JOHNSON COUNTY —A Kansas man has been sentenced to consecutive life sentences for first degree murder and attempted capital murder. Matthew Bibee, Jr., 22, Overland Park, will be eligible for parole after serving 50-years, according to the Johnson County District Attorney's office.

In October, a jury found Bibee guilty in the death of 17-year-old Rowan Padgett, who was murdered in the 12300 block of South Mullen Court as part in a failed $8 Xanax deal.

In Jan. of 2020, Jordan Denny, of Olathe was sentenced&nbsp; for drug charges in connection with the case. She originally was charged with felony murder in the March 2019 death of Padgett.

The affidavit said Matthew Lee Bibee Jr. arranged to buy the anxiety medication through Denny, who was then 16. She told authorities her supplier fell through and that she asked Padgett to leave with Bibee because her father had called police.

Padgett was killed after getting into the car with Bibee, who was wounded two days later in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Another teen was sentenced to more than four years in a juvenile corrections facility for helping to set up the deal.

In March of 2019, Bibee was also involved in shooting at a police officer in Olathe. The officer, who was investigating a carjecking, was not hurt..

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676656170093.png" alt="Bibee" />
 <figcaption>Bibee</figcaption>
 </figure>JOHNSON COUNTY —A Kansas man has been sentenced to consecutive life sentences for first degree murder and attempted capital murder. Matthew Bibee, Jr., 22, Overland Park, will be eligible for parole after serving 50-years, according to the Johnson County District Attorney's office.In October, a jury found Bibee guilty in the death of 17-year-old Rowan Padgett, who was murdered in the 12300 block of South Mullen Court as part in a failed $8 Xanax deal.In Jan. of 2020, Jordan Denny, of Olathe was sentenced&nbsp; for drug charges in connection with the case. She originally was charged with felony murder in the March 2019 death of Padgett.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578656299375.png" alt="Rowan Padgett photo <a href="https://www.penwellgabelkc.com/Obituary/170460/Rowan-Padgett/Olathe-KS">courtesy Penwell Gable&nbsp;</a>" />
 <figcaption>Rowan Padgett photo <a href="https://www.penwellgabelkc.com/Obituary/170460/Rowan-Padgett/Olathe-KS">courtesy Penwell Gable&nbsp;</a></figcaption>
 </figure>The affidavit said Matthew Lee Bibee Jr. arranged to buy the anxiety medication through Denny, who was then 16. She told authorities her supplier fell through and that she asked Padgett to leave with Bibee because her father had called police.Padgett was killed after getting into the car with Bibee, who was wounded two days later in an exchange of gunfire with police.Another teen was sentenced to more than four years in a juvenile corrections facility for helping to set up the deal.In March of 2019, Bibee was also involved in shooting at a police officer in Olathe. The officer, who was investigating a carjecking, was not hurt..

Kan. man sentenced in connection with $8 Xanax deal killing

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a violent knife attack.

Just before 4 p.m., Sunday, police responded to a report of a stabbing in the 600 block of N Kansas Avenue in Topeka, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.

First responders located a man who was transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

As a result of the investigation, police took 24-year-old Davis A. Lee of Topeka into custody. He is being held on a requested charge of Aggravated Battery.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676911930803.png" alt="Lee photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Lee photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a violent knife attack.Just before 4 p.m., Sunday, police responded to a report of a stabbing in the 600 block of N Kansas Avenue in Topeka, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.First responders located a man who was transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries.As a result of the investigation, police took 24-year-old Davis A. Lee of Topeka into custody. He is being held on a requested charge of Aggravated Battery.

Kansas man jailed for alleged knife attack

COFFEY COUNTY, Kan. –&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly on Monday announced that EMP Shield, an industry leader in protecting electronic devices from destructive magnetic pulses, plans to invest $1.9 billion in a computer chip manufacturing facility in Burlington. The facility will create more than 1,200 jobs averaging $66,000 annually.&nbsp;

EMP Shield will build its facility on 300 acres in a secure campus located at Silicon Prairie Industrial Park. The company will be joined by six out-of-state suppliers, resulting in an additional 1,000 jobs created in Coffey County.&nbsp;

“Bringing economic prosperity to every corner of the state – particularly rural Kansas – has been a priority since my very first day in office,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said. “We achieve that with this project, creating thousands of high-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree and proving that every Kansas community is ripe for investment and growth.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

EMP Shield plans to have four production lines operating in approximately 235,000 square feet of facilities in the new industrial park that will produce thousands of chips per week. Its suppliers will manufacture necessary components and prepare the final products for delivery.&nbsp;

“This high-tech advanced manufacturing project will provide lucrative career opportunities for hard-working Kansans,”&nbsp;Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said. “Our economic development strategy is designed to keep nurturing the roots of our young talent so they can remain here in Kansas.”&nbsp;

EMP Shield will leverage state support to apply for CHIPS Act funding to see its plans to fruition.&nbsp;

The project came together shortly after the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act was signed into law last August. The bipartisan legislation called for every aspect of computer chip production to be brought back to the United States – specifically into rural areas of the Midwest. Additional stipulations include private-public partnerships as well as the involvement of higher education institutions.&nbsp;

“Coffey County appears to really hit the sweet spot for everything requested for CHIPS Act funding,”&nbsp;EMP Shield Founder and Lead Engineer Tim Carty said. “Everything is falling into place, and the state’s strong support hopefully gets us one step closer to a favorable federal response.”&nbsp;

EMP Shield is working with area partners such as Coffey County; Flint Hills Technical College; Allen County Community College; Pittsburg State University; the University of Kansas; Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce; Wichita Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Unified School Districts 243, 244 and 245.&nbsp;

“There are workforce development programs already in place that will enable high school graduates and those with two-year degrees to train up and get very high-paying jobs,”&nbsp;Carty said.&nbsp;“This will allow those who grow up here to stay in Kansas, enjoy our quality of life, and not have to go to San Francisco.”&nbsp;

Bus routes to transport workers from metropolitan areas will be established, and there will be purposeful diversity, equity, and inclusion outreach.&nbsp;

“This next-generation technology project will help our community grow and make our country safer. That’s a win for everyone,”&nbsp;Carty said.&nbsp;

COFFEY COUNTY, Kan. –&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly on Monday announced that EMP Shield, an industry leader in protecting electronic devices from destructive magnetic pulses, plans to invest $1.9 billion in a computer chip manufacturing facility in Burlington. The facility will create more than 1,200 jobs averaging $66,000 annually.&nbsp;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">BIG NEWS: I just announced that <a href="https://twitter.com/Emp_Shield?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EMP_Shield</a> plans to invest $1.9B in a computer chip production facility in Burlington that creates 1,200 good-paying jobs. <a href="https://t.co/MlJH9LELAW">pic.twitter.com/MlJH9LELAW</a>&mdash; Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovLauraKelly/status/1627762131058987008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>EMP Shield will build its facility on 300 acres in a secure campus located at Silicon Prairie Industrial Park. The company will be joined by six out-of-state suppliers, resulting in an additional 1,000 jobs created in Coffey County.&nbsp;“Bringing economic prosperity to every corner of the state – particularly rural Kansas – has been a priority since my very first day in office,”&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly said. “We achieve that with this project, creating thousands of high-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree and proving that every Kansas community is ripe for investment and growth.”&nbsp;&nbsp;EMP Shield plans to have four production lines operating in approximately 235,000 square feet of facilities in the new industrial park that will produce thousands of chips per week. Its suppliers will manufacture necessary components and prepare the final products for delivery.&nbsp;“This high-tech advanced manufacturing project will provide lucrative career opportunities for hard-working Kansans,”&nbsp;Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said. “Our economic development strategy is designed to keep nurturing the roots of our young talent so they can remain here in Kansas.”&nbsp;EMP Shield will leverage state support to apply for CHIPS Act funding to see its plans to fruition.&nbsp;The project came together shortly after the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act was signed into law last August. The bipartisan legislation called for every aspect of computer chip production to be brought back to the United States – specifically into rural areas of the Midwest. Additional stipulations include private-public partnerships as well as the involvement of higher education institutions.&nbsp;“Coffey County appears to really hit the sweet spot for everything requested for CHIPS Act funding,”&nbsp;EMP Shield Founder and Lead Engineer Tim Carty said. “Everything is falling into place, and the state’s strong support hopefully gets us one step closer to a favorable federal response.”&nbsp;EMP Shield is working with area partners such as Coffey County; Flint Hills Technical College; Allen County Community College; Pittsburg State University; the University of Kansas; Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce; Wichita Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Unified School Districts 243, 244 and 245.&nbsp;“There are workforce development programs already in place that will enable high school graduates and those with two-year degrees to train up and get very high-paying jobs,”&nbsp;Carty said.&nbsp;“This will allow those who grow up here to stay in Kansas, enjoy our quality of life, and not have to go to San Francisco.”&nbsp;Bus routes to transport workers from metropolitan areas will be established, and there will be purposeful diversity, equity, and inclusion outreach.&nbsp;“This next-generation technology project will help our community grow and make our country safer. That’s a win for everyone,”&nbsp;Carty said.&nbsp;

$1.9B computer chip manufacturing plant to be built in Kansas  

WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal shooting in Kansas City, Kansas have identified the victim as 19-year-old Ricardo Apodaca.

