TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —Kansas collected slightly more in taxes than it had expected in April.
The state Department of Revenue reported Monday that tax collections last month were $1.8 million more than anticipated.
The state collected about $639 million in taxes when it had anticipated about $637 million. The surplus for the month is 0.3 percent.
The report comes less than two weeks after state officials and university economists revised revenue projections through June 2019. The new forecast was a little more optimistic than the previous one issued in November.
Kansas has faced projected budget shortfalls totaling $889 million through June 2019. Lawmakers reconvened Monday after their annual spring break to finish work on closing the budget gaps. They are expected to increase income taxes.
SEDGWICK COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a fatal stabbing and have made two arrests.
Police booked an 18-year-old Yvonne Mosqueda for murder and robbery and a 28-year-old Boe Wayne Adams for murder, robbery, forgery, and resist, according to Monday’s online media b
Just before 4p.m. Friday, officers were dispatched to a home in the 800 block of N. Chautauqua in Wichita.
Mosqueda-photo Sedgwick Co.
They found the home owner Otto Meyer, 86, Wichita dead from multiple stab wounds, according to a social media report from police.
Police also reported locating the victim’s stolen 1989 Chevy extended cab, long bed pickup in a parking lot near Lawrence Dumont Stadium.
Police would not explain the relationship between the suspects and victim.
An audit found that the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which oversees the foster care system, could be “more proactive” in ensuring that contractors follow state and federal rules. The audit was presented Friday to a legislative committee. CREDIT FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
An audit of the Kansas foster care system found the state doesn’t ensure children are placed close to home or receive all services they need.
The Legislature’s independent auditing team presented the third part of its report on the Kansas foster care system Friday to the Legislative Post Audit Committee. The final part of the audit attempted to answer if the state’s two foster care contractors have sufficient resources to provide services and if privatization has improved children’s outcomes and lowered costs.
Kansas privatized its foster care system in 1997. Two contractors provide foster care services, with KVC Health Systems overseeing the eastern counties and Saint Francis Community Services taking Wichita and western Kansas.
Lawmakers have called for reform of the state’s foster care system after several high-profile child deaths and a string of record-breaking years for children in the system. As of late February, more than 6,900 children were in the state’s custody — up 34 percent since 2012.
Kristen Rottinghaus, a principal auditor, told the committee that some children had been placed as far as 100 miles from their homes even if a bed was available in their home county. She said that most children who needed mental health or medical services received them, but some didn’t or had long waits.
The Kansas Department for Children and Families, which oversees the foster care system, also could be “more proactive” in ensuring that contractors follow state and federal rules, Rottinghaus said. For example, some caseworkers hired to check on children in their foster homes don’t have the required two years of experience, she said.
DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said the department audited the contractors in 2012 and is continuously working with them on improvement plans. DCF took a hands-off approach with the contractors until a few years ago, she said.
“This is a culture shift for the agency,” she said. “As you know with all culture shifts, they come slowly.”
Oversight Questions
Deneen Dryden, director of prevention and protection services at DCF, told the committee that the department meets with the contractors weekly to work on improvements. She said the contractors wouldn’t agree that the department’s oversight wasn’t aggressive enough.
“I kind of chuckled inside” at that statement, she said.
Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, asked Dryden whether DCF had taken action after an earlier audit found the contractors sometimes waited as long as a year to check caseworkers’ names against the child abuse and neglect registry. Dryden said the department and the contractors were working together on a solution, which didn’t satisfy Kelly.
“That one doesn’t seem that complicated to me,” Kelly said. “It’s the state’s responsibility to oversee the contractors.”
The contractors also struggle to hire enough staff and enlist enough foster homes in some counties, Rottinghaus said.
“Overall, we found that the foster care system may not have sufficient capacity” to serve all children in it, she said. “We found there appeared to be enough (foster) beds statewide, but in some communities there were not enough beds.”
DCF has increased salaries for caseworkers, offered incentives to those who work in underserved areas, and provided laptops and cell phone alarms for employees when they work in the field, Gilmore said. Child welfare systems in other states also have trouble recruiting, she said.
Melissa Ness, a senior adviser with Saint Francis Community Services, told the committee that more services for families are needed at the community level.
