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Author: Hays Post

Darren Lynn ‘Chavez’ Rocha Hopkins

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Darren Lynn “Chavez” Rocha Hopkins, 49, passed away May 22, 2019, at Wesley Medical Center, Wichita. He was born August 13, 1969, at Great Bend, the son of Vernon Rocha and Carol Horyna.

Darren, a Hutchinson resident since 1992 coming from Great Bend, was employed as a truck driver for Groendyke Transport, Inc. He had a passion for classic cars, and in his free time, enjoyed camping, boating, and spending time with his family.

Survivors include mother, Carol Huffman of Great Bend; one daughter, Leah Hopkins of Hutchinson; three brothers, Leslie W. Hopkins of Great Bend, Tommy R. Hopkins of Great Bend and Greg Rocha of Dodge City; three sisters, Pamela M. Hopkins of Great Bend, Christy Huffman of Great Bend and Susan Volkland of Col.; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in passing by his father, Vernon Rocha and step father, Tommy E. Hopkins.

Funeral services have been arranged for 2:00 p.m. Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Bryant Funeral Home, with The Reverend Dick Ogle presiding. Interment will follow at the Great Bend Cemetery, Great Bend. Visitation will be from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 29, 2019, at Bryant Funeral Home, with the family receiving friends from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Memorials may be given to the Midwest Transplant Network, in care of Bryant Funeral Home.

Christopher Ray Brickley

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Christopher Ray Brickley, 75, passed away on January 9, 2019 at Physicians Regional Hospital in Naples, FL. Chris was born on May 29, 1943 in Russell, KS, and graduated from RHS in 1961. He then attended KU, Eldorado Junior College, and Fort Hays State University. After college Chris returned to Russell and worked for the US Postal Service, then began a radio broadcasting career with KRSL Radio. Chris married Jeanne Berkey of Russell in 1968 and moved with his new bride to Larned, KS where he was employed with KANS Radio as a popular on-air personality, program manager, and play-by-play broadcaster of high school sporting events. Then, after 18 years in broadcasting, Chris spent five years as lead operator at the Larned Municipal Power Plant.

A love of the mountains then drew them to Colorado where Chris enjoyed employment as a bank courier. After a banking career Jeanne was employed with Promise Keepers, which allowed her and Chris to enjoy travel to nearly every state of the continental US. Nearing retirement in 2003, Chris and Jeanne went to work as a management team for an owner of a high-rise apartment building near downtown Denver. In November 2018, after a period of semi-retirement for Chris, they both retired and moved to Naples, FL. Once settled in their new tropical city, Chris and Jeanne attended Capri Christian Church in Naples and especially enjoyed the recent Christmas Eve candlelight service. Throughout his lifetime Chris enjoyed his hobbies, including his hi-fi stereo & music collection, and was very knowledgeable about music & artists. As a young adult he loved his numerous muscle cars including several new Oldsmobile 442’s, two new Dodge Chargers, two GTOs, and later a Corvette convertible. He was also an avid World War I & II history buff and enjoyed photography, model railroading, model rocketry, and astronomy.

Over 20 years ago, Chris thoroughly enjoyed the Left Behind recordings by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins; this changed his life and he often spoke of it as recently as New Year’s Day. He believed that there is a wonderful life in heaven after death, and now has gone to his forever home with Jesus.
Chris was preceded in death by his parents, Elvin and Zelphia (Tate) Brickley. He will always be lovingly remembered by his wife Jeanne of 50 years and other survivors including brothers-in-law Gayle (Karen) Berkey of Littleton, CO and Frederic (Jewel) Berkey of Watkins, CO; sister-in-law Debbie (Steve) Fields of Naples, FL; nieces, nephews, and numerous cousins.

A Graveside service to celebrate Chris’ life will be held at 11 A.M. on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, at the Russell City Cemetery. Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary of Russell, Kansas, is in charge of the Graveside Services.

Glenva Coburn

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Glenva Coburn, age 75, of Quinter, passed away Sunday, May 26, 2019, at Sheridan County Long Term Care, Hoxie.

Services are pending with Schmitt Funeral Home, Quinter.

Douglas E. Ziegler

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Douglas E. Ziegler, 85 of Grainfield, KS, passed away on May 23, 2019, at Logan County Manor, Oakley.

Douglas was born to Henry and Edith (Hetzel) Ziegler in Collyer, KS, on July 6, 1933. Doug attended Grainfield High School and received his degree from the school of hard knocks, becoming a very successful farmer and businessman in his own right.

