By DAVE RANNEY
KHI News Service

WICHITA — The director of a private child welfare program that has drawn fire from some parents for allegedly impeding their efforts to be reunited with their children after they were taken into state custody was in court here Tuesday, asking a judge to reverse a Kansas Department for Children and Families’ decision to place a two-year-old girl with the child’s great grandmother.

The child, who is in foster care, has been living with Andrea Dixon, founder and director of FaithBuilders, since the girl was two days old and has bonded with Dixon and her family, said Leah Gagne, the attorney representing the Dixon family.

The case was the subject of a seven-hour hearing Tuesday in Sedgwick County Juvenile Court and was of greater public interest than the usual child custody hearing because of concerns that have been raised by state legislators and others about a possible improper relationship between Dixon and the former top DCF official in Wichita.

FaithBuilders is a church-sponsored organization that provides respite- and foster-care services for at-risk children in Sedgwick County.

In November, DCF officials stopped referring children to the group’s foster homes pending the outcome of an agency review of Dixon’s dealings with Diane Bidwell, then director of the DCF regional office in Wichita.

The review was sparked by some parents’ allegations that workers in the local DCF office may have shared confidential information about potential foster-care cases with Dixon, and that Dixon and Bidwell had stymied efforts to reunite them with their children.

Those allegations were communicated to some state legislators. Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat, took those concerns to officials at DCF headquarters in Topeka.

Bidwell resigned her position shortly after the DCF headquarters investigation began. She had run the regional office for two years.

News of the investigation subsequently prompted Sedgwick County Juvenile Court Judge Tim Henderson to order DCF reviews of cases that had been handled by Bidwell. Those case reviews are ongoing, according to DCF officials. It wasn’t immediately clear if the case under court consideration Tuesday was among those being looked at.

DCF’s decision to allow the great grandmother to adopt the child was made after Bidwell’s exit. The great grandmother is in her late 60s and lives in South Carolina.

The great grandmother has been caring for the child’s 3-year-old brother since December. A great uncle and his wife have had the girl’s three sisters, ages 4, 5, and 6, since July. They live in North Carolina.

While in Wichita, the 2-year-old girl’s brother and three sisters lived with another foster family.

Dixon testified that she thought the girl was not as attached to her brother and sisters as she was to Dixon’s family.

But attorneys for DCF, the child, and the great grandmother each argued that state and federal laws favored placing the child with relatives and that both the great grandmother and the great uncle had proven to be fit parents. Causing the child to remain with the Dixons, they said, would deny her access to her biological family, which is black. Dixon is white.

The racial distinction was one of the issues raised in the hearing, by the lawyer representing the girl’s great grandmother.

The attorney, Lynette Herrman, also cited several instances in which Dixon reportedly resisted social workers’ efforts to foster a relationship between the girl and the great grandmother.

Herrman said she plans to call as a later witness the girl’s CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) worker who filed a report that recommended limiting Dixon’s access to the great grandmother because of the animosity that had developed between the pair.

Prior to the hearing, Henderson, the juvenile court’s administrative judge, directed reporters not to identify by name the children or the adoptive parents. The case was heard by Judge Robb Rumsey.

The hearing was scheduled to continue on April 14.

WICHITA (AP) —  A Wichita woman will be sentenced March 10 in federal court for selling fake luxury goods at her shop.

Glenda Sue Morgan, owner of The Fabulous Store, pleaded guilty in October to one count of trafficking in goods bearing counterfeit designer labels such as Prada and Chanel. She was scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Morgan faces maximum penalties of a $2 million fine and 10 years imprisonment. But prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the federal guidelines.

Investigators seized 400 replica items with a retail value of $14,000 from Morgan’s shop. Those goods would have been worth $140,000 had they been genuine.

SOLOMON (AP) — Investigators in north-central Kansas are still trying to identify a body found earlier this week in the ruins of a burned-out home.

The Salina Journal reported Solomon Fire Chief Randy Paden says an autopsy will be needed to make a positive identification.

