By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty presented the major changes in the city’s 2016 budget for city commissioners prior to the public hearing last Thursday.
The budget was approved and adopted with the only changes made in outside agency allocations.
KEITH RIDLER, Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal authorities have announced a plan to produce massive quantities of seeds from native plants so they can be quickly planted to help the land recover from natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes.
The U.S. Department of the Interior said Monday that the program will make landscapes more resilient and healthier, especially Western rangelands where massive wildfires have been an increasing problem.
Officials hope to create a national network of seed collectors, growers and storage facilities so that enough native seeds will be available immediately after disasters to avoid erosion and prevent invasive species from moving in.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says in a statement that having the right seed at the right time will help protect landscapes.
MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A new report says bicyclist death rates for children have fallen dramatically in recent decades, but have risen sharply for middle-aged men.
Experts believe the statistics reflect that adults are biking more and kids are biking less. The biggest rise was for men ages 35 to 54.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the numbers Thursday. The agency looked at bicyclists killed on public roads in collisions involving motor vehicles, so not every biking death was included.
During any given trip, bicyclists were twice as likely to die on U.S. roads as people riding in motor vehicles. Still, bicyclist death rates were low — overall about 0.2 cyclist deaths per 100,000 people in 2012, down from 0.4 in 1975.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Thirty-nine Kansas school districts are seeking a total of $14.8 million in additional aid from the state to address local budget issues.
The requests submitted to the state Department of Education by Monday’s deadline outstrip the available funds by nearly 21 percent. Those applying for extra dollars represent nearly 14 percent of the state’s 286 districts.
The state has $12.3 million in extra funds available.
Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders plan to meet next Monday to consider the requests.
A majority of districts are asking the state to make up for unexpected drops in property tax revenues. Others have enrollment increases.
The Wichita district is seeking $980,000 to hire teachers, counselors and classroom assistants to deal with an unexpected influx of refugee children from Burma, Congo and Somalia.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 74-year-old rural Lawrence man has died while mowing trails near Lake Perry.
WIBW reports the accident occurred Monday morning.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig says Andrew Baux was driving a tractor pulling a mowing device when he became pinned under the mower. Herrig says two horseback riders discovered Baux and called for help.
He says Baux was a volunteer mower at Lake Perry.
ABILENE – A Chapman roofing contractor has been prohibited from doing business in Kansas, following a recent lawsuit accusing him of failing to comply with Kansas consumer protection laws, according to Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Last Friday, Dickinson County District Judge Ryan W. Rosauer entered a temporary restraining order prohibiting Michael Allen Chapin, Chapman, from operating as a roofing contractor in Kansas pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the attorney general’s office.
In a petition filed last month, Schmidt accused Chapin of engaging in the business of, or capacity as, a roofing contractor within Kansas without having a valid roofing registration certificate. Chapin had allegedly performed roofing work on a Chapman home and failed to adequately protect the unfinished roof during a rainstorm, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
“When the Legislature enacted the Kansas Roofing Registration Act in 2013, they required roofing contractors to be properly insured before they could be registered with our office,” Schmidt said. “This requirement protects consumers in situations such as this one.”
Schmidt’s office has four other cases pending against unregistered roofers.
Schmidt reminded consumers to make sure roofing contractors are properly registered before signing any contract or having any work done. Consumers should request a copy of their roofer’s registration certificate and then should check the attorney general’s consumer protection website at www.InYourCornerKansas.org to confirm that the registration remains active.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 34-year-old federal analyst in suburban Kansas City has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for possessing child pornography on a government computer.
The office of the U.S. Attorney for Kansas says Matthew Barnes of Overland Park pleaded guilty earlier to one count of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced Monday to 63 months in federal prison.
Prosecutors say investigators in 2012 found more than a dozen images of child pornography on a federal Drug Enforcement Administration computer assigned to Barnes. Barnes was an analyst for the DEA’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program in Overland Park.
The office says Barnes was also a member of the Missouri National Guard.
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS says thieves used an agency website to steal tax information from as many as 220,000 additional taxpayers.
The agency first disclosed the breach in May. Monday’s revelation more than doubles the total number of potential victims, to 334,000.
The thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript,” where taxpayers can get tax returns and other filings from previous years. In order to access the information, the IRS said the hackers already had information about the taxpayers, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
The IRS believes the breach was part of a sophisticated scheme to use stolen identities to claim fraudulent tax refunds in future years.
The IRS said it will begin notifying newly discovered victims in the next few days. The agency will offer credit protection.
For many children summer vacation zoomed by too quickly and they’re not excited about the new school year that is about to begin. Others are looking forward to school starting so they have something to eat.
For a growing number of Kansas youngsters, summer isn’t a carefree time. For them summer isn’t fun in the sun, swimming at the pool, sports, picnics and vacation. Children who rely on free or reduced-fee lunches during the school year often struggle to find enough to eat during the summer.
