Marjorie Bales, 85 years old, of Osborne, KS passed away on Sunday, June 30, 2019 at the Osborne County Memorial Hospital. Marjorie was born on July 4, 1933 in rural Alton, KS to Charles & Alice (Miller) Cox of rural Alton. She was one of six children.
Marjorie graduated from high school. She married Earl Bales & to this union 4 children were born. Marjorie & Earl lived on a farm near Alton until they moved to Osborne, KS in their later years. She was a homemaker & quite a seamstress among many of her other talents. Marjorie was a faithful member of the Mt. Ayr Church of Alton, KS.
Marjorie was preceded in death by her parents, 2 siblings & 1 grand-daughter, Candace Gregory of Alton, KS.
Marjorie is survived by her husband, Earl of the home; son: Larry of Osborne, KS; daughters: Donna Gregory of Alton, KS; Belinda Warner of Liebenthal, KS; Vicki Drake of Greenville, SC; 11 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; sisters: Jo Ann Putnum of Downs, KS; Mary McKay of San Antonio, TX; brother: Dee Arden Cox of Alton, KS.
A Hays man was sentenced to nearly three years in prison Monday in Ellis County District Court after being found guilty in May of three sex-related crimes.
Hunter Gonzales was sentenced to 32 months in prison aggravated battery after he pleaded no contest and was found guilty of aggravated battery, reckless aggravated battery and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Gonzales was originally charged with rape and aggravated criminal sodomy after a woman he had a relationship with said he forced himself on her in November 2017.
At Monday’s sentencing, the victim addressed the court and, in front of about two dozen people, urged Chief Judge Glenn Braun to take the sentencing seriously.
She said Gonzales “put me through a living hell” and tearfully added that he “took a part of my life I will never get back.”
Gonzales also addressed the court and apologized and thanked his family and friends. He said he believed at the time, and still today, that the encounter was consensual.
Braun said these types of cases are extremely difficult and that he never takes them lightly.
He said to Gonzales that, while he and his family has been victimized by the situation, it was not as bad as what the victim has went through.
Braun added, “imagine the trauma she has incurred.”
He also said because the victim was made aware and was understanding of the plea agreement, he would accept the plea agreement.
But, he added, “this affects her more than any person in this room.”
Under the agreement, Gonzales will spend 32 month in prison with the Department of Corrections.
After finishing he prison sentence, he will be on probation for five years. If he violates his probation, he could face an additional 32 months in prison for the reckless aggravated battery charge.
Gonzales must also pay restitution for counseling the victim has received and pay other fines and fees associated with the investigation.
He will also have to register as a sex offender for 15 years.
BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — A biodiesel plant is ceasing production in the southeast Nebraska city of Beatrice.
Flint Hills Resources announced Monday that the Duonix Beatrice plant is being idled indefinitely.
The Beatrice Daily Sun reports that plant processes corn oil and greases into biodiesel. The prices of soybeans used by most other biodiesel producers are so low the Duonix plant was put at competitive disadvantage. Flint Hills does not expect those conditions to change.
Duonix Beatrice began operation in 2016 and is a joint venture of Flint Hills Resources and Benefuel Inc. The plant was built in 2008 but wasn’t finished and never operated until purchased and refitted for biodiesel production.
Officials say severance packages will be offered to the fewer than 40 plant employees.
TOPEKA– The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Office of the State Fire Marshal and Safe Kids Kansas would like to remind Kansans of the importance of fireworks safety this Independence Day. Fireworks are dangerous to both adults and children if not handled properly.
Out of 207 reported fireworks-related injuries in Kansas in 2018, males between the ages of 9 and 34 were the most commonly injured demographic, according to the 2018 Kansas Fireworks Injury Survey. Males represented 64 percent of the total number of injuries. Nearly half of the injuries involved children under the age of 18. Hands, eyes, face and head injuries were among those reported.
“Hand injuries are the most common injury seen in Kansas, at 34 percent,” Cherie Sage, Director of Safe Kids Kansas, said. “It’s really important for little hands to not light fireworks. This includes sparklers, which burn at a temperature hot enough to melt glass. We encourage parents to let their little ones use glow sticks instead of sparklers.”
The data was collected through voluntary reporting from Kansas hospitals and administered by the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
“We want all Kansans to have a fun, safe Fourth of July,” Doug Jorgensen, Fire Marshal for the State of Kansas, said. “We know the safest way to enjoy fireworks is to visit public fireworks displays conducted by trained professionals who know how to properly handle fireworks. If you are going to purchase and partake in consumer fireworks, a few simple precautions can prevent you or your loved ones from becoming one of these statistics.”
