MORLAND – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 5 p.m. on Sunday in Graham County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer driven by Beckie Linnell, 54, Goodland, was westbound on U.S. 24 five miles west of Morland.

The vehicle entered the north ditch. The driver overcorrected. The vehicle crossed the highway, entered the south ditch and rolled.

Linnel and a passenger Anna J. Harper, 80, Goodland, were transported to the Graham County Hospital.

The KHP reported they were not wearing seat belts.

HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press
GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press

The federal government’s failure to enforce the nation’s child protection laws is a “national disgrace” that leaves abused children vulnerable to future harm, according to a three-year study by two child advocacy groups.

The 110-page report released Tuesday identified some of the same failures reported in December by The Associated Press after an eight-month investigation into hundreds of children who died of abuse or neglect in plain view of child protection authorities.

“Our laws are weak. We don’t invest in solutions. Federal laws aren’t enforced. And courts are turning their backs. This creates a trifecta of inertia and neglect,” said Amy Harfeld, policy director at the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, which wrote the report with the nonprofit group First Star.

AP’s investigation, published Dec. 18, also revealed a system in crisis, hobbled by weak federal oversight, budget constraints, worker shortages and a voluntary data collection system so flawed that nobody can say with accuracy how many children die from abuse or neglect each year.

The AP found that at least 786 children died of abuse and neglect over a six-year span — many of them beaten, starved or left alone to drown — while agencies had good reason to know they were in danger. That figure represents the most comprehensive statistics publicly available, but the actual number who died even as authorities were investigating their families or providing some form of protective services is likely much higher because antiquated confidentiality laws allow many states to withhold vital information, shrouding their failures.

The federal government estimates an average of about 1,650 children have died annually from abuse or neglect in recent years, whether or not they were known to the child welfare system, but many experts believe the actual number is twice as high. And many more suffer from near-fatal abuse and neglect every year.

“Almost everything that happens to these children is cloaked in endemic secrecy, and most efforts by the media and advocates to provide the public with much needed transparency — which leads to accountability — are thwarted by the very governmental entities and officials who have turned their backs on their official duties to children,” the groups said.

Michael Petit, who was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities and serves as adviser to the advocacy group Every Child Matters, said he agreed with what he has read thus far in the report, entitled “Shame on U.S.”

“The report is saying what a lot of people have been experiencing,” Petit said, who wasn’t speaking on the commission’s behalf. “I share many of those sentiments that the federal government is not providing the kind of oversight needed.”

The Children’s Advocacy Institute and First Star fault all three branches of federal government for failing to protect children.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for implementing and enforcing federal child welfare laws and programs, but the agency largely takes a hands-off approach, allowing states to self-certify that they are in compliance with federal requirements.

“There is no meaningful oversight and the states know it,” the report said.

Agency spokeswoman Laura Goulding did not immediately return a call and an email seeking comment on the report Monday.

Congress needs to mandate that HHS impose fines, withhold funds or take other punitive actions when states don’t follow federal regulations, the report said.

Because HHS and Congress so rarely hold states accountable for their failings, filing a lawsuit is usually the only way private parties can challenge problems within the child welfare system. But lawsuits are time consuming, expensive and often limited in their reach, covering violations in only one state or county rather than widespread systemic failures, the groups said.

“Federal courts have turned their backs on private attempts to enforce federal child welfare law and Congress has shown little interest in advancing the law itself,” the report said.

Emily Douglas, a child welfare expert at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Mass., called the report’s findings about the judicial branch’s shortcomings particularly revealing.

“When something goes wrong, usually you hear that the state child welfare agency is a wreck or that the governor is stepping in to fire someone,” Douglas said. “But increasingly judges are going to be on the radar about the important role that they play in determining these kids’ safety. Judges are not trained social workers, so are we sure they always know the risk factors when deciding children should be sent back home?”

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A woman running for the board that governs the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, has been charged with hitting four high school students with her car.

The Wyandotte County prosecutor’s office says 38-year-old Tamika Pledger, of Kansas City, Kansas, was charged Sunday with four counts of reckless aggravated battery. The teens sustained serious injuries in Friday’s crash near a community center.

Pledger is jailed on $50,000 bond. A prosecutor’s office spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press asking whether Pledger had an attorney.

The prosecutor’s office said in a written statement that Pledger has filed for a seat on the Unified Government’s Board of Commissioners. The seat has been empty since Mark Holland vacated it when he was elected mayor in 2013.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have jailed a woman suspected of driving a car that struck four high school students near a community center in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Kansas City Star reports that the teens suffered serious injuries in the Friday afternoon crash. Jail records show the suspected driver is being held on suspicion of committing intentional aggravated battery to cause “great bodily harm of disfigurement.”

Police said an eastbound Mercedes-Benz sedan crested a hill and hit the students before veering into a yard and coming to rest near a fence. The driver stayed at the scene.

ARMA- Two people were injured in an accident just after 11:30 a.m. on Sunday in Crawford County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Ford Ranger driven by Colby Lee Bishop,14, Arma, was westbound on west South Street at U.S. 69.

The vehicle failed to yield at the stop sign and pulled into the path of a 2010 Ford F 150 driven by Curtis Ray McCullough, 36, Fort Scott, that was southbound on U.S. 69. The F150 struck the Ranger.

McCullough and a passenger in the Ranger Jordan E. Robinson, 14, Arma, were transported to Via Christi.

