LYON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Lyon County are investigating an alleged theft of a special bicycle.

Between noon and 8 p.m. on June 15th, the bicycle was stolen, from a memorial for a family member who died away while bicycling, in the 3200 block of North Highway 99, according to a social media report.

The bicycle is described as a Schwinn Criss-Cross. It is black and was chained to a fence.

The family advised the bicycle was rusted and the tires would not hold any air. The monetary value was minimal, the sentimental value priceless.

If you have information that you think could help solve this crime or others, call Lyon County Crime Stoppers at 620-342-2273. If your ANONYMOUS tip leads to the successful apprehension or prosecution of the suspects, you could be eligible for a reward of up to $1000!

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers are voicing frustration after the state disclosed that a backlog in unprocessed Medicaid applications is four times as large as previously thought.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the disclosure late last week that Kansas had under-counted the number of unprocessed applications by 12,000 is drawing fresh attention to the state’s electronic eligibility system nearly a year into its troubled rollout.

Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, says the state needs to “figure this out” and described the problems as “getting pretty bad.” Kansas says a reporting problem from a contractor tasked with implementing the eligibility system produced the under-counting, not the eligibility system itself.

An official legislative inquiry will likely have to wait until August. House and Senate leadership have ruled out hearings during the upcoming special session.

LINCOLN COUNTY – A preliminary hearing originally scheduled Tuesday for a Kansas man charged in connection with a fatal shooting has been moved to August, according to the Lincoln County Attorney.

Joseph Allan Schultz, 36, was charged with second-degree murder in the March 5, shooting death of Kevin Kubik, 33, at a rural residence in the 2500 Block of Deer Drive in Beverly.

There was an altercation and Kubik died at the scene, according to Lincoln County Sheriff Michael Weigel.

Schultz remains in custody, according to Weigel.

The KBI was contacted to assist with the investigation.

By MEGAN HART

Parents as Teachers is receiving the same amount of funding in Kansas as it did last year, but program administrators are concerned they will not be able to continue helping some families due to new rules.

The Legislature this year approved a switch in the funding source for Parents as Teachers from the Children’s Initiatives Fund, a state pool of money paid by tobacco companies, to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a federal fund best known for providing cash assistance for a limited time.

The amount of money is the same, but the federal money comes with more strings. To qualify for Parents as Teachers under TANF, families must meet one of 19 criteria that include factors like income, health and education levels.

Ryan Weir, a data coordinator for the Kansas State Department of Education, said the department isn’t sure of the number of current Parents as Teachers participants who won’t qualify, although he expects most will.

The federal rules will go into effect when the new fiscal year starts July 1. “It’s many of those same families that would already have been eligible,” he said. Rebecca Clancy, coordinator of Parents as Teachers in Topeka USD 501, said staff members are talking with families about whether they will qualify.

She is concerned that some families won’t want to provide documentation that they are struggling financially, even though the reason they qualified would be kept private, she said. Parents as Teachers “has been so successful because there are no labels on it in the community,” she said.

The USD 501 Parents as Teachers program plans to continue to offer play groups and family networking events to any Topeka parents with young children who want to participate, Clancy said, but it may have to reduce the number of events due to cuts in the separate funding it receives from the Children’s Cabinet.

The program won’t be able to offer home visits to Topeka families that don’t qualify for TANF, she said, and may have to lay off two to four of its 14 parent educators due to the combination of cuts.

“We’re hoping to be able to stay with 12” educators, she said. “We’re trying to be very out of the box (in our) thinking, and creative.”

Colleen Riley is director of the early childhood, special education and title services team at Kansas State Department of Education. She said other states have made a similar move to Kansas in using TANF funds.

Programs still could use local funds to serve families that don’t qualify under the federal rules, she said. “We are anticipating the same number of families will be served,” she said.

Wes Toppel, program supervisor for Parents as Teachers in the USD 636 North Central Kansas Special Education Cooperative, which includes 10 districts, said it isn’t quite that simple. Federal funds can’t be used to pay administrative costs or building rent, so those also must come out of the local dollars, limiting how much the programs can spend on other families, he said.

“It’s going to leave very little money to serve families that we want to continue to serve but that don’t qualify under TANF,” he said.

Even with more restrictions, Parents as Teachers likely won’t lack for families that could use its services.

