TOPEKA — Between 500 and 1100 CE, the treeless western Kansas plains were inhabited by people who made pottery and used spear throwers and the bow and arrow. They lived in small temporary houses with round packed-earth floors and ate deer, bison, pronghorn, fish and small mammals.
The Kansas Historical Society and the Kansas Anthropological Association will hold the annual Kansas Archeology Training Program field school June 5 to 20 at a High Plains prehistoric village site located west of Hays in Ellis County.
Archeologists will survey and excavate the site, then clean and catalog artifacts in the laboratory located at Hays Middle School, 201 W. 29th. Visitors are welcome to observe at the excavation site and in the laboratory. A full schedule of evening programs will be free and open to the public.
For more information, call (785) 580-7584 or visit kshs.org/14622.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has refused to lift a temporary hold on President Barack Obama’s executive action that could shield millions of immigrants from deportation.
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel issued the 2-1 ruling Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Justice had asked the court to reverse a Texas judge’s decision temporarily blocking the president’s plan, after 26 states filed a lawsuit. It wasn’t immediately clear if the DOJ would appeal.
The states say Obama’s action is unconstitutional. The White House says the president acted within his powers to fix a “broken immigration system.”
The president’s plan, which includes protecting the parents of U.S. citizens from deportation, could help as many as 5 million immigrants illegally living in the U.S.
Duane Goossen, Kansas Center for Economic Growth Senior Fellow
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
“The state of Kansas is in some deep financial trouble and is now experiencing a budget that is badly out of balance.”
That’s the message from Duane Goossen, former Kansas Secretary of Administration and former Director of the Kansas Division of the Budget, now the Senior Fellow at the Kansas Center for Economic Development. Goossen is also a former 7-term state representative and most recently worked as the Vice President for Fiscal and Health Policy at the Kansas Health Institute, from which he retired in July 2014.
KCEG is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts research and analysis to promote responsible balanced budget and tax policies in Kansas. Goossen, who also contributes to HaysPost.com as part of the Insight Kansas series, spoke recently at a meeting of the Hays Rotary Club.
The state general fund, at $6.3 billion, is the biggest portion of the Kansas FY 2015 budget of $15.3 billion. Most state tax dollars go into it; it’s also the fund for which legislators have the most discretion.
Most revenue for the state, 84.5%, comes from sales taxes and individual income taxes–which are nearly equally divided.
The individual income tax used to bring in about half of state general fund revenue; now it’s fallen to 42.2% and continues to fall.
Half of the state budget is spent on K-12 education funding; 12.6% goes to post-secondary education, including Fort Hays State University. Another 20% is for the state’s share for Medicaid, and another 6.7% for other human services. The result is 90% of the state’s general fund spending is for education and human services.
Those expenses are going up.
“We’ve got a situation in Kansas where the revenue to the state general fund, because of tax policy, has plummeted,” Goossen said, “and it’s staying down at a low level. At the same time, we have expenses, such as Medicaid, which are growing and will continue to grow.
“So far in FY 2014 and the current FY 2015, Kansas has bridged the gap by cleaning out the savings account and by transferring money from the Highway Fund (Kansas Department of Transportation) which has resulted in a cutback of road maintenance projects.
“For next year (FY 2016, which starts July 1), the legislature is struggling to put a budget together where the gap between expenses and revenues has grown to about $800 million. There’s no savings or reserves left to bridge the gap. It’s possible to still transfer some money from the Highway Fund but it doesn’t come close to closing the gap,” Goossen explained.
“The legislature is faced with little alternative but to try and raise taxes back up or in some way to find revenue to meet expenses, and they’re having a hard time doing that,” he added.
Goossen and KCEG Executive Director Annie McKay were invited to speak at a recent Hays Rotary Club meeting as the guest of former 36th District state senator Janis Lee, who served nearly 22 years, and is now retired as Chief Hearing Officer for the Kansas Court of Tax Appeals.
Former state senator Janis Lee
“I had the honor of serving with Duane for quite a number of years while I was in the legislature. Duane became the Budget Policy Director for 12 years for (governors) Republican Bill Graves and then Democrats Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson.
