TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has ordered the creation of a special team to respond quickly to any suspected Ebola cases in the state.
The governor’s office also wants to come up with $4 million that could be used in an emergency and is calling on the federal government to provide an emergency cleanup team and federal disposal of Ebola-related waste.
Brownback says in a news release he also has ordered the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to develop a plan for the state that includes stronger rules on protective gear and isolation than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple says it sold 39.3 million iPhones in the last quarter, or 16 percent more than a year ago, which is a record for the quarter. That’s partly due to excitement over new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models that Apple began selling last month.
The surge in iPhone sales helped the company beat Wall Street’s expectations for the three months that ended Sept. 27. Overall, the company’s profit rose more than 12 percent from a year ago, to $8.5 billion. Total sales also rose more than 12 percent, to $42.1 billion.
While iPhone sales were up, Apple also sold 13 percent fewer iPad tablets than it did a year ago. That follows an industry-wide decline in tablet sales. But the company reported lower iPad sales than analysts had expected.
Hays Post is partnering with the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development to help employers find workers and workers find careers.
Hays Has Jobs offers a comprehensive listing of employment opportunities in the Hays area, ranging from education to health care, service to manufacturing.
Aside from job listings, the site also includes the latest business opportunities in the area and tips for job seekers. User also will find information on the latest job fairs locally and around the region.
Hays Hays Jobs, which is refreshed continually as new job opportunities are added, can be found under “Topic” on HaysPost.com.
Coalition Executive Director Aaron White is scheduled to talk with Scott Boomer on the Tuesday morning edition of the Eagle Morning Show. Tune in to listen at KAYS-1400 AM.
KANSAS CITY – World Series traffic congestion can be expected around the Truman Sports Complex, particularly along I-70 and I-435 from midday Tuesday throughout the early evening.
The Missouri Department of Transportation urges baseball fans heading to the game to leave in plenty of time to ensure you are parked and in your seat by the 7:07 p.m. start of Game 1.
A sell-out crowd combined with the usual afternoon rush hour traffic can lead to backups and delays for those who are accustomed to normal game-day traffic. MoDOT and Kansas City Scout will do their part to help. Motorists are urged to check up to the minute traffic conditions online before heading out by going to www.modot.org and clicking on the Traveler Information Map, and also to www.kcscout.net for the latest information on delays and congestion. Scout message boards along major routes will help alert motorists to any potential problems.
“Eat, Drink, Make a Difference” is the message for the third annual “Empty Place at the Table” to benefit Jana’s Campaign. Founders Curt and Christie Brungardt started the campaign to curb gender-based violence five years ago, shortly after their daughter Jana Mackey died as a result of domestic violence in 2008.
Christie said this year’s fundraiser, scheduled for Nov. 1, will serve as a celebration of how far Jana’s Campaign has come in the five years — and a reminder of how much is left to be done.
She said the organization has learned a lot through the years and is more aware than ever before of the prevention needs in communities across the state and nationally.
“Our goal in Jana’s Campaign is all about prevention and education of gender-based violence and the more we have learned … the more we see the need for a great deal of prevention and education and that is what we really will be celebrating on Nov. 1,” she said. “The fact that some of the programs we have identified over the years as needed, we actually are doing those now, so whether it’s education in middle schools or high schools or on college campuses, there are just a number programs we will be celebrating on Nov. 1.”
Brungardt said she and Curt are being asked to speak across the country, and the highlight so far was being asked to speak at Ivy League Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., this summer.
The Nov. 1 fundraiser begins at 6 p.m. at the Robbins Center at Fort Hays State University and includes cocktails, dinner, live music and auctions. For more information on the fundraiser or to buy tickets, call (785) 656-0324 or visit www.janascampaign.org.
A Russell man apparently was unharmed after his car shot down an embankment, striking a fence and tree at approximately 9 p.m. Sunday.
According to the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Moore, 27, was eastbound on Commerce Parkway offramp at the Interstate 70 exchange. The report said Moore was attempting to blow into an interlock device when his foot hit the gas pedal, startling him, and he forgot to take his foot off the pedal.
