A special council of Kansas officials is weighing a request for funds to implement the state’s new system for administering Medicaid services.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is asking the State Finance Council to approve funds for the billing system for KanCare, the state’s revised Medicaid program. KDHE officials have not said how much they’re seeking.

The Finance Council was scheduled to consider the request at a meeting Wednesday. The panel is made up of Gov. Sam Brownback and top leaders of the state House and Senate.

Also on the agenda is a request for money to give raises to selected state employees. The goal is to bring their pay closer to that of people doing similar jobs in the private sector.

A Wichita man who decorated his extended-cab pickup truck with nearly 900 Christmas lights has drawn plenty of attention, including the unwelcomed kind.

KAKE-TV reports David Hill hit the streets two weeks ago, hoping to spread holiday cheer.

But he also drew the notice of police, who stopped the truck and handed Hill a $274 citation as a safety hazard.

Wichita police Lt. Joe Schroeder says it’s a safety issue. Schroeder says drivers distracted by the glowing pickup could get involved in accidents.

The lights are strung on roughly 1,000 feet of wiring and run by a generator in the truck’s bed.

Hill’s not too discouraged. He’s hoping word of his traffic ticket will call attention to a group he’s involved with called OneSpark, which helps people in need.

Victor Castillo-Najer, 37, Kansas City, Kan., was convicted on one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the investigation began in March 2011 when police in El Paso, Texas, and agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration seized 546 pounds of marijuana that was bound for the metropolitan Kansas City area. They set up a controlled delivery in which agents would be present when the marijuana was delivered to its destination.

Undercover agents spoke by telephone to Castillo-Najer, who was using the alias “Kiko.” He gave them directions for where and when to deliver the marijuana. Castillo-Najer used code when he spoke to the agents, referring to the marijuana as “horses” and asking them how big a corral he would need when the “horses” were delivered. Castillo-Najer directed the undercover agents to bring the marijuana to the parking lot of Lowe’s Home Improvement Store at 4960 Roe Boulevard in Roeland Park, Kan. He and several co-defendants were arrested on March 24, 2011, after they received the shipment of marijuana.

Grissom commended the Drug Enforcement Administration, the El Paso, Texas, Police Department and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Trent Krug for their work on the case.

A new government report shows Kansas ranked seventh in the nation last year as an exporter of agricultural products to other countries.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service on Tuesday cited a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture pegging the total value of the state’s 2011 farm exports at $5.3 billion. That’s up 7 percent from the previous year.

Wheat was the top Kansas export, accounting for 29 percent of the state’s total farm exports and 14 percent of the nation’s wheat exports.

The value of exports increased for wheat, corn, pork, beef and veal, hides and skins. It declined for other categories.

Kansas was second in the nation for wheat exports and third for beef exports.

Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a…a UFO?

Over the past two weeks, reports of UFO sightings across the country have increased, and now reported sightings have popped up in Salina.

While many attribute the increase in sightings across the country to the December 21st end of the world conspiracy theory, the Salinans who have seen something in the sky over the past two weeks say they don’t believe the world is ending, nor do they believe in aliens, but they do believe they saw something strange in the sky over the city.

We received the first report on December 6th, with a request to review footage from the Salina Sky Cam. Shawn Jennings, of Salina, reported that he saw an object with two strange lights near the water tower at Sunset Park early that morning. He reported that he saw the object hovering near the area for approximately 15-20 minutes. Jennings and a friend took photos but they were too dark to analyze and the Salina Sky Cam was pointed in another direction that morning.

After the initial sighting we stationed the Sky Cam towards the west and on the morning of December 10th, we saw what appeared to be a single light hovering over the city at around 6:29 am. The photo quality is poor (Sky Cam was not intended for night viewing) but you can clearly see the single light. It was visible on the Sky Cam for nearly 45 minutes.

This time we were also contacted by two other individuals in the Salina area who reported seeing a “UFO” or a “drone” over Salina. The two, who chose to remain anonymous, said that they watched a stationary object in the sky for nearly 30 minutes before it disappeared, leaving only a trail.

Jennings also reported seeing the object again on the 10th and was able to record the video footage below.

He said that the object was visible for nearly 2 hours, before it left at an extremely fast speed, leaving a trail behind.

Similar incidents were reported on December 4th in Longview, Texas and Grand Blanc, Michigan.

Video analyst Marc Dantonio declared the object in the Grand Blanc, MI video to be an aircraft. View the footage from Grand Blanc, MI (NSFW- explicit language). ”At the conclusion of the video, I was able to affirm my suspicion and call this an aircraft on landing approach,” Dantonio told the Huffington Post.  This assertion is disputed by the man who shot the footage.

A flash, followed by a contrail in the sky over Southeast Texas made national headlines on December 7th, with multiple news outlets catching snapshots of the “UFO”. Experts declared that the flash and trail in this incident were caused by a meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere.

What the object over Salina was, is anyone’s guess. A call to officials at the Salina Regional Airport has not been returned yet.

So what do you think? Was the object seen hovering over Salina a plane, helicopter, drone, or something else?

