WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has released its first draft of a 50-year “water vision” plan that aims to ensure a reliable supply for all citizens.

The Kansas Water Office posted the document Tuesday on its website. It plans a statewide tour starting July 7 to gather public input.

The plan includes an ambitious blend of conservation, reservoir management, technological advancements in irrigation and plant varieties and development of new sources.

Without action, it contends that in the next 70 years the Ogallala Aquifer will be 70 percent depleted and Kansas reservoirs will be 40 percent filled with sediment.

Among the suggestions is the transfer of water supplies between basins.

Kansas wants to reduce municipal and statewide water consumption by 20 percent by 2065.

LINWOOD, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas organization that helps returned injured animals to the wild is suffering from some financial injuries.

Operation Wildlife in Linwood is facing an unexpected $12,000 in repair costs after its well, washing machine and air conditioner broke down in the last month.

Director Diane Johnson said Monday the problems come at the busiest time of the year for the organization, which is full of baby animals and an unusual number of injured animals.

The organization found out a month ago that its well was collapsing. The Lawrence Journal-World says a contractor fixed the well and agreed to do the work on credit. The air conditioner went out a few days later.

Operation Wildlife is licensed but receives no government funds. It draws all its funds from donations.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 10-year-old Kansas City boy who was paralyzed in a shooting that killed his father has been released from the hospital.
Police say the April 18 shooting outside a gas station left 34-year-old Ka’Vyea Curry II dead and his son paralyzed from the waist down.
Twenty-seven-year-old Dontae D. Jefferson has been charged with first-degree murder and five other felonies.

Prosecutors say Jefferson walked up to Curry as he was getting into his car and fired eight shots, with one bullet hitting the boy. A 5-year-old boy was not injured.

Children’s Mercy Hospital says Ka’Vyea was released Monday, and will begin therapy Tuesday.
The Kansas City Star reports doctors have given his family different odds on whether Ka’Vyea will regain some mobility.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas couple will always have an unusual wedding story to tell.

Jared Lightle was outside during the reception Saturday at the Scottish Rite Temple in downtown Joplin when his mother said someone had taken cards from a gift table in the lobby. He took off running — in his tuxedo and patent leather shoes — yelling “Stop Thief!” His father and brother joined in the chase.

Police who were investigating a traffic accident nearby eventually caught the suspect.

The Joplin Globe reports 31-year-old Rosario Caruso, of Lamar, was charged with trespassing, larceny and resisting arrest.

Saturday’s ceremony was a renewal of vows for Jared and Stephanie Lightle, of Galena, Kansas. They were married one year ago at a courthouse in Texas just before Jared was deployed to Afghanistan.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major medical association is calling for an end to annual pelvic exams for most healthy women. The American College of Physicians says routine pelvic exams don’t benefit women who have no symptoms of disease and who aren’t pregnant, and they can cause harm. According to the latest data, some 62 million of the tests were performed in the U.S. in 2010.

PRAIRIE VILLAGE- A northeast Kansas fireworks importer, Winco Fireworks International LLC, of Prairie Village is recalling a brand of shell fireworks.

This recall involves Contraband 24 fireworks kits with canister shells and firing tubes that are designed to be used multiple times.

Shells are put into each tube one by one and lit. The shells are about 1 ¼inches in diameter. The tubes in some kits may be too narrow and not allow the shell to drop to the bottom of the tube when loaded.

The firm has received two reports of the firing tubes being too narrow, including one report of a shell blowing up in a tube and causing minor burns and cuts to the legs.
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled fireworks kits and return them to the place of purchase to receive a full refund.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man whose first conviction was overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court has been found guilty again in a death after a barroom fight.

A Shawnee County District Court jury on Monday convicted 29-year-old James Arthur Qualls III of premeditated first-degree murder in the July 2008 death of Joseph Beier. Qualls will be sentenced July 23.

Beier was shot 12 times in a confrontation at the Whiplash Bar. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Qualls testified that he shot Beier in self-defense.

Qualls was first convicted in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison with a mandatory minimum term of 25 years. But the Kansas Supreme Court ordered a new trial after finding that the judge in the first trial gave improper jury instructions.

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man is in custody after a shooting at a gas station and a four-hour standoff at a house in central Topeka.

Police say 51-year-old Daniel Lynn Cregut was booked into jail Monday night on several charges, including four counts of attempted murder.

Officers went to a gas station after a woman called to say she was being chased by a man with a gun.

Police say that man fired into the store and a bystander, 35-year-old Bryon Snyder, was shot. He is in critical but stable condition at a Topeka hospital.

Lt. John Sturgeon says after the shooting, police tracked Cregut to the home. The standoff ended when Cregut came out of the house without incident.

STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press
KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans say they’ve won an election-year victory from a Supreme Court ruling that allows some companies to opt out of providing contraception to women under the nation’s new health care law.

But Democrats have also found encouragement from the ruling. They say it will be unpopular with younger voters and women who depend upon health insurance for birth control — two groups Democrats want to rally in this year’s midterm elections.

Republicans say the decision is a win for religious freedom and offers more evidence that President Barack Obama’s signature policy achievement is deeply flawed. Democrats say it brings attention to women’s reproductive rights, an issue Democrats have tried to highlight in key Senate races this fall.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) learned that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General (IG) will release the findings of two reports Tuesday July 1, 2014, on Obamacare verification systems. The first report reviews the effectiveness of the procedures and safeguards for preventing fraudulent or inaccurate information by applicants enrolling in health plans through the Obamacare insurance Exchanges. This report finds that the Obamacare system lacks internal controls to verify information provided by individuals enrolling through Obamacare. The second report details the inconsistencies that arose as part of the haphazard enrollment process. The IG finds that most exchanges were unable to resolve the majority of inconsistencies, most often relating to income and citizenship. In particular, the federal exchange was unable to resolve 2.6 million out of 2.9 million inconsistencies as of February 2014.

“The Administration has unilaterally changed Obamacare to bend every rule it can – delayed regulations, changed the enrollment period, and given select individual and employer exemptions – to try and make the law work,” Sen. Moran said. “Once again, we are provided further evidence that Obamacare is not working. In fact, the Administration is relying on nothing more than the honor system to run a billion dollar program. Without adequate safeguards or the ability to reconcile inconsistencies in income and citizenship, the Administration is wasting millions in American taxpayers’ dollars to provide subsidies to individuals who do not actually qualify.”

Without a process in place to verify an enrollee’s income or citizenship, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency responsible for implementing Obamacare, will continue to process applications based on nothing more than the honor system. As a result, the Administration will hand out inaccurate subsidies while relying on an unproven, incomplete back-end system to recoup incorrect subsidies during the tax filing process. This disorganization will result in massive uncertainty with the Administration having to dedicate more taxpayer dollars to reclaim the incorrect subsidies from enrollees who may not have the money to pay them back. In addition, many Americans who based their insurance choice off inaccurate subsidy information may now see their premiums increase as their subsidy is reduced by the Administration.

In May, Senator Moran demanded a response from the Department of Health and Human Services about a press report stating the federal government may be paying incorrect Obamacare subsidies to more than 1 million individuals. The Department has yet to respond to the Senator’s letter.