The Legislative Post Audit Committee on Wednesday agreed to investigate costly delays in the development of a software program meant to prevent welfare fraud and streamline the web-based processes for applying for public assistance.
The post audit, due to begin in July, is expected to take four months.
According to the scope statement adopted by the committee, Kansas in August 2011 signed a $135 million contract with Accenture, an international consulting firm, for the design and implementation of the Kansas Eligibility Enforcement System (KEES).
Initially, state officials said the new system would be up and running in October 2013. Since then, the KEES rollout has been delayed several times. Appearing before the House Social Services Budget Committee last month, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Acting Secretary Susan Mosier said KEES was still being tested.
Its completion date, she said, was unclear. “It looks to me like we’ve spent a bunch of money and we don’t have anything to show for it — not yet anyway,” Rep. Will Carpenter, a Republican from El Dorado and chairman of the social service budget committee, said Wednesday. Carpenter encouraged the post-audit committee to examine the delays and their costs.
The Legislative Division of Post Audit’s investigation will analyze the delays, identify “potential threats” to the project’s completion and calculate its overall costs.
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
Two hours after it was first reported, a house in Midtown St Joseph continued to burn, and fire crews were not sure if there were still victims inside.
The fire was reported at about 7am near the corner of 16th and Olive Streets.
There was one reported rescue, but the status of two other occupants remains unclear. Police say a victim is being treated at KU Medical Center.
“We’re not certain yet about casualties,” said Battalion Fire Chief Paris Jenkins of the St Joseph Fire Department.
“We have a report there may still be two individuals inside. We made a rescue attempt when we first got here and then as the crews were inside, things rapidly deteriorated. One firefighter had to bail out a window because it got so bad so fast.” Jenkins says that firefighter was not injured.
“We went defensive,” he added. “After we knocked down the bulk of the fire, we made a second attempt to go in and do rescue and recovery, but the floor was so soft we were only able to go in part way, and we had to pull our crews back out again.”
“So basically we’re doing what we can from the outside of the house.”
Jenkins says he’s pretty sure the home will be a total loss. He had no reports on any animals that were inside the house. Initial reports indicated there was a pet dog and a pet cat inside. A dog was recovered and resucitated according to witness reports.
The police department will work with fire inspectors as crews determine whether anyone perished in the fire, and what caused it.
By 10am, at least one of the trucks dispatched to the fire had returned to the station. But crews at the scene had still been unable to access some areas that were still burning.
Check back at St Joseph Post for updates as they become available.
A St. Joseph landmark was recognized for its preservation efforts.
The Shakespeare Chateau at 809 Hall Street was awarded the Preserve Missouri Award. The award was presented by Missouri Preservation during its annual Statewide Preservation Honor Awards March 4 in the State Capitol Rotunda.
The historic 1885 Ogden Mansion is an opulent work of Victorian architecture and a gem of St. Joseph’s gilded age. Owner Isobel McGowan embarked on an epic rehabilitation when she purchased the property in May 2012.
Over the past three years she has transformed the former single-family house into a remarkable destination. Her quest has involved updating building systems, repairing plaster, and installing period-appropriate wallpaper; recreating the back porch to reflect the original design; painstakingly stripping paint from woodwork; refinishing floors; adding a catering-quality kitchen; and sensitively remodeling the upper floors.
According to a news release from the St Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau, “…it is always a challenge to find a use that is appropriate to both the scale and economics of a property this large and grand, but Isobel McGowan has done just that with the opening of the Shakespeare Chateau bed and breakfast.”
Presented for the first time in 2000, the Preserve Missouri awards recognize outstanding efforts and projects around the state. Suggested categories include, but are not limited to: Commercial Revitalization, Institutional/Civic Building Restoration, Neighborhood Revitalization, Residential Rehabilitation, Historic Landscape Preservation, Rural Preservation, and Preservationist-in-Action.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man who surprised many observers by pleading no contest in a capital murder case plans to withdraw the plea.
King Phillip Amman Reu-El, formerly known as Phillip Cheatham Jr., told The Topeka Capital-Journal Wednesday that he will withdraw the plea he made last Friday and seek to have his case dismissed.
Amman Reu-El avoided the death penalty by pleading no contest as jury selection was beginning for a trial in the 2003 deaths of killing two women and the wounding of a third. He said it was obvious the potential jurors had already decided to convict him and sentence him to death.
His original conviction was overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court because of ineffective counsel in first trial.
One person was injured in a rollover accident where southbound Saint Joseph Avenue enters southbound Interstate 229. It happened between 3:30 and 4 am Thursday. The driver was taken to Mosaic Life Care for what appeared to be minor injuries. The accident is under investigation.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Johnson County and Kansas health officials say a student at an eastern Kansas high school has been diagnosed with tuberculosis.
The Olathe Northwest High School student was diagnosed Tuesday and is being treated. The student, whose age and gender weren’t released, will not attend school for at least two weeks.
Health officials say they’re working to identify students and employees who should be screened for the disease. The deputy director of the Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention predicts there probably will be around 300 screenings.
Tuberculosis can be spread by coughing and sneezing. Symptoms include a bad cough for three weeks or longer, chest pain, weakness or fatigue, and coughing up blood.
People with the disease are most likely to spread it to others they have prolonged contact with.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today introduced bi-partisan and bi-cameral legislation eliminating a burdensome regulation that requires agriculture industry professionals to obtain a hazardous material endorsement before transporting diesel fuel critical for a number of agricultural operations.
