WASHINGTON -Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas is apologizing for his comment about the possibility the GOP health care bill would ease federal requirements on coverage of basic services like mammograms.
In an interview with a reporter for Talking Points Memo on Thursday, Roberts was asked about potential changes in the health care bill. He said: “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.”
I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise.
He later tweeted an apology: “I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic. Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas educators see plenty of problems with a new school funding plan being considered by legislators, and a big one is what they see as not enough new dollars.
A special state House committee opened hearings Thursday on a bill that would create a new per-student formula for distributing aid to its 286 school districts.
Republican legislators scrapped a per-student formula in 2015 in favor of stable “block grants” for districts. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the law violated the state constitution and gave lawmakers until June 30 to enact a new one.
Several school superintendents said the new formula would be flawed in how it distributes money for various programs. But educators also questioned whether its $75 million increase in annual aid would be enough.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Ron Estes and Democrat James Thompson squabbled over health care reform, Planned Parenthood funding and more during their first face-to-face encounter in the race to fill the seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Their contentious forum Thursday in the heavily Republican district played out against the backdrop of GOP efforts in Washington, D.C., to repeal the nation’s health care law. Kansas has the nation’s first congressional race since President Donald Trump’s election.
Estes says he supports the repeal and replacement of “Obamacare.”
Thompson contends country needs to work out the problems in the health care system.He says health care should be “affordable and accessible for everybody.”
Estes supports defunding Planned Parenthood. Thompson says Planned Parenthood has done a lot of good.
The election is April 11.
The district includes Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Pratt, Sedgwick, Stafford, and Sumner counties as well as a portion of Pawnee County.
RENO COUNTY– A Hutchinson Community College student charged in a drug distribution case failed to show for a court hearing Thursday. The judge issued a bench warrant for 20-year old Andre Harris.
He is charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute within a thousand feet Graber Elementary school and the Hutchinson Community College campus.
On February 15, an employee of the college reportedly smelled marijuana coming from the suspect’s room.
Authorities came into the room and found two bags of marijuana sitting on top of a scale.
That led to a search of the room where school officials allegedly found 17 more individual bags of marijuana. Total weight coming to around 27 grams.
FINNEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating convicted Kansas felon on assault and threat charges.
Just before noon Wednesday, police responded to report of aggravated assault at a home in the 300 Block of East Pine Street in Garden City, according to a media release.
The investigation revealed that on Tuesday, the suspect, Rocky Gomez, 37, Garden City and the victim engaged in a verbal argument and altercation.
During the altercation it was alleged that Gomez pulled a knife on the victim and made threats towards him.
This incident was not reported to police. On Wednesday, the suspect and victim engaged in another altercation and this time it was alleged the suspect threatened the victim with a stick. On this occasion the victim fled the residence and did called police.
When Police arrived on scene Gomez was located inside the residence but refused to exit the house. The Garden City/ Finney County SWAT team was called to assist and serve a search warrant on the residence to locate and arrest Gomez.
During the service of the warrant Gomez was located inside the residence and was uncooperative. A Garden City Police K-9 was used to assist in the apprehension and arrest.
Gomez is being held in the Finney County Jail for Aggravated Assault, Criminal Threat and
Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer.
He has previous convictions for weapons violations, drugs and aggravated indecent liberties with a victim under the age of 16, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Protesters on Thursday in Salina-photo by Rocky Robinson
UPDATE: On Thursday afternoon, House Republican leaders postponed a vote on their health care bill in a setback for President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan.
By Rocky Robinson
SALINA-A group of protesters gathered in front of U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall’s Salina office, 200 East Iron, in Salina Thursday morning.
The demonstration was in response to Marshall’s announcement that he will support efforts to replace and reform the Affordable Care Act, introduced by former President Barack Obama back in 2010.
According to Katie Sawyer, Marshall’s district director, Marshall, Republican representative for the 1st District of Kansas, announced that he would support President Donald Trump’s replacement bill to a Wichita news station while in Washington this week.
Marshall’s decision comes after conversations with constituents and government officials, Sawyer said.
“Healthcare is a conversation we have been having for months in a formal capacity,” Sawyer said. “The congressman also came out of the healthcare field so this is something that he has thought about and been practicing for 30 years. Being in (Washington) D.C. has given him the chance to have more formal conversations about what this looks like.”
The gathering was put on by the Indivisible Movement, according to Christopher Renner, a demonstrator from Manhattan. About 35 people from Salina and neighboring communities came to Marshall’s office, located at 200 E Iron, to express their concern with Marshall’s support of President Trump’s bill. Renner said he expected more people to join the demonstration later in the day.
“Groups have started organizing across Kansas,” Renner said. “We are probably approaching 20 groups already. We are grassroots and we work to get people to come out and take back control of our political system, which is dominated by dark money.”
Sawyer said that they were able to prepare for the demonstration after hearing about it through a media platform two days beforehand. Sawyer and other office officials sat down with some protesters as they voiced their concerns. Participants urged Marshall to “vote no.”
