A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories 
and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were 
shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. 
Here are the facts:

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-excess-deaths-covid-died-suddenly-793316776380">Article misrepresents CDC data, falsely links deaths to COVID vaccines</a>

CLAIM:
 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly confirmed that 
at least 118,000 children and young adults have “died suddenly” in the 
U.S. since the COVID-19 vaccines rolled out.

THE FACTS: The CDC 
has confirmed no such thing. The claim misrepresents CDC data around 
excess deaths — the difference between the observed number of deaths and
 the expected number in a specific period. A misleading article 
spreading widely online attempts to link recent child and young adult 
deaths in the U.S. to COVID-19 vaccines. “CDC quietly confirms at least 
118k Children &amp; Young Adults have ‘Died Suddenly’ in the USA since 
the roll-out of the COVID Vaccines,” reads its headline. The article 
originally appeared in November on The Exposé, a website that has 
repeatedly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-818000433358">spread COVID-19 misinformation</a>.
 A screenshot of the article’s headline was shared in multiple Facebook 
and Instagram posts. As evidence, the article cites CDC data as 
published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
 an <a href="https://www.oecd.org/about/members-and-partners/">intergovernmental organization</a>
 that promotes sustainable growth. As presented by The Exposé, the data 
shows that there were about 118,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 0-to-44 
age group between December 2020 and October 2022, compared to the 
2015-2019 average. The article suggests that these deaths are the result
 of the COVID-19 vaccines, saying that the “‘mysterious’ sudden rise 
which has contributed to half a million American children and young 
adults dying since late 2020, is most likely due to the Covid-19 
injections.” But Brian Tsai, a spokesperson for the CDC’s National 
Center for Health Statistics, told The Associated Press that the claim 
distorts CDC data. Tsai said that from the start of 2021 to the 43rd 
week of 2022, there have been about 124,000 excess deaths in the U.S. 
among 0- to 44-year-olds compared to the 2015-2019 average. Tsai said 
his number is higher than those published by OECD because the CDC’s data
 is now more complete. There’s no indication COVID-19 vaccines caused 
these excess deaths, he said. Confirmed reports of deaths caused by 
vaccination are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html">extremely rare</a>,
 even with millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses having been administered 
in the U.S. Scott Pauley, a spokesperson for the CDC, told the AP that 
outside of nine deaths confirmed to be associated with rare blood clots 
following the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine, the agency has “not 
detected any unusual or unexpected patterns for deaths following 
immunization that would indicate that COVID vaccines are causing or 
contributing to deaths.” Tsai said likely reasons for excess deaths in 
this age group since 2020 include suicides, homicides, heart diseases, 
liver disease, diabetes and accidental deaths including drug overdoses. 
He added that a substantial number of the excess deaths are the result 
of COVID-19 itself. A surge in excess deaths among children and young 
adults in the summer of 2021, for example, corresponded with the delta 
variant of the coronavirus hitting the U.S., which affected younger 
people more than previous variants of the virus, Tsai said. CDC data 
from December 2021 indicated that COVID-19 was the third leading cause 
of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer. Experts have said
 drug overdoses also contributed to higher-than-expected death rates in 
2021, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-covid-19-pandemic-8117abd8e4367eaa6cb9b7ae78875734">the AP reported.</a>
 Tsai also refuted the headline’s claim that the CDC has “quietly” 
confirmed data about children and young adults dying “suddenly.” The 
CDC’s excess death data has long been public, he said, and “there is no 
way to really determine from the data whether people died suddenly or 
not.” Experts told the AP that there is no evidence to support the claim
 that the vaccines caused the excess deaths. "Excess deaths so obviously
 increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic that we’re able to,
 with some level of confidence, say that COVID was causing those excess 
deaths,” said Spencer Fox, an assistant professor in epidemiology and 
biostatistics at the University of Georgia. OECD and The Exposé did not 
respond to requests for comment.

— Associated Press writers Karena Phan in Los Angeles and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-health-covid-pandemic-flu-465037589830">COVID-19 and flu cases both rising, despite claims online</a>

CLAIM:
 In a normal year, there is a lot of flu but no COVID-19, while during 
the pandemic there has been a lot of COVID-19 and no flu.

THE 
FACTS: While flu cases plummeted as COVID-19 cases soared early in the 
pandemic, coronavirus and flu cases are both on the rise globally, 
according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., the Centers for
 Disease Control and Prevention reports thousands of hospitalizations 
and deaths from the flu and a significant rise in COVID cases and deaths
 through the fall and early winter. The flu and the coronavirus are 
distinct viruses, contrary to claims that they are the same. As the 
winter cold and flu season takes hold, social media users are 
misrepresenting the prevalence of flu and COVID cases compared to prior 
years. One popular Instagram post features a meme containing two 
screenshots of actor John Krasinski in his role on the television sitcom
 “The Office.” In the first image, he points to a board with text that 
says: “Normal Year Flu 2.9 million COVID 0. The second image shows 
Krasinski next to the same board with text that says “Plandemic Flu 0 
COVID 2.9 million.” The term “plandemic” refers to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-us-news-ap-top-news-social-media-technology-732e69c3c22010eeda3114ee68504652">baseless conspiracy theory</a>
 that the coronavirus was intentionally developed and set upon the 
global population. In another popular post, a woman claims in an 
Instagram reel that the U.S. is dealing with “record high cases of the 
flu” even though there were no cases of the illness “on the whole 
planet” last year. The post had been liked more than 16,600 times as of 
Friday. But the flu never vanished. "Whatever point they’re trying to 
make is silly,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist
 at Vanderbilt University’s medical school in Nashville, Tennessee. “It 
doesn’t comport with reality.” Thomas Russo, chief of the infectious 
diseases division at the University at Buffalo medical school in New 
York, agreed, noting that early in the pandemic, flu cases dropped 
dramatically as countries imposed strict measures to limit transmission 
of COVID-19. But as nations lifted lockdowns, mask mandates and social 
distancing rules last year, flu cases reemerged and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-seniors-covid-nursing-homes-government-and-politics-1d8182dbc11706018739331cdbe310ab">COVID cases surged</a>,
 he said. Compared with prior flu seasons, last year was a relatively 
mild wave of the illness, with an estimated 9 million cases, 10,000 
hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm#:~:text=During%20the%202021%2D2022%20influenza,during%20the%202011%2D2012%20season.">the CDC.</a>
 “It seemed that COVID was stopping the flu, really in the first year 
and mostly the second year,” Russo said, referring to 2020 and 2021. 
“But the flu has come back with a vengeance this year.” A <a href="https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/influenza/influenza-updates/2022/2022_12_12_surveillance_update_434.pdf?sfvrsn=b7677a7d_1&amp;download=true">WHO report</a>
 released Monday looking at this year’s flu season confirms that cases 
of influenza and COVID-19 are increasing worldwide. In late October, WHO
 Director-General Tedros Adhanom <a href="https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-27-october-2022">Ghebreyesus said</a>
 the world is “turning a corner on the COVID-19 pandemic,” but warned it
 is far from over as he also emphasized the potential for a more 
widespread flu outbreak. In the U.S., health officials have reported the
 flu season <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-pandemics-covid-flu-7c784678637e51d4a8508f5dde70cded">kicked off earlier</a>
 than usual this year. The season typically ramps up in December or 
January but by early November, the CDC estimated there were already 
roughly 1.6 million flu cases. The agency <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-covid-flu-6b5b3a2e04f2c63683e44013e7814177">reported earlier this month</a>
 that 44 states were experiencing high flu activity and that the illness
 had resulted in at least 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths so 
far. New cases of COVID-19, meanwhile, have risen from an average of 
roughly 39,300 a day on Nov. 28 to about 62,300 as of Dec. 12, according
 to data from Johns Hopkins University. Deaths from the virus also rose 
over the same two-week period, from an average of 309 a day to nearly 
404 daily. The meme “might have been representative of 2020-2021 and 
(less so) 2021-2022,” Kate Grusich, a CDC spokesperson wrote in an email
 Wednesday. “But it is not an accurate representation of current COVID 
and flu activity levels.”

— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-katie-porter-lgbtq-737253122123">Posts mischaracterize congresswoman’s comments on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric</a>

CLAIM:
 Rep. Katie Porter said in a hearing before the House Oversight and 
Reform Committee that pedophilia is an identity, not a crime.

THE 
FACTS: Porter’s comments from the committee’s Wednesday hearing on the 
rise of anti-LGBTQ violence were taken out of context. The California 
Democrat was agreeing with Human Rights Watch President Kelley Robinson,
 who spoke about online rhetoric painting LGBTQ people as “groomers” and
 “pedophiles.” Porter said that such rhetoric amounts to falsely 
“alleging that a person is criminal somehow and engaged in criminal acts
 merely because of their identity — their sexual orientation, their 
gender identity.” Misleading posts about Porter’s appearance at the 
hearing spread widely on social media, distorting comments she made on 
anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. “Rep Katie Porter (D) says pedophilia isn’t a 
crime- it’s an identity,” one tweet that shared a truncated version of 
Porter’s comments claimed. It had received nearly 21,000 likes and 
nearly 10,000 shares as of Thursday. But a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?524793-1/survivors-club-shooting-activists-testify-anti-lgbtq-violence">full recording of the hearing</a>, held in response to the recent <a href="https://apnews.com/article/shootings-colorado-gun-politics-springs-7f079c7feebc32cc8ad46f2724844c18">Club Q shooting</a> in Colorado, shows a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5046774/user-clip-katie-porter-comments-re-grooming">longer exchange</a> between Porter and Robinson. Porter first refers to a <a href="https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/CCDH-HRC-Digital-Hate-Report-2022-single-pages.pdf">Human Rights Watch report</a>
 published in August that analyzed tweets containing “grooming content.”
 Such content refers to the false narrative that members of the LGBTQ 
community are pedophiles who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/education-gender-identity-adf10ff5f169fae9c9af4d08a7b0c2bc">groom children</a> in order to abuse them. Other posts advancing this narrative — including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-drag-queen-story-hour-photo-965766299271">images</a> and video taken <a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-a26e7eee15df0bbc2bb98071b683b1f4">out of context</a>
 — have also spread online. “The groomer narrative is an age-old lie to 
position LGBTQ+ people as a threat to kids,” Porter begins. “And what it
 does is deny them access to public spaces, it stokes fear and can even 
stoke violence. In response, Robinson, who describes herself as queer in
 her <a href="https://www.hrc.org/about/staff/kelley-robinson">professional biography</a>,
 explains that “when we use phrases and words like groomers and 
pedophiles to describe people — individuals in our communities that are 
mothers, that are fathers, that are teachers, that are doctors — it is 
dangerous.” She added that the purpose of such rhetoric is “to 
dehumanize us and make us feel like we are not a part of this American 
society” and that “it has real-life consequences.” Porter then agreed 
with Robinson’s assessment, stating: “I think you’re absolutely right 
and it’s not — this allegation of groomer and pedophile — it is alleging
 that a person is criminal somehow and engaged in criminal acts merely 
because of their identity — their sexual orientation, their gender 
identity.” In reference to the posts mischaracterizing Porter’s 
comments, Jordan Wong, a spokesperson for Porter, told The Associated 
Press that “it’s clear it’s not true.”

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-grant-wahl-vaccine-false-550141070405">World Cup reporter’s fatal heart condition unrelated to COVID vaccine</a>

CLAIM: Longtime sports journalist Grant Wahl, who died in Qatar last week, was killed by the COVID-19 vaccine.

