Josh Doctson (TCU), Shaq Riddick (West Virginia) and Nick Rose (Texas) were selected Big 12 Football Players of the Week for October 18 games by a panel of media that cover the Conference. It was the first career honor for all three.
Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week
Josh Doctson, TCU, WR, Jr, Mansfield, Texas
Josh Doctson totaled seven receptions for 225 yards and two touchdowns in No. 12 TCU’s 42-9 win over Oklahoma State. The 225 yards topped all FBS players on Saturday and were one yard short of the TCU single-game record (226, Jimmy Young vs. Wyoming, 2008). His 77- and 84- yard TDs came in a span of three plays to help TCU build a 21-3 first-quarter lead and were the Horned Frogs’ longest plays from scrimmage since 2012. Doctson posted his first career 100-yard receiving game and his 84-yard TD catch was the ninth-longest play in TCU history.
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week
Shaq Riddick, West Virginia, DL, Sr, Akron, Ohio
Shaq Riddick finished with five tackles, including four solo stops in helping West Virginia to a 41-27 upset over No. 4 Baylor. He also had a WVU season-high three sacks, the most by a Mountaineer since Julian Miller had four against Pitt in 2011. His four tackles for loss were also the team’s season-best and the most since Miller’s four against Pitt. Riddick was named the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week
Nick Rose, Texas, PK, Jr, Dallas, Texas
Nick Rose connected on a 21-yard field goal with three seconds remaining to lead Texas to a 48-45 win over Iowa State. It was the Longhorns’ first game-winning field goal since Justin Tucker connected on a 40-yarder to knock off Texas A&M 27-25 in 2011. Rose also hit a career-long 45-yarder with 4:15 left in the third quarter to put Texas ahead 31-28. He connected on all six of his PAT attempts to tally a career-best 12 points for the game. Eight of Rose’s nine kickoffs went for touchbacks. The only one that wasn’t was the game’s final squib kick with three seconds remaining.
Northwest formally renews partnership with Birmingham City University (BCU) Friday. Photo courtesy Northwest
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University on Friday formally renewed a partnership it began in 2010 with Birmingham City University (BCU) in the United Kingdom to further its collaboration toward improving the student experience through student engagement at both universities.
Northwest President Dr. John Jasinski signed the agreement with Stuart Brand, who is director of learning experience at BCU. The agreement extends the two universities’ exploration of student employment and mentoring and aims to energize their focus on developing joint projects and sharing experiences surrounding themes that include the freshman experience, learning communities, student academic success, study abroad and academic collaborations.
“I don’t know if you can describe a better partnership and relationship than what we have currently with Birmingham City University,” Jasinski said. “So many have been impacted through this relationship, and this partnership will continue to be strong and grow.”
Brand and a contingent of BCU representatives returned to Northwest last week and are visiting the campus through Tuesday for a series of discussions with Northwest staff and faculty. The BCU contingent also includes Luke Millard, head of learning partnerships; James Tranter, a student employee at the university; and Elgan Hughes, president of students’ union and student engagement officer.
“(Northwest) is an incredibly special place to be,” said Brand, who delivered Northwest’s spring 2013 commencement address and received an honorary degree from the University. “When we first came here in 2010, we were blown away by reception we received. Every person we met made it clear they were part of a special community. Every time I come here I go back full of ideas and rejuvenated.”
The relationship involving Northwest and BCU formally began when Brand and Millard visited Northwest in January 2010 with the intention of learning about Northwest’s student employment program. Northwest offers 1,200 student employment positions, allowing students to build professional skills on campus.
The concept of student employment was unprecedented in the United Kingdom, and three teams of Northwest student employees later helped introduce the program to BCU staff and stakeholders and to other higher education institutions during a visit to the United Kingdom that summer.
The collaboration has resulted in the development of a popular student employment program at BCU, which is paying rewards for BCU students in terms of engagement and work experience and for the university in terms of more efficient and effective work processes — the same outcomes and benefits Northwest has experienced through its student employment program for decades.
“We owe Northwest Missouri State a great deal for that, both in terms of practical and also moral support,” Brand said. “For this collaboration to continue and grow is crucial. It’s absolutely what we most wish to do and I’m looking forward to having further discussions.”