The cause of the fire that broke out around 4 a.m. Tuesday is also under investigation.

Neighbors said the house was engulfed in flames as the Solomon volunteer fire department arrived. Firefighters found the body in the wreckage about six hours later.

The neighbors also said the home was occupied by a man in his late 80’s. The man had not been accounted for by Thursday afternoon.

OLATHE (AP) — Police in northeast Kansas are investigating why a woman smashed her car into a payday loan store, pinning an employee behind a desk.

KCTV reported the incident happened around 10 a.m. Thursday at Ameribest Payday Loans and Check Cashing, located in a strip mall in the city of Olathe.

Police said the 65-year-old driver was trying to park her car but instead crashed through the store’s front window and an interior wall. A female employee suffered an ankle injury and was briefly pinned by her desk and debris. She was taken to a hospital to be checked.

Authorities are investigating whether the driver confused the brake and gas pedal.

WICHITA (AP) — CareFusion Corp. has agreed to pay $40.1 million to settle allegations it paid kickbacks and promoted its medical technology products for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The Justice Department announced the settlement Thursday with the California-based company of a whistleblower lawsuit unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas.

The deal also resolves claims that CareFusion paid more than $11.6 million in kickbacks to a physician who co-chaired the Safe Practices Committee at the National Quality Forum, a nonprofit group that recommends health care practices.

Dr. Cynthia Kirk, a former CareFusion vice president, initially filed the whistleblower lawsuit under provisions of the False Claims Act. The Justice Department says her share of the settlement is $3.26 million.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas woman has pleaded guilty to trying to drown her two young daughters in a bathtub.

The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/1immZh5 ) 24-year-old Johnna Green, of Kansas City, Kan., entered the pleas Thursday to two counts of attempted second-degree murder. Wyandotte County prosecutors initially charged her with attempted first-degree murder.

Green called 911 last April 2 saying she had just killed her daughters, ages 1 and 4, by drowning them because they were sick. The dispatcher told her to take the girls out of the bathtub, and a police officer who found them unconscious on the floor began resuscitation efforts until an ambulance arrived.

Attorneys in court Thursday did not discuss the girls’ current conditions.

Green’s plea agreement calls for a sentence of nine years and 10 months.

By PHIL CAUTHON
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — The Kansas Chapter of Americans For Prosperity is joining the Kansas Dental Project coalition in a long-simmering dispute with the Kansas Dental Association over whether to allow mid-level dental practitioners to be licensed in Kansas.

“Really, it’s about the free market in the realm of professional licensure,” said Jeff Glendening, state director for the Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity. “For us, this issue is really about ‘Is government the best at telling consumers who should be providing their services?’ This allows the market to dictate that. The benefit of that is greater access in underserved areas around the state.

“This is something that we’ll be talking about with our members,” Glendening said. “I would think — especially for Kansans in rural areas and Kansans in urban areas, maybe not so much in suburban areas — that this would be a big issue. It should be a big issue.

“I’ve never had to drive an hour and a half to a dentist before. But that’s not uncommon, especially out in more rural areas of the state,” he said. “I think it’s something that will resonate with people once they realize that it is an issue and that there is a solution.”

Mid-level dental practitioners

Coalition members are advocating the licensing of so called “mid-level practitioners” to do temporary fillings and tooth extractions in addition to the cleanings, fluoride varnishes and other procedures hygienists do now.

They say allowing dental technicians with proper training to provide more services is a way to expand access to oral health care, particularly in rural areas where dentists are often few and far between.

At least 57,000 Kansans live in so-called dental deserts, where there are no dental services and where the closest dental office is at least a half-hour drive from the resident’s home, according to a 2012 report by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the University of Kansas Medical Center. KDHE officials project that number will increase as more dentists retire.

This will be the fourth legislative session that advocates plan to lobby for licensing mid-level practitioners as the best available solution. They say their proposal for the 2014 session will closely resemble last year’s proposed legislation: House Bill 2157 and Senate Bill 197.

