WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87.

Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly wrote on social media, "I’m incredibly saddened by this news. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her life serving our country with passion and integrity. She was an agent for change, an advocate for the voiceless, and her legacy will live on in decisions that made America more equitable for all of us."

Chief Justice John Roberts mourned Ginsburg’s passing. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice,” Roberts said in a statement.

Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer.

Ginsburg spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing and became something of a rock star to her admirers. Young women especially seemed to embrace the court’s Jewish grandmother, affectionately calling her the Notorious RBG, for her defense of the rights of women and minorities, and the strength and resilience she displayed in the face of personal loss and health crises.

Those health issues included five bouts with cancer beginning in 1999, falls that resulted in broken ribs, insertion of a stent to clear a blocked artery and assorted other hospitalizations after she turned 75.

She resisted calls by liberals to retire during Barack Obama’s presidency at a time when Democrats held the Senate and a replacement with similar views could have been confirmed. Instead, Trump will almost certainly try to push Ginsburg’s successor through the Republican-controlled Senate — and move the conservative court even more to the right.

Ginsburg antagonized Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign in a series of media interviews, including calling him a faker. She soon apologized.

Her appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993 was the first by a Democrat in 26 years. She initially found a comfortable ideological home somewhere left of center on a conservative court dominated by Republican appointees. Her liberal voice grew stronger the longer she served.

Ginsburg was a mother of two, an opera lover and an intellectual who watched arguments behind oversized glasses for many years, though she ditched them for more fashionable frames in her later years. At argument sessions in the ornate courtroom, she was known for digging deep into case records and for being a stickler for following the rules.

She argued six key cases before the court in the 1970s when she was an architect of the women’s rights movement. She won five.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg does not need a seat on the Supreme Court to earn her place in the American history books,” Clinton said at the time of her appointment. “She has already done that.”

On the court, where she was known as a facile writer, her most significant majority opinions were the 1996 ruling that ordered the Virginia Military Institute to accept women or give up its state funding, and the 2015 decision that upheld independent commissions some states use to draw congressional districts.

Besides civil rights, Ginsburg took an interest in capital punishment, voting repeatedly to limit its use. During her tenure, the court declared it unconstitutional for states to execute the intellectually disabled and killers younger than 18.

In addition, she questioned the quality of lawyers for poor accused murderers. In the most divisive of cases, including the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, she was often at odds with the court’s more conservative members — initially Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

The division remained the same after John Roberts replaced Rehnquist as chief justice, Samuel Alito took O’Connor’s seat, and, under Trump, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court, in seats that had been held by Scalia and Kennedy, respectively.

Ginsburg would say later that the 5-4 decision that settled the 2000 presidential election for Republican George W. Bush was a “breathtaking episode” at the court.

She was perhaps personally closest on the court to Scalia, her ideological opposite. Ginsburg once explained that she took Scalia’s sometimes biting dissents as a challenge to be met. “How am I going to answer this in a way that’s a real putdown?” she said.

When Scalia died in 2016, also an election year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to act on Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the opening. The seat remained vacant until after Trump’s surprising presidential victory. McConnell has said he would move to confirm a Trump nominee if there were a vacancy this year.

Reached by phone late Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, declined to disclose any plans. He called Ginsburg a “trailblazer” and said, “While I had many differences with her on legal philosophy, I appreciate her service to our nation.”

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer tweeted: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Ginsburg authored powerful dissents of her own in cases involving abortion, voting rights and pay discrimination against women. She said some were aimed at swaying the opinions of her fellow judges while others were “an appeal to the intelligence of another day” in the hopes that they would provide guidance to future courts.

“Hope springs eternal,” she said in 2007, “and when I am writing a dissent, I’m always hoping for that fifth or sixth vote — even though I’m disappointed more often than not.”

She wrote memorably in 2013 that the court’s decision to cut out a key part of the federal law that had ensured the voting rights of Black people, Hispanics and other minorities was “like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Change on the court hit Ginsburg especially hard. She dissented forcefully from the court’s decision in 2007 to uphold a nationwide ban on an abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion. The court, with O’Connor still on it, had struck down a similar state ban seven years earlier. The “alarming” ruling, Ginsburg said, “cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court — and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women’s lives.”

In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and received radiation and chemotherapy. She had surgery again in 2009 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in December 2018 for cancerous growths on her left lung. Following the last surgery, she missed court sessions for the first time in more than 25 years on the bench.

Ginsburg also was treated with radiation for a tumor on her pancreas in August 2019. She maintained an active schedule even during the three weeks of radiation. When she revealed a recurrence of her cancer in July 2020, Ginsburg said she remained “fully able” to continue as a justice.

Joan Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, the second daughter in a middle-class family. Her older sister, who gave her the lifelong nickname “Kiki,” died at age 6, so Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn’s Flatbush section as an only child. Her dream, she has said, was to be an opera singer.

Ginsburg graduated at the top of her Columbia University law school class in 1959 but could not find a law firm willing to hire her. She had “three strikes against her” — for being Jewish, female and a mother, as she put it in 2007.

She had married her husband, Martin, in 1954, the year she graduated from Cornell University. She attended Harvard University’s law school but transferred to Columbia when her husband took a law job there. Martin Ginsburg went on to become a prominent tax attorney and law professor. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010. She is survived by two children, Jane and James, and several grandchildren.

