RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a violent crime in Manhattan and have a suspect in custody.

Just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, officers filed a report for aggravated battery in the 1300 block of Flint Hills Pl. in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report.

A 27-year-old man reported a 32-year-old male suspect identified&nbsp; as Mark Rickenbacker stabbed him in the neck with a pocket knife.

The victim was treated at Via Christi and later released.&nbsp;

On Tuesday, police asked the public for help to locate Rickenbacker in connection with the case. Just after 2p.m. the RCPD reported they had him in custody.&nbsp; Police have not released any requested charges.

RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a violent crime in Manhattan and asking the public for help to locate a suspect.

Police would like to speak to Rickenbacker in connection with the case. He is 5-foot-9, weighs 170 pounds, has&nbsp; brown eyes and brown hair. 

If you have any information on Rickenbacker's whereabouts, please contact the Riley County Police Department at (785) 537-2112 or Crime Stoppers at (785) 539-7777. Using the Crime Stoppers service allows you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654022436875.png" alt="Rickenbaker-photo Riley Co. Police" />
 <figcaption>Rickenbaker-photo Riley Co. Police</figcaption>
 </figure>RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a violent crime in Manhattan and have a suspect in custody.Just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, officers filed a report for aggravated battery in the 1300 block of Flint Hills Pl. in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report.A 27-year-old man reported a 32-year-old male suspect identified&nbsp; as Mark Rickenbacker stabbed him in the neck with a pocket knife.The victim was treated at Via Christi and later released.&nbsp;On Tuesday, police asked the public for help to locate Rickenbacker in connection with the case. Just after 2p.m. the RCPD reported they had him in custody.&nbsp; Police have not released any requested charges.----------RILEY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a violent crime in Manhattan and asking the public for help to locate a suspect.Just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, officers filed a report for aggravated battery in the 1300 block of Flint Hills Pl. in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report.A 27-year-old man reported a 32-year-old male suspect identified&nbsp; as Mark Rickenbacker stabbed him in the neck with a pocket knife.Police would like to speak to Rickenbacker in connection with the case. He is 5-foot-9, weighs 170 pounds, has&nbsp; brown eyes and brown hair. The victim was treated at Via Christi and later released.&nbsp;If you have any information on Rickenbacker's whereabouts, please contact the Riley County Police Department at (785) 537-2112 or Crime Stoppers at (785) 539-7777. Using the Crime Stoppers service allows you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

Police: Kan. man stabbed victim in neck with pocket knife

By ERIKA BOLSTAD <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/05/31/when-it-comes-to-monuments-many-communities-considering-how-the-west-was-won/">Daily Montanan</a>

PORTLAND, Ore. — In June 2020, 
protesters at the University of Oregon in Eugene toppled a statue called
 “The Pioneer,” which depicted a White man with a gun slung over his 
shoulder and a whip in his hand, and a second sculpture titled “The 
Pioneer Mother.”

Both monuments had drawn criticism from Indigenous student groups and historians for commemorating settler violence in the West.

Even as Southern states face a reckoning over Confederate monuments, 
communities in the Western United States are beginning to reconsider 
monuments that, in many locations, celebrate what dominant American 
culture has portrayed as the conquering of the region by Europeans.

Among them are hundreds of pioneer monuments, many of which celebrate
 White dominance over Indigenous people as the nation expanded west. 
Some were toppled or damaged during the racial justice protests 
following the murder of George Floyd.

In Portland, protesters&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-toppled-statues/283-322173ca-87c9-4951-9db3-6842172d1895">pulled down or damaged five statues</a> in the summer and fall of 2020, including “The Promised Land,” a celebration of White westward expansion erected on the 150th&nbsp;anniversary
 of the Oregon Trail. Portland protesters also toppled monuments to 
Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, citing their policies and 
actions against Native Americans. And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, city 
officials removed a statue of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate 
after a shooting during a protest at the site.

Many Western cities, including Albuquerque, Denver and Portland, have
 been slow to replace statues or monuments toppled by the protests, or 
artwork that was removed from public display before they could be 
damaged. Some of the monuments likely will never return.

Instead, Western communities are beginning to consider what comes 
next for monuments, as well as what future public art projects should 
look like. Artists are leading many of those conversations, including in
 Portland, where dozens of people submitted monument concepts to a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.converge45.org/pmmp">prototype exhibit</a>&nbsp;sponsored by the arts group&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.converge45.org/pmmp">Converge45</a>&nbsp;last fall.

“Why monuments, period?” asked&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.apano.org/about/staff/roshani-thakore/">Roshani Thakore</a>, an artist-in-residence with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. Thakore,&nbsp;along with the urban planning scholar and artist&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.pdx.edu/profile/lisa-bates">Lisa Bates</a>,
 proposed a monument that would deploy skywriting and loudspeakers and 
even moving trains to pose questions derived from the issues they’ve 
experienced in the Asian and Black communities where they work.

“Can there be another language? Is this time to think about another 
language?” Thakore said.&nbsp; “If we’re reckoning, we need to really go all 
the way … instead of putting these Band-Aids on.

Pioneer monuments may appear to some observers as wholesome 
representations of the hard-working forebears of many White Westerners, 
said&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://und.edu/directory/cynthia.prescott">Cynthia Prescott</a>, a professor of history at the University of North Dakota and the author of “Pioneer Mother Monuments.” When she first began&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pioneermonuments.net/">documenting</a>&nbsp;the effects of 200 or so pioneer mother monuments across the West, she thought of the genre as “grandma in a sun bonnet.”

But the monuments’ intent was far from benign.

She cites research from 2019 by University of Oregon scholar&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://history.uoregon.edu/profile/marcc/">Marc Carpenter</a>,
 who as a doctoral candidate looked at the speeches by donors and the 
intent of the sculptor when the Pioneer sculpture was installed at his 
university. (The same artist,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.aphimisterproctorfoundation.com/">Alexander Phimister Proctor</a>,
 crafted the Roosevelt monument in Portland and a statue of Robert E. 
Lee in Dallas that was removed from public view in 2017 and now resides 
at a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/removed-robert-lee-statue-now-display-texas-resort-8063304">Texas golf resort</a>.)

At the University of Oregon, it was obvious even to those who 
attended the installation of the statue that they were honoring not just
 White settlement, Carpenter suggests, but also remembering White 
dominance of Indigenous people. In a paper urging the University of 
Oregon to remove the Pioneer statue, Carpenter wrote that unlike the 
Confederate statues of the South, “in the West, our problematic 
monuments are to America’s other great sin, the violent seizure of 
Native lands and murder of Native peoples.”

“You don’t have to dig very far to find out that there’s a racial 
subtext intended here,” Prescott said of pioneer memorials. “That was 
what donors and the people involved in their dedication are thinking 
about.”

In the months following the June 2020 shooting at the Oñate statue, 
the city of Albuquerque convened a Race, History and Healing Project to 
consider how to proceed with its monuments. The project concluded that 
year, but the city council has yet to take any action on a final report.&nbsp;A
 survey of 1,290 residents in Albuquerque found that 53% did not want 
the statue returned to its original location. Another 36% did, and 11% 
had another idea or didn’t state an opinion.

In Portland, as the city grapples with replacing or recontextualizing
 its toppled monuments, city leaders say they want to memorialize 
stories that were underrepresented in previous public art collections.

“After the protests and after 2020…voices were rising up,” said City Commissioner <a target="_blank" href="https://www.portland.gov/rubio">Carmen Rubio</a>,
 who oversees parks and recreation and arts and culture, and was the 
first Latina on the city council. “It made us really reflective.”

Rubio’s goal is public art that better tells the story of the city by
 capturing the “important, complex, beautiful, sometimes hard, maybe 
stark moments of truth.”

Some, though, saw the toppled statuary as a sign of strife and unrest fueled by radical protesters.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ci.sandy.or.us/directory-listing/stan-pulliam">Stan Pulliam</a>, the mayor of Sandy, Oregon,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/517186-413237-sandy-mayor-wants-toppled-portland-statues">told a television station</a>&nbsp;last
 year that the toppled presidential statues represented “American 
treasures” that he and others would welcome in his Portland suburb.

“It’s time for communities like Sandy to step up and say, ‘Not 
everyone feels this way!'” said Pulliam, who recently ran and lost in 
the Republican primary for Oregon governor. “They’re heroes that we 
should recognize and really teach our future generations about both the 
positive and negative attributes.”

Monuments often have failed to tell a complete story of the history of the United States, said&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/team">Paul Farber</a>, the director of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/">Monument Lab</a>, a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia. The lab, in partnership with the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://mellon.org/initiatives/monuments/">Andrew W. Mellon Foundation</a>, in late 2021 released a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/audit">national audit</a>&nbsp;looking
 at who and what gets memorialized in bronze and marble. Monuments shape
 our shared historical narratives and national memory, the audit notes, 
but also perpetuate existing injustices and inequality.

Monument Lab’s audit found that the nation’s monuments mostly reflect
 war and conquest; the monuments themselves mostly depict White and male
 figures. Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman and Sacagawea are the only women 
in the top 50 list, although “feminized bodies” often appear as 
“fictional, mythological, and allegorical figures,” the audit notes.

The audit also points out that monuments always have been in flux. 
The first recorded monument removal in the United States was the 
toppling of a statue of King George III in New York, following a public 
reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776.

Creative reuse already is a part of Portland’s art landscape. 
Protesters in 2020 also tore down a statue of Harvey W. Scott, a 
newspaper editor during Oregon’s early days who opposed women’s suffrage
 and universal high school education. The Scott statue was replaced for a
 time with a bust made of temporary materials of the enslaved man York, 
who accompanied the Lewis &amp; Clark expedition. The bust was installed
 overnight by an anonymous artist later revealed to be the sculptor Todd
 McGrain. Then, a few months later, conservative protesters tore it 
down.

The pedestals will see reuse by&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/jeffrey-gibson-they-come-from-fire/">Jeffrey Gibson</a>,
 an Indigenous artist with an exhibit this fall at the Portland Art 
Museum. Gibson, who is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw 
Indians and of Cherokee descent, will use the bases as platforms for 
portraits he’ll display in the show.

The Mellon Foundation has committed $250 million toward supporting 
public monument projects that “more completely and accurately represent 
the multiplicity and complexity of American stories.” One of the first 
projects is&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/projects/regeneration">Re:Generation</a>, which helps pay for 10 new monuments.

Among them is the&nbsp;Rapid City Indian Boarding School Lands 
Project in South Dakota. The project is developing an interpretive site 
and memorial to the children who died at the Rapid City Indian Boarding 
School, a federal school that operated from 1898 to 1933.

