PARSONS, Kans. — A Parsons florist is doing her part to spread the holiday spirit
Yalanda Wolke owns “A-Blossom for Every Occasion.” She recently delivered 140 poinsettias to local nursing home residents.
The store had been selling handmade ornaments to help fund the project — one for every resident.
This started last year as a way to cheer up residents who weren’t able to see their families due to COVID precautions in place at facilities
“I had a lot of response to it, a lot of people wanted me to continue to do this, so that’s what we’re going to continue to do because the community wants to help out and give the nursing home residents something to cheer them up at Christmas,” said Wolke.
JOPLIN, Mo. — Many of us will make a resolution in a few days designed to improve our physical well being. But there’s also a way to nourish your soul, and it won’t cost you a cent.
There are non profits in almost every four state community, and most all of them need volunteers.
Nathan Hicks is the Emergency Disaster Services and Volunteer Coordinator with the Salvation Army of Jasper and Newton Counties.
He said there are a host of ways to help their cause — whether it’s with the Army’s emergency or non-emergency programs.
“We serve probably hundreds of meals for breakfast, lunch each day so when our volunteers come in that helps to go back out into the community for those that don’t have a breakfast, don’t have a lunch, that don’t have somewhere to go, so that’s a great way, it just helps feed the soul,” said Hicks.
“Give something from the heart this year, give some time,” said Executive Director Dianna Gurley.
Gurley said it’s not unusual for someone to volunteer for a day, like it so much they keep coming back.
“Come and volunteer, you can come and help fix a meal, you can help in the Free Store, you can help take food boxes out to cars, there’s there are a lot of things that can be done voluntarily.”
Even though a volunteer doesn’t get paid, Gurley said volunteers receive a different kind of compensation.
“You can come and volunteer as an individual, or you can even call up and say I have a group from our church or a group from our school that wants to come in and volunteer and we’ll set you guys up on a project and that would be wonderful.”
JOPLIN, Mo. — One man’s cycling mission has brought him back through the Four States.
William Galloway started his cross-country journey more than four years ago. He raises money and awareness for brain injuries — something he suffered years ago after being hit by a drunk driver.
Since that time, he’s made it a point to help make things easier when it comes to treatment for survivors. He passed through Jasper in 2019. Chain issues landed him in Joplin today so he could get things fixed at Blue’s Bike Company on main street.
“I never know what to expect in my travels. I don’t. Everyday brings that mystery. Some days can just be peaceful and quiet and other days…people will wanna make fun of you because they don’t understand a brain injury and then you hold back from saying anything stupid and you wish that it had a better outcome. It’s frustrating. It’s emotional,” said Galloway.
He estimates his voyage has taken him over 33,000 miles — using three bikes — over 50 tires and 30 intertubes.
TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is proposing to give residents who pay income taxes a one-time rebate of $250 dollars. Governor Kelly outlined the proposal on Wednesday. The Republican-controlled legislature would have to approve the plan, and GOP lawmakers are expected to have proposals for ongoing income tax cuts instead of one-time rebates. Lawmakers’ next annual session convenes January 10th. Governor Kelly said such rebates would be possible because Kansas has been collecting more in tax revenues than expected for months. Her proposal would provide $250 dollars to individuals and $500 dollars to married couples filing jointly. About 1.2 million filers would receive a total of $445 million dollars.
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Forest Service revises down the number of acres burned in last week’s wildfires. The agency posted on Facebook saying roughly 163-thousand acres burned December 15th, not the 400-thousand that was first estimated. The Forest Service and the National Interagency Fire Coordination Center are using a new satellite data system to map ongoing wildfires. The service says that as heat, dust and smoke cleared, the satellite was able to get a clearer picture. The fires claimed two lives.
WICHITA, Kan. – Restrictive abortion laws in Texas that went into effect in September mean, right now women are crossing the border to Oklahoma and Kansas for abortion services. The “Trust Women” clinic says they saw fewer than 10 Texas patients in its Oklahoma and Kansas facilities before the Texas law went into effect. Now, they’re seeing more than 100 women a month and they say they’re struggling to keep up with the rush. Oklahoma has three abortion laws on a temporary injunction right now. They were supposed to go into effect November first.