Ginsburg once said that she had not entered the law as an equal-rights champion. “I thought I could do a lawyer’s job better than any other,” she wrote. “I have no talent in the arts, but I do write fairly well and analyze problems clearly.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600476593364.png" alt="Justice Ginsberg spoke at the National Book Festival in August 2019-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Justice Ginsberg spoke at the National Book Festival in August 2019-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87.Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known.&nbsp;&nbsp;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The Senate and the nation mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the conclusion of her extraordinary American life. My full statement: <a href="https://t.co/NOwYLhDxIk">pic.twitter.com/NOwYLhDxIk</a>&mdash; Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1307121192516628480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Kansas Governor Laura Kelly wrote on social media, "I’m incredibly saddened by this news. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her life serving our country with passion and integrity. She was an agent for change, an advocate for the voiceless, and her legacy will live on in decisions that made America more equitable for all of us."<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Justice Ginsburg was a trailblazer, tackling each challenge with passion, dedication and extraordinary intellect. She served her country with honor &amp; had an historic impact on the court and the nation. Prayers are with her family.&mdash; Senator Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryMoran/status/1307126358431223809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Ruth Bader Ginsburg was our friend and neighbor. An intellectual giant, she was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a tremendous champion of women’s rights throughout her career.&mdash; Senator Bob Dole (@SenatorDole) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorDole/status/1307116031987548161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Erin and I send our condolences to the Ginsburg family tonight. May Justice Ginsburg rest in peace&mdash; Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1307123643663757318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Chief Justice John Roberts mourned Ginsburg’s passing. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice,” Roberts said in a statement.Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer.Ginsburg spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing and became something of a rock star to her admirers. Young women especially seemed to embrace the court’s Jewish grandmother, affectionately calling her the Notorious RBG, for her defense of the rights of women and minorities, and the strength and resilience she displayed in the face of personal loss and health crises.Those health issues included five bouts with cancer beginning in 1999, falls that resulted in broken ribs, insertion of a stent to clear a blocked artery and assorted other hospitalizations after she turned 75.She resisted calls by liberals to retire during Barack Obama’s presidency at a time when Democrats held the Senate and a replacement with similar views could have been confirmed. Instead, Trump will almost certainly try to push Ginsburg’s successor through the Republican-controlled Senate — and move the conservative court even more to the right.Ginsburg antagonized Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign in a series of media interviews, including calling him a faker. She soon apologized.Her appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993 was the first by a Democrat in 26 years. She initially found a comfortable ideological home somewhere left of center on a conservative court dominated by Republican appointees. Her liberal voice grew stronger the longer she served.Ginsburg was a mother of two, an opera lover and an intellectual who watched arguments behind oversized glasses for many years, though she ditched them for more fashionable frames in her later years. At argument sessions in the ornate courtroom, she was known for digging deep into case records and for being a stickler for following the rules.She argued six key cases before the court in the 1970s when she was an architect of the women’s rights movement. She won five.“Ruth Bader Ginsburg does not need a seat on the Supreme Court to earn her place in the American history books,” Clinton said at the time of her appointment. “She has already done that.”On the court, where she was known as a facile writer, her most significant majority opinions were the 1996 ruling that ordered the Virginia Military Institute to accept women or give up its state funding, and the 2015 decision that upheld independent commissions some states use to draw congressional districts.Besides civil rights, Ginsburg took an interest in capital punishment, voting repeatedly to limit its use. During her tenure, the court declared it unconstitutional for states to execute the intellectually disabled and killers younger than 18.In addition, she questioned the quality of lawyers for poor accused murderers. In the most divisive of cases, including the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, she was often at odds with the court’s more conservative members — initially Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.The division remained the same after John Roberts replaced Rehnquist as chief justice, Samuel Alito took O’Connor’s seat, and, under Trump, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court, in seats that had been held by Scalia and Kennedy, respectively.Ginsburg would say later that the 5-4 decision that settled the 2000 presidential election for Republican George W. Bush was a “breathtaking episode” at the court.She was perhaps personally closest on the court to Scalia, her ideological opposite. Ginsburg once explained that she took Scalia’s sometimes biting dissents as a challenge to be met. “How am I going to answer this in a way that’s a real putdown?” she said.When Scalia died in 2016, also an election year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to act on Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the opening. The seat remained vacant until after Trump’s surprising presidential victory. McConnell has said he would move to confirm a Trump nominee if there were a vacancy this year.Reached by phone late Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, declined to disclose any plans. He called Ginsburg a “trailblazer” and said, “While I had many differences with her on legal philosophy, I appreciate her service to our nation.”Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer tweeted: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”Ginsburg authored powerful dissents of her own in cases involving abortion, voting rights and pay discrimination against women. She said some were aimed at swaying the opinions of her fellow judges while others were “an appeal to the intelligence of another day” in the hopes that they would provide guidance to future courts.“Hope springs eternal,” she said in 2007, “and when I am writing a dissent, I’m always hoping for that fifth or sixth vote — even though I’m disappointed more often than not.”She wrote memorably in 2013 that the court’s decision to cut out a key part of the federal law that had ensured the voting rights of Black people, Hispanics and other minorities was “like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”Change on the court hit Ginsburg especially hard. She dissented forcefully from the court’s decision in 2007 to uphold a nationwide ban on an abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion. The court, with O’Connor still on it, had struck down a similar state ban seven years earlier. The “alarming” ruling, Ginsburg said, “cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court — and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women’s lives.”In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and received radiation and chemotherapy. She had surgery again in 2009 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in December 2018 for cancerous growths on her left lung. Following the last surgery, she missed court sessions for the first time in more than 25 years on the bench.Ginsburg also was treated with radiation for a tumor on her pancreas in August 2019. She maintained an active schedule even during the three weeks of radiation. When she revealed a recurrence of her cancer in July 2020, Ginsburg said she remained “fully able” to continue as a justice.Joan Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, the second daughter in a middle-class family. Her older sister, who gave her the lifelong nickname “Kiki,” died at age 6, so Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn’s Flatbush section as an only child. Her dream, she has said, was to be an opera singer.Ginsburg graduated at the top of her Columbia University law school class in 1959 but could not find a law firm willing to hire her. She had “three strikes against her” — for being Jewish, female and a mother, as she put it in 2007.She had married her husband, Martin, in 1954, the year she graduated from Cornell University. She attended Harvard University’s law school but transferred to Columbia when her husband took a law job there. Martin Ginsburg went on to become a prominent tax attorney and law professor. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010. She is survived by two children, Jane and James, and several grandchildren.Ginsburg once said that she had not entered the law as an equal-rights champion. “I thought I could do a lawyer’s job better than any other,” she wrote. “I have no talent in the arts, but I do write fairly well and analyze problems clearly.”

Update: Ginsburg dead; McConnell: Senate will vote on Trump nominee

Junction City Little Theater wil host Meet Me at the Mural Saturday evening from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. in the parking lot south of the JCLT Annex, 618 North Jackson in front of the new mural at that location.

This will be a membership drive / fundraiser for Little Theater. The program is titled " A Night of Music Under the Stars featuring "The Church Ladies. The fundraising event is free with all donations of cash or check directly supporting JCLT.

Those attending can bring their own lawn chairs. All social distancing guidelines will be followed and facial coverings are required. Refreshments will be available.

JCLT season memberships will be available for purchase, and JCLT Guild members are also available for purchase. There will be Information on the Little Theater Foundation.

JCLT spokesperson Ellie Dillon noted that with the COVID-19 situation and the performing arts virtually being shut down they are in need of community support.

Junction City Little Theater wil host Meet Me at the Mural Saturday evening from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. in the parking lot south of the JCLT Annex, 618 North Jackson in front of the new mural at that location.This will be a membership drive / fundraiser for Little Theater. The program is titled " A Night of Music Under the Stars featuring "The Church Ladies. The fundraising event is free with all donations of cash or check directly supporting JCLT.Those attending can bring their own lawn chairs. All social distancing guidelines will be followed and facial coverings are required. Refreshments will be available.JCLT season memberships will be available for purchase, and JCLT Guild members are also available for purchase. There will be Information on the Little Theater Foundation.JCLT spokesperson Ellie Dillon noted that with the COVID-19 situation and the performing arts virtually being shut down they are in need of community support.

Meet Me at the Mural will be held Saturday evening

Junction City used a 29-yard pass play from Andrew Khoury to Marcello Bussey to rally from behind in the fourth quarter to earn a 31-24 victory over the Seaman Vikings. After the touchdown the Blue Jays scored on a two point conversion run by DJ Giddens.

Seaman got the ball for one final drive and worked down to the Junction City 25-yard line before Blue Jay safety Javon George intercepted a pass to sew up the victory.

Junction City ( 2-1 ) led in the first half 29-7 but Seaman( 2-1 )&nbsp; used a strong ground game and quick outlet passes to 21 unanswered points and take a 27-26 lead with just under four minutes to play in the game.

The Blue Jays&nbsp; got 146 yards rushing and three touchdowns from Giddens, while Khoury hit 14 of 26 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown. Bussey got six passes for 113 yards and one TD.

Junction City will play at Washburn Rural next Friday.

