WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. services firms expanded more slowly in October for the second straight month, but the pace of growth was still healthy and hiring rose.
The Institute for Supply Management says its services index dropped to 57.1 in October, down from 58.6 in September. The index reached 59.6 in August, the highest in eight years. Any reading over 50 indicates expansion.
The ISM is a trade group of purchasing managers. Its survey of services firms covers businesses that employ 90 percent of the American workforce, including retail, construction, health care and financial services firms.
Wednesday should be the final day of the annual Hays Alley Cleanup which started Oct. 27. According to Solid Waste Superintendent Marvin Honas, all that remains to be collected today is tree limbs in a limited area.
City crews were busy Wednesday morning collecting limbs by hand and using a front loader in the area from Hall Street south to Main Street between 16th and 27th Streets.
Utilities Division employee Brad Domann was working with two other men in the alley just south of 27th Street about 8:30 a.m.
“We’re hoping to be done by noon today,” Domann said. “This is a good project for the city.
Hays Utilities Department employee Brad Domann tosses tree limbs into a city truck during the alley cleanup.
Domann carried small limbs to the parked city dump truck and tossed them into the open back. The bigger limbs were loaded onto the Parks Department front loader and then dumped into the waiting truck parked on 27th.
Parks Department employees will chip the limbs into mulch which is available for free pick-up by Hays residents at the Parks Department, 1546 E. U.S. Highway 40 Bypass.
On Saturday, a sold-out crowd at the Robbins Center on the Fort Hays State University campus participated in Jana’s Campaign annual fundraising event “Empty Place at the Table.”
The event raised over $33,000, more than doubling last year’s amount.
“Empty Place at the Table is quickly becoming one of the premier gala events in the Hays community,” said Kelley Parker of Jana’s Campaign. “This event raises awareness and needed funds for our critical work of reducing domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.”
This year’s theme also recognized the five-year anniversary of Jana’s Campaign and celebrated its program successes.
“To be in a room packed full of people that not only understand why prevention of gender-based violence is so important, but are fully committed to making a difference in unbelievably inspiring,” said Curt Brungardt, Jana’s Campaign president. “We will be able to accomplish great things with the funds raised this evening.”
Jana’s Campaign is Hays-based national educational and gender-based violence prevention organization created in honor of the late Jana Mackey of Hays, Kansas. Mackey, a 25-year old law student at the University of Kansas was killed by an ex-boyfriend in 2008.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The Hutchinson Animal Shelter is seeking money for new employees, partly because of problems with inmate volunteers from the Hutchinson Correctional Facility.
Director Richard Havens told council members last week that he would like six new employees so the shelter can either stop using the inmate labor or have enough staff to supervise them.
Havens says the inmate labor is unreliable, has problems working with female staff and that sometimes contraband is left at the shelter for the inmates.
The Hutchinson News reports it’s unlikely the request for six new staff members will be granted. Council members say several city departments need more money and employees. City Manager John Deardoff has received a proposal to hire three more part-time employees at a cost of $28,000 to $35,000.
AUBURN, N.Y. (AP) — The U.S. military says a central New York native has retired as the Army’s last Vietnam-era draftee.
The 2nd Infantry Division’s public affairs office at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea says Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ralph Rigby’s retirement ceremony was held Oct. 28, his 62nd birthday.
A native of Auburn in Cayuga County, Rigby was drafted in 1972. He’s believed to be the Army’s last continuously serving draftee.
In July 2011, the Army announced that Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger was retiring as the service’s last Vietnam-era draftee. But Army officials later had to issue a correction when they learned Rigby and another soldier also were drafted and remained on active duty.
The other soldier, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Franklin Ernst, retired in 2012.
(AP) — A new survey suggests that most people are still texting and driving, despite laws against it in some states.
In the survey, 98 percent of motorists who own cellphones and text regularly say they’re aware of the dangers, yet three-quarters of them admit to texting while driving.
Two-thirds say they have read text messages while stopped at a red light or stop sign, while more than a quarter say they’ve sent texts while driving.
