September 25, 1927 – February 13, 2019
An obituary and services are pending with Plumer Overlease Funeral Homes.
Author: Hays Post
Phillipsburg quarterback on his way to Kansas Shrine Bowl
PHILLIPSBURG — Panther star Trey Sides received his formal invitation to the 46th annual Kansas Shrine Bowl at Thursday night’s basketball game.
Sides, a senior quarterback and safety, was a four-year starter for and two-time state champion for Phillipsburg.
The Shrine Bowl will be played June 8 in Dodge City.
Shepherd’s Mill Street Fair celebrates fiber animals, fiber artists
PHILLIPSBURG — The Shepherd’s Mill in Phillipsburg will celebrate its 15th anniversary March 2 with a daylong downtown street fair, with a tour of the mill, live fiber animal display, educational workshops by fiber artists, presentations by llama farmer Cindy Ruckman, an alpaca/llama obstacle course, and short make-it and take-it projects.
The event, “Together, we are better!” is presented in collaboration with the Golden Plains Llama and Alpaca Association annual conference to elevate public awareness of fiber animals and fiber artists.
Full-day and half-day workshops are available with professional fiber artists on dyeing, weaving, silk painting, choosing yarn, knooking, and creating a cowl. Visitors can try their hand at leading animals and working with fiber at exhibits throughout the day.
“This fair is designed to bring producers of all fiber animals together with fiber artists and the general public,” says Sally Brandon, who opened The Shepherd’s Mill with her husband Jay in 2004.
Sally, who had learned to weave on an exchange trip to Finland in the 1980s, was hand-spinning at her booth during an Alpaca show in Denver, when Jay became intrigued while talking to the couple in the next booth who owned a small mill. On the way home, he proposed that they enter the field.
“I wrote the business plan to prove to him that wasn’t what we wanted to be doing,” she recalls. We started the mill from scratch in our hometown with wonderful support from our local economic development and our local community. Here we are 15 years later.”
The couple has served clients from 44 states with fibers from alpaca to yak, including opossum, brown bear, wolf, dogs, Shetland ponies, and Scottish Highland cows. The Shepherd’s Mill, which has six employees, moved into its own building at 839 Third St. seven years ago, creating space where visitors can watch the work, shop, and take classes in fiber arts.
Eighty percent of the business is spinning yarn that goes into the hand-knitting market, including the mill’s special blends for sale. The company also produces some fabric, especially scarves, shawls, and throws.
“Together, we are better!” is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 2 in the 800 block of Third Street in Phillipsburg. In case of bad weather, the event moves to Phillips County Fairgrounds. Register at www.KansasFiber.com, Education.
— Submitted
Sheriff: Ten jailed in Kansas burglary ring, $170K in property recovered
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a series of burglaries and have made numerous arrests.
Tuesday, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s office received information from the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office about possible stolen property being in a storage unit at 1775 S. George Washington Boulevard, according to Lt. Tim Myers.
Detectives followed up on that information and discovered the storage unit contained property taken in multiple burglaries. Approximately $70,000.00 worth of property was returned to the rightful owners.
Property returned ranged from power tools to golf carts.
Deputies have also arrested Dominic Voelker, 39, Wichita; Cameron Rigsby, 32, Wichita;Richard Navarro, 33, Wichita; James Sanderford, 38, Wichita; Tara Esguerra, 29, Hutchinson; Christopher Beaty, 29, Wichita; Gerald Scott Gray, 36, Sedgwick County;Kevin McGilvray, 32, Wichita;; Jesse Stevens, 39, Wichita and Michael Bull , 47, Wichita.
Approximately $100,000.00 worth of property is remaining, according to Myers. These items range from trail cameras to generators. Deputies have not identified the owners of the remaining property.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office asks for citizens to put their name on their property, record serial numbers, or place unique identifiers on their property. By doing this, you would assist any law enforcement agency in recovering your property in the event it was ever stolen.
