WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to take a crucial vote Friday on whether to advance Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators remain undecided amid allegations of sexual misconduct and intense protests that have divided the nation. Late Thursday, Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran issued new statements on Kavanaugh.

My latest statement on the #Kavanaugh #SCOTUS nomination pic.twitter.com/1IUUslIOO1

— Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) October 4, 2018

My statement on Judge Kavanaugh: pic.twitter.com/xxXGxveQ3f

— Senator Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) October 5, 2018

The 53-year-old judge made what were in effect closing arguments by acknowledging that he became “very emotional” when forcefully denying the allegations at a Judiciary Committee hearing last week.

“I said a few things I should not have said,” he wrote in an op-ed published Thursday evening. But he said he remains the same “hardworking, even-keeled” person he has always been. “Going forward, you can count on me,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

The op-ed, as well as a late boost from President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Minnesota, appeared aimed at winning over the three wavering senators from the slim GOP majority — Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has yet to announce his position.

Ahead of Friday’s voting, Republicans emerged confident that an FBI investigation into the allegations unearthed no new corroborating details, they said. But a level of uncertainty lingered as Collins and Flake spent hours Thursday pouring over confidential FBI documents in the secure basement briefing room long after others had left seemingly satisfied with the findings.

Even without locking in support, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed ahead with trying to move Trump’s nominee forward in what would be an election year win for his party. The Republican leader has little room for error with his party’s slim 51-49 hold on the Senate, even if Vice President Mike Pence is called in to break a tie. A final vote is expected Saturday.

Tensions have been high at the Capitol with opponents of Kavanaugh, including survivors of sexual assault, confronting senators in the halls and holding vigil across the street at the Supreme Court. Supporters of Kavanaugh also turned out.

Trump said the protesters’ “rage-fueled resistance is starting to backfire at a level nobody has ever seen before.” He was referring to polling that shows some improvement for Republicans heading into the midterm election.

Friday’s vote is a procedural one to end the debate, and some fence-sitting senators could conceivably vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination but still hold out their support ahead of a final confirmation roll call over the weekend.

Two of the undeclared Republicans emerged from the secure briefing facility Thursday accepting the FBI report as “thorough,” bolstering GOP hopes for confirmation.

Flake told reporters that “we’ve seen no additional corroborating information” about the claims against Kavanaugh.

Collins also expressed satisfaction, calling it “a very thorough investigation.” She paid two visits to the off-limits room where the document was being displayed to lawmakers.

Murkowski said she was “still reviewing” her decision.

Democrats complained that the investigation, running just six days after Trump reluctantly ordered it, was shoddy, omitting interviews with numerous potential witnesses. They accused the White House of limiting the FBI’s leeway.

Those not interviewed in the reopened background investigation included Kavanaugh himself and Christine Blasey Ford, who ignited the furor by alleging he’d molested her in a locked room at a 1982 high school gathering.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said while her party had agreed to a weeklong FBI probe with a finite scope, “We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands.”

A hefty police presence added an air of anxiety, as did thousands of anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators. U.S. Capitol Police said 302 were arrested — among them comedian Amy Schumer, a distant relative of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement late Thursday that said the FBI reached out to 11 people and interviewed 10. Six of the witnesses involved Ford’s claims, including an attorney for one of them, and four were related to Deborah Ramirez, who has asserted that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when both were Yale freshmen. Grassley said the FBI concluded “there is no collaboration of the allegations made by Dr. Ford or Ms. Ramirez.”

Senators said the documents they examined totaled about 50 pages.

The underlying material from the FBI included text and Facebook messages, said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., including screenshots that “were very helpful” in understanding the communications between various people discussing the situation.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said nine of the pages were about Mark Judge, the Kavanaugh friend who Ford said also jumped on her while Kavanaugh assaulted her. Judge has said he doesn’t recall the incident.

White House spokesman Raj Shah rebuffed Democrats’ complaints, saying, “What critics want is a never-ending fishing expedition into high school drinking.”

Barring leaks, it was unclear how much if any of the FBI report would be made public.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have a suspect in custody.

Just after 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a burglary-in-progress call at a residence in the 2400 block of north Shelton in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A 44-year-old neighbor called 911 and reported seeing suspicious activity at a nearby residence.

TONGANOXIE, Kan. (AP) — Body camera video shows an officer handcuffing a black man who was attempting to move a large-screen television into his new Kansas home in the dark.

61-year-old Karle Robinson said, while watching the video, “If I’d been a white man, you know that wouldn’t happen.” He was in handcuffs for eight minutes.

A Tonganoxie police officer encountered Robinson around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 19. Robinson understood why the officer would be suspicious. But he said he had identification and offered to go inside with the officer where there was paperwork proving his new ownership.

