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TEG WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016 V V V PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895 Good Evening VVV Is there room at the Inn? WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM V V V TAX SEASON BRINGS TAX SCAMS By Jessie Wagoner [email protected] HOTEL CLOSURE LEAVES ‘AROUND 600 ROOMS’ LEFT IN EMPORIA By John Robinson [email protected] When the Flint Hills Inns and Suites closed in February, Susan Rathke, Emporia Convention and Visitors Bureau director at the Emporia Chamber of Commerce was informed the hotel was undergoing maintenance. “We were notified that they were closed to do some maintenance,” Rathke said. “We don’t have any clear information on if they will reopen.” Flint Hills Inns and Suites is listed as being owned by LAR Hotels LLC. The company is also listed as the owner of the La Quinta Inns and Suites, which closed in 2015 after Rathke said the hotel missed a remodeling deadline. Please see Hotel, Page 5 KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE Flint Hills Inn and Suites, located at 2921 W. 18th Ave., closed in February. With the closure, there are now 600 hotel rooms in 12 hotels in Emporia. Now that tax season is in full swing the scams that go with it are also making an appearance. The Kansas Department of Revenue has received reports of a tax scam targeting Kansans. The most recent tax scam involves an individual receiving a call from someone claiming to work for the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). The callers all say that the recipient has a tax debt with the state of Kansas and push the recipient to pay the debt using a debit card or money order. The caller threatens the recipient with jail time. “The recipients are also told they failed to file Form 61, which does not exist for the state of Kansas,” the Department of Revenue said in a press release. The calls show up on caller ID as a valid Department of Revenue number, 785-296-0671, which connects to the department’s public information officer. “If taxpayers receive a call and are unsure if it is fraudulent or not they should call the department’s tax customer service line at 785368-8222,” the release said. Don Mertens of Emporia received a call similar to the Department of Revenue is warning about. He says that the caller was very demanding and forceful, claiming he owed a $4,500 debt to the state of Kansas. “I know I don’t owe anyone, especially the state of Kansas, any money,” Mertens said. “But he kept insisting that I owed money for failing to file the right forms. He was very rude, demanding that I pay now or I would be going to jail.” Rather than paying any money Mertens hung up the phone and double checked with the state to ensure he was not in debt and had filed his taxes appropriately. The IRS has also issued warnings about recent tax scams. One tax scam involves a bogus email asking tax professionals to update their IRS e-services portal information and Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFINs). SCAM ALERT The links that are provided in the bogus email to access IRS eservices appear to be a phishing scheme designed to capture the user name and password of the tax preparer. “This email was not generated by the IRS e-services program,” the release from the IRS said. “Disregard this email and do not click on the links provided.” The IRS impersonation telephone scam is also increasing in numbers. This involves an aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants. Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, using fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. They may know a lot about their targets and manipulate caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. “Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a preloaded debit card or wire transfer,” the IRS release reads. “If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.” The IRS will never: ✦✦Call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill. ✦✦Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say is owed. ✦✦Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card. ✦✦Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. ✦✦Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not making a payment. K-STATE RESEARCHERS URGE ALERTNESS ON LONE STAR TICKS Special to The Gazette Climate change may have a new way of getting under your skin. Researchers in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University have validated a model showing growth in Kansas for the habitat of the troublesome lone star tick. Previously thought only to live in the eastern third of the state, computational modeling and live specimens have revealed the existence of these ticks as far west as Colby, which is only 55 miles from the Colorado state line. Ram Raghavan, assistant professor in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and diagnostic medicine and pathobiology department, published the findings in the March 2016 issue of Vector-Borne and Zoonotic VOL. 124, NO. 214 Diseases. He collaborated on the article “Maximum Entropy-Based Ecological Niche Model and BioClimatic Determinants of Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum) Niche” with faculty from Kansas State University’s entomology and geography departments as well as other experts in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Raghavan said the best-known diseases resulting from pathogens transmitted by the lone star tick include human monocytic ehrlichiosis and h