PRATT COUNTY – Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s office are working to determine the cause of a fire at a home in Pratt County.

First responders were dispatched just after 8 p.m. on Saturday to the rural residence at 149 West River Road west of Pratt, according to Sheriff Vernon Chinn.

“There were no flames but heavy smoke damage,” said Chinn.

Nobody was home at the time of the fire and no injuries reported.

A damage estimate was not available early Monday.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating an officer involved shooting in Wichita.

The Sunday evening incident originated with a 911 call after a store robbery with a suspect possibly using a gun near 29th and Arkansas and developed into a police pursuit, according to a social media report from Wichita Police.

The officer was not injured. The suspect was transported to a local hospital for treatment.

No additional details were released late Sunday.

PULASKI COUNTY, MO – Law enforcement authorities are searching for two inmates who escaped from jail in Missouri on Sunday.

The jail-break occurred after both inmates had requested a medical check, during which time they stole the jailer’s keys and fled the facility, according to a social media report.

The jailer was not injured during the incident. All law enforcement agencies within Pulaski County, along with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and surrounding Sheriff Departments, are assisting in the search.

James Randall (J.R) Sherrell, 32, a white male, 5’6, 120 lbs.

He has short brown hair and green eyes, with multiple tattoos about his body. This inmate was in custody for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Interfering with a Felony Arrest. Sherrell is a career offender and should be considered dangerous.

Dustin Richardson, 27, a white male, 5’11, 180 pounds. Richardson has short brown hair and brown eyes, with multiple tattoos

about his body.

He was in custody for Child Molestation, 1st Degree, and has another outstanding warrant out of Camdenton County for Molesting a Minor. Richardson is also a career offender and should be considered dangerous.

 
 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Victim advocates are criticizing a Kansas judge’s recent reference to the novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” in an alleged rape case.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Jacob C. Ewing faces sex crime charges that include rape, criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14.

A woman testified Wednesday that Ewing forced her to have sex though she didn’t believe she had been raped.

Jackson County Judge Norbert Marek Jr. then asked: “Is this ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ or 50 shades of illegal?” referring to the novel depicting sadomasochistic themes.

Sonja Willms, president of the Topeka chapter of the National Organization for Women, called the comment “dangerous” and said it downplayed the “heinous” accusations against Ewing.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas budget woes haven’t touched the state’s executive aircraft, which is getting a new paint job, a spruced up interior and upgraded avionics this year.

Along with regular operating costs, the improvements will cost taxpayers nearly $900,000.

The Kansas Highway Patrol, which oversees aircraft operations, says the work on the 15-year-old plane is needed for aesthetic and safety reasons. The nine-passenger plane has the original paint, interior and avionics it had when it was purchased new in 2001, and the aging plane is now showing wear.

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley called the spending “highly ironic” at a time when funding for highway projects has been slashed.

RENO COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating reports of inappropriate photos being circulated at Reno Valley Middle School and Nickerson High School.

Authorities questioned students and confiscated phones at the schools, according to Sheriff Capt. Steve Lutz.

Someone notified law enforcement about the problem Wednesday, and investigators spent Thursday interviewing students and parents.

Nickerson-South Hutchinson Superintendent Dawn Johnson said in a statement that the district is cooperating with the investigation.

Further details about the investigation have not been released.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Former U.S. Sens. Nancy Kassebaum and Robert Dole said during a forum discussion at the University of Kansas that they lament the erosion of bipartisanship among political leaders in Washington.

Dole and Kassebaum, both longtime Kansas Republicans, appeared Saturday at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas.

Dole, who is 93, served in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1996 and U.S. House from 1961 to 1969.

Kassebaum, who served 18 years in the U.S. Senate with Dole, also Saturday received the 2016 Dole Leadership Prize, which is awarded annually to an individual or group whose public service inspired others.

Surprised my dear friend with the Dole Leadership Prize. Nancy Kassebaum-Baker, you truly deserve this recognition. pic.twitter.com/d8HnWuNgJ3

— Senator Bob Dole (@SenatorDole) September 18, 2016

 

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Dole said he and Kassebaum understood that to get things done you have to work with colleagues outside your political party.

FINNEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating a case of alleged fraud.

Over the past five months, the Garden City Police Department conducted an investigation into alleged fraud being committed by Blanca Torres, 20, Garden City, according to a media release.

