Shirley Jean Miller, 89, passed away January 11, 2019 in Minden, Nebraska.
She was born November 11, 1929 in Wichita, KS, the daughter of Ivan Rhea and Mary V. Walker Detrich. A longtime area resident, she was co-owner of Miller Tire in Norton, KS and was the City Clerk in Radium, KS.
She was a member of the First Christian Church in Larned and the Radium Senior Center.
On April 26, 1949, she married Ralph W. Miller in McPherson. He passed away December 19,1996.
Survivors include: two daughters, Monica Miller, Minden, NE, and Marla Farber, Great Bend, KS, a son, Monte Miller (Tasha), Richland Hills, Texas; half brother, Norman Detrich, Mio, MI; two sisters, Mable Hammond, Wichita, KS and Helen Deliere, Simi Valley, CA and six grandchildren, Jason Miller (Dee), Lyons, KS, Amie Miller-Rush (Rusty), Ellinwood, KS, Sara Miller (Matt Hodges), Ellinwood, KS, Charles Miller, Paris, Kentucky, Logan Farber (Patrice), St. Peters, MO and Meagan Barnett, (Jacob), Great Bend, KS, and twelve great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, a daughter, Mona Miller, two brothers, Robert Detrich and William Detrich and two sisters, Bonnie Kipple and Bette Herman.
Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday, January 18, 2019 at Beckwith Mortuary, Larned, with Robert Sallee presiding. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday with family present from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at Beckwith Mortuary. Burial will be in Point View Cemetery, Radium, KS.
Memorials may be given to the Point View Cemetery, Radium, KS, in care of Beckwith Mortuary, Box 477 Larned, KS 67550. Condolences may be left at www.beckwithmortuary.com.
“Threshold Of Death: A Murder at Cy Goddard’s Dance Hall” is another original murder mystery written just for us by local writing group The InkPlots.
Although the story line is not based off of historical events here in Hays, the play does feature some of the known and loved characters from the Hays Community Theatre’s Haunted Tours in addition to some new characters.
Doors open at 7 p.m. with a prompt start time of 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday Tickets are $20. A cash bar will be available.
Although it’s not required to dress for the Old West, HCT definitely encourage it. This is a great date night, or get a group of friends together for some fun and see if you can solve the mystery. Admittance is 21 and older.
Additional things coming up for HCT include:
• Auditions for “Steel Magnolias” on Wednesday, Jan. 23 and Thursday Jan. 24.
• “Murder Can be Habit Forming” show dates are Feb. 15 and 16. Look for tickets to go on sale soon.
Be sure to go to the HCT website www.hctks.com and sign up for their newsletter to stay up to date and follow them on Facebook.
HCT will soon be posting audition and show dates for their summer show, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Photo courtesy of Ponies StudiosPhoto courtesy of Ponies StudiosPhoto courtesy of Ponies StudiosPhoto courtesy of Ponies Studios
DENVER (AP) — A professional bull rider died after a bull stomped on his chest during a competition at the National Western Stock Show in Denver.
The Professional Bull Riders say Mason Lowe died Tuesday evening after being taken to a hospital. Group spokesman Andrew Giangola said he was wearing a mandated protective vest.
The 25-year-old from Exeter, Missouri, was ranked 18th in the world.
He was injured while coming out of a chute on a bull weighing about 1,700 pounds and attempting to stay on for eight seconds.
A witness told KCNC-TV that Lowe fell off and was stomped as he tried to get up.
Professional Bull Riders CEO Sean Gleason says the group and the stock show extend sympathies to Lowe’s family.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Kansas State guard Barry Brown didn’t need any last-minute heroics this time.
After hitting game-winners in the final minute of the Wildcats’ previous two games, he helped Kansas State control Oklahoma from start to finish. Brown scored 25 points as Kansas State beat the 20th-ranked Sooners 74-61 on Wednesday night.
Brown, coming off his first Big 12 player of the week honor, is averaging 25.7 points during the Wildcats’ three-game win streak.
“Obviously, Barry’s playing at a really high level,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. “But I love that he had five assists. That means at least he’s seeing some other things.”
Dean Wade added 20 points in his second game back since missing six in a row with a torn tendon in his right foot. It was Kansas State’s second straight road win over a ranked team — the Wildcats won at Iowa State last Saturday.
Kansas State (13-4, 3-2 Big 12) shot 50 percent from the field against an Oklahoma squad that was holding opponents to 37.7 percent, good for ninth nationally.
“Sometimes you line up and just get whipped,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “We did that tonight. Kansas State whipped us. They kind of got us down a little bit and they kept working. We just couldn’t overcome that. We have to figure out a way to keep that from happening. But they whipped us tonight for sure.”
Christian James scored 20 points and Rashard Odomes added a season-high 17 for Oklahoma (13-4, 2-3). It was the Sooners’ first home defeat and their first loss to an unranked team this season.
Kansas State ran out to an 8-0 lead as Oklahoma went scoreless for more than three minutes to start the game. The Wildcats stretched their advantage to 20-7 before the Sooners found their footing. James hit a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half to cut Kansas State’s lead to 30-24.
The Wildcats kept the Sooners at bay, and an emphatic two-handed dunk by Wade with just over two minutes to play put the Wildcats up 71-56.
Kansas State forced Oklahoma into 16 turnovers and one of its lowest-scoring outputs of the season.
“I think our main priority as a team is defense,” Wade said. “It’s where we hang our hat. We’re a great defensive team.”
Oklahoma’s giveaways sabotaged a 47 percent shooting effort.
“I thought we were careless with the ball in the first half, especially,” Kruger said. “Drove into some gaps that were crowded and didn’t make very good decisions.”
BIG PICTURE
Kansas State: The Wildcats are starting to look like the team that was ranked No. 12 in the preseason. With Brown and Wade clicking, they are gaining momentum. The two road wins early in Big 12 play put them in an ideal position to challenge for a spot near the top of the league standings.
Oklahoma: The Sooners got just 14 minutes from starting center Jamuni McNeace, who is still struggling after coming back from an ankle injury. He did not score and had only two rebounds. The Sooners could benefit from more production from him heading into games at Texas and Oklahoma State.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Kansas State, which was 33rd in votes in the AP Top 25 this week, positioned itself for a potential spot in the rankings pending Saturday’s game against TCU, which dropped out of the poll this week after losing to Oklahoma last Saturday. Oklahoma might lose its spot in the Top 25 after this home loss to an unranked opponent.
HE SAID IT
Weber, on Brown and Wade: “They’re seniors. They’ve been through it. They make you good coaches. They know what to look for.”
MILESTONE
James surpassed 1,000 points in his Oklahoma career.
Jayme Owen, student services coordinator for the Beloit Campus, receives the 212 Award from President Eric Burks at the recent college in-service.
Each semester NCK TECH awards an employee who has gone beyond expectations in their job responsibilities.
The premise of the 212 Award is that water is hot at 211 degrees, but that one degree more causes water to boil. Thus, the 212 Award recognizes those who go that extra degree to make a difference in their job with students and co-workers.
Employees are nominated by their peers and chosen by a panel of past 212 Award winners.
Jayme Owen, student services coordinator for the Beloit Campus, received the award from President Eric Burks at the recent college in-service.
“We have so many dedicated and talented employees at NCK Tech, and Jayme Owen is certainly one of them,” Burks said. “This award demonstrates that her peers recognize that as well. As the student services coordinator for the Beloit Campus, she is often one of the first people visitors encounter, as well as someone our current students rely on for guidance and assistance. In all of her duties, she goes beyond with a positive attitude to make sure people are served in a caring and respectful manner. We are blessed to have Jayme as part of the NCK Tech family.”
Owen also recently received her five-year service award from the college.
For information and to learn more about NCK TECH, visit www.ncktc.edu.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly told Kansas legislators Wednesday that the state faces an emergency in its child welfare system and is “completely unprepared” for the next national economic downturn.
Governor Laura Kelly delivers her first State of the State address Wednesday
Kelly outlined an agenda for the Republican-dominated Legislature that includes increased spending on public schools and expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy. Yet she also told lawmakers that she will honor her pledge to balance the budget without raising taxes.
Her first State of the State address , two days after taking office, sets up a clash with top Republicans. She did not mention their top priority — income tax relief — and appeared to try to dampen enthusiasm for it by declaring the state’s recovery “fragile” and saying, “We must be cautious.”
