President Barack Obama admitted Thursday that his administration “fumbled” the rollout of his new health care law. Still, speaking at a Cleveland steel plant, he vowed to keep fighting attempts to scrap the whole program.
Author: KMAN Staff
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A former University of Kansas lab director has filed suit claiming he was fired for reporting possible fictitious charging to federal grant funds for the use of an electron microscope and other equipment. David Moore’s whistleblower lawsuit also alleges improper financial management and accountability for KU’s Microscopy Analysis and Imaging Laboratory in Lawrence. The lawsuit was filed in state court in Douglas County and was made public Thursday. Defendants include the Kansas Board of Regents and the university, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Moore claims the university inappropriately charged administration, overhead and…
SALINA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas man will have his trial on a charge of escaping from jail held outside Saline County, in part because of public comments posted to online news articles about the defendant. The Salina Journal reports District Judge Rene Young agreed Thursday to a change of venue for Antonio Brown. The 29-year-old Salina man was convicted last month of murder in the 2011 abuse death of 14-month- old Clayden Urbanek, the son of his former girlfriend. That trial was also held outside Saline County. Brown initially pleaded no contest in the death, but disappeared from the Saline…
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A federal grand jury has indicted a central Kansas man on charges that he worked with an Alton, Ill., company and its owner in a $3 million scheme to sell foreign versions of Botox and Juvederm. The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City, Mo., says Christopher Tozier, 43, of Hesston, Kan., was charged Thursday with smuggling goods into the U.S. and several other similar counts. The superseding indictment adding Tozier replaces an indictment in April that charged Illinois-based Orthopaedic Solutions Inc. and its owner, 48-year-old Christopher Carstens, with similar counts. The superseding indictment alleges that Carstens and…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and the state’s largest health insurer say they’re not sure yet about the implications of President Barack Obama’s decision to modify part of the federal health care overhaul. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas said Thursday it’s waiting for more federal guidance about Obama’s decision to let insurance companies continue offering health plans that would otherwise be canceled. The company has notified about 9,500 Kansas policy holders their coverage would not be renewed because their plans don’t meet mandates under the 2010 federal health care law. Praeger said the Insurance Department…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A fire that displaced 30 people from a northeast Kansas apartment building earlier this week has now claimed one life. The fire department in Kansas City, Kan., says Darrin Walker, 45, died Thursday. Walker suffered second- and third-degree burns in the blaze Monday afternoon. No one else was injured in the fire, which heavily damaged the three-story, 12-unit building. Another tenant had rescued Walker from his second-floor apartment. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. Total damage was estimated at $180,000.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Increasing the safety of a low-water Topeka dam where three people have drowned could cost nearly $2 million. Topeka utilities superintendent Don Rankin presented four options Wednesday to the Topeka-Shawnee County Riverfront Authority for safeguarding the Kansas River dam where a kayaker died in July 2011 and two canoers in August 2007. The dam is located near a water treatment plant. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Riverfront Authority board supported two of the options. One was a $1.4 million proposal that would only address the danger zone on the south side of the river. The second…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Police say a man in his 20s has been shot to death in the same Wichita house that was the scene of a fatal 2007 shooting. The Wichita Eagle reports that neighbors called 911 Wednesday afternoon to report the latest shooting. Capt. Rusty Leeds says police found one man lying in the street and suffering from a leg wound. Police followed a blood trail to the house where the victim was found dead. A short time later, a man suffering from an abdominal wound was located. Leed says it’s possible that he was involved in the shooting.…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is proposing a new reading initiative aimed at boosting proficiency among school children. But his plan sparked a debate even before he unveiled it during a Thursday news conference because of how he’d finance it. He wants to use $9 million in each of the next two years from federal assistance funds for low-income families. Those funds would be supplemented with private dollars. Most of the money would come from the Department for Children and Families, which would tap funds from federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. The program typically provides cash…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A former northwest Kansas wastewater manager charged with lying about nitrogen levels in the city’s discharges has told a federal court he plans to change his plea. The formal notice of intent was filed after a court hearing Wednesday in Wichita in the case against Charles L. Blair, of Hays. An August indictment charges Blair with making false statements about nitrogen levels in effluent at the Hays wastewater treatment plant. The court set a Dec. 2 date for the formal change-of-plea hearing. Prosecutors allege Blair made false statements in discharge monitoring reports. The government also contends he…