Police learned Torres was working on the side to prepare tax returns for people and during this time she was defrauding them by cashing tax return checks as well as obtaining tax service debit cards on-line and taking the money.

Torres is also suspected of applying for and receiving credit cards in the names of others in which she prepared their taxes.

On Friday, Torres was arrested and is being held in the Finney County Jail and could face the possible charges of: Theft (F) X3, Forgery X2, Computer Crimes X2 and Identity Theft X2

The estimated total loss is over $32,000.00

RENO COUNTY– A Kansas man convicted of stealing money from a manufacturing company in Haven which led to another charge including sexual exploitation of a child was sentenced Friday.

Norman Perser, 55, Hutchinson, was given a total of three years and two months in prison for the two charges, but then granted three years community corrections.

He had entered a plea agreement to the two charges while two other charges of unlawful computer acts and theft were dismissed.

The state alleged that between Dec. 19, 2013 and Sept. 17, 2014, Perser was stealing thousands of dollars from Kincaid Equipment Manufacturing in Haven.

As investigators looked further at his computer, they allegedly discovered images of child pornography.

The court will decide restitution at a later date.

Perser also is required to register as a sex offender for the next 25-years.

By Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News

It isn’t news that in rural parts of the country, people have a harder time accessing good health care. But new evidence suggests opposition to a key part of the 2010 health overhaul could be adding to the gap.

The finding comes from a study published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs, which analyzes how the states’ decisions on implementing the federal health law’s expansion of Medicaid, a federal-state insurance program for low-income people, may be influencing rural hospitals’ financial stability. Nineteen states, including Kansas and Missouri, have opted not to join the expansion.

Rural hospitals longhave argued they were hurt by the lack of Medicaid expansion, which leaves many of their patients without insurance coverage and strains the hospitals’ ability to better serve the public. The study suggests they have a point.

Specifically, the researchers, from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, found that rural hospitals saw an improved chance of turning a profit if they were in a state that expanded Medicaid — while in city-based hospitals, there was no improvement to overall profitability. Across the board, hospitals earned more if they were in a state where more people had coverage and saw declines in the level of uncompensated care they gave.

To put it another way: All hospitals generally fared better under the larger Medicaid program, but there’s more at stake for rural hospitals when the state expands coverage.

The study looked at how expanding Medicaid affected hospital revenue, how many Medicaid patients they discharged, levels of uncompensated care the hospitals provided and how well the institutions did financially overall. It compared those effects in rural versus urban areas, across more than 14,000 annual cost reports from hospitals between January 2011 and December 2014, or a year after eligible states could have expanded their Medicaid programs.

In states expanding Medicaid, rural hospitals saw a greater increase in Medicaid revenue than urban hospitals did. City-based facilities save a higher percentage than rural hospitals with the reduction in uncompensated care, though that change “did not translate into improved operating margins for urban hospitals,” the study notes.

How much these differences matter, though, remains up in the air.

“There is a disparity in the impact of Medicaid expansion, and probably the [law] overall,” said Brystana Kaufman, a doctoral candidate at the university’s department of health policy and management and the study’s first author. “There needs to be more exploration into why we’re seeing this.”

One likely factor: Rural hospitals serve more low-income people — who weren’t eligible for insurance before, but who got covered after the health law took effect. And rural hospitals are historically more likely to operate at a loss than are urban ones. So the chance to see increased revenue is greater than in a city-based hospital.

That said, these are preliminary figures, looking at barely a year’s worth of evidence when it comes to the Medicaid expansion. But the effect merits further scrutiny, experts said.

It’s important because hospital finances matter for consumers, too. In rural communities, hospitals are often among the largest employers, and the main source of health care. Financial duress can affect what kind of services the facility offers.

“If you’re [a hospital] in a state that did expand Medicaid, obviously you’re going to be experiencing lower amounts of uninsured. Your bad debts and charity care have gone down,” said Brock Slabach, senior vice president at the National Rural Health Association. He was not involved in the study, although he is familiar with the research team’s work. “Has [that expense] gone to nothing? No. But it has helped.”

That’s especially true for rural hospitals, Kaufman said, because they have narrower profit margins than do urban ones. Any squeeze on the budget “is going to be more influential” and may limit a hospital’s offerings or quality.

