By JIM MCLEAN & MEG WINGERTER

Advocates of expanding Medicaid eligibility are planning a second attempt to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of an expansion bill when lawmakers return in May to wrap up the 2017 session.

The first attempt failed in the Kansas House on Monday, when supporters came up three votes short of the 84 needed to override.

“The issue of expanding KanCare is too important to Kansans not to make another attempt to address this issue before the session ends,” said David Jordan, director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas coalition. “We see tremendous energy from supporters to find a solution this session. So, we’re going to exhaust all options possible to try to find a way to move forward.”

KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, currently covers approximately 425,000 Kansans, mostly children in low-income families, people with disabilities and low-income elderly Kansans who need nursing home care.

The expansion bill would extend coverage to an estimated 180,000 additional Kansans, mainly low-income adults.

The financial plight of several Kansas hospitals is adding urgency to the expansion issue.

SCL Health, the Denver-based Catholic health care organization that operates St. Francis Health in Topeka, has been seeking a buyer for the 378-bed hospital for almost a year. Multiple sources say the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion is complicating negotiations with potential buyers.

Brian Newsome, spokesman for SCL Health, said he couldn’t comment on the status of those negotiations or the possibility that the hospital would close if a buyer can’t be found.

“Since this exploration began last year, we have been committed to a thoughtful and deliberate process, and that work continues,” he said in an email. “In the meantime, we remain resolutely focused on providing the quality, compassionate care for which St. Francis has become recognized.”

Any new owner would have to contend with a difficult financial situation. St. Francis Health lost money from 2012 to 2015, the most recent year with available tax filings. In 2015, its losses reached $12.5 million.

Expansion would generate an additional $9.9 million for the hospital in 2019, according to the Kansas Hospital Association.

Rep. Adam Lusker, a Democrat from Frontenac, said a hospital in his district also is at risk if the state doesn’t expand KanCare and start drawing down additional federal Medicaid dollars.

“Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott is next on the list,” Lusker said in recent interview with the Fort Scott Tribune.

Sumner Regional Medical Center in Wellington is also struggling to keep its doors open, said Terry Deschaine, a member of the hospital’s board.

“The financial challenges we’re facing are very significant,” he said, confirming that the city of Wellington recently had to back the hospital’s request for a $300,000 line of credit from a local bank.

In addition to staging a series of town-hall meetings in the districts of lawmakers thought to be swing votes, advocates are discussing possible changes to the Medicaid expansion bill in an effort to gain the handful of votes they need. Those could include adding a work requirement and language to ensure that no expansion dollars go to Planned Parenthood.

“We’re going to continue to work on it,” said Tom Bell, president and CEO of the hospital association.

Brownback cited the cost of expansion and the fact that it would extend health care benefits to “able-bodied” adults while thousands of Kansans with disabilities continued to wait for support services as reasons for vetoing the bill.

Jim McLean and Meg Wingerter are reporters for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. 

SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating the Sunday murder 0f a woman and have a suspect in custody.

Just after 1:30 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a 911 call from a 9-year-old boy who reported an assault at a home in the 1400 Block of west Rita in Wichita, according to Lt. Todd Ojile during Monday’s online media briefing.

Officers were unable to get anyone to answer the door of the home.

Upon entering the garage, they found the decapitated body of the victim identified as Micki Davis, 63, Wichita, according to Ojile.

Officers found the 35-year-old suspect Rachel Christina Hilyard, hiding in the residence.

The investigation revealed the victim and her 9-year-old grandson had gone to the home to obtain property that belonged to her son.

The suspect used a knife in the attack. The boy grabbed a cell phone from the victim’s truck and called 911 as he ran from the scene.

Police booked Hilyard into the Sedgwick County jail on Sunday evening, according to the daily inmate booking report.

She has previous drug convictions in Sedgwick County, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

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WICHITA — A woman is in jail on requested first-degree murder charges in connection with the Sunday disturbance in a southwest Wichita home.

