Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt today filed a motion indicating he will seek a “Hard 50” prison sentence in the prosecution of William Andrew Shank, 25, Garden City. Shank is charged in Thomas County District Court in connection with the February 9, 2013, death of 27-year-old Teri L. Morris in Colby.

Shank is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated arson and aggravated burglary.
Schmidt is requesting that if a jury finds the defendant guilty of premeditated first-degree murder, then the Court conduct a separate sentencing proceeding to determine whether the defendant shall be required to serve a mandatory term of imprisonment of 50 years before first eligibility for parole. A modification to the state’s Hard 50 statute, approved earlier this year by a special session of the Kansas legislature, provides for this sentencing proceeding when aggravating circumstances exist. Schmidt is also asking for an upward departure in sentencing if the defendant is convicted of a lesser offense than first-degree premeditated murder.
Shank is scheduled for a jury trial on March 24, 2014.

(AP) — A Manhattan man died after he was hit by rocks during blasting at a quarry near Junction City.

The Geary County sheriff’s office says 63-year-old Stephen Hetzler died Wednesday at the Bayer Rock Quarry six miles west of Junction City.

The investigation found Hetzler was standing too close to a detonation area while using explosives to blow up rocks. He was hit by one large limestone rock and possibly several smaller rocks.

A preliminary investigation found the death was a work-related accident but Geary County, state and federal officials continue to investigate.

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(AP) — A report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the Idaho Department of Agriculture spotted moldy yogurt during a routine inspection at a Chobani facility in Twin Falls two months before the company issued a voluntary recall.

The report was obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. More than 300 people reportedly got sick after consuming the moldy Greek yogurt.

The state denies the FDA’s claim. ISDA spokeswoman Pamela Juker says state regulators never took note of mold during the July inspection. The FDA report says a lab technician spotted visible defects and found a yeast-like growth after testing the samples taken by the state.

Chobani officials say the company’s goal is to ensure the Idaho facility is a leader in size, cleanliness, quality and safety.

A McPherson County nurse who pleaded guilty to six counts of insurance fraud will repay nearly $80,000 in restitution to an insurance company for fraudulent claims which she supported by forged medical treatment records and billing documents.

Jennifer Renee Allmon, now known as Jennifer Batson, was ordered to repay $79,945 to Aflac for claims she filed with the company for a variety of fictitious injuries and health conditions she said happened to herself and her husband.

Following a report of suspected fraud by Aflac and additional investigation by the Anti-Fraud Division of the Kansas Insurance Department (KID), the case was turned over to the McPherson County Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The McPherson Police Department was also involved in the investigation.

Allmon, after a plea agreement, was granted probation for 24 months, with an underlying prison sentence of 20 months, and ordered to pay the restitution.

The KID Anti-Fraud Division is responsible for investigating insurance fraud in Kansas and educating Kansas consumers about protecting themselves from illegal activity. Those who suspect fraudulent insurance activities can call (800) 432-2484.

A left-of-center policy institute has cited KanCare as a prime example of how state and local governments have allowed for-profit corporations to take advantage of unsuspecting taxpayers.

“We’re not against government contracting. It’s been done since the beginning of time, and it will continue to tbe done,” Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest said during a teleconference with news reporters. “We just want it to be done well, and we think public-sector agencies can often do it better.”

The teleconference called attention to the release of the group’s 22-page report, “Out of Control: The Coast-to-Coast Failure of Outsourcing Public Services to For-Profit Corporations.”

“All too often,” Cohen said, “outsourcing means taxpayers have very little say over how tax dollars are spent and no say on actions taken by private companies that control our public services. It means taxpayers cannot vote out executives who make decisions that hurt public health and safety, it means taxpayers are contractually stuck with a monopoly run by a single corporation, and it leads to a race to the bottom as wages and benefits fall while corporate profits rise.”

Included in the report were 11 recommendations aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability, completion, and workers being paid a living wage. Among the recommendations:

Require public contractors to reveal their profits;
Make sure contracts include language allowing government to cut ties with poor-performing companies;
Ban language that guarantee company profits;
Allow government employees to submit counter-plans for saving money or improving quality; and
Require contractor’s to guarantee taxpayers a 10 percent savings before any service is outsourced.
Most of the report’s findings were based on news stories on how government contracts often contain language that guarantees contractor profits while allowing little public review or input.

Kansas’s KanCare program was criticized for allowing three private insurance companies — Amerigroup, UnitedHealthcare and Sunflower State Health Plan, a subsidiary of Centene — to save money by limiting medically fragile adults and children’s access to Medicaid-funded services.

“We have a governor who sold our public services to private corporations who seek to profit off of Kansas taxpayers and, quite frankly, some of our most vulnerable citizens,” said Mike Gaughan, a former executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said during the press conference.

Gaughan, who now serves on the Douglas County Commission, said he was exploring the possibly of adding the language proposed by In the Public Interest to the county’s contracts with private companies.

“This isn’t a partisan issue,” he said. “It’s a common-sense issue. It’s about holding contractors accountable for the work they do and for the services they provide.”

Gaughan said persistent reports of Medicaid providers not being paid on time were “unfortunate examples of what can happen when we hand over these critical services to contractors who are focused on their bottom lines.”

Miranda Steele, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the criticism of KanCare by In the Public Interest was off-target.

“Remember, we had very clear instructions from the governor to not cut rates for our providers, not cut people from the program, and not cut those services that were being offered in Medicaid,” Steele said. “The (managed care companies) are actually providing more types of services than we had prior to KanCare — and at no (additional) cost to the taxpayer.”—-By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

 (AP) — The buildings that once housed St. John’s Hospital in Salina will be coming down.

Salina’s Heritage Commission on Wednesday approved plans to demolish the buildings, saying restoring them would be too costly.

Salina Regional Health Center owns the buildings on the St. John’s campus, which has been vacant since 2010.

Jack Hinnenkamp, of Salina Regional Health Center, said it would cost between $1 million and $2 million to demolish the seven-building campus. He said redeveloping the buildings would cost more but didn’t provide any estimates.

St. John’s was started in 1914 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia and operated by the Wichita-based Sisters of St. Joseph until 1995.