POTTAWOTOMIE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Pottawatomie County continues the investigation of Tuesday’s shooting incident.

Two vehicles are believed to be involved in this incident, a blue 2001 Buick LeSabre driven by the suspect and a red 1992 Chevrolet pickup driven by the victim.

The suspect, Dakota Fair, 18, is believed to have fired a gun from his at the pickup the victim was driving.

These vehicles may have been together around 4:30 p.m. this same day in the area South of Highway 24 and Flush Road, and are believed to have left this location together, ending up west of Lake Elbo Road on Mt. Zion Road, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The victim and suspect are believed to have known each other.

The shooting victim has been identified as Tyrel C. Britton, 23, Westmoreland.

A female passenger in the suspect vehicle who was interviewed has also been taken into custody and identified as Melissa Umscheid, 21, of rural Wamego.

She is currently being held at the Pottawatomie County Jail for Criminal Solicitation. Bond has not been set at this time.

Anyone having information on this incident is asked to contact the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office at 785-457-3353. At this time no further suspects are being sought.

————

POTAWATOMIE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Pottawatomie County are investigating a Tuesday shooting.

Just before 5 p.m., the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Dispatch received a 911 call of a man walking towards a residence who was bleeding, according to a Sheriff’s Department media release.

The caller who lived west of Lake Elbo Road on Mt. Zion Road had also reported hearing what they believed was the sound of a gunshot.

Sheriff Deputies and emergency medical and fire units responded to the area. Deputies arriving on scene learned the man who was bleeding had been shot.

The victim was able to name the suspect to the Deputies. It was also discovered that the suspect had a woman passenger with him in his vehicle.

During the evening the Sheriff’s Office searched in the area west of Louisville and also received reports on the whereabouts of the suspect.

At about 6:45 p.m., the woman passenger who was reported to have been in the suspect’s car was located and taken to the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office to be interviewed about the shooting.

At about 8:30 p.m. the suspect was taken into custody at his residence, 16575 Cannonball Rd in Louisville. The suspect, Dakota Blake Fair, 18, was transported to the Pottawatomie County Jail. He is being held for attempted murder.
The victims name is not being released at this time. He was flown from the scene to a hospital in Topeka.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – Up to 10,000 New Year’s Eve revelers are expected to turn out in the Kansas town known as the Little Apple for a ball-drop event modeled after the one in New York’s Times Square.

Manhattan is staging its annual New Year’s Eve celebration in the Aggieville bar and entertainment district. Thursday’s festivities begin at 10:30 p.m. and include music and fireworks. The event culminates at midnight with the lowering of a ball from atop Varney’s bookstore.

It’s reminiscent of the ball drop in the Big Apple, a Times Square tradition for more than a century.

According to the National Weather Service of Topeka, a dry period is expected from Today through the weekend. Temperatures will gradually warm going into the weekend. There may be some patchy fog, especially in river valleys each morning as the snow melts.

Today: Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 30s. West winds up to 5 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. Lows around 13. West winds up to 5 mph.

Thursday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the lower 30s. West winds up to 10 mph.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear. Lows around 13. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.

New Years Day: Sunny. Highs in the mid 30s. West winds 5 to 10 mph.

Friday Night: Clear. Lows around 17.

Saturday: Sunny. Highs in the upper 30s.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear. Lows around 17.

Sunday: Sunny. Highs in the upper 30s.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear. Lows around 17.

Monday: Partly sunny. Highs around 40.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 20s.

Tuesday: Mostly cloudy. Highs in

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas is extending its fast-track law degree program to undergraduates at Kansas State University.

The Lawrence Journal-Worldsays the Lawrence school will expand the program to other Kansas Board of Regents universities, first with Kansas State.

The University of Kansas launched its Legal Education Accelerated Degree program for its undergraduates in 2012. That so-called “3+3” program allows students to earn a bachelor’s and a law degree in just six years instead of the usual seven.

The University of Kansas is the only regents university with a law school.

Steven Freedman is assistant dean for admissions at the law school at Kansas. He says the first Kansas State freshmen are to begin the program next fall and would enter the law school at Kansas three years later.

A local insurance agency will be donating a combined total of 114 mittens, gloves and scarves next week to students at two local elementary schools.

Karen Jameson, State Farm Insurance, accept donated clothing items to put under the Christmas tree in their office before the holiday. Jameson said that she was overwhelmed with the response. “I was just totally surprised. People that I didn’t know brought in these, so I’m just really ecstatic.”

Jameson indicated she will do this again next year, and hopes to make it bigger.

The clothing items will be dropped off at Washington and Grandview Elementary Schools next Monday.

Corps of Engineers officials will meet with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials within the next couple of weeks to review the blue green algae problem at Milford Lake this past summer.

The lake was under a watch, warning or partial closure every week after the July 4 holiday weekend.

R. J. Harms, Corps of Engineers Project Operations manager indicated he could see coming out of the meeting some possible changes to how this is handled next summer.”There might be a little bit. One of the things we want to talk about if we do have the really high levels like we had this summer a couple of three times, I think we had closures at the north end of the lake. I think they’re going to look at that and how that impacts maybe the other zones. ” Milford Lake has three zones.

Harms added, “When we do have a closure I think we’re going to look at at least having a watch in the zone adjacent to that, right next to that.”

Geary Community Hospital has undertaken a number of efforts to give back to the community.

Every fall GCH participates in the annual United Way fundraising campaign as a Pacesetter organization…one of a handful of major donors. This year’s fundraising efforts, including ongoing employee contributions, will return $8,268 to the United Way over he 2016 year.

GCH also supports the Salvation Army’s “Angel tree – Christmas is for Kids” project. At the beginning of the holiday season there is a Christmas tree decorated in the hospital lobby with ornaments – each representing a child in need for Christmas. Employees select an ornament from the tree and shop for the child’s requested clothes and gifts. The GCH Patient Access team collects the gifts and the Salvation Army delivers them to each child’s parlor home prior to Christmas Day. This year the hospital personnel were able to adopt 50 kids for the holiday.

During the holidays Geary Community Hospital continues the giving theme with their own holiday program, “Operation Care,” a food and warm clothing drive.

MeriTrust Credit Union joined in the collection for “Operation Care.” MeriTrust donated a plethora of warm blankets along with hats and mitten sets.

Operation Care teamed up with Wheels of Hope,a local organization that fights hunger in the community. This year enough turkeys were collected to serve 210 people in 60 families a holiday meal. Hospital employees donated boxes full of canned food items along with winter weather clothing for children.

Fifty more quilts will be made for presentation to veterans through the Quilts of Valor program conducted by the Central Flint Hills Area organization.

Coordinator Donna Martinson said this week that so far in 2015 that 118 quilts have been presented. The focus is on recognizing veterans for their service.

Martinson said the program will make about 50 quilts in 2016. “Once we’ve reached our goal of 50 quilts if we have quiltmakers that still want to make quilts that’s fine, but we will probably turn over most of the process to the state quilt of valor foundation.”

There is a process you can follow to nominate a veteran for a quilt of valor, explained Martinson. “Our highest priority continues to be Korea, Vietnam and World War Two veterans. We need to get that group of veterans recognized as soon as we possibly can.

To make a nomination submit the veteran’s name and contact information, the branch of service they served in, the war served in, and if they served in combat. A combat veteran has priority in this system. Other information needed includes whether the nominee was in a support position, and if so what was their position. Their years of service in the military and rank when they left the military, and whether or not they have previously received a quilt of valor. It is a once in a lifetime award.