KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming the Kansas City Power & Light entertainment district discriminated against black patrons.
Glen Cusimano accused the district’s developer, Cordish Cos., and related entities of hiring whites to pick fights with black patrons. He alleged the black patrons were thrown out of bars after the fights. Cusimano, who is black, said he was a victim of that tactic when he was fired in September 2013 as manager of the Mosaic lounge.
Lawyers for Cordish said Cusimano was fired for hitting a patron who was handcuffed.
The Kansas City Star reports Jackson County Circuit Judge Joel Fahnestock ruled Monday that Cusimano did not prove his claims.
A related federal class-action lawsuit filed by Cusimano’s attorney, Linda Dickens, was thrown out last year.
TOPEKA -Jerry Moran has filed for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
Moran filed the paperwork for his re-election campaign on Monday in Topeka, according to a media release.
“I’ll be clear about this. We don’t do this for a title. We don’t do this about a sign on the door that says U.S. Senator, rather it’s for a belief that we can and must return America to a country different and better than it is today.”
Moran stated in a video release that Americans have been asked to jdo something with our lives that makes a difference, “To rise to a higher calling. We know this calling. It’s something we feel deep down inside of us. It is the demand that is on us as American citizens as conservatives. Can’t look the other way, to not turn it over to somebody else or to quit.”
Moran added, “So today I’m asking you to stand with me, to not quit and to redouble those efforts…not just merely to continue the fight but to win it.” He will be seeking his second six-year term in the U.S. Senate. Prior to his service in the Senate Moran served 14 years in the U.S. House.
He is the only Republican candidate to file so far for the Senate seat. Patrick Wiesner, a Lawrence attorney, and Monique Singh-Bey of Kansas City, Kansas have filed for the Democratic nomination.
Kyle Nuckolls, a mental health technician at Larned State Hospital, spoke Monday to members of a legislative oversight committee about difficult working conditions at the mental health facility. CREDIT ANDY MARSO / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
Two employees of Larned State Hospital made rare public comments Monday about difficult working conditions at the mental health facility.
Kyle Nuckolls and Lynette Lewis described for a legislative committee the toll that mandatory overtime and limited time between shifts is taking on workers at the short-staffed facility and their families.
“I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Lewis, a pharmacy technician who has worked at Larned for 18 years.
Nuckolls and Lewis, both stewards for the Kansas Organization of State Employees labor union, addressed the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight at the Capitol.
They stressed they were speaking as individuals and not representatives of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services or other state agencies.
They described co-workers vomiting into trash bins while distributing medication because they couldn’t get sick leave, day care centers unwilling or unable to provide enough hours of care to cover single-parent employees for the amount of time they needed to be at work and workers filling in on units where they don’t feel safe.
Nuckolls said he’d lost count of the number of times he’d fallen asleep at the wheel on the drive home after pulling a long shift, and co-workers had told him they too had concerns about making it home safely because they were so exhausted.
That exhaustion, he said, inevitably affects patient care at Larned, which is one of two state hospitals for Kansans with severe or persistent mental illness. The other is in Osawatomie, which lost its Medicare certification in December because of staffing and safety concerns.
“I know personally when I’m on my fourth or fifth 12-hour shift in a row, I’m going to make mistakes,” said Nuckolls, a mental health technician who lives about 20 miles from Larned in Burdett.
Working to improve morale
KDADS Interim Secretary Tim Keck, who sat in the front row during the committee hearing, said staffing concerns at Larned are valid. He’s been working to improve employee morale since he took over in December.
“It comes down to the respect they’re being shown, and it comes down to how they’re being treated,” he said. “We’re trying to change that.”
Keck said he had visited the facility in central Kansas six times. Direct care staffing vacancies, though still too high, dropped slightly in recent months, Keck said. He described new Interim Superintendent Chris Mattingly as a hospital turnaround specialist who would lead a culture change within management.
Lewis said Mattingly had said the right things and created a better work atmosphere in his first few days, but she remained wary about whether he would be able to “walk the walk.”
Nuckolls said one of Mattingly’s top priorities should be to establish better communication between workers and management. He said front-line employees are kept in the dark on major changes, citing the recent move of some inmates with mental health issues out of the hospital and into a correctional facility.
Keck said that move is one of the ways KDADS is addressing the hospital staffing shortage.
Rebecca Proctor, executive director of the union, said she appreciates the attention to staffing issues at Larned. However, she said, moving people among facilities amounts to a “shell game.”
