HaysMed, part of The University of Kansas Health System announced this week that Kelsey Accurso, MS, APRN, AGCNS-BC and Sarah Green, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, CPAN were honored at the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Awards Gala held recently in Kansas City.
Accurso was named Nurse of the Year out of 5 finalists in the area of Quality Management. Green was one of five finalists in the category of Surgical Services.
There were 845 nurses nominated in 22 award categories. One winner for each category was announced at the black tie awards gala at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Marriott Downtown in Kansas City, Mo.
Sarah Green
Hosted by the Greater Kansas Chapter of the March of Dimes, the Nurse of the Year Awards is an annual event that recognizes the vital role of registered nurses and the many contributions they make in the community, while helping raise funds to support the nonprofit’s mission to prevent birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has proposed making it tougher for asylum-seekers to obtain permission to work in the United States while their cases are pending, a move that immigrant advocates say would unfairly punish those who need humanitarian protection the most.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said this week a proposed rule would double the time asylum-seekers must wait for a work permit to a year and bar those who crossed a border illegally from applying for work permits at all.
The new rule aims to discourage immigrants who don’t qualify for asylum from seeking it to “restore integrity to the asylum system and lessen the incentive to file an asylum application for the primary purpose of obtaining work authorization,” Ken Cuccinelli, the agency’s acting director, said in a statement.
The proposal is the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration aimed at deterring immigrants from seeking asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border and in limiting immigration to the United States.
There are hundreds of thousands of asylum applications pending in U.S. government offices and immigration courts. Some were filed by immigrants who were already in the country and others by people arriving in airports, at ports of entry, or stopped on the U.S-Mexico border.
Currently, asylum-seekers can obtain permission to work in the United States once their cases have been pending for six months.
Immigrant advocates decried the proposed rule and said it would fall hardest on the poorest and most vulnerable immigrants, who are often those who flee their homes at a moment’s notice in search of safety.
“Those with strongest claims are the ones least likely to be able to support themselves because they had to leave everything behind,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council.
Eleanor Acer, senior director for refugee protection at Human Rights First, said asylum-seekers often struggle to feed and house themselves and their families during the current six-month wait period. Making that longer, she said, would worsen their lot and place an additional burden on their communities.
The public can comment on the proposed rule until Jan. 13.
Greensburg, Kansas, built a new, environmentally friendly, high-tech high school after being hit by a massive tornado in 2007. But the town has barely half the population it did before the twister struck. Chris Neal / For the Kansas News Service
It now runs on renewable energy wired into buildings and homes designed with the latest in conservation technology.
Yet the question persists: What difference did it make?
About 850 people live in Greensburg, still about 600 fewer than when the tornado struck.
“I don’t think that population is the only measurement of success,” said Stacy Barnes, who is Greensburg’s city administrator and now in charge of sustaining the community’s comeback.
Stacy Barnes moved back to Greensburg after the 2007 tornado. She’s now the city administrator. Credit Chris Neal / For the Kansas News Service
Some defensiveness, even spin, lies in the suggestion that the number of people who live in a town doesn’t measure its success. Despite Greensburg’s shinier, more ecological veneer — like so many diminished towns across rural Kansas — it’s less than it wants to be.
Greensburg’s leaders sold the town’s green comeback as a way to set it apart from other withering rural communities. They hoped such a bold plan could help the community buck trends that had been driving people out of rural Kansas for generations.
They’re still hoping.
The tale of Greensburg’s comeback starts on the night after the tornado struck the town. When local, state and federal officials took cover from yet another storm in the basement of the damaged Kiowa County Courthouse.
“The discussion was, ‘Hey, we’re going to build back. Why don’t we do it green?’” said former Mayor Bob Dixson. “The seed was planted that night.”
A dozen years after the devastation, the scars from May 4, 2007, remain visible. Desiccated trees. Vacant lots in the middle of town. A few crumbling foundations where houses once stood.
Former Greensburg Mayor Bob Dixson. Credit Chris Neal / For the Kansas News Service
Still, the town looks fresh and revitalized compared to neighboring communities.
Its new high school brims with technology. Many of the community’s new energy-efficient buildings look like something you’d expect in a trendy tourist town, not in windswept Greensburg.
Great expectations
Barnes, the current city administrator, lived in Lawrence at the time of the tornado. She returned to help her parents — former mayor Dixson and his wife — sort through the rubble of her childhood home. After several trips, Barnes and her husband decided to move back “to be a part of this community’s future.”
