JEFFERSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an injury accident in Jefferson County.
Early Sunday, Kansas Game Wardens responded to an injury boat accident at Perry Reservoir where two boats collided resulting in three injured people being transported to a local hospital for treatment, according to a social media report.
Evidence indicates that alcohol may be a contributing factor. The KDWP&T did not release names or additional details.
DETROIT (AP) — The Kansas City Royals hit three homers and got two spectacular defensive plays in a 7-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Monday afternoon.
Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar homered for the Royals, but the biggest plays of the game came on defense. Alex Gordon reached well over the left-field fence to rob Mikie Mahtook of a three-run homer, while Lorenzo Cain’s sliding catch took two RBI away from Jose Iglesias.
Since trading Justin Verlander and Justin Upton on Thursday, the Tigers are 0-5 and have been outscored 36-11.
The Tigers trailed 7-3 going into the ninth, but Nicholas Castellanos hit a three-run homer off Brandon Maurer with one out. Maurer struck out Efren Navarro before James McCann and Jeimer Candelario singled to put the potential winning run on base.
Scott Alexander replaced Maurer and retired Mahtook for his third save in five chances.
Jake Junis (7-2) improved to 5-0 in his last seven starts, giving up three runs on seven hits in five innings. He struck out three without walking a batter.
Artie Lewicki (0-1) pitched five innings in his major league debut, allowing five runs on 11 hits and a walk. He struck out one.
The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first. Whit Merrifield led off with a single, took second on a groundout, stole third and scored on Eric Hosmer’s two-out base hit.
Merrifield and Cain started the third with singles, and both scored on Melky Cabrera’s double. Hosmer followed with his 23rd homer to make it 5-0.
The Tigers had a chance to get on the board in their half of the third, but Andrew Romine was thrown out at the plate while trying to score from second on an infield single.
Kansas City loaded the bases off Lewicki in the fourth, but Salvador Perez ended the inning by flying out to deep left-center.
Gordon timed his jump perfectly to bring back Mahtook’s three-run homer. The catch was within a couple feet of the spot where Mahtook spiked Jose Ramirez’s ball over the wall on Sunday.
The Tigers came back with three runs in the fifth. Romine and Jose Iglesias led off with back-to-back doubles, making it 5-1, and Alex Presley’s triple scored Iglesias. Castellanos hit a sacrifice fly.
Kansas City’s defense struck again in the sixth, with Cain grabbing Iglesias’ sinking liner off the grass with runners on second and third.
Perez hit his 22nd homer off Daniel Stumpf in the seventh, making it 6-3, and Alcides Escobar hit his fourth off Drew VerHagen in the eighth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: RHP Kelvim Herrera (forearm strain) was not available for Monday’s game, but could pitch later in the three-game series.
Tigers: RHP Jordan Zimmermann (neck strain) became the latest Tigers starter to go down with an injury. He will consult a specialist about the injury, which has been a problem since last season, and could be out for the year. In the last month, four members of Detroit’s rotation — Zimmermann, Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris and Anibal Sanchez — have sustained injuries. The fifth, Justin Verlander, was traded.
TOUGH DEBUT
Since 1913, only one Tigers starting pitcher has allowed more hits in his major-league debut than Lewicki’s 11. On April 19, 1921, Carl Holling gave up 13 hits (and 12 runs) in his debut against the Cleveland Indians. Holling’s career ended the next year after 40 games, including 12 starts.
UP NEXT
Sanchez (3-3, 6.95) will return to Detroit’s rotation for the first time since straining a hamstring on Aug. 16 in Texas. He faces Jason Vargas (14-9, 3.87). Although Vargas is having the better season, he is 3-5 with a 6.03 ERA in 11 career starts against Detroit, while Sanchez is 6-5 with a 2.94 ERA in 16 appearances against the Royals.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Thousands of pelicans have been spotted in a wildlife area in central Kansas.
About 9,000 pelicans were spotted Tuesday at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend.
The birds are white with wingspans as large as 9-feet wide. Though they waddle clumsily on land, they’re graceful in the water and the air.
Robert Penner is the avian programs manager at the Nature Conservancy of Kansas. He says the pelicans begin returning to the state from their northern breeding grounds in July and August. Their numbers will increase as fall approaches.
Max Thompson is a retired Southwestern College biology professor and ornithologist. He says the birds tend to nest further north and that there’s no documentation of pelican nesting in the state.
