Families and friends who want to visit loved ones in the Finney County jail just have to log on to their computers.

The jail in Garden City is using a new system that allows people to contact jail inmates from anywhere with a suitable computer and Internet connection.

The new program means inmates can be visited from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. However, unlike the old system, the visits cost money. The cost of a general visit is 50 cents a minute or $20 for a 20-minute visit, which is the maximum time allowed.

Previously, inmate visits were possible only over a video system in the jail lobby and only from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Friday.

Nuclear inspectors are looking into what caused a reactor trip and power outage at a Kansas nuclear plant.

The Wolf Creek Nuclear Plant in Burlington shutdown earlier this month after a main generator electrical breaker failed. Officials at the nuclear power plant declared a Notification of Unusual Event as a result of the power loss. There were no radiological releases due to the event.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending an Augmented Inspection Team to Wolf Creek to review the incident.

“An AIT is used when the NRC wants to promptly dig deeply into the circumstances,” said NRC Region IV Administrator Elmo E. Collins. “We want to make sure that all of the circumstances that contributed to this event are well understood in order to prevent a recurrence.”

The team will put together a detailed chronology of the event, evaluate the adequacy of licensee actions in response to the incident and assess the impact of the prolonged loss of off-site power to non-safety related equipment. The team’s report will not contain inspection findings, but will identify areas for further inspection follow-up.

The NRC will hold a public exit meeting with Wolf Creek owners upon completion of the inspection to discuss its preliminary findings.

An Ottawa man admits that he took more than $90,000 from a 95-year-old woman while serving as her guardian.

Guadalupe Mora pleaded no contest Monday in Franklin County to one count of mistreatment of a dependent adult and one count of theft.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports Mora took the money from Edna Brouhard while serving as her guardian from 2006 to 2007.

Jeff Wagaman, a spokesman for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, says the plea agreement includes an order of restitution for $90,431. Mora will be sentenced Feb. 27.

A Kansas legislator is worrying about the state’s flow of funds for highway projects and road maintenance if consumers flock to electric cars or hybrids because those vehicles use less gasoline, raising less gas taxes.

But Rep. Tom Sloan got a cool reception Tuesday during a House Energy and Utilities Committee hearing on his proposed solution. The Lawrence Republican’s bill would create a new fee on the power electric car and hybrid owners use to charge up their vehicles.

The Kansas Department of Transportation would set the fee so that it would be equivalent to the state’s 24-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline. Owners of electric cars or hybrids would be required to have separate meters at their homes.

General Motors Co. opposes the idea, and committee members were openly skeptical.

Despite pleas to slow down, Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration says it is unlikely to change plans to shift all state Medicaid services to managed care.

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee wrapped up several days of testimony on the plan Monday. Several advocates for the developmentally disabled said the Brownback administration is moving too quickly with its Medicaid reform efforts.

Currently, many of the state’s developmentally disabled are served by a Medicaid waiver system for home and community-based care.

The administration is already accepting bids to contract three managed care companies to supply all state Medicaid services by next Jan. 1.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Brownback’s spokeswoman says the administration believes the changes will improve care and sustain the Medicaid program.

by Randy Picking ~ Salina Post

The days of inmates receiving a furlough from the Saline County Jail for things like attending funerals for family members may be over.

Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski says his office and Saline County District Court are in the process of changing the procedures of furloughs to be considered for inmates, following an incident where a Saline County Inmate furloughed to attend his mothers funeral did not return to jail on January 13th like he was suppose to.

Sheriff Kochanowski says that request for a furlough will go through the Sheriffs Office first and a review from the County Attorney’s office before a recommendation would be made to a judge to allow a furlough.

Scott Cordell was returned to the Saline County Jail Friday night after being found near Inman in McPherson County, where he may face charges that could include vehicle theft.

Kochanowski says it is unlikely that inmates will be furloughed from jail in the future.

The Sheriff said if an inmate requests a release, it might include a charge for security to go with the inmate that would have to be paid up front.

Kochanowski expressed concern that could put the safety of the officers at risk going to an area, they are not familiar with or what reaction to law enforcement would be from other people attending something like a funeral.

The Sheriff did say that if an inmate had a family member that was dying, and considering the charges they were in jail for, an officer could be sent with them for an unannounced visit.

Cordell had been in the Saline County Jail since November on charges of Failure to Appear on a drug case.

Kansas legislators have plenty of policy objections to Governor Sam Brownback’s plan to overhaul the state’s individual income tax code, but efforts to sell the package also are clouded by questions about how his administration has spun his proposals.

The Republican governor said his plan would be “revenue neutral,” meaning it wouldn’t reduce the state’s overall tax collections. The administration kept using the phrase last week, even after its own figures showed revenues would drop nearly $90 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Brownback said his proposed budget for the next fiscal year would leave Kansas with healthy cash reserves of $465 million at the end of June 2013, exceeding guidelines set in Kansas law. But the calculation didn’t account for the effects of his tax plan.

 

An outside audit of the Kanas Bioscience Authority released Monday finds evidence that its former president destroyed computer files, misused agency funds and misled the authority’s board of directors about the nature of a relationship with a female assistant whom he later married.

