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Tracking NBAF: National Bio And Agro-Defense Facility Takes Shape In Kansas

In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to replace the old Plum Island Animal Disease Center off Long Island with a facility on the U.S. mainland to study Foot and Mouth Disease and other dangerous pathogens. Kansas won the job in 2008, with a site on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan.But today, more than three years later, the proposed $1.14 billion National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility faces funding obstacles, safety questions, rising costs and political fallout. For Kansas and the Midwest, the stakes couldn’t be higher.Here you’ll find coverage and updates from Harvest Public Media, KCUR and Kansas Public Media.

Indictment Handed Down For Alleged Embezzlement At K-State

KCUR | By Laura Ziegler

Published September 25, 2013 at 8:24 AM CDT

The former office manager for an animal disease research lab at Kansas State University faces a maximum of 10 years in jail and $750,000 in fines if convicted of embezzling federal funds.

Linda Kay Miller, 51, of Alma, Kan. has been indicted on charges of signing federal grant monies over to her own bank account. The funds were to go for research at the Biosecurity Research Center in Pat Roberts Hall at K-State.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Miller allegedly made herself the payee of checks totaling about $13,000.

"The institute would receive grant money from federal programs that was supposed to be used to provide research into infectious disease, threats to livestock, human health, plants, things of that nature," said Grissom.

Miller managed the offices for a BRI research lab from 2007 until 2013, when the FBI began investigating financial irregularities.

The Biosecurity Research Center is a level 3 animal disease lab that has special capabilities that allow it to study large animals. The BRI is designed to work in tandem with the proposed billion dollar National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, up a small hill from the BRI.