One of our city employees called me at work today to tell me that an owl was perched in a tree in the city park just a few feet above where the guys were cutting up a tree felled by a recent storm.
He said it just sat there while they worked just below it, so he figured it was sick or injured. He told me the Hutchinson Zoo would take it into their wildlife rehab program if someone could just catch it and wondered if I wanted the job.
I asked him if the owl was really white and fluffy, and if so it was a young one and would leave on its own and be just fine if left undisturbed. He acknowledged that yes, it was very fluffy, and when I stopped there an hour later it was gone already. This is the third year in a row someone has contacted us about an owl somewhere near the park that has proven to be a juvenile and soon went on its way. Evidently a pair of great horned owls have hatched and reared a single chick somewhere there in the park each spring for a few years now.
Joyce and I were first introduced to this fact two years ago when a lady living just across from the park called us about an owl that had barricaded itself behind a planter on her patio. We caught what appeared then to be a young great horned owl, named it Ozzy and kept it in a box in the laundry room overnight.
The next morning, Joyce took it to the Hutchinson Zoo which does have an excellent wildlife rehabilitation program. The lady there was amazed at what she saw. She said they are deluged each spring with young wildlife, most of which are injured, and many too badly to survive. But she took one look at Ozzy and told Joyce “You take this owl back immediately and turn it loose in the park near where it was found.”
She said it was possibly the healthiest specimen they had ever gotten, and that its parents would find it and make sure it survived. After chasing Ozzy around the park, trying to get him to stay near the trees and out of sight, we left him there and sure enough, he disappeared on his own just as she said.
I tell you this story to reiterate that it is indeed the season when new life is born into the wild, and often some of those babies are found by humans. We humans have an innate nurturing spirit within us that makes us want to capture and “help” young wildlife we find. In most cases, we are not helping at all as those babies are just fine and will be found by their mothers as soon as we leave. In fact, in some cases their mothers may even be watching. Taking a young animal from the wild actually decreases its chance of survival exponentially. It is also illegal to possess wildlife without the special permits and training like the people have that operate the Hutchinson Zoo rehab program.
It would probably have been OK to have moved Ozzy back into the park right away and left him there, as his folks might’ve had a tough time finding him behind that planter. But all-in-all, if you love wildlife babies, then leave them where you find them and trust their mothers to take care of them. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
Marilyn Deutscher, age 81, of Ellis passed away Saturday, April 11, 2015 at her home.
Funeral services will be 10:30 Wednesday, April 15 at Christ Lutheran Church in Ellis.
Visitation will be Tuesday 6 PM – 8 PM and Wednesday 9:30 AM until service time all at Christ Lutheran Church in Ellis. There will be a prayer service at 7 PM Tuesday at the church.
A complete obituary is pending with Keithley Funeral Chapel 400 E 17th Ellis, KS 67637.
The Downtown Hays Development Corp. is excited to announce a new opportunity for community members to experience downtown Hays, “The Taste!”
The event is a revitalization of the “Taste of Downtown,” a popular event that has been missed since 2012. The bi-annual event will take place April 17 and Oct. 24.
“I am so excited for this event,” Executive Director of the DHDC Sara Bloom said. “The DHDC is hosting this because the retailers of downtown requested it. They wanted to see this event brought back to life is a fun new way and I think we’ve accomplished that.”
Participating downtown businesses will provide a sample of local dining and/or services for ticket holders to enjoy that evening. Patrons will be encouraged to purchase a $12 advance ticket – only 300 will be available — allowing them to sample and experience everything participating downtown restaurants and businesses have to offer.
Not only will patrons get a taste of the great food downtown Hays offers, but also of the products and services. The businesses will be offering appetizer sized treats, fashions shows, DIY demos, beauty treatments and more.
“You should absolutely want to be a part of this event,” Bloom said. “It’s a great opportunity to really experience what all of downtown has to offer. Not just the shops and boutiques, not just the restaurants, everything!”
All event patrons will be entered to win two grand prizes worth over $300 each. Each prize basket will contain a $25 gift card to every participating business. To reserve your tickets, call the DHDC at (785) 621-4171.
LEBANON- Thunderstorms rolled across portions of central Kansas on Sunday evening. Law enforcement and the National Weather Service reported one tornado touched down in rural Barber County. Residents in Smith County saw a funnel cloud near Lebanon in Smith County
Large hail fell in portions of Rice and Jewel County.
Winds of 60 mph were recorded in Pratt and Reno County. There are no reports of damage or injuries.
The largest rainfall was reported in eastern Sedgwick County, 1.26 inches and .67 in Clay County, .64 in Cloud County and .60 in Pottawatomie County.
