Fernando Cantero, 20, Paraguay, who pleaded not guilty to suspicion of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary in early December, was released on his own recognizance following a bond hearing Monday in the Ellis County District Court.
The release, however, came after provisions were made to keep the Fort Hays State University student under almost constant supervision and the surrendering of his passport.
The charges stem from a incident that occurred on the Fort Hays State University campus on Sept. 20.
Fernando Cantero
Cantero will be under GPS monitoring while living with a Kansas City-area pastor and his wife. His mother will also be staying at the home.
While on bond Cantero is “basically on house arrest,” as described by District Court Judge Glenn Braun, during the hearing.
Other than remaining in the home provisions were made to allow Cantero to attend church services, visit a local gym and continue english as a second language classes, under supervision.
County Attorney Tom Drees raised an objection to the bond during the proceeding, but given the unusual circumstances surrounding the case and the language barrier, the court argued the release would give Cantero the opportunity to develop a defense as the case proceeds.
As is standard procedure, Cantero was given a no-contact order with the alleged victim and warned any contact would immediately revoke the bond, along with random drug and alcohol testing.
Cantero has been in the custody of the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department since his arrest in September and pled not-guilty during his Dec. 10 arraignment.
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
Enrollments in foreign-language courses at U.S. colleges have fallen 6.7 percent since the fall of 2009. Some public universities have closed their German, French, Russian and even Spanish language programs as they chase after student tuition and abandon programs that serve the public’s interests. The next annual report due out from the Modern Language Association in February will likely show further erosion in American student enrolment in foreign languages.
“I think we should have some institution comparable in stature to West Point or Annapolis, where the curriculum includes every language used officially throughout the world. We should never send anyone to any country, who is going to have any direct contact with the people of that country, who is not fluent in the language of that country. I have sat in on many meetings in which interpreters were used. It is almost impossible to translate the precise meanings from one language to another under the pressure of a meeting.”
The biology building where I work is named “Breukelman Hall” after biology educator John Breukelman. He was very much a gentleman so I was therefore surprised at this forceful assertion. Professor Breukelman spoke fluent Dutch and Spanish and was exasperated that, while working on a biology textbook in Spanish in a South American country, he had to translate it into English for the U.S. Embassy where none of the staff spoke Spanish!
Linguistic stupidity has a price. In the hostage crisis where Iranians took U.S. Embassy staff captive at the end of the Carter administration, not one of our intelligence officers spoke Persian!
Failures in translation became clear to me when I arrived in China a week after the disastrous Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. Heartbreaking pictures were released of students buried in the collapsed schools. I watched both the Chinese and American news reports. As the bodies of high school students were recovered, our U.S. news kept calling them “middle school” students.
Therefore, American viewers presumed that Chinese education must be behind ours because these older students were only in middle school. The problem was that the Chinese name for elementary is “little school,” their name for our high school is “middle school,” and their universities are “big school.” I immediately explained this by e-mail to both the PBS network and National Public Radio—and they did absolutely nothing. High schools continued to be called “middle schools” because that was their literal translation. The Chinese interpreters used by PBS and NPR did not understand our American school system names.
If you only speak English, you could come to China with me this summer. As long as you stayed on campuses, you can manage quite well speaking English. China makes English a school requirement. Students begin study of English in early elementary school. If every American began studying Chinese, we could not match them because they have more than 332 million students studying English!
But foreign students who grow up in their culture and study English do not fully understand America. Nor would American students who studied foreign languages fully comprehend other cultures. It takes both sides working together to prevent stupid misunderstandings that can escalate into conflict.
American education is not doing our part. Half of Europeans speak two or more languages. That is seven times the rate of foreign language fluency found in the United States. Unfortunately, if all of the students in our foreign language classes became language teachers and all of their students became language teachers, it would take several generations to scale up foreign language teaching to achieve the European or Chinese level of biliteracy. So what can we do?
Even in California where there is a maximum population diversity, there are not enough foreign language teachers to staff each school. But they promote biliteracy of their multi-lingual graduates by placing a “seal of biliteracy” on their high school diploma. According to Education Week, 13 states now offer such a reward for demonstrating language fluency and at least ten more states are working to add that recognition. All states should join them. This likewise gives recognition to our 5 million students who are English language learners and who can continue their bi-cultural biliteracy.
“Wo men ke neng!”—that is Chinese for “we can do it!”
Last week’s inspection results from the Kansas Department of Agriculture:
Qdoba Mexican Grill 3310 Vine St. Hays – Dec. 30
A routine inspection found five violations:
There is a shut-off installed down stream from the atmospheric pressure breaker and the water was left on.
Wiping cloth used for sanitizing the grill thermometer was left setting on the prep counter and was soiled.
Diced tomatoes were 48 in the walk in cooler, in half pans, covered with plastic wrap. The tomatoes were prepared in large quantity and warmed while in preparation.
The water filter for the fountain machine has not been changed in over a year as required by instruction manual.
PARKER, Kan. (AP) — Crews are cleaning up after a freight train derailed in east-central Kansas.
Union Pacific Railroad said in a written statement that 11 of the train’s 166 cars jumped the tracks around 5 p.m. Monday near the Linn County town of Parker. The derailed cars were carrying lumber and soda ash, which is sometimes used to treat drinking water and not considered extremely hazardous. The statement says no one was injured.
The train was headed from Nebraska to Texas, powered by six locomotives.
Union Pacific says a team is working on cleaning up the site and reopening the line. Train traffic is being rerouted through the southeast Kansas town of Coffeyville.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation.
