Ten Fort Hays State University Bachelor of Social Work students were recently inducted into the Epsilon Omicron Chapter of the Phi Alpha National Social Work Honor Society as lifetime members. This is the highest honor that a student can receive in social work education.
“These students have attained academic excellence, and they are dedicated to the idea of the action and service to humanity,” said Kendal Carswell, field practicum director and an assistant professor of social work.
“The students have also demonstrated a commitment to the mission, ethics, standards and goals of the profession of social work,” he said.
Students who received the honor are listed alphabetically by hometown.
ASHLAND: Maddi Guerra
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.: Lucille Partlow-Loyall
DODGE CITY: Claire Albert; Theresa Ochs; and Bailey Schafer
GREAT BEND: Kameko Schultz
KANSAS CITY: Melanie Arellano-Luna
MINNEOLA: Michele Stevens SHARON SPRINGS: Annabelle Seader
SPEARVILLE: Shannon Indiek
Qualification includes social work as a declared major, achievement of senior status in the social work program and a minimum grade point average of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale in both social work courses and overall GPA.
“The purpose of Phi Alpha Honor Society is to provide a closer bond among students of social work and to promote humanitarian goals and ideals,” said Carswell. “Phi Alpha fosters high standards of education for social workers and invites into membership those who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship and achievement in social work.”
FHSU’s chapter is one of over 400 chapters across the United States.
Albert, Indiek, Ochs, Schafer and Stevens completed their course work through the FHSU Bachelor of Social Work cohort program on the Dodge City Community College campus. Cohort courses are taught by FHSU social work faculty, and the opportunity is made possible through a partnership with DCCC. FHSU’s Department of Social Work also has cohorts at Garden City Community College, Seward County Community College, and, beginning this fall, Colby Community College.
Courtesy photoBy KIRBY ROSS Phillips County Review
PHILLIPSBURG — Topeka will be shy one politician next Tuesday, as Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers will host a Town Hall Listening Tour public meeting in Phillipsburg at 5:30 p.m. at the Huck Boyd Center, 860 Park.
The tour is designed to serve as an outreach to rural Kansans and to provide the opportunity for residents to voice their concerns.
Regarding this outreach to north-central Kansas Lt. Gov. Rogers said, “It’s time for elected leaders to be sincere about listening to people in rural communities who’ve been overlooked and taken for granted far too long. We can and will do better.”
In support of the visit to Phillipsburg, Governor Laura Kelly said “Rural Kansas has been overlooked and unheard for far too long. Our towns have been neglected. Today we’re taking an important step toward changing this serious problem.”
As part of their effort to seek out rural Kansans “who’ve been overlooked and taken for granted for too long,” Phillipsburg is one of four western Kansas communities that is a scheduled stop in this round of the Listening Tour and is the one closest in vicinity to Hays.
Both the governor and lieutenant governor state the following will be priorities of the listening tour:
• Developing Rural Housing
• Supporting Rural Hospitals
• Revitalizing Main Street Corridors
• Investing in Rural Infrastructure
• Incentivizing Active Tourism
• Making State Government Work For Rural Kansas
• Supporting Agribusiness
TOPEKA — Washburn University congratulates more than 850 students who were named to the spring 2019 Dean’s List. To qualify for the Dean’s List, a student must be enrolled in 12 hours of graded credits and earn a semester grade point average of 3.4 to 3.99.
Earlier this month, the Office of the Special Counsel publicly recommended that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway be fired for repeatedly violating the Hatch Act, prompting many people to Google what the Hatch Act is (it’s a law that bars federal employees from engaging in political activity in the course of their work) and President Trump to give an interview to Fox News where he stated that, “[I]t looks to me like they’re trying to take away her right of free speech, and that’s not just fair.” (This week, the president tweeted his support for a proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw burning the American flag — an act the Supreme Court has repeatedly held to be a protected form of political expression — thus ending his streak as a First Amendment advocate.)
