KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City, Kansas, man has been sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for forcing the evacuation of a terminal at Kansas City International Airport when he lied about having a bomb in his truck.
The Kansas City Star reports that 35-year-old David James Cain was sentenced Tuesday to one year and six months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge stemming from the August 2014 incident at the airport’s Terminal B.
Prosecutors say Cain left his truck parked in front of the terminal for more than an hour. After airport authorities announced they’d tow the truck if it wasn’t moved, Cain told airline employees a bomb was in the vehicle.
The terminal was evacuated until law enforcement found no explosives.
Sheralynn Neff Photo by Clayton Bontrager courtesy Hesston College
CUSHING, Okla. (AP) — Investigators are trying to determine how a Kansas skydiver was separated from her parachute harness during a jump in Oklahoma.
The body of 26-year-old Sheralynn Neff of North Newton was found Monday by authorities south of an airport near Cushing, Oklahoma.
Neff was reported missing on Sunday after she made a jump with the Oklahoma Skydiving Center.
Cushing police Chief Tully Folden says Neff’s parachute harness was found in a tree about 5 miles away.
The Oklahoman reports the Federal Aviation Association is assisting with the investigation. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford has said the agency’s main focus is determining whether the parachute was packed properly and if the harness was in good shape.
Neff graduated from Hesston College in 2011.
She was a high-achieving student who was involved with many different areas of campus life, according to a media release. She earned an associate of arts degree in Bible and Ministry with Dean’s List honors, served as a ministry assistant during her second year and participated in both choir and concert band.
GREAT BEND – Central Kansas residents are mourning the loss of a favorite at the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo.
Mumbasa, affectionately known as “Boss” the African Lion that has called Great Bend home for 19 years, passed away this week at the zoo, according to a media release.
He would have been 20 years old on October 6th.
In the last couple of weeks Boss’ health began to rapidly deteriorate and despite the best efforts made by staff and veterinarians, his health did not improve and staff was forced to make to the difficult decision to humanely euthanize him.
Sara Hamlin, Zoo Supervisor and Curator says the loss of any zoo animal is hard.
“While we always know death is an inevitability with our geriatric animals, it’s never any easy thing for animal care staff to go through, in fact, it is hands down the absolute hardest part of our jobs.”
Mumbasa and his two sisters moved to Great Bend at just 8 weeks old and quickly became favorites of the community.
He spent most of his life with his sisters as companions, but after their deaths several years ago, Mumbasa took comfort in the companionship of the zoo’s other male lion Luke.
Hamlin says the average life expectancy for male lions in captivity is around 18 years of age. In the wild, lions live for only 10-12 years.
Zoo staff are inviting the public to call the Zoo at 620-793-4226 or post and share with them your favorite memory of Boss on their Facebook page.
TOPEKA — The results of an audit of the Kansas Department for Children and Families released on Wednesday indicated that DCF has not yet implemented several recommendations for its child protective services function and has not responded to all report center calls in a timely manner.
The review found that a child’s safety was not assessed timely in 5 of 40 investigations.
As of May 2016, DCF had only implemented one of nine safety-related recommendations from a 2013 assessment of its child protective services function.
GEARY COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 7:30a.m. on Wednesday in Geary County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Dodge Truck driven by Vernon Charles Bohn, 60, Dwight, was northbound driving the ditch line checking fences at 10-20 mph in the 7000 block of Humboldt Creek Road twelve miles southeast of Junction City.
A 1988 International truck driven by Robert L. Rahe, 47, Marion, was northbound and rear-ended the Dodge and pushed it into a pasture
Bohn was transported to Stormont Vail Topeka. He was wearing properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Photo by Andy Marso/KHI News Service Megan Buck, left, program services branch manager for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and James G. Scott, associate regional administrator for CMS, heard comments about the state’s privatized Medicaid program during a Tuesday forum in Salina. The state plans to submit its KanCare renewal application in October to federal officials.
A pair of federal officials heard a litany of concerns from KanCare providers and clients Tuesday in Salina as the state prepares to apply for renewal of the managed care Medicaid program.
