The Kansas Highway Patrol has confirmed a two-vehicle collision on U.S. 24 on Thanksgiving morning claimed the life of Jamie L. Franch, 54, Riley. The accident was reported at 5:41 a.m.

The KHP reported a Mazda 5 driven by Franch was southbound on U.S. 24 and a Chevrolet Malibu driven by Mersades Wisner, 18, Holdredge, Neb., was northbound. Franch’s vehicle crossed the center line and collided head-on with the car driven by Wisner. The Mazda 5 came to rest on its side in the west ditch, and the Malibu came to rest in the driving lanes.

Wisner was injured and was transported to the KU Medical Center.

By JOHN HANNA
AP Political Writer

TOPEKA — Democratic and moderate Republicans lawmakers worked together last year to try to make Kansas the latest state to expand Medicaid, only to see their bipartisan effort rewarded with a veto from former conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback.

The election this month of a governor who supports Medicaid expansion seemed to remove the biggest hurdle for those hoping to bring health coverage to thousands of the state’s poor. But it’s not that simple.

In the same election that put Democrat Laura Kelly in the governor’s office, Kansas voters also elected a more conservative Legislature. Any bill seeking to expand Medicaid will have a tougher time getting to the governor’s desk.

“I’m still looking at every possible way that we can stop that,” said state Rep. Dan Hawkins, a conservative Republican from Wichita who is chairman of the House’s health committee.

Republicans retained their large majorities in both chambers and will appoint the leaders of the committees, who can help them bottle up or kill legislation they don’t like. In this month’s election, conservatives gained at least half a dozen seats in the House and might replace the chamber’s majority leader, a moderate, with someone who leans further to the right. Hawkins is vying for the post.

In the Senate, the health committee chairwoman is a moderate Republican who was instrumental in pushing Medicaid expansion last year but is leaving her position after being elected state insurance commissioner. Her replacement is likely to be more conservative.

With conservatives in control of the majority party, Kelly will likely have to make concessions on Medicaid expansion to get enough support to pass the Legislature. One could be a work requirement for recipients, something other Republican-leaning states have imposed.

For her part, Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, has promised to have a working group create a bipartisan plan.

“I’m not exactly sure what it will look like yet,” she told The Associated Press recently. “I’m a fiscal realist, and I need to make sure whatever we present is doable.”

Medicaid provides health coverage for lower-income and disabled Americans, including 377,000 in Kansas, and is funded jointly by states and the federal government.

Thirty-five states have expanded Medicaid under the health care law signed by former President Barack Obama. Voters in Idaho, Utah and neighboring Nebraska approved expansions earlier this month.

In a 36th state, Maine, voters approved an expansion in 2017, only to see their Republican governor stymie it. But the newly elected Democratic governor promised to move ahead.

In Kansas, Brownback and departing Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer were the biggest reasons for the state not expanding the program. Both cited the cost of providing coverage to as many as 150,000 more people.

A much-disputed study for Brownback’s administration in 2015 suggested the state’s costs could reach more than $100 million a year. Some projections after that were lower: In 2018, Colyer’s budget office estimated a net cost of $22 million for the fiscal year beginning in July 2019.

The federal government paid the full cost of covering the expansion group until 2017 and will continue paying 90 percent starting in 2020.

Voters in Oregon, which approved the expansion early, approved taxes on hospitals, health insurers and managed care companies to pay for the program. In Montana, voters this month rejected a ballot measure that would have raised tobacco taxes to extend the state’s Medicaid expansion.

“We don’t want to take on something that we know is absolutely unaffordable and will require a tax increase,” said Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican.

But supporters point to the closing of a small nonprofit hospital in southeast Kansas — after a closing in another town in the region in 2015 — as a cost of not expanding Medicaid. Kelly said providing health coverage to more Kansas residents is “a moral obligation.”

Advocates also contend that expanding Medicaid in Kansas would reduce expenses associated with uncovered medical care, reduce the costs of some state programs, make it easier for some people to hold jobs and promote employment in health care.

The Kansas Hospital Association projects a net gain for the state.

“No, it’s not going to be easy, but it is easier from the standpoint that we have a governor who is going to push for it,” said Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat.

TOPEKA (AP) — Outgoing Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed an executive order giving paid parental leave to more than 17,000 government employees.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Colyer signed the order Wednesday. It creates a policy that all state employees under the governor’s jurisdiction will be eligible for paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. Primary caregivers will receive six weeks of paid leave, while secondary caregivers will receive three weeks.

Under the police, employees will receive 100 percent of their regular salary during leave.

