AUGUSTA- A Kansas teenager died in an ATV accident on Saturday in Butler County.
The Butler County Sheriff reported an ATV driven by Dalton Palmer, 13, rural Augusta, rolled in a field, on private property near Southwest Diamond Road.
Palmer was pinned in the vehicle, suffered severe head injuries and was transported to the Kansas Medical Center where he died.
The sheriff said he was wearing a seat belt and shoulder strap but he was not wearing a helmet.
By DUSTIN ARMBRUSTER
Hays Post
The Hays High Indians won the 2014 Western Athletic Conference title, and the league has named Alex Delton as Player of the Year and coach Bo Black as Coach of the Year.
Delton, who heads to Kansas State after this fall semester, lead the conference in rushing yards with 1,519 and 17 rushing touchdowns. The senior quarterback was second in passing yards (1402)and touchdowns (13).
Black was named coach of the year in his first year as the Indians head coach.
As a team, the Indians lead the league in rushing yards and total yards, due in big part to the offensive line, which included first-team selections Brandon Hardwick and Craig Dreiling. Brayden Delzeit and Trenton Henningson were given Honorable Mentions.
Hayden Kreuzter was name on the first team as a wide receiver. The senior caught 31 passes for 633 yards and 7 touchdowns. He ranked in the league fifth in number of catches, third in yards and second in scores.
Despite breaking his foot in the Garden City game, senior Adam Klaus was also given Honorable Mention status.
Defensively, the Indians had three named to the first team. Shane Berens was named to the first team on the defensive line. He was the only sophomore from any school to be named to a first team. Berens was 17th in tackles with 56 and tied for second with two interceptions, both of which he returned for touchdowns.
Ethan Deterding and Connor Rule were both named to the defensive first team as linebackers. The Indian’s leading tacklers, Deterding ranked fifth in the conference with 77 and Rule was ninth with 67. Deterding was second with the league with five sacks and tied for seventh with two fumbles caused.
Keith Dryden , Garrett Pfannenstiel and Maddux Winter were all named to the Honorable Mention team.
ANNE FLAHERTY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Federal Communications Commission wants to increase Americans’ phone fees slightly as a way to bring a high-speed Internet connection to nearly every classroom.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters Monday that he wants to increase the amount of money the FCC can spend on school Internet connections, from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion a year. He’d do that by tacking on modest monthly fees to consumers’ phone bills. Wheeler says the average consumer or business would pay an extra $1.90 a year per phone line.
Wheeler’s proposal has to be voted on first by the FCC’s five-member commission, on Dec. 11. The agency’s two Republican commissioners have opposed previous efforts to overhaul the FCC’s E-Rate program, which aims to wire schools and libraries with broadband connections.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A spokeswoman for Mick Jagger says it was upsetting that private information was made public in court last week.
Spokeswoman Fran Curtis says the Rolling Stones have settled a legal battle with insurance underwriters who wanted to investigate the mental health of Jagger’s girlfriend, L’Wren (luh-REN’) Scott. Her suicide in March forced the postponement of the Rolling Stones tour.
The underwriters didn’t want to pay the band’s $12.7 million claim for losses.
Curtis did not elaborate on the settlement, but she says it had been resolved before the details became public last week.
The underwriters had wanted to talk to Scott’s brother about her health, but he told The Salt Lake Tribune he wasn’t contacted.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Washburn University’s capital improvement plans now include a new $30 million residence hall and dining area.
The hall will offer 350 beds in apartment-like settings on the Topeka campus. It will also include a dining area for about 300 people.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports 9 percent of undergraduate and graduate students live on campus and the university wants to increase that number.
The residence hall is expected to be ready for students in the 2016-17 academic year.
It is the latest in several capital improvement projects included in a new master plan, such as law school, recital hall, Welcome Center and indoor sports facility.
And a new Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab on the campus is expected to open next year.
MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Government scientists say initial tests of shallow groundwater in the Northern Plains oil patch found no evidence of contamination from an energy boom that’s already seen more than 8,500 wells drilled.
