By DAN MARGOLIES

Registered nurses at 15 hospitals owned by the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain — including Research Medical Center and Menorah Medical Center — have voted to authorize a strike if contract negotiations remain at an impasse.

The 15 hospitals in Missouri, Kansas, Florida, Texas and Nevada are owned by HCA Healthcare Inc. and employ about 7,000 RNs affiliated with the National Nurses Organizing Committee, or NNOC.

The nurses voted to authorize NNOC’s negotiators to call a strike if issues raised during ongoing contract negotiations remain unresolved, according to a statement by the nurse’s union.

Those issues include nurse turnover rates, recruitment and retention, and compliance with the hospitals’ staffing grids.

Staffing grids are meant to ensure the right ratio of nurses to patients, taking into account the acuteness of the patients’ conditions.

Between them, Kansas City, Missouri, -based Research and Overland Park, Kansas, -based Menorah have more than 1,000 registered nurses. Both hospitals are part of HCA Midwest Health, which owns eight hospitals in the Kansas City area and is part of HCA Healthcare.

In 2017, Nashville-based HCA Healthcare posted a $2.22 billion profit on revenues of $43.6 billion.

Leslie Rogers, an operating room nurse at Research for 43 years and a member of NNOC’s negotiating team, said Research does not have a problem recruiting nurses. She said it has a problem retaining them.

Rogers said 400 registered nurses have left Research since the nurses’ last contract took effect three years ago. Some of them retired, but Rogers said many left because “they were disenchanted by the staffing grid not being solid.”

“What happens is the hospital sets their own staffing grid according to acuity and when the nurses report to duty it’s not being followed,” she said.

“What we’re asking them to do is to follow their own grid that they established that we want to follow. But that’s not being done,” she said.

In a statement, HCA said that Research and Menorah “deeply value our nurses and the compassionate care they provide to our patients.”

HCA said its turnover rates “are stable and reducing” and its staffing grids meet national standards.

The company said it would “not allow union negotiating tactics to come between the admiration and trust we have for our nurses.”

“Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for tactics like this to be used when a union and an employer are in contract negotiations, as is the case with this nursing union,” HCA said. “We look forward to continuing our negotiations.  Patient care will not be disrupted.”

The vote to authorize a strike does not mean the nurses will go on strike, only that if negotiations remain at an impasse, striking is an option. The nurses have been working without a contract since June 1.

The issues at play have been festering for months.

In June, registered nurses at Research staged an informational picket and rallyurging hospital management to reduce RN turnover and to comply with its staffing grids.

At the time, the union contended nurse-to-patient ratios in December 2017 showed the inpatient oncology unit at Research was 66 percent understaffed, the intensive care unit 21 percent understaffed and the orthopedic, neurology and trauma unit 52 percent understaffed.

Rogers said the union has proposed more staggered shifts as one solution to the staffing problem. She said the hospital “actually permitted a short trial and we felt that it was successful,” but the hospital discontinued it.

Contract negotiations resume next week.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies

HUTCHINSON, Kan. —  Saturday debate at the Kansas State Fair between the three top candidates for Kansas governor brought a nearly-packed house of supporters. The lively crowd cheered and booed throughout.

The candidates discussed taxes. Secretary of State Kris Kobach wants to go back to former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax plan, but he would like to cut more spending. Democratic challenger Laura Kelly believes the course the state is on now is working, but she also wants to cut sales tax on food. Independent candidate Greg Orman says Kansas has to grow the economy and create a strong tax base to cover priorities.

None of the candidates said they could produce a 7 1/2 percent ending balance at this point.

Other topics included: the tariffs on agriculture — put in place by President Donald Trump — and expanding Medicaid.

Democrat Laura Kelly says she will expand Medicaid and get rid of Kan-Care:

Secretary of State Kris Kobach fired back at Kelly with his response against any expansion:

 

Independent candidate Greg Orman is also in favor of expanding Medicaid in a reasonable way:

 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — An elementary school teacher in Kansas City, Kansas, has been charged with sexual solicitation of a minor.

42-year-old Jason Crum, of Shawnee, was charged Friday on a felony count of sexual exploitation of a child. He was released from jail after posting $100,000 bond.

The charge alleges that between January 2014 and January 2015, Crum attempted to convince a child under the age of 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct.

