph.

Friday: Cloudy in the morning then becoming partly sunny. A 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs around 79. South winds 5 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph in the afternoon.

Friday Night: Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 60s. South winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph.

Saturday: Breezy. Thunderstorms likely. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent.

Saturday Night: Breezy. Thunderstorms likely. Lows in the mid 60s. Chance of rain 70 percent.

Sunday And Sunday Night: Mostly clear. Highs in the upper 70s. Lows in the lower 50s.

Monday: Cooler. Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 60s.

Monday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 40s.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 60s.

Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy with chance of showers and slight chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 50s. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Wednesday: Cloudy with chance of showers and slight chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s. Chance of rain 50 percent.

 

When the presenter prepared to award Benedikt Reynolds his Army ROTC Scholarship during the Junction City High School Awards Night assembly she asked the question….is this a typo?

No it wasn’t.

Reynolds was presented with an Army ROTC Scholarship valued at $200,000 which set off thunderous applause from his fellow students in attendance at the Warren Settles Auditorium. He was then also presented with a Corvias Foundation, Our Future Scholarship valued at $50,000.

Overall Junction City High School seniors were presented with scholarships with a total combined value of $1,867,000. According to Margie Pinaire, Geary Community Schools Foundation, that breaks down to $299,250 in local scholarship awards, $268,000 for athletic scholarships, $257,750 military, and $1,042,000 in college scholarship awards.

The Class of 2015 graduates on Sunday.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ three largest universities have been selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to be a part of a team that will help integrate unmanned aerial systems into the nation’s airspace.

The Salina Journal reports Kansas State University, the University of Kansas and Wichita State University have been named members of the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. According to a news release, the center will focus on research, education and training for the systems that are also known as drones.

The news release says research areas will initially include detect-and-avoid technology; low-altitude operations safety; control and communications; spectrum management; and compatibility with air traffic control operations.

Junction City Juneteenth and Prairie Heritage Inc. will host “The Nicodemus Connection to a Vice President,” a presentation and discussion by Angela Bates on Wednesday, May 20th, 2015 at 7 p.m. at the Dorthy Bramlage Public Library. 

Before homesteading as free men in the African American settlement of Nicodemus, Kansas, Tom Johnson and John Samuels were enslaved by U.S. Vice President Richard M. Johnson. This presentation explores their lives on the Johnson plantation, the tragic split of their families, and their migration and settlement on the western plains of Kansas.

Angela Bates is the executive director of the Nicodemus Historical Society. She presents educational programs across the nation covering Nicodemus, Exodusters and black towns in the West, Buffalo Soldiers, and black women in the West.

By JIM MCLEAN & BRYAN THOMPSON

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran has what amounts to a running feud going with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He says the agency is dragging its feet implementing a new law called the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 that’s designed to help veterans in rural areas get the care they need.

But Robert McDonald, the new VA secretary, says Moran’s claims are baseless.

Finding alternative ways to get health care services to veterans who live in rural areas — far from VA medical centers — has been a priority for Moran since his early days in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I represented a congressional district that was larger than the state of Illinois,” Moran said. “The First District of Kansas has lots of square miles — no VA hospital. So what we’ve been interested in is how do you get services when there’s no VA hospital close by? How do you get services to those veterans? And the answer initially was outpatient clinics.”

In part due to Moran’s efforts, the VA now operates 15 outpatient clinics in communities across Kansas. But there are still parts of Kansas — especially in the west — where veterans have to drive a long way to get to one of those clinics.

“But if you’re a 92-year-old World War II veteran in Atwood, Kansas, how do you get to an outpatient clinic in Hays or Burlington? There are many veterans whose problems we did not solve,” Moran said.

So last year Moran helped push for and pass the Choice Act. Among other things, it requires the VA to pay local doctors for providing care to veterans who live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA health care facility.

But Moran said the VA seems intent on undermining the law. Examples he cites are the agency’s stricter-than-necessary interpretation of the 40-mile rule and its decision to enforce the 40-mile rule even when the nearest VA facility doesn’t provide the particular services that a veteran needs.

“The VA is interpreting this legislation in a way that makes it difficult for veterans to access that health care,” Moran said. “And the hope that the Choice Act provided — while it’s beneficial to some, in some instances it’s working well — in many instances the VA, it seems to me, has gone out of its way to make it less likely that veterans get the services they need.”

Finally, Moran said he’s convinced VA officials want to divert Choice Act funding to other priorities, such as completing a new medical center in Denver that has suffered huge cost overruns.

