Post Staff – Page 779 – St. Joseph Post Archive

From car lots to city budgets, cheap oil means change

Posted on January 19, 2015

HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cheap oil doesn’t only mean cheaper gas in the tank. Plummeting oil prices are also reverberating through the budgets of businesses, towns and schools, causing a lot of changes.

The price decline means a car dealer in Illinois is shuffling the inventory of models he’ll be selling. People will buy more trucks and fewer economy models. It means a school district in Wisconsin will provide more free iPads to students because of fuel savings. It also means some planned projects in a Southern California city may get delayed because of lost oil revenue.

Energy analyst Brian M. Youngberg says the pullback in oil prices has caught most everyone by surprise.

Tickets for Obama visit to Kansas available Tuesday morning

Posted on January 19, 2015

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas students, faculty and staff are getting first dibs on tickets to see President Barack Obama in Lawrence discussing themes from his State of the Union address.

The university says students can start picking up their free tickets at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the box office in the Kansas Union. A limited number of tickets will be available for the general public starting at 5 p.m. at the Dreher 4-H building at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

Obama is scheduled to arrive in Lawrence on Air Force One on Wednesday evening and will speak at Anschutz Sports Pavilion next to Allen Fieldhouse at 11:20 a.m. Thursday

No signs or banners will be permitted and attendees are asked to limit personal items and not bring any bags to the event.

Wichita State up, Kansas down in this week’s Top 25

Posted on January 19, 2015

The Associated Press

The nation’s two unbeatens retain their spots atop the AP Top 25.

For the second straight week, Kentucky was No. 1 in 63 of 65 votes cast Monday, while Virginia stayed at No. 2.

The Wildcats (17-0) have been No. 1 in every poll and were the unanimous choice for five straight weeks before two voters switched to the Cavaliers (17-0) last week.

Both teams had a pair of double-digit conference wins last week.

Gonzaga remained in third, while Villanova swapped places with Duke. The Blue Devils fell from fourth to fifth after a loss to Miami that ended a 41-game home winning streak followed by a win at Louisville.

No. 22 Dayton, No. 23 Indiana and No. 25 Iowa entered the poll for the first time this season.

Record Pts Prv

1. Kentucky (63) 17-0 1,623 1
2. Virginia (2) 17-0 1,562 2
3. Gonzaga 18-1 1,467 3
4. Villanova 17-1 1,429 5
5. Duke 15-2 1,345 4
6. Wisconsin 16-2 1,282 7
7. Arizona 16-2 1,228 10
8. Notre Dame 17-2 1,055 12
9. Iowa St. 13-3 1,004 11
10. Louisville 15-3 1,003 6
11. Kansas 14-3 943 9
12. Utah 14-3 940 8
13. Maryland 17-2 937 14
14. Wichita St. 16-2 857 13
15. North Carolina 14-4 803 15
16. VCU 15-3 670 17
17. Texas 13-4 554 20
18. West Virginia 15-3 501 16
19. Oklahoma 12-5 445 18
20. N. Iowa 16-2 387 23
21. Baylor 13-4 260 22
22. Dayton 15-2 241 —
23. Indiana 14-4 93 —
24. Seton Hall 13-4 91 21
25. Iowa 13-5 85 —
Others receiving votes: Oklahoma St. 47, Miami 41, San Diego St. 34, Georgetown 33, Stanford 31, Saint Mary’s (Cal) 18, Providence 17, Colorado St. 16, Arkansas 15, Georgia 13, Butler 11, SMU 11, Michigan St. 8, LSU 6, Old Dominion 5, Wyoming 4, Ohio St. 3, Louisiana Tech 2, Tennessee 2, George Washington 1, St. John’s 1, Washington 1.

Warden: We’re working to improve safety at Topeka prison

Posted on January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

Topeka Correctional Facility- photo Kan. Dpt. of Corrections

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The warden of the Topeka Correctional Facility says everyone is working hard to ensure the safety of women inmates at the prison.

A federal investigation found in 2012 that sexual misconduct and abuse of inmates was rampant at the prison. On Jan. 9, the U.S. Department of Justice and the state announced a settlement that resolved the prison of those allegations.

Warden Hope Cooper, who took over when the former warden was transferred after the sex scandal was first revealed in 2009, says several steps have been taken to improve the women’s safety.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Cooper says security has been improved and staff was added at the prison. And she says females were put into positions of authority at the prison.

Fewer checks means fewer BAD checks

Posted on January 19, 2015

Fewer people are writing checks to pay for purchases these days, and that means fewer people are writing bad checks.

Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins says his office collects most of the checks that are submitted to his office.

“If the merchant gets the check to us within 30 to 45 days of the check having been written, we collect a little over 98% of those checks that are submitted for collection,” Scroggins says.

“Our insufficient-funds check collections for merchants in 2013 was $93,000,” Scroggins says. “In 2014 it’s right at $60,000. That’s been steadily declining for several years, as fewer and fewer checks are put into circulation each year.”

Mr Scroggins also offered collection numbers for delinquent state tax collections, and for the collection of victims’ restitution.

The office collected about $360,000 in restitution last year, which Scroggins says is fairly typical. The $428,000 collected the year before included several large restitution payments.

Mr Scroggins says his office has received fewer referrals from the Missouri Department of Revenue for delinquent tax collection. He says they have cleared most of a backlog of tax cases so the number of referrals has dropped by more than half. But Scroggins says they’ve actually collected a higher percentage of the referrals from the state.

In 2014, the prosecutor’s office collected about $140,000 in delinquent taxes, compared to $277,000 in 2013.

Super matchup: Seahawks face Patriots for NFL championship

Posted on January 19, 2015

HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Pro Football Writer

For Russell Wilson’s Seattle Seahawks to become the first team in a decade to win consecutive Super Bowls, they’ll have to beat the most recent group to do it, Tom Brady’s New England Patriots.

In an enticing matchup pitting the defending champions against the dominant NFL franchise of the 2000s, the NFC’s Seahawks (14-4) will face the AFC’s Patriots (14-4) in the title game at Glendale, Arizona, in two weeks.

New England reached its eighth Super Bowl, equaling Dallas and Pittsburgh for most in league history. It’s the sixth time Brady and coach Bill Belichick made it in the past 14 years; they won trophies after the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons.

Some Las Vegas sports books had the Seahawks as 1-point favorites; others made the game a pick ’em.

Obama’s to pitch tax proposals to help middle class

Posted on January 18, 2015

JULIE PACE, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is turning to his biggest television audience of the year to pitch tax increases on the wealthiest Americans and put the new Republican Congress in the position of defending top income earners over the middle class.

As Obama continues to signal what he will propose during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, senior administration officials say he will call for raising the capital gains rate on top income earners and eliminating a tax break on inheritances.

Administration officials say the revenue generated by those changes would fund new tax credits and other cost-saving measures for middle-class taxpayers. The officials disclosed details on the tax proposals on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the proposals by name ahead of the president.

No. 11 Iowa State beats 9th-ranked Kansas

Posted on January 18, 2015

Tough night at Hilton for the Jayhawks- University of Kansas photo

LUKE MEREDITH, AP Sports Writer

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Naz Long scored 20 points and 11th-ranked Iowa State held off No. 9 Kansas 86-81 on Saturday night, recording back-to-back wins over the Jayhawks for the first time in 14 years.

Georges Niang had 15 points for the Cyclones (13-3, 3-1 Big 12), who shot 9 of 20 on 3s in snapping Kansas’ five-game winning streak.

Long followed a long 3 with a layup to give Iowa State a 71-57 lead with 6:26 left. Kansas pulled to 82-79 with 29 seconds to go, but Niang sealed the win by drawing a crucial charge with 14 seconds left.

Frank Mason III scored 21 points and Perry Ellis had 19 with 11 rebounds for Kansas (14-3, 3-1), the last team in the Big 12 to lose a conference game.

Obama to give speech at University of Kansas next week

Posted on January 16, 2015

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning to travel next week to the University of Kansas to make remarks only two days after he gives the annual State of the Union address.

The White House and the university confirmed that Obama has scheduled a visit Thursday to the university’s campus in Lawrence. Both said more details would be released later.

The Democratic president gives the State of the Union address Tuesday.

Kansas has voted for every Republican presidential nominee since 1964. But Lawrence is considered a liberal enclave, and Obama carried Douglas County in 2008 and 2012.

The university says the last visit by a sitting president was William Howard Taft in 1911, but Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited after leaving office.

High court to hear gay marriage cases this spring

Posted on January 16, 2015

MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will decide whether same-sex couples nationwide have a right to marry under the Constitution.

The justices said Friday they will review an appellate ruling that upheld bans on same-sex unions in four states.

The case will be argued in April and a decision is expected by late June.

Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee are among the 14 states where gay and lesbian couples are not allowed to marry.

The number of states that permit same-sex marriage has nearly doubled in three months as a result of federal and state court rulings. The justices’ decision to turn away same-sex marriage appeals in October allowed some of those rulings to take effect. Florida last week became the 36th state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.