Wichita Eagle: Local

Oil and gas panel discussion is equal parts policy, GOP politics

Dion Lefler — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:42 CDT

Five of the six Kansas Republican members of Congress promised the state’s independent oil producers Monday that they will get much lower taxes and lighter environmental regulations if Republicans can take control of the White House and Senate in the November election.

The two senators and three representatives participated in a morning panel discussion — about equal parts policy and Republican politics — at the annual meeting of the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association.

The congress members all criticized the Obama administration for its environmental policies and its focus on renewable energy, saying they would do things much differently if they take power.

Purple martins rule their roost at Wichita’s Via Christi hospital on St. Francis

Michael Pearce — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:43 CDT

Mark Schuyler is getting to enjoy his “National Geographic moments” about two weeks ahead of schedule this summer.

That’s what he calls standing in the parking lot of Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis, watching tens of thousands of purple martins swirling in waves high overhead, then streaming into a line of nearby ornamental trees at dusk.

Thursday evening Schuyler and others estimated they watched upwards of 40,000 purple martins fly to roost in the trees that have been a pre-migration gathering spot for several years. Kevin Groeneweg, an accomplished area birder, said martins begin gathering at the roost shortly after chicks are big enough to fly.

Online reservation system bringing money to Kansas state parks

Michael Pearce — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:08 CDT

So far, so good for the new online reservation system for Kansas state park camping sites, which went online in mid-April.

“To date it’s brought in over $600,000, so I have to consider that pretty successful,” said Linda Lanterman, state park acting director. “That’s about 10,000 reservations and about 39,500 nights. That’s a lot of nights.”

The online program at ksoutdoors.com – click on “reservations” – is part of the Reserve America system, which is used by about 20 states and 30 private groups to help customers reserve camping spots. Reservations for Kansas parks also can be made by calling 620-672-5911.

Kansas state parks ready for big Memorial Day weekend

Michael Pearce — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:08 CDT

Linda Lanterman likes the odds for a great Memorial Day weekend at area state parks.

“So far we don’t have blue-green algae and the weather looks great,” said Lanterman, Kansas state parks acting director. “That’s great, because we have to have a good Memorial weekend. We just have to.”

Last summer, state parks budgets took a huge hit when the toxic algae and extreme heat led to dismal visitation rates much of the summer.

Kansas officials prepare for toxic algae blooms

Michael Pearce — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:07 CDT

State officials are hoping for the best but planning for the worst when it comes to blue-green algae, a toxic substance that can greatly limit the use of state lakes and reservoirs during the summer.

Last year the algae was particularly bad, affecting 38 Kansas lakes, including Cheney Reservoir.

“It was just like a ghost town out here, and our worst financial year ever,” said Tammera Snyder, of Snyder’s Marina at Cheney Reservoir. “It was super-hot, but with the algae, (campers and boaters) couldn’t get into the water.”

Summit focuses on getting the word out about Kansas nature

Michael Pearce — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:09 CDT

CHEYENNE BOTTOMS WILDLIFE AREA – Gov. Sam Brownback thinks it’s time for Kansas to better share its wetlands wealth with the rest of the world.

“I hear people say (Cheyenne Bottoms and the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge) are some of the best-kept secrets in the world. That’s not an accolade to me,” Brownback said Saturday at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.

Ted Eubanks, a nationally recognized expert in nature-based tourism, agrees and told Brownback and others at the first Governor’s Ecotourism Summit the state can improve how it markets a variety of attractions.

Tornado destroys Oaklawn homes but not hope

RICK PLUMLEE — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:10 CDT

So many questions, so many concerns.

Where to live? How to pay for it? Will insurance be enough? If no insurance, what now? Finding four walls and a roof is one thing, but how do you rebuild a life?

Lives were shaken when an EF-3 tornado tore through southeast Wichita and Oaklawn on the night of April 14, damaging or destroying nearly 800 homes and causing more than $146 million in damage.

