KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger says plans to renovate Memorial Stadium and build an indoor training facility are moving forward and will cost around $300 million.
The Kansas City Star reports that Zenger made the announcement Wednesday night at a meet-and-greet event for the football team at a Kansas City, Missouri, bar. He says architectural drawings are in the works and will be released to the public in September.
Zenger offered few details, saying he will speak more in the coming months after the designs are shown to fans.
Kansas football coach David Beaty says fans “deserve a really, really nice stadium.” He’s trying to turn around a program that ended with a 2-10 record last season.
University officials have considered a stadium overhaul for more than a decade.
Probst speaking during Wednesday’s Democrat session in Reno County
RENO COUNTY- Democrats on Wednesday selected Jason Probst to fill vacant 102nd Kansas House seat.
Probst, who describes himself as an antagonistic columnist and pot stirrer, was elected over three other candidates on the first ballot. He is a newspaper editor and opinion writer in Hutchinson.
He replaces Patsy Terrell who died June 7, at a Topeka hotel during the final week of the 2017 legislative session.
Probst said he is strongly against Governor Sam Brownback and Secretary of State, governor candidate Chris Kobach.
He also said that he will try to follow in Terrell’s footsteps but also be his own legislator in Topeka.
After his nomination Probst signed paperwork, and the matter will now go before Governor Brownback for his approval followed by a swearing in ceremony next week in Topeka.
Terrell’s two-year term ends in January 2019, but Probst could run for a full term next year. He is expected to resign his newspaper job, according to a report by the Associated Press.
SEWARD COUNTY – A Kansas teen died in an accident just after 7p.m. Wednesday in Seward County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Polaris ATV driven by Seth Fitzgerald, 16, Liberal, was westbound in the 9800 Block of Road 9 north of Liberal at a high rate of speed,
The driver lost control of the vehicle. It started to fish tail, entered a skid, tripped in the dirt and came to rest on the passenger side facing east.
A passenger Brett Michael Cunningham, 14, Liberal, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Kitch Brenneman Funeral Home.
SEWARD COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a wanted felon after an arrest.
Just after 3p.m. Wednesday, the Liberal Police Department Special Response Team served a search warrant at a residence in the 1000 block of Calvert Avenue, according to a media release.
The search warrant was obtained for the apprehension of Rodrigo Cano-Alvarado. He was wanted in Texas County, Oklahoma as well as Liberal and Seward County.
After a short standoff, Cano-Alvarado and two other occupants of the residence were taken into custody. No injuries were reported.
Cano-Alvarado is being held in the Seward County Jail on warrants for probation violation, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, criminal possession of a firearm, eluding officers and criminal deprivation of property. A 20-year-old male and a 24-year-old female were taken into custody for aiding a felon.
TOPEKA — On a national level, if insurance fraud was a business, it would be a Fortune 500 company, according to national reports. It is, by all accounts, the second largest economic crime in the United States; only tax evasion exceeds it.
“Statistics from the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud show that insurance fraud costs upwards of $80-120 billion annually across all lines of insurance,” said Ken Selzer, CPA, Kansas Commissioner of Insurance. “Most importantly, it can add hundreds of dollars to annual insurance premiums, because companies include that cost of doing business in the premiums you pay.”
This type of fraud concerns the intentional misrepresentation of facts and circumstances to an insurance company in order to obtain payment that would not otherwise be made. According to the Coalition, the illegal activity accounts for 5-10 percent of claims costs for United States and Canadian insurers.
Current schemes are identity theft, hacking, employee-agent activity, and claims. The reasons for committing fraud are as numerous as the people who commit it — the need for money for some legitimate (in their minds) or illegitimate activity, or maybe just plain greed.
But whatever the motivation, when the anti-fraud division of the Kansas Insurance Department (KID) receives a report of suspected fraud, the department investigators first make a determination about the alleged activity in terms of who should actually do the investigation, Commissioner Selzer said.
Some reports are clearly not insurance fraud and are placed with an appropriate outside investigative agency. Others are not insurance fraud but are consumer issues or market conduct issues that other divisions in KID could investigate.
Information from consumers is often forwarded to an insurance company’s special investigative unit, and some cases that are clearly violations of federal law are referred to a federal investigative agency, such as the FBI.
If the anti-fraud investigators determine that suspected fraud falls within the insurance law in Kansas Statutes, then the investigators interview witnesses, take statements and collect and analyze evidence, Commissioner Selzer said. Once everything is complete, they make a decision on the merit of the case by asking two simple questions: Was it really insurance fraud? Did the facts warrant a prosecution?
