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No. 5 Kansas loses Azubuike for season to torn hand tendon

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Fifth-ranked Kansas will be without center Udoka Azubuike for the remainder of the season after an MRI exam Sunday revealed the 7-footer tore ligaments in his right hand during practice.

Jayhawks coach Bill Self said in a statement that X-rays taken after Friday’s practice did not show the severity of the injury. The MRI exam revealed the tendon tear, which is similar to a torn tendon Azubuike had in his opposite hand in December 2016 that sidelined him the remainder of his freshman season.

“The surgery date will be set early this week,” Self said. “The doctors expect a complete recovery and Udoka will be able to resume full basketball activities at some point this summer.”

The injury is a significant blow to the Jayhawks’ interior depth, not to mention their national title aspirations. The nation’s preseason No. 1 already has been playing without sophomore forward Silvio De Sousa, whose eligibility remains in question after his name surfaced in the FBI probe into apparel company adidas.

Self said recently that there has been no change in De Sousa’s status.

The Jayhawks (12-2, 1-1) lost 77-60 to Iowa State on Saturday in their first game without their bruising center from Nigeria. But that was a byproduct of 24 turnovers and some patchy work on defense rather than any issues in the paint, where Kansas had a dominant plus-15 advantage on the boards.

“We’ve been living on the razor’s edge a lot,” Self said. “Granted, we don’t have a lot of where we can go to guarantee us having a great possession. We really don’t have good ball-handlers right now.”

Azubuike had been rounding into the sure thing before his injury.

After missing time earlier this season with a sprained ankle, he had been on a tear the past couple of games. He had 23 points and nine boards in a blowout of Eastern Michigan, then had eight points and nine more rebounds in a comfortable win over No. 23 Oklahoma to begin defense of the Jayhawks’ Big 12 title.

The only other true center on the Kansas roster is relatively raw freshman David McCormack, which means Self could be forced to use smaller lineups again. He prefers to run with two big men but has leaned on four-guard lineups the past couple of seasons because of the configuration of his roster.

The starting lineup Self used Saturday featured Dedric Lawson in the post, with Marcus Garrett joining starters Lagerald Vick, Quentin Grimes and Devon Dotson in a four-guard backcourt.

Whether that sticks when Kansas returns to the floor against TCU on Wednesday night remains to be seen.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve got to hammer out,” Self said, “and hopefully we can do it relatively soon. …. There’s no question, eventually you’re going to play like you practice. So certainly, we’ve got to be better in practice, I think, and that will probably translate to better performances in the games.”

Arraignment set for Kan. woman accused of infant daughter’s death

SUMNER COUNTY — A Kansas mother accused in the death of her 7-month-old daughter will go to trial for the alleged crime.

Johnson -photo Sumner County

Shelby Johnson, 26, was bound over for trial in the case last week, according to the Sumner County Attorney’s office. Her arraignment is scheduled for 1:30p.m. March 7.

On April 1, 2018 Schuyler Hulett took his 7-month-old daughter Jesslin Hulett from the home he shared with Johnson in Wellington to the emergency room at Sumner Regional Medical Center because the child was not breathing, according to the criminal complaint.

Doctors in the ER did get a pulse and the child was transported to a Wichita hospital where she died April 5.

Court documents say Johnson killed her infant daughter either by “cruelly beating” or “shaking” the baby. The documents say the girl needed immediate medical treatment, but Johnson went back to bed and the baby’s father found her not breathing about an hour later. The baby’s injuries included three bone fractures to her skull.

An autopsy found the child suffered from blunt force trauma to the head, broken bones and other injuries, according to court documents.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alston, Temple rally late to beat Wichita State in OT

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Shizz Alston Jr. scored 22 points, Nate Pierre-Louis added 21 and Temple rallied to beat Wichita State 85-81 in overtime Sunday in its American Athletic Conference home debut.

Pierre-Louis made the go-ahead layup (78-76) with 2:39 left in overtime and Temple (11-3, 1-1) led the rest of the way.

After Alston’s long 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock made it 83-79 with 48.4 seconds left, Samajae Haynes-Jones made a layup and got fouled. He missed the free throw but followed with the offensive rebound. After working the ball, Erik Stevenson drove the right baseline but lost the ball and Temple recovered.

Near the end of regulation, Markis McDuffie made a 3 with 3:35 left and Wichita State (7-7, 0-2) led 74-63. But the Shockers didn’t score again and the Owls went on an 11-0 run to force overtime. Alston’s jumper with 37 seconds left tied it at 74. Dexter Dennis missed a potential game-winning 3-point attempt with four seconds left.

Wichita State led 45-32 at halftime before Temple outscored the Shockers 20-8 and shaved the deficit to 53-52 on a Quinton Rose layup with 12:22 remaining. Rose finished with 17 points.

McDuffie scored 24, Haynes-Jones 22, Dennis 14 and Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler 12.

Conference panel addresses ‘What’s Right About Kansas’

Mary Hendrickson, University of Missouri Sociologist, spoke about community wealth and how local and regional food systems can boost the local economy and create resilience.

