12 Noon update Dr. Kelly Welch, renowned professor at K-State, has offered a statement about her husband David Welch. Mr. Welch has been missing since September 2nd.
“Dave, Sweetheart, if you see or hear this…..just know that we are all here waiting with open arms for you to return. I know you’re hurting….but we’re a great team, you and me, and we’ve weathered worse storms than what you’re going through now. After 37 years together, you’re half my heart and right now I can only take it minute by minute. I need you home. The grandbaby needs her Papa home. WE LOVE YOU. Please, please, please come back to us.”
Please contact Riley County Police Department by phone at (785) 537-2112 with any information. RCPD is treating the situation as a normal missing person’s case, and no foul play is thought to be involved.
(AP) — An assistant professor at Kansas State University is asking for the public’s help to locate her husband, who hasn’t been seen since Sept. 2.
Kelly Welch, with the university’s Department of Family Studies and Human Services, posted on Twitter Tuesday night that her husband, Dave Welch, has not had his medication and might be suffering from dementia.
He was driving a maroon 2000 Pontiac Montana with the Kansas tag number 577 FLR when he was last seen.
Riley County Officer Matthew Droge says police determined Dave Welch was not a crime victim and he had not done anything illegal by leaving. His name has been added to a national law enforcement database for missing people.
Watch the live town hall meeting from Washington DC today and participate on Twitter (tweet to @conversations using #CWC113)
Participating Members at the September 2013 session of Conversations with Conservatives include: Rep. Tim Huelskamp (KS-01), Rep. Raúl Labrador(ID-01), Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04), Rep. Justin Amash (MI-03), Rep. Michael Burgess (TX-26), Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06), Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Rep. Tom Graves (GA-14), Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04), and Rep. Ted Yoho (FL-03). Additional participants may be announced.
Conversations with Conservatives is a group of free market and liberty-minded members of Congress that meets monthly with traditional press and bloggers to discuss the most important issues of the day. Chaired by Representatives Tim Huelskamp (KS-01), Raúl Labrador (ID-01), and Jim Jordan (OH-04), each meeting features different conservative members of Congress who share their ideas and field questions from the media. While questions are not limited to particular topics, Members are expected to discuss the Continuing Resolution, debt ceiling strategy, Syria, and immigration reform, as well as other issues!
Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01), co-sponsor of H.R. 2542 the “Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2013,” announces the passage of the bill through
Congressman Tim Huelskamp
the Small Business Committee. This bill will subject all federal agency rulemaking to scrutiny from small business review panels to study both direct and indirect costs of new regulations on small businesses.
According to the Heritage Foundation, during President Obama’s first term in office, the annual regulatory burden on the economy increased by $70 billion. In 2012 alone, the President’s team put forward 2,605 new rules. Of those new rules 69 cost more than $100 million, but only two rules actually decreased regulations.
“When Washington bureaucrats hand down a regulation telling a magician he needs to have a disaster response plan for his rabbit, it is clear that the federal government has some explaining to do. That is why I co-sponsored H.R. 2542. Small businesses deserve to know how government agencies, like the EPA, make regulatory decisions that impact them, and they should be given that information in a timely manner,” said Congressman Huelskamp.
Congressman Huelskamp proposed an amendment to increase transparency in the rulemaking process. The Huelskamp amendment gives small businesses the ability to access all of the information used in evaluating small business costs. The amendment passed easily through the Small Business Committee by voice vote.
Huelskamp continued: “Washington has long been known for its secrecy and this bill will begin to open the doors for more transparency. This legislation will send a message to Executive branch agencies that they better be prepared to disclose what they took under consideration when deciding to propose a regulation, and how they arrived at their decision. Small businesses are vital to Kansas, and this bill will help them in their struggle with Washington over regulation.”
John Maday, Managing Editor, Drovers CattleNetwork
Results of research in the United Kingdom suggest using E. coli vaccines in cattle could reduce the incidence of human sickness from E. coli O157 by as much as 85 percent.
Their research report, titled “Predicting the public health benefit of vaccinating cattle against Escherichia coli O157,” is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The authors note that E. coli O157, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal gastrointestinal illness, is difficult to control, partly due to poor understanding of of transmission dynamics across species boundaries. Vaccines for E. coli O157 in cattle are available but not widely used for a number of reasons:
Conflicting responsibilities of veterinary and public health agencies.
Economic drivers.
Clinical trials cannot easily test interventions across species boundaries.
Lack of information on the public health benefits.
The researchers examined transmission risk across the cattle–human species boundary and found three key results.
