TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic challenger Paul Davis is shrugging off a national Republican figure’s suggestion that critics of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback are akin to the evil “Eye of Mordor.”
The Wichita Eagle reports that former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made the reference to “The Lord of the Rings” Monday during a rally in Wichita for Brownback.
Santorum said that like the ever-open evil eye in the fantasy saga, the conservative GOP governor’s foes are constantly searching “to try to oppress and defeat.” He also said that “the future of the free world is at stake” as Brownback seeks re-election.
Davis said Tuesday after an event in Topeka that he and his supporters are simply responding to voters who are worried about Brownback’s fiscal policies and the future of public schools.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge will hear arguments on whether to dismiss the bulk of a wide-ranging indictment accusing a former Kansas insurance agent with stealing nearly $2 million from policyholders.
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten on Tuesday set a July 28 date for a hearing in the case of Jason Matthew Pennington.
His attorney wants the court to throw out 38 counts related to one of the alleged victims, Marlene Brown, a Wichita teacher and philanthropist who died in 2009.
Defense attorney Kari Schmidt argued in a court filing that her client was the actual owner of the property and money at issue in the indictment.
Pennington’s father, James L. Pennington, pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return. The elder Pennington will be sentenced Oct. 6.
Today will be cloudy and cool with scattered showers and thunderstorms. It will be warmer in the extreme southwest corner of Kansas where severe thunderstorms are a possibility in the afternoon, with very large hail, damaging winds and possibly even a tornado. A warming trend can be expected by Friday and through the weekend with only small chances for thunderstorms Saturday night and late Sunday, some of which could be severe.
Today Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 68. South southeast wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Tonight Showers and thunderstorms likely before 5am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 5am. Cloudy, with a low around 58. Southeast wind 7 to 13 mph becoming east northeast after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Thursday A chance of showers and thunderstorms before noon, then a slight chance of showers between noon and 3pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 71. North northeast wind 9 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Thursday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 54. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light after midnight. Friday Sunny, with a high near 80. Calm wind becoming east 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Friday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 63. Saturday Sunny, with a high near 89.
In this KHI News Service file photo, Julie Konig, right, a certified application counselor with the Shawnee County Health Agency, talks with a woman seeking insurance through the Obamacare marketplace.
By Jenny Gold
Kaiser Health News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Most working people in the United States sign up for health insurance in a very straightforward way: a few forms, a few questions for human resources, a few choices of plans.
Signing up for Affordable Care Act insurance was nothing like that. It involved questions about income, taxes, family size and immigration status. And in most places in the country, there were myriad choices of plans with subtle differences between them.
Guess what? People looked for help on the decision.
During the Affordable Care Act’s first open enrollment period, about 10.6 million people received personal help from navigators and other enrollment assisters, according to an online survey of the programs released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
And the assistance was time consuming: 64 percent of the programs reported that they spent an hour to two hours with each consumer on average. The assisters and navigators included 28,000 full-time-equivalent workers across the country, funded by federal and state governments as well as outside sources, the survey found.
But those assisters were not distributed equally across states.
The 16 states that elected to run their own state-based exchanges had about twice as many assisters per 10,000 uninsured compared to the 29 states, including Kansas and Missouri, that defaulted to a federally facilitated exchange. (The other five states set up a partnership with the federal exchange.) People in states running their own exchange were twice as likely to receive help with enrollment.
The discrepancy is not terribly surprising: The states running their own exchanges had significantly more funding available for outreach and enrollment. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded a much smaller $67 million in federal grants to fund navigator programs in the 34 states with federally-facilitated or partnership exchanges.
The entire state of Ohio, for example, had gotten just $3 million in grants to do consumer outreach by October 2013. That’s compared to $24 million in Maryland, which had half as many uninsured residents.
“It’s not just the money,” says Karen Pollitz, lead author of the KFF survey. “The culture of coverage might also have been different. [States with their own exchanges] might not have been working uphill against the barrage of bad noise against the ACA.”
In addition, the mostly Republican states that defaulted to the federal exchange tend to have higher rates of individuals without insurance. Some 33 percent of the nation’s uninsured population lives in states running their own exchanges, while 68 percent live in states that defaulted to the federal exchange or set up a partnership.
Almost 90 percent of assister programs surveyed reported that most or nearly all of the people they helped were uninsured. More than 40 percent said that most and or nearly all of the people they helped did not have Internet access.
In the end, it wasn’t the broken website that was the top reason people sought help from an assister – it was a lack of understanding of the law. About 65 percent of the program said that most or nearly all consumers had online difficulties. But more than 85 percent said that most or nearly all had a limited understanding of the ACA and needed help understanding their plan choices. And three-quarters said that most or nearly all needed help understanding basic health insurance terms.
“How can you explain coverage options to someone who doesn’t know what a deductible is?” asks Pollitz. “It’s just a much longer conversation,” which might help explain why most of the programs reported that assistance required one to two hours per client. “And those same people, at least some of them, are starting to come back with post-enrollment problems,” Pollitz adds.
