JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – Missouri and Kansas officials are working to designate sections of Route 66 as a national bicycle route.
photo courtesy Kansas Historic Route 66 Assn.
The Joplin Globe reports that the U.S. Bicycle Route System is the national cycling route network serviced by state and local governments. The goal of the system is to connect bicycle routes across the country for safer, long-distance cycling.
The designation for portions of the Mother Road could allow each state’s Department of Transportation to map and post signs for cyclists along their sections of the route.
Patrick Tuttle is the director of the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau. He works closely with the Missouri Transportation Department.
Tuttle says that Missouri is closest to reaching its designation and that state agencies must make the April submission deadline to be approved this year.
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State played just one game on Sunday, facing Upper Iowa, as several teams opted not to play the final day of the FHSU Crossover Tournament due to sustained high winds in Hays. Upper Iowa defeated FHSU 8-3, moving to 6-2 overall on the season. FHSU is now 2-10.
Upper Iowa plated two runs in the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh innings to build an 8-0 lead before FHSU put three runs on the board in the final inning. Sierra Rodriguez started the day in the pitching circle and lasted 2.1 innings before handing the ball to Hailey Chapman. Rodriguez gave up two runs on six hits and struck out won. She took the loss, moving to 2-4 on the year. Chapman allowed four runs (three earned) over 2.2 innings on five hits and struck out three. Carrie Clarke relieved for an inning and allowed two runs on four hits, while striking out one. Megan Jamison got the final three outs for FHSU, allowing one hit with one strikeout.
Singles by Bailey Boxberger and Sara Breckbill triggered the rally in the seventh. The Tigers loaded the bases and pinch runner Sydney Harsh plated the first run by scoring on a wild pitch. Lily Sale picked up an RBI on a groundout to the shortstop, then Terran Caldwell rifled a double to the left center gap for another RBI.
Upper Iowa pitcher Jaclyn Thompson cruised through the first six innings, allowing just one hit over that span. She allowed four hits in the Tiger seventh to finish with five allowed for the day. She walked four and struck out five, moving to 3-0 on the season.
Fort Hays State heads to the Kelly Laas Memorial Tournament next weekend in St. Cloud, Minn., inside the Husky Dome.
Fraternities and sororities at Fort Hays State University raised more than $5,000 for charities during the Fall 2017 semester.
Members of the Greek communities also performed more than 1,200 hours of community service, said Stephen Hopson, coordinator of student involvement at Fort Hays State University.
“The fraternity and sorority members take pride in being leaders who succeed both inside and outside of the classroom,” said Hopson.
He said that, over the last three years, fraternities and sororities at FHSU have donated more than $20,000 and completed more than 8,000 hours of community service.
“The community places a strong emphasis on doing well academically, as shown with our all-Greek GPA being above the average for full-time undergraduate students for the past 12 semesters,” said Hopson.
Hopson also said that 72 percent of the members are also involved in other organizations.
The Hays Arts Council is currently accepting entries for its annual Creating Writing Awards for youth.
The HAC’s longest running annual program has been a recognition and celebration of young writers in poetry and prose.
Each year, the HAC invites writing submissions from students in kindergarten through 12th grade, working through the public and private schools in Ellis County but also accepting independent submissions from those whose teachers or schools don’t participate. This includes homeschool students.
The deadline for entries is March 16. More information on how to enter can be found on the Hays Arts Council website.
Members of the FHSU English Department serve as the judges for the hundreds of works submitted (all anonymously coded).
Publications of all the winning works are printed, award ribbons are purchased, and an awards ceremony and reception will be Sunday, April 29.
The Hays Arts Council will also be working through schools to organize the annual Famous Figures competition. Fifth-graders dress in costumes and portray famous historical figures.
The finals for the contest will be May 4 at the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Prisons in Kansas face a crisis in hiring staff because of poor pay. A former governor called a state hospital for the mentally ill “a pit.” Highway projects are delayed because state funding keeps getting diverted to other priorities.
But an ongoing lawsuit has forced state legislators to be preoccupied with finding money for public schools ahead of those other pressing issues. And lawmakers are starting to resent that.
