The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) is accepting applications for the federally funded Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP).
LIEAP provides an annual benefit to help qualifying households pay winter heating bills. Persons with disabilities, older adults and families with children are the primary groups assisted. In 2018, more than 36,000 Kansas households received an average benefit of $498.
To qualify, applicants must be responsible for direct payment of their heating bills. Income eligibility requirements are set at 130 percent of the federal poverty level. The level of benefit varies according to household income, number of people living in the home, type of residence, type of residence, type of heating fuel and utility rates.
Applicants must demonstrate they have made payments on their heating bills two out of the past three months.
Applications will be accepted until March 29, 2019.
If you are needing assistance filling out or submitting an application, the Northwest Kansas Area Agency on Aging can help. Call the office at 1-800-432-7422 or 785-628-8204 for an appointment.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have three suspects in custody.
Flores-photo Sedgwick Co.Gonzales -photo Sedgwick County
Just after 1 a.m. Thursday, police responded to a check shots call in the 1700 block of south Waco in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson. Upon arrival, officers contacted a 21-year-old man and 24-year-old woman who live in the block.
Both reported hearing gunshots, finding damage to their residence and seeing a gray Chevy Silverado leaving the area.
Officers quickly responded, observed a gray Silverado in the area and stopped the truck at Harry and Mead, according to Davidson.
Rodriguez-Leal- photo Sedgwick Co.
Police contacted 31-year-old Juan Rodriguez-Leal, 29-year-old Jairo Gonzales and 37-year-old Daniel Flores, all of Wichita.
All three individuals were taken into custody without incident and booked into jail.
Officers located two handguns and shell casings in the vehicle. Shell casings were also located in the street on Waco.
Rodriguez-Leal was booked on charges of criminal discharge of a firearm and possession of a firearm under the influence.
Gonzales was booked on charges of driving with a suspended license and criminal discharge of a firearm. Flores was booked on a charge of criminal discharge of a firearm. There were no injuries, according to Davidson.
MANHATTAN —One person was injured in a fire Thursday in Manhattan.
Crews at the scene of Thursday’s fire in Manhattan- photo courtesy Manhattan Fire Dept.
Just before 4:30p.m., crews to the fire at a home in the 400 Block of South 16th Street, according to a media release. Upon arrival they found smoke coming from the back of the residence.
Crews extinguished the blaze in approximately five minutes. Riley County EMS transported one person to Via Christi for possible smoke inhalation.
Damage to the residence is estimated at $5,500. Cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Author and Victoria native Tammi Sauer introduces children at Wilson Elementary School to her book’s character, Wordy Bird.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Tammi Sauer, children’s author and Victoria native, is home this week for school visits that will culminate in a performance based on her book, “Your Alien,” on Friday at Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
First and second graders will see a live performance of “Your Alien” at 12:45 p.m. Friday. A public performance will be at 7 p.m., also at Beach/Schmidt. Cost is $3 for children 12 and younger and $5 for those 13 and older. All seating is general admission, so tickets will be sold only at the door beginning at 6:20 p.m.
Sauer’s school visits and the performance are being sponsored by the Hays Arts Council.
Sauer said Wednesday she was excited to be home and sharing her stories with local children. Although several of her books have been adapted into live performances, this is the first time she will be able to see one of them on stage. She has invited members of her family from Ellis County to join her in watching “Your Alien” for the first time.
“It is going to be amazing to have something that I had this idea for come to life on stage,” she said.
Sauer also presented the schools with a copy of “Your Alien Returns,” the sequel to “Your Alien.”
Sauer travels all over the country giving presentations to schools, and she has had some of her books translated into foreign languages.
Wilson students react to Tammi Sauer’s presentation at their school on Wednesday.
During a visit this week to Wilson school, Sauer introduced the children to one her characters, “Wordy Birdy,” read several books to the children, talked about the inspiration for her books and offered second graders an extended session on developing their ideas into stories.
Sauer said much of her inspiration for her books came from growing up on a farm near Victoria. She told the children her job in the family was pig chaser. When the family’s pigs got out of their pens, she had to chase them back in.
A zoo of of other animals play prominently in her books, including chickens, ducks bears, a moose and a shark among others.
She told the second-graders she finds inspiration for her books in the “weird stuff” in her life.
“I have 27 books,” she said, “and most of those have started with something weird.”