The project got its start in 2013 while people in the community were writing a history of the 75th&nbsp;anniversary
 of an Indian Health Service hospital on the site, said the monument’s 
executive director, Amy Sazue, who is Sicangu and Oglala Lakota. A 
volunteer began investigating after elders in the community mentioned 
there were unmarked graves. Record keeping was spotty at best, Sazue 
said, but volunteers eventually determined that 50 children may be 
buried there. They were able to secure the return of some land to the 
Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux
 Tribe.

The South Dakota project will be among the first significant 
monuments to children who died at such schools, which forced Indigenous 
children to assimilate by removing them from their homes and culture. A 
preliminary&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/department-interior-releases-investigative-report-outlines-next-steps-federal-indian">report</a>&nbsp;issued
 in May by the federal Interior Department found that at least 500 
children and perhaps many more died at 53 sites around the country.

The monument, which is scheduled to open in October 2023, will be a 
contemplative place with a sculptural element. The names of the 50 
children who died will be carved on boulders placed on the grounds. 
Because not all graves are known, the monument will strive not to 
penetrate the earth–all artistic elements will be floating. It will sit 
in quiet contrast to the massive, mountainside busts of former U.S. 
presidents just 25 miles away.

“The landscape where we live in the shadow of Mount Rushmore is 
really this larger symbol of White supremacy, it’s a symbol of 
indoctrination. It’s a symbol of attempted assimilation,” Sazue 
said.“And so what we’re doing is telling our story, in our way. For 
Indigenous people, the land itself is a monument. We don’t need to build
 on top of it or do things to it to make it look any different than what
 it is.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654013731471.png" alt="Two women visit a bust of York, the enslaved man who accompanied the Lewis &amp; Clark expedition, in Portland, Ore. The unauthorized monument was installed after protesters in 2020 tore down a statue of Harvey W. Scott, a newspaper editor during Oregon’s early days who opposed women’s suffrage and universal high school education. The York monument, by sculptor Todd McGrain, was torn down several months later by conservative protesters. (Photo courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts)" />
 <figcaption>Two women visit a bust of York, the enslaved man who accompanied the Lewis &amp; Clark expedition, in Portland, Ore. The unauthorized monument was installed after protesters in 2020 tore down a statue of Harvey W. Scott, a newspaper editor during Oregon’s early days who opposed women’s suffrage and universal high school education. The York monument, by sculptor Todd McGrain, was torn down several months later by conservative protesters. (Photo courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts)</figcaption>
 </figure>By ERIKA BOLSTAD <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/05/31/when-it-comes-to-monuments-many-communities-considering-how-the-west-was-won/">Daily Montanan</a>PORTLAND, Ore. — In June 2020, 
protesters at the University of Oregon in Eugene toppled a statue called
 “The Pioneer,” which depicted a White man with a gun slung over his 
shoulder and a whip in his hand, and a second sculpture titled “The 
Pioneer Mother.”Both monuments had drawn criticism from Indigenous student groups and historians for commemorating settler violence in the West.Even as Southern states face a reckoning over Confederate monuments, 
communities in the Western United States are beginning to reconsider 
monuments that, in many locations, celebrate what dominant American 
culture has portrayed as the conquering of the region by Europeans.Among them are hundreds of pioneer monuments, many of which celebrate
 White dominance over Indigenous people as the nation expanded west. 
Some were toppled or damaged during the racial justice protests 
following the murder of George Floyd.In Portland, protesters&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-toppled-statues/283-322173ca-87c9-4951-9db3-6842172d1895">pulled down or damaged five statues</a> in the summer and fall of 2020, including “The Promised Land,” a celebration of White westward expansion erected on the 150th&nbsp;anniversary
 of the Oregon Trail. Portland protesters also toppled monuments to 
Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, citing their policies and 
actions against Native Americans. And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, city 
officials removed a statue of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate 
after a shooting during a protest at the site.Many Western cities, including Albuquerque, Denver and Portland, have
 been slow to replace statues or monuments toppled by the protests, or 
artwork that was removed from public display before they could be 
damaged. Some of the monuments likely will never return.Instead, Western communities are beginning to consider what comes 
next for monuments, as well as what future public art projects should 
look like. Artists are leading many of those conversations, including in
 Portland, where dozens of people submitted monument concepts to a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.converge45.org/pmmp">prototype exhibit</a>&nbsp;sponsored by the arts group&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.converge45.org/pmmp">Converge45</a>&nbsp;last fall.“Why monuments, period?” asked&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.apano.org/about/staff/roshani-thakore/">Roshani Thakore</a>, an artist-in-residence with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. Thakore,&nbsp;along with the urban planning scholar and artist&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.pdx.edu/profile/lisa-bates">Lisa Bates</a>,
 proposed a monument that would deploy skywriting and loudspeakers and 
even moving trains to pose questions derived from the issues they’ve 
experienced in the Asian and Black communities where they work.“Can there be another language? Is this time to think about another 
language?” Thakore said.&nbsp; “If we’re reckoning, we need to really go all 
the way … instead of putting these Band-Aids on.<h2>Pioneer Monuments

	</h2>Pioneer monuments may appear to some observers as wholesome 
representations of the hard-working forebears of many White Westerners, 
said&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://und.edu/directory/cynthia.prescott">Cynthia Prescott</a>, a professor of history at the University of North Dakota and the author of “Pioneer Mother Monuments.” When she first began&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pioneermonuments.net/">documenting</a>&nbsp;the effects of 200 or so pioneer mother monuments across the West, she thought of the genre as “grandma in a sun bonnet.”But the monuments’ intent was far from benign.She cites research from 2019 by University of Oregon scholar&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://history.uoregon.edu/profile/marcc/">Marc Carpenter</a>,
 who as a doctoral candidate looked at the speeches by donors and the 
intent of the sculptor when the Pioneer sculpture was installed at his 
university. (The same artist,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.aphimisterproctorfoundation.com/">Alexander Phimister Proctor</a>,
 crafted the Roosevelt monument in Portland and a statue of Robert E. 
Lee in Dallas that was removed from public view in 2017 and now resides 
at a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/removed-robert-lee-statue-now-display-texas-resort-8063304">Texas golf resort</a>.)At the University of Oregon, it was obvious even to those who 
attended the installation of the statue that they were honoring not just
 White settlement, Carpenter suggests, but also remembering White 
dominance of Indigenous people. In a paper urging the University of 
Oregon to remove the Pioneer statue, Carpenter wrote that unlike the 
Confederate statues of the South, “in the West, our problematic 
monuments are to America’s other great sin, the violent seizure of 
Native lands and murder of Native peoples.”“You don’t have to dig very far to find out that there’s a racial 
subtext intended here,” Prescott said of pioneer memorials. “That was 
what donors and the people involved in their dedication are thinking 
about.”<h2>How to Heal

	</h2>In the months following the June 2020 shooting at the Oñate statue, 
the city of Albuquerque convened a Race, History and Healing Project to 
consider how to proceed with its monuments. The project concluded that 
year, but the city council has yet to take any action on a final report.&nbsp;A
 survey of 1,290 residents in Albuquerque found that 53% did not want 
the statue returned to its original location. Another 36% did, and 11% 
had another idea or didn’t state an opinion.In Portland, as the city grapples with replacing or recontextualizing
 its toppled monuments, city leaders say they want to memorialize 
stories that were underrepresented in previous public art collections.“After the protests and after 2020…voices were rising up,” said City Commissioner <a target="_blank" href="https://www.portland.gov/rubio">Carmen Rubio</a>,
 who oversees parks and recreation and arts and culture, and was the 
first Latina on the city council. “It made us really reflective.”Rubio’s goal is public art that better tells the story of the city by
 capturing the “important, complex, beautiful, sometimes hard, maybe 
stark moments of truth.”Some, though, saw the toppled statuary as a sign of strife and unrest fueled by radical protesters.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ci.sandy.or.us/directory-listing/stan-pulliam">Stan Pulliam</a>, the mayor of Sandy, Oregon,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/517186-413237-sandy-mayor-wants-toppled-portland-statues">told a television station</a>&nbsp;last
 year that the toppled presidential statues represented “American 
treasures” that he and others would welcome in his Portland suburb.“It’s time for communities like Sandy to step up and say, ‘Not 
everyone feels this way!'” said Pulliam, who recently ran and lost in 
the Republican primary for Oregon governor. “They’re heroes that we 
should recognize and really teach our future generations about both the 
positive and negative attributes.”<h2>Incomplete Stories</h2>Monuments often have failed to tell a complete story of the history of the United States, said&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/team">Paul Farber</a>, the director of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/">Monument Lab</a>, a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia. The lab, in partnership with the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://mellon.org/initiatives/monuments/">Andrew W. Mellon Foundation</a>, in late 2021 released a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/audit">national audit</a>&nbsp;looking
 at who and what gets memorialized in bronze and marble. Monuments shape
 our shared historical narratives and national memory, the audit notes, 
but also perpetuate existing injustices and inequality.Monument Lab’s audit found that the nation’s monuments mostly reflect
 war and conquest; the monuments themselves mostly depict White and male
 figures. Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman and Sacagawea are the only women 
in the top 50 list, although “feminized bodies” often appear as 
“fictional, mythological, and allegorical figures,” the audit notes.The audit also points out that monuments always have been in flux. 
The first recorded monument removal in the United States was the 
toppling of a statue of King George III in New York, following a public 
reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776.Creative reuse already is a part of Portland’s art landscape. 
Protesters in 2020 also tore down a statue of Harvey W. Scott, a 
newspaper editor during Oregon’s early days who opposed women’s suffrage
 and universal high school education. The Scott statue was replaced for a
 time with a bust made of temporary materials of the enslaved man York, 
who accompanied the Lewis &amp; Clark expedition. The bust was installed
 overnight by an anonymous artist later revealed to be the sculptor Todd
 McGrain. Then, a few months later, conservative protesters tore it 
down.The pedestals will see reuse by&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/jeffrey-gibson-they-come-from-fire/">Jeffrey Gibson</a>,
 an Indigenous artist with an exhibit this fall at the Portland Art 
Museum. Gibson, who is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw 
Indians and of Cherokee descent, will use the bases as platforms for 
portraits he’ll display in the show.<h2>The New Monuments

