JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri lawmakers are seeking to allow new charges on cellphones and wireless devices to help improve the state’s 911 system.

Public safety officials say many counties cannot identify the location of someone who uses a cellphone to call 911.

Legislation advancing this year would establish a 3-percent charge on prepaid wireless devices. Proceeds would go for the poison control center and for counties to improve 911.

The proposals also would give counties a new 911 funding option by permitting a monthly fee on devices that can contact 911. The fee would be capped at $1.50 and require voter approval. Counties currently can assess a fee on landline phones or a sales tax. Counties would not be permitted to combine funding options.

by Kansas Health Institute

TOPEKA — Johnson County has been ranked as the healthiest county in the state, according to the fifth annual County Health Rankings, released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI). Woodson County, located in southeast Kansas, was ranked the lowest in overall health outcomes this year.

The County Health Rankings rank the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states. The Rankings allow counties to see how well they are doing on 29 factors that influence health including smoking, education, employment, physical inactivity, and access to healthy foods.

According to the 2014 Rankings, the five healthiest counties in Kansas, starting with most healthy, are Johnson, followed by Riley, Pottawatomie, Wabaunsee and Stevens.

The five counties in the poorest health, starting with least healthy, are Woodson, Elk, Wyandotte, Chautauqua and Decatur.

The greatest responsibility we have as American citizens – certainly as elected officials – is to make certain the American Dream may be lived by those who follow us. In my view, the greatest threat to our children and grandchildren being able to pursue their own dreams is our staggering national debt and deficits. It is our responsibility to deal with this issue.

Much of the conversation in Washington about how to reduce the national debt focuses on spending levels and tax rates. While these are important issues to debate, we must not forget about another equally important way to help reduce the federal deficit: growing the economy.

No matter what tax rates are, more tax revenue is generated when the economy is growing. With a projected budget deficit of $514 billion this year, economic growth is desperately needed to fill the hole. Increased economic growth rates of just 0.1 percent per year for 25 years would add more than $1 trillion in deficit-cutting revenue. Just imagine the impact of significant and sustained growth; it has happened before in America and it can happen again.

From our nation’s earliest days, entrepreneurs have been the driving force behind U.S. economic expansion and they remain so today. Data from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation shows that companies less than five years old account for nearly all net new job creation in the United States. Since 1977, new businesses have created an average of 3 million jobs each year. What is shifting today are the locations of these startups. Research by both Engine and Kauffman shows that high-tech startups are forming in communities across our country – not just in the cities traditionally known as high-tech hubs. And as these young companies grow, they will contribute to the economy, hire more workers, and take on the flavor and personality of the cities they call home.

Kansas City’s Startup Village is one example. It began mostly by chance when a group of entrepreneurs decided to start companies in Kansas City, Kansas, in the first neighborhood equipped with Google’s high-speed Internet service. Within just 10 months, the Startup Village has become home to more than two dozen startup companies. Kansas City’s reputation as a growing tech hub is creating a buzz across the country.

Technological advancement, especially access to the Internet, has enabled high-tech firms to take root in other smaller cities like Omaha, Boulder, Provo and Wichita. So it’s no surprise that innovative new products and significant high-tech job growth are emerging in those same regions.

This is good news, but entrepreneurs today face stinging headwinds: an arcane tax code, an oppressive regulatory environment, limited access to capital, global competition for talent, and increasingly bloody scraps with our nation’s patent system.

If we’re interested in an America with higher levels of employment, bigger paychecks and better products at lower prices, Congress should make life easier – not more difficult – for entrepreneurs. To do this, I introduced legislation called Startup Act 3.0 to help create a better environment for entrepreneurs and address the growing challenges new businesses face.

Startup Act 3.0 changes the federal regulatory process to lessen government burdens on job-creators, modifies the tax code to encourage investment, and seeks to accelerate the commercialization of university research that can lead to new ventures. The bill also provides new opportunities for highly educated and entrepreneurial immigrants to stay in the United States where their talent and ideas can fuel economic growth.

For more than two years, this legislation has been earning praise from business owners, entrepreneurs, economists and elected officials. The California State Senate passed a resolution calling on Congress to pass Startup Act 3.0 and the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness has voiced support for several of the bill’s provisions. Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated to progress within the halls of Congress.

Recent “all-or-nothing” approaches to lawmaking have proved to be unwieldy and highly problematic. One needs to only look back to the Dodd-Frank Act and the Affordable Care Act to know that this strategy doesn’t produce promised or desired outcomes. Today, a handful of practical bills like Startup Act 3.0 lay waiting to be granted a vote. Many would pass overwhelmingly if only given the chance.

