HaysMed experienced a non- weather related power outage at the hospital late Sunday afternoon.Due to the outage several HaysMed clinics/services will be closed temporarily until power is restored.
The following are closed temporarily:
Dreiling/Schmidt Cancer Center including Medical Oncology and Radiation Oncology
ENT
Eye Associates
Foundation
Medical Specialists
Nephrology
Nuclear Medicine testing
Pain Clinic
Pediatrics
Psychiatric Associates
Pulmonology
Urology
Women’s Center
The following clinics/services are still seeing patients:
Breast Care Center
DeBakey Heart Clinic
Emergency Room
Family Medicine
Hays Orthopedic
Imaging
Southwind Surgery
Convenient Care
Wound Care Center
Patients are being notified of any cancellations that affect them. If you have any questions, please call your providers office.
EDMOND, Okla. – The Fort Hays State baseball team struggled to get the bats going in Sunday’s MIAA opener against Missouri Western (Feb. 24), falling to the Griffons 7-1. The Tigers (0-9, 0-1) and Griffons (3-5, 1-0) will wrap up their series with a doubleheader Monday beginning at noon.
The Griffons wasted little time getting started, pushing across three runs over the first two innings. The Tigers got a run back in the top of the fourth after Landon Erway drew a leadoff walk. The sophomore swiped two bases before coming around to score on Tyler Olson’s double down the left field line, helping the Tigers close within 3-1.
But Missouri Western Starter Anthony Castaneda continued to stymie the Tiger offense, allowing just three hits while striking out 12 over 7.0 innings of work. The Griffons tacked on four insurance runs against the Tiger bullpen down the stretch, pushing across two in the sixth and two in the eighth.
Ethan Booe (0-1) took the loss after tossing five effective innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits while striking out six batters. Ryan Ruder struck out three Griffons over two innings of relief, allowing two runs on two hits. Chase Werth finished the game on the mound, allowing a pair of runs on three hits while striking out one batter.
Kyler Cox added a pinch-hit double in the ninth, the only other extra-base hit of the evening for the Tigers.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “BlacKkKlansman” is the winner of the best adapted screenplay Academy Award, delivering Spike Lee his first competitive Academy Award. It also was an Oscar win for Marymount College graduate Kevin Willmott.
🏆 And the Oscar goes to. . . @kufms professor Kevin Willmott and @BlackKkKlansman co-writers Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz for Best Adapted Screenplay! #Oscars#RockChalkpic.twitter.com/KMJpPf2TMx
Lee started out his acceptance speech with some profanity, telling producers not to start the clock on his speech. Winners have been allotted 90 seconds for their speech from the time their names are called.
Lee ready from a two-page letter that tied together history and the years 1619 and 2019, along with his own story.
The writer-director shares the award with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Willmott.
Willmott grew up in Junction City, Kan., and graduated from St. Xavier High School. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Marymount College in Salina and a master’s degree from New York University. Willmott is an associate professor in the Film Studies Department at the University of Kansas.
Lee received the award from Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in Lee’s film. Jackson ribbed Lee at the outset of his presentation along with actress Brie Larson, reciting the score of the Knicks game, who notched a rare win.
And the winner is…Our very own @KUFMS professor Kevin Willmott wins Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing @BlacKkKlansman w/ Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz. We couldn’t be more proud or excited. Congrats, Prof. Willmott! #KUarts#fmswatchpartypic.twitter.com/WRGEgQGGJj
MARYVILLE, Mo. – In the 2019 edition of the MIAA Indoor Conference Championships, the Fort Hays State women’s track and field team produced a strong weekend as they earned a 7th place team finish. The Tigers captured multiple podium finishes to cap on a solid weekend. The event was hosted by Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo.
Mirena Goncalves appeared on the podium twice with two runner-up finishes. In the 3,000-meters, Goncalves clocked a second place finish at 9:58, while receiving her runner-up time of 17:41 in the 5,000-meters. Yessenia Gonzales was close by in both events, coming in fifth in the 5,000-meters at 17:50, and seventh in the 3,000-meters at 10:09.
Mattie Rossi had a big weekend for the Tigers, claiming a provisional in the pentathlon with her sixth place finish. Rossi captured 3,258 points in her first season as a multi athlete for the Tigers. This calculation puts Rossi fourth on the FHSU all-time list.