If the answers are Yes, then the investigators review the case with the KID In-House Special Assistant Attorney General to determine who prosecutes the case and where the case will be filed. This process involves the KID Legal Division and the Attorney General’s office.
“This process will be enhanced beginning July 1, when the Kansas Securities Commissioner’s office will realign as part of the Kansas Insurance Department,” said Commissioner Selzer. “The passage of the legislation to make that effective includes increased prosecutorial powers for the Attorney General and a collaboration of the combined agencies for more efficient anti-fraud investigations.”
Readers who suspect any type of fraudulent Kansas insurance activity should contact the KID Anti-Fraud Division by calling 1-800-432-2484.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for forging her ex-husband’s signature on official documents and fleeing to Europe with her two daughters.
Thirty-four-year-old Samantha Elmer was ordered Tuesday to serve six months home confinement as part of her sentence for aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors say Elmer used the forged documents to obtain passports for her 9- and 11-year-old daughters.
Authorities say Elmer took the girls in October 2015 and boarded a flight from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to Vienna, via Istanbul, ahead of a custody hearing and a trial on theft charges in Missouri. The girls’ father called police when the girls missed six days of school.
The girls were reunited in December 2015 with their father, who lives in Smithville, Missouri.
RILEY COUNTY -A Kansas man has been sentenced to over 50-years in prison for the March 2016 kidnapping a 19-year-old woman in Manhattan.
Sergio Guerra, 39, Wichita, was sentenced Monday on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, according to the Riley County Attorney’s Office.
Guerra was found not guilty on a count of Attempted Rape.
Police say Guerra approached the victim while she attempted to start her car in the 500 Block of Richards Drive in Manhattan.
He entered her vehicle and attempted to drive off with her inside. She attempted to escape, however, was unable to completely exit through the passenger side door and fell to the ground.
She sustained significant non-life threatening injuries after being dragged by her vehicle for approximately 800 feet while attempting to flee, according to police.
Officers with the Riley County Police Department Investigations Division identified the suspect and with the assistance of the Wichita Police Department were able to locate and arrest Guerra.
In voting for a $1.2 billion tax increase to bolster the budget for the next two years, the Kansas Legislature avoided a projected $900 budget hole and began restoring past cuts to the mental health system.
The final budget bill that lawmakers approved earlier this month includes funding to partially restore cuts to community mental health centers over the past decade, but offers a mixed picture for the two state psychiatric hospitals. The bill also designates $4.7 million to reopen 20 beds at Osawatomie State Hospital or to pay another facility to make them available through a contract.
Gov. Sam Brownback has received the bill but has yet to take action on it. The governor’s initial budget proposal from the start of the session would have cut about $20 million from Osawatomie and Larned state hospitals by declining to replace lost federal funding.
The state-run psychiatric hospitals are for Kansans with serious mental health issues who have been deemed a danger to themselves or others. Since 2015, Osawatomie State Hospital has run 60 beds below its capacity of 206 and no longer takes voluntary patients.
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services initially closed some units at Osawatomie State Hospital to allow for federally mandated renovations but didn’t reopen them after federal officials decertified the hospital and cut federal payments in December 2015 due to unsafe conditions. That has cost the state about $1 million a month in Medicare reimbursements.
During a recent visit to Osawatomie State Hospital as part of the recertification process, inspectors found new issues. But KDADS officials say those are being resolved and inspectors will return for another visit.
Although KDADS had requested steady funding for Osawatomie State Hospital in the upcoming fiscal year, the Legislature appropriated about $5.1 million less, possibly believing the hospital would soon regain federal payments. Lawmakers did instruct the Kansas State Finance Council to review funding for Osawatomie State Hospital later in the upcoming fiscal year, however.
De Rocha said she doesn’t anticipate that budget cuts will be needed at Osawatomie State Hospital before federal payments resume or lawmakers return to appropriate more money.
Reopening 20 beds
Earlier in the legislative session, KDADS Secretary Tim Keck told lawmakers that he would be cautious about reopening beds at Osawatomie State Hospital because of the need to hire more staff. For several years, KDADS officials struggled to maintain adequate staffing levels at the state psychiatric hospitals but recently launched efforts to recruit new employees and improve work conditions and patient care.
Angela de Rocha, spokeswoman for KDADS, said department officials haven’t decided whether to reopen any beds at Osawatomie State Hospital in the near future, but she expects at least some of the 20 beds will be provided by contractors.
