Sarah McClure’s father speaking out about the lawsuit in June-image courtesy KSHB
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas paid out a total of $395,000 to settle lawsuits by two former rowers who said the school didn’t respond properly to their reports of being sexually assaulted on campus.
The Kansas City Star reports that the university admits no liability in agreeing to pay former rower Daisy Tackett $245,000 and former rower Sarah McClure $150,000.
Tackett reported a Kansas football player raped her in 2014 and McClure alleged she was assaulted by the same man a year later. The women claimed the school violated Title IX because officials should have anticipated a heightened risk of sexual assaults at the apartments where football players live.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of alleged sexual assault, but Tackett and McClure have said they want their names used.
WICHITA — The Women’s Foundation, League of Kansas Municipalities, Kansas State University Extension and the Kansas Health Foundation have announced a new partnership focused on expanding the Appointments Project™, an initiative designed to increase the number of women serving on civic boards and commissions.
The League of Kansas Municipalities and its participating member cities, including Wichita, will work with the Women’s Foundation to encourage and promote board and commission vacancies be filled with diverse and underrepresented members of their communities.
“We’re excited to work with the League of Kansas Municipalities and Kansas State University Extension to increase the number of women and women of color who are at the decision-making table of their communities. Many of our city, county, and state boards and commissions do not reflect the communities they serve,” said Women’s Foundation President & CEO Wendy Doyle. “More than a nicety, including women in the process strengthens communities and is a best practice for good governance.”
Started in 2014, the Appointments Project is getting results with over 800 applicants with a total of 82 women appointed to Kansas and Missouri boards and commissions. In Kansas City, where the program was piloted, it has helped increase the percentage of women on city boards and commissions from 33-percent to 42-percent in just three years. Recently, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens acknowledged the importance of the Appointments Project and delivered on his commitment to appoint 30 women to statewide board and commission seats in 25 days in honor of Women’s Foundation’s 25th anniversary.
“The League works everyday to strengthen the cities of Kansas and our partnership with the Women’s Foundation and their Appointments Project not only makes our communities stronger, but it addresses the critical issue of diversity in the civic arena,” said League of Kansas Municipalities Executive Director Erik Sartorius.
Kansas State University Extension will offer civic leadership trainings to appointees and public officials.
“We’re thrilled to be a supporter of this statewide partnership,” said Tara Markley, county extension director for Johnson County K-State Research and Extension. “We understand the need to have leaders who reflect the diversity of our communities. Our trainings will give local leaders the tools to better serve the state of Kansas. ”
Support from the Kansas Health Foundation helped make the expansion possible to promote civic health.
“Diversity and inclusion are two hallmarks of democracy,” said Steve Coen, President and CEO of the Kansas Health Foundation. “Ensuring representation of all genders, races, ethnicities and backgrounds is vital for new ideas, fresh perspectives and respectable governance now and in the future.”
The partnership with League of Kansas Municipalities and Kansas State University Extension is one of several Appointments Project expansion efforts. The Women’s Foundation has existing partnerships with the City of Olathe, Kansas; the City of Topeka, Kansas, the State of Missouri; the State of Kansas; and other jurisdictions to address the lack of women on boards and commissions.
The Women’s Foundation promotes equity and opportunity for women of all ages, using research, philanthropy and policy solutions to make meaningful change. More information about the organization can be found at www.Womens-Foundation.org.
Children from the First United Methodist Church in Hays recently made a contribution to the USD 489 Hope Pantry.
The donation of $620 was raised by the children and donated to the pantry to help fill food and hygiene boxes for families this year during extended school breaks.
The district wished to thank all of the children who helped make this year’s winter and spring breaks a little brighter for others.
SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas has called for a school district in the Kansas City area to eliminate a policy prohibiting public complaints about individuals at board meetings.
The Kansas City Star reports that the ACLU sent a letter to the Shawnee Mission School Board Dec. 6 saying a policy approved last month violates constitutional rights to free speech.
