STOCKHOLM (AP) Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature.
It was a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award on a musician for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
Reporters and others gathered at the Swedish Academy’s headquarters in Stockholm’s Old Town reacted with a loud cheer as his name was read out.
The 75-year-old Dylan is arguably the most iconic poet-musician of his generation. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin'” became anthems for the U.S. anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. His impact on popular culture was immense.
But although he had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, many experts had ruled him out, thinking the academy wouldn’t extend its more than a century-old award to the world of music.
Dylan is the first American winner of the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.
The HaysMed Birthing Center will host Remembering Together Remembrance Walk on Sunday, Oct. 16. Participants are asked to meet in Hadley Room 2 at HaysMed at 2 p.m.
The group will be walking on the fitness trail so please dress for appropriate weather conditions. This special service is for anyone who has experienced a loss through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss.
In this presidential election cycle, has part of America become morally bankrupt?
I think I can make the case that it sure seems like that is happening.
Both political parties appear to be guilty. I believe, however, looking at the big picture, one is far worse than the other and maybe some other writer can present the other side. If somebody does, I challenge whomever to show where the level of immorality is the same.
Surely by now, readers are aware Wikileaks hacked emails prove the Democrat National Committee (DNC) was corrupt in selecting Hillary as its nominee. From the very start of campaigning, Bernie Sanders had absolutely no way of being the Democrat’s choice. The process was corrupted from the get go by the party’s most important central governing body.
Corruption equals immorality, and it is massive in our present Obama administration and will even be worse should Hillary become president.
Isn’t it interesting that Republicans are held to a whole different standard than Democrats? The whole world came unglued recently about Trump’s crude and sexist remarks 11 years ago. Yet, Hillary and Obama can say and do anything. And then there is husband Bill Clinton, the most popular Dem ever, even as a sexual predator who lied under oath as our sitting president.
There is a huge contrast, obviously, between the two parties in many ways. Many Republicans are jumping ship over Trump’s so-called non-presidential behavior. Do you see any Dems jumping ship over multiple Obama and Hillary scandals? Both have lied and betrayed Americans, but it makes no difference to their voters.
A synonym for moral is the word “trustworthy.” Every two out of three voters (including Democrats) consider her to be “untrustworthy” yet many will vote for her. The word “unconscionable” comes to mind and what does that say about this country’s moral principles?
According to Hillary and company, Republicans are racist, homophobes, Islamophobes, sexists, even bigots. It’s in their playbook to call Republicans names. Demonizing by painting with a broad brush is non-Christian but whom on the left cares?
Hillary also said recently that half of Trump’s supporters were deplorable and irredeemable. A person that I grew up with, now lives north of Hays, says I am all of those things just listed.
Studies show that Reps are more likely to attend church regularly and more likely to donate to charity. Perhaps most important of all a majority are pro life. Taking the life of defenseless unborn babies through abortion doesn’t seem to be a problem for most Dems, yet they have the gall to call us names.
Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine claims to be a devout Catholic but accepts abortion like any other liberal Democrat. A bishop called him out recently stating you can not be a good Catholic and support abortion. Our present VP Joe Biden is no different than Kaine.
Isn’t it the Republicans on the right that are called the moral majority or the Christian religious right, even Bible thumping people? Is there something wrong with that? Not to me. Dems on the left are known as secularists and are opposed to religion being any part of politics or government.
Hollywood, where anything is acceptable, supports Hillary big time. What these days we call entertainment on the screen makes Trump’s remarks look like just another walk in the park, so to speak.
Never mentioned by media, but the many communist (atheistic) U.S. organizations are all Hillary supporters. God help us, even teachers’ unions have become liberal and progressive and all that goes with that like free condoms for young children.
Where on God’s green earth is it better to be dependent on government handouts (welfare) than to take personal responsibility by working? It’s immoral for government to deliberately keep people poor and dependent on welfare in order to get votes. Obviously, Dems aren’t really for the poor or the war on poverty would not be a failure.
At this point in my writing, I have a huge question. Is it moral to distort, even lie, about a presidential candidate just because he is on the Republican ticket? And, there are also sins of omission ignoring scandals and corruption by one candidate while making mountains out of mole hills in the case of the other candidate. Enter – corrupt media!
Mainstream liberal media in this country has lost all integrity. A corrupt media is backing a corrupt candidate and not even trying to hide their bias.