James G. Scott, associate regional administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Megan Buck, the agency’s program services branch manager, heard about problems with applying for Medicaid, cuts to services and provider reimbursements, and difficulties getting help from the state during the forum at the Bicentennial Center.
Rick Cagan, executive director of the Kansas chapter of the National Association for Mental Illness, told Buck and Scott that the complaints should give federal officials pause as they consider the upcoming application to renew the program past 2018.
“KanCare experiment is still very flawed, and you’re hearing that from many people here today,” Cagan said.
In November 2011, Gov. Sam Brownback announced his plan to reform the state’s Medicaid program. Three private insurance companies were selected to run the $3 billion KanCare program, which launched in 2013 and provides health insurance for more than 425,000 Kansans.
A spokeswoman for state agencies disputed claims that the problems described Tuesday are systemic, telling the Topeka Capital-Journal that the program is working well for most on Medicaid.
But during the forum, providers described a Medicaid system at a breaking point, with cuts to programs meant to keep Kansans out of hospitals and nursing homes coming as those facilities also struggle with reimbursement reductions and long waits for residents’ Medicaid applications to process
“I have not been approved for a single Medicaid application in my building since October,” said Haely Ordoyne, co-owner of a nursing home in Washington County called Centennial Homestead.
Photo by Andy Marso/KHI News Service Haely Ordoyne is co-owner of a nursing home in Washington County called Centennial Homestead. During a KanCare forum Tuesday in Salina, Ordoyne told federal officials that none of her residents’ Medicaid applications have been approved since October.
Ordoyne said almost 70 percent of the residents at her 31-bed facility rely on Medicaid.
She and other nursing home administrators, like Charles Smith of Medicalodges in Coffeyville, have watched residents struggle to get applications processed since the state switched to a new computer system last year and funneled all applications through a single KanCare Clearinghouse in Topeka.
Smith said the current wait times are “getting ridiculous” and his small chain of homes is carrying more than $2 million in uncompensated care for Medicaid-pending residents.
Providers of home and community-based support services for Kansans with disabilities said years of stagnant reimbursements have left them unable to recruit and retain enough staff.
Administrators from hospitals large and small said a 4 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursements approved by Gov. Sam Brownback to help balance the budget would make it financially harder for them to provide their full array of services to Medicaid patients.
“Since 1897 when our hospital was founded, we have never reached this type of crossroads,” said Bob Finuf, vice president of Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, adding that Medicaid is a topic of concern at every board meeting. “It’s reached a point where we have to consider options we’ve never had to think about that are extremely anti-cultural to us.”
Scott and Buck listened quietly throughout hours of testimony, asking few questions until the open mic period at the end, when they talked through individual cases with people who stepped up from the crowd of more than 100.
Scott sought to assure the audience members that their concerns were not falling on deaf ears.
Sean Gatewood, lobbyist for the KanCare Advocates Network, which hosted the event, provided several suggestions for federal officials as they consider the KanCare renewal. They included removing home and community-based services from KanCare, like they were in the program’s first year.
At a minimum, Gatewood said, the state should not be allowed to make further major changes to Medicaid, such as combining waiver services for Kansans with disabilities, while the current problems remain.
“They haven’t proven hypothesis one,” Gatewood said. “We shouldn’t let them go to hypothesis five.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso
DICKINSON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Dickinson County are investigating a suspect in connection with Monday’s inmate escape from the jail in Abilene.
Just hours after the Sheriff’s Office captured escapee Trent Hostetter, 27, authorities arrested 20-year-old Warren Varelman-Morton of Chapman.
He is alleged to have assisted in Hostetter’s escape, according to a media release from the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities believe there is sufficient evidence to show that Hostetter did not act alone in his escape.
Varelman-Morton was booked into the Dickinson County Jail on requested charges of criminal damage to property and conspiracy to commit aggravated escape from custody.
