The Gnarly Neon 5K is making its return to Hays this year on Aug. 29, and runners of all ages and speeds are invited to participate.
Throughout the course, runners get showered in neon colors, with an afterparty and live DJ waiting for them at the finish line. The event starts at 9 a.m. from the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex and ends around noon. Sunglasses, temporary tattoos and headbands will be handed handed out prior to the event.
Proceeds benefit the Hays Recreation Commission and Developmental Services of Northwestern Kansas, and are used to provide services and activities for those with disabilities.
Early registration guarantees a white event T-shirt.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
Church ceremonies to bless school backpacks are becoming more common this time of year as students return to school. One function of this practice is to focus the parents, relatives and friends on supporting their students in their academic efforts.
And for several years, backpacks have been associated with our efforts to feed poor children when they leave school. Emulating the public USDA program of free school lunches, this private community effort supplements evening and weekend meals for our children in poverty by stuffing non-perishable packaged food into student backpacks.
But to me, I will forever remember school backpacks in another context.
In 2008, I landed in China in time to see the country’s response to the Wenchuan earthquake of May 12. A massive earthquake struck at 2:28pm, just after students had returned to school at 2:00pm. This region of Sichuan is mountainous. Many cities and small towns were destroyed leaving no buildings standing and taking a toll of over 80,000 dead and missing.
China is a country where the daily focus is on making money. But for those next weeks, that would be set aside. All eyes across China were riveted to the wide-open televised press coverage of the earthquake destruction. In contrast to the bungled American response to Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans—an anniversary that we are currently observing—the engineering corps of the People’s Liberation Army was underway to the earthquake within hours.
Rescue troops with shovels and jacks dropped from hovering helicopters onto slopes where no flat land remained. Premier Wen Jiabao, trained in geo-mechanical engineering, was placed in charge of the rescue efforts. Factories worked 24-7 to turn out tents and pre-fabricated dwellings while military trucks brought raw materials to the factories and hauled rescue supplies and equipment to the disaster area.
Within a few days, television crews from every province were focusing on the blue tent cities that were erected to protect survivors from the weather. But first and foremost were the temporary schools erected from blue pre-fabricated walls and ceilings. There were still two more months of school remaining. And in China, schools got the same high priority as field hospitals. And where there was no flat land to set up a school, students said goodbye to their family and got on trains to journey to undamaged schools across China where teachers added another row of desks. Seats were removed from trains and fitted to hold stretchers to transport the wounded to outlying hospitals. Trains gave top priority to medical personnel and patients—and students.
Those first days, Chinese citizens saw on television that although the students had teachers and pre-fab schools, they did not have books or paper or pens to write with. Reaching down into the very soul of every Chinese citizen was the desperate need to get these surviving students academically equipped to finish the school year. The cry went out from the public: backpacks! —Backpacks filled with textbooks and school supplies.
While the medical community across China was sending all their extra vascular stents needed for treating crush victims, schools scoured their closets for extra textbooks. Money flowed in from the public across the country; the Chinese people were contributing to the backpack effort.
Within a few days, the television showed the results. The government and PLA pushed inward on the broken roads with land-moving and rescue equipment first. Medical vehicles were close behind. But right behind that came the trucks with backpacks. Within a few days, disheveled students still without access to clean clothes or a bath, could be seen trudging to school with brand new backpacks laden with school supplies.
Today, when I see a new backpack, it always reminds me of how the children of China are fortunate, indeed blessed, to live in a society that so values their education.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita woman has been ordered to repay the Kansas Medicaid program over $40,000 for committing Medicaid fraud while she was a care attendant.
The Wichita Eagle reports 59-year-old Joyce Ann Spencer was also sentenced to two years of probation Friday. She had pleaded no contest to one count of making a false claim to Medicaid for billing the program for work she did not do between May 2009 and October 2013.
According to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Spencer claimed she was working for three different Medicaid patients at the same time.
Schmidt said Spencer has also been banned from working for any program funded by federal health care dollars.
LAWRENCE- Two Kansas men were injured in an accident just before 7p.m. on Sunday in Douglas County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Honda Civic driven by Carmeio Aitamirano-Cantu, 38, Lawrence, was eastbound on North 950 Road three miles southwest of Lawrence.
The vehicle rear-ended a 2003 Ford Focus driven by Teodulo Bernardino-Ortiz, 26, Lawrence, causing both drivers to lose control.
The Honda failed to negotiate a corner, left the roadway to the right and overturned multiple times.
The Ford skidded in the roadway before entering the south ditch.
Aitamirano-Cantu was transported to KU Medical Center.
A passenger in the Honda Eddie Keltos, 27, Lawrence, was transported to Stormont Vail in Topeka.
Bernardino-Ortiz was not injured.
The occupants of the Honda were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man has been sentenced to about 33 years in prison for the slaying of a 23-year-old man two years ago.
The Wichita Eagle reports 25-year-old Manuel Rivas was sentenced Friday in the fatal shooting of Eric Salazar on Nov. 6, 2013. He had been found guilty of second-degree murder in March.
According to prosecutors, Salazar was shot in the head during an argument over money after two men forced their way into an apartment building. He later died at a hospital.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — An exhibit about a gallery that marketed art to middle class American homes beginning in the 1930s is going on display next month at Kansas State University before heading to three other museums.
