JACKSON COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect weekend home-invasion.

Just after 11p.m. Saturday deputies received a 911 call of a home invasion in the 12000 block of 174^th Road north west of the City of Mayetta in Jackson County, according to a media release.

Law enforcement officers from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribal Police arrived on the scene and arrested Daniel M. Ramirez, 32, Mayetta, inside the residence who allegedly kicked in the home’s front door.

Ramirez is being held on a $15,000 bond in the Jackson County Jail on aggravated burglary and drug charges. The occupants of the residence were at home at the time of the incident, but were unharmed.

KANSAS CITY— (AP) — Hundreds of protesters called for higher pay and better treatment during Labor Day rallies.

The Kansas City Star reports that more than 300 protesters turned out in Kansas City Monday for a “Fight for $15” rally. Many of the protesters were scheduled to work but were striking for the holiday, waving American flags and carrying placards.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that several people protested outside a downtown McDonald’s prior to St. Louis’ annual Labor Day parade.

St. Louis enacted a $10 minimum wage in May. Kansas City voters approved a measure last month raising the city’s minimum wage to $10 an hour. Both efforts were voided effective Aug. 28 by a new state law prohibiting local minimum wages above the state’s $7.70.

JEFFERSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an injury accident in Jefferson County.

Early Sunday, Kansas Game Wardens responded to an injury boat accident at Perry Reservoir where two boats collided resulting in three injured people being transported to a local hospital for treatment, according to a social media report.

Evidence indicates that alcohol may be a contributing factor. The KDWP&T did not release names or additional details.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Thousands of pelicans have been spotted in a wildlife area in central Kansas.

About 9,000 pelicans were spotted Tuesday at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend.

The birds are white with wingspans as large as 9-feet wide. Though they waddle clumsily on land, they’re graceful in the water and the air.

Robert Penner is the avian programs manager at the Nature Conservancy of Kansas. He says the pelicans begin returning to the state from their northern breeding grounds in July and August. Their numbers will increase as fall approaches.

Max Thompson is a retired Southwestern College biology professor and ornithologist. He says the birds tend to nest further north and that there’s no documentation of pelican nesting in the state.

GEARY COUNTY —The cause of a pig barn fire that resulted in the death of several hundred feeder pigs Saturday night is undetermined, but it was likely an electrical malfunction, according to Geary County Rural Fire Chief Garry Berges. The fire occurred on property owned by Phillip Goodyear at 10467 Humboldt Creek Road.

Authorities including Assistant Geary County Rural Fire Chief Curt Janke and a representative from the State Fire Marshal’s Office conducted an investigation into the cause and origin of the fire on Sunday afternoon. The number of feeder pigs that died has been reduced from approximately 700 down to 518.

The $200,000 barn was destroyed, and 518 pigs valued at $30,000 died in the blaze.

Berges said the pigs were owned by F & R Swine. “They’ve got an agreement with Mr. Goodyear to help take care of them as part of their operation.”

Berges said Goodyear will work with the Kansas Department of Health & Environment to dispose of the remains of the pigs. Berges also confirmed Goodyear had some insurance on the building.

 

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GEARY COUNTY — The Kansas Fire Marshal’s office is help to determine the cause of a fire Saturday in rural Geary County.

Just after 10p.m., eight Geary County rural fire units along with two support vehicles responded to the fire in a hog barn at 10467 Humboldt Creek Road on property owned by Phillip Goodyear.

“Later we learned that there were approximately 700 feeder pigs that were inside that ended up perishing due to the fire,” According to Garry Berges, Geary County Rural Fire Chief.

Water support from Fort Riley Fire, Riley County Fire and Grandview Plaza Fire was requested and received.

There were 20 Geary County firefighters and 12 firefighters from the mutual aid partners working at the scene. Berges noted that the fire was brought under control at approximately 30 minutes after midnight, with most of the firefighters released a bit after midnight, but three personnel and two trucks remained overnight until about 9:30 a.m. Sunday monitoring site.

SCOTTBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — An airline providing government-subsidized service to three Nebraska and two Kansas cities plans to end the flights later this month.

PenAir notified the U.S. Transportation Department last week that service to Kearney, North Platte and Scottsbluff in Nebraska and to Dodge City and Liberal in Kansas will cease after Sunday. The information was first reported by an airline industry news site, ch-aviation.com .

The Anchorage, Alaska-based carrier announced last month that it was filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan and planning to close its Denver hub.

The company says it had intended to continue service until replacement carriers were chosen and in place, but it says a massive exodus of its pilots forced it to end the two states’ service far sooner.

By JIM MCLEAN & ALEX SMITH

The Affordable Care Act marketplace will be a mixed bag for Kansas consumers seeking health insurance for 2018.

Some will pay more for coverage, some less. And some will purchase new plans for which there is no price-point comparison.

In Missouri, insurers are proposing some hefty rate hikes.

The Kansas Insurance Department said the “range of average rate revisions” for individual and small-group plans on and off the ACA marketplace will be from 8.8 percent lower to 29 percent higher. That means that some consumers could see premium increases of more than 29 percent, but it’s impossible to say how many, said Julie Holmes, the department’s director of health and life insurance.

“It’s going to depend on who buys from which company,” Holmes said. “There are just so many variables.”

If there are substantial price spikes, many consumer who purchase Obamacare coverage may not be adversely affected. That is because the federal subsidies they receive to keep coverage affordable will also go up.

“So, they will be insulated,” Holmes said.