By TOM PARKER
Kansas Rural Center

“That’s the thing about rural Kansas,” Corie Brown wrote. “No one lives there, not anymore.”

The Los Angeles author’s assessment on rural Kansas in particular and Kansans in general was the outcome of an odyssey across the state for an online article published in April 2018. Its title, “Rural Kansas is Dying: I Drove 1,800 Miles to Find Out Why,” set the stage for her thesis.

She interviewed farmers, university professors, politicians, local food system supporters and farm group leaders about the state’s rural population and community decline and what could be done to mitigate it. She found little hope in their responses.

While many felt some of her conclusions were accurate, many who were interviewed felt disappointed that she did not place more emphasis on the efforts being made to address the problems and challenges rural communities and farmers face. They ended up feeling used, and none more so than Marci Penner, who had recommended many of the locations and people for the interview.

As director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation and co-author of “The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers,” Penner has traversed the state countless times and talked with the same people Brown had, yet her assessment was totally the opposite.

Marci Penner, Sampler Foundation, facilitated a panel discussion. Donna McClish, Wichita, spoke about her mobile farmers market work.

“I feel very differently,” she said. “I’m not some Pollyanna who thinks we’re doing great, because we have many issues. There are reasons why it has changed over the years, and reasons why some towns aren’t thriving. But because of the people in this room,” she told a conference crowd last November, “I have confidence that we can create a new rural, a new paradigm, of what we want rural to be.”

Penner offered her upbeat perspective in “What’s Right about Kansas Farms, Food and Communities,” a panel discussion at the Kansas Rural Center’s annual Food and Farm Conference, held mid-November in Wichita, Kansas. Panelists were Luke Mahin, director of Republic County Economic Development and board member of the North Central Kansas Food Council; Debbie Beardon, Market Manager and secretary of the Allen County Farmers’ Market Board and founding member of the Core Leadership Team for Allen County Growing Rural Opportunity Works Food and Farm Council; Donna Pearson McClish, founder and director of Common Ground Producers and Growers, Inc.; Steve Swaffar, Executive Director of No-Till on the Plains; and Ed Reznicek, General Manager for Central Plains Organic Farmers Association. Keynote speaker Mary Hendrickson, a rural sociologist at the University of Missouri at Columbia, also offered insights about how rural communities can build social, financial, natural and cultural capital to address the changes facing rural America.

Luke Mahin, who was one of Brown’s sources, was puzzled at how few of the positive endeavors he mentioned made it into her article. While it’s true that Republic County has lost population, down from a high of 19,000 in 1890 to 4,700, by embracing economic development and investing in new technologies, the county offers more opportunities for entrepreneurs, small businesses and Internet-based businesses than most rural counties, he said.

Similar benefits apply to agriculture. Farmers are innovating and adapting new technologies, and there’s a lot of talk about pushing agriculture forward. “There’s no better time to come back to a rural area because of the flexibility it offers and the quality of life,” Mahin said. “Access to technology has leveraged all that.”

Several panelists felt that though Brown’s article highlighted the perils of commodity farming, it didn’t go far enough to recognize alternative methods farmers are using to go forward. Swaffar sees agricultural conservation practices reversing many of the ecological damages caused by conventional farming, and injecting hope among the state’s farmers.

Panelists at the KRC conference addressed “What is right about Kansas?” Left to right: Ed Reznicek, Steve Swaffar, Donna McClish, Debbie Beardon, Marci Penner and Luke Mahin.

“The folks I work with are very excited about dirt, though we don’t call it that anymore,” he said. “It’s soil. And soil is more than a growing medium—it’s a living organism.” Five years ago, he said, you wouldn’t have heard the term ‘soil health,’ but now it’s mainstream. Why? Because it turns farmers into biologists, and biologists are excited to see the soil come alive. For farmers, that translates into reducing input costs and being able to grow more than just wheat and corn and sorghum.

“Now that they see the capabilities, they’re thinking well beyond traditional commodity crops,” Swaffar said. “We’re seeing changes in the soil and in communities.”

For McClish, food and food production are the driving forces of rural sustainability, and nowhere are they more critical than in food deserts like rural Wichita and surrounding communities. Common Ground Producers and Growers began in 2014 after a friend asked McClish to provide fresh vegetables and produce to a low-income senior center where people had difficulty getting to the farmers’ markets. When other centers got word of it, they asked to be included. The company now serves 33 sites and several rural counties surrounding Wichita, through a network of growers and producers, and continues to expand. “Our motto is, ‘all are fed, no one is hungry,’” she said.

The experience taught her that food is an economic stabilizer and could contribute to the expansion and resurgence of family farms. “Rural Kansas can rebound,” McClish said. “We do good with adversity. We’re all looking at the same problems but we have different ways of solving them. Food is the basis of relationships. We can make this work together.”

Beardon also lives in a food desert in Southeast Kansas, and knows firsthand the importance of food for community growth. After a local farmers’ market folded, Beardon spearheaded a campaign to restructure the market. In the spring of 2010 it reopened with more than 60 vendors, 27 of whom were there for the entire season.