Bishop was not injured.
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Parts of northern Missouri and northeast Kansas are digging out from a winter storm.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jenni Laflin says accumulations of up to 6 to 10 inches were reported Sunday near the Missouri-Iowa border. The Kansas City area got up to 2 inches, but the snow melted quickly across much of the metro.

Temperatures are expected to drop to single digits by Sunday evening. But strong winds, including gusts of up to 35 mph, will make it feel like it’s below zero.

Laflin says several rural power companies are reporting outages in northern Missouri. There also are reports of broken branches and a large tree falling onto a Trenton house.

Transportation officials reported snow-covered roads in northern parts of Kansas and Missouri. Several traffic crashes have been reported.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback and his top aides can’t predict when Kansas will meet his stated goal of eliminating income taxes under his plan to slow down future, promised reductions to head off predicted budget deficits.

The Republican governor promised in his annual State of the State address that Kansas will continue a “march to zero” on income taxes.

But his new tax proposals abandoned most of the cuts in personal income tax rates scheduled for the next three years. They also divert revenues to a rainy day budget fund ahead of future reductions.

The governor and many of his allies contend he’s being practical amid budget problems that arose after legislators aggressively cut personal income taxes at his urging in 2012 and 2013 to boost the economy.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A new center that hopes to eventually provide resources for science and engineering students throughout the Kansas City region is now open.

The KC Engineering Zone workspace for students was dedicated this week. It’s a 4,200-square-foot room on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus.

The Kansas City Star reports it offers students such tools as milling machines, a metal lathe and shear, a band saw, drill presses and rows of computers. More importantly, professional engineers are mentoring the high school students, who work there on Saturdays, holidays and after school.

The KC STEM Alliance and its partners have grand plans to attract science, technology, engineering and math students from throughout the region. They want it for more schools’ robotics teams and engineering projects, as well as STEM summer camps.

By Ashley Booker |

Testimony in Topeka on a bill that would expand who could clear middle school and high school athletes to return to sports after a head injury revealed a split between medical doctors and chiropractors.

Currently, the state’s school sports statutes only allow medical doctors and doctors of osteopathic medicine to sign a written clearance following a concussion. Bryan Payne, immediate past president of the Kansas Chiropractic Association, said during a legislative hearing that chiropractors currently are able to diagnose and treat concussions but aren’t allowed to sign the form to release their patients to play or practice.

“Chiropractic physicians are very well-trained to diagnose and treat concussions,” Payne said. “We go through an extensive period of our education, and all chiropractic programs hold that stringent education requirement.” Chiropractors generally have more training in anatomy but less in physiology than medical doctors (M.D.) and doctors of osteopathic medicine (D.O.).

Chiropractic school is similar in length to medical school, but chiropractors have fewer residency requirements afterward. The proposed bill, HB 2016, was discussed Wednesday in the House Health and Human Services Committee. It would change the definition of health care provider within the school sports act from a M.D. or D.O. to a “licensee of the healing arts,” as defined by a separate state statute that includes chiropractors.

Sean Hubbard, who owns a chiropractic and balance center in Wichita, told the committee that after treating patients for head injuries, he must tell them to go back to their M.D. or D.O. to clear them to return to their field of play. “(That’s) one more day off work, one more day out of school — and many of these kids I end up seeing have missed weeks of school at a time,”

Hubbard said. “So that just adds another undue burden when they are ready to go back.” One of Hubbard’s patients, Ryan King, a graduate student at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, has suffered four concussions in his lifetime.

The first occurred when he was playing a club soccer game in high school. He told the committee how chiropractic care from Hubbard relieved symptoms that couldn’t be cured with more traditional medicine. The symptoms from his concussions were so debilitating,

King said, that he removed himself from sports between concussions, became depressed and had to take a semester off from college. King’s pastor suggested he see Hubbard, and within a couple weeks of chiropractic care, King was able to go a full day without a headache.

He was shocked when he heard the Kansas State High School Activities Association and the state don’t give chiropractors the authority to clear athletes for competition. King said the current law is “doing a disservice to all Kansas athletes that have or will get concussions in the seasons to come.”

After the hearing, Rachelle Colombo, director of government affairs for the Kansas Medical Society, said there is a distinction between chiropractic training and medical training. “Physicians should be the one to make the call on return to play,” Colombo said, “because physicians and those who work under a physician-led team are trained in a medical model that’s trained in the whole body.”

The medical society represents medical doctors from across the state. Bart Grelinger, an M.D. and board-certified neurologist in Wichita, also told the committee that the treatment of concussions should stay within the traditional medical community. Grelinger said physicians look at the patient holistically, considering what diseases they have, what medications they are on that could be affected by the head injury and what medications could help relieve symptoms. “A concussion is going to make those particular medical diseases more problematic,” he said. “Physicians cannot be left out of the loop. … It affects the health of the patient far beyond just a concussion.”

Rep. Dick Jones, a Republican from Topeka, asked whether chiropractors and medical doctors could work together to treat concussions and clear athletes for play. Grelinger said it’s an option, and referrals happen often in medicine. But Grelinger said care of head injury patients needs to be kept in a “physician-led group.”

After the hearing, Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, said the bill’s future hinges on lawmakers’ level of confidence in chiropractors to diagnose and treat head injuries. Doug Smith, executive director of the Kansas Academy of Physician Assistants, proposed an amendment to include physician assistants in the concussion clearance process. He said his organization is neutral on the underlying bill.

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