Junction City used a 29-yard pass play from Andrew Khoury to Marcello Bussey to rally from behind in the fourth quarter to earn a 31-24 victory over the Seaman Vikings. After the touchdown the Blue Jays scored on a two point conversion run by DJ Giddens.Seaman got the ball for one final drive and worked down to the Junction City 25-yard line before Blue Jay safety Javon George intercepted a pass to sew up the victory.Junction City ( 2-1 ) led in the first half 29-7 but Seaman( 2-1 )&nbsp; used a strong ground game and quick outlet passes to 21 unanswered points and take a 27-26 lead with just under four minutes to play in the game.The Blue Jays&nbsp; got 146 yards rushing and three touchdowns from Giddens, while Khoury hit 14 of 26 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown. Bussey got six passes for 113 yards and one TD.Junction City will play at Washburn Rural next Friday.

Blue Jays get late touchdown to defeat Seaman 

High 79°	Sunny. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

High 79°	Sunny. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

Saturday weather forecast

Beginning Monday traffic at the intersection of 18th &amp; Jackson Streets will be inconvenienced during Phase One of road improvements. A contractor will be doing concrete restoration and motorists will need to follow the posted work zone signs and pay attention to construction traffic.

Junction City Public Works issued a release that said affected work areas will include the 1800 block of North Jackson Street and the 100 block of West 18th to the 400 block of West 18th Street.

Access to all businesses within the affected areas will be provided.

The work involved will consist of removal of old concrete paving of an existing roadway, and replacing it with new concrete paving. Portions of sidewalk ramps will also be removed and new handicap ramps will be installed.

Beginning Monday traffic at the intersection of 18th &amp; Jackson Streets will be inconvenienced during Phase One of road improvements. A contractor will be doing concrete restoration and motorists will need to follow the posted work zone signs and pay attention to construction traffic.Junction City Public Works issued a release that said affected work areas will include the 1800 block of North Jackson Street and the 100 block of West 18th to the 400 block of West 18th Street.Access to all businesses within the affected areas will be provided.The work involved will consist of removal of old concrete paving of an existing roadway, and replacing it with new concrete paving. Portions of sidewalk ramps will also be removed and new handicap ramps will be installed.

Work begins Monday on the 2020 CCLIP Street Maintenance Program

The Geary County Sheriff and Junction City Fire Dive Team have been conducting swift water dive and light salvage recovery training this week under the direction of Dive Rescue International personnel. There was river training on the north side of Junction City on Wednesday and at Milford Lake on Friday.

Sheriff Dan Jackson said the dive team does a minimum of eight hours of training per month. Now, these advanced courses, we try to get a couple of those in a year where we'll bring in instructors and continue to expand their expertise."

The dive team includes members from both the Junction City Fire Department and Geary County Sheriff's Departments.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600456057640.jpeg" alt="The Geary County Sheriff's Office would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude and appreciation to Dive Rescue International for the Swift Water Dive and Light Salvage Recovery training conducted this week with the Geary County Sheriff/Junction City Fire Dive team. We would also like to extend our gratitude and appreciation for the men and women who make up the Dive Team for their hard work, dedication and willingness to serve Our Community.&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>The Geary County Sheriff's Office would like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude and appreciation to Dive Rescue International for the Swift Water Dive and Light Salvage Recovery training conducted this week with the Geary County Sheriff/Junction City Fire Dive team. We would also like to extend our gratitude and appreciation for the men and women who make up the Dive Team for their hard work, dedication and willingness to serve Our Community.&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>The Geary County Sheriff and Junction City Fire Dive Team have been conducting swift water dive and light salvage recovery training this week under the direction of Dive Rescue International personnel. There was river training on the north side of Junction City on Wednesday and at Milford Lake on Friday.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600456251926.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Sheriff Dan Jackson said the dive team does a minimum of eight hours of training per month. Now, these advanced courses, we try to get a couple of those in a year where we'll bring in instructors and continue to expand their expertise."<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600456501866.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600456525066.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The dive team includes members from both the Junction City Fire Department and Geary County Sheriff's Departments.

Dive Team members conduct training

Milford Lake Corps of Engineers has released a blue green algae update for this week. The north end and central section of&nbsp; the reservoir are in a warning status, while the south end, Zone A, is in a watch.&nbsp;

The warming temperatures have increased&nbsp; the blue green algae activity.

The current lake elevation of 1145.82 is 1.42 feet above normal. The inflow is 411 cubic feet per second and the release is 400 cubic feet per second.

Milford Lake Corps of Engineers has released a blue green algae update for this week. The north end and central section of&nbsp; the reservoir are in a warning status, while the south end, Zone A, is in a watch.&nbsp;The warming temperatures have increased&nbsp; the blue green algae activity.The current lake elevation of 1145.82 is 1.42 feet above normal. The inflow is 411 cubic feet per second and the release is 400 cubic feet per second.

Corps of Engineers release blue green algae update

I.C.A.R.E. has undertaken a Canopy Project which will result in two 16 x 16 SkyWay Cantilever Canopy Coverings in the Multigenerational Playground Fitness Equipment Area at Playground Park this fall.

I.C.A.R.E. raised $6,000 for the project through community donations from the 2019 Greater Geary Community Foundation Match Day fundraiser, along with other community donors, said I.C.A.R.E. Executive Director Vickie Bobbit. 

Funds will be matched by the City of Junction City. Equipment is being purchased through ATHCO, LLC and installed by Junction City Parks and Recreation, said Ed Lazear, Parks &amp; Recreation Director.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600392241992.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>I.C.A.R.E. has undertaken a Canopy Project which will result in two 16 x 16 SkyWay Cantilever Canopy Coverings in the Multigenerational Playground Fitness Equipment Area at Playground Park this fall.I.C.A.R.E. raised $6,000 for the project through community donations from the 2019 Greater Geary Community Foundation Match Day fundraiser, along with other community donors, said I.C.A.R.E. Executive Director Vickie Bobbit. Funds will be matched by the City of Junction City. Equipment is being purchased through ATHCO, LLC and installed by Junction City Parks and Recreation, said Ed Lazear, Parks &amp; Recreation Director.

New canopies will be placed in Playground Park

<img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/9/1569336839553.jpeg">Click&nbsp;<a href="http://www.jcpost.com/category/obituaries/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(39, 163, 209);">HERE</a>&nbsp;to view the most recent obituaries and service times from our funeral home partners.JC Post is honored to publish full obituaries and photos at no cost to families.

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There were two new positive COVID-19 cases reported by the Geary County Health Department on Thursday, and there were two recoveries as well.

There were 23 active cases and one person is hospitalized.&nbsp;

Forty percent of the active positive cases are in the 31 to 50 year old age range.

There were two new positive COVID-19 cases reported by the Geary County Health Department on Thursday, and there were two recoveries as well.There were 23 active cases and one person is hospitalized.&nbsp;Forty percent of the active positive cases are in the 31 to 50 year old age range.

Health Department provides a COVID-19 update

Saint Xavier School will hold a fundraiser Friday through Sunday at Champion Car Wash in Junction City. The school noted via social media that when your family uses the automatic car wash stations a portion of&nbsp; the money earned goes back to the school.

Saint Xavier School will hold a fundraiser Friday through Sunday at Champion Car Wash in Junction City. The school noted via social media that when your family uses the automatic car wash stations a portion of&nbsp; the money earned goes back to the school.

