HUTCHINSON –The state will continue to interview witnesses on Thursday in the trial of a Kansas teen accused of setting a fatal fire.

On Wednesday, the defendant’s father Steve Vonachen testified.

Samuel Vonachen is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and aggravated arson after allegedly setting a fire to his family’s home leaving his mother and sister trapped inside.

He was 14 at the time of the fatal fire in September 2013.

During cross examination Wednesday, the defense showed a video of Steve Vanochen’s interview with police just after the fire. He was very emotional.

He told detectives there was nothing out of the ordinary on the day of the fire.

He told police that a smoke alarm woke him and he came downstairs to a ring of fire. He said he tried to call 911 but the phone was not working.

He also testified that his son was a good student and had no emotional issues.

In addition to Steve Vanochen, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Agent Doug Monte testified of determining that the point of origin of the fire was at the front door and spread in a U shape around the stairs making it difficult for anyone upstairs to escape.
Later, Michelle Evans with an ATF lab in Maryland testified they found gasoline on the clothes of Samuel Vonachen, but not on his father’s clothing.

The trial is expected to last approximately ten days.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has formed a task force to study how state agencies can use drones in their operations.

The Kansas Department of Transportation said in a news release Wednesday that the Unmanned Aerial Systems Joint Task Force will also consider how state government can help the private sector use drones.

Task force members are Josh Row, assistant secretary of Agriculture; Billy Brown, agribusiness development coordinator for the Agriculture Department; Matt Keith, director of research for the Department of Commerce; Chris Tymeson, chief counsel for the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism; Frank Papish, assistant director of the KBI; and Ron Seitz, chief of KDOT’s Division of Engineering and Design.

In July, the state named Air Force veteran Bob Brock as its first director of an unmanned aircraft systems program in Kansas.

CUNNINGHAM, Kan. (AP) — A southern Kansas construction project has uncovered a tusk believed to have belonged to a mammoth.

The Hutchinson News reports that the discovery was made last week while the Kingman County city of Cunningham was running a sewer line across a grain elevator’s property.

Skyland Grain CEO David Cron says a Wichita State University associate professor would examine the seven- to eight-foot-long curved tusk Friday.

Mammoths are the extinct, prehistoric cousin to the elephant and once roamed the region. Their bones also were discovered on a Scott County farm in recent years.

Cron is hoping to get advice on how to extract the tusk without damaging it. Eventually, he would like to see it displayed for the public, although curiosity-seekers are being shooed away from the business for now.

 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — As a pharmaceutical company run by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s daughter faces scrutiny for hiking prices on life-saving allergy injection pens, Manchin is remaining mum.

The Democratic West Virginia senator’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is CEO of Mylan, which manufactures EpiPens.

A two-dose package cost around $94 nine years ago. The cost averaged more than six times that in May.

Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott said Wednesday the senator had no comment.

Several senators are demanding more information and requesting congressional hearings and investigations.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Mylan for possible antitrust violations.

Hillary Clinton, whom Manchin has endorsed for president, called the increase “outrageous.”

A Mylan statement Tuesday cited health insurance changes with higher deductible costs for many.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are demanding more information on why the price of lifesaving EpiPens has skyrocketed.

EpiPens are used to ward off potentially fatal allergic reactions, and the price has surged in recent years. A two-dose package cost less than $60 nine years ago. The cost is now closer to $400.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley wrote the company that manufactures the devices, and asked for more information on why the prices have increased. He cited the cost to parents when children must have them and to schools that keep EpiPens on hand. The school costs are passed on to taxpayers, he said.

New York Rep. Grace Meng on Tuesday asked the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hold a hearing. She is a co-chair of the Congressional Kids Safety Caucus.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has delayed sentencing for a Kansas man who has admitted aiding a wannabe Islamic State jihadist’s plan to detonate what they thought was a bomb at Fort Riley.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree heard a psychologist testify Wednesday at the hearing for 29-year-old Alexander Blair. The U.S. attorney’s office says the judge wanted some time to go over the material before handing down a sentence.

