According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Leonid meteor shower is expected to be at its peak Nov. 17, as comet dust passes close to the earth.
The meteor shower are best seen after midnight after the moon has set.
Click HERE for more from the JPL.
Today
A 20 percent chance of snow after 3pm. Cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 27 by 5pm. Windy, with a north northeast wind 20 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph.
Tonight
A 40 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 21. North northeast wind 13 to 18 mph decreasing to 7 to 12 mph after midnight.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 38. North wind 6 to 8 mph becoming south southwest in the afternoon.
Sunday Night
Clear, with a low around 25. South southwest wind 6 to 8 mph becoming west after midnight.
Monday
Sunny, with a high near 50. North northwest wind 7 to 11 mph.
Monday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 26.
Tuesday
Sunny, with a high near 55.
Tuesday Night
Clear, with a low around 31.
Wednesday
Sunny, with a high near 57.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Kansas just this year passed legislation to open more opportunities for telemedicine in the state, but High Plains Mental Health Center has been offering the service for almost 20 years.
Technology associated with service has greatly improved over the years and so has the center’s reach using the tech.
High Plains has 50 telemedicine interfaces at its branch offices and in medical clinics, emergency rooms and jails. Ellis County has a telemedicine unit in the court for mental health court, and High Plains is also connected to Larned State Hospital through the system.
In the last 12 months, High Plains has seen 3,500 clients for 4,500 visits via telemedicine.
“We have come to expect pretty quick access to things, and this is really a way to keep up,” Walter Hill, High Plains executive director, said. “If we order light bulbs from Amazon, they are here in two days as opposed to having to wait. We as culture, our expectations of access have increased. That is not bad. …
“Health care needs to be more responsive, and this is one of the tools that allows us to do that.”
High Plains covers a 20-county catchment area, which is about 19,000 square miles and covers about 100,000 people.
Before the advent of telemedicine technology, High Plains struggled to get therapists and psychiatrists to the far reaches of its coverage area. Today, for example in Sharon Springs, High Plains has a telemedicine unit in the rural health center.
When therapists physically had to travel to remote offices, the clients were limited to one therapist and scheduling only on the day the therapist was in town. Telemedicine increases provider choice and can increase the frequency a therapist can see a client.
The system involves cameras and television screens on both ends of the teleconference. The psychiatrist or therapist conducts a medication check or therapy session just as they would in a face-face session. If a client is seeing a psychiatrist through telemedicine at a branch office, a nurse on site would record vitals and relay them to the doctor.
Hill said nothing is lost in the video format, and research has born out telemedicine mental health is as effective as in-person services.
The telemedicine system reduces the time a client has to wait to be seen by a provider, especially in a crisis.
On-call clinicians do evaluations at night through emergency rooms or jails. HaysMed has a telemedicine unit on a cart that can be wheeled directly to a patient’s bedside.
High Plains contracts with a provider that also works with other community mental health centers across the state to provide 24/7 coverage for these types of evaluations. These contractors specialize in emergency mental health, just as a ER doctor would have a speciality in emergency medicine. High Plains has IT staff available 24/7 in case work is needed on the system.
“In the middle of the night, if someone was say in Goodland at the hospital or the police station, we would have to send a therapist from Colby,” Hill said. “If there was a patient at Norton and the on-call therapist was in Osborne, they would have to drive from Osborne to Norton, which often in the middle of the night would take two hours or more to get there. [Telemedicine] is relatively instantaneous.”
Reducing drive time is more cost efficient and helps the mental health center in recruiting staff. The system also saves drive and wait time for law enforcement officers who are either responding to a mental health emergency or dealing with an inmate who is being evaluated.
Telemedicine is still an emerging field, Hill said. In the future, telemedicine may allow more clinicians to work from their homes and someday even patients be seen from their homes. High Plains has looked at adding a part-time psychiatrist who lives in Texas and works from home.