Beardon also worked with the county commissioners and the residents of Moran to purchase their grocery store, which now serves customers for 30 miles around. “There are needs out there beyond our imagination, and as an individual you may not think you can do a lot,” Beardon said. “Keep your ears to the ground and find out who else is interested, put your heads together and just start walking.”

Cooperatives like the Central Plains Organic Farmers Association (formerly Kansas Organic Producers) embrace a different approach by cooperatively marketing certified organic grains, Reznicek said. It is a system that resists corporate capitalism for a system that is ecologically sound, economically viable and socially just. “Because of its social goals and purpose, cooperatives represent a form of social economy, which is a much broader-based economy than the commodity and financially-driven market economy,” he said.

Public schools are one example of successful social economies. They function outside of market support with an unusual level of harmony, he said. The electrification of rural Kansas was another. Farmers contributed their time and machinery to set poles and string lines to reduce the indebtedness cooperatives would have to pay to electrical companies. The same model could be used again.

“That history is worth looking into,” Reznicek said. “The future of healthy rural communities is cooperative.”

To turn the tide of rural depopulation and economic decline, Hendrickson said in her keynote speech preceding the panel, communities are going to have to think creatively and to both identify and invest in capital—financial, social, natural, human, cultural and political. Of critical importance is resilience, the capacity of a system to absorb shocks and bounce back.

“There are different ways of thinking about what makes a community wealthy, but most mean the same thing—ownership, control, lasting livelihoods,” she said. “We need to put all the capitals together to make our food and farming systems resilient to shocks.”

Hendrickson compared the changes facing rural America to the changes farmers face with climate change. “It’s been weird, weird weather, but we’re in something we’ve never experienced before,” she said.

After asking people to identify what makes their community livable, the answers largely centered on its people. “People are engaged in a community and the dedication to its quality of life,” Hendrickson said. “This has to be measured, but nobody measures it. We don’t have a happiness scale, though that might be more important than the gross domestic product.”

Then again, maybe there is a happiness scale that can be measured in those who, in spite of the challenges and difficulties of living in rural Kansas, not only choose to stay, but strive to make them better. If so, Penner wants to be included in that group.

“If you’re rural by choice, I want to be in your tribe,” she said. “We can repurpose these small towns with the things you’re doing. This team we have can really make a difference for our communities to be livable, lovable, visitable, workable, with better health care and broadband, big things, but we have big hearts. And I want to thank Corie Brown for writing that article. I love getting fired up.”

Tom Parker is a freelance writer and photographer from Blue Rapids, Ks. who prepared this article for the Kansas Rural Center.

Former Jayhawk, NFL veteran Kwamie Lassiter dead at 49

PHOENIX (AP) — Kwamie Lassiter, the former Arizona safety who had four interceptions in the Cardinals’ season-ending victory that clinched a playoff berth in 1998, died Sunday. He was 49.

Kwamie Lassiter played at Butler County and then for the Jayhawks from 1992-94 and then played 10 seasons in the National Football -League-image courtesy University of Kansas Athletics

The Cardinals announced Lassiter’s death without providing details. Arizona Sports, the website of the team’s flagship radio station, said Lassiter had a heart attack while working out.

“We were all devastated to learn of Kwamie’s passing today and our hearts go out to all of his family and friends,” Cardinals President Michael Bidwill said in a statement. “Kwamie came to the Cardinals, as an undrafted rookie free agent. He not only became a key contributor to our team for eight seasons but continued to make an impact on this community after his playing days ended. He will be missed greatly.”

Lassiter had had eight interceptions in 1998, the last four against San Diego to help the Cardinals reach the playoffs for the first time since moving to Arizona. The former Kansas Jayhawk  had nine interceptions in 2001 and was named an alternate to the Pro Bowl.

After eight seasons with the Cardinals, Lassister played for San Diego in 2003 and St. Louis in 2004. He had 25 career interceptions, 25 with the Cardinals, returning two for touchdowns.

Lassister starred at Menchville High School in Newport News, Virginia, and played two years at Butler County Community College in Kansas before transferring to Kansas, where he played from 1992 to 1994.

Sunny, windy Monday

MondayMostly sunny, with a high near 59. Breezy, with a west northwest wind 13 to 20 mph.

Monday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 31. Southwest wind 13 to 17 mph becoming northwest after midnight.

Tuesday Sunny, with a high near 49. Northwest wind 8 to 15 mph.

Tuesday NightClear, with a low around 22. West northwest wind 5 to 7 mph.

WednesdaySunny, with a high near 47.

Wednesday NightPartly cloudy, with a low around 27.

ThursdayMostly sunny, with a high near 50.

Thursday NightPartly cloudy, with a low around 27.

Kansas man jailed for alleged criminal threat

BARTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect after a weekend incident involving gunshots in Ellinwood.

Mead -photo Barton Co.

Just after 11p.m.  Saturday January 5,  police responded to the 500 block of East 2nd Street in Ellinwood in reference to Violation of Protection Orders and Criminal Threats, according to a media release.

