STEPHEN BRAUN, Associated Press
KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is warning states that the possible shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security would harm the nation’s ability to counter the extremist appeal of the Islamic State group within the U.S. and help communities struggling with winter snowstorms.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says if Congress fails to agree to a new budget for his department by the end of Friday, it would lead to staff furloughs that could harm the U.S. response to terrorist threats and two months of devastating snowfall.

Congress was returning to work on Monday, just days before funding for DHS’ $40 billion budget ends. Lawmakers have until the end of the week to approve the budget and avoid shutting down the department, but no clear solution is in sight.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting at a man on a highway south of Lawrence after plotting with the victim’s ex-girlfriend.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that 25-year-old Edward “E.J.” Parker was sentenced Friday in Douglas County after pleading no contest in January to attempted second-degree murder. He initially was charged with attempted first-degree murder.

The victim, 24-year-old Skylar Workman, survived after being shot in May on U.S. 59. Workman’s ex-girlfriend, Brittany Nicole Smith, was sentenced earlier to more than eight years in prison for arranging the shooting.

As part of their sentences, Smith and Parker are ordered to pay Workman more than $123,000 in restitution for his medical bills.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka town house fire has sent an adult and a child to the hospital to be treated for possible smoke inhalation.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that fire crews responded shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday to the blaze. The two adults and two children who lived in the town house were able to escape.

The preliminary investigation says the fire started accidentally due to an unattended candle near curtains.

There was an estimated $15,000 in structural damage and $5,000 in content loss.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — In the four decades since Oscar recipient William Inge’s death, the statuette that symbolizes his success has resided in the building that houses the University of Kansas’ theater program.

Inge received this Oscar in 1961 for best original screenplay for “Splendor in the Grass,” a story of sexual repression. The Lawrence Journal-World  reports that Inge was 60 years old in 1973 when he committed suicide after a decades-long struggle with depression.

His Oscar went to live at his alma mater, where it is brought out several times a year.

Besides serving as managing director and budget officer of theater at the university, Kathy Pryor also serves as caretaker of sorts for the Oscar. She calls it “priceless” and says it “serves as an inspiration” to aspiring thespians.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –A Wichita attorney is among five defendants who have pleaded guilty in federal court this week to their roles in a multi-million dollar scheme to transport hundreds of thousands of cartons of contraband cigarettes from the Kansas City, Mo., area to the state of New York, where they were sold primarily on Indian reservations according to Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Harry Najim, 67, of Wichita, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to failing to file a Form 8300 related to his representation of a client involved in the scheme, who was actually an undercover federal agent.

William F. Parry, 54, of Irving, N.Y., pleaded guilty today to contraband cigarette trafficking. Philip Christ, 55, of Hamburg, N.Y., pleaded guilty today to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and contraband cigarette trafficking.

Nicole Sheffler, 37, of Independence, Mo., and Gholamreza “Reza” Tadaiyon, 51, of Weston, Fla., pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Feb. 18, to their roles in the conspiracy.

USA v. Najim

Najim was a lawyer employed by the Adams Jones Law Firm in Wichita. By pleading guilty today, Najim admitted that he provided legal services for an undercover ATF agent from March 2011 through January 2012. The undercover agent sold large quantities of untaxed cigarettes to a group of individuals who transported the contraband cigarettes to retail outlets in the state of New York. Those individuals were engaged in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and contraband cigarette trafficking.

The undercover agent paid Najim $16,500 for his legal services when they met at the McCormick and Schmick’s restaurant on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo., on June 23, 2011. Najim knew federal statutes required the law firm to file a report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network upon receipt of more than $10,000 in a single transaction. Najim, however, did not report the $16,500 payment to the law firm, which caused it to fail to file a report.

Najim was also the attorney for co-defendant Craig Sheffler, 45, of Independence, and Sheffler’s business, Cheap Tobacco Wholesale. Sheffler pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2014, to participating in the conspiracy to commit wire fraud and contraband cigarette trafficking and forfeited $599,206 to the government.

Sheffler admitted that he made regular purchases of contraband cigarettes from undercover ATF agents. The contraband cigarettes were transported to New York without prior approval by the New York Department of Taxation and Finance and without first paying the required $4.35 per pack excise tax. The unstamped, untaxed cigarettes were then sold to smoke shops on the reservations in New York, which sold the contraband cigarettes at a considerable discount and deprived the state of its tax revenue.