The 2005 Ford Taurus traveled eastbound across Commerce, then down the embankment, where it traveled more than 175 feet before brakes were applied. The car struck a Kansas Department of Transportation fence, then continued into a tree.
The Taurus was pulled out Monday by a tow truck after morning drive time.
The sheriff’s department said Moore allegedly called and got a ride home from the scene. An investigation into the incident continues.
Kaiser Family Health Foundation Ebola Poll taken Oct. 8-14 (click to enlarge)
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Health officials say the chances of the Ebola virus spreading to Kansas are remote, but they are preparing for it anyway.
State officials have developed a Kansas Ebola Preparedness and Response Plan that is based on a more generic infectious disease plan but offers specific guidance on Ebola for the state’s health care providers.
Participants in a recent meeting to review the plan included Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon; Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Robert Moser, a family physician; and Charlie Hunt, the state epidemiologist.
Sara Belfry, a KDHE spokeswoman, said state officials have worked on Ebola preparedness since August, when American health workers infected while treating patients in West Africa were flown to the United States for treatment.
Health officials say anyone who has traveled to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo within the last 21 days and develops a fever should contact a health care provider and disclose their travel history.
But at this time, Belfry said those who have not traveled to the African nations where the virus is spreading have little to fear.
“Ebola poses no substantial risk to the general population in the U.S.,” Belfry said.
Still, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Friday found that 45 percent of respondents were worried that they or a family member would contract Ebola, and 22 percent said it was likely there would be a widespread outbreak in the United States.
But health officials say the United States is well-equipped to contain the virus, which does not spread as readily as illnesses like measles or the flu.
Ebola spreads only through contact with the body fluids of those infected and is not contagious until an infected person is symptomatic. The first symptom is fever.
Two health workers and an NBC news cameraman were repatriated to the United States for treatment after acquiring Ebola in West Africa. Thomas Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Dallas to visit family, developed symptoms of infection once he arrived in the United States and subsequently died. Two nurses at a Dallas hospital who assisted in his treatment contracted the virus and are being treated. One of them took a flight to Cleveland while she had a mild fever.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up efforts to isolate and monitor other workers who treated Duncan and may have been exposed. The CDC also has worked to contact those on the flights with the infected nurse and to ensure other health care facilities nationwide are deploying proper protocols if they encounter suspected cases of Ebola.
President Barack Obama on Friday appointed Ron Klain, former chief of staff to vice presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden, to coordinate the federal government’s Ebola response efforts.
Belfry said the state’s recent Ebola preparedness meeting also included officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and local health agencies.
Shawnee County health officer Gianfranco Pezzino said he was among those at the meeting who are now educating frontline health care workers about control and containment protocols.
Those protocols, he said, are constantly being improved as officials learn more about previous outbreaks in Africa and the few scattered cases in the United States.
He said health care facilities within Shawnee County are “as ready as we can be” and getting more ready by the day.
“They’re taking it very seriously, and we are too. And we are talking, so that’s a good thing,” Pezzino said. “I think communication is going very well.”
Pezzino – who also works for the Kansas Health Institute, parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service – said county health officials met last week with law enforcement officials to discuss quarantine protocols and have talked with the medical community, hospital officials and first responders.
Pezzino said getting new triage protocols – including asking patients immediately about travel history – in place for the smaller, acute care providers who might see patients with fever posed a larger challenge than instituting them in Topeka’s two “top-notch hospitals.”
One of them, Stormont-Vail HealthCare, has tested the protocols. Nancy Burkhardt, a hospital spokeswoman, said multiple patients have been isolated after telling staff they had been to one of the African nations in the midst of an Ebola outbreak. Further examination determined the patients were geographically mistaken or did not have Ebola symptoms.
“I think it should be reassuring that the process is working,” she said. “We are getting a ‘yes’ answer and we are doing what we need to do and then we’re able to rule it out.”
Burkhardt said the extensive media coverage of Ebola has caused some patients with no risk factors to nonetheless worry that they might have it.
