April 19
Aggravated Battery, 1600 block Bison Road, 11:07 p.m.
April 20
Cattle Out, Ellis County, 8:55 a.m.
Traffic Stop, 2300 block Highway 40, 10:37 a.m.
Criminal Transport, Wakeeney, 10:49 a.m.
Harassment, 1500 block West 27th, 1:04 p.m.
Theft of Services, 2000 block Munjor Road, 1:25 p.m.
Criminal Transport, Wakeeney, 3:52 p.m.
Criminal Transport, Wakeeney, 4:00 p.m.
Civil Transport, 7:13 p.m.
FHSU University Relations
Tricia Wiese, Hays graduate student in art, will open her thesis exhibition with a reception as part of the Spring Gallery Walk from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday in the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art in Rarick Hall, room 102, on the Fort Hays State University campus.
Wiese’s exhibit will be on display from April 24 to May 17. Work includes paintings, drawings and installation pieces.
ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration is tightening security rules for aviation workers months after a baggage handler in Atlanta was accused of smuggling guns aboard commercial aircraft.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh (jay) Johnson says new security measures will include real-time, recurring background checks for aviation workers, including airline workers. It will also include a fingerprint-based check of criminal history records every two years for airport employees who hold Secure Identification Display Area badges.
Airport and airline workers traveling as passengers will also have to go through TSA screening before boarding a flight.
Johnson says the changes follow a 90-day review of aviation security in the wake of the arrest of an airline baggage handler accused of helping smuggle guns onto passenger jets to New York City.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas would take an additional $25 million hit in its next state budget to provide the aid it has promised to public schools.
Officials learned of the issue less than three weeks after Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation aimed at preventing school funding surprises.
State officials said Tuesday that a property tax imposed by the state to raise money for schools is expected to generate $17.5 million less than previously anticipated during the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Officials also predict that aid to school districts for construction projects will cost $7.5 million more than previously estimated.
The GOP-controlled Legislature approved a measure in March to junk the state’s per-pupil school funding formula and replace it with predictable “block grants.” The Republican governor signed the legislation April 2.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a former bank president and two of his customers in a conspiracy to launder drug money in Kansas for Mexican cartels. Two other former bank employees were also charged with failing to report the suspicious financial transactions.
The U.S. attorney’s office says the 37-count indictment unsealed Tuesday in Kansas is part of a larger investigation with indictments across the country. That probe has resulted in 20 indictments against defendants in Indiana, Texas, Massachusetts, Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado and Mexico.
Prosecutors say George Enns and his wife, Agatha, of Meade, Kansas, deposited millions in drug proceeds into their account at the Plains State Bank in Kansas while former bank president James Kirk Friend of Plains failed to report the suspicious activity.
No attorneys were listed in court records.
By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Major League Baseball suspended Kansas City’s Kelvin Herrera for five games and fined him and fellow pitcher Yordano Ventura after both targeted Brett Lawrie during a testy series against Oakland over the weekend.
Herrera was tossed in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game after throwing behind Lawrie. Ventura was ejected from Saturday’s game when he hit Lawrie with a pitch after Josh Reddick’s home run.
Both incidents came after Lawrie’s hard slide into Alcides Escobar injured the left knee of the Kansas City shortstop on Friday and caused benches to clear. Escobar called it a “dirty slide” and did not play Saturday or Sunday.
MLB did not disclose the amounts of the fines. Herrera can appeal his suspension or it can take effect beginning Tuesday night against Minnesota.
FHSU University Relations
Men from Fort Hays State University fraternities will host the seventh annual “Walk-A-Mile in Her Shoes” philanthropy event at 6 p.m. Monday, April 27, on the Memorial Union Patio to raise money and awareness for the victims of sexual and domestic abuse.
All proceeds will go to Jana’s Campaign and Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services, Hays-based organizations that provide a variety of services to the victims of sexual and physical abuse in western and central Kansas.
The night will include men walking the ceremonial one-mile walk through the FHSU campus while wearing high heels in honor of the victims of these crimes.
This event is open to the public. For more information, contact the FHSU Center for Student Involvement at (785) 628-4664.
BROOKVILLE – A Kansas teenager is in custody after a reported threat against a Saline County high school
Sheriff Captain Roger Soldan reported that at 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning Ell-Saline High School was placed into a lockdown after several students received threats via social media.
The lockdown lasted until 10:54 a.m. when a suspect was taken into custody.
Joshua Keith Downey, 18, Tescott, was booked into the Saline County Jail on 8 counts of Aggravated Criminal Threats.
An investigation in the case is ongoing.
