By KYLE PALMER

Hundreds of people, including members of the activist group Indivisible KC, looked for answers at a town hall hosted by U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, Monday morning.

The Republican’s town hall at the Lenexa Conference Center was his first in Johnson County in over a year. It was a long time coming for some.

“Indivisible has been asking for a town hall in the eastern part of the state since January and we finally got one,” Indivisible KC Board Member Leslie Mark said.

Mark said members of the organization wanted to ask Moran about issues regarding healthcare, specifically the Republican-backed plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. It’s an issue she said other local Congress members have been closed-off about.

“We don’t have a lot of representatives willing to talk to us, so I give him a lot of kudos for doing this,” Mark said. “But it’s very distressing that it’s such an attenuated and hard to get to point.”

The issue came up frequently during the town hall with the crowd at times breaking out into chants and cheers.

At another point, Moran received applause for saying he would buck his GOP colleagues if necessary.

Mark, the Indivisible KC member, said healthcare has been mishandled by the Senate.

“The Senate is not following procedure and by having no hearings, by not having expert witness testimony, by having thirteen white men and no one else discussing it they’re going to fix what ails our country even though for the past forty years’ better heads, probably, have prevailed on this topic,” Mark said.

In addition to questions about the replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Indivisible planned to ask about Medicare expansion, taxes, the choice act and investigations on the Trump administration’s ties to Russia.

Afterwards, Moran told reporters he was “pleased with the magnitude and demeanor of the crowd.”

Katie Bernard contributed to this story. Kyle Palmer kcur.org’s morning newscaster. 

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LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran has told a sometimes raucous crowd of hundreds that he would have voted against a House-passed bill that would repeal and replace the Obama-era federal health care overhaul law.

The Kansas City Star reports that Moran spoke Monday at a conference center in Johnson County, which President Donald Trump won by fewer than 3 percentage point.

Moran says he’s waiting to see the final version of the Senate’s bill before determining how he’ll vote. He bemoaned it being drafted in closed meetings but wouldn’t commit to withholding his vote if there aren’t open hearings.

It was the first in-person public town hall meeting in the county since Trump took office. Sen. Pat Roberts and Rep. Kevin Yoder haven’t had such meetings in recent months.

SALINE COUNTY – First responders had a difficult trip after a collision with a deer early Tuesday.
Just before 3a.m. Saline County Emergency Medical Services were sent to a rural Gypsum residence for a 76-year-old woman with abnormal breathing.

Despite lights and sirens on, a deer ran into the passenger side door of the emergency vehicle in the 2400 block of East K-4 Highway, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.
Chad Perez, 43, Salina, was driving the EMS vehicle at the time of the collision.

Emergency crews were able to still respond to the call.

A Sheriff’s deputy was sent to the location, where he found the dead deer in the ditch. Sheriff Soldan said the EMS vehicle had a dent in the passenger side but a damage estimate was not available.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Flags are being flown at half-staff in honor of Kansas Rep. Patsy Terrell who was found dead last week in her hotel room near the Capitol.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that flags will remain in that position at all state buildings, state grounds and state facilities through Saturday, when she will be interred.

The Hutchinson Democrat was found dead last Wednesday. Topeka police said they didn’t believe foul play was involved.

The day before her death, Terrell was one of 88 House members who voted to override Brownback’s veto of a tax bill. The freshman legislator said in one of her last tweets that she was “happy to be one of those override votes” and that it was “what people sent me here to do.”

 

JEWELL COUNTY – A third earthquakes over the past two day shook Kansas Tuesday morning.

The quake just after 4:30 a.m. measured a magnitude 3.9 and was centered approximately 5 miles southeast of Mankato, according to the USGS.

Two quakes hit the same area Monday and measured 3.8 and 3.1, according to the USGS.

This is the 10^th quake reported in Kansas this month.

The USGS reported 9 Kansas earthquakes in May, nearly a dozen in April, seven in March and six in February.

There are no reports of damage or injury from the quakes, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

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JEWELL COUNTY – A pair of small earthquakes shook Kansas Monday morning.

The first quake hit just at 6:18 a.m. measured a magnitude 3.8 and was centered approximately 5 miles southeast of Mankato, according to the USGS.

A second quake measuring 3.1 was centered approximately 7 miles southeast of Mankato.

These are the 9th quakes reported in Kansas this month.

The USGS reported 9 Kansas earthquakes in May, nearly a dozen in April, seven in March and six in February.

There are no reports of damage or injury from Monday’s quake, according to the Jewell County Sheriff’s Department.

RENO COUNTY — Formal charges have been brought against a Kansas man arrested June 4, in the alleged beating and rape of his girlfriend.

Victor Pedraza, 20, is charged with two counts of rape, kidnapping, arson, battery-domestic violence, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal damage.

Pedraza, a former Hutchinson Community College student from Texas, is suspected of beating and raping a foreign exchange student who attended HCC.

