WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Federal regulators have cited the operator of a Wichita-area grain elevator where two workers were killed in January.
First responders on the scene of January grain bin incident south of Wichita-photo courtesy KWCH
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says in a news release Monday that Gavilon Grain LLC faces proposed penalties of $507,374 and the company has been placed in the agency’s severe violator enforcement program.
Sedgwick County authorities say 32-year-old Marcus Tice and 28-year-old Joshua Rasbold died at company’s elevator in Wichita. Their bodies were recovered buried under 20 to 25 feet of grain.
Rasbold -photo courtesy Smith Family MortuaryTice-photo courtesy YouCaring.com
OSHA says the tragedy could have been prevented if the company had provided workers with proper safety equipment and followed required safety procedures to protect workers from grain bin hazards.
The company has contested the citations and will appear before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
A Republican state senator who endorsed a Democrat for Congress and criticized Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer’s health policies is paying a hefty political price for speaking her mind.
Sen. Barbara Bollier talking with a member of the state Substance Use Disorder Task Force after Thursday’s meeting. She attended not knowing she had been removed from the panel. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Senate President Susan Wagle announced last week that she had stripped Sen. Barbara Bollier, a moderate from Mission Hills, of her leadership position on the Senate health committee.
That action, according to a letter that Bollier received Thursday, also makes her ineligible to serve on a joint committee charged with overseeing KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, and task forces created to address the opioid crisis and problems in the child welfare system.
Wagle said Bollier’s endorsement of Tom Niermann, one of several Democrats competing for the right to challenge 3rd District Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder, left her with “no choice.”
“Senator Bollier has lost credibility within our caucus, which makes it impossible for her to function in a leadership role.” Wagle said in a media release.
The Senate President’s office said Sen. Ty Masterson, head of the conservative Truth Caucus, would replace Bollier on the child welfare task force and the KanCare oversight committee.
Bollier has long been at odds with her party’s conservative leadership but has become particularly outspoken recently on hot-button issues such as gun control and Medicaid expansion.
“The more of this they do to me the more I know I’m doing the right thing,” Bollier said in an interview Friday.
Though she’s no longer a member, Bollier said she would continue to attend task force and oversight committee meetings.
The senator went to Thursday’s meeting of the governor’s Substance Use Disorder Task Force in Topeka not realizing that she was no longer a member. At the meeting, Bollier continued her criticism of the Colyer administration for refusing to include an expansion of Medicaid eligibility in the task force’s policy recommendations.
Rep. Elizabeth Bishop, a Wichita Democrat and member of the task force, said Bollier’s removal will “hinder” the work of the group, which is scheduled to deliver recommendations to the governor by Sept. 1.
“It’s shortsighted,” Bishop said. “She will be missed.”
Bishop herself caused a stir at Thursday’s meeting by pressing Greg Lakin, the state’s chief medical officer and chair of the task force, on why discussions about Medicaid expansion at previous meetings weren’t reflected in the minutes.
She said several members of the working group, which includes representatives of the state’s hospitals and physicians, are planning to issue a written dissent if the official recommendations don’t include expansion.
“That will definitely be done,” Bishop said.
In guiding the task force, Lakin said it’s his job to keep members focused on developing affordable and politically viable recommendations.
“I’m just trying to keep us on task,” Lakin said.
Colyer, the force behind the state’s privatization of Medicaid in 2013 when he was Gov. Sam Brownback’s lieutenant governor, is opposed to expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act even though it would substantially increase federal funding. He has said extending coverage to approximately 150,000 low-income but “able-bodied” Kansans would make them more dependent on government and less likely to work.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
Laura Charlotte (Southard) McGowan passed away on Friday, July 27, 2018 at Salina Regional Health Center in Salina, Kansas at the age of 94. She was born on March 18, 1924 on the family farm in Rooks County, Kansas to the late Alfred James “A.J.” and Maude (Senior) Southard. She grew up in Rooks County and graduated from Stockton High School. She was united in marriage to Melvin Franklin McGowan in Stockton and they were blessed with two daughters, Louise and Melva.
Laura soon began working for Southwestern Bell Telephone as an Operator. Her work would take her to Salina, Kansas where she would eventually retire from the phone company. In her spare time, she loved to garden, nurturing flower beds and growing vegetables. She enjoyed knitting and embroidery work, and had a special place in her heart for the birds that came to visit. She always made sure they had food to eat and liked to watch them as they flitted about in the yard. But the time she loved the most was when she could be with her daughters and grandchildren whenever possible.