Click to Expand
Amy Campbell, who lobbies of behalf of the Kansas Mental Health Coalition, said opening 20 beds at Osawatomie State Hospital won’t solve the problem of Kansans waiting in emergency rooms or jails for a psychiatric hospital bed. But she said the funding for the beds is a positive step.
Lawmakers might have to come up with more money for Osawatomie State Hospital quickly when they return in January if federal payments don’t resume, Campbell said, but their investment in mental health suggests they don’t intend to shortchange the state hospitals.
“It doesn’t give me much heartburn, when you consider the money they’ve put on the ground to support these other programs,” she said.
While it isn’t clear when Osawatomie State Hospital might regain federal payments, it likely will remain in state hands, at least through 2018.
Keck had proposed the idea of privatizing the hospital in 2016, but met with a backlash from lawmakers, who inserted provisions into several bills to forbid selling off the state hospital without their permission. KDADS issued a request for bids to operate the hospital and received one, from a company with a history of safety issues at its Florida facilities. KDADS officials didn’t bring a proposal before the Legislature this session for approval, and De Rocha said they continue to evaluate the bid.
More for mental health centers
Community mental health centers will benefit from an increased fee on some insurance plans, which will help replace a 4 percent cut to Medicaid providers. Brownback made the cuts, which were estimated to produce $56 million in savings, to close a budget gap in 2016.
If the fee produces more than enough to replace the rate cuts, mental health centers also could receive up to $3.5 million to divide. Lawmakers also appropriated $4 million from the state general fund for the centers.
Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, says additional funding that the Legislature approved this session will ease some financial pressures for community mental health centers. CREDIT FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The new money won’t entirely restore the $20 million that mental health centers have lost since 2007, but it will ease some of the pressure on them, said Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas.
The centers have to treat all patients who comes to them with serious mental illnesses, regardless of their ability to pay, Kessler said. Because they can’t treat fewer patients, they’ve dealt with funding shortfalls by leaving positions open, holding off on pay increases and cutting support services. Additional money could help with retaining staff and offering patients more comprehensive services, he said.
“We can’t stop serving people because there’s no funding,” he said. “We’re serving more people than we have before, under more difficult circumstances.”
However, Brownback vetoed a bill that have would allocated funding from new lottery ticket vending machines to crisis centers and clubhouse programs, which help people with serious mental illnesses to learn job and life skills.
The mental health centers didn’t get as much funding as they sought this year, but Kessler said he was “encouraged” by lawmakers’ interest in mental health issues this session. He and other association members testified before committees more often than in the past, and found receptive ears in both parties, he said.
“The future looks bright. We have a lot of work to do, but this is a good start,” he said.
Lawmakers also showed an interest in mental health during the 2016 session when they appropriated more money for the state hospitals, Campbell said, but repairing the damage from a decade of reduced investment will take more than a few years.
“It’s taken us more than 10 years to get into this crisis,” she said. “It would be overly optimistic to get out in a year.”
Other legislative actions related to health this session will:
Appropriate $3 million from a federal block grant for the Healthy Families, which uses home visiting to prevent children abuse and neglect.
Appropriate $20.3 million to increase wages for workers providing home and community-based services to people with physical or mental disabilities.
Direct the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to contract with someone to inspect dialysis clinics.
Meg Wingerter is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @MegWingerter.
TOPEKA–After a successful pilot in Lawrence, the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, through its partnership with the Mid-America Arts Alliance, is announcing additional Artist INC “What Works” workshops in communities throughout Kansas.
Artist INC is a regional cutting edge training program that empowers individual artists in all disciplines to take control of their careers by connecting them to the tools, resources, and opportunities necessary to develop their entrepreneurial skills and strengthen their artistic practice.
Artists, just like traditional small business owners, have to wear many hats—creator, fabricator, accountant, marketer, technologist, and more. And, just like traditional small business owners, artists can find this to be a daunting task. How do some artists make the leap to sustainable and profitable artistic practices? Through their work with over 500 artists (from musicians, to writers, to painters, to filmmakers), the Artist INC program has identified the common behaviors of successful artist entrepreneurs.
In their free What Works/What Doesn’t? Workshop, Artist INC presenters (all successful working artists) will share those behaviors and leave participating artists ready to apply them to their own art practice. The workshop includes a discussion of portfolio careers; goal setting and planning, communications strategy; financial planning. The last 30 minutes of the workshop is dedicated to audience needs.
