U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, announced a staff representative specializing in Veterans casework from his Kansas office will be available from 11 a.m. to noon Thursday, June 11, at Fort Hays State University’s Sheridan Hall, Room 108.
During these office hours, Huelskamp’s staff representative will be available to meet individually with veterans to learn about their concerns and to serve as a resource for veterans struggling to navigate bureaucratic red tape. Veterans seeking assistance are encouraged to schedule an appointment by contacting Congressman Huelskamp’s Hutchinson office at (620) 665-6138.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Three companies pitched their proposals for the license to a run a new, state-owned casino in southeast Kansas.
The three presented their plans to the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board on Friday.
The state is considering proposals for the development of a gambling facility in southeast Kansas. The state facility would provide a percentage of lottery revenues to the state and counties.
The Joplin Globe reports the proposals include a $78.5 million project at the former Camptown Greyhound Park in Frontenac; Kansas Crossing, a $64.7-million project at the northwest corner of U.S. Highways 69 and 400, and Castle Rock, a $140-million project that would be built along U.S. 400 near Interstate 44.
In 2008, Penn National backed out of a deal to build a state-owned casino in Cherokee County.
The annual Ellis County Wheat Plot Field Day will be held on Tuesday, June 2, beginning at 6 p.m.
Extension specialists in agronomy and plant pathology will be on hand to discuss wheat varieties, diseases and various production topics including a sensor-based nitrogen fertilizer plot, and to answer any questions.
Following the field day a complimentary meal is provided. No RSVP is necessary to attend.
The Ellis County wheat plot is located north of Victoria 1.5 miles west of the intersection of Cathedral Ave. and Fairground Road.
The plot tour starts at 6 p.m. on June 2. All interested people are invited to attend. No RSVP is necessary.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas attorney general’s office will lead the prosecution of a 22-year-old man accused of wounding an Oklahoma law enforcement officer.
The 22-year-old suspect is being held in the Montgomery County jail along with two others suspected of leading law enforcement on a chase Thursday in southeast Kansas and northern Oklahoma.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office said in a release Saturday no formal charges have been filed. The other suspects are awaiting extradition back to Oklahoma.
An officer tried to stop an SUV on Thursday in Rogers County, Oklahoma, but the vehicle took off with three people inside.
Police say during the chase, someone inside the SUV shot at an Oologah police cruiser, striking an officer. Officials said Friday the officer is recovering from wounds that are not life-threatening.
GOODLAND – A semi driver was injured in an accident just after 7p.m. on Saturday in Sherman County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Peterbilt semi pulling an empty cattle trailer and driven by Jon Preston Hickox, 34, Spring Creek, NV., was westbound on Interstate 70 eight miles west of Goodland.
The truck left the roadway to the right striking a guardrail.
The truck road the guardrail for 150 yards, left the road, entered the north ditch and rolled.
Hickox was transported to Goodland Regional Medical Center.
He was properly restrained at the time of the accident according to the KHP.
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute.
Even LGBT activists were surprised by the margin of victory last week when 62% of Irish voters approved a referendum legalizing same-sex marriage — making Ireland the first country in the world to do so by popular vote.
The percentage of the Irish vote mirrors public opinion in the United States. A Gallup poll released on May 19 found that 60% of the American people now favor same-sex marriage. Just two decades ago, that number was only 27%.
The rapid shift in public support for gay marriage and LGBT civil rights in Europe and the U.S. has left religious conservatives scrambling to put spokes in the fast-moving wheel of social change.
At the same time the Irish were voting, a magistrate and former magistrate in North Carolina were filing suit to challenge the state’s requirement that all magistrates conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies in the same manner as other marriage ceremonies. The lawsuit seeks religious liberty exemptions for magistrates with religious objections to gay marriage.
That same week, religious conservatives in the Louisiana Legislature tried and failed to pass a bill designed to protect religious business owners who don’t want to serve same-sex weddings. Gov. Bobby Jindal was reduced to issuing an executive order that is much more limited in scope and, critics charge, may violate the state’s constitution.
Worried about backlash against Jindal’s action, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu countered by issuing his own executive order reaffirming the city’s commitment to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Meanwhile in Fairfax County, Virginia this week, conservative religious groups are fighting to stop a new sex education curriculum in one of the country’s largest school districts.