Hostetter escaped from the jail between 7:25 and 8:05 p.m. Monday through a portion of a fence that had been compromised in an exercise yard, according to Dickinson County Sheriff Gareth Hoffman.
A short time later, Hostetter stole a vehicle a couple of blocks from the Dickinson County courthouse.
A Herington police officer later saw the vehicle and pursued it into Lincolnville. The stolen vehicle crashed and Hostetter fled on foot, according to Hoffman.
Trent Hostetter
After an all night search, Hostetter was captured and returned to jail.
Hostetter was being held for impersonating an officer and a parole violation. He now faces an additional charge of aggravated escape from custody.
Gated entrance to Hinkley’s residence, St. Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital in Washington- Google image
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge says the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan will be allowed to leave a Washington mental hospital and live full-time in Virginia.
Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Wednesday that John Hinckley Jr. is ready to live in the community. Friedman’s ruling comes more than 35 years after the March 30, 1981, shooting outside a Washington hotel in which Reagan and three others were injured.
Doctors have said for years that the now 61-year-old Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting, is no longer plagued by the mental illness that drove him to shoot Reagan.
For more than a year he’s been allowed to spend 17 days a month at his mother’s Virginia home. He will now live there full-time.
The new $100M dollar facility is set to open in 2018- photo Univ. of Kansas Hospital
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas Hospital is breaking ground on a new inpatient hospital in Overland Park.
The Kansas City Star reports that hospital and government officials were gathering Wednesday afternoon to mark construction of the new $100 million building. It is being built on the hospital’s Indian Creek Campus and is scheduled for completion in 2018.
The 122,507-square-foot facility will start with 18 patient rooms and eight operating rooms. It is designed to accommodate 17 more beds in the planned space.
The new building will be connected to the existing Indian Creek surgical building, which has seven operating rooms and 19 patient beds.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say one person has died in a Wichita apartment fire.
A Sedgwick County emergency dispatcher says the fire was reported around 3:40 a.m. Wednesday at the Buttonwood Tree apartments in the southeast part of the city. The Wichita Eagle reports that crews have knocked down the flames.
CLARK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Clark County have completed an investigation of fishing violations at Clark State Fishing Lake in southwest Kansas.
On July 3rd Game Wardens were checking anglers at the lake and noticed a boat they had received complaints about, according to a social media report.
Game wardens made contact with two anglers on the boat and found they were using eight poles to fish.
After a thorough investigation, game wardens discovered a gross over limit of catfish hidden in the boat.
The anglers were issued numerous citations and the boat and equipment were seized by game wardens.
On Monday, the subjects plead guilty to all charges and were ordered to pay $625 in fines and $216 in court costs.
The seized boat and equipment was forfeited. The boat will be auctioned off by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the proceeds will be used to purchase needed equipment for the game wardens involved.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A push for unity behind Hillary Clinton from Bernie Sanders is pulling his Kansas delegates at the Democratic National Convention into her camp, though not all of them.
The state’s delegation on Tuesday cast only 14 of its 37 votes for Clinton. It cast 23 votes for Sanders, in line with the results of state’s presidential caucuses in March.
Sanders delegate Sage TeBeest of Wamego said she is now “reinvigorated to continue the revolution.” She texted from the convention in Philadelphia that she is supporting Clinton as the Democratic nominee.
But Julie Perry, a Sanders delegate from Mission, said she’s not going to lower her expectations for real change and Clinton still must earn her vote. The registered nurse said she’ll continue fighting for universal health care coverag
DERBY, Kan. (AP) — A south-central Kansas school district is letting students use bathrooms matching their gender identity as a local task force explores the issue.
The Wichita Eagle reports the governing board of the Derby school system made that decision Monday.
The Obama administration in May directed public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity. Derby officials have said they’d comply.
The state’s education board has voted to ignore the directive, arguing local schools are best suited to decide how to handle issues transgender students face.
The matter in Derby hasn’t generated a consensus. Parents and others have formed Facebook groups and circulated petitions to either support the district’s decision or urge them to reconsider. During Monday’s meeting, people spoke on both sides of the issue.
