SHERMAN COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities in NW Kansas are investigating 3 suspects after a chase and crash in reported stolen vehicles.
Just before 11:30 a.m. Monday, Kansas troopers located two stolen vehicles, a blue 2002 GMC Sierra with California plates and a red 2001 GMC Sierra with Colorado plates in the eastbound rest area just east of Kanorado on I-70 in Sherman County, according to a media release from the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Troopers and Sherman County Deputies arrived and shut down the rest area, but before they could make an approach, both vehicles left and drove east on I-70.
Just after 1:15 p.m., troopers attempted to stop the vehicles but they fled, took the exit and County Road 11 and drove north to Old Highway 24, then west towards the town of Kanorado.
The driver of the Yukon then started driving head-on into oncoming traffic and running other vehicles off the road.
Fearing for the safety of the public, the troopers on scene decided to force the Yukon off the road. When the driver of the Yukon lost control, it made contact with the Sierra and both vehicles crashed in the south ditch.
The driver of the Yukon, identified as Kevin Maudlin, 39, Colorado, fled on foot and ran south into a pasture where he was placed under arrest without further incident.
Two women in the Sierra, Lacy Fischer, 32, and Melissa Blumenshine, 30, both of Colorado, were immediately taken into custody.
Blumenshine was transported to a hospital in Denver. Fisher was transported to Goodland Regional Medical Center, treated and released. Both Maudlin and Fisher remain in the Sherman County jail. All three face charges of Possession of Stolen Vehicle, Felony Flee and Attempt to Elude Law Enforcement, Theft, Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent to Distribute and Felony Warrants.
Great Bend High School’s Bryce Lytle, who helped the Panthers reach the 5A state football semi-finals, has verbally committed to continue his career at Fort Hays State University. Lytle will join Panther teammates Jacob Murray and Peyton Mauler in the Tiger program next season.
Diminutive but dominant on the football field, the 5-9 150 pounder posted back-to-back 1,000 yard receiving seasons for Great Bend and is the school’s all-time leader in receiving with over 2,500 yards and 22 touchdowns.
This past season, Lytle led the Panthers to the KSHSAA 5A state semifinals, where they lost to Goddard. It was the Panthers’ first semifinal berth since they reached the state title game in 2006. As a junior, Lytle was part of a Panther team that also reached the 5A Playoffs before losing to Maize South in the first round.
SALINE COUNTY -Following a public vote, the Rolling Hills Zoo announce Tuesday the name of their new baby giraffe is Jojo. The name was submitted by the Home Schoolers Association. More than 5,000 zoo guests voted.
According to Linda Henderson, development and marketing director, this is the first giraffe born at the Rolling Hills Zoo.
Jojo was born on November 27, 2016, weighing 117 pounds and standing six-feet-tall. Saline County elementary schools; public, private and the Home Schoolers Association submitted the 12 names. Zoo guests voted on them March 1-26.
The ballots were tabulated Monday and the zoo announced ‘Jojo’ as the winner Tuesday Jojo received 729 of the total 5,393 votes.
Results: Bubbles, submitted by Schilling Elementary. 679 votes Jojo, submitted by Home Schoolers Association. 729 votes Elliott, submitted by Heusner Elementary. 497 votes Gizmo, submitted by Stewart Elementary. 628 votes Curry, submitted by Ell-Saline Elementary. 298 votes Zeke, submitted by Meadowlark Elementary. 480 votes Louie, submitted by Southeast of Saline. 276 votes Zeus, submitted by Coronado Elementary. 449 votes Pikachu, submitted by Cottonwood Elementary. 638 votes Jordan, submitted by Oakdale Elementary. 229 votes Bambi, submitted by Sunset Elementary. 277 votes Bellus Stella (Latin for “beautiful one to the stars”), submitted by Cornerstone Classical School. 213 votes.
GOVE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Gove County are investigating after a stolen pickup was found burned.
The 2001 Ford Ranger belonged to a 21-year-old student at Kansas Wesleyan University, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.
He left the pickup just after 8a.m. on Monday and reported it missing at 4p.m.
On Monday evening, the Gove County Sheriff’s office called to inform him they found the pickup burning on the side of a road. The vehicle was valued at approximately $9000, according to Forrester.
The Janousek Funeral Home of La Crosse, Kansas, has announced Funeral Services for Leslie Jo Morgan, 51, La Crosse, will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 31, 2017, at the United Methodist Church, La Crosse, Kansas.
Two days before the first baseball game of the spring, Jace Armstrong placed his name on a national letter of intent to play at Cloud County Community College. Armstrong says he had offer to play college baseball at a few different places. It was the Cloud County coaches that caught his ear though. He not only liked what he heard about becoming a better player on the field, but also the way the coaches want to develop a better person off the field as well. Armstrong says he also glad to have this decision made before games begin this spring, taking the pressure off to perform not only for the team but any scouts in attendance as well.
