Not able to make it to the 2016 FHSU Homecoming parade? Just want to relive the moment or see if you can spot a familiar face?
Check out Eagle TV’s replay of the annual event below!
Year: 2016
Kids and Cars: 48% increase of child heatstroke deaths in cars
Kids and Cars
Summer is over, yet another child died in a hot car last week in Salisbury, NC. These tragedies will continue to happen at an alarming rate until driver reminder technology is available in all vehicles. The biggest challenge; nobody thinks this could ever happen to them.
On September 15, 2016 U.S. Rep Tim Ryan (OH), Peter King (NY) and Jan Schakowsky (IL) introduced the Helping Overcome Trauma for Children Alone in Rear Seats Act (HOT CARS Act of 2016, H.R. 6041). This critical piece of legislation will help prevent children from being needlessly killed or injured when left alone in a vehicle. This bi-partisan effort has already received widespread support from more than 20 of the nation’s leading public health, consumer and safety organizations, an expert in neuroscience and the brain memory system, along with families who have been devastated by a similar tragedy.
It has been three weeks since the introduction of the HOT CARS Act, and subsequently 8 more families are suffering the unthinkable loss of a child.
Please work with us to continue to raise awareness and prevent these deaths utilizing our proactive ‘Look Before You Lock’ program while we work towards a technological solution.
Look Before You Lock Safety Checklist
- Make sure your child is never left behind in the back seat of a car.
- Make it a routine to open the back door of your car every time you park to check that no one has been left behind.
- Put something in the back seat to remind you to open the back door every time you park – cell phone, employee badge, handbag, etc.
- Keep a stuffed animal in baby’s car seat. Place it on the front seat as a reminder when baby is in the back seat.
Ask your babysitter or child care provider to call you if your child hasn’t arrived as scheduled. - Make sure children cannot get into a parked car.
- Keep vehicles locked at all times, even in the garage or driveway.
- Keys and remote openers should never be left within reach of children.
- If a child is missing, immediately check the inside and trunk of all vehicles in the area very carefully.
About KidsAndCars.org: Founded in 1996, KidsAndCars.org is the only national nonprofit child safety organization dedicated solely to preventing injuries and deaths of children in and around vehicles. KidAndCars.org promotes awareness among parents, caregivers and the general public about the dangers to children, including backover and frontover incidents, and heat stroke from being unknowingly left in a vehicle. The organization works to prevent tragedies through data collection, education and public awareness, policy change and survivor advocacy.
Kansas seaman killed during Pearl Harbor attack arrives home
HARVEY COUNTY— A Navy seaman’s remains returned to Kansas this weekend, 75 years after he was killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Lewis Lowell Wagoner’s remains were flown Friday to Wichita.
On Saturday, the Patriot Guard and Harvey County Sheriff Deputies escorted Seaman 2nd Class Lewis Lowell Wagoner to his final resting place.
Wagoner was 20 when he was declared missing after the Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack that propelled the United States into World War II.
Wagoner was aboard the USS Oklahoma when it and other U.S. warships were hit by torpedoes.
The battleship Oklahoma capsized quickly. Thirty-two men were rescued, but 14 Marines and 415 sailors were killed and largely were buried as “unknowns” in a Hawaii cemetery.
Many of those remains were disinterred for modern DNA testing that only recently identified Wagoner and roughly 30 others.
– The AP contributed to this report
MADORIN: In praise of wild meat
A fellow hunter recently posted an invite to his and another friend’s 23rd annual wild game feed. We won’t make it this year, but seeing the reminder began a lively conversation at our house. We couldn’t help but talk hunting and its rewards—healthy, delicious meat, friendship, and great stories. That’s what this wild game feed is all about. Longtime companions joined by newcomers share their best recipes and swap tales as an October sun sets over Cedar Bluff.
As a cook, I love arriving at a cabin overlooking steel grey waters, red and sere grasses, and golden cottonwoods to discover counters and tables laden with overflowing pans and platters of meat. Old standards like grilled bacon-wrapped dove breasts or fried pheasant or quail tease nostrils and eyes as guests first arrive. Presentation gets creative. Innovative cooks deliver casseroles of wild turkey tetrazzini and enchiladas for those who like ethnic foods. We’ve had Asian variations and twists on McDonald’s McNuggets. Brave appetites savor rustic offerings like fried chunks of snapping turtle or rattle snake and the occasional mystery meat.
