PRATT – In a 5-1 vote, Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KWPT) Commissioners approved the use of electric-assisted bicycles, or e-bikes, at Kansas state parks. The decision was made during the Commission’s Sept. 19 public hearing at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center in Great Bend.
E-bikes, also referred to as pedal-assist bikes, have a small motor that engages when a rider pedals. Once engaged, the motor provides a “boost” of acceleration, allowing the rider to more easily maneuver hills and rough terrain. Only e-bikes that cease to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches a maximum of 20 miles per hour may be used at Kansas state parks. E-bikes will also only be allowed on trails already approved for bicycle use.
“We have over 500 miles of trails at Kansas state parks,” said Linda Lanterman, Kansas state parks director. “E-bikes will allow more users to enjoy these trails, including individuals who have previously been unable to because of age, disability, or physical capacity. We’re really excited about the opportunities this will open up.”
State park staff plan to increase public education efforts promoting safe trail use and trail etiquette, as well as increase signage on trails where bicycles are allowed. For a complete list of trails at Kansas state parks, including biking trails, visit ksoutdoors.com/trails.
The next KWPT Commission meeting will be Nov. 14 at the William Carpenter 4-H Building in Scott City.
TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly officially proclaimed Oct. 6-12, 2019, as Fire Prevention Week in Kansas. The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) and Safe Kids Kansas teamed up with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) — the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week™ for more than 90 years — to promote this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Not Every Hero Wears a Cape. Plan and Practice Your Escape!” The campaign works to educate everyone about the small but important actions they can take to keep themselves and those around them safe.
In Kansas, there were 2,621 home fires in 2018, which accounted for 33 deaths and 189 injuries.
NFPA statistics show that in 2017 U.S. fire departments responded to 357,000 home structure fires in the United States. These fires caused 2,630 fire deaths and 10,600 fire injuries. On average, seven people died in a fire in a home per day during 2012 to 2016.
Today’s home fires burn faster than ever. In a typical home fire, you may have as little as one or two minutes to escape safely from the time the smoke alarm sounds. Knowing how to use that time wisely takes planning and practice.
While many are focusing on home fires, these messages apply to virtually any location.
“Situational awareness is a skill people need to use wherever they go,” Doug Jorgensen, Kansas State Fire Marshal, said. “No matter where you are, look for available exits. If the alarm system sounds, take it seriously and exit the building immediately.”
While people feel safest in their home, it is also the place people are at greatest risk to fire, with four out of five U.S. fire deaths occurring at home. That over-confidence contributes to a complacency toward home escape planning and practice.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal recommends Kansans should practice their home fire escape drill at least four times a year, during the day and at night. They should also teach children to escape on their own in the event an adult cannot help them.
“Everyone in the home should know how to call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number from a cell phone or a neighbor’s phone, and they should practice using different ways out,” Jorgensen said.
Safe Kids Kansas would like to remind families that Saturday, Oct. 12, is Home Fire Drill Day. This is an opportunity to plan, talk about and practice your fire plan with all your family members, especially young children, so they know what to do when they hear a smoke alarm.
“Teach children to get low and get out when they hear the smoke alarm,” Cherie Sage, Safe Kids Kansas, said. “A child who has practiced getting out of the home and to a safe meeting spot will have a better chance of getting out of danger safely during a real emergency, so practice your escape plan regularly as a family. “
To learn more about this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Not Every Hero Wears a Cape. Plan and Practice Your Escape!” and home escape planning, visit https://fpw.org.
EDMOND, Okla. – Chance Fuller tied a Fort Hays State single game record with five touchdown passes and the Tiger defense held Central Oklahoma to 57 yards in the second half of a 35-7 win over the Bronchos Saturday afternoon at Wantland Stadium.
Fuller, who completed 23 of 30 passes for 310 yards and two interceptions, threw four of his five TD passes in the first half as the Tigers (3-2) built a 28-7 halftime lead. Harley Hazlett and Manny Ramsey both had two touchdown receptions. Hazlett hauled in a 36-yard strike on the Tigers first offensive possession. His 23-yard TD catch early in the second quarter broke a 7-7 tie and gave the Tigers the lead for good.