Crum is listed on the Kansas City, Kansas, school district’s website as an elementary school teacher.

A district spokeswoman says officials had recently been made aware of Crum’s arrest and placed him on administrative leave.

Court records do not list an attorney for Crum.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The theft of more than 20 firearms at a Fenton gun store last week was the latest in an increase in such robberies at gun stores in Missouri and Illinois, according to federal officials.

Figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show there were at least eight gun store burglaries last year in St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson counties, including an April 2017 heist at the Hazelwood Cabela’s.

“If they’re willing to take the risk … they can steal these guns, and more importantly, they can offload them,” John Ham, an ATF spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last year. “There are plenty of people out there that are willing to buy them at high prices and very quickly.”

At the same time, only eight states have regulations for security standards for gun dealers, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Missouri and Illinois are not among them.

Denny Dennis, the owner of the burglarized sporting goods store in Fenton, said Wednesday that his shop has security cameras, alarms and pilings to stop cars from crashing through the store’s front, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported .

“It kind of sickens you,” Dennis said about the burglary. While most of the store’s 1,500 guns are locked up at night, some are stored in glass display cases. The thief grabbed guns from those glass cases, Dennis said.

Dennis said a single burglar was in his store for 72 seconds before fleeing.

“He brought his own satchel in,” Dennis said. “I guess he was in here, cased the joint, and then grabbed ’em and then went out the back where the car went through the garage door.”

At the Triple Threat Armory in Affton, management has mostly stopped two burglary attempts in the last year. In November, thieves were able to steal only ammunition and a laptop computer because the store’s guns were locked in safes. In May, intruders threw a rock through the window of the store but again could not steal any guns because they were locked up, police said.

The ATF said the number of reported gun store burglaries in the United States increased to 577 in 2017 from 338 in 2013 — the fourth straight yearly increase.

The amount of firearms stolen by burglars also increased last year, with 7,841 guns reported stolen. In 2016, burglars stole 7,488 guns. Between 2012 and 2015, the number of guns stolen per year did not surpass 4,721, the federal data show.

In Missouri there were 19 burglaries last year, up from 14 in 2016. The number of burglaries in Missouri has fluctuated between 12 and 19 for six years, the federal data showed. In Illinois, there were 22 burglaries in 2017, up from 14 burglaries the year prior, five burglaries in 2015 and three in 2014, according to the data.

LAWRENCE — The 2018 recipient of the Fred Ellsworth Medallion for extraordinary service to the University of Kansas is Bernadette Gray-Little, the university’s 17th chancellor, who stepped down in 2017 after eight years of leadership.

According to a media release, the KU Alumni Association will honor her Sept. 14 during the fall meeting of the Association’s national board of directors. Since 1975, the medallions have recognized KU volunteers who have continued the tradition of service established by Ellsworth, a 1922 KU graduate who was the Alumni Association’s chief executive for 39 years, retiring in 1963.

During her tenure as chancellor, Gray-Little led the record-breaking $1.6 billion Far Above fundraising campaign and led the successful proposal and implementation of new admissions standards and the launch of a new undergraduate curriculum, KU Core, both aimed to increase student retention and graduation rates. From 2012 through 2016, KU’s freshman class experienced growth for five straight years.

Gray-Little oversaw the physical transformation of KU in 50 capital improvement projects totaling $700 million in Lawrence as well as on the Edwards Campus in Overland Park and KU Medical Center campuses in Kansas City, Wichita and Salina. Most notable is the Central District in Lawrence. Other highlights include the expansion of the schools of Engineering and Medicine, including the construction of the new Health Education Building at KU Medical Center; a new home for the School of Business; new residence halls; and the restoration of Jayhawk Boulevard.

KU also made historic strides in research, achieving National Institutes of Health designations for the Alzheimer’s Disease Center, the KU Cancer Center and Frontiers, the KU Clinical and Translational Science Institute. KU is one of only 26 U.S. universities to house three NIH-designated research centers. The research enterprise also expanded with the recruitment of 12 Foundation Distinguished Professors, a key component of the Bold Aspirations strategic plan to enhance research initiatives on campus.