The order doesn’t apply to the Legislature or judicial branch. Agencies headed by other elected officials, such as the secretary of state’s office, also aren’t included. With the order, Kansas becomes one of 15 states, including Missouri, to provide paid parental leave to employees.

Whether you are part of the Black Friday madness or opting to sit it out, everyone knows that chasing the best deals can be tense.

Check out this compilation of the craziest Black Friday shopping moments over the years, compiled by @BlckFridayFight

Click HERE to see the videos. And stay safe out there 🙂

 

By JAKE SEINER
AP Sports Writer

The commissioner of the Esports Integrity Coalition says skill-based betting on battle royale games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground could be vulnerable to cheating.

Esports gambling website Unikrn announced plans last month to bring legal skill-based betting to the U.S., allowing players to wager on themselves. Users would link their game to the Unikrn platform, and Unikrn will generate odds for the player based on his or her profile within the game.

ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith says such wagering is likely to be popular, but he’s concerned the industry is not yet prepared to govern it. In particular, he’s skeptical operators like Unikrn have the ability to ensure the skill ratings of the bettor match the abilities of the person manning the controls.

For instance, what would stop a player from placing a Fortnite bet using his or her account, then handing the controller over to a more talented friend? Or, what would prevent talented players from hustling the system by nuking their game profile before placing a series of big bets?

“I’m not certain that the tools exist yet that would properly identify the person playing the game is the same person who normally ran that account,” Smith told The Associated Press.

Unikrn, a betting partner of the ESIC, believes its Connekt platform can prevent such fraudulent betting.

“We have thousands of players playing thousands of matches which we use to understand the competitive ecosystem of a game and the players themselves,” Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood said in a statement to the AP. “We pride ourselves on giving users the best experience, which we can only do with a personal knowledge of how they enjoy gaming. That same personal knowledge is key to ensuring integrity in all wagering elements of our platform.”

The risk that cheating may go unnoticed is higher in battle royales than in other competitive video games. Battle royales are last-man-standing clashes between many competitors — Fortnite and PUBG host up to 100 players per game — and have more volatile outcomes than multiplayer games like League of Legends or Overwatch.

Publishers and operators can use algorithms to flag unusual performances in games like League of Legends because those games are complex and luck is not a factor.

“Just like we’re able to flag suspicious activity from an esportsbook customer, we get a deep understanding of our players by the data in their games,” Unikrn chief product officer Karl Flores said in a statement to the AP. “Basic elements, such as checking for suspicious IP address changes, and more complex game information are together used to build player models and create gamer fingerprints.”

Data from games like Fortnite or PUBG may be less reliable, though, because battle royales have less predictable outcomes. It’s not unusual for a talented player to be eliminated in the early moments of a Fortnite match, or for less experienced players to luck into a high finish.

“The battle royale games pose particular problems because they don’t actually lend themselves to traditional esports formats, and therefore to traditional betting formats,” Smith said.

The volatility is also an issue for odds-based betting on Fortnite or PUBG. Traditional sports books have successfully featured odds for major events in games like League of Legends, DOTA and Counter-Strike for years in Asia and Europe. Unikrn hopes to widen the breadth of wagers available, capitalizing on the fact that most esports lend themselves well to prop bets and in-game wagering.

Battle royales are an exception, because gamblers can essentially only bet on the final outcome.

“The betting on tournament play is evolving slowly and nobody’s making much money out of it,” Smith said. “Everybody’s interested, obviously … but offering interesting and good markets is very, very difficult at this stage.”

Smith believes illegal esports betting in the U.S. is at least a $1 billion industry, much of it going to offshore books or the dark web. Unikrn is working to bring legal esports odds betting to most of the U.S., but skills-based betting is already legal in 41 states.

Peer to peer betting is still in its infancy, and Smith believes the next step is convincing potential bettors they’ll get a fair shake on such wagers.

“If people feel they’re getting ripped off by boosters and smurfers and guys who play well above their rating in terms of a match-making system, they’re simply going to stop doing it, aren’t they?” Smith said. “There is a risk to the operator in that sense. What he really needs to do is provide a credible platform so that when you go on and play, you feel like you’re playing against somebody of roughly your level and therefore there’s a decent contest of skill involved.”

If Unikrn or another operator can successfully create that platform, the payoff could be huge. Smith expects legitimate skill-based betting would be wildly popular.

“I think if they do that right, it’ll be enormously profitable,” Smith said. “Because there’s so many people playing this game, and having something at stake beyond your pride is always attractive, whatever game you look at. From guys playing snooker or golf or any game, putting a bit of money on a handshake generally adds something to that situation, and I see no reason why that wouldn’t be true of Fortnite.”

