WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Wichita truck driving school and its owner will pay $6,000 back to students after admitting to making false claims about its credentials.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Friday that Wichita Truck Driving School claimed to be approved by the Kansas Board of Regents and said it was a member of the Wichita Chamber of Commerce.
Neither claim was true. Making such false claims violates state law.
The $6,000 represents tuition to students. The company and its owner, Tandy McKenzie, also agreed to pay court costs related to the case.
Approximate location of Saturday emergency landing- google image
SHAWNEE COUNTY – A small plane made an unexpected landing just after 11a.m. Saturday in Shawnee County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported the 2001 MAC-145B Fixed Wing Single Engine
airplane piloted by Pierre S. Melcher, 57, Houston, was traveling from Kansas City to Denver.
The plane lost oil pressure and made an emergency landing in a corn field near the 2600 Block of U.S. 24 Highway.
NEWTON COUNTY, MO – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 2:30a.m. Saturday in Newton County Missouri.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Ford 500 driven by Summer D. Padilla, 35, Baxter Springs, was traveling on Highway 43 four miles south of Joplin. The vehicle left the road and hit a tree.
She was transported to Mercy Hospital in serious condition, according to the MSHP. She was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, according to the MSHP.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas law that allows concealed guns on state university and college campuses beginning Saturday has resulted in a flurry of new policies, fact sheets, online guides and videos about the handling of weapons.
Administrators say they can’t predict how many people will carry concealed weapons on campuses or how many complaints their police might receive about potential violations of the keep-weapons-hidden policies.
For example, administrators are telling students that if they keep a handgun in a backpack, the backpack has to stay with them if they’re called to the front of the class to answer a question.
The law allows people 21 or older to carry concealed weapons on campus and into buildings that don’t have adequate security such as metal detectors and armed guards.
When evening falls, Brian Hunt makes his way to a comfortable chair in a sun room on the south side of his house near La Cygne, Kansas. But he’s not settling in to relax. He’s going to work.
Hunt is a doctor who works the overnight shift admitting and monitoring patients through video connections at half a dozen hospitals scattered across Kansas. Sitting in front of his computer, wearing a headset and microphone, he greets a 63-year-old woman who’s just been transferred to Newton Medical Center from the smaller town of Marion. She’s been having difficulties with speech and movement on her right side.
Dr. Brian Hunt sits at the computer he uses to interact with patients. BRYAN THOMPSON / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
“Hi. Can you hear and see me OK? Excellent. And how young are you?” Hunt asks her.
He briefly engages the patient in small talk to put her at ease. Then he begins examining her with the help of the nursing staff on-site in Newton.
“What I’m going to do first of all, if the nurses want to, is listen to your heart and lungs real quick,” Hunt says through his Internet video hook-up. “Are you guys ready to do that?”
A robot in the room with the patient allows Hunt to hear the sounds from the stethoscope as clearly as if he were right there. It also has a camera that he can control and a video screen that lets the patient see him.
“I want to kind of look at you a little bit closer here,” he says, as he begins his examination. “Can you close your eyes real tight for me? Open ’em up real bright for me. OK, look to your left. There you go. Now look to your right with your eyes only, please. Look to your right with your eyes only. Good! Alright, now relax – and can you show me your teeth? Excellent!”
After about two minutes of these tests, Hunt gives the woman his diagnosis.
“You tried to have a stroke,” he says. “In fact, you probably had a small stroke. I’m just gonna cut to the chase here, OK? Fortunately, it’s a very slight remaining, but our concern is, are there going to be any further problems here, OK?”
Dr. Brian Hunt (lower left corner) demonstrates how he connects with a telehealth robot. CREDIT BRYAN THOMPSON / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Hunt starts the patient on an aspirin regimen, and orders a battery of tests aimed at making sure she doesn’t have any ongoing issues. He then reassures her as he signs off
“I’ll be up all night, OK? If something happens, I’ll be back just like that,” he says. “I’m going to put some orders in the system right now, get things going. And anything else I can do before I sign off? Alright, thank you for your time, and I wish you the best, ma’am.”
Insurers opposed
A bill considered this year by the Kansas House Health and Human Services Committee was aimed at encouraging more of this kind of care. It would require insurance companies that offer coverage for telehealth care to pay the same rate for telehealth services as they do for in-person services.
“It takes away the ability of the insurance companies to be able to price accordingly for the services provided, while also keeping an eye on how to keep premiums as low as possible for our employer groups and our members who purchase insurance,” says Mary Beth Chambers, a spokeswoman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas.
Chambers says there are some cases — abdominal exams, for instance — where only a hands-on inspection will do. She worries that those cases might result in insurance companies having to pay for both an initial telehealth consultation and an in-person follow-up.
State Representative Jim Kelly (R-Independence) is the primary sponsor of HB 2206, the telehealth parity bill.
State Rep. Jim Kelly, who proposed the bill, says that concern is misplaced.
“The standard of care is going to be required to be the same, so that you could not do by telehealth a visit that would require hands-on,” Kelly says.
He rejects the notion that parity in payments amounts to a mandate.
“The issue that we wanted to do was to not force any company that wasn’t offering telehealth coverage to have to provide it, and that would be the mandate,” he says. “The other is more of a way to make it a playing field where providers would be willing to do it.”
Kelly sees equal pay for equivalent services as essential to the spread of telehealth care — and he sees telehealth as one way to make health care more accessible in rural and urban areas facing provider shortages. He argues that increasing access to follow-up and preventive care could reduce the need for more expensive hospitalization and emergency room services.