“We can do our part, but we need other people to stand up and do their part to build a stronger system,” she said.
No Privatization Answer
The audit didn’t fully answer whether privatization has produced better foster care services. Kansas’ performance on federal foster care measurements has been about the same since 2000, Rottinghaus said.
Auditors didn’t offer an opinion on whether Kansas should stay with its privatized system but noted it could cost $8 million or more annually to transfer responsibility to DCF, which generally pays higher salaries.
The audit originated in December 2015, when the committee asked auditors to answer seven questions about the foster care system. They declined to include an eighth question about possible discrimination against same-sex couples who wanted to be foster parents.
The first part of the audit, released in July 2016, found DCF didn’t ensure that all scheduled monthly visits between children and caseworkers happened. It also found the department granted nearly all exceptions related to the number of children who could be in a home and didn’t require families to prove they had the financial resources to care for a child.
Gilmore said then that the problem with monthly visits was a record-keeping issue and that it had changed its policies to ensure children were placed in homes with adequate space and resources.
The second piece of the audit, released in September, found DCF complied with most federal rules related to foster care.
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.
Outage just before noon Monday-photo Western Coop Electric Assn-Red dots below indicate current meters that are without power.
DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are without power after a spring storm dumped more than a foot of snow across part of western Kansas.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Buller says that from 10 to nearly 20 inches fell from Friday night through Sunday afternoon in an approximately 40-mile wide band in northwest and west-central Kansas.
He says the heavy snow, combined with 40 to 60 mph winds, downed tree limbs. Drifts of up to 5 feet were recorded. Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Katie Horner says about 42,000 electric customers were without power at the height of the storm.
The storm briefly shut down Interstate 70, and other roads remained closed Monday. National Guard teams have been called out at least 40 times to rescue stranded motorists.
BARTON COUNTY – A Kansas woman died in an accident just before 1:30 p.m. Friday in Barton County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2009 Bush Hog ATV driven by Ashley Reichuber, 21, Ellinwood, was westbound in the north ditch along U.S. 56 six miles east of Ellinwood.
A 2015 Nissan passenger vehicle driven by Fernando Vega, 52, Kansas City, hit the ATV as Reichuber attempted to make a left turn onto 1st Road.
Reichuber and a passenger Abbie Reichuber, 19, Ellinwood, were transported to the hospital in Ellinwood where Ashley died, according to the KHP.
Vega and a passenger were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
police on the scene of Sunday’s shooting investigation -photo courtesy WIBW-TV
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities continue to investigate a shooting at a home that is a private business which provides residential services to those with special needs.
Just after 3p.m. Sunday, police responded to report of a shooting in the 4100 Block of SW 28th in Topeka, according to a media release.
When officers arrived at the residence they found five individuals in the home with gunshot wounds. Four were pronounced dead at the scene.
One person was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Police say the individual responsible identified as Joshua Gueary, 25, Topkea is among the deceased.
Police say Gueary shot and killed Larry Gueary, 29, Jesus Galvez, 64, and Soren Galvez, 20, all of Topeka. Jushua Gueary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.
Police continue to investigate at the residence and a vehicle that may have a connection to the crime.
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SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting at a home that is a private business which provides residential services to those with special needs.
Just after 3p.m. Sunday, police responded to report of a shooting in the 4100 Block of SW 28th in Topeka, according to an online media briefing.
When officers arrived at the residence they found five men with gunshot wounds. Four were pronounced dead at the scene.
One person was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Police believe the individual responsible is among the deceased.
When it comes to our core freedoms, is a “C+” grade good enough?
A new “First Amendment Report Card,” released by the First Amendment Center of the Newseum Institute, gives our First Amendment freedoms — religion, speech, press, assembly and petition — a barely passing grade.
The grades were assigned by 15 panelists from across the political spectrum, some of them experts on First Amendment issues overall, and some who focus on specific areas such as religion or press.
Gene Policinski is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center.
Assembly and petition — the rights to gather peaceably with like-minded people without government restriction or prosecution, and ask the government for changes in policies and practices — received the highest marks, at a “B-.” Religion and speech were graded at a “C+,” while press was given a “C.”