Jorgensen added that always using a long-handled lighter to ignite fireworks, lighting from a solid, flat and stable platform and making sure fireworks debris has cooled off completely before disposing, are tips that can significantly lower the risk of injuries and fires.
“It’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy holiday,” Lee Norman, Secretary of KDHE, said. “Having a water supply handy, being prepared with first aid kits and following the laws and safety protocols are just a few ways Kansans of every age can come together for a great, safe Fourth of July.”
Other tips include:
Have an adult supervise all fireworks activities
Always ignite fireworks outdoors
Light only one firework at a time
Never re-ignite malfunctioning fireworks
Store fireworks in a cool, dry place
Bottle rockets and M80s are illegal in Kansas and extremely dangerous. The use or sale of these banned fireworks is considered a crime under Kansas law. It is also illegal in Kansas to shoot fireworks on or under any vehicle, on any public roadway, within 50 feet of a fireworks stand or where fireworks are stored, and at gas stations or any place liquid gas – including propane – is stored.
Always refer to the local ordinances as to whether fireworks are allowed in your area as well as what types. Some cities or counties have restricted dates/times or types of fireworks that may be sold or discharged.
For more information on fireworks safety, visit FireMarshal.ks.gov/fireworkssafety or SafeKidsKansas.org.
DODGE CITY (AP) — Competing rallies are planned this weekend in southwest Kansas that will pit conservative Christians against LGBT and abortion rights supporters.
The Wichita Eagle reports that a group called Kansas Revival will hold a church rally Saturday aimed at opposing abortion and “protecting faith, family and freedom,” followed by an afternoon march through the city streets. The church event will feature Republican U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, of Great Bend, State Treasurer Jake LaTurner and Kansans for Life President Mary Wilkinson.
About the same time, members of a group called the Kansas Unity Coalition will gather at a city park for a counter-demonstration in support of “equality, justice and equal rights.” Its speakers will include Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Democrat from Shawnee who is one of the state’s two openly gay legislators.
SCOTT COUNTY — A Garden City man was injured Tuesday afternoon after his semi overturned on U.S. 83.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported the semi driven by Antonio Rodriguez-Ramirez, 57, was northbound on U.S. 83 when it left the roadway to the right, re-entered the roadway and then went off the other side of the highway. The driver overcorrected and the semi rolled onto its driver’s side.
Rodriguez-Ramirez was transported to Wesley Medical Center with a suspected serious injury, the KHP said. He was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.
SHERMAN COUNTY — A Goodland man was injured Tuesday evening in when his motorcycle crashed.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported Matthew L. Pelkey, 34, was traveling north at 8:45 p.m. on Cherry Street in Goodland when his 1994 Suzuki struck a curb and rolled onto its side.
Pelkey was transported to Goodland Regional Medical Center for treatment of a suspected minor injury.
The KHP reported he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
Jeter / Harper Co. Sheriff’s OfficeANTHONY – An Anthony man was sentenced today to more than 29 years in prison for child sex crimes, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
Kevin Ray Jeter, 44, was sentenced to 353 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Originally charged with multiple counts, in May 2018 Jeter pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Chief Judge William R. Mott accepted the plea and pronounced sentencing in Harper County District Court.
The crimes occurred between December 2014 and October 2016. The case was investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Anthony Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant Attorney General Melissa Johnson of Schmidt’s office.
White-breasted Guineafowl. (Photo credit: Benedictus Freeman)
KU NEWS SERVICE
LAWRENCE — Growing up in Liberia during that country’s brutal 14-year civil war, Benedictus Freeman and his family fled into the rainforest, where they survived for years eating bush meat and foraging. The rainforest provided Freeman sustenance and protection — but more than that, the experience ignited a passion in him for understanding and preserving nature.
University of Kansas doctoral student Benedictus Freeman. (Photo credit: Benedictus Freeman)
“At that time, I really didn’t know how important the forest would become for me — I saw the forest as a source of resources like food and shelter,” said Freeman, who today is a doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas and KU Biodiversity Institute. “But I developed an interest in nature there, and eventually I started studying forestry for my undergraduate degree. That actually influenced my decision to get more interested in nature and conservation.”
The rainforests that once protected Freeman and his family host one of West Africa’s flagship bird species — the White‐breasted Guineafowl (Agelastes meleagrides). Now, Freeman is lead author of a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Avian Research that projects the geographic distribution of the bird through 2050 as it shifts habitat due to climate change.
