WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says dozens of Army soldiers and their two-star general are being isolated at their base in Vicenza, Italy, as they return after serving in West Africa to help with the Ebola fight.
Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the commander who led the U.S. response in Liberia, returned to Italy with 11 staff. They will be restricted in an isolated location and will not be allowed to go to their homes for 21 days. Several dozen more are returning in the coming days and will also be isolated.
Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, says Army leaders made the decision. So far, it only affects soldiers. He says no exposure incident triggered the decision, but they will be checked regularly for any Ebola symptoms.
NEW YORK (AP) – Joan Jett’s philosophy for young rock-stars-to-be: count your blessings, welcome challenges, find your passions, honor your parents and be kind – but don’t take any guff from anyone.
Jett was honored as Rocker of the Year at the Little Kids Rock educational fundraiser in New York Thursday.
Jett says parts of her are very confident, but she’s also very shy.
Her parents bought her a $30 guitar when she was 13.
Her music teacher thought Jett was strange because she wanted to rock, so she figured out how to play it herself.
The Kansas Department of Transportation, in conjunction with the Kansas Highway Patrol, today announced Blaire Beougher, 5, Stockton; Conner Miller, 9, Gorham; and Taylor Stein, 12, Hoxie, are the northwest Kansas regional winners in the 2014 Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day poster contest.
Each winner will receive a bicycle and a helmet donated by Safe Kids Kansas. The prizes will be presented by representatives from KDOT and the KHP.
A total of 1,344 youth across Kansas from age 5 to 13 took the time to think about safety and participate in the contest. Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day is a nationwide effort to increase roadway safety and reduce all traffic fatalities.
SALINA- A traffic stop on Interstate 70 just after 6:30 Sunday morning landed two Junction City men in jail on marijuana possession charges.
Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski said a deputy running radar on Interstate 70 just east of the Saline-Ellsworth county line stopped an eastbound car going 85 mph in a 75 mph zone.
When the deputy walked toward the car, he noticed a strong odor of marijuana. When the driver got out of the car, he was in possession of a marijuana grinder and told the deputy he had purchased it in Denver.
Another deputy arrived and talked to the passenger in the car, before a search of the car discovered three one-pound bricks of marijuana.
Patrick Farr, 26, and Forgary Smith, 23, were arrested on requested charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, no drug tax stamp, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Farr was also charged with possession of a prescription drug, Oxycontin that did not belong to him.
The Fort Hays State University Student Government Association will host a Fall Election Forum this week as the November general election looms.
The forum will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at FHSU’s Robbins Center.
Candidates or their surrogates in races for seats in the 111th District of Kansas House of Representatives, First District in U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate will be in attendance.
In the 111th, incumbent Rep. Sue Boldra, R-Hays, is facing off against James Leiker, D-Hays. Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp is facing Democratic challenger Jim Sherow for the Big First U.S. House seat, while longtime Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican, is on the ballot against independent challenger Greg Orman in the Senate race.
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Following a seven-tackle contest in which he batted away four Texas passes, Kansas State junior defensive back Dante Barnett was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday.
It was Barnett’s first career honor and the fourth this season for the Wildcats as Jake Waters earned the offensive honor following the Iowa State game, Dakorey Johnson was the defensive player of the week after the Auburn game and Tyler Lockett earned the special teams honors following the UTEP game.
The accolade was also Kansas State’s Big 12-leading 28th weekly conference honor since the beginning of 2011.
A product of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Barnett led the Wildcat defense to a shutout of Texas in a 23-0 victory on Saturday. It was the first home conference shutout for a K-State team since 1999 and marked the first time in 10 seasons that a Texas team had been held scoreless. His four passes defended are tied for the eighth most nationally in a game this season and the most by a Wildcat since 2003. Barnett has six passes broken up in 2014, just one away from tying his high for a season.
No. 11 Kansas State hosts Oklahoma State this Saturday in a 7 p.m., contest at Bill Snyder Family Stadium this Saturday. The game will be televised to a regional audience on ABC while it will also be available on ESPN3, the WatchESPN app and ESPN Game Plan.
LINDSBORG — New exhibitions at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery include photographs by Jim Richardson of Lindsborg, watercolor monotypes by Kathleen Kuchar of Hays; and the Gallery’s annual “Holiday Gift Show.” They will be on display from Nov. 2 through Jan. 1, with an opening reception planned for Sunday, Nov. 2, from 2 to 4 p.m.
The exhibition, “Kansas: Roots and Reflections,” showcases National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson’s exploration of Kansas over the course of his career, going back almost half a century since he first began seriously thinking about making pictures of the place he knew best. He recalls, “Kansas has always been a challenging subject, not just for me, but for many photographers trying to address a land lacking in outward, conventional beauty and people unaccustomed to public expressions of inner dialogues. In other words, Kansas is generally flat and we Kansans are generally shy.”