Douglas met and later married Olinda (Kinderknecht) on June 1, 1953, in Grinnell at the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, they enjoyed 50 years of marriage until Olinda passed on November 30, 2003. To this union, Don and Randy were born. Doug later married Ann (Dechant) on January 23, 2009, in Oakley, at St. Joseph Catholic Church.

Doug owned and operated Doug Ziegler Repair all the while running his farm and selling agriculture augers. He also worked for Chalmers & Borton Construction Company-Builders Grain Elevators, helping construct the “granddaddy of them all” in Corpus Christi, TX, and several other surrounding states. Doug was an avid polka dancer and loved a good card game. For over 40 years Doug served on the Board of Directors for Rural Telephone.

Doug is survived by wife Ann; sons Don (Kathy) Ziegler, Winfield, KS, and Randy (Julie) Ziegler of Assaria, KS; grandchildren Jacki (Nick) Gill, Lenexa, KS, Megan (Justin) Sheets, Shawnee, KS Amanda (Kyle) Hartman, Lenexa, KS, Jeremey Ziegler, Assaria, KS, Kate Ziegler, Oklahoma City, OK, Jayden Ziegler, Bonner Springs, KS, Sara Ziegler, Onega, KS; great-grandchildren Brynna and Noah Gill, Liam Sheets and Daxton Hartman; sisters DeLores Wasinger, Garden Grove, CA, Norma (Alex) Zerr, Grainfield, and Louise (Harvey) Wildeman, Quinter; stepchildren, Cliff Brungardt, Quinter, KS, Steve (Charmine) Brungardt, Archie, MO, Kim (Duane) Reif, Olmitz, KS, Jerry (Christal) Brungardt, Lake Alfred, FL, Mike (Cecilia) Brungardt, Oakley, KS; step grandchildren, Ariana and Tyler Brungardt; Ashton, Alexas, Heather, Donnie; Dylan and Coryn Reif; Austin Bassinellie and Ashley Hecker; and step great-grandchildren, James, Devin, Jayelle, Jace, Tami, Jackson Brungardt; Clint, James Brungardt; Ethan, Landon, Dylan Brungardt.

Douglas was preceded in death by parents; infant son Jimmy Dean; brother Delbert Ziegler, wife Olinda Ziegler; and granddaughter Jennifer Ziegler.

Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 30, 2019, at the St. Agnes Catholic Church, Grainfield, KS. Burial will follow in the Grainfield Cemetery.

Visitation will be Wednesday evening, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. with a parish vigil following at the St. Agnes Religious Education Center in Grainfield.

Memorial contributions are suggested to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or St Agnes Catholic Church Masses. Donations may be left at the visitation, service, or may be sent in care of Schmitt Funeral Home, 901 South Main, Quinter.

Roy David Keller Jr.

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Roy David Keller Jr. of WaKeeney, Kansas passed away May 22, 2019.

Roy was born to Roy David and Florence Helen (Yandle) Keller in Humboldt, KS, on July 11, 1931. He graduated from Humboldt High School in 1949. Roy enlisted in the Navy in March of 1951. Following an honorable discharge from the Navy, he received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Pittsburg State University and an Education Specialist Degree from Fort Hays State University.

Roy married Martha Joan Campbell on December 6, 1950; they were married 68 years. Roy worked as a School Superintendent for USD 208 for 23 years, retiring in 1990 and continuing to work at Ness City, Coldwater-Protection, and Golden Plains as School Superintendent. He enjoyed family, golf, gardening, and wildlife. He was also actively involved in volunteering for AARP Drivers Safety and Tax-Aide, Meals on Wheels and teaching Sunday School at the First United Methodist Church in WaKeeney.

Roy was stationed at San Diego and aboard the USS Consolation, a hospital ship in the Pacific. Roy received numerous awards and recognitions during his naval service and education career.

Roy is survived by his wife Martha, children Jim (Liesel) Keller, Hays, KS, Roanne Stein, Salina, KS Cheryl (Keith) Deines, WaKeeney, KS, John (Pam) Keller, Lawrence, KS; grandchildren Matthew Reed and wife Amber Martinez, Julie Keller, Casey (Douglas) Shepperd, Christopher (Stacy) Reed, Jenna Keller, Campbell Keller and Sylvia Keller; great-grandchildren Hannah, Ethan, Ava and baby Shepperd on the way; brother Paul (Mary) Keller, Broken Arrow, OK, sister Sharon (Mike) Eshelman, Newton, KS, along with beloved nieces, nephews and other family and friends.