The 63-year-old female victim was found dead Sunday after police received a call about a domestic violence disturbance.

Police also found Rachel Christina Hilyard, 35,  who knew the victim in the home and took her for questioning.

Police booked her into the Sedgwick County jail on Sunday evening, according to the daily inmate booking report.

A 9-year-old boy made the initial 911 call of the disturbance, according to police.

The AP contributed to this report.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the swearing-in of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court (all times local):
11:16 a.m.
President Donald Trump is praising new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch during a public White House ceremony. He says Gorsuch will rule “not on his personal preferences but based on a fair and objective reading of the law.”
In a Rose Garden ceremony, Trump says in Gorsuch, Americans see “a man who is deeply faithful to the Constitution of the United States.” The president is predicting Gorsuch will go down as “one of the truly great justices” in the court’s history.
The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado was sworn in during the ceremony by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he once served as a law clerk.
The president noted that the successful nomination came during his first 100 days in office.
__
9:25 a.m.
Surrounded by family and his future colleagues, Neil Gorsuch has taken the first of two oaths as he prepares to take his place as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court.
The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is being sworn in Monday after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change the rules for approving Supreme Court picks – over the fierce objection of Democrats.
The first ceremony took place privately in the Justices’ Conference Room, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the oath required by the Constitution.
That will be followed by a public White House ceremony, where Justice Anthony Kennedy is to administer the oath set by federal law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge Neil Gorsuch is about to take his place as the newest Supreme Court justice.

The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado is to be sworn in after a bruising fight that saw Republicans change rules for approving Supreme Court picks over the fierce objection of Democrats.

First up is a private ceremony at the court, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering the constitutional oath. That’s followed by a public ceremony at the White House, where Justice Anthony Kennedy will swear him in.

Gorsuch will be seated just in time to hear one of the biggest cases of the term — a religious rights dispute over a Missouri law that bars churches from receiving public funds for general aid programs.

GEARY COUNTY -The preliminary damage estimate from the Junction City Fire Department on the apartment building fire at the Bluffs apartment complex on Saturday has been placed at $750,000 to the structure and $400,000 to the contents.

Building B, which contained 28 apartment units burned. No one was injured, and the Bluffs has worked to  provide new apartments for those who were displaced.

The fire call came in at 1:12 a.m. with personnel from multiple agencies responding including  the Red Cross to assist with the recovery process.

The donations for victims are being kept off-site for the next few days and then later opened up at the clubhouse at the Bluffs. Some churches in the area have also reached out to help.

The families who were impacted by the blaze range from toddlers to single young adults, to older residents, according to apartment leasing manager Neva Fisher.  “Some of the things that you don’t realize, their medications, their glasses, prescription glasses, those are things that can’t be donated. We’re just looking for options for them.”

Fisher confirmed the majority of the residents were affiliated with the military, but there was one USD 475 teacher and a small number of other civilians who resided in the building that burned.

Another fire at the Bluffs in April of 2016 destroyed Building F in the complex. There were no injuries in that fire.  Cause of Saturday’s fire is still under investigation.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former football star for what now is Wichita State University is being remembered for his composure confronting racism directed at him and other black athletes in the 1940s.

About 100 family and friends gathered Saturday at Koch Arena for a memorial service for Linwood Sexton, who died March 29 at the age of 90.

As a halfback, Sexton led the Shockers in total offense in 1946 and 1947, helping them to a 1947 Raisin Bowl berth. He earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors from 1945 through 1947.

That’s despite sitting out games in places such as Tulsa and West Texas State because of his race.

Sexton is a member of the conference, Shockers and Kansas sports halls of fame.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man has been arrested and charged in two robberies, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

The Topeka Police Department assisted the FBI in arresting Joshua Alexander Musgraves, 24, Topeka,  who is charged with two counts of commercial robbery.

