WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton has been interviewed Saturday by the FBI about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill says in a statement the voluntary interview with federal agents took place Saturday.
The interview was not unexpected and does not suggest that Clinton or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department’s yearlong probe is drawing to a close.
Still, it’s awkward for Democrats to have FBI agents question Clinton mere weeks before their party formally nominates her for president.
During Tuesday’s Hays USD 489 Board of Education meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, at the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th, position appointments for the 2016-17 school year are set to be decided as part of the yearly reorganization of the board.
The board will select a president, vice-president, clerk, treasurer and board attorney for the year.
Sarah Wasinger, current clerk and keeper of records, also will be considered to continue in those roles for the year along with an appointment as the district’s homeless children coordinator, public information officer and freedom of information officer.
Renae Booth will be considered for treasurer, and Bill Jeter will be considered to continue in his role as board attorney.
The proposed 1,116-hour school calendar also will be considered by the board, along with the board meeting calendar.
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County located an escaped inmate.
Just after 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Tremale Serrano, 21, Topeka walked away from a Shawnee County Department of Corrections work crew in the 2200 block of SE Massachusetts in Topeka, according to a media release.
The Violent Crime Initiative Officers received information that he was in the area of 8th and Buchanan in a vehicle. Serrano was located and taken into custody without incident.
Serrano was originally in custody on charges of Domestic Battery, Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, Criminal Restraint, Protection From Abuse Violation, and Warrant for Parole Violation. He is now facing additional charges of Obstruction and Escape from Custody.
The Downtown Hays Market will be open Tuesday evenings in July and August.
During peak produce growing seasons (July and August) the market will be open Tuesday evenings from 5 to-7 p.m. The market is located in the parking lot at 10th and Main.
SHERMAN COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities continue to investigate a fatal Interstate 70 accident in Sherman County.
Five people died in the crash just after 2 a.m. on Wednesday. A sixth victim died after being transported to a hospital, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
A 2016 Volvo semi driven by Yuriy P Mudrenko, 27, Antelope, CA., was eastbound on Interstate 70 eleven miles east of Goodland and rear-ended a 2004 Toyota Sequoia driven by Calvin Florez, 42, Guatemala, according to the KHP.
The collision caused the Toyota to veer into the south ditch where it overturned.
Florez was transported to a hospital in Wichita.
Mudrenko was transported to Citizen’s Medical Center.
The identities of ten others in the SUV have not been released.
The drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Thunderstorms with heavy rain this morning gradually will weaken and move east. A weak cold front will move into northwest Kansas this morning and should extend from north central into southwest Kansas this afternoon. Thunderstorms are expected to develop along the front and grow into another large convective complex this evening.
Looking ahead to Sunday and Monday, outside of some lingering rain chances Sunday morning, the forecast is currently dry. Cloud cover is expected to gradually diminish with time, and winds will switch to the south. High temperatures are forecast to reach the mid 70s on Sunday and the mid to upper 80s for Monday.
Today: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 9am, then showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 4pm. High near 82. South southeast wind 8 to 11 mph becoming east in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 9pm. Cloudy, with a low around 61. North wind 9 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Sunday: A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. North wind 9 to 13 mph.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. Northeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming southeast after midnight.
Independence Day: Sunny, with a high near 87. Light south southeast wind becoming south 6 to 11 mph in the morning.
Dr. Lowell L. Tilzer, a former chair of KU Hospital’s pathology department, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the hospital. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITAL
An explosive lawsuit filed by a University of Kansas Hospital pathologist charges that the head of the hospital’s pathology department wrongly diagnosed a patient with cancer and then covered up the mistake after an organ of the patient was removed.
The lawsuit says KU Hospital refused to rectify the error and retaliated against the plaintiff after he called the matter to the attention of the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies hospitals in the United States.
The suit, filed today in Wyandotte County District Court by Dr. Lowell L. Tilzer, says that as far as Tilzer knows, the patient has yet to be informed of the misdiagnosis.
“The form of cancer that was erroneously diagnosed within the patient is commonly known as potentially lethal; and the patient who was misdiagnosed has lived with this unwarranted fear” since the hospital concealed the misdiagnosis, the lawsuit alleges.
KU Hospital issued a statement late Friday afternoon saying it first learned of the lawsuit when KCUR called and asked it to respond.
“We are not in a position to provide detailed feedback at this time,” the statement says. “However, just from a brief review of the allegations made, there is little to nothing in the petition that we believe to be grounded in truth.
“The patient to whom Dr. Tilzer’s petition references was fully informed of the diagnosis and treatment plan after surgery and prior to leaving the hospital, and is pleased with the care and clinical outcome.”
