WAKEENEY —Police are seeking information about robbery suspects in an incident last week at a local motel.
The incident occurred at about 1:50 p.m. July 2, at Kansas Kountry Inn, 223 S. First.
A reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest/conviction of those involved. Click below for more information from the WaKeeney Police Department.
TOPEKA – Free training sessions on Kansas open government laws will be offered later this month across Kansas, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government announced today.
“Open access to the functions of government is important to self-government,” Schmidt said. “As our office investigates complaints of violations of open government laws, most often we find the violations were inadvertent and can be avoided through better education. I encourage public officials, candidates for public office, staff, members of the media and the public to participate in these training sessions to learn more about how these laws work.”
The schedule for the sessions is as follows:
Wednesday, July 17
9 a.m. – Noon
WSU Marcus Welcome Center
Mike Oatman Dr., Wichita, KS 67208
Friday, July 19
1 – 4 p.m.
Colby Community College
Robert Burnett Memorial Student Union
Rooms 108 and 109
1255 S. Range Ave., Colby, KS 67701
Wednesday, July 24
1:30 – 5 p.m.
Kansas City Kansas Public Library
Main Branch, 2nd Floor Auditorium
625 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, KS 66101
Thursday, July 25
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Independence Public Library
220 E. Maple St., Independence, KS 67301
These seminars are free, and open to the public. Space at each location is limited, and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants can register on the Kansas Attorney General’s website, www.ag.ks.gov/open-gov, or by calling (785) 296-2215 or (888) 428-8436.
The training about the Kansas Open Records Act and the Kansas Open Meetings Act will be conducted by attorneys in Schmidt’s office who have experience in open government laws and who are charged by law with training and enforcement of them. Panelists will include Kansas Sunshine Coalition members, local government officials and media representatives.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Medicaid support for people with brain injuries has been expanded to include those acquired through internal forces, such as strokes or tumors, following years of advocacy for change.
A quirk in Kansas’ Medicaid statute had meant the only patients to qualify were those with a traumatic brain injury from a blow to the head. But a bipartisan coalition of Kansas legislators approved changes to the law and, as of July 1, acquired brain injuries from events such as strokes, tumors and asthma attacks, are now included, the Kansas City Star reported.
The lawmakers also voted to expand services to children under 16, but that won’t go into effect until October, giving the state time to determine what services the youths need.
“We got so many calls for people that were not eligible,” said Heather Matty, who works at the Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas City. “It was a sad reality. I’m just very thankful that they finally were able to get this changed and they finally came to an agreement, because it’s taken a long time to get this done. And it’s going to help a lot of people.”
Janet Williams is the founder of Minds Matter in Overland Park, the state’s largest provider of services to people with brain injuries. She noted that Kansas was the first state, in 1986, to establish a Medicaid “waiver” specifically to allow brain injury victims to get all the same therapy services at home that they can receive in an institution.
From the start, though, lawmakers have restricted it to people with traumatic brain injuries because they were concerned about the cost of offering it to everyone with brain damage.
“They were afraid of the numbers and it was supposed to be like a trial to see if it worked, and then every time we came back to get the definition changed, they’d bring up the fear of numbers,” Williams said.
Expansion advocates such as Williams asserted that offering those services can save Kansas money in the long term if it encourages self-sufficiency.
TOPEKA (AP) — The former top administrator of Kansas’ juvenile correctional facility accused of grabbing and shoving a female worker has pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Kyle Rohr entered the plea Friday in Shawnee County District Court to bring an end to the criminal case. He had been found guilty last year of battery by a municipal court, but appealed to the district court for a jury trial. That trial has been set to begin Monday.
Rohr was effectively fired last year following the municipal conviction. Rohr was accused of twice grabbing Michelle Valdivia in 2017 at the Topeka juvenile complex and shoving her into a cubicle. Rohr reportedly was upset with the planning of a holiday event for incarcerated juveniles.
Valdivia is suing Rohr, the Kansas Department of Corrections and the state of Kansas for an undisclosed amount, saying Rohr was inadequately supervised.