But back to the Hatch Act for a moment. It was passed in 1939 to prevent federal employees from engaging in partisan political activities, such as endorsing or opposing particular political candidates. It’s grounded in a noble purpose: to protect federal employees from political coercion and ensure their advancement is based on merit and not political affiliation. To that end, federal employees can’t engage in political activity while they’re on duty, in the workplace, or speaking in their official capacity. The letter from the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) pointed out that much of Conway’s recent conduct has fallen into that category, as she’s been making the rounds, “disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media.”
White House counsel Pat Cipollone responded with a letter stating, among other things, that applying the Hatch Act to political activity on social media “has a chilling effect on all federal employees whose fundamental First Amendment right to engage in political and public policy discussions should not be compromised based solely on OSC’s guidance.”
This isn’t the first time the OSC has faced that accusation. Ethics and transparency advocates said more or less the same thing last year, when the agency issued new guidelines that federal employees weighing in on President Trump’s prospects for impeachment or talking about “the Resistance” might constitute political activity. National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon’s exact words were, “This guidance is a broad reach that employees may find confusing. It could unnecessarily have a chilling effect on employees’ First Amendment free speech.”
The “chilling effect” is a concept that comes up a lot when we talk about the First Amendment. Essentially, it means that when a law concerning expression is too vague or too broad, people won’t know exactly when their speech crosses the line and violates it. So, in order to avoid punishment, they’ll avoid speaking at all — a major loss for free expression and healthy public debate.
Practically speaking, this isn’t really a concern when it comes to Kellyanne Conway specifically. President Trump has explicitly stated he will not fire her (the OSC only has the authority to recommend that he do so). She has publicly scoffed at the Hatch Act charges, telling reporters, “Let me know when the jail sentence starts.” She continues to appear in public, making it abundantly clear that nothing will get her to chill.
But it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the impact that laws like this have on other federal employees, most of whom aren’t as protected from consequences as Conway. Henry Kerner, who heads up the OSC, was certainly thinking about this when he recommended that Conway be fired. “In interview after interview, she uses her official capacity to disparage announced candidates, which is not allowed,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. “What kind of example does that send to the federal workforce? If you’re high enough up in the White House, you can break the law, but if you’re a postal carrier or a regular federal worker, you lose your job?”
It’s a reminder that most government employees have severe restrictions on their First Amendment rights. Some of these restrictions are justified — government offices wouldn’t be able to function if they couldn’t discipline employees for speech that interferes with their duties. But there are plenty of examples of this censorship going too far.
Just look at the impact of the 2006 Supreme Court decision Garcetti v. Ceballos, which removed any First Amendment protection for speech that government employees make in the course of their duties. Since then, we’ve seen numerous cases where government employees have been fired for reporting the misconduct of others and whistleblowing about corruption and mismanagement, with no valid free speech claims at all.
Or think about the times when government entities have decided that their employees’ private conduct on social media impacts their official duties— like the incident where a Pennsylvania public school teacher was suspended without pay because someone posted a photo of her with a male stripper to Facebook. Or think of the postal carriers and regular federal workers who avoid political activity altogether because they’re anxious about running afoul of the Hatch Act.
Lata Nott is executive director of the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute.Contact her via email at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @LataNott.
Scroll to the bottom for a map of garage sale locations. Hays Post offers FREE garage sale listings weekly. Having a garage sale next weekend? Click HERE to submit your information.
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1700 Wheatland, Hays
Friday June 21st 4-dark, Saturday June 22nd 8-12
Name brand Boys (L-XL), Women’s/Juniors (S-L), Men’s (XL) clothing and shoes. DVDs and Blu-ray movies (lots), many misc excellent quality household and misc items
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503 W. 39th, Hays
Friday June 21st – 11am-6pm and Saturday June 22nd 8am-12pm
Lots of clothing and shoes in all sizes – women’s, men’s, and girls (newborn-size 10/12). Home decor, kitchen items, barstools, grill, vases, books, adult Halloween costumes, lots of kids toys, booster car seat, kids bikes, kids table, scooter, doll stroller, and so much more.
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308 W. 37th, Hays
Friday, June 21 10 a.m.-?