Saint X fundraiser is slated for the weekend

Christ Preparatory Academy 42, Royal Valley 12

Maur Hill - Mount Academy 40, Nickerson 6

Pike Valley 52, Glasco/Miltonvale-Southern Cloud 0

St. John's Beloit-Tipton 21, Thunder Ridge 18

PREP FOOTBALL=Andale 63, Wellington 7Anderson County 48, Santa Fe Trail 10Andover 35, Salina Central 6Ashland def. Deerfield, forfeitAttica/Argonia 62, Oxford 0Augusta 20, Circle 12Axtell 64, Rock Hills 18Beloit 36, Concordia 7Bentonville, Ark. 35, Mill Valley 28Buhler 21, Winfield 9Burlingame 54, Hartford 6Burlington 54, Osawatomie 0Caldwell 70, Norwich 24Caney Valley 36, Erie 14Canton-Galva 48, Washington County 0Central Heights 37, Northern Heights 0Central Plains 46, Otis-Bison 0Centralia 30, Jackson Heights 12Chaparral 17, Sterling 7Chapman 46, Abilene 0Chase County 50, Valley Falls 0Cheylin 59, Northern Valley 13Christ Preparatory Academy 42, Royal Valley 12Cimarron 22, Scott City 13Clearwater 61, Mulvane 14Clifton-Clyde 54, Wakefield 6Colby 13, Ulysses 8Columbus 26, Girard 7Conway Springs 58, Elkhart 12Council Grove 14, West Franklin 6Cunningham 40, Fowler 6DeSoto 49, Basehor-Linwood 28Derby 35, Wichita Bishop Carroll 21Doniphan West 44, Johnson-Brock, Neb. 22El Dorado 30, Labette County 14Eureka 68, Bluestem 6Frankfort 62, Onaga 12Fredonia 12, Cherryvale 8Frontenac 28, Pittsburg Colgan 7Galena 44, Riverton 0Goddard 46, Arkansas City 13Hays 27, Liberal 13Hays-TMP-Marian 20, Plainville 13Hesston 24, Pratt 15Hodgeman County 60, Bucklin 14Hoisington 32, Halstead 22Holcomb 38, Southwestern Hts. 12Hugoton 63, Guymon, Okla. 13Humboldt 30, Neodesha 22Hutchinson 34, Maize South 33Hutchinson Trinity 35, Belle Plaine 0Inman 50, Salina Sacred Heart 0Iola 20, Wellsville 6Jefferson North 46, Oskaloosa 12Junction City 34, Topeka Seaman 27Kingman 49, Marion 6Lakeside 44, Osborne 34Lansing 41, Shawnee Heights 7Little River 64, Goessel 18Logan/Palco 64, Lincoln 14Macksville 46, Medicine Lodge 36Maize 34, Newton 27Maur Hill - Mount Academy 40, Nickerson 6McPherson 31, Great Bend 13Minneapolis 20, Republic County 14Moscow 55, Burrton 7Moundridge 48, Bennington 38Natoma 45, Weskan 0Norton 34, Russell 28Olathe East 26, SM Northwest 21Olathe North 35, Lawrence Free State 9Olpe 13, Lyndon 7Osage City 45, Mission Valley 8Paola 35, Tonganoxie 28Perry-Lecompton 28, Holton 14Phillipsburg 42, Ellis 6Pike Valley 52, Glasco/Miltonvale-Southern Cloud 0Prairie View 41, Parsons 14Riverside 42, Hiawatha 6Rock Creek 46, Marysville 12Rolla 54, Pawnee Heights 6SM South 42, Olathe West 14Sabetha 29, Nemaha Central 22Salina South 55, Wichita Campus 35Sedan 50, Burden Central 0Sedgwick 35, Jefferson West 7Silver Lake 29, Riley County 28Smith Center 62, Ellinwood 0Smoky Valley 38, Hillsboro 36South Central 54, Kiowa County 6South Gray 48, Minneola 0Southeast 36, Northeast-Arma 14Southeast Saline 42, Ellsworth 0Spearville 68, Ingalls 22Spring Hill 21, Ottawa 0St. John's Beloit-Tipton 21, Thunder Ridge 18St. Thomas Aquinas 41, Bishop Miege 35Sylvan-Lucas 52, Chase 0Syracuse 27, Stanton County 0Uniontown 14, Pleasanton 6Valley Heights 60, Horton 8Victoria 54, Trego 8Wabaunsee 37, Troy 13Wamego 34, Clay Center 21Washburn Rural 21, Pittsburg 14Wichita Collegiate 34, Rose Hill 31, OTWichita County 48, Hill City 0Wichita Heights 17, Wichita North 7Wichita South 14, Dodge City 8Yates Center 46, St. Paul 0___Some high school football scores provided by Scorestream.com, https://scorestream.com/

High School football scores

The Junction City Blue Jays ( 1-1 ) host the Seaman Vikings ( 2-0 ) at Al Simpler Stadium Friday evening. The contest can be heard on 107.9 FM and 1420 KJCK with&nbsp; the pregame broadcast beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The Junction City Blue Jays ( 1-1 ) host the Seaman Vikings ( 2-0 ) at Al Simpler Stadium Friday evening. The contest can be heard on 107.9 FM and 1420 KJCK with&nbsp; the pregame broadcast beginning at 6:30 p.m.Other area games find:--Manhattan ( 1-1 ) at Hayden ( 1-1 )--Chapman ( 1-1 ) at Abilene ( 0-2 )--Clifton Clyde at Wakefield--Herington at Rural Vista--Silver Lake at Riley County--Blue Valley Randolph at Hanover

Area high school football games slated for Friday night

The All Star game for the Mid Plains League next summer will be played at Rathert Field. Cecil Aska, Junction City Brigade General Manager, confirmed that development during a Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at the ballpark Thursday evening.

The number of teams in the league remains to be set for next summer. explained Aska. "We've had a couple of league meetings. There are going to be a couple of expansion teams that the league is going to look to approve." Aska anticipated the All Star game would probably be in early July.

Aska noted that among the new improvements are a sound system and improvements to the locker rooms. "The grass is now coming in better in spots. " He added the field is looking good.

The Brigade did not play this past summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. They expect to play in 2021.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600391258829.jpeg" alt="Rathert Field Thursday evening" />
 <figcaption>Rathert Field Thursday evening</figcaption>
 </figure>The All Star game for the Mid Plains League next summer will be played at Rathert Field. Cecil Aska, Junction City Brigade General Manager, confirmed that development during a Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at the ballpark Thursday evening.The number of teams in the league remains to be set for next summer. explained Aska. "We've had a couple of league meetings. There are going to be a couple of expansion teams that the league is going to look to approve." Aska anticipated the All Star game would probably be in early July.Aska noted that among the new improvements are a sound system and improvements to the locker rooms. "The grass is now coming in better in spots. " He added the field is looking good.The Brigade did not play this past summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. They expect to play in 2021.&nbsp;

Brigade will host the Mid Plains League All Star Game in 2021

DETROIT (AP) — Brady Singer was stellar for a second straight start, allowing two hits in six innings, and the Kansas City Royals blanked the Detroit Tigers 4-0. Singer pitched eight one-hit innings in his previous outing at Cleveland. The rookie right-hander struck out the first five Detroit hitters and retired the first 10. 

