TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The State Board of Education will review a recent study of Kansas elementary and middle school students linking fitness to academic success.
The results of the Kansas Fitness Information Tracking, or K-FIT, showed that students who were able to reach fitness goals in five areas scored significantly higher on math and reading tests than students who weren’t fit.
The state board will review the study on Feb. 11 at its monthly meeting in Topeka.
The study, funded through the Kansas Health Foundation, compared the fitness results of 13,000 students in grade four through nine with those students’ test scores from the 2011-12 school year. Another study is underway involving more than 56,000 students at 900 schools statewide.
Hays City Commissioner Ron Mellick said “the wheel is not broken” as city commissioners agreed the vehicle abatement ordinance should not be amended for commercial businesses at Tuesday’s work session.
The city’s ordinance bans businesses and residences from parking inoperable vehicles on property for extended periods of time unless the vehicle is hidden from view in a building or behind a fence. After the discussion at the work session, it appears unlikely any action will be taken in a regular meeting to alter that regulation.
The issue was brought to commissioners after Chris Miller, owner of Auto Tech, 600-602 Vine, received an vehicle abatement notice in December and argued the ordinance hurt business owners like himself whose job it is to work on inoperable vehicles.
Miller has since removed the vehicles in question but was present — along with more than 20 of his supporters — at Tuesday’s commission meeting.
Miller and Scott Simpson, owner of Best Radiator, asked commissioners to exempt commercial businesses from the vehicle abatement ordinance or at least come to “middle ground” and give business like theirs more than 10 days to contact the owner or tow the vehicle.
Mellick said inoperable vehicles at a business is not the problem.
“What catches someone’s eye is vehicles with no tags, no windows, tires on blocks,” he said.
City Manager Toby Dougherty added, “Typically tickets are given to someone who has a car (on property) that has been there for six months to a year.”
Dougherty also said when it comes to “extenuating circumstances,” property owners are welcome to address the city commission once a notice is given, and the city will try to work with them.
A 13-page report prepared by city staff concerning the city’s abatement ordinance was also presented. The report sited similar vehicle abatement ordinances in 14 surrounding cities in the state.
Mayor Kent Steward noted he had not seen so many people at a meeting in years and was glad the ordinance was brought to the table but believed commercial businesses having “total exemption is not the answer.”
Interior design students in Fort Hays State University’s Department of Art and Design are exhibiting their work in the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art in Rarick Hall, room 102, on the FHSU campus.
The exhibit, which will run through Feb. 20, is divided into several sections, each set up by a different student. On one corner are blueprints, sketches and dioramas. On one side is a design of a bathroom with a toilet and a claw-foot tub with floating candles. In another section is a bedroom design featuring a four-poster bed with white silk curtains. A dining room design has tribal spears adorning a wall behind the table, and the living room section has a bar, a writing desk and a statue of a giraffe on the coffee table.
The tribal artifacts were loaned by the Sternberg Museum of Natural History for the purpose of the exhibition and are not for sale. Local furniture stores also provided items for the exhibition.
“The exhibition is meant to be a senior showcase for the interior design students,” said Joel Dugan, assistant professor of art and design. “It is meant to show the breadth of each student’s study.”
The exhibit is free and open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Utilities in Kansas are lobbying legislators to rewrite a state renewable energy law to provide less of a financial benefit to consumers who install solar panels or windmills.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that bills introduced in the House and Senate worry solar energy advocates.
Under the state’s so-called “net metering” law, consumers who use renewable resources and generate more electricity than they need get full credit for each extra kilowatt hour they send to the electric grid.
Westar Energy, the state’s largest electric company, says the practice does not account for fixed costs faced by utilities, such as power plants and lines.
But solar-energy device inventor Mark Moser of Manhattan says the changes sought by utilities would make Kansas among the worst states for solar businesses.
WACO, Texas (AP) – Kansas coach Bill Self knows most people look at how Andrew Wiggins plays as a barometer for what to expect from the eighth-ranked Jayhawks.
Don’t make the mistake of overlooking the other players around the Big 12’s top-scoring freshman.
Naadir Tharpe scored 22 points, nine in a go-ahead run before halftime, and the Big 12-leading Jayhawks rebounded from their first league loss with a 69-52 victory at Baylor on Tuesday night.
“We’ve just got to be a team that it’s going to be a different guy most every night,” Self said. “And (Tharpe) stepped up when we needed him to step up.”
