LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors are researching an appeal after a Kansas judge called two teenage girls the “aggressor” in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man and eased his prison sentence.
Soden -photo Leavenworth Co.
Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens sentenced Raymond Soden in December to five years, 10 months in prison. Prosecutors sought more than 13 years behind bars because Soden had prior convictions.
Gibbens said at the sentencing that the girls were “more an aggressor than a participant,” citing as a reason that the girls had voluntarily gone to Soden’s house and taken money for sexual favors.
Harleigh Harrold with the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault tells the newspaper children don’t have the ability to understand the consequences of such an act.
Michelle Herman, president and CEO of the child advocacy center Sunflower House, says “sexual assault is never the victim’s fault.”
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LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors are researching an appeal after a Kansas judge found that a 13- and 14-year-old girl were partly to blame for a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man and reduced his prison sentence.
Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens said that “the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct” before sentencing Raymond Soden to five years and 10 months in prison. Prosecutors sought 13-plus years because Soden had prior convictions for battery and for sexual battery
In ordering a lighter prison term than what sentencing guidelines called for, the judge noted at the Dec. 4 hearing that the two girls had voluntarily gone to Soden’s house and had taken money for sexual favors.
Depending on whom you talk to, either definition might apply to the way the Kansas Farm Bureau is proposing to rescue farmers and ranchers priced out of the health insurance marketplace set up under the federal Affordable Care Act.
Farmer Tim Franklin, holding his son during a Senate committee hearing, told lawmakers he needs a more affordable health coverage option for his family. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
It’s either a bold and daring move. Or, it’s presumptuous, bordering on brazen.
The powerful ag lobbying organization is petitioning lawmakers for what amounts to carte blanche authority to develop and market health coverage free of state and federal oversight.
Opponents are warning of dire consequences for consumers if lawmakers okay the proposal.
But Terry Holdren, CEO of the Kansas Farm Bureau, said the failure of traditional insurers and government to address the plight of farm and ranch families left the organization with little choice but to step forward with a potential solution.
“Had current providers in the marketplace taken the initiative to… develop more affordable solutions, we wouldn’t be here today,” Holdren said Wednesday in testimony to the Kansas Senate committee considering the Farm Bureau’s bill.
Most farmers and ranchers make too much to qualify for federal subsidies that help low-income people purchase individual coverage in the ACA marketplace, Holdren said. Still, many can’t afford the rapidly rising cost of non-group coverage.
In his testimony, Holdren cited a national survey in which 65 percent of farmers identified the cost of health insurance as the “most significant threat” to their livelihood.
It’s a big worry for Tim Franklin, who grows corn and wheat on a fourth-generation family farm near Goodland. Testifying in favor of the Farm Bureau bill, Franklin told lawmakers that he’s paying nearly $24,000 in premiums this year to cover his family. Out-of-pocket expenses could amount to another $10,000.
“To say that providing workable and affordable health coverage for our family is challenging is a bit of an understatement,” Franklin said.
Insurance that isn’t
The bill under consideration would allow the Farm Bureau, which already sells property and casualty insurance, to market health coverage that isn’t technically insurance.
That technical distinction would exempt the organization from federal rules that, among other things, require insurers to offer coverage to anyone regardless of the health status.
“This legislation… would give us the ability to say ‘no’ to folks if they don’t meet our underwriting standards,” Holdren said when briefing members of the Legislature’s Rural Caucus.
In addition to rejecting people with costly, life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer, Farm Bureau could deny coverage to those with chronic ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure.
The ability to screen policyholders — a standard insurance company practice prior to enactment of the ACA — would help keep the cost of Farm Bureau plans relatively low, Holdren said.
“We believe that we can offer products to our members that are 30 percent or lower than the cost of Affordable Care Act products,” he said.
The ACA requires insurers to cover “10 essential benefits.” In addition to hospitalization and preventive office visits, they include maternity care, emergency services and prescription drugs.
Exactly what the Farm Bureau plans would cover hasn’t been decided, Holdren said. But, he told lawmakers, it was safe to assume they would include many but not all of the ACA-mandated benefits.
Playing by different rules
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state’s largest insurer, is urging lawmakers to reject Farm Bureau’s proposal.
“We think the whole concept is unfair,” BCBS lobbyist Brad Smoot told the Senate insurance committee.
Unfair to both consumers and other insurers because it would allow the Farm Bureau to set prices based on its ability to reject potentially costly applicants.
