Stories from Thursday, January 21, 2010

SWINK -- Savannah Leigh Minor and Ryan Mitchell Swink, Bronson, are proud to announce the birth of their son, Ely Garrett Swink. Ely was born at 1:27 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, at Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott. He weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces at birth...

ERVIN -- Jess and Ginger Ervin, Uniontown, are proud to announce the birth of their son, Blake Allen Ervin. Blake was born at 5:06 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, at Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott. He weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20 inches in length at birth...

FLORES -- Alexandria Flores, Pleasanton, is proud to announce the birth of her daughter, Tammi Lynn Flores. Tammi was born at 4:05 p.m., Monday, Jan. 18, 2010, at Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott. She weighed 6 pounds, 10 1/2 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches in length at birth...

JOHNSON -- Clint and Angela Johnson, Bronson, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Alyson Naomi Johnson. She joins a brother, Hunter William Johnson. Alyson was born at 12:38 p.m., Dec. 28, 2009 at Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott. She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 inches in length at birth...

Before the hustle and bustle of the spring calving season, now is a good time to put together the supplies and equipment that will be needed and to prepare yourself and your facilities. Producers should always have the following supplies handy: disposable obstetrical sleeves, non-irritant antiseptic, lubricant, obstetrical chains, two obstetrical handles, mechanical calf pullers and injectable antibiotics...

Last week the topics of this column were two of the new disaster programs that were a part of the "new Farm Bill" passed in 2008. Since the sign up time for both of these is now, I am going to speak to those topics again this week. The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) offers reimbursement for livestock death losses in excess of normal that are caused by adverse weather events. ...

Local Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. franchise owners Jack Lemke and Everett Hixson want to assure customers in Southeast Kansas that changes in the national business economy will not adversely affect the service they receive. Lemke and Hixson said they believe recent news reports about short funding for the company's refund anticipation loan program could be misleading their customers. ...

PLEASANTON -- Uniontown's girls advanced into the championship semifinals of the Pleasanton Tournament with a 55-16 rout of Humboldt in the first round on Tuesday. The Eagles (6-3) will face Prairie View at 7 p.m. tonight in Pleasanton's north gym. Tiffany Poyner led Uniontown with a season-high 14 points. Abbie Smith followed with 12 and Brooke Harper added 10...

Fort Scott Community College's women had a plan to work the ball inside and use that to eventually open up the outside when they faced Cowley at Arnold Arena Wednesday night. But the Tigers didn't allow that plan to work to its best effect and that was part of the reason that they took a 56-47 victory over the Greyhounds in Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play...

Fort Scott Community College's men may be having about as difficult a time as a team can have right now. But that doesn't mean they aren't going to give their opposition a good workout, as they did though they fell to Cowley, 70-58, in Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play Wednesday night at Arnold Arena...

Fort Scott Community College will conduct auditions for its spring production of "Damn Yankees" at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31 and at 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1 in the theater of the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center, 2108 S. Horton St. The auditions are open to the community. ...

Many items sell for more than city's estimate in online auction

The USD 234 budget is stable, at least for the time being, district officials said this week. Public schools all across the state have seen recent budget cuts as Gov. Mark Parkinson and the Kansas Legislature try to fix a $400 million deficit in the state budget. ...

Former Fort Scott Community College defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul has decided to skip his senior season at the University of South Florida to enter the National Football League Draft. Pierre-Paul played the 2008 season for the Greyhounds, compiling 67 tackles, 10 sacks, and 20 tackles behind the line of scrimmage while helping Fort Scott to a 9-2 record and a victory in the Heart of Texas Bowl...

The Kansas House and Senate passed resolutions Thursday declaring January as National Mentoring Month to encourage more Kansas residents to get involved with statewide mentoring efforts and to recognize those individuals already dedicating their time...

Mercy Health Center officials recently announced that neurologist Roxane Bremen will begin seeing patients every Wednesday at the Mercy Health Center Medical Plaza, 902 S. Horton St., on a weekly basis starting Feb. 3. For the past year, Bremen has conducted a clinic on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, but has seen enough growth in her practice to expand her clinic hours...

The City of Fort Scott has some positive financial momentum as they enter 2010. Fort Scott City Manager Joe Turner announced during Tuesday's meeting of the Fort Scott City Commission that the amount of cash carryover into the 2010 budget was more than double what was expected. According to Fort Scott Director of Finance Susan Brown, the city estimated a carryover of $250,000, however through department cutbacks, the city was able to carryover nearly $565,000 into 2010...

FSMS officials discuss possible use of $100,000 prize

The Kansas Highway Patrol has joined many other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation by implementing social networking sites in an effort to broaden the reach of the patrol's public safety message. KHP has joined Twitter and Blogspot with the goal of providing public safety information and updates on KHP activities to those who utilize social networking sites...