The Fort Hays State women’s basketball team routinely makes the trip to Kansas City, Mo. in March for the MIAA Tournament, but the Tigers will make their first regular season trip to KC in almost 13 years Saturday (Dec. 16) when they face off with Rockhurst University. First tip with the Hawks is set for 2 p.m. inside Mason-Halpin Field House.
*Due to the men’s home game starting at 4 p.m., Saturday’s contest will air on 94.3 KAYS in Hays.* Listen
The Tigers head into the weekend 8-2 on the season, while the Hawks are 6-3 so far this year. Fort Hays State will be looking for its second win in four days after defeating Tabor on Wednesday, 90-44, while the Hawks will return to the court for the first time in nine days after losing to Illinois-Springfield last Thursday, 63-38.
Despite the close proximity in relation to other Division II programs, Fort Hays State has only played Rockhurst six times before Saturday. The Tigers hold a 5-1 advantage in the series, including five-straight wins and a 2-1 edge in Kansas City. This is the first time that head coach Tony Hobson has faced off with the Hawks. The teams last played in 2006, with the Tigers pulling out a 79-77 home victory thanks to a season-high 27 points from Ashlee Gustin (1/24/06).
The Tigers have taken care of business in non-conference play in recent history, winning their last 22 regular season out of league games and 55 of their last 56. Coach Hobson is 66-5 in regular season non-conference contests at FHSU.
Limiting turnovers has been essential for the Tigers this season, with FHSU making 15 or fewer turnovers in all seven wins and making 16 or more miscues in both losses so far this year.
Rockhurst is coming off an 18-10 season a year ago, the most wins since the progam made the jump to the NCAA Division II in 1998-99. The Hawks have played a trio of MIAA opponents this season, defeating Northwest Missouri State (62-47) while losing to Washburn (64-62) and Missouri Western (52-39). Rockhurst is 5-0 at home this season. The Hawks average 68 points per game while limiting opponents to 59.4 points per contest. They are strong on the glass, ranking second in the GLVC with 41.7 rebounds per night. Madeline Ronshausen leads the team and ranks seventh in the GLVC with 15.2 points each night. Jillian Myers affect the game in many ways, leading the team with 4.6 assists, 1.7 blocks and 2.2 steals per game while ranking second with 11.7 points per contest and sitting third with 5.1 rebounds per outing.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged theft.
On Tuesday, a 46-year-old man reported to police he purchased tickets electronically for a Wichita State basketball game and the tickets were fake, according to a social media report from police.
Investigators began working on the case to identify the suspect. A citizen also contacted Wichita Police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow who also had purchased tickets electronically for a WSU Basketball game which were fraudulent.
Sgt. Woodrow, citizens and investigators all began working together and it led to the arrest of 33-year-old Derek S. Devlin for petit theft, possession of drugs, and warrants. He has previous convictions for robbery, theft and criminal damage to property.
Hays city commissioners voted Thursday to remove the city from the Public Employer-Employee Relations Act (PEERA). By law, the change is effective one year after the vote.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Longtime Hays city commissioner Henry Schwaller called it “probably one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make” as he voted Thursday night against adopting an ordinance to withdraw the city from participation in PEERA.
Still, the vote passed 3-2, with Commissioners Lance Jones, Sandy Jacobs, and Vice-Mayor James Meier voting yes. Schwaller and Mayor Shaun Musil voted no.
By law, the PEERA exit becomes effective one year after the vote, beginning in January 2019.
The city of Hays has participated in PEERA (Public Employer-Employee Relations Act) since 1972 and negotiates wage and benefits with three employee unions representing fire, police and service workers. Hays is one of just 12 cities in Kansas to participate in PEERA, which is optional for local governments.
Commissioner Jones, whose term is nearly up, has pushed for the opt out. “I believe the city and commissioners value all employees and should not be negotiating with certain groups when it comes to wages and benefits,” Jones said during the Nov. 16 work session. “We should be doing what’s best for all employees.”
All 178 Hays city employees, including the 61 members of the three unions, received a four percent pay increase for 2018. Members of the city’s Wage and Benefit Committee are volunteers, 8 to 10 employees, from across all city departments, according to Asst. City Manager Jacob Wood. He is a member, along with Human Resources Director Erin Giebler.
“It’s my understanding that we’re having good participation of all three unions in the Wage and Benefit Committee,” said Commissioner Sandy Jacobs as she read a statement prior to the vote.
Jacobs, the newest commissioner, said she previously had very little experience with unions, and did a lot of fact-finding in coming to her decision.
“After considering all the facts, I’m focused on staff productivity and efficiency, and I believe union activity negotiation affects both those areas,” said Jacobs. “And in speaking with union members and representatives, they, for the most part, could not provide examples of what may have benefited our employees solely because of their negotiations.”