Just before 8:30p.m. Thursday, officers were dispatched to a shooting in the 2300 block of N 11th Street, according to a media release. When officers arrived, they discovered Apodaca dead an apparent gunshot wound. 

Police have not released suspect information.

 Anyone with information on this case is urged to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). All tips remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward

WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities investigating a fatal shooting in Kansas City, Kansas have identified the victim as 19-year-old Ricardo Apodaca.Just before 8:30p.m. Thursday, officers were dispatched to a shooting in the 2300 block of N 11th Street, according to a media release. When officers arrived, they discovered Apodaca dead an apparent gunshot wound. Police have not released suspect information. Anyone with information on this case is urged to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). All tips remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward

Police ID 19-year-old victim in deadly Kansas shooting

BEIJING (AP) — Nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-one-year-anniversary-timeline-a1304c6fb319bf1c0e93635f6f6a2633">one year after Russia invaded Ukraine</a>, new questions are rising over China’s potential willingness to offer military aid to Moscow in the increasingly drawn-out conflict.

In an interview that aired Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-politics-antony-blinken-xi-jinping-4501b49359d73b6efbac87b2af54f189">Antony Blinken said American intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms</a>&nbsp;and ammunition to Russia, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that he said would be a “serious problem.”

China has refused to criticize Russia for its actions or even to call it an invasion in deference to Moscow. At the same time, it insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations must be upheld.

The question now is whether China is willing to convert that rhetorical backing into material support.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused the United States of “fanning flames and stoking confrontations” by providing Ukraine with defensive weapons, and said Beijing would “never accept (U.S.) finger-pointing and even coercion and pressure on China-Russia relations."

Here's a look at where China stands on the conflict.

DOES CHINA BACK RUSSIA IN ITS WAR ON UKRAINE?

China has tried to walk a fine — and often contradictory — line on the Russian invasion.

China says Russia was provoked into taking action by NATO's eastward expansion. Just weeks before the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-sports-business-china-russia-b92f4d266b4d8d2e7711ab930c6e9fd1">Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing</a>&nbsp;for the opening of the Winter Olympics, at which time the sides issued a joint statement pledging their commitment to a “no limits" friendship. China has since ignored Western criticism and reaffirmed that pledge.

But China has yet to confirm the visit Putin has said he expects from Xi this spring.

China is “trying to have it both ways," Blinken said Sunday on NBC. "Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine, but privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of non-lethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort.”

HAS CHINA PROVIDED MATERIAL SUPPORT TO RUSSIA?

So far, China's support for Russia has been rhetorical and political, with Beijing helping prevent efforts to condemn Moscow at the United Nations.

Blinken, at a security conference in Munich, Germany, said the U.S. has long been concerned that China would provide weapons to Russia and that “we have information that gives us concern that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine.” That came a day after Blinken held talks with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, in a meeting that offered little sign of a reduction in tensions or progress on the Ukraine issue.

“It was important for me to share very clearly with Wang Yi that this would be a serious problem,” Blinken said, referring to potential military support for Russia.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, also expressed her concern about any effort by the Chinese to arm Russia, saying “that would be a red line.”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-98262d8c8f054f80455114cea4ded115">Russian and Chinese forces have held joint military drills</a>&nbsp;since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, most recently sending ships to take part in exercises with the South African navy in a key shipping lane off the South African coast.

“It is the U.S. who kept providing weapons to the battlefield, not China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday. “The principle that China follows on the Ukraine issue can be simply put as promoting peace talks.”

After the meeting between Wang Yi and Blinken, China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement that it has always played a constructive role in the Ukraine conflict by adhering to principles, encouraging peace and promoting talks.

The ministry said the China-Russia partnership “is established on the basis of non-alignment, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of third parties,” and that the U.S. was adding “fuel to the fire to take advantage of the opportunity to make profits.”

Beijing says it has continued a normal trade relationship with Russia, including purchases of oil and gas, as have other countries such as India. That trade is seen as throwing an economic lifeline to Moscow, but there have been no documented cases of China providing direct aid to the Russian military along the lines of the inexpensive&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-iran-politics-us-department-of-the-treasury-military-technology-44d79e61be9ae00e52fb14dfc8cbf21c">military drones that Iran sells to Moscow</a>.

There would be “real consequences … were China to provide lethal assistance to Russia” or help Moscow evade sanctions in a “systematic way,” Blinken said Monday in the Turkey capital, Ankara. He did not specify what measures Washington would take in response to Chinese military support for Russia, but said other countries would join the U.S. with similar actions.

Efforts to put a floor under ties that have deteriorated to their lowest level in decades have so far been unsuccessful. The U.S. has sought to limit Chinese access to the latest microprocessors and manufacturing equipment, and has continued to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-south-china-sea-beijing-084fbd1d64120859467b7f9157c4a797">challenge Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea</a>.

For China, the most sensitive issue is U.S. support for Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory to be conquered by military force if deemed necessary. Taiwan is a major customer for U.S. defensive arms and has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-taiwan-politics-government-united-states-f1dd90976ff4a2a9537ee30205e7277d">hosted a growing number of prominent American elected officials</a>, enraging Beijing.

Meanwhile, U.S. Congress members have called for the banning of TikTok and other Chinese-owned social media platforms, as well as increased sanctions on Chinese firms backed by the Communist Party, which wields ultimate control over the Chinese economy and suppresses independent media and political opposition voices.

MUNICH (AP) — The top diplomats from the United States and China met on Saturday in the first high-level contact between their countries since the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-china-antony-blinken-51e49202f2a0a50541cde059934c4cfb">shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon</a>&nbsp;two weeks ago, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken sending the message that Beijing's surveillance program had been “exposed to the world.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

Blinken and Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, held the hourlong talks in Munich, where they were attending an international security conference, according to the U.S. State Department. They discussed the spy balloon and the war in Ukraine.

“I made very clear to him that China sending its surveillance balloon over the United States in violation of our sovereignty, in violation of international law, was unacceptable and must never happen again," Blinken said Saturday in an interview for CBS' “Face the Nation.”

His spokesman, Ned Price, said in a statement that Blinken also told the Chinese official that his nation's “high-altitude surveillance balloon program — which has intruded into the airspace of over 40 countries across five continents — has been exposed to the world.”

Blinken had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/g-20-summit-politics-united-states-government-china-antony-blinken-0a0469109e8776f1676d7b813e46854f">canceled a trip to Beijing</a>&nbsp;earlier this month due to the balloon incident, which has become a major issue of contention between the two countries. A meeting at the conference in Germany had been widely anticipated.

Blinken also told Wang that the U.S. does not seek conflict with China, repeating a standard talking point that the Biden administration has provided since it has come into office.

“The United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests, but that we do not want conflict with the PRC and are not looking for a new Cold War," Price said. Blinken "underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times.”

In addition to the balloon incident, Price said Blinken had reiterated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/putin-kyiv-politics-ukraine-government-russia-43a55a56f9cd1f50dd1d280fcb1ffa65">a warning to China</a>&nbsp;on providing assistance to Russia to help with its war against Ukraine, including assisting Moscow with evading sanctions the West has imposed on Russia.

“I warned China against providing materiel support to Russia,” Blinken said in a tweet. "I also emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication.”

Earlier Saturday, Wang had renewed Beijing's criticism of the United States for shooting down the balloon, arguing that the move did not point to U.S. strength.

Beijing insists the white orb shot down off the Carolina coast on Feb. 4 was just an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-antony-blinken-china-b1b03193b7abeb7bbeca169bbc7c2c53">errant civilian airship</a>&nbsp;used mainly for meteorological research that went off course due to winds and had only limited “self-steering” capabilities.

Wang, the director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, repeated that insistence in a speech at the conference and accused the U.S. of violating international legal norms in destroying the object with a missile fired from an U.S. fighter jet.

“The actions don’t show that the U.S. is big and strong, but describe the exact opposite,” Wang said.

Wang also accused the U.S. of denying China’s economic advances and seeking to impede its further development.

“What we hope for from the U.S. is a pragmatic and positive approach to China that allows us to work together,” Wang said.

His comments came shortly before an address to the conference by Vice President Kamala Harris, who didn't mention the balloon controversy or respond to Wang's comments. She stressed the importance of upholding the “international rules-based order.”

