RENO COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a stabbing and have a suspect in custody.
Stuart-photo Hutchinson Police
Just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to 227 West 8th Street in Hutchinson after report of a stabbing, according to a media release. Officers found 31-year-old Daniel Rivera II of Hutchinson in the residence with multiple stab wounds.
Rivera II was transported to a Wichita hospital for treatment.
The suspect Taylor Perry Stuart, 35, Nickerson, fled the scene. Police arrested him later Tuesday morning on requested charges of Attempted 2 degree Murder and Aggravated Assault, according to police. He is being held on a bond of $105,000.00.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming-based Great Lakes Airlines has suspended all flight operations in the five states it operates.
Image Fly Salina
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that the company announced that the suspension of service was effective as of midnight Monday but said it had not entered bankruptcy.
The website for the Cheyenne-based airline listed flights from Salina; Cheyenne; Denver; Telluride, Colorado; Los Angeles; Phoenix; Page, Arizona and Prescott, Arizona.
SkyWest Airlines will begin daily United Express jet service from Salina to Chicago and Denver starting April 9.
According to a statement on its website, Great Lakes will continue to provide support services to Aerodynamics Inc. charter flights between Denver and the South Dakota cities of Pierre and Watertown.
Company officials have attributed recent struggles with providing air service to a national pilot shortage.
Great Lakes Founder Doug Voss and Cheyenne Regional Airport Director Tim Barth could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Hays USD 489 school board approved a program Monday that would help at-risk students graduate and reach employment or post-secondary education goals.
The Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas program, which is also known as JAG-K, will begin at Hays High School this fall.
The program will cost the district $6,500, which is about 10 percent of the total cost of the program for one year. The rest of the cost is paid for through federal grant funds.
HHS Principal Martin Straub said it will take some extra effort from his staff to select students in time for a fall start, but he said the potential benefits far outweighs the effort and cost.
“It sounds too good to be true, but we have been able to talk to people in schools that you would say are tougher than Hays High that are saying that it is doing good things for their kids. It is doing good things for their community. I just don’t know what we have to lose,” Straub said.
The program helps students with remediation to help them graduate high school, works on career planning, and enhances leadership and job skills. Students visit workplaces and colleges, participate in a career club and perform 10 hours of community service.
The goal of the program is not only to help students graduate, but also to obtain full-time employment, enter the military or go on to post-secondary education. The program has an 89 percent success rate in students entering full-time employment, military or post-secondary education after high school. Post-secondary education or certification is a goal of the state’s new accreditation program.
If JAG-K students don’t graduate, the program works with them during the next year to earn their diplomas.
JAG-K students are enrolled in classes of 10 to 15 students during the school year, but the JAG-K specialists maintain contact with the students during the summer and for 12 months after graduation.
Straub estimated the first group enrolled in JAG-K might be small, maybe 25 or 30 students. However, the career specialist would have the capacity to work with up to 50 students.
Early intervention is important, Straub said. Although some programs choose to focus on juniors and seniors, Straub said he sees the greatest dropout rate among students who are 16 and no longer have to legally attend school. He said intervening with freshman or sophomores may reap the greatest returns from the program.
Hays High School has about an 87 percent graduation rate. New state accreditation standards have set a goal of a graduation rate of 95 percent. JAG-K had a 97 percent graduation rate for 2017.
Straub met with members of the Student Council to discuss graduation Monday. The class usually leaves an empty chair for any student that has passed away. Thankfully, the class of 2018 has not had any students pass away. However, the students noted they had fellow students missing who had dropped out.
“I thought it was very interesting that these high flyers said they remembered that a lot of their friends aren’t here,” Straub said. “They are alive, but they aren’t in school. They gave up or they had situations they couldn’t overcome or we just couldn’t give them enough individual attention.”
JAG-K is a national program with 68 programs in 33 school districts in the state of Kansas.
JAG-K reached out to Hays because it has no programs in northwest Kansas.
Straub said larger school districts in eastern Kansas have been using this program for years, noting northwest Kansas has needs, too.
“I think our students deserve some more help,” he said.
Former Phillipsburg resident Roxie Jo Hudson passed away March 7, 2018, at St. John Medical Center in Longview, WA at the age of 69.
She was born October 13, 1948 in Phillipsburg, the daughter of John & Lela Marie (Ross) Hoover. She married Dean Hudson in July, 1973; he preceded her in death in 1996.
Survivors include her children: Robin, Roger, Rose, Randy, Tina and Jason; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and her brothers, Ron, Ed and Doug Hoover.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. in the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, with Pastor Joel Hiesterman officiating. Burial will follow in the Pleasant View/Meyers Cemetery, Athol, KS.
Friends may sign the book on Friday, March 30, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the funeral home. The family will greet friends Saturday morning from 10:30 a.m. until service time.
Memorial contributions may be given to the American Kidney Foundation. Online condolences to: www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, is in charge of arrangements.
Hays Wrestling Club competed in Topeka on March 24th and 25th for the Kansas State Folkstyle Championships. Hays had 7 wrestlers place in the top 6 in the state.
10 and under
55 lbs Grady Lind 4th place.
55 lbs Cade Lind 6th place.
85 lbs Dalton Meyers 4th place.
12 and under
140 lbs Brandon Yauch 4th place.
14 and under
150 lbs Roy Maroni 3rd place.
165 lbs Gavin Meyers 2nd place.
205 lbs. Gavin Nutting 4th place.
Also, Sarah Zimmerman traveled to Oklahoma City for Girls Folkstyle National Tournamant this past weekend as well. Sarah earned All American honors for the 2nd straight year by placing 5th in the nation.
Each month of the 2018 season, Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and its member-owners will give away a pair of tickets to see a Kansas City Royals home game! Enter below and be sure to come back and enter each month for your chance to win!