Police were contacted and asked to check on the victim who is a foreign student from Japan. Apparently the two had been staying with each and had ongoing issues, according to police.

Officers say they learned that the victim had been tied to a bed, beaten and forced into sex twice after telling him no.

Pedraza also allegedly burned her passport and other papers that would allow her to go back to her native country. He’s also accused rubbing feces on her face according to testimony in court Monday. 

Pedraza is being held on a bond of $207,000. His next court appearance is set for June 28.

JEFFERSON COUNTY – Game Wardens were busy on the water over the weekend in Kansas.

They made three boating under the influence arrests at Perry Reservoir Saturday night, according to a social media report.

In addition, one warden and his boat holder saw an overturned kayak and a person without a life jacket struggling in the waves from the 35 mph wind gusts on Perry Reservoir.

They were able to get a lifejacket to the woman and using a rescue bag get her on board the patrol boat.

TOPEKA, KAN. – Two Kansas men were sentenced Monday on federal drug and gun charges, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Seth Allen George, 26, Salina, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of brandishing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Tyler Lee Shea, 21, Salina,was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.

In their pleas, both men admitted they were members of a drug trafficking organization operating in the Salina area in 2016.

Co-defendants include Kyle Allen Palmer, who was sentenced to 180 months, and Jason Lars Sheets, who is set for sentencing July 10.

MILFORD – Authorities say a Fort Riley soldier drowned Sunday while swimming with his family at Milford Lake.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf confirmed the victim was Xavier Joseph Harden, 23, Fort Riley. The incident occurred in a cove in the Farnum Creek area. Wolf said authorities were called about a possible drowning about 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Wolf reported, “It was in the cove along Acorn’s Resort. There was a man, a woman and a three-year boy  who were playing in the water. They were playing on some store bought flotation devices. The wind apparently got ahold of the female half and the child, and blew them a little bit farther away from the shore than what they were comfortable with.” Wolf said

Harden was floating on another flotation device and was going to jump down off of his device, grab both of them and pull everyone back into the shore. “He jumped off his flotation device and struggled a few seconds and went straight down. According to the wife she advised us right away he was unable to swim and that was the reason he was unable to stay up top.”

Wolf said authorities went into a recovery mode but Harden never resurfaced. A dive team from Shawnee Mission, Kansas came into provide assistance along with Junction City Fire / EMS, Geary County Rural Fire, Geary County Sheriff’s Department, and Kansas Wildlife Parks and Tourism. The body was located about 5:15 p.m. “We have scheduled an autopsy but right now everything looks to be….it was a drowning.”

The hometown of the drowning victim is not yet known. Wolf confirmed the victim’s wife and child are being taken care of by the military.

By JIM MCLEAN, CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN, STEPHEN KORANDA, SAM ZEFF & MEG WINGERTER

It took 113 days instead of the scheduled 100, but Kansas lawmakers finally ended their 2017 session Saturday.

Their final act was to approve a two-year budget plan that supporters say will start the process of repairing damage done by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts. But the session’s climatic moment occurred a week earlier when lawmakers overrode Brownback’s veto of a bill that largely reversed those cuts.

A group of moderate Republicans and Democrats elected since the passage of the tax cuts in 2012 helped lead the charge, but even some lawmakers who initially supported the cuts joined the override effort.

Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning voted in 2012 for the cuts, hoping they would provide the Kansas economy with the shot of adrenaline that Brownback promised. But weary of perennial budget struggles, Denning said before the override vote that the time had come to admit the cuts hadn’t worked as advertised.

“I’ve always backed up and mopped up my mess. That’s what I’m doing now,” said Denning, an Overland Park Republican.

Moderate-leaning Republican Stephanie Clayton, also from Overland Park, said reversing the tax cuts was a “major step” toward fixing the state’s budget problems.

“We have turned things around and we are headed in the right direction,” Clayton said.

The $1.2 billion tax increase passed over Brownback’s objections raises individual income tax rates and restores a third tax bracket eliminated by the 2012 bill. It also repeals a controversial tax exemption given to more than 300,000 business owners and farmers.

The rollback of his signature policy legislation is an embarrassing political defeat for Brownback, who has been the subject of numerous reports saying he is likely to resign before the end of his term to accept a presidential appointment.

‘Turn around’ budget

The budget plan reverses some of the spending cuts approved in recent years to make up for shortfalls in state revenues. It also includes approximately $30 million for state employees, who haven’t had an across-the-board pay increase since 2008.

Employees who have worked for the state for five or more years will get a 5 percent bump. Others, including all employees in the state’s court systems, will get a 2.5 percent increase.

“Even though state employees and judicial employees may not be thrilled with the level of the raise they’re getting, it’s the first time I’ve been able to vote for a raise for them for quite some time,” said Republican Sen. Vicki Schmidt of Topeka. “I hope it’s the beginning of restoration of several things.”

