KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett addresses behavioral health advocates from across the state Thursday in Topeka. (Photos courtesy KDADS)
TOPEKA–Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Kari Bruffett on Thursday outlined the agency’s plans to revamp its behavioral health prevention efforts in order to provide more integrated care while strengthening behavioral health education and outreach.
”We know that behavioral health difficulties do not occur in a vacuum. They interact,” Secretary Bruffett said at a meeting of behavioral health advocates from across the state. ”Half of the individuals who enter our state hospitals for mental health treatment also have substance use difficulties. Those who struggle with problem gambling have higher rates of suicide than the rest of the population. To be successful, our approach needs to be more fully integrated.”
”We have made a decision to approach our prevention efforts comprehensively rather than in a piecemeal fashion as has been the case in the past,” the Secretary said.
In February, the agency issued a Request for Information (RFI) asking all of its current partners and other interested parties for ideas on how to create an integrated prevention and education system that works for all Kansans. RFI responses were due Tuesday, and after these are analyzed, the agency plans to issue one or more Requests for Proposal (RFI) to provide the newly revamped menu of services. The agency expects to award contracts for these services by June 30, 2015.
“Kansas is part of a nationwide effort. KDADS is following SAMHSA/HHS’ guidance in creating this integrated system, and we have invited our current partners to work with us on this project,” Secretary Bruffett said. “Data at both the state and national level underscore that now is the time to comprehensively address prevention efforts across the spectrum of behavioral health.”
”KDADS intends to integrate and innovate behavioral health prevention with outcome-based programs. We are doing this to eliminate duplicative efforts, reduce administrative costs and better leverage available resources,” the Secretary said. ”Focusing on our state’s needs, our intention is to provide better services to more people, and we welcome your participation in this effort.”
“As I am sure you are aware, some federal funding in the form of block grants has had restrictions attached to it in the past. We believe our restructuring will allow us to provide more efficient services,” the Secretary said.
In her remarks to advocates, Secretary Bruffett also outlined her agency’s diversion efforts.
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — A southern Kansas man has been sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison for the 2012 death of his girlfriend’s 18-month-old daughter.
KWCH-TV reports that a Butler County judge sentenced 31-year-old Justin Edwards on Thursday for aggravated battery, involuntary manslaughter and child abuse in the March 2012 death of Jayla Haag. Edwards entered a no contest plea in the case in January. He originally was charged with first-degree murder.
The girl’s injuries included a broken jaw, missing teeth that had been forcibly removed, severe head injuries and multiple bruises. She also was suffering from malnourishment and tested positive for methamphetamine.
Jayla’s mother, Alyssa Haag, previously pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in 2013.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A push by business and conservative groups in Kansas to rewrite laws on collective bargaining and public employees unions has stalled for now.
The state Senate Commerce Committee had a hearing Thursday on a bill to prohibit state and local government agencies from deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks.
The committee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill restricting collective bargaining between government agencies and their workers.
The committee was set to vote Friday on both measures, but Chairwoman and Olathe Republican Julia Lynn canceled the meeting.
Lynn said she’s not sure when the votes will occur and said House GOP leaders have signaled that they’re reluctant to tackle such issues.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Mark Hutton said he can’t guarantee action on the bills because he hasn’t seen them.
SALINA -Fire crews from across central Kansas were busy fighting a number of large and small rural grass fires on Wednesday.
This prompted Saline and other central Kansas counties to suspended controlled burning.
The largest fire on Wednesday was at Sioux Road and 2nd Avenue in McPherson County. Estimates suggest that fire burned from 200 to 600 acres.
Richard Baldwin, captain with the Galva Rural Fire District said his crew was located a couple of miles from the command post.
“One of the biggest challenges was vehicles getting stuck,” he said. “We were pulling a lot of vehicles out of the mud. The ground is wet in the fields and you don’t realized it until you drive up and sink in.”
Most of the fires were originally controlled burns that became unmanageable. However, Saline County Fire District 5 Chief David Turner said the fire at Simpson Road and McQuary started by a discarded cigarette.
The Saline County fire at Lightville and Hedberg consumed 15-20 acres according to District 2 Chief Jim Preston. “The fire was on the back side of White Cross Hill and we were on the scene for a couple of hours,” he said.
