(AP) — The killer of a Wichita abortion provider faces a disciplinary hearing over accusations he tried to intimidate the woman who reopened his closed abortion clinic.

Monday’s closed hearing against Scott Roeder is being held at the state prison in Lansing where he is imprisoned.

The Kansas Department of Corrections said Friday the administrative charge was prompted by a letter from Ann Swegle, one of the prosecutors in Roeder’s murder case. The letter asked whether the department planned any administrative action over a YouTube video of a jailhouse call with Roeder.

In the jailhouse call posted on YouTube in April, Roeder says reopening Tiller’s clinic is almost like putting a target on your back.

Roeder is serving a life sentence for killing George Tiller in May 2009 at a Wichita church.

 

(AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has failed to gain authority he’s sought to prosecute election fraud allegations because the state House rejected a bill containing the proposal.

The House’s vote of 64-45 early Sunday was against compromise legislation drafted by House and Senate negotiators.

The two chambers approved similar versions of Kobach’s proposals earlier this year. However, negotiators tied new authority for his office to another measure on the collection of DNA samples from criminal suspects.

Some GOP conservatives said collecting such samples from suspects violates their civil liberties and opposed the package.

Other House members didn’t want to give Kobach the expanded authority.

Kobach has argued that state and local prosecutors often aren’t aggressive in pursuing election fraud allegations because they have numerous other cases.

 

AP) — Southwest Airlines has begun service to Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport.

Wichita city officials said in a release that Southwest’s first flight from Chicago arrived in Wichita on Sunday afternoon. Mayor Carl Brewer says the addition of Southwest will beef up economic development efforts for the south-central Kansas city.

Southwest’s initial schedule includes two daily flights to Dallas, Chicago and one flight a day to Las Vegas.

 

(AP) — Oklahoma authorities now say 13 people are dead from Friday’s tornadoes and flash floods. Another seven people, including five children, are missing.

The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office added a total of four victims on Sunday to the list of the dead. Among those killed in the storms are four children and nine adults.

Medical Examiner’s Office Amy Elliott spokeswoman didn’t detail circumstances about how the victims died and didn’t reply to messages. Names of the dead weren’t released but three storm chasers were among those killed in a tornado that went through El Reno.

Searchers were still working Sunday to find seven missing people.

 

The Kansas Historical Society announced that Lawrence jazz guitarist Brian Baggett recently donated his recordings of original manuscripts of 19th century guitar musician and composer Henry Worrall. Worrall’s manuscripts and Baggett’s video and audio recordings of “Sebastopol” and “Carmencita” are in the Historical Society’s collections and can be accessed at kansasmemory.org/blog/post/105123157 or click on the photo for to see more.

Kansas Memory is the Historical Society’s online archives of documents, books, photographs, and videos.

Worrall was a musician and composer of popular guitar instrumentals. His original compositions influenced the development of country and blues guitar styles in the rural south of early 20th century America.

Baggett is a member of the Brian Baggett Trio and the rock band DOJO. He regularly performs in Kansas City, manages Supersonic Music in Lawrence, and is a music professor at Ottawa University teaching jazz guitar.

The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency that also operates the Kansas Museum of History, State Archives, Kansas State Capitol Tour Center, and 16 state historic sites across Kansas.

(AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the sentences given to a Labette County man convicted of killing a southeast Kansas toddler.

Mark Anthony Baker was given four consecutive sentences, including life without the possibility of parole for 20 years, after he was convicted in the 2011 death of the 19-month-old Parsons boy.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports (https://bit.ly/Zjk40T) Baker had requested concurrent sentences, but the district court invoked consecutive sentences: a hard-20 life sentence for murder, 128 months for child abuse, and 19 months total for the remaining two charges.

Baker argued on appeal that the district court abused its discretion in imposing consecutive sentences, saying no reasonable person would agree with the lower court decision. The state high court rejected his argument in its unanimous decision issued Friday.

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Four people were injured in an accident on I-70 late Saturday night. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol,  “Martin W. Berneking, age 53 of Salina was west bound in a 2004 Pontiac Bonneville at Mile Post 245, five miles west of the I-70/I-135 junction when he rear ended a 1998 Dodge Durango driven by 39 year old Dwayne E. Hawke of Pratt. Both vehicles slid into north ditch and the Durango rolled. Berneking was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center along with Hawke and the two passengers in the Durango Michelle C. Carter, 32 of Salina and Daniel M. Edwards, 41 of Ohio. They all had been wearing seat belts.”

