TOPEKA— Governor Sam Brownback signed legislation Wednesday that requires Kansas abortion providers give women information about their doctors’ histories and provide it in print in a specific type style on white paper.
The Senate approved the measure on a 25-15 vote after the House approved it in mid May.
The bill requires that abortion providers give women information about the physician at least 24 hours beforehand. The information would include the doctor’s credentials, malpractice insurance, hospital privileges and disciplinary record. It requires the information to be printed in 12-point Times New Roman type.
Bill supporters say women need the information to make informed decisions.
Critics said the bill is meant to discourage women from having abortions.
PHILLIPS COUNTY — One person was injured in a fire on Tuesday in Phillips County.
At approximately 11:30 a.m., the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office dispatch received a report of a structure fire in the 500 block of West 1300 Road near Long Island, according to a media release.
Long Island Fire Department was dispatched and immediately requested mutual aid assistance. The fire started in the end of a hog farrowing barn operated by Husky Hogs, Long Island. The fire quickly spread to two additional barns before being brought under control.
An unidentified worker was injured, sustaining burns to his arms and legs. He was transported to Phillips County Hospital in Phillipsburg by private vehicle and later transferred to Wichita via ambulance. Husky Hogs suffered a significant loss with a general estimate of several million dollars.
The Kansas State Fire Marshall’s office was contacted and began their investigation Tuesday night, assisted by the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office. The cause is still undetermined.
SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a murder in Saline County and have made an arrest related to the discovery of a body near the Smoky Hill River Bridge on Tuesday.
The body was discovered by passersby one mile east of Salina, near the Smoky Hill River Bridge in Saline County.
The victim has been identified as 29-year-old Brandon Shelby of Salina.
Law enforcement on the scene of Tuesday’s investigation
Preliminary information suggests that Shelby suffered blunt force trauma to the head and other severe injuries. An autopsy will take place today to determine an official cause of death.
Agents and local law enforcement worked through the night and made an arrest at approximately 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Deputies arrested Charles Rodgers, 30, of Salina, an acquaintance of Shelby, booked him into the Saline County Jail for first degree murder and kidnapping. The alleged crimes are suspected to have occurred in both the city of Salina and in Saline
Pavel-Photo Saline Co
County.
Saline County Sheriff Soldan said that 40-year-old James E. Pavey was also arrested and faces first-degree murder charges. Both Rodgers and Pavey had outstanding warrants.
Rodgers has previous convictions for theft and forgery according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
SEWARD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal accident.
Just before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, emergency responders were dispatched to the 500 block of Missouri Avenue in Liberal after a report a man had been run over by a car, according to a media release from police.
Responding officers found a man under a car on the side of the street. They were unable to detect any signs of life.
The Liberal Fire Department used equipment to lift the car so the man could be removed. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim was identified as a 62-year-old resident of Liberal.
Investigators determined the man was working underneath the car when it rolled over him.
An autopsy will be performed in the coming days to determine the cause of death. The man’s name is being withheld pending notification of his family.
TOPEKA – Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is considering whether to seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2018.
On Wednesday morning, he sounded like a candidate. On his private social media account, Kobach criticized state legislators’ vote to override Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill that would repeal or roll back past income tax cuts he has championed.
The legislators who voted for this obscene tax increase have failed in their obligation to represent their constituents. #ksleg
Kobach said during a recent Associated Press interview that he’s looking at the governor’s race very seriously. GOP Gov. Sam Brownback is term-limited.
The Kansas secretary of state was considered a candidate for a job in President Donald Trump’s administration. But he said he turned down positions in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security because he and his family wanted to stay in Kansas.
Conservative Republicans, some of whom voted for sweeping tax cuts in 2012 or defended them in the years since, parted ways with Gov. Sam Brownback on tax policy Tuesday — at least long enough to side with moderates and Democrats in overriding his veto of a $1.2 billion tax increase.
Kansas legislators voted Tuesday night to override a veto by Gov. Sam Brownback of a $1.2 billion tax increase. Sen. Gene Suellentrop, a Wichita Republican, urged colleagues to pass on their votes until Senate President Susan Wagle cast her vote. CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The law to increase taxes over the next two years comes as legislators seek to close a projected $900 million budget gap for that same period and bolster funding for K-12 schools under a Kansas Supreme Court order.
“It’s a huge vote,” said Rep. Steven Johnson, an Assaria Republican and chairman of the House tax panel, adding that legislative leadership had explored many routes to find a tax solution that would gain sufficient support in both chambers. “It’s a huge vote for looking for an option for Kansas among limited options.”
#ksleg House back in. It may be a long night. House Veto Override Vote is close, but it will pass. It is known.
Passage of Senate Bill 30 with two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate brings to an end signature tax policies of the Brownback administration. Most of those policies were part of a 2012 law that exempted owners of more than 300,000 small businesses and became a political flashpoint in recent elections.
