Food as medicine; toolbox kills man; giving mom a kidney
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Odd and interesting news from the Midwest.
- By JESSICA CILELLA (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald
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ROSELLE, Ill. (AP) — Christie Haack sobbed when she heard of Baby Hope, the newborn girl found dead, abandoned last month on a secluded roadside near Wheaton.
The tears came because of the waste of human life. She cried, too, because she knows -- even if Baby Hope's mother didn't -- that safe haven laws provide options to save unwanted babies.
But mostly tears came because another mother left a 6-pound baby girl at a DeKalb fire station two years ago.
And because of that mother's decision, Christie and her husband, Paul, were able to adopt the child, bring her into their Roselle home and give her a chance at the kind of life Baby Hope could have had.
They named her Trinity.
"I always think back to Trinity," Christie says, her voice cracking. "What if her birth mom didn't know about this law? She could have been the one in a backpack on the side of the road. It hits really close to home."
Using a safe haven is never an ideal situation, Paul says, but that doesn't mean it can't be turned into a positive.
Trinity's birth mom, he said, "doesn't have to worry about hiding because she did something wrong. She doesn't have to worry about being put in jail. She can rest easy knowing she saved a life and it's made everybody in this situation happy."
Gabriel Haack once told his parents he believed he was in heaven before he was born. It was there, he said, that he asked God to make Christie and Paul his parents.
"You know," Christie said with a smile, "your sister Trinity told God the same thing."
But Trinity couldn't come the "normal" way, Christie told her son, now 7. Instead, God sent an angel -- Trinity's birth mom -- to deliver her to the Haacks.
That mom, whose identity remains unknown, gave birth to Trinity at home on a cold November night, shortly before Thanksgiving. She clipped and tied the baby's umbilical cord, gave her a bath and twice attempted to feed her.
About noon, she brought the newborn to the fire station. There, she said goodbye to the little girl she knew she couldn't care for.
It was the 100th time a baby was left at a safe haven in Illinois.
Such havens were created in 2001 with passage of the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act. It says babies 30 days or younger can be handed off to staff members at any firehouse, police station, hospital or emergency medical care facility in the state.
No questions are asked. No explanation is required. And as long as abuse is not suspected, the biological parents can quietly walk away and go on with their lives, with no fear of prosecution.
Paul says it's crucial everyone knows about the availability of safe havens to save the lives of babies such as Hope and Trinity.
"There's a way out," he says. "You don't have to do this. And it's just sad the message doesn't get out more."
A few hours after the mother walked out of the fire station, the Haacks got a phone call that would change their lives. There's a safe haven baby, available, their adoption counselor said.
When they started the adoption process 18 months earlier, the Haacks had some hesitation about adopting a baby they knew nothing about.
I'll tell you what I know, the counselor said. The baby is a girl. Her mother was white.
There was no information on the father, no medical records, no details about why the baby was abandoned.
Yet the couple felt a surprising sense of calm and quickly agreed the child was meant to be theirs.
"It just felt right," Christie says. "We didn't even think about it."
When they met their future daughter, Christie immediately noticed a tag around her leg. It said "Doe, Baby Jane."
"It saddened me because I thought, 'Oh my gosh. Shouldn't Baby Doe be in the morgue?' And then I rejoiced because she wasn't in a morgue, she was saved," Christie said with a smile.
Two days later, the Haacks brought Trinity home from the hospital, where she had received a clean bill of health.
Now, almost two years later, Trinity fits right into the family, both in her physical appearance and personality.
Strangers often tell Christie -- much to her amusement -- how much Trinity looks like her, with her bright blue eyes and blonde hair.
"We hit the jackpot," Paul says.
"I don't think there's anything I would change with the whole scenario. It's made our family feel complete."
The chance of the Haacks getting a safe haven baby was slim.
Since the state law was passed, 115 babies have been left at safe havens. In the same time, 79 were illegally abandoned; 41 did not survive.
For many prospective adoptive parents of safe haven babies, the roughly two months that follow the happy news a baby is available are filled with anxiety and fear.
The law allows biological parents 60 days from the time the child is left at a safe haven to regain custody. So, while the babies can stay at the homes of families hoping to adopt them, they remain in the foster care system until the deadline passes.
The Haacks say they were lucky because they brought Trinity home during the holidays. Amid Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, they didn't have much time to worry.
The deadline passed with no hitches.
Christie says she hopes mothers who have used safe havens aren't ashamed of their decisions, instead realizing the joy they've brought to their child's adoptive family.
"We don't think of you as a bad person for handing your child over to a safe haven facility," she says.
"Instead, you're our angels. It's a very noble thing."
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Source: (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald, http://bit.ly/2cCrudy
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Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com
This is an AP-Illinois Exchange story offered by the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald.
- By JAMES NORD Associated Press
- Updated
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — After years of trying to get South Dakota legislators to surrender control of redistricting to an independent commission, supporters of the idea are trying to do it instead through a constitutional amendment.
Backers say the measure before voters this November would eliminate lawmakers' conflict of interest and make people feel elections are fair to all parties.
"It's time for fair representation. Period," said Democratic Rep. Peggy Gibson, who has backed at least nine independent redistricting measures since 2009. "I'm not saying it'll be perfect, but I'm certainly thinking it will be better than the method that we have now."
Opponents — including majority Republicans — say the current system is working fine.
"The idea, I think, is to elect people that are more in line with liberal ideas as far as spending money and a whole host of issues," said GOP Rep. Jim Bolin, who served on the commission that oversaw the last redistricting plan in 2011.
Members of the South Dakota Farmers Union decided to gather signatures for a constitutional amendment after their last failure at the Legislature. The group has given at least $238,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to a political committee supporting the effort, according to state campaign finance reports.
Redistricting is the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries every 10 years to account for population changes. When the process is carried out by elected officials, it often sparks lawsuits and claims of gerrymandering — attempting to draw the districts for political advantage.
Passage of South Dakota's Amendment T requires a simple majority. It would create a commission of nine people chosen each redistricting year to revise the legislative district boundaries.
No more than three commission members could be part of the same political party, and none could be elected officials in the legislative or executive branches, among other prohibitions. The plan also says party registration and voting history must be excluded from the redistricting process, and that the residency of incumbents or candidates can't be identified or considered.
Opponents argue the plan is meant to tip the political balance toward Democrats. Republicans now hold every statewide office and supermajorities in both legislative chambers, and registered Republicans far outnumber registered Democrats.
The 2011 plan passed with a vote mostly along party lines, with minority Democrats complaining it put them at a disadvantage. Bolin insisted it was fair. He called the amendment "part of a crazy plan to change things around."
Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University, said the current process probably does favor the Republican majority.
"I don't think anybody thinks that even with neutrally drawn districts that Democrats would control the House or the Senate, but it's likely that the numbers of Democrats would go up," he said.
Political considerations get no mention in redistricting guidance provided by the state constitution. It just says each legislative district must consist of "compact, contiguous territory and shall have population as nearly equal as is practicable."
Reuben Bezpaletz, a former Legislative Research Council staff member who worked on redistricting plans from 1981 through the 2011 redistricting, wouldn't take a position on the measure. But he said it's critical that districts are drawn when possible so that either party could win.
"I believe the creation of competitive legislative districts is the most important single thing that you can do to preserve democracy by giving voters a real choice," he said.
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YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 48-year-old man has died after a large toolbox fell on him at a business in the Ann Arbor area.
The Ann Arbor News reports (http://bit.ly/2d1hf22 ) Sunday that the man was injured Saturday afternoon at an auto sales shop in Ypsilanti Township and later died.
Washtenaw County sheriff's office spokesman Derrick Jackson says investigators believe the Ypsilanti man was trying to load the toolbox onto his flatbed truck.
Jackson says the death is under investigation, but "at this time it appears to be a tragic accident."
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Information from: The Ann Arbor News, http://www.mlive.com/ann-arbor
- By KAREN SPEIDEL Wahpeton Daily News
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LIDGERWOOD, N.D. (AP) — Maurice Kutter is the perfect blend of old and new. This rural Lidgerwood farmer is well used to the trappings of his industry, from high-tech tractors and combines that hold GPS units and yield monitors tracking bushels to the acre.
He is a lifelong farmer and works with his son, Jim, along the North Dakota and South Dakota border. The Kutters have learned to fix their equipment themselves, overhauling engines, replacing parts and so on, a mechanical skill that turned into a hobby as Maurice enjoys dipping into the past by restoring the tools of his industry.
He is an Allis-Chalmers aficionado who restores tractors and combines, everything from a 1938 No. 40 combine to a No. 60, the first having a 4-foot cut and the other a 6-foot cut. Consider that today's combines cut anywhere between 25-40 feet and you begin to see how agricultural equipment has grown so much larger and more complicated.
The 1938 model combine, No. 40 holds 11 bushels of grain in its hopper and sold for $325 when brand new, he said.
"I have no idea if that would be expensive compared to today. I suppose that would have been a lot of money at that time in '38. I was thinking about this. Back then the wheat was (not as high)," he said, holding his hand a few feet off the floor to put it into perspective. "Then it was good to hit 15 bushels to the acre. We combined and hauled it all in and it was 53 bushels to the acre."
It's a hobby that keeps him busy for this self-proclaimed Allis-Chalmers man. He has restored a Massey Ferguson tractor, but most of his antique equipment is orange.
Lightning may strike him one day as he committed sacrilege by painting a John Deere wooden flare box Allis-Chalmers orange, which made him sit up in his living room chair and slap his knee. "It was green and all that stuff," Maurice said as if that explained everything.
He learns about some finds from people who know about his interest, and sometimes it's seeing a piece in the trees, such as a combine that sat out in the elements 30-40 years before Maurice brought it back to life.
He drives the back country roads not only to watch the progress of crops, but also to see what old finds are rusting in the shelter belts.
"I tell him to watch the road," Lucille Kutter said while sitting in their living room as Maurice talked about his hobbies.
That made Maurice laugh. "She's always telling me to watch the road."
Lucille shook her head. "I have to watch the road because he isn't," she told the Wahpeton Daily News (http://bit.ly/2dpPxgx ).
Maurice showed off his restoration hobby recently as he and his wife, Lucille, held an old-fashioned threshing bee to remove wheat from a field west of their house. About 80 people showed up to watch the second-annual event at the Kutter farm.