	</h2>The Mellon Foundation has committed $250 million toward supporting 
public monument projects that “more completely and accurately represent 
the multiplicity and complexity of American stories.” One of the first 
projects is&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://monumentlab.com/projects/regeneration">Re:Generation</a>, which helps pay for 10 new monuments.Among them is the&nbsp;Rapid City Indian Boarding School Lands 
Project in South Dakota. The project is developing an interpretive site 
and memorial to the children who died at the Rapid City Indian Boarding 
School, a federal school that operated from 1898 to 1933.The project got its start in 2013 while people in the community were writing a history of the 75th&nbsp;anniversary
 of an Indian Health Service hospital on the site, said the monument’s 
executive director, Amy Sazue, who is Sicangu and Oglala Lakota. A 
volunteer began investigating after elders in the community mentioned 
there were unmarked graves. Record keeping was spotty at best, Sazue 
said, but volunteers eventually determined that 50 children may be 
buried there. They were able to secure the return of some land to the 
Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux
 Tribe.The South Dakota project will be among the first significant 
monuments to children who died at such schools, which forced Indigenous 
children to assimilate by removing them from their homes and culture. A 
preliminary&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/department-interior-releases-investigative-report-outlines-next-steps-federal-indian">report</a>&nbsp;issued
 in May by the federal Interior Department found that at least 500 
children and perhaps many more died at 53 sites around the country.The monument, which is scheduled to open in October 2023, will be a 
contemplative place with a sculptural element. The names of the 50 
children who died will be carved on boulders placed on the grounds. 
Because not all graves are known, the monument will strive not to 
penetrate the earth–all artistic elements will be floating. It will sit 
in quiet contrast to the massive, mountainside busts of former U.S. 
presidents just 25 miles away.“The landscape where we live in the shadow of Mount Rushmore is 
really this larger symbol of White supremacy, it’s a symbol of 
indoctrination. It’s a symbol of attempted assimilation,” Sazue 
said.“And so what we’re doing is telling our story, in our way. For 
Indigenous people, the land itself is a monument. We don’t need to build
 on top of it or do things to it to make it look any different than what
 it is.”

Monuments: Many communities considering how the West was won

SEDGWICK COUNTY&nbsp; —Law enforcement authorities are investigating numerous shooting incidents over the Memorial Day weekend in the Wichita area.&nbsp; Two incidents left victims dead including a shooting where a man who had been walking his dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man&nbsp;at an apartment complex in the 4900 block of East Harry, according to Office Paul Cruz.

Another fatal shooting occurred at a large graduation party late Saturday at the&nbsp; Banquet Hall in the 3100 block of East 25th Street in Wichita. A 17-year-old man died and a 15-year-old girl running from the violence was struck by a car and died.

The violence started just before 11:30 p.m. on Friday. Police reported hearing a volley of gunfire in the area of Planeview Park, 2800 block of South Dunkin in Wichita. Officers checked the area and located a crime scene. No victims or suspects were located.&nbsp;

At approximately 8:00 p.m., on Sunday police were dispatched to Wesley Hospital after officers contacted a 23-year-old male victim who arrived at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds that were serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The investigation revealed the victim was in the area of 9th&nbsp;Street North and Grove in Wichita when he was shot several times by an unknown suspect.&nbsp;

At 8:30 p.m., Sunday, police were dispatched to a disturbance with a weapon at the QuikTrip in the 1600 block of South Olive in Wichita. A 43-year-old woman reports whiling pumping gas she observed an unknown female suspect point and fire one-time causing damage to her car windshield. The suspect fled the business in a dark-colored SUV.&nbsp; The suspect is described as an unknown heavy build black female. The victim was not injured in this incident, according to Cruz.

At 9:30 p.m., on Sunday, police were dispatched to a report of gunshots at a residence in the 2300 block of West Pawnee in Wichita. Upon the officer’s arrival, they located the scene of the shooting. A home in the area was struck, inside the home was a 41-year-old woman, a 22-year-old woman, a 17-year-old boy, a 50-year-old man,and an infant. No injuries were reported and it is unknown who the suspect is at this time.&nbsp;

At approximately the same time on Sunday, police were dispatched to a shooting in the 900 block of North Volutsia in Wichita. Upon the officer’s arrival, they located a 27-year-old man with several gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The investigation revealed the victim was inside his residence along with a 20-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man when an unknown suspect fired multiple gunshots, striking the home and the 27-year-old victim. The suspect fled the scene in a dark-colored SUV.&nbsp;

Just before 11 p.m. on Sunday, police were dispatched to a drive-by shooting call in the 500 block of North Dellrose. Upon the officer’s arrival, they contacted several witnesses who reported hearing several gunshots in the area. Officers located a scene in the 500 block of North Dellrose. No injuries were reported, and the suspect is unknown at this time.&nbsp;

SEDGWICK COUNTY&nbsp; —Law enforcement authorities are investigating numerous shooting incidents over the Memorial Day weekend in the Wichita area.&nbsp; Two incidents left victims dead including a shooting where a man who had been walking his dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man&nbsp;at an apartment complex in the 4900 block of East Harry, according to Office Paul Cruz.Another fatal shooting occurred at a large graduation party late Saturday at the&nbsp; Banquet Hall in the 3100 block of East 25th Street in Wichita. A 17-year-old man died and a 15-year-old girl running from the violence was struck by a car and died.The violence started just before 11:30 p.m. on Friday. Police reported hearing a volley of gunfire in the area of Planeview Park, 2800 block of South Dunkin in Wichita. Officers checked the area and located a crime scene. No victims or suspects were located.&nbsp;At approximately 8:00 p.m., on Sunday police were dispatched to Wesley Hospital after officers contacted a 23-year-old male victim who arrived at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds that were serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The investigation revealed the victim was in the area of 9th&nbsp;Street North and Grove in Wichita when he was shot several times by an unknown suspect.&nbsp;At 8:30 p.m., Sunday, police were dispatched to a disturbance with a weapon at the QuikTrip in the 1600 block of South Olive in Wichita. A 43-year-old woman reports whiling pumping gas she observed an unknown female suspect point and fire one-time causing damage to her car windshield. The suspect fled the business in a dark-colored SUV.&nbsp; The suspect is described as an unknown heavy build black female. The victim was not injured in this incident, according to Cruz.At 9:30 p.m., on Sunday, police were dispatched to a report of gunshots at a residence in the 2300 block of West Pawnee in Wichita. Upon the officer’s arrival, they located the scene of the shooting. A home in the area was struck, inside the home was a 41-year-old woman, a 22-year-old woman, a 17-year-old boy, a 50-year-old man,and an infant. No injuries were reported and it is unknown who the suspect is at this time.&nbsp;At approximately the same time on Sunday, police were dispatched to a shooting in the 900 block of North Volutsia in Wichita. Upon the officer’s arrival, they located a 27-year-old man with several gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The investigation revealed the victim was inside his residence along with a 20-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man when an unknown suspect fired multiple gunshots, striking the home and the 27-year-old victim. The suspect fled the scene in a dark-colored SUV.&nbsp;Just before 11 p.m. on Sunday, police were dispatched to a drive-by shooting call in the 500 block of North Dellrose. Upon the officer’s arrival, they contacted several witnesses who reported hearing several gunshots in the area. Officers located a scene in the 500 block of North Dellrose. No injuries were reported, and the suspect is unknown at this time.&nbsp;

Deadly weekend of gun violence across Wichita

By BLAISE MESA <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-05-31/in-some-rural-parts-of-kansas-the-loss-of-even-one-foster-parent-leaves-a-huge-hole">Kansas News Service</a>

TOPEKA, Kansas — More than half the counties in the state rely on 10 or fewer families to take in foster children.

Roughly one-tenth of the counties in Kansas rely on one licensed foster home each.

And
 those relatively few families looking after foster kids in its most 
remote corners struggle to get from court appointments to doctors’ 
visits to soccer practice where drives between appointments get measured
 not in minutes, but hours.

Consider what Rebecca Applebee’s move 
from Liberal, Kansas, means to her community. Already, about half of the
 foster children in Seward County are living elsewhere. When Applebee 
leaves, there will be one fewer foster homes in the county. And it can 
take more than a year for state agencies to find and license a foster 
home.

Recruiting foster families is hard in general, as is being a
 foster parent. The more rural you get, the harder the job can be — both
 to find foster families and to open your home to foster children.

“It's
 exhausting,” Applebee said. “And being in a rural location, sometimes 
we don't get the answers that we want. It's not just for lack of trying.
 It's because of a lack of resources, (a) lack of something local.”

Applebee is used to life in rural Kansas, but the requirements for foster parents add additional stressors to her life.

Foster
 children need to establish care with doctors within 30 days of 
placement. The children have Medicaid and Applebee needed to find an eye
 doctor who took that insurance, but she didn’t have time to call around
 to offices to see who accepted it. The only place that accepted the 
children’s insurance wouldn’t let her establish care until an 
outstanding bill was paid. The bill was from the biological family and 
it took additional time to settle that dispute.

“I could have just
 paid it myself,” Applebee said. “(But) I already do so much more than 
what I’m obligated to do, and I just couldn't let one more thing pile 
on.”

Fun activities for her children can also prove hard to come 
by. Rural counties have their amenities, but Applebee said escape rooms,
 a wider selection in restaurants and foster-care-specific events are 
more common in larger cities.

Foster children were once invited to
 a trampoline park to play for free, but that event was in Wichita over 
three hours away. Applebee is moving to Shawnee County, which has 145 
licensed homes. She looks forward to being closer to everyday needs.

“I want to so badly live in town because we have been driving an hour
 (for school and other necessities),” she said, adding that long hours 
mean less downtime, and shorter commutes will allow her family “to feel 
like we can relax because right now we don’t get to relax.”

Access
 to primary care and mental health services is an issue for rural Kansas
 families, as is access to transportation, part-time jobs for foster 
youth and child care, said Bradford Wiles, an associate professor and 
extension specialist in early childhood development at Kansas State 
University. Child care has become so hard to find in Kansas that some 
families are <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-04-12/finding-child-care-in-kansas-was-a-challenge-before-the-pandemic-now-its-even-harder" target="_blank">planning pregnancies around openings.</a>

Wiles
 said rural communities sometimes lack basic services, like reliable 
internet. That creates more barriers to low-income Kansans and can make 
them even less likely to consider foster care.

Fostering in rural Kansas “it isn't as appealing as it could be,” Wiles said.

“If
 there were more formal supports,” he said, “it would be much more 
appealing for those who would consider fostering to go ahead and take 
action.”

Julie Dinkel knows the struggles of rural foster parents 
all too well. Dinkel works at the foster care agency St. Francis as the 
foster homes recruiter for southwest Kansas. She has been supporting 
rural families for 15 years.