According to the indictment, conspirators purchased more than $17 million worth of contraband cigarettes from ATF agents during an undercover operation. Sheffler admitted in his plea agreement that the amount of loss exceeded $7 million. Cigarettes were transported to New York without paying the required $4.35 per pack excise tax. The untaxed cigarettes were sold by New York retailers and smoke shops on the reservations in the state of New York. The total state excise tax lost to the state of New York was more than $8 million.

By Amelia Arvesen
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — What started as 10-gallons of home-brewed beer for Jeff Gill has evolved into Kansas’s largest microbrewery producing 15,000 barrels in 2014.

Gill founded Tallgrass Brewery in Manhattan in 2007, becoming one of 20 craft breweries in a state with an industry ranked 34th in the nation, according to the National Brewers Association.

Tallgrass beer is available in cans and on tap in 14 states. With a new $5 million, 60,000-square-foot brewing facility, Gill said he anticipates a significant production increase this year.

“I think we’ve got a pretty good plan but we do need some help to get some laws fixed,” he said.

Gill and other microbrewers might get some help. The limits on kegs rolling out of Kansas microbreweries could change drastically depending on how legislators respond to proposed liquor law bills in the next few weeks.

A key component of House Bill 2189 would allow breweries to sell beer directly to retailers, public venues and caterers. Currently, brewers must go through a distributor to get on the shelves in bars, restaurants and liquor stores.

Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant in Topeka produces 1,300 barrels a year, a fraction of the maximum 30,000 barrels allowed by state law. Owner Jay Ives said 10 percent of his beer is sold through a distributor to several Topeka restaurants and bars.

He said he sees self-distribution as an advantage for home brewers wanting to enter the industry.

“If we cut out the middleman, which is the distributor, then that markup goes back to the brewery and allows the brewery to reinvest in itself and grow,” Ives said.

The second part of HB2189 would double the manufacturing cap from 30,000 to 60,000 barrels a year, a limit that has quadrupled in two years.

Kansas is bordered by two states with thriving beer industries and higher production caps. Given an unlimited production cap, Colorado’s craft beer culture is bursting with 175 breweries including the large manufacturer MillerCoors.

To the east of Kansas, Missouri is home to the original Anheuser-Busch location in St. Louis and established in 1852, and the state’s regional Boulevard Brewing Company.

For Tallgrass Brewery, Gill said he would be able to utilize the new facility to produce up to 100,000 barrels a year. Gill said he’s aiming for a 2015 output just shy of 30,000 barrels, close to 700,000 gallons.

Free State Brewery in Lawrence, the first brewpub and second largest brewery in Kansas, produced nearly 11,000 barrels in 2014, only one-third of the current manufacturing cap. About 25 percent is sold in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, said Steve Bradt, head brewer at Free State and president of the Kansas Craft Brewers Guild.

“There’s good steady growth in those things so at some point (HB 2189) will be a concern for us,” Bradt said.

Bradt said before he can determine how the law might affect breweries, he wants to see legislators weed out other liquor laws like Uncork Kansas, a movement in support of House Bill 2200 that would allow the sale of full-strength beer, wine and liquor in convenience stores and grocery stores starting in 2018.

Rep. Steven Brunk (R-Wichita) is waiting too. He is the House’s Federal and State Affairs committee chairman, where the microbrewery bill was introduced last month.

Similar legislation to sell in convenience stores has been unsuccessful in recent sessions, and Brunk said any new liquor law deserves careful discussion. He said it would completely modernize a well-established system.

Rep. Mark Hutton (R-Wichita), chairman of the House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development, said they plan to amend HB 2200 on Monday and decide whether to send the bill to a vote.

If brewers and some Kansas legislators have their way, more beer could be readily available to residents in more locations.

“This bill is … not going to hurt anything,” Gill said. “It’s going to help an emerging industry within Kansas.”

Amelia Arvesen is a University of Kansas senior from San Ramon, California, majoring in Journalism.

OAKLEY, Kan.- A Missouri semi driver was injured in an accident just before 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Logan County.

The Kansas State Highway Patrol reported a 1999 International Truck driven by Tommy J. Plummer, 63, Oakley, was northbound on U.S. 83 twenty-six miles south of Oakley plowing snow.

