By Madison Coker

KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA – Kansas animal rescuers asked the House Agriculture Committee Thursday to support their efforts in regulating puppy mills.

The proposed bill, SB47, would add pet animal rescue networks under the jurisdiction of Animal Health Commissioner of the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA). The bill passed the Senate last month on a 34-5 vote with one abstention.

The KDA would establish rules and regulations concerning the operations, registration and recordkeeping of the organization.

The bill would add a numbers of new laws and amendments for animal rescue organizations as well as licensed dog breeders. However, not everyone agrees on the proposed legislation.

One of the controversial points was changing how inspectors contact dog breeders. Under current law, it is up to the inspectors’ discretion if they want to notify a breeder they are coming before a visit.

Board Member of Unleashed Pet Rescue and Adoption Susan Kaufmann said that dog breeders should not get a warning before inspection. She compared these inspections to inspections when she worked in a hospital, and said not knowing keeps the staff always on their A-game.

“We have to be in a constant state of readiness, and that has improved our care,” Kaufmann said. “We are not spending a year getting ready, we are just always ready.”

Kansas Federation of Animal Owners member Rebecca Mosshart said this amendment is not feasible for breeders that live in rural communities.

Mosshart said everything in her town is at least 30 minutes away from each other, so it is difficult for her to come back for an inspection quickly. She said inspections without her present are difficult.

“Most of my employees do manual work,” Mosshart said. “I do not allow my employees into my record keeping.”

Rep. Virgil Weigel (D-Topeka) pointed out to Mosshart that under a licensing contract agreement, she filled out certain hours and days of the week where she, or a representative, would be available for inspection.

Mosshart acknowledged that, but said she often has to be away from her home to go to the vet. She said it would be nice to get a heads up, so she could make sure she is home for the inspection.

Another controversial topic in the bill is the addition of an $80 no contact fee. That means if an inspector came to a breeder’s home and no one was there within a certain time frame (previously allocated on their licensing contract), the breeder would be charged.

The House Agriculture Committee will now rework some of the wording in the bill before sending it for a vote. The wording could change how the bill would affect licensed puppy breeders.

Madison Coker is a University of Kansas junior studying journalism from Kansas City.

RENO COUNTY – A Kansas teen convicted on two counts of murder for the killing of his mother and sister who died after he set fire to the family home turned 18 on Friday.

Samuel Vonanchen was removed from the Bob Johnson Juvenile facility and transported to the Reno County Correctional Facility at 7 a.m. Friday, according to a social media report from the Reno County Sheriff.

A jury in August of 2016 also convicted Vonachen for attempted first-degree murder for trying to kill his father and aggravated arson for setting of the September 2013 fire.

The teen is waiting to have a new mental evaluation completed before he is sentenced in the case.
In January attorneys said they were waiting until after Vonachen turned 18 to transfer him to the adult side of the Larned State Hospital for the evaluation.

BY JIM MCLEAN

With all of the talk in recent years about Kansas’ budget problems, it can be hard to keep track of what programs have been cut and by how much.

So, some Kansans may not remember that last summer Gov. Sam Brownback ordered more than $56 million in cuts to KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program. Including the amount of federal matching funds lost, the cuts amounted to $128 million.

Kansas lawmakers remember the cuts, and they are taking steps to reverse them.

“It’s certainly a priority for me,” said Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a Topeka Republican who chairs the Public Health and Welfare Committee.

On Thursday, the Senate took a first step by passing a bill that would raise fees that insurance companies classified as health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, pay to do business in the state. That includes the three managed care organizations that administer KanCare.

The bill would not restore all the cuts. Instead, it would reverse a $47 million reduction in reimbursements paid to hospitals, safety net clinics, nursing homes and community mental health centers for providing care to the approximately 425,000 low-income, disabled and elderly Kansans enrolled in KanCare.

As originally written, the bill would have imposed the HMO fee increase retroactive to Jan. 1. But the Senate changed the implementation date to July 1. That means the state will not have the money to reverse the cuts until Jan. 1, 2018, according to the Kansas Hospital Association.

Still, Tom Bell, the hospital association’s president, said his members are encouraged by the Senate’s approval of the bill on a 27-13 vote.

“We are pleased that the Kansas Senate has taken an important step toward reversing a policy that has been harmful to health care access in Kansas,” Bell said.

The effort to reverse the cuts could get more complicated in the House, where some members are backing a bill that in addition to raising the HMO fee would increase a state assessment on hospitals known as the “provider tax.”

The hospital association and groups representing doctors, mental health centers and safety net clinics strongly oppose the House bill, arguing in testimony Thursday to the House Health and Human Services Committee that it “harms the providers it is intended to help.”

The House bill is thought to have the backing of the Brownback administration because the governor and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer want to use some of the additional money it would generate to provide grants to struggling rural hospitals, create more residency slots for graduating physicians and help establish a private osteopathic medical school.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.