LUCAS — It was formed around 100 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous era and has been used in fencing, architecture, grave markers, art, and just about anything you can imagine in central Kansas. Now a group of people passionate about native Kansas limestone has joined together to create a coalition promoting the area.
The Kansas Post Rock Limestone Coalition was recently organized with a mission of “promoting, preserving, and protecting the history, art, and architecture of the Kansas Post Rock Limestone region through education and tourism.”
The group is comprised of businesses, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, tourism organizations, art centers, preservationists, and private citizens interested in the native stone. Their geographic area covers 18 Kansas counties stretching from the northern border of the state (Jewell, Republic and Washington counties) flowing southwest down to the Dodge City area (Ford, Hodgeman, Pawnee and Edwards counties).
The Grassroots Arts Center in Lucas received a grant from the Russell Area Community Foundation earlier this year to establish the organization. Still in an infancy stage, the Kansas Post Rock Limestone Coalition has great plans to tell others about the region’s limestone heritage.
“For 25 years, the people living in the ‘Land of the Post Rock’ have talked about forming a unique tourism region in Central Kansas centered around the Kansas Limestone,” said Rosslyn Schultz, Director of the Grassroots Arts Center. “It’s so exciting to be finally planning various activities in the region like ‘Limestone Adventure Trails’ to share our one-of-a-kind architecture, heritage, geology, archeology and customs of this region.”
The Coalition’s new Board Chair agrees with Schultz.
“The Post Rock limestone is unique to this part of Kansas. Many of these century-old buildings have fallen into disrepair and hundreds of miles of Post Rock fences have been removed. It is our goal to raise awareness of this part of our heritage and to preserve what remains for future generations before it is lost forever,” Bradley Penka, chairman of the coalition, said.
The organization is in the process of filing for federal non-profit status and will be hosting various events throughout the year, along with educational programs to promote the area. They are working with the Kansas Historical Society on cataloging various buildings constructed of the native stone.
The area covers these Kansas counties: Barton, Cloud, Edwards, Ellis, Ellsworth, Ford, Hodgeman, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Ness, Osborne, Ottawa, Pawnee, Republic, Rush, Russell and Washington. This area is where the Greenhorn Limestone formation can be found and is where early Kansas pioneers used the native stone for multiple uses, including fence posts and building construction.
The newly-elected board members are:
Bradley Penka, LaCrosse Andy Stanton, Hays Jeannie Stramel, Lucas Terry Bailey, Beloit Christina Hayes, Great Bend Tami McGreevey, Ellsworth Lisa Goodheart, Mankato Kris Heinze, Lincoln Stacey Jackson, Osborne Charma Craven, Luray Terry Rowe, Stockton Rosslyn Schultz, Lucas
Luc Bensimon was one of four transgender individuals who sued Kansas officials over the state’s refusal to allow them to change the sex listed on their birth certificates.
By DAN MARGOLIES Kansas News Service
Kansas has agreed to change its policy and allow transgender people born in the state to update the sex listed on their birth certificates.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Friday entered into a consent decree that ends a lawsuit brought by four native Kansans and the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project, Inc. (K-STEP).
The policy change is significant because birth certificates can determine access to education, employment, health care, travel and the ability to obtain other identification documents.
“It actually will affect the day-to-day lives of every transgender person born in Kansas,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, which represented the plaintiffs. “It means that the state will finally recognize transgender people for who they are and respect that identity.”
Until now, Kansas was one of only three states that didn’t allow people to change their birth certificates to reflect a gender identity that differs from the one they were assigned at birth.
Federal courts have struck down similar policies in Idaho and Puerto Rico, leaving only Ohio and Tennessee with such policies.
The plaintiffs in the Kansas suit filed last October alleged that the state’s policy violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. They also argued that it violated their free speech rights under the First Amendment.
Gov. Laura Kelly lauded the consent decree, saying “(I)t was time for Kansas to move past its outdated and discriminatory anti-transgender policy.”
“This decision acknowledges that transgender people have the same rights as anyone else, including the right to easily obtain a birth certificate that reflects who they are,” Kelly said in a statement.