A 2012 Volvo semi driven by John P. Barnes, 54, Springfield, Mo., came up behind, tried to avoid a collision by going right into the east ditch, but was unable to avoid hitting the truck.

Barnes was transported to Logan County Hospital. Plummer was not injured.

The KHP reported both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

By ANDY MARSO
As elements of the governor’s 50-year water vision wind through the legislative process, one legislator would like to speed up work to fund projects neglected as the state fails to pay its share of the state water plan fund.

Of the $18 million that the fund is supposed to contain, $6 million should come from the state general fund annually, while the rest comes from a variety of fees. The state has not contributed its share for several years.

Gov. Sam Brownback’s water vision establishes a panel to examine funding, but Rep. Tom Sloan, a Republican from Lawrence, said the situation is too urgent to wait.

There are steps that could be taken now with the proper funding, Sloan said, especially when it comes to maintaining the reservoirs that are the predominant water source for eastern Kansas cities. “The governor’s people have done a good job of getting out across the state and listening and creating that wish list,” Sloan said. “I know that in it some things are higher priority than others.

But that’s just a statement, it’s not a timeline.” Sloan said much of the governor’s vision focuses on conserving the Ogallala aquifer, and rightly so. Eighty-five percent of the water used in Kansas goes to irrigation, and in the western half of the state much of that is pumped up from the Ogallala, which is severely depleted in some areas. But Sloan said there’s only so much that can be done to preserve underground aquifers that replenish very slowly. Meanwhile, reservoir maintenance projects that could be completed with more funding are piling up.

As projects like streambank stabilization are delayed, more sediment builds up in the reservoirs, which in the long run will require more costly dredging projects to stay viable. With the state in a major budget crisis, it does not appear that the state general fund payments to the water plan will return soon.

So Sloan has proposed, in House Bill 2014, to increase the clean drinking water fee — one of seven fees that pay into the water plan fund — in order to make up for some of the state’s missing share.

The proposal would increase the fee built into the water bill of everyone who draws from public supply from 3 cents per 1,000 gallons of water to 13 cents. Sloan said although it may sound like a large increase, milk costs about $3,000 per 1,000 gallons and domestic beer costs about $10,000 per 1,000 gallons.

Water, Sloan said, is more precious and severely undervalued.

“What I’m trying to get at is the value versus the costs,” Sloan said. “The value of water is far greater than the cost of it to the retail consumer.”

Sloan said increasing the fee would create greater incentives for consumers to conserve water and save them money in the long run by allowing engineers to complete the sediment-fighting projects that will reduce the need for dredging.

‘Bang for the buck’
Dennis Schwartz, a member of the Kansas Water Authority, told the Vision 2020 Committee that Sloan chairs that his group has whittled its list of projects to only “high-priority” and that streambank stabilization tops even that list.

“If we can minimize the inflow of sediment to the reservoirs, we can get so much more bang for the buck,” Schwartz said.

While there’s wide agreement that the projects need to get done, dissent remains on whether to use fees as the funding source.

The League of Kansas Municipalities, the lobbying organization that represents Kansas cities, said the funding burden already falls heavily on municipal water systems.

“Since municipal water fees and clean drinking water fees, which are largely paid by public water systems, are already responsible for about half the total revenue for the water plan fund, those fees should not be increased,” the league’s legal counsel, Michael Koss, said in a memo to legislators.

In the current fiscal year, those two fees accounted for almost $7 million of the water plan fund’s $13 million in revenue.

Industrial water fees brought in about $1 million, while fees paid by the agriculture industry for things like fertilizer and pesticide registration made up most of the rest.

Talk of raising fees has some legislators — especially those who opposed the 2012 income tax cuts that preceded the budget crunch — asking why the state’s $6 million share of the water plan fund has been missing for several years.

Rep. Barbara Bollier, a Republican from Mission Hills, asked Schwartz if he had talked with Brownback about why the governor has not proposed restoring the funds, given his concern about the state water supply.

“I think it is helpful for us and the general public to understand what that disconnect is,” Bollier said. “So I encourage you to continue asking those questions so the public can understand — me included.”

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Fallen down on its obligation’
Sloan said he understands the frustration.

State law requires the $6 million appropriation every year. But the Legislature and the governor have not approved any of it since fiscal year 2011.