Ramsey scored on passes from six and 11 yards inside five minutes to play in the second quarter.
Jacoby Williams’ six-yard TD catch with 7:56 to play in the game ended a 15-play, 88 yard drive that ate up 7:31 and was the only scoring of the second half. It came after the Tigers missed a field goal and threw two interceptions on their first three second half possessions.
Central Oklahoma (2-3) scored on eight-play, 79-yard drive with 7:20 left in the first quarter which tied the game at 7-7. They would pick up only one more first down the rest of the half. They would be held to two first downs and 57 yards in the second half.
The Tigers picked up 489 total yards of offense, 179 on the ground and 310 through the air. Charles Tigner led the ground game with 83 yards on 15 carries. D.J. Hickman had 80 yards on 16 carries, all in the second half.
Jordan Starks paced the Tiger defense that held the Bronchos to 238 total yards with 11 tackles and an interception.
ENID, Okla. (AP) — A woman was shot in the thigh when a dog inside the vehicle with her jumped onto a back seat console, causing a gun under the console to fire.
Tina Springer was in the passenger seat of the vehicle that had stopped Thursday to wait for a train in Enid in northern Oklahoma. The yellow Labrador retriever, which belongs to the 79-year-old driver Brent Parks, was in the back seat and jumped onto the folding console. That’s when the .22-caliber handgun under the console went off.
Police say cloth from the seat covers could have gotten into the trigger well of the gun, making it discharge.
The 44-year-old Springer, who lives in Nash, Oklahoma, and is Parks’ caretaker, was taken to a hospital for treatment of a serious injury.
Police say Parks told them the gun isn’t usually loaded.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Baylor didn’t win a conference road game last season, but had success in its first attempt this season on Saturday, beating Kansas State 31-12 to remain undefeated.
Charlie Brewer led the Bears with 230 yards passing and a touchdown as Baylor got their first conference road win since beating Kansas in 2017.
Baylor (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) had 426 yards of offense with only 23 minutes of possession against the Wildcats (3-2, 0-2), who have scored only two touchdowns in their last two games.
“I’m really proud of our guys because this is a tough place to play with a great crowd,” Baylor coach Matt Rhule said. “I thought our guys battled early, found a way to get a halftime lead and then grounded it out in the second half.”
It was only the third conference road win for Baylor since 2016, and just the second for Rhule with the Bears.
“I don’t think they realize what they did because this is a hard place to win,” Rhule said.
John Lovett had a pair of touchdown runs and Gerry Bohanon added another scoring run for Baylor. Tyquan Thornton had 92 yards receiving with a touchdown. Denzel Mims hauled in 83 yards on five catches and JaMycal Hasty had 87 yards rushing.
Skylar Thompson was 22-of-34 passing for 218 yards for Kansas State. James Gilbert led the Wildcats in rushing with 94 yards.
The Bears had 15 tackles for loss, which is the most for the Bears since the season opener in 2016. Baylor had six sacks and made it tough for Thompson to feel comfortable in the pocket.
“Anytime you lose it’s frustrating,” Thompson said. “It is part of the game sometimes, part of the journey. We just have to buckle down and focus on what we need to work on and our mistakes.”
The Wildcats’ Blake Lynch kicked a 31-yard field goal with two minutes left in the first quarter. Baylor responded on the ensuing drive with a John Mayers 36-yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3 just 30 seconds into the second.
Brewer found Thornton wide open in the end zone for 29 yards, capping a 98-yard drive to give the Bears a 10-3 halftime advantage. It was the second straight game that Kansas State has scored just a field goal in the first half.
“We all have to be better and it starts with me,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “I’ve got to be better and make sure to push the right buttons.”
Lovett scored on a 13-yard run early in the second half that made it 17-3. The Wildcats were driving on the following possession but fumbled at the Bears 30 and thwarted any potential momentum.
