LENEXA- A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 11:30 Friday morning in Johnson County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Cadillac driven by Alex R. Grauert, 19, Lenexa, was eastbound on 87th street at Monrovia in Lenexa. The vehicle ran a red light and struck a 1997 Chevy passenger car driven by Rachel M. Rodriguez, 52, Lenexa, which was southbound on Monrovia.
Rodriguez was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Grauert and a passenger in the Cadillac were not injured.
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic candidate Patrick Wiesner is running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas almost completely on his own dime.
Wiesner is a Lawrence attorney, and a finance report filed by his campaign shows that he’s made $48,000 in personal loans to his campaign. He’s also contributed another $2,000 to his bid.
He’s reported only $601 in other contributions. Through July 16, he spent about $37,000.
Wiesner also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010, receiving 10 percent of the vote in the primary that year.
In Tuesday’s primary, Wiesner faces Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor.
Taylor has raised about $141,000 for his campaign since entering the race in November, including about $13,500 since the beginning of July. His campaign reported spending more than $123,000 through July 16.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – Gov. Jay Nixon has called for a review of the rankings achieved by the business school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The governor announced his request Thursday during a meeting of the Kansas City Star Editorial Board. He told the board he wrote a letter to the chairman of the University of Missouri Board of Curators asking him to conduct an independent review of the school’s rankings.
The Kansas City Star reported that Nixon’s request was in reaction to the newspaper’s recent investigation into the validity of claims made by the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. A 2011 study by the Journal of Product Innovation Management said the UMKC business school was first in the world, placing it above MIT and Stanford.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City responded Thursday with a statement saying it welcomes the review.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — The Leavenworth County attorney says police officers who shot at a suspect who had abducted a 5-year-old girl did not violate any laws.
The Kansas City Star reports that County Attorney Todd Thompson didn’t say Friday if it was police gunfire that hit the child, who died in the July 18 incident. Authorities haven’t said how the child died.
Authorities have said two officers fired at the suspect, Marcas McGowan, after he led police on a chase with the child, Cadence Harris, and pointed a gun at police.
McGowan is charged with felony murder and other charges in the child’s death. The charges allege McGowan is responsible for the death because it occurred while he was fleeing police and endangering a child.
A class-action lawsuit by former employees of Providence Medical Center says they did not receive severance pay after they were laid off.-Photo by Mike Sherry
By Dan Margolies, KCUR
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Just days after Prime Healthcare Services agreed to buy two Kansas City-area hospitals, laid-off employees of two other area hospitals owned by Prime sued the company, claiming they were not provided with promised severance benefits.
The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of other terminated employees. It says 49 workers were let go immediately after Prime bought Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., and Saint John Hospital in Leavenworth, Kan., from the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System in April 2013.
The complaint, filed by Patricia Geiger and Michelle Hunget, doesn’t name the hospitals at which they worked. But their LinkedIn profiles identify Geiger as a former director of cardiovascular and intensive care at Providence Medical Center and Hunget as the one-time director of Providence’s Family Care Center.
Prime did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
According to the suit, the Sisters of Charity laid off “roughly 24 employees” before the purchase was completed and paid them severance. After the closing date, however, another 49 employees were terminated but not awarded severance pay.
The suit says Prime delayed announcing the layoffs to avoid their financial impact on the deal.
In addition to the Prime subsidiaries that operate the hospitals, the suit names the Sisters of Charity as a defendant.
A spokeswoman for Sisters of Charity could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Kathleen Conwell, a spokeswoman for Providence and Saint John hospitals, said in an email that Providence had gained 92 employees since Prime bought it and Saint John had lost four.
“I do know that we have been steadily adding staff for the last six months or so as our patient volumes have increased and we have moved different services in-house,” she said.
Providence now employs 1,076 employees, according to information supplied by Conwell. Saint John employs 244.
On Monday, Ontario, Calif.-based Prime agreed to purchase two other area Catholic hospitals, St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., and St. Mary’s Medical Center in Blue Springs, Mo.
The owner of those hospitals, Carondelet, announced their sale in 2013 to HCA Midwest Health System, the area’s biggest healthcare network. But the deal foundered when it became clear the Federal Trade Commission would not approve it.
Prime owns and operates 27 hospitals in seven states. The private company has a history of buying debt-laden hospitals and attempting to turn them around.
It has run into a variety of legal troubles, including a federal probe of its billing practices and a lawsuit by Sisters of Charity accusing it of failing to make payments in connection with its purchase of Providence and Saint John.
Prime maintains its billing practices are legal and has moved to dismiss the Sisters of Charity lawsuit.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A monthly economic survey index for nine Midwestern and Plains states has slumped after hitting a three-year high a month earlier.
A report issued Friday says the overall Mid-America Business Conditions Index dropped more than 3½ percentage points in July, to 57.0. The index had risen slightly in June, to 60.6.
Looking six months ahead, the business confidence portion of the overall index also declined. It hit 60.0 last month, compared with 63.6 in June.
The survey results from supply managers are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers at Creighton University say any score above 50 suggests economic growth, while a score below that suggests decline.
The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback has named a former Kansas House member and two attorneys to the board overseeing the state’s higher education system.
Brownback on Friday announced the appointments of former state Rep. Bill Feuerborn of Garnett, Joseph Bain of Goodland and Zoe Forrester Newton of Sedan to the Board of Regents.
Feuerborn served in the House from 1995 through 2002.
The three will serve through June 2018. Their appointments require state Senate confirmation.
The nine-member board oversees state universities, community colleges and technical colleges. The state spends almost $2.6 billion annually on higher education.
The terms of three regents expired at the end of June. They were Mildred Edwards of Wichita, former state Senate Majority Leader Tim Emert of Independence and former state Rep. Ed McKechnie of Arcadia.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of a man who died while serving time for the 2009 death of a woman.
The court on Friday ruled on the conviction of Roger Hollister, who died in 2013 at the El Dorado Correctional Facility where he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He was 61.
Hollister was convicted in the death of 58-year-old Patricia Kimmi of rural Horton. She disappeared in November 2009 and her remains were found in May 2010.
The Supreme Court ruled that although the death of a criminal defendant does not end the appeals process, it found evidence in the case was convincing enough to find Hollister guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
EMPORIA – An Emporia woman was found guilty yesterday of mistreating a dependent adult and conspiring to mistreat a dependent adult, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
Dalene Miller, 56, was convicted of the charges by a Lyon County jury following a four-day trial. The case stemmed from a complaint sent to Adult Protective Services in May 2011. The attorney general alleged that Miller misused the funds of her 93-year-old mother-in-law, who was residing at a care facility.
An investigation by the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office discovered that between July 2011 and January 2012, Miller acted as durable power of attorney and a trustee for her mother-in-law and made purchases including a house, farm and truck while her mother-in-law’s expenses went unpaid.
District Judge W. Lee Fowler presided over the trial and scheduled sentencing for September 26 at 9 a.m.
Charges remain pending against Miller’s husband, Rick Miller, who is scheduled to face trial in November. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Stefani Hepford with assistance from the Lyon County Attorney’s Office.
DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press
ERICA WERNER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are considering a new border security bill that would add more money for the National Guard as leaders frantically try to win over reluctant conservatives.
The GOP leadership is presenting the revised bill to rank-and-file lawmakers Friday morning. Leaders were forced to scrap a scheduled vote on Thursday. The House could vote before heading out for its five-week summer recess.
Entering the meeting, congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina said lawmakers are optimistic about getting enough votes for the new measure.
The nearly $660 million bill would add $35 million for the National Guard.
Hudson says the leadership did not anticipate strong opposition to the border bill from outside groups and Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.