“The original water plan was a compromise between the consumers, the agriculture interests and the state,” Sloan said. “The state has fallen down on its obligation.”
With no state funding on the horizon, Sloan said his priority is finding the means to get stalled projects moving quickly.

Rep. Larry Hibbard, a Republican from Toronto, praised Sloan for pushing the issue, calling him “the water warrior of the Capitol” and agreeing that there’s “been an awful lot of rhetoric and not much movement” on the importance of water conservation.

But Hibbard said he was concerned that with leadership desperate for ways to resolve the looming budget deficit, excess money raised through fees might be reappropriated and not go to the water projects.

“I think we’re going to run out of money before we run out of water,” Hibbard said.

Aaron Popelka, vice president of legal and government affairs for the Kansas Livestock Association, said that already had happened in the “rescission” bill legislators passed recently to close the budget gap in the current fiscal year and keep government operating.

Although there wasn’t much left in the fee funds, the Legislature swept what was there, which Popelka said set a bad precedent and left little appetite for fee increases among his members.

“I think we’re going to run out of money before we run out of water.”

– Rep. Larry Hibbard, a Republican from Toronto
“Our folks are going to be really hesitant to increase their fees so you can balance the general fund,” Popelka told the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Committee on Thursday.

Popelka testified against Sloan’s bill. He said there’s at least one large feedlot in the state that relies on municipal water, and HB 2014 would cost it thousands of dollars each year.

Sloan told the committee he’s willing to lower the amount of the fee increase to just cover designated projects and leave no money to be swept.

Koss, despite his earlier hard line on fee increases, said the league of municipalities might be willing to negotiate.

“We just think this fee increase is a little bit much,” Koss said.

‘Balanced and fair approach’
Popelka said the livestock association wants to stay within the parameters of the governor’s 50-year plan. That plan calls for a “blue ribbon” task force to convene and discuss possible funding sources, but the formation of the task force, originally scheduled for November, has been pushed back until after the session.

Jackie McClaskey, secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, said the change was made so that legislators can participate in the task force.

She said her department’s priorities for spending the water fund money don’t necessarily line up with those of the Kansas Water Authority. She would prefer to wait for the task force to make its recommendations on how the fund should be replenished.

“His bill is looking specifically at the clean drinking water fee,” McClaskey said. “We would probably be more supportive of an approach that says, ‘Let’s look at all the funding that goes into the state water plan and let’s take the time and make sure it’s a balanced and fair approach to funding the state water plan.’”

McClaskey said the agriculture department appreciates Sloan starting the conversation about how the plan should be funded, but the task force should have its say before anything is finalized.

Sloan said that means the Legislature won’t have a chance to act on the task force’s recommendations until 2016. That’s an election year for all 165 legislators, which he said would make passing fee increases all the more difficult, even if they’re needed to fund critical projects.

That could mean no action until 2017, as reservoirs continue to fill with sediment.

“How much longer do we put off investing in our own water?” Sloan said. “Because it only gets more expensive going forward.”

Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

 

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government advisory committee is recommending new dietary guidelines that call for an environmentally friendly diet lower in red and processed meats.

At the same time, the panel would reverse previous guidance on limiting dietary cholesterol, so more eggs are OK. And it says the caffeine in a few cups of coffee could actually be good for you.

The committee also is backing off stricter limits on salt, though it says Americans still get much too much.

It is recommending the first real limits on added sugar, saying that’s especially a problem for young people. That means less sugary soda.

The Agriculture and Health and Human Services Departments will take those recommendations into account in writing final 2015 dietary guidelines by the end of the year. The guidelines affect nutritional patterns throughout the country — from federally subsidized school lunches to food package labels to doctor’s advice.

Even with the changes, the report sticks to the basic message of the previous guidelines in 2010: Eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains; eat less saturated fats, salt and sugar.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Young offenders incarcerated at Topeka’s juvenile detention facility are learning technical skills to make them more marketable and less likely to get into trouble after they are released.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex offenders who are still in high school can earn credit through Washburn Institute of Technology.

The principal of the facility’s high school is Steve Dackman. He says students can take classes in basic electrical work, carpentry and something called production technology, which covers basic manufacturing skills and safety.

Those who already have finished high school can take classes on operating water and wastewater treatment, distribution and collection systems through a partnership with Fort Scott Community College.

Offenders also get help learning to write a resume and interviewing for jobs.