Maurice's photo albums are not typical pictorials showing his burgeoning family. Pictures of his restored cars, tractors and combines grace the pages. There are also several small-scale models of the combines and tractors he's restored in his household.
"This one here is a 1968 Fury III, two-door," he said, pointing at the first vehicle.
He just finished a 1948 Plymouth Business Coupe, likely one of the last cars he will restore since he said he's getting too old to keep working on cars. He does the work himself, welds frames, paints, overhauls and replaces parts. Since he doesn't have a hoist, he said it's getting to be too hard to crawl under the vehicles to work on them.
That's why he started restoring antique tractors and combines. "They aren't as fussy," he added.
He has six restored cars in his toy shed. He has sold three, but there are still too many, Lucille said with a rueful shake, since this obviously is a long-standing discussion between husband and wife.
As is the way of husbands, Maurice shrugged.
There are getting to be too many tractors, she added.
That brought a smile this time. "I still want to buy one more," he winked.
But this one he hopes will be fully restored since the last one provided too many problems.
"This little CA, if people would have seen it, they would have said to just junk it, it was that bad," Maurice said, which brought another shrug since he worked through the problems and restored what was lost so the tractor could find a new purpose.
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Information from: Wahpeton Daily News, http://www.wahpetondailynews.com
- By FRANK STANKO Wahpeton Daily News
- Updated
WAHPETON, N.D. (AP) — People with a criminal record deserve a fair shake, believes Emily Turner, who was born and raised in Wahpeton.
Turner, a former attorney with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Minneapolis, is devoting her energy to launching a nonprofit gourmet grilled cheese restaurant, All Square in the Twin Cities area. When opened, All Square will hire individuals with criminal records. The name comes from the belief that after paying one's debt to society, he or she is "All Square," a belief Turner has seen challenged.
"I have been working in the public sector for five years and have been both shocked and disheartened to learn that a criminal record — even after one has paid their debts to society — often prevents individuals from accessing the fundamental pillars of life," Turner said. "People's merits are so frequently flooded out by their mistakes."
Turner's Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for All Square began earlier this month. She hopes to open the first location in Minneapolis' Longfellow neighborhood sometime in 2017. Wahpeton's Red Door Art Gallery also hosted a fundraising party for All Square.
"When I grew up and went to high school in Wahpeton, the Red Door didn't exist. I'd always heard of it as this great museum and art space. I think it's so healthy for a community like Wahpeton to have this," Turner said.
No matter how far she's traveled, Wahpeton has "been home forever and always will be" for Turner. Along the way, she's understood the importance of home, especially for the newly-released.
Prior to Minneapolis, Turner was based in New Orleans, where she "saw countless policies, maybe not ill-intended," that hindered people with criminal records from having a successful transition to everyday life and were in essence twice punishing them.
"If you have a criminal record, what are you going to do? There's not really a lot of interim options during that pocket of time. What people really need is support and they're finding it almost impossible to obtain employment and housing," Turner told the Wahpeton Daily News (http://bit.ly/2cr9zCt ).
By the spring and summer of 2016, Turner had come to a realization. She didn't feel as if her talent was being maximized within the federal government. And then she thought back to some lighthearted evenings with friends.
"The only thing I can cook well is grilled cheese and so it was sort of pitched as a playful hypothetical," she remembered. "'You should open a grilled cheese shop someday.' I did research and found they are trendy right now in a number of different cities. I thought I could make a cool space out of this (shop), but I sort of tabled it, thinking 'Someday, maybe.'"
Turner is looking at All Square as a project in phases. Ideally, she'll hire 10-25 employees for the grilled cheese shop and subsequently grow not only a housing component but a community.
"People need more than employment," she said. "Once we get the bricks and mortar restaurant finished and make sure we've become this operating entity, we'll add more phases and apply for grants. The first step is the restaurant."
Jolene Miller is past president of the board and interim gallery manager at the Red Door Art Gallery. She called All Square "a marvelous effort" on Turner's part.
"We certainly want to support other nonprofits," she said. "We want to be a good partner with all sorts of organizations in town, both civic and other nonprofits. We want to make this beautiful building available for functions such as this (party), so we welcome the opportunity to work with her."
Turner is proud to announce she's also teaming with Minnesota chef Sarah Master, who reached the semifinals of ABC's "The Taste" cooking competition.
"We haven't determined a final menu yet, but we plan to have our grilled cheese in 7-8 categories. We'll have your traditional grilled cheese, your meaty, your exotic . We hope to keep a pretty tight menu, but we'll also serve soups and salads, root beer floats, that sort of thing," Turner said.
Turner is grateful for the support of chefs and restaurateurs in Minneapolis who are guiding her through a new experience. Although samples of All Square's menu will not be available at the Red Door party, larger donations to the Kickstarter earn invites to an eventual tasting party in Minneapolis.
"The wheels are in motion," Turner said. "It's been a really fun adventure and it's just beginning."
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Information from: Wahpeton Daily News, http://www.wahpetondailynews.com
- By LOUIS AGUILAR The Detroit News
- Updated
DETROIT (AP) — Former Detroit firehouses are finding new life in a city that sold them to help solve its financial crisis.
Defunct Ladder Company No. 12 on the southwest border of downtown Detroit is starting to show its style: Behind the fire engine red doors of the former firehouse on West Lafayette, the expansive ground floor with glossy-tile walls will soon debut as the studio for a former design guru at General Motors. The private quarters upstairs have a walk-in closet that could fit a subcompact car, according to The Detroit News ( http://detne.ws/2cjFKsh ).
On the east side of Detroit, what was Engine No. 18 on Mount Elliott is becoming someone's house, complete with a backyard pond and former horse stable. Former Ladder No. 8 on Junction in southwest Detroit could become a single residence, too.
In April 2013, seven shuttered firehouses — some dating to the mid-19th century — and a vacant police precinct were put up for sale. The city was on the verge of declaring Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which would happen July 2013. The bankruptcy slowed the sales; only two firehouses were sold in 2013 and 2014.
This year, the remaining six buildings became hot properties. Three have been sold, and two others are under contract, which means final details are being negotiated between buyer and seller. The last one for sale, former Engine Company No. 49 on Grand River, is listed for $45,000 and has multiple interested buyers, officials said.
Kate Bordine is one of the owners of Ladder Co. No. 12.
"My father was a firefighter," she said. "It's an honor to be able to live here."
Bordine is co-founder of Ponyride, a Corktown incubator for various ventures. She lives in the former firehouse with husband Phil Cooley, co-founder of Slows Bar BQ. The couple own the building along with Michael Chetcuti and Kyle Evans.
The group paid $140,000 for the 4,825-square-foot facility built in 1925. At least a dozen others wanted it, Cooley said. The firehouse was basically a shell when purchased in late 2013 — even the fire poles were gone.
Work on the building has been extensive: A lot of plaster removed, new ceiling and floors, a steel staircase moved and widened.
"We had a $1,000 heating bill one month," Cooley said. That was before they replaced the vinyl windows and took other measures.
Bordine and Cooley are making great effort to retain the building's architecture. The main floor where fire engines once parked will become the commercial studio for Ed Welburn, former vice president of design at GM. The former horse stable behind the main house will become a food-related business.
Public records are incomplete, but the city could make less than $1 million from the combined sales of the former municipal buildings.
Jill Bryant, manager for the city's General Services Department, said sometimes the buildings were sold to the highest bidder and sometimes to the buyer with the best plans. "Sometimes that was the same," Bryant said.
In Core City on the near-west side, former Engine Company No. 10 on Vinewood could get overhauled with a coffee-roasting facility, bar, commercial kitchen, residences and offices, according to a city zoning request. The new owners, which include the roastmaster at Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co., closed on the 6,724-square-foot site this summer. The sales price isn't known, but it was listed for $128,000. The owners could not be reached for comment.
The former 9th Precinct of the Detroit Police Department on East Bethune in New Center is under contract by a local company that wants to make it its headquarters, Bryant said. Near Hamtramck on Miller, an entity affiliated with the owners of the Ambassador Bridge bought the 8,464-square-foot former Ladder No. 16 this year, Bryant said. The sales price hasn't been publicly recorded, but it was listed at $76,000.
Not everyone is happy about the former firehouses being sold. The firefighters union tried to get some of the buildings back as late as last year.
"It was an idiotic decision to sell them," said Michael Nevin, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. "I have nothing against anybody who bought one of the facilities, but my heart breaks every time I go by one of those places. In some cases, we have left those areas underserved as the population grows."
Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones disagreed the closed firehouses have left neighborhoods vulnerable. He said the fire department studied whether one of the stations, Engine No. 49 on Grand River, could be reactivated. But the aging firehouse would have been too costly to modernize and was too small. Many fire stations now house medical units.
There also is precedence for finding new uses for old fire houses.
In 2012, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law bought former Engine No. 2 at 585 Larned, a half-block from the campus. It's now the George J. Asher Law Clinic Center. The two-story facility provides space for the school's legal aid clinics. The facility hadn't been used as a fire station for decades.
Downtown near Cobo Center on West Larned, the former fire department headquarters is expected to open next year as a $34 million boutique hotel. Aparium Hotel Group is converting the building. The former headquarters was put on the market in 2012.
In an earlier interview, Mario Tricoci, CEO of Chicago-based Aparium, said the sale of the fire headquarters was beneficial to both sides: "It was a great opportunity to show our commitment to the city. We are inspired to be part of making Detroit a city beyond industry — a city of ideas, verve and unmatched enterprise."
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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Detroit News.
- By MARK WATSON Black Hills Pioneer
- Updated
SPEARFISH, S.D. (AP) — Spearfish Creek offers some of the best fishing in the Black Hills.
Well known for its ample brown, rainbow and even brook trout, the stream, with its clear, cool waters is the destination of many anglers year-round.
But with 2,000 to 4,000 fish per mile, the size of the fish may not be as large as in other area creeks. So, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks removed approximately 3,000 brown trout this summer in hopes of enhancing the size of the fish.
"There is a strong population as far as numbers," said Jake Davis, area fisheries supervisor with the Game, Fish and Parks Department.
The population was greater than in other streams, and while they may have led to a good fishing experience, the fisheries personnel saw "red flags" with too much completion for the limited resources in the stream.
Few fish, brown nor rainbow trout, were greater than 14 inches long — most were in the 10- to 12-inch range, Davis said.