At 109 days on Tuesday and counting, this year’s legislative session is now just five days from the longest, in 2015. With a tax plan complete and new school finance formula sent to the governor, the Legislature still must agree on the state budget.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said that Democrats had foreseen repercussions for the state’s financial health when the tax cuts were approved in 2012. CREDIT CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Floor debates on taxes ran late into Tuesday evening, but in the end, 27 senators and 88 representatives rendered Brownback’s veto — which had been handed down just hours earlier — irrelevant.
It was the second time this session the governor sought to block legislation that would unravel 2012 tax reforms and raise revenue through a three-bracket income tax structure. The first time, in February, lawmakers fell three votes short in the Senate of pushing past his opposition.
The veto nearly survived this time, too: Though the House exceeded the override threshold by four votes, the Senate results came in at exactly the minimum needed.
Rep. Barbara Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat, described feeling tremendous relief, and said she believes many Kansans will share that sensation.
“Now we have a source of money. Then we can work our way out of the hole that we’re in,” she said. “It’s almost like you can breathe.”
Mopping it up
Senate leadership split on the vote, with Vice President Jeff Longbine and Majority Leader Jim Denning supporting the override and laying out their reasoning on the floor. Senate President Susan Wagle, without comment, voted no.
Denning said lawmakers had known since May 2014 that the tax cuts were leading to fiscal woes and not playing out as intended. He said while he voted for the 2012 changes, he believes in cleaning up one’s messes in life and planned to cast his vote accordingly.
“I’m going to mop it up,” he said.
Conservative Republican Sen. Dennis Pyle, of Hiawatha, drew on the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty in his appeal that colleagues uphold the veto. He suggested some lawmakers might think Brownback is like the main character in that poem, but it is in fact the spend-happy legislators who are shattered.
“They continue to want more and more,” he said. “They want to interfere in people’s lives.”
Pyle accused Wagle of seeking to block a filibuster through procedure — a claim that she rebuffed — and Sen. Gene Suellentrop urged lawmakers to pass on voting until she voted first.
Her last name means she comes second to last on the chamber’s alphabetical roll.
“I want to know where our Senate president, our leader, what her position is, before I vote,” Suellentrop said, though when it came time, other lawmakers followed alphabetical order.
Three-tier tax plan
The tax plan sets three income tax tiers: 3.1 percent, 5.25 percent and 5.7 percent. Kansas currently has two rates, 2.6 percent and 4.6 percent, for tax year 2018.
Much of the impassioned debate in the Senate came from conservative opponents of the bill, while many moderate Republicans and Democrats sat silent. Those who rose to comment rejected conservative’s claims that increasing taxes defies common sense.
“From our side of the aisle, that tax plan didn’t receive a single vote,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley said of the 2012 cuts, adding that Democrats had foreseen repercussions for the state’s financial health.
Sen. Tom Holland, a Baldwin City Democrat, said Kansas had been riding “the crazy train” and was long overdue for a solution.
Some lawmakers expressed hope after Tuesday night that the Legislature could finish its work in Topeka this week. However, critics of the school finance bill that passed Monday have speculated the Kansas Supreme Court will likely strike down that legislation, sending lawmakers back to the drawing board, potentially necessitating a special legislative session later this summer.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
GOVE COUNTY -Two dogs that got loose when their family was involved in an accident on Interstate 70 just east of Quinter have been reunited with their owners, according to a social media report.
A Kansas Department of Transportation crew spotted Jay and Trin near the original accident site. The crew stayed near the dogs until they could be picked up and taken to Quinter.
SALINA -The Salina USD 305 School Board committed a “technical violation” when they voted not to renew the contract of Superintendent William Hall, according to a school district spokesperson Jennifer Bradford-Vernon.
On March 14, the board voted not to renew Hall’s contract, which didn’t expire for two more years.
According Bradford-Vernon, a local resident David Litchman, sent a letter of complaint to the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office said the board had committed a “technical violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act” by using abridged language to extend the executive session.
According to Bradford-Vernon, a formal motion must be made every time executive session is extended because KOMA does not provide extensions. The school board is reviewing internal policies and procedures based on the AG’s decision, she added.
“All board members will undergo Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA) training at the June 13, 2017, work session. The KOMA training will be provided by KASB.
There was no intention to violate the spirit of the KOMA or hide anything. The Attorney General is not pursuing any further enforcement.”
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The sentencing for a Lawrence man who stabbed his grandmother to death has been delayed while he awaits an evaluation at Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility.
Eighteen-year-old Jaered Long’s plea agreement in April required that he undergo the evaluation to determine where he would serve his sentence for killing 67-year-old grandmother, Deborah Bretthauer in 2015. The evaluation has not yet occurred.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports Long’s attorneys withdrew from his defense Monday because of a potential conflict of interest.
Long pleaded no contest in April to second-degree murder in Bretthauer’s death. She was found dead from dozens of stab wounds at the Lawrence home she shared with Long. He was 16 at the time but was scheduled to be tried as an adult before he accepted the plea agreement.
