COLBY, Kan. – A semi driver died in an accident just before 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in Thomas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Kenworth semi driven by Rodney A. Hongsermeier, 52, North Platte, NE., struck the trailer and then the cab of a 2015 International semi driven by Fednor Duclona, 43, Fort Worth, TX., that was westbound on Interstate 70 four miles west of Kansas 25.

Both vehicles caught on fire in the middle of the highway.

Hongsermeier was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Baalman’s Funeral Home.

Duclona was not injured.

The accident shut down Interstate 70 from Colby to Goodland on Saturday and was finally opened to westbound traffic at 7:30 on Sunday morning

By JIM MCLEAN

A coalition of health organizations is supporting Gov. Sam Brownback’s call for a big increase in the state’s cigarette tax. Brownback is proposing to raise the tax by $1.50 per pack, increasing it from 79 cents to $2.29. The governor wants to use the approximately $81 million in additional revenue to close a gaping hole in the fiscal year 2016 budget.

The health groups, working together under the name of Kansans for a Healthy Future, say that increasing the cost of cigarettes by that much would, over five years, keep an estimated 24,000 Kansans under the age of 18 from becoming addicted smokers and help about 26,000 adult smokers to quit. In addition, it’s estimated that the proposed increase would reduce health care costs in the state by $25 million over five years.

“Those numbers come solely from the benefits of increasing the tax. They don’t factor in the potential (additional) savings that you could achieve by implementing evidence-based abstinence and prevention programs,” said Dr. Roy Jensen, director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Kansas spends about $1 million a year on “tobacco control” programs, far below the $20 million to $28 million that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it should be spending given its population and smoking rate.

Kansas receives between $50 million and $60 million a year from the 1999 settlement it struck with the nation’s four largest tobacco companies. Most of that money has gone to fund children’s education programs, not tobacco control and prevention efforts. The state’s failure to adequately fund tobacco control and prevention initiatives is directly related to its recent slide in national health rankings, Jensen said.

“That is a large part of the reason why Kansas’ health ranking has fallen pretty precipitously in recent decades,” Jensen said. Kansas ranked 27th in the 2014 rankings compiled the United Health Foundation. In 1991, the state was in the top 10. A recent CDC report showed that between 2005 and 2013 adult smoking in the United States declined from almost 21 percent to less than 18 percent. But the rate in Kansas is two percentage points higher at 20 percent. More than 4,000 Kansans die each year from cancer and other tobacco-related diseases.

Reagan Cussimanio, Kansas government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said the coalition would urge lawmakers to increase the amount budgeted for tobacco control initiatives. “Tobacco control is a vital component of a healthy state and must have a consistent funding stream to be effective,” Cussimanio said. “We urge state lawmakers to look at Kansas’ tobacco control and prevention programs and provide those impacted by these efforts with opportunities to quit and be successful.”

Currently, Kansas has the 36th highest cigarette tax in the nation. The governor’s proposal would increase it to the 12th highest. Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the nation at 17 cents. But a business-led group based in Kansas City, Mo., is mounting a campaign to raise it to 67 cents a pack. The Association for Childhood Education hopes to put the tax increase question on the ballot for the 2016 November election.

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

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A woman who was injured when her son’s gravestone fell on her at a Joplin cemetery has lost her lawsuit.
The Joplin Globe reports that a part of the monument that weighed 450 pounds toppled off its base on Memorial Day weekend in 2007. Sandra Pennington sued the city and the Brewer-England Monument Co., which sold her the gravestone.
Pennington testified this past week in Jasper County Circuit Court that she has been plagued with recurring pain.
Her attorneys argued that the monument business didn’t properly set the stones and that the city-operated Forest Park Cemetery didn’t properly maintain the grave.
A cemetery supervisor testified that the city’s responsibility was limited to mowing and general upkeep of the cemetery. The stone-setter testified that Pennington was pleased with the gravestone.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Two payday lending companies with ties to racecar driver Scott Tucker have agreed to pay $21 million and waive another $285 million in charges to settle federal claims that they misled consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that the proposed settlement with AMG Services Inc. of Overland Park, Kansas, and MNE Services Inc. of Miami, Oklahoma, includes the agency’s largest recovery in a payday lending case. An attorney for the lenders didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press. The lenders had claimed immunity from legal action because of their affiliation with Native American tribes.

A 2012 FTC complaint filed in Nevada said Tucker used $40 million collected from borrowers to sponsor his racing team. Tucker hasn’t settled the FTC charges against him. .

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has postponed the trial of a man charged with assuming the identity of a dead Texas boy. The move gives the prosecution and defense time to obtain DNA that each side hopes will bolster their case.

DNA evidence has long been a mainstay in other criminal trials. But its use in an immigration-related identity theft case is unusual. Prosecutors want to compare Teodoro Erasmo Luna’s DNA to the sisters of the child he is accused of impersonating.

