LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — President Barack Obama likes to say there are no red states or blue states, just the United States of America. Yet his first two stops on the traditional post-State of the Union tour were in Republican “red” states.

The White House says this is not a coincidence.

Spokesman Josh Earnest says Idaho, where Obama stopped Wednesday, is a good example of a state that’s investing in programs to help people get the skills and training they need to get a good middle-class job.

Obama has emphasized skilled training throughout his presidency.

Earnest notes that the political leadership in Idaho and in Kansas, Obama’s stop on Thursday, is Republican. The President will speak at approximately 11:20 a.m.at the University of Kansas.

He says Obama wanted to visit both states to show that Republican support exists for the types of programs the president supports.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says he is asking for relatively few funding increases in his $26 billion budget proposal for next fiscal year.
State budget director Linda Luebbering calls the budget ‘modest’ and says the state is recovering after revenues fell significantly short of expectations last year.
Nixon’s proposed budget includes a $50 million increase in basic aid for public schools and $12 million more for performance-based funding for public colleges and universities. He’s also asking lawmakers to approve more money for services to people with disabilities and programs to help the aging.
The Democratic governor said even more could be spent on education and other programs if lawmakers would approve several measures that could enhance revenues, including an expansion of Medicaid. Republican lawmakers have previously declined to do that.

LIBERAL – Students from Garden City Community College avoided injury in accident just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday in Seward County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Peterbilt semi driven by Raymon D. England, 52, Foster, OK., was northbound on U.S. 83 eleven miles north of Liberal.

The cargo on the trailer struck the top driver side of a southbound activity bus transporting the Garden City Community College women’s basketball team.

There were 19 people on the bus. Nobody was seriously injured. The team was traveling to play Seward County Community College. The game was rescheduled for next month.

The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri transportation officials say a bill to end weight limits on trucks carrying livestock and grain would damage state bridges and roadways.

The concerns came along with praise from farmers who told the Senate’s agriculture committee on Wednesday the bill would help foster the state’s agricultural industry.

The legislation would expand a current law that removed weight limits on trucks carrying milk across the state.

But officials from the Department of Transportation warned that the additional weight could hurt roads at a time when money for repairs is already strained.

Chief Engineer Ed Hassinger said the proposal could result in bridge closures and damaged road surfaces.

Republican Senator Brian Munzlinger of Williamstown says he plans to keep the proposal in the bill, which includes several other agricultural provisions.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are likely to consider allowing people to carry concealed firearms without requiring a state permit.

Twenty-six of the Kansas Senate’s 40 members introduced a bill Wednesday to end the permitting requirement. The lead sponsor is Majority Leader and Nickerson Republican Terry Bruce.

Bruce said it makes sense to allow people to carry concealed guns without a permit because they already can carry firearms openly. He said the measure advances gun rights.

Lawmakers last year prohibited cities and counties from restricting the open carrying of firearms, though state law didn’t ban the practice. The state has issued concealed carry permits since 2007.

Under the bill, people could still seek concealed-carry permits if they wanted to be able to carry their weapons in other states that recognize Kansas permits.

MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is pushing the poultry industry to make chicken and turkey a little safer with new standards aimed at reducing the number of cases of foodborne illness.

The proposed standards announced Wednesday by the Agriculture Department apply to the most popular poultry products — chicken breasts, legs and wings, and ground chicken and turkey. They are voluntary but designed to pressure companies to lower rates of salmonella and another pathogen, campylobacter, in their products.

The companies could reduce the rates of those pathogens with improved better screening of flocks and better sanitation.

The Agriculture Department says the standards could eventually reduce salmonella and campylobacter illnesses in raw poultry by about 25 percent, or 50,000 illnesses a year.

By Dave Ranney, KHI News

An organization that lobbies on behalf of Kansas nursing home residents and their families has released its annual listing of high- and low-performing nursing homes. Twelve of the state’s 345 nursing facilities met Kansas Advocates for Better Care criteria for being considered high-performing; 66 were deemed low-performing.

“The nursing home industry is fond of saying that quality-of-care standards are too high and that they can’t be met,” said Mitzi McFatrich, executive director of Kansas Advocates for Better Care.

“But here are 12 facilities that clearly have done just that.” The listing is based on the number of deficiencies cited during annual inspections by Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services surveyors.

A deficiency indicates the facility was found to be out of compliance with a state or federal regulation that’s meant to ensure residents’ safety and health. Nursing homes that received 10 or more deficiencies in each of the last three years were considered low-performing. Those with five or fewer deficiencies were considered high-performing. “In our view, the KDADS surveys offer the only truly objective look at what’s going on in a facility,” McFatrich said.

The complete list of Kansas Nursing Homes with 3 years of positive health and safety inspections HERE

Caritas Center, a 22-bed facility within the Wichita Center of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, was the only nursing home that had zero-deficiency surveys in each of the last three years.

“Their nursing staff ratio is a little over five hours of care per resident per day,” McFatrich said. “The state average is three hours and 45 minutes. The ‘magic number’ for avoiding injury, illness and premature death is four hours and 26 minutes.

“So nursing staff ratio had a lot to do with their performance,” she said. “They also had very little turnover in administrative staff.”

Fifteen of the low-performing facilities are nonprofit, while 51 are for-profit.

Forty-six of the low-performing facilities were cited for deficiencies that involved mistreatment, actual harm or imminent risk of harm. None of the high-performing facilities were cited for harming residents. Nursing home surveys are public record and are available on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website and the KDADS website.

“People are welcome to call us, too,” McFatrich said. “We’ll be happy to assist them.” To contact McFatrich, call (785) 842-3088 or email mitzi@kabc.org. KABC does not charge for its services.

 

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official says the FBI has finished its investigation into the police shooting of an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri.

The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will file a federal civil rights charge against former police officer Darren Wilson. But experts have said the high legal standard of proof would make such a prosecution unlikely.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Justice Department has not yet made an official announcement.

Wilson was cleared in November by a grand jury in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown.

A separate Justice Department-led investigation into the practices of the Ferguson police department remains open.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Justice lawyers were preparing a memo recommending against prosecution.

KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton is again declining to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline, telling an audience in Canada she won’t express an opinion on it because it’s involved in a U.S. review process. Clinton says, “That’s where it belongs.”

Clinton was asked about U.S.-Canadian relations during a question-and-answer session after a speech in Winnipeg. It came as Congress considers approving construction of the contentious project backed by Canada.

The former secretary of state has said previously it would be inappropriate for her to comment on whether the pipeline project should move ahead, given her past role as Obama’s top diplomat and the State Department’s ongoing assessment.

Obama has vowed to veto the congressional legislation as long as the State Department is conducting a formal review of the project.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Children’s advocates are pushing back against a move to transfer funds out of the Kansas Endowment for Youth Fund to fill state budget shortfalls.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposed budget would transfer $31.8 million from the fund into the general state budget over the next three fiscal years. Kansas Budget Director Shawn Sullivan told the House Appropriation Committee Wednesday that the transfers would not cause cuts to programs and would tap only into excess funds.

But Shannon Cotsoradis, CEO of the Kansas Action for Children, testified that because of the fund’s fluctuating revenue stream, early education programs could be cut at short notice if the funds were transferred. She said the transfers would also deplete the fund at a time its revenues are projected to drop overall.