“We don’t believe these inmate shifts are the proper solution for either the inmates or the employees involved,” she said. “While there may be some reduced pressure on staffing out at Larned State Hospital, you’re just shifting that pressure elsewhere. There’s going to be increased pressure on the folks at our correctional facilities.”
Proctor said legislators should fund pay increases and mandate regular Larned staffing updates from KDADS.
Waiver integration timing
Rep. Dan Hawkins, co-chairman of the oversight committee, said he and Sen. Laura Kelly, the committee’s top Democrat, recently traveled to Larned to see the facility and talk with employees.
Hawkins said the problems there had been building for a long time, but Mattingly seemed like the right person to lead the turnaround and he hoped employees would rally around him.
“You can’t turn a ship overnight,” Hawkins said.
The committee also heard Monday from several advocacy groups concerned about a backlog of Medicaid applications that, while declining, still numbers in the thousands.
Sean Gatewood, a former Democratic legislator who leads a coalition of groups called the KanCare Advocates Network, said the state should not move forward with a plan to consolidate Medicaid waivers for Kansans with various disabilities while the backlog and issues at the state hospitals are unresolved.
“There’s just a complete laundry list of problems,” Gatewood said. “Our position is the state needs to tend to those first.”
Legislators concerned about a lack of details on the waiver integration plan thought administration officials would delay it one year to Jan. 1, 2018.
But recent statements by Keck and Mike Randol of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment suggest they’re still planning for a Jan. 1, 2017, rollout.
Randol said Monday that his agency needs to continue preparing to hit that 2017 date because there’s been no official agreement that the administration will postpone it.
“As of now, I do not know of a final decision,” Randol said.
Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee, said legislators will continue to monitor the waiver decision.
“We are still working on waiver integration,” Hawkins said. “That’s not left our sight as a House committee.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The latest weekly snapshot of Kansas crop conditions shows the state’s winter wheat crop is mostly holding its own with recent rains bringing much needed moisture to parched farm fields.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that 49 percent of the crop is in good to excellent condition, with 39 percent rated as fair. The agency says 12 percent of the crop is in poor to very poor shape.
Wheat in Kansas is also maturing faster than usual, with 77 percent now jointed. That compares to an average of 55 percent at that stage normally at this point in the season.
Corn planting is also progressing with 35 percent of fields in the state already planted, well ahead of the 16 percent that would be average by this date.
SALINA – A man who police say stole one big screen TV from Walmart Thursday night, is caught in the act of trying to steal a second one from the store on Friday night.
Logan Jones, 24, Salina had allegedly taken a 50″ Samsung TV valued at $698 just before 11 p.m. Thursday night, according to Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney.
After checking store surveillance video, Walmart officials reported the theft to police late Friday morning.
Jones returned to the store at about 9:45 p.m. Friday evening, according to Sweeney.
Alert employees noticed him and called police.
Officers were waiting for him as he walked out of the store with another 50″ TV.
Jones was arrested on a requested charge of felony theft.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Amtrak says it will use buses to connect people in Wichita with its trains in Oklahoma City and Newton.
Several state and local officials announced the bus connection Monday, providing the first Amtrak service in Wichita since 1979.
The Wichita Eagle reports one bus route will connect with Amtrak’s Southwest Chief in Newton while another route will connect with the Heartland Eagle in Oklahoma City. The Amtrak connection will run daily out of the Greyhound station in downtown Wichita.
Kansas Secretary of Transportation Mike King says the bus service opens a new transportation option along the Interstate 35 corridor. And several officials said young people in particular had pushed for a way to connect to Amtrak, which provides routes to cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas University fraternity has raised about $30,000 for students with disabilities in honor of one of its members who was paralyzed while swimming in the ocean in Hawaii over winter break.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Beta Theta Pi chapter will host a 5k run this weekend in honor of fraternity member Tom Babb, a quadriplegic. Nearly 500 participants were registered as of Friday. See more on the event here.
Proceeds from the “TomSTRONG 5k Run/Walk/Roll” will go toward the newly established Tom Babb Student Accessibility Scholarship, which will give funds to Kansas University students who require full-time, professional care.
The fraternity also traveled to Colorado to initiate Babb, who was a pledge at the time of the accident. It has also been renovating its chapter house to accommodate Babb.
Click below to listen to Monday’s Tiger Talk with Fort Hays State softball coach Adrian Mohr and baseball coach Steve Johnson. Tiger Talk airs Monday’s at 6 pm on Tiger Radio Mix-103.