“One of the things I always appreciated working with Duane was whether or not you liked the message Duane brought from the governor, you knew it was the truth, and that’s very, very important when you’re dealing with government policy,” Lee said in her introduction of Goossen.
In 2012 and 2013, Kansas passed the largest tax cuts of any state in the nation.
MANHATTAN – A Kansas man was sentenced Tuesday for a home invasion and drug robbery.
Trey Campbell, 21, Manhattan, originally pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated robbery.
A jury found him guilty for a July 2014 home invasion and marijuana robbery, while using a handgun, at a residence on Anderson Avenue in Manhattan.
He was sentenced to 66 months in prison.
A second suspect in the case, Ty Lee Anthony Suggs, Manhattan, pleaded no contest and was found guilty for the aggravated robbery.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Revenue is planning to change the way it notifies residents that they need to renew their vehicle tags.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the department wants to replace 2.6 million personalized vehicle renewal letters sent annually to residents with a generic postcard reminder.
Revenue department spokeswoman Jeannine Koranda says the move is aimed at saving money. The letter-to-postcard swap is expected to save the state around $500,000.
The department is leaving it up to counties to absorb the cost if they want to continue the previous method of printing and mailing the letters.
Ellis County’s unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in April, according to statistics released by the Kansas Department of Labor.
The jobless rate fell slightly, from 3.1 percent in March.
The state’s April seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, up from 4.2 percent in March and down from 4.5 percent in April 2014.
“The number of jobs in manufacturing has fallen by 3,100 from the same month last year. This decline is partly due to temporary layoffs that took place during the survey reference week,” said Tyler Tenbrink, senior labor economist. “Also, lower gas prices have lead to weakness in the oil and gas drilling industry. These factors combined have resulted in slower overall job growth in Kansas over the year.”
Unemployment across northwest Kansas remained low, with Sheridan, Rawlins and Norton counties posting 2.5 percent jobless rates.
Rooks County (4.9 percent) and Smith County (4.7 percent) posted the highest unemployment rates in northwest Kansas.
SALINA – A Kansas woman is in jail accused in connection with a home burglary.
The Saline County Sheriff’s office reported Sarai Angeles, 23, Salina, was booked into jail Monday afternoon on requested charges of burglary, theft, and damage to property.
Authorities say she entered a home in the 3500 block of Lightville Road between March 19th and March 20th and took a flat screen TV, purse, digital camera, and tomahawk knife.
Founding Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman will turn 79 this October, but despite his advancing age, he’s still making new music. Next month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will release his first solo album in 33 years,Back to Basics.
Wyman admits that he initially wondered if he might be “too old” to put out a new album, but quickly thought the better of it.
“I thought, ‘Every creative artist goes until they drop,'” he tells Rolling Stone. “Whether they’re sculptors, writers, poets or musicians, they just carry on as long as they can. So then I thought, ‘What the hell.'”
Wyman was inspired to make the record after rediscovering some forgotten demos of songs he felt never got their due. He decided to revisit those tunes, as well as some other old songs that hadn’t made it onto his earlier solo albums, and record updated versions of them.
Bill explains to Rolling Stone that he used the stripped-down sounds of a number of acclaimed songwriters as inspiration for the album.
“I wanted it to be inspired a bit like After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, to capture the simplicity of those couple of albums he did around that time,” he points out. “I was also inspired by J.J. Cale, who I had done stuff with inThe Rhythm Kings, and Tom Waits and the way he sings.”
Wyman adds that another influence on the new album was 80-yar-old Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, describing his 1984 tune “Dance Me to the End of Love” as “wonderful.”
Back to Basics also features a number of brand-new compositions that Wyman says he wrote “in my house on a little acoustic guitar.” He notes that since he’s not a guitar player, “I usually just mess about on the bottom strings for little guitar licks and riffs.”
Meanwhile, Bill says he has no interest in ever reuniting with The Rolling Stones again.
“You can’t go back and relive something and have it be the same,” he insists, while pointing out that he’s “still great mates” with his former band mates.
“We still send each other Christmas and birthday presents as we always did,” Wyman reveals, “and sometimes I do gigs with Charlie [Watts] and his band or with Ronnie Wood if he’s doing a special.”
