<a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/state-farm-weather-window">For a full look at the weather forecast, click here.</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720212324953.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/state-farm-weather-window">For a full look at the weather forecast, click here.</a>

Three-day weather outlook

FHSU crime log June 28-July 5

RELATED STORY:&nbsp;<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/7641c3cf-9ddb-4e26-9b4c-a003c0881e07">Wild West Festival announces concerts for Fourth of July weekend 2024 in Hays</a>

Wild West Festival Stage, 100 Main Street, Hays

General Admission and Concessions open at 5:30 p.m. VIP Access opens at 6 p.m.

10 to 10:30 p.m., south of Hays,183 Bypass and Golf Course Road, Hays, 

&nbsp;10-11 a.m., Downtown Hays, 1200 Main St.,

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/5/1621350914288.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>RELATED STORY:&nbsp;<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/7641c3cf-9ddb-4e26-9b4c-a003c0881e07">Wild West Festival announces concerts for Fourth of July weekend 2024 in Hays</a><h2>Wild West Festival Schedule</h2><h2>Wednesday, July 3</h2>Wild West Festival Stage, 100 Main Street, HaysGeneral Admission and Concessions open at 5:30 p.m. VIP Access opens at 6 p.m.<h2>Reprise</h2>5:35 pm-6:30 pm<h2>Paramount</h2>7:30 pm-9:00 pm<h2>Nate Smith</h2>&nbsp;9:30 pm-11:00 pm<h2>Thursday, July 4</h2><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720063221754.png" alt="Screenshot 2024-07-03 at 10.20.01 PM.png" />
 <figcaption>Screenshot 2024-07-03 at 10.20.01 PM.png</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Fireworks Spectacular</h2>10 to 10:30 p.m., south of Hays,183 Bypass and Golf Course Road, Hays, <h2>Friday, July 5</h2>Wild West Festival Stage, 100 Main Street, HaysGeneral Admission and Concessions open at 5:30 p.m. VIP Access opens at 6 p.m.<h2>Jake Dunworth</h2>5:35-6:30 p.m.<h2>Savanna Chestnut</h2>7:30-9 p.m.<h2>Sawyer Brown</h2>9:30-11 p.m.<h2>Saturday, July 6</h2><h2>Main Street Parade</h2>&nbsp;10-11 a.m., Downtown Hays, 1200 Main St.,Wild West Festival Stage, 100 Main Street, HaysGeneral Admission and Concessions open at 5:30 p.m. VIP Access opens at 6 p.m.<h2>RoxSLYDE</h2>5:35 pm-6:30 pm<h2>Sunset Sinners</h2>7:30-9 p.m.<h2>Quiet Riot</h2>9:30-11 p.m.

Wild West Festival schedule

TOPEKA –&nbsp;The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) have issued a public health advisory due to&nbsp;blue-green algae.

A harmful algal bloom (HAB) may look like foam, scum or paint floating on the water and be colored&nbsp;blue, bright green, brown or red. Blooms can develop rapidly; if the water appears suspicious or there is decaying algae on the shore, avoid contact and keep pets away. These toxins can be absorbed by ingestion, inhalation of aerosols and even skin contact. Symptoms vary depending upon the type of exposure (e.g. direct contact, ingestion, inhalation) but can include rash, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, sore throat, and headache. If you, or your pets, come into contact with algae rinse the area with clean, fresh water. Suspected HAB-related health incidents, whether human or animal, regardless of season, should be reported at&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.Sd1qhyODPBDTfbpoeA78zXOAXA2lXW5qRQ3oJV5_-uQ/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">kdhe.ks.gov/1163</a>.

A&nbsp;Hazard status&nbsp;indicates that a harmful algal bloom is present, and extreme conditions exist.&nbsp;

When a hazard is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:

A&nbsp;Warning status&nbsp;indicates that conditions are unsafe for human and pet exposure.&nbsp; Contact with the waterbody should be avoided.

When a warning is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:

A&nbsp;Watch status&nbsp;means that&nbsp;blue-green algae have been detected and a harmful algal bloom is present or likely to develop. People are encouraged to avoid areas of algae accumulation and keep pets and livestock away from the water.

&nbsp;When a watch is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:

Advisories are&nbsp;Lifted&nbsp;when cell densities and toxin concentrations dissipate to levels below the Watch thresholds.

KDHE investigates publicly accessible bodies of water for&nbsp;blue-green algae when the agency receives reports of potential algae blooms in Kansas lakes. Based on credible field observation and sampling results, KDHE reports on potentially harmful conditions.&nbsp;

If you observe a scum or paint-like surface on the water, small floating&nbsp;blue-green clumps or filaments in the water, or if the water is an opaque green, avoid contact and keep pets away. These are indications that a harmful bloom may be present. Pet owners should be aware that animals that swim in or drink water affected by a harmful algal bloom or eat dried algae along the shore may become seriously ill or die.

For information on&nbsp;blue-green algae and reporting potential harmful algal blooms, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.wUW3e2y0q3LAZ2sMgPXyN3pXAH3TL5-DTkVc5zqpjdk/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">kdhe.ks.gov/HAB</a>&nbsp;and check out our&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.kuy8zmniJTyAsaA8-A2115W7pK1QyyadugxTeZDjq3s/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">interactive story</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.cz_hofSoU9Isy9Ole81xKTmONh-xjdGuHGqgPShuy88/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">informative video</a>.

TOPEKA –&nbsp;The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) have issued a public health advisory due to&nbsp;blue-green algae.A harmful algal bloom (HAB) may look like foam, scum or paint floating on the water and be colored&nbsp;blue, bright green, brown or red. Blooms can develop rapidly; if the water appears suspicious or there is decaying algae on the shore, avoid contact and keep pets away. These toxins can be absorbed by ingestion, inhalation of aerosols and even skin contact. Symptoms vary depending upon the type of exposure (e.g. direct contact, ingestion, inhalation) but can include rash, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, sore throat, and headache. If you, or your pets, come into contact with algae rinse the area with clean, fresh water. Suspected HAB-related health incidents, whether human or animal, regardless of season, should be reported at&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDIsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZ2NjMDIuc2FmZWxpbmtzLnByb3RlY3Rpb24ub3V0bG9vay5jb20vP2RhdGE9MDUlN0MwMiU3Q01pdGNoZWxsLk9zdGVybHVuZCU0MGtzLmdvdiU3QzFjZDNhOTM2NTM2YjRlNTllOWUxMDhkYzU0ZTc5ZjVmJTdDZGNhZTgxMDFjOTJkNDgwY2JjNDNjNjc2MWNjY2NjNWElN0MwJTdDMCU3QzYzODQ3ODYwMDk4Njg5OTQ4OSU3Q1Vua25vd24lN0NUV0ZwYkdac2IzZDhleUpXSWpvaU1DNHdMakF3TURBaUxDSlFJam9pVjJsdU16SWlMQ0pCVGlJNklrMWhhV3dpTENKWFZDSTZNbjAlM0QlN0MwJTdDJTdDJTdDJnJlc2VydmVkPTAmc2RhdGE9Z2gwVU92Znd1aTBjZjNTWVklMkZ0U3liZUR0emFQMFMwczMwbVNuTFNaV0xvJTNEJnVybD1odHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy5rZGhlLmtzLmdvdiUyRjExNjMlMkZSZXBvcnQtYW4tSWxsbmVzcy1vci1IZWFsdGgtSW5jaWRlbnQlM0Z1dG1fbWVkaXVtJTNEZW1haWwlMjZ1dG1fc291cmNlJTNEZ292ZGVsaXZlcnkmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPWdvdmRlbGl2ZXJ5IiwiYnVsbGV0aW5faWQiOiIyMDI0MDcwMy45NzE1MTQ3MSJ9.Sd1qhyODPBDTfbpoeA78zXOAXA2lXW5qRQ3oJV5_-uQ/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">kdhe.ks.gov/1163</a>.Active Advisories<h2>Warning&nbsp;</h2><ul>
 <li>King Lake, Lyon County</li><li>Rooks Co. SFL, Rooks County</li><li>Webster Lake, Rooks County</li>
 </ul><h2>Watch&nbsp;</h2><ul>
 <li>Eagle Lake (Bel Aire), Sedgwick County</li><li>Gathering Pond, Geary County (Added July 3)</li><li>Harvey County East Lake, Harvey County</li><li>Lovewell Lake, Jewell County</li><li>Marion Lake (Reservoir), Marion County</li><li>Woodland Park Pond (Mount Hope), Sedgwick County&nbsp;</li>
 </ul><h2>Lifted&nbsp;</h2><ul>
 <li>Lake Shawnee, Shawnee County</li>
 </ul>A&nbsp;Hazard status&nbsp;indicates that a harmful algal bloom is present, and extreme conditions exist.&nbsp;When a hazard is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:<ul>
 <li>Signage should be posted at all public access locations.</li><li>It is recommended that either a portion of the lake or the entire lake or zone, be closed to the public.</li><li>In some cases, the adjacent land should be closed as well. Actual setback distances will be determined on a site-specific basis, if necessary.</li><li>When partial closures (i.e., beach or cove) are issued, the remaining lake or zone area will carry a warning status.</li>
 </ul>A&nbsp;Warning status&nbsp;indicates that conditions are unsafe for human and pet exposure.&nbsp; Contact with the waterbody should be avoided.When a warning is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:<ul>
 <li>Signage should be posted at all public access locations.</li><li>Inhalation of spray or aerosols may be harmful.</li><li>Lake water is not safe to drink for pets or livestock.&nbsp;</li><li>Lake water, regardless of&nbsp;blue-green algae status, should never be consumed by humans.&nbsp;</li><li>Water contact should be avoided.&nbsp;</li><li>Fish may be eaten if they are rinsed with clean water and only the fillet portion is consumed, while all other parts are discarded.&nbsp;</li><li>Do not allow pets to eat dried algae.&nbsp;</li><li>If lake water contacts skin, wash with clean water as soon as possible.&nbsp;</li><li>Avoid areas of visible algae accumulation.&nbsp;</li>
 </ul>A&nbsp;Watch status&nbsp;means that&nbsp;blue-green algae have been detected and a harmful algal bloom is present or likely to develop. People are encouraged to avoid areas of algae accumulation and keep pets and livestock away from the water.&nbsp;When a watch is issued, KDHE recommends the following precautions be taken:<ul>
 <li>Signage should be posted at all public access locations.</li><li>Water may be unsafe for humans/animals.</li><li>Avoid areas of algae accumulation and do not let people/pets eat dried algae or drink contaminated water.</li><li>Swimming, wading, skiing and jet skiing are discouraged near visible blooms.</li><li>Boating and fishing are safe. However, inhalation of the spray may affect some individuals. Avoid direct contact with water, and wash with clean water after any contact.</li><li>Clean fish thoroughly with potable water and eat fillet portion only.</li>
 </ul>Advisories are&nbsp;Lifted&nbsp;when cell densities and toxin concentrations dissipate to levels below the Watch thresholds.KDHE investigates publicly accessible bodies of water for&nbsp;blue-green algae when the agency receives reports of potential algae blooms in Kansas lakes. Based on credible field observation and sampling results, KDHE reports on potentially harmful conditions.&nbsp;If you observe a scum or paint-like surface on the water, small floating&nbsp;blue-green clumps or filaments in the water, or if the water is an opaque green, avoid contact and keep pets away. These are indications that a harmful bloom may be present. Pet owners should be aware that animals that swim in or drink water affected by a harmful algal bloom or eat dried algae along the shore may become seriously ill or die.For information on&nbsp;blue-green algae and reporting potential harmful algal blooms, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.wUW3e2y0q3LAZ2sMgPXyN3pXAH3TL5-DTkVc5zqpjdk/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">kdhe.ks.gov/HAB</a>&nbsp;and check out our&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDQsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZ2NjMDIuc2FmZWxpbmtzLnByb3RlY3Rpb24ub3V0bG9vay5jb20vP2RhdGE9MDUlN0MwMiU3Q01pdGNoZWxsLk9zdGVybHVuZCU0MGtzLmdvdiU3QzFjZDNhOTM2NTM2YjRlNTllOWUxMDhkYzU0ZTc5ZjVmJTdDZGNhZTgxMDFjOTJkNDgwY2JjNDNjNjc2MWNjY2NjNWElN0MwJTdDMCU3QzYzODQ3ODYwMDk4NjkxMzI0NCU3Q1Vua25vd24lN0NUV0ZwYkdac2IzZDhleUpXSWpvaU1DNHdMakF3TURBaUxDSlFJam9pVjJsdU16SWlMQ0pCVGlJNklrMWhhV3dpTENKWFZDSTZNbjAlM0QlN0MwJTdDJTdDJTdDJnJlc2VydmVkPTAmc2RhdGE9dG10QVNJRzEzMVVabHpwbkRrdUk1ZWs5NWdBMmxWNmhQQmMwanZJUHBJUSUzRCZ1cmw9aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdG9yeW1hcHMuYXJjZ2lzLmNvbSUyRnN0b3JpZXMlMkZjMDcwYzgwNTkyOTM0NzMwODM0YzE5NDI4MDMwMGVjYiUzRnV0bV9tZWRpdW0lM0RlbWFpbCUyNnV0bV9zb3VyY2UlM0Rnb3ZkZWxpdmVyeSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9Z292ZGVsaXZlcnkiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjQwNzAzLjk3MTUxNDcxIn0.kuy8zmniJTyAsaA8-A2115W7pK1QyyadugxTeZDjq3s/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">interactive story</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.cz_hofSoU9Isy9Ole81xKTmONh-xjdGuHGqgPShuy88/s/1305913623/br/245236026887-l">informative video</a>.