“Nobody else can do that,” he said.
Likewise, Smoot said, the Kansas insurance commissioner would have no authority to review the Farm Bureau’s rates or resolve consumer complaints.
“I just wonder who they’re going to call,” he said. “If they can’t call the insurance department, they may have to call you (lawmakers).”
Rising health care costs are pushing up the cost of coverage, Smoot said. Allowing a single player in the marketplace to suspend the rules and return to practices that exclude those who most need coverage won’t solve that problem, he said.
Medica, a nonprofit Minnesota-based insurance company that competes with BCBS in Kansas’ ACA marketplace, is also fighting Farm Bureau’s entry into the market.
Noah Tabor, a lobbyist for the company, said allowing the ag organization to “siphon” healthy people out of the insurance pool would force costs up for everyone else and leave people with preexisting conditions fewer affordable options.
“What about the farmer with cancer?” Tabor asked members of the committee. “Who is going to stand for him or her?
“We encourage the committee to look at options… that include all Kansans,” he said.
Those options include several bills under consideration that would make it easier to establish and participate in association health plans, which Tabor said would be subject to state and federal rules.
Medica is working with the Nebraska Farm Bureau to gain legislative approval for such a plan, he said. The Iowa Farm Bureau is also seeking legislative approval to market plans exempt from state and federal rules.
The Tennessee Farm Bureau has sold coverage since the mid-1990s similar to what its Kansas counterpart is proposing. It provides similar levels of coverage to traditional health plans at lower costs because it can exclude applicants with preexisting conditions.
Brazil and China are looking to hold the first high-level political and economic talks they’ve had since 2015. A Reuters article says Brazil’s agricultural trade secretary expects the move will boost farm trade between the two countries. Reuters says the first meeting of the China-Brazil High-Level Coordination and Cooperation Committee is expected during the second half of this year.
The meeting will likely move talks forward on permitting more Brazilian meatpackers to export to China. It should also accelerate Chinese approval of genetically modified products. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and the top importer of Brazilian soybeans. Brazil exports to China totaled $64.2 billion last year, a 35 percent jump year-over-year, thanks in large part to the trade war between China and the U.S. China recently sent a delegation to Brazil to visit factories that produce beef, poultry, and donkey.
The visual inspection is the first step in the process of allowing more Brazilian plants to export to China. Brazil has products that have been waiting two years for Chinese officials to approve them for importing.
Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that his department awarded $200 million to 57 organizations through the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program. The Hagstrom Report says the goal is to help U.S. farmers and ranchers find and get into new export markets around the globe. The promotion funds are part of the package that also included the Market Facilitation Program payments to farmers hurt be retaliatory tariffs, as well as a food distribution program to assist producers of targeted commodities.
In making the announcement, Perdue made a thinly-veiled reference to China by saying, “This infusion will help us develop other markets and move us away from being dependent on one large customer for our agricultural products. This is seed money, leveraged by hundreds of millions of dollars from the private sector that will help to increase our agricultural exports.”
Every sector of U.S. agriculture was allowed to apply for cost-share assistance under the program. The Foreign Agricultural Service looked at all the applications in terms of the potential for export growth in the target market, direct injury from the imposed retaliatory tariffs, and the likelihood that the proposed project will have a direct impact on agricultural exports.
The Trade Promotion Program provides assistance to eligible groups for things like consumer advertising, public relations, point-of-sale demonstrations, trade fair participation, and market research.
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed some optimism last week about potentially reaching a trade deal with China. However, in the same breath, the New York Times says the president may consider leaving some tariffs in place even if the two sides eventually come to a landmark deal.
“Without the tariffs, we wouldn’t even be talking,” Trump says in an interview with the Times, conducted after two days of trade talks wrapped up. “And I made that point very clear to them.” Trump says he plans on meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month, and the U.S. President says China was prepared to make “some significant changes” to Beijing’s economic policies. Some of the changes include better market access for American companies, as well as buying more American products.
The president had a letter from President Xi read aloud for reporters, and it included a commitment to buy five million tons of soybeans. That caught administration officials a little off guard. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was more guarded in his tone, saying the two sides haven’t put together the framework of an agreement yet. He did say the main achievement so far was, “that the two sides are still talking. It didn’t come off the rails.”
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Ford E45 driven by Michael Weis, 62, Columbia, MT, was westbound on Interstate 70 just east of Tonganoxie.
