TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas officials say using $327 million in out of state bonds to finance construction projects allows them to meet crucial campus needs in a cost-effective way.
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, other university officials and state Board of Regents members defended the school’s so-called central district development project and its financing Tuesday during a House Appropriations Committee hearing.
The university formed a nonprofit corporation which then had Wisconsin’s Public Finance Authority issue the bonds last month without legislative approval.
Special university counsel Jeff Gans said the university needed to move quickly to keep its borrowing costs low. Also, officials said the project includes a new student dormitory that would open in fall 2017 and prevent a housing shortage.
The project also includes a new science building to replace outdated labs.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are weighing legislation that would make it illegal to post photos or videos of a nude person online without his or her consent.
The Kansas City Star reports that Democratic Rep. Sydney Carlin of Manhattan and Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton of Overland Park introduced bills last session to deter the online phenomenon of “revenge porn.”
Under the legislation, posting of nude materials without a person’s consent could be prosecuted as a potential felony under the state’s blackmail and breach of privacy laws.
Republican Rep. John Barker of Abilene is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He says that panel could vote on whether to advance the bill to the House floor as early as Thursday.
RENO COUNTY – Fire crews busy on Monday afternoon. Just before 1p.m. Hutchinson Fire Department’s Engine 3 responded to the 2500 block of West Blanchard.
Upon arrival they found an electrical substation on fire. While waiting for Westar to arrive to secure the electricity, the transformer exploded.
The wind pushed the smoke across Blanchard but there was no exposures threatened, according to a media release from the fire department.
The South Hutchinson Police Department provided traffic control. Once Westar
arrived and the power was shut off, they were able to extinguish the fire.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the convictions of a Kansas obesity specialist who co-authored the “Atkins Diabetes Revolution.”
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed all five counts of attempted tax evasion against Dr. Mary C. Vernon of Lawrence. She was sentenced in 2014 to three years and five months and ordered to pay more than $311,000 in restitution.
The “Atkins Diabetes Revolution” was published in 2004, a year after the death of weight loss expert Dr. Robert Atkins.
The appellate panel rejected her claim that the trial judge miscalculated her sentence, based on a tax loss of $988,000 from 1991 to 2002. The lower court had also given her more prison time because she created a sham corporation called Rockledge Medical Services to evade income taxes.
Parsons pictured on the right, racer #7 -courtesy photo
LIBERAL – Olney won this year’s International Pancake Race and set a new record. The International Race Winner is Lianne Fisher of Olney, England, who finished with a time of 55.02 seconds, breaking the previous record of 55.6 set by Devon Byrne of Olney in 2014.
The winner of the 2016 race in Liberal was Summer Parsons with a time of 62.61 seconds, according to a social media report from the International Pancake Day.
The racer on the left is Miss Liberal, Gaby Amparan, who won the crown on Sunday and was running as an honorary racer and ineligible to win.
Parsons also won the Liberal race in 2014, with a time of 63.5. She did not run last year because she was pregnant. Leslie Spikes placed second and Sally Yates was third.
TOPEKA – Gov. Sam Brownback has failed to make public safety a priority, Democratic lawmakers said at a news conference Monday.
“Communities across Kansas are less safe because of decisions the governor and his Republican allies have made, mismanaging the state and failing to support law enforcement the way they should,” Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, said.
The legislators announced their support for three bills they say will improve public safety.
Two of the bills, SB 350 and HB 2559, are focused on increasing the numbers of Kansas highway patrolmen and staff at state agencies. The third, HB 2452, prohibits the distribution of firearms to individuals on the terrorist screening database or similar lists.
Increasing highway patrol funds
SB 350, introduced Jan. 22, would create a “Kansas highway patrol staffing and training fund” in the state treasury. The fund would be paid for by a $2 surcharge on Kansas vehicle registrations. The Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) had asked for increased state funding earlier this year.
The KHP employed 413 troopers as of Jan. 1, 2016. At the same time in 2006, it employed 475 troopers. Thirty-five counties are still without an assigned KHP trooper, Democratic lawmakers said in a news release.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing later this week.
Establishing minimum staffing levels
HB 2559, introduced on Jan. 27, would require state agencies and facilities to establish a minimum level of staffing.
