Submitted by the office of Rep. Tim Huelskamp

WASHINGTON – Today Congressman Tim Huelskamp released an official email communication from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) which revealed that the agency will not enforce their ‘threatened’ listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) anywhere in the U.S. This declaration followed an order from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas vacating the listing and ruling that the FWS “arbitrarily” and “capriciously” listed the LPC. The judge called the FWS analysis of the situation “neither rigorous nor valid.” Until this time, it was unclear whether the FWS would still enforce their listing outside of Texas.

Huelskamp released the following statement:

“For years, I have been leading the fight against the FWS and this nonsensical listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken. The original decision to list the bird was not based on sound science or the proven success of voluntary conservation, but that didn’t stop the FWS bureaucrats from imposing their decision on our farmers, ranchers, energy producers and other small businesses. I call on the FWS to abandon any appeal of this Court ruling and instead to recognize the continued LPC recovery as the historic drought has hopefully ended and voluntary efforts are working.

“The original listing tactic for the LPC was initiated through a secretive legal action – a method known as ‘sue and settle’ – one in which the government encourages a lawsuit and then secretly settles without public input. Two weeks ago, the House passed a bill I sponsored, H.R. 712, to prevent agencies from undermining current law with this approach.”

The email is below:

[redacted],

It was good talking with you earlier this morning. Below is some background to respond to your question about the lesser prairie-chicken.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has vacated the listing decision for the lesser prairie-chicken. The United States requested the court to modify the judgment, to leave the listing in place on remand for the Service to complete a new rule making. The court has ordered the parties to engage in mediation. As a result of the court’s order, the Service is not treating the lesser prairie-chicken as a species protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We continue to support voluntary conservation efforts that benefit the lesser prairie-chicken and will continue to work with the states, private landowners, other federal agencies, and other partners on these efforts. Interested landowners and industry may enroll in the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Range-wide Plan, NRCS’ Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative or a Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs). CCAAs are available in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. In addition, an Oil and Gas CCAA is available for companies across the five-state range of the lesser prairie-chicken.

Please let me know if you need anything else.

[redacted]

[redacted]
Deputy Chief
Division of Congressional and Legislative Affairs
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have given final approval to a bill to keep the state’s courts open following a legal dispute involving their budget.

The Senate passed the measure Thursday on a 39-1 vote. The House approved it last week, 119-0, so the bill goes next to Gov. Sam Brownback

The measure repeals a 2015 law threatening the court system’s budget.

That law said the judiciary’s entire budget would be nullified if the courts struck down another law enacted in 2014.

The 2014 law stripped the Kansas Supreme Court of its power to appoint chief judges in the state’s 31 judicial districts and gave it to local judges instead. The high court invalidated the 2014 law last month.

Supporters of the 2014 law said they didn’t intend to

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control says three more people — in Connecticut, Missouri and New York — have been added to the list of those sickened from a listeria outbreak linked to packaged salads made at a Dole processing facility in Ohio.

One person died and at least 15 people in eight states were hospitalized in the outbreak since July after eating salads sold under the names Dole, Fresh Selections, Simple Truth, Marketside, The Little Salad Bar and President’s Choice.

The Dole facility in Springfield, Ohio, ceased production last week and voluntarily recalled all salad mixes Wednesday.

The most recent illness was diagnosed Jan. 3.

The Springfield News-Sun newspaper reported Thursday that inspection records showed the plant had proper procedures in place in recent years to prevent illness.

PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — A post office in a southeast Kansas city has removed a “God Bless America” banner after an organization complained the banner violated the principle of separation church and state.

The Joplin Globe reports the Pittsburg post office removed the banner Wednesday after hearing complaints about it from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. The foundation has also been trying to get Missouri sheriffs to remove “In God We Trust” bumper stickers from department vehicles and “In God We Trust” from U.S. coins and currency.

Pittsburg postal workers paid for the 12-foot-long vinyl banner after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Post Office says the postal service took the banner down because postal policy prohibits the placement of notices on postal property unless they’re official government notices.

Kansas congresswoman Lynn Jenkins said,  “I find it sad that our local post office would be forced to bend to the whims of an outside organization, such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Seeking the removal of this patriotic banner is a classic solution in search of a problem and I urge the United States Postal Service to rethink their decision, as this banner means more than just words to our veterans and community members.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has dropped all charges against a former Bel Aire police officer accused in a scheme to buy and sell discounted firearms by falsely claiming they would be used for law enforcement purposes.

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren dismissed on Thursday at the government’s request mail and wire fraud charges against Nathan Mavia just weeks before his trial.

Mavia had been employed at the department from February 2012 until June 2014.

Court filings do not indicate why prosecutors asked the court to throw out his charges. Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor his defense attorney immediately returned messages seeking comment.

Former Bel Aire Police Chief John Daily and two of his ex-officers, Robert McCaslin and Ricky Swanson, face trial on Feb. 16 in U.S. District Court in Wichita.