Saline County District 3 Chief Scott Abker was busy Thursday morning getting coordinates to determine the size of the fire at Lightville and Pleasant Hill Road. It was another controlled burn that had plenty of help but the wind caught some by surprise.
Will Fleetwood Mac release a new album with longtime singer & keyboardist Christine McVie? That’s a question on the minds of a lot of the band’s fans.
It’s no secret that the group has started amassing some material for a possible new record, but founding drummer Mick Fleetwood admits it may be a “couple of years” before he and his band mates will have the chance to complete the project since they’re currently focused on touring and will be for some time.
“This whole touring stuff is getting sort of totally, in a good way, out of control,” Fleetwood tells ABC Radio. “We’re going all over the world now, so we don’t quite know how we’re gonna finish this [album] out.”
Fleetwood Mac is in the middle of its second North American tour leg since Christine McVie officially rejoined the band last year. The current trek is scheduled to run through an April 14 concert in the Los Angeles area, and that will be followed by a European outing that runs from late May until the middle of July. The group also is expected to visit other parts of the world before wrapping up the tour.
As for the new music Fleetwood Mac has been preparing, Mick tells ABC Radio, “We’re building up this whole sort of dossier of material, a glut of stuff.” He explains that singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham “has a great chunk of wonderful songs, [most of which are] pretty flushed out and finished,” adding that the band also has “been in the studio with Christine in months gone by [and that] worked out amazingly well.”
Fleetwood says the only element that really is missing from the project is some new original songs from Stevie Nicks. For her part, Nicks told ABC Radio late last year that she was unsure whether, after the band wrapped up its tour, she would be willing to keep her solo career on hold and “sign up for another year of making a record.”
And what are Mick’s feelings about the chances for a new Fleetwood Mac album? “I hope it happens,” he says. “My inclination is, the music will not be wasted. It will come out one way or another. And I truly hope, and I quietly believe it will be Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie will do some lovely stuff and within the next couple of years we will get that done.”
Here are the remaining dates on Fleetwood Mac’s current North American tour:
3/12 — Oklahoma City, OK, Chesapeake Energy Arena
3/15 — Charlottesville, VA, John Paul Jones Arena
3/17 — Greensboro, NC, Greensboro Coliseum Complex
3/18 — Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena
3/21 — Miami, FL, American Airlines Arena
3/23 — Orlando, FL, Amway Center
3/25 — Atlanta, GA, Philips Arena
3/27 — St. Louis, MO, Scottrade Center
3/28 — Kansas City, MO, Sprint Center
3/31 — Wichita, KS, INTRUST Bank Arena
4/1 — Denver, CO, Pepsi Center
4/4 — Vancouver, BC, Canada, Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
4/6 — Bakersfield, CA, Rabobank Arena
4/7 — Oakland, CA, Oracle Arena
4/10 — Inglewood, CA, The Forum
4/11 — Las Vegas, NV, MGM Grand Garden Arena
4/14 — Inglewood, CA, The Forum
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center
Once again, the brutal language of racism tests our commitment to free speech.
Only a bigot could approve of the chant using the “N-word” sung by Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) members at the University of Oklahoma on a charter bus Saturday, loudly proclaiming African Americans would never be admitted to their fraternity chapter and gleefully mentioning lynching.
Consider the “song” in all its awful nature:
There will never be a nigger at SAE
There will never be a nigger at SAE
You can hang him from a tree
But he’ll never sign with me
There will never be a nigger at SAE
What could be worse?
How about this taking place on the same weekend the nation was commemorating the 50th anniversary of the famed civil rights confrontation at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge?
Awful. Disgusting. Repellent. Sickening.
But also, protected free speech.
The 10-second video clip was sent anonymously by email Sunday afternoon to the student newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, and to a campus organization. Within hours, it had the nation’s attention.
University president David Boren — a former governor and U.S. senator — was outraged. He quickly ordered the fraternity house vacated and closed, declaring that “effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between this University and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed.”
A day later, he expelled two students whom he identified as being in “leadership” roles connected to the obnoxious singing. And it’s there where President Boren crossed a clear constitutional line.