There’s evidence of collusion between TV networks involved in the debates and Hillary. Mainstream media, whether TV, newspapers, Facebook, Google, Univision, etc. intends to choose our president, not we the people. For god’s sake, how is a Republican supposed to win an election with most media, Hollywood, even higher education all acting as an arm of the Democrat Party?
Liberal media is flat out determined to take out any Republican president no matter who it is, even if it was Mother Teresa. Trump (like Mitt Romney) is being demonized like you wouldn’t believe.
In as much as it appears we have gone off the deep end morally in choosing our next president, I predict voter fraud like never before in American history. There will be dead people voting, people voting multiple times and in different states, even non citizens voting. There will probably be technical glitches in counting ballots like never before.
Nothing will be left to chance. Every effort will be made to put Hillary back in the White House, not as the First Lady, but as the most powerful person in the world.
There will be hell to pay if we don’t get it right. Some will think I make that statement figuratively speaking, others may take it literally. At any rate, if we don’t get it right, America could be changed forever in ways that our children and grandchildren will be the ones to suffer the most.
There could be an America beyond recognition as we have known this country to be in the past. It may be now or never culturally – and otherwise.
Maybe, for those of us on the religious right, what’s needed, considering the odds with massive corruption, is divine intervention.
RENO COUNTY – A Kansas woman was jailed Tuesday after police served a search warrant on a home in the 1100 block of East 9th Street in Hutchinson, according to the police arrest report.
The warrant was to search for alleged stolen items from motorcycles.
Police allegedly found a motorcycle helmet. While inside the residence, they also allegedly found drugs in what they say is a seller’s quantity and obtained a second search warrant.
Jacqueline Lois Jurgens, 28, was arrested for distribution of methamphetamine and brown tar heroin.
Other charges include possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, personal use drug paraphernalia and no tax stamp. They allegedly found the drugs, around 2 grams that field-tested for methamphetamine as well as some pipes and baggies used to package.
One of the pipes allegedly had burned marijuana inside.
This allegedly occurred within a thousand feet of a McCandles Elementary School.
In court, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen stated from the affidavit that Jurgens might have admitted to police that she had sold drugs and may have been doing so for sometime.
Jurgens requested a bond reduction, which was denied. She’ll be back in court on Oct. 18, to see if the state has filed formal charges.
Governor Brownback, Senator Pat Riley help open the the hospital at Fort Riley
FORT RILEY -The new hospital at Fort Riley represents this country’s commitment to the health of our warriors, both past and present.
Those were the sentiments of Brigadier William “Bill” Turner, the Deputy Commanding General of the 1st Infantry Division, during the ribbon cutting for the new Irwin Army Community Hospital at Fort Riley on Wednesday.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without the unwavering support and dedication of our local, state and national leaders as well as the hard work and perseverance exhibited by the engineers, contractors and hospital staff.”
The long delayed hospital project has finally been completed, with the facility opening to provide services next week.
Hospital Commander Colonel John Melton said, “This shapes who we are. It is what makes us an Army hospital. Ours is a solemn duty to fulfill the sacred trust, to care for those who wear and have worn the uniform and their families.”
A large audience of hospital employees, community members and elected officials including Senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts plus Governor Sam Brownback were in attendance for the ribbon cutting, and the five-story building was opened up to tours afterward.
I’m so proud to see @FortRiley‘s Irwin Hospital opening for our service members, their families & veterans after so many years of effort. pic.twitter.com/TgXmgjbMMW
Some of the building details included a four-bed triage that is expected to serve about 3,000 patients per year, labor and delivery area that will serve about 900 births per year, and the facility has more than 1,400 parking spaces including 572 for patient parking.
WICHITA– A Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy was booked into jail Wednesday afternoon on one count of battery-domestic violence, according to a media release.
The arrest is the result of a disturbance at the deputy’s home earlier in the day.
Kansas Law restricts the release of information that may identify the victim of domestic violence, neither the name of the victim nor the deputy was released.
A criminal investigation is underway and the results of the investigation will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for charges.
In addition to the criminal case, an investigation is also being conducted by the Professional Standards Unit of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are harvesting what are expected to be record corn and soybean crops.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Wednesday that the 713 million bushels of corn forecast in Kansas is a 23 percent increase compared to last year’s production.