Pena is charged in a 17-count indictment with aggravated identity theft, misuse of a Social Security Card, lying on a passport application, and other crimes.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten says the DNA testing will help the parties reach a resolution.

The new trial date is March 24.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s latest budget-balancing proposals divert $385 million from state highway projects over three years, and transportation officials say some future projects will at least be delayed.

Brownback released a plan Friday to divert $151 million from highway projects to general government programs in the current budget. That’s $55 million more than the $96 million he proposed in December.

He proposed diverting an additional $115 million during the 2016 fiscal year beginning in July and $115 million again during fiscal 2017.

The state Department of Transportation said projects already scheduled under a 10-year, $8 billion highway program will not be affected. The program started in 2010.

But department spokesman Steve Swartz said $297 million in projects will at least be delayed. The projects haven’t been identified or scheduled.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Republicans will push this session to reinstate some lawsuit damage award caps the Missouri Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.

Some lawmakers want caps on the amount juries can award for noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases and punitive damages in civil injury cases.

The Supreme Court declared medical malpractice caps unconstitutional in 2012 and overturned punitive damage caps last September.

Supporters of the limits say they provide certainty for businesses and health care providers. Opponents say limits harm only individuals who have already been injured by the negligence of a doctor or business.

Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey says caps on some medical malpractice injury suits will likely pass this year.

Bills to cap those awards have passed the House in previous years but stalled in the Senate.

By MIKE SHERRY, Heartland Health Monitor
When Jennifer Vaughn delivered identical twin girls at Saint Luke’s East Hospital last week, she and her husband were not that surprised – and it wasn’t just because of the sonograms or because she had dreamt of having twins even before the ultrasounds.

“My husband and I have always been fascinated with twins,” Vaughn said Thursday at the Lee’s Summit, Mo., hospital, where she was holding Brooke and Peyton Koehler, both of whom weighed less than 5 pounds at birth. “I guess it was meant to be.”
What the couple did not expect, however, was that they would be part of an extraordinary baby boom at the hospital: In the span of about 30 days, doctors delivered no fewer than six sets of twins. That’s three times more than a typical month.

The scorecard was three boys and nine girls born between Dec. 15 and Monday, with two sets of fraternal twins and three sets of identical twins. Staff have yet to determine the type of one set of twins.

At birth, this delicate dozen weighed in collectively at about 60 pounds and had a combined length of approximately 17 feet. Officials said all the babies are doing well.

Nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of twin births rose steadily in the two decades that ended in 2009. The rate leveled off after that, according to the CDC.

The CDC’s latest data tallied 131,024 twin births nationally in 2012, the lowest total in almost a decade.

In 30 years of work in the baby business, Brenda Cornell, clinical nurse manager of maternity services at Saint Luke’s East, said she had never experienced a spurt of twins like this one at the hospital.

It’s possible that the hospital’s increasing number of deliveries – which now stands at about 150 to 170 babies per month – could have played a role, she said.

But Cornell’s best explanation was that it was simply a matter of pure chance – albeit one that has delighted the maternity services personnel.

“They are really loving this,” she said. “It has been a great time for our staff.”

Vaughn and her husband already have a 2-year-old daughter at home, and she said that parenting experience makes them fairly calm about the challenges of taking care of newborn twins.

Her spouse is a little nervous about being the only male in the household, Vaughn said, but she has confidence in him.

“He will be good with three girls,” she said. “He just said they are going to have to like T-ball and stuff.”

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

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced in a Media release  that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court Thursday for his role in a conspiracy to burglarize the vehicles of at least 144 victims and sell the stolen items on eBay.

Nathaniel Dixon, 37, of Lee’s Summit, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to five years in federal prison without parole, which is the statutory maximum sentence. The court also ordered Dixon to pay $104,657 in restitution to his victims and to forfeit to the government $125,921, which represents the proceeds he obtained from the criminal conspiracy.

On May 27, 2014, Dixon pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud. From Jan. 1, 2010, until Aug. 31, 2011, Dixon led a conspiracy to burglarize scores of vehicles in the Kansas City metropolitan area, in both Missouri and Kansas. They broke into the vehicles, removed entertainment/navigation systems (often MyGigs) from the dashboard, and stole other personal items such as computers, briefcases, purses, cell phones and credit cards from the vehicles. They also jacked up the vehicles to steal the tires and wheels, and would often use the victims’ landscaping blocks to prop the vehicles up after stealing the tires and wheels.

Dixon bought the stolen auto parts and electronics from his coconspirators, then posted the items for sale on his eBay account, listing the parts at prices lower than retail value. Dixon and his coconspirators caused a loss of approximately $476,000 to the victims. Dixon received payments through his PayPal account totaling approximately $125,921.

In a separate case, Nickalass King, 36, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a total of three years and three months in federal prison without parole for his role in the conspiracy and for violating the conditions of his supervised release.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Mahoney. It was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.