THE
 FACTS: Wahl died of a ruptured blood vessel in his heart — an injury 
unrelated to any vaccine, his wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, confirmed to The
 Associated Press. The COVID-19 vaccines have not been associated with 
the heart condition that killed Wahl, experts told the AP. Wahl, 49, was
 in Doha to cover the World Cup when he fell ill. He tested negative for
 COVID-19 and sought treatment for what he described at the time as <a href="https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22">“pressure and discomfort</a>
 ” in his chest. But on Dec. 9, he collapsed during a soccer match 
between Argentina and the Netherlands, and died the following day. 
Wahl’s sudden decline caught the attention of vaccine skeptics on social
 media, who shared posts falsely tying his death to COVID-19 
vaccination. “Let’s be frank,” wrote one Twitter user, in a post that 
had gained more than 2,000 likes by Wednesday night. “The Covid 19 
vaccine killed Grant Wahl.” Qatari authorities <a href="https://apnews.com/article/journalist-grant-wahl-dies-in-qatar-covering-world-cup-82829df66ec0635bdbba3e8edccea96d">did not immediately announce</a>
 his cause of death. On Wednesday, Gounder, a physician and infectious 
disease expert, said an autopsy by the New York City medical examiner’s 
office found Wahl had died from a slow-growing aneurysm within his 
aorta, the body’s largest artery. “His death was unrelated to COVID,” 
Gounder wrote in a <a href="https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/a-note-from-grants-wife-celine-gounder">newsletter entry</a>
 on her husband’s site. “His death was unrelated to vaccination status. 
There was nothing nefarious about his death.” She confirmed that 
information to the AP. Julie Bolcer, a spokesperson for the New York 
City medical examiner’s office, referred comment to the Wahl family. Dr.
 Roland Assi, a professor of cardiac surgery at Yale School of Medicine,
 told the AP that there is “no evidence or suggestion” of a link with 
COVID-19 vaccines. “If anything, COVID infection is known to be linked 
to an increased risk of cardiovascular events, and possibly acute aortic
 events,” Assi wrote in an email. Similarly, Dr. Shinichi Fukuhara, an 
aortic surgeon at the University of Michigan’s medical school, wrote in 
an email that he didn’t know of any data tying the vaccines to the kind 
of aneurysm that killed Wahl. Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines 
have caused some cardiac side effects — namely myocarditis, an 
inflammation of the heart. But cases of vaccine-induced myocarditis are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-943798356497">exceedingly rare</a> and the condition is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-552859079506">often mild</a>.

— Associated Press writer Graph Massara in San Francisco contributed this report.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-maricopa-county-map-447390498107">Maricopa County displays voter maps for both parties, contrary to claim</a>

CLAIM:
 Election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County displayed a map of 
Republican voters in the county at its central tabulation facility in 
Phoenix, but did not have a comparable Democrat voter map.

THE 
FACTS: Heat maps showing past Republican and Democrat voter turnout are 
both displayed in the Maricopa County Elections Department’s central 
tabulation facility, according to a spokesperson for the department and a
 photograph she provided to The Associated Press. A Monday blog post 
asserted that Maricopa County displayed a heat map of “expected” GOP 
voters and that the elections department “did not have a similar 
Democrat heat map hanging on their wall.” Mark Finchem, a Republican <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-government-and-politics-mark-finchem-0fddc6553fd0edb627105c202ce03606">who lost</a>
 his bid for Arizona secretary of state in the midterm election, shared 
the false information on Twitter stating, “Maricopa’s Heat Map of GOP 
voters. No Heat Map of Independents. No Heat Map of Democrats. Just 
Republicans.” But that’s not correct. Maps showing both past Republican 
and Democrat voter turnout are displayed in a hallway at the county's 
central tabulation facility in downtown Phoenix, Megan Gilbertson, a 
spokesperson for the Maricopa County Elections Department, wrote in an 
email to the AP. They show in-person voter turnout in the 2020 general 
election. A photo taken Monday that Gilbertson provided to the AP shows 
three maps in the hallway at the facility: a Republican in-person voter 
turnout map, a Democrat in-person voter map, and a total in-person voter
 turnout version. The blue Democrat map is right next to the red 
Republican one. The maps are used to make “data-driven decisions on the 
best places to have voting locations in future elections,” she 
explained. “The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office has a Geographic 
Information System (GIS) team that makes all of the maps in-house,” 
Gilbertson added. “We use the turnout data by party for elections such 
as the Presidential Preference Election, which is a party-only election.
 We use the all-voter maps for future planning for Primary and General 
elections.” The maps were made in late 2020 and were hung in the 
facility hallway in January 2021, according to Gilbertson. One of the 
blogs that shared the false claim about the county only having a 
Republican map has since published an additional post acknowledging that
 a Democrat map was also installed. Finchem did not respond to the AP’s 
request for comment.

— Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed this report.

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post

A former Ellis County District Court administrator who was charged with identity fraud after allegedly using electronic signatures to sign performance evaluations has entered into a diversion agreement.

Amanda Truan was charged in June with nine felony counts of identity fraud that were discovered during an Office of Judicial Administration audit in October 2021. 

The diversion agreement was registered on Dec. 5.

Truan is no longer an employee of the judicial district.

An affidavit in the case said employees were not aware nor did they authorize the submission of the evaluations or the use of their electronic signatures on the evaluations.

Kayla Acosta, who became the Ellis County District Court Clerk in May 2021, told investigators she did not recall having an evaluation since 2018.

The employee evaluations are used as performance indicators for each employee by the Office of Judicial Administration. The employee's evaluation has a direct effect on the employee's job and whether the employee will receive any type of wage enhancements or promotions. 

Each count of identity fraud could have been punishable by up to 23 months in prison and/or up to a $100,000 fine.

Truan had been on bond waiting for the resolution of the case.

By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays PostA former Ellis County District Court administrator who was charged with identity fraud after allegedly using electronic signatures to sign performance evaluations has entered into a diversion agreement.Amanda Truan was charged in June with nine felony counts of identity fraud that were discovered during an Office of Judicial Administration audit in October 2021. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1671125265075.png" alt="Amanda Truan" />
 <figcaption>Amanda Truan</figcaption>
 </figure>The diversion agreement was registered on Dec. 5. Truan is no longer an employee of the judicial district.An affidavit in the case said employees were not aware nor did they authorize the submission of the evaluations or the use of their electronic signatures on the evaluations.Kayla Acosta, who became the Ellis County District Court Clerk in May 2021, told investigators she did not recall having an evaluation since 2018.The employee evaluations are used as performance indicators for each employee by the Office of Judicial Administration. The employee's evaluation has a direct effect on the employee's job and whether the employee will receive any type of wage enhancements or promotions. Each count of identity fraud could have been punishable by up to 23 months in prison and/or up to a $100,000 fine.Truan had been on bond waiting for the resolution of the case.

Former Ellis Co. court employee enters into diversion agreement on fraud charges

KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a murder and asking the public for help to locate 28-year-old&nbsp;Glenn A. Pulluaim Jr., according to Kansas City police.

Pulluaim is charged with 2 counts of 1st degree murder and 2 counts of armed criminal action in connection with a double murder on October 22 at 8748 Chestnut Circle in Kansas City. The victims have been identified as Austin Scott and Chantell Gipson.

Pulluaim fled the scene im the victim's vehicle. Police recovered the vehicle and have exhausted all leads in an attempted to find him.&nbsp;

Pulluaim is described as 6-foot,&nbsp;&nbsp;thin build with&nbsp; shoulder length dreadlocks. He should be considered armed and dangerous. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1671103315937.png" alt="Pulluaim-photo KCPD" />
 <figcaption>Pulluaim-photo KCPD</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a murder and asking the public for help to locate 28-year-old&nbsp;Glenn A. Pulluaim Jr., according to Kansas City police.Pulluaim is charged with 2 counts of 1st degree murder and 2 counts of armed criminal action in connection with a double murder on October 22 at 8748 Chestnut Circle in Kansas City. The victims have been identified as Austin Scott and Chantell Gipson.Pulluaim fled the scene im the victim's vehicle. Police recovered the vehicle and have exhausted all leads in an attempted to find him.&nbsp;Pulluaim is described as 6-foot,&nbsp;&nbsp;thin build with&nbsp; shoulder length dreadlocks. He should be considered armed and dangerous. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.

Police ask for help to locate Kansas City double-murder suspect

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reinforced its inflation fight Wednesday by raising its key interest rate for the seventh time this year and signaling more hikes to come. But the Fed announced a smaller hike than it had in its past four meetings at a time when inflation is showing signs of easing.

The Fed boosted its benchmark rate a half-point to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, its highest level in 15 years. Though lower than its previous three-quarter-point hikes, the latest move will further increase the costs of many consumer and business loans and the risk of a recession.

The policymakers also forecast that their key short-term rate will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. That suggests that the Fed is prepared to raise its benchmark rate by an additional three-quarters of a point and leave it there through next year. Some economists had expected that the Fed would project only an additional half-point increase.

The prospect of higher-than-expected borrowing rates disappointed Wall Street. Investors immediately sent stock prices falling.

The latest rate hike was announced one day after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-november-report-c3764250d475b1149d344462adff53d6">an encouraging report showed that inflation</a>&nbsp;in the United States slowed in November for a fifth straight month. The year-over-year increase of 7.1%, though still high, was sharply below a recent peak of 9.1% in June.

“The inflation data in October and November show a welcome reduction,” Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference. “But it will take substantially more evidence to give confidence that inflation is on a sustained downward path.”

In its updated forecasts, the Fed’s policymakers predicted slower growth and higher unemployment for next year and 2024. The unemployment rate is envisioned to jump to 4.6% by the end of 2023, from 3.7% today. That would mark a significant increase in joblessness that typically would reflect a recession.

Consistent with a sharp slowdown, the officials also projected that the economy will barely grow next year, expanding just 0.5%, less than half the forecast it had made in September.

In recent weeks, Fed officials have indicated that they see some evidence of progress in their drive to defeat the worst inflation bout in four decades and to bring inflation back down to their 2% annual target. The national average for a gallon of regular gas, for example, has&nbsp;<a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">tumbled from $5 in June to $3.21</a>.

Many supply chains are no longer clogged, thereby helping reduce goods prices. The better-than-expected November inflation data showed that the prices of used cars, furniture and toys all declined last month.

So did the costs of services from hotels to airfares to car rentals. Rental and home prices are falling, too, though those declines have yet to feed into the government’s data.

And one measure the Fed tracks closely — “core” prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs for a clearer snapshot of underlying inflation — rose only slightly for a second straight month.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-europe-business-prices-consumer-87922b5a6473b1228681e757c007f1f7">Inflation has also eased slightly in Europe</a>&nbsp;and the United Kingdom, leading analysts to expect the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to slow their pace of rate hikes at their meetings Thursday. Both are expected to raise rates by half a point to target still painfully high prices spikes after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/british-politics-inflation-germany-economy-prices-8b7274fd39c584c7675dc5b2de9a76bf">big three-quarter-point increases</a>.

Inflation in the 19 countries using the euro currency&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-europe-business-prices-consumer-87922b5a6473b1228681e757c007f1f7">fell to 10%</a>&nbsp;from 10.6% in October, the first decline since June 2021. The rate is so far above the bank’s 2% goal that rate hikes are expected to continue into next year.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-dec23d793aa97d73da0391f4049e7efb">Britain’s inflation also eased</a>&nbsp;from a 41-year record of 11.1% in October to a still-high 10.7% in November.

At the Fed, Powell has made clear that the central bank isn’t close to declaring victory over high inflation. Fed officials will likely want to see further moderate inflation readings before they would be comfortable suspending their rate hikes.

One reason for caution is that inflation gauges can sometimes reignite after initially slowing. In 2021, for example, core price increases slowed for a couple of months in the summer before accelerating again and reaching new heights.

Cumulatively, the Fed’s hikes have led to much costlier borrowing rates for consumers as well as companies, ranging from mortgages to auto and business loans. The hikes have sent&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/national-association-of-realtors-business-home-sales-a0a45edabb18e5cfd5374255ff54ab6a">home sales plummeting</a>&nbsp;and are starting to reduce rents on new apartments, a leading source of high inflation.

