TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka hospital being purchased by the University of Kansas Health System plans to continue banning guns from its facilities.
The University of Kansas Health System and Ardent Health are in the process of buying St. Francis Health in Topeka. That deal comes as the Kansas Legislature is debating whether guns can be carried into state-operated mental health and medical facilities, which includes the Kansas Health System.
However, St. Francis Health spokeswoman Nikki Sloup says the Topeka hospital does not plan to change its policy banning concealed weapons. She says any new law would apply to public hospitals and St. Francis will not be a public hospital.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Kansas Health and Ardent will monitor the Legislature’s actions to determine any effect on St. Francis.
Trump met on Nov. 20 with Kobach at Trump’s New Jersey golf course. photo courtesy Fox
JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kris Kobach is preparing to help lead a new presidential commission on election fraud with the certitude that he’s found significant evidence of problems in Kansas.
As Kansas secretary of state, he was the first state elections chief to gain a prosecutor’s powers.
Kobach said he’s not pre-judging what might be happening in other states before the commission appointed by President Trump begins compiling hard data.
In Kansas, he has described the dozens of non-citizens on voter rolls and nine successful prosecutions as evidence of a significant problem.
Voting rights advocates have criticized the commission and Kobach’s appointment.
He has been advising Trump for months and said he talks to the White House each week. He is the new commission’s vice chairman, with Vice President Mike Pence as the chairman.
HAYS, Kan.-Under cloudy skies and a strong wind, the TMP Lady Monarchs defeated the Russell Lady Broncos 11-1 to capture their second consecutive 3A Regional Softball Championship. After Tuesday’s matchup was postponed due to rain, the championship game was moved to Hays because of wet conditions in Russell. TMP used their home field advantage to dominate the 2-18 Lady Broncos.
Russell struck with a run in the top of the first inning on an RBI single from Whitney Nuss. It would be the only lead for the Lady Broncos on the day. TMP quickly answered with five runs in the bottom of the first getting RBI hits from Brianna Romme, Anna Gottschalk and Taryn Rupp. The Lady Monarchs were in control with a 5-1 lead.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the fourth when TMP added four more runs to push their lead to 9-1. The Lady Monarchs were poised to end the game early in the bottom of the fifth and that they did. With runners on second and third Bailey Lacy sent a shot to right field that was misplayed by the Russell right fielder, allowing the winning run to score from second base.
Lacy pitched five strong innings allowing only three hits, walking one and striking out 11. With the victory the Lady Monarchs improve to 16-6 on the year. They will open up state tournament play next Thursday in Manhattan.
Cedar Bluff State Park will host a Cruise-In Car Show on June 24. The show was originally scheduled in mid-May, but was postponed due to weather.
The show will be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with registration from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday at the Cedar Bluff State Park North Shore. There will be a paved car show area, and food available from Rods & Ribs BBQ.
For more information, click the image above, call Matt at (785) 650-1274 or click HERE.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A homeless man accused of trying to charge for parking near a Wichita arena has admitted to two misdemeanors.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 53-year-old Daniel Lerma was sentenced to 90 days in jail after admitting Monday to two criminal restraint counts. He initially was charged with two felonies.
Lerma was arrested in March after people headed to a hockey game at Intrust Bank Arena said he was demanding $10 to park in front of a bar and became threatening when he was denied payment. The affidavit says Lerma told the hockey goers that the bar owner owed him money.
The affidavit says Lerma told authorities he had permission from another business to charge for parking and that he didn’t remember most of the encounters because he’d been drinking.
HAYS, Kan. – Kayla Vitzum scored six second half goals to lead the TMP-Marian girls’ soccer team to a 13-3 win over Wichita-Collegiate Thursday afternoon in the Central/South Central Region #4 finals at the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex.
Ashley Ostrander scored all three of her goals in the first half helping the Monarchs (12-4-1) build a 4-0 halftime lead.
Aubrey Koeningsman scored the second of her two goals early in the second half to push the lead to 5-0. Vitztum would then score six of the next seven goals for TMP who advances to the 4-1A state quarterfinals next Tuesday (May 23).
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rule nearing approval in the Kansas Legislature would require abortion providers to give women information on their doctors’ history in black, 12-point Times New Roman font.
Republican House and Senate negotiators agreed Thursday on the bill’s language. They also took procedural steps to bypass committee Democrats, who say the bill treats abortion providers differently than other doctors.
The bill would require that providers give women information about the physician performing the abortion at least 24 hours ahead of time. The information would include the doctor’s credentials, start date at the clinic, malpractice insurance, hospital privileges, state of residency and disciplinary record.