The show is roughly divided into four sections: Vintage Kansas, Small Town Cuba, the Flint Hills, and Prairie Grass Roots. Richardson’s first foray into long form photography, away from the press of daily assignments, came when he began to photograph his native state, seeking out unique rural subjects. The water witcher was one and the mule jumping contest is another. These subjects could generally be classified as quirky and unique – the Big-Ball-of-Twine school of photography. But among those somewhat nostalgic subjects was also that of Mrs. A.P. Shintaffer, one of the first images where Richardson got an inkling that he could do images that addressed something more eternal and universal in the human condition.
His extended work in Cuba, Kansas, evolved out of the earlier work when Richardson, “realized that I had to focus on the universal instead of the unique. Cuba gave me that chance and I have been going back to that generous town and its wonderful people for four decades now. Their stories became the story of my photographic life and along the way they taught me much about the meaning of community and how people find meaning in life. With them I sought to create transparent images, straightforward images unclouded by artistic intention, pictures where the subjects were the actors.”
The Flint Hills coverage started with Richardson’s involvement with National Geographic Magazine and his desire to give this section of the state the same level of visual honor often reserved for more legendary landscapes such as the Grand Canyon.
Prairie Grass Roots were photographed as part of a National Geographic story on soil. They came about after Jerry Glover of Salina’s Land Institute developed a way of growing prairie grasses in long tubes so that the roots could be preserved. Richardson then developed a way of photographing the roots in sections and assembling them into highly detailed images. These images were some of the first to reveal the truly impressive structure of the prairie underworld.
Hays guest artist Kathleen Kuchar started her education in a one-room, country school house in Nebraska where she was the only child in her grade for all eight years. Early on she knew that she wanted to be an artist and a teacher. She accomplished both with the help of her parents and encouraging college instructors. She had a 34-year teaching career at Fort Hays State University and is now retired. She continues to create art in her studio and teaches workshops locally and nationally.
About her exhibit, “Dreaming,” Kathleen writes in her artist statement: “There is something about ‘the dream’ that has always fascinated me. I find myself “daydreaming” when I should be focusing on a project. I awake in the morning with “a dream” that needs to be written down and deciphered. I paint a dream. I create a dream. It seems as if I am always dreaming. (Thinking back to the day when I helped my dad with field work, I was always ‘daydreaming’ and sometimes found myself cultivating out a whole row of corn. I was demoted to chopping thistles where I could dream without fear of destroying our crops).
“This exhibition of watercolor monotypes and transparent watercolors is a survey of some of my ‘dreams’ from the past twenty years. The imagery is derived from what I call, ‘the landscapes of my mind.’ In 1991, I was introduced to watercolor monotype when I studied at the Santa Reparta Graphic Art Center in Florence, Italy. Since then I have had a passion for this process. Images are created by painting watercolor on a Plexiglas plate and transferred to damp paper by using a printing press. Occasionally after the print has dried, I will enhance it with acrylics or colored pencils. A technique called chine-collé (adding collage during the printing of the plate) is also used on a few of these prints. What makes monotype unique is there is no edition — each print is a one-of-a-kind.”
The third new exhibit is the Gallery’s annual “Holiday Gift Show” – which has become a favorite for many visitors. Over forty invited artists are represented in the show along with special works from the artists of Clayworks at Disability Supports in McPherson. Art includes paintings, prints, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, blown glass, Swedish-inspired folk art, and woodcarvings. Works will be of medium to low prices, and ideal for holiday shopping.
The Sandzén Gallery is located at 401 N. First, Lindsborg, and now has extended hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Gallery is closed on Mondays. Admission is free, with donations welcome. Docent tours for groups are available by two-week advance appointment with the Gallery.
For more information about Birger Sandzén and the Gallery visit the website www.sandzen.org or telephone (785) 227-2220.
The city of Hays is becoming about as water efficient as it can be, according to officials.
Commissioners Henry Schwaller, Eber Phelps and Shaun Musil attended a regional water conference in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Assistant City Manager Paul Briseno, who had to stay behind, said this is one of several water seminars city officials have attended over the years.
“It’s a great opportunity to get more ideas for ‘best management practices’ used across the country, and even throughout the world, in conserving water,” according to Briseno.
“After last year’s trip, a number of initiatives came forward. We implemented several programs for water conservation — as you can tell from the budget — anything from education and marketing, to incentives, regulations and legislation,” he said. “We are becoming about as water efficient as we can. Our citizens are among the best users of water in Kansas — an average 95 gallons of water use per Hays resident per day.
