BARTON COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just after 1p.m. Monday in Barton County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Chevy Camaro driven by Alma A. Garay-Garay, 20, Great Bend, was southbound on U.S. 281 just north of SW 30th.
The Camaro rear-ended a 2018 Chevy pickup driven by Bruce L. Heller, St. John, that was stopped in road construction.
Garay-Garay was transported to the hospital in Pratt. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP. Heller was not injured.
Friends,
As summer is wrapping up and kids are preparing to return to school, I’m happy to be back in the district holding meetings and events with all of you. While Congress is not in session, that does not mean the work in Washington has stopped. Just last week, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) strengthened the Medicare program by finalizing its National Coverage Determination for innovative new cancer therapies that will help our seniors.
I was honored to work with CMS Administrator Seema Verma to lead this effort. Back home, this decision will ensure coverage for Kansas patients receiving care at the Cancer Center of Kansas, The University of Kansas Cancer Center, and other certified sites of care.
To learn more about this important issue and the work being done to protect our seniors, Click Here.
SBA Offers Disaster Assistance
The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced low-interest federal disaster loans are available to Kansas businesses and residents affected by flooding that occurred June 22 – July 6, 2019. The disaster declaration makes SBA assistance available in Butler, Chase, Dickinson, Harvey, Marion, McPherson, Morris and Saline counties.
Low-interest federal disaster loans are available to businesses of all sizes, most private nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters whose property was damaged or destroyed by this disaster. An outreach center will be open on the days and times indicated below. No appointment is necessary.
MARION COUNTY
Disaster Loan Outreach Center
Civic Center
West Community Room
118 East Grand Ave.
Hillsboro, KS 67063
Opens 8 a.m. Tuesday, August 6
Mondays – Fridays, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Closes 5 p.m. Thursday, August 15
Applicants may apply online, receive additional disaster assistance information and download applications at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email [email protected] for more information on SBA disaster assistance. Individuals who are deaf or hard‑of‑hearing may call (800) 877-8339. Completed applications should be mailed to U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155
The deadline to apply for property damage is Sept. 30, 2019. The deadline to apply for economic injury is May 1, 2020.
USDA Invests in Rural Infrastructure Improvements
The USDA announced the agency is investing $181 million across 10 states, to upgrade electric systems, including financing for smart grid technologies that improve system operations and grid security.
Of those due to receive funding, Ninnescah Rural Electric Cooperative Association in Pratt will receive $6.5 million for building and improving 89 miles of electric line. Ninnescah provides electric services to over 4,200 customers in Kansas. These improvements are critical to building and expanding electric infrastructure in rural communities.
New Funding for Community Health Centers
Last week was National Health Center Week, which is an annual celebration to raise awareness about the mission and accomplishments of American health centers over the past five decades.
As part of this celebration, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the agency is awarding $400 million dollars to improve mental health services and combat the opioid epidemic. $200 million of this award will go to community health centers (CHC) which are vital to the health of rural communities. These investments will enable CHCs to expand access to integrated substance use disorder and mental health services.
Seventeen health centers in Kansas will receive a total of $2,839,000, or $167,000 each, to support more patients and expand services. Funding will go towards hiring more mental health professionals, professional development and training, and IT and telehealth services.
Additionally, funding will go to efforts to defeat the opioid epidemic, by empowering communities through outreach and partnerships with local organizations.
To see the full list of awardees from Kansas, please Click Here.
Kansas Community College Ranked Best in U.S.
Hale Library Opening
Shannon’s Stars Competes at National Baton Twirling Championship
Volunteers Needed!
My office is looking for volunteers to help out at my booth at the Kansas State Fair on Friday, September 6, through Sunday, September 15. Volunteers are needed to hand out fliers and take down contact information from constituents with questions.
Gate admission and WiFi will be provided – couples are welcome! If you are interested, please contact my District Director, [email protected] for more info.
Dr. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, is the First District Kansas Congressman.
Last week’s inspection results from the Kansas Department of Agriculture:
Darren’s Meat Market 1010 East 29th St., Hays – Aug 5
A licensing inspection found no violations.
Southside Convenience 703 Vine, Hays – Aug 5
A follow-up inspection found no violations.
