A Kansas high school is running out of time to get votes for its mascot. USA Today is having a contest to find the most unique school mascot in America. The Pratt High School Greenback is one of those vying for the title, but it must first win the regional competition which ends at 3 …
Google Fiber, the much-hyped, barely launched Internet and TV service, is headed to Olathe. The Olathe City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement paving the way for the fiber-optic network to carry Google’s fledgling super-fast Internet service to southern Johnson County. The deal in many ways mirrors agreements made elsewhere in the Kansas City …
For small retail stores, passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act would close a tax loophole that they say gives an unfair advantage to online retailers. On Tuesday afternoon, local business owners and Jason Klindt, a representative with the Alliance for Main Street Fairness out of Kansas City, spoke at Watermark Books and Cafe, 4701 E. …
About 100 advance mail-in ballots sent out for the Bel Aire City Council election were incorrect, and voters who received and returned them will need to cast their votes again. Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman said a new ordinance changed how city council candidates are listed on the ballot. But when her office received …
The top administrator of the retirement system for Kansas teachers and government workers says it would benefit from a legislative proposal to issue $1.5 billion in pension bonds. Executive Director Alan Conroy told the House pensions committee Monday that its plan would boost the short-term financial health of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. (Read …
Whether it’s a welcome banner, newspaper ad or billboard, the object of the Market Hays Plan is to have a familiar motif. The plan to develop a brand or recognizable look in promoting conventions and tourism started approximately a year ago, said Jana Jordan, director of the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau. Jordan said approximately …
City officials have put a plan to raise water rates this spring on hold following public outcry. In late February, city public works officials said Cheney Reservoir, the source of 60 percent of the city’s water, would go dry by August 2015 if the drought continues. To conserve water, the city proposed what some City …
By 7:30 a.m. Monday, residents of Shawnee County will be able to get in line to to renew vehicle tags and titles from the comfort of their own home. Treasurer Larry Mah said the new electronic queuing system has worked so well in the past three weeks that he is ready to launch its online …
Shawn Henning, a veteran of the city’s finance department, has been named the city’s new finance director, replacing Kelly Carpenter, who retired. Henning, the city’s treasurer and finance manager, will start her new job April 29. Henning worked at City Hall from 1991 to 2003, when she became accounting director for Sedgwick County. She returned …
At the conclusion of Monday night’s City Council agenda and taking care of business items, Augusta Mayor Kristey Williams called for a 10 minute executive session concerning a non-elected personnel matter. Following the executive session, City Manager Bill Keefer announced his resignation, “Please consider this as my resignation as the City Manager for the City …
You can still get busted for possession of pot in Kansas, even if you got it legally in another state, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday. The court ruling comes in response to a case in which a Colorado man was acquitted of possession of marijuana because he had obtained the pot legally under …
MBFA (“Municipal Bonds for America”) has submitted written comments in advance of Tuesday’s U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Hearing on Tax Reform and Tax Provisions Affecting State and Local Governments. MBFA’s comments, authored by the The Honorable Steve Benjamin, Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, focus on the vital importance of maintaining the tax exempt …
Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley and a Nobel laureate economist affiliated with a Texas financial firm told legislators Monday they should separate Kansas’ public pension system’s past from its future in order to prevent the risk of further state debt. Robert C. Merton, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who shared the Nobel prize for …
Former Interim Police Chief David Burger is currently being highlighted on the TV program “On the Case with Paula Zahn”. The program airs on the Investigation Discovery (ID) Television network. Burger talks about a murder case that he investigated in October 1979 as a member of the Shawnee, KS Police Department. “19-year-old Tracy Fresquez was …
Outgoing Shawnee County Register of Deeds Marilyn Nichols has 35 years of experience working in real estate-related industries, both as a title insurance agent and a licensed abstractor in the state of Kansas. She suggests that unless her replacement has some experience in the field, he or she will be “absolutely overwhelmed” by the office’s …