KINGMAN- For the second time in five weeks, Kingman County has issued a state of local disaster emergency.

On Tuesday, county commissioners signed the declaration due to flooding last week, according to a media release.

The declaration will remain in effect for 10 days.

County Emergency Manager Fred Simon is collecting damage estimates from townships.

Most of their damage is to roads, culverts and bridges. Several cities also were affected, with damage to roads and extra hours of call back time to manage the event.

The county must meet a public damage threshold of $27,974 to be eligible for federal assistance.

The State of Kansas must meet a $4 million threshold to get a Presidential disaster declaration.

The county also made a disaster declaration on Aug. 8, for flooding.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Kansas governor Sam Brownback and six other Midwest governors have sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency seeking regulation changes intended to increase sales of gasoline blended with a higher percentage of ethanol.

The governors of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota sent a letter Tuesday to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

The letter requests new standards that would allow stations to sell more gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol rather than the current standard of 10 percent ethanol.

The letter says the current setup “is stifling the widespread adoption” of E15 ethanol blends.

The governors — five Republicans and two Democrats — are all from leading ethanol-producing states. The letter was also sent to President Barack Obama.

A telephone message seeking a comment from McCarthy was not immediately returned.

By JIM MCLEAN

The uninsured rates in Kansas and Missouri continue to drop.

But they’re declining faster in states that have expanded Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities.

New data out Tuesday from the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Kansas’ uninsured rate dropped to 9.1 percent in 2015, down from 10.2 percent the year before and 12.3 percent in 2013.

Over the three-year period, the number of Kansans age 19 to 64 without coverage has declined by about 87,000, dropping from 348,000 to 261,000.

In Missouri, the drop from 13 percent to 9.8 percent means that approximately 190,000 residents have gained coverage since 2013 when the number of uninsured totaled about 773,000.

Nationally, the share of uninsured Americans shrank to 9.4 percent, the lowest level since before the Great Recession.

The latest numbers are from the American Community Survey, one of two data sets the Census Bureau uses to measure health coverage.

Download Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015

The federal Affordable Care Act is the primary reason for the improvement in the numbers, says Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project, an initiative funded in part by Kansas and Missouri health foundations that support the ACA.

“The main reason is the availability of insurance through the Affordable Care Act, which allows people to get tax credits and subsidies to help them buy private insurance,” Weisgrau says. “But another reason is that the economy continues to improve, and that’s putting more people into insurance.”

Still, there are concerns about the ACA health insurance marketplace. Several insurance companies have withdrawn because of financial losses. And those that remain are raising premiums ahead of the 2017 enrollment period, which begins Nov. 1.

Uninsured rates are declining more rapidly in the 32 states and District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid.

Kansas and Missouri are among 19 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid to cover adults earning below 138 percent of the federal poverty rate: $16,394 a year for individuals and $33,534 for a family of four.

On average, the uninsured rate in non-expansion states is 12.3 percent, compared with 7.2 percent in states that have expanded eligibility.

Amy Blouin, executive director of the Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit advocacy group pushing for expansion, says an estimated 583,000 Missourians — about one in 10 — still lack insurance.

“Missourians are still struggling, and our state is losing out,” Blouin says.

Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP legislative leaders have blocked consideration of expansion, citing its potential cost to the state. They also object to expanding coverage to non-disabled adults until thousands of people with developmental disabilities are cleared from a waiting list for Medicaid support services.

In Missouri, expansion is an issue in the race for governor between Democrat Chris Koster and Republican Eric Greitens.

Koster says the $2 billion in additional federal funds that the state would receive is critical to the survival of rural hospitals. Greitens and Republican lawmakers in Jefferson City say the federal government can’t be trusted to follow the law, which requires it to permanently cover no less than 90 percent of the costs of expansion.

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

Editor’s note: The Kansas Health Foundation is the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute, the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service. KHI News is a partner in Heartland Health Monitor.

SALINE COUNTY – Two Kansas women were injured in an accident just after 4p.m. on Tuesday in Saline County.

A minivan driven by Tiffany Keith, 24, Winfield, was westbound on South Street when she ran a stop sign at 5th Street, according to Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

The van collided with a 2013 KIA SUV driven by Kandie Gibson, 54, Salina, that was southbound on 5th Street.

The force of the collision caused Gibson’s SUV to overturn off the roadway.

Emergency medical responders transported Keith and Gibson to Salina Regional Health Center for non-life threatening injuries.

Keith was cited for failure to yield, according to Sweeney.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – A man convicted of sex crimes in Colorado and missing in Kansas since Friday is back in custody.

Bryce Siroky, 34, was arrested without incident in south Wichita on Wednesday, according to Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn.

Siroky had a previous address at 1614 Morton in Great Bend. He had been living in Pratt until August when he failed to register, according to Chinn.

Pratt County had a warrant for his arrest for a violation of the Kansas Offender Registration Act.

The search for Siroky started on Friday after he was seen at a residence west of Pratt.

He was convicted in 2001 of attempted sexual assault on a child in Teller County Colorado.

The arrest was a joint effort of the U.S. Marshall’s Fugitive Task Force, Investigators from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office and the Butler County Sheriff’s office according to Chinn.

BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a robbery.

Just before 9:30p.m. on Tuesday, Great Bend Police Officers were dispatched to the 3300 block of 10th Street in reference to an alleged robbery, according to a media release.

Upon arrival, they made contact with a female employee of the Smart Style Hair Salon, located inside Walmart.

The employee advised that she was walking from Walmart to Farmer’s Bank to deposit the money from the store when a white male approached her.

The man allegedly grabbed her bag and ran away from the area.

The suspect was approximately 6 feet tall, wearing dark clothing and a dark “hoodie” style sweatshirt, according to police.

Anyone with information on this robbery are asked to contact the Great Bend Police Department at 620-793-4120 or Crimestoppers at 620-792-1300.