By NICK GOSNELL Hutch Post

Mark Tallman with the Kansas Association of School Boards took the 2023-2024 school year traveling around Kansas to schools whose achievement was higher than expected by their demographic makeup. He has a few ideas on what helped those districts overachieve.

"The top level thing I believe I found is that all of those districts, all virtually without question, are doing the kind of things that the State Board of Education, State Department of Education's Kansans Can Plan talks about," Tallman said. "They are focusing on early childhood education. They are focusing on making sure you're meeting the social emotional needs of students. They're focusing on helping students start early on career planning to get them a better sense of what they want to do after school so they can be prepared to do that. But, the second bucket of things, and this is much harder to quantify, and in almost every place, I used to, I ended up kind of joking about this. Eventually someone says, we think we have become more intentional or more intensive or more focused than we were before, particularly those that are showing growth."

Policies and programs are important, but attitude is also important.

"When I would press people, it would come back to saying, for a lot of different reasons, it came about by saying we weren't satisfied," Tallman said. "We knew we were going to have to do things differently if we want to get different results, and we got buy-in from every teacher, from the school board, from the community to make those changes or shift that focus or get that intensity. That's what leaders say drove the change in these districts I visited."

Data collection is important, but only if you use it to focus energy on the important areas.

"It comes back to focus, intensity, and maybe as much as anything, you have to have shared goals," Tallman said. "You have to decide what is it that's really important and how does the data tell us that we're doing on that important things, and then what can we do to improve those results?"

You can follow Tallman's blog and go back through his individual stops at <a href="https://www.kasb.org/">kasb.org</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/2/1582221969260.jpeg" alt="Mark Tallman-Kansas Association of School Boards" />
 <figcaption>Mark Tallman-Kansas Association of School Boards</figcaption>
 </figure>By NICK GOSNELL Hutch PostMark Tallman with the Kansas Association of School Boards took the 2023-2024 school year traveling around Kansas to schools whose achievement was higher than expected by their demographic makeup. He has a few ideas on what helped those districts overachieve."The top level thing I believe I found is that all of those districts, all virtually without question, are doing the kind of things that the State Board of Education, State Department of Education's Kansans Can Plan talks about," Tallman said. "They are focusing on early childhood education. They are focusing on making sure you're meeting the social emotional needs of students. They're focusing on helping students start early on career planning to get them a better sense of what they want to do after school so they can be prepared to do that. But, the second bucket of things, and this is much harder to quantify, and in almost every place, I used to, I ended up kind of joking about this. Eventually someone says, we think we have become more intentional or more intensive or more focused than we were before, particularly those that are showing growth."Policies and programs are important, but attitude is also important."When I would press people, it would come back to saying, for a lot of different reasons, it came about by saying we weren't satisfied," Tallman said. "We knew we were going to have to do things differently if we want to get different results, and we got buy-in from every teacher, from the school board, from the community to make those changes or shift that focus or get that intensity. That's what leaders say drove the change in these districts I visited."Data collection is important, but only if you use it to focus energy on the important areas."It comes back to focus, intensity, and maybe as much as anything, you have to have shared goals," Tallman said. "You have to decide what is it that's really important and how does the data tell us that we're doing on that important things, and then what can we do to improve those results?"You can follow Tallman's blog and go back through his individual stops at <a href="https://www.kasb.org/">kasb.org</a>.

Tallman: Key to overacheiving districts is being intentional

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Yemen's Houthi rebels</a>&nbsp;believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early Wednesday, the second-such ship to be sunk in the rebel campaign.

The sinking of the Tutor in the Red Sea marks what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign targeting shipping through the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The attack comes despite a monthslong U.S.-led campaign in the region that has seen the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-navy-yemen-houthis-israel-war-7a9997f9d84ac669fae69ecf819913fb">Navy face its most-intense maritime fighting</a>&nbsp;since World War II, with near-daily attacks targeting commercial vessels and warship.

The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned-and-operated Tutor sank in the Red Sea, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in a warning to sailors in the region.

“Military authorities report maritime debris and oil sighted in the last reported location,” the UKMTO said. “The vessel is believed to have sunk.”

The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the sinking. The U.S. military as well did not immediately acknowledge the sinking and did not respond to requests for comment.

The Tutor came under attack about a week ago by a bomb-carrying Houthi drone boat in the Red Sea. John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said Monday that the attack killed “a crew member who hailed from the Philippines.” The Philippines has yet to acknowledge the death, but the man who had been aboard the Tutor has been missing for over a week in the Red Sea, which faces intense summertime heat.

The use of a boat loaded with explosives raised the specter of 2000’s USS Cole attack, a suicide assault by al-Qaida on the warship when it was at port in Aden, killing 17 on board. The Cole is now part of a U.S. Navy operation led by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea to try and halt the Houthi attacks, though the rebels continue their assaults.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks</a>&nbsp;on shipping, killing four sailors. They've seized one vessel and sunk two since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-war-us-british-airstrikes-israel-hamas-12f99b7afc389a703f8dd333f2376b20">a series of strikes May 30</a>&nbsp;killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.

In March,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-rubymar-sinks-red-sea-fb64a490ce935756337ee3606e15d093">the Belize-flagged Rubymar carried a load of fertilizer sank in the Red Sea</a>&nbsp;after taking on water for days following a rebel attack.

The Houthis have maintained their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. However, many of the ships they've attacked have little or no connection to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">began after Hamas-led militants</a>&nbsp;attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1703990687604.png" alt="File photo U.S. Central Command" />
 <figcaption>File photo U.S. Central Command</figcaption>
 </figure>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Yemen's Houthi rebels</a>&nbsp;believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early Wednesday, the second-such ship to be sunk in the rebel campaign.The sinking of the Tutor in the Red Sea marks what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign targeting shipping through the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.The attack comes despite a monthslong U.S.-led campaign in the region that has seen the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-navy-yemen-houthis-israel-war-7a9997f9d84ac669fae69ecf819913fb">Navy face its most-intense maritime fighting</a>&nbsp;since World War II, with near-daily attacks targeting commercial vessels and warship.The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned-and-operated Tutor sank in the Red Sea, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in a warning to sailors in the region.“Military authorities report maritime debris and oil sighted in the last reported location,” the UKMTO said. “The vessel is believed to have sunk.”The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the sinking. The U.S. military as well did not immediately acknowledge the sinking and did not respond to requests for comment.The Tutor came under attack about a week ago by a bomb-carrying Houthi drone boat in the Red Sea. John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said Monday that the attack killed “a crew member who hailed from the Philippines.” The Philippines has yet to acknowledge the death, but the man who had been aboard the Tutor has been missing for over a week in the Red Sea, which faces intense summertime heat.The use of a boat loaded with explosives raised the specter of 2000’s USS Cole attack, a suicide assault by al-Qaida on the warship when it was at port in Aden, killing 17 on board. The Cole is now part of a U.S. Navy operation led by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea to try and halt the Houthi attacks, though the rebels continue their assaults.The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/houthis">Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks</a>&nbsp;on shipping, killing four sailors. They've seized one vessel and sunk two since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-war-us-british-airstrikes-israel-hamas-12f99b7afc389a703f8dd333f2376b20">a series of strikes May 30</a>&nbsp;killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.In March,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-rubymar-sinks-red-sea-fb64a490ce935756337ee3606e15d093">the Belize-flagged Rubymar carried a load of fertilizer sank in the Red Sea</a>&nbsp;after taking on water for days following a rebel attack.The Houthis have maintained their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. However, many of the ships they've attacked have little or no connection to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.The war in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">began after Hamas-led militants</a>&nbsp;attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.

Terrorist attack sinks second ship in the Red Sea

SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement and railroad officials are investigating a fatal accident.

Just after 5p.m. Tuesday, a Union Pacific train struck and killed an individual&nbsp; near N Kansas Ave and NE Norris Street, according to&nbsp;Meg Siffring with Union Pacific.

The train crew was not injured. Union Pacific is working with local authorities to understand what led up to the incident.&nbsp; The name of the victim has not been released.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718757295503.png" alt="photo courtesy WIBW TV" />
 <figcaption>photo courtesy WIBW TV</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY —Law enforcement and railroad officials are investigating a fatal accident.Just after 5p.m. Tuesday, a Union Pacific train struck and killed an individual&nbsp; near N Kansas Ave and NE Norris Street, according to&nbsp;Meg Siffring with Union Pacific.The train crew was not injured. Union Pacific is working with local authorities to understand what led up to the incident.&nbsp; The name of the victim has not been released.

Pedestrian dead after struck by train in Kansas

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — An attempted robbery at a highway rest area in eastern Nebraska left a 72-year-old man dead and a 71-year-old woman critically injured in a knife attack Wednesday, authorities said.

The Hall County Sheriff's office said deputies were called to an Interstate 80 rest area shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday and found both victims with knife wounds.

The man from Eureka, Missouri, died at a Grand Island hospital. The woman is in critical condition at the hospital with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. She is also from Eureka.

The suspect fled the rest area in a vehicle before authorities arrived, but Grand Island Police Captain Dean Elliott told television station KSNB that officers were able to get a description.

The Nebraska State Patrol tried to stop a vehicle matching that description near Wood River before that vehicle exited the interstate and turned south. Elliott said the vehicle eventually drove into the Platte River before the suspect was arrested.

It wasn't immediately clear what charges the 22-year-old man from Elyria, Ohio, will face.