BOOR: Gardening season is right around the corner
It’s the time of year when many gardeners are looking forward to nicer days ahead spent outside tending their plants. Many use this time to plan what plants they are going to buy, and research what varieties preformed the best last year. Every year, K-State Research and Extension compiles all of their horticulture research results on their website for easy access.
If you have had trouble finding a listing of plants recommended for Kansas, visit our web page devoted to this topic. We have links to a wide variety of plants including annual flowers, perennial flowers (including breakouts for iris and daylilies), fruit, vegetables, turfgrass, low-maintenance roses and tree recommendations that are broken out by areas of the state. We also list recommended low water use plants. You can find this page at https://hnr.k-state.edu/extension/info-center/recommended-plants/. We also have images of hundreds of the following: – Varieties of iris, daylilies, roses and peonies found in the University Gardens Collection Gardens at https://www.k-state.edu/gardens/gardens/collections/. Annual flowers recommended for Kansas at https://www.prairiestarflowers.com/Prairie_Star_nav.html. Perennial flowers at https://www.prairiestarflowers.com/Prairie_Bloom_nav.html.
If you find something that you would like more information on, you can always call the Extension office at 620-793-1910 or come by the office at 1800 12th Street in Great Bend and we will be happy to help you. Through K-State and your local office, we can help you have a beautiful and productive garden this year using research and knowledge to give you a head start.
Alicia Boor is an Agriculture and Natural Resources agent in the Cottonwood District (which includes Barton and Ellis counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact her by e-mail at [email protected] or calling 620-793-1910.
U.S. Marshals capture Kansas man wanted in two federal cases
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon wanted in two federal cases.
On Thursday, the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Apprehension Task Force and the Kansas Highway Patrol arrested Ryan Michael Hawley, age 29, in Topeka.
According to a media release from the U.S. Marshal’s service, Hawley was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service for Violations of Supervised Release on two federal cases; escape, and felon in possession of a firearm. Hawley has pending state charges of fleeing and eluding, interference with a law enforcement officer, and he is also a suspect in an attempted robbery and a recent drive-by shooting. Hawley had allegedly made threats to shoot law enforcement and has been involved in numerous recent police pursuits, successfully evading arrest until today. Hawley has an extensive and violent criminal history including weapons offenses, assaults, and escape.
During their investigation, the Fugitive Task Force located Hawley at the Relax Inn, 3802 S. Topeka Blvd. in Topeka, KS. Hawley was observed by the Fugitive Task Force as he exited the motel room and entered a nearby vehicle. The Fugitive Task Force and the Kansas Highway Patrol were conducting a coordinated vehicle takedown when Hawley attempted to flee the motel property. During his attempt to elude law enforcement, Hawley struck multiple vehicles on the motel property before task force members were able to pin Hawley’s vehicle, preventing him from escaping apprehension. Hawley was taken into custody and a loaded handgun suspected to be fully automatic was recovered in the vehicle. Hawley is awaiting further federal court proceedings.
Hawley has previous convictions for interference with law enforcement, theft and for an aggravated weapons violation, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Cold, wet Friday
Friday Snow, possibly mixing with freezing rain after 11am, then gradually ending. High near 22. East northeast wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Friday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 14. Wind chill values as low as 3. East wind around 8 mph.
SaturdayMostly cloudy, with a high near 30. Wind chill values as low as 3. Southeast wind 8 to 13 mph.
Saturday NightA chance of snow and freezing rain before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. East wind 6 to 9 mph becoming northwest in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
SundayMostly sunny, with a high near 31.
Sunday NightPartly cloudy, with a low around 11.
Man accused of binding dog, tossing him out in the cold
JEFFERSON COUNTY (AP) A man faces charges accusing him of binding a dog’s legs and mouth with tape and throwing the animal into a ditch, where it was found 12 hours later in the bitter cold.
Jefferson County Missouri Sheriff Dave Marshak on Thursday announced the arrest and charges against 39-year-old Paul Garcia of Barnhart. He is jailed on $50,000 bond on charges of animal abuse and armed criminal action.
The rescued black and brown dachshund, Jimmy, is improving.
