ST. LOUIS (AP) — A prominent young protester who serves on Missouri’s Ferguson Commission has been charged with assault stemming from a protest at St. Louis City Hall.
Twenty-two-year-old Rasheen Aldridge was among a group of young activists who met with President Barack Obama at the White House Monday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Aldridge was one of three demonstrators charged Thursday with misdemeanor assault.
The Forest Park Community College student was among several hundred demonstrators who marched to City Hall last week as part of a protest over a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision to not indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in Michael Brown’s shooting death.
Several participants stormed the entrance of the building, which was quickly locked down. Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
3D printing technology is helping a local Truman Middle School student overcome cerebral palsy challenges he faces daily.
According to the St. Joseph School District, Truman teacher Chris Carpenter knew student Trenton Olinger was having issues using his iPad due to his fingers that tend to be spastic because of issues associated with cerebral palsy.
Using a 3D printer the school was demoing, Carpenter started to draw a spcial grid to help Olinger use his iPad more effeciently.
After hours of grafty and using the 3D printer Carpenter was able to place it securely on Olinger’s iPad.
The district said Olinger has been able to further his math studies with the new grid and study square roots.
“He is… ‘elated.” His smile certainly confirms it!” said Carpenter in a school district article.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Overland Park police say a man shot by U.S. Marshals was a suspect in several felonies in multiple jurisdictions.
The man was identified Thursday as 44-year-old Keith D. Angell, of Overland Park. He was shot Wednesday as U.S. Marshals were attempting to arrest him. Details of what prompted the shooting have not been released.
He remained in critical condition on Thursday. No officers were injured.
The Kansas City Star reports (http://bit.ly/1tTBSdT ) that Kansas City-area court and prison records show Angell has a criminal history dating back more than 20 years. He is currently wanted for failing to appear in court on various charges in Johnson, Wyandotte and Platte counties.
Seats are hard to come by in the St. Joseph School District’s Adult English Language program.
“The ELL program has been around for more than 40 years but over the past 10 to 15 years it’s increased,” said Betty Wymore St. Joseph Adult Education and Literacy program director. “In the past 5 years they’ve seen a huge spike.”
Registration is being held for the January start of the English Language Learners program December 8 to 9 and December 15 to 16 from 9 a.m. to noon and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Webster Learning Center located at 1211 N. 18th Street.
However, not everyone who registers may have a spot.
“In the next couple of weeks we could possibly have 50 to 60 people,” said Wymore. “I mean we could have 80 people show up but we might not be able to enroll them all due to space issues.”
There was already a waiting list of more than 40 students who were unable to attend the last session due to a limited number of class participants.
Wymore said in the past 5 years enrollments in the English Language program have doubled. She attributes the increase to several issues.
“Work, like local plants such as Triumph,” said Wymore. “Plus many people are coming in wanting to be U.S. Citizens.”
Because of the influx of more students wanting to take classes additional teachers will be added to the ELL program.
In January Wymore said two part-time evening instructors will increase the ELL teaching staff to 10 part-time instructors.
“We’re easily doubling what we did 5-years-ago,” said Wymore.
ELL classes will start January, 6. 2015. Day and evening classes will be available. Wymore said if someone is interested in participating in the course they need to sign up as soon as possible to make sure they have a spot.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City couple will serve nine years in federal prison without parole for a scheme that targeted financially struggling clients.
Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that 43-year-old John Lee Norris and 39-year-old Julie Tina Hatcher defrauded 81 clients. They were each ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution.
Norris and Hatcher pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to defraud debtors, the victims’ lenders and the federal government between August 2010 and June 2013. They also each pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and Hatcher pleaded guilty to disability fraud.
Norris and Hatcher promised to help homeowners and others keep their homes and resolve their financial difficulties for monthly payments. They instead spent the payments on personal expenses.
Victims were from several states including Missouri and Kansas.
A hearing in St Joseph Thursday to examine the merger of the Water Patrol with the Highway Patrol brought out assertions of compromise and cooperation, as well as some harsh criticism about the lack of training, and the failure of the Nixon Administration to oversee the transition.
If you ask local officials, the transition from the Missouri State Water Patrol to the Marine Division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol has been seemless.
Buchanan County Sheriff Mike Strong told the interim legislative committee there has been no drop off in service since the merger. St Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally says until Thursday’s meeting, he had forgotten there was a transition. Connally says the service continues to be as smooth as can be, and is improving. Northwest Missouri officials and law officers pointed with pride to the working relationship between law enforcement, the Department of Conservation, and the MSHP’s new Marine Division.
