Hays Post incorrectly reported Wednesday that employee pay raises were no longer included in the latest draft of the Ellis County 2015 budget.
According to county administrator Greg Sund, there was “originally a three percent allowance in the draft budget for raises and implementation of the wage and benefit study. In order to balance the budget, that percent had to be reduced to two percent.”
Commission chairwoman Barbara Wasinger added that “no final decision has been made on raises.”
The Hays Police Department conducted 33 traffic stops and received 15 animal calls on Wednesday, July 23 according to the HPD Activity Log
Lost Animals, 700 block of East 6th, 12:49 a.m.
Driving Under the Influence, 300 block of West 8th, 1:49 a.m.
Disturbance – General, 3200 block of Vine, 4:41 a.m.
Abandoned Vehicle, 2300 block of Plum, 5:57 a.m.
Abandoned Vehicle, 400 block of West 11th, 7:26 a.m.
Mental Health Call, 1400 block of Main St, 8:09 a.m.
Animal Injured, 41st and Country, 9:26 a.m.
Theft/general, 200 block of Pershing Court, 9:00 a.m.
Lost Animals, 2200 block of Walnut St, 9:57 a.m.
Civil Transport, 1300 block of Kansas Highway 264, Larned, 10:30 a.m.
Burglary/vehicle, 100 block of West 34th, 12:40 p.m.
Disturbance – Noise, 500 block of West 31st, 12:48 p.m.
Welfare Check, 1200 block of Vine, 1:35 p.m.
Criminal Damage to Property, 1900 block of Whittier Road, 2:48 p.m.
Drug Offenses, 700 block of Vine, 3:13 p.m.
Animal At Large, 300 block of West 9th, 3:36 p.m.
Harassment, Telephone/FAX, 2700 block of Epworth, 4:12 p.m.
Found/Lost Property, Hays, 4:17 p.m.
Trash Dumping, 400 block of West 4th, 4:50 p.m.
Harassment, 2700 block of Epworth, 5:13 p.m.
Driving While Suspended/Revoked, 2200 block of Vine, 8:54 p.m.
Contempt of Court/Fail to Pay, 1100 block of Main, 10:01 p.m.
Warrant Service, 700 block of Riley, 10:42 p.m.
Disturbance – Noise, 400 block of East 5th, 11:14 p.m.
Criminal Damage to Property, 4100 block of Vine, 10:00 p.m.
July 22
Criminal Damage to Property, 200 block of West 6th, 05:00 p.m.
July 18
Harassment, Telephone/FAX, 1700 block of Eisenhower Road, 6:00 p.m.
By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
Thanks to a multi-year fundraising effort, teachers at Wilson Elementary are preparing classes for the upcoming school year with new technology.
The Wilson Home and School Association recently purchased Mimio interactive technology projectors that turn an ordinary white board into an interactive teaching device.
Brenda Bickle, Wilson Elementary Home and School Association President said Wilson students have spent the last two years selling cookie dough and magazines to the community to raise the $40,000 to buy the high-tech system.
“Truly, it is definitely because of the people in the community that we are able to do this, because if they had not purchased the cookie dough or the magazines…we wouldn’t be able to this,” Bickle said.
Wilson Home and School fundraising chair Jody Scoby also thanked the community for their support and said fundraising is especially important these days.
“Because of all the cuts that are coming from the top down – not necessarily just in our district, but every district in the state, (fundraising) is what helps us subsidize,” Scoby said.
Scoby added the boards are important tools for the teachers and especially the students who are used to working with the latest technology and will need to know how to utilize technology in the real world.
“The world is now so driven technology-wise,” Scoby said. “It is not books anymore. It is technology and how to use it and how to interact with it.”
Dustin Frank, former teacher and Mimio consultant from Engaging Technologies, Omaha NE, came to Hays recently to help teachers train with the new boards and agreed with Scoby.
“Students nowadays are used to immediate feedback, cellphones, computers, so (the boards) just take the things we used to do with dry erase boards and chalk and makes it more digital.”
Frank says the technology also allows teachers to post their lessons and content online to share with other teachers and students.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A divided Sedgwick County commission has renewed a subsidy for Southwest Airlines.
The commission voted 3-2 Wednesday to renew an agreement that guarantees the airline up to $6.5 million a year to offset any losses from doing business in Wichita.
The Wichita Eagle reports the Affordable Airfares program is expected to be funded with $5 million from the state and $875,000 each from the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County. Southwest has been in the Wichita market for about a year.
Commissioner Karl Peterjohn voted against continuing the subsidy, saying he hasn’t seen any evidence that Southwest is not profitable in Wichita.
But Chris Chronis, the county’s chief financial officer, said the program has helped increase ridership and reduce airfare rates at other competing airlines in Wichita.