Singer struck out eight with one walk. Salvador Perez homered and drove in three runs for the Royals, who have won seven of eight. Tarik Skubal allowed two earned runs and four hits in six innings in this matchup of rookie starters. He struck out eight with no walks.

DETROIT (AP) — Brady Singer was stellar for a second straight start, allowing two hits in six innings, and the Kansas City Royals blanked the Detroit Tigers 4-0. Singer pitched eight one-hit innings in his previous outing at Cleveland. The rookie right-hander struck out the first five Detroit hitters and retired the first 10. Singer struck out eight with one walk. Salvador Perez homered and drove in three runs for the Royals, who have won seven of eight. Tarik Skubal allowed two earned runs and four hits in six innings in this matchup of rookie starters. He struck out eight with no walks.

Royals shut out the Tigers

The Lady Jay tennis team traveled to&nbsp;the Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka&nbsp;for the Topeka High Tennis Invitational on Wednesday.&nbsp; Avery Jacobsen and Hannah Ratts led the Lady Jays by earning a 2nd place finish.&nbsp; They went 3-1 on the day in #2 Doubles.&nbsp; 

Other participants were Anna Torres and Stephanie Stanislow at #1 Doubles, Abby Ratts at #1 Singles and Grace Harris at #2 Singles.&nbsp; The Lady Jays finished tied for 4th as a team.&nbsp;

 The Lady Jays next travel to Shawnee Mission South for a quad on Monday, September 21st.&nbsp; Matches start at 3 pm.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600341308256.jpeg" alt="Photo - Blue Jay Athletics Twitter" />
 <figcaption>Photo - Blue Jay Athletics Twitter</figcaption>
 </figure>The Lady Jay tennis team traveled to&nbsp;the Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka&nbsp;for the Topeka High Tennis Invitational on Wednesday.&nbsp; Avery Jacobsen and Hannah Ratts led the Lady Jays by earning a 2nd place finish.&nbsp; They went 3-1 on the day in #2 Doubles.&nbsp; Other participants were Anna Torres and Stephanie Stanislow at #1 Doubles, Abby Ratts at #1 Singles and Grace Harris at #2 Singles.&nbsp; The Lady Jays finished tied for 4th as a team.&nbsp; The Lady Jays next travel to Shawnee Mission South for a quad on Monday, September 21st.&nbsp; Matches start at 3 pm.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Lady Jay doubles team finishes second at Topeka High Invitational

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Relays, one of the longest-running track and field events in the country, will be postponed in the spring as the University of Kansas tries to deal with a massive budget shortfall caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The school said in announcing its decision Wednesday that postponing the relays will save at least $300,000 from the Kansas Athletics budget, and perhaps more given the likely COVID-19 testing requirements.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Relays, one of the longest-running track and field events in the country, will be postponed in the spring as the University of Kansas tries to deal with a massive budget shortfall caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The school said in announcing its decision Wednesday that postponing the relays will save at least $300,000 from the Kansas Athletics budget, and perhaps more given the likely COVID-19 testing requirements.

KU Relays will be postponed in the spring

TOPEKA, Kan&nbsp;- The KSHSAA will utilize three sites for state cross country meets to be held on Saturday, October 31, includ­ing two new championship venues.&nbsp; Consistent with risk mitigation efforts, a third site was added to reduce the number of runners at each venue and allow for more time between races.&nbsp;

The Class 6A and 5A state meet will be held at 4 Mile Creek Resort in Augusta.&nbsp; Andover High School will be the host with Wichita State University supporting the effort with course preparation.&nbsp; WSU is very familiar with this course, as the 4 Mile Creek Resort (formerly known as RAFT) is the home course for the Shockers.&nbsp;

Once again, Wamego will welcome championship racing.&nbsp; The Class 4A and 3A state meet will be held at Wamego Country Club and be hosted by Wamego High School.

The Class 2A and 1A state meet will be held at Sand Plum Nature Trail in Victoria.&nbsp; Victoria High School will serve as the member school host and will be supported by the athletic department of Fort Hays State Uni­versity for this championship event.

For the first time since 1992, Rim Rock Farm is not available as one of our championship sites as the Univer­sity of Kansas has notified the KSHSAA that the venue is not open for high school events this fall.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Regionals will be held on Saturday, October 24 at sites that will soon be finalized.&nbsp; Class 4A, 5A, 6A will have four regional sites of eight or nine assigned schools.&nbsp; Class 2A and 3A will have 6 regional sites of 10 or 11 schools assigned.&nbsp; Class 1A will have three regional sites.

TOPEKA, Kan&nbsp;- The KSHSAA will utilize three sites for state cross country meets to be held on Saturday, October 31, includ­ing two new championship venues.&nbsp; Consistent with risk mitigation efforts, a third site was added to reduce the number of runners at each venue and allow for more time between races.&nbsp;The Class 6A and 5A state meet will be held at 4 Mile Creek Resort in Augusta.&nbsp; Andover High School will be the host with Wichita State University supporting the effort with course preparation.&nbsp; WSU is very familiar with this course, as the 4 Mile Creek Resort (formerly known as RAFT) is the home course for the Shockers.&nbsp;Once again, Wamego will welcome championship racing.&nbsp; The Class 4A and 3A state meet will be held at Wamego Country Club and be hosted by Wamego High School.The Class 2A and 1A state meet will be held at Sand Plum Nature Trail in Victoria.&nbsp; Victoria High School will serve as the member school host and will be supported by the athletic department of Fort Hays State Uni­versity for this championship event.For the first time since 1992, Rim Rock Farm is not available as one of our championship sites as the Univer­sity of Kansas has notified the KSHSAA that the venue is not open for high school events this fall.&nbsp;&nbsp;Regionals will be held on Saturday, October 24 at sites that will soon be finalized.&nbsp; Class 4A, 5A, 6A will have four regional sites of eight or nine assigned schools.&nbsp; Class 2A and 3A will have 6 regional sites of 10 or 11 schools assigned.&nbsp; Class 1A will have three regional sites.

KSHSAA announces state cross country sites

DETROIT (AP) — Miguel Cabrera hit a homer and a double to help the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals 6-0.

 Matthew Boyd bounced back with a strong performance, throwing five-plus scoreless innings and giving up just two hits. Boyd allowed seven runs over three-plus innings in his previous start as Milwaukee beat Detroit 19-0 last week. 

Jakob Junis started in place of Danny Duffy, who missed the team’s flight to Detroit. Junis gave up five runs and seven hits. Detroit had lost three straight and 10 of 13 games. Kansas City had won six straight.

DETROIT (AP) — Miguel Cabrera hit a homer and a double to help the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals 6-0. Matthew Boyd bounced back with a strong performance, throwing five-plus scoreless innings and giving up just two hits. Boyd allowed seven runs over three-plus innings in his previous start as Milwaukee beat Detroit 19-0 last week. Jakob Junis started in place of Danny Duffy, who missed the team’s flight to Detroit. Junis gave up five runs and seven hits. Detroit had lost three straight and 10 of 13 games. Kansas City had won six straight.

Tigers shut out the Royals

NEW YORK (AP) — Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are on top of the first AP Pro32 poll of the season. Fellow AFC contender Baltimore followed at No. 2. NFC powers New Orleans, Seattle and Green Bay rounded out the top five. 

