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Category: Local

Eisenhower Baseball Controversy Lunch & Learn

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Abilene, Kan. – The next Lunch & Learn program is Thursday, Aug. 23 at noon in the Eisenhower Presidential Library Visitors Center Auditorium, 200 SE 4th, Abilene. Free and open to the public, a light lunch is provided courtesy of the Eisenhower Foundation on a first come, first serve basis.
Did Dwight Eisenhower play professional baseball before he went to West Point? Historians have debated the question for more than 60 years. Baseball expert Mark Eberle will discuss his research on the controversial subject. His monograph Eisenhower, Wilson and Professional Baseball in Kansas is available free and online at https://works.bepress.com/mark-eberle.
Eberle teaches in the Department of Biological Sciences at Fort Hays State University. He is a coauthor of Kansas Fishes and Fishes of the Central United States, Second Edition. His recently published book titled Kansas Baseball, 1858-1941, is available for purchase in the gift shop.

Thursday Weather Forecast

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High
 89° Areas of fog in the morning. Mostly sunny with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80s. South winds up to 5 mph.

JCPD Reports Three Arrests in Homicide Case

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Location of the shooting scene Google image

UPDATE:

Junction City Police Captain Trish Giordano confirmed the three suspects arrested in connection with an August 9th homicide were taken into custody without incident.

Police reported that an active duty Soldier, Jacqueline Charda Sampson, 24, Fort Riley plus Cameron Michael Fontenot, 18, Junction City, and a 17-year juvenile ( male ) from Junction City were arrested on suspicion of First Degree Murder and Burglary. The allegations stem from the August 9th shooting death of Darian White, 21, Junction City.

Giordano confirmed police followed up on numerous leads in the case, “and put some stuff together, and developed probable cause to pick up a few people, and ended up with three suspects.”

Giordano does not anticipate more arrests in the case. The suspects are expected to have a first court appearance Thursday.

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The Junction City Police Department has reported the arrest of three people in connection with the August 9th shooting death of Darian White, 21, Junction City.

White was found shot to death in a vehicle in the parking lot of 713 West 11th Street. Police confirmed that the cause of death was from gunshot wounds.

Police Captain Trish Giordano reported that late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning officers of the JCPD located and arrested Jacqueline Charda Sampson, 24, Fort Riley, Cameron Michael Fontenot, 18, Junction City and a 17-year old juvenile from Junction City on suspicion of First Degree Murder and Burglary.

Sampson and Fontenot are being without bond pending a first court appearance. The juvenile is being held at the North Central Kansas Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

Giordano stated that detectives are still actively working the case. If anyone has information call the JCPD Investigation Divisiion at 762-5912.

 

Two Fisherman to Square Off for Championship

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Nolan Minor of West Virginia University and Nick Ratliff of Campbellsville University in Kentucky will battle for the championship of the 2018 Carharrt Bassmaster College Series College Bracket at Milford.

The two anglers made it through the semifinals Wednesday. Minor said in the semifinal round he was working secondary points with chunk rock, and fishing with walking bait and jerk bait in areas

“When I would have an area that I was pretty confident there were fish in it I would first make a pass through that area with the top water.” If the small mouth missed the top water bait he would return to the same area with jerk bait. “It worked twice for me today.”

Ratliff said with the wind blowing Wednesday morning it was a concern. “I made a few adjustments, caught a couple on my backup deal, I got one other area that’s kind of out of the wind if it blows in this direction. I caught my two biggest off of there and I’ve actually caught three fish off of there the last two days.”

The two anglers will begin fishing in the championship round at 6:20 a.m. Thursday. The final weigh-in will be held about 1:45 p.m. at Acorns Resort. The winner will have earned a berth in the Bassmaster Classic, considered the World Series of bass fishing.

Minor and Ratliff are the final two fishermen remaining in the tournament at Milford Lake out of a field of eight competitors that began on Tuesday.

Auditions for Show at Great Plains Theatre

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Great Plains Theatre in Abilene will be holding auditions for their upcoming performance of Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar. This show tells the story of four people with very different backgrounds at a dinner party, and has been described as “combustible powder keg of identity politics,” and will have audiences thinking long after the show has ended.
Great Plains Theatre will present Disgraced as part of their Reader’s Theatre After Dark series which features more adult contemporary pieces than their traditional season and produces them for one evening. Disgraced will be performed September 20, at 7:00. Admission is $5 for the public, with Season Ticket holders getting in free.
Auditions for Disgraced will be held at Great Plains Theatre on Saturday, August 25 beginning at 1:00 pm. Those who audition may prepare a 2-minute monologue, though it is not mandatory, and all auditions will include cold readings from the script. The rehearsal period will be limited. For any additional audition questions please contact randy@greatplainstheatre.com. Great Plains Theatre.

