TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback says work on a new formula for funding Kansas’ public schools should focus on how local districts spend their money, create incentives to shift dollars into classroom instruction and encourage merit pay for teachers.
The Republican governor said during an Associated Press interview that he’d like the GOP-dominated Legislature to draft a new formula next year. It would determine how the state distributes the bulk of its aid the 286 districts, now more than $4 billion.
He said a key issue is making sure that a greater percentage of dollars go to classroom instruction, rather than administrative overhead. And he said a new formula should encourage districts to use merit pay systems to reward their best teachers.
But educators and others say the state’s spending isn’t adequate.
Participants in the The Wichita 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb -courtesy photo
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Firefighters put on their gear and climbed the stairs of a downtown Wichita skyscraper to honor fallen fire crews from 9/11.
The Wichita 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb was among many across the nation. It was Wichita’s first one.
The Wichita Eagle reports that 200 firefighters from 45 departments mostly in Kansas — but representing at least one from Missouri — made the ascent Saturday at the Epic Center.
Teams of six or so firefighters headed up the stairs at five-minute intervals. They climbed 20 floors five times, riding down the elevator in between before making a final 10-floor ascent.
The World Trade Center had 110 floors.
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks killed 343 firefighters. Crews in Wichita wore badges bearing the fallen New York firefighters’ names and photos.
GREAT BEND – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Friday night shooting that killed a man in Great Bend.
Great Bend Police Department officers responded to the 2500 block of Williams Friday night after a report of a shooting.
Upon arrival, officers discovered the man who had been shot.
Efforts to revive him were not successful.
The initial investigation show that the shooting was the result of an argument between two people. A suspect has been taken into custody as the investigation continues.
The name of the victim and the suspect were not released.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Barton County Sheriff’s Office are assisting with the investigation.
SALINA–Items forfeited by the courts to the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) will be sold in a consignment auction Saturday, Sept. 19 by Wilson Realty and Auction Service of Salina. The auction will take place at 601 South Broadway, Salina, beginning at 10 a.m.
KDWPT regularly sells items forfeited in poaching cases or agency equipment no longer in use through public auctions.
Items to be sold on September 19 include 46 guns, more than 300 mounted deer heads and antlers, boats, jet skis, deer stands, decoys, as well as other equipment from non-department sellers. A sale bill can be downloaded at www.soldbywilson.com.
KDWPT’s proceeds will be deposited into the department’s WildTrust fund and allocated to assist with special hunts for veterans and youth and hunter education.
HUTCHINSON – A Kansas man convicted after he led officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle wanted to withdraw his plea in the case, but that was denied Friday by Judge Tim Chambers.
Benjamin McKinney, 22, Hutchinson was then sentenced to a total of two years and five months in prison.
Charges included aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, felony flee and elude, theft and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
In June of 2014, a stolen vehicle reported to Hutchinson Police.
The vehicle was spotted in Haven and that led to a sheriff’s deputy attempting to make a traffic stop on Kansas 96.
McKinney, driving the vehicle, refused to stop and that prompted a chase that went across the eastern part of Reno County briefly into Harvey County and ended near Trail West and Worthington Roads after McKinney drove into a ditch.
The keys were apparently left in the vehicle and there was also a credit card inside that was allegedly used in Wichita, leading to the charge of criminal use of a financial card.
At the time of his arrest, McKinney was on probation for another flee and elude case from 2013.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airlines are posting better results for on-time performance and fewer cancelations but consumer complaints are still rising.
The Department of Transportation said Thursday that 78.1 percent of flights on the leading airlines arrived on time in July. That’s up from 74.8 percent the previous month and 75.6 percent in July 2014.
Cancelations are down to 0.9 percent, about half the rate for June and for July 2014. The government says it’s the lowest July cancellation rate in 21 years of comparable records.
Consumers filed more than 2,000 airline-related complaints with the government, a 5 percent increase over the previous month and 31 percent higher than a year ago.
The federal health reform law known as the Affordable Care Act prevents insurers from considering pre-existing health conditions when setting premiums for consumers. But they are able to consider age, location and tobacco use.
And that means some Kansans who smoke are charged higher insurance rates, which may discourage low-income smokers from getting health coverage, according to a new issue brief from the Kansas Health Institute.
“The surcharge was meant to more fairly distribute tobacco-related health care costs to the tobacco users themselves, rather than to all enrollees in health insurance plans,” said Linda Sheppard, KHI strategy team leader and senior analyst. The ACA allows states to set a surcharge for tobacco users of up to 50 percent of health insurance premiums.
