HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Kansas and and 19-other states have filed a lawsuit against six generic drug-makers, alleging they artificially inflated and manipulated prices to reduce competition for an antibiotic and oral diabetes medication.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Connecticut.

Portions of the complaint are redacted because there are ongoing investigations into the matter.

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen says his office began its probe more than two years ago and “developed compelling evidence of collusion and anticompetitive conduct” among many companies that manufacture and market generic drugs.

Jepsen refers to Eatontown, New Jersey-based Heritage Pharmaceuticals as the “principal architect” of the alleged conspiracies.

Federal authorities on Wednesday charged two former Heritage executives with fixing prices. Heritage says it terminated those executives in August and is fully cooperating with the Department of Justice.

The lead state in the probe was Connecticut and in addition the other states involved are Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration says liquidating an investment fund tied to Kansas’ unclaimed property would only provide $40 million to $50 million to help decrease the state’s $350 million budget shortfall.

A 2000 law change directed the state to invest an amount equal to the unclaimed property it receives each year.

See the state’s unclaimed property web site.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that state budget director Shawn Sullivan’s conclusion echoes Treasurer Ron Estes’ explanation that only a fraction of the fund’s $360 million value could be used to shrink the budget deficit. Sullivan says the project amount is interest that wouldn’t be a part of the state general fund.

Sullivan didn’t say if liquidating the fund would be part of the governor’s proposal to close the gap, but acknowledged that officials have recently been seeking information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Electoral College will soon convene and few of the Republican electors appear to be in the mood for an insurrection, despite fervent pleas by Democrats to abandon Donald Trump.

This most untraditional of elections is on course to end in a traditional way Monday — with a ticket to the White House for the president-elect.

The Associated Press interviewed more than 330 electors from both parties and found little appetite among Republicans for peeling away from Trump. And Democrats, while widely aggravated about the electoral process, have little expectation that he can be stopped.

But people are trying. Watch the Unite for America Public Service message asking electors to for anyone other than President-elect Tump.

Republican electors report getting tens of thousands of emails apiece and plenty of phone calls and letters from people urging them to break with tradition and cast votes for someone else.

RENO COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating two suspects in connection with two grocery store robberies.

Police arrested Majesty Wade for the robbery at the North Main Street Dillons in Hutchinson on October 17. Police say he entered the store wearing a Halloween mask, demanded money and attempted to flee on a bicycle.

Wade is also suspected of driving the vehicle for the robbery at the East 4th Street Dillons in Hutchinson on October 21.

Police say D’Angelo Williams, wearing a mask, was the suspect who entered the store in the October 21, robbery

Williams made a first appearance Thursday morning.

His bond was left at $10,000.

Wade’s bond is set at $20,000. He should appear in court Friday morning.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Shawnee County authorities say a driver was critically injured after she swerved to avoid a bag of duck decoys on a highway and was ejected from her vehicle.

The Topeka Capital-Journal (https://bit.ly/2gPfiY1 ) reports the rollover crash happened early Thursday morning on the US-75 highway, south of Topeka. Lt. K.D. Lewis says the woman’s vehicle entered the median and rolled after she attempted to avoid the bag that was in the roadway.

Lewis says the bag appears to have fallen out of another vehicle prior to the crash.

The unidentified woman was taken to a hospital with what were considered to be life-threatening injuries.  Her name was not released.

WICHITA, KAN. – A federally licensed firearms dealer from Parsons, Kan., was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison followed by a year on probation for knowingly selling a firearm to a convicted felon, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

Charles A. Black, 36, Parsons, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of selling a firearm to a convicted felon.

In his plea, Black admitted the crime occurred while he owned Triple B Sporting Goods, 2530 Main Street in Parsons. Black arranged for a man who Black had known since they were teenagers to buy a gun even though Black knew the man was a convicted felon. Black allowed the convicted felon to use another man’s identity in order to pass a background check and purchase a Keltec 9 mm pistol.

Beall commended the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster for their work on the case.

BY ANDY MARSO

Most Kansas Senate committees will have new leaders when legislators reconvene next month, and moderate Republicans will have more chairmanships.

Sen. Vicki Schmidt will chair the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee next year, regaining a position she last held in 2012.

“I’m certainly excited to chair public health and welfare again and excited for the opportunities to explore issues that are very important to Kansans,” Schmidt said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Schmidt, a Republican pharmacist from Topeka, last chaired the committee during the 2012 legislative session, when the chamber was led by moderate Republicans.