As things stand, the telehealth parity bill did not make it out of committee and was referred for possible interim study. Kelly, though, says the bill is based on best practices from states that have adopted telehealth parity.
Thirty-three states, including all four states bordering Kansas, already have such laws on the books. Kelly is hopeful Kansas will soon follow their example.
Bryan Thompson is a reporter for kcur.org and the Kansas News Service, specializing in rural health and agriculture.
SHAWNEE COUNTY-Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatality accident.
Just after 5:30 Friday first responders were dispatched to report of a vehicle, pedestrian accident near SW 29th and SW Randolph in Topeka, according to a media release.
Police learned that a blue SUV struck a 77-year-old man while he was crossing SW 29th. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he died.
Police have made no arrests but ask that anyone with information on the accident to call the Accident Reconstruction Division.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has agreed to pay $133,000 to woman who filed a federal lawsuit after being attacked by a patient while working at a state mental hospital.
Gov. Sam Brownback and top legislative leaders approved the settlement Friday. It still must be reviewed by a federal judge.
Patient Aaron C. Goodman was charged with rape in connection with the attack in October 2015 at Osawatomie State Hospital.
The woman filed her lawsuit against the state last year. She alleged that other staffers failed to perform routine security checks and no one warned her about Goodman’s history of being sexually aggressive.
The attack was among the reasons the federal government decertified the eastern Kansas hospital in December 2015. The action is costing Kansas up to $1 million a month in federal funds.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republicans in the Kansas Legislature have publicly dressed down GOP Gov. Sam Brownback and a top aide over the administration’s criticism of budget and tax measures.
GOP leaders expressed their frustration during a Friday meeting on budget issues. Senate President Susan Wagle said comments from the administration have been inappropriate.
Brownback participated in the meeting by phone while traveling. But Budget Director Shawn Sullivan was present to face pointed questions.
The governor and some of his aides have criticized legislators for enacting an income tax increase over his veto that rolls back past tax cuts Brownback has championed. They have suggested that the tax increase is fueling unnecessary spending.
Brownback defended his tax policies and said he’s made his opinions known about how best to boost economic growth.
GEARY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged attempted murder.
Just before 2a.m. Friday, the deputies with the Geary County Sheriff’s Department arrested Seth Moreland at a residence in the 800 Block of North Franklin Street in Junction City, according to a media release.
He is being held on a $1,000,000 Bond for Attempted Second Degree Murder and Aggravated Battery.
The sheriff’s department released no additional details.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man charged with kidnapping his estranged wife and killing her earlier this month has been arrested.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig says 38-year-old Pedro
Enriquez was arrested early Friday. Herrig says the arrest came after officers received a tip about a suspicious person with a vehicle in the ditch. Authorities found the vehicle in the tree line of an old homestead, not far from the county landfill in Jefferson County.
Shawnee County District Attorney Michael Kagay said Enriquez was arrested on warrants for first-degree murder.
He is accused of abducting 33-year-old Viviana Vazquez on June 7
Viviana Vazquez-photo Topeka Police
from a home in Topeka, where their 10-year-old son says he saw Enriquez drag her outside by the hair.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says his state will not be giving the federal voter fraud commission he leads the partial Social Security numbers that he has asked other states to provide from their voter rolls.
Kobach as vice chairman of the commission has sent letters to every state requesting names, addresses, party, voting history and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. His office says his letter only asks for publicly available voter roll data.
In Kansas, the Social Security number is not publicly available. Kobach told The Kansas City Star on Friday he would not be sharing Social Security information for Kansas voters with the commission at this time.
He did not rule out the possibility of providing it to them in the future.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s commission investigating alleged voter fraud during the 2016 election is asking states for a list of the names, party affiliations, addresses and voting histories of all voters, if state law allows it to be public.
A letter sent Wednesday from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity asks secretaries of state to provide about a dozen points of voter data and respond to questions about fraud and election integrity.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is vice chair of the commission. He is also a candidate for Kansas governor
Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton but has alleged, without evidence, that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally.
On Thursday, Democratic officials in California and Virginia said they will not comply because the letter is based on false notions of widespread voter fraud. Missouri’s Republican secretary of state says he is happy to assist.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kansas Congressman Lynn Jenkins is making the rounds of national television appearances following her criticism of President Donald Trump for crude tweet ridiculing a cable news anchor.
This afternoon, I went on @CNN to discuss why the President’s recent tweet was not okay. Watch the interview here: https://t.co/7SexkOMteq
The five-term Republican said on Twitter: “This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women.”
This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women. https://t.co/sV6WDE0EUD
In a series of tweets Thursday morning, the president went after Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who have criticized Trump on their MSNBC show “Morning Joe.” Trump called Brzezinski “crazy” and said he had seen her “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
Trump said they asked to join him during a visit to his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, and that he said “no.” Scarborough said the visit was to arrange a Trump interview.
HOLTON, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas man who faces several allegations of sexual assault has been found guilty of all charges in cases involving two women.
A Jackson County jury deliberated about four hours Friday before finding 22-year-old Jacob Ewing of Holton guilty of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy of the two women.
Ewing was acquitted in April of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl and faces trials involving allegations from three other women later this year.
During closing arguments, defense attorney Kathleen Ambrosio told jurors that testimony from women who said Ewing assaulted them was not backed up by other evidence.
Special prosecutor Jacqie Spradling said the case wasn’t about revenge or framing Ewing. She also noted several witnesses testified about why the women didn’t immediately report the alleged assaults.