One year, a trapper froze some of his harvest in anticipation of this event. He and his wife marinated and grilled meaty strips for us to sample. A line of folks with empty plates kept him busy at a Traeger preparing second servings. Diners enjoyed debating the source of this food until he eventually told us we’d eaten slivers of bobcat steaks. Once he shared this info, several diners lost their appetites for this dish. I’m guessing they owned house cats. At first, I shared their response until I recollected reading trappers’ journals from the 1800s. Many of these historic writers praised cougar meat over elk or moose. I’d always wondered about this. After trying this smaller cousin of the big cat, I decided these old- timers’ praises had merit.
While native game serves as the focal point of the menu, several cooks specialize in homemade jellies from wild fruits. One of the participants spends time in Montana every summer where he competes with bears to pick gallons of native huckleberries. His jellies and cobblers always get rave revues. Another friend brings her wild grape jelly that she makes in years when she can beat birds to the purple orbs. For those who’ve never tasted this treat, they’re missing out. Others offer chokecherry and wild plum syrups and jellies to slather on homemade rolls and biscuits. No one leaves hungry.
One of the organizers worked with a news writer who also contributed to Saveur foodie magazine. After attending as a guest, he joined us one year specifically to gather information for an article. He’d grown up in eastern Kansas and wasn’t yet a devoted hunter, angler, or wild game cook. After reading his article and seeing that he clearly understood the conservation ethic driving the efforts of these sportsmen, I was glad he shared their story. I hope his essay opened people’s minds about harvesting and preparing wild game.
While food is the focal point of this special event, the shared hunting stories make it memorable. This good friends’ feast weaves our lives together through shared hunting and fishing tales.
Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.
Kansas robbery, kidnapping case delayed after courtroom outburst
HUTCHINSON — A Kansas man facing trial for the armed robbery of Dollar General in Hutchinson in October of last year was found in contempt of court on Friday after an outburst in front of Judge Tim Chambers.
The outburst came during a discussion over an attorney for Leroy Randall, 54, Hutchinson.
His attorney had filed a motion to withdraw because he and Randall had disagreements over how to proceed with the case.
Randall had other attorneys assigned to this case and he told this attorney he might file an ethics complaint against him.
Judge Chambers denied that request and that led to an outburst from Randall accusing his attorney of acting like a prosecutor.
Judge Chambers and the defendant were in a shouting match at one point until deputies removed him from the courtroom.
Judge Chambers indicated that he will set a hearing within the next week or so to see how they will proceed.
Randall may want to represent himself. He is charged with two counts of kidnapping, one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated assault.
Police say a Dollar General employee reporting that she heard a knock at a back door of the business.
Thinking it was the other employee she opened the door and a black male came in the store, stuck a gun in her face and demanded money.
That employee reportedly screamed, causing another employee to come out of the bathroom of the store.
Randall is then alleged to have pointed the gun at him as well. Both testified to what happened and both admitted to being scared. One thought the gunman was going to shoot them. He also made them give him their cell phones.
During the robbery, Randall allegedly got away with over $5,480.
Randall’s female roommate testified that he told her what he was going to do and then after he came back, she watched him count the money. She also admitted that she cut up a stocking cap they he used as the mask in the robbery.
The trial was scheduled to begin next week. Randall remains jailed on a bond of $125,000.
Sign-ups underway for help during Ellis HS Community Service Day
SUBMITTED
ELLIS–Students and staff of Ellis High School won’t be in their classrooms Mon., Oct. 17. Instead, they will be scattered around town participating in the school’s fifth annual Community Service Day and helping those in need.
General cleaning and maintenance projects will be performed by the volunteers during EHS Community Service Day in conjunction with the Ellis City-Wide Cleanup Wed., Oct. 19.
Elderly residents and those who are unable to perform general cleaning or maintenance work and would like help, should contact EHS Principal Corey Burton at (785) 726-3151 or Leonard Schoenberger at (785) 726-1278.
D-Day planning table to be displayed during Eisenhower’s birthday celebration
By SAMANTHA KENNER
Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home
ABILENE – A special display is planned to mark President Eisenhower’s 126th birthday. Beginning Wednesday, Oct. 12 the D-Day Planning Table will be removed from its case and displayed in its entirety including the additional leaves and chairs as well as the original rug. The display will be located in the museum military gallery through Tuesday, Oct. 18. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Visit www.eisenhower.archives.gov for admission details.
Birthday Party, Friday 10/14 – 3:30 p.m.