Her first book was “Cowboy Camp,” which was inspired by a young man who knocked on her door one night trying to sell her a newspaper subscription to earn money to go to a cowboy camp. Sauer thought this young man did not look like the type of person that would fit in at a cowboy camp. The struggle of her main character was born.
Another idea for a book came from a plate. It had a picture of a bear in bright red underwear on it with the words, “Cake? What Cake?”
“When I saw this picture of the big hairy bear in the giant red underpants standing in a bunch of cake crumbs, I thought I need to write a book about an animal who likes cake as much as this guy,” Sauer told the children.
The book became “I Love Cake.”
Sauer studied elementary education at Kansas State University and was teacher before she started her writing career. Even before she graduated college, one of her instructors noted her talent with words and encouraged her to consider writing children’s books. In honor of that teacher, she named a chicken in one of her books after her.
Sauer said she placed the thought of writing on the back burner until a children’s author visited her daughter’s school. That reignited that dream of being an author. She squeezed in time to write when her children were napping. Her first book was published in 2005.
Sauer told the children,”I think my job is the best job in the world. I think being a children’s book author is better than being a race car driver and vooming around the curves. I think it is more fun that being an astronaut and blasting into outer space. I think my job is the best, because I love books.
“Books can take people on adventures. You can open up any book in your library and go on a new adventure.”
Sauer has made frequent visits to Victoria to share her love of writing and books.
“I just wanted those kids to see, ‘Hey, you can go to this little school and you can go do big things. You can do whatever you want. You just have to put in the time and the heart.
“It is my favorite,” she said of visiting her former school. “I have those feelings when I was in here. I know where some of my favorite books where on the shelf. It is a nice feeling to be back. When I walk in there, it even has the same kind of smell I remember when I was a little kid.”
Sauer can still remember some of her favorite books when she was a child. She loved the golden egg book when she was in first grade because of its beautiful cover, the Ramona books when she was a little older and “Are You There God? It’s Me Margret.”
“I have always been a big reader and just didn’t ever know I was going to be a writer,” she said. “It is just great to know all that reading I was doing helps me to be a better writer even now.”
Sauer acknowledged the children’s book market is very competitive. Less than 1 percent of the manuscripts that are sent to the major publishing houses make it to print. Sauer has an agent who helps find buyers for her books. Even with a children’s literature, revisions are extensive.
“I feel most of my job is not as a writer, but a reviser,” she said. “That is the truth for every writer out there who is trying to make a good thing better.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas legislator accused of fraudulently taking $10,500 from campaign funds for his personal use told jurors Thursday that the payments were legitimate campaign expenses.
Michael O’Donnell-photo Sedgwick Co.
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell took the stand to defend himself in his federal trial on 23 counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering related to his state and county campaigns.
“It is offensive to me and outrageous to me that anybody would assume I would steal money,” he testified.
A federal indictment alleges a scheme whereby O’Donnell allegedly wrote a series of checks in 2015 and 2016 from his “Michael for Kansas” and “Michael for Sedgwick County” campaigns to various people who would cash the checks. Prosecutors alleged some of the money went into his personal checking account and some went to friends.
But O’Donnell contended the payments were made to staffers who worked on his campaign and helped him with his official government duties. To make his point he said his campaign still owes him $3,618 for unreimbursed mileage that he could write a check for to himself if he wanted.
“I am not in public service to make money, but I do have legitimate debts that are owed to me by my campaigns,” he said.
O’Donnell, a Wichita Republican, was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 2012 for a term that ended in January 2017. He did not run for re-election and instead ran for and won a term on the Sedgwick County Commission that began in 2017 and is set to expire in 2020.
He repeatedly insisted the checks he wrote were “all legal under Kansas law” — drawing at one point a wry remark from Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith during cross examination that O’Donnell could append that comment to all his answers. The judge rebuked the prosecutor for the comment.
O’Donnell detailed for hours his payments to staffers, including some which he claimed were bonuses and retainers to friends who worked for him.
But prosecutors grilled him on checks made out to people who had testified earlier in the trial that they either did no work for the campaign or who were not actually working at events such as ball games as O’Donnell had claimed. He said some games were part of his official duties because he was invited to them by the university and had meetings with school officials later.
At one point he tried to explain a friend’s testimony that he was not working by saying that his staffer “didn’t realize what he was doing is work, I should have explained it better… I saw value in having a staffer there.”
The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) is accepting applications for the federally funded Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP).