The suspect was identified as 26-year-old Ryan Alan Mead and officers responded to his residence in the 100 block of West B Street. as multiple gunshots were reported in that area.

Officers determined the suspect fired approximately fourteen 9mm rounds from a hand gun into the ground in the front yard of his residence, then fled the scene at a high rate of speed in a Ford Explorer just before the officers’ arrival.

The investigation continued into the early morning hours of Sunday, when the suspect’s unoccupied vehicle was located in the 5800 block of Broadway in Great Bend.

Officers developed information on a possible suspect location  and responded to the 5900 block of Eisenhower Court where they took Mead  into custody without incident just after noon.

Mead was booked into the Barton County Jail on requested charges of Criminal Threat, Violation of Protection Order, and Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm.  He is being held on a $5,000 Bond.

This case is still under investigation, anyone with information is asked to contact the Ellinwood Police Department.

Police arrest Kansas felon for package thefts

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on new charges.

Hayes -photo Shawnee Co.

Just after 12:45 p.m. Friday, police were following up on a theft of packages from the north Topeka area.

Officers obtained a good description of the vehicle used in the thefts and ultimately located the vehicle at 21st and SW Moundview in Topeka, according to Lt. Manual Munoz.

When offices conducted a traffic stop they located the items taken in the package thefts in plain view.

Further investigation revealed a shotgun along with other items taken from other thefts.

Officers arrested Jonathan Hayes, 34, and booked him into Shawnee County Department of Corrections for Theft and Felon in Possession of a firearm, according to Munoz.

N.D. residents: Law banning warming up your vehicle is ‘dumb’

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. — When the winds howl and the bone-numbing cold sets in, scores of North Dakotans willingly become lawbreakers by warming up their vehicles without being in them, ignoring a potential $1,500 state fine and 30 days in jail.

“It’s ineffective. The people ignore it. Let’s get rid of it,” said Republican Rep. Daniel Johnston, who is sponsoring a bill that would make it legal for people to leave their vehicles running unattended, amending a statute that has been on the books since the 1940s that no one can remember being enforced.

“Simply put, the law goes against the will of the people,” Johnston told the House Transportation Committee Friday. “The citizenry of North Dakota recognizes this is a bad law.”

Others don’t even realize it’s on the books, he said.

Donnell Preskey, executive director of the North Dakota Sheriffs and Deputies Association, told the panel that her group supports amending the law. No one spoke against it.

North Dakota’s law was put on the books nearly 75 years ago as a deterrent against automobile theft. Several states in recent years have enacted anti-idling laws in an effort to increase air quality.

National Conference of State Legislatures data shows nine states have laws to curb vehicle idling, and another 14 limit idling for certain vehicles, such as state-owned vehicles and school buses.

The group said idling wastes about 6 billion gallons of fuel annually, and 18 states have grants, loans, tax credits to encourage idle reduction.

Even environmental group Sierra Club is not standing in the way of the effort to make idling legal. Wayde Schafer, the group’s North Dakota spokesman, said banning idling vehicles is futile in North Dakota, where it’s considered a necessary evil because of brutal winter weather.

“It’s so engrained in our culture and people will never change their habits even if they know it’s against the law,” Schafer said. “It’s part of winter in North Dakota, and people want to get into a warm car, so what do you do?”

Schafer said his group will not take a position on the proposed legislation.

Bismarck Police Chief Dave Draovitch, who has spent nearly three decades with the department, said idling vehicles that are left unattended is not something that officers enforce.

“If we ever wrote a citation for it, I’d be surprised,” Draovitch said.

Still, police departments across the state often issue public service announcements reminding residents to lock their vehicles.

“We’d rather have vehicles locked,” Draovitch said, adding that leaving vehicles running while unoccupied creates a golden opportunity for thieves.

Fargo police spokeswoman Jessica Schindeldecker said most vehicles stolen in North Dakota’s biggest city occur in the winter, and most are because they are left idling with the doors unlocked.

Schindeldecker did not know if anyone had ever been cited for leaving a vehicle idling, but she said officers sometimes “chat with the owner, and tell them they just want them to stop doing it.”

Jennifer Wagner of Minot had her vehicle stolen years ago after leaving it running to drop off some items at her church. She now owns a business with her husband that installs remote starters that allow a driver to preheat a vehicle before getting into it.

North Dakota’s current law is “dumb,” Wagner said.

Most remote starters are equipped with anti-theft systems that won’t allow the vehicle to be opened or driven without a key, she said.

“Most people probably don’t even know about the law, and even if they do they don’t care and are willing to take the risk,” she said.

Her business, Too Dark Motorsports, is one of dozens in the state that sells and installs remote starters, which are often booked two to three weeks out in the winter, she said.

Wagner said she and other North Dakotans don’t buy the argument that vehicles warm up quicker while being driven. About 30 people set up appointments one day last week when a dangerous cold snap hit the region.

“No one wants to get in a frozen car in North Dakota and let it warm up,” she said. “No one.”