But the scientists caution that the results were unlikely to pick up contamination from surface spills or leaking well casings because the water they tested was from aquifers that predate oil and gas drilling.
The U.S. Geological Survey study released Monday looked at 30 domestic water wells in North Dakota and Montana.
Researchers found no evidence of contamination by methane, saltwater brine or other drilling byproducts.
USGS hydrologist Rod Caldwell says more research is needed to assess the continuing impacts of energy development. As many as 60,000 more wells could be drilled in coming decades.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas and Kansas State University will allow some field sites to be used for a national study on climate change.
The two universities said in news release Monday that the National Science Foundation will use the sites to study climate change, land use and invasive species.
The biological field stations could be used for the study for up to 30 years, one of the most long-term initiatives in the history of the National Science Foundation.
The research will include building monitoring towers, soil studies and studies of animals, insects and temperatures. The foundation funds the National Ecological Observatory Network, which studies climate’s impact on a continental scale.
Manhattan, Kansas (Nov. 17, 2014) – The Kicker Country Stampede 2015 line-up just got “A Little Bit Stronger” with the addition of Country superstar Sara Evans, chart-topper Jerrod Niemann, Country music’s fastest rising star Thomas Rhett, one of Rolling Stone’s ‘10 New Artists You Need to Know’ Old Dominion, Country rock band Blackjack Billy and British Country singer/songwriter Sasha McVeigh. They will join previously-announced performers Country megastar and judge on NBC’s The Voice Blake Shelton and award-winning, superstar duo Florida Georgia Line on the Kicker Country Stampede stage in Manhattan, Kansas, June 25-28, 2015. Fans can expect even more exciting artist announcements in the coming months!
VIP tickets are available for $510, four-day GA passes for $120, four-day, jump-the-line passes for $130, reserved seats for $250 until Nov. 30. Preferred and Premier Camping for 2015 is SOLD OUT! General and Family Primitive Camping is available for $135 and General Primitive Reserved Camping is available for $175 until Nov. 30. Want to take advantage of our current pricing but don’t have the cash? Choose the EZ-Pay Plan at check out to split your payment up over five months. Use it to purchase tickets, camping or add-on options! For more information on tickets or for any of your Kicker Country Stampede needs, visit www.countrystampede.com or call 800-795-8091.
Kicker Country Stampede offered a full-fan experience in 2014 with fun for attendees of any age. In addition to the main stage boasting the biggest names in country music, Steel Rodeo Tours provided non-stop, action packed freestyle motocross exhibitions. The Nashville Songwriters Association International Songwriters Tent featured established, as well as up-and-coming songwriters, including Lance Carpenter, Rob Northcutt Band, Tony Ramey and more. Kite’s Grille & Bar Tuttleville Stage once again showcased the best local talent the Midwest has to offer, including Tim Zach & The Whiskey Bent, County Road 5, Jared Daniels Band and more. Other activities included a carnival, mouth-watering vendor food, shopping, interactive exhibits and much, much more.
Follow Kicker Country Stampede on Twitter at: twitter.com/countrystampede and like them on Facebook at: facebook.com/countrystampede.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is deliberating whether to allow same-sex marriage licenses even as the federal courts have ruled same-sex marriages are allowed in the state.
Kansas justices met privately Monday to review a petition from Attorney General Derek Schmidt to block the licenses until a final judicial ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s gay marriage ban.
Schmidt filed the petition last month after Johnson County’s chief district court judge authorized marriage licenses for same-sex couples. In Kansas, licenses are issued by district court clerks.
The Kansas Supreme Court blocked further licenses, but the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit for lesbian couples denied licenses in Douglas and Sedgwick counties.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week blocked enforcement of the gay-marriage ban while the federal lawsuit proceeds.
Since I was able to see an early screening of “Dumb and Dumber To” and have already written a review of its pleasingly dumb proceedings (5 of 6 – stupid humor that both pays homage to and is appropriately derivative of the original), I thought I would double back and review “Big Hero 6” from two weeks ago.
