PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — A $12.5 million federal grant will pay for urgent repairs on the route of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief in western Kansas and eastern Colorado, but funding for upgrades in southern Colorado and New Mexico remains uncertain.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado announced Tuesday the Transportation Department approved the grant after Kansas and Colorado communities committed $9.3 million.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari (mag-lee-AHR’-ee) says the money will pay for repairs allowing passenger trains to maintain 60- and 70-mph speeds.

Magliari says BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks, runs only slower-speed freight trains and doesn’t need to keep the track up to high-speed standards.

Magliari says Amtrak is discussing funding for repairs in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico with state officials and BNSF.

A BNSF spokesman didn’t immediately return a call.

By Julie Rovner
Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Heading into the 2014 mid-term congressional elections, health care is not shaping up as a make-or-break issue, according to a new poll.

Health care trails jobs and the economy as a top issue on voters’ minds this fall, 21 percent to 13 percent. Only 3 percent of voters in the monthly tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation mentioned the health law by any name (Affordable Care Act/Obamacare) when asked about issues most likely to determine their vote. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation).
Health care is even less important to independent voters, those who frequently decide close races. While Democrats and Republicans both chose health care as their second ranked issues with 15 and 16 percent respectively, independents rank of health care tied for fifth with 9 percent.

The issue is, however, nonetheless playing a role in the current campaigns, particularly in key swing states where control of the U.S. Senate is at stake. Republicans need to capture a net gain of six seats to gain a majority in that chamber.

Nearly three-quarters of registered voters in the 11 states considered likely to decide Senate control said they saw or heard health-related election ads in the previous month. (The poll was conducted Aug. 25 to Sept. 2). In those states, 34 percent said they saw or heard more ads opposed to the health law, while only 4 percent saw more ads supporting the law.

Forty-eight percent of registered voters said they are “tired of hearing candidates for Congress talk about the health care law” and think they should move on to other issues, while 47 percent say the health care debate is important and should continue. Not surprisingly, more than 60 percent of Republicans favor keeping the debate going. About the same percentage of Democrats say candidates should move on, and independents are evenly split.

Republicans are thought to have an edge in the coming elections, partly because the party out of power traditionally does well in a president’s second midterm and partly because the Democrats are defending several seats in traditionally GOP states such as Alaska, Louisiana and North Carolina.

Republicans voters are also more enthusiastic than Democrats about voting this fall. But apparently the health law isn’t driving that enthusiasm to any great degree. When Republicans who said they were eager to vote were asked the reason for their enthusiasm, the top answers were giving Republicans control of the Senate (13 percent), wanting their vote counted (10 percent) and getting rid of incumbents (10 percent). The health law was named by 3 percent.

The poll was conducted in a telephone sample of 1,505 adults, including 1,239 registered voters. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points for both groups for the full sample.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Firefighters helped evacuate residents during a fire at an Overland Park apartment complex shortly before a roof collapsed.

No residents were injured during the fire early Wednesday at the two-story Aspen Lodge Apartments.

The fire was brought under control in less than an hour. The Overland Park fire department said in a news release that residents from 16 units are displaced. The apartment management and Red Cross are working to help find new homes for residents.

One Overland Park firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor medical issues.

Officials say the fire started after someone discarded a burning cigarette in a planter on a balcony and the blaze quickly spread to the wood roof and the rest of the building.

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Firefighters helped evacuate residents during a fire at an Overland Park apartment complex shortly before a roof collapsed.

No residents were injured during the fire early Wednesday at the two-story Aspen Lodge Apartments.

The fire was brought under control in less than an hour. The Overland Park fire department said in a news release that residents from 16 units are displaced. The apartment management and Red Cross are working to help find new homes for residents.

One Overland Park firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor medical issues.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 30-year-old man has been charged with capital murder in the shooting death of a Topeka police officer.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced Wednesday that he had filed the charge against Ross Preston Lane, who was being held without bond. Kansas law allows the death penalty for the slaying of a law enforcement officer.

Police Cpl. Jason Harwood was shot to death Sunday after stopping a car in east Topeka.

Lane also was charged with possessing a stolen firearm and criminal possession of a firearm as a past felon.

Another 30-year-old man, Anthony Allen Ridens Jr., was charged with obstructing apprehension of a felon and possession of a stolen motorcycle.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Abortion opponents prayed for success Wednesday at the Missouri Capitol as lawmakers consider overriding vetoes.