Her agency is making it easier for 
foster parents to connect with services, but not every change helps 
everyone. Licensed homes must go in for foster training. Some homes are 
hours away from the in-person classes. With the pandemic limiting 
in-person contact, the agency developed online courses. But families 
without reliable internet couldn’t attend virtually, so Dinkel went out 
and did the training with them.

To address parents’ needs, St. 
Francis works with churches and other community groups to provide 
respite care on the weekends, home-cooked meals, closets with extra 
clothes or activity days where children are invited to play.

“You 
have to be very creative and you have to know what resources to reach 
out to,” Dinkel said. “Luckily. in Southwest Kansas community partners …
 will bend over backwards to help each agency.”

She said foster 
parent recruitment is a non-stop process and agencies need to check in 
with parents even after that person becomes licensed.

Wiles said 
more people would move to rural Kansas if those areas are invested in 
properly. He said there is the misconception that western Kansas is 
mostly cows and farmers, but the area has nice people and beautiful 
views that appeal to anyone.

“The thing I love the most about 
(rural Kansas) is they do a very good job with limited resources and 
(they) build their sense of community,” he said.

Blaise Mesa 
reports on criminal justice and social services for the Kansas News 
Service in Topeka. You can follow him on Twitter @Blaise_Mesa or email 
him at blaise@kcur.org.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654006277218.png" alt="Finding medical care, making it to mandated family visits and other requirements of foster parents can make rural fostering more difficult. David Condos / Kansas News Service " />
 <figcaption>Finding medical care, making it to mandated family visits and other requirements of foster parents can make rural fostering more difficult. David Condos / Kansas News Service </figcaption>
 </figure>By BLAISE MESA <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-05-31/in-some-rural-parts-of-kansas-the-loss-of-even-one-foster-parent-leaves-a-huge-hole">Kansas News Service</a>TOPEKA, Kansas — More than half the counties in the state rely on 10 or fewer families to take in foster children.Roughly one-tenth of the counties in Kansas rely on one licensed foster home each.And
 those relatively few families looking after foster kids in its most 
remote corners struggle to get from court appointments to doctors’ 
visits to soccer practice where drives between appointments get measured
 not in minutes, but hours.Consider what Rebecca Applebee’s move 
from Liberal, Kansas, means to her community. Already, about half of the
 foster children in Seward County are living elsewhere. When Applebee 
leaves, there will be one fewer foster homes in the county. And it can 
take more than a year for state agencies to find and license a foster 
home.Recruiting foster families is hard in general, as is being a
 foster parent. The more rural you get, the harder the job can be — both
 to find foster families and to open your home to foster children.“It's
 exhausting,” Applebee said. “And being in a rural location, sometimes 
we don't get the answers that we want. It's not just for lack of trying.
 It's because of a lack of resources, (a) lack of something local.”Applebee is used to life in rural Kansas, but the requirements for foster parents add additional stressors to her life.Foster
 children need to establish care with doctors within 30 days of 
placement. The children have Medicaid and Applebee needed to find an eye
 doctor who took that insurance, but she didn’t have time to call around
 to offices to see who accepted it. The only place that accepted the 
children’s insurance wouldn’t let her establish care until an 
outstanding bill was paid. The bill was from the biological family and 
it took additional time to settle that dispute.“I could have just
 paid it myself,” Applebee said. “(But) I already do so much more than 
what I’m obligated to do, and I just couldn't let one more thing pile 
on.”Fun activities for her children can also prove hard to come 
by. Rural counties have their amenities, but Applebee said escape rooms,
 a wider selection in restaurants and foster-care-specific events are 
more common in larger cities.Foster children were once invited to
 a trampoline park to play for free, but that event was in Wichita over 
three hours away. Applebee is moving to Shawnee County, which has 145 
licensed homes. She looks forward to being closer to everyday needs.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654006338093.png" alt="Rebecca Applebee is moving for work and found a home in Rossville, Kansas. Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Rebecca Applebee is moving for work and found a home in Rossville, Kansas. Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>“I want to so badly live in town because we have been driving an hour
 (for school and other necessities),” she said, adding that long hours 
mean less downtime, and shorter commutes will allow her family “to feel 
like we can relax because right now we don’t get to relax.”Access
 to primary care and mental health services is an issue for rural Kansas
 families, as is access to transportation, part-time jobs for foster 
youth and child care, said Bradford Wiles, an associate professor and 
extension specialist in early childhood development at Kansas State 
University. Child care has become so hard to find in Kansas that some 
families are <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-04-12/finding-child-care-in-kansas-was-a-challenge-before-the-pandemic-now-its-even-harder" target="_blank">planning pregnancies around openings.</a>Wiles
 said rural communities sometimes lack basic services, like reliable 
internet. That creates more barriers to low-income Kansans and can make 
them even less likely to consider foster care.Fostering in rural Kansas “it isn't as appealing as it could be,” Wiles said.“If
 there were more formal supports,” he said, “it would be much more 
appealing for those who would consider fostering to go ahead and take 
action.”Julie Dinkel knows the struggles of rural foster parents 
all too well. Dinkel works at the foster care agency St. Francis as the 
foster homes recruiter for southwest Kansas. She has been supporting 
rural families for 15 years.Her agency is making it easier for 
foster parents to connect with services, but not every change helps 
everyone. Licensed homes must go in for foster training. Some homes are 
hours away from the in-person classes. With the pandemic limiting 
in-person contact, the agency developed online courses. But families 
without reliable internet couldn’t attend virtually, so Dinkel went out 
and did the training with them.To address parents’ needs, St. 
Francis works with churches and other community groups to provide 
respite care on the weekends, home-cooked meals, closets with extra 
clothes or activity days where children are invited to play.“You 
have to be very creative and you have to know what resources to reach 
out to,” Dinkel said. “Luckily. in Southwest Kansas community partners …
 will bend over backwards to help each agency.”She said foster 
parent recruitment is a non-stop process and agencies need to check in 
with parents even after that person becomes licensed.Wiles said 
more people would move to rural Kansas if those areas are invested in 
properly. He said there is the misconception that western Kansas is 
mostly cows and farmers, but the area has nice people and beautiful 
views that appeal to anyone.“The thing I love the most about 
(rural Kansas) is they do a very good job with limited resources and 
(they) build their sense of community,” he said.Blaise Mesa 
reports on criminal justice and social services for the Kansas News 
Service in Topeka. You can follow him on Twitter @Blaise_Mesa or email 
him at blaise@kcur.org.

In rural Kansas, the loss of even one foster parent leaves huge hole

BROOKS COUNTY, Texas— On a recent trip to the southern border, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. was on an evening tour with Brooks County, Texas Sheriffs when he had to&nbsp;provide medical assistance&nbsp;to a migrant suffering from heat exhaustion, according to a statement from Marshall's office.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;FOX News covered the story saying in part, “Marshall, a physician, was on a trip to the border in Texas, along with sheriffs from Kansas and was riding along an area between where smugglers drop off illegal migrants, and where they are picked up by others. It’s a hazardous area with treacherous conditions for migrants who have often traveled thousands of miles."

"Agents spotted a human smuggler pull up to an area, bring four or five people into the car – as well as one in the trunk. Agents gave chase until the car pulled over and the inhabitants fled."

"Agents caught many of those fleeing, including one woman who Marshall said was showing severe symptoms of heat exhaustion that had the potential to turn deadly. It was then that he stepped into action."

"Marshall put the blame squarely on the policies of President Biden and said the agents had told him that what they need is to get back to the policies of the Trump era, including finishing construction of the border wall.”

BROOKS COUNTY, Texas— On a recent trip to the southern border, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. was on an evening tour with Brooks County, Texas Sheriffs when he had to&nbsp;provide medical assistance&nbsp;to a migrant suffering from heat exhaustion, according to a statement from Marshall's office.&nbsp;&nbsp;<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cDMXyEog54Y" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>&nbsp;FOX News covered the story saying in part, “Marshall, a physician, was on a trip to the border in Texas, along with sheriffs from Kansas and was riding along an area between where smugglers drop off illegal migrants, and where they are picked up by others. It’s a hazardous area with treacherous conditions for migrants who have often traveled thousands of miles.""Agents spotted a human smuggler pull up to an area, bring four or five people into the car – as well as one in the trunk. Agents gave chase until the car pulled over and the inhabitants fled.""Agents caught many of those fleeing, including one woman who Marshall said was showing severe symptoms of heat exhaustion that had the potential to turn deadly. It was then that he stepped into action.""Marshall put the blame squarely on the policies of President Biden and said the agents had told him that what they need is to get back to the policies of the Trump era, including finishing construction of the border wall.”

🎥 Sen. Marshall aids migrant suffering from heat exhaustion during border trip

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — First she saw the graphic cellphone video showing Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death in Georgia, then news that Breonna Taylor had been shot in her Kentucky home during a botched drug raid. But when Teresa Parks watched videos of the white Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee onto a Black man’s neck, and heard George Floyd cry out for his mother as his life drained away, she was spurred not just to tears, but also to action.

After Floyd’s May 2020 death, Parks and a friend formed a Black Lives Matter group in their hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, a largely white city that had elected no Black leaders since 1969. Parks’ activism led to her appointment to a task force that city leaders said was designed to make the community more welcoming to people from diverse backgrounds.

That task force issued a report in December 2021 with more than 60 recommendations, but so far the city commission hasn’t discussed them. And that’s not unusual. All over Kansas, elected leaders convened task forces or held town hall meetings to gather community input on racial justice and diversity issues after demonstrators in more than a dozen communities protested Floyd’s death. But almost two years later, the passion and energy evident in those protests hasn’t translated into widespread change.

One of the most common results has been formalizing changes that had already been made. Topeka and Lawrence police banned “no-knock” search warrants, for example, but police in both cities had already discontinued the practice. In several Kansas cities including Wichita and Kansas City, police have put into writing the practices they said they had already adopted.

Lauren Bonds, the legal director for a New Orleans-based group of lawyers, legal workers and law students called the National Police Accountability Project, said local leaders sometimes form working groups when they want to appear to be on the right side of an issue but lack the political will to make real change.

“You’ll put some people of color on it, and then you’ll be able to point to that when someone says you didn’t respond to this egregious situation, but then you don’t actually have to change anything,” said Bonds, who is based in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Hispanic population in Kansas has more than quadrupled over the last 30 years, largely because of immigrants attracted to jobs in the meatpacking industry in the southwest of the state, and the Black population grew 15% between 1990 and 2020. But Kansas remains largely white and non-Hispanic; 72% of residents self-identified as such in the 2020 census and the Kansas Legislature was 92% white that year according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Proposals pushed by advocacy groups on behalf of racial justice in Kansas typically stall. After the Floyd protests, for example, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly appointed a committee on racial equity and justice, saying “communities of color do not have the luxury of time for leaders to address these issues.” But neither the panel nor the governor pushed the Legislature to adopt the group’s recommendations.

