When the opportunity of a life time presented itself, three Fort Hays State University students decided to go where none of them had ever gone before: China.
The students jetted off to study abroad at Sias International University in Xinzheng, China, visiting major cities in the first week and attending language and culture classes during the last two weeks.
“China is a complete 180 from Kansas,” said Spencer Delgado, Garden City junior. “I feel like I gained knowledge and a diverse opinion about another culture.”
“I really enjoyed the classes we took,” said Lizette Avalos, Liberal senior. “The teachers molded them to fit our interests while still teaching us a new language and Chinese culture. We were sore for weeks after learning kung fu.”
The students were selected for the program based on an application and interview process. FHSU President Mirta M. Martin provided funds for the airfare, and Sias International University provided meals and accommodations. The only cost for the students was additional tours and trips.
“The Summer Palace in Beijing was my favorite site,” said Carly McCracken, Goodland junior. “It was the perfect mixture of human architecture and nature. Also, taking a paddle boat out on the massive lakes was really fun.”
“The Great Wall of China was amazing,” said Delgado. “It felt like walking back in time on a piece of history.”
“It was cool that the Chinese history we learned in our classes tied into the places we visited,” said Avalos. “We weren’t just traveling, we were learning.”
While at the university, they met other students from around the world.
“I really enjoyed hanging out with our cultural partners,” said McCracken. “We even shared some of our mid-western culture by teaching the Korean students participating in the program how to swing dance.”
“Spencer celebrated a birthday when we were over there,” said Avalos. “We sang him ‘Happy Birthday’ in all of our native languages: English, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean.”
FHSU offers the study abroad program at Sias International University every year for three students selected from those who meet the requirements.
“Seeing Hammond Hall on their campus made me realize what an impact our university has made,” said Avalos. “FHSU is beyond Hays, America, and it was amazing to see that firsthand.”
“This was a fantastic opportunity for me offered by FHSU, and every student should take advantage of it,” said McCracken. “Life is too short to live in a tiny corner of the world.”
The Clean Power Plan recently announced by President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by almost one-third over the next 15 years. Tucked into the plan’s thousands of pages is language that makes it even less likely that a new coal-fired power plant will ever be built in southwest Kansas.
Sign at the entrance to the Holcomb Generating Station, where the proposed expansion remains a plot of bare dirt. Photo by Bryan Thompson, KHI
For 15 years, Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corporation has been trying to expand its coal-fired power plant near Holcomb. But even though the project has been designed and redesigned, for a variety of reasons the site is still just bare dirt. And with the new federal greenhouse gas rules for power plants, there’s serious doubt that construction will ever take place.
“Long-term either way, there will not be any new coal plants built in Kansas, and Holcomb 2 is dead, other than getting an official stamp on it,” said Bill Griffith, energy chair for the Kansas Sierra Club.
The Holcomb expansion was approved in 2010 as part of a compromise that also included the establishment of the state’s renewable energy standards. Legislators softened those standards to statewide goals during the 2015 session.
Sunflower officials say they’ve not abandoned the project and a multi-state legal challenge to the new EPA rules is still pending. But if the federal regulations survive the courts any new coal-fired power plants would likely have to employ expensive technology to trap carbon emissions and store them underground. That would make them less cost-competitive than cleaner energy sources like natural gas, wind and solar.
The EPA’s new rules for power plants are intended to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists worldwide have tied to global climate change. They cover more than 3,000 pages, and for the first time the rules say that if the Holcomb plant is ever built, it would likely be regulated as a new plant, rather than an existing one.
That distinction makes a big difference.
“It matters a lot whether Holcomb is classified as a new or an existing power plant,” said attorney Anna Sewell, with the environmental law firm Earthjustice. “As a new source, Holcomb would have to have absolute limits in its operating permit on the amount of carbon dioxide that it can emit.”
The limits in the final Clean Power Plan are not as strict as those in the version originally proposed last year. But Sewell said the slight increase in allowable emission won’t likely matter. That’s because, as designed, the Holcomb facility would be by far the largest carbon dioxide emitter in Kansas.
“Holcomb would have a very hard time meeting that limit, unless it used something like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, which is very expensive, and which Sunflower has not proposed using for Holcomb,” said Sewell.
