LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Faculty members at Kansas State University want the Kansas Board of Regents to repeal a social media policy devised after criticism about a Kansas journalism professor’s anti-NRA tweet.

The regents approved the policy last week allowing university officials to fire faculty and staff who post social media messages that conflict with the institution’s best interests and efficient operations.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports (https://bit.ly/1jEeyBP ) the policy was partly a response to a tweet by a KU professor after the September Navy Yard shootings that killed 13 people in Washington.

More than 40 distinguished Kansas State professors signed a letter saying the regents should withdraw the policy, calling it an affront to academic freedom.

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran has announced that he will host a town hall meeting in Grandview Plaza Saturday ( Dec. 28 ) as part of his Kansas listening tour.

Area residents are encouraged to attend and share feedback with Sen. Moran on the issues facing Kansas and the nation.

The Town Hall meeting on Saturday will run from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at Stacy’s Restaurant at 118 Flint Hills Boulevard in Grandview Plaza.

Manhattan Regional Airport is not large enough to accomodate the 747 jets often used by the military for troop deployments.

The runway at that airport is 7,000 feet long, and can accomodate 757 and 737 planes.

Airport Director Peter Van Kuren said to better serve the military a longer runway is needed, but the airport will not get federal funding to extend it. He told a Chamber of Commerce board meeting in Junction City that money will be needed from Fort Riley or the Department of Defense to do that.

As far as training deployments within the United States, Van Kuren reported Manhattan Regional dod have up to 23 737’s arrive for those.

Wichita– A Salina man was arrested in Wichita Tuesday on several sex charges involving a girl under the age of 16.

Glenn Lippard is alleged to have had sexual contact with the girl between December 25th of 2012, and March 12th of this 2013 at a south Salina home.

Salina Police were contacted December 14th by a social worker concerning the incidents. Lippard was booked into the Saline County Jail on 12-counts of rape, 12-counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and 4-counts of aggravated criminal sodomy.

Lippard a former deputy at the Saline County Sheriff’s Office was terminated from his position in 2005.

Two agricultural scientists from China have been charged with trying to steal samples of a variety of seeds from a biopharmaceutical company’s research facility in Kansas, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Weiqiang Zhang, 47, Manhattan, Kan., and Wengui Yan, 63, Stuttgart, Ark., are charged with one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets. The victim in the case – identified in court records as Company A — has invested approximately $75 million in patented technology used to create a variety of seeds containing recombinant proteins. The company has an extensive intellectual property portfolio of more than 100 issued and pending patents and exclusive licenses to issued patents.

Zhang and Yan are charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. An affidavit in support of the complaint alleges that on Aug. 7, 2013, agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection found stolen seeds in the luggage of a group of visitors from China preparing to board a plane to return home. While in the United States, the group had visited various agricultural facilities and universities in the Midwest, as well as the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuggart, Ark.

According to the complaint:

Zhang and Yan, both natives of the People’s Republic of China living lawfully in the United States, arranged for the Chinese delegation to visit the United States in 2013. Previously, the two had traveled to China at the same time in 2012 to visit a Crops Research Institute. Some of the people they met in China were members of the Chinese delegation that visited the United States in 2013.
Zhang, worked as an agricultural seed breeder for Company A since 2008.
Stolen seeds were delivered to members of the Chinese delegation during the delegation’s visit to the United States July 16 through August 7, 2013.
Yan, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a rice geneticist at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center, picked up the Chinese delegation from a motel in Stuggart, Ark., on July 22, 2013, and took them to the center.
Seeds similar to what were found in the delegation’s possession as they left the United States in August 2013, were also found in Zhang’s residence on December 11, 2013.

If convicted, Zhang and Yan face a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The Little Rock Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas City Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask is prosecuting with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Arkansas.

 (AP) — Wearing a light blue Sporting Kansas City scarf, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said he’s proud of the state’s first team to win a major professional sports championship.

Brownback said Thursday that winning the Major League Soccer title put the Kansas City region firmly in the center of the United States soccer map.

Sporting KC defeated Real Salt Lake on penalty kicks to claim its second MLS title.

