A Democrat in the Kansas House faces an investigation into whether he intentionally misled colleagues during a debate last month on property tax legislation.
Twenty-six House Republicans filed a complaint Tuesday with the chamber’s chief clerk against Rep. Jim Ward, of Wichita. House rules require that a committee be appointed to investigate, but Ward says there was no wrongdoing.
The Republicans want the House to consider removing Ward from his seat.
The GOP lawmakers contend Ward misled them about an amendment he offered to a bill imposing a cap on local property taxes.
Ward says Republicans didn’t read the text of his amendment, which provided $45 million to local governments for property tax relief.
The House passed the bill with Ward’s amendment, but reversed course a few days later.
The Fort Hays State baseball team fell by a score of 6-5 to Tabor College on Tuesday at Larks Park in Hays. Down 6-0 after six innings, a late rally by the Tigers came up short, dropping the Tigers to 2-6 on the young season.
Double plays in the early innings killed several potential rallies by the Tigers, as Tabor methodically opened up its lead with one run in the second, three in the third, one in the fifth, and one in the sixth. The decisive run in the sixth, which scored on a throwing error by the Tigers that would have ended the inning, proved costly.
FHSU capitalized on an error by the Blue Jays in the seventh for its first run. After a Ryan Busboom double to lead off the inning, the Tabor pitcher uncorked a throw on a failed pick-off attempt at second to allow Busboom to get to third. J.C. Ochoa drove him in on a ground ball.
The Tigers took advantage of Tabor’s second error of the game in the eighth. With the bases loaded, the second baseman committed a fielding error off the bat of Mace Krol that allowed all runners to be safe, making the score 6-2. Busboom then cleared the bases with his second-straight double to make it 6-5 with one out. However, Matt Lambert entered the game to pitch and shut the door on FHSU, inducing a pop up and ground out to the next two Tiger hitters.
Lambert worked around a Sheldon Howell single and stolen base in the ninth for his second save of the season and gave Tabor (10-3) the win. Anthony Mendoza picked up the win in three innings of relief for the Blue Jays after starter Brian Kowal went just four innings.
Fort Hays State goes on the road for 4-game conference series’ at Missouri Southern and Lincoln the next two weekends before returning home on March 20 against Bethany College.
A cold front will move through the region today, providing much cooler temperatures than compared to yesterday.
Overnight thunderstorms are possible this evening across south central Kansas. Otherwise, expect increasing clouds today.
Freezing drizzle, drizzle, and perhaps light snow is possible Thursday through Saturday with little in the way of any accumulation.
Today: Partly sunny, with a temperature falling to around 42 by 5pm. North northwest wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.
Tonight: A slight chance of rain before 1am, then a slight chance of rain, freezing rain, and sleet between 1am and 4am, then a slight chance of rain or freezing rain after 4am. Cloudy, with a low around 30. Blustery, with a north northeast wind between 18 and 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Thursday: A slight chance of drizzle or freezing drizzle. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 49. North northeast wind between 16 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Thursday Night: A slight chance of drizzle or freezing drizzle before 7pm, then a slight chance of snow and freezing drizzle between 7pm and 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 29. North northeast wind between 6 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. North wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east southeast.
Friday Night: A slight chance of rain and snow. Partly cloudy, with a low around 33. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
The Fort Hays State softball team went into windy Goodwell, Okla., on Tuesday afternoon and swept a doubleheader against Panhandle State. The Tigers scored 25 runs and pounded out 29 hits in the two games, winning by scores of 10-2 and 15-7. FHSU is now 11-5 on the year and they will play another doubleheader on Wednesday at Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford, Okla.
Game 1: Fort Hays State 10, Panhandle State 2 Taylor Nelson hit a solo home run to lead off the first game and put the Tigers ahead 1-0. Both offenses would go stagnant until the fifth inning, when Nelson struck again, this time with an RBI single which scored pinch-runner Yasnava Susoeff. After FHSU added an insurance run in the top of the 6th, Panhandle State mounted their lone offensive attack, scoring two runs in the bottom of the inning on consecutive sacrifice flies.
Fort Hays State put the game away in the top of the seventh inning, when another solo shot from Nelson started a seven-run inning which included five hits and was aided by one Panhandle State error. Amanda Vaupel, Chelsey Rottinhaus and Christine Moses all had RBI singles in the inning, while Nelson came back around to bat and hit a sac fly.