“I have heard anecdotally from patient care staff that patients are talking about it,” she said. “We have had a patient or two that has asked the question or wondered, ‘Could I have Ebola?’ So, yes, our staff has had to do some education. They’ve had to reassure patients that if they haven’t traveled to those areas or haven’t had immediate contact with people who traveled to those areas, they don’t have Ebola.”
Burkhardt said members of the public who are feeling worried or helpless can assist health care workers in one key way: get a flu shot.
“The less people we have showing up in our ER with flu-like symptoms, the better able we’ll be to determine if we really do have an Ebola patient,” she said.
Pezzino said that if Shawnee County does get a confirmed case of Ebola, it will be “disruptive” and “scary” for the community. There is no known cure for the virus, though treatments and vaccines are in different phases of testing.
“It’s something to be concerned about,” Pezzino said. “This is a horrible disease. It’s horrible for the people affected and it’s horrible for health care workers to witness any patient with that disease. But they have to balance that concern with the reality that the probability of contracting this disease in our community today is extremely low. It’s not zero, but it’s extremely low.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
The Community Improvement District (CID) program was passed by state legislation in 2009. The CID program is designed as a tool to help finance public and private development. This includes public infrastructure, such as public streets, curb and gutter, public utilities, etc., as well as private buildings: renovations, new construction, additions, etc. Communities all over Kansas (Salina, Hutchinson, Emporia, Garden City, Topeka, Lawrence, K.C. Metro, Wichita, etc.) are using this program to develop new retail space or to renovate old, outdated space. The program was designed and intended for this express purpose.
Aaron White
The financing takes the form of an additional sales tax, or special assessment on property tax. The sales tax only applies within the proposed district, and can be a maximum of 2% for a maximum of 22 years. In the case of the Hays Mall, the owner is using bank financing to fund the renovations. The owner is responsible for the debt if the CID does not generate enough revenue. The owner will be responsible for cost that are not eligible for CID reimbursement, and there will be costs that are not eligible. These will be paid thru the loan and repaid by the owner. The revenue can only be used to reimburse for renovation related expenses. It can’t be used to pay off a mortgage, fund other projects, or kept.
In practical terms, this means that a $100 purchase today costs you $108.04 after taxes (except in the locations that already have an additional tax). If the CID passes, the $100 item you purchase will cost $109.04 after tax, an increase of one dollar. The tax is only applied to the Mall property, nowhere else. Shoppers who do not want to pay the additional tax can choose not to shop at the Mall.
That one dollar increase will help pay for some, but not all, of the planned renovations to the Mall property. Remaining expenses will be paid out of pocket. The renovations will improve the appeal of the Mall to new national retailers that are looking for space in Hays. And yes, Hays can attract new retail chains. Hobby Lobby is a prime example. Many people were commenting over a year ago about rumors that Hobby Lobby was not coming to Hays because we were too small, rents too high, land too high, etc. Yet Hobby Lobby opened its doors this summer and has been doing very well.
The fact is, Hays has one of the highest retail pull factors in the state at 1.85. This is the ability to attract shoppers into a community from outside the city limits, nearly double our population. Hays also has an extended trade area of over 76,000 residents. These are customers from smaller communities that come to Hays as their option for shopping. We are educating national retailers to this in every conversation. What is needed to recruit new retailers is an attractive, available space ready for a new client with a quick turn-around.
The Mall management is talking to a number of potential retailers right now, several of them referrals from the Ellis County Coalition. The Coalition has shared the results of the Community Retail Survey with Mall staff, and they have reached out to several of the top 10 responses. A number of comments have been made in various media sources that the Mall should release these names to the community. The answer has and will be no, and the reason is simple…Confidentiality. Retailers do not want their competitors to know where they are looking to locate. They run the risk that a competitor may try to beat them to the market. This is why there is a Lowes in Salina, even though Home Depot looked at that market first. Should a property owner break that confidentiality, the retailer will likely drop the community from consideration, possibly permanently. If non-disclosure agreements have been signed, the penalties for breaching confidentiality could run in the thousands of dollars.