Under the consent decree, Kansans wanting to apply for an updated birth certificate can now do so by submitting a sworn statement accompanied by a passport, driver’s license or a certification from a healthcare professional confirming their gender identity.
Gonzalez-Pagan said the policy change builds not just on Lambda Legal’s court victories in Idaho and Puerto Rico, but years of advocacy by transgender people in Kansas, “who have been fighting for this for a long time.”
“That includes Stephanie Mott,” Gonzalez-Pagan said. “I wish she could have lived to the day where she would see this victory that she had fought so hard for.”
Mott founded K-STEP, which was a plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with Nyla Foster, Luc Bensimon, Jessica Hicklin, and an individual identified only as C.K. Mott had sued Kansas separately over its policy previously, but later dropped her lawsuit. She died suddenly in March.
“Her advocacy to make Kansas better is remembered in this important decision and in other progress she achieved for transgender people,” Kelly said in her statement.
Before Kelly assumed office this year, Kansas had been hostile to expanding legal protections to include LGBT individuals.
In 2015, then-Gov. Sam Brownback rescinded an order by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius barring discrimination against LGBT employees of the state.
And last year, Kansas was one of 16 states that urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that it’s legal to fire people for being transgender.
The Kansas Office of Vital Statistics routinely approved driver’s license amendments until 2012, when the Brownback administration told the agency to stop doing so.
Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said that made it difficult for transgender people to get driver’s licenses in other states and to register to vote in Kansas because of birth certificate requirements imposed by then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
“Just to be able to put a child in school, the birth certificate has to be disclosed to the school,” Witt said. “And in instances where you have a transgender child, those children were being outed. If you go in and get hired in a new job opportunity and you have to provide a birth certificate, those employees were being outed.
“So having the state of Kansas enter into this consent agreement is a big day for transgender Kansans.”
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter@DanMargolies.
The majority of Americans consider fake news and misinformation to be serious threats to democracy — and that fear may actually be making us better and savvier news consumers.
Last week, the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute released the results of the 2019 State of the First Amendment survey. We’ve been conducting this survey since 1997, taking stock of what Americans know and how they feel about their expressive freedoms — and each year we brace ourselves for bad news.
So, it was a bit of a shock for us to look at the data and find that this year’s results are, relatively speaking, actually pretty good.
Knowledge of the five First Amendment freedoms — speech, religion, press, assembly and petition — is at an all-time high. This year, 71 percent of Americans were able to name at least one of the five freedoms, up from 60 percent in 2018. More people could name specific freedoms than in years past.
Comparing 2019 to 2018, those naming free speech rose to 64 percent from 56 percent; those naming freedom of religion rose to 29 percent from 15 percent and respondents naming freedom of the press rose to 22 percent from 15 percent.
My colleague Gene Policinski wrote a piece cautioning against too much giddiness in the wake of these findings, because the rise in awareness is most likely due to the fact people are increasingly worried about losing these freedoms.
Fair point. But still, it’s nice to see that our anxiety is making us slightly sharper.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the responses to the questions we asked about how Americans feel about the news and those who provide it. Seventy-seven percent of our survey respondents agreed that misinformation on the internet and the spread of fake news were serious threats to democracy. One might expect that fear to translate into a rising distrust in the press at large. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, our data showed that more Americans think the news media reports the news accurately and without bias than they did in 2017, the last time we asked that question (48 percent vs. 43 percent).
Furthermore, a majority of Americans agree that it is important for our democracy that the news media act as a watchdog on government — 72 percent, up from an all-time low of 68 percent in 2017. These might not seem like drastic improvements, but they are significant ones. They indicate that the specter of fake news hasn’t eroded all trust in all media — instead, it seems that Americans are putting greater trust in media outlets that do real reporting.
They’re also becoming more media literate. Americans are taking more steps to verify and review the news they read online, by:
Talking with others (80 percent, up from 73 percent in 2016);
Looking at other news stories (78 percent, up from 72 percent in 2016);
Reading comments about the story (71 percent, up from 58 percent in 2016);
Looking for a rating from a fact-checking website (46 percent, up from about 42 percent in 2016).