Now, BCU and Northwest are piloting a Student Engagement Leader program that involves improving student learning and students engaging students. Additionally, students in Northwest’s behavioral sciences program and BCU’s School of Social Sciences are benefitting from new study abroad opportunities, and departmental collaborations are underway regarding the development of innovative, joint academic programs.
Kaiser Family Health Foundation Ebola Poll taken Oct. 8-14 (click to enlarge)
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Health officials say the chances of the Ebola virus spreading to Kansas are remote, but they are preparing for it anyway.
State officials have developed a Kansas Ebola Preparedness and Response Plan that is based on a more generic infectious disease plan but offers specific guidance on Ebola for the state’s health care providers.
Participants in a recent meeting to review the plan included Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon; Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Robert Moser, a family physician; and Charlie Hunt, the state epidemiologist.
Sara Belfry, a KDHE spokeswoman, said state officials have worked on Ebola preparedness since August, when American health workers infected while treating patients in West Africa were flown to the United States for treatment.
Health officials say anyone who has traveled to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo within the last 21 days and develops a fever should contact a health care provider and disclose their travel history.
But at this time, Belfry said those who have not traveled to the African nations where the virus is spreading have little to fear.
“Ebola poses no substantial risk to the general population in the U.S.,” Belfry said.
Still, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Friday found that 45 percent of respondents were worried that they or a family member would contract Ebola, and 22 percent said it was likely there would be a widespread outbreak in the United States.
But health officials say the United States is well-equipped to contain the virus, which does not spread as readily as illnesses like measles or the flu.
Ebola spreads only through contact with the body fluids of those infected and is not contagious until an infected person is symptomatic. The first symptom is fever.
Two health workers and an NBC news cameraman were repatriated to the United States for treatment after acquiring Ebola in West Africa. Thomas Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Dallas to visit family, developed symptoms of infection once he arrived in the United States and subsequently died. Two nurses at a Dallas hospital who assisted in his treatment contracted the virus and are being treated. One of them took a flight to Cleveland while she had a mild fever.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up efforts to isolate and monitor other workers who treated Duncan and may have been exposed. The CDC also has worked to contact those on the flights with the infected nurse and to ensure other health care facilities nationwide are deploying proper protocols if they encounter suspected cases of Ebola.
President Barack Obama on Friday appointed Ron Klain, former chief of staff to vice presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden, to coordinate the federal government’s Ebola response efforts.
Belfry said the state’s recent Ebola preparedness meeting also included officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and local health agencies.
Shawnee County health officer Gianfranco Pezzino said he was among those at the meeting who are now educating frontline health care workers about control and containment protocols.
Those protocols, he said, are constantly being improved as officials learn more about previous outbreaks in Africa and the few scattered cases in the United States.
He said health care facilities within Shawnee County are “as ready as we can be” and getting more ready by the day.
“They’re taking it very seriously, and we are too. And we are talking, so that’s a good thing,” Pezzino said. “I think communication is going very well.”
Pezzino – who also works for the Kansas Health Institute, parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service – said county health officials met last week with law enforcement officials to discuss quarantine protocols and have talked with the medical community, hospital officials and first responders.
Pezzino said getting new triage protocols – including asking patients immediately about travel history – in place for the smaller, acute care providers who might see patients with fever posed a larger challenge than instituting them in Topeka’s two “top-notch hospitals.”
One of them, Stormont-Vail HealthCare, has tested the protocols. Nancy Burkhardt, a hospital spokeswoman, said multiple patients have been isolated after telling staff they had been to one of the African nations in the midst of an Ebola outbreak. Further examination determined the patients were geographically mistaken or did not have Ebola symptoms.
“I think it should be reassuring that the process is working,” she said. “We are getting a ‘yes’ answer and we are doing what we need to do and then we’re able to rule it out.”
Burkhardt said the extensive media coverage of Ebola has caused some patients with no risk factors to nonetheless worry that they might have it.
