TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a Republican tax relief bill will stand because GOP lawmakers did not attempt to override it.

The Republican-controlled Legislature adjourned Friday for its annual spring break without an override attempt. The deadline for trying to override will pass before lawmakers reconvene May 1.

The bill was designed to prevent individuals and businesses from paying more in state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017.

Republican leaders said it would have prevented an unlegislated tax increase.

Kelly and fellow Democrats said the bill was fiscally reckless.

Republicans hold the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a veto but at least a few GOP lawmakers were expected to vote against overturning Kelly’s action, making an attempt futile.

****UPDATE****

Nickole "Sarah" Donahue has been found safe. pic.twitter.com/froQjAShOG

— Wichita Police (@WichitaPolice) April 6, 2019

SEDGWICK COUNTY —The Wichita Police Department needs help locating 29-year-old Nickole “Sarah” Donahue.

Just after 8:30 p.m. Friday, officers responded to a check the welfare of a citizen call at the apartments in the 2000 block of north Old Manor in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, officers contacted a 32-year-old female, who reported Donahue leaving home at approximately 12 p.m. stating she was going to Wichita State University. She did not return.

Donahue was last seen wearing a yellow shirt, white pants with white stripes, a white yarmulke. Donahue is confined to a battery powered wheelchair which has an orange flag and orange backpack on it. Donahue has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and has no use of her legs and limited use of her arms.
If you know the whereabouts of Donahue or see her, please call 911 immediately.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators passed a measure Friday that would require abortion providers to tell patients who are taking medication to terminate their pregnancies that the process can be reversed after they take the first of two pills.

Abortion opponents contend the bill ensures that women who harbor doubts about ending their pregnancies will learn of a safe procedure for reversing a medication abortion. Abortion rights supporters contend that it’s based on junk science and the state would force doctors to provide dubious information to their patients.

The action in Kansas comes after other states, including Kentucky and Mississippi, have moved to ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected , as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, has long favored an incremental approach and restrictions that it believes will survive court challenges.

The Republican-controlled Kansas House approved the abortion “reversal” bill on an 85-35 vote, and the GOP-dominated Senate passed it on a 26-11 vote. The measure goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, a strong abortion rights supporter.

Kelly staff would not say whether she will veto the bill, but she told reporters last month, “I’m not sure that’s based on science.” Supporters appear to have the two-thirds majorities necessary in both chambers to override a veto.

Medication abortions using Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, are the most common way of terminating a pregnancy in Kansas, accounting for nearly 60% of the total, according to statistics from the state health department.

Supporters of the bill argue that a medication abortion can be safely reversed if a doctor gives a woman a dose of progesterone, a hormone, before she takes the second abortion pill. They base their arguments on a 2018 studyled by an anti-abortion doctor and medical school professor in California and note that progesterone has been used for decades to prevent miscarriages.

“This simply gives a woman more information about what she can do to save her unborn child,” said state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Kansas City-area Republican.

The bill’s opponents have said that while progesterone has been used to prevent miscarriages, its use for reversing a medical abortion hasn’t been adequately tested. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has disputed the usefulness of the procedure .

“It is not appropriate for the Legislature to practice medicine or mandate how a physician practices medicine,” said Sen. Barbara Bollier, a Kansas City-area Democrat and retired anesthesiologist.

Under the bill, an abortion clinic would have a display a sign with the abortion reversal notice, and the physician would have to tell a patient in writing that a medication abortion can be reversed. A clinic that failed to post a sign could be fined $10,000, and a doctor who failed to notify a patient could be charged with a misdemeanor for a first office and a felony for a second.

HARVEY COUNTY — Law  enforcement authorities are investigating a hit and run accident and looking for a vehicle.

Just after 4:10p.m. Friday, police responded to a hit-and-run accident in the 500 block of West Fifth Street in Newton, according to a social media report.

A teen on a skateboard was struck by a green passenger car. The car then left the scene. The teen was transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Police are looking for the driver of the green car. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 to report it.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kansas pressed ahead Friday with allowing the state Farm Bureau to offer health coverage to members that doesn’t satisfy the Affordable Care Act, a state-level effort to circumvent an Obama-era law President Donald Trump wants to replace.

The Kansas House approved an insurance bill on an 84-39 vote that includes provisions to exempt health coverage offered by the Farm Bureau from state insurance regulation, anticipating that the nonprofit group could offer lower-cost products to thousands of individuals and families. The Senate approved the bill Thursday on a 28-12 vote, so it goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.

The bill had overwhelming support from GOP legislators and faced strong opposition from Democrats, but Kelly hasn’t taken a public position on it. The Kansas proposal is patterned after a Tennessee law in place for decades, and an Iowa enacted a law last year.

The votes in Kansas demonstrated the Farm Bureau’s political clout, particularly in rural areas, where Republicans dominate politics. The bill also had the support of most urban and suburban GOP lawmakers who continue to oppose the 2010 federal health care overhaul and argue that its mandates have driven up health insurance premiums and hurt the economy.

“It’s just another option,” said House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican and insurance agent.

Passing the bill was among the last significant actions Kansas legislators took before starting an annual spring break set to last until May 1. They put off a vote on a proposed $18 billion-plus budget for the state fiscal year beginning in July until after the break.

