VAIL, Colo. (AP) — All the new snow in Colorado’s mountains that has raised the avalanche danger likely helped save the lives of two people whose car plunged down Vail Pass.
Their Honda sedan hit a tanker truck and lost control on Interstate 70 Tuesday, going off the right edge of the road and over the guardrail. It fell 120 feet and landed upright on 8 feet of snow.
The passengers were seriously injured but remained conscious and able to communicate with emergency workers during the complicated rescue.
Fire Chief Mark Miller told the Vail Daily the snow acted as a cushion, likely preventing even more serious injury or death.
The rescue took about two hours. Two firefighters rappelled down to the car and crews used ropes to rescue the passengers.
You know what America needs? More jobs, that’s what.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker.
Not Walmart-style “jobettes,” but real jobs. We need more stable employment with a good salary and benefits, union jobs so workers have a say in what goes on, and jobs that have strong protections against discrimination.
This country needs more jobs that help launch workers into a career, in which you do useful work, take pride in it, earn promotions, and are respected for what you do.
Believe it or not, there’s at least one place where such jobs still exist. But — and you really aren’t going to believe this — those in charge are pushing like hell to eliminate them, turning positions that ought to be a model for American job growth into just another bunch of jobettes.
The place? Your local post office.
Right-wing government-haters in Congress, along with the corporate executives now sitting atop the U.S. Postal Service, claim that in order to “save” this icon of Americana, they must decimate it. These geniuses are privatizing the workforce, selling off invaluable community facilities, and shrinking services.
Hello — postal workers, facilities, and services are what make the post office iconic and give it such potential for even greater public use.
Their latest ploy is a “partnership” with Staples, the office supply chain. In a pilot program, 82 Staples big-box stores opened “postal units” to sell the most popular (and most profitable) mail products.
Rather than being staffed by well-trained and knowledgeable postal workers, however, the mini post offices will have an ever-changing crew of Staples’ low-wage, temporary sales clerks with weak performance standards and no public accountability.
Cheapening postal work might be good for a few profiteers like Staples, but it will diminish postal service — and it’s exactly the wrong direction for America to be going. For info and action go to www.apwu.org.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker. OtherWords.org
High Plains Mental Health Center is celebrating 50 years of serving Hays and surrounding areas. Mike Cooper visits with Dr. John Cody and Ken Loos on the history of HPMHC.
SALINA — Memorial services for a Minneapolis coach and teacher will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at First Covenant Church in Salina.
Jeffery Giles, 50, died Tuesday in Wichita after becoming ill last weekend.
Giles was the head high school football coach, and junior and senior high head wrestling coach. He coached junior and senior high track at Minneapolis Junior-Senior High School.
Wilson Family Funeral Home, Minneapolis, is in charge of arrangements.
The Hays Area Planning Commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Geist Addition
The agenda includes public hearings for a rezoning matter and a proposed change to landscaping and irrigation regulations.
The recommended preliminary plat of the Geist Addition, located on 22nd Street between Canterbury and Wheatland, was approved previously by the commission. The commission now will consider rezoning the property from A-L (agricultural) to C-O (office and institution district) and annexation.
According to city staff, the property — just south of Hays Medical Center — is ideal for multi-family residential growth, as well as commercial uses.
Also on the agenda are a series of water-conservation measures that would limit the amount of irrigated land on new developments.
For a complete agenda and supporting documents, click HERE.
High Plains Mental Health Center is celebrating 50 years of serving Hays and surrounding areas. Mike Cooper visits with Dr. John Cody and Ken Loos on the history of HPMHC.
SALINA (AP) — A man serving life in prison for killing his girlfriend’s young son was sentenced to nearly two years of additional jail time for escaping from prison while awaiting sentencing in the murder case.
Thirty-year-old Antonio Brown Sr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated escape and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
The Salina Journal reports Brown will serve that sentence after completion of his sentences for two counts of child abuse and one count of first-degree murder in the October 2011 death of his girlfriend’s 14-month-old son, Clayden Urbanek.
Last February, Brown walked out of a Saline County jail holding cell after a door was inadvertently opened. He surrendered in Wichita two days later.
GREAT BEND – The Wounded Warrior Project Organization, in conjunction with the Great Bend Pheasants Forever Chapter, invite Kansan Wounded Warriors to apply for a two-day pheasant hunt to be held Feb. 22 and 23, 2014 at Hidden Hollow Lodge in Albert. Lodging and meals will be provided both nights, and there is no cost to attend.