“It’s like the schools are the grain truck. Instead of sharing the grain, they just keep raising the sides on the bed and keeping it all for themselves,” said state Sen. Ty Masterson, a conservative Wichita-area Republican. “They’ve been able to keep themselves at the front of the line for a long time.”
Legislators increased income taxes last year to help balance the budget and put some of the extra money they raised into schools. Most want to avoid the political poison of another big tax increase this year, but if they do that and put schools first, they worry that other, long-suffering agencies and programs could keep suffering.
Educators are well aware of the backlash but contend schools and state agencies are living with the consequences of past state income tax cuts championed by former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. Those tax policies received renewed national attention as Congress approved federal income tax cuts late last year.
Even after Kansas lawmakers reversed most of the Brownback-inspired state tax cuts last year, budget problems remained and awaited new GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer after Brownback resigned last month to take an ambassador’s post.
“You can’t blame schools,” said Mark Desetti, a lobbyist for the state’s largest teachers union. “You can lament it all you want, but it’s a problem of your own making.”
Kansas spends more than $4 billion a year — more than half of its general revenues — on its public schools. But the state Supreme Court ruled in October that even with a funding increase approved last year, it’s not sufficient under the state constitution.
The state has been in and out of lawsuits over education funding for decades, and the current one was filed in 2010 by four school districts. The Supreme Court has issued five rulings in the past four years requiring new spending on public schools.
In its last ruling in October, the court did not set a specific spending target but hinted that it could be $650 million more a year.
Top Republican leaders signaled that they want to avoid such a big increase in spending on schools by commissioning an outside academic study of education costs in hopes of generating a lower figure that lawmakers could defend in court. The study is due in mid-March, and work on school funding legislation is stalled until it’s done.
“Maybe we say, ‘We’ve got to live within our means,'” said Senate budget committee Chairwoman Carolyn McGinn, a moderate Wichita-area Republican. “Maybe we need to reassess the direction we’re going.”
House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a conservative Kansas City-area Republican, said lawmakers are right to expect to squeeze other parts of state government if they increase spending on schools.
“That is the math of it,” he said. “There’s only so much taxpayer money.”
Even moderate Republicans receptive to higher spending on schools are pushing to broaden the budget discussion, suggesting that extra spending on social services helps ensure that young children start school ready to learn.
Other lawmakers see public safety as a bigger priority after disturbances at multiple prisons last year. Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood told one panel this week that pay remains a problem even after a pay raise for uniformed officers last year — and if he could find enough workers, budget constraints require him to leave nearly 10 percent of all positions unfilled anyway.
“We can’t gut those other functions of government just to meet the demands of one sector,” said House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a moderate Republican from western Kansas.
But public schools have something other recipients of state dollars do not: A provision in the Kansas Constitution requiring legislators to “make suitable provision” for funding them.
“They are going to be first in line,” said Democratic state Rep. Tom Sawyer, of Wichita.
Area legislators will provide an update of activities in the Kansas statehouse during a public meeting Fri., Feb. 23, in Ellis.
Confirmed to attend are 40th Dist. Sen. Rick Billinger (R-Goodland) and 110th Dist. Rep. Ken Rahjes (R-Agra). Rep. Eber Phelps (D-Hays) of the 111th District will also participate, schedule permitting.
The meeting will start at 8 a.m. in the Ellis Public Library, 907 Washington. Use the east entrance. Coffee and doughnuts will be provided.
The legislative update is sponsored by the Ellis County Farm Bureau.
SHAWNEE COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a murder and an armed robbery and after the release of security camera images have four teen suspects in custody.
Troupe-photo Shawnee Co.
Just after 1a.m. Friday, police responded Dimple Donuts, 4201 SW 21 Street in Topeka in reference a robbery to the business, according to Lt. Andrew Beightel.
A clerk told police that 4 unknown age, race men wearing all dark clothing entered the business. One of the suspects was armed with a handgun and ordered the clerk to the ground. The four suspects took money from the business and fled south out of the business, possibly to a awaiting vehicle. There were no injuries reported.
Perry- photo Shawnee Co.
On Saturday, Topeka Police arrested Erion D. Kirtdoll, 24, of Topeka, Elija A. Perry, 18, of Topeka and Dion J. Troupe, 18, also of Topeka for charges related to the aggravated robbery that occurred at 4201 SW 21st street, as well as charges related to the homicide that occurred in the 3500 block of SE Girard on February 16, 2018, according to Lt. Jennifer Cross.