Supershedding of the pathogen by cattle is associated with the genetic marker stx2.
By quantifying the link between shedding density in cattle and human risk, we show that only the relatively rare supershedding events contribute significantly to human risk.
This finding has profound consequences for the public health benefits of the cattle vaccine.
“A naïve evaluation based on efficacy in cattle would suggest a 50 percent reduction in risk,” the authors note. “However, because the vaccine targets the major source of human risk, we predict a reduction in human cases of nearly 85 percent. By accounting for nonlinearities in transmission across the human–animal interface, we show that adoption of these vaccines by the livestock industry could prevent substantial numbers of human E. coli O157 cases.”
The TMP-Marian homecoming parade on Friday begins at 5:20 p.m. They will play Larned at 7 p.m. at Lewis Field.
Below is the 2013 TMP-Marian High School Homecoming royalty. Photo and names courtesy of TMP-Marian High School.
L to R Bottom Row Samantha Younie, daughter of Phil Younie and Chris Werth; Samantha Whitmer, daughter of Jennifer (Frank) and the late Richard Whitmer; Kayla Walker, daughter of Brian and Vicky (Taylor) Walker; Jena Ernsting, daughter of Treva Benoit, Hays and Guy Ernsting; Mikaela Flax, daughter of Tim and Michele Flax Top Row Levi Dreiling, son of Keith and Pam Dreiling; Grant Romme, son of Galen and Cindy Romme; Adam Schibi, son of Eric and Kelly (Feauto) Schibi ; Roy Schmeidler, son of Gary and Liz Schmeidler; Skyler Urban, son of Steve and Brenda Urban
10:15 a.m. You can follow Wescott’s walk on Twitter @Needle2square or via his web site needle2square.com
7:45 a.m. The man and his goat are on a long journey from Seattle to New York. Luke Pechanec of Ellis told Hays Post that the man’s name is Steve Wescott. The
Wescott and his goat as they approach the 183 Bypass just before 10 a.m. Thursday
pair stopped in Ellis on Wednesday and visited with a few people.
Wescott began his journey on May 2 with his goat, LeeRoy Brown.
They are walking to raise awareness and funds for Uzima Outreach and Intervention, an organization dedicated to reaching out and helping those suffering from substance addiction and street children in Kawangware slum, in Nairobi, Kenya, through Christian outreach and support. Wescott hopes to raise $200,000 over his 3,000 mile journey to build an orphanage.
They walk each day until they are tired. Wescott’s Twitter account says they walked 15 miles on Tuesday. They will be in Hays later this morning.
6:30 a.m. Have you seen him? This man and his goat were last seen on Old Highway 40 walking from Ellis to Hays around 6 pm Wednesday. Where is he going? How far has he walked?
(AP) House Republicans vowed Wednesday to pass legislation that would prevent a partial government shutdown and avoid a historic national default while simultaneously canceling out President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, inaugurating a new round of political brinkmanship as critical deadlines approach.
Given the differences, it is unclear how long it will take Congress and the White House to clear the measures, and how close the government will come to a partial shutdown or a market-rattling default over the next three weeks.
The Kansas Insurance Department will conduct a series of public health insurance informational meetings on Monday in Hays.
The meetings are part of a series of statewide presentations in September and October to help people understand about health insurance changes coming to Kansas.
Sandy Praeger, Commissioner of Insurance, and Linda Sheppard, the KID health policy director and special counsel, will conduct the meetings.
The first meeting will be at 2:00 p.m. at the Hays Medical Center Hadley Conference Rooms. The second meeting is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Fort Hays State University Memorial Union Ballroom.
The presentation and question and answer time at each meeting will last approximately two hours.
Driver Ramie Wasinger is one of the parent volunteers stacking wood for tonight’s TMP-Marian homecoming bonfire
Volunteers are busy this morning collecting and placing 750 wood pallets that will become tonight’s Homecoming 2013 bonfire at Thomas More Prep-Marian.
Most of the volunteer stackers are parents of TMP seniors.
Steve Urban, whose son Skyler is a homecoming king candidate and STUCO secretary, is directing power-lift driver Ramie Wasinger, to the pallets stacked on a long trailer:
Wasinger then drives the bright yellow fork lift close to a depression in the ground where TMP students, alumni and friends will gather around the bonfire to celebrate the kickoff of homecoming weekend.
Steve Urban directs lift driver Ramie Wasinger toward a stack of wood pallets
“We have 750 pallets for the fire,” says Urban. “That’s all the Hays Fire Department will allow us to use.”
