DETROIT (AP) — General Motors has another ignition switch problem that can make engines stall, but this one was discovered quickly and no one has been hurt.
The automaker is recalling about 3,300 pickup trucks and SUVs, mainly in North America. Ignitions can get stuck in the “start” position and slip into “accessory” if jostled. That causes engines to stall and disables power steering and possibly air bags.
The problem is similar to one revealed last year in 2.6 million older GM small cars that cost the company billions and killed at least 169 people. GM has admitted that it knew of the trouble but didn’t recall the cars for a decade.
The new recall covers 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty pickups, 2015 heavy-duty pickups, and 2015 Suburban and Tahoe SUVs.
MANHATTAN -A Kansas State University alumnus and one of the longest-serving presidential press secretaries in history is receiving an honorary doctorate from Kansas State University, according to a media release from the school.
Marlin Fitzwater, who served as assistant to the president and press secretary for Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989 and for George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, will be honored at K-State’s Graduate School commencement at 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11, in Bramlage Coliseum. He will also serve as the commencement speaker for the ceremony.
The awarding of the honorary doctorate follows the approval by the Kansas Board of Regents. it is one of the highest honors the university can give. Fitzwater will be awarded the honorary doctorate and also will receive a medal at the commencement ceremony.
“Marlin Fitzwater is a political figure that I and millions of other Americans remember well throughout some of our nation’s biggest historical moments,” said Kirk Schulz, Kansas State University president. “We want to honor his distinguished career in both Kansas media and national media as well as his ties to Kansas State University, wherein he returned as a speaker for the Landon Lecture series in 1996. It is through the leadership of such distinguished alumni that will help Kansas State University be recognized as a Top 50 public research university by 2025.
Fitzwater grew up on a small farm near Abilene. In 1965, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Kansas State University. In 1965, Fitzwater was named the Outstanding Male Journalism graduate.
Fitzwater is the only press secretary in history to be appointed by two U.S. presidents.
In 1992, Fitzwater received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second highest civilian achievement award.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The city of Oakland, California, sent a letter warning a church that it could be fined after a neighbor complained that choir practice was causing unbearable night-time noise.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church has served residents in West Oakland for 65 years. Pastor Thomas A. Harris III says he was surprised to learn he could face an initial fine of $3,529, followed by $500-per-day penalties, for the “joyful noise” of choir practice.
Harris says rehearsal ends at 9 p.m., but the complaint sent to the city says the loud music sometimes lasts until 2 a.m.
City spokeswoman Karen Boyd says the letter was a courtesy notice and that she hasn’t received any more complaints. She says she doesn’t intend to fine the church.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sen. Jerry Moran’s campaign has re-filed a campaign finance report after a Kansas woman found more than 200 pages missing from a federal website.
The Wichita Eagle reports Moran’s campaign found out Thursday that more than 200 pages of its July quarterly fundraising report was missing from the Federal Election Commission’s website.
The campaign re-filed the FEC report Thursday and released the missing pages to the newspaper.
Debbie Nuss, former Manhattan chapter president of the Kansas League of Women Voters, complained to the FEC, saying Moran, a Republican, didn’t disclose an itemized report of campaign expenditures.
Moran’s campaign says it’s still unclear why the pages were missing from the FEC website.
Among other things, the pages show Moran has received $3,000 from defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s political action committee.
GARDEN PLAIN, Kan. (AP) — A 62-year-old woman has died after she was struck by a vehicle in Sedgwick County.
The Wichita Eagle reports the woman was walking along a rural Sedgwick County road early Friday when she was hit. The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office says the accident happened at a gravel intersection between Garden Plain and Cheney.
The victim’s name was not released. The sheriff’s office says the driver stayed on the scene and has been cooperative.
Investigators are looking into where the victim was walking on the road at the time of the accident.
SALINA- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County say a missing Salina man has contacted the Sheriff’s Office.
Captain Roger Soldan said Jerry Huston, 51, called the Sheriff’s Office Friday morning to say he was in McPherson and was okay.
Huston did not offer any explanation as to why he did not contact his employer or family after he was reported missing, according to Soldan.
Huston a truck driver, contacted his employer early Monday afternoon to say he was in McPherson and had to take care of personal business. When he had not been heard from later, McPherson Police were contacted.
They found his semi on Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of the McPherson Hospital.
WICHITA- Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a case of aggravated battery and have made an arrest in an apparent random attack on a woman.
Police in Wichita reported in a media release, that on October 6, a woman was walking in the 600 block of East Douglas just after 3p.m. when a man on a bicycle yelled an obscenity at her.
He then approached her and hit her on the left side of her head with an unknown object. She sustained serious head injuries and underwent surgery at a local hospital.
The suspect, a black male, was wearing a black bicycle helmet, sunglasses, black gloves, a long sleeve blue shirt and long blue pants
He was also wearing a backpack with a distinct reflective design on the back. A video from a local business captured the suspect immediately following the incident.
The video was posted online and after a tip to CrimeStoppers the suspect is in custody, according to police.
Name of the victim and the suspect have not been released.
A spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services says the agency will need an additional $6.5 million to comply with a recent ruling that requires employers to pay in-home workers minimum wage and overtime.
Photo by KHI News Service Kari Bruffett, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, warned lawmakers last year that the pay change for home health workers could reduce or eliminate sleep-cycle support for 1,400 Kansans.
