JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri state representatives will hold a hearing Wednesday to review management, trooper training and a 2011 merger between the state highway and water patrols.
The review follows the death of a 20-year-old handcuffed man who drowned May 31 in the Lake of the Ozarks. A state trooper had arrested the man for drunken boating and handcuffed him before the man slipped into the water.
The trooper says he wasn’t trained to handle the situation.
Lawmakers now question whether the merger overwhelmed troopers while saving the state money. Combining the departments was supposed to save the state about $3 million a year.
The merger is in place despite concerns from water patrol officials who warned lawmakers that it could hurt services.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fastest and surest path to marriage for same-sex couples in some states would be for the Supreme Court to surprise everyone and decline to get involved in the issue right now.
A Supreme Court decision to reject calls from all quarters to take up same-sex marriage would allow gay and lesbian couples in 11 more states to get married because appellate rulings affecting those states would take effect immediately. That would make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Yet legal experts think the court will step in and decide gay marriage cases this term. The cases were on the agenda for the justices’ private meeting Monday about new cases to hear this term. The court could announce a decision as early as this week.
About 100 people attended Tuesday night’s forum in Prairie Village that was sponsored by the Johnson County League of Women Voters-Photo by Andy Marso
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
PRAIRIE VILLAGE — Legislators who passed a health care compact in Kansas said changes to Medicare were not the impetus, but a “Medicare coach” told a Johnson County crowd Tuesday that the originator of the multi-state compact favors Medicare privatization.
Larry Weigel of Manhattan, who provides Medicare advice to seniors, told about 100 people gathered at a League of Women Voters event that the compact was the brainchild of Leo Linbeck III, a co-founder of the Health Care Compact Alliance who comes from a wealthy family with a history of advocating for right-wing Libertarian causes.
“Linbeck wants to privatize Medicare,” Weigel said. “This is the hidden agenda. This is the part that’s not getting out to the public.”
Weigel pointed to a 2011 Mother Jones interview from shortly after the alliance formed, in which Linbeck said one of the goals of the compact was to allow each state to run Medicare as it wishes.
He also noted the involvement of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that connects legislators with private sector representatives, which adopted the compact in 2011 as model legislation to be introduced by its members in their states.
Weigel said legislators who made Kansas the ninth state to sign the compact probably did so – as they stated – as a repudiation of the federal health care reforms spearheaded by President Barack Obama, but they overlooked the potential Medicare implications when they did so.
“I think it’s primarily to poke more holes in the Affordable Care Act,” Weigel said. “But the big mistake was when Medicare was dragged into it.”
-Larry Weigel, left, who advises seniors on Medicare, and Linda Sheppard, of the Kansas Health Institute, discussed the health care compact at a Tuesday night forum in Prairie Village.Photo by Andy Marso
During Tuesday evening’s event at Asbury United Methodist Church, Weigel sat on a panel with Linda Sheppard, formerly special counsel and director of health care policy and analysis for the Kansas Insurance Department who now works for the Kansas Health Institute. The Kansas Health Institute is a nonpartisan policy and research organization that also houses the editorially independent KHI News Service.
League of Women Voters-Johnson County organizers said legislators who supported the compact were invited to sit on the panel but did not respond.
The event was moderated by Kansas City Star columnist Dave Helling, who steered the discussion toward whether the compact was even constitutional.
The agreement would allow member states to opt out of federal health care regulations while continuing to receive a promised allocation of federal health care funds each year as a block grant.
Sheppard said those questions could be litigated if the bill gets action in Congress, which some have said does not appear imminent.
If the compact ends up going to Congress and if the Congress decides to consent to the compact, I think there would be all kinds of legal challenges that would come up at that point,” Sheppard said.
Tuesday’s discussion came on the heels of a controversy between the Johnson County Commission on Aging and state legislators representing Johnson County who voted for the compact.
The commission, a group of volunteer seniors appointed by the Johnson County commissioners to advise on issues pertinent to the aging population, wrote an article critical of the compact in the latest issue of The Best Times, a magazine that goes out to everyone in the county 60 and older.
Legislators who supported the compact saw an advanced draft of the article and took umbrage, calling it inaccurate and unfair.
County commissioners granted the legislators a page in The Best Times for rebuttal, but Weigel said the commission on aging’s article was fair and raised important questions about the compact’s possible effect on Medicare. He commended the commission, drawing applause from the crowd of mostly seniors.
“This is the first I know of in Kansas where somebody has taken a stand,” Weigel said. “This issue has been under the radar screen. Very important issue.”
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A California contractor has been fined thousands of dollars and was banned from doing business in Missouri after scamming two people whose homes were destroyed by the 2011 tornado in Joplin.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced in a news release Tuesday a consent judgment against Clark Baxter, of Sustainable Design, Inc. Koster says Baxter’s company contracted to rebuild two homes in Joplin after the tornado but he did not deliver construction materials and stopped work before it was completed. Koster says Baxter spent the homeowners’ money on personal expenses, including a trip to Hawaii.