“The whole nature of health care is being decentralized,” Hill said. “Telemedicine and Smartphone apps are the two big changes that are going to happen to health care and mental health. People can take more control of their services on their PC at home or in their smartphone app.”
For more information about High Plains and its services, call 1-800-432-0333. If you are having a mental health emergency, call 911.
Learn more about High Plains in the Hays Post’s recent story: Schwaller Center to offer care for uninsured.
By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
After spending more than a week in the lead in the race for the 111th House District, Republican Barb Wasinger will have to wait a few more days — and hope that a recount goes her way — as she aims to unseat incumbent Democratic Rep. Eber Phelps.
After nearly all the ballots were counted on election night, Wasinger led Phelps by just 40 votes, but there were still more than 200 advanced and provisional ballots left to count.
Following Thursday’s election canvass at the Ellis County Administrative Center, Wasinger held a 32-vote lead vote lead over Phelps, prompting him to call for a recount. The official vote total had Wasinger with 4,342 votes to 4,310 for Phelps. There were 15 write-in votes.
After the canvass board certified the vote Thursday, Wasinger said, “I’m glad to hear it’s certified and we’ll wait for the recount.”
The final determine in the race will come a full two weeks after Election Day.
“Probably the same way it’s felt since last Tuesday,” Wasinger said with laugh, describing how it feels to have to wait another five days to determine a winner. “It hasn’t changed much. It’s still just waiting for the official final results.”
In front of a large crowd of people Thursday, the canvass board — made up of County Commissioner Marcy McClelland, Sheriff Ed Harbin and Mike Morley — went through the process of opening the ballots, handing them off to the election board to be counted and eventually certifying the results.
The board began the process with the advanced ballots. According to Ellis County Clerk and Election Officer Donna Maskus, there were 62 advanced ballots submitted.
Eleven of the 62 were rejected for various reasons including being postmarked after election day, having no postmark or having a non-matching signature. One person chose not to vote. Fifty-one ballots were counted.
Hays attorney John Bird served as a representative for the Phelps campaign and raised issue with the ballots not counted because there was no postmark or that were postmarked after Election Day. He said state statute says the envelope must be postmarked or contain another marking.
Maskus said she worked with the local postmaster to make sure that the ballots received were postmarked. Two ballots were not counted because of a lack of postmark.
That would not be the only issue raised by Bird, who said he had asked several questions of Maskus in the days leading up to the election canvass.
Jonathan Ehrlich, a representative for the Kansas House Republican Campaign Committee, also asked questions of Maskus and the canvass board throughout the process.
While the advanced ballots were being tabulated by the election board, the canvass board went through the same process of opening provisional ballots and placing them in a ballot box to be transferred to the election board.
Maskus said in all there were 212 provisional ballots cast in Ellis County.
Of those, 66 were not counted. Forty-two were not counted because the voter was registered in another county, 23 were not registered at all and one was returned in the wrong envelope.
Bird said he wanted to know, of the people who filled out a provisional ballot, whose ballot would be counted.
“We know who all the provisionals were and there are many people in the audience who cast provisional ballots, and they’d like to know if their vote’s getting counted,” Bird said. “I was asking specifically about one, who’s a family member.”
He asked the canvass board to have Maskus tell people in the audience whether their vote was being counted or not.
One person in the audience said he received a document in the mail stating if he wanted his provisional ballot counted he could provide the necessary information at Thursday’s meeting.
The mailer in question did not come from the County Clerk’s office, although it lists the county office as the return address and Maskus’ name is listed.
It is unclear who is responsible for the mailer or how many voters received it. Ellis County Democratic Party Chairman Henry Schwaller and Republican Party Chair Dustin Roths both confirmed Thursday they were not responsible for the mailer.
Bird, as a representative of the Phelps campaign, acquired a list of voters who submitted provisional ballots from the County Clerk’s office but denied sending out the mailer — although he said he agreed with its message.
