Ruthanna Fulhage

Ruthanna Fulhage, age 91, passed away on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, at Guest Home Estates in Chanute, where she had lived with her family of friends and staff for the last seven years.

Ruthanna was born April 9, 1927, the daughter of Frank and Dora Fulhage who preceded her in death. Also preceding her in death was a brother, Charles R. Fulhage (wife Edna), a sister, Margaret Krueger (husband Albert), a nephew, Charles D. Fulhage (wife Jane survives), and a niece, Sharon Armeli (husband Tony survives).

She is survived by nieces Kathy Krueger of Overland Park, and Marla Beckcom (husband John) of Girard, and numerous great-nieces and nephews. Also left behind were her caretakers and close friends Chuck and Sandy Morrison of Yates Center.

Nothing made Ruthanna happier than planting and harvesting her crops, haying in the summertime, and taking care of her Angus cattle. Earlier in her life she operated a dairy farm and raised hogs. She was actively involved in the fair and 4-H all her life and recently donated funds for a much needed handicapped restroom facility at the fairgrounds. Along with being involved in the Kansas Livestock Association and various other organizations, she has been the recipient of the 2010 Conservationist Award and in 1990 received the Kansas Bankers Award.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the United Methodist Church in Yates Center. Visitation is from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday at Campbell Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in her honor are suggested to Kindred Hospice, 1819 Main St., Parsons, or the United Methodist Church in Yates Center. Memorials may be sent directly or sent in care of Campbell Funeral Home, P.O. Box 188, Yates Center, KS 66783.

Hannity stumps for Trump

NEW YORK (AP) ? Sean Hannity spoke from the stage of President Donald Trump?s last midterm election rally on Monday, after Fox News Channel and its most popular personality had insisted all day that he wouldn?t.

Hannity appeared on the podium in a Missouri arena after being called to the stage by Trump. Another Fox News host, Jeanine Pirro, also appeared onstage with the president.

?By the way, all those people in the back are fake news,? Hannity told the audience of reporters and newscasters from various newspapers and TV stations.

It was an extraordinary scene after the news network had worked Monday to establish distance between Hannity and the campaign. Trump?s campaign had billed Hannity as a ?special guest? at the rally, but Fox had said that wasn?t so. Hannity himself had tweeted: ?To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the president. I am covering final rally for the show.?

But Trump called him to the stage after saying, ?they?re very special, they?ve done an incredible job for us. They?ve been with us from the beginning.?

Hannity hugged the president when he came onstage and, after echoing Trump?s traditional epithets about the media, recited some economic statistics.

A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediate return a message seeking comment.

?Either Fox News lied all day about their direct collaboration with the Trump campaign, or the network simply doesn?t have any control over Sean Hannity,? said Angelo Carusone, president of the media watchdog Media Matters for America. ?This is a problem. It?s dangerous for democracy and a threat to a free press.?

Hannity has been rebuked by Fox in the past. In 2016, he was part of a Trump political video, which Fox said it had not known about in advance and told Hannity not to do so again. When Fox found out in 2010 that the Tea Party had advertised that Hannity would be appearing at one of his fundraising rallies, Fox said it had not approved the arrangement and ordered him back to New York.

Monday?s rally appearance was not shown on Fox News Channel, but was aired on C-SPAN.

It came after Hannity?s prime-time show aired from the rally site. He played the role of cheerleader from the side as the crowd waited for Trump?s appearance. He pleaded with viewers to vote Republican on Tuesday to support Trump, and his opening monologue echoed a campaign slogan seen on signs at the arena: ?Promises made, promises kept.?

He moved backstage, and with six minutes before the end of his show, Trump appeared for a billed interview that was largely bereft of questions. Trump told Hannity he had seen the beginning of his show.

?I never miss your opening monologue,? he said.

Hannity?s role at the rally had been put in question by Trump campaign itself. It announced on Sunday that Hannity was to be a guest, along with radio commentator Rush Limbaugh and singer Lee Greenwood. Fox said it did not know how that impression had been created and Michael Glassner, chief operating officer for the campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite Fox?s disavowal, the Trump campaign continued to list Hannity as a guest throughout Monday at the link where people could seek tickets to the event.

 

 

Say awwwwwwwww

A Teddy Bear Clinic was held at the Community Health Fair Saturday. Medical professionals gave stuffed animals a checkup including height, weight, temperature and vitals, then offered a flu shot and patched up any boo-boos.

