INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The 3-point line is moving back in college basketball.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel announced Wednesday that the arc will be moved to 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches for the 2019-20 season, matching the international distance.
The change will not go into effect in Division II and III until 2020-21 due to the potential financial impact on schools.
The 3-point line was last moved in 2008-09, extending a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches.
The panel also approved resetting the shot clock to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound and gave coaches the ability to call live-ball timeouts in the last two minutes of the second half and any overtime period.
Players also will be assessed technical fouls for derogatory language about an opponent’s race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
Michelle D. Unruh, 47, died on Tuesday, June 4, 2019 at St Catherine Hospital in Garden City.
She was born on February 15, 1972 in Garden City the daughter of James Willard & Carla Jean (Brooks) Barker. She married Marshal S. Unruh on June 23, 1990 at Holcomb.
Michelle graduated from Garden City High School in 1990. She was a homemaker and home school teacher. She enjoyed jet skiing, shopping, cooking, facebooking, farm animals and especially her family activities. She was involved in jail ministry and loved Jesus Christ and teaching her children about the Bible. She was a member of the First Southern Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her Parents and Son- Nathan Unruh.
She is survived by her Husband- Marshal Unruh of the home, 2 Sons- Andrew Unruh of Canon City, Colorado and Greg Unruh of Deerfield, Daughter- Jordyn Goetz of Hoxie and Granddaughter- Zoe Dawn Unruh.
Funeral Service will be at 2:00 PM Saturday at the First Baptist Church in Holcomb with Pastor Jonathan Sanders officiating. Burial will follow at Deerfield Cemetery.
Memorials are suggested to First Baptist Church in care of Garnand Funeral Home.
Condolences may be posted at www.garnandfuneralhomes.com
Nine nursing homes in Kansas and 14 in Missouri are among nearly 400 nationwide with a “persistent record of poor care” whose names had been withheld from the public, according to a U.S. Senate report released Monday.
The Special Focus Facility program targets facilities that ‘substantially fail’ to meet the required care standards and resident protections. BIGSTOCK
The facilities are not included on a shorter list of homes that get increased federal scrutiny because of health, safety or sanitary problems.
The names of the previously undisclosed facilities were released by Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey, a Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Republican, as part of their investigation of federal oversight of nursing homes.
The nearly 400 homes qualify for the federal Special Focus Facility (SFF) program but aren’t selected to participate because of limited resources at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to the Senate report.
“Despite being indistinguishable from participants in terms of their qualifications for enhanced oversight, candidates are not publicly disclosed,” the report states. “As a result, individuals and families making decisions about nursing home care for themselves or for a loved one are unlikely to be aware of these candidates.”
Here are the Kansas and Missouri homes that are candidates for the SFF program, according to the Senate report, along with the number of their certified beds. (The bed numbers come from Nursing Home Compare, an online reference maintained by CMS that rates nursing homes based on health inspection reports, quality of care measures and overall staffing.)
Kansas
Enterprise Estates Nursing Center, Enterprise, 41 beds
Great Bend Health & Rehab Center, Great Bend, 65 beds
Woodlawn Care and Rehab, DBA Orchard G, Wichita, 93 beds
Indian Creek Healthcare Center, Overland Park, 120 beds
Fort Scott Manor, Fort Scott, 45 beds (This facility closed last year.)
Pinnacle Ridge Nursing & Rehab Center, Olathe, 94 beds
Westy Community Care Home, Westmoreland, 43 beds
Via Christi Village Pittsburg Inc., Pittsburg, 96 beds
Mount Hope Nursing Center, Mount Hope, 45 beds
Missouri
Kansas City Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, Kansas City, 180 beds
Crestview Home, Bethany, 92 beds
Normandy Nursing Center, St. Louis, 116 beds
Garden Valley Healthcare Center, Kansas City, 156 beds
Life Care Center of Bridgeton, Bridgeton, 91 beds
Hillside Manor Healthcare and Rehab Center, St. Louis, 208 beds
Parklane Care and Rehabilitation Center, Wentzville, 240 beds
Crystal Creek Health and Rehabilitation Center, Florissant, 158 beds
Maple Wood Healthcare Center, Kansas City, 150 beds
Edgewood Manor Center for Rehab and Healthcare, Raytown, 66 beds
Christian Care Home, Ferguson, 150 beds (This facility is no longer participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.)
Lewis & Clark Gardens, St. Charles, 142 beds
Redwood of Raymore, Raymore, 142 beds
Rancho Manor Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Florissant, 120 beds
Two Kansas nursing homes and three Missouri nursing homes are in the SFF program:
Kansas
Serenity Care and Rehab, Overland Park, 145 beds
Garden Valley Retirement Village, Garden City, 78 beds
Missouri
Hidden Lake Care Center, Raytown, 112 beds
St Johns Place, St. Louis, 94 beds
Green Park Senior Living Community, St Louis, 188 beds
As the Senate report notes, the SFF program “targets those facilities that ‘substantially fail’ to meet the required care standards and resident protections afforded by the Medicare and Medicaid programs.” The program aims to stimulate improvements in their quality of care.
