<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/2025/3/1741109201559.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

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/3/1741011985861.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>

WPAA COLBY — Western Plains Arts Association is excited to have back to western Kansas “After Midnight” from Colorado. Their performance will be held March 16 at 3 p.m. at the Cultural Arts Center on the campus of Colby Community College in Colby.&nbsp;

You will be welcomed to the world of After Midnight, where timeless melodies, innovative arrangements, and soulful rhythms transport you to the golden age of jazz!

Based in the heart of Denver, After Midnight is a collection of seasoned musicians dedicated to delivering captivating performances that celebrate the essence of jazz. With a repertoire spanning classic standards, original compositions, swing, blues, and Latin jazz, this versatile ensemble brings a touch of sophistication and joy to any event.

Admission to this program is by WPAA season ticket or tickets can be purchased at the door.&nbsp; 

This program is made possible through the generosity of area businesses, individual donors, the Thomas County Community Foundation and a grant from the Dane Hansen Foundation.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/3/1741106401815.png" alt="'After Midnight' will perform March 16 in Colby. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>'After Midnight' will perform March 16 in Colby. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WPAA COLBY — Western Plains Arts Association is excited to have back to western Kansas “After Midnight” from Colorado. Their performance will be held March 16 at 3 p.m. at the Cultural Arts Center on the campus of Colby Community College in Colby.&nbsp;You will be welcomed to the world of After Midnight, where timeless melodies, innovative arrangements, and soulful rhythms transport you to the golden age of jazz!Based in the heart of Denver, After Midnight is a collection of seasoned musicians dedicated to delivering captivating performances that celebrate the essence of jazz. With a repertoire spanning classic standards, original compositions, swing, blues, and Latin jazz, this versatile ensemble brings a touch of sophistication and joy to any event.Admission to this program is by WPAA season ticket or tickets can be purchased at the door.&nbsp; This program is made possible through the generosity of area businesses, individual donors, the Thomas County Community Foundation and a grant from the Dane Hansen Foundation.

'After Midnight' to return to northwest Kansas for March 16 performance

By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 school board has a work session scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today at the Rockwell Administration Center.

• Bond cash flow • Hays High School tennis courts • Accreditation action plan 2.0 • State screen time report • K-12 iPads • Special education co-op update • Board elections • Project manager

By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays PostThe Hays USD 489 school board has a work session scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today at the Rockwell Administration Center.The following topics will be discussed:• Bond cash flow • Hays High School tennis courts • Accreditation action plan 2.0 • State screen time report • K-12 iPads • Special education co-op update • Board elections • Project manager

Hays USD 489 sets work session for tonight

By TONY GUERRERO Hays Post

The Ellis County Commission will formally appoint a new Ellis County Health Director during the Ellis County Commission meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Ellis County Health Director Melissa Miller was selected after a search process that involved reviewing multiple applicants. She began working with the health department on Feb. 24.

Kerry McCue has been serving as the part-time health director and assisting Miller. He will continue to provide support until March 13.

The county commission is considering approving road repairs and improvements for 48th Street, Vineyard Road and Commerce Parkway by contracting with Bettis Asphalt &amp; Construction.

The county plans to piggyback off the Kansas Department of Transportation contract for the U.S. Highway 183 mill and overlay project to reduce costs.

Northwest Homeland Security project update

Ellis County is receiving funding from the Northwest Home Security Council for multiple emergency response improvements.

Lyle Pantle, Ellis County emergency manager, will discuss with the commissioners these enhancements to increase the county's emergency response capabilities and preparedness.

The commission is considering approving a bid from APAC Kansas Inc. to produce cold mix asphalt for the 2025 asphalt maintenance plan. The material will be used for road overlays and patching to maintain county roadways.

The Ellis County Road and Bridge Division will request approval to purchase a used 2021 Caterpillar excavator to improve road and drainage maintenance.&nbsp;

The commission will consider a lot split request for land in Hays from Platinum Group owner Adam Pray.

You can view the full agenda <a href="https://www.ellisco.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03042025-658">here</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/5/1684183971486.png" alt="Ellis County" />
 <figcaption>Ellis County</figcaption>
 </figure>By TONY GUERRERO Hays PostThe Ellis County Commission will formally appoint a new Ellis County Health Director during the Ellis County Commission meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.Ellis County Health Director Melissa Miller was selected after a search process that involved reviewing multiple applicants. She began working with the health department on Feb. 24.Kerry McCue has been serving as the part-time health director and assisting Miller. He will continue to provide support until March 13.<h2>Road repairs</h2>The county commission is considering approving road repairs and improvements for 48th Street, Vineyard Road and Commerce Parkway by contracting with Bettis Asphalt &amp; Construction.The county plans to piggyback off the Kansas Department of Transportation contract for the U.S. Highway 183 mill and overlay project to reduce costs.<h2>Northwest Homeland Security project update</h2>Ellis County is receiving funding from the Northwest Home Security Council for multiple emergency response improvements.Lyle Pantle, Ellis County emergency manager, will discuss with the commissioners these enhancements to increase the county's emergency response capabilities and preparedness.<h2>Other business</h2>The commission is considering approving a bid from APAC Kansas Inc. to produce cold mix asphalt for the 2025 asphalt maintenance plan. The material will be used for road overlays and patching to maintain county roadways.The Ellis County Road and Bridge Division will request approval to purchase a used 2021 Caterpillar excavator to improve road and drainage maintenance.&nbsp;The commission will consider a lot split request for land in Hays from Platinum Group owner Adam Pray.You can view the full agenda <a href="https://www.ellisco.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03042025-658">here</a>.

Ellis County Commission to appoint new health director

The Invisalign program from Lifetime Dental Care offers comfort, convenience and confidence while straightening your teeth using trays that are virtually invisible. The Invisalign program Includes office consultation, trays, photos, x-rays, aligners, whitening program and more. Invisalign works great for both adults and teens. Your new smile is waiting. Get started today! www.lifetimedentalcare.com. THIS OFFER NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER SPECIAL OFFER Retail Price: $6,000 Current Bid: $2,000

See other items the Eagle On-Line Auction at Hays Post. Bidding ends Sunday.

If you would like to get in on the action of this year’s online auction, click on the link below.&nbsp;

Dive into a digital treasure trove of savings with the Eagle Radio Online Auction!

<a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/eagle-radio-auction-descriptions-of-items">Click here&nbsp;to get registered, view items and bid.</a>

Bid now on an expansive collection ranging from home essentials to tantalizing restaurant gift cards, and valuable services from esteemed local companies and save.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/3/1742579288311.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Lifetime Dental Care</h2><h2>Invisalign</h2>The Invisalign program from Lifetime Dental Care offers comfort, convenience and confidence while straightening your teeth using trays that are virtually invisible. The Invisalign program Includes office consultation, trays, photos, x-rays, aligners, whitening program and more. Invisalign works great for both adults and teens. Your new smile is waiting. Get started today! www.lifetimedentalcare.com. THIS OFFER NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER SPECIAL OFFER Retail Price: $6,000 Current Bid: $2,000See other items the Eagle On-Line Auction at Hays Post. Bidding ends Sunday. If you would like to get in on the action of this year’s online auction, click on the link below.&nbsp;Dive into a digital treasure trove of savings with the Eagle Radio Online Auction!<a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/eagle-radio-auction-descriptions-of-items">Click here&nbsp;to get registered, view items and bid.</a>Bid now on an expansive collection ranging from home essentials to tantalizing restaurant gift cards, and valuable services from esteemed local companies and save.

Lifetime Dental Invisalign teeth straightening on the Eagle Radio Auction

Ellis County Jail bookings: Feb. 23-March 1, 2025

Ellis County Sheriff's activity log: Feb. 23-March 1, 2025

Reporter Cristina Janney speaks with Beth Hansen and Pam Dreiling about Early Childhood Connections preschool on this episode of the Hays Post Podcast.

<div><iframe title="Post Podcast: Early Childhood Connections - Preschool Program" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:300px;" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?from=embed&i=fzbwx-181ee31-pb&square=1&share=1&download=1&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=auto&rtl=0&logo_link=podcast_page&btn-skin=60a0c8&size=300" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>Reporter Cristina Janney speaks with Beth Hansen and Pam Dreiling about Early Childhood Connections preschool on this episode of the Hays Post Podcast.

