The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • A5

TUESDAY JANUARY 24 2017 5ANewsKANSASCITY.COM DONATE A CAR DIRECT TO LOCAL CHARITY American Society, Inc. Kansas City www.donatecarsinkc.com HELP KIDS with CANCER HELP KANSAS CITY KIDS CARS, TRUCKS, BOATS, RVs Any Car-Any Condition Full Kelly Blue Book Value Tax Deduction Same day, FREE pick up, IRS Forms ON THE SPOT! 816-763-3922 No Middle Man Direct to Charity Visit KUHoops.com or download the FREE app to check out our in-depth coverage. KUHoops.com, The all-basketball website and app. everything Jayhawk basketball! Our award-winning writers: Blair Kerkhoff, Sam Mellinger, Jesse Newell, Gary Bedore and Vahe Gregorian are building a one-stop destination for the hard-core KU fan. NOTHINGBUTNET! Download the app FREE from Google Play or Apple App HEART LEGACY ENERGY HUSTLE A man whose decom- posed body was found Saturday in a creek bed near East 67th Terrace and Lewis Avenue in Kansas City was the vic- tim of a homicide, police said Sunday.

Police were called about 11 a.m. The cause of death remains unknown. The body has not yet been identified. MATT CAMPBELL, Body in creek bed was victim of homicide The Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Li- brary, 4801 Main will be closed this week for a technology upgrade that library officials say will make checkout faster. About 120,000 items available for checkout at the Plaza Branch, includ- ing books, DVDs, audio books, CDs and other materials, will receive a radio frequency identifica- tion tag that will simplify the process of checking materials out.

Other branches of the library will remain open. The Plaza Branch, the busiest, will close Monday and reopen Mon- day Jan. 30. MATT CAMPBELL, Branch of library closed this week Drivers will encounter overnight lane closures on southbound Interstate 35 in Clay County so crews can install guardrails. Various lanes of the highway between Poe Street and Vivian Road will be closed at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday through Fri- day. The lanes will reopen by 5 a.m. the next morning. Crews will be installing guardrails in the area, weather permitting. Drivers are urged to slow down, pay attention and use caution while passing through the work zone.

ROBERT A. CRONKLETON, I-35 lanes to be closed overnight Kansas City police are looking for a woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend several times in the leg, hand and head after the two spent the evening drinking. Police were called to the residence in the 3700 block of Elmwood Avenue just after 8 p.m. on a re- ported cutting. The victim said he was at his girl- house drinking.

At some point, the girl- friend became angry, picked up a knife and stabbed him several times, police said. The victim sustained several cuts to his leg, hand and head but re- fused medical treatment. GLENN E. Man tells police angry girlfriend stabbed him IN BRIEF A 38-year-old man has pleaded guilty to setting a fire that destroyed his former house in Overland Park. Glen Edward Hatchel admitted to setting a fire that destroyed the house last October in the 16500 block of Metcalf Avenue.

Hatchel, who formerly lived with the woman, pleaded guilty in Johnson County District Court to two counts of arson. He also pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated intimidation of a witness and tampering with an electronic monitoring device. Ten days before the fire, Hatchel was charged with aggravated battery against the woman and breaking her cellphone when she tired to call for help. She obtained a court order of protection from Hatchel, saying he choked her and tried to kill her, according to court docu- ments. He posted bond and was released from jail on Sept.

29. As a condition of bond, he was placed on house arrest with a GPS monitor. But immediately after he was released, he re- moved the monitor, left the residence where he was staying in Kansas City, and walked to Overland Park. The woman had left the area and was not home when Hatchel broke into her house and set the fire. He also set fire to a shed in the yard.

As part of the plea agreement, attorneys will recommend a sentence of four years in prison. Sen- tencing for Hatchel was scheduled for March 21. Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, Man pleads guilty to setting fire that destroyed home of former girlfriend BY TONY RIZZO A 70-year-old Kansas City, man pleaded guilty Monday to robbing a bank last year because, he said, he was tired of living with his wife. Lawrence John Ripple pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Kan- sas City, to the robbery last September of the Bank of Labor at 756 Minnesota Ave.