During his 17 years in the legislature, Clark is proud to have earned a 100% pro-life voting record and helped pass key anti-abortion legislation that said abortions will no longer be considered a “medical procedure” for insurance purposes. Clark is a champion for the 2ndAmendment, having received the Legislator of the Year award from the Kansas State Rifle Association and a coveted “A” rating from the NRA. Clark has served as Chair of the House Insurance Committee for 9 years and has been active in both the National Conference of Insurance Legislators and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He was also able to serve as a key supporter of many pro-consumer pieces of legislation including the Health Care Freedom Act and a bill ensuring families of fallen police officers and firefighters will be able to continue on their health insurance plan. Clark Shultz also serves as Chairman of the House rules committee on which I also serve. Clark has recently received 100% ratings from the National Federation of Independent Business and was name a pro-jobs legislator by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
Outside of the legislature, Clark worked to protect consumers across Kansas as a compliance auditor for a national title insurance underwriter for over a decade. Shultz is currently president of a title company in Wichita. He and his wife Lori have six children and live in Lindsborg in rural McPherson county.
Clark Shultz has been endorsed by over 40 state legislators including most of the western Kansas delegation. All of the northwest and north central Kansas legislators have endorsed Senator Shultz including Senator Ralph Ostmeyer, Senator Elaine Bowers, Representative Ward Cassidy, Representative Don Hineman, Representative Troy Waymaster, and many others. Clark has been endorsed by Big First Congressman Tim Huelskamp who served with Clark in the state legislature. Congressman Huelskamp said, “Clark Shultz is a strong conservative candidate for Insurance Commissioner. Clark has extensive experience in the insurance industry and is the best candidate to steer us through the disastrous harm that ObamaCare has caused our healthcare system in Kansas.” Clark is a respected leader and deserves our support in the August 5th Republican primary for Insurance Commissioner. In the legislature I serve as the Chairman of the western Kansas caucus and Clark is the only candidate in the race that still makes him home in rural Kansas. That definitely separates him from the rest of the candidates. We need to support candidates who live our rural way of life. Please join me in voting for Clark Shultz for Insurance Commissioner on August 5th.
110th District Representative Travis Couture-Lovelady, R-Palco
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Nearly 60,000 Kansans will share more than $3.6 million in insurance reimbursements under a provision of the Affordable Care Act.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced in a statement Wednesday that the provision requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on patient care and quality improvement. If more than 20 percent of that money goes to profits and administration, the companies have to reimburse their customers.
The department says the 59,966 Kansans who bought insurance on the individual or small or large group markets in 2013 will receive the reimbursements.
They money will be returned through a mailed check; a reimbursement to the electronic card used to pay the premium; lower future premiums, or by employers reinvesting the money in health coverage.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – The Kansas City and Hickman Mills school districts will offer free lunches to every student, beginning in August.
A new federal provision allows qualifying districts with high percentages of students on food assistance to feed all their students. The theory is that the districts will recover the loss in food costs with savings from the expensive paperwork and bureaucracy needed to manage lunch accounts.
The Kansas City Star reports 90 percent of the students in the Kansas City Public Schools qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and 86 percent in Hickman Mills.
Other districts in the area are considering using the Community Eligibility Provision. But districts with more students who pay for their lunches say the provision is not financially feasible for them.
WASHINGTON, D.C.–At the weekly press conference with Republican leaders Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-02) highlighted her bill the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act of 2014 which will be considered by the House of Representatives later this week. This legislation indexes the child tax credit and the limitations to inflation to help parents keep more of their hard earned money to use for the mounting expenses of parenting.
Following are Congresswoman Jenkins’ remarks:
“A Wall Street Journal headline this week asks, “Can you afford to have a child?” And that’s the same question that there are families in Kansas sitting around their kitchen table today asking themselves.
“Yesterday, the cover of the Washington Post had a story about a working family in the Midwest who is struggling to start a family. The Post says this, “The languishing economy has caused people to doubt if they can afford to be parents.”
“A Gallup poll has found that the main reason Americans have delayed parenthood were worries about money and the economy.
“This does not have to be the new normal. There are sensible solutions that we are working on here in the House that will get more money in folks’ pockets and get people back to work.
“We will take up this week, my bill the Child Tax Credit and Improvement Act, which is designed to help struggling families pay for the rising costs of raising children. Because when working families succeed, the nation’s economy succeeds.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — After a trial that lasted almost a month, a federal grand jury has convicted two Lawrence men and a California man in a conspiracy that brought $17 million in drugs to Kansas.
Los Rovell Dahda and Roosevelt Rico Dahda, 32-year-old twins from Lawrence, and Justin Cherif Pickel, of San Lorenzo, California, were found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy, as well as several other drug charges.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the government is seeking a $16.9 million judgment against the three men.
The Dahdas and Pickel were among 43 people arrested in Kansas and California and charged in 2012 in a seven-year conspiracy that funneled more than 8,000 pounds of marijuana to Lawrence and the Kansas City area.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is issuing six more recalls covering a total of almost 718,000 vehicles in the U.S.
The latest recalls bring the total for GM so far this year to 60, affecting a record 29.7 million cars and trucks. GM already has passed the 22 million vehicles recalled by all automakers last year.
