The Ellis County Commission will continue its discussions into hiring practices within county departments at Monday evening’s meeting.
The commission will discuss a resolution stating any unfilled position that was open or unfilled before March 25 will remain opened and then removed from the 2016 budget unless the department head can convince the county administrator and the county commission the position is necessary.
The commission will also canvass the April 7 election.
The county commission will hold a Public Building Commission meeting at 4:55 p.m. Monday, followed by the regular commission meeting at 5 p.m.
County Administrator Greg Sund will present the commission with an update on the costs of the three major building construction projects underway in the county.
The Ellis County Commission meetings are held in the basement of the Administrative Center at 718 Main.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas State University laboratory says it is seeing an increase in rabies cases so far this year.
The university’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory says it had verified 28 positive cases of rabies from January through March, compared with only 10 cases during the same period last year.
Rolan Davis, a diagnostician at the lab, says all but five of the 28 cases were found in skunks. Three others were found in cats, one in a bovine and one in a fox.
Davis says pet owners should be aware of the increase but it is not a cause for alarm because rabies is always around. Lab officials say the best protection is to vaccinate animals against rabies.
UPDATE: Due to an unfortunate event, Mark Selby will no longer be able to play in Wilson on April 17. He has rescheduled the show for this fall instead. Those who have already purchased tickets will be contacted by
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Mark Selby
Kansas’ own Mark Selby will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at Wilson High School, performing his Grammy Award-winning songs.
Advanced ticket purchases are $15 each and $20 the night of the concert.
Meet-and-greet VIP tickets are $50, and will give concert goers a chance to meet with Selby, a Fort Hays State University graduate, at 5 p.m. VIP guests receive a glass of wine, a signed poster, as well as preferential seating at the front of the gymnasium for the concert. There is a 50-guest limit for the meet-and-greet.
All proceeds will benefit music programs at Wilson schools.
Tickets can be purchased at the following locations:
•The Midland Railroad Hotel; Wilson
•Any branch of the Wilson State Bank; Wilson, Russell, Hoisington and Beverly
•Any Cerv’s locations: Hays, Hoisington and Great Bend
•Klema Apple Market in Russell
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A gifted musical artist and hit songwriter, Mark Selby’s career is one of unusual depth and diversity. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Selby has written career-defining songs for artists in multiple genres and frequently contributes signature guitar work to ‘Music City’ recording sessions. As a solo artist he’s earned critical acclaim and a devoted international following, carving out an earthy, gritty sound steeped in blues and rootsy rock. His latest album, Blue Highway, was released in 2013 on ZYX/PepperCake. A boxed-set retrospective of Selby’s work was released by ZYX in 2014.
A native of Oklahoma, Selby earned a degree in guitar and music composition at Fort Hays University in Kansas, then developed a loyal following across the central U.S. as a solo acoustic performer and bandleader. He landed a publishing contract soon after moving to Nashville in the 1990’s, writing songs for major artists like Wynona Judd, Trisha Yearwood, Lee Roy Parnell and the Dixie Chicks, who scored a Grammy-winning number one hit with “There’s Your Trouble,” written by Selby and his wife and frequent collaborator Tia Sillers. Selby may be best known for a string of #1 Mainstream Rock singles co-written with blues-rocker Kenny Wayne Shepherd, including “Blue On Black,” which topped the chart for a record-setting 17 straight weeks and was named Billboard Magazine’s Rock Track of the Year.
In 2000, Selby signed with Vanguard Records as a solo artist. He produced his debut, More Storms Comin’, with Brent Maher, setting the template for Selby recordings to come: passionate songwriting, soulful vocals and plenty of searing, toneful guitar work. The album launched the rock radio hit “She’s Like Mercury” and was followed by the critically-acclaimed 2003 release, Dirt, which Rolling Stone called an “exceptional sophomore CD,” and Vintage Guitar summed up as “11 of the best tracks of rock and roll we’ll hear this year.” American Songwriter proclaimed Selby “in the same league as Bruce Springsteen, with meaty words, a compelling voice, and tracks that have more groove than a vintage vinyl record.”
Selby released a solo acoustic album, Mark Otis Selby…and the Horse He Rode In On (2006) for the German ZYX/Pepper Cake label, and returned with his band for Nine Pound Hammer (2008). ZYX also released a live concert CD and DVD entitled One Night in Bonn (2010), recorded at the legendary German television concert series Rockpalast. 2010 also saw the release of Selby-Mills-LeMaire , featuring Selby with fellow hit songwriters Clay Mills and Sonny LeMaire.