-Name brand Teen and adult clothing (NIKE, Adidas, PINK, Miss Me) -Household items -Bread machine -Teaching supplies/resources -Coach purses/wallets -Misc. items
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1706 Anthony Drive, Hays
3 day event, Thurs./Fri., June 27th and 28th from 10 a.m until 6 p.m. and Sat., June 29th, 8 a.m. until noon
Toy tractors, glassware, china hutch, treadmill, edger, misc. tools, pole saw, file cabinets, safes, numerous miscellaneous items
A Northwest Leadership Intern is seeking to connect with local nonprofit groups to offer leadership training to youth.
Nikole Cain, a Kansas State University senior, will be in Hays through Aug. 1, and is available to offer leadership courses to youth 12 and older throughout northwest Kansas.
Cain’s workshops focus on developing leadership skills, team building and service.
She is looking for more organizations to work with this summer. She said she can offer anywhere from an hour workshop through an all-day leadership camp.
Although she is based with Extension, she is not limited to 4-H. She said she can work with any local community group, including Scouts, Big Brothers Big Sisters, vacation Bible schools, churches or groups.
The position has been funded through support of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. Counties included within this program are Lane, Ness, Rush, Ellis, Ellsworth, Barton, Russell, Phillips and Rooks. Cain’s services are free. She is only asking partner organizations to provide a small fee for supplies.
She has already conducted a Leaders Rise Up Day Camp in Hays.
“We are really challenging kids to focus on their leadership skills and how they can enhance the living in their communities with that service learning project that they create and design and hopefully after the camp implement within their community,” she said.
The service projects are developed by the kids based on their interests. They can do projects individually or as groups. One group from her first camp decided to make quilts and donate them to a homeless shelter. Another group decided to donate their time to the Humane Society and work to encourage others to volunteer or adopt animals.
“It can look like a lot of thing, but you are just challenging those kids,” she said. “A lot of them this is their first step in leadership. They have never taken a leadership role. They are very young. It is challenging to get them to think outside of the box and think of what leadership looks like.”
Cain will offer another leadership day camp for students 12 and older through extension from 9 to 3 p.m. June 25 at the Cottonwood District Extension office in Hays. Cost is $5 per child. The children will need to bring a sack lunch.
Deadline to register for the event is Friday. Call the Extension office at (785) 628-9430 to register.
Growing up in Admire, Kansas, on a 5th generation farm, Cain, 22, has deep roots within agriculture. She was a 12-year 4-H’er and heavily involved within the National FFA organization throughout high school. She is majoring in agriculture education with double minors in leadership studies and animal science.
She will be returning to Hays this fall to student teach under ag teacher Curt Vajnar at Hays High School.
If you are interested in having Cain present about leadership, contact the Cottonwood District Extension office in Hays at (785) 628-9430.
Preliminary estimates reported by the Kansas Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics show a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.5 percent in May. This was unchanged from April and up from 3.3 percent in May 2018.
“Kansas added 600 jobs in May with contributions from both the public and private sectors,” said Secretary Delía García. “Additionally, the previous month’s estimate for April was revised upward by 500 jobs. This puts the average monthly job growth over the last three months at 2,100.”
The jobless rate in Ellis County rose slightly, from 2.3 percent in April to 2.4 percent in May. Rooks County, which has seen a pair of significant economic blows with the woes of the Dessin Fournir and Plainville Livestock Commission, had a steep increase. Unemployment there jumped from 3.6 percent in April to 4.8 percent in May, by far the highest jobless rate in western Kansas.
Only Linn and Atchison counties in eastern Kansas had a higher unemployment rate in May than Roos County.
Seasonally adjusted job estimates indicate total Kansas nonfarm jobs increased by 600 from April. Private sector jobs, a subset of total nonfarm jobs, increased by 100 from the previous month.
“Kansas gained jobs in May despite the above average rainfall that contributed to a slowdown in construction projects. Offsetting these losses were gains in state government and retail trade. Overall, job growth is picking up after a slow start to the year,” said Senior Labor Economist, Tyler Tenbrink.