Safety exemptions for livestock haulers raise concerns

By Kristoffer Tique, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting- The Associated Press

A tractor-trailer rig hauling cattle overturned on Kansas Highway 4 in southeastern Saline County in August- Photo courtesy Saline County Sheriff’s Office

It was sometime around 4 a.m. on a cool spring morning when James McGilvray lost control of his semi, careening into a ravine off Interstate 49 forty minutes south of Kansas City.

His trailer, which carried between 80 and 100 cattle, according to police records, flipped on its side as the truck plowed to a halt. The crash killed roughly half the livestock onboard, with the other half escaping onto the highway where state and city law enforcement spent the next four hours shutting down traffic in order to corral the remaining herd.

McGilvray, who was 48 at the time of the crash, blamed another car for causing the wreck, according to the crash report, despite officers marking no evidence for another vehicle’s involvement. Rather, Stacy Ball, 45, who was traveling with McGilvray and was in the sleeper cabin changing when the crash occurred, believes McGilvray fell asleep at the wheel.

On the crash report, Ball told officers that McGilvray had run off the road twice the previous night and “had been driving ‘non-stop’ for 2-3 months between Mississippi and Florida.” She also informed officers that McGilvray had been pushing himself to prove to his current employers that despite his age, he was still fit to drive the long, hard hours commonly associated with the trucking industry.

“Show me you’re not too old to haul cattle,” Ball recalled the trucking company telling McGilvray when he was first hired, according to the report.

Ball also told officers that McGilvray hadn’t updated his mandatory hours log because of how busy the company was keeping him, and that the trucking company wasn’t using electronic logging devices, or ELDs, which in December 2017 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration began requiring most U.S. truckers to carry to prevent fatigue-related accidents.

Numerous attempts to reach McGilvray for comment were unsuccessful.

Under current federal hours of service law — which dictate how long commercial drivers can be on the road —commercial drivers can operate on duty for 14 hours after a mandatory 10-hour break. Electronic logging devices, which are approved GPS tracking devices plugged into the truck’s engine, are meant to replace older paper logs in order to more accurately track driver’s on-duty hours, federal officials said. The devices are projected to save dozens of lives and prevent hundreds of injuries each year, officials said, plus save stakeholders more than $1 billion annually by reducing paperwork.

But McGilvray’s crash, which happened April 27, 2018, came while livestock haulers were still temporarily waived from complying with the new ELD law because of persistent lobbying efforts from the agricultural industry. In fact, federal agencies that track and enforce these laws, like the FMCSA, have been slow to implement the devices since the law came into effect.

FMCSA has also expanded broad exemptions for drivers carrying agricultural commodities and is now considering changing several other standards that some safety advocates say would greatly reduce the effectiveness of hours of service rules.

That’s despite national data showing a rise in large truck-related fatalities. In 2017, there were 841 occupants of large trucks killed in crashes, up from 725 in 2016, and 665 in 2015, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report. When including pedestrians and other cars involved in those crashes, fatalities jump to 4,761 in 2017, up from 4,369 the year prior.

That upward trend goes for Missouri’s statewide data, too. According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, the number of deadly crashes involving commercial motor vehicles rose by more than 40 percent between 2013 and 2016.

“Forty-four states have experienced increases in truck crash deaths since 2009,” said Harry Adler, a spokesman for the Truck Safety Coalition, a national nonprofit focused on reducing truck-related fatalities and injuries. “When you look at the state of truck safety, the number of truck crashes, injuries, fatalities, they all keep going up.”

For years, industry associations like the National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association have touted the safety record of their drivers to circumvent expanding regulation.

“Livestock haulers comprise one of the safest sectors of the commercial motor vehicle industry due in part to the very nature of the only cargo they haul: live animals,” wrote the association in an October petition to the FMCSA, asking the agency to increase on-duty hours for livestock drivers from 14 hours to 16.

The group points to an analysis they did of FMCSA data between 2013 and 2015, where livestock haulers make up between 6-7 percent of the nation’s roughly 4 million commercial drivers yet constitute less than 1 percent of the total crashes.

Added to their driver safety record is the fact that livestock haulers must also worry about keeping their animals safe, particularly during times of extreme heat or cold, said Allison Rivera, the beef association’s executive director for government affairs.

“It’s an animal welfare issue,” Rivera said. “The problem is that, unlike the rest of trucking, we can’t just stop at a rest stop for 10 hours and rest with the animals in the back.”

So far, that argument has been working, delaying ELD implementation and relaxing the way federal agencies interpret hours of service laws and their exemptions.

Petitions from the National Pork Producers Council — joined by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and several other stakeholders — delayed the original ELD implementation date of December 2017 not once, but twice, giving livestock haulers 180 days to fall into compliance. Then on Dec. 13, the FMCSA announced on its website that transporters of livestock and insects aren’t required to carry ELDs at all “until further notice,” raising questions of when livestock haulers, if ever, will need to install the device.

But a larger change came from several revisions the FMCSA made to the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995, which established the first exemptions for drivers “transporting agricultural commodities or farm supplies for agricultural purposes.”

