Today Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. West southwest wind 6 to 14 mph becoming south in the afternoon.

Tonight Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Blustery, with a south southeast wind 7 to 12 mph becoming north 15 to 20 mph in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.

ThursdayPartly sunny, with a high near 28. North northeast wind 9 to 14 mph.

Thursday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 17. Northeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southeast after midnight.

FridayMostly cloudy, with a high near 31. East southeast wind around 7 mph.

Friday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 19.

SaturdayA 20 percent chance of snow before noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30.

BARTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on burglary charges.

On Monday, Rush County authorities received a report of a burglary and theft involving several stolen firearms, according to Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir.

The information was shared with various law enforcement agencies in Central Kansas. Based on the vehicle descriptions  Barton County detectives were able to develop suspect information.

One of the suspect vehicles was located in the city of Great Bend. It was placed under surveillance. A search warrant was later executed at that location but was not fruitful.

On Tuesday afternoon,  sheriff’s detectives stopped a suspicious vehicle west of the City of Great Bend on SW. 20th Road. After contacting the driver of the vehicle officers discovered one of the stolen firearms. Another five firearms were located in southern Russell County from the same burglary.

Arrested at the scene was Alex Roth, age 26 of Great Bend. Roth was placed under arrest on the Rush County burglary and theft charges and released to Rush County.

CONCORDIA — Cloud County Community College and Fort Hays State University signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday morning to update transfer agreement.

The agreement will facilitate the seamless transfer of students from Cloud County to Fort Hays. The agreement supports 19 academic articulation agreements, meaning Fort Hays will honor course credit earned under the approved programs for graduates with a 2.0 cumulative grade point average.

“Updating our transfer agreement with FHSU signifies the strong relationship that we have with the University, and ensures CCCC students will continue to have successful transfer experiences,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs Nancy Zenger-Beneda.

Cloud County has had a long-standing relationship with Fort Hays, the second most popular destination for Cloud County transferring students.

“Kansas Board of Regents data reveals that CCCC students perform better at FSHU than students transferring in from other community colleges,” Zenger-Beneda said. I’m very proud of our faculty and their focus on students’ performance and preparation.”

At Tuesday’s signing, FHSU President Tisa Mason said she was excited for the opportunity to continue the strong relationship with Cloud County.

“For the last six years, Cloud has been one of our top five schools for transfer students,” Mason said. “You share with us a strong commitment to academic quality and student success.”

— CCCC

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Christmas time is fun time in Hays.

Melissa Dixon, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), has some highlights of activities during December.

For updated events, check the community calendar on the Hays CVB website at www.visithays.com.

A man police had been looking for since late October has been apprehended, the Rooks County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday.

Derek Fritz, 36, was arrested by the Finney County Sheriff’s Office on local charges. He also faces charges of absconding from Kansas Department of Corrections parole on a Rooks County warrant.

Fritz was on parole for distribution of meth, felon with a firearm, aggravated robbery and other felony charges. The Rooks County Sheriff’s Office announced the search for Fritz on Oct. 26.

“We want to thank the public for any and all information that was shared, as well as keep the public informed,” the Rooks County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post. “Fritz will also have criminal charges out of Rooks County as well.”

KLA

WICHITA – Members of the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) approved policy addressing property taxes, wildfire suppression, animal traceability and other issues during the group’s annual business meeting November 30 in Wichita. KLA members drive the policy process, starting with regional roundtable discussions around the state in November, followed by committee and council meetings and concluding with approval during the general membership meeting at the annual convention.

“Input from individual KLA members is the basis for resolutions that guide the association officers and staff as we work through issues affecting livestock producers,” said KLA President Barb Downey, a rancher from Wamego. “KLA leadership essentially takes these member priorities and puts them into action.”

Members approved a new resolution supporting a Kansas constitutional amendment that would ensure state legislators have sole authority to appropriate the total amount of funds for K-12 education. It also specifies the judiciary should retain authority to review whether K-12 education funding appropriated by the state Legislature is equitably distributed among school districts.

