HUTCHINSON – A Kansas man with an extensive criminal history is back in jail after his arrest Wednesday for being in possession of drugs, a rifle and brass knuckles.

Richard Lorenzon Warren, 40, Hutchinson, was spotted by a Reno County Sheriff deputy at a local convenience store and knew there was a warrant for his arrest.

When the deputy made contact, he noticed a rifle between the passenger seat and the console of Warren’s truck.

The deputy ordered Warren to shut off the truck he was driving.

Warren allegedly continued reaching into his pocket, was eventually removed from the truck and placed in handcuffs.

When deputies searched his pocket, they found the brass knuckles and a small bag of methamphetamine.

Deputies also allegedly found two syringes in the center console of the truck.

The rifle was a loaded Ruger 10-22.

In court, Warren tried to tell Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen that it wasn’t his rifle but the report from the deputy indicated otherwise.

Warren has two warrants, one in Reno County, but also indicated to the judge that he has an outstanding warrant in Sedgwick County.
Warren is being held on a $54,000 bond and will be back in court next week.

He also faces a probation violation hearing for a possession of methamphetamine case from August of 2013.

Warren has prior felony convictions for unlawful manufacturing, possession of drugs, theft by deception and aggravated battery.

LINDSBORG -For most the thought of running a mile is daunting and setting a record even more challenging. Bethany College Track Coach Aaron Yoder decided to take those challenges and make them just a little bit harder by doing both, only backwards, according to a media release from the College.

Yoder was recently notified by Guinness World Book of Records that he is the official title holder for the Fastest Run Backwards, One Mile. His record time, 5 minutes 54.25 seconds, was achieved on November 23, 2015 in Lindsborg. The run was recorded by photographer Jim Turner of Lindsborg and posted on YouTube.

“Jim was truly the mastermind behind this endeavor,” Yoder said. “He did all the legwork with the technology and administration of the evidence.”

Yoder isn’t sure if his new record, the first of its kind in the Guinness World Book, will make backwards running the new fitness craze. He will just be happy if it gets more people up moving and being fit.

“That’s always my goal,” he said. “To inspire people to get fit. If trying to break my record will help, that would be great.”

Yoder began running backwards as a kid, he said. “It was a way for me to get a better workout at home on the treadmill we had. Then I started running backwards and my mom would ride along with me outside on her bike.”

While submitting the necessary documentation for the Guinness World Record Book, Yoder discovered there is a community of backward runners and a world championship that he plans to compete in this summer in Essen, Germany. He hopes maybe someday it could even become an Olympic event.

“You never know,” he said. “Ultimate Frisbee is a recognized Olympic sport.”

Yoder’s record setting run can be seen on YouTube and his officially listing in the Guinness World Book of Records can be found here.

By DAN MARGOLIES

The Kansas Board of Healing Arts will take no action against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri after looking into whether it engaged in the illegal sale of fetal tissue.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Planned Parenthood President and CEO Laura McQuade said the board had sent a letter to Planned Parenthood and its attorney on Jan. 7 stating “no further action will be taken at this time.”

“We absolutely feel vindicated by this,” McQuade said, adding that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had also conducted two separate inspections and also found no wrongdoing.

McQuade said that because the Board of Healing Arts comes under the jurisdiction of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, “he was well aware that we were cleared of any inappropriate activity long before the State of the State address” on Tuesday night.

In his address, Brownback said he had ordered state health officials to eliminate Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. The organization has vowed to challenge that move in court.

“No longer will we send the money of hard-working Kansans to fund an industry that disrespects life and violates the moral conscience of our people,” Brownback said in a statement.

McQuade accused Brownback of making “knowingly false statements about Planned Parenthood and its practices” in the speech and was “basing future policy decisions on what he knows to be knowingly false information.”

She said that part of the reason Planned Parenthood was disclosing the Board of Healing Arts letter was “to make it clear this is not a fight over an opinion, this is a fact, and you can’t make false allegations without there being repercussions.”

Asked if that meant Planned Parenthood was contemplating taking legal action, McQuade said, “I’d like to explore all of our options for this organization.”