The vehicle rear-ended a 2014 Chevy Cruz driven by Tristan Kuritz, 21, Lawrence. The collision pushed the Chevy into a 2017 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Rachel Jones, 33, Beloit. The Dodge was pushed into a 2011 Star Bus driven by Roger Rodriguez, 64, Kansas City.
A 2017 Ford F150 driven by Robert Powell, 47, St. Robert, Mo., attempted to avoid the initial collision, swerved from the left lane to the right lane and struck the Dodge Grand Caravan.
Kuritz was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the Chevy Samantha Duckett, 21, Lawrence, was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Jones was transported to KU Medical Center.
Weis and Rogriguez were not injured. Four passengers on the bus reported only minor injuries. They were not wearing seat belts.
The accident investigation closed the Kansas Turnpike for several hours Sunday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Sunday it will send 3,750 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to put up another 150 miles of concertina wire and provide other support for Customs and Border Protection.
photo courtesy U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The additions will bring the total number of active-duty troops on the border to 4,350.
The announcement is in line with what Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan had said on Tuesday when he provided estimates for the next phase of a military mission that has grown in size and length. Critics have derided it as a political ploy by the White House as President Donald Trump seeks billions to build a border wall.
Shanahan said on Tuesday that several thousand more troops would be sent mainly to install additional wire barriers and provide a large new system of mobile surveillance and monitoring of the border area. Sunday’s announcement said the mobile surveillance mission would last through Sept. 30.
Members of Congress have question whether the border mission is distracting troops from their main work of fighting extremists abroad and training for combat. The first active-duty troops were sent to the border on about Oct. 30 for a mission that was to end Dec. 15. It has since been extended twice.
“What impact does it have to readiness to send several thousand troops down to the Southern border? It interrupts their training. It interrupts their dwell time,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at a hearing on Tuesday.
Vice Adm. Mike Gilday, the director of operations for the Joint Staff, told the panel that he does not believe military readiness has been significantly affected. He said some units have missed training opportunities because of the deployment and others have seen less time at home between deployments than the military likes to provide.
But he said there is an effort to rotate service members in and out of the mission every six to eight weeks in order to minimize any impact.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police are investing a shooting in Kansas City’s historic Jazz District that left one man dead and another man seriously injured.
Police in Kansas City, Missouri, sat the shootings happened just before 2 a.m. Sunday in the city’s historic 18th and Vine district.
The Kansas City Star reports that when officers arrived several witnesses pointed them toward a dead man in a vehicle. A short time later, the second victim arrived at a hospital with gunshot wounds.
Police believe both men were shot in the Jazz District. The victims’ names were not immediately released.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A software company owner in northeastern Kansas has decided to open an exhibit to showcase his car collection to the public.
CivicPlus owner Ward Morgan and his wife, Brenda, have spent the past 18 months purchasing some of the vehicles that will be featured in the Midwest Dream Car Collection museum in Manhattan. Morgan plans to open the exhibit this spring.
“We’ve got about 60 cars,” Morgan said. “They’re somewhere between automotive icons and dream cars.”
Some of the vehicles include a 2014 Lamborghini Aventador, a 1961 Morgan Plus 4 Drophead Coupe and a 2019 Chevrolet Corvette.
Morgan purchased a 54,000-square-foot space property to house the cars last year. The space will also have a self-service bar, a mechanic shop and event rooms. Visitors will be able to put money on a prepaid card to purchase beer and wine while relaxing in the recreation room, Morgan said.
Morgan hopes to tell the history of each car in his exhibit, he said.
“The proceeds are all going to the museum for preservation and display of the cars,” Morgan said. “To share automotive history and also the history of automotives with people, that’s our mission.”
Brazil and China are looking to hold the first high-level political and economic talks they’ve had since 2015. A Reuters article says Brazil’s agricultural trade secretary expects the move will boost farm trade between the two countries. Reuters says the first meeting of the China-Brazil High-Level Coordination and Cooperation Committee is expected during the second half of this year.
Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that his department awarded $200 million to 57 organizations through the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program. The Hagstrom Report says the goal is to help U.S. farmers and ranchers find and get into new export markets around the globe. The promotion funds are part of the package that also included the Market Facilitation Program payments to farmers hurt be retaliatory tariffs, as well as a food distribution program to assist producers of targeted commodities.
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed some optimism last week about potentially reaching a trade deal with China. However, in the same breath, the New York Times says the president may consider leaving some tariffs in place even if the two sides eventually come to a landmark deal.
