HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A major change has happened on the Hutchinson Police force. According to sources, Capt. Troy Hoover, who has been a part of the police force for nearly 30 years, has been terminated.
City Manager John Deardoff announced that a press conference would be held on Wednesday. Hoover was let go on Monday less than two weeks after new Police Chief Jeffrey Hooper took over leadership of the police department.
No official word was given for the termination, but several members of the police force had been under investigation by the KBI in regard to favoritism shown to an officer who was pulled over for erratic driving. The officer is no longer with the force.
Hoover says he believes the termination stems from that February incident involving a Hutchinson patrol officer. Calls were placed to 911 saying the female officer was driving erratically and had her child in the car. However, Hoover couldn’t confirm that was the reason.
Supposedly, the officer was not given a field sobriety test back then. Hoover allegedly asked that she be driven home by other officers. “I would never do anything to dishonor the department,” Hoover said Monday evening.
Officials have not said if the investigation by the KBI is complete. Hoover, who was the Assistant Police Chief, joined the force in 1988.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — If advance voting in the county is any indication, it could be a pretty good turnout for the Nov. 6 election.
In the first six days since advance voting started, 2,444 ballots have been cast in Reno County. Another 1,816 have been mailed out as well, according to the clerk’s office.
That comes out to 12 percent of the eligible voters that have already cast a ballot in the county. The Reno County Annex will be open until 7 p.m. Tuesday for voting and again Saturday, Nov. 3, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
TOPEKA—The hours of operation for most driver’s license office in Kansas will change starting Monday.
The new hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning this Monday, October 29. Under the previous schedule, offices statewide were closed Mondays.
“This is just one of the changes to driver’s license operations we are rolling out in addition to mobile renewals and faster service in the offices,” Director of Vehicles David Harper said.
The last day for Saturday hours for offices in Topeka, Overland Park, Mission, Olathe, Wichita, Derby, and Andover is tomorrow, October 27. Those offices will be open 7:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.
Driver’s and ID holder who want a Real ID should use the document checklist to make sure they have everything they need before visiting the office.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The U.S. Attorney’s office has filed a civil case against a Hutchinson oncologist and the Hutchinson Clinic for misuse of chemotherapy treatments involving at least nine cancer patients and the filing of false claims to Medicare and Tricare.
In the complaint, the Federal Courts claim that Dr. Mark Fesen and the clinic performed medically unnecessary services and cancer treatment, most involving the drug Rituxan, for lymphoma patients. An audit of the clinic found widespread problems with Fesen’s chemotherapy regimens, particularly the use of Rituxan.
The complaint reports that, from May 2008 to December 2011, Fesen and the Hutchinson Clinic were responsible for at least 289,407 claims for Medicare for Fesen’s treatments and were paid over $30 million. Of those payments, $17 million were for chemotherapy and other cancer drugs alone.
During that same time, Fesen and the clinic filed more than 10,700 claims and were paid nearly $546,000 from Tricare for various cancer treatments. Fesen is also accused of billing Medicare 1,316 times for Rituxan administered to his patients, totaling more than $3.8 million.
The civil filing also says some patients were given Rituxan well beyond the usual two-year treatment period. One patient was given the drug for five years. That patient eventually died. The complaint also talks about fines levied against Fesen for his actions and numerous accounts of how he tried to go around various rules and protocols for treatment of cancer patients.
In another incident, despite being presented with direct evidence that Fesen was providing medically unnecessary treatment to Medicare beneficiaries — possibly even to patients with no current disease — Hutchinson Clinic took no action to investigate whether it had received improper payment from government insurers for medically unnecessary services to some patients who may not have even been sick.
After Fesen left Hutchinson Clinic in 2011, some of his patients started seeing another oncologist who encountered several patients who had been receiving chemotherapy from Fesen even though their conditions were more appropriately described as precancerous.
The civil action also holds the clinic responsible for not doing enough to stop Fesen’s actions despite concerns being expressed by others at the clinic.
HUTCHINSON , Kan. — Siemens Gamesa announced Thursday that it will supply 48 SG 3.4-132 and 14 SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines for Southern Power’s latest wind project. The Reading wind facility will be located in Lyon and Osage counties.
The agreement also features a 20-year service and maintenance program. The nacelles will be manufactured in Hutchinson with the blades for the project produced in Fort Madison, Iowa.
In Kansas, Siemens Gamesa has 484 wind turbines installed across nine projects, totaling over 1,000 MW. Southern Power has previously partnered with Siemens Gamesa on four other wind turbine project installations totaling over 300 turbines and approximately 720 MW.
A total of 2,397 SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines have been installed in the U.S. accounting for 5.5 GW of installed capacity across 31 projects. The first SG 3.4-132 wind turbine for the U.S. was completed in August 2018. This product features an output of 3.465 megawatts and a rotor diameter of 132 meters. These turbines are optimized for Class II sites to maximize energy production with low noise emission levels.
