ELLIS — The City of Ellis Fire Department, with assistance from Ellis County Rural and Hays City Fire Departments, responded to a structure fire just before 2 p.m. Friday in the 200 block of West 12th in Ellis.
There were no flames visible outside the home, but significant smoke emanated from the home for more than an hour as crews worked to extinguish the fire.
The cause of the blaze is unknown at this time. Officers from the Ellis Police Department and Ellis County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Check Hays Post for more information as details become available.
WICHITA– A McPherson County man appeared in federal court on Friday on charges of traveling to a foreign country to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
Anthony Shultz, 53, Lindsborg, was charged with one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, one count of producing child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography and one count of identity theft.
Shultz is alleged to have traveled to the Philippines, where he engaged in sex with a minor, produced videos of the act and distributed the videos on the Internet, according to court documents.
The case began in April 2016 when the FBI received a tip that a U.S. citizen was sexually abusing minors in the Philippines, producing live-streaming videos and distributing the videos via the Internet to users who paid to see them. Investigators followed an electronic trail to Shultz, who is a commercial pilot and owns a home in Lindsborg.
If convicted, Shultz faces up to 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of traveling for sex with a minor, not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of producing child pornography, not less than five years and not more than more than 20 years on the charge of distributing child pornography, and a maximum penalty of five years and a fine up to $250,000 on the identity theft charge.
Shultz will remain in custody pending a detention hearing July 29.
Next week is the annual ‘Just Breathe’ Disc Golf Tournament in honor of Bryce and we encourage everyone to go out and make it special. Participate, give a hug, or cheer someone on; kindness is all that matters.
The ‘Just Breathe’ Disc Golf Tournament is Sun., July 31. Registration is $20 for teams of two. Participants may sign up for the tournament the day of but will not receive t-shirts.
All proceeds go to the swimming pool Safety and Training Equipment Fund.
If you have any questions please contact the Ellis swimming pool at (785) 726.3130.
Please keep the family of Bryce Stropes in your thoughts and prayers.
BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a robbery at a motel in Great Bend.
Just before 4 a.m. on Thursday, the Great Bend Police Department was dispatched to the Travelodge at 3200 10th Street in reference to an armed robbery.
According to reports from the clerk on duty, two masked men ran into the lobby and pointed a gun at her. One of the men ran behind the counter and took the cash box. The suspects then ran out the door, according to a media release.
One of the suspects was wearing a white baseball cap with a flat bill and an Under Armour emblem on the front, a white long sleeve shirt, black shorts, and white shoes, and some type of covering over his face. The second suspect was wearing a thick black work coat with a gray inner lining, faded blue jeans, black and white shoes, black and white gloves, and a white bandanna over his face.
Image taken from security
In surveillance video, it appears that both suspects are brandishing handguns. Officers believe that at least one of the handguns was fake, but are unsure of the other and still consider the individuals to be armed and dangerous.
The Police Department asks that anyone with any information about the suspects who committed this robbery to contact the Great Bend Police Department at (620)793-4120. People with information can also contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at (620)792-1300. Crime Stoppers is a program which allows individuals to remain anonymous while reporting information, and they may receive a cash award if their information leads to an arrest.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A southern Kansas man has been convicted in the 2014 death and sexual assault of 100-year-old woman.
The Wichita Eagle reports that a Sedgwick County jury deliberated about two hours Thursday before convicting Kasey Nesbitt of first-degree felony murder, rape and aggravated burglary with the intent to commit a sexual assault.
Jurors concluded that Nesbitt kicked in Martha Schell’s door and assaulted her in September 2014.
Marc Bennett, the county’s district attorney, told jurors that Schell died from blood clots that formed after the attack, which left her with a broken back and other injuries.
Nesbitt’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18. He faces up to life in prison on the murder conviction, as well as up to 54 years for the rape.
A Pittsburgh hospital accused of not reporting an employee’s criminal drug use must face lawsuits from patients he went on to infect in a Kansas hospital, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled.
In a 2-1 decision, the Pennsylvania Superior Court on Thursday reinstated four lawsuits from six plaintiffs who were infected with Hepatitis C by a drug-addicted technician at Hays Medical Center in Hays.
According to court records, David Kwiatkowski worked as a radiology technician at defendant UPMC Presbyterian in 2008 before being fired for injecting himself with opiates, refilling the tainted syringes with saline, and restocking them back into the hospital supply room.
Neither UPMC nor the staffing agency that placed him there, Maxim Healthcare Services, reported him to authorities or notified the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs argue UPMC and Maxim “knew or should have known that medical staff such as Kwiatkowski, without intervention, would continue to engage in conduct, including theft of controlled substances in order to satisfy” his addiction.
It was this failure, they allege, that allowed Kwiatkowski to go on to work at eight other hospitals, creating a multi-state Hepatitis C outbreak before his arrest in New Hampshire in 2012.
Thursday’s ruling reversed an earlier decision from the Allegheny County Court of Common Please that had tossed the cases after determining UPMC and Maxim only owed a duty of care to its own patients, not plaintiffs.