And this year, the momentum in the Republican-controlled Legislature swung away from racial justice toward limiting what public schools teach about racism and tightening voting laws.

Kevin Willmott, a University of Kansas film professor who in 2019 won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman,” said that when elected officials create task force groups, they often face little opposition, giving people hope that they can bring change.

“But then the task force doesn’t change anything,” Willmott said. “So it appears on the surface like you’re being brought to water, but you’re not allowed to drink.”

“They know that you just allow the focus to drift away and then you get to go back to normal. Until the next George Floyd, which might be in Kansas. You never know,” he said.

Post-Floyd racial justice efforts in other Kansas cities have seen mixed results.

In Wyandotte County, which includes Kansas City, then-Mayor David Alvey created a task force in 2020 to discuss policing practices, but he told task force members not to advocate for specific changes during meetings.

“It was such a politically charged atmosphere,” Alvey said. “I wanted to keep the politics out of it as much as possible.”

About a quarter of Wyandotte County’s population is Black and voters have elected a similar percentage of Black commissioners since 2005. Alvey narrowly lost reelection last year to Tyrone Garner, who became the community’s first Black mayor. Garner, who previously served as deputy police chief, ran for office on a police reform platform. He also announced a new committee to look into policing practices, which he said would — unlike his predecessor’s group — craft proposals for the city to vote on. The committee held introductory meetings last month.

Garner’s views of the community and policing have been shaped by his years as a police officer. Early in his career, a Black police major told him about how minority officers previously weren’t allowed to arrest or interact with white residents. Stories like that prompted Garner to pay attention to how colleagues talked about minority police leaders and officers.

Among other things, Garner hopes his new task force will consider requiring an outside law enforcement agency to conduct police misconduct investigations.

Discussions are in progress in other Kansas communities. In Topeka, a task force set up by a former mayor is reviewing police policies in response to proposals to ban chokeholds, prohibit officers from firing at fleeing suspects and create an independent citizen panel to investigate allegations of police misconduct. The group has met for almost two years and hasn’t made any recommendations to the City Council.

City commissioners in Salina approved a 2020 proposal to create a new citizens review board, but advocates were disappointed that it didn’t give the board authority to investigate complaints.

In the affluent Kansas City suburb of Prairie Village, where Black residents make up about 1% of the population, the city’s budget this year included $10,000 for a diversity committee that is using some of the funds to celebrate Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

After rallies in the southwestern Kansas community of Liberal following Floyd’s death, the city held a town hall where attendees discussed their experiences with racism. Latinos make up almost two-thirds of Liberal’s population.

About a month after the meeting, Liberal city commissioners passed an ordinance calling for similar public forums as needed, but so far no other meetings have occurred.

Racial justice advocate Kathleen Alonso pushed for the ordinance, but told the AP that she had shifted focus to increasing voter turnout. In November, Liberal elected two Hispanic members to the city commission, including its first Latina city commissioner.

In Manhattan, Parks, the local Black Lives Matter founder, is hopeful instead of frustrated that the city hasn’t yet taken up the task force’s more than 60 recommendations. Many of them are outside the city government’s control, but some are in its purview, including the hiring of a diversity, equity and inclusion officer to work across city-sponsored organizations.

Through her involvement, Parks has gained a line of communication with police that enables her to share information with other residents when they’re worried about something they’re hearing or seeing on social media. That’s leading to a better relationship between police and Black residents, who make up about 6% of the community, and that was one of Parks’ main goals.

Shortly before her Black Lives Matter group’s 2020 demonstration, Parks met an officer to contact with concerns. That new line of communication was tested that year when a witness made a video recording of a man who appeared to be having a seizure while he was detained in handcuffs. Parks contacted the officer and learned from police that they had kept him in handcuffs to prevent him from injuring himself.

“They answered every single question that we had and we were able to bring that back and kind of give people a little bit of clarity about the situation,” Parks said.

It’s all aimed at meeting Parks’ goal of avoiding a high-profile police killing like George Floyd’s in Manhattan.

“To hear that grown man call out for his mother — I just couldn’t — I can’t even talk about it,” Parks said, her voice shaking. “That is just something I would never want to see for my kids.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1653754980517.png" alt="Marchers in the Little Apple Pride Parade-from the organization's Facebook page." />
 <figcaption>Marchers in the Little Apple Pride Parade-from the organization's Facebook page.</figcaption>
 </figure>By ANDY TSUBASA FIELDTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — First she saw the graphic cellphone video showing Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death in Georgia, then news that Breonna Taylor had been shot in her Kentucky home during a botched drug raid. But when Teresa Parks watched videos of the white Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee onto a Black man’s neck, and heard George Floyd cry out for his mother as his life drained away, she was spurred not just to tears, but also to action.After Floyd’s May 2020 death, Parks and a friend formed a Black Lives Matter group in their hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, a largely white city that had elected no Black leaders since 1969. Parks’ activism led to her appointment to a task force that city leaders said was designed to make the community more welcoming to people from diverse backgrounds.That task force issued a report in December 2021 with more than 60 recommendations, but so far the city commission hasn’t discussed them. And that’s not unusual. All over Kansas, elected leaders convened task forces or held town hall meetings to gather community input on racial justice and diversity issues after demonstrators in more than a dozen communities protested Floyd’s death. But almost two years later, the passion and energy evident in those protests hasn’t translated into widespread change.One of the most common results has been formalizing changes that had already been made. Topeka and Lawrence police banned “no-knock” search warrants, for example, but police in both cities had already discontinued the practice. In several Kansas cities including Wichita and Kansas City, police have put into writing the practices they said they had already adopted.Lauren Bonds, the legal director for a New Orleans-based group of lawyers, legal workers and law students called the National Police Accountability Project, said local leaders sometimes form working groups when they want to appear to be on the right side of an issue but lack the political will to make real change.“You’ll put some people of color on it, and then you’ll be able to point to that when someone says you didn’t respond to this egregious situation, but then you don’t actually have to change anything,” said Bonds, who is based in Kansas City, Kansas.The Hispanic population in Kansas has more than quadrupled over the last 30 years, largely because of immigrants attracted to jobs in the meatpacking industry in the southwest of the state, and the Black population grew 15% between 1990 and 2020. But Kansas remains largely white and non-Hispanic; 72% of residents self-identified as such in the 2020 census and the Kansas Legislature was 92% white that year according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.Proposals pushed by advocacy groups on behalf of racial justice in Kansas typically stall. After the Floyd protests, for example, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly appointed a committee on racial equity and justice, saying “communities of color do not have the luxury of time for leaders to address these issues.” But neither the panel nor the governor pushed the Legislature to adopt the group’s recommendations.And this year, the momentum in the Republican-controlled Legislature swung away from racial justice toward limiting what public schools teach about racism and tightening voting laws.Kevin Willmott, a University of Kansas film professor who in 2019 won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman,” said that when elected officials create task force groups, they often face little opposition, giving people hope that they can bring change.“But then the task force doesn’t change anything,” Willmott said. “So it appears on the surface like you’re being brought to water, but you’re not allowed to drink.”“They know that you just allow the focus to drift away and then you get to go back to normal. Until the next George Floyd, which might be in Kansas. You never know,” he said.Post-Floyd racial justice efforts in other Kansas cities have seen mixed results.In Wyandotte County, which includes Kansas City, then-Mayor David Alvey created a task force in 2020 to discuss policing practices, but he told task force members not to advocate for specific changes during meetings.“It was such a politically charged atmosphere,” Alvey said. “I wanted to keep the politics out of it as much as possible.”About a quarter of Wyandotte County’s population is Black and voters have elected a similar percentage of Black commissioners since 2005. Alvey narrowly lost reelection last year to Tyrone Garner, who became the community’s first Black mayor. Garner, who previously served as deputy police chief, ran for office on a police reform platform. He also announced a new committee to look into policing practices, which he said would — unlike his predecessor’s group — craft proposals for the city to vote on. The committee held introductory meetings last month.Garner’s views of the community and policing have been shaped by his years as a police officer. Early in his career, a Black police major told him about how minority officers previously weren’t allowed to arrest or interact with white residents. Stories like that prompted Garner to pay attention to how colleagues talked about minority police leaders and officers.Among other things, Garner hopes his new task force will consider requiring an outside law enforcement agency to conduct police misconduct investigations.Discussions are in progress in other Kansas communities. In Topeka, a task force set up by a former mayor is reviewing police policies in response to proposals to ban chokeholds, prohibit officers from firing at fleeing suspects and create an independent citizen panel to investigate allegations of police misconduct. The group has met for almost two years and hasn’t made any recommendations to the City Council.City commissioners in Salina approved a 2020 proposal to create a new citizens review board, but advocates were disappointed that it didn’t give the board authority to investigate complaints.In the affluent Kansas City suburb of Prairie Village, where Black residents make up about 1% of the population, the city’s budget this year included $10,000 for a diversity committee that is using some of the funds to celebrate Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.After rallies in the southwestern Kansas community of Liberal following Floyd’s death, the city held a town hall where attendees discussed their experiences with racism. Latinos make up almost two-thirds of Liberal’s population.About a month after the meeting, Liberal city commissioners passed an ordinance calling for similar public forums as needed, but so far no other meetings have occurred.Racial justice advocate Kathleen Alonso pushed for the ordinance, but told the AP that she had shifted focus to increasing voter turnout. In November, Liberal elected two Hispanic members to the city commission, including its first Latina city commissioner.In Manhattan, Parks, the local Black Lives Matter founder, is hopeful instead of frustrated that the city hasn’t yet taken up the task force’s more than 60 recommendations. Many of them are outside the city government’s control, but some are in its purview, including the hiring of a diversity, equity and inclusion officer to work across city-sponsored organizations.Through her involvement, Parks has gained a line of communication with police that enables her to share information with other residents when they’re worried about something they’re hearing or seeing on social media. That’s leading to a better relationship between police and Black residents, who make up about 6% of the community, and that was one of Parks’ main goals.Shortly before her Black Lives Matter group’s 2020 demonstration, Parks met an officer to contact with concerns. That new line of communication was tested that year when a witness made a video recording of a man who appeared to be having a seizure while he was detained in handcuffs. Parks contacted the officer and learned from police that they had kept him in handcuffs to prevent him from injuring himself.“They answered every single question that we had and we were able to bring that back and kind of give people a little bit of clarity about the situation,” Parks said.It’s all aimed at meeting Parks’ goal of avoiding a high-profile police killing like George Floyd’s in Manhattan.“To hear that grown man call out for his mother — I just couldn’t — I can’t even talk about it,” Parks said, her voice shaking. “That is just something I would never want to see for my kids.”___

Kansas equity efforts bring little change after George Floyd

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina Post

A Salina man suffered a gunshot wound while practicing firearm safety with a teen east of Salina Sunday afternoon.