The first winner has been Facebook Live via Hays Post’s Facebook page at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Check it out to see if you are a winner!
BARTON COUNTY — A Kansas man convicted in January of a child sex crime has been sentenced to prison.
20th Judicial District Judge Scott E. McPherson sentence thirty-year-old Pedro Garcia to almost ten years for his plea and conviction on one count of rape.
The victimized girl was 9 or 10 years old when the rape and sexual abuse occurred, according to the Barton County Attorney. Garcia was also charged with indecent liberties with a child, aggravated criminal sodomy, and lewdly touching the child on occasions as early as April 2016.
The Great Bend Police Department investigated the case with Barton County Attorney Amy Mellor prosecuting the case.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2020 U.S. Census will include a question about citizenship status, a move that brought swift condemnation from Democrats, who said it would intimidate immigrants and discouraging them from responding.
Image courtesy U.S. Census Bureau
The population count taken every 10 years is more than an academic exercise. It’s required by the Constitution and used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House as well as how federal funds are distributed to local communities. It helps communities determine where to build everything from schools and grocery stores to hospitals.
A coalition of state attorneys general urged the department last month to not add such a question, saying it could lower participation among immigrants and cause a population undercount.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the state will sue the Trump administration over its decision.
“We’re prepared to do what we must to protect California from a deficient Census,” he said. “Including a citizenship question on the 2020 census is not just a bad idea — it is illegal.”
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that adding such a question “will inject fear and distrust into vulnerable communities and cause traditionally undercounted communities to be even further under-represented, financially excluded and left behind.”
The Commerce Department said in a press release Monday that citizenship data will help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights. It said that between 1820 and 1950, almost every decennial census asked a question on citizenship in some form.
Census counts are taken by mail and by workers walking neighborhoods. The Census Bureau says that the 2010 census drew a massive response, with about 74 percent of the households mailing in forms and the remaining households counted by workers in neighborhoods.
Visitors to downtown Hays will soon be able to eat German, work out and get a checkup as new businesses make their home on the Bricks.
Sara Bloom, executive director of Downtown Hays Development Corp., talked about what is on the horizon for downtown during a tour with local officials Monday afternoon as a part of the second annual Community Cruise.
Das Essen Hutte, a German eatery owned by the Charlie and Roxane Dorzweiler, is set to reopen any day at 110 W. 11th. The restaurant, which serves homemade German food inspired by classic Volga German recipes, had been located in Big Creek Crossing.
A new CrossFit center will be coming to the former Fire and Ice building at 229 W. 10th.
Sara Bloom, executive director of Downtown Hays Development Corp., talked about new businesses opening on the Bricks during the second annual Community Cruise Monday afternoon.
A new optometrist and dentist office also is going in at the corner of 13th and Main Street at the former All Seasons Heating and Plumbing building. This project will not likely be marketed until this summer with an expected opening sometime this fall.
Something Blue has expanded its business to 1012 Main and will be moving its wedding gowns to that location. The boutique at 1008 Main will be expanded and become Bluetique. Something Blue has had such a large demand for its gowns that it needed more space, Bloom said.
The building at 1012 Main once housed GypsyRose. Purses and jewelry that once were sold at GypsyRose can now be found at Salon Ten O Seven across the street.
Kris and Larissa Munsch are remodeling the home that used to be known as the Tea Rose Inn at 13th and Fort into a hotel. It is now called the Inn at 117. It currently has three suites available. It is not a bed and breakfast, so don’t expect a meal. However, Bloom said the hotel is a convenient walking distance from restaurants and the night life downtown.
“We are very excited. We get calls all of the time asking where people can stay downtown, and we finally have a place we can tell them,” Bloom said.
The tour also made a stop at the Downtown Pavilion. The ribbon cutting for the Downtown Pavilion has been postponed until April 27 because weather has delayed the last of construction on the project. DHDC still plans to use the pavilion for Brews on the Bricks, which is April 7.
Fort Hays State University’s Department of Applied Technology helped design and build the project, which substantially reduced costs.
Sandy Jacobs, a city commissioner who was on the tour, said the project was an excellent collaborative effort. The cost of the project was originally estimated at more than $400,000 and now will cost about $270,000 and be a gift from DHDC to the city of Hays.
The public/private project is funded by DHDC. Financial donations have come from the Robert and Patricia Schmidt Foundation, the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, and community supporters. The pavilion will go back to the city and will be managed as a public park. The public will be able to reserve the area as it does other city facilities.
The Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development also will soon move to 219 W. West 10th. The location will serve as a coworking space targeted to people who’ve been operating a home-based business or working at home. People will pay by the month like a gym membership to have access to office space, office equipment and a conference room.
Aaron White, executive director of the ECC, said he already has interest in the space from an attorney, a software designer and an app designer. He hopes to also work with the entrepreneurial program at Fort Hays State to connect new graduates with resources and keep tech startups in Hays.
“This gives them a place to do teleconferencing, to sit down and meet with a client in more of a professional setting instead of doing it in the living room of their house or at the local coffee shop. This gives them a more professional feel without the upfront costs,” White said.
Members will have 24/7 access. A full membership starts at $150 month. The center is set to open at the end of April.
LINDSBORG, Kan. – The TMP-Marian baseball team opened their season with a pair of blowout wins over Topeka High Monday. Cole Zimmerman pitched a no-hitter in the Monarchs five inning 10-0 win in game one. Zimmerman struck out 12 and walked four.
TMP won the second game 15-4. Tate Garcia went four innings allowing two unearned runs on three hits with five strikeouts and three walks for the win.
Creighton Renz, Brady Kreutzer, Eston Brown and Luke Ruder all drove in two runs.
The Monarchs are off until April 3rd when they host Abilene
