The Kansas Senate has approved a measure that adds protections for victims of stalking and domestic violence.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Kansas Senate this week approved a version of the measure that the House passed earlier. The bill now heads to conference committee.
The bill would make violations of protection from stalking and protection from abuse orders a level 6 felony. Such crimes are now misdemeanors. The measure also would allow judges to extend the length of time that protection orders are valid, up to life. Orders are now valid for up to one year, and victims have to reapply every year.
KBI deputy director Kyle Smith, who helped write the bill, said a new law would be a welcome change for victims and advocates.
Each day during legislative session, Rep. Eber Phelps presents his update here on Hays Post and also on 14 KAYS AM after the noon news, brought to you by the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce.
Rep. Eber Phelps Day 68, 2012 (March 21, 2012) Day 68,2012
Viaero Wireless is joining with local businesses to bring you the Viaero Pot of Gold scavenger hunt.
Throughout the month of March, participating businesses will be announced on 101.9 the Country Bull and the Viaero Show & Tell page on hayspost.com. Collect 12 pieces of gold from the participating businesses to qualify for a chance to win great prizes including a Nintendo Wii & Gold Accessory Bundle, Chamber Bucks, and gift certificates to local businesses.
Print your pot of gold worksheet or pick one up at Viaero Wireless, 2703 Vine Street.
Pick Up Your Piece At….
Top Notch Cleaners
201 W. 8th Street Hays
(785) 628-3952
Dena Patee with the Ellis Alliance updated the county commission this week on some of the projects undertaken by the organization. Patee says they recently received grant funding for a walking trail.
A new travel brochure has been designed through a job shadow program with the high school, and the Alliance has taken over as director of the Chrysler Museum. Patee says the museum is now open Tuesday through Saturday, and they plan to add staff to increase the hours it is open and add Sundays.
An eastern Kansas man who pleaded no contest to sexually abusing a child will serve at least 25 years of a life sentence before he qualifies for parole.
Duane Francis Brannan, 33, received the maximum term allowed by state law at his sentencing Monday in Franklin County District Court. Four other counts were dropped in exchange for the Ottawa man’s plea last month to a single count.
Brannan’s victim — an 8-year-old girl — calmly answered questions from a prosecutor before the judge pronounced the sentence. The girl, who was known to Brannan, also read a statement and told Brannan he had made her “very sad.”
The girl was joined in court by family members and about 15 members of the group Bikers Against Child Abuse.
A woman who abducted an 81-year-old woman outside a northeast Kansas grocery store and forced her to withdraw money from banks is going to prison.
A Johnson County judge on Tuesday sentenced 24-year-old Sarah Nicole Zaragoza to 11 years. It’s the same sentence given earlier to her female co-defendant in the August 2010 crime.
Edna Wells was in the courtroom to see the second of her kidnappers sentenced.
The women grabbed Wells at knifepoint outside a Shawnee supermarket and forced her to drive around Johnson County withdrawing money from ATMs. The episode ended when Wells decided to drive to a bank where they had to go inside to get money. She mouthed the word “help” to a teller and her kidnappers took off.
At least a few wheat farmers in the Upper Midwest are taking advantage of the unusually mild and dry winter to start planting in mid-March.
While there’s still a chance of a bad frost, they’re taking a calculated risk that the early start will let them reap a bigger crop this summer.
Mike Bergeron started sowing wheat on his farm near Fisher, Minn., on St. Patrick’s Day. One week earlier, he was still snowmobiling. He says he and his business partner have already planted 450 acres on their way to 1,200.
Experts say the early start is as rare as it sounds, but the gamble may pay off.
Corn and soybean farmers are still sitting tight, however. Early planting doesn’t normally benefit their crops, which are more vulnerable to frost.
A deep low will lift very slowly northward across the central Plains region though Thursday night.
During this period, cloudy, cool and wet conditions can be expected across western and central Kansas. The potential will exist for much of western Kansas to receive between one half of an inch to one inch or more of rainfall though Thursday.
The unstable air mass will also allow the possibility of a few isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms during the afternoon Wednesday and Thursday.
