OSKALOOSA – A Kansas teenager died in an accident just before 5 p.m. on Saturday in Jefferson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Honda Civic driven by  Hunter Levi Terrell, 17, McLouth, was westbound on Kansas 16 one mile east of Oskaloosa.

The Honda passed a pickup and as it reentered the lane the driver lost control and skidded broadside. The Honda entered the westbound lanes and was struck by a 1995 Chevy Suburban driven by Carolanne Todd, 26, Oskaloosa.

Terrell was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Barnett Funeral Home.

Todd and five children in the Suburban were transported to Stormont Vail.

The KHP reported the occupants of the Suburban were not wearing seat belts.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Post-election soul-searching by Kansas Democrats includes disagreement over whether Medicaid expansion should have been a larger part of the party’s strategy.

The Democrats lost all statewide races for the second straight time and lost another five House seats to drop their number in that chamber to 27. The defeats were part of a national wave of Republican election wins, but they have nonetheless led to talk within the Kansas Democratic Party about what could have been done differently.
At the top of the ticket, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis focused his campaign almost exclusively on school funding, in an attempt to woo moderate Republicans. After leading in polls for months, Davis ultimately fell a few percentage points short of defeating incumbent Gov. Sam Brownback.

Joan Wagnon, chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party, said polling didn’t indicate the Medicaid expansion issue was much of a difference-maker with voters. So the party left it up to individual candidates to decide whether to use the issue in their campaigns.

“There was a lot of discussion about the issue, but no strategy, per se,” Wagnon said. “Democrats feel strongly about that issue and felt like it should have been expanded, but Republicans didn’t see it in quite the same way. So it wasn’t an issue that would make headway for us, so to speak.”

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid eligibility, while Kansas and 20 other states have not. Policymakers in two states are considering the issue, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

A poll released last year by the Kansas Hospital Association, which favors Medicaid expansion, found that 60 percent of polled Kansans supported it.

But the KHA poll never mentioned that Medicaid expansion is part of the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” and Wagnon said that makes a difference when it comes to public opinion.

“You have to understand the issue, and it’s a hard issue to talk about and explain,” Wagnon said. “What the Republicans did was they said, ‘Well, this is just Obamacare.’ When they tag an issue like that with some scary words to try to increase the negative feelings, then it’s harder to have a discussion.”

Ryon Carey, a political consultant in Lindsborg and chairman of the Democratic Party’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender caucus, said rather than avoiding the Affordable Care Act, the party should have attempted to explain its benefits to voters.

“Obama’s still president and the Medicaid expansion was enacted under Obamacare, so of course they’re going to scream ‘Obamacare,’” Carey said of the Republicans. “It would have been nice if Democrats would have actually stood up for their signature legislation in 60 years rather than running away from it. (President Harry) Truman would not have run from Medicaid expansion.”

Wagnon said Davis did express support for expansion when asked about it, and Dennis Anderson, the Democrats’ unsuccessful candidate for Kansas insurance commissioner, took a strong position in favor of it.

Down the ticket, Democratic House candidates were left to decide how the issue would play in their particular races.

Former representative Ann Mah, unsuccessful in her attempt to retake her Topeka seat from Republican Ken Corbet, said she didn’t make Medicaid expansion part of her campaign, though she supports it.

“The Legislature had painted the Medicaid expansion issue with such a broad brush,” Mah said. “People, they just say ‘Obamacare bad.’”

Nancy Lusk, a Democratic House member from Johnson County who was re-elected, said she declined to campaign on Medicaid expansion because she had limited time to try to get her message across while going door-to-door. Lusk said she chose instead to focus on the state’s impending budget crisis.

Mah said that also was the focus of her door-knocking visits. At the thousands of homes she visited, Mah said only a few people came to the door wanting to discuss Medicaid expansion.

“Those were medical professionals who knew we needed it and weren’t getting it,” Mah said. “Or they were hospital employees and their hospitals were really taking a hit.”

In Kansas, Medicaid expansion would extend coverage to an estimated 151,000 people with annual incomes up to 138 percent of poverty – about $16,100 for individuals and $32,900 for a family of four.

Increasing Medicaid coverage would decrease the amount of uncompensated care Kansas hospitals must perform each year.

Julie Menghini, a Democratic House member from Pittsburg, said she campaigned on Medicaid expansion, sending out two or three mailers on the issue in part because she knew that hospitals “really, really need to see it happen.”

Menghini said polling in her district suggested the issue would not be “a huge win” for her, but it “wasn’t going to be a negative either.” She narrowly lost to Republican Chuck Smith, a well-known high school football coach, but said she did not think Medicaid expansion was a factor.

“Frankly, my race didn’t end up being about issues,” Menghini said. “It ended up being about who can say the craziest, meanest thing about me and get people to believe it.”

Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat who has expressed interest in replacing Davis as House Minority Leader, said Democrats used Medicaid expansion as an issue in the election, but “clearly not enough.”

“Candidates I talked to were encouraged to use it,” Ward said. “I think it still is a very potent issue.”

