SALINA, Kan. – The Hays High baseball team split their doubleheader at Salina South Friday, The Indians jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first two innings and held on for a 3-2 win in the opener. The Cougars scored five in the second then used an eight-run sixth for a 14-4 run-rule win in game two.
Cole Schumacher reached on catcher’s obstruction, stole second than advanced to third and scored on a wild pitch to give the Indians (6-2) a 1-0 lead in the first. Schumacher’s sacrifice fly scored Jarett Pfannenstiel then Marcus Altman doubled to score Drew Young to push the lead to 3-0. The Cougars loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but only managed one run. Dalton Stout gave up a single but then got to fly outs to end the game and get the save.
Jarett Pfannenstiel allowed one run on seven hits with six strikeouts and two walks for the win.
The Cougars scored five in the second to take control of the second game. Hays answered with three in the third and another run in the fourth to pull within 5-4 but South used an eight-run sixth to put the game away.
Palmer Hutchison allowed five runs, four earned, on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings and takes the loss.
SALINA, Kan. – The Hays High softball team was swept by Salina South Friday. The Cougars scored seven runs in the second inning in a 7-4 win in game 1 then use a three-run fourth to take the lead for good in a 10-2 game two victory. The Indians drop to 4-4 on the season.
The Cougars used six hits including a pair of doubles to take the lead in the first game. Hays scored four in the sixth on singles from Kylie Brown, Jaysa Wichers and Madison Prough. Kaitlyn Brown suffered the loss, giving up all seven runs on 11 hits with one strikeout and one walk.
Prough and Mackenzie Fagan both singled to drive in a run in the second inning which gave the Indians a 2-1 lead in the second game, but South answered with three in the bottom of the inning to take the lead back for good. They added two in the fifth and four in the sixth for the run-rule victory.
Jaysa Wichers pitched five innings and gave up all 10 runs on 13 hits, two of them home runs, and takes the loss.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas attorney general and two professional trucking associations have announced a program to prevent sex trafficking on state highways.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that on Thursday, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Truckers Against Trafficking and the Kansas Motor Carriers Association discussed their partnership to fight sex trafficking and to support victims.
They hope to educate people about human trafficking through a mobile exhibit called the Freedom Drivers Project.
Schmidt says the program focuses on monitoring the state’s highways where some sex trafficking occurs. The attorney general’s office helped two victims of sex trafficking in 2009. By 2015, the number escalated to more than 400 victims.
Motor Carriers executive director Tom Whitaker says observant truck drivers watch out for such crimes and inform law enforcement of problems.
RILEY COUNTY – A fire at a home in Riley County rekindled overnight Thursday and burned, according to Riley County Emergency Management Director Pat Collins.
Fire crews originally responded to the blaze at a rural home at 3090 Keats just before 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.
They opened the ceiling in the living room to expose the attic fire and extinguish it.
The fire appeared to have started around an electrical junction box in the attic.
Just before 5:30 a.m. on Friday, the Riley County Fire responded to a second fire at the residence.
“We arrived and the home was fully engulfed,” said Collins.
“My guess is there was some kind of spark got into the cellulose insulation Thursday during that part of the fire. It laid unnoticed until some time in the middle of the night.”
The estimated damage was around $80,000.
The house was not occupied and had been in renovation. No one was injured.
SALINA -A Salina man was sentenced on Friday to more than 21 years in prison for a fatal stabbing.
Saline County Judge Jared Johnson on Friday sentenced 28-year-old Ivan Huizar Alvarez for the murder of 50-year-old Scott Johnson.
Alvarez, who was originally charged with first-degree murder in the case, had previously entered a no-contest plea to 2nd degree murder.
Alvarez was convicted of chasing Johnson and stabbing him numerous times in the back and upper chest in the yard of a residence in the 1400 block of Arapahoe Street in Salina shortly before 10 p.m. in March of 2015.
Johnson was transported to Salina Regional Health Center where he died.
Alvarez is also required to serve three years of post-release supervision and register as a violent offender.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Kirk Schulz has been confirmed as the 11th president of Washington State University and will receive a five-year contract with a base salary of $625,000 per year.
The WSU Board of Regents made those decisions at a meeting on Friday.
The regents also decided that Schulz will receive an additional retention incentive of $25,000 per year.
Schulz is currently president of Kansas State University. He was paid just over $465,000 last year.
He was chosen last month to replace Elson Floyd, who died of complications from cancer last year.
Schulz will take over as president on June 13.
The contract also stipulates that Schulz and his family will be provided the use of a house in Pullman and a condominium in the Seattle area.
Schulz’s contract also includes an appointment to the WSU faculty as an engineering professor.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is delaying roughly $90 million in contributions to pensions for public school and college employees as a potential short-term response to lower-than-expected tax collections.
Gov. Sam Brownback’s office announced the move Friday. It said Brownback’s budget director notified the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System that the contributions due on April 15 would be “temporarily delayed.”
Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said it’s not yet clear how long the contributions will be delayed.
Since the current fiscal year began in July, tax collections have fallen $81 million short of expectations. State officials and university economists meet April 20 to issue new revenue projections.
Hawley said delaying KPERS contributions gives the state flexibility. She said various options for keeping the budget balanced will be discussed publicly after the new revenue forecast.
Ellis Co. Sheriff Ed Harbin waits to be buzzed into a two-person jail cell.