Public health advisories for Kansas lakes due to blue-green algae

By BECKY KISER Hays Post

For the 15th consecutive year, the mill levy for the city of Hays will remain at 25 mills, the same as it has been since 2010.

City commissioners got their first glance at the 2025 draft budget Tuesday with highlights presented by Collin Bielser, deputy city manager.

"The budget is balanced, and reserves are funded. ... Total assessed valuation is up 4.2%,"&nbsp;Bielser said.

"Unfortunately, sales tax receipts are down this year to date," Bielser said. "So, we do project revenues at the end of 2024 to be down about 2.6% below what we originally budgeted."

Sales tax revenues are the primary funding source for the city's general fund. For 2025, a 2% increase over 2024 projections is estimated.

Although general fund spending will be about $178,000 below 2024 levels, operating expenditures will increase by $625,000, mostly due to a 2% step and 3% cost-of-living increases for all city employees.

The number of city employees will also increase by seven, including four more police officers.&nbsp; A new public relations position for the city manager's office has been added.&nbsp;The city will have 183 full-time employees, still below the high of 186 employees in 2023.

Capital improvement projects for 2025 include $8 million that has been set aside for renovation and expansion of the existing Astra Bank building in downtown Hays for the future police station and municipal court.

Another $5 million is included for extending infrastructure to the city's property northeast of the Interstate 70 Exit 161 interchange. 

As the R9 Ranch water transfer project progresses, $6 million will be used for land acquisition costs for the 68-mile pipeline from Edwards County to just south of Hays.

The reconstruction of 32nd/33rd Streets from Willow to Vine is planned to cost $1.8 million.

Reconstruction of the crosswind runway and the Taxiway M intersection at the Hays Regional Airport, which will cost $337,000, is also to be completed. The FAA will pay for 95% of the project.

Commissioner Mason Ruder was pleased with the budget numbers.

"My initial glance through it, projecting revenues down and expenditures up, instead of coming to us in a panic, you put pencil to paper and made it work," Ruder said.

Although revenue is down, the general fund will transfer about $2.15 million to the Commission Capital Reserve account.

Of that transfer amount, about $1.2 million comes from the city's share of the Ellis County 1/4 cent sales tax approved by voters in 2020.&nbsp;

"Times are a little tighter than they have been," said Mayor Shaun Musil, "but we're still moving forward."

Commissioners will have several opportunities to review the budget again in detail prior to the Sept. 12 public hearing.

"If the public has any questions or concerns about this budget, please contact any of the commissioners," said Sandy Jacobs, vice mayor.&nbsp;

The draft budget is available on the city's website at <a href="https://www.haysusa.com/DocumentCenter/View/6549/2025-BUDGET-WORKBOOK-DRAFT">www.haysusa.com</a>.

In other business, Jeff Boyle, director of parks, reviewed the renewal of the lease agreement with Fort Hays State University for Larks Park. With a few minor adjustments, the city's cost for the lease should go down slightly. 

Boyle also reviewed facility agreements with the Hays Recreation Commission for&nbsp;Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex, swimming pool services, and recreation facilities. Hays Rec has agreed to increase the city's stop-loss commitment for the municipal pools from $26,000 to $40,000. &nbsp;

Water Resources Director Jeff Crispin presented a recommended bid award for sewer point repairs in 73 locations for&nbsp;$299,697 from CC Steel, LLC, Maple Plain, Minnesota.

The three items will be voted on at the next city commission meeting.

Commissioner Alaina Cunningham was absent from the meeting.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720041605970.jpeg" alt="Collin Bielser, deputy city manager, presented the proposed 2025 budget to Hays city commissioners Tuesday. Photo by Becky Kiser/Hays Post" />
 <figcaption>Collin Bielser, deputy city manager, presented the proposed 2025 budget to Hays city commissioners Tuesday. Photo by Becky Kiser/Hays Post</figcaption>
 </figure>By BECKY KISER Hays PostFor the 15th consecutive year, the mill levy for the city of Hays will remain at 25 mills, the same as it has been since 2010.City commissioners got their first glance at the 2025 draft budget Tuesday with highlights presented by Collin Bielser, deputy city manager."The budget is balanced, and reserves are funded. ... Total assessed valuation is up 4.2%,"&nbsp;Bielser said."Unfortunately, sales tax receipts are down this year to date," Bielser said. "So, we do project revenues at the end of 2024 to be down about 2.6% below what we originally budgeted."Sales tax revenues are the primary funding source for the city's general fund. For 2025, a 2% increase over 2024 projections is estimated.Although general fund spending will be about $178,000 below 2024 levels, operating expenditures will increase by $625,000, mostly due to a 2% step and 3% cost-of-living increases for all city employees.The number of city employees will also increase by seven, including four more police officers.&nbsp; A new public relations position for the city manager's office has been added.&nbsp;The city will have 183 full-time employees, still below the high of 186 employees in 2023.Capital improvement projects for 2025 include $8 million that has been set aside for renovation and expansion of the existing Astra Bank building in downtown Hays for the future police station and municipal court.Another $5 million is included for extending infrastructure to the city's property northeast of the Interstate 70 Exit 161 interchange. As the R9 Ranch water transfer project progresses, $6 million will be used for land acquisition costs for the 68-mile pipeline from Edwards County to just south of Hays.The reconstruction of 32nd/33rd Streets from Willow to Vine is planned to cost $1.8 million.Reconstruction of the crosswind runway and the Taxiway M intersection at the Hays Regional Airport, which will cost $337,000, is also to be completed. The FAA will pay for 95% of the project.Commissioner Mason Ruder was pleased with the budget numbers."My initial glance through it, projecting revenues down and expenditures up, instead of coming to us in a panic, you put pencil to paper and made it work," Ruder said.Although revenue is down, the general fund will transfer about $2.15 million to the Commission Capital Reserve account.Of that transfer amount, about $1.2 million comes from the city's share of the Ellis County 1/4 cent sales tax approved by voters in 2020.&nbsp;"Times are a little tighter than they have been," said Mayor Shaun Musil, "but we're still moving forward."Commissioners will have several opportunities to review the budget again in detail prior to the Sept. 12 public hearing."If the public has any questions or concerns about this budget, please contact any of the commissioners," said Sandy Jacobs, vice mayor.&nbsp;The draft budget is available on the city's website at <a href="https://www.haysusa.com/DocumentCenter/View/6549/2025-BUDGET-WORKBOOK-DRAFT">www.haysusa.com</a>.In other business, Jeff Boyle, director of parks, reviewed the renewal of the lease agreement with Fort Hays State University for Larks Park. With a few minor adjustments, the city's cost for the lease should go down slightly. Boyle also reviewed facility agreements with the Hays Recreation Commission for&nbsp;Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex, swimming pool services, and recreation facilities. Hays Rec has agreed to increase the city's stop-loss commitment for the municipal pools from $26,000 to $40,000. &nbsp;Water Resources Director Jeff Crispin presented a recommended bid award for sewer point repairs in 73 locations for&nbsp;$299,697 from CC Steel, LLC, Maple Plain, Minnesota.The three items will be voted on at the next city commission meeting.Commissioner Alaina Cunningham was absent from the meeting.

Hays' 2025 draft budget is at 25 mills for 15th year   

Cyberattacks on health care systems don’t just cost money. They can make it harder for clinicians to keep their patients safe.

By&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/rachana-pradhan/">Rachana Pradhan</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/kate-wells/">Kate Wells</a> <a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/">The Beacon</a>

In the wake of a debilitating cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest health care systems, Marvin Ruckle, a nurse at an Ascension hospital in Wichita, said he had a frightening experience: He nearly gave a baby “the wrong dose of narcotic” because of confusing paperwork.

Ruckle, who has worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph for two decades, said it was “hard to decipher which was the correct dose” on the medication record. He’d “never seen that happen,” he said, “when we were on the computer system” before the cyberattack.

