A Kansas City, Kan., student is participating in Cornell College’s alternative spring break program.
Ellen Larson, Kansas City, Kan., is one of more than 100 Cornell students in the program.
Students involved with alternative spring break spend their weeklong break on a service trip.
Larson is taking part in a trip to New Orleans, and will work with the Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans to help create affordable housing for people with disabilities and senior citizens.
Cornell College is in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Lucy Bloom of the Kansas Department for Children and Families presented information about human trafficking at a forum held today in Kansas City, Kan. (Photo by William Crum)
by William Crum
A number of providers of social services got together Friday in Kansas City, Kan., to discuss human trafficking in Kansas City, Kan.
Trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, provision or obtaining a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjecting the person to involuntary servitude or forced labor.
Aggravated human trafficking includes recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining, by any means, a person under 18 years of age or with or without force, fraud or threat or coercion to encourage him in forced labor, involuntary service or sexual gratification.
The forum at 2900 Minnesota Ave. was sponsored by the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration and Justice and the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
“It is our purpose at this forum to get together with various social service organizations in the local community,” said Lucy Bloom with the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
“This is a very serious problem in Kansas and other states as well,” she said. “We want to encourage people to get involved. We have been doing these forums all over the state of Kansas. Combining this with local community support and local law enforcement agencies we can all help solve that [problem that] plagues our state and other states, as well later on this afternoon we will be meeting with the local law enforcement agencies and the district attorney’s office as well.”
If you need help or suspect someone is a victim call 800-922-5330 or call 911. The website is humantrafficking.dcf.ks.gov or call the national Human Trafficking Resource Center at 888-373-7888.
Lucy Bloom of the Kansas Department for Children and Families presented information about human trafficking at a forum held today in Kansas City, Kan. (Photo by William Crum)
Today and early Saturday morning may be good times to “advance vote” in the spring Wyandotte County elections.
That’s because a snowstorm is predicted to move into the area on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. There is a possibility of a 4-inch snowfall, according to early weather reports from the National Weather Service.
There is some conflicting weather information on the weather service report, including one chart that shows a slight chance of snow on Saturday morning, although another part of the forecast says it will be in the afternoon.
The winter storm on the weekend is serious enough for the Kansas Department of Emergency Management to send out an advisory to Kansas residents to “be prepared,” make sure their car emergency kit is stocked. If necessary, the state emergency plan may be activated, according to the KDEM.
The weather on Election Day currently is expected to be better than Saturday and Sunday, with a high of 52 and a 60 percent chance of rain in the forecast. However, another storm will be moving into the area Tuesday evening.
With the unpredictable February weather, we can’t really tell if the snow will all be melted by Tuesday. We don’t really know what the weather will do – we can only rely on forecasts that sometimes change.
Even though it is very cold today, it’s still a good idea to vote before any precipitation occurs.
Advance voting is going on currently in Wyandotte County at two locations. They include the Election Office at 850 State Ave., Kansas City, Kan., open normal business hours; and the satellite voting site at the Kansas Speedway.
The Election Office is open these hours:
Saturday, Feb. 28: from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 23, through noon March 2: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Voting closes at noon March 2 at the Election Office, 850 State Ave.
The Speedway voting site, 400 Speedway Blvd., near I-70 at 110th Street, is open these hours:
Saturday, Feb. 28: from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 23, through Friday, Feb. 27, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For some candidate stories, visit http://wyandottedaily.com/information-offered-on-primary-election/.
For more details on hours and locations of voting, visit http://www.wycovotes.org./
– Mary Rupert
