BATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A 92-year-old man from Kansas has been killed in a two-car crash while traveling west on I-40 in St. Francis County.

Arkansas State Police say that Jack Carey of Hutchinson, Kansas, attempted to enter the left lane in front of a second vehicle around 8 a.m. Wednesday. A 2009 Toyota Corolla struck Carey’s vehicle, a 2009 Volvo.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports travel conditions were clear and dry at the time of the crash.

Preliminary figures indicate the fatal crash was the 442nd such accident in Arkansas so far this year.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 43-year-old Lawrence woman has been charged with felony mistreatment of a dependent adult after allegedly stealing money from a woman for whom she had durable power of attorney.

An affidavit accuses Jennifer Ann York of cashing Billie Jean Shewbart’s Certificate of Deposit for nearly $27,000 and spending most of the money on personal expenses instead of on Shewbart’s retirement home as directed.

The affidavit describes Shewbart as a “senior” but doesn’t provide an age. An obituary from an Enid, Oklahoma, newspaper lists the death of 71-year-old Billie Jean Shewbart of Lawrence on Sept. 9.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports  that York is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 18. York is currently free on a $10,000 own-recognizance bond but could spend up to 11 years in prison if convicted.

TOPEKA, Kan.— The fourth annual Governor’s Council on Fitness’ Kansas Obesity Summit is scheduled for November 17 at Courtyard by Marriott in Junction City. Registration is open at www.getactivekansas.org – registration is free but required to attend.

The conference is sponsored by the Governor’s Council on Fitness, and supported by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and Kansas Alliance for Wellness.

The keynote speaker will be Terry O’Toole, PhD, MDiv, FASHA, who serves as Senior Advisor with the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. O’Toole provides expertise and technical assistance to state and community-based programs, national partners and health organizations focused on promoting healthy eating, physical activity and obesity prevention.

The 2015 Kansas Health Champion Awards will be presented at the summit during a lunchtime ceremony. The Health Champion Award was developed by the Governor’s Council on Fitness to recognize and promote exemplary contributions to fitness in Kansas. Eligible nominees included individuals and organizations such as volunteers, schools, communities, employers, media organizations and policy makers who go above and beyond what is expected through normal job or organizational responsibilities related to modeling, encouraging and promoting fitness.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence could face up to $6 million in costs to deal with the anticipated infestation of emerald ash borers.

Mark Hecker, assistant parks and recreation director, told department’s advisory board Tuesday that treatment, removal and disposal of the affected trees is estimated to cost as much as $6 million.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Hecker also urges the city to establish a plan to combat the infestation. He says emerald ash borers can devastate an entire population of ash trees, and have been confirmed north of Lawrence.

Hecker says a recent count shows about 3,000 ash trees in Lawrence parks and right-of-ways. He says keeping the trees alive will take continual treatment that could cost about $150 for every tree each year.

LANCASTER – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 3p.m. on Wednesday in Atchison County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Freightliner semi driven by Michael Stephens, 55, DeSoto, was southbound on U.S. 73 near Lancaster.

High wind gusts rolled the semi onto the driver’s side.

Stephens was transported to the Atchison Hospital. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)  launched an online petition to give the American people an opportunity to express their opposition to President Obama’s intention to use executive action to close Guantanamo Bay and transfer terrorists detained there to the United States.

Roberts has said the President is ignoring the security concerns of the American people and laws passed by Congress. Roberts will share the online petition with the White House. He wants to ensure the frustrations of those who believe relocating terrorists to the mainland is a threat to national security are heard.

“Relocating terrorists to the mainland will paint a target on the American communities forced to house these detainees,” Roberts said. “Homegrown terrorists, associates of the detainees and those wishing to attack a high-value and symbolic target will now have an opportunity right in our backyard.

“The White House has said closing Guantanamo will remove a major recruitment tool for our adversaries. I couldn’t disagree more. Moving them to the mainland simply provides them with a more valuable and significant target on American soil.

“The president has proven he will act in the absence of congressional action to fulfill his campaign promises, but the Congress has decisively acted again and again to explicitly block the transfer of terrorists to the mainland.

“Earlier today, the Senate approved the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Bill which explicitly prohibits President Obama from transferring detainees to the mainland with a vote of 91-3. The legislation now goes to the President where he is expected to sign it into law, yet he still will not rule out ignoring this law and using an executive order to close GITMO.

“I have started an online petition to show the president that he cannot ignore the Congress, and he cannot ignore the American people, especially Kansans, who have very real fears about this security risk being forced into their communities.”