The governor says there could be more soccer on the way with Sporting KC’s owners working with U.S. Soccer to bring a national training and coaching development center to the area.

Brownback says he is also still waiting for his honey and taffy that was promised in a friendly wager with Utah’s Gov. Gary Herbert on the outcome of the MLS championship game.

MANHATTAN — A retired U.S. Air Force colonel who died in 2012 has provided a $5 million gift to Kansas State University through his trust.

The bequest from former Manhattan resident Wayne McIntosh will benefit construction of the university Welcome Center and multicultural initiatives.

McIntosh was a native of Ramona. He earned a bachelor’s degree in general sciences from Kansas State University in 1938 and a master’s degree in education in 1939. While in college, he was in the ROTC program and played trumpet in the marching band. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1941, serving in World War II and flying over Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day in 1944. His 30-year military career ended with retirement as a colonel, having earned the Legion of Merit, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Medal and seven campaign medals. Relatives say McIntosh’s fondest career memory was serving as co-pilot for Gen. Chuck Yeager’s flight that broke the sound barrier in 1947.

After military retirement, McIntosh returned to Manhattan and worked for 10 years for the Kansas State University Division of Continuing Education. A travel enthusiast, he visited all 50 states and five continents during his lifetime.

“He was a very humble gentleman. I respected him so much,” said Linda Frey, Manhattan, whose husband Ron Frey was a second cousin to McIntosh. “I would go visit him and he would keep me up to date on the news. He was very well read. Both Ron and I miss him very much.”

McIntosh was very fond of his alma mater, according to Lucy Williams, vice president of The Trust Company, where McIntosh established his trust.

“Although Mr. McIntosh chose not to limit K-State’s application of this gift, it is particularly satisfying to see it applied to this inviting and visible project at K-State, his university, which he dearly loved,” said Mark Knackendoffel, president of The Trust Company. “We were honored to have the opportunity to work with and serve Mr. McIntosh, and particularly for my colleague, Lucy Williams, who worked closely with Wayne and knew him for more than 30 years.”

The generous support of loyal alumni like McIntosh is critical to completing the campus master plan, said Kirk Schulz, Kansas State University president.

“The Welcome Center will revitalize the historic Memorial Stadium, and provide a central location for students and families to connect with a wide range of services,” Schulz said. “Moving this project forward through such generous gifts will benefit the entire K-State family. We could not be more appreciative of Mr. McIntosh’s longtime service to our country and his enduring love of K-State. His generosity will help us continue the progress we are making toward our strategic goal to become a Top 50 public research university by 2025.”

Philanthropic contributions to Kansas State University are coordinated by theKansas State University Foundation. The foundation staff works with university partners to build lifelong relationships with alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students through involvement and investment in the university.

(Update 7:09 a.m.) Highways are still closed at this time.

(Update 6:29 a.m.) –  There is confirmation that the investigation has been at the Quality Inn at 150 E Poyntz. Traffic is shut down from E Poyntz and Tuttle Creek Blvd to McCall Road. There have been unconfirmed reports of multiple injuries at the scene, and that the gunman has been stopped as well. 

Little Apple Post will update when more information is available.

(Original 6:05 a.m.) – Riley County Police Department and Pottawatomie County are responding to reports of possible multiple gun shots fired outisde, around the 1000 block of East Poyntz.

Traffic will be blocked from McCall to East Poyntz.

Please avoid the area to allow for first responders to handle the situation.

Little Apple Post will update when more information is possible.

(AP) — A 30-year-old Manhattan man has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in a fatal arson.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says in a release that Gavin Taylor Hairgrove pleaded guilty Monday for his role in a Feb. 6 fire at a Manhattan apartment building. Vansanta Pallem died as a result of inhaling gases from the fire.

Grissom’s office says Hairgrove admitted to being present when three co-defendants talked about what to do to keep the Riley County Police Department from searching an apartment where two of the co-defendants lived. One of the co-defendants later poured gasoline in a hallway of the apartments and started a fire to create a diversion.

Hairgrove faces up to 15 years in prison. Sentencing is Feb. 24.