Judith Lynn “Judi” Morse was born Saturday, Nov. 22, 1952. She died Sunday, July 14, 2019 in Atwood, Kan.
A celebration of life will take place at a later date.
Arrangements are being handled by Baalmann Mortuary.
Year: 2019
Judy Younger
Judy Younger was born Friday, April 26, 1963, and she died Monday, July 15th, 2019.
Services are pending with Baalmann Mortuary.
Moran condemns Trump’s tweets about 4 Democratic congresswomen
LOUISBURG, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas says President Donald Trump’s suggestion that four Democratic congresswomen of color “go back” to where they came was inappropriate because the women are Americans.
At a town hall meeting Monday in Louisburg, Moran says he disagreed with the congresswomen targeted in Trump’s tweets on many policies. But he said there is “nothing to be gained” by personal attacks on elected officials or Americans.
The president on Sunday said on Twitter that the four congresswomen hate America and should go back to their countries, and he continued his attacks Monday and Tuesday. All the women are American citizens.
Moran said “It is inappropriate to suggest they go home to any place – they are home.”
Dwaine George Grubb
Dwaine George Grubb, 72, of Holyrood, Kansas, died on Thursday, July 4, 2019, at the Ellsworth County Medical Center in Ellsworth, Kan.
Dwaine was born on April 26, 1947, in Wilson, Kan., the son of Arthur and Edna (Malir) Grubb. He grew up in the Wilson, Holyrood and Ellsworth, Kan., areas and graduated from Wilson High School.
After high school, he served his country by joining the U.S. Army. He met, fell in love and was united in marriage to Janice Oshel on June 5, 1971, in Holyrood, Kan. From this union Dwaine and Janice were blessed with three children Mitch, Ted and Lesah. He was a member of the American Legion and he attended the First Baptist Church in Wilson, Kansas. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, spending time outdoors, working with his hands and riding his motorcycle. Most of all he enjoyed spending time with his family.
Surviving family include his sons Mitch Grubb (Jacqueline) of Hoisington, Kan., and Ted Grubb (Tara) of St. George, Kan.; daughter Lesah Beagley (Terry) of Russell, Kan.; brother Harry Grubb (Kay) of Atlanta, Ga. and nine grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents and wife Janice in 2007.
A memorial service to celebrate Dwaine’s life will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, July 22, 2019, at the First Baptist Church in Wilson, Kan. Cremation was selected by the family and a private family burial will take place at a later time. Memorials may be given to the Dwaine Grubb Memorial Fund and sent in care of the mortuary. Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary of Russell, Kan., is in charge of the funeral service arrangements.
Larks fall in Dodge City, hurting KCLB division title chances
DODGE CITY – The Hays Larks chances of winning the Jayhawk West Division of the KCLB took a blow Monday night with an 8-5 loss to the Dodge City A’s at Cavalier Field.
The A’s scored three runs off Rustin Hays in the eighth inning to break a 5-5. They pushed across what proved to be the winning run on an Alex Stretchen throwing error on a potential double play grounder to first base. The A’s added the second run with a single then scored the third on a wild pitch.
The rally came after the Larks scored two in the seventh to tie the game.
Justin Lee and Jerrod Belbin both had two of the Larks nine hits. Mikey Gangwish hit a two-run homer in the second to give the Larks the early lead and had three RBIs.
The same two teams play Tuesday night at Larks Park in the Larks regular season finale. Hays needs to win then have Dodge City win one of their final two games with Liberal later in the week to win the KCLB Jayhawk West Division.
7 p.m. start with free admission courtesy of Wal-Mart and Pepsi.
Diddy’s ‘Making the Band’ officially coming back to TV
NEW YORK (AP) — Diddy’s “Making the Band” is officially coming back to TV.
The music mogul announced Monday that the hit series, where he discovered groups including platinum-sellers Danity Kane, would return to MTV in 2020.
“Making the Band” made its debut on ABC in 2000 when Lou Pearlman, who managed the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync, launched the show and formed the boy band O-Town. Diddy re-vamped the show for MTV in 2002 and discovered the rap group Da Band. Diddy also launched the careers of Day 26, Donnie Klang and Danity Kane — who released two No.1 albums under his Bad Boy Records — on the show.
Diddy went viral last week when he asked his social media followers if he should bring back the series.
The global casting call for the show begins Monday across social media platforms.
Junior Monarchs defeat Junior Eagles to advance to Zone finals
GREAT BEND – The TMP-Marian Junior Monarchs scored four runs with two outs in the fifth inning to rally past the Hays Junior Eagles 7-5 Monday night to advance to the finals of the American Legion Zone 1 & 2 Tournament at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
The Monarchs (13-8) tied the game on a Nick Helget infield single then took the lead on a Jacob Pfeifer bloop single to right field. They added the final two runs on wild pitches.
The Eagles (13-16-1) scored a run in the sixth then loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh but Carter Newell induced a popup to end the game.
Mark Rack allowed five runs on on six hits with seven strikeouts and seven walks and picked up the win. Newell pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and gets the save.
The Monarchs, who have won seven straight, will play Larned in the championship game Tuesday at 8 p.m. The Indians advanced with an 11-1 win over the Salina Eagles in Monday’s late game.
Earlier in the day Monday, the Eagles held off the Great Bend Braves 7-6.
The Eagles broke a 2-2 tie with a five-run sixth only to see the Braves answer with three in the bottom of the inning. Great Bend scored on a ground out and had the tying run at third when Garrett Wellbrock got a strikeout to end the game.
Wellbrock struck out two and picked up the save. Starter Dawson VonFeldt allowed six runs (one earned) on three hits with four walks and three strikeouts and gets the win.
The Junior Eagles will play Russell in an elimination game at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Russell lost 4-1 to the Salina Eagles.
KZ Country Cheesy Joke of the Day 7/16/19
Fast Promotions
The boss called one of his employees into the office. “Rob,” he said, “you’ve been with the company for a year. You started off in the post
room, one week later you were promoted to a sales position, and one month after that you were promoted to district manager of the sales
department. Just four short months later, you were promoted to vice-chairman.”
“Now it’s time for me to retire, and I want you to take over the company. What do you say to that?”
“Thanks,” said the employee.
“Thanks?” the boss replied. “Is that all you can say?”
“I suppose not,” the employee said. “Thanks, Dad.”
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W. Kansans appointed to KANSASWORKS state board
OFFICE OF GOV.
TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly appointed nine people to the KANSASWORKS State Board. This board was formed in accordance with the Federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
“Our KANSASWORKS State Board provides an important workforce training program that promotes business development which in turn helps Kansans find work,” Kelly said. “I know this group will work diligently so that every worker has the tools and resources necessary to be successful.”
- Sheila Martinez, Lawrence, CEO of A-S-K Associates
- Neelima Parasker, Overland Park, CEO of snapIT Solutions
- Stephanie Rupp, Garden City, Human Resources Manager of Mosaic Industries
- Sara Koehn, Dodge City, Director of Human Resources for Western Plains Medical Complex
- Scott Grandon, Paola, Business Manager for Pipe Fitters Local 533
- Matthew Hall, Lawrence, Business Agent for Teamsters Local 696
- Shaun Junkins, Wichita, Avionics Technician at Beech Aircraft, and a Machinist
- Perry Wiggins, Chapman, serving on the Governor’s Military Council
- Jermaine Wilson, Leavenworth, Mayor of Leavenworth
Kelly also designated the Chair and Vice-Chair of this board from current members:
- Chair – David Harwood, Olathe, Senior Vice President of Terracon Consultants
- Vice Chair – Carol Perry, Topeka, Vice President of Patient Services at Stormont Vail Healthcare
The KANSASWORKS State Board is the vehicle the Governor uses to convene state, regional, and local workforce system partners and stakeholders to: enhance efficiencies and outcomes of multiple federal and state-funded workforce programs through alignment in a single state workforce system; promote economic growth by engaging public and private partners and stakeholders in the development and implementation of strategies that address the needs of business and individual citizens; enhance the overall capacity of existing resources by connecting all services under one comprehensive workforce system.
Hays Summer Lunch, children’s library programs see increases
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The USD 489 Summer Lunch Program has seen more than a 50 percent increase in the number of children it is serving this summer, and the director is attributing the jump to the new location at the Hays Public Library.
The program was moved to the library temporarily this summer because the Early Childhood Connections program, where the lunch program was formerly, is being moved to its newly renovated space on 13th Street.
Both Jessica Younker, USD 489 nutrition director, and Meagan Zampieri, children’s librarian, credited increases in attendance for both programs at least in part to the partnership between the lunch program and the library.
“It’s the same food and the same service. The only thing we have really changed is the location and the activities that are surrounding it,” Younker said.
In June last year, the summer lunch program averaged 128 children per day. In June this year, the program averaged 193 students per day. On its busiest day this summer, the program served 289 children.
Any child 18 or younger eats free through the program. Adults pay a small fee to eat with children. The program has also fed more adults this summer — 350 meals last June and 434 this June.
USD 489 initiated an afternoon snack program in 2018. That program has seen a slight increase. Last year, the program served an average of 61 children per day, and this year it is serving an average of 68 children per day. Those snacks are also free for children.
Zampieri reported 1,000 more participants in programs at the library in the children’s department in June.
