Today
Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Patchy fog between 8am and 11am. High near 50. East northeast wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tonight
Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Temperature falling to near 48 by 9pm, then rising to around 54 during the remainder of the night. East wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Columbus Day
Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 10am, then showers between 10am and 1pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. High near 66. South wind 9 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.
Monday Night
Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Low around 47. South southeast wind around 11 mph becoming north northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Tuesday
Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 54. North northwest wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Tuesday Night
A 40 percent chance of showers before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38.
Wednesday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 53.
Wednesday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 36.
Do you make the best German bean dumpling soup, brats, raw burger, bierocks, potatoes and dumplings, hearts, Kuchen, Spitzbuben or any other German delicacy?
If you think you do, now is your chance to prove it at the 2nd annual Katharinenstadt’s Essenfest, a German Food Cook-Off, Sunday, October 21, 2018 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the former Kennedy Middle School cafeteria, 1309 Fort, Hays.
There will be raffle prizes, a mini-bake sale, beer, and live polka music provided by Karl Meis.
The public are the taste testers and the judges! Tickets to enter and taste all entries are $5. Tickets can be purchased by any St. Catherine Christian Mother from September 24th until the day of event at the door.
To enter as a contestant, contact Sarah Shubert at 785-656-2399 call or text message or email [email protected]. You can also get in contact with the Facebook event page – Katharinenstadt’s Essenfest.
TOPEKA – Governor Jeff Colyer officially proclaimed Oct. 7-13, 2018, as Fire Prevention Week in Kansas.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) and Safe Kids Kansas teamed up with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) — the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week™ for more than 90 years — to promote this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire can happen anywhere™,” which works to educate the public about basic but essential ways to quickly and safely escape a home fire.
In Kansas, 100 percent of civilian fire deaths in 2017 occurred in residential structure fires, and there were 2,589 residential fires in Kansas in 2017, resulting in 18 deaths and 214 injuries.
NFPA statistics show that the number of U.S. home fires has been steadily declining over the past few decades. However, the death rate per 1000 home fires that are reported to fire departments was 10 percent higher in 2016 than in 1980.
While people feel safest in their home, it is also the place people are at greatest risk to fire, with four out of five U.S. fire deaths occurring at home. That over-confidence contributes to a complacency toward home escape planning and practice.
“We know that people often make choices in fire situations that jeopardize their safety or even cost them their lives,” Doug Jorgensen, State Fire Marshal, said. “We need to do a better job of teaching people about the potentially life-saving difference escape planning and practice can make and motivating them to action.”
Safe Kids Kansas reminds families that Saturday, Oct. 13, is Home Fire Drill Day. This is an opportunity to plan, talk about and practice your fire plan with all your family members, especially young children, so they know what to do when they hear a smoke alarm.
“Teach children to get low and get out when they hear the smoke alarm,” Cherie Sage, Safe Kids Kansas, said. “A child who has practiced getting out of the home and to a safe meeting spot will have a better chance of getting out of danger safely during a real emergency , so practice your escape plan regularly as a family.”
Jorgensen says this year’s “Look. Listen. Learn.” campaign highlights three steps people can take to help quickly and safely escape a fire.
Look for places fire could start.
Listen for the sound of the smoke alarm.
Learn two ways out of every room.
While OSFM, Safe Kids Kansas and NFPA are focusing on home fires, these fire safety messages apply to virtually anywhere.
“Situational awareness is a skill people need to use wherever they go,” Jorgensen said. “No matter where you are, look for available exits. If the alarm system sounds, take it seriously and exit the building immediately.”
For more information about Fire Prevention Week activities in Kansas, visit firemarshal.ks.gov. To learn more about this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Look. Listen. Learn.” and home escape planning, visit firepreventionweek.org.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a man’s conviction in the drive-by shooting of a woman who had just been married.
Lowery-photo KDOC
The court said Friday that the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office made three errors in the case against 34-year-old Awnterio Dwan Lowery, but concluded they did not deprive Lowery of a fair trial.
Lowery was sentenced to consecutive life terms plus nearly 52 years for the death of 42-year-old Tiffany Davenport-Ray, of Wichita.
Davenport-Ray was fatally shot during the early hours of May 25, 2014.
41-year-old Thomas Earl Brown Jr., also was convicted of Davenport-Ray’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.
A third suspect, 26-year-old Jermel Ramond Robbins Sr., was shot to death in southeast Topeka about three weeks after Davenport-Ray was killed.
TOPEKA — President Donald Trump brought his MAGA Rally to Topeka Saturday. Huge crowds arrived early Saturday to get a seat inside the Landon Arena at the Kansas Expocenter.
During the rally, Trump celebrated the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. GOP candidate for Governor Kris Kobach told the crowd, “Now we want to make Kansas great again.”