The officials have said they want rates to reach “restrictive” levels that slow growth and hiring and bring inflation down to their annual target of 2%. Worries have grown that the Fed is raising rates so much in its drive to curb inflation that it will trigger a recession next year.

The policymakers have stressed that more important than how fast they raise rates is how long they keep them at or near their peak. Wall Street investors are betting that the Fed will reverse course and start cutting rates before the end of next year.

Powell’s biggest focus has been on services prices, which he has said are likely to stay persistently high. In part, that’s because&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-pandemics-jerome-powell-federal-reserve-system-01ca0f8ac5439f764827fb89d18a51e7">sharp increases in wages are becoming a key contributor to inflation</a>. Services companies, like hotels and restaurants, are particularly labor-intensive. And with average wages growing at a brisk 5%-6% a year, price pressures keep building in that sector of the economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reinforced its inflation fight Wednesday by raising its key interest rate for the seventh time this year and signaling more hikes to come. But the Fed announced a smaller hike than it had in its past four meetings at a time when inflation is showing signs of easing.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Fed Chair Powell: &quot;Today, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FOMC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FOMC</a> raised our policy interest rate by a half percentage point.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/TjxcgVqNFZ">pic.twitter.com/TjxcgVqNFZ</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1603112305259995136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The Fed boosted its benchmark rate a half-point to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, its highest level in 15 years. Though lower than its previous three-quarter-point hikes, the latest move will further increase the costs of many consumer and business loans and the risk of a recession.The policymakers also forecast that their key short-term rate will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. That suggests that the Fed is prepared to raise its benchmark rate by an additional three-quarters of a point and leave it there through next year. Some economists had expected that the Fed would project only an additional half-point increase.The prospect of higher-than-expected borrowing rates disappointed Wall Street. Investors immediately sent stock prices falling.The latest rate hike was announced one day after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-november-report-c3764250d475b1149d344462adff53d6">an encouraging report showed that inflation</a>&nbsp;in the United States slowed in November for a fifth straight month. The year-over-year increase of 7.1%, though still high, was sharply below a recent peak of 9.1% in June.“The inflation data in October and November show a welcome reduction,” Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference. “But it will take substantially more evidence to give confidence that inflation is on a sustained downward path.”In its updated forecasts, the Fed’s policymakers predicted slower growth and higher unemployment for next year and 2024. The unemployment rate is envisioned to jump to 4.6% by the end of 2023, from 3.7% today. That would mark a significant increase in joblessness that typically would reflect a recession.Consistent with a sharp slowdown, the officials also projected that the economy will barely grow next year, expanding just 0.5%, less than half the forecast it had made in September.In recent weeks, Fed officials have indicated that they see some evidence of progress in their drive to defeat the worst inflation bout in four decades and to bring inflation back down to their 2% annual target. The national average for a gallon of regular gas, for example, has&nbsp;<a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">tumbled from $5 in June to $3.21</a>.Many supply chains are no longer clogged, thereby helping reduce goods prices. The better-than-expected November inflation data showed that the prices of used cars, furniture and toys all declined last month.So did the costs of services from hotels to airfares to car rentals. Rental and home prices are falling, too, though those declines have yet to feed into the government’s data.And one measure the Fed tracks closely — “core” prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs for a clearer snapshot of underlying inflation — rose only slightly for a second straight month.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-europe-business-prices-consumer-87922b5a6473b1228681e757c007f1f7">Inflation has also eased slightly in Europe</a>&nbsp;and the United Kingdom, leading analysts to expect the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to slow their pace of rate hikes at their meetings Thursday. Both are expected to raise rates by half a point to target still painfully high prices spikes after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/british-politics-inflation-germany-economy-prices-8b7274fd39c584c7675dc5b2de9a76bf">big three-quarter-point increases</a>.Inflation in the 19 countries using the euro currency&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-europe-business-prices-consumer-87922b5a6473b1228681e757c007f1f7">fell to 10%</a>&nbsp;from 10.6% in October, the first decline since June 2021. The rate is so far above the bank’s 2% goal that rate hikes are expected to continue into next year.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-dec23d793aa97d73da0391f4049e7efb">Britain’s inflation also eased</a>&nbsp;from a 41-year record of 11.1% in October to a still-high 10.7% in November.At the Fed, Powell has made clear that the central bank isn’t close to declaring victory over high inflation. Fed officials will likely want to see further moderate inflation readings before they would be comfortable suspending their rate hikes.One reason for caution is that inflation gauges can sometimes reignite after initially slowing. In 2021, for example, core price increases slowed for a couple of months in the summer before accelerating again and reaching new heights.Cumulatively, the Fed’s hikes have led to much costlier borrowing rates for consumers as well as companies, ranging from mortgages to auto and business loans. The hikes have sent&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/national-association-of-realtors-business-home-sales-a0a45edabb18e5cfd5374255ff54ab6a">home sales plummeting</a>&nbsp;and are starting to reduce rents on new apartments, a leading source of high inflation.The officials have said they want rates to reach “restrictive” levels that slow growth and hiring and bring inflation down to their annual target of 2%. Worries have grown that the Fed is raising rates so much in its drive to curb inflation that it will trigger a recession next year.The policymakers have stressed that more important than how fast they raise rates is how long they keep them at or near their peak. Wall Street investors are betting that the Fed will reverse course and start cutting rates before the end of next year.Powell’s biggest focus has been on services prices, which he has said are likely to stay persistently high. In part, that’s because&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-pandemics-jerome-powell-federal-reserve-system-01ca0f8ac5439f764827fb89d18a51e7">sharp increases in wages are becoming a key contributor to inflation</a>. Services companies, like hotels and restaurants, are particularly labor-intensive. And with average wages growing at a brisk 5%-6% a year, price pressures keep building in that sector of the economy.

🎥Fed raises key interest rate again and signals more to come

By CASEY QUINLAN <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/12/13/heres-why-food-prices-remain-stubbornly-high-even-as-inflation-cools/">States Newsroom</a>

Shoppers
 hoping for a little relief at the grocery store for their holiday meals
 will be disappointed by the Consumer Price Index released Tuesday. The 
CPI shows inflation cooling, but food prices — particularly for some 
holiday staples — remain high.

The CPI <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">increased</a> 0.1% in November, which was lower than some economists <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/consumer-inflation-expected-to-have-continued-cooling-in-november-but-still-high.html">expected</a>.
 Over the last 12 months, it rose 7.1%. Food went up 0.5% last month 
after an increase of 0.6% in October. The food index climbed 10.6% over 
last year.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“The headline inflation numbers are 
encouraging for the general economy but consumers are not being relieved
 at the grocery store,” said David Ortega, associate professor at the 
department of agricultural food and resource economics at Michigan State
 University. “We’re looking at November being the ninth consecutive 
month of double-digit grocery price inflation. Grocery prices are still 
12% higher than they were a year ago.”

In August, the cost of food shot up 11.4% over last year, which is a level not seen since May 1979, according to Marketwatch’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/we-have-yet-to-see-a-peak-in-food-inflation-food-prices-see-highest-increase-since-1979-with-one-item-up-nearly-40-on-last-year-11663097731">analysis</a> of government data.

“The good news is that food price 
increases and grocery price increases peaked in August,” Ortega added, 
“They’re just slowly starting to come down. We’re headed in the right 
direction but consumers are still not feeling relief at the store and 
that’s because inflation captures the rate of price increases over time,
 so just because the inflation rate starts to calm down a bit doesn’t 
mean that things are getting cheaper. They’re just not rising in price 
as quickly.”

Supply chain disruptions, the conflict in Ukraine, climate change, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/avian-flu-outbreak-wipes-out-5054-mln-us-birds-record-2022-11-24/">deadliest</a>
 bird flu in U.S. history, transportation costs, and increased consumer 
spending on food, are all drivers of higher food prices, Ortega 
explained.&nbsp;

“We have supply chain disruptions and
 they’re starting to ease from the pandemic. But then we have the 
conflict in Ukraine that led to a surge in commodity prices earlier this
 year. Those have come down significantly, but it takes time for that to
 be fully realized at the grocery store.”

Climate change has also affected 
agricultural output, he said, which has meant less food out in the 
market and increased prices. Ortega said that although it’s hard to say 
when food prices will begin to come down, he expects that it could 
happen in the next six months or so. The International Monetary Fund <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/12/09/global-food-prices-to-remain-elevated-amid-war-costly-energy-la-nina">released</a>
 a report in October that said Federal Reserve interest rate increases 
will put “downward pressure on prices through the end of next year.”&nbsp;

Donna McCallister, assistant 
professor at the department of agricultural and applied economics at 
Texas Tech University, said prices always increase this time of year, 
compounding the problem for many Americans this month. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/inflation-holiday-essentials-rising-most/">According to</a>
 Bankrate’s Nov. 23 analysis of the cost of holiday essentials, six of 
10 of the most inflated prices were for food, including turkey, bakery 
items, eggs, flour and prepared mixes.&nbsp;

Consumers preparing a Christmas ham, 
buying a frozen pie, or making sugar cookies for a party this month will
 find significantly higher prices than last year. Ham is up 7.8% year 
over year, frozen and refrigerated bakery products are up 19.4%, and 
eggs are up 49.1%, the CPI. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf">shows</a>.

“A lot of that has to do with 
increased cost of production and transportation, but also increased 
demand for these things like butter, where people go out and buy things 
like eggs, butter, and flour for their cooking, so there’s also a demand
 story here as well,” Ortega said.

McCallister suggests cutting down on 
food waste by going to stores more frequently for specific meals, buying
 some items in bulk, or switching from name brand to store brand to save
 money this holiday season.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670968091843.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By CASEY QUINLAN <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/12/13/heres-why-food-prices-remain-stubbornly-high-even-as-inflation-cools/">States Newsroom</a>Shoppers
 hoping for a little relief at the grocery store for their holiday meals
 will be disappointed by the Consumer Price Index released Tuesday. The 
CPI shows inflation cooling, but food prices — particularly for some 
holiday staples — remain high.The CPI <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">increased</a> 0.1% in November, which was lower than some economists <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/consumer-inflation-expected-to-have-continued-cooling-in-november-but-still-high.html">expected</a>.
 Over the last 12 months, it rose 7.1%. Food went up 0.5% last month 
after an increase of 0.6% in October. The food index climbed 10.6% over 
last year.&nbsp;&nbsp;“The headline inflation numbers are 
encouraging for the general economy but consumers are not being relieved
 at the grocery store,” said David Ortega, associate professor at the 
department of agricultural food and resource economics at Michigan State
 University. “We’re looking at November being the ninth consecutive 
month of double-digit grocery price inflation. Grocery prices are still 
12% higher than they were a year ago.”In August, the cost of food shot up 11.4% over last year, which is a level not seen since May 1979, according to Marketwatch’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/we-have-yet-to-see-a-peak-in-food-inflation-food-prices-see-highest-increase-since-1979-with-one-item-up-nearly-40-on-last-year-11663097731">analysis</a> of government data.“The good news is that food price 
increases and grocery price increases peaked in August,” Ortega added, 
“They’re just slowly starting to come down. We’re headed in the right 
direction but consumers are still not feeling relief at the store and 
that’s because inflation captures the rate of price increases over time,
 so just because the inflation rate starts to calm down a bit doesn’t 
mean that things are getting cheaper. They’re just not rising in price 
as quickly.”Supply chain disruptions, the conflict in Ukraine, climate change, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/avian-flu-outbreak-wipes-out-5054-mln-us-birds-record-2022-11-24/">deadliest</a>
 bird flu in U.S. history, transportation costs, and increased consumer 
spending on food, are all drivers of higher food prices, Ortega 
explained.&nbsp;“We have supply chain disruptions and
 they’re starting to ease from the pandemic. But then we have the 
conflict in Ukraine that led to a surge in commodity prices earlier this
 year. Those have come down significantly, but it takes time for that to
 be fully realized at the grocery store.”Climate change has also affected 
agricultural output, he said, which has meant less food out in the 
market and increased prices. Ortega said that although it’s hard to say 
when food prices will begin to come down, he expects that it could 
happen in the next six months or so. The International Monetary Fund <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/12/09/global-food-prices-to-remain-elevated-amid-war-costly-energy-la-nina">released</a>
 a report in October that said Federal Reserve interest rate increases 
will put “downward pressure on prices through the end of next year.”&nbsp;Donna McCallister, assistant 
professor at the department of agricultural and applied economics at 
Texas Tech University, said prices always increase this time of year, 
compounding the problem for many Americans this month. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/inflation-holiday-essentials-rising-most/">According to</a>
 Bankrate’s Nov. 23 analysis of the cost of holiday essentials, six of 
10 of the most inflated prices were for food, including turkey, bakery 
items, eggs, flour and prepared mixes.&nbsp;Consumers preparing a Christmas ham, 
buying a frozen pie, or making sugar cookies for a party this month will
 find significantly higher prices than last year. Ham is up 7.8% year 
over year, frozen and refrigerated bakery products are up 19.4%, and 
eggs are up 49.1%, the CPI. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf">shows</a>.“A lot of that has to do with 
increased cost of production and transportation, but also increased 
demand for these things like butter, where people go out and buy things 
like eggs, butter, and flour for their cooking, so there’s also a demand
 story here as well,” Ortega said.McCallister suggests cutting down on 
food waste by going to stores more frequently for specific meals, buying
 some items in bulk, or switching from name brand to store brand to save
 money this holiday season.

