KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Missouri woman pleaded guilty Friday to being part of a conspiracy to operate an Olathe-based business that sold at least $16 million worth of synthetic forms of marijuana and other street drugs, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Cindy McRoberts, 49, Lees Summit, Mo., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and analogues of controlled substances.

According to court records, McRoberts was an employee who worked for co-defendants Tracy Picanso and Roy Ehrett, who owned Olathe-based businesses that produced and sold dangerous controlled substances and controlled substance analogues of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) and methcathinones (stimulants). They used the Internet to market their products under exotic names including Pump It, Head Trip, Black Arts, Grave Digger, Voodoo Doll and Lights Out. Some of the drugs were manufactured in buckets on warehouse floors.

McRoberts worked as the office manager at the office in Olathe and at warehouses in Kansas City, Mo. She answered phones, handled online orders, leased post office boxes, picked up shipments of illegal substances and chemicals, and transported illegal substances and chemicals between warehouses.

She is set for sentencing April 27. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine up to $1 million. Co-defendants Picanso and Ehrett are set for sentencing April 13.

Grissom commended the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration – Office of Criminal Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, the Overland Park Police Department, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Olathe Police Department, the St. Joseph Police Department and the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway for her work on the case.

WASHINGTON, DC – While President Obama visits Lawrence to promote the new taxes and new spending he outlined in his State of the Union address, U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)  suggested the President support the repeal of his own 30 hour work week rule in Obamacare that has hurt student employees at The University of Kansas (KU), the location of today’s speech.

“The American people sent a clear message on election day,” Roberts said. “Folks want us to get things done. They want us to do our work. They want real solutions to the nation’s problems, not tired ideological proposals.

While the President delivered a speech Thursday at the University of Kansas, Senator Roberts participated in a Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee Hearing working to fix the 30-hour work week rule in Obamacare. Kansas press recently reported that the rule has forced KU to cut hours of student employees of the school.

“In the Obama economy, Kansas students are struggling to pay their tuition and even their grocery bills,” Senator Roberts continued. “Obamacare made that burden even more challenging by forcing employers like KU to cap the work hours of many part time student employees.”

When KU announced their new plan, KSHB NBC 41 in Kansas City reported that many KU students were deeply concerned by the forced cuts in work hours.

“I don’t think that I’ve had a semester at KU when I’ve worked less than 25 [hours],” Rachel Prather a KU student with an on-campus job at the tutoring center told KSHB at the time. “I can’t really imagine how I’m going to buy groceries on twenty hours or less a week.”

“Rather than working with the new Congress to fix this devastating Obamacare regulation, President Obama has threatened to veto our bi-partisan bill,” Roberts said. “That’s very disappointing. Perhaps the President’s trip today will allow him to hear firsthand about the effects his policy is having on Kansans.”

Below are Senator Roberts’ remarks on the 30 Hour work week in the HELP Committee as prepared for delivery:

Thursday, President Obama is speaking at the University of Kansas. He will likely be expanding upon many of the proposals that he outlined earlier this week in his State of the Union address.

I am a strong supporter of free speech and it’s certainly an honor for KU to host the President of the United States. KU is a great Kansas institution and I know he will get a warm Jayhawk reception.

I’m glad the President has chosen to visit my state because I believe we offer a good dose of Kansas commonsense. That said, in the case of the Obamacare 30 hour work week, we might also offer a cautionary tale.

The University of Kansas announced late last summer that they have reduced undergraduate student employment hours from 30 hours a week to 20 hours a week and capped graduate student hours at no more than 29 hours per week – all as a result of this new 30 hour rule. That is 5000 students. These are not statistics, these are people.

Regardless of this fact, the President has already announced that he would veto legislation to help restore hours, and therefore wages, for these hardworking students.

The 30 hour rule is clearly one of the more harmful provisions of Obamacare for many of our workers and I hope the President will revisit his refusal to at least address it.

TOPEKA- In a media release, the National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses reported a bipartisan group of legislators have introduced a resolution that would update the state constitution to guarantee the right to hunt, fish, and trap in Kansas.

Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady and Rep. Adam Lusker, who are members of the Kansas Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, introduced House Concurrent Resolution No. 5008, which calls for a statewide constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to hunt and fish for the people of Kansas. If approved by the legislature, the proposed constitutional amendment would be placed on the statewide ballot for approval by voters during the next election cycle.

“Recognizing the long history of sportsmen in the state of Kansas and understanding the danger of constant attacks on hunting, fishing, and trapping placed by anti-hunting organizations, it is important to protect our time honored tradition,” said Representative Travis Couture-Lovelady (R-Palco). “By making hunting, fishing, and trapping a constitutionally protected right, Kansas will show that we unequivocally support what has been inherent for centuries.”

Although many states have only recently added the right to hunt and fish to their state’s constitution, the precedent for constitutional protection of our outdoor heritage was first enacted in 1777, when Vermont recognized the need to guarantee the right for their citizens from the very beginning of their statehood. If successful, Kansas would join 18 other states in affording their citizens with the same constitutional protection.

