Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said Wednesday that at noon on Tuesday, someone posing as a Westar Energy employee called Hill Liquor, 153 N. Broadway, and told the employee there that the liquor store hadn’t paid its electric bill and that if she didn’t pay, the power would be turned off at 12:30 p.m. The Hill Liquor employee was told to put $1,473 on three GoBank cards and then provide the card information to the caller, he said.
The liquor store employee went to Walmart and, using liquor store funds, purchased three GoBank cards and provided the information to the caller, Forrester said. It wasn’t until after the information had been provided that the liquor store employee began to suspect the transaction was not legitimate and called Westar, he said.
Westar informed the liquor store employee that they did not make the call and would not request payment in such a manner, Forrester added.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University and Kansas State are hoping to offer a satellite nursing program in Manhattan.
Wichita State and K-State have started the planning phase of a program that will give students the opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Health and Human Sciences at K-State, and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the College of Health Professions at WSU.
The program would allow Kansas State students to earn a three-year bachelor’s of science from the College of Health and Human Sciences. And, if they are accepted, students could also complete a two-year bachelor’s of science in nursing through Wichita State on the Manhattan campus.
The program is intended to address a nursing shortage in Kansas.
Kansas State signed a memorandum of understanding last month. That starts the planning phase leading up to seeking the Kansas State Board of Nursing’s approval for the program.
John Buckwalter, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, said the program will attract students who would have attended Kansas State if it had a nursing program.
JUNCTION CITY —The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Geary Community Hospital in Junction City have resigned.
Officials at the hospital released information to hospital employees Tuesday.
“On behalf of Mark Stenstrom, DVM, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Geary Community Hospital:
The Board of Trustees of Geary Community Hospital is working to finalize a new relationship with Community Hospital Consulting (CHC Consulting), the management and consulting arm of Community Hospital Corporation (CHC). Beginning on or about October 1, 2019, CHC Consulting will provide management services for the hospital for an initial period of one year.
Geary Community Hospital
Many employees are already familiar with CHC Consulting through the Operational Assessment conducted by the firm early in 2019, and through a Support Services agreement in place since May 1. The new Management Services agreement would replace the Support Services agreement with the goal to help us improve across all areas of hospital. Through the Operational Assessment and the Action Plan developed in cooperation with CHC, we have a plan in place to restore the financial health to the hospital in the near future.
Our CEO Joe Stratton, DBA, FACHE and CFO Steve Doherty have resigned and left the organization. Plans include moving forward with CHC Consulting providing oversight of day to day operations, assistance with Interim replacements and beginning the search process for permanent leaders. Until CHC Consulting begins the management services, all departments will report to the existing executive team leaders. Emily Emery-Shea will be the Interim CFO.
The Board of Trustees is confident that Geary Community Hospital will strengthen to continue our mission established a century ago: Providing quality healthcare and promoting the well-being of those we serve.”
DETROIT (AP) — Union and company bargainers are making progress toward a new contract as a strike by United Auto Workers brought 33 General Motors factories to a halt continued into its third day.
Workers on the picket line in Kansas Tuesday photo courtesy Triple A
The strike includes some 2000 GM workers in Kansas.
Committees working on thorny issues such as wages, health insurance costs, use of temporary workers, and new work for plants slated to close worked until early evening Tuesday and are scheduled to resume bargaining early Wednesday.
UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said the talks were moving slowly but progressing.
More than 49,000 workers walked off their jobs on Monday in a dispute over the union’s quest to get a bigger share of GM’s profits and the company’s goal of cutting labor costs so they’re closer to those at U.S. auto plants run by foreign companies.
Health care costs and giving temporary workers a clear path to permanent jobs were two major sticking points in talks toward a new four-year contract.
On the picket lines, many workers were hoping for a quick resolution, but said they’re willing to stay out as long as needed.
“I can’t see this lasting too long,” said machinist Clarence Trinity as he carried a union sign at GM’s engine and transmission factory in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, Michigan. “Both sides are losing bad.”