Touted as the first critical overview of the Associated American Artists, the exhibit opens Sept. 15 at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. The Kansas museum has a large collection of AAA prints, and a curator there helped develop the exhibit.
The AAA was known for its mail delivery sales. Regionalist artists Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry were among the painters it promoted.
The exhibit also will appear at the Grey Art Gallery at New York University, the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Syracuse University Art Galleries in New York.
HOISINGTON- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 8:30p.m. on Sunday in Barton County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 GMC Terrain driven by Maggie Miller, 25, Claflin, was westbound on Kansas 4 four miles east of Hoisington and collided with a deer that ran in front of the car.
Miller received injuries mostly by airbags in the vehicle. She was transported to Clara Barton Hospital. She was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
It is a treat to eat out at a favorite restaurant or community event. Consumers expect the food to be safe. It is up to the food handlers to provide the safest meal possible.
The Ellis County Extension Office will host a Food Safety Short Course on Thursday, September 10, 1:30 to 4:00 pm at the Extension Office meeting room, 601 Main Street in Hays. (Enter the rear door from the north parking lot.) Linda Beech, Ellis County Extension FCS Agent, will be the course instructor.
The training covers basic food safety, personal hygiene, food allergens, preventing cross-contamination, time and temperature controls, and cleaning and sanitation. This course would be appropriate for food service employees, dietary staff at nursing homes, hospitals and schools, and volunteer groups who serve concession stands, community meals or fund-raisers.
The cost for the course is $7 per person and includes the Servsafe Food Handlers booklet, training materials and refreshments.
Advance registration is required to allow for ordering books and materials. Contact the Ellis County Extension Office no later than September 4 to register and pay fees. A minimum attendance is required by the deadline to hold this class or it will be cancelled.
For questions or a registration brochure, contact the Ellis County Extension Office, (785) 628-9430.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say an officer fatally shot a man after the officer was dragged by a vehicle following a traffic stop.
Police spokesman Lt. James Espinoza says officers stopped a car around 10 p.m. Saturday and one officer approached the vehicle. There was a struggle and the man drove away, dragging the officer.
The Wichita Eagle reports the man hit another vehicle head-on, injuring two people.
Espinoza said the officer at some point fired shots at the driver, killing him. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released.
The officer was taken to a hospital in serious condition. Espinoza said Sunday that his condition had improved to good.
Espinoza says the department is working with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Sedgwick County prosecutors as it investigates.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say an officer fatally shot a man after the officer was dragged by a vehicle following a traffic stop.
Police spokesman Lt. James Espinoza says officers stopped a car around 10 p.m. Saturday and one officer approached the vehicle. There was a struggle and the man drove away, dragging the officer.
The Wichita Eagle reports the man hit another vehicle head-on, injuring two people.
Espinoza said the officer at some point fired shots at the driver who was dragging him, but did not say how many shots were fired.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene and the officer is in serious condition at a hospital. Their identities have not been released.
CHANUTE, Kan. (AP) — A picture of Jesus has been removed from a southeast Kansas middle school where it had hung for decades.
First-year superintendent Richard Proffitt says the Chanute district’s lawyer advised that Royster Middle School could not legally display the print of Warner Sallman’s “Head of Christ.”
The Wichita Eagle reports that issues arose after the district received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The national organization is dedicated to the principle of separation of church and state.
Ryan Jayne, a spokesman for the foundation’s legal department, said he thinks it’s “wonderful” that the district responded the way it did and as quickly as it did.
But many in the community aren’t happy, including former student Erika Semey. She says, “Not enough people have Christ in their lives.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kickapoo Tribe is accusing its former chairman of financial malfeasance in a tribal court lawsuit.
The suit’s Aug. 12 filing came nearly seven months after the tribal council voted to remove Clifford “Steve” Cadue from his job as chairman. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the suit accuses Cadue of falsifying meeting minutes to fraudulently pass an unbalanced budget.
Cadue says the lawsuit is without merit and should have been handled through the tribal council, not in a courtroom.
The 30-square-mile Kickapoo Tribe reservation is located just a few miles west of Horton in Brown County. Kickapoo vice chairman Fred Thomas says the lawsuit against Cadue marks the first time in tribal history that a tribal official was sued as a person, not a tribal official, for malfeasance.
Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism
PRATT–If your child enjoys all things “outdoorsy,” chances are he or she will have a blast at the upcoming 10th Annual Northcentral Kansas Outdoor Youth Fair in Osborne. This one-day, fun-filled event will take place Sept. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to youth ages 17 and younger (all those 14 and younger must be accompanied by an adult).
Activities include archery, wingshooting, flyfishing, canoeing, dog handling, trapping and many other outdoor activities.
Youth must be registered by 11 a.m. the day of the event to be provided lunch and an opportunity to win door prizes that include a lifetime hunting license, hunting and fishing trips, and a weekend at an area lake cabin.
Archery hunters 14 and older are invited to bring in their bows for tune-ups.
All equipment and supplies are provided at no charge.
The Northcentral Kansas Outdoor Youth Fair is made possible by the Osborne County Pheasants Forever Chapter, Osborne Gun Club, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, Nex-Tech, and the Keith Hahn Memorial.
For more information, contact Cleo Hahn at (785) 346-4541, John Cockerham at (785) 346-6527, or Chris Lecuyer at (785) 218-7818.
The Gnarly Neon 5K is making its return to Hays this year on Aug. 29, and runners of all ages and speeds are invited to participate.
