Looking for an idea for a fundraiser but also an entertaining evening for women, the Family Crisis Center started, “Red Shoes and Bunco Too.” Women will be able to purchase a $50 ticket to play three rounds of bunco, a popular dice game, participate in the silent auction, and receive a drink ticket.
With the event coming up on April 13, Family Crisis Center Financial Director Shannon Somers says they are gathering items for the silent auction, mostly purses.
Shannon Somers Audio
The Family Crisis Center works to end domestic and sexual violence, abuse, and neglect with both adults and children. Somers says the non-profit organization receives funding through grants and United Way of Central Kansas, but community events like Red Shoes and Bunco Too play a critical role in sustaining the operation.
Shannon Somers Audio
The event, in its second year, will take place at the Columbus Hall, on south Main Street in Great Bend beginning at 6:30 p.m. Women wearing red shoes will receive an extra drink ticket.
“Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event will take place April 26 near Jack Kilby Square in Great Bend from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Men parading around in red stilettos will again try to bring awareness to sexual and domestic violence.
SHAWNEE COUNTY ‑— Law enforcement authorities are investigating an aggravated robbery.
Just before 9p.m. Monday, a man arrived at a Topeka hospital with injuries consistent with a gunshot, according to Lt. Kelvin Johnson.
Through the investigation, it was learned that the injuries, which were not life threating and were received during a robbery to in the area of 13th and Western in Topeka.
Officers searched the area, but have yet to locate an exact crime scene where the robbery occurred. The suspects were described as two black males with ski masks armed with a handgun.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Devonte Graham had 23 points and seven assists, Malik Newman added 20 and No. 8 Kansas beat Oklahoma 104-74 on Monday night.
The Jayhawks (22-6, 11-4 Big 12) controlled things early, jumping out to a 10-0 lead less than four minutes into the game and forcing Lon Kruger to burn a timeout before the first media break. The Sooners (16-11, 6-9 Big 12) never recovered.
Kameron McGusty led the way for Oklahoma with 22 points while Jamuni McNeace added 18 in his first career start.
It was a cold shooting night for Trae Young, who missed 10 of his 13 shots. His 11 points were a season-low. He did have nine assists.
Kansas broke the 100-point threshold for the first time since December as six Jayhawks scored in double figures.
The win marks No. 300 all-time in Big 12 play for the Jayhawks. Only two other schools (Texas, Oklahoma) have surpassed the 200 mark.
BIG PICTURE
Kansas now sits a half-game ahead of Texas Tech atop the Big 12 standings after gaining a game on the Red Raiders when they fell to Baylor Saturday.
Oklahoma has now dropped its last six games, and has fallen to No. 8 in the Big 12. The skid has led some to speculate that the Sooners could miss the NCAA Tournament.
UP NEXT
Kansas has a road clash with Texas Tech Saturday, serving as a battle for the outright Big 12 lead.
Oklahoma will look to rebound at home against a hot Kansas State team on Saturday.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Devonte Graham had 23 points and seven assists, Malik Newman added 20 and No. 8 Kansas beat Oklahoma 104-74. The Jayhawks (22-6, 11-4 Big 12) controlled things early, jumping out to a 10-0 lead less than four minutes into the game and forcing Lon Kruger to burn a timeout before the first media break.
JUPITER, Fla. (AP) – Jason Motte is back with the St. Louis Cardinals this spring on a minor league deal, hoping to earn a spot in the bullpen. The 35-year-old Motte was a star reliever for the Cardinals before leaving them after the 2014 season.
SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) – It wasn’t so much about who was on the field for Kansas City Royals’ first full-squad workout of spring training. It was more notable who wasn’t there. Several cornerstones of the Kansas City teams that reached the World Series in 2014 and 2015 are in other camps or are still looking for places to play.
SAN DIEGO (AP) – Eric Hosmer and the San Diego Padres have finalized their $144 million, eight-year contract. The team announced the signing after Hosmer passed his physical. The four-time Gold Glove winner and 2016 All-Star will be introduced during a news conference Tuesday morning at Padres camp in Peoria, Arizona.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Baker Mayfield doesn’t like comparisons to Johnny Manziel, although the Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma wasn’t surprised by them after an arrest and other antics during his time with the Sooners. At a stop in his home state of Texas to accept the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback, Mayfield said he and Manziel were “two completely different people.” Mayfield will be at the NFL combine next week and is projected as a possible first-round pick in the draft.
