Soldiers with the 2nd GSAB, 1st Avn. Regt., 1st CAB, 1st Inf. Div., conduct cold load training with Soldiers from the 17th FA Bde., assigned to Task Force First Round on Aug. 24 on the Kalispel Tribe of Indians Reservation. (U.S. Army photo)
FORT RILEY – Soldiers stationed at Fort Riley are providing around-the-clock medevac support to civilian and military agencies fighting the massive wildfire in northeastern Washington state, according to a release from Fort Riley.
Soldiers assigned to 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division are supporting Task Force First Round, which was formed around the 17th Field Artillery Brigade from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, to combat what is being called the Tower Fire. About 95 large wildfires are burning 1.1 million acres in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada and Colorado, according to information from U.S. Northern Command.
“The 1st Inf. Div. and Fort Riley are once again on point for our nation,” said Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., commanding general of the 1st Inf. Div. and Fort Riley. “Fort Riley’s central location in Kansas is key to the ‘Big Red One’s’ ability to provide ready Soldiers to support operations on either coast or around the world. Our brave and responsible Big Red One Soldiers are proud to support this interagency effort – they can and will accomplish any mission set in front of them.”
On Aug. 17, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, mobilized active-duty Soldiers to serve as firefighters to assist with wildfire suppression efforts, according to information from NORTHCOM. This is the first time since 2006 the NIFC has called upon active-duty Soldiers to assist in firefighting efforts.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A child advocacy group’s leader says parts of a new Kansas welfare law appear to conflict with federal child care policies, potentially jeopardizing more than $40 million a year in federal funds.
Kansas Action for Children CEO Shannon Cotsoradis raised additional issues Thursday about the welfare law approved by legislators this year. Her comments came weeks after the state dropped a $25-per-day limit on ATM withdrawals with cash assistance cards following questions from federal officials.
Congress last year reauthorized a program providing federal grants for child care.
Cotsoradis said penalties in the new Kansas law for parents who don’t comply with regulations appear to run afoul of a policy in the federal reauthorization.
A spokeswoman for the state Department for Children and Families didn’t immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.
TOPEKA -A federal jury on Thursday returned a guilty verdict in the case of a Junction City man who stole his father’s identity to apply for a loan to buy a $490,000 house, according to U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.
Matthew Williams, 47, Junction City, was convicted on one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Williams filled out a loan application with Pulaski Bank using his father’s name, social security number and other identifying information in an attempt to get a loan to purchase a house in Shawnee, Kansas. The defendant was in bankruptcy proceedings at the time.
The government presented evidence that Williams claimed to be an Army veteran and recipient of a Purple Heart award for valor in Vietnam. In fact, Williams’ father, Earl, fought in both Vietnam and Desert Storm and earned a Purple Heart, as well as other commendations.
BILL DRAPER, Associated Press
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man accused of killing three people at two Kansas Jewish sites has been ordered to begin his defense this week, but it’s unclear how much evidence he will be allowed to submit.
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. is facing a possible death sentence if convicted of capital murder in the 2014 shootings at two sites in Overland Park, Kansas. Johnson County prosecutors rested their case on Thursday morning.
Miller is representing himself. He told Johnson County judge Thomas Kelly Ryan he wasn’t prepared to start his defense and needed the case postponed until Monday. Ryan instead set Miller’s defense for Friday morning.
Ryan warned Miller that he would not be allowed to present evidence about his motives for the shootings. Miller accused the judge of violating his constitutional rights
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OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have rested their case in the capital murder trial of a Missouri white supremacist who acknowledges killing three people at two Jewish centers in suburban Kansas City.
Jurors on Thursday heard recordings of two phone calls Miller made from the Johnson County jail, in which he admitted killing a 69-year-old man, his 14-year-old grandson and a 53-year-old woman in Overland Park, Kansas, in April 2014.
District Attorney Steve Howe announced afterward that he was finished presenting his case.
Miller asked Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan to postpone the defense part of the case until Monday because he’s not prepared. Ryan reminded the 74-year-old he’s the one who demanded a speedy trial and fired his attorneys.
Ryan said he would rule on the request after speaking with Miller behind closed doors.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas says it’s reached a settlement agreement over the release of documents to a student group looking for ties between an economic research center and Charles and David Koch.
Art Hall, a lecturer and executive director of the Center for Applied Economics in the University of Kansas School of Business, sued the university to prevent the release of emails, correspondence and notes to Students for a Sustainable Future. Hall previously was chief economist for the Public Sector Group of Koch Industries Inc.
The case was set for trial in November.
Under the agreement announced Thursday, the university and Hall released several pages of documents, including correspondence between Hall and the Kochs’ foundations discussing funding.
