HUTCHINSON — Two people were injured in an accident just after 2 p.m. on Sunday in Reno County.
Hutchinson Police reported a vehicle driven by Misty K. Young, 20, Stafford, was southbound in the 700 Block of Kansas 61. The vehicle hit the median and rolled ejecting the driver and a passenger Zachary Moon, 27, Pratt.
Young was transported to St. Francis in Wichita with injuries to her leg and hip. Moon was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center with a broken leg.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A high school biology teacher from Dodge City High School is the 2015 Kansas Teacher of the Year.
Shannon Ralph has taught for 18 years in middle and high school, with 13 years at Dodge City High School teaching biology, honors biology and AP biology. Her selection was announced by Kansas Interim Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander during a ceremony in Wichita Saturday night.
She has received numerous previous honors and has presented at several national conferences.
Ralph will receive $4,000, a free rental car for a year for her Teacher of the Year duties, free enrollment to several Kansas universities for life and other prizes.
Ralph was chosen from among eight finalists, who will work together this year to promote education and teaching.
LEON, Kan. (AP) — A Butler County sheriff’s deputy escaped serious injury when a semi-trailer truck hit his patrol car in south-central Kansas.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says the accident happened Monday morning near Leon on westbound U.S. 400.
The westbound truck hit the patrol car while the deputy was helping a stalled motorist.
The truck driver was taken to Wesley Medical Center with non-critical injuries. The deputy was treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Traffic on westbound U.S. 400 was reduced to one lane while the accident was investigated.
JULIE PACE, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — Administration sources say that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is resigning from President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.
Hagel, a former Republican senator, has served as Pentagon chief since early 2013. Obama is expected to announce the resignation Monday.
The official insisted on anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly ahead of Obama’s official announcement.
A senior defense official said that Hagel submitted his resignation letter to Obama on Monday morning and the president accepted it. Hagel agreed to remain in office until his successor is confirmed by the Senate, the official said.
The official says that both Habel and Obama “determined that it was time for new leadership in the Pentagon.” The official adds that they had been discussing the matter over a period of several weeks.
RUSSELL — Michael Davidson, Russell High School vocal music instructor, this week announced the upcoming NCAA League Choir Workshop and Concert Monday, Nov. 24. Russell High School is hosting the annual workshop and concert for the first time in seven years.
Each high school music department in the North Central Activities Association League is invited to bring up to twenty vocal students to the workshop. Students will gather at Ruppenthal Middle School in Russell Monday morning to attend the vocal clinic presented by Dr. Mariana Farah, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Kansas. Dr. Farah, with the assistance of accompanist Leanne Hillmer, will work with the mass choir on three pieces selected prior to the workshop. Students will arrive with some degree of familiarity with the music, but will work throughout the day to polish the works for the evening concert.
The NCAA League Choir Concert will be held at 7:00 pm, Monday evening at St. Mary’s Queen of Angels, 415 S Windsor Street in Russell. Attendees will enjoy three mass choir pieces, as well as one choral piece presented by each school. Mass choir selections include “Come to the Music”, words and music by Joseph M. Martin; “The First Nowell”, arranged by Mack Wilberg; and “O Filii et Filiae”, by Volckmar Leisring. There is no charge for admission.
Clinician Dr. Mariana Farah is the Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Kansas, where she teaches courses in graduate choral literature and conducting, directs the KU Concert Choir and Women’s Chorale, and helps oversee all aspects of the choral program. Born in Brazil, Farah received her Bachelor of Music from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. She came to the US in 2000 to study at the University of Iowa, where she received her master’s degree in choral conducting. In 2008, she completed her doctorate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Accompanist Leanne Hillmer received both her Bachelor and Masters degrees of music in piano performance from the University of Kansas. Hillmer taught at the Tanglewood Music Festival, and in 1974 was nominated by the Metropolitan Opera Board Chairman, Alton Peters, for a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. She was the first American Musician to hold this fellowship. In 1995 she retired after 30 years as an opera coach and accompanist and moved home to Kansas. She has worked with the Russell and Ellsworth school systems and is currently working with students at Fort Hays State University.