Today: Periods of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 7am. High near 54. North wind 11 to 16 mph becoming east southeast. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tonight: Showers, mainly before 5am. Low around 39. South wind between 6 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Thursday: A 40 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. East northeast wind between 6 and 11 mph.
Thursday Night: A chance of showers, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 36. North northwest wind between 6 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 65. Northwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 42.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 73.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 49.
Fort Hays State defeated Bethany College (Kan.) in a single non-conference game by a score of 16-5 on Tuesday (Mar. 20) at Larks Park in Hays, Kan. The win improves FHSU to 6-10 overall on the season and pushes its winning streak to four games.
The Tiger bats put the game away early with six runs in the first and five in the second, leading 11-2 after two innings. FHSU tagged Bethany starter Boston Draper for nine runs, all earned, in 1.1 innings of work.
FHSU starting pitcher Alex Ellison left the game with an arm injury after throwing just three pitches. Kyle Leroy entered in relief and allowed two runs in his two innings of work. Leroy picked up the win to move to 1-0 on the season. He allowed four hits, struck out two, and walked one. Also seeing relief appearances in the game for FHSU were Jesse Hart, Nathan Zimmerman, Tayler Davis, Matt Patzner and Logan Downing. Davis, Patzner, and Downing did not allow a run over the last four innings of work.
Four FHSU players recorded three hits in the game, which included Nash Smith, Brandon Hoefler, Ryan Busboom and JC Ochoa. Smith, Anthony Salinas and Jay Sanders all tied with a team-high three RBI. Busboom recorded two RBI and Ochoa, Hoefler, and Shane Wade all had one.
The Tigers had five doubles in the game, led by Salinas with two. Busboom, Ochoa, and Sanders all had one. The 13 other hits collected by the Tigers were all singles. FHSU had a total of 18 hits in the game.
Fort Hays State now prepares for a four-game conference weekend series in Hays against the No. 1 ranked team in NCAA Division II, Central Missouri. The Mules enter the weekend at 16-1 overall and 11-1 in the MIAA. Fort Hays State is 4-7 in the MIAA, coming off a three-game sweep at Lincoln University this past weekend in Jefferson City, Mo.
The Kansas House has given first-round approval to a congressional redistricting bill keeping the Kansas City area in a single district rather than splitting it between two.
House members advanced the measure on a voice vote Tuesday after substituting their favored plan for one drafted by House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican.
The House expects to take final action Wednesday.
The measure would cut southeast Kansas in half, putting Pittsburg in the 4th District with Wichita, about 150 miles away.
The O’Neal plan would have split the Kansas City area between two districts. It would have put much of Wyandotte County, with urban Kansas City neighborhoods, into the 1st Congressional District of western and central Kansas with rural communities more than 400 miles away.
A federal judge has refused to issue a gag order in a lawsuit accusing a Kansas military school of allowing older students to abuse younger ones in the name of discipline.
Lawyers for St. John’s Military School in Salina sought to bar the parties from talking publicly about the case.
But U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum said Tuesday a trial is still more than a year away, so that pretrial publicity likely wouldn’t taint the prospective jury pool.
The lawsuit by parents of four former cadets contends the school allows and encourages abuse of younger students by older ones.
St. John’s has settled nine similar lawsuits since 2006. The school’s lawyer says the motion for a gag order was an attempt to keep the case from being tried in the media.
A lot of the quality-of-life amenities in Hays are funded in part by local service organizations.
The Hays Lions Club has paid for improvements to Dan Rupp Park, and makes regular donations to the Community Assistance Center, 4-H, Hays Striders and Boy and Girl Scouts. A large part of the club’s fundraising comes from their annual pancake feed.
This was the fourth year for member Dee Bodine to be in charge of the event. They hire “The Pancake Man,” Jim Kupar from Iowa, to actually make the pancakes. Everything else, says Bodine, is done by the Lions members themselves.
Last Tuesday was the Hays Lions Club 34th annual Standlee Dalton Sausage and Pancake Feed and Broom Sale. The Hays club was organized in 1925.
See more tonight on Street Beat, Eagle Community TV Channel 14.
The Kansas Senate has approved a measure that adds protections for victims of stalking and domestic violence.