A spokeswoman for Brownback, Eileen Hawley, said in a statement that the administration will review the findings of the Board of Healing Arts. She said the administration will continue to fight for “the most vulnerable among us.”

Brownback had called for the Board of Healing Arts investigation after highly edited videos surfaced last year purporting to show Planned Parenthood clinics had illegally trafficked in fetal parts.

On Thursday, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and seven of its California affiliates sued the Center for Medical Progress, the anti-abortion group that made the secretly taped videos. The suit seeks damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, as well as for wire and mail fraud, invasion of privacy and other counts.

The videos, which were released about six months ago, prompted an outcry and led several states as well as Congress to launch investigations of Planned Parenthood and calls to defund it. So far, no investigation has found any wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.

Federal law prohibits the use of federal money for abortions. Planned Parenthood says that abortions make up no more than 3 percent of its services. The rest are for contraception, tests and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screenings and other women’s health services.

Last month a federal judge in Kansas City ruled that Missouri health officials probably violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause when they threatened to revoke the abortion license of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri. U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey found that officials had acceded to political pressure in treating Planned Parenthood differently than similar institutions.

Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is defending his support for using a new school funding formula to encourage local districts to enact merit pay systems for teachers.

The Republican governor responded to comments Thursday from Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka.

Hensley is a teacher and said he opposes merit pay because merit pay systems are marked by favoritism. He also said legislators should focus on issues that unite educators when they draft a new law for distributing more than $4 billion in aid to the state’s 286 school districts.

Brownback said Hensley is dismissing merit pay too quickly. He said lawmakers should hold hearings on merit pay systems and learn where they’ve worked.

Lawmakers aren’t sure how far they’ll get this year in drafting a new school funding law.

SALINE COUNTY -Three suspects were in custody and a search underway for a fourth after a short high speed chase just outside of Salina Thursday evening.

The chase, which began just after 8 p.m., began in the area of Water Well Road and Ohio Street.

The suspect vehicle led officers east on Water Well. Three passengers jumped out of the vehicle near Holmes Road.

They were captured moments later.

The driver continued eastbound and eventually jumped from the vehicle near Simpson Road and fled on foot.

As of 8:45 p.m., the search for the driver continued.

K-9 officers with the Kansas Highway Patrol were assisting the Saline County Sheriff’s Office in the search.

Check Hays Post for additional details as they become available.

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayers nationwide will get a few days’ grace this year to file their returns thanks to a little-known holiday in the nation’s capital. And the head of the IRS promises 1,000 more customer services representative will be available to ease waiting times on information lines.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says taxpayers will have until Monday, April 18 to file their taxes. That’s because Friday, April 15 is Emancipation Day, a public holiday in Washington D.C. Taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts will have an additional day because of Patriot’s Day.

Koskinen said $290 million approved by Congress last month to improve taxpayer services will ease the problems with hang-ups when calling IRS information lines. Last year, fewer than half of all calls were connected to a staff person.

SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a reported residential burglary involving jewelry and handguns.

The burglary at a home in the 1100 block of North 5th Street occurred between December 15 and January 3, according to Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

There was no sign of forced entry.

An assortment of jewelry including diamond earrings and diamond rings were taken, along with a .38 caliber handgun, a .22 caliber handgun, three 16 GB sim cards and a couple of cellular phones.
Total loss has been estimated at just over $49,000.

By JIM MCLEAN

A tentative plan to save Kansas government more than $2 billion over five years relies heavily on proposed changes to the state employee health plan and Medicaid.

The report, written by the New York-based consulting firm of Alvarez and Marsal under a $2.6 million contract with the state, includes 105 recommendations for “achieving major cost savings.”

Download the Kansas Statewide Efficiency Review

Lawmakers and Gov. Sam Brownback have struggled to balance the state budget in recent years due to sharp drops in revenue, caused in part by income tax cuts approved in 2012. Last year, they were forced to approve large sales and tobacco tax increases to avert a $400 million budget shortfall. They start this year’s session facing a projected $190 million deficit in the fiscal 2017 budget, which they must approve before adjourning.

