By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Unified Government’s commission chambers were jam-packed on Thursday night.

It wasn’t a controversy over a multi-million bond issue that brought people out. It wasn’t even the final step in the approval process for the city’s “healthy campus” downtown redevelopment plan.

It was a proposed change in the way the city deals with feral cats, stray dogs and pit bulls.
“We can bond out literally $100 million for some long-term street improvement and it’s a two-minute vote up-and-down and no one is in the audience. But you start talking about a third dog and we’ll fill this room,” said Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Mark Holland.

Yes, you read that right, a “third dog.”

The commission voted Thursday night to allow Kansas City and other Wyandotte County residents to legally own three dogs. The previous limit was two. Residents also are allowed up to three cats.

Residents can apply for special permits and pay $300 to exceed those limits, but the commission must approve them. The UG’s legal staff recommended that permit decisions be handled administratively by the police department’s animal control unit. But the commission voted to retain that authority to ensure that decisions are made transparently and with adequate public input.

“I think the (current) process is working quite well,” said commissioner Jim Walters.

The commission also approved a “trap, neuter and release” ordinance aimed at controlling the population of feral cats roaming the city.

Some decisions deferred

City staff and interested parties spent months working at the committee level to craft a non-breed-specific vicious dog ordinance in part to replace the ban on pit bulls. But several commissioners and Holland had concerns about some of the proposed language.

“If someone is in my yard and I don’t want them there, I can’t beat them up or shoot them but my dog can attack them?” Holland said. “I have a problem with that language.”

The commission directed legal staff to rewrite parts of the ordinance and bring it back for consideration within 30 days. Commission members also asked staff to prepare an estimate of how much it will cost to enforce the new ordinance for consideration at their April budget session.

Commissioner Ann Brandau-Murguia said any change in the city’s animal control policy will require additional funding.

“Ordinances aren’t any good if we don’t appropriately fund the department to enforce those ordinances,” Brandau-Murguia said.

Pit bull ban maintained

Commission members were evenly split on the pit bull issue.

Commissioner Mike Kane said that when his daughter moved back to Wyandotte County after college she had to give up two pit bulls, which he described as loving, even-tempered pets.

“The pit bulls aren’t the problem, it’s the owners,” Kane said.

But others disagreed. Commissioner Gayle Townsend reminded members of the event that precipitated the ban, the mauling death of 71-year-old Jimmie Mae McConnell in 2006.

“For Mrs. McConnell there is no choice,” Townsend said.

Commissioner Jane Winkler Philbrook favored lifting the ban. She said the process of drafting the more comprehensive vicious dog ordinance had been a good one, with lots of public input.

“Believe me, there has been more cussing and discussing over this one thing,” Philbrook said.

Philbrook’s motion to lift the ban failed on a 4-4 vote.

Noting that members of McConnell’s family were in the audience along with members of her “church family,” Holland said the pit bull issue remains highly charged.

“That (McConnell’s death) is still fresh in the minds of many people,” he said. “There are a lot of people that are afraid of pit bulls, and I think we need to take that fear seriously.”

Brent Toellner, president of the KC Pet Project, understands that fear. But he says it’s misplaced.

“Banning breeds isn’t the solution,” Toellner said, noting that more than 100 cities across the country have recently repealed pit bull bans, including two in the Kansas City metropolitan area, Fairway and Spring Hill.

“Dogs of all breeds can be aggressive,” he said. “The most effective use of resources is to target aggressive dogs based on behavior and not on their appearance.”

Michelle Angell, the captain in charge of the police department’s animal control unit, said officers spend an inordinate amount of time investigating possible violations of the city’s pit bull ban. She said the average cost of responding to a complaint and determining the breed of a dog is about $1,000 per investigation.

Jim McLean is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — New racial profiling guidelines being announced by the Obama administration would exempt agents from the Homeland Security Department who do border checks and screen passengers at airports.

But the guidelines would also restrict the ability of the FBI and other Justice Department law enforcement agencies to take into account ethnicity, national origin and other factors.

The guidelines, reported first by The Washington Post, are expected to be announced soon.

A U.S. official said Friday that the new guidelines exempt the Transportation Security Administration in entirety and also inspections at port of entry. The official was not authorized to discuss the guidelines by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The guidelines affect only federal law enforcement agents but have added symbolic resonance in the aftermath of the Ferguson, Missouri police shooting.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — The deadline for submitting public comment on the proposed changes in the waivers that define the state’s Medicaid-funded services for frail seniors, people with physical and developmental disabilities, and those who’ve suffered traumatic brain injury is Dec. 20.

Last month, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services released information indicating a Dec. 10 deadline for comments.

The comment period was later extended to Dec. 20 to ensure compliance with a federal rule that requires a 30-day comment period.

KDADS hosted public hearings on the proposed changes Nov. 12, 13 and 14.

Early Thursday, the public comment form on the KDADS website indicated a Dec. 10 deadline. However, KDADS officials corrected the date on the website form Thursday afternoon.

“All of us the advocacy community know the deadline is Dec. 20,” said Sean Gatewood, interim director of the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition. “I’m not worried about us, I’m worried about the people who are going to be affected by this.”

Gatewood said the proposed changes have generated considerable concern among advocacy groups.

“There are a lot of us who’ll be filing public comment,” he said. “There is no doubt about that.”

Most of the concerns, he said, focus on potential reductions in services that help frail elders and people with disabilities live in community-based settings rather the nursing homes.

“There is the potential for significant disruption in how case management is performed in the state for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Matt Fletcher, a spokesperson for InterHab, the association that represents most of the state’s community-based programs for the developmentally disabled.

“That’s a huge issue for persons who rely upon their relationships with their case managers,” he said.

InterHab, Fletcher said, will be filing its concerns with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regional office in Kansas City, Mo.

Mitzi McFatrich, executive director with Kansas Advocates for Better Care, said her group will be commenting as well. KABC represents the interests of Kansas nursing home residents and their families.

“We’ll be citing several areas of concern, yes,” McFatrich said.

Though the waivers expire Dec. 31, the process allows CMS to grant temporary extensions.

Kansas’ waivers for the brain-injured and the developmentally disabled expired June 30 but were extended to Dec. 31.

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking on a free speech case over a proposed license plate in Texas that would feature the Confederate battle flag.

The case involves the government’s ability to choose among the political messages it allows drivers to display on state-issued license plates.

The justices said Friday they will review a lower court ruling in favor of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group is seeking a specialty plate with its logo bearing the battle flag, similar to plates issued by several other states that were part of the Confederacy.

The case will be argued in March.

MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A new government report counts hundreds of times U.S. doctors and hospitals raised false alarms about possible Ebola cases, finding that fewer than one in five warranted even additional investigation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report — released Friday — looked at Ebola-related calls the federal agency received this year from doctors, hospitals, and state and local health departments.

In most calls, it turned out the patient had neither traveled to an Ebola-affected country nor had contact with an Ebola patient.

Of 650 patients flagged to federal officials, four ended up testing positive.

But health officials say there was a national learning curve for Ebola — even for doctors and nurses — and they had no complaint about all the nervous phone calls.