By Dan Margoiles

Another class-action lawsuit alleging Cerner illegally failed to pay employees overtime wages has been filed against the health care technology company.

The latest was filed in federal court in Kansas City on behalf of so-called AMS delivery consultants at Cerner, basically help desk workers who offer technical support and troubleshooting assistance.

The lawsuit says they were expected to work at least 48 hours a week but were not paid overtime. The suit, which was filed by Jonathan Taylor, seeks unspecified damages under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Missouri’s overtime law.

A Cerner representative said the company does not comment on pending litigation. But Cerner has argued elsewhere that the workers in question are “computer professionals” or “administrative employees” who are exempt from overtime requirements under FLSA.

Eric Dirks, an attorney for Taylor, said the class of affected workers in the case probably numbers in the hundreds.

“There are multiple different job titles which we believe have been misclassified,” Dirks said. “This is just yet another one of the job titles and organizations that we believe is misclassified.”

Dirks along with attorneys from other firms have filed at least two other pending overtime lawsuits against Cerner. One, in Jackson County, was filed on behalf of workers who configure user settings for Cerner’s hospital and other customers. The other, in Cass County, was filed on behalf of employees who train customers to use Cerner’s software.

A fourth case over Cerner’s overtime policy is pending in federal court in Kansas City. That lawsuit alleges Cerner pays its nonexempt employees – workers who must be paid overtime for any hours worked beyond 40 a week – a full pay period late and fails to include all additional compensation in their regular rate of pay.

In March, U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. agreed to let the case move ahead as a “collective” action under the Fair Labor Standards Act, finding that the workers were “similarly situated.”

A collective action is similar to a class action, except that plaintiffs must actively opt in to the class. Up to 850 Cerner employees may be eligible to opt in.

Gaitan’s ruling came just a few months after Cerner asked its nearly 17,000 workers in the United States to submit labor disputes to arbitration rather than sue it in court.

Workers who didn’t agree are not eligible for performance-based raises. Most of the company’s employees signed the agreement.

Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas State Board of Education on Tuesday criticized the Obama administration’s directive that public schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identities, not their sex at birth.

Board members called the directive an encroachment on local control, but voted 6-4 against issuing a public statement rejecting the federal mandate. Members agreed to discuss the issue again next month after consulting with their attorney and reviewing school districts’ policies.

State board member Ken Willard, a Hutchinson Republican, asked that the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback protect the state from what he called federal overreach. The board needs to take a stance on the issue, he said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will not cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood until July 7 in the third delay in acting against the abortion provider.

A state health department attorney suggested the latest delay Tuesday during a telephone conference hearing in a federal lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood against the cutoff. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson approved the latest delay.

The state has asked for delays because that would give time for the parties in the lawsuit to prepare.

The state initially told Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri that it would cut off Medicaid funding May 10. It postponed the action until May 24, then until June 7.

The health department attorney on Tuesday said it needs yet more time to prepare because outside attorneys are withdrawing.

MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials are adding 63 American Indian reservations across the Midwest and West to an initiative that seeks to return millions of acres of land to tribal ownership.

See the full list including Kansas locations here

The move comes as the Interior Department warns the $1.9 billion effort to return up to 3 million acres of land to tribes is running out of time and money.

The Associated Press obtained details in advance of a planned Tuesday announcement. Reservations in 16 states are joining the program.

It’s the result of a legal settlement with American Indians led by Elouise Cobell of Montana, who said the U.S. mismanaged trust money held on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Indians.

Since 2013, the U.S. has paid $742 million to restore 1.5 million acres to tribal control.

BROWN COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities are investigating report of an alleged child in danger ruse and are alerting the public.

Just after 6 p.m. on Friday, a motorist reported that in the vicinity of U.S. 73 and Sunflower in Brown County, a car seat was spotted along side the road with a purple blanket over the top, which made it appear the child, was still in the seat, according to a media release.

When the person went to check on the seat, two people in dark blue jeans and masks exited the ditch and advanced towards the motorist.

One was wearing a dark blue hoodie. The concerned motorist got back in to their vehicle drove away and notified law enforcement immediately.

Officers from Atchison and Brown County Sheriffs Offices and Horton Police Department responded and no one was located.

Law enforcement authorities are alerting the public that if they should see anything of a similar nature to call 911 immediately and do not stop until you reach a safe location to do so.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — School officials in Lawrence, Kansas, are considering changing district policies to prohibit forms of discriminatory behavior after school administrators told a high school student earlier this year that he couldn’t display a Confederate flag on his vehicle while on school grounds.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the school board’s policy advisory committee has recommended potential changes to the school board, which will decide whether to adopt them.

The committee’s recommended additions would affect three district policies: discrimination and harassment; hazing and bullying; and prohibited activity. Those policies currently prohibit verbal, physical and written discrimination or harassment. The committee recommends that the policies be expanded to include symbols and microagressions.

The school board is scheduled to discuss the committee’s recommendations June 13 and vote on them June 27.

AUGUSTA, Kan. (AP) — No federal charges will be filed against a concealed weapon permit-holder who wounded himself and a bystander when the gun he stuffed into his sock accidentally discharged at a southern Kansas high school graduation ceremony.

The Wichita Eagle reports that there’s an exception to the federal gun-free school zones law that allows holders of state-issued concealed-carry permits to carry their weapons in school zones.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman John Ham says that means the man cannot be prosecuted under the law for bringing the gun to the Augusta High School commencement on Sunday.

The man was shot in the foot when he adjusted his sock. A woman was struck in the calf.