Roy was preceded in death by his parents Roy and Helen; brother Bill Keller and granddaughter Jamie Keller

The funeral service will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 31, 2019, at the First United Methodist Church in WaKeeney with Pastor Bob Clemence officiating. Burial with full military honors will follow the funeral at the Kansas Veterans’ Cemetery, WaKeeney at 1:00 p.m. Visitation will be Thursday, May 30, 2019, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Schmitt Funeral Home in WaKeeney, KS

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS, Memorials are suggested to the First United Methodist Church of WaKeeney. Donations to the church may be sent to Schmitt Funeral Home, 336 North 12th. WaKeeney, KS 67672.

Condolences may be left by signing the guest book on this page. Entries are screened daily for spam, so will not appear instantly.

Barbara Siefers

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February 3, 1935 – May 22, 2019

An obituary is pending with Plumer Overlease Funeral Home.

Click HERE for service details.

49-year-old man dead in Kansas officer-involved shooting

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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal officer involved shooting.

Police on the scene of Monday’s investigation photo courtesy KWCH

Just before 1:30 a.m. Monday, police responded to a shooting call in the 1900 Block of South Glenn Avenue in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A 49-year-old man was reportedly firing a gun outside the residence. When officers arrived, they observed the man entering and exiting the home and firing a gun. At one point, the man exited his home and ran south on Glenn Avenue toward police. The officers immediately issued verbal instructions to the man who was armed with a handgun. The man then turned and ran northbound and he encountered police again at the intersection Glenn and Dora Street, according to Davidson.

Although police issued verbal commands to the man again, he pointed the handgun at officers. Wichita police officers and Sedgwick County deputies fired weapons at the man and killed him, according to Davidson.

Police know that two other homes in the neighborhood were struck by gunfire. There are no other injuries reported, according to Davidson.

The neighborhood is closed off as authorities including the KBI continue to investigate. Davidson released no additional information early Monday.

Prairie Doc Perspectives: Healing or harming with cannabis?

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Rick Holm

Just about 4,000 years ago, Chinese writings explained the medicinal powers of what is now called cannabis or marijuana, describing its properties to help arthritis, gout, malaria, nausea and psychological stress. In the 1500 and 1600s the Spanish and English brought cannabis to the new world for medical purposes and it became a huge commercial crop for making rope. In the 1920s cannabis emerged in jazz clubs as a recreational drug. At the time, it was thought of as a better alternative to alcohol since cannabis users didn’t seem as disruptive to the community.

During the prohibition era of the 1930s, the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics considered cannabis as addictive and they made it illegal along with alcohol. Further, the U.S. Controlled Substance Act of 1970 defined cannabis as a ‘Schedule 1’ drug putting it in the same category as heroin and LSD, claiming there was a high abuse potential and no medicinal use. Although these claims have changed, the U.S. law remains on the books. During the Obama administration, the Department of Justice was directed to relax prosecution of cannabis rule-breakers while allowing state rules to supersede the U.S. law. The Trump administration has made very little change since.

Questions about cannabis remain since scientific experimentation for medicinal use has been limited due to legal restrictions. However, strong evidence points to legitimate medical uses for cannabis. Cannabidiol or CBD, one of the chemicals derived from hemp, helps those with chronic pain syndrome, children with uncontrolled seizures, those with glaucoma and finally enhances appetite stimulation and reduces nausea and malaise in cancer patients.

We know there is abuse potential with cannabis, just like with alcohol. Driving intoxicated with cannabis increases crashes, even if only half as much as alcohol. Also, we know excess cannabis has potential to dull and injure young and undeveloped minds. Some suggest that legalizing cannabis would allow better laws and enhanced regulation, lessening underage use.

Consider the tragedy of 70,000 deaths per year (and rising) from the overdose of legal and illegal opioids while there are almost no reported deaths from cannabis use, despite quite extensive consumption in the U.S. Most opioid abuse seems to stem initially from efforts to reduce chronic pain syndrome, and this condition seems to be potentially helped with medicinal doses of cannabis.

It is time to allow medicinal use of cannabis. It might help us reduce the deaths from opioids.

For free and easy access to the entire Prairie Doc® library, visit www.prairiedoc.org and follow The Prairie Doc® on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc® a medical Q&A show streaming live on Facebook most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central.

