FINNEY COUNTY — Two people died in an accident just before 2p.m. Wednesday in Finney County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 GMC Sierra driven by Joe McNally, 50, Memphis, TN., was northbound on Jenny Barker Road.
A 2018 GMC Sierra driven by Christian Victor Westergard, 47, Scott City, was eastbound on Mead Road approaching the intersection to Jenny Barker Road.
Both vehicles entered the uncontrolled intersection at the same time. The 2018 Sierra struck the 2017 Sierra on the driver side between the two axles and it became fully engulfed in flames and overturned.
McNally and a passenger Jimmy Martin Sherlock, 57, Memphis, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Westergard was transported to the hospital in Garden City. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
HUTCHINSON — A Kansas man has been charged by the state for crimes allegedly involving inappropriate contact with an 11-year-old girl.
Donovan Hall photo Reno Co.
On Wednesday, Donavan Roy Hall was charged with aggravated indecent liberties with a child for contact that allegedly occurred March 7 and again on July 21, 2018.
He then asked for a reduction of bond, but the state objected.
Even after the investigation began, he was still attempting to contact the child, according to statements in court.. That led to the family of the 11-year-old to seek a protection from abuse order against Hall. The charge against him is a level three felony with a maximum sentence of over 20 years in prison.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Chris Sale tossed a three-hitter for his third career shutout, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rafael Devers drove in three runs apiece, and the Boston Red Sox trounced the woeful Kansas City Royals 8-0 on Wednesday night.
Sale’s dominant performance was summed up by the eighth inning, when the seven-time All-Star struck out the side on nine pitches – his second immaculate inning of the year. The lanky left-hander also accomplished the rare feat on May 8 against Baltimore.
Sale (2-7) has rebounded from a dismal April to put together a series of solid starts. He finished with 12 strikeouts and no walks, his seventh double-digit strikeout game of the season.
Bradley hit a three-run double during a four-run fifth that broke open the game, and Devers tacked on his ninth homer after a pair of RBIs earlier in the night.
That sent the Red Sox to their fifth straight win at Kauffman Stadium dating to last season. They also have won three in a row overall, with the offense pounding out eight runs in each game.
Boston jumped ahead against Jakob Junis (4-6) with two runs in the first. But the young right-hander settled down for a while, stranding runners at the corners in the second and another in the fourth.
Andrew Benintendi’s leadoff double in the fifth sparked the Red Sox onslaught.
By the time they loaded the bases later in the inning, and Bradley proceeded to empty them, Junis was headed for the showers and Boston was headed for another easy win.
Junis allowed six runs on eight hits and three walks over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five.
It was the fifth straight loss for Kansas City, which fell to 19-42 – the second-worst start through that many games in club history. Twenty-three defeats have come in games the Royals at one point led, including the series opener against Boston on Tuesday night.
STATS AND STREAKS
The Red Sox have homered in 22 of their last 25 games. … Sale was making his 300th big league appearance. He also won his fifth straight in Kansas City. … Benintendi and Brock Holt each had three hits. Holt also drove in a run. … Junis has allowed first-inning runs in eight of his last 13 starts.
FEELING DRAFTY
The Red Sox concluded the first-year player draft with a couple of notable picks, including 1B Ryan Berardino in the 34th round. His grandfathers are longtime minor league manager Dick Berardino and former Boston outfielder Dwight Evans.
The Royals went heavy on college players in the draft. Among those chosen on Day 3 was UC Irvine right-hander Jonah DiPoto, the son of Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto, and Indiana State third baseman Jake Means, whose brother John pitched for Baltimore on Wednesday night.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: 1B Mitch Moreland (lower back) will likely be activated for Friday night’s series opener at Tampa Bay, manager Alex Cora said. Moreland has been hitting off a tee the past couple of days.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox will go with Ryan Weber (1-1, 4.50 ERA) as an opener with Michael Shawaryn backing him up in Thursday’s series finale. The Royals will counter with Danny Duffy (3-2, 4.05).
