Michael Hull

Michael Raymond Hull, 63, Chanute, passed away due to complications related to cancer, on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018 at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka. He was born to Ray and Mary (Huffmaster) Hull in Wichita, on May 1, 1955. He attended Altoona Midway High School, graduated from Chanute High School, and went on to earn his bachelor’s degree from Pittsburg State University and his Juris Doctorate from Washburn University School of Law.
Mike was a loving partner, dad, and Papa. His greatest joy was time spent with his family, and especially that with his nine grandchildren. He enjoyed spending time outdoors, watching the Royals and the Chiefs play, spoiling his grandchildren, and showing people he loved them by making their favorite dishes or baked goods. He worked as an attorney in Chanute for almost 30 years and served as the Chanute Municipal Court judge for over 20 years. His dedication to his family, friends, and community will be missed by all who had the honor of knowing him.
Mike is survived by his partner, Philip Fontes, of the home; mother, Mary Hull, Humboldt; children, Christina Morris and husband, Travis, of Topeka, Caitlyn Abbott and husband, Jeremy, of Springdale, Ark., Philip Fontes Jr. and wife, Angela, of Cherryvale, and Sara Fontes, of Independence; brother, Steve Hull and wife, Angela, of Wichita; grandchildren, Madison Morris, Brady Morris, Nolan Morris, Owen Abbott, Oliver Abbott, Connor Fontes, Kenzley Fontes, Philip Fontes III, and Adalyn Fontes; former spouse and mother to Christina and Caitlyn, Helen Hull; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father, Raymond Lee Hull, and his grandparents.
Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday. A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Countryside Funeral Home, 16 N. Forest, Chanute. Inurnment will be in Mount Hope Cemetery, Humboldt, at a later time.
Memorials have been suggested to the American Cancer Society and may be left with or mailed to the funeral home. Countryside Funeral Home, 16 N. Forest, Chanute, KS 66720, is in charge of arrangements.

 

Pope’s No. 2: Francis ‘serene’ despite cover-up claims

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s secretary of state says Pope Francis is “serene” despite the “bitterness and concern” in the Vatican over accusations that he covered up for an American ex-cardinal accused of sexual misconduct.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin says accusations from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano created “great pain” within the Vatican.
But he said: “Pope Francis is a grace, including with these things that obviously create such bitterness and concern, but he has the ability to maintain a serene approach.”
In an interview today with Vatican Insider, a website close to Francis, Parolin declined to comment on the contents of Vigano’s claims, repeating Francis’ invitation to read it and judge.
Given that Vigano worked for him as a diplomat, Parolin said: “I hope that we all work in search of truth and justice.”

Judge: Waterslide can be torn down

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge says crews can begin tearing down a 17-story waterslide on which a 10-year-old boy was killed when his raft went airborne.
Wyandotte County District Court Judge Robert Burns said Wednesday that the preservation of the Verruckt slide “traumatizes everyone.”
The 2016 death of Caleb Schwab at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kan., led to criminal charges against the company that built the slide and five people, including Schlitterbahn’s co-owner.
Delays in taking down the slide had stemmed from disagreements over which parts should be preserved as possible evidence.
Attorneys representing the owners of Schlitterbahn said preliminary deconstruction of Verruckt will start soon. The visible slide will likely start to come down by Nov. 1.