🎙 Post Podcast: Enrollment open for Early Childhood Connections preschool

By&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/blaise-mesa/">BLAISE MESA</a> <a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/02/25/kansas-property-tax-where-do-tax-cuts-stand-so-far/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=Free%20stories%20from%20The%20Beacon&amp;utm_campaign=Republishing%20email%2022525">The Beacon</a>

Debbie Detmer has a lot of memories in her house. She’s lived there 40 years and raised three children in it.&nbsp;

Detmer is retired now and lives on a fixed income in Johnson County. She hasn’t done any work on her house, yet she pays more in property taxes each year. The bill is rising so much it’s becoming too much to manage.&nbsp;

Last year, she paid $100 more a month and this year she is paying $50 more a month in property taxes. That’s before her homeowner’s insurance goes up because a more expensive house means more expensive insurance.&nbsp;

Her property taxes are making her choose between paying for taxes or other essentials — compromising her retirement.&nbsp;

“You keep turning the heat down. You keep (it) hotter in the summer,” she said. “You just got to cut back.”&nbsp;

Lawmakers have multiple tax proposals&nbsp;

Kansas lawmakers are trying to ease the property tax burden, but&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/02/21/new-kansas-laws-lawmakers-advance-dozens-of-bills/">halfway through the session</a>&nbsp;it doesn’t look like there’s consensus on how to do so.&nbsp;

Constitutional amendments on property taxes have headlined the tax cut debate so far.

The Senate passed a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/scr1603/">3% cap on valuation increases</a>. Property taxes could increase more than 3% in a year, but the appraised value of a home would be capped at 3% unless it was renovated or qualifies for other exemptions.

The House has a similar proposal that would use a rolling average of a home’s value, likely a six-year rolling average.

Both ideas would need to be approved by voters.&nbsp;

The Senate’s proposal passed with more than a two-thirds majority. But the House hasn’t acted on its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/hcr5011/">valuation cap proposal</a>.&nbsp;

House Committee on Taxation chair Rep. Adam Smith, a Weskan Republican, said these constitutional amendments are gimmicks that don’t provide real relief. He isn’t alone. Some Senate Republicans voted against the 3% cap and almost every Senate Democrat opposed it.&nbsp;

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, said this is California tax policy that shouldn’t come to Kansas.&nbsp;

Senate Democrats have instead proposed&nbsp;<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/sb217/">increasing property tax exemptions</a>&nbsp;from $75,000 to $125,000. Democrats will also get a hearing on a bill expanding “<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/sb215/">the property tax rebate program</a>&nbsp;for seniors and disabled veterans by excluding Social Security payments from the definition of household income and increasing the household income and appraised value thresholds for eligibility related to increased property tax homestead claims.”&nbsp;

Sen. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican, has another idea. He tried to amend the 3% cap during an early February floor debate to tie tax increases with inflation. Property taxes could only rise with the rate of inflation. Taxing bodies could still raise taxes higher than inflation, but that would require voters to approve of the increase.&nbsp;Owens’ amendment failed.&nbsp;

“We certainly cannot predict the actions of the other chamber,” Owens said during the Senate debate. “It is generally assumed that (<a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/scr1603/">this constitutional amendment</a>) is not the final product. If this is not the final product, we want to go in with the strongest position possible on truly giving our taxpayers a tax break.”&nbsp;

Concern about a 3% cap is simple. Capping the appraised value doesn’t stop governing bodies from just raising property taxes anyway. Agricultural associations and business lobbyists also worry that capping residential valuations would then shift more tax burden to farms and businesses.&nbsp;

Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican, is the chair of the Senate Committee on Assessment and Taxation. She is leading the push to pass the constitutional amendment. She disagrees that her 3% cap does nothing. She’s looked back at decades of tax rates and has seen valuations jump. Had the cap been in place, those valuations would not have jumped as high and those homeowners would pay less in property taxes.&nbsp;

The property tax cap also would start based on 2022 home values. That would cap property tax increases before a recent surge in valuations.

Tyson said she’s seen someone’s property tax rise even though they did no work on their house. The price jumped because their neighbor renovated their home. The current system doesn’t work, she said.&nbsp;

“We are not inventing the wheel here,” Tyson said at a past debate. “We have looked to other states to see what to model after.”

For Detmer, the homeowner on a fixed income, property tax relief needs to come soon. She might have to move, and depending where she buys, that could mean moving farther away from her grandchildren.&nbsp;

Property taxes mean cutting back, Detmer said. But she’s annoyed that the county government doesn’t cut back as hard as she does.&nbsp;

“When I bought it, I had no intention of moving,” Detmer said. “I raised my family here. I have no intentions of going anywhere unless (taxes) force me out.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1740674336360.jpeg" alt="Lawmakers may be hashing out how to provide tax relief, but there is bipartisan consensus on the need to address property taxes. Photo by Niko Schmidt / The Beacon" />
 <figcaption>Lawmakers may be hashing out how to provide tax relief, but there is bipartisan consensus on the need to address property taxes. Photo by Niko Schmidt / The Beacon</figcaption>
 </figure>By&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/blaise-mesa/">BLAISE MESA</a> <a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/02/25/kansas-property-tax-where-do-tax-cuts-stand-so-far/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=Free%20stories%20from%20The%20Beacon&amp;utm_campaign=Republishing%20email%2022525">The Beacon</a>Debbie Detmer has a lot of memories in her house. She’s lived there 40 years and raised three children in it.&nbsp;Detmer is retired now and lives on a fixed income in Johnson County. She hasn’t done any work on her house, yet she pays more in property taxes each year. The bill is rising so much it’s becoming too much to manage.&nbsp;Last year, she paid $100 more a month and this year she is paying $50 more a month in property taxes. That’s before her homeowner’s insurance goes up because a more expensive house means more expensive insurance.&nbsp;Her property taxes are making her choose between paying for taxes or other essentials — compromising her retirement.&nbsp;“You keep turning the heat down. You keep (it) hotter in the summer,” she said. “You just got to cut back.”&nbsp;<h2>Lawmakers have multiple tax proposals&nbsp;</h2>Kansas lawmakers are trying to ease the property tax burden, but&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/02/21/new-kansas-laws-lawmakers-advance-dozens-of-bills/">halfway through the session</a>&nbsp;it doesn’t look like there’s consensus on how to do so.&nbsp;Constitutional amendments on property taxes have headlined the tax cut debate so far.The Senate passed a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/scr1603/">3% cap on valuation increases</a>. Property taxes could increase more than 3% in a year, but the appraised value of a home would be capped at 3% unless it was renovated or qualifies for other exemptions.The House has a similar proposal that would use a rolling average of a home’s value, likely a six-year rolling average.Both ideas would need to be approved by voters.&nbsp;The Senate’s proposal passed with more than a two-thirds majority. But the House hasn’t acted on its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/hcr5011/">valuation cap proposal</a>.&nbsp;House Committee on Taxation chair Rep. Adam Smith, a Weskan Republican, said these constitutional amendments are gimmicks that don’t provide real relief. He isn’t alone. Some Senate Republicans voted against the 3% cap and almost every Senate Democrat opposed it.&nbsp;Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, said this is California tax policy that shouldn’t come to Kansas.&nbsp;Senate Democrats have instead proposed&nbsp;<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/sb217/">increasing property tax exemptions</a>&nbsp;from $75,000 to $125,000. Democrats will also get a hearing on a bill expanding “<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/sb215/">the property tax rebate program</a>&nbsp;for seniors and disabled veterans by excluding Social Security payments from the definition of household income and increasing the household income and appraised value thresholds for eligibility related to increased property tax homestead claims.”&nbsp;Sen. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican, has another idea. He tried to amend the 3% cap during an early February floor debate to tie tax increases with inflation. Property taxes could only rise with the rate of inflation. Taxing bodies could still raise taxes higher than inflation, but that would require voters to approve of the increase.&nbsp;Owens’ amendment failed.&nbsp;“We certainly cannot predict the actions of the other chamber,” Owens said during the Senate debate. “It is generally assumed that (<a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/scr1603/">this constitutional amendment</a>) is not the final product. If this is not the final product, we want to go in with the strongest position possible on truly giving our taxpayers a tax break.”&nbsp;<h2>Debate over passed plans</h2>Concern about a 3% cap is simple. Capping the appraised value doesn’t stop governing bodies from just raising property taxes anyway. Agricultural associations and business lobbyists also worry that capping residential valuations would then shift more tax burden to farms and businesses.&nbsp;Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican, is the chair of the Senate Committee on Assessment and Taxation. She is leading the push to pass the constitutional amendment. She disagrees that her 3% cap does nothing. She’s looked back at decades of tax rates and has seen valuations jump. Had the cap been in place, those valuations would not have jumped as high and those homeowners would pay less in property taxes.&nbsp;The property tax cap also would start based on 2022 home values. That would cap property tax increases before a recent surge in valuations.Tyson said she’s seen someone’s property tax rise even though they did no work on their house. The price jumped because their neighbor renovated their home. The current system doesn’t work, she said.&nbsp;“We are not inventing the wheel here,” Tyson said at a past debate. “We have looked to other states to see what to model after.”For Detmer, the homeowner on a fixed income, property tax relief needs to come soon. She might have to move, and depending where she buys, that could mean moving farther away from her grandchildren.&nbsp;Property taxes mean cutting back, Detmer said. But she’s annoyed that the county government doesn’t cut back as hard as she does.&nbsp;“When I bought it, I had no intention of moving,” Detmer said. “I raised my family here. I have no intentions of going anywhere unless (taxes) force me out.”