A May 8 ransomware attack against Ascension, a Catholic health system with 140 hospitals in at least 10 states, locked providers out of systems that track and coordinate nearly every aspect of patient care. They include its systems for electronic health records, some phones, and ones “utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications,” the company said in a May 9 statement.

More than a dozen doctors and nurses who work for the sprawling health system told Michigan Public and KFF Health News that patient care at its hospitals across the nation was compromised in the fallout of the cyberattack over the past several weeks. Clinicians working for hospitals in three states described harrowing lapses, including delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks via technology to prevent potentially fatal mistakes.

Despite a precipitous rise in cyberattacks against the health sector in recent years, a weeks-long disruption of this magnitude is beyond what most health systems are prepared for, said&nbsp;<a href="https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/pharmacy/john-s-clark-pharmd-ms-bcps-fashp">John Clark</a>, an associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Michigan health system.

“I don’t believe that anyone is fully prepared,” he said. Most emergency management plans “are designed around long-term downtimes that are into one, two, or three days.”

Ascension in a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event">public statement May 9</a>&nbsp;said its care teams were “trained for these kinds of disruptions,” but did not respond to questions in early June about whether it had prepared for longer periods of downtime. Ascension said June 14 it had restored access to electronic health records across its network, but that patient “medical records and other information collected between May 8” and when the service was restored “may be temporarily inaccessible as we work to update the portal with information collected during the system downtime.”

Ruckle said he “had no training” for the cyberattack.

Lisa Watson, an intensive care unit nurse at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, described her own close call. She said she nearly administered the wrong medication to a critically ill patient because she couldn’t scan it as she normally would. “My patient probably would have passed away had I not caught it,” she said.

Watson is no stranger to using paper for patients’ medical charts, saying she did so “for probably half of my career,” before electronic health records became ubiquitous in hospitals. What happened after the cyberattack was “by no means the same.”

“When we paper-charted, we had systems in place to get those orders to other departments in a timely manner,” she said, “and those have all gone away.”

Melissa LaRue, an ICU nurse at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, described a close call with “administering the wrong dosage” of a patient’s blood pressure medication. “Luckily,” she said, it was “triple-checked and remedied before that could happen. But I think the potential for harm is there when you have so much information and paperwork that you have to go through.”

Clinicians say their hospitals have relied on slapdash workarounds, using handwritten notes, faxes, sticky notes, and basic computer spreadsheets — many devised on the fly by doctors and nurses — to care for patients.

More than a dozen other nurses and doctors, some of them without union protections, at Ascension hospitals in Michigan recounted situations in which they say patient care was compromised. Those clinicians spoke on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation by their employer.

An Ascension hospital emergency room doctor in Detroit said a man on the city’s east side was given a dangerous narcotic intended for another patient because of a paperwork mix-up. As a result, the patient’s breathing slowed to the point that he had to be put on a ventilator. “We intubated him and we sent him to the ICU because he got the wrong medication.”

A nurse in a Michigan Ascension hospital ER said a woman with low blood sugar and “altered mental status” went into cardiac arrest and died after staff said they waited four hours for lab results they needed to determine how to treat her, but never received. “If I started having crushing chest pain in the middle of work and thought I was having a big one, I would grab someone to drive me down the street to another hospital,” the same ER nurse said.

Similar concerns reportedly led a travel nurse at an Ascension hospital in Indiana to quit. “I just want to warn those patients that are coming to any of the Ascension facilities that there will be delays in care. There is potential for error and for harm,” Justin Neisser&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NofGfUnptfs">told CBS4</a>&nbsp;in Indianapolis in May.

Several nurses and doctors at Ascension hospitals said they feared the errors they’ve witnessed since the cyberattack began could threaten their professional licenses. “This is how a RaDonda Vaught happens,” one nurse said, referring to the Tennessee nurse who was convicted of&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/radonda-vaught-nurse-drug-error-vanderbilt-guilty-verdict/">criminally negligent homicide</a>&nbsp;in 2022 for a fatal drug error.

Reporters were not able to review records to verify clinicians’ claims because of privacy laws surrounding patients’ medical information that apply to health care professionals.

Ascension declined to answer questions about claims that care has been affected by the ransomware attack. “As we have made clear throughout this cyber attack which has impacted our system and our dedicated clinical providers, caring for our patients is our highest priority,” Sean Fitzpatrick, Ascension’s vice president of external communications, said via email on June 3. “We are confident that our care providers in our hospitals and facilities continue to provide quality medical care.”

The federal government requires hospitals to protect patients’ sensitive health data, according to cybersecurity experts. However, there are no federal requirements for hospitals to prevent or prepare for cyberattacks that could compromise their electronic systems.

Hospitals: ‘The No.1 Target of Ransomware’

“We’ve started to think about these as public health issues and disasters on the scale of earthquakes or hurricanes,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-tully-672679102/">Jeff Tully</a>, a co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California-San Diego. “These types of cybersecurity incidents should be thought of as a matter of when, and not if.”

Josh Corman, a cybersecurity expert and advocate, said ransom crews regard hospitals as the perfect prey: “They have terrible security and they’ll pay. So almost immediately, hospitals went to the No. 1 target of ransomware.”

In 2023, the health sector experienced the largest share of ransomware attacks of 16 infrastructure sectors considered vital to national security or safety, according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf">FBI report on internet crimes</a>. In March, the federal Department of Health and Human Services said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/03/13/hhs-office-civil-rights-issues-letter-opens-investigation-change-healthcare-cyberattack.html">reported large breaches involving ransomware</a>&nbsp;had jumped by 264% over the past five years.

A cyberattack this year on Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division that processes billions of health care transactions every year,&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/unitedhealth-change-healthcare-hack-cyber-cybersecurity-ransomware/">crippled the business</a>&nbsp;of providers, pharmacies, and hospitals.

In May, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty&nbsp;<a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/what-we-learned-change-healthcare-cyber-attack">told lawmakers</a>&nbsp;the company paid a $22 million ransom as a result of the Change Healthcare attack — which occurred after hackers accessed a company portal that didn’t have multifactor authentication, a basic cybersecurity tool.

The Biden administration in recent months&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/cyber/Documents/Health-Care-Sector-Cybersecurity-Dec2023-508.pdf">has pushed</a>&nbsp;to bolster health care cybersecurity standards, but it’s not clear which new measures will be required.

In January, HHS&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/HHS-Releases-CPGs-and-Gateway-Website-Jan2024.aspx">nudged companies</a>&nbsp;to improve email security, add multifactor authentication, and institute cybersecurity training and testing, among other voluntary measures. The Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services is expected to release new requirements for hospitals, but the scope and timing are unclear. The same is true of an update HHS is expected to make to patient privacy regulations.

HHS said the voluntary measures “will inform the creation of new enforceable cybersecurity standards,” department spokesperson Jeff Nesbit said in a statement.

“The recent cyberattack at Ascension only underscores the need for everyone in the health care ecosystem to do their part to secure their systems and protect patients,” Nesbit said.

Meanwhile, lobbyists for the hospital industry contend cybersecurity mandates or penalties are misplaced and would curtail hospitals’ resources to fend off attacks.

“Hospitals and health systems are not the primary source of cyber risk exposure facing the health care sector,” the American Hospital Association, the largest lobbying group for U.S. hospitals, said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aha.org/testimony/2024-04-17-aha-house-statement-fiscal-year-2025-department-health-and-human-services-budget">an April statement</a>&nbsp;prepared for U.S. House lawmakers. Most large&nbsp;<a href="https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf">data breaches</a>&nbsp;that hit hospitals in 2023 originated with third-party “business associates” or other health entities, including CMS itself, the AHA statement said.

Hospitals consolidating into large multistate health systems&nbsp;<a href="https://news.utdallas.edu/business-management/hospital-mergers-hacking-2023/">face increased risk</a>&nbsp;of data breaches and ransomware attacks, according to one study. Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ahrq.gov/chsp/data-resources/compendium.html">most recent data</a>&nbsp;from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

And while cybersecurity regulations can quickly become outdated, they can at least make it clear that if health systems fail to implement basic protections there “should be consequences for that,”&nbsp;<a href="https://ioe.engin.umich.edu/people/bagian-jim/">Jim Bagian</a>, a former director of the National Center for Patient Safety at the Veterans Health Administration, told Michigan Public’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michiganpublic.org/podcast/stateside/2024-05-22/stateside-podcast-ransomware-attack-at-ascension">Stateside</a>.

Patients can pay the price when lapses occur. Those in hospital care face&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4579292">a greater likelihood of death</a>&nbsp;during a cyberattack, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Workers concerned about patient safety at Ascension hospitals in Michigan have called for the company to make changes.

“We implore Ascension to recognize the internal problems that continue to plague its hospitals, both publicly and transparently,” said Dina Carlisle, a nurse and the president of the OPEIU Local 40 union, which represents nurses at Ascension Providence Rochester. At least 125 staff members at that Ascension hospital have&nbsp;<a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/urgent-ascension-providence-rochester-medical-professionals-demand-safety-precautions-in-hospital-amid-cyber-attack">signed a petition</a>&nbsp;asking administrators to temporarily reduce elective surgeries and nonemergency patient admissions, like under the protocols many hospitals adopted early in the covid-19 pandemic.

Watson, the Kansas ICU nurse, said in late May that nurses had urged management to bring in more nurses to help manage the workflow. “Everything that we say has fallen on deaf ears,” she said.

“It is very hard to be a nurse at Ascension right now,” Watson said in late May. “It is very hard to be a patient at Ascension right now.”

This story was originally published by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/">KFF Health News</a>.

