Declarations

Funeral director’s scam

“I didn’t try to deceive anyone out of their money, I was just trying to maintain my business.”

— Kent Kellog, 51, a former Indiana funeral home director accused of cashing in policies totaling more than $100,000 on 27 people who were still alive, trying to convince a judge he is innocent. He eventually pleaded guilty to four counts of insurance fraud. The plea agreement calls for Kellogg to be sentenced to 16 years in prison, four years on each count, his lawyer said. Attorney Patrick Manahan said White Superior Court Judge Robert Mrzlack would have discretion to reduce the sentence to eight years. Sentencing was set for Nov. 20. Kellogg, who operated Kellogg Funeral Home, came under scrutiny by insurance investigators from a string of pre-needs insurance policy claims dating back to 2002, said White County Prosecutor Bob Guy. Kellogg would report to the insurance company that a policy holder had died. The companies would then forward him money for the funerals, Guy said.

Kansas wants help re-rebuilding

“It will cost a little bit now to get these communities on their feet or a lot in the coming decade to pay for the economic decline.”

— Kansas Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt told a Special Committee on Assessment and Taxation that survival of towns in disaster areas depends on rebuilding their local economies — which means people have to live there. The Republican’s hometown and much of his southeast Kansas district suffered massive flooding this summer. Schmidt and House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, who was all but blown way in the May 4th tornado, said many people can’t afford to replace their homes. Many homes purchased years ago for between $20,000 to $40,000 now would cost $100,000 or more to rebuild. “Without adequate housing we will lose many of our citizens, our work force to neighboring communities or in the case of southeast Kansas to neighboring states,” McKinney said, adding Greensburg lost up to 95 percent of its tax base because of the tornado.

Depression treatments

“We knew before that treating depression makes good medical sense. This suggests that it makes good business sense.”

— Investing in depressed employees — quickly getting them treatment and even offering telephone psychotherapy — can cut absenteeism while improving workers’ health, a new study suggests. Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health confirmed that study sheds new light on the critical impact of types of treatment of depression on the workforce. More workers in the study’s intervention group were still employed by year’s end — 93 percent vs. 88 percent — savings that helped employers avoid hiring and training costs, the researchers said. In addition, intervention employees were almost 40 percent more likely to recover from depression during the yearlong study, which recently was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.