First, she worked as an assistant to the city administrator. Then she got a job helping to plan a new museum to showcase the city’s main tourist attraction — a hand-dug well dubbed “the largest” in the nation.
Barnes is back at City Hall now. And she feels pressure to make the community’s comeback story the success envisioned by those who planned it in the months after the tornado.
Drawing a deep breath, she said, “I feel a tremendous responsibility.”
Greensburg’s top tourist attraction: a museum built around a hand-dug well. Credit Chris Neal / For the Kansas News Service
“Early on,” she said, “there were probably some unrealistic expectations.”
The town’s effort to transform itself captured international attention. Actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio produced a Discovery Channel television series about it. Reporters arrived from around the world to tell a story of a community’s phoenix-like rebirth.
The town built a 72-acre business park for the green companies that indicated to Dixson that they wanted to be a part of Greensburg’s celebrated transformation.
“We were under the impression that there would be opportunities,” Dixson said. “But it just never panned out.”
Today, the business park sits empty at the edge of town. To some, it’s evidence of the community’s failure to fully capitalize on its green rebirth. Yet Barnes insists the park still represents “opportunity.”
“We continue to work on projects,” she said.
Among other obstacles, even the remade version of Greensburg doesn’t have enough affordable housing.
Greensburg has trouble drawing in residents because it’s short on adequate housing. Credit Chris Neal / For the Kansas News Service
Dennis McKinney, a former state treasurer and one-time legislator from Greensburg, said housing shortages hold back communities across rural Kansas.
“I’ve talked to community leader after community leader from all over Kansas,” he said. “That’s their number one issue.”
Promises and realities
Scott Brown played a key role in Greensburg’s recovery. The building that houses his auction and real estate company on the east edge of town was just outside the path of the tornado. People gathered there to talk about whether they intended to stay and rebuild.
At one of those early meetings, Brown said, 63 people who had owned businesses in town signaled their desire to rebuild.
That may not sound like a big number, Brown said, “but I didn’t even know there (were) 63 businesses in Greensburg before the tornado.”
Early on, developers from Wichita, Kansas City and Denver offered to help rebuild the downtown business district. They walked away, Brown said, when it became clear that they couldn’t charge enough rent to make any money.
“That’s what spurred me into action, I guess,” he said.
Scott Brown helped rally people in Greensburg to rebuild its downtown as a strip mall. Credit Jim McLean / Kansas News Service
Brown figured it would cost about $1 million to build a kind of strip mall in what used to be downtown. He concluded that money needed to come from residents “not interested in getting a financial return.”
Those people invested, Brown said, just to support “a place to get a hamburger (or) get their hair fixed.”
Pitching in
Brown put up the first $50,000 and asked others to give what they could. Some matched his contribution. Others gave $10,000 or $5,000 to fund the Kiowa County United Foundation.
When it opened in 2009, the downtown mall was fully paid for and fully occupied. Over the past decade, Brown said, occupancy has averaged between 80% and 90%.
Brown would like to think that all the community has accomplished over the last 12 years has made it less vulnerable to the economic and cultural forces threatening the survival of rural communities across Kansas and the Plains.
He hopes it isn’t destined to become a “ghost town with the newest buildings.”
“I don’t doubt that we’ll survive, but that’s not what we want to do,” he said. “We want to get a little growth.”
This is the fifth in a series of stories investigating the decline in rural Kansas and efforts to reverse it.
Support for this season of “My Fellow Kansans” was provided by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, working to improve the health and wholeness of Kansans since 1986 through funding innovative ideas and sparking conversations in the health community. Learn more at healthfund.org.
Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks or email [email protected].
In November 2019, Hays Post was rated by NewsGuard, an international organization that employs trained journalists to rate and review thousands of news websites for credibility and transparency.
Hays Post received a green rating for its high journalistic standards.
NewsGuard uses nine journalistic criteria to rate each website. To learn more about NewsGuard’s rating of publications, go to www.newsguardtech.com.
The green or red badge of sites rated by NewsGuard are designed to alert readers about the credibility of a news source and appears on social media feeds and as a browser extension that rates search engine results. The extension can be downloaded HERE.
