MOBERLY (AP) – A Wentzville middle school student has won the 2014 Missouri Geographic Bee.

Evan Hensel, an 8th grader at Wentzville Middle School, won the state-level bee Friday in Moberly. He now will represent Missouri in the national finals of the Bee at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington. The national bee is May 19-21, 2014.

Hensel also receives $100 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington for the national contest where he will compete against other fourth- to eighth-graders.

First prize in the national competition includes a $50,000 college scholarship.

By Mike Shields
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — A new report from federal officials shows that Medicaid enrollment in Kansas continues to climb.

Kansas officials said they attribute the increase to greater awareness of the program due to the Affordable Care Act and the recent promotions and advertising of the health insurance marketplace.
“We are not surprised to see the increased enrollment. As the AON study and others predicted, implementation of the ACA at the federal level influenced Medicaid and CHIP enrollment in Kansas and other states,” said Miranda Steele, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state’s lead Medicaid agency. CHIP is the acronym for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In Kansas, Medicaid and CHIP are combined for marketing purposes and known as KanCare.

The study was done by the consultant group AON Hewitt for the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback when it was considering the possibility of expanding eligibility for the state’s Medicaid program.

Brownback and others in his administration have cited the report when describing their concerns that expanding the program could cost the state too much money.

The consultants predicted that Medicaid-CHIP enrollment would increase by 20,563 this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, even if state policymakers chose against broadening the program, as the result of what is called “the woodwork effect.”

Presumably, people already eligible for Medicaid but perhaps unaware of the program came “out of the woodwork” as they learned they could get benefits.

According to the federal report released Friday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kansas enrollment grew to 415,284 in February, a 4.3 percent increase over monthly averages preceding the October launch of the Obamacare marketplace.
Steele said enrollment rose another 5,000 in March even though KDHE “had temporarily delayed eligibility reviews as part of the conversion to the ACA-mandated Modified Adjusted Gross Income methodology and the transition to our new eligibility system.”

She said those reviews have since resumed.

According to the AON forecast, growth in Kansas Medicaid-CHIP enrollment will “ramp up” by 41,538 enrollees by the end of 2016.

The consultants predicted that more than 225,000 Kansans would gain Medicaid-CHIP coverage if state policymakers chose to loosen eligibility restrictions in keeping with the Affordable Care Act.

Kansas currently has some of the most restrictive sign-up standards in the nation with benefits mostly limited to poor children, elderly and the disabled. Childless, able-bodied adults can’t qualify regardless how poor they are.

An Associated Press survey of the nation’s 32 death penalty states found that the vast majority refuse to disclose the source of their execution drugs. Some states with laws shielding information about execution drugs and policies and the challenges to those laws:

MISSOURI

Laws: Shield the “identities of members of the execution team, as defined in the execution protocol of the department of corrections.” Last year, the Missouri Department of Corrections amended its protocol to show that the execution team consists of “contracted medical personnel” and department employees. The phrasing allows the department to include the pharmacy that makes its execution drug as part of the team and not subject to public scrutiny.

Challenge: A lawsuit filed on behalf of 16 inmates claims Missouri’s refusal to name the drugmaker, even privately to attorneys, makes it impossible to know whether the drug is suitable for an execution, or whether its use could violate the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

OKLAHOMA

Law: Shields the “identity of all persons who participate in or administer the execution process and persons who supply the drugs, medical supplies or medical equipment for the execution. … The purchase of drugs, medical supplies or medical equipment necessary to carry out the execution shall not be subject to the provisions of The Oklahoma Central Purchasing Act.”

Challenge: The state revealed the drug combination it plans to use this month on two inmates after a judge ruled they had a right to know about the drugs. The state attorney also said promised a lab analysis to ensure the efficacy of the drugs and provide it to anyone who requests it.

TEXAS

Position: Texas announced that it found a new source of compounded pentobarbital but will not reveal the identity of the supplier.

Challenge: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the execution Thursday of an inmate who sought to get the Texas prison system to disclose more information about where it gets lethal-injection drugs.

GEORGIA

Law: Shields the “identifying information of any person or entity who participates in or administers the execution of a death sentence and the identifying information of any person or entity that manufactures, supplies, compounds, or prescribes the drugs, medical supplies, or medical equipment utilized in the execution of a death sentence.”

Challenge: A state court last year stayed an execution after a death row inmate challenged the law. The case is pending before the state Supreme Court, which has effectively halted executions.

LOUISIANA

Law: Identities of people “who participate or perform ancillary functions in an execution of the death sentence, either directly or indirectly, shall remain strictly confidential and the identities of those persons and information about those persons which could lead to the determination of the identities of those persons shall not be subject to public disclosure in any manner.”

Challenge: The law is not currently the focus of litigation, although the state has previously defended it. The U.S. Supreme Court is now weighing an appeal by a death row inmate trying to get information about the seller and maker of drugs the state uses in executions.

STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Wildlife and environmental groups are claiming victory when it comes to conservation under the new farm bill.

Two of their top priorities made it into the law, which set federal farm policy for the next five years.

One is “conservation compliance,” which means farmers will have to use good conservation practices on highly erodible lands and protect wetlands to qualify for crop insurance premium subsidies.

The other creates “sodsaver” protections to discourage farmers from plowing up native grasslands in the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska.

It wasn’t a total victory, though. The $57.6 billion in the farm bill for conservation programs over the next 10 years represents a net reduction of $4 billion. And conservationists are disappointed that fewer acres can be enrolled in the popular Conservation Reserve Program

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Officials from universities nationwide are getting set for a wave of military veterans going back to college after wars abroad and defense budget cuts.

A three-day conference titled “Success for Student Veterans” begins Friday at the University of South Carolina to discuss ways academia can help the new vets with the transition.

Tens of thousands of new veterans are expected to return to college or the workforce in the next several years as the military downsizes after wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as the Pentagon budget is pared back.

The director of Veteran Services at the University of South Florida, Lawrence Braue (‘brow’), is one of several participating experts and is exhorting universities to help veterans make the leap from the military to life on a college campus.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A suspended Kansas City police officer has been convicted of one count corruption but found not guilty on four other charges after he was accused of having sex with two women in exchange for not arresting them.

The jury convicted Jeffrey Holmes on Friday of one corruption charge but found him not guilty of four other charges involving corruption and sex-related accusations. The jury also recommended that Holmes be sentenced to 15 days in the county jail and pay an undetermined fine.

The Kansas City Star reports that two women accused Holmes of coming to their hotel rooms in 2012, indicating he was going to arrest them for prostitution, but having sex with each of them instead.

Holmes has been on unpaid suspension from the department.

JOPLIN (AP) – A recently released report says Joplin’s former city manager did not get along with other city leaders before he was fired in February.

Joplin City administrators on Friday released supporting documents and full copies of the 31-page report by special investigator Thomas Loraine, an Osage Beach attorney.

The special report focuses on former City Manager Mark Rohr. The Joplin Globe and its parent company, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., sought the report’s release after Rohr was fired on Feb. 4. The report said Rohr tried to use divisions in the city council to his benefit.

The Joplin Globe reports that Rohr denies the allegations and says the divide in the Joplin city council made his job much more difficult.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police are investigating after a 12-year-old boy found his father’s body in the trunk of his car in a parking garage.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Marisa Barnes told The Kansas City Star the victim had not been seen for several days.

Police say the victim, who was in his 50s, lived alone.