TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers from across the political spectrum say they’ll push to fix the state’s culture of secrecy after a newspaper highlighted alarming levels of opacity in state and local government.

The Kansas City Star reports that Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer pledged last week to address the problem of transparency. Colyer is set to take over as governor if Gov. Sam Brownback is confirmed as an ambassador.

The Star’s series on secrecy highlighted several examples of state and local agencies hiding information from the public. Examples include KanCare recipients who were asked to sign blank plans of care.

Colyer didn’t weigh in on specific questions raised in the series, nor did he offer policy moves he’d pursue to increase transparency, as some of his competitors for the 2018 Republican nomination did.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A Hutchinson man has died in a crash in central Kansas that happened as he was being chased by a sheriff’s deputy.

The Friday night crash killed 25-year-old Angel Montiel. Officials say Montiel was fleeing a Rice County Sheriff’s deputy in a chase that began in Rice County and extended into Reno County.

Investigators say Montiel was driving a minivan south on Wilson Road when he went off the left side of the road just before 10 p.m. and sideswiped a tree about halfway between Hutchinson and Nickerson.

The Kansas State Patrol says the minivan spun out of control, and Montiel was thrown from the vehicle. The patrol says he died at the scene.

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RENO COUNTY — A Hutchinson man died in an accident just before 10p.m. Friday in Reno County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country driven by Angel Montiel, 25,  was southbound on Wilson Road just south of Nickerson Boulevard.

The vehicle left the roadway, sideswiped a tree, spun out of control and came to a stop facing northwest. The driver was ejected.

Montiel was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the Sedgwick County Forensics Center. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal agency and the state of Kansas are at odds over whether Kansas took nearly $18 million in federal funds that it shouldn’t have.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General alleges Kansas improperly counted some children when seeking bonus payments to offset Medicaid costs.

The office’s November report audited bonus payments from 2009 and 2013, and recommends the state refund the money.

The state maintains that it followed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ guidelines for calculating the number of children enrolled in the program.

A spokeswoman for the state’s Medicaid program says the inspector general’s office hasn’t sought the funds’ return, but only issued a recommendation.

The report comes as KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, seeks reauthorization.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an injury accident that injured a 13-year old boy.

Just before 6p.m. Friday, police were sent to the intersection of Schilling and Royal Drive in Salina after a report of a child struck by a car, according to Sgt. Brent Rupert.

He said a Chevy Aveo was westbound on Schilling and attempted to pass a Chevy Camaro that was waiting to turn left onto Royal Drive.

The Aveo drove into eastbound traffic before cutting back in front of the Camaro, according to Rupert. The Aveo locked up the brakes before striking the boy crossing the street on a scooter. The impact threw the boy nearly 30-feet, according to Rupert. A girl was also crossing the street was not injured.

The boy was transported to Salina Regional Health Center in critical condition, according to Rupert. He was then transferred by ambulance to Wesleyan Medical Center in Wichita.

Police made no arrests and released no additional details on Saturday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas says its unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent in October, but the state continued to see a decline in the number of non-farm jobs over the previous year.

The state Department of Labor reports that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was lower than September’s 3.8 percent and 4.3 percent for October 2016. Monthly unemployment rates have stayed below 4 percent since March.

But the number of private-sector, non-farm jobs was 4,700 lower in October than in October 2016, a drop of four-tenths of a percentage point.

It was the seventh straight month with lower private-sector job numbers than in 2016.

Kansas also lost 1,700 private-sector jobs from September to October, a decline of one-tenth of a point. Labor Department officials said Friday that retailers hired fewer seasonal workers than anticipated.

NEW YORK (AP) — Honda is recalling about 900,000 of its Odyssey minivans because the second-row seats may tip forward if not properly latched.

The recall announced Saturday covers vehicles from the 2011-17 model years. About 800,000 of the affected minivans were sold in the United States.

Honda says it has received 46 reports of minor injuries related to the issue.

It says the Odyssey’s second-row seat may tip forward during moderate to heavy braking if it isn’t properly latched after adjusting it side-to-side or reinstalling a removed seat.

The company is working on a way to repair the issue and says it will notify owners when one is available. It will be free. Until then, Honda has put instructions for properly latching the seat on its website for owners.

By SAM ZEFF

In the ongoing struggle on college campuses for LGBT equality and acceptance, Kansas State University is an unexpected leader.

K-State is best known for agriculture and football.

On a gorgeous fall day in Manhattan, with the K-State marching band entertaining tailgaters, many fans were surprised to learn that their school was ranked in the 25 campuses for LGBT friendliness by CampusPride.org.

“That’s not the stereotype of Kansas State,” says Aaron Reed from Tonganoxie, who received his undergraduate degree from K-State in 1995 and his doctorate in 2004. Reed says he has not been on campus much in the past decade but calls the rating “great.”

Mike Clark, a 1993 graduate from Mission, says K-State certainly had a conservative feel when he was in school but he always thought of Manhattan as a melting pot.

“You had folks from urban communities, farming communities,” says Clark. “The thing that I always loved about K-State, I still love about K-State, is that everyone always comes together and always has a good time.”

If this was a story about the University of Kansas, few would bat an eyelash.

But it’s about a university on the edge of western Kansas and generally perceived as conservative.

So how did K-State get here?

