TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate over taxes (all times local):

A Kansas House committee is preparing to be aggressive in drafting a plan to increase personal income taxes to address the state’s ongoing budget problems.

A majority of Taxation Committee members indicated during an informal discussion Monday that they’re ready to propose raising taxes between $900 million and $1.2 billion over two years.

The state is facing projected budget shortfalls totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since Republican lawmakers slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging.

Senate Republican leaders have drafted a plan for income tax increases that would raise $660 million through June 2019. The Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee expects to debate it Tuesday.

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11:05 a.m.

Top Republicans in the Kansas Senate have outlined a plan to backtrack on personal income tax cuts championed by GOP Gov. Sam Brownback.

A bill before the Senate tax committee Monday would raise $660 million over two years. The state faces projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.

Senate Majority Leader and Overland Park Republican Jim Denning said the plan is a starting point for debating tax increases. But Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka said the plan is “not good enough” to balance the budget.

Republican legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging in hopes of stimulating the economy.

The bill would raise rates for all income taxpayers and end an exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Highway Patrol says a man is being held in the Lyon County jail after he reportedly grabbed the wheel of a charter bus and caused it to veer off the Kansas Turnpike.

No injuries were reported after the incident Sunday about 11 miles northeast of Emporia. A suspect fled on foot but was captured after a nearby resident reported a stranger banging on the door of a house.

Patrol Lt. Mark Christensen praised the bus driver for controlling the vehicle after the wheel was grabbed.

Christesen says the suspect identified as Manuel Hernandez, 47,  told officers that he thought people on the bus were going to hurt him.

The Topeka Capital Journal reports 11 other people, including the driver, were on the bus, which was driving from Chicago to Dallas.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Officials say construction of the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan is going well and is on time.

The $1.25 billion research facility, or NBAF, will study diseases that can be spread from animals to humans.

The Manhattan Mercury reports (https://bit.ly/2lgmVWP) construction began in 2013 with the Central Utility Center, which is complete but won’t be used until the laboratories are finished.

Construction originally was scheduled to be completed last year but was delayed. The lab is now on track to be fully operational in December 2022.

Martha Vanier, of the Department of Homeland Security says $266 million in construction has been completed so far.

She says about 200 workers who are currently working on the construction but that number will grow to as many as 1,000.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has spared from prison two Kansas men convicted of federal firearms violations after taking into account their mistaken belief that a Kansas law can shield from federal prosecution anyone owning firearms made, sold and kept in the state.

The sentence handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten still leaves intact the federal felony convictions against Shane Cox and Jeremy Kettler.

Jurors in November found Cox, owner of Tough Guys gun store in Chanute, guilty of making and marketing unregistered firearms, and found Ketter guilty of having an unregistered gun silencer.

Both men thanked the judge in courtroom statements for not sending them to prison.

The Kansas Second Amendment Protection Act says firearms, accessories and ammunition manufactured and kept within the borders of Kansas are exempt from federal gun control laws.

SALINE COUNTY, MO – A Kansas man died in an accident just before 9:30a.m. on Monday in Saline County, Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Chevy Silverado driven by George J. Jansen, 59, Overland Park, was eastbound on Interstate 70 just east of U.S. 65.

The vehicle traveled off the left side of the road and struck a guardrail face. The driver was ejected from the vehicle.

Jansen was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Campbell Lewis Funeral Home.
He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

BY JIM MCLEAN

KanCare expansion advocates say confusion in Washington, D.C., is helping their cause as they gear up for Statehouse hearings this week on an expansion bill.

They say legislation sponsored by several Republican U.S. senators that would retain parts of the Affordable Care Act is evidence that some in the GOP are having second thoughts. So too is the fact that Republican governors in Indiana and Ohio are seeking approval from the Trump administration to keep their expanded programs in place.

“It just seems like every day there is one more signal that this (repeal) isn’t a done deal,” said Tom Bell, president and CEO of the Kansas Hospital Association. “This is a really fluid situation and I think it would be a huge mistake for Kansas not to get itself in a position to take advantage of it.”

To that end, representatives of more than a dozen health care providers and business organizations are lining up to testify this week during three days of House Health and Human Services Committee hearings.

The hearings will take place at 1:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday in room 112-North at the Statehouse.

Rep. Dan Hawkins, the Wichita Republican who chairs the committee, said he scheduled the hearings to give expansion supporters — who increased their ranks in the last election — a chance to make their case even though he views debating the bill as an exercise in futility.

“I don’t want to poison the well by saying that, but I think that it is,” Hawkins said. “Even if it passes, which I think it might, it can’t go anywhere.”

Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer also sees the hearings as a fool’s errand.

“Obamacare/Expansion will soon be dead,” Colyer said in a December tweet. “Time will bring clarity from D.C.”

Undeterred, expansion supporters say waiting to see what happens in Washington is the worst thing that Kansas lawmakers could do.

“We lose nothing by expanding KanCare, but we stand to lose billions of dollars in the future if we don’t,” said David Jordan, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a nonprofit advocacy group funded by several regional health foundations. He noted that Kansas has foregone nearly $1.7 billion in the last three years by not expanding KanCare.

To date, 31 states and the District of Columbia have expanded their Medicaid programs. Kansas is one of 19 that haven’t.

The expansion bill under consideration — House Bill 2064 — would extend eligibility for the state’s privatized Medicaid program to approximately 150,000 Kansans with annual incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,000 for an individual.

It also could help the state solve its budget problems, according to supporters.

An analysis done by the hospital association, which opponents are likely to challenge, said the state could more than cover its $58 million share of expansion’s approximately $1 billion annual cost with savings and revenues generated by expansion.