An indictment filed in U.S. District court in Topeka alleges that on Jan. 6, 2017, Musgraves robbed Plato’s Closet, a clothing store at 1580 S.W. Wanamaker Road in Topeka.

The indictment also alleges that on Jan. 20, 2017, Musgraves robbed Kentucky Fried Chicken at 1812 N.W. Topeka Boulevard in Topeka.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on each count. The Topeka Police Department and the FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Maag is prosecuting.

By STEPHEN KORANDA, MEG WINGERTER & SAM ZEFF

Kansas legislators hit adjournment Friday with some big tasks left for their wrap-up session that starts May 1.

At the top of the list is a tax and budget plan, which largely will be influenced by the amount of school funding that legislators decide to add in light of the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling last month. In the health policy arena, Medicaid expansion supporters are regrouping after the governor’s veto — and holding out hope for another shot this session.

Here’s a look at what legislators have accomplished and what remains to be done during the 2017 session regarding budget, education and health issues.

Coming To A Budget Compromise?

Lawmakers have made progress on balancing the current budget for the fiscal year that ends in June, but solutions for the coming years have eluded them. Revenue shortfalls are projected to total around $1 billion over the next two budget years.

Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said the slow progress is to be expected.

“Coming to a compromise, an agreement on a tax package is probably the most difficult thing any state Legislature would have to do,” she said.

In February the House and Senate did advance a tax increase, but Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the plan and lawmakers didn’t have the votes to override.

Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said legislators may consider a modified version of that plan.

“The issue, quite honestly, is the governor,” she said. “Can we get anything past him?”

This week Brownback made an unexpected announcement that he was endorsing a “flat tax” plan from a Senate committee. It would have eliminated the current 2.7 and 4.6 percent income tax brackets and imposed a 4.6 percent tax rate on all Kansans.

That bill failed by a wide margin in the Senate, 37-3, and gave legislators a bit of insight, Kelly said.

“We have found out what won’t work. I guess that’s progress,” she said.

On Friday, Brownback called the budget work done so far a “good opening discussion” but said more negotiations are likely.

“When you’re dealing with tax policy, you’ll go through 100 iterations to come up with something that can get through the entire process,” Brownback said.

That process may make for long days when legislators return to Topeka for the wrap-up session.

Rep. Melissa Rooker said they’ve been told to plan to work for two weeks straight, including through the weekend, to find tax and budget solutions.

“Which is fine, it’s appropriate to get the people’s business done, but it’s a lot of heavy lifting to pack into a very compressed time frame,” said Rooker, a Fairway Republican.

Both chambers have made some progress on budget plans for the coming two years. They largely avoid spending cuts and include some small, targeted spending increases. But both budgets would require hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to balance.
Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Hiawatha Republican, is among the lawmakers who want to consider spending cuts before tax increases.

“People in here generally like to spend money — especially other people’s money,” Pyle said.

The top budget writer in the Senate, Republican Carolyn McGinn of Sedgwick, said last month that she’s prepared to make spending cuts.

“At the end of the day, we have to balance our budget,” McGinn said. “If nothing passes on the revenue side, we’ll be back. We’ll be taking things out. We will balance this budget.”

Court Ruling Steers Education Funding

Budget negotiations have been complicated by the need to develop a new school funding formula, as spending on K-12 public education takes up about half of the $6 billion state general fund.

The optimism about education funding in Kansas really started in last year’s elections when moderate Republicans and Democrats unseated conservative legislators. Many of the new lawmakers had education backgrounds, from PTA members to a former superintendent, and made school funding a priority in their campaigns.

Acknowledging that writing a new school funding formula would be a priority — and a complicated process — House Speaker Ron Ryckman of Olathe created a special panel, the House K-12 Budget Committee.

A number of school funding plans emerged early in the session.

One was authored by Rooker with lots of input from other moderates and some Democrats.

