DETROIT (AP) — Federal regulators are investigating whether Honda Motor Co. failed to report deaths and injuries that occurred in its vehicles.

Federal law requires automakers to submit quarterly reports on deaths and injuries, warranty claims and other incidents. Legal claims alleging that a defect caused a death or injury must also be reported.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says Honda may have failed to report incidents related to Takata air bags as well as other defective parts. Honda has recalled more than 5 million vehicles in the U.S. to fix their air bags, which could injure occupants if they deploy after a crash.

Honda could face fines of up to $35 million if NHTSA finds it failed to report the incidents.

A message seeking comment was left with Honda.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and Democratic challenger Paul Davis are making multiple stops across Kansas as they try to pick up the last few votes ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Davis started Monday by greeting western Kansas voters in Dodge City. He then traveled east to Greensburg, Pratt and Great Bend.

Brownback toured south-central Kansas and had stops in Garden Plain, Derby and Andover.

The governor is pressing his case that personal income tax cuts enacted at his urging have spurred an economic comeback for Kansas.

In Topeka, retired nursery owners Jim and Diane Herynk (HUR’-ihnk) said they voted in advance for Brownback because he lowered taxes as promised.

But Davis told The Associated Press that there’s general dissatisfaction with Brownback over the budget problems his tax cuts have caused.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas political legend Bob Dole says that recent stops in his just-finished tour of the state have him thinking that U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts’ chances of winning re-election are “looking better.”

Dole told The Associated Press on Monday that he believes Roberts has picked up a little momentum and has been getting a good reception at recent events.

The 91-year-old former senator last week finished a months-long tour of all 105 Kansas counties and spoke by telephone from Washington. He was the GOP presidential nominee in 1996 and is a former U.S. Senate majority leader.

Dole made multiple campaign appearances for Roberts and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Roberts is in a close race against independent candidate Greg Orman. The challenger told reporters Monday that he greatly respects Dole.

By Jim McLean
and
Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Poverty is a political issue in Kansas.

Gov. Sam Brownback campaigned in 2010 on a platform that included as one of its main goals reducing childhood poverty. And since taking office, he has aggressively pursued that goal. But he’s done it his way.

Rather than putting millions more dollars into traditional public assistance programs, he has instituted policies that effectively limited access to them and instead steered would-be beneficiaries into welfare-to-work programs. The key to reducing poverty, he said, was getting people off the assistance rolls and into the workforce.

A Brownback commercial airing for his re-election campaign claims the strategy is working. It says that “welfare has been cut in half” by the governor’s welfare-to-work program.

The claim refers to a reduction in the number of Kansans enrolled in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. According to the Kansas Department for Children and Families, TANF enrollment has fallen by 54 percent over the past four years, dropping from 38,963 in the 2011 budget year to 17,681 in the 2014 budget year.

Similarly, the number of low-income parents – single mothers, mostly – receiving monthly child care subsidy payments has dropped by 27 percent during the same four-year period.

“We’re seeing individuals moving out of poverty through employment,” said Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson.
Reducing the number of Kansans receiving public assistance isn’t the same thing as reducing poverty, said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children. The recent KIDS COUNT report compiled by KAC shows that Kansas’ childhood poverty rate declined by 2 percent from 2012 to 2013. But other economic indicators showed more Kansas families struggling to make ends meet.

The percentage of Kansas children receiving free or reduced-price lunches at school is a good barometer, Cotsoradis said. In the 2010-2011 school year, about 47 percent of Kansas children qualified for free or subsidized lunches. Now, for the first time, more than 50 percent qualify.

“So here we have more kids relying on free and reduced school meals, and at the same time we’re seeing significant declines in the numbers of families that are accessing TANF and child care subsidies,” Cotsoradis said. “I don’t see how that’s good news. It means fewer poor people are receiving services that are meant to lift them out of poverty.”

Children are eligible for free school meals if they’re living in households with incomes below 130 percent of poverty and eligible for reduced-price meals if they’re in households with incomes between 131 percent and 185 percent of poverty.

Recently, the Brownback administration claimed in a DCF news release that its new welfare policies also had reduced poverty in the state.
Several days later the agency acknowledged it had made a mistake. The state’s poverty rate as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure remained essentially flat, inching up to 11.8 percent in 2013 from 11.5 percent the year before.

“Typically, when you’re look at a survey this size, anything under 1 percent is not statistically significant,” said Terri Friedline, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare who’s studied poverty statistics. “But that’s not to say it’s not meaningful, because three tenths of a percent is thousands of people.”

The Supplemental Poverty Measure uses a formula designed to calculate the effects that regional cost-of-living variances and state public assistance programs have on household incomes.

Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of DCF, said while the official numbers don’t yet show it, the administration’s policies are working to reduce poverty.

“Although we would like to see a dramatic decrease in poverty, we know that our efforts are effective,” Gilmore said in an email. “Every day, we hear from individuals who seek benefits and with the help of our employment services, they are finding jobs and achieving self-sufficiency.”

One doesn’t necessarily follow the other, said Annie McKay, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, a nonpartisan think tank formed as a counter to conservative groups that lobby for lower taxes and smaller government.

Many of the jobs being filled by former welfare recipients pay wages that keep them in poverty, McKay said. She said more than 25 percent of working Kansans need some kind of help to pay for food, utilities, transportation and child care.

“If we continue to funnel Kansans into low-wage jobs, it’s not going to help them get ahead,” McKay said. “It’s not a path to prosperity, it’s a detour to poverty.”

Debbie Snapp, who runs the Catholic Social Service office in Dodge City, works with struggling families every day. She said most of those who need help have jobs.