NewsGuard was launched in 2018. Based on each website’s performance on NewsGuard’s nine journalistic criteria, each site is rated with a red or green rating. News organizations producing high quality journalism and following basic standards of accuracy and accountability get green ratings.
Again this year, our Ellis County Catholic schools, TMP-Marian and Holy Family Elementary are participating in iGiveCatholic (iGC). iGC encourages charitable donations on Giving Tuesday, December 3. Donations to either of our Catholic schools through iGC benefit the St. Thomas More Society, the second-largest fund to the benefit of our annual operating budgets.
Advanced giving to iGC begins on Monday, Nov. 18 and 24/7 Travel Stores has generously donated $50,000 of matching funds restricted to Catholic schools in the Salina Diocese.
Gifts are matched at $.50 per dollar up to $1000 max per gift until matching funds are depleted. For every dollar you contribute, 24/7 Travel Stores will give $.50. These matching funds are available beginning with gifts received on Nov. 18.
Last year, TMP-M and HFE earned among the top in the nation against other organizations participating in iGC. With your help, we can do it again.
Donate offline and your gift will be entered upon receipt. Offline donations are not subject to fees. Deliver your gifts to either school with a memo of iGC and it will be counted as soon as it is received.
Remember, matching funds are available with the first gift on November 18 and likely will not last through Giving Tuesday. Make your gift early to increase it by half.
Direct questions and contributions to Troy Ruda, Advancement Director at [email protected].
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Let’s go to London, England. It’s a meeting of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, led by the president of this international organization. This year’s international president comes from a small town in Kansas.
Lana McPherson is president of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks and the long-time city clerk of De Soto, Kansas.
Lana grew up at De Soto, attended Johnson County Community College and Rockhurst University. She worked as a paralegal in several law offices and then for a multi-state insurance company.
She also met and married Ian McPherson, a soldier who had served at Fort Riley and then moved to Olathe to be close to family. They made their home in De Soto.
In 1998, the town council was looking for a new city clerk. Lana accepted the position in June. “I reached out to several experienced city clerks in surrounding communities and they took me under their wing,” Lana said.
McPherson
In November of that year, Lana attended a weeklong training program developed by the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, or IIMC. The training institute is conducted annually by the Hugo Wall Center for Public Affairs at Wichita State.
When Lana got into this class with the other city clerks, she immediately noticed two things. First, she had the shortest tenure in office of any of the clerks, and second, she was the oldest clerk in the class. “By the end of the day they were calling me `clerk mom,’” Lana said. “It is a term that I treasure.”
Lana deeply valued the training and the relationships which developed in the process. She has served as De Soto city clerk ever since. She also pursued the advanced certifications that are available through ongoing education from IIMC.
In 2000, she earned her Certified Municipal Clerk designation. In 2007, she achieved the designation of Master Municipal Clerk, a distinction held by only 37 Kansans and fewer than 2,000 people worldwide.
Having seen the benefits of IIMC, she got involved in the organization and was ultimately asked to run for president of the group. “I prayed at lot about it,” Lana said. It is a four-year commitment to go through the chairs of the executive committee. In 2017, she successfully ran for vice president of IIMC which meant that she became president of the international organization in 2019.
“Our primary goal is to actively pursue and promote the continuing education and professional development of municipal clerks through extensive education and certification programs,” Lana said.
“We also need to let communities know the importance of their clerks being certified, because clerks have important statutory duties which they carry out,” Lana said.
“The city clerk’s office is the hub of the city government’s activity,” she said. “We are the glue that holds the city together. We keep the official records of the city, but it goes beyond that to be a liaison between the city council and the staff and the community.”
Lana has found that city clerks around the world have common challenges. “City clerks are like family,” Lana said. IIMC has 14,765 members around the globe. How impressive that this year’s international president is from the rural community of De Soto, population 5,720 people. Now, that’s rural.
“I love my job. I love what I do,” Lana said. “We have a great staff here. My mayor and city administrator and city attorney are so supportive, they’ve made it possible for me to do this.”
She takes her role in serving the citizens very seriously. Lana plays piano and organ at various churches in town. “People will come up and ask about some city project, or hand me their water bill and ask me to drop it off when I go to work the next day,” she said. “It’s my way of giving back to those people who gave me so much support growing up.”
It’s time to leave England, another place where Lana McPherson is making a difference with her commitment to local government. How great to find that a person from small-town Kansas can make a big impact.
