WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two gorillas that had been the first to arrive at a zoo in Wichita 13 years ago are headed to warmer climes in Florida.
The Sedgwick County Zoo says primate brothers Shango and Barney will be leaving next Friday for the Miami zoo, giving the Kansas zoo more space for its growing gorilla population that will number nine.
Twenty-eight-year-old Shango and 23-year-old Barney came to the Sedgwick County Zoo in 2004.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former wedding photographer in Raymore, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court today to a fraud scheme to dupe women into having sex – which he recorded – under the guise they were rehearsing for a pornography movie.
Mario Ambrose Antoine, 34, of Raymore, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to one count of wire fraud.
By pleading guilty today, Antoine admitted that he defrauded numerous victims in a scheme that lasted form Aug. 28, 2011, until Oct. 11, 2016. Antoine, posing in various roles as a company owner, recruiter, talent manager, photographer and videographer for multiple fictitious companies and private modeling websites (such as “Playboy Worldwide,” and “Playboy Asia”), induced women to engage in sexual and pornographic activity with him. Antoine promised the women, who signed contracts and modeling release forms, they would be paid thousands of dollars by these fictitious entities for their auditioning and modeling activity.
Victims of the wire fraud scheme were promised payments cumulatively totaling at least $550,000 and as much as $1.5 million. Antoine admitted that his fraud scheme affected 10 or more victims, and resulted in a substantial financial hardship to one or more of these victims.
In order to demonstrate the authenticity of the enterprise and assure prospective victims, Antoine prepared forged and fraudulent payment checks (purportedly issued to other “models”), IRS tax forms and Department of Homeland Security employment forms. He registered the domain name playboy-asia.com and created the e-mail account [email protected], which he used to communicate with victims.
Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Antoine will be sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole and must pay restitution to his victims, pending the court’s acceptance of the plea agreement at Antoine’s sentencing hearing on Sept. 13, 2017.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick D. Daly and David A. Barnes. It was investigated by the FBI, the Raymore, Mo., Police Department and the Office of the Missouri Attorney General.
FHSU UNIVERSITY RELATIONS AND MARKETING
Fort Hays State University’s Dr. Trey Hill, assistant professor of psychology, recently published an article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
“Adding up to good Bayesian reasoning: Problem format manipulations and individual skill differences” was published in a high-profile journal of the American Psychological Association.
“The paper examines the accuracy of updating likelihood estimates of an event happening based on new evidence and how those accuracy levels can be manipulated by individuals trying to convey statistical information,” said Hill.
“This research has direct application in how doctors communicate test results to patients,” he said.
Hill co-authored the article with Dr. Gary Brase, professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University.
An official copy of the article can be found at https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xge/146/4/577/.
GREELEY COUNTY — Two people were hospitalized after a single-vehicle accident Saturday in Greeley County.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 2003 GMC Yukon, driven by Chelsea Dawn Guessen, 31, Tribune, was eastbound on County Road F, just east of Kansas 27, when it drove over a patch of wash-boarded road. The driver lost control of the vehicle and it ran off the left side of the roadway. The vehicle re-entered the roadway and overturned, rolling approximately three times.
Guessen and a passenger — Cory Vencil Guessen, 34, Tribune — were transported to Greeley County Hospital for treatment. Neither were wearing seat belts, the KHP reported.
Dorothy Marie Walker, 85, passed away on May 12, 2017 at Trego Manor in WaKeeney, Kansas. She was born on January 28, 1932 in Rural Trego County, Kansas the daughter of Joe and Theresa (Ashenbrenner) Schuster.
She was a homemaker and a member of the St. Aloysius Church and Altar Society, Ransom. She loved Polka dancing and was a member of the Sunflower Polka Club. She was a former member of the Soil Conservation Board and she was a Red Hat Lady. She married Richard Walker on January 28, 1953, in Ellis, Kansas. He died on January 17, 1978.