“Our farmers and ranchers work tirelessly to provide the world with the most abundant and safest food supply in the world. The least we can do is remove frivolous government red tape that makes their efforts more onerous.” Roberts said. “Requiring our producers to treat a truck transporting large amounts of diesel fuel in a similar fashion to hauling radioactive material is patently absurd and is simply another example of the federal government’s overly burdensome regulations stifling the rural economy.”
“Our farmers in North Dakota and across the country produce the crops that feed the nation, and they should be able to carry out basic functions of their jobs—like transporting their combines—without unnecessary government regulation,” said Heitkamp. “We can do that by lifting undue burdens that cost our farmers and agriculture workers time and money, making it difficult for them to do their jobs each day. That’s why this bipartisan, commonsense legislation would make sure our federal regulators differentiate between farmers and harvesters doing a day’s work in field operations, and a semi-truck hauling crude oil. As a result, our agricultural workers would be able to operate efficiently and have the fuel necessary to harvest their crops.”
“As I travel across Kansas visiting with farmers and ranchers, regulatory overreach by the federal government is often cited as the greatest threat to our agriculture producers,” Sen. Moran said. “Those who work in the agriculture industry shouldn’t be forced to jump through hoops just to haul the necessary quantities of diesel required to fuel their operations. This common sense legislation would eliminate a burdensome regulation that adds unnecessary costs for farmers and ranchers and harms rural Kansas.”
The Senators’ legislation exempts agribusiness participants from the requirement to obtain a hazardous material endorsement, while operating a service vehicle carrying diesel fuel in quantities of 1,000 gallons or less, if the tank containing diesel fuel is clearly marked.
Exempted parties include all custom harvesters, agriculture retailers, agriculture business employees, agriculture cooperative employees, or agriculture producers who hold a Class A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).
Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and Congressman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) are introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
The bill is also endorsed by the Agricultural & Food Transporters Conference, American Retailers Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Calmer Corn Heads, the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, the Kanas Cooperative Council, the Kansas Corn Growers Association, the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association, Kansas Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Barely Growers Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Sorghum Producers, National Sunflower Association, SD Wheat Incorporated, U.S. Canola Association, U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc., U.S. Dry Bean Council, and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council.
Under current regulations, any driver transporting more than 119 gallons of diesel fuel is required to obtain a Hazardous Materials endorsement on their Class A CDL.
By Jim McLean
Bills that would further tighten eligibility for public assistance programs will be among the first that lawmakers consider this week when they return to the Capitol from a short mid-session break. The bills — House Bill 2381 and Senate Bill 256 — would write into state law several controversial administrative changes made in recent years as part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s efforts to move people from welfare to work.
The bills would codify and in some cases expand limits on eligibility for programs that provide cash assistance and child-care subsidies.
They also would prohibit spending public money to increase participation in the food stamp program. The House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development has scheduled a hearing on the House bill at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
A hearing on the Senate bill has been scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Officials at the Kansas Department for Children and Families didn’t immediately respond to requests for information about the measures, which face opposition from several social service organizations.
Christie Appelhanz, vice president of public affairs for Kansas Action for Children
Christie Appelhanz, vice president of public affairs for Kansas Action for Children, said the bills expand policies that already have reduced the number of children eligible for assistance. “Poor Kansas children cannot afford to wait for basic necessities,” Appelhanz said in testimony pre-filed with the committee.
Brownback has defended the changes in welfare policy, saying they’re aimed at pushing non-disabled Kansans off the welfare rolls into jobs. He touted the strategy in a commercial during his re-election campaign. The claim in the commercial referred to a reduction in the number of Kansans enrolled in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
At the time, DCF officials said that TANF enrollment had fallen by 54 percent, dropping from 38,963 in the 2011 budget year to 17,681 in the 2014 budget year. The number of low-income parents — single mothers, mostly — receiving monthly child care subsidy payments dropped by 27 percent during the same four-year period, according to the agency.
“We’re seeing individuals moving out of poverty through employment,” Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, said at the time. Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, took issue with the commercial, saying that cutting the number of Kansans on public assistance wasn’t the same as reducing poverty.
Cotsoradis cited the increasing percentage of Kansas children receiving free or reduced-price lunches at school as evidence that Brownback’s policies were taking a toll on poor families. “So here we have more kids relying on free and reduced school meals, and at the same time we’re seeing significant declines in the numbers of families that are accessing TANF and child care subsidies,” Cotsoradis said.
“I don’t see how that’s good news. It means fewer poor people are receiving services that are meant to lift them out of poverty.” Brownback administration policies also have raised the eligibility bar for participation in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
One of those changes took place in 2013, when DCF dropped its participation in a federal grant program designed to help poor families apply for food stamps.
“We simply do not believe taxpayer dollars should be used to recruit people to be on welfare,” Freed said at the time. The bills under consideration this week would expand that policy by prohibiting the spending of any state or federal money on SNAP outreach.
Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s appointee to the Kansas Court of Appeals has gotten a chilly reception at her first confirmation hearing before a Senate panel.
Kathryn Gardner faced fierce questioning Wednesday by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Jeff King. The Independence Republican compared Gardner’s qualifications to those of Harriet Miers, whose appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 was eventually withdrawn following strong bipartisan opposition.
Gardner has served as the law clerk for U.S. District Judge Sam Crow since 2000 after working for 12 years as a practicing lawyer in Wichita and two years as an assistant state attorney general.
She said her time as clerk was directly applicable to the job of an appellate judge, but King said it leaves too vague of an impression of her legal philosophy.
