SEDGWICK COUNTU-&nbsp;A former Kansas high school teacher who admitted being sexually attracted to children was sentenced Friday for sexual exploitation of a child.

Shawn Winfield, 49, was sentenced to 36 months probation, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. In November he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Wingfield resigned in July from teaching gifted English and debate at Wichita Northwest High School. 

The investigation began after a woman Wingfield dated turned over what she considered worrisome text messages to police. A court affidavit said Winfield admitted to being sexually attracted to 11- to 14-year-old children.&nbsp;

At the time of his surprise resignation, Wingfield wrote on social media, "This morning, for reasons involving personal health and well being, I resigned from Wichita Public Schools. Without going into details, I have come to believe that this is not only the best decision for myself, but also for the district and my students. And while I do regret the timing of this decision so close to the start of the new school year, I believe that to stay any longer would prove to be a greater inconvenience to everyone in the end."

He then added, "Time for me to check out for a while.  A little earlier than I had hoped.  See everyone, I hope, on the other side."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/7/1627295318183.png" alt="Wingfield-photo Sedgwick Co." />
 <figcaption>Wingfield-photo Sedgwick Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTU-&nbsp;A former Kansas high school teacher who admitted being sexually attracted to children was sentenced Friday for sexual exploitation of a child.Shawn Winfield, 49, was sentenced to 36 months probation, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. In November he pleaded guilty to the charges.Wingfield resigned in July from teaching gifted English and debate at Wichita Northwest High School. The investigation began after a woman Wingfield dated turned over what she considered worrisome text messages to police. A court affidavit said Winfield admitted to being sexually attracted to 11- to 14-year-old children.&nbsp;At the time of his surprise resignation, Wingfield wrote on social media, "This morning, for reasons involving personal health and well being, I resigned from Wichita Public Schools. Without going into details, I have come to believe that this is not only the best decision for myself, but also for the district and my students. And while I do regret the timing of this decision so close to the start of the new school year, I believe that to stay any longer would prove to be a greater inconvenience to everyone in the end."He then added, "Time for me to check out for a while. A little earlier than I had hoped. See everyone, I hope, on the other side."------------

Kan. man sentenced after date turned him in for child porn on phone

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans on Tuesday revived a redistricting plan that would make it harder for the only&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;Democrat in Congress to win reelection, engineering a second-chance override of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of the measure in the state Senate.

The Senate vote Tuesday was 27-11 and gave Republican leaders exactly the two-thirds majority they needed, with two GOP senators abstaining. The measure goes next to the House, which has a month to decide whether to override Kelly's veto and make the new district lines law. It wasn't clear whether Republicans yet have the necessary two-thirds majority there, but they are close.

Republican senators faced questions from their colleagues and reporters about how much legislative horse-trading led up to Tuesday's vote. The first veto override attempt on Monday failed, 24-15, because four GOP senators broke with their leaders. The Republican-controlled Legislature's rules allow lawmakers to reconsider any action by the next day.

“I hope whoever got them to change their mind will get what it is they bargained for,” said Democratic state Sen. David Haley, of Kansas City, which is split under the map. “It lends discredit to this process.”

Even if the House overrides Kelly's veto, the GOP plan is expected to face challenges in federal and possibly state courts. Republicans are seeking to recapture a U.S. House majority, and both parties are watching redistricting closely.

Kansas Republicans' plan would split the state’s portion of the Kansas City area into two congressional districts, costing Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids some of the territory in her 3rd District where she performs best. The map also would move the liberal northeast Kansas community of Lawrence, home to the main University of Kansas campus, from the 2nd District of eastern Kansas into the 1st District of central and western Kansas with conservative communities six or more hours away by car.

Top Republicans said all of the changes resulted from the need to balance the population in each of the state's four congressional districts after a decade of shifts. States are required to redraw lines at least once a decade to make their districts as equal in population as possible. The GOP plan gives every Kansas district the ideal population of 734,470.

Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, argued that even with the new lines district, Davids would have won reelection in 2020, based on that year's results.

“It's a fair map,” he told reporters after the vote.

Masterson joined the four GOP dissenters in voting against an override Monday, but only so that he would be able to ask senators to reconsider Tuesday. A person on the winning side has to do it.

Both conservative Republicans who switched from no Monday to yes Tuesday are from communities an hour or more northwest of Wichita, Sens. Mark Steffen and Alicia Straub.

Straub explained her yes vote Tuesday by saying she's never supported anything Kelly has, adding, “This is standing for freedom.”

Steffen didn't sound much like a supporter of GOP leaders' map in his explanation of his yes vote Tuesday, deriding the plan for moving Lawrence into the district long known as the “Big First” because it sprawls over much of the state.

“Now they are dumping the Lawrence liberals in our lap,” he said. “Just like illegal hunting killed off our buffalo in the 1800s, insidious redistricting will kill off the true conservative character of my beloved Big First.”

Both senators are COVID-19 vaccine skeptics. On Tuesday morning, a Senate committee approved a bill containing proposals from Steffen aimed at protecting doctors who prescribe the anti-worm medication ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and at making it easier for parents to enroll their children in school or day care without getting them vaccinated.

Masterson said he had conversations with the senators about multiple issues, but when asked why they switched their votes, he told reporters: “You're going to have to talk to them."

Steffen declined comment multiple times when reporters asked whether the committee action Tuesday influenced his change of vote. Straub ducked reporters immediately after the vote.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1643147273216.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By JOHN HANNATOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans on Tuesday revived a redistricting plan that would make it harder for the only&nbsp;Kansas&nbsp;Democrat in Congress to win reelection, engineering a second-chance override of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of the measure in the state Senate.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t3ioC4jdpjQ?start=906" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>The Senate vote Tuesday was 27-11 and gave Republican leaders exactly the two-thirds majority they needed, with two GOP senators abstaining. The measure goes next to the House, which has a month to decide whether to override Kelly's veto and make the new district lines law. It wasn't clear whether Republicans yet have the necessary two-thirds majority there, but they are close.Republican senators faced questions from their colleagues and reporters about how much legislative horse-trading led up to Tuesday's vote. The first veto override attempt on Monday failed, 24-15, because four GOP senators broke with their leaders. The Republican-controlled Legislature's rules allow lawmakers to reconsider any action by the next day.“I hope whoever got them to change their mind will get what it is they bargained for,” said Democratic state Sen. David Haley, of Kansas City, which is split under the map. “It lends discredit to this process.”Even if the House overrides Kelly's veto, the GOP plan is expected to face challenges in federal and possibly state courts. Republicans are seeking to recapture a U.S. House majority, and both parties are watching redistricting closely.Kansas Republicans' plan would split the state’s portion of the Kansas City area into two congressional districts, costing Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids some of the territory in her 3rd District where she performs best. The map also would move the liberal northeast Kansas community of Lawrence, home to the main University of Kansas campus, from the 2nd District of eastern Kansas into the 1st District of central and western Kansas with conservative communities six or more hours away by car.Top Republicans said all of the changes resulted from the need to balance the population in each of the state's four congressional districts after a decade of shifts. States are required to redraw lines at least once a decade to make their districts as equal in population as possible. The GOP plan gives every Kansas district the ideal population of 734,470.Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, argued that even with the new lines district, Davids would have won reelection in 2020, based on that year's results.“It's a fair map,” he told reporters after the vote.Masterson joined the four GOP dissenters in voting against an override Monday, but only so that he would be able to ask senators to reconsider Tuesday. A person on the winning side has to do it.Both conservative Republicans who switched from no Monday to yes Tuesday are from communities an hour or more northwest of Wichita, Sens. Mark Steffen and Alicia Straub.Straub explained her yes vote Tuesday by saying she's never supported anything Kelly has, adding, “This is standing for freedom.”Steffen didn't sound much like a supporter of GOP leaders' map in his explanation of his yes vote Tuesday, deriding the plan for moving Lawrence into the district long known as the “Big First” because it sprawls over much of the state.“Now they are dumping the Lawrence liberals in our lap,” he said. “Just like illegal hunting killed off our buffalo in the 1800s, insidious redistricting will kill off the true conservative character of my beloved Big First.”Both senators are COVID-19 vaccine skeptics. On Tuesday morning, a Senate committee approved a bill containing proposals from Steffen aimed at protecting doctors who prescribe the anti-worm medication ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and at making it easier for parents to enroll their children in school or day care without getting them vaccinated.Masterson said he had conversations with the senators about multiple issues, but when asked why they switched their votes, he told reporters: “You're going to have to talk to them."Steffen declined comment multiple times when reporters asked whether the committee action Tuesday influenced his change of vote. Straub ducked reporters immediately after the vote.

🎥2nd try to override veto saves Kan. GOP map targeting Democrat

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A man charged with killing two brothers from Wisconsin will not go to trial until March of next year, a judge has ruled.

Garland Nelson, of Braymer,&nbsp;<a href="https://hosted.ap.org/semissourian/article/b4800d822fdb6652b55bd5443d5dea69/9ec813dce6b49739ce4cefe408145fd3">faces two counts of first-degree murder</a>&nbsp;and other charges in the deaths of Justin and Nicholas Diemel, of Shawano County, Wisconsin, in 2019. He has pleaded not guilty.

If he is convicted, Nelson could face the death penalty.

Nelson's trial was scheduled to begin in June. But on Monday, Johnson County Circuit Judge Michael Wagner granted a motion from Nelson’s attorneys to delay the trial until March, The St. Joseph News-Press&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/courts/trial-for-accused-killer-pushed-to-next-year/article_a33f66ec-886c-11ec-bcd0-d310120333fd.html">reported.</a>

Nelson's attorneys filed a motion last week seeking the delay. They said Nelson had not had time to meet with his psychiatrist.