Investigators from BKD Forensics and Valuation Services also found that former president Tom Thornton lied about the nature of a trip he took to Ohio in January 2011 to visit with the Cleveland Clinic about the KBA’s business model. The audit found that Thornton earned $1,868,299 during his four and half years at KBA.

The audit was made public following an executive session of the KBA board of directors in suburban Kansas City. Chairman Dan Watkins said overall the audit affirmed the authority’s investments process “is diligent” and makes no significant findings or exceptions in KBA expenditures or conflicts of interest.

“The audit report should clear the air regarding questions raised in the past year,” Watkins said in a statement, adding the board would use the audit to increase accountability.

Auditors said because of the manner in which electronic documents were destroyed that it could not determine whether Thornton’s computer owned by KBA held evidence of misuse or abuse of the agency’s funds.

“A complete quantification of what activities, files and folders existed on the computer prior the use of wiping tools is not possible,” auditors wrote.

Thornton resigned from the KBA in April to take a position with the clinic as scrutiny over his management of the authority intensified in Topeka. Thornton did not immediately respond to requests for comment to the audit.

The audit was demanded by legislators and Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration following a series of committee hearings.

“The facts brought forth by the audit are deeply troubling,” Brownback said in a statement. “This is not how we do business in the State of Kansas.”

Brownback called for a halt in all KBA spending and business commitments until the Legislature “decides what kind of future the state wants for the KBA.”

“The biosciences industry is an extremely important industry in Kansas and I am committed to growing this key sector of our state economy,” he said.

Sen. Susan Wagle, whose commerce committee heard testimony on the KBA in 2011, said putting the halt to KBA spending was a good first step until legislators learned more about the audit and activities under Thornton’s tenure.

“Clearly, there needs to be more oversight for the money that’s being spent over there,” said Wagle, a Wichita Republican. “It’s going to take a long time to sort this out.”

Legislators created the KBA in 2004 and it annually invests some $35 million in state funds to foster growth in the biosciences sector. Among the activities include work on the state’s successful bid to land the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, a $650 million lab to conduct research on deadly plant and animal pathogens.

Brownback’s top advisers met on March 10 with Thornton and KBA Chairman John Carlin, a former Democratic governor, about conducting the audit “to resolve all questions” about the agency. The KBA agreed to conduct the audit, paying $960,000 for the work.

That evening, Thornton composed a resignation letter on his KBA-issued laptop, the audit found, and then began deleting computer files on a KBA network and his laptop.

The KBA agreed to the audit on April 11 and Thornton resigned April 13 and was asked to turn in his laptop.

A week later, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe issued a global document subpoena to the KBA to begin conducting his own investigation. The audit found evidence that Thornton destroyed “virtually all of the information” on his KBA laptop over the next two days, then turned it in April 25.

Carlin, who defended Thornton’s management and the board of directors’ oversight, resigned as chairman in 2011 and his term expires in 2012.

Auditors said that KBA employees were interviewed about Thornton’s relationship with Lindsay Holwick, whom he later married. Employees told auditors that they noticed the “developing relationship” between Holwick and Thornton, including “allegations that inappropriate intimate behavior occurred between Mr. Thornton and Lindsay Holwick Thornton in KBA’s offices.”

KBA board members were not notified of the relationship “until they received wedding invitations in the late December 2010 timeframe.” Board members told auditors that the information was something that they would have liked to have known.

by Matt Unruh ~ Great Bend Post

A two-vehicle accident killed a Geneseo man and injured several more in Rice County on Sunday evening. At 5:50pm, Rice County Sheriff’s Office and Rice County Fire and Rescue were dispatched to an accident three miles north of Lyons on K-14. Murphy reported that Michael Mason of Geneseo was driving north on K-14 when he lost control of his 2005 Chevrolet Colorado on the slush covered road and entered a broadside skid crossing the centerline. His vehicle collided with a 2009 Ford Flex traveling south on K-14 driven by 36-year-old Mark Stansbury of Lorraine. Mason was pronounced dead at the scene.

Stansbury’s vehicle contained six occupants. Mark Stansbury sustained non-life threatening injuries. His wife 37-year-old Lucy Stansbury was transported to Hutchinson Hospital where she left before she was treated. 6-year-old Carter Stansbury was transported by private vehicle to the Lyons Hospital where he was treated and released. 6-year-old Courtney Stansbury, 10-year-old Anna Stansbury, and 3-year-old Ella Stansbury were all transported by ambulance to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, where they were in good condition as of Monday afternoon.

Shortly after the accident, a 2006 Ford truck driven by 59-year-old Chris Hamilton of Fredrick was driving north on K-14, and attempted to avoid the accident scene, but struck the Chevrolet Colorado after the initial impact. No injuries resulted from the second collision.

Boeing is planning to boost its spending with Kansas suppliers.

Company spokesman Forrest Gossett says that while the aircraft manufacturer is closing its Wichita facility, it’s not leaving the state.

Plans announced last week call for the aircraft manufacturer to increase its spending with Kansas suppliers from $3.2 billion to $4.8 billion by 2014 or 2015.

Boeing announced earlier this month that it was moving work at its Wichita plant to Oklahoma City and San Antonio. Tanker work that was to have come to Wichita will now go to the Puget Sound area in Washington state.

Boeing has about 475 suppliers in Kansas, most in the Wichita area. Kansas currently ranks fourth among the 50 states for Boeing’s supply dollars.