DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators are investigating complaints that a wiring problem in Jeep Wrangler steering wheels could stop the air bags from inflating in a crash.

The probe covers about 630,000 Wranglers from the 2007 through 2012 model years.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has 221 complaints that the air bag warning light is illuminating, indicating an electrical problem in the steering wheel. Jeep maker Fiat Chrysler recalled some right-hand-drive Wranglers in 2011 for the same problem. Now the agency is looking at left-hand-drive vehicles.

The agency reports no crashes or injuries because of the problem. The investigation could lead to another recall.

Fiat Chrysler says it is cooperating in the investigation. Owners whose air bag lights come on should contact their dealer.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka police say three people fled the scene of a hit-and-run accident, forcing the evacuation of a Topeka high school.

Shawnee County Sheriff’s Lt. Danny Lotridge told The Topeka Capital-Journal one person was taken into custody near the scene of the accident, which occurred Tuesday afternoon, and three other people fled.

Employees were evacuated from the Topeka High School after a person matching the description of the driver reportedly entered the building. Law enforcement searched the building but didn’t find anyone. Employees were allowed back later Tuesday afternoon.

The crash occurred when two cars collided in traffic. The driver of one of the cars suffered minor injuries but didn’t seek medical treatment.

Police said the other car fled the scene before coming to a stop when the three fled.

WEIR, Kan. (AP) — Kansas park officials say a black bear has been seen recently in southeast Kansas.

David Jenkins, of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, told The Cherokee County News Advocate (that a black bear was spotted near the town of Weir on Saturday and on Sunday near Galena. He says it’s likely the same bear.

Jenkins says black bears aren’t typically seen in Kansas, but their numbers have been growing in the Ozarks since Arkansas began a restoration effort 50 years ago. He says every now and then a young male will wander to a nearby state.

Kansas doesn’t have a hunting season for bears, and they may not be killed without reason. Landowners can destroy wildlife, including bears, found in or near buildings or when destroying property.

SALINA- Police checking for a possible runaway girl arrested two men on drug charges Monday evening in Salina.

Police Captain Mike Sweeney said officers went to the Value Inn and Suites, 1640 W. Crawford just after 7 p.m. looking for a 16-year-old runaway girl from Oklahoma.

They found the girl in a room with 37-year-old Nathan Thompson of Salina, and 44-year-old Kurtis Hubbard of Manhattan.

A search of the room found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in a backpack.

The two men were charged with possession of methamphetamine, no Kansas tax stamp, possession of drug paraphernalia, and aggravated endangerment of a child.

The teen was placed in protective custody and waiting to be sent back to Oklahoma.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George says his state is close to reaching an agreement with Missouri that could end poaching of businesses between the two states.

Missouri and Kansas have competed for several years by offering incentives to persuade businesses to move across the border. The moves often did not result in many new jobs or investments for either state.

George says local and state officials from both states have been meeting to discuss the issue.

He says the main hurdle is removing incentives that don’t produce economic growth without slowing states’ ability to attract new companies or persuade businesses not to move to another state.

The Kansas City Star reports that George says he isn’t sure if the negotiators will announce an agreement before he resigns in July.

By JIM MCLEAN

Kansas already had the ninth-most regressive tax system in the nation, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The tax increase signed last week by Gov. Sam Brownback to balance the budget and end the longest legislative session in state history will make the system less fair to low- and middle-income Kansans, said Matt Gardner, executive director of the nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.

“The tax changes the Legislature has just enacted do very little to fix what was wrong with the last two rounds of tax changes,” Gardner said, referring to the income tax cuts and sales tax hikes passed in 2012 and 2013.

“It’s generally recognized that the (income tax) cuts that were passed a few years ago at Brownback’s behest didn’t pay for themselves,” Gardner said. “They were unaffordable and they were unfair.”

Regressive tax systems rely more on sales and excise taxes and less on income taxes. That, according to the ITEP analysis, taxes the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers at effective rates up to seven times higher than wealthy taxpayers. Middle-income families pay effective rates up to three times higher, according to the report.

Gardner said if Kansas lawmakers wanted to solve the state’s budget problems and improve the fairness of its tax system, they should have revisited the 2012 tax cuts rather than increasing sales and cigarette taxes. In particular, he said, they should have reinstated income taxes on more than 330,000 business owners whose pass-through and passive earnings were exempted by the 2012 law.

“You would think that fixing what’s wrong with the Kansas tax system would start with that,” he said.

Rep. Mark Hutton, a Wichita Republican, spearheaded an effort to reinstate taxes on that business income but gave up the fight in the session’s final days when he and others couldn’t convince Brownback to back off a veto threat.

An ITEP analysis of all the state’s tax changes enacted since 2012, including this year’s tax package, shows that the poorest Kansans — those with an average income of $13,000 — will pay an average of $197 more per year in taxes while the wealthiest 1 percent will pay an average of $24,632 less.

At a news conference last week, and in several interviews since , Brownback has said that the recently passed tax package is not a tax increase. He contends that when taken as a whole, the tax changes enacted since 2012 represent a tax cut.

“Some would have you believe this bill represents a tax increase, and that is not accurate,” Brownback said. “When looked at in totality from 2012 to 2015, Kansans are paying less in taxes and continuing to move off income taxes to consumption-based taxes. The net of it is over a $300 million tax cut … for all Kansans.”

The ITEP analysis shows that even with the recent changes, approximately 60 percent of Kansas taxpayers will pay less than they did prior to the 2012 tax cuts. However, the bottom 40 percent will pay more, even though the tax package, starting in 2017, exempts more than 380,000 low-income Kansans from the income tax.

Gardner said many of the low-income Kansans exempted by the bill had little or no income tax liability as it was, in large part because of the tax credits for which they qualified. He said exempting them was little more than a “PR stunt” to make the tax package appear less regressive.

“It’s pretty insulting to low-income families to claim that increasing the income tax threshold is going to provide meaningful assistance to them,” Gardner said. “The bottom line is that low-income families are seeing a big tax hike as a result of this year’s legislative agreement.”

Kansas Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said the department hasn’t yet calculated the average income tax liability of those being exempted. But, he said, “They had a tax liability.”

“The misinformation out there is that most of these people didn’t pay taxes anyway,” Jordan said. “Even after they did all the tax credits, they still had a tax liability and they’re now going to zero.”

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.