Conservative plans included one by Rep. Scott Schwab of Olathe and a leftover plan from last year written by Rep. Ron Highland, former chair of the education committee, and Steve Abrams, who lost his Senate seat in the last election. Another plan came from the former president of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

During the first few weeks of the session, the committee discussed all of those plans. Then, talks slowed.

Superintendents did have some concerns when lawmakers talked about cutting current education aid to help balance the budget or forcing schools to dip into their reserves in future years, but nothing came of that.

Looming over all of this, of course, was the pending Kansas Supreme Court ruling in the Gannon school funding case.

Finally, on March 2 the court ruled that Kansas school funding was unconstitutionally inadequate. Estimates on how to fix that ranged from $500 million to $800 million.

After the ruling, David Smith, chief of staff for Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, said: “I think what people have come to understand is that any funding formula that is efficient and effective will look very much like the old one because it’s going to be tied to what it actually costs to educate students.”

The first plan from legislative leaders upped spending by just $75 million. Democrats scoffed at that number and, despite some arm-twisting by leadership, most Republicans dismissed it as too little.

Rep. Larry Campbell of Olathe, chairman of the K-12 committee, said the bill was “a starting point.”

During a marathon hearing on March 30, the K-12 committee increased that one-time infusion of $75 million to a five-year total of $750 million in new spending.

Rep. Ed Trimmer from Winfield, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said that’s the minimum the Legislature needs to add for public schools.

“Otherwise we’ll be back here doing this same thing again after the court tells us that’s not enough money,” he said.

Educators are excited about some elements of the bill: state funding for all-day kindergarten if districts choose to offer it, $10 million more over five years for at-risk early childhood development and about $2 million for teacher mentoring and professional development.

However, the committee did not pass out the bill. Campbell wanted to hire a constitutional lawyer to review the measure and ensure sure it will pass muster with the state Supreme Court before sending it to the House and Senate. Former state Senator Jeff King, who’d initially been rejected as too political, got the job as the committee’s counsel Friday a few hours after the Legislature adjourned for the break.

Once the bill hits the House and Senate floors, many questions remain. How will legislators come up with millions more in education funding when the state faces a large budget hole? Will moderate Republicans in the House be able to add more funding? Will $750 million survive in the Senate?

And then there’s the most important question: what will the Kansas Supreme Court think?

Medicaid Expansion A Veto Victim

Expanding eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privately run Medicaid program, dominated health policy debates this session.

After three years of attempts to get a Medicaid expansion bill beyond committee, the House and Senate debated and passed the bill. But they were unable to get enough votes to override Brownback’s veto. In his veto message, the governor said the bill prioritized “able-bodied” people over those who have disabilities.

Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project, said KanCare expansion advocates aren’t conceding defeat this session. But if the Legislature doesn’t take it up again this year, Weisgrau said advocates will keep pushing expansion as a way to help more Kansans access health care and to assist rural hospitals.

“I’m a believer that nothing is dead until the Legislature adjourns,” he said in an email. “This issue is too important and has too much support to give up on.”
Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican who was one of the strongest legislative voices in favor of expansion, was less sure about its prospects this session. Some House members have said they are open to reconsidering the issue, but she said it would be difficult to get another bill passed in the time remaining.

“It’ll be back next year, full force,” she said. “I’m discouraged, but I’m not giving up.”

Another health policy priority for Democrats and some moderates also may have fallen short. State hospitals, mental health centers, college campuses and the University of Kansas Hospital had sought an exemption from a state law that requires them to either allow visitors to carry concealed handguns or to hire security and install metal detectors. Several bills exempting one or more of those facilities failed to advance, though a bill that would exempt only state hospitals is alive in the House.

Tim Keck, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, said during a legislative hearing that bringing guns into a psychiatric hospital could endanger patients and employees.

“It’s not a safe environment to have weapons available,” he said.

Early in the session, committees discussed how they could invest more in the mental health system and restore some funding cut from Medicaid reimbursements last year.

