What did one plate say to the other plate?
Dinner’s on me tonight.
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Year: 2019
Kansas man dies after ejected in 2-vehicle crash
RENO COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 8:30p.m. Sunday in Reno County.
The Sheriff’s department reported a truck driven by Van Dean, 61, Buhler, was eastbound on 4th Avenue at Buhler Road. When he entered the intersection, a northbound SUV driven by Tyler Obrecht, 26, Buhler, collided with the truck.
Dean was ejected from the truck when it rolled into the ditch northeast of the intersection, according to the sheriff’s department.
EMS transported Dean, Obrecht and a passenger in the SUV Jaxson Obrect, 2, to Hutchison Regional Medical Center where Dean was pronounced dead.
Dean was not wearing a seat belt, according to the Reno County Sheriff’s Department. Obrecht and the toddler were properly restrained. The child was not injured.
The accident remains under investigation.
Adopt-A-Cop creates positive relationships between officers, kids
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Lt. Tim Greenwood stood outside Holy Family Elementary School on a recent drizzly, gray morning, opening car doors for kids and giving high-fives and fist bumps.
It only takes about 15 minutes out of his day, but he said he thinks it is important for kids to see a police officer as one of the good guys.
Greenwood was part of the Adopt-A-Cop program when it began in Hays in 1998. The program was temporarily discontinued, but was resurrected about five years ago. Every school, public and private, in the city has at least one officer assigned.
“It is great when I am there and the kids smile and wave,” he said.
In addition to the welcomes in the morning, Greenwood periodically gives presentations to school on safety topics. Greenwood is also a veteran and the school invites him to lunch once a year to celebrate Veterans Day.
“I’m somebody those kids can look up to as a role model and not be afraid to reach out and say. ‘Hey, Officer Greenwood, how are you this morning?’ and develop a conversation or rapport that has served us professionally later on.”
The relationships he builds with the children has been useful as he has been called to tragedies and been able to calm a child because that child knew him from school.
Greenwood said Adopt-A-Cop has been one of his best assignments as a police officer.
“A young lady came up to me and asked if I remembered her, and I didn’t. It was a third grader that 20 years later had grown up and she still remembered I was her Adopt-A-Cop,” he said.
Sgt. Jason Bonczynski is assigned to Wilson Elementary School.
“I think the program has some really tremendous benefits for the kids” he said. “When I first started going, no one wanted to talk to me. There was a cop over there. They didn’t know what was going on. ‘He looks a little bit spooky.’ Once the kids realize I am there for the kids, they’re having fun and I’m handing out stickers and visiting and playing, they almost run me over for a sticker in the morning.
“Some kids have had experiences with law enforcement that might not pose us in the most positive light because we took a law enforcement action. They might be fearful of us. We have the opportunity to turn around those perceptions and let them know we are here for community service and to keep people safe.”
In his 21 years as an officer, he said there is nothing that puts a smile on his face and is more positive than being an Adopt-A-Cop.
“Who doesn’t like hanging out with kids?” he said.
HPD Deputy Chief Brian Dawson said the response to the program from schools, officers and the community has been positive.
“It helps build a rapport between the young people at schools and the officers as well as school staff and parents,” he said.
The HPD at one point had school resource officer program in Hays schools, but that program was discontinued.
The current program amounts to 40 officer hours per year across the entire program. However, officers and the school officials said they thought the program offers maximum benefit for the amount of resources dedicated to it.
Lincoln Elementary School has two officers assigned to its school.
Lincoln Principal Kerri Lacy said having the officers welcome students in the morning one to three times per week has helped the children and parents feel more at ease with the officers. They have also visited the school and had lunch with the children.
“I think another benefit is our parents knowing we have Adopt-A-Cops,” Lacy said. “They see them out front in the morning and know we are keeping our school safe. Having the presence here is a great benefit.”
Lacy said she thinks the program helps change the kids’ perceptions of police officers.