She said Washington is “troubled that Beijing has deepened its relationship with Moscow since the war began” in Ukraine and that “looking ahead, any steps by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killing and further undermine a rules-based order.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1675438225859.png" alt="&nbsp;Blinken reiterated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/putin-kyiv-politics-ukraine-government-russia-43a55a56f9cd1f50dd1d280fcb1ffa65">a warning to China</a>&nbsp;on providing assistance to Russia to help with its war against Ukraine. -State Dept. photo" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Blinken reiterated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/putin-kyiv-politics-ukraine-government-russia-43a55a56f9cd1f50dd1d280fcb1ffa65">a warning to China</a>&nbsp;on providing assistance to Russia to help with its war against Ukraine. -State Dept. photo</figcaption>
 </figure>BEIJING (AP) — Nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-one-year-anniversary-timeline-a1304c6fb319bf1c0e93635f6f6a2633">one year after Russia invaded Ukraine</a>, new questions are rising over China’s potential willingness to offer military aid to Moscow in the increasingly drawn-out conflict.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Just met with the PRC’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. I condemned the incursion of the PRC surveillance balloon and stressed it must never happen again. I warned China against providing materiel support to Russia. I also emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication.&mdash; Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1627051377112539136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>In an interview that aired Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-politics-antony-blinken-xi-jinping-4501b49359d73b6efbac87b2af54f189">Antony Blinken said American intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms</a>&nbsp;and ammunition to Russia, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that he said would be a “serious problem.”China has refused to criticize Russia for its actions or even to call it an invasion in deference to Moscow. At the same time, it insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations must be upheld.The question now is whether China is willing to convert that rhetorical backing into material support.On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused the United States of “fanning flames and stoking confrontations” by providing Ukraine with defensive weapons, and said Beijing would “never accept (U.S.) finger-pointing and even coercion and pressure on China-Russia relations."Here's a look at where China stands on the conflict.___DOES CHINA BACK RUSSIA IN ITS WAR ON UKRAINE?China has tried to walk a fine — and often contradictory — line on the Russian invasion.China says Russia was provoked into taking action by NATO's eastward expansion. Just weeks before the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-sports-business-china-russia-b92f4d266b4d8d2e7711ab930c6e9fd1">Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing</a>&nbsp;for the opening of the Winter Olympics, at which time the sides issued a joint statement pledging their commitment to a “no limits" friendship. China has since ignored Western criticism and reaffirmed that pledge.But China has yet to confirm the visit Putin has said he expects from Xi this spring.China is “trying to have it both ways," Blinken said Sunday on NBC. "Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine, but privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of non-lethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort.”___HAS CHINA PROVIDED MATERIAL SUPPORT TO RUSSIA?So far, China's support for Russia has been rhetorical and political, with Beijing helping prevent efforts to condemn Moscow at the United Nations.Blinken, at a security conference in Munich, Germany, said the U.S. has long been concerned that China would provide weapons to Russia and that “we have information that gives us concern that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine.” That came a day after Blinken held talks with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, in a meeting that offered little sign of a reduction in tensions or progress on the Ukraine issue.“It was important for me to share very clearly with Wang Yi that this would be a serious problem,” Blinken said, referring to potential military support for Russia.The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, also expressed her concern about any effort by the Chinese to arm Russia, saying “that would be a red line.”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-98262d8c8f054f80455114cea4ded115">Russian and Chinese forces have held joint military drills</a>&nbsp;since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, most recently sending ships to take part in exercises with the South African navy in a key shipping lane off the South African coast.___WHAT HAS CHINA SAID ON THE MATTER?“It is the U.S. who kept providing weapons to the battlefield, not China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday. “The principle that China follows on the Ukraine issue can be simply put as promoting peace talks.”After the meeting between Wang Yi and Blinken, China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement that it has always played a constructive role in the Ukraine conflict by adhering to principles, encouraging peace and promoting talks.The ministry said the China-Russia partnership “is established on the basis of non-alignment, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of third parties,” and that the U.S. was adding “fuel to the fire to take advantage of the opportunity to make profits.”Beijing says it has continued a normal trade relationship with Russia, including purchases of oil and gas, as have other countries such as India. That trade is seen as throwing an economic lifeline to Moscow, but there have been no documented cases of China providing direct aid to the Russian military along the lines of the inexpensive&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-iran-politics-us-department-of-the-treasury-military-technology-44d79e61be9ae00e52fb14dfc8cbf21c">military drones that Iran sells to Moscow</a>.___WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF CHINA AIDS RUSSIA?There would be “real consequences … were China to provide lethal assistance to Russia” or help Moscow evade sanctions in a “systematic way,” Blinken said Monday in the Turkey capital, Ankara. He did not specify what measures Washington would take in response to Chinese military support for Russia, but said other countries would join the U.S. with similar actions.Efforts to put a floor under ties that have deteriorated to their lowest level in decades have so far been unsuccessful. The U.S. has sought to limit Chinese access to the latest microprocessors and manufacturing equipment, and has continued to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-south-china-sea-beijing-084fbd1d64120859467b7f9157c4a797">challenge Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea</a>.For China, the most sensitive issue is U.S. support for Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory to be conquered by military force if deemed necessary. Taiwan is a major customer for U.S. defensive arms and has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-taiwan-politics-government-united-states-f1dd90976ff4a2a9537ee30205e7277d">hosted a growing number of prominent American elected officials</a>, enraging Beijing.Meanwhile, U.S. Congress members have called for the banning of TikTok and other Chinese-owned social media platforms, as well as increased sanctions on Chinese firms backed by the Communist Party, which wields ultimate control over the Chinese economy and suppresses independent media and political opposition voices.---------MUNICH (AP) — The top diplomats from the United States and China met on Saturday in the first high-level contact between their countries since the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-china-antony-blinken-51e49202f2a0a50541cde059934c4cfb">shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon</a>&nbsp;two weeks ago, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken sending the message that Beijing's surveillance program had been “exposed to the world.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Just met with the PRC’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. I condemned the incursion of the PRC surveillance balloon and stressed it must never happen again. I warned China against providing materiel support to Russia. I also emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication.&mdash; Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1627051377112539136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Blinken and Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, held the hourlong talks in Munich, where they were attending an international security conference, according to the U.S. State Department. They discussed the spy balloon and the war in Ukraine.“I made very clear to him that China sending its surveillance balloon over the United States in violation of our sovereignty, in violation of international law, was unacceptable and must never happen again," Blinken said Saturday in an interview for CBS' “Face the Nation.”His spokesman, Ned Price, said in a statement that Blinken also told the Chinese official that his nation's “high-altitude surveillance balloon program — which has intruded into the airspace of over 40 countries across five continents — has been exposed to the world.”Blinken had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/g-20-summit-politics-united-states-government-china-antony-blinken-0a0469109e8776f1676d7b813e46854f">canceled a trip to Beijing</a>&nbsp;earlier this month due to the balloon incident, which has become a major issue of contention between the two countries. A meeting at the conference in Germany had been widely anticipated.Blinken also told Wang that the U.S. does not seek conflict with China, repeating a standard talking point that the Biden administration has provided since it has come into office.“The United States will compete and will unapologetically stand up for our values and interests, but that we do not want conflict with the PRC and are not looking for a new Cold War," Price said. Blinken "underscored the importance of maintaining diplomatic dialogue and open lines of communication at all times.”In addition to the balloon incident, Price said Blinken had reiterated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/putin-kyiv-politics-ukraine-government-russia-43a55a56f9cd1f50dd1d280fcb1ffa65">a warning to China</a>&nbsp;on providing assistance to Russia to help with its war against Ukraine, including assisting Moscow with evading sanctions the West has imposed on Russia.“I warned China against providing materiel support to Russia,” Blinken said in a tweet. "I also emphasized the importance of keeping open lines of communication.”Earlier Saturday, Wang had renewed Beijing's criticism of the United States for shooting down the balloon, arguing that the move did not point to U.S. strength.Beijing insists the white orb shot down off the Carolina coast on Feb. 4 was just an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-antony-blinken-china-b1b03193b7abeb7bbeca169bbc7c2c53">errant civilian airship</a>&nbsp;used mainly for meteorological research that went off course due to winds and had only limited “self-steering” capabilities.Wang, the director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, repeated that insistence in a speech at the conference and accused the U.S. of violating international legal norms in destroying the object with a missile fired from an U.S. fighter jet.“The actions don’t show that the U.S. is big and strong, but describe the exact opposite,” Wang said.Wang also accused the U.S. of denying China’s economic advances and seeking to impede its further development.“What we hope for from the U.S. is a pragmatic and positive approach to China that allows us to work together,” Wang said.His comments came shortly before an address to the conference by Vice President Kamala Harris, who didn't mention the balloon controversy or respond to Wang's comments. She stressed the importance of upholding the “international rules-based order.”She said Washington is “troubled that Beijing has deepened its relationship with Moscow since the war began” in Ukraine and that “looking ahead, any steps by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killing and further undermine a rules-based order.”

U.S. warns China against lethal support to Russia in Ukraine

TOPEKA - In response to a Feb. 6 letter from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach warning Walgreens not to send abortion pills into Kansas in violation of state and federal laws, Walgreens on Monday announced it will not dispense Mifepristone in the Sunflower State, according to a statement from the attorney general's office.