Kansas is harvesting corn from 4.85 million acres this season, up 24 percent from last year’s acreage. Average corn yields are down a bushel to 147 bushels per acre.
The agency is also projecting a record soybean production of 180 million bushels in Kansas. That is up 21 percent more than last year.
Sorghum production is forecast at 264 million bushels, down 6 percent from a year ago. Kansas growers planted fewer acres of sorghum, but the sorghum yield is still forecast at a record 91 bushels per acre.
MANHATTAN — The American Royal Association’s World Series of Barbeque is a longstanding tradition in Kansas City, Mo., but in 2016 the event will take place in Kansas for the first time in its history. The Kansas Department of Agriculture is proud to welcome the annual barbeque competition to the state, and encourages Kansans to attend this unique event.
“We are thrilled to host our World Series of Barbeque for the first time in Kansas,” said Lynn Parman, President and CEO of the American Royal Association. “We are expecting 600 teams from around the world and 50,000 people to attend this exciting weekend at the Kansas Speedway.”
The 37th annual American Royal barbeque presented by Smithfield will be held on Oct. 26-30 on the infield of the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. The event is the finale of the competitive barbeque season, and will feature more than 600 teams. The public is encouraged to attend the Friday, Oct. 28, event which features marketplace vendors, BBQ vendors, food, beverages and more from 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., including entertainment from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 29, the Cowtown Family Fun Fest is a kid-friendly barbeque festival featuring a variety of activities including inflatables, face painters, a petting zoo, pony rides and stage entertainment from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The American Royal’s World Series of Barbeque is organized and hosted by the American Royal Association, a not-for-profit corporation that has been a Kansas City tradition since 1899. The competition is just one of many events and activities put on by the Royal during its fall season that helps support its mission of championing agriculture excellence while providing scholarships and education opportunities.
Information about the American Royal BBQ, including how to purchase tickets for both events, as well as other special events, can be found at americanroyal.com/bbq.
Historic Fox Stone Arch Bridge-photo courtesy Cowley County
DEXTER, Kan. (AP) — Kansas floodwaters have destroyed an historic stone bridge in Cowley County.
The Wichita Eagle reports that flooding over the weekend caused the 105-year-old Fox Bridge over Grouse Creek to collapse.
The county says on its Facebook page that the bridge was weakened by the creek’s cresting over it and heavy currents slamming against it.
The area is known for its stone bridges, which were built by Russian and German artisans from around 1890 to 1917. The bridges range from one to three arches.
Steve Tredway, who is working on a book about the stone bridges of Cowley County, says the Fox Bridge was built by Abe Finney. It most likely is the only one he built.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge in Kansas has appointed an Ohio attorney to investigate whether recordings of attorney-client conversations at a for-profit federal prison violated inmates’ constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Tuesday appointed David R. Cohen as special master, or expert, to identify and retain confidential information contained in recordings at the Corrections Corporation of America facility in Leavenworth.
The judge’s order says Cohen’s duties will not include investigating whether federal prosecutors violated any rules or laws by requesting the recordings — at least for now.
The Cleveland attorney recently served as a special master in a Kansas class-action lawsuit against Sprint Nextel Corp.
Public defenders in Kansas and Missouri say recordings of their meetings and phone calls violated their clients’ constitutional right to a fair trial.
Nick Fugate (center) and his parents, Julie and Ron, have been adjusting to life on Kansas’ Medicaid waiting list for the developmentally disabled. ALEX SMITH / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
BY ALEX SMITH
At his apartment in Olathe, Kansas, 42-year-old Nick Fugate catches up on washing dishes and remembers the 22 years he spent doing it at a local hotel, trying to stay on top of a never-ending-stream of plates, glasses and silverware.
Nick recalls minor annoyances like the long days, the hot kitchen and his fingers pruning in the water. It could be tedious, but he says he didn’t really mind.
“Just as long as I got the job done, it was fine,” Nick says.
The job wasn’t glamorous, but Nick’s father Ron Fugate says it was the key to the self-reliance he wanted for his son ever since Nick was born with an intellectual disability.
“From our perspective, having a job, being independent, participating in the community, paying taxes, being a good citizen – that’s a dream parents have for their children in general,” Ron says.
But all of that changed last year when Nick lost his job and did something he’d never done before: He enrolled in Medicaid.
That landed him in a state of limbo, along with thousands of other Kansans.