Backlog keeps WSU vets from receiving benefits

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — More than 100 student veterans at Wichita State University haven’t received GI Bill benefits because of a paperwork backlog, leading some students to drop courses or withdraw from the school.

The delayed payments are the result of understaffing at the university’s Military and Veteran Student Center, the Wichita Eagle reported.

Wichita State’s Student Government Association issued a resolution last week saying delayed benefits have created “severe financial crisis” for some students.

“We know a lot has to do with the (Department of Veterans Affairs), but the VA can only do so much,” said Ciaban Peterson, president of the university’s Student Veterans Organization. “This is an ongoing problem, and the university needs to dedicate more people to fix the bottleneck.”

The resolution said the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends universities have a “school certifying official” for every 200 student veterans. The officials are responsible for certifying enrolled student veterans so they can receive VA education benefits, such as tuition and living expenses.

Wichita State University has 913 students who are veterans, active duty military or dependents who could be eligible for education benefits, according to Deanna Carrithers, director of operations in the university’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.

She said the backlog isn’t “a matter of negligence” and that the university recently hired additional staff to process paperwork.

“We have new certifying officials coming on board that will have the adequate training, and . . . we will be more than staffed — beyond what we’re required to do — to ensure that this never occurs again,” Carrithers said.

The university can also issue advances to affected students so they can pay for tuition, books and other expenses, she added.

Carrithers said the university is also considering online tools and other strategies to expedite the process of filing and certifying benefits.

“We don’t want there to be, at any point, someone who drops out of school because of financial reasons,” she said.

Portable toilet thieves convicted

BERLIN (AP) — The portable toilets kept on disappearing — and now a German company knows why.

Two men, ages 40 and 20, were given six-year jail terms for stealing more than 100 portable toilets.

Both men worked for a waste disposal company from whose premises the toilets — worth nearly $80,000 — gradually disappeared, a loss that was only discovered a few months later.

The men admitted having sold the toilets to a company in the Netherlands via a go-between.

Only three of the missing toilets have resurfaced. The defendants lost their jobs.

A look back in time

40 Years Ago
November 1978

Margot Weseloh, surgery supervisor at Allen County Hospital, was surprised this week with a party given by the hospital staff to recognize her 25th year as a nurse here. Weseloh, who has worked every shift and every floor at the hospital, remembers her first impressions of the hospital when she arrived from Germany in 1953. “I thought it was great — so new and so very clean. Of course, everything in Germany was destroyed then,” she added.

*****

Nancy Landon Kassebaum, the first woman ever elected to the Senate from Kansas, grabbed the Senate seat that Sen. James B. Pearson is vacating with a strong victory over Dr. Bill Roy. Kassebaum won 54 percent of the votes to win a 85,469 margin over the Topekan. She will be the only woman serving in the Senate. John Carlin, who was given little chance of defeating Gov. Robert Bennett, won with a 15,827-vote margin. Rep. Bob Whittaker took the Fifth District Congressional seat as expected and, locally, Iolan Denise Apt was elected to the 9th district position on the state board of education. Rep. George Works of Humboldt was re-elected to the state House of Representatives and Keith Hobart won a second four-year term on the Allen County Commission.

 

Six arrested in plot to attack French President Macron

PARIS (AP) ? French security agents have arrested six people on preliminary terrorism charges for allegedly plotting to attack French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a French judicial official.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the allegations, said intelligence agents detained the six in three widely scattered regions, including one suspect in the Alps, another in Brittany and four suspects near the Belgian border in Moselle. He said the plan to target the French president appeared to be vague and unfinalized but violent.

Authorities said the six were between 22 and 62 years old and included one woman.

It is not known if they were suspected of working together.

French presidents have been targeted several times over the decades, including in 2002 when a far-right sympathizer tried to attack President Jacques Chirac on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris during Bastille Day celebrations.

Macron was in the northeastern French city of Verdun today as part of centenary commemorations for the end of World War I.

The suspected plot was uncovered days before U.S. President Donald Trump and dozens of other world leaders are due in France for commemorations this weekend of the signing 100 years ago of the Nov. 11 armistice that ended World War I.

Signed

Humboldt senior Sadie Houk signed her national letter of intent on Monday to play softball at Coffeyville Community College.

Ochai Agbaji to redshirt for KU

Kansas freshman Ochai Agbaji, a 6-foot-5 guard, will redshirt this season, KU coach Bill Self said Monday.