Thompson threw his first interception of the season, and the Bears answered with a 63-yard drive, capped by Bohanon’s 4-yard touchdown run that made it 24-6 with 10 minutes to go.
With six minutes left, Thompson tossed a 5-yard TD to Dalton Schoen, but the 2-point conversion failed.
Lovett ran for a 46-yard touchdown two plays later.
THE TAKEAWAY
Baylor has won its first five games of the season and look to be a contender in the Big 12 this season.
Kansas State looks vulnerable after starting the season 3-0 as their offense has gone stagnant in conference play.
ALTERNATIVE UNIFORMS
Kansas State wore alternative uniforms for the first time in 30 years, with white pants and white helmets.
INJURY WATCH
Charlie Brewer was injured early in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. Brewer has thrown for 11 touchdowns without an interception this season.
“I don’t know anything status wise right now,” Rhule said. “I know they were holding him, but other than that I probably won’t know anything until later today or Monday.”
UP NEXT
Baylor will return home to take on Texas Tech on Saturday.
Kansas State has their second bye week before hosting TCU on October 19.
WICHITA, KAN. – A Wichita woman was sentenced today to 40 months in federal prison for taking part in four commercial robberies, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Savannah Cole photo Butler Co.
Savannah Cole, 22, Wichita, pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery. In her plea, she admitted committing the following robberies:
The Dollar General Store, 915 S. Glendale in Wichita, Nov. 22, 2017. Cole admitted she and co-defendant Kenneth W. Cade, 29, Wichita, Kan., went into the store together to rob it. Cade pointed a gun at an employee and demanded money a the C-Store, 837 S. Oliver in Wichita, Feb. 7, 2018. Cole admitted she pointed a gun at an employee and demanded money. Cade stayed outside as a lookout.
At the Arby’s, 4308 E. Harry in Wichita, Feb. 14, 2018. Cole and Cade went into the store to rob it. Cade pointed a firearm at an employee and demanded money and at Circle K Store, 515 N. Seneca in Wichita, Feb. 14, 2018. Cole and Cade went into the store to rob it. Cole pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded money. Cade grabbed the cash.
Last month, co-defendant Cade was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.
WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Late rallies in each set gave No. 13 Central Missouri a 3-0 win over the Fort Hays State volleyball team Saturday afternoon, 25-20, 25-23, 25-19. The Tigers move to 6-9 on the year and 3-4 in MIAA play, while the Jennies improve to 10-5 overall and 4-2 against league competition.
The Tigers controlled the early portion of the first set after tallying the first three points. FHSU led by as many as five, 10-5, before the Jennies slowly closed the gap. After leveling the score at 13-13, UCM took its first lead at 17-16. The Tigers battled back to tie things up at 19-19, but the Jennies rallied to take the set after scoring six of the next seven points.
Fort Hays State jumped out to another lead in the second frame, going in front 8-4 before a big run put the Jennies in front. After trailing by as many as four, 20-16, the Tigers battled back to tie things up at 23-23 thanks to a 7-3 run. Central Missouri bounced back to take the last two rallies in the set, going in front 2-0 after a 25-23 win.
The teams went back and forth to open the third set, leading to seven ties before the score was 11-11. The Jennies began to pull away thanks to a 7-1 run fueled by five kills. FHSU closed within four after a block from Tatum Bartels and Emily Ellis, before the Jennies put the match away with four more kills and one block.
Delaney Humm led the team with 15 kills while adding 12 digs, three assists, one ace and one block. Isabelle Reynolds totaled eight kills with Bartels adding six kills. Katie Darnell contributed 27 assists, three kills and two blocks. Abbie Hayes led the team with 13 digs, while Madison Miller totaled 11 digs.
The Tigers posted a .187 attack percentage while UCM countered with a .306 swing rate. UCM held slight leads in several other statistical categories, including an 8-7 edge in blocks, a 60-56 advantage in digs and a 2-1 difference in aces.