SAINT LOUIS, Mo. – New cases and hospitalizations from covid-19 are surging throughout Missouri, and health leaders are warning of an approaching “perfect storm” if more people don’t get vaccinated and take other precautions. Missouri is now seeing a seven-day average of daily new cases of more than 3,000. The average dipped below 1,000 in October. Meanwhile, hospitals are becoming overwhelmed in both the Saint Louis and Kansas City areas, even before Christmas gatherings and before the fast-moving omicron variant fully takes hold.
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Born at 30 weeks with undeveloped lungs, breathing was Brenlee’s main issue. Then, while in the NICU, she got an infection.
“It was one they had never dealt with. They had to call Children’s Mercy and research it and figure out what they were going to do for that,” said Brenlee’s mother Sammy Wortman.
Her older brother Bryar was two-years-old at the time and met Brenlee through the window of the NICU, where she spent a total of 18 days.
“She’s healthy now… She doesn’t have asthma, she can run and do whatever,” said Brenlee’s father Ike Wortman.
Webb City six-year-old Brenlee Wortman
Brenlee and parents Sammy and Ike Wortman
Fast forward to just two and a half months ago, Brenlee expressed her interest in wrestling.
“I just wanted to because I saw my brother wrestle,” said Brenlee.
“We didn’t plan on putting her in wrestling, she just suddenly decided that she wanted to do it… She just kind of took off,” said Sammy.
The Wortmans visit Bentonville three to four times per week for practice and weigh-ins, attending wrestling matches on weekends.
In a recent wrestling match in Seneca, Brenlee won two medals for first place in the boys open and the girls open, and one trophy for the “quickest pin.” Although, Brenlee says her favorite wrestling move is the “high crotch takedown.”
Then at Neosho’s “Battle for the Belt” on December 18, Brenlee won first place.
Courtesy of the Wortmans
Brenlee is currently the only girl on the Honey Badgers and also the youngest.
“She’s got a lot of big brothers at the gym. She’s the first girl so they are enjoying it,” said Sammy.
“She will eventually just wrestle girls, but right now with her being so young there’s not a whole lot of girls yet,” Sammy continued.
After trying multiple other sports prior to wrestling, Ike says that wrestling is “about the only thing she’ll pay attention in.”
“She walks into the gym and her focus is like none other,” said Sammy.
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Right now, she is “obsessed” with wrestling, but Brenlee’s parents will support anything that she wants to pursue.
“If she wants to quit next week, then we’ll do something else. Whatever she wants to do, as long as she goes after it a hundred percent,” said Ike.
“She was strong-willed and determined in the NICU and she’s still that way now,” he added.
The Wortmans praise Freeman’s NICU
“The nurses were really great with communication, specifically Karen Boyd… She was incredible, she’s what helped us get through it,” said Sammy. “It’s not easy leaving them, but you know they’re in good hands and you can trust them.”
“They take care of them like they’re their own kid… They’re loving on them, telling you about how long they held them that night,” said Ike, describing it as comforting.
Karen Boyd has been a NICU nurse at Freeman for 25 years and says there’s “more fantastic days than rough days.”
“Every one of those babies that comes in is special,” said Boyd. “When Brenlee was born, she was one of the roughest and toughest we had. She was a fighter.”
Boyd keeps up with the kids she has cared for in the NICU and has watched Brenlee grow up. She says she is proud of Brenlee.
During Brenlee’s stay at Freeman’s NICU, they even held a Halloween costume contest in which she was dressed as a bumblebee. She won first place then, too.
Courtesy of the Wortmans
Brenlee says she still has that bumblebee costume in her bedroom.
“There’s a lot that aren’t as fortunate coming out of it, so we know how blessed we are for that,” Sammy concluded.
MISSOURI — Hiring new police officers has been increasing tough around the country – and in Missouri – and one Show-Me-State lawmaker wants to do something to help.
The plan is something to help with the very beginning of a law enforcement career – even before a cop gets their very first badge.
“We did go through a spell, like two summers ago where we had four or five,” said CPD Lt. Jeff Pinnell.
That’s the number of ongoing openings for police officers at the Carthage Police Department. The number has shrunk in 2021 – but it’s an issue for just about all police departments in the area.
“The academy is not getting any cheaper. And then there’s also costs like uniform costs,” said Lt. Pinnell.
State Rep. Lane Roberts wants to help; He’s sponsoring a bill in the upcoming legislative session focusing of boosting students in law enforcement academies.
“It can cost them round numbers about $6,000. they’ll invest four to six months of their life to depending on where they go to the day or the night Academy,” said Rep. Lane Roberts, R.
House Bill 1703 would reimburse the cost of training – with some conditions.