Jim McLean is managing director of kcur.org‘s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.

SALINE COUNTY –  Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a woman on drug and child endangerment charges.

Just after 5p.m. on Saturday, a concerned neighbor contacted police about a disturbance at a home in the 800 Block of Navajo, according to Salina Police Capt. Paul Forrester,

Police found Alexandria Moreno, 25, intoxicated with four children in the fenced-in backyard, according to Forrester.

Police also found a six-month-old baby sleeping in a bed.  A box of marijuana was also baby’s bed and individually packaged marijuana scattered about the house.

The children, who ranged from six months to six-years-old, were placed into protective custody.

The mother faces multiple drug charges, five counts of endangering a child and an additional charge because the house is within 1,000 feet of a school.

SEDGWICK COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal Sunday morning shooting and have made an arrest.

Just after 11:30a.m. Sunday, officers were dispatched to the intersection of Kellogg and Meridian in Wichita.

The calling party told police they were stopping to assist a motorist involved in a traffic accident, according to Lt. Jeff Gilmore during Monday’s online police briefing.

The calling party told police a woman in the vehicle said she had just shot her boyfriend in the head, according to Gilmore.

The victim identified by police as Richard J. Hamm, Jr., 39, died at the scene.

Police arrested the shooting suspect Crystal Kay Rotramel, 30, on charges of second-degree murder, according to Gilmore.

The couple had been involved in an argument at their residence in the 2700 Block of West Crawford and continued in the vehicle.

The suspect was driving the vehicle and shot her boyfriend one time, according to Gilmore.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a woman is being questioned in a deadly Wichita shooting that police say appeared to stem from a domestic disturbance between a boyfriend and girlfriend.

The shooting happened Sunday inside a vehicle just west of downtown.

Sgt. Joe Kennedy said a 39-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. Kennedy says a woman was taken to be interviewed by detectives shortly after police arrived.

Kennedy says police were interviewing several witnesses.

OTTAWA COUNTY – Authorities continue to investigate a suspect in connection with improvised explosive devices found at a residence in Tescott.

Officials are expected to issue a warrant for an arrest on Monday, according to Ottawa County Sheriff Keith Coleman.  “Until an arrest is made, we won’t release a name,” said Coleman.

A phone call alerted deputies to the explosive devices. After questioning neighbors near the apartment in the 400 Block of Lee Street, deputies requested and initiated a search warrant early Saturday, according to Coleman.

Deputies called the Riley County Bomb squad to participate in the investigation while residents of the apartment complex were evacuated.

Minneapolis Emergency Medical Staff and the Tescott Fire Department assisted at the scene. There were no injuries, according to Undersheriff Russell Thornton.

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OTTAWA COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Ottawa County are investigating suspects in connection with improvised explosive devices found at a residence in Tescott.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, Deputies initiated a search warrant at an apartment in the 400 Block of Lee Street, according to Undersheriff Russell Thornton.

Deputies called the Riley County Bomb squad to participate in the investigation while residents of the apartment complex were evacuated.

Minneapolis Emergency Medical Staff and the Tescott Fire Department assisted. There were no injuries, according to Thornton.

No arrests were made but additional details are to be released on the investigation, according to Thornton.

WASHINGTON  — Vice President Mike Pence says he fully expects billionaire GOP donor Betsy DeVos will be confirmed as education secretary with his tie-breaking vote.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Pence says the Trump administration is “very confident” she will take up her Cabinet post soon.

On Friday, Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran voted for DeVos.

On Saturday protesters held demonstrations outside Moran’s office in Olathe and Wichita. Additional protests were also planned Monday.

Despite serious concerns about DeVos’ nomination, Moran said she reassured him.

“Ms. DeVos confirmed to me that there will be no federally-mandated voucher program in the state of Kansas. She reassured me that the state, local districts and school boards will retain their important role in administering our schools and determining our students’ curriculum.

Senator Roberts said welcomed the opportunity to work with DeVos to ensure Kansans can make their own decisions about the best way to improve education, free from federal interference.

“I am confident she is the right person for the job.”

Last week, two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said they would vote against DeVos’ nomination, citing concerns from parents and teachers. Their opposition set up a 50-50 tie in the Senate if all Democrats vote against her and no other Republicans dissent. Pence would be the tie-breaker.

DeVos has faced fierce criticism from labor unions for her promotion of school choice. Democrats and teachers’ organizations also accuse her of seeking to dismantle public education.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.

COWLEY COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities have located an inmate who was reported missing on Sunday from the Cowley County Jail.

The Cowley County Sheriff’s Office reported they were looking for 30-year-old Joshua B. Blackwill, according to a social media report.

He was in custody on charges of burglary, theft and criminal damage to property.

He is described as a white male with short brown hair, blue eyes. He was last seen in the area of 8th and Loomis, running east on 8th Street in Winfield and wearing a tan jumpsuit with “Porter” on the back.

Details on his capture and return were not released.

CUSHING, Okla. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration has been unable to determine why a Kansas woman became disconnected from her parachute and fell to her death in northern Oklahoma.

Twenty-six-year-old Sheralynn Neff of North Newton, Kansas, had jumped with an instructor from 10,000 feet on July 24 and deployed her parachute at about 6,000 feet. The instructor continued falling to clear her path before deploying her parachute, but Neff could not be found.

Her parachute was later found in a tree and her body was found the next day near Cushing, about five miles away.

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford told The Oklahoman (https://bit.ly/2jRWPsf ) that the parachute appeared to have been packed properly and there was no obvious failure. He said an investigator “was unable to conclusively determine” how Neff separated from the parachute.