Condemning the song in the strongest possible way, at multiple occasions: Yes: Exactly the kind of response the First Amendment provides for — more speech to counter speech you don’t like.
Shutting down the frat house: The university’s Regents apparently own the building and may evict occupants. The national governing body of SAE, as a private operation, also had the right to end its affiliation and to close down its own local chapter.
But a host of cases reaching all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, some involving similarly repugnant behavior — a fraternity’s “ugly woman” contest, for example — say clearly that content-based punishments of individual speakers will not stand.
The former governor and U.S. senator said Monday that any punishments would be “carefully directed” to pass constitutional muster and cited his belief the singing students were creating a “hostile learning environment.” But saying it’s so doesn’t make it legal — or right.
Boren and a few scholars have raised the specter of potential civil rights violations or violation of the school’s student code of “rights and responsibilities,” and indirectly embraced the underlying logic of what courts have called “optimum conditions for learning” and a university’s “substantial interest in maintaining an educational environment free of discrimination and racism.”
But even those worthy elements run up against the core First Amendment principle that government may not punish anyone for the content of their speech or for having a view that many — or even most — find offensive.
Put most simply: We have the right to offend others and to freedom from the fear of being punished for expressing such views.
If the expulsions are challenged in court, the university will have the difficult task of proving that this one-time incident constituted a direct or pervasive threat or provocation, substantially affected the ability of OU students to get a good education, and that there were no other, more-narrowly focused actions than expulsion available to counter the negative impact. The student code would fall even more quickly before the First Amendment right of free speech — which cannot be signed away or overridden via a college rulebook.
Clearly, the public excoriation, rallies, marches, closing of the frat house and already announced plans for the university community to conduct meetings and seminars to put more emphasis on diversity, offer such alternative — and longer-lasting — remedies. And all of those are more First Amendment-oriented than expulsion.
Boren made it clear how he feels about the content of the SAE members’ speech:
“To those who have misused their free speech in such a reprehensible way, I have a message for you. You are disgraceful. You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves ‘Sooners.’ Real Sooners are not racist. Real Sooners are not bigots.”
A call for fairness and equality that follows in the path set out by those Selma marchers five decades ago — including the hope of a better future.
But can any real question remain that by expelling them, this public university wasn’t punishing the two students — and potentially more involved in the incident — for the content and viewpoint expressed in that reprehensible “song”?
Let’s not compound one wrong with another.
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Washington-baswed Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [email protected]
TOPEKA – A bill could create a new classification of vehicles in Kansas known as “autocycles.”
Proponents of House Bill 2044 say autocycles are neither cars nor motorcycles and need their own classification to protect drivers from breaking the law.
Autocycles are three-wheeled vehicles that weight about 1,200 pounds and have seats like a car, but the federal government classifies any vehicle with less than four wheels as a motorcycle. To operate autocycles in Kansas, drivers must have a motorcycle license, but proponents say the motorcycle license test isn’t helpful for operating autocycles because they aren’t driven the same way.
“It’s a requirement that makes absolutely no sense,” said Joel Sheltrown, vice president of governmental affairs for Elio Motors, a Phoenix company that plans to start making autocycles in 2016. “My customer base, a lot of them, don’t have motorcycles licenses and they’re not going to go out and rent a motorcycle, learn how to drive it, go down and take a test just so they can drive our vehicle, especially seniors.”
Sheltrown said about 18 states are working on legislation for autocycles and six states already passed laws for defining autocycles. HB 2044 passed the Kansas House last month by a 123-0 vote.
He said this bill would insure legislation is in place by the time Elio starts making autocycles next year. Otherwise, out-of-state drivers could run into trouble if they drive into a state like Kansas where a motorcycle license is required. He said drivers could face tickets or possibly get their vehicle impounded until they could prove they had a motorcycle license.
Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady (R-Palco) shared the same concern for autocycle drivers coming in from other states.
“If they were cruising down I-70 and pass into Kansas they’d automatically be breaking the law,” he said.
Couture-Lovelady supports the bill and said it wouldn’t have a fiscal effect. He says this industry has potential to grow as the vehicles from Elio would cost about $6,800 and get 84 miles to the gallon on the highway.
“It’s kind of an emerging industry across the country,” Couture-Lovelady said. “There’s a lot of folks that could really benefit from this.”