<a href="https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/abortion-pill-letter.pdf?sfvrsn=ec26bd1a_2">Click here to read</a>&nbsp;Kobach's letter

<a href="https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/dg-mifepristone-letter-to-ks-ag.pdf?sfvrsn=bc6bd1a_2">Click here to read </a>Walgreen's response

“This is a significant victory for the pro-life cause and for women’s health,” Kobach said. “The dispensing of these pills without a supervising physician present would expose women to complications and potentially to coercion as well. I’m grateful Walgreens has responded quickly and reasonably and intends to fully comply with the law.”

Walgreens responded to the Kansas attorney general’s warning with a letter dated Feb. 17.

“Walgreens does not intend to dispense Mifepristone within your state and does not intend to ship Mifepristone into your state from any of our pharmacies. If this approach changes, we will be sure to notify you,” the letter from Walgreens Executive Vice President Danielle C. Gray reads.

TOPEKA - In response to a Feb. 6 letter from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach warning Walgreens not to send abortion pills into Kansas in violation of state and federal laws, Walgreens on Monday announced it will not dispense Mifepristone in the Sunflower State, according to a statement from the attorney general's office.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Walgreens announced it will not send abortion pills into Kansas in response to a letter the KS AG&#39;s office sent earlier this month. <a href="https://t.co/EFn59HICUT">https://t.co/EFn59HICUT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ksleg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ksleg</a>&mdash; Kansas AG&#39;s Office (@KSAGOffice) <a href="https://twitter.com/KSAGOffice/status/1627691211958980610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><a href="https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/abortion-pill-letter.pdf?sfvrsn=ec26bd1a_2">Click here to read</a>&nbsp;Kobach's letter<a href="https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/dg-mifepristone-letter-to-ks-ag.pdf?sfvrsn=bc6bd1a_2">Click here to read </a>Walgreen's response“This is a significant victory for the pro-life cause and for women’s health,” Kobach said. “The dispensing of these pills without a supervising physician present would expose women to complications and potentially to coercion as well. I’m grateful Walgreens has responded quickly and reasonably and intends to fully comply with the law.”Walgreens responded to the Kansas attorney general’s warning with a letter dated Feb. 17.“Walgreens does not intend to dispense Mifepristone within your state and does not intend to ship Mifepristone into your state from any of our pharmacies. If this approach changes, we will be sure to notify you,” the letter from Walgreens Executive Vice President Danielle C. Gray reads.

Walgreens won't send abortion pills to Kan. after warning from AG

COWLEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities continue working to identify the driver in a fatal accident that occurred just after 11p.m. Saturday in Cowley County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Chevy Camaro was eastbound on 33rd Avenue at Meadowlark in Winfield. The car crossed the centerline, left the roadway, rolled and struck a telephone pole.

A passenger in the car identified as Nicholas R. Morris, 27, Arkansas City, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported Miles Mortuary. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene of the accident.&nbsp; 

As of Monday afternoon, the KHP has not reported the name of the driver or additional details.

COWLEY COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 11p.m. Saturday in Cowley County.

A passenger in the car identified as Nicholas R. Morris, 27, Arkansas City, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported Miles Mortuary. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene of the accident.

COWLEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities continue working to identify the driver in a fatal accident that occurred just after 11p.m. Saturday in Cowley County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Chevy Camaro was eastbound on 33rd Avenue at Meadowlark in Winfield. The car crossed the centerline, left the roadway, rolled and struck a telephone pole.A passenger in the car identified as Nicholas R. Morris, 27, Arkansas City, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported Miles Mortuary. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene of the accident.&nbsp; As of Monday afternoon, the KHP has not reported the name of the driver or additional details.------------COWLEY COUNTY —One person died in an accident just after 11p.m. Saturday in Cowley County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Chevy Camaro was eastbound on 33rd Avenue at Meadowlark in Winfield. The car crossed the centerline, left the roadway, rolled and struck a telephone pole.A passenger in the car identified as Nicholas R. Morris, 27, Arkansas City, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported Miles Mortuary. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene of the accident.

KHP working to ID driver who fled crash that killed Kan. man

By CASEY QUINLAN <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/02/19/rural-hospitals-gird-for-unwinding-of-pandemic-medicaid-coverage/">States Newsroom</a>

Donald
 Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, 
Kentucky, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food 
and medical supplies for his regional hospital.

Now he’s trying to prepare for 
another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating
 people in rural Appalachia.

“We are all being forced to try to 
eke out a sustainable margin because of those (inflation) factors,” he 
said. “And then with the potential loss of reimbursement for those who 
did qualify, that’s just going to add an additional layer of burden upon
 rural institutions.”

Lloyd is referring to the unwinding 
of a policy that began in 2020 as a response to the public health 
emergency created by COVID-19. The ​​Families First Coronavirus Response
 Act required states to allow Medicaid recipients to stay enrolled even 
if their eligibility changed. But that requirement ends on April 1, and 
with states once again able to remove people from the program, health 
care officials across the country are worried about how the loss of 
those Medicaid reimbursements will affect the financial health of their 
hospitals.

The loss of the federal revenue is 
expected to be particularly hard on rural hospitals that operate in 
areas with higher poverty rates and serve an older population and people
 with lower incomes — all factors that contribute to the financial 
pressure on hospitals, health care officials said. Rural hospitals were 
already closing at a rapid rate before the pandemic — more than 150 
closed between 2005 and 2019, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://ruralhospitals.chqpr.org/downloads/Rural_Hospitals_at_Risk_of_Closing.pdf">Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform</a>.
 Without the federal money to prop them up, the Center estimates that 
200 rural hospitals across the country are at risk of closing within the
 next two to three years.

A <a target="_blank" href="https://publichealth.gwu.edu/content/federal-medicaid-%E2%80%9Cunwinding%E2%80%9D-could-cause-community-health-centers-lose-care-capacity-many-21">report</a>
 released in January from George Washington University found that up to 
2.5 million patients of community health centers, which treat both 
underserved rural and urban communities, could lose coverage as a result
 of eligibility redeterminations,
 costing the health centers somewhere from $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion 
in revenue. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that between 5 
million and 14 million people will lose their coverage, and that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/press-release/as-states-prepare-to-unwind-the-medicaid-continuous-enrollment-provision-past-patterns-show-that-most-people-who-are-disenrolled-from-medicaid-become-uninsured-for-all-or-part-of-th/">two-thirds</a> could be uninsured for several months up to a year.

Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy 
officer at the National Rural Health Association, a nonprofit focused on
 education and advocacy on rural health issues, said the financial 
impact will be twofold.

“It’s the loss of reimbursement for 
services, but then also a potential increase in the number of patients 
that are going to be uninsured who delayed care because they lose their 
coverage and they’re coming in when they have a more severe situation,” 
she said.

Simple mistakes in paperwork could 
result in many people losing Medicaid even though they’re still eligible
 for it, said Leighton Ku, professor and director of the center for 
health policy research at the Milken Institute School of Public Health 
at George Washington University. Ku said states can help by making the 
renewal process easier, and pointed out that people who can’t get 
Medicaid can find insurance at subsidized rates through the Affordable 
Care Act markets, and benefit from expanded premium subsidies through 
2025 because of the Inflation Reduction Act. Still, there will be 
problems, he said.

“We still expect there’s going to be 
some increase in the number of uninsured people in the U.S. over the 
next year, no matter how hard we try, so hospitals and community health 
centers are going to have some rough times ahead,” Ku said.

Toni Lawson, vice president of 
governmental relations at the Idaho Hospital Association, said that the 
state department of health and welfare is sending out letters to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/regional-news/2023-02-06/medicaid-unwinding-and-its-effect-in-washington-and-idaho">tens of thousands of people</a>
 alerting them to the change and their options. Still, she’s concerned 
about the effect of so many people losing coverage. Idaho has estimated 
that 150,000 people could be vulnerable to losing Medicaid, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/regional-news/2023-02-06/medicaid-unwinding-and-its-effect-in-washington-and-idaho">according to</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/02/06/uncertainty-looms-as-nearly-150000-idahoans-could-lose-medicaid/">Idaho Capital Sun</a>.

“We see a large percentage of our 
rural hospitals with a negative operating margin right now,” Lawson 
said. “We need to be particularly careful in making policy decisions 
that impact them negatively that maybe five years ago it would have been
 like, okay, this is a hit to your reimbursement, but you’ll survive. 
That same decision today could affect whether they stay open or close, 
she said.

Lloyd said he expects less than 3,000
 people would lose coverage in the communities that St. Claire serves, 
which could cost the hospital about $5 million in Medicaid revenue.

The hospital is preparing for the 
decrease by slowing down its capital investments even though it needs to
 replace operating room tables and to repair and do maintenance on a 
wing built in the 1960s, he said. St. Claire is also looking at 
“reprioritizing a number of strategic growth projects,” Lloyd added, 
such as accommodating robotic surgery.

