GRAY COUNTY — A Kansas girl died in an accident just before 8a.m. Saturday in Gray County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1999 Olds Intrigue driven by Irian V. Filatova, 48, Lakin, was southbound on Kansas 23 five miles east of Montezuma.
The driver failed to stop at the stop sign, entered the intersection, and was struck by 2008 Nissan Xterra driven by Jesus M. Millan-Pena, 66, Elkhart, that was eastbound on U.S.56.
Both vehicles came to rest in the southeast ditch.
A passenger in the Olds Zarina Butler, 11, Lakin, was transported to the hospital in Dodge City where she died.
EMS also transported Filatova, Millan-Pena and a passenger in the Nissan Rosa Millan, 61, Elkhart, to the hospital in Dodge City.
Butler and Millan were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.
FINNEY COUNTY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) is investigating an officer involved shooting which occurred Thursday afternoon in rural Finney County and have identified the man killed as Cristino Umana-Garcia, 29, originally from Garden City, according to the media release.
Just before 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the Finney County Sheriff’s Office and the Garden City Police Department contacted the KBI to request assistance following an officer involved shooting. KBI agents and the Crime Scene Response Team responded to the scene to investigate the incident.
Preliminary information indicates that deputies from the Finney County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a citizen just before 11:30 a.m. reporting a male subject who was behaving erratically, and whose vehicle had become stuck on an unmaintained road approximately 15 miles southwest of Garden City.
A deputy from the Sheriff’s Office arrived in the area just before 12 p.m. and located the subject later identified as Cristino Umana-Garcia armed with a knife, and holding it to his own throat.
Shortly after, the subject retreated to his vehicle and locked the doors. A second sheriff’s deputy and an officer from the Garden City Police Department arrived on the scene, and attempts were made to speak with the subject until he emerged from his vehicle and charged toward them. At that time two law enforcement officers, one from each agency, fired at the subject, fatally injuring him.
Umana-Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene. He had previous convictions for identify theft and forgery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
No law enforcement officers were injured during this incident.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A suspect in the surprise-attack shooting deaths of two men in Kansas City, Missouri, is now charged in a woman’s killing.
Prosecutors on Friday charged 22-year-old Fredrick Demond Scott of Kansas City with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of 64-year-old Karen Harmeyer of Grandview.
The indictment didn’t include details of the death but KCTV reports an officer was called in July to investigate a dead body. Once the officer arrived, witnesses told him about Harmeyer, who lived in woods behind a church.
The officer entered the campsite and found her decomposed body inside a tent.
Scott previously was charged in two killings and is a person of interest in three others. All those victims were older white men. Scott is black.
The men were shot in surprise attacks, some near recreation trails.
Reeny Botros, 17, of Wichita is one of 10 Girl Scouts in the nation to be selected as a 2017 National Young Woman of Distinction by Girl Scouts of the USA. (Courtesy photo)
WICHITA – Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland is proud to announce that Maureen “Reeny” Botros, 17, of Wichita, has been named by Girl Scouts of the USA as a National Young Woman of Distinction, the organization’s most prestigious honor. GSUSA selects 10 National Young Women of Distinction annually among Girl Scouts across the country who have earned their Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouts.
Botros is in Columbus, Ohio, this week, where GSUSA will be honoring the National Young Women of Distinction Oct. 6 through 8 during G.I.R.L. 2017, the Girl Scout National Convention and largest girl-led event in the world. Approximately 5 percent of all Girl Scouts in grades 9 through 12 go on to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, with only 10 girls in this high-achieving group receiving the National Young Women of Distinction honor.
For her Gold Award project, Botros invented “Illumi-cize” fashion accessories to promote physical activity among youth, attract more girls to STEM careers, and address negative stereotypes about women in technology. She designed the accessories to monitor heart rate and light up to incentivize exercise. But that was just the beginning – Botros went on to host a series of free “Catwalk Coding” camps teaching girls electrical and coding skills they could use to make their own light-up fashion accessories. During fashion runway shows, girls wore accessories they created.