“We are pleased to recognize Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little with the Fred Ellsworth Medallion,” said Heath Peterson, president of the KU Alumni Association. “One of the most visible and important parts of her legacy at KU was making a commitment early in her tenure to establishing a strategic enrollment management plan. The plan was anchored by a data-driven, highly customized approach to recruitment and supported by a new and very robust four-year renewable scholarship model. The results from this transformation over the previous eight years speak for themselves. Of course, there are many other significant milestones, but enrollment growth stands out for me because it is incredibly important to the health of the entire institution.”

Since 1975, 157 KU alumni and friends have received the Fred Ellsworth Medallion.

GREENE COUNTY — A Missouri sheriff’s deputy died in an accident on Friday in fast rising floodwaters.

Greene County deputy Aaron Paul Roberts cleared a 911 call in the 9500 block of Farm Road 2, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Department.

Roberts was returning to service and moments later radioed that his car was washed off of the road.
Deputies and Officers from all over the area along with Springfield Fire/Water rescue and 417 Drone Imaging responded to the scene.
A short time later, first responders found 36-year-old Roberts’ body near his patrol car, approximately 100 feet off the road.

Authorities released no additional details early Saturday.

SHAWNEE COUNTY— A Kansas man who admitted his role in a moped accident that killed an 8-year-old boy is going to prison.

Marvin Tibbs III, 36, Topeka, was sentenced this week to 48 months in prison, according to Shawnee County District Attorney Michael Kagay.

Authorities say Tibbs was giving Trenton Feliciano a ride on his motorized scooter in October 2014 when it crashed, fatally injuring the boy.

Tibbs was also originally charged with aggravated child endangerment, reckless driving, failure to stop at a stop sign and failure to wear protective gear.

Tibbs will also be subject to 36 months post release supervision and is required to register as a violent offender for 15 years, according to the county attorney.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

In 2015, a woman donned a clown mask and slipped into a Dollar General Store in Wichita just before closing time.

In the final moments of the robbery that eventually got her three years in prison, she did something that could complicate her life for many more years to come.

She flashed a stun gun, stuffed the $3,400 in her coveralls and fled.

Now the state is fighting to list Tabitha Carter online as a violent offender. That case hangs on her use of a “deadly weapon” — the Taser that her lawyer argues doesn’t fit the bill.

Because of that stun gun, the state says she must check in with her local sheriff’s office at least four times a year for another 15 years.

That court battle is just one in a barrage of legal challenges aimed in recent years at the Kansas public offender registry, an expansive system that publicly tracks convicted criminals long after they’ve served their time.

Do you have a personal story to share about the Kansas public offender registry? Email the reporter.

A Kansas News Service analysis found no other state imposes such demanding rules on such a wide range of people.

Critics say the Kansas system ballooned over decades without justification. They say it piled expenses on taxpayers and worsened prison crowding — all without evidence it improved public safety.

“If there was data that showed this was actually cutting down on new crime, that would be something else,” said Scott Schultz, executive director of a state agency that wants Kansas to pare the registry back — the Kansas Sentencing Commission. “But we don’t have any of that.”

The sentencing commission wants Kansas to delete nearly a quarter of its registry and save an estimated $1 million a year.

Court challenges

The Kansas criminal registry has withstood a slew of legal challenges over the years. The Kansas News Service found at least 17 that made their way to the Kansas Supreme Court in the past five years alone, many unsuccessful.

Some registrants claim that it’s unconstitutional. That it violates the right to a jury. That the state shouldn’t make changes to the registry rules and apply them to people convicted years earlier.

This is the Kansas News Service’s second in-depth look at the state’s criminal registry. Missed the first? You’ll find it here.

The registry once looked vulnerable to such arguments.

In 2016, the narrowly divided Kansas Supreme Court concluded the registries were punitive in four separate rulings. The state couldn’t, for example, tighten registry rules on people retroactively.

But in a bizarre twist, the court overruled that position in a fifth decision issued on the same day.

Its new stance? That the registry system isn’t subject to the same constitutional limits as, say, a prison sentence, because it’s not punishment. It aims to boost public safety.

The jaw-dropping timing came because the justices took up the fifth case later than the others — after Caleb Stegall joined the bench and tipped its narrow split.

One justice said the new majority held back the initial rulings for nine months until the reversal was ready to go.

