DODGE CITY – Law enforcement authorities in Ford County are investigating a string of a dozen residential burglaries.

According to a media release, just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, police officers and deputies were dispatched to the 2100 block of Fairway for a reported residential burglary.

As officers were investigating this incident they received more reports of burglaries in the area. Officers searched the area and just before 5a.m., officers found a suspect in the alley east of McCoy Street and after a brief foot chase he was captured and arrested in the 2000 Block of Fairway.

He was arrested for the following alleged crimes
: Aggravated Burglary, 
Theft,
 and Criminal Damage
.

The suspect’s name is being withheld pending the filing of formal charges with the Ford County Attorney.

Upon further investigation a search warrant was obtained for 3208 Louise in Dodge City and on Wednesday, The Dodge City Police Department Special Operations Response Team executed the search warrant and arrested 2 suspects on warrants unrelated to the burglary spree.

At this time the investigation continues into this burglary spree according to Chief of Police 
Craig Mellecker.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A newspaper is reporting that email records show David Kensinger, Gov. Sam Brownback’s former chief of staff, continues to have influence on the administration even after he became a lobbyist.

The Brownback administration disagrees with that contention. The governor said in October he rarely speaks with Kensinger about policy.

The Wichita Eagle reports it requested all emails between the governor’s office staff and Kensinger since he left the administration in 2012. However, the administration cited several exemptions in withholding some emails and redacting others.

The emails show Kensinger was consulted on several matters, such as a bill seeking state control over federal health dollars.

Kensinger did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press Thursday seeking comment.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man has been sentenced for the second time to life in prison without parole in the death of his wife more than 10 years ago.

Martin Miller was sentenced Wednesday for the strangulation death of 46-year-old Mary Miller at their home in Lawrence in 2004. He was convicted in 2005 but the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that he should get a new trial based on an erroneous jury instruction.

Martin was convicted a second time in April.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports prosecutors argued that Miller strangled his wife because he was having an affair and wanted to collect $300,000 in life insurance.

The defense contended Mary Miller died of natural causes. His attorney said he would file a notice of appeal within 14 days.

Great Bend Post

GREAT BEND – Law enforcement authorities in Great Bend have made an arrest in connection with a fire on Monday.

Police reported the Great Bend Fire Department was dispatched just before 10 p.m. on Monday to fire in a wheat field in the 1000 block of the 281 Bypass.

As police officers arrived on scene, two juveniles were seen running from the immediate area of the fire.

One of the juveniles was soon apprehended and detained by Sergeant Jay Bachar of the Police Department.

During the course of the investigation it was discovered that the juveniles were involved in the intentional setting of the fire.

The suspect was placed under arrest for arson and obstruction of justice.

A second juvenile was later located by officers and arrested.

Due to their ages, the Police Department will not release their names.

The Great Bend Police Department is urging parents to make sure their children understand the gravity of what many kids consider pranks.

Chief Cliff Couch said, “All the recent acts of vandalism in Great Bend have caused a great deal of anxiety, inconvenience, and financial loss for the citizens who were victimized by them.”

“This deliberately set fire could have caused all those things and more. In the worst-case scenario, it could have cost someone their livelihood and even their life. These acts are all unacceptable and the Police Department is devoting considerable resources toward ensuring that the perpetrators are held responsible.”

NEVADA, Mo. -A Kansas man was seriously injured in an accident just after 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Vernon County, Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Dodge Caliber driven by Billy W. Willett, 34, Fort Scott, was traveling on U.S. 54 at Deerfield.

The driver failed to stop at a stop sign and pulled into the path of a semi.

Willett and a passenger Phillip R. Mitchell, 34, Fort Scott, were transported to Nevada Regional Medical Center.

Mitchell was reported in serious condition according to the MSHP.

The semi driver Darrell J. Schneider, 52, Olpe, was not injured.

They were not wearing seat belts according to the MSHP

By DAVE RANNEY 

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Republican from Shawnee, said the fee would generate between $18 million and $24 million annually.

The money, she said, would be deposited in a fund that would be used to offset costs associated with the state’s Medicaid program and its implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“We are doing this not because of the budget hole,” Pilcher-Cook said Wednesday, referring to the Legislature’s ongoing debate over how to fill a more than $400 million gap in the state’s budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

“We are doing this because of the increased costs that Obamacare has put on the state, and because of the costs of our managing Medicaid,” she said.

The fee, Pilcher-Cook said, would be retroactive, dating back to Jan. 1, 2015, and would be paid by the insurance companies currently selling plans on the marketplace.

“Whether that (fee) is passed on to the customer would be up to the insurance companies,” she said.

The fee, Pilcher-Cook said, would be collected by the Kansas Insurance Department.

The marketplace was established as part of the Affordable Care Act to provide access to health insurance plans for individuals and businesses. Nearly 100,000 Kansans purchased insurance through the marketplace for 2015.

Senate Bill 309, introduced Tuesday, will be the subject of a hearing tentatively scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Statehouse.

In Kansas, three companies sell plans on the state’s federally administered online marketplace: Coventry Health Care of Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas.

Federal law allows states to assess fees on plans sold through state-administered marketplaces. Whether states would be allowed to do the same with plans sold on federally administered sites — like the one in Kansas — is an open question.

Pilcher-Cook she was unaware of any other state having done what she’s proposed.

Also unclear is whether the federal government will allow the state to collect a fee on marketplace plans that it wouldn’t collect on those sold outside the marketplace or offered by employers.

“I don’t know if we can charge a fee on one and not the other,” said Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican and chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittee on social services. “I don’t think we can, but we’ll see. I suspect that’ll be addressed in the hearing.”

Mary Beth Chambers, a spokesperson for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, said the company will oppose Pilcher-Cook’s initiative.

“While new taxes that result in higher premiums for Kansas are never ideal for Kansans, we are specifically concerned about this approach because it is, ultimately, double taxation,” Chambers said. “We pay a 3.5 percent tax on our ACA-compliant plan premiums to the federal government now, so this would double that. We would be paying 3.5 percent to the feds and 3.5 to the state.”

The increase, she said, likely would be passed on to consumers.

Also, Chambers said, marketplace insurers are required to offer identical plans — both in coverage and cost — to their individual and small-group customers. Adding 3.5 percent to the marketplace plans, she said, would force a corresponding increase on premiums sold outside the marketplace.

Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat and the Senate health committee’s ranking minority member, panned the proposal.

“This would be just one more tax on the poor, because we all know the insurance companies are going to turn around and build this into the premium,” Kelly said.

Consumers who buy insurance through the marketplace are eligible for tax credits or subsidies, based on their income, that help cover the cost of insurance. Eighty percent of enrollees in Kansas received federal subsidies in the form of tax credits.

Lawmakers and other state leaders including Gov. Sam Brownback have resisted expanding the state’s Medicaid program  to include all Kansans with annual incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level: $16,105 for an individual and $32,913 for a family of four.

Rep. Barbara Bollier, a moderate Republican from Mission Hills and a member of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said Pilcher-Cook’s plan for offsetting some of the state’s Medicaid costs was ill-conceived.

“She’s wanting to rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Bollier, a retired anesthesiologist. “These are people who, for the most part, are getting a discount from the federal government on their health insurance — and now we’re going to charge them because they’re getting a discount? Because they’re getting insurance?

“If we’re really concerned about the money, then let’s bring in some real money,” she said. “Let’s expand Medicaid.”

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