Agbaji, who combined for 14 points and seven rebounds in KU’s exhibition wins over Washburn and Emporia State, will practice this season but not play in games. He will be a freshman eligibility-wise starting next year.

Agbaji averaged 27.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during his senior season. He averaged 23.0 points and 6.0 rebounds his junior year.

Self said no other KU players would redshirt this season.

Agbaji was the winner of the DiRenna Award, the Greater Kansas City Basketball Coaches Association (GKCBCA) player of the year in 2017-18. He also was the Star’s All-Metro player of the year in 2017-18.

“I love his athletic ability, his smile, his intellect, his savvy. He has a lot of things to him that are really beyond his years, but he still needs a chance to play and play through some mistakes,” Self said recently in discussing the redshirt possibility for Agbaji. “I also think he is so much like Travis (Releford) was. Travis … the best thing for him ever was to sit out a year. He was able to start to and have an unbelievable two years for us. I think Ochai could even maybe experience more success than Travis even did, and I love Travis Releford. I think this youngster has a chance. He’s just young.”

Agbaji said after Thursday’s Washburn game: “Whichever is my path, I’m ready for it and I’m just positive about everything that’s going on.”

Kansas eager to shift focus from courts to the court

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Coach Bill Self isn’t sure what to expect when top-ranked Kansas steps on the floor for its first regular-season game of the season against No. 10 Michigan State tonight in the Champions Classic.

The Jayhawks were sloppy in a pair of easy exhibition wins. They have a new-look roster featuring a series of Division I transfers and high-profile recruits. And they’re facing a team in the Spartans that will be a major upgrade over Division II schools Emporia State and Washburn.

One thing is certain: Self will be glad the focus on the Jayhawks is back on the court.

Rather than in the courts.

His program has been dragged through the mud the past six weeks as three officials linked to shoe company Adidas were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their roles in funneling money from the company to the families of recruits at Kansas, Louisville and its other partner schools. Power forward Silvio de Sousa, whose family was mentioned in the court documents and testimony, will be held out against the Spartans and for the foreseeable future as his eligibility is investigated.

Self and his staff have not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor has the school, which has maintained throughout the FBI investigation into college basketball corruption that it was merely a victim. But it nevertheless has cast a shadow over the school that has been difficult to shake.

Maybe the bright lights of the Champions Classic will finally do it. The Jayhawks and Spartans open the season’s traditional lid-lifting doubleheader in Indianapolis, while second-ranked Duke takes on fourth-ranked Kentucky in Tuesday’s nightcap.

“I’ve studied them a little bit,” Self said of the Spartans. “It’s totally different personnel on both sides. They always seem to play well against us. We’ll have to play a lot better than what we have played. Hopefully we’ll also raise our level that maybe we haven’t seen yet, too, going there.”

The Jayhawks may have a new-look lineup but they do have plenty of Division I experience.

Their leading scorer and rebounder during their exhibition wins was Dedric Lawson, a forward who transferred from Memphis along with his brother, K.J. Lawson. And one of their steadiest ball-handlers in their two games at Allen Fieldhouse was Charlie Moore, a transfer from California.

“I’m very excited to play against a top-10 team early in the season,” Dedric Lawson said. “I think it’s a good time for us to see where we really stand collectively.”

Five-star prospects Quentin Grimes, Devon Dotson and David McCormack will also factor into whether the Jayhawks can make another Final Four run, but all of them will have to go through some growing pains.

That much was evident during the exhibition games.

“Moving it up to a Tuesday to start the season and having a game of this magnitude this early, I’m not sure it will be the best played, especially if you’re playing with young kids,” Self said. “We are, and they have some young kids as well.”

The Jayhawks do have some holdovers from last year, though, and they will no doubt rely on bruising big man Udoka Azubuike and springy guard Lagerald Vick against the Spartans.

“Our team is ready,” Azubuike said. “We just have to tighten up a lot of stuff. Overall I think we are ready as far as talent, and I know they will be ready too, so we have to attack.”

Self has done an admirable job insulating his players from the off-the-court issues that could have become a distraction. But that task will almost certainly become easier once the ball is finally thrown up on Tuesday night and the regular season gets under way.

“It’s the beginning of the season. The fans are excited, everyone wants to see what Kansas can do,” Azubuike said. “It’s the first big, official game that we play in. I think the way we go into that game really helps us moving forward. The stage of the Champions Classic is close to the same stage as the Final Four. I told the younger guys we can’t think too much. We just have to play our game.”