In response to the state’s two largest wildfires in the last 50 years occurring in 2016 and 2017, KLA members passed another new resolution supporting increased state funding for wildfire suppression.

Property rights always are on the minds of livestock producers and landowners. Members approved a new resolution urging local and state law enforcement officials to actively enforce state trespassing laws along navigable streams in Kansas.

KLA members amended a resolution to support continued state and federal funding for the CattleTrace disease traceability pilot project. CattleTrace, which started in the fall of 2018, meets member policy criteria that any disease traceability program minimizes the costs to producers, optimizes the role of the private sector in administration and protects the confidentiality of individual animal owner records.

Another amended resolution opposes the introduction of a federal regulation similar to the 2010 Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration provision restricting certain types of livestock marketing.

Amended KLA policy strongly supports ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. Congressional approval of the agreement is important because U.S. beef exports to Canada and Mexico combined are nearly $2 billion per year.

The membership chose to retain a resolution supporting an exemption for livestock haulers from electronic logging device requirements while modifications to hours-of-service regulations are under consideration. KLA supports hours-of-service changes that would protect animal welfare and prevent excessive freight cost increases.

Members chose to reaffirm a resolution supporting the Beef Industry Long Range Plan. The vision of the plan is “to responsibly produce the most trusted and preferred protein in the world.”

A resolution on the beef checkoff was updated to show continued support for the industry’s self-help program, which was supported by 74% of producers on the most recent survey. KLA supports an increase in the beef checkoff assessment rate to adequately fund beef demand programs partially due to a Cornell University study showing between 2006 and 2013, every $1 invested in the checkoff returned $11.20 to the industry.

The KLA resolution on immigration was reaffirmed. It opposes state legislation that would enact more restrictive immigration policies than exist under federal law. The resolution also supports federal immigration policy that would allow for an efficient and adequate guest worker program.

In all, KLA members approved 62 resolutions for 2019. Other issues addressed in KLA policy include prescribed burning, fake meat regulation, noxious weed control and deer population management.

KLA is a 5,600-member trade organization representing the state’s livestock business on legislative, regulatory and industry issues at both the state and federal levels. The association’s work is funded through voluntary dues dollars paid by its members.

NASA

At the post-launch news conference for the Expedition 58 crew, Roscosmos and NASA officials announced that NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, who were forced to abort their recent mission Oct. 11 to the International Space Station, are now scheduled to launch again Feb. 28, 2019, from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Hague, Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch will launch aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft and join NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Konenenko of Roscosmos as station’s Expedition 59 crew.

Hague and Koch will serve as flight engineers for Expeditions 59 and 60. Ovchinin will serve as a flight engineer on Expedition 59 and the commander of Expedition 60. The trio will return to Earth in October 2019 as members of Expedition 60.

All three crew members will participate in a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston that will air live on NASA TV and the agency’s website.

This will be Koch’s first spaceflight. Flight dynamics specialists determined Hague and Ovchinin achieved enough altitude on their aborted climb to orbit to qualify for previous spaceflight status, making this Hague’s second spaceflight and Ovchinin’s third.

For continued coverage and more information about the mission, visit: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/. Get space station news, images and features via social media on Instagram at: @iss, ISS on Facebook, and on Twitter @Space_Station and @ISS_Research.

Hospice at HaysMed, part of The University of Kansas Health System, once again will sponsor a Community Memory Tree.

With the holiday season approaching you can honor someone special in your life by donating $20 to the HaysMed Hospice. A brass dove ornament will then be engraved with the name of the person you are honoring or remembering. The doves will be placed on one of two trees located at HaysMed and in the Dessin Fournir building at 308 W. Mill in Plainville.

For over 30 years, Hospice at HaysMed has lit the community and the surrounding area with hope, comfort and understanding for the terminally ill and their families. Donations enhance the resources available for education, support the volunteer and bereavement programs in their entirety and cover patient-related expenses not paid for by insurance.

Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Memory Tree form is available at https://www.haysmed.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018-Memory-Tree-Form.pdf

For more information, contact the HaysMed Hospice at 623-6200.