ATHOL (AP) — After three years of mostly fundraising and labor, the cabin in northern Kansas where the lyrics for “Home on the Range” were written will be officially rededicated this weekend.
The cabin in Smith County was the home of Brewster Higley in the 1870s. While living there, he wrote a poem called “My Western Home,” which became the lyrics for “Home on the Range.” That later became the official song of Kansas.
The Wichita Eagle reported the cabin was crumbling three years ago, when Kansas was celebrating its 150th anniversary. A grassroots effort raised $133,000 in donations and the cabin was restored, along with construction of nature walks, footbridges and handicapped accessible efforts.
A weekend of activities is planned, with the rededication ceremony on Sunday.
Just seven spots remain for an event that could change online fortunes for area businesses.
Eagle Web Services, the only Google Partner in the region, has scheduled a symposium — beginning at noon Oct. 15 at Fort Hays State University’s Robbins Center — that will explain the benefits of developing a sophisticated digital marketing plan … and just how easy it is to get started.
“You always see workshops in the area and region about ‘how to use online marketing effectively,’ ” said Todd Haskell, Eagle digital sales manager. “This event is directly involved with the leader in everything web — Google. We’ll connect with two of Google’s best who specialize in helping small businesses succeed.”
A lunch of pulled pork sandwiches is on the house, and those attending the free session — streamed live online — will receive a special Google gift bag full of fun items and gift cards.
After lunch, the 45-minute presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer period. A similar event was held in Salina earlier this year, and businesses there have embraced the marketing opportunity, said Matt Moody, who oversees Eagle’s digital presence across its four-state market area.
To reserve your spot, contact Haskell at (785) 259-6873 or [email protected].
Don’t be surprised when you next visit a Hays Medical Center clinic and a health care professional asks you: “Has anyone hurt you? Hit you? Threatened you? Are you in a safe environment?”
Carol Groen, HaysMed nurse and manager of accreditation, certifications and the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners program, said the questions have been required at the hospital for years, but recently have been implemented at HaysMed clinics to help identify abuse victims of all ages.
“Asking these questions is the first part of awareness in trying to get patients to understand we are here to help them,” Groen said. “It creates a sense of awareness to the families that we are looking out, that we are asking.”
Groen said if an adult answers yes to any of the questions, police will not be called unless the victim wants to report the abuse — but it is the first step in referring the victim to resources for help.
Jessica Albers, nurse and SANE examiner, said the abuse screening questions are critical and should be incorporated in every hospital and clinic.
“If we are able to identify someone, maybe not the first time or the second time they are coming into their health care provider for a medical issue, maybe the fourth or fifth time, after they have developed a relationship with that doctor or nurse, they might feel more comfortable in sharing the information,” Albers said.
Groen added they understand a child or an elderly person would be less likely to answer the questions truthfully if the abuser was in the room. However, is child under the age of 18 or a senior is suspected to be a victim of abuse, a health care worker will look for additional behavior signs and could ask the parent or caretaker to leave the room. Social workers also are at the ready should further evaluation be required.
If abuse is suspected in the case of a child under 18 or a senior, Groen said, health care professionals are required to call law enforcement to investigate.
Both Groen and Ablers travel to hospitals across the region encouraging the abuse screenings as a part of normal protocol in all clinics and hospitals in northwest Kansas.
LEBANON, Ore. (AP) — Officers in western Oregon say a suspect they tried to collar at a traffic stop drove too fast for pursuing officers, but eventually he was just too fragrant.
The Albany Democrat-Herald reports that the driver gave officers in Linn County the slip in a high-speed chase before dawn Sunday, doing better than 100 mph in a red Honda Prelude whose hood flew off.
But Lebanon police later saw the car parked and launched a search by foot.
That’s when officers caught a “strong scent of cologne” in the darkness and soon found their suspect hiding in shrubbery.
Thirty-five-year-old Charles V. Agosto was jailed on charges including probation violation and trying to elude officers. Officers said he told them he regretted using the cologne.
