Kansas’ plans to migrate driver’s license records for about 2 million people from an aged mainframe to new information technology infrastructure remain troubled, a new report indicates.
In a new report, legislative auditors say a project to migrate Kansas driver’s license records to a new information technology system remains troubled. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Some portions of the already-delayed KanLicense project have been further postponed, a team of legislative auditors wrote in the report, with plans to carry them out after the project’s go-live date in early January.
According to the report, the Kansas Department of Revenue — the agency in charge of implementing KanLicense, previously known as KanDrive — said the portions being punted to next year involve server upgrades and other items that won’t cause problems.
The auditors disagreed.
“There is potential risk that delaying this portion of the work could jeopardize the successful roll-out of the KanLicense project,” the report said, “or could result in functionality issues after the system is in use.”
In a letter responding to the audit, the department said KanLicense has seen a “positive turnaround.”
KanLicense “has successfully accomplished many project milestones,” department official Lisa Kaspar wrote.
Auditors have been monitoring KanLicense on a quarterly basis because of its rocky progress. Its latest projected launch date is six years behind schedule. Uninterrupted access to driver’s license records is vital for motor vehicle offices and law enforcement agencies.
Last month Kansas Revenue Secretary Sam Williams told lawmakers he will push back the KanLicense launch if quality issues arise but said the project is on track for a smooth rollout.
It is undergoing testing this fall, he said, and staff from motor vehicle offices have begun training related to its use.
Other problems that auditors cited in their new report included concerns that more work remains to be done on KanLicense than can be completed by January, and that contractors continue to miss deadlines.
The department switched to a system of milestone targets to hold contractors accountable, but auditors said the agency accepted some portions of work as meeting milestones even when components were missing.
One of the contractors, MorphoTrust, recently replaced its program manager, the report said. It also shortened its timeline for system testing from two months to one to help catch up.
BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor has filed first-degree murder and other charges against a man suspected of fatally burning a woman and injuring two police officers during a confrontation.
Cherokee County Attorney Jake Conard’s office says 49-year-old Harvey Raymond Ortberg is accused of dousing 65-year-old Sharon Horn with gasoline and setting her on fire Sept. 30 at her Baxter Springs home. She later died at a Springfield, Missouri, hospital. Other charges include burglary, arson and the attempted murder of two responding officers, who also were burned.
Missouri and Kansas officials couldn’t immediately confirm whether Ortberg has an attorney. Once he’s released from the hospital and extradited to Kansas, he’ll be held on a $1 million bond.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for at least 50 years.
WASHINGTON – EPA has reached an agreement with Monsanto, BASF and DuPont on measures to further minimize the potential for drift to damage neighboring crops from the use of dicamba formulations used to control weeds in genetically modified cotton and soybeans, according to a media release from the EPA.
New requirements for the use of dicamba “over the top” (application to growing plants) will allow farmers to make informed choices for seed purchases for the 2018 growing season.
“Today’s actions are the result of intensive, collaborative efforts, working side by side with the states and university scientists from across the nation who have first-hand knowledge of the problem and workable solutions,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Our collective efforts with our state partners ensure we are relying on the best, on-the-ground, information.”
In a series of discussions, EPA worked cooperatively with states, land-grant universities, and the pesticide manufacturers to examine the underlying causes of recent crop damage in the farm belt and southeast. EPA carefully reviewed the available information and developed tangible changes to be implemented during the 2018 growing season. This is an example of cooperative federalism that leads to workable national-level solutions.
Manufacturers have voluntarily agreed to label changes that impose additional requirements for “over the top” use of these products next year including:
Classifying products as “restricted use,” permitting only certified applicators with special training, and those under their supervision, to apply them; dicamba-specific training for all certified applicators to reinforce proper use;
Requiring farmers to maintain specific records regarding the use of these products to improve compliance with label restrictions;
Limiting applications to when maximum wind speeds are below 10 mph (from 15 mph) to reduce potential spray drift;
Reducing the times during the day when applications can occur;
Including tank clean-out language to prevent cross contamination; and
Enhancing susceptible crop language and record keeping with sensitive crop registries to increase awareness of risk to especially sensitive crops nearby.
Manufacturers have agreed to a process to get the revised labels into the hands of farmers in time for the 2018 use season. EPA will monitor the success of these changes to help inform our decision whether to allow the continued “over the top” use of dicamba beyond the 2018 growing season. When EPA registered these products, it set the registrations to expire in 2 years to allow EPA to change the registration, if necessary.
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 2014 death of a Liberty city employee.
The Kansas City Star reports that 24-year-old Zachary Lisle was sentenced for second-degree murder in Mark Thomas’s death.
Court documents say Thomas offered to drive Lisle and Brandon Fletcher to Lisle’s home in January 2014. Lisle and Fletcher, who was 17 at the time, were acquaintances of Thomas’ relative.
