ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Four months after the federal government gave up a court fight to keep the lesser prairie chicken on the endangered species list, environmentalists say there’s new evidence that warrants listing the bird again.
A coalition of environmental groups has filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that key populations are in danger of extinction as climate change exacerbates problems caused by energy development, farming and other infrastructure such as roads and power lines.
The groups say emergency protections are needed for isolated populations along the Texas-New Mexico border, in Colorado and western Kansas.
Following court rulings in Texas that stripped the bird of protection, federal officials moved in July to formally remove it from the list. The agency has said the bird’s status would be re-evaluated.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 38-year-old man has been charged in the death of a Johnson County Sheriff’s deputy who died when a pickup truck plowed into his stopped patrol car.
The Kansas City Star reports that Adrian Espinosa-Flores of Kansas City, Kansas, was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter in the death Sunday of Master Deputy Brandon Collins. Collins was 45.
Authorities say Espinosa-Flores is accused of driving under the influence when the pickup truck he was driving crashed into the deputy’s patrol car. Collins was making a traffic stop at the time of the crash.
Authorities said Espinosa-Flores fled the scene but was found by police dogs and taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries.
He’s in custody on $2 million bond. It’s unclear if Espinosa-Flores has a lawyer.
SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect for alleged assault.
Seth Vanbruggen, 21, is accused of pointing a BB gun at another car just before 11:30p.m. on the northbound side of Interstate 135 just south of the Kansas 4 Assaria Road exit, according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.
Two vehicles had been driving side by side on the interstate near the rest area in McPherson County.
When the other car passed a truck, Vanbruggen pulled over to the shoulder of the road.
A short time later, Vanbruggen then, passing the other car, allegedly pointed the gun.
The other car with two occupants pulled off at the Assaria exit and called the Sheriff’s Office.
Vanbruggen was arrested on a requested charge of aggravated assault.
The 2016 Homecoming candidates were announced on Fri., Sept. 2 after being voted on by the senior class. Due to ties, there will be seven king and seven queen candidates.
The selected seniors are as follows:
Grant Coffman
Tanner Callis
Cooper Flores
Shane Berens
Jace Armstrong
Kohlton Meyers
Jake Dechant
Marie Reveles
Jodi Veach
Maddie Keller
Talyn Kleweno
Hannah Thomasson
Brianna Brin
Alyssa Bryant
The senior class elects fellow students to be candidates for homecoming royalty each year. This year seven candidates boy candidates and seven girl candidates were chosen instead of the usual five.
The candidates felt honored to have been selected.
“I’m extremely honored to represent my class in this special event with such an incredible group of candidates,” senior Jodi Veach said.
Senior Cooper Flores is glad to have been picked out of everyone.
“The people who nominated me could have picked anyone else,” Flores said. “They decided to choose me though.”
Receiving the nomination was a surprise for some candidates.
“I didn’t think I was going to get nominated, so when I heard my name I was sort of in shock,” senior Hannah Thomasson said.
Thomasson considers homecoming candidates to be the kindest people in the school.
“The fact that my class thinks of me that way is a really great feeling,” Thomasson said.
Candidates get to partake in a wide variety of festivities from now until homecoming.
“There’s a lot we have to do,” senior Brianna Brin said. “We each do a candidate video, hand in pictures and answers to a few questions for the display case, and we go take pictures of all the candidates and individual pairs somewhere in the community. We participate in the candidate games on the Monday of homecoming week, practice at Lewis Field on that Tuesday, watch the interview videos on Wednesday, attend the bonfire on Thursday.
“Friday, Sept. 30, is when the real fun begins. Candidates are dismissed from class on Friday so we can get all done up for the formal assembly. Our parents have to be there to ‘walk us down the aisle’ where they present the candidates and talk about all that we are involved in and our future plans. After that, the candidates all go eat together and then go to the parade. After the parade we are dropped off at Lewis Field to wait until half time to await the verdict on who won. The next day, we are expected to attend the dance.”
Brin said she is most excited for the homecoming parade.