There was no immediate indication he had a lawyer.
NASHVILLE (AP) – Trisha Yearwood has to be extra careful about what she eats while she’s on tour with her husband, Garth Brooks. Yearwood says it’s easy on the road to eat garbage and eat at the wrong times. She doesn’t like going on stage with a full stomach, and by the time she’s finished, it’s after 11 p.m. and she’s too pumped to sleep. She says the only thing she can get at 2 a.m. is probably a burger. Yearwood lives by the 80/20 rule. She will eat healthfully for 80 percent of the time, and she says, “Twenty percent of the time, I’m going to have that burger, and I’m going to enjoy it.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two Kansas colleges will receive federal grants to develop programs to help train students in job skills needed for new technology.
Federal officials announced Monday that Washburn University in Topeka will receive $12 million and Johnson County Community College will get nearly $2.5 million as part of a federal program.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Washburn president Jerry Farley says the funds will be used mostly for training through the School of Nursing and the School of Applied Studies. He says the school plans to reach out to more veterans with the funding.
The awards were part of $450 million in job-driven training grants awarded to nearly 270 colleges.
Proponents of organic, labor-intensive farming contend we should go back to the days when every family owned 40 acres, farmed with hay burners (horses) and used no chemicals.
You remember the good ol’ days when people were self-sufficient, owned a couple milk cows, tilled a garden and butchered 40 or 50 fryers each spring.
Some of these zealots propose each nation should also strive for self-sufficiency. No imports. No exports.
Should such events occur, you may want to prepare yourself for milking each morning instead of enjoying that piping hot mug of coffee. Forget about sliced bananas on your bowl of corn flakes. These goodies we import into this country, and a lot more, won’t be on the kitchen table any more. Count on it.
God forbid we adopt these policies. If we cave in to those who spread hysteria about unsafe food and giant farms, be prepared to do without the services of carpenters, painters, nurses, doctors, teachers, writers and musicians. In case you haven’t heard, labor-intensive farming doesn’t permit time for many other pursuits. Neither does production agriculture.
Farmers run non-stop, from early morning to late at night, planting and harvesting crops, tilling the soil, feeding and caring for livestock. Their work seldom ends. It’s foolish to assume everyone would want to leave his or her jobs in the city to move to the farm. It ain’t all Green Acres out there folks.
And who’s to say all these people from other professions would become productive farmers?
A city friend remarked to me he does not want to be a farmer. He contends he couldn’t feed himself, much less the rest of the country or world.
“I’d starve to death and so would the rest of us,” he told me. “If you want to till the soil, go for it. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us want to, thank you.”
If we return to a system where everyone farms, brace yourself for even more uncertain economic times. Manual labor and animal power could spell the return of food shortages and famine. A nation of farmers translates to a nation even more vulnerable to depressions and hunger. A drought, plague of insects or disease could trigger such tragedies because we’d have no chemicals to fight them with.
Today’s mechanized farmer provides us with the safest, most abundant food in the world. He works closely with crop consultants when applying herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers. He has cut his uses significantly in recent years – up to 50 percent in some cases.
Farmers work years to leave a legacy of beneficial soil practices. Most of the farmers I know would give up farming rather than ruin their land. They are proud of the crops they grow and the land they work.
Farmers continue to work to conserve water, plug abandoned wells, monitor their grassland grazing and adopt sound techniques that will ensure preservation of the land. Urban residents should also look at new ways to protect the environment where they live.
There’s an old saying that rings true today: “You can never go home.” Yes, we can never return to the good ol’ days. Besides, were they really all that good?
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
AARP Kansas is hosting two events Thursday in Hays to help Kansans 50 and older better prepare for a secure financial future and learn how to protect their hard-earned financial assets.
“AARP is working to ensure those who are 50 and older have the financial security they need to take charge of their future and live independently no matter what their age,” said AARP Kansas Interim Director Andrea Bozarth. “We want people to have the tools and information they need to make good decisions about their finances and know how to protect them.”
