GOODLAND – The High Plains Roosters chapter of Pheasants Forever announces their upcoming youth upland bird hunt, March 1, in Sherman County (Road 67 and 17). The hunt is open to all youth age 10-15, and no previous hunting experience is required.

“Our volunteers pride themselves on the ability to accommodate youth hunters of all experience levels,” said Pheasants Forever, Inc. and Quail Forever Kansas Outreach Coordinator, Brian Schaffer in a news release. “These are very seasoned sportsmen who make every effort to pass on our hunting heritage in a safe, enjoyable environment.”

The event will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday with a pre-hunt safety seminar. Then hunters and mentors will hunt various species of upland birds including ring-necked pheasants and chukar on the grounds of a local controlled shooting area. Following the hunt, participants can also partake in shotgun shooting, bird cleaning, and a D.A.R.E. program provided by the local sheriff’s office. Lunch and refreshments will be provided and there is no cost to attend. All participants must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

“If your child has an interest in hunting, but maybe doesn’t know where to start, please encourage them to attend this event and experience what it’s all about to be a conservation-minded sportsman,” Schaffer added.

For more information, or to register for this event, contact Melvin Crow at (785) 821-2607 or Jason Artzer at (785) 821-2317. This hunt is open to the first 45 participants, so early registration is encouraged.

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

PRATT – For anglers, timely, quality information can be the difference between getting a couple tugs on a lure and a grill lined-to-the-brim with your favorite catch. Cram-packed with all the information you need to set up for a perfect day of fishing, the 2014 Kansas Fishing Regulations Summary is the closest you can get to having a game warden, a fisheries biologist, and a hatchery manager at your beck and call. This free, easy to use, full-color pamphlet can be downloaded online now at ksoutdoors.com  Print copies will be available wherever licenses are sold within one to two weeks.

Apart from information on important fishing regulations such as special seasons, creel and length limits, license fees and legal fishing methods, anglers will also find a helpful section highlighting new regulations for the 2014 season in the summary. This publication is a must-have for anglers because creel and length limits vary from lake to lake.

Included in a special 16-page section, this pamphlet also lists all public waters, along with their location and any special regulations in effect. At the turn of a page, anglers can see which community lakes don’t charge extra fees for fishing, as well as community lakes designated as Family Friendly Facilities (FFF) thatwill include flush toilet facilities, security patrols, security lighting, easy access to the water and do not allow alcohol.

Information is also provided on aquatic nuisance species (ANS), as well as regulations governing the use of live baitfish. Five pages are devoted to fish identification, featuring color illustrations by Joe Tomelleri. Current state record fish are listed, and there is also a Master Angler Application for anglers who catch fish that qualify for this certificate award program.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. State Department report on the Keystone XL may have removed a hurdle for the pipeline, but it hasn’t swayed the entrenched foes and supporters in Nebraska.

Project backers argued Friday that the report leaves President Barack Obama no choice but to approve the entire Canada-to-Texas pipeline. Opponents say they still plan to fight the pipeline in court and hold a series of public vigils next week in Omaha, Lincoln, York and O’Neill.

Ernie Fellows, a ranch owner from the northern Nebraska town of Mills, says opponents will continue with their lawsuit challenging a state law that allowed the pipeline to proceed in Nebraska.

Brad Miller of the Omaha-based Laborers’ Local 1140, a union group, says numerous reviews have found no significant problems with the pipeline.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A new report from the U.S. State Department on the Keystone XL pipeline has drawn varying reactions in Kansas, where a separate section of the Keystone pipeline is operating.

The State Department on Friday raised no major environmental objections to the $7 billion pipeline from Canada, though the report stops short of recommending its approval. Keystone XL would travel through Montana and South Dakota before reaching Nebraska. An existing spur runs through Kansas and Oklahoma to Texas.

Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican, says in a release the report should push the “job-creating, domestic energy-producing project forward.”

