WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Donations are being sought for a middle school counselor who underwent a quadruple amputation after a shooting at a south-central Kansas store.
The Wichita Eagle reports that about $28,000 has been raised so far for Julie Dombo. The 61-year-old was wounded in August during a robbery at a Derby AT&T store.
Because of oxygen deprivation to her limbs while in the hospital, her hands and legs required amputation in early September.
A blood drive was held in Dombo’s honor on Labor Day, and a run/walk was held on Sunday as a fundraiser for her medical bills as well. Money also is being raised through a GoFundMe page.
I am writing to invite your readers to hear Greg Page, Cargill Inc. Executive Chairman, talk about the economic impact of climate change on the world’s food production.
As many know, the world’s population is expected to balloon to 9.6 billion people by the year 2050. The world’s farmers will have to produce as much food in the next 35 to 40 years as they have in the entire history of the world.
Page will present ‘Climate Change and the Future of Food Production’ at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 12 in McCain Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Page is a member of the Risky Business Project, a national committee formed in 2014 to prepare American companies for climate change. In his role, Page is encouraging American business and government leaders to have serious conversations about accommodating climate change scenarios in the future.
Page’s lecture at Kansas State University is the second in the Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems Lecture series. Robert Fraley, the Chief Technology Officer for the Monsanto Company, presented the inaugural lecture in January.
This is an important topic that certainly will impact American agriculture in the future. If we are to continue to be the most productive food system in the history of mankind, these are the types of conversations we need to have. As the country’s oldest land-grant institution, and considering our agricultural heritage, Kansas State University is a great place for this discussion to take place.
Please come join us on Monday, Oct. 12. Click HERE for more information.
Sincerely,
John Floros, Dean
College of Agriculture
Kansas State University
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — One of two northeast Kansas twin brothers has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his role in a multistate marijuana-trafficking operation.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports 33-year-old Los Rovell Dahda was sentenced Wednesday and fined almost $17 million. Dahda and his brother Roosevelt Rico Dahda, both of Lawrence, were found guilty last year of conspiracy. They were among 43 people accused in Kansas and California in connection with the trafficking ring.
Authorities say the ring brought 8,000 pounds of marijuana, much of it from California, into Lawrence and the Kansas City area over seven years until 2012.
Investigators say they seized almost $17 million in drug proceeds in the case.
Roosevelt Rico Dahda was sentenced to more than 19 years in federal prison on Tuesday.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two Kansas residents have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters and plans to remove people who haven’t complied from voter registration rolls.
The two residents of northeast Kansas’ Douglas County filed the lawsuit Wednesday against Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Kobach predicited the lawsuit is “going nowhere.”
Kobach is the architect of a law requiring people registering for the first time in Kansas to document their U.S. citizenship.
He enacted a regulation requiring county election officials to purge voter rolls of registrations incomplete for more than 90 days. It takes effect Friday.
Prospective voters Alder Cromwell and Cody Keener sought to register months ago but haven’t met the proof-of-citizenship requirement.
They’re seeking a court order to block the purge and the proof-of-citizenship requirement.
PEABODY -Three people were injured in an accident just before 5:30p.m. on Wednesday in Harvey County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Toyota passenger vehicle driven by Victoria E. Lowry, 25, Wichita, 1 was westbound on U.S. 50 two miles west of Peabody.
The vehicle went left of center and struck an eastbound semi.
The semi overturned and came to rest in the roadway.
Lowry and two children in the Toyota Kaden Freeman, 8, and Aria Murphy, 1, both of Wichita were transported to Wesley Medical Center.
The semi driver was not injured.
All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita State University business research center report says the Kansas economy is growing far slower than the rest of the nation.
The report released Thursday by the Center for Economic Development and Business Research forecasts sluggish growth for the state next year.
The center’s own director, Jeremy Hill, says employment nationwide increased by 2.1 percent the past 12 months, while Kansas employment increased by less than 1 percent, or 0.9 percent. The report forecasts Kansas employment next year to grow 1.4 percent. If realized, that would mean 19,958 jobs.
Hill attributed the slow growth to problems in the agriculture, oil and manufacturing industries. Wages for 80 percent of workers have shown no real growth, hurting the retail industry.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police say a man is in critical condition after being run over by a city transit bus in Planeview.
The Wichita Eagle reports the bus made a left turn Tuesday morning and struck 75-year-old Hai Huynh, who had been standing in the road near a curb and talking to a motorist.
Wichita police Lt. James Espinoza said the bus knocked Huynh down and then ran over “his lower extremities.” Huynh was taken to Wesley Medical Center for treatment.
City officials say the 51-year-old driver of the bus is currently on leave. Espinoza said an investigation is ongoing.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police say a man who had been reported as possibly missing has been found dead at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka.
