NEW ORLEANS – Three Fort Hays State men’s track and field athletes have been named United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Central Region honorees. The list was released Monday (Feb. 26), with 559 male athletes earning the nods. The three Tigers claiming a spot on the list are Decano Cronin, Sam Dreiling and Brett Meyer.
The top-5 individuals in each event from each region earned the all-region distinction, in addition to each regions’ top-3 relay teams. The regions for this award include – Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast and West.
Cronin earned his All-Central Region honor in the 800-meters after boasting a time of 1:49.45. This time was also good enough for a national automatic qualification mark, as well as a personal record. To add on, it was also a school and meet record at the MIAA Indoor Championships.
Dreiling picked up his mention with his fifth place finish at the championships with a height of 4.72 – good enough for a provisional. Meyer claimed two honors in both the 800-meters and mile. Meyer was crowned the conference champion in the mile at the MIAA Championships with a time of 4:13.
PRATT – A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to more than 18 years in prison for child sex crimes, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Gamblin-photo Pratt Co.
Matthew T. Gamblin, 38, pleaded guilty in January to one count of aggravated criminal sodomy and one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Judge Francis E. Meisenheimer sentenced Gamblin to 227 months to be served in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Gamblin is also subject to lifetime post-release supervision and sex offender registration. The crimes occurred between October 2014 and May 2015.
The case was investigated by the Pratt Police Department. Assistant Attorney General Lyndzie Carter of Schmidt’s office prosecuted the case.
Drilling rig counts for the week were up slightly nationwide and down slightly here at home. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 12 active rigs in eastern Kansas, up one, but the count west of Wichita is down two at 25 active rigs. Drilling is underway at sites in Barton and Ellis County, and about to commence at a third site in Stafford County. Baker Hughes reported 978 active drilling rigs, an increase of one oil rig and two seeking natural gas.
There are 32 new permits for drilling at new locations across Kansas this week, 20 east of Wichita and 12 out west, for a year-to-date total of 221. Barton and Stafford County each report one new permit.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 22 new well completions statewide, 11 east of Wichita, 11 in western Kansas, for a total of 249 so far this year.
The government reported last week on the impact of new congressional mandates calling for the sale of more than 100 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Together the new budget and tax-cut laws call for the sale of 107 million barrels of crude between the years 2022 and 2027. Three bills enacted earlier already call for the sale of 149 million barrels starting last year and continuing through 2025. When you add it up, the S.P.R. could decline by about 40% in the coming decade, but the Energy Information Administration says it will still meet its original mandate to cover interruptions in petroleum imports.
The state of Alaska is about $806 million in debt to its oil and gas companies, and is considering a billion-dollar loan to pay them off. The state promised billions of dollars in tax credits to smaller oil and gas companies between 2003 and 2017. But when petroleum prices plunged, the state could no longer afford the program. Lawmakers are considering a plan to borrow the funds to pay off those operators who agree to accept up to ten percent less than what they’re owed.
The Trump administration announced the largest oil and gas offshore auction in U.S. history on March 21 for areas in federal waters off the Gulf Coast. The announcement comes less than a year after a similar sale yielded little corporate interest.
A proposed ballot measure in North Dakota seeking to raise that state’s oil taxes will not move forward this year. A spokesman says they don’t have the funds to face off against fierce and well-funded opposition. The Bismarck Tribune quotes a former state lawmaker who believes the measure will be back during the next legislative session or in a future election.
Russia remained the top crude oil supplier to China in January, according to date from Chinese customers officials. Reuters reported Russian supplies rose 23.4 percent from a year earlier, beginning 2018 on a strong note after the start-up of an expanded trans-Siberia pipeline.
If the frontrunner in Mexico’s presidential race takes office it could spell an important shakeup for US refiners. His energy adviser tells Reuters he would like to see Mexico refine and consume its own fuels, rather than exporting the crude and importing the fuel. And he’d like to accomplish that in the next three years. Mexico is currently the largest foreign market for US refiners, consuming about 808,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel per day last year.
Many critics have raised concerns about Venezuela’s cryptocurrency ambitions, but its first day pre-sale was apparently very popular. President Nicolas Maduro said on Twitter that Venezuela’s petro token raised more than $735 million, in Chinese yuan, in its first day. Maduro has admitted in public that the petro will serve as a means for Venezuela to circumvent sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union.
RUSSELL – Auditions for “Cheating Cheaters” by John Patrick to be directed by Bob Roe will be Wednesday and Thursday, February 28 and March 1 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Russell Community Theater (RCT) Playhouse, 140 East 5th Street, Russell. The RCT Playhouse is the former First Baptist Church located at the corner of 4th and Kansas Streets.
The show requires two men and three women. Age groups from 18 to 80 will be considered. Prepared material is not required – just show up and be willing to have a good time. For additional information, call 785-483-4057.
SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities and USD 305 officials are investigating an alleged threat.
During the final hour of school on Monday school officials discovered threatening graffiti in one of the bathrooms at Salina Central High School, according to an email sent to parents from principal Nate Showman.