“It is only right that Kansas, a state with a long heritage of outdoor pursuits, protect its citizen’s divine right to hunt, fish and trap by codifying it in our constitution,” said Representative Adam Lusker (D-Frontnac). “This will ensure that our sons and daughters can enjoy the benefits of the great outdoors for generations to come.”

Specifically, the resolution ensures, “The people have the right to hunt, fish and trap, including by the use of traditional methods, subject to laws and regulations that promote wildlife conservation and management and that preserve the future of hunting and fishing. Public hunting and fishing shall be a preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife. This section shall not be construed to modify any provision of law relating to trespass, property rights or water resources.”

The Kansas Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus recognizes the significant, positive economic impact of sportsmen and women who directly support conservation, as well as the right to continue a consumptive, yet responsible use of fish and wildlife resources.

Through the American System of Conservation funding – a “user-pays, public benefits” model – state-based conservation is primarily funded by hunters, recreational shooters and anglers through their purchases of taxable gear and hunting and fishing licenses. Unfortunately today, anti-hunting organizations often lead the public to believe that hunting, fishing and the ethical harvest of our wildlife resources through traditional means are only a privilege subject to social pressures and prevailing public sentiments rather than an inherent right.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is honoring veterans of World War II’s Battle of the Bulge and commemorating the 70th anniversary of its end.

Brownback signed a proclamation designating Friday as “Battle of the Bulge Day.”

Joining him for the brief Statehouse ceremony were four veterans in their late 80s and early 90s who served in the Army when the battle was fought in Belgium and Luxembourg in December 1944 and January 1945.

The veterans were Bob MacLeay of Lawrence and Paul Scheid, J.D. Sexton and Henry Wanke of Topeka.

The six-week battle arose from the last major German offensive planned by Adolf Hitler himself, which created a bulge in American lines. More than 600,000 American troops fought in freezing temperatures to throw the Germans back.

SCOTT MAYEROWITZ, AP Airlines Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Apparently, airline passengers aren’t buying enough garden gnomes, superhero pajamas and heated cat shelters. SkyMall has filed for bankruptcy.

The quirky in-flight shopping catalog has been a mainstay on airlines for more than three decades. Passengers with nowhere to go would pull it from the seatback and flip through the pages. While flying high over Iowa, they could dream about owning a $16,000 multisensory home sauna or maybe just a grill spatula with a built-in flashlight for $29.95.

But in recent years, passengers have found other distractions. More planes have seatback TV screens. The federal government now allows us to keep Kindles and iPads on during the entire flight. And most jets in the U.S. now have Wi-Fi meaning passengers can chat with friends back home or actually do work.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A measles outbreak that originated in Disneyland has climbed to 78 cases as the virus continues to spread.

California health officials reported Friday that nearly 90 percent of the infections are in California. Forty-eight cases in the state are directly linked to visits to Disney parks or contact with someone who went there.

Measles has also been confirmed in six other states — Utah, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska and Arizona — and Mexico.

The highly contagious illness, which has been eliminated in the U.S., can enter the country from abroad where measles is still a problem. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and a telltale rash.

Health officials have urged people to get vaccinated against measles.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposed budget faces two big hurdles as lawmakers begin the process of crafting next year’s spending plan.
Republican lawmakers said this week they are concerned about approving a supplemental budget request for this year while the governor is withholding money from some priorities.
Nixon asks to spend $140 million from the general revenue fund in his supplemental budget request. Most of the money is for current Medicaid needs, including higher drug costs.
Budget committee chairman and Republican Sen. Kurt Schaefer, of Columbia, says lawmakers are unlikely to give Nixon money when he’s withholding other funds.
Nixon for the next budget also wants more money for public schools and other spending. That money is based primarily on Medicaid expansion, which Republican leaders called a ‘nonstarter.’

JACK GILLUM, Associated Press
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is reversing itself after an outcry over consumer privacy on HealthCare.gov, the government’s health insurance website.

The Associated Press confirms that the administration made changes to the website to scale back release of consumers’ personal information to private companies that analyze Internet performance and sell ads.

The AP reported earlier this week that HealthCare.gov was sending out personal data such as age, income, ZIP code, tobacco use and whether a woman is pregnant.

That prompted lawmakers to demand an explanation. Privacy advocates called for immediate changes.

Administration officials at first defended the practice, saying the outside companies only used the data to analyze the workings of HealthCare.gov and make improvements for consumers.

An administration spokesman has not responded to a request for comment.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union says a Kansas City suburb has agreed to stop ticketing drivers who flash their headlights at oncoming traffic to warn that a speed trap is ahead.

The ACLU of Missouri said in a news release that a lawsuit against the 13,000-resident town of Grain Valley was dismissed Thursday. The federal suit was filed on behalf of Jerry L. Jarman Jr., who was ticketed in August for violating a city code that bars interference with radar and other speed-checking devices.

The ACLU of Missouri alleges the Kansas man was “engaged in expressive conduct” that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

Interim Grain Valley city administrator Ryan Hunt says the city changed its ordinance last month and agreed to pay Jarman $5,560.