WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita State University student-teacher has been charged with unlawful sexual relations with a student at Heights High School.
Wichita media outlets report 23-year-old Katelynn R. Moore was arrested Tuesday, but has been released on bond. Wichita school district spokeswoman Susan Arensman said Wednesday that the alleged incident did not occur at the high school, but was reported there.
Authorities say the incident happened in February and that the suspect unlawfully engaged in “consensual sexual intercourse, lewd fondling or touching, or sodomy” with a student.
According to Wichita State University spokesman Joe Kleinsasser, Moore was a music education student at the school and no longer has student-teacher status.
Wild West Fest volunteer Bob Swift hands out the 2015 event brochure.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
The first requests by outside agencies for funding from the city of Hays next year were presented Thursday night during the city commission work session.
Each group was allotted five minutes on the agenda to make their appeals but were not actually timed by the commissioners.
“I don’t have a stop watch,” said Mayor Eber Phelps. “This is the honor system and the honor system has a five-minute limit,” he joked.
Seven groups from three areas–-Social Services, Economic Development and Quality of Life–-are asking for a total of $468,755 from the city in 2016.
The Fort Hays State University Scholarship Program is asking for a $25,000 increase from last year’s award, for a total $125,000.
Also requesting increased funds in 2016 are the Ellis County Historical Society, up $379 to a total $12,000, and the Hays Arts Council, up $818 to $12,000.
DHDC Director Sara Bloom and board member Sandy Jacobs show the newly expanded DHDC boundaries.
Funding requests from the four other groups remain the same as they received in 2015:
Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development–$87,550
Downtown Hays Development Corporation (DHDC)–$53,655
Wild West Festival (WWF)–$9,500
Hays Sister Cities Advisory Board–$5,050
A $60,000 budget request was also submitted for Alcohol Tax funds by the United Way of Ellis County CARE Council.
The 2016 budget is expected to be completed in August.
In other business, City Finance Director Kim Rupp reminded commissioners the city will take bids for the purchase of approximately $1.01 million of General Obligation Bonds, Series 2015A on Thursday, June 11, the next regular commission meeting. Commissioners must approve an ordinance and resolution to authorize issuance of the bonds.
Final versions of the ordinance and resolution, as well as final payment terms on the bonds, will be made available by George K. Baum & Co., the city’s Financial Advisor, and Gilmore & Bell, P.C., the city’s Bond Counsel after the sale of the bonds and before the Commission meeting.
Finance Director Kim Rupp
The bonds will be paid from special assessment revenues received by the city as property owners within the Golden Belt 5th Addition and 46th Street 2nd Addition improvement districts pay their tax bills.
Rupp also reported the city this week received a Standard & Poor’s AA rating on the bonds.
El Dorado scored three unearned runs off of two Larks errors in the fourth inning, then added two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to hold off a Larks rally for a 6-4 win in the Jayhawk League opener for both Thursday night at Larks Park. Hays is now 3-3 overall while the Broncos improve to 4-0.
Michael Burns doubled and scored on a Jordan Peterson ground out in the bottom of the first to give Hays the early lead. The Larks commit two errors resulting in three unearned runs in the fourth.
After the Broncos scored two in the top of the eighth to go up 5-1, the Larks rally with three in the bottom of the inning on consecutive RBI doubles from Corky Welch, Tracy Hadley and RJ Williams.
Blake Korthauer allowed a run on a wild pitch in the ninth and the Larks failed to score after leadoff walk in their last at bat.
Nick Goza (0-1) takes the loss despite not allowing an earned run over five innings.
The two teams continue the four-game series Friday with free admission for the 7 pm game courtesy of the Hays Downtown Development Corporation.
Thursday’s Jayhawk League scores…
Haysville 9, Derby 8, 10 innings
Dodge City 8, Liberal 5
Wellington 16, Bethany 9
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center
On Monday, June 8, in Washington, D.C., a group will stop and remember what we all would like to forget — but should never put out of our minds.
On that day, journalists, family members and others will gather for the annual rededication of the Newseum’s Journalists Memorial — a wall of soaring metal and glass, containing more than 2,200 names of reporters, broadcasters, photographers and others who have died in the pursuit of news since 1837.
The listing is incomplete, of course — reliant as it is on available records and on how international organizations of journalists classify and track those killed in the line of duty; and most recently, because of the vexing issues surrounding the very definitions of the words “journalism” and “journalist” in an era when traditional media coexist with new technology and differing approaches to newsgathering around the world.
But what counts is the mission of the Memorial — as Newseum founder Al Neuharth said in 1997: To remind the world that journalism is a dangerous profession.
Some 18 years later, the danger is even greater, as journalists have gone from being seen by all sides as necessary tools for communicating with the world to — in a total shift — a threat to crafted stories that can be sent, via the Internet, directly to the public.
