Employees with a combined 383 years of service were honored at the annual Employee Recognition Dinner in Chapman USD 473 Wednesday night.

Fort Riley will be hosting a Hiring Heroes Career Fair next Wednesday at Riley’s Conference Center.

The career fair is open to the public but the Career Fair’s Organizer, Kristen Springer explained that it is geared towards the wounded, ill, injured, transitioning soldiers and their spouses.

“It’s open to anyone but there’s going to be employers looking to hire Veteran’s and those who have served,” said Springer.

The career fair will feature a number of Department of Defense Agencies including the Army and Air Force Exchange Services, Irwin Army Community Hospital Military Spouse Employment Partnership, The Department of Veterans Affairs and many more.

Those who attend are seeking employment are recommended to bring with them a resume and be dressed for an interview.

“As you go up to each table you’re going to want to have something planned to really sell yourself, so they may want to at least talk to you more, reach out to you and possibly do an interview on the spot.”

Springer said that some of the employers may even be able to hire someone on the spot.

The Hiring Heroes Career Fair is being held Wednesday, April 22nd, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Riley’s Conference Center.

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran has blasted a proposal sent to Congress by the Department of Veterans Affairs requesting that funds from the Veterans Access Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 be used to pay for the ballooning price tag to complete a new VA medical center being built in Aurora, Colorado.

“Choice Act is not a cookie jar for the VA to raid as it sees fit,” Sen. Moran said. “If the President is truly focused on fixing the VA, why is his administration proposing to raid emergency funds provided by Congress to support greater access to health care for veterans? The over-budget and behind-schedule Denver project is a catastrophic failure of VA’s own making. While we cannot allow the millions of taxpayer dollars already spent on the facility to go to waste I cannot sit by and watch emergency funds intended to make VA medical facilities nationwide more efficient and hire desperately-needed physicians and medical staff be used to clean up this mess. Thousands of rural veterans in states like Kansas still can’t get the timely VA care the Choice Act promised and are being forced to travel long distances to VA hospitals.”

“This request is just one more piece of evidence of the VA’s unwillingness and lack of interest in implementing the Choice Act,” Sen. Moran concluded.

The VA request came in a legislative proposal from VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon regarding VA construction initiatives. Section 8 of the proposal would amend the Choice Act authorization to add the Denver construction project so that nearly $1 billion in Choice Act funds could be used for the completion of the Aurora medical facility. The Denver project is more than five times over budget and expected to cost a staggering $1.73 billion once complete. Its original cost estimate was $328 million.

Showers and Thunderstorms will develop later this afternoon across north central Kansas and move east across the remainder of the area Tonight. Some of the storms across north central Kansas may be strong and could produce hail. Thunderstorm chances will increase Friday and Saturday as an upper level disturbance pushes east towards the area. Some of the thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday may be severe across north central Kansas and strong thunderstorms are possible across northeast and east central Kansas. High temperatures Today through Saturday will range from the upper 60s to mid 70s. Overnight lows will range from the mid 50s to around 60 degrees.

Today: Patchy fog in the morning. Partly sunny with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs around 73. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows around 55. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

Friday: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs around 73. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph.

Friday Night: Thunderstorms likely. Lows in the mid 50s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

Saturday: Thunderstorms likely. Highs in the lower 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent.

Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers. Lows in the lower 50s.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy with chance of showers and slight chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Sunday Night: Colder. Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Lows in the lower 40s.

Monday Through Tuesday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the lower 60s. Lows in the upper 30s.

Tuesday Night And Wednesday: Mostly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of showers. Lows in the lower 40s. Highs in the mid 60s.

MAPLE HILL – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 7a.m. on Thursday in Wabaunsee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Ford Explorer driven by Jeffrey R. Morris, 48, Lawrence, was westbound on Interstate 70 southwest of Maple Hill.

The vehicle and drifted off the edge of the roadway. It struck the ditch, hit a tree and rolled.

Morris was transported to Stormont Vail.

The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A judge will decide whether to grant bail to a Topeka man charged as an accomplice in an alleged Fort Riley bombing plot.

Alexander Blair will appear for a detention hearing Thursday. Blair’s attorney, Christopher Joseph, has argued in a court filing that Blair is not a flight risk because he has little money and no car.

Blair allegedly gave money to John T. Booker, who was arrested in an FBI sting operation Friday as he reportedly attempted to arm what he thought was a 1,000 pound bomb outside of Fort Riley.

Blair was arrested a short time later. Prosecutors allege he knew about the plot and did not inform authorities.

A controlled burn Tuesday that sent embers across the road caught J-Hill on fire and caused it to burn into Wednesday. 

The fire on J-Hill was not considered to be a major issue for firefighters. They did do some back burning to prevent it from spreading, but it was kept under control. No major damage or injuries were reported.

The smoke from the fire was visible from Junction City.

TOPEKA –The Kansas Board of Regents named K-State alumnus Dr. Blake Flanders as the new Board of Regents CEO.

A motion to hire Flanders passed with unanimous support during Wednesday’s meeting. He replaces Andy Tompkins who is retiring.

Flanders, who has served as the board’s Vice President of Work Force Development, will begin his new responsibilities this summer.

“Dr. Flanders is a man of Kansas, with great accomplishments,” stated Kenny Wilk, Chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents. “He will provide continuity and stability as we continue to move higher education forward in Kansas.”

Born in Edson, Kansas, Dr. Flanders is a graduate of Goodland High School (1982), Colby Community College (1984), and Kansas State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science (1986), Masters of Science in Animal Science (1989), and Doctorate of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction (2004).

Before serving in his current capacity, Dr. Flanders served as the liaison between the Kansas Board of Regents and the Kansas Department of Commerce (2004-2007), Vice President of Instructional Services at Manhattan Area Technical College (1998-2004), and as a member of the faculty at Butler Community College (1988-1998).

During his remarks via Twitter, Dr. Flanders said,”I want every Kansan to have the opportunity to pursue an education, just like I did.”

The US Army is expected to make a June decision when it comes down to where cuts will be made as they draw down the Army’s troop size from 490,000 soldiers to 450,000 and cuts could be looming at Fort Riley.

US Senator Jerry Moran along with his Military and Veterans Advisory Committee
met Wednesday with the Secretary of the Army John McHugh and members of his staff at the Pentagon.

“Today was an opportunity for us to have a conversation with the Army about what is going on in this process, and for us as citizens of Kansas, as community leaders and those who particularly care about Fort Riley, to convey information that we think would be valuable to increase the chances that nothing bad occurs at Fort Riley, Kansas,” explained Senator Moran during a conference call with the media shortly after the meeting.

Moran went on to explain that they did learn some new information during the meeting including that the Army is well aware of the attributes at Fort Riley.

“It was pleasing to see that they knew them well. The two most prominent was the amount of space, land and air available for training and the ability to utilize additional space besides Fort Riley. Secondly they were very aware that $1.8 billion has been spent over the last decade at Fort Riley in improvements to housing, schools and healthcare.”

Tuesday’s meeting is just one of several that Moran and others have had with Army officials following February’s Army Listening session held in Junction City.

As of right now the confidence is high that Fort Riley will not see drastic changes in the near future, though Moran did add,”while this was a very productive day we have to recognize that the competition still exists.”

Fort Riley is one of approximately 30 installations from across the nation being considered for cuts.

Geary Community Hospital received a visit from Congressman Tim Huelskamp’s healthcare Legislative Director Juliana Heerschap, Tuesday.

Heerschap took a tour of the hospital and visited about various healthcare related topics and the state of the healthcare industry.