But Marion County Commissioner Dan Holub says the six counties in Kansas where the pipeline runs through “got no big jobs,” and he says he’s also concerned about the possibility of a spill.

MANHATTAN – Four Farm Bureau members in Kansas were selected as finalists for Kansas State University’s Civic Leadership Scholarship, presented by Kansas Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau Financial Services.

Madison McClellan, Rooks County; Makenzie Deines, Marion County; Wade Gassmann, Atchison County; and Samantha Meier, Washington County, were among 12 finalists selected out of more than 400 applicants for the scholarship.

KFB and FBFS contribute funding for three academic scholarship awards. Finalists who are not awarded one of the top three scholarships receive $500 book scholarships, which are funded by Kansas Farm Bureau, Farm Bureau Financial Services and generous gifts from Kansas Farm Bureau President Steve Baccus and wife, Patricia, along with retired Kansas Farm Bureau CEO Dan Yunk and his wife, Cheryl.

McClellan received a $2,000 scholarship. Deines, Gassman and Meier received book scholarships.

“Kansas Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau Financial Services believe whole-heartedly in the importance of giving back to the communities we serve,” Baccus said. “That’s why we’re so proud to be a part of a scholarship program that recognizes outstanding young people who already understand they have the power to make a difference.”

TOPEKA (AP) — Flights between Topeka and Chicago at the Topeka airport drew a low number of customers in the first month of service.

But an airport official says United Airlines officials expected the low numbers during the first month of service and believe use will improve in the coming months.

United began flying between the two cities in January, and the flights have been only 25 percent full this month.

Eric Johnson, president of Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority, said Thursday that the flights need to average 69 percent of capacity to maintain the service in the future.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Johnson said advance bookings show the 50-passenger flights will carry an increased number of passengers in February, and even more in March.

SHAWNEE (AP) — Kansas Highway Patrol troopers are investigating the death of a pedestrian who was hit by a car as he tried to cross Interstate 435 in Shawnee.

The patrol says 26-year-old Shaun P. Robinson, of Kansas City, Kan., was walking west trying to cross the highway when he was hit Thursday night.

The driver stopped after the collision.

The patrol is working to determine why Robinson was on the highway.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — A Guatemalan man who was living in Kansas will serve two years in prison for his role in an identity theft scam involving the St. Joseph license office.

Twenty-nine-year-old Pedro Pablo-Solis, of Liberal, was sentenced Thursday to two years without parole for aggravated identity theft.

He pleaded guilty in September to providing false identification documents to get licenses for more than 100 illegal immigrants through a St. Joseph license office.

The St. Joseph News-Press reported prosecutors say he obtained Social Security cards and birth certificates that were used by people in the country illegally to obtain identification documents in Missouri.

The Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission announced grant awards totaling $23,000 to four organizations, the agency said Thursday in a news release. The grants were awarded through the Strategic Investment and Arts Integration programs. KCAIC programs are designed to promote partnerships, enhance community and economic development, encourage risk and innovation, maximize statewide impact and highlight the role the arts play in all areas of community life. Grantees are selected by the KCAIC through an application and review process.

Future rolling deadlines to apply for the Strategic Investment or Arts Integration programs are Feb. 7, March 7 and May 23. To learn more about KCAIC programs, visit KansasCommerce.com/CAICPrograms.

Grant recipients are:

Music Theatre of Wichita, Wichita
$5,000 SIP – Organizational Development
Music Theatre of Wichita will implement a web based marketing strategy to increase online and mobile functionality and attract new audiences.

Chamber Music at the Barn, Maize
$5,000 AIP – Integrated Arts Education
Chamber Music at The Barn will provide a nine-week workshop to provide 40 math and technology students from Wichita West High and Maize High Schools with hardware and software in which they will  create and then perform collaboratively with their own electronic audio and video instruments.  This program integrates music, math and technology curricula.

$5,000 SIP – New and Expanded Works
Chamber Music at The Barn will expand services and increase audiences with a new touring program. The organization will offer world-class chamber music performances at two of the 2014 season concerts in collaboration with the Birger Sandzen Museum in Lindsborg.