About 80 people gathered for a prayer vigil Wednesday morning in the Capitol Rotunda, asking that God would provide courage and boldness to anti-abortion lawmakers. Larger crowds of both abortion opponents and abortion-rights supporters are expected for rallies later in the day.

Republican legislators say they are confident that they will be able to override Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill requiring women to wait 72 hours after consulting a doctor before having an abortion.

Nixon has called the bill “extreme” because it lacks an exception for cases of rape and incest.

Missouri currently has a 24-hour abortion waiting period. The bill would make Missouri’s wait one of the longest in the nation.

The U.S. News & World Report has released their latest report of school rankings.

The same schools make the list each year and are typically moved up or down a few spots.

Ivy league schools Princeton, Harvard and Yale claimed the top three spots in the overall rankings this year.

The University of Missouri, St. Louis University, and The University of Nebraska-Lincoln  tied at 99th place on the list.

The University of Kansas tied with Iowa State and the University of Oklahoma at 106. MU S&T was #138

Kansas State University was 142 on the list.  UMKC placed 189. Check out the 2015 rankings here.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

The Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved will get a $468,000 federal grant to again lead the state’s efforts to get residents signed up for health insurance on the online exchanges.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced $60 million in “navigator” grants to 90 organizations nationwide, including KAMU.

“We’re thrilled that we got the grant for another year,” said Katrina McGivern, KAMU’s communications coordinator. “We’ve been working very diligently trying to lay out a plan prior to getting the grant to have navigators in place to get them retrained and ready to start enrollment assistance.”

McGivern said KAMU plans to use about 160 navigators for 2015 enrollment, including many who helped with sign-ups last year and “some new blood.” McGivern said the navigators’ efforts are being rebranded as “Cover Kansas.”

This year’s grant was less than the $525,000 KAMU received last year to train navigators to help Kansans sign up for health insurance on the online marketplace created by the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare.

This year’s open enrollment period will be from Nov. 15, 2014 to Feb. 15, 2015. McGivern said the second year of sign-ups should be smoother than the first, when the effort was besieged by technological glitches for the first six weeks.

“One challenge we hope we don’t have is that the website works, unlike last year,” she said.

McGivern said KAMU-trained navigators across the state helped more than 15,000 Kansans sign up for health insurance during 2014 open enrollment. She said one of the challenges for 2015 will be letting those Kansans know they need to renew their policies. Use of a navigator was not required to sign up, and about 57,000 Kansans total used the marketplacee to select a plan last year, according to HHS.

In addition to KAMU, a Catholic nonprofit health system called Ascension Health received about $242,000 in grant money to help enroll Kansans. The group received a $166,000 grant last year, which Via Christi Health administered to help cancer patients and survivors obtain health insurance.

Across the state line, the Missouri Alliance of Area Agencies on Aging ($954,618), Advanced Patient Advocacy ($393,022), Community Action Agency of St. Louis County ($144,000) and National Healthy Start Association ($99,094) received navigator grants.

Advanced Patient Advocacy received a grant to operate in Kansas last year, but not this year.

Despite the technological glitches, widespread Republican opposition and several court challenges, about 8 million Americans are estimated to have selected a plan and paid for premiums under the ACA.

Last year after reports that one navigator had a bench warrant for unpaid medical bills, the Kansas Senate passed a bill to require all navigators in the state to pay $100 to register with the attorney general, be fingerprinted and undergo a background check, though KAMU already required background checks of its navigators.

Democrats said Senate Bill 362 was politically motivated. It stalled in the House.

“We’ll still have the strong opponents who are against the ACA and navigators as well,” McGivern said. “We hope the legislation that got brought up last year does not rear its head again this year, but we’re prepared to go to battle if we have to.”

McGivern said her organization expects a “significant amount” of new health insurance plans to be offered on the exchange this time around. Consumers are advised to study the plans before their appointments with navigators to determine which might best suit their needs.

Navigators also will have some studying to do if there are as many new options as rumored, she said.

“They’ll have to do more research on their end getting to know what all’s out there and available,” McGivern said.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — University of Kansas students are pressuring the school to improve its response to sexual assault reports.

More than 200 people attended a forum on the subject Tuesday, hours after a student group posted a video telling people that the school is not safe. The student group, called September Siblings, also is circulating petitions asking the school to change its response to sexual assault allegations.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the effort is in response to recent reports that a university student who said she was raped in 2013, and her assailant was given a lenient punishment. University officials have declined to comment on the case, which Douglas County District Attorney Charles Bronson is reviewing.

Speakers at Tuesday’s forum criticized the university’s current approach of emphasizing education about sexual-assault awareness.