TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Transportation is trying to reduce the number of engineers leaving the agency by moving some jobs to Lawrence.
Transportation officials said Wednesday the agency has moved 18 employees, including 16 engineers, from its Topeka office to leased space in the Bioscience and Technology Business Center on the University of Kansas campus.
Transportation secretary Mike King says the all of the employees already live in Lawrence. He says the agency has lost “a significant number” of engineers recently.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the staff transferred to Lawrence do design and management work on state road and bridge projects.
King says he hopes the move will also help the agency recruit engineering interns from the university.
First responders on the scene of an accident involving a semi on Wednesday. photo- Donetta Godsey/ Winfield Daily Courier
COWLEY COUNTY- A semi driver was injured in an accident just after 11a.m. on Wednesday in Cowley County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Volvo semi driven by Hugh J. Burger, 62, Yankton, SD, was northbound on U.S. 77 just north of 122 Road.
The driver failed to maintain a single lane of traffic. The semi crossed the highway and entered the west ditch. The oversized load broke free and struck the cab.
Burger was transported to Wesley Medical Center. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â The head of the Kansas Bioscience Authority says the state-established entity will rely more heavily on private-sector support after significant state funding cuts.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Kevin Lockett recently took over as president and CEO. He says the agency doesn’t intend to fully separate from the state, although it’s working to transfer as much of its original mission as it can to the private sector.
His comments come less than a week after the group issued a statement that said KBA’s board of directors had voted “to shift the organization’s mission to the private market in 2016.”
KBA was established by the Legislature in 2004 to make investments and loans to startup bioscience companies and to make grants to state universities to conduct bioscience research.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas education official says using a private vendor for state tests would boost costs.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the issue came up after an interim legislative panel released a draft of its public school recommendations. Among those was a recommendation that the state seek a test provider without ties to federal or state government and that it pay for all students to take the ACT.
For more than 30 years, the University of Kansas’ Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation has written and administered the state’s tests in math, reading and other subjects. The Kansas State Department of Education says Kansas has the second-cheapest state tests in the nation.
Deputy education commissioner Brad Neuenswander says changing to a different vendor would cost “much more.”
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has set a May trial date for an abortion opponent accused of sending a letter to a Wichita doctor saying someone might place an explosive under her car.
An order filed Wednesday scheduled a three-day trial for anti-abortion activist Angel Dillard beginning May 3 In federal court in Wichita.
The Justice Department sued Dillard in 2011 for sending the letter to Dr. Mila Means, who had been training to offer abortions. At the time, no doctor was performing abortions in Wichita in the wake of Dr. George Tiller’s murder.
An appeals court ruled in July that the decision about whether Dillard’s letter constituted a “true threat” should be left to jurors.
It noted Wichita’s history of violence against abortion providers and her publicized friendship with Tiller’s killer.
TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man pleaded guilty Monday to a federal gun charge, according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
Dallas L. Schnegelsiepen, Jr., 42, Topeka, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction.
In his plea, Schnegelsiepen admitted that in 2008 he was convicted in Shawnee County District Court on a felony charge of attempted aggravated battery, which is a felony. As a result of the conviction, he was prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm. On Sept. 11, 2015, police detectives who were investigating a shooting went to the house of Schnegelsiepen’s girlfriend to speak to her. While there, they arrested Schnegelsiepen, who was carrying a .25 caliber pistol in his waistband.
Sentencing is set for April 11. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. Grissom commended the Topeka Police Department and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rich Hathaway for their work on the case.
As Kansas lawmakers looked on, Tom Bell of the Kansas Hospital Association made a point Tuesday at a forum on Medicaid expansion held at Johnson County Community College. MIKE SHERRY / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
By MIKE SHERRY
If policy makers in deep-red Indiana can do it, so can their equally conservative counterparts in Kansas.
That was the dominant – though not unanimously held – message at a forum Tuesday at Johnson County Community College, where the topic was expanding the Kansas Medicaid program to cover as many as 150,000 additional Kansans.