HPD Cpl. Phillip Gage, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #48
Musil asked Hays Police Dept. Cpl. Phillip Gage, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #48, what his union members feared losing.
“I feel like our voice would be taken away from us,” Gage responded. “That would be the one thing. It’s a new horizon if you guys do get out of it. It’s just uncertain to me. What we have now is certainty in the way it works. It’s been working for 40-plus years.”
“We’re struggling now to keep our numbers up in the police department,” said Schwaller. “How’s this going to look to someone that wants to apply to work in Hays? ‘Oh, they just voted to get rid of the FOP.’ Is this going to look good? I don’t think so. That’s why I’m voting no tonight.”
The FOP is the city’s biggest union. Of the 43 eligible employees in the police department, 27 are union members. All 18 employees eligible for the firefighters union, International Association of Firefighters (IAFF #2119), are members. There are 52 eligible employees for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU #513) of whom 16 are members.
SEIU #513 Business Manager Esau Freeman, Wichita, talks with union members after the city commission vote. Freeman also works with Ellis County employees in their SEIU union. County commissioners will consider their PEERA participation Dec. 18.
Esau Freeman, Wichita, is the business manager of SEIU #513. “It is important to acknowledge that while numbers for SEIU are low, higher wage earners like police and fire have greater numbers in their membership,” Freeman told the commission. “As a whole, all of the unions combined do exceed 50 percent of the represented worker population.”
“Good intentions can be put on paper but without unions, who will be there to enforce the agreement when it becomes less than convenient to fulfill the promised benefits or wages?,” asked Freeman.
Firefighter Brandon Woods, president of IAFF #2119, also spoke in support of retaining PEERA.
“We’re not trying to replace the unions,” Jones stressed. “Opting out of PEERA does not get rid of unions. It’s just the way the city negotiates with unions.”
(Click to enlarge)
According to Asst. Manager Wood, the city currently spends about $20,000 annually during the negotiation processes. “That includes all the meetings, staff time, and city attorney time,” he said. When the city and unions are at an impasse, “there are more meetings and the more it costs the city” to hire an agreed-upon mediator or another third-party fact finder, if necessary.
A new city commissioner, Chris Dinkel, will be sworn in January 8, 2018, who ran for the seat Jones will vacate. Jones opted not to run again due to time constraints of his job. Musil and Jacobs were re-elected.
The Center for Health Improvement at HaysMed, part of The University of Kansas Health System,is offering Kids Fit Winter Break.
Two sessions will be offered. Session one will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m. for children ages 7 to 13.Session two will be from 2:30 to 4 p.m. for children ages 3 to 6 years.Both sessions will be on Dec. 27, 28, 29 and Jan. 2 and 3 at The Center for Health Improvement Gym at 2500 Canterbury Drive in Hays.
The program is designed to keep kids healthy while burning off some winter time energy. Kids will be introduced to a variety of different individual and group activities and all skill levels. Beginners to advanced are encouraged to attend.
Rickey Lynn Beltz, age 63, died at his home in Garden City on Dec. 12, 2017. He was born on Sept. 4, 1954 in Wichita, Kansas the son of Sidney and Evelyn Foos Beltz.
Rickey was an umpire and referee in the Garden City area for high school and college baseball and soccer. He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Garden City. He graduated from Bazine High School in 1972, St. John’s College in Winfield, Kan., in 1974, and Concordia Teachers College of Seward, Neb., in 1976.
He is survived by his mother, Evelyn Beltz of Bazine; sister, Deanna Michaelis and her husband, James, of Bazine; nieces, Dr. Stacey Dimitt and her husband, Bart, and their daughter, Peyton, all of Smith Center and Melody Ketterer and her husband, Marvin, and their son, Maddox, all of Manhattan; and many cousins, uncles, aunts, and friends.
Rickey was preceded in death by his father, Sidney, and infant siblings.
Funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017 at Fitzgerald Funeral Home, Ness City with burial in the Bazine Cemetery, Bazine, Kansas. Friends may call at Fitzgerald Funeral Home from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Friday with the family present from 7 to 8 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be given to the Christ Pilot Me Hill and The Lutheran Hour.
Smith Center – Michael Robert Hughes, 62, passed away Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 at his home in Smith Center, Kan.
He was born Sept. 13, 1955 in Smith Center, the eldest of two sons born to Verla Mae (Stanhope) and Robert Duane Hughes.
Mike attended school in Smith Center, graduating from Smith Center High School in 1973. While in school, Mike helped care for his friend Jeff Alden, who was wheelchair bound with muscular dystrophy.