<h2>Cyberattacks on health care systems don’t just cost money. They can make it harder for clinicians to keep their patients safe.</h2><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719930547420.png" alt="Marvin Ruckle, who has worked for two decades as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at an Ascension hospital in Kansas, said confusing paperwork nearly led him to administer the wrong dose of a narcotic to a baby after the health system suffered a cyberattack on May 8. Credit: Travis Heying / KFF Health News" />
 <figcaption>Marvin Ruckle, who has worked for two decades as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at an Ascension hospital in Kansas, said confusing paperwork nearly led him to administer the wrong dose of a narcotic to a baby after the health system suffered a cyberattack on May 8. Credit: Travis Heying / KFF Health News</figcaption>
 </figure>By&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/rachana-pradhan/">Rachana Pradhan</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/kate-wells/">Kate Wells</a> <a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/">The Beacon</a>In the wake of a debilitating cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest health care systems, Marvin Ruckle, a nurse at an Ascension hospital in Wichita, said he had a frightening experience: He nearly gave a baby “the wrong dose of narcotic” because of confusing paperwork.Ruckle, who has worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph for two decades, said it was “hard to decipher which was the correct dose” on the medication record. He’d “never seen that happen,” he said, “when we were on the computer system” before the cyberattack.A May 8 ransomware attack against Ascension, a Catholic health system with 140 hospitals in at least 10 states, locked providers out of systems that track and coordinate nearly every aspect of patient care. They include its systems for electronic health records, some phones, and ones “utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications,” the company said in a May 9 statement.More than a dozen doctors and nurses who work for the sprawling health system told Michigan Public and KFF Health News that patient care at its hospitals across the nation was compromised in the fallout of the cyberattack over the past several weeks. Clinicians working for hospitals in three states described harrowing lapses, including delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks via technology to prevent potentially fatal mistakes.Despite a precipitous rise in cyberattacks against the health sector in recent years, a weeks-long disruption of this magnitude is beyond what most health systems are prepared for, said&nbsp;<a href="https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/pharmacy/john-s-clark-pharmd-ms-bcps-fashp">John Clark</a>, an associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Michigan health system.“I don’t believe that anyone is fully prepared,” he said. Most emergency management plans “are designed around long-term downtimes that are into one, two, or three days.”Ascension in a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event">public statement May 9</a>&nbsp;said its care teams were “trained for these kinds of disruptions,” but did not respond to questions in early June about whether it had prepared for longer periods of downtime. Ascension said June 14 it had restored access to electronic health records across its network, but that patient “medical records and other information collected between May 8” and when the service was restored “may be temporarily inaccessible as we work to update the portal with information collected during the system downtime.”Ruckle said he “had no training” for the cyberattack.Back to PaperLisa Watson, an intensive care unit nurse at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, described her own close call. She said she nearly administered the wrong medication to a critically ill patient because she couldn’t scan it as she normally would. “My patient probably would have passed away had I not caught it,” she said.Watson is no stranger to using paper for patients’ medical charts, saying she did so “for probably half of my career,” before electronic health records became ubiquitous in hospitals. What happened after the cyberattack was “by no means the same.”“When we paper-charted, we had systems in place to get those orders to other departments in a timely manner,” she said, “and those have all gone away.”Melissa LaRue, an ICU nurse at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, described a close call with “administering the wrong dosage” of a patient’s blood pressure medication. “Luckily,” she said, it was “triple-checked and remedied before that could happen. But I think the potential for harm is there when you have so much information and paperwork that you have to go through.”Clinicians say their hospitals have relied on slapdash workarounds, using handwritten notes, faxes, sticky notes, and basic computer spreadsheets — many devised on the fly by doctors and nurses — to care for patients.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719930753692.png" alt="Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita, Kansas, one of 140 hospitals the Catholic health system operates nationwide. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)" />
 <figcaption>Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita, Kansas, one of 140 hospitals the Catholic health system operates nationwide. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)</figcaption>
 </figure>More than a dozen other nurses and doctors, some of them without union protections, at Ascension hospitals in Michigan recounted situations in which they say patient care was compromised. Those clinicians spoke on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation by their employer.An Ascension hospital emergency room doctor in Detroit said a man on the city’s east side was given a dangerous narcotic intended for another patient because of a paperwork mix-up. As a result, the patient’s breathing slowed to the point that he had to be put on a ventilator. “We intubated him and we sent him to the ICU because he got the wrong medication.”A nurse in a Michigan Ascension hospital ER said a woman with low blood sugar and “altered mental status” went into cardiac arrest and died after staff said they waited four hours for lab results they needed to determine how to treat her, but never received. “If I started having crushing chest pain in the middle of work and thought I was having a big one, I would grab someone to drive me down the street to another hospital,” the same ER nurse said.Similar concerns reportedly led a travel nurse at an Ascension hospital in Indiana to quit. “I just want to warn those patients that are coming to any of the Ascension facilities that there will be delays in care. There is potential for error and for harm,” Justin Neisser&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NofGfUnptfs">told CBS4</a>&nbsp;in Indianapolis in May.Several nurses and doctors at Ascension hospitals said they feared the errors they’ve witnessed since the cyberattack began could threaten their professional licenses. “This is how a RaDonda Vaught happens,” one nurse said, referring to the Tennessee nurse who was convicted of&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/radonda-vaught-nurse-drug-error-vanderbilt-guilty-verdict/">criminally negligent homicide</a>&nbsp;in 2022 for a fatal drug error.Reporters were not able to review records to verify clinicians’ claims because of privacy laws surrounding patients’ medical information that apply to health care professionals.Ascension declined to answer questions about claims that care has been affected by the ransomware attack. “As we have made clear throughout this cyber attack which has impacted our system and our dedicated clinical providers, caring for our patients is our highest priority,” Sean Fitzpatrick, Ascension’s vice president of external communications, said via email on June 3. “We are confident that our care providers in our hospitals and facilities continue to provide quality medical care.”The federal government requires hospitals to protect patients’ sensitive health data, according to cybersecurity experts. However, there are no federal requirements for hospitals to prevent or prepare for cyberattacks that could compromise their electronic systems.Hospitals: ‘The No.1 Target of Ransomware’“We’ve started to think about these as public health issues and disasters on the scale of earthquakes or hurricanes,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-tully-672679102/">Jeff Tully</a>, a co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California-San Diego. “These types of cybersecurity incidents should be thought of as a matter of when, and not if.”Josh Corman, a cybersecurity expert and advocate, said ransom crews regard hospitals as the perfect prey: “They have terrible security and they’ll pay. So almost immediately, hospitals went to the No. 1 target of ransomware.”In 2023, the health sector experienced the largest share of ransomware attacks of 16 infrastructure sectors considered vital to national security or safety, according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf">FBI report on internet crimes</a>. In March, the federal Department of Health and Human Services said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/03/13/hhs-office-civil-rights-issues-letter-opens-investigation-change-healthcare-cyberattack.html">reported large breaches involving ransomware</a>&nbsp;had jumped by 264% over the past five years.A cyberattack this year on Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division that processes billions of health care transactions every year,&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/unitedhealth-change-healthcare-hack-cyber-cybersecurity-ransomware/">crippled the business</a>&nbsp;of providers, pharmacies, and hospitals.In May, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty&nbsp;<a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/what-we-learned-change-healthcare-cyber-attack">told lawmakers</a>&nbsp;the company paid a $22 million ransom as a result of the Change Healthcare attack — which occurred after hackers accessed a company portal that didn’t have multifactor authentication, a basic cybersecurity tool.The Biden administration in recent months&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/cyber/Documents/Health-Care-Sector-Cybersecurity-Dec2023-508.pdf">has pushed</a>&nbsp;to bolster health care cybersecurity standards, but it’s not clear which new measures will be required.In January, HHS&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/HHS-Releases-CPGs-and-Gateway-Website-Jan2024.aspx">nudged companies</a>&nbsp;to improve email security, add multifactor authentication, and institute cybersecurity training and testing, among other voluntary measures. The Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services is expected to release new requirements for hospitals, but the scope and timing are unclear. The same is true of an update HHS is expected to make to patient privacy regulations.HHS said the voluntary measures “will inform the creation of new enforceable cybersecurity standards,” department spokesperson Jeff Nesbit said in a statement.“The recent cyberattack at Ascension only underscores the need for everyone in the health care ecosystem to do their part to secure their systems and protect patients,” Nesbit said.Meanwhile, lobbyists for the hospital industry contend cybersecurity mandates or penalties are misplaced and would curtail hospitals’ resources to fend off attacks.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719930832970.png" alt="Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the most recent data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)" />
 <figcaption>Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the most recent data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)</figcaption>
 </figure>“Hospitals and health systems are not the primary source of cyber risk exposure facing the health care sector,” the American Hospital Association, the largest lobbying group for U.S. hospitals, said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aha.org/testimony/2024-04-17-aha-house-statement-fiscal-year-2025-department-health-and-human-services-budget">an April statement</a>&nbsp;prepared for U.S. House lawmakers. Most large&nbsp;<a href="https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf">data breaches</a>&nbsp;that hit hospitals in 2023 originated with third-party “business associates” or other health entities, including CMS itself, the AHA statement said.Hospitals consolidating into large multistate health systems&nbsp;<a href="https://news.utdallas.edu/business-management/hospital-mergers-hacking-2023/">face increased risk</a>&nbsp;of data breaches and ransomware attacks, according to one study. Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ahrq.gov/chsp/data-resources/compendium.html">most recent data</a>&nbsp;from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.And while cybersecurity regulations can quickly become outdated, they can at least make it clear that if health systems fail to implement basic protections there “should be consequences for that,”&nbsp;<a href="https://ioe.engin.umich.edu/people/bagian-jim/">Jim Bagian</a>, a former director of the National Center for Patient Safety at the Veterans Health Administration, told Michigan Public’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michiganpublic.org/podcast/stateside/2024-05-22/stateside-podcast-ransomware-attack-at-ascension">Stateside</a>.Patients can pay the price when lapses occur. Those in hospital care face&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4579292">a greater likelihood of death</a>&nbsp;during a cyberattack, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.Workers concerned about patient safety at Ascension hospitals in Michigan have called for the company to make changes.“We implore Ascension to recognize the internal problems that continue to plague its hospitals, both publicly and transparently,” said Dina Carlisle, a nurse and the president of the OPEIU Local 40 union, which represents nurses at Ascension Providence Rochester. At least 125 staff members at that Ascension hospital have&nbsp;<a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/urgent-ascension-providence-rochester-medical-professionals-demand-safety-precautions-in-hospital-amid-cyber-attack">signed a petition</a>&nbsp;asking administrators to temporarily reduce elective surgeries and nonemergency patient admissions, like under the protocols many hospitals adopted early in the covid-19 pandemic.Watson, the Kansas ICU nurse, said in late May that nurses had urged management to bring in more nurses to help manage the workflow. “Everything that we say has fallen on deaf ears,” she said.“It is very hard to be a nurse at Ascension right now,” Watson said in late May. “It is very hard to be a patient at Ascension right now.”This story was originally published by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/">KFF Health News</a>.

Experts: U.S. hospitals prone to cyberattacks like one that hurt patient care at Ascension in Wichita

Leea Smarsh, a soon-to-be Fort Hays State University graduate, may appear as an ordinary college student, balancing classes and a part-time job and facing the uncertainties of post-grad life. Yet, her story is a testament to the extraordinary power of resilience, determination, and a profound passion for making a difference, serving as an inspiration to all.

Leea's story is about more than just academic success. A cancer survivor at the age of 15, she faced a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer with courage and grace. After surgeries and radiation treatments, she was declared cancer-free in February 2020, only to be met with the challenges of a global pandemic just a month later. Despite the obstacles, Leea persevered, finishing her high school senior year online.

Originally from Wichita, Leea’s decision to attend FHSU was driven by affordability.

“To be completely honest, moving to a small town for college was not on my radar,” Leea said. “Once I stepped on FHSU’s campus, I fell in love with the campus and the faculty I met on my visit.” She was not sure what she wanted to major in, but she was reassured by the FHSU admissions team that not knowing her major right away was okay. “This made me see FHSU in a new light, which ultimately persuaded me to choose FHSU – and I am so grateful I did,” Leea said.