The current immigration hissy fit reminds me of two seventh-grade boys arguing, red-faced, nose-to-nose over some dispute on a ball field. I taught seventh-graders once. Their level of maturity was actually greater than what we are seeing in the Halls of Congress. Similar to kids on a ball field, politicians on both sides are taking a short view, arguing about the immediate moment and failing to look way down the road. This petty gridlock of the past decade threatens to become perpetual gridlock unless we make a major change in our system or our representatives.
No one is looking at any possible long-term actions that could be taken. One might be to set a long-term target: perhaps in 50 years, all individuals could cross borders with virtually no restrictions, similar to the European Union. If a country started from allowing none, entry level would increase two percent a year until at the end of the 50 years there was total free flow. Visa policies and income-leveling would allow for reasoned and gradual adjustment in citizenship requirements. This looks far down the road, far beyond the time our politicians are in office.
Another advancement the U.S. will never have is high-speed electric trains. France, China and Japan long ago took the long view and made the commitment to build a successful system that is paying back over 30 years. We are unwilling to look beyond a few year’s investment return, just as our politicians cannot look beyond the next election cycle.
The distinguished conservative diplomat George Kennan—who kept the Cold War from becoming a hot war—described the problem bluntly. Under our two-party system and short election cycles, politicians were forced into “vulgarity.” By this he meant that more-and-more, elected officials had to do what appealed to the masses in order to be re-elected.
Kennan clearly saw that the United States was a republic, not a pure democracy. Many great acts, such as Eisenhower’s interstate system, were funded and built by votes of intelligent representatives who could take that long view when their constituencies could not. Some southern senators voted for the Civil Rights Act even though they knew the majority of their citizens opposed it. With fewer media networks and news cycles, they could survive. Now politicians focus on garnering votes with various constituencies rather than providing long-term legislation.
Every winning party declares that “the people have spoken” after every election. But the majority of people did not speak at all—they stayed away from the polls. America has an abysmal election turnout. No party can ever claim to speak for the majority. At best, they are a majority of the minority.
But anyone who thinks that everyone who voted Republican is of one mind ignores the major split between Tea Party and moderate Republicans. And the same can be said between the liberal wing and moderates of the Democrat Party.
With another 2.5 billion people on earth by 2050, we cannot live and consume resources at our current rate. Our policies on food supply, banking, travel, housing, and immigration will have to be altered dramatically and intelligently.
George Kennan advocated for professionalism in politics. We need statesmen of proven ability and judgement who can avoid the whims and pressures of public opinion and the “vulgar” requirements of seeking and maintaining elected office. Kennan felt that liberty “possessed a value only in a well-ordered society. Otherwise, it degenerated into license.”
Yes, our election cycle is too short to solve long-term problems. And our two-party system reduces every complex problem into simple-minded polarized alternatives.
Kennan realized that if he publicly discussed these shortcomings of our democratic system during the Cold War, he would be charged with supporting tyranny. With gridlock now the order of the day, and no Cold War afoot, it is perhaps time to question the two-party system and begin sending representatives into government who take the long view, and worry less about being re-elected.
The Hays Police Department conducted 19 traffic stops on Friday, 29 on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. The department also received 15 animal calls during the three-day period.
Nov. 21
Underage Possession of Alcohol, 2800 block Grant, 12:38 a.m.
Disorderly Conduct, 800 block Ash, 1:30 a.m.
Criminal Damage to Property, 200 block West Seventh, 2 a.m.
Driving Under the Influence, 1200 block Main, 3:07 a.m.
Suicidal Subject, 3700 block Vine, 7:21 a.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident/Hit and Run, 1100 block Vine, 7:44 a.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident, 300 block East 20th, 8 a.m.
Animal At Large, 3100 block Hall, 8:45 a.m.
Suicidal Subject, 1000 block East Eighth, 10:38 a.m.
Harassment, 100 block West 17th, 11:59 a.m.
Welfare Check, 2700 block Epworth, 12:25 p.m.
Found/Lost Property, Hays, 1:03 p.m.
Found/Lost Property, 400 block East 21st, 1:18 p.m.
