TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police are searching for a man and child who haven’t been seen since a standoff at a southwest Topeka home.
Officers were called to a domestic dispute Saturday afternoon, and a woman told officers her boyfriend was inside with their nearly 2-year-old daughter.
After a nearly four-hour standoff, police entered the home and found no one inside.
Police Lt. Scott Gilchrist said Sunday morning the man and child had not been found. Their names have not been released.
Authorities say they found no signs of foul play inside the home. On Saturday evening, Sgt. Jay Junghans said police didn’t consider the incident an abduction and didn’t believe the girl was in any danger.
WICHITA- One person was injured in a single-vehicle accident at 11 p.m. on Saturday in Sedgwick County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 GMC SUV driven by Clifford D. Nickel, 62, Goessel, was northbound on Interstate 135 seven miles north of Wichita when it entered the median to avoid another vehicle.
The SUV overcorrected, crossed the northbound lane, entered the ditch and rolled.
Nickel was transported to Wesley Medical Center. The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
After a week of below normal temperatures, Summer makes a return to western Kansas today. Afternoon temperatures will be near 100 degrees with an overnight low of around 74.
Monday and Tuesday are expected to be the hottest days of the week with Heat Index readings from 100 to near 105 on both days. Slight chances for thunderstorms exist for the next three nights.
Looking ahead into mid week, temperatures will stay in the mid 90s with overnight lows in the 70s.
Today: Sunny, with a high near 98. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 20 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 74. Breezy, with a south wind 13 to 20 mph.
Monday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 101. South wind 11 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Monday Night: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 11pm and 4am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. Breezy, with a south wind 13 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 101. South southwest wind 10 to 13 mph.
In response to several related media stories regarding the negotiating of salaries between the Hays Firefighters Local 2119 and the City of Hays, the firefighters union would like to express it was our intention to keep negotiated items confidential as they should during this process. However, we feel that the public must understand our justification for these salary increases. It is true that the fire department union members have received a pay raise every year since 1989 except for one, just as every other city employee has received since the city tries to treat everyone fairly.
First, we appreciate the work that we do and we are very proud of the department that we work for. We have helped form a department over the years that has become very professional, experienced and respected. The Hays Firefighters Local 2119 is proud to support the efforts that helped upgrade the city’s ISO rating to class 3. This ranks the City of Hays Fire Department in the top 2% of fire departments in the State of Kansas and the top 4% in the nation. This is proud accomplishment, and an accomplishment that saves businesses within the city thousands of dollars per year in insurance premiums.
We agree with the city administration that when trying to apply pay increases across several unions in the city it is best to be fair and equitable, especially in the current economic times. The justification of a 2% bonus is not the issue being addressed by the firefighters union. The firefighters union is justifying the pay increase for the additional duties over the course of the last decade that the fire department has taken on. Also, we feel and expect to be paid equal to other emergency services within the city like the police department. Over the last decade, the entire scope of practice of the Hays Fire Department has changed significantly moving to an all hazards response. The firefighters have taken on many additional duties over these years that require more training, different levels of risk and increases in workloads. For instance, several years ago, the entire fire department became certified emergency medical technicians. This was a choice that fully utilizes our resources and expertise to protect and serve our community better. This service has increased emergency cal volumes from approximately 600 calls per year before the change, to approximately 200 a year. However, the firefighters have never received any pay adjustment, while other departments in the state offer a $10,000+ pay adjustment, while other figure it into their base salaries. The Hays Fire Department has also taken on the responsibility of sending a lone firefighter each day to staff the airport fire station for commercial air traffic. This is a high level of responsibility that leaves a firefighter on scene alone for nearly ten minutes until more resources arrive. This is a position that requires a high level of responsibility, training as well as minimal levels of supervision like all other positions in the fire department.
The city continues to argue that they want to treat everyone fairly. An entry level police officer with no experience will make approximately $16.83 per hour working an average of 42 hours a week, while a firefighter’s starting wage is $11.40 per hour averaging 56 hours a week. This glaring difference in pay is the opposite of fair. Is it fair to make up the additional pay difference only by working more overtime that starts at 212 hours in a 28 day cycle as required by FLSA? To be clear, the firefighters union is satisfied with our work schedule as we understand it is the most economical and efficient way for proper staffing. This difference in pay puts police officers one “pay grade” level higher than firefighters. This is where our position stands for the reasoning of firefighter pay increases of 5% and 7% pay increase for fire lieutenants. These pay increases are matched by moving firefighters to the same pay grades as equal positions with the police officers and comparable to other similar fire departments.
