(AP) — A state board has awarded nearly $259,000 to 111 Kansas victims of violent crime needing help with such expenses as mental health treatment and funeral costs.
The awards were approved at the November meeting of the Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Board. The compensation program is administered by a division of the state attorney general’s office, which announced the awards Thursday.
Spokesman Don Brown says awards were made in 43 new cases, and additional expenses were paid in 68 cases submitted previously.
Funds for the program come from court costs, fines, inmate wages, parole fees and restitution paid by convicted offenders. Victims of violent crimes and survivors of homicide victims may receive up to $25,000 to cover a wide range of expenses.
A 53 year old Dodge City man was injured in a Thursday rollover crash
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol Bradley Blackburn was driving a 2003 GMC Van west on U160 in Haskell County when the vehicle crossed the center line and drove into the south ditch.
The van then hit a culvert, drove onto a field access road, and came to a stop, rolling onto the driver side.
Blackburn was transported to the hospital in Satanta. He was not wearing a seat belt.
(AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a central Kansas man on charges that he worked with an Alton, Ill., company and its owner in a $3 million scheme to sell foreign versions of Botox and Juvederm.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City, Mo., says 43-year-old Christopher Tozier of Hesston, Kan., was charged Thursday with smuggling goods into the U.S. and several other similar counts.
The superseding indictment adding Tozier replaces an indictment in April that charged Illinois-based Orthopaedic Solutions Inc. and its owner, 48-year-old Christopher Carstens, with similar counts.
The superseding indictment alleges that Carstens and his company distributed nearly 5,900 units of foreign versions of Botox and Juvederm in the U.S. between 2008 and 2011 with a retail value of more than $3 million.
HHS senior Sara Nansel is the winner of the 2013 Voice of Democracy contest sponsored by the Hays VFW Post 9076.
Hays High School senior Sara Nansel was one of the featured speakers during Monday’s Veterans Day ceremony at the Hays VFW Post 9076.
Her father Mark Nansel is executive officer of the 388th Army Reserve center, and her mother Nikki is Family Readiness Group Leader for the 388th.
Sara talked about how her family and others in her speech, “Why I’m Optimistic about the Future of Our Nation:”
Nansel now moves on to district competition.
Each year, nearly 40,000 high school students from across the country enter to win a share of the $2.2 million in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the VFW’s Voice of Democracy audio-essay competition.
Brad Paisley will extend his Beat This Summer Tour and rename it the Beat This Winter Tour. Presented by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, the final leg includes 13 dates that begin in Greenville, SC Jan. 9 and wrap in Charleston, WV Mar. 1. Chris Youngand Danielle Bradbery are on as openers. Details here.
The launch of the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplace has had obvious technical problems, and the political debate continues across the country. Despite this, many Kansans now have new options to consider for their health insurance.
The troubled online system has prevented most interested Kansans from shopping for health insurance on the site, and it is difficult to know what plans they can purchase and what they will cost.
The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) has put together information on each county of the private insurers offering coverage, the various plans available, and the cost of those plans. This information is available on our website at www.khi.org/premiumratingareas.
The KHI report includes the premium tax credit, based on family size and income, in the calculation of the total monthly cost for representative families and individuals. Prices are included for each of the four coverage “tiers” – bronze, silver, gold and platinum – plus catastrophic plans available only to those under age 30 or those with a hardship exemption.
“Many Kansans who are interested in what insurance coverage they can get, and what it will cost them, have not been able to get that information,” said Robert F. St. Peter, M.D., KHI President and CEO, and an author of the report. “We hope this informs people about the options they are likely to find once they can get into the federal website.”
The Kansas Health Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent health policy and research organization based in Topeka, Kansas. Established in 1995 with a multi-year grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, the Kansas Health Institute conducts research and policy analysis on issues that affect the health of Kansans.
An altercation with a 44-year-old Hutchinson man at the Reno County courthouse had law enforcement scrambling and ended with him literally being carried to jail.
Jimmy Aston was being arrested after he caused a disturbance over what was thought to be fraudulent checks.
Its started when he was arrested by a South Hutchinson Police Officer for failure to appear. The officer also noticed that Aston had these unusual checks. Aston bonded on that case, and was then seen upstairs on the third floor of the courthouse and seemed distraught. They called law enforcement to check his welfare and was deemed okay.
Later Aston was spotted outside the courthouse where two sheriff deputies wanted to talk to him about checks. This after they learned he had already bonded in the arrest for failing to appear. Aston then became upset and ran inside the courthouse where he started yelling at workers in the treasurer’s department that they were trying to kill him. Officers caught up with him and the struggle began.
