House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson says he’s worried the new farm bill won’t be able to provide adequate benefits to U.S. agriculture. While he admitted to those worries on Monday, he also said, “It is what it is.” The Hagstrom Report says Peterson first expressed those same concerns in December, just before the bill passed through Congress.
At that time, Peterson said his specific concern was that the benefits wouldn’t be generous enough for farmers during a period of low commodity prices compounded by trade conflicts. Peterson also says bankers are telling him they are also “concerned,” but he also said agriculture is just “going to have to live with it.”
While farmers were able to overcome the problem of low prices thanks to big crops, Peterson said that farmers in part of his district weren’t able to do that because of poor crops. The House Ag Chair says he believes the new dairy provisions in the bill are “adequate.” Peterson also discussed climate change this week, saying he would consider the issue “if anyone comes up with effective ideas.”
He also discussed biofuels policy, noting that agriculture had allied with environmentalists to write legislation on biofuels and ethanol. However, because cellulosic ethanol hasn’t taken off, environmental support for biofuels has diminished.
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a suspect in a southwest Missouri killing has been arrested in Washington state.
Osborne -photo Joplin PD
Police in Joplin, Missouri, said that U.S. Marshals took 33-year-old Michael Osborne into custody Wednesday night. He’s charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Shawn Rockers.
Rockers was found Jan. 11 lying in a street with a chest wound and died at a hospital. Police say Osborne stabbed Rockers after a disturbance at an acquaintance’s apartment and then fled. The search included a nearly five-hour Joplin standoff that left police empty handed.
Police haven’t said what started the argument. But charging documents say a witness told police that Osborne threatened to kill Rockers about seven days earlier.
Osborne previously served time in prison for abandonment of a corpse.
Wednesday was the first of two days that the U.S. and China would be face-to-face for high-level talks aimed at ending the trade war between the two countries. A Bloomberg article says the dispute is starting to cast a growing shadow over the two largest economies in the world. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tells the Fox Business Network that he expects significant progress in the talks this week.
Bloomberg says administration officials and others close to the talks say there are still several big issues that the countries remain far apart on. Sources also tell Bloomberg that U.S. officials are still working through an internal debate on how to proceed from this point forward and are ill-prepared for the talks. This week’s negotiations come after a period of turmoil in markets that has left both governments wanting to be able to point out progress and settle the nerves of worried investors.
U.S. demands still include structural reforms in Chinese economic policy and America still wants concessions on issues like intellectual property. The talks will also cover Beijing’s recent pledge to buy more American goods, including large amounts of agricultural products. Sources familiar with the discussions say that President Donald Trump appears to want to strike a deal soon.
KENNETT, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say human remains found in the Bootheel area of far southeastern Missouri are those of a man who was reported missing six months ago.
Dental records were used to identify the remains as Steven Wayne Ketchum. He was 26 when he was reported missing in July. Dunklin County Sheriff Bob Holder says the remains were found Jan. 16.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a mother has been arrested after going to a Lawrence bar and leaving her two toddlers in a vehicle parked outside on a dangerously cold night.
Police responded around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday to a report that a customer was trying to get back into the bar after she was kicked out. Staff told police that the woman had been at the bar while her 2- and 3-year-old children stayed unattended in the vehicle as temperatures were in the single digits amid a polarvortex.
Officer Derrick Smith says the woman left before police arrived, but officers stopped her vehicle. He says the children weren’t hurt, although they were left “without heat for a substantial amount of time.” The woman has been booked into jail on suspicion of child endangerment and drunken driving.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for her role in leading a large methamphetamine conspiracy, according to the Unites States Attorney.
Yadieras Y. Contreras, also known as “Fajita,” 36, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 13 years and nine months in federal prison without parole.
Contreras was the third defendant in this case to be sentenced this month. Co-defendant David F. Bushdiecker,47, was sentenced on Jan. 24, 2019, to 20 years and five months in federal prison without parole. Co-defendant Benjamin H. McDaniel, also known as “Cowboy,” 56, was sentenced on Jan. 4, 2019, to 14 years in federal prison without parole. Additionally, nine co-defendants in this case have been sentenced and three more have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
On Feb. 9, 2018, Contreras pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Contreras admitted that she sold more than 40 kilograms of methamphetamine to McDaniel from 2014 to April 2015. McDaniel then distributed methamphetamine to others.
Contreras also admitted that she sold methamphetamine to co-defendant Troy C. Hudson, 50, of Belton, Mo. Hudson delivered drugs to Contreras and collected the proceeds of drug trafficking. Hudson also transported a large amount of cash (the proceeds of drug trafficking) to Arizona. Hudson was sentenced on Nov. 16, 2018, to eight years and two months in federal prison without parole.
Contreras also received methamphetamine from Roberto W. Duran, also known as “Muchacho,” 37, a citizen of El Salvador who resided in Phoenix, Ariz. He delivered approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine at a time to Contreras’s residence or to a garage behind a pizza restaurant in Raytown, Mo. The methamphetamine was hidden in various vehicles and removed once it arrived. Contreras paid the drivers for methamphetamine they had previously delivered, and those proceeds were then transported back to Arizona. Duran was sentenced on June 28, 2018, to 14 years and seven months in federal prison without parole.