“Sooner or later we’ll get to that place where we can’t get any more efficient, so our education component will be stepped up,” Briseno added.
Low-flow toilet installation is eligible for a rebate from the city of Hays.
“Education is just as important as incentives, rules and regulations,” Briseno emphasized. “Within the next month or so, Jason Riegel, city of Hays Water Conservation Specialist, will start working with our local schools to get that information to the students.”
Even though there have been good rains in 2014, a water watch remains in effect with Hays in the fourth year of a drought.
HIAWATHA- Kan. – The Sheriff’s Department in Brown County made multiple arrests after a reckless driving call on Sunday.
According to a news release from the Brown County Sheriff’s Department officers responded to a report of a reckless driver on U.S. 36 highway coming from the direction of Fairview, Kansas.
A shots fired call was then reported in connection with the reckless driving incident.
Brown County Sheriff John Merchant said an officer was able to stop the vehicle around the 300 block of North 8th Street in Hiawatha. Walter Lee Cole, Jr., or Morrill, 35, was arrested on a charge of Aggravated Assault and Angel Spomer, 19, Centralia was arrested on a charge of Felony Obstruction.
Braiden Guido, 17, ran from the scene and was later arrested at his home in Hiawatha after a search warrant was issued around 7 a.m. Monday.
Guido’s location was secured by law enforcement and the entry team was called in to respond to a barricaded subject.
Merchant said this is standard protocol in this type of situation.
Merchant said attempts were made to contact Guido before the entry team entered the home, when that failed tear gas and flash-bangs were deployed and Guido was taken into custody.
Law enforcement from Kansas Highway Patrol SRT team, Kansas Highway Patrol surveillance plane, Iowa Sac and Fox and Kickapoo Tribal Police, Nemaha County, Sabetha Police and Horton Police were called out to assist.
Further investigation into the incident led to the arrest of Joni Spitzengal, 39, and Adam Johnson, 29, of Hiawatha. Both were charged with Obstruction.
Brown County said that shots fired were never confirmed in the city of Hiawatha.
The incident remains under investigation and additional charges may be filed.
LARNED, Kan. (AP) — A man who leases his land in Pawnee County so children with life-threatening illnesses can hunt says some of the deer are being poached.
Tim Schaller says he was upset earlier this month when he found a poached buck with meat, head and antlers intact. It was at least the fourth deer he’s found poached on the property.
Schaller, of Larned, says the poaching is especially upsetting because the land is used for Life Hunts, which provides the hunts every year for ill children, and the loss of four trophy bucks could hurt the children’s chances of success.
The Wichita Eagle reports this year’s hunt will host a 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl with an inoperable brain tumor and a 13-year-old boy from North Carolina who is fighting cancer.
The Dane G. Hansen Foundation has awarded the HaysMed Foundation a $100,000 grant toward the purchase of a new linear accelerator with Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy capability for the Dreiling/Schmidt Cancer Institute.
The linear accelerator is the key equipment for delivering radiation. The current radiation equipment is 14 years old and is not compatible with SBRT.
SBRT offers a highly focused beam, which hits the cancer target with extreme accuracy. There are several major benefits of SBRT including pinpoint precision, decreased number of treatments and reduced cost. Current patients eligible for SBRT treatment must travel to Kansas City or Wichita.
“We are so thankful that the Hansen Foundation continues to help make the communities in northwest Kansas even better places to live,” said Dr. John Jeter, president and CEO of HaysMed. “We believe everyone in western Kansas deserves great healthcare and convenient access to the best treatment options available. The generosity of the Hansen Foundation helps carry out this mission.”
The HaysMed Foundation continues to seek private funds to help HaysMed obtain the linear accelerator with SBRT capability. The Foundation has established a fundraising campaign, Envision A Future Without Cancer to raise a minimum of $1.3 million toward the $3 million cost of this essential equipment. The Medical Center has committed to paying the remaining balance.
Anyone interested in contributing to the Envision Campaign can call (785) 623-2350, email [email protected], write the HaysMed Foundation, 2220 Canterbury Drive, Hays, Kansas 67601 or visit www.haysmedfoundation.org/envision.
JUNCTION CITY- Two people were injured in an accident just after 5:30 a.m. on Monday in Geary County.
The Geary County Sheriff Department reported a 1996 Chevy Blazer driven by Yang Scharff, Junction City, was northbound on U.S. 77 and struck a 1995 Toyota Four Runner driven by Cody Matsumoto, Junction City, as it was turning north onto U.S. 77 from Rucker Road.
Scharff and Matsumoto were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