“This bird is endemic to West Africa, but it’s not fully understood — it’s poorly studied,” Freeman said. “Because of this poor history, there’s very little understanding about its range. Our study recharacterizes its distribution and helps us to understand to what extent it’s distributed across the region. The bird is threatened, and it’s of conservation concern. So that’s why it was selected for study.”
According to Freeman, the vulnerable White-breasted Guineafowl, which has appeared on Liberian postage stamps, serves as an iconic “flagship species,” conservation of which could preserve habitat of many lesser-known animals at the same time.
The KU researcher said West Africa suffers from extensive deforestation due to increasing populations, urbanization, agriculture expansion (both substance farming and industrial-scale farming of palm oil), logging and mining. Because of its exclusive dependence on the forest for habitat, the White-breasted Guineafowl is particularly susceptible to habitat loss.
“It occurs within rainforest habitats in West Africa where it feeds like regular birds, like chickens feed, and depends on insects and seeds and things,” Freeman said. “The important thing about this bird is that it’s a specialist — it’s more restricted to rainforest habitats. There is a sister species (Black Guineafowl, Agelastes niger) of the same bird that occurs on the other side of the Guinean forest, but this one is range-restricted, and it’s only found in this region. It’s not going to be found anywhere else in the world.”
Climatic range gains and losses for White‐breasted Guineafowl projected based on climate model projections for 2050. The top map shows potential range gains while the bottom map shows potential range losses. (Credit: Benedictus Freeman, et al.)
Freeman hopes his research predicting the distribution of the bird in coming decades can help inform policymakers about which areas of rainforest should be prioritized for conservation.
For the new paper, Freeman and his colleagues — Daniel Jiménez‐García of Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico, Benjamin Barca of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Sierra Leone and Matthew Grainger of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom — used occurrence data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and datasets about occurrences of the White-breasted Guineafowl in Sapo National Park in Liberia and Gola Rainforest National Park in Sierra Leone, including data collected by Freeman.
The authors used environmental datasets from NASA and other open sources to perform ecological niche modeling, which the researchers said “integrates known occurrences of species and environmental variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation) to characterize potential future geographic distributions of species in response to global climate change.”
The team created maps showing current and likely future habitats where the White‐breasted Guineafowl could migrate in response to a shifting climate. Unexpectedly, there was good news for the iconic bird in the findings: “The projected impacts of climate change on the geographic distribution of White-breasted Guineafowl were minimal, suggesting stability across the species’ range for the present and in the future, at least as regards climate change effects,” researchers said. “Low sensitivity to climate change in this species does match the general observation for West African birds.”
However, the team found coastal areas where the White‐breasted Guineafowl is found today would be degraded by sea-level rise and resulting coastal erosion, destroying some of the species’ range.
As for Freeman, this summer he’s back in Liberia conducting more fieldwork on birds in some of the same areas his team found to be suitable for the White-breasted Guineafowl.
“We were pleased to document populations at the sites where we worked, and then we were able to collect data on other bird species,” he said. “We have some interesting records that might be species not yet known to science, but we need to do some detailed studies.”
Freeman aims to finish his doctorate at KU next year, he said. After that, he’ll look for opportunities for postdoctoral work.
“I don’t know exactly where that’s going to be,” he said. “But I’m hoping that wherever I get a good job, I can have an opportunity to work in West Africa to do more research. There’s a huge capacity gap in that area. There’s a need to have homegrown scientists involved with this kind of research specifically. So, my passion is to work there.”
TOPEKA – The Kansas Republican Party announced Monday that it has hired Shannon Golden as its Executive Director. Golden comes to the Kansas Republican Party from Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle’s office. Golden was Senator Wagle’s Communications Director.
According to Michael Kuckelman, Kansas Republican Party Chair, the search for the Executive Director has been a four-month search and he looked at several candidates prior to deciding on Golden. “One of my priorities is to improve our messaging and I am convinced Shannon can deliver our message for us. In regard to her experience, “I have been impressed with Shannon in my interactions with the Senate. Shannon stood out in her ability and her professionalism.”