“I have heard anecdotally from patient care staff that patients are talking about it,” she said. “We have had a patient or two that has asked the question or wondered, ‘Could I have Ebola?’ So, yes, our staff has had to do some education. They’ve had to reassure patients that if they haven’t traveled to those areas or haven’t had immediate contact with people who traveled to those areas, they don’t have Ebola.”
Burkhardt said members of the public who are feeling worried or helpless can assist health care workers in one key way: get a flu shot.
“The less people we have showing up in our ER with flu-like symptoms, the better able we’ll be to determine if we really do have an Ebola patient,” she said.
Pezzino said that if Shawnee County does get a confirmed case of Ebola, it will be “disruptive” and “scary” for the community. There is no known cure for the virus, though treatments and vaccines are in different phases of testing.
“It’s something to be concerned about,” Pezzino said. “This is a horrible disease. It’s horrible for the people affected and it’s horrible for health care workers to witness any patient with that disease. But they have to balance that concern with the reality that the probability of contracting this disease in our community today is extremely low. It’s not zero, but it’s extremely low.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is suing several law firms that represented a man who claimed he owned half of the company and was entitled to billions of dollars.
The case was dismissed in April and the man is facing related criminal charges. Facebook Inc. filed a lawsuit Monday against DLA Piper and other law firms and lawyers, saying they knowingly conspired to file and prosecute a fraudulent lawsuit. DLA is one of the world’s largest business law firms.
The man, Paul Ceglia, claimed that he and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg signed a 2003 contract that included a provision entitling him to half-ownership of Facebook.
DLA Piper and the other firms in the suit, including Milberg LLP and Paul Argentieri and Associates, could not immediately be reached for comment.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — An Olathe man has pleaded no contest to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the death of his brother’s estranged girlfriend.
Thirty-year-old Samuel L. Moore originally was charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 death of 25-year-old Laura Coltrane in Olathe but he pleaded to the lesser charge Monday.
He will be sentenced Dec. 29.
The Kansas City Star reports that Moore’s brother, 33-year-old Derek Deon Owens, is serving a 74-year prison sentence after he was convicted of strangling and beating Coltrane in her apartment. He also found guilty of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and violation of a protection order.
Coltrane was a radiologic technologist from Humboldt, Kansas.
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Sophomore forward Jack Karapetyan has voluntarily withdrawn from the Kansas State men’s basketball team, head coach Bruce Weber announced on Monday.
“Jack has decided he wants to transfer from K-State,” said Weber. “We appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in the future as he continues his college basketball career.”
Karapetyan will remain in school at Kansas State through the Fall and will consider transfer options upon completion of the semester. In June, he received a medical hardship waiver for the 2013-14 season after playing in just six games due to a foot injury. With the waiver, he has the full allotment of five years to complete his eligibility.
The native of Los Angeles, California, Karapetyan signed with K-State in July 2013 after one season at Cathedral Prep. He saw time in just six games as a true freshman in 2013-14 for a total of 20 minutes, scoring his first points on a field goal against Central Arkansas in four minutes of action on Dec. 1, 2013.
K-State continues preparations for the 2014-15 season and will host its annual Media Day on Wednesday.
Release by Tom Gilbert, K-State Associate Director/Athletics Communications – Photo from K-State Sports
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney plans to campaign for Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts in suburban Kansas City next week, the latest national figure working to save the embattled three-term incumbent.
Romney is to headline a rally with Roberts next Monday at the Prairie Fire shopping and residential complex in Overland Park.
In a statement, Romney calls Roberts “a conservative champion for Kansas.” The former Massachusetts governor has also endorsed Senate nominees in battlegrounds such as Colorado, Iowa and Louisiana.
Romney in recent weeks has stepped back into the limelight, acting as a national GOP leader in a party searching for one.
Roberts is facing independent candidate Greg Orman, an Olathe businessman, in what has become a surprisingly competitive race in GOP-heavy Kansas.
Steve Coen, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Health Foundation, and Brenda Sharpe, president and CEO of the REACH Healthcare Foundation, speak at a meeting of the Kansas Dental Project coalition this week in Topeka. The group is preparing to push again for approval of mid-level dental practitioners during next year’s legislative session.-photo by Andy Marso
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Advocates of licensure for mid-level dental providers have been stymied in Kansas for five years. They say the need for dental care remains high, especially in the state’s rural areas, and they’re pushing for legislative movement next session.