Hospitals are “still really trying to anticipate and assess the shakeout from all the changes that are happening,” said Kristin Reiter, an associate professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Health Policy and Management and another study author.

Meanwhile, rural hospitals are already facing financial strains, Slabach said. More than 70 have shut down since 2010. Still more are at risk of closure. Many endangered hospitals are in non-expansion states.

How Medicaid affects rural and urban hospitals could influence other debates, the study authors said. For instance, the health law also is expected to cut so-called disproportionate health spending payments – cash infusions that support hospitals that treat low-income people, often in rural areas.

Those cuts haven’t taken effect yet, but the researchers suggest, the paper could make a case for indefinitely postponing them.

“The hospitals rely on that funding to address uncompensated care,” Kaufman said. In rural states that declined the expansion, uncompensated medical treatment poses a significant financial hurdle for hospitals.

But others cautioned against drawing hard conclusions yet. It’s unclear how meaningful the rural-urban difference will be, especially over time, said Doug Staiger, a professor of economics at Dartmouth who has researched rural health access but was not involved with this study.

“I’d be really cautious interpreting,” he said.

Plus, Slabach added, researchers must examine how the findings actually affect consumers.

And, it’s possible the effects seen here aren’t just thanks to Medicaid, said George “Mark” Holmes, an associate professor at UNC and director of the university’s North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Program. Expansion states may have taken other steps meant to help hospitals and consumers. If so, it’s worth figuring out what those are.

“Medicaid expansion is not a random event. That’s very important to consider here,” said Holmes, another author of the study. “These are states that have decided to do it. There could be other elements” at play.

 

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Thousands of fans attending the National Championship Air Races in Reno this weekend include members of a Kansas family who were there five years ago when a horrific crash killed several people.

Linda Elvin doesn’t watch online videos of the plane smashing into the box seats in front of the grandstand at Reno-Stead Airport. The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, and 10 spectators were killed and dozens were injured in the Sept. 16, 2011 crash.

But she carries a constant reminder of the tragedy — an artificial leg and knee.

Her husband Brian Elvin, brotherinlaw Bill Elvin and fatherinlaw Chuck Elvin also lost limbs when a World War II P51 Mustang nosedived into the ground near their box seats.

Chuck Elvin’s wife, Cherie Elvin, was killed.

“We really haven’t had the desire and need to go out and look at the video,” Linda Elvin of Overland Park, Kansas said this week in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal.

When she does look back, she’s grateful it wasn’t worse.

“I am so thankful that plane did not crash into the grandstand, and I’m so thankful there was no explosion,” Elvin said. “I am not happy I got hurt, but I would take this over that plane crashing in the grandstands and taking out 100 people.”

The entire Elvin family is focused on recovering physically.

Linda Elvin said she and Brian have resumed boating. He is once again piloting their Beechcraft Bonanza G36 aircraft, after demonstrating to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that he was capable.

“You wouldn’t even know he was operating it with one leg,” she said. “He got through it with flying colors.”

Chuck Elvin lost his right leg below the knee, suffered severe damage to his left leg and foot and had 16 operations during the first year after the crash. He still uses a wheelchair, Linda Elvin said.

Linda Elvin lost her right leg above the knee, and the bones in her lower left leg were crushed. She used a cane until about five weeks ago, she said. Brian Elvin lost part of his right leg, but his left leg was uninjured.

“He had already started working form the hospital in Reno before we left,” she said. “He was my caretaker and he did an amazing job.”

Bill Elvin, Brian’s brother, lost part of his right leg and spent one month in the Reno hospital and another in a Kansas hospital. Linda Elvin says Bill coaches his kids in youth sports such as baseball and football.

The Elvins return to Reno for the air races each year. Linda Elvin said family members have tried to continue doing the things that they have loved to do.

 

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A University of Arkansas student from Kansas who was reported missing has been found dead.

UA Police Department Capt. Gary Crain told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that 18-year-old Ashley Lane Marrs of Overland Park, Kansas, was found dead Friday night.

Crain said Marrs was found in her car about 6:20 p.m. Friday outside a motel about two miles from the UA campus.

Her body is being sent to the state medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of death.

Marrs had been reported missing shortly before noon Friday by her parents after they were unable to contact her.