JACKSON COUNTY — The Kansas Highway Patrol is investigating the second of two accidents that damaged a Kansas sheriff’s deputy’s vehicle and sent a teen driver to the hospital.
photo courtesy Jackson Co. Sheriff
Just after 1p.m. Sunday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an injury accident north of 198th Road on U.S. 75 involving a 2016 Ram 1500 pickup truck driven by Michelle Holmes, 33, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a 2016 Volvo semi-tractor and trailer driven by Ryan Love, 40, of Clarksville, Tennessee, according to Sheriff Tim Morse.
The pickup truck merged into the semi’s lane striking the front of the tractor.
Holmes was transported by EMS to the Holton Community Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy who was on the scene investigating the accident when a northbound 2000 Ford Taurus rear-ended the deputy’s patrol vehicle, according to Morse.
The patrol vehicle wasn’t occupied at the time of the accident. The deputy was able to warn the semi driver who was also out of his vehicle to take cover when he observed the Taurus approaching the scene.
The driver of the Taurus, Emily R. Howard, 17, of Topeka was transported by EMS to Holton Community Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The deputy and others at the scene were not injured.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Many universities in Kansas are seeing a drop in the number of enrolled international students, which education leaders said hurts campuses’ cultural diversity and school finances.
Protests at KCi in January 2017 against the travel ban -photo courtesy Fox4 News
The number of international students enrolled in Kansas Board of Regents colleges has declined by more than 11 percent since 2015, or roughly 1,560 students.
Many of the affected schools already face limited state funding and declining enrollments, which is compounded by the lost revenue from international students who pay out-of-state tuition, often live on campus and contribute to local economies.
International students account for a roughly $260 million economic impact in Kansas, supporting about 2,500 jobs, according to data from the nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
“These are 600 fewer students paying out-of-state tuition coming to our university,” said Charles Taber, provost of Kansas State University. “That’s millions of dollars of revenue loss.”
Chuck Olcese, director of international support services at the University of Kansas, acknowledged that money often leads conversations about a decrease in the number of international students. But Olcese said “the more guiding factor is the ability to make an international environment for students from Kansas or wherever they’re coming from across the U.S.”
About 70 percent of University of Kansas students may not have met someone from another country nor had any serious interaction with another culture, Olcese said.
Many school leaders have attributed the decline in the number of international students coming to Kansas to the perception that the country is increasingly unwelcoming to immigrants, pointing to issues such as President Donald Trump’s travel ban .
“The travel bans that came out right after the Trump presidency took effect and children being separated from parents at the borders, these all make international news in big ways, and just kind of underscores an unwelcome feeling,” Olcese said.
He said it’s difficult to imagine any profession that isn’t being affected by these issues.
“If you’ve done your whole education in a very isolated environment without interacting with someone who thinks different culturally than you, you’re really at a disadvantage,” Olcese said.
BUCHANAN COUNTY— Two people were injured in an accident just after 8p.m. Sunday in Buchanan County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Nissan Rogue driven by Brandon D. Reece, 40, St. Joseph, was westbound on Picket Road two miles west of St. Joseph. The vehicle began to skid as the driver attempted to turn north at 85th. It slid across the road and struck an embankment.
Passengers in the Nissan Avery L. Pena, 29, and Alea Cole, 3, both of St. Joseph, were transported by private vehicle to Mosaic Life Care. Reece was not injured. All three were properly restrained
FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A mid-Missouri museum honoring Winston Churchill will launch its 50th anniversary celebration Tuesday with an art exhibit featuring the work of roughly 4,000 students.
Officials with America’s National Churchill Museum on the campus at Westminster College in Fulton say the art was inspired by the words of Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech. The longtime British prime minister delivered the speech at Westminster in 1946, the phrase “Iron Curtain” describing the separation of Eastern Europe that was under Soviet Union rule.
The artwork was painted by students from the Fulton area, along with Westminster faculty, staff and students. The exhibit is titled the “Special Relationship Project,” a nod to a phrase also coined by Churchill in the 1946 speech to describe the alliance between Great Britain and the U.S
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has issued a rare order directing the Brown County District to sentence a sex abuse offender for a third time, saying the man was a victim of “judicial vindictiveness.”
Brown -KBI offender registry
County District Judge John Weingart sentenced defendant Wyatt Brown to 30 years in prison for aggravated sodomy. Brown’s lawyers appealed the sentence, saying it was incorrectly articulated. The Supreme Court agreed and ordered a resentencing.