Those interested in stopping President Obama from closing Guantanamo Bay by Executive Order and bringing terrorists to Kansas or anywhere else in the United States may sign the petition here.

Roberts has been an outspoken opponent against closing the United States’ current detainment facilities due to the high security risks and economic costs.  Roberts has actively fought the Obama Administration’s efforts to transfer Guantanamo detainees to the mainland, particularly to Ft. Leavenworth. Roberts placed a hold on the administration’s nominee for Secretary of the Army in September. In 2009, he fought the administration, including placing legislative holds on nominees, which successfully prevented its plan to consider housing detainees at Ft. Leavenworth.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is urging the nation to keep veterans in their thoughts long after Veterans Day and ensure that they receive the care and benefits they’ve earned.

During a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, the president is noting some of the problems that veterans have faced in receiving health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. He says improvements are occurring, but he is not satisfied.

Obama said the Department of Veterans Affairs is getting a bigger budget. He said it’s also making progress on problems such as veteran homelessness and a backlog of disability claims.

The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and led remarks at an annual observance intended to honor and thank all who have served in the armed forces.

Earlier in the day, the president had a breakfast reception with veterans and their families in the East Room of the White House.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A report from the Kansas Association of School Boards shows that the state’s performance on national tests rose and fell with funding.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the board says student performance on national math and reading tests improved between 2003 and 2007 before leveling off until 2011, when it began to fall.

The board’s analysis, which was presented to lawmakers by association advocacy director and lobbyist Mark Tallman during a meeting, says the performance trend follows funding patterns. The report says auditors were more than 99 percent confident a relationship exists between spending and performance outcomes.

Kansas State Department of Education deputy commissioner Brad Neuenswander expressed concern over the direction of Kansas test scores, and said that the state is seeing the performance gap widening again between students who can pay for lunch and students who cannot.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office has registered two prospective northeast Kansas voters and is asking a judge to dismiss their federal lawsuit against the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirement.

The Wichita Eagle reported that an attorney for Kobach’s office asked Tuesday to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the two young men no longer have grounds to sue.

The men did not comply with a 2013 law requiring new voters to document their U.S. citizenship when registering. But Kobach said his office regularly checks records from other state agencies for proof of citizenship.

Attorneys for the two men say Kobach’s office acted simply to prevent court scrutiny of the law.

Kobach’s office also registered two other men who filed a separate state-court lawsuit, and the judge refused to dismiss it.

Written by Jennifer Tidball on ksu.edu.

MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University researcher is creating a better biological picture of river systems across North America and Asia.

Walter Dodds, university distinguished professor of biology, is part of a collaborative five-year, $4.2 million National Science Foundation project to better understand how climate change affects river systems. The research team — which includes more than 11 researchers from more than nine institutions — wants to study how changes in precipitation and temperature as well as human activities influence river systems in the U.S. and Mongolia.

For his portion of the project, Dodds will gather large-scale biological information on rivers. He will measure the metabolism of nine rivers across the U.S. Great Plains, Great Basin and Mountain Steppes — including the Platte, Niobrara, Humboldt, Bear and Snake rivers — as well as nine similar rivers in Mongolia. River metabolism includes oxygen production and consumption from bacteria, algae, plants and animals in the rivers.

“We really don’t know a lot about how rivers function and their biological communities,” Dodds said. “What is feeding these rivers? Is it leaves falling or is it algae growing and feeding insects and fish? We hope to find out by gathering these measurements.”

While Dodds is measuring the river metabolism, other researchers will study food webs, biodiversity traits of fish and invertebrates, and physical and biological characteristics of the riparian zone and basin.

The measurements will provide comparisons between U.S. and Mongolian rivers, Dodds said. Mongolian rivers are relatively pristine with few dams and little agriculture around them. By comparison, North American rivers have been affected by non-native fauna, dams and other human activities.

The large-scale measurements also will provide valuable information about different river ecosystems, including mountains, drylands, grasslands and forests.

“A lot of research has been performed on forest systems, but not so much on grassland and dryland streams and rivers,” Dodds said. “We’re going to look at a global sense of these grassland and dryland rivers and see if they are functionally different than the ones in forest and temperate areas.”

To gather data, Dodds will use two new forms of equipment. One type uses sound waves to measure river depth and water flow speed. The equipment can map the bottoms of rivers and measure how much water is present and how fast it is moving. The second equipment type involves oxygen electrodes that can measure oxygen dissolved in water and how it changes throughout the day.