September 4, 2017
Could it be? Could it possibly be September already? Seems like last week was July and I was on vacation. Oh, by the way, welcome to Week Number 318 of Big Facts from Little Minds, an outreach service of O’Connor University. You send me lotsa money, I’ll send you a diploma. By the way, we are an accredited institution, certified as thus by TOCA, the Tuition Optional Collegiate Association.
Talking about vacation reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend the other day. He expressed interest in my old hometown’s once-lively shipbuilding industry, so I directed him to some on-line pictures of ships built in Manitowoc, including 28 submarines during WW2.
The launching of those subs sideways instead of bow-first, as it’s done in most yards, was deemed to be risky if not impossible. A side launch, the experts said, would capsize the hull, flipping it upside down, an outcome not deemed desirable by the US Navy.
Enter the engineers. These guys equipped with little more than slide rules and adding machines figured out that, no, the hull would NOT capsize. It would roll pretty good, but would recover its preferred vertical orientation in short order.
They got the go-ahead to build ‘em sideways and launch ‘em in the same manner. They built the hulls on large timbers which were canted slightly toward the water. The hulls were held in place by huge ropes, which prevented the hull’s natural inclination to slide seaward.
On launch day the timbers were greased heavily from the keel to the point where the hull would drop into the water. After the obligatory champagne bottle-smacking of the bow and a band’s stirring renditions of patriotic music, a squad of well-rehearsed dockworkers swung their axes in unison and severed the ropes holding the hull in place. The hull slid down the ways (as they’re called) and hit the water, heeling over at a pretty dramatic angle, generating an impressive ‘tsunami’ wave on the other side of the river, but NOT capsizing.
The engineers were right. It worked just fine. If you would like to see some great pictures of their victory over doubt, just Google ‘pictures of submarine Peto launching at Manitowoc.’ There is one that’s particularly good, showing the huge wave and the timbers flying up in the air as the ship enters its natural element.
There are copies of this picture in homes, businesses and museums throughout the Manitowoc area. There was a copy (maybe the original) displayed in the lobby of the radio station I worked for in the ‘60s, owned by Francis Kadow, who in addition to being a broadcaster, was a very talented professional photographer. We were under the impression that he had made the iconic image, because it was not like him to display someone else’s work. No matter; it’s a great shot, whoever who took it.
Well, alright, let’s see what you’ve done with our questions from last week.
Not many comments, unfortunately, due, I suppose, to the ‘comments’ section of the website not being operational. Once again, I encourage you to just email me at john.oconnor@eagleradio.net. It really doesen’t take much longer than leaving a comment in the usual place at the bottom of this page.
But we DID have two persistent souls who emailed replies to our weekly trivia quiz.
Terry was first in with the answer to the Kansas kid scientist’ question. Yes, it was Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto at the age of 24.
And Susan dropped in to tell us that it was Triangle Rexall Drug in the 1600 block of Main, which had the last real soda fountain in Great Bend. Not only did they have all your usual soda fountain treats, but great sandwiches made fresh every day. They closed in the mid ‘80s, I believe.
That leaves three questions still active:
What astronaut landed on a farm and scared the people until they found out who he was?
What actor with sort of an ‘other-wordly’ name uses his mother-in-law’s maiden name as his last name? (Hint: he’s been appearing in a popular series on Netflix.)
What pop-soul duo put ‘the sound of Philadelphia’ back on the map in the 1980s?
And speaking of Netflix, what popular ‘80s TV series is now back with a new cast and new episodes?
Here’s a GB question as a bonus: what fast food place with a funny-looking slanty roof once held forth in the 1800 block of Main?
Hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend. Again, to reply to our questions, just email me at john.oconnor@eagleradio.net . Your responses are key to my wanting to continue writing this weekly feature.
Have a good week.
John
Tuesday’s Great Bend City Council meeting will once again be held at the Great Bend Events Center starting at 7:30 pm. Most of the agenda will deal with vacant positions on the council and city administration.
Agenda items will include the election of a new President of the Council. Due to the resignation of Wayne Henneke, a new president will need to be elected from current council members.
There will also be a discussion on the reinstatement of suspended Police Chief Cliff Couch. Council member Dana Dawson requested that this discussion be added to Tuesday’s agenda.