The Chiefs have been riding high since winning the Super Bowl in February and opened the 2020 season with a win over the Houston Texans. Baltimore began with a rout of the Cleveland Browns. Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers debuted in the poll at No. 14 in Brady's first season outside New England.

NEW YORK (AP) — Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are on top of the first AP Pro32 poll of the season. Fellow AFC contender Baltimore followed at No. 2. NFC powers New Orleans, Seattle and Green Bay rounded out the top five. The Chiefs have been riding high since winning the Super Bowl in February and opened the 2020 season with a win over the Houston Texans. Baltimore began with a rout of the Cleveland Browns. Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers debuted in the poll at No. 14 in Brady's first season outside New England.

Chiefs top the ApPro32 poll

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Brad Keller pitched his first major league shutout, tossing a five-hitter as the Kansas City Royals won their sixth in a row by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-0. Keller was in total command, allowing only three hits until the ninth inning. 

Making his 55th career start in the big leagues, he struck two, walked one and threw 111 pitches. It was his second complete game in the majors. Salvador Pérez and Hunter Dozier homered to help Kansas City win its second consecutive series after losing its previous eight. Pittsburgh lost its fourth game in a row.&nbsp;

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Brad Keller pitched his first major league shutout, tossing a five-hitter as the Kansas City Royals won their sixth in a row by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-0. Keller was in total command, allowing only three hits until the ninth inning. Making his 55th career start in the big leagues, he struck two, walked one and threw 111 pitches. It was his second complete game in the majors. Salvador Pérez and Hunter Dozier homered to help Kansas City win its second consecutive series after losing its previous eight. Pittsburgh lost its fourth game in a row.&nbsp;

Royals win their sixth in a row

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-09-18/kansas-nursing-homes-still-waiting-on-coronavirus-testing-gear-from-the-feds-and-cant-afford-labs">Kansas News Service</a>

Phillips County Retirement Center got a coronavirus testing machine 
this month from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

But it will run out of the sample-collecting kits that came with the device on Monday, just one week after turning it on.

Twenty miles away, the county’s other nursing home is still waiting for its machine.

“It’s
 been a really big struggle just to even try to find out who knows where
 it is,” said Teresa McComb, who runs Logan Manor Community Health 
Services.

A <a href="https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-38-nh.pdf" target="_blank">new federal rule</a>
 promises to protect nursing home residents from COVID-19 by requiring 
all workers to undergo testing up to twice a week. Homes should either 
use machines sent by HHS or find labs that can deliver results within 48
 hours.

But weeks into the new requirements, many nursing homes in
 Kansas are still scrambling to make that happen. They’re either biting 
their nails and hoping a machine will arrive soon, or else equally 
stressed trying to buy kits to keep them running.

They worry the 
new rules to keep people safe could actually push the facilities toward 
financial ruin because tests, and especially private labs, cost so much.

“They
 might as well have told me to land all my residents on the moon as to 
come up with that amount,” said Joe Ewert, the CEO of Brewster Place in 
Topeka.

In Phillips County,
 the coronavirus struck Logan Manor at the end of June. Two dozen 
residents and 15 employees tested positive. Eight people died.

“I’m
 not opposed at all to testing as often as they think we should,” McComb
 said. “I don’t want to get COVID in our building again. It is horrible 
to have and I don’t wish it upon anybody.”

The home, an hour north
 of Hays, struggled to find fast testing at the time. Samples that it 
shuttled four hours to Wichita took nearly two weeks to return results 
even though the lab had promised a swift turnaround.

On a tip from
 U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, the home drove the rest of its swabs five 
hours to a lab in Johnson County that could give answers within a few 
days.

Kansas gets regular updates from the federal government 
showing which nursing homes have received their testing machines or 
should soon. The latest list, from last week, shows 280 homes in Kansas.
 Of those, 130 hadn’t yet received them.

LeadingAge Kansas, an association of nonprofit long-term care facilities, says some homes aren’t even on the list.

The machines conduct <a href="https://khn.org/news/trump-is-sending-fast-cheap-covid-tests-to-nursing-homes-but-theres-a-hitch/" target="_blank">rapid antigen tests</a>. They are less accurate than tests conducted in most labs, but offer cheaper and faster results.

Nursing homes must test staff <a href="https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Data/bkwz-xpvg" target="_blank">monthly, weekly or twice a week</a>
 depending on the rate of people in their county who test positive for 
the coronavirus. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services uses 
that measure to gauge the local risk of transmission.

Sixty-one 
Kansas counties fall under the weekly testing rule. Twice-a-week testing
 applies in 14 counties and monthly testing in 30.

Testing even once a week poses a challenge.

The
 15-minute turnaround on the machines adds up when facilities run scores
 or even hundreds of samples per week. A single round of testing takes 
12 hours at Phillips County Retirement Center, which has about 50 
employees.

“So what you’re looking at is pulling a licensed nurse 
off the floor or out of the office to do this,” said Nate Glendening, 
the home’s administrator. “Taking away from direct care — it’s just 
tough.”

Nursing homes tend to run on slim operating margins with little in the way of extra staff.

At Brewster Place, with four times the staff of the Phillips center, the new machine is already straining. It powers down from time to time and Ewert, the nursing home’s CEO, worries it will break.

“The
 machine itself is very cool,” he said. “But in my opinion — our 
experience so far in just the two weeks — I don’t believe it was built 
to run 45 to 50 or 90 hours a week.”

Both Phillips County Retirement 
Center and Brewster Place put in orders with vendors to buy more test 
kits. They were put on waitlists. One distributor told Glendening to 
expect the supplies in late September.

But throughout the pandemic, nursing homes have seen delivery dates delayed for all sorts of critical gear because of backlogs.

“There’s no guarantee,” he said. “I’ll be real surprised if we see them, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

If
 kits aren’t available when a nursing home runs out, the facility must 
look for a lab that returns results within two days. Labs in 
Glendening’s region have told him they need 72 hours.

He worries 
he might need to go as far as Johnson County, pulling an employee off of
 other tasks one day a week to make the 10-hour round trip.

CMS says nursing homes that fail to keep up the pace of testing to shield against coronavirus outbreaks risk fines of <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/trump-administration-strengthens-covid-19-surveillance-new-reporting-and-testing-requirements" target="_blank">$400 a day</a>.

Yet it will <a href="https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-38-nh.pdf" target="_blank">cut facilities slack</a> if they can prove that they fell behind because they couldn’t find kits or a two-day lab.

Nursing
 homes are unsure, though, how far away they should be prepared to send 
their samples in search of that service. They also don’t know what 
happens if they can’t afford lab prices that often run $100 or more a 
pop compared to rapid antigen kits that cost less than $50.

Brewster Place will run out of kits this week.

Ewert
 worries his facility can’t afford mass testing every week at private 
labs. And if Shawnee County’s positivity climbs high enough to require 
twice-a-week testing at the 100-resident nursing home, he says, the cost
 would rival his nursing payroll.

He would need to plan its closure within a year.