The victims were not immediately identified because authorities are still notifying family members.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718822090654.png" alt="Photo Nebraska State Patrol courtesy NTV" />
 <figcaption>Photo Nebraska State Patrol courtesy NTV</figcaption>
 </figure>GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — An attempted robbery at a highway rest area in eastern Nebraska left a 72-year-old man dead and a 71-year-old woman critically injured in a knife attack Wednesday, authorities said.The Hall County Sheriff's office said deputies were called to an Interstate 80 rest area shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday and found both victims with knife wounds.The man from Eureka, Missouri, died at a Grand Island hospital. The woman is in critical condition at the hospital with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. She is also from Eureka.The suspect fled the rest area in a vehicle before authorities arrived, but Grand Island Police Captain Dean Elliott told television station KSNB that officers were able to get a description.The Nebraska State Patrol tried to stop a vehicle matching that description near Wood River before that vehicle exited the interstate and turned south. Elliott said the vehicle eventually drove into the Platte River before the suspect was arrested.It wasn't immediately clear what charges the 22-year-old man from Elyria, Ohio, will face.The victims were not immediately identified because authorities are still notifying family members.

Man, 72, killed and woman hurt in knife attack at Nebraska highway rest area

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is making a serious run at becoming the new home for the reigning&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-2024-score-chiefs-49ers-49b5dca51c05ab0f259cef0d7da76c2d">Super Bowl champions</a>&nbsp;with legislators approving a plan Tuesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-new-stadium-d33d64672c1cfb8d015d29b03ccf9b4f">for luring</a>&nbsp;both the Chiefs and Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals away from Missouri.

Bipartisan legislative supermajorities OKed the measure to authorize state bonds to help finance new stadiums and practice facilities for both teams on the Kansas side of the metropolitan area of 2.3 million residents, which is split by the border with Missouri. Three Super Bowl victories in five years — and player Travis Kelce’s romance with pop icon Taylor Swift — have made the Chiefs perhaps the area’s most celebrated civic asset.

The plan from the Republican-controlled Legislature goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. While she stopped short of promising to sign it, she said in a statement that “Kansas now has the opportunity to become a professional sports powerhouse.”

Both the Chiefs and the Royals said they look forward to considering Kansas options. The lease on the Missouri complex with their side-by-side stadiums runs through January 2031, but both have said they already should have been planning for the future.

“We’re excited about what happened here today,” Korb Maxwell, an attorney for the Chiefs who lives on the Kansas side, said at the Statehouse after the bill cleared the Legislature. “This is incredibly real.”

The approval capped a two-month push to capitalize on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-royals-kansas-city-stadiums-e9605296b85e91699441e4ba10e83212">the refusal in April</a>&nbsp;by voters on the Missouri side to continue a local sales tax used to finance the upkeep of the teams' stadiums.

Backers of the plan brushed aside decades of research by economists concluding that government subsidies for professional sports stadiums&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-stadiums-public-funding-nfl-mlb-a81d825286530bb95f227efc99f2e9d3">are not worth the cost</a>. They also overcame criticism that lawmakers were moving too quickly.

A spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Mike Parson did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment. But in Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas promised to “lay out a good offer” to keep both teams in town.

“Today was largely, in my opinion, about leverage,” Lucas said. “And the teams are in an exceptional leverage position.”

Some Kansas officials reached the same conclusion.

“I think the Chiefs and the Royals are using us,” said state Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Kansas City-area Democrat.

The votes on the Kansas stadium-financing plan were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li_2024s/b2023_24/measures/vote_view/je_20240618140409_302207/">84-38</a>&nbsp;in the state House and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li_2024s/b2023_24/measures/vote_view/je_20240618180827_709784/">27-8</a>&nbsp;in the Senate. Lawmakers from across the state — even western Kansas, far from any new stadium — supported the measure.

It would allow state bonds to cover up to 70% of each new stadium, paying them off over 30 years with revenues from sports betting, state lottery ticket sales and new sales and alcohol taxes collected from shopping and entertainment districts around the new stadiums.

House Commerce Committee Chair Sean Tarwater, a Kansas City-area Republican, said the Chiefs still are likely to spend $500 million to $700 million in private funds on a new stadium.

“There are no blank checks,” Tarwater told GOP colleagues during a briefing.

Legislators debated the plan during a one-day special session called by Kelly to have them consider reducing taxes after she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-budget-tax-cuts-veto-9ebddf96cd35b614d8e96f2d8b8939c2">vetoed three tax-cutting plans</a>&nbsp;before legislators adjourned their regular annual session May 1.

Republican leaders had promised that the stadium proposal wouldn’t come up until the Legislature first approved a plan to cut income and property taxes by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tax-cuts-kansas-special-legislative-session-b79d213f1a904dfd7604648ea9d2c454">a total of $1.23 billion</a>&nbsp;over the next three years. Many lawmakers argued that voters would be angry if the state helped finance new stadiums without cutting taxes.

With the tax bill passed, the stadium plan gained support even from lawmakers who saw it as a handout for wealthy team owners. Some said failing to act risked pushing the teams to leave the Kansas City area, and a few said they had wanted the Chiefs in Kansas since childhood.

“It is amazing to me the speed with which we can solve problems when they're oriented around wealth, when they’re oriented around business,” said state Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat from central Kansas.

“This is the system that we’re stuck in, so if we choose to opt out of that system, we will lose every time,” he said.

Economists who study pro sports teams have concluded in dozens of studies that a new stadium and shopping-and-entertainment area merely takes existing economic activity away from elsewhere in a community, resulting in little or no net gain.

“It could still help Kansas and maybe hurt Missouri by the same amount,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith college in central Massachusetts who has written multiple books about sports. “It’s a zero-sum game.”

A skeptical state Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Kansas City-area Republican, used a Christmas Eve metaphor to characterize supporters' excitement before she voted no.

"There are visions of sugar plums,” Baumgardner said.

By JOHN HANNA&nbsp;TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is making a serious run at becoming the new home for the reigning&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-2024-score-chiefs-49ers-49b5dca51c05ab0f259cef0d7da76c2d">Super Bowl champions</a>&nbsp;with legislators approving a plan Tuesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-new-stadium-d33d64672c1cfb8d015d29b03ccf9b4f">for luring</a>&nbsp;both the Chiefs and Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals away from Missouri.Bipartisan legislative supermajorities OKed the measure to authorize state bonds to help finance new stadiums and practice facilities for both teams on the Kansas side of the metropolitan area of 2.3 million residents, which is split by the border with Missouri. Three Super Bowl victories in five years — and player Travis Kelce’s romance with pop icon Taylor Swift — have made the Chiefs perhaps the area’s most celebrated civic asset.The plan from the Republican-controlled Legislature goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. While she stopped short of promising to sign it, she said in a statement that “Kansas now has the opportunity to become a professional sports powerhouse.”Both the Chiefs and the Royals said they look forward to considering Kansas options. The lease on the Missouri complex with their side-by-side stadiums runs through January 2031, but both have said they already should have been planning for the future.“We’re excited about what happened here today,” Korb Maxwell, an attorney for the Chiefs who lives on the Kansas side, said at the Statehouse after the bill cleared the Legislature. “This is incredibly real.”The approval capped a two-month push to capitalize on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-royals-kansas-city-stadiums-e9605296b85e91699441e4ba10e83212">the refusal in April</a>&nbsp;by voters on the Missouri side to continue a local sales tax used to finance the upkeep of the teams' stadiums.Backers of the plan brushed aside decades of research by economists concluding that government subsidies for professional sports stadiums&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-stadiums-public-funding-nfl-mlb-a81d825286530bb95f227efc99f2e9d3">are not worth the cost</a>. They also overcame criticism that lawmakers were moving too quickly.A spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Mike Parson did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment. But in Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas promised to “lay out a good offer” to keep both teams in town.“Today was largely, in my opinion, about leverage,” Lucas said. “And the teams are in an exceptional leverage position.”Some Kansas officials reached the same conclusion.“I think the Chiefs and the Royals are using us,” said state Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Kansas City-area Democrat.The votes on the Kansas stadium-financing plan were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li_2024s/b2023_24/measures/vote_view/je_20240618140409_302207/">84-38</a>&nbsp;in the state House and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li_2024s/b2023_24/measures/vote_view/je_20240618180827_709784/">27-8</a>&nbsp;in the Senate. Lawmakers from across the state — even western Kansas, far from any new stadium — supported the measure.It would allow state bonds to cover up to 70% of each new stadium, paying them off over 30 years with revenues from sports betting, state lottery ticket sales and new sales and alcohol taxes collected from shopping and entertainment districts around the new stadiums.House Commerce Committee Chair Sean Tarwater, a Kansas City-area Republican, said the Chiefs still are likely to spend $500 million to $700 million in private funds on a new stadium.“There are no blank checks,” Tarwater told GOP colleagues during a briefing.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Mayor Lucas’s statement on the Kansas Legislature’s STAR bond vote: <a href="https://t.co/dRYs3KzJrk">pic.twitter.com/dRYs3KzJrk</a>&mdash; Mayor Quinton Lucas (@MayorLucasKC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorLucasKC/status/1803203120924602403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Legislators debated the plan during a one-day special session called by Kelly to have them consider reducing taxes after she&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-budget-tax-cuts-veto-9ebddf96cd35b614d8e96f2d8b8939c2">vetoed three tax-cutting plans</a>&nbsp;before legislators adjourned their regular annual session May 1.Republican leaders had promised that the stadium proposal wouldn’t come up until the Legislature first approved a plan to cut income and property taxes by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tax-cuts-kansas-special-legislative-session-b79d213f1a904dfd7604648ea9d2c454">a total of $1.23 billion</a>&nbsp;over the next three years. Many lawmakers argued that voters would be angry if the state helped finance new stadiums without cutting taxes.With the tax bill passed, the stadium plan gained support even from lawmakers who saw it as a handout for wealthy team owners. Some said failing to act risked pushing the teams to leave the Kansas City area, and a few said they had wanted the Chiefs in Kansas since childhood.“It is amazing to me the speed with which we can solve problems when they're oriented around wealth, when they’re oriented around business,” said state Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat from central Kansas.Yet Probst voted for the bill.“This is the system that we’re stuck in, so if we choose to opt out of that system, we will lose every time,” he said.Economists who study pro sports teams have concluded in dozens of studies that a new stadium and shopping-and-entertainment area merely takes existing economic activity away from elsewhere in a community, resulting in little or no net gain.“It could still help Kansas and maybe hurt Missouri by the same amount,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith college in central Massachusetts who has written multiple books about sports. “It’s a zero-sum game.”A skeptical state Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Kansas City-area Republican, used a Christmas Eve metaphor to characterize supporters' excitement before she voted no."There are visions of sugar plums,” Baumgardner said.