Sheltrown said there are about a dozen people in Kansas who drive Slingshots, an autocycle made by Polaris. Nationally, he said Elio has more than 40,000 pre-sold reservations on its autocycle.
Sen. Mike Petersen (R-Wichita), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said it would meet Thursday to discuss the bill and work out senators’ questions.
Kelsie Jennings is a University of Kansas senior from Olathe majoring in journalism.
Twilla Darlene (Lyon) Combust Kraus, 90 years of age, passed away March 11, 2014 at Rhode Island Suites, Ransom, Kansas, after a year-long battle with cancer. She was born April 24, 1924, to Frank and Mabel (Wood) Lyon at the family home in rural Trego County, Kansas.
Twilla graduated from Ransom High School in 1943. On June 26, 1943, she married Merwin J. Combest. Two children were born to this union, Signe and Dirk. Merwin passed away April 21, 1947. Twilla then married Cyril F. Kraus on November 15, 1948. Their union brought three children into this world, Shirley, Marie and Bradley. Cyril passed away December 27, 1999. Twilla was a seamstress, quilter and loved to crochet.
Survivors include her children, Signe (Gerald) Barnes of McCracken, Shirley Stegman of Overbrook, Marie (Joe) Ney of Hanston, Bradley Kraus of Dodge City, and daughter-in-law Margie Combest of Dodge City; 14 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and sister-in-law Kathryn Kraus of Grainfield. She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Mabel Lyon; siblings, Merrit, Joe, Pansy, Freida Stowe, and Lorena Reeves; son Dirk Combest, daughter-in-law Kathie Combest, son-in-law Leon Stegman, two great-grandchildren, Aaron Hargett and Austen Ney.
Viewing will be Friday, March 13, 10:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M. at Fitzgerald Funeral Home, Ness City.
Vigil service will be Friday, March 13, 7:00 P.M. at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Ransom.
Funeral Mass will be Saturday, March 14, 10:00 A.M. at the Church in Ransom followed by burial at St. Aloysius Cemetery, Ransom.
Memorial contributions may be given to Go-Getters Senior Center, Ransom; St. Aloysius Church; or the donor’s choice.
Words of sympathy and support may be left for the family by clicking on the “Sign Guest Book” link above.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – His music stands as a soundtrack of what was being played on Country Radio in the 1990s, and two decades later, John Berry is breathing new life into his heartfelt lyrics with the release of Songs and Stories, a program style book in which the veteran performer talks about the meaning of some of his favorite songs – from his own pen, as well as others.
The book begins with “Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye,” which the South Carolina native shares a story about a conversation he had with another friend who sought John’s marital advice- fortunately the couple is still together. 2015 marks twenty years since the release of the single, which peaked at No. 1 on the Radio & Records Country Singles chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. Other Berry radio staples included in the book include “If I Had Any Pride Left At All” and “Your Love Amazes Me,” which earned the soulful singer his first chart-topper in 1994.
But, Songs and Stories is about much more than just simply hit records. Take, for example, “Salvation,” a song that was included on his 1999 Lyric Street album Wildest Dreams, and actually became a favorite of many truck drivers going to and from their destinations at night. There’s his touching story of “O Holy Night,” and the effect it has had on his family – as well as “Annie’s Song,” the epic 70s ballad from John Denver that served as such an inspiration to Berry. He also talks about leaving the backstage area following a Denver show much too early – which still stands as one of his biggest regrets.
Also included in the collection are rare photos of John, wife Robin, and their family, as well as his father Jim and mother Marie, who both figure prominently into his thoughts on “Forty Again.”
Songs and Stories will be available via the singer’s web site, www.JohnBerry.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation repealing a portion of Obamacare that prohibits people from using their medical savings account funds to buy over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The bill was cosponsored by Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Angus King (I-Maine).
“This prohibition in Obamacare restricts Americans’ choice and flexibility in how they manage their health care expenses and adds yet another burden on physicians,” said Roberts. “Rather than promoting cost-effectiveness and accessibility, this burdensome provision of Obamacare directs people to potentially more costly, less convenient, and more time-consuming alternatives. It should be repealed, and folks should be allowed to spend their FSAs as they see fit.”