Dawson also requested a discussion for agreed upon procedures “Audit” from a certified public accounting firm. Dawson would like a discussion on hiring an accounting firm to complete an agreed upon procedures of city departments. An agreed upon procedure is a standard a company outlines when it hires an external party to perform an audit on a specific test or business process.
Also Tuesday, the council will form a committee of two council members and the mayor to interview candidates for the vacant Ward 2 council seat that had been held by Wayne Henneke. That committee will recommend an appointment for the council to approve. Applications for the position are being accepted through September 13th.
The council will also appoint a committee to interview Interim City Administrator candidates as well as a committee to review and interview candidates for the vacant Fire Chief position.
The council will also vote on a resolution to place the renewal of the ¼ cent city sales tax to be placed on the November 7th election ballot.
The final agenda item of the evening will be a presentation from Bryan Harris who will speak to the council regarding the suspension of Chief Couch.
GEARY COUNTY —The cause of a pig barn fire that resulted in the death of several hundred feeder pigs Saturday night is undetermined, but it was likely an electrical malfunction, according to Geary County Rural Fire Chief Garry Berges. The fire occurred on property owned by Phillip Goodyear at 10467 Humboldt Creek Road.
Authorities including Assistant Geary County Rural Fire Chief Curt Janke and a representative from the State Fire Marshal’s Office conducted an investigation into the cause and origin of the fire on Sunday afternoon. The number of feeder pigs that died has been reduced from approximately 700 down to 518.
The $200,000 barn was destroyed, and 518 pigs valued at $30,000 died in the blaze.
Berges said the pigs were owned by F & R Swine. “They’ve got an agreement with Mr. Goodyear to help take care of them as part of their operation.”
Berges said Goodyear will work with the Kansas Department of Health & Environment to dispose of the remains of the pigs. Berges also confirmed Goodyear had some insurance on the building.
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GEARY COUNTY — The Kansas Fire Marshal’s office is help to determine the cause of a fire Saturday in rural Geary County.
Just after 10p.m., eight Geary County rural fire units along with two support vehicles responded to the fire in a hog barn at 10467 Humboldt Creek Road on property owned by Phillip Goodyear.
“Later we learned that there were approximately 700 feeder pigs that were inside that ended up perishing due to the fire,” According to Garry Berges, Geary County Rural Fire Chief.
Water support from Fort Riley Fire, Riley County Fire and Grandview Plaza Fire was requested and received.
There were 20 Geary County firefighters and 12 firefighters from the mutual aid partners working at the scene. Berges noted that the fire was brought under control at approximately 30 minutes after midnight, with most of the firefighters released a bit after midnight, but three personnel and two trucks remained overnight until about 9:30 a.m. Sunday monitoring site.
SCOTTBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — An airline providing government-subsidized service to three Nebraska and two Kansas cities plans to end the flights later this month.
PenAir notified the U.S. Transportation Department last week that service to Kearney, North Platte and Scottsbluff in Nebraska and to Dodge City and Liberal in Kansas will cease after Sunday. The information was first reported by an airline industry news site, ch-aviation.com .
The Anchorage, Alaska-based carrier announced last month that it was filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan and planning to close its Denver hub.
The company says it had intended to continue service until replacement carriers were chosen and in place, but it says a massive exodus of its pilots forced it to end the two states’ service far sooner.
The Barton Community College men’s soccer team rattled the nets in each half for a 2-1 victory over Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa Sunday afternoon on the steamy turf of the Cougar Soccer Complex.
Shaking off the disappointment of Thursday’s last second road loss, the Cougars improved to 4-1 on the season in their final tune-up for conference play while NOC falls to 2-2.
Barton’s next opponent comes Wednesday as the Cougars travel to unbeaten Dodge City Community College, a Conquistador squad who knocked off NOC in Tonkawa on Thursday, riding high into the 7:00 p.m. kick-off at Memorial Stadium with a 2-0-2 record on the season.
By JIM MCLEAN & ALEX SMITH
The Affordable Care Act marketplace will be a mixed bag for Kansas consumers seeking health insurance for 2018.
Some will pay more for coverage, some less. And some will purchase new plans for which there is no price-point comparison.
In Missouri, insurers are proposing some hefty rate hikes.
The Kansas Insurance Department said the “range of average rate revisions” for individual and small-group plans on and off the ACA marketplace will be from 8.8 percent lower to 29 percent higher. That means that some consumers could see premium increases of more than 29 percent, but it’s impossible to say how many, said Julie Holmes, the department’s director of health and life insurance.