 

A Scott City teenager died Monday night after a rollover accident in Scott County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reports that around 9:35 pm, 16-year-old Timothy Dirks was westbound on County Road 270 when the 2004 Chevy Silverado he was driving entered the north ditch, swerved back onto the roadway, and rolled twice, ejecting Dirks.

Dirks was taken to Scott County Hospital and then transported to HaysMed, where he died as a result of his injuries.

A group of activists is planning to renew efforts to lobby the Kansas Legislature to expand the definition of bullying and cyberbullying because of ongoing problems in a south central school district.

The Wichita Eagle reports Tuesday that parents from the Wichita area and State Board of Education member Walt Chappell are pushing the issue to modify a bullying law passed in 2007. The law requires districts to implement anti-bullying plans but doesn’t dictate how districts should handle or track reports of bullying.

Calls for the legislation were prompted by bullying incidents in the Haysville district. Parents say they want districts to make sure students are safe.

Critics say the bullying proposal would increase the paperwork and burden for schools as they deal with bullying incidents.

Kansas wildlife officials are reminding hunters that it’s against the law to exchange text messages on the whereabouts of deer and other game that might be headed their way.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism says the law has been around in various forms for years.

Officials say hunters are probably aware that they can’t use two-way radios to give other hunters a heads-up about the location of a game animal moving in their direction.

But that law, which prohibits the use of a radio or other mechanical device, includes cellphones.

The department says a text is the same as a phone call under the law, so don’t do it.

There has been much controversy over whether or not the City of McPherson should be allowed to develop a chaplain program with the police department.

McPherson Mayor Thomas A. Brown received a letter last week from Andrew Seidel, staff attorney for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, challenging the appropriateness of the McPherson Police Department Chaplaincy program. In his letter, Seidel requested assurances “in writing, that McPherson and its police will cease this program.”

The mayor says he requested that McPherson Police Chief Robert McClarty start the process to create a Police Chaplaincy program. Currently, the program is in the developmental stages as policies are being reviewed and modified. Chief McClarty says the program is based upon similar programs in other major Kansas police departments.

However, the Freedom from Religion Foundation challenges the appropriateness of a chaplaincy program altogether as a violation of the United States Constitution.

The mayor says based on a legal review, he’s confident that the city is constitutionally permitted to establish a Police Chaplaincy program, as many similar programs exist throughout the nation and have been legally approved in the past.

The program allows two Christian ministers to ride along with McPherson police officers to counsel officers and be present when officers inform families of deaths.

The Mayor went on to say that the chaplains in this program are volunteers and not on the city’s payroll.They would also be under the control of Chief McClarty and his staff, and not under the control or influence of their churches or respective denominational organizations.

A Johnson County man who set up a nude photo shoot with a 14-year-old girl has been sentenced to 69 months in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Kristopher Hausback, 30, Spring Hill, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. In his plea, Hausback admitted he advertized on Model Mayhem, where aspiring models meet photographers. He mostly solicited friends and relatives to pose as models.

On Aug. 8, 2011, Leawood police officers were called to the Aloft hotel to take a report of a theft. Hausback told them his camera had been stolen. Investigation revealed Hausback had taken nude photographs of a 14-year-old girl who came to the hotel for a “photo shoot.” She had sent her brother a text telling him the name of the hotel and room number. Her stepfather went to the hotel and confronted Hausback. The two scuffled and the stepfather took the camera.

An examination of Hausback’s camera and computer revealed photos he took of another girl who was 16, as well as photos he possessed of minor girls engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Grissom commended the Leawood Police Department and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Martin for their work on the case.

A preliminary hearing for two men charged in the beating death of a Tabor College student has been rescheduled to January.

The hearing for Alton Franklin and DeQuinte Flournoy, both 19-year-olds from Dallas, was scheduled for Monday. But it was postponed until Jan. 21. McPherson County Attorney David Page offered no reason for the delay in a brief email.

This is the third time the hearing has been delayed.

The suspects both are former McPherson College football players. They’re charged with being accessories to second-degree murder in the Sept. 22 death of 26-year-old Brandon Brown.

Brown was a redshirt defensive lineman for Tabor College. He died after being injured in a fight early Sept. 16 at a party in McPherson.

Both men remained jailed on $500,000 bonds.

Two men were injured in an accident after attempting to avoid a herd of deer in Russell County, Monday morning around 6:30 am.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, 42-year-old Timothy D. Horacek was driving southbound on US 281 (10 miles north of Russell) when he came upon a herd of deer on the highway.

Horacek swerved to avoid the deer, went off the road, down an embankment, and into a dry creek bed.

Horacek and a passenger, 41-year-old Gary Horacek, both of Downs, were taken to Russell County Regional hospital with injuries. Their conditions were not immediately known.

A new state program that gives irrigators flexibility in managing their water allocations while also encouraging conservation has about 750 participants.

The program was created last year by the Kansas Legislature to conserve the future of the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Hutchinson News reports that the multi-year flex account program allows irrigators to use more water during drought years. They can manage their water rights over five years, which helps the state’s aquifers recover during years with more moisture.

Kansas Department of Agriculture issued about 2,300 drought emergency term permits during last year’s drought that allowed irrigators to pump 2012 water allotments to save their crops.

Irrigators who enrolled in the flex account program by the Oct. 1 deadline were forgiven their overuse of water from last year.