Washington’s Birthday Snow likely, mainly between 8am and 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 22. Wind chill values as low as -3. North wind 7 to 9 mph becoming east northeast in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Monday Night A slight chance of snow before 7pm, then a slight chance of snow after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 11. Wind chill values as low as 1. East northeast wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
TuesdaySnow likely, mainly after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 24. Wind chill values as low as zero. East wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Tuesday NightSnow likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 14. East wind 5 to 9 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
WednesdayMostly sunny, with a high near 35.
Wednesday NightMostly clear, with a low around 14.
TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has issued a Do Not Drink Order for the Lane Co. Rural Water District 1 located in Lane County.
The Order took effect on Feb. 18 and will remain in effect until the conditions that placed the system at risk of contamination are resolved. KDHE officials issued the advisory because of a line break resulting in the potential of bacteriological contamination. A secondary water source that is high in nitrates was put into service until the primary well can be returned to use.
Until the line break is repaired the following steps should be observed:
DO NOT GIVE THE WATER TO INFANTS. Infants below the age of six months who drink water containing nitrate in excess of the maximum contaminant level (MCL) could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may die.
Water, juice and formula for children under six months of age should not be prepared with tap water. Bottled water or other water low in nitrates should be used for infants until further notice.
DO NOT BOIL THE WATER. Boiling, freezing, filtering, or letting water stand does not reduce the nitrate level. Excessive boiling can make the nitrates more concentrated, because nitrates remain behind when the water evaporates.
Water should not be ingested or used for brushing teeth. Use bottled water.
Dispose of ice cubes and do not use ice from an automatic icemaker.
Do not use water to cook or prepare food.
Supervision of children is necessary while bathing so that water is not ingested.
The water may be used to flush toilets.
Limited bottled water is being supplied by the system at the Healy Elementary School for those in need.
Regardless of whether the public water supplier or KDHE announced a Do Not Drink Order, only KDHE can issue the rescind order following testing at a certified laboratory.
Restaurants and other food establishments that have questions about the impact of the Do Not Drink Order on their business can contact the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s food safety & lodging program at [email protected] or call 785-564-6767.
The Kansas Department of Transportation will host a public meeting regarding an upcoming multi-phase reconstruction project on a portion of I-70 in Gove County. The meeting will take place on Friday, Feb. 22 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the KDOT sub-area located at 4677 U.S. 40, Grainfield.
The project area covers a 9-mile area starting one mile west of the K-23 spur near Grainfield and ending four miles east of K-211. KDOT will be replacing the pavement on the eastbound lanes in 2019 and westbound lanes in 2020. Project work will also include pavement replacement at the east and westbound rest areas near Grainfield, construction of new right-of-way fencing, lighting installation at exits 95 and 99, and reconstruction of the box structure carrying county road 62 under I-70 into two new span bridges. Gove Road 62 is expected to be closed for several months during the bridge reconstruction. Temporary closures will also occur at exits 95 and 99 as well as the K-23 and K-211 bridges over I-70.
KDOT engineers will be available to outline the construction phasing, provide details on the official state detour and answer questions regarding access to county roads. Construction is expected to begin in March 2019.
The meeting location is ADA accessible. Persons in need of a sign language interpreter, an assistive listening device, large print or Braille material, or other accommodations to participate in this meeting should notify Lisa Mussman at (785) 877-3315 or [email protected].
A beautiful 90-year-old woman came into the emergency room after another fall. The last year had been tough for her as she had developed diastolic heart failure. Her weakness and breathlessness were helped some by diuretics, but she was troubled by extreme variations in blood pressure, high one moment and dangerously low the next. Also, she had a calcified and somewhat tight aortic valve and was on a blood thinner for atrial fibrillation.
Heart disease in the elderly includes a wide variety of conditions. The following is a partial list:
Aging coronary arteries with blockage and subsequent heart attack can be challenging to diagnose because older people don’t always have symptoms to allow intervention.
Calcification of heart valves, especially the aortic valve, can occur with age when tightening of the valve causes progressive failure of the heart’s capacity to push past that obstruction and do its work.
Heart pump weakness involves both the systolic squeeze (which pushes blood flow out of the heart through arteries) and diastolic relaxation (which allows blood flow, from veins, back into the heart). Heart weakness can result from either one or both, as aging heart muscle in the elderly becomes replaced by scar tissue. Extreme variation in blood pressure, high one moment and dangerously low the next can be a sign of diastolic heart problems.
The “broken hart syndrome,” can be a reversible systolic heart weakness caused by severe and prolonged sorrow.
Overactive blood clotting can develop in the elderly causing dangerous blood clots to the coronary arteries, the brain or anywhere. Experts say that up to 80 percent of all deaths in nursing homes result from blood clots.
Falling can cause bleeding and fracture. Falling is often the result of heart disease in general and can happen when the blood pressure drops just after standing. Falls can also occur due to neurological conditions, just plain inactivity or TOO MANY MEDICINES. If you get light headed when standing, tell your doctor, and ask her or him to consider you might be on too many medicines.
