In the U.S., there are almost five million people with mild to moderate dementia, and studies show that about 70 percent are at home, either alone or with a caregiver, often a spouse. If people with mild to moderate dementia can stay home safely, this would save Medicare and Medicaid a great deal of taxpayer money. More importantly, this would provide those people affected with dementia their preferred environment. Indeed, it is important to allow all people the chance to stay at home whenever possible.
A 2013 Johns Hopkins report studied more than 250 people with dementia living at home and found that 99 percent of the demented and 97 percent of their caregivers had at least one unmet need. The foremost unmet need was defined by safety issues such as poor lighting in walkways which increased the risk of falling. Other needs that were not being met in this study included not performing regular exercise, poor follow-up with health care providers, not having prepared legal and estate planning and not receiving help with medications and some activities of daily living. Researchers found that those with lower income, with depression and with borderline rather than severe dysfunction had significantly more unmet needs.
When there were at-home caregivers for these folks with early dementia, the caregivers were often not aware of these deficiencies. In addition, the needs of the caregivers were often ignored or unrecognized. Remarkably, at-home caregiver stress and depression were some of the strongest predictors for an earlier move of the person with dementia to the nursing home.
Methods to enhance a person’s chance of staying at home are not difficult. Preparation for legal issues and estate planning should be done early and BEFORE the loss of memory. Other methods include providing raised toilet seats, grab bars in the bath and bedroom, properly tacked down carpets, good nighttime lighting in walkways and proper day and nighttime footwear. Researchers also advise providing enhanced support for caregivers with education about community support available such as social services, occupational therapy and caregiver support groups. In addition, screening and treatment of any caregivers’ depression, should be provided. This would go a long way in helping people stay at home as they age.
Bottom line: Most of us, and our families, are not prepared for the possibility of dementia as we age. If we prepare, we greatly improve our chances for staying at home.
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Two mass shootings at crowded public places in Texas and Ohio in less than 24 hours claimed at least 29 lives and left scores injured, a shocking carnage even in a country accustomed to gun violence.
First responders on the scene of the shooting in El Paso-photo courtesy KTSM TV
In the Texas border city of El Paso, a gunman opened fireSaturday morning in a shopping area packed with thousands of people during the busy back-to-school season, killing 20 and injuring more than two dozen, many of them critically. The shooting was being investigated as a possible hate crime as authorities worked to confirm whether a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly beforehand was written by the man arrested in the attack on the 680,000-resident border city.
Just hours later in Dayton, Ohio, a gunman wearing body armorand carrying extra magazines opened fire in a popular nightlife area, killing nine and injuring at least 26 people.
The Saturday shooting in El Paso and the Sunday shooting in Dayton were the 21st and 22nd mass killings of 2019 in the U.S., according to the AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database that tracks homicides where four or more people killed — not including the offender.
Including the two latest attacks, 125 people had been killed in the 2019 shootings.
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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in the Texas border town of El Paso, the state’s governor said.
Among the possibilities being investigated is whether it was a hate crime, the police chief said. Two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity identified the suspect taken into custody as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius. El Paso police haven’t released his name, but confirmed the gunman is from Allen near Dallas.
Police said another 26 people were injured and most were being treated at hospitals. Most of the victims were believed to have been shot at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, they said, adding that the store was packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school shopping season.
“The scene was a horrific one,” said El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, who described many of those hurt as having life-threatening injuries. He also said police found a post online that may have been written by the suspect — one reason authorities are looking at whether it was a hate crime.
El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.
Residents were quick to volunteer to give blood to the injured after the shooting, and police and military members were helping people look for missing loved ones.
“It’s chaos right now,” said Austin Johnson, an Army medic at nearby Fort Bliss, who volunteered to help at the shopping center and later at a school serving as a reunification center.
Adriana Quezada, 39, said she was in the women’s clothing section of Walmart with her two children when she “heard shots.”
“But I thought they were hits, like roof construction,” she said.
Her 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son threw themselves to the ground, then ran out of the store through an emergency exit. They were not hurt, Quezada said.
She said she saw four men, dressed in black, moving together firing guns indiscriminately. Police later said they believed the suspect was the “sole shooter” but were continuing to investigate reports that others were involved.