The department has asked Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget office to build the additional funding into its budget for the current fiscal year, according to Angela de Rocha, KDADS director of communications. However, tax revenues are more than $60 million below projections so far this fiscal year, creating a bleak budget situation in Kansas.
Last week Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court denied an application to stay that U.S. Department of Labor ruling, which is expected to have the biggest effect on the state’s Medicaid-funded services — called sleep cycle supports — that involve paying workers to be present while frail elders or people with serious disabilities sleep.
These workers help beneficiaries with toileting, taking medication, being repositioned to prevent bedsores or getting out of bed in the morning. The services are designed to help people continue living in community-based settings and avoid having to move to nursing homes, which are more expensive.
For years, sleep-support workers in Kansas have been paid about $35 per evening, which per hour is less than minimum wage. After the ruling takes effect Nov. 12, most of these workers will need to be paid between $45 and $60 per evening. De Rocha said KDADS and the managed care organizations (MCOs) that administer KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program, will “continue to work with consumers to ensure adequate support is maintained.”
Some services, she said, may have to be realigned in ways that have not yet been defined. Last year, KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett called lawmakers’ attention to the Department of Labor ruling’s potential to reduce or eliminate sleep-cycle support for 1,400 people and force “more consumers … into institutions.”
The ruling also requires employers to pay attendant care workers for some of the time they spend driving between their care recipients’ homes.
“But the biggest concern centers around sleep cycle support,” said Mike Oxford, executive director of the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, a nonprofit program that helps arrange in-home services for people with physical disabilities. “What the ruling says, essentially, is that the services really can’t be paid for on a daily-rate basis like they are now,” Oxford said.
“It has to be by the hour, and it has to be minimum wage.” Oxford said he welcomed news of the KDADS request to Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration for the additional $6.5 million. “There hasn’t been a lot information that’s been shared with the public on this, so it’s great to hear,” he said. “Our hope now is that KDADS, the MCOs and the service providers can all work together on this.”
Though the ruling takes effect in mid-November, federal officials won’t begin enforcing the new requirements until 2016.
“What that means is that between Nov. 12 and Dec. 31, the Department of Labor will have ‘prosecutorial discretion’ as long as employers are making a good faith effort to come into compliance,” said Deane Beebe, a spokesperson for the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a national organization that represents home health aides and personal care attendants and has been outspoken in its support for the ruling.
“But on Jan. 1, that discretion gets replaced with enforcement,” she said. “Workers who feel like they’ve not been paid minimum wage can file complaints with the Department of Labor in their state.
They will have legal standing.” Beebe said her organization is encouraging states to resist cutting services in an effort to offset the ruling’s costs. “The solution to this is not to cut services,” she said. “If they do, they’ll be out of compliance with the Olmstead ruling and with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that will be a real problem.”
The Olmstead ruling refers to a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said people with disabilities have a right to services that allow them to live in community-based settings rather than institution-based settings.
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Sedgwick County judge has ruled that a Wichita man will stand trial in the death of a 27-year-old woman.
Marvin Lee Gray Jr. is charged in the death of Ciera Ray, whose body was found in her home June 25. Ray’s 3-year-old daughter was found unharmed inside the home. The Wichita Eagle reports an autopsy report documented 37 stab wounds on Ray’s body.
After hearing nearly three hours of testimony during Gray’s preliminary hearing Thursday, Sedgwick County District Court Judge Jeffrey Goering ruled there was enough evidence to try Gray on charges of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated burglary, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.
Gray pleaded not guilty to the charges after Goering’s ruling.
BOSTON (AP) — An 80-year-old man has pleaded guilty to running a massive marijuana-dealing and money-laundering operation.
The Boston Globe reports Marshall Dion is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11 after pleading guilty Thursday under an agreement with prosecutors. He faces up to seven years in prison.
Police pulled Dion over for speeding in Junction City, Kansas, in 2013 and searched his pickup truck, finding nearly $850,000. Investigators later found $2 million in a bank account, $880,000 in an Arizona building and nearly 400 pounds of marijuana and $11 million at a storage facility in North Reading, Massachusetts.
Prosecutors said Dion sold about 6,600 to 22,000 pounds of marijuana dating back to 1992.
Dion maintains police searched his truck unconstitutionally and is appealing. His lawyer says he is embracing his responsibility.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old man accused of threatening to storm the Sedgwick County Courthouse and kill law enforcement officers has pleaded guilty.
Samuel McCrory pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of criminal threat and three counts of criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon as part of a plea agreement. He was also ordered to surrender his guns and to enter an anger management program.
Prosecutors say McCrory posted the threats on July 30 on Facebook in reference to the trial of Kyler Carriker.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man was shot to death in a moving vehicle in Wichita.
According to Lt. James Espinoza, the victim and two suspects were passengers in a car being driven by a woman Thursday afternoon. Espinoza said police believe the victim was sitting in the front seat and the suspects were sitting in the back when the suspects shot the victim. The victim, whose identity has not been released, was taken to Wesley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The suspects fled the scene, and were considered armed and extremely dangerous. They have since been apprehended by police.
The woman driving the vehicle was not injured and is being interviewed by police.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors has another ignition switch problem that can make engines stall, but this one was discovered quickly and no one has been hurt.
