TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The plaintiffs in a school funding lawsuit have filed a motion to block the governor’s new school funding plan.
The motion was filed Thursday and calls on the court to bar the state from enacting the law overhauling the way the state distributes aid to schools. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed the plan into law Wednesday. His office referred questions to the attorney general’s office.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general says the administration will defend the rewritten school finance law in the courts.
The three-judge panel has ruled that it may move to preserve status quo and will hear arguments for blocking the law May 7.
The law scraps the state’s school funding formula and gives each district a fixed amount of money for the next two years.
NASHVILLE (AP) – The Academy of Country Music will give special awards to top musicians for all the awards they’ve gotten from the Academy of Country Music. Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Taylor Swift and Brooks and Dunn will each get a 50th Anniversary Milestone Award during the ACM Awards on April 19. Brooks will be honored for being the most awarded ACM Entertainer of the Year. Chesney’s award is for winning the first fan-voted Entertainer of the Year award. Lambert’s award is for being the most awarded solo female artist. McEntire wins for being the most awarded Female Vocalist of the Year. Strait will be honored for winning ACM Awards over four decades. Swift’s award is for being the youngest ACM Entertainer of the Year, in 2011. Brooks and Dunn will be recognized for being the artist with the most ACM Awards, at 27.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts Institute of Technology aviation analyst says U.S. flight regulations make it unlikely that a single jetliner pilot could barricade himself or herself inside the cockpit.
MIT expert John Hansman tells The Associated Press that U.S. safety procedures require two people in an airliner’s cockpit at all times. Hansman says if the pilot or co-pilot of an American carrier leaves the flight deck for any reason, a flight attendant goes in.
Hansman says the regulations are designed to prevent a scenario in which the remaining pilot becomes incapacitated and can’t open the door.
He spoke after European investigators said Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz barricaded himself inside the cockpit of an Airbus jetliner Tuesday and deliberately crashed it into a mountainside in France, killing all 150 passengers and crew aboard.
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — The owner of a Salina mill has proposed a multimillion-dollar plan to transform the H.D. Lee Flour Mill and Grain Elevator into either townhomes or hotel rooms, with a restaurant 100 feet off the ground.
The Salina Journal reports that 63-year-old Bob Brown, who bought the mill nearly two years ago, has teamed up with others to revitalize the area in north Salina where the mill is located.
A conceptual video from local visualization artist Mike Munson and David Exline, from the California-based Exline Design & Architecture, shows what the mill may look like after redevelopment. The video has garnered over 13,000 hits on Exline’s and Brown’s Facebook pages as of Wednesday, according to Brown.
The next step in the project is collecting $300,000 to $500,000 of private seed money to look at the mill’s structure and make sure that is sound.
Do 150,000 Kansans get health coverage or not? It’s a moral question and a political one.
The answer should be an easy “yes.” So far, the Kansas Legislature has said “no,” but there is still time in the current legislative session to change the answer. True, lawmakers have their hands full trying to resolve a very serious budget crisis, but apart from that, no issue carries greater importance than expanding eligibility for Medicaid to more Kansas citizens.
Duane Goossen
Packed house public hearings in Topeka last week highlighted the advantages, chief of which is that many Kansans in every part of the state will gain health coverage. That alone ought to be enough to convince lawmakers. Kansans are good-hearted people who help each other. Here’s a chance to show respect and care to fellow citizens.
Despite what many may think, it’s currently very difficult for an adult to receive Medicaid services in Kansas. Most childless adults cannot qualify at all, regardless of income. Adults with children must have an annual income (for a family of four) below $9,000 to qualify. Expanded eligibility would move that limit up, and as one proponent suggests, “with one stroke, you could reduce the number of uninsured in this state almost by half.”
Expanding Medicaid eligibility also has significant economic benefits for Kansas.