Saturday night, Cross reported a 17-year old male who was being questioned in the case has also been transported to the Shawnee County Juvenile Department of Corrections.
All four subjects were booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on one count of murder and two counts of aggravated robbery.
Kirtdoll-photo Shawnee Co.
Anyone with information regarding this crime is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police Criminal Investigation Bureau at 785-368-9400 or Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007.
Phyllis A. Castle, 81, of Hays KS passed away on February 16 2018 at the Good Samaritan Society – Hays. “Granny” as her many friends lovingly referred to Phyllis as, was born in Paintsville, KY to Everett and Melissa (Stambaugh) Castle.
Phyllis was a member of the United Methodist Church in Norcatur, KS. She grew up in a “holler” near Wharton, West Virginia. Phyllis had lots of brothers and sisters, and the house was always full of love, activity and orneriness. Phyllis was very proud of the fact that she was a coal miner’s daughter and some of her brothers and sisters also worked in the mines. Phyllis met a young man named Morris Goley, whom she married and started a family with. When that marriage broke up as sometimes happens, Phyllis later met a tall handsome Navy man from Texas named Donell Bourland, whom she married and moved her young family to Texas with. This marriage was also blessed with children, and when things didn’t work out, Phyllis loaded up her children and moved to Norcatur, KS, where her sister and brother-in-law, Eunice and R.D. Thornton, were raising their young family. Eunice and R.D. got Phyllis and her children settled in to a nice house in Norcatur, and Phyllis got a job as a CNA at the Andbe Home in Norton, KS to provide for her family. Phyllis will forever be remembered as a fun-loving, outgoing person, who loved to socialize with her many friends and family.
Survivors include a son, Donnel Bourland of Hays, KS; two daughters, Patty Shearer and her husband Lonnie of Almena, KS and Melissa Rorabaugh and her husband Dave of Hays, KS; one brother, Everett Edgel of Buckhannon, WV; seven grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.
Phyllis is preceded in death by her parents, two brothers – Samuel Joe and Billy Ray, four sisters – Eunice May, Ivalee Doris, Melody Millie and Beulah Carol, and one daughter – JoAnn.
Cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be held at the United Methodist Church in Norcatur, KS at a later date. Services will be announced, once available.
To share a memory or to leave condolences, please visit Phyllis’s memorial webpage at www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com.
Arrangements are by Brock’s-Keithley Funeral Chapel & Crematory, 2509 Vine St., Hays, KS 67601.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new government report shows the number of Kansas farms and the amount of agricultural land did not change last year in Kansas.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that Kansas had 59,600 farms in 2017, same as the year earlier.
But the report also shows that the state had 200 fewer farms having $100,000 or less in agricultural sales, while the number of operations with more than $100,000 in sales grew by 200 farms.
The agency says Kansas had 45.9 million acres in farms and ranches. That is unchanged from the previous year. Also unchanged is the size of the average operation at 770 acres.
Ethel L. McClure, age 91, passed away on Thursday, February 15, 2018 at the Hays Medical Center in Hays, Kansas. She was born on September 17, 1926 in Hill City, Kansas, the daughter of Ora Guy and Dollie Cullum McCoy. A resident of Scott City, Kansas since 2007, she was a homemaker and cook at both the schools and hospital.
She was a member of the Prairie View Church of the Brethren in Friend, Kansas and a member of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary.
Survivors include one son and wife, Dennis Henry and Marilyn McClure, Decatur, IL; her daughter and husband, Gail and Dave Bradshaw, Newport, OR; her daughter and husband, Colleen and John Beaton, Scott City, KS; 7 grandchildren, Heidi and Tom Hall, Oreana, IL; Vincent Henry McClure, Evansville, IN; Audra and Jim Nicholls, Martinsville, IN; Sara and Skip Coryell, Martin, MI; Seth and Julie Bradshaw, Portland, OR; Joshua Beaton and Fiancée, Niki Blake, Scott City, KS and Aaron and Holly Beaton, Scott City, KS; 28 great-grandchildren and 6 great-great-grandchildren.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her Husband – Henry, One Daughter – Patricia McClure, One Great Grandson – Lawson Beaton, Two Brothers and Four Sisters.