Fort Hays State will take on a third-straight nationally ranked team on the road Tuesday when the Tigers drive north to play No. 4 Nebraska-Kearney. First serve is set for 6 p.m.
WYANDOTTE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 10a.m. Saturday in Wyandotte County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Kenworth Cement truck driven by Gustavo Hernandez, 43, Kansas City, was westbound on Kansas 32 and turned south onto a private drive at 7241 Kaw Drive.
The truck struck the front of a westbound Union Pacific train.
Officers working a fatality accident involving a train, in the area of 73rd and Kaw Drive.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities have arrested a mother who is suspected of ramming three juveniles with her vehicle in Kansas City after witnessing a fight involving her daughter.
The mother was taken into custody Wednesday. Police say the daughter told investigators that she was headed home from school Tuesday when a group of juveniles attacked her. The daughter said there is an ongoing issue between her family, and a former classmate.
Police say the mother arrived during the assault and accelerated her vehicle, striking the three juveniles. They were checked out by emergency crews at the scene and refused additional treatment.
HAYS, Kan. – No. 21 Fort Hays State men’s soccer defeated the Newman Jets at home on Saturday, Oct. 5 by a score of 4-0. Notching four goals in the victory, the Tigers continue their relentless streak, netting 12 shots in two games.
The black and gold found their first goal in the 21st minute. Senior Sergio Villalba fired a shot from 25-yards away from goal and pinned it in the upper 90.
10 minutes later, a handball was called on Newman’s Andrey Rios inside of the 18-yard box. Rios began calling for an appeal, but the central referee proceeded with his point to the penalty spot. Stepping up to the spot was ju Moritz Walther. Remaining poised, he struck the ball into the bottom left of the goal for the second score of the contest.
Now, with two goals under their belts to open up the match, the Tigers only needed four more minutes to grab the third. On the strike of a corner kick, Walther and sophomore Alec Bevis leaped into action to win the header – both flicking the ball on, across the six-yard box. Controlling it at his feet was leading goal scorer Santiago Agudelo, who tucked the ball into the back of net from just four yards out.
While the first three goals had come in rapid succession, the next tally waited over 40 minutes. Arsenio Chamorro was set free down the right side of the field by defender Jurgen Ramirez. Chamorro, only requiring one touch with a defender at his back, chipped goalkeeper Jean Consol. That play registered two FHSU firsts – Chamorro for notching his first goal of the season and Ramirez collecting his first collegiate assist.
The Tigers remained in control for the entirety of the match, producing 17 shots, 11 of which were on target, compared to only six that Newman could manage to strike.
Defensively, Fort Hays State held a rock solid back line. Each man of the defense played the entirety of the 90 minutes, including goalkeeper Kieran Brown who added two saves to the score sheet.
With the victory, Brown marked his second career victory and his first clean sheet in collegiate play.
Now 5-3-1 in 2019, the Tigers will be back in action on Thursday, Oct. 10 when they take on Oklahoma Baptist (3-6). FHSU is 4-0 all time against the Bisons.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley was dissecting his team’s latest easy victory, this time a 45-20 blowout of Kansas, when he was interrupted by the sound of a toilet flushing in the nearby visiting locker room.
“That’s what they thought of my play-calling,” Riley said with a sardonic grin.
It wasn’t that bad, coach.
Heisman Trophy hopeful Jalen Hurts threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns while running for two more. Rhamondre Stevenson added 109 yards rushing and a score on just five carries. And the sixth-ranked Sooners (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) still ripped off seven straight scores to put the game away early.
Not to mention allow them to cruise to their 22nd straight true road win, the second-longest streak since at least World War II in major college football. Bud Wilkinson’s Sooners won 25 from 1953-58.
“Every team in the country circles our team and the offense and we like that,” said Riley, whose Sooners had 545 yards. “What’s exciting is you see glimpses of what it can be, and it’s on us to turn those glimpses into longer stretches of dominant play.”
