LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Members of a state water task force have proposed $50 million in yearly funding for water sustainability projects in Nebraska.
The measure introduced Wednesday by Sen. Tom Carlson was inspired by a series of task force meetings over the summer. The group was formed to find ways to ensure a sustainable water supply for drinking, crop irrigation, wildlife and interstate water compacts.
The funding would begin in October 2015. Carlson says the funding is important to help Nebraska develop a long-term plan to conserve more water for drought years.
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss is expected to urge the Legislature to address funding problems in the courts when he delivers his annual State of the Judiciary speech.
The address was scheduled for delivery Wednesday afternoon from the Supreme Court chambers in Topeka.
Kansas’ judicial branch is facing a projected $8.25 million shortfall in its 2015 budget. Nuss said recently that without an additional appropriation, some court employees could be sent home without pay, forcing the court offices to close statewide.
Employee costs account for 96 percent of the judicial budget, including judges and clerical staff. Nuss closed the court system down in 2012 when legislators were slow to act on the state budget.
TOPEKA (AP) — Hundreds of abortion opponents are expected to converge on the Kansas Statehouse to mark the anniversary of the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
The anti-abortion group Kansans for Life was having a full day of workshops and presentations Wednesday, the 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
Gov. Sam Brownback was scheduled to speak at a noon rally.
The Republican governor is a strong abortion opponent. During his State of the State address last week, he compared past protests outside the Wichita clinic of the late Dr. George Tiller to work by abolitionists before the Civil War to end slavery. Tiller was known for performing late-term abortions before he was gunned down in 2009.
Kansas has enacted numerous restrictions on abortion since Brownback took office in 2011.
TOPEKA (AP) — The Kansas Department of Corrections is asking the Legislature for more money to react to a rapid increase in the number of mentally ill inmates in state prisons.
Secretary of Corrections Ray Roberts told a Senate committee on Tuesday 38 percent of the state’s prisoner population is mentally ill, an increase of 126 percent since 2006.
The Wichita Eagle reported Gov. Sam Brownback proposed budget includes $3 million this year and another $4.1 million to fully fund the state’s health care contract with Corizon, which includes mental health care.
Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay says the department would hire more clinicians and offer mental health services to more inmates if the funding is approved.
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office is supporting a proposal to form a two-person unit in the office to investigate possible violations of the state’s open meetings and open records laws.
Kansas Press Association executive director Doug Anstaett told the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that having an open government unit in the attorney general’s office would signify that open government is a high priority in the state.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported the bill also would create an advisory group of citizens, media members and possibly legislators to help the new unit.
The committee took no action on the bill until it received more information.
The attorney general’s office estimates the new unit would cost about $160,000 per year.
WARRENSBURG, Mo. (AP) — A General Motors supplier that manufactures acoustic insulation plans to open a new plant in Warrensburg.
Michigan-based Janesville Acoustics announced Tuesday the plant will supply the Chevrolet Malibu model built at GM’s Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kan. The plant is expected to create 164 jobs in the next two years.
The Kansas City Star reported Janesville Acoustics plans to invest $13.4 million in Warrensburg, which is about 60 miles southeast of Kansas City.
The plant in Warrensburg initially will produce trunk liners, specialized carpets and dash liners along with general acoustic insulation for the Malibu. The plant is expected to open in July.
OLATHE — Since he was a teenager, Calloway “C.J.” Brazee, 36, has lived with schizophrenia. He’s been in and out of the state psychiatric hospitals more times than he can remember.
His most recent stay nearly killed him.
According to family members, Brazee was rushed to Olathe Medical Center on Jan. 4 after a nurse at Osawatomie State Hospital realized he was unconscious.
Calloway “C.J.” Brazee
At the emergency room, he suffered a seizure and started vomiting and choking. Doctors soon discovered he had an impacted bowel.
“They said his feces had petrified and there was baseball-size blockage in his intestine,” said Cuinn Brazee, the oldest of C.J. Brazee’s three brothers.
C.J. spent the next four days in an induced coma as doctors and nurses in the medical center’s critical care unit worked to relieve the blockage and minimize brain damage from his inability to breathe.
Cuinn said C.J. had called him twice earlier from the wall phone on his unit at OSH, saying he was dying and begging Cuinn to call an ambulance for him.
“I didn’t know any better,” Cuinn said. “I told him, ‘No, C.J., you’re OK. You’re in a hospital. There are doctors there. They’re taking care of you. You’re OK.’
“So he knew something was wrong, and I didn’t believe him,” he said. “That’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.”
Cuinn said OSH officials have denied family members access to information about the events that led to C.J. being taken to the emergency room.
“I’ve not gotten a single call returned from anyone down there (at OSH),” said C.J.’s mother, Nancy Brazee. “And when I call, I can’t get anybody who answers the phone to even tell me their name.”
Nancy has been assigned ‘durable power of attorney,’ which allows her to be involved in C.J.’s medical and other affairs.
Acting suicidal
Cuinn, who lives in Lawrence, said C.J. was admitted to OSH on Aug. 21 after a third brother, Andy Brazee, reported that C.J. had been acting suicidal and was harming himself. At the time, C.J. was living with Andy in Bonner Springs. He was admitted to OSH voluntarily.
