STAFFORD COUNTY- Five people were injured in an accident just after 2:30p.m. on Saturday in Stafford County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Chevy pickup driven by Olive O. Julian, 88, Stafford, was northbound on SE 70th Avenue one mile west of Stafford.
The vehicle pulled in front of a 2015 Kia van driven by Ashley L. Alvarez, 21, Newton, that was westbound on U.S. 50.
The van struck the passenger side of the pickup.
Julian, Alvarez and passengers in the van Victor P. Alvarez, 34, Luis Alvarez, 14, and Armondo Alvarez, 13, all of Newton were transported to the Stafford County Hospital. A 9-year-old in the van was not injured.
All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
MOORELAND, Okla. (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey says two earthquakes have rattled parts of western and central Oklahoma.
The strongest was a 3.7 magnitude temblor that rattled near Mooreland about 5:30 a.m. Saturday. Less than an hour earlier, a 2.5 magnitude quake struck near Perry.
A few miles across the border, a 3.1 magnitude hit near Caldwell, Kansas, around 1 p.m.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage.
Scientists say damage is not likely in earthquakes below magnitude 4.0.
The number of magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year.
Scientists have linked the increase to the underground disposal of wastewater from oil and gas production, prompting state regulators to ask producers to reduce wastewater disposal volumes.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Invasive zebra mussels have been found in another Kansas reservoir.
The state department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says zebra mussels have been found in Hillsdale Reservoir in Miami County.
The department says there’s no way to completely rid a lake of zebra mussels, which are usually introduced into lakes after attaching themselves to boats or from bait buckets.
Zebra mussel courtesy photo
Zebra mussels can produce huge populations in a short time. Their vast populations can clog intake pipes hindering water treatment and other operations that draw water from the lakes.
The invasive mollusks have also been found in most of the other reservoirs in Kansas, as well as several lakes and rivers.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is bracing for more contentious legal and political fights over education funding even after legislators approved a narrow, short-term fix to satisfy a court mandate.
The Kansas Supreme Court directed lawmakers in a ruling last month to make education funding fairer to poor areas, forcing them to have a special session.
But the court will consider next the larger issue of whether the state spends enough overall on its schools. The justices could rule by early next year.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the GOP-dominated Legislature’s leaders already have committed to rewriting school funding laws next year.
And Kansas is likely to remain mired in the budget problems that will put pressure on legislators to rethink income tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging.
HUTCHINSON– A Kansas inmate at the El Dorado Correctional Facility has been charged in Reno County with two counts of battery of a corrections officer.
Richard Powell, 45, is alleged to have battered two prison officers at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility on Sept. 11.
On the same day, a fire was reported in Central Unit, C-cell house.
The two incidents are not connected, according to Assistant District Attorney Tom Stanton.
With the charges filed on Friday, his case will move to a waiver-status docket next month.
Powell is serving time for intentional premeditated murder, criminal possession of a firearm, traffic in contraband, voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault. These crimes occurred in Wyandotte County in 1992 and 1998.
Photo by Andy Marso/KHI News Service File Parsons State Hospital and Training Center serves Kansans with intellectual disabilities like JJ Krentz, left, shown here earlier this year walking with his mother Tiffanie on the Parsons campus. The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is moving about 20 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities out of a facility in Parsons and into community-based services because they don’t need the intensive support that the hospital provides.
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is moving about 20 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities out of a facility in Parsons and into community-based services.
But some providers of those services say they’re already strained. Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokeswoman, said the change is being made to deinstitutionalize residents of Parsons State Hospital and Training Center who don’t need the intensive support that the hospital provides.
The Parsons hospital is one of two facilities in the state that serve Kansans with intellectual disabilities.
“We have a mandate to take care of people in the least restrictive setting possible, and we had some folks out there that were not being cared for in the least restrictive setting,” de Rocha said. “So those people were placed in home and community-based living situations outside of Parsons.”
De Rocha said each person leaving the Parsons facility must be assessed by a community developmental disability organization to determine if their next step is a group home, adult day care or another form of community-based provider.
Some of them will be leaving southeast Kansas to return to their hometowns, she said.
She said KDADS will not know if it saved money by closing the facility at Parsons where the 20 people now live until the agency finds out what it will cost to serve them in home and community-based settings.
“I can’t say that we’ll save money or be spending more money, and in any event that was not the purpose,” de Rocha said. “It wasn’t a fiscal decision.” Scott Thompson is president and CEO of a community-based service provider called CLASS that operates in six locations throughout southeast Kansas. He said some of the people being moved from Parsons and their caregivers have been evaluating his organization to see if it will meet their needs.
“Presently some of those individuals are going through our local CDDO (community developmental disability organization) looking at what service options might be available to them and taking tours and trying to figure out who their provider will be in the future,” he said.
Employees from Thompson’s organization say they’ve been scrambling to aid Parsons residents in their transition from the hospital since they found out last month that the facility would be closing.
Such transitions usually take six to eight months, said Lori Hinman, an eligibility coordinator at CLASS. The Parsons residents have to be out of the hospital and into other services by Sept. 1.
“We’re in a huge time crunch,” she said, adding that the staff at Parsons has “been wonderful” in helping residents with the transition. Hinman said it’s unusual for so many people to leave the state hospital at one time and she’s working to place nine of them in community services right now.
They all require fairly intensive services, she said. “Most of them are needing 24-hour support,” Hinman said. “Not necessarily a group home, but they do need 24-hour support.
