Hays City Commissioners approved a resolution during their Tuesday night meeting redefining the Hays city limits, a requirement by state statute.
The city annexed one area this year-–22nd Street from Canterbury to Wheatland Avenue.
In other business, commissioners approved an ordinance to annex the northeast corner of the intersection of 48th Street and General Hays Road north of I-70. They also approved rezoning that location from Agricultural to C-2 Commercial. The zoning change adheres to the city’s comprehensive plan and the surrounding roads have already been constructed for heavier commercial vehicle traffic.
Mayor Henry Schwaller and Commissioner Kent Steward were absent from the meeting, which was rescheduled to Tuesday because of the Christmas holiday Thursday.
LINDSBORG- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 7 a.m. on Wednesday in Saline County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Tracker driven by Sydney Yvonne Wilson, 21, Salina, was southbound on Interstate 135 at mile marker 77 near Lindsborg.
The driver lost control of the vehicle and it overturned in the west ditch.
Wilson was transported to Salina Regional Health Center.
The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Volunteers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command are getting ready to monitor Santa Claus as he makes his fabled Christmas Eve flight.
Technology and social media have become key to the annual effort, and NORAD Tracks Santa has already attracted a record 1.5 million Facebook “likes.”
NORAD volunteers will spend Wednesday answering phone calls and emails from children wondering when Santa Claus is comin’ to town. The helpers also post on Facebook, Twitter and www.NORADSanta.org to provide updates on the storybook journey.
The 59-year-old program began with a typo in a Colorado Springs newspaper ad that had kids calling a high-level military hotline asking for Santa.
Last year, volunteers took 117,000 phone calls and answered 9,600 emails.
BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — Violent protests broke out again in suburban St. Louis after another fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer.
The shooting happened around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday at a convenience store in Berkeley, Missouri, just a few miles from Ferguson, where Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was killed by a white officer in August.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the Berkeley shooting victim was black and the officer white.
Belmar says police were called about a theft and as the officer questioned two men, one pointed a gun at him. The officer fired three shots. One hit the gunman.
A violent protest broke out. Two officers were injured, police cars were damaged and fire was set at a QuikTrip store. Four people were arrested.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas are tossing around plenty of proposals for raising new revenues to help close the state’s budget shortfalls.
They’re not confining themselves to rethinking personal income tax cuts that represent GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s legacy.
But many lawmakers floating the ideas also aren’t expressing much enthusiasm for them.
Several Republican leaders said the GOP-dominated Legislature also must make significant spending cuts in addressing shortfalls totaling more than $710 million in the current and next budgets.
The tax proposals from senators include delaying future promised cuts in personal income tax rates and accelerating the elimination of income tax deductions already being phased out as rates drop.
Legislators also have mentioned eliminating exemptions to the state sales tax and increasing gasoline, liquor and tobacco taxes.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal Judge has delayed the trial for a Kansas couple accused of stealing more than $1.5 million from a Wichita company that owns assisted living centers in Kansas and Missouri.
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten set a new trial date for May 5 in the case of Brent and Lori Shyrock of Augusta. The couple had been set to go to trial Jan. 13 on four counts of mail fraud.
Their attorney asked for the delay in order to review a large amount of complicated accounting documents.
The indictment alleges the crimes were committed while Brent Shryock was employed as information systems director for Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. He was in charge of purchasing equipment.
Prosecutors say the couple created four fictitious companies to submit fraudulent invoices.
LAWRENCE – A Kansas man died in an accident just after 4 p.m. on Tuesday in Douglas County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Mazda Tribute drive by Alexander G. Tsiovkh, 63, Lawrence, was westbound on Kansas 10 just east of 1200 Road.
The vehicle crossed left of center and collided with a Volvo semi tractor driven by Mohamed Igal, 34, Kansas City.
Tsiovkh was pronounced dead at the scene.
Igal was transported to KU Medical Center.
The KHP reported both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
Calling it an “historic document and an historic vote,” Hays City Commissioners Tuesday night signed an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement with the city of Russell to pursue development of the R-9 Ranch as a future long-term water source for the region.
The Edwards County ranch was purchased by the two cities 20 years ago. Hays owns 82 percent; Russell owns 18 percent.
Hays City Attorney John Bird outlined the agreement, which has already been signed by Russell city representatives. Bird said a “united front” will be presented to the state in the next step for converting the R-9 water rights from agricultural to municipal use.