The Diemel brothers disappeared after visiting Nelson's farm on July 21, 2019, to discuss a $250,000 debt Nelson owed them. Their burned remains were later found in Missouri and Nebraska.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/7/1564610122687.png" alt="Nelson-photo Caldwell County" />
 <figcaption>Nelson-photo Caldwell County</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) — A man charged with killing two brothers from Wisconsin will not go to trial until March of next year, a judge has ruled.Garland Nelson, of Braymer,&nbsp;<a href="https://hosted.ap.org/semissourian/article/b4800d822fdb6652b55bd5443d5dea69/9ec813dce6b49739ce4cefe408145fd3">faces two counts of first-degree murder</a>&nbsp;and other charges in the deaths of Justin and Nicholas Diemel, of Shawano County, Wisconsin, in 2019. He has pleaded not guilty.If he is convicted, Nelson could face the death penalty.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/8/1565280147807.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Nelson's trial was scheduled to begin in June. But on Monday, Johnson County Circuit Judge Michael Wagner granted a motion from Nelson’s attorneys to delay the trial until March, The St. Joseph News-Press&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/courts/trial-for-accused-killer-pushed-to-next-year/article_a33f66ec-886c-11ec-bcd0-d310120333fd.html">reported.</a>Nelson's attorneys filed a motion last week seeking the delay. They said Nelson had not had time to meet with his psychiatrist.The Diemel brothers disappeared after visiting Nelson's farm on July 21, 2019, to discuss a $250,000 debt Nelson owed them. Their burned remains were later found in Missouri and Nebraska.

Trial of KC-area man charged with killing 2 brothers delayed

By VICKIE MOSS <a href="https://www.iolaregister.com/news/local-news/iolan-dies-after-19-month-battle-with-covid">Iola Register</a>

Kansas man Roger Collins, Iola, has died following a 19-month battle with COVID-19.

Wife Billie announced her husband’s passing in a Facebook post Monday.

“I thought today I would be whooping and hollering about the strides 
we had made,” Billie wrote. “Well, sadly or happily, today was the day 
my plan did not come to pass but a much better, more amazing plan took 
place as God called Roger home.”

Collins tested positive for COVID-19 on July 13, 2020.

By that evening, he experienced trouble breathing and was taken via 
ambulance to the hospital, first to Allen County Regional Hospital, then
 to Kansas City, and finally to a long-term care facility in Dallas as 
his symptoms worsened.

“The last 19 months were tough but they were ours,” Billie wrote. “We
 shared the good, bad and the ugly. My heart is broken for our loss but 
it is soaring knowing Roger is no longer in pain. He can walk and talk …
 and if you know Roger he can talk and talk and talk.”

The Collins family shared their story with regular updates for 
Register readers, most recently about 18 months of hospitalization and 
rehabilitation efforts.&nbsp;

Billie praised her husband’s strength and determination. She said the
 family’s faith helped them through the difficult times, including at 
the end.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644368440755.png" alt="Roger Collins / courtesy the Iola Register" />
 <figcaption>Roger Collins / courtesy the Iola Register</figcaption>
 </figure>By VICKIE MOSS <a href="https://www.iolaregister.com/news/local-news/iolan-dies-after-19-month-battle-with-covid">Iola Register</a>Kansas man Roger Collins, Iola, has died following a 19-month battle with COVID-19.Wife Billie announced her husband’s passing in a Facebook post Monday.“I thought today I would be whooping and hollering about the strides 
we had made,” Billie wrote. “Well, sadly or happily, today was the day 
my plan did not come to pass but a much better, more amazing plan took 
place as God called Roger home.”Collins tested positive for COVID-19 on July 13, 2020.By that evening, he experienced trouble breathing and was taken via 
ambulance to the hospital, first to Allen County Regional Hospital, then
 to Kansas City, and finally to a long-term care facility in Dallas as 
his symptoms worsened.“The last 19 months were tough but they were ours,” Billie wrote. “We
 shared the good, bad and the ugly. My heart is broken for our loss but 
it is soaring knowing Roger is no longer in pain. He can walk and talk …
 and if you know Roger he can talk and talk and talk.”The Collins family shared their story with regular updates for 
Register readers, most recently about 18 months of hospitalization and 
rehabilitation efforts.&nbsp;Billie praised her husband’s strength and determination. She said the
 family’s faith helped them through the difficult times, including at 
the end.Republished with permission

Kansas man dies after 19-month battle with COVID-19

By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/08/herbster-says-pillen-insincere-in-critical-race-theory-fight/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

Hog farmer Jim Pillen’s latest television ad takes aim at critical race theory. He says he knows slop when he sees it.

Charles
 Herbster, Pillen’s top opponent in Nebraska’s Republican primary for 
governor, questioned Pillen’s sincerity. He said he should have done 
more to protect university students from critical race theory.&nbsp;

Herbster
 pointed to Pillen’s 2018 vote, as a University of Nebraska regent, in 
support of hiring a leader to create a new Office of Diversity and 
Inclusion at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.&nbsp;The office was 
created after being studied for four years following race-related 
incidents on UNL’s campus. Pillen has been an NU regent since 2013.

“Jim
 Pillen’s lack of action and courage on critical race theory when 
Nebraska students needed him the most is shocking,” Herbster said. “His 
sudden reversal in a paid ad for political purposes is too little, too 
late.”

Herbster
 said that, if elected governor, he would work with local school boards 
and the NU system to “make sure students are taught to love, not hate, 
America.”&nbsp;

Pillen’s
 campaign said that he was the first elected university regent in the 
U.S. to stand up against critical race theory and that he is a 
recognized leader in higher ed on the issue.

“Jim
 will always fight to ensure our schools educate, not indoctrinate, our 
students,” said Kenny Zoeller, Pillen’s campaign manager.&nbsp;

The campaigns disagreed Tuesday over who opposed critical race theory first.&nbsp;

Herbster’s
 campaign press release said he signed the “1776 Action Pledge” against 
critical race theory on June 8. Pillen’s campaign provided an email 
confirming Pillen had signed the pledge a day earlier, on June 7. 
Herbster’s campaign then provided a document showing Herbster had signed
 on June 2.&nbsp;

Critical
 race theorists essentially believe that race in America must be viewed 
through a lens that is conscious of color, not blind to it.

UNL officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment, nor did its Office of Diversity and Inclusion.&nbsp;

The
 office’s website says it aims to “create a more equitable, and 
inclusive campus culture.” In interviews, diversity office leaders have 
previously said it is designed to make sure that UNL is welcoming to all
 of its students. University leaders have said the office is vital to 
helping recruit the next generation of students.&nbsp;

Herbster’s
 attack on Tuesday followed criticism Pillen leveled against him on 
Friday. Pillen had criticized Herbster for locating Conklin Co. out of 
state. Herbster responded by criticizing Pillen’s business, 
Columbus-based Pillen Family Farms.

Pillen and Herbster are the top two fundraisers in the governor’s race.&nbsp;Eight GOP candidates are vying to see who will face Democratic State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue in November.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644359935815.png" alt="Nebraska Republican Charles Herbster announces his run for governor in April 2021. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>Nebraska Republican Charles Herbster announces his run for governor in April 2021. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/08/herbster-says-pillen-insincere-in-critical-race-theory-fight/">Nebraska Examiner</a>Hog farmer Jim Pillen’s latest television ad takes aim at critical race theory. He says he knows slop when he sees it.Charles
 Herbster, Pillen’s top opponent in Nebraska’s Republican primary for 
governor, questioned Pillen’s sincerity. He said he should have done 
more to protect university students from critical race theory.&nbsp;Herbster
 pointed to Pillen’s 2018 vote, as a University of Nebraska regent, in 
support of hiring a leader to create a new Office of Diversity and 
Inclusion at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.&nbsp;The office was 
created after being studied for four years following race-related 
incidents on UNL’s campus. Pillen has been an NU regent since 2013.“Jim
 Pillen’s lack of action and courage on critical race theory when 
Nebraska students needed him the most is shocking,” Herbster said. “His 
sudden reversal in a paid ad for political purposes is too little, too 
late.”Herbster
 said that, if elected governor, he would work with local school boards 
and the NU system to “make sure students are taught to love, not hate, 
America.”&nbsp;Pillen’s
 campaign said that he was the first elected university regent in the 
U.S. to stand up against critical race theory and that he is a 
recognized leader in higher ed on the issue.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644360051660.jpeg" alt="Nebraska Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Pillen (Rebecca S. Gratz for the Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>Nebraska Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Pillen (Rebecca S. Gratz for the Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>“Jim
 will always fight to ensure our schools educate, not indoctrinate, our 
students,” said Kenny Zoeller, Pillen’s campaign manager.&nbsp;The campaigns disagreed Tuesday over who opposed critical race theory first.&nbsp;Herbster’s
 campaign press release said he signed the “1776 Action Pledge” against 
critical race theory on June 8. Pillen’s campaign provided an email 
confirming Pillen had signed the pledge a day earlier, on June 7. 
Herbster’s campaign then provided a document showing Herbster had signed
 on June 2.&nbsp;Critical
 race theorists essentially believe that race in America must be viewed 
through a lens that is conscious of color, not blind to it.UNL officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment, nor did its Office of Diversity and Inclusion.&nbsp;The
 office’s website says it aims to “create a more equitable, and 
inclusive campus culture.” In interviews, diversity office leaders have 
previously said it is designed to make sure that UNL is welcoming to all
 of its students. University leaders have said the office is vital to 
helping recruit the next generation of students.&nbsp;Herbster’s
 attack on Tuesday followed criticism Pillen leveled against him on 
Friday. Pillen had criticized Herbster for locating Conklin Co. out of 
state. Herbster responded by criticizing Pillen’s business, 
Columbus-based Pillen Family Farms.Pillen and Herbster are the top two fundraisers in the governor’s race.&nbsp;Eight GOP candidates are vying to see who will face Democratic State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue in November.

