Looking for a job? Want to change careers? The Kansas City Kansas Community College’s 2018 “Get Hired-Kansas City” Career Fair will be April 25.
The fair is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, in the KCKCC Field House, 7250 State Ave. in Kansas City, Kansas.
The event is free and open to students, faculty, community members and veterans.
Last year, approximately 1,000 individuals attended, and over the last several years, a high number of those who were interviewed at the job fair have been hired on the spot. This year, approximately 80 employers will be present.
Computers will be available during the job fair to print additional resumes.
Staff will also be available to assist applicants with creating a resume and career assessments will be available at no cost.
Legal assistance will be provided for those who need assistance with expungement or other interruptions to employment. For those needing help in completing online or paper applications, assistance will be provided.
The career fair is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship and Workforce Center at KCKCC, Kansas Legal Services, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, KansasWorks, Steel City Media and Veterans of America.
For more information on the Career Fair, call 913-288-7880.
Sporting Kansas City extended the club’s unbeaten run to five games on Sunday with a resounding 2-0 road win against the LA Galaxy to remain atop the Western Conference standings and move into a share of the Supporters’ Shield lead.
Twenty-one-year-old Sporting KC Academy product Daniel Salloi scored the game-winning goal and Johnny Russell celebrated his 28th birthday by putting his name on the ballot for MLS Goal of the Week.
Tim Melia also etched his name in the club record books with 10 saves in the match, the most by a Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper in MLS regular season history.
With both teams missing designated players due to injury in MLS top scorer Felipe Gutierrez and two-time MLS All-Star Giovani dos Santos, scoring chances were at a premium in a scoreless first half at StubHub Center.
Melia, the reigning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, produced three of his 10 saves in the opening 45 minutes, highlighted by a fingertip stop in the 43rd minute to deflect Ashley Cole’s swerving shot into the post. That same post had already denied the Galaxy an opening goal seven minutes earlier as Chris Pontius’ header from 12 yards out was inches off target.
Sporting Kansas City, which maintained 60 percent of the possession in the first half, twice threatened through Khiry Shelton in the early stages. After rifling an effort over the crossbar in the 14th minute, Shelton beat LA Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham to a lofted entry ball from Matt Besler only to see his header roll wide of the vacated net.
Yohan Croizet did well to work his way through traffic in the 34th minute but pushed his shot wide under pressure. Moments later, Russell forced Bingham’s lone save in the first half with an attempt from the top of the penalty area.
The Galaxy started the second half with a flurry of scoring opportunities as Jonathan dos Santos, Rolf Feltscher and Ola Kamara all tried their luck within a two-minute span and Romain Alessandrini tested Melia with a well-struck shot of his own. However, it was Sporting Kansas City that turned the game with two goals in a stunning five-minute stretch.
Graham Zusi’s long-range free kick in the 56th minute was destined to curl into the top corner if not for a last-second touch by Bingham. Sporting KC then broke the deadlock on the ensuing corner kick taken by Russell. The Scotsman’s service fell to Salloi, who made no mistake with a first-time strike off the glove of Bingham and into the back of the net for his first goal of the campaign.
Russell then doubled Sporting Kansas City’s advantage with a superb run into the penalty area – skillfully slipping between two Galaxy defenders with the ball at his feet – before finishing off the individual effort with one last touch to push his shot past the outrushing Bingham. Russell, acquired from Derby County in the offseason, now has two goals and two assists in his first six appearances in 2018.
Trailing 2-0 at home, the Galaxy immediately introduced Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic in hopes of sparking a late rally for the second straight week following the club’s 4-3 comeback over rivals LAFC in their previous outing.
The pursuit suffered a setback when Alessandrini’s shot crashed into the crossbar in the 65th minute and ultimately proved futile thanks to a record-setting performance by Melia with six saves over the course of the final 30 minutes.
The 31-year-old twice thwarted Alessandrini in the 66th minute, then was alert and well positioned to prevent Jorgen Skjelvik from capitalizing on a goalmouth scramble in the 76th minute. The Galaxy’s final three shots on target all came on attempts from distance by Ibrahimovic, who was also chased down by Ike Opara in the 91st minute to preserve a second straight clean sheet and extend Sporting Kansas City’s shutout streak to 262 minutes.
Sunday’s victory came in Peter Vermes’ 300th MLS match (including postseason) as the Sporting KC manager. His squad will now return home to host back-to-back Western Conference champions Seattle Sounders FC at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 15.
Tickets for Faith and Family Day at Children’s Mercy Park are available online at SeatGeek.com or by calling 888-4KC-GOAL.
