SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A 51-year-old Springfield man faces federal charges for allegedly robbing a bank.
The Springfield News-Leader reported Timothy Wayne Polodna is charged with bank robbery in a holdup July 9 at a Bank of America in Springfield. He’s being held in the Greene County Jail without bond.
Court records show he’s suspected of stealing about $26,000 from the bank. The federal complaint also says Polodna’s relatives told authorities he had previously worked as a bailiff and in security for Greene County courts.
Court records don’t list a lawyer for Polodna, who has a hearing Monday in federal court.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas health officials have identified other recent points of potential measles exposure in Wichita.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says a cook at the restaurant, Sumo by Nambara, was reported as a new measles case on Thursday. The employee has been off since Sunday. The health department says anyone who dined at the restaurant on July 11 or 12 is at risk for developing measles.
KDHE says people attending an informal softball tournament at the South Lakes Softball Complex on July 4 also may have been exposed to the disease. Eight teams from Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas attended the tournament.
The potential exposure comes from a previously identified case, the KDHE said, but no confirmed cases have been linked to this event.
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department for Children and Families is letting foster parents know that it has hired an ombudsman to hear their concerns.
Niomi Burget, a former aide in Gov. Sam Brownback’s office, started July 1.
“Foster parents do a tremendous service by caring for Kansas children,” DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said in a prepared statement. “They deserve to have their needs met promptly so they are fully prepared and equipped to provide a loving temporary home to foster children.”
Later this month, DCF plans to send informational packets, including a newsletter, to an estimated 2,500 foster homes throughout the state, reminding foster parents of their rights.
A sampling of these rights:
• To be treated with dignity and respect.
• To be paid on time.
• To be adequately trained.
• To receive timely, accurate and pertinent information about the children in – or soon to be in – their care.
• To have input in the case planning process and to attend court hearings.
• To be able to contact their DCF worker after 5 p.m. in the event of an emergency.
• To be considered as a placement option when a child formerly in their care re-enters the system.
Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, said the agency’s decision to hire an ombudsman and to distribute the packets was driven, in part, by several foster parents who earlier this year urged Kansas legislators to pass Senate Substitute for Senate Bill 394, a measure they called the foster parents’ bill of rights.
The bill passed the Senate but stalled in the House Judiciary Committee.
Many of the foster parents who testified in support of the bill were members of the Midwest Foster Care and Adoption Association, which has offices in Olathe and Kansas City, Mo.
On Wednesday, the association’s executive director, Lori Ross, cautiously endorsed DCF’s decision to hire an ombudsman. “It’s definitely progress, and it’s better than nothing,” she said. “But the rights that they’re proposing leave out some of what was in the foster parents’ bill of rights. We’d like to see those gaps filled.”
With SB 394, foster parents would be given a say in whether a child in their care should be returned to a parent’s or family member’s care, would be kept informed about a child’s well-being and whereabouts after he or she was removed from their care, and would be given 30-day notice before a child is removed from their home in non-emergencies. The bill also called for creating an eight- to 10-member board to advise DCF on foster care and adoption issues.
None of these proposed measures are cited in the DCF packets.
“We’re working with DCF on this,” Ross said. “We’re trying to come up with a compromise because these things are important and need to be in there.”
Ross said she plans to participate in a “bill of rights work group” that DCF has put together. Others in the group include state officials, young adults who have been in foster care, child protection workers, service providers, and members of the Kansas Foster and Adoptive Parent Association.
Saundra Hiller, president of the parent association, testified against SB 394 earlier this year. Attempts to reach Hiller for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.
“This is a good conversation for us to have,” said Melissa Ness, a longtime children’s advocate and a member of the DCF work group. “There are some foster parents out there who don’t believe they’ve been involved enough, and there are some who feel they’ve been involved just the right amount. So we need to keep listening and try to understand what the concerns are that they feel aren’t being addressed. This is an ongoing process.”
Kansas privatized most of its foster care services in 1996, after the state-run system failed several court-ordered reviews. Between 1997 and 2013, the state paid as many as six nonprofit organizations to oversee its foster care, adoption and family preservation efforts.
Last year, DCF opted to contract with just two organizations: KVC Behavioral Healthcare of Olathe and St. Francis Community Services of Salina.
Ness, who’s also a lobbyist, represents St. Francis Community Services.