Flash Book Sale Saturday, August 17, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Gallery Bookstore/Gallery at the Hays Public Library, 1205 Main.
All items individually priced.
The Gallery Book Store will be 1/2 price for Friends members.
Sponsored by Friends of the Hays Public Library.
– SUBMITTED –
USD 489
SABINA HOFFMAN
Where are you from? I’m originally from Manhattan, Kan., but have lived in the Hays/Victoria area for nine years.
KYLE PORTER
Where are you from? Holton, Kan.
NICOLE LINENBERGER
Where are you from? I was born and raised in Stockton, Kan., but my husband and I have lived in Hays since 2007.
BECKY MEAGHER
REBECCA KUEHL
KALEIGH WENTWORTH
Where are you from? I am from Hays.
KAREN WILSON
Where are you from? I am from Oklahoma.
COLE CHERRYHOLMES
Where are you from? I am from Potwin, Kan.
EMALEE TAYLOR
Where are you from? I am from Holcomb, Kan.
FRED WINTER
What did you teach before coming to our district? I just recently completed my second year as the principal at Horton High School. During my 21 years as an educator, I have enjoyed a variety of experiences in the classroom. I have had the opportunity to instruct k-12 health/PE, strength and conditioning, American government, U.S. history, sixth-grade math and science, as well as 7-12 special education. While in the classroom, I have always enjoyed collaborating with other educators, parents, and community members to do what’s best for all students. Outside the classroom, I was involved as a head and assistant in high school football, basketball, track, FCA, and junior/freshman class sponsor.
JENNIFER OLT
Where are you from? Milford, Kan.
CHRISTINA SRAMEK
Where are you from? I am coming to Hays from Great Bend, but I am originally from Walker.
STU BOTT
Where are you from? Perth, Western Australia.
LISA SCHROEDER
Where are you from? I am originally from Garden City.
THERESA CLARK
Where are you from? I am originally from Salina. My husband and I moved to Hays 14 years ago from Alabama.
MEGAN ENGLERT
Where are you from? I’m local, from Hays.
What did you teach before coming to our district? I taught ELA and MTSS at Ruppenthal Middle School in Russell, Kan.
Where in the district will you be located? I will be teaching seventh-grade reading at Hays Middle School.
Where did you go to school? I received my English literature and secondary education degrees from Fort Hays State University.
What do you do in your spare time? My spare time is spent having fun with my family and reading.
JESSICA AUGUSTINE
Where are you from? Originally, I am from Ellis, Kan., but I just moved back to the area from Manhattan, Kan.
BRITTANY BALDWIN
Where are you from? I am originally from Jacksonville Beach, Fla.; however, I have lived in Hays for the past 20 years. I love aspects of each location and consider both places home!
ALYSA ERWAY
Where are you from? I am originally from Larned, Kan. Hays has been my home away from home for about four years now!
ERIKA NORRIS
Where are you from? I am from Glade, Kan,, just an hour north of Hays.
CASSY WATSON
Where are you from? I am from Montezuma, Kan.
ASHLEY BUTLER
Where are you from? I’m from Ellis, Kan.
JARED MICK
Where are you from? I am from Ellis, Kan.
HANNAH POLAND
Where are you from? Ellis, Kan., currently, originally from Plevna, Kan.,
HANNAH HESTON
Where are you from? I am from Topeka, but I have lived in Hays for two years.
JACK GARCIA
Where are you from? I am originally from La Crosse
JOHN NEAL
Other new staff members who did not respond to Hays Post’s request for biographical information include:
Gary interviews Jami Seirer of the Kansas Forest Service
RAWLINS COUNTY — Sunday evening’s summer storm brought damaging winds, flooding rain, hail, funnel clouds and one unconfirmed report of a tornado in Rawlins County.
Authorities are still working to determine the amount of damage in Rawlins County. Trees and power poles are down south and west of Atwood and water was also reported out of portions of Beaver Creek, according to the Rawlins County Sheriff’s Department.
In addition to street flooding in Atwood, streets are also flooded in St. Francis, Goodland and other communities in northwest Kansas.
Power is out in portions of Rawlins County. The sheriff’s office indicated they may not have electricity until noon as crews from Midwest Energy and Prairie Land work to restore service.