None of these tactics is foolproof, but the uptick in each of them suggests Americans are no longer taking everything they see on the internet at face value — and that’s a good thing for our democracy.
Lata Nott is executive director of the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute.Contact her via email at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @LataNott.
HAYS – The Hays Senior Eagles American legion baseball team went 2-1 at the Wild West Fest tournament on Saturday in Hays, with their only loss coming in the semifinals.
Game 1: Hays Eagles 5, McCook, NE 4
In their first game of the day the Eagles had to rally from an early deficit on their way to a 5-4 win over McCook, Nebraska.
McCook opened the game with a two-run first inning.
The Eagles were able to push across a run in the bottom of the second inning on a Brady Kreutzer sacrifice fly.
The also added a run in the third when Palmer Hutchison walked with the bases loaded, tying the game at two.
McCook retook the lead at 3-2 in the fifth but Hays answered with a Cody Petersen RBI single in the bottom of the inning tying the game at three.
An RBI double in the top of the sixth inning gave McCook a 4-3 lead but the Eagles’ Dominic Bainter answered with two run double in the bottom of the inning helping the Eagles take the lead back for good on their way to the 5-4 win.
Trey Riggs earned the win with an inning and two-thirds of relief. He didn’t allow a hit and struck out all five batters he faced.
Game 2: Hays Eagles 10, Dodge City Seniors 7
The Hays Eagles scored five runs in the third inning as they rallied to win their second game of the day, 10-7 over the Dodge City Seniors.
Dodge City jumped out to an early lead, scoring three runs in the top of the first.
The Eagles answered right back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs to tie the game at three.
After Dodge City pushed across two more in the top of the second, they had a 5-3 lead.
The Eagles offense answered in a big way in the third inning scoring five runs to give the Eagles an 8-5 lead, a lead they would never surrender.
Jamison Martin doubled in the first run of the inning for the Eagles. Brady Kreutzer followed that with a sacrifice fly to center tying the game at five. Then with two outs Cody Petersen doubled in two runs to put Hays up 7-5. They added one more on a passed ball and led 8-5.
The Eagles tacked on two more in the bottom of the fourth on a Dodge City error and a Dominic Bainter RBI double. Hays led 10-5 through four innings.
Dodge City added two in the fifth but Hays picked up the 10-7 win.
Kreutzer was two-for-two with two RBI’s. Petersen also drove in two runs.
Brock Lummus earned the win in relief. He allowed two runs on three hits and struck out two while walking four in two and a third innings.
Game 3: Wichita Astros 4, Hays Eagles 3
In the tournament semifinals the Wichita Astros held the Eagles to just three hits on their way to a 4-3 win.
Wichita scored two runs in the second inning and led 2-0 through two and a half innings.
The Eagles tied the game at two in the bottom of the inning, scoring on a wild pitch and a Trey Riggs sacrifice fly.
With the game tied at two Wichita plated two runs in the top of the fifth inning to take at 4-2 lead.
Hays got a single run in the bottom of the inning on a Palmer Hutchison RBI single but that was all the offense the Eagles could muster in a 4-3 loss.
William Sennett allowed four runs on eight hits while striking out one and walking three over five innings and suffered the loss.
With the loss the Eagles drop to 22-6 on the summer and will play the winner of the Wichita Tribe and the Dodge City 17U team Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at Hays High school.
HAYS – The Hays Eagles Junior American Legion baseball team finished 1-2 on Saturday at the Wild West Fest baseball tournament in Hays.
Game 1: Buhler 12, Hays Eagles 5
In their first game of the day Buhler scored in four of the games’s five innings on their way to a 13-5 win over Hays.
Buhler opened the game with a three-run first inning, added two more in the second and the big inning came in the third when they scored six runs.
Trailing 11-0 the Eagles pushed across two runs in the top four the fourth inning. They scored on a Mason Robbins groundout and a Garrett Wellbrock RBI single.
The Eagles scored three more runs in the top of the fifth inning cutting the deficit to 11-5.