National Headlines
GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) – American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani have won the bronze medal in ice dancing with an impressive free skate at the Pyeongchang Games. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the event to become the first figure skaters to win five Olympic medals. Virtue and Moir scored a record 206.07 points to beat training partners Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) – The U.S. men’s hockey team has advanced to the quarterfinals with a convincing 5-1 win against Slovakia, leaving the Americans 2-1-1 in the tournament. The game was scoreless until Ryan Donato and James Wisniewski scored 44 seconds apart in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second period. Donato finished with two goals and Ryan Zapolski stopped 22 shots as the United States earned the right to take on the Czech Republic.
UNDATED (AP) – A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that the Boston Red Sox and slugger J.D. Martinez have agreed to a five-year, $110 million contract, pending a physical. The 30-year-old Martinez breakthrough season last year, hitting .303 and setting career highs with 45 home runs and 104 RBIs for the Tigers and Diamondbacks. Martinez slammed 29 homers and drove in 65 runs in 62 games with Arizona, including a record-tying four home runs at Los Angeles on Sept. 4.
NEW YORK (AP) – Major league fans won’t see as many mound visits this season in an effort to speed up the game, but a 20-second pitch clock won’t be in place this year. The new rules imposed by MLB include a general limit of six mound visits per nine-inning game without a pitching change, whether by a manager, coach or player. The Major League Players Association refused to agree to the changes but also signed an agreement that it will not oppose the new rules.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The top four remain the same in the latest Associated Press men’s basketball poll, with top-ranked Virginia followed by Michigan State, Villanova and Xavier. Duke climbed seven spots to fifth, Texas Tech and Gonzaga are tied for sixth, Kansas went from 13th to eighth, Purdue dropped three notches to ninth and North Carolina moved up four places to 10th. Houston, Middle Tennessee and Florida State cracked the top-25 poll and occupy the last three positions.
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final (8) Kansas 104 Oklahoma 74
Crews on the scene of Monday’s fire in Topeka-photo courtesy WIBW TV
TOPEKA — One person was injured in a fire Monday in Shawnee County.
Just after 3p.m., fire crews responded to a home in the 3200 Block of Skyline Drive in Topeka.
Upon arrival, fire crews found the two-story wooden frame residential structure with smoke showing. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack keeping it confined to the structure of fire origin. All occupants made it outside of the house before firefighters’ arrival.
Firefighters performed a search of the structure and confirmed there was nobody left inside. One infant patient was transported by AMR from the scene to a local hospital for injuries sustained from the fire.
Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire. They reported the fire damage was $40,000 to the structure and $10,000 contents loss. There were no working smoke detectors in the home at the time of the fire, according to fire officials.
SEDGWICK COUNTY – The search for a missing 5-year-old Kansas boy continues. There are no new leads in the child’s disappearance.
Police said they received a call about 6:15 p.m. Saturday reporting that to report Lucas Hernandez was lost in southeast Wichita. When officers arrived, Lucas’ 26-year-old stepmother said he was last seen Saturday afternoon in his bedroom before she showered and fell asleep.
Police spokesman Charley Davidson said Monday afternoon the search continues but police had little new to report.
Officers and dogs have searched the boy’s home, neighborhood and the 216-acre Chisholm Creek Park. Davidson said police have found no evidence suggesting Lucas was abducted.
An FBI team is assisting police. Lucas has brown hair and eyes and weighs about 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt with a bear on it.
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Editor’s note: The story is updated to explain that the child was last seen Saturday. Wichita Police originally reported Friday.
SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a missing child and asking the public for help to locate him.
The Wichita Police Department (WPD) officials continue working with partnering agencies in search of 5-year-old Lucas Hernandez, according to officer Charley Davidson.
Just after 6:15 p.m. Saturday, officers were dispatched to a lost juvenile call at a residence in the 600 block of South Edgemoor. Upon arrival, officers made contact with a 26-year-old female who is the stepmother of Lucas. She reported she last saw Lucas in his bedroom at approximately 3 p.m., on Saturday, prior to her showering and falling asleep.