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Just at the edge of Hays down a little dusty road off Old U.S. 40 sits a modest automotive shop, but out of that non-descript space, comes some highly tuned, fully restored classic cars that would make anyone turn and to notice.
“Primarily, we are in the business of restoring vehicles, so all things automotive,” said Trisha Haskell, who owns Show Me Restoration, 1930 Louie Road, with her husband, Jason.
“Jason can do bottom-up work, pretty much anything you can dream up of doing to a car we’re in the business of doing,” she said.
Later this year, the effort of the shop will be highlighted by the Specialty Equipment Market Association in their 35 under 35 awards that will come out later this year.
“To us, it is a big deal,” she said. “We are over the moon to get an honor like that.”
While the business is located in Hays, their clients come from all over the country.
“It’s anybody and everybody,” Haskell said.
She said they work with a community of people that identify with vehicles.
“We have a nice selection of vehicles that we get in that people identify with and want to be restored,” Haskell said.
Those vehicles range from the common old vehicle, such as a Studebaker Goldenhawk, to the much more rare, such as a classic Shelby GT 500 – both currently being restored in their shop.
“The automotive industry is unique in that a lot of people if they find out you do good work, they will travel from all ends of the earth to come find you,” she said. “It’s kind of neat the array of people we get to meet.”
While both Trisha and Jason are transplants to Hays, they grew up in western Kansas. Jason is from Kinsley and Trisha from Garden City.
After Jason was recruited from Northwest Kansas Technical College in Goodland to work in Skeeter’s Body shop in Garden City, the pair met in Garden City and decided they liked Hays. They set up shop in 2013 shortly after moving into town.
“It’s been great. We really enjoy it,” Haskell said.
While Hays might not be the center of the automotive restoration world, being recognized by SEMA shines a light on the shop that will be seen across the world.
“SEMA is known worldwide,” she said. “There is a lot of buzz going on there,” Haskell said.
SEMA is best known for its annual trade show, which will begin on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas.
“We love old cars and restoring them and doing anything with them,” she said. “I think that is what is exciting about SEMA is that it gives a news twist on allowing you to see some of the creative things that people are doing with these resto-mods and that sort of thing.”
Haskell said the organization is a lynchpin in the wide field of car restoration.
“They encompass the entire industry and what everyone is trying to do. It’s nice to have that when you are so specific in a very broad industry such as automotive,” Haskell said.
The SEMA 35 under 35 will come out next month and will feature Jason and his restoration work including what he has done in the automotive industry and where he sees it going she said.
More about SEMA can be found at their website semashow.com.
More about Show Me Restoration can be found on their facebook page, @SMRHAYSKS.
City of Hays
Beginning Monday, the 400 block of West 4th Street between Elm and Ash Streets will be closed to traffic. This work is related to the Elm/Ash/4th Street reconstruction project.
Signs will be in place to direct the traveling public. The traveling public should use caution and if possible, avoid this area.
The City of Hays regrets any inconvenience this may cause to the public. If there are any questions, please call the Office of Project Management at 628-7350 or the contractor, Morgan Brothers Construction, at 432-3104 or 394-1777.
FHSU University Relations
Fort Hays State University’s Jason Harper, senior lecturer and international coordinator for the Departments of English, Global Business English, Computer Sciences and Health and Human Performance, recently presented a talk titled “On a Slow Boat to China: Hiring Challenges to Get Faculty on the Ground in the Middle Kingdom” at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Harper’s presentation focused on his administrative work and discussed how the international faculty hiring decisions made by FHSU are determined through careful consideration of needs of the location, anticipated demand, historic interest, program uniqueness and accreditation constraints.
“These hiring decisions are deliberated on the home campus in conjunction with – and support from – a departmental committee, human resources staff, department chairs, deans and other such on-site representatives,” said Harper.
Harper’s recruitment and hiring processes for FHSU’s off-campus faculty occur through identical methods, just as they are done for on campus faculty.
“I need to develop flexible strategies to weave my way through a quagmire of oftentimes unpredictable tribulations that often trip up these staffing processes,” said Harper.
The Certified Public Accounting firm of Brungardt Hower Ward Elliott & Pfeifer L.C.recently announced the promotion of Kim Bollig, CPA, to associate.
