DENVER (AP) — An administrative law judge is siding with a Colorado company that was ordered to recall more than 900,000 powerful, small magnets that a federal agency said could harm children.
The administrative law judge says consumers were properly warned not to swallow the magnets or misuse them.
The ruling contradicts a federal court ruling that Zen Magnets LLC and its owner, Shihan Qu, violated the Consumer Product Safety Act by repackaging and selling magnets that were purchased from a New Jersey company before the magnets were recalled.
The U.S. Justice Department said putting the magnets in a different box and calling them a different name does not permit a company to circumvent a recall.
Shihan Qu said Thursday all recalls will be conducted as ordered, and the micro-magnets are currently unavailable.
KANSAS CITY – A federal jury on Friday returned guilty verdicts on all counts against a Kansas man in a massage parlor prostitution case, according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
They found defendant Kay Tee, 51, Wichita guilty on one count of attempting to entice a person to cross state lines to engage in prostitution, one count of using a telephone in furtherance of prostitution and one count of money laundering.
During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Tee was arrested May 28, 2015, at the airport in Wichita when he drove there to pick up a person he believed was buying a Wichita massage parlor. In fact, the person Tee had talked with several times on the phone was one of two undercover informants working with federal investigators.
Tee tried to collect fees from both undercover informants – one posing as a buyer and the other as a seller – in return for helping to arrange the sale. He also offered to provide additional services including filing city paperwork and doing taxes for the massage parlor. Tee talked with the agents about the fact employees of the massage parlor would be performing sex services for customers.
Sentencing is set for July 13. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the money laundering charge, a maximum penalty of five years and a fine up to $250,000 on the phone charge, and a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the enticement charge. Grissom commended the Wichita Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for their work on the case.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A preliminary report says a rented airplane with two teenagers aboard lost engine power when it crashed onto a Kansas golf course.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that a Federal Aviation Administration inspector who examined the 1966 single-engine Mooney, piloted by a 17-year-old boy, reported finding no fuel in the left fuel tank. Wichita police said that an 18-year-old woman was also aboard the airplane when it came down on the 14th hole at the Tallgrass Country Club on March 18, narrowly missing nearby homes.
The report says the pilot and the passenger suffered minor injuries in the crash, and that the airplane was “substantially damaged.”
Authorities say the plane was on its way from Nashville, Tennessee, to Jabara Airport in Wichita, just northeast of the crash site.
Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli gives his opening remarks during the 35th Infantry Division Change of Command Ceremony at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., on March 6- photo Kan. National Guard
KU Statehouse Wire Service
TOPEKA – Even with further military budget cuts to the National Guard, strong partnerships and resources are in place to safeguard the state’s citizens, the adjutant general of the Kansas National Guard said.
Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli last week gave his annual report to lawmakers on changes and improvements being made to his office, which manages the National Guard, the Division of Emergency Management, and Kansas Homeland Security. Over a 10-year period, about $1.2 trillion were taken out of the state’s emergency/security budget, making it tougher to provide maximum public safety to the state, Tafanelli said. But the “very tight” relationship among the National Guard, Kansas Homeland Security, the state’s emergency management division, and federal government agencies – as well as improved local facilities – ensures that the agencies will continue to meet high security standards, Tafanelli said.
“The governor asked us to really take a good hard look at our security that we have at our facilities (and) the security that we have for our soldiers and our airmen,” Tafanelli said. “We’ve taken a number of actions to harden the facilities that we have across the state.”
Some of those actions include video monitoring of doorways, putting film on glass to keep it from shattering, and arming soldiers at the facilities to provide greater safety and security as they go about their regular duties. It’s been an “ongoing process” to make improvements and to assess security threats from across the country, Tafanelli told lawmakers.
The Intelligence Fusion Center, located in Topeka, is a resource unique to Kansas. Homeland security analysts there are dedicated to meet the classified and unclassified needs of the state, including processing information from the Pentagon, according to the center’s annual report. Seventeen states have been interested in Kansas’ ability to bring in federal resources, Tafanelli told lawmakers
“What we’re really trying to focus on is how far (ahead of) an event, before something bad happens, can we detect something and then feed that information back up into the Intel committee and take the appropriate measures to kind of (remove) those threats out of the state,” he said.