More than a quarter of texting drivers believe they “can easily do several things at once, even while driving.”
The telephone survey of more than 1,000 adults is being released by AT&T, as part of an anti-texting-and-driving campaign.
Kansans voted to retain two Kansas Supreme Court justices under fire for their decision to overturn the death sentences of two brothers in one of the most notorious murder cases in the state’s history.
The two, Justice Eric S. Rosen and Justice Lee A. Johnson, were appointed to the court by former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Kansas Supreme Court justices are appointed by the governor but stand for retention by voters at the end of their six-year terms.
Normally a placid and understated affair – no appellate judge in Kansas has ever lost a retention election – this year’s election drew unaccustomed attention after Republican Gov. Sam Brownback endorsed the efforts of a group called Kansans for Justice to persuade voters to oust Rosen and Johnson.
Eliminating “liberal” justices was one of Brownback’s central campaign promises. Had Rosen and Johnson been voted out, the governor would have appointed their replacements.
Both justices were part of a 6-1 majority that voted in July to overturn the sentences of Jonathan and Reginald Carr. The brothers were sentenced to death for killing four people in Wichita in a grisly weeklong killing spree in 2000.
The court ruled that there were procedural errors in the men’s sentencing. While awaiting resentencing, they remain in prison and could be sentenced to death again.
Rosen was appointed to the court in 2005 and Johnson in 2007.
This wasn’t the first time Supreme Court justices have been targeted for their perceived liberal views. In 2010, Kansans for Life led a campaign against Justice Carol Beier after she wrote opinions critical of then-Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline for his conduct during investigations of abortion clinics.
In another retention election that made news Tuesday, Johnson County voters retained District Judge Kevin Moriarty by a comfortable margin. Like Rosen and Johnson, Moriarty was the target of a campaign to remove him from office – in his case because he ordered the court clerk to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt later asked the Kansas Supreme Court to vacate Moriarty’s order. That case is set to be heard on Nov. 6.
The campaign against Moriarty was spearheaded by Bruce Baumgardner, a physiology professor at Johnson County Community College who is married to Republican Kansas Sen. Molly Baumgardner. Moriarty was appointed to the court in 2004 by Sebelius.
Dan Margolies is the Managing Editor for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
Kansas Farm Bureau President Steve Baccus today released a statement following last night’s election.
“On behalf of the farmers and ranchers in Kansas, we want to congratulate the winners of last night’s election, both on the state and national level,” Steve Baccus, Kansas Farm Bureau president said. “Many races were hard fought, and the outcomes close, but our hope is this election may mark the beginning of a new political atmosphere, where elected officials, and all citizens, come together for the good of this state and this country, and the business of the people will be put first. We look forward to working with all of these individuals to improve and support the agriculture industry, and to put our great state and nation on solid footing for future generations.”
Kansas Farm Bureau represents grassroots agriculture. Established in 1919, the nonprofit advocacy organization supports farm families who earn their living in a changing industry.
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center
If you notice your car’s headlights dimming soon for just a second, here’s why: The news is getting around that Tom Magliozzi, one of National Public Radio’s most popular personalities, died Nov. 3 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Tom, 77, was one half of the renowned “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers,” along with his 12-year younger brother, Ray. They perpetually — and with an audio version of a smirk — apologized at the end of their programs for the damage they were doing to NPR’s reputation.
But longtime producer Doug Berman, in breaking news of the death to the NPR family in a brief note, was closer to the truth: “Tom and his brother came to public radio when it was stiff, academic and formal — and, not coincidentally, largely irrelevant to most Americans. And by being entirely and unselfconsciously themselves, they broke our medium open for real voices and real people, who turned out to be much more interesting, informative, and entertaining than the canned radio people we thought our listeners wanted.”
Beginning in 1987 on Boston’s WBUR public radio station, the brothers offered advice on car repairs (a little) with good humor (more than a little) and laughs (nearly all the time) on NPR’s “Car Talk.” About two years ago, they ended their live run, with an estimated audience of more than three million each week on more than 600 stations.