So, the department decided to remove fish in some areas to see if the lower number would lead to a healthier fishery.
"We do a lot of population manipulation with stocking fish; however, in this case we, in certain sections of the stream, would remove individuals from those sections with a goal of freeing up (food) resources for the remaining fish . and hopefully improve growth rate and also the size structure," Davis told the Black Hills Pioneer (http://bit.ly/2dek423 ).
Fourteen areas of Spearfish Creek, in Spearfish and up Spearfish Canyon to Cheyenne Crossing, were identified and "electrofished" in late July and early August. Each was a quarter-mile long. Fisheries staff used equipment designed to send an electrical current into the water that stuns the fish causing them to float to the surface. Then other staff netted the trout marking some with radio transmitters as part of the population study.
In seven areas — the control areas — the stream was electrofished, and the fish were logged and released. In the other seven areas — the treatment areas — the fish were logged, but half were removed and later restocked in Iron Creek Lake. Only brown trout were removed.
Some of the trout were killed to identify their age, done by analyzing the ear bones of the fish.
For the next two years, a South Dakota State University student will monitor the population and will electrofish the creek each summer to determine if there is growth in the trout.
Davis said the rainbow trout population is also ample, but sizes also are smaller than in other streams. He said he hopes removing some of the brown trout will give the rainbows a boost in size as well. Davis said brown trout are generally more aggressive and will outcompete a rainbow population.
Anglers are required to release any rainbow trout caught in Spearfish Creek between the Maurice Intake and Hydro No. 2. Beyond those boundaries, anglers are limited to a combined creel of five trout daily and only one may be larger than 14 inches long.
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Information from: Black Hills Pioneer, http://www.bhpioneer.com
- By ANNA MARIE LUX The Janesville Gazette
- Updated
JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — Karen Woodland always knew she would donate a kidney to her mom.
For 35 years, her mother, Janice Smith, has had polycystic kidney disease, which slowly caused her kidneys to fail.
"My mom was first diagnosed when I was 10," Woodland said. "My grandfather also had the hereditary disease."
Fortunately, Woodland does not have the illness. She also passed the compatibility tests and will donate a kidney to her mother, who depends on dialysis to stay alive.
On Oct. 17, Woodland will travel to Oregon, where 67-year-old Smith lives.
Woodland will be in a Portland hospital two days for the surgery and will stay in the area nine days after surgery so doctors can monitor her healing.
The life-giving event will be over quickly, but Woodland has been preparing for it much of her adult life.
During her training as a clinical dietitian, she paid close attention to transplant and kidney patients so she could advise her mom.
Today, Woodland specializes in nutrition therapy in private practice at Full Circle Nutrition, Janesville, where she also tests for food sensitivities.
She has a second job working with dialysis patients.
"I took the job two years ago because I wanted to put myself in a position to learn more," Woodland told The Janesville Gazette (http://bit.ly/2cGQjXN). "I wanted to be in a better place to help Mom make decisions."
Unfortunately, few who need kidneys have someone like Woodland to help them.
As of early September, more than 1,800 people are waiting for kidneys in Wisconsin, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
People waiting for kidneys make up almost 82 percent of the 2,249 people on the Wisconsin waiting list for organs.
Nationally, 99,440 are waiting for kidneys — or almost 83 percent of the 120,008 people on the organ-waiting list.
Sadly, on average, 22 people die daily while waiting for transplants.
"I've always said that I am blessed to be Karen's mother," Smith said, weeping. "I can't talk about my journey without crying."
Over the years, Woodland helped her mother eat a healthy diet, which Smith said prolonged the function of her kidneys.
Smith retired in 2012 after being a dorm parent at the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Janesville.
"I loved what I did, but I had a lifelong dream to be involved in mission work," Smith said.
She transformed her life by going to work as a seamstress at a Mexican mission. Even after returning home, she continued to sew and has made 260 sets of curtains for homes in Baja.
After the transplant, Smith said she should feel more energetic right away, but it will take about three months to recover.
Eventually, she hopes to resume short trips to Mexico. She also wants to advocate for organ donation.
"There is such a need in this country," Smith said. "I want people to know that being an organ donor is a wonderful thing."
Woodland said she is optimistic about the surgery, but her children are concerned.
"They are nervous for me," Woodland said. "We've had many conversations about what I am doing and the risk I am accepting. The chances of anything going wrong are small."
Woodland knows her mother's body could reject the kidney. But she is determined.
"My mom needs the kidney," Woodland said. "So we have to try. There's never been a time in my life when I thought I would not do this."
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Online:
Information on organ donation is available at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/donatelife/index.htm
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Information from: The Janesville Gazette, http://www.gazetteextra.com
An AP Member Exchange Feature shared by The Janesville Gazette
- By ELLEN CREAGER Associated Press
- Updated
DETROIT (AP) — A violin that a Michigan woman kept under her bed for 35 years now has a star spot at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Shirley Burke of West Bloomfield donated the instrument, which dates to the 1800s and belonged to her great-grandfather Jesse Burke. He played it when he was a slave owned by Elisha Burke, and later as a free man. It was passed down through the generations until it came to her from an aunt in 1981.
Now, instead of under the bed, it sits in a hushed glass case in the solemn Slavery and Freedom gallery of the shimmering bronze-colored museum, which openes to the public Sept. 24, according to the Detroit Free Press ( http://on.freep.com/2cE9lrX ).
When the Smithsonian expressed interest in the violin, "I wanted to do the right thing," said Burke, a retired school assistant principal. "I never thought the violin was owned by me."
The violin is one of many ties that Michigan has to the $540-million museum on the National Mall.
A few other Michigan highlights are: Boxing gloves worn by raised-in-Detroit Joe Louis. A "March" banner that was in a famous photograph of 12-year-old Detroiter Edith Lee Payne at the 1963 March on Washington. A cherry red, made-in-Detroit 1973 Cadillac Eldorado owned by singer Chuck Berry. A photo of Aretha Franklin singing. A video of Motown artists like Tammy Terrell and Marvin Gaye. A painting by former Detroit artist McArthur Binion entitled "Rutabaga in the Sky."
In addition, Detroit-based Smith Group JJR was one of the four architects on the project, figuring out how to actually build the new museum on the Mall with its three underground concourses while avoiding flooding from the groundwater below.
Still, Burke's violin may best tell the story the new museum wants to convey, "the tension between moments of tears and moments of great joy," founding director Lonnie Bunch said Wednesday. "The goal is to help all of us realize how profoundly we are by affected by the African American experience."
The violin's warm color and burnished surface speaks to the dignity and joy of its player despite his life circumstances. It moved from Burke's ancestor Jesse of Phyllis County, Ark. to his oldest child, Darkus, who passed it to her sister Savannah, who "passed it to Uncle Dan, and Uncle Dan passed it to his niece Lorraine Burke Butcher. And she passed it to me," said Burke, 73.
Now the violin is in a giant museum where millions of visitors are expected to pass by it every year.
In addition to Michigan's ties to the exhibition itself, plenty of Michiganders plan to be among the first to visit the new museum, which sits near the Washington Monument, not far from the White House.
"We have a group of at least 50 people from Delta Sigma Theta age 62 years and older," said Marion Binion of Detroit, 67, whose Detroit Chapter group scored tickets for Oct., 16. "Everybody has been excited since they've talked about it. We're very proud of the fact we'll have an African American museum on the Mall." She is a cousin to artist McArthur Binion.
Floyd Myers of Detroit is taking a busload of 34 men to the museum Oct. 6-9. He said it was confusing at first to get group tickets, although that problem since has been ironed out. "I want to see the Pullman car and anything else that will totally blow my mind," he said. The only thing he's worried about? Getting his group's foot in the door.
Folks are going to have to leave for other people to get in," he said.
Burke, as an artifact contributor, got a chance to attend a special party but is going back for the museum opening to see President Obama cut the ribbon.
"Of course I'll be excited to see the violin," she says. But I'm excited to see all the artifacts in the museum."
"It's really going to be one of a kind."
Legislation to create the museum was signed in 2003, but it took 13 years for the structure to go up and the vast enterprise to be completed. It is 400,000 square feet, with nine levels. It is opening with 11 inaugural exhibitions. The museum has collected 37,000 objects, with about 3,000 on display.
Among the other notable things to see: a giant 1920s Southern Railway Pullman car, Michael Jackson's black fedora, Nat Turner's Bible, the dress that Rosa Parks was making when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, a slave cabin from South Carolina, Harriet Tubman's hymnal, a perfectly restored Tuskegee airplane and Louis Armstrong's trumpet.
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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Detroit Free Press.
- By NANCY CAMBRIA St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Updated
ST. LOUIS (AP) — On Monday mornings the staff at SouthSide Early Childhood Center typically saw "diaper need" firsthand when some of the infants and toddlers arrived after the weekend with diaper rash.
On other mornings staff sometimes greeted a child wearing a full diaper and would notice it was the same one the child had worn leaving care the afternoon before, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2dbeVUp ) reports.
The staff at SouthSide in St. Louis knew these families well, said Mary Clare Monahan, a social worker at the child care center. These parents, many of them new immigrants, were trying their best.
"It's not a neglect issue," Monahan said. "They just really don't have the resources at home to be changing those diapers often enough."
That changed with the help of the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, a nonprofit that didn't exist two years ago and now is distributing nearly 30,000 diapers a month to groups that assist young children and families.
Last April the diaper bank partnered with SouthSide. The child care center was already providing free diapers through its federally supported Early Head Start program. But now, about 60 families were able to take home at least one, sometimes two, packages of 25 diapers every month to help tide them over on weekends and weeknights.
"The parents were really excited, and they also seemed relieved," Monahan said.
Jessica Adams, executive director of the diaper bank, said the partnership showed how something as simple as a diaper could make a difference to families and organizations dealing with the chronic and multiple stresses of poverty.
"If we can take away that particular big stress for parents, they can better focus on getting other supports and making things better for themselves and their children," she said.
The diaper bank is now gearing up for a regional diaper drive in honor of "Diaper Need Awareness Week," Sept. 26-Oct. 2. The bank hopes to collect enough diapers and cash donations to increase its stock by 100,0000.