By JIM MCLEAN
Kansas News Service

They say it takes one to know one. As Kansas governor-elect Laura Kelly soon will be, former governor Kathleen Sebelius was a Democrat leading the state while Republicans controlled the Legislature.

Jim McLean of the Kansas News Service spoke with Sebelius about the support from Republicans that helped Kelly overcome competition from Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach and independent Greg Orman in the governor’s race and what will make her successful in office.

Did the cross-party endorsements of Laura Kelly by prominent Republicans make a difference in the governor’s race?

Bill Graves — my predecessor, moderate Republican, two-term governor … he didn’t endorse me. He had not endorsed a Democrat running for governor. For him to come out right after the primary and make that first endorsement was hugely significant. …

[Former U.S. Senator] Nancy Kassebaum had not endorsed me. She’s a friend I’d worked with her, but this was a unique situation for both of them and for her, again, to say to a lot of her supporters, women independents, moderate Republicans, ‘I’m with Laura.’ …

And then … to add [former Republican Gov.] Mike Hayden to that chorus was very significant.

How well will Kelly’s reputation for bipartisanship serve her as governor?

I think what she brings is a lot more than a reputation. She has hands on experience in the Legislature, building consensus and building coalitions. She has relationships with a lot of the people who she will be serving with and continuing to serve with. And she also has been elected as a legislator. She knows what that takes, what they’re telling their constituents back home, what they need to produce in Topeka.

I always felt that … it was a huge advantage to me to be a governor who had served in the Legislature because you know the job very well and you know what the committees are like and you know how to get things done. Laura [Kelly] has that in spades.

She also is one of the key budget experts in the whole Legislature. She knows where the money is, what the framework is. …

And what she knows very well is even if all the Democrats vote for all the legislation she proposes, she loses every fight, so she has to have a way to put a coalition together. … It’s a different [coalition], depending on what the issue is — school finance issues may be one group of people; something on criminal justice reform may be a very different group of people; economic development and building roads and bridges may be a third.

But … knowing what that coalition might look like, knowing how to get that done … [Kelly] does not need training wheels for this job. She’s ready to go.

How has the political climate changed since Sebelius was governor of Kansas herself?

I definitely think the atmosphere is more partisan and more poison.

I do think Kansas both in 2016 with a turn to a more moderate Legislature and then again in 2018 have said, ‘we really are not sure we want to be part of that mix.’

… And Laura [Kelly] will be the beneficiary of that, of people saying ‘we want to get some things done,’ ‘we do believe that the state was headed in the wrong direction under the Brownback administration.’

Kris Kobach embraced [Brownback’s agenda] fully and then added some Trumpian features, but the [governor’s] race was really about whether or not the policies put in place by [former Gov.] Sam Brownback and [Gov.] Jeff Colyer should continue or whether we needed to move in a new direction.

And I think the voters pretty overwhelmingly said, ‘new direction.’

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Liberty University has announced that first lady Melania Trump will participate in a town hall discussion at Liberty University next week about the opioid epidemic.

Also participating in the Nov. 28 event will be Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Dianna Hart, whose daughter Demi Lovato was hospitalized over the summer after a reported drug overdose. The discussion also will include former Fox News host Eric Bolling, whose college-age son died last year of a mix of cocaine and the painkiller fentanyl.

Bolling tweeted Wednesday that the first lady would join him “for an intimate and important one-on-one discussion” at the town hall in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Addressing the opioid epidemic is part of the first lady’s “Be Best” campaign.

WICHITA (AP) — Authorities say a 31-year-old woman was injured while holding onto a door of a stolen pickup truck in Wichita.

Police say the pickup was reported stolen Wednesday morning. The woman and a 30-year-old male with her apparently learned later that the pickup was seen at a Lost Sock laudromat.

Their pickup was still there when they arrived, and an argument soon broke out between them and a person sitting behind the wheel.

Police say the man fired his gun several times as the person in the truck tried to drive away. The woman grabbed onto the driver’s side door but let go when one of her legs struck a street sign.

No arrests have been reported, and it’s unclear whether the driver was struck by any of the bullets.

Police haven’t released the names of those involved.

TOPEKA (AP) — Authorities say a 16-year-old who was taken at gunpoint from a Topeka apartment has been found safe and two men have been arrested.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that an Amber Alert was issued for the 16-year-old after the abduction was reported around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Topeka police Lt. Manny Munoz says the assailants left after brandishing a silver handgun and “ordering everyone on the ground.”