The order requires Baxter to pay $26,000 in restitution and fines. Some of the money will go to two charities that finished work on the two homes using their own funds and hundreds of volunteers.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A western Missouri man has been found guilty of killing his neighbor following a feud.
Attorney General Chris Koster’s office handled prosecution of 70-year-old Lonny Leroy Mays of Clinton. Koster said Tuesday that a jury found May guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 death or 66-year-old Rudy Romdall, Mays’ neighbor on Truman Lake.
Romdall’s body was found March 26, 2012, in his truck near the Henry County town of Tightwad. Police said at the time that the two men had been involved in a disturbance earlier in the day.
TOPEKA – United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that six Kansas schools are among the 337 schools nationwide named 2014 National Blue Ribbon Schools . The National Blue Ribbon Schools award, one of the most prestigious education awards in the nation, distinguishes and honors elementary, middle and high schools for helping students achieve at high levels and for showing significant improvement in students’ levels of achievement.
The Blue Ribbon program recognizes schools in one of two performance categories: Exemplary High Performing and Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing. In the high performing category, schools are recognized for being among the state’s highest performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests. Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools are among their state’s highest performing schools in closing achievement gaps between a school’s subgroups and all students over the past five years. Student subgroup performance and high school graduation rates for each subgroup are at high levels.
“I am so proud of each of our Kansas schools for achieving this significant award,” said Interim Commissioner of Education Brad Neuenswander. “It takes a true commitment to student learning to attain the level of achievement that qualifies for Blue Ribbon recognition. These six schools represent the high quality education taking place throughout our state.”
The following Kansas schools were recognized as Exemplary High Performing Schools:
Oatville Elementary School, USD 261 Haysville
St. Patrick Catholic School, Catholic Diocese of Wichita
Valley Falls Elementary School, USD 338 Valley Falls
West Bourbon Elementary School, USD 235 Uniontown.
The following Kansas schools were recognized for Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing:
Ogden Elementary School, USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden
Marias Des Cygnes Valley High School, USD 456 Marias Des Cygnes Valley
The schools will be honored at an awards ceremony November 10-11, 2014, in Washington, DC.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri-based cable TV provider that serves 16 states plans to drop nearly two dozen channels owned by Viacom Inc. in a dispute over a proposed fee increase.
Suddenlink Communications says it will pull Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon and other channels from its lineup on Wednesday if it can’t reach a deal with Viacom.
A Viacom spokesman did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment. A company statement provided to Multichannel News, which covers the cable television industry, called the requested increase “fair.”
Suddenlink serves more than 1 million cable subscribers in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 8,000 children’s hoodies are being recalled because of a possible choking risk.
No injuries have been reported, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the hooded sweatshirts have drawstrings around the neck that can get caught in playground slides or school bus doors and possibly strangle a child.
The sweatshirts were sold at Kroger and Fred Meyer supermarkets nationwide between June and August for about $18. Both stores are owned by The Kroger Co., which is based in Cincinnati.
The recalled sweatshirts have a front zipper and were made in Pakistan by Mira Loma, California-based Active Apparel. They come in black, green, royal blue, red and turquoise and were sold in boys’ size small and medium.
Customers should take the sweatshirt away from children immediately, the CPSC said. They can either remove the drawstring or return the sweatshirt to the store they purchased it from for a full refund and a $10 gift card.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A defendant in a bank robbery in Lanagan, Mo., was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.
Stephen Hudson, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted bank robbery. In his plea, he admitted that on July 2, 2012, he drove co-defendant Daniel Lee Waddell to Lanagan, Mo., for the purpose of robbing the Corner Stone Bank.
Co-defendant Daniel Lee Waddell was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison for the robbery at the Corner Stone Bank, as well as another robbery March 5, 2013, at the Citizens State Bank in Kincaid, Kan.
Grissom commended the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jabari Wamble and Missouri law enforcement agencies for their work on the case.
WILLARD (AP) – The Greene County Sheriff’s Office said the death of a woman and her estranged husband was a murder-suicide.
Sheriff Jim Arnott said in a news release that deputies found 48-year-old Sandra Pendergrass lying dead on a road in Willard Monday evening. She had suffered severe head trauma and a gunshot wound.
During the investigation of her death, the body of 48-year-old Todd Pendergrass was found in Dade County near Everton. Arnott said Pendergrass shot himself.
Arnott said that before he killed himself, Todd Pendergrass confessed to his daughter and brother that he had killed his wife.
The Springfield News-Leader reported this is at least the fourth time since April that a Springfield area-woman died in what authorities called murder caused by domestic violence.