El Paso police Sgt. Robert Gomez said the suspect, who used a rifle, was arrested without incident.
The shooting came less than a week after a gunman opened fire on a California food festival. Santino William Legan, 19, killed three people and injured 13 others last Sunday at the popular Gilroy Garlic Festival, and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, said 13 people were brought to the hospital with injuries after the Texas shooting, including one who died. Two of the injured were children who were being transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital, he said. He wouldn’t provide additional details on the victims.
Eleven other victims were being treated at Del Sol Medical Center, hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero said. Those victims’ ages ranged from 35 to 82, he said.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who confirmed the number of victims at a news conference, called the shooting “a heinous and senseless act of violence” and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city. President Donald Trump tweeted: “Reports are very bad, many killed.”
Presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke appeared a bit shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum Saturday in Las Vegas shortly after news of the shooting in his hometown was reported. The Democrat said the shooting shatters “any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable” on tackling gun violence.
He said he heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to “keep that (expletive) on the battlefield. Do not bring it into our communities.”
“We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that,” O’Rourke said.
El Paso has become a focal point of the immigration debate, drawing Trump in February to argue that walling off the southern border would make the U.S. safer, while city residents and O’Rourke led thousands on a protest march past the barrier of barbed wire-topped fencing and towering metal slats.
O’Rourke stressed that border walls haven’t made his hometown safer. The city’s murder rate was less than half the national average in 2005, the year before the start of its border fence. Before the wall project started, El Paso had been rated one of the three safest major U.S. cities going back to 1997.
Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, also said the El Paso shooting suspect wasn’t on her group’s radar screen prior to the shooting.
“We had nothing in our files on him,” Beirich wrote in an email.
The shooting is the 21st mass killing in the United States in 2019, and the fifth public mass shooting. Before Saturday, 96 people had died in mass killings in 2019 — 26 of them in public mass shootings.
The AP/USATODAY/Northeastern University mass murder database tracks all U.S. homicides since 2006 involving four or more people killed, not including the offender, over a short period of time regardless of weapon, location, victim-offender relationship or motive. The database shows that the median age of a public mass shooter is 28, significantly lower than the median age of a person who commits a mass shooting of their family.
Since 2006, 11 mass shootings — not including Saturday’s — have been committed by men who are 21 or younger.
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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Multiple fatalities are reported and many others were seriously injured and at least one suspect was in custody after a shooting Saturday at a shopping mall in the Texas border town of El Paso, hospital officials and police said.
Police responded in the early afternoon to an active shooter scene at the Cielo Vista Mall, near Interstate 10 on the east side of the city, and were advising people to stay away from the area and to look for missing family members at a school being used as a reunification area. Police and witnesses said at least some of the shootings happened in a Walmart in the shopping complex.
Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, said 12 people were brought to the hospital with injuries, including one that died. Two of the injured were children who were being transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital, he said. He declined to provide additional details on the victims.
Eleven other victims were being treated at Del Sol Medical Center, according to hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero. He said those victims ages ranged from 35 to 82.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the shooting “a heinous and senseless act of violence” and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city.
A family of three was among a dozen people waiting outside a bus station. They were trying to return to their car that was in a blocked-off Walmart parking lot.
“I heard the shots but I thought they were hits, like roof construction,” said Adriana Quezada, 39, who was in the women’s clothing section of Walmart with her two children.
Sgt. Enrique Carrillo said by midafternoon that a suspect was in custody and the public was no longer in danger.
Quezada’s 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son threw themselves to the ground, then ran out of the Walmart through an emergency exit. She said they were not hurt.
White House staff said President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and spoke about it with Attorney General William Barr and Gov. Abbott. “Reports are very bad, many killed,” the president tweeted.
Presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke appeared a bit shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum Saturday in Las Vegas shortly after news of the shooting in his hometown was reported.
O’Rourke, who said he had called his wife before taking the stage, said the shooting shatters “any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable” on tackling gun violence.
The Democrat said he heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to “keep that (expletive) on the battlefield and do not bring it into our communities.”
“We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that,” O’Rourke said.
El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.
___
___
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in the Texas border town of El Paso, the state’s governor said.