Funeral services for Ethel L. McClure will be held at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at the United Methodist Church, 412 College Street, Scott City. Pastor Jon Tuttle, will officiate.
A graveside service will be held at 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at the Luray City Cemetery in Luray, Kansas with Dennis McClure officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorial funds may be given to Prairie View Church of the Brethren in care of Price & Sons Funeral Home.
Visitation will be Monday from 11:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. and Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Price & Sons Funeral Home in Scott City, Kansas.
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
Four statues stand in the rotunda of the Kansas Capitol. They honor President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Sen. and Gov. Arthur Capper, aviator Amelia Earhart, and country newspaper editor William Allen White. White was one of the most famous newspaper editors of his day. He was nationally influential while publishing the daily newspaper in his small town in rural Kansas. His legacy continues through the years.
Last week we learned about Red Rocks, the William Allen White home that is now a state historic site in Emporia. At Red Rocks through the years, William Allen White and his wife Sallie hosted many visitors, including several presidents and thought leaders from across the nation.
One of those was Edna Ferber, the most successful female novelist in the first half of the twentieth century. She wrote: “…there is no ocean trip, no month in the country, no known drug equal to the reviving quality of twenty-four hours spent on the front porch or in the sitting room of the Whites’ house in Emporia…”
White was a gifted and articulate writer. He wrote 22 books. His newspaper editorials through the years dealt with topics ranging from national policy to his favorite recipes. His 1896 editorial, “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” first brought him national fame. This editorial led to him meeting and becoming a longtime friend of Teddy Roosevelt. In later years, White came to embrace Roosevelt’s progressive policies within the Republican party.
Another editorial was a tribute to his 16-year-old daughter, killed in a horseback riding accident. This touching column would become reprinted in textbooks for years.
In later years, White challenged the racism of the Ku Klux Klan. He also supported free speech. His 1922 editorial, “To an Anxious Friend,” won a Pulitzer Prize as did his autobiography.
One day, White wrote about his lost dog, a fox terrier named Teddy (after Teddy Roosevelt). His column brought an outpouring of letters from across the country, reporting dog sightings or offering a puppy. Eventually, the lost dog was found and reunited with the family. Decades later, in 2013, Emporia author Jerilynn Henrikson wrote a children’s book about the dog. The fanciful book, titled “Teddy, the Ghost Dog of Red Rocks,” chronicled the day-to-day life of the Whites through the eyes of the family canine.
William Allen White passed away on Kansas Day in 1944. His son, William Lindsay White – sometimes known as Bill – assumed ownership of the Gazette. Bill White had worked in radio, sometimes filling in for legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow during World War II. Bill White married Kathrine, a native of the rural community of Cawker City, population 469 people. Now, that’s rural.
Bill and Kathrine had no children of their own. During World War II, Bill sought to adopt a war orphan in London and bring the child to the U.S. Flights were full and wartime restrictions were in place. Finally, White adopted young Barbara and left his luggage in London so that Barbara could ride on his lap on the plane. This story would become the basis for White’s book “Journey for Margaret” and a movie of the same name.
Bill, Kathrine and Barbara came to Emporia in 1951 and lived at Red Rocks. Barbara married a Stanford classmate, David Walker. In 2001, Barbara gifted Red Rocks to the state of Kansas. The Walker family continues ownership of the Emporia Gazette today.
The legacy of William Allen White lives on. The journalism school at KU and the library at Emporia State are named in his honor, as was a B-29 airplane, a children’s book award, a local elementary school, and more. He was the Sage of Emporia, known nationally as an advocate for small town life in middle America.
In the Kansas capitol, William Allen White is one of only four Kansans depicted as statues. We commend all those who are making a difference by keeping this history alive. His impact on Kansas history is statuesque.
And there’s more. The Walker family not only continues White’s legacy in Kansas journalism, it is reaching even more communities. We’ll learn about that next week.
Kansas sits in a shrinking pool of states with the strictest marijuana and hemp laws, surrounded by a wave of decriminalization and legalization that’s swept most of the U.S.