Bollig is a graduate of Fort Hays State University with a B.B.A. in accounting. She is originally from Great Bend and lives in Hays with her husband and two children.
Bollig’s areas of expertise include financial statement audits and tax planning and return preparation.
Brungardt Hower, with offices in Hays and Garden City, serves clients in central and western Kansas.
By Katharine Kosin and Kirsti Kenneth
Freedom Forum Institute
The First Amendment protects all kinds of speech we don’t like, but nothing in those 45 words prevents us from critically evaluating what we believe — or choose to retweet.
El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have now joined the growing list of American cities that have suffered the horrors of mass shootings.
While both investigations are still unfolding, authorities currently believe that the El Paso gunman’s motivations might be explained by a manifesto posted online under his name shortly before the shooting. This manifesto touched on several conspiracy theories, including claims of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and that corporations controlled the government, while also praising a manifesto by the New Zealand mosque shooter that advanced a theory of “white extinction.”
The FBI also has begun labeling such conspiracy theories as domestic terrorism threats. There is renewed public discussion about the potential consequences of conspiracy theories and the presence of places on the internet like 8chan, where users have been known to encourage acts of violence.
When Infowars founder Alex Jones promoted a baseless theory claiming the parents of children slain at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting were “crisis actors,” some of the parents he named became targets of harassment. At a societal level, the spread of conspiracy theories about vaccines or medical treatments can lead to the spread of viruses like measles or Ebola.
Belief in conspiracy theories is not confined to extremists. A study by University of Chicago political scientists J. Eric Oliver and Thomas J. Wood between 2006 and 2011 surveyed Americans about seven common conspiracy theories, ranging from “Barack Obama was born outside the U.S.” to “The U.S. government planned 9/11 to justify war in the Middle East” and “Aircraft vapor trails contain chemical agents being deliberately deployed into the atmosphere.” They found that at least 50 percent of Americans consistently believed in at least one of the seven theories presented.
As First Amendment advocates, we don’t seek to censor conspiracy theories. As ugly and unbelievable as some may be, such views are constitutionally protected from government action unless the speech is deemed an immediate incitement to crime and violence, constitutes a true threat to an individual or causes an immediate breach of the peace. Some conspiracy theories do grow from a seed of truth that deserves closer scrutiny.
Rather than ban production and publication of conspiracy theories, we should educate students and ourselves how to act responsibly and ethically when it comes to this type of content. Pausing to think critically before liking or sharing conspiracy-fueled posts or articles can go a long way toward stopping the spread of damaging misinformation. What constitutes critical thinking in these instances: Asking if claims are supported by facts and evidence, if they come from reliable sources, if they’re meant to entertain, raise awareness or simply inflame? Consider these questions before you act. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 71 percent of U.S. adults trust the information they get from friends and family, so be thoughtful about the content you may be passing on. Not every story is worth endorsing with your text, tweet or share.
But responsibility doesn’t stop there.
While government cannot regulate speech protected by the First Amendment, news creators, social media platforms and tech companies may need to reexamine their practices and regulations. Reporters covering conspiracy theories should weigh the value of the revelations against the added visibility the story will bring to a possibly damaging theory.
Social media platforms must reconsider algorithms that prioritize shocking and outrageous content, surfacing conspiracy theories in front of people who weren’t actively looking for them and enabling their spread. YouTube and Facebook say they’re working to address this.
Cloudflare, a company that protects websites from denial-of-service attacks, has announced it will drop 8chan as a client because it said 8chan had crossed the line from “content that we find reprehensible” to “directly inspir[ing] tragic events.”
There is a range of explanations as to why some people buy into preposterous theories. No matter the root of the belief, once someone accepts one of these theories as true, psychology makes it much more likely they’ll reject any contradictory evidence that comes their way.
In the wake of these latest tragedies, a sense of helplessness often accompanies the grief. But now is not the time to lose heart. Conspiracy theories aren’t going away, but it is possible to help limit their spread and harmful effects.
Contributing to this column were Barbara McCormack, vice president of education at the Freedom Forum Institute, and Pierce McManus, NewseumED’s digital communications and outreach director. Katharine Kosin, NewseumED museum educator, and Kirsti Kenneth, NewseumED’s curriculum developer, can be reached for media inquiries at [email protected].
