By ANDY MARSO

Kansas’ largest disability advocacy group urged Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators Thursday to stop citing waiting lists for disability services as a reason to refuse Medicaid expansion.

The Big Tent Coalition, which represents Kansans with all types of disabilities, said the argument is disingenuous and is being used “as a method of evading sincere debate on the merits of a customized KanCare expansion plan.”

For a year Brownback’s administration has said the state should not accept Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act while the waiting lists exist — one Brownback staffer sent a mass email saying it would be “morally reprehensible” to do so.

But Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Topeka-based Disability Rights Center, said the budget the governor proposed last week proves that’s empty rhetoric.

The proposal cuts money from Medicaid services for Kansans who are frail and elderly or have physical or developmental disabilities, he said. “You can’t say we won’t expand Medicaid unless and until we eliminate the waiting lists … at the same time that you’re actually cutting funding for HCBS (home and community-based services),” Nichols said.

“If that’s important to you, then you need to do what? You need to put your money where your mouth is.” The governor’s spokeswoman, Eileen Hawley, said funding is not being cut for the disability services that have waiting lists.

The governor’s budget, on page 84, proposes to increase funding for physical disability services by almost $2 million in the current fiscal year but then decrease it by about $1.6 million in the fiscal year that begins in July. Developmental disability services would get a $1.2 million decrease in the current fiscal year and a $500,000 increase in the next.

The changes represent less than 2 percent of the total budgets for the programs. Hawley said the differences are a function of transfers between the medical programs of the waiver populations and their support programs, but the total money remains the same.

“We have not cut, nor are we considering a cut to, HCBS,” Hawley said. Medicaid in Kansas, known as KanCare, provides coverage for medical care mainly for people with disabilities and lower-income children and pregnant women.

The waiting lists are for Medicaid waiver services that provide supports for Kansans with disabilities who already may be receiving their medical care through Medicaid.

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act would extend coverage to an estimated 150,000 low-income Kansans. Nichols said telling Kansans they must choose one or the other is a “false narrative.”

Medicaid expansion is fully federally funded until next year.

Then the federal share begins gradually decreasing to 90 percent, although President Barack Obama has proposed an extension of the full funding for states such as Kansas that haven’t yet expanded Medicaid.

Nichols said expanding Medicaid could help make the waiver services more accessible by improving the job market for direct care workers and personal attendants. He said ending the waiting lists has long been the coalition’s main goal, but the group also advocates Medicaid expansion.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time, and we expect Kansas policymakers to do the same,” Nichols said.

He contrasted Brownback’s proposed budget with that of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who Nichols said proposed sinking an extra $131 million into that state’s waiting list for developmental disability support services.

Nichols said the Missouri proposal received bipartisan support, with one Republican committee chairman even suggesting $131 million was not enough. The waiting lists have existed in Kansas throughout several administrations.

Mike Oxford, executive director of the Topeka Independent Living Center, said the Big Tent Coalition protested their growth under Republican Gov. Bill Graves and Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Brownback’s administration used savings from the switch to Medicaid managed care under KanCare to reduce the lists when KanCare first rolled out.

But Oxford said the governor has lately fallen short on that promise, which is written into the KanCare contract Kansas signed with federal officials.

RILEY COUNTY- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 2 a.m. on Saturday in Riley County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 GMC Sierra driven by Brandon Scott Tucker, Fort Riley, 28, was westbound on K18 three miles west of the Manhattan airport.

The vehicle left the roadway entered the median, struck a culvert and overturned.

Tucker was transported to Via Christi in Manhattan.
He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

WICHITA – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just after 9p.m. on Friday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 Ford F250 driven by Schmidt, Tamara D. Schmidt, 17, Wichita, was westbound on U.S. 54 at Meridan and struck a 2016 Ford Fusion driven by Demi M. Webber, 25, Wichita.

The pickup continued to the right and struck a 2004 Nissan Xterra driven by Troy D. Eck, 51, Wichita, and a 2014 Chevy Cruz driven by Ronnie P. Torrez Jr., 29, El Dorado.

Then the pickup left the roadway and overturned on the on ramp from Meridian to Westbound Kellogg.

Schmidt was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

Webber, Eck and Torrez Jr., were not injured.

Schmidt was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City, Kansas, man has been sentenced to life in prison in the death of a woman 18 years ago.

The Kansas City Star  reports that the sentence was ordered Friday for 35-year-old Jason L. Rucker. He was convicted last year of first-degree murder in the October 1997 killing of 33-year-old Vicky Ernst.

Co-defendant Torry M. Johnson pleaded guilty in September to first-degree murder. He was sentenced last month to life in prison.

Under the law in place at the time of the killing, they will have to serve 15 years before being considered for parole.

Rucker and Johnson were teenagers when Ernst was beaten and her throat slashed inside her Kansas City, Kansas, home.