“There are only a moderate number of these measurements in many rivers around the world,” Dodds said. “It is only recently that technological advances have made it possible and now we can gain useful information on the biological activity of rivers.”

James Thorp, University of Kansas professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey, is leading the National Science Foundation project. Co-principal investigators include Mark Pyron, Ball State University; Jon Gelhaus and Alain Maasri, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University; Bazartseren Boldgiv, National University of Mongolia; Olaf Jensen, Rutgers University; Scott Kenner, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Dan Reuman, University of Kansas; Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada Reno; and Barbara Hayford, Wayne State College.

Kansas State University’s Division of Biology is in the College of Arts & Sciences.

SEATTLE (AP) — The New York attorney general’s decision that daily fantasy sports betting sites FanDuel and DraftKings are illegal gambling operations is a blow to the companies, but the industry could have more legal headaches yet to come.

The sites have been doing business in a number of states where they’re legally dubious. Several states in which the companies are operating have laws similar to New York, while a few have even stricter prohibitions.

That could pose more risk than the companies or their backers have let on. Federal law criminalizes gambling businesses that operate in violation of state law, with penalties that can include prison time and fines.

Florida sports and gaming attorney Daniel Wallach says that by his count the sites are on shaky legal ground in about a dozen states.

By Dan Margolies

About two dozen community hospitals in Kansas and Nebraska have signed up to use Cerner Corp.’s electronic health technology.

The hospitals are members of the Great Plains Health Alliance, which provides management services to critical access hospitals in both states.

Critical access hospitals focus on outpatient care and are limited to no more than 25 inpatient beds. Under federal Medicare guidelines, they are required to be at least 35 miles distant from any other hospital.

“For the small community hospitals in Kansas and Nebraska that are medically underserved and financially unstable at times, I think it really gives them a good stepping stone to be financially viable for the long-term future,” says Aaron Miller, a spokesman for Great Plains, referring to the agreement with Cerner.

Many of these hospitals, faced with Medicare reimbursement cuts, reduced payments for the uninsured and both states’ refusal to expand Medicaid, are struggling. The National Rural Health Association, which is based in Leawood, Kansas, says 57 rural hospitals have closed in the last five years.

“We’ve identified about 283 facilities nationwide that are rural hospitals, out of about 2,000, that are at what we call high risk for closure,” says Brock Slabach, senior vice president of the association.

While not a panacea, Slabach says the ability of such hospitals to adopt sophisticated electronic medical record systems is “terribly important to any strategic plan to be able to navigate the changes that have come and will be coming down the road in terms of where our health system is going.”

“Data, and the ability to manage data, through health information technology is incredibly important to that process in the long term,” he says.

Cerner began focusing on rural hospitals about six years ago with the establishment of a self-contained organization within the Kansas City-based health technology giant called Cerner CommunityWorks.

Mitchell Clark, president of Cerner CommunityWorks, says about 125 rural facilities in 34 states are now using Cerner technology. Many of them, he says, had been using paper records.

Now they have “the same cutting-edge technology that would be available to a very large provider such as Via Christi (in Wichita) or Saint Luke’s in Kansas City,” he says.

The agreement with Great Plains gives Cerner a foothold in more than half the critical access hospital locations in Kansas, Clark says.

“Rural health is a very, very critical part of the health care spectrum across the country and we’re excited about being able to be a part of that and grow that, especially here in our backyard,” he says.

Clark did not say how much the contract with Great Plains is worth, but health information technology is expensive and takes time to adopt and learn. Slabach says the economies of scale achieved through group purchasing will also make it easier for the hospitals to implement the technology.

“If you can have learning collaborations that are basically set up locally that can be used to leverage best practices among facilities, then you can spread that information more quickly and hopefully get better utilization of these technologies,” Slabach says.

“In the short term, obviously facilities have to be able to afford these systems, and they’re expensive and they’re very time-intensive in terms of set-up and training and being able to use it,” he says. “So therein is the complication. Rural hospitals have to do it, but making it happen is a challenge, no doubt.”

Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

SEWARD COUNTY – A teen driver died in an accident just after 6p.m. on Tuesday in Seward County.

On Wednesday, the Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Honda Civic driven by Moses Jerimiah Arevalo, 19, El Paso, TX., was eastbound on U.S. 54 eleven miles east of Liberal.

The vehicle crossed the centerline and collided with a semi.

After impact both vehicles came to rest in the westbound ditch.

Arevalo was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Miller Mortuary.

The semi driver from Illinois was not injured.
Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.