Kansas lawmakers offer dueling ideas on property tax relief

 The Birth Center at HaysMed, a leader in women’s health services in western Kansas, is proud to announce significant enhancements in its care offerings, focusing on comprehensive support for women throughout their pregnancy journey. 

In 2024, HaysMed’s Labor and Delivery Unit successfully delivered 553 newborns, underscoring the substantial contribution to regional health and the department’s role as a pivotal center for maternal and newborn care in the area.

“Supporting healthy families is at the heart of what we do, and it is a privilege to be trusted by so many mothers and families in our community,” said Dr. Timothy Hoskins, HaysMed. “Prioritizing maternal mental health is essential, as it is a fundamental component of family well-being.”

HaysMed’s commitment extends beyond delivery. In a time where mental health awareness and assistance is on the rise, HaysMed is ahead of the curve, with resources and screenings for pregnant and postnatal women. 

HaysMed has initiated a crucial effort to increase screenings for prenatal and postnatal mental health and mood disorders, which are integral for early identification and support. These screenings are performed during the first prenatal visit at 10 weeks and again between 28-30 weeks. 

This proactive approach ensures that the Birth Center providers can offer timely interventions, including counseling and medication management.

Additionally, HaysMed patients benefit from the Kansas Moms in Mind initiative, which provides crucial support during the woman’s 4th trimester—a critical period after childbirth marked by physical and emotional adjustments.

 Supported by Kansas Connecting Communities and the Kansas Maternal and Child Health, this program enhances the providers’ ability to treat perinatal behavioral health disorders, focusing on conditions like postpartum depression and anxiety. This initiative ensures that new mothers receive comprehensive care and support during this pivotal phase, emphasizing the importance of maternal mental health.

Birth Center and Women’s Services

The Birth Center at HaysMed offers extensive women’s health and OB/GYN services. These include labor and delivery, lactation services, postpartum care, advanced surgical technology, and neonatal intensive&nbsp;care (NICU). Throughout their pregnancy journey, patients have access to wellness and prenatal education, both in-person and online to accommodate local and regional patients, covering topics such as birth, breastfeeding, newborn care, and sibling preparation.

Kalin LaBarge, Labor &amp; Delivery supervisor at HaysMed Birth Center, expressed deep appreciation for the families who choose this facility.

 “We are committed to maintaining our tradition of excellence and dedicated care for both our community and the region for years to come,” she stated. 

The HaysMed Birth Center is proud to have a distinguished team of experts, including Dr. Timothy Hoskins, Paula Bitter, APRN, and Anne Marie Hager, APRN, who bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in maternal and newborn care.

Support for Women’s Entire Health Journey

At HaysMed, supporting women at every stage of their health journey is a top priority.

 The OB/GYN team and Family Medicine department, comprising 14 providers—including physicians, advanced practice providers, and physician assistants—deliver complete reproductive health services and well-woman exams. 

Additionally, the dedicated Breast Care Center at HaysMed is staffed with a specialized radiologist and two breast care surgeons, ensuring timely and effective mammography readings and surgical interventions.

HaysMed remains dedicated to providing a full spectrum of maternal and women’s health services. With a goal to ensure a safe, comfortable, and joyous experience for all patients, supported by the latest in medical technology and the highest standards of care.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/9/1726156192442.jpeg" alt="Photo by Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Photo by Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>HaysMed The Birth Center at HaysMed, a leader in women’s health services in western Kansas, is proud to announce significant enhancements in its care offerings, focusing on comprehensive support for women throughout their pregnancy journey. In 2024, HaysMed’s Labor and Delivery Unit successfully delivered 553 newborns, underscoring the substantial contribution to regional health and the department’s role as a pivotal center for maternal and newborn care in the area.“Supporting healthy families is at the heart of what we do, and it is a privilege to be trusted by so many mothers and families in our community,” said Dr. Timothy Hoskins, HaysMed. “Prioritizing maternal mental health is essential, as it is a fundamental component of family well-being.”Advancing Maternal HealthHaysMed’s commitment extends beyond delivery. In a time where mental health awareness and assistance is on the rise, HaysMed is ahead of the curve, with resources and screenings for pregnant and postnatal women. HaysMed has initiated a crucial effort to increase screenings for prenatal and postnatal mental health and mood disorders, which are integral for early identification and support. These screenings are performed during the first prenatal visit at 10 weeks and again between 28-30 weeks. This proactive approach ensures that the Birth Center providers can offer timely interventions, including counseling and medication management.Additionally, HaysMed patients benefit from the Kansas Moms in Mind initiative, which provides crucial support during the woman’s 4th trimester—a critical period after childbirth marked by physical and emotional adjustments. Supported by Kansas Connecting Communities and the Kansas Maternal and Child Health, this program enhances the providers’ ability to treat perinatal behavioral health disorders, focusing on conditions like postpartum depression and anxiety. This initiative ensures that new mothers receive comprehensive care and support during this pivotal phase, emphasizing the importance of maternal mental health.Birth Center and Women’s ServicesThe Birth Center at HaysMed offers extensive women’s health and OB/GYN services. These include labor and delivery, lactation services, postpartum care, advanced surgical technology, and neonatal intensive&nbsp;care (NICU). Throughout their pregnancy journey, patients have access to wellness and prenatal education, both in-person and online to accommodate local and regional patients, covering topics such as birth, breastfeeding, newborn care, and sibling preparation.Kalin LaBarge, Labor &amp; Delivery supervisor at HaysMed Birth Center, expressed deep appreciation for the families who choose this facility. “We are committed to maintaining our tradition of excellence and dedicated care for both our community and the region for years to come,” she stated. The HaysMed Birth Center is proud to have a distinguished team of experts, including Dr. Timothy Hoskins, Paula Bitter, APRN, and Anne Marie Hager, APRN, who bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in maternal and newborn care.Support for Women’s Entire Health JourneyAt HaysMed, supporting women at every stage of their health journey is a top priority. The OB/GYN team and Family Medicine department, comprising 14 providers—including physicians, advanced practice providers, and physician assistants—deliver complete reproductive health services and well-woman exams. Additionally, the dedicated Breast Care Center at HaysMed is staffed with a specialized radiologist and two breast care surgeons, ensuring timely and effective mammography readings and surgical interventions.HaysMed remains dedicated to providing a full spectrum of maternal and women’s health services. With a goal to ensure a safe, comfortable, and joyous experience for all patients, supported by the latest in medical technology and the highest standards of care.

HaysMed Birth Center enhances maternal health care in western Kansas

TOPEKA — Angie Zimmerman, Hays, the executive director of <a href="https://www.linkinc.org/">Living Independently in Northwest Kansas</a> (LINK), has been appointed to to state councils by Gov. Laura Kelly.

Purpose:&nbsp;To review, analyze, and advise rehabilitation services regarding the performance of the state workforce investment board.

Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas

Purpose:&nbsp;To develop a state plan through external input, ensuring independent living for Kansans, to advocate for the accomplishment of the state plan objectives, to monitor, review, and evaluate the state plan’s implementation, and to be a catalyst for independent living.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1740610933953.png" alt=" " />
 <figcaption> </figcaption>
 </figure>Office of Gov. KellyTOPEKA — Angie Zimmerman, Hays, the executive director of <a href="https://www.linkinc.org/">Living Independently in Northwest Kansas</a> (LINK), has been appointed to to state councils by Gov. Laura Kelly.State Rehabilitation CouncilPurpose:&nbsp;To review, analyze, and advise rehabilitation services regarding the performance of the state workforce investment board.• Angie Zimmerman, Hays&nbsp;Statewide Independent Living Council of KansasPurpose:&nbsp;To develop a state plan through external input, ensuring independent living for Kansans, to advocate for the accomplishment of the state plan objectives, to monitor, review, and evaluate the state plan’s implementation, and to be a catalyst for independent living.• Angie Zimmerman, Hays

Hays woman appointed to two state councils by governor 

By KARISSA WINKEL Cottonwood Extension Agent

Many reactions occur within the body during an attempt to deal with stressors. 

A few short-term effects include increased adrenaline, cortisol production (the stress hormone), and muscle tightness. Chronic stress affects our physical, emotional, and social well-being. Symptoms such as irritability, fatigue, changes to eating habits, or burnout can occur.

There are a variety of side effects depending on stress severity. For example, acute stress lasts no longer than one month and typically occurs before a stressful event such as an interview or performance.

On the other hand, chronic stress often develops after a stressful event, but this type is ongoing and persistent. For example, it can be caused by losing a loved one or struggling with poverty.

Living in a state of stress for an extended amount of time is not healthy in any aspect of well-being. Stress is proven to have severe effects on mental health and the development of chronic illnesses. 

In fact, it is estimated that 90 percent of diseases are stress-related. When chronic stress is present, inflammation throughout the entire body increases. This can interfere with bodily processes and is linked to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disorders.

Life is promised to be overwhelming at times, and stress can be challenging to manage. This is why it is important to have coping strategies readily available, so here are a few techniques to keep in your stress management toolbox:

· Exercise regularly. With any health advice comes the suggestion of physical activity. It’s a lifestyle component that affects the entire body! For stress management, exercise releases mood-boosting hormones and helps you sleep better at night.

· Practice mindfulness. Increasing awareness of worried thoughts and emotions can help you reframe your mindset and help you focus on the big picture. Mindfulness is shown to calm the mind, and those who do it regularly report enhanced emotional regulation and resiliency.

· Try journaling. Instead of letting frantic thoughts overwhelm your mind, jot down all you are worried about. Journaling helps us organize our thoughts and find solutions.

· Use gratitude to fight negative emotions. Research shows that positive physiological changes are triggered by a grateful mindset, which activates the body's relaxation response and lowers stress.

· Seek professional help. If your coping mechanisms aren’t enough, look for guidance. Professionals can help to reduce anxiety through cognitive behavioral therapy. If you are uncertain where to begin, schedule an appointment with your primary care physician or call a local Community Mental Health Center.

Dedicating time to cope with stress is extremely important in today’s world of hustle and bustle. I often remind myself to take a step back, or eventually, I’ll be forced to due to the effects of unmanaged stress. So, pick a strategy or two and see if it makes a difference in your stress level. A few signs include improved sleep, an uplifted mood, and fewer sick days.

Karissa Winkel is the Family and Community Wellness Agent with K-State Research and Extension – Cottonwood District. You may reach her at: 620-793-1910 or krwinkel@ksu.edu.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/10/1697546908793.jpeg" alt="Karissa Winkel,&nbsp;s the Family and Community Wellness Agent with K-State Research and Extension – Cottonwood District. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Karissa Winkel,&nbsp;s the Family and Community Wellness Agent with K-State Research and Extension – Cottonwood District. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By KARISSA WINKEL Cottonwood Extension AgentMany reactions occur within the body during an attempt to deal with stressors. A few short-term effects include increased adrenaline, cortisol production (the stress hormone), and muscle tightness. Chronic stress affects our physical, emotional, and social well-being. Symptoms such as irritability, fatigue, changes to eating habits, or burnout can occur.There are a variety of side effects depending on stress severity. For example, acute stress lasts no longer than one month and typically occurs before a stressful event such as an interview or performance.On the other hand, chronic stress often develops after a stressful event, but this type is ongoing and persistent. For example, it can be caused by losing a loved one or struggling with poverty.Living in a state of stress for an extended amount of time is not healthy in any aspect of well-being. Stress is proven to have severe effects on mental health and the development of chronic illnesses. In fact, it is estimated that 90 percent of diseases are stress-related. When chronic stress is present, inflammation throughout the entire body increases. This can interfere with bodily processes and is linked to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disorders.Life is promised to be overwhelming at times, and stress can be challenging to manage. This is why it is important to have coping strategies readily available, so here are a few techniques to keep in your stress management toolbox:· Exercise regularly. With any health advice comes the suggestion of physical activity. It’s a lifestyle component that affects the entire body! For stress management, exercise releases mood-boosting hormones and helps you sleep better at night.· Practice mindfulness. Increasing awareness of worried thoughts and emotions can help you reframe your mindset and help you focus on the big picture. Mindfulness is shown to calm the mind, and those who do it regularly report enhanced emotional regulation and resiliency.· Try journaling. Instead of letting frantic thoughts overwhelm your mind, jot down all you are worried about. Journaling helps us organize our thoughts and find solutions.· Use gratitude to fight negative emotions. Research shows that positive physiological changes are triggered by a grateful mindset, which activates the body's relaxation response and lowers stress.· Seek professional help. If your coping mechanisms aren’t enough, look for guidance. Professionals can help to reduce anxiety through cognitive behavioral therapy. If you are uncertain where to begin, schedule an appointment with your primary care physician or call a local Community Mental Health Center.Dedicating time to cope with stress is extremely important in today’s world of hustle and bustle. I often remind myself to take a step back, or eventually, I’ll be forced to due to the effects of unmanaged stress. So, pick a strategy or two and see if it makes a difference in your stress level. A few signs include improved sleep, an uplifted mood, and fewer sick days.Karissa Winkel is the Family and Community Wellness Agent with K-State Research and Extension – Cottonwood District. You may reach her at: 620-793-1910 or krwinkel@ksu.edu.&nbsp;

WINKEL: Managing the strain of stress

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1740753755359.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>

LOGAN COUNTY—Many voters across the country are confused, some are angry and are showing up at town hall events to ask what President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing.&nbsp;

Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall hosted a town hall to visit with voters on Saturday morning at the Logan County Hospital,&nbsp;211 Cherry Avenue in Oakley.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Senator answered questions on budget cuts, layoffs and funding freezes from a somewhat hostile crowd and according to a video taken by Colin McRoberts, Marshall left the event before it was finished.

Marshall, who posts more on social media than most members of the United States Senate, has been quiet on the app since Friday.&nbsp; He didn't use social media to promote the town hall in Oakley and asked a staffer to offer a response to those who suggested he left early.

The Senator's web site does not show where Marshall will hold future town hall events.  The Senate is adjourned until 3:00pm on Monday when they will hold a confirmation vote on  Linda  McMahon for Education Secretary.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/3/1740919102880.png" alt="Image from the video by Colin McRoberts went viral" />
 <figcaption>Image from the video by Colin McRoberts went viral</figcaption>
 </figure>LOGAN COUNTY—Many voters across the country are confused, some are angry and are showing up at town hall events to ask what President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing.&nbsp;Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall hosted a town hall to visit with voters on Saturday morning at the Logan County Hospital,&nbsp;211 Cherry Avenue in Oakley.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Senator answered questions on budget cuts, layoffs and funding freezes from a somewhat hostile crowd and according to a video taken by Colin McRoberts, Marshall left the event before it was finished.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">Must watch video: <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RogerMarshallMD</a> stands up and leaves his own town hall meeting today after being asked why Republicans think it’s acceptable for DOGE to be firing Veterans. <a href="https://t.co/ErNJbYPy1Z">pic.twitter.com/ErNJbYPy1Z</a>&mdash; Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1895904839437316595?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Marshall, who posts more on social media than most members of the United States Senate, has been quiet on the app since Friday.&nbsp; He didn't use social media to promote the town hall in Oakley and asked a staffer to offer a response to those who suggested he left early.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Brent Robertson, Chief of Staff to Senator Roger Marshall, released the following statement in response to the town hall hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RogerMarshallMD</a> in Oakley, KS today: <a href="https://t.co/JPQfDLh54N">pic.twitter.com/JPQfDLh54N</a>&mdash; Emily Flower (@_emily_flower) <a href="https://twitter.com/_emily_flower/status/1896043930598412594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The Senator's web site does not show where Marshall will hold future town hall events. The Senate is adjourned until 3:00pm on Monday when they will hold a confirmation vote on Linda McMahon for Education Secretary.

