TOPEKA–Helping students connect the past with the present can be difficult for educators. The Kansas Historical Society’s Project Archaeology workshop offers a unique way to inspire learning and will be held Wednesday – Friday, July 27 – 29, at Brown Center, Cowley College, 215 S. 2nd Street, Arkansas City.
“I am so happy to have new materials and new ideas to supplement my classroom,” said Paula, a past workshop participant. “The more we learned, the more and more enthusiastic and passionate I became with the subject matter, the more my brain came alive with ideas, and the more excited I became with thoughts on how I could blend Project Archaeology into the other subjects I teach.”
Designed specifically for educators, the workshop focuses on the basics of scientific inquiry, using archaeological data. Kansas-specific curriculum materials are included with units on shelter, early agriculture, and migration. The curriculum is appropriate for grades three through eight. Participants will also tour sites related to the Etzanoa Archaeological Project.
The workshop is free but enrollment is limited to 25 people. Participants can earn two hours of college credit through Baker University; tuition is $65 per hour. The application deadline is July 1. The application and more information is available online at kshs.org/18959. For further questions contact Virginia Wulfkuhle, (785) 272-8681, ext. 266; or [email protected].
WELLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — Police and the Humane Society have removed 65 animals from a Wellington home where officers say the floors were covered with inches of feces.
KWCH-TV reports police found 22 rabbits, 12 dogs, nine cats, three guinea pigs, three ferrets, two rats and four mice living in the home after a neighbor called Friday night.
There also were 10 chickens in the backyard.
Wellington Humane Society vice president Phyllis Todd says it was a classic case of hoarding.
photo courtesy KWCH
Neighbor Joseph Richards says police showed up after the animals started running around the neighborhood. He says he knew something was bad when he saw officers gagging.
The owners were allowed to take four dogs and the cats to a relative’s farm, and had until Sunday to take the chickens someplace safe.
MCPHERSON COUNTY – Three people were injured in a four-vehicle accident just after 1p.m. on Sunday in McPherson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Ford Police Interceptor State Trooper was stopped on the left shoulder providing traffic control for a 2013 Toyota Corolla on southbound Interstate 135 just north of Arrowhead Road.
A 1999 Dodge Dakota driven by Hanson, Christian Hanson, 20, Lindsborg, was southbound in the left lane then moved to the right lane and slowed due to traffic.
A 2015 Toyota Venza driven by Guadalupe Garcia, 60, Wichita, was southbound in the right lane, unable to slow and rear-ended the Dodge pickup.
The Dodge then traveled to the left into the median and struck the rear of the KHP vehicle. The trooper’s vehicle then collided with the Corolla
Garcia and passengers in the Venza Jorge Concha, 61, and Alexa Flores, 9, both of Wichita were transported to the hospital in Newton.
Hanson was also possibly injured, according to the KHP.
The trooper and occupants of the Corolla were not injured.
All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
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MCPHERSON COUNTY – The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a trooper’s patrol vehicle was hit while he was pulled over to help a disabled driver on Sunday.
Four vehicles were involved in the collision on Interstate 135 in McPherson County.
The trooper was not injured, according to the KHP.
Two others received minor injuries.
Check Hays Post for additional details as they become available.
OTTAWA COUNTY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just before 2 p.m. on Sunday in Ottawa County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Buick Century driven by Keaton Douglas Williamson, 16, Minneapolis, was eastbound on Nemaha Road two miles west of North 20th Road.
The vehicle traveled around a curve, entered the south ditch, struck a culvert and rolled.
Williamson was transported to the hospital in Salina.
He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Robert Hoard, State Archaeologist of Kansas- courtesy image
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas State Historical Society plans to return human remains excavated from Native American burial sites in Kansas to two tribes.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the remains of two people dug up in Pottawatomie County were donated to the historical society in 1881 by a private collector. In the years since, the historical society has received Native American remains from other counties.
Robert Hoard, a state archaeologist, wrote in April that the remains of 17 individuals and 148 burial objects belong to the Kaw Nation. He also determined remains of at least one person, along with glass beads and pottery found in 1916 or 1917 in Atchison County, belonged to the Kickapoo tribe.
Unless other tribes object during a public comment period, the remains will become the tribes’ property.
