OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The families of three people who were shot to death outside two Jewish sites in Kansas are planning a week to remember and heal.

The week of events, called SevenDays: Make a Ripple, Change the World, will be April 7-13.

The events will remember 69-year-old William Corporan and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood, who died last April in a shooting at the Jewish Community Center, and 53-year-old Terri LaManno, who was shot to death at Village Shalom in Overland Park.

The families said they hope the week will help people overcome acts of hate and embrace diversity.

The Kansas City Star reports  relatives announced the events Tuesday, the same day a judge ruled that the suspected shooter, Frazier Glenn Miller, will stand trial for capital murder.

WABAUNSEE – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 4 a.m. on Sunday in Wabaunsee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Jeep SUV driven by Russell Scott Coleman, 28, Junction City, was west bound on Kansas 18 one mile east of Wabaunsee. The vehicle left the roadway and struck an embankment.

Coleman was transported to Stormont Vail.
The reported it was uncertain if he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

By Amelia Arvesen
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA – In effort to bring horse racing back to Kansas, horse racers, breeders and ranchers want to see the Woodlands Racetrack in Wyandotte County reopened.

In a Thursday hearing, advocates of Senate Bill 192 said lower taxes on slot machines operating at horse tracks would revitalize the industry. The tax reduction from 40-to-22 percent would provide greater incentive for investment in the Leavenworth facility that has sat vacant for seven years, Republican Sen. Steve Fitzgerald’s district.

“Folks actively engaged in racing today are doing so outside the state of Kansas, fostering none of the economic benefits associated with a vibrant horse-racing culture,” Fitzgerald said.

Currently, horse racers must travel to Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and many other states to compete.

Proponents of the legislation said a racetrack cannot afford to stay open with the current Kansas tax rate. Oklahoma horse racetracks pay between 10 and 30 percent on gaming tax revenue, according to the American Gaming Association.

In Kansas, state-owned casinos are taxed 22 percent under current law. Whitney Damron with the Kansas Entertainment, LLC, said reopening the racetrack would jeopardize the viability of casinos such as the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway located six miles from Woodlands Racetrack.

“Changing the rules…puts us at a competitive disadvantage and risks future investment that we have indicated we would like to see made at that facility,” Damron said.

A study by Oxford Economics found that three commercial casinos contributed more than $672 million to the Kansas economy and supported more than 4,000 jobs in 2013.

SB 192 would not require additional costs from state agencies, according to the fiscal note. However, because a market study has not been conducted a full revenue estimation was not provided.

Proponents have attempted to pass this bill for several years. No action was taken Thursday. The Federal and State Affairs Committee has not scheduled to revisit the bill next week.

Amelia Arvesen is a University of Kansas senior from San Ramon, Calif., majoring in journalism

By JIM MCLEAN
Bills that would further tighten eligibility for public assistance programs will be among the first that Kansas lawmakers consider this week when they return to the Capitol from a short mid-session break.

The bills — House Bill 2381 — and Senate Bill 256 ­— would write into state law several controversial administrative changes made in recent years as part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s efforts to move people from welfare to work.

The bills would codify and in some cases expand limits on eligibility for programs that provide cash assistance and child-care subsidies. They also would prohibit spending public money to increase participation in the food stamp program.

Officials at the Kansas Department for Children and Families didn’t immediately respond to requests for information about the measures, which face opposition from several social service organizations.

Christie Appelhanz, vice president of public affairs for Kansas Action for Children, said the bills expand policies that already have reduced the number of children eligible for assistance.

“Poor Kansas children cannot afford to wait for basic necessities,” Appelhanz said in testimony pre-filed with the committee.

Brownback has defended the changes in welfare policy, saying they’re aimed at pushing non-disabled Kansans off the welfare rolls into jobs. He touted the strategy in a commercial during his re-election campaign.

The claim in the commercial referred to a reduction in the number of Kansans enrolled in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. At the time, DCF officials said that TANF enrollment had fallen by 54 percent, dropping from 38,963 in the 2011 budget year to 17,681 in the 2014 budget year.

The number of low-income parents — single mothers, mostly — receiving monthly child care subsidy payments dropped by 27 percent during the same four-year period, according to the agency.

“We’re seeing individuals moving out of poverty through employment,” Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, said at the time.

Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, took issue with the commercial, saying that cutting the number of Kansans on public assistance wasn’t the same as reducing poverty.

Cotsoradis cited the increasing percentage of Kansas children receiving free or reduced-price lunches at school as evidence that Brownback’s policies were taking a toll on poor families.

“So here we have more kids relying on free and reduced school meals, and at the same time we’re seeing significant declines in the numbers of families that are accessing TANF and child care subsidies,” Cotsoradis said. “I don’t see how that’s good news. It means fewer poor people are receiving services that are meant to lift them out of poverty.”

Brownback administration policies also have raised the eligibility bar for participation in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

One of those changes took place in 2013, when DCF dropped its participation in a federal grant program designed to help poor families apply for food stamps.

“We simply do not believe taxpayer dollars should be used to recruit people to be on welfare,” Freed said at the time.

The bills under consideration this week would expand that policy by prohibiting the spending of any state or federal money on SNAP outreach.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have charged three men in an armed robbery and are investigating whether the crime is connected to another holdup in which a deputy was wounded.

The Wyandotte County prosecutor’s office said 24-year-old Dyron King, 35-year-old Cecil Meggerson and 18-year-old Charles Bowser were charged Friday with Tuesday’s robbery of a Family Dollar store in Kansas City, Kansas. It wasn’t immediately clear if the two suspects from Kansas City, Kansas, and one from Kansas City, Missouri, had attorneys. Bond has been set at $1 million.

Authorities also are investigating ties to other recent robberies in Kansas and Missouri, including one this past week at a 7-Eleven in Kansas City, Kansas. Wyandotte County officials say an off-duty deputy was shot and critically wounded when he walked in on the robbery.

PRATT – One person died in a small plane crash Saturday afternoon in Pratt County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported the 1995 fixed wing RV6 piloted by Harrison D. Rosenbaum, 85, Pratt, was coming in to land northbound, two miles south of South East 60 Avenue just east of South East 20 Avenue on a private landing strip.

The plane made contact with the ground, went off the east side of the runway and overturned in a pasture.

Rosenbaum was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Sedgwick County Forensic Center.

The KHP reported he was not wearing a safety restraint at the time of the crash.

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PRATT – One person died in a small plane crash on Saturday afternoon in Pratt County.
Law enforcement authorities reported the crash occurred two miles south of South East 60 Avenue just east of South East 20 Avenue on a private landing strip.

Check Hays Post for additional details as they become available.