When uninsured people show up sick in emergency rooms, hospitals are required to serve them, but get no compensation, which either raises hospital costs for everybody else, or creates financial distress for the hospital. For some hospitals in Kansas, expanded Medicaid eligibility could mean the difference between staying open or not.
At the start, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost to expand eligibility, bringing an estimated $400 million a year to the Kansas economy. Do our federal taxes go down if we turn that money away? No, they stay in Washington or go to some other state. We keep paying the same, but get less benefit for our tax dollars.
Eventually, Kansas must cover 10 percent of the cost, but that is still an incredibly good deal. What if the federal government would offer Kansas $400 million new dollars each year for highways if Kansas would provide a $40 million match? Would the Legislature take the deal? In a heartbeat.
Virtually the entire health community in Kansas supports this, and that broad in-state support was obvious at the public hearings. The hospitals have even offered to pay for the 10 percent match that Kansas must eventually provide.
So what’s the holdup?
Medicaid expansion is tied up with the struggle over Obamacare. States get to choose whether or not to implement an expansion, but that choice is made possible through Obamacare. In the hearings last week, a small collection of opponents expressed dark worries about might happen if Kansas gives ground to Obamacare. The opponents were all recruited and organized by Americans for Prosperity, an organization that has vigorously fought Obamacare nationally. Opponents offered no alternatives for how 150,000 Kansans could gain better health coverage; in fact, some even tried to suggest that they were better off without insurance.
Lawmakers must choose. Should they listen to the Kansas health community, pull $400 million a year into the Kansas economy, and insure many Kansans? Or should they side with organizations fighting Obamacare even though this portion of the national health law has direct advantages?
Twenty-eight states have already made the decision to expand Medicaid eligibility. More will follow. Be practical, lawmakers. For the benefit of everyone in our state, find a way to get that federal money into the Kansas economy and obtain health insurance for more Kansans.
Duane Goossen is a Senior Fellow at the Kansas Center for Economic Growth and formerly served 12 years as Kansas Budget Director.
Twenty-one members of the Hays Wrestling Club have qualified for the 2015 Kansas State Wrestling Folkstyle Championship Tournament on Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29, at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka.
To qualify for the state tournament wrestlers must place in the top 4 at the District Tournament, after previously qualifying at the Sub-District Tournament. The Hays Wrestling Club had 34 wrestlers participate at the District Tournament in Dodge City last weekend and 21 of those are moving on the state tournament. They are as follows:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says proposed new federal rules would protect consumers from being stuck in a cycle of debt. He also warns Republicans that he will veto attempts to unravel regulations that govern the financial industry.
Obama says the Republican budget would make it harder for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to do its job. The White House released excerpts of remarks Obama planned to deliver later Thursday in Alabama.
Obama’s remarks come on the same day the consumer agency is announcing its proposal to set standards on payday lenders, a multibillion-dollar industry that has historically been regulated only at the state level.
Obama says the idea behind the proposal is simply that a lender should first make sure that a borrower can afford to pay the money back.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Jesse Romo, the director of aviation for the Kansas Department of Transportation, will become the director of the Manhattan Regional Airport next month.
Manhattan officials announced Thursday that Romo will replace Peter VanKuren on April 27.
VanKuren oversaw a period of growth at the Manhattan airport, which served more than 125,000 passengers last year while providing twice-daily flights to and from Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports. The airport also recently completed the first of a two-phase terminal expansion.
Romo has worked for the state since 2006. He has a master’s degree in business administration in aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Romo is a member of the American Association of Airport Executives and is a commercial pilot.
The Doors’ 1967 self-titled album is among the latest recordings to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s memorable debut effort is one of 25 recordings from various genres chosen for the registry this year, each selected for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
In a statement, the Library of Congress notes that although The Doors were not “as overtly political as some of their contemporaries, [they] still pushed artistic, sexual and psychological boundaries.”
Among the songs from the album singled out as significant are “Light My Fire,” “Break on Through (to the Other Side)” and the ominous epic “The End.”