Leea's college journey began as an exploratory major. Her advisor guided her through various majors and career paths through major and personality inventories, and to her surprise, Leadership Studies emerged as a top match. Initially unfamiliar with the concept, she took a leap of faith and chose this major, a decision she's immensely grateful she made.

“I truly feel I have found my calling. Being a leadership major, you are taught different ways to interact with groups and teams, as well as teaching followers effective ways to interact with people from different cultures, backgrounds, and other factors that differ from yours,” Leea said. “I am so excited to take the skills I have learned from the leadership program and put them into practice!”

As a student worker in the Department of Social Work, Leea was not only an invaluable member of the administrative team, she was also a driving force in planning the department’s signature event, the 49th Annual National Institute on Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas. This year’s conference, “On the Road to Thriving Rural Communities," underscored the significance of diversity in rural areas and provided the participants with crucial professional development opportunities and resources.

Leea’s contributions earned accolades from mentors and colleagues alike. Her efforts in carefully planning this prestigious event are a testament to her leadership, organizational skills, and plain hard work. From coordinating hotel reservations, managing communications with vendors and presenters, and overseeing the event schedule, her work earned high praise from presenters who were eager to meet Leea.

In fact, I first learned about Leea through a glowing letter from a social worker who has attended the conference for years. Impressed by her dedication, he penned a two-page letter, prompting me to delve deeper into her story.

For Leea, the conference is the pinnacle of her academic journey, symbolizing a chance to make a meaningful impact on the social work and human services professional communities. She has collaborated tirelessly with faculty and stakeholders while balancing a full summer schedule with online classes and working a part-time job. Leea’s future may include working in human resources or event planning.

Grateful for the support and mentorship from the social work faculty at FHSU, Leea acknowledges their significant role in shaping her journey, boosting her confidence, and instilling in her a drive to make a global impact. As she readies herself to embark on a new chapter post-graduation, Leea is well-equipped with the skills and experiences necessary for a bright and impactful future.

Her cancer journey has fueled her zest for life and her relentless pursuit of her passions. In her downtime, Leea loves spending time with her friends and family and has recently taken up pickleball.

Leea’s journey epitomizes resilience, dedication, and the pursuit of one’s passions. She embodies the spirit of Fort Hays State University and serves as a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work and determination. Her story is about surviving, thriving, overcoming obstacles, and achieving greatness. Leea Smarsh is an inspiration and a testament to what dedication and hard work can accomplish.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1575302025343.png" alt="Tisa Mason" />
 <figcaption>Tisa Mason</figcaption>
 </figure>Leea Smarsh, a soon-to-be Fort Hays State University graduate, may appear as an ordinary college student, balancing classes and a part-time job and facing the uncertainties of post-grad life. Yet, her story is a testament to the extraordinary power of resilience, determination, and a profound passion for making a difference, serving as an inspiration to all.Leea's story is about more than just academic success. A cancer survivor at the age of 15, she faced a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer with courage and grace. After surgeries and radiation treatments, she was declared cancer-free in February 2020, only to be met with the challenges of a global pandemic just a month later. Despite the obstacles, Leea persevered, finishing her high school senior year online.Originally from Wichita, Leea’s decision to attend FHSU was driven by affordability.“To be completely honest, moving to a small town for college was not on my radar,” Leea said. “Once I stepped on FHSU’s campus, I fell in love with the campus and the faculty I met on my visit.” She was not sure what she wanted to major in, but she was reassured by the FHSU admissions team that not knowing her major right away was okay. “This made me see FHSU in a new light, which ultimately persuaded me to choose FHSU – and I am so grateful I did,” Leea said.Leea's college journey began as an exploratory major. Her advisor guided her through various majors and career paths through major and personality inventories, and to her surprise, Leadership Studies emerged as a top match. Initially unfamiliar with the concept, she took a leap of faith and chose this major, a decision she's immensely grateful she made.“I truly feel I have found my calling. Being a leadership major, you are taught different ways to interact with groups and teams, as well as teaching followers effective ways to interact with people from different cultures, backgrounds, and other factors that differ from yours,” Leea said. “I am so excited to take the skills I have learned from the leadership program and put them into practice!”As a student worker in the Department of Social Work, Leea was not only an invaluable member of the administrative team, she was also a driving force in planning the department’s signature event, the 49th Annual National Institute on Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas. This year’s conference, “On the Road to Thriving Rural Communities," underscored the significance of diversity in rural areas and provided the participants with crucial professional development opportunities and resources.Leea’s contributions earned accolades from mentors and colleagues alike. Her efforts in carefully planning this prestigious event are a testament to her leadership, organizational skills, and plain hard work. From coordinating hotel reservations, managing communications with vendors and presenters, and overseeing the event schedule, her work earned high praise from presenters who were eager to meet Leea.In fact, I first learned about Leea through a glowing letter from a social worker who has attended the conference for years. Impressed by her dedication, he penned a two-page letter, prompting me to delve deeper into her story.For Leea, the conference is the pinnacle of her academic journey, symbolizing a chance to make a meaningful impact on the social work and human services professional communities. She has collaborated tirelessly with faculty and stakeholders while balancing a full summer schedule with online classes and working a part-time job. Leea’s future may include working in human resources or event planning.Grateful for the support and mentorship from the social work faculty at FHSU, Leea acknowledges their significant role in shaping her journey, boosting her confidence, and instilling in her a drive to make a global impact. As she readies herself to embark on a new chapter post-graduation, Leea is well-equipped with the skills and experiences necessary for a bright and impactful future.Her cancer journey has fueled her zest for life and her relentless pursuit of her passions. In her downtime, Leea loves spending time with her friends and family and has recently taken up pickleball.Leea’s journey epitomizes resilience, dedication, and the pursuit of one’s passions. She embodies the spirit of Fort Hays State University and serves as a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work and determination. Her story is about surviving, thriving, overcoming obstacles, and achieving greatness. Leea Smarsh is an inspiration and a testament to what dedication and hard work can accomplish.

Heart of a Tiger: Meet Leea Smarsh, a survivor who has learned to thrive at FHSU

By MELISSA HARVEY KCARE Communications

MANHATTAN — Over 43 million people nationwide depend on private wells for drinking water. Kansas follows that trend, with more than 151,000 people sourcing drinking water from domestic private wells, according to the Kansas Geological Survey. Most citizens tout their well water as fresher and cleaner than chemically treated water from municipal water systems.

However, thinking your well water tastes better is very different than knowing your water is safe for consumption, according to Stacie Minson, an extension watershed specialist with the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE) at Kansas State University.

She recently spearheaded a program for residents called&nbsp;Know Your Water.&nbsp;It’s a new partnership funded by K-State 105 and involves several K-State departments, Fort Hays State University, the City of Hays and the Ellis County Environmental Office. 

This spring, the team provided residents with direct mailings on how to schedule private well testing and, in some cases, offered that testing free of charge.

“It’s important for people to know about the water they use – where it comes from, where it goes, and is it safe.&nbsp;The more they learn, the more they understand how precious water truly is,” said project partner Holly Dickman, water conservation specialist for Hays.

Minson said that the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act doesn’t regulate private wells, and they aren’t subject to the same monitoring and testing as public water. This can sometimes lead to people’s misconception that their water is safe. However, some private wells are contaminated by improperly disposed chemicals, animal wastes, pesticides, and more. 

Minson said that poorly located wells, inadequate construction or delayed well maintenance can also contribute to contamination.

“That’s where Know Your Water comes in. It’s here to remind residents that they are responsible for all the quality and safety aspects of their well water, and then to provide important and accessible instructions on how to do just that,” she said.

In addition to testing private wells, the team offered residents in specific areas the opportunity to complete an irrigation system audit, in order to promote more efficient water use.

“Undergoing an irrigation audit was eye-opening. It transformed how I view watering: from a routine task to a precise science. This helped us ensure our landscape thrives while using the water in the most efficient way possible,” said Trevor Giebler, a Hays resident who took part in the program.

As part of their outreach, the Know Your Water team updated several water quality publications that are now available free of charge.

They distributed more than 30,000 copies of the publications to residents of Ellis, Norton, Graham, Sheridan and Decatur counties. In addition, all 105 K-State Research and Extension offices received printed copies of the publications along with communication materials to help agents spread the word in their communities.

So far, the program has received about 100 responses for well testing and irrigation system audits, and Dickman hopes the team’s education and awareness efforts will lead to improved water resource resilience for many.

“The Know Your Water project gives us one more avenue to raise awareness and educate people of all ages about water,” she said.

K-State 105 is a university initiative to support comprehensive economic growth and advancement solutions in each of the 105 counties of Kansas. According to the university, K-State 105 leverages the statewide KSRE network to deliver knowledge and solution-driven innovation to every Kansan, right where they live and work. Learn more about K-State 105 at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.k-state.edu/105/" target="_blank">k-state.edu/105</a>.

Stacie Edgett-Minson, Kansas State University

Stacie Edgett-Minson&nbsp;has been a&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.kcare.k-state.edu/wrip/watershed_specialists/watershed*20specialists.html__;JQ!!Mak6IKo!LYLa05_Di9-HHet2trXvRQRHouzUBOLThmUItqVfGsQhWcVv-LZcHcnQYM2eohqSBK7Cj8gcD373JC3wDw$" target="_blank">KCARE extension watershed specialist</a>&nbsp;since 2003. Stacie developed the EPA-approved 9-Element plan for her watershed, and today her work centers around implementing the goals and practices from the plan to address water quality issues and TMDLs in the&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.kcare.k-state.edu/wrip/wraps/big-creek-and-middle-smoky-hill-watersheds/index.html__;!!Mak6IKo!LYLa05_Di9-HHet2trXvRQRHouzUBOLThmUItqVfGsQhWcVv-LZcHcnQYM2eohqSBK7Cj8gcD36l4M_KPQ$" target="_blank">2,400 square mile watershed</a>&nbsp;that drains into the Kanopolis Reservoir. In partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Stacie collaborates with local landowners to install BMPs to reduce TMDLs in corridors along Big Creek and the Smoky Hill River.

Stacie also works to encourage farmers and ranchers to participate in two state of Kansas programs targeted towards the watershed.&nbsp;The Drinking Water Protection Incentive Program (DWPIP) focuses on soil health practices including cover crop within a 2-mile radius of the City of Kanopolis.&nbsp;The Kansas Reservoir Protection Initiative (KRPI) offers financial assistance to farmers and ranchers to install sediment reducing practices within the riparian corridor of targeted watersheds across the state of Kansas.