No new sentencing date has been set.

Blair pleaded guilty in May to a conspiracy count that carries up to five years’ imprisonment. He admitted loaning John T. Booker $100 to pay for the storage of the device during an FBI undercover operation.

KIOWA COUNTY – One person was injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Wednesday in Kiowa County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Honda motorcycle driven by Thomas M. Hildebran, 74, Dayton, OH., was eastbound on U.S. 54 one mile east of Greensburg.

The motorcycle had just passed a semi and pulled back into the eastbound lane.

The motorcycle caught the rumble strips. The driver lost control and was ejected from the motorcycle

He landed in the south ditch.

Hildebran was transported to Wesley Medical Center.

He was wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

GEARY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Geary County are investigating two suspects on drug charges.

After a 2 month long investigation of crack cocaine, the Junction City -Geary County Drug Operations Group assisted by the Kansas Department of Corrections State Parole Office, Tuesday, executed search warrants at 820 South Washington Street, Room 116 at the Budget Host Motel, and at 2204 Brookbend in Junction City, according to a media release.

Two people were arrested including Toriania D. Griffin, 43, Junction city, on suspicion of two counts of Unlawful Use of a Communication Facility to Arrange the Sale / Purchase of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, plus one count each of Sale / Distribution of Crack Cocaine within 1,000 Feet of a School Zone, Sale / Distribution of Crack Cocaine, Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine, Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Distribute, Possession of Marijuana, and No Kansas Drug Tax Stamp.

Derrick Lamont Woods, 43, Junction City, on suspicion of two counts each of Sale / Distribution of Crack Cocaine Within 1,000 Feet of a School Zone, Unlawful Use of a Communication Facility to Arrange the Sale / Purchase of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, plus one count each of Possession of Crack Cocaine with Intent to Distribute, and No Kansas Drug Tax Stamp,.

The Drug Operations Group seized approximately 14 grams of crack cocaine, 17 grams of powder cocaine, marijuana, $3,000 in U.S. currency, and a 1999 Lincoln Town car.

The Drug Operations Group is a joint task force composed of members of the Junction City Police Department, Geary County Sheriff’s Department and Grandview Plaza Police Department.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) – State health officials say they have not discovered a single cause for high lead levels found in some children in Saline County.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been investigating since routine physical exams found 32 children in and around Saline County with elevated levels of lead in their blood.

The Kansas City Star reports the health department has notified some Salina families that the lead poisoning was caused by conditions inside their homes.

Department spokeswoman Cassie Sparks says the agency’s findings will be officially released in September but the letters are going out to the families so they can begin addressing lead-causing issues in their homes, such as old lead paint.

She says inspectors found no common link between all the cases.

By JIM MCLEAN

The director of one of the state’s largest community mental health centers says the head of the agency that oversees the behavioral health system appears to be making an effort to repair damaged relations with providers.

But he says Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Tim Keck has his work cut out for him.

“I do feel positive about the new secretary,” said Tim DeWeese, director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center. “It seems that he has a genuine desire to take care of the Kansans that need this (mental health) service that are most at risk.”

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback appointed Keck secretary in July after selecting him six months earlier to head the agency on an interim basis.

DeWeese said Keck recently traveled to Johnson County to update law enforcement officials and mental health providers on the state’s efforts to regain federal certification of the Osawatomie State Hospital and reopen units that have been renovated to address patient safety concerns raised by federal inspectors.

“He wants to have beds back online by the end of the year,” DeWeese said. “He reported to us they are getting closer to the full staffing levels that they need.”

State officials reduced the hospital’s capacity from 206 beds to 146 beds in April 2015 so they could begin the renovations. Federal officials decertified the facility later that year, an action that has since cost the state approximately $1 million a month in Medicare reimbursements.

Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson, said the hospital would be ready for re-inspection on Aug. 30. An initial inspection will be done to determine whether the state has corrected the deficiencies that led to decertification. After what de Rocha called “a period of reasonable assurance,” inspectors will return to do a second survey to ensure that the corrective actions have been maintained.

The goal is to gradually restore 60 beds, de Rocha said.

“The expansion of bed space is dependent on staffing and will be done incrementally to ensure that we have the right staffing levels,” de Rocha said. “We will probably bring back 10 to 15 beds at first and then add beds as we add staff and get them trained.”

Pressure on the system

The additional beds are desperately needed to relieve pressure on the system, DeWeese said. On any given day, dozens of Kansans with mental illness deemed to be either a danger to themselves or others are being forced to wait for admission to Osawatomie. Under the best of circumstances, they’re waiting in hospital emergency rooms. But often, they’ve done something to land themselves in jail.

“Right now, we have four people in the Johnson County jail that are in need of hospitalization,” DeWeese said Friday.

Deb Stern, general counsel for the Kansas Hospital Association, said the situation at one large Johnson County hospital is illustrative of the problem. In the first four months of 2015, she said patients waited a total of 318 hours for admission to Osawatomie, with 23 hours the longest wait. But during the first four months of this year, the total number of hours jumped to 1,466, with waits of more than 40 hours common. The longest wait was 128 hours, or more than five days, she said.

“Our emergency rooms, they’re really backed up,” Stern said during a recent symposium at the Statehouse on mental health issues.

Beyond the renovations, Keck has been forced to grapple with longstanding staffing issues that federal inspectors said compromised safety after a patient sexually assaulted a hospital worker.

The hospital was chronically understaffed due to high vacancy and turnover rates caused by low wages and poor working conditions. Employees complained of having to regularly work double shifts.

During a recent interview, Keck said progress also was being made on the staffing front. A vacancy rate that hovered near 35 percent in February had dropped by July to about 21 percent. And what had been a 72 percent staff turnover rate in 2015 was holding steady around 19 percent.

Those improvements, Keck said, are largely attributable to budget increases approved by the Legislature that allowed administrators to give registered nurses a 10 percent raise and mental health technicians an increase of 12 percent.

“Those two pay increases have been a really big help,” Keck said.

OSH not the only problem

The progress Keck is making at Osawatomie is important, DeWeese said. But he said it remains to be seen what, if anything, Keck can do about funding reductions that are undercutting the mental health system.

In the 2015 year alone, the cuts totaled $30 million, according to the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas.

“What we’ve seen are policy decisions that have systematically dismantled the public mental health system,” DeWeese said.

In addition to a recent 4 percent reduction in Medicaid reimbursement rates that Brownback ordered to balance the state budget, the elimination of some key programs has cut deeply into the budgets of community mental health centers.

Mental health providers feel “abandoned” by the state, DeWeese said.

The cuts forced Wyandot Inc. to lay off staff and eliminate services for more than 800 adults and children.

If Keck wants to significantly improve frayed relations, DeWeese said, he will need to help Brownback come up with a plan that providers can support to restore the $56.3 million in Medicaid cuts and lobby the governor to drop his opposition to Medicaid expansion, DeWeese said.

“The state of Kansas has some of the most restrictive Medicaid requirements across the board,” DeWeese said, referring to policies that exclude most poor adults from KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

The annual income limits in the 32 states and the District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid are $16,242 for an individual and $33,465 for a family of four. In Kansas, non-disabled adults with dependent children are eligible only if their annual incomes are below 38 percent of the poverty level, which for a family of four is $9,216 annually. Pregnant women, children and Kansans who are elderly or disabled are eligible under less restrictive income caps.

Advocates of expansion point to a Kansas Hospital Association study that indicates it would generate billions of additional federal dollars for the state. That funding also would reduce the amount of uncompensated care that doctors, hospitals and mental health providers now provide to people who can’t pay their bills.

“Last year, Johnson County Mental Health Center provided something around $6 million in charitable care,” DeWeese said. “If Medicaid was expanded, $3.1 million of that would go away.”

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