Another podium finish for FHSU came after a third place finish for Summer Kragel in the high jump. Kragel claimed a provisional with her jump of 5 feet, 6 ½ inches. Teammate Haley Jones came in the sixth place with a personal best of 5 feet 4 ¼ inches.
Rohey Singhateh received her place on the podium following a third place finish in the triple jump while improving her NCAA qualifying mark at 39 feet, 9 ¾ inches.
A new school record was set by the women’s 4×400 relay team who compiled a time of 3:54.27 for a fifth place finish. The quad made up of Lindsay Shupe, Mattie Rossi, Peri Lange and Lyric Holman capitalized on the success.
Up next, the Tigers await their fate at the 2019 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships. The event runs from March 8-9 at Pittsburg State University.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – The Fort Hays State men’s track and field team ended a successful weekend at the 2019 installment of the MIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a 6th place team finish. Alongside the strong team performance, multiple Tigers completed record-breaking and high-placing finishes. The event last Feb. 22 – 24 and was hosted by Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo.
Among the highlights for the team on the weekend was the distance medley relay team claiming the title in their event. The quad, consisting of Brett Meyer, Israel Barco, Malcom Gardner and Seppe van ‘t Westende completed the relay with a new school and MIAA record time of 9:52.80. This also gives the Tigers the 10th-best time in NCAA Division II.
Meyer defended his previous MIAA title in the mile with a time of 4:09. 98, followed closely by van ‘t Westende in fourth place at 4:12.01 and Oscar Carmona clocking a seventh place finish at 4:16.26. Philip Landrum completed his weekend with an upset in the 60-meters with an NCAA Division II qualifying time of 6.83 to win the event.
Matthew Pieper earned a new school record in the decathlon with a fourth place finish by accumulating 5,083 points. This total also gave Pieper an improved provisional. Kolt Newell earned an NCAA qualifying mark in the high jump by finishing in the runner-up position with a jump of 6 feet, 11 ½ inches. This was also a personal best for Newell. Lucas Broxterman finished the high jump in eighth
place.
In the 5,000-meters, Carmona clocked a fifth place finish with a time of 14:57, while teammate Layton Werth captured eighth place at 15:01. Landrum documented a fourth place finish in the 200-meters with his time of 21.73, an NCAA provisional.
In the pole vault, Ryan Stanley finished in seventh place with a mark of 15 feet, 5 ¾ inches.
Up next, the Tigers await their fate at the 2019 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships. The event runs from March 8-9 at Pittsburg State University.
KANSAS CITY(AP) — A Lee’s Summit teenager has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the stabbing death of a woman who was attacked at a car wash.
Joshua Trigg -photo Jackson Co.
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Trigg was 13 when 49-year-old Tanya Chamberlain, of Lee’s Summit, was kidnapped from the car wash and killed in 2015.
Lee’s Summit police say the teens drove away with Chamberlain in her car. Police tried to pull the car over and the two teens ran. She had been stabbed or cut 49 times.
Trigg’s co-defendant, Trevon Henry, was sentenced in January to two life sentences plus 50 years. Henry was 14 at the time of the killing.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Kansas man waived his preliminary hearing Friday and entered a plea to one of six charges in a connection with felony flee and attempt to elude officers.
In October, Tyler Humphries, 22, Hutchinson, led Reno County sheriff’s deputies on a brief high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle.
Humphries -photo KDOC
Sheriff’s deputies were looking for the stolen vehicle at a mobile home park in Yoder when Humphries fled east toward Haven. He then turned north to the intersection of Haven Road and Illinois where he got out of the vehicle and waited for deputies to arrive. He then surrendered.
Humphries is serving a sentence for three counts of theft from 2017 and following his plea to one count of felony flee and elude the other charges were dropped.
He will be sentenced on March 29. He has six previous convictions that include theft and criminal damage to property, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
TOPEKA — A new bill proposed in the Senate on Thursday could take some financial burden off grandparents who are primary caregivers and providers for their grandchildren.
The Kansas Senate Judiciary held a committee meeting on Feb. 21 to discuss amendments made to SB166, which deems children as foster children under the grandparents as caregivers act.
The bill, which was introduced on Feb. 13, states, “If a person meets the financial eligibility requirements developed by the secretary, a grandparent shall be eligible to participate in the program if such grandparent: (1) Is 40 years of age or older (2) Has the grandchild placed in such grandparents custody by the state, is the legal guardian of the grandchild or has other legal custody of the grandchild; and (3) has an annual household income of less than 300 percent of the federal poverty line.”
