VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A top-secret space plane has landed safely on the Southern California coast.
Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base said the plane, which spent nearly two years orbiting Earth on a classified mission, touched down Friday morning.
The plane, known as the X-37B, resembles a mini space shuttle.
Just what the plane was doing has been the subject of sometimes spectacular speculation.
Several experts have theorized it carried a payload of spy gear in its cargo bay.
Other theories sound straight out of a James Bond film, including that the spacecraft would be able to capture the satellites of other nations or shadow China’s space lab.
The military isn’t saying.
The X-37B program has bounced between several federal agencies, NASA among them, since 1999.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The former city clerk of Auburn was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $189,500 in restitution for theft that occurred while she was in office.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a news release Friday that 61-year-old Alice Riley, of Mayetta, pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen funds.
Prosecutors say the crimes began in 2009 while she was city clear in Auburn, in Shawnee County. She issued duplicate payroll checks and wrote other checks to herself, which she used for personal expenses.
She hid the embezzlement by creating false entries in the city’s books and bank statements.
Phillipsburg resident Judy Bennett passed away Oct. 15, 2014 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, NE at the age of 68.
She was born April 8, 1946 in Hays, KS, the daughter of Leonard & Regina (Dreiling) Braun. She owned and operated her own sewing and monogramming business, A Bennett Creation, in Phillipsburg.
Her husband, Warren, preceded her in death on March 8, 2014.
Survivors include her brothers, Donald Braun of Stockton, KS and LeRoy Braun of Phillipsburg, KS, and her sister, Barbara Zimmerman of Hays, KS.
Mass of Christian Burial will be Monday, Oct. 20, at 10:00 a.m. in the SS Philip & James Catholic Church, Phillipsburg, with Father George Chalbhagam officiating. Burial will follow in the Fairview Cemetery, Phillipsburg.
Visitation will be Sat. and Sun. from noon – 9 p.m. at the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg. A Vigil service will be held Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be given to the Sisters of Survivorship or the SS Philip & James Altar Society. Online condolences to www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, is in charge of arrangements.
Hays city commissioners are expected to move a proposed Commercial Improvement District at the Hays Mall to a future meeting after the public hearing next week.
The issue was brought up during Thursday night’s Hays City Commission work session after Mayor Henry Schwaller said he will be absent at the Oct. 23 meeting to graduate from Leadership Kansas. Commissioners said, depending on the circumstances, they would likely move the item to the next commission work session for further discussion.
“Commissioner Mellick said a couple of months ago that we’re all pretty collegial and cooperative with each other,” Commissioner Kent Steward said. “If we let each other know that, like (Henry) just did, then even though I don’t think I’m going to like your vote, I think we should all be able to vote because that’s what we were elected to do.”
The Mall’s owners are proposing approximately $3 million in renovations at the structure, which would be funded via a 1 percent increase in sales tax on sales generated on the mall property.
DP Management recently released new details about the mall improvements.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police are searching for a suspect in the deaths of a couple in their south Wichita home.
The victims were identified Friday as 72-year-old Godofredo Moreno and his wife, 70-year-old Martha Moreno. They were found dead in their home Thursday.
Wichita police Lt. Jeff Gilmore says the couple’s vehicle was found Thursday afternoon engulfed in flames in a field in southwest Sedgwick County.
Gilmore says investigators found no sign of forced entry or a struggle inside the home.
The cause of death has not been determined, although police said Thursday the couple appeared to have suffered several stab wounds.
The Doors will be honored this November at the 10th annual Classic Rock Awards — the Classic Rock Roll of Honour. The band is this year’s recipient of the Inspiration Award.
The annual event is hosted by the U.K.-based Classic Rock magazine.
This year’s ceremony will be held in the U.S. for the first time at The Avalon in Hollywood on November 4.
Surviving Doors members, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, will be presented with the award at the ceremony.
Krieger and Densmore issued a statement saying, “In 1965 and ’66, our brothers across the pond were making a lot of beautiful noise, and we attempted to create our own magical sound out here on the West Coast. It’s really nice to see them now turning around, coming back here to L.A., and recognizing what the four of us accomplished together on a beach in Venice, California.”
Krieger and Densmore added, “To receive this award on our own soil, from the Brits, is an honor, and we take it as a sign of respect, so–thank you, from us and on behalf of our fallen brothers, Jim [Morrison] and Ray [Manzarek].”
Gregg Allman will be presented with a Living Legend Award at the ceremony.
As previously announced, the event will be hosted by Sammy Hagar and will air on AXS TV in December.
The annual Classic Rock Roll of Honour will also hand out awards in categories such as Band of the Year, Best New Band, Album of the Year and Reissue of the Year. You can vote at ClassicRockMagazine.com/awards.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the United States must do more to stop security breaches for credit and debit card users.
