TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is having a special session this week to swear Caleb Stegall in as its newest justice.

The ceremony is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Stegall currently is a Kansas Court of Appeals judge. Gov. Sam Brownback elevated him to the state’s highest court in August.

It was Brownback’s first appointment to the seven-member Supreme Court.

Stegall will replace former Justice Nancy Moritz. She was appointed to the federal appeals court for Kansas and five other western and Plains states.

Stegall is 43 and was serving as Brownback’s chief counsel when the governor appointed him to the Court of Appeals last year. He served as Jefferson County’s elected prosecutor for two years before joining Brownback’s staff in January 2011.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Gingerbread houses are a big money maker for one Lawrence charity.

The Lawrence Journal-World  reports that the 20th annual Gingerbread Festival and Auction kicks off Thursday night at Abe & Jake’s Landing. That’s when the top 15 of more than 100 gingerbread houses will be auctioned off to benefit the area’s Big Brothers Big Sisters’ chapter.

Area director Stacie Salverson-Schroeder says some of the best houses can pull in around $2,000 each. All told, the creations usually raise about $40,000.

This year’s entries will include an alpine cottage-style house, a diorama featuring three scenes from “The Wizard of Oz” and a 30-pound edible dwelling partly inspired by the real-life Carson Mansion in Eureka, California.

The houses will be on display to the public Saturday and Sunday.

By Julie Appleby
Kaiser Health News
Jordan Rau
Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A surge in health insurer competition appears to be helping restrain premium increases in hundreds of counties next year, with prices dropping in many places where newcomers are offering the least expensive plans, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of federal premium records.

KHN looked at premiums for the lowest-cost silver plan for a 40-year-old in 34 states where the federal government is running marketplaces for people who do not get coverage through their employers. Consumers have until Feb. 15 to enroll for coverage in 2015, the marketplace’s second year.
The number of insurers offering silver plans, the most popular type of plan in 2014, is increasing in two-thirds of counties, according to the analysis. In counties that are adding at least one insurer next year, premiums for the least expensive silver plan are rising 1 percent on average. Where the number of insurers is not changing, premiums are growing 7 percent on average.

“They are moving in where they see an overpriced area,” said Gerard Anderson, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University.

In the federal marketplaces, the average county premium for the cheapest silver plan is rising 3 percent, from $266 to $273. But it is the inverse in counties where a new carrier is offering the cheapest plan. In those counties, premiums had been high, averaging $284, but they are dropping by an average of 3 percent, bringing them in line with the national average, the analysis found.

In Clark and Harrison counties in southern Indiana, where only one insurer offered coverage this year, four more are jumping in. Monthly premiums for the cheapest silver plan are decreasing by 25 percent, with 40-year-olds paying $197 for the Ambetter plan from a Medicaid-managed care company, MHS.

“As a direct result of those new players being part of the market, they displaced what had been the lowest-cost silver plan,” said Brian Liechty, an Indiana insurance agent. “So it changed the dynamics.”

In parts of southwest Georgia around Albany, which has only one insurer on the marketplace and is the second most expensive place in the nation to buy coverage this year, one of three new carriers, Coventry Health Care of Georgia, is offering the lowest silver plan. The price in those five counties will decline 21 percent for all ages, down to $363 for a 40-year-old. Still, that premium remains higher than much of the rest of the country.

Joe Antos, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said carriers that avoided the rough first year were able to study what their competitors were offering before jumping in. “This was a bet that paid off,” Antos said.

Many insurers were cautious about widely offering policies in 2014 without a good sense of how much others were charging and how expensive it would be to provide medical services to new customers. UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest insurers, offered plans in only four marketplaces this year nationwide but says it is selling plans in 23 states in 2015.
United is offering the cheapest silver plans in 9 percent of the counties in the federal marketplace, more than any other company, the analysis shows. The largest 2015 premium decrease in federal marketplaces — 28 percent — is occurring in three Mississippi counties where United came in and undercut the monopoly insurer.

Heather Kane, United’s vice president for exchange strategy, said many of United’s plans are HMOs with smaller networks of doctors and hospitals than what United offers through its employer plans. Kane said United structured its new plans after studying which policies from competitors were most popular.

“Consumers voted for affordability,” she said.

In Kansas, a new entrant into counties is a subsidiary of a company already offering plans. BlueCross and BlueShield of Kansas created BlueCross BlueShield Kansas Solutions, a restrictive HMO that will not pay anything for non-emergency medical services outside its service area. This subsidiary is offering the lowest cost plan in 103 Kansas counties.

“In every state it looks like more competition is coming in,” said Bobby Huffaker, CEO of American Exchange, a brokerage based in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Elsewhere, competition is not a guarantee of dropping prices. In four dozen counties where Humana is coming in to offer the lowest-priced silver plan, premiums for those plans average 11 percent higher than what is offered this year.

In Chattanooga, one of the least expensive areas this year, consumers will have to pay 16 percent more for the cheapest silver plan, offered by Community Health Alliance, even though the number of carriers doubled to four. Despite the hike, Chattanooga remains less expensive than average. Elsewhere some counties with a monopoly insurer remain cheaper than counties with two competitors.

Silver plans are popular in part because they offer consumers mid-level premiums with deductibles that are not sky high. They tend to carry annual deductibles of between $1,500 and $5,000 and require insurers to pick up an average of 70 percent of medical costs. The federal government subsidizes premiums for those earning less than four times the nation’s poverty level.