Linda MowBray, vice president of the Kansas Health Care Association, a trade association representing 260-plus Kansas nursing homes, said that SFF program participants are chosen from the poorest performing facilities in the bottom 20% of state inspection surveys.
“The state survey agency identifies two to three facilities from the lowest 20% that have demonstrated a special need for more oversight due to history of deficiencies, staffing levels and/or quality outcomes,” she said.
“They may very well need to be a special focus home,” MowBray said. “But it may be that they are in that bottom quintile because of one particular incident, not necessarily a longstanding history that’s care-related. But some facilities do have a record of having more widespread problems.”
She added: “It’s public information and people need to know it, but I really believe that in Kansas we’re getting our act back together.”
Only 88 nursing homes out of more than 15,700 nationwide are currently participating in the SFF program, according to the Senate report
The program dates to 1987, when Congress enacted the Nursing Home Reform Act requiring nursing homes to maintain “the highest possible mental and physical functional status of residents.” The act also established oversight procedures, including regular surveys and inspections.
Unlike SFF participants, which are required to notify the public of their participation in the program, SFF candidates are not. Adding further confusion to the picture, 27% of the SFF candidate facilities had two stars out of a maximum of five on Nursing Home Compare.
In Kansas, some of the ratings may be dated. The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS), the agency that conducts nursing home surveys, had fallen behind the federal schedule that calls for nursing homes to be inspected at least once a year.
“It’s taken KDADS quite some time to get caught back up with surveys,” MowBray said. “So we’ve had facilities that have gone as long as 24 months between surveys, and we don’t like that, the homes don’t like that.
“Some of the rankings have been hanging around their neck for a long time and they’ve made quite a few improvements since that bad point. But that bad survey’s still hanging out there.”
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
Phillipsburg resident Joyce L. Rupp passed away Saturday, June 1, 2019 at the Andbe Home in Norton, KS at the age of 77.
She was born in Natoma, KS on May 12, 1942, the daughter of Floyd & Eva (Kirkendall) Beisner. Her husband, Leo, preceded her in death.
Survivors include her son, Leo, of California; two sisters, Linda Getty of Rusk, TX and Donna Wodecki of Holyoke, MA; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. in the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, with Pastor Blake Stanwood officiating. Burial will follow in the Fairview Cemetery, Phillipsburg.
Visitation will be Wednesday, June 5, from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be given to the Humane Society of Hays. Online condolences to: www.olliffboeve.com.
Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg, is in charge of arrangements.
TOPEKA – The Ranchland Trust of Kansas (RTK) invites professional and amateur photographers to submit photographs for its eighth annual photo contest to showcase the natural beauty of ranching and grazing lands across the state. The competition offers Kansans the chance to explore and capture the many activities, seasons and faces of Kansas’ ranching tradition.
Participants should submit photos expressing the mission of RTK: “To preserve Kansas’ ranching heritage and open spaces for future generations through the conservation of working landscapes.” This may include landscape, livestock and people, with preference to grasslands, grazing land, ranchers, cattle and much more.
Participants may enter up to five photos. The entry deadline for the contest is September 6, 2019. Entries will be judged by a panel of professionals in the field of photography and by RTK representatives.
All prizes for the contest are sponsored by Wolfe’s Camera of Topeka. Wolfe’s will award 10 photo cards to all 10 category winners. Categories include: Grand Prize, Landscape, Livestock, People, Youth (ages 5-17), Kansas Livestock Association Member, Fan Favorite via Facebook voting and Honorable Mentions. The grand prize winner will receive their choice of an 11”x 14” stretched photo canvas or a 12” x 18” metal print of their winning photo.
For full contest rules and to enter, visit www.ranchlandtrustofkansas.org (News, Events, Photo Contest). For questions, please contact Samantha Weishaar at (785) 273-5115 or [email protected].
RTK, Topeka, is an agricultural land trust affiliate of the Kansas Livestock Association, with a mission to preserve Kansas’ ranching heritage and open spaces for future generations through the conservation of working landscapes.
As part of its yearlong Golden Anniversary celebration, the Trego County Historical Society and Trego Travel & Tourism will be welcoming two tourism experts from the Kansas Sampler Foundation to share stories of the people, places, and activities found in their book, the Kansas Guidebook 2 on Sun., June 9th at 2 p.m. at the museum.
Marci Penner and WenDee Rowe have spent four years visiting every one of the 626 incorporated cities in Kansas. In their guidebook they detail stories, tips, and images from the road that are meant to stir your curiosity and get you excited for a summer of fun in the sunflower state.
