NEW YORK (AP) — Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco.
So he was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan, one of a small but growing number of establishments across the U.S. where customers can only pay by card or smartphone.
Cash-free stores are generating a backlash among some activists and liberal-leaning policymakers who say the practice discriminates against people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions.
Figueroa, an ironworker, had to stand to the side, holding his taco, until a sympathetic cashier helped him find another customer willing to pay for his meal with a card in exchange for cash.
“I had money and I couldn’t pay,” he said.
The issue got some high-profile attention this week when retail giant Amazon bowed to pressure from activists and agreed to accept cash at more than 30 cashless stores, including its Amazon Go convenience stores, which have no cashiers, and its book shops. Amazon declined to say when the change would happen.
There is no federal law that requires stores to accept cash, so lawmakers are working on the issue at the state and city level.
Earlier this year, Philadelphia became the first city to ban cashless stores, despite efforts by Amazon to dissuade it. New Jersey passed a statewide ban soon after, and a similar ban is working its way through the New York City Council. Before this year there was only one jurisdiction that required businesses to accept cash: Massachusetts, which passed a law nearly 40 years ago.
SHERMAN COUNTY — Three people were injured in an accident just before 3:30a.m. Sunday in Sherman County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Chevy Silverado driven by Nicole Weber, 27, Sebastian, Florida, was eastbound on Interstate 70 eight miles east of Goodland.
The pickup rear-ended a 2010 Dodge 350 driven by Jeremy Ty Severe, 48, Medford, Oklahoma, and continued to travel entering the south ditch and came to rest.
The Dodge continued eastbound crossing the median into the westbound lanes and came to rest in the north ditch.
Weber, Severe and a passenger in the Chevy David Michael Bragg, 26, Fellsmere, Florida, were transported to the hospital in Goodland, Bragg and Severe were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has joined a bipartisan group of colleagues in calling on Amtrak to continue service to rural communities in Kansas and across the United States by investing in long-distance and state-supported routes, including the Southwest Chief.
“We are writing in strong support of Amtrak’s national network, including the long-distance and state-supported routes,” the senators wrote. “These routes serve small, midsize, and rural communities in our states and provide essential connections to jobs, tourism, and family that are critical to the people and places we represent. As you develop Amtrak’s plan for the long-term viability of the company, we urge you to recognize the critical importance of the entire national network, which includes the long-distance and state-supported routes. Once again, we seek your firm commitment that Amtrak will abide by its statutory purpose – maintaining a truly national network for our rail system.”
“Congress purposely created a national network of long-distance and state-supported train service throughout the nation, in recognition of the importance of a transportation system that reaches every community – regardless of how rural it may be,” the senators continued. “Amtrak is more than a collection of individual train routes; it is a web of essential connections that bind our country together and link rural communities with major markets and economic opportunities.”
The letter requests responses to questions about Amtrak’s budgeting process and their future plans regarding long-distance train routes and their interest in introducing new short distance routes. The letter also addresses the changes Amtrak made to long-distance routes last year, such as the removal of ticket agents at stations across the country, and asks when Amtrak plans to restore the services it previously provided passengers.
Sen. Moran has led a bipartisan push to make certain Amtrak maintains train services along the established, long-distance passenger rail route of the Southwest Chief, which runs daily between Chicago and Los Angeles, connecting towns and cities across the western United States and providing train and long-distance passenger service, particularly through rural areas.
The Southwest Chief stops in several Kansas communities, including Lawrence, Topeka, Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City.
The letter was also signed by Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
We are writing in strong support of Amtrak’s national network, including the long-distance and state-supported routes. These routes serve small, midsize, and rural communities in our states and provide essential connections to jobs, tourism, and family that are critical to the people and places we represent. As you develop Amtrak’s plan for the long-term viability of the company, we urge you to recognize the critical importance of the entire national network, which includes the long-distance and state-supported routes. Once again, we seek your firm commitment that Amtrak will abide by its statutory purpose – maintaining a truly national network for our rail system.
Amtrak’ recent appropriation clearly demonstrates Congress’ strong, bipartisan support for the network. In making this investment, Congress chose to ensure the continued viability of Amtrak’s entire system, including the National Network’s long-distance and state-supported routes. These funds should be used to operate the entire existing system and, where possible, expand the system to grow both revenue and ridership.
