By JIM MCLEAN

Disability rights advocates are among the strongest opponents of the Obamacare replacement legislation that Republicans are attempting to push through Congress.

If anything resembling the bill that the U.S. House approved in May or the one the Senate is considering passes, they say it will roll back decades of progress.

Both bills propose Medicaid cuts approaching $1 trillion over 10 years. Cuts of that magnitude, they say, would force reductions in services that Americans with physical and intellectual disabilities need to help them live independently in their communities.

“I’m very afraid that people would have to go to nursing homes,” said Kim Dietrich, a 46-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who works for the nonprofit Topeka Independent Living Resource Center.

Mike Oxford, the center’s director and a national disability rights organizer, has more dire fears.

“People will die,” he said.

Oxford said he knows people who would rather die than live in an institution.

“People would sit at home and not get any help and end up not getting medication and die,” he said.

Oxford was one of more than 40 disability rights advocates arrested last week for blocking the entrance to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office in Washington, D.C., while protesting. They entered McConnell’s office and those who could clambered out of their wheelchairs onto the floor.

“We set it up to be dramatic and make a point, and also to make sure we couldn’t just be carted out of there and be out of sight and out of mind in five minutes,” Oxford said.

Kansas’ share of the Medicaid cuts would total about $1 billion, according to an Urban Institute analysis.

Such deep cuts would make it difficult for the state to maintain services to the approximately 15,000 Kansans with disabilities now receiving services and slow efforts to extend them to the nearly 5,000 people still on waiting lists, Oxford said.

Senate GOP leaders announced Tuesday afternoon that a vote on the bill had been delayed until after the July Fourth recess, in part because support among Republican senators was uncertain.

All 46 Democrats in the U.S. Senate and both of the independents who caucus with them are on record opposing the bill.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, of Kansas, issued a statement soon after the vote delay was announced that he opposed the current version of the health bill.

“The Senate health care bill missed the mark for Kansans and therefore did not have my support,” Moran said.

The vote delay followed the release Monday of an analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That analysis estimated that 22 million more people would be uninsured by 2026 under the Senate bill.

David Jordan, director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a nonprofit advocacy group funded by several health foundations, said the CBO score confirms that the Senate legislation is “bad for Kansas.”

“We urge Senators Moran and (Pat) Roberts to vote against this reckless legislation,” Jordan said.

Roberts said last week that he planned to support the bill to “move the process forward.”

“What’s the other alternative? I don’t see anything from the other side except, you know, single payer, and that’s socialized medicine,” Roberts said.

Members of the Kansas chapter of ADAPT, a national disability rights organization, planned demonstrations Tuesday at Moran’s offices in Pittsburg, Wichita and Hays.

“This (bill) is the biggest direct threat to independent living for older Kansans and Kansans with disabilities that I’ve seen in my lifetime,” organizer Ami Hyten said. “It’s time for Senator Moran to get off the fence and support the rights of Kansans with disabilities and older Kansans to appropriate, cost-effective home and community-based services and supports as he has done in the past.”

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

SHAWNEE COUNTY– Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man for alleged arson.

Just before 1p.m. Tuesday, fire crews responded to a report of a structure fire located at 1301 SW Harrison St. Apt. A21 in Topeka, according to a media release.

Upon arrival, fire crews advised light smoke coming from a residential apartment complex. Quick actions by occupants of the apartment complex led to early extinguishment of the fire, confining it to the front door area of apartment A21. Fire crews assisted in the complete extinguishment of smoldering materials.

Investigators were able to identify a suspect related to the fire and police arrested William Dean Foster, 37, for aggravated arson.

The investigation indicates the fire origin to be on the exterior deck/walkway of the apartment complex, outside of apartment A21. The cause of the fire has been classified as Incendiary; intentionally set.

One person was treated and released for minor injuries sustained as a result of fire. The estimated dollar loss – $4,700.00.

Foster has over a dozen previous convictions for theft, burglary and forgery in Shawnee, Reno and Aitchison County, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

HOLTON, Kan. (AP) — Northeast Kansas jurors in the second trial of a man facing a string of sexual assault charges that have divided the small town of Holton heard testimony from one of his accusers.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the woman testified Tuesday against Jacob Ewing, detailing for more than an hour how he allegedly sexually attacked her in May of last year during a struggle after a party at his home. She said she told Ewing she didn’t want to have sex.

Another alleged victim was expected to testify Wednesday.

The trial involves allegations from two of the five women Ewing is charged with sexually assaulting. Additional trials are scheduled in August and October.

During Ewing’s first trial in April, he was acquitted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The state of Kansas says its divorce rate has dropped to the lowest levels since it began keeping yearly records in 1966.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says last year’s divorce rate fell to 2.6 per 1,000 persons. There were 7,198 divorces statewide in 2016.

The department says that for much of the 1970s and 1980s, the divorce rate was above 5 per every 1,000 population.

The department offered no explanation for last year’s decline.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ two Republican senators are split over a GOP plan for overhauling health care that has been shelved.

Sen. Jerry Moran said Tuesday he was pleased by a delay of the Senate’s debate on the bill. He said it “missed the mark for Kansans” and did not have his support.