The boys has brown hair and brown eyes, approximately 4-feet tall and weighs 60 pounds and was last seen at 3 p.m. in his bedroom wearing black sweats, white socks, a grey shirt with a bear on it.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team is assisting WPD with this investigation. If anyone has any information on this case, please call (316) 383-4661. The case number is 18C010693.
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SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a missing child and asking the public for help to locate him.
Just after 6:15p.m. Saturday, officers responded to report of a lost juvenile call at a residence in the 600 block of south Edgemoor in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
The child, 5-year-old Lucas Hernandez has brown hair and brown eyes, approximately 4-feet tall and weighs 60 pounds and was last seen at 3 p.m. in his bedroom wearing black sweats, white socks, a grey shirt with a bear on it.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of Lucas or has any information please call 911 immediately.
At an earlier Great Bend City Council meeting, Interim City Administrator George Kolb presented the council the need to improve their IT services throughout the city. Kolb wanted to see better protection of the city’s assets, records, and sensitive data. The city could choose to do nothing, create their own IT department, or outsource the service to an IT partner. Choosing to outsource the service was deemed the best option.
The selection committee narrowed down the five proposals to two finalists including Gilmore Solutions, based out of Sterling, and Central Plains Computer Services (CPCS) from Great Bend.
City Clerk Shawna Schafer mentioned the initial cost of the IT partner would be costly, but eliminating each department’s separate methods of IT security would help soften the blow.
Shawna Schafer Audio
The selection committee consisted of Kolb, Schafer, Community Coordinator Christina Hayes, and Scott Harper from the Great Bend Police Department. The committee recommended Gilmore Solutions with the one-time fixed cost of $49,000, and a monthly rate of $8,000. Central Plains Computer Services placed a one-time fixed cost of $25,245, and a monthly bid of $7,598.18. Kolb noted Gilmore has experience working with city governments and municipalities. CPCS has over 30 years as a full-service IT company, but they do not have experience with municipalities.
Council member Jolene Biggs reiterated other board members’ feelings in that there were many unknown costs involved because the city did not know exactly what they needed from the service. For example, CPCS had a potential one-time cost at a later date to set the city up on a virtual private cloud server for $28,000.
Jolene Biggs Audio
On a night where retail business owners earlier in the meeting praised Hayes and the efforts of the Great Bend Retailers Roundtables to bring more awareness to shop local, multiple retailers urged the council to keep the business local with either CPCS or Office Products, Inc. (OPI).
Business owner Dana Dawson added the contract for a local business could make a big impact.
The council chose to table the discussion until the March 19th meeting, giving the city a chance to communicate with IT specialists in the area to determine the city’s exact needs. The month will also give the bidding companies a chance to clearly itemize prices for precise services, making it easier for the council to compare the proposals.
In other city council news:
– A motion was approved to rename McAurther Lake to Rotary Lake after Rotary Club members presented their plans to improve the lake and make it more accessible for fishing.
– Community Coordinator Christina Hayes notified the council that the city is still $6,000 short of their fundraising to have a fireworks display on the 4th of July.
– While placing bids to have the carpet replaced at the Great Bend Events Center, it was discovered that there was asbestos in the floor tiles. Hayes said she would bring bid prices back to the council for the possible removal of the asbestos.
– The council approved the $1,000 sponsorship for the 2018 Job Fest held on April 19 at the Great Bend Events Center from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.
KANSAS CITY – Two Kansas City men were convicted by a federal trial jury of charges related to the kidnapping and murder of another man, according to Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Ross-photo Mo. Dept. of Corrections
Raynal King, 26, and Howard R. Ross, III, also known as “Lil’ Howard” and “Shooter,” 23, both of Kansas City, were found guilty of multiple counts related to the carjacking, kidnapping and murder of Jaime Patton on Sept. 6, 2016.
King and Ross were convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, one count of aiding and abetting a kidnapping resulting in death, one count of using a firearm in furtherance of a kidnapping that resulted in a first degree felony murder, one count of robbery of a motor vehicle (carjacking) resulting in death, one count of using a firearm in furtherance of carjacking that resulted in a first degree felony murder, and one count of aiding and abetting each other as felons in the possession of a firearm.