Mike attended college for one semester and then returned home to work full time in Smith Center. It was during this time that Mike started a long line of community service. He was one of the youngest city council members ever elected at age 19 in 1975, and when he was re-elected, his peers voted him in as council president. Mike later became a member of Jaycees and Kiwanis, and served offices in both clubs. He was also an honorary member of Rotary. Mike was a member of the Chamber of Commerce for several years, serving on the board of directors and also as Chamber president for two terms. Though Chamber he served on various committees such as Retail Trade, Old Settlers and was on the board of directors of Center Theatre for many years.
In 1974, Mike started a part-time career that would have him traveling around the Midwest for many years. He later became the voice of several area race tracks, not only in Kansas but in Nebraska as well. “Huey” as he was known on the racing circuit, received several awards for his service to auto racing.
Mike became the “Voice of the Redmen” as he emceed sporting events at Smith Center Jr.-Sr. High School and did play-by-play for SCTV, the local school channel as well announcing and emceeing other events around the community as needed.
He served as city recreation director for several years working with both the youth and senior citizens of Smith Center. Mike cofounded the 6-Pack, a singing and comedy group that traveled around the area to entertain people of all ages. In his spare time Mike coached girls’ softball and helped with bingo at the Smith Center VFW.
Mike was a member of the New Covenant Church of Smith Center and enjoyed spending time with his church family and helping the church in various capacities. Mike also enjoyed playing cards and bingo, karaoke, dining out, going to movies, attending sporting, school and musical events; and spending time with his family and friends.
He loved to entertain people and loved to make people laugh.
Mike was preceded in death by his parents, uncles Mason Stanhope, Lile Goebel and Charles Hughes; aunts Faye Goebel and Maxine Rush; and cousins Paul Goebel and Linda (Hughes) Relihan.
He is survived by his brother Mitchell (Donelle) Hughes of Smith Center; two nieces Alaina (Matt LaBarge) Hughes of Smith Center, Aurielle (David) Berry of Hays; nephew Anden (Sierra) Hughes of Hays; great-nephews Gavin, Justin and Braxton Hughes and great-niece Zaylee Hughes; uncle Donald (Wilma) Hughes of Smith Center; aunt Marilyn Hughes of Smith Center and several cousins and a multitude of friends.
A celebration of Mike’s life will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017 at Smith Center High School, 300 Roger Barta Way, Smith Center, with Pastor Mike Gooder officiating. There will not be a public visitation as cremation was chosen. Private family inurnment will take place in Fairview Cemetery, Smith Center at a later date. Memorials may be given to the Mike Hughes Memorial Fund and sent in care of All Faiths Funeral Chapel, 113 S. Madison St., Smith Center, KS 66967.
Location of Thursday’s fatal accident -google image
GIRARD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found under a rural southeast Kansas bridge.
The Joplin Globe reports that 62-year-old Robert Boyer was discovered Wednesday in shallow water in rural Girard. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that his pickup truck hit a barbed wire fence before coming to a stop straddling the edge of a narrow concrete bridge.
The driver’s side door was open. Investigators believe Boyer fell from the vehicle, not realizing there was a six-foot drop and tumbled to the bottom of the creek on the bridge’s south side.
Deputies believe Boyer was able to crawl up an embankment and maneuver to the truck’s passenger side before falling into the creek again from the opposite side of the bridge.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A homeless man who told police he dismembered his wife in a Missouri hotel room then slept in a Kansas storage unit with her remains and their two children is headed to a mental hospital for treatment.
A Kansas judge on Thursday found Justin Rey not competent to stand trial and ordered the treatment.
Rey is charged in Kansas and Missouri with child endangerment. He’s also charged with abandonment of corpse in Missouri. He isn’t charged in his wife’s killing.
Investigators say Rey took photographs of himself with his wife’s body before dismembering her and taking her remains to the storage unit in Lenexa, Kansas. Rey said she died during childbirth and that she killed herself.
He’s also charged in the death of a California man whose body hasn’t been found.
Hello United States. Hello from Kansas. It appears that Congress and the President are about to enact a Kansas-style income tax cut for the nation. Good luck with that.
Duane Goossen
Kansas went down that road six years ago and ended up with a budget-busting, economic-deadening disaster. Our reputation got kicked around for it, too. The national press focused on telling the story of the Kansas tax experiment, and, as our financial decline deepened, we had to absorb disdain and snickering from around the country: “Haha, what were you all thinking? How could you harm yourselves like that? Don’t ever do what Kansas did.”
But now as the whole United States is about to do just that, Kansans are done taking guff about self-destructive tax policy.
You see, in Kansas we dealt with our trouble. “We mopped up our mess.” Kansas citizens educated themselves, saw the mistake, and corrected it. Kansans did not figure it out in time to keep from narrowly re-electing Sam Brownback in 2014. By 2016, though, Kansans were upset enough to change the Legislature and give the tax experiment the big boot.