Why food prices remain stubbornly high even as inflation cools

Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel was born on May 8, 1936, on Uncle John Kitzke’s&nbsp; Farm southwest of Densmore to John and Josephine (Glennemeier) Noel. 

Jean was the youngest of ten children. She passed away on December 12, 2022, at the Sidney Regional Medical Center in Sidney, Neb., at the age of 86.

When Jean and her sister Marcella started school, they stayed with Grandma Glennemier in Logan the first year. The next year Jean’s parents bought the Logan House Hotel and that was home for several years. Around the year 1947, Jean started taking tickets at the theater.&nbsp; Jean worked there until her mom sold the hotel and bought the grocery store. Jean worked at the store and went back to work at the theater at night selling popcorn.

On May 25, 1953, Jean married Leo Noel at St. John’s Catholic Church in Logan, and they started their married life on Leo’s Uncle Frank's farm northwest of Logan. All their children were born while living on the farm. Thomas Leo, Karen Sue, Catherine Ann, Anna Marie and David Paul.&nbsp;&nbsp; Catherine only lived a few hours.

When David started kindergarten, Jean started working at the creamery until it closed. In October 1968 Jean went to work for Nola McClellan’s dry goods store. She worked there for 10 years. On January 15, 1979, Jean started a new job at the Hansen Trust and Foundation. Jean worked there until her retirement.&nbsp; In June 1986, Leo and Jean bought the Liquor Store from the Jandera’s and ran it for six years. They closed the store and Leo retired.

Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Dec. 18 at the Logan Funeral Home in Logan.&nbsp; The Rosary will follow at 6 p.m.

Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. on Monday at St. John’s Catholic Church with burial at the Logan Cemetery following Mass.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Logan Intergenerational Project in honor of Jean.

Jean was a member of the North Star Home Demonstration Unit and the Logan Women’s Club. She was also a member of the St. John’s Ladies Guild and the Ralph DeFors American Legion Auxiliary.

Jean moved to Sidney, Neb., 10 years ago after Leo passed away to be closer to her kids and grandkids. Jean loved being around all the new babies and spoiling them.

Jean is survived by her children Thomas (Linda) Noel Sidney, Neb., Karen (Floyd) Long Kimball, Neb., Anna (Dale) Brophy Commerce City, Colo., and David (Brenda) Noel Sidney, Neb., and&nbsp; 10 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.&nbsp;

She is preceded in death by both her parents John and Josephine; her husband, Leo; infant daughter Catherine; her brothers, Lawrence, Henry, Raymond, and Joseph; and sisters Louise, Agnes, Angeline, Rosemary and Marcella.

Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel was born on May 8, 1936, on Uncle John Kitzke’s&nbsp; Farm southwest of Densmore to John and Josephine (Glennemeier) Noel. Jean was the youngest of ten children. She passed away on December 12, 2022, at the Sidney Regional Medical Center in Sidney, Neb., at the age of 86.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670969448324.jpeg" alt="Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel " />
 <figcaption>Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel </figcaption>
 </figure>When Jean and her sister Marcella started school, they stayed with Grandma Glennemier in Logan the first year. The next year Jean’s parents bought the Logan House Hotel and that was home for several years. Around the year 1947, Jean started taking tickets at the theater.&nbsp; Jean worked there until her mom sold the hotel and bought the grocery store. Jean worked at the store and went back to work at the theater at night selling popcorn.On May 25, 1953, Jean married Leo Noel at St. John’s Catholic Church in Logan, and they started their married life on Leo’s Uncle Frank's farm northwest of Logan. All their children were born while living on the farm. Thomas Leo, Karen Sue, Catherine Ann, Anna Marie and David Paul.&nbsp;&nbsp; Catherine only lived a few hours.When David started kindergarten, Jean started working at the creamery until it closed. In October 1968 Jean went to work for Nola McClellan’s dry goods store. She worked there for 10 years. On January 15, 1979, Jean started a new job at the Hansen Trust and Foundation. Jean worked there until her retirement.&nbsp; In June 1986, Leo and Jean bought the Liquor Store from the Jandera’s and ran it for six years. They closed the store and Leo retired.Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Dec. 18 at the Logan Funeral Home in Logan.&nbsp; The Rosary will follow at 6 p.m.Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. on Monday at St. John’s Catholic Church with burial at the Logan Cemetery following Mass.In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Logan Intergenerational Project in honor of Jean.Jean was a member of the North Star Home Demonstration Unit and the Logan Women’s Club. She was also a member of the St. John’s Ladies Guild and the Ralph DeFors American Legion Auxiliary.Jean moved to Sidney, Neb., 10 years ago after Leo passed away to be closer to her kids and grandkids. Jean loved being around all the new babies and spoiling them.Jean is survived by her children Thomas (Linda) Noel Sidney, Neb., Karen (Floyd) Long Kimball, Neb., Anna (Dale) Brophy Commerce City, Colo., and David (Brenda) Noel Sidney, Neb., and&nbsp; 10 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.&nbsp;She is preceded in death by both her parents John and Josephine; her husband, Leo; infant daughter Catherine; her brothers, Lawrence, Henry, Raymond, and Joseph; and sisters Louise, Agnes, Angeline, Rosemary and Marcella.

Genevieve 'Jean' Ann Noel

By HANNAH RECHT <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/12/12/paxlovid-has-been-free-now-comes-the-sticker-shock/">Kaiser Health News, courtesy Daily Montanan</a>

Nearly 6 million Americans have taken Paxlovid for free, courtesy of 
the federal government. The Pfizer pill has helped prevent many people 
infected with COVID-19 from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7148e2.htm">being hospitalized</a> or dying, and it may even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.03.22281783v1">reduce the risk</a>
 of developing long COVID. But the government plans to stop footing the 
bill within months, and millions of people who are at the highest risk 
of severe illness and are least able to afford the drug — the uninsured 
and seniors — may have to pay the full price.

And that means fewer people will get the potentially lifesaving treatments, experts said.

“I think the numbers will go way down,” said Jill Rosenthal, director
 of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, a 
left-leaning think tank. A bill for several hundred dollars or more 
would lead many people to decide the medication isn’t worth the price, 
she said.

In response to the unprecedented public health crisis caused by 
COVID, the federal government spent billions of dollars on developing 
new vaccines and treatments, to swift success: Less than a year after 
the pandemic was declared, medical workers got their first vaccines. But
 as many people have refused the shots and stopped wearing masks, the 
virus still rages and mutates. In 2022 alone, 250,000 Americans <a target="_blank" href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_totaldeaths_select_00">have died</a> from COVID, <a target="_blank" href="https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Monthly-Provisional-Counts-of-Deaths-by-Select-Cau/9dzk-mvmi/data">more than</a> from strokes or diabetes.

But soon the Department of Health and Human Services will stop 
supplying COVID treatments, and pharmacies will purchase and bill for 
them the same way they do for antibiotic pills or asthma inhalers. 
Paxlovid is expected to hit the private market in mid-2023, according to
 HHS plans shared in an October meeting with state health officials and 
clinicians. Merck’s Lagevrio, a less-effective COVID treatment pill, and
 AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, a preventive therapy for the immunocompromised,
 are on track to be commercialized sooner, sometime in the winter.

The U.S. government has so far purchased <a target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/26/fact-sheet-biden-administration-increases-access-to-covid-19-treatments-and-boosts-patient-and-provider-awareness/">20 million courses</a>
 of Paxlovid, priced at about $530 each, a discount for buying in bulk 
that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called “really very attractive” to the 
federal government in a July earnings call. The drug will cost far more 
on the private market, although in a statement to KHN, Pfizer declined 
to share the planned price. The government will also stop paying for the
 company’s COVID vaccine next year — those shots will <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/pfizer-covid-cash-marketing-drugs/">quadruple in price</a>, from the discount rate the government pays of $30 to about $120.

Bourla told investors in November that he expects the move will make 
Paxlovid and its COVID vaccine “a multibillion-dollars franchise.”

Nearly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/28/covid-who-is-dying/">9 in 10 people</a> dying from the virus now are 65 or older. Yet federal law restricts Medicare Part D — the prescription drug program that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/medicare-beneficiaries-enrolled-in-part-d-coverage/?currentTimeframe=0&amp;sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D">covers nearly 50 million seniors</a>
 — from covering the COVID treatment pills. The medications are meant 
for those most at risk of serious illness, including seniors.

Paxlovid and the other treatments are currently available under an 
emergency use authorization from the FDA, a fast-track review used in 
extraordinary situations. Although Pfizer <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-announces-submission-new-drug-application-us-fda">applied for full approval</a>
 in June, the process can take anywhere from several months to years. 
And Medicare Part D can’t cover any medications without that full stamp 
of approval.

Paying out-of-pocket would be “a substantial barrier” for seniors on 
Medicare — the very people who would benefit most from the drug, wrote <a target="_blank" href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1072f5093254224ac902ca395387085c/coverage-considerations-covid-19.pdf">federal health experts</a>.

“From a public health perspective, and even from a health care 
capacity and cost perspective, it would just defy reason to not continue
 to make these drugs readily available,” said Dr. Larry Madoff, medical 
director of Massachusetts’ Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory 
Sciences. He’s hopeful that the federal health agency will find a way to
 set aside unused doses for seniors and people without insurance.

In mid-November, the White House requested that Congress approve an 
additional $2.5 billion for COVID therapeutics and vaccines to make sure
 people can afford the medications when they’re no longer free. But 
there’s little hope it will be approved — the Senate <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-votes-to-end-covid-19-emergency-declaration-11668559887">voted that same day to end</a> the public health emergency and denied similar requests in recent months.

Many Americans have already faced hurdles just <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/test-to-treat-biden-covid-failing-patients-pharmacies-cvs/">getting a prescription</a> for COVID treatment. Although the federal government <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/paxlovid-covid-pill-antiviral-access-data/">doesn’t track</a> who’s gotten the drug, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7143a2.htm">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study</a>
 using data from 30 medical centers found that Black and Hispanic 
patients with COVID were much less likely to receive Paxlovid than white
 patients. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.)
 And when the government is no longer picking up the tab, experts 
predict that these gaps by race, income, and geography will widen.

People in Northeastern states used the drug far more often than those
 in the rest of the country, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis 
of Paxlovid use in September and October. But it wasn’t because people 
in the region were getting sick from COVID at much higher rates — 
instead, many of those states offered better <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/report.htm">access to health care</a> to begin with and created special programs to get Paxlovid to their residents.