Congress purposely created a national network of long-distance and state-supported train service throughout the nation, in recognition of the importance of a transportation system that reaches every community – regardless of how rural it may be. Amtrak is more than a collection of individual train routes; it is a web of essential connections that bind our country together and link rural communities with major markets and economic opportunities. It provides residents of these communities with transportation options on which families, seniors, and businesses rely to access jobs, create economic opportunities, see our beautiful country, and visit family. The federal investment in Amtrak ensures the small, midsize, and rural communities served by Amtrak’s long-distance and state-supported routes continue to receive this essential service. The long-distance and state-supported routes of the national system are no less important than the Northeast Corridor (NEC), another critical aspect of Amtrak service.
The long distance and state supported trains generate more ridership than the NEC and similar levels of revenue. Many long-distance sleeper cars are regularly sold out. The entire national network helps cover Amtrak’s fixed corporate costs such as police, facilities and capital expenditures, particularly when the route shares trackage with the NEC. Continuing and expanding the entire national system of long-distance and state-supported routes is both good for Amtrak’s business, and our national economy.
We look forward to working with you and receiving assurances of your commitment to the national network. For these reasons, we request your response to the following questions by April 29, 2019.
Amtrak customers have already experienced a deterioration in service as Amtrak pursues efficiencies. A recent report in Trains Magazine[1]indicated that Amtrak utilizes accounting mechanisms to inflate costs associated with the national network, by charging long-distance and state-supported routes for costs which may be more appropriately charged to the Northeast Corridor. We are concerned that Amtrak’s accounting is intentionally obscure and is causing a false inflation of costs of lines outside of the Northeast Corridor. Please provide the accounting methods used to determine the costs referenced.
Does Amtrak plan to truncate or otherwise alter any of the long-distance train routes? If yes, then:
Which routes are under consideration for alteration?
Would any of these routes be altered in such a way that they would fall under the definition of State Supported routes, requiring states to find local operating funds for existing service? What discussions has Amtrak had with states, if any, that lead it to believe states would be willing to assume this financial obligation?
Amtrak says it wants to introduce new short distance routes with daytime service and multiple frequencies. What specific routes is Amtrak considering? What discussions—if any—has Amtrak had with host railroads, stakeholders, or government officials regarding these additional frequencies?
Amtrak claims that public demand for its long-distance interstate service is declining. Yet the number of passengers using the total long-distance network in FY 2017—the last year without major service interruptions—was 10.6% higher than it was eight years earlier in FY 2010. It was also higher than in all but three of the last eight years. This growth occurred in spite of worsening on time performance, capacity reductions and other changes to service levels. On what basis does Amtrak claim that demand is declining for long-distance trains?
Amtrak has made a number of changes impacting long-distance routes in 2018 that may reduce revenues and services, such as the removal of ticket agents at a number of stations across the country. Why did Amtrak calculate ridership totals based on weekly boardings on routes that do not run daily? When will Amtrak restore or otherwise alter assistance it provides passengers at stations based on Congressional directives in the Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations Act?
Amtrak has expressed concern at how the dispatching practices of some host railroads has led to deteriorating on-time performance (OTP). Does Amtrak have a strategy to improve OTP and better interface with the host railroads? Are there policies that would assist Amtrak in this endeavor?
Sleeper cars provide approximately 40-50% of the revenue on many long-distance trains. Please provide us with an update on the 25 sleeper cars that were scheduled to be delivered in 2015 and 2016. Please provide a timeline for completing this order and putting the new cars into service?
Our constituents – in both large and small communities rely on Amtrak service. We look forward to continue to work with you to preserve and expand the long-distance and state-supported routes, and to reviewing your response to our questions.
One of the greatest resources we have in this nation is access to a quality, public education. By teaching our children well, they can go out and improve the world, innovate, and do things differently than they’ve been done before.
That’s why it was disappointing to see the Legislature resist a new and innovative solution, instead gravitating toward the same style of school finance plan that has mired our state in litigation for over a decade.
The Gannon case began in 2010 after the Legislature was unable to keep its promises, failing to fund its school finance plan in the wake of the 2008 recession. Now, here we are again – on the verge of what financial experts predict is another impending recession – attempting to resolve the litigation with another unsustainable plan.
Kids First Plan
Recognizing that the plan proposed by the Governor and the Senate (Senate Bill 16) would repeat the mistakes of those who came before us, the House began conversations with school leaders and the Governor about how to build a sustainable plan – one that would fully fund our schools, not just for a year or two, but for the long haul.