“Our kids just think officers are scary, because that is all they know, so it is a good way for them to know officers are here to hep them if they need it and they are nice people and they are familiar with the school,” she said. “That way if they see an officer walking in the school they are not thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s something wrong.’ They are here to be helpful.”
Tom Albers, Hays Middle School principal, said the idea behind Adopt-A-Cop is to have a police officer connected with the school.
The two officers assigned to the middle school open doors for students in the morning and greet them. They also walk the halls during the first part of the day, which is the school’s “Falcon time.”
Albers said he at times calls on the officers to give words of encouragement to students.
“They walk the building just talking to kids,” Albers said. “They are visible. They’re available for kids if they want to speak to them. They have very positive interactions with our students. It allows our kids to feel secure.”
High court to consider state role in prosecuting immigrants
A state appellate court overturned the conviction, but Kansas appealed. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether states can prosecute immigrants like Morales who use other people’s Social Security numbers to get a job.
Morales, who plans to attend the arguments with his wife and a son, said he has been having nightmares about being deported. His greatest fear is leaving behind his wife and children if the Supreme Court reinstates his state convictions — felonies that could trigger deportation proceedings.
“What I did was to earn money honestly in a job to support my family,” the 51-year-old Guatemalan immigrant told The Associated Press in Spanish.
The case before the nation’s highest court arises from three prosecutions in Johnson County, a largely suburban area outside Kansas City, Missouri, where the district attorney has aggressively pursued immigrants under the Kansas identity theft and false-information statutes.
The Kansas Supreme Court overturned the convictions of Morales as well as Mexican immigrants Ramiro Garcia and Guadalupe Ochoa-Lara after concluding the state was seeking to punish immigrants who used fake IDs to obtain jobs. It ruled that the federal government has exclusive authority to determine whether an immigrant is authorized to work in the United States. Kansas then appealed.
The Trump administration has filed a brief supporting Kansas, arguing that federal law does not prohibit the prosecution of immigrants for violating identity theft laws and contending that protection against fraud is among the oldest state powers.
“In the modern era, those crimes increasingly involve identity theft — a serious and ‘growing problem’ throughout the United States,” Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco said in a brief.
That approach marks a shift from that of the Obama administration. When Arizona tried to use identity theft laws to prosecute noncitizens for working illegally, the Justice Department under President Barack Obama argued that only the federal government has such authority.
Rekha Sharma-Crawford, an attorney representing the immigrants, said in an email that immigration officials are having the state to do its bidding by using routine encounters with noncitizens to “strong arm businesses” to turn over personnel files.
“This has a chilling effect for local businesses, spreads deep mistrust for law enforcement in immigrant communities and also destroys families who are an integral part of the societal fabric,” Sharma-Crawford said.
Morales, who has been living in the United States since 1989, was found guilty of state charges for identity theft and putting false information on employment forms related to his work at a Jose Pepper’s restaurant.
The other two prosecutions in the appeal also involve immigrants who unlawfully worked in the United States.
After Garcia got a speeding ticket on his way to his restaurant job, a local detective and a federal agent checked his employment paperwork at the Bonefish Grill. His attorneys told the court the federal government didn’t charge Garcia because he was cooperating with an investigation into a previous employer suspected of directing employees to change Social Security numbers. The local district attorney nonetheless charged him with identity theft, and pursued the state case even after Garcia obtained lawful immigration status.
Ochoa-Lara came to the attention of authorities after using a false Social Security number to lease an apartment and was later prosecuted in state court for using someone else’s number on a tax withholding employment form.
The case wound up before the nation’s highest court after the Kansas Supreme Court held that the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 preempts those state prosecutions for working unlawfully in the country.
Kansas contends the state’s Supreme Court ruling would frustrate its own efforts to combat identity theft. The state law generally criminalizes the use of any personal identifying information belonging to another person to obtain any “benefit” fraudulently, regardless of immigration status or work authorization.
