U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill released the following statement after news that Cerner Corp. in Kansas City announced an expansion at the new Three Trails Crossing:

“This is terrific news for Kansas City jobs-and it’s further evidence that, far from the continued partisan bickering in Washington about the Affordable Care Act, the law is working to protect Missourians, expand insurance, and provide a boost to business opportunities. If ‘Obamacare’ is threatening the economy as some elected officials claim, then somebody forgot to tell the economy.”

Cerner has rapidly expanded over the past few years, with a significant portion of that growth attributed to federal information technology (IT) resources included in the Affordable Care Act, as well as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Cerner was previously identified as a company especially poised to benefit from the health care law-and last year, the company’s Executive Vice President was quoted in the Kansas City Star as saying that the Affordable Care Act has been the “full employment act” for health care IT professionals.

McCaskill also noted that the failure of the Missouri Legislature to expand Medicaid coverage as provided for in the Affordable Care Act, with the federal government covering most of the costs of the expansion, is harming the state economically. While health IT provisions-which cannot be blocked by the Missouri Legislature-are enabling companies like Cerner to add jobs, the failure to expand Medicaid in Missouri means that thousands of Missourians will not get access to healthcare coverage, that Missouri hospitals are being squeezed financially, and that thousands of jobs may be at risk or lost.

“One thing that we know that is threatening Missouri jobs, is the Legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid coverage,” McCaskill added. “Expanding Medicaid coverage will mean more folks in our state get the protection of health insurance, will provide resources for Missouri hospitals and doctors, and will create jobs. Every day that the Legislature delays expanding Medicaid means Missourians’ federal tax dollars are being spent in to other states.”

MOSCOW (AP) — An Islamic militant group in Russia’s North Caucasus has claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd last month and posted a video threatening to strike the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

There had been no previous claim of responsibility for the bombings, which killed 34 people and heightened security fears before next month’s Olympics.

In the video, two Russian-speaking men sitting in front of black banners with Arabic verses warn President Vladimir Putin that if the games are held, “we will give you a present for the innocent Muslim blood being spilled all around the world.”

They add that “for the tourists who come there will be a present, too.”

The video was posted Sunday on the website of the militant group Vilayat Dagestan.

Sunday UPDATE   LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence police have identified a 52-year-old man whose body was found at his home while police were looking for a missing woman.

Sgt. Trent McKinley said Sunday in a release that officers found the body of Harold M. Sasko late Friday. He says officers went to the house in an attempt to locate 19-year-old Sarah Brooke Gonzales McLinn, who has not been seen for several days. Her family reported her missing.

McKinley says the cause of Sasko’s death was not released. No suspects have been identified.

He says police continue to try to locate McLinn and Sasko’s vehicle, a dark gray or blue 2008 Nissan Altima with Kansas license number AK149.

 

Saturday  (AP) — Lawrence police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found inside a home officers were checking on a missing person report.

Sgt. Trent McKinley said Saturday that officers went to the home late Friday in an attempt to contact the individual reported missing by family members. Officers found the body of the man, who apparently suffered traumatic injuries that police didn’t specify.

McKinley says the case is considered a homicide, and the victim has not been positively identified.

He says police are still looking for the missing person, identified as 19-year-old Sarah Brooke Gonzales McLinn, who also lives at the home and hasn’t been seen in several days. Police say she may be in a dark gray 2008 Nissan Altima with a license number AK149.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he doesn’t think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol.

Obama doesn’t argue for legalizing pot. But he says in an interview with “The New Yorker” that pot is less dangerous than alcohol, quote, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”

The president has acknowledged using pot when he was young and calls it “a bad idea.” He says he’s troubled that poor kids, many of them African American and Latinos, are far more likely to get locked up for smoking pot than middle-class kids.

But Obama urges a cautious approach, saying people who think legalizing pot will solve social problems are, quote, “probably overstating the case.”

When it comes to harder drugs, he says, the harm to users and the social costs are profound.

 

KHI News Service

A new report from the surgeon general finds that smoking causes even more physical and financial damage than previously estimated.

