HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii-based burger chain has closed a Honolulu restaurant for cleaning after a video posted to social media appeared to show a rat being cooked on the grill.

Teddy’s Bigger Burgers has closed the Mapunapuna location and fired two employees who appeared in the Snapchat video.

“We are horrified that a former teenage employee would conduct themselves in that way and make such a video of which we are investigating its authenticity,” said Richard Stula, the president of Teddy’s Bigger Burgers.

The company initiated a “complete sanitization” and is replacing equipment and utensils at the fast-food restaurant after the video was shared with them several days ago, Stula said in the statement.

“We will then send a corporate team in to inspect and complete a thorough audit of the location before it is allowed to re-open,” Stula said.

The state Department of Health is scheduled to inspect the restaurant on Mapunapuna Street on Friday.

The company is also contacting a licensed pest control operator to examine the restaurant for rodents, said Peter Oshiro, the state’s environmental health program manager. “DOH appreciates the remedial and proactive efforts undertaken by the restaurant owner to protect public health,” Oshiro said in a statement.

The restaurant received a passing green placard following its last state inspection in June.

The company is consulting with its attorneys about potential legal action against the former employees, Stula said.

“We are horrified a former employee would create something like this trying to destroy our reputation without regard for our 20-plus years of quality and aloha,” he said.

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — A man was shot and killed by police after a fight at an Alabama mall ahead of Black Friday shopping resulted in gunfire that injured a teenager and a 12-year-old girl.

The shooting occurred late Thursday at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a Birmingham suburb, a police statement said.

Lexi Joiner told Al.com she was shopping with her mother when the gunfire started. Joiner said she heard six or seven shots and was ordered, along with some other shoppers, into a supply closet for cover.

“It was terrifying,” Joiner said.

The police statement said two Hoover officers in the mall confronted a 21-year-old man from Hueytown with a gun and one of the officers shot and killed him. His name has not been released.

An 18-year-old man from Birmingham was taken to UAB Hospital for treatment of serious injuries. His name has not been released.

A 12-year-old girl was struck by gunfire and was taken to Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham. She was reported in stable condition.

Capt. Greg Rector said at a news conference that investigators do not know what sparked the original confrontation between the men.

The officer who shot the gunman has been placed on administrative leave while the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office investigates the shooting. The officer’s name has not been released. The officers were not hurt.

The mall reopened at 6 a.m. Friday, a Riverchase Galleria mall security officer said.

A shooting at a mall in Alabama left two people injured and the gunman dead Thursday night, authorities said. https://t.co/T59qvqVJwg pic.twitter.com/5qR7cCTxgQ

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) November 23, 2018

MEADE COUNTY — A 40-year-old Meade man was killed in a motorcycle accident on Thanksgiving Day.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Harley-Davidson driven by Steven L. Dougherty was northbound on Kansas 23 in Meade County when the motorcycle drifted off the road into a grassy ditch. The KHP said Dougherty jumped from the motorcycle, struck a road sign and fell into a culvert.

He was transported to Fidler Orme-Bachman Mortuary, Meade. The KHP reported he was wearing safety glasses, but no helmet.

The Kansas Highway Patrol has confirmed a two-vehicle collision on U.S. 24 on Thanksgiving morning claimed the life of Jamie L. Franch, 54, Riley. The accident was reported at 5:41 a.m.

The KHP reported a Mazda 5 driven by Franch was southbound on U.S. 24 and a Chevrolet Malibu driven by Mersades Wisner, 18, Holdredge, Neb., was northbound. Franch’s vehicle crossed the center line and collided head-on with the car driven by Wisner. The Mazda 5 came to rest on its side in the west ditch, and the Malibu came to rest in the driving lanes.

Wisner was injured and was transported to the KU Medical Center.

By JOHN HANNA
AP Political Writer

TOPEKA — Democratic and moderate Republicans lawmakers worked together last year to try to make Kansas the latest state to expand Medicaid, only to see their bipartisan effort rewarded with a veto from former conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback.

The election this month of a governor who supports Medicaid expansion seemed to remove the biggest hurdle for those hoping to bring health coverage to thousands of the state’s poor. But it’s not that simple.

In the same election that put Democrat Laura Kelly in the governor’s office, Kansas voters also elected a more conservative Legislature. Any bill seeking to expand Medicaid will have a tougher time getting to the governor’s desk.

“I’m still looking at every possible way that we can stop that,” said state Rep. Dan Hawkins, a conservative Republican from Wichita who is chairman of the House’s health committee.

Republicans retained their large majorities in both chambers and will appoint the leaders of the committees, who can help them bottle up or kill legislation they don’t like. In this month’s election, conservatives gained at least half a dozen seats in the House and might replace the chamber’s majority leader, a moderate, with someone who leans further to the right. Hawkins is vying for the post.

In the Senate, the health committee chairwoman is a moderate Republican who was instrumental in pushing Medicaid expansion last year but is leaving her position after being elected state insurance commissioner. Her replacement is likely to be more conservative.

With conservatives in control of the majority party, Kelly will likely have to make concessions on Medicaid expansion to get enough support to pass the Legislature. One could be a work requirement for recipients, something other Republican-leaning states have imposed.

For her part, Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, has promised to have a working group create a bipartisan plan.

“I’m not exactly sure what it will look like yet,” she told The Associated Press recently. “I’m a fiscal realist, and I need to make sure whatever we present is doable.”

Medicaid provides health coverage for lower-income and disabled Americans, including 377,000 in Kansas, and is funded jointly by states and the federal government.

Thirty-five states have expanded Medicaid under the health care law signed by former President Barack Obama. Voters in Idaho, Utah and neighboring Nebraska approved expansions earlier this month.

In a 36th state, Maine, voters approved an expansion in 2017, only to see their Republican governor stymie it. But the newly elected Democratic governor promised to move ahead.

In Kansas, Brownback and departing Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer were the biggest reasons for the state not expanding the program. Both cited the cost of providing coverage to as many as 150,000 more people.

A much-disputed study for Brownback’s administration in 2015 suggested the state’s costs could reach more than $100 million a year. Some projections after that were lower: In 2018, Colyer’s budget office estimated a net cost of $22 million for the fiscal year beginning in July 2019.

The federal government paid the full cost of covering the expansion group until 2017 and will continue paying 90 percent starting in 2020.

Voters in Oregon, which approved the expansion early, approved taxes on hospitals, health insurers and managed care companies to pay for the program. In Montana, voters this month rejected a ballot measure that would have raised tobacco taxes to extend the state’s Medicaid expansion.

“We don’t want to take on something that we know is absolutely unaffordable and will require a tax increase,” said Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Wichita Republican.

But supporters point to the closing of a small nonprofit hospital in southeast Kansas — after a closing in another town in the region in 2015 — as a cost of not expanding Medicaid. Kelly said providing health coverage to more Kansas residents is “a moral obligation.”

Advocates also contend that expanding Medicaid in Kansas would reduce expenses associated with uncovered medical care, reduce the costs of some state programs, make it easier for some people to hold jobs and promote employment in health care.

The Kansas Hospital Association projects a net gain for the state.

“No, it’s not going to be easy, but it is easier from the standpoint that we have a governor who is going to push for it,” said Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat.