FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. (AP) — One of the largest conservative groups in the country isn’t promoting the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump as its activists go door to door interacting with voters.
Americans for Prosperity — the best-known group financed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch — has more than 1,200 employees spread across the country.
Four years ago, that group spent heavily in an effort to prevent President Barack Obama’s second term.
This time they’re spending about $250 million on policy and politics in the two years leading to Election Day. But they’re focusing on saving the Republican-led Senate.
The brothers and many of their wealthy donor friends who fund the political and policy groups known as “the Koch network” have no interest in backing Trump.
President delivering remarks on education Monday in DC
KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says changes made to demand more from teachers and students are paying off as high school graduation rates have reached a record high of 83.2 percent.
On Monday, Obama spoke at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C., where graduation rates jumped the highest in the country for the 2014-2015 school year.
Obama told students they can accomplish whatever they want in their lives, but he’s also emphasizing that a high school education isn’t enough. He says the students are going to have to find jobs in a global economy and that they will be competing against students from China and India for jobs.
The increasing graduation rates, however, come against a backdrop of decreasing test scores for students on national math and reading tests.
Click below to listen to Tiger Talk with “Voice of the Tigers” Gerard Wellbrock and Fort Hays State head football coach Chris Brown as they review Saturday’s loss at Washburn and take a look ahead to this Saturday’s home game against Washburn.
Tiger Talk airs on Monday evening at 6 p.m. on Tiger Radio Mix-103.
GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) – The Big 12 Conference has decided against expansion from its current 10 members.
The announcement came after a six-hour meeting Monday with the conference’s university presidents and Commissioner Bob Bowlsby.
The Big 12 has been analyzing expansion options for the last three months, but it never made a commitment to expand.
Conference officials held interviews in September with Air Force and Colorado State from the Mountain West; Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, South Florida, SMU and Tulane from the American Athletic Conference; and BYU, which is a football independent with its other sports in the West Coast Conference.
PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas man is accused of fatally shooting a motorist from Texas during what authorities described as a road rage confrontation in Missouri.
Prosecutors in Missouri’s Platte County near Kansas City charged 22-year-old Bobby Crumpton of Wichita with second-degree murder in the Friday night death of Clinton Alsobrook.
Authorities say they found 35-year-old Alsobrook of Charlotte, Texas, dead and unarmed in his bullet-riddled sport utility vehicle Friday night. The vehicle was lodged on an embankment, its engine running.
Court records allege Crumpton told police Alsobrook hit his vehicle, forcing both vehicles off the road. Crumpton allegedly said he feared for his life when he fired after Alsobrook tried to drive toward him.
Online court records Monday didn’t show whether Crumpton has an attorney. His bond was set at $100,000.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback isn’t ruling out a tax increase next year to balance the state budget even though he thinks it would be harmful to raise taxes with agriculture in a slump.
Brownback had a Statehouse news conference Monday to tout what he sees as several successes that include highway projects and a reading program for struggling third-graders.
Income tax cuts championed by the Republican governor have become a key issue in legislative races as Kansas has struggled to balance its budget.
Brownback says Kansas is facing a “rural recession” because of slumps in agriculture and energy production. He said a big tax increase would be “very harmful.”
But asked whether he would rule out a tax increase, he said, “I’m not ruling anything in or out.”
Oct. 6 marked the dedication of the first byway to exclusively celebrate agriculture in this country. Located in far western Kansas and named the “Land and Sky” scenic byway, it follows Highway 27 through Wallace, Sherman and Cheyenne counties.
The Land and Sky scenic byway stretches 88 miles from Wallace County to Cheyenne County. This byway consists mainly of crops, livestock and pasture and showcases Kansas agriculture.
Since our state’s beginning, farming and ranching have played a major role in the Kansas economy, it’s communities, culture, heritage and people. Today, agriculture remains the state’s largest industry, economic driver and employer.
Farming and ranching accounts for approximately 20 percent of the state’s GDP and directly employs approximately 17 percent of the Kansas labor force, or nearly one in five jobs. Kansas remains a national leader in wheat, grain sorghum and beef production.
“Agriculture is an exciting, dynamic industry,” says Robin Jennison, Kansas secretary of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism. Jennison helped cut the ribbon and spoke to those attending the Land and Sky dedication. His family has farmed in Lane County since 1887.
Farming and ranching is something to celebrate and be proud of in Kansas,” Jennison says. “Kansas agriculture is exciting and interesting and people who visit our great state and northwestern Kansas will have an opportunity to experience this rich and diversified culture.”
Nearly 100 people attended the events and tour during the first week of October. Wallace County hosted the first day of the dedication with a celebration and tour of the Fort Wallace Museum. That evening nearly 75 people traveled to Mount Sunflower to view the stars and identify the constellations after sunset.
In case you don’t know, Mount Sunflower is the highest point in Kansas with an elevation of 4,039 feet above sea level. Mount Sunflower is located on the Harold Family Ranch.
With no disruption from earthly light, the stars appeared like countless pinpricks in the pitch-black sky and provided a mesmerizing panorama overhead.
The next day began at Smoky Gardens south of Goodland and finished in St. Francis. At Smoky Gardens, attendees heard from Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame historians Gary and Margaret Kraisinger.
