LABETTE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), the Labette County Sheriff’s Office, and the Chetopa Police Department arrested a Kansas man Monday evening for growing marijuana in a Chetopa city park.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Monday KBI agents, Labette County Sheriff’s deputies, and officers from the Chetopa Police Department arrested Joseph “Scott” Skibo, 54, of Chetopa, for cultivation of marijuana and criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Skibo was allegedly cultivating marijuana on an island in Elmore Park. The park is located within the city limits of Chetopa, Kan. Skibo attempted to flee law enforcement in a boat, but was arrested without further incident.
FORD COUNTY — A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 8:30p.m. Monday in Ford County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Ford County Emergency Vehicle Dodge Ram 1500 driven by Robert Boyd, 52, Dodge City, was southbound on 113th Road at Comanche Road with lights and sirens on the way to a call.
The emergency vehicle was behind a 2006 GMC Yukon driven by Sarah M. Malloy, 38, Dodge City.
The emergency vehicle attempted to pass as the Yukon turned left in front of the Dodge sideswiping the vehicle.
Boyd was transported to Western Plains Medical Center. Malloy and a passenger in the GMC were not injured. All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
HASKELL COUNTY —Officials are waiting for autopsy results after the death of a Kansas man in a grain elevator accident.
Just after 3:30p.m. Thursday, the Haskell County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call that an employee was trapped in a grain elevator at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility, 1892 U.S. Highway 83 in Haskell County, according to a media release.
First responders determined that 2 ADM employees were in a grain silo trying to remove another employee who was entrapped in grain within the silo. Efforts to remove the 25-year-old Javier Trejo, 25, Liberal, were unsuccessful.
Just after 6:00p.m. officials pronounced Trejo dead at the scene. An autopsy is going to be performed.
The Gray County Fire Department and Grant County Fire Departments assisted at the scene according to the sheriff’s department.
State Representative 19th District- Stephanie Clayton
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A lieutenant colonel in the Kansas’ Civil Air Patrol who resigned his command after posting on Facebook that a state lawmaker should “swing from a tree” has chosen not to resume participation in the volunteer organization after being cleared to do so.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Col. Linette Lahan, commander of the Kansas Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, says Jonathan Holder is “not active.”
The Civil Air Patrol conducts emergency searches. Holder had led a squadron at the based at the Kansas National Guard Armory in Emporia.
The dispute stems from a Facebook post saying that Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton of Overland Park ought to die for introducing what he considers an unconstitutional bill to block carrying of concealed handguns on college campuses.
Low-income Kansans are less likely to have health insurance than their counterparts in other states, according to an analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The uninsured rate among Kansans living below the federal poverty level has been worse than the national rate for many years. But the gap has widened in recent years, mainly because of the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion, said Robert St. Peter, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Kansas Health Institute.
In Kansas, younger or low-income adults are less likely to have health insurance than their counterparts in other states, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. COURTESY KANSAS HEALTH INSTITUTE
“Since 2014 when many states expanded Medicaid, which of course is targeted to low-income families, the gap between Kansas and the rest of the country has actually increased,” St. Peter said.
In 2014 — the first year of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion — the national uninsured rate for families living below the poverty line was 21.3 percent, compared to 24.6 percent in Kansas. In 2016, the national rate dropped to 16 percent. The Kansas rate also declined, but only to 22 percent.
The 2016 poverty threshold was annual income of $11,880 for individuals and $24,300 for a family of four.
Efforts to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income families earning up to about a third more than the poverty level — $16,040 for an individual and $32,718 for a family of four — gained traction in the 2017 session of the Kansas Legislature. Lawmakers passed an expansion plan but failed by a few votes to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of the bill.
The recent failure by Republicans in the U.S. Congress to repeal the ACA has expansion supporters in Kansas gearing up for another attempt when the 2018 legislative session convenes in January.
The latest U.S. Census numbers show Kansans losing ground in other areas as well.
Prior to implementation of the ACA, young adults in Kansas were more likely to have health coverage than 19- to 25-year-olds across the country.
“Now, young adults in Kansas are slightly more likely to be uninsured than young adults in the rest of the country,” St. Peter said.
In 2009, the national uninsured rate for young adults stood at 31.7 percent, compared to 26.8 percent in Kansas. But Kansas lost its advantage in 2016 when the decline in its rate to 15.7 percent was exceed by a drop in the national rate to 14.1 percent.
“This isn’t unique to Kansas,” St. Peter said. “I think all of the states that haven’t expanded Medicaid are seeing similar trends.”
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have expanded eligibility for their Medicaid programs. Kansas is among 19 states that haven’t.
Although rejection of Medicaid expansion is the main reason uninsured rates in Kansas and other non-expansion states are declining more slowly, there are other factors, St. Peter said, explaining that some states led by governors opposed to the ACA didn’t do as much as others to help people eligible for subsidies purchase insurance in the Obamacare marketplace.
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
Editor’s note: The Kansas Health Foundation, one of several regional health foundations that provide funding to the Kansas News Service, is also the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A patient of a psychiatrist stabbed to death in the alley behind his holistic practice in Kansas has been charged with first-degree murder.
Twenty-one-year-old Umar Dutt made his first court appearance Monday in the Sept. 13 death of Achutha Reddy at the Holistic Psychiatry Services clinic in Wichita. He is being held on a $1 million bond.
His attorney Kurt Kerns says the case is complex and sad.
An attorney for Dutt’s family released a statement offering their condolences to the doctor’s family for their loss. Raj and Azra Dutt say their family has also suffered and will continue to suffer “the terrible toll and consequences of mental illness.”
WICHITA —A former mail carrier in Sheridan County was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for stealing mail he was supposed to deliver, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
The defendant was ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution.
James N. Stephenson, 25, formerly of Hoxie, Kan., and now living in Basehor, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of mail theft. In his plea, he admitted the crime occurred while he was employed at the Post Office in Hoxie, Kan. He stole mail containing cash, gift cards and prepaid debit cards. He said he looked for birthday and anniversary cards that were likely to contain items of value.
After serving his sentence, Stephenson will spend two years on supervised release.
First responders on the scene of Sunday’s incident in Wichita-photo courtesy KWCH
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a drowning.
Just after 3pm. Sunday, first responders were dispatched to a drowning at an apartment in the 2400 Block of South Woodlawn, according to officer Charlie Davidson.
An investigation revealed a 24-year-old man was giving a bath to a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old in a tub in a second-floor bathroom. The children were left alone in the tub while the man stepped into an adjacent shower. One of the children was able to turn the water back on and the tub overflowed.
The one-year-old was found face down in the water and transported to an area hospital in critical condition, according to Davidson.
There was also a 22-year-old woman, a 20-year-old man and two other small children in the home at the time of the incident.
POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities have identified the teen who died in a weekend 3-vehicle accident.
Just before 5p.m. Saturday, a Volkswagen Jetta driven by Daniel McDonald, 18, Wamego, was eastbound on Highway 24 just east of Schoeman Road, according to Sheriff Greg Riat.
The vehicle crossed the center line and was then struck by 2 west bound vehicles including 2006 Volvo V50 driven by Corey Swisher, 44, St. Mary’s and 1997 Ford Expedition driven by Joshua Asbury, 35, St. George.
McDonald was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Riat. Asbury was transported to the hospital in Manhattan. Swisher was not injured.