On press, for example, panelists pointed to President Trump’s campaign threat to “open up” libel laws in order to more easily sue media outlets; the administration blocking certain news organizations from attending White House briefings; the “fake news” phenomenon; and the president’s general enmity for the press.
Assembly and petition received the highest grades, with panelists noting that recent protests and political marches were classic demonstrations of both freedoms, and that the government took no action to crack down on them or the resulting media coverage.
Perhaps you — or I, since I didn’t participate in the grading — might have rated the freedoms differently. Good. That would mean we were thinking critically about those basic freedoms, which define us as citizens and enable our democracy to function as such.
And no doubt some will say that in a contentious world, and with an electorate split straight down the middle on most issues, it would be too much to expect a more favorable assessment of the First Amendment.
But I’ll admit that a “C+” leaves me uneasy.
For too long, too many of us have either taken those freedoms for granted, assuming that they will always be there, or considered them in narrow ways (believing, for example, that freedom of speech is not for those with whom we disagree, or that so-called fringe faiths are not really covered by freedom of religion).
Many more of us live in ignorance of the freedoms that were so dearly won. Each year, when results of the First Amendment Center’s State of the First Amendment survey are released, the survey consistently finds that large numbers of Americans — sometimes more than one-third — cannot name a single freedom provided by the 225-year old amendment.
The report card, titled “The First Amendment in the Age of Trump,” nonetheless reflects issues that are not limited to the president’s first 100 days, or to the time he spends in office.
Some of those issues have been simmering for years. The Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements raised issues around speech, assembly and petition to new levels of awareness. The “culture wars” around matters of faith — from the silly, such as whether to call them “Christmas” or “Holiday” trees, to the very serious, such as federal policies that may discriminate against Muslims — have raged for decades, and show no signs of abating.
Surveys dating well back into the 1990s chart a growing public apprehension about the credibility, motives and bias of the news media, and a worrisome erosion of support for the press’s role as a “watchdog on government.” Amidst worsening public opinion, journalists have also had to contend with shrinking resources as they attempt to track government officials’ performance and measure government effectiveness.
The quarterly report card is not intended, and could not be, the final word on our First Amendment freedoms — the issues are too complex and the disputes too numerous, and filled with far too many twists and turns.
But the grading system will serve to call our attention, particularly over time, to a need to defend one or more freedoms from momentary threats and longer-term assaults on our free expression and religious liberty rights.
Stay tuned — a new First Amendment Report Card will be issued each quarter, prompting us all to take a closer look at how we understand, defend and practice our First Amendment freedoms. And maybe one day we’ll get to add another grading area — one where you and I and our fellow citizens get an “A” for effort.
Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @genefac.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are returning from their annual spring break to fix the state budget and are waiting to hear whether tax collections met expectations in April.
The Senate was reconvening Monday morning and the House planned to gavel in Monday afternoon.
The state Department of Revenue is releasing a report Monday on tax collections in April. It comes less than two weeks after state officials revised revenue projections to make them a little more optimistic.
Kansas faces projected budget shortfalls totaling $889 million through June 2019. The state’s budget woes developed after GOP lawmakers slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging.
Legislators have been focused on rolling back those past income tax cuts despite Brownback’s resistance. He vetoed a tax bill in February.
EDWARDS COUNTY- A Kansas man died in an accident just after 9p.m. on Sunday in Edwards County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Buick Regal driven by Agustin
Bustamante-Alba, 38, Macksville, was eastbound on U.S. 50 two miles east of Kinsley.
The vehicle traveled left of center and collided with a westbound 2006 International truck driven by Locke, Kaleb Edward Locke, 25, Sedgwick.
Bustamante-Alba was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to McKillip Memorial Funeral Home.
Locke was transported to Edwards County Hospital. Complete details on seat belt usage was not available.
The Kansas Department of Transportation will temporarily close the Travel Information Center and rest area located along eastbound I-70 near milepost 7 in Sherman County on Monday.
The closure is necessary for plumbing repairs and access to the parking area will not be available during this time. KDOT expects the facility to reopen by the end of the week.
TOPEKA -Spring storms moving across Kansas this weekend brought a variety of weather issues.
