WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new report finds Kansas is missing out on the manufacturing employment growth the nation is experiencing.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors released its findings Tuesday. The group says Kansas saw a 0.9 percent decline in manufacturing employment between June 2014 and 2015, losing about 1,400 manufacturing jobs. During that same period, the nation saw 1.3 percent growth in manufacturing, adding 160,000 jobs.
Dan Lara, of the Kansas Department of Commerce, said in an e-mail that the general aviation sector continues to lag behind. Lara says the state lost 39,000 manufacturing jobs during the recession and has only gained back about 4,000 of them.
As of June, the state has about 162,300 manufacturing jobs, 10.2 percent less than it had 10 years ago.
PARSONS, Kan. (AP) — A southeast Kansas man has been charged with killing his 25-year-old son after an argument.
The Parsons Sun reports that 56-year-old Jeffery M. Patton made his first court appearance Tuesday in Labette County District. He is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Preston Patton.
The son was dead and his father was suffering from head injuries when police and emergency workers responded Sunday night to a 911 call at a Parsons home.
Jeff Patton told District Judge Robert Fleming that he was working and that he planned to hire an attorney; he just needed to get the cash together. He didn’t give the attorney’s name. He also said his son had been living with him.
A local hotspot that has received national attention over the last few years will celebrate a significant milestone Thursday as Gella’s Diner and Lb. Brewing Co., 117 E. 11th, will officially recognize 10 years in business.
Over the years, the diner has been the recipient of numerous awards and was even listed as the “one thing to do in Kansas” by Huffington Post. But for anyone that has frequented the establishment, it doesn’t come as surprise as online reviews can attest.
While the food and service is noteworthy, the success of the establishment has no doubt been in part due to the quality of beer produced in-house and that can only be bought in the location.
Gerald Wyman has been the brewmaster at the location since before it was open.
“Hays was ready for it,” he said about the opening of the location in 2005. “It’s our 10-year anniversary. It’s kind of a big deal.”
When Wyman arrived, he was no stranger to brewing beer, and many of the award-winning brews served at Gella’s evolved from his recipes, but he is insistent that beer be brewed in a way that drinkers will expect what the drink will taste like before ordering.
“All the beers I brought here evolved from my home-brewing recipes,” he said. “You drink a beer you really like and then you clone it, but the way you do that, you clone it to the style.”
“I’m very passionate about brewing beer to style,” Wyman said.
This creates a consistency in the product and in combination with a detailed process has helped keep customers coming back year after year.
“It’s pretty much a given how things will turn out,” he said adding, “attention to detail through the brewing process, in my opinion, (is) incredibly important.”
Cleanliness and purity also weigh heavily on the final product.
“When you drink a pint of Lb. beer, it’s as pure as I can possibly make it,” Wyman said. “That makes a better tasting beer.”
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From his home-brew beginnings, Wyman has adapted the brew house at Lb. to be an expanded version of what he already knew, but expansion is still possible.
“After 10 years, it’s just an overgrown home-brew system,” Wyman said, however the brew house has not yet reached peak capacity.
“That’s always been one of my goals to, to get the brew house to capacity,” he said.
While the success of the establishment has been driven by local interest, an expanding craft beer market has helped as well.
“I’m really happy with the way everybody in Kansas went to craft beer,” Wyman said. “It’s like people really want a beer with more flavor and more to it. It’s so much more than your commercial lagers.”
In celebration of the anniversary Thursday night, Gella’s will offer some special features, but much like the low-key rustic design of the building and the humble nature of the staff, the event will be subtle.
“At 8:30 p.m. is when the music starts, and then we are doing a toast with the staff and whoever’s here to 10 years and then be serving complimentary anniversary cake,” said Derrick Broeckelman, front of house manager, who has been with the restaurant for seven years.
Jessica Paige, who plays frequently at the establishment, will be the musician of the night.
As with any new restaurant, getting established took some time, but Broeckelman said management and staff have worked hard over the years to continuing improving.
“I know since I’ve got here, it’s been nothing but progression,” he said. “Every day, we’re just doing more to make it better.”