Police Detective Dean Harcrow, sheriff deputies and others were able to get Aston on the floor where he struggled for sometime. Aston a very large man gave them a handful, but was eventually carried to into the jail
Harcrow, who specializes in financial crimes cases, was called to look at the checks and he thought they also appeared as fake. Later a check with the bank showed they were good, in fact cashiers checks, but were for large amounts.
Aston will face additional charges of obstruction of the legal process and disorderly conduct for the incident with a bond of 600-dollars.
Comments made on SalinaPost.com web site following the murder conviction of Antonio Brown in October in Riley County, are among reasons cited by both the defense and prosecution to move Brown’s trial on escaping from the Saline County Jail on February 11th outside of Saline County.
Defense attorney Julie Effenbeck cited the comments along with pre-trial publicity and community prejudice that Brown could not get a fair trial in Saline County.
Saline County Attorney Ellen Mitchell said the state would not contest the change of venue request because if the murder case was moved because of publicity, the change of venue for the escape trial would likely be needed.
Judge Rene Young granted the request to move the trial, which should take no more than a couple of days. Dates for the trial are scheduled for February 26th and February 27th of 2014,and will likely be in a court somewhere in eastern Kansas.
Brown is scheduled to be sentenced on November 22nd for his conviction of 1st degree murder, two counts of child abuse, and obstruction of official duty in the death of 14-month old Clayden Urbanek in October of 2011.
Toby Keith will serve as Grand Marshal during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400. Keith will kick things off at Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 17 by delivering the famous “drivers, start your engines” opening line. More here.
Morningstar Inc., a firm known for its ratings of mutual funds, began trying to evaluate 529 college-savings plans 10 years ago. Since then, the company has attempted to revise their approach for rating higher education savings plans, but blatant inconsistencies continue to remain in its methodology.
State Treasurers built the Kansas 529 program to include multiple investment options and low fees to provide Kansans and out-of-state investors with choices to accommodate their needs. Yet, Morningstar’s methodology for evaluating 529 plans places more emphasis on account fees regardless of the better performance and services offered, which sometimes come with additional cost.
The Morningstar College-Savings Plans Industry Survey, released recently, is a prime example.
Within the report, portions of the Kansas 529 Program received unfavorable ratings, and other portions were left out completely. This alone wouldn’t be as problematic if it weren’t for the lack of transparency, subjective versus objective ratings, and series of contradictions associated with the research methodology used to evaluate our state’s program.
Morningstar currently rates plans based on five “pillar” scores for process, performance, people, parent, and price, but their recent report provides no transparency into how the pillar scores are derived or weighted to come up with the overall rating. While it’s understandable that the process, people and parent pillars may be ranked subjectively, the evaluation of price and performance should be completely quantitative and their methodology disclosed similarly to Morningstar’s practice with individual mutual funds. When Morningstar rates a mutual fund they provide a detailed analysis explaining how they rated each of the five pillars. No detail for how they assessed each of these factors has been provided with this college savings plan survey.
This lack of transparency leaves us wondering why their evaluation focuses on certain aspects of a plan rather than assessing the whole picture.
For example, Morningstar penalized Kansas plans for not having the absolute lowest fees in the industry, but neglected to consider annual account maintenance fees charged by each of the “gold” rated plans. Kansas plans don’t charge a dime for annual fees to any investors.
Morningstar’s misguided bias towards ‘low fees’ also fails to account for the benefits investors obtain when working through an actively-managed 529 account.
Even after the Schwab 529 Plan created a new suite of passive investments to lower costs, Morningstar chose to give the plan a negative rating on price because it also includes higher priced options. These options are appropriate choices for some investors who may prefer the support of financial consultants, actively-managed investments, or more aggressive investments.
What I find most troubling with the report is the blatant contradictions within the rankings of each 529 plan.
After comparing the overall rankings amongst the states, I am disappointed that plans with the same or even worse pillar scores have received better overall ratings than Kansas 529 plans.
For example, plans sponsored by Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Schwab 529 all received identical pillars ratings with the exception of performance where the Schwab 529 received a higher ranking.
But the Schwab 529 plan unfairly received a negative overall rating, while the others were given a neutral rating. If anything, performance net of fees should be weighted more heavily than the other pillars.
There are more inconsistencies.
Both Virginia 529 inVEST and Illinois Bright Directions received identical pillar scores as Learning Quest, but they received a Bronze overall rating while Learning Quest was rated neutral.