Contreras was allowed to use the Raytown garage by the garage’s renter, co-defendant Aaron R. Plowman, 41, of Eldon, Mo. On four occasions, Plowman permitted Contreras to use the garage to receive methamphetamine shipments from her Arizona supplier. In exchange for the use of the garage space, Contreras fronted about one pound of methamphetamine to Plowman on each occasion. Plowman was sentenced on July 30, 2018, to 10 years and eight months in federal prison without parole.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican lawmakers are proposing an overhaul of how Missouri universities handle sexual harassment and assault claims to add more protections for the accused.
Two measures in the Missouri House and Senate include provisions that give more power to those accused under Title IX, the federal law that bars gender-based discrimination in schools that receive federal money.
Both bills would borrow judges to hear appeals from students punished for sexual misconduct. The proposals would also allow a student to sue a university if they are not afforded due process.
The measures dovetail with major Title IX changes under review by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Wendy Murphy of New England Law Boston says the Missouri proposals would further victimize women in a system that already favors the accused.
KU Hospital and the other plaintiffs say the reductions will cost hospitals $380 million in 2019 and $760 million in 2020. FILE PHOTO
The University of Kansas Hospital is one of 38 hospitals across the country challenging a rule cutting Medicare rates for outpatient hospital sites to match the lower rates paid to physicians’ offices.
Under the rule, which took effect Jan. 1, Medicare will pay the same rates for medical services regardless of whether they’re provided in a physician’s office or in a hospital department that’s off the main campus of the hospital.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Washington, D.C., the hospitals claim the rule is unfair because medical services provided in hospital outpatient departments are far more resource-intensive, and therefore more costly, than those provided in independent physicians’ offices. The suit names Alex Azar II in his capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The rule comes after Congress enacted a site-neutral payment policy in 2015. But Congress specifically made an exception for off-campus outpatient hospital departments that were providing services before Congress made the change. The hospitals say Azar didn’t think the change went far enough and overrode the protection Congress intended to provide them.
The rule “is irrational,” the hospitals allege in their lawsuit, “a patent misconstruction” of the law and “a blatant attempt to circumvent the will of Congress …” It says the reductions will cost hospitals $380 million in 2019 and $760 million in 2020, according to Azar’s forecast of the rule’s effect.
“Even prior to this rate cut, plaintiffs were under significant financial strain from steadily increasing costs in the healthcare marketplace and reimbursement cuts from the government and private insurers alike,” the hospitals allege.
The lawsuit mirrors one filed against Azar in December by the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges and three other hospitals. That lawsuit, also filed in the District of Columbia, challenges the Medicare rate cut as executive overreach.
The American Hospital Association says the rule ignores crucial differences between hospital outpatient departments and other sites. Citing a study it commissioned, it says patients getting care in hospital outpatient departments are more likely to be poorer and have more severe chronic conditions than those treated in independent physicians’ offices. And it notes that hospitals are held to higher regulatory standards because of the complexities of caring for sicker patients.
Dan Peters, general counsel for The University of Kansas Health System, said in an email that the system has “relied for years upon our Hospital off-campus departments to expand access to care and bring hospital services directly to our community, many of which are underserved by other providers.”
“Congress preserved their ability to do that work when it excepted hospital outpatient department from the changes contained in Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. But we believe the Secretary of DHHS overstepped his bounds when he took that away. We are asking the court to reinstate the decision Congress made,” Peters said.
Although they didn’t join the lawsuit, other Kansas City-area hospitals, including Truman Medical Centers and Saint Luke’s, also weighed in with comments opposing the rule.
The Kansas Hospital Association, in a comment it filed to the rule, said the cuts “would be excessive and harmful” and would endanger the role off-campus hospital departments “play in their communities.”
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors will make their case Wednesday that there is a sufficient evidence for a suburban Kansas City man to be tried in the sexual assaults of three women during home break-ins.
Elliot -photo Johnson Co.
18-year-old William Louis Elliott, of Overland Park, Kansas, is jailed on $75,000 bond on charges of rape, sodomy, sexual battery and burglary in the sexual assaults. Prosecutors say they happened within a few days of each other in September and October. Police in Shawnee and Overland Park investigated.
Details of the crimes are expected to be part of the testimony at the preliminary hearing.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Supporters and opponents of a proposed state constitutional amendment say it would effectively ban abortion in Kansas, although it would remain legal under federal law.
Rep. Garber courtesy photo
The amendment sponsored by 21 lawmakers would grant equal rights to every human starting from the time of fertilization.
The amendment was introduced in the Kansas House Monday. It comes as lawmakers are awaiting a state Supreme Court decision on whether the Kansas Constitution includes the right to an abortion.
Rep. Randy Garber, a Republican from Sabetha, says he supports the amendment because he believes life begins at conception.
Rachel Sweet, with Planned Parenthood Great Plains, says the legislation would outlaw abortion in all cases. She called the amendment a blatant attempt to eliminate a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion.
House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson says he’s worried the new farm bill won’t be able to provide adequate benefits to U.S. agriculture. While he admitted to those worries on Monday, he also said, “It is what it is.” The Hagstrom Report says Peterson first expressed those same concerns in December, just before the bill passed through Congress.
Wednesday was the first of two days that the U.S. and China would be face-to-face for high-level talks aimed at ending the trade war between the two countries. A Bloomberg article says the dispute is starting to cast a growing shadow over the two largest economies in the world. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tells the Fox Business Network that he expects significant progress in the talks this week.
