For the third time in five weeks, Nebraska I-back Ameer Abdullah earned a Big Ten weekly honor, as the senior was chosen as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.
Abdullah, who leads the nation in rushing yards and is second in yards per game, rushed for 208 yards and a career-high three touchdowns in Saturday’s 45-14 win over Illinois. He totaled 196 yards and all three scores in the first half, as the Huskers raced to a 31-14 lead.
The 208-yard performance marked Abdullah’s third 200-yard effort of the 2014 season and fourth of his collegiate career. His three 200-yard games in 2014 are one shy of the school mark set by Mike Rozier in 1983. Abdullah also climbed into second place on NU’s career lists for 100-yard games (21), career 200-yard games (four) and yards from scrimmage (4,339) while he also pulled within 70 yards of second place on the Huskers’ all-time rushing list. Abdullah had 212 all-purpose yards in the game, increasing his career total to 5,974 yards and moving him within 26 yards of becoming just the seventh player in Big Ten history with 6,000 career all-purpose yards.
The Big Ten honor was one of three awards Abdullah received Monday, as he was also named the Athlon Sports Big Ten Player of the Week and the College Football Performance Awards Running Back of the Week.
The Huskers, who are 5-0 and ranked 19th in the country, take on No. 10 Michigan State this Saturday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. (central) on ABC.
Sen. Laura Kelly, left, and Rep. Jim Ward, the top Democrats on the KanCare Oversight Committee, on Monday requested that a special committee be appointed to study whether any legal or ethical boundaries were crossed when Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration contracted with three managed care organizations to privatize Medicaid.-Photo by Dave Ranney
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — The top Democrats on the KanCare Oversight Committee on Monday called for a separate committee to be appointed to study whether any legal or ethical boundaries were crossed when Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration contracted with three managed care organizations to privatize Medicaid.
Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, and Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, said the request was spurred by the months-old news of FBI agents interviewing Capitol denizens for information on allegations of corruption within the administration. The FBI has not confirmed the investigation, per agency policy, but some of those interviewed have told news outlets that the $3 billion KanCare contracts are at the center of the questions.
Ward, a former prosecutor, said that the FBI would only seek out criminal activity, while a special legislative committee also could search for ethics violations.
“When there are instances when the integrity of the legislative process, the integrity of the executive and the taxpayers’ money is at risk, a special committee is not only appropriate, it’s needed,” Ward said.
Brianna Landon, deputy communications director for the governor’s office, said the governor supported the formation of the KanCare Oversight Committee on which Kelly and Ward sit, and questioned why neither raised their concerns at a meeting of that committee last month. Legislators and the general public can view theKanCare contract documents online, she noted.
“Five companies submitted bids in response to the KanCare request for proposal,” Landon said. “Dozens of subject matter experts, including many career state employees, selected the three winning companies. These experts selected the three lowest bidders with the three strongest proposals. Even the losing bidders have stated the process was open and fair.”
When asked why they waited until a month before the general election to request the special committee, Kelly noted that she had made a similar request for legislative inquiry when the story of the FBI interviews broke in April.
At the time, she likened it to an investigation of the Kansas Bioscience Authority ordered by Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita.
“I did call for just this sort of investigative committee and paralleled it with what had happened with the KBA,” Kelly said.
Ward said Democrats waited to see how many days of interim meetings the Legislative Coordinating Council would grant to the KanCare Oversight Committee, in the hopes that the committee might have time to vet the KanCare contracting process.
“They gave us the minimum amount of days,” Ward said of the council, comprised of the Legislature’s top five Republicans and top two Democrats.
A statement on Monday from Wagle, the coordinating council’s vice chairwoman, made it seem unlikely she will vote for a special committee.
“This is a pathetic attempt to distort the truth and deceive voters in an election year,” Wagle said. “Public records clearly show the KanCare contracts were bid in a transparent process and awarded to the lowest bidders.”
The period Ward and Kelly want to investigate dates back to 2012, when United Healthcare, Amerigroup and Sunflower State Health Plan (a division of Centene) were awarded contracts to administer the state’s $3 billion Medicaid program.
Gary Haulmark, a former deputy secretary in the Brownback administration, subsequently went to work for Amerigroup, while two lobbyists connected to Brownback’s former chief of staff, David Kensinger, were employed by the other managed care companies. One of them, Riley Scott, is Wagle’s son-in-law.
Ward said that fit a pattern of other Statehouse advocacy groups changing their representation to lobbyists with ties to the administration.
“All are representing these private companies,” Ward said. “How did that happen? Were there carrots and sticks offered?”
Ward also pointed to smaller-dollar contracts handed out to fully privatize the state’s child support enforcement. The recipient of the majority of those contracts was a company owned by a Brownback donor from Mississippi who privately conversed with Kensinger and a Cabinet secretary about the benefits of privatization years before the contracts were bidded out.
In addition to the bioscience authority investigation, Ward cited other recent precedent for the Legislature investigating possible corruption in other branches of government. He pointed to a 2006 special committee appointed by then-House Speaker Doug Mays, a Topeka Republican, to look into a lunch conversation Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss had with state senators while a school finance lawsuit was pending in Nuss’ court.
Ward said a special committee with subpoena power could forward evidence of criminal activity to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, while directing evidence of lower-level ethics violations to other bodies like the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission. He said an investigation also could be useful in determining whether state laws governing “pay-to-play” deals or influence-peddling need to be tightened.
He said it did not matter whether the investigation is launched before the November election.
“The goal is, whoever the governor is, whoever the Legislature is, people know what the rules are, and the public is confident we’re working for their interest rather than individual interests,” Ward said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman says whistleblowers have told a congressional committee that the intruder who climbed a fence made it farther inside the White House than the Secret Service has publicly acknowledged.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He’s criticizing the Secret Service and its leadership for not doing more to stop the suspect earlier.