Jace Armstrong
It also helps that Armstrong can play any number of positions on the diamond. He said the Cloud County coaches will get him on campus before finalizing a position for him. Indian’s head coach Frank Leo says that Armstrong will have plenty of positions to play this spring too. Leo says Armstrong will play shortstop, second base, outfield and time pitching. Leo compliments Armstrong’s athleticism and ability to play multiple positions as two top reasons for his opportunity to play college baseball.
Frank Leo
Armstrong is among a senior group that looks to lead an inexperienced team into the 2017 spring season.
GEARY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating a paroled Kansas man on numerous charges after a brief chase.
Just before 1:30 Monday, police responding to an alleged criminal trespass complaint in the 1400 Block of North Calhoun in Junction City. After a 2-minute chase, officers took the suspect identified as Gary Cunningham, 40, Junction City, into custody at the Trooper Gate entrance at Fort Riley.
Three police officers suffered scrapes working to get the suspect into custody. One officer was treated at the scene and released, and no one required transport to a hospital.
The JCPD confirmed Cunningham was arrested on suspicion of Fleeing and Eluding, Reckless Driving, Interference with LEO, Violating Red Traffic Signal, Failure to Yield at Stop Sign, two counts of Improper Turn, No Driver’s License, Driving Under the Influence, Transporting an Open Container, Driving Through Private Property to Avoid Traffic Control Devices, Speeding, Failure to Stop at Accident, Criminal Threat, Criminal Trespass, three counts of Improper Driving on Laned roadway, and five counts of No Turn Signal.
Cunningham has previous drug and weapons convictions dating to 1994 according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Dr. Randy Watson, Kansas Commissioner of Education, will present information on “The Future of Education” in Hays, on April 6.
The presentation will be from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Fort Hays State University Memorial Union’s Cody Commons.The event is open to the public and is free to attend.
This informational event was made possible through the partnership of the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce, Hays USD 489 and Fort Hays State University.
One mile west of Wilson I-70 interchange March 6, 2017 (Fire photos and video courtesy KHP Technical Trooper Tod Hileman)
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Every work day is different for each Kansas Highway Patrol trooper.
But March 6 was a day different enough for Technical Trooper Tod Hileman of Troop D in Hays, he probably will never forget it.
That Monday started out fairly routine for Hileman, who serves as the KHP Public Resource Officer for all of northwest Kansas.
Hileman was driving back to Hays on Interstate 70 after presenting a public program in Marysville.
As he continued westbound, Hileman began seeing smoke in fields north of the interstate at Ellsworth.
“I heard my law enforcement partners on the radio asking where the fire was, how big is it, how fast is it going,” Hileman said.
Very strong gusty winds out of the north pushed the smoke across I-70.
“I stopped a few miles west of the Wilson interchange in the median to take pictures and started uploading them to my Trooper Tod KHP Facebook and Twitter accounts to warn people, telling Wilson residents to keep an eye on it,” Hileman said. He and his law enforcement partners began a radio discussion of whether a mandatory evacuation should be implemented in Wilson.
Two firetrucks arrive at the scene while a white SUV (at left) turns around on I-70.
“I could see fire out in field quite a ways off. One minute it was 50 yards away from interstate, the next minute it was there. I wondered if it would jump I-70 with the high winds. Then I saw two fire trucks and thought maybe they’ll contain it.
“Next thing I know, the fire got to westbound I-70, and had a mind of its own. It twisted up into the air and right down into the median. I was like, wow, that is incredible.”
Trooper Hileman has been hailed as a hero, even nationally, for his quick thinking and what he did next.
He does not consider himself a hero.
“Everything was happening so fast. Once it jumped into the median, (emergency responders) behind me said we gotta get I-70 shut down. I jumped the car onto I-70 and was trying to turn people around–signaling them to go back, go back. To the west, it wasn’t too bad. To the east, you couldn’t hardly see anything. So I had to stop cars, not knowing if there was a fireman standing 50 feet into that smoke cloud who could be hit.”
It was a confusing scene, filled with dense smoke and wind-blown embers and ash.
“Our job there was to protect the firemen there and let them do their job. They’re the real heroes,” Hileman insisted. “They’re the ones going into that stuff.”
He first got one semi to safety by telling the driver to “angle it through the median and turn around.”
A pickup backs up from approaching fire in the median.
“I couldn’t leave those vehicles just sit there on I-70 because I knew fire was going to engulf that whole area pretty quick.”
