SALINE COUNTY —Rolling Hills Zoo’s new lion pride arrived from Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago Wednesday morning.
Image courtesy Rolling Hills Zoo
The pride, made up of a male and two females, along with Lincoln Park Zoo’s animal curator and keepers, left Chicago at 3 p.m. Tuesday and drove through the night to arrive at Rolling Hills Zoo.
The pride includes 9-year-old male Sahar and 5-year-old female littermates Kamali and Zalika.
Sahar, a 429 lbs. African lion, was born on January 27, 2010, at the Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society and moved to Lincoln Park Zoo in February 2012. Arriving at 2 years of age, Sahar had become an icon at Lincoln Park Zoo. In the summer he could often be found lounging on the high rocks in the middle of his habitat, or in cooler months he was often found on the heated rocks. Sahar likes to keep both of the females nearby (especially Zalika), and if they wander out of view you can hear his roar across the zoo grounds. A little more shy by nature, Sahar is expected to take a little longer to warm up to his new home.
As littermates, Kamali and Zalika were born on September 7, 2013, at the Oregon Zoo. To tell the two apart, Zalika is the larger of the two females, weighing in at 415 lbs. Kamali weighs 371 lbs. and also has a black scar on her front left leg from when she was over-groomed by her mother as a young cub. Both arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo in April 2015, at which time they were also introduced to Sahar.
Both females are outgoing and curious, especially with new people, and acclimate well to their new environments. Overall they are playful and calm, but Zalika takes the lead on the majority of things and has a very strong bond with her sister as well as with Sahar. Kamali, on the other hand, is more reserved then Zalika, and will often let her sister take the lead. Both are motivated to learn behaviors and work with their keepers to participate in their own health care.
This pride was moved to Rolling Hills Zoo on the recommendation of the African Lion Species Survival Plan (SSP), a collaborative effort among Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) – accredited institutions.
Now settling into the Lion Exhibit at Rolling Hills Zoo’s at for observation, the pride is on “lion time” to determine when they will be allowed into their habitat for public viewing. During their first one to two weeks of observation, the keepers will be getting to know the pride while the pride will also be acclimating to their new keepers along with their new environment. Once the keepers feel that the pride is comfortable with their surroundings and with each other, then they will go out into their habitat for visitor viewing.
Nikole Cain will serve as the Northwest Leadership intern for the summer of 2019. This position has been funded through support of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. Counties included within this program include Lane, Ness, Rush, Ellis, Ellsworth, Barton, Russell, Phillips and Rooks.
Growing up in Admire on a fifth-generation farm, Cain has deep roots within agriculture. She was a 12-year 4-H’er and was heavily involved within the National FFA organization throughout high school. This summer, Cain will be offering leadership day camps for middle and high school students across northwest Kansas that focus on developing leadership skills and team building, while incorporating a service-learning component.
Cain said she is excited to get to work with the youth (ages 12-plus) of northwest Kansas and is available to provide day camps, workshops or presentations as requested by any community group or organization.
For more information, contact the Cottonwood District Extension office in Hays at 785-628-9430.
Chelsea Shanks. Photo courtesy Saline County Sheriff’s Office
Salina Post
SALINA — Drivers stopped for a train got a surprise early Tuesday afternoon when a woman got out of a stopped vehicle, tried to get into the other vehicles, and then disrobed and lay down in the roadway.
By the time Saline County Sheriff’s deputies got to the scene in the 1700 block of West State Street (where State Street intersects with Old 40) shortly after 12:30 p.m., the woman had taken off some of her clothes and was lying in the roadway, Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said Wednesday. Soldan said that prior to taking her clothes off, the woman had gotten into one of the vehicles and attempted to take some money from the console, but the driver snatched it back.
Soldan said that Chelsea Shanks, 30, of Salina, was transported to Salina Regional Health Center (SRHC). While there, she allegedly battered one of the security guards and attempted to stab a nurse with a syringe, he said.
After Shanks was treated at SRHC, she was booked into the Saline County Jail on suspicion of the following, Soldan said.
Nine nursing homes in Kansas and 14 in Missouri are among nearly 400 nationwide with a “persistent record of poor care” whose names had been withheld from the public, according to a U.S. Senate report released Monday.
The Special Focus Facility program targets facilities that ‘substantially fail’ to meet the required care standards and resident protections. BIGSTOCK
The facilities are not included on a shorter list of homes that get increased federal scrutiny because of health, safety or sanitary problems.
The names of the previously undisclosed facilities were released by Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey, a Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Republican, as part of their investigation of federal oversight of nursing homes.