Tom and Ray made little mention of their formal education, portraying themselves as auto mechanics — which in fact they were. Not often mentioned was that they both graduated from MIT before going into the car repair business.
The format, for those not familiar with the program, was built around taking phone calls from various folks around the nation who had a mechanical problem with their car. The idea was the brothers would offer advice, and the caller and listeners in general — particularly those with the same year and model of auto — would be the wiser.
But that’s like calling a Bentley a “car.” True, but way short of enough.
The advice the pair dispensed came with a fair amount of brotherly joshing, and weekly features like a mind-challenging riddle called “The Puzzler,” all delivered in an accent that a Midwesterner like me would call Basic Boston, as in “Cahr Talk.”
Combined with a wickedly sharp sense of gentle humor and a lifetime pledge never to take themselves seriously, the show went to top-rated status at NPR — and stayed there for a 37-year run.
How humorous and how self-effacing? In announcing his brother’s passing and its cause, Ray couldn’t resist noting: “Turns out he wasn’t kidding. He really couldn’t remember last week’s puzzler.”
Even the end of each program was a joy. Real and imagined staffers were credited with a mixture of puns and word play, such as the program’s perpetual driver, Russian chauffer Pikov Andropov (“pick up and drop off”). There was the show’s supposed law firm of Dewey, Cheetham & Howe (“Do we cheat ‘em … and how?”). And there was weekly mention of long-suffering staffer Erasmus B. Dragon (just say that one out loud), often said to be the leader of the working mother’s support group at “Car Talk.”
News and information can be serious business — and the actual advice dispensed by Tom and Ray was just that, mostly. They even had an occasional segment to delight a media critic’s heart: Revisiting past callers to see if their programs helped or not, something that regular news programs might do well to adopt.
Ray and NPR say “Car Talk” will continue to air regularly in reruns, as it has since they retired.
That’s good news for those in need of not just repairs for a worn-out car, but a little tune-up each Saturday morning for a world-weary psyche.
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Washington-based Newseum Institute and host of the Newseum’s audio program “Journalism/Works.” [email protected]
“They were our very first musical guest here on The Tonight Show and now they’ll be returning for an entire week,” Fallon declared.
“That’s right, U2 is coming back…It all starts Monday, November 17.”
The host also revealed that the show has “all sorts of fun stuff planned” involving the band.
U2’s first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was February 17.
The band performed its charity single “Invisible” on the episode, chatted with Fallon and also played an acoustic version of “Ordinary Love,” accompanied by The Roots.
Of course, we can expect U2 to showcase some songs from their just-released album, Songs of Innocence, during their Tonight Show residency.
News of the band’s Fallon stint comes just a few days after Metallica announced they’d play a similar residency on CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that same week.
And last month, The Foo Fighters promoted their new HBO documentary series, Sonic Highways,with a week’s worth of performances on Late Show with David Letterman.
Pauline T. Riedel, age 95, of WaKeeney, passed away Saturday, November 1, 2014 at Trego County Lemke Memorial Hospital. She was born August 31, 1919, in Hays, to Leo and Catherine (Younger) Dellva.
On June 9, 1939, Pauline was united in marriage to Daniel F. Riedel in Denver, Colorado. He preceded her in death in 1988.
Pauline was a homemaker most of her life. She was a member of Christ the King Catholic Church and Altar Society, Trego Lemke Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, and the Literary Club. She was a volunteer for the Red Cross and was known by many as an avid bridge player. Pauline is survived by her daughter, Kathleen and husband Kenneth MacKenzie of Henderson, Nevada; two sisters, Clare and husband William Jann of Columbia, South Carolina, and Mary Anne Casey of Denver, Colorado. She was preceded in death by her husband and nine siblings.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m., Friday, November 7, 2014 at Christ the King Catholic Church, WaKeeney. Burial will be in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Hays.
Visitation will be 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Thursday with a parish vigil service at 7:00 p.m., both at the funeral home.
In lieu of flower, memorial contributions are suggested to the American Heart Association or Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Checks made to the organizations may be sent in care of Schmitt Funeral Home, 336 North 12th, WaKeeney, KS 67672.
CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer