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators on Wednesday blocked nearly $10 million that Kansas corrections officials argue they need to deal with prison overcrowding and said lawmakers might reject Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s choice to be the prison system’s next leader.
In February Gov. Kelly spoke to employees at the El Dorado Correctional Facility -photo courtesy KDOC
The actions by Republican legislative leaders decrease the number of male inmates that the Department of Corrections can transfer for now to private prisons out of state and halt the agency’s plans to move female inmates into empty space at a juvenile detention center in Topeka.
Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature did agree to release about $18 million, including money for pay raises for corrections officers. They said they’re still addressing the troubled prison system’s most pressing problems, with future discussions of the other spending still possible.
GOP leaders said they have reservations about the department’s plans to house 600 inmates outside Kansas and worry about conditions in private prisons generally. They questioned whether the juvenile correction project was legal and complained repeatedly that Kelly’s administration waited until late April to fully outline its plans.
But recently retired Interim Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz said, “I think it’s going to make things more dangerous.”
Legislators provided nearly $36 million in additional funds for prisons in the next state budget. However, Republicans worried enough about how it might be spent to require Kelly to convene a meeting of eight top legislative leaders, six of them Republicans, and have them sign off on releasing the bulk of it.
Their meeting Wednesday came with Republican leaders and Kelly increasingly at odds, following her vetoes of two GOP tax relief plans and top Senate Republicans thwarting Medicaid expansion.
It also came less than two weeks after Kelly announced her appointment of Jefferey Zmuda, the deputy director of Idaho’s prisons system, as the next Kansas corrections secretary. He plans to take over in July.
But Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, told Kelly publicly Wednesday that she is not sure Zmuda can win Senate confirmation. A state-court-judge in Idaho criticized Zmuda in a March ruling, saying he had given “disingenuous” testimony in a lawsuit over access to that state’s execution records.
Wagle said she is concerned about transparency issues with Zmuda planning to take over the Department of Corrections. Lawmakers are out of session until January, but Zmuda would be forced to step down if the Senate won’t confirm his appointment.
“He would not be confirmed if we voted today,” Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican, told reporters.
Kelly firmly stood by Zmuda’s appointment. The governor said she and her staff knew about the Idaho judge’s comments and discussed them with Zmuda, and he acknowledged that issues related to the lawsuit were not handled as well as they could have been. She said once lawmakers meet him they will see that he is “eminently qualified.”
“He knows what the problems are here in the state of Kansas and he is up for the challenge,” Kelly told reporters.
The Kansas prison system has been plagued with staffing shortages even as its inmate population has continued to grow. The prison system had multiple riots in 2017 and 2018. Extra funding released by legislative leaders Wednesday will 15.9% pay raises for uniformed corrections officers across the prison system.
Werholtz told legislative leaders Wednesday that since an emergency was declared in February at the state’s maximum-security prison outside El Dorado, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Wichita, employees there have worked more than 2,000 16-hour shifts.
The state has about 10,000 inmates in its custody and the official capacity of its prisons is about 9,900 — after boosting the capacity figures in 2017 by declaring that inmates could be housed two-to-a-cell in much of the system, despite some officials’ past misgivings.
The next state budget included $16.4 million to allow the department to house up to 600 male inmates in county jails or out-of-state prisons. The department is pursuing a contract with a private prison in Arizona that its officials declined to name Wednesday.
But top Republicans on Wednesday blocked $6.6 million of the funds as some of them said they dislike using private prisons. Kelly said it’s not ideal but, “I just don’t think we have much of a choice.”
The department also wanted to move 120 inmates from the state’s prison for women in Topeka to the juvenile corrections center there. Lawmakers set aside $3 million.
The budget says the money was for “renovations.” Department officials said the need for renovations at the juvenile center is minimal and wanted instead to spend the funds on staff and programs. GOP legislative leaders concluded that the budget law wouldn’t allow it and blocked the funds, stopping the project altogether.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri utility regulators have approved the acquisition of a large wind energy project by a Chicago firm.