Doug Leonard, president of the Indiana Hospital Association, told an audience of more than 300 people at the forum that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is every bit as conservative as Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, was satisfied that Medicaid expansion in Indiana was fiscally sound in the short- and long-term.
“He was not going to throw the state under the bus,” Leonard said.
The expanded Indiana program, which took effect nearly a year ago, has added more than 220,000 residents to the Medicaid rolls. Nearly 1,000 new health care providers have joined the program.
Kansas, by contrast, is one of 20 states that have refused to expand Medicaid, which in Kansas goes by the name KanCare.
A February analysis by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation called the Indiana plan the most complex waiver of the four the federal government had approved up until that time. The analysis cited the state’s four different Medicaid packages and varied treatment of beneficiaries based on variables such as income, medical frailty and maintenance of premium payments.
The government has allowed states to experiment with new approaches to Medicaid through expansion. One general idea in these “waivers” is to have recipients pay premiums and co-pays.
That’s the case in Indiana. Leonard said that Medicaid beneficiaries in Indiana are required to have some “skin in the game” and must make modest contributions of their own to health savings accounts to qualify for enhanced benefits. Enrollees who fail to pay their share of monthly premiums face added co-pays and other fees.
Another key component of the Indiana plan, Leonard said, is that it pays health care providers at Medicare rates, which are higher than Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government pays 100 percent of the costs of Medicaid expansion through 2016 in states that raise eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $16,242 annually for an individual.
The federal share gradually phases down to 90 percent in 2020 and remains at that level afterward.
The forum included three state senators –Jeff King, a Republican from Independence; Jim Denning, a Republican from Overland Park; and Laura Kelly, a Democrat from Topeka – and two state representatives – Jerry Henry, a Democrat from Atchison and Mark Hutton, a Republican from Wichita.
It was unclear after the three-hour-long session if the Kansas Legislature will even hold committee hearings on Medicaid expansion in the session that begins next week – let alone find enough common ground to pass a measure this year.
Denning, for one, expressed serious misgivings about expanding KanCare, insisting Indiana would be unable to control the costs of its expanded program, especially given the higher reimbursements it’s paying to providers.
“They have no idea what is fixing to happen to them,” he said.
He cited a recent analysis of the Indiana plan posted on the website of Forbes magazine. Leonard, however, derided the analysis, saying it consisted of “wild claims” posted on a blog that had been thoroughly debunked by Indiana state officials.
“Sen. Denning must have access to some books in Indiana that we don’t have access to,” he said. “The governor’s office, the Senate and the House all looked at this, and it’s the state that came to us with the idea of the plan and the funding mechanism, so they have a lot more confidence in it than Sen. Denning has.”
Funding for Indiana’s expanded program comes from the state cigarette tax and an assessment on providers.
Dave Kerr, a former Republican state senator from Hutchinson who served as president of the Kansas Senate, told the forum audience that Kansas needed “to get serious and design a plan for Kansas with Kansas principles.”
He said that any Kansas solution should require beneficiaries to pay something for their care and contain an employment component.
King, whose hometown hospital, Mercy Hospital, closed last year, said the closure might have happened even if KanCare had been expanded and provided it with additional Medicaid reimbursements. But expansion, he said, might have provided other options.
“Saying no to everything is not the answer,” King said.
Even if expansion does come up for debate, King said he doesn’t expect it to pass this session. He predicted it could take as long as two years for that to happen.
Mike Sherry is a reporter for KCPT television in Kansas City, Mo., a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating an attempted theft from a business in Salina on Tuesday.
A man and woman loaded up a shopping cart with a variety of items at Menards, 805 Viriginia Court, just before 7:30 p.m., according to Salina Police Captain Chris Trocheck
They exited the store through the garden center and threw merchandise including tools, bath towels, faucets and a security camera over a nearby fence.
After being confronted, they drove away in a gold colored van.
The only description given to police was that of a Hispanic or light skinned black male and a thin woman.
The items they tried to steal were valued at $3,000.