Family Health Centers in Louisville 
plans to cut back on the low-cost or free medical, dental, behavioral 
health and pharmacy services it has been offering to uninsured patients 
because of the expected revenue dip, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/wellness/health/2023/01/06/kentucky-medicaid-redetermination-april-2023-what-to-know/69776641007/">Louisville Courier-Journal.</a> Hospitals also have announced other budget cuts, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/north-carolina-system-cuts-200-jobs.html">layoffs,</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/hospital-and-health-systems-dire-finances-are-spurring-layoffs-heres-23-examples-2022">citing</a> the end of pandemic payments.&nbsp;

The COVID-19 pandemic both helped and hurt rural hospitals.

“In rural communities, the majority 
of their revenue comes from outpatient-like business and it comes from 
doing outpatient surgeries and imaging and visits,” said Steve Lawler, 
president and CEO of the North Carolina Healthcare Association. “When 
you shut those things down to protect your hospital assets to take care 
of COVID patients, it has a significant financial impact and that has 
carried on through the current economic conditions where the cost of 
goods and services and talent for hospitals is up 30% but revenue is 
only up 2%.”

During the pandemic, billions in 
federal money from the Paycheck Protection Program, Provider Relief 
Funds and the American Rescue Plan Act helped keep rural hospitals 
afloat even as they dealt with revenue losses and higher costs for 
everything from protective gear to salaries.&nbsp;

“COVID sort of interrupted the 
long-term trend of unprofitability and closure of rural hospitals,” said
 George Pink, deputy director of the NC Rural Health Research Program at
 the University of North Carolina. “But that funding is now over.”&nbsp;

Health care experts say policy 
changes, including more states expanding access to Medicaid, is needed 
to keep rural hospitals viable.&nbsp;

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/">Eleven states</a>,
 including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin, 
still haven’t expanded Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care 
Act, and rural hospitals in those states are at a particular 
disadvantage, health care officials said. Researchers have agreed. A 
January 2018 research article <a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0976">found</a>
 that Medicaid expansion was associated with better financial 
performance for hospitals and lower likelihoods of closure. This was 
particularly true for rural markets and counties that had many uninsured
 adults before states adopted expansion.&nbsp;

In North Carolina, where the 
legislature is currently considering a bill to expand Medicaid, 11 
hospitals have closed since 2006, and ECU Health, which provides medical
 care to 29 counties, is shutting down five clinics in the coming weeks,
 mostly due to financial pressure, the Greenville Daily Reflector <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reflector.com/news/local/ecu-health-five-clinics-behavioral-health-unit-are-closing/article_33b224fd-a714-56fa-8bce-acc7e0ff781c.html">reported</a> in January.

Brian Floyd, ECU Health chief 
operating officer and president of ECU Health Medical Center, told 
States Newsroom, “We’ve reached the point of operating loss that we are 
then at a place where we have to decide what’s the best way to ration 
out our resources and had to make some tough decisions about whether or 
not we close some clinics. … This is the story when you don’t have 
expansion of Medicaid. This is what happens. Poor rural communities 
start to lose access to their health care.”

Lawler added that Medicaid expansion 
in North Carolina would help people manage chronic health issues instead
 of waiting for their health to reach a crisis point that requires 
hospitalization and expensive care. His organization supports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H76v1.pdf">House Bill 76</a>, the bill to expand Medicaid that <a target="_blank" href="https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2023/02/16/nc-house-gives-final-approval-to-its-medicaid-expansion-bill/#sthash.1Wx1TL8b.dpbs">passed the state House</a>
 on Thursday. If negotiations with the state Senate result in passage, 
Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to sign the measure, benefiting 600,000 
North Carolinians.

Lawler said that there may finally be enough political will for the state to join the rest of the nation in expanding Medicaid.&nbsp;

“It makes so much sense if we’re 
going to make the state healthier and help address the behavioral health
 crisis and, and the substance abuse crisis in North Carolina,” he said 
“It creates new jobs, so it grows economies. It’s going to help rural 
communities stabilize their hospitals and health care safety net.”

Lloyd, the St. Claire HealthCare CEO,
 said that there’s no doubt that Medicaid expansion makes a difference 
for hospitals. Before coming to St. Claire, he was president and CEO at 
CHRISTUS Health Southwest Louisiana. Louisiana expanded Medicaid in 2016
 and Kentucky in 2014.&nbsp;

“There was greater access to care and
 a greater sustainability to the hospitals post-expansion, both in 
Louisiana and here in Kentucky. We’ve just been very fortunate in the 
commonwealth that we’ve had a Medicaid expansion longer than some of the
 other states that were kind of slow to expand,” he said. “… It’s just a
 matter of economics and even though in some states the gap between the 
actual cost of care and the Medicaid reimbursement is very significant, 
at least it does offset some of the expense of operations.”

A new payment model that became <a target="_blank" href="https://nashp.org/medicares-new-rural-emergency-hospital-designation-considerations-for-states/">effective</a>
 in January could offer support to some rural health care facilities but
 health care officials caution that it is not the answer for all rural 
hospitals.&nbsp;

Under the change, hospitals that 
agree to a new rural emergency hospital designation would receive more 
Medicare reimbursements and a monthly facility payment. The hospitals 
would have emergency rooms, clinics and outpatient care, but patients 
couldn’t stay for more than 24 hours. The hospitals also can’t have more
 than 50 beds and must meet other eligibility requirements.

Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska and South Dakota have already <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncsl.org/health/rural-emergency-hospitals">enacted laws</a> establishing licensing rules for Rural Emergency Hospitals.&nbsp;

“In (rural hospitals) in areas with a
 large number of residents who are 65 plus and qualify for Medicare, 
this model would help those hospitals and perhaps help offset any losses
 due the formerly Medicaid patients becoming uninsured,” said Richard 
Lindrooth, professor in the department of health systems, management, 
and policy at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of 
Colorado.

Pink, with the NC Rural Health Research Program, said the new model isn’t a “panacea for rural health.”

“It really is directed at small rural
 hospitals that are at imminent risk of closure. It’s not designed to be
 a replacement for a rural hospital that’s breaking even or getting by 
in their community. … We’re not going to see 1,000 rural emergency 
hospitals in the country anytime soon. It’s a much smaller number of 
hospitals that this might be of interest to,” he said.

Floyd said ECU Health is studying whether this designation would be a good fit in some cases.

“There are trade-offs in that there 
is a higher payment plan per patient but you have to meet the conditions
 of 24 hours a day. We have to look at the market and say if it were 
only 24 hours, what does that do to that community? Do we have access 
elsewhere … for them to be?” he said.

Lloyd said it’s possible that a 
hospital in the area of Kentucky that St. Claire HealthCare serves could
 convert to the new designation, which would have implications for his 
health care system.

“Obviously we would handle the 
inpatient admissions for those institutions and so it would increase our
 capacity, but we’re prepared to do so if necessary,” he said.