The risk of falling was simply too high to continue my 90-year-old patient on blood thinners. I stopped them and backed off a little on the diuretic which could have been worsening her blood pressure drops and causing the falls. The age-old ethic came to mind: “First of all, do no harm.” Balancing the advantages and harms of medicines in the elderly requires careful consideration, and sometime less is best.
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Mostly sunny, with a high near 29. Wind chill values as low as 2. North northwest wind 9 to 17 mph.
Tonight
A 30 percent chance of snow, mainly after 5am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 10. Wind chill values as low as -2. North wind 9 to 11 mph.
Washington’s Birthday
A 50 percent chance of snow, mainly before 3pm. Cloudy, with a high near 21. Wind chill values as low as -3. North wind 8 to 11 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Monday Night
A 20 percent chance of snow after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 11. Wind chill values as low as zero. East northeast wind 6 to 10 mph.
Tuesday
Snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 22. East northeast wind 10 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Tuesday Night
Snow likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 12. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
QUINTER — The new Center Pivot Restaurant and Brewery in Quinter celebrated the first pull Saturday, Feb. 9, of its Cracked Pepper Cream Ale.
The restaurant opened Dec. 17, but brewer Steve Nicholson needed more time to perfect the brewery’s signature craft beer.
He said the inspiration for the ale came from something he had tasted years ago at a beer festival. Nicholson has been home brewing for 20 years, but this his first foray into commercial brewing.
He described the ale as smooth, low on the bittering hops with a golden color and cracked pepper added for seasoning.
“I went with a very easy-drinking style of beer and a unique flavor profile,” Nicholson said. “I put together the recipe in my home brewing efforts, and I am getting to be more comfortable with it in my commercial brewing efforts.”
Seven other craft beers from across the state will be on tap, plus more in cans and bottles.
The Cracked Pepper Cream Ale will be available only at the brewery at Quinter, and at this point, the Center Pivot is not offering growlers.
Brewer Steve Nicholson stirring a batch of the Center Pivot’s signature Cracked Pepper Cream Ale.
The launch of the ale proved popular, Nicholson said. The brewery sold out of its first 13-gallon batch. However, more will be available this week.
The restaurant serves comfort food — burger and fries, steaks and a buffet Thursday through Sunday. The restaurant also offers a full salad bar and desserts, such as homemade cinnamon rolls.
The Center Pivot fills a void in the community not only for a restaurant, but for a gathering space. Attendance was dwindling at the Quinter Senior Center, so the center moved to a smaller building, which opened up its former location, 300 Main, for the Pivot.
The investors spent six months remodeling the building, which had been a restaurant in the 1970s. They used barn wood and concrete floors to give the space a rustic feel.
Since the Center Pivot opened, it has hosted meetings and parties.
“It has been a blessing to have this facility in Quinter at this time,” Nicholson said.
The restaurant hopes to pull diners and beer enthusiasts from a variety of areas, including locals, interstate travelers and those who might see the Center Pivot as a northwest Kansas destination.
“We appreciate all of the help and support the community has given us to get open and be open to this point,” Nicholson said. “I hope we can continue to serve the greater portion of northwest Kansas and anyone else who comes through our neighborhood.”
The ceremonial ‘first pull’ of Cracked Pepper Cream Ale was auctioned at the Gove County Community Foundation’s 50/50 Match Gala in November. The winning bid at the silent auction was Dixie Nicholson, who is pictured here.
Other partners in Center Pivot include Nicholson’s wife, Ericka; Rhonda and Lance Coburn; and Roger and Carrie Ringer.
The Center Pivot kitchen is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays for a buffet. The bar opens at 8 p.m. and closing varies depending on business.
THOMAS COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just before 3p.m. Saturday in Thomas County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Ford pickup driven by Benjamin Mark Dagley, 21, Katy, TX, was northbound in the 2500 Block of Kansas 25.
The pickup rear-ended a 2011 Ford Escape driven by Cheryl L. Womack, Hugoton, that was traveling slow due to the inclement road conditions.
Womack was transported to Citizens Medical Center. Dagley was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
The Hays High School chess team won its first tournament in Concordia on Saturday, Feb. 9. Due to the team’s number of participants, they were able to take two teams to the competition.
The second team won third place overall in the tournament. All of the chess team members from HHS placed individually. The chess club is sponsored by Erin Holder.
SALINA, Kan. – Today, the Vatican announced that former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick has been dismissed from the clerical state. This type of dismissal is specifically known as laicization, a scenario in which a member of the clergy, through the use of the Church’s legal apparatus, is not permitted to act as a priest. He will no longer be permitted to celebrate the sacraments or exercise sacred ministry in the Church.
McCarrick
Last summer, Pope Francis asked that McCarrick live a life of prayer and penance until a thorough investigation of allegations against him took place. He took residence at St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria beginning on September 28, 2018. Mr. McCarrick will continue to reside at the St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria until a decision of permanent residence is finalized.
Bishop Gerald L. Vincke, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salina, said he hopes that this decision may help bring healing to all affected by sexual abuse and those hurt by this scandal.