The Senate healthcare bill missed the mark for Kansans and therefore did not have my support.

— Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) June 27, 2017

Sen. Pat Roberts said Kansas “fared well” under the measure. Roberts said he’s open to further improvements but said Congress must pass legislation as soon as possible.

 

My statement on the delay of the Senate #healthcare vote: pic.twitter.com/xIed5ueqLF

— Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) June 27, 2017

Both issued statements after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced a debate would not occur until at least next month.

The GOP bill would roll back much of former President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 health care law. A congressional analysis Monday said 22 million more people would be uninsured by 2026.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The state is investigating allegations of physical abuse against toddlers at a YMCA day care center in Wichita.

Matt Keith, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, confirmed the agency is investigating allegations against a teacher at the South YMCA Early Learning Center but said he couldn’t provide details.

A mother of a 2-year-old boy at the day care said she was told by the Kansas Department for Children and Families that her son and two other children were allegedly shaken by a teacher. DCF spokeswoman Theresa Freed said she couldn’t confirm the agency’s involvement in an investigation.

Shelly Conrady, spokeswoman for Greater Wichita YMCA, said the organization is cooperating fully with the state investigation and is conducting its own investigation.

BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges.

On Saturday, police and sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at a home in the 200 Block of West First Street in Ellinwood, according to Police Chief Art Keffer.

Police arrested Eugene Merica, 53, for possession of methamphetamine, felony possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Merica’s bond on the Ellinwood Municipal Court case was set at $10,000.   He has previous convictions for the sale of drugs and DUI, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

OSAGE COUNTY – A Kansas man died in an accident just before 1:30p.m. Tuesday in Osage County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1997 Chevy Tahoe driven by Eric S. Lucas, 56, Redfield, was northbound on U.S. 75 just south of 117^th Street.

The SUV blew a tire, went east of the roadway, overturned in the ditch and the driver was ejected from the vehicle.

Lucas was pronounced dead at the scene.

A passenger in the vehicle Amanda Clara Lucas, 53, Redfield, was transported to Stormont Vail.

The driver was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is taking steps to roll back an Obama administration policy that protected more than half the nation’s streams from pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday outlined a process for rescinding a 2015 regulation that defines which waterways are covered under the Clean Water Act.

On his social media page, First District Representative Roger Marshall wrote, “I commend and thank the Trump Administration for their decisive and effective actions to repeal the misguided Waters of the United States rule.

As Kansas farmers, ranchers, businesses and even municipalities know all to well, WOTUS dramatically expanded the reach of the federal government with minimal improvements in water quality.

Today’s announcement serves as a tremendous relief to Kansans and provides the regulatory certainty we need to grow. This is yet another exciting step in fulfilling this Administration and Congress’ promise to return government to its proper role.”

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February ordering EPA to review the rule, which farmers, fossil fuel companies and property-rights groups have criticized as too strict. Environmentalists counter that the rule is essential to protecting water for human consumption and wildlife.

The agencies say they’ll move immediately to withdraw the existing measure as an interim step, then undergo a broader review of how far the federal government’s jurisdiction over the nation’s waters should reach.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal prosecutor in Kansas who said in court last year that she never listened to attorney-client phone calls at the Leavenworth Detention Center has left the U.S. Attorney’s Office after admitting to her supervisor that she did listen to the calls.

The Kansas City Star reports court documents filed June 19 show that Erin Tomasic told her supervisor she listened to the recorded phone conversations of two inmates and their attorneys. The prosecutors notified a judge in May that Tomasic was no longer working for the U.S. Attorney.

Days after Tomasic left her job, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson expanded an investigation into the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City, Kansas. The judge cited ongoing problems with the prosecutors’ “inconsistent” statements and the destruction of “critical evidence.”

WASHINGTON – Republican leaders Tuesday abruptly delayed the vote on their health care bill until after the July 4th recess.

The GOP faced five defections from its ranks just hours after the Congressional Budget Office said the bill would force 22 million off insurance rolls.

 

I am pleased with the decision to delay the vote – now is the time to take a step back and put the full legislative process to work.

— Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) June 27, 2017

Kansas Senator Jerry Moran said, “The Senate healthcare bill missed the mark for Kansans and therefore did not have my support.  I am pleased with the decision to delay the vote.

Now is the time to take a step back and take the full legislative process to work. I remain committed to continuing conversations with patients and providers in Kansas to find a path forward that truly replaces Obamacare with a plan that makes certain Kansans will have access to more affordable and better quality healthcare.”

Full statement on Senate healthcare legislation: pic.twitter.com/R9XFCa5p1F

— Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) June 27, 2017

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas car dealer has been arrested and fined for failing to pay a judgment for selling customers cars they couldn’t legally drive.

A judge ordered Justin Blevins on Friday to pay an extra $1,000 for failing to pay more than $860 in fines and court costs stemming from consumer complaints filed in December.

Avery Elofsson is chief of the Sedgwick County district attorney’s consumer protection division. He says Blevins’ dealership sold cars to more than 20 customers but didn’t give them the titles for the vehicles within 60 days, as state law requires.

Blevins was fined over the titles issues but failed to pay the money and missed a court appearance. He says he overlooked his mail and didn’t see the court summons.