FORT SCOTT, Kan. (AP) — A new southeast Kansas museum is designed to honor people who have taken extraordinary actions to help others.
The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes opens Tuesday in Fort Scott. The 6,000-square-foot museum replaces a smaller exhibit gallery that opened in 2007 in the city’s downtown. The new high-tech facility includes a 48-seat theater and a conference room.
People honored in the museum have been the subjects of student research projects. They include Irena Sendler, who rescued more than 2,500 Jewish children during WWII. Also honored are a white man and woman who were teens when they befriended black students who were integrating a Little Rock, Arkansas, high school at the height of the civil rights movement.
The Milken Family Foundation also is known for honoring educators with $25,000 checks.
SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect in connection with a fatal car accident
According to Saline County Jail records Patrick Driscoll, 33, Great Bend, was arrested late Saturday morning on multiple charges including murder in the 2nd degree, driving under the influence, reckless driving, improper driving, speeding, and transporting an open container.
Just before 4:30 a.m. on April 27, a Chevy Silverado driven by Driscoll Salina was southbound on North Ohio Street at Stimmel Road in Saline County.
The pickup crossed the centerline and hit a 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe head-on.
Driscoll and the driver of the Hyundai Song Horton, 55, Salina, were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.
Horton was then transported to a hospital in Wichita, according to police.
The crash closed a portion of North Ohio from Pacific Avenue to Interstate 70 was closed for almost four hours.
Driscoll’s pickup photo Salina Police
At the time of the accident, Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan said alcohol was found in Driscoll’s truck and was suspected to be a factor in the deadly crash.
BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a reported Saturday shooting and asking for help to locate suspects.
Phillip Pardo, 35, was shot around 10 p.m. Saturday night in an apartment complex at 3900 Forest Avenue, according to a media release.
The gunshot resulted from a confrontation that took place in the parking lot of the apartment complex. The shooter fled the scene prior to the arrival by police.
Pardo was transported to Great Bend Regional Hospital by Great Bend Fire/EMS, and was later transported to a Wichita hospital with unknown injuries.
Shortly after that report, officers were dispatched to a residence several blocks away where residents said they had found two men in their front yard. Believing that the men were attempting to break into their home, a man at the residence brought a gun out onto his porch to confront them.
The subjects fled southeast from the area along the railroad tracks. Police believe the incident was related to the shooting at 3900 Forest.
Detectives have identified a suspect and are in the process of following up on leads.
Great Bend Police Chief Cliff Couch says the shooting incident is disturbing. “Such reckless and dangerous behavior is obviously very concerning,” Couch said.
“This took place in a very residential area where a lot more people could have been hurt. I hope anyone in the community with any information about the incident will contact the Police Department, so that we can bring the suspect to justice and send a strong message that our community won’t tolerate such behavior.”
If you have any information regarding this case, you are encouraged to call the Great Bend Police Department at 620-793-1920.
MONTGOMERY CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prosecutors plan to pursue the death penalty for a Mexican national in the shooting death of a man a day after he allegedly killed four people in Kansas.
Prosecutors in Montgomery County west of St. Louis submitted court papers Friday saying they will seek capital punishment for Pablo Serrano-Vitorino if he’s convicted of first-degree murder in the March 8 shooting death of Randy Nordman at that man’s New Florence home.
A judge last week ordered Serrano-Vitorino to stand trial in that case. Arraignment is scheduled for June 1
Serrano-Vitorino also is accused in Kansas of killing a Kansas City, Kansas, neighbor and three other men at the neighbor’s home on March 7.
An attorney for Serrano-Vitorino did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.
Photo by Jim McLean/KHI News Service Conservative Republican Sen. Forrest Knox faces voters during a “listening tour” stop in Gridley. After the event, Knox said, “The people of Kansas will decide the direction we go: Whether we continue down (the path of) reining in the unsustainable growth in state government, making our state attractive to business, or whether we go back to a faith in government and thinking that we can grow government and solve all of our problems.”
The 2016 election could be a tough one for some Kansas lawmakers hoping to return to the Statehouse.
Polls, editorials and reader comments on news websites indicate that voters are paying attention to what’s happening in Topeka, and many don’t like what they’re seeing.
