HARPER COUNTY -A Kansas boy was injured in an accident just before 3:30p.m. on Thursday in Harper County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Dodge Ram pickup driven by Geraldine
Mazanec, 64, Marienthal, was eastbound on southwest 40th Road just west of 120th
A boy fell out of the bed of the truck as the driver was slowing down for a railroad crossing.
Harper EMS transported Wyatt Mazanec, 7, Marienthal, to Harper Hospital.
The driver was properly restrained at the time of the accident and not injured, according to the KHP.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A 50-year-old woman accused of killing her estranged husband in Leavenworth, Kansas, has been found mentally unfit to stand trial.
The Leavenworth Times reports that a Leavenworth County judge on Wednesday made that ruling after Barbara Frantz of Kansas City, Kansas, underwent mental competency testing.
She’ll be sent to the Larned State Security Hospital for treatment, and her proceedings will be suspended until a judge concludes her mental fitness for trial has been restored.
Frantz is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 54-year-old Gary Frantz.
Leavenworth police say Gary Frantz was shot several times Jan. 27 on a Leavenworth parking lot. Barbara Frantz was arrested hours later in Burlingame, Kansas.
Police have said the case involved domestic violence but did not offer further details.
WASHINGTON -Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas is apologizing for his comment about the possibility the GOP health care bill would ease federal requirements on coverage of basic services like mammograms.
In an interview with a reporter for Talking Points Memo on Thursday, Roberts was asked about potential changes in the health care bill. He said: “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.”
I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise.
He later tweeted an apology: “I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas educators see plenty of problems with a new school funding plan being considered by legislators, and a big one is what they see as not enough new dollars.
A special state House committee opened hearings Thursday on a bill that would create a new per-student formula for distributing aid to its 286 school districts.
Republican legislators scrapped a per-student formula in 2015 in favor of stable “block grants” for districts. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the law violated the state constitution and gave lawmakers until June 30 to enact a new one.
Several school superintendents said the new formula would be flawed in how it distributes money for various programs. But educators also questioned whether its $75 million increase in annual aid would be enough.
TOPEKA – Kansas First Lady Mary Brownback today announced the winners of the 2017 Kansas Book Festival library grants. This year’s winners plan to purchase a 3D printer, iPad minis, new computers and an updated biography section.
“The Kansas Book Festival works year round to promote literacy and encourage a life-long love of reading,” said First Lady Brownback. “These grants will help preserve and improve local and school libraries across the state.”
The 3 public and school libraries will share in receiving a portion of the $9,267 in grants.
2017 Technology Grants
Elmendaro Township Library, Hartford, $3,000 Lincoln Library, Medicine Lodge, $3,767
2017 Book Grants
McCarter Elementary School, Topeka, $2,500
Kansas Book Festival Fund is a 501c3 organization through the Topeka Community Foundation. The grants themselves are funded through corporate and individual sponsors.
“These grants will help libraries to purchase new technology like computers, iPads and eBooks as well as a wide range of reading materials for a variety of reading levels,” said First Lady Brownback.
The 2017 Kansas Book Festival will be held September 9 at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. All age groups are invited to attend the free, day-long event. To learn more, visit kansasbookfestival.com.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Ron Estes and Democrat James Thompson squabbled over health care reform, Planned Parenthood funding and more during their first face-to-face encounter in the race to fill the seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Their contentious forum Thursday in the heavily Republican district played out against the backdrop of GOP efforts in Washington, D.C., to repeal the nation’s health care law. Kansas has the nation’s first congressional race since President Donald Trump’s election.
Estes says he supports the repeal and replacement of “Obamacare.”
Thompson contends country needs to work out the problems in the health care system.He says health care should be “affordable and accessible for everybody.”
Estes supports defunding Planned Parenthood. Thompson says Planned Parenthood has done a lot of good.
The election is April 11.
The district includes Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Pratt, Sedgwick, Stafford, and Sumner counties as well as a portion of Pawnee County.
From left: Phelps (at podium), Gerard, Tammy and Garrett Wellbrock. Photo courtesy Rep. Eber Phelps
TOPEKA — Longtime northwest Kansas broadcaster Gerard Wellbrock was honored on the floor of the Kansas Legislature on Thursday.
Wellbrock, Eagle’s “Voice of the Fort Hays State University Tigers,” was recognized today by state Rep. Eber Phelps, D-Hays, after he won the 2016 National Sports Media Association Sportscast of the Year for the state of Kansas.
He was joined by his wife, Tammy, and son, Garrett.
RENO COUNTY– A Hutchinson Community College student charged in a drug distribution case failed to show for a court hearing Thursday. The judge issued a bench warrant for 20-year old Andre Harris.
He is charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute within a thousand feet Graber Elementary school and the Hutchinson Community College campus.
On February 15, an employee of the college reportedly smelled marijuana coming from the suspect’s room.
Authorities came into the room and found two bags of marijuana sitting on top of a scale.
That led to a search of the room where school officials allegedly found 17 more individual bags of marijuana. Total weight coming to around 27 grams.
FINNEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating convicted Kansas felon on assault and threat charges.
Just before noon Wednesday, police responded to report of aggravated assault at a home in the 300 Block of East Pine Street in Garden City, according to a media release.
The investigation revealed that on Tuesday, the suspect, Rocky Gomez, 37, Garden City and the victim engaged in a verbal argument and altercation.
During the altercation it was alleged that Gomez pulled a knife on the victim and made threats towards him.
This incident was not reported to police. On Wednesday, the suspect and victim engaged in another altercation and this time it was alleged the suspect threatened the victim with a stick. On this occasion the victim fled the residence and did called police.
When Police arrived on scene Gomez was located inside the residence but refused to exit the house. The Garden City/ Finney County SWAT team was called to assist and serve a search warrant on the residence to locate and arrest Gomez.