The two amendments made to the bill previously required that the grandparent be 50 years of age or older and have an annual household income of less than 130 percent of the federal poverty line. The change in the percentage allows for more grandparents to qualify for the benefits of the program.
Some stipulations with the bill are that the grandparent is not eligible if the parent or parents of the child are living with said grandparent. The grandparents will be required to meet eligibility requirements each year to continue in the program.
With this bill, qualifying grandparents are reimbursed $200 per grandchild per month until they are 18 or reach the age of 21, if the child is in full-time attendance at a secondary school or postsecondary educational institution.
Sen. Randall Hardy (R-Salina) testified in support of the bill. He was invited to attend a group meeting called Grandparents as Parents, which met at the Child Advocacy and Parent Services (CAPS) agency in Salina. Here, he said was informed about the problem of parents who don’t work out to be adequate parents for their children.
“I attended one of their meetings and it was at the same time heartbreaking and hopeful,” he said.
The parents’ stories moved Hardy, which led to his increased support of the bill. He brought with him a copy of an email sent to him the night before, displaying a first-hand account of a grandparent’s experience.
In the email, Kimberly Dykes, 59, explained how difficult her and her husband’s lives have been without the assistance of this program from the federal government.
“We couldn’t get the parents to sign releases and they would not show up to do any of the needed things for the children,” Dykes wrote. “They did not provide any financial assistance for their children.”
Sen. Vic Miller (D-Topeka) asked about the age restriction at the end of the testimony.
“What would it matter if they were 39 or 40?” Miller asked.
Hardy responded that this was to make the bill palatable, but is something that could be revisited.
Hardy also said the bill is similar to one that didn’t pass in the House. If passed, this bill would take effect on July 1, 2019.
Olivia Schmidt is a University of Kansas senior from Lawrence studying journalism.
UPDATED Sunday afternoon: The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has canceled the Silver Alert for Juanita L. Stecher. She was found deceased in Reno County.
——-
SEDGWICK COUNTY – The Cheney Police Department has requested that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) issue a statewide Silver Alert for a missing Derby woman.
Photo courtesy KBI
According to the KBI, the whereabouts of Juanita L. Stecher, 74, are unknown, and the public’s assistance is requested to help locate her. Stecher is a white female with short, grey hair and blue eyes. She wears gold glasses.
Stecher was last seen near Central and Maize in Wichita at approximately 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22. She was in a Silver 2013 Chevy Equinox with disabled tag 67754. She called family indicating her car was stuck in the mud, and she was unsure of her location. She may have been near the Cheney area.
If you see Stecher or her vehicle, please immediately contact the Cheney Police Department at (316) 213-5831.
The Snow Emergency was lifted in Hays just before noon Sunday. Street plowing continues. (Photo courtesy HPD)
CITY OF HAYS
City Manager Toby Dougherty has ended the Winter Storm Traffic Emergency plan for the city of Hays.
People who live or work along emergency snow routes can now return to their normal routine of parking on the snow routes.
The city of Hays Public Works Department will continue with snow removal operations throughout the day. Tonight the crews will focus on removing snow from the downtown area.
While the worst of the winter storm is over, the Hays Police Department is asking that motorists limit their travel if at all possible. Those that must travel are advised to do so with caution, and are encouraged to give themselves extra time to reach their destination. Please remember to drive slow, pay attention to vehicles in front of you, and allow for extra stopping distance.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Helen Ryde is a devout, gay United Methodist on a 600-mile personal prayer journey.
Helen Ryde-courtesy photo
Her trip across four states comes days before United Methodists from around the world consider if their denomination should allow same-sex weddings and LGBTQ clergy. Ryde’s traveling from her western North Carolina home to St. Louis, Missouri, where she’ll attend the UMC 2019 Special Session of the General Conference.
Last Tuesday, Ryde stood on the white-columned porch of East Knox County’s 160-year-old Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church to pray a short, impassioned prayer and leave a “letter of love.”
She’ll repeat that prayer and leave that letter at dozens of churches in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois.
Her prayer to a “loving and gracious God” thanks each church for worshipers’ “life and witness.” It asks God to give every congregation “a holy boldness to stand up for and show your love to all who have been discarded to the margins of their community, whoever and wherever they may be.”
The prayer includes a sentence of inclusion, the focus of Ryde’s intercession and trip. It asks that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people at every church she visits “know how fearfully and wonderfully made they are, how beloved by God they are, and may they be surrounded in love and care and kindness.”