Savings up in smoke
Not far from Nick’s home, 30-year-old David Lee Hunter and a handful of men at Lake Mary Center in Olathe take apart computers and other electronics for recycling.
Hunter thinks of each piece that passes across his workbench as a unique puzzle.
“I like to improvise, and I like to ask my coworkers for assistance,” Hunter says.
Elsewhere in the building, other individuals with disabilities shred medical documents or get job coaching. Lake Mary also offers services like transportation or help buying groceries.
A few decades ago, many of Lake Mary’s clients might have received Medicaid care as residents of an institution. But in the early 1980s, states began shifting their strategies to allow people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live at home.
Advocates say this was not only much cheaper – about a third of the cost of institutional care – but it provided a vast improvement in the clients’ quality of life.
In many states, however, the first step toward getting these services is signing on to a long waiting list.
That’s what happened when Nick applied for Medicaid. In the months since, he’s had to pay around $1,000 a month out of pocket for Lake Mary’s services.
It’s quickly burning through his life savings.
This years, families like the Fugates and many others in similar situations have been speaking out about the waiting list and other Medicaid problems at public forums like one held in Kansas City, Kansas, in May.
Waiting
In a basement meeting room of the Jack Reardon Convention Center, hundreds of people with disabilities, their families and caseworkers railed against KanCare. Some even heckled the moderator.
The state has been gathering feedback because it needs federal government permission to continue running KanCare, Kansas’ privatized Medicaid system.
In 2013 Republican Gov. Sam Brownback put Medicaid under the management of three private companies, promising it would improve services, cut waste and save enough money to end the lists for the kind of services Nick Fugate needs.
Conservatives loved the plan, but developmental disability families were less happy. They didn’t trust the companies to provide the complicated help their loved ones needed. They managed to get the federal government to delay the switchover, but in February 2014 the feds gave their approval and the KanCare experiment began.
Two-and-a-half years in, many families say they’ve seen few signs of improvement, particularly in the waiting list.
Not only is there still a waiting list, it’s grown by a few hundred to about 3,500 people.
Except in emergency situations, the average wait is seven years.
Complicated cases
An end to the list remains in view, insists Brandt Haehn, commissioner for Home and Community Based Services, part of the agency that oversees KanCare, the Department of Aging and Disability Services.
“I think everybody in the system is doing the best job they can do to provide the people services,” Haehn says.
In August, the department announced it had eliminated a different waiting list – the one for physical disability services.
Although that claim has been challenged by advocates, state officials say it shows KanCare can get results.
Haehn, however, acknowledges that developmental disability cases are more expensive and complicated, and it will take time to come up with the state’s share of the total cost of $2.6 billion – about $1.5 billion – needed to eliminate the waiting list through 2025.
“Nothing would make me happier than to write a check and give all these people services, but that’s just not reality,” Haehn says. “So I have to deal with what reality is and try to use the money that I have to effect positive change in the most amount of people.”
Still waiting
Ron Fugate says KanCare had its chance.
“We’re not treading water; we’re drowning,” Fugate says. “And it’s not getting any better. We’ve got to start taking some serious action on this and get it addressed. We’ve kicked the can down the road too long.”
The Department of Justice is investigating the waiting lists, although it declined to comment for this story.
The state’s ability to act may be limited. Brownback’s tax cuts, which were supposed to boost the economy, have blown a huge hole in the state’s budget, leaving little money to apply to something like a Medicaid waiting list.
Meanwhile, Nick Fugate is still waiting.
His parents Ron and Julie are in their 70s, and they say they’re now watching their carefully laid plans for their son’s future slip away.
“After 22 years, it looked like he was going to be able to complete a career, and it didn’t happen that way. And so all of this comes at a time in our lives where we’re in the waning seasons of our life, and we did not anticipate this kind of a challenge at this point.”
Alex Smith is a reporter for the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR
RILEY COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 2p.m. on Wednesday in Riley County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 International semi driven by Dale Taylor, 57, Junction City, was southbound on U.S. 77 a mile north of U.S. 24.
The semi crossed centerline and struck a northbound semi, left the roadway into the east ditch and came to rest at bottom of an embankment.
Taylor was transported to the hospital in Manhattan.
The other driver Daryl Langvardt, 67, Clay Center, was not injured.
Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
STOCKHOLM (AP) Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature.