The Kansas Division of Emergency Management activated the State Emergency Operations Center in Topeka on Sunday afternoon to a partial level in response to the severe winter storm system affecting the western region of the state and flooding in southeast Kansas.
The Kansas Department of Transportation reopened Interstate 70 at 5 a.m. Monday. Other roads in many areas of western Kansas remained closed.
The National Weather Service reported 17 inches of snow in Thomas County including the city of Colby; Stanton County 16 inches; Scott City and portions of Greeley County 15 inches; Rawlins County, Morton and Grant County 14 inches of snow.
Workers restored power to the city network in Garden City late Sunday afternoon. Localized outages still exist in Finney and other areas of southwest Kansas.
Officials opened Horace Good Middle School in Garden City as an emergency shelter for those in Finney County were still without power or are stranded and unable to get home.
In addition to the snow, officials in three counties in eastern Kansas had flooding.
A blizzard is forcing road closures across Western KS as a different scene unfolds in SE KS. Photo from Adam R. Smith in Frontenac #kswxpic.twitter.com/lc2Ca7Wra5
TOPEKA -Spring storms moving across Kansas this weekend brought a variety of weather issues.
The Kansas Division of Emergency Management activated the State Emergency Operations Center in Topeka on Sunday afternoon to a partial level in response to the severe winter storm system affecting the western region of the state and flooding in southeast Kansas.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, Governor Brownback declared a state of emergency in 13 western Kansas Counties and four more in southeast Kansas.
Early Sunday, the Kansas Department of Transportation closed Interstate 70 in Trego County and then at Hays.
That followed with multiple roads and highways in western Kansas closed due to heavy snowfall and blizzard-like conditions that made them impassible.
A large area of southwest Kansas experienced a major power outage due to the winter weather according to police in Garden City.
Finney County Emergency Management was set to open shelters. The city of Colby declared a snow emergency, according to Thomas County Emergency Management. Officials reported up to 17 inches of snow.
In addition to the snow, heavy rains caused flooding and flash floods in southeast Kansas.
KANSAS CITY – A Kansas City man was charged in federal court Friday with illegally possessing a firearm following the armed robbery of a Jimmy John’s restaurant in Kansas City on Thursday, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Terry K. Rayford, 54, of Kansas City, was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City.
Caught on camera: robbery at Jimmy Johns, 39th & Broadway, last night. VERY clear video. Can you help ID suspect? https://t.co/AlbgmPFe0n
Friday’s criminal complaint alleges that Rayford was in possession of a Witness-P .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a Jimenez 9mm semi-automatic handgun on Thursday, April 27, 2017.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the complaint, the firearms were found in Rayford’s vehicle after he was stopped by Independence, Mo., police officers at approximately 7:30 p.m. Officers received information about a person matching the description of the suspect in an armed robbery at a Jimmy John’s restaurant the day before. A retired major with the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department had seen video of the robbery broadcast on the news and saw Rayford – who appeared to be the robbery suspect – driving in the area of 40 Highway and Crysler in Independence.
Independence police officers responded to the area and stopped Rayford’s vehicle. When they ordered him to get out of his vehicle, officers found the Witness-P .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun lying on the driver’s side floorboard. Rayford was arrested and his vehicle towed. During an inventory of the vehicle, the Jimenez 9mm semi-automatic handgun was found in the back pouch of the front passenger seat.
Rayford told investigators he had stolen both of the handguns from his source of supply for crack cocaine, to whom he owed money.
Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Rayford has numerous felony convictions for first degree armed robbery and he was on parole at the time of the alleged offense.
Larson cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A private Catholic university in Kansas is planning to offer a support group for its LGBTQ students, using a model implemented at Notre Dame.
Newman University in Wichita says the group was formed in response to a growing interest to recognize diversity on campus. The group, called “Kaleidoscope,” met this semester but will officially launch next school year.
The Wichita Eagle reports Newman students tried unsuccessfully to form a LGBTQ group in the past. The growing interest prompted formation of committee, which worked over the summer and fall last year.
The club must not contradict Catholic teaching that LGBTQ students should be chaste because sex is condoned only in marriage between a man and woman.
The group will hold supportive meetings and plan events that recognize LGBTQ students.