Survivors include three sons, Bob and Melinda Walker, Ness City, John and Sherry Walker, Ness City, and Chuck Walker, Brownell; brother, Alfred Schuster, Hays; sister, Carol and Joe Eckhardt, Topeka; 5 grandchild and 10 great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard and brother, Ralph Schuster.
Funeral Service will be on Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 10:00 AM, at the St. Aloysius Church, Ransom, Kansas. Burial in the Vansburgh Cemetery, Brownell, Kansas. Rosary and Parish Vigil will be on Monday, May 15 starting at 6:30 PM at Fitzgerald Funeral Home, Ness City.
Memorial contributions may be given to the American Legion and Volunteer Fire Department both of Brownell.
KDWPT
PRATT – Summertime colds can be good-time killers, but there’s another kind of summer fever that’s sure to be a good-time creator: fishing fever.been fishing before, are looking to brush up your skills, or just want a fun, family-friendly event to take your kids to, the Aquatic Education calendar at ksoutdoors.com has your prescription for fishing fever. Simply visit ksoutdoors.com and click “Special Fishing Programs For You,” then “Aquatic Education Information.” The calendar will be on the right-hand side and there you’ll find fishing events nearly every weekend throughout the season, starting in May.
Here are just a few you won’t want to miss:
-May 13: Fishing Education event at Academy Sports, west Wichita. Starting at 11 a.m., Bass Federation members and FishKS representatives will be on-site to teach fishing techniques, knot-tying, and more.
-May 20: Staff at Great Plains Nature Center, 6232 East 29th St N, Wichita, will be hosting their annual fishing clinic and Walk With Wildlife event open to the public.
-June 3 and 4: “Free Fishing Weekend” throughout the state. During this event, you can fish any public waters without a fishing license.
-June 10: Family Outdoor Adventure Day at Cabela’s, Kansas City. Several outdoor organizations including Fishing’s Future will be available for fishing activities and outdoor recreation education.
KDWPT, in partnership with Fishing’s Future, coordinates and conducts over 175 fishing education events every year through the FishKS program – that’s in addition to the many private and non-profit organizations who host events with FishKS, too.
If you would like to invite FishKS to be part of your fishing or aquatic education event, please contact David Breth at (620) 672-5911. Demand is high, so attendance can’t be guaranteed, but FishKS staff will do their best to assist in any way possible.
For more information on aquatic education events and how you can help, visit ksoutdoors.com and click “Special Fishing Programs For You,” then “Aquatic Education Information.”
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Students at Wilson Elementary School celebrated a 20-year tradition Thursday by honoring their mothers at their annual Mother’s Tea.
Gloria Blackwell, music teacher, has worked at the school for 20 years, and said the tradition started before her tenure at the school.
The second-grade classes, which accounted for about 70 students performed an insect-themed musical titled “Bugz!” In addition, the children made flowers of tissue paper and presented their moms with live carnations and framed pictures of themselves.
The closing of the program was a slide show of pictures of the children when they were babies and what they look like now. The children “Oooed,” “Ahed,” and giggled as they saw the baby pictures and then shouted the students names as their identities were revealed.
“It’s cool,” said Brianne Sultzer, mom of Harper. “The kids have been together for the last three years and you get to see how they have grown up.”
Mom Freddi Unruh and Parker, 8, will be spending Mother’s Day at a soccer tournament this weekend.
“I think it is heart warming,” she said. “You get to see how they have grown in the last seven or eight years.”
Other grades used to put on year-end programs or musicals, but changes in curriculum have made it difficult to fit everything in, Blackwell said.
Candace Sage, teacher, said the school’s staff has worked to keep the tradition alive.
“It is awesome,” she said. “It is not something that we could give up.”
The Ellis County Public Works Department has announced a guard rail repair project in the 1600 block of Toulon Avenue will begin Tuesday.
The 1600 block of Toulon Avenue will be closed beginning at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and will reopen at 4 p.m. daily until the repairs are complete. The project is expected to be completed by May 19. Motorists traveling in the affected closure area should use alternate routes of travel until the repairs are complete.