When C.J., who is 5 feet 11 inches tall, arrived at OSH, he was mentally ill but physically healthy, Cuinn said. He weighed 200 pounds. Four months later, he weighed 160 pounds.
“I just don’t understand how someone who’s under medical care and supervision can lose that much weight and not cause alarm,” Cuinn said. “It had to have been obvious that he was in medical distress and that this was an emergency.”
Olathe Medical Center records, Cuinn said, show that C.J. was taking nine prescription drugs while at OSH: Benztropine, Citalopram, Clozapine, Duloxetine, Etodolac, Lithium carbonate, Mirtzapine, Trazadone, and Diphenhydromine.
According to several pharmacological websites, constipation is a potential side effect for five of the nine drugs.
Angela de Rocha, a spokesperson for the state Department for Aging and Disability Services, said OSH officials would not comment on the Brazees’ concerns.
“We can’t talk about his because of HIPAA and other confidentiality laws and regulations,” de Rocha said, referring to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law that ensures medical privacy.
It’s possible, she said, that some information would be shared with their mother, Nancy.
State pays 50 percent
Typically, de Rocha said, OSH patients are first transported to Miami County Hospital in Paola, a distance of about seven miles.
Those found to have “more serious problems,” de Rocha said, usually are taken to Olathe Medical Center.
The Olathe and Miami County hospitals are owned by Olathe Health Systems.
“We pay Olathe Medical Systems 50 percent of the (OSH patient’s) bill,” de Rocha said.
At this point, it isn’t clear who might cover the other 50 percent of the cost. Olathe hospital officials said in cases involving OSH patients they often end up with no payment from anyone for the remaining balances due.
It’s not yet known how much C.J.’s stay — which includes 10 days in the medical center’s critical care unit — will cost.
Consultant report
OSH was the subject of a consultant’s report last fall that proposed an overhaul of the hospital’s administrative structure so that doctors, nurses and other staff could spend more time with patients and less time in meetings.
Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Shawn Sullivan has said the agency intends to phase in the recommendations over the next two to three years.
KDADS, he said, also is looking for alternative placements for patients whose conditions may not be serious enough to warrant hospitalization but who have nowhere else to go.
OSH has a licensed capacity of 176 beds but can accommodate as many as 190 patients.
According to the consultant’s report, the hospital often exceeds its licensed capacity because many patients need more services — especially residential services — than their community mental health centers have the resources to provide.
KDADS reports show that since July 1, the average daily patient count at OSH has been 182 patients, which is six patients beyond the facility’s licensed capacity.
The consultant’s study was one of a package examining four of the state hospitals with an eye toward improved efficiency. The consultant, The Buckley Group, concluded that more than $8 million could be saved at the four hospitals by shifting duties and eliminating staff positions.
KDADS officials later said they thought changes resulting in about $3 million in savings would be more prudent, realized mostly through staff reductions at Larned State Hospital and at Kansas Neurological Institute in Topeka.
The consultants did not examine the quality of medical care at the facilities, but with respect to the Osawatomie hospital noted that they found the staff “to be dedicated and intent on providing quality services.”
OSH’s catchment area includes 46 counties in eastern Kansas.
‘Very medically dangerous’
Susan Crane Lewis, executive director with the Kansas City-based advocacy group, Mental Health America of the Midwest, said it was unusual for an OSH patient to be referred to an acute care hospital such as Olathe Medical Center.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” she said, “because when someone’s admitted to one of the state hospitals they’re screened and their medical conditions are supposed to be addressed from the start.”
But KDADS officials said seven OSH patients have been taken to Olathe Medicaid Center alone since July 1.
Lewis said she was surprised that C.J.’s condition hadn’t been addressed earlier.
“Bowel problems are a common side effect of a lot of psychotropic medications, so (OSH staff) really ought to be watching for it,” she said.
“I know (patients) don’t like being asked all the time about their bowel movements, but it’s like I tell our folks here, ‘If your bowel and bladder ain’t working, it’s very, very medically dangerous. It’s not some minor deal’,” Lewis said.
“The (state) hospitals are constantly over census,” said Rick Cagan, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Kansas, “and the only way for them to deal with that is to either run the staff ragged by making them put in all kinds of overtime hours or by shorting patient care. They both have negative consequences for the patients, which is what I’d say this case illustrates.”
Lawsuit pending?
C.J. left Olathe Medical Center last week. His family refused to allow him to return to OSH.
“He’s living with me now,” said Cuinn, who lives in Lawrence. “We’ll be working with Bert Nash (community mental health center) to see what kinds of services are available.”
Cuinn said the family likely would sue the state.
“I’m not a sue-happy person, but when someone is denied medical care because they’re disabled — no, this never should have happened. Somebody has to be held accountable,” he said. “The other thing is we don’t want anybody else to ever have to go through what we’ve been through.”
WICHITA (AP) — A federal judge has set a status hearing in the case of a Kansas avionics technician accused of planning a suicide bombing at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport.
Loewen
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on Tuesday scheduled the hearing in the case of 58-year-old Terry L. Loewen for Feb. 10.
