By Mike Sherry

The state board that oversees Kansas’ public colleges and universities on Wednesday endorsed an effort by the University of Kansas Cancer Center to earn the highest level of recognition from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Kansas Board of Regents backed the initiative by approving a resolution that said, in part, that the cancer center “would substantially improve cancer research and treatment opportunities for Kansans” by earning the enhanced designation.

Though it did not endorse outright a proposed increase in the state excise tax on cigarettes, the resolution noted the effect an increase would have on reducing smoking rates in the state and on smoking-related cancer.

Based at the University of Kansas Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan., the cancer center earned the first level of recognition in July 2012 – capping a nearly decade-long drive for the designation. Backing by the state, including a $5 million annual appropriation from the Legislature, and by state higher education officials proved instrumental in earning the initial designation, Dr. Doug Girod, executive vice chancellor of KU Med, told the regents.

“It really took a village to make this happen,” Girod said, citing hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support from a number of quarters, including the University of Kansas Hospital, the Kansas Bioscience Authority and local sales tax proceeds. The same type of commitment, including support for the resolution, would be just as crucial in the effort to earn the enhanced designation as a “comprehensive” cancer center, Girod said.

Pursuit of the comprehensive designation will come as part of the cancer center’s application to renew its initial five-year designation, cancer center officials said. The officials said the cancer center would submit it in September 2016, and they anticipate getting word on the application from NCI in July 2017. According to the NCI, of the 68 NCI-designated cancer centers across the country, 41 are comprehensive cancer centers.

The NCI website says that hallmarks of first-level cancer centers include research that crosses laboratory science, clinical research and population-based topics. Comprehensive centers, the site says, must demonstrate “reasonable depth and breadth” across those three areas in addition to proving their ability to disseminate “clinical and public health advances” to the communities they serve. “We know we need to be deeper and broader in everything we do,” Girod told the regents. The cancer center service area includes all of Kansas and 10 counties in western Missouri.

Girod said within that region every year there are about 26,000 new cancer diagnoses, and nearly 11,000 people die of cancer. He said the cancer center has made tobacco cessation and prevention one of its main priorities in meeting the public outreach and cancer-reduction requirements of a comprehensive cancer center.

Tobacco-related illnesses cost the state about $1.1 billion each year, Girod said. Health groups, which have banded together as Kansans for a Healthy Future, have endorsed Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposal to almost triple the tobacco tax, from 79 cents to $2.29 per pack, as part of his plan to close a hole in the state budget. Girod said pricing is a key part of a comprehensive approach to reducing the use of tobacco products. T

he resolution approved by the regents noted the health and fiscal effects of tobacco usage in the state, adding that the “most effective methods for demonstrating that the state is making an impact on public health and reducing tobacco use and cancer occurrence is to combine an expanded smoking cessation and prevention program and an increase in the tobacco excise tax.”

According to the resolution, Kansas ranks No. 36 in the country when it comes to its level of tobacco taxation. The wording on the tobacco tax unsettled regent Zoe Newton of Sedan, the lone dissenter in the voice vote to approve the resolution. “I’m very proud of the cancer center and support what they are doing,” she said afterward. “But as a matter of principle, when it comes to taxation, the language just made me very uncomfortable.”

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

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a murder conviction for a Wichita man who took part in the shooting death of a 13-year-old boy.

The court on Friday rejected an appeal from Eli Betancourt, who was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder in the June 2010 death of Miguel Andrade. The boy was shot several times when he opened his front door after hearing sounds outside.

Prosecutors say Betancourt and three other men fired on the wrong house as they sought vengeance for an attack on a relative of Betancourt’s. He is serving a Hard 25 life sentence.

Betancourt’s attorney had argued that the Sedgwick County court made several errors during the trial, including admitting his police statement as evidence, and that there was not sufficient evidence to convict him.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A carjacking suspect is dead following a police chase that ended in Kansas City, Kansas.

Authorities say the chase began after the suspect stole a van from a pest control worker in Bonner Springs. The chase went into Kansas City, Missouri, before ending after about 30 minutes when the vehicle drove through a fence near a church in Kansas City, Kansas.

Kansas City, Kansas, police spokeswoman Amber Hickerson says the driver at one point tried to hit a Kansas City, Missouri, police vehicle.