About 10 mostly Democratic states and several large counties in the 
Northeast and elsewhere created free “test-to-treat” programs that allow
 their residents to get an immediate doctor visit and prescription for 
treatment after testing positive for COVID. In Massachusetts, more than 
20,000 residents have used the state’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-telehealth-for-covid-19-treatment-with-paxlovid">video and phone hotline</a>,
 which is available seven days a week in 13 languages. Massachusetts, 
which has the highest insurance rate in the country and relatively low 
travel times to pharmacies, had the second-highest Paxlovid usage rate 
among states this fall.

States with higher COVID death rates, like Florida and Kentucky, 
where residents must travel farther for health care and are more likely 
to be uninsured, used the drug less often. Without no-cost test-to-treat
 options, <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/test-to-treat-biden-covid-failing-patients-pharmacies-cvs/">residents have struggled</a> to get prescriptions even though the drug itself is still free.

“If you look at access to medications for people who are uninsured, I
 think that there’s no question that will widen those disparities,” 
Rosenthal said.

People who get insurance through their jobs could face high copays at
 the register, too, just as they do for insulin and other expensive or 
brand-name drugs.

Most private insurance companies will end up covering COVID 
therapeutics to some extent, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor
 at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. After 
all, the pills are cheaper than a hospital stay. But for most people who
 get insurance through their jobs, there are “really no rules at all,” 
she said. Some insurers could take months to add the drugs to their 
plans or decide not to pay for them.

And the additional cost means many people will go without the medication.

“We know from lots of research that when people face cost sharing for
 these drugs that they need to take, they will often forgo or cut back,”
 Corlette said.

One group doesn’t need to worry about sticker shock. Medicaid, the 
public insurance program for low-income adults and children, will cover 
the treatments in full until at least early 2024.

HHS officials could set aside any leftover taxpayer-funded medication
 for people who can’t afford to pay the full cost, but they haven’t 
shared any concrete plans to do so. The government purchased 20 million 
courses of Paxlovid and 3 million of Lagevrio. Fewer than a third have 
been used, and usage has fallen in recent months, according to KHN’s 
analysis of the data from HHS.

Sixty percent of the government’s supply of Evusheld is also still available, although the COVID prevention therapy is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-releases-important-information-about-risk-covid-19-due-certain-variants-not-neutralized-evusheld">less effective</a> against new strains of the virus. The health department in one state, <a target="_blank" href="https://files.constantcontact.com/8088728e101/558b11b0-e00f-47d7-8ec1-645904ec1905.pdf">New Mexico</a>, has recommended against using it.

HHS did not make officials available for an interview or answer written questions about the commercialization plans.

The government created a potential workaround when they moved 
bebtelovimab, another COVID treatment, to the private market this 
summer. It now retails for $2,100 per patient. The agency set aside the 
remaining 60,000 government-purchased doses that hospitals could use to 
treat uninsured patients in a convoluted <a target="_blank" href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/COVID-19/Therapeutics/Products/Bebtelovimab/Pages/default.aspx">dose-replacement process</a>. But it’s hard to tell how well that setup would work for Paxlovid: Bebtelovimab was already much less popular, and the FDA <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-announces-bebtelovimab-not-currently-authorized-any-us-region">halted its use</a> on Nov. 30 because it’s less effective against current strains of the virus.

Federal officials and insurance companies would have good reason to 
make sure patients can continue to afford covid drugs: They’re far 
cheaper than if patients land in the emergency room.

“The medications are so worthwhile,” said Madoff, the Massachusetts 
health official. “They’re not expensive in the grand scheme of health 
care costs.”

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.khn.org/about-us">KHN</a> 
(Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth 
journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and 
Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a> (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670875530434.png" alt="CDC image" />
 <figcaption>CDC image</figcaption>
 </figure>By HANNAH RECHT <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/12/12/paxlovid-has-been-free-now-comes-the-sticker-shock/">Kaiser Health News, courtesy Daily Montanan</a>Nearly 6 million Americans have taken Paxlovid for free, courtesy of 
the federal government. The Pfizer pill has helped prevent many people 
infected with COVID-19 from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7148e2.htm">being hospitalized</a> or dying, and it may even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.03.22281783v1">reduce the risk</a>
 of developing long COVID. But the government plans to stop footing the 
bill within months, and millions of people who are at the highest risk 
of severe illness and are least able to afford the drug — the uninsured 
and seniors — may have to pay the full price.And that means fewer people will get the potentially lifesaving treatments, experts said.“I think the numbers will go way down,” said Jill Rosenthal, director
 of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, a 
left-leaning think tank. A bill for several hundred dollars or more 
would lead many people to decide the medication isn’t worth the price, 
she said.In response to the unprecedented public health crisis caused by 
COVID, the federal government spent billions of dollars on developing 
new vaccines and treatments, to swift success: Less than a year after 
the pandemic was declared, medical workers got their first vaccines. But
 as many people have refused the shots and stopped wearing masks, the 
virus still rages and mutates. In 2022 alone, 250,000 Americans <a target="_blank" href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_totaldeaths_select_00">have died</a> from COVID, <a target="_blank" href="https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Monthly-Provisional-Counts-of-Deaths-by-Select-Cau/9dzk-mvmi/data">more than</a> from strokes or diabetes.But soon the Department of Health and Human Services will stop 
supplying COVID treatments, and pharmacies will purchase and bill for 
them the same way they do for antibiotic pills or asthma inhalers. 
Paxlovid is expected to hit the private market in mid-2023, according to
 HHS plans shared in an October meeting with state health officials and 
clinicians. Merck’s Lagevrio, a less-effective COVID treatment pill, and
 AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, a preventive therapy for the immunocompromised,
 are on track to be commercialized sooner, sometime in the winter.The U.S. government has so far purchased <a target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/26/fact-sheet-biden-administration-increases-access-to-covid-19-treatments-and-boosts-patient-and-provider-awareness/">20 million courses</a>
 of Paxlovid, priced at about $530 each, a discount for buying in bulk 
that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called “really very attractive” to the 
federal government in a July earnings call. The drug will cost far more 
on the private market, although in a statement to KHN, Pfizer declined 
to share the planned price. The government will also stop paying for the
 company’s COVID vaccine next year — those shots will <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/pfizer-covid-cash-marketing-drugs/">quadruple in price</a>, from the discount rate the government pays of $30 to about $120.Bourla told investors in November that he expects the move will make 
Paxlovid and its COVID vaccine “a multibillion-dollars franchise.”Nearly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/28/covid-who-is-dying/">9 in 10 people</a> dying from the virus now are 65 or older. Yet federal law restricts Medicare Part D — the prescription drug program that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/medicare-beneficiaries-enrolled-in-part-d-coverage/?currentTimeframe=0&amp;sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D">covers nearly 50 million seniors</a>
 — from covering the COVID treatment pills. The medications are meant 
for those most at risk of serious illness, including seniors.Paxlovid and the other treatments are currently available under an 
emergency use authorization from the FDA, a fast-track review used in 
extraordinary situations. Although Pfizer <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-announces-submission-new-drug-application-us-fda">applied for full approval</a>
 in June, the process can take anywhere from several months to years. 
And Medicare Part D can’t cover any medications without that full stamp 
of approval.Paying out-of-pocket would be “a substantial barrier” for seniors on 
Medicare — the very people who would benefit most from the drug, wrote <a target="_blank" href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1072f5093254224ac902ca395387085c/coverage-considerations-covid-19.pdf">federal health experts</a>.“From a public health perspective, and even from a health care 
capacity and cost perspective, it would just defy reason to not continue
 to make these drugs readily available,” said Dr. Larry Madoff, medical 
director of Massachusetts’ Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory 
Sciences. He’s hopeful that the federal health agency will find a way to
 set aside unused doses for seniors and people without insurance.In mid-November, the White House requested that Congress approve an 
additional $2.5 billion for COVID therapeutics and vaccines to make sure
 people can afford the medications when they’re no longer free. But 
there’s little hope it will be approved — the Senate <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-votes-to-end-covid-19-emergency-declaration-11668559887">voted that same day to end</a> the public health emergency and denied similar requests in recent months.Many Americans have already faced hurdles just <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/test-to-treat-biden-covid-failing-patients-pharmacies-cvs/">getting a prescription</a> for COVID treatment. Although the federal government <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/paxlovid-covid-pill-antiviral-access-data/">doesn’t track</a> who’s gotten the drug, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7143a2.htm">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study</a>
 using data from 30 medical centers found that Black and Hispanic 
patients with COVID were much less likely to receive Paxlovid than white
 patients. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.)
 And when the government is no longer picking up the tab, experts 
predict that these gaps by race, income, and geography will widen.People in Northeastern states used the drug far more often than those
 in the rest of the country, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis 
of Paxlovid use in September and October. But it wasn’t because people 
in the region were getting sick from COVID at much higher rates — 
instead, many of those states offered better <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/report.htm">access to health care</a> to begin with and created special programs to get Paxlovid to their residents.About 10 mostly Democratic states and several large counties in the 
Northeast and elsewhere created free “test-to-treat” programs that allow
 their residents to get an immediate doctor visit and prescription for 
treatment after testing positive for COVID. In Massachusetts, more than 
20,000 residents have used the state’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mass.gov/info-details/free-telehealth-for-covid-19-treatment-with-paxlovid">video and phone hotline</a>,
 which is available seven days a week in 13 languages. Massachusetts, 
which has the highest insurance rate in the country and relatively low 
travel times to pharmacies, had the second-highest Paxlovid usage rate 
among states this fall.States with higher COVID death rates, like Florida and Kentucky, 
where residents must travel farther for health care and are more likely 
to be uninsured, used the drug less often. Without no-cost test-to-treat
 options, <a target="_blank" href="https://khn.org/news/article/test-to-treat-biden-covid-failing-patients-pharmacies-cvs/">residents have struggled</a> to get prescriptions even though the drug itself is still free.“If you look at access to medications for people who are uninsured, I
 think that there’s no question that will widen those disparities,” 
Rosenthal said.People who get insurance through their jobs could face high copays at
 the register, too, just as they do for insulin and other expensive or 
brand-name drugs.Most private insurance companies will end up covering COVID 
therapeutics to some extent, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor
 at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. After 
all, the pills are cheaper than a hospital stay. But for most people who
 get insurance through their jobs, there are “really no rules at all,” 
she said. Some insurers could take months to add the drugs to their 
plans or decide not to pay for them.And the additional cost means many people will go without the medication.“We know from lots of research that when people face cost sharing for
 these drugs that they need to take, they will often forgo or cut back,”
 Corlette said.One group doesn’t need to worry about sticker shock. Medicaid, the 
public insurance program for low-income adults and children, will cover 
the treatments in full until at least early 2024.HHS officials could set aside any leftover taxpayer-funded medication
 for people who can’t afford to pay the full cost, but they haven’t 
shared any concrete plans to do so. The government purchased 20 million 
courses of Paxlovid and 3 million of Lagevrio. Fewer than a third have 
been used, and usage has fallen in recent months, according to KHN’s 
analysis of the data from HHS.Sixty percent of the government’s supply of Evusheld is also still available, although the COVID prevention therapy is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-releases-important-information-about-risk-covid-19-due-certain-variants-not-neutralized-evusheld">less effective</a> against new strains of the virus. The health department in one state, <a target="_blank" href="https://files.constantcontact.com/8088728e101/558b11b0-e00f-47d7-8ec1-645904ec1905.pdf">New Mexico</a>, has recommended against using it.HHS did not make officials available for an interview or answer written questions about the commercialization plans.The government created a potential workaround when they moved 
bebtelovimab, another COVID treatment, to the private market this 
summer. It now retails for $2,100 per patient. The agency set aside the 
remaining 60,000 government-purchased doses that hospitals could use to 
treat uninsured patients in a convoluted <a target="_blank" href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/COVID-19/Therapeutics/Products/Bebtelovimab/Pages/default.aspx">dose-replacement process</a>. But it’s hard to tell how well that setup would work for Paxlovid: Bebtelovimab was already much less popular, and the FDA <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-announces-bebtelovimab-not-currently-authorized-any-us-region">halted its use</a> on Nov. 30 because it’s less effective against current strains of the virus.Federal officials and insurance companies would have good reason to 
make sure patients can continue to afford covid drugs: They’re far 
cheaper than if patients land in the emergency room.“The medications are so worthwhile,” said Madoff, the Massachusetts 
health official. “They’re not expensive in the grand scheme of health 
care costs.”<a target="_blank" href="https://www.khn.org/about-us">KHN</a> 
(Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth 
journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and 
Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a> (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

COVID treatment Paxlovid has been free; now comes the sticker shock

Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel was born on May 8, 1936, on Uncle John 
Kitzke’s&nbsp; Farm southwest of Densmore, Kansas, to John&nbsp; and Josephine 
(Glennemeier) Noel.&nbsp; Jean was the youngest of ten children. She passed 
away on December 12, 2022, at the Sidney Regional Medical Center in 
Sidney, NE at the age of 86.