The Wichita man was arrested in December following an undercover operation. Investigators allege Loewen tried to get what he believed was a car bomb onto the tarmac of the airport, where he worked.
Charges include attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted material support to al-Qaida.
Federal prosecutors want the case designated as “complex” to ease speedy trial concerns. Trial is set for Feb. 18.
Prosecutors also want a hearing on the handling of classified information during court proceedings.
TOPEKA (AP) — Opponents who have chipped away at abortion with state-level restrictions are facing a dilemma in some of the places where they have been most successful.
Do they continue with that approach or seek more dramatic policies that risk court rulings that could undo previous gains?
For the last several decades, anti-abortion groups have focused on putting relatively small limits on the procedure in politically conservative states. Those efforts intensified after Republicans made major gains in the 2011 elections.
But as groups on both sides of the debate mark Wednesday’s anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, anti-abortion leaders and lawmakers are under pressure to take bigger steps.
Jennifer Mason represents Personhood USA, a Colorado-based anti-abortion group. She says many of her peers are frustrated with the incremental approach.
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Commerce has announced that 10 Kansas communities will share $4,484,000 in federal grants through the Community Development Block Grant program.
“These grants will help fund several important projects in communities across our state,” said Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George. “It’s great that we can use CDBG grants to assist the small and rural communities that are so important to the economy and quality of life in Kansas.”
The CDBG program provides federal funds to local governments for the development of viable communities by addressing their housing, public facilities and economic development needs. To be awarded funds, local government units must meet at least one of three program objectives. The grant must benefit low and moderate-income persons, prevent or eliminate slums and blight or resolve an urgent need where local resources are not available to do so.
CDBG funds are one of the Department’s primary tools in supporting the state’s small, predominately rural communities. The Department has distributed more than $300 million in CDBG funding in the last decade.
The recipients of grants are as follows:
• City of Altamont, $500,000
This project will consist of replacing steel and asbestos water lines throughout the city. Other funds will match this grant with $1,207,175.
• City of Carbondale, $500,000
The project will repair and replace sanitary sewer lines and manholes within the city. Other funds of $3,181,798 will match this project.
• City of Cuba, $312,000
The city proposes to rehabilitate their entire water distribution system. Other funds will provide $579,523 to the project.
• City of Easton, $500,000
The city will construct a new water treatment plant located outside of the floodplain. Other funds will provide $1,100,000 to the project.
• City of Englewood, $172,000
This project will consist of a new water source and water system improvements. Other funds will provide $598,900 in matching dollars.
• Greenwood County, $500,000
This project consists of replacement and relocation of water distribution lines within Rural Water District no. 1. Other funds will provide $2,837,615 to this project.
• City of Parsons, $500,000
The project will repair or replace sewer lines and manholes. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment will provide $1,249,495 in matching funds.
• City of Richmond, $500,000
The city proposes to replace water lines in the city as well as implementation of a new automated meter reading system. Other funds of $1,352,505 will be provided for this project.
• City of Scranton, $500,000
The scope of work will rehabilitate approximately 34,000 linear feet of water distribution lines. Other funds of $1,877,860 will match this grant.
• City of Udall, $500,000
The project proposes to make city-wide improvements to the water distribution system. Other funds will provide $1,122,329 to the project.
WICHITA (AP) — Bombardier says it is laying off about 1,700 employees and contractors at its facilities in the United States and Canada. That number includes 550 people in the company’s Learjet facility in Wichita.
Company spokeswoman Annie Cossette said Tuesday the layoffs in Wichita include 200 contractors who left the company in December after their contracts expired and were not renewed. Cossette would not reveal how many of the remaining layoffs involved full-time Bombardier employees or company contractors.
Cossette blames persistently challenging market conditions for light aircraft, saying the layoffs were a difficult decision the company had to make in order to protect its business.
The company will meeting with affected employees in the coming weeks. Cossette says some may transfer to other positions in the company.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year was tied for the fourth warmest year on record around the world.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday released its global temperature figures for 2013. The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880.
NASA, which calculates records in a different manner, said Tuesday that 2013 was the seventh warmest on record, with an average temperature of 58.3 degrees.
Both agencies said nine of the 10th warmest years on record have happened in the 21st century. The hottest year was 2010.
A global insurance firm says there were 41 billion-dollar weather disasters last year. Unlike 2012, most of the heat and disasters were outside the United States.
LAWRENCE (AP) — The latest homicide in Lawrence was the fourth in the city in the last six months, after nearly five years with no homicides reported.
6NewsLawrence reported when 51-year-old Gary Edens was shot to death in his driveway last July, it was the first homicide in Lawrence since 2008. That was followed by the shooting death of Margaret Hopkins at her home in November, and the Christmas Day stabbing death of 33-year-old Wayne Francisco.
The latest death occurred early Saturday, when the body of 52-year-old Harold Sasko was found at his home. Police continue to search for 19-year-old Sarah Gonzales McLinn, who lived with Sasko.
Twenty-year-old Brittny Adams pleaded guilty last Friday to intentional second-degree murder in Edens’ death. Suspects have also been charged in Hopkins’ and Francisco’s deaths.