The new plant might still be viable if Sunflower officials could convince the EPA to treat the expansion of their Holcomb generating facility as an existing plant. That would allow state environmental officials flexibility to meet a statewide emissions target without imposing a firm limit on the new plant.
“So, for example, if Holcomb 2’s emissions are too high to meet the existing source standards, Kansas can offset those emissions with other things like new renewable resources, or new energy efficiencies,” said Sewell.
Sunflower officials had argued that all of the design and engineering work that has already gone into planning the expansion made it an existing plant. But the EPA appears to have rejected that argument, stating in reference to Holcomb and two other plants, that the agency is “unaware of any physical construction activity” at the site and therefore it would “likely” be considered a new plant if constructed.
Still, utility officials aren’t yet willing to concede that the proposed rule would close the door on the expansion project. Sunflower spokesperson Cindy Hertel declined to be interviewed, but said in an email that the company was still evaluating the new rule.
For now, Sunflower’s best hope might rest with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. He has joined his counterparts in 15 other states to ask the EPA to delay the new rules until the courts can review them.
“It appears from the EPA’s own summary that the Obama Administration has failed to accommodate the comments that were offered by my office, the Department of Health and Environment, the Kansas Corporation Commission, and nearly four-and-a-half million others regarding the EPA’s massive restructuring of state economies by regulating the generation and dispatch of energy to consumers and businesses.” Schmidt said.
Schmidt and his counterparts in other states recently prevailed in a separate case against EPA regulation of other types of power plant emissions, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling 5-4 that energy cost must factor into any such rules the federal agency makes.
Schmidt and the other attorneys general argue that transforming the way energy is generated should be a matter for elected leaders, not federal bureaucrats. Environmental groups say they’re confident that the new Clean Power Plan will withstand any legal challenges. Either way, the prospects for Sunflower Electric’s Holcomb expansion appear dim. In the Clean Power Plan, the EPA addressed the possibility of the Holcomb plant and a couple of others actually being built and operated.
“It appears that the possibility of these plants actually being built and operating is too remote,” EPA officials wrote. “The EIA (Energy Information Administration) projects that few new coal-fired EGUs (Electric Generating Units) will be constructed over the coming decade and that those that are built will apply CCS, reflecting the broad consensus of government, academic, and industry forecasters. The primary reasons for this projected trend include low electricity demand growth, highly competitive natural gas prices, and increases in the supply of renewable energy.”
Bryan Thompson is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
The annual faculty convocation at Fort Hays State University welcomed faculty and staff to the new academic year Wednesday with a clear message — the university is changing.
FHSU re-engineering began last year under the direction of President Mirta Martin, and now with many other key positions in the administration in place, and approval for most changes from the Kansas Board of Regents, this year will see new directions in many of its academic and administrative units.
FHSU Provost Graham Glynn addresses faculty and staff.
This change is necessary to stay viable according to the administration, but has made many feel uneasy at the university.
In response to that concern, FHSU Provost Graham Glynn addressed that concern directly at the convocation.
“I’m scared we’re not moving fast enough,” he said, showing new academic buildings at partner universities in China and highlighting their interest in expanding education within their country.
FHSU has had long partnerships with several Chinese homeland institutions over the years.
Despite the uneasiness from quick and major changes at FHSU, Glynn also informed the audience of some of the many achievements FHSU is expected to accomplish this year, including recorded enrollment, and a ranking of the largest comprehensive graduate school in the state.
During his talk, Glynn also highlighted the need for better communication throughout the university.
“I’m going to ask the faculty to tell me,” he said after announcing a workload task force will be created to evaluate each department’s student credit hours by department, rather than a university-wide number.
That is once piece of the university’s future as future faculty development will also be driven by department and faculty input, rather than directives from the administration.
When hiring faculty Glynn said it will be driven by current staff expectations.
“I want them to be your values and your expectations,” he said.
With new process, departments and expansion, not everything tried will work and Glynn said he expects failure to be a part of the FHSU culture, but that should not be punished.
“Don’t look for blame, look for ways to make things better,” he said.
Astronomer Fred Bruenjes recorded a series of many 30 second long exposures spanning about six hours on the night of Aug. 11 and early morning of Aug. 12, 2004 using a wide angle lens. Combining those frames which captured meteor flashes, he produced this dramatic view of the Perseids of summer. There are 51 Perseid meteors in the composite image, including one seen nearly head-on. Fred Bruenjes-NASA
WASHINGTON (AP) — Want to wish upon a shooting star? The skies over the United States are likely to cooperate for a meteor shower overnight Wednesday.
