HOUSTON —Kansas Game Wardens are busy serving the citizens of the great state of Texas this holiday weekend. The wardens left Thursday afternoon and are assisting in areas expected to remain flooded for weeks to come.
The wardens are among several groups from Kansas helping those devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Members of the Kansas National Guard and swift water rescue teams/search and rescue teams from fire departments across Kansas are in Texas in response to the need for help.
In addition, the 184th Air Wing in Wichita activated 10 Airmen to provide visual information via satellites for leaders on the ground to get a bigger picture of the situation, according to the Kansas Adjutant General’s Office.
Location of Saturday night fatal shooting in Lawrence-google image
DOUGLAS COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting and asking the public for help with information.
Just after 11:30p.m. officers responded to a motel in the 1100 Block of North 3rd Street in Lawrence after report of a shooting, according to a media release.
Officers encountered shooting victims. One of the men identified as a 23-year-old Lenexa man died of his injuries. The other two victims were transported to a hospital for treatment of possible life-threatening injuries.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Lawrence Police.
Kathleen Sebelius, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says the Affordable Care Act would be working better if Republicans would stop undermining it. UNITED STATES MISSION GENEVA / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS–CC
President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders came up short in their initial efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but former Health and Human Services Secretary and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius says they’re still working to engineer its failure.
In a recent interview, Sebelius, who spearheaded implementation of the ACA, said she knows that the law isn’t perfect. But she said it would be working better if Republicans would stop undermining it.
“The notion that this law is imploding is just not accurate,” Sebelius said.
She cited Congress’ refusal to help insurance companies offset the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions as an example. The law called for such payments to balance a requirement that insurers stop denying coverage to people with health problems.
“Congress actually took that money away,” Sebelius said. “The first year of funding was in the original bill. Congress blocked the additional funding.”
Asked if she would go so far as to say that Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration were actively sabotaging the law, Sebelius said: “Oh, there’s no question.”
“Ironically, the Republican Congress did not repeal and replace, but the administration led by Tom Price at HHS — who is a vociferous opponent of the Affordable Care Act — has a lot of tools to really cut off the legs of the law,” she said.
Sebelius led HHS as a member of the Obama administration from 2009 to 2014 after six years as Kansas governor and eight years as Kansas insurance commissioner. She recently moved to Lawrence and continues to work as a health policy consultant.
During his first month in office, Trump instructed the Internal Revenue Service to back off enforcement of the individual mandate, the part of the law that requires virtually all Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.
The Trump administration also cut funding for advertising to educate consumers on when and how to purchase coverage.
“That probably dampened this year’s enrollment by about a million and a half people,” Sebelius said.
Heading into the open enrollment period for 2018, Sebelius said the most immediate threat to the stability of the marketplace is Trump’s often-stated intention to stop reimbursing insurance companies for billions of dollars in payments the law requires them to make to consumers to lower copayments, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs.
If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!
Policyholders who earn less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level — about $30,000 for an individual and $61,500 for a family of four — qualify for the “cost-sharing subsidies.”
“There are a lot of uncertainties about the marketplace, and that in and of itself can really undermine the law,” Sebelius said.
Some large insurers, including Aetna and Humana, have already said they will not participate in the health exchange market in 2018 due to the uncertainty. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City has also pulled out.
“What a number of the companies have said is, ‘If we don’t know if we’re going to get paid back, one of two things will happen,’” Sebelius said. “‘We will either drop entirely out of the marketplace because we cannot afford to take that kind of hit. Or we will raise our premiums substantially to cover that cost that we must by law offer to consumers.’ Either way, that’s a very disastrous thing for health consumers.”
Sebelius said she is encouraged that some members of Congress are attempting to craft a bipartisan plan to fix the ACA in an effort to stabilize the marketplace. But with enrollment for 2018 set to begin Nov. 1, they don’t have a lot of time.
“I’m worried that the calendar is really an enemy right now.”
The easiest solution, Sebelius said, would be for Congress to simply stop sabotaging the law and require the administration to do the same.
“They could immediately say, ‘We want the law to work the way it is,’” she said. “‘This is the law, let’s enforce the law.’”
