CHEROKEE COUNTRY, Kan.  — Representatives of Castle Rock Casino Resort today announced in a media release plans to build a premiere, Las Vegas-style casino resort in Cherokee County, Kan. Located less than one mile north of I-44 directly on US400, the casino will be in the prime location for a casino in Southeast Kansas. It is designed to attract people from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma – especially from the nearby population centers of Joplin and Springfield, Mo.

Plans were unveiled at the Monday morning meeting of the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. The Las Vegas-based Friedmutter Group will put its years of experience into the casino architecture and master plan. Its client roster includes such well-known names as the Cosmopolitan, Caesars, Station Casinos, MGM Resorts, Ritz Carlton and Hard Rock Casinos. Cherokee County-based Crossland Construction will build the project and work with the architects to ensure Southeast Kansas has the finest casino in Kansas. The global firm WhiteSand Gaming serves as the lead consultant. It makes its headquarters in Las Vegas and maintains an office in Atlantic City. American Casino and Entertainment Company, which owns and manages four casinos in Las Vegas and Nevada, will manage the casino. Project partners include a group of Kansas business people.

The Castle Rock Casino Resort derives its name from the much-loved, must-see Kansas Wonder in Western Kansas. The name is appropriate, developers say, as the casino resort will be an awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping attraction. One that makes a significant, positive impact to the region and state.

“Our initial studies reveal that this casino will generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for Southeast Kansas, while creating hundreds of new jobs,” says WhiteSand president and CEO Saverio “Sal” R. Scheri. “As a direct competitor to Oklahoma casinos, Castle Rock Casino is perfectly placed to maximize the potential of a gaming facility in this region. From exquisite dining to exciting entertainment and a modern hotel, Castle Rock will be one of the top casinos in the Midwest. With a planned total investment in excess of $130 million, more than twice the minimum required, the proposed development is larger in scope than other announced casinos in the area.”

Castle Rock Casino Resort will be an ultimate entertainment and dining destination. The casino will feature a full-service hotel, several restaurants including a first-class steakhouse; hip lounges and bars, including a high-energy sports bar. The complex will also include substantial meeting space capable of hosting anything from small, intimate gatherings to large-scale conferences. A unique future feature includes a 5,000- to 6,000-seat entertainment arena that will be the home of a professional hockey franchise as well as hosting headline concerts and other large events.

Provided the state stays on schedule, plans call for a gamily facility manager to be selected by May 19, 2015 and for the casino resort design to be completed by July 1, 2015 with construction immediately following. Castle Rock Casino Resort’s goal is to open within 12 months – by June 1, 2016.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A high school biology teacher from Dodge City High School is the 2015 Kansas Teacher of the Year.

Shannon Ralph has taught for 18 years in middle and high school, with 13 years at Dodge City High School teaching biology, honors biology and AP biology. Her selection was announced by Kansas Interim Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander during a ceremony in Wichita Saturday night.

She has received numerous previous honors and has presented at several national conferences.

Ralph will receive $4,000, a free rental car for a year for her Teacher of the Year duties, free enrollment to several Kansas universities for life and other prizes.

Ralph was chosen from among eight finalists, who will work together this year to promote education and teaching.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Plans for a Springfield medical program to train doctors are stalled because of a lack of state funds.

The proposal was for a partnership between Missouri State University and the University of Missouri. It would allow students to spend their final two years of medical training observing doctors from CoxHealth and Mercy Hospital in Springfield. Supporters said the program would help address a shortage of doctors in the region.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Gov. Jay Nixon said Friday during a visit to Missouri State that the program has strong support but the funding is frozen.

The $10 million start-up funds were withheld in mid-2013 and no plan is in place to include it in future spending. He says the state needs to have enough money to sustain the program.

IBERIA (AP) – A southwest Missouri man will spend life in prison without parole in the stabbing death of a 13-year-old girl.

Miller County prosecutors say 31-year-old Steven Henderson of Iberia avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty Friday to first-degree murder in the June 2013 death of Macala Shelton.

KYTV reports Macala’s body was found on an unused farm a few miles from a home she lived in with Henderson and other relatives.

A probable cause statement filed in the case said Henderson admitted killing the girl with a large survival knife.

Henderson is the brother of Macala’s stepfather. She had moved to Iberia with her stepfather and siblings when her mother was deployed by the military.

By Mike Sherry
Heartland Health Monitor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A highly regarded eating disorder treatment center is about to make the Kansas City area its first site outside of its home state of Colorado, a development local clinicians said would help fill a critical gap in services here.