🎥Kan. U.S. Senator's staff responds after town hall video goes viral

Reporter Cristina Janney speaks with Doug Williams of Grow Hays about the structure and mission of Grow Hays on this episode of the Hays Post Podcast.

<div><iframe title="Post Podcast: Grow Hays" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:300px;" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?from=embed&i=jtjiy-1820f56-pb&square=1&share=1&download=1&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=auto&rtl=0&logo_link=podcast_page&btn-skin=60a0c8&size=300" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>Reporter Cristina Janney speaks with Doug Williams of Grow Hays about the structure and mission of Grow Hays on this episode of the Hays Post Podcast.

🎙 Post Podcast: Doug Williams: What is Grow Hays?

Show me a Midwesterner who doesn’t have some sort of love-hate relationship with snow, and I’ll show you the rock they have lived under. 

It seems as though a person either love it or hates it, and for some of us, it depends upon the day. 

It’s hard to explain how something that makes the landscape suddenly seem so sparkling clean and pure can turn on you in an instant and ruin your day. 

I was reminded last week how much I love to watch snow fall and how beautiful it makes everything it touches, but also how much I hate removing it from my driveway.

 I’m kind of a purist, in that I believe God put it there and I don’t want to shovel it and take away any satisfaction He might get from taking it away himself! Yes, to the traveler, home owner, maintenance man and commuter, snow is often an unwelcome inconvenience. To the outdoorsman, however, snow opens up a whole new world of opportunities.

For the outdoors photographer or painter there is no other canvas that compares to an outdoor scene sporting a fresh snowfall. Suddenly, as if by magic, the mundane becomes majestic, the drab becomes dynamic and the everyday becomes extraordinary. Outdoor spots we pass daily with no recognition suddenly become scenes from a calendar. Like the lava lamps of days gone by, the look of the landscape slowly changes from hour to hour with the wind.

Obviously, skiers and snowboarders live for fresh snow. After an overnight snowfall, hills too steep to climb become mere carnival rides beneath their feet. Cross-country skiers can, in one day, see country it would take them several days to see on foot without the snow. And let’s not forget the farmers. Around one foot of snow equals one inch of rain and snow supposedly brings with it good nutrients too, so after a couple dry years like we’ve had, all this snow is more than welcome for our Kansas wheat and alfalfa.

Hunters and trappers can benefit greatly from a fresh snowfall. Tracks of deer, coyotes, bobcats and other game animals are tough to spot in our often-dry Kansas soil, so trying to learn their movement patterns can rely on being fortunate enough to see the animals themselves. 

Remember going to dances back-in-the-day when your hand was stamped with a mark that only showed up under a special “black light?” That mark was there the whole time but only became visible when put under the light. Just like the black light, snow suddenly shows tracks of wildlife that have been traveling those same paths for months, but leaving no visible signs.

After a significant snowfall a few years ago, I spent time scouting an area I still had yet to trap. It was a soybean stubble field along the river where my wife harvested her first deer several years before. Besides hordes of deer tracks, I followed two sets of bobcat tracks as they meandered back and forth across the field and between several freshly made brush piles. 

I tracked a coyote for several hundred yards and was able to observe exactly how it related to certain land features. I followed coyote tracks on a frozen drainage ditch and could see where it had stopped to nose around under logs and other attractions. Its tracks showed me cattle trails it had traveled along the steep banks and where it had entered and left the ditch. Closing my eyes, I could almost see these animals as they left the footprints that held my attention.

So, the next time it snows, or before this current snow all melts, after you’ve shoveled the driveway, cleaned the walks, swept the deck and cursed the weatherman, grab your camera or walking stick and head for the woods. It will definitely influence your relationship with the “white stuff” as you continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve can be contacted by email at stevenrgilliland@gmail.com.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1574696211722.png" alt="Steve Gilliland. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Steve Gilliland. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>Show me a Midwesterner who doesn’t have some sort of love-hate relationship with snow, and I’ll show you the rock they have lived under. It seems as though a person either love it or hates it, and for some of us, it depends upon the day. It’s hard to explain how something that makes the landscape suddenly seem so sparkling clean and pure can turn on you in an instant and ruin your day. I was reminded last week how much I love to watch snow fall and how beautiful it makes everything it touches, but also how much I hate removing it from my driveway. I’m kind of a purist, in that I believe God put it there and I don’t want to shovel it and take away any satisfaction He might get from taking it away himself! Yes, to the traveler, home owner, maintenance man and commuter, snow is often an unwelcome inconvenience. To the outdoorsman, however, snow opens up a whole new world of opportunities.For the outdoors photographer or painter there is no other canvas that compares to an outdoor scene sporting a fresh snowfall. Suddenly, as if by magic, the mundane becomes majestic, the drab becomes dynamic and the everyday becomes extraordinary. Outdoor spots we pass daily with no recognition suddenly become scenes from a calendar. Like the lava lamps of days gone by, the look of the landscape slowly changes from hour to hour with the wind.Obviously, skiers and snowboarders live for fresh snow. After an overnight snowfall, hills too steep to climb become mere carnival rides beneath their feet. Cross-country skiers can, in one day, see country it would take them several days to see on foot without the snow. And let’s not forget the farmers. Around one foot of snow equals one inch of rain and snow supposedly brings with it good nutrients too, so after a couple dry years like we’ve had, all this snow is more than welcome for our Kansas wheat and alfalfa.Hunters and trappers can benefit greatly from a fresh snowfall. Tracks of deer, coyotes, bobcats and other game animals are tough to spot in our often-dry Kansas soil, so trying to learn their movement patterns can rely on being fortunate enough to see the animals themselves. Remember going to dances back-in-the-day when your hand was stamped with a mark that only showed up under a special “black light?” That mark was there the whole time but only became visible when put under the light. Just like the black light, snow suddenly shows tracks of wildlife that have been traveling those same paths for months, but leaving no visible signs.After a significant snowfall a few years ago, I spent time scouting an area I still had yet to trap. It was a soybean stubble field along the river where my wife harvested her first deer several years before. Besides hordes of deer tracks, I followed two sets of bobcat tracks as they meandered back and forth across the field and between several freshly made brush piles. I tracked a coyote for several hundred yards and was able to observe exactly how it related to certain land features. I followed coyote tracks on a frozen drainage ditch and could see where it had stopped to nose around under logs and other attractions. Its tracks showed me cattle trails it had traveled along the steep banks and where it had entered and left the ditch. Closing my eyes, I could almost see these animals as they left the footprints that held my attention.So, the next time it snows, or before this current snow all melts, after you’ve shoveled the driveway, cleaned the walks, swept the deck and cursed the weatherman, grab your camera or walking stick and head for the woods. It will definitely influence your relationship with the “white stuff” as you continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.Steve can be contacted by email at stevenrgilliland@gmail.com.

Explore Kansas Outdoors: Snow. Love it or hate it

By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post

The most extensive database on Vietnam War causalities was the passion of a man from Hays.

The late Richard Coffelt, a longtime Hays attorney, spent years and his own money researching and amassing the <a href="https://www.coffeltdatabase.org/">Coffelt Database</a>, which is now available for free through the National Archives.

Although others contributed to the database and Coffelt wanted the record source named something more accessible, the database was named in honor of him.

Jo Ann Jennings, Coffelt's wife, recounted information about the database during a lecture at the Hays VFW on Feb. 16.

Coffelt was a U.S. Army veteran who served during the Korean War. He had no connection with the Vietnam War.

However, in 1980, he became acquainted with the mother of&nbsp;Gary Lee Binder of Hays. Gary Binder, who served with the Navy, was killed in action in 1967 in Vietnam, and Coffelt wanted to learn more about the circumstances of Binder's death.