With the pressure to cut budgets, the department is looking to increase its partnerships. Last year, the National Guard teamed up with the University of Kansas School of Business to try and market to 18 through 24-year-olds the fields of emergency management, homeland security, or military service. Only about 23 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds are eligible for military service; individuals can be disqualified because of a criminal record or health issues, Tafanelli said.
As director of both Kansas Homeland Security and Kansas Emergency Management, as well as responsibilities for oversite of the Kansas Army and the Air National Guards, Tafanelli fears security threats will continue to grow in the next few years, whether they’re from ISIS, Afghanistan, China, or Korea.
“We find ourselves when we’re downsizing that the operation requirements continue to go up and the threats continue to increase,” Tafanelli said.
Other threats have become more prevalent including cyber attacks, and with the links the state and country have globally, Tafanelli said, cyber threats are a clear and present danger in Kansas every day. The department also looks at emerging health issues, such as Ebola, and what measures it needs to take.
Tafanelli remained hopeful that the state agencies will continue to take appropriate measures to ensure public safety despite past and future budgetary cuts. Under Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, state grown has fallen to 1.8 percent, from 9.1 percent growth in the period 1966 to 2010.
In a recent press release, Brownback outlined his priorities in balancing the state’s budget and said “there are difficult decisions to be made.”
“I will not support or call for a tax increase on small businesses in Kansas,” Brownback said. “My focus is on managing spending, not on raising taxes. Our goal is not to fund the growth of state government; it is to help the Kansas economy grow.”
Golden Years Senior Care Center in Hutchinson faces fines under a bill passed by the Legislature that could threaten its survival. GOLDEN YEARS SENIOR CARE CENTER
By ANDY MARSO
Word that the Kansas Legislature has passed a bill allowing the state to fine adult care facilities that aren’t paying into a statewide medical liability protection fund brought Marie Jenks to tears.
For Jenks, the owner and operator of Golden Years Senior Care Center in Hutchinson, Thursday’s news was the last straw in what has been a series of difficult months.
The small facility she has owned for 30 years lost its coverage after a storm damaged the roof, and she’s been unable to secure a new plan that will satisfy the requirements of the Health Care Stabilization Fund.
“We have been trying to find anyone to insure us,” Jenks said. “I don’t know who everyone else is getting insurance with. … I don’t really understand what a person is supposed to do when no one will write a policy.”
The Health Care Stabilization Fund is intended to back up Kansas medical providers if a malpractice claim exceeds their primary insurance coverage.
Doctors, hospitals and other medical providers have been required to participate in the fund for decades by purchasing primary insurance plans from a list of carriers that pay into the fund.
Adult care facilities were added to the fund last year — a move the state’s largest nursing home lobbying groups supported. Most facilities had fund-compliant plans within months.
House Substitute for Senate Bill 55, if approved by Gov. Sam Brownback, would allow the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services to send correction orders to the few facilities not in compliance. If the facilities fail to respond to those orders, KDADS could impose $500 daily fines for up to five days.
Last year four facilities — Golden Years Senior Care Center, Country Club Estates in Paola, Westview Manor in Derby and Indian Creek Health Care Center in Overland Park — failed to comply with the insurance requirements.
Administrators from Country Club Estates and Westview Manor said Thursday that they have purchased compliant plans this year.
An administrator at Indian Creek Health Center requested information on where the facility could purchase fund-compliant plans.
Jenks requested the list as well but said she had more pressing problems due to the state’s failure to process Medicaid claims applications and renewals on time — an issue that has strained adult care facilities across the state.
Golden Years has nine beds, eight of which are occupied by residents who pay through Medicaid.
“I felt like they were just trying to close our doors,” Jenks said of the Medicaid delays. “I could fax you papers (that show) in one week alone $5,000 worth of checks that should have came. … We’re such a small home that when you hold $5,000 from us, that’s massive.”
Jenks said Golden Years operates on a “skeleton crew.” When she answered the phone Thursday, she was in the middle of cooking lunch for the residents.
“We are absolutely on our last month without the money,” Jenks said.
She said local hospitals and physicians know Golden Years as a place they can send people who have limited financial means. She charges residents a $650 per month base rate.
She broke down in sobs as she described the weight of trying to find other care options for her residents if she is unable to keep the doors open.
“Where are they going to go?” Jenks said. “Who’s going to take these people? Everywhere I call, they charge more than that. They don’t have more than that.”
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
HUTCHINSON -A Kansas man wanted by police is now in custody.