Just after 3:30p.m. Sunday, a 45-year-old Salina man and a 15-year-old Salina girl were target shooting with a 9mm handgun on a relative's property in the 900 block of N. Simpson Road when the shooting occurred, according to Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander.

The man told deputies that the two were practicing firearm safety when all of a sudden, it felt like someone had tackled him.

Melander said that the girl was handing the gun to the man when it began to slip. The girl grabbed for the gun and squeezed the trigger, shooting the man in the abdomen. The bullet exited through the man's back, Melander said.

The man was able to get ahold of another family member who took him to Salina Regional Health Center. Melander said the man's wound was serious but not life threatening.

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina PostA Salina man suffered a gunshot wound while practicing firearm safety with a teen east of Salina Sunday afternoon.Just after 3:30p.m. Sunday, a 45-year-old Salina man and a 15-year-old Salina girl were target shooting with a 9mm handgun on a relative's property in the 900 block of N. Simpson Road when the shooting occurred, according to Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander.The man told deputies that the two were practicing firearm safety when all of a sudden, it felt like someone had tackled him.Melander said that the girl was handing the gun to the man when it began to slip. The girl grabbed for the gun and squeezed the trigger, shooting the man in the abdomen. The bullet exited through the man's back, Melander said.The man was able to get ahold of another family member who took him to Salina Regional Health Center. Melander said the man's wound was serious but not life threatening.

Kansas man shot while practicing firearm safety with teen

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Even though the Kansas Legislature passed the so-called APEX bill and it was signed by Governor Laura Kelly in February, we still don't know if the state will get the super secret project.

"I don't know if we've lost out completely, or if they are still in the courting process," said Rep. Jason Probst. "The way these economic, especially these big economic development deals can sometimes work is, they've got two or three suitors on the line and they're trying to see who gives them the sweetest deal or the biggest dowry. It seems that's what the case is here. They came to Kansas, they got us to put a lot of money on the table. Then, from everything I've read, they've gone down to Oklahoma to see if they could get a sweeter deal down there."

Neither Oklahoma or Kansas is authorized to say who the project is for, but speculation is that it would be for a Panasonic battery plant for electric vehicles. Panasonic is a supplier for Tesla. Whichever state wins the plant would likely see it start producing as soon as fiscal 2024.

Panasonic already jointly operates a battery plant with Tesla in Nevada.

Hutchinson Chamber CEO Debra Teufel joined several economic development professionals from across Kansas in urging the legislature to pass the APEX bill back in February.

All APEX offers are subject to the approval of the State Finance Council.

Panasonic told Nikkei Asia earlier this month the decision on whether or not to build the plant at all will be based on the profitability of the new lithium-ion batteries that Panasonic will produce at its plant in Japan's Wakayama Prefecture starting in fiscal year 2023.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654012074347.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Even though the Kansas Legislature passed the so-called APEX bill and it was signed by Governor Laura Kelly in February, we still don't know if the state will get the super secret project."I don't know if we've lost out completely, or if they are still in the courting process," said Rep. Jason Probst. "The way these economic, especially these big economic development deals can sometimes work is, they've got two or three suitors on the line and they're trying to see who gives them the sweetest deal or the biggest dowry. It seems that's what the case is here. They came to Kansas, they got us to put a lot of money on the table. Then, from everything I've read, they've gone down to Oklahoma to see if they could get a sweeter deal down there."Neither Oklahoma or Kansas is authorized to say who the project is for, but speculation is that it would be for a Panasonic battery plant for electric vehicles. Panasonic is a supplier for Tesla. Whichever state wins the plant would likely see it start producing as soon as fiscal 2024.Panasonic already jointly operates a battery plant with Tesla in Nevada.Hutchinson Chamber CEO Debra Teufel joined several economic development professionals from across Kansas in urging the legislature to pass the APEX bill back in February.All APEX offers are subject to the approval of the State Finance Council.Panasonic told Nikkei Asia earlier this month the decision on whether or not to build the plant at all will be based on the profitability of the new lithium-ion batteries that Panasonic will produce at its plant in Japan's Wakayama Prefecture starting in fiscal year 2023.

Will Kansas get the super secret project approved in APEX bill?

Total value of building permits climbed last year beyond $1.15B

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/05/31/omaha-hits-new-strides-in-construction-activity-2/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

OMAHA — The signs are plentiful: newly framed houses around town, freshly bulldozed land, tower cranes dotting the skyline.

Now
 a recently released report reinforces that construction activity in 
Nebraska’s largest city has reached new heights in several ways.

According
 to the City of Omaha’s latest annual “Building and Development 
Summary,” the total estimated value of building permits issued by the 
Planning Department last year climbed to roughly $1.15 billion — the 
highest yearly tally on record for the city and second highest when 
accounting for inflation.

That
 price tag reflects construction ranging from houses and apartments to 
converted structures to new, altered or expanded properties containing 
office, retail, educational and other operations.&nbsp;

In
 all of last year, about 1,349 acres of land got the official green 
light for final platting, which meant the area was to be divided, 
parceled or otherwise prepared for new development. Not since 2005 had 
Omaha city leaders okayed that much ground to be platted, the report 
noted.

“Obviously
 people are investing in the community,” said City Planning Director 
Dave Fanslau. “It was a busy year, a historic year, just a lot of 
activity for the development and construction industries.”

City
 officials expect 2022 to finish with as much or more permit activity, 
especially if the skyline-changing $600 million Mutual of Omaha downtown
 office tower gets out of the ground yet this year. 

Because
 building permits and plat approvals are granted in early stages of a 
project, they’re good indicators of investment and economic growth to 
come. Many of the projects that got the go-ahead last year are now 
noticeable and changing the landscape of today.&nbsp;

Indeed,
 2021 ushered in a burst of building that included downtown student dorm
 rooms, a riverfront science museum, senior apartments, hotels, schools,
 banks and an Amazon warehouse.

The
 60-page report, packed with data and punctuated with graphics and 
charts, was posted on the city’s website without any&nbsp; fanfare. It covers
 building activity within the city limits and three miles beyond.

City
 planners noted in their analysis that Omaha’s housing market was 
strong, even though the total estimated value of residences issued 
building permits in 2021 dipped compared to the year before (from $461 
million to nearly $431 million).

The
 permit activity showed that housing projects launched last year were 
more heavily concentrated in suburban Omaha: Twice as many residential 
permits were issued west and outside of the Interstate 680 loop than 
inside of it. That stands in contrast with the unprecedented year of 
2017, when for the first time in modern history, more building permits 
were issued in urban areas closer to the core of the city than its 
outskirts.

Remarkable,
 however, is the data showing that new housing campuses overall are 
getting more dense, even in suburban Omaha. Over the past five years, 
the average number of dwellings per acre of final platted residential 
development was about three. That has doubled to about six.&nbsp;

City
 planners attributed much of the shift to projects such as Heartwood 
Preserve, the mixed-use redevelopment that offers a variety of housing 
and a good concentration of apartments in a campus setting near 144th 
Street and West Dodge Road.

It’s a movement policymakers like to see, as
 developable land in Omaha is growing more scarce. Fanslau said building
 up instead of out — fitting more housing and population on less ground —
 helps build the city’s property tax base and generally saves on the 
cost of public services.

“We hope that trend continues, no doubt,” he
 said. “We don’t promote density just for density’s sake. It has to be 
designed appropriately. But it’s very important and takes advantage of 
existing infrastructure, sewers, water and roads.”

With its 237-unit rental housing project 
rising near the relatively new Flanagan Lake, Woodsonia Real Estate 
launched the city’s largest apartment project of last year, according to
 permit records.

Woodsonia’s Carson Stratman said he and his 
team actually started planning for Westline at Flanagan Lake before the 
pandemic struck and prompted them to pause. The group didn’t foresee a 
“housing boom” to follow so soon, he said. Now, in addition to moving 
forward with the first 237-unit phase, Woodsonia envisions upping the 
count in that northwest Omaha pocket eventually to about 500 apartments,
 he said.

“We’re bullish on the multifamily market 
right now,” Stratman said. He believes demand will continue for rentals,
 largely because he said the cost of single-family homes has 
“skyrocketed.”

In both the Omaha and Lincoln areas, the 
median price of a house, counting both new and existing home sales, went
 up about 13% in just a year’s time. The jump from about $236,000 to 
$268,000 compares sales so far this year with the same time frame last 
year.

City
 planners said in the report that activity related to the 
non-residential side of building permits&nbsp; — which would be commercial, 
office industrial and mixed-use — moved at a strong pace.

Ranking among the most giant of those 
projects, in terms of square footage, were the Douglas County justice 
center office tower and youth center, a few schools and the Amazon 
warehouse.

The
 estimated $721 million total value of nonresidential development 
permits represented a banner year. In contrast, as measured by physical 
building space, 2021’s 1.73 million square feet of total construction 
and renovation work fell about 13% short of the previous 10-year 
average.

Meanwhile, the city’s population density has
 been slowly rising from a low of 4.8 people per acre in 2008 to today’s
 5.2. The report shows that since 1960, Omaha’s land area has more than 
doubled, growing 175% while city population has grown by only about 59%.
 That resulted in a long-term decline of population density — from about
 8.9 people per acre in 1960 to today’s 5.2.

Fanslau reiterated the city’s call for 
greater density and infill development efforts to beef up the people 
count and to help offset fiscal implications.