Kansas making a big run at KC's pro teams with a plan to help pay for new stadiums

NEW YORK (AP) —Willie Mays, the electrifying “Say Hey Kid” whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players, has died. He was 93.

Mays' family and the San Francisco Giants jointly announced Tuesday night he had died earlier in the afternoon.

“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” son Michael Mays said in a statement released by the club. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/willie-mays-career-death-a1a52f9b19a24934ad992a346b39b2c0">The center fielder, who began his professional career in the Negro Leagues</a>&nbsp;in 1948, was baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer. His signature basket catch and his dashes around the bases with his cap flying off personified the joy of the game. His over-the shoulder catch of a long drive in the 1954 World Series is baseball’s most celebrated defensive feat.

Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/rickwood-field-willie-mays-14d999da5a7fb363b43dce06df8f7577">to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham</a>, Alabama.

“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast ... Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime. ... We will never forget this true Giant on and off the field.”

Few were so blessed with each of the five essential qualities for a superstar -- hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, fielding and throwing. Fewer so joyously exerted those qualities -- whether launching home runs; dashing around the bases, loose-fitting cap flying off his head; or chasing down fly balls in center field and finishing the job with his trademark basket catch.

“When I played ball, I tried to make sure everybody enjoyed what I was doing,” Mays told NPR in 2010. “I made the clubhouse guy fit me a cap that when I ran, the wind gets up in the bottom and it flies right off. People love that kind of stuff.”

Over 23 major league seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants but also including one in the Negro Leagues, Mays batted .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Glove. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.

He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. (Statistician Bill James ranked him third, behind Ruth and Honus Wagner). The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&amp;T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza.

For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ball player with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic -- one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.”

In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the then-New York Giants hosted the Cleveland Indians, who had won 111 games in the regular season and were strong favorites in the postseason. The score was 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Cleveland’s Vic Wertz faced reliever Don Liddle with none out, Larry Doby on second and Al Rosen on first.

With the count 1-2, Wertz smashed a fastball to deep center field. In an average park, with an average center fielder, Wertz would have homered, or at least had an easy triple. But the center field wall in the eccentrically shaped Polo Grounds was more than 450 feet away. And there was nothing close to average about the skills of Willie Mays.

Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”

“Soon as it got hit, I knew I’d catch the ball,” Mays told biographer James S. Hirsch, whose book came out in 2010.

“All the time I’m running back, I’m thinking, ‘Willie, you’ve got to get this ball back to the infield.’”

“The Catch” was seen and heard by millions through radio and the then-emerging medium of television, and Mays became one of the first Black athletes with mass media appeal. He was a guest star on “The Donna Reed Show,” “Bewitched” and other sitcoms. He inspired a handful of songs and was named first in Terry Cashman’s 1980s novelty hit, “Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey &amp; The Duke),” a tribute in part to the brief era when New York had three future Hall of Famers in center: Mays, Mantle of the Yankees and Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Giants went on to sweep the Indians, with many citing Mays’ play as the turning point. The impact was so powerful that 63 years later, in 2017, baseball named the World Series Most Valuable Player after him even though it was his only moment of postseason greatness. He appeared in three other World Series, in 1951 and 1962 for the Giants and 1973 for the Mets, batting just .239 with no home runs in the four series. (His one postseason homer was in the 1971 National League playoffs, when the Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates).

But “The Catch” and his achievements during the regular season were greatness enough. Yankees and Dodgers fans may have fiercely challenged Mays’ eminence, but Mantle and Snider did not. At a 1995 baseball writers dinner in Manhattan, with all three at the dais, Mantle raised the eternal question: Which of the three was better?

“We don’t mean being second, do we, Duke?” he added.

Between 1954 and 1966, Mays drove in 100 or more runs 10 times, scored 100 or more 12 times, hit 40 or more homers six times, more than 50 homers twice and led the league in stolen bases four times. His numbers might have been bigger. He missed most of 1952 and all of 1953 because of military service, quite possibly costing him the chance to overtake Ruth’s career home run record of 714, an honor that first went to Henry Aaron; then Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds. He likely would have won more Gold Gloves if the award had been established before 1956. He insisted he would have led the league in steals more often had he tried.

Mays was fortunate in escaping serious injury and avoiding major scandal, but he endured personal and professional troubles. His first marriage, to Marghuerite Wendell, ended in divorce. He was often short of money in the pre-free agent era, and he received less for endorsements than did Mantle and other white athletes. He was subject to racist insults and his insistence that he was an entertainer, not a spokesman, led to his being chastised by Jackie Robinson and others for not contributing more to the civil rights movement. He didn’t care for some of his managers and didn’t always appreciate a fellow idol, notably Aaron, his greatest contemporary.

“When Henry began to soar up the home-run chart, Willie was loathe to give even a partial nod to Henry’s ability, choosing instead to blame his own performance on his home turf, (San Francisco’s) Candlestick Park, saying it was a lousy park in which to hit homers and this was the reason for Henry’s onrush,” Aaron biographer Howard Bryant wrote in 2010.

Admirers of Aaron, who died in 2021, would contend that only his quiet demeanor and geographical distance from major media centers -- Aaron played in Atlanta and Milwaukee -- kept him from being ranked the same as, or even better than Mays. But much of the baseball world placed Mays above all. He was the game’s highest-paid player for 11 seasons (according to the Society for American Baseball Research) and often batted first in All-Star games, because he was Willie Mays. From center field, he called pitches and positioned other fielders. He boasted that he relied on his own instincts, not those of any coach, when deciding whether to try for an extra base.

Sports writer Barney Kremenko has often been credited with nicknaming him “The Say Hey Kid,” referring to Mays’ spirited way of greeting his teammates. Moments on and off the field sealed the public’s affection. In 1965, Mays defused a horrifying brawl after teammate Juan Marichal clubbed Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Mays led a bloodied Roseboro away and sat with him on the clubhouse bench of the Dodgers, the Giants’ hated rivals.

Years earlier, when living in Manhattan, he endeared himself to young fans by playing in neighborhood stickball games.

“I used to have maybe 10 kids come to my window,” he said in 2011 while visiting the area of the old Polo Grounds. “Every morning, they’d come at 9 o’clock. They’d knock on my window, get me up. And I had to be out at 9:30. So they’d give me a chance to go shower. They’d give me a chance to eat breakfast. But I had to be out there at 9:30, because that’s when they wanted to play. So I played with them for about maybe an hour.”

He was born in Westfield, Alabama, in 1931, the son of a Negro League player who wanted Willie to do the same, playing catch with him and letting him sit in the dugout. Young Mays was so gifted an athlete that childhood friends swore that basketball, not baseball, was his best sport.

By high school he was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons, and late in life would receive an additional 10 hits to his career total, 3,293, when Negro League statistics were recognized in 2024 by Major League Baseball. With Robinson breaking the major league’s color barrier in 1947, Mays’ ascension became inevitable. The Giants signed him after he graduated from high school (he had to skip his senior prom) and sent him to its minor league affiliate in Trenton, New Jersey. He began the 1951 season with Minneapolis, a Triple-A club. After 35 games, he was batting a head-turning .477 and was labeled by one scout as “the best prospect in America.” Giants Manager Leo Durocher saw no reason to wait and demanded that Mays, barely 20 at the time, join his team’s starting lineup.

Durocher managed Mays from 1951-55 and became a father figure -- the surly but astute leader who nurtured and sometimes pampered the young phenom. As Durocher liked to tell it, and Mays never disputed, Mays struggled in his first few games and was ready to go back to the minors.

“In the minors I’m hitting .477, killing everybody. And I came to the majors, I couldn’t hit. I was playing the outfield very, very well, throwing out everybody, but I just couldn’t get a hit,” Mays told the Academy of Achievement, a Washington-based leadership center, in 1996. “And I started crying, and Leo came to me and he says, ‘You’re my center fielder; it doesn’t make any difference what you do. You just go home, come back and play tomorrow.’ I think that really, really turned me around.”

Mays finished 1951 batting .272 with 20 home runs, good enough to be named the league’s top rookie. He might have been a legend that first season. The Giants were 13 games behind Brooklyn on Aug. 11, but rallied and tied the Dodgers, then won a best-of-3 playoff series with one of baseball’s most storied homers: Bobby Thomson’s shot in the bottom of the ninth off Ralph Branca.

“I was concentrating on Branca, what he was throwing, what he might throw me,” Mays told The New York Times in 2010. “When he hit the home run, I didn’t even move.

“I remember all the guys running by me, running to home plate, and I’m saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was thinking, ‘I got to hit!‘”

His military service the next two years stalled his career, but not his development. Mays was assigned as a batting instructor for his unit’s baseball team and, at the suggestion of one pupil, began catching fly balls by holding out his glove face up, around his belly, like a basket. Mays adopted the new approach in part because it enabled him to throw more quickly.

