Nursing home patients get new state advocate

Topeka — Longtime health care official Patricia Hurley has been named by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

The position advocates for residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Hurley, of Topeka, served in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas Catholic Charities between 1997 and 1998. She was the primary developer of the Gabriel House, a project that provides a home for women with crisis pregnancies.

Prior to 1997, Hurley developed programs at the Marian Clinic for low-income families. She also has helped provide medical care to citizens of Guatemala.

Hurley succeeds Matthew Hickam, who resigned.

Tuckaway Apartments

Fire at construction site under investigation

Investigators Saturday were trying to determine what caused a fire in a garage under construction at the site where an apartment building is being built at Tuckaway Apartments, 2600 W. Sixth St.

A newspaper delivery person reported the fire at 4:02 a.m., said Mark Bradford, deputy chief with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical. The fire was brought under control by 4:25 a.m.

Damage and losses from the fire had not been determined Saturday, Bradford said. He described the fire as suspicious but declined to be more specific.

On June 15, firefighters extinguished a fire in an apartment building under construction at 2201 Harper St. That fire, too, is still under investigation. Both sites are owned by Tuckaway Management Co. Bradford said he didn’t know whether the two fires were related.

Fourth of July

Holiday traffic death toll stands at two people

Traffic accidents killed at least two people in Kansas on the Fourth of July, authorities reported.

Raul E. Gonzalez, 29, of South Coffeyville, Okla., was killed around 4:45 p.m. Friday when the utility vehicle he was driving went out of control on a Labette County road near Edna, the Kansas Highway Patrol said. Gonzalez and a passenger were both thrown from the vehicle when it went into a ditch, returned to the roadway and flipped over twice, the patrol said.

Christina Linden, 19, of Overland Park, died about 3 p.m. Friday when she lost control of the eastbound car she was driving on Interstate 435 near Lenexa, the patrol said. The car hit a guardrail and overturned.

Last year, 12 people were killed in Kansas traffic accidents over the Independence Day weekend.