Twelve states — Indiana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia — have filed a brief backing Kansas, arguing a ruling against the state would hamper their interest in protecting their citizens.
Brent Anderson, a former federal prosecutor who handled immigration-related criminal cases in Kansas, said it takes local, state and federal law enforcement working together to address identity theft.
“There is no point in prosecuting people who are misusing Social Security numbers to be employed if you can’t remove them from the United States because they will keep doing it because they have to, otherwise they can’t work,” said Anderson, who teaches homeland security law at Wichita State University.
Judge Kevin Moriarty, who presided over Morales’ and Garcia’s trials, had expressed concerns about both cases, according to transcripts in the Supreme Court record.
“I’m just saying we’re destroying families,” he said in a pre-trial hearing for Garcia.
In Morales’ trial, Moriarty found the defendant guilty, but noted he wasn’t stealing from the government. “He’s putting money into Social Security that he’ll never be able to draw out,” said the judge, who has since retired.
The judge also noted that three of Morales’ four children were born in this country.
Morales, an Overland Park resident who has since gotten legal work authorization, is now employed by a landscaping company. He has also started his own landscaping firm as a side business.
His U.S.-born wife, Isleen Gimenez Morales, is a lawyer who works as a disability rights advocate. She said being part of a Supreme Court case like this is not the kind of excitement anybody wants.
“Knowing that the outcome of this case will shape the immigration and criminal law in this country, I think it compounds the stress and distraction that our family has because we know the weight that it carries,” she said.
Fenwicks give reading room to FHSU’s Forsyth Library
FHSU University Relations
Larry and Lyn Fenwick started out as high school sweethearts who married their freshman year at Fort Hays State University. The couple was back on campus this week, more than 50 years later, to partake in FHSU’s Homecoming festivities and to be recognized for their most recent contribution to Fort Hays State.
Through their generous gift, the couple is making possible the Larry and Lyn Fenwick Reading Room in FHSU’s Forsyth Library. Due to their generosity, Forsyth Library will be able to construct a new reading room during scheduled renovations.
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The Fenwicks were honored for their recent contribution Friday afternoon at FHSU’s Revisit the Past, Unleash the Future: A Library Showcase held at Forsyth Library.
“The Larry and Lyn Fenwick Reading Room is an important element of the renovation of Forsyth Library,” said Deborah Ludwig, Forsyth dean. The reading room is scheduled for completion in 2023.
“The future reading room will house, exhibit, and provide critical preservation of distinctive collections connected to Kansas and to our university, while also making these unique materials available to researchers for study in a secure setting,” said Ludwig. “On behalf of Forsyth Library and Fort Hays State University, we are deeply grateful to Larry and Lyn for their generous gift. With their help, we will keep important history alive and inspire future generations of researchers.”
Jason Williby, president and CEO of the FHSU Foundation, said, “Our university’s continued success is in large part thanks to alumni and donors like Larry and Lyn Fenwick, who remain engaged with the university and our programs. They believe in our mission and want to make a positive impact in advancing education.”
“The Larry and Lyn Fenwick Reading Room will foster an environment for hard work and learning,” he said. “Housing collections of unique artifacts along with individual and group study spaces, the new space will be a great resource for students at Fort Hays State.”
The Fenwicks, rural Macksville, graduated from FHSU in 1966 and, after years of being away from Kansas, they made their way back home to Lyn’s ancestral farm in Stafford County.
Larry graduated from FHSU with a B.S. in business administration and immediately joined the U.S. Air Force, serving as an officer with the Strategic Air Command stationed at bases in New England and on the island of Guam.
In 1971, he began a 32-year career in investments and management while living in Dallas, Texas, Atlanta, Ga., and Charlotte, N.C.
Lyn began as an art major at Fort Hays State, but earned her degree in elementary education. During Larry’s service in the Air Force, Lyn taught secondary English for four years in New York state and Massachusetts. She earned her doctorate in law from the Baylor University School of Law and practiced in Texas before shifting her focus to writing and publishing two books.