“Ever since I was little I’ve watched the girls in pretty dresses riding in flashy convertibles, and they always look so happy,” Brin said. “It’s exciting to think that will be me.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Department of Transportation report says 96.7 percent of interstate highways in the state were ranked as good in the fiscal year ending in July.
The report was released on Friday. The department evaluates the state’s 10,000-mile highway system annually and gives ratings based on scores of surface roughness and distress.
The Topeka Capital-Journal has previously reported that 97.7 percent of interstate highways in Kansas were ranked as good in 2015.
Friday’s report says 91.7 percent of non-interstate highways in the state were found to be in good condition last fiscal year.
The agency says it has targets of 85 percent good for interstate highways and 80 percent good for non-interstate highways.
Kansas Contractors Association executive vice president Bob Totten says the report didn’t take into account consequences of recent postponement of funds for maintenance and construction projects in response to budget issues.
Click below to listen to Tiger Talk with “Voice of the Tigers” Gerard Wellbrock and Fort Hays State head football coach Chris Brown. Tiger Talk airs Monday’s at 6pm on Tiger Radio Mix-103.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man has been charged in a shooting that injured seven people in Kansas City’s Westport entertainment district.
Twenty-nine-year-old Kelvin Clark, of Kansas City, Kansas, faces seven counts each of assault and armed criminal action. His bond is set at $250,000. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
Court documents say a man was knocked down by a vehicle early Sunday. Surveillance video from after the collision shows two people inside of the vehicle shooting toward the downed man and a crowd.
Police said in a news release that the suspects’ vehicle then drove at responding officers before crashing. The release says an officer fired at the vehicle, but no one was struck by that gunfire. Police said the most seriously wounded victim was in critical condition.
The next exhibition at the Deines Cultural Center, Selected Works from Friday Art Factory, opens Friday, September 16.
David Friday was born in McPherson, and moved to Russell in 1967 where he attended Russell High School. After graduating, he attended Wichita State University. Friday has been painting since high school. He taught himself how to paint by copying Picasso and other favorite artists. His first solo exhibition was in 1975 at McPherson College.
After living in San Diego, Austin, Wichita, and Albuquerque, Friday returned to Kansas and recently settled back in Russell and has a new barbershop/art studio on Wichita Ave.
Friday paints every day and posts his work on Facebook. Follow him @ DAVID FRIDAY-FRIDAY ART FACTORY.
Please join us at the opening reception for David Friday’s show Friday, September 16 from 5-7 pm. His work will be on exhibition at the Deines until October 9th, 2016.
The galleries are open Tuesday through Friday noon to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 1-5 p.m. Admission is free and all are welcome. Call (785) 483-3742 for information.
There are two meanings to “filthy rich.” One refers to making a ton of money. The other is the “filth” that takes place on how money is made.
Donald Trump got filthy rich through his own private resources. Contrast that with Hillary Clinton if you will.
How did Hillary (and Bill) amass a fortune? There’s a huge difference between presidential candidates Trump and Hillary, not mentioned clearly by media.
Trump’s business is a private enterprise, not a public one as with the Clintons. The Clintons became multi millionaires using public resources. They got rich at your expense and mine as taxpayers. Hillary had access to a treasure trove of your tax money and mine.
The Clinton Foundation scam was bribery on both ends. “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” It was more like promiscuous massages, figuratively speaking. Hillary, through the State Department as Secretary of State, pretty much said donate to the CF and I will return the favor, in some way, through U.S. government.
A good case can be made the Clinton Foundation may be the biggest scam of public monies in the history of this country. How would you like to have government contracts, ambassador appointments, U.S. arms shipments, etc. at your fingertips in order to take in private donations? What a scheme! Rogue nations and even some felons were participants during Hillary’s time as Secretary of State.
If you or I gave, let’s say, a hundred dollars to a charitable organization wouldn’t we expect more than ten dollars (10%) to go to charity per se? Some agencies that oversee charitable organizations don’t even recognize CF as charity. Most of the CF money goes for administrative expenses such as office space and equipment, high class travel, over night stays, six figure salaries, etc., even “lawyering up.” To say, as in the case of a recent local editorial, that the CF does great things as a charitable organization is a stretch of the worst kind.
