by Fred Gough ~ Hutch Post

At approximately 2:43 pm, Tuesday afternoon, a medical emergency was called in the Administrative Segregation Unit at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. Four inmates were removed from their cells by correctional officers due to unknown medical issues.

Nursing staff from the prison clinic arrived on the scene and began to assess the inmates. The inmates were then taken to the clinic for evaluation.

Two ambulances were then requested from Reno County EMS. One inmate was taken by EagleMed Air Ambulance and a second inmate transported by ambulance to a Wichita area hospital.

Officials are not releasing the names of the inmates due to the ongoing investigation as to the cause of their medical issues.

We will update this story as more information is released.

Two women were injured in a head-on collision on K-156 in Ellsworth County Monday morning, around 8:15 am.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 22-year-old Pamela Maynez of Dodge City was northeast bound on K-156 when she fell asleep, drifted across the center line and collided with a southwest bound vehicle driven by 74-year-old Kathryn H. Little of Beverly.

Maynez was transported to Wesley Medical Center with injuries. Little was transported to Salina Regional with injuries.

Their conditions have not been released.

Investigators in northeastern Kansas say a motorist who struck and killed a 21-year-old college student might not have realized that someone had been hit.

KMAN-AM reports the victim has been identified as Manhattan resident Konley Harding, a student at Manhattan Area Technical College.

The Pottawatomie County sheriff’s office says witnesses saw a small SUV crossover or large sedan run over the victim around midnight Saturday on U.S. 24, about two miles east of Manhattan.

The vehicle continued without stopping. Authorities say Harding was wearing dark clothing and, according to witnesses, had been lying in the roadway. The sheriff says the driver was probably aware of hitting something, but not necessarily that it was a person.

Investigators are reviewing tapes of traffic in the area at the time.

Two people have been killed in a car-train collision in northeast Kansas.

Brown County Sheriff John Merchant says the vehicle collided with a Union Pacific freight train around 10 a.m. Monday at a crossing north of Hiawatha.

Merchant says a man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names were being withheld while relatives are notified.

Few other details were immediately available. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Kansas State University officials have issued a statement confirming staff and campus police responded to a student death at the Marlatt residence hall Sunday.

Thomas McCord, a sophomore in English from Overland Park, was found in his room about 2:15 p.m. Residence hall staff notified authorities. The death was unattended and is not considered criminal in nature. Further details are not yet known.

Housing and dining staff are working with counseling services to help students and staff affected by McCord’s death.

“Our thoughts are with Thomas’ family and friends right now,” said Pat Bosco, vice president for student life and dean of students.

Emergency responders from Kansas have been helping out along the East Coast as Hurricane Sandy bears down on that region.

Emergency response volunteers and professionals from north-central Kansas are helping organize shelters and provide other emergency aid. The hurricane began battering the area Monday.

The Kansas Incident Management Team traveled to Maryland on Sunday to support emergency responders there. The team will be deployed through Nov. 11 to work in Maryland’s Emergency Operations Center.

The Kansas National Guard also is sheltering military aircraft in Topeka from the hurricane-affected areas. Six KC-135 tankers and crews from Andrews Air Force Base arrived Sunday at Forbes Field.

The American Red Cross in north-central Kansas also sent four responders to help in New York City and Baltimore.

The extended drought is prompting cattle farmers across Kansas to sell some or all of their herds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last week that the number of cattle sent to Kansas feedlots in September was the lowest on record for that month, down 25 percent from September 2011. The number of cattle sold by feedlots to packers in Kansas fell 17 percent from a year ago and tied for the worst month ever.

The Wichita Eagle reported the cattle industry expected the steep drop in cattle as drought ruined pastures, dramatically increasing the cost of feed.

Graham County farmer Ken Grecian said his pastures could support 350 cow-calf pairs in a normal year, but he will be lucky if he can support 250 next year.

Two suspects wanted in connection with a shooting in Salina in the early morning hours of October 22nd were arrested Monday morning in Aurora Colorado.

Aurora Police arrested 22-year-old Armani Ramos and 26-year-old Ariana Waite without incident at a motel about 5:30am.

Police had checked the license on a 2005 Mazda Tribute parked in a motel parking lot and it came back as wanted in Salina.

Ramos and Waite face charges in a shooting about 3:30am last Monday in the 300-hundred block of S. Ohio where two people were shot with one bullet from a handgun.

Ramos is the alleged shooter.

He faces charges of attempted second degree murder.

Waite facing charges of aggravated burglary and battery .

A third suspect and one of the people shot, Morgan Allred is in jail on charges of aggravated burglary and aggravated battery.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is sponsoring a two-day event this week that his office is calling the state’s first conference on the future of water.

The event is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Manhattan.

Brownback plans to speak the first day. Also on the conference agenda are U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas and Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The governor’s office says the conference will examine the state’s water infrastructure, ways to improve water quality and how to meet demand for water from the energy and agriculture industries. Another topic is extending the Ogallala aquifer.

A biographer of President Dwight D. Eisenhower is scheduled to speak in Abilene.

Historian Jean Edward Smith, author of the book “Eisenhower in War and Peace,” is leading a discussion Thursday evening at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

The Salina Journal reports that Smith’s book examines Eisenhower’s journey from Abilene to West Point, through World War II, the presidency and later.

Smith has been a faculty member at the University of Toronto and Marshall University, and is a senior scholar in the history department at Columbia University. A book signing will follow the discussion.

A social service agency in western Kansas is seeking to expand with the help of a state tax credit program.

The Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center is one of 27 nonprofit organizations awarded part of $4.13 million given by the Kansas Department of Commerce. The money comes from the department’s Community Service Tax Credit program.

The Garden City Telegram reports the advocacy center will use its allotted $160,000 to buy a third mobile unit, which will allow the organization to expand its mobile mental health services.

WKCAC works with victims of child abuse in 29 counties in western Kansas. The organization has two mobile units, one for forensic interviews and the other for both medical exams and mental health therapy.

Frightening test scores have prompted a Hutchinson elementary school to cancel its annual Halloween parade so pupils can use the time learning.

McCandless Elementary canceled the event because it is being monitored by the State Department of Education and student test scores were low.

Some parents are upset that children who are getting good grades are being punished because of the performance of others.

Principal Glen Owen says classroom celebrations will go on as scheduled, but the time allotted for the Halloween parade will be used instead for school work.

A spokesman for the Hutchinson School District says student learning is a bigger priority for the schools than having parades.