Laura is survived by her daughters Louise Bondurant and husband Gary of Kansas City, and Melva McGowan of Salina; grandchildren Matthew Bondurant, and Elizabeth Townsend; and great-granddaughters Sophia Townsend, and Tara Townsend.
She was preceded in death by her parents A.J. and Maude Southard; husband Melvin McGowan; brothers Sumner Southard, Ronald Southard, Alfred Southard, and Laurence Southard; sister Edith Southard; and nieces Mary Alice Ceridon, and Anita Kay Southard.
Funeral Services will be held at 1:00pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 at Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home in Stockton. Burial will follow at Stockton City Cemetery. Visitation will be from 11:00am until service time on Wednesday at the funeral home.
K-State economist advises producers to communicate
their concerns about complex proposals
K-State Research and Extension
MANHATTAN – Along with producers across the heartland, agricultural economics experts have many questions about a world where tariffs threaten to upend the marketplace for crops and livestock.
Among them is Art Barnaby, professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, for whom the questions far outnumber answers right now.
On Tuesday, July 24, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture will take several steps to assist farmers in response to economic damage from the current international tariff battle.
Barnaby
Chief among the steps USDA will take is providing $12 billion in relief via the Market Facilitation Program, which will provide incremental payments to producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and hogs – markets that all have representation in Kansas.
Details about how the process would work for crop producers are under development, which is a concern for Barnaby, a K-State Research and Extension risk management specialist.
He said the most important step producers can take right now is to make their voices heard.
“The (USDA) said in their announcement that they are going to ask for producer input into these decisions, which means it’s going to come through the commodity groups,” Barnaby said. “So if you’re a member of the wheat growers (association), you will want to talk to your representatives about how some of these decisions are going to be made.”
Questions about one decision lead to numerous follow-up questions, he added, showing just how tricky designing these relief programs will be.
“At this point the impression is that they’re going to calculate the cents-per-bushel lost and then multiply that times your 2018 production,” Barnaby said in an interview on the Thursday edition of Agriculture Today, a daily radio program produced by K-State Research and Extension.
“First of all, how much was the actual loss due to the trade changes? Was it $0.20 a bushel or was it $0.50 a bushel?” Barnaby asked. “I’ve already talked to a few economists that are probably going to be involved in trying to estimate that number, and they’re really shaking their heads because this is going to be a very difficult number to defend.”
Along with the ensuing disagreement over those numbers will come disputes about how much ought to be assigned to different crops. “You’re going to have the problem of, ‘Well, did soybeans drop by fifty cents but only cut corn by 10?’” Barnaby said.
Those questions assume a crop that wasn’t affected by drought, as much of Kansas was.
“The way this is being designed at this point, it works well if you’re in the corn belt with a good crop,” Barnaby said. “If you’re not, it may not provide nearly the kind of cash that you thought it was going to do when it was announced.”
Taking the questions to the next logical step, he said it’s unclear whether the $12 billion in MFP payments would include the estimated $5 billion that will go to Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage payments, also distributed through the Farm Service Agency. “Or is it on top of those payments?” he asked. “That’s not really been clarified at this point.”
More questions abound:
How might crop losses affect payouts? What about farms with below-normal yields that have been salvaged via grazing or silage? And for those fields, could farmers be paid on appraised yield versus a full harvest? What about payment limits? How might all of this affect discussions about the 2018 Farm Bill, especially if urban congressional representatives view this as a bailout?
Barnaby noted that tariffs are political – and these are self-inflicted. “This is not a risk that you think about insuring,” he said. “It’s not even really insurable, and so to call it bailout, I think, is a little harsh.”
While it’s important to identify what this process is not, what’s even more important for producers is to participate in defining what it is.
“Get with your commodity groups,” Barnaby said. “Make sure your voice gets heard in these decisions.”
To ensure that no one is overlooked, he stressed that all groups need to speak up, because “you’re talking about folks that are inside the Beltway, and they never thought about these possibilities, yet they are affecting real farmers out here in the middle of the country.”
Mark Johnson, head men’s basketball coach at Fort Hays State University, announced the signing of three players for the 2018-19 season. Transfers joining the program include Freddy Bitondo and Devin Davis, while Gilbert Peters is the lone freshman signing with the Tigers. They join a group of 11 players returning to the team for the upcoming season.
