TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Lottery has resumed a pitch to legislators of a reform that would allow more than 300 retailers make use of electronic dispensers to sell lottery tickets in a similar manner to stores in Colorado, Missouri and Oklahoma.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports  that lobbyists with three Kansas business associations and representatives of two large retailers endorsed contents of House Bill 2171 heard by the House economic development committee Tuesday.

Kansas Lottery Deputy Director Sherriene Jones-Sontag says the automated equipment would allow merchants to track inventory better, decrease retailer labor costs and reduce customer wait times.

She says annual lottery sales could increase up to $30 million.

The panel didn’t take action on the bill. The chairman postponed a plan for the committee to meet Wednesday to begin refining the measure.

NEWTON- The Newton Police Department and individual officers have been named in a civil lawsuit alleging excessive force, negligence, and evidentiary misconduct, according to a social media report from Police Chief Eric Murphy.

“One of the many things, which make living in the United States great, is that citizens who feel as though they have had their rights violated can seek recompense through the judicial system. We support this right,” Murphy wrote.

We hold high standards not only for our departmental policy and practices, but also the integrity of our officers. We are confident the decision in this case will reflect positively on our agency and its members, according to Murphy.

“The community may have questions, but since this is a case in open litigation, we cannot talk about the details of the allegations directly at this time,” he wrote.

The Newton City Attorney is reviewing the facts in the case.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A trial has begun for two men charged with shooting a Wyandotte County sheriff’s deputy.

The Kansas City Star reports that 25-year-old Dyron King and 36-year-old Cecil Meggerson are being tried this week in Wyandotte County District Court on charges including attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery.

A third suspect will be tried separately.

Deputy Scott Wood was shot early March 4 when three armed robbers stormed a Kansas City, Kansas, 7-Eleven store. The deputy spent two weeks in the hospital.

Authorities say DNA linked all three men to the crime.

Meggerson’s attorney says there wasn’t any evidence placing his client at the crime scene.

King’s attorney says an alleged threat King made against another deputy at the jail isn’t recorded.

Testimony is expected to last about two weeks.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers say they want more control over state finances after the Department of Transportation issued $400 million in bonds and arranged to only pay interest for the first decade.

Senate President Susan Wagle said in a statement that she and her colleagues “have serious heartburn” over aspects of recent deals. The Wichita Republican also raised concerns about a $19.9 million lease-to-own deal that the Kansas Department of Administration negotiated.

The Wichita Eagle reports Wagle says lawmakers will be pursuing legislation to “ensure legislative oversight over principal and interest payments, collateral agreements and long-term leases.”

Gov. Sam Brownback’s spokeswoman, Eileen Hawley, says the Departments of Administration and Transportation acted “well within their legal scope of authority.” She says Brownback is “happy to review legislation improving legislative oversight.

SALINA- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a case of alleged fraud.

Francesca Garcia-Marrero, 30, Herington is alleged to have used fraudulent checks to make deposits at 1st Bank Kansas last summer, according to Salina police.

She then withdrew the money from the account on seven different occasions between July 16th and September 29th totaling $4,708.

Garcia-Marrero was on a warrant on Monday and booked into the Saline County Jail on charges of felony theft.

BY ANDY MARSO

A panel of legislators reversed their original recommendation of a lifetime ban on hepatitis C drugs for Medicaid patients who don’t comply with their treatment regimen.

Members of the Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight walked back on the recommendation they made in December after hearing from Mike Randol, who heads the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Division of Health Care Finance.

Randol acknowledged that the hepatitis C drugs are expensive but said KDHE has procedures in place to ensure that Kansans on Medicaid who abuse alcohol or intravenous drugs aren’t getting coverage for the medications.

“We do not believe it prudent to pay for those medications for those likely to either become re-infected or who are actively damaging their liver, regardless,” Randol said. “This is very common in other Medicaid programs as well.”

But Randol said a lifetime ban goes too far to withstand scrutiny from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which provide more than half of Medicaid funding.