Another bias in Morningstar’s ratings is that they are more positive on a plan’s price and performance rating if the state offers a large tax deduction only for residents who are restricted to using that state’s plan. Kansas has generously chosen to extend its tax deduction to KS residents who choose any state’s 529 in what the industry calls “tax parity.” Kansas passed tax parity in response to the industry’s criticism that favoring only the in-state plan dampens competition. I believe competition forces us to continuously work to improve our plan. Morningstar should stick to evaluating investments and leave state tax policy to another discussion.
These are just a handful of the many contradictions I’ve discovered within this report. Overall, the conclusions in Morningstar’s overall ratings are unclear, subjective and inconsistent, which is inexcusable for a company whose strength is analytics.
Kansas 529 Program account owners and the general public, who are all affected by these ratings, deserve to know how these evaluations are determined by Morningstar. Morningstar should follow a transparent standard and openly present the data. Otherwise, how do we know one state’s ranking isn’t purely based on an opinion or agenda?
Right now, the numbers just don’t add up. Unless Morningstar fixes their methodology, they’ll continue to misguide the investing public, damage the reputation of 529 higher education savings plans, and discredit their own reputation.
Ron Estes is the Kansas State Treasurer, a member of the College Savings Plans Network Executive Board and the Midwest Regional Vice President for the National Association of State Treasurers in 2012 and 2013.
(AP) — One of the three inmates who walked away from the state prison in Lansing has entered a guilty plea.
57-year-old Randy Ridens now faces the possibility of another 10 years behind bars on top of the time he already was serving for burglary and theft. The Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office says he pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated escape from custody.
Ridens and two other men escaped May 10 from the Lansing Correctional Facility. Thirty-one-year-old Allen M. Hurst and 49-year-old Scott A. Gilbert surrendered in Edgerton, Mo., after several hours of negotiations with law enforcement. They were accused of trying to ambush officers who pursued them and of attempting to kidnap the Edgerton mayor.
Ridens was caught later that evening as he entered Topeka.
(AP) — Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and the state’s largest health insurer say they’re not sure yet about the implications of President Barack Obama’s decision to modify part of the federal health care overhaul.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas said Thursday it’s waiting for more federal guidance about Obama’s decision to let insurance companies continue offering health plans that would otherwise be canceled.
The company has notified about 9,500 Kansas policy holders their coverage would not be renewed because their plans don’t meet mandates under the 2010 federal health care law.
Praeger said the Insurance Department is reviewing the president’s decision and will have discussions with health insurance companies about its effects.
October Winners for STAR Student and Teacher of the Month: Stacey Lang, TMP ESL Teacher and Lucas Diehl, TMP STAR STUDENT
An organization based out of Hays is taking steps to recognize outstanding students and teachers. Kansas Next Step (KNS), which was founded in 2003, has been helping individuals overcome obstacles to attain unique and exciting educations opportunities. Administrator Jen Johnson told Hays Post that usually students are the ones applying for assistance, and KNS evaluates those applications on a case by case basis.
“So, if a kid wants to go to high plains band camp but for some reason a scholarship isn’t available or, within their family they don’t have funding, they are able to apply for financial assistance through Kansas Next Step to be able to do those things.
KNS has helped send students of varying ages to camps, seminars, and tours over the years. Johnson said that college students have applied as well, and in the past the group has worked with companies to help students in an internship program earn livable wages instead of working for minimal or no pay.
Now, the group is doing more to give back to the community by asking for nominations from students and teachers alike for the KNS STAR Student & Teacher of the Month Program. Each month, KNS will look over nominations and honor a student and teacher each month.
Johnson says the program is designed to recognize outstanding students and teachers in Hays and the surrounding area. She said that the KNS Board intentionally left off location restrictions for nominations because they didn’t want to make this an honor only for Hays.
“If you have a real outstanding student, they may be from Russell, Wilson, Larned or from somewhere else. If they submit an application and it truly is outstanding then there’s a possibility that they could be chosen.”
There are three categories:
Kindergarten – 8th grade Student of the Month, $100 cash prize
9th – 12th grade Student of the Month, $100 cash prize
Teacher of the Month, $500 cash prize
Money for these prizes and the support KNS offers students from across the state comes from various donors as well as a 2 day long seminar the group holds each year.
Anyone wishing to submit a nomination or apply for assistance can visit their website at www.kansasnextstep.org
(AP) — A state board has awarded nearly $259,000 to 111 Kansas victims of violent crime needing help with such expenses as mental health treatment and funeral costs.
