October 13, 1945 – February 23, 2019
An obituary and services are pending with Fitzgerald Funeral Home.
Author: Hays Post
Marilyn Jean Harless
January 28, 1931 – February 22, 2019
An obituary and services are pending with Fitzgerald Funeral Home.
Ernest Edward Poe
Ernest Edward Poe, age 90, went home to be with his Lord and Savior February 22, 2019 at Greeley County Hospital in Tribune, KS.
Ernest (Ernie) Poe was born on October 29th, 1928 on the Poe homestead in Weldona, Colorado. He was the youngest child of Ernest and Lola Mae Poe. He grew up in Weldona and graduated high school in 1946.
Ernest married Marjorie Wacker January 1, 1950 in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Through the years, Ernest worked as a farmer and rancher moving from Colorado to Healy, KS in 1958. It was while working as a partner on the Maddox Ranch in Healy that Ernie began his fine barbed wire collection.
He moved with his family to Wallace County in 1970 to continue farming and ranching while also selling grain bins and seed. Ernest later owned Poe Building Systems and installed many buildings and grain storage systems across the area.
Ernest was a member of the American Baptist Churches. He served the American Baptist Men’s Central Region as President for several years. Ernest was involved in the community in many ways and served as Mayor of Sharon Springs for 8 years. He enjoyed volunteering, especially his time working with and providing horses for Camp Christy and helping at the Fort Wallace Museum.
In his retirement, he expanded his barbed wire adventures by creating barbed wire sculptures. Ernest made anything from small birds that are treasured by all of his grand-children and great-grandchildren to life size horses. His greatest creation is the buffalo that stands proud in front of the Fort Wallace Museum. Ernie loved roping, spending time with family, and visiting with friends.
Preceding him in death are his parents, brothers Reverend Harry Poe, John Poe, and P.A. Poe and sisters Reverend Margaret Poe and Francis Faires-Cross.
He is lovingly remembered by his wife Marjorie Poe of Sharon Springs; Sister Minnie Mae Gardner of Denver; Son Edward (Valerie) Poe of Sharon Springs, Son Kenneth (Becky) Poe of Sharon Springs, Daughter Linda (Greg) See of Leoti; 8 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
Click HERE for service details.
LeRoy Kreutzer
LeRoy Kreutzer, 69, Hays, died Saturday, February 23, 2019 at HaysMed.
He was born May 1, 1949 in Hays the youngest child of Isidor and Lidwina (Younker) Kreutzer. On June 22, 1968 he was united in marriage to Sandra “Sandy” Linenberger in Denver, Colorado. LeRoy was the Mechanic Supervisor for the City of Hays Service Division for 26 years, retiring in 2015. He then became the maintenance man for Cedar View/Homestead of Hays for three years. He was a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, and was a Boy Scout Leader of Troop #113, and a little league baseball and soccer coach. He was a Kansas City Chiefs fan, enjoyed fixing things and helping others, helping with family home projects, golfing, fishing, camping, traveling, walking his dog Gunner, and the occasional trip to the casino. He loved spending time with his children and grandchildren, and going to their games and performances. Family was extremely important to him and he was fortunate to have thirty-nine of his family members go on a family cruise last June as he and his wife celebrated 50 years of marriage.
Survivors include his wife Sandy, of the home in Hays, two sons; LeRoy Kreutzer, Jr. and wife Jenny of Wichita, Kyle J. Kreutzer and wife Jaime of Hays, four grandchildren; Cody and Brady Kreutzer of Hays and Kelsie and Karlie Kreutzer of Wichita, a sister; Firma Pfannenstiel of WaKeeney, and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers; Marvin, Kenneth, and an infant brother LeRoy, and six sisters; Anna, Alice, Verla, Millie, Neola, and Viola.