Kansas farm girl, teacher follows calling to become a nun

Annie Calovich — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:11 CDT

Last year at this time, 22-year-old Annie Stuhlsatz and the older siblings in her family were planning to dye Easter eggs and hide them in baskets of grass and green wheat gathered from the fields around their small farm in the shadow of St. Mary Aleppo Church.

On Easter morning, the younger of the 10 Stuhlsatz children would scatter, looking for the colorful eggs before the tight-knit family went to Mass together at St. Mary’s.

Annie was also hiding a secret in her heart as she followed the family traditions. This would be the last Easter she would spend on the farm outside the tiny hamlet of Aleppo in western Sedgwick County.

How video games prepare kids for a bright future job

Roy Wenzl — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:26 CDT

Kaitlin Albright likes to kill computerized people in video games. She is a native of Caldwell, Kan., a little town on the Oklahoma state line; she is a 19-year-old freshman at Wichita State University. She has killed people in video games since she was 2 years old.

She is one of those kids that baffled parents complain about, because she’s addicted (her own word) to these video games. She estimates that she has spent more than 10,000 hours of her life killing people or doing other fun things in games like Call of Duty, or the Assassin’s Creed, or other games. Ten thousand hours, by the way, translates into 250 work weeks, or 5 years of work.

“Killing people is fun,” she says.

Air Capital Drill Meet hosts 96 JROTC teams at Wichita South High School

Jerry Siebenmark — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:13 CST

Outside of Wichita South High School, a crisp “ten-hut” breaks an otherwise quiet, sunny morning.

At one end of the school’s faculty parking lot are kids in Air Force blues practicing a ceremonial flag-folding. About 10 feet away, a group in Army dress greens is marching in formation.

They were among 96 teams from 17 schools in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma competing at the Air Capital Drill Meet, which South has hosted for the past 12 years.

Five Kansas children’s authors plan book-signing

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:01 CST

Kansas children’s book authors Dian Curtis Regan, Debra Seely, Christie Merriman Breault, Beverley Buller and Clare Vanderpool will sign copies of their books from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at Eighth Day Books, 2838 E. Douglas.

The event is in honor of Regan, who is moving from Wichita to Colorado. Her latest books are the picture book “The Snow Blew Inn” and the chapter book “Rocky Cave Kids: The Dragon Stone.”

Vanderpool won the 2011 Newbery Medal for “Moon Over Manifest.” Buller’s biographies of William Allen White and Mary White were both named Kansas Notable Books. Seely and Breault specialize in juvenile historical fiction.

New Wichita school boundary plan scales back some changes

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:48 CDT

A new attendance boundary plan presented to Wichita school board members Monday would close four elementary schools, relocate Northeast Magnet High School and keep most high school assignments the same.

Superintendent John Allison said he doesn’t know precisely how many of the district’s 50,000 students would be forced to change schools under his proposal.

But several board members said they want to know that and other details before they vote later this month.

Appeals backlog leaves unemployed Kansans hanging

Dion Lefler — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:49 CST

Layoffs and reorganization at the state Department of Labor have led to a substantial backlog in unemployment appeals, leaving more than 6,500 Kansans waiting months to find out if they’ll qualify for benefits.

The backlog is more than twice what it was three months ago and four times the level in 2010, according to a report from the Legislative Research Department.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, who requested the research on the backlog, said the unemployment system wasn’t broken when Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration took it over in January — and appeals were getting done even when the economy and unemployment were worse than they are today.

Americans For Prosperity completes guest-tax petition drive

BILL WILSON — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:37 CST

A free-market group says it has completed its petition drive to put the Ambassador Hotel guest tax provision on the ballot for public vote, collecting a little more than 3,500 signatures.

Jen Rezak, a spokeswoman for the Wichita chapter of Americans for Prosperity, said the group plans to deliver signed petitions to the city clerk’s office at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon, triggering a weeklong review process that could result in an election sometime next year. The petitions must contain at least 2,528 verified voter signatures. At issue is the use by Ambassador developers of $2.25 million in guest tax revenues generated by the hotel at Douglas and Broadway in its first 15 years of operation. Susan Estes, another AFP spokeswoman, said the group’s final weekend of signature collection was “very successful and humbling.”