If, as expected, the curriculum is approved in late June, students will be taught that sexuality is defined as a spectrum of differences — heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality — that may or may not change within an individual’s lifetime. The curriculum also explores non-conforming gender identities.
Earlier this month, the school district voted to add gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy, a decision that also sparked protests from some conservative Christian parents and pastors.
Evangelist Franklin Graham used Facebook to express outrage over the changes in Fairfax County. “School districts should not allow this poison anywhere near the classroom,” Graham wrote. “Wicked” policies and proposals such as those in Fairfax, he argued, result from school officials not upholding biblical principles.
Lawsuits, executive orders and heated Facebook posts may stir the passions of many religious conservatives, but such tactics are unlikely to reverse the tide of public support for gay marriage and LGBT civil rights.
Once the 60% threshold is crossed, there’s no turning back. As Dublin’s Archbishop put it after the Irish vote, “the church needs to do a reality check.”
Religious conservatives would be much better served if they took a page from Utah’s book and actually sat down with the other side.
The agreement reached in Utah earlier this spring isn’t perfect, but it goes a long way toward protecting LGBT people from discrimination while simultaneously providing meaningful exemptions for religious individuals and groups.
Of course, not all of the particulars of the Utah solution would work in other states — but the Utah spirit of dialogue and willingness to find common ground could be replicated anywhere.
As events unfold in North Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia and other states, religious conservatives clinging to a give-nothing-but-expect-everything strategy will get nowhere. Support for religious exemptions and protections will only be won by first acknowledging the need to protect LGBT civil rights.
At the same time, proponents of gay marriage and LGBT civil rights would be wise to avoid pushing a get-everything-but-give-nothing strategy. Sixty percent is a solid majority — but 40% represents a lot of people. After all, when the culture-war dust settles, we still have to live and work together as citizens of one nation.
In other words, our rights are best guarded when we stand up for the rights of others — including those with whom we deeply disagree.
Charles C. Haynes is vice president of the Newseum Institute and executive director of the Religious Freedom Center. [email protected]
JUNCTION CITY -One pound and two ounces was all that separated the winners of the 2015 Cabelas National Team Walleye Championships Saturday at Milford Lake.
Ed Klepacki and Jim Miller
Going into the day Saturday Ed Klepacki of Wonder Lake, IL and Jim Miller of Angle Side, IL had a near eight pound lead over the second place team, but by the time they were up to weigh in they had lost their lead and needed six pounds 12 ounces to regain it.
They had caught two fish Saturday and Klepacki said he didn’t know if they would have enough.
“I looked in the live well and I went ‘Oh god, I don’t know.’ Then they weighed what we needed and I still can’t really believe it. When we were out there I didn’t think we had enough,” said Klepacki.
The weather played a different roll each day of the tournament, with lightning delaying the start on Thursday, a sunny and warm day on Friday and then a cold windy day on Saturday.
Miller said that the cold front that moved in Friday night into Saturday morning had them nervous.
“When we woke up this morning with that north wind howling we knew it was going to be hard, long, tough and it was,” said Miller. “We probably only had three bites today for sure and we lost a big fish.”
Both Klepacki and Miller fished this same tournament when it was at Milford Lake in 2003 and they explained they fished the same area on the north end of the lake that they did back then.
“We were fishing over in the catfish flats, fishing the old railroad bed. Pulling cranks in nine, eight foot of water. Sometimes the fish would push shallow and we’d slide up in there and try and get one here and there,” said Klepacki.
Klepacki and Miller won $30,000 cash plus a $68,000 Evinrude E-Tec powered 620 Ranger Boat.
When asked if they will be coming back to Milford Lake in the future Klepacki said,”Oh yeah for sure, I love this place.”
TOPEKA–The Kansas Insurance Department announced that proposed premiums for individual and small group health plans in Kansas for 2016 would probably show increases.
The range of requested average rate revisions by insurance companies is from -0.40 percent to 37.78 percent. Those proposed changes are for private insurance company health plans sold on the federal marketplace and also for plans not sold on the government website.
