Month: May 2016

Sporting KC plays to 1-1 draw with LA Galaxy

Sporting Kansas City extended its home unbeaten streak against LA Galaxy to eight games with a 1-1 draw on Sunday at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kan.

Midfielder Brad Davis fired Sporting Kansas City ahead with a spectacular left-footed strike on the half-hour mark, but the visitors responded just before halftime with a well-taken finish from Giovani dos Santos on the counterattack.

Children’s Mercy Park was sold out for the 75th consecutive MLS match as Sporting Kansas City (4-4-2, 14 points) remained sixth in the Western Conference standings, one point behind fourth-place LA Galaxy (4-1-3, 15 points).

Sunday’s starting lineup included six changes from a 1-1 draw at Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Wednesday. Left back Seth Sinovic made his 2016 debut, Tim Melia returned between the posts and Ike Opara patrolled the right side of defense. Davis, Dom Dwyer and Graham Zusi reprised attacking roles after coming off the bench four days earlier, while winger Justin Mapp was an available substitute for the first time in 2016 after overcoming a toe injury.

Sporting Kansas City held a 17-4 shot advantage on Sunday, with 10 attempts coming in the first half. Benny Feilhaber nearly opened the scoring in the 26th minute, collecting a pass from the active Jimmy Medranda outside the box. The midfielder moved the ball to his right foot and curled a shot narrowly wide of goalkeeper Brian Rowe’s lefthand post.

For the game’s first goal, Matt Besler sent a long diagonal ball to Zusi, who cushioned a header into the path of Davis along the left flank. Davis cut left and pulled the trigger from the edge of the box, curling the ball past the outstretched Rowe and just inside the far post for his 60th career MLS goal (including playoffs). Zusi picked up his third assist of the season, moving into a tie for fourth on the league’s 2016 assist charts, while Besler tallied the 11th assist of his MLS career.

Bruce Arena’s Galaxy side drew level in the 42nd minute on a swift counterattack. Jelle Van Damme’s headed clearance fell to Gyasi Zardes, who carried the ball into the middle third before spreading it wide to dos Santos along the right channel. The Mexican international raced into the penalty area before chipping past Melia for his fourth goal in three games.

The hosts went close to regaining the lead in the final minute of the first half. A scramble in the penalty box ended with Opara latching onto a loose ball, only to send his effort a yard wide of the target. The game’s two goals resulted from each team’s lone shot on target, meaning Sunday’s contest was the seventh in MLS history to finish without a save.

LA was reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute, giving Sporting Kansas City an edge for the remainder of the game. Defender Ashley Cole received two yellow cards within the space of 31 seconds to mark the fourth time a Sporting KC opponent has received a red card this season.

Mapp, who joined Sporting KC in December as Major League Soccer’s first-ever free agent signing, made his club debut in the 82nd minute. The 15-year veteran replaced Medranda, who earned applause from fans throughout the evening for his liveliness up and down the pitch.

Winless in five straight games, Sporting Kansas City is back on the road Saturday to face Western Conference rivals Houston Dynamo (1-5-2, 5 points) at BBVA Compass Stadium. The match will kick off at 7:30 p.m. with three hours of live television coverage on 38 The Spot and SKCTV beginning at 7 p.m.

Kansas Legislature agrees to budget cuts, leaves more for Brownback to trim

by Stephen Koranda, Kansas Public Radio

Kansas lawmakers struggled over the weekend working late nights trying to craft a budget solution. Ultimately, they approved a plan in the early hours of Monday morning.

Legislators had to find budget cuts and adjustments or tax increases that added up to nearly $300 million. The votes to increase taxes weren’t there, so they took another strategy: cutting.

“The Historical Society will lose $130,000. The Department for Children and Families will lose $4.2 million,” said Rep. Jerry Henry, an Atchison Democrat. “There are a number of very painful, painful cuts that will be enacted by this budget, and those cuts will be received by some of the most vulnerable people of our society.”

The bill still leaves it to Gov. Sam Brownback to do more than $80 million in trimming to keep the budget balanced. But the top budget writer in the House, Rep. Ron Ryckman, said legislators took an important step in directing those cuts: They exempted K-12 public schools from losing any funding.

“When we passed the block grant bill last session, one of the things we stated was that this was stable and secure funding in insecure times. Tonight is a continuation of that commitment,” Ryckman said.

Even with that direction, Republican Sen. Greg Smith said lawmakers abdicated their constitutional responsibility to craft a truly balanced budget.

“The sole power of the purse belongs to the Legislature, and for the last two budget cycles we’ve told the governor: ‘OK, we’ve got it this far, you take it the rest of the way,’” Smith said.

Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said legislators didn’t do anything wrong by requiring the governor to make some of the budget decisions.

“That’s what our Constitution allows for. When there’s a shortfall, the governor is allowed to make cuts,” she said. “We just gave this governor flexibility in the cuts and that it doesn’t have to be across the board.”

When those cuts are being made, they wouldn’t apply evenly across higher education. The bill says Kansas Board of Regents universities will take cuts proportionally based on the size of their total budgets, so the biggest schools — the University of Kansas and Kansas State University — get deeper cuts. Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka said that’s simply unfair.

“You are punishing KU and K-State for being big research institutions, and you are using the money that they bring to the state against them,” Kelly said.

In both chambers, the bill took hits for not fixing what some see as the underlying problem: tax cuts that have caused financial instability.

“We haven’t done anything to stop the bleeding yet. We’re just going to continue to bleed and bleed and bleed. This budget isn’t going to be any better than next year’s,” said Rep. Sydney Carlin, a Manhattan Democrat.

Andover Republican Sen. Ty Masterson countered, saying legislators are tackling the state’s challenges while reducing the footprint of government rather than increasing taxes.

“I contend we do tax our people enough. This is the proper action to take,” Masterson said of the spending cuts.

In both chambers some lawmakers objected to delaying nearly $100 million in state pension payments and taking money from the highway fund. And in both chambers it took the leadership time to apply pressure and get the votes needed. Eventually, enough lawmakers took the view of Sen. Mitch Holmes, a St. John Republican who initially voted against the bill.

“We have to do our job here. I didn’t run for office to come up here and to vote no and criticize. I voted to take responsibility. Therefore, I’m switching my no to yes,” Holmes said.

And with that, the votes were there. With the budget passed lawmakers finished their work and left town. They’ll be back for the ceremonial last day in June, to officially put the 2016 session in the history books.

— Stephen Koranda is a reporter for Kansas Public Radio.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/kansas-legislature-agrees-to-budget-cuts-leaves-more-for-brownback-to-trim#sthash.fKQY9zdh.dpuf

Slight chance of rain showers today

National Weather Service graphic
National Weather Service graphic

Scattered showers are possible across the area today, according to the National Weather Service.

Dry weather and warmer temperatures will return Tuesday and continue through the end of the week, the weather service said. No hazardous weather is expected in the next several days.

Today’s high will be near 63, with a north wind of 5 to 8 mph, and a 20 percent chance of rain, according to the weather service.

Tonight, the low will be around 44, with a north wind of 5 to 7 mph becoming calm, the weather service said.

Tuesday, the high will be near 69 with mostly sunny skies and a west northwest wind of 3 to 8 mph, according to the weather service.

Tuesday night, expect a low of 50 with a west wind of 6 to 8 mph.

Wednesday, it will be sunny with a high near 69, a north northwest wind of 8 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph, according to the weather service.

Wednesday night, the low will be around 46.

Thursday, it will be sunny with a high near 71, according to the weather service.