Early on, there were three ties and nine lead changes. Tharpe’s short jumper with 3 1/2 minutes left in the half broke a 25-all tie and put the Jayhawks (17-5, 8-1 Big 12) ahead to stay.
The tiebreaking shot was Tharpe’s third basket in a 14-3 spurt over the final 5 minutes of the first half, and he added a 3-pointer with a minute left. He then made another 3 on Kansas’ opening possession after halftime.
Wiggins finished 4-of-13 shooting and didn’t make his first basket until a half-court shot to beat the buzzer going into halftime for a 35-27 lead.
“Well, we ran that play for him at the end of the first half to get him going,” Self joked of Wiggins, who finished two points off his season average.
“It was big. It gave a great momentum push going into halftime,” said Perry Ellis, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds. “It was great that he knocked that down. It got him going.”
Cory Jefferson had 14 points to lead Baylor (14-8, 2-7), which lost its fourth consecutive game at the Ferrell Center after a 13-game home winning streak. It’s the longest home drought since dropping six straight in 2005.
The Bears, coming off a win at then-No. 8 Oklahoma State that snapped their overall five-game losing streak, was trying to set up for a final shot before halftime when Kenny Chery threw an errant pass that Wiggins intercepted.
“Round 1 is over in the league. We have to do better in Round 2,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “The good thing is I believe we can win every game, but with the Big 12 being like it is we can lose every game. We have to make sure we play well to have a chance to win.”
Baylor has never won consecutive games over Top 25 opponents.
The Bears shot only 29 percent from the field (16 of 55) – Drew, looking for a positive, pointed out they did have assists on all but one of those made baskets. They were outrebounded 45-31.
Kansas was coming off an 81-69 loss Saturday at surging Texas.
“We just came out there without energy. I felt like even though Texas played that tremendous game out there, we kind of beat ourselves,” said Tharpe, who sat the final 10 minutes of that game when had only three points on 1-of-4 shooting. “We didn’t come out with any kind of energy, we had nothing. After they made a play, we had nothing coming back. So we knew coming into today in Waco, we had to come out with some fire right away. And that’s what we did.”
In their regular season finale last March, the Jayhawks lost 81-58 at Baylor. They still had a share of their ninth consecutive Big 12 title, but that loss kept them from winning it outright.
Baylor was within 49-44 midway through the second half and Wiggins had just shot and missed the rim.
But the Bears missed three free throws on the same possession. Then, with Baylor students chanting “Air Ball!, Air Ball!”, Wiggins swished a 3-pointer from the right wing. Wiggins scored again on the next possession to push the lead to 54-44, and had the next basket as well with a dunk with 7:49 left.
Brady Heslip had 12 points on four 3-pointers, but didn’t score again after his last gave Baylor a 22-21 lead with 6:34 left in the first half.
“We were just playing him behind his numbers. We were running behind him,” Tharpe said of second-half adjustments on Heslip. “We just knew that he got a lot of good looks off in the first half, and we couldn’t let that happen again.”
Temperatures will be extremely cold today with highs only up into the single digits as arctic high pressure moves out of the Northern Plains into Kansas. There is another chance for light snow across southwest Kansas this evening as a storm system moves out of the Desert Southwest into the South Plains. Snow accumulations up to 1 inch are possible in extreme southwest Kansas.
Today Scattered flurries before 7am. Mostly cloudy and cold, with a high near 7. Wind chill values as low as -24. North wind 8 to 17 mph. Tonight Mostly cloudy, with a low around -5. Wind chill values as low as -13. North northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm after midnight. Thursday A slight chance of snow between 10am and 1pm. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Wind chill values as low as -5. Calm wind becoming south southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Thursday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 0. Wind chill values as low as -9. South southeast wind around 5 mph.
Friday Cloudy, with a high near 17. South southeast wind 5 to 8 mph.
Friday Night Cloudy, with a low around 9.
Saturday A 10 percent chance of snow. Partly sunny, with a high near 25.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The city of Wichita will help finance a $1.8 million project at the Kansas Aviation Museum to upgrade the aging building.
Museum officials said in a news release Tuesday that the city will contribute $900,000 for the work, with the museum pay the rest.
Plans include installation of an elevator and modern heating and air conditioning and restrooms that meet federal accessibility requirements.
The museum says the upgrades will help it earn more income from facility rentals, boost its education program and provide a better experience for visitors.