The act set a radius of 100 “air miles” around any pickup spot for agricultural goods, including livestock, feed and farm equipment. The agency defines an air mile as a nautical mile, which is equivalent to about 1.15 miles.

Truck drivers operating within the radius were exempt from hours of service regulations during a state’s harvest season. However, if their trip included leaving that radius after they picked up their livestock or other agricultural goods, then standard hours of service laws applied as soon as they left the radius, and they were subject to 10-hour breaks every 14 hours.

The idea was to give drivers with sensitive cargo the flexibility to manage their own schedules without having to worry about tight federal deadlines. And under pressure from the agriculture industry, Congress expanded that exemption to 150 air miles, or roughly 172 miles, back in 2012.

Then in the summer of 2017, the FMCSA quietly changed how it interpreted the nearly 30-year-old law altogether, said Matt Wells, the associate director of the Midwest Truckers Association, on a Facebook video.

Drivers hauling agricultural goods have always been exempted from hours of service rules while in the exempted radius but were required to track all their hours driving if their trip ever intended to leave it. Under the agency’s new guidelines, he said, now agricultural haulers only need to track their hours outside the radius and aren’t required to log any hours within it.

“Meaning that you record that time as off-duty, not driving,” Wells said. “This is the drastic change the FMCSA has done that you can now turn your logbook on and off throughout the day without affecting your daily or weekly hour limit of the logbook rules.”

That means that unlike before, law enforcement or regulatory agencies are now no longer privy to when a trucker is actually driving or when they’re taking a break while in exempted zones.

Industry leaders say giving drivers more flexibility and less stress over logging hours was necessary to help address the unique challenges livestock haulers face.

For example, Rivera said, truckers hauling livestock in some cases require extra training to handle live cargo, and therefore some end up loading and unloading by themselves because of workforce shortages and the cost of hiring extra manpower. That itself can be a safety concern, she said, and eats into the already limited time allotted to drivers under hours of service rules.

Some drivers have also come out publicly to say ELDs force truckers to act more recklessly because they essentially create a “hazardous race to beat the clock,” reported Business Insider back in May.

But Adler said these exemptions go too far at the expense of safety, especially since Congress considered expanding them further. In 2018, about 10 bills were introduced that would, in some way, expand hours of service exemptions or relax ELD requirements, he said.

“They’re all different attempts to lengthen the amount of time truck drivers are either driving or working, and there’s just not data to support that more time on task without a break, or longer work days, are safer,” Adler said.

One bill, called the Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act, was introduced to both the U.S. Senate and House in early 2018, but failed to make it further. That bill, sponsored by Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, would double the 150-air-mile exemption to 300 air miles — nearly 100 miles longer than the drive between Kansas City and St. Louis.

In states like Missouri or Illinois, where harvest season is year-round, 300 air miles essentially covers each state entirely, giving anyone hauling livestock or other agricultural goods free reign to drive within them without any kind of federal accountability.

While the FMCSA won’t deal with that bill — since it stalled —the agency is considering relaxing other hours of services rules, including short-haul limits and 30-minute breaks. Short hauls are when drivers operate only within 14 hours a day instead of 24 hours and are currently limited to 11 hours of on-duty time, 8 hours off duty and a mandatory 30-minute break.

The agency announced in October that it would be extending the public comment period for a second month to discuss proposed changes to those regulations, including increasing on-duty time from 11 hours to 12.

Duane Debruyne, acting director for FMCSA’s office of external affairs, said the agency has a robust process that prioritizes safety when considering any changes to regulation. For instance, he said, the agency gathered hundreds of comments before granting waivers to delay ELD implementation for livestock haulers in 2018 and weighed the decision carefully.

Under the safety considerations of that waiver approval, the agency stated it “expects that any drivers and their employing motor carrier operating under the terms and conditions of the exemption will maintain their safety record.”

Adler points to that as evidence the process wasn’t robust, especially when studies commissioned by the agency itself — such as a 2011 study titled Hours of Service and Driver Fatigue — show a clear correlation between longer hours on duty and increased risk of crashing.

“The FMCSA’s own studies show that working longer … will diminish safety,” he said. “So, the agency doesn’t need to look toward other studies, they have studies that they commissioned and did that show just that.”

On an early October morning in 2016, about a mile west of Osborn, Missouri, Gary Bowling’s cattle truck struck a ditch along U.S. Highway 36 and overturned.

The crash killed at least four cows and sent others to roam in the pre-dawn darkness, where they caused two additional accidents. One woman, 68-year-old Bonnie Bridgeman of Winston, Missouri, was airlifted to Kansas University Hospital with serious injuries after her car struck one of the escaped cattle.

According to the crash report, Bowling gave no explanation when the state trooper asked him what caused the accident. “I dropped off the shoulder. I don’t know,” he’s quoted to say in the report.

A witness, who was driving behind Bowling when he crashed, said he watched Bowling’s truck drop off the shoulder as it passed his car. “The cows must have shifted and made it so he couldn’t get back on the road,” the witness said in the report.