DALLAS (AP) – Willie Nelson is not only creating his own line of marijuana, he says it will be “the best on the market.” Nelson has announced the Willie’s Reserve line will be grown and sold in Colorado and Washington state, where recreational use of pot is legal. Nelson is collaborating with master growers for what he describes as “clean and consistent products.” No word on when Willie’s Reserve will be available.
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SALINA – Four people were involved in a high-speed chase and arrested on Interstate 70 just after 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Saline County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a trooper attempted to stop a an eastbound sedan for a moving violation just west of Salina.
The sedan accelerated and reached high speeds in an effort to avoid the trooper.
Additional local law enforcement units joined the KHP and used a series of Stop Sticks to get the sedan to pull over.
After the sedan successfully avoided many Stop Sticks they hit one and all four of their tires were deflated.
The vehicle came to rest at the Ohio Street exit.
All four occupants of the vehicle surrendered peacefully and an investigation is underway.
The KHP directed traffic around the incident.
Check the post for more information as it becomes available.
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON– Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating the sexual assault of a child involving a Kansas man
Police reported they arrested Steve Love Jr., 30, Hutchinson, at his residence just after 3 p.m. on Monday.
Authorities say Love is believed to be connected to the repeated rape of a young child over a three-year period in two different cities including one outside of Reno County.
The case was brought to the attention of the police after the alleged victim told adults of what was happening.
Police arrived Loves at residence as he was pulling out of the driveway with his bags packed.
Despite the appearance of trying to flee the area, his bond was left at $75 thousand.
He is expected to be back in court for the formal reading of charges April 29.
Farmer stockmen possess a burning desire to care for their livestock. A few years back, I witnessed this dedication on a dairy in Franklin County.
It was a beautiful late spring morning in the country. A slight southwesterly wind rippled through the lush, tall pasture grass. Dark, green corn, standing approximately a foot above the contrasting taupe soil, waved ever so slightly in the breeze.
As I headed back toward my car after visiting with dairyman John Coen, I noticed several Holstein cows grazing contentedly on the grass less than 100 feet from his house.
As I continued up the sidewalk, I strained my eyes to see an electric fence that might be holding the cows in. I couldn’t see one.
“John, are those cows supposed to be out and grazing this close to your house?” I asked as I pointed to them.
“No, no they’re not,” he replied bolting from the house and running toward the southwest. “Gerald, what are the cows doing out?”
Gerald Anderson owned the dairy farm. Although retired, he helped John with the dairy operation nearly every day.
Mr. Anderson didn’t have an answer to the question but instead he headed toward the southwest where one group of cows was hoofing at a pretty good clip. John took off at a dead run toward the east.
By this time, the first herd of cows I’d noticed was headed up the dirt drive toward the mailbox east of the house. John caught up with them, turned them around and moved them back toward the milking station and the open gate.
“Go on,” he admonished the black and white gals as they moseyed toward the gate. “Get on home. You know the way.”
Once John locked the cows away, he headed south to help Mr. Anderson with the rest of the pesky herd. By this time, the retired dairyman was a good mile from the dairy facility, walking the Holstein cows toward the barn.
After we caught up with him, I asked Mr. Anderson if he thought the skunk might have spooked the cattle causing them to break through the gate.
He said probably not, and added he couldn’t smell much with his sniffer any more. The stench burned my eyes.
With the herd finally secure, Mr. Anderson, bent over, placed both of his hands on his knees and began massaging.
“I forgot about my knees,” he said.
“Your knees? “ I asked.
He explained that 50 years of bending – up and down over and over again – had taken its toll on his aging knees. Twice a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, 12 months a year for 50 years amounts to countless hours and thousands of times bending and hooking up milking hoses to dairy cows’ udders.
Still, when Mr. Anderson heard John ask him about the escaped livestock, he thought only about bringing the cows home. He moved instinctively on those brittle, old knees. He didn’t even realize how they ached until the cows were safely locked up and he felt the pain for the first time.
For this veteran stockman the welfare of these dairy cows was the only thing that mattered.
He could have leaned against the barn and watched as the younger men rounded up the herd. He might have thought to himself, “No, this will be too hard on my knees. Let someone else do it.”
Call it dedication. Label it that Midwestern work ethic he grew up with and will take to his grave. Or simply refer to it as doing his job – the only one he’s known or cared about since growing up on his father’s dairy farm.
After all of these years, it’s still magical for him to see the cycle of life played out each year with dairy cows that give birth and provide milk that is used as an integral part of this country’s daily diet.
Mr. Anderson loves livestock. He understands that careful care of these animals is necessary to sustain him and his livelihood – even to the extent of placing their health and well-being ahead of his own.
“They’re only my old knees,” Mr. Anderson said. “They won’t hurt as much in a couple days.”
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