The school board requires speakers participating in the open forum section of school board meetings to present information in a “positive” and “constructive way.” The policy says complaints against individual school board members or individual employees are considered inappropriate for the open forum.
ACLU official Doug Bonney says the First Amendment and case law gives individuals the right to express “sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”
The Ellis County fire chief and emergency manager met with the Hays City Commission on Thursday night to discuss improvements to the 911 communications system.
The city has an agreement with Ellis County by which the city provides the dispatchers and Ellis County provides the consoles and 911 radio trunking equipment. Within the last five years, Ellis County has made a significant investment in upgrading not only the radio trunking equipment, but also the consoles and communication equipment.
The 911 system can now take information through voice call or text. The information for a 911 call shows up on a series of screens for the dispatcher, said Darin Myers, Ellis County fire chief and emergency manager. The system uses GPS to identify an area where the call is coming from. It will ping the phone several times during the call to narrow the location.
The county recently upgraded to an NG-911 system. Instead of having a standard phone line that comes into the dispatch center, they are all connected via fiber.
Emergency personnel are paged from two towers in the county via a data line. One tower is at 230th and Feedlot, and the other is southwest of Hays on Spring Hill.
The new equipment being used in the 911 center is more compact, but the county has retained the old equipment with the idea it might install it as a backup system in case the new system would ever go down, Myers said.
The Hays Fire Department is supposed to have a certain amount of dispatch circuits because of the numbers of calls it receives. The department has to have layers of redundancy to make sure the system is working. Before this year’s upgrade, it only had one. Now it has the required two.
Another upgrade was the addition of 4G-LTE backup so if the fiber line goes down, the dispatch center can still receive phone calls.
There is also now a backup generator and equipment at the north tower to help the equipment there last longer.
Further upgrades allowed the county more flexibility with the type of radios that are purchased.
“If we would not have upgraded that when we bought these radios, it would have limited us to what type of radios we would have to buy, which would have increased the price for each radio,” Myers said. “That cost would be distributed to everyone in Ellis County that uses it, including the city of Hays for the fire and PD and Ellis and Victoria PD. … It gives us more ability to buy a cheaper radio now to save money in the future.”
The county also upgraded its recorder. It records all its phone calls and radio channels.
The city has re-formed a joint city/county emergency communications group, which is developing a strategic plan for communications. In addition to identifying the importance of the continuance of the new group, the group identified funding, enhanced data and mobile data terminals as goals.
The upgrades that were completed last year cost more than $800,000. Radios that were approved for purchase Monday night would have cost $760,000 without the discount the county received. Myers said funds for future infrastructure improvements need to be identified.
Enhanced data uses GPS to help locate calls. The county is buying radios with the GPS functions, but money has not been identified for the infrastructure on the dispatch side. That upgrade would likely take another couple of years, Myers said.
Mobile data terminals reduce radio traffic because it uses GPS to automatically track emergency personnel. When personnel arrive on scene, the computer shows dispatch they are there and they don’t have to call in. It also automatically changes your radio channel so you are on the right tactical channel among many other features.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 29-year-old Wichita man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his girlfriend and setting her house on fire.
Dane Wright will serve at least 29 years in prison for the death of 36-year-old Reyona Caldwell. Her body was found June 2 in the basement of her burning home.
Wright pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated arson and three counts of child endangerment.
A coroner determined Wright died from head trauma, smoke inhalation and burns, a coroner determined.
Law enforcement issued an Amber Alert for Caldwell’s three children after her body was found. They were later found in a south Wichita motel room. Wright told police he left the kids there to use methamphetamine and visit a casino.