In reinstating the duty-to-report claim, Superior Court Judge Mary Jane Bowes, joined by Judge Sallie Updyke Mundy, noted, “There was a special relationship between Kwiatkowski and UPMC and Maxim when the alleged duty to report arose, i.e., when Kwiatkowski’s theft and substitution of controlled substances were exposed. Additionally, UPMC and Maxim knew that Kwiatkowski’s addiction, diversion, and substitution of drugs presented a danger to patients at facilities where he worked, not just UPMC’s patients.”
The judges agreed however, with the trial court’s dismissal of a negligence claim against defendants.
UPMC responded to the ruling in a statement.
“This ruling ignores the clear facts that upon learning of his diversion we immediately removed him from practice at UPMC, had him drug tested, notified his employer, and reported the diversion to the Attorney General’s office,” the hospital said.
The director of a University of Kansas research center that recently lost the contract for its main body of work is open to resuming negotiations with state officials.
Rick Goscha, director of the KU Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation, said he continues to receive emails and
Rick Goscha, director of the KU Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation, says mental health providers across the state want to see the center and Kansas officials resolve their differences. CREDIT KU CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
phone calls from mental health providers across the state who want to see the center and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services work through their differences so that a longstanding training and evaluation program operated by the center can continue.
“Secretary (Tim) Keck continues to say he wants to support evidence-based practices in Kansas, and we are open to discussion how we can continue our work in this area,” Goscha said in an email. “Bottom line: the focus needs to remain on improving the lives of people with serious mental illness in Kansas.”
Last-minute attempts to negotiate terms of a new $2.4 million contract broke down June 30, the day before the start of the state’s new budget year and the deadline for an agreement to be in place. KDADS wanted to restructure the contract based on concerns that some of the methods the KU center used to match faculty to the project and some of the tasks in its work plan weren’t allowable expenditures under federal Medicaid rules. But Goscha said he couldn’t agree to a proposed no-cost extension to give the two sides time to overhaul the contract.
“Their last-minute offer was not a viable option,” Goscha said. “There is no way the university would have approved a contract that basically said ‘to be determined.’”
Shock waves
News that a project started in the late 1980s to foster the use of evidence-based treatment methods at community mental health centers in Kansas was coming to an end sent shock waves through the state’s mental health provider community.
Tim DeWeese, executive director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center, said he was “shocked and disappointed.”
“Without the KU center, I’m not sure how the state plans to ensure that we continue to maintain the quality of services,” DeWeese said.
The KU center has worked for years to help several community mental health centers implement the “strengths model” of treating people with severe and persistent mental illness. Developed by Charles Rapp, former director of the KU center, the model encourages therapists to help patients understand both their illness and the strengths they can utilize in overcoming it.
In addition to “strengths” training, the center evaluates and grades community mental health centers to ensure that the model is being used correctly.
Keck moved quickly to assure community mental health center directors that the state would find an alternative way to continue to training and evaluation work.
“The agency is not eliminating this element of its mental health funding, which is a critical part of our continued commitment to excellence,” Keck wrote in a letter to the directors. “This training will continue to be provided, but not necessarily under the same arrangement that the training has been provided in the past.”
KDADS explains concerns
Several mental health providers were openly critical of KDADS and the last-minute contract demands that led to a breakdown in negotiations.
Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson, said the agency had no concerns about the KU center’s work. But while declining to provide details, she said the agency had questions about how the university and the center had administered the federally funded contract.
Several days later Brad Ridley, the KDADS official charged with negotiating the contract, agreed to discuss the agency’s concerns. They boiled down to judgments about what are and aren’t allowable Medicaid expenditures, he said.
All of the money used to fund the project comes from the federal government. The university contributes facilities and faculty time of roughly equal value. The state’s job, Ridley said, is to oversee the contract to ensure that federal rules are being followed to the letter.
“Over the course of the last four years, we have made a lot of adjustments to the contracts we have,” Ridley said.
For one thing, he said, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been added as a party to several university research contracts because it is the state’s lead Medicaid agency.
“We’ve worked through these contracts to ensure that we and KDHE both are comfortable with the accountability of those Medicaid funds that are flowing through,” he said.
Differences in the way state agencies have interpreted Medicaid rules have sometimes been confusing for contractors, Ridley acknowledged. Before a recent reorganization of state agencies, the KU contract was overseen by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. When SRS became the Department for Children and Families, responsibility for the KU contract was transferred to KDADS.
Old SRS rules allowed the KU center to use Medicaid funds to pay the tuition of graduate research assistants working on the project. But Ridley says KDADS and KDHE have questions about whether that’s an allowable expense.
“We didn’t say they couldn’t do it, but we added language to the contracts that says if it ends up being an unallowable cost that the university is liable,” Ridley said.
Keck, who also participated in the interview, hedged when asked whether the contract dispute and the publicity surrounding it had effectively ended the agency’s relationship with the KU center.
“Our plan is to move forward,” he said. “That may mean a lot of different things as it unfolds.”
The most pressing task KDADS faces is to find someone that can do trainings that already have been scheduled, Keck said.