Tonganoxie Police Chief Greg Lawson says the officer kept the right balance of courtesy and respect. The video ends with an officer helping Robinson carrying the TV inside the home.

FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are asking for the public’s help in locating 27-year-old Lorenzo De La Cruz-Chiquiaj, AKA Louis Escoto, according to Dodge City Police.

Authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated intimidation of a witness / victim and aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

Police reported they believe there is a chance he fled the area but his whereabouts are unknown.

Please use caution if you see him and contact the DCPD at 620-227-4646 or call 911 if it is an emergency.

By DAN MARGOLIES

A former emergency room nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital has lost her whistleblower suit alleging the hospital falsified patient records to obtain higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Megen Duffy failed to prove an essential element of her claims, namely that the allegedly false data had an effect on how much the government paid the hospital.

Duffy worked as a registered nurse at the hospital from August 2009 until she was fired in October 2013 for allegedly threatening another employee. In her lawsuit, she alleged her termination was fabricated.

Lawrence Memorial Hospital termed her lawsuit “baseless” and claimed it violated the terms of a settlement the hospital reached with Duffy after she was fired.

Russell W. Johnson, the hospital’s president and CEO, told KCUR that the lawsuit’s outcome “reflects what we’ve known all along – that we do follow Medicare guidelines and that we do provide services in ways that are consistent with those guidelines.”

Johnson said the lawsuit “was really more a result of a personnel issue than a real transgression by the hospital. And that came out in this judgment.”

The hospital, he added, had spent more than $500,000 in legal fees and expenses – over and above its insurance coverage – defending the suit.

“In fact, I’ve got a legal bill in my inbox this month, and for the Duffy case it was $48,900,” Johnson said.

Lawrence Memorial Hospital was founded in 1921 and is licensed for 176 beds. The not-for-profit hospital is led by a nine-member board of trustees appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Lawrence City Commission. Although it’s community owned, it gets no tax subsidies from the city of Lawrence or from Douglas County.

Sarah A. Brown, one of Duffy’s attorneys, said she was assessing her client’s options, including a possible appeal.

“We believe there was evidence in the record that showed how these manipulations affected reimbursement rates,” Brown said. “So we’re going to need to evaluate whether we want to point that out to the court or point it out on appeal.”

In her lawsuit, Duffy alleged that emergency room personnel at Lawrence Memorial were instructed to alter the arrival times of possible heart attack patients to coincide with timestamps automatically generated when patients were connected to electrocardiogram monitors.

That would have significantly improved the hospital’s performance data and qualified it for higher incentive payments from the government.

In his ruling tossing out the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Sam Crow found that Duffy failed to show the allegedly inaccurate arrival time data had affected the government’s reimbursement decisions.

Duffy’s lawsuit, which sought triple damages under the federal False Claims Act, was filed under seal in May 2014. The Justice Department declined to intervene and the case was unsealed in 2015.

Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can bring lawsuits on behalf of the United States if they have reason to think the defendant knowingly submitted fraudulent claims to the government.

The Department of Justice is required to investigate the allegations and then decide whether to intervene in the case, decline to intervene or, in rare cases, seek the case’s dismissal.

The Department of Justice intervenes in fewer than a quarter of all False Claims Act cases, sometimes because it doesn’t have the resources to pursue them. Once the department declines to intervene, the person who brought the case can pursue it on his or her own, although the government often asks that it be kept apprised of filings in the case. The plaintiff is entitled to anywhere between 25 percent and 30 percent of any recovery.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies

ELLSWORTH COUNTY —Two people died in an accident just before 9:30a.m.Thursday in Ellsworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Dodge Ram driven by John Merrill Krisel, 60, Council Bluffs, IA, was westbound on Kansas 156 just west of Pennsylvania Avenue. The vehicle traveled left of center and struck a 2009 Kia Sorento driven by Kathy A. Jimmerson, 60, Dodge City, head-on.

Jimmerson and a passenger Steve W. Jimmerson, 55, Dodge City, were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Parsons Funeral Home.

Krisel was transported to the hospital in Hoisington and later transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an aggravated robbery that sent a woman to the hospital.

A 63-year-old woman told police that at approximately 9p.m. on Tuesday, a suspect had entered the Lucky Spa in the 1600 Block of South Glendale in Wichita where she was working, according to officer Charley Davidson.

She told police the suspect struck her multiple times, choked her and she lost consciousness. The suspect then took cash from the business.

An investigating revealed that the victim awoke after several hours and made it to a nearby business to ask for help, according to Davidson. The woman was transported to a local hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The suspect is described as an unknown white male in his 30s, 5-foot-2, 140 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.