By CASEY QUINLAN <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/02/19/rural-hospitals-gird-for-unwinding-of-pandemic-medicaid-coverage/">States Newsroom</a>Donald
 Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, 
Kentucky, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food 
and medical supplies for his regional hospital.Now he’s trying to prepare for 
another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating
 people in rural Appalachia.“We are all being forced to try to 
eke out a sustainable margin because of those (inflation) factors,” he 
said. “And then with the potential loss of reimbursement for those who 
did qualify, that’s just going to add an additional layer of burden upon
 rural institutions.”Lloyd is referring to the unwinding 
of a policy that began in 2020 as a response to the public health 
emergency created by COVID-19. The ​​Families First Coronavirus Response
 Act required states to allow Medicaid recipients to stay enrolled even 
if their eligibility changed. But that requirement ends on April 1, and 
with states once again able to remove people from the program, health 
care officials across the country are worried about how the loss of 
those Medicaid reimbursements will affect the financial health of their 
hospitals.The loss of the federal revenue is 
expected to be particularly hard on rural hospitals that operate in 
areas with higher poverty rates and serve an older population and people
 with lower incomes — all factors that contribute to the financial 
pressure on hospitals, health care officials said. Rural hospitals were 
already closing at a rapid rate before the pandemic — more than 150 
closed between 2005 and 2019, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://ruralhospitals.chqpr.org/downloads/Rural_Hospitals_at_Risk_of_Closing.pdf">Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform</a>.
 Without the federal money to prop them up, the Center estimates that 
200 rural hospitals across the country are at risk of closing within the
 next two to three years.A <a target="_blank" href="https://publichealth.gwu.edu/content/federal-medicaid-%E2%80%9Cunwinding%E2%80%9D-could-cause-community-health-centers-lose-care-capacity-many-21">report</a>
 released in January from George Washington University found that up to 
2.5 million patients of community health centers, which treat both 
underserved rural and urban communities, could lose coverage as a result
 of eligibility redeterminations,
 costing the health centers somewhere from $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion 
in revenue. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that between 5 
million and 14 million people will lose their coverage, and that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/press-release/as-states-prepare-to-unwind-the-medicaid-continuous-enrollment-provision-past-patterns-show-that-most-people-who-are-disenrolled-from-medicaid-become-uninsured-for-all-or-part-of-th/">two-thirds</a> could be uninsured for several months up to a year.Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy 
officer at the National Rural Health Association, a nonprofit focused on
 education and advocacy on rural health issues, said the financial 
impact will be twofold.“It’s the loss of reimbursement for 
services, but then also a potential increase in the number of patients 
that are going to be uninsured who delayed care because they lose their 
coverage and they’re coming in when they have a more severe situation,” 
she said.Simple mistakes in paperwork could 
result in many people losing Medicaid even though they’re still eligible
 for it, said Leighton Ku, professor and director of the center for 
health policy research at the Milken Institute School of Public Health 
at George Washington University. Ku said states can help by making the 
renewal process easier, and pointed out that people who can’t get 
Medicaid can find insurance at subsidized rates through the Affordable 
Care Act markets, and benefit from expanded premium subsidies through 
2025 because of the Inflation Reduction Act. Still, there will be 
problems, he said.“We still expect there’s going to be 
some increase in the number of uninsured people in the U.S. over the 
next year, no matter how hard we try, so hospitals and community health 
centers are going to have some rough times ahead,” Ku said.Toni Lawson, vice president of 
governmental relations at the Idaho Hospital Association, said that the 
state department of health and welfare is sending out letters to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/regional-news/2023-02-06/medicaid-unwinding-and-its-effect-in-washington-and-idaho">tens of thousands of people</a>
 alerting them to the change and their options. Still, she’s concerned 
about the effect of so many people losing coverage. Idaho has estimated 
that 150,000 people could be vulnerable to losing Medicaid, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/regional-news/2023-02-06/medicaid-unwinding-and-its-effect-in-washington-and-idaho">according to</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/02/06/uncertainty-looms-as-nearly-150000-idahoans-could-lose-medicaid/">Idaho Capital Sun</a>.“We see a large percentage of our 
rural hospitals with a negative operating margin right now,” Lawson 
said. “We need to be particularly careful in making policy decisions 
that impact them negatively that maybe five years ago it would have been
 like, okay, this is a hit to your reimbursement, but you’ll survive. 
That same decision today could affect whether they stay open or close, 
she said.Lloyd said he expects less than 3,000
 people would lose coverage in the communities that St. Claire serves, 
which could cost the hospital about $5 million in Medicaid revenue.The hospital is preparing for the 
decrease by slowing down its capital investments even though it needs to
 replace operating room tables and to repair and do maintenance on a 
wing built in the 1960s, he said. St. Claire is also looking at 
“reprioritizing a number of strategic growth projects,” Lloyd added, 
such as accommodating robotic surgery.Family Health Centers in Louisville 
plans to cut back on the low-cost or free medical, dental, behavioral 
health and pharmacy services it has been offering to uninsured patients 
because of the expected revenue dip, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/wellness/health/2023/01/06/kentucky-medicaid-redetermination-april-2023-what-to-know/69776641007/">Louisville Courier-Journal.</a> Hospitals also have announced other budget cuts, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/north-carolina-system-cuts-200-jobs.html">layoffs,</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/hospital-and-health-systems-dire-finances-are-spurring-layoffs-heres-23-examples-2022">citing</a> the end of pandemic payments.&nbsp;<h2>Help from Medicaid expansion</h2>The COVID-19 pandemic both helped and hurt rural hospitals.“In rural communities, the majority 
of their revenue comes from outpatient-like business and it comes from 
doing outpatient surgeries and imaging and visits,” said Steve Lawler, 
president and CEO of the North Carolina Healthcare Association. “When 
you shut those things down to protect your hospital assets to take care 
of COVID patients, it has a significant financial impact and that has 
carried on through the current economic conditions where the cost of 
goods and services and talent for hospitals is up 30% but revenue is 
only up 2%.”During the pandemic, billions in 
federal money from the Paycheck Protection Program, Provider Relief 
Funds and the American Rescue Plan Act helped keep rural hospitals 
afloat even as they dealt with revenue losses and higher costs for 
everything from protective gear to salaries.&nbsp;“COVID sort of interrupted the 
long-term trend of unprofitability and closure of rural hospitals,” said
 George Pink, deputy director of the NC Rural Health Research Program at
 the University of North Carolina. “But that funding is now over.”&nbsp;Health care experts say policy 
changes, including more states expanding access to Medicaid, is needed 
to keep rural hospitals viable.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/">Eleven states</a>,
 including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin, 
still haven’t expanded Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care 
Act, and rural hospitals in those states are at a particular 
disadvantage, health care officials said. Researchers have agreed. A 
January 2018 research article <a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0976">found</a>
 that Medicaid expansion was associated with better financial 
performance for hospitals and lower likelihoods of closure. This was 
particularly true for rural markets and counties that had many uninsured
 adults before states adopted expansion.&nbsp;In North Carolina, where the 
legislature is currently considering a bill to expand Medicaid, 11 
hospitals have closed since 2006, and ECU Health, which provides medical
 care to 29 counties, is shutting down five clinics in the coming weeks,
 mostly due to financial pressure, the Greenville Daily Reflector <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reflector.com/news/local/ecu-health-five-clinics-behavioral-health-unit-are-closing/article_33b224fd-a714-56fa-8bce-acc7e0ff781c.html">reported</a> in January.Brian Floyd, ECU Health chief 
operating officer and president of ECU Health Medical Center, told 
States Newsroom, “We’ve reached the point of operating loss that we are 
then at a place where we have to decide what’s the best way to ration 
out our resources and had to make some tough decisions about whether or 
not we close some clinics. … This is the story when you don’t have 
expansion of Medicaid. This is what happens. Poor rural communities 
start to lose access to their health care.”Lawler added that Medicaid expansion 
in North Carolina would help people manage chronic health issues instead
 of waiting for their health to reach a crisis point that requires 
hospitalization and expensive care. His organization supports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H76v1.pdf">House Bill 76</a>, the bill to expand Medicaid that <a target="_blank" href="https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2023/02/16/nc-house-gives-final-approval-to-its-medicaid-expansion-bill/#sthash.1Wx1TL8b.dpbs">passed the state House</a>
 on Thursday. If negotiations with the state Senate result in passage, 
Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to sign the measure, benefiting 600,000 
North Carolinians.Lawler said that there may finally be enough political will for the state to join the rest of the nation in expanding Medicaid.&nbsp;“It makes so much sense if we’re 
going to make the state healthier and help address the behavioral health
 crisis and, and the substance abuse crisis in North Carolina,” he said 
“It creates new jobs, so it grows economies. It’s going to help rural 
communities stabilize their hospitals and health care safety net.”Lloyd, the St. Claire HealthCare CEO,
 said that there’s no doubt that Medicaid expansion makes a difference 
for hospitals. Before coming to St. Claire, he was president and CEO at 
CHRISTUS Health Southwest Louisiana. Louisiana expanded Medicaid in 2016
 and Kentucky in 2014.&nbsp;“There was greater access to care and
 a greater sustainability to the hospitals post-expansion, both in 
Louisiana and here in Kentucky. We’ve just been very fortunate in the 
commonwealth that we’ve had a Medicaid expansion longer than some of the
 other states that were kind of slow to expand,” he said. “… It’s just a
 matter of economics and even though in some states the gap between the 
actual cost of care and the Medicaid reimbursement is very significant, 
at least it does offset some of the expense of operations.”<h2>Will a new hospital designation help?</h2>A new payment model that became <a target="_blank" href="https://nashp.org/medicares-new-rural-emergency-hospital-designation-considerations-for-states/">effective</a>
 in January could offer support to some rural health care facilities but
 health care officials caution that it is not the answer for all rural 
hospitals.&nbsp;Under the change, hospitals that 
agree to a new rural emergency hospital designation would receive more 
Medicare reimbursements and a monthly facility payment. The hospitals 
would have emergency rooms, clinics and outpatient care, but patients 
couldn’t stay for more than 24 hours. The hospitals also can’t have more
 than 50 beds and must meet other eligibility requirements.Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska and South Dakota have already <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncsl.org/health/rural-emergency-hospitals">enacted laws</a> establishing licensing rules for Rural Emergency Hospitals.&nbsp;“In (rural hospitals) in areas with a
 large number of residents who are 65 plus and qualify for Medicare, 
this model would help those hospitals and perhaps help offset any losses
 due the formerly Medicaid patients becoming uninsured,” said Richard 
Lindrooth, professor in the department of health systems, management, 
and policy at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of 
Colorado.Pink, with the NC Rural Health Research Program, said the new model isn’t a “panacea for rural health.”“It really is directed at small rural
 hospitals that are at imminent risk of closure. It’s not designed to be
 a replacement for a rural hospital that’s breaking even or getting by 
in their community. … We’re not going to see 1,000 rural emergency 
hospitals in the country anytime soon. It’s a much smaller number of 
hospitals that this might be of interest to,” he said.Floyd said ECU Health is studying whether this designation would be a good fit in some cases.“There are trade-offs in that there 
is a higher payment plan per patient but you have to meet the conditions
 of 24 hours a day. We have to look at the market and say if it were 
only 24 hours, what does that do to that community? Do we have access 
elsewhere … for them to be?” he said.Lloyd said it’s possible that a 
hospital in the area of Kentucky that St. Claire HealthCare serves could
 convert to the new designation, which would have implications for his 
health care system.“Obviously we would handle the 
inpatient admissions for those institutions and so it would increase our
 capacity, but we’re prepared to do so if necessary,” he said.