In the end, the Missouri State Highway Patrol filed the crash under “improper lane use/change,” which in some ways acts as a catch-all category when a cause hasn’t been identified. But Bowling’s crash highlights several challenges that both truckers and those enforcing safety face when it comes to hauling livestock.

Because animals often escape after crashes, they can cause additional accidents, particularly at night. And the cargo itself is exceptionally dangerous to transport because animals can move within the trailer, shifting weight and exacerbating the situation.

That’s a common reason many drivers give after they’ve crashed their livestock trailers, said Jennifer Woods, an expert in livestock handling and safety. But Woods, who operates her own livestock services company in Canada and helps train drivers on safety across North America, said that explanation is a myth.

Rather, Woods said, it’s more likely that sleepy drivers nod off and overcorrect after drifting out of their lane, or they turn too hard while merging because they’re fatigued and less in control.

“The load shifted because the trailer started to tip over,” Woods said. “The load doesn’t shift and tip the trailer over.”

In fact, a 2008 study conducted by Woods points to fatigue as a major cause of accidents involving livestock transportation. The study, which analyzed 415 accidents involving commercial livestock trailers in the U.S. and Canada between 1994 and 2007, most notably points to five things that suggest fatigue is the real cause behind most livestock-related crashes.

Of those crashes, it found that more than half — 59 percent — happened between midnight and 9 a.m., when drivers are likely tired — although Woods believes due to limitations from gathering that data from news reports, that the prevalence is likely closer to 90 percent.

The vast majority —80 percent —were single-vehicle accidents, which helps rule out other vehicles causing the crash. Driver error was blamed for 85 percent of the wrecks.

The vehicle rolled over 83 percent of the time, which Woods said typically suggests the driver drifted out of the lane, then overcorrected. Trailers overturned to the right-side 84 percent of the time, which falls in line with typical fatigue-related crashes in North America, where driving is done on the right-hand side.

But outside of Woods’ study, there’s not much official data on fatigue-related crashes to help push safety efforts. Looking at national and state data, fatigue doesn’t seem to play a prevalent role. A 2007 FMCSA study that looked at 963 crashes involving 1,123 large trucks between 2001 and 2003 found fatigue only playing a role in 13 percent of the accidents.

That’s the same rate in Missouri, at just above 13 percent. Out of the approximately 2,057 crashes involving large trucks between 2015 and 2017, just 271 involved fatigued drivers, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Woods said that’s because fatigue is highly underreported in crashes. “Does the driver look at the cop and say, ‘Hey, I’m tired?’” she said. “Because I can tell you, when your truck hits the ditch, you’re wide awake.”

In fact, a 2014 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimated an average of 328,000 drowsy driving crashes occur annually, which is more than three times the police-reported number. Of those, about 109,000 result in injury and roughly 6,400 are fatal, the report said.

Cpt. John Hotz, director of the public information and education division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said it is likely that fatigue is underreported in highway crashes because proving fatigue played a role can sometimes be difficult to do.

Drivers are disincentivized to admit fatigue, Hotz said, since admitting fault can result in discipline from employers, suspension of a commercial driver license or prompt insurers to raise rates. It can also result in a hefty fine or hold drivers criminally liable, he said.

In Missouri, anyone who crashes their vehicle because they fell asleep can get slapped with careless and imprudent driving — which depending on circumstances, can come with up to one year in jail or a $1,000 fine. If anyone is injured or killed as a result of the crash, Hotz said, that can be upped to assault or manslaughter, a felony.

Ultimately, Woods said, industry and regulators need to find a balance between public safety and animal welfare, especially when it comes to tracking driving hours and mitigating fatigue.

“There’s a lot of moving parts,” she said. “This is not just about our truck drivers, this is about our industry. It’s about animal welfare … trying to find one hat that fits them all isn’t going to work.”

Finding a balance between industry and safety needs may be easier said than done, said Adler, who believes current trends show government regulators favoring industry over safety.

For more than a decade, he said, both the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have essentially stalled talks on implementing a speed limiter rule, which would require drivers to install a device that would put a cap on the truck’s top speed.

The agencies have also been slow or reluctant to address other safety proposals, Adler said, like assigning minimum hours behind the wheel for new drivers, raising minimum insurance or researching automatic emergency braking. In 2017, the agency stalled or withdrew from nearly half a dozen safety rulemakings, reported The Hill.

“You do look at some of their priorities and say, ‘Hm, they’re not focusing on proven policies that could really move the ball on safety,’ Adler said.

Adler also said that the way agricultural exemptions are being handled is making it increasingly difficult for regulators to provide needed oversight on things like hours of service and how those hours are tracked.

In states like Missouri, where agricultural exemptions have given drivers hauling livestock enormous leeway on time spent on-duty, regulating driving hours falls almost entirely on the trucking companies themselves. That means whether a driver is scheduled in a way that provides adequate time for rest, or whether drivers are being encouraged to log hours accurately, falls on company management rather than government agencies commonly tasked with that role.

That’s one of the challenges regulators and industry leaders need to consider, Woods said. Most livestock hauling companies are small and have a good track record for compliance. But there are some chronic “bad actors,” she said.

