WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says it will transfer leftover money from the largely successful fight against Ebola to combat the growing threat of the Zika virus. See the latest CDC Zika info here
Much of the $589 million would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research on the virus and Zika-related birth defects, as well as the creation of response teams to limit its spread. The National Institutes of Health would continue research into a vaccine, while the U.S. Agency for International Development would intensify efforts to fight the virus overseas.
Researchers fear Zika causes microcephaly, a serious birth defect in which a baby’s head is too small, as well as posing other threats to the children of pregnant women infected with it.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration is moving forward with a policy change that would make it harder for transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificates.
The Wichita Eagle reports that under current regulations, one can change the gender listed on his or her birth certificate by showing medical paperwork that indicates an anatomical or physiological change occurred.
The governor’s administration has proposed changing the regulations so that the gender on a person’s birth certificate can only be changed if the person signs an affidavit saying the gender was incorrectly recorded on the original certificate and also provides medical records backing up that claim.
The change developed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment seems to block transgender people from changing their birth certificates after transitioning.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas woman charged in the death of her 7-year-old stepson is being transferred to a state mental hospital for an evaluation.
Heather Jones and her husband, Michael Jones, are charged with murder in the death of Michael Jones’ son. They’re both in custody in on multi-million dollar bonds.
Police investigating a disturbance in November found juvenile remains in a livestock area on the couple’s Kansas City, Kansas, property. Authorities haven’t said if the remains were those of Michael Jones’ missing son. They also haven’t addressed reports that the remains were fed to pigs.
A spokeswoman for the Wyandotte County Detention Center says Heather Jones left Wednesday for Larned State Hospital to begin a mental health evaluation. It’s unclear how long the evaluation will take.
photo U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, and U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on have sent a letter to Arthur A. Elkins, Jr., the inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requesting an audit and investigation of an EPA grant to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission used to support an anti-farmer advocacy campaign in Washington state. The campaign included billboards and a website that support increased regulation of agriculture in Washington state.
“We are troubled to learn that EPA’s financial assistance appears to improperly fund an advocacy campaign in Washington state that unfairly targets and demonizes farmers and ranchers. According to a recent news report, the EPA-funded advocacy campaign includes multiple billboards, bus placards, and an interactive website urging the public to contact state lawmakers. The website assists the public in contacting lawmakers by providing a pre-written email criticizing the actions of agricultural producers and blaming them for polluting local waterways. Further, the billboards and placards do not cite EPA as a funding source of the campaign. According to an EPA Region 10 official, the failure to attribute EPA as the source of the funding ‘looks like a violation’,” the Senators said.
“It appears a large portion of the EPA financial assistance went to pay a public relations and lobbying firm, Strategies 360, to conduct an advocacy campaign called ‘What’s Upstream?’ in partnership with environmental activists, including Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and Western Environmental Law Center.”
“This Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission grant appears to be part of a broader war on farmers and rural communities that the Obama Administration, through the EPA, has been waging in concert with its allies in the environmental activist community. It is imperative we learn whether EPA officials are turning a blind eye to this deceptive wrongdoing, and why the administration did not perform the necessary oversight to confirm taxpayer dollars are not mismanaged, and ensure well-established and important federal restrictions against lobbying are being followed,” the Senators concluded.
At the request of Inhofe, the Government Accountability Office issued a legal determination in December 2015 that found EPA had violated the Antideficiency Act and congressional bans against using federal funds for grassroots lobbying and covert propaganda.
HUTCHINSON – A Reno County Judge on Wednesday granted a defense motion of acquittal in the case of a south-central Kansas man accused of recklessly causing a car crash that killed the other driver.
After the Kansas Court of appeals reversed the ruling of Judge Trish Rose regarding a motion to suppress evidence that the suspect was under the influence of methamphetamine, she granted the acquittal.
The Court of Appeals had ruled that Judge Rose erred in suppressing the evidence of Meitler’s blood draw, saying the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule is applicable to the facts. They add that trooper’s Stephen Morris and John Maier’s conduct in ordering the blood draw was reliant on then-existing authority provided by law.