Among the possibilities being investigated is whether it was a hate crime, the police chief said. Two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity identified the suspect taken into custody as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius. El Paso police haven’t released his name, but confirmed the gunman is from Allen near Dallas.
First responders on the scene of the shooting in El Paso-photo courtesy KTSM TV
Police said another 26 people were injured and most were being treated at hospitals. Most of the victims were believed to have been shot at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, they said, adding that the store was packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school shopping season.
“The scene was a horrific one,” said El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, who described many of those hurt as having life-threatening injuries. He also said police found a post online that may have been written by the suspect — one reason authorities are looking at whether it was a hate crime.
El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.
Residents were quick to volunteer to give blood to the injured after the shooting, and police and military members were helping people look for missing loved ones.
“It’s chaos right now,” said Austin Johnson, an Army medic at nearby Fort Bliss, who volunteered to help at the shopping center and later at a school serving as a reunification center.
Adriana Quezada, 39, said she was in the women’s clothing section of Walmart with her two children when she “heard shots.”
“But I thought they were hits, like roof construction,” she said.
Her 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son threw themselves to the ground, then ran out of the store through an emergency exit. They were not hurt, Quezada said.
She said she saw four men, dressed in black, moving together firing guns indiscriminately. Police later said they believed the suspect was the “sole shooter” but were continuing to investigate reports that others were involved.
El Paso police Sgt. Robert Gomez said the suspect, who used a rifle, was arrested without incident.
The shooting came less than a week after a gunman opened fire on a California food festival. Santino William Legan, 19, killed three people and injured 13 others last Sunday at the popular Gilroy Garlic Festival, and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, said 13 people were brought to the hospital with injuries after the Texas shooting, including one who died. Two of the injured were children who were being transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital, he said. He wouldn’t provide additional details on the victims.
Eleven other victims were being treated at Del Sol Medical Center, hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero said. Those victims’ ages ranged from 35 to 82, he said.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who confirmed the number of victims at a news conference, called the shooting “a heinous and senseless act of violence” and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city. President Donald Trump tweeted: “Reports are very bad, many killed.”
Presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke appeared a bit shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum Saturday in Las Vegas shortly after news of the shooting in his hometown was reported. The Democrat said the shooting shatters “any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable” on tackling gun violence.
He said he heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to “keep that (expletive) on the battlefield. Do not bring it into our communities.”
“We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that,” O’Rourke said.
El Paso has become a focal point of the immigration debate, drawing Trump in February to argue that walling off the southern border would make the U.S. safer, while city residents and O’Rourke led thousands on a protest march past the barrier of barbed wire-topped fencing and towering metal slats.
O’Rourke stressed that border walls haven’t made his hometown safer. The city’s murder rate was less than half the national average in 2005, the year before the start of its border fence. Before the wall project started, El Paso had been rated one of the three safest major U.S. cities going back to 1997.
Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, also said the El Paso shooting suspect wasn’t on her group’s radar screen prior to the shooting.
“We had nothing in our files on him,” Beirich wrote in an email.
The shooting is the 21st mass killing in the United States in 2019, and the fifth public mass shooting. Before Saturday, 96 people had died in mass killings in 2019 — 26 of them in public mass shootings.
The AP/USATODAY/Northeastern University mass murder database tracks all U.S. homicides since 2006 involving four or more people killed, not including the offender, over a short period of time regardless of weapon, location, victim-offender relationship or motive. The database shows that the median age of a public mass shooter is 28, significantly lower than the median age of a person who commits a mass shooting of their family.
Since 2006, 11 mass shootings — not including Saturday’s — have been committed by men who are 21 or younger.
———-
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Multiple fatalities are reported and many others were seriously injured and at least one suspect was in custody after a shooting Saturday at a shopping mall in the Texas border town of El Paso, hospital officials and police said.
Police responded in the early afternoon to an active shooter scene at the Cielo Vista Mall, near Interstate 10 on the east side of the city, and were advising people to stay away from the area and to look for missing family members at a school being used as a reunification area. Police and witnesses said at least some of the shootings happened in a Walmart in the shopping complex.
Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, said 12 people were brought to the hospital with injuries, including one that died. Two of the injured were children who were being transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital, he said. He declined to provide additional details on the victims.