The library has added programming to coincide with the summer lunch program. It has offered a Astronaut Training Academy at 11 a.m. Lunch is served beginning at 11:30 a.m.
Children’s library programs at other times are also up, which Zampieri attributes in part to the hiring of a new early literacy coordinator, Sara Schoenthaler. Storytime is up a total headcount of about 200 children compared to last year, Zampieri said.
“I think the lunch absolutely helps,” Zampieri said. “I think the things we are bookending it with are big.”
The library had 46 children in for its alien parfait program this week.
“It’s hot. They are here already. If we can sneak in a little education in there, that is really exciting for us,” Zampieri said.
She said she also thought the library, which also has a new communications coordinator, Callie Kolacny, is also doing a better job of getting the word out about its programs.
“People who visit the library frequently post about the library and post about what we are doing, so they know they can come here and get work done and take care of their kids and give their kids some fun things to do,” Zampieri said.
The increases have caused some issues for both programs.
On a couple of days, the lunch program ran out of the hot meal entree. However, it always has peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in reserves, so no one ever goes away hungry.
Although the children’s department on the second flour of the library has the space to accommodate the increase in the number of visitors, the space could be used better, Zampieri said.
At certain times, the department could use more chairs and tables for children to play games. She said reconfiguring the spaces is something library officials are going to consider in its strategic planning.
Younker said the summer lunch program usually sees a significant decrease in participants in the month of July; however, she said participation has remained strong so far this month.
Although the partnership between library and the lunch program was initially supposed to only be temporary, both Younker and Zampieri said they would recommend the program remain at the library.
“In my mind, this partnership will continue for years to come,” Younker said.
If your child wants to eat
Hot meals will be served in the Schmidt Gallery from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through Aug. 2. Adults can eat with children for $3.75 per meal. Children do not have to live in or attend USD 489 schools to participate. Click here for the July lunch menu.
Healthy snacks will be available free for children from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Mondays though Fridays in the children’s department on the second floor of the library. Click here for the July snack menu.
Library programs
To learn more about the HPL programs, visit the library website or call the children’s department at 785-625-9014.
Man banished from Kansas in plea deal seeks to return
A Montgomery County judge will hear oral arguments on Aug. 8 over the motion the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed last week pushing for Bo Dana Rupert to be allowed to return to Kansas from Texas.
“This is one of the most bizarre and illegal sentences I’ve ever seen,” said Lauren Bonds, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas.
Court transcripts show that Rupert was sentenced to 12 months of probation after pleading no contest to three felony counts of making a criminal threat and three misdemeanor counts of filing a false report in 2017. The banishment, which was in addition to the probation, was included in the plea agreement that Rupert entered with Montgomery County Attorney Larry Markle and that the court accepted.
Markle did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
In its motion, the ACLU said the banishment was reminiscent of Ancient Greece, where such punishment was called exile and was imposed on people convicted of homicide or embarrassing military defeat. In the American West, it was called “sundown probation,” the practice of dropping convicted defendants at the state line under threat to their safety should they ever return, according to the motion.
The ACLU is asking the court to strike from Rupert’s sentence the part about banishing him from Kansas, declare that his sentence has been served in full and order the county attorney not to attempt to enforce the condition of banishment through subsequent prosecution.
The plea agreement — signed by Rupert, his defense attorney and the county attorney — explicitly states Rupert is not to return to Kansas.
“If the defendant does return to Kansas then the terms of this agreement have been violated and the County Attorney may consider filing all other charges for additional offenses not filed now,” the agreement says.
Bonds said it’s possible that Montgomery County District Judge Jeffrey Gettler wasn’t aware of the banishment provision in the plea agreement. She said the ACLU is eager to hear the judge’s take on the matter at next month’s hearing.
It is unclear from the transcripts of the initial court hearings whether the judge actually intended to banish Rupert from Kansas. During his plea hearing, the court accepted the terms of the agreement and the county attorney during sentencing asked the court to incorporate the terms of his plea deal into the sentence.
Rupert left Kansas the day after his sentencing and has never returned to Kansas, according to the ACLU, which said in its motion that he was taking the advice of his then-attorney who warned him: “Don’t still be here tomorrow when the sun comes up.” Two weeks after he was sentenced, Montgomery County issued an arrest warrant for Rupert stating he had violated the terms of his probation because he did not attend his probation meetings in Kansas.
Woman benefits from cancer funds, raised in part from the Phillipsburg rodeo
PHILLIPSBURG — Jan Kempt and her husband Gary were planning a trip to Japan this past winter, to see their son, who lives there, but when the Phillipsburg woman found out she had cancer, they couldn’t go.