Hosted by local arts organizations, the Artist INC What Works workshop will be available to artists in the following communities and surrounding areas in June:
Wichita
6-7:30 p.m./Thursday, June 29, 2017
Harvester Arts, 215 N. Washington St.
Host: Harvester Arts
In addition to the above workshops, Artist INC programs include the Artist INC Live eight-week seminar that focuses on professional development and business training for emerging and mid-career artists. Gathering for one night a week for eight weeks, participants learn business skills specific to their art practice and how to apply those skills cooperatively with their peers. Using a ground breaking class design, artists learn and grow together through artist facilitator mentoring, small group application activities, as well as large group discussion and multi-media lecture.
Hosted by the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, KS, artists in Douglas and Shawnee counties have recently completed their second year of Artist Inc Live.
If you have any questions about an individual program, please feel free to contact the host organizations directly.
KCAIC will schedule two additional workshops throughout the summer. To check on additional offerings as they are added: Artist INC Kansas.
Originally launched in 2007 as KCArtistLink, in partnership with ArtsKC, Charlotte Street Foundation, and the UMKC Innovation Center, Artist INC has expanded since 2013 through a collaborative partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance to communities throughout the Midwest including Argenta and Springdale, Arkansas; Austin and Houston, Texas; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska, and Lawrence, Kansas.
SALINE COUNTY -A Salina bank notified a 75-year-old man that he had been involved in a scam that left him out $6,000, according to Salina Police Sgt. James Feldman.
The man from Lucas reported to the Salina police that he was contacted in April by someone claiming to be with Publishers Clearing House.
The imposter told the victim that he had won an exotic car and millions of dollars in cash that would be delivered in the next few days.
Sgt. Feldman said the man was then instructed to send a money order of $195 to help cover taxes. The victim sent a personal check.
Authorities say that the personal check was used to withdraw $6,000 from his bank account after he refused to send them an addition $2,000.
“We are just reminding people that these are scams and real contests will not ask for money,” Feldman said.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City man was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 50 years for a man’s death outside an Overland Park nightclub.
James Willis was sentenced Wednesday for first-degree murder in the September 2015 death of 24-year-old Jurl Carter of Olathe. Willis’ brother, Dale Willis, was previously sentenced to life in prison in the case.
Carter was a rapper called “Bo Boogy.” Dale Willis also was a rapper and owned a Kansas City record company.
Carter was killed outside Jim Kilroy’s Roxy Bar after an altercation with Dale Willis.
Dale Willis – photo Johnson Co.
The Kansas City Star reports witnesses said Carter was in a vehicle when he was shot several times. Prosecutors said Dale Willis told his brother to shoot Carter.
James Willis testified he shot Carter in self-defense.
KANSAS CITY-(AP) — The Kansas City Zoo says a 31-year-old male chimpanzee died in an accidental fall from a tree.
The zoo said Wednesday the chimp, called Bahati, climbed a tree while interacting with other chimps. He fell to the ground after grabbing a dead branch and died from injuries from the fall.
Zookeepers estimate Bahati fell 30 to 40 feet.
The zoo says its chimp area includes natural trees, which are monitored by staff and professionally trimmed annually.
Bahati was born at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita in 1986. He came to Kansas City in February this year from Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo.
Law enforcement authorities investigating Tuesday’s shooting west of Hillsboro in Marion County-photo courtesy KWCH
MARION COUNTY –Law enforcement authorities are investigating an officer-involved shooting in Marion County.
Just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call reporting an escalating argument and domestic incident involving a man identified as 50-year-old Rob Stewart who had access to firearms at a home at 408 E. Maria in Lehigh, Kansas, according to a media release.
The preliminary information indicates that shortly after arriving, they observed Stewart with a gun moving from the residence to a large outbuilding, which was located to the north of the house.
At that time, responding officers from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Marion Police Department, and the Hillsboro Police Department surrounded the outbuilding. Approximately 15 minutes later, Stewart emerged from the building with a gun. He was given commands by authorities to drop his gun, and did not comply. Shots were fired by an officer at the scene.
EMS was then called to the location and pronounced him dead. Stewart lived at the residence.
No law enforcement officers were injured during this incident. However, an officer was transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure. The officer has since been released.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation will complete a thorough and independent investigation into this matter. Once completed, the findings will be turned over to the Marion County Attorney for review.
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MARION COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Tuesday evening officer-involved shooting in Lehigh, according to a media release from the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.
The KBI is assisting with the investigation. They expect to release additional details on Wednesday.
