A driver was injured in a rollover accident in rural Logan County on Thursday. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, “Twenty-five year old Dusty L Fief of Penrose, Colorado was driving a 2002 Kia Sedan southbound on Logan County Road 430 just south of the U40 and U83 junction on Golf Course road. Feif lost control of the car and it overturned in the east ditch. He was transported to the Logan County hospital with injuries. He was wearing a seat belt.”

(AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is urging Gov. Sam Brownback to veto provisions in a proposed state budget for each of the next two years.

Schmidt said in a statement Thursday that he and county prosecutors object to two provisions that would take funds from his agency. Both Brownback and Schmidt are Republicans.

Schmidt opposes a provision diverting $600,000 in fees from applications for concealed carry permits, saying the money shouldn’t be used for general government programs.

He also opposes a salary cap for state agencies.

Brownback has until Sunday to act on the budget bill. The measure authorizes more than $14 billion in spending for each of the next two fiscal years, starting in July.

The governor has the power to veto individual line items in budget legislation.

 

(AP) — A 10-member contingent from Hutchinson Community College is heading west to help fight Colorado’s massive wildfire.

The group is made up of students, former students and instructors in the college’s fire science program. They expected to leave for the Colorado Springs area Friday.

The group includes Jessica Peters, a Wichita resident and second-year student in the program. Peters said Thursday she knows the dangers but feels it’s an honor to have the chance to help.

Her assignment will be to help an engine crew fighting the flames that have burned more than 15,000 acres of the Black Forest.

Rodney Redlinger, an instructor in the Hutchinson college program, says it’s a good opportunity for students to find out if battling wildfires is what they really want to do.

 

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) has introduced legislation to fully sunset health care exchanges, included in Obamacare, if this critical provision for the uninsured fails to be ready as promised for Americans in need. For audio go HERE.

“One of the leading factors contributing to the Nation’s distaste for the President’s signature legislation is the uncertainty Obamacare creates for families, for job creators, and for health care providers,” Senator Roberts said. “By all accounts the exchanges are not ready. According to one of the law’s Democrat authors they are a ‘train-wreck.’

“While health care costs continue to rise, the complete failure to implement Obamacare with any measure of clarity and transparency has paralyzed job creators. Employers, both large and small, are unable to plan for the short or long term costs of providing their employees with healthcare. As a result, job creators have slowed or even stopped hiring and millions of hardworking Americans may lose the coverage the currently have and like.”

The proposed legislation authored by Senator Roberts would sunset provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act related to health care exchanges and the individual mandate, if the exchanges are not ready to enroll patients by October 1, 2013. The administration declared repeatedly that the health care exchanges must be up, running and ready to enroll by October 2013 to ensure that coverage will begin by the statutory deadline of January 1, 2014; however, little evidence has been presented to confirm they will be able to meet this timeline.

Further concerns have arisen related to the ability of the administration to enroll patients in a functioning computer system. One administration official said it could be “a third-world experience.”

“This is not what patients expected when the Obamacare law was passed and not what they have been promised continually since that date,” Roberts said. “My legislation will ensure that patients are not overburdened and that the administration will keep their commitment to the American people, or we get back to work on a better solution.

“The administration isn’t ready to implement Obamacare, and, despite several requests, they have given Congress no sign they are even close. American families and American job creators shouldn’t be forced to operate under this kind of uncertainty. Let’s start over, let the administration get their house in order, and we can try again with true, market based reforms that will lower costs, increase coverage, and make us a safer, healthier, more fiscally sound nation.”

At introduction, Senator Roberts’ legislation had been cosponsored by Senator Inhofe (R-OK), Senator Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator Cochran (R-MS).

Senator Roberts is a senior member of both the Senate Finance and Health Committees. He is Co-Chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus. He voted against Obamacare.

Video from Brooks Tan in Kraft Manor Salina of the suspect who passed a counterfeit $100 bill on Tuesday afternoon. If you have any information on the suspect please contact Salina Police Department at 826-7210, or Salina- Saline County Crimestoppers.

(AP) — New U.S. intelligence assessments show Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has used chemical weapons multiple times in the last year. The White House says up to 150 people have been killed in those attacks. It also says Assad’s regime maintains control of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles. That crosses what President Barack Obama has called a “red line” that would trigger greater American involvement in the crisis. Administration officials say Obama is considering both political and military options, but suggest deeper involvement may not be imminent.

The White House did not see any evidence that rebel forces have launched attacks using the deadly agents.