The first workshop, the 16th annual Western Summit, will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Fanchon Ballroom, 2350 E. Eighth. The summit, hosted by Hays AARP Chapter 5167, will include information on financial freedom, area medical services, caregiving and advanced planning. The Ellis County Historical Society also will present information on the “Wild, Wild West.”
All are invited to attend this informative and fun event. The cost is $10 and includes registration, refreshments and lunch. To register, contact Millie at (785) 625-9463.
The evening workshop on Thursday is from 6 to 8 p.m. This is a free, interactive workshop to find out what you can do to ensure your financial security. Topics for the event include managing investments, retirement decisions, estate planning, and avoiding scams and fraud. Kansas Securities Commissioner Josh Ney and a local certified financial planner will be on hand to provide information about investments and planning. The event will take place at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, 3000 Sternberg Drive. To register, call (877) 926-8300, or visit https://aarp.cvent.com/KS_FSWorkshop_Hays. Refreshments will be served, and no products will be endorsed or sold at this event.
From mid-August to September 29, 2014, CDC or state public health laboratories have confirmed a total of 443 people from 40 states and the District of Columbia with respiratory illness caused by EV-D68. The 40 states include Kansas Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
CDC is prioritizing testing of specimens from children with severe respiratory illness. Of the specimens tested by CDC lab, about half have tested positive for EV-D68. About one third have tested positive for an enterovirus or rhinovirus other than EV-D68.
The Associated Press reports Colorado health officials have confirmed a 10th case of paralysis-like symptoms in a child.
Dr. Larry Wolk, director of the Department of Public Health and Environment, said Monday all 10 cases are being handled by Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora. Six of the 10 children have been discharged from the hospital.
The Denver Post reports most of them were ill before being stricken with a respiratory illness.
Eight of the nine children originally diagnosed with myelitis — an infection or inflammation of the spinal cord — were tested for viral outbreaks. Four tested positive for enterovirus 68, and the other four tested positive for rhinovirus or another enterovirus. No information was given for the 10th child.
The cases come amid an unusual wave of enterovirus 68, which can cause paralysis.
DENVER (AP) — Some in Colorado are cleaning up after hail piled up in some areas.
In western Colorado, the National Weather Service says several people reported golf-ball size hail near Pagosa Springs on Monday. Quarter-sized hail piled up like snow in Greenwood Village while the unsettled weather led to a tornado watch for 14 counties. Click HERE for more.
Actual snow fell in the mountains, shutting down Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park.
More snow is in the forecast for parts of the mountains Tuesday.
Jason Gallagher and his assistant Tiffany Lentz go through their morning routine at Gallagher’s home in Overland Park. Lentz is one of five full- and part-time workers who provide in-home services for Gallagher.-photo-Bridgit Bowden/KCPT
By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
SCRANTON — Karen Barezinsky is looking for an answer to what she says is a simple question: Are the people who run the state’s Medicaid program planning to cut the supports she and her husband use to keep her son, Ray Santin, who’s paralyzed from his neck down, out of a nursing home?
“I can’t find out anything,” said Karen, 62, who lives in Scranton with her husband and son. “I leave messages with Ray’s case manager, but nobody calls me back.”
Karen is worried because she’s read news stories about Gov. Sam Brownback and Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Kari Bruffett warning legislators that a recent ruling by the U.S. Department of Labor could cause reductions of in-home services for some people with disabilities and frail elders. That could send some of them to nursing homes, which typically are more expensive than community-based settings.
The new rule, due to take effect Jan. 1, 2015, requires state Medicaid programs to pay home care workers minimum wage and overtime. That reverses policies in place since the mid-1970s that considered them “elder sitters,” a term for paid companions whose primary responsibility involved staying with someone who is elderly or disabled.
Medicaid provides health coverage for about 420,000 low-income and disabled Kansas adults and children. Approximately 11,000 Kansans – primarily disabled adults and frail elders – receive Medicaid-funded in-home services.