Lots of the money going into the CF is used by the Clintons for their own personal use, even as we speak. On top of CF donations, they became multimillionaires in a few short years giving speeches in return for favors. Bill, in one case, got three quarters of a million dollars for one speech! What? Only God could give a speech worth that much! Hillary gave a number of 20-minute speeches for a quarter of a million dollars each.
How is it done in a multitude of cases? Read best seller author Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash.” You darn right the dots can be connected. You darn right there is more than smoke in this huge scandal. There is fire! Enormous research went into writing this book and everything is documented.
Hillary’s private email server was primarily for one purpose and that was to hide how the State Department and Clinton Foundation were connected at the hip in a massive scheme to line the pockets of the Clintons personally. It was all about concealment, lack of transparency, and no accountability to we the people.
Hillary’s private email server was, for a fact, a criminal enterprise. Just because the FBI didn’t make it illegal doesn’t make it so. She’s guilty as sin. FBI Director James Comey clearly is in on the take. He is corrupt, as is Attorney General Loretta Lynch of the Dept. of Justice. The State Dept. was complicit in what Hillary was doing, and President Obama could care less what she did in as much as he wants her to take his place and continue with his agendas. They are all in it together.
As things look right now, half the country could care less about how corrupt our government and the Clintons have become. We all know people that have moral values, but for inexplicable reasons plan to vote for crooked Hillary anyway. What does that say about what this country has become? We went from a Christian one to a secular one.
As I said in several previous Reader Forum letters, the bombshells of this scandal may be so very big our greatest fears of a corrupt presidential candidate taking over the most powerful office in the world just might be dead in the water.
USGS image location of Saturday Sept. 3 earthquake
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — State and federal regulators say 32 disposal wells in northeastern Oklahoma must shut down because they are too near a newly discovered fault line that produced the state’s strongest earthquake on record.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission said Monday that 27 wells under its jurisdiction would cease operations, along with five wells in Osage County, which is covered by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules.
A magnitude 5.8 quake at Pawnee, Oklahoma, on Sept. 3 shook several states, including Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. Shortly afterward, geologists speculated on whether the temblor occurred on a previously unknown fault.
In a standard energy field practice, wastewater from oil and gas production is injected deep into the earth. The high pressure has been blamed for triggering an increase in earthquakes.
Regulators shuttered wells within 10 miles of the new fault.
Front row, from left: Firefighter Brandon Woods, Firefighter Greg May and Firefighter Justin Choitz. Back row, from left: Firefighter Allison Friesen, Captain Kirk Klein, Firefighter Brandon Zimmerman and Firefighter Tim Detrixhe.
HFD
On Saturday, Sept. 10, a team of seven City of Hays firefighters participated in the Wichita 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. The 9/11 Stair Climb honors the 343 New York City firefighters who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.
Held in the 22-story Epic Center, 343 firefighters climbed the stairs five times to equal the 110 stories of the WTC Twin Towers. The firefighters climbed wearing full firefighting gear and carrying hose and tools to replicate the climb of the NYC firefighters on that fateful day. Each participating firefighter is assigned to climb for a specific NYC firefighter killed in the attack. For more information on the Wichita 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, click HERE.
The City of Hays firefighters who participated included Captain Kirk Klein, Firefighter Brandon Zimmerman, Firefighter Tim Detrixhe, Firefighter Brandon Woods, Firefighter Greg May, Firefighter Allison Friesen and Firefighter Justin Choitz. Firefighter Detrixhe organized the Hays firefighters’ participation in this event. This is the second year Choitz and Detrixhe completed the Wichita Memorial climb.
On Sunday, Sept. 11, Choitz completed the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in Denver. This is the fourth year that he has participated in this memorial as one of the 343 climbing firefighters.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Four months after the federal government gave up a court fight to keep the lesser prairie chicken on the endangered species list, environmentalists say there’s new evidence that warrants listing the bird again.
DCC
