LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A civil rights group says staff at a privately run Kansas prison repeatedly have disparaged a Muslim woman for wearing a headscarf and ordered her to take it off before allowing her to leave her cell.
The Washington-based Muslim Advocates raised concerns about the treatment of 49-year-old Valeriece Ealom in a letter to CoreCivic, the Tennessee-based company that operates the prison in Leavenworth.
The letter, which was made public Wednesday, also was sent to the U.S. Marshals Service, which contracts with CoreCivic to house federal prisoners.
Ealom has been held at the facility since last November after federal prosecutors moved to revoke her parole in a drug case. She has sued over her treatment.
CoreCivic did not immediately respond to questions from The Star.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s claim that a Wichita high school has a dozen assistant principals is not true but his campaign says he stands by his contention that Kansas schools have too many administrators.
Kobach during the debate at the Kansas State Fair-photo courtesy Kobach for Governor
Kobach made the statement Saturday during a debate between GOP governor’s candidates at the Kansas State Fair.
Kobach spokeswoman Danedri Herbert said a state legislator told Kobach about the Wichita school.
After Wichita school officials objected, Herbert said the campaign checked and found that East High School and North High School in Wichita combined have a dozen principals and vice principals, which she says is “clearly excessive.”
Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said he isn’t aware of any school in the state with 12 assistant principals.
HAYS – Dr. Tisa Mason will be inaugurated as the 10th president of Fort Hays State University in a ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Friday in Gross Memorial Coliseum at Fort Hays State University.
The ceremony will include performances by the Fort Hays Singers and the FHSU Wind Ensemble. Members of the Hays and campus communities will deliver video greetings.
Dr. Jeff Briggs, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, will deliver the welcome, and Blake Flanders, president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR), will serve as the master of ceremonies.
The investiture ceremony, and the presentation of the university mace and medallion, will be conducted by Dennis A. Mullin, KBOR chair. President Mason’s inaugural address will follow the presentation.
The Celebration on the Quad – with food, activities and opportunities to meet President Mason – will follow the ceremony, beginning at 11:30 a.m. and lasting until 1 p.m.
Shuttle service will be provided between Gross Coliseum, Gate 2, and the Quad until 1:30 p.m.
WASHINGTON —The Kansas Association of Wheat Growers presented Senator Bob Dole with a Lifetime Friend of Wheat Award Wednesday
Dole was recognized for his steadfast dedication to Kansas farmers. “Thank you for your lifetime of public service, Senator Dole.
Kansas First District Congressman Roger Marshall also participated in the presentation.
Ken and Kyler (KAWG Directors) presented @SenatorDole with a Lifetime Friend of Wheat Award today for his steadfast dedication to Kansas farmers. Thank you for your lifetime of public service, Senator Dole! And another big thanks to @RogerMarshallMD for meeting with us, too! pic.twitter.com/YIZVZGuCYS
Dole, who celebrated his 95th birthday in July served Kansas in Congress for 35 years. He left the Senate in 1996 for his campaign against President Bill Clinton. Congress recently awarded him a Congressional Gold Medal.
USD 428 noted again that all their teaching positions are filled in some capacity for the 2018-2019 school year at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.
Discussion popped up about the use of long-term substitute teachers that have been inserted into classrooms this year.
USD 428 Assistant Superintendent John Popp says there are some substitutes that were told they were going to be working for the district all year, while others are more part-time until a licensed teacher can be hired. Popp added a handful of substitute teachers are working on their teacher’s license.
John Popp Audio
There are over 700 employees within USD 428, including administration. Trying to fill all the teacher vacancies each year has become more challenging. Going forward, Popp says staff will be trying to improve the currently hired teachers rather than look for a replacement because of the recruiting difficulties.
John Popp Audio
USD 428 realigned teaching positions in 2015 to include instructional coaches to each school. An ELA, math, and technology coach were added to provide assistance to classroom teachers and monitor student progress. These coach positions pulled some teachers out of the classrooms. Popp says all the coaches are aware that they could be forced to go back to the classrooms if there is a need.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence student pleaded no contest after bringing a loaded gun to school last year.
Google image
The student, who was 17 at the time, was charged as a juvenile in Douglas County District Court. He pleaded no contest Wednesday to criminal use of a weapon in juvenile court. As part of his plea agreement, a marijuana possession charge from the same incident was dropped.
A school resource officer and a Lawrence police officer found the boy with a .22 magnum pistol in his backpack at Lawrence Free State High School. Prosecutor Bryant Barton said officers searched the student’s backpack after receiving a tip from another student.
Barton did not say where the boy obtained the gun.