A fresh review of the case led prosecutors to charge the two men.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Zoos in Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have received federal approval to bring in new elephants from Africa.

KFDI-AM reports the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, the Dallas Zoo in Texas and the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium

in Omaha, Nebraska, were part of the joint application. They made the request to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

ICYMI – The permit w/ @DallasZoo & @OmahaZoo to import elephants from Swaziland is APPROVED! Read more: https://t.co/Wuik0cQh48

— Sedgwick County Zoo (@SedgwickCoZoo) January 22, 2016

 

 

The three zoos want to bring a total of 18 elephants from Swaziland to their facilities. Importing the animals would allow the country to make room for critically endangered rhinos that have been threatened by drought conditions.

The Sedgwick County Zoo has a new elephant exhibit that will be opening in the spring. The facility is looking to get one male and five female elephants.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has received an award from a national anti-abortion group as a court in his state blocked enforcement of the law that prompted the honor.

Brownback’s office confirmed that he was in Washington on Friday to receive the award from the New York-based National Pro-Life Religious Council.

The council honored the Republican governor over the state’s enactment last year of the nation’s first ban on a common second-trimester procedure that critics call “dismemberment abortion.”

But the Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday blocked enforcement of the law. It split 7-7, allowing a trial-court judge’s ruling against the law to stand.

By MARY K. PYLE

Kansas State University’s Office of International Programs, with cooperation from Career and Employment Services and the College of Agriculture and K-State Research and Extension, announces the hiring of Becky Carnes as the new campus representative for the Peace Corps.

“I am excited and looking forward to connecting with professors, campus groups, community organizations or individuals who would like more education, information and opportunities on Peace Corps service,” Carnes said. “This is a unique partnership with Career and Employment Services, the College of Agriculture and the Office of International Programs to have three campus organizations collaborate in hosting and presenting the Peace Corps office on a university campus.”

After potential students or others who are interested in applying to the Peace Corps are identified, Carnes will answer their questions and assist them with the application process.

Carnes served the Peace Corps as an HIV/AIDS volunteer in Botswana, Africa, from 2013 to 2015. She assisted the Ministry of Health in developing a Monitoring and Evaluation strategy to respond to the growing crisis with evidence-based programming. Carnes worked in grant writing, IT training for health care professionals and youth development to address gender-based violence — the leading driver of HIV in Botswana.

Grant Chapman, assistant provost for International Administration in the Office of International Programs, along with Steven Graham, a former Peace Corps volunteer and assistant to the dean of agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension, and Kerri Day Keller, director, Career and Employment Services, were successful in responding to a request for quote announcement last winter to fund a part-time campus Peace Corps representative.

Keller indicated that over the three years that the university previously had a campus recruiter, 2005-2008, there were 21 new K-State graduates who joined the Peace Corps.

“As many countries in the world face the effects of population growth and climate change on their agriculture and environment, Peace Corps is called upon to provide volunteers to address those challenges,” Graham said. “People with this special knowledge are fairly hard to find. That is why Peace Corps wanted a representative at the nation’s first land-grant university.”

As the preeminent international service organization of the U.S., the Peace Corps sends Americans abroad to tackle the most pressing needs of people around the world. Peace Corps volunteers work at the grassroots level toward sustainable change that lives on long after their service — at the same time becoming global citizens and serving their country. When they return home, volunteers bring their knowledge and experiences — and a global outlook — that enriches the lives of those around them.

Carnes grew up in Manhattan, and has Bachelor of Arts degrees in African studies and anthropology from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts in sociology from K-State.

Carnes can be contacted at [email protected]; 785-532-7068, office phone; or 785-226-5149, cellphone. Her office is in 103-A Waters Hall.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate’s top leader says one of its committees is likely to reconsider a dress code for women imposed by its chairman.

Senate President Susan Wagle said the Ethics and Elections Committee will probably discuss the issue when it meets again next week. The Wichita Republican serves on the panel but wasn’t present when Chairman and St. John Republican Mitch Holmes outlined rules for the panel.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that Holmes’ rules included a dress code prohibiting women testifying on bills from wearing low-cut necklines and miniskirts. The rules have no dress code for men.

A bipartisan group of women senators is criticizing the dress code.

Wagle plans to let the committee handle objections to the dress code, saying the legislative process eventually moves toward a consensus.

RENO COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating another phone scam.

The Reno County Sheriff’s office reported a citizen said someone had called them and stated “Cops and Kids” asked for a donation, according to a statement via social media.

The caller told them they did not have to give any information over the phone but could tape a check or cash to their front door and someone would be by to pick it up.

The Sheriff’s Department reminded a little common sense would usually prevent you from being a victim.

No legitimate organization will ask you to tape money to your front door for a donation.