Lawmakers in Kansas, a state especially strict on all things marijuana, are at least considering opening the way for non-buzzy hemp production for industrial uses. FILE PHOTO / HARVEST PUBLIC MEDIA
So it’s no surprise that the topic of cannabis keeps cropping up in the Kansas Statehouse, where some lawmakers and lobbyists want the Free State to jump on the bandwagon.
That means terms like cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol make their way into bills and debates. Here’s a primer on pot and policy in Kansas and elsewhere.
The marijuana boom
As far as the feds are concerned, marijuana is illegal.
Sure, the Obama administration nudged prosecutors not to go after people who sell it for medical use in states where that’s allowed. And it didn’t step in when states began allowing recreational use, either.
But administrations change. And Trump’s is showing more interest in a showdown between state and federal rules.
There’s potential, at least, for quite a clash. Tallies by the National Conference of State Legislatures show at least 29 states now allow medical marijuana, nine permitrecreational use and some others allow derivative products (more on that below).
Amid that patchwork, Kansas is one of just four states not allowing any of this, for any purposes.
Notably, next-door Colorado was one of two states to lead the charge on recreational use in 2012. It’s reasonable to think some skiers leaving the state on eastbound Interstate 70 might have a little skunk in the trunk. Yet Kansas law enforcement agencies told the attorney general in 2016 that they aren’t seizing more of the drug — but the stuff they find is stronger than before.
Industrial hemp
Hemp and marijuana come from the same plant species, but hemp has so little THC in it that drug users can’t get high from it. THC — tetrahydrocannabinol — is the cannabis chemical that causes that effect.
Since hemp has major industrial potential — it is used in a wide range of foods, fabrics and other products, but right now the U.S. mostly imports it from countries like Canada and China — there’s been a national push to make growing it legal.
Kansas hasn’t joined their ranks. Growing hemp remains illegal, with law enforcement agencies leading the opposition to legalization. They say it would make combating marijuana cultivation even harder, and that distinguishing between low and high-THC plants is a potentially costly hassle.
Like THC, cannabidiol is a compound found in cannabis. So both substances fall under another term that pops up in policy conversations — cannabinoids. But CBD can be isolated and sold with so little THC in it that consumers won’t get high from it.
Some researchers and people who use CBD oil say it helps with seizures and other ailments, and sometimes without side effects related to prescription medications. Others question that. At least 17 states have loosened restrictions on CBD to varying degrees. In Missouri, some people with epilepsy can get it.
But even when CBD is effectively THC-free, CBD oil appears to be illegal in Kansas.
Some local governments had been confused about how to handle shops that sell CBD oil, so late last month the Kansas attorney general weighed in. His office says CBD falls under Kansas’ definition of marijuana.
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking lawmakers to settle the matter. The group says the attorney general’s opinion isn’t binding on law enforcement agencies. So it fears Kansans won’t reliably know their rights. You might buy CBD oil in a county that lets shops sell it, then get arrested when you take it home to another that disagrees.
Kansas passed a law last year that would open the door here somewhat if the federal government approves CBD in medications, but so far the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t done so. The Congressional Research Service says drugs containing CBD are trying to get federal approval.
Cannabis and health
The best overview of what we know — and don’t know — about benefits and dangers of cannabis and its various ingredients comes from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which led an effort to weigh the quality and conclusions of 10,000 scientific papers.
Turn to pages 13 through 22 here for a handy chart of nearly 100 conclusions. There’s strong evidence, for example, that cannabis helps adults with chronic pain, but there’s little to say whether it helps treat cancers.
Crime and punishment
Though only nine states have made marijuana for recreational use legal, at least 22 have decriminalized it. The National Conference of State Legislatures says that doesn’t necessarily mean there are no penalties in those states, but the price of getting caught is a lot lower.
It remains criminal in Kansas, though the state has taken some steps to lower penalties for cannabis-related crimes amid prison crowding, and is considering more.
In Kansas, getting caught with marijuana for personal use is a misdemeanor the first two times, meaning you could go to prison for up to a year, though probation is a common alternative. If you’re caught a third time, you could go to state prison for 10 to 12 months — longer if you have other criminal background — but, again, could very well get probation instead. Dealing marijuana comes with tougher penalties.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