The public is invited to join the Eisenhower Foundation on Friday, Oct. 14 from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. in the Visitors Center Auditorium in celebration of President Eisenhower’s 126th birthday. The gathering will include Mamie’s sugar cookies and punch.
VFW Vigil, Friday 10/14 – 4:00 p.m.
The VFW will open their annual vigil with a special announcement from the Abilene Post #3279. VFW posts from across the state will stand vigil overnight at the burial site of the President. The public is also encouraged to join this free event occurring in front of the Place of Meditation. There will be a document display showing the special relationship President Eisenhower had with VFW Post #3279.
Wreath Laying Ceremony, Saturday 10/15 – 10:30 a.m.
Saturday events begin with the Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony led by the 1st Infantry Division of Ft. Riley at 10:30 a.m. The procession from the Library building will include a number of dignitaries and proceed to the Place of Meditation for the placement of the wreath.
American Legion Pilgrimage, Saturday 10/15 – 10:45 a.m.
The American Legion Pilgrimage will be held at the center of campus in front of the statue. American Legion Riders Post #240 will provide the rifle salute for the ceremony. Representatives from every post around Kansas will gather to pay their respects to the President. This ceremony is free and open to the public.
Reserved Motorcycle Parking – South Lot
An area in the south parking lot near the Place of Meditation will be designated for motorcycle parking only. A number of veteran riding associations including the American Legion Riders and Combat Vets Motorcycle Association will attend in support of the Saturday events.
Legacy Gala, Saturday 10/15
The theme for this year’s Eisenhower Legacy Gala is Everybody Likes Ike, taken from the 1952 video produced by Walt Disney for Ike’s first presidential campaign. Campaign election memorabilia will be on display during the reception. The evening highlight will be the presentation of the Eisenhower Legacy Awards. This year’s presentation will honor the efforts of Kansas Governor Edward Arn, U.S. Senator Harry Darby, and founder of Hallmark Cards Joyce C. Hall, who were instrumental in securing funding to build the original Eisenhower Museum. Descendants of Governor Arn and Mr. Hall will be in attendance to accept their family member’s Eisenhower Legacy Award.
Another special guest for the evening will be presidential whiz kid, Macey Hensley, from Council Grove, Kan. who has appeared numerous times on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, astounding everyone with her knowledge of U.S. presidents.
This annual, invitation-only event is already sold out. Sponsors for this year’s event include First Bank Kansas and Waddell & Reed, April Barker. For more information on attending or being a sponsor for the 2017 Legacy Gala, please contact the Eisenhower Foundation at (785) 263-6771.
Partly cloudy, breezy Sunday, chance of rain
Partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the lower 70s will be accompanied by breezy, south winds today. There will be a disturbance that moves through the area and there is a chance for showers and thunderstorms tonight into Monday morning. The early part of the week will bring the return of warmer temperatures, mainly back into the low 80s. A cold front will move through Tuesday night and bring cooler temperatures.
Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. South wind 6 to 11 mph increasing to 13 to 18 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. South southeast wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
Columbus Day: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 78. South wind 13 to 17 mph.
Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. South wind 8 to 13 mph.
Who’s the moderate? In Kansas, Republicans and Democrats run to the middle
By ELLE MOXLEY
Helen Stoll answers questions at Vikingpalooza, a fundraiser for Shawnee Mission West High School athletics. Stoll, a Democrat, doesn’t think moderate Republicans can fix problems in Topeka.
Growing up in Shawnee, Tom Cox remembers looking up to “traditional Republicans.”
Politicians like Bill Graves, Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum – Kansans who were willing to reach across the aisle and set political ideology aside in the interest of public policy.
“My pitch at the door? ‘I’m running against a Brownback Republican, and I’m an anti-Brownback Republican,’” Cox said. “We need to save our state. We need to focus on tax reform, education reform and protecting local governments as a start.”
Running on a pro-public education platform, Cox unseated one of those Brownback Republicans, Brett Hildabrand, in the August primary. But the anointed Republican nominee for House District 17 still has to win in November.
In a lot of ways, though, Cox still sounds like he’s running against Hildabrand, which could be a problem.
Because his Democratic opponent, Helen Stoll, sounds like she’s running against Tom Cox.
“We keep referring to my opponent as moderate, but I don’t know that we know that for certain,” Stoll said.
Democrats also claim ‘moderate’ label
Stoll said the Kansas Democratic Party is the party of fiscal responsibility.