Tabitha Lehman, Sedgwick County’s election commissioner, said Monday she’s uncertain when her office will receive the petitions from the city clerk. She said her employees will verify that each signature is from a registered Wichita voter.

More than 100 attend World AIDS Day activities in Wichita

Hurst Laviana — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:45 CST

More than 100 people took part in a candlelight vigil and walk Thursday in Wichita to commemorate World Aids Day. The event began at the Wichita Art Museum and ended up at the Mid-America All-Indian Center.

Among those taking part was Teresa Romey, an HIV medical case manager for the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She said in an interview before the vigil that the world has changed dramatically since the first AIDS case was diagnosed on Dec. 1, 1981.“Because of the new medications and because people are finding out their status earlier and taking care of themselves, they’re living a lot longer,” she said

Romey said 25 Kansans died of AIDS in 2009, the last year for which figures are available. That’s down considerably from the 134 who died in 1994, the peak year for AIDS deaths in the state. At the end of 2009, there were 2,599 Kansans living with HIV virus or AIDS, about 725 of whom live in the Wichita area, Romey said.

Moran, Roberts file bill to allow state inspection of natural gas storage

Dion Lefler — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:59 CST

Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran have filed a bill in Congress to restore state authority to oversee the safety of facilities that store natural gas in underground caverns, in an effort to prevent potentially deadly explosions like the ones that rocked Hutchinson 10 years ago.

Federal agencies have declined to regulate underground storage, leaving Kansas facilities — as much as 270 billion cubic feet of gas — uninspected for the past 19 months.

Roberts’ and Moran’s bill, the Underground Gas Storage Facility Safety Act of 2011, would allow Kansas to restart its program of safety inspections of interstate gas storage facilities. State regulations would be subject to review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

HUD grant to help build housing for low-income Wichita seniors

DEB GRUVER — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:08 CST

The Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas plans to use $3.4 million in federal funds to build 24 apartments for low-income seniors and provide rent subsidies.

The association was the only Kansas agency to receive part of $749 million in grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The grants, a news release from HUD said, will help nonprofit groups provide accessible housing, rent assistance and support services for seniors and people with disabilities. The money will be used to build or rehabilitate more than 189 housing developments in 41 states, to serve 4,800 elderly and disabled people, HUD said.

Fire is a particular hazard in vacant buildings, Wichita officials warn

Stan Finger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:59 CST

The recent fatal fire in what was supposed to be a vacant house vividly illustrated why this can be a particularly dangerous time of year for fires, officials say.

With temperatures turning sharply colder, homeless residents who shun shelters may be tempted to stay warm and dry in unoccupied buildings. Such structures are also tempting to arsonists, fire Capt. Stuart Bevis said.

“It’s a big concern whenever people get into unsecured structures,” Bevis said. “There’s just a lot of bad situations that can happen.”

Colwich family struggles to cope with impact of year-old burglary

Stan Finger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:24 CST

It’s been a year now since someone pried open a hole in the back of a transmission shop in Colwich and made off with a truck and $100,000 in tools.

No arrests have been made.

Steve Jett wants whoever is responsible to know that they didn’t just create a hole in a building when they pried open a back wall in the steel building – they cut a hole in his business’ future.

Kansas oilman, athlete, philanthropist and convicted fraudster Jim Hershberger dies

Dan Voorhis — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:22 CST

Jim Hershberger lived a big life.

He was a millionaire oilman by the time he was 30 – and gave away at least that much to charity over his lifetime. In 1963 he built what was reputed to be the biggest new house in the country since World War II and invited 1,400 people to his housewarming party. He bought the first private jet in Kansas in 1969. He was generous with his time, money, energy and enthusiasm, creating and leading many local charities. He is perhaps best known for his relentless enthusiasm for athletics and the many events he competed in over the decades.

But he also crashed in a big way. He served five years in federal prison beginning in 1990 for what prosecutors said was defrauding oil investors. He never admitted guilt. His wife, Sally, still says the conviction was a miscarriage of justice.