Outlining the savings report Tuesday to members of the House Appropriations Committee, Melissa Glynn, a managing director of the firm, acknowledged that some recommendations would be easier to implement than others. But on the whole, she said, “we think these are very possible recommendations.”

However, one immediately sparked controversy.

The report says the state could save nearly $124 million over five years by limiting state workers to one health insurance option, a high-deductible plan that would require employees to cover a significant portion of their medical costs with money from a health savings account to which both they and the state would contribute.

Rep. Mark Kahrs, a Wichita Republican, said that while he’s not ready to endorse the recommendation, it’s worth discussing.

“High-deductible plans are fairly normative in the private sector, so I think it’s a fair conversation to have,” Kahrs said, adding that he wants to discuss how such a change in policy might affect the state’s ability to attract and retain good employees before taking a position on it.

Rep. Jerry Henry of Atchison, the top Democrat on the committee, opposed the change, contending it would penalize state workers and make it harder for the state to recruit and retain them.

Henry said the change “squeezes state employees … who haven’t had a raise in six or seven years.”

“They’re going to lose purchasing power by going to this,” he said.

The report also recommends that the state no longer allow retirees who are not yet 65 to continue their state health coverage until they become eligible for Medicare. Moving them into bridge plans offered in the insurance marketplace created by the federal Affordable Care Act would save the state an estimated $12 million to $15 million a year through 2021, the report says.

New health plan for school districts

Another recommendation focuses on reducing the cost of providing health insurance to the nearly 70,000 full-time employees of Kansas school districts.

Currently, the state’s 286 districts have the option of participating in the state employee health plan, but few do. The report says creating a new “consolidated” state plan for school employees could save up to $80 million a year. The new plan would be separate from the state employee plan but would share administrative costs.

Reducing Medicaid error rates

Several of the 260 pages in the consultant’s report are devoted to addressing two problem areas in the state’s privatized Medicaid program, known as KanCare.

According to the report, Kansas has among the highest payment and eligibility error rates in the nation. Its payment error rate is 17.9 percent, almost 50 percent higher than the next highest state. Its eligibility error rate of 12.8 percent is nearly four times the national average of 3.3 percent.

The report says the eligibility error rate “is the most concerning” because it means the state is paying the private insurance companies that run KanCare to cover people who aren’t eligible for the program.

A recent decision by Brownback to transfer the main responsibility for determining KanCare eligibility from the Department for Children and Families to the Department of Health and Environment and stepped-up efforts to implement a new enrollment system that has been delayed for years and plagued by cost overruns are “important steps” toward addressing the problems, the report says.

But they’re not enough. The consultants recommend “outsourcing all eligibility functions” to a private company.

Reducing the eligibility error rate to the national average would save the state an estimated $60 million a year, according to the consultants.

Saving on KanCare births

The state could achieve up to $6.5 million a year in KanCare savings by focusing on several childbirth policies, according to the report.

Ensuring that babies aren’t delivered prior to 39 weeks gestation unless it’s medically necessary would reduce the number of low birth weight babies and expensive stays in neonatal inventive care units. And encouraging pregnant women enrolled in KanCare to deliver in birthing centers staffed by certified nurse midwives instead of hospitals could save more than $3,400 per birth, according to the report.

That’s easier said than done. Increasing the use of birth centers would require changing state licensing laws to allow nurse midwives to practice independently. Currently, they must have a signed collaborative agreement with a sponsoring physician.

“Kansas should define the role of CNMs (certified nurse midwives) and protect public safety by defining the scope of midwifery while recognizing and enabling full practice authority for CNMs,” the report says.

Backers of a bill granting midwives full practice authority hope the consultant’s report improves its chances of passing. But fears that any health bill could lead to a floor debate on Medicaid expansion could limit the bill’s chances of getting out of the House or Senate health committees.

Rep. Dan Hawkins, the Wichita Republican who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee, said he supports the bill but isn’t sure whether the consultant’s recommendations will boost its chances.

“I don’t know, we’ll see,” he said.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.