Neb. governor candidates squabble over critical race theory

By KIRA LERNER <a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/states-target-ballot-drop-boxes-fight-over-voting-rights">States Newsroom</a>

Ballot drop boxes are so secure they’ve 
survived getting hit by an SUV and rolled by a school bus — yet much of 
the battle over voting rights has centered on the big metal boxes.

In the November 2020 general election, nearly 40 states had ballot 
drop boxes available and more voters used drop boxes than in any 
election in U.S. history, <a href="https://healthyelections.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/Ballot_Drop_Boxes.pdf" target="_blank">according to a report</a> from the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

But in the lead up to the election and the years since, the big metal
 boxes have become the focus of controversy in state legislatures from <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/01/10/sequel-to-battle-over-georgias-election-laws-in-play-in-2022-legislature/" target="_blank">Georgia</a> to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/27/texas-voting-elections-mail-in-drop-off/" target="_blank">Texas</a> to <a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/legislative-hearing-turns-complaint-session-about-conduct-2020-elections?eType=EmailBlastContent&amp;eId=510b2c93-3c52-4b14-9d19-6ffe76776df4">Nebraska</a> and in courts in <a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/01/28/elections-commission-deadlocks-on-drop-boxes-as-litigation-moves-forward/" target="_blank">Wisconsin</a> and <a href="https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/federal-judge-pauses-trump-lawsuit-to-toss-pa-ballot-drop-off-boxes/" target="_blank">Pennsylvania</a>.
 In many states, Republican lawmakers want to limit or end voters’ 
choice to return their ballots to drop boxes, citing the potential for 
tampering or fraud — though there’s no proof that’s happened.

Larry Olson, the vice president of Laserfab, a Washington state-based
 metal fabrication company that has manufactured drop boxes since 2010, 
recognizes the irony of all the attention on metal boxes in 2022.

Olson has traveled to election conferences across the country with 
county and state election officials. “I always find it funny,” he said. 
“I’m surrounded by all these people with voting on iPads and all these 
different ballot tabulations and I'm just sitting there trying to sell a
 big metal box. It’s the lowest of the lowest tech you can have.”

Olson, whose company has roughly 800 drop boxes in use scattered 
across the country, said there’s little validity to lawmakers’ security 
concerns.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“It’s difficult to say you can 100 percent stop anybody from doing 
anything, but we have found through history that this is a very secure 
way to vote,” he said. “I do think a certain portion of that argument is
 very, shall we say, political in nature.”

The metal box fabrication companies involved in making drop boxes 
know that security has to be a priority if counties are going to use 
their product. The boxes are designed in close collaboration with 
election officials, Olson said.&nbsp;

“Every design feature we talked about with the early counties came 
back to a concern about the integrity of the process,” Olson said. 
“Everything we considered, that was the overriding question.”&nbsp;

Olson explained some of the steps that Laserfab has taken to ensure that ballots can’t be tampered with or damaged:

&nbsp;Ballot drop boxes are generally bolted to the ground, weigh 
roughly 1,000 pounds, and are designed to withstand any kind of weather,
 from torrential downpours to snow and wind.&nbsp;

In October 2020, a suspected arsonist lit a piece of paper on fire 
and put it into one of Laserfab’s drop boxes, damaging an estimated 100 
ballots (there isn’t enough air inside the box for a fire to do much 
damage). When the fire department arrived at the scene in Los Angeles 
County, firefighters had to use a saw to open the box.&nbsp;

“It’s nearly impossible to get a crowbar or anything in there and 
open up the access door, so they had to saw the door to get it open,” 
Olson said.&nbsp;

A similar <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/26/boston-ballot-dropbox-arson-election/" target="_blank">incident occurred</a> in Boston a week later, but after the fire was put out, the drop box remained open for ballots.

Most boxes are also placed somewhere with video surveillance or 
monitored by a security guard, and typically they only allow one or two 
ballots to be inserted at a time.&nbsp;

“It’s little design features like that that make it very difficult — I
 hate to say it’s impossible to tamper with anything, but folks like us 
who do this, we take every step to minimize the possibility,” Olson 
said.&nbsp;

Still, former President Donald Trump made the boxes a target of attack. Prior to the 2020 election, he <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/23/21398015/twitter-president-trump-tweet-mail-fraud-election" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that “the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster.”

In <a href="https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1485619935950917635" target="_blank">a statement</a>
 shared on Twitter last month, he maintained that claim. “Drop boxes are
 only good for Democrats and cheating, not good for Republicans,” he 
said.&nbsp;

Other Republicans are following his lead.&nbsp;

“Drop boxes were introduced as an emergency measure during the 
pandemic, but many counties did not follow the security guidelines in 
place, such as the requirement for camera surveillance on every drop 
box,” Georgia state Sen. Butch Miller, who is running for lieutenant 
governor, said in a statement when he introduced legislation to ban drop
 boxes.&nbsp;

“Moving forward, we can return to a pre-pandemic normal of voting in 
person,” he added. “Removing drop boxes will help rebuild the trust that
 has been lost.”

Amber McReynolds, a national election administration expert and 
former election official from Denver, said that drop boxes benefit 
people of all political persuasions and they only became controversial&nbsp; 
because Trump and his allies didn’t understand them.&nbsp;

“It literally is just a secure way for people to submit their ballots
 in person,” she said. “Frankly, I ran elections for 13 years and drop 
boxes provide better security than even the post boxes.”&nbsp;

“We’ve run the data on this,” she added. “People like the idea of 
voting at home, spending their time researching issues, but they still 
like the idea of submitting it in person, so the drop boxes give them 
the best of both worlds.”

Drop boxes first became commonplace in the Western states that were the first to move to <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections.aspx" target="_blank">all-mail elections</a> — Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.&nbsp;

“They were our first big customers and it kind of exploded from there,” Olson said.&nbsp;

Over the last two decades, their use has expanded, first in states 
with all-mail elections like Republican-controlled Utah and then in 
other blue and red states across the country.&nbsp;

"Counties have added additional drop boxes almost every year since 2014," Justin Lee, Utah’s former director of elections, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/oct/16/ballot-drop-boxes-have-long-been-used-without-cont/" target="_blank">told Politifact</a> in 2020. "We haven't had any security problems, and we have no indication that drop boxes favor one party over another party."

During the 2016 general election, nearly <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/rise-ballot-drop-boxes-due-coronavirus" target="_blank">1 in 6 U.S. voters</a> cast their ballot using a drop box. In Colorado, <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preparing-election-day-deadlines-running-safe-election" target="_blank">nearly 75 percent</a> of all voters used a drop box.&nbsp;

That number increased in 2020, as more voters chose to vote by mail 
due to the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. Postal Service slowdowns, which
 made voters and election officials concerned about whether the mail 
could be trusted to deliver a ballot before strict deadlines.&nbsp;

Murray Morgan, president and CEO of Kingsley, a California-based 
manufacturer of metal drop boxes, said his company had been making 
library book returns for decades but got into the ballot drop box 
business in 2020 when the demand became clear.&nbsp;

“We thought, ‘Hey, there’s a market there if we deliver the right 
product,’” he said. “We changed the depository opening of our units, we 
beefed them up for security. We’ve done numerous things to address the 
concerns of states regarding the safety of the ballot returns.”

Morgan said his company had roughly 400 dispersed across the country 
for the 2020 election, but expects to be able to produce thousands for 
future elections.&nbsp;

Before the 2020 election, only <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-9-ballot-drop-box-definitions-design-features-location-and-number.aspx" target="_blank">eight states</a>
 — Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon 
and Washington state — had laws explicitly concerning drop boxes.&nbsp;

But the new political attention on the method of voting has brought a push from state lawmakers to regulate or limit their use.&nbsp;

A new bill introduced in Utah, where drop boxes have been popular for almost a decade, would <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2022/02/04/utahs-new-voters-would/" target="_blank">require 24-hour video surveillance</a> at ballot drop boxes.

In Georgia, the use of drop boxes <a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/fewer-voters-used-drop-boxes-after-georgia-voting-law-limited-them/WTCPBE7QH5HBBEJB37RSC3FQYY/" target="_blank">declined</a>
 from 2020 to 2021 after the state took steps to limit their use, 
including a cap at one box per 100,000 active registered voters or one 
for each early voting location (whichever is smaller).&nbsp;

Voters were also restricted to using the boxes when early voting 
sites were open. The change was felt most dramatically in the most 
populous counties, including those in the Atlanta metro area.&nbsp;

Georgia state Sen. Butch Miller has also <a href="https://legislativenavigator.ajc.com/?_gl=1*qpqf5m*_ga*Nzk1NzEwMTE4LjE2NDIwMDIwMDE.*_ga_6VR7Y4BTY5*MTY0MjAwMjAwMS4xLjAuMTY0MjAwMjAwMS4w#bills/SB/325" target="_blank">proposed legislation</a> to ban the use of drop boxes altogether.&nbsp;

Like Georgia, Florida limited the use of drop boxes with a <a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2021/05/06/desantis-enacts-law-reforming-fl-elections-opponents-sue-and-citizens-could-face-voting-hurdles/" target="_blank">bill last year</a>
 that only allows election supervisors to place drop boxes in their 
counties during early voting hours. The boxes also must be placed at a 
permanent, staffed voting site. Supervisors who try to offer more drop 
boxes during additional times are subject to $25,000 fines.