Citi analyst Itay Michaeli, in a note to investors, estimated that the strike is costing the company $100 million per day in earnings. However, GM has enough inventory to supply dealers for 77 days at the current sales pace, although it’s running lower on big SUVs, according to Cox Automotive.
If the strike ends soon, GM will be able to crank up production to make up for lost production time and mitigate some of the losses. But if it lasts more than a week, it will start to affect production in Canada and Mexico, putting more pressure on GM’s inventory. If supplies dwindle, consumers may go to other brands, costing GM sales and market share.
GM is facing weakening sales, a deteriorating global economy and an unpredictable trade war as it tries to keep its labor costs in check through 2023. But workers are looking at GM’s fat profits of more than $30 billion during the past five years, and they want a bigger share.
KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a homicide and asking the public for help to identify a suspect.
Photo courtesy Wichita Police
Just after 2:30 p.m. September 13, police responded to 13th and Leavenworth Road in Kansas City, according to officer T.J. Tomasic. Officers found a man later identified as Jamagio J. Berryman, 29, Kansas City. EMS transported him to a local hospital where he died.
On Tuesday, police reported they had located a vehicle in connection with the shooting parked near 13th and Euclid. They continue their work to identify the suspect and released a photo.
The KCKPD Criminal Investigation Bureau has reason to believe he may have traveled to Wichita or another area of south-central Kansas, according to Tomasic.
Anyone with information on the suspect or his identity is asked to contact police.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A surgeon accused of mishandling surgeries in Missouri is banned from the operating room of the Wichita Veteran Affairs hospital while his work is being reviewed.
Veteran Affair’s banned urologist Christel Wambi-Kiesse from doing surgeries at the Robert Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita after learning he faced disciplinary action in Missouri.
Missouri’s healing arts board found that Wambi-Kiesse performed robot-assisted surgeries beyond his abilities. A complaint before Missouri’s Administrative Hearing Commission said his alleged mistakes contributed to a woman’s death and caused dangerous complications for two men.
Wambi-Kiesse will be allowed to see patients but cannot perform surgery at the Wichita VA hospital while he is under review. The federal agency said appropriate action will be taken based on the results of that review.
BARTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after a traffic stop.
Carey photo Barton Co.
Just after noon Tuesday, a Great Bend Police Department detective made a traffic stop in the 2100 block of Harrison, according to a media release.
During the traffic stop, the officer detected the odor of marijuana and conducted a search of the vehicle.
The officer located approximately 5 pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine, acid, mushrooms, MDMA, and drug paraphernalia inside the vehicle.
They arrested Xavier Allen Carey, 25, and transported him to the Barton County Jail where he was booked and confined in lieu of $100,000 bond. Authorities have not released details on requested charges in the case.
KANSAS CITY — A Kansas City man has been charged in the fatal shooting of another man during a gathering Sunday to watch the KC Chiefs play Oakland, according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
Sharron Garner photo Jackson Co.
According to court records filed Monday, Kansas City patrol officers were dispatched Sunday afternoon to the 4200 Block of Tracy Avenue in Kansas City on a reported shooting. They found the 46-year-old Robert D. Williams inside an upstairs apartment.
Witnesses identified the suspect as 28-year-old Sharron Garner, who they said was wearing a Chiefs jersey at the time of the shooting.
He and the victim had been in the residence to watch the game earlier.
Witnesses said the defendant left the apartment for a few minutes and returned. Without saying anything, he shot the victim, unloading a full magazine before fleeing. Spent shell casings were found in the residence.
Court records say he was dressed in clothes that smelled of bleach and was high on PCP when he was found afterward hiding on the apartment’s main level.
Garner is being held on a requested bond of $350,000 cash.
The Shawnee Mission school board voted unanimously Monday night to adopt the LGBTQ language. It joins nearby districts in Olathe, Blue Valley and De Soto, who have added the nondiscrimination language.