Currently, she has a weekly blog and is finalizing a manuscript about a Kansas homesteader and the Populist Movement.
When discussing her path through Fort Hays State, Lyn said, “Dream big! Dreams are terrific, but so is the hard work that it takes.”
With their recent gift, the couple hopes to encourage students at Fort Hays State to study hard, accomplish their goals, and dream big.
To learn how you can join the Fenwicks in supporting Forsyth Library, please contact the FHSU Foundation at 785-628-5620 or [email protected]. For additional information, please visit https://foundation.fhsu.edu .
🎥 Eagle Forum: Ryan Gottschalk, vintage base ball
Eagle’s Gary Shorman interviews Ryan Gottschalk about the vintage base ball game played at Historic Fort Hays.
BOOR: Now is the time to check forage for prussic acid
Below are some key considerations:
1. Prussic acid (HCN) poisoning is more of a concern when grazing sorghum than when harvested for hay or silage because HCN will dissipate in harvested forages if properly ensiled/cured. For grazing it is best to wait approximately seven days after the hard freeze to graze.
2. Sorghum silage – Most of the HCN will dissipate within 72 hours following warm weather after a hard freeze. However, if HCN levels are high at the time of harvest, wait at least four weeks before feeding the forage. The HCN will volatilize during the fermentation and feed mixing process.
3. Hay – The curing process for hay will allow the HCN to dissipate as a gas, reducing the HCN content to safe levels.
Testing for Prussic Acid
1. If high prussic acid concentrations are suspected prior to grazing or at harvest, forage should be tested before grazing or feeding. There are quantitative and qualitative tests available to learn more about the potential for prussic acid poisoning in a particular forage.
2. If HCN levels exceed 200 ppm on an ‘as-is’ basis or 500 ppm on a dry basis, the forage should be considered potentially toxic and should not be fed as the only source of feed to animals.
3. Contact the forage lab that will conduct the HCN analysis prior to sending in samples so that proper handling procedures can be followed.
To monitor the freeze conditions in Kansas, go to the Kansas Mesonet Freeze Monitor tool: http://mesonet.k-state.edu/weather/freeze/
For more information on how to use the Freeze Monitor, please read the recent eUpdate article, “Fall has arrived and the Mesonet freeze monitor returns”, in Issue 712.
If you have any questions, or would like more information, you can contact me by calling 620-793-1910, by email at [email protected] or just drop by the office located at 1800 12th street in Great Bend. This is Alicia Boor, one of the Agriculture and Natural Resources agents for the Cottonwood District which includes Barton and Ellis counties. Have a good week!
Three-day weather outlook
FIRST FIVE: Protecting religious freedom has a domino effect
By BENJAMIN MARCUS
Freedom Forum Institute
Earlier this month, thousands of people gathered in Houston to mourn the death of Harris County (Texas) Sheriff’s Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal. Dhaliwal, who was shot dead during a routine traffic stop in a non-hate crime-related ambush, not only served and protected his community as a law enforcement officer — he also served his religious community and country as a champion of religious freedom.
In 2015, Dhaliwal became the first turbaned Sikh law enforcement officer in Harris County after the county added a religious accommodation policy to its uniform regulations. The change was made thanks to advocacy by the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the Sikh Coalition and Dhaliwal’s colleague, Deputy Navdeep Singh Nijjar. Previously, on-duty officers could not have a beard or wear a turban — forcing some Sikhs, including Dhaliwal, to make the heart-wrenching decision between their careers and their articles of faith.
Dhaliwal and his colleagues’ success in Texas had a domino effect: the same year Dhaliwal was finally allowed to come to work as his whole self — turban, beard and all — the New York City Police Department (NYPD) reached out to Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia to find out how the NYPD could change its own policies to better accommodate observant Sikhs.