But, Judge Rose in her ruling said she didn’t believe there was any quantitative evidence of him being under the influence.
Troy Meitler, 46, Halstead was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery and driving under the influence.
Authorities say Meitler drove across the centerline on U.S. 50 in February 2012 and collided with a van driven by 49-year-old Brian Bush of Plevna. Bush was killed, and his wife was injured.
A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper testified Tuesday that Meitler was conscious at the scene but unable to recount what happened. A test of Meitler’s blood later showed the presence of methamphetamine and the active ingredient of marijuana.
Meitler had pleaded not guilty.
The state will now file an interlocutory appeal to answer the question of law in this case, but it will not change the decision by the judge.
SHAWNEE COUNTY- A Kansas man was critically injured in an accident just before 6 a.m. on Tuesday in Shawnee County.
The Topeka Police Department reported a southbound Mitsubishi passenger vehicle occupied by three people was southbound in 4500 Bock of South Topeka Boulevard.
The vehicle made a left turn in front of a Honda motorcycle driven by Nicholas Wayne Clearwater, 28, Topeka, was southbound on South Topeka Boulevard
Clearwater was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. He was wearing a helmet, according to police.
Police interviewed the driver of the Mitsubishi and passengers and alcohol is not believed to be a contributing factor in the accident.
CHENEY, Kan. (AP) — A volunteer Kansas firefighter has been hospitalized after he collapsed while working to extinguish a weekend grass fire.
The Cheney Volunteer Fire Department says the 48-year-old firefighter became unresponsive Sunday afternoon while he was operating a water truck used to battle the blaze.
Cheney Fire Chief Brad Ewy told KAKE the firefighter suffered a brain bleed. The man’s name hasn’t been released. He’s been in critical condition at a Wichita hospital.
Ewy says he’s been a volunteer firefighter and EMT for seven years and that a gofundme page has been set up to help the firefighter and his family.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country giant Merle Haggard, who celebrated outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as “Okie From Muskogee” and “Sing Me Back Home,” died Wednesday at 79, on his birthday.
Haggard’s manager, Frank Mull, said the country icon died in Palo Cedro, California, of pneumonia.
A masterful guitarist, fiddler and songwriter as well as singer, the Country Music Hall of Famer recorded for more than 40 years, releasing dozens of albums and No. 1 hits.
In November, Haggard performed at the Stiefel Theatre in Salina.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Latest on wildfires burning in Kansas and Oklahoma …all times local):
4:50 p.m.
Kansas authorities say wildfires in several Kansas counties have been largely contained.
The Kansas Adjutant General’s office said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the fires in the northeast Kansas counties of Wabaunsee, Geary, Riley and Pottawatomie are for the most part contained. The office says crews continue to monitor small smoldering patches in the region.
The office also says a grass fire in Morton County in southwest Kansas has been contained with the exception of hot spots.
The grassfire in northern Oklahoma is also no longer threatening Comanche County, Kansas.
The adjutant general’s office also says the State Emergency Operations Center in Topeka has returned to normal operations but is maintaining contact with local officials in the affected counties.
11:45 a.m.
More than 18 square miles of rangeland has burned in the latest Kansas wildfires.
Ben Bauman, spokesman for the Kansas Adjutant General’s Office, says two homes, one mobile home and at least eight outbuildings were destroyed Tuesday. Residents of several rural communities were urged to leave their homes before the blazes were brought mostly under control.
No injuries have been reported.
In northern Kansas, fires burned about 6,000 acres in Geary County, about 600 acres in Wabaunsee County and more than 1,500 acres in Riley County. Another 3,800 acres burned in Morton County in extreme southwest Kansas.
The blazes come less than a month after a fire that started in Oklahoma and spread into Kansas, burning hundreds of square miles. Most of the damage was in Kansas’ Barber County.