Robbins drove in his second run of the game on an RBI single and then Wellbrock plated two more with his second RBI single.
Buhler was able to push across two in the bottom of the fifth to take the 13-5 win.
Wellbrock was two-for-three with 3 RBI’s and Robbins was 1-for-3 with two RBI’s.
Dalton Dale suffered the loss on the mound. He allowed eight runs on three hits and six walks over two and two-thirds innings.
Game 2: Hays Eagles 7, Kansas Senators 5
The Eagles rallied from a 1-0 deficit in their second game of the day to beat the Kansas Senators 7-5.
Down 1-0 through two innings the Eagles scored their first run on an error and then Dalton Dale broke the tie with a sacrifice fly to left field. Mason Robbins followed up with another sacrifice fly to right field this time to put Hays up 3-1.
After the Senators got a run back in the bottom of the third Hays scored two runs in the fourth inning, scoring a run on a wild pitch and another run on an error, to take a 5-2 lead.
The Eagles got single runs in the fifth and sixth inning on their way to the 7-5 win.
Mason Robbins drove in two runs and Keatyn Barnett and Dalton Dale each drove in a run.
Garrett Wellbrock earned the win on the mound. He allowed five runs, four earned, in five and two-thirds innings. He struck out three and walked three.
Dawson Vonfeldt came in and got the final out of the game and earned the save.
Game 3: Dodge City 10, Hays Eagles 7
The Hays Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead through the first inning and a half but couldn’t hold on as the Dodge City Seniors rallied for a 10-7 win.
Garrett Wellbrock and Mason Robbins drove in the game’s first two runs on back-to-back RBI singles. Jack Fields drove in the third run of the inning on a ground out.
In the second inning Remington Cox singled in two more runs to give Hays a 5-0 lead.
Dodge City scored four runs in the second inning to cut the Hays lead to 5-4.
Hays got a single run in the third when Jack Fields scored on a wild pitch and then Fields singled in the Eagles seventh run in the fourth inning to put Hays up 7-4.
But unfortunately for the Eagles Dodge City scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth on their way to the 10-7 win.
Dawson Vonfeldt suffered the loss for the Eagles. He allowed eight runs, five earned in three and a third innings pitched. He struck out four and walked four.
The Eagles finished 1-4 at the Wild West Fest tournament and are now 12-15-1 on the season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A few days after the birth of his second daughter, Kacy, Max Scherzer was back to work.
His wife wouldn’t have it any other way.
Scherzer sustained a dominant stretch with seven strong innings two days after the birth of his daughter, Kurt Suzuki homered and the Washington Nationals beat the Kansas City Royals 6-0 on Saturday.
The NL pitcher of the month for June, Scherzer (9-5) allowed four hits and struck out 11 with one walk in his final outing before heading to Tuesday’s All-Star Game, where he won’t pitch. Kacy was born Thursday.
“I know my wife, Erica, she wanted me to pitch today,” Scherzer said. “She wants me out there pitching, she doesn’t want me sitting at home. We got the in-laws in, we got help. She’s a baseball wife, she (was) a pitcher (in college). She knows she wants me out there competing.”
Scherzer has won seven straight starts and has an 0.84 ERA over his last nine appearances. On Saturday, he settled in after a 22-pitch first inning and later struck out the side in the seventh inning as Washington won for the ninth time in 11 games.
“I played in Atlanta (with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine) and those guys they had were pretty good, but what I’ve seen out of Max is incredible, it really is,” manager Dave Martinez said. “I don’t know how many games now where he keeps getting better and better as we go along.”
Both teams wore throwback uniforms in celebration of their franchise’s 50 years since joining Major League Baseball in 1969, with the Nationals wearing the powder blue uniforms of the Montreal Expos.
Kansas City starter Glenn Sparkman (2-5) gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings.
“The way it looked early, they were going to bash his brains in, and he did a nice job of settling down and making pitches,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I was pleased that he was able to give us six strong.”
Alex Gordon had two hits and a walk for the Royals, who have lost eight of 10.
