HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Kansas cotton farmers are seeing better yields, but the crop is losing ground to other commodities.

The Hutchinson News  reports that cotton continues to lose acreage to corn, milo and other crops in Kansas.

Acreage for cotton spiked at more than 115,000 in 2006. But the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reports that the forecast for 2015 was 15,000 harvested acres, down 48 percent from 2014.

Cotton production in Kansas was forecast at 24,000 bales in 2015, down 50 percent from 2014.

But the crop is doing well where it’s still being grown. Custom cutter Steve Keimig says yields in southern Kansas have been helped by the perfect mix of sun, heat and rain.

Cotton has been growing in southern Kansas for about two decades.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Figures have dropped for a fifth straight month in a survey of supply managers in nine Midwest and Plains states, providing continuing evidence of a regional economic slowdown.

A report issued Monday says the overall Mid-American Business Conditions Index dropped to 39.6 in December from 40.7 in November, 41.9 in October, 47.7 in September and 49.6 in August.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he again blames manufacturing losses linked to the strong dollar and economic weakness among trading partners.

The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests economic growth. A score below that suggests decline.

The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

JOSH LEDERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is moving ahead on plans to require background checks for guns purchased from dealers even if they’re bought online or at gun shows.

The White House is coming out with a series of long-awaited executive steps aimed at curbing gun violence despite opposition in Congress to new gun laws.

The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is issuing updated guidance that says the government can consider someone a gun dealer regardless of where the guns are sold. The guidance aims to narrow the gun show loophole. Only federally licensed gun dealers must now conduct background checks on buyers.

The White House says the FBI will hire 230 more examiners to process background checks. It’s an attempt to speed up the process so buyers don’t fall through the cracks.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah authorities say two teenage girls found after more than year on the run with their mother will return to their father’s care, though they may investigate abuse allegations against him.

Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez said Monday that police had long suspected 16-year-old Sydney and 15-year-old Danielle Wolferts were in hiding with their mother, but couldn’t track her down until someone called 911 early Sunday morning.

Brian Wolfers, Topeka, has legal custody of the girls, and his lawyer says the abuse allegations have already been investigated and aren’t true. Attorney Ron D. Wilkinson says the girls haven’t been in school or gotten therapy they need.

Mother Sonja “Michelle” Wolferts tells KUTV news in Salt Lake City that she moved around the area, staying with friends in an effort to protect her daughters.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A legislative committee’s draft report says Kansas needs a “complete overhaul” of its system for funding public schools.

The report posted online Monday is for a joint committee studying school funding issues. The report says the state’s formula for distributing more than $4 billion in aid annually should be redesigned to focus on individual students.

The report also suggests some expenses, including transportation and food services, could be handled regionally to save money, or even turned over to private companies. The report also suggests the state consider whether accepting federal dollars is worth the cost of complying with federal rules.

The Republican-dominated committee was scheduled to meet Tuesday to review the report and decide whether to forward its recommendations to the full Legislature. Lawmakers open their 2016 session next week.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is reporting that it collected $27 million less in taxes than anticipated in December with both individual income and sales taxes falling short of expectations.

The shortfall in tax collections reported Monday complicates the state’s budget picture as legislators prepare to open their annual session next week.

The state Department of Revenue said Tuesday the state collected $599 million in taxes last month instead of the $626 million projected in a fiscal forecast issued in November. The shortfall is 4.4 percent.

Since the current fiscal year began in July, the state has collected $2.84 billion in tax revenues. That’s $19 million less than anticipated.

Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since personal income taxes were dramatically cut in 2012 and 2013 to stimulate the economy.

PONCA CITY, Okla. (AP) — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says the body of a missing country singer from Arkansas who disappeared during a severe storm has been recovered from an Oklahoma lake.

In case we don’t come back, @BackroadCRAIG and I are going right through Winter Storm Goliath to kill ducks in Oklahoma. 😅 #IntoTheStorm

— Chase Morland (@ChaseMorland) December 27, 2015

 

The patrol says its Marine Enforcement Division recovered the body of 29-year-old Craig M. Strickland Monday morning in Kaw Lake, located 8 miles east of Ponca City just south of the Oklahoma-Kansas state line.

Strickland and a friend, Chase R. Morland, were reported missing on Dec. 27 during a duck hunting trip on the Kay County lake. The pair’s capsized boat was found the same day. Morland’s body was recovered from the lake a day later.

Strickland is the lead singer of the Arkansas-based country-rock band Backroad Anthem. The patrol says Strickland’s body was recovered within an area known as Bear Creek Cove.

MANHATTAN -One of the suspects in the aggravated robberies that occurred near and prompted the temporary lockdown of the KSU Campus on September 4, has entered into a plea agreement in Riley County District Court.

Johnathan Elliott, 20, Manhattan, appeared in court Monday in front of Judge Stutzman along with his attorney Brenda Jordan.

Elliott plead no contest to one count of aggravated robbery. Additional counts including Robbery, Contributing to a Child’s Misconduct and Theft were dropped in accordance with the plea deal.