The biggest recall announced Wednesday was for just over 414,000 cars and small SUVs for faulty seats. Other problems include incomplete welds on seat brackets, turn signal failures, power steering failures, loose suspension bolts and faulty roof rack bolts.
The Hays Larks ran their win streak to seven games Wednesday night, holding of Junction City 6-5 at Larks Park. The Brigade (27-10) scored two in the fourth to take the early lead, but the Larks (27-13) answer with three in the fifth and three in the sixth to go up 6-2. The Brigade rallied with three in the eighth off Justin Ziegler, but Ian Bentley came in to record the final out of the inning then work a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.
Frank Leo Postgame Interview
Game Highlights
Aaron Breit (2-0) picks up the win, allowing two runs on four hits over five innings while striking out seven and walking none. Breit retired the first nine batters he faced and struck out seven of the first 12 before giving up three straight singles in the fourth. Justin Ziegler, with the help of two double plays, pitched two scoreless innings of relief before giving up the three runs in the eighth. He struck out one and walked none over 2 2/3 innings.
Tyler Detmer hit a two-run homer to highlight the Larks three-run fifth. Evan Gruener had two hits and also drove in one. Joe Hallock’s two-run double in the sixth put the Larks up 6-2.
The Larks, who have won 11 of last 13, close out Jayhawk League play Thursday night against Dodge City. They close out the regular season at home against Junction City on Friday. Free admission Thursday courtesy of Phaze 2 and Farm Bureau Insurance.
DENISON, Kan. (AP) — The mayor of a small town north of Topeka has resigned rather than face a voter recall.
Denison Mayor Audrey Oliverius submitted a letter of resignation on Monday.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports some residents had submitted a recall petition on May 12, alleging that Oliverius violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act by calling an executive session on March 10, during which a vote was taken to fill a vacant council seat.
Oliverius says in her resignation letter that some council members and several community residents did not want positive change in the town and rejected efforts to manage the city’s assets and enforce city ordinances fairly.
Council president Bruce Sweany will become the acting mayor.
The debate is over
That’s what liberals say about man causing global warming. They say there is scientific consensus our climate is warming the earth due to man emitting carbon (CO2) into the atmosphere.
I have written in the past that liberals live in a fantasy world. They do not function in the world of reality and their insistence on manmade GW, in spite of a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, is proof positive to what I just said.
Yup, the debate is over and not that man causes global warming, but that liberals don’t care the least about facts. The global warming issue proves liberals live in a fantasy world. This writing is about GW, but there are a multitude of issues that causes one to question what planet these people live on. Obviously, not planet earth.
There is far more proof there is a God than the global warming claim of the religious fanatical environmental liberal alarmists. GW in America, unfortunately, is less about science then it is about politics.
If GW is such a big problem in today’s world how do you explain there was a period in the Middle Ages prior to the carbon emitting 18th and 19th century Industrial Revolution where the earth’s surface was warmer than it is now? How do you explain there has been no discernible warming for the past eighteen years?
There are no computer models that can be created to prove GW beyond any doubt. The earth, the atmosphere, the ocean, other planets, etc. are far too complicated for any scientist to create a computer model that takes in all aspects of our universe.
It has been 3,000 some days (over 8 years) since our last major hurricane. Hurricanes, according to liberals are caused by GW. Brisbane, Australia just experienced its coldest weather in 103 years. Polar ice caps are not melting, in fact just the opposite is taking place. There have been hundreds of record cold temps this past winter and to claim the cold temps are caused by GW proves my point about lack of reality. Meteorologists have difficulty predicting climate conditions two weeks out yet the alarmists think they can predict years into the future. Absurd.
If we are to believe liberals, why the lies, distortions, and corruption occurring in the scientific community regarding climate change? The hockey stick theory of Professor Mann turned out to be bogus as did far too many studies by other scientists.
Follow the money! Academics have sold out when it comes to ethics. Professors are paid to report man causes climate change. Any scientist in or out of the academic community that is a skeptic is ostracized by his colleagues and can forget about further grants from our liberal government. GW alarmist Barack Obama, the past five years, has wasted 120 billion on this agenda. That’s a huge story in itself inasmuch as it would get any white Republican president impeached.
GW is all about transforming America. It’s all about politics, not science. Worst of all, it’s all about big government taking away our freedoms as it controls more of our lives.
Whether there is GW or not, how does America, representing 5% of the world’s population, rein in China and India and many other countries when it comes to carbon emissions? The corrupt and liberal United Nations would love to have the U.S. bear 75% of the world’s cost to bring the “unproven GW theory” under control. And, our august pres would gladly pay for it even though we don’t have the money to do it. Obama would simply add it to our already unsustainable 17 trillion dollar debt.
Another myth is that Obama’s party is for the poor and the other political party is not. GW government mandates would hurt the poorest of the poor more than anybody else by escalating energy costs.
When are these liberals going to get real about anything? Probably never.