Investigators allege Lisle and Fletcher forced Thomas to pull over, and then robbed, tortured and beat him to death. Thomas’ body was left in a Smithville Lake restroom.
Fletcher pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
WASHINGTON —President Donald Trump’s decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that was benefiting roughly 6 million Americans helps fulfill a campaign promise, but it also risks harming some of the very people who helped him win the presidency.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that nearly 70 percent of those benefiting from the so-called cost-sharing subsidies live in states Trump won last November.
The number underscores the political risk for Trump and his party, which could end up owning the blame for increased costs and chaos in the insurance marketplace.
The subsidies are paid to insurers by the federal government to help lower consumers’ deductibles and co-pays. To make up for the lost funding, insurers will have to raise premiums substantially, potentially putting coverage out of reach for many.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A recent cybersecurity breach has a University of Kansas faculty group concerned that it could lead to other attacks, not just at the university, but across higher education.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that aerospace engineering professor Ron Barrett-Gonzalez says an apparently disgruntled engineering student carried out the hack during the 2016-17 academic year. Barrett-Gonzalez says details of the hack were shared publicly at a School of Engineering Senate meeting last week.
The student in question had allegedly used a keystroke logger to gain faculty members’ login information and passwords and changed his failing grades to As. Keystroke loggers are often used by cybercriminals to steal personal information from public computers and keyboards.
University officials confirmed that a security breach took place but said the attack “was minimal and caught quickly.”
Northwest Missouri State University’s “Bearcats Around the World” Homecoming Week kicks off Sunday.
Highlights of the week include the Homecoming parade, variety show and football game.
Bob Machovsky is the director of alumni relations and annual giving at Northwest. Machovsky said alumni events during the week include the 50 year reunion of the class of 1967.
“What’s so great about alumni and friends of Northwest is that they have this passion that is really unmatched for another university and to watch them come back and share their pride with each other about the university and all the things that are going on with Northwest is really something special,” Machovsky said. “Homecoming week is an opportunity for us to really just celebrate in the fact of how great Northwest is and the love that our alumni and friends have for this institution.”
The week begins Sunday, Oct. 15, with the hanging of the banners at the J.W. Jones Student Union.
The annual Homecoming parade begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at the corner of Ray and College Avenue and travels east on Fourth Street.
The Northwest football team will take on Lindenwood University Saturday. The game begins at 2 p.m. at Bearcat Stadium. The volleyball team will also be playing games during homecoming weekend. The Bearcats will face Washburn University Friday and then Emporia State on Saturday. Both games begin at 6 p.m. in Bearcat Arena.
For more information on homecoming and a schedule, click here.
Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, faced questions Tuesday from lawmakers about the number of children missing from the foster care system. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The news that about 70 children are missing from the Kansas foster care system is the latest in a string of concerns for lawmakers and child welfare advocates.
Concern for the safety of children, heavy caseloads for social workers and a lack of coordination in the system prompted lawmakers earlier this year to form the Child Welfare Task Force, which heard about the missing children during a meeting Tuesday in Topeka.
The foster care system, overseen by the Kansas Department for Children and Families, was privatized 20 years ago after it failed court-ordered reviews. Care is now overseen by two contractors: St. Francis Community Services in western Kansas, and KVC Health Systems in eastern Kansas.
Missing kids
The task force raised concerns Tuesday about missing children in response to a Kansas City Star article about three sisters who have been missing from their foster home in Tonganoxie since late August.
The girls, all under age 16, were part of KVC’s caseload, and are among 37 children the contractor said were missing as of Wednesday. The Star heard about their disappearance from their foster parent and great aunt, Debbie Miller, who hasn’t seen sisters Emily, Aimee and Christin Utter since Aug. 26.
State Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said it was “very concerning” that the Tonganoxie sisters had been missing for almost two months. But Kelly said she was more alarmed that DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore hadn’t heard about the girls when Kelly brought it to her attention Tuesday.
“She’s responsible for these kids,” Kelly said. “They are wards of the state, and she’s in charge of that agency. So the fact that she knew nothing about these missing girls is of great concern to me.”
In a Wednesday interview, House Minority Leader Jim Ward expressed exasperation with the Kansas foster care system and its issues, some of which have led to child endangerment and even the deaths of children in care.
“If this was a single event, I would be more willing to listen,” Ward said. “But this is on top of last (month’s) revelation that some foster care kids were sleeping in offices … this is just absolutely unconscionable.”
Ward went even further, reiterating past calls for Gilmore to be removed as head of DCF.
“I’ve been calling for her to be gone for two years, and renew that call today,” he said.
The number of missing Kansas foster care children represents about 1 percent of those in the state’s system.
Jenny Kutz, KVC communications director, said kids who go missing from its care are found within two weeks on average, with many returned to their care within days. However, one teenager has been missing for more than two years.