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – With the Larimer County, Colorado Sheriff’s Office, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Hodgeman County Sheriff’s Office have mad three arrests in connection to the murder of Bayron O. Diaz-Bautista, according to a media release from the KBI.
Diaz-Bautista was found dead in a field in Hodgeman County on Oct. 1. The preliminary autopsy report revealed Diaz-Bautista died from gunshot wounds.
Emilio Nunez-Bahena, 26, Veronica Nunez, 24, and Emilio Nunez-Torres, 45, were arrested Oct. 6 at approximately 12:30 a.m. in Larimer County, Colorado.
Emilio Nunez-Torres -photo Larimer County
The suspects are from Fort Collins, and were each arrested for first-degree murder. They were booked into the Larimer County Jail without bond. Extradition proceedings are expected.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office will prosecute this case. No further information will be released at this time.
TOPEKA– The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) is planning a spillway repair project at Clark State Fishing Lake – a popular and scenic fishing spot in southwest Kansas. The lake is nestled in a rugged canyon along Bluff Creek in northwestern Clark County about 9 miles south of Kingsdown.
The $1.6 million project is set to begin in December 2018 and will take about six months to complete – depending on weather conditions and any unforeseen issues.
The project is necessary to repair parts of the spillway that have deteriorated or been damaged. There is some surface spalling and loose concrete, seepage through the side spillway walls and rebar and wire mesh is exposed. The concrete crib wall is failing – a lower section is missing, and there is bulging and settling. The project also includes maintenance work on the lower tower outlet gates, erosion repair at the outlet structure, cleaning sediment and brush out of the outlet channel, stabilizing banks on the west lake road and at the east abutment and replacing the low water crossing downstream of the spillway.
The intent is to maintain the lake’s prized fishery throughout the construction. However, the project will require lowering the lake level by 20-25 feet to relieve the hydraulic pressure of water in the soil pushing against the underside of the spillway floor and the side walls. The lake covers about 300 acres with a maximum depth of 36 feet deep when full. There will be about 160 surface acres and a maximum depth of about 15 feet after the drawdown, which should be adequate to maintain the fishery. If everything goes as planned, biologists don’t anticipate a significant impact to the fishery; however, staff will monitor the lake and modify management practices according to the duration of the drawdown, water depth and the runoff entering the lake after the repairs are complete.
Angler access will be impacted, as boat ramps will be unusable during the drawdown. Shoreline access will be available, but caution will be necessary at first because the bottom sediment may be too soft to walk on until it dries. Once the project is complete, the lake will refill naturally, which will depend on runoff from the watershed and to a lesser extent, rainfall directly on the lake.
Once complete, the project will result in a repaired spillway as well as improved fishing opportunities in the future. Growth rates of larger sport fish should increase as fish are crowded during the drawdown, and vegetation that will grow on the exposed lakebed will provide optimal conditions for spawning, fish growth and improved water quality when the lake refills. Additional habitat enhancements include the addition of 130 “Georgia Cubes” – PVC pipe structures that provide cover for a variety of fish – as well as brush and rock piles. Boat ramps will be repaired and some of the rip-rapped fishing jetties will be enhanced, as well.
KDWPT expects this project to ensure the future of this treasured lake and fishery, while providing needed repairs and enhancements.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger for Kansas’ 4th Congressional District exchanged barbs and attacked the character of the other in their first debate of the general election.
photo courtesy James Thompson for congress campaign
Rep. Ron Estes started Friday by pointing to a 2001 incident in which challenger James Thompson pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct for punching a bar patron while Thompson was working as a bouncer. Thompson said the man hit him first.
Estes also brought up a 2000 report that claimed Thompson hit a woman. That case was dismissed after the man who actually hit the woman falsely identified himself to police as Thompson, the Democrat said.
“What’s sad about this, though, is Mr. Estes has used this as an example of something to put out into the public even though he knows the truth of the matter,” Thompson said. “He’s weaponized violence against women as a way to score political points.”
Thompson revisited the subject later in the debate when Estes bemoaned the partisan divide in the confirmation process of federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was narrowly confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday following claims that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted women decades ago.
“I don’t want my daughters to ever be a victim of sexual assault, but I also don’t want my son to ever be a victim of being accused of something he didn’t do and just take it for granted because they’re not doing due process,” Estes said.
Thompson declared Estes’ stance on Kavanaugh “rich,” adding that Estes was “willing to cast aspersions on me with things that are untrue.”
Thompson also criticized Estes for accepting donations from political action committees. Thompson said he doesn’t accept PAC money. The two also clashed over abortion, with Estes saying he would support bills that make sure “we protect life.” Thompson said he would support abortion rights and accused Republicans of not caring about children after they’re born.
Thompson painted Estes as part of a “do-nothing Congress.” Estes said Thompson wants a “big government with higher taxes.”