SALINE COUNTY – A woman from Quinter was injured in an accident just before 11a.m. on Monday in Saline County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Ford Edge driven by Robert L. Tuttle, 78, Quinter, was westbound at Brookville Road and the Interstate 70 intersection near Brookville
The driver failed to yield at the stop sign to a northbound semi. The vehicles collided in the intersection.
A passenger in the Ford Elaine C. Tuttle, 73, Quinter, was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.
Robert Tuttle and the semi driver Daniel P. Kreifels, 59, Syracuse, were not injured.
All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Less than a week after the Ellis County Commission voted to implement a county-wide burn ban, the area received so much rain that the ban has been temporarily lifted.
“Due to the significant amount of rainfall over the weekend and the forecasted precipitation over the next couple weeks, the burn ban has been lifted,” Ellis County Rural Fire Director Darin Myers said Monday.
Myers said anyone wanting to perform an outdoor burn still should contact the county’s communications department for permission to burn.
“In the event that the control burn becomes out of your control, please call 911 immediately for our assistance,” he said.
When the burn ban is reinstated, Myers said they will attempt to give the public as much as advanced notice as possible.
The Ellis County Communications department phone number is (785) 625-1011.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man has admitted firing a shot that killed a Kansas education official who was not the intended victim.
Prosecutors say 35-year-old Calah D. Johnson pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The Kansas City Star reports court records indicate Johnson was shooting at someone in another car when a bullet hit 45-year-old Deanna Lieber in July 2009. Lieber and her 13-year-old daughter were returning to their home near Lawrence from Starlight Theater in Kansas City when she was shot.
Lieber was an attorney for the Kansas Department of Education.
Johnson already is serving 20 years in federal prison for trafficking in cocaine. His state sentence for second-degree murder will run concurrently with the federal sentence.
Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, says Gov. Sam Brownback might consider rolling back a major portion of his signature 2012 tax cut bill. – photo KHI News
The vice chairman of the Kansas Senate Ways and Means Committee says he’s been told by Gov. Sam Brownback that the governor might consider rolling back a major portion of his signature 2012 tax cut bill.
Sen. Jim Denning, a Republican from Overland Park, said on KCUR’s Statehouse Blend podcast over the weekend that Brownback might not veto a bill that would close the loophole that allows more then 300,000 small businesses in Kansas to avoid state income tax.
“It’s been signaled to me personally that he would not veto anything that the Legislature came up with to close that loophole this year,” Denning said. “So that’s a big movement from his position last year when he was 100 percent crystal clear that he was going to veto anything that we did.”
But the governor’s office suggests Denning may be jumping the gun.
“The governor will always carefully consider any bill the Legislature chooses to send him,” Brownback spokesperson Eileen Hawley said in a statement.
“We will announce our proposals for balancing the budget next week when the new revenue estimates are released. A plan to raise taxes on small businesses or anyone else will not be among them.”
Denning also predicted a rather dire consensus revenue estimate when state officials and economists meet Wednesday.
He expects revenue projections to be revised downward at least $150 million and as much as $250 million. Kansas has missed revenue projections 11 of the last 12 months, including an $8.5 million shortfall in March and a $54 million shortfall in February.
The Legislature returns April 27 for its veto session, and leaders have said they hope for a quick wrap-up session. However, if Denning is able to push through closing the loophole, the veto session could be a bit more complicated. That’s especially true in an election year.
“This thing is past politics to me. It’s a policy decision. It’s a business decision,” Denning said on the podcast. “We’ve got to keep the trains running, and closing that loophole is such a simple step. For me personally, I just don’t see the political fallout.”
To make up for the anticipated revenue problem, Denning said Brownback has a couple of options to balance the budget for this fiscal year, which ends June 30. He can sweep more money from the Kansas Department of Transportation budget and make other transfers.
Denning says Brownback also is prepared to cut more money from the Kansas Board of Regents budget.
“I think the governor has another $17 million he plans on cutting out of higher ed, and I think they’re prepared for that.”
That would on top of an across-the-board 3 percent cut higher education took in March after the dismal revenue performance in February.
If Denning is correct, higher education in Kansas would have a total of $34 million cut from its budget this year.
A spokesperson for the Board of Regents did not immediately respond.
— Sam Zeff covers education for KCUR. He’s also co-host of KCUR”s political podcast Statehouse Blend.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming the Kansas City Power & Light entertainment district discriminated against black patrons.