But the establishment has had plenty of help with notoriety.
“I guess it’s surprising when we started gaining popularity,” Broeckelman said. That popularity came from all over including magazine features, favorable online reviews and awards from national beer competitions. That popularity has created a spot where people from all over come to find great beer and local food.
“It is surprising when you walk down and see how many different people are here at the restaurant from all over the country. Not only just all over the country, but all over the world,” Broeckelman said.
“I just think it’s great how we are celebrating 10 years. Not only have we been in business, but to be a downtown business and really just help try to be that cornerstone business of downtown and bring people down here to eat and shop and see a different side of Hays than you may see from the interstate or from a highway traveling through and to see that small-town charm that we are trying to develop here in downtown,” he said.
VALLEY CENTER -Law enforcement officials in Sedgwick County are investigating a school bus accident in Valley Center.
USD 262 reported in a media release that the bus with 15 students was involved in the accident at 77th North and Ridge Road just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
Three students with minor injuries were evaluated at the scene and released to family members.
The bus driver was transported to a hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
The driver of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries and was not treated at the scene, according to officials.
The bus driver may be cited for running a stop sign that caused the crash, according to police.
According to Lt. Brandon Wright with the Hays Police Department, just before 10 a.m. Tuesday, Tyler J. Luecke was driving a 2000 Infinity QX4 northbound on Vine Street.
The vehicle went left of center and crossed the southbound lanes of traffic before crashing through the wrought-iron fence at the cemetery.
Luecke suffered minor injuries in the accident. As of Wednesday morning, he remained in Ellis County jail.
Wright said several gravestones were damaged in the crash.
A recent string of scams has local law enforcement officials warning the public of suspicious phone calls purportedly from the IRS.
According to Ellis County Sheriff Ed Harbin, the department has been getting reports of people receiving phone calls from someone portraying an IRS official claiming the person owes money.
According to Harbin, the caller scammers threaten people with arrest if they don’t send money.
If you receive one of these calls, Harbin said, most importantly, don’t send any money.
“If somebody gets a call like that, they should call their local law enforcement agency,” he said.
Harbin added a good way to tell if the number is legitimate is to search for it on the Internet. He said if it has already been reported as a scam, it will come up in an Internet search.
Earlier this month, Fort Hays State University reported a number of students have been receiving the same types of phone calls and FHSU’s Financial Assistance Office has sent out an email warning students not to field these calls, and instead contact the police immediately.
If you just can’t wait until next month to catch the new Jimi Hendrix documentary Electric Church, you’re in luck.
Rolling Stone is offering an exclusive preview of what’s in store.
The clip — which was filmed July 4, 1970 at the Atlanta Pop Festival — finds Hendrix, bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchell blazing through “Purple Haze.”
The Atlanta Pop Festival performance wasn’t just another gig for Hendrix; it was the biggest U.S. show of his career, with an estimated attendance of 300 thousand people.
“Jimi was at the peak of his creative and commercial powers that summer,” says John McDermott, who directed the documentary.
“There are so few examples of Jimi performing on film that this footage of him performing before the largest U.S. audience of his career is significant. Younger fans should take note that Jimi didn’t need set lists, dance steps, stage backdrops and lighting cues to connect with his audience.”
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church will air September 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET on Showtime. The performance will also be released on CD as Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival on August 28.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A former network manager for Water District No. 1 of Johnson County was sentenced for wire fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
Jason P. Lee, 41, Shawnee, Kan., was sentenced to six months in prison followed by six months home confinement. He paid more than $129,000 in restitution as part of his plea agreement.
In his plea, Lee admitted the crime occurred while he worked for WaterOne, an independent public water utility serving more than 400,000 customers in Johnson County. As part of his duties, Lee was responsible for ordering cellular phones for water district employees.
In July 2010 he devised a scheme to defraud WaterOne by ordering cellular telephones from WaterOne’s providers and selling the phones on eBay and other Internet sites. He carried out the scheme by making electronic transactions from Kansas to Colorado, California, Texas and Washington.