Estes and Thompson are scheduled to debate again on Oct. 17. The election is Nov. 6.
New this year to the 46th annual Hays Volga German Oktoberfest was the new German Market which operated from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the grass lot just south of North Central Technical College (NCK Tech) on Main Street, across the street from Municipal Park, where the main Oktoberfest event was held.
The German Market sold items such as baked goods, noodles, jams, crafts, and other traditional food and crafts.
Lee Dobratz, director of the Ellis County Historical Society, talked to Eagle Communications’ Mike Koerner about why the German Market was added in 2018.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice Saturday night after the bitterly polarized U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed him. The Senate vote delivered an election-season triumph to President Donald Trump that could swing the court rightward for a generation after a battle that rubbed raw the country’s cultural, gender and political divides.
Kavanaugh was quickly sworn in at the court building, across the street from the Capitol, even as protesters chanted outside.
I voted to confirm the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the #SCOTUS. As I said when I met Judge Kavanaugh, I am confident he will uphold the values of the Constitution to the highest standard.
The near party-line Senate vote was 50-48, capping a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted women three decades ago — which he emphatically denied. Those allegations magnified the clash from a routine Supreme Court struggle over judicial ideology into an angrier, more complex jumble of questions about victims’ rights, the presumption of innocence and personal attacks on nominees.
Acrimonious to the end, the battle featured a climactic roll call that was interrupted several times by protesters in the Senate galleries before Capitol Police removed them. Vice President Mike Pence presided over the roll call, his potential tie-breaking vote unnecessary.
Trump, flying to Kansas for a political rally, flashed a thumbs-up gesture when the tally was announced and praised Kavanaugh for being “able to withstand this horrible, horrible attack by the Democrats.”
The vote gave Trump his second appointee to the court, pleasing conservative voters who might have revolted against GOP leaders had Kavanaugh’s nomination flopped. Instead, “It’s turned our base on fire,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters.
Democrats hope that the roll call, exactly a month from elections in which House and Senate control are in play, will do the opposite, prompting infuriated women and liberals to oust Republicans.
“Change must come from where change in America always begins: the ballot box,” said Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, looking ahead to November.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, confronting a tough re-election race next month in a state that Trump won in 2016 by a landslide, was the sole Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh. Every voting Republican backed the 53-year-old conservative judge.
Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican to oppose the nominee, voted “present,” offsetting the absence of Kavanaugh supporter Steve Daines of Montana, who was attending his daughter’s wedding. That rare procedural maneuver left Kavanaugh with the same two-vote margin he’d have had if Murkowski and Daines had both voted.
Republicans hold only a 51-49 Senate majority and therefore had little support to spare.
It was the closest roll call to confirm a justice since 1881, when Stanley Matthews was approved by 24-23, according to Senate records.
Within minutes, dozens of political and advocacy groups blasted out emailed reactions.
Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, which contributes to female Democratic candidates, assailed the confirmation of “an alleged sexual assailant and anti-choice radical to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. But we will carry that anger into the election. Women will not forget this.”
Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called the vote “a victory for liberty in America” and called Kavanaugh “a good man and good jurist.”
The outcome, telegraphed Friday when the final undeclared senators revealed their views, was devoid of the shocks that had come almost daily since Christine Blasey Ford said last month that an inebriated Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a 1982 high school get-together.
Since then, the country watched agape as one electric moment after another gushed forth. These included the emergence of two other accusers; an unforgettable Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which a composed Ford and a seething Kavanaugh told their diametrically opposed stories, and a truncated FBI investigation that the agency said showed no corroborating evidence and Democrats lambasted as a White House-shackled farce.
All the while, crowds of demonstrators — mostly Kavanaugh opponents — ricocheted around the Capitol’s grounds and hallways, raising tensions, chanting slogans, interrupting lawmakers’ debates, confronting senators and often getting arrested. Capitol Police said 164 were arrested, raising that count in recent days well into the hundreds.
Inside the Senate, resentments fanned by the battle showed no signs of receding.
Schumer called the GOP’s push for Kavanaugh “one of the least transparent, least fair, most biased processes in Senate history.” McConnell said a vote for Kavanaugh showed that the Senate was “a chamber in which the politics of intimidation and personal destruction do not win the day.”
Democrats said Kavanaugh would push the court too far, including possible sympathetic rulings for Trump should the president encounter legal problems from the special counsel’s investigations into Russian connections with his 2016 presidential campaign. And they said Kavanaugh’s record and fuming testimony at a now-famous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing showed he lacked the fairness, temperament and even honesty to become a justice.
But the fight was defined by the sexual assault accusations. And it was fought against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement and Trump’s unyielding support of his nominee and occasional mocking of Kavanaugh’s accusers.