“I think what we see happening right now, the decisions that are being made, the tax plan, the way the bills are being paid and spending is being done, it is not conservative,” she said, alluding to the current Republican majority in the Legislature.
Self-described moderate Republicans Tom Cox and Dinah Sykes unseated incumbents in the August primary. They’re hoping a pro-public schools platform resonates with general election voters too.
Paul Davis, the Democrat who challenged Brownback in 2014, won this Johnson County district.
That creates an opening for Stoll. She doesn’t think it matters that Cox and so many other moderates won their primaries.
“To my mind, nothing has changed because the problems are not fixed yet,” she said.
Stoll said there’s too much infighting in the Republican Party for moderates to move the state forward.
But most of the competitive matchups this fall aren’t between self-described “moderates” and Democrats. They’re between “Brownback Republicans” and Democrats.
“I always start off saying I’m the library director and I serve on city council,” said Adrienne Olejnik, a Democrat running in the expansive 51st House District. “That way, people hopefully realize I’m a pretty normal person. You know, I’m like them. I’m involved in the community, and I want to work with others. I also am very clear that party lines don’t mean a great deal to me.”
Olejnick has been knocking on doors in Shawnee, Riley, Wabaunsee, Pottawatomie and Lyon counties for months. She’s called herself a conservative Democrat, described her politics as “in the middle” and claimed to be the “real” moderate in the race.
“Regardless of which party you officially align yourself with, it labels you,” she said. “It defines you. So in some ways, you’re working against that all the time.”
If Olejnik can unseat conservative incumbent Ron Highland, it would be a big win for a Kansas Democratic Party trying to regain ground. Democrats haven’t had a majority in the state House for a quarter century. They haven’t had a Senate majority for nearly 100 years. It’s not going to happen this election cycle, either.
Democrats could give moderates a majority
But if moderates with a “D” next to their names can work with moderates with an “R” next to their names, the Statehouse looks very different come January.
“Every one of those conservatives that a Democrat defeats gives moderates more power in the Republican caucus to elect their own leadership and puts moderates in a position where they have to bargain less with conservatives,” said Patrick Miller, a political science professor at the University of Kansas.
Miller wasn’t surprised by how many moderates won in August. After all, moderates hold seats in Johnson County, and in far western Kansas where President Obama only got 15 percent of the vote.
“They can win anywhere in a low-turnout primary, no matter how Republican or conservative a seat is as long as it’s their voters getting out,” Miller said.
General election voters don’t turn out for down-ballot legislative races. They turn out to pick the president.
“If Trump keeps 1 percent of Republicans from coming out, if they stay home, that could be the difference in some of these races,” Miller said. “One thing we know about state legislative races, not just in Kansas but elsewhere, is voters don’t pay a lot of attention to them in November.”
That means the vast majority of Kansans won’t be casting anti-Brownback ballots. They’ll vote for Democrats or Republicans, not moderates.
— Elle Moxley is a reporter for KCUR.
1st Amendment: What’s fit for the web? And, what doesn’t ‘fit’?
And then consider what would you want poured into that bucket? What would you keep out?
Those two simple questions likely will occupy much time and talk over the next years, if not the next decades, as we are forced to consider the nature of the stuff — speech, news and information — that goes into and comes out of the World Wide Web.
If you live in the United States and live under the First Amendment as it currently stands, the immediate answer to “in-out” questions, with very few exceptions, is “Whatever I want.”
Nothing in the 45 words that define our core freedoms provides for limits or gives specific guidance to anybody. And so for at least the last 100 years, the tilt has been toward more speech, more protections for a free press and more informational “stuff” for everybody.
Google, Facebook and their e-contemporaries, as private not government operations, are free to post, block or remove content as they will — on our behalf. Most cite “community standards” as reasons for impeding the free flow of information through their products and services.
But “going global” via the web raises new issues and new standards, often in contradictory ways.
Several reports over the past few days highlight the old and new complexity behind “simple” editorial decisions and algorithmic applications of group standards in planetary systems.
Journalism think tank Poynter reported a few days go on a large surge in requests to U.S. news outlets to remove past items, for reasons ranging from not-guilty verdicts to plain embarrassment — a manifestation of something engagingly called “the right to be forgotten.”
And a European human rights group called on the United Kingdom to prevent news outlets in the UK from reporting whether or not terrorists are Muslim, as a means of fighting Islamophobia and countering violence against law-abiding Muslims.