Astronomers say the lack of moonlight will help people see more of the oldest meteor shower known to Earth, the Perseids.
NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke said the annual show will peak around 3 a.m. local time Thursday. Cooke said if the weather is good, expect one shooting star a minute, maybe more.
Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said the skies will be clear for an unusually large section of the U.S.
The sky show is pieces of Comet Swift-Tuttle hitting Earth’s atmosphere at more than 133,000 mph and burning up. The best way to watch: lie down and look up — no telescopes needed.
Eric Hosmer gives the Royals the early lead with a 2-run HR in the first inning of Tuesday’s game with Detroit (Chris Vleisides).
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Lorenzo Cain went 4 for 4 with a home run and Yordano Ventura pitched six scoreless innings as the Kansas City Royals defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-1 Tuesday night.
Cain, who raised his average to .316, led off the sixth with his 12th homer, a mammoth shot to left field. Mike Moustakas snapped an 0-for-18 drought with a homer to right field with Kendrys Morales aboard in the same inning.
Yordano Ventura struck out eight in the Royals win over Detroit Tuesday (Chris Vleisides).
Ventura (7-7), who is 3-1 since the All-Star break, limited the Tigers to two hits but walked a career-high six. He struck out eight, tying his season high.
Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the first, giving him 21 RBIs in the opening inning.
Kim Rupp, Finance Director, and Bernie Kitten, Utilities Director, discuss sewer rate increases with the Hays City Commission.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Sewer rates in Hays will start going up soon.
City commissioners are scheduled to pick one of two options during their Aug. 13 meeting.
The city plans a $30 million rebuild of the wastewater treatment plant as well as replacement of aging sewer lines. The upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant are mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), and must be in place by Jan. 1, 2018.
Option 1 was presented and recommended July 16 by Patty Kettles of Springsted, Inc., a company hired by the city to conduct a comprehensive study to determine the rate increases. Springsted recommended the monthly sewer base and volumetric user rates be increased 17 percent August 1, 2015, 15.5 percent annually during 2016-2020, and 12 percent in 2021.
“The governing body, understandably so, thought those were pretty high adjustments,” said City Manager Toby Dougherty.
Commissioners asked for “other options to achieve the same thing.” After another round of research, city staff presented four other options during the Aug. 6 work session. Staff recommended Option 2 with the monthly sewer base and volumetric user rates increasing 15 percent September 1, 2015, another 15 percent annually during 2016-2020, and finally, another 12 percent hike in 2021.
Option 2 for sewer rate increases
Option 2 would allow the city’s sewer fund to drop below $500,000, something Springsted advised against. After other discussions, Dougherty, City Finance Director Kim Rupp and the city’s financial advisor felt comfortable about it. “We do have discretionary monies available if it dips down. We can supplement that on a one-time basis,” Dougherty said.
After Rupp presented Option 2 last Thursday, commissioners started re-thinking Option 1. “Option 2 is cumulatively 10 percent less (highest monthly fee) than Option 1,” Rupp explained, “from $36.44 a month to $35.05 a month.”
Option 1 for sewer rate increases
Commissioners Shaun Musil and Lance Jones both said they now favor Option 1.
“I can go for a little higher increase overall,” Jones said. “You’re talking about a $1.50 higher more or less and we have a million dollars in the bank at the end of it (rate hikes).” Jones also pointed out the Option 1 hikes are still lower than those in Options 3 and 4.
Vice-mayor Shaun Musil asked that Options 1 and 2 be presented at the Thursday, Aug. 20 city commission meeting, with the expectation that one or the other will be approved and set into motion. Commissioner Henry Schwaller was absent from last week’s work session.
Hays residential users currently pay $13.53 a month for an average 500 cubic feet sewer usage, one of the lowest rates in the state. Click here to see the four rate options.
After five years of operation, Styles Dance Centre is ready to expand, and they are set to do just that in a big way, with work currently occurring on a new studio at 1501 Main.