Hickerson says it is unclear if the suspect fired at officers or pointed his weapon at them but a Kansas Highway Patrol officer and three police officers shot him.

The pest control worker was not injured.

Further details were not immediately available.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Some Kansas lawmakers want to keep some money from being transferred away from transportation projects amid the state budget crunch.

Gov. Sam Brownback has recommended transferring $724 million from transportation projects to the state’s main budget during fiscal years 2016 and 2017 to fill projected budget shortfalls. A House budget panel voted Thursday to reinstate about $280 million of that funding.

Republican Rep. Russell Jennings of Lakin says he proposed the amendment because the state has too often diverted money from infrastructure to cover budget holes elsewhere. He suggested the state raise revenues in other ways.

The House Appropriations Committee will review the committee’s budget recommendations Tuesday.

Republican Rep. J. R. Claeys of Salina said that if the move passed, it could force education cuts.

———–

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers want to keep money from being transferred away from transportation projects.

The House Transportation Budget Committee voted Thursday to protect $280 million in infrastructure funds that would have been transferred away over the next two fiscal years under the governor’s recommendations. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback recommended transferring a total of $724 million from transportation projects to the state’s main budget over fiscal years 2016 and 2017 to fill projected budget shortfalls.

Democratic Rep. Annie Tietze of Topeka said the move was made because infrastructure works provide jobs and are important to the state’s economy. Tietze said she anticipated the state would state issue bonds to cover the shortfall if the committee’s recommendation were to pass.

The House Appropriations Committee will review the committee’s budget recommendations on Tuesday.

CONNIE CASS, Associated Press
EMILY SWANSON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Guys, if you want to get the girl, try bringing flowers — to her mother.

In a new poll, 6 in 10 young women say when they’re thinking of getting serious with someone, their mother’s approval is “extremely” or “very” important.

In the Associated Press-WE tv national poll, 4 in 10 young women say they would consider breaking up with a guy if mom didn’t like him.

Sons in the survey worried a little less than daughters about what mom thinks of their dates. Still, half of 18-to-29-year-old men say their mother’s approval is extremely or very important when a relationship might get serious.

Dads also have their say. The poll finds their opinions are more important to daters under 30 than what friends or siblings think.

WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Get ready for superstition — times three.

Friday is the first of three Friday the 13ths this year.

Each year has at least one Friday the 13th, but there can be as many as three. 2012 was the last year with three Friday the 13ths. The next will be 2026.

It’s a quirk of the calendar that gives the superstitious three times as many reasons to avoid walking under ladders or near black cats.

But it also lets those who don’t believe in bad luck tempt fate by breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks and spilling salt.

British journalist Ellen Widdup is moving Friday while wearing a locket containing a four-leaf clover.

She never opens umbrellas indoors but says moving on Friday the 13th is a way to test her fears.

By Austin Fisher
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — City judges and attorneys are asking for the ability to remove their personal information from public websites.

Senate Bill 128 would allow municipal judges, attorneys, and their assistants to request that their identifying information, like home addresses and phone numbers, not be published on public websites that can be searched with keywords.

Currently the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) allows federal and state judges and prosecutors to request that their contact information be removed from public websites.

Dick Carter, Jr., representing Overland Park, said city judges and prosecutors need to be exempted as well. “Municipal judges and prosecutors deal with persons with extensive criminal histories, and with serious personality and mental health issues,” Carter said.

Last year Overland Park Municipal Court Judge Cynthia Cornwell received threats on social media that resulted in felony charges. Carter said it was one of two threats against Cornwell in the last two years.

“Our administrative prosecutor also received a letter in the mail with disturbing, violent descriptions, even towards her family,” Carter said.

Sen. Jeff King (R-Independence) proposed an amendment to also exclude special assistant attorney generals and special county and district attorneys from KORA.

In written testimony Nicole Proulx Aiken, legal counsel with the League of Kansas Municipalities, supported the bill. “It is not uncommon for them to receive threats because of their public positions and the decisions they make,” she wrote.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said local governments may have to spend some extra money to restrict information on public websites but said he couldn’t determine precise costs.

The committee will take final action on the bill on Feb. 19.

Austin Fisher is a senior from Lawrence studying journalism at the University of Kansas.