About 100 anti-Kavanaugh protesters climbed the Capitol’s East Steps as the vote approached, pumping fists and waving signs. U.S. Capitol Police began arresting some of them. Hundreds of other demonstrators watched from behind barricades. Protesters have roamed Capitol Hill corridors and grounds daily, chanting, “November is coming,” ”Vote them out” and “We believe survivors.”
On Friday, in the moment that made clear Kavanaugh would prevail, Collins delivered a speech saying that Ford’s Judiciary Committee telling of the alleged 1982 assault was “sincere, painful and compelling.” But she also said the FBI had found no corroborating evidence from witnesses whose names Ford had provided.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has repeatedly battled with Trump and will retire in January, wavered but also backed Kavanaugh.
When Trump nominated Kavanaugh in July, Democrats leapt to oppose him, saying that past statements and opinions showed he’d be a threat to the Roe v. Wade case that assured the right to abortion. They said he also seemed too ready to rule for Trump in a possible federal court case against the president.
Yet Kavanaugh’s path to confirmation seemed unfettered until Ford and two other women emerged with sexual misconduct allegations from the 1980s.
Kavanaugh replaces the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was a swing vote on issues such as abortion, campaign finance and same-sex marriage.
HUTCHINSON— Police say a decomposing body found in the basement of a Hutchinson home at 29 West 16th on Thursday has been identified as 30-year-old Michael Pederson.
The body was found Thursday evening after a tenant complained about a bad smell.
Police Capt. Troy Hoover says investigators found no signs of a break-in or a struggle. Police say an autopsy of the body did not reveal any type of injuries and a results of toxicology report won’t be available for several weeks.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Authorities are investigating fourteen more suspects in connection with a special law enforcement operation.
Michael Brizendine was arrested on weapons and marijuana charges, according to the Sedgwick County Booking report
On Wednesday, approximately 30 police officers and officials with a number of outside agencies including the Kansas Department of Corrections worked together to address criminal activity in the North Broadway Corridor in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
The collaboration resulted in 14 arrests on 10 felony charges and 25 misdemeanor charges.
The investigation also allowed officers to seize an illegal weapon, meth, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to Davidson.
Those arrested include Matthew Johnson-Rudis, Christy Stumblingbear, Levi Outhouse, Seth Harden, Nicholas Pope, Terry Keeler, Kelley Walker, Ronnie Wallace, Pacrecia Curtis, Sammy Langford, Elliot Norton, Mary Bishop Michael Brizendine and Ronnie Goodrun.
About half of young Americans expect to be financially better off than their parents, according to a new poll, a sign that the dream of upward mobility is alive but somewhat tempered.
The poll, by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV, found that half of 15- to 26-year-olds think they eventually will be better off than their parents in terms of household finances. About 29 percent expect to do as well as their parents, and 20 percent expect to be worse off.
Parents were slightly more optimistic: 60 percent think their children will do better than they did, a view that held true for parents across all income groups. Overall, only 12 percent of parents said that they felt their children might do worse.
It’s no longer a guarantee that children will achieve upward income mobility. About half of the Americans born in 1984 earned more at age 30 than their parents, down from 92 percent in 1940, according to the study by famed economist Raj Chetty and others that was released in 2016.
Jennifer Narvaez, 23, is among those who anticipates her financial future will be a bit brighter than that of her parents. Narvaez said she expects to have more opportunities as a college graduate to get a job and own a home than her parents, who grew up in Nicaragua and immigrated to the United States. The Miami resident holds an undergraduate degree in biology and is planning on attending medical school to become a cardiologist.
Narvaez is less certain about the prospects of the U.S. economy, particularly as the nation appears to be marching into a trade war with China.
“It’s a weird time,” she said. “I feel like it’s hard to predict what will happen because of the kind of administration we have.”
Alex Barner, 20, also felt optimistic that he might fare better than his mother, who had him at age 18 and raised him as a single mother. He is attending college in New Mexico and is considering a future career in business management.
While Barner is hopeful he will do well in life, he also has some concerns about the trajectory of the nation and its economy. Like Narvaez, he’s concerned by the trade policy of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Barner also said he feels politicians need to focus more on matters that affect people in the here and now, such as health care and student loan relief.
Respondents were divided about how they expect the nation’s economy will fare in the year ahead. About 29 percent of young people expect the economy to improve, 30 percent expect it will get worse and 41 anticipate it will stay the same. Similarly, 35 percent of parents expect improvement, 27 percent expect conditions to get worse and 38 percent expect the economy to stay as is.
___ The Youth Political Pulse poll was conducted Aug. 23 to Sept. 10 by the AP-NORC Center and MTV. The poll was conducted using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It includes 580 young people ages 15-26 and 591 parents of children in the same age group. The margin of sampling error for all young people is plus or minus 6.6 percentage points and for parents plus or minus 7.5 percentage points.
Today