Some Democratic critics of the Farm Bureau bill tried unsuccessfully to block its passage by appealing to rural Republicans who support expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy in line with the Affordable Care Act. The House passed a modified version an expansion plan from Kelly last month, but the Senate has yet to take it up.

“There’s more than one piece that’s going to solve what we’re facing,” said Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat from south-central Kansas. “We should hold this part of the puzzle up until they take

Farm Bureau officials said they expect about 42,000 people eventually to take its coverage if the law passes, promising lower rates than plans complying with federal mandates. They believe the takers would be individuals who either have no coverage or struggle to pay for individual coverage.

Kansas has seen the number of individual coverage plans offered through the federal ACA marketplace decline to 23 for 2019 from 42 in 2016, according to the Kansas Insurance Department. While average rate increases for 2019 were smaller than in past years, they’ve sometimes previously topped 25 percent, according to annual reports from the department.

Republicans repeatedly have cited premium increases as a reason to repeal the ACA since Trump’s election in 2016, but a drive in Congress to do it stalled when they couldn’t agree on a replacement. Trump this week deferred another push until after the 2020 election.

The Farm Bureau’s new coverage would avoid state regulation because the new Kansas law simply would declare that it’s not insurance.

Critics said companies offering traditional health insurance coverage would face unfair competition. They also focused on how Farm Bureau would be able to set higher rates or reject coverage for people who have pre-existing medical conditions, something the Iowa law allows.

To drive home their argument that legislators don’t know yet what a Farm Bureau plan might cover, critics said the lack of regulation would allow it to pay for elective abortions. A 2011 state law prohibits such coverage in group health plans, requiring people to buy separate abortion policies.

Supporters of the bill — many of whom strongly oppose abortion — brushed aside the criticism as desperate.

Farm Bureau officials have said they pushed for permission to offer health coverage because members are asking for more choices.

“They are clamoring for some kind of solution,” said Rep. Don Hineman, a moderate Republican from western Kansas who also supports Medicaid expansion. “The potential consumers for this product are begging us to do it.”

___

FORD COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have two suspects in custody.

Just before 2:30p.m. Thursday, police received reports of gunfire in the area of the 1200 to 1100 block of Ave C in Dodge City, according to a media release.

Police arrived immediately in the area and identified a vehicle fleeing the scene.

Before officers got the vehicle stopped, the front passenger fled on foot from the vehicle.

Multiple witnesses reported to other responding officers that they had witnessed one car chasing the other and the passenger of the vehicle officers had stopped reached out of the window with a handgun and began shooting at the subjects in other vehicle.

The victims in the other vehicle also contacted officers and provided statements of what happened.  There were no injuries reported.

The driver of the alleged suspect vehicle was captured with the vehicle but the alleged shooter escaped, until Friday. When officers spotted him and took him into custody without further incident.

The DCPD has filed a case with the Ford County Attorney’s office on the 18-year-old alleged shooter for the charge of attempted 2nd degree murder and on the 19-year-old alleged driver for the charge of aid and abet attempted 2nd degree murder, according to the release.

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A third federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, ruling Friday that it poses a “substantial risk” of undercounting Hispanics and non-citizens.

U.S. District Judge George Hazel in Maryland also concluded that a citizenship question is “arbitrary and capricious” and violates the Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

Federal judges in New York and California previously barred the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the census for the first time since 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on April 23 for the Justice Department’s appeal of the New York judge’s decision.

Hazel heard six days of trial testimony in January before ruling.

“Overwhelming evidence supports the Court’s finding that a citizenship question will cause a differential decline in Census participation among noncitizen and Hispanic households,” he wrote in his 119-page decision.

The Supreme Court justices are expected to rule by late June, which the Trump administration said is soon enough to allow printing and distribution of census forms next April.

Because of the tight timeframe for printing census forms, the high court granted unusually quick review of the first decision that went against the administration. That ruling, from a federal judge in New York, held that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ decision to have the census ask about citizenship was “arbitrary and capricious” under federal law. The second ruling, from a court in California, also found that asking about citizenship would violate the Constitution, which calls for a count of all people, not just citizens.

Former U.S. Census Bureau director John Thompson, the first plaintiffs’ witness for the bench trial in Maryland, testified Ross disregarded “long established” Census Bureau protocols in adding the citizenship question. Thompson, who oversaw the bureau from 2013 through June 2017, said he doesn’t think officials properly tested the question for the 2020 census.

“It’s very problematic for me,” Thompson said of Ross’ decision.

In a court filing, plaintiffs’ attorneys said Ross communicated with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other administration officials before issuing the March 2018 directive “to further the unconstitutional goal of diluting the political power of non-white immigrant communities.”

The Census Bureau began collecting citizenship data through the annual American Community Survey in 2005. Government lawyers said in a court filing that Ross decided to use the same wording from that “well-tested question” on the ACS for the citizenship question on the 2020 census.

The plaintiffs for the Maryland case include residents of Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. Attorneys from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund also sued on behalf of more than two dozen organizations and individuals. The court agreed to consolidate the claims in December.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys had urged Hazel to proceed with the Maryland trial as scheduled since the judge’s ruling in the New York case could be reversed on appeal.