“We’ve promised to take care of people for the rest of their life,” he said.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Celia_LJ" target="_blank">@celia_LJ</a>
 or email her at celia@kcur.org. The Kansas News Service is a
 collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public
 Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their 
connection to public policy.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600445209650.png" alt="Brewster Place in Topeka is grateful to have a coronavirus testing machine that allows on-site testing. But staff worry the device might not be able to handle running 200 samples a week for very long. Joe Ewert / Brewster Place" />
 <figcaption>Brewster Place in Topeka is grateful to have a coronavirus testing machine that allows on-site testing. But staff worry the device might not be able to handle running 200 samples a week for very long. Joe Ewert / Brewster Place</figcaption>
 </figure>By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-09-18/kansas-nursing-homes-still-waiting-on-coronavirus-testing-gear-from-the-feds-and-cant-afford-labs">Kansas News Service</a>Phillips County Retirement Center got a coronavirus testing machine 
this month from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.But it will run out of the sample-collecting kits that came with the device on Monday, just one week after turning it on.Twenty miles away, the county’s other nursing home is still waiting for its machine.“It’s
 been a really big struggle just to even try to find out who knows where
 it is,” said Teresa McComb, who runs Logan Manor Community Health 
Services.A <a href="https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-38-nh.pdf" target="_blank">new federal rule</a>
 promises to protect nursing home residents from COVID-19 by requiring 
all workers to undergo testing up to twice a week. Homes should either 
use machines sent by HHS or find labs that can deliver results within 48
 hours.But weeks into the new requirements, many nursing homes in
 Kansas are still scrambling to make that happen. They’re either biting 
their nails and hoping a machine will arrive soon, or else equally 
stressed trying to buy kits to keep them running.They worry the 
new rules to keep people safe could actually push the facilities toward 
financial ruin because tests, and especially private labs, cost so much.“They
 might as well have told me to land all my residents on the moon as to 
come up with that amount,” said Joe Ewert, the CEO of Brewster Place in 
Topeka.The struggle to get testsIn Phillips County,
 the coronavirus struck Logan Manor at the end of June. Two dozen 
residents and 15 employees tested positive. Eight people died.“I’m
 not opposed at all to testing as often as they think we should,” McComb
 said. “I don’t want to get COVID in our building again. It is horrible 
to have and I don’t wish it upon anybody.”The home, an hour north
 of Hays, struggled to find fast testing at the time. Samples that it 
shuttled four hours to Wichita took nearly two weeks to return results 
even though the lab had promised a swift turnaround.On a tip from
 U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, the home drove the rest of its swabs five 
hours to a lab in Johnson County that could give answers within a few 
days.Kansas gets regular updates from the federal government 
showing which nursing homes have received their testing machines or 
should soon. The latest list, from last week, shows 280 homes in Kansas.
 Of those, 130 hadn’t yet received them.LeadingAge Kansas, an association of nonprofit long-term care facilities, says some homes aren’t even on the list.The machines conduct <a href="https://khn.org/news/trump-is-sending-fast-cheap-covid-tests-to-nursing-homes-but-theres-a-hitch/" target="_blank">rapid antigen tests</a>. They are less accurate than tests conducted in most labs, but offer cheaper and faster results.Nursing homes must test staff <a href="https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Data/bkwz-xpvg" target="_blank">monthly, weekly or twice a week</a>
 depending on the rate of people in their county who test positive for 
the coronavirus. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services uses 
that measure to gauge the local risk of transmission.Sixty-one 
Kansas counties fall under the weekly testing rule. Twice-a-week testing
 applies in 14 counties and monthly testing in 30.Testing even once a week poses a challenge.The
 15-minute turnaround on the machines adds up when facilities run scores
 or even hundreds of samples per week. A single round of testing takes 
12 hours at Phillips County Retirement Center, which has about 50 
employees.“So what you’re looking at is pulling a licensed nurse 
off the floor or out of the office to do this,” said Nate Glendening, 
the home’s administrator. “Taking away from direct care — it’s just 
tough.”Nursing homes tend to run on slim operating margins with little in the way of extra staff.At Brewster Place, with four times the staff of the Phillips center, the new machine is already straining. It powers down from time to time and Ewert, the nursing home’s CEO, worries it will break.“The
 machine itself is very cool,” he said. “But in my opinion — our 
experience so far in just the two weeks — I don’t believe it was built 
to run 45 to 50 or 90 hours a week.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600445297503.png" alt="The antigen machines need supplies like these for gathering and processing samples. Joe Ewert" />
 <figcaption>The antigen machines need supplies like these for gathering and processing samples. Joe Ewert</figcaption>
 </figure>When the kits run outBoth Phillips County Retirement 
Center and Brewster Place put in orders with vendors to buy more test 
kits. They were put on waitlists. One distributor told Glendening to 
expect the supplies in late September.But throughout the pandemic, nursing homes have seen delivery dates delayed for all sorts of critical gear because of backlogs.“There’s no guarantee,” he said. “I’ll be real surprised if we see them, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”If
 kits aren’t available when a nursing home runs out, the facility must 
look for a lab that returns results within two days. Labs in 
Glendening’s region have told him they need 72 hours.He worries 
he might need to go as far as Johnson County, pulling an employee off of
 other tasks one day a week to make the 10-hour round trip.CMS says nursing homes that fail to keep up the pace of testing to shield against coronavirus outbreaks risk fines of <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/trump-administration-strengthens-covid-19-surveillance-new-reporting-and-testing-requirements" target="_blank">$400 a day</a>.Yet it will <a href="https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-38-nh.pdf" target="_blank">cut facilities slack</a> if they can prove that they fell behind because they couldn’t find kits or a two-day lab.Nursing
 homes are unsure, though, how far away they should be prepared to send 
their samples in search of that service. They also don’t know what 
happens if they can’t afford lab prices that often run $100 or more a 
pop compared to rapid antigen kits that cost less than $50.Brewster Place will run out of kits this week.Ewert
 worries his facility can’t afford mass testing every week at private 
labs. And if Shawnee County’s positivity climbs high enough to require 
twice-a-week testing at the 100-resident nursing home, he says, the cost
 would rival his nursing payroll.He would need to plan its closure within a year.“We’ve promised to take care of people for the rest of their life,” he said.Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Celia_LJ" target="_blank">@celia_LJ</a>
 or email her at celia@kcur.org. The Kansas News Service is a
 collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public
 Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their 
connection to public policy.

Kan. nursing homes still waiting on virus testing gear from feds

TOPEKA —In accordance with Executive Order 20-30, Governor Laura Kelly has ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff throughout the state of Kansas on Friday, September 18, 2020 until the day of interment, in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

President Donald Trump also issued a proclamation directing that flags at the White House and all public buildings and grounds and military facilities be flown at half-staff until the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is interred.

The president has also directed that flags be flown at half-staff at all U.S. embassies and other facilities abroad. The proclamation calls Ginsburg “a trailblazer, not only in the field of law, but in the history of our country.”

“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her life serving our country with passion and integrity,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said.&nbsp;“She was an agent for change, an advocate for the voiceless, and her legacy will live on in decisions that made America more equitable for all of us.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1600515201072.png" alt="White House flag at half-staff Friday night -photo courtesy White House" />
 <figcaption>White House flag at half-staff Friday night -photo courtesy White House</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA —In accordance with Executive Order 20-30, Governor Laura Kelly has ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff throughout the state of Kansas on Friday, September 18, 2020 until the day of interment, in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.President Donald Trump also issued a proclamation directing that flags at the White House and all public buildings and grounds and military facilities be flown at half-staff until the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is interred.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Statement from the President on the Passing of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg <a href="https://t.co/N2YkGVWLoF">pic.twitter.com/N2YkGVWLoF</a>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1307146028555014145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The president has also directed that flags be flown at half-staff at all U.S. embassies and other facilities abroad. The proclamation calls Ginsburg “a trailblazer, not only in the field of law, but in the history of our country.”“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her life serving our country with passion and integrity,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said.&nbsp;“She was an agent for change, an advocate for the voiceless, and her legacy will live on in decisions that made America more equitable for all of us.”