The Hutchinson facility recently underwent a complete retooling to handle the new 3.4-132 nacelle.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — As Reno County Commissioners and NextEra Energy continue to work on the proposed wind farm in the southern part of the county, a major company announced it entered into a power purchase agreement with NextEra in connection with the project.
Iron Mountain, a major storage and information management services company, announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement for 145 megawatts of new wind energy from the Pretty Prairie Wind Farm. With this agreement, Iron Mountain expects to exceed 75 percent global renewable electricity usage in 2018 and move the company closer to its goal of 100 percent renewable power by 2050.
NextEra Energy Resources will build, own, and operate the Pretty Prairie project, with Iron Mountain purchasing a portion of the electricity it generates. When completed, Iron Mountain’s portion of the project will generate enough clean, renewable electricity to power the equivalent of 56,000 U.S. homes and will reduce fossil fuel emissions equivalent to removing more than 101,000 cars from the road annually, according to a release from Iron Mountain.
Reno County Commissioners are ready to enter into an agreement with NextEra for the project, which is forecast to begin operation in late 2019 or early 2020. The project has been met with mixed reaction in the county, but NextEra says — for the most part — it has been positive. Still, some area residents are asking for a six month moratorium to be considered. READ MORE
The project should create more than 250 jobs during construction and between 15-20 full-time jobs. Over its first 30 years in operation, the project will generate an estimated $50 million in payments to local landowners, as well as millions of dollars in additional tax revenue to the local community.
RENO COUNTY — A 17-year-old was injured around 8:30 a.m. Monday after she pulled in front of a semi at 30th & Buhler Road, east of Hutchinson.
Emily Morton was eastbound on 30th and stopped at the stop sign, but then pulled out in front of a semi driven by 27-year-old Ethan Ediger. He told Reno County sheriff’s deputies that he applied his brakes in an attempt to avoid a collision, but struck Morton’s vehicle, causing her to be ejected.
Morton was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries while Ediger reported no injuries.
Few issues split Kansas politics like the Obama-era expansion of Medicaid.
Unlike 33 other states, Kansas still hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. The decision would pay for the health care of thousands of people who don’t currently meet the program’s stringent eligibility requirements.
The state’s program, KanCare, pays for the health care of 400,000 low-income Kansans — mostly children, pregnant women, and elderly or disabled citizens. It costs the state more than $3 billion a year.
Currently, KanCare doesn’t cover people who fall into the so-called “coverage gap.” Their incomes are too high to pass the state’s stringent Medicaid eligibility guidelines, but they make too little money to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s subsidized insurance premiums.
Those benefits are only available to households that make over 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $25,100 for a family of four. Some do meet income requirements, but they don’t meet another eligibility guideline, like being disabled, under 19, elderly or pregnant.
In Kansas, 150,000 people fall into that gap.
They’re not eligible for Medicaid, and if they apply for health insurance through the federal marketplace, they’re on their own with no government financial assistance.
Expansion would allow them to apply for coverage through KanCare, as long as their household incomes are below 138 percent of the poverty line, and regardless of whether they meet other eligibility requirements.
Supporters say that could be a lifeline for the state’s most vulnerable residents and helps them avoid emergency room visits by giving them access to more suitable care.
“This gives them access to not just health care, but the right care,” said Cindy Samuelson, a vice president of the Kansas Hospital Association.
The issue has long been under debate.
Democrats and some moderate Republicans have argued for years that expansion would bring more health care dollars into the state economy, creating medical jobs and filling a coverage void that could keep the doors open at small, rural hospitals.
Conservatives continue to resist. They argue expansion squanders federal tax dollars and saddles Kansas taxpayers with an obligation to pay for an increasingly large share of that government health insurance.
“As much as we all want to try to provide a solid safety net for people, we have to weigh that against other priorities in state government,” said James Franko, vice president and policy director of the Kansas Policy Institute.
A bipartisan majority in the Legislature voted in 2017 for expanding Medicaid, but then-Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed it. Brownback, a Republican, said in a statementthat he opposed the bill in part because of its cost and because it didn’t require recipients to work.
Gov. Jeff Colyer, also a Republican, served as lieutenant governor in Brownback’s administration and has followed his lead in supporting Medicaid work requirements and opposing the Affordable Care Act — including expansion.
The 2018 governor’s race will decide the issue in Kansas for years to come.
Medicaid certainly won’t expand if Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach wins the race. Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly has promised to sign a bill approving expansion in her first year. Independent Greg Orman also says he supports expansion.
“The governor is extremely important,” said April Holman, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, who advocates for expansion. “If we don’t have a governor who supports expansion, we probably would have a similar result to what we have had in the past.”
