The grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the The Cove Lakeside Bar & Grill at Acorn’s Resort is scheduled on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
There will be a live band after the ceremony.
The resort is located on the east side of Milford Lake in the Farnum Creek area.
The monthly Milford Lake bird walk will be Saturday, July 16 at eight a.m.
Participants will meet at the parking lot on the south end of Milford Lake Dam, just across the highway from the Corps of Enginers Office.
Extension Agent Chuck Otte said the walk will focus on summer nesting species. The walks usually last about two to three hours. If you have binoculars or a bird book you can bring them.
Geary County officials see an opportunity to increase the local workforce.
County Commission Chair Florence Whitebread said the HR Director for the county, Jon Thummel, attended a workforce showcase this past week at Fort Riley. “With all those that were departing the Army at this employment seminar, there were about one-third of them who said they would probably be staying in the area which is really good because I do know we are short in the workforce area for many of the businesses around here.”
Commissioners received an update on the topic during their meeting on Monday.
Almost 200 law enforcement officers and victim service providers from across Kansas are in Manhattan Tuesday and Wednesday to team up in the fight against human trafficking, Acting U.S. Attoney Tom Beall said Tuesday.
“Human trafficking is the modern form of slavery,” Beall said. “It’s here now. It’s happening in communities across Kansas. It’s everybody’s problem.”
Beall is joining with Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center to sponsor the conference at the Manhattan Conference Center.
Craig Hill of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will lead off with a presentation on domestic child sex trafficking. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc bennett will talk about how law enforcement officers and prosecutors work with reluctant victims and witnesses. Tina Peck of Via Christi Health will discuss how Via Christi hospitals in Wichita work to identify trafficking victims who seek emergency treatment and offer them help. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart will describe how federal prosecutors are working with the Wichita Police Department to target businesses that are fronts for human trafficking.
A number of other speakers are on the agenda for the conference.
Update:
As of 9 a.m. there were still seven locations in Junction City without electricity following the early morning thunderstorm.
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As of 7 a.m. there were 17 power outages, impacting 106 locations in Junction City.
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As of 5:45 a.m. Westar Energy reported 25 power outages in Junction City, impacting 345 customers, or locations.
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A storm cell swept through the Geary County area overnight leaving in its wake power outages in Junction City, some tree branches down, and road construction zone barrels blown astray. No major damage has been reported by authorities.
As of 3:45 a.m. there were 27 power outages in the Westar Energy service area in Junction City affecting 692 customers, or locations.
A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect but expired at 3:45 a.m. and that was followed by a significant weather advisory until 4:15 a.m. that did include southeastern Geary County.
Congressman Tim Huelskamp has announced that an official representative specializing in Veterans casework will be available in Junction City on Thursday from 2-3 p.m. at the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library Community Room.
Veterans are welcome to visit if they are strugging to navigate bureaucratic red tape, to share concerns about the VA, or get information about getting the care they have earned.
Veterans seeking assistance are encouraged to schedule an appointment by contacting Congressman Huelskamp’s office at 785-309-0572.
The Flint Hills Metropolitan Planning Organization staff doubled in size on Monday, adding its second full-time staff person, Jared tremblay.
As the Transportation Planning Analyst, Tremblay will be responsible for overseeing the development, coordination, monitoring and reporting of the region’s performance management system, ensuring a safe and efficient transportation system continues to be provided. Performance-based planning was established by the previous transportation legislation, MAP-21, and was again made a priority iwth the FAST-Act. Tremblay will work closely with federal, state, regional and local entities to set targets and ensure the performance based process is implemented. He will also be responsible for overseeing all plans and activities related to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
Prior to joining the Flint Hills MPO, Tremblay worked for the City of Manhattan, beginning as a GIS Technician adnd later as the Infrastructure Analyst.
Gun contol – an issue that has garnered significant national attention in the era of mass shootings and homegrown terrorists.
According to americangunfacts.com, every year, “guns are used over 80 times more often to protect a life than to take one.”