The building has housed many different business over the years, having been an True Value hardware and most recently a Chinese grocery. But the space – around 9,000 square feet – is an ideal space for a dance studio, said owner Alyssa Dechant. And the upgrade couldn’t come at a better time for Styles, as she has quickly outgrown her current location at 2101 E. 13th.
“We are just out of space,” Dechant said. “We have just outgrown it.”
In the last few years, the number of students in her studio has exploded, something she attributes to the popularity of dance in Hays.
“It’s huge in Hays,” she said. “For as small as (Hays) is, I think it really big. It’s a really popular thing.”
Dechant has 90 competitive students and well over 150 in her recreation program.
While the need to expand is not new – she has been looking for over a year – Dechant said waiting for the right location was more important than moving quickly.
“We weren’t going and seeking it out, but if one came along, we were definitely going to do it,” she said.
The new studio fit the criteria Dechant was looking for with adequate space, good location and a good price.
The new building was purchased for around $250,000, she said, but she believes it is money well spent as many students view the studio as “their second home.”
Remodeling is currently taking place that will convert the open area within the new building into a lobby, break room and four studios.
The 13th Street location had only two studios.
The increase in size will also allow Dechant to expand the number of students, with a plan to hire more instructors as well.
With so many variables in play, Dechant is unsure when the move to the new space will occur, but is hopeful to be moving by Christmas.
For Dechant, dance is more than just a business opportunity, it is a way of life.
“I just loved it my whole life. I’ve danced my whole life since I was 3 years old, and it’s always been a passion of mine,” Dechant said. “Not a whole lot get to live out their dreams, but I’ve been fortunate enough and blessed enough to do that.”
Hays Medical Center welcomes four new physicians to their medical staff. Drs. Michael Albrecht, Jerod Grove, Arbin Katwal and Derek Yarmer began their duties August 1.
Albrecht, who specializes in internal medicine, is a native of Herington, Kansas, and is working at Medical Specialists. He completed medical school at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Wichita. He also completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Colorado in Denver.
Grove, who is a surgeon, joined the Southwind Surgical group at HaysMed. He completed medical school and a surgery residency at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City. Grove is originally from Dodge City.
Katwal, is seeing patients at HaysMed Debakey Heart Institute and is an interventional cardiologist. He completed medical school at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. He completed an internal medicine residency at Palmetto Health, University of South Carolina in Columbia and fellowships in general cardiology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and interventional cardiology at Loyola University medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. He is board certified in general cardiology, nuclear cardiology, adult echocardiography and internal medicine.
Yarmer is a native of Albert, Kansas, and will be working in the Emergency Department. He completed medical school at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City and an emergency medicine residency at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
In 1976, French filmmaker, Marc Schindler spent one month in the city of Hays shooting “A Quiet America.” Thirty-nine years later, Marc has returned to Hays to visit some of the people who were in the film.
In the latest Community Connection, Eagle’s Mike Cooper finds out why they chose Hays, Kansas, as their location.
The Hays Area Planning Commission will hold a Special Meeting on Monday, August 10, 2015, at 6:30 p.m. in Commission Chambers at City Hall, 1507 Main.
City staff will present various sections of the updated zoning and subdivision regulations draft for discussion and comment.
According to Hays Planning, Inspection and Enforcement Superintendent Jesse Rohr, comments are to be submitted to the consultant by September 1, 2015, for the draft of the rewrite of the zoning and subdivision regulations.
Click here to see the most up-to-date draft regulations.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alex Rios beat the tag at the plate on a grounder in the eighth inning and the Kansas City Royals edged the Chicago White Sox 5-4 Sunday for a three-game sweep.
The Royals have won three straight games by one run for the first time since August 2012.
Kendrys Morales hits a 2-run homer to put the Royals up 3-0 Sunday vs. Chicago. (Chris Vleisides)
Kendrys Morales hit a two-run homer that put Kansas City ahead 3-0 in the first.
It was 4-all in the eighth when Rios singled with one out off Jeff Petricka (3-3) and Paulo Orlando followed with a ground-rule double. Omar Infante hit a grounder to first baseman Jose Abreu, and Rios slid home ahead of the tag.
Kelvin Herrera (3-2) picked up the victory despite blowing a save and giving up the tying run in the eighth on Melky Cabrera’s RBI single with two outs. Ryan Madson pitched a spotless ninth to earn his second save in four chances.
Business owners and salaried employees could see significant changes should a proposed U.S. Department of Labor rule change go into effect.