This article was republished with permission from the <a href="https://northcentralwater.org/new-kansas-state-university-partnership-works-to-help-locals-know-their-water/">North Central Region Water Network</a>,&nbsp;University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719605044014.png" alt="Well testing. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Well testing. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By MELISSA HARVEY KCARE CommunicationsMANHATTAN — Over 43 million people nationwide depend on private wells for drinking water. Kansas follows that trend, with more than 151,000 people sourcing drinking water from domestic private wells, according to the Kansas Geological Survey. Most citizens tout their well water as fresher and cleaner than chemically treated water from municipal water systems.However, thinking your well water tastes better is very different than knowing your water is safe for consumption, according to Stacie Minson, an extension watershed specialist with the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE) at Kansas State University.She recently spearheaded a program for residents called&nbsp;Know Your Water.&nbsp;It’s a new partnership funded by K-State 105 and involves several K-State departments, Fort Hays State University, the City of Hays and the Ellis County Environmental Office. This spring, the team provided residents with direct mailings on how to schedule private well testing and, in some cases, offered that testing free of charge.“It’s important for people to know about the water they use – where it comes from, where it goes, and is it safe.&nbsp;The more they learn, the more they understand how precious water truly is,” said project partner Holly Dickman, water conservation specialist for Hays.Minson said that the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act doesn’t regulate private wells, and they aren’t subject to the same monitoring and testing as public water. This can sometimes lead to people’s misconception that their water is safe. However, some private wells are contaminated by improperly disposed chemicals, animal wastes, pesticides, and more. Minson said that poorly located wells, inadequate construction or delayed well maintenance can also contribute to contamination.“That’s where Know Your Water comes in. It’s here to remind residents that they are responsible for all the quality and safety aspects of their well water, and then to provide important and accessible instructions on how to do just that,” she said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719604966950.jpeg" alt="Irrigation audit at a home in Hays. Photo by Stacie Minson&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Irrigation audit at a home in Hays. Photo by Stacie Minson&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>In addition to testing private wells, the team offered residents in specific areas the opportunity to complete an irrigation system audit, in order to promote more efficient water use.“Undergoing an irrigation audit was eye-opening. It transformed how I view watering: from a routine task to a precise science. This helped us ensure our landscape thrives while using the water in the most efficient way possible,” said Trevor Giebler, a Hays resident who took part in the program.As part of their outreach, the Know Your Water team updated several water quality publications that are now available free of charge.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719604726616.jpeg" alt="Know Your Water project. Photo by Stacie Minson" />
 <figcaption>Know Your Water project. Photo by Stacie Minson</figcaption>
 </figure>They distributed more than 30,000 copies of the publications to residents of Ellis, Norton, Graham, Sheridan and Decatur counties. In addition, all 105 K-State Research and Extension offices received printed copies of the publications along with communication materials to help agents spread the word in their communities.So far, the program has received about 100 responses for well testing and irrigation system audits, and Dickman hopes the team’s education and awareness efforts will lead to improved water resource resilience for many.“The Know Your Water project gives us one more avenue to raise awareness and educate people of all ages about water,” she said.K-State 105 is a university initiative to support comprehensive economic growth and advancement solutions in each of the 105 counties of Kansas. According to the university, K-State 105 leverages the statewide KSRE network to deliver knowledge and solution-driven innovation to every Kansan, right where they live and work. Learn more about K-State 105 at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.k-state.edu/105/" target="_blank">k-state.edu/105</a>.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719604871233.jpeg" alt="Stacie Minson. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Stacie Minson. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Stacie Edgett-Minson, Kansas State University</h2>Stacie Edgett-Minson&nbsp;has been a&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.kcare.k-state.edu/wrip/watershed_specialists/watershed*20specialists.html__;JQ!!Mak6IKo!LYLa05_Di9-HHet2trXvRQRHouzUBOLThmUItqVfGsQhWcVv-LZcHcnQYM2eohqSBK7Cj8gcD373JC3wDw$" target="_blank">KCARE extension watershed specialist</a>&nbsp;since 2003. Stacie developed the EPA-approved 9-Element plan for her watershed, and today her work centers around implementing the goals and practices from the plan to address water quality issues and TMDLs in the&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.kcare.k-state.edu/wrip/wraps/big-creek-and-middle-smoky-hill-watersheds/index.html__;!!Mak6IKo!LYLa05_Di9-HHet2trXvRQRHouzUBOLThmUItqVfGsQhWcVv-LZcHcnQYM2eohqSBK7Cj8gcD36l4M_KPQ$" target="_blank">2,400 square mile watershed</a>&nbsp;that drains into the Kanopolis Reservoir. In partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Stacie collaborates with local landowners to install BMPs to reduce TMDLs in corridors along Big Creek and the Smoky Hill River.Stacie also works to encourage farmers and ranchers to participate in two state of Kansas programs targeted towards the watershed.&nbsp;The Drinking Water Protection Incentive Program (DWPIP) focuses on soil health practices including cover crop within a 2-mile radius of the City of Kanopolis.&nbsp;The Kansas Reservoir Protection Initiative (KRPI) offers financial assistance to farmers and ranchers to install sediment reducing practices within the riparian corridor of targeted watersheds across the state of Kansas.This article was republished with permission from the <a href="https://northcentralwater.org/new-kansas-state-university-partnership-works-to-help-locals-know-their-water/">North Central Region Water Network</a>,&nbsp;University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.

Residents 'know their water' through KSU, FHSU, Hays, Ellis County partnership 

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 </figure><a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/state-farm-weather-window">For a full look at the weather forecast, click here.</a>

RUSSELL COUNTY—A Kansas man died in the storm that rolled through Russell County late Wednesday.

Just before midnight, Russell County dispatch received numerous 911 calls reporting multiple campers at Lake Wilson blown over, according to a statement from Russell County Sheriff Andrew L. VanDerWege.

Christopher Montoya, 64, Hollyrood, was found dead in the Hell Creek area of the park.&nbsp;Three others were hospitalized for treatment of injuries.

Montoya was transported to a local mortuary. An autopsy is scheduled later Thursday to determine the cause of death, according to the sheriff's office.

Cleanup at the park was under way on Thursday morning. The Russell County Sheriff’s Office urged caution for those traveling to the lake because debris might still be present on the roads and in the water. Power was temporarily interrupted in the area due to the storm.

Those who need help getting campers, boats or other property and equipment recovered should call 911. The Russell County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and the Army Corps of Engineers will assist.

The Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Wildlife and Parks, Russell County EMS, Lucas Fire Department, Dorrance Fire Department and the Army Corps of Engineers all assisted Wednesday night and early Thursday.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720130724760.png" alt="Storm damage at Wilson Lake photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Storm damage at Wilson Lake photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>RUSSELL COUNTY—A Kansas man died in the storm that rolled through Russell County late Wednesday.Just before midnight, Russell County dispatch received numerous 911 calls reporting multiple campers at Lake Wilson blown over, according to a statement from Russell County Sheriff Andrew L. VanDerWege.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">UPDATE: Those in and around WILSON LAKE, a storm is quickly approaching from the west and will likely produce 60 mph winds and penny sized hail! Seek shelter now! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kswx?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#kswx</a>&mdash; NWS Wichita (@NWSWichita) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSWichita/status/1808715703828230452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Christopher Montoya, 64, Hollyrood, was found dead in the Hell Creek area of the park.&nbsp;Three others were hospitalized for treatment of injuries.Montoya was transported to a local mortuary. An autopsy is scheduled later Thursday to determine the cause of death, according to the sheriff's office.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720130786212.png" alt="Storm damage at Wilson Lake photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Storm damage at Wilson Lake photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>Cleanup at the park was under way on Thursday morning. The Russell County Sheriff’s Office urged caution for those traveling to the lake because debris might still be present on the roads and in the water. Power was temporarily interrupted in the area due to the storm.Those who need help getting campers, boats or other property and equipment recovered should call 911. The Russell County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and the Army Corps of Engineers will assist.The Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Wildlife and Parks, Russell County EMS, Lucas Fire Department, Dorrance Fire Department and the Army Corps of Engineers all assisted Wednesday night and early Thursday.&nbsp;

Kansas man dead, 3 hospitalized after storm at Wilson Lake

July is a special month for many Americans. Most of us will eagerly take a break from our busy summer schedules to celebrate Independence Day once again. There will be much fanfare with fireworks, parades, picnics and other patriotic events. But when the festivities have ended, only a few will have reflected upon the true meaning of independence and the role it has played in shaping our nation’s character.

Freedom and independence are cornerstones in the foundation of our country’s heritage. The independent ideology of the American people is a fundamental element of our society and a key to our nation’s prosperity. We must protect that independence at all costs.

One important freedom we must protect is our free enterprise system. American business was founded upon the ideology of independence and free-market principles. Those principles allow business to be governed by the laws of supply and demand without government interference and excessive regulation. The dynamic free market has led to innovation and wealth creation and has established an economic environment where hard work is rewarded.

But now, it seems free-market capitalism and independence are under attack. Over the past four years, the Biden Administration has tried to shift energy policy away from fossil fuels and some expected this thinking to be the wave of the future. But, that kind of thinking is a threat to economic development in the U.S. and around the world.

When policy signals prevent energy leadership here at home, there are going to be consequences. Using well-worn talking points, Democrats are trying to deflect criticism that their party’s policies are to blame for rising gasoline prices. We now see a drumbeat of efforts from Democrats to blame higher gasoline prices at the pump on the actions of the fossil fuel industry — not Biden administration environmental policies.

At a time of persistent inflation and geopolitical instability, the American people need more affordable energy and less political gamesmanship. Reliable, affordable energy policy will support American families and businesses in the fight against inflation. Yet misguided policies and heavy-handed regulations, particularly over the past four years, threaten to undermine our existing energy advantage, potentially increasing costs and jeopardizing a key pillar of American leadership. Our current national energy policy is based on insufficient information and a lack of perspective.

Ahead of the 2024 elections, presidential candidates, as well as policymakers and candidates on both sides of the aisle, can support leveraging America’s energy resources to help protect consumers and cement U.S. energy leadership. 

I encourage policymakers and candidates to support actions to secure American energy leadership, protect consumers, and help reduce inflation. Such actions include supporting policies that protect consumer choice, restore the role of American energy in bolstering our geopolitical strength, leverage our abundant natural resources, reform the regulatory policies that increase certainty and unleash private investment, and advance sensible tax policy.

In his 1946 Independence Day speech, John F. Kennedy said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Those words were never so true. Being mindful of the erosion of our independence and free-market system through excessive regulation and government interference cannot be over emphasized. We must, now more than ever, remain steadfast in our resolve to protect and preserve the precious independence that has molded our nation’s character.