“We do not believe that CMS would approve policy for a lifetime ban of medical beneficiaries for hepatitis C medications,” Randol said.

Partisan divide

The Republican-controlled committee voted 5-2 on party lines last month to recommend that KDHE impose the ban.

The partisan divide bubbled back to the surface Friday.

Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, reiterated his claim that the lifetime ban amounted to a “death sentence” for Kansans who have hepatitis C.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Republican from Shawnee, objected to Ward’s statement, calling it “way over the top.”

Minutes later the committee voted to scrap the lifetime ban recommendation, over Pilcher-Cook’s objection.

Randol said KDHE bases its prior authorization procedures for the hepatitis C medications on guidelines from the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and the Infectious Disease Society of America that steer the medications to those who need them most.

KanCare testimony

The committee has a new rule for those who want to testify about problems with the managed care organizations that now run Kansas Medicaid, or KanCare.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Dan Hawkins, said Friday that in the future the committee will require all health care consumers or providers who dispute the way the KanCare companies handled a claim to submit the claim information to the committee at least one week before its next meeting.

Hawkins said the companies would then be asked to bring their information about the claim to the meeting, which would allow for a more substantive discussion like the one the committee had Friday with the companies and Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

“I can assure you somebody might say, ‘Dan’s trying to stifle claims,’ but that’s absolutely not the case,” Hawkins said. “Actually, I want this process to be very fair and very transparent, and I want everybody to be able to discuss things just like we did today in a fair manner.”

The KanCare oversight committee meets quarterly. Its next meeting is scheduled for April 26.

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

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita’s Eisenhower National Airport recorded a nearly 2.5 percent increase in passengers in 2015.

Wichita Airport Authority official Valerie Wise credits the gains to a new $160 million terminal that opened last June, offering passengers more conveniences and amenities.

The Wichita Eagle reports  about 1.57 million passengers flew into and out of Eisenhower last year, an increase of 37,679 passengers from 2014. Last year was the third-busiest year in the airport’s history, trailing only 1.59 million passengers in 2007 and 1.61 million passengers in 2008.

Wise says the gain in passenger growth came despite a reduction in capacity in flights using the airport. Passenger capacity at Eisenhower last year was down 4 percent from 2014, or 36,763 fewer seats.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The latest on the fight against the Zika virus that health officials suspect is linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil. (All times local):

4:45 p.m.

U.S. health officials have again expanded their travel alert to pregnant women about trips to the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday added the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic to the list of destinations with Zika virus disease outbreaks. Research in Brazil is suggesting a link between the infection in pregnant moms and a rare birth defect.

Previously, the CDC recommended that pregnant women should consider postponing trips to 22 destinations. In Latin America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela. In the Caribbean: Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St. Martin and Puerto Rico. Also, Cape Verde, off the coast of western Africa; and Samoa in the South Pacific.

United Airlines says customers booked to fly to areas affected by the Zika virus can reschedule or get refunds.

American Airlines says it will give refunds to pregnant women who were planning to travel to parts of Central America.

The United Airlines offer began Tuesday and includes any country covered by a CDC travel notice. American Airlines began refunds Monday for pregnant passengers holding tickets to El Salvador, Honduras, Panama or Guatemala.

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4:10 p.m.

Health authorities in Panama are recommending that members of an indigenous community hard-hit by Zika avoid getting pregnant.

At least 42 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been detected in the sparsely populated province of Guna Yala along the Caribbean coast, one of them a 22-year-old pregnant woman. The area formerly known as San Blas is dominated by indigenous groups and popular with tourists.

Israel Cedeno, a Health Ministry expert, said that authorities are going house-to-house explaining how to prevent transmission but that it’s running up against cultural barriers and the lack of family planning among the Guna tribe.

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4:30 p.m.

The Arkansas Department of Health says a person who recently traveled out of the United States has tested positive for the Zika virus.