Eleven other victims were being treated at Del Sol Medical Center, according to hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero. He said those victims ages ranged from 35 to 82.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the shooting “a heinous and senseless act of violence” and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city.
A family of three was among a dozen people waiting outside a bus station. They were trying to return to their car that was in a blocked-off Walmart parking lot.
“I heard the shots but I thought they were hits, like roof construction,” said Adriana Quezada, 39, who was in the women’s clothing section of Walmart with her two children.
Sgt. Enrique Carrillo said by midafternoon that a suspect was in custody and the public was no longer in danger.
Quezada’s 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son threw themselves to the ground, then ran out of the Walmart through an emergency exit. She said they were not hurt.
White House staff said President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and spoke about it with Attorney General William Barr and Gov. Abbott. “Reports are very bad, many killed,” the president tweeted.
Presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke appeared a bit shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum Saturday in Las Vegas shortly after news of the shooting in his hometown was reported.
O’Rourke, who said he had called his wife before taking the stage, said the shooting shatters “any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable” on tackling gun violence.
The Democrat said he heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to “keep that (expletive) on the battlefield and do not bring it into our communities.”
“We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that,” O’Rourke said.
El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.
TOPEKA – The Governor’s Council on Fitness is now accepting nominations for its annual Kansas Health Champion Awards. Awards are given to individuals and organizations that make an exceptional effort to model, encourage and promote health and fitness in Kansas. The deadline for nominations is September 30. Award recipients will be recognized at the Community Health Promotion Summit on January 30 in Wichita.
“The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is excited to partner in this important initiative to recognize those who make healthy living in our state a priority,” said KDHE Secretary Lee Norman, MD. It’s important that we recognize their efforts and the difference they are making in their communities.”
Nominees shall have demonstrated:
• Work that goes above and beyond what is expected to model, encourage and promote fitness
• Work that helps overcome health inequities
• Sustainable influence or activity
• Far-reaching health impact
“In addition to promoting effective models for increasing physical activity, nutrition and tobacco-free living for replication by organizations and communities around the state, the awards also allow us the opportunity to honor the outstanding work of one individual and one organization this year,” said Marlou Wegener, Chair of the Governor’s Council on Fitness and Manager of Community Relations, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. Eligible nominees might include an outstanding volunteer, a school, a local community, a newspaper or individual reporter, a local or State policy maker, or an employer, among others.
For more information and to submit a nomination, go to getactivekansas.org and click on the nomination form link. If you have questions about the nomination process, contact Connie Satzler at 785-587-0151.
The Governor’s Council on Fitness advises the Governor and others on ways to enhance the health of all Kansans through promotion of physical activity, good dietary choices and prevention of tobacco use.
HAYS – The final day of the AA/AAA State American Legion baseball tournament produced three dramatic finishes, including a pair of walk-off wins, and when all way said and done Saturday it was Emporia Post 5 claiming the state championship with a 7-5 win over the Hays Eagles at Larks Park in Hays.
Dustin Schumacher postgame interview
In the first semifinal of the day the Sabetha scored three early runs and lead the Hays Eagles 4-2 heading into the bottom seventh but Hays got back-to-back walks to open the frame and then Trey Riggs singled in a pair of run to tie the game at two. Then, following a sacrifice bunt Brady Kreutzer delivered a walk-off RBI single giving Hays the 5-4 win.
In the second semifinal game Emporia and Iola battled for 11 innings before Jace Stewart singled in the game-winning run in a 3-2 Emporia win.
That set up the state championship game between the host Eagles and Emporia. The Eagles beat Emporia in the second game of pool play on Thursday and Emporia beat the Eagles in a tournament in Emporia earlier this season.
The Eagles, as the visiting team, struck for two runs in the first inning. With the bases loaded Brady Kreutzer doubled to left field to give Hays a 2-0 lead. Emporia answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning tying the game at two.
After a pair of scoreless innings Tate Garcia and Cody Petersen drove in a pair of runs on back-to-back RBI singles in the fourth to give Hays a 4-2 lead.
Kreutzer drove in his third run of the game with he second run scoring double in the fifth putting Hays up 5-2.
Emporia’s Beau Baumgardner hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Hays lead to 5-4.