Bethany College, Lindsborg
$3,000 AIP – Creative Collaboration
The Principal Musicians of the Bethany Oratorio Society Orchestra will spearhead a brand-new String Apprenticeship Program. This apprenticeship program will grant high school age string players the access to renowned Principal Musicians in a mentoring one-on-one educational and professional development environment and the opportunity to perform in the Bethany Oratorio Society Orchestra for the Easter Sunday performance of Handel’s “Messiah.” The program also includes public appearances at Bethany Home for nursing home residents and underserved audiences.

Wichita Grand Opera, Wichita
$5,000 AIP – Creative Collaboration
As part of the Wichita Grand Opera (WGO) educational Outreach program “Day at the Opera,” WGO performing artists will provide artist presentations at schools and civic organizations to complement school curricula and help students and community members better understand the art form in advance of performances.

By KHI NEWS SERVICE

TOPEKA — Six of the state’s more prominent women politicians – three Democrats and three Republicans — have come together in an attempt to unseat Gov. Sam Brownback. Medicaid expansion is one of the issues they say the governor is wrong about.

The six have started a coalition they are calling “Reroute the Roadmap,” an allusion to Brownback’s “Roadmap for Kansas” campaign theme.

Rochelle Chronister, a former legislator and one-time chair of the Kansas Republican Party, said Brownback’s refusal to move forward with Medicaid expansion will deal a financial blow to Kansas hospitals, especially smaller, rural ones, because it will force them to absorb reductions in Medicare reimbursements without the promised offsetting increases in Medicaid revenue that was part of the initial bargain when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Medicaid expansion was an option for states to decide not the federal government and Kansas has been among the states to choose against it.

“So, they’re now caught,” Chronister said of the hospitals. “It’s going to come as a real shock, especially to a lot of small, rural hospitals.”

Chronister said the financial squeeze forced the Catholic hospital system that runs hospitals in Independence and Ft. Scott to recently lay off 29 people.

“That’s probably a direct result of preparing for the cuts that are going to take place in Medicare,” she said.

Other Republican founders of the coalition are Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger of Lawrence and former U.S. Sen. Sheila Frahm of Colby. Frahm was appointed to replace Bob Dole in the Senate but was defeated by Brownback in the subsequent election. Praeger is from the GOP’s moderate wing and has had differences with the governor over implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which he has staunchly opposed.

The three Democrats involved are:

• Joan Wagnon, a former revenue secretary and head of the Kansas Democratic Party;
• Jill Docking, who also once ran against Brownback when he was in the U.S. Senate and now is running mate to State Rep. Paul Davis of Lawrence who is expected to be Brownback’s Democratic challenger in the November election; and
• State Sen. Laura Kelly, a prominent legislator from Topeka.

Chronister said the six came together before Docking decided to join Davis on the ticket against Brownback. She said the women joined forces because they thought it was important to elect “anyone but Brownback,” in the coming election.

They also fault the governor for his policies on taxes and school funding.

The women launched a website seeking volunteers and donations.

Wagnon said more than 1,300 people signed up in a matter of hours.

The newly forming coalition isn’t at the forefront of the Medicaid expansion issue. The Kansas Hospital Association and more than 50 other groups have been pushing for months to get the issue before legislators this session. Republican leaders in the House and Senate have said their is little or no likelihood it will be approved or seriously considered unless the governor offers a proposal to do so.

Brownback hasn’t fully closed the door on Medicaid expansion. He has said he is interested in seeing how some other Republican states fare in gaining federal approval for proposals that would essentially move new Medicaid beneficiaries into private health insurance plans with the costs paid for by the government.

Brownback launched a Medicaid makeover in 2013 that moved virtually all the state’s program enrollees into managed care plans run by three insurance companies: Amerigroup, UnitedHealthCare and Sunflower State Health Plan, a subsidiary of Centene.