Congress should seize this opportunity to address the challenges entrepreneurs face in a targeted and thoughtful manner. Entrepreneurs bring us innovative products, more consumer choice and create jobs along the way. When startups thrive, society is better off and we all enjoy the benefits.

Sen. Jerry Moran represents Kansas in the U.S. Senate.

by Blake Hurst, president of Missouri Farm Bureau

The millennials are back in the news and the results are interesting. According to the folks at the Pew Research Center, only around a quarter of this age group (18-33) is married; they are having trouble finding jobs; and almost half the births to women in this age cohort are out of wedlock. Millennials are much less likely to attend church than preceding generations. Unlike their parents’ generation, millennials distrust most people, not just those over 30.

Sociologist Brad Wilcox worries that these trends show a declining attachment to the institutions that have made our nation uniquely successful. Marriage, church and career are touchstones of productive lives, but millennials, for whatever reason, have little desire to be connected to these institutions or are delaying their attachment. Nearly half of baby boomers were married by the same point in their lives.

What on earth does this have to do with farming? Large changes in society are likely to change consumers’ food budgets and choices. If millennials are struggling financially, they’ll eat less steak. If they don’t live in traditional family settings, they may search out convenience foods and eat out more. If they’ve rejected traditional values and institutions, they may be more vulnerable to the latest food scare. Any of these trends could change where food is consumed, what food is chosen, and how and where it’s prepared.

I spend a lot of time with young people involved in agriculture: high school students enrolled in vocational agriculture classes, ag majors in college and young people beginning their career in farming. Although the latest ag census shows that a farmer’s average age is 58 and that age increased over the past five years, the enthusiasm for farming in the young people I meet is strong. The economic future for farming is encouraging for young people thinking about entering agriculture. Farm Bureau is seeing increased attendance at our events for young farmers, and I believe the long trend toward older farmers is likely to slow or reverse.

Pew didn’t split out rural folks in its survey, and although I’m sure that national trends don’t avoid small farm towns, I’m also convinced the young people entering agriculture are outliers in the social trends affecting the rest of the nation. My observations are that young farmers are more likely to marry young, more likely to attend church regularly and are already launched upon a challenging and rewarding career. Are the young farm families that I meet a sturdy remnant and reminder of what once was, and what might be again? No industry spends as much effort training and instilling values in their children as do the people involved in farming. Organizations like 4-H and FFA prepare kids not only for work on the farm, but for life. Farm kids spend time with their parents, providing the labor (not always willingly) that makes farms successful. That work may or may not be important to the farm economically, but it always teaches the values vital for successful lives.

Farmers provide food, energy and clothes for the rest of the nation. We may also provide something even more important, by serving as an example to the rest of the country. A devotion to work, family and faith may not guarantee personal happiness, but experience and observation lead me to believe they are vital to our national well-being.

Blake Hurst, of Westboro, Mo., is the president of Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.

Jefferson City, MO–Sunday, March 30, will mark the second observance of Vietnam Veterans Day in Missouri, and Gov. Jay Nixon is encouraging Missourians to give special recognition and honor to veterans of the conflict in southeast Asia on that day.
In 2012, Gov. Nixon signed into law a bill designating March 30 as Vietnam Veterans Day in Missouri. The day is designed to encourage Missourians to observe the day with appropriate events, activities and remembrances in honor of those who served during the Vietnam conflict.

“Those Americans who served in Vietnam gave the same measure of sacrifice as veterans of our country’s other wars but, for many, the recognition of their honorable service was slow in coming,” Gov. Nixon said. “Vietnam Veterans Day can remind us to give the honor that is due to these soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, and to thank them for what they did on our behalf.”

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a demonstration project of the “Excellence in Mental Health Act,” bipartisan legislation that was introduced by U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) in the Senate and by and U.S. Representatives Doris Matsui (Calif.) and Leonard Lance (N.J.) in the House. The amendment expands access to community mental health services and strengthens the quality of care provided for those living with mental illness.

A version of the Excellence in Mental Health Act was included as an amendment to the House’s so-called “doc-fix” (SGR) bill to establish pilot programs in eight states that will increase access to community mental health centers and improve the quality of care at those centers. The bill now heads for a final vote in the Senate, where a version of the bill was passed as an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee.

“The House took an important step forward by passing this bipartisan proposal, which Senator Stabenow and I have long championed in the Senate. Approximately one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year across America. We’ve got a model that works, and now is the time for the Senate to act,” said Blunt.

Overland Park—-A Mo. teenager was injured in a Friday crash in Johnson County

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Anthony G. Smith Jr., 19, Independence, Mo.was southbound on I-35 at 75^th Street. The driver had a seizure and ran into the guardrail.

He was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. The KHP said he was wearing a seat belt.