SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have a suspect in custody.
Colby Brown photo Shawnee Co.
At approximately 12:13 p.m. Tuesday, the Shawnee County Emergency Communications Center received a call about a possible disturbance in the 1300 block of NE Forest Avenue in Topeka, according to Lt. Jennifer Cross.
While officers were en route to the area, dispatchers received an additional call that a (shooting) had just occurred at the same location. Upon arrival, officers located a man later identified as 29-year-old Daniel Dirk suffering from what appeared to be life-threatening injuries. AMR transported him to a local hospital.
A short time later, officers conducted a traffic stop in the area. Police believed Colby Dean Brown, 19, of Topeka was connected to the incident.
He was taken into custody for questioning and later booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and criminal damage to property. Brown and Dirk were known to each other prior to this incident, according to police.
By KIM BALDWIN McPherson County farmer and rancher
We recently wrapped up our wheat harvest. Although our crew experienced a short harvest in comparison to previous years, we are still very thankful for the crop and for the safety of our workers.
Historically, our wheat harvest generally wraps up around the start of another season: Vacation Bible School.
Families have many choices to consider when sending their kids to a VBS in our area. Whether it’s in the morning, evening or over the weekend, there’s a VBS that works for every family’s schedule.
Some VBS programs are known for their well-organized activities, convenient transportation services, expertly designed T-shirts, deliciously prepared meals, fun incentives or live music from contemporary bands.
In the small town where my children attend school, all of the churches join forces — regardless of denomination — and organize one big, week-long community VBS. While the location changes annually, the collaborative spirit remains consistent year after year. The numbers of children in attendance are quite impressive, and it truly is a tradition for our small town.
Beyond the borders of our town, a group of small country churches — including my family’s church — have also faithfully pooled their resources to provide a week of VBS for any child, from any family, from any community. It’s officially known as Monitor Community Vacation Bible School, but I refer to it as our “Simple Little Country VBS.”
Our VBS averages 25 kids from pre-kindergarten to ninth grade in attendance every year. I’ve taught the oldest group of students ever since I moved to Kansas nearly 10 years ago.
We work on a limited budget. Snacks might consist of cheese and crackers, homemade trail mix or popsicles. Recreation includes games of Red Rover or freeze tag in the church’s yard. Crafts are simple creations that become cherished masterpieces using items like rocks and sticks that have been gathered from outside. Music consists of an experienced piano player and songs sung long before my husband attended as a child. We dig into the daily messages using finger puppets, or reenactments by the older students, or discussions. And regardless of age, the kids work hard on their memory verses throughout the week.
The week wraps up with an evening program where people from area country churches show up to support the kids and listen to them sing their songs and view the student-produced skits from our week of lessons. Afterward, we all enjoy fellowship in the church basement while munching on homemade cookies everyone has provided.
It’s a beautiful testimony to the spirit of our community. And while there may not be many of us, we recognize the importance of continuing our little country VBS.
Given all of the options available to families within our county when it comes to VBS, I’m always quite surprised we have the consistent numbers that we do. I’d almost classify it as a miracle.
It shouldn’t surprise me though. There’s something powerful about the simplistic nature of our week. While our VBS is small, it is still mighty. There’s something that happens that brings kiddos and our small group of workers back year after year.
It’s simple and sweet, and it’s one of the many reasons why I love our simple, little country VBS.
While we’re finalizing our scale tickets and getting some much-needed rest from our wheat harvest, I can’t help but be thankful for the plentiful harvests that take place throughout our area during this time of the year.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
Location of Wednesday’s quake -Image U.S. Geological Survey
JEWELL COUNTY —A small earthquake shook north central Kansas Wednesday.
The quake just after 3a.m. measured a magnitude 2.7 and was centered approximately 7 miles northwest of Mankato in Jewell County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey
There are no reports of damage or injury, according to the Jewell County sheriff’s department.