The nearly 400 homes qualify for the federal Special Focus Facility (SFF) program but aren’t selected to participate because of limited resources at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to the Senate report.
“Despite being indistinguishable from participants in terms of their qualifications for enhanced oversight, candidates are not publicly disclosed,” the report states. “As a result, individuals and families making decisions about nursing home care for themselves or for a loved one are unlikely to be aware of these candidates.”
Here are the Kansas and Missouri homes that are candidates for the SFF program, according to the Senate report, along with the number of their certified beds. (The bed numbers come from Nursing Home Compare, an online reference maintained by CMS that rates nursing homes based on health inspection reports, quality of care measures and overall staffing.)
Kansas
Enterprise Estates Nursing Center, Enterprise, 41 beds
Great Bend Health & Rehab Center, Great Bend, 65 beds
Woodlawn Care and Rehab, DBA Orchard G, Wichita, 93 beds
Indian Creek Healthcare Center, Overland Park, 120 beds
Fort Scott Manor, Fort Scott, 45 beds (This facility closed last year.)
Pinnacle Ridge Nursing & Rehab Center, Olathe, 94 beds
Westy Community Care Home, Westmoreland, 43 beds
Via Christi Village Pittsburg Inc., Pittsburg, 96 beds
Mount Hope Nursing Center, Mount Hope, 45 beds
Missouri
Kansas City Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, Kansas City, 180 beds
Crestview Home, Bethany, 92 beds
Normandy Nursing Center, St. Louis, 116 beds
Garden Valley Healthcare Center, Kansas City, 156 beds
Life Care Center of Bridgeton, Bridgeton, 91 beds
Hillside Manor Healthcare and Rehab Center, St. Louis, 208 beds
Parklane Care and Rehabilitation Center, Wentzville, 240 beds
Crystal Creek Health and Rehabilitation Center, Florissant, 158 beds
Maple Wood Healthcare Center, Kansas City, 150 beds
Edgewood Manor Center for Rehab and Healthcare, Raytown, 66 beds
Christian Care Home, Ferguson, 150 beds (This facility is no longer participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.)
Lewis & Clark Gardens, St. Charles, 142 beds
Redwood of Raymore, Raymore, 142 beds
Rancho Manor Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Florissant, 120 beds
Two Kansas nursing homes and three Missouri nursing homes are in the SFF program:
Kansas
Serenity Care and Rehab, Overland Park, 145 beds
Garden Valley Retirement Village, Garden City, 78 beds
Missouri
Hidden Lake Care Center, Raytown, 112 beds
St Johns Place, St. Louis, 94 beds
Green Park Senior Living Community, St Louis, 188 beds
As the Senate report notes, the SFF program “targets those facilities that ‘substantially fail’ to meet the required care standards and resident protections afforded by the Medicare and Medicaid programs.” The program aims to stimulate improvements in their quality of care.
Linda MowBray, vice president of the Kansas Health Care Association, a trade association representing 260-plus Kansas nursing homes, said that SFF program participants are chosen from the poorest performing facilities in the bottom 20% of state inspection surveys.
“The state survey agency identifies two to three facilities from the lowest 20% that have demonstrated a special need for more oversight due to history of deficiencies, staffing levels and/or quality outcomes,” she said.
“They may very well need to be a special focus home,” MowBray said. “But it may be that they are in that bottom quintile because of one particular incident, not necessarily a longstanding history that’s care-related. But some facilities do have a record of having more widespread problems.”
She added: “It’s public information and people need to know it, but I really believe that in Kansas we’re getting our act back together.”
Only 88 nursing homes out of more than 15,700 nationwide are currently participating in the SFF program, according to the Senate report
The program dates to 1987, when Congress enacted the Nursing Home Reform Act requiring nursing homes to maintain “the highest possible mental and physical functional status of residents.” The act also established oversight procedures, including regular surveys and inspections.
Unlike SFF participants, which are required to notify the public of their participation in the program, SFF candidates are not. Adding further confusion to the picture, 27% of the SFF candidate facilities had two stars out of a maximum of five on Nursing Home Compare.
In Kansas, some of the ratings may be dated. The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS), the agency that conducts nursing home surveys, had fallen behind the federal schedule that calls for nursing homes to be inspected at least once a year.
“It’s taken KDADS quite some time to get caught back up with surveys,” MowBray said. “So we’ve had facilities that have gone as long as 24 months between surveys, and we don’t like that, the homes don’t like that.
“Some of the rankings have been hanging around their neck for a long time and they’ve made quite a few improvements since that bad point. But that bad survey’s still hanging out there.”
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
LARNED – Officials from Larned State Hospital (LSH) have opened a criminal investigation into a resident-on-resident altercation.
