WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama health care law’s requirement that Americans get insurance coverage is now pinned as a target of Republican lawmakers. They are looking to end the individual mandate to help pay for deep tax cuts.
Senate Republicans showed Tuesday they’re intent on scrapping the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandate, and the idea was endorsed by scores of GOP lawmakers in the House.
The surprise renewal of the failed effort to eliminate the law’s mandate came a day after President Donald Trump renewed pressure on Republican lawmakers to include the repeal in their sweeping legislation to revamp the tax system.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and asking for helping to find a suspect.
Just after 9:30p.m., a man reported he was walking in the alley in the 1200 Block of SW Western in Topeka, according to Lt. Steve Roth.
A man identified as a black wearing a gray Steelers hoodie and gray pants approached the victim. The suspect pointed a handgun and took the victim’s wallet and phone then fled the area.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police.
RENO COUNTY— A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to almost six years in prison, but then granted three-years community corrections for a single charge of aggravated battery.
Bradbury-photo Reno Co.
Joshua Bradbury, 36, was charged with aggravated burglary and aggravated intimidation of a witness and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, but those charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Bradbury was involved with Joshua Rund and 20-year-old Michala Cooprider in the beating of a Hutchinson woman in her bed in May of 2016.
Police say Michala Cooprider, 20, is actually the one who entered the home at 2 a.m. and struck the victim 34-year-old Lacy Lomax with a flashlight while she was sleeping.
She hit the victim as many as six times. Lomax had to be hospitalized for serious injuries including a concussion.
Bradbury and Rund were charged as part of a conspiracy. Bradbury allegedly drove Cooprider to the home and gave her his flashlight to use in the attack.
Cooprider
Cooprider entered a plea to aggravated burglary in the case while the state dropped a charge of aggravated battery. She was sentenced to just under five years in prison.
The case against Rund is still pending.
Bradbury is currently on community corrections for drug and theft charges from 2015 and 2016.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Kansas City man has been charged with fatally shooting two men within days of each other.
Thirty-one-year-old Jerome Roberson was charged Monday with two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He’s accused in the Oct. 28 death of 29-year-old Brandan Ray Brown at a trailer park in Independence and the Nov. 2 death of Michael Cantwell in a vehicle in Kansas City. Court records say the homicides had witnesses.
Police had asked the public for help locating Roberson before he was arrested Saturday night at a home in Kansas City. He is jailed in Jackson County. Prosecutors have sought $500,000 bond in each case.
No attorney is listed for Roberson in online court records.
Following a November 3, drug bust, deputies arrested 34-year-old Christopher Daniel Albertson and 2 others. Two children in the home were placed into protective custody
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has seen a 42 percent increase over the past five years in the number of children removed from homes in which a parent is using drugs.
The state Department for Children and Families reported Tuesday that the number of cases in which a child was removed and substance abuse was a contributing factor grew to more than 1,850 during the fiscal year ending in June. Five years ago, it was about 1,300.
The department reported the data amid questions from a legislative task force about why the number of children in foster care has grown steadily in recent years.
Some lawmakers see a potential tie between the increase and tougher rules for state cash assistance. Department officials said the agency’s internal data does not suggest much of a link.
SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on drug charges after a traffic stop.
Just before 8:30 November 10, a deputy pulled over a 1988 Ford F-150 in the 1900 block of South Ohio in Salina for not having a license plate, according to Saline County Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Hughes.
There were three people in the vehicle and all gave fake names, including the driver who did not have identification.
Through an investigation, the deputy determined that the driver of the vehicle was 40-year-old Kenneth Hazlett, of Plainville. Hazlett had an active Salina Municipal Court warrant.
Hazlett-photo Saline Co.
One of the passengers was identified as 32-year-old Eligus Ricketts, who also had warrants in Saline Co. and Barton County. The deputy also found a bag that tested positive for methamphetamine and a syringe on Ricketts.
Deputies arrested Ricketts and Hazlett and they remain in the Saline County Jail.
OLATHE – A Kansas woman has been ordered to repay more than $6,000 to the Kansas Medicaid program after being found guilty of Medicaid fraud, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Constance L. Ferreira, 61, pleaded guilty in August to one felony count of making a false claim to the Medicaid program. Johnson County District Court Judge Timothy P. McCarthy last week ordered Ferreira to repay $6,460.14 to the Kansas Medicaid Program.
Judge McCarthy also sentenced her to 12 months of probation with an underlying sentence of nine months in the Kansas Department of Corrections. Convictions such as this one may also result in a period during which the defendant is prohibited from being paid wages through a government health care program.
Ferreira was a personal care attendant to a disabled Medicaid eligible beneficiary. An investigation revealed that Ferreira billed Medicaid for services she claimed she provided to him in the home while he was in the hospital or in rehabilitation 89 times for a total of 760 hours. The crimes occurred between January 2012 and January 2016.
MANHATTAN — Classes were cancelled at Kansas State University Tuesday afternoon. A large crowd of students, faculty and staff wore purple and joined together for a unity walk and rally to reject discrimination on the university campus.
Student body president Jack Ayres and Darrell Reese, president of the Black Student Union, hosted the event. University President Richard Myers discussed steps to help the community move forward and unite.
The event comes after a noose and racist flyers were found on the campus in recent months. Last month, a 21-year-old black man defaced his own car with racist graffiti in what he described as a Halloween prank that got out of hand.
The release of the inert chemical and biological material at the abandoned school is meant to test how a potential chemical attack on the U.S. will impact people inside of houses differently than those outside.
DHS officials say they chose the school because the buildings on its campus are representative of typical homes and apartments found across the country. They are also far enough away from public buildings that officials believe the agents will dissipate before reaching them.
Congressman Ron Estes, who represents the area, says he was concerned when he first learned about the test’s proximity to Arkansas City.
“You know, it is important for all of our federal agencies to test their abilities in response to different threats, but I want to make sure that they were 100 percent certain this test is safe,” he says.
In the environmental assessment for the proposed test, DHS officials say the chemical and biological agents they will be using will pose no major risk to air quality, vegetation or wildlife. The first test is scheduled for January or February of 2018.
DHS will be accepting public comment on the proposed test until Dec. 8.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the murder of a Kansas woman and have a suspect in custody.
Just after 10:30p.m. Monday police were dispatched to residence in 2200 Block of North Park Ridge in Wichita in reference to property found by Andover Police, according Wichita Lt. Todd Ojile. Officers did not make contact with anyone at the residence and returned to service.
Just after 2a.m. Tuesday, the Olathe Police Department contacted authorities in Wichita in reference to a suspicious character call. Olathe Police had located a vehicle and property belonging to the same individual in Andover.
Police returned to the residence and were unable to contact anyone. After further investigation, field service personnel forced their way into the residence and found a 42-year-old woman dead from blunt force trauma, according to Ojile.
Police in Olathe arrested a 37-year-old suspect on charges in Johnson County. Wichita Police are going to Johnson County to interview the suspect who reportedly had been dating the woman for several months.
Police did not release the victim’s name and won’t release the suspect’s name until he is returned to Sedgwick County.