“I fully support it,” Bird said. “The fact of the matter is, is that’s why these people are here, is because they want to know if their vote’s being counted.”
Wasinger said Friday her campaign did not receive a list of voters who submitted provisional ballots.
Anyone who submitted a provisional ballot is given information on how to contact the clerk’s office and remedy the problem. They had to do so by 4 p.m. on the day of the canvass.
Maskus did talk with two people about their ballots at the meeting.
According to Maskus, 145 provisional ballots were counted.
After about two hours, all the votes were tallied and presented to the canvassing board and Wasinger had a 32-vote lead.
McClelland conferred with Morley and Harbin and they suggested that, because the margin was less than one-half of one percent that a recount be held.
Ehrlich said only a candidate can call for a recount. But Bird pointed out that state statue does allow for the board of canvassers to request a recount.
According to KSA 25-3107, if the majority of the board determines that “there are manifest errors appearing on the face of the poll books of any election board, which might make a difference in the result of any election.”
Bird argued there were errors in the process that should lead the board to hold off on certifying the results and to call for a recount.
Ehrlich said if the board doesn’t find “manifest error” then it should certify the results.
Bird also submitted a request to Maskus, on behalf of Phelps, to go forward with a full hand recount.
After more discussion between McClelland, Morley and Harbin, they elected to certify the results and allow the requested recount to go forward.
Maskus said this is the first recount in Ellis County in over 40 years.
The clerk’s office has five days to complete the recount.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Melissa Pinkney, a Spanish teacher at Thomas More Prep-Marian, ran the annual Sunrise Rotary Grocery Grab on Thursday night at Dillons.
Her father, Mark Bieker, was the winner, but he let Melissa run for both he and his wife and Melissa’s family.
The run is five minutes long. It includes one minute in the meat department with a limit of two items each in that department and five items each in the other departments. Cosmetics and pharmaceuticals were excluded.
Pickney was able to bag a whopping $1,392.60 in groceries. Among her haul were two turkeys for the holidays, a ham, crab legs, prime rib, lobster tails, olive oil, boxes of coffee and plenty of corn dogs for the kids.
Pickney said she scoped out the store before her run. She was looking for items in bulk that her family could store or freeze. Although she had a plan, she found herself picking up some items on impulse. She also intended to hit the cereal aisle and missed that entirely.
“I am smiling and happy now, but I was nervous before,” she said.
Melissa and her husband, Jeff, live in Hays and have three children.
Once the grocery bill was paid, Sunrise Rotary earned about $1,000 on the fundraiser. The money will go toward a new restroom project Sunrise Rotary is working in cooperation with the City of Hays at Ekey Park.
“Our small club, just 18 members, works hard to raise funds for the park and our global mission of eradicating polio from the face of the Earth,” Larry Dreiling, club president, said.
Mandy Scott, Dillons operations assistant manager, said “We take pride in our community and participating in community events like this. We are more than happy to be a part of anything the community wants us to do.”
By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
It was likely the shortest Hays city commission work session on record.
Commissioners spent just three minutes and 1 second on the single agenda item presented Thursday night by Jeff Crispin, director of water resources.
Several older areas of Hays have sanitary sewer lines in need of repair.
Some locations are an easy fix, where protruding taps and large vegetation root balls can be cut out by city workers without having to dig up the sewer.
But 26 other places will require replacement of sections of the line, according to Crispin.
“Other abandonments are caused by pipe collapses, holes or joint offsets can only be fixed by digging down to the failure spot and replacing a section of the line,” Crispin explained. “Basically the area is south of 27th Street and west of Vine Street.”
The cleaning of the portions noted by Crispin and subsequent video examinations could not occur.
Crispin presented four bids for the project. The low bid by M&D Excavating of Hays is for $198, 380, which will be considered by commissioners at their meeting next Tuesday.
The commission will meet Nov. 20 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Vice-Mayor Henry Schwaller was absent from the work session.