But Kelly’s tough tone was the most notable element of her address to a joint session of the House and Senate. Governors have routinely declared in their addresses that the state is sound or strong. Kelly described it as “improving” and declared, “I was elected to rebuild our state.”
“It won’t be easy. We all know we have a very, long, challenging road ahead of us,” Kelly said near the end of her 37-minute address. “These past eight years have been a hardship, no doubt about it.”
The address continued the scathing criticism of her Republican predecessors that marked her successful campaign for governor last year. Former conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback successfully pushed Republican lawmakers to slash income taxes in 2012 and 2013 as an economic stimulus — and persistent budget problems followed.
Kelly was a veteran state senator from Topeka and was a key player in a bipartisan effort in 2017 to reverse most of the Brownback tax cuts. She told legislators Wednesday evening that the tax cuts resulted in a “self-inflicted budget catastrophe” and, along with the Great Recession, “a “decade of crisis” in state government.
“Another recession will soon be upon us. It’s not a question of ‘if.’ It’s a question of ‘when’ and ‘how bad,'” Kelly said. “Kansas finds itself now completely unprepared. We have no margin for error.”
Top Republicans shrugged off her slashing assessment of the past eight years and noted that Kansas expects to finish its budget year on June 30 with about $900 million in cash reserves, equal to 12.6 percent of the spending with general tax revenues.
But the same projections from legislative researchers also show that even without the new spending proposed by Kelly, those reserves dwindle and disappear within three years. In the official GOP response , prepared before the governor’s speech, Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican, argued that the Democratic governor is setting a course to “squander our recovery” with excessive spending.
“She just whipped out the credit card,” Wagle said after the address.
Kelly reserved some of her toughest remarks for the foster care system for abused and neglected children and the state Department for Children and Families. She said the department had been “decimated by ideology and mismanagement.”
The governor said her budget proposals, to be outlined for legislators Thursday, will include millions of dollars more for programs aimed at helping troubled families and for the department to hire additional social workers. She read the names of three children who died in recent years in abusive homes despite reports about them to the state.
“These were our children, in our communities,” she said. “And I refuse to forget them.”
But House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican, said former GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer’s administration, which followed Brownback’s, deserves some credit for improvements at the department in the past year.
Kelly made a pledge to increase spending on public schools a key part of her campaign. Legislators last year enacted a law to phase in a $548 million increase in education funding over five years to meet a Kansas Supreme Court mandate in an ongoing lawsuit. But the court said it wasn’t enough because it didn’t account for years of inflation.
While the governor promised “we’re going to properly fund our schools” and pushed lawmakers to act quickly, she and her staff did not provide a figure. The State Board of Education has proposed phasing in another $364 million increase over four years.
Top Republicans are resisting the idea.
“We also know that there’s a lot of other needs across the state,” said House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a conservative Kansas City-area Republican who joked in a toast at Kelly’s inaugural ball Monday night that to fund schools, Kelly would “have Mexico pay for it.”
GOP leaders also oppose Medicaid expansion , arguing that it is potentially costly even if the federal government promises to pick up most of the expense. Kelly argued that it would help both needy families and rural hospitals, but even though she devoted nearly six minutes of her address to her pitch, Republican leaders were unmoved.
Top Republicans want to adjust state income laws to prevent some Kansas residents from paying more to the state because of federal tax changes at the end of 2017 championed by President Donald Trump. The Senate tax committee could vote on a plan as early as Thursday.
Wagle said in the GOP response that the “windfall” belongs to taxpayers, “not government.” But House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, said uncertainty about the windfall’s size makes it “way too early” to consider tax legislation.
In 2019, for a third year in a row, online bachelor’s degree programs at Fort Hays State University have been ranked best in Kansas by U.S. News & World Report.
“Recognition by U.S. News & World Report is just the latest testament to the high quality of the online programs offered at Fort Hays State University,” said Dr. Jeff Briggs, interim provost and vice president of academic affairs.
“Our bachelor’s and graduate programs make the top tiers of the major rankings – like U.S. News and Washington Monthly – and the numerous other organizations that evaluate online education.”
Fort Hays State offers a total of 137 degree programs through the FHSU Virtual College – 58 undergraduate, 58 master’s, one doctorate, four education specialist and 16 associate degrees. Sixty-one certificate programs, graduate and undergraduate, are also available.