He returned full time in 1954, hit 41 homers and a league-leading .345. He was only 34 when he hit his 500th career homer, in 1965, but managed just 160 over the next eight years. Early in the 1972 season, with Mays struggling and the Giants looking to cut costs, the team stunned Mays and others by trading its marquee player to the New York Mets, returning him to the city where he had started out in the majors.

Mays’ debut with his new team could not have been better scripted: He hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning against the visiting Giants, and helped the Mets win 5-4. But he deteriorated badly over the next two seasons, even falling down on occasion in the field. Many cited him as example of a star who stayed too long.

In retirement, he mentored Bonds and defended him against allegations of using steroids. Mays himself was in trouble when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned him from the game, in 1979, for doing promotional work at the Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Kuhn’s successor, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated Mays and fellow casino promoter Mantle in 1985).

But tributes were more common and they came from everywhere -- show business, sports, the White House. In the 1979 movie “Manhattan,” Woody Allen’s character cites Mays as among his reasons for living. When Obama learned he was a distant cousin of political rival and former Vice President Dick Cheney, he lamented that he wasn’t related to someone “cool,” like Mays.

Asked about career highlights, Mays inevitably mentioned “The Catch,” but also cherished hitting four home runs in a game against the Braves; falling over a canvas fence to make a catch in the minors; and running into a fence in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field while chasing a bases-loaded drive, knocking himself out, but still holding on to the ball.

Most of the time, he was happy just being on the field, especially when the sun went down.

“I mean, you had the lights out there and all you do is go out there, and you’re out there by yourself in center field,” he told the achievement academy. “And, I just felt that it was such a beautiful game that I just wanted to play it forever, you know.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718759616070.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) —Willie Mays, the electrifying “Say Hey Kid” whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players, has died. He was 93.Mays' family and the San Francisco Giants jointly announced Tuesday night he had died earlier in the afternoon.“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” son Michael Mays said in a statement released by the club. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/willie-mays-career-death-a1a52f9b19a24934ad992a346b39b2c0">The center fielder, who began his professional career in the Negro Leagues</a>&nbsp;in 1948, was baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer. His signature basket catch and his dashes around the bases with his cap flying off personified the joy of the game. His over-the shoulder catch of a long drive in the 1954 World Series is baseball’s most celebrated defensive feat.Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/rickwood-field-willie-mays-14d999da5a7fb363b43dce06df8f7577">to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham</a>, Alabama.“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast ... Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime. ... We will never forget this true Giant on and off the field.”Few were so blessed with each of the five essential qualities for a superstar -- hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, fielding and throwing. Fewer so joyously exerted those qualities -- whether launching home runs; dashing around the bases, loose-fitting cap flying off his head; or chasing down fly balls in center field and finishing the job with his trademark basket catch.“When I played ball, I tried to make sure everybody enjoyed what I was doing,” Mays told NPR in 2010. “I made the clubhouse guy fit me a cap that when I ran, the wind gets up in the bottom and it flies right off. People love that kind of stuff.”Over 23 major league seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants but also including one in the Negro Leagues, Mays batted .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Glove. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. (Statistician Bill James ranked him third, behind Ruth and Honus Wagner). The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&amp;T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza.For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ball player with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic -- one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.”In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the then-New York Giants hosted the Cleveland Indians, who had won 111 games in the regular season and were strong favorites in the postseason. The score was 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Cleveland’s Vic Wertz faced reliever Don Liddle with none out, Larry Doby on second and Al Rosen on first.With the count 1-2, Wertz smashed a fastball to deep center field. In an average park, with an average center fielder, Wertz would have homered, or at least had an easy triple. But the center field wall in the eccentrically shaped Polo Grounds was more than 450 feet away. And there was nothing close to average about the skills of Willie Mays.Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”“Soon as it got hit, I knew I’d catch the ball,” Mays told biographer James S. Hirsch, whose book came out in 2010.“All the time I’m running back, I’m thinking, ‘Willie, you’ve got to get this ball back to the infield.’”“The Catch” was seen and heard by millions through radio and the then-emerging medium of television, and Mays became one of the first Black athletes with mass media appeal. He was a guest star on “The Donna Reed Show,” “Bewitched” and other sitcoms. He inspired a handful of songs and was named first in Terry Cashman’s 1980s novelty hit, “Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey &amp; The Duke),” a tribute in part to the brief era when New York had three future Hall of Famers in center: Mays, Mantle of the Yankees and Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers.The Giants went on to sweep the Indians, with many citing Mays’ play as the turning point. The impact was so powerful that 63 years later, in 2017, baseball named the World Series Most Valuable Player after him even though it was his only moment of postseason greatness. He appeared in three other World Series, in 1951 and 1962 for the Giants and 1973 for the Mets, batting just .239 with no home runs in the four series. (His one postseason homer was in the 1971 National League playoffs, when the Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates).But “The Catch” and his achievements during the regular season were greatness enough. Yankees and Dodgers fans may have fiercely challenged Mays’ eminence, but Mantle and Snider did not. At a 1995 baseball writers dinner in Manhattan, with all three at the dais, Mantle raised the eternal question: Which of the three was better?“We don’t mean being second, do we, Duke?” he added.Between 1954 and 1966, Mays drove in 100 or more runs 10 times, scored 100 or more 12 times, hit 40 or more homers six times, more than 50 homers twice and led the league in stolen bases four times. His numbers might have been bigger. He missed most of 1952 and all of 1953 because of military service, quite possibly costing him the chance to overtake Ruth’s career home run record of 714, an honor that first went to Henry Aaron; then Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds. He likely would have won more Gold Gloves if the award had been established before 1956. He insisted he would have led the league in steals more often had he tried.Mays was fortunate in escaping serious injury and avoiding major scandal, but he endured personal and professional troubles. His first marriage, to Marghuerite Wendell, ended in divorce. He was often short of money in the pre-free agent era, and he received less for endorsements than did Mantle and other white athletes. He was subject to racist insults and his insistence that he was an entertainer, not a spokesman, led to his being chastised by Jackie Robinson and others for not contributing more to the civil rights movement. He didn’t care for some of his managers and didn’t always appreciate a fellow idol, notably Aaron, his greatest contemporary.“When Henry began to soar up the home-run chart, Willie was loathe to give even a partial nod to Henry’s ability, choosing instead to blame his own performance on his home turf, (San Francisco’s) Candlestick Park, saying it was a lousy park in which to hit homers and this was the reason for Henry’s onrush,” Aaron biographer Howard Bryant wrote in 2010.Admirers of Aaron, who died in 2021, would contend that only his quiet demeanor and geographical distance from major media centers -- Aaron played in Atlanta and Milwaukee -- kept him from being ranked the same as, or even better than Mays. But much of the baseball world placed Mays above all. He was the game’s highest-paid player for 11 seasons (according to the Society for American Baseball Research) and often batted first in All-Star games, because he was Willie Mays. From center field, he called pitches and positioned other fielders. He boasted that he relied on his own instincts, not those of any coach, when deciding whether to try for an extra base.Sports writer Barney Kremenko has often been credited with nicknaming him “The Say Hey Kid,” referring to Mays’ spirited way of greeting his teammates. Moments on and off the field sealed the public’s affection. In 1965, Mays defused a horrifying brawl after teammate Juan Marichal clubbed Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Mays led a bloodied Roseboro away and sat with him on the clubhouse bench of the Dodgers, the Giants’ hated rivals.Years earlier, when living in Manhattan, he endeared himself to young fans by playing in neighborhood stickball games.“I used to have maybe 10 kids come to my window,” he said in 2011 while visiting the area of the old Polo Grounds. “Every morning, they’d come at 9 o’clock. They’d knock on my window, get me up. And I had to be out at 9:30. So they’d give me a chance to go shower. They’d give me a chance to eat breakfast. But I had to be out there at 9:30, because that’s when they wanted to play. So I played with them for about maybe an hour.”He was born in Westfield, Alabama, in 1931, the son of a Negro League player who wanted Willie to do the same, playing catch with him and letting him sit in the dugout. Young Mays was so gifted an athlete that childhood friends swore that basketball, not baseball, was his best sport.By high school he was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons, and late in life would receive an additional 10 hits to his career total, 3,293, when Negro League statistics were recognized in 2024 by Major League Baseball. With Robinson breaking the major league’s color barrier in 1947, Mays’ ascension became inevitable. The Giants signed him after he graduated from high school (he had to skip his senior prom) and sent him to its minor league affiliate in Trenton, New Jersey. He began the 1951 season with Minneapolis, a Triple-A club. After 35 games, he was batting a head-turning .477 and was labeled by one scout as “the best prospect in America.” Giants Manager Leo Durocher saw no reason to wait and demanded that Mays, barely 20 at the time, join his team’s starting lineup.Durocher managed Mays from 1951-55 and became a father figure -- the surly but astute leader who nurtured and sometimes pampered the young phenom. As Durocher liked to tell it, and Mays never disputed, Mays struggled in his first few games and was ready to go back to the minors.“In the minors I’m hitting .477, killing everybody. And I came to the majors, I couldn’t hit. I was playing the outfield very, very well, throwing out everybody, but I just couldn’t get a hit,” Mays told the Academy of Achievement, a Washington-based leadership center, in 1996. “And I started crying, and Leo came to me and he says, ‘You’re my center fielder; it doesn’t make any difference what you do. You just go home, come back and play tomorrow.’ I think that really, really turned me around.”Mays finished 1951 batting .272 with 20 home runs, good enough to be named the league’s top rookie. He might have been a legend that first season. The Giants were 13 games behind Brooklyn on Aug. 11, but rallied and tied the Dodgers, then won a best-of-3 playoff series with one of baseball’s most storied homers: Bobby Thomson’s shot in the bottom of the ninth off Ralph Branca.Mays was the on-deck batter.“I was concentrating on Branca, what he was throwing, what he might throw me,” Mays told The New York Times in 2010. “When he hit the home run, I didn’t even move.“I remember all the guys running by me, running to home plate, and I’m saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was thinking, ‘I got to hit!‘”His military service the next two years stalled his career, but not his development. Mays was assigned as a batting instructor for his unit’s baseball team and, at the suggestion of one pupil, began catching fly balls by holding out his glove face up, around his belly, like a basket. Mays adopted the new approach in part because it enabled him to throw more quickly.He returned full time in 1954, hit 41 homers and a league-leading .345. He was only 34 when he hit his 500th career homer, in 1965, but managed just 160 over the next eight years. Early in the 1972 season, with Mays struggling and the Giants looking to cut costs, the team stunned Mays and others by trading its marquee player to the New York Mets, returning him to the city where he had started out in the majors.Mays’ debut with his new team could not have been better scripted: He hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning against the visiting Giants, and helped the Mets win 5-4. But he deteriorated badly over the next two seasons, even falling down on occasion in the field. Many cited him as example of a star who stayed too long.In retirement, he mentored Bonds and defended him against allegations of using steroids. Mays himself was in trouble when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned him from the game, in 1979, for doing promotional work at the Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Kuhn’s successor, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated Mays and fellow casino promoter Mantle in 1985).But tributes were more common and they came from everywhere -- show business, sports, the White House. In the 1979 movie “Manhattan,” Woody Allen’s character cites Mays as among his reasons for living. When Obama learned he was a distant cousin of political rival and former Vice President Dick Cheney, he lamented that he wasn’t related to someone “cool,” like Mays.Asked about career highlights, Mays inevitably mentioned “The Catch,” but also cherished hitting four home runs in a game against the Braves; falling over a canvas fence to make a catch in the minors; and running into a fence in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field while chasing a bases-loaded drive, knocking himself out, but still holding on to the ball.Most of the time, he was happy just being on the field, especially when the sun went down.“I mean, you had the lights out there and all you do is go out there, and you’re out there by yourself in center field,” he told the achievement academy. “And, I just felt that it was such a beautiful game that I just wanted to play it forever, you know.”___