“It’s going to depend on who buys from which company,” Holmes said. “There are just so many variables.”
If there are substantial price spikes, many consumer who purchase Obamacare coverage may not be adversely affected. That is because the federal subsidies they receive to keep coverage affordable will also go up.
“So, they will be insulated,” Holmes said.
More than 80 percent of the Kansans who purchase coverage on the Obamacare marketplace qualify for some level of subsidy, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
More consumer choice in Kansas
While the exit of some insurers from the ACA marketplace is limiting competition and choice in many states, most Kansans seeking coverage will be able to choose from 38 plans offered by three insurers.
“A lot of states are not in that favorable a position,” Holmes said.
Minnesota-based Medica will offer plans throughout the state in 2018, while Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas will offer plans in all counties except Johnson and Wyandotte. Centene, a St. Louis-based company that specializes in Medicaid managed care, will offer plans in those two counties, following Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City’s decision in May to exit the Obamacare marketplace.
In several states — including the neighboring states of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa — only one insurer is offering Obamacare plans, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees the marketplace. In Missouri, consumers in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas have choices, but only one insurer is offering plans in most counties in the state.
Higher increases in Missouri
Rate proposals released Friday by the Missouri Department of Insurance are on average 36 percent to 42 percent higher than rates for similar 2017 plans.
“I’m not that surprised it’s that high, given the volatility that’s been going on with the Affordable Care Act,” said Timothy McBride, health economist at Washington University in St. Louis. “We’ve also seen some dropouts of some plans, which reduces the competition, which tends to increase the prices.”
Both Cigna and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, the two companies returning to sell on the marketplace, listed the uncertainty about cost-sharing payments that help consumers cover the cost of insurance as justifications for their proposed rates.
Earlier this year 25 western Missouri counties had been left “bare” when Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City decided to exit the marketplace. In June, Centene Corp. stepped in to fill that void and offer plans in those counties.
This is the first year for Missouri consumers to have access to marketplace rate information before open enrollment and to provide feedback on proposed rates.
Unlike some states, Missouri’s Department of Insurance does not have the authority to deny an insurer’s request for a rate increase.
McBride said public input and rate review still could influence insurance rates.
“We’re new at this game, so we don’t know how well it’s going to work,” McBride said. “But it has helped in other states.”
Insurers may adjust rates before open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1 and continues through Dec. 15.
Obamacare politics persist
Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a Republican preparing to step into the governor’s office when the U.S. Senate confirms Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination to a State Department post, used the numbers released by the insurance department to intensify his criticism of Obamacare.
“The 29 percent increases for health insurance are another rung on the Obamacare ladder of failure, just months after this broken system forced a major insurer to leave the Kansas City market,” said Colyer, who also is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2018.
“I urge Congress to keep their promise to repeal Obamacare and allow us to work with our stakeholders to create Kansas solutions for Kansas families,” Colyer said.
Colyer’s statement is based on false assumptions, said Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project, an initiative funded by several regional health foundations that support the ACA.
“The lieutenant governor’s implication that the ACA marketplace plans will increase in price by 29 percent is false,” Weisgrau said, noting that the insurance department said that rate revisions would vary widely.
Rather than continue to “spread misinformation about the ACA,” Weisgrau said Colyer should encourage Congress to fix problems that are destabilizing the Obamacare marketplace.
“He (Colyer) should also insist that the Trump administration join these efforts and stop working to undermine the marketplace,” Weisgrau said, referring to the president’s repeated threats to halt payments to insurance companies intended to help them cover the cost of lowering out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
Uncertainty about the administration’s commitment to maintaining those cost-sharing payments has destabilized the marketplace and prompted companies to either withdraw or raise rates, Holmes said.
“It definitely has contributed to instability,” Holmes said. “The carriers are holding their breath waiting to see if the administration is going to authorize those payments.”
A U.S. Senate committee is set to begin hearings this week on a potential bipartisan plan to stabilize the Obamacare marketplace.
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. Alex Smith is a health reporter for KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will end protections for young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. But that will come after a six-month delay.
People familiar with the plans said the delay in the formal dismantling of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program would be intended to give Congress time to decide whether it wants to address the status of the affected young immigrants.
But it was not immediately clear how the six-month delay would work in practice and what would happen to people who currently have work permits under the program, or whose permits expire during the six-month stretch.