The disclosure comes on the eve of a congressional oversight hearing with the director of the embattled agency assigned to protect the president’s life.
The Washington Post and New York Times on Monday first reported that he intrusion on Sept. 19 was deeper than has been acknowledged.
CLINTON COUNTY- Two men were injured in an accident just after 2 p.m. on Monday in Clinton County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Ford Edge driven by Grant E. Hon, 30, Omaha, was northbound on U.S. 69 and traveled into the path of a 2001 Ford F 250 driven by Dustin E. Noble, 31 Polo, that was westbound on Mo 116. The front of the truck struck the passenger side of the Edge. Both vehicles skidded of the northwest corner of the intersection.
Hon and Noble were transported to Liberty Hospital.
The MSHP reported Hon was properly restrained at the time of the accident and it was unclear if Noble was wearing a seat belt.
The Vatican is investigating Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, two years after he was convicted of failing to report suspected abuse.
A Finn spokesman says the bishop was notified of the investigation by the papal ambassador in Washington.
The National Catholic Reporter was first to report the inquiry which is being conducted by the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.
Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa visited the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph last week as part of the investigation. His spokeswoman said Monday only that the visit was private.
Finn is the highest-ranking U.S. church leader to be convicted for failing to take action on child sex abuse claims. He was sentenced to two years’ probation for not reporting a priest who had hundreds of pornographic photos of young girls.
A seat belt enforcement operation in Nodaway County last weekend resulted in 11 citations or arrests and 14 warnings.
Captain James E. McDonald, the commanding officer of Troop H of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, released the following results from the operation conducted on September 26.
Totals from this enforcement effort include:
2–Citations for speed
1–Citation for failure to wear seat belt
1–Citation for non-moving violation
1–Citation for no insurance
3–Misdemeanor drug arrests
1–Driving while intoxicated arrest
1–Citation for driving while suspended
1–Citation for careless and imprudent driving
Captain McDonald says, “The results of this operation are an example of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s commitment to keeping our roadways safe through strict enforcement.”
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Gambling officials say the industry paid out a jackpot-worthy $38 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2013.
It’s the first time the American Gaming Association has added tribal casinos and casino game makers into the mix for its annual study of the industry’s impact in the U.S. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report’s tax revenue figures before its release Tuesday.
Of that total tax revenue, $10 billion came directly from gambling. Worker income and Social Security taxes as well as casino property taxes, and more, accounted for the rest.
Gaming association president Geoff Freeman is expected to reveal gambling’s total economic impact at a Tuesday press conference. The announcement comes as the association’s annual G2E conference and trade show kicks off at the Sands Expo and Convention Center off the Las Vegas Strip.
After more than 25-years of granting dreams to critically and chronically ill children one man is preparing to retire.
“My love, other than giving the dreams away is raising the money to do the dreams,” said Dream Factory of Northwest Missouri Volunteer Ron Dougan. “I love bringing the money so we can do these things. I’ve tried my best to do fundraising.”
Dougan helped to found the Dream Factor chapter of Northwest Missouri. In his years with the Dream Factory he has helped to grant more than 100 dreams to children dealing with an illness.
“I started with a part of the Kansas City chapter, we were the North part of Kansas City here in St. Joe and I served as the president of the North chapter which was a part of the Kansas City one then,” he said. “Later we formed as part of Northwest Missouri.”
Northwest Missouri Dream Factory Vice President Terry Parker said the organization is a way to give happiness to children between the age of 3 and 18 struggling with health issues.
“Well we can’t give them their health back but what we can do it put a smile on their face,” said Parker. “Families are stressed out, their kids are stressed out, if we can give them some relief then it’s great you know.”
Sunday during BaconFest at the Civic Arena the Dream Factory presented a dream to a Central Freshman girl named Stevie dealing with a connective tissue disorder. Stevie’s dream was to go to Hawaii.
“They don’t have to think about doctors, they don’t have to think about needles, they don’t have to think about tests,” said Dream Factory President Rita Hook. “It’s just time for the family to just forget about everything and have fun with each other.”
Stevie’s dream of going to Hawaii was one of the last dreams Dougan will get to see before his retirement, but his final dream has yet to be granted.
“I am working on one personally myself,” said Dougan. “It will probably be done over the Christmas break when the little girl’s sister is home from college, she wants to swim with the Dolphins in Florida.”
Blunt addresses equipment for law enforcement in Northwest Missouri
Missouri Senator Roy Blunt stopped in at Rosecrans Memorial Airport Monday afternoon to hear from area law enforcement agencies during a closed meeting about resources needed to protect area residents.
Sen. Blunt said discussion surrounding arming law enforcement officials has been a hot topic since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by a police officer last month in Ferguson, Missouri. Blunt said the armored trucks used during the protests after Brown’s death were able to save several individuals.
“So much of the discussion of what’s happened in our State since August is not based on the facts on the ground,” said Blunt. “The three big defensive vehicles that were there and they were like a Brinks armored truck.”
Blunt said debate in Washington over what equipment is used by law enforcement should come from actually talking to law enforcement officials about what they really need.
“The further you get a decision away from where you’re really going to try to solve a problem the less likely you’re going to meet the common sense standard that you will meet if you try to solve those decisions close to home,” said Blunt.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner R.T. Turner said the meeting with the Senator was helpful because much of the equipment purchased and used by the law enforcement comes from government funded grants.
“Just talking about the equipment we have received and it’s not just vehicles but other equipment that’s been very important like radios,” said Turner. “It’s not just military vehicles that’s very important in Northwest Missouri.”