ABILENE- Law enforcement authorities in Dickinson County are investigating five suspects for the alleged distribution of marijuana to local residents, including high school students, according to Dickinson County Sheriff Gareth Hoffman.

Agents of the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Department Drug Enforcement Unit and officers with the Abilene Police Department began the investigation in January.

On Monday, a controlled purchase of marijuana was conducted from a residence at 812 Northwest Third Street in Abilene.

On Tuesday, agents of the Sheriff’s Department Drug Enforcement Unit, Deputies, and Abilene police officers executed a search warrant for the residence at 812 Northwest Third Street in Abilene.

Those arrested included:
–Tristen Jacob Howard, 20, on felony counts including suspicion of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Acquiring Drug Proceeds, Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance, Possession of Marijuana, Failure to Obtain a Kansas Drug Tax Stamp, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana, Distribution of Marijuana, Acquiring Drug Proceeds, and Unlawful Use of a Telecommunication Device to Arrange a Drug Sale plus a misdemeanor allegation of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

–Matthew John Dinkel, 25, on felony counts including suspicion of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Acquiring Drug Proceeds, Unlawful Use of a Telecommunication Device to Arrange a Drug Sale, Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance, Possession of Marijuana, and a misdemeanor count of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

–Devon Michael Hallock, on felony counts including suspicion of Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana, Distribution of Marijuana, Acquiring Drug Proceeds, Unlawful Use of a Telecommunication Device, and additionally on two counts of suspicion of Assault On Law Enforcement Officer for an alleged altercation in the Dickinson County Jail after his arrest.
–Michael Wayne Wright, 31, on a felony count of Possession of Methamphetamine plus two misdemeanor counts of Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

–Zachary Taylor Swarts, 18, on a felony allegation of Conspiracy to Possess Marijuana.
Hoffman reported that during the search of the residence law enforcement officers seized more than two ounces of marijuana that were ready for sale, and over 50 pieces of evidence related to the distribution of marijuana. During the course of the investigation it was learned that persons arrested were allegedly selling marijuana to people from the ages of 14 to 21.

Also noted as a result of the investigation, law enforcement officers in Great Bend were able to execute a search warrant there. Law enforcement seized several pounds of marijuana and items of drug paraphernalia, and are expecting to make several arrests of people suspected in dealing marijuana to local residents.

SALINA- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a Kansas woman for alleged theft and forgery.

Police arrested Candice M. Pell, 34, Salina, on Wednesday for making six false merchandise returns while working at Marices in the Central Mall and pocketing the money.

Pell is alleged to have made the returns between January 10th and January 25th, totaling $1,106.73. Two transactions were made in someone else’s name, according to police.

The store’s loss prevention department made the discovery.
Pell was booked into the Saline County Jail on requested charges of felony theft, false writing, and forgery.

By JIM MCLEAN

Committees in the Kansas House and Senate have introduced Medicaid expansion bills modeled after a plan implemented last year in Indiana.

The identical measures, drafted by the Kansas Hospital Association, would provide coverage to approximately 150,000 low-income but non-disabled adults by making them eligible for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

Tom Bell, president and chief executive of KHA, said the proposal was written with input from Kansas lawmakers, who he said wanted something patterned after Indiana’s “consumer-driven plan.”

“Our proposal isn’t exactly like Indiana’s, but it does have a lot of the same elements,” Bell said.

The Indiana plan was crafted by conservative Republican Gov. Mike Pence and approved by that state’s Republican-controlled Legislature. It requires beneficiaries to pay up to 2 percent of their monthly income and locks them out of coverage if they fall behind.

The Kansas plan, which KHA is calling “The Bridge to a Healthy Kansas,” also requires people earning above the federal poverty level to make monthly payments into a personal health care account and, like the Indiana plan, terminates coverage for those who fall behind in their payments.

“The idea is to create some personal investment,” Bell said.

The Kansas proposal, which was introduced Tuesday by the House Federal and State Affairs Committee and its Senate counterpart, also would make participants responsible for a $25 co-pay if they go to the emergency room for non-emergency care.

Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican, made the motion to introduce the bill in the House committee, which traditionally honors such requests from members without requiring debate and a vote. However, Concannon and others don’t anticipate the bill will remain in the committee long enough for hearings. Rather, they expect House Speaker Ray Merrick, a Stilwell Republican and expansion opponent, to refer the bill to a new committee and work to keep it from coming to a vote on the House floor.

“It will be assigned to another committee and probably will not be worked this year,” Concannon said. “But at least we have a bill and opportunity for discussion. Whether it’s in committee or outside of committee, we have a bill and we can have some discussion.”

Concannon was one of several lawmakers that Merrick removed from the Health and Human Services Committee prior to the session because of their support for expansion.

Both versions of the expansion bill will be given numbers Wednesday when they are formally introduced on the House and Senate floors.

‘Beyond budget neutral’

Kansas hospitals have been urging passage of expansion for several years without success. The bill they backed last year, which merely authorized Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to craft an expansion plan and negotiate its approval with federal officials, received a hearing but no vote in either the House or Senate.