In Wisconsin, a judge last month banned the use of drop boxes, but 
then an appeals court reinstated them for the February primary. The 
state Supreme Court <a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/01/28/elections-commission-deadlocks-on-drop-boxes-as-litigation-moves-forward/" target="_blank">said it would take up</a> the case but left the appeals court ruling in effect in the meantime.&nbsp;

McReynolds said she believes the political contention over drop boxes
 is a symptom of the larger politicization of the democratic process.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“I really think it was politicized because people felt that it hurt 
them, or one person felt it hurt him,” McReynolds said. “If it wasn’t 
drop boxes, or it wasn’t vote-by-mail, it would have been early voting, 
or it would have been automatic voter registration. It almost seems like
 regardless, one of them would have been called out simply for making it
 easier for people to vote.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/10/1602706584512.jpeg" alt="Ellis County ballot drop box" />
 <figcaption>Ellis County ballot drop box</figcaption>
 </figure>By KIRA LERNER <a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/states-target-ballot-drop-boxes-fight-over-voting-rights">States Newsroom</a>Ballot drop boxes are so secure they’ve 
survived getting hit by an SUV and rolled by a school bus — yet much of 
the battle over voting rights has centered on the big metal boxes.In the November 2020 general election, nearly 40 states had ballot 
drop boxes available and more voters used drop boxes than in any 
election in U.S. history, <a href="https://healthyelections.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/Ballot_Drop_Boxes.pdf" target="_blank">according to a report</a> from the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But in the lead up to the election and the years since, the big metal
 boxes have become the focus of controversy in state legislatures from <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/01/10/sequel-to-battle-over-georgias-election-laws-in-play-in-2022-legislature/" target="_blank">Georgia</a> to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/27/texas-voting-elections-mail-in-drop-off/" target="_blank">Texas</a> to <a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/legislative-hearing-turns-complaint-session-about-conduct-2020-elections?eType=EmailBlastContent&amp;eId=510b2c93-3c52-4b14-9d19-6ffe76776df4">Nebraska</a> and in courts in <a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/01/28/elections-commission-deadlocks-on-drop-boxes-as-litigation-moves-forward/" target="_blank">Wisconsin</a> and <a href="https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/federal-judge-pauses-trump-lawsuit-to-toss-pa-ballot-drop-off-boxes/" target="_blank">Pennsylvania</a>.
 In many states, Republican lawmakers want to limit or end voters’ 
choice to return their ballots to drop boxes, citing the potential for 
tampering or fraud — though there’s no proof that’s happened.Larry Olson, the vice president of Laserfab, a Washington state-based
 metal fabrication company that has manufactured drop boxes since 2010, 
recognizes the irony of all the attention on metal boxes in 2022.Olson has traveled to election conferences across the country with 
county and state election officials. “I always find it funny,” he said. 
“I’m surrounded by all these people with voting on iPads and all these 
different ballot tabulations and I'm just sitting there trying to sell a
 big metal box. It’s the lowest of the lowest tech you can have.”Olson, whose company has roughly 800 drop boxes in use scattered 
across the country, said there’s little validity to lawmakers’ security 
concerns.&nbsp;&nbsp;“It’s difficult to say you can 100 percent stop anybody from doing 
anything, but we have found through history that this is a very secure 
way to vote,” he said. “I do think a certain portion of that argument is
 very, shall we say, political in nature.”<h2>Bolted to the ground</h2>The metal box fabrication companies involved in making drop boxes 
know that security has to be a priority if counties are going to use 
their product. The boxes are designed in close collaboration with 
election officials, Olson said.&nbsp;“Every design feature we talked about with the early counties came 
back to a concern about the integrity of the process,” Olson said. 
“Everything we considered, that was the overriding question.”&nbsp;Olson explained some of the steps that Laserfab has taken to ensure that ballots can’t be tampered with or damaged:<ul>
 <li>The top of its drop boxes isn’t flat, so water and rain won’t pool toward the access door and get ballots wet.&nbsp;</li><li>The boxes are equipped with flanges above the slots that make it difficult for somebody to pour water into the box.&nbsp;</li><li>The slots and access door are designed so they have 
to be locked shut and can’t be shut by themselves, making it impossible 
for a worker to forget to lock them.&nbsp;</li>
 </ul>&nbsp;Ballot drop boxes are generally bolted to the ground, weigh 
roughly 1,000 pounds, and are designed to withstand any kind of weather,
 from torrential downpours to snow and wind.&nbsp;In October 2020, a suspected arsonist lit a piece of paper on fire 
and put it into one of Laserfab’s drop boxes, damaging an estimated 100 
ballots (there isn’t enough air inside the box for a fire to do much 
damage). When the fire department arrived at the scene in Los Angeles 
County, firefighters had to use a saw to open the box.&nbsp;“It’s nearly impossible to get a crowbar or anything in there and 
open up the access door, so they had to saw the door to get it open,” 
Olson said.&nbsp;A similar <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/26/boston-ballot-dropbox-arson-election/" target="_blank">incident occurred</a> in Boston a week later, but after the fire was put out, the drop box remained open for ballots.Most boxes are also placed somewhere with video surveillance or 
monitored by a security guard, and typically they only allow one or two 
ballots to be inserted at a time.&nbsp;“It’s little design features like that that make it very difficult — I
 hate to say it’s impossible to tamper with anything, but folks like us 
who do this, we take every step to minimize the possibility,” Olson 
said.&nbsp;Still, former President Donald Trump made the boxes a target of attack. Prior to the 2020 election, he <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/23/21398015/twitter-president-trump-tweet-mail-fraud-election" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that “the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster.”In <a href="https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1485619935950917635" target="_blank">a statement</a>
 shared on Twitter last month, he maintained that claim. “Drop boxes are
 only good for Democrats and cheating, not good for Republicans,” he 
said.&nbsp;Other Republicans are following his lead.&nbsp;“Drop boxes were introduced as an emergency measure during the 
pandemic, but many counties did not follow the security guidelines in 
place, such as the requirement for camera surveillance on every drop 
box,” Georgia state Sen. Butch Miller, who is running for lieutenant 
governor, said in a statement when he introduced legislation to ban drop
 boxes.&nbsp;“Moving forward, we can return to a pre-pandemic normal of voting in 
person,” he added. “Removing drop boxes will help rebuild the trust that
 has been lost.”Amber McReynolds, a national election administration expert and 
former election official from Denver, said that drop boxes benefit 
people of all political persuasions and they only became controversial&nbsp; 
because Trump and his allies didn’t understand them.&nbsp;“It literally is just a secure way for people to submit their ballots
 in person,” she said. “Frankly, I ran elections for 13 years and drop 
boxes provide better security than even the post boxes.”&nbsp;“We’ve run the data on this,” she added. “People like the idea of 
voting at home, spending their time researching issues, but they still 
like the idea of submitting it in person, so the drop boxes give them 
the best of both worlds.”<h2>First states</h2>Drop boxes first became commonplace in the Western states that were the first to move to <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections.aspx" target="_blank">all-mail elections</a> — Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.&nbsp;“They were our first big customers and it kind of exploded from there,” Olson said.&nbsp;Over the last two decades, their use has expanded, first in states 
with all-mail elections like Republican-controlled Utah and then in 
other blue and red states across the country.&nbsp;"Counties have added additional drop boxes almost every year since 2014," Justin Lee, Utah’s former director of elections, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/oct/16/ballot-drop-boxes-have-long-been-used-without-cont/" target="_blank">told Politifact</a> in 2020. "We haven't had any security problems, and we have no indication that drop boxes favor one party over another party."During the 2016 general election, nearly <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/rise-ballot-drop-boxes-due-coronavirus" target="_blank">1 in 6 U.S. voters</a> cast their ballot using a drop box. In Colorado, <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preparing-election-day-deadlines-running-safe-election" target="_blank">nearly 75 percent</a> of all voters used a drop box.&nbsp;That number increased in 2020, as more voters chose to vote by mail 
due to the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. Postal Service slowdowns, which
 made voters and election officials concerned about whether the mail 
could be trusted to deliver a ballot before strict deadlines.&nbsp;Murray Morgan, president and CEO of Kingsley, a California-based 
manufacturer of metal drop boxes, said his company had been making 
library book returns for decades but got into the ballot drop box 
business in 2020 when the demand became clear.&nbsp;“We thought, ‘Hey, there’s a market there if we deliver the right 
product,’” he said. “We changed the depository opening of our units, we 
beefed them up for security. We’ve done numerous things to address the 
concerns of states regarding the safety of the ballot returns.”Morgan said his company had roughly 400 dispersed across the country 
for the 2020 election, but expects to be able to produce thousands for 
future elections.&nbsp;<h2>New push for regulation</h2>Before the 2020 election, only <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-9-ballot-drop-box-definitions-design-features-location-and-number.aspx" target="_blank">eight states</a>
 — Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon 
and Washington state — had laws explicitly concerning drop boxes.&nbsp;But the new political attention on the method of voting has brought a push from state lawmakers to regulate or limit their use.&nbsp;A new bill introduced in Utah, where drop boxes have been popular for almost a decade, would <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2022/02/04/utahs-new-voters-would/" target="_blank">require 24-hour video surveillance</a> at ballot drop boxes.In Georgia, the use of drop boxes <a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/fewer-voters-used-drop-boxes-after-georgia-voting-law-limited-them/WTCPBE7QH5HBBEJB37RSC3FQYY/" target="_blank">declined</a>
 from 2020 to 2021 after the state took steps to limit their use, 
including a cap at one box per 100,000 active registered voters or one 
for each early voting location (whichever is smaller).&nbsp;Voters were also restricted to using the boxes when early voting 
sites were open. The change was felt most dramatically in the most 
populous counties, including those in the Atlanta metro area.&nbsp;Georgia state Sen. Butch Miller has also <a href="https://legislativenavigator.ajc.com/?_gl=1*qpqf5m*_ga*Nzk1NzEwMTE4LjE2NDIwMDIwMDE.*_ga_6VR7Y4BTY5*MTY0MjAwMjAwMS4xLjAuMTY0MjAwMjAwMS4w#bills/SB/325" target="_blank">proposed legislation</a> to ban the use of drop boxes altogether.&nbsp;Like Georgia, Florida limited the use of drop boxes with a <a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2021/05/06/desantis-enacts-law-reforming-fl-elections-opponents-sue-and-citizens-could-face-voting-hurdles/" target="_blank">bill last year</a>
 that only allows election supervisors to place drop boxes in their 
counties during early voting hours. The boxes also must be placed at a 
permanent, staffed voting site. Supervisors who try to offer more drop 
boxes during additional times are subject to $25,000 fines.In Wisconsin, a judge last month banned the use of drop boxes, but 
then an appeals court reinstated them for the February primary. The 
state Supreme Court <a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/01/28/elections-commission-deadlocks-on-drop-boxes-as-litigation-moves-forward/" target="_blank">said it would take up</a> the case but left the appeals court ruling in effect in the meantime.&nbsp;McReynolds said she believes the political contention over drop boxes
 is a symptom of the larger politicization of the democratic process.&nbsp;&nbsp;“I really think it was politicized because people felt that it hurt 
them, or one person felt it hurt him,” McReynolds said. “If it wasn’t 
drop boxes, or it wasn’t vote-by-mail, it would have been early voting, 
or it would have been automatic voter registration. It almost seems like
 regardless, one of them would have been called out simply for making it
 easier for people to vote.”