“An investigation immediately began and the school went into heightened security through the end of the school day.” Practices and events to continue as planned, according to Showman.
If a student at any time has a concern Showman encouraged them to visit with him. Parents were also also encouraged to call if they had questions.
It is with great sadness William “Bill” Joseph Fry, age 58, died at Hays Medical Center, Hays, Kansas on January 22, 2018. He was born on October 15, 1959 in WaKeeney, Kansas, to William “Jack” and Elizabeth “Betty” Joan (Opat) Fry.
Bill is a graduate of Trego Community High School Class of 1979. After high school he took part in a State of Kansas Voc-Rehab program to find out his job skills. He was placed in a program at Wichita State University’s Engineering Department where he later got work at Center Industries in Wichita, Kansas retiring with over 30 years of performance.
Bill loved to watch sports. He was a big fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. He collected sports trading cards and anything dealing with wolves.
He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Karen Fry; faternal grandparents, George and Grace (Newman-Frye) and Jessup and Harvey Frye; maternal grandparents, Joe and Anne Opat; aunts and uncles Mabel and Clyde Jessup; Hazel and Roy Carson; Patsy and Ben Opat; Dorothy and Curtis Mong; and uncles Vernie Deines and James “Jim” Opat.
Surviving family members are brothers and sisters, Ruth and Maralene Fry of Hays, Anna, Barry, Lester and Kevin Fry, all of WaKeeney, and Beverly (Tracy) Howard of Wamego. Other family members surviving were nieces and nephews, Christopher (Kira) Howard of Manhattan, Danielle Howard of Hays, and Joey and Noah Fry of WaKeeney; and great nieces, Aubrey Howard of Oak Harbor, WA, and Aryel Fry of Hays.
Celebration of Life will take place at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, March 3, 2018 at Schmitt Funeral Home, WaKeeney. There will be no visitation as cremation was chosen.
Family suggests memorials in lieu of flowers or plants to the William Fry Funeral Fund to help offset expenses. Donations may be made out to Schmitt Funeral Home, 336 North 12th, WaKeeney, KS 67672.
RENO COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal Monday morning crash.
Just after 8:30 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the area of Sego Road and Castleton Road in Reno County for report of an overturned vehicle, according to Deputy Michael Morrel
First responders found a Chevy Suburban on its top in a clump of trees in a field on the east side of the road approximately a half mile south of Irish Creek Road on Sego Road.
Authorities located a man a few feet from the vehicle. The victim identified as Johnnie Nelson, 66, of Hutchinson, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Morrel.
Authorities released no additional details.
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RENO COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal Monday morning crash.
Just after 8:30 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the area of Sego Road and Castleton Road in Reno County for report of an overturned vehicle, according to Deputy Michael Morrel
First responders found a Chevy Suburban on its top in a clump of trees in a field on the east side of the road approximately a half mile south of Irish Creek Road on Sego Road.
Authorities located a man a few feet from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Morrel.
The Hays USD 489 school district informed parents this afternoon 40 to 50 middle school students “walked out” of the school at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes to bring attention to the shooting at a school in Florida and to the the issues of school security and guns.
The message sent to parents said, “The students were supervised by school staff and returned to class at the end of the 17 minutes. All students were well-behaved and talked about the issues related to school safety.”
Students that attended are responsible for making up any worked missed, the message to parents said.
Seventeen students were killed in a school shooting in Florida on Feb. 14, which has sparked nationwide discussion on school safety and gun control.
Local law enforcement investigated a verbal threat against Hays High School on Feb. 12, which has sparked a discussion in the community about school safety and school notification of parents in cases of threats.
The Hays school board plans to discuss the local threat and how the school responded at its meeting tonight.
Even before releasing their results, consultants hired to guide Kansas lawmakers to a school funding plan that meets legal muster endured a grilling on Friday.
How, wondered lawmakers, would the consultants reach their conclusions on how much money school districts need to help students succeed academically? Why do the consultants seem to be excluding the overhead, non-classroom expenses of running schools from their study? And what about criticism of work they’d done in other states?
The Kansas Legislature is awaiting a consultanting report that likely will be used to defend a school finance deal it has yet to reach. CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The details are as important as the stakes are high. Lawmakers inch closer by the day to a deadline for fixing school funding after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state isn’t spending enough on education.
School districts want the legislature to pump hundreds of millions of dollars in new money into schools — drawn from a budget already strained in recent years by tumbling revenue.
But lawmakers are waiting to see what the consultants say. The study is due in mid-March.
On Friday, lawmakers got their first peek at the methods behind what will be the first significant analysis of school spending they have commissioned in more than a decade.
Past studies concluded Kansas spends too little on its schools. Those results have factored into several court rulings over the past decade and a half that found public education underfunded to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
So the Republican-controlled legislature hired consultants. Lori Taylor is an economist at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service who researches school finance. WestEd is a nonprofit education consultancy. Together, they inked a $245,000 contract with the Kansas Legislature late last month to produce the new study.