Dr. Lowell L. Tilzer has been on staff at KU Hospital for 25 years and, until last year, was head of its pathology department. CREDIT UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER
Tilzer, who was chair of the hospital’s pathology department for 6 ½ years until 2015 and has been on staff for 25 years, says that after the hospital refused to acknowledge its mistake and he sent his report to the Joint Commission, he was summoned to meet with KU Hospital President and CEO Bob Page on May 31.
According to Tilzer’s lawsuit, Page asked him if he wanted to resign, berated him for contacting the Joint Commission, accused him of lying to the commission, asked him why he had “done this alone” and described Tilzer’s report to the commission as “pitiful” and “despicable” behavior.
The lawsuit does not name the chair of the pathology department who allegedly misdiagnosed the patient. But the current chair is Meenakshi Singh, who has occupied that position since May 2015, when Tilzer stepped down. In a telephone interview Friday, Tilzer said it was Singh who made the misdiagnosis and then covered it up.
“She finally said in April 2016 ‘I made a mistake.’ It took her eight months,” Tilzer said.
McCulloch, the KU Hospital spokesman, said Singh is aware of the lawsuit but she would not comment.
The lawsuit, filed under the Kansas whistleblower statute, does not seek damages but rather asks the court to prevent KU Hospital from retaliating against Tilzer and from terminating his employment.
“I’m not really afraid of being fired but I am afraid if the administration’s attitude for helping cover up the misdiagnosis will affect other patients and hurt other people. It’s that attitude they’ve got (that) I’m terribly concerned,” he said.
“I’m 66 years old,” Tilzer added. “If they fire me, it’s not the end of the world.”
Asked why he himself did not inform the patient of the misdiagnosis, Tilzer said he wasn’t the patient’s treating physician and therefore it would not have been appropriate to do so.
“I don’t think you can do that without being a direct part of her patient care,” he said.
The lawsuit does not name the patient or give other identifying information such as the date the surgery took place. The lawsuit cites HIPAA, the federal law that protects patient confidentiality.
Asked what action the Joint Commission has taken, Tilzer said the commission was only empowered to examine the hospital’s policies and procedures, not individual cases.
According to Tilzer’s lawsuit:
Dr. Meenakshi Singh is the chair of KU Hospital’s pathology department. Dr. Lowell Tilzer doesn’t name Singh in his lawsuit, but in a telephone interview he said that Singh was the doctor he claims covered up a misdiagnosis. CREDIT UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER
Tilzer learned in 2015 that the pathology chair had misdiagnosed the patient’s tissue sample as cancerous. An “essential body organ” of the patient, or part of it, was then removed. Afterward, when other hospital pathologists examined tissue samples from the organ, they found it was “essentially normal” and not cancerous.
A re-examination of the pre-surgery tissue sample came to the same conclusion. After the pathology chair was informed of her misdiagnosis, she covered it up “by placing an addendum to her original report stating the original cancer diagnosis and the normal removed organ matched, thereby concealing her original misdiagnosis and perpetuating the patient’s mistaken belief that the patient’s removed organ was cancerous.”
In September, Tilzer informed KU Hospital’s chief medical officer and risk management officer that the hospital needed to conduct a “root cause analysis” of the mistake to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. The chief medical officer responded that the original diagnosis was correct because two other pathologists signed the report. But Tilzer says the two other pathologists did not agree with the original diagnosis, “and the chair simply wrote their names in the electronic medical record.”
The chief medical officer allegedly refused Tilzer’s request to talk to other pathologists and a root cause analysis was not performed, according to the lawsuit.
In early 2016, the chair of the pathology department allegedly “instructed others to alter medical records regarding the Chair’s misdiagnosis,” the lawsuit says, and to remove any reference that a root cause analysis was necessary.
The lawsuit adds that Tilzer had concerns about the chair’s competence that were “further reinforced when continuing mistakes by the Chair and actual or potential harm were brought to Tilzer’s attention.”
In the telephone interview, Tilzer said he had no qualms about Singh’s initial hiring but later became concerned about her competence after she allegedly misdiagnosed other patients. In one case, he said, she diagnosed a breast biopsy as pre-malignant when it was benign.
He said that in that case, Singh changed the report “appropriately.”
Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, is based at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
The Ellis FFA Chapter had their Harvest Appreciation Tour on Friday, June 24. Every year, FFA members plan and organize this event to give back to the farmers as a simple “thank you” for their hard work during harvest.
This community service project lasted two days, the first to cook and prepare and the second to drive across Ellis County visiting harvest crews in the fields. FFA members prepared homemade trail mix, cookies, granola bars and other snacks to hand out to farmers. Each farmer received a handful of snacks and an ice cold drink. Farmers that pre-registered also received a special Ellis FFA can koozie.
