TOPEKA – Staff and members of the community are mourning the death Sunday of a longtime Kansas zoo gorilla who underwent a surgical procedure last week.
In follow-up to an ongoing health condition that had not improved, Tiffany the gorilla was taken to a local medical facility for a CT scan at 10:45 Sunday morning, according to a media release.
The CT scan revealed two abdominal masses. After consulting with a radiologist and surgeon, the masses were identified to be tumors resulting from stage four ovarian cancer.
Tiffany, 49, returned to the Topeka Zoo where a surgical team waited. In addition to the zoo’s veterinary team, Dr. Guernsey-Youngblood of University Veterinary Care Center and consultants from Tallgrass Surgical Center were onsite to evaluate Tiffany. Not long into the surgical procedure, it became evident that the cancer had metastasized to the abdominal wall.
Knowing the full extent of the condition, the procedure paused to evaluate options. “Even if all the cancer affected tissue could have been removed, we just could not see an appropriate way to administer a regimen of chemotherapy to treat the cancer,” said Zoo Director Brendan Wiley. “We made the decision that we felt was best for Tiffany and decided to not wake her up from her surgery.” Just before 3:00 and surrounded by the team of people that cared for her, Tiffany passed away.
Tiffany was loved by many. Regulars at the zoo knew her by name. “She was a big part of the persona of our zoo,” said Wiley. “It seemed like everyone knew who Tiffany was.” As a young gorilla, Tiffany became the community’s sweetheart when she was paired with a gorilla named Max. That affection stayed with her even after Max left for another zoo. Tiffany enjoyed board books and stuffed animals. One of her most intriguing attributes was her attraction to small children. She loved watching kids and kids loved to watch her.
Tiffany was born on July 15, 1968 at the Kansas City Zoo. She arrived at the Topeka Zoo on October 15, 1969. In January of 1983 at the recommendation of the Gorilla Species Survival Plan she moved to the Buffalo Zoo and returned back to Topeka in 1987. She will be missed.
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TOPEKA— A constipated 49-year-old lowland gorilla at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas is recovering after having surgery.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that zoo Director Brendan Wiley says the procedure that Tiffany underwent Wednesday went “really well.” A significant amount of stool was found in her colon and was flushed out.
Wiley says the best-case scenario is that she will bounce back. If issues continue, test results will be reviewed to determine how to treat her constipation.
The zoo said staff reported on Friday that the gorilla wasn’t acting like herself. Staff thought a storm the previous night might have upset her, but over the following days, she lost more of her appetite. The surgery was performed to determine why she had been reluctant to eat.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, right, Photo Kansas News Service
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer’s legislative voting record gives insight into the course of policy action he’s certain to sustain if he wins the governor’s race.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Colyer generally has avoided hefty policy pronouncements in recent weeks to focus on explaining what type of governor he would be.
Colyer launched a state Legislature career by sponsoring a bill equating the legal status of a fetus at all stages of gestation to that of a living human being.
This anti-abortion position he took as a freshman representative in 2007 reflected his advocacy in the House and Senate through 2010 and his public positions as lieutenant governor for more than six years.
President Donald Trump has nominated Gov. Sam Brownback to serve as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
GEARY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on drug charges.
Just before 4:30a.m. Friday, deputies with the Geary County Sheriff’s office stopped a vehicle on U.S. Highway 77. They arrested Joseph A. Smith, South Haven, Mississippi and Jerry M. Smith, Memphis, Tennessee on suspicion of Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and No Drug Tax Stamp.
CINCINNATI (AP) -Rookie Patrick Mahomes threw a pair of touchdown passes, solidifying his spot as the Chiefs’ primary backup, and three Kansas City quarterbacks threw for a score on Saturday night during a 30-12 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Kansas City (1-1) got a lot to like out of its offense overall and its top pick in particular.
Mahomes moved into the role of Alex Smith’s backup a week ago and was smooth against the Bengals (1-1), who chased him from the pocket but couldn’t stop his accurate on-the-move throws. Mahomes, the 10th overall pick from Texas Tech, was 10 of 14 for 88 yards with touchdowns of 1 and 7 yards.