In an article published June 13th, 2016 by the NY Times, the writers Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz wrote, “In the United States, the death rate from gun homicides is 
about 31 per million people — the equivalent of 27 people shot dead every day of the year”
Lonnie Clark, Representative for the 65th District in Kansas, says that he’s against changing the Constitution but there do need to be some changes in current gun laws.
“I’m a pro gun rights person, 2nd Amendment rights – it is a Constitutional right of Americans and I’m against changing the Constitution for anything; but as far as background checks go, I don’t have a problem with that to make sure that we gets guns out of the hands of people who are felons…but I think if you’re an American citizen in good standing, and you pass a background check, there’s no reason for you not to be able to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights,” said Clark.
Not all felons are violent, however, and Clark said that it wouldn’t be up to him to determine exceptions for felons legally owning guns.
“I’m not an attorney, so I don’t know the ramifications of opening up the felon charges on what’s right and what’s wrong; I’d leave that up to the courts,” said Clark.
Tony Wolf, Geary County Sheriff said that he thinks gun owners should be held to a mandatory training in order to obtain a weapon.
Wolf gave the following example, “If a kid turns 21 years of age today, walks in to a gun store and he’s never been expo
sed to weapons in his life…but the reason that he wants to buy [one] is because a buddy of his has one and he thinks its cool. So he buys that gun, buys a holster, buys some ammunition and he puts it on and walks out in to the street – how fair is that to that kid? How fair is that to the general public that’s around him?”
Wolf goes on further explaining his concern with the current gun laws, “…that was the one thing I wanted when they changed the law was to keep some of the training in there, so that you at least have some kind of a card that [states] that you have attended some type of training as to how to carry that gun, when to shoot and when a don’t shoot situation arises.”
Representative Clark agreed with Wolf stating, “I don’t see any problem with anybody that wants to own a gun having to know how to operate and handle that gun in a safe manner.”
Clark goes on to state that he was an adolescent when he was first trained on using a weapon and when he obtained his “concealed carry [permit] in the state of Kansas” he went through a training course.
Another hot button when it comes to gun ownership surrounds the mentally ill/handicapped.
“The medical information act is so stringent on what you can release about people’s mental capacities or conditions that it limits what law enforcement can do in terms of adding those people to a checklist (per se) that would go through the background checks,” said Clark.
And while Clark stands with every American in”good standing” having the right to gun ownership he goes to on to state, “I’m certainly not for having people with mental challenges having access to guns – it’s not because of their civil rights, but because of their mental state.”
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump was very outspoken after the shooting in San Bernardino, CA and the gay club attack in Orlando stating that someone that was once on a ‘no fly’ list and investigated by the FBI should have ever been able to legally purchase a gun.
Representative Clark commented on that saying, “That’s an issue of the databases being shared; I don’t think that anybody that is on a ‘no fly’ list as being a suspected terrorist – I don’t know of any reasonable thinking person that would agree that they shouldn’t be limited on whether or not they can purchase a gun or not….that’s an issue that goes in to our database and who we make access to that database. I think that’s a correctable problem and more than anything else, it was probably an oversight.”
Should there be limitations on potential gun owners?
Should mandatory training once again be a part of the laws in Kansas?
What do you think about the gun control issue? Sound off in the comments below.
There will be a change for motorists as KDOT proceeds with work on the diverging diamond interchange at I-70 and US 77 Highway.
KDOT Engineer Technician Senior Dave Kelly said they will switch gears on that project. “Wednesday morning westbound I-70 traffic that gets off at the exit at 77 and they want to go south, they’re going to have to go north to K-18 Highway on 77,.”
Motorists will then make a across the K-18 bridge over US 77, turn back around and head back south on 77 from K-18 highway.
More than 21,000 Army Reserve and National Guard troops have spent time at Fort Riley this summer training.
According to the Fort Riley Regional Collective Training Capability Total Army Support the troop numbers that have trained as of July 10 total 21,266. A total of 4,720 more are scheduled from now through September 16.
The total number to be trained this year has been calculated at 25,986.