LOS ANGELES (AP) — While much of the attention in the ongoing measles outbreak has focused on student vaccination, less attention has been paid to another group in the nation’s classrooms: Teachers and staff members, who by and large are not required to be vaccinated.
When health officials learned a California high school employee had likely gotten sick with measles, 40 unvaccinated students were told not to come to class. So were 24 other teachers and staff members until they could prove they had been vaccinated or were immune.
In most states, there is no law dictating which vaccines teachers and school staff workers are required to get.
The issue has surfaced from time to time in state legislatures and is likely to be raised again in response to the latest outbreak.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Republicans and Democrats can agree on one thing — they want more campaign money.
Representatives of both parties’ leadership testified Monday in favor of a bill before the House Elections Committee that would at least double contribution limits to most state campaigns. For example, the bill would increase individual contribution limits to $4,000 from $2,000 for gubernatorial candidates and $2,500 from $1,000 for state senators.
Kansas Democratic Party Chairperson Joan Wagnon testified that the current limits, which have changed little since the 1970s, were unrealistically low.
Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clay Barker told the committee that the drastic increase in spending on ads from outside groups has muddied campaign messages. He said voters want to hear more directly from the candidate’s campaigns.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A House panel reversed a decision ade last week and decided to fully restore Gov. Sam Brownback’s request to use millions of dollars from the Kansas Department of Transportation to fill gaps in other state spending.
The governor wants to take $724 million from transportation projects. Last week, the House Transportation Budget Committee voted to reduce that amount by $280 million, allowing about $444 million to be transferred during fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
On Monday, during a quick meeting not held in a committee room, the panel restored the $280 million fund transfer.
Chairman Rep. J.R. Claeys, of Salina, said more study is needed to determine the impact of removing fund sweeps on the budget.
He said the quick meeting was necessary because he had to attend another meeting.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man will be retried on a first-degree murder charge after a jury reached a partial verdict in the case.
A Douglas County jury on Monday convicted 30-year-old Dustin Walker of aggravated burglary but could not agree on a verdict on a first-degree murder charge after about 11 hours of deliberation.
Walker is charged with killing 39-year-old Patrick Roberts in March.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports prosecutors allege Walker and co-defendant Archie Robinson went to Roberts’ home to steal cash and marijuana and Walker shot Roberts during the crime.
The defense claimed Roberts’ brother attacked Robinson. Walker testified last week that Robinson was holding the gun when he was tackled and the gun went off, hitting Roberts.
Officials have now lifted the parking restrictions under Phase Two of the Emergency Snow Ordinance. More than three inches of snow fell on St Joe Sunday, leaving many streets slick.
Authorities implemented Phase Two at about 7:30pm Sunday, requiring all vehicles be moved from the city’s Snow Emergency Routes to allow snow plows to clear those routes. The parking limits were lifted as of 2:45pm Monday.
TOPEKA – A Senate bill heard by the Kansas Natural Resources Committee would amend the definition of low-level radioactive materials, which would allow waste containing them to be buried in landfills.
Members of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment spoke before the committee in support of Senate Bill 125, saying that the current law’s definition was too broad and should not include naturally occurring radioactive materials, also known by the acronym “NORM.”
William Bider, director of waste management for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said that NORM is already in natural materials such as rocks. Bider said the current law, which was put in place in the 1980s, does not allow burial of low-level radioactive waste, and that the definition of NORM needs to be changed so these materials are not lumped into a group with materials that have high levels of radioactive waste.
Bider said even though burial of this material is prohibited by law, it’s already in landfills because of oil and gas drilling waste and construction demolition debris that has been going on for years.
He said nobody was aware that these materials had low-level NORM when the law was put in place, but it was discovered the last few years when they started doing sampling of drilling waste and comparing with other states. Now that they realize the disposal conflicts with the law so they need to alter the definition so it complies with the law.
“It’s safe levels, it’s low levels, and we want to make it legal,” Bider said.
Bider said the current law isn’t clear on what should be done with radioactive waste, it just says that it can’t be buried, so some waste companies have to take their radioactive waste to other states where they have proper disposal sites.