Taylor and WestEd faced a barrage of questions Friday from lawmakers about the nitty gritty of their work. How, for instance, would they calculate a school district’s per pupil spending and factor in the costs of early childhood education?
Republican Rep. Melissa Rooker, a key player in trying to find a legislative solution to school finance, wondered why some out-of-classroom costs would be excluded from calculations of what schools spend to get academic results.
“We have districts that are having to cannibalize their general operating funds in order to cover the cost of transporting students,” she said.
Taylor said the study will take such situations into account.
The analysis will look at what different school districts spend and what academic outcomes — such as high-school graduation and college continuation rates — they get for that money.
Lawmakers will be under pressure to absorb the reports results and turn around a new school finance law quickly. The report is due March 15, leaving just a month and a half to craft a bill, debate and pass it, get the governor to sign it, and have lawyers at Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office prepare legal briefs defending it.
Lawyers for the state wanted lawmakers to pass a bill by early March because they were concerned there would not be enough time otherwise to finish the legal briefs defending the legislation before the Kansas Supreme Court’s April 30 deadline.
Taylor started Friday by defending her research chops after a memo made the rounds in the Legislature criticizing her work.
As reported in the Topeka Capital-Journal, a cost analysis Taylor did more than a decade ago amid a Texas school finance fight came under fire from a judge ruling on a school finance lawsuit there. Taylor’s analysis supported the idea that Texas was spending more than needed on education.
“I strongly disagree with the judge’s conclusion that our numbers were implausible,” she said. “If anything we overestimated the costs.”
The Hays USD 489 school board will discuss a tax increment financing district for a proposed $19.3 million Hays hotel project at its meeting Monday night.
Hilton Garden Hotel would be a 100-room hotel with a conference center. It would be located just west of Walmart in the Ottley Addition.
Because both the county and school district receive property tax money from the land in question, both entities have veto power over the project.
A TIF district is a public financing plan authorized by the state. A TIF figures the difference between the original value of the land and new value of the developed property. The taxing entities still collect the taxes on the original value, but the taxes on the increased value go back to the developer to use on financing and infrastructure improvements, such as water, sewer, roads and parking. The TIF would be in effect for 20 years.
The school district would see a partial increase in the funds it receives on the new development under the TIF district. The developers would still have to pay the general fund school mill level of 20 mills and the Hays district’s capital outlay fund of 8-mill levy on the improvements.
The district would not receive an increase in property tax for its supplemental levy of 14.92 mills or its .646 mill declining enrollment levy.
Jacob Wood, assistant city manager, will be on hand to answer the board’s questions on the taxing district.
The school board also plans to discuss the handling of a threat made against the high school on Feb. 12.
The board will also discuss a Hays High School concrete bid, hear an Early Childhood Connections Grant Review, discuss the administrative handbook, discuss contracts for building-level administrators and discuss the superintendent’s evaluation process.
A former Hays bookkeeper who is charged with forging a codicil to her employer’s will in an attempt to gain millions of dollars from his estate is scheduled to be in court next week.
Wanda Oborny is facing mail fraud charges and is scheduled for a status conference in her case at 10 a.m. Monday, March 5, in Wichita. Her trial is set for 9 a.m. Sept. 18 in Wichita before Judge J. Thomas Marten.
A court recently ruled against Oborny, who was seeking a portion of her former employer Earl O. Field’s $20 million estate.
Oborny alleged her employer signed a codicil to his will shortly before his death in 2013, leaving half of his estate to her with a quarter of the estate going to Fort Hays State University and the rest going to Field’s attorney, Joseph Jeter.
However, a district court and appellate court both found the codicil and Field’s signature on it were fakes, clearing the way for FHSU to receive the bulk of the estate, which is supposed to be dedicated to scholarships.
Oborny had also sought more than $1 million in attorney’s fees from the estate. However, an appellate court found she acted in bad faith and she should not receive the attorney’s fees.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is urging the National Rifle Association to bring its annual convention to Kansas.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate tweeted over the weekend that he’s reached out to the NRA to urge them to bring the “Annual Meeting and Convention to Kansas.”
Kobach earlier tweeted that “Kansas is the most pro-gun state in America.”
This year’s NRA Annual Meeting of Members is being held May 5 in Dallas. But the city’s mayor pro tem said last week that the organization should reconsider coming to Dallas after the Feb. 14 deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school.
Kobach wrote in a column last week advocating for arming teachers “provided they obtain a concealed carry permit and take appropriate training.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police say a 22-year-old man is jailed on suspicion of murder after a fatal shooting in southeast Wichita during the weekend.
Police on the scene of Saturday shooting investigation -photo Courtesy KWCH
Police on Monday identified the victim of the shooting Saturday as 25-year-old Deontae Mitchell. He was found dead at the scene.
Wichita police spokesman Charley Davidson says there was a disturbance at a house party and Mitchell was shot several times as he was leaving.
Davidson said the shooting was not a random incident, and it is not gang related.
Police say Douglas Pete III was being held on $300,000 Monday. He has not been formally charged.