According to a media release, an arrest warrant was issued for Jody S. Fox, 27, of Russell connected to the murder of a 14-month-old child. The child died in April 2017. Fox was in a relationship with the child’s mother.
Just after 1p.m. Thursday, Fox was arrested at 115 West 17th St. in Russell. He was booked into the Russell County Jail for first-degree murder, and abuse of a child.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office will prosecute the case.
The 2018 election was “Year of the Woman, Part Deux.” Women, particularly Democrats, made gains nationwide. Kansas factored into that, electing Laura Kelly as governor, Vicki Schmidt as insurance commissioner, and Sharice Davids to Congress. Despite these gains, women still have not achieved equal political representation.
Kelly’s win was not destiny. A year ago, Kansas had the only gubernatorial race in America with no woman running. Meanwhile, roughly twenty men were possible candidates, including several teenagers. There was an opening for a woman, especially on the Democratic side, and Kelly stepped into that void, albeit late and perhaps reluctantly. Though she ultimately prevailed, her gender was sometimes an issue, though a subtle one.
Female candidates are often told—usually by men—that they are unqualified. In Kansas, a Greg Orman surrogate ridiculed Kelly’s professional background as a recreational therapist for children with mental illness, insinuating that she lacked “a real job” and was thus unqualified to lead government, despite her fourteen years in the legislature. Some activists on social media even said that Kelly’s only qualification was her gender.
Women this year were often branded—usually by men—as “Hillary Clintons.” That happened to Kelly throughout the campaign, but particularly from young men on Twitter who supported Josh Svaty in the primary. Yes, Kelly is an older, quiet, and experienced lawmaker, but she is not Hillary. Even in the second congressional district Republican primary, Caryn Tyson, a conservative politician, was tarred as “just another Hillary.” So, if any female candidate is just another Hillary, then logically any male candidate is just another Sam Brownback? Awesome logic.
Moreover, some social media activists—usually men—suggested that Kelly expected women to vote for her because of her gender. Yes, after the years that men spent intentionally keeping women out of politics, some women want to support female candidates. But women also think with more than their reproductive parts. Most women vote Democratic, and the partisan gender gap is growing. Maybe most women voted for Kelly because she was an appealing Democrat?
Kelly aside, 2018 was mixed for Kansas women. Women still only have one Kansas seat in Congress. The number of women in the Kansas legislature declined by two, and has actually shrunk long-term. Before the election, men were 89% of Kansas county commissioners and 73% of county commissions were all male. That number barely budged, though the populous Johnson and Sedgwick counties finally added women to their commissions.
Female politicians often say that women need to be asked to run because society tells women they are not good enough and should not make demands. Political science research validates that. Female candidates are more likely to run because someone recruited them, whereas male candidates are more likely to recruit themselves. Women are less likely than men to think themselves qualified or knowledgeable enough for politics. Young women, especially minority women, are less likely than young men to say that their parents talk to them about politics or encourage them to consider political careers.
So, for women reading this, you should run for office. Whether you are a CEO, a stay-at-home mom, or work at Walmart, life qualifies you for politics. Love or hate Hillary, you are not Hillary. Despite what boys say, you are more than your gender and most voters will judge you on more than that. The voices of people like you are still disproportionately missing from government. If you do not fill that void, then who will? Representation matters.
Patrick. R. Miller is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas.
FHSU University Relations
Tickets are now on sale for Noel: A Holiday Musical, a season performance of the 2018-2019 Encore Series at Fort Hays State University, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28, in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
Noel is a new holiday family musical that tells the touching story of a young girl who is preparing for her starring role in a school Christmas performance when her mother disappears. Set in London, as the little girl tires to find her mother, she encounters a diverse group of homeless people who have lost their way in life.