The legislation, S. 709, repeals section 9003 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), restoring the ability of those participating in a medical savings account, such as a Flexible Savings Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA), to use the funds to purchase OTC medications.
Under current law, plan participants may no longer use funds from these accounts to purchase OTC medications, unless they have a prescription for the medication.
Nearly 50 million Americans participate in FSAs and other health savings accounts. The accounts allow individuals to set aside their own money each year on a pre-tax basis to pay for health care expenses, such as co-payments, and other health care expenses not covered by insurance, prescriptions or over-the-counter medications.
Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.).
A broad coalition of groups support this legislation, including the AARP, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the American Academy of Dermatology Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Society of Association Executives, Anthem, Inc., the Associated Builders and Contractors Association, the BlueCross BlueShield Association, Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the Food Marketing Institute, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Community Pharmacists Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Grocers Association, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Senator Roberts is a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance. He is the co-chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.
Hays High School qualified 19 students for state after placing in every event category at regional journalism competition Feb. 26 at Fort Hays State University.
The contest, which is sponsored by the Kansas Scholastic Press Association, featured several area schools ranging from class 1A to 4A. It was one of five regional contests held throughout the state. Hays competed in the Class 3A/4A division.
To qualify for state, students must place either first, second or third or be awarded one of three honorable mentions. Because Hays had multiple qualifiers in numerous categories, the 19 students who qualified will account for 36 total entries at the state level.
“Obviously, I’m very pleased with our performance,” journalism instructor Bill Gasper said. “We have a lot of talented students in the journalism program and they performed very well. I am very proud of each and every one of them who competed and qualified.”
State competition will take place on May 2 in Lawrence at which students will compete against other regional winners.
Individual and team qualifiers include:
Individual Entries
Senior Sarah Rooney: Copy Editing—3rd
Sophomore Kara Brooks: Copy Editing—HM
Junior Nikki Vuong: Sports Writing—HM and News Writing—HM
Junior Morgan Klaus: Sports Writing—HM, Yearbook Sports Writing—HM, Sports Photography—1st and Student Life Photography—2nd
Junior Sylina Zhang: Editorial Cartoon—1st, Editorial Writing—3rd, Headline Writing and Design—1st, Newspaper Page Design—3rd
Senior Rachael Arthur: Editorial Cartoon—3rd
Junior Kirsten Prindle: Yearbook Copy Writing—2nd and Cutline Writing – 3rd
Sophomore Raina Basso: Yearbook Copy Writing—HM
Junior Hannah Baxter: News Writing—HM
Junior Brianna Mathias: Feature Writing—3rd, Editorial Writing—HM and Newspaper Page Design—HM
Junior Chelsey Augustine: Cutline Writing—2nd
Junior Kylie Brown: Yearbook Sports Writing—3rd and Advertising—2nd
Senior Cheyenne Schwab: Academics Photography—2nd and Yearbook Layout—3rd
Sophomore Tiana Lawson: Academic Photography—3rd and Student Life Photography—1st
Senior Thea Ferland: Headline Writing and Design—3rd
Senior Jasmine Lawson: Infographics—1st, Photo Illustration—3rd and Yearbook Layout—1st
Junior Brenden Koenigsman: Infographics—3rd
Junior Gage Phillips: Photo Illustration—2nd
Junior Taylor DeBoer: Sports Photography—3rd
Team Entries
Juniors Morgan Klaus and Kylie Brown: Yearbook Theme & Graphics—2nd
Sophomore Tiana Lawson and Senior Jasmine Lawson: Yearbook Theme & Graphics—3rd
Hani Chahine places heated coals atop a hookah pipe for a customer at the Hookah House lounge in Topeka. Credit Andy Marso / Heartland Health Monitor
By ANDY MARSO
Kansas legislators are trying to determine what they should do, if anything, to regulate hookahs.
But first, several of them have to determine exactly what hookah is.
“Having lived a very sheltered life in southeast Kansas, I had to Google this to even find out what it was,” Rep. Jim Kelly, a Republican from Independence, said during an informational hearing on the subject last week.
Hookahs are water pipes used to smoke flavored tobacco.
To Hani Chahine, they’re also a focal point for social gatherings and commerce.
Chahine and his family own hookah lounges in Topeka and Lawrence, two of only a handful across the state.