The bill’s supporters say women need the information to make an informed decision.
Abortion rights supporters say the bill is meant to discourage women from having abortions.
FINDLAY, Ohio – Fort Hays State golferHannah Perkins posted a second round 8-over 80 at the 2017 Division II Women’s Golf Championships Thursday, moving to 13-over for the tournament. The four-round tournament is being held at the par-72, 6,206-yard Findlay Country Club. The sophomore now sits in a tie for 25th in the individual standings
Perkins began play on another blustery day with two bogeys before rebounding to finish the front nine at 2-over. The back nine did not go quite as well as yesterday, finishing 6-over on the incoming nine to finish 8-over for the round.
Ann Parmerter of Dallas Baptist shot a second-straight 1-over 73 to lead the tournament. Perkins maintained her lead over the other two individuals from the MIAA.
Perkins will open the third round at 8:35 a.m. ET (7:35 a.m. CT) Friday (May 19), teeing off on hole No. 10.
Amber Beverlin, senior architect with DLR Group, discusses options for school improvements with the Hays USD 489 Vision Team Tuesday night.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
The team charged with developing a bond issue for the Hays school district has developed a list of priorities for bond improvements and three possible options for funding those projects.
The Vision Team hopes to refine the plans in the coming weeks and eventually will take them to the USD 489 school board for consideration.
The Vision Team narrowed its priorities based on three tax structures in work session Tuesday night.
The first would rely exclusively on property taxes.
DLR, the district’s architect, found in a survey the majority of voters surveyed in the district indicated they would be willing to pay between $10 and $20 more in taxes per month on a $150,000 home for school improvements.
A bond issue that would raise property taxes by $14.99 per month on a $150,000 would raise $56 million for school improvements.
The second plan would include a half-cent city sales tax that would be in effect for 10 years. This, coupled with the mill levy increase, would raise $78 million.
The Hays City Commission would have to approve the tax before a bond question could go on the ballot.
The final plan would use a countywide sales tax. The half-cent tax would run for the full 25 years of the bond. A mill levy tax that would raise property tax $12.94 per month on a $150,000 home, plus the countywide sales tax, would raise $89 million.
A portion of money raised from a countywide sales tax would go to the other school districts. Revenue would be distributed based on headcount.
The Ellis County Commission and all the cities in the affected area would have to approve the tax before the bond issue could go on the ballot.
The vision team decided to focus on work at the elementary schools, which would include a new elementary school and renovations and additions at Wilson and Roosevelt elementary schools.
Improvements could include “right-sized” classrooms, with all of the elementary schoolsbecoming four-section schools after renovations.
Among the Vision Team members, creating storm shelters and increasing security at all buildings were top priorities. At all funding levels, the team sought to improve security and make storm shelters available for all students at all schools.
Amber Beverlin, senior architect for DLR, noted Wilson has undersized classrooms, as well as structural and ADA issues that need to be addressed.
A complete renovation for Wilson would cost $16.3 million. Some present questioned the prudence of spending that much on a 58-year-old building.
Jim French, DLR’s global K-12 sector leader, said some savings could be realized by adding new space at the building that could be used for innovation and creative learning centers instead of moving walls to make classrooms bigger.
The scope of the Wilson work has yet to be determined.
As the plan stands now, Lincoln Elementary School would be closed. The district would set aside money in the bond to deal with closed buildings. It could sell them or demolish them.
Work at the high school and middle school would depend on the amount of funding available.
The group prioritized the needs at the high school in this order: storm shelters, mechanical updates, performing arts educational space, right-sizing classrooms for 21st century learning, physical education space, career and technical education space.
At the middle school, the priorities were as follows: right-sizing the kitchen and cafeteria for the student population, physical education space, classroom addition, and renovating classrooms.
Another option discussed was to renovate O’Loughlin and use it to house the learning center, early childhood program and the Westside program. The renovations would include the addition of a storm shelter.
In talks with educators, Beverlin noted the director of the early education program said the program would have to be reduced in size unless it was relocated.
A member of the committee expressed concern about the three programs being housed in the same building.
Beverlin said educators said they were comfortable putting all three programs in the same building and areas could be separated so students in the different programs did not co-mingle.
Westside and Washington would be closed under this plan, and Munjor would go back to the church.
“I think this is worth having,” Chris Dinkel, committee member, said of the O’Loughlin renovations. “I think it is a necessity. I just walked through Westside today, and it is not good.”
Superintendent John Thissen said he would take a plan to use utility savings to pay for improvement of the HVAC system at the high school to the school board. This means that $5.8 million that the committee had planned to spend at the high school could be funneled into other projects.