Here’s what you need to know about each candidate’s stance.
Senator Laura Kelly
Laura Kelly
Kelly voted in favor of the Medicaid expansion bill that went through the state legislature in 2017. Her position hasn’t changed.
On her campaign website, Kelly promises to “advocate for and sign legislation to expand Medicaid in her first year.”
Kelly cites rural hospital closures as a major reason to expand Medicaid.
Rural facilities, such as the recently shuttered Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott, often struggle to cover operating costs while treating areas with higher-than-average proportions of elderly, poor and disabled residents.
In a statement, Mercy Hospital cited “declining reimbursement, especially from government payers which make up the largest source of revenue” as a major reason for closing.
Medicaid expansion isn’t a perfect solution for the problems faced by rural hospitals, said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Most of them are small, most of them have some economic challenges in terms of being able to even recruit adequate staff and physicians there, because of the medical shortages that plague rural areas,” she said.
Rowland says funds from Medicaid expansion could, however, greatly improve the financial stability of vulnerable hospitals, increasing treatment options for people in rural areas.
“We’ve seen far fewer rural hospitals close and expansion states than in the non-expansion states like Kansas,” Rowland said.
Kelly also argues that Medicaid expansion would create new jobs in the state’s health care industry.
Samuelson said hiring new doctors, nurses, administrative staff and other workers can have a ripple effect on the rest of the economy.
“That nurse is going to also shop at the grocery store, and get gas, and utilize the bank, and have a home, and all these other things that stimulate other jobs in the economy,” she said. “Maybe they’ll have kids in school and there’s another teacher.”
Greg Orman
Photo courtesy Orman -Doll for Kansas
Orman also supports expanding Medicaid for economic reasons.
The independent candidate told the Kansas News Service he wants to encourage recipients to work by ensuring they’ll still get Medicaid at higher income levels.
“We send a terrible message to people in Kansas who are working and not making a lot of money, which is, ‘If you get sick, quit your job,’” he said. “Ultimately, we need to be building pathways to allow people to improve their lives, not creating these very perverse incentives.”
A platform paper published on Orman’s campaign website argues that expanded Medicaid could attract workers from out of state.
“Someone making $13 per hour in a family of three in Colorado gets healthcare coverage as part of their decision to work in Colorado,” Orman’s paper reads. “That same person in Kansas gets no health care coverage unless an employer provides it. Given the shortage of workers in Kansas, this puts us at a significant disadvantage.”
Holman said more medical coverage could also attract employers to the state, and not just in the health care industry.
“Employers want to be in communities where there is a hospital and where there is care that would be available to their employees,” she said.
Orman’s platform describes a way to pay for the state’s share of the cost of expansion. The federal government has promised to pay 93 percent of expansion costs in 2019, and will pay 90 percent of costs in 2020 and beyond.
Orman proposes covering the remaining 10 percent through taxes on the health care industry, which he expects will bring in larger profits due to expansion.
Kris Kobach
Kris Kobach during a September visit to Salina Tech.
Kobach joins his Republican colleagues in opposing Medicaid expansion, calling the policy too expensive and unrealistic.
His campaign website does not have a section for health policy, but Kobach has mentioned his opposition to the Affordable Care Act in numerous speeches. He’s promised to ask President Trump for waivers to exempt Kansas from Obamacare requirements.
“The better approach is to do something smart, and look at whether we can spend that money effectively,” Kobach said at a debate at the Kansas State Fair in September.
Kobach says he wants to integrate KanCare with a payment system called direct primary care, sometimes called “concierge medicine.”
Direct primary care patients pay a monthly or yearly fee for unlimited primary care visits and reduced prices on medications and lab testing. Orman also supports the idea of allowing KanCare recipients to choose the option of direct primary care.
Kobach, however, has not addressed how KanCare would cover needs like nursing home payments and home care, which comprised 39 percent of KanCare expenditures in 2016. Direct primary care doesn’t cover emergencies, hospitalizations or specialized care, which don’t fall under the umbrella of “primary care.”
The Kobach campaign has not responded to repeated requests for further information on the plan, although Kobach told the Kansas News Service that he plans on testing the idea with a pilot program in one county or region before expanding it statewide.
“I anticipate it would create a significant amount of savings and it would be very favorably received by the KanCare patients who use it,” Kobach said. “Where direct primary care has been used in the private sector, the doctors love it and patients love it.”
“He is a tireless champion for border security,” Trump said. “He’ll fight for you every single day. He doesn’t stop. He’ll protect your family. He’ll protect your children.”
Kobach’s campaign for governor is one of two hotly contested races in Kansas revealing a divide over immigration policy. In the 3rd Congressional District, incumbent Republican Kevin Yoder has rejected the Trump administration’s harshest tactics and rhetoric.
