JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed legislation intended to protect students’ religious expression at public schools.

The bill signed Wednesday says students cannot face discrimination for expressing their religious viewpoints in homework, artwork and other class assignments. It says those projects must be graded according to ordinary academic standards.

The legislation also says that students may pray while at school and wear clothing and jewelry displaying religious messages to the same extent that other types of clothes are accessories are allowed.

Another part of the bill says that student religious groups shall be given the same access to using school facilities as other kinds of non-curricular groups.

CHANUTE, Kan- Five people were hospitalized following a Wednesday accident in Neosho County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Silverado driven by Megan Michelle Carnahan, 34, Parsons was northbound on U.S.169 two miles south of Chanute. The truck crossed the centerline and struck the rear dual tires of a 2007 Volvo tractor-trailer.

Carnahan and 4 children under the age of 12 were transported to Neosho County Regional Hospital
The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A Kansas City man who was barred from attending his own trial has been found guilty in the shooting deaths of three people, including his estranged girlfriend.

The Kansas City Star reports 49-year-old Derek Hubbard was convicted Wednesday of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The charges stemmed from the November 2011 killings of Hubbard’s estranged girlfriend, Stephanie Brown; Brown’s cousin, Anthony Carlos Richardson; and Richardson’s wife, Mary Richardson.

Hubbard was barred from the courtroom after two outbursts last week, including one in which he attacked his public defender.

In both outbursts Hubbard yelled that he was the victim of a conspiracy that involved Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forte, a childhood friend of Anthony Richardson.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) announced today that they have introduced bipartisan legislation that would take back bonuses paid to employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) who were involved in the manipulation of electronic waitlists.

Because the VA used compliance with wait-time metrics as a factor in determining employee bonuses, some VA employees were incentivized to use secret waitlists to artificially inflate compliance data in order to maximize their bonus payments. According to one report, employees at the Phoenix VA hospital received approximately $10 million in bonuses since 2011, while simultaneously using secret waitlists to hide delays in patients receiving care.

“I’m pleased this bipartisan legislation will hold responsible any VA employee found to have cooked the books on wait times, and will help us quickly recover bonuses and raises paid to those fraudsters with taxpayer dollars,” said McCaskill, the daughter of a World War II veteran. “And I’ll continue holding the agency accountable and demanding VA leadership comply with all recommendations issued in the Inspector General’s interim report.”

“The use of secret waitlists by VA employees to hide actual wait times resulted in the delay or denial of veterans’ access to timely care,” said Ayotte. “It’s outrageous that employees who deliberately manipulated waitlists received bonus pay, and they must be held fully accountable for their misconduct – starting with repaying the funds they wrongly received.”

The McCaskill-Ayotte legislation directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to require VA employees who received bonuses in 2011 or later to repay those bonuses if they contributed to a deliberate omission from an electronic wait list the names of veterans waiting for health care. The employee’s superiors are also required to pay back bonuses if they knew, or reasonably should have known, of their subordinates’ purposeful omission of the names of veterans from electronic waitlists. The bill requires the VA secretary to identify these VA employees through reports issued by the department’s Inspector General.

Earlier this year, McCaskill and Ayotte introduced the “Stop Wasteful Federal Bonuses Act” following an IRS Inspector General report revealing that $2.8 million was paid in bonuses between 2010 and 2012 to 2,800 IRS employees with conduct violations – including more than $1 million for over 1,100 employees who are delinquent on their taxes. Their legislation would prohibit bonuses for federal employees who aren’t in good standing with their agency or the law.

 

Kansas Attorney General’s Office

TOPEKA – A door-to-door paving operation has been banned from doing business in the State of Kansas and ordered to refund three Northeast Kansas consumers, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.

George H. Swartz and James J. Swartz were ordered to repay a total of $8,500 to a Lawrence consumer and two Topeka consumers for violations of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act. In addition, the pavers were permanently banned from doing business in Kansas. District Judge Rebecca Crotty approved the consent judgment last week in Shawnee County District Court.

The defendants, operating under a variety of names, including All Star Asphalt, All Star Paving, Asphalt Solutions and All Star Asphalt Paving, acknowledged that they violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act by failing to provide consumers with a completed receipt, failing to advise consumers of their three-day right to cancel and cashing the consumers’ checks in less than five business days.

Schmidt warned consumers to be especially cautious of door-to-door home repair sales, which claim to offer a good deal.

“With the summer construction season in full swing, consumers should be on the lookout for these fly-by-night operations looking to make a quick buck,” Schmidt said. “Consumers who are in need of driveway repairs should seek out local, reputable contractors and get multiple written estimates before having any work done.”

More tips on staying safe from home repair scams are available on the attorney general’s consumer protection website at www.InYourCornerKansas.org.

WELLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Turnpike Authority says a 25-year-old driver has died after her vehicle collided with a paint-striping crew truck near Wellington.

The crash happened shortly before noon Wednesday on the turnpike about 21 miles north of the Oklahoma line. The victim was later identified as Urmila Sharma, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Turnpike Authority spokeswoman Rachel Bell told The Wichita Eagle Sharma was northbound in the inside lane when she passed one of several crew trucks trailing a paint striper. Sharma merged her vehicle back into the inside lane and struck a second truck in the slow-moving caravan.

Bell says a team of six trucks follows a vehicle painting stripes on the turnpike, with the paint truck usually going about 4 mph and the six trucks following at quarter-mile intervals.

 

———–

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — One person is dead after colliding with a paint-striping crew truck on the Kansas Turnpike near Wellington.

Kansas Turnpike Authority spokeswoman Rachel Bell tells The Wichita Eagle the vehicle was traveling north in the inside lane on Wednesday when the driver passed one of several crew trucks trailing a paint striper. The vehicle merged back into the inside lane and struck a second truck in the slow-moving caravan.

Bell says the driver of the vehicle was killed  The driver been identified as a twenty-five year old woman from Kansas City
She says a team of six trucks follows a vehicle painting stripes on the turnpike, with the paint truck usually going about 4 p.m. and the six other trucks following at quarter-mile intervals.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Washburn University in Topeka is withholding comment for now about being added to a national list of colleges and universities under federal investigation for their response to complaints about sexual assault.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced additions to the list Wednesday. The colleges are facing inquiries under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination on campus. The agency previously released a list of 55 universities under investigation as part of a broader examination by federal officials.

Washburn spokeswoman Amanda Hughes said the university hadn’t received notification as of Wednesday about the federal investigation and couldn’t comment further about any alleged incidents of sexual assault.

Some of the investigations were initiated from complaints made to the Education Department. Others were launched following compliance reviews.

 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has vetoed legislation that would have required a 72-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.

Nixon said he vetoed the bill Wednesday because it didn’t include an exception for rape and incest victims. The Democratic governor said the bill showed “a callous disregard for women who find themselves in horrific circumstances.”

The measure would’ve made Missouri just the third state to require a 72-hour waiting period, along with South Dakota and Utah. Utah’s law includes an exception for rape and incest victims, and people under age 14.

Missouri currently requires a 24-hour wait between when a woman consults a physician and receives an abortion.

The Missouri House approved the legislation with enough votes to override a veto. The Senate was one vote short of a supermajority.