Touring regularly over the past decade, Mark Selby has performed with everyone from Jeff Beck to B.B. King, Collective Soul, Lynrd Skynrd and many others. Recent songwriting credits include releases by David Nail, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Canadian superstar Johnny Reid, who Selby also records and tours with as guitarist and music director.
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DALLAS (AP) — A new report suggests airlines are flying into a cloud bank when it comes to quality.
The report by a pair of university researchers who track the airline business says more flights are late, more bags are getting lost, and customers are lodging more complaints.
Dean Headley, a marketing professor at Wichita State and one of the co-authors, says passengers already know that air travel is getting worse and now the numbers bear them out.
For example, on-time arrival fell to 76.2 percent last year from 78.4 percent in 2013, while the rate of lost, stolen or delayed bags rose 13 percent in 2014.
Consumer complaints jumped 22 percent in 2014 with many of the worst marks going to regional carriers such as American Eagle, United Express and Delta Connection.
On-time performance also fell and complaint rates rose at American, United, Delta and Southwest.
Roseann Malsam, age 84, of WaKeeney, passed away Thursday, April 9, 2015 at Via Christi Village, Hays. She was born September 27, 1930 in Catherine, to Jacob J. and Clara Ann (Karlin) Schmidt.
Roseann graduated from Girls Catholic High School. On April 17, 1971, she was untied in marriage to Albert “Bud” Malsam in Dodge City. They enjoyed just under 44 years of marriage together. She was a member of Christ the King Altar Society and Church, and a past member of Gamma Eta. Roseann was known among family, friends, and community for her talent in the kitchen, both cooking and baking. She loved to show her love for others through her food. She always looked forward to the Christmas season, and cherished decorating and sewing Santa’s for others. Roseann cherished time spent with family, especially her grandchildren. She will be dearly missed by many.
Survivors include her husband, Bud; a son, Doug Malsom (Laura) of WaKeeney; five daughters, Colleen Taylor of Litchfield Park, Arizona, Judy (Richard) Hearting of WaKeeney, Jody (Dan) Hoeffner of Las Vegas, Nevada, Micki (Roger) Hammer of Overland Park, and Vicki Smith of Woodbury, Minnesota; seventeen grandchildren; seventeen great-grandchildren; a brother, Tony (Nettie) Schmidt of Richardson, Texas; and a sister, Delores Dreiling of Overland Park. She was preceded in death by her parents, and ten siblings.
Mass of Christian burial will be 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at Christ the King Catholic Church, WaKeeney. Burial will be in the church cemetery.
Visitation will be Monday, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. with a rosary to be held at 6:50 p.m., all at the funeral home in WaKeeney.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to the Trego Hospital Endowment Foundation or Big Creek Golf Course. Checks made to the organization may be sent in care of Schmitt Funeral Home, 336 North 12th, WaKeeney, KS 67672.
Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.schmittfuneral.com.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — It’s an important week at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence.
A team from the Higher Learning Commission will be on campus starting Monday as the school undergoes its 10-year accreditation review.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports many on campus say they are nervous but optimistic that the school will receive good marks, and they give credit to President Venida Chenault, who has led the school since January of last year.
Before her appointment, the school had gone through several acting presidents, had its athletic program put on probation and its main fundraising arm, the Haskell Foundation, was dissolved amid financial scandal.
Among other improvements, Chenault introduced a new strategic plan and the Haskell Foundation was revived last year.
Fort Hays State University students traveled to Memphis, Tenn., for an alternative spring break trip sponsored by Tigers in Service and Stripes for St. Jude.
The 28 student volunteers and their faculty advisor, Jami Carlson, admissions counselor, volunteered at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Living Lands and Waters.
St. Jude Children’s research hospital is a leading pediatric cancer research and treatment center where patients and families are never billed for treatment, housing, food or transportation.
“I thought it was a wonderful experience that helped me as a person to be more open and getting to experience something that I never thought I would do in college,” said Cynthia Navarro-Becerra, Aurora, Colo., freshman. “I love that moment since I got to help this little girl color in a coloring book. She was a patient with cancer. I thought it was nice just spending time with her and getting to know her more.”
Volunteers spent time with patients doing arts and crafts projects, playing board games and coordinating a scavenger hunt.
“I’ll never forget being in the Target house and my group was playing a scavenger hunt,” she said. “The clue was to go to the place where dreams come true (the DreamWorks room at the facility), and a kid responded with St. Jude being the place where dreams come true. The biggest smile came to my face hearing how our work makes these kids’ dream come true.”
Volunteers also volunteered with Living Lands and Waters and picked up garbage from the shores of the Mississippi River in Western Memphis.