Review of petitions reek of deceit

A decision made last week by the Kansas State Objections Board has stirred even more controversy over the makeup of the board. As the final decision-makers on who we, the Kansas electorate, get to vote for or against in our primary and general elections, it’s imperative objections raised are given fair and meaningful consideration by an impartial body.
After watching the board’s highly partisan actions this summer, it’s clear changes are necessary.
We said it in June, and we’ll repeat it: It’s time to adopt a State Objections Board that’s impartial to election outcomes and singularly focused on honoring the Constitution’s framework. No party should have singular power in making decisions about the names on a ballot.
This was evidenced again last week when the partisan objections board, comprised of designees from the Republican-held secretary of state, lieutenant governor and attorney general’s offices voted to deny all but one of the 19 objections presented by attorney Pedro Irigonegaray about the validity of signatures submitted by an independent candidate for governor.
Among the issues raised regarding the signatures was the fact that one petition circulator who recorded more than 1,000 signatures over seven days would have had to spend 11 hours a day each day getting a signature once every 4.5 minutes.
“That statistic casts serious doubt as to the validity of his signatures, even more so when you consider that his petitions included signatures from 20 different counties during that time span,” Irigonegaray said.
Because the candidate hired an out-of-state company to collect the signatures of registered Kansas voters, five out-of-state residents gathered signatures for the petition drive. According to testimony provided at the hearing, petitions were signed by individuals residing at a hotel in Sioux Falls, S.D., a homeless shelter in Minnesota and a resort in Florida, and their residency could not be verified. Will Lawrence, who initiated the objection, told the board that he’d called to confirm signature gatherers lived at the addresses provided but was not able to confirm by people at each site that it was the legal dwelling of the petition carrier.
When it comes to petition drives that place Kansans on the ballot, it should be required that only qualified members of the electorate are eligible to solicit signatures. Why should we have someone carrying a petition on any issue or for any candidate if they are not legally permitted to vote in our elections? We shouldn’t.
To the credit of Brant Laue, Gov. Colyer’s chief counsel who served as the lieutenant governor’s designee, he asserted some of the candidate’s petition circulators should be brought in for questioning. His colleagues on the board didn’t agree. In the end, only 323 signatures were denied by the board though more than 3,000 were argued to merit more scrutiny.
When the board’s makeup includes the campaign donor of one of the candidates for governor, it’s no surprise that the objections board ruled to overlook the glaring inconsistencies of the filed petitions.
Topeka Democratic Sen. Anthony Hensley said earlier this week he intends to draft a bill ahead of the 2019 legislative session to change the composition of the objections board that determines the suitability of candidates for office when there is an objection to their filing. His Senate colleague Republican Dinah Sykes, who sits on the Senate’s Ethics and Elections committee also indicated lawmakers should review the current system. “I think different perspectives always result in the best policy,” she told The Wichita Eagle.
Allowing partisan politicians to determine the eligibility of candidates on the ballot undermines the trust Kansans have in their election system. A better system should be adopted that removes even the smallest appearance of partisanship.
We urge Sens. Hensley and Sykes to work together to advance this bipartisan idea at the Statehouse and bring greater certainty of fairness, transparency and trust to our election system.
— The Topeka Capital-Journal

Kansas turns blind eye to contaminated drinking water

Move over, Flint, Michigan?
The Gospel of deregulation preaches that doing away with all kinds of environmental rules and limits on industry is an economically invigorating victory for individual freedom. And think of the savings.
But the Kansans who drank contaminated water for years, while the Kansas Department of Health and Environment did nothing and told no one, don’t see it that way.
For them, freedom tasted a lot like the chemicals used in dry cleaning.
The Wichita Eagle found that the “state allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink contaminated water for years without telling them, despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing.
“In 2011, while investigating the possible expansion of a Kwik Shop, the state discovered dry cleaning chemicals had contaminated groundwater” in Haysville.
So, what did they do about it?
State officials sat on that information. They ordered no further testing and never let on that residents should test their private wells.
“We didn’t find out for seven years,” Joe Hufman, whose well was contaminated by a Haysville dry cleaner, told the paper. “Haysville knew it. KDHE knew it. Kwik Shop knew it.”
This wasn’t the first time the agency had failed Kansans in this way, and it may not be the last, either.
Why? A pro-industry 1995 Kansas law, the Kansas Drycleaner Environmental Response Act, was passed at the specific request of that industry “to protect the small businesses from the potentially crippling cost of federal involvement.”
The Environmental Protection Agency that this administration is busy gutting, especially now that it’s headed by someone who isn’t distracted by planning his work travel around his bucket list, funds Superfund cleanups of water pollution by charging the polluters.
But Kansas lawmakers have managed to get around that by capping the liability of any dry cleaner at a paltry $5,000. At that price, dump away, dry cleaners.
A state tax on dry cleaning chemicals was supposed to fund investigations and cleanup, but it wasn’t enough money to do any such thing.
And not only that, but the law actually made that impossible by ordering the state to “make every reasonable effort” to keep contamination from dry cleaners off the federal Superfund list.
Kansas lawmakers should fund a real cleanup and real investigations, along with emergency measures such as bottled water. At a minimum, they should amend the part of the legislation that says the state can’t look for new sites of contamination from dry cleaning chemicals. What sense did that ever make?
Clean water should not be a partisan issue, but it is, of course. And it’s up to Kansas voters to insist that elected officials stop protecting industry at the risk of human health.
— The Kansas City Star