The small dog was found early Saturday along Highway M. Marshak says electrical and duct tape was wrapped around Jimmy’s mouth and muzzle; the front legs were bound together by tape, as were the back legs.
A deputy found the dog. Authorities believe Jimmy had been at the spot for around 12 hours.
Russell man arrested on suspicion of child pornography
On Thursday, special agents of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation arrested a Russell man for his alleged involvement with child pornography.
On Thursday at approximately 11:30 a.m., Kenneth D. Herd, 54, Russell, was arrested at Enersys where he was employed in Hays, according to the Sedgwick County booking report.
Herd was arrested for transportation of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The crimes are alleged to have occurred in Lyons.
The arrest follows a Jan. 30 federal grand jury indictment for the child pornography related offenses. After his arrest, Herd was transported to Wichita where he was booked into the Sedgwick County jail.
The United States Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case.
Lawsuit launched to protect imperiled Lesser Prairie Chicken
WASHINGTON— Conservation groups filed a notice today of their intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to protect severely imperiled lesser prairie chickens under the Endangered Species Act.
The groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the birds in September 2016. The agency promised to make a decision on that protection by the end of summer 2017, but failed to do so.
“The Trump administration’s foot dragging is placing these unique, dancing birds at serious risk of extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Endangered Species Act has saved more than 99 percent of the species under its protection. It can save the lesser prairie chicken too, but only if the birds are listed as a threatened or endangered species.”
In 2014 the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened. But protection was overturned on procedural grounds after a lawsuit from the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and four counties.
The bird lives in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. It is severely threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation caused by oil and gas development, cropland conversion, livestock grazing and roads and power lines.
“Listing the lesser prairie chicken as threatened or endangered is the first step toward recovering this iconic species,” said Jason Rylander, senior counsel at Defenders of Wildlife. “The lesser prairie chicken has waited long enough for Endangered Species Act protection. It’s time for the Trump administration to act.”
In addition to habitat loss, the lesser prairie chicken is threatened by climate change. The summer of 2011 saw some of the hottest and driest conditions on record in the Southern Plains, with ground temperatures exceeding 130 degrees Fahrenheit, a critical threshold above which lesser prairie chicken eggs cannot survive.
The following year prairie chicken populations plummeted to their lowest levels in decades. Overall, global warming is expected to drive a four-fold increase in the number of 100-plus degrees days on the Southern Plains.
“These incredible birds deserve better than continuing neglect from the Trump administration,” said Taylor Jones, an endangered species advocate at WildEarth Guardians. “Threats from climate change and habitat loss continue to grow, and this species needs the strongest legal protections possible to escape extinction.”
The lesser prairie chicken — an icon of the Southern Plains — once numbered in the millions but has declined to just roughly 38,000 birds across less than 17 percent of its original range. Experts estimate the population of lesser prairie chickens at 3 million birds before the beginning of Euro-American settlement on the Great Plains.
The petitioners are WildEarth Guardians, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With over 1.8 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come.
WildEarth Guardians protects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and the health of the American West.
– SUBMITTED –
Indictment: Kansas couple crashed car into Cabela’s to steal guns
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A man and a woman from Kansas were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of crashing a car into a Cabela’s store and stealing guns, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Kyle Mendez, 29, Kansas City, Kan., and Brenda Tosh, 27, Kansas City, Kan., were charged with one count of conspiring to steal guns from a federally licensed firearms dealer. In addition, Mendez was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of firearms by a convicted felon and one count of transporting a stolen 2014 Dodge Challenger across state lines. The crimes are alleged to have occurred Nov. 6, 2018, in Kansas City, Kan.
The indictment alleges the defendants entered the Cabela’s store in Kansas City, Kan., by crashing a car through an exterior door. Mendez smashed through a locked door to get into the store’s Gun Library. The defendants took long guns from the firearms section of the store and placed them into a shopping cart. The guns included two 12-gauge shotguns, a .22-caliber rifle, a .308-caliber rifle and a .223-caliber rifle.
Before the defendants could get away with the guns, however, law enforcement officers arrived at the store. Tosh was arrested at the scene. Mendez fled from the store and was arrested later.