“If you become employed with a police agency – every year four consecutive years – you can apply for 25% reimbursement. At the end of four years, you would have been 100% reimbursed. So you can either pay for it or you could finance it,” added Rep. Roberts.
Roberts believes the promise of financial assistance could encourage more future officers to apply.
“[A]nd hopefully that will help some of those minorities or people with family responsibilities, who would be good candidates but simply either can’t afford it or unwilling to put their family financial disadvantage. ” near the end.
Rep. Roberts spent more than 40 years in law enforcement, so these hiring challenges are a big concern. He’ll be promoting this bill when the 2022 legislative session starts on January 5th.
PARSONS, Kans. — It is cliché — but a southeast Kansas woman certainly is grateful that a Labette county deputy was “in the right place at the right time” on Sunday night.
Gabe Vitt was on another call Parsons around 9:30 — when he overheard dispatch tell EMS that it had a caller saying a woman had been hit by a train. The call was disconnected before dispatch could obtain a location.
It just so happened Deputy Vitt was only a couple blocks away from where it actually happened. He got there, found the woman and applied a makeshift tourniquet to her partially severed leg and kept her calm until EMS arrived.
“I actually back in 2015 went through EMT school at Labette Community College and there was two guys that worked for Labette Health EMS that taught that class and so I just kind of reverted back to that training and experience doing that to, I mean it just kind of naturally kicked in,” said Deputy Gabe Vitt.
“We’ve all been through the classes on how to put on the tourniquets and they all carry tourniquets. I think he was, the adrenaline was just flowing in him and he just grabbed the first thing he could find that would work for a tourniquet, and I’m proud of what he did,” said Sheriff Darren Eichinger.
Deputy Vitt started full time with the department back in February. The woman is still recovering from her injuries — but, again, is alive.
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is proposing a one-time $250 tax rebate for residents who filed a tax return in 2021.
“Thanks to our fiscal responsibility and record economic development success, we can return money to taxpayers and give every Kansas resident who filed taxes in 2021 a $250 rebate,” Kelly said.
The rebate would be a direct non-taxable payment to all Kansas residents who filed their taxes. Married couples who filed jointly will be eligible for a $500 payment.
Kelly’s plan will return nearly $445 million to 1.2 million Kansans.
The governor’s plan will use funds from the state’s budget surplus.
“These are significant savings for every family to be delivered by summer of 2022,” Kelly said.
JOPLIN, Mo. — Many of us will make New Year’s resolutions to better ourselves and for some, that will be trying to break the cycle of addiction. But now there’s a new facility in the area to help with that.
On the outside, it looks just like any other home in the Joplin area. It’s what’s on the inside that separates it from most. Inside these walls as many as ten women are in the process of breaking the cycle of addiction.
“Women ready for the next step in their recovery that have uh gone through like the Lafayette House or New Directions and are ready to get a job, work on a recovery program and and there’re ready to get on with their life,” said Michael Gustafson, an outreach worker at Oxford House Mo.
Oxford House Artemis in Joplin, is a self-run, self-supported, recovery-based home for women and their children, if they have them. Oxford House is a nationwide nonprofit.
There’s been an Oxford House for men in Joplin for the past 30 years, but until last week, there wasn’t one for women.
Gustafson says the women in the facility hold each other accountable for staying on the straight and narrow towards recovery. He says occupants can stay in the home as long as they feel they need to.
It’s a cause near and dear to his heart, because it worked for him, and now he’s paying it forward to help others get reclaim their lives.
“I needed a safe sober place to go and I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have family I could go to and so I interviewed at Oxford House and they gave me a safe, sober place to go and they believed in me until I believed in myself,” said Gustafson.
Each pays $112.00 in fees per week to cover all of the expenses of running a house. He says they do have chores, learn life lessons like budgeting, and must keep going to recovery meetings.
INDEPENDENCE, Kans. — A Coffeyville man has pleaded no contest to first-degree murder for a 2019 shooting death in southeast Kansas, according to AG Derek Schmidt.
Benjamin Job Mason II, 20, of Coffeyville, entered a no contest plea yesterday afternoon in Montgomery County District Court. Judge F. William Cullins accepted the plea to one count of first-degree murder and set sentencing for 1 p.m., February 15, 2022.
Mason was convicted for his role in the 2019 shooting death of Kimberly Meeks in Independence. The case was investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Independence Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff and U.S. Postal Inspectors.