The Eating Disorder Center of Denver expects to open its partial hospitalization program on Dec. 29, according to local program director Tanja Haaland. The company is renovating 5,400 square feet of space in the lower level of an office building near Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Merriam, Kan.
Open to adults ages 18 and above, the Eating Disorder Center of Kansas City will have a 12-person capacity, Haaland said.

The program will operate eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week, with a staff of about 20 people. Haaland said the length of the program is typically six to eight weeks.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Emma Wood, co-owner and clinical director of Thalia House, a transitional living facility in Fairway, Kan., that serves women with eating disorders.

Established in 2001, the Eating Disorder Center of Denver, or EDC, uses a trademarked treatment program it calls CAMSA, short for Connection, Acceptance, Mindfulness, Sense of Self and Action.

The EDC in Denver has become a trusted resource for local clinicians, among them Kori Hintz-Bohn, executive director of Renew Counseling Center in Olathe, Kan., which also specializes in eating disorders.

“We have sent (clients) to Denver and we have been very pleased with the work they did,” Hintz-Bohn said.

She said that by next year Renew, too, could have a program like the one EDC is starting. Renew has talked about a collaboration here with McCallum Place, which has locations in St. Louis and Austin, Texas.

Levels of care

Eating disorder treatment spans a spectrum of care, including inpatient units specializing in handling very sick patients who are severely underweight. Kansas City once had such a facility at Research Medical Center, but that program closed more than two years ago.

Other options include partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, known respectively as PHPs and IOPs. Intensive outpatient is generally a notch below partial hospitalization in terms of the length and frequency of weekly programming.

The treatment environment also includes individual therapists and counselors, such as Mary Beth Blackwell, who runs the Eating Disorder Resource Center at Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City.

Eating disorder experts in Kansas City say the lack of a PHP has been one of the most glaring holes in the local system. Renew and Thalia House run IOPs.

Only one in 10 men and women suffering from eating disorders receive treatment, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Relapse is common, with one study finding that more than a third of women treated for anorexia or bulimia backslide within nine years.

Statistics like those, providers said, highlight the need for a range of treatment options – with patients moving up and down the continuum depending on how well they are doing in their recovery.

Local clinicians said they are pleased to have a local partial hospitalization program through EDC because the only option now is to send patients to programs hundreds of miles away from their families and support systems.

“Those that have loved ones that are friends or parents or husbands who come (to therapy) and are part of their treatment – those are the ones that have much less risk of relapse,” Hintz-Bohn said.

As a licensed counselor herself, Haaland said partial hospitalization can be a better alternative to a more restrictive setting where patients are walled off from their everyday lives and don’t get to practice the coping skills they are learning in treatment.

Also, she said, insurance companies are more apt to cover partial hospitalization programs as a more cost-effective treatment option than inpatient care.

Blackwell, the Eating Disorder Resource Center official, agrees that partial hospitalization is a valuable option for certain patients, making EDC a welcome addition to the treatment landscape here.

She’s concerned, however, that insurance companies will steer patients to the partial hospitalization program when what they need is inpatient care. Blackwell hopes to resurrect an inpatient clinic to replace the one that closed at Research, which she helped staff.

“There were times (at Research) when we would argue with insurance companies that this person was at a lower weight or they were chronically binging and purging and needed 24-hour care, and they just wouldn’t budge on it,” she said.

“So that’s what make me nervous (about the new program). If insurance companies will get too used to it as an option, and then when inpatient becomes available, if it becomes available, they won’t consider that a viable option.”

Another entrant?

Hintz-Bohn said Renew and McCallum Place began discussions in the spring of 2013 about collaborating on a partial hospitalization program here. Those talks are on hold, however, following the recent sale of McCallum Place to Acadia Healthcare, a behavioral health company based in Nashville.

The St. Louis Business Journal reported that the cash and stock deal with Acadia was valued at $40 million.

Hintz-Bohn said the two sides have discussed starting a program with a 24-person capacity to serve adolescents and adults. The program would be housed in a medical office building next to Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park.

Mike Sherry is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press
ANDALE GROSS, Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The final weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday has passed without a grand jury decision on whether to indict a Ferguson police officer in connection with the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The grand jury met Friday to consider possible charges against Darren Wilson. It’s expected to meet again Monday, but there was no official confirmation of that. If jurors meet Monday, there is no guarantee they will reach a decision that day, or even this week.

Protesting on Sunday night, Reggie Cunningham said he doubted Wilson will be indicted and it seemed authorities were delaying an announcement “to spin this in the most positive way possible.”

The shooting in August triggered riots and looting, and police responded with armored vehicles and tear gas.