Shoplifting, 4300 block Vine, 2:04 p.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident/Private Property, 1000 block East 37th, 2:06 p.m.
Theft, 100 block West 12th, 3:07 p.m.
Domestic Disturbance, 500 block East Eighth, 3:23 p.m.
Warrant Service/Failure to Appear, 100 block West 12th, 4:53 p.m.
Drug Offenses, 1000 block East 26th, 9:42 p.m.
Nov. 22
Criminal Transport, Great Bend, 2:01 a.m.
Driving Under the Influence, 20th and Lincoln, 2:50 a.m.
Contempt of Court/Failure to Pay, 100 block West 12th, 5 p.m.
Noise Disturbance, 2700 block Epworth, 7:27 a.m.
Abandoned Vehicle, 500 block East Sixth, 1:09 p.m.
Found/Lost Property, Hays, 1:10 p.m.
Found/Lost Property, 1500 block U.S. 183 Alternate, 1:52 p.m.
Bicycle/Lost,Found,Stolen, 600 block East Fifth, 2:44 p.m.
Animal At Large, 300 block West Eighth, 3:07 p.m.
Create a Hazard, 100 block West 35th, 4:18 p.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident, 13th and Vine, 6:10 p.m.
Disturbance, 1900 block Vine, 06:39 p.m.
Animal At Large, 2000 block Eisenhower, 7 p.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident/Private Property/Hit and Run, 3200 block Vine, 7:15 a.m.
Abandoned Vehicle, 400 block East Seventh, 9:44 p.m.
Nov. 23
Theft, 700 block Ash, 1:33 a.m.
Disturbance/Fight, 100 block West Seventh, 2 a.m.
Suspicious Activity, 200 block West Fifth, 3:05 a.m.
Disturbance, 1500 block Milner, 8:11 a.m.
Drug Offenses, 1000 block East 41st, 9:15 a.m.
Motor Vehicle Accident/Private Property/Hit and Run, 1300 block East 41st, 10:45 a.m.
Abandoned Vehicle, 700 block East Sixth, 12:10 p.m.
Animal Cruelty/Neglect, 700 block East Sixth, 12:33 p.m.
Criminal Damage to Property, 2000 block Vine, 3:29 p.m.
Burglary/vehicle, 2700 block Vine, 10:30 a.m.
Theft, 2700 block Vine, 4:06 p.m.
Harassment/Telephone/FAX, 2200 block Marjorie, 5:12 p.m.
Warrant Service/Failure to Appear, 3700 block Vine, 5 p.m.
Harassment/Telephone/FAX, 2200 block Haney, 9:14 p.m.
Juvenile Complaint, 1100 block Centennial, 9:56 p.m.
ABILENE, Kan. (AP) — An historic theater in Abilene that was destroyed by fire will be rebuilt.
Maggie Hoffman, executive director of the Great Plains Theatre, says an architect has been hired to develop plans to replace the theater. The building was destroyed by fire after being hit by lightning in July. It was built in 1883 and housed a professional Equity theater for 20 years.
Hoffman says no date has been set for the new theater to open but it could be three to five years. She says the theater’s supporters want to see what the architect envisions, and then have plenty of time to raise the funds needed for a new building.
The Salina Journal reports a professional fundraising expert will be hired to help raise money and apply for grants.
FHSU University Relations
Art work from faculty of Fort Hays State University’s Department of Art and Design is on exhibit now in the annual Faculty Art Exhibition in the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art, Rarick Hall, room 102, on the FHSU campus.
The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The closing reception, part of the Winter Gallery Walk, will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5.
A couple years ago after catching my last bobcat of the trapping season, I laid it on the pickup tailgate and marveled at the magnificent creature it was.
First the eyes, eyes that could probably spot a scurrying mouse at 100 yards. Then the ears, each tipped with a tiny tuft of fur, they’re wondrous little organs that would probably have heard the same mouse even farther away. I stroked its plush fur and wondered aloud how its creamy-white spotted belly could be so beautiful. I took one of its paws in my hand, paws that seemed much too big for its lanky body.