These are the first quakes in Kansas since a series of quakes reported in northwest Kansas in late June, according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
Former standout Tiger football player Nathan Shepherd, now a member of the New York Jets, will be back in Hays on Wednesday. He will be signing autographs and taking pictures at the Smoky Hill Country Club for approximately 30 to 45 minutes, beginning at 1 p.m. The public is invited.
For those planning to attend, use the south door (red door on the left) to enter the facility from the parking lot.
Shepherd just completed his first year with the New York Jets in 2018 after he was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft following his outstanding career as a defensive lineman at Fort Hays State University. Shepherd recorded 15 tackles in his rookie season with the Jets.
Stacy Hoeme and his son Chaston, are 3rd and 4th generation farmers in Scott County. (Pictures and video courtesy Sand County Foundation)
SCOTT CITY — For more than 40 years the Stacy Hoeme family in Scott City has been on the cutting edge of conservation practices that help their farm’s profitability, soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat.
Their dedication to conservation was recognized by Sand County Foundation as the recipients of the 2018 Kansas Leopold Conservation Award.
Stacy Hoeme and his son, Chaston, farm about 9,000 acres along the Smoky Hill River, and another 10,000 acres in Scott County.
Thanks to a grazing program developed on their western Kansas farm and ranch, the Hoeme family’s land boasts an array of plants that supports some of the largest known populations and densities of lesser prairie chickens.
Lesser prairie chicken study
The Hoeme’s ranch hosted the largest study ever conducted on the rare bird.
They also participated in a large research project that sought to learn why mule deer were in decline.
When biologists wanted to re-establish swift foxes on tribal lands in South Dakota, they captured, transported and released 12 swift foxes from the Hoeme’s land.
The insights gained on their land have influenced how government, conservation partners, and other landowners manage the landscape for wildlife.
ABOUT THE SAND COUNTY FOUNDATION
In 1967, Sand County Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, created a successful partnership among a group of private landowners to protect the land surrounding the famous “Shack” property of Aldo Leopold, America’s foremost conservation thinker. This pioneering cooperative venture led landowners to commit to voluntary conservation while raising awareness of Leopold’s land ethic, which inspires thousands of other owners of working land.
When Leopold wrote his visionary A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949, he introduced conservation ideas that penetrated the public’s conscience just as much then as they do today. Leopold advanced individual responsibility for private land management, and recognized that a landowner’s profitability and economic growth are tied to conservation success. Since its publication, A Sand County Almanac has been described as the most influential conservation book. It remains a best selling environmental book, demonstrating how relevant these ideas are today.
We’ve come a long way since mobilizing our first landowner partners to conserve Leopold’s sandy farmland in Wisconsin. Today, our impact spans the U.S., and is a direct reflection of what our donors and partners can achieve when landowners are encouraged to lead the way to improving our nation’s natural resources.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Let’s go to a retirement home in Illinois where a contractor is using a highly sensitive bed bug detection system. This system is self-propelled, 100% natural, highly accurate in detecting bed bugs, and when it’s done, it just might climb up on your lap and lick your face. This detection system is a dog. Today we’ll learn about an innovative Kansas couple that is building a business using canines for locating bed bugs.
John and Jina Kugler are the founders of this business known as Bug Hounds LLC. John grew up at Lebanon, Kansas, where he enjoyed hunting dogs. He met Jina in school and they later married. K-State drew John and Jina to Manhattan. She studied education and became a teacher and is now a school counselor in Wamego. John is a manager of a public facility in Topeka.
One day a bed bug surfaced in his facility, so he arranged for a pest control company to come clean out the problem. The company brought in a dog as a locator.
“I was skeptical,” John said. After he saw the dog work successfully, he was convinced that this was a service which others could use. After lots of research, he and Jina began their own business to offer this service, called Bug Hounds LLC.
“We are not exterminators, we’re locators,” John said. “However, we have expanded our locating business to include Convectex heat treatment equipment rental.” The Kuglers have trained dogs with an amazing knack for locating bed bugs by scent.