The stories of individual journalists whose names will be listed in the Memorial will forever be representative of all of those in the profession who faced that greater threat, including those who lack traditional credentials but not the modern journalism’s tools of the trade: access to the Internet, mobile phones and video, as well as text.
From the Arab Spring to the Ukraine, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia and South America, danger stalks journalists on assignment from major newspapers and networks; freelancers are caught up in the mindless violence of conflict zones; and broadcasters return to work daily despite threats and intimidation from drug lords, political critics and sometimes their own governments.
The Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center samples adult opinions in the United States each year for its annual State of the First Amendment survey. Since 1997, the survey has asked questions about the public’s view of the news media — about bias, about the “watchdog” role over government envisioned by the nation’s founders, and even about the media’s position as a source of basic news.
The “news about the news” clearly is not positive, and this year’s survey — to be released around the July Fourth holiday weekend — won’t bring any joy to journalists hoping such negative views are receding. But those sweeping opinions ought not to obscure the straightforward facts that international journalism groups documented more than 80 journalists of every type who died in the line of duty during 2014.
We also should not forget journalists worldwide who are being held in prison by vindictive and cowardly governments, or as captives and political pawns by venal, evil groups. We saw this in 2014 — with the deaths of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of ISIS thugs — how tragically such captivity may end.
Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian is charged with espionage, and is on trial in a secret session in a closed Tehran courtroom set to resume on the same day as the rededication, more than 10 months after he was imprisoned. Rezaian’s supporters insist he simply was working as a reporter. The trial was “continued” to a later unspecified date for undisclosed reasons — and even that news was not officially announced, but came by way of Rezaian’s lawyer to his family members.
In fact, the importance of the Journalists Memorial is not in the names it lists nor the individual stories it helps tell — but that it exists, day after day, as a reminder to millions of visitors over years past and to the many who will see it in the future. In that effort, the Memorial stands alongside international journalism groups, families and individual newsrooms whose ongoing work refuses to abandon colleagues and loved ones to either jail cells or indifference.
Associated Press senior vice president and executive editor Kathleen Carroll, in a discussion a few months ago at the Newseum, may well have defined the role of the Memorial as reminding us all that “this work that people are doing at great risk is to educate you, so give a damn. Read the paper. Read on your tablet. Engage the news and be a citizen of the world.”
Please do “give a damn” — on June 8 and every other day.
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]. The 2015 rededication of the Newseum’s Journalists Memorial will be live streamed at 10 a.m. ET, Monday, June 8, at newseum.org.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate did not discuss budget issues on the 105th day of the Legislature’s annual session but did act on bills dealing with scrap metal thefts and deer antlers.
Minority Leader Anthony Hensley criticized the chamber’s focus Thursday. The Topeka Democrat said in a statement that not addressing budget issues was disgraceful.
Nonessential state workers could be furloughed if a budget isn’t approved by Sunday.
This year’s session is now the second longest ever, surpassed only by 2002’s 107 days.
One bill would increase penalties for thieves doing more than $5,000 in damage when stealing scrap metal. The Senate’s 37-1 vote sent it to the House.
The other bill was rejected 25-11 and would have rewritten a law on how the state disposes of antlers from poached deer.
FORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) — A southeast Kansas sheriff is considering whether to sell a piece of history to help fund other needs, or keep it for its nostalgic value.
KOAM-TV reports Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin has been researching options for the Thompson submachine gun the Kansas governor issued to the county in 1933 as a way to defend against well-armed gangsters.
Several so-called Tommy guns were issued to Kansas counties near the Missouri and Oklahoma borders where criminals spent their time dodging the law. But what once was a state-of-the-art weapon has become a relic that has been locked away from public view for years.
Martin says many of the sheriffs he has contacted said they already had sold their Tommy guns so they could buy things like patrol rifles.
OTTAWA COUNTY – Four people were injured in an accident just before 6 p.m. on Thursday in Ottawa County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Ford Passenger vehicle driven by Mendoza, Fernando Mendoza, 23, Mexico, was southbound on U.S. 81 at mile post 171 on the inside lane.
The rear passenger side tire blew out causing the vehicle to go into the median and roll multiple times.
Mendoza and passengers Jose Luis Manzanares-Aguilar, 30, Louisville, TX., Richardo Morales-Vega, 27, Indianapolis, IN., and Juan Daniel Rodrigues, Mexico, were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.
Morales-Vega and Rodrigues were not wearing seat belts according to the KHP.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Agricultural lenders are reporting lower farmland values and an uptick in delinquent farm loans.
That is according to a survey conducted in March by the Kansas State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics that was released Thursday.
The university says its results are a continuation of a trend it found in the end-of-year survey done in 2014.
Lenders cited lower commodity prices, rising operating costs and softening cash rents. All that combined with a decrease in farmland prices is behind the concern about the long-term financial health of the farming sector.
Department head Allen Featherstone says he believes the market is just cycling back to a normal state in regards to the loan delinquencies.
