ATCHISON -A faculty member at Benedictine College in Atchison has been confirmed to have an active case of Tuberculosis, according to a media release.
The Kansas Health Department informed the college of the confirmation on Monday. Spokesman Steve Johnson said after the school was notified a notice was sent out to inform the entire campus.
Johnson said the faculty member who contracted TB only taught one class and had only 23 students who could have been exposed. He said none of the students have reported any symptoms.
“It’s very rare for one person to become infected from another person,” Johnson said. “They’re very confident that this is not a problem.”
The State Health Dept. is expected to be on campus to draw blood and take it to be sampled.
The faculty member has been gone from the school since Feb. 12 and is receiving treatment. Health officials reported about 50 University of Kansas students were screened for tuberculosis after a case was confirmed there this month.
BOURBON COUNTY – A Kansas man died in an accident just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday in Bourbon County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Chevy Tahoe driven by Alfred Rose, 64, Arcadia, was southbound on 250th Street five miles southeast of Fort Scott,
The vehicle traveled into the west ditch. The driver overcorrected and the vehicle overturned several times. Rose was ejected.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Caney Funeral Home.
A passenger in the Tahoe Ty Sells, 26, Arcadia, was also possibly injured. The KHP did not indicate where he was treated.
Rose and Sells were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA – The Senate voted Tuesday to approve legislation doubling the capacity of microbreweries and granting permission to brew and distribute hard cider.
The measures were in separate bills, and the Senate passed both unanimously. The bills now go to the House.
Senate Bill 326 would double the current legal maximum capacity of microbreweries from 30,000 barrels to 60,000 per year.
“We do have some microbreweries in Kansas bumping up against the limit,” Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said.
The Kansas Craft Brewers Guild (KCBG) said the request to move to 60,000 barrels isn’t random, and it’s the division between microbreweries and large breweries set by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. One barrel of beer is equal to about 31 gallons.
“We believe these adjustments will only enhance the business climate of Kansas and are of no harm to the state or its citizens,” Guild spokesman Philip Bradley said.
Breweries in Kansas support the bill, and the KCBG supports the measure to allow for more production of beer. There are currently 33 microbrewery licenses issued in Kansas.
“We need this law change to remain strong and competitive with breweries in other states and continue our pattern of revenue growth and job creation in Kansas,” said Jeff Gill, founder of Tallgrass Brewing Company in Manhattan.
Senate Bill 277 would allow microbreweries to produce up to 100,000 gallons of hard cider annually. Under current Kansas law, microbreweries can only produce beer. Beer is produced from brewing and fermenting malted barley while cider is made from fermenting juice.
The bill would require that hard cider contain less than 8.5 percent alcohol by volume and less than 6.4 grams per liter of carbonation.
The bill would also mandate that 30 percent of fruit used in hard cider production be from Kansas, unless that amount is lowered by the Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. It would also change the legal definition of wine to include hard cider.
Holland said that the legislation could be beneficial for women particularly, whom he said like sweeter drinks.
“I think some gentlemen like sweet, too. This bill will help men and women,” Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, said.
Fire crews on the scene of Wednesday’s fatal mobile home fire in Salina
SALINA – One person has died in a fire at mobile home park in Salina.
Just before 11:45 a.m., fire crews responded to the blaze in the 900 Block of North 13th Street.
Two mobile homes were fully engulfed in flames.
Firefighters located a 3-year-old boy in one home, according to Salina Fire Marshal Roger Williams.
The child was transported to Salina Regional Health Center where he died a short time later.
A 3-month-old infant was transported to Wichita by ambulance for treatment of smoke inhalation.
The children’s grandmother has been flown to Wichita for treatment of second and possible third degree burns over 40% of her body and a 5-year- old girl was also treated for minor injuries, according to Williams.
Williams said the mobile home was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. That home was destroyed. The fire quickly spread to a second mobile, which was severely damaged.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he’s looking for a Supreme Court nominee with a sterling record, a deep respect for the judiciary’s role and an understanding of how the law affects real people.
Obama is offering his most expansive description of the qualities he’s seeking in a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
He writes on the legal blog SCOTUSblog that he’s looking for someone who approaches decisions with no “particular ideology or agenda.” But Obama says he’s also seeking someone guided by his or her “perspective, ethics and judgment.”
The president is using the blog post to push back on Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who are refusing to hold hearings or permit a vote.
Obama says senators have a “constitutional responsibility” to consider his nominee.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 38-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, man has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run crash that injured a bicyclist in Shawnee, Kansas.