Listen to Mike Cooper interviewing Bryan Noone and Jeremy Martinson, from the Sleep and Neurodiagnostic Institute at HaysMed, by clicking the link above and then clicking the play button
The following Hays High School students qualified for Northwest/Southwest Kansas Music Educators Association District Orchestra:
Violin 1: Trinity Callis, concert mistress
Violin 2: Alexander Hagerman, principal chair, Tom Drabkin, Caitlin Kuhl, and Amiyah Gonzalez
Viola: Brendan Chapman, Michaela Austin, and Brendan Kershner
Cello: Carl Rorstrom, principal chair
Bass: Cami Moore and Calvin Duden
The following Hays High School students qualified for KMEA All-State School Choir:
Eric Adams, Brett Bowles, Adam Klausmeyer, Shelby Knoll, Nathan Leiker, Hannah McGuire, Erin Muirhead, Levi Smith, Cade Swayne and Ryan Will
Only 256 singers across the state were honored to participate in the KMEA All-State School Choir. The KMEA choir will perform in Wichita later this spring.
MANHATTAN — Together, the Kansas Department of Agriculture and the Kansas Department of Commerce were awarded a $380,000 State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) Grant award for use in 2018. Since the grant’s inception in 2012, more than 50 Kansas small businesses have participated and achieved $17.2 million in actual export sales. To further broaden Kansas’ exporter base and to increase the export value and volume, the two departments have joined forces during the 2018 grant year to focus on three main areas: export training, foreign trade shows and trade missions, and market entry support.
The following KDA STEP Grant trade missions are planned for 2018. All dates are tentative.
Petfood Forum Asia, Bangkok, Thailand, March 27-29, 2018
21st Century: Food, Feed and Fuel for a Rapidly Changing World, Cape Town, South Africa, April 9-13, 2018
Beef Australia, Rockhampton, Australia, May 6-12, 2018
Additionally, KDA has planned the following U.S. Livestock Genetics Export trade missions in 2018. The goal of these missions is to provide an opportunity for Kansas’ purebred cattle producers and allied industry to develop relationships with livestock producers to increase market opportunities for U.S. and Kansas beef and dairy genetics.
AgroFarm Russia, Moscow, Russia, February 6-8, 2018
Beef Australia, May 6-12, 2018
Argentina, late July 2018
Applications for trade missions are due approximately two months prior to tentative travel date. For additional information about the 2018 international travel opportunities, and to apply for any of the missions, please visit www.agriculture.ks.gov/international or contact Suzanne Ryan-Numrich, KDA international trade director, at 785-564-6704 or [email protected].
Total Kansas agriculture exports totaled $3.2 billion in 2016. KDA’s mission is to provide an environment that enhances and encourages economic growth of the agriculture industry domestically and internationally.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
“The cutting edge.” Where would one expect to find the cutting edge with the latest in pharmaceutical care? Today we’ll meet a young rural Kansas pharmacist who is combining cutting edge technology with old-fashioned customer service.
Tyson and Emily Mullen own and operate Grant County Drug in Ulysses, Kansas. Tyson came into the pharmacy business naturally. “My great-grandfather opened the first drugstore in Wichita County,” Tyson said. “I grew up hearing stories about how he would compound his own medicines and deliver them on horseback.”
Tyson grew up in the rural community of Leoti, population 1,534 people. Now, that’s rural.
He found he enjoyed science and math, and he had good mentors who encouraged him toward the medical field. As did his ancestor, he gravitated toward pharmacy. “I believe a pharmacist can impact people and help people on a daily basis,” Tyson said.
His research found that Hutchinson Community College had an excellent track record of preparing people for pharmacy school, so Tyson went there for two years. That was also where he met Emily whom he later married.
Tyson went on to the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy where he was president of his class. He served as a national student representative for the National Community Pharmacy Association and was inducted into Phi Lambda Sigma, the pharmacy national leadership society.
To his great credit, he felt strongly about coming back to western Kansas and maintaining the tradition of independent pharmacy.