As Hileman continued turning other traffic around, a second semi he had told to turn around and go at a 45-degree angle through the median started spinning it tires.
“I was thinking, I hope he can get that thing out of there. I walked up to the truck and asked if he could ‘rock’ it out of there. Then, wow, it was incredibly smoky all of a sudden. I looked behind us and it was…the fire was in front of us. It was behind us now. And I was like, we just have to get out of here.
The front end of the stranded semi-truck in the median as seen from Hileman’s dash cam video.
“I told him to get in my car. We went west driving through all of that, praying.”
Hileman wound up speeding west on I-70 through the smoke and fire with the stranded truck driver in the passenger seat as flames leaped towards both sides of the KHP vehicle.
The audio on the in-car microphone was accidentally disabled when the passenger got into the KHP vehicle, reached up to balance himself and hit the microphone.
What was missed on the dash cam video?
“Just me telling him, like six times, to put a seatbelt on. And there were probably some prayers in there somewhere,” Hileman admits.
A still shot from an NBC-TV Nightly News story March 8 about Hileman and other emergency responders during several days of wildfires.
The video of the narrow escape went viral on social media after Hileman posted it on his Trooper Tod KHP Facebook page:
“I have to say in my 20 years with the KHP, this ranks up there as one of the most steering wheel gripping moments I’ve had. 😮 Glad we got the trucker out of there and thanks to Trooper Trav for getting traffic stopped behind me! Btw, Firefighters….#Respect.”
Kansas news media utilized his dashcam video and the frightening scenes also appeared on national television newscasts.
According to Hileman, Kansas Highway Patrol officers train for vehicle fires but not wildfires, although they do study information about grass fires.
Driving on I-70 with wildfires on both sides of the westbound lanes
“I’ve been in a lot of fires like that. That one though, moved so fast. It was crazy.”
By state law, only the Kansas Department of Transportation can shut down the state’s interstate highways, Hileman explained.
“If KHP is telling you to turn around, there’s a really good reason, a short-term emergency. We’re not trying to make your life harder. We’re trying to save your life.”
Hileman is a Colby native and has served as a KHP Trooper for 20 years.
By a vote of 25-14, the Kansas Senate Tuesday approved an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act.
The legislation would expand state health coverage to thousands of poor adults.
The House approved the plan in February.
The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback who could veto it.
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By JIM MCLEAN
The Kansas Senate gave tentative approval Monday to a bill expanding eligibility for Medicaid. But the bill may face a veto from Gov. Sam Brownback. STEPHEN KORANDA / KPR
Buoyed by the failure of Republicans in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Kansas Senate on Monday gave tentative approval to a Medicaid expansion bill after debating it for nearly three hours.
A bipartisan group of 25 senators voted for the bill. All 13 “no” votes were cast by Republicans concerned about the cost of expansion and opposed to covering low-income, non-disabled adults.
If it survives a final-action vote Tuesday, the bill would go to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, whose spokeswoman reaffirmed his opposition to expansion in tweets during the debate but did not say whether he would veto it.
In a statement released minutes after the vote, David Jordan, director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a coalition of health care providers and other organizations that support expansion, urged the governor to “join with the overwhelming bipartisan majorities” that approved the measure in the Kansas House and Senate by signing the bill.
The House passed the expansion bill 81-44 in late February.
If Brownback does veto the measure, supporters would need three more votes in the House and two in the Senate to override him.
House Minority Leader Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, is optimistic that supporters could round up the necessary votes.
“I absolutely think there are 84 votes in the Kansas House to override the governor if he should veto Medicaid expansion,” Ward said. “The vote count is closer in the Senate obviously, but I think we’ll get there.”
As long as the ACA remains in place, the federal government is obligated to cover no less than 90 percent of the cost of expansion.
To date, 31 states and the District of Columbia have expanded their Medicaid programs. Kansas and Missouri are among 19 states that have so far rejected expansion.
Though congressional leaders have shelved the ACA replacement bill, it’s not clear whether the Trump administration intends to allow any additional states to expand their programs.
Setting aside potential barriers to its implementation, expansion would greatly increase the number of Kansans eligible for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
Eligibility is now limited to children and pregnant women in low-income families, people with developmental and physical disabilities, and seniors who cannot afford nursing home care. Parents are eligible only if they earn less than a third of the federal poverty level, or about $9,200 annually for a four-person family.
Single adults without children aren’t eligible for coverage no matter their income.
Expansion would broaden eligibility to all Kansans earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, annually $16,642 for individuals and $33,465 for a family of four.
An estimated 300,000 Kansans would qualify for coverage under expansion, though only about half that number would enroll in the first year, according to estimates.
