The warming trend which will begin late this week will continue through the weekend period. On Saturday and Sunday the afternoon highs are expected to generally average between 8-14 degrees above the seasonal normals.
In addition there will also be a chance for a few late afternoon or early evening thunderstorms north of Garden City to Pratt line.
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light wind becoming east between 10 and 13 mph.
Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 62. East southeast wind between 9 and 11 mph.
She’s one of the youngest directors of a twirl academy. Sixteen-year-old Shelby Schumacher started the Hays Twirl Academy a year ago, and already her young students are winning awards. Shelby herself has multiple national awards; she’s been twirling since age 2. She’s practicing for her sixth appearance in the national competition at Notre Dame in late July. Shelby is the featured twirler for the Hays High School marching band. She and her 12 summer class students will march in Saturday’s Wild West Festival Parade in downtown Hays.
An Almena man was killed in a head-on collision Wednesday morning on Highway 36 two miles west of Phillipsburg.
The Highway Patrol says 20-year-old Jacob Gallentine was eastbound and his car drifted left of center striking a westbound minivan. Gallentine died at the Phillipsburg hospital.
The driver of the van, 32-year-old Piper Ladow of Smith Center was flown to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney. Her two passengers were not seriously injured. The accident closed Highway 36 for a short time Wednesday morning.
A Dodge City school board member has been appointed to a 13-member KPERS study commission. Brian Winter operates Winter Livestock Company.
The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System faces a long-term 8 billion dollar shortfall. In naming his four appointees Monday, Governor Sam Brownback also reiterated his desire to move toward a 401(k)-style plan for all new state employees and added that he will make that a top priority of his administration when the Legislature meets next year. In addition to Winters, Brownback appointed Edward Condon, Leawood; Christopher Long, Mission Hills; Paul Seyferth, Fairview; and Richard Stumpf, Wichita, to the commission. KPERS, which provides pensions for teachers and public employees, projects a $7.7 billion long-term shortfall between revenues and promised benefits. More than 130,000 teachers and government workers currently are paying into the system.
Approximately 40 people attended a community visioning meeting Tuesday night as a component of the comprehensive plan development process. Consultant Amy Haase says right now they are collecting information on goals and principles. Haase talked to the group about creating a community with a common vision.
The six tables worked on developing objectives for six goals that have already been identified. More public workshops will be held in September to further define the vision.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) – Police in Hutchinson are asking the public’s help in solving last week’s shooting death of a 27-year-old woman in her home.
Jennifer Heckel was home with her 5-year-old son in northwest Hutchinson when she was shot twice. It was the city’s first homicide of the year.
Police Lt. Marty Robertson told The Hutchinson News that officers have questioned several people but have not identified a suspect or a motive. All nine of the department’s detectives are involved in the investigation.
Police say Heckel’s husband was out of town when the shooting occurred. They also say no sexual assault is suspected, and the death did not appear to be an accident.
Doors to the home were unlocked, and police say there’s no sign that anything was stolen from the house.
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Information from: The Hutchinson News, https://www.hutchnews.com
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
While the Ellis County Commission is making plans to purchase the Commerce Bank building, the commissioners are not looking to disband the space needs committee. Some committee members have expressed their desire to continue their work. Meanwhile Commissioner Glenn Diehl approached community corrections about possibly moving into the courthouse.
With clients meeting at night or on the weekends, community corrections is concerned about having meeting space secured from the rest of the building. Diehl says the Juvenile Justice office would be willing to move after the county offices relocate.
A project to seal K-18 in Graham County began yesterday. The project starts at the Rooks County line and will progress west six miles to the US-24 junction. Contractors will then perform the same work on US-24 east 24 miles to Stockton. During the construction, traffic will be reduced to one lane guided by a pilot car. The project should be finished next week.
Luke Hochevar cruised early then gave up three runs in the seventh as the Arizona Diamondbacks pull away late for a 7-2 win over the Royals in Kansas City Tuesday night.
Hochevar was nearly untouchable through the first four innings retiring the first eleven and 13 of the first 14 he faced. He then gave up single runs in the fifth and sixth before the big Arizona seventh. The Diamondbacks added two more runs in the eighth.
Alex Gordon had three of the Royals six hits and was single shy of the cycle. He followed up his leadoff home run in the first with a double in the third. He drove in Kansas City’s other run with a triple off the top of the wall in right field in the seventh inning.