The Tammy Walker Cancer Center in Salina, Kan., partners with the University of Kansas Cancer Center, giving rural patients treatment options they wouldn’t otherwise have. BRYAN THOMPSON HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
By BRYAN THOMPSON
A cancer diagnosis is often the beginning of a life-or-death struggle. Patients want to go into that fight armed with the most powerful weapons available.
In many cases, that involves treatments still in their experimental stages that are only available through clinical trials, which are typically found at academic medical centers. But the University of Kansas Cancer Center has created a partnership to bring those options closer to home for rural Kansans.
Dr. Jeff Geitz, an oncologist at the Tammy Walker Cancer Center in Salina, says it would be difficult logistically for a small cancer center to administer clinical trials on its own. That’s why the Tammy Walker Cancer Center partners with the KU Cancer Center through the Midwest Cancer Alliance, which gives cancer patients across Kansas treatment options they wouldn’t have otherwise.
“It’s generally recommended that if you can go on a clinical trial you should, because you’re guaranteed to either get what you would have been getting anyway or possibly what could be the next best thing down the line,” Geitz says. “And so it helps out the patient themself, and it also helps out the next patient who may have the same diagnosis later on. That’s how we learn.”
Spreading the expertise
The Midwest Cancer Alliance was formed in 2008 to spread the expertise of the KU Cancer Center to rural Kansas. Hospitals across the state pay annual dues for the opportunity to be connected with services ranging from clinical trials managed by the KU Cancer Center to cancer screening programs.
Bob Storer, who lives near the central Kansas town of Solomon, went to a prostate cancer screening last fall at the Tammy Walker Cancer Center. Testing revealed that the retired railroad worker had developed prostate cancer. He assumed that meant he’d need surgery.
“They said, ‘No, your cancer is so aggressive that it’s already spread outside my prostate,’” he says. “It’s gone to some other organs and to bone. And so just removing my prostate wasn’t going to solve the problem.”
Storer received lots of advice from people telling him he needed to go somewhere else for state-of-the-art treatment.
“Friend of mine, his son is a doctor in Nashville, and when his mom checked up on what we had here in Salina, he said, ‘Well, you don’t need to go anywhere else,’” Storer says.
So Storer enrolled in February in a clinical trial offered through the Midwest Cancer Alliance at Tammy Walker Cancer Center. He’s getting two drugs that stop the body’s production of the hormone testosterone, which feeds prostate cancer. One of the drugs is a standard treatment called Lupron. The other is an experimental drug.
One of the most common tests for prostate cancer is a blood test called PSA. A PSA level of four or below is considered normal. Before he started treatment, Storer says his PSA level was 156. The Lupron knocked it down to 14.7 — but that was still too high. With the addition of the experimental drug, it’s down now to 0.1, and Geitz is pleased with Storer’s response to the treatment.
Statue of Tammy Walker, a rural Salina girl whose father, a well-to-do entrepreneur, provided funding for the cancer center. CREDIT BRYAN THOMPSON / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
“Think of it as cutting off the gas line to a car. The car just stops,” Geitz says. “The vast majority of treatments for prostate cancer are all based on hormones. I think we’re really helping him out, but also kind of saving him the side effects of traditional chemo.”
But he says this treatment is not a cure for Storer.
“Anytime you have a cancer that’s spread from one spot to somewhere else — in his case, prostate cancer to the bone and the liver — we know it’s something we’ll never make go all the way away,” Geitz says. “Someday, it’s going to grow back on us, and we know that. But hopefully in the meantime we can knock it down, and he can live a lot longer and a lot better life by doing it.”
So far, Storer said his side effects have been minimal and he feels pretty good. And he’s thankful that he’s able to get the kind of experimental treatment typically not available in rural areas.
Care closer to home
Melanie Leepers, a nurse who manages clinical trials at Tammy Walker, screens patients to see if they might qualify for a clinical trial.
“Clinical trials are very specific about eligibility criteria,” she says. “What kind of cancer, all sorts of different things. I’m looking at the patient, and then I’m comparing that to some of the clinical trials that we have.”
Leepers says when people like Storer have to travel long distances to get access to clinical trials, it’s more than an inconvenience.
“It really takes a toll,” she says. “When you don’t feel good anyway, you know, you’re pretty fatigued by the treatment, and you know it really just kind of starts to take a toll on you. So if you can stay closer to home, it really does make a big difference.”
That’s the main concept of the Midwest Cancer Alliance: care close to home. But the alliance’s medical director, Gary Doolittle, says what matters most is what’s best for the patient. And sometimes that means a clinical trial that’s not available through the Midwest Cancer Alliance.