In the sixth inning, with Hays still clinging to a one run lead it appeared that Eagles starter Tate Garcia had recorded a strikeout of Cade Kohlmeier to end the inning. But the third base umpire overturned the home plate umpire’s call of a strikeout swinging. He ruled that Kohlmeier foul-tipped the pitch. With the extra chance Kohlmeier singled two pitches later starting a rally that was capped off by a three-run double by Hayden Baumwart that gave Emporia a 7-5 lead.
In the top of the seventh inning Hays got the tying run aboard with no outs but were unable to push across a run in the inning as the Eagles fell to Emporia 7-5.
Tate Garcia suffered the loss for Hays, he allowed seven runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in 5.2 innings.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man on alleged child sex crimes.
Ayton photo Sedgwick Co.
On Thursday, police responded to a Wichita hospital regarding a possible sexual assault of a juvenile victim, according to officer Charley Davidson. Investigators developed probable cause that lead to the arrest of 45-year-old Ayton Griffin. He and the victim knew each other.
Griffin is being held on a bond of $150,000 on requested charges of of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and indecent solicitation of a child, according to the online jail records.
The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, according to Davidson.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and and have a person of interest in custody.
On July 19, police issued an alert in an attempt to locate 44-year-old Andre Jerome Wallace in connection with a shooting that occurred in the in the 3300 block of SE Irvingham in Topeka on July 18, according to Lt. Andrew Beightel.
On Friday, United State’s Marshals arrested Wallace in Wichita, according to Police Lt. Aaron Jones.
Police have not reported any requested charges against Wallace who remains in custody in Harvey County, according to online jail records.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Swarms of mayflies have emerged from under water along the Missouri River and are caking windshields on stretches of road between Omaha and Kansas City, forcing drivers to pull over and clean up the mess.
Mayflies not dirt cover the car photo courtesy KTVI TV
Mayflies spend 99% of their lives in water, but they rise when they become winged adults to take part in a mating swarm. They quickly die after that.
But the few days they spend mating are a nuisance.
“They are atrocious. They are horrid,” said Pam Frana, a membership specialist for the Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce Department. “Flooding brought those and stirred them up.”
The mayflies are piling on windshields so much that Dominator Fuel in Rock Port, Missouri, sold out of windshield wiper fluid. Other gas stations report they’ve gone through twice the usual amount.
“The windshields are completely covered,” said Chandra McCarty, a cashier at Dominator.
Mayflies may be an irritant to humans, but they’re a good source of food for fish and reptiles. The insects are drawn to light and have attracted frogs looking for a late-night feast.
At the Rockport gas station, they’ve been seeing 30 to 40 a night. They sit in front of the doors, lured by the bugs.
“They try to come up and come in,” McCarty said.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
“It used to be so bad people couldn’t see when they were driving,” said Andrew Wagner, who works in Hamburg, Iowa. “It’s getting a lot better since the flooding is going down.”
Urban entomologist Jody Green, an educator with the Lancaster County Extension Service, said mayfly hatches are actually a yearly event.
“As an entomologist, I would relish seeing them, but I am sure it might even gross me out, too, if I couldn’t help but step and squish them,” Green said.
TREGO COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just after 11a.m. Saturday in Trego County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 GMC pickup driven by Phyllis Jean Parke, 46, WaKeeney, was eastbound on county road T just east of Trego Center.
The driver lost control on the soft shoulder, entered ditch and rolled.
Eagle Med airlifted Parke to the hospital in Hays. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
BARTON COUNTY-For the third time this week the Barton County Sheriff’s Office has taken a suspected methamphetamine dealer into custody.
Just after 7a.m. Saturday, deputies and detectives conducted a traffic stop on a 1999 Oldmobile Alero near the intersection of 10th Street and Kiowa Road at the east city limits of Great Bend, according to Sheriff Bellendir.
During the course that traffic stop, officers discovered a quantity of methamphetamine. It is believed the drugs were in route to Great Bend for distribution.
Arrested at the scene was Kevin “Adam” Pekarek, 37, of Hutchinson.