Legislative leaders cautioned that state general fund dollars would be scarce as they tried to fill the budget hole and come up with a school funding plan that would satisfy the courts, so lawmakers have turned to other sources for health programs.
They looked to increase the privilege fees that health maintenance organizations pay to sell insurance plans as a way to restore a 4 percent cut to for Medicaid reimbursements.

A bill that passed the House on Thursday would raise the privilege fee paid on revenue from insurance premiums from 3.31 percent to 5.77 percent. The funds would go first to reversing the reimbursement cuts, with any additional money going to an “improvement fund” for community mental health centers.

Cindy Samuelson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Hospital Association, said the group was pleased to see the Legislature come up with a way to restore some of the Medicaid funds.

The bill raising the privilege fee would have to go conference committee because the Senate passed a different version, but Samuelson said medical providers are hopeful it will get through the process.

“The Medicaid provider cuts are exacerbating an already stressed health care system,” she said in an email. “By restoring the lost Medicaid funds, the state is taking an important first step in strengthening the Kansas health care system and the economic benefits associated with it.”

Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, said the improvement fund would help replace about $20 million in state funding that the centers have lost since 2007. The state funds help offset the cost of caring for uninsured patients, he said.

Lawmakers have shown an interest in mental health this year, and particularly in how limited admissions at Osawatomie State Hospital have forced emergency rooms and mental health centers to keep patients safe while they wait for a bed, Kessler said.

“We feel good about how they are listening to community mental health centers back in their home communities,” he said.

This story was produced by Stephen Koranda, Meg Wingerter and Sam Zeff of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. .

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas jury has cleared a man of attempted-murder charges linked to a shooting nearly a year ago.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports a Shawnee County jury acquitted 29-year-old Joshua Mathews Yasuo Valdivia on Friday, also clearing him of a weapons count. Jurors did find him guilty of interference with a law enforcement officer.

Valdivia testified Thursday, denying he had never met Dennis and didn’t shoot him eight times. Dennis survived.

Jurors had the option of acquitting Valdivia or convicting him of attempted first-degree murder or attempted second-degree murder.

A co-defendant, 23-year-old Malik Yates, is serving more than four years in prison on convictions of aggravated burglary and interference with a law enforcer. He pleaded guilty last October, when a charge of attempted first-degree murder was dropped.

JEWELL COUNTY – Five small earthquakes hit north central Kansas since Friday.  The most recent hit just before 2 p.m. on Saturday. It measured 2.6 and was centered approximately 8 miles southeast of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was the tenth quake in Kansas this week.

A 2.6 magnitude quake hit just after noon Saturday and was centered approximately 10 miles southeast of Mankato.

A 2.9 magnitude quake hit just after midnight Saturday and was centered approximately 5 miles southeast of Mankato.

In addition, a 2.6 magnitude quake also hit 11 miles northeast of Caldwell in Sumner County just after 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.

On Friday, a 3.3 magnitude quake hit at 3:08 p.m. and was centered approximately 8 miles southeast of Mankato

The agency reported two quakes in the same area Thursday, and two others on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Saturday’s quakes according, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

The USGS recorded 7 Kansas earthquakes in March and 6 in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

 

JEWELL COUNTY –A seventh earthquake this week hit north-central Kansas on Saturday. It is the ninth quake in Kansas this week.

The 2.6 magnitude quake hit just after noon and was centered approximately 10 miles southeast of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A 2.9 magnitude quake hit just after midnight and was centered approximately 5 miles southeast of Mankato.

In addition, a 2.6 magnitude quake also hit 11 miles northeast of Caldwell in Sumner County just after 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.

On Friday, a 3.3 magnitude quake hit at 3:08 p.m. and was centered approximately 8 miles southeast of Mankato

The agency reported two quakes in the same area Thursday, and two others on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Saturday’s quakes according, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

The USGS recorded 7 Kansas earthquakes in March and 6 in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

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JEWELL COUNTY – A sixth earthquake this week hit north-central Kansas early Saturday. It is the eight quake in Kansas this week.