“That’s the piece I really hope people think about,” Ryde told USA TODAY Network Tennessee. “Who has been among them? Who is among them? How have they known they are loved and accepted and cared for, by God and by the congregation?”
Avoiding interstates to find churches
Ryde set her path to visit 66 UMC churches, plotting locations on a Google map to avoid interstates. But she may need to skip a few locations; she’d fallen behind her strict schedule by Tuesday.
In St. Louis, she isn’t a delegate at the Feb. 23-26 conference. She’ll be among those Methodists watching as 864 clerical and lay delegates consider the denomination’s stance on human sexuality. Delegates will consider proposals to strengthen the UMC current ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy or to change the policy to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ community.
The plans come after years of debate among the second largest denomination in the United States. What happens could set denominational policy but fracture the church, causing congregations and individuals to leave.
John Wesley and a Prius
Ryde’s road trip companion is a tiny, game-size piece metal statue of UMC founder John Wesley. Wesley’s riding a horse. Ryde’s driving a Prius.
With Wesley in her pocket, Ryde travels a lot for her job. A United Methodist since 2005, she’s now the southeast region organizer for Reconciling Ministries Network. RMN is an unofficial caucus organization of Methodists who seek the church’s complete inclusion of LGBTQ individuals.
She says this circuit-riding route is a personal one.
“I wanted to ground my trip in something that meant something,” Ryde said. “I wanted it to be a meaningful journey. One of the things that sets United Methodists apart is that it’s a connectional, not a congregational, church. So I thought a way to celebrate and remember that would be to stop at all these churches and leave my letter and pray the prayer.
“For me, it was about reminding myself of the importance of this connection and the importance of us being able to continue to influence folks to move in a more inclusive direction.”
While she visited Tuesday with friends at Knoxville’s Church Street UMC, Ryde doesn’t expect to see many people on her route. At most, she’s a stranger looking to give a prayer and leave a letter. Securing that envelope can be challenging; not every building’s got a mailbox. At Pleasant Hill, she stuck the letter between the church’s two double front doors.
She hopes churches will share her message. “I hope they will know they are connected to people who want to stay connected as United Methodists and who also desperately want a church that is inclusive, welcoming, celebrating and affirming of LGBTQ people.”
A deeply divided denomination
In St. Louis, delegates are to debate keeping or removing language in the church law book called the United Methodist Book of Discipline. The current language prohibits same-sex marriage and says self-avowed practicing homosexuals” cannot be ministers. The book states the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.
Among the delegates are 12 ministers and lay representatives from the Holston Conference. The conference includes 872 congregations in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and north Georgia.
The general conference is the top policy-making body for United Methodists, which includes more than 12.6 million members worldwide. The long-running debate over human sexuality and Biblical interpretation has deeply divided many Methodists. Both conservative, traditionalist groups like the Wesleyan Covenant Association and the progressive RMN have taken stances. Both groups have representatives in the Holston Conference.
Remaining a Methodist
Ryde joined the UMC as an adult. She grew up in evangelical nondenominational churches in England. From age 19 to 32, she tried to “pray away the gay” with efforts that included therapy, counseling and exorcism.
“It doesn’t work,” she says. “I always said I never fell out with God about it. I like to say when you come out and decide to be who you are, you don’t have to move to America. But I did.”
She joined the UMC after moving to Massachusetts and finding she “really missed being in a worshipping community.”
Whatever happens at the general conference, Ryde will remain a Methodist. “I feel that until God tells me something different…I feel as though this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Hays resident Joe Edwards measured 8.5″ of snow in his yard Sat.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
So here it is. The answer to what you’ve been wondering about since yesterday’s blizzard.
The official amount of snow measured Sat., Feb. 23, at the K-State Agricultural Research Center south of Hays is 7 inches, yielding 0.52 inches of moisture.
So far in 2019, Hays has received 1.65 inches of moisture. The seasonal snowfall to date is 25.80 inches.
Saturday’s high temperature was 31 degrees with peak wind gusts hitting 41 mph, causing drifting snow. The overnight low dropped to 11 degrees.
Frontier Park bridge
8.5″ of snow in one Hays yard (Photo courtesy Joe Edwards)
Frontier Park Sat. afternoon (Photo courtesy David Koshiol)
Vine and Old Highway 40 Bypass at 2 p.m. Sat. (Photo courtesy David Koshiol)