According to the State if the case had gone to trial they would have presented evidence to show that Elliott participated in the holdup of two Manhattan men in the early morning hours of September 4.

Elliott will be sentenced on February 8.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republicans are hoping the Kansas Legislature can close a projected state budget deficit quickly this year and avoid the infighting that made last year’s session the longest ever.

Education funding is also an issue. But leaders of the two chambers’ GOP majorities aren’t sure how far they’ll get in drafting a new formula for distributing more than $4 billion in state aid to public schools.

Lawmakers are waiting for the Kansas Supreme Court to rule in an education funding lawsuit against the state from four school districts.

The Legislature convenes Jan. 11, and its agenda is packed with issues. But Republican leaders said their goal is to wrap up the year’s legislating in less than the traditionally scheduled 90 days after last year’s session lasted a record 114 days.

SALINA – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a teenager in connection with a pair of shooting incidents.

Joshua T.M. Blake, 18, Salina, was arrested early New Year’s morning in connection with shots fired New Year’s Eve. He is also facing charges in connection with shots fired near a west Salina bank on December 4th.

Blake is alleged to have fired shots from a pickup New Year’s Eve in the area of University Place and Phillips Street, near Hageman and Saturn Avenue, and in the 400 block of South 12th Street where three bullets from a small caliber gun hit a home, according to Salina Police. No one was injured.

Blake was driving a white Nissan pickup. Witnesses described this as the vehicle driven as the shots were fire.

Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said investigators have been able to link Blake to a case where shots were fired in the area of 1st Bank Kansas, 1333 W. Crawford on December 4, where a traffic sign was hit by a bullet.

Blake was booked into the Saline County Jail on several requested charges including criminal discharge of a firearm, unlawful discharge of a firearm, and criminal damage to property.
A passenger in the pickup, 32-year-old Joseph W. Allen of Salina was arrested on drug charges.

Two other occupants in the pickup were not arrested.
Captain Forrester said a gun has not been recovered and another arrest is possible in the case.

By JIM MCLEAN

A legislative oversight committee has approved a controversial set of draft recommendations aimed at reducing the cost of drugs provided to Kansas Medicaid recipients.

The joint committee that oversees the state’s privatized Medicaid program known as KanCare this week tentatively approved recommendations that direct the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to develop policies aimed at slowing a steady increase in the $3 billion program’s pharmacy costs.

The most controversial of the recommendations calls for withholding expensive hepatitis C drugs from KanCare recipients who don’t follow treatment requirements, such as patients who fail to take all their pills or consume nonprescription drugs or alcohol during treatment.

Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said Kansas taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for repeated treatments when patients knowingly engage in behaviors that undermine the effectiveness of their medications.

“I know it is pretty strong language,” Denning said. “But if we have patients that are abusing an $80,000 drug, then there have to be consequences.”

Hepatitis C is a liver infection caused by a virus spread through the exchange of blood or other bodily fluids.

The wholesale cost of a standard 12-week treatment for hepatitis C can range from $84,000 to $94,000 depending on the drug. Through the first four months of the fiscal year, KanCare has spent approximately $3.1 million on hepatitis C treatments, according KDHE documents.

Democrats on the committee objected to Denning’s proposal, saying it would be tantamount to imposing death sentences on noncompliant patients.

“It just seems like we’re making life and death decisions, and I’m just very uncomfortable with that,” said Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

Republicans who control the committee disagreed, saying the state has a responsibility to both KanCare recipients and taxpayers.

“We’re not sentencing people to death,” said Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican and chairwoman of the oversight committee. “If a patient is noncompliant, they are making a decision.”

Members voted 5-2 to include the proposal in a set of draft recommendations that the committee is expected to finalize at the start of the 2016 legislative session in January.

Panel members also endorsed a proposal to allow the three private insurance companies that manage KanCare to implement step therapy protocols. If lawmakers approve the change, the insurers could restrict providers’ ability to prescribe expensive drugs to patients in the general KanCare population unless cheaper alternatives had been tried and proven ineffective.

The committee also asked KDHE officials to compile a report on the extent to which certain behavioral health drugs are being overprescribed. Legislators are concerned about reports that powerful antipsychotic drugs are being inappropriately prescribed to children and used for the “off label” purpose of controlling the behavior of dementia patients in nursing homes.

A law passed earlier this year allows the state and the KanCare companies to establish a preferred drug list for mental health drugs. State officials are working with a stakeholder advisory committee to implement the change.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

RICHARD LARDNER, EILEEN SULLIVAN & MEGHAN HOYER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Department data show hundreds of incidents each year of the children of military service members being victims of sexual assault.

The abuse of military dependents is committed most often by male enlisted troops, according to the data provided exclusively to The Associated Press.

The figures offer greater insight into the sexual abuse of children committed by service members, a problem of uncertain scale due to a lack of transparency in the military’s legal proceedings. With more than 1 million military dependents, the number of cases appears statistically small. But for a profession that prides itself on honor and discipline, any episodes of abuse cast a pall.