The 2.9 magnitude quake hit just after midnight and was centered approximately 5 miles southeast of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In addition, a 2.6 magnitude quake also hit 11 miles northeast of Caldwell in Sumner County just after 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.

On Friday, a 3.3 magnitude quake hit at 3:08 p.m. and was centered approximately 8 miles southeast of Mankato

The agency reported two quakes in the same area Thursday, and two others on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Saturday’s quakes according, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

The USGS recorded 7 Kansas earthquakes in March and 6 in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

———–

JEWELL COUNTY – A fifth earthquake this week hit north-central Kansas. It is also the sixth quake in Kansas since Sunday.

The 3.3 magnitude quake hit at 3:08 p.m. Friday and was centered approximately 8 miles southeast of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency reported two quakes in the same area Thursday.

A 3.2 quake hit at 7:13p.m. and was centered three miles south of Mankato and just after 11 a.m. Thursday a 3.0 quake and was centered approximately six miles southeast of Mankato.

The agency reported a 2.7 quake 9 miles southeast of Mankato just after 5:30 Wednesday morning.

Just after 1p.m. Tuesday a 3.4 quake was centered nine miles southeast of Mankato.

Residents report feeling the earthquakes, according to Jewell County Sheriff Don Jacobs. There are no reports of damage or injury from Friday’s quakes according to Jacobs.

On Sunday, the USGS reported a 2.8 earthquake was centered approximately 2 miles southeast of Medicine Lodge at 6:15p.m.

The agency recorded 7 earthquakes in March including a 2.9 quake March 30, near Belle Plaine.

The USGS also recorded 6 earthquakes in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

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JEWELL COUNTY – A fourth earthquake this week hit north-central Kansas on Thursday. It is the fifth earthquake in Kansas this week.

The magnitude 3.2 quake hit at 7:13p.m. and was centered three miles south of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Just after 11 a.m. Thursday a 3.0 quake and was centered approximately six miles southeast of Mankato.

The agency reported a 2.7 quake 9 miles southeast of Mankato just after 5:30 Wednesday morning.

Just after 1p.m. Tuesday a 3.4 quake was centered nine miles southeast of Mankato.

Residents report feeling the earthquakes, according to Jewell County Sheriff Don Jacobs. There are no reports of damage or injury from Thursday’s quakes according to Jacobs.

On Sunday, the USGS reported a 2.8 earthquake was centered approximately 2 miles southeast of Medicine Lodge at 6:15p.m.

The agency recorded 7 earthquakes in March including a 2.9 quake March 30, near Belle Plaine.

The USGS also recorded 6 earthquakes in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Thursday’s quakes according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

——–

JEWELL COUNTY – A third earthquake this week hit north-central Kansas on Thursday.

The quake just after 11 a.m. measured 3.0 and was centered approximately six miles southeast of Mankato, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency reported a 2.7 quake 9 miles southeast of Mankato just after 5:30 Wednesday morning.

Just after 1p.m. Tuesday a 3.4 quake was centered nine miles southeast of Mankato.

On Sunday, the USGS reported a 2.8 earthquake was centered approximately 2 miles southeast of Medicine Lodge at 6:15p.m.

The agency recorded 7 earthquakes in March including a 2.9 quake March 30, near Belle Plaine.

The USGS also recorded 6 earthquakes in February. They measured from 2.5. to 3.3.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Thursday’s quake, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that the FBI has been reviewing the handling of thousands of terrorism-related tips and leads received over the past three years to make sure they were properly investigated and no obvious red flags were missed.

The review follows attacks by people who were once on the FBI’s radar but who, in the past 12 months, have been accused of violence in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, on the streets of New York City and at a Florida airport.

In each case, it was determined the suspects didn’t require continued law enforcement scrutiny months and sometimes years before the attacks.

The review is an acknowledgment of the FBI’s challenge in predicting which of the thousands of tips received annually might one day materialize into a viable threat.