KANSAS CITY – Kansas City police have made about a dozen arrests after a group protesting police brutality attempted to block traffic on Interstate 70.

The Kansas City Star reports that the group gathered at a park for a rally and proceeded to march onto an interstate entrance ramp, near downtown. No injuries were reported.

Eastbound traffic was shut down as a safety precaution.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate this week gave unanimous approval to the Security Clearance Accountability, Reform, and Enhancement Act, bipartisan legislation backed by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill aimed at better protecting the country’s secure facilities and sensitive information by strengthening accountability in background checks.

“When it comes to conducting background checks on the individuals who handle America’s most secure secrets and institutions, there is no room for error,” said McCaskill, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight and former Missouri State Auditor. “Considering the kinds of threats we face as a nation, security clearance background checks must be conducted with the utmost level of oversight, integrity, and accountability.”

This legislation would direct the Office of Personnel Management to terminate or place on leave any employee that is involved in intentional misconduct affecting the integrity of background investigations, including falsification, fraud, or other serious misconduct. Individuals employed or contracted by the Office of Personnel Management that are intentionally involved in such misconduct would also be debarred or suspended.

Additionally, the legislation would direct the President to review and update guidance for agencies to: (1) determine whether a position requires a security clearance; (2) implement such guidance, including quality controls; and (3) review (at least every five years) and, if necessary, revise the designation of a position as requiring access to classified information or secure government facilities.

Following the systemic problems with the security clearance background check process highlighted by security leaks from contractor Edward Snowden and the tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, McCaskill revealed that USIS, the company responsible for conducting the background investigations for both Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, was under criminal investigation. After McCaskill questioned the fact that USIS had two separate contracts with the federal government—one to conduct background investigations, the other to oversee background investigations conducted by contractors, including USIS itself—the federal government stopped allowing private contractors to oversee their own work in security clearance background checks.

McCaskill has led additional efforts to bring accountability to the security clearance process, including two other related pieces of bipartisan legislation. The first— the Security Clearance Oversight Reform (SCORE) Act—became law in October of 2013. This legislation allows the Inspector General of Office of Personnel Management to use resources from the agency’s $2 billion Revolving Fund to more thoroughly investigate cases where the integrity of the background check process may have been compromised.

The second bill, would require OPM to implement an automated search of public records and databases on every individual with a security clearance at least twice, at random times, every five years. As it stands now, once a person obtains a security clearance no additional reviews of that person’s background are conducted until their security clearance is renewed. Depending on the level of security clearance, that interval could be up to 5, 10, or even 15 years.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran urges the Treasury Department to immediately rewrite cumbersome regulations that have made it difficult to sell wheat and other agricultural commodities to Cuba.

He says this is an issue for Kansas because wheat is Cuba’s second largest import behind oil and Kansas is the largest wheat-producing state.

The Republican said Friday the agency can take that step even before Congress grapples with whether to lift the U.S. trade embargo.

Agricultural commodities are among the few exceptions to the embargo. Moran says the administration of George W. Bush instituted costly rules such as requiring up-front cash payments before commodities leave U.S. ports. It also required the payments go through banks in other countries.

Moran also vows to work in Congress to entirely lift the embargo.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — About 45 people have marched through part of downtown Topeka to protest police violence.

The Topeka Capital-Journal  reports that the march began and ended Saturday just south of the Kansas Statehouse. Marchers chanted “No justice, no peace, no racist police.” Almost all carried signs, with some bearing the names of African-Americans killed by police officers.

Occasionally, passing motorists honked their horns in a show of support for the marchers.

The event was Topeka’s second tied to the police-related killings of Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York, and Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. At least 80 people attended a Dec. 5 vigil at Washburn University’s Kuehne bell tower.

HOPE YEN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional audit says the federal government isn’t fully prepared to handle a nuclear terrorist attack or large-scale natural catastrophe. It finds that the government lacks effective coordination and in some cases is years away from ensuring adequate emergency shelter and medical treatment.

The report by the Government Accountability Office was obtained by The Associated Press. It says the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t always keep track of disaster efforts by agencies, even after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The report says it would still take one to five years to develop a strategy to determine whether people were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation, and five to 10 years to plan for a full medical response.

Investigators said FEMA needs to set deadlines to ensure agencies fulfill the goals.

JOPLIN – A Joplin man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for participating in a home-invasion killing.

The Joplin-Globe reports that 21-year-old Johnathan Taylor was sentenced Friday for his role in the July 2012 death of 23-year-old Jacob Wages.