Their lead dog is a beagle named Beddy with an amazing sense of smell. Beddy has 300 million olfactory receptors. The part of her brain devoted to analyzing smell is 40 times that of a human. This enables Beddy to be able to smell out a bed bug at any stage, whether egg, nymph, or adult.
Bed bugs need to feed on human blood. They got their name because a bed was a great source for them to find human contact, but chairs or other personal contact items are also common hosts. In other words, bed bugs can be anywhere there are people. Bug Hounds enables anyone to locate the bed bugs for treatment.
The company website describes their service as “discrete and accurate bed bug location for businesses and individuals.”
“The huge advantage of the dogs is to pinpoint exactly where the bed bugs are,” Jina said. Otherwise, a person could spend thousands of dollars on wasted treatments.
When assisting a customer, the Bug Hounds crew would typically go into a customer’s home or business after hours and walk the facility with a dog and a tap stick. Tapping the stick can disrupt bed bugs, causing them to emit even more scent. The dogs are trained to alert by stopping or pawing at the site of the bed bugs. These amazing dogs are 95% to 98% accurate.
In some cases, Bug Hounds will contract with a place of business to do repeat, regular screenings. Bug Hounds has been hired by pest control companies to locate bugs, but they work with anyone. Bug Hounds serves private residences also.
Having a clean house is no protection against bed bugs. The pests will go wherever there are people. “We’ve found bed bugs in cluttered houses, and we’ve found bed bugs in really nice and clean places,” John said. An adult female averages laying 500 eggs.
Bug Hound’s business has taken them as far away as Illinois and Oklahoma City. Son Jayson has now joined the company, along with three more dogs. The dogs need constant training, which they love. “We’ve tripled our business,” John said.
That’s impressive for a business founded by a man from the rural community of Lebanon, population 218 people. Now, that’s rural.
It’s time to leave this facility in Illinois, where an amazing, four-legged detection system has located exactly where the bed bug pests can be found. We salute John, Jina, and Jayson Kugler for making a difference with this unusual type of canine entrepreneurship. This business has successfully gone to the dogs.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — The Department of Agriculture says fewer than 40% of the researchers whose jobs are being transferred from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City will make the move to the Midwest.
Senator Jerry Moran and Ag Secretary Sonny Purdue-photo courtesy office of Senator Moran
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced in June that the USDA would move more than 550 jobs in two research agencies to Kansas City. A USDA spokesperson told The Star Tuesday that 145 workers will follow their jobs to Kansas City, while 250 will leave the agency, meaning about 37% accepted the transfers.
The USDA says the figures may fluctuate. Employees can change their decision until they are expected to report to Kansas City on Sept. 30.
Members of the Kansas and Missouri congressional delegations and the states’ governors praised the USDA’s move when it was announced, saying the agencies are a good fit for the region. But critics argued that moving them will make it harder for federal policymakers to get objective research that might raise questions about President Donald Trump’s policies.
It’s not yet clear whether the researchers will work in Kansas or Missouri. Economic development officials from both states worked to lure the jobs and cities in both states are working to land the USDA offices.
Perdue said that moving most employees out of Washington would bring the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture closer to farmers and agribusinesses they serve. He also said the USDA would save about $20 million a year on rent and other employee costs, freeing up extra dollars for research.
Critics said the research agencies have lost veteran employees and been unable to fill vacancies since the USDA announced last year it was considering moving their headquarters.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents workers at the two research agencies, opposed the plan. Employees at both recently unionized.
The Economic Research Service examines a wide range of issues, including the rural economy, international trade, food safety and programs that provide food assistance to poor Americans. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture provides grants for agricultural research.
MANHATTAN — With Texas, Colorado and New Mexico reporting multiple confirmed cases of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), the Kansas Department of Agriculture is encouraging livestock owners to be aware and take precautions, particularly with animals that may be comingling with other animals at competitions and similar events. At this time, there have been no cases of VSV reported in Kansas.