“Because we’ve set ourselves up to do the financing, we’ll be paying the cost of acquisition, construction, and those types of things. In turn, Russell has agreed, to the extent that they then draw on this for water, they’ll pay us back what we’ve paid on their behalf to develop the ranch,” explained Bird.
Russell has also agreed to lend legal and public support to the effort, provide necessary approvals or documents for the project to move forward and to cooperate with Hays in support of the project.
Vice Mayor Eber Phelps, who signed the document in the absence of mayor Henry Schwaller, was also a city commissioner when the R-9 Ranch was purchased in 1995. Current Russell City Council member Frank Peirano was then the Public Works Director for Russell.
The interlocal agreement will be sent to the Kansas Attorney General for approval.
National Weather Service office in Dodge City, Kansas
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Larry Ruthi is the Meteorologist In Charge at the National Weather Service in Dodge City.
He’s been in the business for 36 years.
Ruthi said growing up on a farm in rural Osborne County where he “watched thunderstorms develop” sparked his interest in becoming a meteorologist. His degree is from the internationally-reknown School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
When he first started, “forecasting the weather was 70 percent art and just 30 percent science,” Ruthi recalls.
Now with improved technology worldwide, weather forecasting is much more accurate, but “it’s not an exact science,” he cautioned.
“If you put five meteorologists in a room with the same information, they’ll come up with five slightly different forecasts. There’s a lot of room for interpretation, depending on (the person’s) experience.
“The forecasts we put out at the National Weather Service are kind of generic. Anybody can look at the forecast and use it or adjust it as he sees fit. We’re kind of the base meteorological support,” Ruthi said.
The five Doppler radars scanning the sky across Kansas that can be seen on forecasts by meteorologists at Wichita televisions are NWS Doppler radars. The satellite pictures come from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellites.
“If we were to take away all the government support, all the NOAA support for the radars, the numerical models, the satellites, the observations–a lot of which are NWS or FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) supported–we wouldn’t have a whole lot to talk about.
“On the other hand, the news media are absolutely essential in communicating the weather information to the public–when you should take action, when you should take cover and what you should do.”
Ruthi believes “the whole process works extremely well when we’re working together.”
There are six National Weather Service bureaus covering Kansas among the 122 NWS forecast offices in the United States.
Christmas Eve Sunny, with a high near 41. Northwest wind 8 to 16 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Wednesday night Partly cloudy, with a low around 25. South southwest wind 5 to 9 mph. Christmas Day Mostly sunny, with a high near 52. Breezy, with a south wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Thursday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Blustery, with a south wind 17 to 21 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Friday A 20 percent chance of snow after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 33. Breezy. Friday Night A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 17. Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 31. Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 16. Sunday Sunny, with a high near 37.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City lawmaker is proposing a measure that would allow terminally ill patients to use medications that haven’t received federal approval.
KAKE-TV reports Shawnee Republican Rep. Brett Hildabrand plans to present the “Right to Try” bill when legislators return to Topeka on Jan. 12.
Hildabrand says the government shouldn’t stand in the way of anything that could potentially extend the lives of people with terminal illnesses.
Five other states — Missouri, Colorado, Michigan, Louisiana and Arizona — already have approved similar legislation.
The initiative is being spearheaded by the Arizona-based nonprofit Goldwater Institute, which says the effort is designed to allow patients access to investigational drugs that have completed basic safety testing.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence police say there wasn’t probable cause to arrest a man after a three-hour armed standoff at an apartment complex.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the man was taken into custody Monday after police obtained a search warrant to enter his apartment.
Officers believed he was connected to an alleged aggravated assault in which a person’s car was taken and a man threatened the alleged victim with a handgun.
Police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley says officers determined there wasn’t enough probable cause to book the suspect into jail so he was released after briefly taken into custody.
McKinley declined to provide additional details of the standoff because of the ongoing investigation.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A longtime legislative liaison and manager for the Kansas commission that regulates utilities will oversee payroll, parking, secretarial and other services for state lawmakers, starting next month.
The Kansas Legislature’s top leaders Tuesday hired Tom Day as director of legislative administrative services.
The 61-year-old Day is from Lawrence and is acting executive director of the Kansas Corporation Commission. He has been its legislative liaison and a public service executive since 1999.
Day expects to start his new, $85,000-a-year job Jan. 7, five days before legislators open their annual 90-day session. He’ll replace Jeff Russell, who retired in September after nearly 17 years.
Day’s appointment had bipartisan support. Top lawmakers pointed to his experience both as a liaison and in handling personnel and building management issues with the KCC.
By BECKY KISER