Dean Zajic, state and federal funding coordinator for the Kansas State Department of Education, estimated that more than 30,000 families statewide would qualify based on their income, and more would qualify under other provisions, such as having a deployed parent or multiple births.

In a typical year, Parents as Teachers has enough funded slots for 8,000 to 9,000 Kansas families, he said.

Local programs have some discretion in deciding whom to serve among qualifying families. But Toppel said he considers it a misconception that parents automatically know how to interact with children based on their education and income.

He and his wife both are school psychologists, he said, and they still were helped when a parent educator noticed one of their twin sons wasn’t rolling over as an infant and could benefit from physical therapy.

“We should be focused on finding the families that are at-risk, but we shouldn’t overlook the families that are a little higher on the income scale,” he said.

Laura Burton, a Topeka resident, said she and her husband, Matt, benefited greatly from a parent educator’s assistance. Their daughter, Amelia, had some trouble with eating and sleeping as an infant, and the educator helped them to sort through contradictory advice they received from friends and family, she said.

“Kids don’t come with an instruction manual,” she said. “It can be hard to know what’s real and what’s accurate, and what’s not.”

While Amelia didn’t have any developmental delays, Burton said she is concerned that the needs of children in other families might go unidentified if parents aren’t sure what to look for and pediatricians overlook them during brief office visits.

In addition, some parents of at-risk children may not seek assistance because they don’t want to provide documentation of a problem like domestic violence, she said.

“The only way we really know that is if we get the parent educators into the home,” she said.

Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC

Martin Sauers, an experienced corrections official, has been named warden at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility (ECF), according to a media release.

Sauers began his correctional career with the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) in 1989 as a corrections officer. Sauers worked through the ranks, promoting to a corrections counselor, unit team manager, classification administrator and finally deputy warden, a position he has held since January 2014. Sauers fills the vacancy left by Dan Schnurr who now serves as warden at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility (HCF) while Schnurr replaces Sam Cline who now serves as warden at Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF), replacing the recently retired Rex Pryor.

“With Martin’s long history at Ellsworth, I believe that the facility will be in capable and loyal hands.” Secretary of Corrections Joe Norwood also said, “I want to wish both Sam Cline and Dan Schnurr the best of luck in their new positions as wardens of LCF and HCF.

A replacement for the newly vacated deputy warden position will be filled at a later date.

GREENWOOD COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 6 a.m. on Tuesday in Greenwood County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy pickup driven by Chris Lee Davis, 44, Wamego, was westbound on U.S. 400 five miles east of Severy.

The pickup crossed the centerline and struck rear axle on and eastbound semi.

Davis was transported to Wesley Medical Center.

The semi driver Jeffrey Don Gillmore, 40, El Dorado, was not injured.

Gillmore was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

The KHP was did not have information on Davis’ seat belt usage.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court says a Harvey County sheriff’s deputy accused of entering a family’s front yard without a warrant and killing their dog must face trial in the lawsuit brought by its owners.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided Monday with Kent and Tonya Mayfield in ruling that the Halstead couple asserted sufficient facts to show a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.  Read more on the case here.

The appeals court found a district judge properly denied Deputy Jim Bethards’ request to dismiss the lawsuit against him.

Their lawsuit claims the deputy and his partner entered their property in July 2014 with the intention of killing their two dogs, firing upon both dogs and killing their Malamute Husky, Majka.

Their complaint cites a witness who said neither dog acted aggressively.

SALINA – Commissioners  on Monday unanimously approved the financing of an $11.7 million downtown Salina field house project, according to media release.

Commissioners agreed to issue no more than $11.5 million in industrial revenue bonds. The $11.5 million figure represents $7 million in temporary notes, which were also authorized at the Monday’s meeting, and $4.5 million from private donations.

Although commissioners approved issuing up to $11.5 million in bonds, City Manager Jason Gage said the city is expected to issue no more than $4.5 million in bonds for the field house.

The industrial revenue bonds would be exempt from sales and property taxes, according to Deputy City Manager Mike Schrage.

The field house, which will be located at the southeast corner of Fifth and Ash streets, is ultimately expected to be funded by $4.5 million from the city of Salina, $4.5 million in private donations and $2.7 million in New Markets Tax Credits, bringing the total to $11.7 million.

