WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State President John Bardo says a second company has agreed to a joint venture at the university’s innovation campus.
Bardo said Thursday at a Kansas Board of Regents meeting that French company Dassault Systemes will create a manufacturing research center on the innovation campus. The center will include six robots that will be able to complete a 9-by-4-by-4-foot machine.
The Wichita Eagle reports the university announced earlier this year that Airbus will move to the innovation campus from its current office in downtown Wichita.
Bardo plans to start the 120-acre innovation campus with a $43 million Experiential Building. Plans call for spending another $70 million for a new business school. Prep work on the Experiential Engineering building has begun, and a groundbreaking is expected in the coming months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key arts panel has given final approval to a design for a memorial to honor President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington, another step toward groundbreaking.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts voted Thursday to give final approval to Frank Gehry’s design. The commission gave its preliminary approval in October. A federal planning agency, the National Capital Planning Commission, also needs to give its final approval. It will vote on July 9.
Congress must still fund the project, which is expected to cost approximately $140 million. So far, $63 million has been appropriated, and the Eisenhower Memorial Commission working to build the project has also raised funds.
The design includes a memorial park with statues of Eisenhower and a large metal tapestry depicting the Kansas landscape of his boyhood home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government says 243 people have been charged in health care fraud sweeps around the country. That includes doctors, nurses and pharmacy owners accused of bilking Medicare and Medicaid.
Combining all the cases, fraudulent billings allegedly totaled some $712 million.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the defendants billed for equipment that wasn’t provided, care that wasn’t needed, and services that weren’t rendered.
While the individual cases may be unrelated, law enforcement agencies often coordinate the announcement of health fraud charges and arrests to send a message to fraudsters and the general public alike.
Health care fraud costs tens of billions of dollars annually.
Fifty-nine Fort Hays State University students recently traveled to Haiti to teach and care for orphans.
The group, in coordination with Encounter, a local church group, was led by Dr. Jeff Burnett, director of the Wellness Center; Talia Miller, assistant women’s basketball coach; and Dr. Kathy Kelly, assistant professor of communications.
This is the second year that Encounter, a non-denominational faith-based group in Celebration Community Church, Hays, has taken students to Haiti.
Some students, such as Bre Tendick, a Bonner Springs, senior, have attended both years.
“The children are the reason I go back,” said Tendick.
The group stays at an orphanage where 20 boys age 2-17 live. According to Burnett, the orphans normally eat two to three times a week, but when the students are there, they eat three meals a day.
“The people there have nothing,” said Tendick. “When you hear Americans say they have nothing, they still have a house or a car. These people don’t have any of that.”
The group provides a variety of services to the children, but the most important thing they do is simply hold and hug them. Tendick said the children just want to know that someone loves them.
“They look forward to this week for the entire year,” said Burnett. “This is their Christmas.”
The students took presents, giving the children toothbrushes and school supplies. All of the orphans attend a free Christian school of more than 500 children, which the FHSU group assists.
While there, they teach the children about spiritual matters and lifestyle choices, such etiquette, the rules of dating, and hygiene. Burnett said that since the orphans are struggling just to survive, hygiene is often not something they think about.
The group also provides one meal a day to the school children. Some of the children at the school come from other orphanages, while others have parents who value education. School is not mandatory in Haiti, and many children do not go.
“To see college students shows them that education is important and gives them hope that they can make something of themselves,” said Burnett.
One of the boys recently received a scholarship to a junior college in Missouri, where he will play soccer.
The students go to Haiti with aspirations of changing the lives of the children, but it affects them as well.
“It changed my perspective on life. It changed my direction in life,” said Tendick.
After returning from her first trip to Haiti, Tendick decided that she wanted to work between Haiti and the United States, so she changed her major to social work.
Some of the students went back to Haiti last December, and some will do so again. Burnett said that the children there had a deep impact on them because of the hope they have in their lives in spite of not having very many material possessions.
According to Tendick, the students learn the feeling of unconditional love.
“The students don’t have to be anything special for the kids to love them,” said Tendick.
Washington--Today, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, introduced an amendment to the fiscal year 2016 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill to restrict the use of funds for enforcement of the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to list the lesser prairie chicken (LPC) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The amendment passed with a majority vote.
“I was pleased the Senate Appropriations Committee acted today to protect Kansas and rural America from the consequences of the listing of the lesser prairie chicken,” Sen. Moran said in a news release. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted prematurely when listing the lesser prairie chicken. The five states with habitat area – Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas – came together with stakeholders to develop a broadly supported plan to conserve the bird. However, they were not given adequate time to implement the conservation plan due to the federal government unnecessarily stepping in and listing the bird as a threatened species.”
