TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The largest electric company in Kansas says it is no longer charging a $2.95 fee to customers who use credit or debit cards to pay their monthly bills.

Topeka-based Westar Energy Inc. announced Thursday that it had abolished the charge.

Westar Vice President Jeff Beasley said the utility has a team focusing on finding ways to make it easier for consumers to do business with the company.

The company noted that earlier this year it made its website friendly to mobile devices and introduced text and email updates to customers who wanted to know about power outages.

Westar supplies electricity to nearly 700,000 customers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has introduced legislation (S.3006) directing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to utilize its authority to offer community care to veterans who currently are unable to receive the healthcare services they need from a VA medical facility within 40 miles of where they live.

“The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 was passed with the intention of providing veterans with the choice to access health care outside the VA when timeliness and distance put their well-being at risk,” Sen. Moran said. “Unfortunately, many rural Kansas veterans are still unable to access the care they need because common sense is not prevailing. It has become clear that the VA is implementing the Choice Act in a way that only takes into account distance to a VA medical facility, and not whether that facility can provide the medical services a veteran requires.”

“For example, while the services offered at Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) are invaluable, they cannot meet the health care needs of all veterans. Living near a CBOC should not prevent a veteran from accessing care which the CBOC cannot provide. The VA has the authority to fix this problem and have been calling on the VA Secretary to take action for several months,” Sen. Moran continued. “Enough is enough. In the absence of VA action, I have introduced legislation that would make certain rural veterans are not forgotten just because of where they live.”

In July, the House and Senate came together to pass the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (VACAA), comprehensive legislation to respond to VA wait-time manipulation and failure to provide timely, quality health care to veterans. This legislation permitted veterans across the country to access non-VA community care if they live more than 40 miles from a VA medical facility, including Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs), or their wait time for an appointment is more than 30 days. Even with this new law, many rural Kansas veterans are still unable to access the care they require because their nearest VA facility does not offer the medical services they need.

The introduction of S. 3006 comes on the heels of several months of efforts by Sen. Moran to work with the VA on this issue. On September 9, 2014, Sen. Moran questioned VA Secretary Bob McDonald during a Senate Veterans Affairs’ Committee hearing on the VA’s interpretation of the 40 mile eligibility criteria of the Choice Act.

On November 14, 2014, Sen. Moran called on Sec. McDonald to meet in-person to discuss the VACAA and make certain the legislation is implemented and upheld the way it was intended and in the best interest of veterans. This includes offering non-VA care to veterans who are unable to receive the healthcare services they requite from a VA medical facility within 40 miles of where they live.

On December 11, 2014, Sen. Moran met with Deputy Secretary of the VA, Sloan Gibson, who reiterated the limitations of the Choice Act language and indicated the VA could not use its authorities under Title 38 to provide this access to non-VA care.

MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The two men assigned to a one-year spaceflight say their upcoming mission will allow the world to push deeper into space.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will rocket into orbit from Kazakhstan in March. They will spend a year aboard the International Space Station.

At a news conference Thursday at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Kelly and Kornienko said they anticipate many scientific gains from their mission. They say scientists need to know more about the prolonged effects of space on humans, before astronauts embark on Mars expeditions lasting three years, round trip.

Kelly and Kornienko have been training for this mission for two years. It will set a U.S. space endurance record. The world record, already claimed by Russia, is 14 months for a single flight.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has named a banker and small-business owner to two, newly created seats on the Saline County Commission.

Brownback on Thursday announced the appointments of Luci Larson and David Smith to the north-central Kansas county’s county board. Both are from Salina and take office Jan. 12.

Saline County voters in November approved expanding the commission from three to five members. Under Kansas law, the current commissioners were required to draw new districts within a month, and the governor was required to fill the seats. The new commissioners will stand for election in 2016.

Larson is a travel agency owner who served on the Salina City Commission and as the city’s mayor in 2009 and 2010. Smith has been a banker and real estate appraiser since 1972.

BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says budget cuts just enacted by Congress could delay tax refunds next year.

At a news conference Thursday, Koskinen said taxpayer services will be hurt, and fewer agents will be auditing returns. He said about half the people who call the agency for assistance won’t be able to get through to a person.

Congress cut the IRS budget by $346 million for the budget year that ends in September 2015. The $10.9 billion budget is $1.2 billion less than the agency received in 2010.

The cuts come as the IRS is starting to play a bigger role in implementing President Barack Obama’s health law. For the first time, taxpayers will have to report on their tax returns whether they have health insurance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is now interpreting federal law to explicitly prohibit workplace discrimination against transgender individuals.

That means the Justice Department will be able to bring claims on behalf of people who say they’ve been fired by a public employer based on gender identity.

In defending lawsuits, the federal government also will no longer take the position that the Civil Rights Act does not protect against workplace discrimination on the basis of gender status.

The memo released Thursday is part of a broader Obama administration effort to afford workplace protection for transgender employees. In July, President Barack Obama ordered employment protection for gay and transgender employees who work for the U.S. government or for companies holding federal contracts.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas Hospital is making progress toward streamlining clinical operations.

Officials with the medical center and the hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, told the Board of Regents Wednesday the reorganization would make it easier for patients to access care. University of Kansas Hospital spokeswoman Jill Chadwick said Thursday that expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is important for the hospital to continue to grow.

She says there may be other hospitals in Kansas that might have to cut back services without Medicaid expansion. But she says the University of Kansas Hospital will survive.

A nonprofit group that runs most of the clinics on campus has to negotiate among 18 different organizations. The plan is to combine those under the University of Kansas Hospital Authority.

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