The survey included responses from 39 lending institutions.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A data software problem will delay the opening of the emergency room at a Topeka veterans hospital for at least six weeks.
The announcement comes just over a week after Sen. Jerry Moran and Rep. Lynn Jenkins were told a staffing shortage at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center emergency room had been fixed and it would open when the hospital received reauthorization paperwork. Officials had expected it to open by the end of May.
However, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the Veterans Affairs Central Office in Washington D.C. has ordered Colmery-O’Neil to spend six weeks updating the emergency room’s data software, which collects patient data.
The emergency room was closed in January 2014 after several physicians departed, leaving the emergency room critically understaffed.
Several thunderstorm could form along a corridor roughly from Garden City to west of Liberal late this afternoon. Although most will produce heavy rain and small hail, it is possible an isolated storm could produce much larger hail in excess of golfballs and damaging wind gusts. Additional storms will move east into west central Kansas during the later evening, and potentially spread into the highway 96 to I-70 corridor , with a quarter hail, damaging wind and heavy rain and lightning threats. Even after the severe threat ends, residual weak thunderstorms producing rain and lightning could persist through the overnight into predawn Friday morning.
Today Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. East wind 11 to 14 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
Tonight A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before midnight. Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. South wind 11 to 15 mph.
Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 16 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon.
Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 68. South wind 13 to 15 mph.
Sunday A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Southwest wind 8 to 10 mph becoming north northeast in the afternoon.
Sunday Night A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62.
Monday A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Brandon Moss hit a two-run homer and the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 on Thursday night in a game called in the eighth inning because of rain.
Trevor Bauer (5-2) allowed only a long two-run homer by Lorenzo Cain over 6 2-3 innings to continue his hot streak. The 24-year-old right-hander has allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last four starts, getting to the seventh in each of them.
After struggling to score the previous night, the Indians pounded away against Chris Young (4-2) over the first five innings. They sent eight batters to the plate during a four-run third inning, and Moss added his second homer of the series with nobody out in the fifth.
The game was delayed with one out in the bottom of the eighth as lightning and heavy rain rolled into the area. The umpires waited 44 minutes before calling Cleveland’s sixth win in eight games.
Hays Mayor Eber Phelps and his wife Joni ride their bikes in downtown Hays.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Bike lane lines and bike route symbols are now in place in much of downtown Hays, just in time for Thursday evening’s “ground painting” event at 11th and Main celebrating the start of the second and final phase of the Bike Hays project.
Hays mayor Eber Phelps and his wife Joni, bicycled from their home to the site. Hays
vice-mayor Shaun Musil and Commissioner Lance Jones also arrived on their bikes. Even former Hays City Commissioner Ron Mellick was in the crowd with his bike.
Newly marked bike lane on Main Street
Phelps gave a short welcome speech to other local bike riders and the many Kandango bicyclists who started their 4-day backroads tour in Hays.
“Use the bike lanes,” Phelps said in an encouraging tone.
“To all those people who’ve been telling me nobody rides their bike in Hays, I will point out that in the United States since 2003, people commuting to work on their bicycles has increased 62 percent. We want to try and match that in Hays.
“Everybody–get out there and ride their bikes.”
Bike Hays backpacks and temporary tattoos were given away during the block party sponsored by Gella’s, which included live music and food.
Hays City Commissioner Henry Schwaller IV sports a new Bike Hays backpack.Jessica Krogstad, Hays Area Chamber of Commerce Communications Coordinator, directs the crowd’s attention to the photographer atop a ladder.
The crowd of bicyclists and on-foot supporters posed for a Bike Hays promotional picture shot from high above.
Phelps, Musil and Jones then biked four blocks north on Main Street to Hays City Hall where they had a short time to rest before the 6:30 p.m. start of the city commission work session.
In 2012, thirty‐five public meetings with hundreds of participants were held as part of city of Hays Comprehensive Plan process. The public expressed an overwhelming desire for a bike system in Hays.
Hays City Commissioner Lance Jones shows off his Bike Hays (temporary) tattoo.
The Bike Hays plan was funded with federal and state transportation dollars augmented with local alcohol tax dollars along with storm water funds. No property or sales tax monies were used for the project.
The Bike Hays Biking Guide lists 9 routes and paths, approximately 2.75 miles of concrete path and 18 miles of on-street segments, throughout the community.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Wichita Art Museum is spending $3 million to add new gardens, pathways and an amphitheater to its outdoor sculpture display.
The space, called the Art Garden, will open at the end of September. Eleven works already on display outdoors will be reinstalled, including bronze sculptures from Tom Otterness and Henry Moore. The outdoor art collection also includes steel, aluminum and marble sculptures.
The museum says the art will be spread over nine landscaped acres, which will feature more than 80 species of trees, shrubs and perennials. The garden also will feature a new amphitheater for outdoor performances and weddings.