By most accounts, much of the credit goes to Brandon Haddock, the coordinator in the LGBT Resource Center in the Office of Student Life.

Haddock didn’t start out at K-State to transform LGBT life on campus. He came in 2007 for his doctorate at a time when he says there was “no LGBT community in town.”

In 2009, K-State was given 1.5 stars out of five by Campus Pride. The school now rates five out of five stars. Haddock says when he took the job running the LGBT Resource Center he started making friends and allies in all departments.

“What we’ve been able to do at K-State is make sure that colleges like the College of Ag and the College of Engineering that they recognize we have those relationships built, and we have people who are open and affirming about their identity,” he says.

The other person who changed the climate for LGBT students was former president Kirk Schulz who made it a priority. In 2009, K-State was the only university in Kansas with an LGBT resource center.

Schultz left for Washington State last year, but his successor, Richard Myers, is just as committed.

“People aren’t going to want to come to a school that has biases and prejudices and isn’t a friendly atmosphere. And parents aren’t going to want to send their sons or daughters to those kind of schools,” Myers says.

In fact, Myers says he wants to strengthen K-State’s diversity in other areas. Right now, the university is searching for a chief diversity and inclusion officer. “He or she will report to me directly and be on the president’s cabinet, which is our senior body that does, deliberates university policies and so forth,” Myers says.

If there’s a place where K-State’s friendly atmosphere towards LGBT students is most evident, it’s at the annual drag show that now sells out the 1,500 seat McCain Auditorium.

Theater major Drew George from tiny Uniontown, Kansas is in his fourth year in Manhattan and says he’s seen a lot of change.

“It’s grown so much since I’ve been here,” he says. “It is such a big presence on campus. Like, they did the drag show last year, and they sell out McCain almost every year and that’s just an amazing thing to see.”

It is a much different experience than his hometown or in Fort Scott where he attended community college before coming to Manhattan.

“Back home it wasn’t something that anyone even discussed,” he says. “Once I got here and began to see the opportunities that were available, that was an eye opening experience.”

Most of this has happened quietly, but that is changing.

We got a hint of how K-State has changed when Scott Frantz, who starts at left tackle for the Wildcats, came out as gay in July during an ESPN interview.

“I’ve never felt so loved and so accepted ever in my life then when I did that,” he told the network about coming out at a team meeting. “Ever since then it’s been great. I’ve grown so much closer to my teammates since then so it’s been an amazing experience.”

Before Frantz came out, KCUR reported on how K-State is actively recruiting DACA students.

Haddock says the university’s has to prepare students for a life outside of K-State.

“I don’t want a student to go out in the world and have problems in the work place because they are suddenly presented with somebody, working side-by-side with somebody that is a lesbian,” Haddock says.

Sam Zeff covers education for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SamZeff.

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man who tried to buy an explosive on the internet was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Carlos Francisco Martin, 19, Coffeyville, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to obtain an explosive with intent to destroy property. In his plea, he admitted he ordered an explosive from an internet site where users seek to remain anonymous and purchases are paid for in bitcoins.

Investigators tracked Martin’s purchases on the internet site, which included more than $4,000 worth of illegal drugs such as MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy. In his plea, Martin admitted he tried to buy the explosive for the purpose of intimidating a rival drug dealer.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — One of five people accused of strangling or smothering to death three others in a Topeka home over a rape allegation has been sentenced to three life terms.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 34-year-old Joseph Krahn won’t be eligible for release for 150 years under the sentence imposed Friday. He pleaded no contest last month to three first-degree murder charges in the March slayings of 19-year-old Matthew Leavitt, 38-year-old Nicole Fisher and 20-year-old Luke Davis. Prosecutors had considered pursuing the death penalty.

A witness testified during an earlier hearing that one of the other suspects, 19-year-old Shane Mays, was forced to participate to save his life. The witness said Krahn told Mays, “You’re one of the few who gets to see me kill and live.” Mays has pleaded not guilty.

TOPEKA –  A new rule adopted Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission will allow telephone providers to block calls originating from certain fake phone numbers, a move aimed at reducing the amount of robocalls consumers receive, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.

Schmidt, along with a bipartisan coalition of 29 other state attorneys general, submitted a comment letter in July in support of the new rules, which will allow providers to block several types of “spoofed” calls, in which a call appears to be coming from one number, but is actually coming from a different number. Scammers frequently use spoofed calls to hide their identity and to trick consumers into believing that their calls are legitimate. The use of these spoofed numbers is particularly prevalent in scams where the caller pretends to be calling from the Internal Revenue Service, law enforcement agencies or utility companies.

Under the new rules, providers would be allowed to block calls coming from invalid numbers, unallocated numbers, and numbers whose owners have requested they be blocked. For example, phone providers would be able to block a scammer that is using a telephone number that clearly can’t exist because it hasn’t been assigned.

“Combating the plague of robocall scams requires technological solutions,” Schmidt said. “The adoption of this rule by the FCC will allow telephone providers to block calls that are clearly fraudulent and protect consumers from these scam artists. This won’t solve the robocall problem entirely, but it should help.”

In its release announcing approval of the new rule, the FCC states that U.S. consumers received approximately 2.4 billion robocalls per month in 2016. In a pilot project using the new system that now is approved nationwide, the amount of IRS scam calls was reduced by about 90 percent, the FCC said