Patton was returning home from the hospital, where he had been caring for a family member, sometime after 5 a.m. that day when King and Ross kidnapped him and stole his 2014 Jeep Patriot. They held Patton at gunpoint and drove him around in his Jeep to ATM machines, attempting to force him to provide his PIN number for his debit card so they could withdraw cash from his bank account.
Patton was unable to provide a working PIN number to withdraw cash. While held at gunpoint by King and Ross in the Mazuma Credit Union parking lot, he called his wife to obtain the working PIN number, but he was unable to do so. King and Ross became upset with the lack of cooperation from Patton and shot him in his upper thigh to make sure he knew they were not playing around.
King and Ross then drove Patton in his Jeep south on Holmes Road while they discussed what to do with him. At approximately 6:30 a.m., shortly after traveling south on Holmes Road through the intersection with 135th Street and further out of the city, Patton jumped out of his Jeep while it was moving. Patton was shot multiple times while attempting to jump and he fell to the roadway. King and Ross then fled from the area in Patton’s Jeep, leaving him to die on the side of the road.
According to evidence introduced during the trial, King and Ross began planning to commit a robbery a couple of days earlier. King had recently purchased a silver Pontiac Grand Prix but was unable to make his car payments or pay the sales tax fees. Text messages between King and Ross (recovered from their phones) shows that only days before the kidnapping King communicated with Ross about his problems and about a potential robbery.
Ross, who was on state probation for robbery at the time of the crime, was held in the Jackson County Jail after his arrest. While in the Jackson County Jail, Ross made multiple recorded phone calls to others regarding disposing of various items of evidence. Ross discussed with friends and family the location of his iPhone, which led to search warrants and the recovery of Ross’s iPhone and further evidence on his iPhone.
Investigators recovered evidence from Ross’s iPhone that showed weeks before the kidnapping Ross had a Springfield Armory .45-caliber pistol. Patton was murdered with a .45-caliber bullet. Ross took photos of himself carrying the pistol; he messaged those photos to others and posted photos on social media sites. Shortly after the murder, Ross attempted to sell the pistol to an acquaintance.
When forensic examiners were able to search King’s Android phone, several messages, photographs, and relevant Internet searches were recovered as evidence. King took photos of the stolen Jeep and messaged with others in an attempt to sell the Jeep to obtain sufficient money to make his own car payment on his Silver Pontiac Grand Prix before it would be repossessed.
Following the presentation of evidence, the jury in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., deliberated for just under three hours before returning the guilty verdicts to U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays, ending a trial that began Monday, Feb. 12, 2018.
Under federal statutes, King and Ross each face mandatory life imprisonment. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Republican Party has voted to oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.
The party’s state committee endorsed the statement after a debate on human sexuality at the party’s annual meeting during the weekend.
The resolution says God’s design for gender is determined by biological sex and not by self-perception. It opposes surgical or hormonal efforts to alter a person’s body to conform with gender identity.
Eric Teetsel, president of the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, sponsored the statement. He says the resolution was prompted by love and noted it recognizes the dignity of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
LGBT advocates criticized the resolution. Equality Kansas director Tom Witt called it an undignified and crass assault and a cheap election year attack.
The Great Bend Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Kansas WorkforceONE and Great Bend High School, is introducing the 1st Annual Building Bridges program in Great Bend Tuesday, February 20.
The event is aimed at bringing businesses, economic development, workforce development, and education together. The program is designed to help identify what schools should be teaching the students in an effort to prepare them to be a viable part of the workforce.
Lacy Wolters serves as the ACT / Career Coordinator for Great Bend High School. Wolters says the breakout sessions with working professionals, school staff, and students are designed for constructive open discussion.
Lacy Wolters Audio
The event starts Tuesday in the Commons Area of the High School at 6 p.m. with networking and appetizers. An opening introduction and presentation is at 6:30 p.m. and then breakout sessions for the different industries represented will be at 7 p.m.
Wolters hopes many areas are covered including: soft and technical skills needed for students to be college and career ready, hands-on experience in many fields, and how to get students to stay and work in Barton and surrounding counties.
Looking for an idea for a fundraiser but also an entertaining evening for women, the Family Crisis Center started, “Red Shoes and Bunco Too.” Women will be able to purchase a $50 ticket to play three rounds of bunco, a popular dice game, participate in the silent auction, and receive a drink ticket.