Trump, Gov. order flags at half-staff in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

PAWNEE COUNTY–A Kansas man waived his right to a preliminary hearing and entered a No Contest plea Thursday afternoon in the Pawnee County District Court to one count of Attempted Rape, according to Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett.

Had the matter proceeded to trial, the State would have presented testimony that on the night of October 25, 2019, Michael Patrick Stacey, 20, Larned, entered the bedroom of a female roommate at his Larned home and attempted have sexual intercourse without her consent, according to McNett.

Defense counsel indicated his client had no objection to the proffer as the defendant was intoxicated at the time of the incident and has limited memory.

After hearing the proffer of evidence and reviewing the defendant’s understanding of the consequences of his plea, District Judge Bruce Gatterman accepted the plea and found Stacey guilty of the amended charge.

 Sentencing is scheduled for October 21, 2020. As part of the plea agreement, the defendant agreed to waive his right to appeal the conviction and will be subject to lifetime Sex Offender Registration.

The defendant was originally charged with: (1) Rape of a victim overcome by force or fear; and (2) Battery. The crimes involve a single incident alleged to have occurred in Pawnee County on or about October 25, 2019. The Larned Police Department handled the investigation.

Stacey has been in the custody of the Pawnee County Sheriff since his arrest on November 12, 2019.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1573769468888.png" alt="Michael Stacey-photo Pawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Michael Stacey-photo Pawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>PAWNEE COUNTY–A Kansas man waived his right to a preliminary hearing and entered a No Contest plea Thursday afternoon in the Pawnee County District Court to one count of Attempted Rape, according to Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett.Had the matter proceeded to trial, the State would have presented testimony that on the night of October 25, 2019, Michael Patrick Stacey, 20, Larned, entered the bedroom of a female roommate at his Larned home and attempted have sexual intercourse without her consent, according to McNett.Defense counsel indicated his client had no objection to the proffer as the defendant was intoxicated at the time of the incident and has limited memory.After hearing the proffer of evidence and reviewing the defendant’s understanding of the consequences of his plea, District Judge Bruce Gatterman accepted the plea and found Stacey guilty of the amended charge. Sentencing is scheduled for October 21, 2020. As part of the plea agreement, the defendant agreed to waive his right to appeal the conviction and will be subject to lifetime Sex Offender Registration.The defendant was originally charged with: (1) Rape of a victim overcome by force or fear; and (2) Battery. The crimes involve a single incident alleged to have occurred in Pawnee County on or about October 25, 2019. The Larned Police Department handled the investigation.Stacey has been in the custody of the Pawnee County Sheriff since his arrest on November 12, 2019.

Kan. man must register as sex offender as part of plea deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has deployed additional troops and armored vehicles into eastern Syria after a number of clashes with Russian forces, including a recent vehicle collision that injured four American service members.

Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. has also sent in radar systems and increased fighter jet patrols over the region to better protect American and coalition forces.

"The United States does not seek conflict with any other nation in Syria, but will defend Coalition forces if necessary,” said Urban.

A senior U.S. official said a half-dozen Bradley fighting vehicles and fewer than 100 additional troops were sent in to eastern Syria. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the military move, said the reinforcements are meant to be a clear signal to Russia to avoid any more unsafe and provocative actions against the U.S. and its allies there.

There have been a number of escalating incidents this year between U.S. and Russian forces who patrol in eastern Syria. The most serious was last month, when officials said Russian vehicles sideswiped an light-armored U.S. military vehicle, injuring four Americans. A U.S. official said at the time that two Russian helicopters also flew above the Americans, and one of the aircraft was within about 70 feet (20 meters) of the vehicle.

The deployment of the armored vehicles was first reported by NBC News.

Russia, which backs the Syrian government, has long opposed American presence in the country. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed the U.S. for the vehicle collision. The ministry said Russia had notified the U.S.-led coalition about the Russian military police convoy's route and said the U.S tried to block the Russian patrol.

The four American service members injured in the crash received concussions. U.S. troops are usually accompanied by members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on the patrols, and they have stayed in the region to root out remaining Islamic State insurgents.

The crash last month took place near Dayrick, in northeast Syria, where Russian troops should generally not be present. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said the U.S. patrol left the area “to deescalate the situation.”

While there have been several other recent incidents between the American and Russian troops in eastern Syria, officials have described the August crash as the most concerning.

This is the second time that Bradleys have been sent into Syria. They were used last October in operations with U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in missions to defeat the remnants of the Islamic State group and protect oil fields in that area.

The Bradley units are from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, based at Fort Bliss, Texas.

“The mechanized infantry assets will help ensure the force protection of coalition forces in an increasingly complex operating environment in northeast Syria,” said Col. Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. “The Coalition forces remain steadfast in our commitment of ensuring the enduring defeat of Daesh.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has deployed additional troops and armored vehicles into eastern Syria after a number of clashes with Russian forces, including a recent vehicle collision that injured four American service members.Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. has also sent in radar systems and increased fighter jet patrols over the region to better protect American and coalition forces."The United States does not seek conflict with any other nation in Syria, but will defend Coalition forces if necessary,” said Urban.A senior U.S. official said a half-dozen Bradley fighting vehicles and fewer than 100 additional troops were sent in to eastern Syria. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the military move, said the reinforcements are meant to be a clear signal to Russia to avoid any more unsafe and provocative actions against the U.S. and its allies there.There have been a number of escalating incidents this year between U.S. and Russian forces who patrol in eastern Syria. The most serious was last month, when officials said Russian vehicles sideswiped an light-armored U.S. military vehicle, injuring four Americans. A U.S. official said at the time that two Russian helicopters also flew above the Americans, and one of the aircraft was within about 70 feet (20 meters) of the vehicle.The deployment of the armored vehicles was first reported by NBC News.Russia, which backs the Syrian government, has long opposed American presence in the country. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed the U.S. for the vehicle collision. The ministry said Russia had notified the U.S.-led coalition about the Russian military police convoy's route and said the U.S tried to block the Russian patrol.The four American service members injured in the crash received concussions. U.S. troops are usually accompanied by members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on the patrols, and they have stayed in the region to root out remaining Islamic State insurgents.The crash last month took place near Dayrick, in northeast Syria, where Russian troops should generally not be present. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said the U.S. patrol left the area “to deescalate the situation.”While there have been several other recent incidents between the American and Russian troops in eastern Syria, officials have described the August crash as the most concerning.This is the second time that Bradleys have been sent into Syria. They were used last October in operations with U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in missions to defeat the remnants of the Islamic State group and protect oil fields in that area.The Bradley units are from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, based at Fort Bliss, Texas.“The mechanized infantry assets will help ensure the force protection of coalition forces in an increasingly complex operating environment in northeast Syria,” said Col. Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. “The Coalition forces remain steadfast in our commitment of ensuring the enduring defeat of Daesh.”

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