When Jean and her sister Marcella started school, they stayed with 
Grandma Glennemier in Logan the first year. The next year Jean’s parents
 bought the Logan House Hotel and that was home for several years.&nbsp; 
Around the year 1947, Jean started taking tickets at the Theatre.&nbsp; Jean 
worked there till her mom sold the Hotel and bought the grocery store. 
Jean worked at the store and went back to work at the Theater at night 
selling popcorn.

On May 25, 1953, Jean married Leo Noel at St. John’s Catholic Church 
in Logan, Kansas,&nbsp; they started their married life on Leo’s Uncle Franks
 farm Northwest of Logan.&nbsp;&nbsp; All their children were born while living on
 the farm.&nbsp; Thomas Leo, Karen Sue, Catherine Ann, Anna Marie and David 
Paul.&nbsp;&nbsp; Catherine only lived a few hours.

When David started Kindergarten Jean started working at the Creamery 
till it closed. In October 1968, Jean went to work for Nola McClellan’s 
dry Goods Store.&nbsp; She worked there for ten years.&nbsp; January 15, 1979. 
Jean started a new job at the Hansen Trust and Foundation.&nbsp; Jean worked 
there till her retirement.&nbsp; In June of 1986 Leo and Jean bought the 
Liquor Store from the Jandera’s and ran it for six years.&nbsp; They closed 
the store and Leo retired.

Visitation will be on December 18 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the 
Logan Funeral home in Logan, Kansas.&nbsp; Followed&nbsp; by Rosary at 6:00 p.m.

Funeral Mass will be at St. John’s Catholic Church at 10:00 a.m. on 
Monday December 19 with burial at the Logan Cemetery following mass.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Logan Intergenerational Project&nbsp; in honor of Jean.

Jean was a member of the North Star Home Demonstration Unit and the 
Logan Women’s Club.&nbsp; She was also a member of the St. John’s Ladies 
Guild and the Ralph DeFors American Legion&nbsp; Auxiliary.

Jean moved to Sidney ten years ago after Leo passed away to be closer
 to her Kids and Grandkids.&nbsp; Jean loved being around all the new babies 
and spoiling them.

Jean is survived by&nbsp; her children Thomas (Linda) Noel Sidney, NE, 
Karen (Floyd) Long Kimball, NE, Anna (Dale) Brophy Commerce City. CO and
 David (Brenda) Noel Sidney, NE. and&nbsp; 10 Grandchildren and 24 Great 
Grandchildren.&nbsp;

She is preceded in death by both her parents John and Josephine, her 
husband Leo, infant daughter Catherine, her&nbsp; brothers,&nbsp; Lawrence, Henry,
 Raymond, Joseph and sisters L

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670975961575.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel was born on May 8, 1936, on Uncle John 
Kitzke’s&nbsp; Farm southwest of Densmore, Kansas, to John&nbsp; and Josephine 
(Glennemeier) Noel.&nbsp; Jean was the youngest of ten children. She passed 
away on December 12, 2022, at the Sidney Regional Medical Center in 
Sidney, NE at the age of 86.When Jean and her sister Marcella started school, they stayed with 
Grandma Glennemier in Logan the first year. The next year Jean’s parents
 bought the Logan House Hotel and that was home for several years.&nbsp; 
Around the year 1947, Jean started taking tickets at the Theatre.&nbsp; Jean 
worked there till her mom sold the Hotel and bought the grocery store. 
Jean worked at the store and went back to work at the Theater at night 
selling popcorn.On May 25, 1953, Jean married Leo Noel at St. John’s Catholic Church 
in Logan, Kansas,&nbsp; they started their married life on Leo’s Uncle Franks
 farm Northwest of Logan.&nbsp;&nbsp; All their children were born while living on
 the farm.&nbsp; Thomas Leo, Karen Sue, Catherine Ann, Anna Marie and David 
Paul.&nbsp;&nbsp; Catherine only lived a few hours.When David started Kindergarten Jean started working at the Creamery 
till it closed. In October 1968, Jean went to work for Nola McClellan’s 
dry Goods Store.&nbsp; She worked there for ten years.&nbsp; January 15, 1979. 
Jean started a new job at the Hansen Trust and Foundation.&nbsp; Jean worked 
there till her retirement.&nbsp; In June of 1986 Leo and Jean bought the 
Liquor Store from the Jandera’s and ran it for six years.&nbsp; They closed 
the store and Leo retired.Visitation will be on December 18 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the 
Logan Funeral home in Logan, Kansas.&nbsp; Followed&nbsp; by Rosary at 6:00 p.m.Funeral Mass will be at St. John’s Catholic Church at 10:00 a.m. on 
Monday December 19 with burial at the Logan Cemetery following mass.In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Logan Intergenerational Project&nbsp; in honor of Jean.Jean was a member of the North Star Home Demonstration Unit and the 
Logan Women’s Club.&nbsp; She was also a member of the St. John’s Ladies 
Guild and the Ralph DeFors American Legion&nbsp; Auxiliary.Jean moved to Sidney ten years ago after Leo passed away to be closer
 to her Kids and Grandkids.&nbsp; Jean loved being around all the new babies 
and spoiling them.Jean is survived by&nbsp; her children Thomas (Linda) Noel Sidney, NE, 
Karen (Floyd) Long Kimball, NE, Anna (Dale) Brophy Commerce City. CO and
 David (Brenda) Noel Sidney, NE. and&nbsp; 10 Grandchildren and 24 Great 
Grandchildren.&nbsp;She is preceded in death by both her parents John and Josephine, her 
husband Leo, infant daughter Catherine, her&nbsp; brothers,&nbsp; Lawrence, Henry,
 Raymond, Joseph and sisters L

Genevieve (Jean) Ann Noel

Operators of the Keystone Pipeline continue cleanup and recovery efforts after a huge oil spill along Mill Creek in Washington County. TC Energy says they have contained an estimated 14,000 barrels spilled from the pipeline Wednesday. No cause for the spill has been announced, nor has the company announced any plans to restart the pipeline, which was shut down on Wednesday. 

The company said Sunday the oil remained contained, with 250 people working on recovery and repairs over the weekend with vacuum trucks, booms and berms. The spill is upstream from the Tuttle Creek Reservoir and Kansas River, the drinking water source for over 800,000 Kansans. 

A Kansas River conservation group called Friends of the Kaw said Friday that no public water systems had then been impacted by the spill. TC Energy announced that continuous air quality monitoring has been deployed and said there's no indication of adverse health or public concerns. Crude oil prices have dropped about ten dollars since the first of the month, but recovered some of that on Monday. The near-month Nymex contract for light sweet crude on Friday settled a few pennies above seventy-one dollars a barrel after nearly dropping below seventy dollars earlier in the day. Lunchtime prices Monday were up more than three percent, topping $73 a barrel. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $61.25 per barrel after dropping half a dollar on Friday. That's down more than ten dollars from the first of the month. Regular gasoline prices dropped another 14 cents last week to a national average of $3.32 per gallon by Thursday. The auto club Triple-A says average prices were below $3 in 12 states, including Kansas at $2.96 per gallon. Diesel pump prices average $5 per gallon coast-to-coast, and $4.43 per gallon in Kansas. The Energy Information Administration reports US diesel inventories increased by 6.2 million barrels last week, but remain about three percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Deliveries were off nearly ten percent from a year earlier.&nbsp; Kansas regulators last week OK'd 34 new drilling permits, with 16 in eastern Kansas and 18 west of Wichita including one in Ellis County and one in Stafford County. The 261 active operators in Kansas have, so far this year, spudded 1,506 new wells, up 455 wells from last year. Total footage drilled grew 33% year over year to 4.2 million feet. Independent Oil &amp; Gas Service reports 46 newly completed wells for the week through December 8th, with one in Barton County, two in Ellis County, two in Russell county and one in Stafford County. The Rig Count in Kansas was unchanged last week at 21 rigs east of Wichita and 28 in Western Kansas. Operators were about to spud a new well in Ellis County. Drilling was underway on a new well in Stafford County. The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes drops to 780 active rigs, down two oil rigs and two seeking natural gas. The count in New Mexico was up two, Oklahoma was down two and Texas was down one. The Energy Information Administration's tally shows a fourth consecutive weekly drop in US inventories. Stockpiles as of December 2nd were down more than five million barrels from a week earlier to 413.9 million barrels. Crude inventories are currently about nine percent below the five-year average for this time of year. EIA said weekly crude imports averaged six million barrels per day, down 24,000 barrels per day from a week earlier and more than four percent lower than a year ago. The government reported a slight&nbsp;increase&nbsp;in US crude-oil production last week. EIA reported output of 12,150,000 barrels per day,&nbsp;up&nbsp;about 6,000 barrels per day from the week before and 610,000 barrels per day higher than a year ago.

Corrected 1:15 p.m. Dec. 14 to clarify production increase. Oil-by-rail traffic in the US rebounded last week, after dropping during the Thanksgiving lull the week before. Operators originated 10,595 tanker carloads, a little over one percent higher than the same week last year, and an increase of of nearly 2,000 carloads week over week. Canadian traffic increased 288 carloads for the week and 4.1% over a year ago. The OPEC-Plus crude exporters on Sunday decided not to add further cuts to world supplies, despite drooping oil prices. The group announced dramatic output cuts at their last meeting in October. They now say those cuts were vindicated by current prices.