“Other state law enforcement facilities, prisons and state hospitals are severely understaffed,” Rep. Dennis “Boog” Highberger, D-Lawrence, said.
Staff numbers became a concern after a patient at the Osawatomie state hospital was charged with the rape of a hospital employee in 2015.
Limiting firearms for individuals on watch lists
HB 2452, introduced on Jan. 13, prohibits the distribution of firearms to any individuals listed in a government terrorist screening database, such as the no-fly list. The White House has endorsed a similar policy, which has been met with some concern from conservative politicians.
Republican lawmakers and the governor’s office were unavailable for comment late Monday afternoon.
Fire at the Kenworth dealership in Liberal photo- courtesy Southwest Daily Leader
LIBERAL – A fire at the Kenworth dealership in Liberal on Monday has been ruled an accident, according to the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s office.
Just after 4 a.m. on Monday fire crews responded to the dealership in the 300 Block of South Country Estates Road. The fire originated within the engine compartment of a semi in one of the bays and spread to another semi.
In addition to smoke damage, the shop and garage areas of the dealership suffered the most significant damage.
The blaze caused an estimated $1million dollars in damage. There were no injuries.
ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writers
MARTIN CRUTSINGER, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is sending Congress his eighth and final budget, proposing to spend a record $4.1 trillion on a number of initiatives. They include launching a new war on cancer, combating global warming and fighting growing threats from ISIS terrorists.
The new spending plan, for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 — just 3½ months before he leaves office — is facing heavy fire from Republicans who hope to capture the White House. The proposal had dim prospects of winning approval in a Republican-controlled Congress.
In all, Obama’s budget would increase taxes by $2.6 trillion over the coming decade, nearly double the $1.4 trillion in new taxes Obama sought and failed to achieve in last year’s budget.
HUTCHINSON — A Kansas man arrested and charged in October in a meth distribution case now faces a second case where he’s charged with drug distribution.
Darren Stephenson, 54, Hutchinson, was in court Monday where he was read the complaint that alleges he was in possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute and personal use paraphernalia.
The state alleges he was in possession of a seller’s quantity of marijuana as well as the meth when Hutchinson Police arrested him on Feb. 1.
In the earlier case, Stephenson is also charged with possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute, no tax stamp and personal use drug paraphernalia.
A drug-related search was done on his property in the 1400 block of North Forest.
Drug Unit detectives say that inside his bedroom they found a wooden box containing a digital scale with white residue, new baggies, a zip-close bag with a crystal substance, later determined to be three grams of meth.
They also found a glass pipe with burnt vegetation, another pipe with burnt residue, a second baggie with green vegetation that weighed about a gram and tested positive for marijuana, and a used bag with crystal residue, which is also believed to have been meth.
Stephenson is free on bond in both cases.
He has prior convictions in Rice County for aggravated indecent liberties with a child in 1999 and obstruction of the legal process in 2006.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A bill that would expand a new state tax-credit system that pays for scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools has passed a hurdle.
The Topeka Capital-Journa reports that a majority of the House Education Committee approved the expansion Monday. Next, it needs to pass a vote on the House floor.
Currently, the program allows certain businesses to donate money for private school scholarships. In return, they can deduct part of the donation value from their tax bills.
Proponents say it expands educational options. Opponents say it hurts state coffers and may be unconstitutional.
Under the expansion, families could earn more and still qualify. It also would allow more taxpayers to receive the credit and increases the amount that could be subtracted from tax bills.
Photo by Jim McLean/KHI News Service Amy Holdman, a 41-year-old mother of two from Overland Park, believes her frequent use of tanning beds as a teenager is the reason for three surgeries in the past year to remove cancerous skin from both arms. She will speak Tuesday to a legislative committee in support of a bill that would prohibit tanning salons from allowing people under 18 to use ultraviolet beds.
Amy Holdman has a cautionary tale for Kansas lawmakers. The 41-year-old mother of two from Overland Park is convinced that her frequent use of tanning beds as a teenager and young adult is the reason she’s had to endure three surgeries in the past year to remove chunks of cancerous skin from both arms.
Doctors had to dig deep to remove melanoma cancer cells from her right forearm in February 2015.