“I am confident there are ways to conserve the species without burdensome regulations from the federal government that hinder economic development in rural communities,” Sen. Moran continued. “Rainfall this spring and conservation efforts at the state and local level will be far more effective at replenishing the lesser prairie chicken population than rules and regulations coming from Washington, D.C.”
During the hearing, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) opposed the amendment suggesting: “We should be supporting the Fish and Wildlife Service in its efforts, not blocking the agency from doing its job.”
In January 2015, Sen. Moran successfully secured a vote on a similar LPC amendment to Keystone XL pipeline legislation (S.1). Although the measure received the support of a bipartisan majority, it was not adopted because of a 60-vote threshold set for his amendment. Sen. Moran has continued to advocate for this important issue with his Senate colleagues, including by offering his amendment today to restrict funds related to the listing.
Approximately half of the LPC population is found in Kansas, while the bird’s range also includes Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The lesser prairie chicken population decreased during a historic drought that severely impacted much of the bird’s habitat area. However, from 2013 to 2014, annual aerial surveys show the LPC population increased by 20 percent, largely due to rainfall conditions in much of the habitat area that were closer to historic norms.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is making it easier for a farmer to use his regularly registered vehicles for agricultural operations, while still giving him regulatory exemptions he enjoys on vehicles registered only for farm use.
That is because after July 1 Kansas will offer an expanded definition of “covered farm vehicles” that brings the state in compliance with federal law.
The change allows farmers to use regularly registered vehicles to transport agricultural commodities, livestock, machinery or supplies within 150 miles from their house. Under the expanded definition, those vehicles would still be exempt from motor vehicle safety regulations requiring a commercial driver’s license, logbooks, drug testing or medical qualifications.
The Kansas Department of Revenue website has a form farmers can fill out and keep in the vehicle.
POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY -– Law enforcement officials in Pottawatomie County are asking for assistance in locating a suspect wanted on several warrants for crimes in Manhattan, Wamego and Pottawatomie County.
According to authorities, Anthony Brazzle, 22, possibly of the Manhattan area, is approximately 6 feet tall and 170 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.
If you have information on the whereabouts of Brazzle please contact Lt. Sauerbrunn at 785-457-3353.
As with all requests for the community’s assistance, please do not attempt to apprehend this subject as doing so could create the potential for harm.
Funeral services for Goodland, Kansas, resident Dorothy Palmer, 84, will be held Saturday, June 20, 2:00 PM MT at First United Methodist Church in Goodland.
Interment will be at Goodland Cemetery.
Friends may share respects Friday, June 19, from 4:00 until 6:00 PM MT at Koons Chapel in Goodland.
Memorials to First United Methodist Church may be left at the services or mailed to Koons Funeral Home, 211 North Main, Goodland, KS, 67735-1555
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed a $612 billion defense policy bill that President Barack Obama has threatened to veto.
The vote was 71 to 25.
The bill includes a 2.3 percent pay increase for U.S. servicemen and -women. It also calls for arming Ukraine forces fighting Russian-backed separatists, prevents another round of base closures and makes it harder for Obama to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The White House opposes the way the bill skirts congressional spending limits and increases money for defense by padding an emergency war-fighting account that is exempt from the caps. The Obama administration argues that if Republicans want to break through spending caps on defense, they should do so for nondefense spending, too.
Earlier this week, the Corps of Engineers declared an emergency throughout its Kansas City District because of high river levels and a rainy forecast in northwest Missouri.
On Tuesday, the Corps delivered sandbags for use in Manhattan and in the Blue River Basin.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri man accused of killing three people at two Kansas Jewish sites is asking for $200,000 to defend himself in his capital murder trial.
The Kansas City Star reports 74-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller of Aurora, Missouri, says in a motion filed Wednesday he doesn’t trust his stand-by attorneys.
Miller fired the attorneys last month and has been representing himself in court, but District Judge Kelly Ryan ordered the lawyers to assist him.
Miller says the $200,000 would be “sufficient for now” but indicated he would be willing to negotiate a smaller amount.
He is accused of killing William Corporan, Reat Griffin Underwood and Terri LaManno on April 13, 2014, in Overland Park, Kansas. Miller argued in a second motion filed Wednesday that the killings were necessary.