“I coordinate and help patients get to other centers in the country where there’s a trial that’s new and different,” Doolittle says. “If you’re a cancer specialist in the year 2015 and it bothers you that a patient needs a second opinion outside the state, whether it’s Houston or Rochester — wherever they need to go — then you’re in the wrong business. Because people need to feel comfortable with their care and know that they’re getting the best possible care.”
The alliance’s commitment to do whatever is best for the patient, even if it means sending them somewhere else for treatment, helps give patients like Storer peace of mind at a difficult time.
“I trust these guys to have my best interest,” he says. “And this is going to be the way that I can … maybe not beat it, but I’m going to live a lot longer.”
Bryan Thompson is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — A former Hostess Brands bakery in Lenexa will reopen this summer, providing about 100 jobs.
Flower Foods, which acquired part of the former plant in 2013, announced it will begin producing its Nature’s Own, Wonder and Home Pride breads at the plant. The company says it spent more than $10 million to upgrade the plant.
The Kansas City Star reports bread baked in Lenexa is expected to be sold in Kansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.
The plant closed when the former Hostess Brands suspended all operations during a negotiation impasse with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
Flowers Foods, based in Georgia, bought the former Hostess bread brands and has gradually reopened plants. It currently has 46 bakeries.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A renovated planetarium at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is officially open for business.
The attraction in Hutchinson held its reopening ceremony and reception Sunday, although it had a soft opening in mid-March.
The planetarium closed in early February for the upgrades, which were financed with donations from the Walter E. and Velma G. Justice Foundation for Reno County and Dave and Dee Dillon.
The Hutchinson News reports nearly everything in the planetarium is new, including seating, lighting, digital projectors and the sound systems.
Cosmosphere President Jim Remar says it’s like upgrading from a cheap car to a luxury vehicle.
The renovation will allow the facility staff to eventually create their own programming to share with other planetariums.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Chappa the beaver has returned home to the Kansas Wildlife Exhibit in Wichita after he had been missing for nearly a week.
Director Jim Mason of the Great Plains Nature Center tells the Kansas City Star that Chappa had been found digging along his pen at Central Riverside Park, trying to get back inside on Sunday morning.
Mason says the beaver, described as shy and sensitive, may have become startled and wanted to return home after a loud thunderstorm.
Chappa was taken in by the exhibit after being found injured and orphaned three years ago in one of the muddy pools of Chisholm Creek Park.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Alcides Escobar and Alex Rios hit two-run doubles, Salvador Perez homered, and the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals extended their season-opening win streak to six games with a 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.
The winning streak is the Royals’ second-longest to open a season. They won their first nine in 2003 under first-year manager Tony Pena, but finished only four games over .500 and third in the AL Central.
Albert Pujols hit his 522nd home run, moving past Ted Williams, Willie McCovey and Frank Thomas for sole possession of 18th on the career list. The solo drive off Yordano Ventura (2-0) landed in the lower seats in the left-field corner.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Student testing in Kansas is going much smoother than last year.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that principals and district-level test coordinators in several school districts say issues with Kansas’ computerized tests have been “isolated.” They say state test developers have promptly addressed problems.
Technical troubles and cyberattacks caused widespread concerns last year as Kansas rolled out a new test design and delivery platform.
Marianne Perie is the director of the center that develops and administers Kansas’ state tests. She said Friday that students have completed about 70 percent of this year’s tests since the assessment window opened last month. It continues until mid-May.
Topeka school system assessment director Brady Dean says there’ve been glitches with only a few of the 10,500 tests that district students been started or completed.
LINCOLN COUNTY- One person was injured in an accident just before 7 a.m. on Sunday in Lincoln County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Freightliner semi driven by Kevin A. Anderson, 45, Jacksonville, FL, was westbound on Interstate 70 twenty miles west of Salina.
The truck rear-ended a 2005 International semi driven by Joe L Slaven, 69, Lakewood, Colorado.
A passenger in the Freightliner Rebecca J. Anderson, 45, Jacksonville, FL., was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center. The KHP reported that Kevin Anderson was possibly injured but not where he was treated.
No other injuries were reported. KHP reported they were uncertain on her seatbelt usage.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A judge is considering whether there’s enough evidence to try a Lawrence health care attendant with first-degree murder in the death of a man with cerebral palsy.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Douglas County District Judge Peggy Kittel says she’ll issue her ruling May 5. She made the announcement after the preliminary hearing for 49-year-old Ronald Eugene Heskett ended Friday.
Heskett is jailed on $500,000 bond in the asphyxiation death of Vance Moulton. The 65-year-old Moulton had a towel around his head when he was found dead Sept. 12 in his apartment.
A Lawrence detective testified that Heskett told investigators the death was an assisted suicide. A former co-worker said Moulton raised concerns about bank statements, although the worker said Moulton never indicated he suspected Heskett of taking money.