I cradled the paw upside down in my palm, and with my thumb pressed down on the underside of one toe. Out came a curved, talon-shaped claw sharp as a fishhook. When I released the toe it immediately covered itself again with a sheath of skin as if it was not even there. “How does this all work?” I wondered.
This week’s column is a bit of a departure from my norm. I’m going to make a rather bold statement here, but stick with me… I believe in evolution. Yes, you read correctly, I believe in evolution… I believe in evolution as a process by which all wildlife adapts over years, generations or decades to changes in their environment, but I refuse to believe in anything other than God’s Creation as the vehicle by which the creature that lay on the pickup gate before me came to exist!
No matter how mundane or uneventful an outdoor adventure seems, I absolutely never leave nature’s presence without being fascinated by something. Maybe it just doesn’t take much to fascinate me anymore, but my wonderment with Creation starts pretty simply.
For example, how does putting a kernel of corn into this stuff we call “soil” with a little water and sunshine cause a plant to grow? And furthermore, how does that seed know to grow a stalk of corn and not a soybean plant, a pigweed or a maple tree for that matter? And then there’s the part where it produces a big ol’ cob full of the exact seeds we started with, covered by several layers of heavy leaves to protect those seed till they ripen. Or how about the vibrant colors around a rooster pheasants face, the shimmering green of a mallard drakes head, the stunning red hues of a male cardinals body or even the amazing palate of colors found on a pesky peacocks tail?
Then inversely, how do all the females of those same species end up totally dull and drab so they blend in with their surroundings as they sit on a nest filled with peculiar looking vessels called “eggs” that will hatch, and just like the corn plant, produce young that are exactly like their parents?
How do geese navigate to spots hundreds or even thousands of miles away, and yet find their way back home to nest? How do salmon end up where they were hatched to lay eggs of their own, which – you guessed it – will hatch into little salmon looking just like mom and dad. How do ducklings know how to swim when they are barely dry after hatching and how do hoards of baby turtles know to head straight for the ocean mere minutes after digging themselves free from their sand covered nests?
I’ve barely scratched the surface here, but I’ll tell you how I believe this all happens; it’s all Divinely designed to happen that way! Oh I’ve heard all the other explanations; how we began as monkeys and “evolved” into humans. I have no doubt our ancestors looked nothing like us, (some people I still wonder about today) but trust me, we still began as humans. Then there’s the theory that life began as some sort of “stew” or “soup” and over a gazillion years “just happened” to develop into all we see today.
As my wife would say, “It takes way more faith to believe that than it does to believe in Creation.”
Anyway, I’ve ranted enough for now, but the bottom line is that I believe deeply in evolution as the process by which all life adapts to its changing surroundings, but I believe deeply that all nature was created by God for us to enjoy and manage, and the day I stop believing that way, I’ll sell all my traps, fishing rods and guns and take up knitting, because I won’t deserve to Explore Kansas Outdoors anymore!
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
Mass of Christian Burial for longtime Goodland, Kansas, resident Eunice J. Weber, 84, will be held Saturday, November 29, at 10:00 AM MT, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Goodland.
Burial will be at Goodland Cemetery.
Friends may share respects Friday, November 28, from 5:00–6:00 PM MT at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.
Vigil & Rosary will be Friday, November 28, at 6:00 PM MT at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.
Memorials to Hospice Services of Sherman County or Our Lady’s Guild (of OLPH Catholic Church) may be left at the services or mailed to Koons Funeral Home, 211 N. Main, Goodland, KS 67735-1555.
Online condolences and guest register at www.koonsfuneralhome.com.
By Mike Sherry
Heartland Health Monitor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A highly regarded eating disorder treatment center is about to make the Kansas City area its first site outside of its home state of Colorado, a development local clinicians said would help fill a critical gap in services here.
The Eating Disorder Center of Denver expects to open its partial hospitalization program on Dec. 29, according to local program director Tanja Haaland. The company is renovating 5,400 square feet of space in the lower level of an office building near Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Merriam, Kan.
Open to adults ages 18 and above, the Eating Disorder Center of Kansas City will have a 12-person capacity, Haaland said.