As stated earlier, the city has stated that they want to treat everyone fairly. However, over the course of this year, many non-union employees have received pay increases other than what was given to the unions simply because the current administration wanted to change their job titles. Several secretaries throughout the city were reclassified to administrative assistants receiving pay raises ranging for over 10% although their job duties did not change. Three new departments were created within the city’s organization creating job position reclassifications to department directors. Also, the police department created four new positions for Corporals with pay raises. This city administration contends the firefighters raise proposals are unsustainable. However, how are the raises for these other positions sustainable which are well above what the firefighters union is asking?
The city has stated that this proposed increase by the firefighters union would cost an additional $47,500. This is only an approximate 3% of the current fire departments budget. Also, the city administration is projecting the 2014 sales tax collection to fall nearly 2%, from which at this point is only half that. With this current projection of a 2% decrease in sales tax, the city is proposing a budget that still leaves more than $500,000 left in the general fund which pays the employees’ wages. This is also after all employees receive a 2% bonus for 2015. The proposed pay increase totaling approximately $47,500 is less than 10% of the money left over in the general fund that will then not be spent on employee salaries, but other projects that did not have enough significance to make the budget. The firefighters union feel that this holds very little economic impact on the remainder of the unallocated funds of the city’s general fund.
Another issue that the union is taking into consideration is the future uncertainty of insurance costs. It is inevitable that the union members as well as every other employee for the city will have to start paying for the increase in insurance costs. While trying to prepare for our own financial future, it is a hard pill to swallow in knowing that after the 2015 fiscal year ends, the union members would be taking a 2% pay cut when the proposed bonus ends. That’s not progress, simply an illusion. So at the beginning of 2016, firefighters will be making what thy made at the end of 2014. We must also take into consideration of another pay cut by having to pay for the projected increase of insurance costs for the upcoming years.
The firefighters union would also like to point out, that the International Association of Firefighter’s, from which the Hays Firefighters Local 2119 belongs to in Washington DC, is currently researching and putting together a pay study to show these pay issues. This pay study goes far beyond any pay study the City of Hays has done in previous years for comparisons to other fire departments in the State of Kansas, costing tens of thousands of dollars. Although the pay study is not yet complete, preliminary reports show that the City of Hays firefighters are well underpaid. Once this report is complete, the information will be shared with city administration for a fair evaluation of both parties.
The firefighters union is trying to justify the position for this pay increase to help to adequately support our families. We are a proud union and part of a proud fire department. Thank you for allowing us to serve our community through one of the best professions in the world.
Hays Firefighters Local 2219
Kirk Klein
Keith Mermis
Thomas Roy
Justin Choitz
Aaron Dome
Tim Detrixhe
Darin Myers
Greg May
Tyler Brungardt
Lucas Everett
Travis Hageman
Travis Johannes
Luke Scoby
Doug Randa
Myron Dreiling
Ross Meder
Brandon Zimmerman
Brandon Woods
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The yearslong fight over laws prohibiting secretly filmed documentation of animal abuse is moving from state legislatures to federal courts as laws in Utah and Idaho face constitutional challenges.
Half of U.S. states have attempted to pass so-called ag-gag laws, but only seven have been successful.
Animal rights groups, free speech activists and others have filed two separate, but similar lawsuits against ag-gag measures in two Western states.
The lawsuits say the secrecy puts consumers at a higher risk of food safety problems and animals at higher risk of abuse. But farm organizations and livestock producers say the laws are aimed at protecting their homes and businesses from intruders.
Many states are watching closely the lawsuits to see if the constitutional challenges stick.
By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Jill Martin seems to have been born with a love for music. At the age of two, she was walking around singing songs in her rural Kansas home. That love of music would lead to a music career in Nashville, and ultimately to another love in her life. Special thanks to Newman University in Wichita and writer Jayden Gregory whose article was used with permission for this story.
Last week, we learned about Kansan Logan Mize who went to Nashville to pursue a musical career. Today we’ll meet Jill Martin who also made such a journey.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
Jill Martin grew up at Andale, a rural community west of Wichita. Andale is a community of 928 people. Now, that’s rural.