That could be in their own home. Some people move in with family and they get it that way.” It can be a challenge for home and community-based providers to find qualified staff in southeast Kansas, according to CLASS officials. Cliff Sperry, CLASS vice president for administration, said no new providers are getting into the business of serving people with developmental disabilities because the pay, most of which comes from Medicaid, is so low.
“The capacity is dwindling would be a good way to put it,” Sperry said.
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
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Banking Committee, this week questioned Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen about the value of the U.S. dollar, its impact on commodity pricing, and the strength of our economic recovery. Watch the exchange here
“Kansans aren’t seeing our economy recover,” said Sen. Moran. “In my conversations with Kansans, I haven’t talked to many who see their economic future as brighter. They don’t feel more secure in their jobs. They’re worried about having opportunities for their kids when they graduate from school and about whether or not their kids can pay back their loans. They’re worried they can’t save for their own retirement or for healthcare emergencies. The sense of an economic recovery is far from being felt universally.”
In her testimony and again in response to Sen. Moran’s questioning about economic strength and the value of our dollar, specifically in relation to prices for agricultural commodities, Chairwoman Yellen admitted that business investment outside the energy sector has been “surprisingly weak.” She cited “slow growth and a less rapid increase in the labor force” as possible explanations for generally overall weak investment spending.
Sen. Moran continued, “Chairwoman Yellen’s testimony helps us understand the Federal Reserve’s thinking on how to strengthen our economy. It’s clear that when business owners are hit with regulation after regulation, when the Department of Labor ignores productivity and free market wages, and when potential entrepreneurs can’t see a path to success, Americans will remain out of work and worried about their futures.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate on school funding (all times local):
Kansas legislators have passed an education funding plan from Republican leaders that boosts aid to poor school districts to satisfy a state Supreme Court mandate and end a threat that the state’s public schools might not reopen next month.
The plan approved Friday night increases aid to poor school districts by $38 million for 2016-17 by diverting money from other parts of state government.
The votes were 116-6 in the House and 38-1 in the Senate, sending the plan to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
Brownback said the Kansas Legislature has done a “fantastic job” in passing a school funding plan.
and he told reporters he will sign the bill.
Legislators had a two-day special session to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that the education funding system remained unfair to poor districts. The justices warned that schools would be unable to reopen after June 30 without changes.
Kansas legislators ended their special session after passing the education funding plan
The Senate adjourned at about 8:20 p.m. Friday, and the House followed about 30 minutes later.
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7:15 p.m.
The Kansas House has approved an education funding plan from Republican leaders that would boost aid to poor school districts to satisfy a state Supreme Court mandate and end a threat that the state’s public schools might not reopen next month.
The vote Friday night was 116-6 on a bill that would increase aid to poor school districts by $38 million for 2016-17 by diverting money from other parts of state government.
A Senate vote also was expected Friday night. Its approval would send the bill to Gov. Sam Brownback.
Legislators had a two-day special session to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that the education funding system remained unfair to poor districts. The justices warned that schools would be unable to reopen after June 30 without changes.
NEW YORK (AP) — Government researchers say the nasal spray version of the annual flu vaccine didn’t protect kids this past flu season.
Health officials reported Wednesday that the spray performed dismally for the third straight year, while the traditional flu shot — the one that stings — worked reasonably well this winter.
The vaccine’s manufacturer, AstraZeneca, presented its own study that found the FluMist vaccine was somewhat effective, but still not did not work as well as flu shots.
FluMist was once regarded as the best vaccine for protecting children against flu.
The new research was presented at a medical meeting in Atlanta.
An expert panel is expected to consider a proposal to rescind its recommendation for the spray.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A coroner’s office wasn’t able to determine what killed a 2-year-old Wichita girl whose body was found in a field.
Medical examiner Timothy Gorrill says in an autopsy report that toxicology tests on Jhornee Bland were negative and the cause of her death will be listed as undetermined.
The girl was found dead in a field May 9, a day after her mother reported her missing.
Wichita police have said her body showed no signs of trauma. Investigators said they believe she died early Sunday, May 8.
A babysitter was caring for Jhornee in the days before her death. Police have said the babysitter put the girl’s body in the field and lied to her mother about Jhornee’s whereabouts. The babysitter was arrested but later released without charges.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —The Kansas Senate has rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have prevented the state’s courts from closing schools in deciding future education funding lawsuits.
The vote Friday was 26-13, one vote short of the 27 needed for a two-thirds majority to pass a constitutional change.
The measure was a response to a state Supreme Court ruling last month declaring that the state’s education funding system remains unfair to poor school districts. The justices warned schools might not reopen after June 30 if lawmakers didn’t make changes.
Critics said the proposal was designed to handcuff the courts.
But supporters said future school closure threats need to be eliminated. The proposal also would have prevented legislators from closing schools in response to a court order.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a Kansas man for allegedly lying to FBI agents who were investigating an attack on three Somali men in Dodge City.
An indictment unsealed Friday charges 27-year-old Diego Martinez of Dodge City with one count of making false statements. He is the brother and the half-brother of two of the alleged attackers.
The indictment alleges he lied to FBI agents to provide himself a false alibi for the time of the assaults.
Court records do not show an attorney.
His indictment is the latest fallout from the June 19, 2015, assault on the three Somali men, who were in the country legally, by Hispanic men outside the African Grocery Store in Dodge City.
Omar Cantero Martinez and Armando Sotelo were charged in April with federal hate crimes.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Banking Committee, this week questioned Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen about the value of the U.S. dollar, its impact on commodity pricing, and the strength of our economic recovery. 
MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