The Chiefs scored on each of their first five possessions for a 30-9 lead. Smith was 8 of 9 for 83 yards with a TD, and Tyler Bray threw an 18-yard touchdown on his first play.
Kansas City piled up 410 yards, including 228 rushing. Charcandrick West ran for 113 yards on only seven carries.
The Bengals had to settle for a pair of field goals during Andy Dalton’s three possessions. He was 7 of 13 for 98 yards with one sack.
Cincinnati’s kicking competition remained all even. Randy Bullock and Jake Elliott have made all of their attempts in two games. Bullock connected from 47 and 26 yards on Saturday, while Elliott was good from 32 and 39 yards.
ROOKIE WATCH
Chiefs: Third-round pick Kareem Hunt got a chance to show his versatility. He was limited to one carry and one catch in the preseason opener. On Saturday, he was the featured running back on the first two drives. Hunt had 8 carries for 40 yards and 3 catches for 23 yards.
Bengals: Top draft pick John Ross was held out of a second straight preseason game as he recovers from shoulder surgery. He was cleared to fully practice on Monday. … Second-round pick Joe Mixon carried five times for 13 yards.
INJURIES
Chiefs: TE Travis Kelce missed the preseason opener with a sore knee but practiced during the week and had one catch for 26 yards. S Eric Berry was sidelined again with a heel injury.
Bengals: S Shawn Williams hurt his right elbow in the second quarter and was taken off the field on a cart. … RB Giovani Bernard sat out a second straight preseason game as he recovers from a torn ACL.
TAKE THAT
Bengals LB Vontaze Burfict leveled RB Anthony Sherman with a high hit to the chest on a passing play in the first quarter.
STILL KICKING
Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos was out again with a groin injury. Sam Ficken, signed to fill in while he heals, made a 23-yard field goal, but was wide right on one of his extra-point attempts.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Trevor Bauer pitched 6 1/3 innings as the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 5-0 on Saturday night.
Bauer (12-8) won his fifth straight decision – the longest winning streak of his career that started after a July 17 loss. He gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out four.
Relievers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen did not allow a hit over the final 2 2/3 innings to complete the shutout.
Bauer joins teammates Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco as 12-game winners. The Indians are the only team in the majors with three 12-game winners.
Roberto Perez delivered the clutch blow, a two-out, two-strike, two-run single in the fourth inning that scored Jay Bruce and Carlos Santana.
Jose Ramirez and Jason Kipnis hit consecutive doubles in the first inning for the first Cleveland run.
State Rep. Troy Waymaster (left) talks to Rush Co. Commissioner Ken Urban (seated center) and his wife Melanie (standing) and other concerned residents Friday afternoon the proposed expansion of a hog feeding operation southwest of Pfeifer.
By BECKY KISER
RUSH COUNTY — It looked like an informal gathering of friends sitting under the shade trees to while away a perfect summer afternoon Friday in Loretta.
But the 20 or so people were there to voice their concerns about a proposed expansion of a hog farm 2 miles southwest of Pfeifer in northern Rush County and just south of the Ellis County line.
The residents of Rush and Ellis Counties had asked State Rep. Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill, to hear the concerns of locals about the expansion, which could increase the permitted number of animals from 3,840 to 24,408.
The group is troubled about environmental damage, property values, health issues, road maintenance and their livelihoods.
“This is gonna ruin people’s lives,” said one young man to Waymaster.
Melanie Urban lives 1.1 miles from the edge of one of the proposed buildings.
“Right now when the wind blows, you can smell it. If it gets that much bigger, you’ll be able to smell it all the time.
“We’re worried our water wells are going to get polluted or even depleted,” she told Waymaster. “We’re also concerned about how much (animal) waste will be generated, how they’ll contain it and how it will spread so it doesn’t pollute our water resources.”
The Smoky Hill River is 1.5 miles away from the site and the source for drinking water, private wells and agricultural wells in the area. The Pfeifer well field on the Smoky Hill River is the primary source of water for the city of Russell.