Brownback opposes expansion but has said he might be willing to discuss a plan that meets certain requirements. Among other things, he has said, it must be budget neutral.

Bell said the KHA plan meets that requirement. He said it includes funding mechanisms that would generate more than the estimated $55 million annual cost of expansion.

“It is beyond budget neutral,” Bell said.

The savings and revenue-raising measures called for in the plan would generate an estimated $183 million in 2017 and $217.7 million in 2018. The total would increase to $240 million by 2020, according to KHA estimates.

The proposal creates several special funds to pay for expansion. One would collect premiums from beneficiaries that are expected to total $16.4 million in 2017 and grow to $20.5 million by 2020.

Between $7.9 million and $8.9 million a year from a drug rebate program would flow into another fund. A third fund would capture a portion of the privilege taxes paid by the KanCare managed care organizations. That is expected to total $20.3 million in 2017 and average between $15 million and $15.8 million annually through 2020.

In addition to the new revenue sources in the bill, the hospital association estimates that expansion would create opportunities to save up $113 million by reducing the need for KanCare services for which the state is now paying.

Brownback and other Republicans have said any expansion plan should require that beneficiaries work. However, federal officials have consistently rejected expansion plans that contained a work requirement. So The Bridge to a Healthy Kansas proposal requires only that recipients be referred to an employment assistance program.

“That’s as far was we can go,” Concannon said. “But studies have shown here that many of those 150,000 are working Kansans. They’re our working poor.”

Despite efforts to appease Brownback and Republican legislative leaders, KHA and other expansion advocates face an uphill fight.

For one thing, the bill doesn’t address one of Brownback’s top priorities, the elimination of waiting lists for Kansans with physical and developmental disabilities. Currently several thousand Kansans with disabilities are receiving medical care under KanCare but are wating for support services to help them live independently.

Key legislators share Brownback’s objection to extending health benefits to non-disabled Kansans until the waiting lists are eliminated.

“The state has a responsibility to provide a health care safety net to the poor, disabled and elderly. My concern begins when we expand that to able-bodied adults,” said Rep. Dan Hawkins in a recent blog.

Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee.

Expansion advocates are hoping that the closure last fall of Mercy Hospital in Independence and the financial struggles of other Kansas hospitals will add urgency to the debate and win over some rural lawmakers. They say the hundreds of millions of additional federal dollars expansion would bring to the state could help offset reductions in Medicare reimbursements triggered by the Affordable Care Act and federal budget reductions.

Brownback isn’t persuaded. In his State of the State address earlier this month, he restated his opposition to expansion.

“It was Obamacare that cut Medicare reimbursements to rural hospitals,” Brownback said, referring to the Affordable Care Act. “It was Obamacare that caused the problem. We should not expand Obamacare to solve the problem.”

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

GRAY COUNTY- Two Kansas men died in accident just after 5 a.m. on Thursday in Gray County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported the two men were standing on the westbound shoulder of U.S. 50 near a disabled vehicle involved in an earlier accident five miles east of Cimarron.

A westbound 2012 Dodge pickup driven by Darrell Wright II, 27, Woodward, OK, attempted to avoid the disabled vehicle, drove on the shoulder and hit both men Christopher Louis Conrardy, 27, Cimarron, and Chris Alan Hamilton, 50, Garden City.

Wright, Conrardy and Hamilton were transported to Western Plains Medical Center. Conrardy and Hamilton died.

Just before 5 a.m., a 2007 Chevy pickup driven by Conrardy was westbound on U.S. 50 five miles east of Cimarron.

The pickup traveled left of center and struck the 4th and 5th axle of an eastbound semi driven by Hamilton.

A portion of U.S. 50 between Dodge City and Ingalls was closed due to an accident, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Olathe shooting range co-owner William Basore says he faced discrimination when he couldn’t get insurance for his new car last fall because of his business.

A bill reviewed Thursday by a Kansas Senate committee would protect Basore and any others businesses “engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms or ammunition products” from discriminatory practices by businesses such as banks, payment processors or insurance companies.

Gun-rights advocates spoke in favor of the bill at a Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs hearing. But the measure was strongly criticized by lobbyists who wanted to include amendments or feared that it would create potential liabilities. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri lobbyist Elise Higgins said the bill should protect organizations that offer health care for women.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Olathe shooting range co-owner William Basore says he faced discrimination when he attempted to insure his new car but was denied coverage last fall.

A bill being reviewed Thursday by a Kansas Senate committee would protect Basore and any others “engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms or ammunition products” from discriminatory practices by service providers such as banks, payment processors or insurance companies.

The Kansas firearms industry non-discrimination act is sponsored by the Committee on Federal and State Affairs. It also would allow victims to file a lawsuit against companies within two years of the discriminatory act.

The bill is one of several initiatives around the nation that would outlaw discrimination against the firearms industry. Proposals are also being considered in Georgia and Alabama.