Saturday morning traffic stop and investigation in Great Bend photo courtesy Barton Co. Sheriff
Pekarek was transported to the Barton County jail where he was booked on two counts of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. One of those counts, stems from an earlier investigation. He is being held in the Barton County jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond on each count.
“Distribution of methamphetamine and its use remains the single most serious issue facing the Sheriff’s Office. We remain committed to curb its use in our county,” said Bellendir.
The Hays Cheer Association is currently having sign-ups for the 2019 football season. HCA is open to first- through sixth-grade students and is open to the public. Hays Cheer Association is coached by Jenny Linenberger and Holly Linenberger. This is the squad’s second year.
Open registration
Registration fees are $125, which include cheerleading gear.
The kids will cheer for the Hays Football Association, which is the Hays Oilers traveling football team. Although they are a traveling football team, the squad will only cheer at home games.
The squad is excited to announce that this year it will be have a mini cheer camp with the Ellis High School Cheerleaders on Sunday, Aug. 18.
The Ellis High School Cheerleaders hold the titles of All American Cheerleaders, 2017 Game Day Cheer Showcase KSHSAA Champions, 2018 Game Day Cheer Showcase KSHSAA Champions and 2019 UCA Camp Champions.
The squad’s first game is Sept. 7.
Most of the games are on Saturdays and are at Hays Middle School. Playoff games will take place at Fort Hays State University. The squad members will perform at the playoff games at Fort Hays State University.
The Oilers Cheerleaders will participate in the Hays High School Homecoming Parade and the Fort Hays State University Parade.
Along with participating in the parades, the squad members will perform at the annual Downtown Hays Christmas Tree Lighting.
In the Hays Cheer Association Program, the members learn cheers, stunts, dances, jumps and performance material. Along with this, they learn sharpness and motion techniques. The cheer squad provides the tools to increase cheerleading skills. It also allows the members the opportunity to build fundamental life skills and relationships that last a lifetime, while having fun.
If you are interested and want to join the squad, follow the squad’s Facebook page, where the squad’s registration link is available.
The closing date for registration is Aug. 8. First Practice will be Aug. 10.
Registration fees, signed waivers are due and fittings will take place on Saturday, Aug. 17.
MANHATTAN — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged sex crimes.
On Friday, detectives with the Riley County Police Department made a probable cause arrest of Robert Iacobellis, 60, Manhattan, for the offenses of Rape and Aggravated Indecent Liberties with a Child. He is being held on a $500,000 bond, according to the police department arrest report.
Due to the nature of the alleged crimes and the ongoing investigation, police released no additional information.
LAWRENCE — Sustainability. Locally sourced. Farm-to-table.
These are familiar concepts to Americans who are hoping to improve their eating habits.
But the term that indigenous food activists are also adopting is “food sovereignty,” which refers to healthy and culturally appropriate food generated by a community that oversees the entire process, from production to trade to sustainability.
For Devon Mihesuah, a member of the Choctaw Nation, food sovereignty has taken on an even more personal meaning.
“Tribes are not sovereign and probably never will be. But we still like this term because that is our great goal: to have complete control over production of our food, our environment and our politics,” she said.
Her latest book (which she co-edited with Elizabeth Hoover of Brown University) contains 14 essays addressing topics such as revitalizing ancestral gardens, protecting hunting and gathering rights, climate change, treaty abrogation and racism. Mihesuah penned three of the essays.
“All of the contributors are food and environmental activists, and most of them are not in academia,” she said of the book, which incorporates a multitude of tribal viewpoints from across the country, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Mihesuah hopes the 390-page effort will illuminate and clarify a number of issues involving indigenous food sovereignty, not the least of which is specifying what is actual indigenous food.
“The topic that goes through many of these essays is what does traditionalism mean? What is traditional food?” she said. “And for a lot of native people, that’s fry bread. So we talked about the meaning of true, traditional, pre-contact food and how that is a connection to one’s culture.”
She admits it’s easier to explain what pre-contact food isn’t than what it is.
“It’s not chicken, cows, sheep, goats — so we didn’t have milk, dairy, eggs, cheese. For instance, pre-contact foods are elk, white-tailed deer, turkeys, corn, squash, beans and bison,” she said.
While many assume native foods to be things such as okra, black-eyed peas and watermelon, those are all actually African imports that accompanied the slave trade. Pawpaws, persimmons and black walnuts that can be foraged in Kansas represent some of the actual fare.