Upon conviction, the crimes carry the following penalties:
Unlawful possession of firearms by a felon (count one and count two): Up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.
Theft from a federally licensed firearms dealer (count three): Up to five years and a fine up to $250,000.
Transporting a stolen car (count four): Up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000.
Update: Documents raise questions about $17M in Kan. child welfare grants
By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has terminated grants to two nonprofit agencies for services for troubled families and plans to renegotiate the grant terms to four agencies for services for foster children, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced Thursday.
“It was crucial that my administration had the opportunity to review the grants before they moved forward,” Kelly said during a Statehouse news conference. “There were clear flaws and inconsistencies in the grants that were awarded.”
In recent years, the department has faced questions about several high-profile deaths of abused children after DCF was alerted to problems. Until September, some children in state custody slept overnight in foster care contractors’ offices, including a 13-year-old girl who in May was raped in an office.
The grants were awarded to a total of five nonprofit agencies only days before Kelly was elected governor and were to last four years, starting July 1. They committed Kansas to higher spending on services aimed at preserving troubled families and services for abused and neglected children in the state’s foster care system.
Under the grants, the state was set to spend a total of $245 million on foster care services during the budget year beginning July 1. The increase would be $35.5 million, or 17 percent.
The governor said DCF will extend existing contracts for foster care services for another three months, through September, so that it can negotiate the new grants with the four agencies that received them.
Interim DCF Secretary Laura Howard said the department wants to make sure the grants line up with the department’s new focus of working to keep children out of foster care.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said he’s comfortable with the changes if DCF is getting “a better deal” for taxpayers and its clients while avoiding lawsuits.
“I’m just assuming she’s got those bases covered,” Denning said.
Kelly said DCF will extend existing contracts for family preservation services for another six months, through the end of this year, so that it can take bids using the state’s normal contracting process. The grants had gone to Eckerd Connects, based in Clearwater, Florida, and Cornerstones of Care, based in the Kansas City area.
Cornerstones President and CEO Denise Cross said in a statement that the decision to take new bids for the family preservation grants was “disappointing” because it was planning to provide “trauma-informed care” for children in northeast Kansas.
But Cross added, “We plan to pursue every opportunity to help ensure safe and healthy communities for Kansas’ children.”
Eckerd was to provide family preservation services in the rest of Kansas, 100 of 105 counties, even though it didn’t apply for work in western and central Kansas.
And more than 13,000 pages of records released to The Star this week by Department of Children and Families show that in the other two areas, the agency’s bids and review scores were considerably lower than the agencies the review panel recommended.
Ellen Standlee, operations director for Eckerd’s Kansas programs, said the state has the authority to cancel the grants “for convenience” and “we respect their decision to do so.”
“Eckerd Connects looks forward to continuing to partner with the Department and serve the children and families of Kansas,” Standlee said in a statement.
___
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas awarded millions in grants to a troubled Florida agency to provide child welfare services, even though it earned low scores in an internal review and didn’t apply for some of the work.
Eckerd Connects was selected last year to provide services in the state’s east, west and Wichita regions under a grant process. In the past child welfare funds were typically distributed through contracts.
For the western region, Eckerd Connects was awarded $17 million, even though it didn’t initially apply. Documents show that in the other two areas its bids were considerably lower than the agencies the review panel recommended.
The Department for Children and Families officials says it’s reviewing the family preservation grants awarded during the previous administration.
Kan. man who threatened to ‘blow up’ White House going to prison
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man accused of threatening to “blow up” the White House has been sentenced to 10 months in federal prison.
A court filing shows Brandon Koss of Wichita was sentenced Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of willful interference with the protective work of a Secret Service agent.
Prosecutors agreed to drop a felony charge of threatening the president after Koss pleaded guilty in December to the lesser offense.
Koss admitted in his plea deal that he called the White House in January 2018, used a profanity when addressing the woman who answered the phone, and said: “I’m going to blow up the White House.” He also admitted that he lied to a Secret Service agent about who made the phone call to the White House.