The latest crime figures for Saint Joseph show a big drop in burglaries. Police Chief Chris Connally says last year from January to May there were 325 burglaries; this year there were 234.
Connally says neighbors watching out for each other can make a difference, and may be a large part of the decrease since a spike in burglaries two years ago. He says the trend is encouraging.
The Police Department offers free security surveys for homes and businesses. To schedule a survey call Sgt. Greg Gilpin at 236.1473.
LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Quest Diagnostics officials say the company will be hiring up to 500 people for a new customer service center in Lenexa.
Quest says a new national service center in Lenexa is expected to be fully operational by 2015 but hiring will begin immediately. The company already has two centers in the Kansas City region.
The Kansas City Star reports that the company also is planning a second customer service center in Tampa, Florida. Both centers will use advanced technology to provide faster and better responses for its customers.
Quest offers services ranging from genetic testing to routine screenings.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A new residence hall at Kansas State University is being named to honor Jon Wefald (WEE’-fald), the university’s president from July 1986 to June 2009.
The university says Wefald Hall will be the first residence hall built on the school’s main campus since Haymaker Hall in 1967. Construction is scheduled to begin in September, with the building to be opened in time for the fall semester in August 2016.
A university news release says Wefald Hall will be an eight-floor, 129,000-square-foot residence hall that will house 540 students. It is part of a larger, $76 million project that includes a new dining facility and renovations to two other residence halls in the Kramer Complex.
Currently, the Manhattan campus can accommodate about 5,500 students in its residence halls and Jardine Apartments.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 30-year-old Lawrence man will be sentenced in September after pleading guilty to charges of lying about federal tax withholdings on his gambling winnings.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says Bradley Stoneking pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements in his income tax return for 2010.
Prosecutors accused Stoneking of falsely claiming $330,000 in federal tax withholdings on gambling proceeds, when the federal tax withholding amount was $300. Stoneking faces up to three years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 at his sentencing Sept. 8.
Ride the bus free today, courtesy of St Joseph Transit. “The Ride” joins other public transit systems nationwide in the ninth annual National Dump The Pump Day. The event is sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association.
It’s an effort to encourage people to use public transportation to save money. The APTA reports a two-person household can save more than ten thousand dollars a year by downsizing to one car.
You can ride free in St Joe from 5:15am to 9 pm Thursday. Deviations from scheduled routes will still cost 50¢. Find route maps and other information here.
The Reed family recently moved from Baldwin City to the Colorado Springs area so their son, Otis, could begin treatment with a form of medical marijuana.-Photo by Trevor Graff
By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
MANITOU SPRINGS, COLO. — Ryan and Kathy Reed celebrated their son Otis’ third birthday last week hoping that better days are ahead for him in the family’s new Colorado home.
Otis suffers from uncontrollable epileptic seizures. His body stiffens with them hundreds of times each day.
The Reeds left Kansas for Colorado in early May to gain access to medical marijuana for Otis. He received his first dose of non-psychotropic marijuana extract – known as Charlotte’s Web – on May 8. In the weeks since, steady increases in the dosage have helped Otis to sleep better but haven’t reduced his seizures.
“He’s still having hundreds and hundreds of seizures,” Ryan Reed said. “But the increase in sleep did start fairly soon. You know, after two-and-a-half years of being up every night with him, we know that is definitely a real thing that’s happening. We’re sleeping four to six hours in a row as opposed to two or three.”
The Reeds are among dozens of families from all over the country who have relocated to the Colorado Springs area hoping that medical marijuana will do what other treatments have failed to do: stop the debilitating seizures their children are suffering.
Every seizure that Otis suffers damages his brain, Kathy Reed said.
“When he was 9 weeks old, he was diagnosed with infantile spasms,” she said. “It’s considered a catastrophic childhood epilepsy because of the impact it can have on development if it’s not brought under control.”
Otis has taken more than a dozen drugs in his short life, but none did much if anything to control his seizures. A special diet and the implantation of a vagus nerve stimulator also didn’t work. The Reeds were considering a type of “last resort” surgery to remove or disconnect one hemisphere of Otis’ brain when they heard stories about medical marijuana aiding other children with seizure disorders.
“It’s helping other people have better quality of life. So, we couldn’t put him under the knife without trying this first,” Ryan Reed said.
Kathy Reed is determined not to get her hopes too high. But she acknowledged it’s hard to maintain that resolve when she hears other parents talk about how their children are benefitting.