Among the highlights in the report, which was released 50 years after the first report tied cigarettes to lung cancer:

Cigarettes play a part in causing 10 more diseases than previously thought, including diabetes, liver cancer and colorectal cancer, bringing the total to more than 30.
480,000 Americans die each year from these disease — up from the previous estimate of 443,000.
Smoking leads to $289 billion in medical bills and lost productivity — nearly $100 billion more than previously reported. This includes as much as $176 billion for direct medical care of adults, $151 billion for lost productivity due to premature death and $5.6 billion for lost productivity due to exposure to secondhand smoke.
Today’s cigarette smokers face a much higher risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than smokers did 50 years ago, despite smoking fewer cigarettes. The report points to changes in the design and composition of cigarettes as the only reasonable explanation for the increased risk of lung cancer.
Without action to reduce smoking, 5.6 million children under age 18 alive today will die prematurely from smoking-caused disease.
“The battle is not over,” said acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak. “The problem isn’t solved. We still have 18 percent of our adult population smoking. And 5.6 million kids who are alive today will die early unless we take immediate action.”

Kansas advocates for tobacco control echoed Lushniak’s call to action.

“We must not think that tobacco use is a problem of the past,” said Jeff Willett, Vice President of Programs at the Kansas Health Foundation, the parent organization of the KHI News Service.

“Tobacco kills more Kansans than illegal drugs, homicide, suicide, car crashes and AIDS combined. Treating diseases caused by smoking is one reason our Medicaid and other health care costs are out of control. Reducing smoking will save lives and money in Kansas. Kansans need to support efforts that prevent kids from starting and help adult smokers who want to quit,” he said.

In a joint media release, the Kansas Health Foundation, Tobacco Free Kansas, the American Lung Association in Kansas, the American Heart Association and the Cancer Action Network said the state needs to do more to reduce tobacco use, noting that 1 of every 7 deaths in the state in 2012 was caused by smoking.

The Wichita-based health foundation recently launchedan initiative aimed at reducing smoking among Kansans with mental illness. It is recruiting 25 people from across the state to participate in its 2014 fellows program, which will be devoted to devising a specific plan to address the problem.

Persons with serious mental illness on average die 25 years earlier than people in the general population due primarily to smoking- and obesity-related diseases, Willett said.

“This population is rapidly becoming the last frontier (in the effort to reduce smoking),” he said. “In Kansas, roughly one-third of all cigarettes smoked are smoked by people with mental illness.”

U.S. Census data showing where smokers are concentrated in Kansas
County	Adult Smokers	% of Adults Who Smoke
Sedgwick	84,835	23.0%
Johnson	64,898	15.6%
Shawnee	32,298	23.9%
Wyandotte	28,484	30.9%
Douglas	17,709	19.3%
Leavenworth	15,615	26.5%
Riley	13,033	21.1%
Reno	12,488	25.3%
Butler	10,556	21.7%
Saline	10,512	25.0%

(AP) — A 38-year-old registered sex offender has been sentenced to six months in jail after his second eavesdropping conviction.

Christopher John Symington was accused of taking photos up the skirts of an unsuspecting woman in a Johnson County business. He was sentenced Friday in Johnson County District Court after pleading guilty to breach of privacy.

Symington had previously been placed on probation after a conviction for a similar crime in 2010 at a business in Overland Park. Court records show Symington also has a 2002 statutory sodomy conviction in Missouri in a case involving a 16-year-old girl.

 

 (AP) – Kansas City police say they could solve more homicides if more witnesses would step forward with information about the killings.

Investigators typically solve about half of the city’s homicides each year. They had a 55 percent clearance rate in 2013.

Their efforts to raise that rate are hampered by reluctant witnesses, tougher suspects and blurred lines between self-defense and murder.

Last year 58 of the city’s 106 homicides were solved, with criminal charges filed in 36 cases.

Police say they usually know fairly quickly who killed someone, but without witnesses who will cooperate it’s often difficult to get enough evidence for charges.

Experts say the lifestyles of many homicide victims mirror those of their killers, making it even more difficult to crack cases.