During the week, Schnucks Markets Inc. will offer a buy-one-get-one-free deal for its store-brand diapers and encourage customers to donate diapers or cash in its stores. Other events in the area offer chances for donors to drop off diapers, including a "Fill the Truck Day" in Brentwood and a fundraiser at a local brewery.
Founded as a nonprofit in 2014 in response to tremendous diaper need in the region, the diaper bank raises money to buy diapers in bulk at deep discount. It distributes them through 10 partners that work directly with children and families.
It encourages schools, civic and church groups to conduct diaper drives to stock the bank. In the year to come, it hopes to expand its reach with new partnerships, particularly with child care centers such as SouthSide.
So far this year, the diaper bank purchased 150,000 diapers at a bulk-rate discount. The bank expanded so rapidly that it outgrew its donated warehouse space and will be moving to midtown St. Louis after an anonymous donor pledged $12,000 in annual rent for a 1,200 square-foot facility.
Adams attributes the expansion to the region's growing understanding of the impact of chronic or "toxic stress" on parents living in or near poverty. That stress is profound for parents who cannot afford clean diapers, while caring for a fussy, uncomfortable baby.
Studies suggest diaper need is not only a health issue for children but can lead to maternal depression, further putting a child at risk for future developmental and behavioral problems.
Diaper need grew so relevant this year that it reached the Legislature.
Missouri lawmakers approved $100,000 to help the state's three regional diaper banks. That budget item, however, was withheld by Gov. Jay Nixon along with numerous others because of an unanticipated shortfall in state revenue.
Adams said the partnerships that developed with the diaper bank over the past year were varied. One of them is with Hancock Place/Bayless Parents as Teachers, which sends parent educators into homes and conducts school-based parenting support groups.
Erika Anderson, coordinator of that Parents as Teachers group, said parent educators now brought packs of diapers on their visits. She said they were a welcome incentive for busy parents sometimes working multiple jobs to keep their appointments.
"If we're able to make those visits and keep those visits and do those screenings and show those parents positive learning activities and build that parent partnership, then it helps the children," she said.
Diaper need is still dire in the St. Louis region, said Aimee Travers of Bethany Christian Services, which partnered with the diaper bank earlier this year. The organization runs a "Free Diaper Friday" the first Friday of every month at its headquarters, 1300 Hampton Avenue.
The walk-in program enables anyone to get a pack of diapers for each of their children or grandchildren — a service that Adams said the diaper bank would like to replicate in another area of need in St. Louis County.
Until Bethany partnered with the diaper bank, Travers said, the organization was spending about $2,000 a month from its operating budget on diapers, and leaders knew they could not sustain that. Now, it can serve more than double the walk-ins. Bethany distributes about 8,500 diapers every month and could increase that to 10,000.
Travers said it was not uncommon for about 20 parents and grandparents to show up an hour before the doors open at 8 a.m. Some come from as far as Jefferson County and north St. Louis County, she said.
"Ninety five percent of the diapers are gone by 11 or 11:30 in the morning," she said. "At that point, they'll take any size they can get even if it doesn't fit, just to have something for their children."
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- BY DAVID FRESE The Kansas City Star
- Updated
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Kory Burch and Kevin Austin have been making "Star Wars"-inspired costumes for nearly four years, but they've been stumped by only one request.
"We had a guy ask for a 'Pokemaster steampunk Jedi sky-pirate,' " Burch said.
A what now?
"I didn't even know where to go," Burch said.
The Overland Park couple quit their day jobs about a year ago to focus on their company, Saint's Customs, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/2cKDvNJ ) reports. They specialize in making costumes for cosplayers (those folks who go to comic conventions dressed as superheroes and supervillains, or icons from "Star Trek" and "Star Wars").
But they have aspirations beyond being "The 'Star Wars' Costume Guys."
"We've done other things — we make regular garments," Burch said. "We have other stuff in the books to be worked on, like a Dr. Strange costume. We did a Magneto costume for a guy. But right now, 'Star Wars' is what everybody wants."
And when Burch says "everybody," he means it.
"We have people from all around the world — Norway, China, Japan, the U.K. — wearing our stuff," he said. "Facebook is a good thing, because that's all we have to have to spread the word."
Not too shabby for a couple of guys who used to work at Piercing Pagoda at Oak Park Mall.
Austin is from the KC area. Burch is an emigre from Florida. He came to Kansas City when his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. She was originally from this area, so when she was given six months to live, she wanted to be closer to family.
"She ended up living three years past what they told her," he said. "She was just the strongest. She was a fighter."
His grandmother was the one who taught him to sew. Buttons on his siblings' school uniforms at first, then the entire uniforms.
After she died in 2003, Burch decided to stay in KC because he was dating someone at the time and, he jokes, "I was young and stupid." But he also liked the snow.
"Growing up in Florida as a kid, we didn't have snow," he said. "My mom was here one winter and was, like, 'No, I can't do the snow thing.' I like the seasons."
Burch and Austin met while working in Oak Park Mall. They dated five years before getting married in 2011.
"We drove up to Iowa to get our marriage license — this was before it was legal, of course — and then we had the ceremony at his aunt's house in Blue Springs," Burch said. "We fit 100 people in her living room and I still think, 'How did we do that in somebody's living room?' "
Then, about four years ago, Austin told Burch he was going to go meet some "Star Wars" fans.
"I was like, 'You're not going to go meet strange people by yourself, so I'm going to go with you,' " Burch said.
The group was the Rebel Legion, a "Star Wars" fandom that — like its parent organization, the 501st Legion — dresses up like characters from the movies for charity events. Soon after, Austin and Burch created their first Jedi costume.
"We kept doing more, and people would look at our stuff and say, 'You guys need to do this,' " Burch said. "At the time, we were both working 40 hours a week, and we said, 'No, no. There's no way.' "
In time, they decided maybe they could make it work if they made costumes that were detail-oriented and expensive. They dipped their toes in the cosplay pool by taking just a few commissions at first. A Darth Vader costume for about $3,000, for example, or a Kylo Ren for $1,500.
And from there, business blew up. Especially after "The Force Awakens" came out last December.
"I just shipped one to Germany," Burch said. "I have one that's going to the U.K. — we have a lot going to the U.K."
Burch quit his other jobs in August 2015; Austin followed suit last October. In time, they hope to get officially licensed by Lucasfilm.
"We're part of tons of 'Star Wars' groups," Burch said. "We'll post pictures of costumes, and people from all over the world will say, 'I want that exact costume, or I want this character from that movie.' "
Saint's made a full Jedi outfit — tunic, robes, arm wraps, hood — for Airrion Scott of Baltimore. The order was all placed and purchased via Facebook Messenger and PayPal. Scott didn't meet Austin and Burch in person until several months later.
"They were very methodical," said Scott, a member of the worldwide lightsaber sparring group Saber Legion. "They asked for a ton of measurements — in places I didn't think they'd need measurements for. But I'm extraordinarily happy with the finished product. They really pulled everything together with fit and finish."
Sometimes fans will ask for something that's just completely mental, hence the aforementioned "Pokemaster steampunk Jedi sky-pirate." Hearing Austin and Burch list the costume mashups they've fashioned is hilarious.
Austin: "We've had an 'Adventure Time' Jedi."
Burch: "A barbarian Jedi."
Austin: "A Zelda Jedi."
Burch: "We did a Native American Jedi ."
Austin: ". from a kid of Cherokee descent."
Burch: "We did a 'Game of Thrones' Jedi crossover."
Austin: "A Pokemon Jedi."
And on and on.
Austin and Burch's costumes, however, are no joke. An outfit has to look only so good for a big budget movie — you can always erase something with special effects.
But people are ordering Saint's Customs outfits to wear around conventions and charity events, sometimes for hours at a time, despite their utter impracticality. Kylo Ren's outfit, for example, is several layers, some wool.
"When he's on Starkiller base (in 'The Force Awakens'), it makes sense because it's a snowy planet," Burch said. "But honestly, when he's traveling through the galaxy, it's like, 'Dude, this is hot.' "
Austin and Burch spend a lot of time getting the details just right. One of the biggest: no seams.
"And if there are closures, they're always hidden," Austin said. " 'Star Wars' doesn't like seams. They don't like buttons. They don't like zippers. The garments are just supposed to stay closed, somehow."
(Perhaps the Force?)
A few weeks ago when we visited their studio in the Arts Asylum downtown, Austin and Burch were assembling various Kylo Ren costumes, which they said are the most difficult to produce. Each can take a full 40-hour work week. The easiest? A simple Jedi outfit, which Burch said he could knock out in an hour if he had to.
Between filling orders, Austin and Burch are freeze-framing the trailer for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," trying to determine what fans are going to want next.
Before the film is released in December, Burch has another big project. In a corner room of the studio is a knockout shimmery green and black dress. Burch won Miss Gay Missouri in April and plans to wear that gown when he competes in the Miss Gay America pageant next month in Memphis.
"I am designing my own evening gown, which is stressful," Burch said. "But at the same time I'm excited to showcase my talents."
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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Kansas City Star
- Updated
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback's economic advisory council has discontinued a quarterly report that had been developed to ensure a timely analysis of the administration's economic policies.
The Council of Economic Advisors, which is chaired by Brownback, will no longer compile and distribute a review of economic markers picked by the administration and championed as an accountability test of the administration's economic vision.
Online publication of "Indicators of the Kansas Economy" was suspended during Brownback's 2014 re-election campaign but remained available upon request from the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The agency, which staffs the economic advisory council, ended the report after releasing the May edition, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported (http://j.mp/2cTKfYI ).
"A lot of people found them helpful, but a lot of people were confused by them," said Nicole Randall, a spokeswoman for the commerce department.
The group instead intends to focus on a U.S. Federal Reserve report that Randall said includes an "in-depth look at the state, region and national economic statistics that impact Kansas." Both the monthly federal report and the defunct state report feature statistics on employment, unemployment, personal income and energy production.
The absence of the state's quarterly report was noticed by the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, which used it to advance tax policy conclusions contrary to those advocated by the governor.
Heidi Holliday, executive director of the nonprofit center in Topeka, said the end of the council's economic assessment tool was an attempt to minimize public exposure of weaknesses in Brownback's program to build the state's economy by exempting 330,000 businesses from the income tax and reducing individual state income tax.
"He specifically asked the council to hold him accountable through rigorous performance metrics," she said. "Five years later, the metrics clearly show his tax experiment has failed while business leaders and local chambers of commerce across the state openly ask him to change course."