“There’s a little boy about Otis’ age. He (and his parents) are in an online group of families who are out there, and he recently said ‘momma’ for the first time,” she said. “That’s big. That’s huge. I would love that.”
There may be growing anecdotal evidence that medical marijuana is helping to control seizures in children like Otis. But the scientific evidence produced by a thin body of research doesn’t confirm that, said Dr. Gary Gronseth, a professor of neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who recently reviewed the studies done so far.
The issue hasn’t received serious attention from Kansas lawmakers. A medical marijuana bill was introduced during the 2014 session, but legislative leaders declined to schedule a hearing on it despite lobbying from the Reeds and other parents.
“We didn’t have high expectations for getting much done,” Kathy Reed said. “But you know, we told our story and we think maybe a couple of people heard us. But after spending a couple of days in Topeka, we realized that we would be better off focusing our energy on Otis and what needs to be done right now.”
But if the treatments that Otis is getting in Colorado work, Ryan Reed said he’s going to make sure that Kansas lawmakers know about it.
“Yeah, they’ll be hearing from us,” he said.
They also will be hearing from Rep. John Wilson. The Lawrence Democrat said he is going to push his colleagues to at least hold a hearing on the issue in the 2015 session.
“At a minimum, the Reeds and other families that might be in similar situations deserve a fair and open hearing on this,” Wilson said.
But for that to happen, Wilson said, Republican legislative leaders will need a signal from Kansas doctors that they’re open to discussing the issue.
“If we can get the (Kansas) Medical Society to be open to a hearing, that would be a great first step,” he said.
“We did not find any good studies,” Gronseth said. “So, we’re not saying that it doesn’t work. But we can’t tell from the literature that’s out there whether it works or not.”
Despite the lack of hard evidence, 22 states have adopted laws broadly legalizing medical marijuana. Missouri recently joined a handful of other states that have legalized it only for the treatment of seizure disorders in children.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The acting Veterans Affairs secretary says about 10 percent of veterans seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics have to wait at least 30 days for an appointment. That’s more than twice the number of veterans the department said last week were forced to endure long waits.
Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said the higher number of veterans waiting 30 days or more is revealed in a report due out Thursday. He called the increase unfortunate, but said it was probably an indication that more reliable data was being reported by VA schedulers, rather than an actual increase in veterans’ wait times.
Gibson said the revised numbers show the VA is “getting better data” as it seeks to address widespread problems of long patient waiting times and falsified records.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators are proposing to raise federal gasoline and diesel taxes for the first time in more than two decades as Congress struggles with how to pay for highway and transit programs.
Senators Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, and Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, pitched their plan Wednesday as a bipartisan solution to replenish the federal Highway Trust Fund. That fund is forecast to go broke in late August.
The plan would raise the 18.4 cents a gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax by 12 cents each over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation.
The plan calls for offsetting the tax increases with other taxes cuts, possibly including extending federal tax breaks that expired this year.
TOPEKA (AP) — The Kansas Board of Regents is raising tuition and fees at state universities this fall by as much as 5.7 percent for some students.
The board approved proposals Wednesday from the six state universities and the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
But the regents said increases in the tuition were the smallest since 2001.
“These approved tuition rates represent the lowest overall tuition increases in 13 years,” said Chairman Fred Logan.
The increases would provide almost $29 million in additional revenues for the universities. The largest is 5.7 percent increase for in-state undergraduate students at Kansas State University’s campus in Salina. The smallest increase — 2.5 percent — is at Fort Hays State University.
In-state undergraduates at Kansas State’s main campus in Manhattan will see an increase of 5.2 percent. At the University of Kansas, the most popular option for tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates will rise by 3.4 percent.
ERIE , Kan- A Crawford County man was sentenced today to 7 years in prison for manufacturing methamphetamine, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
Travis Gideon, 35, McCune, was sentenced to 84 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections by Judge Daryl Ahlquist in Neosho County District Court. Gideon pleaded no contest in March to the charge of manufacture of a controlled substance.
The case stemmed from a 2010 investigation by the Neosho County Sheriff’s Office, Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, Labette County Sheriff’s Office, Girard Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Assistant Attorney General Steve Wilhoft of Schmidt’s office prosecuted the case.
The latest crime figures for Saint Joseph show a big drop in burglaries. Police Chief Chris Connally says last year from January to May there were 325 burglaries; this year there were 234.