He also expresses his gratitude to the Capuchins at St. Fidelis Friary for their charity and compassion shown to all who seek refuge in the Church, as well as the remarkable people of Victoria for their mercy in this difficult situation.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing confession and sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Holy See said Saturday.
McCarrick
McCarrick, 88, is the highest-ranking churchman to be laicized, as the process is called. It means he can no longer celebrate Mass or other sacraments, wear clerical vestments or be addressed by any religious title.
The scandal swirling around him was particularly damning to the church’s reputation in the eyes of the faithful because it apparently was an open secret that he slept with adult seminarians. Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation determined that an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible.
The punishment for the once-powerful prelate, who had served as the archbishop of Washington and had been an influential fundraiser for the church, was announced five days before Francis is set to lead an extraordinary gathering of bishops from around the world to help the church grapple with the crisis of sex abuse by clergy and systematic cover-ups by church hierarchy. The decades-long scandals have shaken the faith of many Catholics and threatened Francis’ papacy.
The Vatican’s press office said that on Jan. 11, the Holy See’s doctrinal watchdog office, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, had found McCarrick guilty of “solicitation in the sacrament of confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” The commandment forbids adultery.
The officials “imposed on him the penalty of dismissal from the clerical state.”
McCarrick, when he was ordained a priest his native New York City in 1958, took a vow of celibacy, in accordance with church rules on priests.
The pope “has recognized the definitive nature of this decision made in accordance with (church) law, rendering it as ‘res iudicata,'” the Vatican said, using the Latin phrase for admitting no further recourse.
“Today I am happy that the pope believed me,” said one of McCarrick’s chief accusers, James Grein.
In a statement issued through his lawyer, Grein also expressed hope that McCarrick “will no longer be able to use the power of Jesus’ church to manipulate families and sexually abuse children.”
Grein had testified to church officials that, among other abuses, McCarrick had repeatedly groped him during confession.
Saying it’s “time for us to cleanse the church,” Grein said pressure needs to be put on state attorney generals and senators to change the statute of limitations. “Hundreds of priests, bishops and cardinals are hiding behind man-made law,” he said.
McCarrick moved from his Washington retirement home to a Kansas religious residence after Francis ordered him to live in penance and prayer while the investigation continued.
McCarrick’s civil lawyer, Barry Coburn, told The AP that for the time being his client had no comment. Coburn also declined to say if McCarrick was still residing at the friary in Victoria, Kansas.
McCarrick had appealed his penalty, but the doctrinal officials earlier this week rejected that, and he was notified of the decision on Friday, the Vatican announcement said.
The archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where McCarrick was posted at the pinnacle of his clerical career, from 2001-2006, said in a statement it hoped that the Vatican decision “serves to help the healing process for survivors of abuse, as well as those who have experienced disappointment or disillusionment because of what former Archbishop McCarrick has done.”
Complaints were also made about McCarrick’s conduct in the New Jersey dioceses of Newark and Metuchen, where he previously served.
It marks a remarkable downfall for the globe-trotting powerbroker and influential church fundraiser who mingled with presidents and popes but preferred to be called “Uncle Ted” by the young men he courted.
The Vatican summit, running Feb. 21-24, draws church leaders from around the world to talk about preventing abuse. It was called in part to respond to the McCarrick scandal as well as to the explosion of the abuse crisis in Chile and its escalation in the United States last year.
Despite the apparent common knowledge in church circles of his sexual behavior, McCarrick rose to the heights of church power. He even acted as the spokesman for U.S. bishops when they enacted a “zero tolerance” policy against sexually abusive priests in 2002.
That perceived hypocrisy, coupled with allegations in the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of abuse and cover-up in six dioceses, outraged many among the rank-and-file faithful who had trusted church leaders to reform how they handled sex abuse after 2002.
The allegation regarding the altar boy was the first known to involve a minor — a far more serious offense than sleeping with adult seminarians.
Francis himself became implicated in the decade-long McCarrick cover-up after a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. accused the pope of rehabilitating the cardinal from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI despite being told of his penchant for young men.
Francis hasn’t responded to the claims. But he has ordered a limited Vatican investigation. The Vatican has acknowledged the outcome may produce evidence that mistakes were made, but said Francis would “follow the path of truth, wherever it may lead.”
Vatican watchers have compared the McCarrick cover-up scandal to that of the Rev. Marcial Maciel, perhaps the 20th-century Catholic Church’s most notorious pedophile. Maciel’s sex crimes against children were ignored for decades by a Vatican impressed by his ability to bring in donations and vocations. Among Maciel’s staunchest admirers was Pope John Paul II, who later became a saint.
Like Maciel, McCarrick was a powerful and popular prelate who funneled millions in donations to the Vatican. He apparently got a calculated pass for what many in the church hierarchy would have either discounted as ideological-fueled rumor or brushed off as a mere “moral lapse” in sleeping with adult men.
Christopher Knowlton of the New York Times took a closer look at the new biography of Jame Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok “Wild Bill: the True Story of the American Frontier’s First Gunfighter.”
Included in the book, authored by Tom Clavin, are stories from the early days of Hays and Abilene.
Today
