By BRYAN THOMPSON

The Republican majority in Congress is intent on repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Freshman Kansas 1st District Rep. Roger Marshall is on board. So he’s gathering input from constituents on how to proceed with repealing and replacing the ACA with what he calls needed “free-market reforms.”

The Great Bend Republican recently mailed a survey to 50,000 households in the Big First.

“The purpose of this survey was to let me have some science behind my feelings that everywhere I go, health care is a big concern,” says Marshall. “Based upon this survey, we’ll see specifically how ‘loud’ of an issue this is for my constituents.”

However, the three-question survey designed by Marshall and his staff is not likely to produce scientifically valid results, according to Mike Walker, of the Docking Institute for Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University. Walker, who designs and analyzes surveys regularly, says the questions could lead people to certain responses.

Walker says the first question is especially problematic. It asks, “Have you seen your healthcare premiums or healthcare costs rise since the passage of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act?”

“That should be broken down into maybe three or four questions,” says Walker. “Some of my health care costs may have gone up since the time ACA was passed. That’s a whole ‘nother issue of whether or not the ACA caused them to go up.”

Walker also notes that the survey is accompanied by a letter from Marshall declaring the Affordable Care Act a failure.

“That kind of raises the red flag right there, that it’s really more of a public relations ploy, I think, instead of an actual survey,” Walker says.

The Director of the Docking Institute, Gary Brinker, says it’s impossible to say for sure what Marshall’s motives are, but the survey looks to him like a “push poll”.

“People use these survey tactics when the purpose of the survey is to support an agenda, not to collect valid data on the way people truly feel about an issue,” says Brinker.

Nonetheless, Marshall thinks his survey is worthwhile.

“I’m not an expert on questionnaires like this. I’m open to suggestions, but I think there will be some valuable data out of this when it’s all said and done,” says Marshall.

His staff says thousands of responses have been received already, and more are pouring in daily. The deadline for returning the survey is the end of March. Marshall’s office promises to post the results of the survey through social media, a press release, and their weekly newsletter.

Marshall got an unexpected response to his survey mailer from constituents who showed up at a ribbon-cutting for his new field office in Salina Friday.

“Your first postcard is just Republican crap, to be quite blunt,” said Manhattan resident Christopher Renner. Instead of asking if premiums have gone up under the Affordable Care Act, Renner asserted the survey should have asked whether constituents now have healthcare coverage.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for kcur.org‘s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas.

SALINE COUNTY-Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect for alleged residential burglary.

Just after 11:30p.m. on Saturday, a Saline County couple returned to their residence in the 2000 Block of North Niles Road in Northeast Saline County and found an intruder Phillip Hamilton, 21, Abilene, sitting on a golf cart in their garage, according to Sheriff Roger Soldan.

Hamilton allegedly forced his way into the home, damaging a refrigerator, stove, drywall, the cellar door and a china hutch. Some prescription pain medication was also reported missing.

Hamilton waited for law enforcement to arrive after being discovered, according to Soldan.

He faces burglary and felony damage to property charges. Damages were estimated at $3,391.

RILEY COUNTY- A Sunday night fire caused substantial damage to a home in Riley County.

Just after 11:30p.m. fire crews were dispatched to a duplex in the 200 Block of Eleventh Street in Ogden.

The home was reported was fully engulfed in flames, According to Riley County Fire Chief Pat Collins Manhattan Fire District.

Crews knocked down the initial fire in the kitchen area.

Collins said it took firefighters about three hours to put out the blaze and overhaul the burned area.

An electrical short in the attic above the kitchen door is believed to have started the fire.

All the occupants were outside at the time of the blaze.

No injuries were reported. The fire resulted in approximately $35,000 damage to the building and $2,000 – $3,000 to lost contents.

The occupants are being assisted by the Topeka Chapter of the American Red Cross.

JOHNSON COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Johnson County are investigating a burglary at a Kansas High School.

Just after noon on Sunday, police were dispatched to the Gardner–Edgerton High School (USD 231) at 425 N. Waverly for reported damage to the interior of the school, according to a media release.

School District employees told police they found forced entry into the school and significant vandalism throughout the school.