Obama says for victims of fraud and identity crimes, it’s infuriating and heartbreaking. He says the problem requires a hands-on approach across the government.
Obama is signing an executive order creating a new plan called BuySecure to tighten security for the debit cards that transmit federal benefits like Social Security to millions of Americans. Cards issued by the federal government will now have an internal chip replacing magnetic strips.
Obama says Congress must do its part, too. He wants Congress to pass a single, national standard.
An estimated 100 million people have been affected by breaches in the past year, including at big retailers like Target and Home Depot.
Rod Haxton is editor/owner of the Scott County Record.
We aren’t going to win any friends among our peers within the media, but we think it’s important to come clean.
Gov. Sam Brownback and the Kansas Legislature aren’t to blame because their massive tax cut policy has failed to live up to expectations. It’s our fault, and by “our” I mean the media, because we haven’t given Brownback’s tax policies enough time to work.
“I think they so desperately want what’s happening in this state to fail that they’re shopping for a factual setting to back that up because it’s working,” Brownback said of his critics in a recent interview on CBN.
During his comments with CBN founder and televangelist Pat Robertson, the Kansas governor continued by claiming that “the left” wants his economic agenda to “fail so bad that they can’t wait for it to and they just want to get me electorally before we get on through this and prove that this is working.”
Guilty as charged. Nothing makes us feel better than to have kids kicked off nutrition programs just so we can score political points.
We’re surprised that former KU football coach Charlie Weis hasn’t been making the rounds on network news claiming that the media – not him – is to blame for his 6-22 record.
“If the media hadn’t been so focused on my losing record, I’d have had a lot more success recruiting five-star recruits,” we can imagine him saying.
Brownback undoubtedly has supporters who believe in what he’s saying and that his real live experiment would be working wonders if the media would conveniently go away. Dramatic tax cuts and trickle-down economics will work if the media would just ignore the fact it never has.
It’s been more than 30 years since Reaganomics introduced the idea of trickle-down tax cuts. Congressional Republicans and Republican-controlled state legislatures have been keeping the idea alive in one form or another for more than three decades with the promise that it will work.
We’re still waiting.
If the media would simply disappear, as Governor Sam wishes, here’s what you wouldn’t know:
• In the latest fiscal year, tax cuts were responsible for state revenue nosediving $688 million from the previous year. It was only because of cash reserves that the state was able to spend $329 million more than it received.
• In the upcoming year, it’s projected that the state will spend more than $650 million than it will get in revenue. Only it can’t do that because we no longer have the reserves and state law requires that the state can’t spend money which it doesn’t have.
• According to the Kansas Legislative Research Department, the state could be facing a deficit of more than $1.2 billion in 2018.
• Public education in Kansas is already suffering with a steady decline in basic state aid that has cost individual school districts millions of dollars over the last four years. The result has been staff cuts and larger class sizes while bringing about what some are calling “forced consolidation.”
But that’s not all.
According to data compiled by school superintendents within the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center (of which the Scott County district is a member) property taxes have increased an average of 7.9% to offset the loss of state aid. This is in addition to increased student fees.
The 36 school districts within the service center have had to offset lost state aid with property tax increases amounting to $100 million between 2009-13.
Blame that on the liberal media. And while you’re at it, blame the media for the millions of dollars in state money that has been cut from Head Start, early child education and child nutrition programs in Kansas.
And yet Brownback says the problem isn’t the policy, it’s our lack of patience.
If that were the case, then job and business growth numbers in Kansas would offer a rosy picture of prosperity on the horizon. That doesn’t appear to be the case.
Kansas’ gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.9 percent in 2013. Now, we may not understand all the numbers that go into the GDP, but here’s what you should know. That’s half the rate of Colorado’s growth and trails Oklahoma’s 4.2 percent.
Kansas also trailed the growth rate in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.
Those states didn’t implement a massive tax cut program. Or maybe those states are doing better, suggests Brownback, because their economies aren’t being undermined by the liberal media.
There’s also the little matter of the “liberal” investment firms Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s each downgrading the state’s bond rating because they put politics ahead of patience. That’s how financial firms operate.
As a member of the media, we apologize to Governor Sam for our “we can’t wait for you to fail” philosophy.
When young children are pushed out of nutrition programs, when the poor are denied health care because the state won’t pay for Medicaid expansion, when Kansas teachers can’t get pay raises, when students are put into crowded classrooms and when the state’s infrastructure needs are put on hold because of state budget cuts, there’s only one thing you can say.
Be patient.
And ignore us naysayers in the media. We’re the reason this grand experiment is failing.