According to DCF records, more than 6,000 children were in the state’s foster care system in March, April and May – the most in state history.
The number of licensed foster homes in Kansas has remained virtually unchanged – between 2,400 and 2,500 – for the last five years.
As ombudsman, Burget’s annual salary is $52,000.
Freed said foster parents are encouraged to contact Burget at fosterparent@dcf.ks.gov or (844) 279-2306.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A consulting firm that announced plans for a more than $1 million expansion of its Kansas City headquarters could have access to about $2.2 million in state incentives.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced Thursday that ECCO Select will invest more than $1 million to expand its Kansas City headquarters, adding 96 new information technology jobs. ECCO Select is an information technology and management consulting firm founded in Kansas City in 1995.
The state Department of Economic Development says ECCO could access up to $2.2 million in incentives through the Missouri Works program if it meets job creation and investment criteria.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Washington-area group with ties to veteran Republican operatives is spending at least $246,000 on radio and television advertisements in Kansas praising Gov. Sam Brownback in the final weeks before the state’s primary election.
The Alliance for Freedom ads are scheduled to run statewide on radio and cable and broadcast television through the Aug. 5 primary. They support a proposed coal-fired power plant in southwest Kansas and criticize the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
But the ads also praise Brownback for supporting the coal plant and fighting the EPA.
Tax records available online show the alliance formed in 2010, and it lists GOP consultant Barry Bennett as president and an Alexandria, Virginia, address. He has a consulting firm with Mary Cheney, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal authorities have charged FedEx Corp. with assisting illegal pharmacies by knowingly delivering dangerous drugs to customers without prescriptions.
The Department of Justice announced the charges Thursday. The charges allege the Memphis, Tennessee, shipping company conspired with two related online pharmacies for 10 years ending in 2010.
FedEx is accused of shipping the powerful sleeping aid Ambien, anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and other drugs to customers with no legitimate medical need and lacking valid prescriptions.
FedEx insists it did nothing wrong. A company spokesman says it will plead not guilty and “defend against this attack” on its integrity.
FedEx first disclosed the federal investigation in a regulatory filing in November 2012. The company said at that time it had done nothing wrong and intended to fight any charges.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas health officials have issued warnings for seven lakes around the state because of toxic algae.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in a release Thursday that high levels of toxic blue-green algae have been found at Chisolm Creek Park Lake in Sedgwick County, Marion Reservoir, Memorial Park Lake in Barton County, Milford Reservoir in Clay, Geary and Dickinson counties, Jewell State Fishing Lake, Lake Warnock in Atchison County and South Park Lake in Johnson County.
Warnings mean water conditions aren’t safe for direct contact and that wading, skiing and swimming should be prohibited.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A National Transportation Safety Board report on an Oklahoma plane crash that killed two Kansas men says a part of the aircraft was found more than a mile from the crash site.
The April 7, 2013, crash killed retired gynecologist Ronald Marshall of Manhattan, Kansas, and Chris Gruber, the development director for the college of veterinary medicine at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
The NTSB factual report released Wednesday says the fiberglass belly skin panel of the plane was found about 1.4 miles from the site. It does not offer a suspected cause of the crash.
The report says the single-engine Mooney M20J piloted by Marshall took off from Tulsa International Airport at 5:47 p.m. and crashed about 13 minutes later in the back yard of a vacant home near Collinsville.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A former cook at an eastern Kansas detention facility has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for not reporting that an inmate with whom she had an intimate relationship had escaped.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom’s office says 34-year-old Jessica Wilmer-Davis pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced Thursday on one count of misprision, or failing to report a federal crime.
In her plea agreement Wilmer-Davis acknowledged getting involved in a romantic relationship with inmate Joshua Spurgeon in November at Grossman Center in Leavenworth, where she was a contract cook.
She also admitted knowing that he left the detention center without permission on Dec. 9 to avoid an upcoming drug test, and that she saw him on Dec. 11 after he had escaped.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new federal earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about half of the United States and lowers it for nearly a quarter of the nation.
The U.S. Geologic Survey updated Thursday its national seismic hazard maps for the first time since 2008, taking into account research from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the Japanese coast and the surprise 2011 Virginia temblor.
Most of the changes are slight. Project chief Mark Petersen said parts of Washington, Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming and Tennessee moved into the top two hazard zones.
Parts of 16 states have the highest risk for earthquakes: Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and South Carolina.