Law enforcement authorities located and arrested Jeremy Frischenmeyer, 34, Hutchinson, at a home in the 500 Block of East C Avenue on Friday, according to Hutchinson Police.
He is being held on a $25,000 bond.
Frischenmeyer was wanted on a warrant through Reno County District Court for violating his terms of release stemming from felony drug charges. He was also arrested for a warrant through Hutchinson Municipal Court and warrants through Saline County and Gray County. He also has a suspended driver’s license.
Frischenmeyer recently eluded local law enforcement both on foot and by vehicle.
CDC image click to Expand Maps have been updated from a variety of sources. These maps represent CDC’s best estimate of the potential range of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the United States. Maps are not meant to represent risk for spread of disease.
MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA (AP) — The government is urging health officials around the country to prepare now for any possible outbreaks of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the U.S. this summer. See CDC response to Zika here
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hosted about 300 state and local officials at a “Zika Summit” on Friday at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta.
A Zika epidemic has been sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean. Officials think it’s likely some small clusters of Zika will occur in the U.S. when mosquito numbers boom.
The virus causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people. But infections in pregnant women have been linked to a brain defect and fetal deaths.
There have been about 300 cases of Zika in the U.S. — all linked to travel to outbreak areas.
GALENA, Kan. (AP) — A city attorney in southeast Kansas is resigning after his second drunken driving arrest in two years.
Galena Mayor Dale Oglesby says the resignation of 52-year-old Kevin Cure takes effect Friday. The Joplin Globe reports that Cure was charged Thursday with a misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated. Cure didn’t immediately return a phone message that The Associated Press left at his law office.
Police say Cure was arrested Tuesday in the parking lot of a Joplin, Missouri, restaurant. A passenger faces an obstruction charge over accusations that she refused to remain in the car and that she tried to involve herself with the field sobriety tests.
Cure has been Galena’s city attorney since 2004. In March 2014, he was arrested in Joplin on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Expansion plans are on hold for a historic Lawrence hotel that stands on the site of one destroyed in 1856 and again in 1863 by pro-slavery forces.
Eldridge Hotel general manager Nancy Longhurst says in an email that the owners have made the decision not to proceed with the project for now. The Lawrence Journal-World
courtesy photo
reports that plans had called for an approximately 50-room expansion of the hotel. The structures that preceded it were targeted for destruction when Lawrence was an Abolitionist stronghold before the Civil War.
Longhurst didn’t explain why the ownership group decided to cancel the expansion plans, which also called for more restaurant and banquet space.
She says the owners “look forward to investing in this project in the future.” But she didn’t provide a timeline.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a new sentencing for a man initially ordered to spend a half century in prison for a 2011 killing involving mistaken identity.
The state’s high court made the ruling Friday while upholding Charles Christopher Logsdon’s conviction.
Prosecutors contend Logsdon and at least one other man meant to rob a woman of drugs and money but drove to the wrong home and shot Jennifer Heckel while her 5-year-old son was in the house. The boy wasn’t injured.
Logsdon originally was sentenced by a judge to the “Hard 50,” meaning he would have to serve a half century before becoming eligible for parole.
The Supreme Court ordered the resentencing because a jury must determine if a “Hard 50” should be imposed, not a judge.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that its tax collections came close to hitting projections in March, falling short by less than $2 million.
The report Friday from the Department of Revenue said the state collected almost $447.8 million in taxes last month, when it expected to take in $449.4 million. The shortfall was about four-tenths of 1 percent.
Sales and insurance premium taxes exceeded expectations.
But since the fiscal year began in July 2015, the state still has collected 1.9 percent less in taxes than anticipated. The $4.13 billion collected is about $81 million less than expected.
The department’s report came ahead of an April 20 meeting of state officials and university economists to revise the state’s revenue projections. Tax collections have fallen short of expectations 11 of the past 12 months.
HOUSTON (AP) — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped 14 this week to 450, another all-time low amid continuing energy industry price woes.
A year ago, 1,028 rigs were active.
Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday 362 rigs sought oil and 88 explored for natural gas.
Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas lost five rigs and Oklahoma four. California, North Dakota and Oklahoma each dropped two while Alaska, Kansas and Pennsylvania declined by one apiece.
New Mexico gained two rigs and Utah was up one.
Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming were unchanged.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. The previous low of 488 set in 1999 was eclipsed March 11, and has continued to dip.
that way,” said Sherman.