DCCCA Inc., a Lawrence-based nonprofit, is one of three Kansas organizations involved with planning a new prevention network for the state. CREDIT DAVE RANNEY/KHI NEWS
For years, Kansas has partnered with a network of regional prevention centers to alert and connect people to mental health programs and those that prevent substance abuse, suicide and problem gambling.
But that network appears to be unraveling as state officials work toward implementing what they call a more holistic, data-driven approach.
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services earlier this summer notified the state’s 10 regional prevention centers that their grants set to expire June 30 would not be renewed.
“They’re closed; their staffs have been laid off,” says Dulcinea Rakestraw, vice president of treatment services at Preferred Family Healthcare, a drug and alcohol treatment program with offices in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. Preferred Family also was operating three of the regional prevention centers.
Rakestraw, who also serves as president of the Kansas Association of Addiction Professionals, supports the agency’s goals but questions the process.
“All of us, I think, are looking forward to a more integrated approach,” she says. “Our reservation, however, is that the contracts ended in June and it’s already August. The old system is out, but there isn’t a new system to take its place. So there’s a piece that’s missing.”
KDADS has not released details, but several other organizations also have lost funding or seen a dramatic reduction in their grants as part of the new approach.
The Kansas Family Partnership, a Topeka-based program best known for coordinating statewide campaigns aimed at preventing teen alcohol and drug use, is losing $418,500 in state grants.
“We are regrouping,” says Michelle Voth, the partnership’s executive director. “We are exploring other opportunities and doing some fundraising in hopes of filling in some other gaps in the system.”
Angela de Rocha, a spokesperson for KDADS, says state officials recognize that the transition period will be “uncomfortable for some.” But, she says, the changes “are necessary to move forward.”
“KDADS’ No. 1 priority in all of this is to support community-level prevention work,” she says.
As part of that goal, KDADS is restructuring its prevention efforts to award the funding that had gone to the 10 regional prevention centers instead to local prevention efforts at the community level. Those community efforts are still in the planning stage, de Rocha says, so the funding has not yet been awarded.
“The new system is set up to work with those community prevention groups to make them more effective,” she says.
Through a competitive bidding process, KDADS selected the Center for Community Support and Research at Wichita State University to design the new behavioral health system. The process, which is being funded with a $684,997 KDADS grant, is expected to take about a year.
“This will evolve over the next year as we and other partners go through some thoughtful planning about prevention in the state of Kansas,” says Scott Wituk, the center’s executive director.
The process is separate from a recent review of the behavioral health system that focused on the state’s hospitals for Kansans with severe mental health issues.
Two other organizations will help the Wichita State center with planning and implementation. The Center for Learning Tree Institute in Girard, an affiliate of the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush, will use a $606,950 KDADS grant to collect and analyze data. DCCCA Inc., a Lawrence-based nonprofit, was awarded a $346,245 grant to develop and distribute training materials.
“We’re excited about this new approach, though all of us would agree, I think, that it remains to be seen what the results will be,” says Lori Alvarado, executive director at DCCCA.
Much of the technical assistance, she says, will involve making training materials available online and “brokering relationships” among community groups selected to play a role in the new system.
Meanwhile, several nonprofit organizations that help people with behavioral health problems access services are waiting to see what will happen to their state support.
Last year, the National Alliance on Mental Illness office in Kansas and Keys for Networking each received KDADS grants of $150,000. The agency renewed both grants this year but reduced them to $100,000.
“We’re not going to close, but we are looking for alternate funding sources,” says Jane Adams, executive director of Keys for Networking.
Rick Cagan, executive director of NAMI’s Kansas office, says the funding reduction could jeopardize the organization.
“We cannot ignore losing $50,000 — that’s a third of our budget,” Cagan says. “We’ll either find a way to replace that money or we’ll hit the wall.”
Through the grant restructuring, funding for Families Together was reduced from $243,000 in fiscal year 2015 to $100,000 in the current fiscal year. The program last year helped 3,000 Kansas families with children with developmental disabilities navigate the state’s often-complex school and health care systems.