Jennings explained this was before the rise of personal computing and Google, which meant hours spent at libraries, especially the&nbsp;Presidential Library of Lyndon Baines Johnson in Austin, Texas. She said she spent many vacations accompanying Richard on research trips, sometimes at his side in study rooms.

Johnson sent a letter of condolence to every family of a service member killed in Vietnam during his administration. Those letters included the unit numbers of the service members, which made them valuable in Coffelt's research.

Jennings said Richard spent countless hours taking notes on yellow legal pads.

Coffelt saw the need to connect soldiers with other soldiers. The men who served wanted to know what had happened to their buddies.

Jennings said Coffelt was interested in working on the research because the federal government didn't keep track of the units the men who were killed in action were from.

He said having a unit designation was the most important thing to know if you wanted to know what happened to your friend.

“I felt that if I just looked long enough, hard enough, I would hit the mother lode,” Coffelt was quoted as saying in a story published in the February 2012 edition of the VVA Veteran magazine. 

“I still felt that there had to be some government source that would have all this information. It became kind of a game to try and locate the information in some government repository somewhere.”

In 1993-94, after PCs had become commonplace, Tom Holloway (Emory University, Atlanta) changed the landscape by obtaining the Department of Defense's casualty database and the Army Adjutant General's database in digital form, according to the database's website.

"Using the university's mainframe computers to read the reel-to-reel computer tapes,&nbsp;Holloway integrated the two databases and converted the information into a commonly used small-computer format. The "Holloway Database" effectively became the public's sole source of information regarding all American Vietnam dead," the database website said.

The database website said that in the late 1990s, others joined Coffelt's effort, contributing information and collating the collected material into digital form using the Holloway database as a baseline, the database said.

"The additional resources allowed the project's scope to expand to include units of assignment information for all service branches," according to the database's website. "In 2002, an early version of the Coffelt Database was deeded to the National Archives, which made it available online as a searchable database," the database said.

Jennings said Coffelt amassed a library that filled a room floor to ceiling with more than 300 books on Vietnam. She said her husband had read every book.

She said her husband had an almost photographic memory of the information. She recalled a person from Australia writing Coffelt, asking him if he might know what happened to his uncle.&nbsp;

Without the need to look at any source, Coffelt was able to write him a page of the entire account of the battle in which the man's uncle was killed and what happened in that battle.

"He had super-detailed information just from his remembrance," Jennings said.

A Vietnam veteran who worked on the database with Coffelt spoke at his funeral and said, "Richard knew more about what happened in Vietnam than any soldier that was there, and he wasn't there."

Today, the database contains more than 60,000 names and more than 1 million pieces of information. Gary L. Noller, Co. B, 1/46th Infantry, Vietnam 1970-71, called the database a gift to and for Vietnam veterans and their families.

He said in a letter on the database, often, the child or grandchild of a Vietnam casualty wishes to contact a veteran who served with their deceased family member.

Prior to the Coffelt Database, a search of this kind was often overwhelming. The official record listed casualties by unit at the division or brigade level,&nbsp;Noller said in his letter.

Coffelt's research expanded the casualty database to list the company and battalion-level casualties, Noller said.

"This effectively reduced the search for a veteran from a magnitude of 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100. It can be said that the Coffelt Database made the search at least 100 times easier to conduct,"&nbsp;Noller said.

Vietnam veteran Dick Arnold worked on the database with Coffelt.&nbsp;

In a 2011 letter published on the database's website, he said, "I consider my participation in the creation and continued improvement of The Coffelt Database to be one of the proudest parts of my life. I also consider it a singular honor to have known and worked with Richard these last few years. All of us Vietnam veterans owe him a huge debt ..."

Although Coffelt and the others who contributed to the database were offered money to privatize the data, Coffelt and his fellow researchers insisted the database remain a free, open-source of information, Jennings said.

By 2009, Coffelt developed Lewy body dementia. He died on Jan. 25, 2012.

Hays VVA Chapter 939&nbsp;dedicated a plaque at the Hays Regional Airport to honor Coffelt's work in creating the database.

Not only is the Coffelt database still available and in use today. But a story on the database sparked an unlikely friendship between Jennings and a WWII veteran who read a story on the database in a veterans magazine.

Frank Malizia, who was 92 at the time, read that story and recognized Hays as a familiar place. He had been stationed in Great Bend during the war and was familiar with Hays and Ellis County. This led him to contact Jennings.

Read more on Malizia and Jennings' long friendship and correspondents at&nbsp;<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/74f5a4c8-b37b-458a-b1a8-ddb7a744b869">NWester: WWII soldier laid to rest next to 'love of his life' in Antonino</a>.

You can access the Coffelt Database online for free. <a href="https://www.coffeltdatabase.org/">Click here for a link</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1740519011452.png" alt="Richard Coffelt. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Richard Coffelt. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post The most extensive database on Vietnam War causalities was the passion of a man from Hays.The late Richard Coffelt, a longtime Hays attorney, spent years and his own money researching and amassing the <a href="https://www.coffeltdatabase.org/">Coffelt Database</a>, which is now available for free through the National Archives.Although others contributed to the database and Coffelt wanted the record source named something more accessible, the database was named in honor of him.Jo Ann Jennings, Coffelt's wife, recounted information about the database during a lecture at the Hays VFW on Feb. 16.Coffelt was a U.S. Army veteran who served during the Korean War. He had no connection with the Vietnam War.However, in 1980, he became acquainted with the mother of&nbsp;Gary Lee Binder of Hays. Gary Binder, who served with the Navy, was killed in action in 1967 in Vietnam, and Coffelt wanted to learn more about the circumstances of Binder's death.Jennings explained this was before the rise of personal computing and Google, which meant hours spent at libraries, especially the&nbsp;Presidential Library of Lyndon Baines Johnson in Austin, Texas. She said she spent many vacations accompanying Richard on research trips, sometimes at his side in study rooms.Johnson sent a letter of condolence to every family of a service member killed in Vietnam during his administration. Those letters included the unit numbers of the service members, which made them valuable in Coffelt's research.Jennings said Richard spent countless hours taking notes on yellow legal pads.Coffelt saw the need to connect soldiers with other soldiers. The men who served wanted to know what had happened to their buddies.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1740519068072.png" alt="Richard Coffelt when he was in the service. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Richard Coffelt when he was in the service. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>Jennings said Coffelt was interested in working on the research because the federal government didn't keep track of the units the men who were killed in action were from.He said having a unit designation was the most important thing to know if you wanted to know what happened to your friend.“I felt that if I just looked long enough, hard enough, I would hit the mother lode,” Coffelt was quoted as saying in a story published in the February 2012 edition of the VVA Veteran magazine. “I still felt that there had to be some government source that would have all this information. It became kind of a game to try and locate the information in some government repository somewhere.”In 1993-94, after PCs had become commonplace, Tom Holloway (Emory University, Atlanta) changed the landscape by obtaining the Department of Defense's casualty database and the Army Adjutant General's database in digital form, according to the database's website."Using the university's mainframe computers to read the reel-to-reel computer tapes,&nbsp;Holloway integrated the two databases and converted the information into a commonly used small-computer format. The "Holloway Database" effectively became the public's sole source of information regarding all American Vietnam dead," the database website said.The database website said that in the late 1990s, others joined Coffelt's effort, contributing information and collating the collected material into digital form using the Holloway database as a baseline, the database said."The additional resources allowed the project's scope to expand to include units of assignment information for all service branches," according to the database's website. "In 2002, an early version of the Coffelt Database was deeded to the National Archives, which made it available online as a searchable database," the database said.Jennings said Coffelt amassed a library that filled a room floor to ceiling with more than 300 books on Vietnam. She said her husband had read every book.She said her husband had an almost photographic memory of the information. She recalled a person from Australia writing Coffelt, asking him if he might know what happened to his uncle.&nbsp;Without the need to look at any source, Coffelt was able to write him a page of the entire account of the battle in which the man's uncle was killed and what happened in that battle."He had super-detailed information just from his remembrance," Jennings said.A Vietnam veteran who worked on the database with Coffelt spoke at his funeral and said, "Richard knew more about what happened in Vietnam than any soldier that was there, and he wasn't there."Today, the database contains more than 60,000 names and more than 1 million pieces of information. Gary L. Noller, Co. B, 1/46th Infantry, Vietnam 1970-71, called the database a gift to and for Vietnam veterans and their families.He said in a letter on the database, often, the child or grandchild of a Vietnam casualty wishes to contact a veteran who served with their deceased family member.Prior to the Coffelt Database, a search of this kind was often overwhelming. The official record listed casualties by unit at the division or brigade level,&nbsp;Noller said in his letter.Coffelt's research expanded the casualty database to list the company and battalion-level casualties, Noller said."This effectively reduced the search for a veteran from a magnitude of 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100. It can be said that the Coffelt Database made the search at least 100 times easier to conduct,"&nbsp;Noller said.Vietnam veteran Dick Arnold worked on the database with Coffelt.&nbsp;In a 2011 letter published on the database's website, he said, "I consider my participation in the creation and continued improvement of The Coffelt Database to be one of the proudest parts of my life. I also consider it a singular honor to have known and worked with Richard these last few years. All of us Vietnam veterans owe him a huge debt ..."Although Coffelt and the others who contributed to the database were offered money to privatize the data, Coffelt and his fellow researchers insisted the database remain a free, open-source of information, Jennings said.By 2009, Coffelt developed Lewy body dementia. He died on Jan. 25, 2012.Hays VVA Chapter 939&nbsp;dedicated a plaque at the Hays Regional Airport to honor Coffelt's work in creating the database.Not only is the Coffelt database still available and in use today. But a story on the database sparked an unlikely friendship between Jennings and a WWII veteran who read a story on the database in a veterans magazine.Frank Malizia, who was 92 at the time, read that story and recognized Hays as a familiar place. He had been stationed in Great Bend during the war and was familiar with Hays and Ellis County. This led him to contact Jennings.Read more on Malizia and Jennings' long friendship and correspondents at&nbsp;<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/74f5a4c8-b37b-458a-b1a8-ddb7a744b869">NWester: WWII soldier laid to rest next to 'love of his life' in Antonino</a>.You can access the Coffelt Database online for free. <a href="https://www.coffeltdatabase.org/">Click here for a link</a>.