It might take some better play in next weekend’s Red River Showdown with No. 11 Texas.
“I know that’s always a hot topic on the outside,” Riley said, “but that wasn’t mentioned before the game, not one time. Maybe we didn’t handle the early start, whatever it was. But we can do better.”
Carter Stanley threw for 230 yards and three touchdowns for Kansas (2-4, 0-2), including a pair to Stephon Robinson, while sophomore running back Pooka Williams followed his breakthrough 252-yard rushing performance against the Sooners a year ago with 137 on Saturday.
“Our football team, I talked to them coming off the field. There’s no hang-dog,” Kansas coach Les Miles said. “They want to do what we set out to do. They’re going get there. And it’s going to be — they are going to take the strides they need to have the success they want to have.”
The rout most people anticipated didn’t happen right from the start.
In fact, the Jayhawks outplayed the Sooners throughout most of the first quarter.
They had forced a punt but were pinned at their goal line midway through the quarter when Stanley marched them 98 yards. And when the senior quarterback lofted a pass to Daylon Charlot for a 22-yard TD, the home fans that stuck out a 30-minute lightning delay cheered the 7-0 lead.
“There’s still improvement,” Miles said afterward. “You can see it.”
Hurts and the Sooners eventually got on track, though.
They answered the touchdown with one of their own when Trey Sermon plunged in from 2 yards out. Hurts added a TD run of his own, then found CeeDee Lamb just before halftime to give Oklahoma a 21-7 lead.
Hurts kept adding to his impressive stat line after the break.
He ran for 36 yards, completed both of his passes and scored a TD to cap an 84-yard drive, then ran for 53 yards before hitting Sermons with a 15-yard touchdown pass.
Stevenson ripped off a 61-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to punctuate the win.
Still, it wasn’t a perfect performance by the Sooners.
They had a long punt return TD brought back by a penalty, and Hurts threw his first interception of the season in the fourth quarter. And while the Oklahoma defense held the Jayhawks in check outside of their long touchdown drive, new coordinator Alex Grinch’s bunch failed to produce a turnover.
It was still plenty good enough to remain unbeaten as the Sooners set their sights on Dallas.
“Early on we left them off the hook in some situational deals,” Grinch said, “and our inability to finish changes your outlook in the postgame news conference.”
QUOTEABLE
“It took us a little while to get on track, then we had a really nice surge there end of the first half, even despite a couple of really, really dumb calls by me that set us back.” — Riley.
THE TAKEAWAY
Oklahoma could be forgiven for getting off to a slow start. Lightning delayed kickoff, and periods of heavy rain hurt an already sparse crowd that contributed to a sleepy atmosphere.
Kansas was battered so soundly by TCU last week that fans were bracing for the worst, but coach Les Miles at least kept his team in the game into the second half. That constitutes progress in Lawrence.
UP NEXT
Oklahoma heads to the State Fair of Texas to face the Longhorns next Saturday.
Kansas gets next week off before its own shot at the Longhorns.
LAWRENCE — We’ve entered the golden age of legal nonsense.
“It’s a problem partly because of a lack of knowledge, but partly just a feeling people have that the courts won’t help them. And they’re looking for anything to fix that,” said Colin McRoberts, a lecturer with the University of Kansas School of Business.
McRoberts’ article “Tinfoil Hats and Powdered Wigs: Thoughts on Pseudolaw” can be found in this month’s Washburn Law Journal. The piece probes why a rise in legal scams and frauds is gumming up the court system and harming those gullible enough to be duped.
“For a long time, we’ve had weird, unusual, damaging and predatory legal ideas. But for a long time they grew in tiny little communities that communicated by word of mouth or newsletter. Now it’s online. And now you get much weirder ideas building on top of weird ideas that have always been there.”
Colin McRoberts
A Harvard Law School graduate and former litigator, McRoberts became immersed in the wacky underground community of pseudolaw when he embarked on the 2016 Conspira-Sea Cruise.