Kevin E. Hall was charged Tuesday with DUI, aggravated battery and leaving the scene of an accident. Johnson County, Kansas, prosecutors say Hall was driving a truck when he struck bicyclist Steve McCrary about 5:20 a.m. Sept. 23. Authorities say Hall and McCrary were both traveling westbound at the time, and that Hall did not stop after the accident.
McCrary was transported to a hospital in critical condition. Hall was arrested soon after the accident.
Hall said during a court appearance Tuesday that he plans to hire an attorney.
Tom Bell of the Kansas Hospital Association making a point at a forum on Medicaid expansion that was held at Johnson County Community College in January. CREDIT MIKE SHERRY / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
Kansas’ rejection of Medicaid expansion has cost the state more than $1 billion, according to the association that represents the state’s hospitals.
“This 10-figure sum represents a loss of nearly 11 Kansas taxpayer dollars every second since Jan. 1, 2014 — funds that go to the federal government to be spent in other states for Medicaid expansion,” the Kansas Hospital Association, which keeps a running total of the amount on its website, said in a news release issued Monday.
Since the start of 2014, when the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect, 31 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid eligibility to all adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The annual income limits in expansion states are $16,242 for an individual and $33,465 for a family of four. In Kansas, only adults with dependent children are eligible for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, and then only if their incomes are below 28 percent of the poverty level, which for a family of four is $9,216.
Hospital officials say Medicaid expansion would provide coverage to approximately 150,000 Kansans, many of whom are now uninsured, and generate additional federal dollars for providers hit hard by reductions in Medicare reimbursements triggered by the ACA and a budget-cutting formula that congressional conservatives demanded.
But those arguments have failed to move the needle on the issue. So, this year, hoping to gain some traction, KHA introduced a bill modeled after the so-called “red state” expansion plan crafted by conservative Republican Gov. Mike Pence in Indiana.
The Indiana plan requires beneficiaries to pay up to 2 percent of their incomes in premiums and suspends coverage for those who fail to pay. Some Republicans in the Kansas Legislature who had opposed expansion have said they’re open to considering KHA’s new plan. But Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican legislative leaders remain opposed and appear determined to keep the issue from coming to a vote.
Over the weekend, the state committee of the Kansas Republican Party unanimously passed a resolution opposing expansion. It says that so-called “red state” expansion plans like Indiana’s merely “offer window dressing to disguise the expansion of Obamacare.” Because the federal government won’t allow states to require that Medicaid beneficiaries work, the resolution says even the expansion plans adopted in Republican-controlled states do little to promote “personal responsibility and self-reliance.”
At the halfway point of the legislative session, no hearings have been scheduled on KanCare expansion and two attempts to force floor votes on the KHA proposal have failed.
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a walker and a set of hearing aids have been stolen from a 79-year-old woman attending a men’s basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the theft happened during last week’s Oklahoma State game. KU police Capt. James Anguiano says the hearing aids were inside a bag attached to the walker.
The KU Office of Public Safety crime log says the items had been left unattended when they were taken. They haven’t been recovered.
Anguiano says the hearing aids were valued at $6,000 and the walker at $100.
HARVEY COUNTY – Fire crews from Newton, Walton, Halstead, and Hesston responded late Tuesday to a large barn fire near North East 24th and Spencer in Harvey County, according to a social media report from Newton Fire Department.
The barn was fully involved upon arrival and small adjacent grass and brush fires were extinguished while the actual structure fire was simply contained to its area before overhaul and the fire being extinguished.
No injuries were reported and no animals were believed to be in the barn, according to fire officials. Cause of the fire has not been released.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 19-year-old man has been charged in a crash that killed two people last summer in south-central Kansas.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Myles Evans was charged Tuesday in Sedgwick County with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
A criminal complaint alleges that Evans was driving under the influence when he struck 72-year-old Paul LaBrue and 70-year-old David Bell around 11:30 a.m. Aug. 21 in a residential area of Goddard. LaBrue’s dog also was killed.
LaBrue and Bell were about two blocks from their homes when they were hit.
John Rapp, who is representing Evans in the case, said Tuesday that he had no formal comment, “other than to say our sympathies go out to the families of the deceased.”
ELLSWORTH COUNTY- Three adults and a child were injured in an accident just after 8p.m. on Tuesday in Ellsworth County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Ford Escape driven by Dillon A. Sonnier, 17, Sylvan Grove, was westbound on Kansas 140 eight miles east of Ellsworth.
A passenger grabbed the steering wheel and the vehicle traveled into the left lane.
The driver overcorrected, lost control of the vehicle and it flipped end over end into the north ditch.
Sonnier was transported to the hospital in Elllsworth.