“Once we get that figured out then we’ll move on to the mid-range things and then we’ll move to the long-term issues,” he said. “That may involve an RFP (request for proposals) at some point.”
When asked whether a proposal from the KU center would be considered, Keck said, “Sure.”
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
Families are encouraged to grab their strollers and head downtown for the second annual Baby Care Street Fair in historic downtown Hays. The event, sponsored by Hays Interagency Coordinating Council’s Hospital to Home Committee, seeks to provide parents with helpful resources, and at the same time offer a no-cost morning of family fun.
The event will be from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, July 23, on Main Street between 10th Street and 12th Street. There will be a car seat safety check lane on the east side of 1000 Fort, and a lactation lounge for nursing mothers in Hays Arts Council’s annex at 1010 Main. There will be prenatal and infant massages available from Samantha Baker, a fire truck with the Hays Fire Department, as well as the annual Downtown Hays side walk sale.
This year a Facebook baby photo contest has been added to the events. Entries must be with infants birth to 12 months and the photo cannot be taken professionally. The first place winner receives a $75 cash prize and a $50 off card for a photo session with Holly Ray Photography, and the second place winner likewise receives a $50 cash prize and a $50 off card for a photo session with Holly Ray Photography. To enter, visit 2016 Baby Photo Contest on Facebook. The photo with the most likes wins. The winners will be announced at 10:30 a.m.
Several community agencies and businesses will have tables at the event offering helpful parenting resources or family activities.
These agencies include Early Childhood Connections, Hays Area Children’s Center Infant/Toddler Services, Hays Medical Center Lactation Clinic, Hays Medical Center Pediatrics, Hays Medical Center Women’s Center, Healthy Start, First Care Clinic, Rook County Health Center, Children & Youth with Special Health Care Needs, and La Leche League.
This event is scheduled in conjunction with World Breastfeeding Week 2016. This year’s theme is about how breastfeeding is a key element in getting us to think about how to value our wellbeing from the start of life, how to respect each other and care for the world we share. For more information about that campaign, visit www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org.
The Baby Care Street Fair has all coordinated with the Ellis County Cancer Council’s “Hit the Bricks” 5K walk/run/stroll-a-thon. Registration is from 5:45 a.m. to 6:45 a.m. with the race beginning at 7 a.m. at 10th and Fort streets.
TOPEKA – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt on Friday sued the U.S. Department of Defense for failing to produce records related to plans and preparations for transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Fort Leavenworth.
In December 2015, Schmidt filed requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act for records related to federal preparations for a detainee transfer. The Defense Department acknowledged it possessed some of the records and initially said it would provide them by April 15, 2016. But it later missed that deadline, claiming the records could not be released without further “consultation.” The new date by which the department has promised to provide the records is November 15, just after the presidential election.
“The Obama administration now claims it will not transfer detainees to the mainland, but we want to verify this claim because it appears the administration previously violated a federal ban on even preparing for such a transfer,” Schmidt said. “Our concerns are heightened because the administration admits it has the records we requested and initially promised to produce them but now are inexplicably dragging their feet until after the November election. We are seeking some court-ordered sunshine now to discourage mischief later in the final weeks before the president leaves office.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Kansas, seeks a court order that the administration immediately produce the documents it admits possessing and promptly find and release any other relevant documents it possesses.
The case is State of Kansas, ex rel. Derek Schmidt v. United States Department of Defense, in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Case No. 16-cv-04127.
Kyle Carlin, an author and school psychologist from Hays, announced that his new book, “Bug and Boo,” is now available for purchase from Amazon and Amazon Createspace.
“Bug and Boo” is illustrated by Karissa Gonzalez-Othan, a Fort Hays State University graduate student, and designed by Lyndsey Dugan from Dugan Designs. “Bug and Boo” is published by Kastle Books, owned by Seth Kastle.
“Bug and Boo” is a children’s book that focuses on social emotional skills, such as self-awareness and self-control of emotions. In “Bug and Boo,” the title characters find themselves in a typical sibling conflict. When Boo’s angry words upset Bug, Boo must get control of her emotions and then make things right with her brother. In addition to a story that is recognizable to many households, “Bug and Boo” also includes activities for parents and caregivers to use before, during and after reading, that can help reinforce the skills Bug and Boo use in the story.
Bug and Boo can be purchased on Amazon and Amazon Createspace. Parents and caregivers can also go to www.schoolsyke.com to find links to the product page, as well as other information about “Bug and Boo” and social emotional learning.
Carlin is a school psychologist in Hays, where he works for the Hays USD 489 school district.
In his five years as a school psychologist, Carlin has helped kids of all ages with their social emotional development. Kyle has presented to educators, parents and administrators about the importance of social emotional learning and strategies that can be used to develop these skills in schools and at home. Carlin is also president of the Kansas Association of School Psychologists, a state-level organization that supports and advocates for children and school psychologists.
Carlin is a graduate of Fort Hays State University.
CITY OF ELLIS
Bug and Boo can be purchased on Amazon and Amazon Createspace. Parents and caregivers can also go to