“The importance of protecting our natural resources was one of the big themes of this book. And that includes the plants we forage for,” she said.
But she also notes “indigenous” should not be confused with vegan or vegetarian.
“Gardening and farming are very important, but not every tribe has an agricultural tradition,” she said. “Comanches, for example — my husband’s tribe — did not farm. They don’t have memories of seeds. They’re not going to thunder across the plains after bison anymore. So what should they do? What foods do they return to?”
Mihesuah herself has always been health-conscious, having grown up consuming these foods.
“In fact, the first novel I wrote (2000’s “Roads of My Relations”) is based on family stories where the garden was meaningful, even before we (the Choctaw) were removed in the 1830s. So I have kept this same garden going, trying to emulate the one my grandparents had in Muskogee, Oklahoma. And now my kids have learned how,” she said.
Part of the challenge has been getting her own community to adopt such practices, especially following decades of poor eating habits.
“I’ve become a real activist against fry bread, which makes a lot of people angry,” she said. “To me, that’s a symbol of everything that is wrong with the colonized diet tribes have adopted. Obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes have taken over. It’s like a tidal wave. And if you decide you’re going to eat fry bread every day, that’s really symbolic of the problem.”
Mihesuah earned her doctorate in American history from Texas Christian University. She’s written 19 books, including five fictional novels, and served as editor of the American Indian Quarterly for nine years.
A faculty member at KU since 2005, Mihesuah focuses on indigenous methodologies and feminism, American Indian stereotypes and violence in American Indian territory.
Currently, she is also revising and expanding her first cuisine-related book, “Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness.” This won a special jury award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2005.
“We want young native people and older native people to really try to revisit their traditional ways of eating and their food ways, and to engage with those within their tribe who are knowledgeable about it,” Mihesuah said.
“Ultimately, I want indigenous people to become food activists.”
Johnson County Commissioner Becky Fast worries about consequences for youth and family services and other government functions as large retailers challenge their appraisals and tax bills. LYNN HORSLEY / Kansas News Service
While residents are in an uproar this summer over residential property assessments in Jackson County, Missouri, an equally important battle is underway in Johnson County, Kansas, where big box stores are successfully challenging major increases in their commercial property values.
The trend could significantly reduce future tax dollars for Johnson County schools, libraries and cities. Government leaders are worried and trying to plan for worst case situations.
“That is a scenario that is catastrophic, in my opinion, to the city,” Overland Park City Manager Bill Ebel told the city council in mid-July. “Potentially 25-30% of our property tax revenue could be at stake there.”
At issue are the county appraisals for large retailers such as Walmart, Target, Bass Pro, Home Depot and Walgreens. The companies argue the county has overvalued their stores by 30% to 40%. So far, they’ve won some major rulings from the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals. If those rulings stand, it could eventually reduce their property tax bills by millions of dollars.
Johnson County is appealing those rulings to the courts, and the companies have been paying their taxes under protest. But County Chairman Ed Eilert warns that if the rulings stand, it could require hefty refunds to the stores and shift the tax burden to small property owners.
“It will be a big, big impact on the tax base,” Eilert told KCUR.
Eilert said he worries it could eventually lower tax payments not just from dozens of big box stores but from shopping centers, office, grocery and industrial businesses. And as those businesses see their taxes go down, homeowners could see their taxes go up.
“They would have to pick up a bigger share of the tax burden and that would be mom and pop businesses and residential property,” he said.
Johnson County Commission Chair Ed Eilert has raised concerns about budget impacts to schools and governments if big box retailers prevail in their tax appeals.
CREDIT LYNN HORSLEY / Kansas News Service
Attorneys for the big box retailers say the budget fears are overblown, and the county appraiser is using the wrong approach to value these properties for tax purposes.
The retailers won a decision on June 28, when the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals ruled that Johnson County had overvalued 11 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores by $60 million in both 2016 and 2017. The county appraised the stores collectively at about $175 million, while the appeals board set the value at about $115 million.
That would lower Walmart’s collective annual tax bill in Johnson County from about $5.5 million to about $3.5 million.