But members of minority religious communities have not always been invited enthusiastically to serve without comprising their convictions. Shared experiences of exclusion from public spaces bind marginalized communities together in an “inescapable network of mutuality,” borrowing a phrase from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Richard Foltin, senior scholar at the Religious Freedom Center, explains: “Just as Sikhs are confronted with workplaces that place obstacles to their wearing a turban and beard, even though their dress and grooming presents no real impediment to the performance of their jobs, so also observant Jews sometimes face the danger of losing or being denied jobs because they are obligated to wear a yarmulke or a beard or, in a more frequent situation, must take days off from work in observance of the Sabbath or holy days.”
Indeed, an observant Jew pushed down a domino on behalf of religious freedom before Dhaliwal. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Goldman v. Weinberger that a Jewish Air Force officer did not have a constitutionally protected right to wear a yarmulke while on duty and in Air Force uniform.
In response, Congress included a provision in the 1988 version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act that permits “a member of the armed forces to wear an item of religious apparel while in uniform, except when the secretary of the military department concerned determines that: (1) the wearing of the item would interfere with the performance of military duties; or (2) the item is not neat and conservative.”
Nevertheless, some members of minority religious communities are still forced to decide between serving their country and honoring their religious identities. According to the Sikh Coalition, the U.S. Air Force, Marines and Navy still have policies that prohibit Sikhs and others from wearing certain articles of faith.
But the dominos set in motion by Goldman and Dhaliwal continue to fall. After Dhaliwal’s death, 98 former and current Sikh service members and law enforcement officers delivered letters to the U.S. Department of Defense and national police agencies to advocate for policy changes that would allow members of minority religious communities to serve with dignity.
We all benefit when our workplaces — public or private — become more diverse. In fact, research shows that Americans who personally know someone from a religious community express warmer feelings toward members of that community and they answer more questions correctly about that community on a religious knowledge survey. And as the American Academy of Religion argues, decreasing religious illiteracy can decrease the bigotry and prejudice that plague our communities and fuel violence.
That’s why we need people like Dhaliwal, who fight for everyone’s right to participate fully in public life. In the words of Arsalan Suleman, the Muslim-American president and chair of America Indivisible: Dhaliwal’s story “is significant because he made the Harris County Sheriff’s Office better — better because it had him on the team, better because their policies now were more consistent with U.S. constitutional protections and better because the sheriff’s office became more welcoming to and representative of Houston’s diverse residents. His service, and his triumph, also made his city of Houston better and our country better — because every time there is a triumph like Dhaliwal’s, as a society we get closer to that more perfect ideal to which we aspire.”
On Friday, Sept. 27, America lost a First Amendment hero who reminded us that we serve our entire country when we stand up for our rights. Do you feel a gentle nudge? That’s Deputy Dhaliwal’s legacy pushing you to knock down barriers against religious freedom for the next generation.
Benjamin P. Marcus is religious literacy specialist at the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute. His email address is: [email protected].
4 hospitalized after rear-end crash of disabled vehicle on Kan. highway
HODGEMAN COUNTY — Four people were injured in an accident just before 9p.m. Sunday in Hodgeman County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Impala driven by Samantha Lobmeyer, 28, Garden City, was eastbound on Kansas 156 fifteen miles east of Jetmore.
The Chevy rear-ended a 2009 Pontiac G5 driven by Makentzee R. Chappel, 20, Garden City, that was disabled and partially in the lane of travel after hitting a deer.
EMS transported Benjamin R. McCaffery, 19, Calahan, Colorado to a Wichita Hospital.
EMS transported Lobmeyer, Chappel and Hunter E. Coronel, 21, Brighton, Colorado, to the Hodgeman County Health Center.
McCaffery and Coronel had been in the Pontiac but were standing outside the vehicle at the time of the accident
Denver’s defense leads Broncos past Titans
DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos’ swarming defense sent Marcus Mariota to the bench and the Tennessee Titans to their fourth loss in five games with a 16-0 win Sunday.
The Broncos (2-4) had seven sacks in a game for the first time since their 2015 Super Bowl season and they picked off three passes.