They’re frustrated by the inability of Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators to solve persistent budget problems that have triggered a downgrade in the state’s credit rating, delayed major highway projects and forced cuts in university budgets and reimbursements to health care providers who participate in KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
Some Kansas voters are also embarrassed. The budget problems and culture-war debates over welfare restrictions, guns and a dress code for women working in or visiting the Statehouse have made the state a popular punching bag for comedians and television talk show hosts.
The level of dissatisfaction was reflected in a poll released last week that ranked Brownback the least popular governor in the nation. The Morning Consult poll, for which 66,000 voters nationwide and 650 in Kansas were surveyed, showed Brownback with a 26 percent job approval rating, six percentage points below Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican who has come under withering criticism for his handling of the water crisis in Flint.
The Brownback effect
Practically, the poll numbers may not mean much to Brownback, who won a narrow re-election victory two years ago and isn’t on the 2016 ballot. But they could signal trouble for legislative incumbents who supported the 2012 income tax cuts, which many believe are largely responsible for the budget mess.
Sen. Forrest Knox, a conservative Republican from Altoona, recently was on the receiving end of some voter anger. At a “listening tour” stop in Gridley, a small ranching and farming community in southeast Kansas, he was peppered with questions about the budget problems and his support of the tax cuts.
Jim Ochs, a rancher and retired public school principal, listened politely as Knox talked about the spending cuts and bookkeeping “gimmicks” being used to patch holes in the budget created by continuing revenue shortfalls. Several minutes in, Ochs interrupted.
“The people of Kansas are dissatisfied with our governor, and we’re not happy with what’s going on,” he said. “We’re angry and I think you’re sensing that.” When Knox attempted to respond, Ochs cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it,” he said. “Let me vent and maybe I’ll leave here feeling better.”
After the meeting, Ochs, a lifelong Republican, said he wanted Knox to understand why he was upset about the tax cuts, the persistent budget problems and what he called the “attack on public education.” “I don’t understand why our legislators aren’t listening,” he said. “They seem to be getting different feedback from these meetings than what I hear when I talk to people. Truthfully, I haven’t talked to one person who believes that Governor Brownback is doing a good job. I’m not exaggerating.”
Voters at recent legislative briefings in Topeka and Overland Park expressed similar concerns.
“At some point it’s going to get bad enough that, yeah, we’ll throw the bums out,” said Jim Frost, a moderate Republican who attended a legislative coffee at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park the Saturday after lawmakers adjourned without balancing the budget.
Jan Mach, a Topeka Democrat who attended a legislative event at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, said she was “beyond angry” about the income tax cuts and the damage the resulting revenue declines are doing to public schools and universities. Mach scoffed at Brownback’s claim that the tax cuts will jump-start the Kansas economy if given time to work.
“What business or corporation would move to Kansas just on the basis of low taxes when there is crumbling infrastructure and poor schools?” she asked.
Statehouse shake-up
In an interview after the Gridley meeting, Knox agreed that voters seem more agitated this year. If that persists, he said, it could threaten the majorities that conservative Republicans now hold in both the House and Senate.
“That is the question before us,” Knox said. “The people of Kansas will decide the direction we go: Whether we continue down (the path of) reining in the unsustainable growth in state government, making our state attractive to business, or whether we go back to a faith in government and thinking that we can grow government and solve all of our problems.”
Bruce Givens, of El Dorado, an assistant director of the Butler County Special Education Cooperative, has filed to run against Knox in the Republican primary.
Despite the grilling he got in Gridley, Knox said he doesn’t think that voters will punish him for supporting both the 2012 income tax cuts and large increases in sales and tobacco taxes passed in the final hours of the marathon 2015 session.
“If we can communicate reality and the truth — we being the conservative side — I think we’re fine,” Knox said. “I think my average constituent is solid with my point of view.”
Photo by Amy Jeffries/KCUR Democratic Rep. Nancy Lusk, left, and moderate Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton deliver a legislative update at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park.
Rep. Stephanie Clayton, a moderate Republican from Overland Park, said she wants end to the dysfunctional politics that has put the state in an unwelcome national spotlight Clayton, one of several moderate Republicans who bested conservative challengers in the 2014 primary, said Kansas did better when it was considered a boring but stable and safe place to live, work and raise a family.
