TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his fellow Republicans are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will strike down the 2010 federal health care law. That hope is why Kansas has not begun implementing a key provision requiring states to set up online health insurance exchanges by 2014. The federal government could create and run such exchanges if states fail to do so. Republican legislators in Kansas said Wednesday they didn’t want to start work on an exchange amid uncertainty surrounding the federal law.
Author: KMAN Staff
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A University of Kansas plant research program is losing funding from an organization backed by the Kansas Bioscience Authority. The university’s Native Medicinal Plant Research Program had received $5 million over five years from Heartland Plant Innovations, one of the KBA’s centers of innovation. Barbara Timmermann, a chemistry professor who leads the plant research program, said the HPI funding will end after June, after only about half of the original funding commitment had been awarded. Timmermann said she wasn’t given a reason for the cuts. HPI officials said they had to make cuts because they’ve received fewer…
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) A part-time assistant professor at Kansas State University says in a lawsuit that she was denied a full-time position because she’s a Muslim and a woman. In a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, Sabreen Gad is seeking more than $100,000 in damages. The Manhattan Mercury reports that Gad had a part-time teaching position in the university’s geology department in 2010. Her husband is a tenure-track professor in the same department. Gad alleges supervisors refused to consider her for full-time work. She claims she was treated differently because she is a woman and a Muslim. Kansas State…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Forbes Field Airport in Topeka has a new name. The airport and its adjoining industrial park officially were renamed Tuesday as the Topeka Regional Airport Business Center. The airport’s unofficial name will be Topeka Regional. The Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority board approved the name change in an effort to bring more recognition to the airport. Board chairman Rich Davis says no one outside of Shawnee County knows where Forbes Field is located. The airfield at the airport will continue to be called Forbes Field. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Forbes Field was named in 1949 for Maj. Daniel…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A federal judge has dismissed much of a lawsuit by a former Kansas City, Kan., police detective alleging authorities retaliated against him for refusing to conceal a motorist’s beating by federal agents. Max Seifert sued last year. Seifert alleges he was forced to retire in 2005 in retaliation for investigating Drug Enforcement Administration agents involved in a 2003 “road rage” incident that left a man with permanent brain damage. He sued the sheriff, undersheriff and Unified Government of Wyandotte County, which covers the county and Kansas City, Kan. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten on Tuesday granted…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Kansas State University $60,000 to help ease pollution in the Old Smoky River channel. The EPA announced the Urban Waters grant to Kansas State’s Salina campus on Tuesday. Forty-six organizations nationwide received Urban Waters grants, which are intended to fund research and training to help restore urban waterways. The Kansas State-Salina grant will be used for developing a program to teach the public about ways to reduce pollutants in the Old Smoky River channel. The EPA says the program will include workshops on such topics as water quality sampling, storm…
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Kansas family planning clinics have asked a federal judge to issue another injunction to prohibit the state from cutting off their funding. Dodge City Family Planning Clinic filed the request Tuesday just days after Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri filed a similar motion. Planned Parenthood operates clinics in Wichita and Hays. The dispute concerns a Kansas law requiring the state to first allocate some federal family planning money to public health departments and hospitals, which leaves no funds for specialty clinics. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ordered Kansas last year to keep funding the clinics…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Department of Transportation has restructured its top management and hired two high-ranking administrators from other state agencies. Secretary Mike King says Kent Olson is KDOT’s new director of fiscal and asset management. Wade Wiebe (WEE’-bee) will oversee dealings with groups inside and outside of state government as director of partner relations. Olson is filling an existing position that was vacant, but KDOT is adding some duties. He’s a former inspector general at the state Department of Administration. KDOT created Wiebe’s job by adding responsibilities to a deputy secretary’s position that had been vacant. Wiebe formerly…
Sunday, marks the starting date for fireworks to be bought and discharged in the Manhattan area. With that in mind, firework safety practices must be put into practice. Pat Collins, Riley County Emergency Management Director, says with the current high temperatures present there could be precautions about their relation to fireworks if the heat continues. “We have talked with some of the City of Manhattan Fire officials,” Collins says. “We are a little concerned about the fireworks, if we continue to have this hot, dry weather with very windy conditions.” Collins adds that those who shoot off fireworks should avoid…
WASHINGTON (AP) A large portion of college football fans have been screaming for a playoff system since the BCS was created 14 years ago. Those fans are about to get their wish. A committee of university presidents has approved the BCS commissioners’ plan for a four-team playoff to start in the 2014 season. The move completes a six-month process in which the commissioners have been working on a new way to determine a college football champion. Instead of simply matching the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in a championship game after the regular season, the way…