Some board members said they were concerned that the $89 million option was too close to the previous bond issue that failed.
“I think we have a lot more buzz,” Dinkel said. “(During the previous bond election), 90 percent of people said they had not even heard that it was happening. It was if we were forcing through $90 million.
“I don’t think we have the same atmosphere in Hays. This is a different plan significantly. … I think people are much more engaged in the process.”
French said, “The 300 staff members in district had no passion for the previous bond. Now the educators realize the time has come and they can no longer live in environments that don’t work. They know they need to work to educate parents why we need to do this.”
The vision team has been working on this process for six months. It hopes to have final plans soon, as the longer the bond is delayed, the more construction costs could increase, potentially costing the district millions more to complete the improvements.
KIOWA COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 7a.m. Thursday in Kiowa County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 International Truck driven by Rickus Te-Baerts, 27, Haviland, was southbound approaching the railroad crossing on 4th Avenue just west of U.S. 54 two miles west of Haviland.
The driver failed to yield. An eastbound Union Pacific train hit the truck
The Train came to a stop. The truck came to rest on 47th Avenue north of the Railroad tracks.
Te-Baerts was transported to the hospital in Greensburg.
The train’s engineer from Texas was not injured.
Te-Baerts was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP
An open letter to the Kansas congressional delegation:
Dear Representatives Marshall, Jenkins, Yoder, and Estes, and Senators Roberts and Moran,
A moment of truth for each of you is at hand. President Trump has proposed a tax plan that looks and sounds remarkably like the Brownback experiment now playing out in Kansas. Trump will be asking for your vote, but consider the experience of your home state before you cast it!
Duane Goossen
Just like the Brownback tax cuts, the Trump plan makes dramatic changes to tax policy by consolidating income tax rates and reworking deductions. But most notably, the Trump plan offers an enormous tax break to individuals who receive “business pass through income.” In Kansas this feature has become known derogatorily as the LLC loophole, allowing business income to be sheltered from income tax while people who earn a paycheck must pay tax.
Given that the same economists who advised Brownback now advise Trump, it’s unsurprising that the Trump administration uses similar arguments to sell its plan: the tax cuts will grow the economy and create millions of jobs; the tax cuts will pay for themselves; everyone will benefit. Brownback said all that, too.
But after five years of the Brownback experiment in Kansas, we know the real result. Kansas has an anemic economy and one of the lowest rates of job growth in the nation. A dramatic drop in revenue broke the state budget, wiped out reserves, significantly boosted state debt, and put public education at risk. And that part about everyone benefitting—well, it turns out that the bulk of the tax cut benefits went to the wealthiest Kansans while the tax bill to low-income Kansans actually went up.
The idea that tax cuts will “pay for themselves” or that tax cuts for the wealthy will “trickle down” to the middle class should be added to the list of discredited ideas that sound good but don’t work. The sell job at the beginning was oh-so-seductive, but Kansans now have the raw experience to grasp that the experiment carried out on us was a complete failure.
Do you understand how hard Kansas legislators must labor now to fix the financial disaster? Are you catching on that general fund revenue has fallen $1 billion below expenses? Can you see how all political energy goes into crisis management rather than building our future? Is that what you want for the entire country?
Based on your public statements so far, it’s hard to feel confident that any of you will acknowledge the tax policy failure in Kansas and fight off the Trump plan. If you support it, you betray all who have endured the troubles resulting from the Brownback plan, and the Kansas legislators who have been struggling in overtime this legislative session to reverse course. And a yes vote would be a willful betrayal, because after everything that has happened in Kansas, you will never be able to say “I didn’t know.”
Duane Goossen formerly served 12 years as Kansas Budget Director.
That National Weather Service is warning of a strong storm that is expected to fire up this afternoon and evening in western Kansas.
Thursday’s storm brings an increased risk of tornadoes, large hail, high winds and thunderstorms.
The NWS said the area at risk is east of a line extending from Scott City to Liberal. Hays is on the northwest fringe of the high-risk area. Click the image for more.
Just after 12:30 p.m., the NWS said hail could be baseball-sized or larger with winds gusting to 75-plus mph.
The greatest risk of tornadic activity is south of Hays, but the risk area includes most of Ellis County.
In case of severe weather, stay tuned to your Eagle Radio stations and check HaysPost.com.
As inclement weather approaches, please take proactive precautions to stay safe. After a storm has passed, continue to keep safety in mind and give utility workers and law enforcement the necessary space to do their jobs and help those in need. Stay away from downed power lines and always assume they are energized. This safety message is brought to you by Sunflower Electric Power Corporation.