Jill loved music at an early age. “I think I drove everyone in my family crazy because I was constantly singing around the house,” she said. As a little girl, she discovered Whitney Houston.
“I remember listening to (her) album in the second grade and I asked my dad how she got her voice to do a run, and he told me, ‘She probably practiced a lot,’” Jill said. “I can remember listening to that specific song over and over until I could do it.”
Her vocal abilities continued to grow. By the fourth grade, she was performing solos. By the seventh grade, she was singing in weddings with a band called The Martinaires. While with the band, she discovered her knack as a country singer and learned the classic country songs that she continues to love.
Jill attended Newman University in Wichita. She joined a local band called “Annie Up” and toured the Midwest performing with the group. After graduation, she made the big move to Nashville, Music City USA.
In Nashville, she auditioned for a local TV show. She didn’t make it as a contestant, but something else happened: She met a guy named Logan Mize.
As we learned last week, Logan Mize also grew up in small town Kansas near Wichita and went to Nashville for a music career. Logan and Jill met in Nashville in 2008 and were married in 2010.
Professional music careers seem to have their twists and turns. In 2005, Jill had auditioned unsuccessfully for the television show American Idol. She decided to try again in 2010. After a successful audition, she earned the “golden ticket” – a yellow paper from the show saying that she had advanced to audition at Hollywood Week, where judges select the finalists who will appear on TV.
“It was such a great experience and it really made me realize what type of artist I want to be and what kind of artist I do not want to be,” she said. Jill did not advance beyond the Hollywood round, but she did achieve something much greater. On the day she was sent home from the show, she learned she was expecting. Talk about twists and turns… “God had a better plan for me,” Jill said.
Logan and Jill now have a little boy named Lincoln. As he has grown older, Jill has resumed her musical career.
In January 2013, she recorded a very personal debut album, Jill Martin. “The songs on the album were so personal for me,” she said. “I wrote them with my husband about my life. It’s scary putting it out there, but I feel like if you are honest in your songs, people will relate to them.”
Relate they did. The album reached No. 24 on the iTunes music chart and was also featured in Billboard magazine, reaching No. 2 on the Heatseeker chart – a remarkable accomplishment for an independent artist. The album received a number of rave reviews on iTunes and five out of five stars.
“It was a dream come true,” Jill said. For more information, see www.jillmartinmusic.com.
Jill Martin seems to have been born with a love of music which took her all the way to Nashville. There she also fell in love with Logan Mize. We salute Jill Martin, Logan Mize, and all aspiring small town Kansas musicians for making a difference with their creative talents. I love it.
Cito Vickers, a junior at East High School in Kansas City, Mo., practiced his bedside manner with a patient simulator during KCUMB’s Med Student for a Day program- photo Todd Feeback
By Mike Sherry
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Shannon North can preach and preach to her students that their aspirations are achievable, that advanced education is attainable.
And she does just that as the college and career facilitator at Hogan Preparatory Academy in Kansas City, Mo. Almost all of the students at the charter school come from families with incomes low enough to qualify them for a free or reduced-price lunch.
But since talk is cheap, North leapt at the chance to take her students to the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences as part of KCUMB’s Med Student for a Day program.
“It’s one thing to constantly say, ‘You can do this. You can do this,’ and they kind of believe it,” North said. “But if you can’t picture it, if you can’t see yourself on a med campus, if you can’t see yourself holding a heart, if you can’t see yourself with a stethoscope, it makes the dream a little bit farther away. This is an opportunity to make it not a dream; like, ‘This is my reality. I will be doing this.’”
Hands-on
For more than 60 inner-city students hailing from nine high schools, the day allowed them to learn about pathology and microbiology and perform osteopathic manipulative medicine treatments. They also worked with organs from cadavers.
Initiated in 2011, the most recent Med Student for a Day took place toward the end of school year.
And, North said, it could not have come at a better time.
The students, she said, “were already like, ‘Oh, I’m so tired of school. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ (The day) was just a little bit more motivation to be like, nope, back on track, let’s get started, we are not over yet, let’s finish strong.”
Located on Independence Avenue on the northeast side of the city, KCUMB emphasizes outreach to the economically challenged neighborhoods in the area. Med Student for a Day helps further that goal, said Sara Selkirk, the university’s executive director of community and student affairs.