Coffelt Database on Americans killed in Vietnam was passion of Hays attorney

By&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/annaclairevollers/">ANNA CLAIRE VOLLERS</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/23/gop-led-lawsuit-that-could-dismantle-disability-protections-draws-public-backlash/">Kansas Reflector</a>

<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/annaclairevollers/"></a>A push by Republican attorneys general in 17 states to strike down part of a federal law that protects disabled people from discrimination has prompted an outcry from advocates, parents and some local officials.

The GOP-led lawsuit targets certain protections for transgender people. But some experts warn it has the potential to weaken federal protections for all people with disabilities.

Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/HHS%20Rehabilitation%20Act%20Complaint%20Filestamped.pdf" target="_blank">sued</a>&nbsp;the federal government in September over the Biden administration’s addition of a gender identity-related disorder to the disabilities protected under a section of a 1973 federal law.

Republican attorneys general from 16 other states joined the lawsuit: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

But the AGs face a growing public backlash that stems from conflicting messages about what the lawsuit would actually do.

“The disability community is outraged and scared,” said Charlotte Cravins, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, attorney whose 1-year-old son has Down syndrome and is blind in one eye.

Cravins and other parents and advocates point to parts of the lawsuit in which the plaintiffs ask the court to find an entire section of the law unconstitutional. If the court agrees, they think it would allow schools, workplaces, hospitals and other entities to refuse to provide accommodations they’ve been required to provide for the past 50 years.

“It would affect so many people that every person in our state — really, in our country — should be concerned,” Cravins said. “If they can erase protections for disabled children, then who’s next?”

The provision in question, Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, prohibits entities that receive federal funding from discriminating based on disability. For example, the law prohibits hospitals from denying organ transplants to people because they have a disability. It requires schools to allow deaf students to use speech-to-text technology. The law covers a wide range of disabilities, including vision and hearing impairments, autism, diabetes, Down syndrome, dyslexia and ADHD.

Last May, the Biden administration issued a rule that added to the covered disabilities “gender dysphoria,” the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gender-dysphoria/symptoms-causes/syc-20475255" target="_blank">psychological distress</a>&nbsp;that people may experience when their gender identity doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria" target="_blank">defined</a>&nbsp;in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

In recent days, national disability rights groups — including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.acb.org/lawsuit-brought-against-section-504" target="_blank">American Council of the Blind</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://ndss.org/news/take-action-protect-section-504-and-civil-rights-people-disabilities" target="_blank">National Down Syndrome Society</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nad.org/2025/02/14/nad-coo-kelby-brick-esq-discusses-recent-attacks-on-section-504/" target="_blank">National Association of the Deaf</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://dredf.org/protect-504/" target="_blank">Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund</a>&nbsp;— have encouraged the public to speak out, sparking a surge of activity on social media and calls to state lawmakers.

Despite the public backlash, some state AGs are digging in their heels.

Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr insists the lawsuit wouldn’t affect existing disability protections. Instead, he said, it merely aims to reverse the Biden administration’s addition of gender dysphoria to the law’s protected disabilities.

“The constitutionality of 504 was never in question,” Carr said in a statement to Stateline. “We are fighting one woke policy added by Biden for virtue signaling.”

He said most Georgians don’t believe gender dysphoria should be treated as an eligible disability “as if it’s the same as Down syndrome or dyslexia or autism.”

Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://arkansasag.gov/news-release/litigation-update-griffin-and-16-other-ags-fight-to-stop-biden-era-attempt-to-categorize-gender-dysphoria-as-a-disability/#:~:text=The%20lawsuit%20does,before%20May%202024." target="_blank">statement</a>&nbsp;last week claiming that if the states win the lawsuit, “regulations would go back to what they were” before gender dysphoria was added to the law. He said that a ruling declaring Section 504 unconstitutional would only mean the federal government couldn’t revoke funding over a failure to comply with the part of the law protecting gender dysphoria.

But Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert and the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, wrote in an email that the lawsuit clearly asks the court to declare the entirety of Section 504 unconstitutional. He called the request “truly stunning.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1740496280933.jpeg" alt="Charlotte Cravins, left, attends an event with her husband, Calvin Bell, and their children, infant son Landry Bell and daughter Lyric Bell. Landry was born with Down syndrome and is blind in one eye. Charlotte is worried that a lawsuit challenging part of a 50-year-old federal disability rights law could remove protections for children with disabilities, like Landry. (Submitted by Charlotte Cravins)" />
 <figcaption>Charlotte Cravins, left, attends an event with her husband, Calvin Bell, and their children, infant son Landry Bell and daughter Lyric Bell. Landry was born with Down syndrome and is blind in one eye. Charlotte is worried that a lawsuit challenging part of a 50-year-old federal disability rights law could remove protections for children with disabilities, like Landry. (Submitted by Charlotte Cravins)</figcaption>
 </figure>By&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/annaclairevollers/">ANNA CLAIRE VOLLERS</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/23/gop-led-lawsuit-that-could-dismantle-disability-protections-draws-public-backlash/">Kansas Reflector</a><a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/annaclairevollers/"></a>A push by Republican attorneys general in 17 states to strike down part of a federal law that protects disabled people from discrimination has prompted an outcry from advocates, parents and some local officials.The GOP-led lawsuit targets certain protections for transgender people. But some experts warn it has the potential to weaken federal protections for all people with disabilities.Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/HHS%20Rehabilitation%20Act%20Complaint%20Filestamped.pdf" target="_blank">sued</a>&nbsp;the federal government in September over the Biden administration’s addition of a gender identity-related disorder to the disabilities protected under a section of a 1973 federal law.Republican attorneys general from 16 other states joined the lawsuit: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.But the AGs face a growing public backlash that stems from conflicting messages about what the lawsuit would actually do.“The disability community is outraged and scared,” said Charlotte Cravins, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, attorney whose 1-year-old son has Down syndrome and is blind in one eye.Cravins and other parents and advocates point to parts of the lawsuit in which the plaintiffs ask the court to find an entire section of the law unconstitutional. If the court agrees, they think it would allow schools, workplaces, hospitals and other entities to refuse to provide accommodations they’ve been required to provide for the past 50 years.“It would affect so many people that every person in our state — really, in our country — should be concerned,” Cravins said. “If they can erase protections for disabled children, then who’s next?”The provision in question, Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, prohibits entities that receive federal funding from discriminating based on disability. For example, the law prohibits hospitals from denying organ transplants to people because they have a disability. It requires schools to allow deaf students to use speech-to-text technology. The law covers a wide range of disabilities, including vision and hearing impairments, autism, diabetes, Down syndrome, dyslexia and ADHD.Last May, the Biden administration issued a rule that added to the covered disabilities “gender dysphoria,” the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gender-dysphoria/symptoms-causes/syc-20475255" target="_blank">psychological distress</a>&nbsp;that people may experience when their gender identity doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria" target="_blank">defined</a>&nbsp;in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.In recent days, national disability rights groups — including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.acb.org/lawsuit-brought-against-section-504" target="_blank">American Council of the Blind</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://ndss.org/news/take-action-protect-section-504-and-civil-rights-people-disabilities" target="_blank">National Down Syndrome Society</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nad.org/2025/02/14/nad-coo-kelby-brick-esq-discusses-recent-attacks-on-section-504/" target="_blank">National Association of the Deaf</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://dredf.org/protect-504/" target="_blank">Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund</a>&nbsp;— have encouraged the public to speak out, sparking a surge of activity on social media and calls to state lawmakers.<h2>AGs respond</h2>Despite the public backlash, some state AGs are digging in their heels.<figure>
 <img src="https://kansasreflector.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AG-Carr.jpg" alt="Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr speaks at a campaign event on Sept. 9, 2022, in Gwinnett, Georgia. Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images" />
 <figcaption>Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr speaks at a campaign event on Sept. 9, 2022, in Gwinnett, Georgia. Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images</figcaption>
 </figure>Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr insists the lawsuit wouldn’t affect existing disability protections. Instead, he said, it merely aims to reverse the Biden administration’s addition of gender dysphoria to the law’s protected disabilities.“The constitutionality of 504 was never in question,” Carr said in a statement to Stateline. “We are fighting one woke policy added by Biden for virtue signaling.”He said most Georgians don’t believe gender dysphoria should be treated as an eligible disability “as if it’s the same as Down syndrome or dyslexia or autism.”Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://arkansasag.gov/news-release/litigation-update-griffin-and-16-other-ags-fight-to-stop-biden-era-attempt-to-categorize-gender-dysphoria-as-a-disability/#:~:text=The%20lawsuit%20does,before%20May%202024." target="_blank">statement</a>&nbsp;last week claiming that if the states win the lawsuit, “regulations would go back to what they were” before gender dysphoria was added to the law. He said that a ruling declaring Section 504 unconstitutional would only mean the federal government couldn’t revoke funding over a failure to comply with the part of the law protecting gender dysphoria.But Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert and the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, wrote in an email that the lawsuit clearly asks the court to declare the entirety of Section 504 unconstitutional. He called the request “truly stunning.”The lawsuit is currently&nbsp;<a href="https://arkansasag.gov/news-release/litigation-update-griffin-and-16-other-ags-fight-to-stop-biden-era-attempt-to-categorize-gender-dysphoria-as-a-disability/" target="_blank">on hold</a>. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, the parties in the case agreed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69200578/state-of-texas-v-becerra/" target="_blank">pause</a>&nbsp;litigation while the new administration&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.395028/gov.uscourts.txnd.395028.43.0_1.pdf" target="_blank">reevaluates</a>&nbsp;the federal government’s position. Status reports are due to a judge later this month. Some of the AGs involved in the lawsuit, including Georgia’s Carr and West Virginia Republican Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, have&nbsp;<a href="https://wvrecord.com/stories/669770173-mccuskey-s-office-says-lawsuit-to-change-federal-disability-law-likely-will-be-dismissed-soon#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20lawsuit%20has%20been%20stayed%20and%20will%20likely%20be%20dismissed%20in%20the%20very%20near%20future%20because%20we%20anticipate%20that%20the%20Trump%20administration%20is%20going%20to%20do%20away%20with%20the%20disputed%20language%20%E2%80%93%20reassuring%20families%20that%20their%20plans%20and%20funding%20will%20remain%20to%20care%20for%20their%20children.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank">said</a>&nbsp;they expect the Trump administration to reverse the Biden rule. That could cause the AGs’ lawsuit to be dropped.Meanwhile, as public pressure escalates, some AGs are distancing themselves from the suit.South Carolina Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement last week that Trump’s Jan. 20&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/" target="_blank">executive order</a>&nbsp;stating that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scag.gov/about-the-office/news/attorney-general-alan-wilson-fully-supports-section-504-school-accommodations-for-children/" target="_blank">resolved his concerns</a>. “Our mission is complete,” Wilson said. Some&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/Able_SC/status/1890419005891969032" target="_blank">advocates</a>&nbsp;understood his statement to mean he might withdraw South Carolina from the lawsuit.However, a spokesperson for his office told Stateline that South Carolina would not be withdrawing from the lawsuit, but would be filing a notice with the court this week to clarify that the state is not asking for Section 504 to be declared unconstitutional.Utah Republican Attorney General Derek Brown said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/2025/02/14/office-of-the-utah-attorney-general-expresses-support-for-section-504-accommodations/" target="_blank">statement</a>&nbsp;that Utah joined the lawsuit before he took office and that he doesn’t think Section 504 will be invalidated because “the Trump administration will soon withdraw the regulation” that added gender dysphoria to the list of disabilities.The AGs&nbsp;<a href="https://arkansasag.gov/news-release/litigation-update-griffin-and-16-other-ags-fight-to-stop-biden-era-attempt-to-categorize-gender-dysphoria-as-a-disability/" target="_blank">argue</a>&nbsp;that established federal law does not consider gender identity disorders to be disabilities. They say allowing the Biden rule to remain in place would let the government withhold federal funding from schools unless they allow transgender students to compete in sports or use locker rooms that match their gender identity.<h2>Grassroots efforts</h2>Cravins, the Louisiana attorney and mother, sent a letter this week to Louisiana Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill, asking her to drop Louisiana from the lawsuit.Murrill&nbsp;<a href="https://aglizmurrill.com/Article/240" target="_blank">issued a statement</a>&nbsp;Wednesday expressing support for people with disabilities and saying her office is “actively seeking a resolution with the Trump administration” to withdraw the Biden rule while keeping the law’s previous protections intact.Cravins said her son depends on Section 504 protections to access specialized therapies, and will rely on those protections even more as he approaches school age. Section 504 will help ensure he receives access to vision-related support, therapy and other accommodations in school.Cravins believes the AGs that signed onto the lawsuit aren’t being honest about its potential impact to protections for all people with disabilities.“For them to say one thing and the lawsuit to say another, I can’t imagine it’s anything other than them being disingenuous with their constituents,” she said.Ryan Renaud, a school board representative for one of the largest public school districts in Alabama, said a concerned parent who also is an attorney contacted him last week, after reading a story about Alabama Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall joining the lawsuit. More calls soon followed.“We’ve been hearing from dozens of parents in the last couple of days,” Renaud told Stateline. Without Section 504 protections, he said, students could lose access to a wide range of accommodations, from classroom aides to extra time to take tests.The impacts could extend beyond what most people think of when they think of special education, he said.“This includes students with ADHD, heart disease, depression, visual impairment, diabetes,” Renaud said. “Accommodations that come with those health concerns also fall under 504 plan protection.“When a student doesn’t have those accommodations, they become less secure in class and teachers are less able to manage their classrooms.”He’s also worried that the funding from the U.S. Department of Education that helps pay for those accommodations could vanish if federal law no longer requires them. Trump has vowed to dismantle the agency.“We spend on average $30 million a year or more on special education, and more than a quarter of that is provided by the federal government,” he said. “If [accommodations] aren’t federally protected and the Department of Education doesn’t have the authority to disburse the funds, we have to assume we’d have to pick up that slack through local or state funding.“And it’s hard to believe Alabama would cough up tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to supplement these costs.”Last year, the U.S. Department of Education reported that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/crdc-student-disabilities-snapshotpdf-21420.pdf#:~:text=There%20were%20a%20total%20of,served%20only%20under%20Section%20504." target="_blank">1.6 million students</a>&nbsp;with disabilities were served under Section 504 nationwide during the 2020-2021 school year.Stateline, a States Newsroom affiliate, produced&nbsp;<a href="https://stateline.org/2025/02/20/gop-led-lawsuit-that-could-dismantle-disability-protections-draws-public-backlash/" target="_blank">this story</a>.

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