9 a.m.
photo by Garry Berges, Geary Co Emergency Manager
Crews are fighting wildfires in northern Kansas, where forecasters are warning of dangerous fire conditions.
Riley County emergency management director Pat Collins says embers from an approximately 300-acre fire started by fence welders destroyed a mobile home. Collins says crews are also battling a 1,000-acre blaze and a third fire that has burned several hundred acres elsewhere in Riley County.
In nearby Geary County, a fire that burned 6,000 acres of mostly pastureland Tuesday is under control. Assistant Geary County emergency manager Curt Janke says no homes burned.
Crews also have been fighting wildfires in Morton County in the southwest of the state and Wabaunsee County in the north, while keeping an eye on a large Oklahoma blaze to make sure it doesn’t cross into Kansas.
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RILEY COUNTY -The fire outbreak in Northeast Kansas has been largely contained, according to local officials.
Wabaunsee County authorities report approximately 600 acres were burned near the town of Alma. The fire is 75 percent contained as of 10 p.m.
Local fire officials have released the mutual aid responders from nearby counties and continue to monitor flare-ups. One house and one outbuilding are reported destroyed.
Riley County officials report 400-500 acres burned in the vicinity of Marlatt and U.S. 24, where approximately 100-150 residents were evacuated from a mobile home park. One mobile home was destroyed by fire. A shelter was opened in Cico Park in Manhattan.
Geary County officials report approximately 6,000 acres burned. The fire is 95 percent contained. No structures were lost.
A large grassfire destroyed one home and seven to eight outbuildings in the community of Wilburton in Morton County. The fire burned approximately 3,800 acres and is 95 percent contained.
Due to a shift in prevailing winds, a grassfire in Oklahoma is no longer threatening Comanche County, Kansas.
Six wildfires occurred in Pottawatomie County, burning an unknown amount of acreage. One garage was damaged, but officials are not certain the damage was related to the wildfire.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The man convicted of killing abortion provider George Tiller may have more leeway at his resentencing in Kansas to argue before a new jury that he was acting in defense of others.
Scott Roeder’s life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years was among many vacated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that juries, not judges, must decide whether aggravating circumstances existed to warrant increasing the punishment.
Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert said Wednesday consideration of mitigating factors for lesser sentences could allow such evidence.
Wilbert also said Tiller did not live to see another day, prompting an outburst from Roeder.
Roeder was convicted of first-degree murder in the May 2009 death of Tiller.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The man convicted of killing abortion provider George Tiller is in a Kansas court for arguments over resentencing issues.
Scott Roeder’s life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years was among many vacated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that juries, not judges, must decide whether aggravating circumstances existed to warrant increasing the punishment above mandatory minimum sentences.
Wednesday’s hearing is expected to take up a number of routine issues, such as jury questionnaires, aggravating factors and other motions.
Roeder was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Tiller, who was shot in a church on May 31, 2009. He testified he shot Tiller because other attempts to stop him from performing abortions had failed. Roeder also was convicted of two counts of aggravated assault.
Dr. Biden meeting with students on Wednesday photos USD 475
FORT RILEY -Dr. Jill Biden visited teachers and students at Fort Riley Middle School on Wednesday.
The second-lady of the United States is in Kanas to celebrate the Month of the Military Child and as part of her Joining Forces initiative.
Biden said she knows who has been in the military in her classrooms.
“And so I ask that at the beginning of every semester. I find that they bring such rich experiences to what I’m teaching.”
Biden explained as a grandmother she also saw the things that impacted her grandchildren.
She noted that she and Michelle Obama made that one of their pillars of the Joining Forces Initiative. “Education, what could we do in the space of education to make things better for military families. So the fact that you signed on, and all of you are so invested in this means so much to our military.”
During her visit to Fort Riley Middle School Biden toured classrooms and met with students and teachers. She participated in discussions with both the student teachers and students in the school’s media center. Biden also met school officials and community leaders during her time at the school.
Dr. Biden is a lifelong educator and military mom. She is participating in several events in support of military children’s education.