The need for help selecting the right plan is not likely to disappear in the coming years. “It’s a fundamental need people are probably going to have for the foreseeable future,” says Pollitz, especially as consumers experience a change in their family size or employment.
In the end, about 8 million Americans signed up for a plan on the health insurance marketplaces in the first year. Others enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP plans, and some of those who received help from assisters did not enroll in coverage at all.
The survey also found that federally qualified health centers and nongovernmental funds played a surprisingly important role in enrollment. Of the 4,400 different assister programs, 70 percent were supported either by the federal safety net clinic program or were privately funded.
The survey was conducted online April 24-May 12 among assister programs nationwide; 843 out of the 4,445 programs responded. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points.
BURLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House of Representatives candidate has been arrested for having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.
Burlington Police Chief Doug Jones says Jeff Freeman, a Republican running against incumbent state Rep. Peggy Mast of Emporia in the Aug. 5 primary, was booked into the Coffey County jail Sunday on suspicion of having an open container in his car.
Jones says Freeman was also cited for not having proof of insurance. He says Freeman passed a field sobriety test and posted bond of about $350. Freeman’s scheduled for an Aug. 14 court appearance.
The Emporia Gazette reports Freeman is on probation in Fairfax County, Virginia, after pleading guilty in 2013 to disorderly conduct.
Freeman didn’t return calls seeking comment Tuesday. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer.
The Hays City Commission will have a strategic planning session July 19 and 20 in Salina.
The meeting will be held at Courtyard by Marriott, 3020 Riffel Drive. The session will run from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Political groups are playing an outsized role in the congressional race for south-central Kansas.
Campaign finance reports released Tuesday show former congressman Todd Tiahrt has raised nearly $125,000 since announcing in late May that he would challenge U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo for the 4th District House seat. As the incumbent, Pompeo had more than $2.1 million in campaign cash at the time. Pompeo has not released his latest finance report.
But candidate finance reports only show part of the money spent on the race.
On Tuesday, Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity began airing the first of more than $409,000 worth of television and radio ads praising Pompeo.
A super PAC calling itself Kansans for Responsible Government has spent more than $162,000 in ads favoring Tiahrt in the 4th District race.
At Thursday’s Hays City Commission work session, City Manager Toby Dougherty will present the 2015 budget to commissioners.
Dougherty will include a brief explanation of various aspects of the budget. According to the memo sent to commissioners, the intent of the presentation is to introduce the commission to the 2015 budget, which will be discussed in more detail at the July 31 work session.
The commission also will discuss using money from the commission’s Financial Policy Projects account to help fund the initial marketing United Express marketing campaign. When the city commission recommended the selection of SkyWest Airlines operating as United Express to the U.S. Department of Transportation, it obligated $50,000 for marketing assistance. City staff is recommending the commission use $25,000 for the initial marketing campaign.
The commission also will hear an update from Chuck Comeau regarding his proposed downtown hotel project.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall. Click HERE for a complete agenda.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Officials say two more cases of measles have been reported in Sedgwick County, bringing the total number of measles cases in Kansas this year to 11.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in a release Tuesday that one of the new Sedgwick County cases was in an infant too young to be vaccinated and one was an adult. Both cases are linked to other recently reported cases.
KDHE says there have been eight cases reported in Sedgwick County and three in Johnson County this year.
Measles cases have been rare in the U.S. since indigenous measles were declared eliminated in the country in 2000.
KDHE says there has been a resurgence in cases this year, with more than 566 confirmed cases reported in 20 states through July 11.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The former police chief of a southeast Kansas city has entered Alford pleas to four felonies.
Former Independence Police Chief Kenneth Parker entered Alford pleas Tuesday to perjury, official misconduct, misuse of public funds and theft of property valued at more than 25,000. An Alford plea means Parker doesn’t admit to the crime but acknowledges prosecutors likely can prove the charge.
He entered the pleas in Montgomery County court, but the case was handled by a Shawnee County deputy district attorney after the Montgomery County attorney and his staff recused themselves.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Parker, who resigned as chief in 2011, was accused of stealing ammunition, firearms, cash and other property from the city.
Parker was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution.
PLYMELL, Kan. (AP) — A western Kansas woman has died from injuries she suffered in a house explosion that also claimed her two sons.
KWCH-TV reports Via Christi Hospital in Wichita confirmed Tuesday Kelly Unruh has died. She was injured when her family’s home in Plymell, near Garden City, exploded on June 28.
Her 17-year-old son, Spencer, died in the blast. And 14-year-old Ryan Unruh died July 9.
Garden City Fire Chief Allen Shelton has said the explosion was caused by a concentration of natural gas in the home. The explosion is being investigated as an accident.
An Unruh Family Memorial fund has been established at Price and Sons Funeral Home of Garden City.
Eagle Community Television’s Mike Koerner spoke with K-State Extension Agent Linda Beech on Tuesday about the happenings at the 2014 Ellis County Fair.