The pallets, along with most of the pickups, trailers and power-lifts, have been donated by Hays businesses.
The blessing of fall sports and activities, pep rally and introduction of the 2013 homecoming candidates starts at 7p.m. in Al Billinger Fieldhouse followed by the bonfire.
(AP) — A Kansas man has been convicted of killing his wife and injuring his son in a house fire in October 2011.
Twenty-six-year-old Brett Bollinger of Fort Scott was found guilty Wednesday in Bourbon County of felony murder, aggravated arson and aggravated child endangerment.
His wife, Brenna Nicole Bollinger, was found dead after a fire at the couple’s home on Oct. 13, 2011. Their 2-year-old son, Bryson Bollinger, was hospitalized for treatment of burns for about a month after the fire. Bollinger also suffered serious burns in the fire.
Kansas has its first certified health insurance marketplace navigator.
Craig Chronister, an eligibility worker at the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. (Photo courtesy KHI News)
He’s Craig Chronister, an eligibility worker at the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas.
“I’ve completed the training,” Chronister said Wednesday. “It was good. I feel like I’m prepared for whatever’s going to happen.”
Starting Oct. 1, he’ll be one of about 250 navigators who are expected to begin helping Kansans enroll in plans available through the new health insurance marketplace, a key element of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Chronister said his online training course took several hours to complete.
“It wasn’t necessarily hard or what I’d call boring,” he said. “But it wasn’t something you could breeze through in an afternoon. I took me the better part of two or three days.”
His goal now, he said, is “to help people find their way through the system, whether it’s online or on paper.”
Coverage obtained through the marketplace or exchange will be effective Jan. 1, 2014.
The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas is a member of the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved, which is leading a consortium of state organizations that recently was awarded a $525,000 grant for helping the public understand the mandates in the Affordable Care Act and take advantage of the marketplace.
The consortium’s members:
Kansas Hospital Education and Research Foundation
Kansas Insurance Department
Kansas Association of Local Health Departments
Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas
Kansas Association of Area Agencies on Aging and Disabilities
“As of late Monday, we had 185 people who’d signed up to be navigators,” said KAMU Executive Director Cathy Harding. “And more are still coming in.”
All but a few of the applicants, she said, already work for the consortium’s members.
“In one county, it may be somebody with the local health department,” Harding said. “In another county, it may be somebody at the mental health center or the hospital or safety-net clinic. It’s all over the map, literally.”
The consortium, she said, is focusing most of its attention on getting the current crop of would-be navigators through the process.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Harding said. “So at this point we’re doing everything we can to get them trained and certified as quickly as we can. Once that’s out of the way — probably around Oct. 1 — we’ll start on the next phase, which will include expansion.
“We don’t want to limit this in any way,” she said. “It’s just that we have to get this initial group taken care of first.”
Harding encouraged anyone interested in becoming a navigator to send an email to Debbie Berndsen, who’s overseeing the consortium’s recruitment efforts. Her email address is [email protected]
“All that we ask is that they be part of a larger organization,” Harding said. “Also, they need to know that there’s a background check that goes with this. We have an agency that does that for us.”
Harding said she expects to hire a project director for the Wichita area in about a week.
“We’re also looking to hire a project director for southeast Kansas and one for southwest Kansas,” she said.
By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
The Tiger tennis team shutout Kansas Wesleyan in the home opener on Wednesday at the FHSU Tennis Courts in Hays. The Tigers rolled to a 9-0 win by not dropping a set.
Only six matches were contested on the day. Kansas Wesleyan conceded the No. 3 doubles and No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches to Fort Hays State.
The Tigers blitzed through doubles play as Camille Caron-Bedard and Brittney Ricci teamed at the No. 1 position to blank Zuaznabar and Rodriguez, 8-0. Michelle Miller and McKenzie Haynes had little trouble with Eastwood and Cook at No. 2, winning 8-2.
The Tigers allowed two or less points in three of the four singles matches. Caron-Bedard won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 over Eastwood. Ricci won at No. 2 6-0, 6-1 over Zuaznabar. At No. 4, Reinette Strydom defeated Cook 6-1, 6-1. Michelle Miller battled through a tough first set at No. 3, then rolled in the second set with a 6-4, 6-0 result over Rodriguez.
The Tigers evened their overall record on the season at 2-2 with the win. The team returns to action on September 26 against Hastings College.
Ricci and Caron-Bedard will represent FHSU at the ITA Fall Regional, hosted by Southwest Baptist, in Springfield, Mo. this coming weekend. Both players are scheduled to participate in singles and doubles play.