TOPEKA (AP) — A woman who was driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 in downtown Topeka collided head-on with a police car. No one was seriously injured.

Topeka police say the woman drove east for about 9 miles in the westbound lanes of the interstate early Friday. She eventually hit a semi-trailer truck on its side and then collided with a car driven by a Kansas Capitol police officer.

The woman was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The police officer was not injured. The highway was shut down for about an hour.

An investigation into why the woman was driving the wrong way is continuing.

By MIKE SHIELDS
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Kansas officials said they have received formal approval from federal authorities to include long-term services for the developmentally disabled in KanCare.

The approval document included so-called “special terms and conditions,” spelling out some of the terms of the inclusion, which has been resisted by most of the state’s providers of developmental disability services.

Gov. Sam Brownback, who launched his administration’s Medicaid makeover on Jan. 1, 2013, called the inclusion “an important step forward for KanCare” and the 8,500 developmentally disabled people who receive Medicaid services.

He said the KanCare expansion, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 1, would “further enhance the care provided to them, improving both their physical well-being and their quality of life.”

Medical services for the developmentally disabled have been included in KanCare since the program was launched.

KanCare moved the state’s Medicaid enrollees into managed care plans run by three insurance companies working under contract to the state: Amerigroup, UnitedHealthcare and Sunflower State Health Plan.

“No commitment this large has been made to Kansans with intellectual disabilities since the Developmental Disability Reform Act of 1995. We’re raising the standard of expectations for outcomes, and increasing access to care. This is monumental,” said Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer.

But the leader of the organization that represents most of the state’s Community Developmental Disability Organization said the decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was a setback for the long-established system already in place.

“I’m extremely disappointed that the thousands of hours spent by families, providers and advocates didn’t count for more at CMS,” said Tom Laing, executive director of Interhab. “The philosophy of this (KanCare) program is a setback for the system we have for serving the disabled in this state and it will be a setback for some time. It places the interests of the bureaucracy above the interests of the people the bureaucracy was intended to serve and I think that’s sad.”

The Brownback official who oversees Medicaid programs for the disabled struck a conciliatory tone in his prepared comments, which were released together with statements from the governor and lieutenant governor.

“I want to thank all of the individuals served, family members and guardians, and providers for their continued engagement in this transition, said Shawn Sullivan, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. “I know that they will hold us accountable to the protections that we have built into KanCare for persons served and their providers. I welcome the ongoing involvement of all to make this a system that provides needed access to services, quality services and supports, a good transition from school to adult life and support for families that is flexible and that meets their needs.”

As part of the approval process, Kansas officials agreed to eliminate the so-called “underserved” waiting list. The “underserved” list includes about 1,400 developmentally disabled people who are receiving some but not all of the Medicaid services they need.

The National Council on Disability, a federal agency that advises Congress and the executive branch, had asked CMS to postpone for a year approval of the Brownback administration’s request.

Former Kansas State Rep. Gary Blumenthal, now living in Massachusetts, is a member of the council.

“It is a decision that will have national consequences and will create tremendous performance expectations for the Brownback administration,” Blumenthal said after the decision came down. “I continue to believe it is not a wise move. For-profit insurance companies are well equipped to handle managed care with regard to health care. They have no experience or expertise working with people with community programs that address residential and employment programs.”

Blumenthal said the KanCare managed care companies “would be under the microscope to not reduce services and supports.”

He also predicted it would be difficult for the companies to find cost savings unless they cut services.

“Such an approach could cause chaos and tragedy in the lives and families of people with developmental disabilities,” he said.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON — Hutchinson Fire Department Crews responded to yet another structure fire Thursday. When they arrived, they found a fire on the exterior of a home.

Within minutes the fire was under control, and units were on the scene for less than two hours.

But it was the latest in a grueling run for Hutch firefighters that saw them respond to five structure fires in just 31 hours.

No injuries were reported in any of the fires, and officials don’t believe any of the fires were suspicious, despite their frequency.