Ed Cross Kansas Independent Oil &amp; Gas Association&nbsp;President

July is a special month for many Americans. Most of us will eagerly take a break from our busy summer schedules to celebrate Independence Day once again. There will be much fanfare with fireworks, parades, picnics and other patriotic events. But when the festivities have ended, only a few will have reflected upon the true meaning of independence and the role it has played in shaping our nation’s character.Freedom and independence are cornerstones in the foundation of our country’s heritage. The independent ideology of the American people is a fundamental element of our society and a key to our nation’s prosperity. We must protect that independence at all costs.One important freedom we must protect is our free enterprise system. American business was founded upon the ideology of independence and free-market principles. Those principles allow business to be governed by the laws of supply and demand without government interference and excessive regulation. The dynamic free market has led to innovation and wealth creation and has established an economic environment where hard work is rewarded.But now, it seems free-market capitalism and independence are under attack. Over the past four years, the Biden Administration has tried to shift energy policy away from fossil fuels and some expected this thinking to be the wave of the future. But, that kind of thinking is a threat to economic development in the U.S. and around the world.When policy signals prevent energy leadership here at home, there are going to be consequences. Using well-worn talking points, Democrats are trying to deflect criticism that their party’s policies are to blame for rising gasoline prices. We now see a drumbeat of efforts from Democrats to blame higher gasoline prices at the pump on the actions of the fossil fuel industry — not Biden administration environmental policies.At a time of persistent inflation and geopolitical instability, the American people need more affordable energy and less political gamesmanship. Reliable, affordable energy policy will support American families and businesses in the fight against inflation. Yet misguided policies and heavy-handed regulations, particularly over the past four years, threaten to undermine our existing energy advantage, potentially increasing costs and jeopardizing a key pillar of American leadership. Our current national energy policy is based on insufficient information and a lack of perspective.Ahead of the 2024 elections, presidential candidates, as well as policymakers and candidates on both sides of the aisle, can support leveraging America’s energy resources to help protect consumers and cement U.S. energy leadership. I encourage policymakers and candidates to support actions to secure American energy leadership, protect consumers, and help reduce inflation. Such actions include supporting policies that protect consumer choice, restore the role of American energy in bolstering our geopolitical strength, leverage our abundant natural resources, reform the regulatory policies that increase certainty and unleash private investment, and advance sensible tax policy.In his 1946 Independence Day speech, John F. Kennedy said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Those words were never so true. Being mindful of the erosion of our independence and free-market system through excessive regulation and government interference cannot be over emphasized. We must, now more than ever, remain steadfast in our resolve to protect and preserve the precious independence that has molded our nation’s character.Ed Cross Kansas Independent Oil &amp; Gas Association&nbsp;President

LETTER: Protecting U.S. energy independence

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Wild West Festival Day 1: Nate Smith

TOPEKA - It’s a sign of the season – political campaigning and the posting of campaign signs. The Kansas Department of Transportation reminds the public that all political campaign signs or billboards are prohibited from being placed on state highway right of way.

By law, all right of way on state highways is exclusively for public highway purposes. Only regulatory, guide signs and warning signs placed by KDOT are allowed on the 9,500-mile state highway system. KDOT has jurisdiction over all interstate, Kansas and U.S. routes.

When KDOT maintenance crews find political signs on state highway right of way, the signs will be removed immediately and without notice. All such signs will then be taken to the closest KDOT Subarea office. Political campaign signs not retrieved from the Subarea offices will be disposed of after the election.

Political campaign advertising is allowed on private property bordering state right of way. However, people placing or erecting signs on private property must first obtain permission from the property owner.

A state law passed in 2015 related to placement of campaign signs on city- or county-owned right of way does not apply to state highway right of way. Persons placing signs on city street or county road right of way should consult the local jurisdiction on any rules.

SubmittedTOPEKA - It’s a sign of the season – political campaigning and the posting of campaign signs. The Kansas Department of Transportation reminds the public that all political campaign signs or billboards are prohibited from being placed on state highway right of way.By law, all right of way on state highways is exclusively for public highway purposes. Only regulatory, guide signs and warning signs placed by KDOT are allowed on the 9,500-mile state highway system. KDOT has jurisdiction over all interstate, Kansas and U.S. routes.When KDOT maintenance crews find political signs on state highway right of way, the signs will be removed immediately and without notice. All such signs will then be taken to the closest KDOT Subarea office. Political campaign signs not retrieved from the Subarea offices will be disposed of after the election.Political campaign advertising is allowed on private property bordering state right of way. However, people placing or erecting signs on private property must first obtain permission from the property owner.A state law passed in 2015 related to placement of campaign signs on city- or county-owned right of way does not apply to state highway right of way. Persons placing signs on city street or county road right of way should consult the local jurisdiction on any rules.

Political signs not allowed on highway right of way

EDWARDSVILLE –&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly and Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed today announced that $8.6 million will be awarded to 14 transportation construction projects through the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Cost Share Program for spring 2024.

“These new Cost Share projects will repair and modernize transportation infrastructure in communities across Kansas,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said.&nbsp;“Collaboration on these selected projects address short-term challenges to bring long-term solutions to the places Kansans call home.”

Governor Kelly lauded the 104th Street sidewalk expansion in the City of Edwardsville as a prime example of how a Cost Share project can benefit a community. Enhancements to the city’s pedestrian facilities will fill the largest gap in pedestrian access between K-32 and the elementary school and encourage safe non-motorized access to school and recreational activities.

With today’s announcement, more than $260 million has been invested to support the 179 projects selected in the Cost Share Program since it began in the fall of 2019. Combining more than $146 million in state funding with more than $115 million in matching local funds has been a substantial boost to Kansas communities.

“Kansans understand the value of partnerships,”&nbsp;Kansas Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed said. “The Cost Share Program provides the opportunity for partnership between KDOT and communities to solve local transportation issues through shared investment. Addressing these infrastructure projects enables solutions that will help these communities and residents keep moving forward for generations.”

Both rural and urban areas can submit transportation projects that improve safety, support job retention and growth, relieve congestion, and improve access and mobility. The program is part of the Kelly administration’s 10-year, bipartisan Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program, or IKE.

Click&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDEsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vY29udGVudC5nb3ZkZWxpdmVyeS5jb20vYXR0YWNobWVudHMvS1NPRy8yMDI0LzA2LzI3L2ZpbGVfYXR0YWNobWVudHMvMjkyMTE4Mi9TcHJpbmclMjAyMDI0JTIwQ29zdCUyMFNoYXJlJTIwUHJvamVjdCUyME1hcCUyMC5wZGYiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjQwNjI3Ljk2ODY1OTcxIn0.k_WWoRGDRZdh8TjlHDdbLbXVNFkuavQxz_be2zwruic/s/1303179659/br/244909240592-l">here</a>&nbsp;to view a map of the 14 Cost Share Program projects announced today. These projects are also listed below:

More information about KDOT’s Cost Share Program is on KDOT’s website at&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDIsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmtzZG90Lm9yZy9Db3N0U2hhcmUvQ29zdFNoYXJlUHJvZ3JhbS5hc3AiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjQwNjI3Ljk2ODY1OTcxIn0.PUX60bWzSmbwQqfPnR4qggs5Pjpna89cizj-D0WxKx0/s/1303179659/br/244909240592-l">https://www.ksdot.org/CostShare/CostShareProgram.asp</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/11/1701368603184.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>EDWARDSVILLE –&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly and Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed today announced that $8.6 million will be awarded to 14 transportation construction projects through the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Cost Share Program for spring 2024.“These new Cost Share projects will repair and modernize transportation infrastructure in communities across Kansas,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said.&nbsp;“Collaboration on these selected projects address short-term challenges to bring long-term solutions to the places Kansans call home.”Governor Kelly lauded the 104th Street sidewalk expansion in the City of Edwardsville as a prime example of how a Cost Share project can benefit a community. Enhancements to the city’s pedestrian facilities will fill the largest gap in pedestrian access between K-32 and the elementary school and encourage safe non-motorized access to school and recreational activities.With today’s announcement, more than $260 million has been invested to support the 179 projects selected in the Cost Share Program since it began in the fall of 2019. Combining more than $146 million in state funding with more than $115 million in matching local funds has been a substantial boost to Kansas communities.“Kansans understand the value of partnerships,”&nbsp;Kansas Transportation Secretary Calvin Reed said. “The Cost Share Program provides the opportunity for partnership between KDOT and communities to solve local transportation issues through shared investment. Addressing these infrastructure projects enables solutions that will help these communities and residents keep moving forward for generations.”Both rural and urban areas can submit transportation projects that improve safety, support job retention and growth, relieve congestion, and improve access and mobility. The program is part of the Kelly administration’s 10-year, bipartisan Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program, or IKE.Click&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDEsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vY29udGVudC5nb3ZkZWxpdmVyeS5jb20vYXR0YWNobWVudHMvS1NPRy8yMDI0LzA2LzI3L2ZpbGVfYXR0YWNobWVudHMvMjkyMTE4Mi9TcHJpbmclMjAyMDI0JTIwQ29zdCUyMFNoYXJlJTIwUHJvamVjdCUyME1hcCUyMC5wZGYiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjQwNjI3Ljk2ODY1OTcxIn0.k_WWoRGDRZdh8TjlHDdbLbXVNFkuavQxz_be2zwruic/s/1303179659/br/244909240592-l">here</a>&nbsp;to view a map of the 14 Cost Share Program projects announced today. These projects are also listed below:<ul>
 <li>City of Baxter Springs&nbsp;– Bagcraft Boulevard improvements.</li><li>City of Edwardsville&nbsp;– 104th&nbsp;Street sidewalk expansion.</li><li>City of Fort Scott&nbsp;– East National Avenue project.</li><li>City of Hesston&nbsp;– East-west community connection.</li><li>City of Hoisington&nbsp;– Green and Vine Street resurfacing and pedestrian improvements.</li><li>City of Inman&nbsp;– Street improvements for Nikkel Addition.</li><li>City of Norton&nbsp;– Oliver Lane and Franklin Avenue paving project.</li><li>City of Sabetha&nbsp;– Kansas Road and 14th Street surfacing.</li><li>City of St. John&nbsp;– St. John Street improvements.</li><li>City of Wamego&nbsp;– Kaw Valley Road improvements.</li><li>Cloud County&nbsp;– Noble Road pavement preservation project.</li><li>Lane County&nbsp;– Airport runway and county road improvements.</li><li>Seward County&nbsp;– Meade Lake Road HMA overlay.</li><li>Wallace County&nbsp;– Smoky Hill River low water crossings project.</li>
 </ul>More information about KDOT’s Cost Share Program is on KDOT’s website at&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDIsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmtzZG90Lm9yZy9Db3N0U2hhcmUvQ29zdFNoYXJlUHJvZ3JhbS5hc3AiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjQwNjI3Ljk2ODY1OTcxIn0.PUX60bWzSmbwQqfPnR4qggs5Pjpna89cizj-D0WxKx0/s/1303179659/br/244909240592-l">https://www.ksdot.org/CostShare/CostShareProgram.asp</a>.