The idea for the business, he said, was born out of the lack of social options for people over 17 but under 21. Growing up in Lawrence, he said he and his brothers grew tired of hanging out with friends at bowling alleys and movie theaters.
So they invited friends over to their house, where their family had hookah pipes. Their friends were intrigued, the brothers saw a possible business niche and they convinced their father to invest in them.
“It’s just our way of having fun without including alcohol,” Chahine said Monday while working at the Hookah House lounge in Topeka. “Police never have to worry about someone driving drunk.”
Appealing to youths?
Public health advocates have other concerns, though, including the appeal that hookah has for the younger crowd.
Susan Mosier, the acting secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, estimated that almost one-third of Kansans age 18 to 24 have tried hookah.
“As a public health practitioner, I am concerned about the health risks of hookah use because of the toxins that users are exposed to, as well as hookahs serving as another type of tobacco to which children and young adults will become addicted,” Mosier said in a memo to the House Health and Human Services Committee. “The sweet flavors and the social aspect of hookah smoking are appealing to many young Kansans.”
In addition to Mosier, representatives from the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and Won Choi, a doctor from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, expressed concerns about hookah.
They included the length of smoking time during a hookah session and how much exposure to nicotine that might cause, the exposure to secondhand smoke for others in the lounge and the possibility of patrons spreading diseases like flu as they pass around the hookah mouthpiece.
Hookah lounge owners say that all depends on the choices of their customers.
Mohammed Iskandrani, owner of Aladdin’s Café and hookah lounge in Lawrence, said he offers some brands of tobacco with little to no nicotine, pulling one brand off the shelf that contained 0.05 percent of the addictive agent.
He also offers those who come into the lounge their own disposable plastic mouthpiece.
“It’s up to them if they want to use it or not,” Iskandrani said. “We can’t force them.”
Chahine’s family also offers the disposable mouthpieces, which come individually wrapped in plastic, at its lounges.
“It’s a standard, common-sense thing,” Chahine said. “I’ve never seen anybody that doesn’t offer it.”
Iskandrani said he moved to address the issue of secondhand smoke years ago, after the city of Lawrence banned smoking in restaurants. At that point he moved the hookah lounge next door to another room with an entrance and ventilation system separate from the cafe.
Likewise, Chahine said his family’s establishments are “smoke shops,” not eating establishments or stores, and so when it comes to secondhand smoke, patrons know what risks they’re taking.
“People are here to smoke,” he said. “So if they’re not smoking, what are they here for?”
Iskandrani said he’s considering closing his smoke shop because it requires staffing at later hours than his café and it’s not particularly lucrative under current state and local regulations.
On the radar
Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who chairs the House health committee, said there’s no bill to change hookah laws right now.
“For me, it’s just kind of come on my radar,” Hawkins said. “I didn’t even know what it was.”
He was not alone.
Rep. Kevin Jones, a Republican from Wellsville, said he found an unidentified “device” at a property he manages and later learned it was a hookah pipe.
“Where in the world is the history of this?” Jones asked Choi. “Where did it come from? Did somebody just come up with it?”
Choi said the pipes originated in the Middle East.
“In this country, the history is obviously fairly recent,” Choi said. “But there is a long history in the Middle East and India, that they use it in the culture.”
Jones also asked whether the devices can be used to smoke marijuana, and Choi confirmed that they can be.
Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Republican from Derby who is one of the Legislature’s youngest members, was the only member of the House health committee to profess some prior knowledge of hookah.
“I’m actually quite familiar with it,” Carpenter said at the end of last week’s briefing. “I’ve got a lot of college buddies.”
No one from the hookah industry was present at the hearings.
Chahine said any legislators who want to learn more are welcome to stop by the shop in Topeka, which sits about two miles from the Statehouse next to the Washburn University campus.
Along with the rows of tobacco and pipes, the store features a wall-to-wall mural depicting a desert scene painted by local artist Thomas Richmond and a flat-screen television connected to several video game systems.
After Chahine used tongs to place heated coals atop a hookah pipe for a customer, he said he understood the need for some regulation of the state’s small but growing hookah industry.
“It needs to be (restricted to) people who actually know what they’re doing,” Chahine said.