Commissioners voted 5-0 to issue temporary notes not to exceed $7 million in order to begin construction of the field house, an amount authorized in city charter ordinance No. 39.

The New Markets funding of $2.7 million is expected to be available the third week of July, according to Schrage. He said it will be necessary to plan on a deposit of $9 million at that time.

Upon closing, the city will have $11.7 million on deposit for the field house.

The field house is the first step in a revitalization of Salina’s downtown that also would include a high-end hotel, a car museum and a bowling alley and entertainment center at a cost of more than $150 million.

The use of New Markets Tax Credit funding requires the formation and use of two affiliate corporations in order to structure the ownership and financing of the field house, according to Schrage.

Commissioners voted 4-0 to appoint the five city commissioners to the board of the Salina Fieldhouse Qualified Action Low-Income Community Business Corporation, which will construct and temporarily own the facility. They will serve two-year terms, or until successors are elected and qualified. Commissioner Hardy was not present for this vote. He arrived later in the meeting and commissioners then voted 5-0 to appoint Mayor Kaye Crawford and Commissioner Karl Ryan to serve on the board of the Salina Fieldhouse Leverage Lender Corporation, which will oversee financing of the project. They will serve four-year terms.

The Greater Salina Community Foundation will select the other three members of that corporation board.

Also at Monday’s meeting, commissioners voted 4-0, again with Hardy absent, to approve $1.7 million in funding for 2016 to begin the South Well Field and Water Treatment Plant.

This project will include either $31.7 million for a lime-softening option or $36.9 million for a membrane treatment plant, depending on which option is finally chosen, and will include the redrilling of two wells and the rehabilitating of three wells. It will also include 9,400 linear feet of raw water piping, and a 3.4-million-gallon per day treatment facility, according to Utilities Director Martha Tasker.

Commissioner Jon Blanchard asked city staff on Monday to consider bringing Dana Crawford to Salina to review the cleanup of the Smoky Hill River within the city.

Crawford was heavily involved in the redevelopment of Denver’s Larimer Square in the 1960s. She also assisted in creating a festival shopping area from neglected and abandoned buildings of Denver’s main street area.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A mistrial has been declared in the trial of one of two former Haskell Indian Nations University students accused of rape.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that a Douglas County judge made the decision Monday after jurors said they wouldn’t be able to reach a unanimous verdict.

Another trial will be scheduled for the 20-year-old suspect during a June 30 court appearance.

The suspect faces two felony counts of rape and one count of aggravated criminal sodomy. The second suspect, age 21, faces felony counts of aiding and abetting attempted rape and two counts of rape. His trial is scheduled to begin July 25.

The two suspects are accused of raping a 19-year-old Haskell freshman in their dormitory room in November 2014. Both were expelled from Haskell.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A father is describing the death of his daughter, son-in-law and a grandchild in a head-on crash in northeast Kansas as “our worst nightmare come true.”

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Jay Pudenz released a statement Monday, one day after pickup truck crashed into the Basehor family’s minivan on U.S. 24 near Perry.   Friends have established a gofundme page here.

Thirty-five-year-old Travis Askew, 27-year-old Ashley Askew and 6-month-old Haley Askew were returning coming home from the Topeka Zoo when they were killed. Two other children — ages 5 and 3 — were hurt. The crash also killed the truck’s driver, 56-year-old Ronald Heston, of Oskaloosa.

Pudenz says Travis and Ashley were hard-working and loving parents, adding they made every decision on whether or not it would benefit their children. He plans to raise the surviving children.

MARSHALL COUNTY – Three people were injured in an accident just before 4pm on Monday in Marshall County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Cadillac Esclade driven by Delores Ann Parker, 79, Waterville was northbound on U.S. 77 five south of Waterville.

The driver attempted to pass a northbound John Deere Tractor and the vehicle struck the farm implement, an air drill planter, being pulled by the tractor.

The Cadillac overturned coming to rest on its top in the road.

Parker and a passenger Delevan Otis Parker, 81, Waterville, were transported to Via Christi in Manhattan.
Another passenger in the Cadillac Brenda L. Prell, 55, Hanover, was transported to the Marysville Hospital

The tractor driver Robert Blaser was not injured.

All occupants of the Cadillac were properly restrained a the time of the accident, according to the KHP.