Jeff Francis pitches tonight for Kansas City with Royals pre-game at 6:35pm on KAYS.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration is preparing for public forums on overhauling the Medicaid program in Kansas in hopes of controlling the costs of health care for the needy.
The first of three forums is Wednesday afternoon in Topeka. Events also are scheduled for July 7 in Wichita and July 8 in Dodge City.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, who’s leading the team on Medicaid in Brownback’s administration, says it also plans to have a forum later this summer in the Kansas City area.
Brownback has said repeatedly that he wants to both control costs and improve services for the poor, disabled and elderly. Medicaid spending is expected to near $3 billion during the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Colyer says his team hopes to draft proposals by early fall.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A 16-year-old boy has been charged in the weekend shooting death of another teenager in Wichita.
The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office says the boy was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter, criminal possession of a firearm by a juvenile and minor in possession of alcohol.
Spokeswoman Georgia Cole says court records do not indicate that the suspect will be tried as an adult.
The Wichita Eagle reports that court records identify the victim of Saturday night’s shooting as 16-year-old Nathaniel “Texas” Terrell. The records say he was accidentally shot in the lower chest with a .357 magnum revolver at a Wichita home.
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Information from: The Wichita Eagle, https://www.kansas.com
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
The Hays Larks rally from an early three-run deficit, pulling away with big sixth and seventh innings to defeat Dodge City 11-5 at Larks Park on Tuesday night.
The A’s grab an early 3-0 lead in the first before the Larks started to rally. The Larks trailed 4-2 in the third when Yavapai’s Ethan Leiter hit a three-run homer with two outs to give the Larks their first lead at 5-4.
Dodge City tied the game at 5 in the top of the sixth with a solo homer off reliever Jon Ryan. However, Hays pushes four across in the bottom of the inning, with Chandler-Gilbert’s Elvin Rodriguez, Eastern Oklahoma’s Aaron Cornell and Vanguard’s Sean Wilson all driving home runs. The Larks would add two more in the seventh for the 11-5 margin.
Ryan picks up the win in relief for the Larks. Hays is now 10-4 on the season and winners of four straight. The Larks are 7-3 in the Jayhawk League. The two teams meet again Wednesday night in Dodge City.
The speed limit on rural stretches of Kansas interstate highways, as well as segments of two U.S. routes, will be boosted to 75 miles per hour.
The 75-mph routes include:
• I-70 from the Colorado state line to just west of Topeka in Shawnee County.
• I-135 from a half-mile north of the 85th Street interchange in Harvey County to I-70 near Salina.
• I-35 from U.S. 50 just east of Emporia to a mile east of the Sunflower/Edgerton Interchange in Johnson County.
• U.S. 81 from I-70 near Salina north to K-106.
• U.S. 69 from just six-tenths of a mile north of the north junction of U.S. 54 in Bourbon County to the 199th Street Interchange in Johnson County.
• The Kansas Turnpike from the Oklahoma state line to K-7 in Wyandotte County.
The new maximum speed limit was passed by the 2011 Legislature, authorizing the Secretary of Transportation to consider any separated, multilane highway for the new speed limit. All of the routes chosen for the increased speed limit are freeways, which have controlled access and interchanges. No expressways, which have at-grade intersections with cross traffic, were selected. A total of 807 miles of roadway will have the 75-mph speed limit.
“These routes were selected by a task force made up of KDOT representatives and the Kansas Highway Patrol. The Kansas Turnpike Authority has also approved the speed limit changes,” said Chris Herrick, director of KDOT’s Division of Planning and Development and a member of the task force.
“We considered a number of factors, such as traffic volumes, crash history and roadway geometrics, to determine where to raise the limit. We will continue to monitor these routes under the new speed limit and consider whether it makes sense to increase the maximum speed on other highways.”
Among the other factors considered were whether the road was in a rural or urban area, the amount of commuter traffic it carries and the speed limit in surrounding states.
KDOT will begin the process of affixing aluminum overlays with the new 75-mph speed limit to the existing 70-mph signs on Thursday, June 30. However, it will not be legal to travel at 75-mph until the new law takes effect on July 1. Starting the process a day before the law takes effect will allow KDOT crews to have most, if not all, of the signs updated before the start of the holiday travel weekend.
The warming trend which will begin late this week will continue through the weekend period. On Saturday and Sunday the afternoon highs are expected to generally average between 8-14 degrees above the seasonal normals.