Members of the Kansas Dental Project coalition met this week in Topeka to discuss the issue and hear from Steve Coen, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Health Foundation, and Brenda Sharpe, president and CEO of the REACH Healthcare Foundation. Both groups are part of the Kansas Dental Project. The health foundation is the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute, which is the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service.
Sharpe said their response to those who have blocked mid-level providers by raising fears about their safety should be simple: Show me the studies.
“The mid-level providers can provide safe care,” Sharpe said. “Frankly, after five years I’m sick to death of hearing the ‘they’re not safe’ argument.”
The mid-level providers, tentatively called registered dental practitioners, would be trained and licensed to perform higher-level dental procedures than hygienists, but not as high as dentists. Advocates say they could fill a critical public health need in a state where 95 of 105 counties have a shortage of dental providers.
“That’s something we’ve heard again and again (in rural communities),” Coen said.
The state’s dentists have opposed the move. Kevin Robertson, chief executive of the Kansas Dental Association, did not respond by Friday afternoon to messages left for him Thursday, but in the past has said allowing mid-level providers would lower the standard of dental care in the state.
Sharpe said she’s seen no evidence that mid-level practitioners provide lesser care than dentists, while several studies show they have a favorable effect on public health.
Coen said groups are working on economic models that show dentists concerned about a financial hit how adding the mid-level providers to their practices actually can increase revenue. Sharpe said the goal in Kansas is for the providers to be “part of a dental team” rather than working solo.
Alaska has employed mid-level providers for 10 years, while Minnesota and Maine have approved them more recently.
Some at this week’s Kansas Dental Project meeting suggested that the advocates try to engage physicians who initially were wary of licensing for physician assistants and nurse practitioners, or the mid-level medical providers themselves, to try to calm fears about mid-level dental practitioner proposal.
But Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, said those groups have been reluctant to wade into scope-of-practice issues on the dental side.
Cindy Luxem, president and CEO of the Kansas Health Care Association, confirmed that statement and expressed frustration with doctors who see patients in poor oral health but won’t advocate for expanded dental licensure.
“They will not talk to each other about this issue,” she said. “They don’t want to talk about it. It is unbelievable to me that the professionals at the top of the food chain of health care, we can’t get them to talk about this.”
Instead, Luxem said the best legislative strategy might be to encourage rural lawmakers whose districts have a strong stake in mid-level providers to promote the issue and work against urban lawmakers who oppose it. A similar battle occurred last legislative session in the discussion of whether to repeal the state’s renewable energy standards.
“If we can figure out how to make this a wedge issue between those two constituencies, we can win it,” she said.
Legislators have resisted having hearings on the mid-level dental provider for several years, but that may change next year.
Rep. Susan Concannon, a Republican from Beloit who is vice chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said there has been enough study done to merit the next step.
“I think that’s got some legs,” Concannon said. “I think that’s going to come (next session) in the form of a bill.”
Concannon is unopposed in the November election and the current chairman of the health committee, Rep. David Crum, has said she would be his pick to succeed him in that role.
Cotsoradis, whose organization has made the mid-level dental provider a top priority for several sessions, said “meaningful policy change takes time.” But she thinks the issue is reaching a tipping point.
“I do believe we are on the cusp of change,” Cotsoradis said.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) â A federal judge has set a hearing this week to hear arguments over whether he should order Kansas to allow same-sex marriages.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree has scheduled a hearing for Friday at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas. At issue is the request by the American Civil Liberties Union for a temporary injunction that would bring Kansas into line with a binding 10th Circuit Court of Appeals precedent set in other cases.
The ACLU argues gay couples should not be prevented from marrying, while government officials have vowed to defend the state’s constitutional prohibition against gay marriages.
The ACLU contends that a federal ruling specific to Kansas law would aid the state Supreme Court in a separate case.
Josh Doctson (TCU), Shaq Riddick (West Virginia) and Nick Rose (Texas) were selected Big 12 Football Players of the Week for October 18 games by a panel of media that cover the Conference. It was the first career honor for all three.