That solution – known as the Kids First Plan – would have:
Followed the court’s directive to pay $126 million in inflation,
Recession-proofed the plan by escrowing $243 million so the state could meet its obligations to our schools in the event of an economic downturn.
Added an estimated $17 million for early childhood programs, recognizing that investments in early childhood education are one of the most effective ways we can close the achievement gap identified by the court.
Added $27 million to expand a children’s mental health pilot program that is seeing results in our schools by identifying young people in need and preventing teen suicide.
Unfortunately, a few days before the Legislature was set to adjourn, the Governor backed away from negotiations on the Kids First Plan and opted instead to push for SB 16, the plan that was ultimately passed by the Legislature. It was a plan that the majority of House Republicans could not support.
Senate Bill 16
Senate Bill 16 contains an often-overlooked provision that commits taxpayers to an automatic annual inflation increase – not just during the life of this plan, but for the rest of our lives and our children’s lives. That means an estimated $100 million more will come due every year – funds that will have to come from our highways, mental health, foster care, our colleges, our nursing homes and other essential services. These areas of the budget will be made to suffer even more because of SB 16.
Make no mistake: This plan is a promise the Governor and the Legislature cannot keep. According to the budget analysts, sustaining SB 16 relies on six assumptions:
The Supreme Court rules in favor of funding not based in their opinion.
Taxes are raised.
The food sales tax is not lowered.
Money continues to be swept from the highway fund.
The state does not make its KPERS payments, and
There is not a recession.
I’m not willing to take that gamble.
Legislators on both sides of the aisle care about public education, and are committed to ensuring that every kid has every opportunity to succeed. Our shared priority for funding our schools is evident in the fact that many of us – myself included – have voted for $3.13 Billion in new funding over the past two years. The vote on SB 16 was not about who loves schools and who doesn’t. It was about whether we want to make promises we can keep.
As parents, we serve as role models for our kids. Repeating the mistakes of those who came before us is not the right example to set. As legislators, we have a responsibility to think beyond what is politically expedient in the short-term, and to be disciplined enough to form long-term, sustainable solutions that will carry our schools and our state forward. Senate Bill 16 is not the long-term, sustainable solution that our children and our teachers deserve. As Kansans, we can do better.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas legislator is suggesting that the state treasurer should drop his bid for the U.S. Senate because he “needs to be at home, helping to raise his young children.”
State Treasurer Jake LaTurner responded Friday that state Sen. Gene Suellentrop’s comments were “cowardly.”
Jake LaTurner was sworn in April 2017 as the 40th Kansas State Treasurer-Photo office of Kansas Governor
LaTurner is a Republican running for the seat held by four-term GOP U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who is not seeking re-election in 2020. LaTurner is the only candidate to have filed so far, but at least seven other Republicans are considering the race.
The 31-year-old LaTurner has four young children.
Suellentrop is a 67-year-old Wichita Republican and made his comments about LaTurner in a tweet responding to a news report about the race.
LaTurner replied that Suellentrop should “be a man” and talk to him personally.
Bronc Rumford has become a pro at improvising over the years.
So the Fort Hays State University rodeo coach didn’t give it a second thought when he realized that Easter would fall on the same weekend as the FHSU Rodeo this year.
The rodeo is annually scheduled for the third weekend of April at Doug Philip Arena. To accommodate for the Easter holiday, the 2019 NIRA event will be shortened from three days to two.
“We’ve had rain, wind, snow and 26 degrees,” Rumford said. “One year we had to cancel Friday’s events because of rain and mud, but we were able to get it all in on Saturday and Sunday. We are used to making adjustments.”
Rumford stressed that all the traditional events will still be held at the 53rd annual rodeo, including crowning the Fort Hays State Rodeo Queen during Friday night’s performance.
“We will just have more kids in the two days of slack,” Rumford said of the overflow number of contestants in certain events. “We’re even going to still have Cowboy Church.”
The church service, ordinarily held on Sunday morning of the rodeo weekend, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday this year. Public performances begin at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.
Events for the nearly 500 competitors from 22 schools in the Central Plains Region are: bareback bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, cowgirls barrel racing, cowgirls breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping.
CORRECTION: A news release distributed Friday contained incorrect information on student admission for the Fort Hays State University Rodeo the weekend of April 19 and April 20.