In January of this year, Kempt was diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctors caught it early; it was in stage zero.
After two lumpectomies and radiation treatment, Kempt is cancer free.
She got some help in fighting the disease.
Hope in the Heartland, an area organization that provides financial help to those undergoing cancer treatment in north central Kansas and south central Nebraska, sent a check to Kempt.
She and her husband have insurance, but there are so many other expenses that come about: travel to and from the doctors, lodging and meals if a person has to stay overnight, things that pop up when a person is putting all their energy into fighting cancer. “I didn’t realize there would be so many doctor appointments and follow-ups,” Kempt said. “There’s not just one doctor, but many, and there are follow-ups with all of them.”
Hope in the Heartland funds are raised in several ways. One of those ways is through the Phillipsburg Rodeo Association, which hosts its annual Tough Enough to Wear Pink night, always the first night of rodeo (this year, August 1). For every fan who wears pink to the rodeo, one dollar is donated by the rodeo association to the fund. Generous sponsors match the rodeo’s donation: Prairie Horizon Agri-Energy, McClain Farms LLC, Rodgers and Associates Insurance Co., and Farmers State Bank.
This fall, she and her husband will travel to Japan to visit their son. It’s something that kept her going through long days of treatment, when she isn’t feeling well. She and Gary are a blended family, with six kids between them. They all worry about her, and her son calls and Facetimes regularly. “He tries to find the humor in everything,” she said. When the doctors ordered a second lumpectomy, he joked that the surgeon was doing surgery again to retrieve a ring he left in.
Kempt is grateful for the Hope in the Heartland funds. “I appreciate the funds and the blessings from it.” She is also grateful to live in Phillipsburg. “There are just great people here. There are a lot of blessings in this small community.”
Kansas Biggest Rodeo takes place August 1-3 in Phillipsburg at the rodeo grounds north of town on Highway 183. Performances start each night at 8 pm. Tickets range in price from $15 to $18 for adults and $11-$14 for children.
Tickets can be purchased at Heritage Insurance in Phillipsburg (685 Third Street) or over the phone with a credit card (785.543.2448), during office hours. They can also be purchased at the gate.
For more information, visit www.KansasBiggestRodeo.com or call Heritage Insurance at 785.543.2448.
HAWVER: Kelly, Kan. GOP spar over food stamps
With a flurry of philosophical in-fighting, Kansas has subtly turned that human malady of being “able bodied” into a character flaw that should be punished, or at least not tolerated when distributing food stamps.
You remember the issue: The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF), or at least a handful of its managers, decided that it would give about $110 a month in food stamps to about 5,500 single, no-dependents, able-bodied Kansans between 18 and 49 years old. Nope, not forever, just for three additional months above the three-month per 36-month period of assistance for those who are poor. Oh, and to those who haven’t found a 20-hour-a-week job or participated in state-managed employment training and job search activities.
Those three extra months—July, August and September—were incidentally falling at the end of the three-year restart of the federal food stamp eligibility program in which the federal government pays for those food stamps and pays the state half its administrative costs in distributing them.
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, recalled that back in 2015 the Gov. Sam Brownback governorship managed to convince the more-conservative-than-now Legislature to clean up the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to make sure that those welfare recipients weren’t scamming the federal government out of money through the state welfare qualification standards.
The concept: Those welfare recipients should be working like everyone else and supporting themselves, no spending on vacations or other frivolous activities, just survival, if they met the training and job-search and minimum employment standards.
Now, that’s a pretty good standard. People ought to work for a living if they can, maybe get a little assistance while they are in a tough spot, but basically get back to work.
Well, Hawkins pushed Attorney General Derek Schmidt into closing down the new, short-term food stamp program by threatening Gov. Laura Kelly with a lawsuit: She was disregarding the 2015 law, which she had voted against while a senator, which limited eligibility for food stamps and even outlawed asking the feds for some wriggle room in distributing food stamps.
Kelly decided that it would cost the state more money than it is worth to defend the three-month program against the state attorney general. Probably a fair call, not spending state money on lawyers to defend handing out federal money to the poor.
But, at some point, you almost have to wonder whether the response to DCF spending that federal money on poor people—and probably some are scammers, but probably others have aged out of foster care or are jobless veterans or just can’t find work they can handle—is worth the political scrap it fueled. It’s probably one of those situations where lawmakers could have looked the other way—until Oct. 1—given away food stamps and later said, “Darn.”
Everyone out there who thinks that we’re paying too much in federal taxes and aren’t getting enough back for it, well, you remain correct. The state is sending back those food stamps, so they will go to poor people in other states, where we don’t have to walk around people begging on the sidewalk or at stoplights or at exits from malls, who will spend the money at grocery stores in other states.
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com