Living Lands and Waters is an organization that aims to “aid in the protection, preservation and restoration of the natural environment of the nation’s major rivers and their watersheds.”
Students who participated in five-day Alternative Spring Break Service Trip are listed by hometown.
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center
An old slam on tabloid journalism was that its best practitioners “never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
Thanks to Rolling Stone magazine’s abject retraction of a 2014 article, “A Rape on Campus,” we now are offered a new twist on that old saw — never let a lack of facts get in the way, either.
A critique of the article by a three-person team from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, commissioned and released by Rolling Stone itself, boils down to this: The magazine’s editors and the reporter on the story failed to perform the most basic journalistic task — essentially, to verify and present factual information.
The report relentlessly documents the magazine’s failure to follow “basic, even routine journalistic practice” — a failure that “encompassed reporting, editing, editorial supervision and fact-checking.”
And it says that “the story’s blowup comes as another shock to journalism’s credibility amid head-swiveling change in the media industry. The particulars of Rolling Stone’s failure make clear the need for a revitalized consensus about what best journalistic practices entail, at an operating-manual level of detail.”
Let’s parse those observations. Failure to follow the basics — check. Another shocking assault on journalism’s credibility — check. A need to revisit and reinforce best journalistic practices — double check. And there’s ample evidence of “head-swiveling change.” No need to even “check” that.
But there are even larger concerns raised by the nearly 13,000-word Columbia J-school report — a document longer, The New York Times quickly noted, than the original 9,000-word article.
Clearly, in a drive for the kind of sensational “narrative” account that Rolling Stone and a host of other news operations require, the magazine tossed aside long-validated newsgathering approaches that would have conflicted, complicated, and perhaps eviscerated, the kind of account they intended to get and eventually published.
There has been no lack of reports for some time about the problem of under-reported campus sexual assaults and sexual violence, and complaints about non-responsive or insensitive college officials. And the report concludes that “the responsibilities that universities have in preventing campus sexual assault … are important matters of public interest. Rolling Stone was right to take them on.”
But in a journalism world increasingly defined and validated by a collection of “clicks” and “hits” and algorithmic formulas, was it the need to ramp up the drama, to boost the hype, search out what the report called the “single, emblematic college rape case” that ultimately teased these heretofore solid journalists to betray a core obligation to their readers?
The report touches on that idea, in noting that “‘A Rape on Campus’ had ambitions beyond recounting one woman’s assault.” It says that “the magazine set aside or rationalized as unnecessary essential practices that, if pursued, likely would have led the magazine’s editors to reconsider publishing Jackie’s narrative so prominently, if at all. The published story glossed over the gaps in the magazine’s reporting by using pseudonyms and by failing to state where important information had come from.”
Narrative journalism is a form of news reporting that aims to go beyond the “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” basic recitation of facts to engage readers in storytelling that attracts, entices and perhaps even enthralls, as it reports.
While such a narrative approach has become the accepted wisdom of 21st century news media gurus seeking the key to rebuilding audiences, its roots were firmly set a century ago, by the so-called “muckrakers” of the Progressive Era of the early 1900s.
McClure’s magazine grabbed the nation’s attention by its riveting reports that investigated official corruption, documented high-level financial shenanigans and that exposed horrific business practices — all based on a storytelling format buttressed by what one historian called “overwhelming facts.” Journalists, including Lincoln Stephens, Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair, wrote compelling accounts that inspired antitrust laws, led to criminal indictments and demanded new laws on public health and safety.
One historian of the period says McClure’s success was due to its reliance on “overwhelming facts” presented in the format of a short-story. Other experts note that as with Rolling Stone’s style, there was no less a point-of-view in the muckrakers’ work — they cared less about objectivity than they did firmly documenting the ills they found through extensive, thorough investigation.
Compare those assessments with the follow up report’s documentation of Rolling Stone’s over-reliance on a single source, whose principal contribution to the retracted article now appears to have been a story that was too good not to use — or even seriously question.
The Columbia team’s report noted that “there is a tension in magazine and narrative editing between crafting a readable story … it can be clunky and disruptive to write ‘she said’ over and over. There should be room in magazine journalism for diverse narrative voicing — if the underlying reporting is solid.”
That’s as good a definition as possible on the difference between “raking muck” and just stirring it up.
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. He can be reached at [email protected].
FHSU’s 2015 shooting team at the ACUI national competition in San Antonio, Texas. Pictured from left to right are: Dr. Duane Shepherd, Kilee Hutchison, Tyler Bock, Jerrod Lies, Caleb Scholz, Dylan Young, Austin Svoboda, Zeb Harvey, Josh Crankshaw, Emily Steenbock, Tye Smith, Jeremy Denny, Damian Giles and Cody Escritt.