According to a media release from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, the altercation, which took place Sunday on the resident unit of LSH’s Sexual Predator Treatment Program, resulted in injuries to one of the program’s residents. The extent of those injuries, as well as how the altercation started, is part of the ongoing investigation.
“I take this matter very seriously and am committed to providing a safe environment for every resident,” said Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) Secretary Laura Howard. “I have every confidence our dedicated officials at Larned will conduct a thorough examination of this event and move forward with recommendations to prevent this in the future.”
Results of the criminal investigation will be shared with the Pawnee County attorney.
KDADS is responsible for the administration of Larned State Hospital and Osawatomie State Hospital for Kansans suffering from mental illness and for the Kansas Neurological Institute and Parsons State Hospital and Training Center for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
BARTON COUNTY —Deputies in Barton County worked five car-deer accidents overnight Tuesday, according to Sheriff Brian Bellendir.
File photo
This is an unusually high number for a single night. Normally deer are not as active this time of year. It is possible the recent flooding may have destroyed habitat and the animals are on the move, according to Bellendir.
Drivers are advised to use caution when traveling in the late evening and during the night-time hours. None of the accidents resulted in injury.
SHAWNEE COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attempted robbery and have a suspect in custody.
Alex Marin photo Shawnee Co.Antonio Beltran-photo Shawnee Co.
Just before 4a.m. Tuesday, police were called to the 1300 Block of SW Caledon in Topeka for a report of an attempted robbery, according to Lt. Aaron Jones. Officers discovered a 36-year-old man suffering from a non-life threatening gunshot wound. The man was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
During the investigation detectives developed several individuals as possible suspects to the incident. Police located them and brought them to the Law Enforcement Center for questioning, according to Lt. Manuel Munoz.
Police have arrested Antonio Beltran, 19, and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on requested charges of attempted first degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary, according to Munoz. They also arrested Alex Marin, 19, and booked him for conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.
The city council approved a pilot program Tuesday. Companies that want to rent out scooters in Wichita will have to pay for the privilege through an administration fee of $500 to $1,000 and 15 cents for each ride rented. Officials say the money will go to a city fund to establish and maintain bike paths.
Nathan Huber of Gotcha scooters says the company will evaluate the new ordinance and decide soon whether to move into Wichita.
The ordinance also requires scooter operators to be 18 or older and go no faster than 15 mph. Scooters also would be barred from sidewalks or streets where the speed limit for cars is 40 mph or more.
WABAUNSEE COUNTY— Authorities issued an alert to the public after a successful water rescue in Wabaunsee County.
Image KDWP&T Game Wardens
Just before 9p.m. Tuesday, authorities responded to a distress call for a man who accidentally fell into the Kansas River after the bank gave way, according to the Wabaunsee County Sheriff’s office.
Deputies with the assistance of Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks Game Wardens, AMR; Paxico Fire; and Wabaunsee Fire rescued him and he and is in good condition, according to the sheriff’s office.
Officials strongly urge all individuals to stay away from river banks. The banks of the river may be washed out due to recent high water levels. In this instance, the man was five feet from the bank’s edge.
Unsafe conditions of the Kansas River and its surrounding banks warrant caution. Sightseeing is highly discouraged. Although river levels declined in recent days, water levels remain high, swiftly moving, and full of debris.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators on Tuesday accused Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration of breaking Kansas law with a new policy that makes it easier for adults who are not working to keep receiving food assistance.
Today, I alerted Governor Laura Kelly that her administration’s recent Kansas Department for Children and Families memo aimed at bypassing existing welfare work requirements is a direct violation of state law. Read my letter and news release! #kslegpic.twitter.com/K4iaG7XO9z
The state Department for Children and Families maintained that the policy is legal. The agency said it will help the homeless and young adults aging out of state custody in the foster care system and that recipients could receive extended benefits through September.
Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins demanded in a letter to Kelly that the governor rescind the policy issued May 17. It says the department will extend assistance month by month for some able-bodied adults without children instead of cutting it off because the recipient isn’t working or enrolled in job training.
Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican, said the letter was his way of putting Kelly “on notice” that the department is violating a 2015 law codifying stricter rules for the state’s food and cash assistance programs that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration set. Kelly was a state senator before taking office as governor in January and strongly opposed the law.
“It comes as no surprise that Laura Kelly is violating the law in (an) attempt to grow the welfare state in Kansas,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, who is also a conservative Republican and from Wichita. “We will do everything possible to hold our governor accountable and ensure she complies with the law.”