Ward said the tide is turning in favor of expansion as more Kansans hear the practical arguments for it and grow weary of the ideological arguments against it.

“The ‘This is just Obamacare by another name’ (argument), it doesn’t work,” Ward said. “People see the dollars and cents, and the opponents’ arguments are shallow. More and more people nod their head when I start talking Medicaid expansion.”

Wagnon said the need for expansion is increasing, both for low-income Kansans and the hospitals that serve them. Regardless of how the issue was treated during the election season, Wagnon said her advice to Democrats during the next session is unequivocal.

“I hope they push like crazy to get it passed,” Wagnon said.

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

JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press
MITCH WEISS, Associated Press

Leaders of the nation’s system for helping people injured by vaccinations are vowing to better publicize the little-known program.

Meanwhile, the judge who oversees a special vaccine court worries that if more claims are filed, they will take even longer to handle than they already do.

The comments were made to government investigators, who reported on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program several days after The Associated Press detailed the program’s problems.

The AP found that instead of speeding help as intended in the rare cases when a vaccine seriously hurts someone, the program has heaped additional suffering on thousands of families.

The Government Accountability Office’s report, released Friday, noted many claims now involve adults and flu shots, not children who received government-recommended vaccinations such as measles and chicken pox.

LONDON (AP) — Experts have a message for anyone with webcams, baby monitors and home security cameras: change your password now.

Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office said Thursday that footage being collected from security cameras — such as closed circuit television networks or built-in cameras like baby monitors — is being posted to the Internet.

A website based in Russia is posting live footage of homes and businesses after having used the default login credentials for thousands of cameras.

The ICO is joining with its counterparts in the United States, China, Australia and Canada in warning consumers about the Russian website.

The Russian site takes advantage of the fact that camera users receive default passwords to get devices working — such as “1234.” Many manufacturers also put default passwords online.

CHANUTE, Kan. (AP) — A man has died after his pickup truck went off the side of a bridge in southeast Kansas.

The Kansas Highway Patrol identified the victim as 51-year-old Jack R. Cheyney of Chanute. The patrol says the accident happened around 9 a.m. Saturday when his truck went off the roadway, struck a bridge rail and flipped into the water. The truck landed on its wheels on the north side of the creek.

Cheyney was pronounced dead by a Neosho County deputy. The KHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police say that a mother of four has died just more than a week after she was sexually assaulted and set on fire at a Wichita park.

Police Lt. James Espinoza told The Wichita Eagle that the woman died around 9:40 a.m. Saturday at a Wichita hospital. Espinoza didn’t immediately return a phone message or email from The Associated Press.

The 36-year-old woman suffered severe burns on more than half her body and had cuts on her head when firefighters found her Nov. 14 in the park near the Wichita State University campus.

Twenty-six-year-old Cornell A. McNeal of Wichita was charged Friday with attempted capital murder, rape and arson. The Sedgwick County Public Defender’s Office says it has not yet assigned McNeal a lawyer. Bond was set at $250,000.

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — Missouri authorities are investigating the death of a Kansas man whose body was found inside a burned portable restroom.

On Friday, Jackson County authorities identified the victim as 30-year-old Jackson Guzman of Shawnee, Kansas.

A Jackson County park ranger found the body Thursday night in the parking lot of the Frank White Jr. Softball Complex near Longview Lake in Lee’s Summit.

Authorities are asking anyone with information to come forward.

 

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Topeka man was sentenced Friday to 12 years in federal prison for committing robberies at businesses in Topeka and Manhattan, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a media release.

Christopher James Wilhoite, 26, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial robbery and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in furtherance of a robbery. In his plea, Wilhoite admitted that on March 29, 2014, he robbed a clerk at Car Toyz, 5849 S.W. 21st in Topeka. The store sells mobile audio, video and vehicle security systems.

Wilhoite entered the store, browsed for a few minutes, and told the clerk: “I know what I want – the money.” He took money from the register and from the clerk’s wallet before loading some electronic items into a bag. When he noticed a surveillance camera, he forced the clerk to show him the recorder and threw that in the bag, too. Then he fled the store. Investigators later found his fingerprints in the store.

Wilhoite also admitted that on April 16, 2014, he robbed the Dollar General at 2321 Tuttle Creek Boulevard in Manhattan, Kan. He pointed a gun at a clerk and said: “Hey, I need money.” He put the clerk and another employee in a bathroom at gunpoint and told them to count to 200 while he fled the store.

Grissom commended the Topeka Police Department, the Riley County Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Maag for their work on the case.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says that next year he’ll revive a proposal to give his office the power to prosecute election fraud cases.

Kobach pushed the idea after taking office in 2011, but his efforts to win legislative approval of the idea fell just short of passage two years later, even though fellow Republicans control the Legislature.

Kobach won re-election this month with 59 percent of the vote.

He persuaded legislators to enact a 2012 law requiring all voters to show photo identification at the polls, and a 2013 statute requiring new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship to register.