The Virtual College has enjoyed 20 continuous years of record enrollments in both the fall and spring semesters.
“Rankings like these, and the fact that our Virtual College enrollment has grown constantly over the last 20 years, demonstrate the value we have for students in Kansas and around the world,” said Mike Michaelis, director of the FHSU Virtual College.
“This is especially so for students who have to work full time, or as close to full time as they can, and who want and need to get an education at the same time,” he said.
U.S. News bases its ratings for online bachelor’s programs on four general categories of criteria:
• Engagement, which attempts to measure opportunities for student engagement in courses and interaction with instructors and classmates.
• Services and technologies, which considers diverse technologies available for coursework at a distance as well as the availability of support for learning assistance, career guidance and financial aid “commensurate with quality campus-based programs.”
• Faculty credentials and training, which is an indication of how closely the academic credentials of online faculty match those of on-campus faculty.
• Expert opinion, which is based on a survey of academic officials and employers.
Student engagement was given the most weight, at 35 percent. Student services and technology were weighted at 25 percent, and the remaining two were given 20 percent.
For the complete U.S. News & World Report rankings, go to www.usnews.com/online.
The State of Our Catholic Schools Address will take place at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish.
All parents of TMP-Marian and Holy Family Elementary students are required to attend this important event. Information covered includes funding, projects, new courses, any and all updates and projections for the future.
In addition to inviting you to join us at the State of Our Catholic Schools Address, we need your pictures… all pictures of your students attending TMP-M or HFE. These are the photos that will greet you on February 4, at 6:30 p.m., as you enter the event. Please upload all the serious, interesting and funny pictures you have captured this year HERE.
An activity update from Clay Craft of Retail Strategies will be presented Thursday night during the Hays city commission work session.
“About a year ago, the city contracted with Retail Strategies, [Birmingham, Alabama,] to provide a retail recruitment and retention program for the city,” said Jacob Wood, assistant city manager.
“They’ll provide an update of what they’ve done the past year, the representation they’ve had for the city of Hays at national conferences, and some of the contacts that they’ve had with retailers.”
(Click to enlarge)
In other business, commissioners will hear details of a rezoning request for vacant property located at the southeast corner of 22nd and Wheatland Streets from Neighborhood Conservation District NC.3 to Commercial General District C-2.
The property is currently zoned to allow multi-family housing. “I believe the property owners are interested in putting in some kind of childcare/daycare facility on the property,” said Wood.
The rezoning request had already been approved by the Planning Commission.
Other agenda items include the annual report of the NCK Tech Big Creek Technical Training Center and the city commission rules of procedure review.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Sarah Annis, a senior at Bethel University in St. Paul, has been named to the Dean’s List for academic excellence for the fall 2018 semester. She is the daughter of Douglas and Denise Annis from Oakley.
The Dean’s List honors students who achieve an outstanding scholastic record during a semester with a grade point average of 3.6 or greater.
Bethel University is a leader in Christ-centered higher education with nearly 5,500 students from 48 states and 42 countries enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, seminary, and adult education programs. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, with an additional seminary location in San Diego, California, Bethel offers bachelor’s and advanced degrees in nearly 100 fields through classroom-based and online programs.
For further information on Bethel University, go to www.bethel.edu.
FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a child sex crime and asking for help to locate a suspect.
Eddy Yobani Tomas Zetino-Salazar, 35, is wanted for 5 alleged counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, according to police in Dodge City.
Zetino-Salazar-photo Dodge City Police
Zetino-Salazar is still at large, according Police and is driving a 1999 Blue Chevy Suburban with Kansas License 793 KPU.
Zetino-Salazar has previous convictions for identity theft, battery and aggravated intimidation of a witness according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Anyone with information on Zetino-Salazar is asked to immediately contact law enforcement.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 6p.m. Thursday in Montgomery County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 GMC Sierra driven by Ronald L. Rogers, 78, Cedar Vale, was westbound on U.S. 166 three miles east of Niotaze, Kansas.
The pickup rear-ended a farm tractor driven by Kenneth D. Sullivan, 67, Havana, Kansas.
Sullivan was pronounced dead at the scene.
Rogers was transported to a hospital in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
Shirley Jean Miller, 89, passed away January 11, 2019 in Minden, Nebraska.