The 2016 FFA officer team set their goals high, hoping to exceed their record of 37 farmers last year. Their goal was to visit and meet around 50 farmers. This goal, however proved to be far too easy for the team. By lunch, they had already exceeded their goal, and at the conclusion of the tour had met 100 farmers and harvest crew members across Ellis County.
Chelsea Whittle, Ellis FFA adviser, is excited to see the community service project continue to grow in upcoming years.
“This was a great opportunity for our FFA members to get out in front of the community, especially to the heart of the Ellis agricultural industry,” she said. “The smiles on the farmers’ faces, and the overall experience is one that these students will never forget.”
The 2016 Ellis FFA Officer team consists of Lindsay Augustine, Lane Fischer, Jaylinn Pfeifer, Joshua Smith, Cameryn Kinderknecht, and Lane Kohl.
If you are interested in learning more about the Ellis FFA Chapter, contact Whittle at (785) 726-3151.
From left: Lane Fischer, Cameryn Kinderknecht, Lindsay Augustine and Joshua Smith.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will be paying schools a week late after withholding the final payment of fiscal year 2016 to keep its budget out of the red.
School districts will receive a total of nearly $260 million in state aid July 7 and mark it as a June 30 payment.
The state has withheld similar payments over the past decade and was planning to do so again this year. But deputy education commissioner Dale Dennis says the amount was $75 million higher than it would have been without the current shortfalls.
Kansas tax revenue receipts were 34.5 million short for June, according to the Kansas Department of Revenue on Friday.
TOPEKA – The Nature Conservancy of Kansas (TNC) has protected 3,285 acres of Flint Hills tallgrass native prairie with a conservation easement in Chase and Lyon counties. The landowners, Bill and Maggie Haw of Shawnee Mission, are firm believers in conservation easements, having previously donated to TNC easements on other land they own and manage in the Flint Hills. This recent easement brings their total land protection contribution to more than 17,000 acres, including 16 scenic miles of highway frontage along the Kansas Turnpike (I-35) and the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway (K-177).
Tallgrass prairie is the most altered major habitat type in North America in terms of acres lost. Yet, in Kansas, a significant swath of tallgrass prairie – the Flint Hills –remains intact. TNC views conservation easements as a golden opportunity to help landowners conserve this intact and fully functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
A conservation easement is a legally recorded agreement between the granting landowner and a land trust. The agreement permanently restricts uses of the property that would damage its conservation values. Conservation easements do not interfere with traditional uses of the land, such as grazing and prescribed fire, but it may restrict incompatible activities, including many types of development. Public access is generally not required by a conservation easement, and, like all other easement provisions, it must be agreed to by the landowner. An eased property may be sold, transferred or inherited, and the easement conditions transfer to each subsequent landowner.
“By placing these acres under the protection of a conservation easement, the property’s ranching legacy, as well as its economic and ecological integrity, will endure,” said Brian Obermeyer, director of the TNC’s Flint Hills Initiative.
“Maggie and I are committed to the idea of preserving not only the pristine views but also the wonderful cattle culture of this area where generations of same-family cowboy caretakers have learned to operate the best yearling grazing operations in the world,” said Bill Haw. “It is the perfect convergence of an important food-producing activity that maintains the ecosystem, which developed with bison grazing over thousands of years. The Nature Conservancy is the perfect partner to recognize and enforce those two compatible goals for many generations to come.”
The recent Haw easement takes TNC over the 100,000-acres-preserved mark in Kansas.
For more information about The Nature Conservancy and conservation easements, contact Shelby Stacy at [email protected] or (785) 233-4400.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Voting rights groups are appealing a judge’s order which they say threatens to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in three states in the upcoming November elections.
A notice of appeal filed Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeks a quick review of the actions of a U.S. elections official who added proof-of-citizenship requirements on a federal mail-in voter registration form.
The groups seek to set aside the executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s “unauthorized and unilateral” modification requiring citizenship documentation for residents of Kansas, Alabama and Georgia.
Their filing contends the action — taken without public notice — violates federal law. It says that evidence of those violations is so overwhelming that the Justice Department agreed it should be immediately overturned.
The Downtown Hays Market will be open Tuesday evenings in July and August.
SHERMAN COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities continue to investigate a fatal Interstate 70 accident in Sherman County.
Thunderstorms with heavy rain this morning gradually will weaken and move east. A weak cold front will move into northwest Kansas this morning and should extend from north central into southwest Kansas this afternoon. Thunderstorms are expected to develop along the front and grow into another large convective complex this evening.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will be paying schools a week late after withholding the final payment of fiscal year 2016 to keep its budget out of the red.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Voting rights groups are appealing a judge’s order which they say threatens to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in three states in the upcoming November elections.