It is important to note that this is NOT a City of Hays project or tax. The City of Hays does not direct how the tax revenue is spent, and the City is not responsible for the repayment of the debt. The CID is AT THE OWNER’S REQUEST to be placed on his own property only. The City does have the authority to ensure that the applicant has an eligible project, approve the resolution, and also make sure that reimbursements go to eligible brick and mortar expenses.
The City has additional requirements that must be met to be eligible to apply for the program: the development must have at least 50,000 square feet of space, generate $10 million/year in retail sales, and employ at least 25 people. The Mall meets all of these requirements, with over 200,000 square feet, between $18 million and $25 million in annual retail sales, and well over 25 people employed in the Mall.
It is also important to note that the Mall has been an outdated facility for decades. Previous owners deferred maintenance/upgrades/improvements for many years. The current owner purchased the Mall in 2007 and inherited many of the issues that are being addressed with this renovation.
If you have any questions regarding how a CID works, retail opportunities, or general questions, feel free to contact the Ellis County Coalition at (785) 628-3102 or send an email to [email protected].
The Kansas Department of Transportation will be conducting pavement evaluation tests on portions of Kansas 23 and Kansas 383 in Sheridan County and Kansas 283 in Trego County from Monday through Thursday.
This operation will include the use of a pilot car operation to control traffic.
KDOT performs Falling Weight Deflectometer tests annually to test the quality of the pavement and certain aspects of deflection upon the roadway. Technicians will be working in four-mile segments while performing the tests and travelers should expect a minimal wait of 15 minutes or less while the survey is underway.
For questions concerning the FWD tests, contact KDOT District Three Maintenance Engineer, Michael Terry at (785) 877-3315 or [email protected].
Phillipsburg resident Buster Winn passed away Thurs., Oct. 16, 2014, at his home in Phillipsburg at the age of 74.
He was born Feb. 13, 1940 in Laird, CO to Lloyd C. & Vera V. (Little) Winn. His wife, Anita, preceded him in death on March 2, 2010.
Survivors include his daughter, Natalie Flin of Everett, WA; stepdaughter, Gretchen Swift of Phoenix, AZ; stepsons, Bret Derr of Phillipsburg and Neil Derr of Castle Rock, CO; 7 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren; sister, Sharon Baumgartner of Brighton, CO and brother, Leroy Winn of Brighton, CO.
Cremation was chosen. A memorial service will be held Thursday, Oct. 23, at 10:30 a.m. in the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, with Pastor Joel Hiesterman officiating.
Friends may sign the book Wednesday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be given to Special Olympics. Online condolences to www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, is in charge of arrangements.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — An Olathe man has pleaded no contest to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the death of his brother’s estranged girlfriend.
Thirty-year-old Samuel L. Moore originally was charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 death of 25-year-old Laura Coltrane in Olathe but he pleaded to the lesser charge Monday.
He will be sentenced Dec. 29.
The Kansas City Star reports that Moore’s brother, 33-year-old Derek Deon Owens, is serving a 74-year prison sentence after he was convicted of strangling and beating Coltrane in her apartment. He also found guilty of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and violation of a protection order.
Coltrane was a radiologic technologist from Humboldt, Kansas.
NICEVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Dustin Lynch says he’s gotten a few stitches and he’ll be OK, but the guy who threw a beer can at him got away. Lynch was performing in Niceville, Florida, on Friday at the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival when someone beaned him with a full can of beer. Lynch had a cut below one of his eyes. He still finished the show.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) â A federal judge has set a hearing this week to hear arguments over whether he should order Kansas to allow same-sex marriages.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree has scheduled a hearing for Friday at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas. At issue is the request by the American Civil Liberties Union for a temporary injunction that would bring Kansas into line with a binding 10th Circuit Court of Appeals precedent set in other cases.
The ACLU argues gay couples should not be prevented from marrying, while government officials have vowed to defend the state’s constitutional prohibition against gay marriages.
The ACLU contends that a federal ruling specific to Kansas law would aid the state Supreme Court in a separate case.