Admission this year is $5 for Fort Hays State students with Tiger ID, which is a change from past practice.
Public performances begin at 7 p.m. both Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20. The Cowboy Church service, ordinarily held on Sunday morning of the rodeo weekend, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday this year to accommodate Easter celebrations.
Events for the nearly 500 competitors from 22 schools in the Central Plains Region are: bareback bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, cowgirls barrel racing, cowgirls breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping.
Tickets can be purchased at the Student Service Center in FHSU’s Memorial Union; Orscheln Farm & Home, 2900 Broadway Ave.; and Vanderbilt’s, 2704 Vine. Advance ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Prices at the gate will be $12 (adults) and $8 (children).
Sherman John Verhoeff, age 80, of Collinsville, Oklahoma and formerly of Grinnell, Kansas, died on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from congestive heart failure. Sherman was born July 6, 1938, in Hays to John and Marie (Ashley) Verhoeff. He was raised in Grinnell and graduated from Grinnell High School in 1956. He was in the Kansas Army National Guard and attended college in Hays, majoring in electrical engineering, and where he met his future wife and lifelong partner, Donnie Regagnon. Sherman farmed with his two uncles and father in Grinnell.
Sherman married Donnie May (Regagnon) on November 7, 1957. Sherman and Donnie moved to Kansas City in 1958 where he received his degree in Electrical Engineering. After his graduation he moved back to Grinnell and eventually had his own farm and ranch where he and his wife, Donnie, raised purebred Charolais cattle under the name Broken Bar Charolais. Sherman was an active member of the Bluestem Charolais Association and attended cattle shows, conferences, and meetings throughout the United States.
Sherman and Donnie were blessed with two daughters, Debbora and Sharon, who also attended school and graduated from Grinnell. Both girls were active in local 4-H and Sherman participated as a 4-H leader.
Sherman was always intrigued with flying and eventually he and Deb received their private pilots’ licenses together in 1976. They and the family often traveled in their Cessna 172 to visit family and friends throughout the Midwest.
Sherman was a member of the Methodist Church in Grinnell, and was baptized and married in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Larned, Kansas. He attended the Ranch Creek Ward of the LDS church in Owasso, Oklahoma.
Sherman is survived by his wife, Donnie M. (Regagnon) Verhoeff; daughters, Debbora Verhoeff, of Owasso, and Sharon Verhoeff, of Quinlan, Texas, seven grandchildren: Justin Dawson, Dallas Allen, Savanna Payne, Shawn Dawson, Jacob Allen, Amanda Paul and Garrett Paul; and eight great-grandchildren: Keira and Connor Dawson; Gwendolyn and Roselyn Allen; Colleen, Leah and Danny Marie Payne and Christopher L Bunton.
He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Marie Verhoeff, and uncles: Joseph Verhoeff and Marion Verhoeff, also from Grinnell, Kansas.
Sherman will always be remembered for his warm smile, caring attitude and joyful personality.
Funeral service: 1:00 p.m. Monday, April 15, 2019 at Kennedy-Koster Funeral Home, Oakley. Visitation: 11:00 a.m. to service time, Monday, at the funeral home. Interment in Grinnell Township Cemetery with military honors. Memorials: Grinnell Township Cemetery Fund in care of Kennedy-Koster Funeral Home, P.O. Box 221, Oakley, KS 67748.
Ray Alvarez remembers the summer he couldn’t make ends meet driving children to school.
“I did qualify for food stamps,” the Olathe school bus driver said. “And yes, I accepted them. My income was so low.”
Alvarez has driven buses off and on for a decade. The financial crisis back then upended his livelihood as a mortgage broker, he says.
He and other drivers urged a panel of state senators recently to consider letting them apply for unemployment during the 70 or so days each year when schools are closed for the summer. The bill stalled in committee.
When Kansas school districts contract with private companies for janitors, food service workers, bus monitors and more, those employees can seek unemployment benefits if they can’t find work during the offseason.
Bus drivers can’t. That’s because of a decades-old carve-out in state law that state officials couldn’t explain. The Kansas Department of Labor checked on 10 nearby states and found eight let privately employed school bus drivers apply for unemployment. Two don’t.
Advocates of dropping the state’s carve-out argue it isn’t fair — nor helpful at a time when bus drivers are in short supply here and nationally, and jobless rates remain exceptionally low.
