LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas has joined a national effort to help students from low-income families graduate.

The university announced Tuesday that it and 10 other schools have formed the University Innovation Alliance. The group will work to find ways to help low-income and first-generation college students.

The alliance says studies show students from wealthy families are seven times more likely to graduate from college than low-income students.

Other members of the group include Arizona State, Georgia State, Iowa State, Michigan State, Oregon State, Purdue, Ohio State, University of California-Riverside, Central Florida and University of Texas-Austin.

The alliance has raised $5.7 million from major private funders.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The port of Kansas City’s barge-shipping terminal will reopen after being closed since 2007.

The Port Authority of Kansas City said Tuesday it is partnering with Kaw Valley Companies of Kansas City, Kansas, to operate the Woodswether Terminal. It will initially employ five to seven people.

Port Authority vice president Marissa Cleaver Wamble says the partners hope to have the terminal open for barge traffic before this year’s shipping season ends in early December.

The Kansas City Star reports the city-owned terminal can store about 750,000 tons. It closed seven years ago because low water levels on the Missouri River reduced barge traffic.

Wamble says about $6 million in upgrades is needed to also reopen the port to rail traffic.

 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A new report shows Missouri’s unemployment rate dipped slightly last month while the state lost 3,100 nonfarm jobs.

The state Department of Economic Development said Tuesday the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent in August from 6.5 percent in July. The August rate was also down from 6.6 percent in the same month last year.

 

NEOSHO (AP) – The mayor and treasurer of a small southwest Missouri town is accused of writing checks on a village account for more than $9,000 worth of personal expenses.

The Joplin Globe reports 80-year-old Jimmy Brown of Redings Mill was charged Tuesday with felony theft/stealing in Newton County Circuit Court.

Sheriff Ken Copeland says members of the Redings Mill village board contacted his department in July about missing funds. He says the investigation indicates Brown used the money to pay for things like dentist bills, utilities and other personal expenses.

Brown was issued a summons to appear in court and was not required to post bond. He did not return a photo message Tuesday seeking comment.

The 2010 census listed the population of Redings Mill at 151.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Shawnee County authorities have arrested a man who they say led officers on a chase through two counties using a stolen vehicle.

Sheriff’s Lt. Danny Lotridge says on Tuesday a Silver Lake officer spotted the 54-year-old man walking at a park. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Lotridge says the man stole a Jeep Grand Cherokee when he saw the officer and fled.

The pursuit ended in Jefferson County after authorities popped the vehicle’s tires. Deputies say they broke out two windows and threatened to send in a police dog before the man surrendered.

He was taken to an area hospital with unknown injuries that deputies say are unrelated to the chase. Authorities say he faces charges of motor vehicle theft, fleeing and various traffic violations.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

OLATHE — Tension built Monday as legislators who supported a health care compact bill that would free Kansas from federal health care regulations made a last ditch-effort to sway a Johnson County advisory board against publishing an article critical of the compact in a county newsletter.
After Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican, expressed concerns at a legislative breakfast last week about the coming article, the Johnson County Commission on Aging invited her to have a follow-up meeting on that specific issue. Pilcher-Cook returned on Monday flanked by 10 other Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Ray Merrick of Stilwell.

The legislators present called the article scheduled for publication in Johnson County’s The Best Times magazine “reckless,” “dishonest,” “irresponsible,” “partisan” and “misleading.”

“I think you have taken a huge jump, a reckless jump, with the article you intend to publish in The Best Times,” Pilcher-Cook said.

All the legislators who attended Monday’s meeting are conservative Republicans who support House Bill 2553 as a repudiation of federal health care changes spearheaded by President Barack Obama. They said the proposed article unfairly portends changes to Medicare as a result of the bill in a blatant attempt to scare seniors.
Members of the commission on aging defended their work, saying they understood the compact well and remain concerned about its potential effect on Medicare, the federal program that provides health coverage to the elderly and some disabled citizens, including about 450,000 Kansans.

“We did our due diligence too,” chairwoman Patti Rule said. “We didn’t immediately put out just a knee-jerk (response).”

Following the meeting, commission on aging leaders said they may tweak the headline to appease the legislators but said they don’t intend to otherwise change the content of the article. They said a demand that the legislators be allowed to run their own concurrent article about the compact was outside their authority.

The Johnson County Commission assumed publication duties of The Best Times last year, but the pages allotted to the commission on aging are provided through federal dollars from the Older Americans Act.

Future implications?

The commission on aging is a group of eight volunteer advocates who advise the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging. They are appointed by Johnson County commissioners.

Sen. Jim Denning, a Republican from Overland Park, said that publishing the article would anger many area legislators.

“You really need to think about this because one of your objectives is to have a good working relationship with the Johnson County legislative delegation,” Denning said.
During the meeting, Merrick sat off to the side of the conference table next to Dan Goodman, director of the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging.

At one point, Merrick turned to Goodman and said, “This is going to set you guys back.”

Goodman did not respond.

Merrick declined to explain the comment after the meeting.

When asked how he interpreted it, Goodman said “I don’t know how I should take it.” He said his agency receives some state funding to operate an Aging and Disability Resource Center.

When told what Merrick said, Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita who was not at the meeting, said it sounded like a threat.

“This is typical behavior,” Ward said. “Call your opponents names and threaten them. They cannot win the debate on ideas.”

Nine states have signed the health care compact, which petitions the federal government to release them from health care regulations and would allow them to receive the money currently spent on federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid as block grants.