For 2015, insurers offering coverage to Kansans through healthcare.gov are applying tobacco use surcharges from 0 percent to 44 percent. A 2013 report showed that 20 percent of Kansas adults are smokers.
“As allowed by the federal rules, the surcharge is higher for older enrollees in Kansas who smoke than for younger ones,” according to the brief. People seeking insurance must self-report their tobacco use — defined as four or more times a week for the last six months — although insurers can’t rescind coverage for those who submit false reports.
They can, however, retroactively apply the surcharge for people who don’t report their tobacco use. Because of the self-reporting system, insurers are concerned that some consumers are under-reporting their tobacco use.
But, according to the brief, the Kansas insurers said “reviewing claims and medical records was cost-prohibitive and not a good use of their time and resources.” Some consumer groups, such as the American Lung Association, and health policy experts had concerns that the surcharge would discourage low-income tobacco users from buying health insurance.
Because of those concerns, a few states limited the maximum surcharge or prohibited it. But Kansas defaulted to the federal limit of 50 percent of premium cost. The Kansas Health Institute is the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service. –
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration’s quest to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is mired in state and federal politics.
Frustrated White House and Pentagon officials are blaming each other for the slow progress releasing approved detainees and finding a new U.S. prison to house those still held.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is facing criticism from administration officials who complain he hasn’t approved enough detainee transfers, even though 52 are eligible.
Officials say the White House is frustrated because President Barack Obama discussed the issue with Carter when he was hired for the Pentagon job, and they believed Carter was on board with the White House’s plans to move more quickly.
Others say Carter is approving transfers and pushing his staff to get more to him.
CIMMARON- A woman delivering mail was injured in an accident just before 1:30p.m. on Saturday in Gray County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer driven by Kelly L. Love, 53, Lake Odessa, MI., was travelling southbound on York Road, just south of County Road A seventeen miles northwest of Cimmaron.
The driver overcorrected and went off of the roadway to the left. The vehicle rotated counter clockwise approximately 100 degrees then rolled half a time before landing on its top.
Love was transported to St. Catherine’s Hospital.
She was not wearing a seatbelt due to being in the process of delivering mail, according to the KHP.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A trial is scheduled to begin for a Eudora health care attendant who claims he killed a client as an assisted suicide.
Douglas County prosecutors have charged 49-year-old Ronald Eugene Heskett with premeditated first-degree murder in the Sept. 12, 2014, suffocation death of 65-year-old Vance Moulton.
Heskett has called it a “mercy killing” because Moulton was depressed, helpless and in pain from cerebral palsy.
Prosecutors say Heskett, who was Moulton’s home health care provider, killed him by twisting a towel around his throat.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that prosecutors plan to argue at the trial, which starts Monday, that some of Moulton’s money has been missing since his death.
Heskett’s attorney, Mike Warner, has said no clear evidence has been presented to support financial motive in the killing.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 24-year-old mother is in custody after her dirty, barefoot 4- and 6-year-old children were found living in a wooden shipping crate in an underground cave in Kansas City, Missouri.
The woman was charged Friday with two counts of felony child endangerment.
Jackson County detectives were serving a search warrant for an alleged stolen car operation in the caves on the city’s east side Thursday when they found the children, alone, in the 8-by-10-foot crate furnished with vehicle bench seats.
Prosecutors say the children were poorly clothed, barefoot and covered in dirt, and the younger one was eating from a cup of dry ramen noodles.
A spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor’s office said Saturday he didn’t know if the woman has an attorney.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The closure beginning next month of the hospital in the southeast Kansas community of Independence is highlighting problems faced by rural health care providers in states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs.
Mercy Hospital spokeswoman Joanne Smith says the climate of health care is very challenging. That is particularly true for small rural hospitals that are facing decreased reimbursements and declining populations. She says the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid was not the deciding factor in Mercy’s decision to close its Independence hospital, but it was certainly significant.
Medicaid expansion would have brought in $1.6 million annually to the Independence facility.
The National Rural Health Association estimates 55 rural hospitals across the nation have closed since 2010, and 283 more are at risk of closure.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas has officially approved a procedure to handle possible violations of the university’s social media policy.
The university has struggled with the issue since September 2013 when journalism professor David Guth posted a tweet criticizing the National Rifle Association.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports a policy enacted by the Kansas Board of Regents in 2014 did not include a procedure for reacting if someone was suspected of violating the policy.
The University Senate was told Thursday the process for handling such cases was approved over the summer. The process calls for the university to form a three-member panel to determine within a week whether evidence suggested the employee might have violated the policy. If so, another panel would decide if the employee should be disciplined.