Bitondo is 6’7″, 215-pound forward transferring from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He played in 28 games for the NCAA Division I member Bearkats in 2017-18, making one start. He saw limited time on the floor scoring 42 points and pulling down 38 rebounds for the season, while shooting 51.4 percent from the field. As a sophomore, Bitondo played at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas, helping the Ravens to a 33-2 record and the No. 1 seed in the NJCAA National Tournament. Bitondo averaged 3.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game that season. As a freshman in 2014-15, Bitondo played at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Missouri, where he averaged 7.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, helping his team to a national tournament appearance. Bitondo is a native of Montreal, Quebec.
Davis is a 6’3″, 200-pound junior guard transferring from Allen Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. As a sophomore in 2017-18, Davis earned All-Western State Conference First Team honors by averaging 11.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. He helped the Bulldogs to a record of 23-10 and advance to the CCCAA State Quarterfinals. Davis played his freshman season at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely, Colorado, where he averaged 13.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and garnered an All-Region 18 Honorable Mention selection during the 2016-17 season. Davis is a native of Vallejo, California.
Peters is a 6’6″, 265-pound forward from Montezuma, Kansas, where he helped South Gray High School to a 26-0 record and Kansas Class 1A state championship as a senior in 2017-18. He was an all-state first team selection, averaging 16.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, while also chipping in 2.9 steals, 2.8 assists, and 2.5 blocked shots per game. He was the Garden City Telegram Area Player of the Year and named All-State First Team (Top 10) for all classes by Sports in Kansas. Peters will also compete for the track and field team at Fort Hays State after putting together an impressive throwing resume during his prep career. He was the state champion in the shot put and discus two years in a row, winning the titles as a junior and senior.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a Topeka firefighter was hurt while battling one of two fires that were intentionally set at vacant mobile homes in south Topeka.
The Topeka Fire Department wasn’t releasing the name of the firefighter injured in Monday’s early morning fire. The firefighter was transported to a local medical care facility with injuries not considered life-threatening.
No arrests had been made in connection with the blazes, which were reported just before 4 a.m. at the Coachlight Village Mobile Home Courts in Topeka.
Topeka Fire Marshal Mike Martin says firefighters found both mobile homes fully involved in flames. He says the preliminary investigation concluded both blazes were intentionally set.
Damages were estimated at $15,000 to one home, and $18,000 to the other.
BARTON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a home invasion stabbing and have one suspect in custody.
Just after 3a.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a residence in the 2200 Block of Morton in Great Bend, according to a media release. Officers located a 52-year-old man with stab wounds to his side and back.
The victim told police a woman he knew and an unknown man kicked open the door to his residence and a scuffle ensued. During the scuffle they stabbed the man and fled the scene. The man was transported to a local hospital for treatment. He was released on Sunday, according to the release.
Police located and arrested a 28-year-old female suspect. They did not release the name of the suspect or the victim. Anyone with information on the crime is asked to contact Great Bend Police.
Esther Olive (Hubbard) Tweed, was born July 2, 1920 to John and Mary (Smith) Hubbard and passed away at the Andbe Home in Norton, Kansas, on July 27, 2018, at the age of 98. She grew up on a farm southeast of Norton and attended Belle Plaine School. She had two sisters, Helen and Ruth, and one brother, John D. Hubbard.
While attending grade school the Tweed family rented a farm in the neighborhood. They had four boys of which Clifford Tweed was the youngest. At an early age, Esther said “she was going to marry that boy someday.”
After grade school, Esther attended and graduated from Norton Community High School. During the school year, she lived in an apartment and also with her grandmother Smith. She was very close to her grandmother and she probably could not have attended high school without her help.
On February 14, 1941 (Valentine’s Day) Esther married “that boy Clifford Tweed.” They were married for 60 some years before he passed away August 20, 2000. Valentine’s Day was always a special day for Esther and Clifford. Esther always made sure everybody received a Valentine.
Clifford and Esther rented a farm southwest of Norton and lived several places in that neighborhood. In 1945, they purchased their first tractor and sold all of their horses. Clifford said there would never be another horse on his farm and he meant it.
On August 21, 1945, John Clifford Tweed was born. As a family, they had a cow herd, milked cows, and fed hogs. Hogs and baby beef calves were shown at the county fair. Growing up, John loved to go with his Dad to the main farm. Esther would bring “her boys” lunch and help move to different fields. At a young age, John got to drive the truck when his dad moved from field to field and started helping with harvest. Esther was a proud mom but probably having a heart attack as she wasn’t always present to watch what was happening.
