WYANDOTTE COUNTY- Two people were injured in an accident and police pursuit just before 9p.m.on Saturday in Wyandotte County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported officers made a traffic stop on a 2009 Toyota Camry driven by Ryan Javon Thompson, 23, Kansas City, that westbound Interstate 70 just west of 57th Street because the Thompson was not wearing a seat belt.
As the officer made contact with the driver, the vehicle fled the scene westbound and exited at Turner Diagonal, struck the left barrier wall, traveled east into the ditch and struck a tree.
Thompson was transported to Providence Medical Center.
A passenger Craig Montez Armstrong, 25, Kansas City, was transported to KU Medical Center.
Another passenger Angel Katrese Phillips, 24, Kansas City, was not injured.
One passenger fled the scene of the accident.
Phillips was the only one properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Victory Christian Academy and Pre-School will have a Pre-School and Kindergarten Round Up at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Victory Christian Academy is a non-denominational preschool through fifth-grade private school with a focus on educational excellence and spiritual formation.
At the Open House you will have an opportunity to meet the staff, review the curriculum and ask about V.C.A.’s small class sizes, affordable tuition and character building Christian values.
V.C.A. is housed at Celebration Community Church 5709 230th.
To find out more about Victory Christian Academy and Pre-School, visit haysvca.com or call 785- 639-6303.
Ranking right up there with man’s greatest accomplishments like five-gallon buckets, Ziploc bags and double stuff Oreos has to be the front porch. Call them stoops, decks, verandas or whatever else you please, the front porch is crucial in maintaining life as we know it.
I just got back from spending a few days with my brother and his family at their secluded cabin in the middle of the southeastern Ohio woods. A splendid front porch of fifty feet or more spans the entire length of their cabin, suspended ten feet above the driveway below, and even higher above the gurgling creek beyond. From that front porch the coming day is planned and the completed day is discussed.
Steve Gilliland
From it, deer, turkey, pig and mushroom hunts are designed in advance, and successes or failures of each are analyzed later. I believe it to be the premier bird watching platform in the state. From there, innumerable species of song birds are seen and heard as they visit the porches many feeders, and geese and wood ducks call as they fly back and forth through the valley below.
Most nights find someone on the front porch well into the darkness listening for the coyote howls that echo eerily through the surrounding hills, and hoping to be serenaded by the several varieties of owls calling the forest home.
Besides the usual accumulation of comfy chairs, a barbecue grill and bird feeders, my brother’s front porch offers some very unique but necessary furnishings. A couple empty Pringles cans, now repurposed as arrow holders are fastened to porch posts. There are several bow hunters in the family, so the cans hold the variety of different arrows necessary to cover every possible target, whether it be chipmunks, squirrels or coons’ at the deer feeder along the creek, a simple archery target in the meadow or “Bucky” the deer decoy prominently situated on the hillside below.
Another feature possibly unique to this front porch is an assortment of tennis and badminton rackets hung from nails on the posts. As temperatures warm, large wood bees and big bumble bees seem to flock to the porch, and nothing zings them across the porch railing like a well placed shot from a badminton racket. When the family’s all present, this “bee batting” quickly turns into a competition.
One recent bout pitted Gage, who is five, against our dad (his great grandfather) the patriarch of the whole tribe, who is 90. Around the porch they went after the invading bee, great granddad spending most of his time protecting himself from the wild, roundhouse swings of the little one, until someone’s lucky shot hammered the bee.
Yes, there’s just something about sitting on a front porch that brings calmness and clarity to the world around us. Maybe congress should meet on a front porch somewhere (I’m just sayin’!) And I can’t help but think that if world summits were held on someone’s front porch, the world would be a better place for it; any grievances could be settled on the spot with badminton rackets. And of course it would help immensely if the front porch, like my brothers was out in the middle of God’s creation…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors (even from your front porch!)
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].
A new report ranks Kansas 47th and Missouri 50th for state spending on public health services in the fiscal year 2015. CREDIT C_OSETT / CREATIVE COMMONS-FLICKR
Kansas spends only about $12 per person on public health, making it one of the states putting the least money into preventing chronic and infectious diseases.
According to a recent report from the Trust for America’s Health, Kansas spent about $36 million in fiscal year 2015 on public health programs for its 2.9 million people, or about $12.40 per person. That ranked the state 47th in per capita spending compared to the other 49 states and the District of Columbia.
Missouri ranked even lower, spending $5.90 per person. Only Nevada spent less.
Public health departments in Kansas provide immunizations, prepare for disease outbreaks and track illnesses considered a public health risk, such as Lyme disease, sexually transmitted infections and measles. Most also offer health education and some health care services, such as prenatal care for low-income mothers.
