Kansas Budget Blocked in Medicaid Fight Again
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Supporters of Medicaid expansion in the Kansas House have again blocked a proposed state budget in hopes of forcing a vote in the Senate on an expansion plan. The vote Friday night was 81-42 against an $18.4 million spending blueprint for the budget year beginning in July. House and Senate negotiators drafted it after the House rejected a previous budget. The new budget proposal was less generous than the first one. Republican leaders had warned Democrats and moderate Republicans supporting expansion that money would be stripped out of the proposed budget if negotiators were forced to resume their talks. Even some expansion foes voted against the new plan. It removed $14 million in extra state funds for hospitals and could keep them from drawing down $250 million in federal funds.
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Workers Allege Racism at KC Harley-Davidson Plant
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Several current and former black employees at the Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City say minorities there have faced harassment that included nooses and swastikas on the walls and in bathrooms and frequent racial slurs. At a news conference Friday organized by the NAACP-Kansas City, the employees said their complaints were consistently ignored. The employees who spoke work for Syncreon, which supplies contract workers to the plant. But they said Harley-Davidson minority employees also were harassed. Harley-Davidson said in a statement that it thoroughly investigated complaints it was aware of and took action based on the findings. The company said it actively enforces its code of conduct and anti-harassment policies and is committed to a safe and inclusive workplace. Syncreon didn't immediately return calls or emails seeking comment.
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Rice County Undersheriff Returns Home After Shooting
STERLING, Kan. (AP) — A central Kansas undersheriff is out of the hospital after being shot Monday by a man who also shot a sheriff and then killed his father before killing himself. Rice County Sheriff Bryant Evans said Undersheriff Chad Murphy was released Friday from a Wichita hospital. He returned to Sterling with a police escort as crowds lined the streets to cheer him. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says Murphy was shot Monday while trying to stop a car driven by 37-year-old David Madden in Sterling. Sheriff Evans was shot in the leg during a later standoff at Madden's father's home in Raymond. Authorities believe Madden fatally shot his father, 65-year-old Thomas Madden, and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Madden was a suspect in the 2015 disappearance of Megan Foglesong, who is still missing.
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Garden City College Releases Review of Athlete's Fatal Heatstroke
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas community college has released a summary of its internal review into the heatstroke death last year of a football player who collapsed after the first day of practice. Garden City Community College says the players were provided water. But some players told public radio station KCUR that they were denied water during conditioning drills. The college says in its summary that the temperature was 84 degrees at the start of practice. Head Trainer T.J. Horton says there were 60 gallons of water and large Gatorade containers. 19-year-old Braeden Bradforth of Neptune, New Jersey, was found unconscious outside his dorm room on August 1st. He died that night at a hospital. The report says neither the head trainer nor head coach noticed Bradforth complain about the drills.
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Kansas Congressman Forgives Self-Loans to Campaign
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Freshman Republican Congressman Steve Watkins of Kansas has forgiven $225,100 in loans he made to his 2018 campaign, according to a letter filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Kansas City Star reports Watkins had given his campaign nearly half a million dollars in loans during the seven-way GOP primary for an open eastern Kansas congressional seat. Watkins' loans represented a substantial amount of his declared wealth at the time, which was somewhere between $440,053 and $2.7 million, according to required personal financial disclosure forms. Federal campaign finance rules allow candidates to lend unlimited amounts of their own money to their campaigns and to forgive the loans. Watkins' father, Steven Watkins Sr., contributed more than $765,000 to a super political action committee to help his son win the primary.
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Kansas Health Department Warns of Fake STD Notifications
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A health department in southwest Kansas says a prankster spoofed its number to falsely notify people that they may have contracted a sexually transmitted disease. The Finney County Health Department said in a Facebook post that the calls are "NOT FROM US!" The post says the department would never discuss private health information in recordings and would always ask permission to discuss sensitive health information over the phone. The department says the call consists of someone informing residents that they've been identified as possibly having a sexually transmitted disease or as having contact with someone who has an STD.
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Kansas Services Set for Woman Shot in Iowa
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A former college softball player fatally shot while driving in eastern Iowa will be memorialized Friday at a funeral Mass in her Kansas hometown. Micalla Alexis Rettinger was shot early Sunday morning as she drove over a wooded area along the Cedar River in Waterloo. The 25-year-old former University of Northern Iowa softball player pulled over along U.S. Highway 218 and died. The bullet also struck one of her passengers: her 32-year-old boyfriend, Adam Kimball. He was hospitalized and the bullet was recovered. At least $58,000 has been offered as a reward for information leading to an arrest. The Mass is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa, Kansas. She had been living in Waterloo since graduating in 2016 from the university.
