Category: News

Frost advisory issued for area

A frost and freeze is possible in the area on Saturday morning. (National Weather Service graphic)
Friday evening temperatures may be about 55 degrees at 7 p.m and 49 degrees at 10 p.m. (National Weather Service graphic)
Drought continues to worsen in the region. (National Weather Service graphic)

A frost advisory will be in effect from 1 a.m. Oct. 8 through 9 a.m. Oct. 8, according to the National Weather Service forecast.

A freeze and frost are expected Saturday morning, as some areas of the region could experience low temperatures in the 30s, the weather service said. Wyandotte County’s forecast for the overnight low is 37.

Residents are advised to protect cold sensitive vegetation, according to the weather service. A cold front moved through the area on Thursday night and Friday morning, the weather service said.

Mostly dry conditions are expected through the forecast period, worsening drought conditions, according to the weather service.

Today, there is a 30 percent chance of showers, mainly in the morning, the weather service said. The high will be near 59 with a north wind of 10 mph.

Tonight, skies will be mostly clear, with a low of 37 and a north wind of 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the evening, according to the weather service.

Saturday, there will be areas of frost before 7 a.m., the weather service said. Otherwise, it will be sunny with a high near 63 and a calm wind becoming west 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.

Saturday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 45 and a calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph after midnight, according to the weather service.

Sunday, it will be sunny, with a high near 75 and a southwest wind of 6 to 11 mph, gusting as high as 18 mph, the weather service said.

Sunday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 50, according to the weather service.

Monday, Columbus Day, it will be sunny, with a high near 78, the weather service said.

Monday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 55, according to the weather service.

Tuesday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 79, the weather service said.

Tuesday night, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 60, according to the weather service.

Wednesday, there will be a 30 percent chance of precipitation, with a high near 75, the weather service said.

Wednesday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 50, according to the weather service.

UG working on a new marijuana sentencing policy

The Unified Government Commission approved a resolution at last Thursday’s meeting that will result in a policy discussion on marijuana and sentencing.

According to Misty Brown, UG chief counsel, this effort began with a group of interested individuals discussing how the marijuana laws affected the residents of Wyandotte County. Brown spoke at the Sept. 29 UG meeting.

Their intent was to take away some of the penalties of the law, she said. More work is required by the committee to discuss larger issues, education, treatment and prevention, she said.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez said he completely supported the resolution.

Brown said the original discussion was about reducing penalties for conviction so as not to be overly burdensome to residents. Part of the discussion centered on a $10 fine for the first offense. But a problem, she said, is that the third offense is still a felony. If residents think it is a minor offense and then they are caught in another district, they potentially could have felony convictions on their record.

The committee will be looking at diversion expungement, and ways of making sure a conviction does not ruin someone’s life, she said.

Commissioner Andrew Davis said he supported this resolution. Missouri is heading toward legalization of marijuana, which will have an effect on this community, he said. He said the Kansas Legislature needs to get moving on the issue.

The country seems to be headed toward legalization, along with Missouri, and Colorado already has legalized marijuana, he said.

Mayor Tyrone Garner said the city of Wichita’s elected body has taken action to remove some major penalties involved with marijuana.

While the resolution that passed 9-0 on Sept. 29 by the UG Commission does not specifically support the decriminalization of marijuana outright, it does support developing a policy of education, prevention and treatment surrounding the possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and the sentencing for the offenses. It mentions mitigation of overly burdensome penalties related to marijuana and paraphernalia offenses. It calls for an analysis of surrounding jurisdictions’ approaches to marijuana sentences and an analysis of public health research on the topic.

The policies that are developed by administrators, the mayor or the committee would come back to the UG Commission for review.

In response to President Biden’s announcement Thursday that those who had been convicted in federal court of simple marijuana offenses would be pardoned, and criminalization laws would be renewed, Kansas House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer issued a statement in support of a state effort.

“Here in Kansas, we need to pass medicinal marijuana and decriminalize possession as soon as we can. It’s the right thing to do for the economy, for healthcare patients, for opioid addicts, for retaining young people, for our farmers, for the state’s coffers, and most of all, for people who have been unfairly maligned for simple marijuana possession,”  Sawyer stated.

Kansas Treasurer Lynn Rogers issued a statement that an estimated $42 million in lost tax revenue in Kansas is left on the table each year with the current marijuana laws.

“It is past time for Kansas and the U.S. to end the criminalization of cannabis and recognize the agricultural and medical benefits while freeing up critical resources in law enforcement and justice,” Rogers said. “The Federal Government removing cannabis from the list of schedule 1 narcotics will allow Kansas to make critical changes to banking and enforcement that will free up our economy.”