(AP) — Kansas legislators have finished their business for the year after stretching the 99th day of their annual session well past midnight.

The Senate adjourned at just after 2 a.m. Sunday. The House followed 11 minutes later.

The only remaining scheduled business is a brief, formal adjournment ceremony on June 20.

Lawmakers left the Statehouse after giving final approval to budget and tax legislation.

The state constitution specifies 90-day sessions but allows them to run longer. Legislators had met more than 90 days in 32 of the previous 40 years, but only five of those sessions had lasted 99 days or longer.

Only two sessions have exceeded 100 days. They were in 1991, at 103 days, and in 2002, at a record 107 days.

 

Kansas is ranked 18th for senior health, according to the inaugural edition of United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings® Senior Report: A Call to Action for Individuals and Their Communities.  (click on the photo for a closer look)

Kansas’s Bill of Health
The America’s Health Rankings Senior Report finds that Kansas has its share of strengths and challenges for senior health.

Kansas’s Strengths
· High percentage of volunteerism

· High rate of highly-rated nursing home beds

· High percentage of social support

Kansas’s Challenges
· High percentage of low-care nursing home residents

· Low percentage of creditable drug coverage

· Low percentage of diabetes management

United Health Foundation commissioned the America’s Health RankingsSenior Report to examine the health challenges affecting today’s seniors and to encourage the nation and local communities to find ways to improve senior health. Americans are living longer but sicker lives and America’s senior population is poised to grow more than 50 percent between 2015 and 2030, making senior health a timely and critical national issue.

The America’s Health Rankings Senior Report is the most comprehensive rankings to date of senior health on state and national levels and can be viewed and downloaded at www.americashealthrankings.org. This report builds on the annual America’s Health Rankings report which, for 23 years, has presented the definitive analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis by evaluating a historical and comprehensive set of health, environmental and socioeconomic data to determine national health benchmarks and state rankings.

“United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings Senior Report is a highly valuable tool to help gain a greater understanding of the health challenges faced by Kansas’s seniors,” said Tony Sun, M.D., medical director, UnitedHealthcare of Kansas. “Kansas’s growing senior population points to the urgency of identifying key opportunities for improving senior health and pursuing effective solutions at the national, state, community and family levels.”

The America’s Health RankingsSenior Report assesses state-level performance on 34 different elements, including both health determinants and health outcomes.

Among all 50 States: Minnesota leads the nation for senior health, followed by Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Iowa. Mississippi ranks 50th, preceded by Oklahoma, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Arkansas.

Area Development, a leading publication covering site selection and facility planning, announced its 2013 Gold and Silver Shovel Awards this week, naming Kansas a Gold Shovel recipient. The award recognizes a significant number of high-value-added new jobs and investment in the state in 2012. Three other states were awarded Gold Shovel Awards, and 15 won Silver Shovel Awards.

“It is fantastic that Area Development has recognized Kansas as one of the nation’s economic development leaders,” Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George said. “We’ve been working very hard to make Kansas as friendly as possible for businesses, so it’s exciting to see that those pro-growth policies have helped us become one of the premier states for job creators and investors.”

In 2012, the Department helped facilitate 164 projects that created or retained almost 15,500 jobs and resulted in more than $2.3 billion in capital investment. Those results helped Kansas win its first Gold Shovel Award. Area Development had previously awarded Kansas Silver Shovels in six of the past seven years.

The annual Shovel Awards recognize state economic development agencies that drive significant job creation through innovative policies, infrastructure improvements, processes and promotions that attract new employers as well as investments in expanded facilities. The Gold Shovels are presented annually to the states that have achieved the most success in terms of new job creation and economic impact. For the Silver Shovel Awards, the states are compared only to other states in their population tier.

Each of the 50 states was invited by Area Development to submit information about its top-10 job creation and investment projects. Only those projects that began to materialize in 2012 were considered. The Shovel Awards are given to the states with the highest weighted scores based on number of high-valued added jobs per capita, amount of investment, number of new facilities and industry diversity.

“The states receiving 2013 Shovel Awards deserve special recognition for their efforts to attract new businesses and to help their existing corporate citizens to expand their businesses,” said Geraldine Gambale, editor of Area Development. “They have managed to thrive and emerge from the recession as economic leaders.”

A report on the 2013 Shovel Award winners will be published in the Q2/Spring 2013 issue of Area Development and posted online at www.areadevelopment.com/awards.

Area Development is published bi-monthly and has 60,000-plus executive subscribers. It also maintains several highly visited websites.