ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is returning for a short September session in between its summer break and the November elections. The must-do list includes preventing a government shutdown and extending a freeze on taxing access to the Internet.

Lawmakers also will find time for votes conveying political messages primed for fall campaigning.

Republicans who run the House may have lousy approval ratings, but they are poised to increase their majority and are determined to avoid mistakes like last year’s partial government shutdown.

Now, the GOP is pressing for drama-free passage of a temporary spending bill to prevent a federal shutdown at month’s end and fund government agencies past the Nov. 4 election into mid-December. The Senate is sure to go along if that measure is kept free of objectionable add-ons.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Topeka City Council will consider making public nudity a misdemeanor offense.

The Topeka Capital-Journal the proposal to be considered Tuesday was prompted by people reporting that a man was walking nude in south central Topeka.

The ban would not apply to children under 10 years old or a woman breastfeeding her child.

State law and city ordinances do not ban public nudity, although state law prohibits it in the context of sexual arousal.

The proposed ordinance would impose penalties only when someone intentionally violates the ban.

ATLANTA (AP) — A spokesman says S. Truett Cathy, who started a postwar diner in Atlanta that grew into the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, has died. He was 93.

Chick-fil-A spokesman Mark Baldwin tells The Associated Press Cathy died early Monday at home surrounded by family members.

For decades, Cathy’s fast food restaurants have offered a taste of the South, from chicken sandwiches to sweet tea and biscuits and gravy.

The chain also is known for its Bible Belt observance of Sunday — none of its more than 1,800 restaurants in 39 states and Washington, D.C. are open on that day to allow employees a day of rest.

Cathy’s $6 billion fortune as the founder of Chick-fil-A put him on the yearly Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest Americans in the country.

 

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Republican Sen. Pat Roberts and independent challenger Greg Orman agree that the U.S. needs to do a better job of securing its borders, but Orman also has a proposal to allow immigrants who are in the country illegally to stay.
The issue arose during their first debate Saturday at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. Watch a replay of Saturday’s debate below.

The 78-year-old Roberts is seeking a fourth, six-year term. Orman is a 45-year-old Olathe businessman.

Video provided by WIBW radio

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court is preparing to hear an appeal from a Topeka man who is serving a “hard 50” prison sentence in another man’s shooting death.

Trevejon Maurice Killings insisted he wasn’t guilty when he was sentenced in 2011 to at least 50 years in prison with no chance of parole for the 2010 death of 24-year-old Antonio Jackson. Jackson was shot at a Topeka apartment while several other people, including a child, were present.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Killings is appealing his conviction for first-degree murder and his sentence. Issues raised in the appeal include claims that the judge erred when she didn’t instruct jurors about lesser included offenses to the murder count.

The case goes before the high court Tuesday.

 

By Jay Hancock
Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In preliminary but encouraging news for consumers and taxpayers, insurance filings show that average premiums will decline slightly next year in 16 major cities for a benchmark Obamacare plan.
Prices for a benchmark “silver” or mid-priced plan sold through the health law’s online marketplaces aren’t all moving in the same direction, however, a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) shows. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) In Nashville, the premium will rise 8.7 percent, the largest increase in the study, while in Denver it will fall 15.6 percent, the largest decrease.

But overall the results, based on available filings, don’t show the double-digit percentage increases that some anticipated for the second year of marketplace operation. On average, rates will drop 0.8 percent in the areas studied.

“If you’re the government, this is great news,” said Larry Levitt, KFF senior vice president. “Competition in the marketplaces is helping drive down the cost of the tax credit” that subsidizes coverage for lower-income consumers.

That’s because the credits are based on the cost of the second least-expensive silver plan, known as the benchmark plan. That’s the one KFF studied. The lower the benchmark-plan rates, the lower the cost to taxpayers.

For consumers, the picture is also promising — but more complicated.

The main message: shop around, says Levitt.

The fact that average premiums in selected cities are declining doesn’t mean your rates will fall. Premiums may vary significantly within states. Premiums for plans with different benefit levels — higher platinum and gold and lower bronze — may behave differently than prices for silver plans. And just because your policy was the least expensive in your area for 2014 doesn’t mean it will stay that way for 2015.

Bottom line: There is increased competition as more insurers enter the marketplaces and tune prices to attract customers. But you may need to switch plans to take advantage of that.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Nearly $6 million was spent trying to persuade Missouri residents to vote either for or against a pair of August ballot measures related to transportation and farming.

Final campaign finance reports showed that supporters of a proposed transportation sales tax were the biggest spenders, at $4.2 million. An opposition group spent barely $27,000. Yet voters defeated the measure by 59 percent.

The spending and vote totals were significantly closer on a proposal creating a constitutional right to farm. Supporters spent a little over $1 million while opponents spent $637,000.

The farming rights measure passed by a margin of less than one-half of a percentage point and is still undergoing a recount.