It’s sectional playoff time, and that meant a trip to Hutchinson to take on the Central Christian Cougars was in order for the Thunder Ridge Longhorns.
The two teams traded possessions to start the game. Thunder Ridge was able to strike first on a touchdown run by Reece Struckhoff. that made it 6-0 in favor of Thunder Ridge. However, the Cougars struck quickly and it was 8-6 Cougars in no time.
Central Christian was able to recover 3 onside kicks en-route to scoring 30 unanswered points. The Thunder Ridge offense found some life, but the defense played uninspired and the Longhorns found themselves down 58-20 with just a few seconds left in the half. A long hailmary touchdown pass from Struckhoff to Dylan Bice made it 58-28 heading into the half.
The Cougars got the ball to start the second-half looking to end the game early by 45 point rule, however, the Longhorns had other plans. Thunder Ridge scored 22 unanswered points to make it 58-50. Running back Garret Burns would finally find the endzone for Central Christian, making it 64-50 heading into the 4th quarter.
Thunder Ridge was able to close the gap to 64-58 on their next possession. They even forced the Cougars into a safety to make the score 64-60. Thunder Ridge went on the offensive, trying to find the lead. They drove deep in to Cougar territory, making it inside the 20. However, a botched snapped backed the Longhorns up to midfield. Further disaster struck when Reece Struckhoff threw an interception on the very next play.
Central Christian had the ball with 2:40 left on the clock, so they’d have to pick up some first downs if they wanted to run the clock out. They were able to do so, making the final score: Central Christian 64 Thunder Ridge 60. The comeback attempt had fallen short.
Reece Struckhoff had another fantastic game, finishing with 305 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns on 38 carries. He also was 6/9 passing for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns. Dylan Bice caught both of those touchdowns. Struckhoff had well over 2,000 rushing yards this season. Garret Burns ran for 236 yards and 5 touchdowns on 26 carries for the Cougars. Quarterback Caleb Lambert was 17 for 24 passing for 220 yards and 4 touchdowns, most of that came in the first half. Adam hall caught 8 balls for 117 yards and 4 touchdowns.
The Longhorns end their season at 9-2. They have many fine young pieces to build on in Dylan and Dalton Bice, Kaleb Wagenblast, and Daxton Dunlap, among others.
The Cougars will face Osborne (11-0) next week in Osborne with a trip to state on the line.
A 20-5 second quarter blew open a three point ball game as #7 Fort Hays State moved to 3-0 on the young season. The Tigers jumped out a seven point lead twice in the first quarter but could not build on the advantage. Adams State cut the Tiger lead down to three by the end of the quarter at 13-10 and started the second quarter with the ball but failed to score.
The Tigers launched into a 12-0 run that three different players scored during. That stretch pushed the Fort Hays State advantage to 25-10 over Adams State. The Grizzlies would never get closer than 12 points rest of the night. The Tigers led by 18 at halftime 33-15. That gap would never get closer than 16 in the second half winning 79-39.
Highlights
Fort Hays State held Adams State to single digits in the second and third quarter. The Tigers outscored the Grizzlies 20-5 and 23-6 in those two quarters. Lanie Page led the way in scoring for the home team at 11 points. Belle Barbieri added her second double-double of the season at ten points and ten rebounds. Each one of the 13 players suited up for the Tigers scored during the forty point victory. Adams State was led by Zakiya Beckles who came off the bench to score a game high 16.
The Tiger bench came through with a season high 42 points, no player was on the floor for more than 21 minutes and turnovers were cut nearly in have at nine in the game.
Coach Tony Hobson
Fort Hays State improves to 3-0 on the year. They will play at home Saturday evening at 5:00 against Cameron University who is 1-2. The Aggies lost to Nebraska-Kearney 79-73 earlier in the night.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Isaiah Moss poured in 21 points to lead six Jayhawks in double-figures scoring, and No. 5 Kansas romped to a 112-57 victory over undersized and outclassed Monmouth on Friday night.
Moss, who missed the season opener against Duke because of an injury, was 5 of 6 from beyond the arc as the Jayhawks (2-1) ran their home winning streak to 23 straight games. The streak is the third-longest in the nation behind only Tennessee (28) and Gonzaga (25).
Devon Dotson added 17 points, David McCormack had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Udoka Azubuike finished with 12 points and eight boards for Kansas. Freshman guard Christian Braun was 3 for 3 from the arc and had 11 points, while Silvio de Sousa finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
Kansas hit 14 3-pointers and shot 56% from the field.
