WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A hearing on whether to approve a domestic protection from abuse order against Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle has been postponed.

The attorney representing Randle’s ex-girlfriend told The Wichita Eagle Thursday’s scheduled hearing was delayed for three weeks.

The delay comes as the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office considers whether to file criminal charges against Randle.

Dalia Jacobs, the mother of Randle’s son, told investigators that during a Feb. 3 altercation at a Wichita hotel Randle brandished a gun and broke a car window while they argued.

His attorney has said Randle did not threaten the woman or show a gun at any time.

Randle, a member of the Dallas Cowboys, was arrested after a small amount of marijuana was found in his hotel room but those charges were dropped.

By DAVE RANNEY
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services recently announced that it will not renew its grants with five in-state organizations that advocate for emotionally disturbed children and people with mental illness, developmental disabilities or addiction issues.

The grants, totaling $518,000, end June 30.

Appearing last week before the House Social Services Budget Committee, KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett said the department’s decision not to renew its grants with the five programs was driven by its desire to reconfigure them in ways meant to break down some of the “compartmentalization” that now separates some of its grantees.

KDADS, she said, has posted a formal request for information on its website , asking providers to suggest ways to improve the current network of services. New criteria, Bruffett said, should be developed by May 1, and the new grants should be awarded by June 30 with a Jan. 1, 2016, startup date.

Bruffett said current grantees are welcome to apply for the new grants.

Grantees notified last week that their current-year funding will not be renewed after June 30, their missions and their grant amounts:

National Alliance on Mental Illness-Kansas, advocates for adults and children living with a mental illness, $150,000.
Keys for Networking, advocates for families with children with serious emotional disorders, $150,000.
Kansas Family Partnership, administers several initiatives aimed at reducing drug and alcohol use among children, teens and families, $418,500.
Families Together, provides training and support for parents of children with physical and developmental disabilities, $243,894.
Self Advocate Coalition of Kansas, provides training programs designed to help people with developmental disabilities advocate for themselves, $97,000.
Bruffett said she hopes the restructuring will lead to some additional federal funding and availability of private donations.

In separate interviews, each of the program directors said their respective agencies would be forced to close or significantly reduce their services if they are not awarded one of the new grants.

“We are distressed by the prospects that after having been a reliable provider of support for the past 25 years, we may not be around to play that role after July 1,” said Rick Cagan, executive director of NAMI-Kansas.

Cagan has been outspoken in his criticism of the state’s mental health system.

“It has a lot of holes in it,” he said. “You need organizations like NAMI and Keys (for Networking) to plug those holes, to rescue families who find themselves in crisis when the system doesn’t function like it’s supposed to. These are people who’ve already tried their community mental health center, who’ve already tried the state hospital, and they’re still in crisis. That’s who calls us. They don’t call KDADS.”

Michelle Voth, executive director at Kansas Family Partnership, said she’s long been aware of KDADS’ desire to restructure the grants.

“They want there to be a better way for coordinating all of the services that are being provided,” she said. “And that’s something that all of us want as well.”

Voth said she intends to apply for one of the new grants.

“Our concern at this point is that none of us know what these grants are going to look like,” she said.

The request for information from providers was issued Feb. 1, and the request for grant proposals is scheduled to be distributed May 1.

“That’s a really quick turnaround,” Voth said.

Families Together Executive Director Connie Zienkewicz said she, too, will apply for one of the new grants but with reservations.

“My concern is that in the past, the grants we’ve been asked to apply for have always involved services that we were the only entity with the capacity to provide them,” she said. “The idea was for families to get the services they need from the people who were in the best position – and who had the most expertise – to provide them. That’s why we’ve all developed the way we have. We didn’t compete; we collaborated with one another.”

The new grants, she said, signal a change in direction.

“It appears they want all that expertise to be one organization,” Zienkewicz said.

The Senate Ways and Means Social Services Subcommittee last week was made aware of KDADS’ decision not to renew the grants.

“I can think of no better example of our being penny wise and pound foolish,” said Sen. Laura Kelly, a Democrat from Topeka. “We’re going to end up spending a whole lot more on the folks who’ve been taking advantage of the services of these groups than we are now.

“And these are groups that run on a shoestring and yet, over the years, have developed an incredibly wide reach,” she said.

Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican and chairman of the subcommittee, said the grants’ redesign may be inevitable.

“Everybody who’s in health care — or in education, for that matter — knows that everything, funding-wise, is moving to outcomes-based decisions,” Denning said. “When these grants get let out, they’re going to include outcome measurements. That’s the new world, that’s the direction that everything is headed.”

Denning said Bruffett had assured him that the new grants will lead to additional funding for whichever programs receive them.

Even so, Rep. Barbara Bollier, a Republican from Mission Hills, said she doesn’t believe that will happen.

“KDADS’ not renewing the grants, that’s all about cutting costs. That’s all it is,” Bollier said. “We’re not going to get to the end of the (legislative session) and find out that KDADS is going to put more money into these grants. That’s not going to happen because the money isn’t there.”