Resistance from dentists

About 15 states with large rural areas have considered licensing mid-levels, but currently only Minnesota and Alaska have done so, in large part due to strong resistance from dentists.

The Kansas Dental Association, which represents most of the state’s dentists, opposes the coalition’s plan, arguing it would jeopardize patient care.

Kevin Robertson, executive director of the dental association, has said 99.9 percent of the state’s dentists do not support licensing mid-level dental providers because doing so would endanger patients. However, some Kansas dentists have been vocal in supporting mid-levels.

Robertson said the proposal favored by the coalition goes too far because it would allow mid-level providers to perform procedures that are, by definition, considered surgery — that is, anything that includes cutting the hard surfaces of teeth.

“A maximum 18-month training is simply not adequate for a dental hygienist to learn restorative dental surgical procedures, science, anatomy and emergency treatments should complications arise during treatment while these (mid-level providers) are treating patients without dentist backup anywhere in the state – perhaps in clinics with limited or no medical support,” Robertson said.

He said that extending Medicaid dental coverage to adults is among the things that could yield greater access to dental care.

“Patients who cannot afford dental care from a dentist will not be able to afford treatment from a (mid-level provider) either without adult Medicaid,” Robertson said.

Legislative impasse

As recently as this fall, dentists and advocates entered formal mediation to try to find middle ground, but the talks failed.

Rep. David Crum, an Augusta Republican and chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said he was disappointed with the failed mediation, but didn’t think licensing mid-levels was the only way to address dental deserts.

“I think there’s other ways of making dental care more accessible than just that particular option. However, I’m certainly willing to look at any options,” Crum said.

But when asked about two options long proposed by the dental association and advocates alike — raising Medicaid reimbursement rates and/or starting a dental school in Kansas — Crum expressed skepticism.

“A dental school would be a pretty tall hurdle,” he said.

And he also questioned whether raising Medicaid reimbursement rates for dental procedures would be possible.

“That would have a pretty significant price tag,” Crum said. “I do recognize that reimbursement leaves something to be desired, but I don’t think it’s an unreasonable thing to do, to participate in the Medicaid program, realizing that that portion of their practice isn’t going to be real profitable.”

Crum is a retired optometrist who used to accept Medicaid patients.

Dentists have said they often lose money treating patients covered by Medicaid.

Momentum building

Christie Appelhanz, director for the Kansas Dental Project coalition, said she welcomed AFP-Kansas’ involvement in the coalition.

“Momentum for this effort is building here in Kansas and across the country,” Appelhanz said. “More than 50 organizations across the state support Registered Dental Practitioners, representing a wide variety of Kansans. We welcome support from any group that recognizes that mid-level dental providers will help us grow the state’s economy and meet the increasing demand for dental care.”

AFP is an anti-tax group that champions limited government and often is at odds with the other dental coalition members when it comes to issues such as state spending on social services and tax policy.

WICHITA (AP) — Demand for Boeing commercial jetliners is sparking more hiring of production workers at Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas.

Spirit spokesman Ken Evans told the Wichita Eagle the company is looking for 200 more mechanics and inspectors in the first part of this year. He said the company is also studying its needs this year for its salaried work force.

With 10,000 workers, Spirit AeroSystems is the biggest employer in Wichita. It began hiring more workers last year to meet the rising demand.

Evans said there is an increased demand for Boeing’s 737 single-aisle aircraft and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Boeing has announced plans to increase production of the 737 to 47 a month by 2017. It is also increasing its 787 production to 12 per month.

TOPEKA — Commissioner Shari Feist Albrechthas been elected to serve as Chair of the Kansas Corporation Commission, according to a news release issued today by the KCC.

Albrecht was appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback and has served on the commission since August 2012.

Prior to the KCC, Albrecht served as Associate Chief Counsel at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, where she worked since 1993.