Mimi Horn has driven for the Lawrence school district for five years and says new employees — who earn less and are less likely to snag a coveted summer school route — struggle especially.
Even during the school year, many drivers can count on only a few hours of work each day, making it hard to cover rent, utilities or other bills.
“Two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon.” Drivers, Horn said, “have to not pay something in order to pay the other. Rob Peter to pay Paul.”
Could unemployment benefits help?
Starting pay for Lawrence bus drivers is $15 an hour. Pay at Horn’s level of experience is closer to $16. Raises top out after 13 years at $18.
‘I’ve seen some of them, in the summertimes they go to the food banks. They have to rely on food stamps.’
A Teamsters union representative said the company that Lawrence Public Schools contracts with, First Student, has repeatedly raised pay to entice more applicants.
The question is whether letting drivers apply for unemployment during the summer might help companies hire and retain them in Kansas. (The proposed change wouldn’t affect drivers employed directly by public school districts, who still wouldn’t qualify for reasons related to a federal law.)
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat, urged her fellow senators to think again if they imagine retirees who don’t want a full-time gig will do the driving.
“More and more individuals who are bus drivers transporting our most precious cargo to and from schools — that is their main livelihood,” she said at a legislative hearing. “I’ve seen some of them, in the summertimes, they go to the food banks. They have to rely on food stamps.”
First Student, which lobbied for the bill, says turnover is higher among its drivers in Kansas than in states where its drivers can seek summertime unemployment benefits.
The company brought more than 20 drivers from Minnesota to pick up routes in Wichita that lacked drivers at the start of this school year in August. It raised starting pay to $16 in September.
That helped, a spokeswoman for the company said by email, but “we do believe the bill would further help.” Right now, drivers who quit when school ends often mention the need for summer work.
The unemployment change faces opposition from the Kansas Chamber, the state’s influential business lobby. Taxes paid by businesses fuel the state unemployment fund.
“How do we ensure parity and fairness with the rest of the business community?” Lobbyist Kristi Brown asked senators at a hearing. “When you’re asking a certain group that you anticipate will be a seasonal position to be able to withdraw from that fund, I think there needs to be an expectation for the company that employs them to be paying in appropriately.”
Brown warned against drawing from a once ailing fund that the state fought to make healthy.
Lawmakers sympathetic to the drivers’ plight argued the state would take that into account.
Companies contribute more or less into the state’s unemployment system based on factors such as the size of their payrolls and how often their employees end up on the benefits.
And when a person seeks benefits, the Kansas Department of Labor considers how they became unemployed, how long they worked, whether they’re actively looking for work or turning down jobs, and other details, before paying out.
What about paying drivers year-round?
A representative for First Student told senators the company spends $3,000 to train each new employee, and more just to find them. For every 10 applicants, only two get hired. Hurdles include earning a specialized license and passing a background check for criminal and traffic violations.
Some senators wondered whether the company should explore other options, such as keeping more drivers on its summer payroll to save on recruiting and training.
‘Have you done the cost analysis, if you just simply paid them for 72 days?’
“Have you done the cost analysis,” Topeka Republican Eric Rucker asked, “if you just simply paid them for 72 days?”
First Student says letting employees apply for unemployment would be cheaper, even given that the company would need to pay higher taxes into the state’s unemployment fund.
Moreover, First Student, said if it compensated drivers year-round, that would show up in the price it charges districts.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
By RAENEE PATTERSON FHSU University Relations and Marketing
With the opportunity to write about the television show “Doctor Who” and tie it in with historical and political perspectives, one Fort Hays State University professor could not pass up this chance.
Long-time “Doctor Who” fan Dr. Eric Lueschner, chair of the Department of English, was published in the book “Doctor Who Twelfth Night: Adventures in Time and Space with Peter Capaldi.”
Peter Capaldi, a Scottish actor, was the 12th actor to play the title role, holding the role from 2014 to 2017.
“I saw a call-for-papers announcement and proposed the topic to the editor,” said Leuschner. “Although my usual scholarship is related to more traditional topics and more canonical authors, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.”
Leuschner’s essay was titled “‘Chap with wings there, five rounds rapid’: UNIT and the Politics of Doctor Who,” and focuses on the fictional organization UNIT, which was established to investigate and protect the earth from alien threats and has appeared in the show periodically since 1968.