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — Fresh life has been giving to a lawsuit claiming that the state child protection agency bears liability in the death of a south-central Kansas toddler.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas Court of Appeals has reversed a lower-court judge’s decision to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit. It was filed by Jayla Haag’s father against the Kansas Department for Children and Families.
The father contends that the child protection agency knew of risks to the 18-month-old girl and could have prevented her 2012 death at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend Justin Edwards.
The girls’ injuries included a broken jaw, and she had lived in what’s been described as a meth house.
Assistant Attorney General Steve Fabert argued previously that DCF, as a governmental agency, has immunity in such a lawsuit.
NEW YORK (AP) — Chipotle says it has been served with a federal grand jury subpoena as part of a criminal investigation tied to a norovirus outbreak this summer at one of its restaurants in California.
The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.
Chipotle Mexican Grill says the subpoena requires it to produce a “broad range” of documents.
“Nothing is more important to me than serving my guests food that is safe” -Chipotle founder Steve Ells https://t.co/JmP72mL631
The Denver company has been reeling since an E. coli outbreak linked to its restaurants, which was followed up by a separate norovirus outbreak in Boston. Chipotle says it expects sales for the fourth quarter to be down 14.6 percent.
HUTCHINSON -The man arrested after a domestic incident and nearly six-hour standoff with Hutchinson Police on Christmas Eve was back in court Tuesday for the formal reading of charges.
Charles Mendenhall III, 34, is charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal discharge of a firearm and criminal threat and two counts of aggravated endangerment of a child, including a 15-year-old and a 9-year-old.
Mendenhall was taken into custody without incident after the standoff. The alleged woman victim inside the residence at 707 Pierce was released unharmed.
The children were in the home when it started around 6:30 that morning, but they apparently left the home and the 15-year-old daughter reported what was going on to police.
She told police that she was awakened by the sound of dishes breaking and then saw the defendant pointing a gun to her mother’s head and, at some point, threatened to blow her mother’s brains out.
In court, Mendenhall was told to have no contact with the victims, but the main victim was in the courtroom and asked that the order not be put in place.
Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen denied the request, saying it would be in place, at least for now.
Mendenhall is free on bond and his case will now move to a waiver-status docket on January 27.
GARDEN CITY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating a suspect in connection with an April robbery of a liquor store in Garden City, according to a media release from police.
During the course of the investigation physical evidence was submitted to the Kansas Bureau of Investigations for forensic testing.
As a result of the testing a suspect was identified as Lance Tyler, 40, Billings, Mont.
Further investigation revealed that Tyler was wanted in West Virginia for an armed robbery that occurred two days prior to the Garden City robbery.
Following the issuance of a warrant from the Finney County District Court the Garden City Police Department worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States
Marshals Service Violent Offender Task Force to locate the suspect.
Tyler was arrested in Billings by the Task Force, where he was found to be in possession of a firearm.
On January 5, 2016 Tyler was extradited to the Finney County jail on suspicion of aggravated robbery.
Just after 11 a.m. on April 1, the Garden City Police Department was dispatched to Chappel Liquor, 1715 E. Business 50, for a reported robbery. The investigation revealed that a black male in his mid- to late 30s entered the business armed with a firearm and took and undisclosed amount of money from the business. He then fled the area northeast on foot.
Schools in the area were notified of the incident. No employees were injured during the robbery.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ top prosecutor wants to know why the state’s concealed carry firearm licenses aren’t being honored in Virginia.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt requested an explanation Tuesday of Virginia’s legal reasoning.
Last month, Virginia announced it was dropped reciprocity agreements with 25 states, including Kansas. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, said the concealed weapons laws in the dropped states don’t meet Virginia’s standards.
Schmidt said in a news release that Virginia’s decision was a “surprise and a tremendous disappointment to many law-abiding Kansans who hold concealed carry licenses.”
Schmidt says Virginia first recognized Kansas licenses in February 2014 after six years of periodic discussions between the two states. He says he is unaware of any changes in Virginia law since then that would have explained the reconsideration.