The Hays Police Department is warning the community of phone scams recently infiltrating the Hays community.
According to Lt. Brandon Wright, the latest “Publisher’s Clearing House” scam has hit five people in Hays.
“The intended victims received a phone call,” Wright said. “The caller told them they had won a large amount of money and a car, but had to pay the registration fees in order to win the the prizes.”
The “winners” of the cash and the car then were directed to obtain a reusable debit card and furnish the account number to the caller.
Luckily, none of the intended victims fell for the scam, and the HPD wants to make sure no one does.
“If anyone calls you out of the blue saying you won something and asks for money, don’t do it, ” added Lt. Ron Rounkles.
Another recent scam hit several businesses in Hays. According to Wright, the businesses were contacted by phone by someone representing a utilities company. The businesses were told they did not pay their recent bill and would need to pay the balance right away or utilities would be cut off.
Fortunately, none of the businesses fell for that scam either. However, there is another scam that has bitten a few people.
“You have someone who is selling something on an online website such as eBay,” said Wright.
The “buyer” offers to send the seller more money than the item is selling for if the seller agrees to send some of the money to another account in order to “help” someone who needs the money.
Wright said the buyer will then receive what looks like a real check, deposit the check into their account and send some of the money to the account or mailing address the scammers provided.
Wright said the victims, who are usually the “young or the elderly,” find out it was a scam about a week later when the check bounces and the bank wants their money back. By then, there is little the police can do as “almost every time this happens the crime is found to have originated overseas.”
Bottom line? “Don’t give them the money,” Rounkles said.
Contact the Hays Police Department at 785-625-1030 if you receive a suspicious phone call.
PITTSBURG (AP) — State troopers are investigating the potential role of winter weather in a collision that killed two people in southeast Kansas.
Highway Patrol Maj. John Eichkorn says the wreck happened shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday on U.S. 69, just south of Pittsburg and one mile north of U.S. 400.
Eichkorn says the two-car collision killed the driver of one vehicle and a passenger in the other. The second driver was taken to a hospital. Names were not immediately released.
The patrol says no precipitation was falling at the time, but investigators will study if conditions created by Tuesday’s winter storm were involved.
Governor Sam Brownback praised the work of the Kansas Department of Emergency Management, Department of Transportation, Kansas Highway Patrol and local agencies in their response to today’s winter weather. The winter storm is expected to have lingering effects through at least Wednesday morning.
The Governor also declared a State of Disaster Emergency for the entire state in response to the storm, which continues to move through the state. The declaration authorizes state resources to assist local communities and residents as needed in the aftermath of this storm.
“Our state agencies did a great job today protecting Kansans during these difficult weather conditions,” Governor Brownback said. “We will be working to identify residents and communities in need of assistance and KDOT will be on the roads dealing with blowing snow due to windy conditions.”
A decision on when State offices in Shawnee County, which are closed through 6 a.m. Wednesday, will reopen will be made later this evening based on forecast weather and road conditions.
The Hays Police Department is investigating a vehicle stolen from the lot of Auto World Used Cars.
According to Lt. Ron Rounkles, the suspect or suspects apparently “forced the column” in order to start the truck.
Auto World’s surveillance cameras caught the 1994 Chevy Silverado driving off the lot on 722 E. Eighth at 1:31 a.m. Friday.
The vehicle was recovered after a report of an abandoned truck at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon. The truck was located in the 400 block of Depper Road, southeast of Hays.
The Hays Police Department encourages anyone with information on the crime to call (785) 625-1030
CALDWELL, Kan. (AP) — A south-central Kansas county has been shaken by its second minor earthquake in two days.
The U.S. Geological Survey says a quake with a magnitude of 3.3 rattled Sumner County just after 8 a.m. Tuesday. The tremor was centered about 11 miles northwest of Caldwell — a few miles from where a 3.9-magnitude earthquake was recorded around 3 a.m. Monday.
No damage was reported from either quake, but viewers told KWCH-TV that their windows rattled Tuesday morning.
A 3.8-magnitude earthquake shook the same vicinity Dec. 16.
Small earthquakes in southern Kansas have become more common, with more than two dozen recorded over the past two years. The area has been the site of increased oil and gas drilling since 2011. Scientists disagree on whether that causes the earthquakes.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The State Board of Education will review a recent study of Kansas elementary and middle school students linking fitness to academic success.