Janis Friesen, a communications consultant for St. Francis, did not specify how long children in its care are missing, but she noted that teens reported missing are located quickly “in many instances.” She said children ages 12 and older make up 92 percent of the kids missing statewide.
DCF issued a news release Wednesday outlining its protocol for missing and runaway foster children.
According to DCF protocol, contractors are required to notify the department and appropriate law enforcement agency of a missing child within two hours. By the next workday, the contractor has to communicate what they know about the incident to DCF.
“We made the decision to highlight the protocol for handling situations involving runaways and missing children because of questions that arose during the final minutes of the Child Welfare System Task Force meeting on Tuesday,” Gilmore said in the release. “We want to assure the public that protocols are in place, and have been for many years, to ensure that when children run away from their foster care placement, every effort is made to locate them and return them to a safe and appropriate foster care home or facility.”
Serena Hawkins, a guardian ad litem and task force member, said children often run back to their previous home.
“A lot of the time these children have returned to their biological families, and they are being sheltered by these families to prevent them from being removed from DCF again,” she told task force members.
However, running away to return to families is still cause for concern, as 61 percent of the kids removed from their homes in fiscal year 2016 were removed because of abuse or neglect, ranging from physical and sexual abuse to a lack of supervision or abandonment. An additional 16 percent were removed due to a parent’s substance abuse.
More kids coming into the system
State officials say the problems in the foster care system are not unique to Kansas.
The number of children in foster care nationwide increased every year from 2012 to 2015, the last year for which national data is available. Thirty-five states, including Kansas, saw an increase in the number of children in their foster care systems during that period.
Kansas lawmakers are not sure why the number of kids in the system is increasing, but several noted the national opioid epidemic could be one factor, as children are removed from the care of opioid-addicted parents.
The climbing numbers are adding stress to the Kansas system, which has not been able to add enough new foster families to keep up.
One consequence of this increase has been made visible in the couches and makeshift beds set up in contractors’ offices.
At last month’s task force meeting, lawmakers learned more than 100 children in the foster care system had to spend the night in offices instead of homes in the last year when other facilities were not available to immediately take them.
This happens all over the country, Kutz said, and has been a growing problem in Kansas as the state has seen a steady increase in the number of kids in care in recent years. She said KVC sees an average of five kids sleeping in offices each month, with a high of 15 in June. In 19 instances this year, kids have spent multiple nights in offices.
In response, KVC is opening short-term children’s crisis centers to provide temporary beds for kids who would otherwise be stuck in offices. Kutz said KVC opened beds in Hays and plans to open a crisis center with up to 20 beds in Kansas City, Kansas, in January. KVC is considering a third center in Wichita.
Friesen did not say how many children St. Francis had staying in its offices this year, but she did say the placement process can be prolonged for older youth with behavioral issues, many of whom then spend the night in the contractor’s offices. She said St. Francis is seeing an increase in harder-to-place children.
Next steps
The task force, which has met three times, is examining issues with the foster care system more broadly, looking at how DCF oversees foster care, integration and adoption. Rep. Linda Gallagher, a Lenexa Republican, said she expects the issue of missing kids to come up again, along with worker caseloads and other consequences of increased numbers of kids.
The task force will meet twice more before putting out its preliminary findings in January 2018. Its final recommendations will be issued a year later.
“My intent and my hope is that the task force will identify where the problems are, where the balls are being dropped, and where children are falling through the cracks,” Gallagher said.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Kansas man has been convicted of manslaughter in the drunk-driving crash that killed a western Missouri county commissioner.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley on Friday announced the conviction of 30-year-old Wesley Michael Hays of Pleasanton, Kansas. He was also convicted of second-degree assault and failing to keep on the right side of the roadway in the 2014 wreck that killed Bates County Commissioner Larry Berry.
Sentencing will be Dec. 7. Hays could face up to life in prison. The case was tried by the Attorney General’s office.
Jurors were told that Hays consumed 10 alcoholic drinks before driving his GMC Sierra that crossed the center line on Route A near Hume, Missouri, striking Berry’s Ford Taurus. Berry’s 20-year-old son was injured.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A national cosmetology organization says it supports less-stringent requirements for hair braiders.
Professional Beauty Association lobbyist Bridget Sharpe says it’s not fair to force hair braiders to get a full cosmetology license. She says the organization backs registration or certification instead.
Sharpe spoke Friday during a Missouri-based Women’s Foundation announcement on research and proposed policy changes to reduce barriers to female business owners.
According to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm, Missouri is among 13 states that require hair braiders to obtain some form of cosmetology license. Licenses can cost thousands of dollars and require hours of training.
Sharpe says some programs don’t even teach hair braiding.
Hair braiders pushing for less-strict requirements have met pushback from some cosmetologists who say regulations are needed to ensure hygiene in braiding shops.