“If I could make a whole campaign theme, I’d say, ‘Let’s return to boring,’” she said. “It’s not really going to get people out to the polls. But honestly, we need to stay off the news. We need to stay in the black. We need government to be just so functional that it rolls along without you guys even knowing that we’re there.”
Noting that a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans almost had the votes to reject the budget proposed by Brownback and legislative leaders, Clayton said changes in a handful of seats could shift the balance of power in the Legislature.
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
With more than 6,600 children in foster care in Kansas, there is a constant need to ensure loving foster families are ready and willing to care for children in need. A large number of the youth in the State’s care have special physical, emotional and/or behavioral needs. An event earlier this month at the State Capitol Building, Topeka, highlighted stories of hope for youth in foster care and celebrated those who provide care for youth with special needs.
First Lady Mary Brownback joined the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and community partners at the Statehouse to celebrate Foster Care Month. The event included a news conference, more than a dozen booths on foster care services, a lunch provided by DCF’s foster care contractors, KVC and Saint Francis Community Services, and music from the Topeka High School jazz band.
Manhattan High School senior Peyton Peterson, who has been in foster care since he was seven, plans to hit campus at Kansas State University, his wheelchair not holding him back from big dreams.
“I plan to become a biochemist, because I want to make a difference in the world,” said Peterson. “The opportunity I have wouldn’t have been there for me without the foster care system. Foster care has helped many people I know who would have otherwise just been left.”
Topekans Derek and Stephanie Sharp have parented several youth in foster care over the past 13 years, including some with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Being a foster parent is like a bridge, because the giving goes both ways,” said Derek Sharp. “We have been able to provide things for the kids that they wouldn’t have otherwise had, but they have brought to our family amazing things too. Our biological children have grown so much from the experience, and they will be better people because of it.”
The First Lady discussed how members of the community can impact the lives of youth in foster care through the HOPE Mentoring program, which this summer will add a youth mentoring component to the recently launched program for adults who receive financial assistance.
“There is a great need in the foster care system, and there are many roles to play,” said the First Lady. “We want every child to have a loving environment to grow up in, but we also want to help every youth aging out of the system to be able to have a mentor who will help them as they transition into adulthood.”
Informational booths and tables were sponsored by stakeholder groups including: KVC, St. Francis Community Services, Children’s Alliance, DCCCA, Ember Hope, GO Project, Lifeline, Shelter, KCSL, KFAN, KFAPA, KYAC and TFI.
Foster Care Statistics:
· There are currently 6,685 children in foster care in Kansas.
· Approximately 2,750 family foster homes are licensed in Kansas.
· Approximately 350 children are available for adoption in the state.
· Approximately 94 percent of children in foster care are placed in a family-like setting.
· The average age of a child in foster care is eight.
· 57 percent of children in foster care have a case plan goal of reintegration.
· 33 percent of children in foster care are placed with a relative.
To be a foster parent you must:
· Be at least 21
· Pass background checks
· Have sufficient income
· Participate in a family assessment
· Complete training
· Obtain sponsorship
· Complete first aid training
· Be licensed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Protesters will come to Wichita this summer for the 25th anniversary of the tumultuous anti-abortion event called the Summer of Mercy.
But since 1991, the broader anti-abortion movement has splintered into disaffected factions and its strategies have evolved with the shifting political and legal landscape.
Growing restrictions placed by state legislatures on abortion clinics culminated this week with an Oklahoma bill that would have effectively banned abortions, though it was vetoed. And a thwarted move in Congress to strip federal funds from Planned Parenthood has spawned similar efforts in conservative states.
The current leader of Operation Rescue, which organized the 1991 event, says the group is distancing itself from the July 16-23 event because of the rhetoric that other anti-abortion groups use. Troy Newman also says that the group has accomplished more with politics than protests.
One of the worst droughts in the state’s history began in the summer of 2010. The drought fluctuated but as late as April 12, 97 percent of Kansas showed some drought conditions.
Rains in April and May helped wipe out the last of the drought — at least for now. Rainfall amounts in those months included more than 4 inches in Salina and Garden City and 7.46 inches in Hays.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the 2011 and 2012 droughts cost farmers nearly $5 billion in crop losses.
KHS
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