That has not been the prevailing wisdom in other parts of the state where four previous hearings were held. Committee member Rocky Miller, whose 124th District encompasses a large part of the Lake of the Ozarks, says the Administration “screwed it up,” that they “messed it up bad,” and that troopers are not adequately trained for duty on the water.
“I think they dropped the ball,” the Republican Miller said in an interview. “I think it’s obvious they dropped the ball in the training after we’d gone through the committee hearings. They obviously could do a better job and they need to.”
“What we’ve seen is inconsistent training of officers, lack of training for officers. We have some people on the water that did not pass a swim test. That’s about as basic as it gets.”
Democratic Representative Pat Conway of St Joseph voted for the merger bill, which was introduced during the last day of the 2010 legislative session. At the time, lawmakers were in a hurry to find budget savings, and they were told the merger would save an estimated $3 million per year. As it turns out, the merger, so far, has cost an additional $900,000 per year.
“I’m still a little skeptical that the only reason for doing it was for saving three million dollars,” Conway said in an interview. There had to be support on both sides of the aisle to get this accomplished. Now we’re just wondering if we did the correct thing when we did it, and what can we do if it’s not working the way that it should be.”
“I always want to go back to the why? What is the problem that it’s going to fix? If the fix was the $3 million, fine, but this has been attempted, as the chair said, several times before. There is other rationale out there on why you want a much larger, combined law enforcement agency.”
The final report from the committee is still several weeks out, and Conway says he’s going to spend some of that time trying to find answers to the question “why?”
“I’m going to ask some people who are no longer with the Water Patrol, if they think that was one of the bigger elements, rather than the three million dollars, and if that should be the case then I think that has to be included in the final report.”
TOPEKA – The nation’s largest satellite radio provider has agreed to repay consumers after being accused of violating state consumer protection laws, Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced today.
Schmidt, along with the attorneys general of 43 other states and the District of Columbia, reached a settlement with Sirius XM Radio, Inc., to provide restitution to eligible consumers. The states alleged that the company engaged in misleading advertising and deceptive billing practices, such as automatically renewing customers’ subscriptions without sufficient notice and making cancellation difficult. In addition, the company agreed to pay $100,000 for violating the Kansas No Call Act.
“Companies that sell services to Kansas consumers must play by the rules,” Schmidt said. “Being upfront and honest about the cost of a service is essential to allowing consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. Companies must also respect the wishes of consumers who choose to list their numbers on the Do-Not-Call list.”
Sirius XM also agreed to make changes to its business practices, including:
clearly disclosing all terms and conditions, such as billing frequency, contract length and cancellation policy at the time of sale;
providing consumers advance notice via mail or email if their contract is about to automatically renew; and
revising its cancellation procedures to make it easier for consumers to cancel.
Consumers may be eligible for restitution if they have filed a complaint regarding Sirius XM’s business practices since July 28, 2008. The deadline for filing complaints is May 1, 2015. To file a complaint, Kansas consumers should contact the attorney general’s consumer protection division at www.InYourCornerKansas.org or (800) 432-2310. Consumers may also file complaints directly with Sirius XM by mail to PO Box 33059, Detroit, MI 48232 or online at www.siriusxm.com/settlementprogram.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators from both parties are urging the National Football League to get rid of a rule that bars home games from being televised in a local market if they have not sold out.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and John McCain say the NFL’s “blackout” rule is unfair to fans who have helped the league reap billions of dollars in revenue from broadcast rights to games that are among the most-watched programs on TV.
The Federal Communications Commission voted this fall to stop enforcing the NFL’s blackout policy, but the action did not end blackouts, which are written into the NFL’s private contracts with broadcast and cable companies.
Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and McCain, an Arizona Republican, warned that if the league does not repeal the rule, Congress may step in.
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services has suspended voluntary admissions to Osawatomie State Hospital, one of the state’s two inpatient facilities for people with serious mental illnesses.
The decision, according to a memo sent to the state’s 26 community mental health centers late Tuesday afternoon, was driven by “ongoing and critical census challenges” at the state hospital. The memo also outlined procedures for handling patients who are involuntary admitted.
In recent months, the 206-bed hospital has admitted record and near-record numbers of patients, causing dozens of patients to be triple-bunked in rooms meant for two.
Last month, federal health officials announced that surveyors sent to the hospital in October had found that its services were “not … sufficient to meet the needs of its patients.”
KDADS officials were warned that if the hospital’s deficiencies were not corrected, it would not be paid for Medicare services provided to patients admitted after Dec. 8.