According to the public hearing testimony, a certified land surveyor has determined dead swine and carcasses are being left in open trenches closer to one habitable structure (a home) than the required distance of 5,000 feet. That would be a violation of KDHE regulations and state law.
“The dead pigs are at the same depth as some of our water wells,” Urban continued. “They’ve been burying them there for 20 years. We’re worried about that getting into our water.”
If a waste lagoon were to break, the slurry would run downhill into the Smoky Hill River, according to Urban.
“To our knowledge, that lagoon has never been pumped out, never been cleaned. They’re not telling us that information. We don’t have access to that information,” she said.
Urban presented Waymaster with a copy of the public comments alleging several state violations during a public hearing July 25 in La Crosse. Several times during Friday’s 90-minute meeting, Waymaster looked up from his cell phone, promising the group he was “taking notes, not playing on my phone.”
Signs opposing the swine feeding expansion are directly across the road to the west.
“I have four little ones,” said Emily Billinger. She and her husband Jim, who grew up in Pfeifer, are parents to four children under the age of 8. “I want the state to know there are young families here who are worried about their kids not being able to play outside because of polluted air and water.”
Waymaster told the group he had talked with KDHE Secretary Dr. Susan Mosier on Thursday. He read out loud a lengthy email from Mosier detailing the status of the KDHE permit application and what action steps might be next for residents in Rush County.
“This could be brought up to a public vote as to whether or not they would want this type of facility moving into their county. But the unfortunate fact is the people in Rush County would have that voice. But the people in Ellis County will not,” Waymaster pointed out. “That’s why this discussion was a combination of Ellis and Rush County residents so I could hear their concerns and relay those back to Dr. Mosier.”
Under state law, Kansas counties do not have any control in regulating confined swine feeding operations owned by an LLC or corporation. The state does allow county commissions to “request an election to determine whether corporate swine production facilities shall be allowed to be established in _______ county, pursuant to K.S.A. 17-5904.”
“We went door-to-door talking to people about what was going on, showing them the application so they’re aware of this hog facility. We went to the county commission and the zoning committee to make them aware,” Urban said. “So, in November of this year, it’s gonna go to a vote of Rush County residents whether they want a corporate swine production facility in this county.
If the result is a “no” vote, Urban is unsure how it would affect the proposed expansion.
“We’re still worried about it, but it’ll for sure stop others from coming in.”
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has prepared a proposed Kansas Water Pollution Control Permit for Bison Rush Genetics. The permit is being reissued for a 20-year-old existing confined animal feeding operation, which was sold recently.
The hog feeders, located north of the CR310 & Ave. B intersection in Rush County, wants to expand from 3,800 swine to 24,000 swine.
According to the permit application, the proposed expansion would be a full production unit with up to 12,822 hogs more than 55 pounds and up to 11,586 hogs less than 55 pounds.
The applicant is listed as Bison Rush Genetics LLC, with a post office box address in Carthage, Ill. That address is associated with Professional Swine Management. The application includes a facility address of rural Bison in Rush County.
“We don’t know who the actual owners are yet,” said Urban, wife of Rush County Commissioner Ken Urban.
Waymaster told the group he is a firm believer in local rights. “Local government should be deciding what’s going on in their particular cities and counties, and obviously, local citizens need to have a voice.
“It does feel like this firm has moved in without the locals being able to express their concerns, but they (Bison Rush Genetics LLC) have done everything within the law and within Kansas state statutes. Nothing has been violated,” Waymaster said. “But I do have a concern about this because it’s going to be affecting the livelihoods of people in Ellis and Rush counties, who’ve been pushed aside and basically had no voice in this type of facility moving into the area.”
The 109th District state representative wouldn’t go so far as to say state statutes need to change but did say “we definitely need to have more regulation on if and when this type of business is moving in … and also in making the counties say whether or not they want this in their county.”
