The month of June kicks off the busy summer season in Hays with lots of activities for residents and visitors.
Janet Kuhn of the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau highlights a few of the events:
An updated events calendar and more information is available on the Hays CVB website.
Emporia State’s Garrett McKinzie hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to break a scoreless tie and carry the Hays Larks to a 4-0 victory over the Denver Cougars Tuesday night at Larks Park. The win gives Hays the split the two-game series and moves their record to 3-2 on the season.
McKinzie hit the homer after Corky Welch singled to open the inning. The Larks drove in a third run on an error later in the inning. Welch drove in the the final run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly.
Eastern Michigan’s Augie Gallardo pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out 11 and walking just one for the win. He retired the final 17 batters he faced before leaving with one out in the eighth, allowing just two singles and none past the second inning.
The Larks are off Wednesday before opening Jayhawk League play with the first of a four-game series with El Dorado Thursday night.
Warm temperatures will be across western Kansas into Saturday, ahead of the next cold front scheduled around Sunday. The best chances for thunderstorms, some severe, will be across northwest and north central Kansas, generally across the I-70 corridor, almost every late afternoon and evening.
Today A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Sunny, with a high near 90. Breezy, with a south southeast wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 18 to 23 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 68. Breezy, with a south southeast wind 14 to 22 mph.
Thursday A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. South southeast wind 13 to 15 mph.
Thursday Night A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 11pm and 3am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. Southeast wind 7 to 13 mph.
Friday A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 8am and 9am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. South southeast wind 7 to 9 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Friday Night A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Records of a fatal 2012 plane crash near Wichita indicate a part that broke inside the aircraft’s engine was the likely reason the Cessna Caravan went down.
The Wichita Eagle reports the probable cause statement from the Nov. 6, 2012, accident was posted online Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash killed 52-year-old pilot Brian P. Quinn of Lawrence, who told air traffic controllers soon after taking off from Wichita Mid-Continent Airport that he had lost engine power and was trying to return to the airport.
His final transmission, eight minutes after takeoff, said he was going to land in a grass field. He was killed when the plane touched down in a field of winter wheat and rolled into a tree row and struck a tree.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â Kansas legislators have approved a bill to prevent cities and counties from imposing special taxes on firearms or from using zoning ordinances to limit gun sales.
The House passed the measure on a 96-14 vote Tuesday. The Senate approved it on a 35-3 vote Monday, and it goes next to Gov. Sam Brownback for his potential signature.
The measure follows up on a law enacted last year to nullify city and county restrictions on the sale, possession and transportation of firearms.
The 2014 law didn’t specifically address the power of local officials to levy taxes and fees or their power to restrict property use through zoning ordinances.
Gun rights supporters say they’re trying to prevent a confusing jumble of local rules. Critics contend local officials know their communities best.
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Michael Brantley drove in the go-ahead run with two outs in the eighth inning, backing a strong performance by Carlos Carrasco and sending the Cleveland Indians to a 2-1 victory over the slumping Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.
Carrasco (7-4) allowed five hits over seven innings to win his third straight start. The big right-hander struck out eight while dominating Kansas City for the second time in a month.
Cody Allen handled a perfect ninth for his 12th save as the Indians won for the 11th time in 14 games. AL Central rival Kansas City lost for the sixth time in its last seven.
Wade Davis (2-1) was summoned in the eighth to keep the game tied, but he walked Michael Bourn to lead off the inning.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — An Overland Park analyst for a regional drug interdiction program has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
The Kansas City Star reports 34-year-old Matthew J. Barnes pleaded guilty Monday as part of a plea agreement. According to the plea agreement, an investigation into Barnes began in 2012.
A detective assigned to the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force was using peer-to-peer file sharing software to look for online child porn when the detective’s computer found another computer that shared six images of child pornography and “child erotica.”
The detective traced the images to a Drug Enforcement Agency office, where officials helped determine that the computer was assigned to Barnes.
The plea agreement says Barnes was a member of the Missouri National Guard working as an analyst for the Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A longtime Lawrence manufacturer says it will close its production center later this year and move its operations to Alabama.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports Kinedyne, which makes cargo straps and similar products, is moving the work to Prattville, Alabama, “later this summer.”
Lawrence economic development officials say the Lawrence plant employs 93 people. The company says 23 production and warehouse positions will displaced by the closure, and an undisclosed number of office workers will stay in Lawrence until December 2016. After that, those jobs also will be shipped south.
Kinedyne has operated in Lawrence since 1989 when it purchased Aeroquip Corp.
The company says it will be holding job fairs for employees and offering some job retraining classes.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A network that provides medical services to low-income and uninsured residents in Wichita will receive an additional $25,000 after its budget was initially cut by the city and county.
The Wichita Eagle reports the Wichita City Council unanimously approved the funds for Project Access on Tuesday.
Project Access, which has donated $170 million in medical care since it was started in 1999, receives its city funding from a City Services Grant, which is distributed by the Kansas Housing Resources Corp.
The grant has decreased over the years, which led to a $25,000 cut for Project Access in the upcoming fiscal year.
LORRAINE – A Kansas man died in an accident just before 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Ellsworth County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 GMC truck driven by Phillip G. Rogers, 67, Lorraine, was eastbound on Avenue U just west of Kansas 14 and six miles east of Lorraine.
The truck left the roadway for an unknown reason and came to rest in the grass on the south shoulder.
Rogers was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Parsons Funeral Home.
He was not wearing a seat belt according to the KHP.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dontari Poe walked gingerly off the Chiefs’ practice field Tuesday with back pain, and linebacker Derrick Johnson sat out with inflammation in his knee.
The Chiefs were getting back to work with the second week of organized team activities when Poe walked off the field. A team spokesman did not say how long he might be out.
Johnson worked out last week. He missed nearly all of last season with a torn Achilles tendon.
Wide receiver Chris Conley was back on the field after missing time last week to attend the NFL’s rookie premier, while linebacker Justin Houston remained absent from the voluntary workouts after getting the franchise tag earlier this offseason.
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press
KEVIN S. VINEYS, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials say more than 10 million people have signed up for subsidized private health insurance this year under President Barack Obama’s law, surpassing a goal the administration set last fall.
The positive numbers could turn out to be just a high-water mark for the president’s signature legislation if the Supreme Court strikes down health insurance tax credits for consumers in more than 30 states. That decision is expected around the end of the month.
Still, the combination of subsidized private coverage sold through online insurance exchanges and expanded Medicaid accepted by most states has resulted in historic coverage gains.
Nearly 9 out of 10 adults now have health insurance, according to a major independent survey. That’s just about the same proportion of Americans who buckle their seatbelts.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A panel of Missouri regulators has voted in favor of expanding one company’s high-voltage power lines but has concerns with a multistate wind energy project.
The state’s Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday for an Illinois-based branch of Ameren to build a roughly 100-mile power line in Missouri.
The line would link a route from Iowa to western Indiana.
But plans for a Grain Belt Express to carry wind energy east from the Kansas plains drew some dissent.
Three of five commissioners voiced concerns with the project, foreshadowing a likely order against it.
The commission was split on whether more access to wind power through the Grain Belt Express was worth inconveniencing property owners on whose land the power lines would be built.