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.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Unarmed protesters are raising concerns that armed militia members are attending rallies at an upscale shopping and dining district in Kansas City.
The Kansas City Star reports that the militia has shown up several times this summer at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain on the Country Club Plaza. The militia is part of the Three Percenters movement, which gets its name from the belief that just 3 percent of the colonists rose up to fight the British.
Some protesters say they consider the militia presence a hostile intimidation tactic. The militia members say they’re there to help provide security.
Protesters have called for police to provide a buffer between the groups at protests. Chief Rick Smith says the department uses a number of practices to maintain peace at such events.
ALLEN COUNTY — A Kansas woman died in an accident just after 1p.m. Saturday in Allen County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Honda passenger vehicle driven by Melodee K. McEndree, 62, Elsmore, was eastbound on Idaho Road three miles north of Elsmore.
The driver failed to yield at the train tracks and was struck by a southbound train.
McEndree was pronounced dead at the scene. The train engineer and conductor were not injured.
VALLEY CENTER, Kan. (AP) — A 15-year-old Kansas boy who led a Highway Patrol trooper on a chase north of Wichita tried to use Uber to elude arrest after crashing his car.
The chase began when the trooper attempted to stop the teenager Saturday morning for speeding and a license tag violation south of Newton.
Authorities said the boy did not stop his Dodge Challenger and the trooper gave chase onto Interstate 135. The boy left the interstate outside of Valley Falls, about 10 miles to the south. He later hit several mail boxes and a pole, stopping his car.
He fled on foot. Authorities said a Valley Center police officer later spotted the teenager riding with an Uber driver, pulled that car over and arrested the boy.
Location of Saturday afternoon’s quake image Kansas Geological Survey
SEDGWICK COUNTY– A small earthquake shook Kansas on Saturday.
The quake at 2:45p.m. measured a magnitude 2.3 and was centered approximately 2 miles southeast of Cheny, according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
This is this is the fourth quake in Kansas this week.
The USGS reported a pair of quakes Thursday including a 2.6 shaker in Cloud County and a 3.4 quake four miles southeast of Cheny.
There are no reports of damage or injuries from the Saturday quake.
SHAWNEE COUNTY– The Topeka Fire Department responded to a report of a structure fire located at 607 SW 5th Avenue just after 07:00 AM Saturday.
Upon arrival, fire crews advised light smoke coming from the small single story apartment. The fire was located within the interior of the structure on a mattress and extinguished. All occupants of the mutli-unit apartment complex were able to self-evacuate unharmed, according to a media release.
A Topeka Fire Department Investigations Unit responded to this incident and determined the origin of the fire to be on the mattress within the small bedroom. The cause of the fire has been classified as accidental; associated with carless disposal of smoking related materials.
Estimated dollar loss – $6000 (Six Thousand Dollars); $5,000 associated structural loss; $1,000.00 contents loss.
The Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross also responded to the scene for assistance.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former police officer who worked for two decades in law enforcement in Kansas did so despite a 1995 conviction for domestic violence that should have disqualified him from wearing a badge.
State law prohibits a person with a domestic violence conviction from working in law enforcement. But questions linger as to how Michael A. Stone managed to remain employed for so long.
The Kansas Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training on Tuesday revoked Stone’s law enforcement certification. His last day on the job as an officer with the Marion Police Department was Aug. 5.
Stone had previously worked as a corrections officer at the El Dorado Correctional Facility, as a Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputy and as police chief in Florence.
photo courtesy University of Kansas Marching Jayhawks
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — High school musicians participating in this year’s University of Kansas Band Day won’t be strutting their stuff at Memorial Stadium after nearly 70 years of doing so.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the university has welcomed hundreds of young musicians from Missouri and Kansas high schools each year to perform alongside its Marching Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium.
This year’s event Sept. 9 will keep the traditional parade through downtown before the game. But it won’t host a mass band performance on the field during the football game against Central Michigan.
Matthew Smith, associate director of bands at the university’s School of Music, said organizers attribute the change to a combination of dwindling interest from high schools, reduced parking space and other challenges, such as limited storage space for large instruments.
according to the Kansas Adjutant General’s Office.
