WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Senate Republican bid to ban most late-term abortions. The 54-52 vote to move ahead on the bill fell short of the 60 votes needed.

On his Facebook page Wednesday, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran wrote of his displeasure with the outcome.

“I am deeply disappointed the Senate rejected legislation to protect the lives of unborn children. The vote yesterday, coupled with this chamber’s failure to deny funding to the nation’s largest abortion provider last month, sends a message to the American people – that the parts and pieces of the smallest human lives are more valuable than their lives as a whole.

We recoil when we hear of children who are harmed in any manner. Yet, the ability to terminate an unborn child’s life when it’s viable outside of the womb is not only tolerated, but passionately defended. If there was anything else claiming the lives of 10,000 children each year, all 100 of us in the Senate would be standing up demanding action to end the problem. Where is that outrage when it comes to the unborn?”

It’s the second time Senate Democrats have blocked abortion-related legislation since this summer’s release of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing their harvesting of fetal tissue for research. They also derailed a bill in August halting federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas doctor and his wife convicted of a moneymaking conspiracy prosecutors have linked to 68 overdose deaths will return this week to a federal courtroom in Wichita.

Stephen and Linda Schneider have a re-sentencing hearing set for Thursday. It comes after a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate case. The high court ruled that a victim’s drug use had to be the actual cause of death — not merely a contributing factor — to impose the harshest punishments under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The Haysville couple was convicted in 2010 of conspiracy to commit health care fraud resulting in those deaths, unlawfully prescribing drugs, health care fraud and money laundering.

The doctor was sentenced 30 years. His wife was sentenced to 33 years.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A state geologist says a limit on the injection of saltwater into the ground by oil producers coincided with less intense earthquakes in south-central Kansas.

Interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey Rex Buchanan says the reduction in earthquakes’ magnitudes mirrored the adoption of the Kansas Corporation Commission’s injection restraints in March. But he says a drop in drilling due to falling oil process and a potential lack of tension along fault lines are other probable factors.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Kansas Corporation Commission is expected to renew another six months of injection restraints in Harper and Sumner counties.

The injection restraints were inspired by the proliferation of earthquakes in the area. About 125 earthquakes shook Kansas in 2014.

KEN DILANIAN, AP Intelligence Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says the fingerprints of 5.6 million people who applied for or received a federal security clearance were stolen — not 1.1 million as first believed.

That sobering news comes from the Office of Personnel Management, the federal personnel agency whose data was hacked in what officials believe was a Chinese espionage operation.

An estimated 21.5 million current and former federal employees or job applicants were affected in a data theft that experts say will give Chinese intelligence a huge leg up in recruiting informants. It could also help the Chinese catch U.S. spies.

The agency says the ability of an U.S. adversary to misuse fingerprint data is limited. But for intelligence operatives, the notion that the Chinese have their fingerprints is a nightmare.

SALINA- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating the reported abduction of a child on Tuesday.

Salina Police Captain Mike Sweeney said officers were dispatched to north Salina just after 6:30p.m. after parents reported their 8-year-old daughter had disappeared from the backyard of their home.

Saline County Sheriff’s deputy nearby were able to locate the child.

She told officers an adult male had taken her from the backyard of her home to a wooded area nearby but she was able to getaway.

Police did not release a description of the suspect.

WABAUNSEE – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 9a.m. on Wednesday in Wabaunsee County.

The Kansas Highway reported a 2012 Ford van driven by Aaron Lloyd Bathgate, 30, Garden City, was westbound on Interstate 70 at the Kansas 185-McFarland exit.

The van struck a KDOT tractor and mower that were crossing the lanes.

Bathgate was transported to Wamego Hospital. He was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

The tractor driver James D. Roth, 55, Paxico, was not injured.