According to Kansas Capitol Police Lt. Adam Winters, officers were notified Tuesday night of a possible missing person who was last seen working at the historical society.
The Topeka Capital Journal reports police searched the area of the society and located the man.
Winters said foul play is not suspected in the man’s death. An investigation is ongoing.
Los Angeles-based actor David Dastmalchian returned to Kansas with a message he said should transcend politics: We can’t give up on people who struggle with substance abuse and mental illness.
Actor David Dastmalchian spoke Friday outside the Statehouse at a rally highlighting mental health and addiction treatment options in Kansas. SUSIE FAGAN HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
Dastmalchian is now a budding Hollywood star, with roles in blockbusters like 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and 2015’s “Ant-Man.” But 15 years ago he was a self-proclaimed “full-time heroin addict” living out of a car near Shawnee Mission Parkway.
Dastmalchian headlined the Kansas Recovery Rally on Friday outside the Statehouse, speaking about his experience getting clean and turning his life around.
“You never give up on the men and women who are suffering from addiction and mental health (problems),” he said. “Within each of them is a human being just like me.”
The rally was sponsored by the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and various mental health and addiction treatment service providers.
‘More people in need’
Kansas has had one of the lowest rates of drug overdose deaths in the nation in recent years, but abuse of prescription painkillers and methamphetamines are on the rise in the state.
Dulcinea Rakestraw, former president of the Kansas Association of Addiction Professionals, said there are a variety of substance abuse treatment programs in Kansas, funded through a mix of local, state, federal and charitable dollars.
State-funded treatment programs have been largely unable to take on more patients lately, she said.
“The funds for all of those have been very stagnant over the years,” Rakestraw said. “We’ve been very lucky to not be a part of recent budgetary cuts, but certainly rates as well as services have not increased.”
When lawmakers approved state-run casinos in 2007, they also established a Problem Gaming and Addiction Fund that funnels millions of dollars from the casinos to treatment programs every year.
Programs to treat addictions other than gambling were made eligible for money from the fund because research showed that problems like substance abuse increased in areas that added gaming.
But Rakestraw said the casino money — instead of being used to supplement state general fund treatment dollars — has been used as a substitute for those funds, leaving the overall amount available for treating substance abuse largely unchanged.
Friday’s rally on the south side of the Statehouse was sponsored by the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and various mental health and addiction treatment service providers. CREDIT SUSIE FAGAN / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
“There continue to be more people in need of treatment than we’re able to treat,” she said.
The result, she said, is that Kansans who struggle with substance abuse ultimately are costing taxpayers more because of preventable stays in hospitals and prisons. A legislative post audit cost-benefit analysis on drug treatment programs is expected to be released soon.
The rally is important, Rakestraw said, because it renews the commitment to helping more Kansans emulate Dastmalchian’s successful turnaround.
“The important message is that recovery is possible, that treatment works,” she said. “People are able to recover and are able to be contributing members of society that are able to make a big difference. When we put dollars into treatment, then we’re able to have individuals on the other side that are able to contribute to society instead of needing services.”
Quieting the voice
Dastmalchian made that journey over the course of years.
He grew up in Johnson County, in what he described as a loving, solidly middle-class family that kept a history of depression and substance abuse well-hidden.
By his early teens he was experimenting with alcohol and found that getting drunk could quiet a persistent voice in his head telling him “You are alone” — a voice he later recognized as a symptom of depression. By high school he was regularly abusing alcohol and marijuana but still managed to be a good student, a skilled athlete and a promising member of local theater productions.
He credited his teachers and coaches with helping him excel and encouraging him to pursue a career in acting that seemed out of reach for a kid from Kansas.
Dastmalchian earned a scholarship to a prestigious theater school at DePaul University in Chicago. He excelled there as well, even as the voice in his head kept “tapping” at him and he turned to a new drug to quiet it: heroin.
“For certain people, one taste is all it takes,” he said of opiates. “And that’s all it took for me.”
Dastmalchian graduated from DePaul and had opportunities to audition for television roles. But within six months he was living in his car back in Kansas, scamming relatives for money to get his next fix, his life revolving around heroin.
After his family cut him off financially, he spent years shuttling between Kansas City and Chicago, strung out and not working. He walked into a church looking for things to steal and wound up swiping wedding gifts from a couple getting married. He contemplated using a dirty needle to mug a young mother in the park.
All the while, the voice in his head got louder and more persistent.
So one day he took all the heroin he had and tried to overdose. When that didn’t kill him, he went into the bathtub and cut himself.
At that point Dastmalchian had what he calls “a spiritual awakening” in which he saw all of the country “in the palm of God’s hand.”
The vision led him to seek help, starting a years-long recovery process that included stays in a state hospital in Illinois and a treatment facility in Atchison and several relapses.
