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Carson questions Obama for fading campaign Page 6A

WEDNESDAY February 24, 2016





REDSKINS LOSE
IN OVERTIME TO
GARDEN CITY
Page 8A

Rex Petty: Bringing

his faith to town
City commission
gets jump on junk
By ELLY GRIMM
Leader & Times

Abatements were abound during the most

recent meeting of the Liberal City Commission
Tuesday night.
A pair of these resolutions (Resolution No. 2226
and Resolution No. 2228) concerned the
abatement of junked vehicles in violations of the
city code on several properties, including Hi-Klass
Mobile Home Park, Cimarron Mobile Home
Park, Western Mobile Home Park South and
Gaslight Village Mobile
Home Park. All
parties
w e r e
notified
of
the
violations and the
required 10-day period of abatement has expired.
Another pair of resolutions (Resolution No.
2227 and Resolution No. 2229), concerned the
abatement of environmental violations in the city
on several properties, including Gaslight Village
Mobile Home Park, Western Mobile Home Park
South, Cimarron Mobile Home Park and 719 S.
Oklahoma. The property owners were notified of
the violations to the city code and the required 45day period for abatement has expired. All

N See CITY/Page 3A

By ROBERT PIERCE
Leader & Times
As a young man growing
up in Liberal, Rex Petty
never knew the church he
now pastors existed.
I grew up in Liberal, but I
never went to church, he
said. I had no church
background. This church was
here, but I didnt even know
it was here back in those
days.
Petty would later attend
Oral Roberts University in
Tulsa, Okla., where he met a
friend who later attended
Faith Tabernacle Church and
told him about the local
church.
The next time I came
home on break, I came here,
he said. I started attending

PETTY
here when I was here in the
summer breaks.
Though he attended

N See PETTY/Page 4A

National Carriers brings

thumbs up for safety

National Carriers donates 32

USD 480 approves funding request booster seats to the Seward
from Adolescent Support Services County Health Department
By ELLY GRIMM
Leader & Times

EDITORS NOTE: This is

Part 2 of the story recapping
what occurred during the most
recent meeting of the USD No.
480 school board Monday

night.
Technology was not the
only topic of discussion for
the board Monday night as
they also took care of some
housekeeping items. One of

N See USD 480/Page 3A

By ROBERT PIERCE
Leader & Times
Tuesday morning, the Seward County Safety
Council received some equipment designed to
keep little ones, well, safer as they ride in vehicles.
Officials with Liberals National Carriers
brought 32 new booster seats to the Seward

County Health Department for the Safety

Council to give out to low-income children.
Safety Council Coordinator Tina Ortiz, who
also works at the health department, said
National Carriers makes the donation every year
at various events in the community, including
Cinco de Mayo, the Childrens Healthy Fun Fair
and events for Black History Month.
Ortiz said car seats are usually either raffled or
given out at those events.
Last year, they gave them out at Cinco de
Mayo, she said. At the Fun Fair, we raffled some

N See BOOSTER SEATS/Page 3A

Kansas Senate passes

Highway Patrol,
foster care measures
By JOHN HANNA
AP PoliticalWriter

That Liberal Band

Boosters prepare for 36th
Annual Fish, Chicken Fry
Serving begins at 5:30 p.m. on
Thursday, March 10 at the Seward
County Activity Center
Special to the Leader & Times

On Thursday, March 10, That Liberal Band

will again be hosting its annual Fish and Chicken
Fry at the Seward County Activiy Center. The
menu is the same as a year ago with fish, chicken,
hush puppies, cole slaw and buttery corn on the
menu. Iced tea will be furnished, and soda can be
purchased for $1.
The Liberal High School Jazz Program will be
providing the entertainment with the brand new
Jazz II performing the first two sets to be followed

N See BOOSTER/Page 3A

Kansas House rejects

plan to set top speed
limit to 80 mph
By JOHN HANNA
AP Political Writer

TOPEKA The Kansas House rejected an

effort Tuesday to increase the speed limit to 80
miles per hour on rural interstates, even as it
moved to hike it to 70 on some other highways.
The House approved a bill 106-19 to allow the
states secretary of transportation to increase the
speed limits on rural two-lane highways and other
non-interstate highways another 5 miles per hour,
from the current 65. The measure goes next to the
Senate.

N See SPEED LIMIT/Page 3A

Sen. Greg Smith, an Overland Park, Republican and chairman of the Senate's corrections committee
speaks, Tuesday in Topeka. Kansas senators on Tuesday voted to overhaul the juvenile justice system
by offering community-based programs instead of jail for low-risk juvenile offenders. Thad Allton/The
Topeka Capital-Journal via AP

TOPEKA The Kansas Senate moved Tuesday to

put more Highway Patrol troopers on the states roads
and to launch a new pilot program in which married
couples who dont smoke or drink alcohol would serve as
foster parents for abused and neglected children.
Both the patrol bill and the foster care measure
inspired some opposition before the Senate approved
them and sent them to the House.
Senators also approved bills to help microbreweries
expand and for combatting
sexting by middle school and
high school students.
Here is a look at significant legislative developments Tuesday.
HIGHWAY PATROL
STAFFING
The bill aimed at helping
the Highway Patrol also
would raise funds for the
states center in Hutchinson for
training law enforcement officers.

Kansas senators vote to overhaul

juvenile justice system, offering
Federal government
community-based programs

N See MEASURES/Page 4A

Youths who violate probation

will be referred to communitybased programs that allow them
to stay in homes with their
families instead of being placed
in juvenile detention centers
By MELISSA HELLMANN
Associated Press

TOPEKA Kansas senators on Tuesday voted to

overhaul the juvenile justice system by offering
community-based programs instead of jail for lowrisk juvenile offenders.
The measure will close group homes for juvenile
offenders by July 2018. Youths who violate probation
will be referred to community-based programs that
allow them to stay in homes with their families
instead of being placed in juvenile detention centers
as they are currently. The Senate voted 38-2 in favor
of the bill, sending it to the House for further consid-

Vol. 130 Iss. 267 12 Pa ges

eration.
Youth offenders who commit low- or mid-level
offenses will now receive an intervention plan that
allows them to stay in the community, although highrisk offenders will continue to be incarcerated.
Currently, juvenile offenders are placed in juvenile
detention centers, foster homes or group homes for
any level offense.
Republican Sen. Greg Smith from Overland Park,
chairman of the Senate committee that sponsored
the bill, said the overhaul will save more than $75.6
million over five years by closing group homes and
reducing the bed impact in out-of-home placements.
The savings will be redirected to community-based
programs such as anger management and family
therapy.
Smith said the bill looks out for whats best for
kids, their families and crime rate.
A bipartisan group of senators, judges and prosecutors conducted a six-month study on the juvenile
justice system that created the framework of the
112-page bill. The group found that Kansas has the
sixth-highest rate of juvenile offenders placed in

N See JUSTICE/Page 4A

www.leaderandtimes.com

not backing own

official on voter ruling
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press

WICHITA The federal Justice Department has

refused to support a U.S. elections official who sided
with Kansas, Alabama and Georgia in a fight over
whether voters should have to show proof of citizenship
when registering using a national form.
The government conceded in a court filing that the
executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance
Commission and his agency cannot win the lawsuit on
its merits because he never determined, as required by
the National Voter Registration Act, that the documents
were necessary to determine the eligibility of voters.
Residents of other states only need to swear that they
are citizens, not show proof.
The Justice Department also sided with voting rights
groups who sued the federal agency and it urged a

N See VOTING/Page 3A
Liberal, Ka nsas