More than 80 percent of the Kansans who purchase coverage on the Obamacare marketplace qualify for some level of subsidy, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

More consumer choice in Kansas

While the exit of some insurers from the ACA marketplace is limiting competition and choice in many states, most Kansans seeking coverage will be able to choose from 38 plans offered by three insurers.

“A lot of states are not in that favorable a position,” Holmes said.

Minnesota-based Medica will offer plans throughout the state in 2018, while Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas will offer plans in all counties except Johnson and Wyandotte. Centene, a St. Louis-based company that specializes in Medicaid managed care, will offer plans in those two counties, following Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City’s decision in May to exit the Obamacare marketplace.

In several states — including the neighboring states of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa — only one insurer is offering Obamacare plans, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees the marketplace. In Missouri, consumers in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas have choices, but only one insurer is offering plans in most counties in the state.

Higher increases in Missouri

Rate proposals released Friday by the Missouri Department of Insurance are on average 36 percent to 42 percent higher than rates for similar 2017 plans.

“I’m not that surprised it’s that high, given the volatility that’s been going on with the Affordable Care Act,” said Timothy McBride, health economist at Washington University in St. Louis. “We’ve also seen some dropouts of some plans, which reduces the competition, which tends to increase the prices.”

Both Cigna and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, the two companies returning to sell on the marketplace, listed the uncertainty about cost-sharing payments that help consumers cover the cost of insurance as justifications for their proposed rates.

Earlier this year 25 western Missouri counties had been left “bare” when Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City decided to exit the marketplace. In June, Centene Corp. stepped in to fill that void and offer plans in those counties.

This is the first year for Missouri consumers to have access to marketplace rate information before open enrollment and to provide feedback on proposed rates.

Unlike some states, Missouri’s Department of Insurance does not have the authority to deny an insurer’s request for a rate increase.

McBride said public input and rate review still could influence insurance rates.

“We’re new at this game, so we don’t know how well it’s going to work,” McBride said. “But it has helped in other states.”

Insurers may adjust rates before open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1 and continues through Dec. 15.

Obamacare politics persist

Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a Republican preparing to step into the governor’s office when the U.S. Senate confirms Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination to a State Department post, used the numbers released by the insurance department to intensify his criticism of Obamacare.

“The 29 percent increases for health insurance are another rung on the Obamacare ladder of failure, just months after this broken system forced a major insurer to leave the Kansas City market,” said Colyer, who also is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2018.

“I urge Congress to keep their promise to repeal Obamacare and allow us to work with our stakeholders to create Kansas solutions for Kansas families,” Colyer said.

Colyer’s statement is based on false assumptions, said Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project, an initiative funded by several regional health foundations that support the ACA.

“The lieutenant governor’s implication that the ACA marketplace plans will increase in price by 29 percent is false,” Weisgrau said, noting that the insurance department said that rate revisions would vary widely.

Rather than continue to “spread misinformation about the ACA,” Weisgrau said Colyer should encourage Congress to fix problems that are destabilizing the Obamacare marketplace.

“He (Colyer) should also insist that the Trump administration join these efforts and stop working to undermine the marketplace,” Weisgrau said, referring to the president’s repeated threats to halt payments to insurance companies intended to help them cover the cost of lowering out-of-pocket costs for consumers.

Uncertainty about the administration’s commitment to maintaining those cost-sharing payments has destabilized the marketplace and prompted companies to either withdraw or raise rates, Holmes said.

“It definitely has contributed to instability,” Holmes said. “The carriers are holding their breath waiting to see if the administration is going to authorize those payments.”

A U.S. Senate committee is set to begin hearings this week on a potential bipartisan plan to stabilize 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. Alex Smith is a health reporter for KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will end protections for young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. But that will come after a six-month delay.

People familiar with the plans said the delay in the formal dismantling of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program would be intended to give Congress time to decide whether it wants to address the status of the affected young immigrants.

But it was not immediately clear how the six-month delay would work in practice and what would happen to people who currently have work permits under the program, or whose permits expire during the six-month stretch.

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating after police found the remains of a child.

According to media release, officers were called Saturday to a residence in the 2000 block of south Vine in Wichita after a property owner discovered a suspicious concrete structure emitting an odor.

Police removed the structure and found the remains of a child, about 3 years old, inside the concrete.

A 40-year-old man and 36-year-old woman, residents of the property, were arrested earlier last week. They are being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on charges associated with a child custody case, according to police.

There is a tentative identification of the child. Confirmation is being coordinated through the Sedgwick County Medical Examiner, according to police.  No additional details were released late Sunday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The owner of the Kansas City Chiefs is being accused in a lawsuit of improperly receiving hundreds of millions in state investment money through a kickback deal with New Mexico officials.

The Kansas City Star reports Sunday the New Mexico State Investment Council filed the lawsuit late last month against Clark Hunt and HFV Asset Management over the politically influenced investment deals.

Hunt didn’t comment to the newspaper on the lawsuit Sunday morning. Hunt’s father, Lamar, founded the Chiefs franchise and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The lawsuit says Hunt made a deal 12 years ago with two men with political connections who promised to steer New Mexico investment money to a hedge fund in exchange for payments. Hunt was a partner in the hedge fund.

New Mexico awarded $300 million to the hedge fund and paid millions in management fees. The lawsuit said one of the investment funds lost $13 million during the period.

“Hunt sought to gain unfair advantage by paying for influence over the process,” New Mexico officials said in the lawsuit.

The accusations are tied to the pay-to-play scandal that took place during administration of former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

New Mexico has already negotiated more than $30 million in settlements related to the pay-to-play investment scandal.