With Washington leading 1-0, Matt Adams walked leading off the second and Suzuki followed with his 11th homer of the season to culminate a 10-pitch at-bat.
Juan Soto had two RBI singles.
EXPOS DAY
Hall of Famer and former Expo Vladimir Guerrero threw out the ceremonial first pitch. … It wasn’t the first time in an Expos uniform for Martinez, who caught Guerrero’s pitch, and third base coach Bobby Henley. Martinez hit .279 over 3 1/2 seasons with Montreal, and Henley was a teammate of Guerrero’s on the 1998 Expos. … Expos highlights were shown between innings.
WHEELS
Scherzer stole his first base of the season and second of his career after a single in the fourth. He was then caught too far off second on Trea Turner’s grounder to third for a fielder’s choice.
CENTURY STEAL
Kansas City CF Whit Merrifield recorded his 100th career steal when he swiped second in the first inning. He’s the sixth fastest player in Royals history to reach that mark, doing it in 474 games. Tom Goodwin was the fastest (243 games).
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: Manager Ned Yost said he was without a quartet of relievers following Friday’s 11-inning game including Wily Peralta (who pitched in four out of past five games), Jake Newberry (three out of four), Kevin McCarthy (51 pitches in the past three days) and Ian Kennedy (49 pitches in two days).
Nationals: Martinez said 1B Ryan Zimmerman was “normally sore” coming out of Friday’s game and was given the day off. … Martinez said Scherzer will get some extra time off after the All-Star break and won’t make his next start until Sunday, July 14.
UP NEXT
Royals: RHP Jakob Junis (4-8, 5.53) is winless since May 30. He received one run of support or less in four of his past six outings. He’s never faced the Nationals.
Nationals: LHP Patrick Corbin (7-5, 3.55) has a 1.29 ERA with 24 strikeouts, four walks and a .181 opponents’ batting average over his past three starts.
WELLINGTON – Wellington led wire-to-wire Friday in an 8-2 win over the Hays Larks as the two teams split a short two-game series in Wellington.
The Heat broke onto the scoreboard first with a single run in the fourth. They added two more in both the fifth and sixth innings taking a 5-0 lead into the seventh.
The Larks were able to get on the board in the top of the seventh but the Heat answered with three in the bottom of the seventh and led 8-1 through seven. Hays got another run in the eighth but fall 8-2.
Larks starter Wyatt Divis allowed three runs, two earned in five innings and suffered the loss. He struck out six and walked two.
Drake Angeron and George Southerland each collected a pair of hits and Matt Cavanagh drove in the Larks only run.
Hays is 21-7 on the summer and they are in McPherson for the first of two against the Pipeliners on Saturday.
Bernice Ione Martin passed away Friday, July 5, 2019 at the Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Oberlin, KS at the age of 98.
She was born March 20, 1921 in Oberlin, one of three children of Jess and Dora Robertson.
Bernice attended school in Oberlin and graduated from Decatur Community High School in 1939 and just celebrated her 80th alumni reunion.
In 1940, Bernice was united in marriage to Kenneth Martin in Norton, KS. They made their home on a farm south of Oberlin, where they raised their three children. They moved to Oberlin in 1988. Bernice was a homemaker and worked in various restaurants in Oberlin as a cook. She was a member of the United Methodist Church, United Methodist Women, and Fairview Community Club. Bernice loved quilting and was an avid racing fan.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth; her parents, and two brothers, Edwin and Jim Robertson.
Survivors include her three children: Rolan Martin and wife Carol of Littleton, CO, Lee Martin of Oberlin, and Roxie Erickson of Manhattan; five grandchildren: Dr. Ken Erickson, Kris Erickson (Farah), Lindsay Martin (Shane), Erica Martin and Drew Martin; seven great-grandkids; in addition to other relative and friends.
Funeral services will be held 10:00 am Monday, July 8, 2019 at Pauls Funeral Home, Oberlin. Burial will follow at Oberlin Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Decatur County Last Indian Raid Museum or the Oberlin Amusement Authority. Condolences may be left at www.paulsfh.com