The department says that the person has a mild case of Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes and is suspected of causing a spate of birth defects in Brazil. Spokeswoman Meg Mirivel would not say whether Tuesday if the infected person is a man or woman or give the person’s age.

Mirivel says the individual traveled to the Central America-Caribbean region, though she would not specify which country. Some U.S. travelers have been infected abroad with Zika but there are no cases of local infection in the U.S. so far.

Brazilian officials have linked the virus with a rare birth defect, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged pregnant women to consider postponing flights to areas where the virus is prevalent.

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4:25 p.m.

Latin America’s largest airline says it’s waiving cancellation or flight-change fees for pregnant women who want to cancel flights to countries where the Zika virus is present.

Grupo LATAM says the policy applies to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, French Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged pregnant women to consider postponing visits to 22 destinations because of concern that the mosquito-borne virus could be linked to a wave in Brazil of microcephaly cases in which children are born with heads that are smaller than normal and often have developmental problems.

The World Health Organization cautions that the link is not yet scientifically proven.

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4:00 p.m.

Colombian officials are raising the number of suspected cases of the Zika virus in their country. They say 16,490 people now apparently have had the disease that’s been linked to birth defects in Brazil. Of those 1,090 are pregnant women.

The new figures come as health minister begins a nationwide effort to rally local officials to battle the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the virus.

Minister Alejandro Gaviria said Tuesday he hopes Colombia will become “an example for Latin America” in the battle against Zika.

President Juan Manuel Santo has said Colombian officials expect to see 600,000 cases of Zika this year, and are preparing for the possibility of infants born with microcephaly, a birth defect that has skyrocketed in Brazil along with cases of Zika.

So far, there’s only one case of microcephaly in Colombia suspected of being linked to Zika.

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3:00 p.m.

The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is reporting a jump in the number of mosquito-borne Zika virus cases.

Health Secretary Ana Rius says there are 18 confirmed new cases in addition to one known earlier. None involve pregnant women. Brazilian officials have linked the tropical illness to birth defects.

Puerto Rico epidemiologist Brenda Rivera said Tuesday the majority of cases are in the island’s southeast region. She says many of the victims are elderly.

Officials said they are testing more than 200 other potential Zika cases that have tested negative to dengue and chikungunya.

U.S. officials say pregnant women should consider postponing trips to 22 destinations with Zika infections, including Puerto Rico.

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2:55 p.m.

U.S. health officials are putting out advice to doctors on testing newborns for Zika virus, a tropical infection linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil.

The guidance is for doctors caring for infants born to mothers who traveled to Zika outbreak areas in Latin America or the Caribbean during their pregnancy. The advice covers which situations call for Zika testing and when to do fetal ultrasounds.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the guidelines Tuesday.

Zika is spread by mosquitoes, and in most people causes no more than mild illness. But there’s been mounting evidence linking Zika infection in pregnant women to a birth defect in which a newborn’s head is unusually small and the brain may not develop properly.

2:40 p.m.

Argentina authorities say they are investigating a possible case of infection by the mosquito-borne Zika virus. It would be a first for the nation that shares a border with Brazil.

Santa Fe Health Department official Andrea Uboldi tells La Red radio that the man is in the city of Rosario and had recently visited Brazil, where hundreds of thousands of cases of Zika are suspected and authorities are investigating a possible link to birth defects.

Meanwhile, officials in the Argentine province of Corrientes have declared an epidemiological alert due to an outbreak of dengue in the area. Dengue and Zika are both transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

HERSHEY, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says a traffic stop near North Platte on Interstate 80 has led to the seizure of nearly 50 pounds of marijuana.

The patrol says a trooper stopped a pickup Monday afternoon at the Hershey exit for a license plate violation. The trooper says he smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the truck and searched it, turning up 47 pounds of marijuana inside three plastic totes in the cab of the pickup.

The driver of the truck — a 30-year-old California man Christopher Jensen — was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and not having a driver’s license.