Justice Lee Johnson called that “a denial of justice.” Not because the registrants ultimately lost their cases — they won. But because they had to wait so long, Johnson contended that delay aimed to prevent their victories from benefiting any more registrants who hadn’t yet brought suit.

“They had to wait for many months,” he wrote in a passionate opinion, “to reap the benefits of their respective wins.”

Deadly or not?

Carter’s challenge to the registry is different than past ones that failed. So far, she’s winning.

At its heart is a legal question about whether Kansas is bending state law to pull more people into its registry.

Using a weapon to commit certain felonies is a registerable offense — but only if the weapon is “deadly.”

Public defenders complain prosecutors consider non-deadly things “deadly.” BB guns, stun guns — even a stiletto shoe.

A fight over money at a club near Wichita ended with a stripper who goes by “Sugar” giving her coworker “Gypsy” a head wound and concussion with a high heel.

In another example, a shoplifter fleeing a security guard in Topeka pointed — but didn’t spray — a can of mace.

“Some things are dangerous and some things are deadly,” said Jennifer Roth, a public defender handling Carter’s appeal. “There is a distinction there, and I like to think that people would recognize that.”

The Kansas Court of Appeals agreed. In April, it struck down the state’s plan to force Carter onto the registry.

“Deadly,” the panel of judges argued, means “likely to cause death.” Tasers are literally designed to avoid that.

Their decision could have wider implications, but the attorney general’s office is appealing to the Kansas Supreme Court — citing conflicting rulings on what’s worth putting someone on the registry.

Read the state’s argument to the Kansas Supreme Court

A national outlier

Kansas’ criminal registry began the same way it did in so many other states — as a list of sex offenders that the government wants to keep tabs on.

Over the past quarter-century, Kansas lawmakers expanded it time and again.

Today, Kansas adds more than 1,000 names a year. Less than a third are sex offenders. The rest? People convicted of drug or violent crimes.

The Kansas News Service reviewed statutes from the 19 states that, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, have expanded beyond the traditional role of offender registries.

Their registries are often narrower. Kansas logs people for a wider array of violent crimes than Illinois, for example, which only includes first-degree murder and violence against youth. Louisiana focuses on violence against law enforcement.

Other states often reveal less information publicly. Minnesota doesn’t post the names of many registrants online — as long as they follow a regimen of check-ins at a sheriff’s office. Alabama’s list of drug offenders isn’t online at all — the state uses it to block those people from buying meth ingredients.

Other states often let people with less serious crimes off the registry sooner than Kansas’ 15-year minimum. They often tier their monitoring, too, so that only sex offenses or other crimes seen as particularly serious demand frequent check-ins with law enforcement.

In Kansas, a registrant checks in with law enforcement at least four times a year, regardless of the severity of the crime.

It can easily be more visits than that. Dye your hair, try online dating, leave town for a week, get a Facebook account — each requires checking in another time.

Read more about rules that Kansas registrants have to follow

Looking for evidence

The Carter case and others highlight debates about whether it’s fair to encroach on the lives of convicted criminals beyond prison, parole and probation.

“When a person is being reintegrated into communities,” says Ed Klumpp, a retired Topeka chief of police who lobbies the Kansas Legislature on behalf of law enforcement agencies, “it’s very important that that person feels that they are being monitored to be in compliance with the law.”

Klumpp and Roth, the public defender, spar over the issue when lobbying lawmakers.

“These are people who had to satisfy a probationary period and successfully complete (it),” Roth said. “Or these are people who had to go to prison and then be on supervision. These are not people who walked away with no consequence.”

J.J. Prescott, a law professor at the University of Michigan, suggests settling the matter with data analysis.

Read Prescott’s research on sex offender registries and recidivism

“At first blush, it seems obviously likely to do at least something,” Prescott said. “Worst case scenario — it just does nothing.”

Yet, he says, the numbers suggest something else. The registries may even be backfiring — at least based on studies that focus on sex offenders.

Listing sex offenders on a public registry can make it hard for them to find jobs, homes and other basic opportunities. The more miserable people are, experts say, the less they fear doing something that would toss them into prison.

“There’s lots of psychological reasons why we want to know,” Prescott says. “It can’t hurt me to know, can it? And that’s actually where people make a mistake.”

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.