“I look forward to Shannon helping me lead the party. As Executive Director, Shannon will be responsible for the day to day operations of the KS GOP as well as working closely with me to develop strategy and policy leading into the 2020 elections.” – KS GOP Chairman Mike Kuckelman
“I’m looking forward to meeting with and working with Shannon. 2020 is going to be an important campaign cycle for Kansas Republicans. We’ll need to ensure we have a candidate and operation that can hold our all-important Senate seat. Team Marshall is wishing her well and standing by to help in any way we can.” – Congressman Roger Marshall
“National politics takes up all the oxygen, but state and local politics is where the differences are made. I’m glad to see that is where the party is focusing its efforts.” – Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt
“The Kansas Republican Party has made a wise choice with the hiring of Shannon as Executive Director. I’ve worked with Shannon for the last 2 sessions and I can attest to her political knowledge, work ethic, and ability to build coalitions. Congratulations to the KSGOP.” – Senator Jim Denning
“It is projected that there will be a record turnout of Kansas Republicans in the 2020 elections. The Kansas Republican Party has the ability to expand our supermajorities in both chambers of the Kansas Legislature in addition to taking back the 3rd Congressional District in the 2020 election” said Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Shannon Golden. “I look forward to working with the Kansas Republican Party team and Republicans across our state to make that a reality.”
Ethan Beckman, Wheatland High School, Grainfield, with Congressman Roger Marshal. Beckman’s winning artwork can be seen between them on the wall.
OFFICE OF CONG. MARSHALL
WASHINGTON, D.C. – I had the opportunity to lead another group of Kansans on a night tour of the Capitol building last week and among the group was the winner of our annual high school art competition, Ethan Beckman, and his family.
The theme for the first district this year was “I Like Ike” with participants submitting art centered around our 34th President and legendary Kansan General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ethan is a student at Wheatland High School in Grainfield, Kansas and his submission, titled “American Hero,” shows Eisenhower as a soldier standing in front of an American flag.
Every year we hold this competition and every year I am impressed by the artistic talent of the students of Kansas.
Congratulations to Ethan! I was glad that I got to meet you and your family this week.
Dr. Roger Marshall (R-Great Bend) is the Kansas First District Congressman.
MANHATTAN — The Kansas Department of Agriculture’s agricultural advocacy, marketing and outreach team is seeking talented Kansans to serve on the Marketing Advisory Board.
The mission of the KDA marketing division is to serve all Kansans through innovative programming and deliver solutions designed to create an environment that facilitates growth and expansion in agriculture while increasing pride in and awareness of the state’s largest industry — agriculture.
The Marketing Advisory Board will advise the program team on a variety of topics through the following sub-programs: agricultural business development, international agricultural development/trade, From the Land of Kansas, local foods and affiliated programs, agricultural workforce development and agricultural education.
Current board members include Bob Atkisson, retired farmer/rancher in Stockton.
If you are interested in applying to serve as a Marketing Advisory Board member, please submit a resume, statement of interest/cover letter and tax clearance confirmation PDF via email to Kerry Wefald, director of marketing, at [email protected]. For more details about the board and about the application process, go to agriculture.ks.gov/marketing-advisory-board. All questions can be directed to Kerry Wefald via email or by phone at 785-564-6758.
Applications are due by August 1, 2019, with the first organized board meeting of the fiscal year scheduled for Thursday, September 12, in Hutchinson at the Kansas State Fair.
DALLAS — Ellis native Cornell Kinderknecht has just launched his fourth solo album. Entitled “Into Stillness: Piano and Keyboard Improvisations for Heart and Mind,” Kinderknecht’s new album was released in CD, digital and streaming format this week under the Little Greyhound Music label.
In a departure from his most recent albums, which featured Kinderknecht on flute and reed instruments, this latest release boasts 12 original compositions performed on solo piano or keyboard. Flowing and melodic, this instrumental collection emerged from a nightly improvisational series that Kinderknecht broadcasted live on Facebook earlier this year.
An award-winning, Grammy nominated musician and composer currently based out of Dallas, Texas Kinderknecht performs and conducts workshops nationally. His recordings which typically chart under such genres as New Age, World, Zone, Easy Listening, Contemporary Instrumental or Relaxation/Meditation receive airplay by a variety of US and international terrestrial and internet radio stations and television music channels. Kinderknecht is also a featured musician in numerous collaborations with other artists across multiple genres.
“Into Stillness: Piano and Keyboard Improvisations for Heart and Mind” is available at Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, CD Baby and other online CD sales, digital music and streaming outlets, as well as through www.cornellk.com where you can also read more about Kinderknecht’s music and calendar.
— Submitted
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Marjorie Bales, 85 years old, of Osborne, KS passed away on Sunday, June 30, 2019 at the Osborne County Memorial Hospital. Marjorie was born on July 4, 1933 in rural Alton, KS to Charles & Alice (Miller) Cox of rural Alton. She was one of six children.
