TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Despite concerns over a new process being used by the Kansas Department of Children and Families to choose care providers, the agency’s leader said the process is more transparent than at any time in the past.

The agency is now awarding grants rather than seeking bids for contracts to nonprofits and other providers for services such for foster care, adoption and family preservation. The new process will remove oversight by the Department of Administration and give the DCF more control over who receives the grants, The Kansas City Star reported .

Some critics are questioning why the agency changed a process it has used for decades.

“There was never a rationale given as to why they were going with grants,” said Lori Ross, a longtime child advocate in Kansas and Missouri. “Only now is the cloud lifting. DCF is able to pick and choose who they do business with. They can avoid going through bids, the blind process.”

On Thursday, DCF Secretary Gina Meier-Hummel introduced three providers that will soon receive grants for foster care and family preservation. She said awarding of the grants, and the period leading up to it, has been the “most transparent process we have ever had.” She said under the grants, the agency would have regular contact with contractors to oversee their services.

The grants run four years, starting July 1. The state expects to spend $245 million on foster care during the fiscal year beginning on that date, a 17 percent increase over the current fiscal year.

DCF announced in late May that it was moving to the new process and, in some cases, that would mean the Department of Administration isn’t involved and the secretary of the DCF would have final say on who receives the money.

In picking the grant recipients for foster care and family preservation services, two internal teams at the agency analyzed and blind-scored each bid submission and negotiated with those who submitted proposals.

John Milburn, spokesman for the Department of Administration, said issuing grants “is more the exception than the rule.”

“Typically, when you go through the bid process and you run it through a request for proposals, you’re being more transparent, you’re being more open about it,” Milburn said. “And hopefully, in most cases you’re going to get multiple bids to provide those goods and services.”

Meier-Hummel said even when contracts are awarded, the DCF always chose the service providers.

“So ultimately it was always the secretary’s decision who gets these grants and contracts … it’s just that the paperwork went through the Department of Administration and it’s not now,” she said.

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PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — An all-male a cappella group at Princeton University has pulled a Disney movie song from its act following a student newspaper column that suggested the lyrics helped promote “toxic masculinity.”

The Princeton Tigertones have performed “Kiss the Girl,” a song from “The Little Mermaid,” for years. During performances at the Ivy League school, a female audience member would be brought onstage to decide whether or not a man from the crowd could kiss her.

Noa Wollstein, who wrote the column, claimed the song’s message is misogynistic and that too many women have been pulled on stage for unwanted encounters.

“I have seen a queer student brought on stage have to uncomfortably push away her forced male companion,” Wollstein, a sophomore from New York, wrote in her column. “I have heard of unwilling girls being subjected to their first kisses. I have watched mothers, who have come to see their child’s performance, be pulled up to the stage only to have tension generated between them and the kid they came to support.”

In a response published in the newspaper, Tigertones’ President Wesley Brown apologized to anyone made uncomfortable by the tradition. He said the group won’t perform the song until it can find a way to do so without offending any audience members.

Brown, a senior at Princeton, wrote the group has taken steps to try to make audience participation voluntary and consensual, but did not provide specific examples. He said the group had tried to bring a lighthearted, youthful energy to its performance of the song but failed to ensure comfort for audience members brought on stage.

“Performances of this song have made participants uncomfortable and offended audience members, an outcome which is antithetical to our group’s mission and one that we deeply regret,” he wrote.

In “The Little Mermaid,” the song’s lyrics are sung by Sebastian the crab as he encourages Prince Eric to kiss Ariel, who can’t talk because she traded her voice in order to become human for him.

“My oh my/ Look like the boy too shy/ Ain’t gonna kiss the girl,” the crab sings with help from other sea creatures. “Ain’t that sad?/ It’s such a shame/ Too bad/ You’re gonna miss the girl.”

Other lyrics include, “Don’t be scared/ You better be prepared/ Go on and kiss the girl.”
Wollstein also criticized “The Little Mermaid” song for “unambiguously encourage men to make physical advances on women without obtaining their clear consent.”

“Removed from its cushioning context of mermaids, magic, and PG ratings, the message comes across as even more jarring,” Wollstein wrote.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A driver has been convicted of dragging and injuring a Lawrence police officer with his car.

Jurors found 38-year-old Aramis Hernandez, of Topeka, guilty Thursday of battery on a law enforcement officer during a July 2016 traffic stop.

When the officer asked Hernandez for his driver’s license, Hernandez told the officer that he “didn’t need” a license. The officer explained that a license was required. Hernandez continued to argue that under “common law” it wasn’t necessary.

The camera system in the officer’s vehicle showed that after a few minutes, Hernandez started to pull away with the officer hanging onto the side of the vehicle. Hernandez then drove off. The officer was treated for cuts and bruises.

Sentencing is set for Dec. 21.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspect in connection with an armed robbery.

At approximately 4 a.m. Nov. 27, police responded to an armed robbery at the Circle K, 2001 S. Oliver, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, Officers contacted a 34-year-old female employee, She told officers  an unknown suspect entered the business armed with a black handgun and demanded money. The suspect took money and cigarettes, and then fled in a 2007 Cadillac STS driven by another unknown suspect.

GRAY COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 10:30a.m. Friday in Gray County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Ford Ranger driven by ,Nicholas Scott Davidson, 34, Ingalls, was north bound on County Road 2 just north of U.S. 56.

The pickup traveled off the road on the right. The driver overcorrected, lost control and traveled off the road to the left into frozen water.

Davidson was transported to the hospital in Dodge City where he died. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.