 

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Wal-Mart is spending $1 billion to make changes to how it pays and trains U.S. hourly workers.

As part of its biggest investment in worker training and pay ever, Wal-Mart tells The Associated Press that within the next six months it will give raises to about 500,000 workers. That’s nearly 40 percent of its 1.3 million U.S. employees.

Wal-Mart follows other retailers that have boosted hourly pay recently, but because it’s the nation’s largest private employer, the impact of its move will be more closely watched.

In addition to raises, Wal-Mart said it plans to make changes to how workers are scheduled and add training programs for sales staff so that employees can more easily map out their future at the company.

Also today, Wal-Mart reported a 12 percent increase in profit for the fourth quarter as sale for the critical holiday shopping season perked up amid lower gas prices and an improving economy.

But the company said its plays to improve pay and training will hurt profits in the short run.

The world’s largest retailer has struggled for two years with sluggish sales.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Louie the Clown, who went missing from a closed Wichita amusement park more than a decade ago, has been found at the home of a sex offender who used to work at the park.

The return of the mascot of the Joyland amusement park was such big news that it was re-introduced during a media briefing Thursday.

Wichita police say officers found the clown Tuesday at a home of 39-year-old Damian Mayes, who is serving a prison sentence for a 2010 conviction for aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated criminal sodomy. Mayes used to build and repair organs at the park.

Louie disappeared from the Joyland property in 2005 or 2006 but wasn’t reported stolen until 2010.

Police say that the nearly 50-year-old clown is worth $10,000.

By Alyssa Scott

KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA – The process Kansas uses to form its state energy plan could change with the implementation of House Bill 2233.

In the House Energy and Environment Committee hearing Wednesday, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) testified in favor of the bill while the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) testified against it.

In order to eliminate pollution from power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a Clean Power Plan in June 2014. While the plan will not be finalized until August 2015, it gives states one year to submit a State Implementation Plan indicating their compliance with the EPA’s goals and regulations. If a state fails to submit an energy plan within the deadline, the EPA will issue a Federal Implementation Plan instead.

KDHE’s Tom Gross said the process outlined in HB 2233 for developing a plan would make it difficult for Kansas to meet the one-year deadline.

“We have 365 days to get a plan submitted to the EPA and the KCC has a 300-day window in the middle of it, and we have a 60-day public comment period and then a hearing and response to comments,” Gross said. “With that, we’re in the negative. We’re in the red and we have zero days to prepare a plan.”

This 300-day window outlined in the bill allows the KCC to review the KDHE’s draft of the state energy plan, and the KCC must give approval before anything is submitted to the EPA.

Rep. Annie Kuether (D- Topeka) said her main concern with HB 2233 is that the KCC has too much control in the process.

“I’m really concerned with what I deem is pretty much an overreach and getting in the middle of what KDHE needs to do when they feel free and how they feel free to do it,” Kuether said. “You’re giving KCC a little more power and oversight of another agency, which is not their purview, and I think it’s a bad balance.”

KCC Commissioner Pat Apple said the bill provides a clear path for how Kansas should move forward.

“If we’re trying to come up with a state implementation plan that’s going to meld the next 50 years of energy policy, wouldn’t we be better off to have… (the best) information as we can as far as cost and reliability?” Apple said. “House Bill 2233 does that. We think that it’s the right thing to do for Kansas.”

Opponents and proponents of the bill present at the hearing agreed that missing the one-year deadline and having a Federal Implementation Plan in place would be detrimental to the state. Dorothy Barnett, who spoke on behalf of Kansans for Clean Energy, said missing the deadline is one of the reasons she is opposed to the bill.

“We are concerned that by adding this level of legislation we are going to subject Kansas to a Federal Implementation Plan and limit our ability to work on a state level,” Barnett said. “Stakeholders are nearly unanimous in their desire to avoid a Federal Implementation Plan.”

Committee Chair Rep. Dennis Hedke (R-Wichita) said although the KCC and the KDHE had different opinions at the hearing, the two organizations will advance the committee’s discussions and be ready to move forward when the committee meets next Wednesday.

“We’ve got good professionals here,” Hedke said. “Both the KCC and KDHE are loaded with highly qualified expertise, so I do believe that both of them actually want to get legislation built so that the EPA doesn’t have that overreach without some kind of preparation on our side.”

 

Alyssa Scott is a University of Kansas junior from Wichita majoring in journalism and French.

TOPEKA – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 8 a.m. on Thursday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Isis Elizabeth Gary, 22, Topeka, was westbound on Interstate 70 just west of MacVicar in the right lane.

The vehicle made a lane change and struck a 2006 Chevy van driven by Nathan T. Smith, 41, Topeka, that was westbound in the in the left lane.

Gary was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

Smith and a passenger in the Chevy were not injured.

The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.