States target ballot drop boxes in fight over voting rights

By SHERMAN SMITH <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/08/kansas-senator-wins-support-for-off-label-drugs-vaccine-exemptions-for-children/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — Sen. Mark Steffen succeeded Tuesday in persuading 
Republicans on a health panel to advance legislation that would clear 
him from punishment by state regulators for prescribing ivermectin to 
COVID-19 patients.

The Hutchinson Republican and anesthesiologist <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/01/26/kansas-senator-under-investigation-after-prescribing-ivermectin-for-covid-19-seeks-legal-cover/">revealed last month</a>
 he was under investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. He 
proposed legislation that would block the board from taking action 
against doctors who prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for 
off-label uses.

Steffen amended and expanded the bill during committee action Tuesday
 to give doctors free range to use any drug for COVID-19 treatment and 
require pharmacists to fill the prescription, while removing protections
 for both doctors and pharmacists from civil liability if patients are 
harmed by the treatment. Lawmakers also added language from another of 
Steffen’s bills that would allow children to opt out of any kind of 
vaccine requirement at day care facilities and schools without being 
questioned.

The GOP-led panel then gutted a House bill that dealt with pharmacy 
regulations, inserted the Steffen bills and advanced it on a voice vote 
to the full Senate.

“We are moving a bill forward that decreases suffering and death,” 
Steffen told reporters after the hearing. “We’re moving a bill forward 
that allows the true standard of care in the early treatment of COVID to
 reign supreme. This notion that doing nothing is the standard of care 
is false, inappropriate and has led to crimes against humanity. The 
bottom line is we took a step forward in helping our Kansas citizens 
today and protecting our children.”

Steffen said he had not heard anything from the Board of Healing Arts
 since announcing Jan. 26 he had been under investigation for more than a
 year.

More than 40 people attended the standing-room-only hearing, in 
addition to journalists and legislative staff members. Many of the 
observers were affiliated with a prominent anti-vaccination group and 
held signs supporting <a target="_blank" href="http://kslegislature.com/li/b2021_22/measures/sb381/">Senate Bill 381</a>.

Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, said the committee provided 
little notice to opponents of Steffen’s bill, then justified moving 
forward because there was little opposition. She presented a stack of 
pages that represented “nearly half” of the complaints about the bill 
she has received in recent days.

“This is a very dangerous bill,” Holscher said. “It was dangerous before. It’s even more dangerous now with what’s been done.”

Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Galena Republican who serves as chairman 
of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, stopped Holscher from
 making further comments and accused her of misreading the bill.

“The crutch [sic] of the underlying bill was that the Board of 
Healing Arts were investigating doctors for prescribing off-label drugs,
 and the Board of Pharmacy was coming down on some pharmacists for 
filling off-label drugs in this case,” Hilderbrand said. “That is the 
crutch [sic]. There is nothing dubious or life-threatening in these 
bills.”

The two Democrats on the committee, Holscher and Sen. Pat Pettey, of 
Kansas City, and Republican Sen. Kristen O’Shea, of Topeka, objected to 
considering <a target="_blank" href="http://kslegislature.com/li/b2021_22/measures/sb398/">Senate Bill 398</a>, dealing with vaccination requirements, before holding a hearing on the matter.

The bill applies language passed during a special session in 
November, when the Legislature responded to federal vaccine requirements
 for workers, to expand the application of religious exemptions. The 
proposal makes it illegal for a school or day care facility to question 
the sincerity of a child’s religious beliefs.

“This is not just COVID-19 vaccine — it’s all childhood 
vaccinations,” O’Shea said. “And for us to not even have time to fully 
read the bill and be asked to vote on it is bad policy.”

Hilderbrand defended the process of combining two bills and inserting them into <a target="_blank" href="http://kslegislature.com/li/b2021_22/measures/hb2280/">House Bill 2280</a>.

“For those of you listening online that are getting an impression 
that this is something unique in committees, it is not,” Hilderbrand 
said. “This is something done every session. This just happens to be on 
this certain bill. So I don’t want you to be misled that this is 
something unique.”

Sen.
 Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, said the legislation simply reaffirms 
religious rights already enshrined in the state constitution. He then 
repeated his false claims that vaccines are harmful and that COVID-19 
poses no threat to children.

“It gives parents discretion as to whether or not they want their kid
 to take a vaccine that is actually dangerous, and has been proven to be
 so,” Thompson said. “These kids are not at risk.”

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s latest summary of 
Kansas deaths attributed to COVID-19 included four fatalities among 
children 0-9 years of age and three fatalities among youth aged 10 to 
17.

Thompson also said it was important to “get these people these 
medicines and give these doctors the latitude they need, because this is
 the final nail in the coffin.”

Federal regulators and the vast majority of physicians agree there is
 no benefit to treating COVID-19 with ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, 
and that the drugs could be harmful in some cases.

Pettey said the discussion demonstrated a need to hold a hearing on the religious exemption component.