Deion Hammond had 17 points to lead the Hawks (1-3), who didn’t make a field goal until midway through the first half. George Papas had 12 points and Ray Salnave added 11.
The Jayhawks, who got off to a sluggish start against UNC-Greensboro, had no such trouble against the Hawks. They scored the first nine points, pushed their opening run to 21-2, and added an alley-oop dunk and a deep 3-pointer before Monmouth finally made a shot.
By that point, the Jayhawks led 26-6.
The end of the half was just as lopsided: After the Hawks got within 41-19 on Hammond’s 3-pointer, Kansas began an 18-2 closing run capped by Azubuike’s dunk in the final seconds.
Part of the big lead came through efficient offense and excellent defense by Kansas.
Part of it came by way of Monmouth’s offensive ineptitude.
The Hawks missed their first 12 shots, throwing up an airball, shooting a jumper over the backboard and blowing a layup along the way. At one point they had nearly as many turnovers (four) as shot attempts (five), and they finished the half 6-for-26 shooting with 12 turnovers.
Monmouth added whistles to its long list of problems in the second half.
The Jayhawks scored the first six points out of the locker room, and the Hawks’ only recourse was to slow them down with fouls. Kansas hit the bonus with 15:20 left in the game.
BIG PICTURE
Monmouth gave Kansas State all it could handle earlier this week, leading another Big 12 foe at the half. But the Hawks fell apart over the final 20 minutes and evidently never put it back together.
Kansas got little more than a glorified practice out of Friday night, but tougher tests are coming fast. The Jayhawks have one game left before heading to Maui.
UP NEXT
Monmouth wraps five-game trip to open the season Monday night at Pittsburgh.
Kansas plays Southern Conference favorite East Tennessee State on Tuesday night.
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State men’s soccer defeated the Harding University Bisons 3-1 in the first GAC/MIAA semifinal on Friday to advance to the title game Sunday. The Tigers victory improves their record to 13-5-1 overall in 2019, while the Bisons fall to 9-7-2.
GAC Freshman of the Year Alec Bevis put the Tigers on the board early in the match. In the eighth minute, junior Mauricio Etcheverry sent a corner into the box. Flying over the heads of every defender, Bevis beat his man at the opposite edge of the six-yard box and tapped the ball into the back of the net—beating goalkeeper Carlos Calderon to the near post.
Fort Hays State was able to strike again just 10 minutes later. A cross from Etcheverry rattled between a trio of Harding defenders. After a pair of touches from the Bisons, the ball fell right to the feet of Arsenio Chamorro, who displayed a clinical finish past a diving Calderon to extend the Tiger lead to two goals.
With just under three minutes remaining in the first half, FHSU won a free kick spotted in their attacking third. Senior Moises Peralta stepped up with confidence and drilled a ball towards the goal, rattling off of the crossbar from nearly 40-yards out.
The Black and Gold grabbed their third goal of the match in the 69th minute. Seniors Joey McCain and Santiago Agudelo played a pair of passes, the first off of McCain’s throw-in and the second from Agudelo’s back-heel, down the line. McCain, sprinting from the sideline put a cross towards the center of the six-yard box. Chamorro, who had scored previously, jumped in front of his defender. Sticking his foot out, he redirected the ball to the far post, past the outstretched hands of Calderon.
While Fort Hays State persisted with aggression on the offensive end and retained possession for a majority of the match, Harding was able to lessen the margin in the 72nd minute when Jeremy Nwonumah was sent through on goal and beat goalkeeper Cullen Fisch for the Bisons only score of the contest.
The Tigers registered 17 total shots on Friday afternoon, four of which hit the target. Fisch remained active at the anchor of FHSU’s defense, notching five saves.
The victory puts Fort Hays State through to their match on Sunday afternoon against Rogers State. The Hillcats fought to a 2-0 victory over the Northeastern State RiverHawks on Friday night (Nov. 15).
FHSU defeated Rogers State in both meetings throughout the 2019 campaign—the first meeting resulted in a 2-0 victory in Hays, Kan. while the latter match was a 1-0 scoreline in Claremore, Okla.
The Tigers hold a 2-1 series lead all-time over the Hillcats.
Sunday’s championship contest between the two sides is slated for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