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11:00 am on Thursday, February 28, 2019 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church with Fr. Barry Brinkman officiating. Private family inurnment will be at a later date in the St. Joseph Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5:00 pm until 8:00 on Wednesday and from 9:30 am until 10:45 on Thursday, all at the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home. A parish vigil service will be at 6:30 pm on Wednesday at the funeral home. Memorials are suggested to Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas (DSNWK) or to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church building fund, in care of the funeral home. Condolences and memories of LeRoy may be shared with the family at www.haysmemorial.com
Great Bend auto junkyard to be featured on Monday’s American Pickers
By Cole Reif
BARTON COUNTY —Chad Ehrlich operates Nobody Else’s Auto Recycling, a yard with more than 1,000 parts and project cars in stock. The lot is at 332 North U.S. Highway 281 in Great Bend.
Nobody Else’s was recently featured in magazine, and now the junkyard will be featured on a nationally broadcasted television show on the History channel.
Great Bend Community Coordinator Christina Hayes says Ehrlich and his daughter will feature Nobody Else’s on American Pickers.
American Pickers has been airing on the History channel since 2010 as two “pickers” travel the country searching for antiques to restore and resell. Hayes says Nobody Else’s show will be featured Monday, February 25 on the History channel (Eagle Cable TV channel 40 or 640 in HD) beginning at 8 p.m.
Farm Bureau sponsors legislative coffee and donuts in Ellis
State Reps. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra, and Barb Wasinger, R-Hays, and state Sens. Elaine Bowers, R-Concordia, and Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, are scheduled to attend.
1st Amendment: Can we own news? Should we be able to?
News permeates our lives. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Mahlon Pitney, it’s “the history of the day.” We consume it constantly and analyze it endlessly. We debate its value and its veracity. But here’s another aspect to discuss: Can we own it? And should we be able to?
Capitol Forum is a subscription news service that produces policy reports on mergers and acquisitions, corporate investigations and antitrust enforcement. Not exactly page-turners, but the kind of information investors rely on to make business decisions.
In a recent lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., against media outlets Bloomberg and Bloomberg Finance, Capitol Forum alleges that, “Within minutes of the release of many of Capitol Forum’s reports, Bloomberg will surreptitiously obtain the report from one or more of Capitol Forum’s subscribers and then republish a summary of that report on its own ‘First Word’ copyrighted subscription service, usually including direct quotations from the Capitol Forum report.”
Most of the lawsuit’s allegations revolve around copyright infringement and contract interference — with one curve ball thrown in: Capitol Forum is also claiming that Bloomberg is violating its property rights under the “hot news” doctrine.
What does that mean? Well, generally speaking, no one owns news. Copyright law doesn’t protect facts and ideas — it protects the specific ways those facts and ideas are expressed. It might prevent Bloomberg from outright copying and pasting Capitol Forum’s policy reports, but it doesn’t prevent it from summarizing them or quoting from them. This is true regardless of how much effort Capitol Forum put into its reports.
Take it from copyright expert Rich Stim: “Facts are not protected even if the author spends considerable time and effort in discovering things that were previously unknown. For example, the author of the book on Neanderthals takes 10 years to gather all the necessary materials and information for her work. At great expense, she travels to hundreds of museums and excavations around the world. But after the book is published, any reader is free to use the results of this 10-year research project to write his or her own book on Neanderthals — without paying the original author.”
The hot news doctrine is a very narrow, very obscure and possibly obsolete exception to this state of affairs. In 1918, the Associated Press (AP) sued its rival, the International News Service (INS), for taking AP news stories, rewriting them and publishing them as its own. The Supreme Court sided with the Associated Press, finding that though no one can own the “history of the day,” news does have economic value as “stock in trade to be gathered at the cost of enterprise, organization, skill, labor and money, and to be distributed and sold to those who will pay money for it.” The court said the AP had a limited property right in the news it reported, one that prevented its competitors (but not the general public) from using it, though only for a short period of time — while the news was “hot.” The hot news doctrine doesn’t broadly apply anymore, but it’s also not quite dead. As the Columbia Journalism Review has pointed out, “The INS opinion itself is no longer good law; it was decided under federal common law, which was largely abandoned in 1938. But the doctrine lives on under state law.”