Warriors can arrive at the lodge after 6 p.m. Feb. 21. Saturday morning will begin with breakfast and a clay target shoot, followed by a morning pheasant hunt. Hunters will then take a break for lunch before heading back out for an afternoon hunt, followed by dinner.
Sunday morning, hunters will enjoy breakfast followed by a European pheasant hunt, expected to conclude around noon. Warriors will be sent home with having made new friends, great memories, and cleaned and packaged birds.
“This is our chapter members’ and sponsors’ way of giving back to those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom,” said Pheasants Forever chapter member, Scot Moeder. “We are looking forward to this adventure and are in high hopes that it will be a huge success.”
For more information or to apply, contact Moeder at [email protected] or by phone at (620) 786-0273.
Low-flow showerheads utilize 1.5 gallons of water per minute while typical showerheads use 2.5 gpm.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
In planning for the 2015 budget, Ellis County Commissioners have made water their top priority — water resources and water use within the county.
Speaking recently to the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce, County Administrator Greg Sund said Ellis County doesn’t operate a water utility as the city of Hays does, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t promote efficient water use throughout the county.”
Sund said commissioners will look at conservation programs such as the low-flow showerhead exchanges already in use by the cities of Hays and Ellis.
Many Ellis County rural residents and businesses get their water from the Trego County Rural Water District:
The city of Ellis is considering a partnership with the Trego County Rural Water District in searching for a new water supply.
HUTCHINSON — Area law enforcement have been working trying to find man who has been missing since Sunday.
Adam Sabari, 54, is missing from Wichita and was last seen approximately 10 a.m. Sunday. He owns Timeout Sports Bar and Grill, McPherson.
His ATM card was used in Wichita, even though he had told someone he was going to Hutchinson.
McPherson Police reportedly were sent to the restaurant for a welfare check, but Sabari was not there.
He was last known to be driving a 2008 White Saturn Aura with Kansas tag 785 AIZ or 786 AIZ.
He stand 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds and has dark brown hair and brown eyes.
If you have seen Sabari or know of his whereabouts, all the Wichita Police Department at (316) 268-4111 or McPherson Police Department at (620) 245-1200.
TOPEKA — University of Kansas Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little is scheduled to appear before a legislative committee Thursday to renew a request for state help in financing a state-of-the-art classroom building at its medical school.
KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little
In testimony to the Joint Committee on State Building Construction, Gray-Little is expected to say that the $75 million building is urgently needed to meet accreditation standards and to accommodate new ways of teaching that emphasize active learning in small-group settings over note taking in large lecture halls.
“We want to make sure that we have a facility that is adequate to (meet) those standards and that provides us with an opportunity to educate our medical students the way that medical students are educated now rather than the way they were educated 50 years ago,” Gray-Little said in a recent interview.
The proposed structure would replace one built on the school’s Kansas City, Kan. Campus in 1976 that university officials say is outdated and needs $5.3 million of repairs.
The new building also would allow the university to do more address the growing shortage of physicians across the state, Gray-Little said.
“Part of the reason for the health education building is to allow us to expand the size of our classes,” she said. “We are 39th in terms of the number of physicians for the population. We need to replace physicians at a much higher rate that we’re (now) able to do.”
The university’s plan is to increase students on its Kansas City campus to 200 per class year instead of the current 175.
The university has authority to issue $75 million in bonds to finance construction of the building, but Gray-Little said it can’t afford to move forward with the project unless lawmakers and Gov. Sam Brownback agree to cover $40 million of the cost.
“This would be a partnership between the state, the university and private donors to make this possible,” she said.
At the start of the session, the governor proposed restoring some of the $33 million in higher-education cuts approved last year. But his budget proposals didn’t include any money for the health education building.
The university is requesting that the state provide $15 million over several years to help it pay off the bonds. In addition, the university wants to use $25 million recently returned to the state to compensate it for Social Security contributions made on behalf of medical school residents that were subsequently deemed unnecessary.
An attempt last week by Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, to add $1.5 million to the fiscal 2015 budget to cover the first debt-service payment failed on a tie vote. She said she is hoping that the chancellor will make a strong enough case to switch a vote or two.
“Some members have expressed an interest in knowing more,” Kelly said. “So, that’s why we asked the chancellor and officials from the Med Center to come over here and educate the committee.”
The committee is scheduled to meet at noon Thursday in room 159-South at the Statehouse.