The overview map depicts the proposed route of the Grain Belt Express Clean Line in Kansas- Image Clean Line Energy Partners.- click to expand
The decision Wednesday by the state Public Service Commission was a necessary step for Invenergy to buy the rights to construct the proposed Grain Belt Express power line.
The project initiated by Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners would carry Kansas wind energy on a 780-mile path across Missouri and Illinois before hooking into an electric grid in Indiana that serves eastern states.
Missouri regulators earlier this year reversed their previous denials and gave the green light to the project. Missouri legislators then tried but failed to prohibit eminent domain for the project.
But the project still needs regulatory approval in Illinois, where an appeals court last year overturned the state’s previous approval.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Montana man dubbed the AK-47 bandit and accused of holding up banks in several states over a five-year period has been sentenced in a Nebraska federal court to 35 years in prison.
Gathercole in a Dawson County Nebraska courtroom July 2018 image courtesy KNOP TV
Richard Gathercole, of Roundup, Montana, received the maximum sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty in March to bank robbery. The 41-year-old Gathercole admitted during that plea hearing to using an AK-47 while robbing a Nebraska City bank in 2014. Gathercole also pleaded guilty to the 2017 carjacking of a farmer in Kansas that led to his arrest in Lexington, Nebraska.
As part of his plea deal, Gathercole won’t be prosecuted by other jurisdictions for other violent crimes, including shooting at a Kansas state trooper in 2017 and bank robberies in California, Idaho, Iowa and Washington state from 2012 to 2017.
Some of the crimes had passed the five-year federal statute of limitations.
Robert Mollet Jr., Clinton, Ill., caught on camera the dramatic crash that ended a high-speed Kansas Highway Patrol chase on Interstate 70 last week that lead to the arrest of Starsky Dresch, 41, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Zack Stephenson, Decatur, Ill., was in the vehicle with Mollet and submitted the video to Hays Post Wednesday.
“We were coming from Colorado at the time, and there were two semis that were behind us trying to block the pass of the suspect vehicle,” Stephenson said.
“It was trying to get around the semi and ended up going down into the median right next to us.”
“It ended up hitting the culvert and went probably seven or eight feet into the air,” Stephenson said.
ORIGINAL STORY
A high-speed chase and crash on Interstate 70 led to the arrest of a fugitive from justice Monday morning after a warrant was found from Colorado Springs, Colo.
At 7:41 a.m. Monday, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper in Sherman County clocked the speed of a 2009 Chevy pickup at milepost 20 at 102 mph, according to Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman.
The trooper attempted to stop the truck and the driver fled eastbound on I-70 reaching a top speed of 112 mph.
The trooper continued pursuit of the vehicle on I-70 approaching Oakley.
“At that point, at 8:14 in the morning, a little more than 30 minutes later, the driver entered the median and drove in the median for a while until he hit a culvert,” Hileman said. “That ended up crashing the vehicle out, and the vehicle rolled several times.”
The driver — Starsky Dresch, 41, Colorado Springs — was placed under arrest, and an ambulance was called.
He was taken to the Logan County Hospital and later flown to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver.
A female passenger in the vehicle was not charged. She was taken to the hospital, but no other information on her condition was made available.
While investigating the incident, it was discovered the vehicle had been stolen in Colorado Springs and Dresch had an outstanding warrant from Colorado for being a fugitive from justice.
RILEY COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 10a.m. Wednesday in Riley County.
A 2018 Ford Escape driven by a 56-year-old man was traveling on Tuttle Creek Boulevard near mile marker 33, according to a media release from Riley County Police.
The vehicle traveled off the road and struck a pole. The was transported to Via Christi in Manhattan where he died.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. According to the Riley County Police Department, the driver may have suffered a medical episode while driving.
SALINE COUNTY —Rolling Hills Zoo’s new lion pride arrived from Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago Wednesday morning.