GOVE COUNTY – A man died in an accident just before 9:30p.m. on Friday in Gove County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Kia Sportage driven by Karl Dennis Grose, 63, Crestone, CO., was traveling westbound in the eastbound lane of Interstate 70 one mile east of Grainfield.

The Kia struck a semi head on, caught fire and the driver was ejected.

Grose was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Schmitt Funeral Home Quinter, KS

The semi driver David William Farris, 49, Midvale, UT., was transported to the hospital in Quinter. A passenger in the semi was not injured.

LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — The former owner and operator of a Kansas City-area lab is accused in a federal indictment of illegally storing radioactive material that tainted a building at an industrial park, costing U.S. taxpayers $760,000 to clean up.

The indictment returned Thursday alleges 61-year-old Ahmed el-Sherif’s Beta Chem Laboratory in Lenexa, Kansas, was licensed by Kansas to use radioactive Carbon-14 and solvents. But he eventually lost that permission after an inspection found extensive radioactive contamination in the lab.

After the state seized the lab, federal environmental investigators in 2014 found containers with hazardous wastes and tainted with radiation.

The indictment alleges el-Sherif submitted bogus tax returns as part of the government’s efforts to assess his ability to pay for cleanup costs.

Online court records don’t show whether el-Sheriff has an attorney.

BOURBON COUNTY- A Kansas woman died in an accident just before 10a.m. on Friday in Bourbon County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Ford Explorer driven by Austin E Farulkner, 16, Kansas City, was southbound on U.S. 69 ten miles north of Fort Scott.

The driver lost control over the vehicle when the driver’s side rear tire blew out.

The SUV traveled into went into the west ditch, rolled two times and the passenger Jennifer Shaw, 38, Pleasanton, was ejected.

Shaw was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Faulkner was not injured.

WASHINGTON – Diego Martinez, 28, pleaded guilty Thursday to making false statements to the FBI during a federal hate crime investigation arising from a June 19, 2015, bias-motivated assault of three black Somali men in Dodge City, Kansas.

Martinez pleaded guilty in the District of Kansas to one count of making materially false statements to the FBI during an October 2015 voluntary interview.

During the plea hearing, Martinez admitted that, during the interview, he had provided the FBI with a false alibi for the time of the assault—specifically, that although he had told the FBI that he had been with an unknown woman at the time that the Somali men were attacked, this alibi was false.

He further admitted that he falsely told the FBI that his cell phone had stopped working shortly after the assault, when, in fact, Martinez had used his phone to contact, and to attempt to contact, one of the men who perpetrated the attack. Martinez admitted that he knew these statements were false at the time he made them to the FBI, and that they were material to the FBI’s investigation into the attack.

“Hate violence not only harms individuals but also threatens the diversity of our society and the well-being of our communities,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute hate crimes, and to pursue defendants who, like Mr. Martinez, obstruct the investigations into those crimes.”

Martinez will be sentenced on June 1, 2017, and faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers agreed unanimously on a bill giving a sales tax break to people rebuilding fences on agricultural land after wildfires burned more than 1,000 square miles of the state.

The Kansas House voted to agree with the Senate’s amendments Friday that clarify the tax break goes to rebuilding fences, not new construction. The bill will go to Gov. Sam Brownback.

The bill gives a sales tax exemption on supplies bought to rebuild or repair fencing after the wildfire. Lawmakers passed a similar proposal after wildfires in two counties last year.

Brownback declared a state of emergency March 5 and signed an executive order four days later to help bring relief supplies.

SEWARD COUNTY – A woman died in an accident just after 5a.m. on Friday in Seward County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1991 Mercury Cougar driven by Natosha Michelle, Garcia, 29, Pueblo, Co. was southbound on U.S. 83 three miles north of Liberal.

The vehicle crossed the center line and struck a Peterbilt semi driven by Leonard Earl Jameson, 60, Jones, Oklahoma.

The semi jackknifed and came to rest in north bound lane.

Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Miller Mortuary.

She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Jameson was not injured.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has cleared a major obstacle to the construction of a long-delayed coal-fired power plant in the state’s southwestern corner.

The court Friday rejected a legal challenge from the Sierra Club to a state decision giving Sunflower Electric Power Corp. the go-ahead for its $2.8 billion project. The Hays-based utility wants to build an 895-megawatt plant outside Holcomb.

The environmental group challenged a 2014 Kansas Department of Health and Environment decision to grant what it called an “addendum” to a 2010 permit. The permit said the plant would comply with federal air-quality standards.

The Sierra Club objected partly because the addendum did not require the plant to control greenhouse gas emissions.

An earlier state Supreme Court decision had forced KDHE to consider changes to the 2010 permit.