FHSU University Relations
Thirteen student competitors from Fort Hays State University’s shotgun sports team participated in six events, shooting 2,191 out of 2,350 clay targets, and finishing as Division II runner-up at the Association of College Unions International, National Collegiate Clay Target Championships in San Antonio, March 24 through 29.
Of the six events, the FHSU team placed first in 5-stand, sporting clays, international skeet and American trap, shooting 1,436 out of 1,550 targets. The team placed second in American skeet, shooting 480 out of 500 targets, and placed third in wobble trap, shooting 275 out of 300 targets.
In a special event sponsored by USA Shooting, Kilee Hutchison, Pratt, placed fourth in Ladies Olympic (Bunker) Trap, and Tye Smith, Bartley, Neb., placed third in Men’s Olympic International Skeet.
For the fourth consecutive year, Damian Giles, North Platte, Neb., was named an NRA All-American. Also receiving the prestigious honor were Smith, Josh Crankshaw, North Platte, Neb., and for a second consecutive year, Austin Svoboda, Burwell, Neb.
More than 700 students representing 76 colleges and universities nationwide attended the ACUI National Collegiate Clay Target Championship at San Antonio’s National Shooting Complex.
Members of the FHSU team are listed by hometown with their high schools, classifications and majors:
BARTLEY, NEB. (69020): Tye Smith, a McCook High School graduate, is a senior majoring in agribusiness.
BURWELL, NEB. (68823): Austin Svoboda, a Burwell High School graduate, is a sophomore majoring in technology studies.
CRETE, NEB. (68333): Caleb Scholz, a Crete High School graduate, is a sophomore majoring in technology studies.
FREMONT, NEB. (68025): Jeremy Denny, a Fremont High School graduate, is a junior majoring in general studies.
KINGMAN (67068): Tyler Bock, a Kingman High School graduate, is a senior majoring in agribusiness.
LAMAR, COLO. (81052): Zeb Harvey, a Lamar High School graduate, is a senior majoring in finance.
MINNEOLA (67865): Jerrod Lies, a Minneola High School graduate, is a sophomore majoring in agribusiness.
NORTH PLATTE, NEB. (69101): Josh Crankshaw, a North Platte High School graduate, is a junior majoring in technology studies.
Damian Giles, a North Platte High School graduate, is a graduate student majoring in liberal studies with a concentration in organizational leadership.
PLEASANTON, NEB. (68866): Cody Escritt, a Ravenna High School graduate, is a freshman majoring in technology studies.
PRATT (67124): Kilee Hutchison, a Lakin High School graduate, is a senior majoring in animal science.
TONGANOXIE (66086): Dylan Young, a Tonganoxie High School graduate, is a senior majoring in management.
WICHITA (67205): Emily Steenbock, a Maize South High School graduate, is a freshman majoring in radiologic technology.
Kansas exports totaled $12 billion in 2014 and saw significant gains in aviation and other key manufacturing sectors. In 2013, the state’s export total of $12.46 billion was the largest number posted since the Great Recession. While exports declined by 3.7 percent in 2014, the $12 billion total is the third highest annual export value in Kansas history.
Kansas manufacturers experienced an exceptional year for exports in 2014. Exports of aircraft and parts grew by $255 million (14 percent), while vehicles and parts grew by $122 million (39 percent) and electric machinery exports increased by $76 million (nine percent).
“Kansas exports topped $12 billion for only the third time in our state’s history,” said Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George. “Our state experienced strong export growth in manufacturing and bioscience areas. The increase in aviation exports is particularly encouraging. After years of decline following the Great Recession, the general aviation market is improving, and Kansas’ great manufacturers are capitalizing on emerging opportunities.”
Significant gains in manufacturing and pharmaceuticals were offset by decreases in the value of agricultural exports. Oil seeds, cereals, raw hides, skins and leather, and food industry residues experienced the largest declines.
Kansas exporters outpaced their competition in neighboring states. In the five-state region that includes Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, the average export value was $9.74 billion, which is $2.26 billion less than the Sunflower State.
Canada continues to be Kansas’ largest export market, accounting for $2.53 billion and 21 percent of total exports. Mexico passed China as Kansas’ second largest export market. Exports to Mexico grew by more than $250 million in 2014, an increase of 16.34 percent from the previous year.
The Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors has worked to increase Kansas exports through a statewide comprehensive plan, and the Kansas Department of Commerce has partnered with Kansas Global Trade Services to work with companies throughout the state to promote exporting.