“KDADS, back in April or May, asked us to send them a proposal for $100,000 that’s limited to only families that are Medicaid eligible,” says Connie Zienkewicz, executive director of Families Together. Previously, the program’s services were available to families regardless of income.
The organization has other funding streams for families that aren’t Medicaid eligible, Zienkewicz says, but reductions in other state and federal funding will limit the number of people the organization can serve in the coming year.
“We’ll be seeing fewer families because we have fewer bodies (employees),” Zienkewicz says.
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
Otillia “Tillie” Augustine, age 84 of Ellis, passed away Monday, August 17, 2015 at Via Christi Village, Hays. She was born March 23, 1931 in Ransom, Kansas to Paul and Mary (Augustine) Flax. She married Leonard Joseph Augustine on August 21, 1950 at St. Mary’s Church in Ellis.
Tillie was a homemaker and farmwife. She was very active in running the family’s dairy farm. In 1977 she went to work at Mid-America Dairy until 1993. She then worked part time for Alloways’ restaurant until her retirement. Tillie was strong in her Catholic faith and was active in St. Mary’s church and the Daughters of Isabella. Her hobbies were taking care of her family and traveling to music halls with Leonard while he played polka music with the Dutch Masters.
She is survived by her husband, Leonard of Hays; children, Loretta (Elmer) Zerr, Melvin (Becky) Augustine all of Salina, Dewayne “Dewey” (Pam) Augustine, Kenneth “Luther”(Donna) Augustine all of Colby, Richard (Deanna) Augustine of Hays, Michael (Linda) Augustine of Ellis, Randy (Elaine) Augustine of Hays, Darrell Augustine, Leonard Jr. (Cheryl) Augustine all of Ellis, Kathy (Rod) Stack all of Salina, Timothy (Lori) Augustine of Ellis and Mark (Noalee) Augustine of Hays; sisters, Sr. Loretta Clara Flax of Hays, Eleanor (Leon) Dreher of Englewood, CO and Barbara (Raymond) Sanders of Longmont, CO; a sister-in-law, Millie Flax of Hays; 24 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by a sister, Twila Younger, a brother, Frank Flax, a grandson, Eric Augustine, brothers-in-law, Mark Younger and Leon Dreher
Funeral services will be 10 AM Friday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Ellis with burial to follow in the church cemetery.
Visitation will be Thursday 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM with a D of I rosary at 6:30 PM followed by a parish vigil at 7:00 PM all at St. Mary’s Church.
Memorial contributions are suggested to St. Mary’s Church or Via Christi Village, Hays.
Arrangements in care of Keithley Funeral Chapel 400 E 17th Ellis, KS 67637. Condolences may be sent by guest book to www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com or emailed to [email protected].
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka officials have banned electronic cigarettes in enclosed public places.
WIBW-TV reports that council members voted 7-2 on Tuesday night to extend the city’s ban on indoor smoking to include vaping. The e-cigarettes, which allow nicotine users to inhale vapor, have become increasingly popular substitutes for tobacco cigarettes.
But Topeka City Councilwoman Elaine Schwartz says questions remain about the safety of e-cigarettes. The ordinance makes exceptions for private residences, except when used as a day care home and outdoor places of employment. The exception is limited to no more than 20 percent of hotel or motel rooms available to be rented to guests.
Overland Park, Olathe, McPherson and Kansas City, Kansas, already ban the use of e-cigarettes in some public places.
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
Michael Waltrip Racing will not run its cars on a full-time basis after this season.
The team has also granted Clint Bowyer his release so that Bowyer can look for a job for the 2016 season.
The decision announced Wednesday comes after co-owner Rob Kauffman purchased an ownership stake in Chip Ganassi Racing. Kauffman bought 50 percent of MWR during its debut 2007 season to keep the team afloat.
Founded by two-time Daytona 500 winner Waltrip, MWR entered Sprint Cup competition as Toyota’s flagship team. The team has not recovered since it was severely sanctioned by NASCAR in 2013 for manipulating the outcome of the final race of the regular season.
The scandal led to the loss of a sponsorship and MWR released 15 percent of its workforce.