Serving the community
“Our mission as a university is to train community-minded physicians, and so in doing that, we have the opportunity to reach into areas of high need, and so much of that is here in the northeast,” Selkirk said. “So it’s a great opportunity for us to invite these students onto our campus who may have walked by it as a neighbor but never known what went on inside the building.”
What really made an impact on her students, North said, is that some presenters during the day were physicians who overcame obstacles to get where they were.
“They heard those personal testimonies from other doctors,” she said. “It was beyond measure for me.”
In fact, Med Student for a Day was the brainchild of a nontraditional student – Kameelah Rahmaan, a California native who did not enter medical school until her late 20s. A decade earlier, she was an aimless teen and a single mom.
The birth of her daughter spurred her to turn her life around, according to a 2012 story about her in KCUMB’s magazine.
Med Student for a Day is a program that Rahmaan initiated and coordinated during her four years on campus. She graduated this year and is now in a psychiatry residency program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
In an interview during this year’s event, Rahmaan said organizers did not necessarily gear the day toward students focusing on a medical career.
Role models
Most important, she said, was showing the students what can happen through hard work.
“How many people get to come to a medical school? How many students get to see things like this? Not many,” Rahmaan said. “So that is just what I want them to have – some type of insight into what they can become.”
Selkirk said Rahmaan worked hard to ensure the program would continue after she left campus. She said two second-year medical students already have started planning next year’s event.
One innovation they began this year was having participating high school students fill out a goals sheet of where they want to be in the next year and the next five years, as well as the steps they plan to take to get there.
Med Student for a Day draws some returning students, and Selkirk said it will be interesting to see the progress made on those goals.
Student reactions
Two participants this year were East High School students Samuel Gutierrez, a senior, and Cito Vickers, a junior.
Samuel said the day opened his eyes to osteopathic medicine, the type of curriculum taught at KCUMB. Osteopathic medicine teaches students to focus on the body as a whole when addressing a particular medical issue, and the training includes techniques to manipulate the body to help alleviate pain and restore motion.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, nearly one in five medical students in the United States attends an osteopathic medical school.
Cito said he learned a lot as well.
“I am really not into medical, I’m into law, but I was thinking about this maybe as a second plan, and I really wasn’t interested that much until I came (for the day),” he said. “I recommend that everyone takes part in program next year and the year that comes after it.”
Artist’s concept image of a boot print on the moon and on Mars. Image Credit: NASA
MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Buzz Aldrin says he was “out of town” on July 20, 1969, and missed the world’s Apollo 11 celebration.
Forty-five years later, Aldrin wants to know where everyone was that Sunday when he and Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. He’s set up a YouTube channel inviting celebrities and ordinary people to share their memories of that day.
Among those reminiscing via social media: actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, and London’s mayor, Boris Johnson.
It’s the first big anniversary of man’s first moon landing without Armstrong. He died in 2012 at age 82.
Aldrin and Michael Collins, the command module pilot, will take part in a NASA ceremony at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday. Armstrong’s name will be added to the historic Operations and Checkout Building.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 37-year-old Topeka man is behind bars after being accused of kidnapping a 4-year-old girl and trying to drown her.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the man was taken into custody after police responded at 12:20 p.m. Friday to a reported kidnapping.
Topeka police spokeswoman Lt. Jana Harden says witnesses reported a man had taken the girl into the yard of a private residence and held her underwater in a swimming pool.
A witness was able to get to the girl and take her to safety. Harden says the man and the child are not related.
The man was being held at the Shawnee County Jail on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
HAYS- The Gnarly Neon 5K Run is returning to Hays, Kansas on August 30th, 2014, and this year even more fun is being added to the party.
The 5k is a run for all speeds and ages. Runners rock out to a live DJ and then get gnarly while being showered in neon colors throughout the course, finishing up at the after party where the colorful chaos erupts. The color starts flying at 9am at the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex (1376, Old Highway 40) and the party lasts until 1pm. Gnarly sunglasses will be handed out prior to the fun at the packet pickup, along with a temporary tattoo and bodacious bandana. Everyone finishing the race will receive a color packet for the color party.