But the secretary of state’s office can’t initiate election fraud prosecutions on its own. Such decisions are left to county or federal prosecutors.

After 113 years in business, ALCO Stores has announced it is going out of business nationwide.

ALCO, formerly Duckwall-ALCO, operates 16 stores in Kansas, including one in Russell. The chain’s corporate headquarters formerly were in Abilene. Nationally, the store operates 198 stores, primarily in the Midwest. ALCO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

Click HERE for more information.

Below is the official press release on the closings:

PRNewswire

COPPELL, Texas — After 113 years, Alco Stores (OTC-PINK: ALCSQ), a discount retailer focused on serving consumers in smaller communities with limited access to other regional or national retail chains, is closing its doors forever.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas approved an order today authorizing Tiger Capital Group LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Great American Group LLC to conduct “Going Out Of Business” sales in each of Alco’s 198 locations in 23 states. More than $260 million of inventory, fixtures and equipment will be liquidated during the sale, which begins Friday, November 21.

“Alco’s humble beginning as a single variety store in 1901 began a path of growth fueled by a strategy of focusing on smaller communities throughout the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest while offering a wide selection of products at heavily discounted prices,” noted Daniel Kane, Managing Member of Tiger Capital Group. “In addition to the convenience of being able to shop locally, the chain distinguished itself by emphasizing the kind of friendly, personal service that small-town consumers expect. Unfortunately, many of Alco’s small-town customers were disproportionately impacted by the slow economy. These economic factors ultimately led to the difficult decision to liquidate all of Alco’s assets.”

On October 12, 2014, Alco filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court, Northern District of Texas, case no. 14-34941.

“This event will offer consumers in Alco’s small-town markets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get extraordinary discounts on food and snack items, apparel and footwear for the family, housewares, health and beauty aids, hardware, electronics, seasonal items, toys, sporting goods, and so much more,” said Scott Bernstein, Chief Operating Officer of SB Capital Group. “This Going-Out-of-Business Sale is timed as such that Alco’s many loyal customers will realize significant savings as they do their holiday shopping.”

The Going-Out-of-Business Sale will offer discounts off Alco’s already everyday, low prices, with storewide savings off the lowest, ticketed price. Current markdowns and clearance items will also have additional discounts. The sale will continue until all merchandise has been sold.

“We know that thousands of shoppers rely on Alco for daily essentials such as groceries, housewares and domestics,” added Scott Carpenter, President of Great American Group’s Retail Solutions division. “We’ll keep these essentials fully-stocked for a limited time as we sell through all of the existing merchandise at discounted prices.”

Alco stores, which average 25,000 square feet in size, are located in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For a list of locations, go to: http://www.alcostores.com/about_us. All stores will maintain their normal business hours during this liquidation sale. Cash and major credit cards will be accepted.

In addition to the liquidation of merchandise inventories, fixtures and equipment from all 198 stores, assets from the company’s 352,000-square-foot distribution center in Abilene, Kansas will also be sold.

About Tiger Capital Group
Tiger Capital Group provides asset valuation, advisory and disposition services to a broad range of retail, wholesale, and industrial clients. With over 40 years of experience and significant financial backing, Tiger offers a uniquely nimble combination of expertise, innovation and financial resources to drive results. Tiger’s seasoned professionals help clients identify the underlying value of assets, monitor asset risk factors and, when needed, provide capital or convert assets to capital quickly and decisively. Tiger’s collaborative, straight-forward approach is the foundation for its many long-term ‘partner’ relationships and decades of success. Tiger maintains offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Sydney. To learn more about Tiger, please visit www.TigerGroup.com.

About SB Capital Group, LLC
SB Capital Group, a Schottenstein affiliate, is a leader in the field of asset recovery, rescue finance, restructuring and strategic store closing events. With principals who are equity stakeholders in retail enterprises, consumer products, franchising, licensing and real property, SB Capital Group leverages resources and depth of experience to provide services with applicability across a wide spectrum of industries. Our participation in transactions that span the globe has solidified our reputation as one of the most creative and innovative financial service and asset realization firms in existence today. To learn more, please visit www.sbcapitalgroup.com.

About Great American Group, LLC
Great American Group, LLC is a leading provider of advisory and valuation services, asset disposition and auction solutions, commercial lending and real estate advisory services. Great American Group efficiently deploys resources with sector expertise to assist companies, lenders, capital providers, private equity investors and professional service firms in maximizing the value of their assets. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of B. Riley Financial, Inc. (OTCBB: RILY), consisting of an array of financial services companies including: B. Riley & Co., LLC, a leading full service investment bank providing corporate finance, research, and sales & trading to corporate, institutional and high net worth individual clients; and B. Riley Asset Management, a provider of investment products to institutional and high net worth investors. B. Riley Financial is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Dallas, Melville and New York, N.Y., Newport Beach, Calif., Norwalk, Conn., San Francisco, and Munich. For more information about Great American Group, visit www.greatamerican.com or call 818-884-3737.

SOURCE Tiger Capital Group, LLC; SB Capital Group, LLC; Great American Group, LLC