Several hours later, police announced that the 16-year-old had been located in “good health,” along with one of the suspects. Police say that suspect and another suspect were later booked into jail on suspicion of aggravated burglary. Both of the suspects are 19.

It wasn’t known where the 16-year-old was found.

PRATT COUNTY — Two teenagers were injured Thursday in an ATV accident in Pratt County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a John Deere Gator driven by 16-year old Carson Thomas of Clearwater was driving the Gator on Southeast 1st Street just West of 70th Avenue in Pratt County at around 3:00 p.m. when he lost control and entered the north shoulder and overturned.

Thomas and a passenger, 19-year old Jake Thomas of Wichita were thrown from the Gator and sustained injuries and were transported to Pratt Regional Medical Center.

By ALICIA RANCILIO
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Joanna Gaines, known for her cozy-yet-cool designs including open-concept floor plans, farmhouse sinks and sliding barn doors, admits having to scale back on the vision of her own home in Waco, Texas, to allow her children to add personality to their own spaces.

“In the past it was hard,” she said recently in an interview, having to shift her thinking to, “This is their space. This is what makes them come alive, I need to encourage that.”

Gaines says this principle especially applies to her two oldest children, son Drake, 13, and daughter Ella, 11.

“In the main spaces I get to do my thing and incorporate some things that they love but for their rooms, especially this year, there’s stuff they’re wanting in their room that I wouldn’t put in there originally, but now it’s fun to watch their room evolve into their personality and give them the freedom to do it.”

She remembers that she, too, had her own flair growing up.

“I was into cats. I had cat posters everywhere and my mom let me do it,” she said.

She and her husband, Chip, are planning on a return to TV. The couple confirms they are in discussions with Discovery about creating a lifestyle-focused network.

In the meantime, Gaines writes about how she makes a house a home in her new book, “Homebody” (Harper Design), sharing examples from her own farmhouse in Waco, Texas, and homes she’s worked on.

She recently talked about design in an interview with The Associated Press.

AP: When you see an empty room, what’s the first thing you think about when it comes to decorating?

Gaines: I think, ‘OK, how are people going to be walking in and out? What’s the pass-through?’ I want the traffic. I kind of just try to figure out the footprint and then I start thinking about, ‘Where do you put the sofa? Where do you fit the chair or a coffee table?’ Then from there I start adding the bookshelves, stuff on the wall. But I think for me the seating is important because that’s where everyone is congregating. That’s the most important thing.

AP: You also find interesting pieces that either show a person’s personality or a family heirloom. What if someone doesn’t have any of that but wants to add some interesting pieces to their home that aren’t so cookie cutter?

Gaines: I think people need to know that it takes time. You can find things at flea markets, antique stores or even online. It becomes like a treasure hunt.

AP: You seem to like neutrals and black and white. What are your thoughts on color in design?

Gaines: I love the contrast of black and white and I think it’s timeless and no matter what style or genre, black and white can fit into that. I love to implement color with rugs and pillows and art. But if I’m working with clients who love color, I’m all about a colored sofa or piece of furniture. For me, I love a neutral palette, I think it’s calming. But I like keeping it simple and layering colors in later so then when I’m tired of it, I can shift that out simply with a pillow.

AP: When you do have a client who has a different style than you do, is that a fun exercise?

Gaines: It’s so fun. To me, it’s a way of getting things out through other people. For me, we’re staying at the farmhouse, so it’s a fun way to try out other styles.

AP: What about decorating for the holidays? Do you like themes? What do you like?

Gaines: Thinking about the farmhouse, I love just layering in the textures and so it’s really simple. Obviously the tree, the garland and the stockings, but simple, subtle colors. That’s when there’s red, the pillows, the throw blankets, the tree skirt. The holidays can be really busy and home is a place where we can unwind and rest. If there’s too much clutter, I think it’s hard for all of us to feel at ease. I try to keep it minimal but bring in the reds and greens.

AP: That brings up the question of clutter. You want decorative accents but when is it too much?

Gaines: A lot of this is gut instinct. What I feel is enough may not be enough for others. I think when you’re looking at your space and you feel like, ‘OK, I think I’ve got it,’ you can stop.
___
Online:
https://www.magnolia.com/

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — The Manhattan City Commission has approved a plan to convert half of its energy use to wind power.

The Mercury reports that the commission Tuesday backed a 20-year agreement with Westar Energy for the 300-megawatt Soldier Creek Wind Farm in northeast Kansas, a project that will be complete in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The city has paid Westar about $2.6 million a year for the past five years. Officials say the agreement with Westar will save the city $50,000 a year for the next 20 years.

Kansas State University has entered the same agreement with Westar.