Botros presented her invention to President Barack Obama during the White House Science Fair in 2015, and she received grants from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) to host her free Catwalk Coding camps for local girls over the past year. Recently selected as a HerLEAD Fellow, she will conduct a Catwalk Coding camp for more than 100 girls over Thanksgiving weekend in Mexico City, where she will use repurposed shirt samples donated by Ann Inc.
“By taking an innovative approach to all-girl STEM education, I hope to contribute to closing the gender gap in STEM fields,” Botros said. “Too often, girls are led to believe that to pursue STEM requires that they adapt to the male-dominated field. The message of Catwalk Coding and G.I.R.L. is that STEM is already compatible with their interests.”
Her extraordinary leadership as a Gold Award Girl Scout and now, as a National Young Woman of Distinction, exemplifies how Girl Scouts take the lead like a G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader) to make a difference in their communities and the world.
The daughter of Dr. Maged S. and Maureen Botros, Reeny is a homeschooled senior in high school who is also enrolled in coursework at Friends University. A proud Girl Scout since Daisies, she earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards before earning the Girl Scout Gold Award. She has been an active member of the Wichita Mayor’s Youth Council throughout high school, has competed in Lego Mindstorms and BEST Robotics, and was a NCWIT national runner-up three times. In the summer of 2016, she was selected to travel to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, for seven weeks of Apple Engineering Technology Camp.
Sylvia Acevedo, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of the USA, sits with Wichita Girl Scout Reeny Botros during a National Young Women of Distinction interview on Sept. 5 at the corporate office of Facebook in New York City. (Courtesy photo)
“All of us at Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland are extremely proud of Reeny’s selection as one of the 10 National Young Women of Distinction for 2017,” said Liz Workman, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland. “Her Catwalk Coding Gold Award project focuses on narrowing the gender gap in technology in a very innovative way – capitalizing on girls’ desire to add bling to their clothing as a way to engage them in technology. And now, Catwalk Coding is going global! Thanks to a HerLEAD grant, Reeny will bring the program this November to 100 girls in the community center, Centro Comunitario Santa Fe, in Mexico City.”
To honor Girl Scouts’ National Young Women of Distinction, the Kappa Delta Foundation grants the 10 girls a combined $50,000 in college scholarships, reflecting Kappa Delta’s commitment to girls’ leadership and their pursuit of education. This includes a $5,000 scholarship for Reeny. She will also receive a $10,000 scholarship from the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute for the Development of Women Leaders, which is providing a total of $100,000 to the 10 National Young Women of Distinction.
Being named a National Young Woman of Distinction, earning the Girl Scout Gold Award, and receiving these generous scholarships are just a few of the countless experiences girls can have through Girl Scouts. To join or to learn more about volunteering, go to kansasgirlscouts.org.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatality accident.
Just after 1am Saturday, Police officers responded to a one car accident at SW 21st and SW Randolph in Topeka, according to Lt. Steve Roth.
On arrival they found the car had left the roadway for an undetermined reason and struck a fence and a house in the 2700 block of SW 21st.
The driver, who was the sole occupant, was found to be unresponsive. Officers attempted life-saving measures until medical personnel arrived and determined that continuation was futile.
Kansas is operates KanCare, its privatized Medicaid program, under a five-year federal “waiver” that allows three private managed care organizations to administer the program. State officials have asked the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a one-year extension of the waiver, which expires Dec. 31. CREDIT CREATIVE COMMONS-PIXABAY
BY JIM MCLEAN
Kansas officials say there is little chance that more than 400,000 Kansans who depend on the state’s Medicaid program will see their services interrupted.
They say they are confident federal officials will approve a critical waiver request before an end-of-the-year deadline.
“We’ve met all the requirements, so I would expect approval to be coming very soon,” said Michael Randol, director of the division of health care finance at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Kansas operates KanCare, its privatized Medicaid program, under a five-year federal “waiver” that allows three private managed care organizations to administer the program. Through waivers, states can make changes to Medicaid as long as they continue to cover required services and don’t increase federal costs.
State officials have asked the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a one-year extension of the waiver, which expires Dec. 31, so that they can design a new program for implementation in 2019.