Senate President Steve Morris and other moderates were replaced in the 2012 Republican primary by more conservative candidates who had the backing of Gov. Sam Brownback and some lobbying groups.

Sen. Susan Wagle, a Republican from Wichita, was elected Senate president after that. She appointed Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Republican from Shawnee, to chair the health committee.

But Pilcher-Cook and Wagle had a dispute last year over Pilcher-Cook’s tactics for opposing Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, and Wagle gave the chairmanship to Sen. Michael O’Donnell, a Republican from Wichita.

O’Donnell decided not to run for re-election this year and instead won a seat on the Sedgwick County Commission.

Wagle was re-elected Senate president for the upcoming session. She has forged a new coalition of centrist and center-right Republicans, including moderates who weathered 2012 primary challenges like Schmidt and Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican from Sedgwick.

Schmidt said she was happy to see that Wagle had also appointed McGinn as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee that McGinn last held in the 2012 session.

“We’ll look forward to the experience she’s also had chairing that committee previously,” Schmidt said. “I believe that she did a really good job chairing that committee.”

Schmidt said she had no agenda for the Senate health committee yet. But she said the committee traditionally hears licensing issues from medical providers and she was sure that medical marijuana legislation would be introduced in the Senate.

Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, has introduced medical marijuana bills in each of the last two legislative cycles.

In addition to Schmidt, Senate President Susan Wagle announced the appointments of a dozen committee chairmen and chairwomen Wednesday.

The Wichita Republican said turnover in this year’s elections required most of the changes. Fourteen of the Senate’s 40 members will be new.

Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso

The Associated Press Contributed to this report.

MANHATTAN _Celebrity chefs are cooking up poor food safety habits, according to a Kansas State University study.

Kansas State University food safety experts Edgar Chambers IV and Curtis Maughan, along with Tennessee State University’s Sandria Godwin, recently published “Food safety behaviors observed in celebrity chefs across a variety of programs” in the Journal of Public Health. The researchers viewed 100 cooking shows with 24 popular celebrity chefs and found several unclean food preparation behaviors.

“Twenty-three percent of chefs licked their fingers; that’s terrible,” said Chambers, professor and director of the Sensory Analysis Center at Kansas State University. “Twenty percent touched their hair or dirty clothing or things and then touched food again.”

The chefs’ most common food safety hazards included lack of hand-washing, not changing the cutting boards between raw meat and vegetables that wouldn’t be cooked, and not using a meat thermometer to check meat doneness.

“Washing your hands is not a one-time thing,” Chambers said. “We saw some chefs wash their hands in the beginning before preparing food, but they didn’t wash their hands during food preparation when they should have.”

Chambers said this is not modeling good behavior for viewers. Celebrity chefs’ purpose is to entertain and educate about food preparation techniques and helpful kitchen hints, which should include proper food safety practices, he said.

“We hear about safety issues from unclean food or when something has gotten through the food system,” Chambers said. “It can be detrimental to young children and the elderly, but many times when people think they have the 24-hour stomach flu, it’s often from poor food preparation practices.”

According to the study, about 1 in 6 Americans are exposed to foodborne illnesses each year, which can economically and socially affect consumers. Practices promoted by the Fight Bac! consumer food safety education campaign, which the researchers used to evaluate the chefs’ food safety practices, can help improve public health. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the campaign encourages cooks to clean, separate, cook and chill to help prevent foodborne illness.

“All celebrity chefs have to do is mention these things as they go along: ‘Remember to wash your hands,’ ‘Don’t forget to change out your cutting board,’ or ‘I washed my hands here’ — which some chefs did do,” Chambers said. “They don’t have to show it on television but they should remind viewers that there are safety issues involved in food preparation.”

No chef received a perfect score but the researchers noticed some were more careful in the kitchen, which included more safe practices than others did. Chambers said that viewers may know proper food safety, but because people are creatures of habit, they may rely on practices that they are familiar with instead of adopting safe recommendations. Celebrity chefs can help make viewers more likely to use their food safety practices, he said.

“I think that celebrity chefs have a responsibility for entertaining us, but they also have a responsibility to give us good food,” Chambers said. “We want celebrity chefs to teach us how to make food that not only tastes good but is good for us — and part of that is good food safety.”

The USDA and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture funded the research.