Since May 2018, Kansas gained 12,900 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs and 10,300 private sector jobs.
Location of Friday’s Rooks County quake -image Kansas Geological Survey
ROOKS COUNTY — A small earthquake shook portions of northwest Kansas just before 6a.m. Friday. The quake measured a magnitude 3.3 and was centered northwest of Plainville, according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
These are the first quakes in the region since a pair of quakes rattled Ellis and Russell County on June 13 and 14.
There are no reports of damage or injury from Friday’s quake, according to the Rooks County Sheriff’s office.
One of the most commonly reported frustrations expressed by physicians today is dealing with prior authorization. Recent national research suggests that prior authorization requirements frequently lead to delayed patient care and can have a negative impact on the clinical outcomes for patients. Now, we also know that physicians in our state share those sentiments.
The Kansas Medical Society (KMS) conducted a survey of its members seeking to identify the impact prior authorization has on physicians and patient care. The results were clear:
97 percent of respondents reported that prior authorization delays access to necessary care
91 percent of respondents indicate prior authorization can have a negative impact on patient clinical outcomes
95 percent describe the burden associated with prior authorization as high or extremely high
96 percent of respondents indicated that the prior authorization has increased over the last five years
The survey results mirror those of a national survey which was conducted by the American Medical Association. KMS replicated the AMA’s survey so we might have state-specific data to help inform our advocacy on behalf of Kansas physicians.
KMS has begun meeting with payers to help them understand the extent of this administrative burden. We will also be sharing with them a set of principles adopted by the KMS Board of Trustees which can help inform positive changes to the prior authorization system.
The Kansas Medical Society is a member-service organization dedicated to improving the environment in which Kansas physicians practice medicine, and to protecting the health of Kansas’ citizens.
TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT), continues to issue public health warnings for five lakes due to blue-green algae. Four lakes are currently on watch status.
Current Warnings:
Big Eleven Lake, Wyandotte County (unchanged)
Jerry Ivey Pond, Saline County (unchanged)
Keith Sebelius Reservoir, Norton County (unchanged)
Marion Reservoir, Marion County (unchanged)
Overbrook City Lake, Osage County (unchanged)
When a warning is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:
Lake water is not safe to drink for pets or livestock.
Lake water, regardless of blue-green algae status, should never be consumed by humans.
Water contact should be avoided.
Fish may be eaten if they are rinsed with clean water and only the fillet portion is consumed, while all other parts are discarded.
Do not allow pets to eat dried algae.
If lake water contacts skin, wash with clean water as soon as possible.
Avoid areas of visible algae accumulation.
Current Watches:
Lake Shawnee, Shawnee County (new 6/20)
Marion County Lake, Marion County (unchanged)
Strowbridge (Carbondale East), Osage County (new 6/20)
Webster Lake (Webster Reservoir), Rooks County (new 6/20)
A watch means that blue-green algae have been detected and a harmful algal bloom is present or likely to develop. People are encouraged to avoid areas of algae accumulation and keep pets and livestock away from the water.
During the watch status, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:
Signage will be posted at all public access locations
Water may be unsafe for humans/animals
Avoid areas of algae accumulation and do not let people/pets eat dried algae or drink contaminated water.
Swimming, wading, skiing, and jet skiing are discouraged near visible blooms
Boating and fishing are safe. However, inhalation of the spray may affect some individuals. Avoid direct contact with water, and wash with clean water after any contact.
Clean fish well with potable water and eat fillet portion only.
KDHE samples publicly-accessible bodies of water for blue-green algae when the agency receives reports of potential algae blooms in Kansas lakes. Based on sampling results, KDHE reports on potentially harmful conditions.
Kansans should be aware that blooms are unpredictable. They can develop rapidly and may float around the lake, requiring visitors to exercise their best judgment. If there is scum, a paint-like surface or the water is bright green, avoid contact and keep pets away. These are indications that a harmful bloom may be present. Pet owners should be aware that animals that swim in or drink water affected by a harmful algal bloom or eat dried algae along the shore may become seriously ill or die.