VSV is a viral disease which primarily affects horses, but can also affect cattle, sheep, goats, swine, llamas and alpacas. The disease is characterized by fever and the formation of blister-like lesions in the mouth and on the dental pad, tongue, lips, nostrils, ears, hooves and teats. Infected animals may refuse to eat and drink, which can lead to weight loss.
There are no USDA-approved vaccines for VSV.
The primary way the virus is transmitted is from biting insects like black flies, sand flies and midges. Owners should consider treatments to reduce insects where animals are housed. VSV can also be spread by nose-to-nose contact between animals. The virus itself usually runs its course in five to seven days, and it can take up to an additional seven days for the infected animal to recover from the symptoms. Premises with animals diagnosed with VSV are quarantined until at least 14 days after the last affected animal is diagnosed.
VSV is considered a reportable disease in Kansas. Any person who suspects their animals may have VSV should contact their local veterinarian or state animal health official.
KDA has implemented increased importation requirements from the affected regions to help prevent the spread of VSV into Kansas. Likewise, many states have now enhanced their importation requirements as well. Therefore, animal health officials strongly encourage all livestock owners and veterinarians to call the animal health authority in the destination state for the most current import requirements prior to travel.
WICHITA, KAN. – A man who shot at police and was wounded when officers returned fire was sentenced Tuesday, to more than 23 years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney.
Elijah Martinez photo Sedgwick Co.
Elijah K. Martinez, 22 of Wichita, was found guilty in May of attempted murder of a police officer, aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, flee and elude, felon in possession of a firearm and other crimes that occurred on December 27, 2017, in the area of Interstate 235 and Central in Wichita.
Martinez and his girlfriend stole a car in east Wichita and were spotted stealing mail on the west side of Wichita later in the day.
A homeowner in the area of 13th and Tyler called police and followed Martinez to a small business near Central and Interstate 235.
When officers arrived at the business, Martinez pulled a gun and opened fire at the officers before fleeing in a vehicle.
Officers returned fire on two occasions, wounding Martinez in the jaw and back of the head.
After he was wounded, Martinez led officers on a high-speed chase that ended in the parking lot of a video store at Maple and Maize Road.
On Tuesday a Sedgwick County judge sentenced Martinez to a total of 281 months in prison and ordered that he register as a violent offender when he is released.
The sentence also included a series of burglaries in Wichita’s College Hill neighborhood that occurred in the fall of 2017. Martinez and two other men, Timothy Smith and Michael Baker, were convicted of five home break-ins. Of the 281 months in prison that Martinez was ordered to serve, 247 months were for the attempted murder case and 34 months for the burglaries.
Martinez also was ordered to pay $31,123.27 in restitution for property losses in the cases.
WASHINGTON – A Kansas City woman was sentenced to prison Tuesday for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to the filing of false tax returns according to Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Stephen R. McAllister for the District of Kansas.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia of the District of Kansas sentenced Antoinette Winston, also known as Tweety, to 34 months in prison and ordered her to pay $165,392.48 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On Aug. 21, 2018, Winston pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to documents filed with the court, from 2012 to May 2015, Winston stole and used personal identifying information, including names and social security numbers of other individuals in order to file fraudulent income tax returns requesting refunds from the IRS. Winston also used this information to obtain pre-paid debit cards in the names of these individuals, and directed the IRS to pay the fraudulent refunds to these pre-paid debit cards. After the IRS deposited the refunds on the pre-paid debit cards, Winston used the cards to withdraw cash at banks and retail stores. The intended tax loss to the IRS from Winston’s scheme was more than $250,000.
High temperatures in Hays have caused 22nd st. at the Canterbury intersection to buckle late Tuesday afternoon, closing the roadway between Douglas and Canterbury, according to the Hays Police Department.
The street will remain closed until further notice.
Signs are in place to advise the traveling public of utility work in the area. Motorists should use caution in these areas.
The city of Hays regrets any inconvenience this may cause to the public. If there are any questions please call the Department of Water Resources at (785) 628-7380 or the contractor, M&D of Hays, at (785) 628-3169.