Due to the extent of the damage and the time needed for cleanup and repair, USD 231 canceled classes for GEHS students for Monday.

Video retrieved from the school’s security system shows three male suspects approximately 18-25 years of age.

It is unknown at this time the dollar amount associated with the damages or what additional loss of property may have occurred.

Anyone with information about this crime or the suspects in the video please call the Gardner Police Department at 913-856-7312 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

SHAWNEE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating a suspect after a long Sunday standoff at a home in Topeka.

Just after 3:30p.m. on Sunday police a vehicle stop on a known wanted suspect. The driver initiated a short police chase and the occupants fled the vehicle in the 1300 Block of Morrison in Topeka, according to a media release.

The suspects then entered an unoccupied residence. Police made contact and immediately arrested one suspect. As officers entered the residence, the known wanted suspect climbed out a 2nd story window and onto the roof.
Just after 11p.m. police negotiators were able to convince the suspect to leave the home and he was taken into custody. There were no injuries and no additional details released.

HARPER COUNTY — The second earthquake in two days and 6th this month shook Kansas early Monday.

The quake just after 2:30 a.m. on Monday measured 2.8 according to the U.S. Geological Survey and was centered 12 miles west of Harper.

The 1 a.m. quake on Sunday measured a magnitude 2.5 and was centered approximately 15 miles west of Harper.

On February 22, a 3.3 quake was centered approximately four miles northeast of Anthony in Harper County.

On February 16, a 2.7 magnitude quake was reported approximately 16 miles east of Anthony.
On February 13, a 3.3 quake hit just north of the Oklahoma State line in Sumner County.  On February 12, a 3.1 magnitude quake shook 16 miles northwest of Harper.

There were no reports of damage or injuries from the Monday morning quake, according to the Harper County authorities.

BARTON COUNTY – Three people were injured in an accident just before 6 p.m. on Sunday in Barton County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1994 Chevy 1500 driven by Travis Newkirk, 40, Hoisington, was westbound on NE 140 Road three miles north of Hoisington.

Due to the sun setting he didn’t see a 1995 Chevy 1500 driven by David Collier, 65, Hoisington, that was stopped facing west at NE 60 Avenue.

Newkirk’s vehicle hit the 1995 Chevy 1500.

Both drivers and a passenger in the 1995 Chevy Gloria Collier, 65, Hoisington, were transported to Clara Barton Hospital.

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

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The BTK serial killer’s daughter is writing a book about dealing with the emotional trauma of discovering that her father had killed 10 people.

Kerri Rawson says she hopes the book help people cope with anxiety, post-traumatic stress, betrayal and depression. Rawson says she experienced all those things after her father’s 2005 arrest.

Rawson, who lives in Detroit, says writing the book is helping her.

Thomas Nelson publishing, which specializes in Christian books, has expressed interest in Rawson’s book.

Police investigators who arrested Rader believed that Rawson and the rest of Rader’s family didn’t know about his crimes committed between 1974 and 1991.

Rader called himself BTK, which stood for “bind, torture, kill.” He is serving a life sentence in prison.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts is facing a daunting task as drafting begins on the 2018 Farm Bill amid challenges confronting farmers in the President Donald Trump era.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Trout fishing suddenly has gotten better at a Kansas lake.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that workers from Crystal Lake Fisheries of Ava, Missouri, on Saturday released about 7,000 pounds of trout into Lake Shawnee near Topeka.

Shawnee County Parks and Recreation Department spokesman Mike McLaughlin said the annual fish release was started by former parks director and county commissioner Ted Ensley.

McLaughlin says fishing at the lake was halted Saturday and will resume at 6 a.m. March 4, giving the trout a chance to acclimate to the water and disperse through the lake.

KANSAS CITY – A former Kansas City woman was sentenced in federal court Thursday for engaging in a fraud scheme in which she stole $440,000 in lottery winnings from her victim as part of a scheme that resulted in a total loss of more than $640,000, according toTammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Freya Pearson, 44, of Conyers, Ga., formerly of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to five years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Pearson to pay $640,667 in restitution to her victims.

On Oct. 27, 2016, Pearson was found guilty at trial of three counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion and one count of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (related to her application for federal housing benefits).

