According to the Ithaca (N.Y.) Times, a recent study conducted by Kevin Kniffin, a behavioral science professor at Cornell University, shows athletes who played youth and high school sports make better employees and have better career opportunities than those who didn’t.

Read the entire story on the new study HERE, vote in the poll and tell us what you think.

[polldaddy poll=8200782]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man charged with 10 shootings on Kansas City-area highways says he can prove he’s innocent.

The Kansas City Star reports Mohammed Whitaker is basing the claim largely on one piece of evidence that tracked which cellphone towers handled calls from his phone on April 2, the day of the sixth shooting.

He says if the time on the report — 5:30 p.m. — is correct, he could not be responsible for a shooting that day near Grandview. The records place his phone about nine miles from the shooting site just six minutes before it happened. He says he could not have covered that distance during rush hour on his way home from Overland Park, Kansas.

Police and prosecutors declined to discuss the April 2 incident or Whitaker’s claims.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — One of the largest shopping centers ever proposed in Lawrence has hit a roadblock.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted early Tuesday to recommend rejection of the project, which would add more than 500,000 square feet of commercial space in southern Lawrence near the new South Lawrence Trafficway.

The commissioners’ vote does not mean the proposal is dead. Developers could ask to have the Lawrence City Commission vote on it.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the North Carolina-based developers have not determined how they will respond to the commission’s vote.

Commissioners said before the vote that the location near two major highways was not right for the project. They would prefer it be built in northwest Lawrence near the new Rock Chalk Park sports complex.

 

CUTLER, Calif. (AP) — A Central California company has issued a voluntary nationwide recall of specific lots of its fresh peaches, plums, nectarines and pluots over concerns of possible listeria contamination.

Wawona Packing says on its website that no illnesses have been reported and the recall is a precautionary measure.

The company said the recalled fruit was packed and shipped to retailers from June 1 through July 12.

Retailers that received the fruit include Costco and Trader Joe’s.

The recall came after internal testing at the packing house in Tulare County.

Officials say they shut down the lines, retrofitted some equipment and sanitized the facility. Subsequent tests have been negative.

Clovis-based Wawona Frozen Foods is a separate company and is not involved in the voluntary recall.

Listeria bacteria can cause a dangerous flu-like illness.

 

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Police are investigating how an adult’s body ended up in a pond near the Kansas City International Airport.

The body was found Monday afternoon during a routine check by airport security. Police did not release an approximate age, race, or gender.

The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the person had died recently. Authorities are asking anyone who saw someone walking in the area Monday to call authorities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A gridlocked Congress failed to do the big things, such as overhauling the nation’s immigration system, reforming the tax code and stiffening background checks on gun buyers.

Now it’s time to see whether it can just do the basics.

Only two weeks remain before lawmakers’ annual August break. Progress is mixed on several must-pass items due to Capitol Hill partisanship, heightened by midterm elections and the Obama administration’s conflicting signals to Congress.

Lawmakers must find about $10 billion to keep highway projects on track through next spring and ease long wait times for veterans seeking health care. They also must deal with a humanitarian crisis of some 57,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who have entered the U.S. since last fall.

Also looming large is legislation to keep the government operating.

ROELAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Council members in a Kansas City suburb have voted down an effort to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.

The Roeland Park Council voted 4-3 Monday to reject the ordinance.

KSHB-TV reports nearly 200 people packed the council’s meeting and several testified before the vote. Council members have debated the language of the ordinance since February.

The ordinance would have excluded churches, school districts and non-profit groups.

Currently, Lawrence is the only city in Kansas that has included sexual orientation and gender identity in its anti-discrimination ordinance. Kansas City, Missouri, has a similar ordinance.

 

By Jim McLean

KHI News Service
LAWRENCE — The now well-established local food movement in and around this university community is in danger of stalling unless a concerted effort is made to expand its reach beyond an already committed group of consumers and build more demand for locally grown or produced fruits, vegetables and meats.

That is the conclusion of a recent report commissioned by the Douglas County Food Policy Council with funding from U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Kansas Health Foundation.
The report, from Virginia-based consultant Anthony Flaccavento, suggests establishing a 19-county food hub in northeast Kansas to “grow the local food economy to the benefit of farmers and consumers in the region.” Such a hub would connect local farmers and ranchers to new markets and coordinate the distribution of their products to ensure a reliable supply to consumers – from individuals to restaurants to institutional buyers at schools, jails and hospitals.

Expanding demand for and production of local produce and meat won’t be easy, Flaccavento said. But there is sufficient market potential to make it work if producers take an organized approach and are willing to be patient.

“We do think it’s feasible,” Flaccavento said. “But we think it will take several years, probably in the range of five years to hit break even.”

By the end of the fifth year, hub farmers could be generating up to $2.3 million in additional sales, the report said.

Getting to that point will require careful planning and implementation to fill “critical gaps” in the existing local food system. The gaps include the lack of a central collection and distribution warehouse as well as cooling and produce-packing systems.
To meet the anticipated demand, the report said, the hub will need 15 to 25 “anchor farmers” to grow 12 to 15 core produce items, including tomatoes, peppers, melons and berries.

Scott Thellman, a recent college graduate who farms just more than 900 acres in the Kansas River valley north of Lawrence at Juniper Hill Farms, already has committed to being one of those “anchor” producers.

“Within 75 miles of my farm there are 1.5 million people, roughly. I look at that and say, ‘That’s 1.5 million potential customers,’” Thellman said. “Not that they will all be customers, but there is a huge opportunity there and a huge untapped market.”

Hay is Thellman’s main crop, but he’s also been growing certified organic vegetables since 2010.

“We ship to about six grocery stores, a wholesaler and about four restaurants,” he said. “We’ve been doubling our sales and doubling our size year over year on the vegetable side of the operation since we began.”

While the local food market in Douglas County is developed, the report said markets are emerging in several counties in the region, including Riley and Brown, and relatively undeveloped in nearby Shawnee County, plus small towns and rural areas.

Eileen Horn, the sustainability coordinator for Douglas County, has been instrumental in moving the food hub conversation forward. She said the consultant’s report is just the first step.
“It points us in the right direction, but the issues ahead are complex,” she said. “They involve convincing farmers to scale up and convincing buyers to buy more local food. It’s multifaceted and complicated, but what I think is really encouraging is that we now have a roadmap.”

The report recommended that a lead organization be designated and a project planning team be named and charged with developing an action plan by the end of the year. In addition to the infrastructure needs, organizers must decide what kind of business entity to create to operate the hub.

Having farmers who are ready to step up and guarantee a certain level of production is critical, Flaccavento said. But ultimately, he said, success will depend on whether the hub is organized in a way that allows it to function like a business that puts the needs of its customer first.

“It has to be lean, flexible and quick to respond to situations,” he said. “If you’ve got a truck broken down on the side of the road, you’ve got to deal with it right then. You can’t call a board conference call.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing nearly $85,000 from his dead mother’s Social Security benefits.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City says 40-year-old Jeffery Schwed of Liberty also will have to repay the government $84,137 in the sentence handed down Monday.

Schwed pleaded guilty in February to theft of government money. Prosecutors say his mother died in March 2007 but her monthly disabled divorced widow’s insurance benefits continued to be deposited through April 2012 into an account Schwed jointly owned.
He admitted converting at least some of those payments for his own use.
Some of the payments were made while he was incarcerated, and prosecutors say unknown persons withdrew roughly $18,000 during that time.