“We are talking about vaccinations of our children, and we’re talking
 about the safety of all, and we’re not talking about religion,” Pettey 
said. “So I think it’s important that we keep it in the right context.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644349412329.png" alt="Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, says the Senate panel’s decision to advance legislation dealing with off-label drug use and vaccine exemptions is “a step forward” in helping citizens and protecting children.(Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, says the Senate panel’s decision to advance legislation dealing with off-label drug use and vaccine exemptions is “a step forward” in helping citizens and protecting children.(Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By SHERMAN SMITH <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/08/kansas-senator-wins-support-for-off-label-drugs-vaccine-exemptions-for-children/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Sen. Mark Steffen succeeded Tuesday in persuading 
Republicans on a health panel to advance legislation that would clear 
him from punishment by state regulators for prescribing ivermectin to 
COVID-19 patients.The Hutchinson Republican and anesthesiologist <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/01/26/kansas-senator-under-investigation-after-prescribing-ivermectin-for-covid-19-seeks-legal-cover/">revealed last month</a>
 he was under investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. He 
proposed legislation that would block the board from taking action 
against doctors who prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for 
off-label uses.Steffen amended and expanded the bill during committee action Tuesday
 to give doctors free range to use any drug for COVID-19 treatment and 
require pharmacists to fill the prescription, while removing protections
 for both doctors and pharmacists from civil liability if patients are 
harmed by the treatment. Lawmakers also added language from another of 
Steffen’s bills that would allow children to opt out of any kind of 
vaccine requirement at day care facilities and schools without being 
questioned.The GOP-led panel then gutted a House bill that dealt with pharmacy 
regulations, inserted the Steffen bills and advanced it on a voice vote 
to the full Senate.“We are moving a bill forward that decreases suffering and death,” 
Steffen told reporters after the hearing. “We’re moving a bill forward 
that allows the true standard of care in the early treatment of COVID to
 reign supreme. This notion that doing nothing is the standard of care 
is false, inappropriate and has led to crimes against humanity. The 
bottom line is we took a step forward in helping our Kansas citizens 
today and protecting our children.”Steffen said he had not heard anything from the Board of Healing Arts
 since announcing Jan. 26 he had been under investigation for more than a
 year.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644349463659.png" alt="Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, says the legislation advanced during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee is dangerous. The stack of papers, she says, represents “nearly half” of complaints she has received about the off-label drug use bill. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, says the legislation advanced during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee is dangerous. The stack of papers, she says, represents “nearly half” of complaints she has received about the off-label drug use bill. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>More than 40 people attended the standing-room-only hearing, in 
addition to journalists and legislative staff members. Many of the 
observers were affiliated with a prominent anti-vaccination group and 
held signs supporting <a target="_blank" href="http://kslegislature.com/li/b2021_22/measures/sb381/">Senate Bill 381</a>.Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, said the committee provided 
little notice to opponents of Steffen’s bill, then justified moving 
forward because there was little opposition. She presented a stack of 
pages that represented “nearly half” of the complaints about the bill 
she has received in recent days.“This is a very dangerous bill,” Holscher said. “It was dangerous before. It’s even more dangerous now with what’s been done.”Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Galena Republican who serves as chairman 
of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, stopped Holscher from
 making further comments and accused her of misreading the bill.“The crutch [sic] of the underlying bill was that the Board of 
Healing Arts were investigating doctors for prescribing off-label drugs,
 and the Board of Pharmacy was coming down on some pharmacists for 
filling off-label drugs in this case,” Hilderbrand said. “That is the 
crutch [sic]. There is nothing dubious or life-threatening in these 
bills.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644349503808.png" alt="Loretta Touslee, of Baldwin City, shows her support for legislation allowing off-label drug use during a hearing Tuesday at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Loretta Touslee, of Baldwin City, shows her support for legislation allowing off-label drug use during a hearing Tuesday at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>The two Democrats on the committee, Holscher and Sen. Pat Pettey, of 
Kansas City, and Republican Sen. Kristen O’Shea, of Topeka, objected to 
considering <a target="_blank" href="http://kslegislature.com/li/b2021_22/measures/sb398/">Senate Bill 398</a>, dealing with vaccination requirements, before holding a hearing on the matter.The bill applies language passed during a special session in 
November, when the Legislature responded to federal vaccine requirements
 for workers, to expand the application of religious exemptions. The 
proposal makes it illegal for a school or day care facility to question 
the sincerity of a child’s religious beliefs.“This is not just COVID-19 vaccine — it’s all childhood 
vaccinations,” O’Shea said. “And for us to not even have time to fully 
read the bill and be asked to vote on it is bad policy.”Hilderbrand defended the process of combining two bills and inserting them into <a target="_blank" href="http://kslegislature.com/li/b2021_22/measures/hb2280/">House Bill 2280</a>.“For those of you listening online that are getting an impression 
that this is something unique in committees, it is not,” Hilderbrand 
said. “This is something done every session. This just happens to be on 
this certain bill. So I don’t want you to be misled that this is 
something unique.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644349536565.png" alt="Sen. Pat Pettey, left, confers with Sen. Kristen O’Shea during Tuesday’s hearing about an off-label drug use bill. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Pat Pettey, left, confers with Sen. Kristen O’Shea during Tuesday’s hearing about an off-label drug use bill. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>Sen.
 Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, said the legislation simply reaffirms 
religious rights already enshrined in the state constitution. He then 
repeated his false claims that vaccines are harmful and that COVID-19 
poses no threat to children.“It gives parents discretion as to whether or not they want their kid
 to take a vaccine that is actually dangerous, and has been proven to be
 so,” Thompson said. “These kids are not at risk.”The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s latest summary of 
Kansas deaths attributed to COVID-19 included four fatalities among 
children 0-9 years of age and three fatalities among youth aged 10 to 
17.Thompson also said it was important to “get these people these 
medicines and give these doctors the latitude they need, because this is
 the final nail in the coffin.”Federal regulators and the vast majority of physicians agree there is
 no benefit to treating COVID-19 with ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, 
and that the drugs could be harmful in some cases.Pettey said the discussion demonstrated a need to hold a hearing on the religious exemption component.“We are talking about vaccinations of our children, and we’re talking
 about the safety of all, and we’re not talking about religion,” Pettey 
said. “So I think it’s important that we keep it in the right context.”

Kan. senator wins support for off-label drug use, vaccine exemptions for children

By ALLISON KITE <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/08/kansas-regulators-approve-natural-gas-utilitys-plan-to-recoup-366-million-from-customers/">Kansas Reflector</a>

Customers of Kansas’ <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/07/30/customers-of-kansas-largest-natural-gas-utility-could-pay-cold-snap-costs-for-10-years/">largest natural gas utility will see their bills go up</a> in the wake of <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/18/feds-ramp-up-emergency-help-for-kansas-other-states-hit-by-extreme-weather/">last winter’s deep freeze</a> — but it’s still unclear by how much and for how long.&nbsp;

Kansas regulators on Tuesday approved
 an agreement with the Kansas Gas Service to recoup $366 million in 
excess natural gas costs, incurred to keep residents’ heat on when 
temperatures last February plunged below freezing for days on end and 
natural gas prices rose by 200 times almost overnight.

During the freeze, which resulted in 
deaths and dayslong outages in Texas, the Kansas Corporation Commission 
ordered utilities to do everything they could to keep providing gas and 
electric service and defer the costs.

“A lesser response could have 
resulted in catastrophic property damage and serious public safety 
implications, including potential loss of life,” the commission said in a
 news release. “When extraordinary costs are unavoidable and necessary 
to benefit the public, it is in the public interest to allow recovery of
 such costs.”

The agreement represented a 
settlement in which KGS agreed to trim some of its carrying costs on the
 sum from the storm. It brought the total Kansans will pay down from 
$390 million.

But KGS customers won’t know how much
 more they’ll pay —&nbsp;or for how long —&nbsp;until the gas utility files for 
securitization and issues bonds to be repaid over five to 10 years. The 
KCC estimated monthly bills would rise, on average, between $5 and $7.

A separate settlement between KGS’ 
large customers, like school districts and manufacturers, is still to 
come and could reduce the burden on residential customers by as much as 
$50 million, said David Nickel, executive director of the Citizens’ 
Utility Ratepayer Board, which advocates for residential and small 
business customers of Kansas utilities.&nbsp;

Nickel said CURB supported moving 
quickly to reach a deal for customers to repay the funds with the hopes 
of getting low interest rates. He acknowledged “it seems like a lot of 
money, and it is,” and said the board was concerned about potential 
manipulation or price-gouging in the natural gas market.

If ongoing investigations by Kansas 
Attorney General Derek Schmidt or federal regulators reveal 
manipulation, the settlement says any recouped funds need to go back to 
ratepayers, something Nickel emphasized is important to CURB.

Nickel said the negotiations also 
yielded a promise from KGS to develop a payment plan program for 
low-income customers by the end of this year.

Nickel said it’s significant that Kansans didn’t lose heat en masse or suffer deaths because of outages

“I can assure you that I would pay 
more than $600 over a period of 10 years to keep people that I know and I
 love safe and alive,” he said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644349269179.png" alt="The Calista Compressor Station serves the Kansas Gas Service’s network in Kansas. The utility received approval from the Kansas Corporation Commission to recoup $366 million from customers. (Kansas Gas Service, courtesy Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>The Calista Compressor Station serves the Kansas Gas Service’s network in Kansas. The utility received approval from the Kansas Corporation Commission to recoup $366 million from customers. (Kansas Gas Service, courtesy Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By ALLISON KITE <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/08/kansas-regulators-approve-natural-gas-utilitys-plan-to-recoup-366-million-from-customers/">Kansas Reflector</a>Customers of Kansas’ <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/07/30/customers-of-kansas-largest-natural-gas-utility-could-pay-cold-snap-costs-for-10-years/">largest natural gas utility will see their bills go up</a> in the wake of <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/18/feds-ramp-up-emergency-help-for-kansas-other-states-hit-by-extreme-weather/">last winter’s deep freeze</a> — but it’s still unclear by how much and for how long.&nbsp;Kansas regulators on Tuesday approved
 an agreement with the Kansas Gas Service to recoup $366 million in 
excess natural gas costs, incurred to keep residents’ heat on when 
temperatures last February plunged below freezing for days on end and 
natural gas prices rose by 200 times almost overnight.During the freeze, which resulted in 
deaths and dayslong outages in Texas, the Kansas Corporation Commission 
ordered utilities to do everything they could to keep providing gas and 
electric service and defer the costs.“A lesser response could have 
resulted in catastrophic property damage and serious public safety 
implications, including potential loss of life,” the commission said in a
 news release. “When extraordinary costs are unavoidable and necessary 
to benefit the public, it is in the public interest to allow recovery of
 such costs.”The agreement represented a 
settlement in which KGS agreed to trim some of its carrying costs on the
 sum from the storm. It brought the total Kansans will pay down from 
$390 million.But KGS customers won’t know how much
 more they’ll pay —&nbsp;or for how long —&nbsp;until the gas utility files for 
securitization and issues bonds to be repaid over five to 10 years. The 
KCC estimated monthly bills would rise, on average, between $5 and $7.A separate settlement between KGS’ 
large customers, like school districts and manufacturers, is still to 
come and could reduce the burden on residential customers by as much as 
$50 million, said David Nickel, executive director of the Citizens’ 
Utility Ratepayer Board, which advocates for residential and small 
business customers of Kansas utilities.&nbsp;Nickel said CURB supported moving 
quickly to reach a deal for customers to repay the funds with the hopes 
of getting low interest rates. He acknowledged “it seems like a lot of 
money, and it is,” and said the board was concerned about potential 
manipulation or price-gouging in the natural gas market.If ongoing investigations by Kansas 
Attorney General Derek Schmidt or federal regulators reveal 
manipulation, the settlement says any recouped funds need to go back to 
ratepayers, something Nickel emphasized is important to CURB.Nickel said the negotiations also 
yielded a promise from KGS to develop a payment plan program for 
low-income customers by the end of this year.Nickel said it’s significant that Kansans didn’t lose heat en masse or suffer deaths because of outages“I can assure you that I would pay 
more than $600 over a period of 10 years to keep people that I know and I
 love safe and alive,” he said.

