Tenants have Rights Too

Tenants have Rights Too

by Marty Keenan

The Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, K.S.A. 58-2540 spells out the duties of a landlord and a tenant in a residential rental situation.

Here are some pointers:

The landlord does not have the power to kick you out for non-payment; only a judge does

The landlord must post a three-day notice on your door if you are delinquent on rent.  You then have three days to pay the rent in full.  This doesn’t mean you have three days to get out.  It means you have three days to pay back rent.

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Lynette Woodard is All-time Division I Women’s Hoops Scorer

The all-time leading scorer among women in Division I college hoops is Wichita native Lynette Woodard.  Woodard scored 3649 points in her four year career at Kansas using a men’s sized basketball and without a three point circle. But look up the NCAA record book for women’s basketball and Lynette Woodard is not listed in the top 25 career scorers. In fact, she’s not listed at all. The list shows University of Washington star Kelsey Plum at 3527 points as the record holder, yet Plum  is 122 points shy of Woodard’s point total.

Although Woodard is the all-time leading scorer in …

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Can I get Social Security Disability Benefits?

Patience is key

Most Social Security Disability claims are denied upon the first application. Claims that are approved on the initial application are often referred to as “compassionate allowance” cases, where the applicant has a catastrophic and hopeless new condition, such as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, kidney failure, or Stage 4 cancer. These are “no doubt” situations where the condition is permanent and will only worsen.

Now and again, a seemingly run-of-the-mill case gets fast approval. For instance, someone over 55 who has worked in construction their whole life, with a strong work record, and some significant …

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How the Morrison Sisters Overcame Orphanhood

 

Marlene Morrison, outside the home of Bob and Dotty Keenan, with daughters Kelly, 6, Alison, 8, and Tracy, 10.

The 16-year-old girl pulled up her gym socks and tied her laces for basketball practice at St. Rose Auditorium in Great Bend, Kansas. It was a few days before Thanksgiving, and Alison Morrison’s mind was far from basketball. She was about to become an orphan, and she knew it.

No memory of her father

Her Dad, Jack Morrison died of a heart attack at age 58 in Great Bend when she was four years old. Alison had no memory of him. But Alison’s ability …

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Ernie Rhodes, 84, recalls Segregation, Progress

Ernie Rhodes still patrols the Sedgwick County Courthouse at age 84

The 19 year old Airman from McConnell Air Force base was headed to Wichita Falls Texas, when the bus stopped at the Union Bus Terminal in Oklahoma City. Ernie Rhodes had an extra bounce in his step as he got off the bus, proudly wearing his khaki Air Force uniform. It was 1955.

Rhodes was far away from where he grew up in the Old Confederacy: Newport News, Virginia, was where he was born and raised. Rhodes went into the restaurant at the bus terminal and sat down, eager to get …

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When Jodie Foster came to Kansas

Bobby Detrich, a fourth grader at Jefferson elementary school in Great Bend, Kansas saw the girl, dressed in Depression-era clothing, looking like a tomboy. The charismatic blue-eyed girl was just his age. She emerged from her dressing room, and looked puzzled. She looked into her hands and fiddled with an old-fashioned wooden yo-yo. Although the girl was in Ellis County, Kansas, she hailed from California and didn’t know how to use a yo-yo. Jodie knew lots of things a kid from Kansas wouldn’t know. But Bobby Detrich knew all about yo-yo’s

Jodie Foster and Christopher Connelly in Hays, Kansas.

Most kids his …

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Kevin Willmott’s “The 24th” reminds America a reckoning is needed

Director Kevin Willmott’s film “The 24th” tells an important but little-known story in American race relations: the Houston Mutiny of 1917. In the same way that many Americans are learning about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 for the first time, Willmott’s film introduces Americans to another-century old hidden but important story. The script is written by Willmott and a former KU pupil, Trai Byers. This analysis of the film tells what happens, so a spoiler alert is in order.

     The charismatic Kansas native Trai Byers not only co-wrote the script, he plays the lead role of William Boston, …

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"Da 5 Bloods"

“Da 5 Bloods” Makes Spike Lee Simply a “Great American Director”

Spike Lee Strikes Gold with Kevin Willmott in the Vietnam Film, “Da 5 Bloods.”

In the eyes of Hollywood, Spike Lee has recently gone from being a great African-American movie director to simply a great American movie director.

If his new film “Da 5 Bloods” was made about five white Vietnam veterans reuniting in Vietnam to find a buried treasure of gold and to find the remains of their fallen leader, it would still be a great film (due to the intriguing Sierra Madre-like plotline of buried gold and honoring an old war buddy).

The plot is suspenseful and full of potential double-crosses, …

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