Ripple was released on bond after he was charged in September and was accompanied to court by his wife Monday. They declined to comment after the hearing. Ripple pleaded guilty without an agreement with prosecutors. The prosecutors and defense attorney will be free to argue what sentence they think is appropriate. The judge will set a sentencing date after a presentencing investiga- tion.

The bank he robbed is a block from Kansas City, police headquarters. The robbery was cap- tured on bank surveillance video that showed Ripple hand a note to a teller. The note read, have a gun, give me according to court docu- ments. The teller handed over $2,924, but instead of fleeing, Ripple sat down in the bank lobby. When a bank security guard approached him, Ripple told the guard that he was the person the guard was looking for, according to the docu- ments.

The guard took Ripple into custody and recovered the money that had just been taken. Later, when questioned by police and FBI agents, Ripple said that he and his wife had an argument earlier in the day and he said he longer wanted to be in that according to the affidavit filed to support the bank robbery charge. Ripple said he wrote out his robbery note in front of his wife and told her he would rather be in jail than at home. He then said he walked to the bank and committed the rob- bery. Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, Robber who chose prison over wife pleads guilty BY TONY RIZZO TOPEKA Kansas health officials on Monday defended themselves to lawmakers over a blistering federal review of KanCare, the privatized Med- icaid program.

Susan Mosier, the secre- tary of the Kansas Depart- ment of Health and Envi- ronment, said the analysis made of opin- ion rather than statements of The report from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last week said that Kan- Care was out of compli- ance with federal stan- dards. And it emphasized that a lack of oversight and communication issues may put KanCare patients at risk. The state has to submit a corrective action plan to CMS by Feb. 17. The federal government also denied request to extend the program through 2018.

Republican and Demo- cratic lawmakers on the Senate health committee pressed Mosier for an- swers during the roughly 90 minute hearing Mon- day. Mosier told lawmakers that hopeful the situation will be resolved with Presi- dent Donald administration. we provide this analysis to the new admin- istration, I do not see that we will be encountering any change in our federal financial Mosier said. But Laura Kelly, a Tope- ka Democrat who serves as the ranking Democrat on the committee, re- sponded: count those chickens Sen. Barbara Bollier, a Mission Hills Republican, said she was concerned about the transparency between the department and lawmakers about the federal review of KanCare.

telling me that these issues were Bollier said. these are some really large is- sues and yet, I just met with you (recently) in my office and everything seemed to be going swim- mingly. So a con- cern to me because these are some significant is- But Mosier repeatedly told lawmakers that the information detailed by the federal government missed the mark. It was she said, and was rushed. admit on the sur- face that this letter looks alarming and Mosier said.

Gov. Sam administration has crit- icized the federal report as being politically motivated as former President Ba- rack Obama left office. Kansas Democrats have dismissed that concern in the days since the report was made public. Sen. Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said this could be seen as a skirmish be- tween the feds and One part of the report cited concerns that Kan- Care stakeholders strug- gled to get clear and con- sistent information from the state and managed care organizations.

It also said that mem- bers of the public de- scribed the state as about the Kan- Care program. know the meetings that been in, we did two rounds of stakeholder meetings going across the state this summer, and they were not adversa- Mosier said. ones that been in, that I can speak to, were Kelly said that what she had seen. have actually been to some of the meetings and I would say CMS is correct Kelly said. tone of them was adversa- would field ques- tions from participants in the meeting but not re- spond in a way that sug- gested that you empath- ized at all with the Mosier repeatedly point- ed to health outcomes as a sign that KanCare is work- ing.

health outcomes have improved, looking post-KanCare compared to pre-KanCare as well as looking year over year in Mosier said. is a key metric that demonstrates that there is oversight and that it is working Some lawmakers have called for more oversight of KanCare since the fed- eral review was made public last week. After blistering report on Kansas Medicaid program, officials respond BY HUNTER WOODALL.