Kansas politics remain in the spotlight of the national media.

Rolling Stone writer Mark Binelli weighed in with a piece today on the magazine’s website.

Read the entire article, “The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster,” by clicking HERE.

KANSAS DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

TOPEKA – The U.S. Census Bureau’s recent Supplemental Measure of Poverty report shows that Kansas poverty has declined and is below the national average, according to Kansas Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore .

“We are committed to helping Kansas families escape poverty through employment and self-sufficiency,” Secretary Gilmore said. “Poverty prevention doesn’t happen overnight, but it is great to see that we’re moving in the right direction.”

On Thursday, Oct. 16, the U.S. Census Bureau indicated that the poverty rate from 2011 to 2013 in Kansas, dropped by 2.3 percent. The poverty rate in Kansas is 11.8 percent, compared to 15.9 percent nationally.

“The supplemental poverty measure is an important tool that helps policymakers and the public judge the effectiveness of social safety-net programs in a way that the official poverty measure cannot,” Census Bureau Economist and report author Kathleen Short said. “It also helps us track how necessary expenses, such as paying taxes or work-related and medical-out-of-pocket expenses affect the well-being of all families.”

The U.S. Census Bureau’s official poverty measure was released last month. That report indicated that childhood poverty in Kansas was down 0.3 percent from the previous year. Kansas was one of 26 states in which the supplemental rates were lower than the official statewide poverty rate. The supplemental poverty measure deducts various necessary expenses from income, including medical out-of-pocket expenses, income and payroll taxes, child care expenses and work-related expenses. These expenses reduce income available for purchasing essential basic goods, including food, clothing, shelter, utilities and more.

In 2011, DCF announced a series of welfare reforms designed to promote employment. Over the last several years, the agency has created important partnerships with other State departments and community groups to ensure that every person who is currently receiving welfare benefits and wants a job has a job.

“Employment is the key to moving out of poverty,” Secretary Gilmore said. “Instilling a strong work ethic, before a person even graduates from high school, is so important to ensuring that generational poverty does not continue.”

Some DCF whole or partially-funded, poverty-prevention programs include Kansas Early Head Start, Jobs for America’s Graduates, Kansas Reading Roadmap, Building Healthy Families, Vocational Rehabilitation’s Good for Business program for persons with disabilities, Economic and Employment Services’ partnership with the Kansas Department of Commerce’s Workforce Centers, Child Support Services’ 529 College Savings Initiative and domestic violence services that promote self-sufficiency.

See related story HERE.

SOLOMON — A school bus driver involved in an accident in Ottawa County is no longer driving for Solomon schools.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported that on Oct. 1, a school bus driven by Helen J. Stephens, 74, was westbound on Solomon Road seven miles north of Solomon at Kansas 18 and pulled out in front of a Freightliner semi-dump truck pulling two trailers loaded with rock. The semi made an evasive maneuver but clipped the bus and overturned.

The KHP reported Stephens was issued a citation for failure to yield. The district said she is no longer driving students.

Eight students were on the bus. As a precaution, a 13-year-old Solomon girl was transported to Salina Regional Medial Center. The school district said she was in school the following day.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A bank robber who stopped during his escape to bum a cigarette off a construction worker has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

The worker told police that a man matching 38-year-old Paul Carman’s description appeared nervous moments after the October 2013 robbery in Ambridge, when Carman threw his shirt in a trash container. But Carman still stopped to borrow a cigarette.

That encounter helped police identify Carman as the man who handed a Huntingdon Bank teller a note saying, “This is a robbery. No dye packs. No alarms.”

Carman pleaded guilty in June and faced more than 12 years in prison under federal guidelines.

Carman’s attorney argued his client has had a life-long problem with alcohol and should get a shorter term.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A political action committee representing Kansas Highway Patrol troopers has endorsed Democratic challenger Paul Davis in the Kansas governor’s race.

Davis has a Statehouse news conference Thursday to publicize his backing from the Kansas State Troopers Association PAC.

The Democrat is seeking to deny Republican Gov. Sam Brownback a second, four-year term, and the race appears to be a toss-up.

Brownback spokesman John Milburn said the governor respects the work of the patrol but it’s not surprising that a union like the troopers’ association would back a Democrat. Governors appoint the patrol’s superintendent.

The troopers’ PAC said it is endorsing Davis because he has a strong record on public safety issues as a Kansas House member.

Brownback has portrayed Davis as a liberal and soft on criminal justice issues.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sedgwick County commissioners have voted to support creation of a tax-increment financing district that would help fund a proposed $54 million renovation of Union Station in downtown Wichita.

The city of Wichita already approved the district to capture future taxes to fix up the 100-year-old station, which has been vacant for about seven years.

The Wichita Eagle reports the project’s developer hopes to begin construction on the first phase of renovation by the end of the year.

The project calls for retail, offices and restaurants in the space and a plaza in front that could be used to host events, street performers, food vendors and farmers markets.

Wednesday’s commission vote approving the district was 3-2.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A Massachusetts couple has made a $5 million challenge gift to Kansas State University’s College of Business Administration.

Paul and Sandra Edgerley, of Brookline, Massachusetts, offered to match donations from other donors at 50 percent. The money will be used for the college’s Career Counseling and Skill Development program, which prepares students for careers with their “dream” companies.

Julie and Roger Davis, of Chicago, Illinois, are the first to accept the challenge by giving $500,000 to the new program.

Paul Edgerley graduated from Kansas State in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in business. He is managing director of Bain Capital Partners LLC, a private investment firm based in Boston. The Edgerleys are members of the KSU Foundation’s President’s Club and have served the university in several capacities.

WICHITA- Two people were injured in an accident just after 7 a.m. on Thursday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Hyundai Sonata driven by Katarina Howe, 17, Colwich, was on the ramp from westbound Kansas 96 to 53rd street in Wichita.

The vehicle rear-ended a 2010 Chevy Camaro driven by Crissy D. Palmer, 35, Wichita, and overturned.

Howe and a passenger in the Chevy Jerome Diaz, 43, Wichita, were transported to St. Francis Medical Center. Palmer and another passenger in the Chevy were not injured.

The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The remains of famed athlete Jim Thorpe will remain in the Pennsylvania town where he was laid to rest six decades ago.

A federal appeals court has thrown out a ruling that could have resulted in the remains’ removal to American Indian land in Oklahoma.

Thorpe’s surviving sons had been fighting to move the body to Sac and Fox land in the state where he was born. U.S. District Judge Richard Caputo had ruled in their favor.

But the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that Thorpe’s body should remain in the town named after him.

Thorpe was a football, baseball and track star who won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. He died in 1953.

His remains are kept in a mausoleum surrounded by statues and interpretive signage.

SALINA- A Salina man was hospitalized Wednesday evening after he and bike he was riding were hit by a car at the intersection of 9th and Crawford in Salina.

Captain Mike Sweeney said Troy Helzer left the parking lot of the Food Mart traveling southbound across Crawford toward the parking lot of Casey’s in between stopped vehicles that were westbound, and was struck by a car driven by Betty Aden, 67, that was pulling into the left turn lane on Crawford.

Helzer and his bike then fell against an SUV driven by Douglas Jones, 65, Salina.

Officers indicated that Helzer suffered significant injures and he was transported to Salina Regional Health Center.

Sweeney said an investigation of the accident continues.