ENID, Okla. (AP) — Three small earthquakes have been recorded in northern Oklahoma.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 3.6 quake was recorded at 1:01 a.m. Sunday 12 miles northeast of Enid and a 3.3 magnitude temblor was recorded in the same area eight minutes later.

A 2.7 magnitude quake was recorded at 2:20 a.m. near Blackwell, near the Oklahoma-Kansas state line.

No injuries or damage are reported.

The number of magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year.

Scientists have linked the increase to the underground disposal of wastewater from oil-and-gas production and state regulators want oil and gas companies to reduce their wastewater disposal operations.

MANHATTAN – Law enforcement authorities in Riley County are investigating a suspect in connection with an aggravated kidnapping.

Police reported Sergio Guerra, 38, Wichita, was was arrested late Friday, according to a media release.

Just before 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, police in Manhattan received an emergency call about a woman who had been dragged by her vehicle after attempting to flee an attacker who was not known to her.

Police responded to the 500 block of Richards Drive in Manhattan and found that several bystanders were assisting a 19-year-old woman who had received non-life threatening injuries. She was treated and released, however, the injuries were significant. This victim’s personal information has been withheld due to the nature of this crime.

Officers found that sometime after 11:00 p.m. the woman was approached by an unknown hispanic male while she attempted to start her car while in a parking lot on Richards Drive.

This suspect took her mobile phone and forced her to move to the passenger seat of her vehicle. The man then sat in the driver’s seat and began to drive out of the parking lot, according to police.

At that time the 19-year-old victim attempted to flee her vehicle, however, was unable to completely exit through the passenger side door and fell to the ground while a portion of her body was still inside. She was dragged for approximately 800 feet while the male suspect traveled south on Richards Drive and then west onto Fort Riley Blvd. when she was able to free herself. Bystanders then tended to her and contacted police. The suspect fled the scene and law enforcement later recovered the vehicle in the Redbud Estates neighborhood.

Guerra was booked on counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated battery, according to police in Manhattan.

Bond for Guerra was set at $500,000 and he is currently confined at the Riley County Jail.

 

By JIM MCLEAN

A new organization is forming to strengthen the lobbying effort for Medicaid expansion in Kansas.

The Alliance for a Healthy Kansas will focus on passing an expansion bill in 2017, not in the waning days of the current session, according to Billie Hall, the chief executive of the Topeka-based Sunflower Foundation.

In an email sent Wednesday to approximately 2,000 people registered to receive updates from the foundation, Hall urged individuals and organizations from across the state to join the alliance so that it can mount a strong lobbying effort next year.

“This conversation must continue through the summer and fall so that we can make a difference in 2017,” she wrote.

The alliance’s website is designed to “bring the voices of Kansans into this important policy discussion,” Hall wrote.

In addition to Sunflower, several foundations are funding the alliance, including the Wichita-based Kansas Health Foundation.

The website features a list of 70 current alliance members, which include a wide range of large and small advocacy groups, health care providers, unions and foundations.

To date, the Kansas Hospital Association has been the most visible advocate of expanding KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program. It has funded research detailing how expansion could benefit health care providers and the Kansas economy. It also has commissioned multiple surveys, each of which has shown that a majority of Kansans support expansion.

However, those efforts have failed to substantially move the needle on the issue. Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican legislative leaders remain steadfastly opposed to expanding KanCare coverage to an estimated 150,000 Kansans, most of whom are low-income but non-disabled adults.

Brownback reiterated his opposition to expansion in his session-opening State of the State speech.

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

Brownback’s remarks were designed to counter claims that expanding KanCare would bolster the finances of many struggling Kansas hospitals and could have prevented the closure last fall of Mercy Hospital in Independence.

Kansas is one of 19 states that so far have rejected Medicaid expansion.

Missing out on the first three years of expansion has cost the state more than $1 billion in additional federal money, according to the hospital association, which keeps a running total on its website.

Editor’s note: The Kansas Health Foundation is the main funder of the Kansas Health Institute, parent of the editorially independent KHI News Service, one of the partners in Heartland Health Monitor.

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

In 2015, Kansas fire departments responded to nearly 6,000 vegetation-related fires that resulted in 21 reported injuries, and $4.9 million in property loss and damages.

See the Wildfire Prevention Guide here

According to fire officials, nearly ninety-five percent of all wildfires result from the activity of people and, subsequently, a significant number could be prevented through taking proper actions towards fire safety.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal and Kansas Interagency Wildfire Council offer the following tips and best practices for helping farmers and ranchers to have safe and successful prescribed burns of their fields and pastures, ensuring a burn doesn’t become a wildfire:

Know all state and local fire restrictions. Check with county officials who are charged with deciding whether burning is permissible based on local conditions.
Notify neighbors as a courtesy prior to burning.
Postpone the burn if unsure of the fuel and weather conditions.
Check the weather forecast, not just for the day you will be burning, but for a couple days afterward as well to avoid “holdover” escapes from burns that were completed and forgotten about a day or more prior.
Have adequate resources and equipment available to prevent escaped fires.
Consider smoke management to avoid unsafe roads and air quality conditions.
Do not burn to the ends of the field. Setting boundaries, “back burning” and keeping the fire off of fence rows will prevent out-of-control burns.