Early registration is $35 individual, 12 and under $20. On July 28th all ticket prices go up by $5. They go up again by $5 on 8/11 and then again by $5 on 8/25. Group discounts are available for groups of four or more and will save each person $5 off the current individual or kids rate.
Early registration guarantees a t-shirt (registrations within two weeks of the event date cannot be guaranteed a shirt).
After the dust settles from the rainbow explosion, the masterful DJ will continue with music until the party stops. A full service concession will be available as well as the Mobile GameDen crew throwing down some fun with their mobile video game arcade, laser tag, archery tag and human hamster balls.
A portion of the ticket registration fees and all of the concessions proceeds benefits both the Hays Recreation Commission’s Special Populations as well as the Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas.
ABOUT GNARLY NEON:
The Gnarly Neon 5K Run Series is the most fun way to spend a Saturday morning with hundreds of your new closest friends. From the West Coast to the Mid-West, these events benefit local charities that serve children and adults with disabilities.
FOWLER, Kan. (AP) — Kansas congressman Tim Huelskamp’s challenger in the Republican primary matched him in cash contributions from April through June, but the incumbent had nine times the cash on hand when the period ended.
Finance reports filed this week show Huelskamp and GOP challenger Alan LaPolice each raised about $109,000 in cash contributions during the quarter.
Huelskamp is seeking a third, two-year term representing the 1st District of western and central Kansas. LaPolice is a Clyde farmer and educator.
Huelskamp’s advantage as an incumbent showed in his cash on hand. He had $800,000 at the beginning of the period and built it up to nearly $835,000.
LaPolice began with a balance of $14,400 and ended with almost $91,000.
Huelskamp spent about $75,000 during period, while LaPolice spent less than $33,000.
Logan Mize performing Friday evening at Ellis County Fair.
By KARI BLURTON Hays Post
Before a crowd of more than 2,500 people, Kansas native Logan Mize followed by the legendary Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, belted out their hits on the midway of the Ellis County Fairgrounds Friday night.
As a boy growing in Clearwater Kansas, population “2,000 give or take,” Mize said he always dreamed of being on the stage.
“It feels really natural to me, oddly enough, it is just something I always wanted to do, something maybe a secret I kept growing up until I was able to move away from home and figure things out on my own and be myself, and then everything started to happen,” Mize said, “But you know, I was gone for a while and my favorite thing is coming back home.”
Mize said he has been in Nashville for about 8 years. His first album, ‘Logan Mize’ debuted in 2009 and his second, ‘Nobody in Nashville’ came out in 2012.
“So (I have) just been beating it up in a van for 5 or 6 years, driving around the country and Kansas is where it all started,” Mize said.
Mize’s hits include, “Good Life” and “Can’t Get Away From a Good Time.”
Mize was named the state’s Official Kansas Tourism Ambassador by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism and is traveling the country with the Travel Kansas station wagon.
Mize, opened for the show’s headliner, the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band.
One of the NGDB’s founding members, John McEuen, said even after 48 years on the road, performing never gets old.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band performing at Ellis County Fair Friday evening.
“We get older but the audience keeps us younger,” McEuen said, adding he feels NGDB has been “lucky” in that people continue to request their songs on the radio and their concerts remain popular.
“One reason the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has kept up so long is because…well you could say Kansas and Wyoming and Colorado and places like that,” McEuen said, “People keep coming…it’s a good thing because we don’t have a job unless people keep coming.”
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is best known for classics such as ‘Fishing in the Dark’ and ‘Mr. Bojangles.’
The Ellis County Fair concludes Saturday evening with the annual “Ellis County Fair Demolition Derby.”
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — An eastern Kansas police chief says it’s unclear who fired the shot that killed a young Kansas girl at the end of a high-speed chase that started after she was reported to be abducted.
Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens said Saturday initial reports that a 30-year-old man who took the girl from her home fired the shot that killed Cadence Harris might be inaccurate.
Platte County, Missouri, police notified Leavenworth police at 7:30 p.m. Friday they were in pursuit of a man suspected of abducting a child.
The Kansas City Star reports the chase crossed the Missouri River into Leavenworth, where it ended at a construction site.
Kitchens says the man was wounded in a shootout with police and was taken to a Kansas City hospital with non-life-threatening wounds.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police are searching for a man and child who haven’t been seen since a standoff at a southwest Topeka home.