Many consumers will not benefit from the lowest-priced silver plan if they opt to keep what they currently have, because premiums are growing sharply for many of this year’s cheapest plans. Liechty, the Indiana broker, noted that changing can be complicated for consumers, particularly those that want to keep their doctors and hospitals. “Most people,” he said, “don’t want to put themselves in a situation where they have to change plans every year.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are harvesting the last fall crops from the 2014 growing season.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday in its last weekly crop update of the year that Kansas farmers are cutting their remaining row crops and moving cattle to crop residue for pasture.

The agency said 95 percent of the sorghum and 92 percent of the sunflowers have been harvested in Kansas. Cotton harvest is at 65 percent.

Pasture and range conditions were rated as 8 percent very poor, 16 percent poor, 43 percent fair, 31 percent good and 2 percent excellent. Stock water supplies are reported as adequate in 71 percent of the state.

KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — In the wake of clashes at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says new Justice Department guidance will aim to end racial profiling and ensure fair and effective policing.

Holder said in a speech Monday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta — where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor — that he will unveil details of the plan in the coming days.

The president instructed Holder to hold regional meetings on building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve after the conflicts in Ferguson. Monday’s meeting in Atlanta was the first.

Tensions between police and the community in Ferguson boiled over after a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager in August. Protests turned violent again last week, after a grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s death.

SALINA- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 4 p.m. on Monday in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Ford Expedition driven by Nathan E. Harwick, 33, Topeka, was eastbound on Interstate 70 a mile east of the Interstate 135 Junction.

The vehicle entered the median and came to a stop.

Harwick was transported to Salina Regional Health Center.

The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of incident.

TOPEKA, KAN. – A federal judge has found former Kansas City builder F. Jeffrey Miller violated the terms of his release from federal prison after hearing evidence Miller was involved in a new real estate scam, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Monday in a media release.

In a 16-page order dated Nov. 26, U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson cited evidence that Miller lied to his probation officer about his involvement with his son, Brandon, in a company called Tri-States Holding, LLC (TSH). She cited “substantial evidence about the fraudulent practices and transactions” by the company.

Miller, 53, will remain in custody awaiting sentencing. Miller was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and criminal contempt. In August 2012, he was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison. He began supervised release Jan. 10, 2014.

During sentencing hearings, prosecutors submitted evidence that Miller began planning the new business while he was in prison. He formed the new company with his 23-year-old son, Brandon. Although Brandon Miller was represented as the owner, his father controlled the company. The Millers claimed to be in business to buy, refurbish and sell houses. In fact, Judge Robinson said in her order, the business was engaged in a “contract for deed scam.”

The company purchased more than 40 houses at Jackson County, Mo., tax sales and then advertised the houses for sale to low-income people in the urban core of Kansas City. The company advertised home ownership for just $500 down, sweat equity of no more than $2,000 in the form of cosmetic repairs including painting and clean up, and then monthly payments of $399. The buyers signed contracts for purchase prices in the $35,000 range.

Prosecutors presented evidence the company failed to complete promised repairs, performing shoddy repairs or virtually no repairs at all and then harassed and threatened buyers who ceased to make payments.

Judge Robinson ruled Miller violated four conditions of his supervised release by:

Controlling the new company even though he was prohibited from working in any capacity involving authority in financial matters.
Telling his probation officer that that he was a mere laborer at the new company when in fact he controlled the company.
Making false monthly reports to the probation office that he was not committing any federal crimes.
Making threats of bodily harm to a woman who purchased a house from the new company.
Miller is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 15 in U.S. District Court in Topeka.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is investigating whether Graco took too long to report a safety defect in its child car seats.

Graco Children’s Products Inc., a division of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Inc., recalled more than six million car seats this year because their buckles could get stuck. That could put a child’s life at risk in an emergency. It is the largest child seat recall in U.S. history.

Federal rules require a manufacturer to report a safety defect within five days of becoming aware of it. If the investigation finds the company failed to report the defect in a timely manner, the company could face up to $35 million in fines.

A Graco representative could not be reached immediately for comment Monday.

By Bryan Thompson, KPR

TOPEKA — A battle over air pollution from power plants is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kansas and 20 other states contend the Environmental Protection Agency should have considered the costs of a 2011 rule, which requires coal-fired power plants to install new equipment to remove mercury and other toxins from their exhaust.

An appeals court held that the EPA didn’t have to consider the cost. The lower court ruling includes the following finding:

“EPA has explained why it concluded costs were not part of the ‘appropriate and necessary’ determination, and given Congress’s choice to leave the factors entering into that determination to EPA, petitioners, and our dissenting colleague, fail to demonstrate that EPA’s considered judgment about the factors to be considered was unlawful … and EPA did all that Congress required of it.”

However, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the states’ challenge.

During a teleconference last week, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said it’s a very narrow challenge, and one the agency expects to win.

“Next year is when the compliance comes around,” McCarthy said. “Folks are already actively working on that, and we certainly don’t expect those reductions to be delayed in any way.”

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the regulation will lead to higher costs for electricity.

“The EPA just flat ignored the cost of its new regulation,” Schmidt said. “In the real world, where Kansas homeowners and businesses live, the cost of electricity is always a relevant part of making decisions. The EPA cannot possibly have concluded that the benefits of its new regulation outweigh the costs, since it didn’t weigh the costs at all. I’m encouraged that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the states’ arguments that the EPA’s actions were unlawful.”

The case under appeal is Michigan v. EPA. Schmidt said oral arguments will be scheduled later this term, with a decision expected by June.