“Trump is not only going to make insurance unaffordable, or unavailable to millions of people, he is also going to be giving a huge tax cut to the most affluent households,” said Stan Cox, a Salina resident.
Kansas House leaders have proposed an additional $75 million a year for public schools. Educators question whether that’s enough to satisfy the state Supreme Court. CREDIT SAM ZEFF / KCUR
A proposed school funding bill in Kansas would add $75 million to the public education system but many educators say that’s far less than they expected and may not be enough to satisfy the state Supreme Court.
Stephanie Clayton, a moderate Republican from Overland Park, says lawmakers in both parties “believe it will take a significantly larger amount” to satisfy their constituents, educators and the court.
The high court ruled the current block grant funding scheme unconstitutional and because it didn’t adequately fund public schools. While the justices didn’t prescribe a dollar figure to fix the problem, they leaned heavily on a district court ruling that suggested the state needs to spend an additional $800 million. An estimate from the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) suggested it would take $500 million.
“Most school people would not believe that $75 million alone, particularly after, essentially six or seven years of falling behind on inflation… is going to measurably move student achievement in Kansas,” says Mark Tallman, lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB).
The bill is the brainchild of Rep. Larry Campbell from Olathe and chairman of the K-12 Budget Committee. Even he acknowledges that $75 million may not be enough.
“I’ve said over and over, this is a starting point,” he says.
Campbell says his bill targets money at the 25 percent of Kansas students working below grade level, that the Supreme Court emphasized as a reason for its ruling.
“I do believe that’s clearly what the court wants,” Campbell says. “On the dollars, I don’t know.”
However, many educators say the bill doesn’t provide enough new money to fund the kind of intensive effort needed improve the performance of those at-risk students.
The measure also mandates that local districts use part of their local property tax dollars for at-risk and bi-lingual students. Under block grants and the funding formula they replaced, local school boards decided how to spend those dollars.
“If we’re really going to support students who are at-risk, we’re not going to do it by simply moving money from one pocket to another,” says David Smith, Chief of Staff in the Kansas City Kansas School District.
Mark Desetti, the top lobbyist for the Kansas National Education Association, says the bill is a good starting point.
“I think the bill is a workable bill,” Desetti says “It’s not just something you can just stand up and oppose outright because everything in this bill is terrible because that’s not true,” says Local school districts are most concerned about the parts of the formula that dictate how much additional state aid they will receive and how much they can rely on local property taxes to fund their budgets. Here’s how some local districts would fare under the new state aid proposal according to KSDE:
Blue Valley plus $3,227,061
Olathe plus $6,365,442
Shawnee Mission plus $3,498,223
KCK plus $4,941,169
Turner minus $264,344
De Soto plus $1,347,811
Under the bill the one local tax districts collect (called the Local Option Budget or LOB) would be split into three levies, each for a different purpose. Currently some districts collect up to 30 percent of their state aid, some districts have option to collect up to 33 percent. It’s complicated but here’s how the same districts fare under the proposed bill. Again, the figures are from KSDE:
Blue Valley plus $645,053
Olathe plus $431,442
Shawnee Mission minus $167,101
Turner minus $16,480
De Soto plus $190,180
Hearings are expected to run through the rest of this week and might need to go until Monday.
Time is of the essence, a new funding formula that passes constitutional muster must be in place by June 30 or the high court says it will shut down public schools.
While hearings are now scheduled in the House, the Kansas Senate has yet to work on a funding bill of its own. Many believe senate leadership is waiting for the house to pass its bill first.
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas driving school instructor has been sentenced to three years of probation for having a 16-year-old student drive to a country road and inappropriately touching her.
The Emporia Gazette reports that Robert Jones, of Emporia, also was ordered to register as a sex offender and repay the victim’s family for the driving classes when he was sentenced Wednesday for sexual battery. He faces a 12-month jail sentence if he violates the probation terms.
The victim’s mother said her daughter wanted to die after the August incident and was hospitalized after taking two handfuls of Tylenol. She says her daughter is in counseling.
Jones said he was “deeply sorry” and “messed up on a lot of things.” He was the director of the since-terminated UDrive Kansas driving school.
LONDON (AP) — The latest on the attack outside Britain’s Parliament (all times local):
Britain’s prime minister says people from 11 countries were hospitalized after the attack outside Parliament.
Theresa May said that 12 Britons, 3 French, 2 Romanians, 4 South Koreans, 1 German, 1 Pole, 1 Irish, 1 Chinese, 1 Italian, 1 American and two Greeks required hospital treatment. Police earlier said that seven of the 29 who are hospitalized are in critical condition.
A group of students from Emporia USD 253 are in London. Laura Schwinn reported on social media Wednesday, “We are all good. Enjoying the National Gallery right now.”
A knife-wielding attacker driving an SUV mowed down pedestrians, killing two on Westminster Bridge before breaching Parliament’s grounds and fatally stabbing a police officer. The attacker was then shot dead by police.
Authorities made several arrests in the case overnight.