“But they’re struggling because they’re working low-wage jobs, especially single moms,” Snapp said. “They’re still poor. They still can’t put enough food on the table. But instead of asking the state for help, they’re having to turn to charitable organizations like us.”

Jan Haberly oversees The Lord’s Diner, a Catholic Diocese of Wichita-sponsored program that each day prepares and serves 2,700 evening meals to the city’s homeless and low-income.

“All of our numbers are increasing,” she said. “We’ve been reaching out to more people, but even if we weren’t, our numbers are increasing. If there’s been a drop in poverty, we’re not reflecting it.”

Haberly said she’s long questioned the practice of using the federal poverty level to define whether someone is poor.

“You can be above 100 percent of poverty and still be poor,” she said. “So when there’s a report that says poverty is down, it may mean there aren’t as many people below 100 percent of poverty. But it doesn’t mean there are fewer poor people. We see all kinds of people – people and families – who are working but who are still poor.”

Jim McLean and Dave Ranney are reporters for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wireless carrier Sprint says it is eliminating 2,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its staff, as part of an effort to cut $1.5 billion in annual spending.

The company had announced a round of job cuts in early October, and did not say how many jobs were eliminated at that time. Sprint said Monday that job cuts would reduce its labor costs by $400 million per year.

Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint Corp. is the third-largest cellphone carrier in the U.S. and is trying to compete better with AT&T and Verizon.

Japan’s Softbank bought a majority stake in Sprint in 2013 and the company has eliminated thousands of jobs since then. It had 38,000 employees at the end of 2013.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a suspect in September’s beating of a Wichita junior league football coach.

The Sedgwick County district attorney’s office announced Monday that 31-year-old Bobby Brown Jr. was charged Friday with aggravated battery. His preliminary hearing is Nov. 13.

Police told reporters Monday that Brown was spotted by officers Thursday in the driveway of a Wichita house. He took off running and was arrested after a foot chase.

The case stems from the Sept. 8 attack by several men on the coach during practice at a Wichita park.

The beating stopped after the coach’s wife drew a gun and fired a shot in the air. The coach then went to his car and retrieved another gun. Both had concealed carry permits.

It’s not clear if Brown has a lawyer.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The sentencing hearing for a Topeka man convicted of murder has been interrupted after a juror fainted while viewing graphic autopsy photos.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the male juror passed out about 45 minutes into Monday’s hearing on the sentencing for 25-year-old Troy Allen Robinson. Shawnee County prosecutors are seeking the so-called “Hard 50” — 50 years behind bars before the possibility of parole — for the December 2012 stabbing death of 43-year-old Oma Bennett.

District Judge Nancy Parrish released the juror and ordered what’s expected to be a three-day hearing to resume Tuesday morning. An expert witness is expected to testify about Robinson’s mental health history.

A former coroner who had been testifying about the autopsy photos helped the stricken juror, who then drove home.

 

Kansas Department of Health and Environment

TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is reporting the first confirmed influenza case of the 2014-2015 season. The case was reported in Northeast Kansas. The case was identified through the ILINet, a system of clinics that KDHE uses to monitor outpatients who exhibit influenza-like illness.

“The arrival of our first confirmed influenza case of the season serves as an important reminder for everyone to get vaccinated to protect themselves, their loved ones and the community,” said Robert Moser, M.D., KDHE Secretary and State Health Officer. “Influenza is a preventable illness. Normally, the number of cases increases during the holidays before peaking around February.”

Health officials are reminding Kansans that it’s not too late to get vaccinated against influenza. Influenza vaccine is recommended for nearly everyone six months of age and older. Infants less than six months of age are too young to be vaccinated and are more vulnerable to the complications from influenza.

“Getting an influenza vaccination helps protect you and those around you from becoming ill,” said Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer, M.D. “Vaccination also helps to minimize the number of people going to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. Symptoms of influenza are similar to the symptoms of Ebola.”

Being vaccinated against influenza is especially important for anyone at high risk of complications and for anyone who is caring for children younger than five years of age. It is also important for persons caring for those with medical conditions that put them at higher risk for severe complications.

Symptoms of influenza include fever, dry cough, extreme tiredness and muscle aches. Complications can include pneumonia, ear and sinus infections, and dehydration; influenza may also worsen other chronic conditions.

Depending on the severity of the influenza season, five percent to 20 percent of the population may get influenza each year. During the peak of the 2013-2014 influenza season in Kansas, approximately six percent of all health care visits in ILINet clinics were due to influenza-like illness. Influenza or pneumonia contributed to or was the direct cause of 1,373 deaths among Kansas residents during the 2013-2014 influenza season. Influenza and pneumonia was the seventh leading cause of death in 2013 in Kansas.

Additional ways to avoid spreading influenza include covering coughs and sneezes, washing your hands and staying home when sick.

For information on receiving the influenza vaccine, please contact your health care provider or the local health department. Visit www.kdheks.gov/flu for influenza facts.

BOSTON (AP) — One of the hosts of National Public Radio’s popular “Car Talk” show has died.

The news organization says Tom Magliozzi died Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77 years old.

NPR says Magliozzi and his brother, Ray, graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were Cambridge auto mechanics when they began their talk radio show in the 1970s.

The duo dispensed humor and advice about repairing cars, gaining them a steady following on a local NPR station, WBUR, before the program became nationally broadcast starting in 1987.

NPR says the Magliozzi brothers haven’t taped a live show for two years, but the station has been airing old shows, something that Ray hopes the station will continue to do, in honor of his brother.