Baseball legend Willie Mays dead at 93

FINNEY COUNTY —Two men are going to prison for their role in a robbery and murder in southwest Kansas.

Dalton S. Pister, 31, Garden City, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and&nbsp; Alexander Goetting, 20, Garden City, was convicted of 2nd degree murder in the February 2022 death of 36-year-old Hector Flores, according to the Finney County Attorney's office.

Just before 10:30 a.m. February 13, 2022 police&nbsp;were dispatched to report of a shooting in the 800 block of N. 5th Street in Garden City.

Officers located Jesus Hector Flores, 36, of&nbsp; Garden City, KS, who had been shot. EMS transported Flores to St. Catherine Hospital where he later died.

Through the investigation police identified Goetting and Pister as being involved in the shooting.

Police located Goetting and took him into custody. Pister was located and arrested in Scott City..

Pister was sentenced to spend just over 17-years in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Goetting was sentenced to just over 41-years in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Both must also register as violent offenders.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644934626650.png" alt="Dalton Pister-photo Finney Co." />
 <figcaption>Dalton Pister-photo Finney Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>FINNEY COUNTY —Two men are going to prison for their role in a robbery and murder in southwest Kansas.Dalton S. Pister, 31, Garden City, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and&nbsp; Alexander Goetting, 20, Garden City, was convicted of 2nd degree murder in the February 2022 death of 36-year-old Hector Flores, according to the Finney County Attorney's office.Just before 10:30 a.m. February 13, 2022 police&nbsp;were dispatched to report of a shooting in the 800 block of N. 5th Street in Garden City.Officers located Jesus Hector Flores, 36, of&nbsp; Garden City, KS, who had been shot. EMS transported Flores to St. Catherine Hospital where he later died.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718662415415.png" alt="Goetting-photo Finney Co." />
 <figcaption>Goetting-photo Finney Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Through the investigation police identified Goetting and Pister as being involved in the shooting.Police located Goetting and took him into custody. Pister was located and arrested in Scott City..Pister was sentenced to spend just over 17-years in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Goetting was sentenced to just over 41-years in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Both must also register as violent offenders.

2 SW Kansas men going to prison for violent robbery, murder

House, Senate restrain members to avoid amending deal anchored to income tax cuts

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature deflected bipartisan interest in tweaking Tuesday a bill negotiated by Gov. Laura Kelly and top Republican House and Senate leaders delivering a projected $2 billion reduction in state income and property taxes during the next five years.

In a special session of the Legislature, the Senate voted 34-4 and the House 121-2 to forward the unaltered package to the Democratic governor. The Legislature took action on the tax measure before diving into legislation shaping economic development incentives intended to draw the Kansas City Chiefs or Kansas City Royals to new stadiums in Kansas.

A majority in the Senate voted to cut off debate on the tax bill and avoid consideration of amendments Republican and Democratic senators were preparing to offer. Focus of dissent in terms of the tax bill negotiated by Senate President Ty Masterson, House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Kelly centered on removal from the package of $55 million in reductions to property taxes and repeal on July 1 of the state’s 2% sales tax on groceries. The bill also included a provision expanding by $6 million the state’s childcare tax credit, which drew criticism.

“I’m champing on the bit. I’m ready to vote for this thing,” said Sen. Jeff Pittman, D-Leavenworth. “Coming to this point, we’re all a little frustrated. We didn’t all get exactly what we wanted. We are delivering tax cuts to all Kansans.”

Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican not seeking reelection in 2024, made the motion to halt the Senate debate and call a vote. Olson, who endorsed a Kelly tax plan early in the session and voted for the compromise tax bill, said the negotiated package wasn’t ideal, but work of legislators often required some form of compromise.

“We can sit here and pick it apart,” he said. “I think we’re going in the right direction.”

In the House, Rep. Vic Miller, D-Topeka, offered an amendment to Senate Bill 1 that would have added a 75% property tax rebate to unemployable, disabled veterans. That tax break had been considered during the regular legislative session, but became snarled with a bundle of special-interest tax breaks. One of those would have benefitted owners of restaurants, childcare facilities and fitness clubs, including owners of the Genesis Health Club chain.

Rep. Adam Smith, the Weskan Republican and chair of the House Taxation Committee, asked peers in the House to vote down Miller’s amendment. He said it was important to follow the Senate’s lead and preserve all elements of the tax bill negotiated by Kelly, Hawkins and Masterson.

“This is one of those tough ones,” Smith said. “This is the struggle we’ve had really for two years trying to find not only the right dollar amount, but the proper policy pieces to go into this bill. I do worry that any changes to the original agreement by the legislative leaders and the governor’s office — we don’t have a choice to come back and override this if there is a veto.”

Prior to convening of the special session, Kelly said she would sign the tax bill if adopted by the Legislature. She previously vetoed three major tax bills because they weren’t financially sustainable for state government.

While a handful of senators voted against undermining debate on the tax proposal and then voted for passage of the bill, outgoing Sen. Alicia Straub left no doubt she was disturbed by behind-the-scenes wrangling between GOP legislative leadership and the governor ahead of the special session. She appeared frustrated by explosion of interest in trying to convince owners of the Chiefs or Royals to relocate those professional teams to Kansas.

“This special session and tax bill may go down in history as the deflategate of special sessions,” the Ellinwood Republican said. “I refuse to play ball with billionaire globalists, cheaters, liars and thieves. Kansas deserves better.”

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, inquired as to why repeal of the state food sales tax law was taken off the table. And, outgoing Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, expressed dismay the negotiators stripped from the deal much of the residential property tax reductions contained in previous legislation.

The tax legislation was presented Monday to a joint session of the House and Senate tax committees. The regular process of assigning a bill to those committees for hearings, debate and amendment was bypassed. Senate leadership decided the bill would be brought directly to the floor for consideration. After a handful of speeches outlining objections to the bill, and before any amendment could be offered, a motion was approved to proceed to final action.

Another senator who chose not to seek reelection, Hutchinson Republican Mark Steffen, said he was astounded negotiations led to a doubling of the state tax credit on childcare expenditures. He said the tax policy incentivized parents to enter the workforce, place children in daycare and weaken “traditional” family structures in Kansas.

Masterson pushed back against Steffen’s assertion bolstering a childcare tax provision in state law could undermine the nuclear family.

“That is so over the top. I find it incredibly offensive,” the Senate president said. “That’s akin to saying Trump somehow is going to destroy democracy.

Sen. Pat Pettey, D-Kansas City, said it was bizarre of Steffen to assert that parents who made use of childcare services were “bad parents.” She said that common practice meant economic circumstances required parents to work on behalf of their families and ridiculed the senator’s attempt to demonize certain parents.

Meanwhile, Steffen took Republican colleagues in the Legislature to the woodshed while accusing them of raising by 20% state government spending during his four-year term in the Legislature.

“Think of that,” he said. “We’ve got problems with wokeism, with big business trying to control our government.”

The bill moving to the House would create a two-rate state income tax structure with the upper rate at 5.58% and the lower rate at 5.2%. Under existing law, the three-rate approach taxed Kansans at rates of 3.1%, 5.25% and 5.7% based on income.

The bill also would raise the personal income tax exemption from $2,250 to $9,160 and raise the standard deduction by 3%. It also would eliminate the state’s income tax on Social Security benefits, which would allow seniors to avoid more than $100 million annually in state income tax payments. Only a dozen states tax Social Security payments.

The child care tax credit in Kansas would be doubled to 50% of the comparable federal tax break. The residential property tax exemption in the bill tied to funding of Kansas public schools would be nearly doubled to $75,000 from the current level of $42,000.