Kan. regulators approve natural gas utility’s plan to recoup $366M from customers

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina Post

In August of 2020, Great Plains Manufacturing, Inc., announced a $53 million expansion project that would give the company another location, this time on the south side of Salina. It also would provide needed jobs in the Salina area.

The company's Construction Equipment facility in what was then the Signify/Philips Lighting plant on South Ninth Street is now operational and Great Plains is in need of workers.

"Our CE facility is now up and running, and we’re excited to bring more jobs to the Salina area. We’re looking for about 75 new hires to start operations in 2022. We estimate hiring an additional 200 team members in 2023 to support the future growth of our Construction Equipment Division within Great Plains," said Chris Montgomery, manager of operations for CE Production.

The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota North America Corporation, also is seeking qualified applicants to support recent company growth in its Great Plains Ag and Land Pride division.

Great Plains is hiring employees in welding, assembly, fabrication, paint, and forklift operators, the company noted in a news release issued this morning. The job fair will be at the new Construction Equipment facility, 3861 S. Ninth Street, and is scheduled for 3-6 p.m. Friday and 9-11:30 p.m. Saturday. Participants are asked to follow the signage upon arriving at the facility.

Job seekers can apply online at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.workforgpm.com/">www.WorkForGPM.com</a>&nbsp;or apply in person during the job fair events.

Human resources personnel from Great Plains will be on hand to accept applications and conduct on-site interviews. According to information from the company, sign-on bonuses are available. Positions may be filled on-site.

"Applicants are encouraged to follow social distancing and COVID-19 protocols, such as wearing masks, during the event," the company noted.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/8/1629062606605.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY Salina PostIn August of 2020, Great Plains Manufacturing, Inc., announced a $53 million expansion project that would give the company another location, this time on the south side of Salina. It also would provide needed jobs in the Salina area.The company's Construction Equipment facility in what was then the Signify/Philips Lighting plant on South Ninth Street is now operational and Great Plains is in need of workers."Our CE facility is now up and running, and we’re excited to bring more jobs to the Salina area. We’re looking for about 75 new hires to start operations in 2022. We estimate hiring an additional 200 team members in 2023 to support the future growth of our Construction Equipment Division within Great Plains," said Chris Montgomery, manager of operations for CE Production.The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota North America Corporation, also is seeking qualified applicants to support recent company growth in its Great Plains Ag and Land Pride division.Great Plains is hiring employees in welding, assembly, fabrication, paint, and forklift operators, the company noted in a news release issued this morning. The job fair will be at the new Construction Equipment facility, 3861 S. Ninth Street, and is scheduled for 3-6 p.m. Friday and 9-11:30 p.m. Saturday. Participants are asked to follow the signage upon arriving at the facility.Job seekers can apply online at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.workforgpm.com/">www.WorkForGPM.com</a>&nbsp;or apply in person during the job fair events.Human resources personnel from Great Plains will be on hand to accept applications and conduct on-site interviews. According to information from the company, sign-on bonuses are available. Positions may be filled on-site."Applicants are encouraged to follow social distancing and COVID-19 protocols, such as wearing masks, during the event," the company noted.

Great Plains Manufacturing brings jobs to central Kansas

NEW YORK (AP) — A year after winning a major court battle against the opening of so-called safe injection sites -- safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses — the Justice Department is signaling it might be open to allowing them.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, the Justice Department said it is “evaluating” such facilities and talking to regulators about “appropriate guardrails.”

The position is a drastic change from its stance in the Trump administration, when prosecutors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/appellate-court-agrees-government-supervised-injection-sites-are-illegal-under-federal-law" target="_blank">fought vigorously against a plan to open a safe consumption site in Philadelphia</a>. The Justice Department&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-public-health-philadelphia-coronavirus-pandemic-247fdc735c337cbb4b7ae0305da834f8">won a lawsuit last year,&nbsp;</a>when a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled that opening such a facility would violate a 1980s-era drug law, aimed at “crackhouses,” which bans operating a place for taking illegal drugs. The Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-pennsylvania-philadelphia-health-50da593c6e553da73a960fbc1a99c9b0">declined in October to take the case</a>.

About six weeks later, the first officially authorized safe injection sites&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-new-york-new-york-city-1f61d20529965ded7fef3fcee5f39d1e">opened in New York City in November</a>. The two facilities — which the city calls “overdose prevention centers” — provide a monitored place for drug users to partake, with staffers and supplies on hand to reverse overdoses. New York City is in a different appeals court jurisdiction that has not ruled on the centers.

Such sites exist in Canada, Australia and Europe and have been discussed for years in New York and some other U.S. cities and states. A few unofficial facilities have operated for some time.

Advocates have hailed them as a way to curb the scourge of overdose deaths. Drawing from the latest available death certificate data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/overdodse-deaths-fentanayl-health-f34b022d75a1eb9776e27903ab40670f">estimated that more than 100,000 Americans</a>&nbsp;died of drug overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021.

Critics, however, argue that safe injection sites encourage illegal drug use and burden neighborhoods.

For months after President Joe Biden took office last year, the Justice Department — under Attorney General Merrick Garland — had refused to take a public stance on safe consumption sites. Officials now say they are weighing their use.

“Although we cannot comment on pending litigation, the Department is evaluating supervised consumption sites, including discussions with state and local regulators about appropriate guardrails for such sites, as part of an overall approach to harm reduction and public safety,” the agency said in a statement Friday to the AP.

The New York City sites so far have intervened in more than 125 overdoses among more than 640 users, many of whom have made multiple visits, according to OnPoint NYC, the organization running them.

Executive Director Sam Rivera said he was excited and relieved by the Justice Department’s statement. The group is eager to tell the agency about its work, he said.

“I believe they’re going to land in the right place here and we’ll be able to, together, really expand on this health initiative that’s saving lives every day,” he said.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat whose administration allowed the centers to open, said the city’s attorneys believed that the federal statute is “aimed at drug trafficking, not at medical facilities,” as he characterized the consumption sites.

But U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a New York City Republican, has urged Garland to work to shut them down, citing the appeals court ruling against the Philadelphia proposal last year. She told Garland in November that it is “imperative that you enforce this legal precedent,” and she wasn’t pleased to hear about the new Justice Department statement.

“Instead of stopping the deadly drugs streaming over our border, putting drug dealers behind bars and helping people receive the long-term treatment they need to overcome addiction, Democrat leadership is enabling illegal drug use,” Malliotakis said in a statement.

The Philadelphia project, called Safehouse, is still fighting for court approval to open. Safehouse lawyers Ronda Goldfein and Ilana Eisenstein said they hoped the Justice Department’s new statement “signals the prospect of a positive resolution, not just for Philadelphia but for any place in America that seeks to provide overdose prevention services.”

Some other arms of the federal government also have signaled some willingness at least to explore safe injection facilities, if not yet embrace them. Asked about the New York sites, White House drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta told CNN in December he was “interested in looking at the science and data behind all of the emerging harm reduction practices.”

Later that month, the National Institutes of Health issued a call for harm reduction research that mentioned safe consumption sites, among other approaches.

NEW YORK (AP) — A year after winning a major court battle against the opening of so-called safe injection sites -- safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses — the Justice Department is signaling it might be open to allowing them.In response to questions from The Associated Press, the Justice Department said it is “evaluating” such facilities and talking to regulators about “appropriate guardrails.”The position is a drastic change from its stance in the Trump administration, when prosecutors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/appellate-court-agrees-government-supervised-injection-sites-are-illegal-under-federal-law" target="_blank">fought vigorously against a plan to open a safe consumption site in Philadelphia</a>. The Justice Department&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-public-health-philadelphia-coronavirus-pandemic-247fdc735c337cbb4b7ae0305da834f8">won a lawsuit last year,&nbsp;</a>when a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled that opening such a facility would violate a 1980s-era drug law, aimed at “crackhouses,” which bans operating a place for taking illegal drugs. The Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-pennsylvania-philadelphia-health-50da593c6e553da73a960fbc1a99c9b0">declined in October to take the case</a>.About six weeks later, the first officially authorized safe injection sites&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-new-york-new-york-city-1f61d20529965ded7fef3fcee5f39d1e">opened in New York City in November</a>. The two facilities — which the city calls “overdose prevention centers” — provide a monitored place for drug users to partake, with staffers and supplies on hand to reverse overdoses. New York City is in a different appeals court jurisdiction that has not ruled on the centers.Such sites exist in Canada, Australia and Europe and have been discussed for years in New York and some other U.S. cities and states. A few unofficial facilities have operated for some time.Advocates have hailed them as a way to curb the scourge of overdose deaths. Drawing from the latest available death certificate data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/overdodse-deaths-fentanayl-health-f34b022d75a1eb9776e27903ab40670f">estimated that more than 100,000 Americans</a>&nbsp;died of drug overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021.Critics, however, argue that safe injection sites encourage illegal drug use and burden neighborhoods.For months after President Joe Biden took office last year, the Justice Department — under Attorney General Merrick Garland — had refused to take a public stance on safe consumption sites. Officials now say they are weighing their use.“Although we cannot comment on pending litigation, the Department is evaluating supervised consumption sites, including discussions with state and local regulators about appropriate guardrails for such sites, as part of an overall approach to harm reduction and public safety,” the agency said in a statement Friday to the AP.The New York City sites so far have intervened in more than 125 overdoses among more than 640 users, many of whom have made multiple visits, according to OnPoint NYC, the organization running them.Executive Director Sam Rivera said he was excited and relieved by the Justice Department’s statement. The group is eager to tell the agency about its work, he said.“I believe they’re going to land in the right place here and we’ll be able to, together, really expand on this health initiative that’s saving lives every day,” he said.Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat whose administration allowed the centers to open, said the city’s attorneys believed that the federal statute is “aimed at drug trafficking, not at medical facilities,” as he characterized the consumption sites.But U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a New York City Republican, has urged Garland to work to shut them down, citing the appeals court ruling against the Philadelphia proposal last year. She told Garland in November that it is “imperative that you enforce this legal precedent,” and she wasn’t pleased to hear about the new Justice Department statement.“Instead of stopping the deadly drugs streaming over our border, putting drug dealers behind bars and helping people receive the long-term treatment they need to overcome addiction, Democrat leadership is enabling illegal drug use,” Malliotakis said in a statement.The Philadelphia project, called Safehouse, is still fighting for court approval to open. Safehouse lawyers Ronda Goldfein and Ilana Eisenstein said they hoped the Justice Department’s new statement “signals the prospect of a positive resolution, not just for Philadelphia but for any place in America that seeks to provide overdose prevention services.”Some other arms of the federal government also have signaled some willingness at least to explore safe injection facilities, if not yet embrace them. Asked about the New York sites, White House drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta told CNN in December he was “interested in looking at the science and data behind all of the emerging harm reduction practices.”Later that month, the National Institutes of Health issued a call for harm reduction research that mentioned safe consumption sites, among other approaches.