To be sure, much work remains to bring Kansas back to financial health. And while surveys show that a large majority of Kansans now believe our tax cuts were wrongheaded, not everyone owns up. Note, for example, our out-of-touch congressional delegation casting votes for the U.S. tax plan. Or the hometown Koch-funded Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity spending a million dollars to mail Kansans mega-numbers of postcards bashing legislators who successfully voted to reverse the Brownback tax plan.
Even so, our hard-won experience and newly-achieved turnaround allow us to offer lessons:
First, tax cuts don’t pay for themselves. The revenue loss from the Kansas tax cuts was steep, immediately throwing the state budget badly out of balance. The U.S. tax cut plan will add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt and threaten Social Security and Medicare, just as the Kansas plan threatened public education and highways.
Second, tax cuts for the wealthy don’t trickle down. The Kansas plan primarily cut taxes for the wealthiest, while lower-income Kansans ended up paying more. Promised new jobs never arrived. Likewise, corporations and people with substantial “pass through” income benefit most from the national plan.
Finally, and more hopefully, rotten tax policy can be corrected by an engaged citizenry working together in a bipartisan way.
But alas, it looks like the U.S. will pay little heed to Kansas’s lessons. The die appears cast. Just don’t ever say one more derogatory thing about Kansas.
Kansas is a special state and a fine place to live. The prairie is beautiful. We place high value on public education. Kansans are friendly and hard-working. And practical. Deep down we know we have to have enough income to balance our budget and pay for the quality of life we value. We lost that balanced approach during our tax experiment, but we got it back.
Best wishes to the United States.
Duane Goossen formerly served 12 years as Kansas Budget Director.
LAWRENCE — The names of more than 1,300 candidates for degree from the University of Kansas this fall — representing 54 Kansas counties, 43 other states, territories and Washington, D.C., and 24 other countries — have been announced by the University Registrar. Degrees are officially conferred in January.
Some graduates have participated in school and departmental recognition events. Others will choose to participate in KU’s annual Commencement ceremony, which will take place Sunday, May 13, 2018. More information is available at commencement.ku.edu.
Degree candidates are listed below. Not all counties are represented this term.
Ellis
Christen Anne Spinelli, Ellis, Bachelor of General Studies in Psychology and Education Studies Minor
Lauren Alexis Wheeler, Ellis, Doctor of Medicine
Landon Joseph Munsch, Hays, Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Business Minor
Osborne
Baylee N. Wolters, Portis, Bachelor of Science in Business in Supply Chain Management.
The Center for Life Experience, a ministry of the First Presbyterian Church, 2900 Hall Street, invites the community and members of Healing After Loss of Suicide (HALOS), Healing Hearts, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) and their friends and family to a candlelight service Sun., Dec. 17
“The Longest Night: Awaiting the Hope of a New Day” will begin at 7 p.m.
Refreshments will follow the service. Childcare will be provided.
For more information call 785-259-6859 or 785-625-2847.
EMPORIA — Scholarship funds are helping more than 1,400 Emporia State University students from Kansas, 23 other states and 31 foreign countries realize their educational dreams during the 2017-18 academic year.
Students from Hays and the scholarships they received are:
• Layne Downing, Lamar Markowitz Scholarship
• Ashley Haynes, H. W. Wilson Foundation Scholarships
• Bridget Heimann, McPherson Family Scholars Fund
• Rachel Muirhead, Emporia Theatre Guild Fund and Ronald Q. and Jeanne C. Frederickson Theatre Arts Scholarship
• Sara Schoenthaler, Martha Kruse Furbur Library Scholarship Fund
• Dustin Bittel, Ellis, Emil Babinger Theatre Scholarship Fund and Empowering ESU Scholars
HUTCHINSON — Reno County District Judge Trish Rose scheduled a hearing over the civil filing of a Hutchinson man convicted of the murder of a Hutchinson woman.
Charles Christopher Logsdon was sentenced by District Judge Trish Rose to 25 years to life for the murder of Jennifer Heckel with an additional 23 years for other crimes.
In his filing, Logsdon claims newly discovered evidence and a number of items he feels should grant him relief from his conviction and sentence.
He also claimed prosecutor misconduct, an illegal arrest and warrant, an equal protection violation, being convicted of multiple charges — which under the law are the same — and ineffective counsel at both the trial and appellate levels.
In addition, Logsdon claims jury misconduct, faulty jury instructions and disparity of a plea offer.
In 2011, Logsdon was convicted in the shooting death of Heckel in her home while her young son listened in another room.
The state contends the murder was a case of mistaken identity and that the suspects intended to rob another woman but ended up at the wrong house.
A co-defendant, Billy Craig Jr., was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his part in the murder case.
Judge Rose has scheduled the civil case for hearing Friday afternoon.
