WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today said President Obama’s actions in sabotaging a long term tax extenders package have harmed Kansans, including small business owners, teachers, farmers and ranchers who rely on the key, bipartisan tax provisions that were being negotiated by House and Senate leaders.

“The leaders of the House and Senate tax writing committees negotiated a bi-partisan deal that would have provided certainty for businesses and taxpayers to plan for the next two years,” Roberts said. “President Obama’s immigration grenade doomed the tax extenders deal. Negotiations unraveled, a veto threat was issued and bi-partisan compromises were killed. Because of President Obama’s ‘my way or the highway’ approach to leadership, Congress is forced, once again, to cobble together a one year tax policy patch that no one wants. This hurts families, job creators, farmers and ranchers, teachers and everyone who needs to plan ahead to succeed.”

Senator Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction on taxes, had fought to secure the following provisions for Kansas families and businesses in the deal being negotiated:

• deductions for teachers who purchase school supplies with their own money;
• help for homeowners who have defaulted on a mortgage or face financial hardship;
• deductions for college tuition and expenses;
• special depreciation and expensing rules that are important to the agricultural and small business sectors;
• bipartisan language Roberts developed to modify the research and development tax credit so that it could be more easily used by smaller businesses – where the bulk of technological innovation occurs;
• and, long term extension of legislation Roberts pushed to make sure smaller businesses are able to access the capital they need to grow and hire new employees.

Click here to watch Senator Roberts’ remarks on the Senate floor.

BRANDON BAILEY, AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For want of an iPod, a billion-dollar lawsuit may be in jeopardy.

Apple attorneys are raising a last-minute challenge to a class-action lawsuit over the company’s use of restrictive software that kept iPods from playing music sold by competitors. Apple says new evidence shows the two women named as plaintiffs in the case may not have purchased iPod models covered by the lawsuit. Opposing lawyers disagree.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she isn’t ready to decide, but told both sides to file legal briefs as soon as possible.

Apple stopped using the software in 2009 and the case only covers certain iPod models purchased between September 2006 and March 2009.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama administration officials are acknowledging that HealthCare.gov premiums, on average, will go up next year.

But the same officials say most current customers can still save money if they are willing to shop around a competitive marketplace.

In a report released Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department says premiums for the most popular type of plan will go up an average of 5 percent in 35 states where the federal government is running the health insurance exchanges.

However, the administration says more insurers are participating in the marketplace this year.

About two-thirds of current customers can still find coverage comparable to what they have now for $100 a month or less if they shop around. That’s taking into account the tax credits that most consumers are eligible for.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has temporarily blocked the University of Kansas from releasing emails and other documents to a group looking for ties between a research center and the billionaire Koch brothers.

Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild issued an order Thursday after Art Hall, executive director of the Center for Applied Economics, sued the university.

Hall seeks to block the release of emails and other documents to a student group concerned about a relationship between Hall, the center and Charles and David Koch.

Hall said he’s trying to protect academic freedom.

Vice Chancellor Tim Caboni says KU was being careful in what it released while complying with the Kansas Open Records Act.

A Koch family foundation is a donor and a spokesman said its role is only financial support.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The leader of a privately funded economics research center at the University of Kansas is suing the university to prevent it from releasing his emails and other documents.

Art Hall, executive director of the Center for Applied Economics, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Douglas County District Court. The lawsuit said the university informed Hall this week that on Friday it would release emails and other document he’s produced over the past 10 years.

The records were sought by the president of a group calling itself Students for a Sustainable Future. The group says it wants to examine the relationship between Hall, the center and billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

Hall said he’s acting to protect academic freedom. A university spokeswoman did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

By DAN MARGOLIES

States continue to spend a miniscule portion of the billions of dollars they collect annually in tobacco revenues on smoking prevention and cessation programs, according to a new report by six leading health organizations.

Missouri spent $76,314 on tobacco prevention in the latest fiscal year, the report says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended it should have spent nearly $73 million.

Only one state, New Jersey, spent a smaller percentage of its tobacco funds on anti-smoking programs. New Jersey allocated no funds for tobacco prevention.

“As far as getting the state to invest more, we just have not been successful,” says Mary Kitley, executive director of the American Lung Association’s Missouri chapter.

“The fact is Missouri is just slow to move on any health-related issue. It’s not just tobacco, but tobacco seems like a no-brainer.”

Kansas spent $946,671 in fiscal 2014. The CDC recommended it should have spent $27.9 million. That’s a lower percentage than all but 11 states.

The report, the latest in a series of annual dispatches, was issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

Collectively, states will reap about $25 billion this year from 1998’s landmark $246 million “master settlement agreement” with tobacco companies and from tobacco taxes. But they’ll provide just 14.6 percent of the tobacco prevention funding recommended by the CDC, the report says.

Looked at another way, tobacco companies spend 18 times more to market their products than states do to reduce tobacco use.

Missouri has the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation, at 17 cents a pack. Kansas has the 15th lowest, at 79 cents a pack.

“The bottom line is that Kansas has just never ever really funded anything like that,” says Linda deCoursey, executive director of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition.

“All of the funds that come to do anything of that sort of thing (tobacco prevention) come either from the CDC, from the MSA (master settlement agreement) or from some other block grants that we get. They’ve just never done it, and it’s time that they do.”

North Dakota and Alaska are the only states funding tobacco prevention programs at the CDC-recommended level, according to the report. And only five other states – Delaware, Wyoming, Hawaii, Oklahoma and Maine – provide as much as half the recommended funding.

Smoking is the leading cause of death and illness in the United States, accounting for some 480,000 death annually.

In Missouri, 11,000 deaths per year are attributable to smoking. In Kansas, the figure is nearly 3,500 deaths annually.

The report cites a 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health that found that the state of Washington saved $5 for every $1 it spent on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

 

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