Lawmakers consider extending privacy law to more public workers

Former Topeka police chief Ed Klumpp is convinced hundreds of Kansas corrections employees and court service officers must be covered by the same privacy-protection blanket offered judges and attorneys.
Klumpp, who represents three law enforcement organizations in Kansas, said state statue ought to be amended to extend prohibitions on release of information about home ownership and home addresses to a larger category of public employees, including state and local corrections officers, who work with offenders.
(Read more: News – Cherokee County News Advocate)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:17:46-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Senators consider expanding psychiatric services in western Kansas

A Kansas Senate bill would allocate $11.8 million to open and operate hospital beds for youths requiring short-term psychiatric care in Hays, Garden City and surrounding areas, officials said Wednesday.
Sen. Richard Billinger, R-Goodland, spoke Wednesday in favor of the bill, which would create two dozen new acute psychiatric beds in western Kansas. He said currently, families in those areas drive two to three hours to Wichita or as far as Kansas City to get lifesaving psychiatric services for their children.
“We’re waiting for one of these children to hurt themselves or someone else, and then it’s going to be too late for a bill like this,” Billinger said.
(Read more: News – Dodge City Daily Globe – Dodge City, KS)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:17:21-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Dodge City part of 33 transit projects

Three projects for the City of Dodge City were announced as part of the more than $7.4 million awarded to transit projects across the state.
As part of the Kansas Department of Transportation’s new Access, Innovation and Collaboration program, 33 projects were selected at the statewide Transit Day news conference Tuesday at the Capitol.
“Transportation is the supporting fiber of our lives – and too often – we assume that always means driving a car,” said KDOT deputy secretary Maggie Doll in a news release. “But thousands of Kansans do not have access to a car, are unable to drive or would prefer not to.
(Read more: News – Dodge City Daily Globe – Dodge City, KS)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:16:57-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Wichita airport and Century II use static cling to fight coronavirus COVID-19

Opposites attract and likes repel. And that’s the physical principle Wichita is deploying in its efforts to try to control the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19.
The city has begun a program of “electrostatic spraying” at Eisenhower National Airport and the Century II Convention and Performing Arts Center, which handle some of the city’s biggest crowds.
Essentially, workers use special equipment to spray an electrically charged disinfecting solution into the air.
(Read more: Wichita Eagle)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:15:55-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Sedgwick County labs now can test for Coronavirus, health director says

Sedgwick County now has the capability to test for coronavirus locally, which is expected to dramatically reduce the time it takes to get patients’ results, county Health Director Adreinne Byrne reported Wednesday.
This week, two local labs, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, got approval to process tests for the virus, also known as COVID-19, she said.
Although no one has yet had a COVID-19 test by the local labs, it will reduce the wait for results from days to potentially hours, she said.
(Read more: Wichita Eagle)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:15:39-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Is Kansas prepared for a recession? Coronavirus, market swings spark fear of downturn

Just two days after taking office, Gov. Laura Kelly delivered a damning assessment of Kansas’s fiscal condition.
“Another recession will soon be upon us. It’s not a question of ‘if’. It’s a question of ‘when’ and ‘how bad,’” she told the Legislature in January 2019, adding that “Kansas finds itself now completely unprepared. We have no margin for error.”
Fears of a recession are growing in the United States amid the spread of the new coronavirus. As the number of cases mount, events have been cancelled, classes moved online and businesses are exploring ways for employees to work from home.
(Read more: Wichita Eagle)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:13:33-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

KSU, KU extending spring break, moving to online teaching as virus spreads

Kansas State University said Thursday it would mirror key elements of the University of Kansas’ response to spread of coronavirus into the United States by delaying resumption of classes after spring break and granting faculty time to migrate course content and instruction to online platforms.
KSU President Richard Myers said in-person classes on all its campuses would be suspended from March 16-20 and as of March 23 courses at the land-grant university would be taught remotely.
“Right now, the K-State community is dispersed throughout the nation and globe during spring break,” Myers said. “When everyone returns, it could increase the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
(Read more: News – The Hutchinson News)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:12:03-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Kansas colleges, universities bracing for influx of COVID-19

University of Saint Mary stepped up health safety procedures for benefit of students and employees on the private Catholic school’s campus in Leavenworth.
The 1,400-student university in northeast Kansas is among dozens nationally contemplating or implementing changes in wake of the likely spread of COVID-19. Some colleges and universities have delayed restart of classes after spring break, transitioned to online rather than in-person instruction, limited travel and restricted attendance and larger events.
John Shultz, vice president for marketing and admissions at University of Saint Mary, the university’s command team was monitoring the coronavirus and relying upon guidance from the Leavenworth and Johnson county health departments.
(Read more: News – The Hutchinson News)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:11:30-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

Overland Park looking to buy more body cameras to equip all police officers

The 200 new body cameras Overland Park police have used since November have worked so well the city council may buy another 58 so all of its officers can use them.
The council’s Public Safety Committee gave its blessing to the purchase of the new cameras Wednesday night, along with a new bomb truck.
Only uniformed officers have used the cameras to date. Buying a second batch would allow every commissioned officer access to a camera, said Captain Kyle Livengood. That way an officer working overtime at an event or directing traffic could also be using a body cam.
(Read more: Prairie Village Post)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:11:08-05:00March 12, 2020|News|

As virus shuts schools, experts debate if that curbs spread

As families across the United States scramble to care for children sent home from schools closed due to the coronavirus, experts disagree on whether such closures protect kids — or even the community.

The question of whether to close schools in not a no-brainer, said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s public health school. On one hand, children clearly can be infected and can transmit the new virus, he said; schools are poorly ventilated and “not very sanitary.”

But he said the case is much clearer for other social distancing measures like canceling large public events, and the downsides of school closures include the hypothetical risk of children infecting their grandparents or other older caretakers who step in when school is closed.

“I don’t envy the public officials making these decisions,” Lipsitch said.

(Read more: KSN-TV)

Ranson Financial2020-03-12T09:09:04-05:00March 12, 2020|News|