Serving Kansas City (Wyandotte County) Kansas for over 50 years!
The next scheduled blood drive in Wyandotte County is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 25 at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Francisco Lounge, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, Kan.
Another upcoming blood drive is from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 4 at Sumner Academy, old gym, 1610 N. 8th, Kansas City, Kan.
To register for these Community Blood Center blood drives, visit https://www.esavealifenow.
Five local officers recently graduated from training at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, near Yoder, Kan.
Lt. Col. Alan Stoecklein of the Kansas Highway Patrol congratulated 53 new law enforcement officers during their graduation from the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center on Feb. 28.
The new officers were members of the 227th basic training class at the center. Located one mile west and one mile south of Yoder, near Hutchinson, the center is a division of University of Kansas Continuing Education.
The graduates, who began their training Nov. 4, 2013, represented 37 municipal, county and state law enforcement agencies from across Kansas.
Five graduates from Kansas City, Kan., include:
Kenneth Blount, a patrol officer with the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools Police Department;
LaTrina Johnson, a patrol officer with the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools Police Department;
Mark Ming, a patrol officer with the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools Police Department;
James Minich, a deputy with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department; and
James Shepherd, a deputy with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department.
Graduates receive certificates of course completion from KLETC and Kansas law enforcement certification from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training, the state’s law enforcement licensing authority.
The training course fulfills the state requirement for law enforcement training. Classroom lectures and hands-on applications help train officers to solve the increasingly complex problems they face in the line of duty.
The January unemployment rate in Wyandotte County rose to 8.4 percent, as compared to December’s 6.9 percent.
Compared to one year ago, the Wyandotte County unemployment rate improved from 9.2 percent in January 2013 to 8.4 percent in January 2014, according to the Kansas Department of Labor statistics.
According to a state unemployment map, the only Kansas county with a higher unemployment rate in January 2014 was Linn County, with 8.7 percent unemployment. Statewide, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent.
A spokesman for the KDOL stated that the figures are not seasonally adjusted and most of the unemployment rate increase in Wyandotte County is due to season factors such as retail and construction.
While the change from December to January is larger than seen in the last few years, it is not uncommon for Wyandotte County, as in January 2011 the unemployment rate change was an increase of 1.6 percent from December to January, the spokesman stated.
January 2014 saw an increase of 1,026 unemployed people from the previous month, while the percentage change in the labor force and employment was a much smaller number.
In January 2013, Wyandotte County had a much smaller increase in unemployed people, at 473 more over the previous month, according to state statistics.