Maddie Holub picked up the win for the Tigers, pitching a complete game and striking out nine batters while allowing four hits and two earned runs. Holub improved to 6-4 with the win and has now struck out 99 batters on the year.
Game 2: Fort Hays State 15, Panhandle State 7 OPSU jumped on top early, scoring two runs in both the first and second innings and leading 4-2 going into the third. That was when the Tigers would make their move, getting a three-run home run to left center from Adriana Wortley followed by a solo shot from Callie Wright three batters later.
The Aggies would tie the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the fourth inning before FHSU put up five runs in the fifth to blow the game open. The Tigers added four more insurance runs in the top of the seventh to put the game away.
Fort Hays State had 17 hits in the game, compared to 16 by OPSU, but the Tigers were aided by six Aggie errors and claimed a 15-7 victory.
Kaitlyn Shattleroe pitched the final 3.1 innings to pick up the victory for Fort Hays State. Shattleroe is now 5-0 on the season after allowing four hits and one run in this outing.
A new independent living apartment complex is being built in northeast Hays.
Phase I of Ellis Estates, comprised of 12 apartment units, will be located on East 33rd Street, west of Sundance Apartments.
Each two-bedroom, 1,300-square-foot unit will be wheelchair and scooter-accessible.
It’s a project by Bainter Construction Services of Hoxie. Owner Wes Bainter hopes the first phase will be ready for occupancy by the end of the year. Phase 2 will add 20 more apartments.
The housing is aimed at the seniors market, those who are selling their homes and downsizing.
A crew working on a Kansas Department of Transportation road maintenance project started a grass fire in Graham County Monday afternoon. The fire started at3pm and was extinguished around 2am Tuesday, after burning an area about six miles by three miles. The crew was sealing cracks on Highway 24 about five miles east of Hill City.
A farm house received some damage, along with hay bales, fence posts and utility poles. KDOT is trying to identify any other damage caused by the fire. Anyone who thinks their property was damaged is encouraged to call KDOT’s Office of Chief Counsel.
Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing has agreed to pay a civil penalty and install new pollution controls and processes to settle alleged environmental violations at its Kansas refinery.
The settlement announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency includes a $970,000 fine. It also requires the Coffeyville refinery to put in $4.25 million in upgraded pollution controls and $6.5 million in operating costs.
Regulators say the improvements are designed to benefit the environment and protect the health of residents living near the facility.
The agreement includes more stringent emission limits and more aggressive leak detection and repair practices.
Environmental regulators say sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitted from refineries can cause health problems and contribute to acid rain, smog and haze.
An executive with the Canadian company seeking to build an oil pipeline across the United States to the Texas Gulf Coast says a new route around Nebraska’s environmentally sensitive Sandhills region will be ready within weeks.
TransCanada’s president of energy and oil pipelines Alex Pourbaix said Tuesday the company plans to resubmit its permit request to the U.S. State Department. He also says construction of the southern tier of the Keystone XL pipeline, which doesn’t require a special permit, will begin by late spring or early summer.
Pourbaix spoke at a panel discussion at an energy conference in Houston.
He says the southern tier of the pipeline from Cushing, Okla., through Texas will help relieve but not completely eliminate a bottleneck at Midwest refineries.
A 15-year-old suspect in the shooting death of a Manhattan teenager has pleaded not guilty.
Cole Drake entered the plea Monday to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the death of 14-year-old Tyler Dowling. Drake is being tried as an adult.
Dowling, a Manhattan High School freshman, was found dead last April in a field. Drake is also accused of taking items from Dowling, including his cell phone.
The Manhattan Mercury reports Drake’s bond was set at $500,000.
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Several Fort Hays State University organizations are hosting a free self-defense workshop this weekend. The workshop is to teach basic self-defense training to help people better protect themselves.
The workshop is open to men and women. High school participants must have a signed liability waiver from a parent or guardian. The workshop is Saturday from 9:30 to 12:30 at Cunningham Hall. To sign up or for more information contact the Women’s Leadership Project at Fort Hays State.
A Democrat in the Kansas House faces an investigation into whether he intentionally misled colleagues during a debate last month on property tax legislation.