Direct any questions to the Ellis County Public Works Department at (785)-628-9455.
Mother’s Day Shout Out by Sailor from Hays serving in Naval Hospital Pensacola
ECHS
Pioneer Day will be held on the grounds of Ellis County Historical Society, 100 W. 7th, Hays, on Wednesday, May 17, 1-2:30 p.m.
For the past 15 years, this event has encouraged hands-on learning about pioneer history for grades K-5. This year’s activities will include tales of fighting fires in the early days of Ellis County, cowboy songs, washboard washing, cross-cut wood sawing, and rug making, among others.
For the second year, an additional event will be held in the evening, following Pioneer Day. Families are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs and blankets for a free picnic-style dinner, starting at 6 p.m. Following dinner, the Hays Fireman’s Relief Association will present stories of fire-fighting during the early days of Ellis County, and the formation of the first Hays firehouse.
Ellis County Historical Society, founded in 1972, collects, preserves, and exhibits items and documents that illustrate the history of Ellis County. We are located at 100 West 7th Street in Hays.
Today
Sunny, with a high near 88. Southwest wind 12 to 17 mph becoming light west southwest in the afternoon.
Tonight
Mostly clear, with a low around 65. South wind 8 to 11 mph.
Monday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Breezy, with a south wind 8 to 13 mph increasing to 18 to 23 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. Breezy, with a south wind 18 to 20 mph.
Tuesday
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Breezy, with a south wind 17 to 24 mph.
Tuesday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. Breezy.
Wednesday
Sunny, with a high near 84.
Wednesday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 55.
Thursday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82.
By JIM MCLEAN
Dennis Wright isn’t alone.
He’s one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Kansas residents and public officials waiting for the state to solve its money problems so that dozens of highway projects that have been indefinitely delayed can get going again.
“People are incredulous,” Wright says. “Our roads are going to pot. You can drive anywhere in the state and see problems.”
For Wright, a retired welder from Council Grove, the problem is Kansas Highway 177. It’s a scenic two-lane road that runs through the Flint Hills from El Dorado to Manhattan.
The stretch from Council Grove to Manhattan is dangerous, Wright says, noting that it’s the route his son takes to work.
The highway is narrow and has no shoulders. Rollover accidents are common due to steep embankments. In addition, a series of curves makes it virtually impossible to pass slow-moving vehicles and farm machinery, Wright says.
“As you drive it, you’ll notice that 90 percent of the time there’s no place to go,” Wright says. “If you’ve got trouble, you’ve really got trouble because the highway drops off steeply. It’s just the scene of many accidents out here.”
Postponed Projects
From 2011 through 2015, 439 of the 916 highway fatalities recorded in Kansas occurred on roads like K-177: two-lane highways with no controlled access.
Those numbers and increasing traffic made K-177 a prime candidate for a safety upgrade in 2010 when Kansas lawmakers passed T-WORKS, a 10-year, $8 billion transportation program. Engineers from the Kansas Department of Transportation devised a plan to make the road safer by rebuilding a 24-mile section from Council Grove to I-70. It called for widening the highway, adding shoulders and redesigning sections to improve the visibility around curves.
Download a 2012 KDOT informational document on planned K-177 improvements.
The $29 million project was penciled in the T-WORKS schedule, with construction set to begin in March 2017.
That didn’t happen.
A precipitous drop in state revenues triggered by deep income tax cuts passed in 2012 at Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s insistence led lawmakers to divert billions of dollars from KDOT in subsequent years to patch gaping holes in the budget.
The steady loss of funding forced KDOT in April 2016 to delay 24 expansion and modernization projects, including the K-177 upgrade. Since then, the list of postponed projects has grown to more than 50.
Download the April 2016 KDOT news release on delayed highway projects.
