Month: March 2022

Senate tackles fresh redistricting controversy with state Board of Education map

State Board of Education proposes alternative focusing on status quo

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas Senate leadership proposed Monday a redistricting map for the 10-member Kansas Board of Education that critics indicated unnecessarily placed four incumbents in head-to-head showdowns.

The proposed map ran into opposition when unveiled during a meeting of the Senate Redistricting Committee, which previously contributed to shaping new Kansas Senate and U.S. House maps. The state Board of Education boundaries must include four contiguous Senate districts.

Under the “Apple” map offered by Senate Republicans in the form of Senate Bill 577, districts of the state Board of Education would be modified to create a hypothetical race between Salina Republican Deena Horst against Garden City Republican Jean Clifford.

In addition, the proposed map could pit Democrat Janet Waugh of Kansas City, Kansas, against Democrat Melanie Haas of Overland Park. Waugh is unlikely to seek re-election in 2022.

Shifts contemplated by the Senate GOP could result in transitioning the board’s six Republican, four Democrat construction to an eight Republican, two Democrat split.

Five state Board of Education members must stand for re-election in 2022 if they want to remain on the board. The other five members would each serve a newly drawn district, even if they didn’t live within boundaries of that assigned district, until up for re-election in 2024.

Jim Porter, chairman of the state Board of Education, proposed an alternative map developed by members of the state board. It was named “Little Jerusalem Badlands,” a reference to the state’s newest state park, and labeled Senate Bill 576. It was based on redistricting standards endorsed by the Senate and House, including deference to incumbents.

He said the map followed new Senate boundaries and grouped together four contiguous counties for each Board of Education district. None of the current 10 members of the state Board of Education would have their residence drawn out of their current district, he said.

“This map was created by the Kansas State Board of Education for the Kansas State Board of Education, which has for the last decade developed a tight relationship with its districts,” Porter said. “We realize that populations shift, so some Kansans will have to adjust to new district constituents. However, we desire to keep these changes to a minimum.”

“Our proposal takes into heavy consideration existing district boundaries and incumbents. With only half the body up for election every two years, it is prudent to draw boundary lines that resemble current district lines as closely as possible,” he said.

The Senate committee didn’t vote on a map during its initial meeting, but plan to keep working this week on the mapping project.

None of the people submitting testimony to the committee were in support of the Senate GOP’s map.

Patrick Gouger, who lives in the Shawnee Mission School District and the 2nd District represented by Haas, said the GOP Republican map violated redistricting guidelines. He said it would dramatically change geographic areas served by board members, displace incumbents and neglect the goal of keeping school districts, cities and counties whole.

Gouger said it would split north Johnson County’s Shawnee Mission School District among three separate state Board of Education districts. The three state Board of Education members sharing that piece of Johnson County also would be responsible for diverse interests of residents of Wyandotte, Miami, Douglas, Leavenworth, Franklin, Osage and Shawnee counties.

“Let me be clear from the outset. SB 577 smacks of the aggressive, partisan overreach so favored by this committee throughout the 2022 redistricting process,” said Leslie Mark, who piggybacked on Gouger’s critique. “‘Apple’ is a rotten, worm-eaten gerrymander.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/28/senate-tackles-fresh-redistricting-controversy-with-board-of-education-map/

As BA.2 variant prevalence increases in northeast U.S., Kansas hospitals already altering response

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — While publicly available data may lag, medical experts at a Kansas hospital system say the prevalence of the BA.2 variant of COVID-19 is slowly rising and is already affecting pandemic response.

The variant has yet to become the most prevalent strain in Kansas, but as cases become more common in some areas of the country, especially in the northeast, public health leaders are having to make quick changes in response. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration limited the use of sotrovimab, a COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy, because it does not work against BA.2.

States where the variant is prevalent no longer have FDA authorization to use the treatment.

In addition, reports suggest President Joe Biden is planning an additional round of booster shots for older adults in the coming weeks.

“We have not been using sotrovimab now for a week and a half or two weeks,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection prevention at the University of Kansas Health System, adding that, “we do know the prevalence of BA.2 is increasing (in Kansas) but overall, we still are not seeing a large increase in cases.”

Sotrovimab was the last monoclonal antibody unaffected by new coronavirus strains after the FDA revoked authorizations for several other antibody therapies that did not work against the Omicron variant.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, about 35% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. were caused by BA.2. In monitoring by the CDC, the region including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut saw more than half of the cases linked to the variant.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has recorded more than 750,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 8,000 deaths.

While case numbers appear to be leveling off in Kansas, Dr. Steven Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said doctors are still treating patients. Currently, half of those patients are at KU Health System for COVID-19-related issues, and the other half are there with COVID-19.

“If you’ve been vaccinated, you’re more likely to be asymptomatic, so you may come in positive, but you may be coming in for your hip surgery or your back surgery, and we still register you as positive because that’s what we’re required to do,” Dr. Stites said.

He reiterated that the best way to avoid being part of the group in the hospital specifically for COVID-19 related complications was to get not just vaccinated but boosted. He noted a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing the importance of the additional shot.

“It was people who had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine could either get a placebo for their booster or a real dose of vaccination to test the real-world effectiveness of vaccine booster vaccinations,” Dr. Stites said. “What they found was a 95% 98% reduction in serious hospitalization and death if you’ve had the booster vaccination, against if you had not had the booster vaccination.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/28/as-ba-2-variant-prevalence-increases-in-northeast-u-s-kansas-hospitals-already-altering-response/

Bonner Springs police nab shoplifting suspect

The Bonner Springs police reported the stop of a person who was suspected of shoplifting on March 23.

An officer who was at the Bonner Walmart saw a person who was known to have committed multiple thefts from Walmart, according to the police department’s Bonner Brief posted on social media.

The officer attempted to stop the person, who was leaving without paying for items concealed in pockets, according to the report.

The person fled to an awaiting vehicle, while the officer chased on foot, police stated. The driver was in possession of stolen goods along with multiple narcotics, according to police.

In other action, the Bonner police animal control officer and a police corporal were called into action on March 24 when two horses escaped around I-70 and 142nd Street, according to the Bonner Brief report. The Bonner animal control officer and police wrangled the straying horses.