Mayor Highlights City Accomplishments and Goals

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Junction City Mayor Pat Landes

Junction City Mayor Pat Landes told a Breakfast Optimist Club audience Wednesday that his strategies for problem solving include analyzing, defining and then following through toward the solution. Landes stated when he joined the city commission the water and waste water infrastructure was crumbling. At that time six of the twenty funds in the City budget were in the red and now are in the black with a $30 million reserve.

According to Club Member Ferrell Miller, the mayor noted that the City Commission has kept the mill levy flat, and the city debt has been lowered from $176 million down to less than $100 million. There have been successful efforts at finding creative ways to improve the streets with matching funds.

Land Bank lots have been offered to new teachers in USD 475 and St. Xavier schools. Landes said there are currently 920 lots in the Land Bank, and the city has to be creative on how to get people to build houses on them, and then stay here.

Some of the goals cited by the Mayor include to “clean up Grant Avenue and possibly make it an industrial / manufacturing area because rail access is already there, working with the USD 475 staff on road access to the new Junction City High School, diversifying the economy an presenting a positive image of Junction City.

The JC Breakfast Optimist Club held their weekly meeting at the Hampton Inn in Junction City on Wednesday.

Sheriff’s Deputies Respond to Rollover Accident

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The Geary County Sheriff’s Department reports that Deputies responded just after 8 p.m. Tuesday to single vehicle rollover accident. It occurred in the 2300 block of North Crider Road.

Jordyn Hubley, Junction City, was driving her 2008 Smart vehicle, when she left the roadway causing the vehicle to roll over. Hubley was transported to Irwin Army Community Hospital complaining of injuries.

KSU tops magazine’s annual ranking of best college values in state

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MANHATTAN — For the third year in a row, Money magazine is recognizing Kansas State University as the top university value in Kansas. The ranking is the second in recent months that highlights the university’s position as the best educational investment in the state.

Quality of education, affordability and various student outcome factors are used to determine the magazine’s best colleges, with Kansas State University taking the top spot among the schools in Kansas that met Money’s ranking criteria. Among the areas where the university leads in Kansas is the average starting salary of new graduates. The $50,000 average for a new alumnus of K-State is $500 higher than that for new graduates of the second-place school on the magazine’s state list, the University of Kansas.

In May, SmartAsset, a financial services company, rated Kansas State University as the state’s best education value for the fourth year in a row.

“As the new provost of Kansas State University, these strong national rankings show me that this university’s academic programs are among its many strengths,” said Charles Taber. “When our new graduates are commanding the highest average starting salary in the state, it shows they are in demand and are graduating with the education and skills that employers seek. I look forward to doing all I can to help K-State continue as the best educational value in the state and to help further build its brand as a national educational value.”

The No. 1 choice of Kansas high school graduates, Kansas State University’s most recent postgraduation survey shows a 95-percent placement rate in students securing a job or continuing their education. The university, which offers more than 250 majors and options, makes affordability a priority, awarding more than $248 million in student aid last year, including more than $38 million in scholarships.

Award-winning faculty and key student services, such as K-State First, the university’s first-year student success program, and the Career Center, which last year brought more than 800 employers to campus to interview students about jobs and internships, are just a few of the ways K-State helps students stay on track to degree completion and be career ready once they graduate.

K-State also ranks highly with its students, according to the latest survey by The Princeton Review, which rates K-State No. 4 for best quality of life, No. 6 for best athletic facilities, No. 7 for best health services and No. 8 for happiest students. Students also love the university’s home, in Manhattan, rating K-State No. 3 in the nation for great town-gown relations.

K-State News and Communications Services
Division of Communications and Marketing

Sentence in Hit-and-Run that Injured Kansas State Student

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MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old man convicted of aggravated battery after hitting a Kansas State student with his truck in Manhattan has been sentenced to about two years in prison.

Blaha drove the white truck that hit and critically injured Amber Wilhelm- Image courtesy RCPD

Nicolas Blaha, of Platte City, Missouri, was sentenced Monday to 20 months for aggravated battery and eight months for failure to stop at the scene. The sentences will run concurrently.

Blaha hit 22-year-old hit Amber Wilhelm, of Horton, early April 14, 2017, and continued driving. He said he didn’t remember hitting Wilhelm but later came forward and told police he recognized his truck in a video from the scene.

Wilhelm, who suffered a brain injury and several broken bones, said she spent months in rehabilitation and therapy. She returned to classes in January.

Blaha apologized to Wilhelm before sentencing.

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