“Examining the depiction of UNIT from a historical perspective reveals how Doctor Who not only satirizes, but also reflects, the political choices faced today. How one defines ‘political’ and what elements of the text are analyzed, such as the changing depiction of UNIT, may reveal ways in which the Doctor Who does and continues to promote ideological and political work,” said Leuschner.
“In this book, the first to address the Capaldi era in depth, international experts on the show explore Capaldi’s portrayal of the Doctor, and Steven Moffat’s role as show writer and executive producer,” says the publisher’s blurb.
“By detailing how UNIT has changed over the years and interacts with the different personalities of the Doctor, I argue in the essay that we can see how the show comments on political issues such as increased militarism and global organization such as the United Nations,” said Leuschner.
The BBC science fiction television series first aired in 1963 and was on British television continuously for 26 years until 1989. It was then rebooted in 2005 with renewed world-wide popularity.
“I’m a long-time fan of the show, having started watching in the early 1980s, when I was in high school, and public television ran old episodes on weeknights,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Leuschner has used “Doctor Who” for academic purposes. Several years ago, an episode was used in one of his classes. “I think it would be fascinating to teach a “Doctor Who” course some time if there were student interest,” he said.
The book was released in the United Kingdom in October of 2018, and in the United States in January of 2019. It is now available for purchase on Amazon.
This book appeals to a variety of people, from fans to scholars, who are looking to learn more about how “Doctor Who” portrayed and understood society.
The Poor People’s Campaign made a stop in Hays last Sunday advocating for rights for the disabled, affordable health care and an end to the war economy.
Nathan Elwood, Fort Hays State University librarian and Poor People’s Campaign volunteer, introduced speakers who were local residents and from the national movement.
“We are here to talk about poverty. We are here to talk about economic and social injustice,” he said.
“These aren’t easy comfortable topics to talk about. In fact, from a young age we are taught not talk about these things. We are told it is impolite to talk about money. We are told if we are struggling, we should grin and bare it. We are told not to burden others, but avoiding discussions of the problems we face as a community won’t make those problems go away.”
In Hays, 19.5 percent of residents live below the poverty line, which is higher than the 13 percent national average. Indicators predict the poverty rate will continue to rise despite low unemployment in the area, Elwood said.
Claire Chadwick, a campaign volunteer, is a pastor with a master’s degree, but she is a low-wage worker. She has been poor all of her life. Her father was homeless for a time and they lost their home in the mortgage crisis.
“The reason that I got involved with the Poor People’s Campaign is because it taught me that losing our house in the mortgage crisis — that being a low-wage worker even with a master’s degree — that it wasn’t something that I was doing wrong.
“There isn’t something inherently the matter with me. It is not a character flaw. It is not an accident, but it is a part of a larger system.”
Work can be way out of poverty for disabled
Ellis County resident Lou Ann Kibbee said society needs to give disabled citizens more incentives and support to work.
Ellis County resident Lou Ann Kibbee was disabled 42 years ago. She now works as an advocate for the disabled at the local, state and national levels. She is currently employed at the Skilled Resource Center.
For the first 16 years after her injury, Kibbee received a variety of assistance from government agencies, including Medicare, Medicaid, HUD and Social Security Disability.
“I learned early on that society did not expect me to become employed, because I have a disability” she said.
She was discouraged repeatedly from seeking employment, even by government workers who warned her she would lose her benefits if she got a job. Yet, her disability check was only $570 per month.
Her medical care was not equal to that of private insurance, and although most people on disability also receive food assistance, it is not enough to eat healthy, she said.
Yet, she compared leaving disability for a job to jumping out of a plane without a parachute.
“But I did go to work, because I knew that was my only possibility of getting out of poverty,” she said. “I knew that I needed a pretty good paying job to support myself and a college education to do that and compete with other applicants.”
Today, it takes Kibbee and her husband’s combined income to pay her extensive medical expenses. She pays $14,000 per year alone for attendant care services.
Not surprisingly, as of 2017 only 46 percent of disabled Kansans of working age were employed.
“We try to continue to educate people with disabilities about going to work, but there needs to be more incentives, so that they can afford to make that move,” Kibbee said. “Employers in communities need to be educated more about the capacity of people with disabilities to become employed in integrated competitive employment.”
Thousands of people with disabilities are in nursing homes or institutions waiting for in-home services, because in Kansas in-home services are optional.