Biden's Justice Dept. may allow safe havens for taking drugs

ATCHISON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect after an alleged altercation with police.

Just after 10p.m Sunday, police&nbsp;responded to the area of River Road and Commercial Street in Atchison to check on a suspicious person, according to police chief Mike Wilson.

At the scene, officers located 44-year-old Jason Seager who was wanted on District Court warrants for failure to appear in court. He threatened officers with a big stick and then fled on foot, according to Wilson.

Officers later apprehended him near 4th and Commercial and subsequently found to be in possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Seager is being held on requested charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, and interference with law enforcement.

In July, police arrested Seager after he threatened a man with a baseball bat&nbsp;outside an apartment complex in the 300 block Santa Fe in Atchison.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644247927502.png" alt="Seager-photo Atchison Co." />
 <figcaption>Seager-photo Atchison Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>ATCHISON COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect after an alleged altercation with police.Just after 10p.m Sunday, police&nbsp;responded to the area of River Road and Commercial Street in Atchison to check on a suspicious person, according to police chief Mike Wilson.At the scene, officers located 44-year-old Jason Seager who was wanted on District Court warrants for failure to appear in court. He threatened officers with a big stick and then fled on foot, according to Wilson.Officers later apprehended him near 4th and Commercial and subsequently found to be in possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.Seager is being held on requested charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, and interference with law enforcement.In July, police arrested Seager after he threatened a man with a baseball bat&nbsp;outside an apartment complex in the 300 block Santa Fe in Atchison.

Police Chief: Kan. man threatened officers with large stick

SEDGWICK COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a suspicious death have identified the victim as&nbsp;47-year-old Angela Degraffenreid of Wichita, according to Officer Trevor Macy.

Shortly after 1:00 p.m. on the February 2, police responded to a check welfare call in the 600 block of N West Street. On arrival, they located an unknown later identified as Degraffenreid.

The investigation into her exact cause of death is ongoing. Foul play is not suspected, according to Macy.

SEDGWICK COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a suspicious death have identified the victim as&nbsp;47-year-old Angela Degraffenreid of Wichita, according to Officer Trevor Macy.Shortly after 1:00 p.m. on the February 2, police responded to a check welfare call in the 600 block of N West Street. On arrival, they located an unknown later identified as Degraffenreid.The investigation into her exact cause of death is ongoing. Foul play is not suspected, according to Macy.

Police ID Kansas woman found dead behind a business

By
NICK GOSNELL<a href="https://hutchpost.com">Hutch
Post</a>


HUTCHINSON — 
A limited-government advocate says the Truth in Taxation law in Kansas is working.

"For
 years, people had complained loudly about being told by local officials
 that they were holding the line on property tax, only to get larger and
 larger tax bills," said Dave Trabert with the Kansas Policy Institute. 
"What this legislation does is reduce mill rates. Each year, when new 
valuations come in, the mill levy is automatically reduced, so that 
those valuations deliver the same dollar amount of property tax to the 
city or county. Then, if they want to take in more money, they have to 
tell taxpayers what they want to do and hold a public hearing and then 
vote on it."

Trabert pushes back against the idea that Truth in 
Taxation may lose some of its rhetorical force because governments can 
blame inflation for tax increases, since the law is about actual 
dollars.

"We will go in and work with any city or county or school
 district that says they have no choice," Trabert said. "We'll help them
 find the choice. Sure, there will be people who will hide behind 
inflation and say, we had no choice, but what they are saying is, look, 
citizens, you have inflation and we want to make it worse with a tax 
increase, because government always likes to have citizens adjust their 
budgets so the government officials don't have to do that."

The 
school finance law mandates 20 mills per district in their general fund,
 no matter, so a lot of districts believe they have to raise the overall
 budget to comply with that statute.

"That's only part of what 
schools take in," Trabert said. "They could still offset that increase 
in the 20 mills by reducing what they collect in local option budget, by
 reducing what they collect in capital outlay. Again, they have the 
options. In fact, most school districts have a lot of money sitting in 
the bank from aid they got the prior years and didn't spend."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1605883070462.jpeg" alt="Dave Trabert " />
 <figcaption>Dave Trabert </figcaption>
 </figure>
By
NICK GOSNELL<a href="https://hutchpost.com">Hutch
Post</a> 
HUTCHINSON — 
A limited-government advocate says the Truth in Taxation law in Kansas is working."For
 years, people had complained loudly about being told by local officials
 that they were holding the line on property tax, only to get larger and
 larger tax bills," said Dave Trabert with the Kansas Policy Institute. 
"What this legislation does is reduce mill rates. Each year, when new 
valuations come in, the mill levy is automatically reduced, so that 
those valuations deliver the same dollar amount of property tax to the 
city or county. Then, if they want to take in more money, they have to 
tell taxpayers what they want to do and hold a public hearing and then 
vote on it."Trabert pushes back against the idea that Truth in 
Taxation may lose some of its rhetorical force because governments can 
blame inflation for tax increases, since the law is about actual 
dollars."We will go in and work with any city or county or school
 district that says they have no choice," Trabert said. "We'll help them
 find the choice. Sure, there will be people who will hide behind 
inflation and say, we had no choice, but what they are saying is, look, 
citizens, you have inflation and we want to make it worse with a tax 
increase, because government always likes to have citizens adjust their 
budgets so the government officials don't have to do that."The 
school finance law mandates 20 mills per district in their general fund,
 no matter, so a lot of districts believe they have to raise the overall
 budget to comply with that statute."That's only part of what 
schools take in," Trabert said. "They could still offset that increase 
in the 20 mills by reducing what they collect in local option budget, by
 reducing what they collect in capital outlay. Again, they have the 
options. In fact, most school districts have a lot of money sitting in 
the bank from aid they got the prior years and didn't spend."The 
issue there is that general fund dollars are allowed to be spent on 
certain items and LOB can be spent on a different set of certain items 
and capital outlay can be spent on a third set of items, so even if you 
can make cuts in those other areas, it's tough for that to be 
sustainable. Nevertheless, more than half (52%) of governmental entities
 in Kansas were able to hold the line on actual dollars in the first 
year of the program.&nbsp;A limited-government advocate says the Truth in Taxation law in Kansas is working."For
 years, people had complained loudly about being told by local officials
 that they were holding the line on property tax, only to get larger and
 larger tax bills," said Dave Trabert with the Kansas Policy Institute. 
"What this legislation does is reduce mill rates. Each year, when new 
valuations come in, the mill levy is automatically reduced, so that 
those valuations deliver the same dollar amount of property tax to the 
city or county. Then, if they want to take in more money, they have to 
tell taxpayers what they want to do and hold a public hearing and then 
vote on it."Trabert pushes back against the idea that Truth in 
Taxation may lose some of its rhetorical force because governments can 
blame inflation for tax increases, since the law is about actual 
dollars."We will go in and work with any city or county or school
 district that says they have no choice," Trabert said. "We'll help them
 find the choice. Sure, there will be people who will hide behind 
inflation and say, we had no choice, but what they are saying is, look, 
citizens, you have inflation and we want to make it worse with a tax 
increase, because government always likes to have citizens adjust their 
budgets so the government officials don't have to do that."The 
school finance law mandates 20 mills per district in their general fund,
 no matter, so a lot of districts believe they have to raise the overall
 budget to comply with that statute."That's only part of what 
schools take in," Trabert said. "They could still offset that increase 
in the 20 mills by reducing what they collect in local option budget, by
 reducing what they collect in capital outlay. Again, they have the 
options. In fact, most school districts have a lot of money sitting in 
the bank from aid they got the prior years and didn't spend."The 
issue there is that general fund dollars are allowed to be spent on 
certain items and LOB can be spent on a different set of certain items 
and capital outlay can be spent on a third set of items, so even if you 
can make cuts in those other areas, it's tough for that to be 
sustainable. Nevertheless, more than half (52%) of governmental entities
 in Kansas were able to hold the line on actual dollars in the first 
year of the program.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.kansasopengov.org/kog/databank#report_id=94">The results are available at KansasOpenGov.org</a>.