School Administrators Seek Further Change to Retired Worker's Pay Cap
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ Kansas school administrators want lawmakers to again consider raising the cap on the amount retired workers can earn to help alleviate staffing shortages. The Lawrence Journal-World reports lawmakers during the last legislative session changed a program called Working After Retirement. It gives limited authority for employers in the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System to hire retired workers who are drawing a pension if younger workers cannot fill certain jobs. Under the bill enacted this year, the earnings cap was raised to $25,000 starting July 1st, 2016. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the administrators say the cap should be raised beyond $25,000.
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Embattled Conway Springs Teacher to Return to Classroom
CONWAY SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) _ A Kansas teacher will return to work Monday after being on leave for showing a controversial anti-bullying film to his students. Conway Springs school officials said Friday that Tom Leahy will be allowed back in the classroom with some safeguards in place. The Wichita Eagle reports Superintendent Clay Murphy would not discuss details of the safeguards. He was placed on leave in mid-October after he showed students ``Love Is All You Need,'' a short film that depicts a fictional world in which heterosexual children are bullied by homosexual classmates. Leahy also told the Eagle that he would no longer comment on the controversy.
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Lawrence Groups Seek to Reduce Use of Plastic Bags
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) _ Three environmental groups want Lawrence to reduce the use of plastic grocery bags by imposing a ban or fining shoppers who use them. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Sustainability Action Network, the Sierra Wakarusa Group and the Lawrence Environmental Teams United for Sustainability are taking their proposal to a city advisory board next week.
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Earthquakes Reported on Oklahoma-Kansas Border Saturday
MEDFORD, Okla. (AP) _ The U.S. Geological Survey reports a series of earthquakes along the Oklahoma-Kansas border _ including magnitude 4.2 and 4.1 temblors near Medford. The 4.2 quake was recorded at 12:29 p.m. yesterday (Saturday), nine miles northwest of Medford, the same area where a 4.1 magnitude quake was recorded at 5:11 a.m. Reports on the USGS website say the stronger quake was felt in Oberlin, Kansas, some 400 miles away. The Oklahoma Geological Survey has said many recent earthquakes in the state likely were triggered by the injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas drilling operations.