 

A not-so-sweet drug seizure

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina sheriff’s office thought it made a huge drug bust, seizing 13 pounds of fentanyl worth $2 million on the street. The powder was found in a home along with other drugs and paraphernalia. A field test indicated it was the powerful opioid, justifying a host of charges against three suspects.
Most of those charges soon evaporated when a state lab concluded that whatever the powder was, it wasn’t fentanyl.
The sheriff’s office then sent the powder to a private lab, and the results arrived this week. New Hanover Sheriff’s Lt. Jerry Brewer said the powder seized in July includes no illicit ingredients, and is nothing more than “a combination of simple and complex carbohydrates.” In other words, sugar, worth about $8 at the grocery store.

Royals send 1B Duda to Braves

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals traded slugging first baseman Lucas Duda to the Atlanta Braves for cash considerations after their game against Detroit on Wednesday.
Duda signed a $3.5 million, one-year deal to take over for departed first baseman Eric Hosmer this season. But despite showing flashes of his prodigious power, Duda’s hit just .242 with 13 homers and 48 RBIs while appeared in 87 games, making his trade somewhat imminent.
He heads from a last-place team in Kansas City to a first-place team in Atlanta.
The Royals traded Duda in part to give up-and-coming youngsters Hunter Dozier and Ryan O’Hearn more playing time at first base. They planned to make a move to fill Duda’s roster spot before Friday night’s game against Baltimore.

Review of petitions reek of deceit

A decision made last week by the Kansas State Objections Board has stirred even more controversy over the makeup of the board. As the final decision-makers on who we, the Kansas electorate, get to vote for or against in our primary and general elections, it’s imperative objections raised are given fair and meaningful consideration by an impartial body.

After watching the board’s highly partisan actions this summer, it’s clear changes are necessary.

We said it in June, and we’ll repeat it: It’s time to adopt a State Objections Board that’s impartial to election outcomes and singularly focused on honoring the Constitution’s framework. No party should have singular power in making decisions about the names on a ballot.

This was evidenced again last week when the partisan objections board, comprised of designees from the Republican-held secretary

of state, lieutenant governor and attorney general’s offices voted to deny all but one of the 19 objections presented by attorney Pedro Irigonegaray about the validity of signatures submitted by an independent candidate for governor.

Among the issues raised regarding the signatures was the fact that one petition circulator who recorded more than 1,000 signatures over seven days would have had to spend 11 hours a day each day getting a signature once every 4.5 minutes.

“That statistic casts serious doubt as to the validity of his signatures, even more so when you consider that his petitions included signatures from 20 different counties during that time span,” Irigonegaray said.

Because the candidate hired an out-of-state company to collect the signatures of registered Kansas voters, five out-of-state residents gathered signatures for the petition drive. According to testimony provided at the hearing, petitions were signed by individuals residing at a hotel in Sioux Falls, S.D., a homeless shelter in Minnesota and a resort in Florida, and their residency could not be verified. Will Lawrence, who initiated the objection, told the board that he’d called to confirm signature gatherers lived at the addresses provided but was not able to confirm by people at each site that it was the legal dwelling of the petition carrier.

When it comes to petition drives that place Kansans on the ballot, it should be required that only qualified members of the electorate are eligible to solicit signatures. Why should we have someone carrying a petition on any issue or for any candidate if they are not legally permitted to vote in our elections? We shouldn’t.

To the credit of Brant Laue, Gov. Colyer’s chief counsel who served as the lieutenant governor’s designee, he asserted some of the candidate’s petition circulators should be brought in for questioning. His colleagues on the board didn’t agree. In the end, only 323 signatures were denied by the board though more than 3,000 were argued to merit more scrutiny.

