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.
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Court of Appeals has ordered that an Emporia man be tried in the shooting of his brother, reversing a lower court’s decision ruling that he was protected from prosecution by the state’s self-defense law.
The court’s ruling last week reverses a Lyon County District Court decision in May 2015 dismissing an attempted voluntary manslaughter charge against Sony Uk.
Prosecutors say Uk shot his brother, Viseth Ear, because Ear was attacking their mother.
The appeals court ruled that no evidence existed that Uk knew his mother was facing imminent death or great bodily harm, which is required under Kansas’ “stand your ground” law.
Two judges noted that Ear stopped hitting his mother after one shot was fired but Uk fired again.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two Missouri men charged in the kidnapping and rape of a Kansas sheriff’s deputy may have attacked others.
Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe said Wednesday that he hopes more victims will come forward now that 24-year-old William Luth and 21-year-old Brady Newman-Caddell are in custody. They are jailed on $1 million bond on charges of rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sodomy. Court records don’t list attorneys to speak on behalf of the men.
If you know someone who is a potential victim of our kidnapping and rape suspects, please call @JOCOSHERIFF at 913-782-0720 or 816-474-TIPS https://t.co/RnEJldCR2g
Howe declined to explain why authorities believe there may be more victims.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department has said that the deputy wasn’t in uniform when she was abducted Friday from the parking lot of the detention center in Olathe, Kansas. She was released about two hours later in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
THOMAS COUNTY – One person was injured in an accident just after 2p.m. on Wednesday in Thomas County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Toyota Tacoma driven by Thomas Lee White, 44, Lanexa, VA., was traveling on Interstate 70 near the County Road K exit.
The SUV traveled from the passing into the driving lane and rear-ended a 2013 Dodge Ram 1500 driven by Amy Leigh Hanchett, 39, Phillipsburg.
White was transported to the hospital in Colby.
Hanchett was not injured.
Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Longtime Brewster, Kansas, resident Frances L. Jones, 94, passed away at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, Kansas on October 10, 2016.
Frances was born on September 13, 1922 in Talmage, Kansas to Andrew K. and Sara Ellen (Greenough) Stoner. She was one of 6 children. She grew up in the Edson area and attended Edson Consolidated School. She graduated in 1940 and was the Valedictorian of her class.
On October 24, 1943, Frances married Floyd Irl Jones in Goodland, and to this union four children; Tamara, Paula, Anita and Sheila were born.
Frances spent her life helping her husband out around the home as a housewife and was a dealer of Stanley and Fuller Products. She was a member of the Pleasant Home Church north of Edson.
She was a 4-H leader for quite a few years. She loved to do crafts and still was doing them up until she died. She was an avid gardener delighting family and friends with corn, tomatoes, and other vegetables. She continued to delight friends and family with homemade gifts.
Preceding Frances in death were her parents Andrew and Sara Stoner, her Husband Floyd Irl Jones, two brothers Melvin and James Stoner, two sisters Irene Phillips and Gertrude Carroll, and a son-in-law Jerry Shirley.
She is survived by her children Tamara (Tom) Mapes of Topeka, KS, Paula (Charlie) Webb of Wichita, KS, Anita (Charlie) McKee of Wetmore, KS and Sheila Shirley of Pflugerville, TX. She is also survived by one sister Eva (Verne) Quevli of Sun Lakes, AZ; 6 grandchildren; Carl (Donna) Albers of Commerce City, CO, Kevin (Debra) Mapes of Topeka, KS, Mark (Jessica) Webb of Rushville, MO, Lenora (Chris) Biggs of Wichita, KS, Marta (Nathan) McClung of Independence, MO and Tessa (Brian) Chipman of Olathe, KS; 9 great grandchildren; Alex and Allie Mapes, Aidan Webb, Makenna and Brynlee Biggs, Molly and Miles McClung, and Caleb and Hannah Chipman.
Funeral services will be held on Friday, October 14, 2016 at 10:30 AM MT, at the Pleasant Home Church north of Edson with Pastor Perry Baird officiating. Burial will follow in the Brewster Cemetery, Brewster, KS.
Visitation will be held on Thursday, October 13, 2016 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM MT, at the Koons-Russell Funeral Home in Goodland.
Memorials may be designated to the Pleasant Home Church and may be left at the service or sent to Koons-Russell Funeral Home, 211 N. Main St., Goodland, Kansas 67735-1555.
A Memorial Service will also be held in Topeka, Kansas, at Lexington Park Independent Living Center at 1011 SW Cottonwood Ct. on Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 1:30 PM.
Online condolences may be left at koonsfuneralhome.com.
Funeral arrangements were entrusted to the Koons-Russell Funeral Home, Goodland, Kansas.
NEWTON – The Awards Committee of the Kansas Sheriffs Association has selected Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton and Wallace County Sheriff Larry Townsend to both receive the Sheriff of the Year Award for 2016, according to a media release.
Sheriff Walton was nominated in part because of the Hesston tragedy at Excel Industries.
As Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn stated in nominating Sheriff Walton “Sheriff Walton conducted himself in the highest traditions of a Kansas Sheriff and lawman exhibiting extreme courage and professionalism in the face of extreme danger and tremendous challenges.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston has been cleared to resume football activity for the first time since having surgery to repair the ACL in his left knee in February.
Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said Wednesday that Houston visited Dr. James Andrews on Oct. 3, the day after a loss in Pittsburgh, and was given clearance to do football-related workouts.
The Chiefs were off last week.
Houston cannot be removed from the physically unable to perform list until next week, so the four-time Pro Bowl linebacker must continue to do his workouts away from the rest of the team.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he will evaluate Houston on a day-by-day basis, but acknowledged he could join practices next week. There still is no timetable for his return to games.
Portion of Tucker Road closed northeast of Liberal for a police investigation.
SEWARD COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are on the scene of an investigation in Seward County.
A portion of Tucker Road from Millwood Circle to Country Estates Road Northeast of Liberal is closed due to the investigation, according to Police Captain Patrick McClurg.
Authorities were not releasing additional details early Wednesday afternoon and there is no timetable to reopen the road, according McClurg.