Chris Harris Jr. and Justin Simmons intercepted Mariota, who was sacked three times and was replaced by Ryan Tannehill after Simmons’ interception led to a 2-yard touchdown run by Phillip Lindsay that made it 13-0. Tannehill was sacked four times and picked off by Kareem Jackson on Tennessee’s final drive, which reached the Denver 5-yard line before two offensive penalties and a sack pushed the Titans back to the 30-yard line.
The Titans (2-4) lost for the fourth time in five games.
The Broncos, who haven’t allowed a touchdown in nine quarters, host Kansas City (4-2) on Thursday night with the chance to get back into the AFC West race after starting the Vic Fangio era with four frustrating losses.
Mariota came into the game as the NFL’s only QB who had started every game and hadn’t lost a fumble or been intercepted — although he had been sacked 22 times.
Both Denver and Tennessee were 2 of 14 on third down, leading to 17 punts.
The first half featured more flags (10) and punts (11) than points (six).
The Broncos took a shutout into the locker room for the second straight week. Last time, it was a 17-0 cushion against the Chargers; this time it was just 6-0 on a pair of Brandon McManus field goals, one of which snapped his streak of seven consecutive misses from 50 yards or more.
Both teams bungled their way through the first two quarters.
The Broncos were whistled for eight penalties and being forced to call two timeouts on special teams. The first was with 10 men on a punt by the Titans and the second one was because the play clock was at 1 second just before McManus’ 53-yarder.
Mariota threw his first interception of the season — to Harris, the 20th of his career but first this season. On Harris’ runback, Denver defensive end Derek Wolfe was flagged for an illegal block.
Mariota’s second interception came when he stepped up to avoid another sack and lofted a pass down the middle to Darius Jennings that was picked off by safety Justin Simmons at midfield.
HALL OF FAME
At halftime, Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker presented Hall of Fame rings to Champ Bailey and the family of late owner Pat Bowlen. Also, Bailey was inducted as the 33rd member of the team’s Ring of Fame. At a ceremony unveiling his 8-foot bronze pillar Friday night, Bailey chimed in on the current state of the Broncos, saying,
“It’s just growing pains. There are a lot of new people around here, a good young corps, but I expect them to turn around. That’s the good thing about here, we don’t stay down long.”
INJURIES
Titans ILB Jayon Brown (groin) left the game on Tennessee’s second defensive snap.
Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders sat out the second half with a knee injury.
UP NEXT
Titans: Host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Broncos: Host the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night.
Argument over french fries before fatal shooting in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 21-year-old Kansas City man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2017 fatal shooting of a woman stopped at a traffic signal.
Anton Hunter received the sentence Friday after pleading guilty in August to second-degree murder and weapons counts in the April 30, 2017, shooting of 18-year-old Isabell Addison.
Prosecutors say Addison was driving a car and stopped at a red light when a passenger in a black car next to hers began shooting at Addison’s car. Police say the driver of the black car told investigators that she was Hunter’s girlfriend and didn’t know why he shot at the car next to hers. She said that shortly before the shooting, she and Hunter had an argument over french fries.
Sign up for Run/Walk to Help Children Talk
Join us October 19 for the 7th annual Run/Walk to Help Children Talk charity event.
This event will be held at the Fort Hays State University quad outside of the Memorial Union.
Registration begins at 8:15 a.m. with the races beginning at 9:00 a.m.
Prices for early-bird registration are $15.00 for FHSU students, $20.00 for adults, and $10.00 for children. Add $5.00 for registration after October 4, 2019.
Proceeds from the 5K run/walk and 1-mile fun walk will provide client scholarships to children in need of speech/language services and support the purchase of clinic materials for the FHSU Herndon Clinic.
The Run/Walk event is sponsored by the Salina Valley Scottish Rite Masons and the FHSU National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
For event information and registration, please visit our website www.fhsu.edu/runwalk.
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