A former Fort Riley soldier stood silent while a judge entered a not guilty plea for him in the killing of a Kansas National Guard member outside a Manhattan motorcycle club.

Twenty-six-year-old Daniel Parker is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Frederick Beverly. Beverly was shot early Jan. 1 outside the “Assassin Street Rydaz” club in Manhattan.

At the time, Parker was a specialist with the First Infantry Division. Investigators say Parker had clashed with other members of the motorcycle club, of which Beverly was a member.

Judge David Stutzman entered a plea of not guilty Monday after Parker stayed silent during his court hearing.

The trial was scheduled for April 8-12.

By Neil Ochs ~ Great Bend Post

A Hoisington woman was killed in a single vehicle accident two miles east of Hoisington Monday morning.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reports that at approximately 7:12 a.m., 62-year-old Janice Aylward was driving her 2006 Jeep Cherokee eastbound on Kansas Highway 4, and went left of center for an unknown reason, entering the north ditch. Aylward struck a field drive and vaulted, rolling several times before the vehicle came to rest on it’s top.

Aylward was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kansas teachers and administrators are working with state Department of Education to develop an evaluation system to measure their performance.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the evaluation system, called the Kansas Education Evaluation Protocol is a pilot program being used in about two dozen districts statewide.

It is part of the state’s efforts to comply with the requirements of a federal waiver it received under the No Child Left Behind Act.

All school districts will have to implement some system of evaluation by the 2014-15 school year. Some may use the KEEP system, while other districts could use programs already in place.

State officials say the next step will be linking the evaluation system with student performance. A commission of teachers and administrators are working on that transition.

An Augusta woman was injured in a rollover accident in Ellsworth County Sunday around 1:47 pm.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 31-year-old Nichole L. Newman was westbound on Interstate 70 (3.3 miles west of K14)when her vehicle left the roadway, entered the median, and struck the crossover. The vehicle then rolled 1 time coming to rest on its wheels.

Newman was transported to Ellsworth County Hospital with injuries.

The central Kansas town of Buhler is redesigning its seal after a group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation complained that it contained a religious cross.

The Hutchinson News reports that the city also will replace a large sign in the city’s park that also contained a religious cross.

Mayor Daniel Friesen says city officials sought legal opinions from several different sources before making the decision to alter the seal.

Residents were informed of the decision in an email Friday. The cross has been part of the city’s seal since 1988.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a letter to the city in September. The organization argued that the sign violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The group said including the cross indicated government endorsement of Christianity.

Phill Kline’s attorney alleges that the court record in an ethics case may have been tainted by a research attorney fired for posting disparaging Twitter comments about the former Kansas attorney general.

Tom Condit wrote a letter the disciplinary administrator for the judicial branch asking for a review of all research attorneys working for judges and justices to determine whether there was bias.

Sarah Peterson-Herr was fired Nov. 19, four days after she posted comments about Kline as he appeared before the Kansas Supreme Court over alleged misconduct during his investigation of abortion providers.

A court spokesman declined to comment about Condit’s letter or what action, if any, the disciplinary administrator would take to address the concerns.

Cattle ranchers are looking for alternative ways to feed their animals this winter after one of the worst droughts in the nation’s history cut hay production.

Hay supplies are tight and prices are high.

At Debbie and Duane Blythes ranch in the parched Flint Hills cattle are grazing on the leafy tops of turnips the couple planted for them after cutting their winter wheat.

Their hay production is down, so they are also chopping up failed crops of corn and milo for silage. The plan to also feed straw mixed with higher quality feeds or supplements.

Dairy-quality alfalfa hay is now selling for about $260 to $285 a ton, although prices can go as high as $300 a ton. Stock cow-quality hay is now averaging about $260 a ton.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says fewer than expected registered voters cast provisional ballots in the Nov. 6 general election in response to the new state photo identification law.

The law requires voters to show a valid photo identification in order to receive a ballot and cast their vote. This was the first general election to require such proof of identity since the law was enacted in 2011.

Kobach says only 717 provisional ballots were cast because of photo ID issues out of the more than 1.11 million votes cast. That equates to about 0.6 percent of all ballots cast.

The Republican says voters are becoming more familiar with the law and its requirements, and the relatively few problems with photo identification are evidence of that.

An early morning fire that destroyed a northeast Kansas grain cooperative also damaged several downtown buildings and warped Union Pacific railroad tracks nearby.

KMAN reports the fire at the co-op in St. Marys started around 2 a.m. Friday. Pottawatomie County fire supervisor Bruce Brazzle says the blaze appears suspicious because the co-op was in the process of being demolished and there was no power to the building.

Brazzle says several businesses along Main Street sustained melted windows and roof damage that could cost millions of dollars to fix, but no estimates were immediately available.

A husband and wife were walking their dog along a gravel road in Sedgwick County when a truck hit the woman and the dog, killing them both.

Sgt. Jeff Ohmart, of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department, says the 28-year-old driver was headed south Wednesday night when he saw man and woman walking south in the middle of the road. The driver told authorities he tried to swerve to miss them.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the 52-year-old woman and the animal were killed instantly.

The woman’s husband and the driver were unhurt. Their identities have not been released.

Ohmart says there’s no indication the driver was speeding or impaired.

A Wichita convenience store robbery turns deadly after a clerk shoots one of the suspects.

The Wichita Eagle reports two armed men entered KC Gas & Groceries shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday and encountered an armed clerk, who shot one of them.

Police arrived to find a man lying on the floor of the store. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 7:43 p.m.

The same store was robbed less than a week before, but police aren’t saying whether it was related to the one Thursday.

In the earlier robbery, the store’s clerk had just closed up for the night when he was approached by two armed men who ordered him back into the store. The robbers cleaned out the cash register and fled on foot.