HOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Independent candidate Greg Orman is walking a tightrope in Kansas as he campaigns against veteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts.

Orman is projecting himself as fresh and authentic while acknowledging that he’s been both a Republican and a Democrat.

Roberts’ new campaign spokesman, Corry Bliss, says the senator is painting the wealthy 45-year-old businessman as a dishonest, flip-flopping liberal Democrat masquerading as an independent.

With less than two months before the election, Orman’s campaign manager, Jim Jonas, says the narrative for the campaign is simple: Washington is broken and Orman can go there and solve big problems without a lot of finger-pointing.

The race shifted dramatically last week when Democratic candidate Chad Taylor — with a nudge from Democrats in Washington — abruptly quit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is sending 475 more U.S. troops into Iraq to supplement an existing American military presence that is helping Iraqi security forces battle Islamic State militants and secure diplomatic facilities.

Obama was announcing the additional forces Wednesday as part of an expanded offensive against the Islamic State group in Iraq and in Syria.

The new troops would join more than 1,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq and would be embedded with Iraqi security forces and help identify targets for U.S. military airstrikes against the extremist group.

The U.S. already has more than 750 U.S. military personnel supporting diplomatic security at facilities in Baghdad and nearly 300 at joint operating centers in Baghdad and Irbil.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today announced he is sponsoring the Stop Wasteful Bonuses Act (S. 2545), bipartisan legislation to rescind bonuses paid to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees who were involved in manipulating electronic waitlists.

“VA personnel should be accountable for their actions – otherwise the current system of mediocrity and failure will remain,” Sen. Moran said. “This legislation will help make certain that those who put veterans lives at risk will be held responsible for those actions and return bonuses they unjustly collected. We need leaders in the VA who are willing to take a stand, identify the problems, and get on the right path to resolve those problems so that veterans have a Department of Veterans Affairs worthy of their service.”

S. 2545 directs the VA Secretary to require VA employees who received bonuses in 2011 or later to repay those bonuses if they contributed to a deliberate omission from an electronic wait list the names of veterans waiting for health care. The employee’s superiors are also required to pay back bonuses if they knew, or reasonably should have known, of their subordinates’ purposeful omission of the names of veterans from electronic waitlists. The bill requires the VA secretary to identify these VA employees through reports issued by the department’s Inspector General.

Because the VA used compliance with wait-time metrics as a factor in determining employee bonuses, some VA employees were incentivized to use secret waitlists to artificially inflate compliance data in order to maximize their bonus payments. According to one report, employees at the Phoenix VA hospital received approximately $10 million in bonuses since 2011, while simultaneously using secret waitlists to hide delays in patients receiving care.

Sen. Moran has been a member of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees for 18 years, chaired the Health Subcommittee in the House for two years, and has worked with nine VA Secretaries.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senators have voted to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill creating a training program for teachers to carry guns in schools and expanding where residents can openly carry firearms.

Wednesday’s vote marks a tentative victory for the Republican-led Legislature. The measure now moves to the House, where a two-thirds majority vote is needed to finalize the veto override.

Lawmakers failed last year to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that sought to nullify some federal gun control laws.

This year’s bill would create a special training program for schools wanting to arm employees.
It would also lower the age for obtaining concealed-carry permits to 19 from 21, and let residents with permits openly carry firearms, even in cities that ban it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has formally added gay marriage cases to the justices’ agenda for their closed-door conference on Sept. 29.

The action Wednesday does not mean that the court will decide that day to hear state appeals of lower court rulings that struck down bans on same-sex marriage. But the late September conference will be the first time the justices have the issue before them. The meeting will be the justices’ first since late June.

Appeals have been filed from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The gay couples who won in each case in the lower courts also favor Supreme Court review.

The justices could put off deciding whether to take up gay marriage until January and still be able to issue a decision by late June.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — State officials this week announced that teens and young adults who are about to age out of the state’s foster care system are now being provided with photo IDs at no cost.

Currently, social workers make sure the teens have copies of their birth certificates and Social Security cards before they exit the system. But the teens are expected to pay for their driver’s licenses, which typically serve as their photo IDs when applying for jobs, enrolling in college or enlisting in the military.

“Children in foster care deserve every opportunity to succeed in life,” Gov. Sam Brownback said in a prepared statement. “This is one small way we can help ensure they are able to build the future they deserve. Having something as simple as a photo ID will be one less hurdle they will have to overcome.”

The initiative, which began earlier this month, is expected to cost about $10,000.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 331 teens and young adults aged out of state’s foster care system.

Theresa Freed, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, said the agency expects 424 teens and young adults – ages 16 to 23 – to exit the system in the current fiscal year.

The department’s Independent Living program also offers grants for securing an apartment, financial aid for costs associated with going to school, help finding a job and health insurance until age 26.

In Kansas, teens who age out of foster care but have not yet turned 23 are eligible for free tuition at any state university, community college or Board of Regents-certified technical school.

Historically, DCF has not – and still does not – keep track of how children and young adults fare after exiting the system because they are no longer considered wards of the state.

In recent months, the numbers of foster children in what are called out-of-home placements, according to DCF reports, have reached record highs: 6,156 in April, 6,168 in May, 6,167 in June and 6,157 in July. The August number is not yet available.

Previously, the all-time high was 5,902 children in October 2007.

The system now has about 850 more children in out-of-home placements than it did two years ago, and 360 more than it did last year.