According to evidence presented during the trial, Pearson convinced her 61-year-old victim to transfer $480,000 into the bank account of an organization called Recidivism at Work (RAW), a nonprofit entity Pearson established, which was opened the day before her victim made the first wire transfer. This victim, who had been working as a housekeeper at Research Hospital before going on disability and who lived in public housing, won $2.4 million in the Missouri Lottery in 2008. After setting money aside for taxes then purchasing a home for herself, a home for a daughter and a car for another daughter, she established an annuity to provide approximately $30,000 per year for the rest of her life. As a result of Pearson’s fraud scheme, however, she is now financially insolvent and had to take a reverse mortgage in order to keep her home.

Pearson convinced her victim she was a friend and falsely represented herself as a financial advisor. Pearson instructed the victim to withdraw her lottery winnings from the annuity account. The victim made three wire transfers in April, May and June 2010 to deposit the funds into Pearson’s RAW checking account. Whether the money was an investment or a business loan, Pearson materially omitted to disclose to the victim that she would use the money to gamble and for her own personal expenses. A partial summary of Pearson’s gambling expenses, which began the day after the first wire transfer, was over $96,000. Pearson also spent $12,000 on travel, purchased three vehicles (a Cadillac Escalade, a Pontiac Sunfire and a Chevrolet Tahoe) and spent money on restaurants, shopping and other personal expenses while she lived in the St. Louis, Mo., metropolitan area. Pearson made payments to her victim of approximately $1,200 per month for a little over a year before she quit paying her altogether – a total of approximately $38,000. No identifiable money was used for the nonprofit entity, and little for any business purpose.

When she met the victim in 2010, Pearson was unemployed and her only income came from child support and Social Security benefits for one of her children. While she was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from her victim’s lottery winnings, Pearson applied for and received federally subsidized housing benefits under the Section 8 program meant to assist low income residents. In March 2010, Pearson applied with the Weston Housing Authority (in Platte County, Mo.) for Section 8 benefits – claiming that she was unemployed and homeless. Based on these representations, the Weston Housing Authority arranged for the rental of a duplex in Kansas City-North, with housing authority paying $875 per month and Pearson paying $200 per month. Although Pearson didn’t actually live in the Kansas City residence, she continued to receive federal benefits after moving to Orange County, Calif., in March 2012, until she was terminated from program for fraud in 2014. Pearson received a total of $76,837 in federal housing benefits over four years. In 2011, Pearson also began receiving welfare and/or food stamp benefits.

Pearson filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2, 2010, but did not disclose the RAW bank accounts, which had total balances of $56,506. Pearson received a discharge of her debts (totaling more than $90,000) on March 15, 2011.

Pearson filed no tax return for tax year 2010, and thus did not pay income taxes of $122,000 that would have been due on the $441,830 of taxable income Pearson received as a result of defrauding her victim.

Pearson defrauded the victim of a total of $441,830. Pearson evaded $122,000 in federal income tax. Pearson defrauded the Weston Housing Authority of $76,837 in housing benefits. Pearson thus caused a total loss of at least $640,667.

According to court documents, while on bond awaiting trial in this case, Pearson also made false statements on a credit application at a Conyers, Ga., car dealership in order to purchase a vehicle. Pearson listed a false address and false employment and income on her credit application.

By Brendan Dzwierzynski
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — After debating the practicality of requiring consent to hunt on someone else’s private property, the House Committee of the Whole re-referred Sub HB 2207 back to the Committee on Agriculture, where it was originally introduced last month.

If a wounded animal entered private property, the current iteration of the bill would require hunters to get permission from the private land owner in order to follow the animal onto the property.

Rep. Lonnie Clark (R-Junction City) moved to re-refer the bill back to the Committee on Agriculture, describing Thursday’s discussion of the bill as controversial.

“I think is more law on top of law, and I don’t think it’s going to create any kind of a mechanism to halt this,” Clark said. “It’s just something else on the books.”

Rep. Joe Seiwert (R-Pretty Prairie), who presented the bill Thursday, argued that the bill has been discussed enough in committee already.

“I would assume if you own property that you would like the right to know who’s on your property,” Seiwert said. “We’ve debated this quite extensively in committee.”
“Mr. Speaker, I see no reason at all to send this back, because it’s real simple: You either have permission to be there, or you don’t,” Seiwert said.