KDADS filed a correction plan with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regional office in Kansas City in mid-November. Neither the survey nor the correction plan have been released to the public.
Federal surveyors returned to the hospital Monday.
“They are re-surveying the problem spots and determining (whether) we’ve addressed them and that situation has been rectified,” KDADS spokesperson Angela de Rocha said Wednesday.
De Rocha said the surveyors were aware of the department’s decision to suspend voluntary admissions.
The decision, she said, is allowed by state statute.
It’s not yet known how many would-be patients will be denied admission.
“It shouldn’t be a significant number,” de Rocha said. “It’s not going to have a significant impact on our census challenges, but at this point every little bit helps.”
Greg Hennen, executive director at Four County Mental Health Center in Independence- KHI photo
According to the memo, would-be patients will be denied admission “if their sole diagnosis is anti-social personality syndrome, substance use disorder, or an organic mental disorder such as trauma or dementia.”
Community mental health centers will not be allowed to send patients to the hospital until an on-duty physician has reviewed their records and agreed to admit them.
The new policy will be in effect for as long as the hospital’s census exceeds 185 patients.
Typically, patients who are involuntarily admitted to the hospital have been involved in altercations with police and have been deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Kyle Kessler, executive director at the Association of Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) of Kansas, called the change in policy “a real concern,” adding that neither he nor his members were consulted about its potential impact on patients or the centers.
“This is a decision that the state made and that we didn’t have any input into,” Kessler said. “But the CMHCs will continue to do everything they can to treat people in their home communities.”
Between 2007 and 2012, state-funded support for a grant program that the centers use to offset the costs of treating the uninsured has dropped from $31 million a year to $10.9 million. Lawmakers last year agreed to set aside an additional $5 million for the program.
The state’s mental health advocates have long argued that community-based services for the mentally ill are significantly underfunded. And the decision to suspend voluntary admissions at Osawatomie, they say, will only make a bad situation worse.
“This just underlines the crisis that we have in mental health care in the state of Kansas,” said Rick Cagan, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Kansas. “There are solutions out there that have been talked about for years, but for whatever reason we, as a state, keep putting off the decision for making the appropriate investment in our mental health system. And then we keep closing our options for people who’ve gotten to a point where they really need inpatient treatment.”
Expecting the community mental health centers to take on volunteer-admission patients who, prior to Tuesday, would have been admitted to the hospital is unrealistic, Cagan said.
“Do we think community mental health centers ought to be doing a better job? Yes, we do,” Cagan said. “Do we think they have the resources they need to provide more robust services? No, we don’t.”
Keith Tully, chair of the board of directors of the Elizabeth Layton Center for mental health services in Paola, agreed.
“If the hospital isn’t going to admit people who need to be there and who’ve agreed to go there, then it’s going to put more pressure on us, more pressure on law enforcement, and more stress on families that are having to cope with someone who, say, has depression or is suicidal,” Tully said. “We’re in a crisis situation, and now what we hear is how the Legislature is going to have to cut spending. What’s happening, I think, is irresponsible.”
Greg Hennen is executive director at the Four County Mental Health Center in Independence. He said the directive will leave the centers in southeast Kansas with few good options after several hospitals in the region have closed their inpatient mental health units.
He said the closure of inpatient psychiatric treatment centers in Bartlesville, Okla., and, in recent years, in Pittsburg and Coffeyville have left community mental health centers with no place to send patients who need more intensive care.
“We’ve lost 47 private beds over the last five or six years,” Hennen said.
Hennen said when his center could refer patients to area hospitals, Osawatomie was a “last resort.” But with those inpatient beds no longer available, he said, the state hospital had become “our only resource.”
Asked about the impact of the state directive, he said: “It’s going to be chaos for a while.”
Commenting on the requirement that community mental health centers get prior approval from state psychiatrists before referring “involuntary patients,” Hennen said: “The jails will start to get full.”
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The top transportation official in Kansas says highway projects scheduled for 2015 and 2016 will proceed, despite a projected multi-million shortfall in the state’s budget.
The Kansas Department of Transportation announced in August $1.2 billion in highway projects for the next two years. In November, the state announced it was expecting a $279 million shortfall for this fiscal year and another $436 million shortfall the following fiscal year.
Transportation Secretary Mike King said Wednesday the projects for the next two fiscal years will proceed but he wasn’t as certain about 2017.
The Wichita Eagle reports some conservative legislators have suggested using money from the highway fund to find extra money for other state needs. Democrats have warned that doing that would stop the planned highway projects.
Seats are hard to come by in the St. Joseph School District’s Adult English Language program.