According to Ken Urban, Rush County has had zoning regulations in place since 2003, “but we just found out in the past few weeks we have no control over this. I’m not opposed to corporations but it would have been nice for the applicants to meet with us.” Urban, in his sixth year as a county commissioner, said he’s “disheartened,” adding that several attorneys are involved on behalf of Rush County.
Newly dug lagoons can be seen north of the hog facility.
His wife, Melanie, summed it up with “they’re putting it way too close to people and way too close to water resources.” She said dirt work has already been done at the site and four water wells have been drilled in preparation for the expansion.
Click HERE to view the permit application. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment oversees those permit applications.
Attempts to contact Professional Swine Management were unsuccessful Friday.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran speaks at a town hall meeting Friday in Topeka. News broke during the meeting that White House strategist Steve Bannon was leaving his job. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
BY JIM MCLEAN
News of White House strategist Steve Bannon’s resignation broke Friday afternoon during U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s town hall meeting in Topeka.
The second-term Republican was fielding questions about President Donald Trump’s fitness for office when a man in the back of the American Legion hall reading the news on his cell phone shouted that Bannon was out.
“We have breaking news during my town hall meeting,” Moran quipped as many in the crowd applauded.
In an interview after the meeting, Moran said he hoped that Bannon’s departure and the presence of a new chief of staff — former Marine Gen. John Kelly — would bring more order to what to date has been a relatively dysfunctional White House.
“I assume that the president made a decision that his administration will perform better in the absence of Steve Bannon, and I look forward to the administration coming together in a greater level of hope that the country will be less divided,” Moran said.
Moran, one of the few Republican members of Congress to earlier this week directly criticize the president for his ambivalent statements about last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va., said infighting among Trump’s senior staff had made it difficult to work with the White House.
“We’ve seen the difficult times this White House has had in having a message and knowing what that message is and staying on that message,” he said. “We saw that with Charlottesville. We had three different statements and (it) was therefore hard to know exactly where the president was.”
Prior to joining Trump’s campaign a year ago, Bannon headed the conservative Breitbart News, where he created a platform for the so-called “alt right,” a movement that includes white nationalists.
Though he said he had never met Bannon, Moran said he had seen reports indicating he was leader of one of the warring factions that had created a “very divisive world at the White House.”
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
TOPEKA— The Supreme Court Friday affirmed Phoebe Shaylor’s conviction in Reno County District Court for failure to register as a drug offender under the Kansas Offender Registration Act.
Shaylor, 41, claimed she should not have been required to register because the requirement was imposed after her original conviction for manufacture of methamphetamine in 2002.
In 2007, the Legislature amended the law, imposing the requirement on persons convicted of unlawful manufacture of controlled substances or controlled substance analogs “unless the court makes a finding on the record that the manufacturing or attempting to manufacture such controlled substance was for such person’s personal use.”
Shaylor argued her conviction for failing to register violated the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits Legislatures from retroactively punishing previously committed crimes. The principal issue for the court was whether registration requirement was punishment for the original manufacture of methamphetamine conviction. A divided Supreme Court held Shaylor failed to demonstrate that it was.
Writing for the majority, Justice Dan Biles noted under existing Kansas case-law regarding sex offenders that registration was a non-punitive civil regulatory requirement and not punishment. Based on that precedent, Biles continued, Shaylor needed to make a sufficient evidentiary showing in the district court to prove the prior case-law was inapplicable to drug offenders.
Since Shaylor didn’t do that and raised the issue for the first time on appeal, the majority held her constitutional challenge was not valid and affirmed her conviction.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man has been sentenced to probation for a hit-and-run that killed a U.S. Marine.
The Sedgwick County district attorney’s office says 27-year-old Dreu Wikle was sentenced Friday to two years of probation. He would serve three years in prison if he violates probation.
Wikle pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.
The accident in May 2016 killed 31-year-old Grant Burris, of Haysville, a Purple Heart recipient who was checking the mail at his parents’ home when he was hit.
Witnesses told police the driver didn’t stop after hitting Burris, who served four tours in Iraq. He died 11 days after being hit.
Court documents say Wikle thought he hit a mail box but didn’t stop.