Rep. Eric Smith (R-Burlington) was the first to speak against the bill, arguing that needing permission to enter private property after a wounded animal is impractical, using his own experiences in hunting as an example.
“I hunt next to property that’s owned by investors out of Kansas City … I guess I’ve got to get a hold of that office and see if they can track down the guy, who’s probably on a business trip in San Francisco, and see if he’ll sign permission for me to go over there and get my deer,” Smith said.

In 2016, the state added a constitutional amendment to protect the right to hunt. Smith referenced this in his argument, saying that the bill is just something that will push local hunters away.

According to its fiscal note, the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism indicates the bill would have no fiscal effect on the department. However, the Office of Judicial Administration indicates it could have a fiscal effect in terms of new cases and more time spent processing, but it could not define an estimate.

Brendan Dzwierzynski is a University of Kansas senior journalism major from LaGrange Park, Illinois.

By JIM MCLEAN

Members of the Kansas congressional delegation are under fire — like many of their colleagues across the country — for ducking town-hall meetings with their constituents.

At the Kansas GOP convention earlier this month, two of them explained their reaction to raucousness at their offices.

“And I’m here to tell you, we will not be bullied,” Yoder said. “We are ready to take the fight to Washington, D.C. We will not let these folks bully us.”

Asked later about his criticism of the demonstrators, Yoder softened a bit.

“I’ve often said I represent everyone no matter what political party they’re in, whether they are a Democrat, Independent or a Republican,” he said. “But at the same time, to the extent that people want to try to intimidate members of Congress from doing what they said they were going to do in their campaigns and carrying out their promises, we can’t be bullied.”

Speaking to the same breakfast audience at the state GOP convention, Sen. Pat Roberts said his staff had to call the police when a crowd of more than 200 showed up at his Overland Park office for a protest staged by the activist group Indivisible KC. He referred to the group as “invisible” because of their propensity to appear out of nowhere.

Repeating the unsubstantiated claim that paid protestors are staging the events, Roberts said their goal is to “delegitimize Donald Trump as president.”

“This is intimidation,” he said. “This is a fight folks.”

Cheryl Schoenberg, a small-business owner from Leawood who regularly attends Indivisible KC’s Tuesday “resist Trump” rallies, scoffed at the suggestion that she and others were attempting to intimidate Roberts and his staff

“Senator Roberts has no idea what he’s talking about because he’s never spoken to any of us,” Schoenberg said as she left Roberts’ office with a small group of protesters after meeting with his staff.

“We come in here, we’re nice, we’re polite,” she continued. “We’re not paid people. And most everybody sitting in that room every week is a moderate. We just want to see moderate movement forward for the nation, not see far left or far right movement.”

Outside, the atmosphere was more spirited. About 100 people chanted and carried signs protesting the planned repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the rollback of environmental regulations, among other things.

Paffi Flood, a stay-at-home mom from Leawood, turned out to join those calling for an independent, public investigation into the Trump administration’s ties to Russia.

“We want something transparent, we want it bipartisan,” Flood said. “When it is a select committee, that means the public gets to know what is actually found in the investigation.”

Like many of the demonstrators, Flood and Schoenberg are newcomers to political activism.

“As a child I went one time with my mother on a protest when they were cutting down an old-growth tree in my hometown. Other than that, I’ve never been to a protest,” Schoenberg said, adding that prior to joining Indivisible she had never called a member of Congress.

“I am a moderate Republican who is just appalled at what’s going on in this nation,” she said.

Yoder says people’s natural resistance to change is part of what is fueling the anti-Trump movement, which he said is similar to but not the same as the Tea Party movement triggered by President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

“I think the difference in this case is that many of these folks have tried to delegitimize the president from the very day he was sworn into office,” Yoder said.  “We should all be rooting for the president to be successful, and I don’t know that’s what everyone is doing.”

Organizers plan to continue their protests for at least the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. Whether the anti-Trump movement can achieve the staying power of the Tea Party or rival its influence in Congress is one of those wait-and-see questions.

Jim McLean is managing director of KCUR’s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.