Image courtesy Rolling Hills Zoo
The pride, made up of a male and two females, along with Lincoln Park Zoo’s animal curator and keepers, left Chicago at 3 p.m. Tuesday and drove through the night to arrive at Rolling Hills Zoo.
The pride includes 9-year-old male Sahar and 5-year-old female littermates Kamali and Zalika.
Sahar, a 429 lbs. African lion, was born on January 27, 2010, at the Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society and moved to Lincoln Park Zoo in February 2012. Arriving at 2 years of age, Sahar had become an icon at Lincoln Park Zoo. In the summer he could often be found lounging on the high rocks in the middle of his habitat, or in cooler months he was often found on the heated rocks. Sahar likes to keep both of the females nearby (especially Zalika), and if they wander out of view you can hear his roar across the zoo grounds. A little more shy by nature, Sahar is expected to take a little longer to warm up to his new home.
As littermates, Kamali and Zalika were born on September 7, 2013, at the Oregon Zoo. To tell the two apart, Zalika is the larger of the two females, weighing in at 415 lbs. Kamali weighs 371 lbs. and also has a black scar on her front left leg from when she was over-groomed by her mother as a young cub. Both arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo in April 2015, at which time they were also introduced to Sahar.
Both females are outgoing and curious, especially with new people, and acclimate well to their new environments. Overall they are playful and calm, but Zalika takes the lead on the majority of things and has a very strong bond with her sister as well as with Sahar. Kamali, on the other hand, is more reserved then Zalika, and will often let her sister take the lead. Both are motivated to learn behaviors and work with their keepers to participate in their own health care.
This pride was moved to Rolling Hills Zoo on the recommendation of the African Lion Species Survival Plan (SSP), a collaborative effort among Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) – accredited institutions.
Now settling into the Lion Exhibit at Rolling Hills Zoo’s at for observation, the pride is on “lion time” to determine when they will be allowed into their habitat for public viewing. During their first one to two weeks of observation, the keepers will be getting to know the pride while the pride will also be acclimating to their new keepers along with their new environment. Once the keepers feel that the pride is comfortable with their surroundings and with each other, then they will go out into their habitat for visitor viewing.
Nikole Cain will serve as the Northwest Leadership intern for the summer of 2019. This position has been funded through support of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. Counties included within this program include Lane, Ness, Rush, Ellis, Ellsworth, Barton, Russell, Phillips and Rooks.
Growing up in Admire on a fifth-generation farm, Cain has deep roots within agriculture. She was a 12-year 4-H’er and was heavily involved within the National FFA organization throughout high school. This summer, Cain will be offering leadership day camps for middle and high school students across northwest Kansas that focus on developing leadership skills and team building, while incorporating a service-learning component.
Cain said she is excited to get to work with the youth (ages 12-plus) of northwest Kansas and is available to provide day camps, workshops or presentations as requested by any community group or organization.
For more information, contact the Cottonwood District Extension office in Hays at 785-628-9430.
Chelsea Shanks. Photo courtesy Saline County Sheriff’s Office
Salina Post
SALINA — Drivers stopped for a train got a surprise early Tuesday afternoon when a woman got out of a stopped vehicle, tried to get into the other vehicles, and then disrobed and lay down in the roadway.
By the time Saline County Sheriff’s deputies got to the scene in the 1700 block of West State Street (where State Street intersects with Old 40) shortly after 12:30 p.m., the woman had taken off some of her clothes and was lying in the roadway, Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said Wednesday. Soldan said that prior to taking her clothes off, the woman had gotten into one of the vehicles and attempted to take some money from the console, but the driver snatched it back.
Soldan said that Chelsea Shanks, 30, of Salina, was transported to Salina Regional Health Center (SRHC). While there, she allegedly battered one of the security guards and attempted to stab a nurse with a syringe, he said.
After Shanks was treated at SRHC, she was booked into the Saline County Jail on suspicion of the following, Soldan said.