Opponents argued expansion is unaffordable despite estimates compiled by the Kansas Hospital Association indicating it would generate enough revenue and savings to cover the state’s share of the cost. And, they said, it’s just a matter of time until the ACA is repealed.
“We’re standing at an amusement park ride that’s closed,” said Sen. Ty Masterson, a conservative Republican from Andover. “It’s broken and we’re saying we want to go ahead and get on the ride.”
But when pressed by expansion opponents, Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a moderate Republican from Topeka, said she has confidence in the KHA estimates, which predict expansion would benefit the state budget to the tune of approximately $70 million.
“I believe that there are assumptions made, but I believe that the assumptions are good,” Schmidt said.
Sen. Barbara Bollier said while cost is an important issue, the health care that expansion would provide to tens of thousands of uninsured Kansans was the most important consideration for her.
“It’s very easy for us to sit in these seats and look at a graph, or look at a statistical analysis, or look at the underlying budget and forget that we are talking about a brother, a father, a sister (or) a child,” said Bollier, a Mission Hills Republican. “We’re talking about real people who want and need access to care.”
A bipartisan group of senators fought off a series of amendments offered Monday by expansion opponents.
One from Sen. Dennis Pyle, a conservative Republican from Hiawatha, touched off a contentious debate. It would have denied coverage to otherwise eligible Kansans living in communities that shelter undocumented immigrants, so-called sanctuary cities.
“I’m not out to hurt or harm anyone,” Pyle said, explaining that his amendment was an attempt to pressure city and county officials across the state to comply with the letter of federal immigration law.
But referring to the amendment, which was defeated 25-13, as a “hate bill,” Sen. John Doll, a moderate Republican from Garden City, said: “I believe it does go after people.”
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
Lifelong Sharon Springs, Kansas, resident Layal Grund, 64, passed away Saturday March 25, 2017, at Tribune, KS.
He was born June 18, 1952, at Goodland, Kansas, son of Juanita (Mather) and Leslie Grund. He attended school in Sharon Springs and graduated high school.
On February 21, 1970, he married Donna Lowe at the Dinas Community Church, south of Wallace, Kansas. During the first six years of marriage he worked for Bud Fulton and Donna’s dad, Claude Lowe, while also running some cattle with his Uncle John Grund.
In 1976, Layal and Donna started their own farming and ranching endeavor when Donna’s dad passed away and it continues to this day. Farming, ranching, and family were the loves of his life.
Layal served on the Wallace County School Board for four years and during that time he served on the Northwest Kansas Technical College Board. He was a member of the American Gelbvieh Association, American Angus Association, American Red Angus Association and served many years as a 4-H leader for the Smoky Valley 4-H Club.
Layal had a love for 4-Hers and the livestock project. There were many kids that he helped in numerous ways. He was known to help youth buy their first steer or heifer, many times provided a place to house livestock projects, or taught them how to clip and groom their animal. He hauled many Wallace county Judging teams around the state and passed onto his children the love of showing and raising cattle throughout their 4-H careers. He was a steadfast supporter of the livestock auction and many other 4-H activities.
Layal was preceded in death by his parents Leslie and Juanita Grund; his sisters Leta Kay Grund and Elaine Chisum; father in law Claude Lowe, mother in law Ila Lowe; and brothers in law Steve Seibel and Ron Kreigh. Survivors include his wife Donna Grund of Sharon Springs; son Jerry Grund and wife Chrysanne; daughter Christy Hammer and husband Lyle; and daughter Becky Vandike and husband Darrell, all of Wallace, Kansas.
Surviving family includes Allen Grund of Goodland, Kansas, Evan Grund and Wife Delores of Pratt, Kansas, Lenora Dyer and husband Dave of Little Rock, Arkansas, Jane Kreigh of Salina, Kansas, and Navene Rains and husband Eriv of McPherson, Kansas. Sisters in law Sharon Robb and husband Dave of Dodge City, Kansas, and Tracy Lowe of Peabody, Kansas. He was a beloved grandfather to Grace, Callahan, Grady, Chisum, Gabrielle, Calley, Hayden, and Jensen.
Funeral services for Layal will be held on Thursday, March 30, 2017 at 10:30 AM MT at the Wesleyan Church in Sharon Springs with Pastor Paul McNall officiating. Burial will follow in the Sharon Springs Cemetery.
Visitation will be held on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM MT at the Koons-Russell Funeral Home in Sharon Springs.
Memorials may be designated to the Layal Grund Memorial Fund to be used in the Wallace County 4-H program and may be left at the service or mailed to Koons-Russell Funeral Home, 211 N. Main Ave., Goodland, KS 67735.
Online condolences may be left at www.koonsrussellfuneralhome.com.
Funeral service arrangements were entrusted to Koons-Russell Funeral Home in Sharon Springs.