The vote came after 10 residents spoke against changing the policy, while a handful of others supported the proposal.
Board member Deb Zila said she believed the change reflected the district’s practice of welcoming all children and trying to accommodate them as best it can.
Opponents said they feared that schools are teaching students about sexuality at too young of an age, or that transgender students might be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice.
OGALLALA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska trial of a Kansas man charged with the collision deaths of four Iowa motorcyclists has been delayed again.
CISNEROS HERNANDEZ- photo Keith County
The new trial starting date for 24-year-old Jeser Cisneros-Hernandez, of Liberal, Kansas, is Dec. 3. Keith County District Court records say he pleaded not guilty in October 2017 to four felony counts of vehicular homicide, one misdemeanor count of reckless driving and one of failing to drive in his lane.
The North Platte Telegraph reports that Cisneros-Hernandez’s trial previously had been set to start in July 2018, then successively in April, August and October of this year.
Prosecutors say Cisneros-Hernandez’s vehicle hit two motorcycles carrying two people each on July 1, 2017, near Ogallala.
Authorities say 54-year-old Sheila Matheny and 61-year-old James Matheny, from Bedford, Iowa. The other motorcyclists were 58-year-old Michal Weese and 59-year-old Jerolyn Weese, who lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas jury was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of a Kansas priest who was suspended from the ministry after he was accused of inappropriately touching a young girl on two occasions.
Rev. Kallal-photo Wyandotte Co. Jail
A Wyandotte County jury announced Monday evening that it could not determine the guilt or innocence of the Rev. Scott Kallal, 37, who was charged with two felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.
He was accused of inappropriately touching a 10-year-old girl in 2015 at a Kansas City, Kansas, church gymnasium and again at a graduation party in Bonner Springs.
The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a statement that Kallal will remain on leave and it will resume its evaluation process after the legal process is completed.
“I continue to pray that truth is served and all those affected by this ordeal may find healing and peace,” Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann said in the statement.
The girl testified at a preliminary hearing in 2017 that Kallal twice tickled her breasts against her wishes. She said in one incident at a parish hall gymnasium, she ran into a girl’s restroom to escape Kallal but he came into the restroom, picked her up and carried her out, still tickling her.
The girl’s mother testified last week that she saw Kallal carrying her daughter during that incident and had to demand three times that he put her down because she said it was inappropriate. She said she didn’t witness the inappropriate touching that her daughter later reported.
“She was scared,” the woman said.
The incidents were not reported until the summer of 2017. The girl’s mother said she waited to make a police report because she didn’t think the church would do anything and she was raised to hold priests in high regard.
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Jurors have deadlocked in the trial of a suspended Kansas priest charged with molesting a child.
The Wyandotte County prosecutor’s office says jurors were unable to reach a verdict Monday in the case against the Rev. Scott Kallal. The 37-year-old was tried on two felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. He has pleaded not guilty.
He was accused of inappropriately touching a girl in 2015 at a Kansas City, Kansas, church and at a graduation party in Bonner Springs. The girl was 10 at the time.
The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a statement that Kallal will remain on leave and that it will resume its evaluation process after the legal process is completed. Prosecutors haven’t said whether they will retry him.
LYON COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident Monday in Lyon County.
Just after 9:30 a.m., EMS and police responded to the intersection of 12th Avenue and East Street in Emporia, according to police Sgt. Lisa Sage.
A bicycle ridden by a 21-year-old woman from Emporia was northbound on East Street and did not stop at a stop sign, according to witnesses. The bicycle collided with the rear driver’s side of a northbound SUV driven by a 56-year-old woman,
EMS transported the bicyclist who was unconscious to the hospital in Emporia, according to Sage. She was later air-lifted to another hospital. She was not wearing a helmet, according to Sage.
Police have not release names of those involved and late Tuesday afternoon were working to learn the condition of the bicycle rider, according to Sage.
