“The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often to ignore, and wrong too often to rely on it.” Patrick Young.
Let’s face it-kids today are spending more time indoors watching TV and or playing video games. Enter the Kansas Wildscape Foundation. KWF has a new program that couples the technology of the Internet and the simplicity of nature.
The WildLifer Challenge encourages parents and children of all ages to become more involved in the outdoors through the use of an interactive, web-based program that challenges children to accomplish 15 outdoor “WildLifer” challenges. To PROVE that they’re not the types of kids who lounge around the house all day!
Participants log into the site using their own unique username and passwords to unlock all 20 challenges (must complete 15) on the challenge tree. To earn credit for each task, participants must have a digital picture taken of them during their challenge experience and then simply upload that photo on the WildLifer user page.
Once a participant has completed 15 challenges, they receive official “Kansas WildLifer” status and will receive the WildLifer pack of outdoor items, WildLifer identification materials and letters from the Governor of Kansas and the Secretary of Wildlife and Parks!
The program is free except for your time. This would be a great activity for parents, grandparents, “Big Brothers and Sisters”, and the even the entire family. Cox Communications, Kansas Health Foundation, CapFed, Wiedeman Foundation, Kemper Foundation, Bass Pro, Garmin, Bank of America and Lattner Foundation underwrite the program. Visit www.kansaswildlifer.com to get started.
The Kansas Health Institute released information on insurance coverage in its Annual Report on July 2010. Most Kansans, about 88%, are covered by health insurance. Slightly over 55% of all Kansans have employment based private insurance, which is the primary form of health insurance in Kansas and nationwide.
Another 6.5% of all Kansans are covered by other private insurance, primarily individual insurance policies that they purchase directly
Public Health Insurance is an option for some who lack private insurance and meet the appropriate guidelines. Federal and state programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are forms of public insurance.
Almost all Kansans age 65 or older, Medicare covers a group that represents 12 percent of the state’s population. However, many Kansas adults (age19-64) even those with low incomes do not qualify for public insurance programs. Most of the 11.2 percent of Kansans covered by either Medicaid or CHIP are under the age of 19.
The percentage of Kansans covered by private health insurance was relatively stable until 2004-05. Since then, it has dropped to 72.3 percent from 76.8 percent. The trend is for employment based coverage is shrinking.
One reason for the decline is that fewer establishments are offering the insurance coverage. Reasons include changes in work patterns from full-time to part-time, increase in unemployment, and I suspect the major reason is cost for the coverage.
Kansas Health Wave is a state managed care program that combines Medicaid managed care and CHIP to provide health insurance to children in low-income families as well as to some adults. To qualify for Health Wave, children must have family incomes at or below 250 percent of the 2008 federal poverty level. For a family of three in 2010, this means a gross monthly income of $3,667 or less.
Of the more than 617,000 young adult Kansans 21.9 percent are uninsured. Young adults account for 40 percent of the state’s uninsured, but only 22 percent of the state’s total population.
For further information contact:
Kansas Health Institute,
212 SW Eighth Ave Suite 300,
Topeka, Kansas 66603-3936
785-233-5443
www.khi.org
The TransCanada Keystone pipeline is making its way through Butler County as it winds on south towards Cushing Oklahoma. The pipeline activity you see west of Towanda as you cross 254 and along the Kansas Turnpike near the Whitewater River is part of the line that extends from the sand fields of Alberta Canada passes through the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas and feeds crude oil to Wood River and Patoka Illinois and ends at Cushing Oklahoma.
The U.S. portion of the project includes construction of approximately 1,379 miles of pipeline (ranging in size from 30”-36”) and related pumping stations. The Keystone Pipeline will have an initial nominal capacity of 435,000 barrels per day that will increase to 590,000 barrels per day in late 2010. www.transcanada.com.
On August 27th the 2010 Leadership Kansas Class will be in El Dorado for a tour of the El Dorado Correctional Facility. This is an opportunity for leaders across the state to see our community and to visit a facility where most citizens never get to see except at a distance.
I will participate in that tour and want to thank Warden Roberts and his staff in advance for their assistance. The EDCF staff is exceptional and their professionalism is highlighted by this tour and briefing. Of particular interest during past tours is the inmate forum, where those incarcerated in the facility speak to the class and a free-flowing question and answer period is always very thought provoking.
I consider it an honor and privilege to be your Representative in Topeka and I want to know what you think. If I can be of assistance please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.
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