WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies – today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest $6.5 million in the Ogallala Aquifer region this year to help conserve billions of gallons of water and improve water quality. This funding will be targeted to seven priority areas in five states including Kansas to support their primary water source and strengthen rural economies. Parts of 36 Kansas counties are within the state’s targeted priority area.

“Water is the lifeblood of Kansas communities and our state’s farm economy, and we need to do all we can to protect it for future generations,” said Sen. Jerry Moran. “This investment will help protect and improve Ogallala Aquifer water quality while also helping farmers and ranchers find additional methods to reduce water usage without impacting production.”

The Ogallala Aquifer has long been the main water supply for communities, businesses, homes and agriculture production in the high plains region of the United States, but it is being depleted at an unsustainable rate. This region includes eight states – Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. The aquifer lies beneath 174,000 square miles of land, an area more than five times greater than the world’s largest freshwater lake and over 150 percent larger than the surface area of all five Great Lakes combined.

Through the Ogallala Aquifer Initiative (OAI), USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is directing funding in fiscal year 2015 to support targeted, local efforts to improve the quality and availability of this vital water supply. This year’s work is planned in seven priority areas in five states and will continue for up to four years. It will conserve billions of gallons of water per year, extending the viability of the aquifer for multiple uses. This conservation investment builds on $66 million that NRCS has invested through OAI since 2011, which helped farmers and ranchers conserve water on more than 325,000 acres. USDA notes that much of the funding invested by USDA has been matched or supplemented by individual producers.

The fiscal 2015 priority areas include parts of 36 counties including: Cheyenne, Rawlins, Decatur, Norton, Phillips, Jewell, Republic, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Wallace, Greeley, Wichita, Scott, Lane, Barton, McPherson, Hamilton, Kearny, Finney, Hodgeman, Pawnee, Stafford, Reno, Harvey, Sedgwick, Stanton, Grant, Haskell, Gray, Ford, Edwards, Pratt, Kiowa, Morton and Stevens counties.

In Kansas’ high priority areas, NRCS will work with producers to reconvert irrigated cropland to dryland farming. The state identified these areas in the Kansas Water Plan as Priority Ground Water Decline and Quick Response Areas, meaning they are the ones most in need and where conservation can have the biggest impact on recharging the aquifer. The conservation work is expected to conserve 1.8 billion gallons of water over four years.

AMY TAXIN, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Researchers say a rising percentage of Hispanics in the United States speak proficient English and the share of those speaking Spanish at home has been declining.

A Pew Research Center report released Tuesday says 68 percent of Hispanics spoke only English or spoke English very well in 2013, up from 59 percent in 2000.

The report says the share of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home dropped to 73 percent from 78 percent over the same period.

The shift comes as migration to the United States from Latin America has slowed.

Even so, the number of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home reached a record 35.8 million as the Hispanic population has grown. The report says the number of Hispanics who speak English proficiently also hit a record 33.2 million.

By Andy Marso

The House’s first attempt to approve a tax increase to close the state budget hole failed on a voice vote Friday, ensuring legislators will work overtime.

The chamber’s fractured Republican supermajority was on display during the debate on Senate Bill 270, which sought to find about $400 million in new revenue mostly by raising the state sales tax.

Rep. Marc Rhoades, a Republican from Newton who is one of the chamber’s foremost fiscal conservatives, spoke for the bill as the best of a host of unsavory options.

Rhoades said he favored raising consumption taxes rather than revisiting a 2012 plan that diced personal income tax rates and exempted about 333,000 businesses from paying any tax on “pass-through” income. He also warned that, with nothing going on in the Senate, if the House didn’t create some movement on taxes, the Legislature likely would be in session for another week — well past the 90-day mark.

“The longer we wait, the more people get tired and people get grumpy,” Rhoades said. “And when people get tired and grumpy, they don’t make the best decisions.” An amendment to include a rollback of the income tax business exemption also failed, after its proponents said they couldn’t support the underlying bill’s sales tax increase.

The debate on the tax plan soon tumbled into a disagreement among Republicans over whether taxes should be raised at all. That mirrored a discussion the party had in caucus earlier this week, with hardline anti-tax House members insisting that more could be cut from the state budget. “Our problem is not a tax problem,” said Rep. Mike Kiegerl, a Republican from Olathe.

“Our problem is a spending problem.” Other conservative Republicans said the budget committees had done the best they could to cut costs. Rep. John Rubin, a Republican from Shawnee, said he had told voters he would not vote to raise taxes except in an emergency. “I think we’ve reached that emergency this year,” he said.

Rep. Craig McPherson, a Republican from Overland Park, said it was clear there was not enough consensus on what to do with the tax plan.