Governor Kelly announces $8.6 Million awarded to cost share program projects

Regular readers know we love our yard’s inhabitants. Our robins, orioles, finches, sparrows, and kingbirds both western and eastern fascinate us. Like proud grandparents, we ooh and aah over nesting parents and their fledglings. This year, we’ve enjoyed western kingbirds raising young in our mulberry tree. Unfortunately, a young squirrel who’s made our seed stations, bird baths, and shady ash tree his restaurant, libation source, and climbing gym finds them aggravating.

Living at the edge of town, we don’t encourage coyotes, foxes, deer, or other wildlife to roam through the yard. However, we do welcome a cottontail who lives under our shed, a frisky teenage squirrel, and birds both local and passers-through to stop at feeders and waterers. That frisky tree-climber tickles our funny bones with his silly antics and photogenic poses.

Our before supper ritual requires sitting on the deck watching critters and laughing at their antics. No one takes a splashy bath better than a robin. As much as I wish grackles chose other yards to call home, their attitudinal chest puffing grows on me--like watching a bird version of WWE wrestling. House finches delight us with polite feeding and gentle social graces. Orioles can’t help but brighten anyone’s day when males show up in brilliant orange and black tuxedos accompanied by mates wearing drab browns and pale yellows to feast on garden insects. But the ones that make you catch your breath and squeal at acrobatic dives and swift in-air snagging and eating of flying insects are king birds. Making life more exciting, these territorial wonders attack anything that dares come within 20 feet of their nest. Our little squirrel could tell more than one story about their dastardly dives on trespassers.

We had no idea the king birds would nest where they did nor did we know a squirrel would make itself welcome in our yard, so earlier in the spring my husband secured a corn feeder to our locust tree to tempt passing bushytails.

Though we’ve watched both western and eastern kingbirds arrive in April, we didn’t observe nest building behavior. Each year, they feast on insects flying over the farm field behind us and over our garden, but they’ve never selected our tree as their nursery. This year we won the backyard fun lottery, getting a kingbird nest in the mulberry tree next to the locust that hosts our squirrel feeder.

That poor squirrel. He’d love to dig into those golden kernels of tasty carbs, but the king birds ferociously attack before he ever arrives at the locust tree base. From the moment those tyrants of the sky spy him closing on his target, they put a bull’s-eye on him. Functioning like heat-seeking missiles, they dive close enough they mess up his fur. If he’s wily enough to make it to the trunk and start climbing, they quintuple their efforts.

I stood at the kitchen window one morning, sipping my morning brew and cheering that squirrel on. If he could make it to the jar feeder, he could crawl in its hole, feast as long as he wanted out of those tenacious warriors’ reach, and then leap out and race away to escape their wrath.

Despite my encouragement from inside the house, the tree rat gave up before reaching his goal and scampered off full-throttle with two nattering kingbirds literally on his tail. I hope he keeps trying.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719619563025.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By KAREN MADORINRegular readers know we love our yard’s inhabitants. Our robins, orioles, finches, sparrows, and kingbirds both western and eastern fascinate us. Like proud grandparents, we ooh and aah over nesting parents and their fledglings. This year, we’ve enjoyed western kingbirds raising young in our mulberry tree. Unfortunately, a young squirrel who’s made our seed stations, bird baths, and shady ash tree his restaurant, libation source, and climbing gym finds them aggravating.Living at the edge of town, we don’t encourage coyotes, foxes, deer, or other wildlife to roam through the yard. However, we do welcome a cottontail who lives under our shed, a frisky teenage squirrel, and birds both local and passers-through to stop at feeders and waterers. That frisky tree-climber tickles our funny bones with his silly antics and photogenic poses.Our before supper ritual requires sitting on the deck watching critters and laughing at their antics. No one takes a splashy bath better than a robin. As much as I wish grackles chose other yards to call home, their attitudinal chest puffing grows on me--like watching a bird version of WWE wrestling. House finches delight us with polite feeding and gentle social graces. Orioles can’t help but brighten anyone’s day when males show up in brilliant orange and black tuxedos accompanied by mates wearing drab browns and pale yellows to feast on garden insects. But the ones that make you catch your breath and squeal at acrobatic dives and swift in-air snagging and eating of flying insects are king birds. Making life more exciting, these territorial wonders attack anything that dares come within 20 feet of their nest. Our little squirrel could tell more than one story about their dastardly dives on trespassers.We had no idea the king birds would nest where they did nor did we know a squirrel would make itself welcome in our yard, so earlier in the spring my husband secured a corn feeder to our locust tree to tempt passing bushytails.Though we’ve watched both western and eastern kingbirds arrive in April, we didn’t observe nest building behavior. Each year, they feast on insects flying over the farm field behind us and over our garden, but they’ve never selected our tree as their nursery. This year we won the backyard fun lottery, getting a kingbird nest in the mulberry tree next to the locust that hosts our squirrel feeder.That poor squirrel. He’d love to dig into those golden kernels of tasty carbs, but the king birds ferociously attack before he ever arrives at the locust tree base. From the moment those tyrants of the sky spy him closing on his target, they put a bull’s-eye on him. Functioning like heat-seeking missiles, they dive close enough they mess up his fur. If he’s wily enough to make it to the trunk and start climbing, they quintuple their efforts.I stood at the kitchen window one morning, sipping my morning brew and cheering that squirrel on. If he could make it to the jar feeder, he could crawl in its hole, feast as long as he wanted out of those tenacious warriors’ reach, and then leap out and race away to escape their wrath.Despite my encouragement from inside the house, the tree rat gave up before reaching his goal and scampered off full-throttle with two nattering kingbirds literally on his tail. I hope he keeps trying.

MADORIN: Sky tyrants

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 </figure><a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/state-farm-weather-window">For a full look at the weather forecast, click here.</a>

Due to the threat of weather later in the evening, the Wild West Festival has made a change to their concert lineup for Wednesday evening.

Due to the threat of weather later in the evening, the Wild West Festival has made a change to their concert lineup for Wednesday evening.

CHANGE TO WWF SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY

Drew Labertew was selected to lead&nbsp;Thomas More Prep-Marian Jr/Sr High activities after the position&nbsp;opened in early June.

“When [outgoing AD] James Harris indicated that he wanted to&nbsp;return to the PE classroom, it created a late opening that required us&nbsp;to seek potential replacements right away,” TMP-M principal Chad&nbsp;Meitner said. “When we quickly garnered strong candidates, I&nbsp;breathed a lot easier. Drew is a rising star that will fit right in as a&nbsp;leader of TMP-M’s proud traditions and programs.”

“I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve as the activities director for TMP-Marian Jr./Sr. High&nbsp;School,” Labertew said. “I am excited to be a part of the Hays community and work with the students,&nbsp;coaches and staff.”

As a full-time AD, Labertew is relatively new to the position; however, his path of preparation goes&nbsp;back to when he was still in high school. 

Labertew assisted and shadowed his high school AD Shane&nbsp;Backhus his junior and senior years. That early experience only increased his desire to help youth&nbsp;through activities.

After one year at Fort Hays State University, Labertew returned home to attend McPherson College&nbsp;and play football. He earned his bachelor of science in sports management from McPherson College while assisting in&nbsp;the Athletic Department.

He reported directly to the director of athletics and assisted in daily&nbsp;operations, including supervision of various athletic activities. His experience with gameday&nbsp;operations and scheduling served him well for his next role at Kansas State University.

At K-State, Labertew was a graduate assistant with the Center for Student Success in the College of&nbsp;Education. He supported academic advisers, recruited prospective students and monitored student&nbsp;performance to ensure they met the curriculum requirements.

At the same time, Labertew completed an internship with the K-State Football Operations office that&nbsp;included managing gameday functions and events. He helped with logistics for rosters and itineraries&nbsp;for away games and led prospective student-athletes when on campus for recruiting visits. He did all of&nbsp;this while earning his master of science in counseling and student development.

“Drew has packed an impressive amount of administrative and leadership experience into his past six years,” Meitner said. “I can’t wait for our students and families to experience his energy.”

“I look forward to continuing to develop and build upon the&nbsp;traditions of the athletic programs, clubs and organizations that are affiliated with TMP-Marian. I can't&nbsp;wait to get started!” he said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720038086726.png" alt="Drew Labertew" />
 <figcaption>Drew Labertew</figcaption>
 </figure>TMPDrew Labertew was selected to lead&nbsp;Thomas More Prep-Marian Jr/Sr High activities after the position&nbsp;opened in early June.“When [outgoing AD] James Harris indicated that he wanted to&nbsp;return to the PE classroom, it created a late opening that required us&nbsp;to seek potential replacements right away,” TMP-M principal Chad&nbsp;Meitner said. “When we quickly garnered strong candidates, I&nbsp;breathed a lot easier. Drew is a rising star that will fit right in as a&nbsp;leader of TMP-M’s proud traditions and programs.”“I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve as the activities director for TMP-Marian Jr./Sr. High&nbsp;School,” Labertew said. “I am excited to be a part of the Hays community and work with the students,&nbsp;coaches and staff.”As a full-time AD, Labertew is relatively new to the position; however, his path of preparation goes&nbsp;back to when he was still in high school. Labertew assisted and shadowed his high school AD Shane&nbsp;Backhus his junior and senior years. That early experience only increased his desire to help youth&nbsp;through activities.After one year at Fort Hays State University, Labertew returned home to attend McPherson College&nbsp;and play football. He earned his bachelor of science in sports management from McPherson College while assisting in&nbsp;the Athletic Department.He reported directly to the director of athletics and assisted in daily&nbsp;operations, including supervision of various athletic activities. His experience with gameday&nbsp;operations and scheduling served him well for his next role at Kansas State University.At K-State, Labertew was a graduate assistant with the Center for Student Success in the College of&nbsp;Education. He supported academic advisers, recruited prospective students and monitored student&nbsp;performance to ensure they met the curriculum requirements.At the same time, Labertew completed an internship with the K-State Football Operations office that&nbsp;included managing gameday functions and events. He helped with logistics for rosters and itineraries&nbsp;for away games and led prospective student-athletes when on campus for recruiting visits. He did all of&nbsp;this while earning his master of science in counseling and student development.“Drew has packed an impressive amount of administrative and leadership experience into his past six years,” Meitner said. “I can’t wait for our students and families to experience his energy.”From all indications, Labertew agrees.“I look forward to continuing to develop and build upon the&nbsp;traditions of the athletic programs, clubs and organizations that are affiliated with TMP-Marian. I can't&nbsp;wait to get started!” he said.Thomas More Prep-Marian is a Catholic school serving grades 7-12. Students&nbsp;come from Hays, the surrounding region, and from countries around the world. The school was&nbsp;founded by the Capuchin Franciscans as Hays Catholic College in 1908 and ultimately became&nbsp;Thomas More Prep-Marian in 1981. The school continues to serve young people in the traditions of&nbsp;spiritual growth, academic excellence and leadership formation.