In McGilvray’s case, when he crashed his cattle trailer in Harrisonville, he was working for Phenix Transportation West Inc., a Mississippi-based company with 125 drivers, according to the FMCSA.

In the last two years alone, Phenix drivers have been involved in three fatal crashes, according to the agency’s website, and the company has received 905 inspections for compliance that resulted in 120 of its drivers receiving out-of-service violations — a government order that pulls drivers from the road until they’re back in compliance.

That gives Phenix a ratio of 13.3 percent regarding inspections to out-of-service orders, more than double the national average of 5.5. percent, according to the website.

Information on the FMCSA website also shows that, at some point this year, the agency pulled the company’s interstate operating authority. DeBruyne said that means the Mississippi company can no longer operate outside state lines, but he wouldn’t clarify when that status was revoked or for what reasons.

Ricky Wilkerson, president of Phenix Transportation West, said the fatalities involved in the company’s record are misleading and that two of the three weren’t his drivers’ fault. He also said his livestock drivers work for his cattle hauling operation Southfork Cattle Company, which has no record of compliance inspections or fatal crashes.

However, Southfork Cattle Company isn’t authorized to operate across state lines, according to the FMCSA, and Wilkerson acknowledged McGilvray worked for Phenix. Furthermore, according to the agency’s website, Phenix reported that it does, in fact, haul livestock.

Wilkerson wouldn’t clarify that discrepancy. He also wouldn’t clarify why despite his statement that Phenix drivers installed ELDs back in 2017, McGilvray was driving without one, and disputed the notion that his company pressured any of its employees to drive beyond what’s allowed under federal law.

“It’s a mystery to us, too,” Wilkerson said of McGilvray’s crash. “But I can assure you that he had ample time to make his delivery.”

For Adler, McGilvray’s crash is the perfect example of why rolling back hours of service rules or expanding exemptions that allow more time on duty for drivers without federal oversight is a bad idea.

“All too often, you hear folks throw around the term ‘flexibility,’” he said. “Yet, there’s no discussion on how that quote, unquote flexibility can be exploited by some of the worst actors. And I think that’s what you see with so many of these unstudied, unsafe proposals.”

The nonprofit news outlet Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News.

18-year-old gets life sentence for stabbing death of KC woman

KANSAS CITY(AP) — An 18-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the stabbing death of a woman.

Henry -photo Jackson Co.

Trevon Henry was sentenced Friday to two life sentences plus 50 years in prison for the death of Tanya Chamberlain in Lee’s Summit.

Henry was 14 when Chamberlain was stabbed or cut 49 times after he and another juvenile approached her at a car wash.

The teens got into Chamberlain’s car with her and drove away before she was stabbed. She was found dead in the car after the teens fled when an officer stopped the vehicle.

The other teenager, Joshua Tagg, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing.

Henry and Tagg were charged as adults.

Minority and Women Business Spotlight introduced

Camo Cross Dog Training, Topeka

KDC

TOPEKA – The Women and Minority Business Development office of the Kansas Department of Commerce announces the start of the Minority and Women Business Spotlight program.

The purpose for the program is to highlight Kansas small, minority and women-owned businesses. To be eligible, applicants must be small, minority and/or woman owned businesses headquartered in Kansas.

Every month, one business will be selected for the Spotlight. That business will be featured on Kansas Commerce social media and KansasCommerce.gov. The selected company will be featured in an article on KansasCentral.com.

“It is our goal to feature Kansas minority and/or women-owned businesses through our spotlight to assist in their growth and development,” said Rhonda Harris, Director of the Office of Minority and Women Business Development for the Kansas Department of Commerce. “By bringing awareness to these companies and the services and products they provide, we hope to promote a broader outreach to potential customers that may be able to utilize the services offered.”

Applications can be filled out online at https://www.kansascommerce.gov/FormCenter/MWBD-Spotlight-Nomination-Form-31/Nomination-Form-81

The first business to be highlighted is Camo Cross Dog Training in Topeka, KS. The feature can be found at https://www.kansascommerce.gov/1205/Camo-Cross-Dog-Training

Questions about the Spotlight program should be directed to:

Rhonda Harris at [email protected] or calling 785-296-3425.

Toll-free legislative hotline available to Kansas residents

Shutterstock.com

State Library of Kansas

TOPEKA — Up-to-the-minute information on the 2019 Kansas Legislature is only a phone call or chat away. Kansas residents can access information about the Kansas Legislature, bill status, legislative process and more by calling 1-800-432-3924 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Questions are answered by experienced reference/research librarians at the State Library of Kansas and are kept confidential.

In addition to calling the hotline, Kansans can chat with a librarian instantly through the library’s Ask A Librarian service found at kslib.info/ask or use their phone to text questions to 785-256-0733. TTY users should call 711. Questions can also be emailed to [email protected] or by visiting the State Library.

Callers can also leave brief messages to be delivered to their legislators as well as request copies of bills, journals, and other legislative documents.

The State Library is located on the third floor, north wing of the Kansas Capitol Building. The library’s hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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