Negotiations led to removal of broader property tax cuts and repeal of the state’s sales tax on food, which is scheduled to expire Jan. 1.

Overall, the bill endorsed by the Legislature would reduce state revenue by nearly $2 billion over five years. The annual adjustments would range from $380 million to $471 million. The high end would occur the first year of implementation because some provisions of tax reform would be retroactive.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718753958727.png" alt=" Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, presided over debate Tuesday on a negotiated tax-reduction bill during a special session of the Legislature called by Gov. Laura Kelly. The bill passed the House and Senate by wide margins. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, presided over debate Tuesday on a negotiated tax-reduction bill during a special session of the Legislature called by Gov. Laura Kelly. The bill passed the House and Senate by wide margins. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>House, Senate restrain members to avoid amending deal anchored to income tax cuts</h2>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature deflected bipartisan interest in tweaking Tuesday a bill negotiated by Gov. Laura Kelly and top Republican House and Senate leaders delivering a projected $2 billion reduction in state income and property taxes during the next five years.In a special session of the Legislature, the Senate voted 34-4 and the House 121-2 to forward the unaltered package to the Democratic governor. The Legislature took action on the tax measure before diving into legislation shaping economic development incentives intended to draw the Kansas City Chiefs or Kansas City Royals to new stadiums in Kansas.A majority in the Senate voted to cut off debate on the tax bill and avoid consideration of amendments Republican and Democratic senators were preparing to offer. Focus of dissent in terms of the tax bill negotiated by Senate President Ty Masterson, House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Kelly centered on removal from the package of $55 million in reductions to property taxes and repeal on July 1 of the state’s 2% sales tax on groceries. The bill also included a provision expanding by $6 million the state’s childcare tax credit, which drew criticism.“I’m champing on the bit. I’m ready to vote for this thing,” said Sen. Jeff Pittman, D-Leavenworth. “Coming to this point, we’re all a little frustrated. We didn’t all get exactly what we wanted. We are delivering tax cuts to all Kansans.”Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican not seeking reelection in 2024, made the motion to halt the Senate debate and call a vote. Olson, who endorsed a Kelly tax plan early in the session and voted for the compromise tax bill, said the negotiated package wasn’t ideal, but work of legislators often required some form of compromise.“We can sit here and pick it apart,” he said. “I think we’re going in the right direction.”In the House, Rep. Vic Miller, D-Topeka, offered an amendment to Senate Bill 1 that would have added a 75% property tax rebate to unemployable, disabled veterans. That tax break had been considered during the regular legislative session, but became snarled with a bundle of special-interest tax breaks. One of those would have benefitted owners of restaurants, childcare facilities and fitness clubs, including owners of the Genesis Health Club chain.Rep. Adam Smith, the Weskan Republican and chair of the House Taxation Committee, asked peers in the House to vote down Miller’s amendment. He said it was important to follow the Senate’s lead and preserve all elements of the tax bill negotiated by Kelly, Hawkins and Masterson.“This is one of those tough ones,” Smith said. “This is the struggle we’ve had really for two years trying to find not only the right dollar amount, but the proper policy pieces to go into this bill. I do worry that any changes to the original agreement by the legislative leaders and the governor’s office — we don’t have a choice to come back and override this if there is a veto.”Prior to convening of the special session, Kelly said she would sign the tax bill if adopted by the Legislature. She previously vetoed three major tax bills because they weren’t financially sustainable for state government.<h2>Globalists and wokeism</h2>While a handful of senators voted against undermining debate on the tax proposal and then voted for passage of the bill, outgoing Sen. Alicia Straub left no doubt she was disturbed by behind-the-scenes wrangling between GOP legislative leadership and the governor ahead of the special session. She appeared frustrated by explosion of interest in trying to convince owners of the Chiefs or Royals to relocate those professional teams to Kansas.“This special session and tax bill may go down in history as the deflategate of special sessions,” the Ellinwood Republican said. “I refuse to play ball with billionaire globalists, cheaters, liars and thieves. Kansas deserves better.”Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, inquired as to why repeal of the state food sales tax law was taken off the table. And, outgoing Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, expressed dismay the negotiators stripped from the deal much of the residential property tax reductions contained in previous legislation.The tax legislation was presented Monday to a joint session of the House and Senate tax committees. The regular process of assigning a bill to those committees for hearings, debate and amendment was bypassed. Senate leadership decided the bill would be brought directly to the floor for consideration. After a handful of speeches outlining objections to the bill, and before any amendment could be offered, a motion was approved to proceed to final action.Another senator who chose not to seek reelection, Hutchinson Republican Mark Steffen, said he was astounded negotiations led to a doubling of the state tax credit on childcare expenditures. He said the tax policy incentivized parents to enter the workforce, place children in daycare and weaken “traditional” family structures in Kansas.Masterson pushed back against Steffen’s assertion bolstering a childcare tax provision in state law could undermine the nuclear family.“That is so over the top. I find it incredibly offensive,” the Senate president said. “That’s akin to saying Trump somehow is going to destroy democracy.Sen. Pat Pettey, D-Kansas City, said it was bizarre of Steffen to assert that parents who made use of childcare services were “bad parents.” She said that common practice meant economic circumstances required parents to work on behalf of their families and ridiculed the senator’s attempt to demonize certain parents.Meanwhile, Steffen took Republican colleagues in the Legislature to the woodshed while accusing them of raising by 20% state government spending during his four-year term in the Legislature.“Think of that,” he said. “We’ve got problems with wokeism, with big business trying to control our government.”The bill moving to the House would create a two-rate state income tax structure with the upper rate at 5.58% and the lower rate at 5.2%. Under existing law, the three-rate approach taxed Kansans at rates of 3.1%, 5.25% and 5.7% based on income.The bill also would raise the personal income tax exemption from $2,250 to $9,160 and raise the standard deduction by 3%. It also would eliminate the state’s income tax on Social Security benefits, which would allow seniors to avoid more than $100 million annually in state income tax payments. Only a dozen states tax Social Security payments.The child care tax credit in Kansas would be doubled to 50% of the comparable federal tax break. The residential property tax exemption in the bill tied to funding of Kansas public schools would be nearly doubled to $75,000 from the current level of $42,000.Negotiations led to removal of broader property tax cuts and repeal of the state’s sales tax on food, which is scheduled to expire Jan. 1.Overall, the bill endorsed by the Legislature would reduce state revenue by nearly $2 billion over five years. The annual adjustments would range from $380 million to $471 million. The high end would occur the first year of implementation because some provisions of tax reform would be retroactive.

Kansas Legislature adopts $2 billion tax bill crafted by GOP leaders, governor

BUTLER COUNTY—Investigators have released the name of the 3-year-old whose body was found in a Kansas waterway over the weekend as Michael Aikman, according to Butler County Undersheriff Daimon Cundiff.&nbsp; His cause of death was confirmed as an accidental drowning, according to the Sedgwick County Regional Forensics Science Center.&nbsp; 

A child welfare agency placed the boy into temporary foster care with relatives at a rural Kansas home, according to Cundiff.

<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-michaels-funeral-and-charlies-needs?lang=en_US&amp;utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=copy_link">Click here to view</a>&nbsp;the online fundraiser to assist the family.

Just before 7p.m. Saturday, deputies with the Butler County Sheriff's office responded to the 12000 Block of SW. Prairie Creek Road just outside of Andover after a report of a missing 3-year-old boy, according to Cundiff.

First responders found the property to be large with a combination&nbsp; of timber and waterways. Multiple agencies responded to help with the search including water rescue from the August Department of Public Safety.

The initial report indicated the boy was playing outside the residence while an adult was present and doing yard work. The child wandered off but was still believed to be on the property. A search of the area included the water, drones, divers and K9s continued until just after 3a.m. Sunday.

Just after 7:30a.m. Sunday, shortly after the search began again, the body of the boy was found in a waterway not far from the residence on the property.

Authorities believe this is an accidental drowning.&nbsp; An autopsy will&nbsp; determine the specific cause of death, according to Cundiff. There is no suspicion of foul play.&nbsp; The child is a family member of the residents but not their child.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718671558095.png" alt="Photo GoFundMe" />
 <figcaption>Photo GoFundMe</figcaption>
 </figure>BUTLER COUNTY—Investigators have released the name of the 3-year-old whose body was found in a Kansas waterway over the weekend as Michael Aikman, according to Butler County Undersheriff Daimon Cundiff.&nbsp; His cause of death was confirmed as an accidental drowning, according to the Sedgwick County Regional Forensics Science Center.&nbsp; A child welfare agency placed the boy into temporary foster care with relatives at a rural Kansas home, according to Cundiff.<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-michaels-funeral-and-charlies-needs?lang=en_US&amp;utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=copy_link">Click here to view</a>&nbsp;the online fundraiser to assist the family.Just before 7p.m. Saturday, deputies with the Butler County Sheriff's office responded to the 12000 Block of SW. Prairie Creek Road just outside of Andover after a report of a missing 3-year-old boy, according to Cundiff.First responders found the property to be large with a combination&nbsp; of timber and waterways. Multiple agencies responded to help with the search including water rescue from the August Department of Public Safety.The initial report indicated the boy was playing outside the residence while an adult was present and doing yard work. The child wandered off but was still believed to be on the property. A search of the area included the water, drones, divers and K9s continued until just after 3a.m. Sunday.Just after 7:30a.m. Sunday, shortly after the search began again, the body of the boy was found in a waterway not far from the residence on the property.Authorities believe this is an accidental drowning.&nbsp; An autopsy will&nbsp; determine the specific cause of death, according to Cundiff. There is no suspicion of foul play.&nbsp; The child is a family member of the residents but not their child.&nbsp;

3-year-old who drowned in Kan. creek was in foster care

WASHINGTON (AP)—U.S. lawmakers grilled&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-whistleblower-congress-safety-fuselage-c406e90b087ca45f4fd8d426d1eadae1">Boeing's chief executive</a>&nbsp;Tuesday about the company's plans to fix its manufacturing problems and its willingness to heed whistleblowers' warnings, while relatives of people who died in two crashes of the aircraft maker's 737 Max jetliners were in the room to remind him of what was at stake.

CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-shareholders-ceo-compensation-investigations-2216aff126c2c48f03294ae3541bf7b6">David Calhoun</a>&nbsp;appeared before the Senate investigations subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Boeing critic. Blumenthal opened the hearing by recognizing the relatives of the crash victims and the family of a Boeing whistleblower&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-whistleblower-suicide-9fe771a97c5745b9c53f24c04141e474">who died</a>&nbsp;earlier this year.

“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,” the senator said. "It's about a company, a once iconic company, that somehow lost its way."

Calhoun's appearance was the first before Congress by a high-ranking Boeing official since a panel blew out of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-boeing-door-blowout-investigation-alaska-airlines-5c378e8080ae1bf1e3d3f7e68d498d5c">a 737 Max</a>&nbsp;during an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-fbi-investigation-crime-lawsuit-oregon-a4ffddc43f2000dd9d9466a335df6a93">Alaska Airlines flight</a>&nbsp;in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but it raised fresh concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft.

Calhoun sat at the witness table and fidgeted with his eyeglasses as Blumenthal spoke. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., thanked the CEO for coming to face “tough questions.” Before giving his prepared opening statement, Calhoun stood and faced the people in the audience holding poster-sized photos of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

“I apologize for the grief that we have caused,” he said.

Senators asked Calhoun if Boeing retaliated against employees who reported concerns and if he had ever spoken directly with any whistleblowers. He replied that he hadn't but said he would.

The toughest line of inquiry came from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who repeatedly asked Calhoun about what he did to deserve the size of his salary. Calhoun, who has said he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-ceo-calhoun-0abff1ccc6262ffb03f97c6a619bd1ec">plans to retire</a>&nbsp;at the end of the year, earned $32.8 million in compensation last year.

“You’re focused on exactly what you were hired to do, which is that you’re cutting corners. You are eliminating safety procedures. You are sticking it to your employees. You are cutting back jobs because you’re trying to squeeze every piece of profit you can out of this company,” Hawley said, his voice rising. “You’re strip-mining it. You’re strip-mining Boeing.”

Asked by Hawley why he had not resigned, Calhoun answered: “Senator I’m sticking this through. I’m proud of having taken the job. I’m proud of our safety record. And I am very proud of our Boeing people.”

Hawley interrupted. “You’re proud of the safety record?” he asked with incredulity.

Calhoun responded, “I am proud of every action we’ve taken.”

Hawley shot back, “Frankly sir, I think it’s a travesty that you’re still in your job."

Hours before Calhoun arrived on Capitol Hill, the Senate panel released a 204-page report with new allegations from a whistleblower who said he worries that “nonconforming” parts — ones that could be defective or aren't properly documented — are going into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-max-jet-incident-crashes-f73fb7b9eaff7f6549c88e958f7b8b38">737 Max jets</a>.

Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance investigator at the 737 assembly plant&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-safety-quality-faa-audit-fc3a23505363800e1c6d4debd98c4d74">near Seattle</a>, claims Boeing hid evidence of the situation after the Federal Aviation Administration informed the company a year ago that it would inspect the plant.

“Once Boeing received such a notice, it ordered the majority of the (nonconfirming) parts that were being stored outside to be moved to another location," Mohawk said, according to the report. “Approximately 80% of the parts were moved to avoid the watchful eyes of the FAA inspectors.”

The parts were later moved back or lost, Mohawk said. They included rudders, wing flaps and tail fins — all crucial in controlling a plane.

The FAA said it would “thoroughly investigate” claims raised in the Senate report. A Boeing spokesperson said the company got the subcommittee report late Monday night and was reviewing the claims.

The 737 Max has a troubled history. After the Max jets crashed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/4cf97e9b0a004cf5a0db401bb1d222e1">in 2018</a>&nbsp;in Indonesia and 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-max-crash-passengers-fear-pain-trial-fe75ff7e155f1e6ff4881c830aa7337a">in Ethiopia</a>, the FAA subsequently grounded the aircraft for more than a year and a half. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-justice-department-737-max-82145b25ed988cd8cae0bce3de79ce9d">Justice Department currently is considering</a>&nbsp;whether to prosecute Boeing for violating terms of a settlement it reached with the company over allegations it misled regulators who approved the plane.

Mohawk told the Senate subcommittee that the number of unacceptable parts has exploded since production of the Max resumed following the crashes. He said the increase led supervisors to tell him and other workers to “cancel” records that indicated the parts were not suitable to be installed on planes.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-administrator-boeing-737-max-senate-4e58c2b21980b34bc72cde7779925fe1">FAA</a>&nbsp;briefly grounded some Max planes again after January’s mid-air blowout of a plug covering an emergency exit on the Alaska Airlines plane. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board opened separate investigations of Boeing that are continuing.

The company says it has gotten the message. Boeing says it has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-airbus-airline-safety-manufacturing-8a7c361e379285c87c9a84638faf9302">slowed production</a>, encouraged employees to report safety concerns, stopped assembly lines for a day to let workers talk about safety, and appointed a retired Navy admiral to lead a quality review. Late last month, it delivered an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-faa-safety-quality-plan-32ebe104f397d20e28f72c173234460b">improvement plan</a>&nbsp;ordered by the FAA.

During his Senate appearance, Calhoun defended the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-inspections-aircraft-companies-safety-1cb53f061f7df2f9a45262300a4353a3">company’s safety culture</a>.

“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said in his prepared remarks Tuesday. “We are taking comprehensive action today to strengthen safety and quality.”

The drumbeat of bad news for Boeing goes on, however.

In the past week, the FAA said it was investigating how&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/airplanes-titanium-parts-false-records-348c7e984c42fc16a2707a0cb203672a">falsely documented titanium parts</a>&nbsp;got into Boeing's supply chain, and federal officials examined “substantial” damage to a Southwest Airlines 737 Max after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/southwest-plane-boeing-dutch-roll-828216b5dc18bfb29264b59debf071f0">an unusual mid-flight control issue</a>.

Boeing disclosed that it&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-sales-orders-drop-max-eac0c97322ceda981933f0f1e8447b6c">hasn't received a single order</a>&nbsp;for a new Max — previously its best-selling plane — in two months.

Blumenthal first asked&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024.3.19-PSI-Letter-to-Boeing-CEO-David-Calhoun.pdf">Calhoun to appear</a>&nbsp;before the Senate subcommittee after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/video/boeing-co-aerospace-and-defense-industry-production-facilities-alaska-shawn-pruchnicki-5c352c7059ce4dd39e2a5670ea8b8b3e">a whistleblower</a>, a Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing mistakes were raising safety risks on two of the biggest Boeing planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. He said the company needed to explain why the public should be confident about Boeing’s work.

Boeing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-defends-manufacturing-quality-whistleblowers-b8df880c01547638cbf5de240960001b">pushed back</a>&nbsp;against the whistleblower's claims, saying that extensive testing and inspections showed none of the problems that the engineer had predicted.

The Justice Department determined last month that Boeing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-violated-settlement-max-crashes-25cde72e154f60adae54177ce35c9176">violated a 2021 settlement</a>&nbsp;that shielded the company from prosecution for fraud for allegedly misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max. A top department official said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/boeing-co">Boeing</a>&nbsp;failed to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws.

Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide what to do next. Blumenthal said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing that he thinks the Justice Department should prosecute the company.

Families of people who died in the Boeing Max crash in Ethiopia have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/video/accidents-plane-crashes-u-s-department-of-justice-district-of-columbia-crime-bd0d57c7e2f4487a92ff70f5f3041381">pushed</a>&nbsp;the Justice Department repeatedly to prosecute Boeing.