First Five: Social media spreads propaganda, disinformation around globe

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Lata Nott

Election season is upon us. Not here in the United States, where we haven’t even begun winnowing the massive field of presidential contenders, but over on the other side of the world, where India just wrapped up its national elections after six weeks of voting. It takes a while when you’ve got 900 million people participating. Closer to home, European Union (E.U.) parliamentary elections run May 23-26.

Both of these elections showcase the new and prominent role social media plays in the democratic process. It’s a crucial source of political news and information for voters — and a potential vehicle for misinformation that can be used to influence their votes.

The E.U.’s elections have only just begun, but a report from online activist group Avaaz indicates that networks of fake Facebook pages and groups have been extensively spreading divisive, white-nationalist, and anti-immigrant content and have amassed three times as many followers as the pages of the main European far-right and anti-E.U. parties. Another study from the University of Oxford analyzing recent tweets and Facebook posts related to the E.U. parliamentary elections found that anti-immigration and Islamaphobic stories from “junk news” sites received more engagement than stories from professional media sources.

Some E.U. officials suspect that Russia is behind the spread of this type of content, but as Giles Portman, head of the taskforce dedicated to exposing these attempts said, “From what we’ve seen of the European election campaign so far, it looks at the moment less sensational than some of the attempts we’ve seen [in the past]. What we can see at the moment is this continuation of a message that Europe is collapsing, that the elites aren’t paying attention to ordinary people and that Europe’s values and identities are under threat.”

Messages about threatened identity were prevalent during the Indian election as well, with much of the misinformation targeting religious minorities, but the way that it spread was fundamentally different. Whatsapp reigns supreme in India, with 230 million users. The platform consists of private group chats, making it notoriously difficult to fact-check the content that’s shared on it. WhatsApp attempted to stem the tide of misinformation by capping the size of its groups, limiting how many times messages could be forwarded and making it harder to forward images, audio clips and videos.

Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, has a huge presence in India in its own right and partnered with Indian fact-checking sites to debunk fake news stories on its platform and to shut down fraudulent pages and accounts. But India presents special challenges to aspiring fact-checkers: as Bloomberg reports, social media platforms “are discovering the harsh reality that disinformation and hate speech are even more challenging in emerging markets than in places like the U.S. or Europe. A new category of users, recently digital, believe almost whatever they receive — especially if it comes from family or friends. Hundreds of millions read in languages the American tech giants haven’t even begun to monitor.” India has 23 official languages; Facebook hired contractors to verify content in 10 of them.

Pallavi Mishra has seen the scale of the challenge first-hand. The manager at Vishvas News, Facebook’s largest Indian-language fact-checking contractor, spent two weeks recently talking with internet users in small cities. She found most people are so new to social media they have no clue about bogus content. They share stories indiscriminately, with stupefying speed. “Being the ‘first’ to share things in their circles gave them a rush,” she says.

“Disinformation is spreading like wildfire in these parallel digital universes,” said Bharat Gupta, chief executive officer of Jagran New Media, which runs Vishvas News. “It’s a dark space that nobody talks about.”

Unlike in the U.S. and E.U., where much of the focus has been on misinformation being disseminated by foreign actors, the fake news surrounding Indian elections was home grown, driven by the political parties themselves. According to a report from the University of Oxford, a quarter of the content shared by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was junk news, as was one-fifth of the content shared by the main opposition party, Indian National Congress. The parties were also very effective at spreading this content, particularly the BJP, which created an app for Prime Minister Narendra Modi called NaMo, preloaded it in free Android phones and used it to promote posts from fake-news accounts users didn’t have the option of unfollowing.

All of this should drive home that there’s no single “best” way to combat misinformation, because the very nature of misinformation varies widely depending on where you are. Each country and region of the world has its own prejudices, fears and favored platforms. Like some hellish version of “It’s A Small World” during election season, we get to see them all.

Lata Nott is executive director of the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute. Contact her via email at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @LataNott.

Refuse/recycling collection altered on Memorial Day

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CITY OF HAYS

Due to the observance of Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2019, refuse/recycling route collection schedules will be altered as follows:

Monday, May 27 and Tuesday, May 28 routes will be collected on Tuesday, May 28, 2019.

Although collections may not occur on your normal day, collections will be completed.

There will be no change to Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday’s collection schedules.

City of Hays customers that may have any questions regarding this notice should contact the Solid Waste Division of the Public Works Department at 628-7350.

We remind you to always have your refuse and recycling out by 7:00 a.m..

It is anticipated that heavy volumes of refuse/recyclable will be encountered around the holidays. Please make sure your polycarts are out by 7:00 a.m. and keep in mind that the trucks have no set time schedule.

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