You can see why Capitol Forum decided to bring up the concept, even though it opened them to mockery for dredging up a legal argument that hasn’t really been successful since it was applied to telegraph dispatches about World War I. TechDirt described the hot news doctrine as a “mostly obsolete and, frankly, bizarre attempt to turn the idea of publishing a similar news story too quickly after the original reporters broke the story into a form of ‘misappropriation.'”
Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief made the following statement: “This case challenges routine newsgathering practices protected under the First Amendment, and Bloomberg will vigorously defend journalists’ right to gather and report the news.” The hot news doctrine has never gone up against the First Amendment; there are valid concerns that if revived it would have a chilling effect on speech and press freedoms. The internet is, in essence, a network where information is shared, analyzed, remixed and repackaged freely and constantly. What would it mean for any player in this system to “own” a set of facts, even for a limited amount of time?
Of course, this cuts both ways. That freewheeling exchange of information has made the profit margins of actually discovering information pretty slim. Gathering and verifying facts is costly and time-intensive; summarizing those facts with a few choice quotes and a little pithy commentary is not (that’s probably why there’s so much more opinion journalism than the investigative variety).
It seems fundamentally unfair we don’t provide more compensation and recognition for the harder labor, but at the same time, this reflects the strange and contradictory view we have of the news. Information about the world around us is a right, a public good — and also a product.
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.
Annual seat belt enforcement planned for next 2 weeks
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Teen drivers in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma might see more law enforcement officers near their schools in the next two weeks.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says law officers plan their annual special traffic enforcement to encourage teen drivers to wear seatbelts. The campaign will run from Monday to March 8.
Kansas patrol Col. Mark Bruce says the “High Visibility Seat Belt Enforcement Campaign” involves troopers working with local law enforcement agencies to education and enforce the use of seat belts.
The patrol said in a news release that last year, nearly half of all Kansas teens who died in traffic crashes were not wearing seat belts.
Sunny, cold Monday
Monday Mostly sunny, with a high near 30. Wind chill values as low as -4. East southeast wind 8 to 13 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon.
Monday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 10. Wind chill values as low as -3. Northeast wind 10 to 14 mph.
TuesdayMostly cloudy, with a high near 25. Wind chill values as low as -3. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tuesday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 17. North northeast wind 5 to 9 mph.
WednesdayMostly cloudy, with a high near 24.
Wednesday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 14.
ThursdayPartly sunny, with a high near 31.
KU professor wins Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “BlacKkKlansman” is the winner of the best adapted screenplay Academy Award, delivering Spike Lee his first competitive Academy Award. It also was an Oscar win for Marymount College graduate Kevin Willmott.
🏆 And the Oscar goes to. . . @kufms professor Kevin Willmott and @BlackKkKlansman co-writers Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz for Best Adapted Screenplay! #Oscars #RockChalk pic.twitter.com/KMJpPf2TMx
— University of Kansas (@KUnews) February 25, 2019
Lee started out his acceptance speech with some profanity, telling producers not to start the clock on his speech. Winners have been allotted 90 seconds for their speech from the time their names are called.
Lee ready from a two-page letter that tied together history and the years 1619 and 2019, along with his own story.
The writer-director shares the award with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Willmott.
Willmott grew up in Junction City, Kan., and graduated from St. Xavier High School. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Marymount College in Salina and a master’s degree from New York University. Willmott is an associate professor in the Film Studies Department at the University of Kansas.
We love this image of @KUFMS students watching as @BlacKkKlansman won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kevin Willmott, a KU Film & Media Studies professor, co-wrote the film with Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz. #RockChalk #Oscars 📸: @TrevorMowry pic.twitter.com/QHpGSH9vK1
— University of Kansas (@KUnews) February 25, 2019
Well deserved! Congratulations Kevin Willmott!! https://t.co/N7hXTOK9dO
— Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) February 25, 2019
Lee received the award from Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in Lee’s film. Jackson ribbed Lee at the outset of his presentation along with actress Brie Larson, reciting the score of the Knicks game, who notched a rare win.