“We will not rest until we see justice.," said Zipporah Kuria, whose father died in the crash. She said the U.S. government should “hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718741633288.png" alt="Image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP)—U.S. lawmakers grilled&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-whistleblower-congress-safety-fuselage-c406e90b087ca45f4fd8d426d1eadae1">Boeing's chief executive</a>&nbsp;Tuesday about the company's plans to fix its manufacturing problems and its willingness to heed whistleblowers' warnings, while relatives of people who died in two crashes of the aircraft maker's 737 Max jetliners were in the room to remind him of what was at stake.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun apologizes to families in the audience of Boeing&#39;s Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash victims. <a href="https://t.co/2PJphR051S">pic.twitter.com/2PJphR051S</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1803140939575161269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-shareholders-ceo-compensation-investigations-2216aff126c2c48f03294ae3541bf7b6">David Calhoun</a>&nbsp;appeared before the Senate investigations subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Boeing critic. Blumenthal opened the hearing by recognizing the relatives of the crash victims and the family of a Boeing whistleblower&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-whistleblower-suicide-9fe771a97c5745b9c53f24c04141e474">who died</a>&nbsp;earlier this year.“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,” the senator said. "It's about a company, a once iconic company, that somehow lost its way."<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Exchange between Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Boeing CEO David Calhoun on compensation and transparency. Hawley: &quot;What is it that you get paid, currently?&quot; Calhoun: &quot;It&#39;s well disclosed...it&#39;s a big number.&quot; Hawley: &quot;It&#39;s $32.8 million this year...that&#39;s a 45% increase...&quot; <a href="https://t.co/LM21Th5HCs">pic.twitter.com/LM21Th5HCs</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1803155925882024341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Calhoun's appearance was the first before Congress by a high-ranking Boeing official since a panel blew out of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-boeing-door-blowout-investigation-alaska-airlines-5c378e8080ae1bf1e3d3f7e68d498d5c">a 737 Max</a>&nbsp;during an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-fbi-investigation-crime-lawsuit-oregon-a4ffddc43f2000dd9d9466a335df6a93">Alaska Airlines flight</a>&nbsp;in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but it raised fresh concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft.Calhoun sat at the witness table and fidgeted with his eyeglasses as Blumenthal spoke. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., thanked the CEO for coming to face “tough questions.” Before giving his prepared opening statement, Calhoun stood and faced the people in the audience holding poster-sized photos of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.“I apologize for the grief that we have caused,” he said.Senators asked Calhoun if Boeing retaliated against employees who reported concerns and if he had ever spoken directly with any whistleblowers. He replied that he hadn't but said he would.The toughest line of inquiry came from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who repeatedly asked Calhoun about what he did to deserve the size of his salary. Calhoun, who has said he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-ceo-calhoun-0abff1ccc6262ffb03f97c6a619bd1ec">plans to retire</a>&nbsp;at the end of the year, earned $32.8 million in compensation last year.“You’re focused on exactly what you were hired to do, which is that you’re cutting corners. You are eliminating safety procedures. You are sticking it to your employees. You are cutting back jobs because you’re trying to squeeze every piece of profit you can out of this company,” Hawley said, his voice rising. “You’re strip-mining it. You’re strip-mining Boeing.”Asked by Hawley why he had not resigned, Calhoun answered: “Senator I’m sticking this through. I’m proud of having taken the job. I’m proud of our safety record. And I am very proud of our Boeing people.”Hawley interrupted. “You’re proud of the safety record?” he asked with incredulity.Calhoun responded, “I am proud of every action we’ve taken.”Hawley shot back, “Frankly sir, I think it’s a travesty that you’re still in your job."Hours before Calhoun arrived on Capitol Hill, the Senate panel released a 204-page report with new allegations from a whistleblower who said he worries that “nonconforming” parts — ones that could be defective or aren't properly documented — are going into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-max-jet-incident-crashes-f73fb7b9eaff7f6549c88e958f7b8b38">737 Max jets</a>.Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance investigator at the 737 assembly plant&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-safety-quality-faa-audit-fc3a23505363800e1c6d4debd98c4d74">near Seattle</a>, claims Boeing hid evidence of the situation after the Federal Aviation Administration informed the company a year ago that it would inspect the plant.“Once Boeing received such a notice, it ordered the majority of the (nonconfirming) parts that were being stored outside to be moved to another location," Mohawk said, according to the report. “Approximately 80% of the parts were moved to avoid the watchful eyes of the FAA inspectors.”The parts were later moved back or lost, Mohawk said. They included rudders, wing flaps and tail fins — all crucial in controlling a plane.The FAA said it would “thoroughly investigate” claims raised in the Senate report. A Boeing spokesperson said the company got the subcommittee report late Monday night and was reviewing the claims.The 737 Max has a troubled history. After the Max jets crashed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/4cf97e9b0a004cf5a0db401bb1d222e1">in 2018</a>&nbsp;in Indonesia and 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-max-crash-passengers-fear-pain-trial-fe75ff7e155f1e6ff4881c830aa7337a">in Ethiopia</a>, the FAA subsequently grounded the aircraft for more than a year and a half. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-justice-department-737-max-82145b25ed988cd8cae0bce3de79ce9d">Justice Department currently is considering</a>&nbsp;whether to prosecute Boeing for violating terms of a settlement it reached with the company over allegations it misled regulators who approved the plane.Mohawk told the Senate subcommittee that the number of unacceptable parts has exploded since production of the Max resumed following the crashes. He said the increase led supervisors to tell him and other workers to “cancel” records that indicated the parts were not suitable to be installed on planes.The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-administrator-boeing-737-max-senate-4e58c2b21980b34bc72cde7779925fe1">FAA</a>&nbsp;briefly grounded some Max planes again after January’s mid-air blowout of a plug covering an emergency exit on the Alaska Airlines plane. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board opened separate investigations of Boeing that are continuing.The company says it has gotten the message. Boeing says it has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-airbus-airline-safety-manufacturing-8a7c361e379285c87c9a84638faf9302">slowed production</a>, encouraged employees to report safety concerns, stopped assembly lines for a day to let workers talk about safety, and appointed a retired Navy admiral to lead a quality review. Late last month, it delivered an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-faa-safety-quality-plan-32ebe104f397d20e28f72c173234460b">improvement plan</a>&nbsp;ordered by the FAA.During his Senate appearance, Calhoun defended the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/faa-inspections-aircraft-companies-safety-1cb53f061f7df2f9a45262300a4353a3">company’s safety culture</a>.“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said in his prepared remarks Tuesday. “We are taking comprehensive action today to strengthen safety and quality.”The drumbeat of bad news for Boeing goes on, however.In the past week, the FAA said it was investigating how&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/airplanes-titanium-parts-false-records-348c7e984c42fc16a2707a0cb203672a">falsely documented titanium parts</a>&nbsp;got into Boeing's supply chain, and federal officials examined “substantial” damage to a Southwest Airlines 737 Max after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/southwest-plane-boeing-dutch-roll-828216b5dc18bfb29264b59debf071f0">an unusual mid-flight control issue</a>.Boeing disclosed that it&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-sales-orders-drop-max-eac0c97322ceda981933f0f1e8447b6c">hasn't received a single order</a>&nbsp;for a new Max — previously its best-selling plane — in two months.Blumenthal first asked&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024.3.19-PSI-Letter-to-Boeing-CEO-David-Calhoun.pdf">Calhoun to appear</a>&nbsp;before the Senate subcommittee after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/video/boeing-co-aerospace-and-defense-industry-production-facilities-alaska-shawn-pruchnicki-5c352c7059ce4dd39e2a5670ea8b8b3e">a whistleblower</a>, a Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing mistakes were raising safety risks on two of the biggest Boeing planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. He said the company needed to explain why the public should be confident about Boeing’s work.Boeing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-defends-manufacturing-quality-whistleblowers-b8df880c01547638cbf5de240960001b">pushed back</a>&nbsp;against the whistleblower's claims, saying that extensive testing and inspections showed none of the problems that the engineer had predicted.The Justice Department determined last month that Boeing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/boeing-violated-settlement-max-crashes-25cde72e154f60adae54177ce35c9176">violated a 2021 settlement</a>&nbsp;that shielded the company from prosecution for fraud for allegedly misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max. A top department official said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/boeing-co">Boeing</a>&nbsp;failed to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws.Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide what to do next. Blumenthal said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing that he thinks the Justice Department should prosecute the company.Families of people who died in the Boeing Max crash in Ethiopia have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/video/accidents-plane-crashes-u-s-department-of-justice-district-of-columbia-crime-bd0d57c7e2f4487a92ff70f5f3041381">pushed</a>&nbsp;the Justice Department repeatedly to prosecute Boeing.“We will not rest until we see justice.," said Zipporah Kuria, whose father died in the crash. She said the U.S. government should “hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people.”

🎥Boeing CEO apologizes during grilling from U.S. Senators

By TONY GUERRERO&nbsp;Hays Post

Police have arrested a suspect on charges of second-degree murder for the death of a 5-month-old boy on April 2 in Hays.

According to a media release from the Hays Police Department, 28-year-old Abraham Duran Leon of Hays was arrested on June 17.

Emergency personnel were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. on April 2 to Room 206 at the Rodeway Inn, 3404 Vine St., responding to a report that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com/obituaries/fernando-leon">Fernando Leon III</a>, an infant, was not breathing.

Abraham, the father of Fernando, was also present in the motel room and was arrested for interference with law enforcement before being released days later, according to Chief of Police Don Scheibler.

Hays police officers arrived as Ellis County EMS was performing CPR on Fernando. He was then transported to Hays Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.

The Hays Police Department and the Ellis County Coroner's office investigated the death. An autopsy report revealed the child had methamphetamine in his system and died from complications related to methamphetamine intoxication.

Abraham Leon is currently held in the Ellis County Jail and is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The child's mother, Brandi Niehoff, who has been ruled out as a suspect, was previously convicted in connection with the death of the child's older brother.

The investigation into the death of Fernando Leon III continues and anyone with information should call Detective J.B. Burkholder at 785-625-1030.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712771901192.png" alt="Leon-photo Ellis County" />
 <figcaption>Leon-photo Ellis County</figcaption>
 </figure>By TONY GUERRERO&nbsp;Hays PostPolice have arrested a suspect on charges of second-degree murder for the death of a 5-month-old boy on April 2 in Hays.According to a media release from the Hays Police Department, 28-year-old Abraham Duran Leon of Hays was arrested on June 17.Emergency personnel were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. on April 2 to Room 206 at the Rodeway Inn, 3404 Vine St., responding to a report that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com/obituaries/fernando-leon">Fernando Leon III</a>, an infant, was not breathing.Abraham, the father of Fernando, was also present in the motel room and was arrested for interference with law enforcement before being released days later, according to Chief of Police Don Scheibler.Hays police officers arrived as Ellis County EMS was performing CPR on Fernando. He was then transported to Hays Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.The Hays Police Department and the Ellis County Coroner's office investigated the death. An autopsy report revealed the child had methamphetamine in his system and died from complications related to methamphetamine intoxication.Abraham Leon is currently held in the Ellis County Jail and is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.The child's mother, Brandi Niehoff, who has been ruled out as a suspect, was previously convicted in connection with the death of the child's older brother.The investigation into the death of Fernando Leon III continues and anyone with information should call Detective J.B. Burkholder at 785-625-1030.