He suggested sending it back to the tax committee until the solution became more apparent — and until the chamber knows the status of a fee increase on health maintenance organizations that has yet to pass.

That plan was expected to bring in about $60 million for the state by levying a fee increase on the three companies that administer the state’s Medicaid program and then using federal matching funds to repay them.

But the fee increase has been stalled in a health conference committee, where Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook has declined to take it up because of concerns about the federal government and the increasing costs of Medicaid.

Sen. Jeff Longbine, a Republican from Emporia, said Thursday that to try to break the logjam, the fee increase proposal had been sent to the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee he chairs.

“I’m waiting on leadership to tell me what to do with it,” he said. In the absence of that bill, there was uncertainty in the House about just how much the tax proposal debated Friday would leave in the state coffers as a cushion for next year.

But McPherson’s motion to send the bill back to committee failed after Rep. Steve Brunk, a Republican from Wichita, said further House discussion would be useful to see where members stand, even if the bill did not pass. After it failed, House Speaker Ray Merrick, a Republican from Stilwell, called it “the process at work.” “Our job is to find a proposal that will gain support from 63 members, and that takes time, deliberation and consensus building,”

Merrick said in a statement released by his office. “We are going to find a solution, and solutions to difficult problems don’t come easily.” The legislative session began Jan. 12 and can only end if lawmakers pass a balanced budget. Ninety days later, that has not happened. In the past, each extra day of session has cost taxpayers about $35,000.

Rhoades said Friday the failure of the sales tax increase proposal would ensure that legislators work at least through next week and that some lobbyists were predicting a session that lasts until June 15 because of disagreements over tax policy. “It’s like everybody’s standing around the edge of a big round building,” he said, “and nobody’s willing to step into the middle.”

 

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

BURLINGTON – Two Kansas women were injured in an accident just before 6:30 p.m. on Friday in Coffey County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Nissan Sentra driven by Rachelle L Hawkins, 20, Burlington, was westbound and stopped at the stop sign at 17th and U.S.75.

The vehicle pulled out in front of and was t-boned by a 2002 Buick Century driven by Jeremy B A Warner, 69, Lyndon, who was northbound on U.S. 75.

Hawkins and a passenger Pamela Rea Hawkins, 25, Emporia were transported to Coffey County Hospital. Warner was not injured.

All were properly restrained at the time of the accident according to the KHP.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House committee has scheduled its next meeting to investigate a Democratic lawmaker who labeled as “racist bigots” supporters of a bill ending college tuition breaks for students living in the U.S. illegally.

Republican Rep. Erin Davis from Olathe leads the investigating panel and said Friday it would meet on the day of the Legislature’s formal adjournment ceremony. That date has not been set.

Nine Republican lawmakers complained after Democratic Rep. Valdenia Winn from Kansas City called the tuition proposal a “racist, sexist, fear-mongering bill” in March. She apologized to those “whose lives are being hijacked by the racist bigots” supporting it, a hearing transcript said.

When committee members objected to Winn labeling committee members as bigots, Winn responded “if the shoe fits, it fits,” according to the transcript.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A July sentencing has been scheduled for a 57-year-old Florida woman convicted of drowning a puppy in a Nebraska airport restroom.

Cynthia Anderson, of Edgewater, pleaded no contest on Thursday and was convicted of cruel neglect of an animal resulting in its death. She faces up to five years in prison on the felony charge. Her sentencing is set for July 30.

On Jan. 23, Anderson was barred from boarding a flight at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island because the puppy was so young and not properly contained.

Authorities say Anderson then was seen entering the restroom. Another woman soon reported finding a dead Doberman puppy in a toilet

WASHINGTON – Today Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01) announced that the National Defense Authorization Act passed with his cosponsored amendment to delist the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC). The amendment requires the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the LPC, relieving Kansas farmers, ranchers, realtors and nearly every rural industry of this burdensome, job-killing over-regulation. It would return responsibility of LPC conservation to farmers; ranchers; and state, county, and local governments; instead of allowing Washington bureaucrats to control our economy.

Huelskamp issued the following statement:

“I have been working hard to get the federal government off the backs of my fellow farmers, ranchers, small business owners and our rural economy. With passage of this amendment, we begin ending the massive regulatory threat to our rural way of life from the ill-conceived listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken. It is high time that we place a greater value on the citizens of rural America than the Lesser Prairie Chicken. After years of work, it’s great to be able to help deliver this victory.”

Huelskamp has been a leader in the multi-year effort to delay, stop, and overturn the USFWS’s dangerous listing of the LPC. His efforts since 2011 include multiple public statements; pressure on federal bureaucrats; coordinating efforts with counties, the state of Kansas, local farmers, ranchers, and energy companies; public comments in LPC hearings; and legislative efforts like this.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A California woman and her biological son pleaded no contest Friday to the slayings of his adoptive parents in Kansas in deals with prosecutors sparing them the death penalty.