Rural hospitals brace for unwinding of pandemic Medicaid coverage

KANSAS CITY —The visitation and funeral service for Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Champ will be Wednesday, February 22nd at Municipal Auditorium, 301 W. 13th St., Kansas City.

A public visitation will be from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. the funeral service will follow the visitation at 11:30 a.m. after the service Full Honors will be presented on 13th St. in front of the auditorium. There will be an Honor Guard on 13th St. There will be no graveside services.

Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ were killed in the line of duty Wednesday night when a vehicle crashed into them while they were on patrol. Muhlbauer was a 20-year veteran of KCPD, while K-9 Champ was with the police department for one year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676573009736.png" alt="Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ-photo courtesy KCPD" />
 <figcaption>Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ-photo courtesy KCPD</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —The visitation and funeral service for Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Champ will be Wednesday, February 22nd at Municipal Auditorium, 301 W. 13th St., Kansas City.A public visitation will be from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. the funeral service will follow the visitation at 11:30 a.m. after the service Full Honors will be presented on 13th St. in front of the auditorium. There will be an Honor Guard on 13th St. There will be no graveside services.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676770053943.png" alt="There is a police vehicle serving as a memorial in front of police headquarters in honor of Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ-photo KCPD" />
 <figcaption>There is a police vehicle serving as a memorial in front of police headquarters in honor of Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ-photo KCPD</figcaption>
 </figure>Officer James Muhlbauer and K-9 Officer Champ were killed in the line of duty Wednesday night when a vehicle crashed into them while they were on patrol. Muhlbauer was a 20-year veteran of KCPD, while K-9 Champ was with the police department for one year.

Funeral details for fallen KCPD officer, K9 partner

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Republican Party has ended efforts to punish party officials who backed non-GOP candidates in last year's elections and reversed any sanctions already imposed, its new leader announced Friday.

State Chair Mike Brown said in a statement that he and members of the Kansas party's Loyalty Committee agreed on the actions, dropping or reversing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-kansas-topeka-government-and-politics-ac4ba1fb2d1afcb386b7c620aca5e910">about 40 cases</a>&nbsp;initiated under Brown's predecessor, Mike Kuckelman. The party's state committee on Saturday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-kansas-state-government-ba265d04c9ac03870352ce4399b99755">narrowly elected Brown</a>&nbsp;to lead the Kansas GOP through the 2024 elections, replacing Kuckelman, who retired.

"It is time to put the things that have divided our party behind us,” Brown said.

Top party officials pursued the sanctions following Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-donald-trump-kansas-topeka-39afdff811fd2f30a212036d5ec6e3fa">narrow reelection</a>&nbsp;in November.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-kansas-topeka-derek-schmidt-7accab2bec4fc1806ddef622274fb11d">Many Republicans blamed state Sen. Dennis Pyle,</a>&nbsp;of Hiawatha, for Kelly's victory. Pyle is one of the Republican-controlled Legislature's most conservative members and left the GOP to run for governor as an independent.

The Loyalty Committee moved to strip Republicans who backed Pyle and non-GOP candidates in other races of party positions, such as representing voting precincts in local GOP organizations. Kuckelman did suspend the sanctions in mid-November so the affected officials could appeal to the party's larger Executive Committee.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676169590726.png" alt="State Chair Mike Brown said in a statement that he and members of the Kansas party's Loyalty Committee agreed on the actions, dropping or reversing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-kansas-topeka-government-and-politics-ac4ba1fb2d1afcb386b7c620aca5e910">about 40 cases</a>&nbsp;initiated under Brown's predecessor." />
 <figcaption>State Chair Mike Brown said in a statement that he and members of the Kansas party's Loyalty Committee agreed on the actions, dropping or reversing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-kansas-topeka-government-and-politics-ac4ba1fb2d1afcb386b7c620aca5e910">about 40 cases</a>&nbsp;initiated under Brown's predecessor.</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Republican Party has ended efforts to punish party officials who backed non-GOP candidates in last year's elections and reversed any sanctions already imposed, its new leader announced Friday.State Chair Mike Brown said in a statement that he and members of the Kansas party's Loyalty Committee agreed on the actions, dropping or reversing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-kansas-topeka-government-and-politics-ac4ba1fb2d1afcb386b7c620aca5e910">about 40 cases</a>&nbsp;initiated under Brown's predecessor, Mike Kuckelman. The party's state committee on Saturday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-kansas-state-government-ba265d04c9ac03870352ce4399b99755">narrowly elected Brown</a>&nbsp;to lead the Kansas GOP through the 2024 elections, replacing Kuckelman, who retired."It is time to put the things that have divided our party behind us,” Brown said.Top party officials pursued the sanctions following Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-donald-trump-kansas-topeka-39afdff811fd2f30a212036d5ec6e3fa">narrow reelection</a>&nbsp;in November.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-kansas-topeka-derek-schmidt-7accab2bec4fc1806ddef622274fb11d">Many Republicans blamed state Sen. Dennis Pyle,</a>&nbsp;of Hiawatha, for Kelly's victory. Pyle is one of the Republican-controlled Legislature's most conservative members and left the GOP to run for governor as an independent.The Loyalty Committee moved to strip Republicans who backed Pyle and non-GOP candidates in other races of party positions, such as representing voting precincts in local GOP organizations. Kuckelman did suspend the sanctions in mid-November so the affected officials could appeal to the party's larger Executive Committee.___

Kansas GOP won't punish officials straying in 2022 elections

JACKSON COUNTY —It took a decade, but Martin Olmedo is in custody in Jackson County for the murder in 2012 of a 4-year-old child, Aydan Perea, in Kansas City, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker reported over the weekend.

Olmedo, 31, who was charged in this fatal shooting in 2013, was in the Jackson County Detention Center this week, after Federal Bureau of Investigation units in Kansas City, Texas and Mexico coordinated a pickup of Olmedo, after he was deported from Mexico. 

The prosecutor’s office expresses its appreciation to the FBI Kansas City, FBI Houston and FBI LEGAT Mexico City.

Olmedo made an initial appearance Kansas City and is scheduled to appear on Feb. 27 for a bond hearing.

According to court records recently unsealed, Olmedo faces Murder 2nd&nbsp;Degree, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and Armed Criminal Action charges.

On Dec. 15, 2012, police responded to the 2400 block of Denver Street in Kansas City’s Northeast area and found victims, passengers in a car, of a shooting. One victim was a 4-year-old boy, <a href="https://www.charterfunerals.com/guestbook/aydan-perea">Aydan Perea,</a> who later died of a gunshot wound. Officers the next day located a vehicle registered to the defendant. After obtaining a search warrant, officers found spent shell casings like those found at the crime scene the day before. Olmedo told police detectives he was in the vehicle during the shooting the day before. A check of defendant’s phone found it was hitting off a cell tower in the area of the shooting at the time it occurred. Witnesses also told police that the defendant was overheard saying he was involved in the shooting.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker issued the following statement:

"I am grateful for our law enforcement partners in the KCPD and the FBI for apprehending this defendant. We frequently remind families torn apart by a homicide that these cases are never out of our grasps because no statute of limitations exists on homicides. The apprehension of this defendant demonstrates that truth.

"We have spoken to the mother who waited so very long for this day to arrive. For her and other family members and for my community, we will tirelessly work to bring this case to a just conclusion for little Aydan."

Olmedo is in custody under a $500,000 cash bond.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676737563171.png" alt="Olmedo-photo Jackson County" />
 <figcaption>Olmedo-photo Jackson County</figcaption>
 </figure>JACKSON COUNTY —It took a decade, but Martin Olmedo is in custody in Jackson County for the murder in 2012 of a 4-year-old child, Aydan Perea, in Kansas City, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker reported over the weekend.Olmedo, 31, who was charged in this fatal shooting in 2013, was in the Jackson County Detention Center this week, after Federal Bureau of Investigation units in Kansas City, Texas and Mexico coordinated a pickup of Olmedo, after he was deported from Mexico. The prosecutor’s office expresses its appreciation to the FBI Kansas City, FBI Houston and FBI LEGAT Mexico City.Olmedo made an initial appearance Kansas City and is scheduled to appear on Feb. 27 for a bond hearing.According to court records recently unsealed, Olmedo faces Murder 2nd&nbsp;Degree, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and Armed Criminal Action charges.On Dec. 15, 2012, police responded to the 2400 block of Denver Street in Kansas City’s Northeast area and found victims, passengers in a car, of a shooting. One victim was a 4-year-old boy, <a href="https://www.charterfunerals.com/guestbook/aydan-perea">Aydan Perea,</a> who later died of a gunshot wound. Officers the next day located a vehicle registered to the defendant. After obtaining a search warrant, officers found spent shell casings like those found at the crime scene the day before. Olmedo told police detectives he was in the vehicle during the shooting the day before. A check of defendant’s phone found it was hitting off a cell tower in the area of the shooting at the time it occurred. Witnesses also told police that the defendant was overheard saying he was involved in the shooting.Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker issued the following statement:"I am grateful for our law enforcement partners in the KCPD and the FBI for apprehending this defendant. We frequently remind families torn apart by a homicide that these cases are never out of our grasps because no statute of limitations exists on homicides. The apprehension of this defendant demonstrates that truth."We have spoken to the mother who waited so very long for this day to arrive. For her and other family members and for my community, we will tirelessly work to bring this case to a just conclusion for little Aydan."Olmedo is in custody under a $500,000 cash bond.