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LINN COUNTY – Law enforcement, fire and emergency management officials are investigating a train derailment in Linn County.
Ten cars of a 166 car Union Pacific train came off the tracks on Monday.
Due to the derailment County Road 1077 between 1700 and 1800 roads was closed and the road through Goodrich was also closed, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
There are no injuries reported. The train was on traveling to Texas from North Platte.
Temperatures continue around seasonal averages with highs in the lower 40s across much of the area. Winds will be on the increase, especially Tuesday, as a trough develops in advance of an upper level storm system.
Today Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. Windy, with a south wind 15 to 25 mph.
Tonight Cloudy, with a low around 33. South wind 11 to 16 mph.
Wednesday Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. South wind 9 to 14 mph.
Wednesday NightA 40 percent chance of rain, mainly after 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33. South wind 5 to 8 mph becoming light and variable after midnight.
Thursday Rain likely, mainly between noon and 2pm. Cloudy, with a high near 41. Light east wind becoming north northeast 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
Thursday Night A chance of rain before midnight, then a chance of snow between midnight and 1am, then a chance of rain after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 28. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Friday A 40 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 36.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Five people have been charged in the stabbing death of a Wichita man whose body was found in a sport utility vehicle on Christmas Eve.
Authorities say 42-year-old Moises Arias-Aranda was stabbed and left on a roadside in north Wichita.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 20-year-old Gabriel R. Lara, 28-year-old Diego S. Olivas, 29-year-old Jose A. Rojas and 21-year-old Amelia Wilson-Ramos are charged with one count each of first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Twenty-five-year-old Aubrey D. Cole is charged with first-degree murder and a probation violation. Rojas also has a probation violation charge.
The suspects are being held at Sedgwick County jail on bonds up to more than $1.5 million. They have preliminary hearings Jan. 20. It wasn’t immediately clear if the suspects have lawyers.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Perry Ellis had 27 points and 13 rebounds, Devonte Graham hit the go-ahead free throw in the third overtime and top-ranked Kansas outlasted Buddy Hield and second-ranked Oklahoma 109-106 on Monday night in an early showdown of Final Four contenders
Wayne Selden had 21 points and Graham finished with 20 for the Jayhawks (13-1, 2-0 Big 12), who had chances to win the game in regulation and each of the first two overtimes before finally getting it done.
Hield had a career-high 46 points for Oklahoma (12-1, 1-1), but he made two crucial turnovers in the final extra session, then missed a potential tying 3-pointer at the buzzer as the Jayhawks celebrated.
Jordan Woodard hit six 3-pointers and had 27 points for the Sooners, who were trying to extend their best start in 28 yards. Ryan Spangler finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds.
PHILLIPS COUNTY- One person was injured in an accident just before 7p.m. on Monday in Phillips County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Freightliner semi driven by Leonard R. Dush, 44, Grand Island, NE., was southbound five miles south of U.S. 36 on 1300 Road.
The semi went off the roadway to the right and entered the west ditch
The driver over corrected and the semi overturned in the middle of the road.
Dush was transported to Phillips County Hospital. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
HAYS, Kan. -Craig Nicholson hit a free throw with three seconds to play to break an 83-all tie and lift the Fort Hays Tigers to a 84-83 win over Missouri Southern Monday at Gross Coliseum. Taevaunn Prince missed a deep three-point attempt at the horn to give the Tigers (11-2, 5-2 MIAA) their sixth straight win.
Mark Johnson Postgame Interview
Rob Davis Postgame Interview
Game Highlights
The Tigers led by 10 at halftime and pushed the lead to 12 early in the second but the Lions came storming back with a 17-7 run to pull within two at 51-49. An 11-2 run capped by a Trey O’Neil three-pointer pushed the lead to 11 with 4:28 to play.
MSSU (8-6, 5-3 MIAA) outscored the Tigers 13-2 the rest of regulation, getting a three-pointer from Bruce Marshall to the the game with 29 seconds left.
The Lions led by four on two different occasions in the overtime, but a Rob Davis layup closed the gap to two with just over a minute to play. Jake Stoppel hit two free throws to tie the game with 49 seconds left as the Tigers score the final five points of overtime.
Dom Samac led four Tigers in double-figures with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Jake Stoppel added 10 points and 11 boards. Rob Davis scored 20 and Craig Nicholson chipped in with 17.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, the city’s premiere shopping and entertainment district, has been sold for only the second time since it opened in 1923.
The current owner, Highwoods Properties, announced Monday it had reached an agreement to sell the Plaza for $660 million to a joint venture between Taubman Centers and The Macerich Company. The sale is expected to close Feb. 1.
The Kansas City Star reports Taubman and Macerich will be 50/50 owners. The 55-acre shopping district includes 18 properties, both retail and office space.
The Taubman company, based in Broomfield Hills, Michigan, owns and manages 23 shopping centers in the United States and Asia. Macerich is a real estate investment trust with interests in 50 shopping centers and malls throughout the United States.
GEARY COUNTY- Law enforcement officials in Geary County are investigating the death of an inmate at the Geary County Detention Center
Kyle William Andrews, 27, Manhattan, died after being removed from life support on Monday.
He reportedly attempted suicide in his cell at approximately 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, according to a press release from Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf
Andrews was being held on a Grandview Plaza Municipal Court warrant for Failure to Appear.
Corrections staff immediately entered the cell and began life saving measures.
Junction City Fire and EMS arrived and took over, they transported Andrews to Geary Community Hospital.
He was then transported to KU Medical Center.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Geary County Sheriff’s Office are conducting a cooperative investigation into the death.