One particular man, Nick, has lost his faith in humanity and in, the joy of Christmas. The audience learns that Nick is actually St. Nicholas, who has turned his back on his old “job.” He found that the world had forgotten the real meaning of Christmas so he walked away to help the people who really needed it. In their adventure to find Noel’s mom, together they learn to find hope in themselves, and in the world.
With a gorgeous score, Noel is a heart-warming poignant message of love that teaches us all to find the joy in our own lives and to rediscover the magic of Christmas.
This performance is sponsored by Cedar Lodge Dental Group.
Tickets are available at the Memorial Union Student Service Center, by calling 785-628-5306 or by visiting www.fhsu.edu/encore.
Tickets for the public are $40 reserved and $35 unreserved; for seniors and children ages 5-17, tickets are $37 reserved and $32 unreserved; and for FHSU students, tickets are $30 reserved and $26 unreserved with a Tiger Card.
The No. 11 ranked Fort Hays State men’s soccer team defeated the No. 19 ranked Northeastern State RiverHawks on Thursday (Nov. 15), 3-1, with the help of three goals in the final ten minutes of regulation lifting the Tigers to their fourth Central Region Championship in program history.
In what seemed like a defensive battle from the start, turned out to be much more in the final minutes of regulation. At the 55:46 mark in the second half, Northeastern State’s freshman forward Flynn Semmerling took advantage of a Tiger defensive misque, picking up his ninth goal and giving the RiverHawks the 1-0 lead.
For the next 25 minutes of game time, the Tigers and RiverHawks battled back-and-forth but could not cash in on the scoring opportunities. Freshman midfielder Alonso Rodriguez entered the match off the bench and provided the equalizer in the 81st minute of the contest. Moritz Walther fed the ball across the box to Rodriguez, who drilled the ball past the keeper to knot the match at 1 apiece.
1:27 came and went and Rodriguez pushed the Tigers ahead for good with a miraculous find into the right side of the net, narrowly beating the keeper on a shot from 25 yards out. With minimal margin of error, Rodriguez came through with his sixth goal of the season and second score of the contest.
Fort Hays State tacked on an insurance score in the 87th minute when MIAA Freshman of the Year Rogelio Lopez flipped a shot over the keeper and into the back of the net, making the score 3-1 in favor of the Tigers.
Fernando Pina earned the victory in goal for the Tigers, improving his overall record to 11-0-1. Rodriguez connected on his fifth and sixth goals of the season, while Walther picked up his eighth assist in the process. FHSU outshot the RiverHawks 11-5 in the match. Arsenio Chamorro and Rodriguez led the Tiger attack with three shots, while Rodriguez led the pack with two shots on goal.
The Tigers will now face off with the Fighting Scots of Ohio Valley in the National Quarterfinal inside FHSU Soccer Stadium. The match is slated to commence at 1 p.m.
Hays Post
Winners of the three seats for Ellis City Council have been determined following Thursday night’s official Ellis County canvassing of the November 5th general election.
Those elected were incumbent Jolene Niernberger, along with write-ins Steve Ferland and Martin LaBarge.
Today Sunny, with a high near 61. South wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 13 to 18 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.
Tonight Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33. Breezy, with a southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north 15 to 20 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Saturday Mostly cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 29 by 5pm. Breezy, with a north northeast wind 15 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph.
Saturday Night A 20 percent chance of snow before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 20. North northeast wind 5 to 14 mph.
Sunday Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. North wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
Sunday NightClear, with a low around 24.
MondaySunny, with a high near 53.
Hays Post
Republican Barb Wasinger collected just over 50 percent of the vote in the race for the 111th Kansas House of Representatives District and defeated incumbent Democrat Eber Phelps by just 32 votes.
According to the final vote totals presented Thursday at the election canvass Wasinger received 4,342 while Phelps got 4,310.
Hays Attorney John Bird served as a representative for Eber Phelps Thursday and submitted a request for a full recount. Phelps was not present at the election canvass.
Election official Donna Maskus said they will have five days to complete the recount and expect to complete it on Tuesday.