“We will take the audience on a picture journey through the state, sharing road trip ideas and telling stories about our adventures,” said Penner. “From restaurant suggestions to art, architecture, history, geography and more, we’ll give you a sampling of what to see in Kansas.“
The guidebook offers a wide array of interesting stops to explore, including historic sites, specialty shops, little known points-of-interest, cemetery finds, bike trails and backroad scenic drives statewide. “There really is something for everyone,” Rowe tells us, “whether you are looking for outdoor sites or ways to get to know a town.”
After the program, the co-authors will sign and sell the Kansas Guidebook 2. The 480-page, coil-bound book can be used to plan your next Kansas road trip. The 4,500 entries provide descriptions, directions, hours, and contact information and there are more than 1,600 color pictures. You’ll even find information about our Trego County treasures.
Penner and Rowe are founders of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, where the mission is to preserve and sustain rural culture. The guidebook is a helpful tool they offer people who are interested in the history of our state and want information and tips to plan their own journey across the state. “Though the book reads like a travel guide, it’s intended to help people get to know the state and learn about Kansas towns of every size,” Penner said.
Harold and Marcia Newcomer china collection at the Trego County Historical Society Museum in WaKeeney.
The museum is also currently featuring a unique souvenir china collection dating the early 20th century and donated by Harold and Marcia Newcomer. The collection includes an array of pieces that will join the collection of souvenir china this is already part of the museum’s exhibition.
TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has rescinded a boil water advisory for Russell County Rural Water District No. 3 located in Russell, Barton and Rush counties.
The advisory was issued for Russell RWD No.3 customers located West Galatia because of a loss of pressure in the distribution system. Failure to maintain adequate pressure may result in a loss of chlorine residuals and bacterial contamination.
Public water suppliers in Kansas take all measures necessary to notify customers quickly after a system failure or shutdown. Regardless of whether it’s the supplier or KDHE that announces a boil water advisory, KDHE will issue the rescind order following testing at a certified laboratory.
Laboratory testing samples collected from Russell County RWD No. 3 indicate no evidence of bacteriological contamination and all other conditions that placed the system at risk of contamination are deemed by KDHE officials to be resolved.
The Center for Health Improvement (CHI) at Hays Medical Center will expand their hours beginning July 1.
The Center will be open 24 hours Monday through Thursday, starting at 5 a.m. on Mondays.
Areas of The Center that will be available during the new hours of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. include the first floor main locker rooms, gymnasium, mat stretch area, second floor exercise equipment, free weight area and the indoor track.
LARNED – Officials from Larned State Hospital (LSH) have opened a criminal investigation into a resident-on-resident altercation.
According to a media release from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, the altercation, which took place Sunday on the resident unit of LSH’s Sexual Predator Treatment Program, resulted in injuries to one of the program’s residents. The extent of those injuries, as well as how the altercation started, is part of the ongoing investigation.
“I take this matter very seriously and am committed to providing a safe environment for every resident,” said Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) Secretary Laura Howard. “I have every confidence our dedicated officials at Larned will conduct a thorough examination of this event and move forward with recommendations to prevent this in the future.”
Results of the criminal investigation will be shared with the Pawnee County attorney.
KDADS is responsible for the administration of Larned State Hospital and Osawatomie State Hospital for Kansans suffering from mental illness and for the Kansas Neurological Institute and Parsons State Hospital and Training Center for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Residents living in rural Ellis County will be allowed to light fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday after the Ellis County Commission on Monday relaxed the ban on the discharge of fireworks in unincorporated areas of the county.
Myers
Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Management Darin Myers told the county commission several area counties are planning to allow fireworks in the county.
He added, however, that he always has his concerns.
“One accident, one fire, one property lost, one death, whatever it may be weighs hard on trying to say, ‘Yes let’s allow fireworks,’ ” Myers said. “But at the same time, I hate to put these restrictions on the public.
“But it’s very wet this year and it’s green out there, so it kind of eases your concern a little bit.”
As in the past, the times and dates that the discharge of fireworks is allowed in rural Ellis County are the same as the city of Hays — 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 2 to 4.
In other business, High Plains Mental Health Executive Director Walt Hill presented the commission with the organizations 2018 annual report and approved a use agreement between the city of Hays and the Ellis County Fire and Sheriff’s departments and the county EMS department for use of the new fire training facility.
The commission also approved a 2 percent salary increase for all employees and a step adjustment for employees with five or more years of service in their position. The changes are effective July 14.
Commissioners also approved changes to the county’s personnel policy that changes the number of hours required for a person to be considered full-time from 40 hours to 36 hours.
BARTON COUNTY —Deputies in Barton County worked five car-deer accidents overnight Tuesday, according to Sheriff Brian Bellendir.
File photo
This is an unusually high number for a single night. Normally deer are not as active this time of year. It is possible the recent flooding may have destroyed habitat and the animals are on the move, according to Bellendir.
Drivers are advised to use caution when traveling in the late evening and during the night-time hours. None of the accidents resulted in injury.