In the months that followed, she underwent dozens of painful biopsies and two more scarring surgeries. “I truly believe that I got melanoma later in life because of tanning bed use when I was younger,” Holdman said during a recent interview at her home.
As a high school and college student, Holdman said she didn’t know anything about the risks she was taking. “I was on the dance team, so we would wear the little outfits and you wanted to be tan and cute,” she said. “
And then in college, I was actually a nanny for a family that had a tanning bed in their house.
Being a college kid with no money, that sounded great at the time.” But if she could travel back in time knowing what she now knows, Holdman said she would give her “16-year-old self” a sobering warning. “
I’m a single mom with two daughters, and there is nothing more important to me than to be here for them,” she said. “To think that could be taken away from me because I was worried about a tan is sickening to me at the age of 41.”
Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer because it is more likely than basal cell and squamous cell cancers to spread to other parts of the body, according to the American Cancer Society.
Still, like most forms of skin cancer it is curable if detected early enough. “I hope I’m out of the woods,” Holdman said, noting that in addition to getting comprehensive skin examinations every three months doctors perform periodic lung and liver scans to ensure that she’s cancer free.
Photo by Jim McLean/KHI News Service Amy Holdman pointing to the site of one of the 40 skin cancer biopsies she’s undergone during the past year. Also visible is the scar on her forearm from the first of three surgeries to remove melanomas from both arms. –
“The fear is always in your head that something could come back later,” she said. Holdman is among those scheduled to testify Tuesday to the House Health and Human Services Committee in support of House Bill 2369, which would prohibit tanning salons from allowing people under 18 to use ultraviolet beds.
Businesses that violate the ban could be fined up to $250 per violation. Anticipating pushback from lawmakers opposed to placing restrictions on private businesses, Holdman is prepared to argue that the health hazards of tanning are similar to those posed by smoking. “It’s just like tobacco,” she said.
“People can’t smoke legally until they’re 18.” It’s a fair comparison, according to research cited in a fact sheet compiled by the cancer society’s lobbying arm, the Cancer Action Network.
It says that “the dangers of tanning devices are so serious” that the World Health Organization has labeled them “carcinogenic to humans” along with tobacco and asbestos.
A 2012 British study cited in the fact sheet found that using a tanning device before the age of 35 increased people’s risk of later developing melanoma by 59 percent.
Tanning bed use before age 25 increased the risk of squamous cell and basal cell carcinomas by 102 percent and 40 percent respectively, according to another 2012 study.
The tanning industry is pushing back by questioning both the research findings and the motives of the cancer society and other groups that it says are part of a “sun scare” campaign.
Salon owners from across the country banded together in 2012 to form the American Suntanning Association. At the time, founding ASA board member Diane Lucas, chief executive of Palm Beach Tan, a national salon chain, said: “There are many misconceptions about the risks associated with indoor tanning.
One of the primary roles of the ASA is to address and factually dispel these myths and educate the public about intelligent, practical sun care for tanners and non-tanners.”
The Kansas bill, which was introduced a year ago but is just now getting a hearing in committee, targets people under 18 because of the high rate of tanning bed use among teenage girls.
According to a 2013 survey done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 27 percent of 12th grade girls reported using tanning beds in the previous year, with many describing their use as frequent.
Kansas is one of seven states that places no restrictions on the use of tanning devices, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Thirteen states have laws that ban the use of ultraviolet tanning devices by people under 18, while others require parental approval or regulate the length of exposure time.
The hearing on the Kansas bill is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the Statehouse.
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
WICHITA, KAN. – An Arizona man was sentenced Monday to 5 years in federal prison for driving 12 pounds of methamphetamine from Arizona to Kansas.
According to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom Jose Francisco Beltran, 39, Tucson, Ariz., pleaded guilty to one count of interstate travel in furtherance of drug trafficking.
In his plea, he admitted that on Aug. 27, 2015, the Kansas Highway Patrol stopped him on Interstate 70 in Lincoln County, Kan.
Troopers discovered approximately 12 pounds of methamphetamine and a half pound of powder cocaine. He told investigators he picked up the drugs in Arizona and was delivering them to Wichita, Kan.