“It should be a civil right for anyone with a disability to live in their homes and communities just like anyone else,” she said. “When we live in the community, we are able to earn and spend money, get educated, have families, pay taxes and contribute to our communities.”
Skyrocketing medical expenses
Laura Allen, whose son had to have a heart transplant, said the boy’s medication cost $10,000 for a single month.
Laura Allen, First Call for Help client services specialist, talked about her personal experiences struggling to pay for medication for her son. Allen is a single parent of three children. Two years ago, her son had to have a heart transplant because of a congenital heart defect.
After his last round of rejection, he came home on two kinds of insulin. The bill for less than one month of insulin was $6,500. His anti-rejection medication was another $4,000.
Vera Elwood, a FHSU master’s student, said she and parents planned from the time she was 12 years old and was diagnosed with diabetes to provide for her insulin when she graduated college. The fear was that she would be without health care until she could find a job.
When the Affordable Care Act passed, which allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26, Vera’s whole family cried together. Today, Elwood is covered under her husband’s health insurance. However, she said affordable health care and insulin is still a matter of life or death for her.
“All of these changes that are coming up — getting rid of pre-existing conditions, getting rid of mandatory health care, not expanding Medicaid — these things have real, real impact on 12 year olds who are planning to not die when they graduate college,” Vera said.
Allen added doctors told her if her insurance would not cover the cost of her son’s anti-rejection medication, the doctors were unwilling to do the transplant.
“Because it was a wasted organ without the money and medications to go along with the transplant,” she said.
Working and uninsured
People gathered at the Hays Public Library Sunday to hear speakers from the Poor People’s Campaign.
Twenty-four-year old college student Heather Letourneau is an attendant care worker in Hays. She has no health insurance. It is not provided by her job regardless of the number of hours she works.
“From the outside looking in, it appears that I should have no trouble paying for health care because I make well above minimum wage. When I was working 40 hours a week, I was only getting $1,200 a month, which paid my bills. It did not pay for groceries or gas,” she said.
She noted she cut out all non-necessities and still struggles to pay her expenses.
Letourneau advocated for higher wages and Medicaid expansion to help her and other attendant care worker who do not have insurance.
Veteran against the war economy
Christopher Overfelt served in the Topeka Air National Guard for nine years as an aircraft mechanic and now advocates for a reform of U.S foreign policy and a reduction in military spending.
Christopher Overfelt served in the Topeka Air National Guard for nine years as an aircraft mechanic. During that time, he deployed to Iraq and Turkey.
Overfelt, who is member of Veterans for Peace in Kansas City, spoke about how the U.S. military policy harms poor people in the U.S. and around the world.
“In 2009, I deployed to Turkey and Qatar, and participated in the destruction of two sovereign nations — Iraq and Afghanistan. In Qatar I repaired and maintained the aircraft that refueled the bombers on their way to sew death and destruction in Iraq,” he said.
“Neither of these countries will likely recover from that devastation in my lifetime,” he said. “Nothing I can do will make up for the hundreds of thousands of Afghan and Iraqi men, women and children killed in these wars.”
He said he had no idea when he joined the military that the Department of Defense has never completed an internal audit of its spending despite it being mandated by law.
“It doesn’t know how much money it is spending and how it is spending it,” he said. “It is a black hole for money.”
A 2016 inspector general report indicated the Pentagon could not account for how it spent $6.5 trillion during the last two decades, Overfelt said.
The $600 billion the Pentagon receives does not include additional funding for classified operations by the CIA and NSA. However, Overfelt said insiders estimate this secret budget pushes military spending over $1 trillion per year — a third of the U.S. budget.
“It is no secret there is always enough money for a bigger military and more jails, but never enough for education and the poor,” he said. “Instead of this money going to health care and education for our citizens who so desperately need it, it goes to padding the pockets of weapons manufacturers on Wall Street.”
Overfelt said most of the military funding does not go to fight wars, but to secure American capital across the world.
“Around the world the State Department supports corrupt governments to ensure our access to their resources,” he said. “We take their resources and bring them into our country, and then we build walls to ensure they cannot come here and participate in the wealth we have taken from them.”
Overfelt offered a three-pronged approach to demilitarization including slashing the military budget and reinvesting in health care and other programs, ending the war on drugs, and stopping the war on immigrants.