“Because of, in my view, the VA’s desire to protect its resources internally,” he said. “They don’t like writing checks to something outside the VA. They want to keep the resources within the VA.”

VA Secretary McDonald responded to Moran’s charges at a recent meeting of health care journalists and rejected the notion that the VA is trying to undermine the Choice Act.

“Despite what you may have heard, we’re very much in favor of community care,” McDonald said. “Right now, even before the Choice Act, 20 percent of our appointments have been outside, in the community — 20 percent. So it’s hard to say we’re not in favor of community care. We are. And it’s a good thing for us.”

Much of the criticism about how the VA has implemented the Choice Act has focused on the 40-mile distance requirement. McDonald said the agency has listened and is willing to make adjustments.

“We’re reinterpreting the 40 miles. Because that was done in conference, working with Senator Moran and others, we think that we can reinterpret that as driving distance, and we think that will double the number of veterans able to use the Choice program,” McDonald said.

Moran sees that as a step in the right direction, but he said the VA is still being too restrictive. According to Moran, if the nearest clinic doesn’t have the services a veteran needs, he or she should be able to see their local doctor at the VA’s expense. McDonald said his hands are tied. The agency is simply implementing the law as Moran and his colleagues wrote it.

“It’s actually written in the bill that it’s distance measured from a community-based outpatient clinic or other facility, regardless of whether that facility has the service,” McDonald said. “Now I know Senator Moran and others would like us to interpret it differently. What we’re unable to do is change the bill to say from a location where you get service.”

Moran said legislation to make that change is pending and will pass. But he insisted that McDonald has more flexibility than he’s acknowledging, and Moran continues to be concerned that the VA seeks to siphon Choice Act money to fund other priorities.

“There’s a constant effort to try to underfund the Choice Act, and then it’s self-perpetuating,” Moran said. “Many veterans are talking to us how frustrating it is to try to get the service. Because it’s so frustrating, they don’t use it or can’t use it. Then the VA says, ‘Well, there’s just not enough demand for this service.’”

McDonald said Congress gives the VA a budget with more than 70 line items, and he doesn’t have the flexibility to transfer funding from one item to another.

That may be so. But Moran said it also doesn’t make sense to deny care to rural veterans because contractors building the VA Medical Center in Denver can’t stay on budget.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

The Junction City Public Works Department has notified JC Post that water will be shut off on the 1600 block of Hale Drive for water main repairs. Water should be restored within the next hours ( approximately 3 p.m. ).

The closing arguments in the Christopher Lyman trial in Geary county district court came to an end late Wednesday afternoon.

Christopher Lyman of Junction City is on trial on multiple charges ranging from Premeditated Murder to  Child Abuse in the death of an 8 month old infant in September of 2013.

During the prosecutions closing argument, Assistant Geary County Attorney Chris Biggs reminded the jury of testimony heard during the trial from doctors from Children’s Mercy Hospital. The doctors testified that the injuries suffered by the infant were consistent with injuries related to child abuse.

Defense Attorney Linda Eckelman argued in her closing statements that the infant had underlying health issues that showed similar signs to child abuse, and that the infant was well cared for while under the care of Lyman.

The prosecution then rebutted the defense’s closing arguments. The jury retired to the jury’s room to begin deliberation around 3:35 p.m. and recessed about
an hour later. Deliberation will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday morning.

–Original Story posted Wednesday Morning–

Assistant Geary County Attorney Chris Biggs presented his closing arguments to the jury in the Christopher Lyman trial Wednesday morning in Geary County District Court.

Christopher Lyman. Junction City, is on trial on multiple charges ranging from Premeditated Murder to Child Abuse in the death of an 8-month old infant in September of 2013.

Biggs pointed to testimony during the trial by doctors from Children’s Mercy Hospital that bruises found on the infant were pretty consistent with child abuse.

Defense Attorney Linda Eckelman is expected to present her closing arguments in the trial to the jury Wednesday afternoon.  This is day number eight for the trial.

The Junction City High School Construction Technology students Tuesday unveiled the new house that they have built at 1220 North Eisenhower Drive.

The teacher Jeff Wells said the house covers about 1,200 square feet. “Three bedrooms, two full baths. It’s got a separate laundry room, and it’s got an open concept in the main part of the house so you can walk in the front door and you can see the kitchen, and through the kitchen into a dining area.”

Students built the house this school year. It will be sold this summer, with the proceeds used to fund next school year’s project for the construction technology program at the senior high.