Photo by Dave Ranney Medicaid helps cover the cost of in-home care for Ray Santin of Scranton, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a 1995 automobile accident. A ruling by the U.S. Department of Labor to pay in-home home care workers minimum wage and overtime is expected to cost the state an additional $13 million to $16 million annually.
In Kansas, complying with the new rule is expected to cost the state an additional $13 million to $16 million annually. Bruffett and Brownback both have said KDADS doesn’t have that money in its budget. Neither of them has yet announced plans to ask the Legislature to come up with it.
nstead, administration officials have asked the Department of Labor to exempt Kansas from the ruling or delay its implementation. All six members of the state’s congressional delegation have signed a letter in support of both requests.
Several national associations – including the National Association of Medicaid Directors, National Council on Independent Living, National Disability Rights Network and National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities – also have asked for a delay.
“Everyone is supportive of people getting minimum wage and being paid overtime,” said Martha A. Roherty, executive director at the National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities, a group that represents state departments that administer programs for the aged and disabled populations.
“That’s not the issue; the issue is timing,” Roherty said. “There simply isn’t enough time for states to implement the kinds of structural changes that this requires by Jan. 1 – things like changing state statutes, having to rewrite state Medicaid plans, getting those changes approved, acquiring funding, coming up with the technology for keeping track of all the hours worked. I mean, it’s virtually impossible, especially since most states’ legislatures won’t be in session until after Jan. 1.”
Others disagree. “This is not a sea change,” said Deane Beebe, a spokesperson for Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a national organization that advocates for home health aides, nurse aides and personal care attendants.
“This is a change that back on Dec. 11, 2011, President Obama said he was going to make happen,” Beebe said. “It’s not new; it’s been in the works a long time. People can’t say they’re surprised. This wasn’t thrust upon anyone overnight.”
Beebe said the ruling was driven by long-standing concerns that “we can’t build a long-term care system that’s going to meet the needs of an aging population and help people with disabilities live independently and not pay workers minimum wage, not pay them overtime and offer them zero benefits.”
According to a Department of Labor report on the ruling, at least 15 states already have laws that require government-funded home care programs to pay workers minimum wage and overtime.
Losing sleep support?
Medicaid pays Karen Barezinsky and her husband, Richard, $9.64 an hour to care for Santin, who was a star athlete at Sterling College before suffering a broken neck in an automobile accident in 1995. He’s been quadriplegic since.
“He’s paralyzed from the neck down,” Karen said. “He can shrug his shoulders, but that’s pretty much it.”
Neither of the Barezinskys is paid overtime. Instead, Karen’s care hours are capped at 40 hours for a seven-day week, while Richard is paid for up to 30 hours a week.
“(Richard) takes over for me when he gets home from work,” Karen said, adding that her husband is a pavement engineer with the Kansas Department of Transportation. Before Ray’s accident, Karen was Scranton city clerk.
Medicaid also pays Karen’s 47-year-old daughter, Tracy, $25 a night, seven nights a week, to provide what’s called “sleep cycle support.”
“Basically, she gives us relief at night. She lives just a couple blocks away,” Karen said. “She’ll brush his teeth, give him his medicine, turn him so that he’s not in one spot too long, massage him if he gets a knot, empty his night catheter bag. If he needs anything, she’s there to get it for him.”
Typically, Karen said, Tracy spends at least six hours a night with Ray. Tracy, who works as an orthodontist’s assistant by day, helps care for Ray seven nights a week.
The Department of Labor ruling isn’t expected to affect Karen or Richard, because they each are paid more than minimum wage and neither puts more than 40 hours on their weekly time cards.
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Karen said. “I worry about sleep support, because it looks like that’s what they’ll end up cutting.”
The ruling requires that Tracy be paid at least minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. So if she puts in six hours a night, she would be paid $43.50 a night. And if by week’s end she’d worked more than 40 hours, she would need to be paid overtime.
KDADS officials have said they expect the ruling to increase the state’s share of night support costs by $6 million a year, almost half of the projected $13 million to $16 million state cost increases due to the ruling.