The DOL last month announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act and extend overtime protection dramatically.
Currently, an American worker must earn a minimum of $23,660 a year and pass a series of duties tests to be considered “exempt” — or salaried. The proposed change would increase that minimum to $50,440.
Hourly workers are required to be paid at least minimum wage for the first 40 hours they work in any week, and time-and-a-half for all hours worked after 40.
The change will also create a mechanism to regularly re-revaluate that minimum salary for salaried workers.
According to the White House, the rule would provide overtime protections to 5 million American workers in the first year of implementation.
“Since 1940, the Department’s regulations have generally required each of three tests to be met for one of the FLSA’s white collar exemptions to apply: (1) the employee must be paid a predetermined and fixed salary that is not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of work performed; (2) the amount of salary paid must meet a minimum specified amount; and (3) the employee’s job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative or professional duties as defined by the regulations,” according to the DOL.
Common exempt professions — each of which carries minimum salary regulations, as well — include commissioned sales employees, farm workers, some computer professionals and drivers, and management positions.
The DOL is in the middle of a public comment session on the new overtime regulations. The public has until Sept. 4 to comment.
Click HERE to visit the public comment submission page.
Missouri and Kansas have done little to fund tobacco control and prevention efforts, a factor in their bottom-half-of-the-class ranking in a report by the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action network. CREDIT WIKIMEDIA — CREATIVE COMMONS
Kansas and Missouri are in the bottom half of the class in a new report from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.
The report, “How Do You Measure Up,” judges states on a variety of policies related to cancer control and prevention. It uses a traffic signal color scheme to indicate state legislative progress: green for a positive trend, red for serious shortcomings and yellow for somewhere between.
Twenty-five states, including Kansas and Missouri, have reached benchmarks in only two or fewer of the 10 legislative priority areas measured in the report.
Kansas received a green rating for two measures: cancer pain control policies and a statewide ban on smoking in most public places, which has been in effect for five years.
Missouri fared worse, receiving no green ratings.
Kansas got a yellow rating for its tobacco taxes, even though lawmakers approved a 50-cent per-pack increase this year. That’s because the Kansas cigarette tax rate of $1.29 per pack is still below the national average of $1.59.
Missouri got a yellow rating for Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation, pain policy and access to palliative care.
Kansas got a red rating for six other policy areas in the report: Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation services; funding for tobacco control programs; indoor tanning restrictions; increased access to Medicaid (the state is one of 20 that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act); state funding for breast and cervical cancer screening; and access to palliative care.
Missouri likewise fell short in six policy areas: cigarette tax rates (it has the lowest in the nation, at 17 cents a pack); smoke-free laws; tobacco prevention funding; indoor tanning restrictions; breast and cervical cancer early detection; and increased access to Medicaid (Missouri, like Kansas, has not expanded Medicaid eligibility).
Reagan Cussimanio, government relations director in Kansas for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said Kansas has underfunded tobacco control and prevention for years.
“We are just under $1 million and have been at that level for a number of years,” she said. “The CDC recommends funding for a state such as Kansas be closer to the area of $27 million. Only when you tackle tobacco use through a comprehensive approach can we really effectively overcome the country’s tobacco epidemic.”
Cussimanio said lawmakers should not see funding for these programs as just an expense.
“This is a return on investment,” she said. “When you’re investing in prevention, you are ultimately reducing your expenditures on Medicaid. You’re reducing your expenditures in other areas.”
Another top priority for Cussimanio’s group is for Kansas to make tanning beds off-limits to anyone younger than 18. She said the number of young people using tanning beds has been rising for the last two decades. So has the number of Kansas diagnosed with melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.
“People who use an indoor tanning device before the age of 35 actually end up increasing their risk for melanoma by 59 percent,” she said.
The report may not have a direct bearing on efforts to win National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer cetner designation for the University of Kansas Cancer Center. However, Cussimanio said making progress on policies to reduce the use of tobacco in Kansas would help to demonstrate that the state is serious about attacking cancer.
An estimated 14,400 Kansas will be diagnosed with cancer this year and 5,510 will die from it, according to Cussimanio. Nearly half of all cancer deaths in the United States are preventable with cancer-fighting policies like those outlined in the report, she said.
Bryan Thompson is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