“It’s very important,” he said. “We like density.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654012535290.png" alt="A crane lifts building material to top of an apartment complex under construction for GreenSlate Development along midtown Omaha’s Turner Boulevard near Dewey Park. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>A crane lifts building material to top of an apartment complex under construction for GreenSlate Development along midtown Omaha’s Turner Boulevard near Dewey Park. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Total value of building permits climbed last year beyond $1.15B</h2>By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/05/31/omaha-hits-new-strides-in-construction-activity-2/">Nebraska Examiner</a>OMAHA — The signs are plentiful: newly framed houses around town, freshly bulldozed land, tower cranes dotting the skyline.Now
 a recently released report reinforces that construction activity in 
Nebraska’s largest city has reached new heights in several ways.According
 to the City of Omaha’s latest annual “Building and Development 
Summary,” the total estimated value of building permits issued by the 
Planning Department last year climbed to roughly $1.15 billion — the 
highest yearly tally on record for the city and second highest when 
accounting for inflation.<h2>2022 could finish even stronger</h2>That
 price tag reflects construction ranging from houses and apartments to 
converted structures to new, altered or expanded properties containing 
office, retail, educational and other operations.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654012610303.jpeg" alt="Westline at Flanagan Lake, rendering (Courtesy of Simonson &amp; Associates Inc.)" />
 <figcaption>Westline at Flanagan Lake, rendering (Courtesy of Simonson &amp; Associates Inc.)</figcaption>
 </figure>In
 all of last year, about 1,349 acres of land got the official green 
light for final platting, which meant the area was to be divided, 
parceled or otherwise prepared for new development. Not since 2005 had 
Omaha city leaders okayed that much ground to be platted, the report 
noted.“Obviously
 people are investing in the community,” said City Planning Director 
Dave Fanslau. “It was a busy year, a historic year, just a lot of 
activity for the development and construction industries.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654012639204.jpeg" alt="Rendering shows southeast corner of 12 &amp; William apartments in Little Bohemia neighborhood south of Omaha’s downtown. (Courtesy of BVH Architecture)" />
 <figcaption>Rendering shows southeast corner of 12 &amp; William apartments in Little Bohemia neighborhood south of Omaha’s downtown. (Courtesy of BVH Architecture)</figcaption>
 </figure>City
 officials expect 2022 to finish with as much or more permit activity, 
especially if the skyline-changing $600 million Mutual of Omaha downtown
 office tower gets out of the ground yet this year. Because
 building permits and plat approvals are granted in early stages of a 
project, they’re good indicators of investment and economic growth to 
come. Many of the projects that got the go-ahead last year are now 
noticeable and changing the landscape of today.&nbsp;Indeed,
 2021 ushered in a burst of building that included downtown student dorm
 rooms, a riverfront science museum, senior apartments, hotels, schools,
 banks and an Amazon warehouse.<h2>Development, by the numbers</h2>Consider other highlights of the report:<ul>
 <li>The
 number of permits issued last year to build 3,170 residential dwellings
 (that’s houses and apartments combined) was slightly less than the 
previous year but above the annual average of about 2,800 during the 
previous 10 years. The 2021 residential permit count is the third 
highest since 2005.</li><li>Of
 the 3,170 homes, about half were single-family houses and duplexes and 
the other half were apartments and townhomes. That essentially even 
split reflected the same basic pattern over the past decade.</li><li>Platting
 activity for nonresidential-type construction projects — that would 
include commercial, office, industrial and mixed-use ventures — hit a 
13-year high, with 476 acres receiving final plat approval last year. 
For perspective, Omaha’s annual average during the previous decade was 
159 acres.</li><li>The
 total valuation of that nonresidential development, according to 
permits, rose to $721 million last year, the highest on record for the 
city.</li>
 </ul><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654012669608.jpeg" alt="Construction ongoing at one of biggest Omaha residential projects issued permits last year, Clarity Development’s 107 Little Bohemia apartments near 12th and William Streets, south of downtown. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>Construction ongoing at one of biggest Omaha residential projects issued permits last year, Clarity Development’s 107 Little Bohemia apartments near 12th and William Streets, south of downtown. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>The
 60-page report, packed with data and punctuated with graphics and 
charts, was posted on the city’s website without any&nbsp; fanfare. It covers
 building activity within the city limits and three miles beyond.City
 planners noted in their analysis that Omaha’s housing market was 
strong, even though the total estimated value of residences issued 
building permits in 2021 dipped compared to the year before (from $461 
million to nearly $431 million).<h2>Dense is good, say urban planners</h2>The
 permit activity showed that housing projects launched last year were 
more heavily concentrated in suburban Omaha: Twice as many residential 
permits were issued west and outside of the Interstate 680 loop than 
inside of it. That stands in contrast with the unprecedented year of 
2017, when for the first time in modern history, more building permits 
were issued in urban areas closer to the core of the city than its 
outskirts.Remarkable,
 however, is the data showing that new housing campuses overall are 
getting more dense, even in suburban Omaha. Over the past five years, 
the average number of dwellings per acre of final platted residential 
development was about three. That has doubled to about six.&nbsp;City
 planners attributed much of the shift to projects such as Heartwood 
Preserve, the mixed-use redevelopment that offers a variety of housing 
and a good concentration of apartments in a campus setting near 144th 
Street and West Dodge Road.<h2>‘Bullish’ on apartments</h2>It’s a movement policymakers like to see, as
 developable land in Omaha is growing more scarce. Fanslau said building
 up instead of out — fitting more housing and population on less ground —
 helps build the city’s property tax base and generally saves on the 
cost of public services.“We hope that trend continues, no doubt,” he
 said. “We don’t promote density just for density’s sake. It has to be 
designed appropriately. But it’s very important and takes advantage of 
existing infrastructure, sewers, water and roads.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654012708844.jpeg" alt="Westline at Flanagan Lake, view looking east over lake (Courtesy of Simonson &amp; Associates Inc.)" />
 <figcaption>Westline at Flanagan Lake, view looking east over lake (Courtesy of Simonson &amp; Associates Inc.)</figcaption>
 </figure>With its 237-unit rental housing project 
rising near the relatively new Flanagan Lake, Woodsonia Real Estate 
launched the city’s largest apartment project of last year, according to
 permit records.Woodsonia’s Carson Stratman said he and his 
team actually started planning for Westline at Flanagan Lake before the 
pandemic struck and prompted them to pause. The group didn’t foresee a 
“housing boom” to follow so soon, he said. Now, in addition to moving 
forward with the first 237-unit phase, Woodsonia envisions upping the 
count in that northwest Omaha pocket eventually to about 500 apartments,
 he said.“We’re bullish on the multifamily market 
right now,” Stratman said. He believes demand will continue for rentals,
 largely because he said the cost of single-family homes has 
“skyrocketed.”In both the Omaha and Lincoln areas, the 
median price of a house, counting both new and existing home sales, went
 up about 13% in just a year’s time. The jump from about $236,000 to 
$268,000 compares sales so far this year with the same time frame last 
year.<h2>Population density only slowly rising</h2>City
 planners said in the report that activity related to the 
non-residential side of building permits&nbsp; — which would be commercial, 
office industrial and mixed-use — moved at a strong pace.Ranking among the most giant of those 
projects, in terms of square footage, were the Douglas County justice 
center office tower and youth center, a few schools and the Amazon 
warehouse.The
 estimated $721 million total value of nonresidential development 
permits represented a banner year. In contrast, as measured by physical 
building space, 2021’s 1.73 million square feet of total construction 
and renovation work fell about 13% short of the previous 10-year 
average.Meanwhile, the city’s population density has
 been slowly rising from a low of 4.8 people per acre in 2008 to today’s
 5.2. The report shows that since 1960, Omaha’s land area has more than 
doubled, growing 175% while city population has grown by only about 59%.
 That resulted in a long-term decline of population density — from about
 8.9 people per acre in 1960 to today’s 5.2.Fanslau reiterated the city’s call for 
greater density and infill development efforts to beef up the people 
count and to help offset fiscal implications.“It’s very important,” he said. “We like density.”

Omaha hits new strides in construction activity

WABAUNSEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a school teacher for alleged child sex crimes.

Allen Sylvester, 51, who is listed as a <a href="https://www.usd320.com/vnews/display.v/StaffDirectory">science teacher </a>in Wamego, according to the USD 320 web site, is in custody on requested charges of sexual exploitation of a child and electronic solicitation, "Offender believes child &gt;14&lt;16." according to online jail records.

Sylvester is being held on a $100,000 bond. USD 320 had not issued a statement on the arrest early Tuesday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654007129515.png" alt="Sylvester-photo Wabaunsee Co." />
 <figcaption>Sylvester-photo Wabaunsee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>WABAUNSEE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a school teacher for alleged child sex crimes.Allen Sylvester, 51, who is listed as a <a href="https://www.usd320.com/vnews/display.v/StaffDirectory">science teacher </a>in Wamego, according to the USD 320 web site, is in custody on requested charges of sexual exploitation of a child and electronic solicitation, "Offender believes child &gt;14&lt;16." according to online jail records.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654008255967.png" alt="Image USD 320" />
 <figcaption>Image USD 320</figcaption>
 </figure>Sylvester is being held on a $100,000 bond. USD 320 had not issued a statement on the arrest early Tuesday.

Kansas teacher jailed for alleged child sex crimes

My husband and I are in our mid-twenties, and we are expecting our first baby this year. We are also debt-free, except for our mortgage, and we expect to have it paid off in about four years. It has always been our dream for me to stay home with our kids, and maybe even homeschool them, when the time was right. My husband makes more than enough for us to live on, so we have always put the paychecks from my human resources job toward paying off the house. What do you think, Dave? I kind of hate to give up the income, but I want to do what is best for my family.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

First, congratulations on expecting a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/relationships/what-i-learned-from-being-a-proud-parent">new baby!</a>&nbsp;I know it’s an exciting time in your lives. It sounds like you two have been killing it financially as well. You’ve both worked hard to set yourselves up for a great future.

Honestly, there’s no wrong answer here. Under the circumstances, the big question is what do&nbsp;you&nbsp;want to do? Of course, the final decision should be made by you and your husband&nbsp;together, but you’re doing the smart thing by analyzing the trade-off. By that, I mean comparing the ideas of continuing to bring extra cash to the household or being at home with your baby.

If you love your job and want to continue those duties full-time, it doesn’t make you a bad mom. It just makes you a working mom. But if you’re in a season of life where you don’t need a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/career-advice/resume-guide">career</a>&nbsp;income or workplace identity to be fulfilled, or if you just want to be home with your child, that’s a really cool thing, too. And hey, if you like your job, there’s no reason you couldn’t perform some HR functions from home on a contract basis, like 20 to 25 hours a week while the little one’s napping, with minimal strain on motherhood.

Even if you quit today and it takes a couple more years for you guys to pay off your house, so what? It’s still not a bad choice. The bad thing is, lots of ladies end up with mom-guilt no matter what they do. They feel guilty if they’re not staying home with the little one, and they feel guilty if they aren’t generating an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/investment-options-for-high-income-earners">income</a>. Society wants you to be everything, and when you choose to be one or the other, it doesn’t know what to do with you—and lots of times becomes really judgey.