The budget plan authorizes state general fund spending of $6.4 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and $6.3 billion the following year. Those spending levels wouldn’t have been possible without the tax increase that lawmakers approved.

Moderate Republicans and Democrats said a more cordial atmosphere at the Statehouse helped make the bipartisan agreements on taxes and the budget possible.

“It was a very collegial process and collaborative process that brought us to this point,” said Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka.

Still, conservatives fought the tax and spending increases to the end.

“What we’re doing is fleecing our constituents on the false premise that it must be done,” said Sen. Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover.

Sen. Dennis Pyle, of rural Hiawatha, compared his colleagues to city-dwellers who have never lived on a farm and don’t know where their food comes from.
“Sometimes I wonder if legislators don’t understand where the dollars come from,” he said. “From hard-working people. Small businesses.”

Senator Carolyn McGinn, the Sedgwick Republican who led the budget-crafting process in her chamber, shot back at accusations of wasteful spending, charging that conservatives resorted to budget tricks to balance the budget when they controlled the Legislature.

“This body has had four years to cut this budget. And that didn’t happen,” McGinn said. “Instead, the way we balanced the budget, the way this body balanced the budget in the last four years, was by stealing from KPERS, stealing from KDOT, stealing from fee funds, stealing from the water fund, and I could go on.”

Final day drama

A last-minute dispute threatened to derail the collegial feel and the budget deal Saturday.

At the urging of the chamber’s Democrats, the House budget plan included $17,600 to repay an 84-year-old woman for cash seized by the Kansas Highway Patrol in 1995 when they searched her car for what they suspected was illegal drug money. The woman, Barbara Reese, who was never charged with a crime, insisted she earned the money selling used cars.

Lawmakers advocating for the return of the money said the incident probably would not have happened if Reese wasn’t African-American.

House members believed that Senate budget negotiators had agreed to the payment. But when the conference committee report arrived on the House floor for a final vote it didn’t include the money, touching off a skirmish that for a while threatened passage of the budget.

“I will not join this highway robbery,” said Valdenia Winn, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., who called the item’s last-minute removal from the budget “arbitrary” and “draconian.”

When it came time to vote, about 30 Democrats initially abstained, leaving the bill several votes short of the number needed to pass. But after a few tense moments, most relented and voted for the bill, which ultimately passed 88-27.

Lawmakers will return later this month for the ceremonial end to the session. At 114 days, it will tie the record-long session in 2015.

Unfinished business

One of the thorniest issues of the session remains unsettled. Lawmakers have completed their work on a new funding formula for public schools, but Brownback hasn’t signed off on it and neither has the Kansas Supreme Court.

The high court ruled in March that public school funding in Kansas was constitutionally inadequate and that more money must be put into the system.

The bill that lawmakers passed provides $284 million in new money over the next two years, including $184 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

However, it’s anyone’s guess whether that will be enough to satisfy the court, which could shut down schools June 30 if a constitutional formula isn’t in place, meaning one that has been signed into law and approved by the court.

If the court rejects the plan, lawmakers could find themselves called back to the Statehouse for a special session in July.

Medicaid expansion gets a vote

The Legislature’s health agenda this session largely focused on two issues: expanding KanCare to adults earning up to 138 percent of the poverty line and exempting public hospitals from having to allow concealed handguns.

Lawmakers voted earlier this year to expand Medicaid, but the House fell three votes short of overriding Brownback’s veto.  Supporters attempted to put together another bill after St. Francis Health in Topeka announced it might close but found little interest.

The Legislature passed a bill exempting public hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and mental health centers from a concealed carry law, but Brownback hadn’t yet acted on it.  Under state law, publicly owned health facilities must allow handguns or install metal detectors and armed security officers starting July 1. Officials estimated that securing the state hospitals for people with serious mental illnesses or developmental disabilities would cost about $12 million annually.

Lawmakers proved willing to put some money into health programs. The budget bill includes $4.7 million for the state to open 20 additional beds at Osawatomie State Hospital or to contract with another entity for beds. The hospital has been running at less than full capacity for more than a year because of a staffing shortage.

The House and Senate also passed a bill Friday that would set up a task force to study the foster care system, but Brownback hasn’t signaled if he will sign it.

The Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics.

 

HODGEMAN COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities are investigating three suspects on drug charges.

On Saturday, Hodgeman County Undersheriff Jeff Channell and K-9 Kilo were on patrol and came across a vehicle setting in the roadway on 210 Road approximately a mile north of Kansas 156, according to a social media report.

Undersheriff Channell made contact with 3 male occupants. While speaking with the subjects and noticed a strong odor of Marijuana. He detained all subjects and requested another officer.

Sheriff Walker arrived on scene and a search of the vehicle revealed a large amount of Marijuana and

Paraphernalia in the vehicle. One of the juveniles was reported as a missing juvenile from Garden City PD.

He was taken into custody and turned over to Garden City authorities. No names are being released at this time due to it being a juvenile case. Charges have been filed and turned over to the county attorney.