State charges remain possible. Police haven’t yet provided the case to county prosecutors.

WICHITA- A Kansas man who lived in base housing at McConnell Air Force Base was charged Friday with sexually abusing two teenage girls according to acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Random Shane Smith, 36, Wichita, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Wichita with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of producing child pornography.

According to court records, Smith used force to make the victims submit to sexual acts with him. Smith sexually assaulted the victims over a period of time while they were 12 to 17 years old. The most recent assaults occurred on the McConnell AFB. Smith used a cell phone camera to take photos of some of the assaults.

by MEGAN HART

The legislative battle may be over, but the war of words continues about a bill that imposes new restrictions on Kansas welfare recipients.

Gov. Sam Brownback signed Senate Bill 402 on Monday at the Statehouse flanked by legislative supporters of the measure.

The new law lowers the lifetime limit for those receiving cash assistance under the Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) program from three years to two years, with the possibility of a one-year hardship extension. It also tightens work requirements and penalties for not cooperating with fraud investigations.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families projects about 420 of the approximately 4,900 families on TANF will hit the 24-month limit in January.

Brownback said the measure, which supporters refer to as the HOPE Act 2.0, and restrictions imposed in a similarly titled bill passed last year will help motivate Kansans to get off welfare and find a job. He said people needed “hard deadlines” to accomplish goals such as finding a job or completing a term paper.

“It’s helped people get out of poverty, it’s helped people have more income and it’s helped people get back their dignity,” he said.

But critics say the restrictions are forcing people who need assistance deeper into poverty.

“The so-called HOPE Act hurts the poorest families in Kansas,” said Shannon Cotsoradis, outgoing president of Kansas Action for Children. “Cutting off critical lifelines to Kansas’ most economically fragile children merely perpetuates the cycle of poverty that the governor claims to be committed to reducing.”

Legislative critics say the restrictions are politically motivated, a charge buttressed by the release earlier this year of a memo written by Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican, and distributed to some Kansas GOP lawmakers. Among other things, the memo advised Senate Republicans seeking re-election that there was “popular support” for tighter welfare rules.

Both sides in the welfare debate claim to have data to support their positions.

A study touted by Brownback by the right-leaning Foundation for Government Accountability found that incomes had increased an average of 127 percent for the roughly 14,000 Kansas adults who were dropped from the food stamp program by eligibility changes enacted in 2013.

But that claim was undermined by data included elsewhere in the report that showed their average income was still less than half of the federal poverty level, which in 2016 is $11,880 for an individual and $24,300 for a family of four.

About 79 percent of those the study followed were still in poverty a year after leaving the food stamp program. A significant percentage of those who found jobs also reported they still had incomes below the poverty line.

Critics of the welfare restrictions point to the fact that the number of Kansas families enrolled in TANF has dropped precipitously in the last 10 years.

In 2005, an average of 17,118 Kansas families with 30,321 children received TANF benefits each month. So far in 2016, the monthly average is far lower at 5,506 families and 9,630 children.

However, it isn’t clear how many left TANF because they obtained employment. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported about 41 percent of TANF cases that were closed in Kansas listed the reason as “employment.” In 2014, the most recent year with data available, only about 9 percent of closed TANF cases cited employment.

Federal data shows that Kansas families who left TANF in 2014 had an average income of $13,284, which would be below the poverty line for a family of two or more.

Kansas has enacted the following restrictions on public assistance in recent years:

2011: Lowered the lifetime limit for TANF from five years to four years.
2013: Required adults who don’t have a disability or a dependent child to work at least 20 hours per week or lose food assistance.
2015: Lowered the lifetime limit for TANF to three years.
2016: Lowered the lifetime limit for TANF to two years.

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

ALLEN COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities in Allen County are investigating a series of vandalism on mailboxes over the weekend.

The Allen County Sheriff’s Department reported over 20 mailboxes were damaged on Saturday May 14 in a rural area southeast of Iola.

They are asking the public for help to identify those who may be responsible to contact the sheriff or Allen County Crimestoppers.

HUTCHINSON -A woman who worked for the Kansas Department of Corrections faces a felony charge for sexual contact with an inmate at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility.

Amy D. Hapner, Hutchinson, is charged with unlawful sexual relations for the encounter where she’s accused of consensual lewd fondling or touching of the inmate, Donell Williams.

The alleged crime occurring on May 7, according to court records.

Williams, 32, is serving time for two counts of murder in the first degree for crimes in Wyandotte County.

With the charge filed against Hapner, the case will now move to a future waiver-status docket.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Four students at a middle school near Wichita, Kansas, are charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with a supposed bomb-and-shooting plot.

Names of the Haysville Middle School eighth-graders charged Monday in Sedgwick County were not released. It was not immediately clear if they were charged as adults, or if they have attorneys.

School officials have said the alleged threat surfaced last Thursday after social media posts indicated someone was plotting to bomb and shoot people on school grounds. Police identified the students behind the alleged threat and took them into custody.

The four defendants remain in custody, awaiting hearings.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The former controller of a Kansas company has been ordered to serve a year and three months in federal prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $135,000 from his employer.

Forty-three-year-old Alan Wenk was sentenced Monday in Kansas City, Kansas. That’s where he pleaded guilty in February to two counts of bank fraud.

Wenk has admitted the crimes happened while he was working as regional controller and corporate accounts payable manager for Performance Contracting Group Inc. in Lenexa.

Prosecutors say Wenk caused the company to issue 20 fraudulent checks to him and business entities he controlled.

PCG has 50 offices throughout the U.S.