Dart season is underway, Webby and Cole recap opening night on the road for Hit The Board, and KVGB Baseball Insider Mike Warren is on the show to talk AstroTurf at Barton Community College.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — A 10-year-old Missouri boy is recovering after he was attacked by insects and tumbled from a tree, landing on a meat skewer that penetrated his skull from his face to the back of his head.
But miraculously, that’s where Xavier Cunningham’s bad luck ended. The skewer had completely missed Xavier’s eye, brain, spinal cord and major blood vessels, The Kansas City Star reports.
Xavier’s harrowing experience began Saturday afternoon when yellow jackets attacked him in a tree house at his home in Harrisonville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Kansas City. He fell to the ground and his mother, Gabrielle Miller, ran down the stairs when she heard screaming. His skull was pierced from front-to-back with half a foot of skewer still sticking out of his face.
Miller tried to reassure her son, who told her “I’m dying, Mom” as they rushed to the hospital. He eventually was transferred to the University of Kansas Hospital, where endovascular neurosurgery director Koji Ebersole evaluated the wound.
“You couldn’t draw it up any better,” Ebersole said. “It was one in a million for it to pass 5 or 6 inches through the front of the face to the back and not have hit these things.”
There was no active bleeding, allowing the hospital time to get personnel in place for a removal surgery on Sunday morning that was complicated by the fact that the skewer wasn’t round. Because it was square, with sharp edges, it would have to come out perfectly straight. Twisting it could cause additional severe injury.
“Miraculous” would be an appropriate word to describe what happened, Ebersole said.
Doctors think Xavier could recover completely.
“I have not seen anything passed to that depth in a situation that was survivable, let alone one where we think the recovery will be near complete if not complete,” he s
KANSAS CITY— (AP) — A 10-year-old boy is recovering after he tumbled from a tree house and was impaled through the skull by a meat skewer.
Xavier Cunningham, of Harrisonville, Missouri, landed on the skewer Saturday afternoon while trying to escape from a group of attacking yellow jacket insects. His mother, Gabrielle Miller, says she went running when she heard screaming. The skewer had pierced her son’s face, penetrating his skull all the way to the back of his head.
The University of Kansas Health System’s endovascular neurosurgery director, Koji Ebersole, says, “You couldn’t draw it up any better.” The skewer spared Xavier’s eye, brain and spinal cord and missed major blood vessels.
Doctors were able to remover the skewer Sunday and believe Xavier could recover completely.
For 42 years, Doc sat in the Mojave Desert serving as a target for the U.S. Navy. In 1987, Tony Mazzolini found Doc and began plans to remove and eventually restore the B-29 warbird to flying status. It would take another 12 years before Mazzolini and his team would be able to take possession of the airplane from the U.S. government.
This year’s Great Bend Airfest will mark just the 2nd time that the two remaining air worthy B-29’s in the world will appear together. Fifi, who was part of the 2015 Great Bend Airfest, will be joined this year by Doc, a newly restored B-29 that did not make its maiden flight until July 17th of 2016. Doc is a B-29 Superfortress and one of 1,644 manufactured in Wichita during World War II. Since 1987 when Tony Mazzolini found Doc rotting away in the Mojave Desert, plans have been in the works to restore the historic warbird to flying status to serve as a flying museum. Josh Well serves as Communications and Marketing Director for Doc’s Friends, a non-profit organization that helps maintain the historic plane. He says the nearly 20-year effort to get Doc from the desert to the air was not an easy process.
Josh Wells Audio
But that long effort paid off in July of 2016 when Doc finally returned to the air for the first time, a day that Wells says was very emotional for the hundreds of individuals who had helped in the project.
Josh Wells Audio
The next step for Doc will be the completion of a permanent home for the historic warbird. The new home for Doc will be an interactive B-29 Hangar and Education Center located at Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita. The 30,000 sq. ft. museum hangar will preserve Doc in flying condition and display the priceless Superfortress to the public.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hopes his balky right elbow will be good to go Sunday against Kansas City.
The 36-year-old says he banged his elbow on Pittsburgh’s next-to-last offensive snap during last week’s ugly tie in Cleveland. Roethlisberger fumbled on the following play after getting hit by Browns linebacker Genard Avery.
Roethlisberger declined to say whether he had an MRI exam on the elbow. He is unlikely to practice on Wednesday, though that is not unusual for the 15-year veteran. Roethlisberger had a difficult day overall against the Browns, throwing three interceptions and fumbling twice.
Second-year quarterback Josh Dobbs, who beat out veteran Landry Jones to serve as Roethlisberger’s primary backup, will run with the first team if Roethlisberger cannot practice.
Roethlisberger has missed just six games because of injury since the start of the 2013 season.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hopes his balky right elbow will be good to go Sunday against Kansas City.