Thirty-six-year-old Kisha Schaberg entered the plea Friday morning to capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery. Hours later, 20-year-old Anthony Bluml pleaded no contest to capital murder in the November 2013 deaths of his adoptive parents, Roger and Melissa Bluml.

Two of his friends are also charged in the killings.

The couple was shot in the head as they sat in a truck outside their home in rural Valley Center. Melissa Bluml died the next day and Roger Bluml died about five weeks later.

Schaberg’s sentencing is set for June 24. Anthony Bluml will be sentenced June 16.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A California woman has pleaded “no contest’ to the slayings of her biological sons’ adoptive parents in Kansas.

Kisha Schaberg entered the plea Friday to capital murder and aggravated robbery charges in a deal with prosecutors that would spare her the death penalty.

The San Diego woman, along with her biological son and two of his friends, is charged in the November 2013 shootings of Melissa and Roger Bluml outside their home in rural Valley Center.

Fifty-three-year-old Melissa Bluml died at a Wichita hospital the next day. Forth-eight-year-old Roger Bluml died five weeks later.

Schaberg’s biological son, Anthony Bluml, and his former high school classmates, Andrew Ellington and Braden Smith, are also charged in the deaths.

She faces up to life in prison without parole at her sentencing June 24.

By Dave Ranney

The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services this week announced the appointment of a 30-member committee to critique the state’s behavioral health system.

“We’re wanting to get an overview of the whole system, from the community mental health centers to the state hospitals,” said Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson. “The Governor’s Mental Health Task Force identified some gaps in the system last year, and we’re wanting to fill those gaps.”

KDADS, de Rocha said, also plans to issue a formal “request for information” later this month, inviting the public to propose improvements to the system as well.

Whether that request for public comment and the new committee’s recommendations lead to additional funding being available, she said, remains to be seen.

“It’s good to see this group being assembled,” said Rick Cagan, executive director with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Kansas. “As advocates, we’ve been talking about this for years because in Kansas, our continuum of care consists of community mental health centers and the state hospitals, and not much in between.”

In recent years, federal surveyors have cited the state hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie for being overcrowded and understaffed and for not doing enough to ensure proper medical care.

During the same period, community mental health centers have had millions of dollars cut from the budgets they use to offset the costs of caring for patients who uninsured.

Osawatomie State Hospital last month began admitting fewer patients in preparation for renovation work after the citations from federal officials. To remain eligible for federal funding, the hospital is undergoing more than $3 million in renovations. The project is set to begin later this month and be complete in about five months.

In Kansas, mental health patients are not admitted to either of the state hospitals unless they’ve been declared a danger to themselves or others and the mental health center in their community says their conditions are so severe they cannot the treated locally.

The first meeting of the Adult Continuum of Care Committee will be May 21. A time and location have yet to be announced.

“The first thing we have to do is deal with the very real issues surrounding Osawatomie State Hospital,” said Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, a Democrat from Kansas City and one of three legislators on the committee.

“Right now, Osawatomie (State Hospital) is really the only place in the eastern half of the state that’s designed for patients who are a danger to themselves or others,” she said. “That needs to be dealt with immediately. We need a continuum of care that goes beyond what we have now.”

The Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas last year presented Wolfe Moore with its Outstanding Public Official Award.

Others on the committee include:

Randall Allen, executive director of the Kansas Association of Counties.
Wes Cole, chairman of the Governor’s Behavioral Health Services Planning Council and a former interim superintendent at Osawatomie State Hospital.
Amy Campbell, executive director of the Kansas Mental Health Coalition.
Randy Callstrom, executive director at Wyandot Center, the community mental health center in Kansas City.
Bill Persinger, executive director at Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas, the community mental health center in Emporia.
Beth Oswald, a mental health consumer.
Dr. Vishal Adma, medical director at the KVC Hospital, a children’s psychiatric facility in Kansas City, and a member of the Kansas Psychiatric Society.
Becky Gray, director of Housing and Community Development for Pittsburg.
Margie Phelps, director of re-entry service at the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Bill Cochran, a captain with the Topeka Police Department.
Jeff Herrig, Jefferson County sheriff.
John Worley, assistant superintendent at Osawatomie State Hospital.
Doug Johnson, executive director at Mirror Inc., a substance abuse program with 12 locations in Kansas.
Each of the three managed care companies charged with administering KanCare, the state’s Medicare program, will have representatives on the committee.

The committee’s mission, de Rocha said, will include advising KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett on how best to replicate crisis-intervention services that Rainbow Services Inc. provides in Kansas City, Kan.

The committee also will be asked to figure out how many inpatient beds the system truly needs, de Rocha said.

 

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