By JOHN P. TRETBAROperators of the Keystone Pipeline continue cleanup and recovery efforts after a huge oil spill along Mill Creek in Washington County. TC Energy says they have contained an estimated 14,000 barrels spilled from the pipeline Wednesday. No cause for the spill has been announced, nor has the company announced any plans to restart the pipeline, which was shut down on Wednesday. The company said Sunday the oil remained contained, with 250 people working on recovery and repairs over the weekend with vacuum trucks, booms and berms. The spill is upstream from the Tuttle Creek Reservoir and Kansas River, the drinking water source for over 800,000 Kansans. A Kansas River conservation group called Friends of the Kaw said Friday that no public water systems had then been impacted by the spill. TC Energy announced that continuous air quality monitoring has been deployed and said there's no indication of adverse health or public concerns. Crude oil prices have dropped about ten dollars since the first of the month, but recovered some of that on Monday. The near-month Nymex contract for light sweet crude on Friday settled a few pennies above seventy-one dollars a barrel after nearly dropping below seventy dollars earlier in the day. Lunchtime prices Monday were up more than three percent, topping $73 a barrel. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $61.25 per barrel after dropping half a dollar on Friday. That's down more than ten dollars from the first of the month. Regular gasoline prices dropped another 14 cents last week to a national average of $3.32 per gallon by Thursday. The auto club Triple-A says average prices were below $3 in 12 states, including Kansas at $2.96 per gallon. Diesel pump prices average $5 per gallon coast-to-coast, and $4.43 per gallon in Kansas. The Energy Information Administration reports US diesel inventories increased by 6.2 million barrels last week, but remain about three percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Deliveries were off nearly ten percent from a year earlier.&nbsp; Kansas regulators last week OK'd 34 new drilling permits, with 16 in eastern Kansas and 18 west of Wichita including one in Ellis County and one in Stafford County. The 261 active operators in Kansas have, so far this year, spudded 1,506 new wells, up 455 wells from last year. Total footage drilled grew 33% year over year to 4.2 million feet. Independent Oil &amp; Gas Service reports 46 newly completed wells for the week through December 8th, with one in Barton County, two in Ellis County, two in Russell county and one in Stafford County. The Rig Count in Kansas was unchanged last week at 21 rigs east of Wichita and 28 in Western Kansas. Operators were about to spud a new well in Ellis County. Drilling was underway on a new well in Stafford County. The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes drops to 780 active rigs, down two oil rigs and two seeking natural gas. The count in New Mexico was up two, Oklahoma was down two and Texas was down one. The Energy Information Administration's tally shows a fourth consecutive weekly drop in US inventories. Stockpiles as of December 2nd were down more than five million barrels from a week earlier to 413.9 million barrels. Crude inventories are currently about nine percent below the five-year average for this time of year. EIA said weekly crude imports averaged six million barrels per day, down 24,000 barrels per day from a week earlier and more than four percent lower than a year ago. The government reported a slight&nbsp;increase&nbsp;in US crude-oil production last week. EIA reported output of 12,150,000 barrels per day,&nbsp;up&nbsp;about 6,000 barrels per day from the week before and 610,000 barrels per day higher than a year ago.Corrected 1:15 p.m. Dec. 14 to clarify production increase. Oil-by-rail traffic in the US rebounded last week, after dropping during the Thanksgiving lull the week before. Operators originated 10,595 tanker carloads, a little over one percent higher than the same week last year, and an increase of of nearly 2,000 carloads week over week. Canadian traffic increased 288 carloads for the week and 4.1% over a year ago. The OPEC-Plus crude exporters on Sunday decided not to add further cuts to world supplies, despite drooping oil prices. The group announced dramatic output cuts at their last meeting in October. They now say those cuts were vindicated by current prices.

News From the Oil Patch: Spill recovery and price fluctuations

Karen Otte, 85, passed away December 11, 2022, at Harry Hynes Hospice, Wichita, Kansas.

She was born February 3, 1937, in Ellsworth, Kansas, the daughter of Benton Ezra and Margaret I. Remley Rice.

A lifetime Larned resident, she was a farmwife and member of the 
First Presbyterian Church, Larned. She was a member of the Red Hat 
Ladies, Gem Gals, Pawnee County 4-H, Santa Fe Trail Center, Wet Dry 
Routes Chapter and past 4-H cooking leader. She loved taking mystery 
trips with the Heritage Tours, square dancing in her younger days, 
playing cards and dominoes with her friends and family, and was an avid 
reader. In her lifetime she served in many capacities at the church, 
volunteered at the Food Pantry and helped with the monthly birthday 
parties at Diversicare.

On September 16, 1956, she married Dale Otte in Great Bend, Kansas; he passed away on October 17, 2014.

Survivors include: two daughters, Lori (Rick) Blakesley, Hutchinson, 
Kim (Steve) Gevara, Larned; sister-in-law Lois Schimmels, Clinton, 
Oklahoma; seven grandchildren, Elizabeth (Matt) Fisher, Matthew (Janae) 
Finger, Jacob (Kat) Finger, Audree (Adrian) Senestraro, Emile (Dylan) 
Frantz, Tanner (Claire) Blakesley, and Bryce (Madison) Gevara; Thirteen 
great grandchildren, Jenna Fisher, Sarah Fisher, Grace Fisher, Emmet 
Fisher, Caden Finger, Jayce Finger, Kaysen Finger, Isabel Finger, 
Maddison Senestraro, Maia Senestraro, Maddex Frantz, Brynley Frantz and 
Avery Blakesley; and her beloved cat, Sophie.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Husband, daughter Jennifer Finger and sister Judy A. Kirby.

Memorial service will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday, December 15, 2022, at 
the First Presbyterian Church, Larned, with Pastor Dennis Scheibmeier 
presiding. Visitation will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 14, 
2022, at Beckwith Mortuary with family present from 4 to 6 p.m.

Memorials may be given to Pawnee County 4-H Foundation, First 
Presbyterian Church or Welcome Inn Senior Center in care of Beckwith 
Mortuary, PO Box 477, Larned, Kansas 67550. Personal condolences may be 
left at www.beckwithmortuary.com.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670879855612.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Karen Otte, 85, passed away December 11, 2022, at Harry Hynes Hospice, Wichita, Kansas.She was born February 3, 1937, in Ellsworth, Kansas, the daughter of Benton Ezra and Margaret I. Remley Rice.A lifetime Larned resident, she was a farmwife and member of the 
First Presbyterian Church, Larned. She was a member of the Red Hat 
Ladies, Gem Gals, Pawnee County 4-H, Santa Fe Trail Center, Wet Dry 
Routes Chapter and past 4-H cooking leader. She loved taking mystery 
trips with the Heritage Tours, square dancing in her younger days, 
playing cards and dominoes with her friends and family, and was an avid 
reader. In her lifetime she served in many capacities at the church, 
volunteered at the Food Pantry and helped with the monthly birthday 
parties at Diversicare.On September 16, 1956, she married Dale Otte in Great Bend, Kansas; he passed away on October 17, 2014.Survivors include: two daughters, Lori (Rick) Blakesley, Hutchinson, 
Kim (Steve) Gevara, Larned; sister-in-law Lois Schimmels, Clinton, 
Oklahoma; seven grandchildren, Elizabeth (Matt) Fisher, Matthew (Janae) 
Finger, Jacob (Kat) Finger, Audree (Adrian) Senestraro, Emile (Dylan) 
Frantz, Tanner (Claire) Blakesley, and Bryce (Madison) Gevara; Thirteen 
great grandchildren, Jenna Fisher, Sarah Fisher, Grace Fisher, Emmet 
Fisher, Caden Finger, Jayce Finger, Kaysen Finger, Isabel Finger, 
Maddison Senestraro, Maia Senestraro, Maddex Frantz, Brynley Frantz and 
Avery Blakesley; and her beloved cat, Sophie.She was preceded in death by her parents, Husband, daughter Jennifer Finger and sister Judy A. Kirby.Memorial service will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday, December 15, 2022, at 
the First Presbyterian Church, Larned, with Pastor Dennis Scheibmeier 
presiding. Visitation will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 14, 
2022, at Beckwith Mortuary with family present from 4 to 6 p.m.Memorials may be given to Pawnee County 4-H Foundation, First 
Presbyterian Church or Welcome Inn Senior Center in care of Beckwith 
Mortuary, PO Box 477, Larned, Kansas 67550. Personal condolences may be 
left at www.beckwithmortuary.com.

Karen Fern Otte

Lindsey is youngest finisher in Salina marathon

By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN Special to Hays Post

As adults, we can all probably reflect on a time when we can point to one person who made a huge difference in our lives.

For Cameron Lindsey, that just might be a guy in a lime green shirt who seemed to appear out of nowhere at a most difficult time in a road race.

That guy was Scott Binkley, a pacer for last month’s Crossroads Marathon in Salina, who stayed by Cameron’s side from about the 20-mile mark to the finish line. Binkley’s encouragement and support helped Cameron record a time of 4 hours, 25.34 minutes as the youngest finisher.

Cameron admits it would have been difficult to finish the race had it not been for Binkley, especially considering he had only trained for the grueling 26.2-mile run for about six weeks. Oh yeah, Cameron was 17 years old at the time.

“The age group when people start running marathons is usually those in their late 20s, 30s, 40s,” said Binkley, a former high school cross country runner himself who ran his first marathon in his mid 40s. “For a 17-year-old to decide to do this, on his own, is pretty impressive.”

Binkley insists this story is not about him, but rather about Cameron Lindsey. But somehow, the two became forever linked together on a pleasant November Saturday in Salina.

The guy in the lime green shirt carrying the 4:20 flag no doubt will stick out in Cameron’s mind for a long, long time.

The decision that Cameron made to run the marathon seemed simple enough in October when he ran across an online notice about a marathon in Salina.

Hmm, he thought, “this sounds interesting. It will be between cross country and basketball seasons. It’s perfect timing.”

A marathon is more than eight times farther than the high school cross country races of 5,000 meters (or 3.1 miles) for which Cameron is accustomed to running. And this particular marathon featured 800 runners.

But keep in mind, this young man had yet to celebrate his 18th birthday, an age when anything – and I mean anything – seems possible to accomplish.

A cross country runner for his high school team in Plainville, Cameron decided to start running extra mileage on his own to build up his endurance.

Coincidentally, that extra work ended up helping him eclipse his personal-best time by nearly 40 seconds at the Class 2A regional cross country meet in Great Bend, qualifying him for state for the first time in his career.&nbsp;

“He told me the Monday after regionals that he had signed up for a marathon,” said Travis Dixon, the cross country coach at Plainville. “I was definitely surprised, but pleased that he was working out extra on his own. Any extra work is obviously going to help with your endurance.”

Cameron’s PR regional time of 18 minutes, 48 seconds would have placed him in the top 10 at state, but he said he found the going difficult on the tough, hilly course at Wamego Country Club. He was disappointed with his performance at the season finale, but he soon began looking ahead to his next venture.

Cameron’s parents, Lee and Shannon Lindsey, drove the Crossroads Marathon course with their son the night before and chose points where they could meet up with him to give him water and snacks – and encouragement.&nbsp;

Binkley said he came upon Cameron at about the 21-mile mark.

“He was struggling, and he was talking to his mom,” Binkley said. “It was neat to see his parents leap-frogging the course to catch him at several points.”

Binkley, carrying the 4-hour, 20-minute pacer flag, decided right then and there that he was going to help this kid finish the race.

“It gets difficult when you get in those upper distances like 18, 20 miles and beyond. Things start going to your head, and you are asking ‘Why did I do this?’ ” Binkley said. “I just try to encourage the runners and distract them from thinking too much.”

Cameron’s legs were cramping when he saw Binkley. He said “they just weren’t cooperating.”

So Binkley talked Cameron into doing a “run/walk,” where they alternated running for 2.5 minutes, then walking for 30 seconds.

“That helps take their mind off just running,” said Binkley, who continued to carry on a conversation with Cameron. “I talked to him about his high school football team and his age. I told him how amazing it was that someone his age was going to finish a marathon.

“He told me he had built up to 11 miles while training for the marathon, and I thought, ‘Whoa!’ He had already run almost twice that far. I told him we were going to do this and finish this race.”

Cameron and Binkley ultimately finished the race together. Cameron said it took him a few days to recuperate afterward but that he felt fine by his 18th birthday on Dec. 1.

Now, he is already checking out half-marathons, thinking that might be a more favorable distance.

Cameron is now living the life of a busy high school senior.

He is a starter for his high school basketball team. He plays the piano and is involved in band and yearbook. He is especially looking forward to track season. And he is thinking about his future, checking out colleges, with nearby Fort Hays State University at the top of his list.

Both Coach Dixon and Cameron think he has a promising senior track season ahead of him. His goal is to qualify for state and try to win a medal to hang beside his favorite medal of all time.

“That medal is the most special one I’ve every gotten,” Cameron said of the Crossroads medallion. “It’s hard to describe that feeling of when you cross the finish line after 4.5 hours of running.

“Being able to finish the marathon, even though it was difficult, will definitely motivate me in a lot of things now. It gave me a good deal of confidence that I can accomplish something on my own.”

Binkley said he is still amazed at what he witnessed that day but was glad he could be what he calls a small part of Cameron’s feat.

“I told him, ‘I didn’t do it, you did. I was just there helping keep your mind off of it,’ ” Binkley said. “The two most rewarding things out of being a pacer is to help first-timers and help people get to their PRs.”

