The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) recently released results from the 2011 Kansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). BRFSS is the world’s largest, annual population-based telephone survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the U.S. It is coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is conducted in every state and several territories.
“BRFSS provides data on a wide range of health issues including information related to access to health care, chronic and infectious diseases, clinical preventive services, environmental quality, infant and child health, injury and violence, maternal health, mental health, nutrition, physical activity, obesity, oral health, reproductive and sexual health, substance abuse and tobacco.”
“BRFSS data help us measure Kansans’ health behaviors, conditions and concerns,” said Robert Moser, M.D., KDHE Secretary and State Health Officer. “These data are important when we consider where to focus our public health efforts and to help us emphasize the benefits of prevention.”
The following are some of the Kansas 2011 BRFSS data highlights for adults 18 years old and older:
80.6% of Kansas adults use safety belts
36.3% of Kansas adults do not have dental insurance
30.8% of Kansas adults have hypertension (high blood pressure)
29.6% of Kansas adults are obese
22% of Kansas adults smoke cigarettes
9.5% of Kansas adults have diabetes
The CDC made major methodologic
al changes to the way the data were collected and analyzed for the 2011 BRFSS, which prevents comparison of 2011 data to previous years. BRFSS has traditionally used random-digit-dial telephone sampling of households with landline telephones. Because more and more telephone users are switching to cell phones from regular landline telephones, BRFSS expanded its landline-based survey to include cell phone numbers. Additionally, the BRFSS survey now uses a new weighting method, called Raking, to adjust for more socio-demographic factors and to adjust for this change in the sampling method.
The new methodology adjusts for changes in the use of cell phone service in Kansas and thereby provides prevalence estimates more representative of the Kansas adult population, especially in risk behaviors common to younger adults and to certain racial or ethnic minority groups. Comparisons cannot be made between the prevalence estimates for previous years and those for 2011.

A Johnson County judge last week dismissed lawsuits that argued that the Kansas Communities of Leawood and Prairie Village are violating citizens’ rights by banning the open carry of firearms. Last year the Kansas attorney general issued a legal opinion that said cities cannot ban open carry. In December, the Libertarian Party of Kansas sued Leawood, Prairie Village and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., seeking injunctions to prevent them from enforcing their bans.

We strongly disagrees with the Honorable David W. Hauber’s decision to dismiss our open-carry lawsuit against the municipalities of Leawood and Prairie Village. Obviously, we are disappointed, but our resolve has not wavered. It is a shame that these cities have been able to abuse their power to this degree. We will continue to move on this issue until the abridgment of Kansans’ civil rights to open-carry firearms has ended.

We have yet to fully examine our options moving forward on the case. These options may include an appeal or a new filing on behalf of one or more individuals who have come forward, since our case began, to tell us of how they have been directly injured by these ordinances.

We also renew our call for Attorney General Schmidt to take on this issue, support his Opinions with action, and defend the Constitution of this great State.

Our fight for justice has clearly exposed Leawood and Prairie Village as defiantly denying their citizens’ legal, Second Amendment rights in the face of clear State law. The cities engaging in this blatant disregard for the law have admitted publically and privately that they are violating the law with their ordinances, but they continue to refuse to remedy this activity. They WILL NOT change without someone standing up for what is right, fair, and legal.

Libertarians and freedom loving people in Kansas will not let this stand. The LPKS will not stop pressing until Kansans are allowed to exercise their clear, constitutional rights.

A circus tiger gets loose behind the scenes during a show on Saturday night but is quickly captured by handlers before many spectators knew what was going on.

The big cat escaped backstage during an Isus Shrine Circus show at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Salina Bicentennial Center. Video is courtesy of Jeremy McGuire Eagle Community Television

Staff members blocked off all entrances where the public could come into contact with the tiger to minimize risk. That included a public restroom, where workers had to turn people away until the tiger was back in custody.

Bicentennial manager Chris Bird says most people, other than those who couldn’t get into the restroom, had no idea a dangerous animal had briefly escaped.

Governor Brownback has signed a bill incorporating the Kansas Health Information and Technology (KHIT) Act.

The primary objective of KHIT is to transfer the responsibilities currently required of KHIE to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). KHIT, along with the transfer of responsibilities, will become effective July 1, 2013.

KHIE responsibilities transferring to KDHE are to:

• create certification criteria for health information exchanges;
• promulgate, publish and enforce policies related to the electronic exchange of health information in Kansas;
• monitor the operations of those organizations that provide health information exchange services in Kansas;
• provide a means by which an individual may elect to restrict access to his/her electronic health information stored in the exchange; and
• provide a means by which an individual may inquire or complain about health information exchange in Kansas.

(AP) — Authorities have released the names of five snowboarders who were killed Saturday afternoon in a backcountry avalanche on Colorado’s Loveland Pass.

Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger identified the victims Sunday as 32-year-old Christopher Peters, of Lakewood; 32-year-old Joseph Timlin, of Gypsum; 33-year-old Ryan Novack, of Boulder; 36-year-old Ian Lanphere, of Crested Butte; and 33-year-old Rick Gaukel, of Estes Park.

A sixth snowboarder caught in the avalanche called for help after digging out of the slide, and the bodies were recovered several hours later. The victims all had avalanche beacons.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center warned skiers and hikers Sunday of potentially dangerous backcountry conditions after several inches of snow fell in the area earlier in the week.