During the service of the warrant Gomez was located inside the residence and was uncooperative. A Garden City Police K-9 was used to assist in the apprehension and arrest.
Gomez is being held in the Finney County Jail for Aggravated Assault, Criminal Threat and
Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer.
He has previous convictions for weapons violations, drugs and aggravated indecent liberties with a victim under the age of 16, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University junior guard Justin Pitts has been named the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Player of the Year in a release from the organization on Thursday. Pitts is the first player in Northwest history to earn the top honor given by the association and just the second player to earn All-America honors, joining DeShaun Cooper in 2014.
He was named the MIAA Player of the Year for the second straight season and is a three time first-team all-conference performer. He has broken his own program single season scoring record with 701 points this season and tied Kelvin Parker’s 2004 mark of 174 assists in a single year. He is Northwest’s all-time leading scorer with 1,876 points.
He was named the MIAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and also garnered MVP honors of the NCAA Central Regional Tournament.
Protesters on Thursday in Salina-photo by Rocky Robinson
UPDATE: On Thursday afternoon, House Republican leaders postponed a vote on their health care bill in a setback for President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan.
By Rocky Robinson
SALINA-A group of protesters gathered in front of U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall’s Salina office, 200 East Iron, in Salina Thursday morning.
The demonstration was in response to Marshall’s announcement that he will support efforts to replace and reform the Affordable Care Act, introduced by former President Barack Obama back in 2010.
According to Katie Sawyer, Marshall’s district director, Marshall, Republican representative for the 1st District of Kansas, announced that he would support President Donald Trump’s replacement bill to a Wichita news station while in Washington this week.
Marshall’s decision comes after conversations with constituents and government officials, Sawyer said.
“Healthcare is a conversation we have been having for months in a formal capacity,” Sawyer said. “The congressman also came out of the healthcare field so this is something that he has thought about and been practicing for 30 years. Being in (Washington) D.C. has given him the chance to have more formal conversations about what this looks like.”
The gathering was put on by the Indivisible Movement, according to Christopher Renner, a demonstrator from Manhattan. About 35 people from Salina and neighboring communities came to Marshall’s office, located at 200 E Iron, to express their concern with Marshall’s support of President Trump’s bill. Renner said he expected more people to join the demonstration later in the day.
“Groups have started organizing across Kansas,” Renner said. “We are probably approaching 20 groups already. We are grassroots and we work to get people to come out and take back control of our political system, which is dominated by dark money.”
Sawyer said that they were able to prepare for the demonstration after hearing about it through a media platform two days beforehand. Sawyer and other office officials sat down with some protesters as they voiced their concerns. Participants urged Marshall to “vote no.”
“Trump is not only going to make insurance unaffordable, or unavailable to millions of people, he is also going to be giving a huge tax cut to the most affluent households,” said Stan Cox, a Salina resident.
Look back to see the future of school finance in Kansas.
In its unanimous decision of March 2, the Kansas Supreme Court determined the “block grant” scheme for funding schools did not meet the constitutional standard of adequacy and ordered the Kansas Legislature back to the drawing board to write a school finance law that meets constitutional muster no later than June 30.
H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University.
Four fundamental revisions of school finance over the last 50 years, coupled with recent missteps in state finance, foretell what to expect from state lawmakers over the next couple months.
Overall school funding will substantially increase. While the court emphasized that “total spending is not the touchstone for adequacy in education,” its order admonished lawmakers that “the state should not ignore” experts’ cost estimates which in fact point to a sizeable boost in base funding for schools.
School funding will rely more upon state sales and income taxes and less on property taxes. The disastrous tax experiment of 2012 followed by jumps in sales and property taxes have narrowed options for lawmakers. As a result income taxes now stand as the only realistic choice for funding schools and rebalancing state finance. The tax bill passed by strong legislative majorities earlier this session looked back to tax policy prior to the experiment as a starting point. This alternative is in line with the long-term trend of reducing reliance on property taxes for school funding as expressed in every prior school finance revision.
The formula for distributing state funds to individual school districts will return to base funding plus district weightings. Lawmakers represent school districts that vary widely in geography, wealth, and student characteristics, among other factors, and they must come to agreement in apportioning funds through a political process. The current court cited its earlier decision in this regard: “[W]e do not dictate to the legislature how it should constitutionally fund K-12 public school education; we only review its efforts to ensure they do not run afoul of the Kansas Constitution.”
The formula crafted in 1992 included district weightings, such as numbers of at-risk students and students’ distance from schools, to allocate funds among districts and worked effectively for nearly 20 years. While this formula provides a point of departure, the court did highlight that revisions must address those students, particularly minorities and at-risk students, who are not performing at grade levels.
Action on school finance will be bipartisan. Every school finance revision has enjoyed bipartisan legislative support. While Republicans control roughly two-thirds of all legislative seats, roughly half of them question the value of public schools. That reality plus a disengaged governor assures that school finance reform can only be enacted through a bipartisan legislative coalition.
Final action on school finance and the revenues required to fund schools will be resolved in the last hour on the last day of the legislative session, likely this coming June. A billion-dollar hole in state finance complicates the work of state lawmakers. As a result, school finance must go hand in hand with a revenue package that funds it. Early votes last month on taxes provide encouragement that legislative majorities are in place to address these challenges, even though the governor and remaining hard-right legislators show no signs of being part of the solution.
A new class of legislators plus engaged legislative leaders should give Kansans optimism that new directions in school finance and sanity in state finance lie ahead, possibly even before late June.
H. Edward Flentje is professor emeritus at Wichita State University.
HARPER COUNTY -A Kansas boy was injured in an accident just before 3:30p.m. on Thursday in Harper County.