Weingart responded by adding one year to Brown’s sentence after the victim’s family said they were traumatized by an appellate process forcing them to relive the crime.
Smith’s attorneys appealed again. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Weingart effectively punished Brown for exercising his right to appeal, and ordered him to be sentenced for a third time.
TOPEKA —First woman elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas was ordained Saturday.
The Rev. Cathleen Chittenden Bascom, D.Min., from the Diocese of Iowa, was elected as the 10th bishop to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas in October.
According to a media release from the diocese, on October 19, the Rev. Cathleen Chittenden Bascom, D.Min., from the Diocese of Iowa, was elected as the 10th bishop to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. She was elected on the second ballot during an election that took place in the worship space of Grace Cathedral in Topeka, receiving 64 out of 122 votes from lay delegates and 56 out of 84 votes from clergy.
Image courtesy Episcopal Diocese of Kansas
Bascom is the first woman to be elected bishop since the diocese was formed in 1859. This also marked the first time in the history of the Episcopal Church that a bishop heading a diocese was elected from a slate of candidates who all were women.
The Very Rev. Foster Mays, president of the governing body that has overseen the diocese in the interim period between bishops, said, “ It delights me that Cathleen Bascom will be our next bishop. While this election was historic, at its core lay delegates and clergy were selecting the person who will lead this diocese for the next decade or more. I believe Mother Bascom’s many gifts and years of experience will serve this diocese well.
“I know that clergy and lay leaders from all our congregations are looking forward to the opportunity to participate in ministry with her, to share together the good news of Jesus and to serve the world in the name of our Lord. I’m very excited for the future of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas under her leadership.”
Bascom has been serving since the fall of 2014 as Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. She previously had been dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Des Moines, Iowa, as well as rector of St. Stephen’s in Newton, Iowa.
She served for eight years in the Diocese of Kansas from 1993 to 2001, leading ministry efforts at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
She is the third priest to have served within the Diocese of Kansas to be elected its bishop. The first was Frank Millspaugh, who was dean of Grace Cathedral, Topeka, when he was elected bishop in 1895. The second was Richard Grein, who was rector of St. Michael and all Angels in Mission when he was elected in 1981.
She also is the second priest to become Kansas’ bishop while serving in the Diocese of Iowa. The first was Thomas Vail, the diocese’s first bishop, who was rector of Trinity Church in Muscatine, Iowa, when he was elected bishop in 1864.
Bascom and her husband Tim have two sons – Conrad, age 25, and Luke, age 21.
MOBERLY, Mo. (AP) — An appellate court has ruled that a Missouri inmate who’s been imprisoned for two years should never have been incarcerated.
Cole -photo MDC
The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals found Tuesday that 42-year-old Vance Cole completed his probation for felony vehicle tampering and misdemeanor theft in February 2016, almost 11 months before he was sent to prison for an alleged violation.
Issues arose when a Carroll County judge found that Cole didn’t pay court costs, including jail board while awaiting trial, and deemed those costs restitution. The defense successfully argued that the costs weren’t restitution and that Cole’s probation had ended when that finding was made.
Cole remains incarcerated at the Moberly Correctional Center while the Attorney General’s office considers whether to appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman is retiring and the school has chosen former Kansas State AD John Currie to replace him.
President Nathan Hatch announced the moves Sunday, saying Wellman will retire and Currie will start on May 1.
“John is the perfect fit to follow in the footsteps of his mentor,” Hatch said.
Wellman, the longest-tenured AD in Division I, has led Wake Forest’s athletic department since 1992. The school has won five team national championships and seven individual titles under his watch, including men’s tennis in 2018, while raising $400 million in donations during his tenure of nearly 27 years.
The 47-year-old Currie is a Wake Forest alumnus who was Kansas State’s AD from 2009-17. He spent much of 2017 at Tennessee before he was suspended in the midst of the search to replace football coach Butch Jones that turned into a fiasco. He received a $2.5 million settlement with the school in March 2018.
He is taking over a Wake Forest program that is mostly on solid footing, with Dave Clawson’s football program winning three bowl games in three years and a collection of new facilities popping up all over the campus — including an indoor practice facility for football that opened in 2016 and a sports performance center and basketball facility that is scheduled to open later this year.
The most pressing immediate question faced by the department centers on men’s basketball, though the season will end well before Currie’s official start date.
Coach Danny Manning is 65-90 overall and 24-64 in conference play with one NCAA Tournament appearance in five seasons. Barring a miracle run in the postseason, the Demon Deacons are headed for their seventh losing season since 2010 — also the last year they finished above .500 in ACC play.