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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com
- By JESSICA CILELLA (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald
ROSELLE, Ill. (AP) — Christie Haack sobbed when she heard of Baby Hope, the newborn girl found dead, abandoned last month on a secluded roadside near Wheaton.
The tears came because of the waste of human life. She cried, too, because she knows -- even if Baby Hope's mother didn't -- that safe haven laws provide options to save unwanted babies.
But mostly tears came because another mother left a 6-pound baby girl at a DeKalb fire station two years ago.
And because of that mother's decision, Christie and her husband, Paul, were able to adopt the child, bring her into their Roselle home and give her a chance at the kind of life Baby Hope could have had.
They named her Trinity.
"I always think back to Trinity," Christie says, her voice cracking. "What if her birth mom didn't know about this law? She could have been the one in a backpack on the side of the road. It hits really close to home."
Using a safe haven is never an ideal situation, Paul says, but that doesn't mean it can't be turned into a positive.
Trinity's birth mom, he said, "doesn't have to worry about hiding because she did something wrong. She doesn't have to worry about being put in jail. She can rest easy knowing she saved a life and it's made everybody in this situation happy."
Gabriel Haack once told his parents he believed he was in heaven before he was born. It was there, he said, that he asked God to make Christie and Paul his parents.
"You know," Christie said with a smile, "your sister Trinity told God the same thing."
But Trinity couldn't come the "normal" way, Christie told her son, now 7. Instead, God sent an angel -- Trinity's birth mom -- to deliver her to the Haacks.
That mom, whose identity remains unknown, gave birth to Trinity at home on a cold November night, shortly before Thanksgiving. She clipped and tied the baby's umbilical cord, gave her a bath and twice attempted to feed her.
About noon, she brought the newborn to the fire station. There, she said goodbye to the little girl she knew she couldn't care for.
It was the 100th time a baby was left at a safe haven in Illinois.
Such havens were created in 2001 with passage of the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act. It says babies 30 days or younger can be handed off to staff members at any firehouse, police station, hospital or emergency medical care facility in the state.
No questions are asked. No explanation is required. And as long as abuse is not suspected, the biological parents can quietly walk away and go on with their lives, with no fear of prosecution.
Paul says it's crucial everyone knows about the availability of safe havens to save the lives of babies such as Hope and Trinity.
"There's a way out," he says. "You don't have to do this. And it's just sad the message doesn't get out more."
A few hours after the mother walked out of the fire station, the Haacks got a phone call that would change their lives. There's a safe haven baby, available, their adoption counselor said.
When they started the adoption process 18 months earlier, the Haacks had some hesitation about adopting a baby they knew nothing about.
I'll tell you what I know, the counselor said. The baby is a girl. Her mother was white.
There was no information on the father, no medical records, no details about why the baby was abandoned.
Yet the couple felt a surprising sense of calm and quickly agreed the child was meant to be theirs.
"It just felt right," Christie says. "We didn't even think about it."
When they met their future daughter, Christie immediately noticed a tag around her leg. It said "Doe, Baby Jane."
"It saddened me because I thought, 'Oh my gosh. Shouldn't Baby Doe be in the morgue?' And then I rejoiced because she wasn't in a morgue, she was saved," Christie said with a smile.
Two days later, the Haacks brought Trinity home from the hospital, where she had received a clean bill of health.
Now, almost two years later, Trinity fits right into the family, both in her physical appearance and personality.
Strangers often tell Christie -- much to her amusement -- how much Trinity looks like her, with her bright blue eyes and blonde hair.
"We hit the jackpot," Paul says.
"I don't think there's anything I would change with the whole scenario. It's made our family feel complete."
The chance of the Haacks getting a safe haven baby was slim.
Since the state law was passed, 115 babies have been left at safe havens. In the same time, 79 were illegally abandoned; 41 did not survive.
For many prospective adoptive parents of safe haven babies, the roughly two months that follow the happy news a baby is available are filled with anxiety and fear.
The law allows biological parents 60 days from the time the child is left at a safe haven to regain custody. So, while the babies can stay at the homes of families hoping to adopt them, they remain in the foster care system until the deadline passes.
The Haacks say they were lucky because they brought Trinity home during the holidays. Amid Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, they didn't have much time to worry.
The deadline passed with no hitches.
Christie says she hopes mothers who have used safe havens aren't ashamed of their decisions, instead realizing the joy they've brought to their child's adoptive family.
"We don't think of you as a bad person for handing your child over to a safe haven facility," she says.
"Instead, you're our angels. It's a very noble thing."
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Source: (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald, http://bit.ly/2cCrudy
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Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com
This is an AP-Illinois Exchange story offered by the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald.
- By JAMES NORD Associated Press
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — After years of trying to get South Dakota legislators to surrender control of redistricting to an independent commission, supporters of the idea are trying to do it instead through a constitutional amendment.
Backers say the measure before voters this November would eliminate lawmakers' conflict of interest and make people feel elections are fair to all parties.
"It's time for fair representation. Period," said Democratic Rep. Peggy Gibson, who has backed at least nine independent redistricting measures since 2009. "I'm not saying it'll be perfect, but I'm certainly thinking it will be better than the method that we have now."
Opponents — including majority Republicans — say the current system is working fine.
"The idea, I think, is to elect people that are more in line with liberal ideas as far as spending money and a whole host of issues," said GOP Rep. Jim Bolin, who served on the commission that oversaw the last redistricting plan in 2011.
Members of the South Dakota Farmers Union decided to gather signatures for a constitutional amendment after their last failure at the Legislature. The group has given at least $238,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to a political committee supporting the effort, according to state campaign finance reports.
Redistricting is the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries every 10 years to account for population changes. When the process is carried out by elected officials, it often sparks lawsuits and claims of gerrymandering — attempting to draw the districts for political advantage.
Passage of South Dakota's Amendment T requires a simple majority. It would create a commission of nine people chosen each redistricting year to revise the legislative district boundaries.
No more than three commission members could be part of the same political party, and none could be elected officials in the legislative or executive branches, among other prohibitions. The plan also says party registration and voting history must be excluded from the redistricting process, and that the residency of incumbents or candidates can't be identified or considered.
Opponents argue the plan is meant to tip the political balance toward Democrats. Republicans now hold every statewide office and supermajorities in both legislative chambers, and registered Republicans far outnumber registered Democrats.
The 2011 plan passed with a vote mostly along party lines, with minority Democrats complaining it put them at a disadvantage. Bolin insisted it was fair. He called the amendment "part of a crazy plan to change things around."
Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University, said the current process probably does favor the Republican majority.
"I don't think anybody thinks that even with neutrally drawn districts that Democrats would control the House or the Senate, but it's likely that the numbers of Democrats would go up," he said.
Political considerations get no mention in redistricting guidance provided by the state constitution. It just says each legislative district must consist of "compact, contiguous territory and shall have population as nearly equal as is practicable."
Reuben Bezpaletz, a former Legislative Research Council staff member who worked on redistricting plans from 1981 through the 2011 redistricting, wouldn't take a position on the measure. But he said it's critical that districts are drawn when possible so that either party could win.
"I believe the creation of competitive legislative districts is the most important single thing that you can do to preserve democracy by giving voters a real choice," he said.
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 48-year-old man has died after a large toolbox fell on him at a business in the Ann Arbor area.
The Ann Arbor News reports (http://bit.ly/2d1hf22 ) Sunday that the man was injured Saturday afternoon at an auto sales shop in Ypsilanti Township and later died.
Washtenaw County sheriff's office spokesman Derrick Jackson says investigators believe the Ypsilanti man was trying to load the toolbox onto his flatbed truck.
Jackson says the death is under investigation, but "at this time it appears to be a tragic accident."
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Information from: The Ann Arbor News, http://www.mlive.com/ann-arbor
- By KAREN SPEIDEL Wahpeton Daily News
LIDGERWOOD, N.D. (AP) — Maurice Kutter is the perfect blend of old and new. This rural Lidgerwood farmer is well used to the trappings of his industry, from high-tech tractors and combines that hold GPS units and yield monitors tracking bushels to the acre.
He is a lifelong farmer and works with his son, Jim, along the North Dakota and South Dakota border. The Kutters have learned to fix their equipment themselves, overhauling engines, replacing parts and so on, a mechanical skill that turned into a hobby as Maurice enjoys dipping into the past by restoring the tools of his industry.
He is an Allis-Chalmers aficionado who restores tractors and combines, everything from a 1938 No. 40 combine to a No. 60, the first having a 4-foot cut and the other a 6-foot cut. Consider that today's combines cut anywhere between 25-40 feet and you begin to see how agricultural equipment has grown so much larger and more complicated.
The 1938 model combine, No. 40 holds 11 bushels of grain in its hopper and sold for $325 when brand new, he said.
"I have no idea if that would be expensive compared to today. I suppose that would have been a lot of money at that time in '38. I was thinking about this. Back then the wheat was (not as high)," he said, holding his hand a few feet off the floor to put it into perspective. "Then it was good to hit 15 bushels to the acre. We combined and hauled it all in and it was 53 bushels to the acre."
It's a hobby that keeps him busy for this self-proclaimed Allis-Chalmers man. He has restored a Massey Ferguson tractor, but most of his antique equipment is orange.
Lightning may strike him one day as he committed sacrilege by painting a John Deere wooden flare box Allis-Chalmers orange, which made him sit up in his living room chair and slap his knee. "It was green and all that stuff," Maurice said as if that explained everything.
He learns about some finds from people who know about his interest, and sometimes it's seeing a piece in the trees, such as a combine that sat out in the elements 30-40 years before Maurice brought it back to life.
He drives the back country roads not only to watch the progress of crops, but also to see what old finds are rusting in the shelter belts.
"I tell him to watch the road," Lucille Kutter said while sitting in their living room as Maurice talked about his hobbies.
That made Maurice laugh. "She's always telling me to watch the road."
Lucille shook her head. "I have to watch the road because he isn't," she told the Wahpeton Daily News (http://bit.ly/2dpPxgx ).
Maurice showed off his restoration hobby recently as he and his wife, Lucille, held an old-fashioned threshing bee to remove wheat from a field west of their house. About 80 people showed up to watch the second-annual event at the Kutter farm.
