BY ANDY MARSO

Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration will not fight a legislative directive to postpone the integration of Medicaid waiver services for Kansans with disabilities, according to an email sent by an administration official.

The Legislature passed a budget early Monday that included a provision prohibiting spending in the next fiscal year on any waiver integration plan to be implemented before July 2018.

Brownback could have vetoed that part of the budget bill. But an email sent Wednesday by Becky Ross, director of Medicaid initiatives for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, suggests the governor will let it stand.

“Due to a legislative directive, KDHE and KDADS (the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services) are suspending work on the waiver integration project,” Ross wrote in the email. “The agencies’ leadership expects to reassess the project at a future date to determine when to resume work and when it will be implemented.”

The administration’s decision appears to end a months-long saga during which advocates for Kansans with disabilities repeatedly voiced concerns that the integration plan was moving ahead too quickly, with too few details about how it would be operated.

The waivers provide Medicaid coverage for support services that allow Kansans with disabilities to remain in home and community-based settings rather than institutions. The services are split into seven groups based on type of disability: developmental, physical, frail elderly, autism, traumatic brain injury, technology assisted and serious emotional disturbance.

The Brownback administration’s plan would compress the services into two groups: one for children and one for adults. Administration officials say that would allow all Kansans to receive a broader array of services more efficiently, rather than being constrained by labels.

But disability advocates worried it could lead to service reductions.

The administration already agreed to delay it once, prior to this week’s suspension.

Sean Gatewood, a former Democratic legislator, is a spokesman for the KanCare Advocates Network, a coalition of groups that work with people on Medicaid, which in Kansas is a privatized program called KanCare.

“We’re just excited the administration and the Legislature took a stance to delay (integration) and get meaningful input from legislators and stakeholders,” Gatewood said.

Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee, appointed a subcommittee to evaluate the administration’s integration plan and the advocates’ concerns.

After that subcommittee in March returned a report that also concluded the plan was short on details and should be postponed, Hawkins procured a letter from Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer assuring him the administration would not move forward until after the 2017 session.

According to Ross’ email, the project is now on hold indefinitely.

Hal Schultz, a Lawrence resident who leads a self-advocacy group for Kansans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said that was good news.

“I actually like that idea, because I think that if we put all the waivers into one that it would make things really confused for the state and for self-advocates and also that services would not be done the correct way,” he said.

Schultz, who spoke about waiver integration during a March rally at the Statehouse, said he felt like he was being heard by his representatives in government. Schultz said he and other advocates remain willing to provide input on any future waiver integration plan.

But Wednesday’s announcement also suspended the activities of several workgroups the administration had formed to discuss the plan.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Federal court documents show that a 29-year-old Topeka man plans to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge in connection with a plot last year to bomb the Fort Riley military base.

Alexander E. Blair’s attorney filed a request Thursday to change the not guilty plea entered for him last year by a federal magistrate.

A change-of-plea hearing is May 23.

Blair is charged with helping 21-year-old John T. Booker Jr. of Topeka in planning to plant a bomb outside the Army installation in northeast Kansas to aid the Islamic State group.

Blair could face up to three years in prison.

Booker pleaded guilty in February to two charges under an agreement with prosecutors calling for him to spend 30 years in prison. He has not yet been sentenced.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been charged with lying about the whereabouts of a robbery suspect who killed himself during a fiery shootout that injured three federal agents at a Kansas motel.

The U.S. attorney’s office says 36-year-old Quentin Kirk Lawton, of Topeka, was charged Wednesday with one count of making a false statement to a federal officer. He is in federal custody. It wasn’t immediately known if he had an attorney.

The indictment alleges that Lawton denied having seen 28-year-old fugitive Orlando Collins after visiting him last month in a room at the Country Club Motel in Topeka. Lawton left the motel shortly before fugitive task force member came under fire while trying to arrest Collins. Authorities said Collins killed himself after starting a fire that caused $350,000 in damage.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little has vetoed student funding for a parallel government for minority students.

The chancellor said in a letter to the Student Senate Wednesday that she could not recommend a $2 student fee because the revenue would be collected during the next academic year, even though the new government is not in place.

The Student Senate approved the Multicultural Student Government in March but details of how it would be structured and work with the current student government were not decided.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports Trinity Carpenter, who helped lead the effort to create a second government, said the work to secure funding will continue. She says minority students want an equal body that would work with the Student Senate, not as a separate body.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man has been charged with fatally stabbing a woman during a parking spot dispute.

Thirty-eight-year-old Seth Collins made his first court appearance Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated battery in the death of 22-year-old Kayla Brown. The Wichita Eagle reports that Collins is jailed in Sedgwick County on $250,000 bond. A public defender will represent him.

Collins is accused of stabbing Brown once in the neck and her twin sister in the arm Saturday night in the parking lot of an apartment complex where they all lived. Police have said the driver’s door of Brown’s car was open when Collins tried to park, preventing him from pulling into a stall.

Brown died early Sunday morning at a Wichita hospital. Her sister’s injuries weren’t life-threatening.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita used car dealer that was accused of deceptive sales practices has agreed to pay more than $7,000 to resolve a complaint.

The Sedgwick County prosecutor’s office announced Wednesday that its consumer protection division had reached an agreement with the Numak Dealership. Prosecutors alleged that Numak was listing cars for sale on Craigslist without identifying the seller as a car dealer.

The dealership also is accused of failing to disclose that a vehicle it sold had a salvage title and improperly attempting to limit warranties.

The agreement doesn’t constitute an admission by Numak of the allegations. The dealership has paid the $7,000 in civil penalties and $747 in investigative expenses and court costs.

The company didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

TOPEKA– A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday to 40 months in federal prison for robbing a man whose job was to stock ATMs with cash, according to acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Pattrick J. Towner, 26, Topeka, pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery. In his plea, he admitted the robbery took place Sept. 16, 2014, at the Low Cost Plus Convenience Store at 3101 S.E. 6th Street in Topeka. When the victim tried to restock the ATM machine in the store with cash, Towner entered the store wearing a mask and brandishing a firearm. Towner took the victim’s money and keys and then fled the scene driving the victim’s vehicle.

Co-defendant Ahmad Salim Salti, 21, Topeka, was sentenced to 24 months after pleading guilty to helping plan the robbery.

Beall commended the Topeka Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Maag for their work on the case.