Michelle Ponce, executive director of the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments, said state funding to local health departments in Kansas has been unchanged since 1995. At the same time, costs have gone up and departments have faced new threats like Zika virus, she said.
“While (funding) hasn’t been cut, it also hasn’t increased in 20 years,” she said.
Kansas has a decentralized system, so public health departments are controlled locally and vary in what they can afford to offer, Ponce said. While many receive federal public health funding, she said, those dollars typically can only be used for a narrow purpose.
“We’ve seen quite a few counties make substantial reductions in what they can provide,” she said. “It’s certainly a challenge.”
Comparisons not exact
Nationwide, the report said states spent a median amount of $33.50 per person, meaning half spent more and half spent less. West Virginia spent most, at $220.80 per person.
Albert Lang, spokesman for the Trust for America’s Health, said the state-to-state comparisons may not be exact because states report their spending differently, but the researchers have attempted to include a broad range of public health spending while remaining consistent in what is counted in each state. Medicaid and federally funded health programs aren’t part of the equation, he said.
“We try to include any funding that can be specifically tied to public health in a given state,” he said.
Bert Malone, vice president of the Missouri Public Health Association, said the state’s 115 public health agencies have increased their reliance on local tax dollars or other sources of fundraising. As Missouri reduced state funding, he said, some agencies have cut hours or health education.
“They lack any reliable source of state funds,” he said. “If one county doesn’t pass a mill tax increase, you don’t get those services that another county is able to offer.”
Kansas also ranked in the bottom half when it came to public health grants from federal agencies. The state received $57.8 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in fiscal year 2015, or about $19.86 per person, and $69.5 million, or $23.88 per person, from the Health Resources and Services Administration, for a combined total of $43.74.
Missouri received slightly more, with $17.33 per person from the CDC and $27.52 per person from the HRSA, for a combined $44.85 per person.
With federal and local spending added, public health spending nationwide averaged $255 per person in 2014 — down from $281 in 2008. That accounted for about 2.4 percent of all health care spending in the United States.
Spending and outcomes
There wasn’t a clear link between public health spending and health outcomes in the states.
West Virginia spent more per person than any other state but fared poorly on the preterm birth rate, percentage of adults who smoked or were obese, on-time vaccinations for children and adults with diabetes. On the other hand, Hawaii came in second in public health spending and its residents have relatively good outcomes.
Public health efforts affect some conditions more than others. A 2011 study in Health Affairs found that when spending by local health departments increased 10 percent, infant mortality fell by 6.9 percent and heart disease deaths dropped by 3.2 percent. There was less impact on deaths from diabetes and cancer, however, and deaths from influenza and Alzheimer’s disease showed almost no change.
The Trust for America’s Health report estimated every $1 spent on programs that succeed in improving nutrition, increasing physical activity or preventing tobacco use would yield about $5.60 in savings on future health care.
But Malone said Missouri policymakers haven’t recognized the value of investing in public health.
“Legislators simply don’t like people telling them how to live their lives, so chronic disease prevention has been a low priority,” he said.
Officials with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services did not respond to requests for comment on the public health spending report.
Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republicans in the Kansas Legislature hope to finish work on a plan for balancing a state budget that would require GOP Gov. Sam Brownback to do most of the work.
The House was taking the measure up first Sunday. If its members approved the bill, the Senate would decide whether to send it to Brownback.
Rejection in either chamber would require the legislative negotiators who drafted the plan to write a new one.
The plan would only partially close shortfalls totaling more than $290 million in the current budget and the one for the next fiscal year beginning July 1.
The plan assumes Brownback follows through with announced plans to cut higher education spending and delay major highway projects so road funds can be diverted to general government programs.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson and his counterpart in Oklahoma are joining a lawsuit aimed at halting legal marijuana in Colorado.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the two states asked to be added as plaintiffs this month in a case being considered by an appeals court in Denver.
The appeal combines two separate cases: one on behalf of a Colorado couple who own land near a recreational marijuana growing facility and another brought one by a group of sheriffs from Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska.
Oklahoma and Nebraska argue they have “unique sovereign interests” in stopping marijuana from crossing their state borders, and that they shouldn’t be left out as the court weighs the issue.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied considering a similar lawsuit by states in March.
Dr. Jamie Schwandt and his guest discuss how you can dream big, think positive and take action. In this episode, Christie Appelhanz discusses her work with the Children’s Alliance of Kansas.
Victory Christian Academy and Pre-School will have a Pre-School and Kindergarten Round Up at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