Maurice's photo albums are not typical pictorials showing his burgeoning family. Pictures of his restored cars, tractors and combines grace the pages. There are also several small-scale models of the combines and tractors he's restored in his household.
"This one here is a 1968 Fury III, two-door," he said, pointing at the first vehicle.
He just finished a 1948 Plymouth Business Coupe, likely one of the last cars he will restore since he said he's getting too old to keep working on cars. He does the work himself, welds frames, paints, overhauls and replaces parts. Since he doesn't have a hoist, he said it's getting to be too hard to crawl under the vehicles to work on them.
That's why he started restoring antique tractors and combines. "They aren't as fussy," he added.
He has six restored cars in his toy shed. He has sold three, but there are still too many, Lucille said with a rueful shake, since this obviously is a long-standing discussion between husband and wife.
As is the way of husbands, Maurice shrugged.
There are getting to be too many tractors, she added.
That brought a smile this time. "I still want to buy one more," he winked.
But this one he hopes will be fully restored since the last one provided too many problems.
"This little CA, if people would have seen it, they would have said to just junk it, it was that bad," Maurice said, which brought another shrug since he worked through the problems and restored what was lost so the tractor could find a new purpose.
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Information from: Wahpeton Daily News, http://www.wahpetondailynews.com
- By FRANK STANKO Wahpeton Daily News
WAHPETON, N.D. (AP) — People with a criminal record deserve a fair shake, believes Emily Turner, who was born and raised in Wahpeton.
Turner, a former attorney with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Minneapolis, is devoting her energy to launching a nonprofit gourmet grilled cheese restaurant, All Square in the Twin Cities area. When opened, All Square will hire individuals with criminal records. The name comes from the belief that after paying one's debt to society, he or she is "All Square," a belief Turner has seen challenged.
"I have been working in the public sector for five years and have been both shocked and disheartened to learn that a criminal record — even after one has paid their debts to society — often prevents individuals from accessing the fundamental pillars of life," Turner said. "People's merits are so frequently flooded out by their mistakes."
Turner's Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for All Square began earlier this month. She hopes to open the first location in Minneapolis' Longfellow neighborhood sometime in 2017. Wahpeton's Red Door Art Gallery also hosted a fundraising party for All Square.
"When I grew up and went to high school in Wahpeton, the Red Door didn't exist. I'd always heard of it as this great museum and art space. I think it's so healthy for a community like Wahpeton to have this," Turner said.
No matter how far she's traveled, Wahpeton has "been home forever and always will be" for Turner. Along the way, she's understood the importance of home, especially for the newly-released.
Prior to Minneapolis, Turner was based in New Orleans, where she "saw countless policies, maybe not ill-intended," that hindered people with criminal records from having a successful transition to everyday life and were in essence twice punishing them.
"If you have a criminal record, what are you going to do? There's not really a lot of interim options during that pocket of time. What people really need is support and they're finding it almost impossible to obtain employment and housing," Turner told the Wahpeton Daily News (http://bit.ly/2cr9zCt ).
By the spring and summer of 2016, Turner had come to a realization. She didn't feel as if her talent was being maximized within the federal government. And then she thought back to some lighthearted evenings with friends.
"The only thing I can cook well is grilled cheese and so it was sort of pitched as a playful hypothetical," she remembered. "'You should open a grilled cheese shop someday.' I did research and found they are trendy right now in a number of different cities. I thought I could make a cool space out of this (shop), but I sort of tabled it, thinking 'Someday, maybe.'"
Turner is looking at All Square as a project in phases. Ideally, she'll hire 10-25 employees for the grilled cheese shop and subsequently grow not only a housing component but a community.
"People need more than employment," she said. "Once we get the bricks and mortar restaurant finished and make sure we've become this operating entity, we'll add more phases and apply for grants. The first step is the restaurant."
Jolene Miller is past president of the board and interim gallery manager at the Red Door Art Gallery. She called All Square "a marvelous effort" on Turner's part.
"We certainly want to support other nonprofits," she said. "We want to be a good partner with all sorts of organizations in town, both civic and other nonprofits. We want to make this beautiful building available for functions such as this (party), so we welcome the opportunity to work with her."
Turner is proud to announce she's also teaming with Minnesota chef Sarah Master, who reached the semifinals of ABC's "The Taste" cooking competition.
"We haven't determined a final menu yet, but we plan to have our grilled cheese in 7-8 categories. We'll have your traditional grilled cheese, your meaty, your exotic . We hope to keep a pretty tight menu, but we'll also serve soups and salads, root beer floats, that sort of thing," Turner said.
Turner is grateful for the support of chefs and restaurateurs in Minneapolis who are guiding her through a new experience. Although samples of All Square's menu will not be available at the Red Door party, larger donations to the Kickstarter earn invites to an eventual tasting party in Minneapolis.
"The wheels are in motion," Turner said. "It's been a really fun adventure and it's just beginning."
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Information from: Wahpeton Daily News, http://www.wahpetondailynews.com
- By LOUIS AGUILAR The Detroit News
DETROIT (AP) — Former Detroit firehouses are finding new life in a city that sold them to help solve its financial crisis.
Defunct Ladder Company No. 12 on the southwest border of downtown Detroit is starting to show its style: Behind the fire engine red doors of the former firehouse on West Lafayette, the expansive ground floor with glossy-tile walls will soon debut as the studio for a former design guru at General Motors. The private quarters upstairs have a walk-in closet that could fit a subcompact car, according to The Detroit News ( http://detne.ws/2cjFKsh ).
On the east side of Detroit, what was Engine No. 18 on Mount Elliott is becoming someone's house, complete with a backyard pond and former horse stable. Former Ladder No. 8 on Junction in southwest Detroit could become a single residence, too.
In April 2013, seven shuttered firehouses — some dating to the mid-19th century — and a vacant police precinct were put up for sale. The city was on the verge of declaring Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which would happen July 2013. The bankruptcy slowed the sales; only two firehouses were sold in 2013 and 2014.
This year, the remaining six buildings became hot properties. Three have been sold, and two others are under contract, which means final details are being negotiated between buyer and seller. The last one for sale, former Engine Company No. 49 on Grand River, is listed for $45,000 and has multiple interested buyers, officials said.
Kate Bordine is one of the owners of Ladder Co. No. 12.
"My father was a firefighter," she said. "It's an honor to be able to live here."
Bordine is co-founder of Ponyride, a Corktown incubator for various ventures. She lives in the former firehouse with husband Phil Cooley, co-founder of Slows Bar BQ. The couple own the building along with Michael Chetcuti and Kyle Evans.
The group paid $140,000 for the 4,825-square-foot facility built in 1925. At least a dozen others wanted it, Cooley said. The firehouse was basically a shell when purchased in late 2013 — even the fire poles were gone.
Work on the building has been extensive: A lot of plaster removed, new ceiling and floors, a steel staircase moved and widened.
"We had a $1,000 heating bill one month," Cooley said. That was before they replaced the vinyl windows and took other measures.
Bordine and Cooley are making great effort to retain the building's architecture. The main floor where fire engines once parked will become the commercial studio for Ed Welburn, former vice president of design at GM. The former horse stable behind the main house will become a food-related business.
Public records are incomplete, but the city could make less than $1 million from the combined sales of the former municipal buildings.
Jill Bryant, manager for the city's General Services Department, said sometimes the buildings were sold to the highest bidder and sometimes to the buyer with the best plans. "Sometimes that was the same," Bryant said.
In Core City on the near-west side, former Engine Company No. 10 on Vinewood could get overhauled with a coffee-roasting facility, bar, commercial kitchen, residences and offices, according to a city zoning request. The new owners, which include the roastmaster at Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co., closed on the 6,724-square-foot site this summer. The sales price isn't known, but it was listed for $128,000. The owners could not be reached for comment.
The former 9th Precinct of the Detroit Police Department on East Bethune in New Center is under contract by a local company that wants to make it its headquarters, Bryant said. Near Hamtramck on Miller, an entity affiliated with the owners of the Ambassador Bridge bought the 8,464-square-foot former Ladder No. 16 this year, Bryant said. The sales price hasn't been publicly recorded, but it was listed at $76,000.
Not everyone is happy about the former firehouses being sold. The firefighters union tried to get some of the buildings back as late as last year.
"It was an idiotic decision to sell them," said Michael Nevin, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. "I have nothing against anybody who bought one of the facilities, but my heart breaks every time I go by one of those places. In some cases, we have left those areas underserved as the population grows."
Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones disagreed the closed firehouses have left neighborhoods vulnerable. He said the fire department studied whether one of the stations, Engine No. 49 on Grand River, could be reactivated. But the aging firehouse would have been too costly to modernize and was too small. Many fire stations now house medical units.
There also is precedence for finding new uses for old fire houses.
In 2012, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law bought former Engine No. 2 at 585 Larned, a half-block from the campus. It's now the George J. Asher Law Clinic Center. The two-story facility provides space for the school's legal aid clinics. The facility hadn't been used as a fire station for decades.
Downtown near Cobo Center on West Larned, the former fire department headquarters is expected to open next year as a $34 million boutique hotel. Aparium Hotel Group is converting the building. The former headquarters was put on the market in 2012.
In an earlier interview, Mario Tricoci, CEO of Chicago-based Aparium, said the sale of the fire headquarters was beneficial to both sides: "It was a great opportunity to show our commitment to the city. We are inspired to be part of making Detroit a city beyond industry — a city of ideas, verve and unmatched enterprise."
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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Detroit News.
- By MARK WATSON Black Hills Pioneer
SPEARFISH, S.D. (AP) — Spearfish Creek offers some of the best fishing in the Black Hills.
Well known for its ample brown, rainbow and even brook trout, the stream, with its clear, cool waters is the destination of many anglers year-round.
But with 2,000 to 4,000 fish per mile, the size of the fish may not be as large as in other area creeks. So, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks removed approximately 3,000 brown trout this summer in hopes of enhancing the size of the fish.
"There is a strong population as far as numbers," said Jake Davis, area fisheries supervisor with the Game, Fish and Parks Department.
The population was greater than in other streams, and while they may have led to a good fishing experience, the fisheries personnel saw "red flags" with too much completion for the limited resources in the stream.
Few fish, brown nor rainbow trout, were greater than 14 inches long — most were in the 10- to 12-inch range, Davis said.
So, the department decided to remove fish in some areas to see if the lower number would lead to a healthier fishery.