All rate filings are subject to analysis by the insurance department’s Health & Life Division. The insurance companies’ actuarial data and assumptions are reviewed, and all final rates are required to be filed by Aug. 25, 2015, to be included on the 2016 online marketplace. The proposed revisions may not necessarily be the rates charged following the review process.
The plans with proposed premium increases more than 10 percent will be posted on the Kansas Insurance Department website, www.ksinsurance.org, beginning Monday, June 1.
This is the first time since the federal marketplace began that insurance companies have had a full year of claims experience with which to base their proposed premium rate revisions.
For 2016, a total of 97 plans have been proposed for sale during open enrollment in Kansas on the federally-facilitated online marketplace. That number includes 75 individual and 22 small group plans, an increase of 11 individual plan choices and four small group choices from the 2015 marketplace.
Open enrollment begins Nov. 1, 2015, for the 2016 calendar year.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. transportation officials are extending an order for railroads to notify states about shipments of hazardous crude oil shipments.
Emergency responders had raised worries over a new rule that did away with the requirement.
Trains hauling crude from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana have been involved in multiple fiery derailments in recent years, including a 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.
This week’s action revives a 2014 order for railroads to give emergency officials oil train routing and volume information to better prepare for accidents.
The Transportation Department had moved this month to replace the mandate with a rule that would require states to request the information.
Agency spokeswoman Artealia Gilliard says federal regulators “heard loud and clear” the concerns raised by emergency responders.
Location of the Saturday morning train and car accident in Ellsworth County CLICK to enlarge
ELLSWORTH COUNTY- An investigation into Saturday morning’s train crash into a car east of Wilson is still under investigation according to the Ellsworth County Sheriff’s office.
The train hit the abandoned car at Fifth Road and Avenue E just east of Wilson just before 8 a.m. Because of the ongoing investigation and the suspicious nature of the incident, no additional details are being released.
The Union Pacific railroad line continued operation on Saturday afternoon.
There were no injuries reported.
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ELLSWORTH COUNTY- Officials continue to investigate the Saturday morning train crash into a car in Ellsworth County.
The vehicle was abandoned at the time of the crash according to officials.
No injuries have been reported and law enforcement officials were working to determine who was driving the vehicle.
The Ellsworth County Sheriff’s office reported the train hit the car at Fifth Road and Avenue E just east of Wilson just before 8 a.m.
Train traffic in the area was still being held as of 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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ELLSWORTH COUNTY- First responders are on the scene of an accident in Ellsworth County.
The Ellsworth County Sheriff’s office reported a Union Pacific train hit a car at Fifth Road and Avenue E just east of Wilson just before 8 a.m. Saturday.
Nobody was in the vehicle according to officials.
No injuries are reported. An investigation is underway.
Check the Post for additional details as they become available.
ULYSSES- Two people died in an accident just after 10 a.m. on Saturday in Grant County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1997 Peterbilt semi driven by David Roman-Rodarte, 44, Garden City, was northbound on road V twelve miles north of Kansas 25.
The truck failed to come to a complete stop at a stop sign.
A 2014 Chrysler van driven by Earl L Seger, 54, Ulysses, was
was westbound on County road 5 and hit the semi on the passenger side.
Both vehicles came to rest in the field northwest of the intersection.
Seger and a passenger Charla L. Seger, 53, Ulysses, were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Garnand Funeral Home
Roman-Rodarte was transported to Bob Wilson Memorial Grant County Hospital.
Charla Seger was not wearing a seat belt according to the KHP.
GREAT BEND – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County made a drug arrest on Saturday.
The Barton County Sheriff reported just before 1:30 on Saturday deputies conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle operated by Warren Hacker, 38, Great Bend.
Hacker was wanted for a parole violation and an active warrant for his arrest had been issued. Deputies called for the Sheriff’s K-9 Unit and the vehicle was checked for controlled substances. The vehicle was found to contain methamphetamine.
Based on the traffic stop and other information, deputies were able to obtain a search warrant for Hacker’s residence at 3807 2nd St. in Great Bend.
Items consistent with the sale and distribution of methamphetamine were located at the residence and were seized by the Sheriff’s Office.
Hacker was booked into the Barton County Jail on charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute within 1000 feet of a school, possession of distribution paraphernalia and violation of the Kansas Drug Tax Stamp act.
Hacker remains in the Barton County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond as of Saturday morning.