When the board’s makeup

includes the campaign donor of one of the candidates for governor, it’s no surprise that the objections board ruled to overlook the glaring inconsistencies of the filed petitions.

Topeka Democratic Sen. Anthony Hensley said earlier this week he intends to draft a bill ahead of the 2019 legislative session to change the composition of the objections board that determines the suitability of candidates for office when there is an objection to their filing. His Senate colleague Republican Dinah Sykes, who sits on the Senate’s Ethics and Elections committee also indicated lawmakers should review the current system. “I think different perspectives always result in the best policy,” she told The Wichita Eagle.

Allowing partisan politicians to determine the eligibility of candidates on the ballot undermines the trust Kansans have in their election system. A better system should be adopted that removes even the smallest appearance of partisanship.

We urge Sens. Hensley and Sykes to work together to advance this bipartisan idea at the Statehouse and bring greater certainty of fairness, transparency and trust to our election system.

— The Topeka

Capital-Journal

 

Crest sweeps at Marmaton Valley

High School Volleyball: Lady Wildcats and Lancers

Marmaton Valley hosted fellow area team and Three Rivers League foe Crest along with Madison and Hartford for their home opener.

The Lady Cats went 2-1 while the Lady Lancers went 3-0 with three sweeps.

Marmaton Valley started things off with a sweep (25-15, 25-16) of Hartford. Patricia Outlan had five kills and three blocks while Bailey Griffith had 10 points and Karlie Stephens had 11 points and four kills.

Crest opened things up with a two-set sweep over Madison, 25-16 and 25-24. The Lady Lancers trailed 24-22 in set two and fought back from match point to win the set and the match.

Cassie Bowen had nine kills, six digs and a block while Regan Godderz had two aces and two digs and Camryn Strickler had four kills and five digs to go along with an 85 percent serving record over seven serves.

Marmaton Valley also grabbed a sweep of Madison, 25-19 and 25-14. Outlan had 12 kills and three blocks while Griffith had seven kills and nine total points and Stephens and Kayla Ard each had six points.

Crest swept Hartford, 25-12 and 25-14. Godderz had a 90 percent serving record over 21 serves and recorded five aces. Bowen had seven kills, two blocks and two aces and Jewel Armstrong and Aubree Holloran each had two kills.

THE LADY Lancers and Wildcats wrapped things up by facing each other and it was Crest who walked away with a sweep of their host 25-17 and 25-19.

Bowen and Strickler each had five kills with Bowen recording four aces, a block and three digs and Strickler putting up a 100 percent serving clip while recording five digs and a block assist.

Holloran had five aces and a kill and a dig and Armstong was 100 percent from the serving line to go along with two digs.

“I was so proud of the girls,’ head coach Abigail Hermreck said. “I have been coaching the seniors for seven years now and this was a moment we have been working for. It was an awesome night.”

Outlan had 10 kills for Marmaton Valley while Griffith had seven points and Sarah Spillman had four points.

Crest will continue the season at Pleasanton on Tuesday while Marmaton Valley will travel west to Yates Center.

Three Rivers League

Tournament

Marmaton Valley competed in the Three Rivers League tournament last weekend and walked away with a 2-3 record.

The Lady Wildcats beat Uniontown 2-1 (22-25, 25-16, 25-19). Outlan had 17 kills and two blocks, Griffith had 12 points and nine kills and Stephens had 11 points and four kills.

Marmaton Valley followed that with a sweep of Altoona-Midway 25-6 and 25-10. Outlan had four kills and Griffith had five. Ard had nine points and Kari Shad-den had eight points.

The Lady Wildcats then lost to Jayhawk-Linn 25-22 and 25-19. Outlan had four kills and three blocks and Ard and Becker each had five points.

Marmaton Valley then lost to St. Paul, 25-13 and 25-18. Outlan had eight kills.

The Wildcats closed out the tournament with a three-set loss to Yates Center. Outlan had seven kills and two blocks, Becker had eight points and Shadden had six points.