In the latest edition of the Tallman Education Report, Mark Tallman of the Kansas Association of School Boards attempts to clarify school funding across the state.
School funding was the driving issue of the 2014 legislative session and remains the focus of several local and statewide races.
Ty Patterson, director of the national Center for Tobacco Policy, Springfield, Mo., will be on the Fort Hays State University campus on Monday and Tuesday to work with the university’s Tobacco Policy Task Force.
Patterson will meet with several university groups to gather information on a new policy for tobacco on campus. Smoking is currently prohibited except for designated parking lots on campus. The new policy will also address e-tobacco use.
“Ty’s expertise lies in visiting with the campus and seeing what the culture is,” said Dr. Steven Sedbrook, associate professor of health and human performance and co-chair of the task force.
Wendy Rohleder-Sook, assistant director of student financial assistance, is the other co-chair.
“Or job is to study the tobacco culture at Fort Hays State and see how it would affect policy change and educate the Fort Hays State community in regard to tobacco policy,” Sedbrook said. “This is a fact-finding mission to gather information and thoughts and feelings about tobacco here on campus.”
Patterson served as a chief student affairs officer for 31 of the 38 years he worked in higher education, from 1972 to 2008. In 1997, the president of Ozarks Technical Community College asked Patterson to “look into getting all tobacco use off the campus.” In 2003, Ozarks College became the first public higher education institution to implement a tobacco-free campus policy.
According to Patterson’s biography, over the past decade, through campus visits to more than 80 higher education institutions and through workshops, seminars and other presentations, Patterson has shared his “unique approach to making such policies work with thousands of administrators, faculty, staff, students, health policy advocates, tobacco specialists and others.”
The National Center for Tobacco Policy has been contracted to help FHSU consider what its tobacco policy should be and how to make the policy work.
“We have a very representative task force tasked to gather input, and that is what Ty is here to do — find out what the people at Fort Hays State want to do,” said Sedbrook “We are trying to gather information from all constituencies across campus.”
Patterson’s schedule is listed by time, the group with which he will be meeting and the location.
Monday, Oct. 20
— 8:30-9 a.m., Unclassified professional staff and University Support Staff, Memorial Union, Black and Gold Room.
— 10-11:00 a.m., administrators, Sheridan Hall.
— 11:30 a.m.-noon, athletics personnel, Tiger Room, Cunningham Hall.
— 1:15-1:45 p.m., Residential Life, McMindes Hall, room 2R.
— 2:45-3:15 p.m., administrative support staff, Memorial Union, Black and Gold Room.
— 3:30-4 p.m., Physical Plant staff, Memorial Union, Black and Gold Room.
— 4:15-4:45 p.m., custodial staff, Memorial Union, Black and Gold Room.
Tuesday, Oct. 21
— 8-8:30 a.m., Physical Plant staff, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
— 8:45-9:15 a.m., administrative support staff, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
— 9:30-10 a.m., custodial staff, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
— 10:30-11:30 a.m., Tobacco Policy Task Force, Memorial Union, Pioneer Room.
— 12:30-1 p.m., faculty, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
— 1:15-1:45 p.m., Student Government Association, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
— 2-2:30 p.m., unclassified professional staff and University Support Staff, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
— 3-3:30 p.m., University Police Department, Custer Hall, room 124.
— 4-4:30 p.m., faculty, Memorial Union, Trails Room.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal forecasters don’t expect a return of frequent cold blasts from the polar vortex this winter. Nor should the weather system that blocked rain from California last winter come back.
Mike Halpert of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this winter looks pretty average in general. He doesn’t expect a lot of extreme conditions like last year’s cold outbreaks when Arctic air dipped south with the polar vortex.
Winter precipitation forecast- NOAA graphic
His agency forecasts warmer-than-normal winter temperatures for most of the West, northern tier and northern New England, with cooler weather in the Southeast, and average temperatures elsewhere.
The agency predicts wetter-than-normal conditions stretching from Southern California to Florida and up to northern New Hampshire, with dry patches in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes. Average precipitation is forecast elsewhere.
GORHAM — The Gorham Community Development Association will hold another fundraiser in hopes of generating funds for park improvements.
The German food buffet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at Gorham Senior Center.
The menu will include green bean & dumpling soup, wedding roast, galuskies, brats and kraut, noodle and beans, kase noodles, grebbel, kuchen, and cinnamon rolls.
Cost for adults is $13 per plate, $6 for children age 6 to 10. Children 5 and younger eat free.
The race between longtime Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Independent upstart Greg Orman continues to garner national attention.
Read the latest view from outside via USA Today HERE. Fort Hays State University political science professor Chapman Rackaway weighed in on the analysis.