“My family never gave up on me,” Dastmalchian said. “Nor did all these strangers in the public health hospital I was at. Nor the law enforcement officers who had to transfer me to all these places. All these people didn’t give up on me.”
After he spent five years clean — working as a telemarketer and sweeping out movie theaters — Dastmalchian got back into acting when a friend offered him a part in a theater production.
His resurrected career took off from there.
Dastmalchian’s recovery included writing a screenplay for a movie called “Animals” that mirrored his experience with drug abuse. It was released last year. While doing media interviews for the movie, he went public for the first time about his addiction and recovery.
Before going into the crowd Friday to offer hugs for others going through similar journeys, Dastmalchian talked about the triumphant feeling of getting his life back, which was crystallized in a single moment last year.
His son was newly born. He had just accepted the award for Courage in Storytelling at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival for writing “Animals.” And then he got the call offering him a substantial role in “Ant-Man.”
“This is an extreme example,” Dastmalchian said. “This is an extreme, incredible life moment. But I really feel it’s that incredible for everyone who can get to that place.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback says if Kansas ever faces a zombie apocalypse, he might use a farm combine to mow them down.
Brownback had a short Statehouse ceremony Wednesday to sign a proclamation designating October as “Zombie Preparedness Month.” He told reporters that he and youngest son Mark, a high school student, have discussed how best to dispatch the walking dead.
The governor’s proclamation has the serious purpose of encouraging Kansas residents to prepare themselves for natural disasters and other emergencies.
His event with emergency preparedness officials included an appearance by 15-year-old Valley Falls student Faith Tucking portraying a zombie.
As for destroying zombies, Brownback said he and his son have discussed going to his parents’ farm in Linn County and firing up a combine, assuming they had enough fuel.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An oral history archive of Republican and Democratic legislative leaders is in the works in Kansas.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that former Kansas Sen. Robert Storey is among 10 former Kansas legislators to participate in a pilot project. Storey, now a Topeka attorney, shared his thoughts about the current batch of lawmakers Tuesday at the Capitol. He says they appear to lack the dedication to dig deeply into issues.
Also participating is Rochelle Chronister, the first woman to chair the House budget committee and who was assistant majority leader for three years. She says compromise “is not a dirty word” and “is the way you accomplish things for people.”
The Kansas Humanities Council and Shawnee County Historical Society are sponsoring the project. Interviews are recorded, transcribed and archived.
TOPEKA–Kansas has been awarded a $5,597,365 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor as part of the third round of Workforce Innovation Fund awards. The Kansas Department of Commerce will oversee the implementation of the grant to provide job seekers with seamless access to multiple workforce development programs. The grant will expand and enhance strong workforce development partner collaboration and improve the employment outcomes of job seekers with multiple barriers to employment. In addition, funding will integrate workforce service delivery.
“The Workforce Innovation Fund grant will allow us to reach more job seekers efficiently and help them transition into training and employment,” Kansas Commerce Interim Secretary Michael Copeland said in a news release. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with our partners to implement this grant and help more Kansans find rewarding career opportunities.”
The Department will join forces with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, the Kansas Board of Regents, Wagner-Peyser partners and the Registered Apprenticeship program to develop and implement a comprehensive staff training program to be delivered by Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Core Partners to all partner staff members who provide workforce development services.
The partners will also work to recruit job seekers with multiple barriers to employment, assess them for training participation and place them in on-the-job training. Commerce and WIOA Core Partners will implement a web-based intake and registration portal that will provide job seekers with convenient access to services from providers of all WIOA Core programs. The portal, which will be called START HERE, will gather intake and initial program eligibility data and will also connect users with performance data of the programs for which they may be eligible.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01) spent many days enjoying the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. His staff oversaw a Congressional booth throughout the entire Fair. As part of the outreach, constituents were surveyed on four questions. The results closely match the sentiment among the American people that culminated in Speaker John Boehner announcing his resignation,
Huelskamp issued the following statement:
“These survey results match what dozens and dozens of Kansans told me at the Fair: they are frustrated with Washington insiders, whether it be Republican leaders, President Obama or his bureaucrats. Rest assured, I will continue to represent the will of Kansans over the desires of the Washington political elites.”
Survey Results
Should John Boehner be replaced as Speaker of the House?
Total Responses – 328
· Yes – 285 (86.9%)
· No – 43 (13.1)
Should Tim continue to vote to repeal Obamacare?
Total Responses – 341
· Yes – 299 (87.7%)
· No – 42 (12.3%)
Do you think Tim should vote to reduce the EPA budget?
Total Responses – 332
· Yes – 288 (86.7%)
· No – 44 (13.3%)
Should Planned Parenthood receive taxpayer dollars?
Total Responses – 338
· Yes – 49 (14.5%)
· No – 289 (85.5%)