By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT Hays Post
Construction is all but complete and the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office began returning inmates to the newly remodeled jail Monday.
Sheriff Ed Harbin gave a tour of the facility to Hays Post reporters Jon Zweygardt and Becky Kiser Monday. All doors are now remotely locked and employees were “still getting used to the changes,” Harbin pointed out.
Ellis County Sheriff Ed Harbin said they transferred 20 inmates back to Ellis County on Monday. They will continue to bring back 16 inmates a day until the majority of the inmates housed out-of-country is transferred back to the new jail.
Harbin said the jail now has 72 bunks, although how many inmates are actually housed in the jail will depend on several factors, including who is housed at the jail and what they are in jail for.
The maximum security area can be further segregated for inmate safety by electronically closing doors .
Before the remodel the prisoner capacity was down to approximately 30. Now the jail will hold more than double the inmate population. But the county will still have to house a limited number of inmates out of county for various reasons, including keeping the male and female population separated and some inmates with special needs.
During Monday’s commission meeting Dean Haselhorst applauded the effort of the sheriff’s department for their work and said it is good to finally get the construction work finished.
“We can officially say it is open after, basically 90 days of being behind schedule,” said Haselhorst “Hopefully by Thursday, it sounds like we could have all of our inmates transferred back to Ellis County.
It was costing the county at least $70,000 per month to house inmates at the jails in Dodge City, Trego, Rooks, Barton and Graham counties, according to Harbin.
Harbin said the jail is now a lot safer and more secure with the implementation of new electronic locks and security cameras throughout the facility. “It’s state of the art,” he added.
The control system operates all doors in the jail.
Among the changes–no more steel bars. Instead, the inmates are housed in jail cells with reflective safety glass so they cannot see out but officers can see into the cells. The whole jail facility is controlled by a control station in the center of the jail.
There are holding cells on each floor so inmates going to court do not have to be in the public areas. A new elevator takes inmates from the jail to the courtrooms so they again, do not have to be in the same area as the public.
Harbin said the way they used to bring inmates from the jail to the courtrooms could have led to inmates attempting to escape.
Another new feature is a video conferencing system that will limit the inmate’s personal contact with the public. They instead will be able to use the video system to talk with visitors.
Harbin, who filed for his sixth term as county sheriff this week, said it was great to see the changes the facility has gone through and said it was “much needed.”
TMP-Marian head football coach and teacher John Montgomery is leaving the school at the end of the year. Montgomery announced his resignation on Twitter, and it was confirmed on the school’s website Friday.
Montgomery took over as the head coach of the Monarch program in 2012, after serving as the team’s defensive coordinator for two seasons. The Monarchs went 5-31 in the four seasons under Montgomery. Including finishing 1-8 this past season
According to TMP, Montgomery has accepted a teaching and coaching position in McPherson beginning with the 2016-2017 school year.
Through the TMP Football Twitter account Montgomery said, “It has been an honor to work with all the young men and women at TMP over the last 4 years. I will forever be a monarch fan. Thank you.”
The school said a search for the next head Monarch football coach is now underway.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The top prosecutor in Sedgwick County says he plans no charges against a Wichita police officer who fatally shot a man during a confrontation last year.
District Attorney Marc Bennett says the investigation of John Paul Quintero’s January 2015 death found that the officer who shot him acted in self-defense.
Bennett says that officers responding to reported disturbance confronted an intoxicated 23-year-old Quintero, and that Quintero failed to fall when he initially was shot with a stun gun. Bennett says that Quintero didn’t comply with the officers’ demands, and that the officer who shot Quintero believed he was armed with a knife.
Authorities have said an autopsy showed Quintero had marijuana, alcohol and meth in his system.
Quintero’s family has filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit.
GREAT BEND- In a media release on Friday, USD 428 responded to the announcement by the Ellsworth County Attorney on April 7, 2016.
In regard to the alleged misconduct by students on a Great Bend High School activity bus on February 6 is consistent with the findings of the GBHS administration on February 8 and the corrective action taken by them at that time.
USD 428 remains hopeful that the legal process will provide a quick and fair resolution for all the parties involved.
To view the findings and report from the Ellsworth County Attorney click the link below.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man who admitted in court nine years ago that he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter has been resentenced to more than half of his original prison term.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports a Shawnee County judge on Friday sentenced Michael Walter Hines Sr. to 23 years and nine months in prison.
He originally had been ordered in 2007 to spend 48 years and 10 months behind bars, but an appellate court ruling that reduced his criminal history required the resentencing.
Hines pleaded guilty in 2007 to one count of rape of a child younger than 14.
The victim, Chloe Howey, on Friday referred to Hines as a “monster.”
The Associated Press doesn’t name sexual assault victims without their consent. But Howey spoke publicly to media outlets after Friday’s sentencing.
Westbound traffic on Interstate 70 just east of exit 157 was slowed around 3 p.m. following an injury accident involving two vehicles.
Members of the Kansas High Patrol, Ellis County Sheriff, Ellis County Emergency Medical Services and Hays Police Department responded to the scene, slowing traffic around the accident and assisting the vehicle occupants.
While the cause of the accident is unknown, at this time, both vehicles came to rest facing east, one on each side of the westbound lane.
At around 3:30 p.m. both vehicles were being removed from the scene.
The condition of the vehicle occupants is unknown at this time.