Bider said NORM levels range from low-level, mid-level, and high-level, which indicate how the waste should be disposed, with the low-level being unrestricted.
Bider and Tom Conley, chief of the radiation and asbestos control program at KDHE, said their tests show that drilling waste appears to be at a low level in Kansas but it varies state-to-state because of the types of rock.
Bider said drilling companies in Kansas are aware of environmental liability issues and want to be in compliance with the law.
“Some of the drillers would still want to make sure that the landfills that they send theirs to are legally able to take material with NORM in it,” Bider said.
Some waste management groups gave written support of the bill, but no opponents were present nor provided written testimony.
Kelsie Jennings is a University of Kansas senior from Olathe, Kan., studying journalism.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas lawmaker is moving to keep fantasy sports leagues legal amid a dispute with the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission.
Republican Rep. Brett Hildabrand of Shawnee submitted a bill to the Legislature Monday that would define fantasy sports as a game of skill. The distinction is important because the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission said in August that fantasy sports meet the criteria of a lottery, which would make them illegal.
Under the Kansas Constitution, only the state is allowed to administer lotteries.
Hildabrand said he introduced the legislation so ordinary Kansans who enjoy fantasy football would not become criminals.
The federal government and 45 states consider fantasy sports legal games of skill. However, five states consider them illegal.
January real estate sales in our area were higher than a year earlier but down from Decembers totals.
According to the St Joseph Regional Association of Realtors, there were 72 homes sold last month, compared to 61 in January of last year.
Sales totaled more than $8.3 million, up from $6 million last year at this time, but down from the $11.1 million sales total in December of 2014.
Adding delayed reports to existing totals, real-estate sales last year in the nine-county area totaled $138 million, which is down from the $139.3 million in 2013.
Two Kansas soldiers treated for post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan say a bill signed last week by President Barack Obama is a good start in preventing veterans’ suicides.
The Clay Hunt SAV Act, signed into law Thursday, is named for a Texas Marine Corps veteran who took his life after returning from Afghanistan with PTSD.
The bill requires annual independent audits of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs mental health system and creates peer support groups and a loan repayment program for psychiatry students who choose to work in the VA system.
Brandon Garrison, a U.S. Army veteran from Leavenworth treated for PTSD after serving multiple deployments in Afghanistan, says the bill provides much-needed oversight for a system in which the auditing has been done internally.
“It takes that responsibility and puts it into someone else’s hands so you don’t have this big cover-up within the VA,” he says.
Garrison says he got to know some of Hunt’s family while he worked with Team Rubicon, a disaster relief nonprofit founded by Marine veterans. He says the legislation is a fitting tribute.
“I think it’s going to save lives. I really do,” Garrison says.
But he laments how long it took for VA mental health reforms to be enacted when an average of more than 20 veterans a day commit suicide in the United States.
Will Stucker, an Army veteran from Kansas who was wounded in Iraq, echoes those sentiments.
“I am glad that the vets today are going to be getting better treatment, but what about those of us that are still being ignored?” asks Stucker, who had served 10 years when he was hurt in 2005. He was deemed too injured to return to the fight but not injured enough to receive military medical retirement, and has since unsuccessfully petitioned for it several times.
He says he saw parallels in the story of Hunt, who was granted only a minimal disability rating despite his PTSD and was shuffled from one medication to another.
“VA and DBH (Division of Behavioral Health) providers are loaded down with too many patients and red tape,” Stucker says. “The go-to ‘fix-all’ is pills. There is little to no therapy involved. Some of the providers care but (they) are pressured to see more patients, so the quality of care suffers greatly.”
Stucker is studying clinical psychiatry at Emporia State University in the hope of becoming a counselor who can fill a need in a VA system unprepared for the influx of veterans returning with behavioral health issues.
Garrison, who is living with debilitating muscle weakness that he fears was caused by exposure to airborne toxins from his military base burn pit, recently received a service dog courtesy of a North Carolina dog training company and a veterans nonprofit called the Food Industry Serving Heroes, or FISH.
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press