Other recordings that also selected for the National Recording Registry this year include Joan Baez’s 1960 self-titled album, Ben E. King’s 1961 hit “Stand by Me,” The Righteous Brothers’ classic 1964 tune “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” Sly and the Family Stone’s 1969 album Stand! and Radiohead’s acclaimed 1997 record OK Computer.
TOPEKA – Although powdered alcohol is considered legal according to recent federal regulation, the Kansas House passed a ban on the sale and service of it during the Wednesday session with a preliminary vote of 67-53.
House Bill 2208 defines powdered alcohol as “alcohol that is prepared in a powdered or crystal form for either direct use or for reconstitution in a nonalcoholic liquid.”
The Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade bureau approved the sale of Palcohol, a brand of powdered alcohol, earlier this month. According to the brand’s website, it will be sold in pouches of powder that are equivalent to one shot of alcohol.
HB 2208 was introduced in February, and the House Federal and State Affairs Committee recommended that this legislation be passed.
At the committee hearing on the bill, representatives from Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association and the Kansas Licensed Beverage Association spoke in support of the bill. These proponents questioned the safety of powdered alcohol and the potential for minors to use it.
There were no neutral or opponent testimonies on the bill.
Although there were no opponent testimonies at the committee hearing, Rep. Brett Hildabrand (R-Shawnee) spoke out against the bill on his Twitter account after the ban passed, saying he voted against HB 2208 because the legislature should not attack free market products such as alcohol.
Rep. Joseph Scapa (R-Wichita) voted in favor of HB 2208 and expressed concerns about the potential dangers of powdered alcohol. Scapa said powdered alcohol is “unpredictable,” and he said people could consume it by snorting the powder or sprinkling it on food.
The Palcohol website said snorting the product “really burns. Imagine sniffing liquid vodka. Second, it’s impractical. It takes approximately 60 minutes to snort the equivalent of one shot of vodka.”
According to a fiscal note from the Kansas Department of Revenue, the bill would have no fiscal effect on the agency.
Alyssa Scott is a University of Kansas junior from Wichita majoring in journalism and French.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials plan to scrutinize the safety and evidence behind alternative remedies like Zicam and Cold-Eeze, so-called homeopathic products that are protected by federal law, but not accepted by mainstream medicine.
The Food and Drug Administration announced that it will hold a two-day meeting next month on homeopathic medicines, which have long occupied a place on the fringes of U.S. health care. Similar to dietary supplements, homeopathic products are not required to prove they are safe or effective before being sold on the market. But unlike supplements, homeopathic medicines can state that they are designed to treat specific medical conditions.
According to a list of questions published online, the FDA will ask meeting attendees whether there is data to “better assess the risks and benefits” of homeopathic medicines.
NASHVILLE (AP) – Joe Bonsall of The Oak Ridge Boys says getting into the Country Music Hall of Fame is the biggest thing ever to happen to them. His bandmate, Jim Allen, says he’s only seen tears in the eyes of fellow Oak Ridge Boy Richard Sterban twice: when they joined the Grand Ole Opry and when they found out they’re going into the hall of fame. Jim Ed Brown and The Browns will also be inducted. Brown says it’s an honor he’s been dreaming of for years but never knew if it would happen. Guitarist Grady Martin, who died in 2001, is the final inductee. He played on songs like “El Paso” by Marty Robbins, Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” and Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again.” The induction ceremony will be later this year in Nashville.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Reno County is buying equipment that will vacuum-seal clothing used by inmates to keep the county’s new jail smelling good.
County commissioners on Tuesday approved spending more than $10,000 to buy the CPI Guardian Inmate Clothing Storage System.
Sheriff Randy Henderson says the machine will seal clothing people are wearing when they arrive at the jail before they are issued jail clothing. He says the vacuum also will kill bacteria on the clothes.
The Hutchinson News reports the idea for the vacuum-sealing came after a committee studying a possible Reno County jail visited the Ford County jail and noticed the lack of odor.