Prosecutors said Taylor and four co-defendants mistakenly believed that Wages had drugs and drug money.

Nineteen-year-old Daniel Hartman was sentenced to two life sentences for being the trigger man. Taylor’s younger brother, Elijah Taylor, and two other co-defendants were sentenced to 15 years each in the crime after testifying at the trial of Hartman, who was an Oklahoma gang member.

Taylor was initially offered the same sentence if he pleaded guilty. But while Taylor was out on bond he was arrested twice, once in the robbery of liquor store clerk.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback appointed Susan Mosier as secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Friday, one month after giving her the job on an interim basis.

Mosier, an ophthalmologist and former Republican legislator, also has been serving as head of the Kansas Medicaid program and KDHE’s Division of Health Care Finance.
“Susan has done an excellent job as the interim secretary,” Brownback said in a prepared statement. “Her experience, passion and leadership will serve KDHE and the people of Kansas well. I am grateful for her willingness to take on this important challenge.”

Mosier replaced Brownback’s first KDHE secretary, Robert Moser, a family practice doctor who formerly headed the Greeley County Health Services. He left to take a job with the University of Kansas Hospital.

Mosier’s permanent appointment must be approved by the Senate, but there is likely to be little dissent. Democrats hold only eight seats in that chamber as the opposition party and Rep. Jim Ward, one of the House Democrats most critical of Brownback, said Friday that Mosier was unobjectionable.

“Susan’s very competent and she will manage the policies of the governor just fine,” Ward said.

In her previous roles, Mosier helped shepherd KDHE through a complicated and controversial switch to managed care Medicaid administered by three private insurance companies that began in 2013.

The governor’s ambitious goal for the privatized plan, known as KanCare, is to save the state $1 billion in Medicaid money over five years and improve health outcomes by coordinating care and not cutting benefits, eligibility or provider reimbursements.

“I am honored by the governor’s trust in me,” Mosier said after she was appointed Friday. “I am committed to the KDHE mission of protecting and improving the health and environment of all Kansans.”

Ward has pointed to the amount of money lost by the private managed care companies in KanCare’s first two years as a warning that the program is unsustainable and cuts will be coming.

As the governor enters his second term, Ward said Brownback and Mosier will have “very significant issues and a lot of important things to address” when it comes to protecting the quality of life for Kansans with disabilities and other vulnerable populations.

“That all sits on her desk and his desk, and it will be interesting to see how they do that,” Ward said.
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka teenager will be tried as a juvenile on charges of attempting to hire two people to kill four adults at his high school.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that a Shawnee County judge on Friday denied a prosecution motion to try the former Topeka West High School student in adult court. The teen was 17 when he was arrested in January. He is charged with four counts of soliciting first-degree murder.

The judge did agree to allow the teen, if he’s convicted, to receive a controlling sentence as a juvenile as well as an adult sentence. That means if the teen fouls up on the juvenile sentence, he would face the longer adult prison sentence.

A psychologist testified before the ruling that the teen is mentally ill.

COLUMBIA (AP) – More than 100 faculty members at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus in Columbia are taking buyouts and retiring.

The Columbia Missourian reports that more than 42 percent of eligible faculty members, or 110, were approved for the buyout. The majority of them won’t retire until August.

To qualify, faculty had to be retirement eligible and turn 62 by Aug, 31, 2015. They were eligible for a one-time payment of 1 1/2 times their base salary, not to exceed $200,000.

The program will free up about $17 million in budgeted salaries and benefits.

MU spokesman Christian Basi says some rehires will take place, but the number has not been finalized.

TOPEKA – T-Mobile customers in Kansas who were charged for third-party services on their mobile phone bills without their consent are eligible to receive refunds as part of a multi-state settlement reached earlier this week, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a media release.

The national settlement announced today was reached between T-Mobile, the attorneys general of Kansas and 49 other states and the District of Columbia, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. It includes a total payment of $90 million to resolve allegations that T-Mobile placed charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills for third-party services that had not been authorized by the consumer, a practice known as “mobile cramming.” This settlement follows a similar one reached with AT&T Mobility in October.

Under the terms of the settlement, T-Mobile is required to provide at least $67.5 million in refunds to consumers who were victims of cramming.

“Consumers have a right to be clearly informed about the services they are purchasing – and the cost,” Schmidt said. “This settlement returns to consumers charges for programs they didn’t know they were signing up for and were often unable to cancel.”

For more information on how to obtain a refund, Kansas consumers should visit the attorney general’s consumer protection website at www.InYourCornerKansas.org or call (800) 432-2310.