Too many students do not eat regular meals when school is out of session. Some educators say they see a real learning gap at the start of the school year between students who had enough to eat during the summer break and the ones who struggled.
To address the serious needs of these Kansas children, the USDA, school districts, and several anti-poverty groups partner to provide summer meals. But last year, about half of all the summer meal sites in the state were located in the four largest counties. Children living in 35 counties were not being served at all.
Fifty percent of Kansas students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches in 2014, according to the Kansas State Department of Education. Each year, more students rely upon these nutritious meals throughout the school year.
Still, less than 7 percent of Kansas children who are eligible for these meals; take advantage of summer meal programs, according to the Food Research and Action Center. They rank Kansas 50th out of 50 states in terms of our summer meal outreach.
So, what is the solution?
It’s time to improve the way we feed these children during the summer months. There are more effective and efficient ways to provide students with the nutrition they need.
Kansas is considering a new approach to improve the way to feed students when school is out. Traveling miles from home each day to eat at a designated location requires a working vehicle and money for gas which aren’t always available to low-income children in rural areas.
To address this problem, organizations are looking to provide home-delivered meals. Similar to what Meals on Wheels does for senior citizens.
Another proposal could send children home with meals that could last them until their next visit.
Reauthorization of child nutrition programs in 2015 will also provide an opportunity to feed more students, no matter where they live. Lawmakers in Washington will consider this reauthorization of child nutrition September 17.
As chair of the ag committee, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts believes, “We must reauthorize these programs so children across America can and will have healthy meals available at school.”
Reauthorization would go a long way to help end childhood hunger in Kansas and America.
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
MIAA Media Relations
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The MIAA will open the 2015 football season with two teams ranked in the American Football Coaches Association preseason top 10 released today. The MIAA joins the Northern Sun and Great Lakes Intercollegiate as league’s who begin the year with two teams in the top ten.
Northwest Missouri is ranked fifth in the poll with Pittsburg State picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll. NWMSU opens the season on Sept. 3 at Nebraska-Kearney while PSU will be on the road at Northeastern State the same day.
Also receiving votes in the poll were Central Missouri and Central Oklahoma who each represented the MIAA in bowl games last season.
HUTCHINSON — The Kansas Water Authority will meet Thursday at the Atrium Hotel & Conference Center, 1400 North Lorraine, Hutchinson. The meeting will begin at 8 a.m.
The agenda and meeting materials are available on the Kansas Water Office website, www.kwo.org, or you may request copies from KWO at 900 SW Jackson St., Ste. 404, Topeka, KS 66612-1249 or call (785) 296-3185 or (888) 526-9283 (KAN-WATER).
If accommodations are needed for persons with disabilities, please notify the KWO.
By ANDY MARSO
Two Kansas government agencies are teaming up on a $50,000 ad campaign urging employers to follow federal child support law.
The law highlighted in the campaign requires employers to report new hires to the Kansas Department of Labor so the department can withhold any child support the new employee owes.
The Department for Children and Families (DCF), which handles child support enforcement in the state, partnered with the labor department to hire JNA Advertising in Overland Park to create television and print ads for the campaign.
“Right now there’s some great employers who do report their new hires but some who don’t,” says Trisha Thomas, DCF’s director of child support services. “We just want to educate those folks.”
She says about 20,000 Kansas employers report on new hires, but she was unsure how many do not. Still, she hopes the ad campaign will lead to millions in additional child support revenue.
John Nohe, JNA’s president and CEO, unveiled three posters Friday that will be used in the campaign. One features a robust stalk of broccoli with the text: “You can’t make sure Kansas kids eat their vegetables. But you can make sure they have the support they need.”
Nohe’s team plans to roll out ads at 17 TV stations across the state, with the air time donated because they are public service announcements.
States set their own penalties for not following the reporting law, but there is no fine for non-compliance in Kansas. Thomas says the state is not considering putting one in place because she believes most of those failing to report are not doing so maliciously.
Missouri hasn’t traditionally levied fines either, but the state’s Department of Social Services is in the process of implementing some. Intentional failure to report new hires in Missouri will soon result in a $25 fine. An employer who conspires with an employee to flout the reporting law faces a $350 fine.
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Former NFL players who object to terms of the potential $1 billion concussion settlement are filing appeals Monday with a federal court in Philadelphia.
About a dozen appeals are expected on behalf of about 90 ex-players. They are likely to be argued this fall and delay payments until 2016.
Some appeals challenge the exclusion of future cases of CTE, the brain decay that some link to football concussions.
Negotiators who forged the deal say the science on CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is still evolving.
Former player Andrew Stewart has Parkinson’s disease and wants credit toward an award for three years of preseason and training camp experience.
Lawyer Michael Rosenthal says the 49-year-old Stewart would get only one year of credit for his 1989 season with the Cleveland Browns under the current settlement.