And the winner is…Our very own @KUFMS professor Kevin Willmott wins Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing @BlacKkKlansman w/ Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz. We couldn’t be more proud or excited. Congrats, Prof. Willmott! #KUarts #fmswatchparty pic.twitter.com/WRGEgQGGJj
— KU School of Arts (@KUSchoolofArts) February 25, 2019
Teen sentenced for brutal car wash murder of K.C.-area woman
KANSAS CITY(AP) — A Lee’s Summit teenager has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the stabbing death of a woman who was attacked at a car wash.
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Trigg was 13 when 49-year-old Tanya Chamberlain, of Lee’s Summit, was kidnapped from the car wash and killed in 2015.
Lee’s Summit police say the teens drove away with Chamberlain in her car. Police tried to pull the car over and the two teens ran. She had been stabbed or cut 49 times.
Trigg’s co-defendant, Trevon Henry, was sentenced in January to two life sentences plus 50 years. Henry was 14 at the time of the killing.
Kansas felon in jail for theft enters plea to new felony charge
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Kansas man waived his preliminary hearing Friday and entered a plea to one of six charges in a connection with felony flee and attempt to elude officers.
In October, Tyler Humphries, 22, Hutchinson, led Reno County sheriff’s deputies on a brief high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle.
Sheriff’s deputies were looking for the stolen vehicle at a mobile home park in Yoder when Humphries fled east toward Haven. He then turned north to the intersection of Haven Road and Illinois where he got out of the vehicle and waited for deputies to arrive. He then surrendered.
Humphries is serving a sentence for three counts of theft from 2017 and following his plea to one count of felony flee and elude the other charges were dropped.
He will be sentenced on March 29. He has six previous convictions that include theft and criminal damage to property, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Senate proposes financial assistance for grandparents as caregivers
By Olivia Schmidt
KU Statehouse Wire Service
TOPEKA — A new bill proposed in the Senate on Thursday could take some financial burden off grandparents who are primary caregivers and providers for their grandchildren.
The Kansas Senate Judiciary held a committee meeting on Feb. 21 to discuss amendments made to SB166, which deems children as foster children under the grandparents as caregivers act.
The bill, which was introduced on Feb. 13, states, “If a person meets the financial eligibility requirements developed by the secretary, a grandparent shall be eligible to participate in the program if such grandparent: (1) Is 40 years of age or older (2) Has the grandchild placed in such grandparents custody by the state, is the legal guardian of the grandchild or has other legal custody of the grandchild; and (3) has an annual household income of less than 300 percent of the federal poverty line.”
The two amendments made to the bill previously required that the grandparent be 50 years of age or older and have an annual household income of less than 130 percent of the federal poverty line. The change in the percentage allows for more grandparents to qualify for the benefits of the program.
Some stipulations with the bill are that the grandparent is not eligible if the parent or parents of the child are living with said grandparent. The grandparents will be required to meet eligibility requirements each year to continue in the program.
With this bill, qualifying grandparents are reimbursed $200 per grandchild per month until they are 18 or reach the age of 21, if the child is in full-time attendance at a secondary school or postsecondary educational institution.
Sen. Randall Hardy (R-Salina) testified in support of the bill. He was invited to attend a group meeting called Grandparents as Parents, which met at the Child Advocacy and Parent Services (CAPS) agency in Salina. Here, he said was informed about the problem of parents who don’t work out to be adequate parents for their children.
“I attended one of their meetings and it was at the same time heartbreaking and hopeful,” he said.
The parents’ stories moved Hardy, which led to his increased support of the bill. He brought with him a copy of an email sent to him the night before, displaying a first-hand account of a grandparent’s experience.
In the email, Kimberly Dykes, 59, explained how difficult her and her husband’s lives have been without the assistance of this program from the federal government.
“We couldn’t get the parents to sign releases and they would not show up to do any of the needed things for the children,” Dykes wrote. “They did not provide any financial assistance for their children.”
Sen. Vic Miller (D-Topeka) asked about the age restriction at the end of the testimony.
“What would it matter if they were 39 or 40?” Miller asked.
Hardy responded that this was to make the bill palatable, but is something that could be revisited.
Hardy also said the bill is similar to one that didn’t pass in the House. If passed, this bill would take effect on July 1, 2019.
Olivia Schmidt is a University of Kansas senior from Lawrence studying journalism.