Kobach has made a career out of stoking anti-immigrant sentiment. As secretary of state, he’s pushed for rules to require that people show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. As a private attorney, he worked with cities across the country to help pass ordinances that make hiring or renting to undocumented immigrants unlawful.
At the rally, Kobach warned that immigrants here illegally are a drain on the state’s finances.
“It’s time to put Kansans first, not illegal aliens,” he said. Once again the crowd cheered in approval.
That sentiment plays well with voters who helped Trump win Kansas by a wide margin in 2016. It also plays in rural parts of the state where some people are anxious about immigrants bringing crime.
However, the influential Kansas Farm Bureau couldn’t agree on who to endorse for governor. Rich Felts, the group’s president, said Kobach’s hardline stance on immigration may have factored in the lack of consensus.
And Kobach’s rhetoric may also hurt him with voters in the growing suburbs of Kansas City.
That’s where Rep. Yoder is taking a more moderate tone when it comes to immigration. He’s been endorsed by Trump but didn’t appear at the rally.
Yoder supports Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and the border wall but has said he’s also willing to work across the aisle.
“I … supported a Democratic plan that would make sure that DACA kids can’t be deported,” Yoder told host Steve Kraske on KCUR’s Up To Date. “I also supported a Democratic plan that would ensure that we can’t separate parents from their children.”
Yoder came to the aid of an Indian woman who lost her legal status in the United States after her husband was murdered in a hate crime in Olathe. Sunayana Dumala has endorsed the congressman in a new ad.
Yoder is clearly trying to win over moderates, but his approach has alienated some further to the right, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“Your family history shouldn’t be allowed to thwart the president’s immigration agenda, and frankly imperil the party’s prospects in the midterms,” she told her television audience.
Yoder eventually backed away from the Democratic plan citing concerns that it would allow millions of people to potentially make fraudulent claims and take advantage of the system.
The 3rd District is increasingly home to wealthy, college educated people. And it’s skewing more Democratic. Hillary Clinton narrowly won the district in the presidential race two years ago.
“You know, [Yoder] really hasn’t walked away from Trump’s policies,” said University of Kansas political science professor Patrick Miller. “Yet he’s attempted to say things or express concern over things like children being detained that might seem more sympathetic to what’s really a swing district that he represents.”
To further demonstrate he’s the centrist in the race, Yoder has tried to make his Democratic challenger, Sharice Davids, seem too radical for his district.
“Certainly, I’ve had moderate people tell me they don’t like the gubernatorial nominee,” Yoder said. “But for the same reason you shouldn’t like [Sharice Davids] for Kansas.”
He’s focused a lot of attention on comments she made about defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Congressional Republicans’ super PAC and Yoder’s campaign have both turned those comments into attack ads. Davids put out her own ad saying they twisted her words.
It’s unclear which strategy will work for the two Republicans — reaching out to moderates, or ignoring them and relying on Trump’s base.
Brian Grimmett, based at KMUW in Wichita, is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a statewide collaboration between KMUW, Kansas Public Radio, KCUR and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. Follow him on Twitter @briangrimmett.
MCPHERSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a robbery and have two suspects in custody.
Artmore- photo McPherson CountyArd -photo McPherson County
Just after 3 a.m. Friday, police were dispatched to a report of an armed robbery at Holiday Inn Express Hotel, 2302 E. Kansas Avenue in McPherson, according to a media release.
The hotel clerk reported that two black males came into the hotel, with their faces covered, armed with a handgun and demanded money.
The clerk complied and gave the suspects $171.00 cash from the cash register. One of the suspects took the clerk into a back room, while the other suspect attempted, unsuccessfully, to break into an ATM inside the hotel, causing damage to the ATM.
The suspects then fled from the hotel. The clerk told officers, she recognized the clothing one of the suspects was wearing, a red hoodie, as that of a black male, who had been in the hotel just prior to the robbery and left in a red SUV.
While responding to the report of the robbery, police observed a red Saturn Vue SUV, with the back license plate covered by a plastic bag, traveling west on Kansas Avenue from the area of the Hotel.
Officers also saw a red hoodie lying in the street on Kansas Avenue, where the SUV had traveled.
Officers stopped the SUV in the 200 Block of South Maple Street and identified the driver as 18-year-old Rodric D. Artmore and his passenger, as 19-year-old Brian Ard Jr., both from Texas. Officers found a handgun and cash in the SUV. Officers arrested Artmore and Ard for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and criminal damage to property. Artmore and Ard were booked into the McPherson County Jail, with their bond set at $20,500 each. Follow-up Investigation continues by the McPherson Police Department Investigations Section.
In August, Central Christian announced Rodic Artmore a 6-foot-1 guard from Dickinson High School in Houston, TX and Brian Ard, a 6-foot-1 guard from North Shore High School in Houston, TX., were joining the basketball team.