"We do a lot of population manipulation with stocking fish; however, in this case we, in certain sections of the stream, would remove individuals from those sections with a goal of freeing up (food) resources for the remaining fish . and hopefully improve growth rate and also the size structure," Davis told the Black Hills Pioneer (http://bit.ly/2dek423 ).
Fourteen areas of Spearfish Creek, in Spearfish and up Spearfish Canyon to Cheyenne Crossing, were identified and "electrofished" in late July and early August. Each was a quarter-mile long. Fisheries staff used equipment designed to send an electrical current into the water that stuns the fish causing them to float to the surface. Then other staff netted the trout marking some with radio transmitters as part of the population study.
In seven areas — the control areas — the stream was electrofished, and the fish were logged and released. In the other seven areas — the treatment areas — the fish were logged, but half were removed and later restocked in Iron Creek Lake. Only brown trout were removed.
Some of the trout were killed to identify their age, done by analyzing the ear bones of the fish.
For the next two years, a South Dakota State University student will monitor the population and will electrofish the creek each summer to determine if there is growth in the trout.
Davis said the rainbow trout population is also ample, but sizes also are smaller than in other streams. He said he hopes removing some of the brown trout will give the rainbows a boost in size as well. Davis said brown trout are generally more aggressive and will outcompete a rainbow population.
Anglers are required to release any rainbow trout caught in Spearfish Creek between the Maurice Intake and Hydro No. 2. Beyond those boundaries, anglers are limited to a combined creel of five trout daily and only one may be larger than 14 inches long.
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Information from: Black Hills Pioneer, http://www.bhpioneer.com
- By ANNA MARIE LUX The Janesville Gazette
JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — Karen Woodland always knew she would donate a kidney to her mom.
For 35 years, her mother, Janice Smith, has had polycystic kidney disease, which slowly caused her kidneys to fail.
"My mom was first diagnosed when I was 10," Woodland said. "My grandfather also had the hereditary disease."
Fortunately, Woodland does not have the illness. She also passed the compatibility tests and will donate a kidney to her mother, who depends on dialysis to stay alive.
On Oct. 17, Woodland will travel to Oregon, where 67-year-old Smith lives.
Woodland will be in a Portland hospital two days for the surgery and will stay in the area nine days after surgery so doctors can monitor her healing.
The life-giving event will be over quickly, but Woodland has been preparing for it much of her adult life.
During her training as a clinical dietitian, she paid close attention to transplant and kidney patients so she could advise her mom.
Today, Woodland specializes in nutrition therapy in private practice at Full Circle Nutrition, Janesville, where she also tests for food sensitivities.
She has a second job working with dialysis patients.
"I took the job two years ago because I wanted to put myself in a position to learn more," Woodland told The Janesville Gazette (http://bit.ly/2cGQjXN). "I wanted to be in a better place to help Mom make decisions."
Unfortunately, few who need kidneys have someone like Woodland to help them.
As of early September, more than 1,800 people are waiting for kidneys in Wisconsin, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
People waiting for kidneys make up almost 82 percent of the 2,249 people on the Wisconsin waiting list for organs.
Nationally, 99,440 are waiting for kidneys — or almost 83 percent of the 120,008 people on the organ-waiting list.
Sadly, on average, 22 people die daily while waiting for transplants.
"I've always said that I am blessed to be Karen's mother," Smith said, weeping. "I can't talk about my journey without crying."
Over the years, Woodland helped her mother eat a healthy diet, which Smith said prolonged the function of her kidneys.
Smith retired in 2012 after being a dorm parent at the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Janesville.
"I loved what I did, but I had a lifelong dream to be involved in mission work," Smith said.
She transformed her life by going to work as a seamstress at a Mexican mission. Even after returning home, she continued to sew and has made 260 sets of curtains for homes in Baja.
After the transplant, Smith said she should feel more energetic right away, but it will take about three months to recover.
Eventually, she hopes to resume short trips to Mexico. She also wants to advocate for organ donation.
"There is such a need in this country," Smith said. "I want people to know that being an organ donor is a wonderful thing."
Woodland said she is optimistic about the surgery, but her children are concerned.
"They are nervous for me," Woodland said. "We've had many conversations about what I am doing and the risk I am accepting. The chances of anything going wrong are small."
Woodland knows her mother's body could reject the kidney. But she is determined.
"My mom needs the kidney," Woodland said. "So we have to try. There's never been a time in my life when I thought I would not do this."
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Online:
Information on organ donation is available at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/donatelife/index.htm
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Information from: The Janesville Gazette, http://www.gazetteextra.com
An AP Member Exchange Feature shared by The Janesville Gazette
- By ELLEN CREAGER Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — A violin that a Michigan woman kept under her bed for 35 years now has a star spot at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Shirley Burke of West Bloomfield donated the instrument, which dates to the 1800s and belonged to her great-grandfather Jesse Burke. He played it when he was a slave owned by Elisha Burke, and later as a free man. It was passed down through the generations until it came to her from an aunt in 1981.
Now, instead of under the bed, it sits in a hushed glass case in the solemn Slavery and Freedom gallery of the shimmering bronze-colored museum, which openes to the public Sept. 24, according to the Detroit Free Press ( http://on.freep.com/2cE9lrX ).
When the Smithsonian expressed interest in the violin, "I wanted to do the right thing," said Burke, a retired school assistant principal. "I never thought the violin was owned by me."
The violin is one of many ties that Michigan has to the $540-million museum on the National Mall.
A few other Michigan highlights are: Boxing gloves worn by raised-in-Detroit Joe Louis. A "March" banner that was in a famous photograph of 12-year-old Detroiter Edith Lee Payne at the 1963 March on Washington. A cherry red, made-in-Detroit 1973 Cadillac Eldorado owned by singer Chuck Berry. A photo of Aretha Franklin singing. A video of Motown artists like Tammy Terrell and Marvin Gaye. A painting by former Detroit artist McArthur Binion entitled "Rutabaga in the Sky."
In addition, Detroit-based Smith Group JJR was one of the four architects on the project, figuring out how to actually build the new museum on the Mall with its three underground concourses while avoiding flooding from the groundwater below.
Still, Burke's violin may best tell the story the new museum wants to convey, "the tension between moments of tears and moments of great joy," founding director Lonnie Bunch said Wednesday. "The goal is to help all of us realize how profoundly we are by affected by the African American experience."
The violin's warm color and burnished surface speaks to the dignity and joy of its player despite his life circumstances. It moved from Burke's ancestor Jesse of Phyllis County, Ark. to his oldest child, Darkus, who passed it to her sister Savannah, who "passed it to Uncle Dan, and Uncle Dan passed it to his niece Lorraine Burke Butcher. And she passed it to me," said Burke, 73.
Now the violin is in a giant museum where millions of visitors are expected to pass by it every year.
In addition to Michigan's ties to the exhibition itself, plenty of Michiganders plan to be among the first to visit the new museum, which sits near the Washington Monument, not far from the White House.
"We have a group of at least 50 people from Delta Sigma Theta age 62 years and older," said Marion Binion of Detroit, 67, whose Detroit Chapter group scored tickets for Oct., 16. "Everybody has been excited since they've talked about it. We're very proud of the fact we'll have an African American museum on the Mall." She is a cousin to artist McArthur Binion.
Floyd Myers of Detroit is taking a busload of 34 men to the museum Oct. 6-9. He said it was confusing at first to get group tickets, although that problem since has been ironed out. "I want to see the Pullman car and anything else that will totally blow my mind," he said. The only thing he's worried about? Getting his group's foot in the door.
Folks are going to have to leave for other people to get in," he said.
Burke, as an artifact contributor, got a chance to attend a special party but is going back for the museum opening to see President Obama cut the ribbon.
"Of course I'll be excited to see the violin," she says. But I'm excited to see all the artifacts in the museum."
"It's really going to be one of a kind."
Legislation to create the museum was signed in 2003, but it took 13 years for the structure to go up and the vast enterprise to be completed. It is 400,000 square feet, with nine levels. It is opening with 11 inaugural exhibitions. The museum has collected 37,000 objects, with about 3,000 on display.
Among the other notable things to see: a giant 1920s Southern Railway Pullman car, Michael Jackson's black fedora, Nat Turner's Bible, the dress that Rosa Parks was making when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, a slave cabin from South Carolina, Harriet Tubman's hymnal, a perfectly restored Tuskegee airplane and Louis Armstrong's trumpet.
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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Detroit Free Press.
- By NANCY CAMBRIA St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS (AP) — On Monday mornings the staff at SouthSide Early Childhood Center typically saw "diaper need" firsthand when some of the infants and toddlers arrived after the weekend with diaper rash.
On other mornings staff sometimes greeted a child wearing a full diaper and would notice it was the same one the child had worn leaving care the afternoon before, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2dbeVUp ) reports.
The staff at SouthSide in St. Louis knew these families well, said Mary Clare Monahan, a social worker at the child care center. These parents, many of them new immigrants, were trying their best.
"It's not a neglect issue," Monahan said. "They just really don't have the resources at home to be changing those diapers often enough."
That changed with the help of the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, a nonprofit that didn't exist two years ago and now is distributing nearly 30,000 diapers a month to groups that assist young children and families.
Last April the diaper bank partnered with SouthSide. The child care center was already providing free diapers through its federally supported Early Head Start program. But now, about 60 families were able to take home at least one, sometimes two, packages of 25 diapers every month to help tide them over on weekends and weeknights.
"The parents were really excited, and they also seemed relieved," Monahan said.
Jessica Adams, executive director of the diaper bank, said the partnership showed how something as simple as a diaper could make a difference to families and organizations dealing with the chronic and multiple stresses of poverty.
"If we can take away that particular big stress for parents, they can better focus on getting other supports and making things better for themselves and their children," she said.
The diaper bank is now gearing up for a regional diaper drive in honor of "Diaper Need Awareness Week," Sept. 26-Oct. 2. The bank hopes to collect enough diapers and cash donations to increase its stock by 100,0000.
During the week, Schnucks Markets Inc. will offer a buy-one-get-one-free deal for its store-brand diapers and encourage customers to donate diapers or cash in its stores. Other events in the area offer chances for donors to drop off diapers, including a "Fill the Truck Day" in Brentwood and a fundraiser at a local brewery.