A chuck wagon lunch, complete with piping hot beef and vegetable stew, warmed the visitors who braved the brisk northerly winds at the Sherman County Fairgrounds.
After lunch the tour moved to the Arikaree Breaks. This area of extremely rough terrain with its deep ravines and gullies offers a marked contrast to the plains generally associated with this area of northwestern Kansas. The tour ended with some guests touring the new motorcycle museum in downtown St. Francis.
Oct. 5-6 provided a day chock full of events and gave visitors the opportunity to experience what the Land and Sky byway offers. More importantly, it included a panoramic patchwork of crops including corn, milo, soybeans and sunflowers decked out in brown, red and yellow.
This vibrant, ever-changing landscape serves up a different assortment of crops and colors throughout the year providing travelers a chance to see a different look throughout the seasons. During the springtime, when the wheat crop looks like a great green carpet, visitors travelling through often ask, “why are these lawns out here with no houses or people?”
With the new byway in place, these visitors will learn the answer to this question and more about the land and crops. Travelling through western Kansas will also afford a chance to experience the culture and heritage of the people who call this country home.
Thousands of acres of rolling hills, valleys, canyons and ravines showcase this scenery. Future plans include turn-outs and interpretive signs that will further enhance the learning experience.
The people who live, work and raise their families in Wallace, Sherman and Cheyenne counties hope visitors will come see their rural lifestyle and enjoy the experience of living in farm and ranch county. Who knows, some may like it well enough to move to this region of land and sky in western Kansas.
John Schlageck, Hoxie, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
OSAGE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Osage County are investigating suspects for hunting violations.
Following a citizen’s report of illegal shooting from a rural road, Kansas Game Warden responded and located the suspect’s vehicle in a nearby county, according to a social media report.
The wardens found two deer allegedly killed by the hunters, who were from the local area, according to KDWP&T Captain Dan Melson
They warden confiscated the guns and issued citations.
Charges against the hunters and the amount of the fine were not released.
Gavin Wright, Curtis Allen and Patrick Stein were arrested on Friday and charged with domestic terrorism
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the arrest of three men accused of plotting to attack Somali immigrants in Kansas (all times local):
2 p.m.
The family of one of three men accused of plotting to attack Somali immigrants in western Kansas says they are “extremely grateful” to law enforcement for intervening.
Patrick Eugene Stein’s family issued a statement Monday through their lawyer, Dan Monnat, saying they were shocked and devastated to learn of the alleged plot. They say they do “not support discrimination of any sort and have never advocated or condoned violence as a solution to differences.”
Prosecutors allege that Stein, Curtis Wayne Allen and Gavin Wayne Wright were part of an anti-Muslim, anti-government and anti-immigrant militia group called “the Crusaders” and that they were planning to detonate truck bombs around a small Garden City apartment complex where about 120 Somalis live.
The trio are accused of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. They appeared in court earlier Monday and were appointed lawyers, who later declined to comment.
Phillipsburg resident Frances E. Cote passed away Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016 at the Hays Medical Center in Hays, KS at the age of 69.
She was born October 31, 1946 in Ottawa, Illinois the daughter of Leo & Josephine (Hanley) Kerrins.
Frances was united in marriage to Ralph J. Cote on April 15, 1967 in Kankakee, Illinois. He survives.
Other survivors include her two daughters, Shelly Cote & Kelly Cote, both of Phillipsburg, her son, Thomas Cote of Amarillo, TX; ½ sister, Kathy Deminsky of Pheonix, AZ; 8 grandchildren; & 8 great grandchildren.
Cremation was planned. Memorial services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, October 20, 2016 in the First Christian Church, Phillipsburg, with Pastor LeRoy Herder officiating.
Friends may sign the book from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 at the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, with family receiving friends for visitation from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. that evening.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Fresenius Dialysis Center of Hays. Online condolences may be left at www.olliffboeve.com.
The Hays USD 489 Board of Education will hear from three architectural firms during a special board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th.
Early last month, the board and district administration outlined numerous steps that needed to take place in order to address facility needs throughout the district.
The board rested on four courses of action in September that would allow USD 489 to make a plan that would address the district’s aging infrastructure. District officials say much of that infrastructure has served past its normal life expectancy. Proposed plans also aim for creating safer schools and providing space for educational programs that allow students to be college and career ready.
One of those courses of action is a change in an architecture firm.
The board will meet with three separate architectural firms tonight. All three firms have worked with school districts in western Kansas and are experienced in successfully completing bond-funded school building construction projects.
Hollis and Miller Architects, Overland Park, is the first firm that will present in front of the board. They will be followed by Wichita-based Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey Architecture and DRL Group, which is based in Colorado Springs and Overland Park.
Brian Newby is now executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission- photo U.S. Election Assistance Commission
ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Emails obtained by The Associated Press show a top U.S. elections official left behind an unfolding scandal in Kansas where he was having an affair with a woman he promoted in his previous job and used her to skirt oversight of their lavish expenses.
Brian Newby is now executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The affair and much of the fallout at the Johnson County elections office where he previously worked are revealed in emails ordered released after AP sued Johnson County.
Those emails and hundreds more AP obtained from the Kansas secretary of state’s office through a separate open records request show a toxic workplace whose finances prompted an investigation by a local prosecutor.
Newby did not respond to numerous messages seeking comment.