Members of a teachers’ union came to the Statehouse Saturday evening to lobby for more school spending. (Photo by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, Kansas News Service)
by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and Jim McLean, Kansas News Service
Lawmakers may not know for months whether a deal to pump half a billion dollars into schools goes far enough to end seven years of court battles over whether the state shortchanges Kansas children.
If it falls short, the Kansas Supreme Court could call them back to Topeka this summer with yet another ultimatum to send even more money to local districts.
The deal to increase public education funding squeaked through with the bare minimum of votes amid desperate Statehouse gamesmanship over the weekend.
It will boost state aid to schools over the next five years, eventually adding more than half a billion dollars in annual funding.
In coming weeks, state lawyers will prepare briefs to the Kansas Supreme Court arguing this money is enough. Lawmakers, meanwhile, will wrangle over collecting online sales taxes to help cover the cost.
“We must keep our schools open,” Gov. Jeff Colyer told reporters at 12:30 a.m. Sunday after a 16-hour legislative day. “We must have a good response to the Supreme Court. … I believe that this bill — while it’s had a robust debate — has actually achieved those things.”
The night included a high-stakes game of legislative chicken between the House and conservatives in the Senate — all amid a backdrop of hundreds of teachers clad in red shirts who packed the galleries and hallways in a show of support for education funding.
“I look at this as an investment in our future,” said Karen Wilkerson, who teaches in the southwest Kansas town of Ulysses. “You invest in assets all the time for your business.”
Senate leaders wanted to add half as much money to schools as the House did. They fought the House’s plan to the bitter end, filibustering all the way through a midnight deadline that would kill the school finance bill and every single other piece of unfinished business from the 2018 legislative session.
“I could go on and on,” Republican Sen. Rick Wilborn of McPherson, Kansas, said as he decried government spending with four minutes remaining on the clock. “As a matter of fact, I think I will.”
Just seconds before midnight, frustrated House members on the other side of the building took a procedural vote to keep the clock from running out on the session. But because of how that extraordinary action toyed with legislative rules, it will complicate things in the days ahead. It gives Colyer the ability to veto bills without risk of legislative override.
“We were 90 seconds from melting down the entire session,” House Democratic leader Jim Ward said. “The Senate is a very dysfunctional body right now.”
Earlier in the day, the school finance bill had seemed on an easier path to victory. Colyer had endorsed it and Attorney General Derek Schmidt had admonished lawmakers to finish fast amid a looming court deadline.
“Each day of delay,” he wrote to them, “further damages the State’s ability to prepare a proper defense.”
House Speaker Ron Ryckman and Senate Republican leader Jim Denning held closed-door talks. The House passed a compromise bill making minor concessions to the Senate’s own school funding plan. Proponents crossed their fingers as the bill headed to the Senate.
“I’m holding my breath,” said Rep. Melissa Rooker of Fairway, Kansas, who helped craft the legislation, “and hoping they live up to their end of the bargain.”
But optimism faded when the Senate launched into a tax debate that led to hours upon hours of discussion on amendments and parliamentary procedure.
Even after winning enough votes for that bill — which contained tax breaks that could cost the state treasury nearly $500 million over five years — Senate leaders stalled.
“I’m here standing for all my constituents,” Senate President Susan Wagle of Wichita, Kansas, said. “My teachers, my administrators, my aircraft workers, my CPAs, my health care workers, my hotel workers, the maids. Everybody. I’m here for my whole district. I’m just not here for all the phone calls that have come in today from the teachers.”
In October, the Kansas Supreme Court found the state wasn’t meeting its obligation to suitably fund education. It pointed, in part, to the quarter of public school students lagging behind grade level in math and reading.
Dozens of school boards have helped foot legal bills for the seven-year lawsuit. Two of the state’s largest, highest-poverty districts are among its formal plaintiffs — Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas.
Their lawyers have argued the state should put at least $600 million into schools. Lawmakers opted to add less. They also phased the money over five years. That means they could face further challenges that inflation over that period will undermine the plan’s effect.
Meanwhile, groups such as the Kansas Chamber that think the courts have long overstepped their authority by meddling in school funding levels, will likely continue lobbying for a constitutional amendment to change that.
A proposal to do so passed the House judiciary committee earlier in the week.
State Rep. Pam Curtis, D-32nd Dist., from Kansas City, Kansas, a member of that committee, said if lawmakers face another court order to increase school funding this summer, they could return to Topeka more eager to alter the constitution.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to see something like that give that momentum,” she said. “Because I don’t think then it’s considered in a very thoughtful manner.”
See how the House and Senate voted on the school finance bill at http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2017_18/measures/vote_view/je_20180407131908_990443/ and http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2017_18/measures/vote_view/je_20180408002536_082874/.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post. See more at http://kcur.org/post/kansas-lawmakers-pass-school-finance-now-must-wait-court-ok
