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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Foundation meets goal By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
Donors have come to the rescue of the Allen County Community Foundation, ensuring it will meet the yearend demands of a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation. “When you count the pledges up, we’ve met the goal,” said Gary McIntosh, president of the foundation that helps fund countywide charitable opportunities. Last week, it looked iffy as to whether the foundation could raise the $20,000 of a $100,000 goal. The $100,00 triggers a $70,000 match from KHF, of which $17,500 goes to the salary of Susan Michael, director of the foundation, and another $2,500 toward training purposes. The bulk, $50,000, will go to the foundation’s endowment. Recent beneficiaries include the MOMS and Kiwanis groups for new playground equipment in Riverside Park,
area Scout troops and Rotary. As its funds grow, the more the foundation can do to help area entities, McIntosh said. The foundation is a tax-deductible conduit to many area organizations and entities, including the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility, Allen County Regional Hospital, Hope Unlimited, Hospice, and the Humboldt Affordable Housing Fund. Since its inception in 2012, the foundation has raised $1.8 million in cash and pledges. This year, more than $225,000 has been directed to the hospital to purchase new equipment. For more information about the community foundation, visit its website at www.givingmakesadif ference.org.
Drive-thru bakery A large Ford pickup rolled into Rene’s Bakery storefront Monday morning. The vehicle was being operated by Preston Roseberry and is owned by Virgina Roseberry. The Iola Police Department stated that no one was in the vehicle at the time of the accident. No injuries were reported. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
State Medicaid suit alleges extortion By JOHN HANNA Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A firm managing part of the Medicaid program in Kansas and its parent company alleged Monday in court documents that a former executive tried to “extort” $3 million from them by threatening to forward “spurious” information about them to state officials after being fired. Sunflower State Health Plan Inc. and its parent, Centene Corp., made the claims in responding to a federal lawsuit filed in late October by Jacqueline Leary, vice president of network development and contracting for Sunflower. She alleged in her lawsuit that she
was wrongfully fired in January after protesting potentially improper cost-cutting measures for Medicaid in Kansas. Leary’s attorney, Lewis Galloway, of Kansas City, Missouri, called the companies’ new legal claims “paper thin” and “the silliest thing I can imagine.” He said they represent continued retaliation against her. The state’s $3 billion-a-year Medicaid program covers health services for 368,000 poor and disabled residents. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback turned over the program’s administration in 2012 to Kansas-based subsidiaries of three large, private health insurance companies, including Sunflower, which is based
in the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa. Centene’s headquarters is in St. Louis. Leary filed her lawsuit eight days before the November election, with Brownback in a tough re-election race that he won narrowly. The conservative governor contends the privatized Medicaid program, now called KanCare, is delivering better services at a lower cost to the state, but Democrats used the lawsuit to raise new questions about the program’s overhaul. Centene and Sunflower denied Leary’s allegations in separate replies to her lawsuit, said she was fired for poor performance and acSee EXTORTION | Page A6
Kansas has lowest tornado total in years WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Only 40 tornadoes were reported in Kansas in 2014, the lowest number recorded in 25 years and the fourthlowest since tornado statistics began being kept in 1950. This year’s figure, less than half of the state’s 30year average of 81, is the third consecutive year of below-normal tornado totals in Kansas, The Wichita Eagle reported. However, weather officials say the decline is a mixed blessing. While fewer tornadoes means fewer opportunities for deaths, inju-
ries and property damage, they say it also increases the chances of complacency in residents’ preparation for severe weather safety. “If you don’t have them very often, they forget what to do,” said Brad Ketcham, a National Weather Service meteorologist. In Sedgwick County this year, no tornadoes were spotted, nor were any tornado watches issued, which Ketcham said has “never happened before.” A tornado touched down in Harper County earlier this month, an event Ketcham called “pretty rare.”
Child homelessness up, schools report About 10,400 students without permanent shelter By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN Topeka Capital-Journal
Ribbon cutting Country Traditions had its ribbon cutting at 102 S. Washington Ave., Monday. The store sells home decor items. Iola Area Chamber of Commerce members helped Angie and Chad Turner, owners, with the ceremony. Pictured are, from left, Connie Hill, Loren Korte, Sandy Ellis, Shelia Lampe, Heather Curry, Duane McGraw, Angie and Chad, Kristen Barnett, Teresa Murphey, Courtney Orth. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
Quote of the day oVol. 117, No. 45
Kansas schools are reporting a rise in child homelessness, a trend that advocates say has implications for the ability of children to learn in school. The number of homeless children attending Kansas schools has nearly tripled since before the recession, according to data from the Kansas State Department of Education. The upward trend continued last school year, with public schools reporting nearly 10,400 homeless children, a thousand more than a year earlier.
Wichita and Kansas City, Kan., public schools saw spikes of 45 percent and 20 percent, respectively, in the number of homeless children they serve. Nearly one in four homeless students statewide lives in Wichita, according to the state’s tallies. Tate Toedman, the state education department’s child homelessness program coordinator, said school administrators are reporting seeing families take longer to recover. “The main things I’m seeing and hearing from liaisons is just, it’s taking families a lot more time to get out of their homeless situations,” Toedman said. “It’s a bigger struggle finding the jobs that pay enough, and then the affordable housing just isn’t there.” U.S. Department of Education data compiled by the National Center for Home-
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” — Mark Twain 75 Cents
less Education indicate less than half of homeless students are proficient in math and science, and a little more than half are proficient in reading. Schools track the number of homeless students they serve because the federal government requires them to provide special supports and services to help the children remain in school and continue to learn. “The very fact that schools are identifying students and these kids are enrolled in school is progress,” says Barbara Duffield, policy director at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. Duffield says homeless students face unstable situations, often moving repeatedly within a single school year. Since 1990, schools have See HOMELESS | Page A6
Hi: 27 Lo: 10 Iola, KS