The student group’s president, Schuyler Kraus, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Kari Bruffet, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, says that having to pay home care workers more will reduce access to services. CREDIT DAVE RANNEY / HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
Kansas officials are reviewing a recent federal appeals court ruling that requires the state’s Medicaid program to pay in-home care workers minimum wage and overtime.
Officials at the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services issued a statement shortly after the ruling was handed down Friday saying they were attempting to determine its “potential impact” on the state’s Medicaid program, known as KanCare.
In part, the statement read: “KDADS is committed to minimizing any negative impact this may have on consumers, direct service workers and providers while ensuring the health, safety and welfare of those who receive services from HCBS programs.”
HCBS refers to Medicaid-funded home and community based services.
Previously, KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett had said that having to pay home care workers more — particularly those who provide sleep cycle support — would increase costs and reduce access to services that help frail seniors and people with disabilities live in community-based settings rather than in nursing homes.
Sleep cycle support workers provide overnight care to individuals who need help toileting, taking medications and being repositioned to prevent bedsores.
Having to pay them minimum wage — $7.25 an hour — would cost the state an additional $12 million, Bruffett told Kansas lawmakers last spring.
Kansas and eight other states filed friend-of-the-court briefs opposing a U.S. Department of Labor regulationrequiring third-party employers to pay in-home care works minimum wage and overtime.
Deane Beebe, a spokesperson for the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a national organization that represents home health aides and personal care attendants, hailed the ruling.
“The (appeals) court has ruled and recognized that home care workers are doing hard work and deserve the same labor protection as most workers in this nation, and that states need to prepare to implement the new rule and get ready to pay workers what they rightfully deserve,” Beebe said.
Much of the ruling, Beebe said, focused on whether the Department of Labor had the authority to alter regulations that have long exempted so-called companions — employees who live with the people they’re caring for — from minimum wage laws.
The decision upheld the Department of Labor’s authority to repeal the exemption, which states had long used to justify paying sleep cycle support workers less than minimum wage.
In Kansas, sleep cycle support workers are paid roughly $25 for a six-hour night or $31 for an eight-hour night.
“That’s less than minimum wage,” said Ami Hyten, assistant director at the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, which helps people with disabilities find, hire and train caregivers.
“That will be the single, most profound effect that this decision is going to have on us because we don’t have the money in our budget to make that happen,” Hyten said. “It’s not in KDADS’ budget either.”
Hyten said about 25 percent of the 400 people who receive in-home services through the Topeka center rely on sleep cycle support. Without it, she said, many likely would have to move to nursing homes.
It’s not yet clear when the new regulation will take effect.
The plaintiffs in the case, Home Care Association of America v. Weil, are trade associations representing the nation’s home care providers. They have until early October to ask the appeals court to reconsider. They also have the option of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
William Dombi, vice president for law with the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, last week said he and other industry officials had yet to decide whether to appeal the ruling.
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Investigators have determined that the windshield on a Lenexa patrol cracked from a stress fracture and not from a bullet as earlier believed.
The Kansas City Star reports a stress fracture in the glass caused the rear window to shatter on the parked police car Thursday.
Authorities shut both a section of Kansas 7 for about three hours while police searched for a possible shooter after the officer reported the broken windshield.
Police said investigators determined that the stress fracture caused the window to “buckle and make a loud noise.”
They reopened the road shortly later Thursday afternoon.
During the search for a shooter, three schools in the area were placed on lock down.
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LENEXA — Authorities are investigating after a parked Lenexa patrol car was struck by a bullet.
Lenexa police reported an officer stopped on the side of Kansas 7 Highway near Prairie Star Parkway was shot at from an unknown location.
A window was broken out of the patrol car, but the officer was not injured.
At the present time we don’t know if the shot was fired from a passing vehicle or the wooded area adjacent to the highway.
K7 Highway was closed temporarily between K10 Highway and 83rd Street while officers searched the area.
HAYSVILLE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating after the body of a minor was found near a south-central Kansas school playground.
Sedgwick County sheriff’s Lt. Lin Dehning told The Wichita Eagle the juvenile’s death appears to be a suicide. The body was discovered Thursday morning near an elementary school in Haysville.
The sheriff says the death had nothing to do with the school, and the juvenile, who was not identified, did not attend school in the Haysville school district.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is correct on his immigration proposals.
Kobach was an adviser on immigration policy for 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and says he had urged Romney to adopt the “self-deportation” concept in his campaign.
Under federal law, it is a crime to encourage or induce an illegal alien to remain in the United States. #RuleofLawhttps://t.co/dZowjCE2sC
Immigration enforcement is “a huge issue” for independents, and Kobach believes its focus in the primary will not hurt Republican chances in the general election.
He is not working now advising any of the presidential campaigns, but says he may do so in the future. He declined to specify which one.