Albrecht is a licensed attorney who earned her B.A. at the University of Kansas and her J.D. at Washburn University School of Law. She was previously a supervisor of the Environmental Practice Group of the KDHE, and has served as a Director for the Oil and Gas Conservation Division with the Kansas Corporation Commission.

Commissioners are appointed by the Governor and serve staggered four-year terms. State law provides that no more than two of the three commissioners may belong to the same political party. The Commission acts as an independent regulatory agency with authority to render judgments and decisions on regulated utilities. Nominations are subject to approval by the Kansas Senate.

Albrecht’s term expires March 15, 2016.

 

GARDEN CITY (AP) — A 24-year-old black rhinoceros at a Garden City zoo has died.

The Garden City Telegram reported Ahadi, the lone black rhinoceros at Lee Richardson Zoo, died late Tuesday after becoming ill over the weekend.

Keepers had been watching the rhino, nicknamed “Howdi,” around the clock after he first showed signs of illness and decreased appetite on Saturday.

Veterinary staff on Sunday removed an abscessed tooth, but over the next two days, the animal’s condition declined. The rhino died during a procedure to close a hole in his palate caused by the infected tooth.

Final pathology results are pending, but the preliminary cause of death is attributed to an esophageal blockage, compounded by advanced heart and lung disease. The median life expectancy for black rhinos is about 18 years.

TOPEKA (AP) — A 40-year-old Topeka man already facing a murder charge in a 2012 case has been charged with murder in a case from 2000.

Shawnee County court records show that Monroe Eugene Lockhart III was charged Thursday with a first-degree murder in the shooting death of 25-year-old Damon J. Anderson, Topeka, on Valentine’s Day 2000. The records didn’t list a lawyer for Lockhart in that new case.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reportsed Lockhart is incarcerated on a nearly 10-year sentence after he was convicted in 2013 in a violent home invasion.

Lockhart is also charged with premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated arson in the 2012 death of Corey M. Brown, whose body was discovered in Douglas County.

ELLINWOOD – On Jan. 10, 2010, Haiti suffered a massive 7.0 earthquake. Since that day Star of Hope has been active in recovery and rebuilding. Six new schools have been built. Local communities have received assistance and lives have been rebuilt.

On Dec. 1, a new church campus in Rigaud, Haiti, was dedicated by the community. The new complex was made possible because of a family in Kansas. Bessie DeWerff, Ellinwood, traveled to Haiti to represent the donor family for the inauguration.

The funds provided by the donor family made it possible to build a structure and campus that brought great joy to the people. The earthquake had turned the simple church building they had built decades ago into a mere shell of a building.

Once construction began, it progressed quickly and efficiently. In less than six months the old building was razed, the property cleaned, fenced and construction completed, all by hand labor. The only power tool the local workers had to use was a gasoline powered cement mixer. More than 125 jobs were had during the construction. These local jobs meant much to the families in the area who subsist on meager day wages and gardening.

During the dedication service Pastor Sampson Pierre used a passage from Exodus where God had seen the plight of His people, He heard their cries and He had the power to deliver them from their plight. The pastor reminded the people that the same happened in Rigaud. God saw, God heard their cries, and in His time He provided.

Église de Dieu de Rigaud serves as a church home to some 500 people. In addition the church hosts a school of 900 students, supported by Star of Hope donors around the world. They provide services for all in the community, from children though the elderly. The people take their responsibility within the community seriously and the church is an important influence.

The entire church congregation asked Bessie DeWerff to carry back word of their appreciation and thankfulness to the LD & Marilyn Davis family of Great Bend, Kansas, for making it possible. One of the other congregations who lost their building in the earthquake sent their pastor to the dedication. He addressed the people of Rigaud, reminding them of the great responsibility they have to use the church complex to help people and to spread the gospel message.

Mr. Barry Borror, president of Star of Hope, said “God always provides in His timing. Star of Hope is humbled to be used to connect people who want to help with those in need.”

For more information or to discover how you might help with the next church construction project, contact Star of Hope, (620) 564-3355 or [email protected]. Additional pictures and information is also available at www.starofhope.us.