Month: December 2014

Piper High School student plans Jingle Bell Dash to raise funds for Children’s Mercy Hospital

Carley Blevins is planning a fundraiser, the Jingle Bell Dash, on Saturday at Piper High School stadium. (Submitted photo)
Carley Blevins is planning a fundraiser, the Jingle Bell Dash, on Saturday at Piper High School stadium. (Submitted photo)

by Mary Rupert
When Piper High School senior Carley Blevins started to plan her senior project, she wanted to tie it into her career interest of pediatrics.

She developed an idea, with the help of her mom, to hold a fundraiser for Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. She said funds will go toward cancer treatment for children.

The idea took shape and the Jingle Bell Dash, a walk-run, is now scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 13, at Piper High School stadium. The entry fee is $20. Registration for the event is 10 a.m. and the race starts at 11 a.m. Dec. 13.

It is open to the public, and advance signups are available at Carleysseniorproject2015.blogspot.com. Already, about 40 people have signed up.

Those who walk or run in this event will receive a jingle bell that they may wear as the circle each lap of the track, she said. The participants will be raising funds per mile walked.

The long-range forecast looks good for the event, but in the event of icy weather, it will be moved indoors into the gymnasium, she said.

Piper seniors currently are busy planning senior projects in conjunction with their career interests. One student is directing her own play, another one is producing a movie, and some have other interests such as education, she said.

Blevins said she eventually wants to become a pediatric surgeon or pediatric doctor.

“I have an interest in children and helping children,” she said.

She plans to study premedicine and then go to medical school at the University of Kansas, she said.

At Piper, Blevins is treasurer of the senior class, a class representative in the Student Council, on the executive board of Key Club, and the dance team captain.

Besides raising funds for a charity, those participating in the Jingle Bell Dash will receive an event T-shirt, jingle bells and Christmas cookies.

Kansas attorney general asks court to block EPA regulations on ethanol

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has asked a federal appeals court to block new Environmental Protection Agency regulations that he says discourage the use of ethanol by requiring states to adopt conclusions about ethanol emissions not backed by scientific facts.

The lawsuit, filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asks the court to reject new EPA regulations that will require states to immediately begin using the MOVES2014 model in their State Implementation Plans for controlling pollutants governed by national air quality standards.

By implementing the MOVES2014 model without the opportunity for review and comment by the states and affected parties, the EPA forces states to measure emissions from ethanol-blended fuels in a way that incorrectly predicts higher levels of pollution., the attorney general’s office stated.

The MOVES2014 model is based on an EPA-commissioned fuel study that purports to analyze the emissions effects of different fuel parameters, including ethanol content, while artificially and unnecessarily holding other fuel parameters constant, according to the attorney general’s office. This so-called “match-blending” methodology unfairly targets ethanol and assigns disproportionate negative emissions effects, according to the attorney general’s office. The dictated use of this model effectively blocks states from encouraging the use of ethanol as part of their clean air plans, the attorney general’s office stated.

“Ethanol production is an important industry for Kansas and grain agriculture specifically,” Schmidt said. “EPA’s requirement that states use this faulty model was unlawfully adopted without notice and opportunity for comment. This is an example of the EPA imposing its will on the states rather than working cooperatively toward the shared goal of cleaner air. We are asking that this model be rejected and replaced with a model that more accurately reflects the true emission effects of ethanol.”

The case is State of Kansas, et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, et al., in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, the Energy Future Coalition, and the Urban Air Initiative, Inc. joined Schmidt in filing the case.