The program will operate eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week, with a staff of about 20 people. Haaland said the length of the program is typically six to eight weeks.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Emma Wood, co-owner and clinical director of Thalia House, a transitional living facility in Fairway, Kan., that serves women with eating disorders.
Established in 2001, the Eating Disorder Center of Denver, or EDC, uses a trademarked treatment program it calls CAMSA, short for Connection, Acceptance, Mindfulness, Sense of Self and Action.
The EDC in Denver has become a trusted resource for local clinicians, among them Kori Hintz-Bohn, executive director of Renew Counseling Center in Olathe, Kan., which also specializes in eating disorders.
“We have sent (clients) to Denver and we have been very pleased with the work they did,” Hintz-Bohn said.
She said that by next year Renew, too, could have a program like the one EDC is starting. Renew has talked about a collaboration here with McCallum Place, which has locations in St. Louis and Austin, Texas.
Levels of care
Eating disorder treatment spans a spectrum of care, including inpatient units specializing in handling very sick patients who are severely underweight. Kansas City once had such a facility at Research Medical Center, but that program closed more than two years ago.
Other options include partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, known respectively as PHPs and IOPs. Intensive outpatient is generally a notch below partial hospitalization in terms of the length and frequency of weekly programming.
The treatment environment also includes individual therapists and counselors, such as Mary Beth Blackwell, who runs the Eating Disorder Resource Center at Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City.
Eating disorder experts in Kansas City say the lack of a PHP has been one of the most glaring holes in the local system. Renew and Thalia House run IOPs.
Only one in 10 men and women suffering from eating disorders receive treatment, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Relapse is common, with one study finding that more than a third of women treated for anorexia or bulimia backslide within nine years.
Statistics like those, providers said, highlight the need for a range of treatment options – with patients moving up and down the continuum depending on how well they are doing in their recovery.
Local clinicians said they are pleased to have a local partial hospitalization program through EDC because the only option now is to send patients to programs hundreds of miles away from their families and support systems.
“Those that have loved ones that are friends or parents or husbands who come (to therapy) and are part of their treatment – those are the ones that have much less risk of relapse,” Hintz-Bohn said.
As a licensed counselor herself, Haaland said partial hospitalization can be a better alternative to a more restrictive setting where patients are walled off from their everyday lives and don’t get to practice the coping skills they are learning in treatment.
Also, she said, insurance companies are more apt to cover partial hospitalization programs as a more cost-effective treatment option than inpatient care.
Blackwell, the Eating Disorder Resource Center official, agrees that partial hospitalization is a valuable option for certain patients, making EDC a welcome addition to the treatment landscape here.
She’s concerned, however, that insurance companies will steer patients to the partial hospitalization program when what they need is inpatient care. Blackwell hopes to resurrect an inpatient clinic to replace the one that closed at Research, which she helped staff.
“There were times (at Research) when we would argue with insurance companies that this person was at a lower weight or they were chronically binging and purging and needed 24-hour care, and they just wouldn’t budge on it,” she said.
“So that’s what make me nervous (about the new program). If insurance companies will get too used to it as an option, and then when inpatient becomes available, if it becomes available, they won’t consider that a viable option.”
Another entrant?
Hintz-Bohn said Renew and McCallum Place began discussions in the spring of 2013 about collaborating on a partial hospitalization program here. Those talks are on hold, however, following the recent sale of McCallum Place to Acadia Healthcare, a behavioral health company based in Nashville.
The St. Louis Business Journal reported that the cash and stock deal with Acadia was valued at $40 million.
Hintz-Bohn said the two sides have discussed starting a program with a 24-person capacity to serve adolescents and adults. The program would be housed in a medical office building next to Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park.
Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
Today Sunny, with a high near 49. Breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 24 mph.
Tonight Partly cloudy, with a low around 21. Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph.
Tuesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. West southwest wind 8 to 14 mph.
Tuesday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. West wind around 11 mph.
Wednesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. West northwest wind 6 to 10 mph becoming east northeast in the afternoon.
Wednesday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 26.
Thanksgiving Day Sunny, with a high near 49.
Thursday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 28.
Friday Sunny, with a high near 57.