It was not clear how far top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature were prepared to go to overturn the new food assistance policy. Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt declined through a spokesman to comment on whether Schmidt agreed that the policy violated state law and whether he would take legal action.
“DCF intends to move forward with this policy,” the agency said in a statement emailed by spokesman Mike Deines.
The federal government pays for food assistance and covers half of each state’s costs in administering them. It generally limits able-bodied adults age 18 to 49 without dependents to three months of assistance within a three-year period if they aren’t working or enrolled in job training.
The 2015 state law specifies the same policy and says the Department for Children and Families can’t ask the federal government for a waiver or start a program to avoid the rule. The same law also gained national attention for telling families they can’t use cash assistance to attend concerts, get tattoos, see a psychic or buy lingerie. The list of don’ts amounted to several dozen items.
The department said its policy is neither a waiver nor a new program.
The policy said the federal government gives states some flexibility to grant exemptions “as they deem appropriate” to extend assistance month by month. Because Kansas didn’t use exemptions “for many years,” some 58,000 “have accumulated,” with each good for a one-month extension for one adult, the policy said.
“Federal law explicitly allows this and other exemptions,” the department said.
Critics argue that Kansas’ tougher rules hurt struggling families, and before Kelly took office, she called on legislators to roll them back. The idea got no serious consideration before lawmakers adjourned last week for the year.
Since its current budget year began in July 2018, Kansas has provided food assistance to an average of about 109,000 adults and nearly 98,000 children a month. The average cost is just short of $111 per person.
The total number of people receiving food assistance, now averaging 207,000 a month, is down nearly 35 percent from its 2013 peak of 316,000 but higher than it was before the Great Recession.
The 2015 law, which Hawkins helped draft, had widespread support among Republicans, who argue that it moves welfare recipients toward self-sufficiency.
“She’s proposed to protect and defend the statutes of the state of Kansas,” Hawkins said of Kelly. “To go out and subvert that, I think, is just wrong.”
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 54-year-old former teacher and swim coach who worked in the Kansas City area has been sentenced to federal prison for sexually assaulting and exploiting children in crimes that spanned decades.
Green photo Jackson County
James Green Jr. was sentenced Tuesday to concurrent terms of 30 and 10 years for production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
Green faces other sex crime charges involving minors in Jackson County.
Federal prosecutors say Green used hidden cameras to videotape sex he had with children at his home, and to tape high school boys undressing in school locker rooms. The filming occurred for about 20 years.
Green taught and coached at Oak Park High School, in several middle schools in the North Kansas City School District and at Blue Springs South High School. He also coached at Hallbrook Country Club in Leawood, Kansas.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A legislator says a screening policy at the local jail requiring women to remove their underwire bras before entering the facility is sexist and she is demanding that it be changed.
The corrections department disputes Jackson County, Missouri legislator Crystal Williams’ claims. Corrections director Diana Turner says the rules implemented May 16 aim to prevent weapons and contraband from being smuggled into the Jackson County jail.
Update JaCo Detention Center Bragate. The director and sheriff are digging in and deem there’s no need to figure out a solution which doesn’t target, but accomodates, a specific population, namely women. Asked for a brief suspension so it could be evaluated was told no. Lovely.
Williams raised the issue on Twitter Monday after hearing complaints from female attorneys and others about the jail’s screening procedures. The checkpoint consists of an X-ray machine and metal detectors.
Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté says misinformation has been spread about the screening process and that no one has been asked to remove their underwire bras.
STILLWATER, Okla. — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a registered sex offender who is jailed in Stillwater, Oklahoma, for the alleged murder of a former Kansas woman.
Earl Oswalt-photo Payne Co. Sheriff
On June 3, the Payne County Oklahoma Sheriff’s Office requested that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation assist with an investigation into a missing person case that evolved into a homicide investigation, according to a media release from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Chelsey Chaffin, 29, formerly of Hutchinson, last spoke to her mom by text during the evening hours of May 25. That was the last time she was heard from by friends or family, according to the release.
On May 24, Chaffin had moved to a residence in Stillwater. The residence belonged to 54-year-old Earl Oswalt, who worked with Chaffin at a tile company in Stillwater.
The Payne County Sheriff’s Office and the OSBI followed up on dozens of leads in the missing person case that ultimately led to the arrest of Oswalt for murder.
Investigators say he killed Chaffin in the early hours of May 26. At approximately 1 a.m. on May 27, her body was dumped over a bridge into the Cimarron River.
Oswalt is a registered sex offender who spent 20 years in prison on a 60-year sentence for rape in the first degree. He was paroled in 2017.
The search continues in hopes of recovering Chaffin’s body.