In about 1957, Esther started working as a nurse’s aide at the Norton County Hospital.
In 1961, Clifford and Esther built a new house in Norton which they enjoyed for many years. Later, Esther went to Holdrege to Beauty College and graduated. She worked for a local beauty shop in Norton for several years before she opened her own shop in the basement of their home. She worked in her beauty shop until she was up in her seventies.
Ester was active in the Methodist Church. She was also active in the Rebekah Lodge for many years. The Rebekah Lodge was very important to Esther. The Rebekah symbol was a dove and Esther fondly felt all the ladies were doves.
Esther is survived by one son, John, and wife, Jo Ann Tweed; two granddaughters, Julie Ann, and husband, Tom Koenig; Sara Christine, and husband, Matt Hamill; one great-grandson, Grant Colby Hamill; several other relatives and friends.
Esther was preceded in death by her parents, husband, two sisters, and one brother.
GRAVESIDE SERVICE – Wednesday, August 1, 2018 – 11:00 A.M.
INTERMENT – Norton Cemetery – Norton, Kansas
VISITATION – Tuesday, July 31, 2018 from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM at the Enfield Funeral Home of Norton.
Lyle Dean “Shorty” Emery passed away on Thursday, July 26, 2018 at Solomon Valley Manor in Stockton, Kansas at the age of 85. He was born on February 20, 1933 in Lebanon, Kansas to the late Frank and Levona (Manchester) Emery. He grew up in the Smith County, Kansas area and graduated from Harlan High School with the Class of 1951. In 1953 he joined the United States Army and faithfully served his country during the Korean Conflict until his honorable discharge in 1955. On March 28, 1957 he was united in marriage to Mary Dinkel in Garden City, Kansas.
Shorty began working for Inland Construction Company building roads and bridges. Eventually that work would bring him to the Rooks County, Kansas area when Highway 24 was being built. He and Mary liked Stockton so much that he began working with Ivan at the Standard Station and in 1977 purchased the station renaming it the “Shorty’s Standard” we all have come to know and love. Along with operating the station, he always enjoyed turning wrenches and fixing people’s cars, operating the wrecker, and often used his equipment to trim trees on the weekends. He was a member of the VFW and was a huge help when he used the wrecker to set all of the flag poles that are still used on Memorial Day and other occasions.
Shorty is survived by his wife Mary Emery of their home in Stockton; sons Walt Dinkel of Oakley, and Jeff Emery and wife Jill of Stockton; daughters Vicky Peterson and husband David of Stockton, Connie Yakish and husband Joe of Hill City, and Kim Arnold of Alton; brother Howard Emery and wife Rita of Medicine Lodge; sisters Alice French of Osborne, Phyllis Miller of Grand Island, NE, and Betty Befort and husband Joe of Lebanon; seventeen grandchildren; thirty-nine great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents Frank and Levona Emery, son-in-law Steve Arnold, and granddaughter Angel Yakish.
Funeral Services will be held at 10:30am on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Stockton. Burial will follow in the St. Thomas Catholic Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2:00-8:00pm on Monday at the funeral home in Stockton with family receiving friends from 6:00-8:00pm. Memorials are suggested to the Shorty Emery Memorial Fund and may be sent in care of Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home, 723 N 1st Street, Stockton, KS 67669. Online condolences may be left at www.plumeroverlease.com
Known for being a professional at nap taking, Shorty truly taught us by daily example how to work hard and have fun doing it. Hard work was not just a way of life for him but it was what he truly loved to do. Although we miss him greatly, we rejoice that he now rests from his labors, waiting to be reunited with us on the other side, taking a most peaceful nap until we get there.
Gladys E. (Hicks) McKune–Hatfield, 90, of Russell, Kansas, passed away Thursday, July 26, 2018 at the Good Samaritan Society in Hays, Kansas.
Gladys was born June 15, 1928 in Braman, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Ernest and Bertha (Cullison) Hicks. She grew up in Lyons, Kansas area and graduated from Geneseo High School.
Gladys was united in marriage to Robert M. McKune on March 17, 1953 in Salina, Kansas. This union was blessed with six children; Michael, David, Deborah, Kathleen, Kevin and Steven. Robert preceded her in death on February 8, 1989. Following her marriage to Robert, Gladys was blessed with another love in her life and was married to Eldon Hatfield. She has lived in Hutchinson, Kansas, McPherson, Kansas, Lyons, Kansas and moved to Russell in 1961.