After graduation, Tyson worked for a pharmacy in Lakin. In July 2013, Tyson and Emily bought Grant County Drug in Ulysses. Tyson serves as the pharmacist while Emily, who is also trained as a nurse, keeps the books and looks after their two daughters. It is especially exciting to see a young pharmacist take ownership during a time when the average age of pharmacists across Kansas is in the mid- to late-50s.
“My generation is pretty flexible,” Tyson said. “We use technology so much more than our predecessors.” A simple example is sending customers text messages about their needed prescription refills. They also have a system which automatically sends recorded calls using Tyson’s voice as refill reminders.
“There is an iPhone app that lets you scan the bar code on the medicine bottle which makes it more convenient to get refills,” Tyson said. He is working on integrating multiple software programs to assist with patient information.
“Studies show people only refill their monthly maintenance medicines eight times a year (rather than the twelve they should have),” Tyson said. “With better information for them, we’re taking better care of people.”
He pointed out that pharmacy school has evolved also. “It’s not about pills,” Tyson said. “We are moving more toward wellness programs and preventative health.”
Even more exciting scientific developments are on the horizon. “It is possible to do genetic testing with a rapid swab now, which helps us understand individual differences in metabolism,” Tyson said. “That means we can adjust or identify medicines that they will work most effectively for the individual,” he said. Imagine medicines that can be scientifically tailored for each patient.
This is cutting-edge technology being pursued in a rural pharmacy. However, the most important factor for Tyson is still service with a personal touch.
“Unlike the big chain stores, we can take the time to get to know our customers,”
Emily Mullen said. “When Mrs. Jones walks in the door, we don’t have to ask, `How do you spell your name again?’”
“The conversations are important,” Tyson said. “When I call a patient and learn that a particular medicine upsets their stomach, I can adjust to another product which will serve them better.”
The cutting edge. It is exciting to see a young pharmacist in a rural setting pursue these advances in technology. We commend Tyson and Emily Mullen for making a difference with technology while maintaining the personal touch. This approach provides them a positive edge.
And there’s more. These innovative Kansans also expanded their business next door, and we’ll learn about that next week.
HaysMed recently recognized Danielle VonFeldt as its third Wellness Champion Award winner. The Wellness Champion Award celebrates and recognizes a HaysMed Associate who promotes healthy lifestyle choices and engages others in wellness activities. Wellness Champions are nominated by their fellow Associates and a winner is chosen by the Healthy Hospital Committee.
Criteria for the award includes commitment to healthy lifestyle choices and motivating others to do the same, displaying an energetic passion for promoting health and wellness and striving to build a culture of wellness at HaysMed.
Nominations for VonFeldt that were submitted noted that she sets an example to others by leading a healthy lifestyle that included exercising 5 to 6 days a week, eating healthy and not smoking or drinking. She is always willing to share healthy recipes and encourage others to stay active, whether that is going to The Center to work out or participating in outside activities such as 5Ks.
VonFeldt completed her first half marathon in June and noted that if it wasn’t for The Center’s help in preparation she may not have been able to accomplish this lifelong goal. Even with a busy schedule of working full time, taking classes and being a mother she finds time to make exercise and healthy eating a part of her daily life.
“We have many Associates at HaysMed that are incredible role models for leading a healthy lifestyle,” said Stephanie Howie, Fitness Director of CHI. “We hope recognizing their efforts will encourage others to adopt a healthier approach to living.”
VonFeldt is a nurse in the operating room at HaysMed.
Listen as the ‘Voice of the Chiefs’ Mitch Holthus recaps last week’s loss to the New York Jets and previews Sunday’s huge division showdown with the Raiders.
The Holthus Hotline airs Saturday at 6:30 a.m. during the Chiefs season.
Listen to Mike Cooper interviewing Bryan Noone and Jeremy Martinson, from the Sleep and Neurodiagnostic Institute at HaysMed, by clicking the link above and then clicking the play button
Listen as the ‘Voice of the Chiefs’ Mitch Holthus recaps last week’s loss to the New York Jets and previews Sunday’s huge division showdown with the Raiders.