Consider the implications eliminating negative information and images from our varied web personifications. Sure, news reports of that humiliating court appearance continue to sting, even if the case was dismissed. Or paying a fine disposed of the legal aspects of that relatively minor traffic violation. Even in more serious matters, once one has paid their “debt to society,” as it was once politely referred to, what’s the value in continuing to be connected to a past act?
For one thing, such reports are an independent record of what actually happened, not subject to future spiteful revision or gossipy inaccuracies. When contained in a public record, such accounts also serve to hold public officials accountable, particularly when aggregated to show trends, spending patterns and perhaps questionable discrepancies and unfairness.
Scrubbing news reports of religious references when terrorism is involved — in the name of preventing slurs and violence aimed at an entire faith community — has a noble ring to it. But taking a shortcut through a full reporting by a free press as a means of combating the seamy side of societal bigotry and overreaction seems an unlikely and largely ineffective path to a better world.
Where does such an approach stop? Should those periodic bursts of armed conflict between India and Pakistan be vaguely reported as “things that kind of happen between two nations that don’t seem to like each other,” ignoring the faith-based, Hindu-Muslim nature of the long-extant dispute? Should violence flare again in Northern Ireland, are news operations to be required to treat it as a kind of “skin-and-shirts” intramural contest gone awry, not a battle between Protestant and Catholic extremists? When tribal identity and tensions in Africa result in war, should the media just say it happened “well, because some people didn’t like other people”?
“Forgetting” factual reports or preventing the free flow of information as uncomfortable and inconvenient as it may be will create information “holes” where unfounded rumor, false data and outright fiction will reign unrefuted.
Credible information, freely reported and freely discussed, is the foundation for self-governance and democratic societies, which survive and thrive on “facts” on which to build discussion and decision. And a credible record of the past is required to measure the present and realistically prepare for the future.
To revise history in the name of personal comfort, or to limit the flow of information to deal with unwanted outcomes, risks transforming the vaunted “marketplace of ideas” — that crucible in which we debate, disagree but hopefully discover the best ideas for the public good — into little more than a carnival sideshow.
And such moves could well turn the World Wide Web, with its optimistic promise of making more information available to more people than at any time in human history, into a New Age version of that Shakespearian vision in Macbeth of “a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.”
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [email protected]
There’s still time to take Hunter Education
KDWPT
PRATT – Fall hunting seasons may have started, but there’s still time to get into a Kansas Hunter Education class near you. October is chock-full of opportunities, and with Internet-assisted courses, finding one to fit your schedule has never been more convenient. The easiest way to find a class near you is to visit ksoutdoors.com and click “Hunting,” then “Hunter Education.” Students must be 11 or older to be certified. However, hunters 15 or younger may hunt without hunter education certification provided they are under the direct supervision of an adult 18 or older. Otherwise, anyone born on or after July 1, 1957 must be certified by an approved course before they can hunt in Kansas.
Class schedules are organized by format: traditional or Internet-assisted. Traditional hunter education courses are 10 hours long and are usually held over two to three days. Internet-assisted courses are designed to meet the needs of individuals with busy schedules by providing online classwork that can be done at home. After the Internet work is completed, students must attend a field day, which often includes live-fire, trail-walk and safe gun handing exercises before final testing and certification. Students must register for an Internet-assisted course (field day) before completing the online portion.
Classes fill up quickly, so early registration is encouraged. Sign up today and we’ll see you in the field!
Suspect held on $500K bond in Kan. woman’s shooting death
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 27-year-old man has been charged in the death of a Wichita woman.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Dane Thomas Owens is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in connection with the shooting death of 22-year-old Rowena Irani. He’s also charged with aggravated burglary.
Owens made a first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court on the felony charges, and is being held on $500,000 bond. His next court date is Oct. 20. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer.
Authorities say Irani was found unconscious Monday with a gunshot wound to her head. She died later at a hospital.
KHP: Man hospitalized after crash during I-70 chase at 100 mph
GEARY COUNTY – A man was injured in an accident just after 4p.m. on Saturday during a pursuit by law enforcement.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Honda motorcycle driven by Devin C. Booth, 20, Peoria, IL., was merging onto Interstate 70 westbound from Kansas 18.
The driver accelerated to a high rate of speed, attempted to flee and elude police while driving in excess of 100mph.
The motorcycle exited J Hill Road at a high rate of speed. The driver was unable to make a right turn at that speed. The motorcycle flipped and tossed the driver.
Booth was transported to Geary Community Hospital. He was wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.
Details on what prompted the chase was not released.