Officials in the outgoing Obama administration rejected the waiver request, citing complaints from consumer groups and KanCare consumers about the state’s lax oversight of the managed care organizations.
In May, the Trump administration approved a state plan to correct those problems, prompting expectations that it also would approve the KanCare waiver extension.
Four months later, state officials are still waiting. But they’re not alarmed, Randol said.
“We have had several meetings with CMS and they have indicated that they are positive it will be approved,” Randol said.
In the meantime, work continues on what state officials are calling KanCare 2.0.
KDHE has scheduled a series of conference calls this month with participating health care providers and KanCare consumers to update them on changes in its contracts with the managed care organizations.
The changes will address issues that providers and consumers raised at earlier meetings, Randol said.
“We committed to providers and (KanCare) members that we would have this conversation with them to close the loop and let them know that we heard them,” Randol said.
The proposed changes will be included in a request for proposals that KDHE expects to issue in November, Randol said. The agency will then spend several months evaluating the responses it receives and negotiating new contracts with three to four managed care organizations.
“Our goal is to have contracts awarded by June of next year so if there were to be a change in MCOs that we have ample time to transition members,” he said.
KanCare provides health insurance to approximately 425,000 Kansans, mostly children in low-income families, people with disabilities and elderly Kansans who need nursing home care but can’t afford it.
At the urging of the Kansas Hospital Association and several other advocacy groups, state lawmakers approved legislation during the 2017 session that would have expanded KanCare eligibility to non-disabled adults with annual incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $16,643 for an individual and $33,948 for a family of four.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on burglary charges.
Just after 3a.m. Thursday, the desk clerk at the Country Inn and Suites, 2760 South 9th in Salina received a call from someone claiming to have passed by on the interstate and saw a person with a flashlight out by the hotel’s shed, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester.
The desk clerk told police he had to take out the trash anyway, so he left the desk for a minute to investigate.
While walking back to the desk, the clerk said he saw a white passenger car speed off and he knew instantly that the phone report was a distraction. While the clerk was outside a suspect stole $360 from the cash register.
Capt. Forrester said that an officer in the area saw a white Honda Accord near the Casey’s on the corner of Ninth and Magnolia. The officer determined that the driver did not have a valid license and made a traffic stop.
The officer found evidence of the burglary during the stop. Police recovered around $320, saying that Tanner Ireland purchased snacks and gas before authorities arrived.
A hotel supervisor informed police that Ireland was fired from the hotel a few weeks prior to the incident. Police booked him for one count of aggravated burglary and theft.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating over a dozen suspects on sex trafficking charges.
On Thursday several Wichita police units worked together to focus on those individuals attempting to purchase sexual relations in the Broadway corridor in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
Vice Detectives, the Wichita Broadway Corridor Team, Patrol South Community Policing Officers, Patrol North and South officers participated in the investigation. They arrested 13 men attempting to buy sexual relations, according to Davidson.
Police arrested 15 in similar operation in early September.
Davidson said the message is simple, “police will continue to conduct these assignments until no one is arrested. Do not come to the Broadway corridor to engage in this type of behavior or you may end up talking with a police officer.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas-based operator of addiction treatment centers will pay $25,000 to settle a complaint that it treated its clients with HIV or AIDs differently than other patients.
U.S. Attorney Tom Beall announced Friday the policies of Valley Hope Association in Norton violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The company was accused of requiring people with HIV or AIDS to stay in separate rooms during residential treatment unless they revealed their status to potential roommates. The clients also were not allowed to participate in some work activities.
Valley Hope Association operates 16 addiction treatment centers in seven states.
The company will be required to adopt a non-discrimination policy and to provide mandatory annual training to its employees and contractors.
RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas teen for possible sexting charges.
According to the police, they filed a report for aggravated unlawful transmission of a visual depiction of a child.
On Thursday a 13-year-old boy in Manhattan allegedly sent pictures of himself to a 10-year-old girl, according the Riley County Police incident report.
Authorities did not release details on the relationship between the children or their names.
Due to the nature of the crime reported, police released no additional early Friday.
GRAY COUNTY — A Kansas girl died in an accident just before 8a.m. Saturday in Gray County.