The retailers began appealing after their property values and tax bills shot up dramatically between 2015 and 2016. The Johnson County appraiser’s office says those increases were warranted because data from 2015 sales showed the county’s commercial appraisals that year were too low.
County officials say the property value should be based on its worth to the current owners, compared to stores of the same quality and use.
The retailers, however, argue the county should just be valuing the land and the buildings, said Linda Terrill, a Johnson County lawyer who is president of the American Property Tax Counsel, a national organization of real estate tax attorneys.
“It shouldn’t matter whether the sign says Betty’s Five & Dime or Lord & Taylor,” she said. “It’s how you sell your house. You don’t care who lives there before or if they won the lottery.”
Some critics call that a “dark store” theory, saying that for tax purposes, these profitable businesses want to treat their stores as if they are vacant.
But Terrill said the dark store label is unfair, and that the lawful way to evaluate the real estate is without regard to the success of the existing business.
The June 28 Walmart ruling follows similar findings since 2018 for Johnson County Targets, CVS, Walgreens and the Bass Pro store in Olathe. Nordstrom, JC Penney and Macy’s have cases pending before the tax appeals board.
“This could be like a tsunami,” Johnson County Commissioner Becky Fast said. “It’s just one after another.”
Fast noted that Johnson County isn’t alone. Big box stores have challenged their property tax bills in Wichita and in other Midwestern states including Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana, with varying degrees of success.
The Johnson County appeals could take several years to make their ways through the courts.
No one is panicking yet, but they are monitoring the situation. Ebel, the Overland Park city manager, has cautioned that the Walmart and Target decisions could lead to a cascade of other businesses also successfully appealing their values.
He said it’s difficult to plan, but at some point he would have to “start making decisions on how to curb spending to accommodate the loss of tax revenue.”
The biggest impact would be on the schools, which rely heavily on property taxes.
Shawnee Mission School Superintendent Michael Fulton discussed that possibility at a July 22 school board meeting. He said the budget implications aren’t yet clear, but could become more apparent next year.
“It’s really important that you plan for the worst, because if you don’t and there’s a big bill that comes due it can really send you into a tailspin,” he told the school board. “It’ll cause major issues when and if the ruling comes down and is upheld.”
Devin Wilson, a parent of two children in the Shawnee Mission School District and a candidate for school board, said the public needs to be more aware of the potential consequences.
“That’s my biggest concern, that it would have an immediate effect of lessening funding for Johnson County schools,” Wilson said.
At a county commission budget hearing July 29, Overland Park resident Julie Berggren told the commission she was “extremely worried” that if the county loses its appeals, the tax burden will fall hard on residents.
Commissioners responded that if tax money drops, they will manage the budget as they have during economic downturns. But they acknowledged it could be a challenge.
After a settlement between Johnson County and Lowe’s, Roeland Park officials such as finance director Jennifer Jones-Lacy had to identify other funds for Roe Boulevard improvements.
CREDIT LYNN HORSLEY / Kansas News Service
At least one city, Roeland Park, is already seeing a budget impact. A recent settlement between the county and Lowe’s lowered its tax bill, requiring Roeland Park to refund $350,000 to the company. The city had planned to spend that money on Roe Boulevard improvements but is now using other funds, said finance director Jennifer Jones-Lacy.
If the Walmart, CVS and Walgreens stores in Roeland Park also reduce their tax bills, it could affect other capital improvement projects.
“It could potentially reduce what we do,” Jones-Lacy said. “It’s all a guessing game at this point.”
Tom Cox, a Kansas legislator from Shawnee, says he can see both sides of the argument. On one hand, he believes the county boosted commercial appraisals too dramatically in 2016.
“They went bold and risked it, but they’re getting their hand slapped hard,” Cox said. Still, he questions how the stores can be valued regardless of the occupant.
He says the issue will most likely have to be resolved by the courts, rather than by the Kansas Legislature.
Fast, the county commissioner, says if the courts side with the companies, it may require some hard decisions.
“Do we have to look at shifting the burden to residential property taxes or do we look at significant program cuts?” she asked. “I think that will need a lot of community conversation.”
Lynn Horsley is a freelance journalist and was a veteran reporter for The Kansas City Star. Follow her on Twitter @LynnHorsley.