“Big Hero 6” is a Disney film based upon Marvel characters produced by Disney Animation Studios. While Marvel movies are now listed in the same breath as the “Harry Potters,” “James Bonds,” and “Star Wars” of the cinematic world, Disney animation has been hit or miss for the past couple of years. “Big Hero 6” attempts, and is moderately successful, at taking the best of Disney storytelling and the best of Marvel storytelling and combining it into a compelling animated feature.
On the Disney front, “Big Hero 6” needed to sell the tender “boy and his dog” story that we all melt so easily at. For a story set in an odd, technologically advanced, Asian-inspired version of San Francisco (San Fransokyo), the dog in question is an inflatable, lovable robot named Baymax. Paring the protagonist with a partner that isn’t an animal is not unprecedented, but it does raise the difficulty factor for the bond that needs to be created between boy and dog and the pair and the audience. While occasionally moving, the bond between Hiro (the hero and main protagonist of the story, get it?) and Baymax never truly takes on a life of its own and can’t hold a candle to the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless from “How to Train Your Dragon.”
On the Marvel front, the action is witty, fast-paced and entertaining. Unfortunately, however good the animation is, it misses the mark for true greatness by lacking the x-factor that occasionally brings a tear to the eye – the incredibly subtle, almost throwaway moments, that define each character and raise the emotional stakes in the midst of the excitement.
For an example of what I mean by “x-factor” in this instance, please see the debut trailer for “Overwatch,” a new first-person shooter that was debuted at BlizzCon when I was in California. One of the many reasons I love Blizzard Entertainment is because they essentially made a six minute Pixar movie that some, myself included, might argue is better than “Big Hero 6” to announce a video game. https://youtu.be/FqnKB22pOC0. The moment when Tracer yells, “Winston!,” that’s x-factor – it’s exciting, but it’s emotionally compelling, she needs him, she wants to help save her friend.
“Big Hero 6” is a perfectly fine Disney film that is certainly well-marbled with Marvel. I enjoyed it, but it can’t live up to its first trailer and this isn’t the successor to “Frozen” that Disney Animation needed or wanted.
4 of 6 stars
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is trying a new software program that’s led to better health for Missouri residents with mental illnesses.
The Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas received a $40,000 grant to begin using the software program with Medicaid-eligible patients who receive mental health care. Eight community mental health centers are participating in the pilot.
The Missouri Coalition for Community Behavioral Healthcare says most people with mental illnesses don’t die by suicide, but from conditions like diabetes or heart disease. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the group has worked with Care Management Technologies for almost three years now, using their software for a systemwide view of how well health care workers are serving clients and determining which patients need help managing chronic conditions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A same-sex couple from Michigan is putting the question of the right to marry nationwide squarely before the Supreme Court.
The couple’s plea to be allowed to marry was being filed Monday. It asks the justices to hold that state laws prohibiting same-sex couples from getting married violate “our nation’s most cherished and essential guarantees.”
The appeal filed by hospital nurses April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse calls on the court to overturn an appeals court ruling that upheld anti-gay marriage laws in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
Michigan officials have said they would not oppose Supreme Court review, but would vigorously defend a provision of the state constitution that prohibits same-sex marriage.
The justices also will consider appeals from gay and lesbian plaintiffs in the other three states.
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, – A house fire in Hutchinson just before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday evening caused and estimated $40,000 in damage.
Fire crews responded to the fire in the 300 Block of west 9th Avenue just before 6:30 pm.
Fire officials say that when they arrived, the back porch of the home was fully engulfed in flames.
It took 25 minutes to bring the fire under control.
The fire caused damage to the back of the house including the kitchen, one upstairs bedroom and the attic.
No one was home at the time of the fire and there were no injuries.
The cause of the fire appears to be electrical in nature.
The Red Cross was called in to help the family displaced by the fire.
