Kansas Insider, Nov. 20, 2020

 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2020 Cover the spread It took North Dakota and Iowa until November to put in a statewide mask mandate, just as the coronavirus was spreading out of control and breaking records. Kansas tried in July, but cities and counties could opt out. Staring down about 30,000 new cases in two weeks and widespread hospital-bed shortages, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is trying again. Celia Llopis-Jepsen of the Kansas News Service has the details on the new mask order. (If you want to read the full order, which takes effect Nov. 25, click here.) "If the hospital's overwhelmed with COVID patients, where are you going to go?" — Steven Stites, chief medical officer of the University of Kansas Health System. Critical time for health care  Hospitals around Kansas don’t have enough room for all the coronavirus patients who need serious care. Cloud County sent some patients to Nebraska. KU Med turned down 140 transfers from places like Arkansas and Oklahoma. A hospital in Topeka is treating non-COVID patients in hallways and brought in a mobile morgue. Celia Llopis-Jepsen details the issues that Kansas hospitals are up against. Goodbye, Gregg He might have had the most wins as Wichita State’s men’s basketball coach, but Gregg Marshall also had a lot of alleged baggage at the end of his tenure. This week, Marshall resigned in the wake of media reports that he had physically and verbally abused his players. He denied the reports, but still decided to leave town with a $7.75 million contract settlement in hand. Tom Shine with KMUW has the story. Covered up A freshly released report from federal and state public health officials suggests that counties in Kansas that put in mask orders had better success controlling the spread of the coronavirus than counties that rejected that approach. Celia Llopis-Jepsen has the caveats and context. You're no pathologist Shawn Parcells could be seen on cable news outlets in 2014, calling himself an expert in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The Leawood man is not what he seems, though: He has no medical degree. The state of Kansas filed a restraining order against Parcells earlier this year, and this week, he was charged with 10 counts of federal wire fraud for a business he ran out of Topeka. Dan Margolies at KCUR tells the full story. Note to our readers: The Kansas News Service is taking a little break for Thanksgiving next week, so we'll be back in your inbox Friday, Dec. 4. We hope you have a warm, happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.  Enjoying The Insider? Share with a friend. Have comments or questions for the editor? Let us know what you think. Not an Insider subscriber? Sign up now. Subscribe

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