“We’re paying a terrible price for some very poor decisions,” says first-term Rep. Dave Baker, a Council Grove Republican, referring to the tax cuts and the refusal by Brownback and conservative Republican leaders to reverse course.
Baker is a member of a large group of moderate Republicans sent to Topeka in November by voters weary of the state’s budget problems. He says he’s committed to stabilizing the state’s revenue picture in the hope that construction can proceed on at least some of the highway projects that KDOT has delayed.
“We’re going to get a handle on this and get things turned around,” Baker says. “We’ll get Kansas back on track.”
A Slow Road Back?
But it could be a slow road back. Lawmakers are struggling to pass a budget and tax package to address a projected $900 million revenue shortfall over the next two budget years. They also must find a way to generate millions in additional funding for public schools to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court order.
Given that reality, lawmakers will probably choose to divert another $1 billion from KDOT over the next two budget years, foreclosing the possibility that work can resume on any of the delayed projects.
So, Baker and others have shifted their focus to getting KDOT the money it needs to adequately maintain the 10,000-mile state highway system.
“We need to get that done,” he says.
KDOT needs a minimum of $380 million a year for maintenance and preservation work, says Jerry Younger, an engineer who was the department’s deputy secretary until he retired last year.
But it’s been years since the cash-strapped agency has been able to spend that much. And it has allocated only $44 million for maintenance in the budget year that begins July 1.
Brownback and KDOT Secretary Richard Carlson argue there is no cause for alarm. They say that 30 years of investment in the Kansas highway system should have it in good enough shape to weather a couple more years of reduced maintenance. Carlson says that more than 90 percent of the state’s highways are rated in “good”condition.
Those rating scores can be deceiving, Younger says, because highways can go downhill fast if neglected.
“There is this misconception that a road gradually deteriorates, and quite honestly that’s not how it works,” Younger says. “Typically what happens is the road is … good for a period of time. But when it begins deteriorating … it deteriorates pretty quickly.”
KDOT uses a specially equipped van to annually inspect every mile of the state highway system to determine where maintenance is most urgently needed, Younger says.
“It’s important to catch problems so you can do the right action at the right time,” he says, adding that every dollar spent on timely maintenance prevents having to spend five times as much on reconstruction.
Gas Tax A Tough Sell
The lobbying group that represents the highway contractors in Kansas is seeking an increase in the motor fuels tax to generate the maintenance money that KDOT needs. They initially called for an increase of 11 cents a gallon but are also supporting a bill that would raise the tax by only 5 cents a gallon.
“The key reason we want a gas tax — and it’s really important — is that it cannot be diverted to other needs in state government,” says Bob Totten, chief lobbyist for the Kansas Contractors Association.
The gas tax is proving to be a tough sell to lawmakers also being asked to raise income taxes to balance the budget and fund public schools.
So, Economic Lifelines, another transportation lobbying organization, is backing an alternative proposal that has been adopted by budget writing committees in both houses. It would allow KDOT to issue another $400 million in bonds over the next two years to fund maintenance work.
Sen. John Skubal, a freshman Republican from Overland Park, doesn’t much like the idea of using borrowed money to pay for maintenance. But he says it appears to be the only option.
“That’s very bothersome for me,” Skubal says. “But we need to take care of the infrastructure that’s been left to us. I think the test of a society isn’t what you build new for yourself, but how you take care of what’s been left to you.”
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. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Numerous doctors from around the U.S. could become eligible to treat patients in Missouri’s underserved areas as a result of a planned expansion of a first-in-the-nation law aimed at addressing doctor shortages.
The newly passed Missouri legislation would broaden the reach of a 2014 law that sought to bridge the gap between communities in need of doctors and physicians in need of jobs.
Supporters have touted the law as a model for other states.
The law created a new category of “assistant physicians” for people who graduated from medical school and passed key medical exams but were not placed in residency programs. But it took nearly 2½ years to implement.
Missouri’s new legislation turns back the clock, so those who became ineligible during the slow rollout still can qualify.