Binkley did both for Cameron Lindsey — and a whole lot more.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1660754177628.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670685701860.jpeg" alt="Rooks County teenager Cameron Lindsey, left, stands with his mom, Shannon, after he recorded a time of 4:25.34 in the Crossroads Marathon in Salina as the youngest finisher. Submitted photo." />
 <figcaption>Rooks County teenager Cameron Lindsey, left, stands with his mom, Shannon, after he recorded a time of 4:25.34 in the Crossroads Marathon in Salina as the youngest finisher. Submitted photo.</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Lindsey is youngest finisher in Salina marathon</h2>By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN Special to Hays PostAs adults, we can all probably reflect on a time when we can point to one person who made a huge difference in our lives.For Cameron Lindsey, that just might be a guy in a lime green shirt who seemed to appear out of nowhere at a most difficult time in a road race.That guy was Scott Binkley, a pacer for last month’s Crossroads Marathon in Salina, who stayed by Cameron’s side from about the 20-mile mark to the finish line. Binkley’s encouragement and support helped Cameron record a time of 4 hours, 25.34 minutes as the youngest finisher.Cameron admits it would have been difficult to finish the race had it not been for Binkley, especially considering he had only trained for the grueling 26.2-mile run for about six weeks. Oh yeah, Cameron was 17 years old at the time.“The age group when people start running marathons is usually those in their late 20s, 30s, 40s,” said Binkley, a former high school cross country runner himself who ran his first marathon in his mid 40s. “For a 17-year-old to decide to do this, on his own, is pretty impressive.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670685836181.jpeg" alt="Cameron Lindsey, left, runs alongside pacer Scott Binkley during last third of the marathon. Photo by Scott Green." />
 <figcaption>Cameron Lindsey, left, runs alongside pacer Scott Binkley during last third of the marathon. Photo by Scott Green.</figcaption>
 </figure>Binkley insists this story is not about him, but rather about Cameron Lindsey. But somehow, the two became forever linked together on a pleasant November Saturday in Salina.The guy in the lime green shirt carrying the 4:20 flag no doubt will stick out in Cameron’s mind for a long, long time.The decision that Cameron made to run the marathon seemed simple enough in October when he ran across an online notice about a marathon in Salina.Hmm, he thought, “this sounds interesting. It will be between cross country and basketball seasons. It’s perfect timing.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670685870329.jpeg" alt="Pacer Scott Binkley, left, talks with Cameron Lindsey as they near the finish line of the marathon. Photo by Scott Green." />
 <figcaption>Pacer Scott Binkley, left, talks with Cameron Lindsey as they near the finish line of the marathon. Photo by Scott Green.</figcaption>
 </figure>A marathon is more than eight times farther than the high school cross country races of 5,000 meters (or 3.1 miles) for which Cameron is accustomed to running. And this particular marathon featured 800 runners.But keep in mind, this young man had yet to celebrate his 18th birthday, an age when anything – and I mean anything – seems possible to accomplish.A cross country runner for his high school team in Plainville, Cameron decided to start running extra mileage on his own to build up his endurance.Coincidentally, that extra work ended up helping him eclipse his personal-best time by nearly 40 seconds at the Class 2A regional cross country meet in Great Bend, qualifying him for state for the first time in his career.&nbsp;“He told me the Monday after regionals that he had signed up for a marathon,” said Travis Dixon, the cross country coach at Plainville. “I was definitely surprised, but pleased that he was working out extra on his own. Any extra work is obviously going to help with your endurance.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670685902479.jpeg" alt="Cameron Lindsey, middle, got plenty of encouragement and support from his parents Shannon and Lee Lindsey. Submitted photo." />
 <figcaption>Cameron Lindsey, middle, got plenty of encouragement and support from his parents Shannon and Lee Lindsey. Submitted photo.</figcaption>
 </figure>Cameron’s PR regional time of 18 minutes, 48 seconds would have placed him in the top 10 at state, but he said he found the going difficult on the tough, hilly course at Wamego Country Club. He was disappointed with his performance at the season finale, but he soon began looking ahead to his next venture.Cameron’s parents, Lee and Shannon Lindsey, drove the Crossroads Marathon course with their son the night before and chose points where they could meet up with him to give him water and snacks – and encouragement.&nbsp;Binkley said he came upon Cameron at about the 21-mile mark.“He was struggling, and he was talking to his mom,” Binkley said. “It was neat to see his parents leap-frogging the course to catch him at several points.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670685935031.jpeg" alt="The medal that Cameron Lindsey won for finishing the race. Submitted photo." />
 <figcaption>The medal that Cameron Lindsey won for finishing the race. Submitted photo.</figcaption>
 </figure>Binkley, carrying the 4-hour, 20-minute pacer flag, decided right then and there that he was going to help this kid finish the race.“It gets difficult when you get in those upper distances like 18, 20 miles and beyond. Things start going to your head, and you are asking ‘Why did I do this?’ ” Binkley said. “I just try to encourage the runners and distract them from thinking too much.”Cameron’s legs were cramping when he saw Binkley. He said “they just weren’t cooperating.”So Binkley talked Cameron into doing a “run/walk,” where they alternated running for 2.5 minutes, then walking for 30 seconds.“That helps take their mind off just running,” said Binkley, who continued to carry on a conversation with Cameron. “I talked to him about his high school football team and his age. I told him how amazing it was that someone his age was going to finish a marathon.“He told me he had built up to 11 miles while training for the marathon, and I thought, ‘Whoa!’ He had already run almost twice that far. I told him we were going to do this and finish this race.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670685965315.jpeg" alt="Cameron Lindsey keeps stride during the marathon race. Submitted photo." />
 <figcaption>Cameron Lindsey keeps stride during the marathon race. Submitted photo.</figcaption>
 </figure>Cameron and Binkley ultimately finished the race together. Cameron said it took him a few days to recuperate afterward but that he felt fine by his 18th birthday on Dec. 1.Now, he is already checking out half-marathons, thinking that might be a more favorable distance.But those races will have to wait.Cameron is now living the life of a busy high school senior.He is a starter for his high school basketball team. He plays the piano and is involved in band and yearbook. He is especially looking forward to track season. And he is thinking about his future, checking out colleges, with nearby Fort Hays State University at the top of his list.Both Coach Dixon and Cameron think he has a promising senior track season ahead of him. His goal is to qualify for state and try to win a medal to hang beside his favorite medal of all time.“That medal is the most special one I’ve every gotten,” Cameron said of the Crossroads medallion. “It’s hard to describe that feeling of when you cross the finish line after 4.5 hours of running.“Being able to finish the marathon, even though it was difficult, will definitely motivate me in a lot of things now. It gave me a good deal of confidence that I can accomplish something on my own.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670686004480.jpeg" alt="Cameron Lindsey enjoyed a successful cross country season for Plainville High School this fall before running the marathon. Submitted photo." />
 <figcaption>Cameron Lindsey enjoyed a successful cross country season for Plainville High School this fall before running the marathon. Submitted photo.</figcaption>
 </figure>Binkley said he is still amazed at what he witnessed that day but was glad he could be what he calls a small part of Cameron’s feat.“I told him, ‘I didn’t do it, you did. I was just there helping keep your mind off of it,’ ” Binkley said. “The two most rewarding things out of being a pacer is to help first-timers and help people get to their PRs.”Binkley did both for Cameron Lindsey — and a whole lot more.

NWester: Plainville teenager not alone in going extra mile(s)

Bradley Roughton, 27, died December 7, 2022.&nbsp; He was born in Salina on October 2, 1995, to Kristina Reasner and Brent Moses.

Bradley grew up in Concordia, KS with his grandparents Mary and 
Richard Roughton. Later moving to Hays, KS where he met the love of his
 life Alicia Johnson. They moved to Fort Collins where they had many 
happy years together. Bradley loved exercising, hiking and all 
animals.&nbsp; He touched many lives and was loved by everyone.

He is survived by his partner, Alicia; mother and stepfather, 
Kristina and David Reasner; grandparents, Mary and Richard Roughton; two
 sisters, Ashley Luther and Chelise Rich; aunts, Kathy (Shane) Bartlett 
and Karen (J.R.) Parks; and two cousins, Jeremy (Kaytie) Roughton and 
Jay (Trish) Bartlett.

Bradley was preceded by his brother, Brandon Moses.

Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. with family present from 5-7 p.m. on 
Wednesday, December 14, 2022, at Ryan Mortuary.&nbsp; A funeral service will 
be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, December 15th, at Ryan Mortuary. Burial will
 be private at Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina.&nbsp;

Memorials may be made to the family for expenses.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670853288361.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Bradley Roughton, 27, died December 7, 2022.&nbsp; He was born in Salina on October 2, 1995, to Kristina Reasner and Brent Moses.Bradley grew up in Concordia, KS with his grandparents Mary and 
Richard Roughton. Later moving to Hays, KS where he met the love of his
 life Alicia Johnson. They moved to Fort Collins where they had many 
happy years together. Bradley loved exercising, hiking and all 
animals.&nbsp; He touched many lives and was loved by everyone.He is survived by his partner, Alicia; mother and stepfather, 
Kristina and David Reasner; grandparents, Mary and Richard Roughton; two
 sisters, Ashley Luther and Chelise Rich; aunts, Kathy (Shane) Bartlett 
and Karen (J.R.) Parks; and two cousins, Jeremy (Kaytie) Roughton and 
Jay (Trish) Bartlett.Bradley was preceded by his brother, Brandon Moses.Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. with family present from 5-7 p.m. on 
Wednesday, December 14, 2022, at Ryan Mortuary.&nbsp; A funeral service will 
be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, December 15th, at Ryan Mortuary. Burial will
 be private at Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina.&nbsp;Memorials may be made to the family for expenses.

Bradley Roughton

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been charged in the 1980 shooting death of a 23-year-old neighbor after investigators who reexamined her death turned up new evidence, authorities said.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation officers arrested 68-year-old Steven Hanks, of Burden, on Thursday on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Mary Robin Walter, who was a wife, mother and nursing school student when she was killed, Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said at a news conference Friday. He is jailed on $500,000 bond and doesn’t have an attorney, according to court records.

Bellendir said Detective Sgt. Adam Hales decided in April to reopen the investigation into the Jan. 24, 1980, killing, which happened at a trailer park near the airport in Great Bend, a city of about 15,000 residents in central Kansas.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670608379475.png" alt="Mary Robin Walter, who was a wife, mother and nursing school student when she was killed." />
 <figcaption>Mary Robin Walter, who was a wife, mother and nursing school student when she was killed.</figcaption>
 </figure>GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been charged in the 1980 shooting death of a 23-year-old neighbor after investigators who reexamined her death turned up new evidence, authorities said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670728765150.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Kansas Bureau of Investigation officers arrested 68-year-old Steven Hanks, of Burden, on Thursday on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Mary Robin Walter, who was a wife, mother and nursing school student when she was killed, Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said at a news conference Friday. He is jailed on $500,000 bond and doesn’t have an attorney, according to court records.Bellendir said Detective Sgt. Adam Hales decided in April to reopen the investigation into the Jan. 24, 1980, killing, which happened at a trailer park near the airport in Great Bend, a city of about 15,000 residents in central Kansas.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/12/1670609613326.jpeg" alt="Hanks-photo Barton Co." />
 <figcaption>Hanks-photo Barton Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>“After taking a fresh look at the case, it became evident that some of the information had been initially overlooked and some had been added at a later date,” the sheriff said. “This was unknown to the original investigators.”Bellendir directed two additional officers to join the investigation. In October, new evidence was discovered, though authorities declined to disclose it.Bellendir said Hanks was investigated as a suspect immediately after the shooting, “but the case went cold." He didn't disclose a possible motive for the killing.Hanks spent time in prison for another crime. He was arrested in 1981 and charged with rape, battery, robbery and burglary. He was sentenced in 1983 and discharged in 1993, according to online records from the Kansas Department of Corrections.