Passengers Cassandra L. Witt, 18, Ellsworth, Joshua Griswold, 21, Arkansas City, and Blake J. Witt, 6-months, Ellsworth, were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.
Griswold was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A fourth person has been charged in the 2014 kidnapping and killing of a woman on the Fort Riley military base.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a news release Tuesday that 26-year-old Shantrell Woody is charged with one count of kidnapping resulting in death. The Associated Press left a phone message seeking a comment from an attorney listed as representing Woody.
Twenty-four-year-old Amanda Clemons’ body was found in Geary County in February 2014. An autopsy determined that Clemons died of a sharp-force injury.
Prosecutors say Woody and three others kidnapped Clemons and held her on the military base before she was killed.
Three other defendants charged previously with the same count were:
Larry L. Anderson, 26, who is being held in the Geary County Jail.
Marryssa M. Middleton, 23, who is being held in the Geary County Jail.
Drexel A. Woody, 24, who is being held in the Geary County Jail.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 on the day of the Nevada Republican caucuses (all times are Eastern Standard Time):
1:55 a.m.
Donald Trump will collect the most delegates from the Nevada caucuses. But even though he won by a large margin, he might not get a majority of the 30 delegates at stake.
Trump won at least 12 delegates and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz won at least five apiece. Eight delegates are still left to be allocated.
Nevada Republicans award delegates in proportion to the statewide vote, so a candidate can win a delegate with as little as 3.3 percent of the vote.
Overall, Trump has 79 delegates, Cruz has 16 and Rubio has 15. John Kasich has five delegates and Ben Carson has three.
It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.
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1:39 a.m.
Ted Cruz says he can’t wait to get home to Texas.
The Republican presidential candidate says in Nevada that next week’s Super Tuesday primaries, including the balloting in Texas, “will be the most important night of this campaign.”
Cruz spoke at a Tuesday night appearance at a Las Vegas-area YMCA after an underwhelming performance in Nevada’s caucuses.
With returns still coming in, Cruz and rival Marco Rubio were locked in a tight race for second place.
Cruz was heading to Texas shortly after the speech.
Supporter Glenn Beck introduced Cruz and said he’s “totally fine with him being in third place, because Super Tuesday is coming. Texas is coming.”
Cruz insisted that he’s the only Republican candidate who can beat Nevada caucus winner Donald Trump.
He says, “the undeniable reality that the first four states have shown is that the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign.”
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1:18 a.m.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is basking in his Nevada caucus victory by vowing to keep the open the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Trump tells supporters gathered at the Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas that he’ll keep open the facility that President Obama is working to close. He says, “We’re going to load it up with a lot of bad dudes out there.”
Trump also drew loud cheers for his vow to build a wall along the southern border and his instance that Mexico will pay for it.
Trump offered shout-outs from the stage to several of his billionaire friends, including Phil Ruffin, who owns the Treasure Island, and casino developer Steve Wynn.
“Now we’re going to get greedy for the United States,” he says.
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12:53 a.m.
Donald Trump is celebrating his win in the Nevada Republican caucuses with a prediction that he’ll soon claim the GOP presidential nomination.
The billionaire businessman tells supporters in Las Vegas that, “it’s going to be an amazing two months.”
He goes on to say, “we might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest.”
Trump has won three contests in a row after finishing second in the leadoff Iowa caucuses. He’s in a strong position headed into next week’s Super Tuesday contests, where voters in a dozen states will cast ballots in presidential primaries.
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12:32 a.m.
Nevada caucus-goers who decided who to support before the last week were key to Donald Trump’s victory in the state, according to early results of the entrance poll conducted among people arriving at their caucus sites.
Among those who decided who to support in the last week, about 4 in 10 supported Marco Rubio. About a quarter supported Trump and about 2 in 10 supported Ted Cruz.
But a majority of those deciding before the last week supported Trump, and they accounted for about 7 in 10 caucus attendees.
The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as Republican voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites in Nevada. The preliminary results include interviews with 1,545 Republican caucus-goers and have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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12:29 a.m.
About 3 in 10 Nevada caucus attendees said the quality that mattered most to them in choosing a candidate is that he shares their values, according to preliminary results of the entrance poll.
That’s slightly more said they want a candidate who can win in November or who can bring change, each chosen by about a quarter of caucus attendees. About 2 in 10 want one who “tells it like it is.”
Caucus winner Donald Trump was supported by nearly 9 in 10 of those caring most about having a candidate who “tells it like it is” and about 6 in 10 who wanted a candidate who can bring change.
Rubio was the favorite among those who cared most about electability, and Cruz among those wanting someone who shares their values.