Founded as a nonprofit in 2014 in response to tremendous diaper need in the region, the diaper bank raises money to buy diapers in bulk at deep discount. It distributes them through 10 partners that work directly with children and families.
It encourages schools, civic and church groups to conduct diaper drives to stock the bank. In the year to come, it hopes to expand its reach with new partnerships, particularly with child care centers such as SouthSide.
So far this year, the diaper bank purchased 150,000 diapers at a bulk-rate discount. The bank expanded so rapidly that it outgrew its donated warehouse space and will be moving to midtown St. Louis after an anonymous donor pledged $12,000 in annual rent for a 1,200 square-foot facility.
Adams attributes the expansion to the region's growing understanding of the impact of chronic or "toxic stress" on parents living in or near poverty. That stress is profound for parents who cannot afford clean diapers, while caring for a fussy, uncomfortable baby.
Studies suggest diaper need is not only a health issue for children but can lead to maternal depression, further putting a child at risk for future developmental and behavioral problems.
Diaper need grew so relevant this year that it reached the Legislature.
Missouri lawmakers approved $100,000 to help the state's three regional diaper banks. That budget item, however, was withheld by Gov. Jay Nixon along with numerous others because of an unanticipated shortfall in state revenue.
Adams said the partnerships that developed with the diaper bank over the past year were varied. One of them is with Hancock Place/Bayless Parents as Teachers, which sends parent educators into homes and conducts school-based parenting support groups.
Erika Anderson, coordinator of that Parents as Teachers group, said parent educators now brought packs of diapers on their visits. She said they were a welcome incentive for busy parents sometimes working multiple jobs to keep their appointments.
"If we're able to make those visits and keep those visits and do those screenings and show those parents positive learning activities and build that parent partnership, then it helps the children," she said.
Diaper need is still dire in the St. Louis region, said Aimee Travers of Bethany Christian Services, which partnered with the diaper bank earlier this year. The organization runs a "Free Diaper Friday" the first Friday of every month at its headquarters, 1300 Hampton Avenue.
The walk-in program enables anyone to get a pack of diapers for each of their children or grandchildren — a service that Adams said the diaper bank would like to replicate in another area of need in St. Louis County.
Until Bethany partnered with the diaper bank, Travers said, the organization was spending about $2,000 a month from its operating budget on diapers, and leaders knew they could not sustain that. Now, it can serve more than double the walk-ins. Bethany distributes about 8,500 diapers every month and could increase that to 10,000.
Travers said it was not uncommon for about 20 parents and grandparents to show up an hour before the doors open at 8 a.m. Some come from as far as Jefferson County and north St. Louis County, she said.
"Ninety five percent of the diapers are gone by 11 or 11:30 in the morning," she said. "At that point, they'll take any size they can get even if it doesn't fit, just to have something for their children."
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- BY DAVID FRESE The Kansas City Star
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Kory Burch and Kevin Austin have been making "Star Wars"-inspired costumes for nearly four years, but they've been stumped by only one request.
"We had a guy ask for a 'Pokemaster steampunk Jedi sky-pirate,' " Burch said.
A what now?
"I didn't even know where to go," Burch said.
The Overland Park couple quit their day jobs about a year ago to focus on their company, Saint's Customs, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/2cKDvNJ ) reports. They specialize in making costumes for cosplayers (those folks who go to comic conventions dressed as superheroes and supervillains, or icons from "Star Trek" and "Star Wars").
But they have aspirations beyond being "The 'Star Wars' Costume Guys."
"We've done other things — we make regular garments," Burch said. "We have other stuff in the books to be worked on, like a Dr. Strange costume. We did a Magneto costume for a guy. But right now, 'Star Wars' is what everybody wants."
And when Burch says "everybody," he means it.
"We have people from all around the world — Norway, China, Japan, the U.K. — wearing our stuff," he said. "Facebook is a good thing, because that's all we have to have to spread the word."
Not too shabby for a couple of guys who used to work at Piercing Pagoda at Oak Park Mall.
Austin is from the KC area. Burch is an emigre from Florida. He came to Kansas City when his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. She was originally from this area, so when she was given six months to live, she wanted to be closer to family.
"She ended up living three years past what they told her," he said. "She was just the strongest. She was a fighter."
His grandmother was the one who taught him to sew. Buttons on his siblings' school uniforms at first, then the entire uniforms.
After she died in 2003, Burch decided to stay in KC because he was dating someone at the time and, he jokes, "I was young and stupid." But he also liked the snow.
"Growing up in Florida as a kid, we didn't have snow," he said. "My mom was here one winter and was, like, 'No, I can't do the snow thing.' I like the seasons."
Burch and Austin met while working in Oak Park Mall. They dated five years before getting married in 2011.
"We drove up to Iowa to get our marriage license — this was before it was legal, of course — and then we had the ceremony at his aunt's house in Blue Springs," Burch said. "We fit 100 people in her living room and I still think, 'How did we do that in somebody's living room?' "
Then, about four years ago, Austin told Burch he was going to go meet some "Star Wars" fans.
"I was like, 'You're not going to go meet strange people by yourself, so I'm going to go with you,' " Burch said.
The group was the Rebel Legion, a "Star Wars" fandom that — like its parent organization, the 501st Legion — dresses up like characters from the movies for charity events. Soon after, Austin and Burch created their first Jedi costume.
"We kept doing more, and people would look at our stuff and say, 'You guys need to do this,' " Burch said. "At the time, we were both working 40 hours a week, and we said, 'No, no. There's no way.' "
In time, they decided maybe they could make it work if they made costumes that were detail-oriented and expensive. They dipped their toes in the cosplay pool by taking just a few commissions at first. A Darth Vader costume for about $3,000, for example, or a Kylo Ren for $1,500.
And from there, business blew up. Especially after "The Force Awakens" came out last December.
"I just shipped one to Germany," Burch said. "I have one that's going to the U.K. — we have a lot going to the U.K."
Burch quit his other jobs in August 2015; Austin followed suit last October. In time, they hope to get officially licensed by Lucasfilm.
"We're part of tons of 'Star Wars' groups," Burch said. "We'll post pictures of costumes, and people from all over the world will say, 'I want that exact costume, or I want this character from that movie.' "
Saint's made a full Jedi outfit — tunic, robes, arm wraps, hood — for Airrion Scott of Baltimore. The order was all placed and purchased via Facebook Messenger and PayPal. Scott didn't meet Austin and Burch in person until several months later.
"They were very methodical," said Scott, a member of the worldwide lightsaber sparring group Saber Legion. "They asked for a ton of measurements — in places I didn't think they'd need measurements for. But I'm extraordinarily happy with the finished product. They really pulled everything together with fit and finish."
Sometimes fans will ask for something that's just completely mental, hence the aforementioned "Pokemaster steampunk Jedi sky-pirate." Hearing Austin and Burch list the costume mashups they've fashioned is hilarious.
Austin: "We've had an 'Adventure Time' Jedi."
Burch: "A barbarian Jedi."
Austin: "A Zelda Jedi."
Burch: "We did a Native American Jedi ."
Austin: ". from a kid of Cherokee descent."
Burch: "We did a 'Game of Thrones' Jedi crossover."
Austin: "A Pokemon Jedi."
And on and on.
Austin and Burch's costumes, however, are no joke. An outfit has to look only so good for a big budget movie — you can always erase something with special effects.
But people are ordering Saint's Customs outfits to wear around conventions and charity events, sometimes for hours at a time, despite their utter impracticality. Kylo Ren's outfit, for example, is several layers, some wool.
"When he's on Starkiller base (in 'The Force Awakens'), it makes sense because it's a snowy planet," Burch said. "But honestly, when he's traveling through the galaxy, it's like, 'Dude, this is hot.' "
Austin and Burch spend a lot of time getting the details just right. One of the biggest: no seams.
"And if there are closures, they're always hidden," Austin said. " 'Star Wars' doesn't like seams. They don't like buttons. They don't like zippers. The garments are just supposed to stay closed, somehow."
(Perhaps the Force?)
A few weeks ago when we visited their studio in the Arts Asylum downtown, Austin and Burch were assembling various Kylo Ren costumes, which they said are the most difficult to produce. Each can take a full 40-hour work week. The easiest? A simple Jedi outfit, which Burch said he could knock out in an hour if he had to.
Between filling orders, Austin and Burch are freeze-framing the trailer for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," trying to determine what fans are going to want next.
Before the film is released in December, Burch has another big project. In a corner room of the studio is a knockout shimmery green and black dress. Burch won Miss Gay Missouri in April and plans to wear that gown when he competes in the Miss Gay America pageant next month in Memphis.
"I am designing my own evening gown, which is stressful," Burch said. "But at the same time I'm excited to showcase my talents."
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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Kansas City Star
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback's economic advisory council has discontinued a quarterly report that had been developed to ensure a timely analysis of the administration's economic policies.
The Council of Economic Advisors, which is chaired by Brownback, will no longer compile and distribute a review of economic markers picked by the administration and championed as an accountability test of the administration's economic vision.
Online publication of "Indicators of the Kansas Economy" was suspended during Brownback's 2014 re-election campaign but remained available upon request from the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The agency, which staffs the economic advisory council, ended the report after releasing the May edition, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported (http://j.mp/2cTKfYI ).
"A lot of people found them helpful, but a lot of people were confused by them," said Nicole Randall, a spokeswoman for the commerce department.
The group instead intends to focus on a U.S. Federal Reserve report that Randall said includes an "in-depth look at the state, region and national economic statistics that impact Kansas." Both the monthly federal report and the defunct state report feature statistics on employment, unemployment, personal income and energy production.
The absence of the state's quarterly report was noticed by the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, which used it to advance tax policy conclusions contrary to those advocated by the governor.
Heidi Holliday, executive director of the nonprofit center in Topeka, said the end of the council's economic assessment tool was an attempt to minimize public exposure of weaknesses in Brownback's program to build the state's economy by exempting 330,000 businesses from the income tax and reducing individual state income tax.
"He specifically asked the council to hold him accountable through rigorous performance metrics," she said. "Five years later, the metrics clearly show his tax experiment has failed while business leaders and local chambers of commerce across the state openly ask him to change course."
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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com
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Tucson's newest Shake Shack gets neighbors -
Chip Hale among Arizona baseball coaching legends to fall on hard times | Greg Hansen