Gladys was a Quality Control Inspector for Sterling Drug Company. She also was the former owner of the Hamburger Inn here in Russell. She enjoyed sewing, crocheting, embroidering and making items for her family. She worked with wood making crafts and restoring antique furniture. She loved spending time with her family. Many special memories were made dying Easter eggs with her grandchildren.
Surviving family include her four children; David McKune (Kathleen) of Olathe, Kansas; Deborah McKune of Hays, Kansas; Kevin McKune (Rose) of Russell, Kansas and Steven McKune (Maryann) of Russell, Kansas; eight grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, two husbands, son Michael McKune, daughter Kathleen Newton, and two brothers Earl Hicks and Gene Hicks.
Celebration of Gladys’ Life will be held at 11:00 AM, Monday, July 30, 2018 at Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary in Russell. Burial will follow at the Russell City Cemetery. The family is holding a private visitation. A Memorial has been established with the Russell Public Library. Contributions and condolences may be sent to Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary, who is in charge of these arrangements.
Kansans need an experienced advocate in the Insurance Department working to protect consumers. Clark Shultz has the experience and expertise to step right into the job. Clark has served consumers for the past three and a half years in the Kansas Insurance Department as the Assistant Insurance Commissioner. Prior to the working for the department Clark served in Kansas Senate and House of Representatives, serving as Chairman of the House Insurance Committee for nine years. I served with Clark in the House and sat behind him on the House floor. Clark was a thoughtful, principled legislator that held the respect of legislators across the ideological spectrum. Clark was also a licensed insurance agent and spent over a decade as an auditor, making sure insurance companies follow both state and federal law.
Clark has worked tirelessly for the people of Kansas and has made sure the Insurance Department’s top priority is to ensure that consumers are protected. He worked to increase transparency and efficiency in the department and provide Kansans with the highest quality service at the best cost.
Clark is not only the experienced choice in the race for Kansas Insurance Commissioner; he is also the conservative choice. Clark is 100% pro-life and has been endorsed by Kansans for Life. He is also endorsed by the KSRA and the NRA and earned the NRA’s coveted, “A+” rating. He was even awarded the KSRA “Legislator of the Year” award for his work shepherding an important carry bill through the legislature. Meanwhile his opponent, Vicki Schmidt, has a lifetime “F” rating. She has opposed every important gun issue for over a decade going back to repeatedly voting against concealed carry in 2006. What do gun rights and pro life issues have to do with the Insurance Commissioner? Recently the department investigated and fined an insurance company $70,000 for breaking a pro-life insurance law. Concerning guns, while the anti-gun crowd has failed repeatedly to push gun control by democratic means they have moved on to other ways to hurt law abiding gun owners. Recently they have pushed banks to stop processing gun sales and stop loaning money to gun related businesses. But the next big attack on gun rights could be from insurance companies.
Writing for TTAG John Dingell III writes, “Insurance is one of the most regulated industries in America, but its regulation is almost entirely at the state level. That regulation extends to the risk profiling of insureds, due to the various mechanisms to buy and sell risk amongst insurers. The most important mechanism governing the risk profiling of insureds is the acceptance of policies by risk pools. Thus, insurance companies don’t revise risk profiling standards at will; it’s a glacial process unless state regulators issue a diktat. This is probably why insurance companies haven’t already hit gun owners. But the idea for assessing the risk of gun ownership when pricing insurance policies is gaining traction.” We need an insurance commissioner who will push back on these attempts to circumvent Kansans’ right to self defense by pricing them out of being able to do so.
I hope you will join me in voting for Clark Shultz for Kansas Insurance Commissioner on August 7th.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages has been filed against the owners and operators a duck boat that sank last week on a Missouri lake, killing 17 people.
Nine members of this Indiana family died when the boat sank -Photo courtesy GoFundMe
The federal lawsuit was filed Sunday on behalf of two members of an Indiana family who lost nine relatives when the boat sank July 19 on Table Rock Lake in Branson. Others killed were from Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.
The lawsuit accuses Ride the Ducks of Branson owner Ripley Entertainment and others of ignoring bad weather warnings that day and of knowing that design flaws made the boats susceptible to sinking.
The legal team that filed the lawsuit has litigated previous wrongful death cases involving duck boats. Lawyers from the team plan a news conference later Monday to discuss the lawsuit.