Currently in Kansas, about 1,400 people receive Medicaid-funded night support services.
“I’m not saying that if we lost night support, Ray would have to go to a nursing home,” Karen said. “We’re family, and we’re not going to let that happen. But I will say that I’m getting close to 65, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep going like I have. If we lost that sleep support, it’d be just that much harder on us and on Tracy.
“And what about all the disabled people out there who are like Ray but don’t have family like he does?” she said. “What’s going to happen to them?”
According to KDADS records, about 14,600 full- and part-time workers provide Medicaid-funded in-home services. The department does not track the number of workers who are caring for family members.
A challenging job
Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson, said the agency has no intention of offsetting the ruling’s costs by shaving hours off case plans that define how many hours of service a person needs to live in a community-based setting rather than a nursing home.
But in an effort to avoid paying overtime, she said, beneficiaries may be pressed to find additional workers if the ones they rely on now are logging more than 40 hours a week caring for one or more people.
n Kansas, Medicaid beneficiaries who receive in-home services are allowed – and encouraged – to choose their care workers.
Kansans with disabilities say finding reputable people who are willing to do the often-stressful work is not as easy as it sounds. Job turnover is high.
“When I advertise to find to somebody for night support, I get emails back that say, ‘Are you sure that’s right? That can’t be right, that’s not even minimum wage. Who’d want to do that for that price? It’s not even minimum wage,’” said Jason Gallagher, who has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and lives in a federally subsidized apartment in Overland Park.
He relies on five day and night workers – one full-time, four part-time – for assistance in getting in and out of bed, using the bathroom, preparing meals and running errands.
“The last time I had to find somebody, it took me three or four months,” he said. “It’s extremely difficult. It’s like, when I’m in my (motorized) wheelchair, I can get to my cell phone or I can get out the front door. But when I’m in bed, I can’t do anything. So it’s really important that you get good, responsible people who you can absolutely trust, because that’s what you’re doing. You’re trusting them with your life and with all your stuff.”
Gallagher, 34, said he dreaded the prospect of his having to find more workers but welcomed the likelihood of a pay increase for them.
“The ruling will be good for me if the state pays it, because I think it would make it easier for me to find people,” he said. “But if the state it doesn’t have the money, and to make it work they’re going to reduce my hours – that would cause major problems for me. I don’t know what I would do.”
KDADS is aware of this and other “unintended consequences” tied to the ruling, de Rocha said. It’s why, she said, the agency’s “focus right now is on DOL to come to a resolution that protects workers and our self-directed consumers.”
Department of Labor officials have not said if or when they might respond to the requests for delaying the ruling.
“Over the last few months, the Department has received letters urging the Department to implement the rule on time, and has also received letters requesting additional time for compliance,” Tania Mejia, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor, wrote in an email to KHI News Service. “The Department is carefully considering these requests. Should the Department have any relevant announcements concerning the rule, a notice will be published in the Federal Register.”
Bill Dombi, vice president for law at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, said he doubted that the department will agree to exempt Kansas from the ruling.
“I don’t know of any legal basis for them to treat one state, in this case Kansas, differently than all the other states,” said Dombi, an expert on health care wage-and-hour laws. “But there is a basis for their delaying it or, for that matter, pulling it all together.”
He declined to predict whether federal officials would agree to a delay.
“I know this isn’t what Kansas wants to hear from an outsider in Washington, but if I were you, I’d plan on this rule taking effect on Jan. 1, 2015,” Dombi said. “And the best way to deal with it, frankly, is to finance it. Because the alternatives are going to trigger higher rates of turnover, less job satisfaction and reduced quality of care.”
Another big commitment for head coach Mark Johnson and the Fort Hays State men’s basketball team has been announced. Hays High senior Brady Werth announced on Twitter Monday night that he’s going to be a Tiger next season.
Werth averaged 15.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last season and is the two-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
Werth joins Scott City’s Trey O’Neil as FHSU verbal commitments for next season.