You’re blessed to be in a unique financial situation, Ann. So, do what you and your husband feel in your hearts is best for you and your family. Sit down together and talk about it, then make a plan and don’t worry about what the world thinks. God bless you guys!&nbsp;&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/">Dave Ramsey&nbsp;</a>is an eight-time #1 national bestselling author, personal finance expert, and host of&nbsp;The Ramsey Show, heard by more than 18 million listeners each week. He&nbsp;has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Today Show, Fox News, CNN, Fox Business, and many more. Since 1992, Dave has helped people take control of their money, build wealth and enhance their lives. He also serves as CEO for Ramsey Solutions.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1648177011035.png" alt="Dave Ramsey" />
 <figcaption>Dave Ramsey</figcaption>
 </figure>Dear Dave,My husband and I are in our mid-twenties, and we are expecting our first baby this year. We are also debt-free, except for our mortgage, and we expect to have it paid off in about four years. It has always been our dream for me to stay home with our kids, and maybe even homeschool them, when the time was right. My husband makes more than enough for us to live on, so we have always put the paychecks from my human resources job toward paying off the house. What do you think, Dave? I kind of hate to give up the income, but I want to do what is best for my family.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AnnDear Ann,First, congratulations on expecting a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/relationships/what-i-learned-from-being-a-proud-parent">new baby!</a>&nbsp;I know it’s an exciting time in your lives. It sounds like you two have been killing it financially as well. You’ve both worked hard to set yourselves up for a great future.Honestly, there’s no wrong answer here. Under the circumstances, the big question is what do&nbsp;you&nbsp;want to do? Of course, the final decision should be made by you and your husband&nbsp;together, but you’re doing the smart thing by analyzing the trade-off. By that, I mean comparing the ideas of continuing to bring extra cash to the household or being at home with your baby.If you love your job and want to continue those duties full-time, it doesn’t make you a bad mom. It just makes you a working mom. But if you’re in a season of life where you don’t need a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/career-advice/resume-guide">career</a>&nbsp;income or workplace identity to be fulfilled, or if you just want to be home with your child, that’s a really cool thing, too. And hey, if you like your job, there’s no reason you couldn’t perform some HR functions from home on a contract basis, like 20 to 25 hours a week while the little one’s napping, with minimal strain on motherhood.Even if you quit today and it takes a couple more years for you guys to pay off your house, so what? It’s still not a bad choice. The bad thing is, lots of ladies end up with mom-guilt no matter what they do. They feel guilty if they’re not staying home with the little one, and they feel guilty if they aren’t generating an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/investment-options-for-high-income-earners">income</a>. Society wants you to be everything, and when you choose to be one or the other, it doesn’t know what to do with you—and lots of times becomes really judgey.You’re blessed to be in a unique financial situation, Ann. So, do what you and your husband feel in your hearts is best for you and your family. Sit down together and talk about it, then make a plan and don’t worry about what the world thinks. God bless you guys!&nbsp;&nbsp;— Dave<a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/">Dave Ramsey&nbsp;</a>is an eight-time #1 national bestselling author, personal finance expert, and host of&nbsp;The Ramsey Show, heard by more than 18 million listeners each week. He&nbsp;has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Today Show, Fox News, CNN, Fox Business, and many more. Since 1992, Dave has helped people take control of their money, build wealth and enhance their lives. He also serves as CEO for Ramsey Solutions.

Dave Says: What do you want to do?

WASHINGTON (AP).—U.S. and Canadian regulators are investigating a hepatitis outbreak that may be linked to fresh organic strawberries.

In a joint weekend statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Public Health Agency of Canada said illnesses in Minnesota, California and Canada occurred after people consumed FreshKampo and H-E-B brand strawberries.

The <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-hepatitis-virus-strawberries-may-2022">agencies said the </a>strawberries were purchased between March 5 and April 25. They were sold at various U.S. retailers, including Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, Safeway and Trader Joe’s.&nbsp;

The potentially affected strawberries are past their shelf life, but health officials say consumers who purchased them and froze them to eat later should throw them away.

There have been 17 illnesses and 12 hospitalizations reported in the U.S., the FDA said. Ten cases and four hospitalizations have been reported in Canada.

Mexico-based FreshKampo, which grew the strawberries, said in a statement Sunday that it is working with regulators to determine how the problem occurred. FreshKampo said the label on the containers of potentially affected strawberries would have said “Product of Mexico” or “Distributed by Meridien Foods.”

In a statement on its website, Texas grocer H-E-B said it has not received or sold organic strawberries from the supplier in question since April 16. H-E-B said anyone who still has the strawberries should throw them away or return them to the store where they were purchased.

Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause liver disease and, in rare cases, liver failure and death. Illness usually occurs within 15 to 50 days after eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and jaundice.

Consumers who ate the potentially affected berries in the last two weeks and have not been vaccinated against hepatitis A should immediately consult with a physician, the FDA said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1654005740950.png" alt="Hepatitis A-image FDA" />
 <figcaption>Hepatitis A-image FDA</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP).—U.S. and Canadian regulators are investigating a hepatitis outbreak that may be linked to fresh organic strawberries.In a joint weekend statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Public Health Agency of Canada said illnesses in Minnesota, California and Canada occurred after people consumed FreshKampo and H-E-B brand strawberries.The <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-hepatitis-virus-strawberries-may-2022">agencies said the </a>strawberries were purchased between March 5 and April 25. They were sold at various U.S. retailers, including Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, Safeway and Trader Joe’s.&nbsp;The potentially affected strawberries are past their shelf life, but health officials say consumers who purchased them and froze them to eat later should throw them away.There have been 17 illnesses and 12 hospitalizations reported in the U.S., the FDA said. Ten cases and four hospitalizations have been reported in Canada.Mexico-based FreshKampo, which grew the strawberries, said in a statement Sunday that it is working with regulators to determine how the problem occurred. FreshKampo said the label on the containers of potentially affected strawberries would have said “Product of Mexico” or “Distributed by Meridien Foods.”In a statement on its website, Texas grocer H-E-B said it has not received or sold organic strawberries from the supplier in question since April 16. H-E-B said anyone who still has the strawberries should throw them away or return them to the store where they were purchased.Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause liver disease and, in rare cases, liver failure and death. Illness usually occurs within 15 to 50 days after eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and jaundice.Consumers who ate the potentially affected berries in the last two weeks and have not been vaccinated against hepatitis A should immediately consult with a physician, the FDA said.

US regulators tie hepatitis cases to strawberries

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal Saturday shooting have made an arrest.

Just before 10p.m., Saturday officers responded to a shooting at an apartment complex&nbsp;in the 4900 block of East Harry. Upon their arrival, they located 30-year-old Emmanuel Hardy of Wichita outside of the residence with gunshot wounds, according to Office Paul Cruz. EMS transported Hardy&nbsp;to an area hospital where he died.

The investigation revealed 27-year-old Roger Gale and Hardy were in a verbal disturbance that&nbsp;stemmed from a prior verbal argument while Gale was walking his dog, according to Cruz.&nbsp; 

During the disturbance Gale fired several shots at a 39-year-old woman and Hardy. Hardy was shot several times which caused his fatal injuries.

<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20064899">Gale remains jailed </a>on requested charges of first degree murder and aggravated assault on a $250,000 bond, according to online jail records.

The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1653857468279.png" alt="Gale-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Gale-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal Saturday shooting have made an arrest.Just before 10p.m., Saturday officers responded to a shooting at an apartment complex&nbsp;in the 4900 block of East Harry. Upon their arrival, they located 30-year-old Emmanuel Hardy of Wichita outside of the residence with gunshot wounds, according to Office Paul Cruz. EMS transported Hardy&nbsp;to an area hospital where he died.The investigation revealed 27-year-old Roger Gale and Hardy were in a verbal disturbance that&nbsp;stemmed from a prior verbal argument while Gale was walking his dog, according to Cruz.&nbsp; During the disturbance Gale fired several shots at a 39-year-old woman and Hardy. Hardy was shot several times which caused his fatal injuries.<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20064899">Gale remains jailed </a>on requested charges of first degree murder and aggravated assault on a $250,000 bond, according to online jail records.The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office.

Dispute while Kansas man walked his dog led to murder

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a shooting at a weekend graduation party that fatally injured 17-year-old Boisy D. Barefield of Wichita followed by a fatal hit and run crash have identified the victim the girl who died as 15-year-old&nbsp; Jaxson Hunt of Wichita, according to Office Paul Cruz.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1653961867307.png" alt="Police at the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KWCH" />
 <figcaption>Police at the scene of the investigation -photo courtesy KWCH</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a shooting at a weekend graduation party that fatally injured 17-year-old Boisy D. Barefield of Wichita followed by a fatal hit and run crash have identified the victim the girl who died as 15-year-old&nbsp; Jaxson Hunt of Wichita, according to Office Paul Cruz.Just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a shooting at The Banquet Hall located in the 3100 block of East 25th&nbsp;Street in Wichita, according to Officer Paul Cruz. Upon arriving at the scene, they located Boisy inside with a gunshot wound. EMS transported Boisy to an area hospital where he died from his injuries.The initial investigation revealed there was a graduation party with several people in attendance. During the party, a disturbance ensued between two groups that led to shots being fired striking Boisy.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1653858499131.png" alt="Rockmore-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Rockmore-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>Hunt was fleeing the gunfire at the party and was struck at the intersection of 25th&nbsp;Street North and Estelle, by 18-year-old Samara Rockmore, who fled the pedestrian accident in her vehicle. EMS transported the 15-year-old girl to an area hospital where she later died from her injuries, according to Cruz.Rockmore was later located and arrested and booked for felony hit and run.&nbsp;Investigators are still trying to determine what led up to the shooting. Lack of cooperation has made the investigation difficult to determine all the details of the case, according to Cruz.-----SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting that fatally injured 17-year-old Boisy D. Barefield of Wichita, and a hit and run that fatally injured 15-year-old female of Wichita.At approximately 11:20 p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a shooting at The Banquet Hall located in the 3100 block of East 25th&nbsp;Street in Wichita, according to Officer Paul Cruz. Upon arriving at the scene, they located Boisy inside with a gunshot wound. EMS transported Boisy to an area hospital where he died from his injuries.The initial investigation revealed there was a graduation party with several people in attendance. During the party, a disturbance ensued between two groups that led to shots being fired striking Boisy. A 15-year-old girl who was fleeing the gunfire at the party was struck at the intersection of 25th&nbsp;Street North and Estelle, by 18-year-old Samara Rockmore, who fled the pedestrian accident in her vehicle. EMS transported the 15-year-old girl to an area hospital where she later died from her injuries, according to Cruz.Rockmore was later located and arrested and booked for felony hit and run.&nbsp;Investigators are still trying to determine what led up to the shooting. Lack of cooperation has made the investigation difficult to determine all the details of the case, according to Cruz.