She is meeting with active duty service members, military spouses and military-connected students and their teachers.
During the visit she highlighted the educational partnership between Fort Riley and Kansas State University as part of Operation Educate the Educators—an effort Dr. Biden launched through her Joining Forces initiative to train teachers to recognize the unique needs of military-connected students in their classrooms.
Full house at Tuesday’s Manhattan City Commission meeting
MANHATTAN-A packed city commission chamber in Manhattan on Tuesday discussed all sides of the city’s chapter 10, civil rights prohibition against discrimination and whether to add gender identity, sexual orientation to the ordinance.
Business owners, members of the clergy, students and other concerned citizens were given time to share their thoughts on the controversial issue.
The ordinance protects various classes of individuals and provides for equal opportunities for housing, employment, public accommodation and created a human rights and services board.
State or federal law in Kansas protects neither sexual orientation nor gender identity.
The decision to add gender identity would become a local issue governed only by the local ordinance.
The commission took no action.
If the change to the ordinance were approved, a formal hearing process would need to be established along with how to enforce it.
Photo by Megan Hart/KHI News Service Advocates for Kansans with disabilities delivered letters Tuesday to the Topeka office of U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican. They are asking Roberts to co-sponsor Senate Bill 2427, called the Disability Integration Act.
Kansans with disabilities dug in for a long fight to change how Medicaid and private insurers cover long-term care.
More than a dozen people met Tuesday at the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center to write letters asking U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, to co-sponsor Senate Bill 2427, called the Disability Integration Act.
Mike Oxford, director of the center, said the bill would classify home and community-based services as a right for people who are elderly or have disabilities.
Under current federal law, Medicaid includes a right to care in a nursing facility, but states can decide if they want to offer home services as an alternative and can restrict what services they offer, how much they pay and the number of hours, he said.
The bill also would apply to publicly owned facilities, such as county-owned nursing homes, and long-term care insurance policies sold on the private market, Oxford said. “Right now if you say Medicaid, all Congress wants to talk about is how to cut it,” he said.
“This is not just a Medicaid bill, it’s a civil rights bill.” No one from the offices of Roberts or Sen. Jerry Moran, also a Kansas Republican, responded to questions about their stance on the bill.
Oxford said he doesn’t expect the bill to get through this session of the U.S. Senate, but its sponsor, Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, plans to reintroduce it next year.
Kathy Lobb, legislative liaison for the Self Advocate Coalition of Kansas, said many Kansans who have a disability or are elderly don’t have the resources to help them remain in their communities. She receives some assistance through a program that allows her to remain eligible for Medicaid services while earning more income than typically is allowed.
The issue is personal, Lobb said, because she knows what it’s like to live in an institution. She said she went to a high school for disabled youth in Nebraska that functioned like an institution and didn’t have some basic freedoms until she graduated.
“We weren’t able to go out in the community,” she said. “We couldn’t choose when to eat or when to sleep.”
Linda Naugle said Tuesday she was writing to Roberts because offering community-based services could have helped her mother, who had to go to a nursing home because four hours a day of home care wasn’t enough to meet her medical needs.
“She never wanted to leave her home,” Naugle said. “She said, ‘I don’t care if I just lay on my couch and die, I don’t want a nursing home.’”
Most people will have medical needs or a disability for at least a short time at the end of their lives, Oxford said, so finding ways to serve more people in the setting of their choice will be increasingly important as the population ages.
“In another 15, 20 years, there won’t be a family in America that isn’t going through this because of the aging of the baby boomers,” he said.
Other provisions of the bill would:
Require states to plan for an adequate supply of affordable, accessible housing.
Prohibit waiting lists for home and community-based services.
Prohibit cost caps or service limitations.
End the practice of offering different services based on type of disability.
Increase the federal Medicaid match for home and community-based programs.
Require states to pay “adequate” reimbursement rates for home services. The average hourly wage for home care workers nationwide is about $9.60.
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