But Kobach says other contenders in addition to Trump who have made statements on immigration enforcement in line with his own thinking are Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
MANHATTAN -Two schools in Kansas are open again after they were briefly placed on lockdown Thursday morning.
In Riley County, Manhattan High School’s West campus initiated a lockout at 11:10 a.m., according to a media release from Principal Greg Hoyt.
Administration and security addressed a student issue and a lockdown was initiated as a precautionary measure to ensure safety for everyone, according to Hoyt.
Students were requested to remain in their classroom until further notice. At approximately 11:20 a.m. the lockout was lifted and students were dismissed to lunch or their 5th period class.
In Butler County, USD 394 Rose Hill was placed on lockdown just after 9:20 a.m. Butler County Law enforcement officers responded and searched a home in the 300 Block of South Brentwood after a man reportedly attempted to break into the residence, according to a media release.
The suspect was described as a white male with short brown hair wearing a bright colored shirt, jean shorts and carrying a water bottle.
The suspect rang the home’s doorbell. The homeowner did not answer the door, according to police. A short time later the homeowner reported hearing a loud crash, believed someone was breaking into the home and called 911.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An accomplice in the killings of a Kansas couple has been sentenced to prison.
Twenty-year-old Andrew Ellington was sentenced Thursday to life plus nearly 13 years for first-degree murder and second-degree murder in the deaths of Roger and Melissa Bluml. The Blumls, the adoptive parents of Ellington’s friend, Anthony Bluml, were shot outside their Valley Center home in November 2013.
Prosecutors say Ellington drove Anthony Bluml’s birth mother, Kisha Schaberg, to the Blumls’ home, where she shot the victims.
The Wichita Eagle reports Schaberg and Anthony Bluml wanted to rob and kill the couple, who adopted Anthony and his brother. Schaberg and Anthony Bluml are serving life in prison with no parole for capital murder and aggravated robbery. A fourth suspect is scheduled for trial in September.
SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a case of drug distribution following an arrest.
Salina police reported officers observed Jack Douglas Boster leaving his residence driving a 2004 Chevrolet Pickup on Wednesday afternoon.
Boster’s Kansas Driver’s License is suspended.
An officer conducted a traffic stop of Boster’s vehicle in the 400 block of South Santa Fe Avenue and located an open beer can in the center console.
Boster was taken into custody for the traffic violations and a search warrant was then executed at 105 S. 11th Street in Salina.
During the search of Boster’s bedroom agents located the following items:
• A small quantity of methamphetamine
• Items of drug paraphernalia
• A large quantity of marijuana totaling about 1/2 pound, which included marijuana in bulk and marijuana packaged in individual plastic bags for sale
Bag of suspected potpourri located at the home of Jack Boster
• Approximately 10 pounds of loose suspected Synthetic Cannabinoids, which included 15 gallon size plastic bags of suspected Synthetic Cannabinoids (Potpourri) and an open gallon size bag of suspected Synthetic Cannabinoids (Potpourri)
• 77 canisters of suspected Synthetic Cannabinoids (Potpourri) which were labeled and packaged for sale
• A 12 gauge shotgun with an illegal length barrel, a 20 gauge shotgun, two semi-automatic pistols, an assault Rifle, and numerous rounds of ammunition for each weapon
• A large amount of U.S. Currency
• Various amounts of assorted controlled narcotic prescription medications.
No Kansas Tax Stamps were located on the drug items or on the packages that contained the drug items.
All items are being sent to the KBI for testing and additional charges may be added pending lab results.
Boster was booked into the Saline County Jail on the following charges:
• One count of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute
• One count of Possession of a controlled Substance (Morphine)
• One count of Possession of a controlled Substance (Hydrocodone)
• One count of Possession of a Depressant (Alprazolam)
• Five counts of No Kansas Drug Tax Stamp
• One count of Receiving Drug Proceeds
• One count of Possession of Methamphetamine
• One count of Misdemeanor Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
• One count of Possession of Felony Drug Paraphernalia
• One count of Criminal Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
• One count of Criminal Use of a Weapon
• One count of Driving on a Suspended Driver’s License
• One count of Transporting an Open Container
The investigation is still ongoing and further arrests are expected.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas oil industry continues to face pressure because of falling prices.
The Wichita Eagle reports the cash price of Kansas Common crude oil fell below $30 a barrel this week at the NCRA refinery in McPherson for the first time since the recession. And 13 oil rigs running in Kansas last week was fewer than half the number a year ago.
Industry experts say the oil price is falling to a point approaching producers’ cost of pumping it out of existing wells, which his called the lifting price. The lifting cost is between $20 and $30 a barrel in Kansas, depending on the well.
Jim Williams, owner of WTRG Economics, an oil industry consultant, said it’s too early for most oil producers to pull out of Kansas.