“The war on immigrants has nothing to do about crime or safety,” he said, “but is purely about ensuring cheap laborers around the world cannot leave the systems they are trapped in. The money flows across international borders, but the workers can’t follow the money.”
TOPEKA – The Kansas Water Authority (KWA) will meet Thursday, April 18 at the Abilene Civic Center, 201 NW 2nd Street in Abilene, Kansas. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m.
For additional meeting information visit the Kansas Water Office (KWO) website, www.kwo.ks.gov or call (785) 296-3185 or (888) 526-9283 (KAN-WATER).
If accommodations are needed for persons with disabilities, please notify the KWO at least five working days prior to the meeting.
As the state’s water office, KWO conducts water planning, policy coordination and water marketing as well as facilitates public input throughout the state.
The agency prepares the KANSAS WATER PLAN, a plan for water resources development, management and conservation.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Homer Bailey pitched seven innings of two-hit ball and the Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians 3-0 Saturday night for their second straight win after a 10-game skid.
Ian Kennedy pitched a perfect eighth and Willy Peralta followed in the ninth for his first save to complete the two-hitter.
Ryan O’Hearn homered, and Whit Merrifield and Adalberto Mondesi each had an RBI single for the Royals.
Bailey (1-1), who allowed seven runs, eight hits and two walks in five innings against Seattle on Monday, gave up only a pair of hits to eighth-place hitter Brad Miller. Bailey had won only one of his last 22 home starts, dating to 2016. He went 1-14 with a 7.49 ERA over that span.
Jefry Rodriguez (0-1) gave up two runs and five hits over 5 2/3 innings in his first start with Cleveland. He was acquired in the offseason from Washington in the trade that sent catcher Yan Gomes to the Nationals.
Bailey had not won in an American League ballpark since May 19, 2012, when he won in Yankee Stadium while with Cincinnati.
He suffered a series of injuries beginning near the end of 2014 after pitching a no-hitter in each of the previous two years — Sept. 28, 2012, at Pittsburgh, and July 2, 2013, against San Francisco.
The Royals got on the board in the bottom of the third. Martin Maldonado led off the inning with a double to left center, snapping an 0-for-17 stretch. He moved to third on a flyout to left and scored on Mondesi’s two-out single.
The Royals added another run in the fourth when O’Hearn hit his second homer of the season, 429 feet to right field.
Merrifield had his second hit of the night, a two-out single in the seventh that drove in Hunter Dozier to give the Royals a 3-0 lead.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Indians: SS Francisco Lindor is likely headed to a minor-league rehab assignment as early as Monday. Lindor had a workout on Saturday, running the bases for the second day in a row. Cleveland manager Terry Francona said he’ll go to Louisville to join Triple-A Columbus, if there are “no ill effects, no repercussions of a second-day workout.” Lindor has not played this season due to a right calf strain and a left ankle sprain.
Royals: CF Billy Hamilton was kept out of the lineup for a second straight game with a mild MCL sprain and a bone bruise on his left knee suffered when he crashed into the wall Thursday. Royals manager Ned Yost says he’s about ready. “He seemed a little stiff yesterday but definitely could have played in an emergency,” Yost said. “He feels better today. Let’s see how he feels tomorrow, and we’ll determine where we’re at on the road.”
ROSTER NEWS
Indians RHP Cody Anderson and RHP Rodriguez were recalled Triple-A Columbus. Rodriguez made his first start with the Indians, while Anderson was added to the bullpen. RHP Jon Edwards and OF Jordan Luplow were optioned to Columbus to make room after the bullpen had to throw 7 1/3 innings on Friday.
“Sometimes somebody is a casualty of a game like that,” Francona said. “And I told (Luplow) that. I do think that it’ll be good for him to get at-bats, because he’s young and needs to play. Sometimes there are casualties when a pitcher goes less than one inning. That’s just the way the game is. Sometimes it’s unfair.”
The Indians also are expected to recall OF Carlos Gonzalez from Columbus before Sunday’s game. Gonzalez hit .348 with a home run and three RBIs in six games at Columbus.
UP NEXT
Indians: RHP Corey Kluber (1-2, 3.86 ERA) picked up his first win of the season on April 9 in Detroit, when he gave up two runs (one earned) on seven hits, eight strikeouts and a walk in six innings.
Royals: RHP Jakob Junis (1-1, 5.74 ERA) will go in the finale of the seven-game homestand.