Proponents said it would liberate Kansas from the mandates of the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and the retirees group AARP testified against the bill, saying it posed a threat to Medicare.

The commission on aging’s article focuses opposition on the compact’s potential to turn Medicare over to the state.

Praeger, in a phone interview Monday, said it is a legitimate concern.

“They have a very serious concern, and I think it’s very appropriate that they raise those concerns, as did AARP, as did several other groups,” Praeger said. “This has kind of flown under the radar, and I think it’s great that it’s finally getting some attention.”

When the bill came to the House floor, Ward offered an amendment to take Medicare out of it, but it failed 57-61.

Rep. Keith Esau, a Republican from Olathe who supported the compact, said the Legislature couldn’t amend the bill because all of the states joining the compact were attempting to approve the same version.

The House passed the compact 74-48 without Ward’s amendment, the Senate passed it 29-11 and Gov. Sam Brownback signed it April 22.

Congress must approve the compact before it can become operational, but constitutional scholars also say the president would need to approve it.

In signing it, Brownback said he would oppose any cuts to Medicare.

Downplaying Medicare concerns

Some legislators sought to assure the commission on aging members Monday that the state had no interest in touching Medicare. But others said the compact could provide a safety net if the state needs to save Medicare from the federal government. Rep. Jerry Lunn, a Republican from Overland Park, said he believed that rising federal debt made a state takeover of the program almost inevitable.

“Does anybody believe that the federal government is not going to make wholesale, major cuts to all programs?” Lunn said. “This would be included. We’re trying to do something to get out ahead of that because this is going to come back to the states to try to manage and fix this mess.”

Peg Deaton, a member of the commission on aging, said she opposed the compact in part because the state doesn’t have a plan for administering the massive federal program. She said she had heard little practical information in general on the compact, including how the state would pay for an advisory commission, mandated by the compact, to make recommendations to member states.

“It has to be funded by the states that are members of the compact,” Deaton said. “How much money are we talking about?”

“It could be minuscule, because they could teleconference,” Pilcher-Cook said.

“And it could be millions,” Deaton said. “Where is that money coming from?”

Eugene Lipscomb, vice chairman of the commission on aging, asked why legislators had not done more to educate seniors about the compact, saying that most people he had talked with had not even heard of it.

“How come you hadn’t talked to them before you wrote it, before you signed it?” Lipscomb said.

Sen. Jeff Melcher, R-Leawood, said the commission on aging should have done that.

“You should be watching legislation that’s important to you and participating in the development of it,” Melcher said. “But to ignore it and abdicate your responsibility and then to come back at the 11th hour and drop an October surprise is partisan and it’s disingenuous.”

Other legislators echoed Melcher’s complaints about the timing of the article, which will publish in October, one month before the general election for all House seats and statewide offices including the governor.

Three Republican senators and about a dozen Republican House members crossed party lines to vote against the compact, deepening a divide between moderate Republicans like Praeger and conservatives who gained control of both chambers and the other statewide offices in part by making their opposition to Obamacare a centerpiece of the last two election cycles.

‘Right for seniors’

Chuck Nigro, chairman of the commission on aging’s legislative committee, said the timing was a function of how long it took for the commission to study the compact bill, write the article and prepare it for publication. Nigro said the commission is nonpartisan.

“Our intent was not to have a big fight over this,” Nigro said after the meeting. “Our intent was just to do what we think is right for seniors.”

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Republican from Overland Park who was appointed after the compact was approved, said regardless of the commission on aging’s intent, the article will be used by Brownback’s Democratic opponent, Paul Davis.

“The minute it is printed and distributed, you have published campaign material and get ready to see it in the television advertising and mailers and emails across the state, I guarantee it,” Baumgardner said. “You will be used. I don’t think that’s your intent, but you will be used.”

Baumgardner asked the commission on aging members to consider how that might reflect on the county commissioners who chose them.

“I know that you are not here necessarily from a political standpoint, but keep in mind why are you here and how are you here,” Baumgardner said. “You are appointed.”

After the meeting Deaton said she had been appointed and reappointed by several different county commissioners during her eight years on the commission on aging.

“I’ve got two years more to go, and nobody can fire me,” Deaton said.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A woman who worked for a southwest Missouri disaster relief agency has been sentenced to prison for a fraud scheme following the deadly Joplin tornado.

The U.S. attorney’s office says Herlana Latham, of Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months in federal prison and ordered to pay about $6,700 in restitution. She pleaded guilty earlier this year to wire fraud.

Latham formerly lived in Joplin and worked for a nonprofit organization that distributed aid to landlords who rented housing to people displaced by the May 2011 tornado. She was accused of verifying false landlord applications.

Co-defendants Christopher Smith and John Williams, both also of Memphis, pleaded guilty previously in the scheme. Williams was sentenced to eight months in prison and Smith to three years of probation.

ROELAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The Johnson County legal department says a petition to repeal Roeland Park’s anti-discrimination ordinance can move forward.

The Kansas City Star reported that the county has approved the ballot language that will appear if enough support is garnered. The City Council must repeal the ordinance or place it on a citywide ballot if 472 registered voters sign the petition.

An attorney representing a former councilwoman who submitted the petition says the decision should be made by the voters, not the council.

The city became the second in the state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity last month. The measure passed after the mayor broke a 4-4 tie by the council. The law prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public service.

Lawrence has a similar ordinance.