Bill says he “loved every minute” of his 31 years in the band, and is “proud of everything we did,” but was very ready to retire from The Stones after the three major tours they mounted in 1989 and ’90.
“I thought, ‘That’s enough for me, there’s nowhere else to go,'” he recalls. “I was happy to move on because there were so many other things that I wanted to do in my life that I had planned to years and years and years before, never expecting as anyone did that the band would last that long.”
Back to Basics will hit stores in the U.K. on June 22. No U.S. release has been announced yet.
The mudslide covering K-7 in Doniphan County. Photo courtesy KDOT
DONIPHAN COUNTY – Some areas of northeast Kansas dodged the worst of the weekend’s severe weather.
However, there are problems in Doniphan County where over 2 inches of rain was reported on Sunday and Monday.
Authorities with KDOT announced the closure of Kansas Highway 7 after an embankment collapsed onto the highway. The road is closed from White Cloud north to the Nebraska State Line.
KDOT reported they are also monitoring at least three other potential mudslide areas from the bluffs across the roadway pavement.
KDOT hoped to reopen the roadway to all traffic on Tuesday afternoon.
MANHATTAN – The Country Stampede in Manhattan will be on June 25th through June 28th.
Eagle Radio of Hays has four-day general admission tickets for sale. They retail for $160 each — we’ll sell them for $92.20 each.
Call Scarlett at (785) 625-2578 for information or to purchase tickets. First come, first served.
Drop by the Eagle Media Center at 2300 Hall or call (785) 625-2578 to purchase your specially priced Kick Country Stampede tickets TODAY! Supplies are limited!
This year’s attendees will see the biggest names and brightest stars in Country music take the main stage throughout the weekend (June 25-28) in Manhattan, Kansas, including megastar and judge on NBC’s The VoiceBlake Shelton, superstar duo Florida Georgia Line, Country music’s sweetheart Sara Evans, Country legend Travis Tritt, Thomas Rhett, Jerrod Niemann, Craig Morgan and many more. See the full line-up here.
Related story: Hays artist advances in competition for main stage gig.
Lenexa – Forrest “Duane” Goodwin, a veteran of World War II, died resting peacefully at his retirement home on May 20, 2015 in Lenexa, KS. He was 93.
Mr. Goodwin was born Aug. 14, 1921 in Annapolis, IL to Roy and Belle (Dawson) Goodwin. The family moved to El Dorado, KS in 1925 for Roy to work in the oil fields. Duane attended several different schools before graduating from Bushton High School in 1939.
After graduation, he moved to Hays, KS and worked for Mann’s IGA before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps on July 9, 1942 to serve his country in World War II. Duane married Ruth Marie Richmond on Sept. 5, 1943 in Yuma, AZ, on a one day leave from the military. He served in the Marine Air West Coast until June 1945 as a Message Center Non-Commissioned Officer.
From June 1945 until Nov. 30, 1945, Duane was deployed to Emirau Island and Mindanao in the Philippines before being discharged on March 18, 1946 as a Master Technical Sergeant. Mr. Goodwin owned and operated Goodwin Sporting Goods from 1952 until 1992 in Hays, KS, where it can still be found today. Duane was also an active member of First United Methodist Church in Hays.
He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Ruth (Richmond) Goodwin; his two sons: Kent (Sue) of Shawnee, KS and Kyle (Karen) of Topeka, KS; four grandchildren; and thirteen great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a later date. A memorial has been established in honor of Duane at First United Methodist Church, 305 West 7th, Hays, Kansas 67601.
Condolences may be shared with the family at www.CremationCenterKC.com
Arrangements: Cremation Center of Kansas City; 913-384-5566.
JUNCTION CITY-The Cabela’s National Team Walleye Championships open Thursday and continue through Saturday at Milford Lake.
The anglers who are competing began arriving on Sunday to pre-fish and scout the lake. The tournament includes $274,000 in prize money.
Geary County Conventional and Visitors Bureau reported from the license plates on the walleye boats at Milford Lake, anglers from 16 different states are on the lake today.