“This a cruise by conspiracy theorists for conspiracy theorists,” said McRoberts, who joined writers from Popular Mechanics and Jezebel as the other observing skeptics.
“You spend a couple thousand bucks, which I crowdfunded, and get to listen to a week’s worth of people talking about psychic vampires, Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifting alien, secret ways to avoid paying income tax and all kinds of that stuff.”
The trip also introduced him to Winston Shrout, whose unforgettable name is matched by the unforgettable tales McRoberts divulges about the man in his article. In “Tinfoil Hats,” he describes Shrout as “a prolific lecturer and self-declared Earth delegate to the interdimensional Galactic Round Table. He is also a felon and currently a fugitive from justice.”
This convicted tax dodger capped a weeklong excursion on the Pacific Ocean by telling a room full of rapt theorists that he worked with the Queen of the Fairies to move the international dateline from London to France because it would disrupt international transactions.
McRoberts said, “It was bizarre because I’d watched him sell consulting services, DVDs and books to people on this cruise the whole week. And here was the finale where all the speakers provide their quick high points. And I thought, ‘This is the end of a scam.’ Because the people who are paying to have a private consulting side are now seeing him talk about the Queen of the Fairies. How can they go home and keep sending in money?
“But when I looked around the room, people were nodding and into it.”
The nature of how and why individuals could be so susceptible to this type of wild misinformation became the real revelation for McRoberts. He equates it to the “boiled frog” concept, where progressive exposure to distorted reality takes people to places they never would have gone previously.
McRoberts reveals the informal legal term that embodies this skewed subset: “replacement law.”
“It’s the idea that there is an alternative universe of law,” he said. “That’s the universe where my birth certificate makes me a literal vessel, like a ship, instead of a person. And there is a law saying that. There’s not. It’s the attempt to take that fake universal law and staple it to the real world, without ever bothering to find out whether it’s true.”
While the tinfoil crowd is unquestionably hilarious on the surface, there is plenty of genuine erosion beneath. This type of pseudolaw leaves a trail of casualties.
“If somebody goes to court for not paying taxes because they fell for pseudolaw, and they defend themselves in the tax fraud charges using pseudolaw, they get hurt. And we think of them as the villain in the case — but maybe they were just desperate and fell for some professional guru’s sales pitch. Yet that person never gets in trouble,” he said.
McRoberts contends this is because people viewed as “goofballs” are considered a low priority for law enforcement. In fact, in order for litigious perpetrators to be held accountable, they typically have to stop paying taxes.
That’s what happened to Shrout.
The self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” mailed more than 1 quadrillion dollars in fake “International Bills of Exchange” to a bank, claiming the U.S. Treasury would honor them. Instead, the government brought him to trial and sentenced him to 10 years for numerous charges, primarily tax evasion. In March, he neglected to turn himself into authorities and is now a wanted man (which hasn’t stopped him from posting his seminars online).
“The reason pseudolaw has grown to be a problem is that people try it, and it fails. But they don’t understand why it failed because the court never explained it or because they don’t have any access to legal understanding and education. So they only know it failed, but not why. And they attribute that to the same shadowy conspiracies that have been plaguing them the whole time,” McRoberts said.
The lawyer wonders why, rather than indulge in pseudolaw, they can’t simply study actual law.
“Why don’t they take the same classes lawyers and judges take?” he said. “And I have yet to find anybody who would even consider taking one of those classes.”
McRoberts started at KU less than a month ago, but his wife has worked nearly four years as a professor in anthropology at the university. Prior to his higher education career, he was a consultant with his own firm, Vasher McRoberts, and with the SAB Group. The Texas native was also a litigator with the Chicago office of Steptoe & Johnson.
His academic expertise is in legal persuasion.
McRoberts admits sometimes it’s tricky to determine what appears more absurd: a tinfoil hat or a powdered wig.
He said, “If you give an average person a page of real law and a page of pseudolaw, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference. They both look ridiculous.”