After 10-years, suspect in killing of 4-year-old KC boy is in custody

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the one-year anniversary of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine">Russia’s invasion</a>.

“One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting with Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace. Jamming his finger for emphasis on his podium flanked by U.S. and Ukrainian flags, he continued: “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

Biden spent more than five hours in the Ukrainian capital, consulting with Zelenskyy on next steps, honoring the country’s fallen soldiers and meeting with U.S. embassy staff in the war-torn country.

The visit comes at a crucial moment: Biden is trying to keep allies unified in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to intensify with spring offensives. Zelenskyy is pressing allies to speed up delivery of promised weapon systems and calling on the West&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-fighter-jets-agenda-86c16d4b5164bfd8f1fe4697920dac27">to provide fighter jets</a>&nbsp;— something that Biden has declined to do.

The U.S. president got a taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year when air raids sirens howled just as he and Zelenskyy wrapped up a visit to the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral.

Looking solemn, they continued unperturbed as they laid two wreaths and held a moment of silence at the Wall of Remembrance honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014, the year Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine.

The White House would not go into specifics, but national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that it notified Moscow of Biden's visit to Kyiv shortly before his departure from Washington “for deconfliction purposes" in an effort to avoid any miscalculation that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict.

In Kyiv, Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in U.S. assistance — on top of the more than $50 billion already provided — including shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid but no new advanced weaponry.

Ukraine has also been pushing for battlefield systems that would allow its forces to strike Russian targets that have been moved back from frontline areas, out of the range of HIMARS missiles that have already been delivered. Zelenskyy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.” But he did not detail any new commitments.

"Our negotiations were very fruitful,” Zelenskyy added.

Biden’s mission with his visit to Kyiv, which comes ahead of a scheduled trip to Warsaw, Poland, is to underscore that the United States is prepared to stick with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel Russian forces even as public opinion polling suggests that U.S. and allied support for providing weaponry and direct economic assistance has started to soften. For Zelenskyy, the symbolism of having the U.S. president stand side by side with him on Ukrainian land as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-politics-business-b34d8a533e88f1b8c67b841a9b18e5d8">the anniversary nears</a>&nbsp;is no small thing as he prods the U.S. and European allies to provide more advanced weaponry and to step up the pace of delivery.

“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said.

Biden's visit marked a brazen rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had hoped his military would swiftly overrun Kyiv within days. Biden, a Democrat, recalled speaking with Zelenskyy on the night of the invasion, saying, “That dark night one year ago, the world was literally at the time bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Perhaps even the end of Ukraine.”

A year later, the Ukrainian capital remains firmly in Ukrainian control. Although a semblance of normalcy has returned to the city, regular air raid sirens and frequent missile and killer-drone attacks against military and civilian infrastructure across the country are a near-constant reminder that the war is still fiercely raging. The bloodiest fighting is, for the moment, concentrated in the country’s east, particularly around the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-longest-battle-bakhmut-893a2f22a73c68162c6cb3bbd62efe91">city of Bakhmut</a>, where Russian offensives are underway.

At least six civilians have been killed and 17 more have been wounded in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported. In the eastern Donetsk region, the Russian army was using aviation to strike cities on the front line. A total of 15 cities and villages have been shelled over the past 24 hours, according to the region’s Ukrainian Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, cities near the border with Russia came under fire. A missile strike hit Kupiansk, damaging a hospital, a plant and residential buildings.

Biden warned that the “brutal and unjust war” is far from won. “The cost that Ukraine has had to bear has been extraordinarily high. And the sacrifices have been far too great,” Biden said. “We know that there’ll be very difficult days and weeks and years ahead. But Russia’s aim was to wipe Ukraine off the map. Putin’s war of conquest is failing.”

“He’s counting on us not sticking together,” Biden said of the Russian leader. ”He thought he could outlast us. I don’t think he’s thinking that right now. God knows what he’s thinking, but I don’t think he’s thinking that. But he’s just been plain wrong. Plain wrong.”

The trip gave Biden an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the devastation the Russian invasion has caused on Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian troops and civilians have been killed, millions of refugees have fled the war, and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure damage.

Biden, wearing a blue suit and his signature aviator sunglasses, pledged long-term support for Ukraine, saying that “freedom is priceless. It’s worth fighting for for as long as it takes.”

“And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President, for as long as it takes,” Biden promised. Zelenskyy, speaking in English, responded: “We’ll do it.”

The Ukrainian leader, wearing a black sweatshirt, as has become his wartime habit, said through an interpreter that the “wide discussion” in their meeting “brings us closer to the victory” — hopefully, he added, this year.

“Right now, in Ukraine, the destiny of the international order ... is decided,” Zelenskyy said. He added words of gratitude to Biden and to the American people for their support. “Ukraine is grateful to you, Mr. President, to all the U.S. citizens, to all those who cherish freedom just as we cherish them."

Though Western surface-to-air missile systems have bolstered Ukraine’s defensives, the visit marked the rare occasion when a U.S. president has traveled to a conflict zone where the U.S. or its allies did not have control over the airspace.

The U.S. military does not have a presence in Ukraine other than a small detachment of Marines guarding the embassy in Kyiv, making Biden’s visit more complicated than other recent visits by prior U.S. leaders to war zones.

While Biden was in Ukraine, U.S. surveillance planes, including E-3 Sentry airborne radar and an electronic RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft, were keeping watch over Kyiv from Polish airspace.

Speculation has been building for weeks that Biden would pay a visit to Ukraine around the Feb. 24 anniversary of the Russian invasion. But the White House repeatedly had said that no presidential trip to Ukraine was planned, even after the Poland visit was announced earlier this month.

Since early morning on Monday many main streets and central blocks in Kyiv were cordoned without any official explanation. Later people started sharing videos of long motorcades of cars driving along the streets where the access was restricted.

At the White House, planning for Biden’s visit to Kyiv was tightly held — with a relatively small group of aides briefed on the plans — because of security concerns. Sullivan said Biden gave final approval for the trip, which had been in the works for months, on Friday during an Oval Office meeting at which he was briefed on security plans for the visit.

The president traveled with an usually small entourage, with just a few senior aides and two journalists, to maintain secrecy.

Asked by a reporter on Friday if Biden might include stops beyond Poland, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby replied, “Right now, the trip is going to be in Warsaw.” Moments later — and without prompting — Kirby added, “I said ‘right now.’ The trip will be in -- to Warsaw. I didn’t want to make it sound like I was alluding to a change to it."

Biden quietly departed from Joint Base Andrews near Washington at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, making a stop at Ramstein Air Base in Germany before making his way into Ukraine. He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. on Monday.

Other western leaders have made the trip to Kyiv since the start of the war.

In June, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi traveled together by night train to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Kyiv in November shortly after taking office.

This is Biden’s first visit to a war zone as president. His recent predecessors, Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, made surprise visits to Afghanistan and Iraq during their presidencies to meet with U.S. troops and those countries’ leaders.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a gesture of solidarity that comes days before the one-year anniversary of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine">Russia’s invasion</a>&nbsp;of the country.

Speaking alongside Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace, Biden recalled the fears nearly a year ago that Russia’s invasion forces might quickly take the Ukrainian capital. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said, jamming his finger for emphasis on his podium decorated with the U.S. and Ukrainian flags. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

The Ukraine visit comes at a crucial moment in the war as Biden looks to keep allies unified in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to intensify with both sides preparing for spring offensives. Zelenskyy is pressing allies to speed up delivery of pledged weapon systems and is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-fighter-jets-agenda-86c16d4b5164bfd8f1fe4697920dac27">calling on the West to deliver fighter jets</a>&nbsp;to Ukraine — something that Biden to date has declined to do.

Zelenskyy said he and Biden spoke about “long range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.” But he did not detail any new commitments.

Biden also got a short firsthand taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year, as air raids sirens howled over the capital just as he and Zelenskyy were exiting the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral, which they visited together. Looking solemn, they continued unperturbed as they laid a wreath and held a moment of silence at the Wall of Remembrance honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014.

Biden's visit marked an act of defiance against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had hoped his military would swiftly overrun Kyiv within days. Biden recalled speaking with Zelenskyy on the night of the invasion, saying, “That dark night one year ago, the world was literally at the time bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Perhaps even the end of Ukraine.”

A year later, the Ukrainian capital remains firmly in Ukrainian control, and a semblance of normalcy has returned to the city as the fighting has concentrated in the country’s east, punctuated by cruise missile and drone attacks against military and civilian infrastructure.